Star Force: Evacuation (SF50)

  1

  May 2, 2536

  Gwet System (Delta Region)

  Inner Zone

  Riona-111 read the message from the Hycre on her command chair’s personal display then nodded to the Admiral, indicating for them to make the jump. Her warship and the others in the assault armada leapt off the largest of the three stars at system’s center and crossed the short gap to the desert world of Leonis where the Hycre fleet was just finishing up with the lizard incursion, tearing apart what looked like three battle stations in low orbit while chasing dozens of other ships as they fled down towards the surface.

  Like the message had said, the road was plowed…now it was time to bring in the convoy.

  Riona searched the updated map, receiving new data from the Hycre as well as from the Adamant’s sensors as the Melee-class warship led a handful of Star Force Warship-class jumpships into planetary orbit ahead of the troop transports that were to follow a few minutes later. The warships moved out into escort positions for the incoming ships while the Adamant moved down to low orbit as Riona quickly picked her position.

  Three months ago a routine scouting expedition through the ADZ had picked up lizard activity in this system, which was on the very edge of the upper curve of the sphere that made up the Alliance Defense Zone. It was an uninhabited system, but it lay inside their ‘line in the sand’ and signaled that the lizards were attempting to bypass existing strongholds and make a push towards the nearest Alliance worlds, though none were close to Gwet. Greg had assumed it was an attempt at creating a stepping stone in closer to the prime worlds, and one that had to be gotten rid of.

  How many other incursions there were Star Force didn’t know. They could only patrol so many, with the lizards having had at least a few months head start setting up here before they’d been discovered…and had they not had scout ships out and about in the ADZ the incursion could have gotten considerably more advanced prior to their finding out. Greg had counted them lucky that they’d picked it up when they did and assigned Riona to taking care of it while he and the trailblazers mounted other assaults outside the ADZ ‘encouraging’ the enemy to fight them there rather than inside their borders.

  Underscoring the importance of this mission, Greg had loaned her a Melee-class…something that Riona had never had the privilege of commanding before. It was here, not to cleanse the lizard fleet from orbit, for the Hycre were just finishing up that, but to protect the ground troops and secure the system while they fought on the surface…though in point, that was going to be Admiral Bocco’s job, for she was going down to the surface with one of the teams for cleaning duty. Which one yet was still to be determined, with Riona assuming she’d end up wherever they encountered the most trouble.

  When the ship settled into low orbit it decelerated into a temporary hover, something the big ship wasn’t well suited for, nor had it been designed to enter the atmosphere…though Liam had assured her it could do so in a pinch if necessary. She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary, but a piece of the ship was going down and Riona was riding it all the way to the surface drop zone.

  The armor plates on the center underside of the huge warship began to peel back slowly like a metallic ripple, exposing the armored hull beneath that eventually began to detach once the opening was clear. The 2 mile wide center ‘plug’ of the ship pulled out from the giant donut and began to descend into the atmosphere as the Adamant then accelerated laterally to get itself back into a proper drift orbit.

  According to sensor reports, mainly comprised by the Hycre but now being backed up by Star Force’s own, there were over 1200 grounded lizard cruisers in some 833 surface facilities that were busily recreating the sandy landscape into infrastructure. A few of those facilities already had full-fledged bases set up with defense shields, while most of the others were either still under construction or building underground where orbital bombardment wouldn’t reach. Riona had ordered assaults on the exposed ones from orbit, with her taking the Adamant’s ‘TF’ dropship down into an open area of the surface situated between three of the largest bases.

  It landed on hundreds of thick leg-like pylons, sinking down into the sand and requiring some finesse by the pilot to get the ship to sit level. Once it did doors opened up all around the exterior and troops began to pour out as anti-air batteries all over the dropship began shooting down the lizard fighters coming out from their bases to engage the dropship.

  Riona left the ship in a skeet, zipping out of a special aerial bay and into clean air a moment before she saw an approaching enemy cruiser on the horizon get skewered by a cleansing beam from orbit. The ship listed to port and smashed down into the sands, taking one of several out of the sky that were approaching as rail gun rounds began to fall on the others and would continue to do so until they got within the perimeter line…after that it was up to the dropship and its defenses to keep them off the ground pounders, which is why Riona had decided to go pilot today rather than sit on the ground and hope not to get shot.

  She flew the neutral grey skeet away from the dropship as fast as she could then dove into a cloud of approaching wisps along with two other pilots, unafraid of the mass of 200+ fighters. They peppered her shields with tiny green plasma blasts, but the advanced matrix that protected her tiny craft absorbed all of the plasma fire that hit it and was thirsty for more. After a long time trying, Mark had finally got the techs to work out a plasma resistant shield setting, allowing the skeets to transition back and forth between ‘normal’ shields and the anti-plasma variety, and with it Riona felt very safe amongst the enemy that relied almost entirely on plasma.

  Their warships were known to carry some missiles at times, but the fighters only had plasma weapons. Combined with her craft’s maulers and hyper lachar, the skeets were clearly the superior fighter, so much so that they literally gobbled up the lizard wisps, leaving Riona with a target rich environment that she eagerly dove into and began racking up kills with ease, for the maneuvering capability of the skeets were also greater.

  Riona was in a standard fighter, but coming out of the dropship were also anti-air versions specifically designed to shoot down missiles and other fighters, with those pilots heading directly for the swarms along with her while the anti-infantry and anti-mech versions held back as a secondary screen around the dropship, also capable of eating up a lot of wisps if needed, but without that being their intended purpose.

  A train of equipment poured out of the dropship at ground level behind an army of mechs, bringing the base assault gear out and getting it moving towards the nearest target some 28 miles away. It was going to be a long hike for the mechs, during which they’d be picked at by the enemy, but they were ok when dealing with airborne targets on their own and this time they had ample fighter cover so Riona assumed they’d get to the shield perimeter intact, though when going up against the lizards you never truly knew what to expect.

  Riona was going to get to the shield far sooner than they would, with the defensive barrier being a flat circle riding high above the base rather than the bubble shield that Star Force used to protect its cities. The lizard version was designed simply to protect against orbital or aerial bombardment, leaving its ground troops able to fight it out against whoever dared hit them up close and in person. Creating a flat shield like that allowed for more matrix strength, maximizing the lizards’ limited technology and making for a potent deterrent. That said, Star Force knew it could breach the defenses from orbit if they spent enough time pounding,

  With so many bases to take out Riona wasn’t going to waste time and ammunition hitting them from orbit…at least not all of them. Even with cleansing beams the shields would hold up for a long time, and the largest cleansing beams sh
e had available were the medium grade on the Adamant, which could only target one base at a time if it got really close and the weather was favorable, otherwise the beam could be scattered, reducing its effect.

  So the navy was going to pick at the surface targets while the mechs, aerial, and commando divisions did the real house cleaning. This opening gambit was all Star Force, intended to hit the strongest lizard targets as well as probing to see what kind of reaction they were going to get. What they couldn’t have was this invasion being a multi-year affair. They had to take the lizards out quickly before they had a chance to resupply and reinforce, otherwise this could become the beachhead for a new offensive corridor if the enemy chose to devote enough materiel to it.

  Riona didn’t know what their plans were, but the more she could destroy before their friends had a chance to react the better, so it was full on assault after this opening move, with the rest of the fleet waiting in orbit for her staff on the Adamant to assign them landing zones and targets…and for her to give the final word.

  That fleet wasn’t made up of Star Force personnel. 42% of it was Axius, with the balance being Scionate. Only the ground troops she’d brought down on the dropship were Star Force, given that they didn’t have so many to go around…but they were the best by far, hence she was using them in this initial assault to test the waters.

  Riona chewed up some 6 wisps before breaking off and making an attack run on one of the lizard cruisers that was getting a bit too close to the TF, pulling a lot of pursuing fighters in her wake. She saw several hits on the underside of the kilometer long yellow/tan warship from mechs, along with a bit of mauler fire coming from other skeets as they dove into and out of the plasma shards, able to survive short runs then circle out and recharge their shields…allowing the skeets to literally pester the big ships to death and the enemy knew it, hence the fighter screens that were doing their best to overload the little fighters.

  As the Archon made her first pass over top landing some 19 mauler hits to the upper side of the hull she immediately lost her good mojo. She’d made a run from aft to fore, with something on the ship not looking right. Riona turned around and flew high, looking down at the top of the ship and seeing an unfamiliar bump in the hull that had otherwise been burned into her memory given that the lizards had used that exact design for centuries…but now something was different.

  A minute later she got her answer as to what when a solid green lance of plasma leapt out the front of the now burning hull and shot into the shield covering the dropship…and didn’t let up for some 13 seconds.

  “What the hell?” she asked, immediately refiguring strength numbers in her head and opening the ‘all’ comm. “Heads up, looks like the bad guys have got some new toys. Cruisers have plasma streamers now. Keep them off the TF, I don’t want it taking hull damage. Ground convoys increase your spacing. I don’t want them laying that streamer down on several of you at once. Make their gunners earn their hits and maintain evasive weave to target until we knock them down.”

  Riona adjusted frequencies to a secure line. “Admiral, get a few drones in atmosphere. I need them nearby just in case.”

  “Already gave the order, Archon. They’re heading to atmosphere now.”

  “Thank you,” she said, signing off and heading back at the cruiser again. Its shields were more or less down, with small segments coming back online with minimal power, one which she targeted and knocked down again before peppering the hull plates with mauler fire and vaporizing more divots into it along with toasting one of the few anti-air batteries remaining. Between her and the other skeets it was nearly plucked of its anti-air defenses, making their survival a bit easier even with the hundreds of wisps circling the big ship in a desperate attempt to fend them off.

  All the while the green plasma streamer was pounding the side of the dropship. She was about to inquire why there was no return fire when she saw several small explosions on the front end from lachar hits eating into it like a rapid fire chain gun…but the cruiser didn’t continue to move forward, wisely keeping out of mauler range as it continued to deliver plasma at a greater distance than lizard weapons were typically effective from.

  That said, the ship’s other plasma cannons weren’t firing, which suggested it was only the streamer that had the extended range. That was good to know, but it was still hammering the shields on the dropship along with four other cruisers…make that three, for one had just gone down on the north side, but there were still 17 more enroute and only so much she and her air cover could do to hold them off if they didn’t get close enough for the TF to eat them up with maulers.

  Riona knew the dropship’s shields were solid, but there were gaps where the troops were still coming out. Fortunately those hadn’t been hit, but land a streamer into one of those and it’d mess up the interior bad…not to mention killing any personnel out moving around the deck.

  No, they had to keep them back, and if the lizards weren’t so inclined then she had to take them down before they could overwhelm the shields or go kamikaze against them.

  “Damn it,” she said, seeing one of the cruisers coming in at higher speeds than the rest. Not an obvious ramming effort, for the lizards were coy, but her gut told her it was going to hit or at least get close enough for a few sucker punches before it went down.

  “Mechs, I need you,” she said, tagging the cruiser on the battlemap. “Hit this son of a bitch at range before it can get to the TF. I think it’s a kamikaze.”

  “Copy that,” Hammer-521, the Archon leading the ground assault said as Riona saw immediate movement on the ground. A few moments later she saw a missile launch from one of the mechs, then another, then hundreds of them turned into a firestorm of smoke and flashes that shot out towards the north and on the long haul out to the incoming cruiser.

  It opened up with all of its plasma shard anti-air, knocking down plenty of the missiles but there was no way for it to get them all. The bombardment hit and penetrated the ship’s shields within seconds, then began ravaging the hull inside the cloud of smoke and debris.

  Riona made another pass on the cruiser she was engaged with, then as she swung around to recharge her own shields she saw the Kamikaze cruiser in the distance emerge from the cloud of smoke in a graceful downward arc, eventually falling into the sand dunes and breaking in half as it caught and tried to roll over, snapping at the midsection from the torque and cutting a huge gash into the landscape as its momentum dragged it forward, eventually settling at about 6 miles out from the huge dropship.

  “Whoo, nice one, Hammer.”

  “Can’t do that very many times,” he warned.

  “I know. We’ll have to do better up here. Thanks for the bail out.”

  “How about some close in naval support?”

  “On its way. Keep an eye out for more kamikaze cruisers until it gets here. I’m kind of busy at the moment.”

  “Will do.”

  Riona clicked off the comm and made another attack run, this time melting through the armor and opening up a vulnerable section of the hull which she tagged as a prime target. The other skeets with her adjusted their own attack runs and pounded that section, eating down into the unarmored interior and opening up an opportunity for one of the anti-mech fighter squadrons to come in and deposit some missiles into that hole.

  The resulting explosion ripped through the interior, but only blasted out through a few of the wounds on the ship, with the armor acting like a cage to contain and enhance the internal detonations before ultimately hitting the anti-grav, for the big ship went down and pancaked the sand below…fortunately without any mechs beneath it.

  “One down, a billion more to go,” she said, signaling for one of the drone trios to be assigned to her.

  Riona swung back towards the TF as the unmanned fighters were coming out of the bay and picked them up using an auxiliary control panel, slaving them to her own skeet. Each of them looked almost identical, save they didn’t have a cockpit. What they did ha
ve was more weapons, including missiles, which she was going to need to take down the other cruisers with the help of many, many others. As advanced as their aerial division had become, warships were still freaking huge and heavily armored, requiring an insane amount of ordinance to take down.

  Which was why she enjoyed it so much. Fighters should never be able to take down a warship, so whenever it did happen it was a sweet, sweet moment…except that right now there were others still in play that needed to be killed and they weren’t obliging Star Force’s mauler range on the dropship, meaning this was going to be a slugging match.

  “Guys, a little cover please. I don’t want the wisps picking off my drones.”

  “On the way,” another pilot in her temporary squadron responded.

  “Alright,” she said, shooting down another two wisps and getting a third with her drones as the four of them ducked through a swarm enroute to the next closest cruiser that was already hammering the dropship with plasma. “Let’s find a sweet spot.”

  2

  Wen’sta’lon sat in the cockpit of his Wildcat-class mech, strapped into the control harness and waiting impatiently as the Axius transport made its way down to the surface of Leonis. He’d been briefed on the assault progress earlier, knowing that Star Force mainline troops had already secured a beachhead and were in the process of taking down two lizard bases, but that’s not where his team was heading. They were going after a different lizard base, one that had already been hit from orbit and blasted into smithereens…on the surface at least.

  Orbital scans showed at least some subsurface structures, how many of which was still a lingering question. He wouldn’t be probing those himself, for his mech would most likely not fit inside, but others would. His job was to secure the surface, eliminate any hostiles, and cover for the burrowing teams as they made their way down inside to engage the enemy.

  This was the third combat assignment that Wen’sta’lon had seen, given that the Scionate had only recently earned his spot in the Axius military and one of the first native born colonists to do so. He was only 10 years old, but had shown remarkable skill in piloting the wildcat…or at least compared to the few others who had tried, for the mech was quadruped in design and Star Force had few that could pilot it, most of whom were immigrant Scionate completely unfamiliar with the concept given that his native race used tanks rather than mechs.