Star Force: Kaalo (SF99) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  Star Force was also beginning to receive reinforcements from outside the system, making their mission here even harder given how long it was taking. They still didn’t know who the sponsor was and the defenses built here, while not V’kit’no’sat designs, were more formidable than expected. Hopefully whoever or whatever was out here would be able to give him some badly needed answers, and if there were crews at this location they would have nowhere to evacuate to. With such low gravity his ships would easily be able to intercept any that fled on their way in towards the star, plus they’d have very little lateral movement capability this far out, making whatever battle occurred here a stand and slug fest that heavily favored the V’kit’no’sat.

  To increase his advantage Garrtak brought his entire fleet in towards the same side of the wall rather than spread it out in order to try and intercept fleeing ships coming off various trajectories. He didn’t know how many were waiting for them on the other side, but before they could get there to find out Star Force contacts started popping up above the edge of the wall with alarming speed. A quick sensor focus revealed the use of mooring beams on the far side, which prompted the Hjar’at to slow to a stop prior to the wall and scan it heavily for mooring nodes, but none were being found. If the enemy ships could use them to increase their maneuverability then he did not want to fight on the far side. Fortunately the enemy was being accommodating and coming to the Hjar’at, so he slowly slid his fleet into a defensive arrangement as the long range weapons on both sides began to exchange fire.

  The first Star Force ships came straight at the Hjar’at and their larger bulk did little to save them. There was no strategy involved, just a straight line shot to their demise which concerned Garrtak, for this was not how the other ships had been behaving, but he wasn’t going to complain about easy kills so he kept shooting the ships heading for his fleet as more and more began to appear over the edge of the wall. Before long there were so many that they were getting within short weapons range before they could all be destroyed and the true battle began, with the Star Force ships starting to employ basic tactics once they were grouped up, but Garrtak’s fleet was chewing them apart with ease even as he was starting to get outflanked.

  But so be it. They were in a perfect defensive alignment with the bulk of his ships situated on a flattened sphere that almost appeared to be a disc that was even with the edge of the wall, affording his ships both cover and maximum firepower at those incoming while allowing the flanks to defend themselves as ships began to pile up on both sides of the Hjar’at and creep around behind them.

  The more Star Force vessels that came into play the more return fire Garrtak’s fleet had to weather, but with them targeting only a handful of enemy ships the Hjar’at were able to destroy their larger hulls quickly and efficiently while their own ships angled their shields outward for increased defense and rotated in and out of alignment slowly so fully shielded ships could take their place on the leaded edges of the formation when the weakened ones were near to collapse.

  The Hjar’at lost no ships, let alone even a plate of armor, over the first 20 minutes of battle, though they were fully surrounded at that point with more ships continuing to come over the wall of varying sizes, though all of them had the weak, clear armor coating on them that did little against the V’kit’no’sat weapons as they continued to chew up the ships one after another until the sheer amount of Star Force’s weaker weapons began to be felt and the first Hjar’at shield fell.

  Garrtak knew to hold position and continue slugging it out, for they were killing so many ships it was well worth it, but as the battle dragged on past an hour and some of his ships were taking serious hull damage he began to get concerned, for the flow of ships over the wall hadn’t diminished. In fact it had been gradually increasing the entire time. Already there were over 5,000 ships here with some 1,300 reduced to debris, but killing them quickly now was not an option and his ships were having to attack to disable the weapons on those nearest rather than tearing apart their hulls just to reduce the amount of firepower they had to whether…in effect using the mass of the attacking ships as shields against the others by plucking their weapons off them.

  However, that tactic was countered as the Star Force ships pushed further into the Hjar’at formation even when they had little to fight with, trying to disrupt their firing lines and move them out of position…but the Hjar’at held firm and destroyed any such vessels that did so with a vengeance, then they had to push the debris out of the way and the best route to do that was to shove it either ahead or behind, with Garrtak choosing behind so to clutter the evacuation route the Star Force ships would take when they finally broke their will to fight.

  He had designated ships traveling up and down corridors in their alignment dragging debris out of the way easily while other ships found moving sideways painfully hard with no lateral gravity wells to push off of. All they had was a tiny differential from the width of the distant start to work with and some emergency matter thrusters to use, but those where not effective for combat so every ship was aligned facing away from the star and moving on back and forth on paths like a train on tracks, with the cycling of ships from the interior to the exterior being excruciatingly slow save for those ships that were able to latch onto debris and push themselves off it or even the attacking ships when their shields were down.

  And Garrtak’s ships were getting good at doing so, bouncing around their formation with far more speed than the plodding Star Force ships were moving and exacting a huge amount of damage for their lack of maneuverability…but still more ships kept coming and within another half hour there were upwards of 10,000 in total, though some 3000 of those were now junk.

  But the 7,000 that remained were an even fight for the damaged Hjar’at and more were still coming. Garrtak made the decision to push his formation ahead, which was navigationally easy if the enemy ships weren’t there, because he needed to know how many more Star Force ships were coming in order to judge how to proceed with the battle.

  Plowing the road ahead wasn’t quick, but a slight reforming of the disc with weapons trained on individual ships to eliminate, then tractor beams to push their debris or still partially functioning hulks out of the way allowed the Hjar’at to approach the edge of the wall…on which no weapons had been found previously and that didn’t change as they poked their nose over to the far side, seeing that the wall was indeed very thin compared to its width, but it had numerous extensions protruding off the back side where ships were berthed, though most of them were now free and moving towards the top of the wall.

  Garrtak realized they’d made a grave mistake despite the kill count they were racking up. There were over 18,000 Star Force ships here compared to his 243, and even if his had been fully intact and shielded he could not have taken that number under these conditions. Their only option now was one that Hjar’at hated to order, but at a time like this there was no other alternative than needless deaths.

  He ordered a retreat, but quickly saw that his decision to throw debris behind them to block evacuation lanes was going to cost them more ships, for it was now interfering with their straight line routes out of the engagement…not to mention the Star Force ships had been continuing to fill in behind them to a far greater degree than before.

  Garrtak knew they were going to lose most of their ships, but the only chance some of them had to survive was to not let the enemy vessels not yet in the fight join the others, so they began fighting a reverse course and pushing their way through both dead and dying vessels without the ability to clear the debris from their path, so the Hjar’at ships had to tractor to it and swing around, pushing it to the side to propel themselves via inertial reaction, then to yank on it in the reverse to slow their lateral drift…all the while continuing to fight for their lives as more of their own armor was burnt off and hull breaches opened up.

  The lack of tactics being displayed by the Star Force ships was now no longer an issue, for the simple and most eff
ective tactic against them was being employed as they fought, with additional Star Force ships coming up over the wall at lateral distances not angling to get behind the retreating fleet, but accelerating out on a straight line to flank and then bypass the Hjar’at ships before creeping in around the debris field that he had ordered created, taking up positions both around and within it and waiting for the Hjar’at ships to approach and try to squeeze through…all the while they would be firing on the V’kit’no’sat ships that were trying to flee.

  Garrtak was constantly running numbers through his mental interface, and with his fleet formation getting stretched out to go for the gaps he realized that only a handful of ships were going to make it out, and his was not one of them. Transmitting all relevant data in towards the star so Mak’to’ran could make use of it, he did what any good Hjar’at would do and turned his spines to the enemy, recalling his leading ships back to the others and forming up into a defensive alignment again, shoving off the debris between them even as they were losing ships of their own.

  “We die here today,” he told all his remaining ships as they seamlessly slid into formation while they fought, “but we are not going to die running. We are going to stand our ground and bleed the enemy to insure we inflict the maximum cost for this betrayal. Mak’to’ran will complete the mission and uncover the traitors, but we cannot allow these ships to reinforce the enemy or more of our brothers will die. So do your duty to the V’kit’no’sat and deny the traitors this fleet. Take down as many of their ships as you can before you fall, and make these rogue Zen’zat rue the day they ever face another Hjar’at fleet again.”

  With that said, Garrtak turned his full attention to denying Star Force every ship he could. The wall was of no consequence and already out of range of medium weaponry, with him having his fleet drifting away from it with the rest of the debris and delaying the new arriving ships a bit longer. He added to this by having his crumbling formation continue to push out lightly through the debris, using some of it for cover as they clawed with every weapon they had at the Star Force warships, destroying so many of them only to have to face fully intact ones following up with machine-like efficiency, grinding down the Hjar’at and plucking away their own weapon systems more often than not.

  When his own ship lost forward weaponry he didn’t have the gravity drive power to spin it around fast enough, so he accelerated towards the wall, diving into the Star Force ships and ramming one of them in order to let his aft weaponry target flanking ships. Several enemy vessels took the opportunity and slowly slid in behind him, blocking him off from his fleet until they were destroyed by other nearby Hjar’at vessels, but their debris still partially blocked his view of his kin as his ship tore into all those around them with diminishing results.

  Eventually the enemy’s short range streamers burned into the hull nearby his command deck, with the exploding chambers coming his way with telltale pops until the wall to his left joined them. He activated his armor, covering himself with battleplates and shields that kept him alive through the blast to come…then he was bouncing around like debris until two large pieces of ship collided with him in between, crushing what was left of his shields and snapping off several of his spines as his last moments were filled with nothing but rage at the losses these traitors were inflicting upon his troops.

  Then another streamer surge burnt through the hull and ended him along with a chunk of his Na’shor.

  Mak’to’ran watched from afar as the Hjar’at fleet fell, even as he was being engaged by another Star Force probing attack while the nearby Mach’nel continued to destroy more of their defense stations from range. They could do nothing against it while escorted and it was going to be the key to his conquering this system, but the number of reinforcements Garrtak had discovered sitting behind that wall in deep space worried him, for while many of them had been destroyed many more remained, and they were all of their larger variety and not as easy to kill…except with the Mach’nel. It was better for it to fight them than their smaller ships, for a single shot from it could take down any size vessel the enemy had fielded.

  Only their defense stations could withstand a Tar’vem’jic blast, though they could not withstand several in repetition. That meant while a single shot would kill a single ship, mass for mass it would take dozens of shots to their smaller vessels to equal what one would do to their larger ones. Ironic as it was, that meant that near the Mach’nel they did not have to fear those larger reinforcements, but anywhere else in the system they were vulnerable to their numbers and the attrition the enemy was inflicting upon them.

  Before it could worsen, Mak’to’ran canceled all other combat assignments within the system save for the Mach’nel and the ships engaged over the Ribbon, pulling back the others to his position with the exception of the Lir’nen fleet, which he sent to augment the Brat’mar as they continued to pry information out of their captives along with a warning to watch the position of those ships near the wall, and if they started to move to reinforce there were to begin evacuating immediately, for Mak’to’ran did not want to have to pull the Mach’nel nor any of its escorts off their current assignment to bail them out. He made that clear in his message to the Brat’mar, then instructed them to dig in and secure as much information as possible up until that eventuality came to pass.

  The traitorous sponsor had to be discovered, and while he did not hope that that information would be acquired on the Ribbon, he was fairly certain that the Brat’mar would discover where it could be attained…and then he would take his battered fleet with the Mach’nel at its heart and rip out their secrets from wherever they were buried. After all the losses they’d suffered here, especially Garrtak, the Era’tran was not going to withdrawal without the information they came here for. Once he had it they’d leave the system, deal with whatever internal repercussions resulted, then they’d return with a better prepared fleet and wipe this Star Force scum from the face of the galaxy.

  4

  March 17, 3602

  Solar System

  Titan

  Sara-012 entered the orbit of the moon along with her Clan Mantle fleet of 46 warships, the most she could grab on the way here, and immediately assumed control of the Star Force fleet holding position over the top of the Ribbon. She could see the larger V’kit’no’sat fleet on the other side and the Shiva units already brought in to counter them, but she knew that a fight right now would result in her loss. The addition of her ships didn’t alter that much, but it was the presence of ground troops from both sides onboard the Ribbon that was contributing to the standoff…along with the fact that the V’kit’no’sat ships would almost all be destroyed if they threw down now.

  “Knock, knock,” Sara said, sending a comm signal to Rio’s helmet wherever he was on the artificial landmass inside the giant station. “Guess who’s here.”

  “Get your ass down here now,” Rio said with no levity in his voice.

  “Fill me in.”

  “There’s at least one Zen’zat down here that’s stronger than me and I’m not sure my posse can take him. I need you.”

  “How strong?”

  “Very. He kicked my ass and I ran away, but they’re holding prisoners we need to get back and I know he’s going to show up again. He hasn’t attacked anything but me the one time.”

  “How many prisoners?”

  “Not as many as they’ve killed, but they’re here for information.”

  “I got the basics from Roger on the way in. Are the Zen’zat really the most trouble you’ve got?”

  “No, but we’ve got an agility advantage on the bigger ones. This guy was faster than me.”

  “And bigger?”

  “Yes.”

  “Damn. You think this naval standoff is going to continue?”

  “Until they find what they want…which they won’t. We don’t have a sponsor.”

  “Well…”

  “They won’t find anything about Puff and his buddies, but Ethan is con
vinced that they won’t accept the idea of rogue Zen’zat doing all this on our own. Especially the psionics.”

  “Nefron did help a bit, but I suppose that won’t help here. They’re looking for one of their own?”

  “Yeah, and while they’re mind raping the prisoners we’ve got a narrow chance to recover some of them. Otherwise they’re just going to rip them apart when they have no further use.”

  “Do you need me, or me and an army?”

  “What do you got?”

  “Clan Mantle.”

  “Send down any mech specialists you have. We’re doing damage but losing a lot of equipment in the process. Brat’mar are a 5 to 1 scenario, and whenever we lose a mech there are Zen’zat assassins roaming to try and pick off surviving pilots.”

  “Where are you now?”

  “Covering evac routes. We’re about 5 minutes away from another hit. I can see the I’rar’et massing to cover the Brat’mar. They’re going to try to grab some more people and they’re not being hesitant about losses. They’re going for broke no matter what the costs…and we’re not doing a good job of protecting the people when they can just run us over at will.”

  “Mechs incoming and I’ll be with them.”

  “Hurry,” Rio insisted.

  Sara bolted out of the command nexus and got down to the hangar on the warship she’d rode in on, already having summoned the ground troops across the various ships to assemble with a thought, though there weren’t many of them. None of the ships were ground assault models, so she’d just shoved as many units in them as possible when she’d stopped by Miranda and grabbed whatever Clan assets she had available.

  So when she got onboard a dropship most of her pre-prepped troops were already ready to drop, then on her order a flock of them headed down to three different entry points into the Ribbon with Sara riding a skeet out across the artificial landscape to nearby Rio’s position where all hell was breaking lose. It stopped atop a low building and she let go of the exterior, letting the pilot join in the battle as she leapt across the street using her jump pack and stuck to the wall of the next building, climbing to the top and continuing her trek across the cityscape until she got near a pool of civilians being funneled into evac ships that were flying off under heavy aerial escort with a ring of madcats on guard in the streets and on top of some buildings to keep the I’rar’et at bay.