Star Force: Sav (SF51) Read online

  The Dvapp weren’t waiting around to count, already launching their smaller ships ahead to intercept the enemy as they came in staggered. Paul didn’t do the same, instead taking the time to reposition his fleet and get the drones out into play. There were three Sentinels in orbit, which were the strongpoints in the planetary defense, and it seemed the Skarrons were respecting their kill power, for they had come in high enough in orbit to be out of their range.

  More and more ships came pouring into the system, and soon the Dvapp were forced to pull back to lower orbit. As Paul had guessed the Skarrons had tightly staggered their jumps in order to avoid getting killed piecemeal on arrival. It was something they’d been hinting at in previous conflicts after the Protovic had done the exact same thing to them, and apparently they’d learned their lesson.

  But it wasn’t without consequences. Paul saw at least three collisions that ended in either massive damage or ship kills as the Skarron navigators dropped the ball and didn’t leave sufficient deceleration room. That was sloppy fleet movement and something that Paul would never have tolerated, yet it barely seemed significant in the face of so many ships pouring in behind them.

  Like a moving carpet, the first ships to arrive moved further down into orbit while the others kept popping up on sensors behind them. That carpet then slowly began to split up into tendrils, each with several juggernauts leading them out and around the planet…but none were coming down to engage the Sentinels or the Dvapp, who were constantly hitting the enemy’s inner flank and killing ships without provoking a massive furball.

  Paul had his ships do the same, except from above. It took some time to get them there, but he had several dozen warships jump out and back in on either side of the jumpline from system’s center, with them spreading out in a funnel cone and shooting into the arriving ships with their cleansing beams from range and daring the Skarrons to come out to engage them…which the enemy was eventually forced to do. Those skirmishes were very one-sided, with the maulers and Ta’lin’yi hitting them hard, but as always the Skarrons accomplished their goal of guarding the jumpline, even if it was at a cost.

  Through that cone the rest of their fleet continued to arrive, like a swarm of angry bees that was growing by the second. Eventually there were so many it started to become a fair fight between the two and Paul recalled his ships before they could start taking appreciable damage. Using their binary drives that the Skarrons lacked, they made tiny jumps further out into high orbit, knowing that if the Skarrons did the same they wouldn’t be able to stop.

  The Star Force warships could by yanking the planet’s gravity and bringing themselves back in wherever they liked. Paul ordered those ships to do just that and harass the outer flank at will, doing damage but not allowing themselves to get caught up in a slugging match.

  Meanwhile the Skarron ships continued to flow in, passing 10,000 and continuing to rise but they didn’t launch any assaults, merely defending themselves as they spread out in a sea of ships…

  Which was when Paul finally understood what they were doing. They knew the Sentinels were going to be a problem, not just here but across the ADZ, not so much in destroying them but by costing the Skarrons too many ships to do so in order to make a successfully incursion. There was one solution to that though, and a pretty obvious one that they were now choosing to employ, made all the more evident by the glut of ships staying put at the stellar jumppoint.

  The Skarrons were bringing in an overwhelming number of ships, not to fight, but to blockade the planet. If the Dvapp or Star Force wanted to fight them, they’d have to come out away from the Sentinels to do it.

  Paul frowned, having hoped they’d be arrogant enough to assault them directly, but apparently they weren’t going to be that nice. They also weren’t trying to run troops down to the surface either, though Paul could see some of their transports within the fleet and a scattering more still coming in along the jumpline…which suggested that the ship count was going to get well in excess of 10,000.

  Rather than be bold, the Skarrons were being cagey, which was a new trick for them…or perhaps maybe an old one that they just hadn’t shown them yet. Regardless, this was going to be an altogether different confrontation, with Paul already brainstorming ways to fight it.

  Before the Dvapp could do anything stupid he got their commander on the comm and began having a chat about strategy, all the while Paul’s harassment fleet in high orbit was busy sniping ships and picking up a scattering of kills.

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