Star Force: Counterstrike (SF18) Read online

  1

  March 8, 2264

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Corneria

  “Jasmine, contacts heading your way,” the skeet pilot informed the mechwarrior over the comm. “Kirbies with predator support.”

  “Bring it,” she whispered, activating her comm as she glanced at her radar, which as typical showed nothing on approach. “How many preds?”

  “Just one and moving fast. Looks like they’re going to try for a hot drop. Transferring coordinates.”

  A line appeared on the map inside her cockpit, guestimating the enemy’s flight path…which was going to bring it over their position 3 kilometers to the east.

  “ETA?”

  “No more than five minutes. I’m pacing them laterally, so track me for timing purposes.”

  “Copy that and thanks for the heads up,” the Archon said, switching to her star’s frequency. “We’ve got incoming,” she said, turning her mech to the east and accelerating its backward-canted legs into a hopping run. “Kirbies with a flying brick. We need to take it down so the fighters don’t get eaten alive, so move it Kerenskies!”

  Behind her the other four mechs in her patrol ‘star’ shifted from a lazy walk into their own mechanical versions of running as they followed the Archon’s madcat, quickly catching up with the heavier machine. A rifleman ran up alongside Jasmine’s left flank, its knees jutting out forwards as it ran, twisting at the waist while its two ‘arms’ extended horizontally at its sides, with weapon muzzles coming directly off the shoulder joints.

  On her right side the other Archon in her patrol, Darren-1598, ran up into a flanking position, his mech’s arms actually pumping forward and back for balance. He piloted a neo, a humanoid mech that moved in coordination with the pilot’s own limbs rather than the computer controlled ‘driving’ of the Battletech-inspired machines.

  Behind her came a pair of ravens, named after of the fictitious mech rather than the Star Force Clan, that ran between her madcat and the others and took the lead in the five point formation. The smaller mechs raced across the snowy landscape on their backwards canted legs, sporting no arms or head. They just had an angled torso with some weapon nobs where the shoulders would have been, one of which had been outfitted with a tracking laser on each mech.

  They ran forward in formation, two in front, three in back, with the ravens extending their lead as they raced over the snowy landscape at Corneria’s northern pole. Here there was a mix of evergreen trees and barren plains, both covered in snow as opposed to the tree-choked warmer regions of the planet that barely had the occasional grassy clearing where a mech could operate.

  After the first year of the war against the lizards the trailblazers had decided to bring in 3 more Clans and stake out a foothold in the snowy region to see how the enemy reacted, as well as to bring more players into the game. Clans Kerensky, Scorpion, and Star Claw had been chosen for their mechwarriors’ prowess, as well as the Star Claw’s superior aerial skills.

  The three Clans had established their own individual bases out of prefab structures delivered via jumpship from Sol, but spaced them close enough together that they could easily reinforce one another. They’d staked out a 120 mile radius which they watched over with constant skeet patrols, as well as having mechs deployed in a closer range to the trio of bases, so they could detect and respond to any attacks as quickly as possible.

  At first the lizards had left them completely alone, which made the Archons wonder if the cold would actually offer a viable deterrent, but after the first 4 months they finally launched a raid…which was ended quickly as the mechs on base shot the attacking kirbies out of the air with ease.

  After that things began to get more complicated. New units began popping up, including the Predators. They were larger than the kirbies by a factor of 5, carried no troops or cargo to speak of, and were essentially the lizards’ combined version of a flying tank and anti-air turret. The Clan skeets quickly realized they couldn’t get within range of the gunships without serious risk, whereas they completely owned the kirbies whenever they caught them alone.

  The lizards’ ground troops also began wearing cold weather combat gear that offered them more ballistic and plasma protection, unlike the vests and leggings they usually wore. In the past few months they’d been attempting to penetrate the northern Clans’ outer perimeter and drop troops in the patches of forest where the mechs couldn’t go, even if they weren’t anywhere near a base or the outposts they had ringing them with anti-air weaponry.

  It seemed the lizards wanted to establish some kind of foothold, but so far they hadn’t tried to set up an actual base the way they had down south. That base was growing by the month, and without Paul being able to sustain orbital bombardment with their cruisers coming out to harass the Star Force fleet there was no way to take it down, and the Archons had been reluctantly forced to accept and contain it, establishing several turrets of their own around the perimeter to help bottle up and detect the enemy when they were inclined to launch additional raids.

  The troops assaulting the northern Clans were not originating from that base, however. Their source of origin was still a mystery, but as time went by the lizards were bringing in more and more resources and troops into the war, which made them wonder how many other bases they’d established on the planet without them knowing.

  Thanks to the patrolling skeets, though, this upcoming raid had been spotted, and as the first of the kirbies appeared over the trees on the horizon to the southeast the ravens began tagging targets. Each pod contained 3 separate lasers, so between the two of them they could highlight and track six of the lizard ships, assuming their shields were up. If they weren’t then most of the lasers’ energy would be absorbed and there wouldn’t be enough reflection to track at range.

  Jasmine held her fire, still racing her mech forward, until the predator was highlighted. It was flying in the center of the kirby formation with a dozen or more of the transports scattered ahead and behind it at a slightly lower altitude to give it clear lines of fire against any skeet attack runs. That put the kirbies right in the mechs’ sweet spot, but they weren’t the real threat. Take out the predator and the skeets could come in and wipe the floor with the kirbies.

  Jasmine linked her fire control to the laser dot on the side of the flat predator that really did resemble a flying rectangular brick and launched a large salvo of missiles out of the two box-like racks that rode over the shoulders of her mech. Unlike with the fictitious mechs that these models had been based upon, there was no overheating concerns with weapons fire, so she unloaded every missile she had in one long river of smoke as each compartment in the missile boxes fired off in sequence, sending a pair of missiles out to the target every fraction of a second.

  Beside her the rifleman opened fire on the predator with its two barrel-like arms, each of which contained a pair of medium lachars. Far less powerful than the heavy lachars sported by the defense turrets guarding their bases, these were none the less a potent offensive weapon capable of partial shield penetration, due to the fact that they were an energy weapon and the lizards were sporting physical shields. They also had significant range…farther than that of the enemy’s plasma cannons. With all four weapons firing in sequence, the predator’s hull took damage before the first of Jasmine’s missiles even made it to the shields.

  Plasma orbs flashed back at the approaching mechs in response, hitting and vaporizing the snow around them as all of the lizards’ initial shots missed. The predator was powerful in close, but at range its weapons lacked the accuracy and firepower needed to engage a star of mechs…however, if the mechs didn’t keep moving the enemy would fly right by their position and they wo
uldn’t be able to catch up.

  That wasn’t necessary, however, because it seemed the enemy’s destination was just a few kilometers to the north. The kirbies flew off to a section of forest there and began to land inside as the smoking predator turned and flew towards the mechs, engaging them as a distraction while their ground troops landed. Its shields were down and its hull armor broken in multiple places thanks to the missile salvo, with the rifleman continuing to poke holes in it as the neo lit it up with plasma lances shot out of forearm gauntlets positioned to fire just over the top of its mechanical hands.

  The two ravens ignored the predator, firing small racks of missiles at the kirbies along with a single small lachar on each. They downed one and set another one a fire but the rest made it to their target LZ without incident as the predator finally came crashing down into the snow after the neo knocked out half of its anti-gravity engines.

  Jasmine fired on one of its intact weapons batteries with the plasma cannons mounted in her mech’s two arms as she walked up to it and then began blasting away at pointblank range.

  “Divert to the landing zone, I’ll finish up here,” ordered her star as she began walking a long circle around the downed craft, looking for more weapons or any escaping lizards. They couldn’t let any of them get free on the ground and unaccounted for or they’d sneak up on the bases in the dark and destroy whatever they could…which was a lot if they happened to be carrying det packs.

  As she circled around she saw an open hatch and three dots running off towards a patch of trees a few hundred meters away. They wore black envirosuits, which made them easy to spot even given their small size. Jasmine ran her mech towards them and fired two plasma blasts into the snow, erasing the black dots in geyser-like explosions of steam.

  The plasma also melted through the thick, underlying snow pack, getting all the way down to the hard dirt before the liquid water from the flash-melted snow flowed in and formed a small, steaming pond. Content that she’d hit and killed all three, Jasmine wheeled her madcat around and glanced back off to the north towards the downed kirbies which were now out of sight, nestled down into the trees.

  A flight of 6 skeets flew over, firing down into those same trees and received a bit of green plasma fire in return that missed badly and flew up into the air like fireworks in the dim light. The sun was near to setting which meant they had to deal with this raid quickly, otherwise any surviving troops would have the cover of darkness to work out of, and their pesky suits blocked them from showing up on infrared scans.

  Walking her madcat in a wide circle Jasmine continued around the backside of the crashed predator, finding nothing more of interest, then accelerated up into a run headed for the rest of her star at the enemy LZ. She could see a few flashes of weaponsfire, but mostly it was just a wall of green trees surrounded by a sea of snow. There were patches of greenery everywhere, interspaced by the white fields that the mechs patrolled. Further to the north were several more tree ‘islands’ leading up to Clan Kerensky’s base, and she figured the lizards were probably going to try to island hop during the night.

  Running her mech up towards its top speed of 80kph, Jasmine toggled the main battlemap that all units in the defensive sphere around the three Clan bases had access to. It was made up of telemetry from every tower, aircraft, and mech in the field…and everything they could see, she could see.

  “Figures,” she muttered, seeing two other raids occurring at distant points on the perimeter. The lizards were gearing up for a big offensive, as seemed to be their MO. Start out with feeling raids then gradually escalate until the target was overwhelmed.

  Well, unless they started dropping mechs of their own or brought in a bunch of Predators they were about to get owned…again.

  The ground troops were the real problem, not because they couldn’t handle them, but because they were elusive. Perimeter defenses had been set up around each of the three Clan bases, made out of mobile concrete wall segments that could be pushed further out as the colonies grew. That had already occurred twice as the interior buildings had to be rearranged to make space for the first permanent ones to begin construction, the first of which had been a defense tower.

  Each Clan now had a big tower right in the middle of their bases to ward off kirbies and predators from getting too close. One wouldn’t scare a cruiser off, but thanks to their escalation tactics they’d been spared that horror. As more towers were erected that threat would diminish, but as of right now the only thing that could take down a cruiser in their arsenal was a massed mech assault, one that would become excessively bloody to deliver enough firepower to take down a cruiser’s shields.

  Then again, maybe the lizards were worried about Paul bringing down orbital bombardment against any cruiser trying to assault a base. That wasn’t impossible, and had been done before, but if a cruiser parked directly over the target then they’d render that tactic impotent…unless they thought Star Force might fire anyway, which they wouldn’t, but based off their own behavior Jasmine wouldn’t put it past the lizards, so maybe they weren’t putting it past them.

  Regardless, with the tower up no lizard assault had tried to bring anything that flew in close to the bases, relying instead on dropping troops on the perimeter and trying to cause trouble for the exterior construction sites which were putting up outposts with smaller defense towers to establish a second perimeter that the enemy would have to fight past to get at the main bases.

  As her madcat approached the perimeter of the tree island she noticed that her star of mechs had moved off and around to the other side. Following their tracks in the snow she kept a keen lookout on the nearby trees, hoping to get a line of sight on one of the kirbies that were hiding inside.

  “All forces, stand by,” a voice that Jasmine recognized as Cora’s, Clan Scorpion’s leader and the trailblazer assigned to this northern front…not to mention the fact that she was hands down the best mechwarrior in both the Archon and enlisted ranks. “The forest landing zone is being targeted from orbit, stay clear and report any allied forces inside.”

  “Oh shoot,” Jasmine said, turning her mech away from the perimeter and running to get as much distance as possible in between her and the incoming fire. She knew she wasn’t being targeted, but firing metallic slugs from space wasn’t exactly known for its accuracy.

  She got 300 meters away from the forest edge when the first round hit. Jasmine couldn’t feel anything inside the cockpit, but a blast of air knocked snow off the nearest trees a few seconds after her battlemap indicated the slug hit. Another one followed it down, then another, and another. 8 fell in all, then Cora’s voice returned to the comm.

  “Orbital bombardment has ceased. Move in and pick up the pieces Scorpions.”

  Jasmine frowned. She didn’t know any Scorpions were nearby. Glancing back at the battlemap she confirmed that only Kerensky mechs were in the area, here star plus two others coming in from the north and west.

  Then she noticed the air traffic. In addition to the Kerensky fighters circling around, taking potshots at the LZ as well as maintaining a visual perimeter while they could with the sun now halfway over the horizon, she spotted a group of mantises inbound on the battlemap that bore Clan Scorpion markings. She tapped on one of them and brought up that transport’s individual comm frequency.

  “Whacha bringing to the party?” she asked, turning her mech towards the north so she could skirt around to the side that the lizards were most likely to try and advance from…those that were left alive, anyway.

  “I’ve got Clan Scorpion Knight teams aboard, Kerensky. They’re outfitted for night fighting and will clear the woods. Any that run into the clear are yours…our troops have strict orders to stick to cover. Any movement on the plains you can assume is an enemy target.”

  “Thanks for the assist.”

  “Just returning the favor, Kerensky. One of your stars took down a predator picking at our outpost construction crews. I think they didn’t want us getting the tur
ret operational.”

  “Copy,” she said, switching to her star’s frequency. “What have we got?”

  “Narrow road in,” Darren answered. “The ravens can fit, I think, but we’re stuck outside unless you want to start blasting trees.”

  “No thanks. Aaron, Lily, report.”

  “Lizards everywhere,” the non-Archon mechwarrior replied. “I think they made it out of the kirbies before naval tore them a new one. I’m almost stepping on some of them, they’re scurrying about so fast.”

  “How close are you to the interior?”

  “Hit the update on your map,” Darren suggested.

  Jasmine frowned, then punched a pair of buttons on her dashboard. Suddenly the thick patch of greenery was replaced with a number of craters from where the rail guns had hit, along with tracking dots for the pair of ravens squeezing through gaps between the trees…or more likely forcing small ones open with their angled beaks. Having no arms on their mechs was an advantage in this case, for there was no way her madcat would have been able to push its way through, especially with the missile boxes sticking out the top to catch every tree branch within sight.

  Following the map with half her attention on the ground in front of her madcat as she continued to run it forward, Jasmine saw that the mechs were a hundred or so meters away from the nearest crater, which had to have been just updated with a visual scan from orbit and enhanced for the low light conditions.

  Speaking of which, Jasmine flicked on her mech’s external floodlights, brightening the snow in front and to the side of her, but leaving her aft arc dark. She had no weapons in the rear, and there was no sense in making her mech an even bigger target.

  “Watch out for det packs,” Jasmine warned. “You’re in so close that it’ll be…”

  Her words were cut off by a large explosion within the trees.

  “Lily?” Darren asked, keeping his voice calm.

  “She’s down,” Aaron replied as Jasmine saw the dot marking his raven catch up to the other one.