Star Force: The Dinosaur War (Star Force Universe Book 45) Read online

  And those warships were providing their own anti-orbital guns, though more than half their weaponry didn’t reach up through the atmosphere too well. Still, it kept the few drones Star Force had left from bombarding Saavaa and the others as they attempted to take another shield generator. Four had already gone down, but only one had been captured relatively intact. It wasn’t operational yet, for the V’kit’no’sat were having to make repairs, but soon it would be back in operation and able to add considerable protection to the ground troops.

  He didn’t think this one would be allowed to be taken intact, for the assault was not a surprise one and Star Force would have plenty of time to rig up a self-destruct, but if the Octo’mar and Serni’jar couldn’t take it, they were at least going to deny it to Star Force and open up more of the planet to orbital attacks…unless a Uriti showed up. If that happened the warships would have to flee and the ground troops would have to scatter and mix with the Star Force populations so they couldn’t be targeted from orbit. They would not be relinquishing the planet, however, for the longer they kept a Uriti pinned in one location the better it would be for other assaults. There were only 74 Uriti, and while he and the others had orders not to engage them navally, they were going to dare them to shoot their own people to remove the ground troops on the invaded planets.

  No Uriti had showed up here yet, and Saavaa and the other Octo’mar were making decent progress towards the shield generator when a shadow crossed over them. He turned and looked up, for whatever it was causing the shadow was too far above for his Pefbar to pick up. At first he thought the massive object in orbit was a Uriti, but none of the warships were moving. He took a moment and zoomed in with his armor’s vision amplifiers, for there was no warning being broadcast to the troops on the ground. When he did get a good view he saw it was in fact not a Uriti, but a large warship of a type he was unfamiliar with…but it was getting closer.

  Soon the grounded warships began to open fire, sending hundreds of Ardent and Var’ko beams up through the thick atmosphere to the ship overhead, but Saavaa couldn’t watch anymore. Star Force mechs were approaching, including one of their big ones. It was a hexped and outsized even the Serni’jar Ultra that fighting further to the east, but with this mech came smaller, faster ones that Saavaa was going to have to deal with.

  They fired through the jungle, not caring about the trees, and hit Saavaa on his forward shields. They held, but when the Octo’mar returned fire more than half his shots missed, irritating him greatly. V’kit’no’sat accuracy when firing from their armor was usually 97% or better at this range, for they had auto tracking programs built into the weapons. Shooting something as small as Zen’zat was different, dropping down to a pathetic 82%, but against opponents of similar size to Saavaa, missing was rare.

  The trouble was, he was standing almost still while the mechs were moving about with many trees in between them. Somehow they were picking their firing lines better than he was, and whenever he shot at the mechs a lot of his Dre’mo’don orbs hit tree trunks or even just thick branches, diminishing their damage even when they did hit the mechs. That also left a lot of flying debris falling amongst the trees that would have interfered with normal sensors, but not the V’kit’no’sat’s…which made it even more infuriating that he was missing with so many shots.

  The large mech further back didn’t try firing through the trees, rather it lobbed an energy orb up and over them, with it falling on top of another Octo’mar to Saavaa’s right. The Star Force perversion of a Uit streamer punched through his already weakened shields and morphed around his armor partway to the ground before the explosion came. Two Octo’mar beside him were knocked down, and Saavaa was thrown into a thick tree that kept him upright…though the tree didn’t fare as well. The Octo’mar that had been hit survived, though with most of his armor on the top side gone. The blast hadn’t made it through to his skin, but Saavaa could see the armor thinning elsewhere and moving in ripples to strengthen the weak spot.

  He and the others knew they couldn’t take that pounding, so they started running forward and shooting trees out of the way. They had to get up to the big mech and attack it from the underside, ignoring the smaller mechs if need be. And the more trees they knocked down, the better the firing lines for the troops behind him would get, and there were five waves of Octo’mar following up behind…

  Suddenly he got hit from the rear. It wasn’t a large hit, but rather a shockwave traveling through the atmosphere. He turned and looked, seeing the huge cone-shaped ship sitting in low orbit with a few crackles of orange energy around it and one of the grounded Kafcha being the epicenter of a growing mushroom cloud of debris that hadn’t yet reached its apex to start falling back to ground.

  “What ship is that?” the Octo’mar two down in the assault line asked, with Saavaa and the others all worried. There was no way they could survive even a glancing shot from that weapon.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Saavaa said aloud and telepathically so all those nearby would hear even if their comms were damaged. “If we’re near Star Force troops they won’t target us. So press forward, now, before they catch us out,” he said as a secondary blast wave knocked a few more trees down, but didn’t dislodge any of the V’kit’no’sat or the mechs.

  495 lightyears away…

  Peevaw dove away from a Star Force aerial fighter, dropping so fast that the gravity drives on the enemy vessel couldn’t keep up. Having wings helped in a number of occasions, and this was one, for the friction helped brake him in addition to his own gravity drives in his armor, which were heavy due to the fact that he was flying a K’lak’tal combat suit built for space combat. He couldn’t maneuver as quickly as he liked, but he was still more agile than the enemy craft…though not by much.

  The I’rar’et didn’t care about the Star Force flyer. Not right now anyway, for others were dealing with them. His job was to target the mechs, which the heavier firepower that the K’lak’tal carried turned out to be well suited for. When this invasion began they weren’t using them, but some innovative I’rar’et had tried it and found it worked well. Now every I’rar’et invasion fleet was using them as bombers against the mech ground forces while lighter armed I’rar’et were acting as skirmishers against the small aerial enemy.

  However, there were larger versions roaming out there with increased firepower, mostly in the form of missiles that could down him quickly. Right now there were none in this engagement, leaving him free to carefully strafe a group of two legged mechs engaging Zen’zat in armored vehicles. Without coopting with another race, the I’rar’et had to use the Zen’zat heavy attack craft, otherwise the mechs would turn their weapons to the skies and shoot down too many of them. This way they had to split their firepower, but several K’lak’tal had already been shot down.

  Peevaw was luckier than them, getting to hit the rear of two of the mechs and blast through their shields with enough residual firepower to create puffs of vaporized armor just before he streaked past at low altitude, firing on another mech further up when he got hit from behind. His own shields held long enough for him to veer off and around an ice pillar, taking him out of view as he passed over two friendly Zen’zat hover tanks.

  They let him pass, then fired up at the enemy aerial craft behind him, though it had been one of the mechs that managed the hit. The Zen’zat returned the favor, winging one of the three aerial craft before six I’rar’et caught up to them from the flanks and downed one of the Star Force flyers. The other two split, leaving Peevaw alone as he lazily circled around between ice pillars, staying out of view as much as he could before lining up another attack run…for he couldn’t hold position and slug it out with anything larger than infantry. And unfortunately Star Force hadn’t deployed any of theirs this far out from the city.

  The city’s defenses were keeping the I’rar’et away, for they had heavy anti-air batteries that he would be stupid to challenge. The Zen’zat had to get up close and knock them out…and when they did
, the I’rar’et would come in and obliterate everything from the air.

  Right now Star Force was doing a good job of keeping the Zen’zat away from the city and knocking down a fair number of I’rar’et, though most were recoverable because the Zen’zat were pushing forward, albeit slowly. There was a line of downed mechs and Zen’zat craft reaching all the way back to the landing zone where the I’rar’et had been hit hard trying to get troops on the ground, but they’d had little choice.

  They could put the troops down at the shield perimeter, which only covered a third of the small planet, or they could push in under it and get them closer. They’d chosen the latter, for if they’d started further out it would have been to Star Force’s advantage…though there were two smoking hulks of Zen’zat orbital transports, both bigger than a drop pod, that lay on the ice far behind them testifying to how strong the Star Force mech contingent here was.

  The I’rar’et had gotten their troops out and the other transports safely away, but those two were going to be a loss, especially since some aerial fighters had backdoored the advancing army and pounded the grounded transports so they wouldn’t be recoverable.

  But that didn’t matter. It was an investment that was getting them closer to the city where the nearest shield generator stood at the center, and with a few more mechs taken down the Zen’zat were going to be able to push up against the static defenses. That would hurt, but there was no way around it save for orbital bombardment, and the fleet that had been sent to take this system wasn’t large enough for that. There were only 328 ships, but that was more than enough to overwhelm Star Force’s defenses, for this was an inconsequential system amongst many others being hit. If the enemy brought a large defense fleet here, they’d have to pull them from more valuable worlds…and the same went for a Uriti. Odds are that wouldn’t happen, meaning what the I’rar’et had to fight was right in front of them.

  It was doable, but they were going to have to pay a price for this world. And then they were going to have to garrison it, keeping as many of the locals alive as possible. That was a huge change for Peevaw, who’d been one of the few in this invasion that had fought Star Force before. Back then they’d just bombarded everything from orbit once the shield generators were down then sent in ground troops to mop up what was left.

  But not now. They had to take every bit of territory on the ground the hard way, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t kill the enemy. Anyone who shot at them was fair game, and any that got in the way of the combat or were located near high valued targets were also considered collateral damage, but the rest were an objective to capture and any of the Star Force warriors were a highly valued bonus, though it didn’t look like surrender was on their minds right now.

  Peevaw wasn’t taking this attack lightly, nor were the other I’rar’et. Even though they had an advantage, he didn’t expect Star Force to give an inch willingly. The V’kit’no’sat were going to have to take all the systems in their path, paying the necessary price in equipment and personnel to do it. Hopefully what they captured would help reimburse them somewhat for the losses of material, in the long run, but right now there wasn’t anything but destruction on Peevaw’s mind as he zigzagged through ice pillars and came out behind a larger group of mechs.

  There was no Star Force aerial cover at the moment, so he unloaded into one of the backwards-legged mechs and knocked it to the ground, though he wasn’t sure if that was from damage or the limited explosive jarring of his Nioa warheads. The compacted energy orbs released a hell of a kick on impact, but it was amplified with the vaporization of hull armor and there was an instantaneous cloud formed as the mech fell over.

  Rather than veering hard left and almost turning about, he tried to zip across to the far side of the wide canyon to the cover of more jutting ice formations, but he never made it. Some of the mechs reacted too fast and his K’lak’tal took several hits. He felt a burn on his left flank, but that’s not what dropped him to the ground. Rather the gravity drives within the suit suddenly went offline and his desperate wing flaps were not enough to lift both him and the bulky suit, resulting in him crashing into the snow and plowing a furrow all the way up to one of the ice pillars but still within easy targeting of the mechs.

  He didn’t have to wait long, for the following shots pounded him mercilessly until he felt the burns on his flesh and he blacked out…only to revive a short time later thanks to the Kich’a’kat inside the suit. The burning was replaced by the icy cold of the planet’s atmosphere, but he didn’t dare move. The mechs had refrained from blasting his armor to pieces, so if he held still maybe they’d wouldn’t notice he was still alive.

  If the Zen’zat didn’t push up to his position soon, the Kich’a’kat was going to have to repair his exposed back over and over again as the cold damaged it. That wasn’t something he wanted to endure, but if it kept him alive long enough to be rescued, then so be it. He’d gotten too arrogant and tried to shoot a gap he couldn’t make, and Peevaw very much wanted to live through his mistake…even if it was only because of the mercy Star Force had extended to him, for they probably knew V’kit’no’sat armor had regenerators, yet they’d left his body intact enough to be repaired.

  If he made it out of this he’d make sure to find one of their warriors and extend the favor in return, for he hated the idea of being in the enemy’s debt.

  No. He’d return it 3 times over. That should be enough to compensate for his stupidity. He never should have underestimated the reaction times of these mechs…or the inability to fly the K’lak’tal in gravity under his own power.

  That was a downside that someone had apparently never bothered to bring up, for these K’lak’tal suits were damn heavy and built for space…and if you lost gravity drives out there you just floated until pickup.

  4

  May 23, 4897

  Braum System (Star Force territory)

  Winage

  Niom stood in the command deck onboard his Na’shor flagship looking down on the large planet below and the fleet of enemy drones clustered in 9 different groups nearby. Some of them were system defense models and larger than their standard versions, but all of them were smaller than a Ti’mat and shaped like elongated Brat’mar vessels, sharing the same coin shape. They were not a major problem, for Niom’s fleet outmassed theirs 9 to 1, though it should have been 11 to 1.

  Two of his fleet groups had not arrived along with the others. He’d split them up into 18 separate groups ordered to jump into the system on 18 different jumplines simultaneously. Two had failed to make it, and another had been ambushed enroute with only two thirds of their ships arriving, but most of his fleet groups had entered the system uncontested.

  However, the system defenders had not heavily engaged his ships at the entry jumppoints. They were staying close to the planets and refusing to get into a fight outside the range of the surface batteries. Niom had taunted them twice, but both times they would not take the bait and never moved further than the outer limits where the Ardent beams lost cohesion. Had they been firing a true beam the range would have been much farther, and whatever spreading occurred would still deliver full power to ships as large as a Na’shor, which were hard to miss.

  The problem with range in the V’kit’no’sat/Star Force weaponry was the fact that their weapons were not true beams. They were various forms of exotic energy bound together into packets. Some were very loose, others very compact, but all had range limitations. When that bonding expired the energy inside literally ‘puffed’ into scattered chaos. Even a Tar’vem’jic had its limits, though its bonding power was the strongest yet created. Without it, the power levels of ranged weapons would drop so low they wouldn’t do more than tickle the advanced shield generators both sides now possessed.

  However, one weapon that Star Force used and the V’kit’no’sat did not was a mass launcher. It was hard to aim at distance, but against an unmoving target it had no range limitation and the larger the target the easier it was to hi
t…and V’kit’no’sat ships were huge in comparison to Star Force’s. A few of the synthetic rocks had already been flung up at his fleet where it sat some 480,000 miles above the planet, with the V’kit’no’sat dampening shields catching them. However, if they’d been involved in heavy battle, they wouldn’t have enough power for those shields to be continually hit and recharged.

  Niom thought Star Force was doing it just to rattle the V’kit’no’sat, until one hit and was stopped by another Na’shor not too far away from his flagship…then once it was caught in the collapsible energy field of the dampening shields and its momentum totally cancelled out it exploded, taking a tiny chunk of the Na’shor with it. Its regular shields had caught some of the blast prior to them collapsing, but Niom had never seen Star Force use a weapon variant such as this.

  “Evasive maneuvers! Set shields to redirect, not stop, the objects. Realign the fleet to allow clear passage.”

  A few moments later a comm line opened and a hologram of another Oso’lon appeared.

  “What are we waiting for Niom? The other ships are probably not coming. We have what we have. Either attack or withdraw from the system. The longer we wait, the more time Star Force has to bring in reinforcements.”