Star Force: Origin Series (17-20) Read online

  Paul could have jumped them easily enough but that wasn’t his mission, so he let them pass and waited for another 20 minutes for an opportunity to building jump again. This time he did meet up with a rogue lizard inside and dispatched it with a quick jab of his stun sword before it could get to its weapon. He didn’t kill it, but rather let it lay unconscious on the floor as he moved on, not wanting the sound of plasma fire to give away his location.

  Paul passed through another three buildings with minimal resistance until he finally got to his target…which of course had to be one with a lizard guard at the door. He could see at least half a dozen inside behind a pair of brand new barricades. They wouldn’t be hard to take if he left his satchel behind, but drawing attention to himself was going to make more trouble than he wanted so he chose to move across to an adjacent building, then one up further so he could come around and observe another entrance into his target.

  It too was guarded, but the third side he later checked wasn’t and he managed to slip across and into the building unnoticed. He took to the stairs and quietly began to ascend the medium-height building up to the roof, having to pause and wait out several close encounters with lizards milling about erecting gear that indicated to Paul that they were setting up shop in the building for more onsite industrial use. Fortunately he wouldn’t be sticking around for long.

  When he finally made it to the roof he encountered two lizards putting together an anti-air turret and took them down with four well placed shots before taking cover and waiting, wondering if there were any more on the roof along with them. After a few minutes of silence he did a slow perimeter sweep and eventually came up with nothing. His insertion had been a success.

  As he made his way back to where he’d dropped his satchel he saw an Eagle-class dropship scoot across the forest edge and dip down into the grassy clearing ringing the city. Paul did a double take, wondering if he was seeing things until another followed it up from a different approach angle before dropping out of sight. He was still well within the center of the city and the perimeter was a ways off in the distance but there was no way his eyes were misjudging the sight of the dropships on approach.

  By the time he got his helmet scope engaged a Falcon-class dropship joined them and he was able to confirm that they were landing in the clearing, but the perimeter buildings were blocking his line of sight so he couldn’t see what they were offloading but he knew it had to be mechs. Up until now their guardian cruiser had been intercepting and driving off all attempts to reinforce the city via dropship, which made him wonder where exactly it was now.

  Scanning the horizon with his scope he did a full half turn before the command building blocked his view, then he skipped over it and got another partial turn in before he spotted it even further away than it normally was, and on the opposite side of the city from where the dropships were coming in. A flash of blue impacted on its shields and Paul followed the plasma streak back to a grey rectangular cube…no, three cubes, all cutter-class by the looks of them, that were engaging the cruiser at close range.

  At the same time he noticed a scattering of dots crossing his vision, which he soon realized were more dropships heading in from that direction, under the cover of the three naval ships that had dropped down into atmosphere to take on the wounded cruiser, who’d lost most of its offensive plasma cannons over the previous days. Paul didn’t know which side would win out in that fight, but get enough mechs on the ground and it wouldn’t matter…which is exactly what this Clan had planned, though he couldn’t tell from this range who the dropships belonged to.

  Even if they were flying over the city he wouldn’t have been able to spot the small icons on the hull, but he knew that the remote pilots flying those warships had to be transmitting from one of the Clan colonies on a beam signal, otherwise the jamming coming from the city would have overwhelmed their control receivers. It was possible that they’d sent the ships in on autopilot with the cruiser pre-tagged as their target, but Paul found that unlikely as he watched the distant battle unfold based on the way the ships moved about to gain maximum advantage.

  The shields on the cruiser eventually went down and the plasma lances cut into its hull just as a large glob of green plasma found one of the cutters and broke through its Herculium armor, resulting in multiple internal explosions that dropped the ‘brick’ out of the sky and down into the forest where it dug up and sprayed a massive plume of vegetation into the air. The cruiser didn’t stick around, however, and began to retreat to the left but both cutters stayed with it, pounding its aft arc with plasma and then launching a huge missile salvo from both ships that completely obscured Paul’s view for a moment with all the smoke and impact debris fouling the air.

  Then all of a sudden the back end of the cruiser dipped below the cloud and hit the forest canopy, sinking down in with its front end still suspended up in the air. Paul knew instantly that the rear gravity drives had been knocked out, meaning that the ship was all but doomed. Unless they could get enough power to the forward units for it to limp up off into space, or at least up higher into the atmosphere, it was going to be a sitting duck for the cutters to finish off or, if they couldn’t, would be an applicable candidate for orbital bombardment, given its distance from the edge of the city.

  As Paul watched he saw more and more flocks of dropships skirting the top of the forest as they zipped into the outer edges of the city. They were merely dots from his perspective, but he knew they contained dozens of fresh mechs that would at minimum help them clear the streets of the lizard ground vehicles, and if they got enough mechs clustered together they might even have a chance of downing or driving off the cruisers bringing in additional lizard troops.

  Paul didn’t know what Clan had pulled this off but he was proud of them, especially for that bit of naval strategy. He watched a bit longer until he saw the rest of the lizard ship crash into the ground and the two remaining cutters swarm over it, firing their plasma barrages directly down on top of it with maximum cohesion and intensity. From his perspective they were just flashes of blue, but he could imagine the carnage they were unleashing on that ship and he was more than glad to have it eliminated from the engagement.

  Remembering why he was here Paul deactivated his scope and carried his satchel over to the southwest corner of the building and began unloading its contents onto the rooftop a few meters in from the railing that was the only divider between flat roof and sheer drop off on the other side. He pulled out the varying components and reassembled his rocket launcher, along with adding on the guiding matrix and scope before loading the first of four smart missiles into the wide barrel.

  He hefted the heavy tube up onto his shoulder, feeling the appropriately placed padding mold to fit his body and provide stability for the weapon. It was so heavy that only an Archon or Knight could wield it, and Paul had had it shipped in from Clan Saber specifically for this mission, knowing that he was going to need the heavier firepower and range compared to the launchers the Canderians were using to great effect on the city streets.

  Bracing against the weight Paul slowly took a knee and steadied himself as he looked through the scope across several lower height buildings until he found the one he wanted. It was a bit higher than those immediately around it, but lower still than the building Paul was on. Unlike his, however, the target had a large apparatus on top looking like an elongated version of one of the Archons’ personal shields. It was suspended above the rooftop several meters and beveled at the edges while the interior was completely flat with a long center swipe having been cut out.

  Paul could just make out the roof below through that swipe and chose to aim further to the side in case he accidentally hit the gap and missed the orbital transmitter that was his target. He pushed a small button on the side of the launcher near the trigger and a laser shot out, marking the spot he intended to hit. Paul aligned it exactly where he wanted and activated the missile’s navigational system, getting receipt of laser recognition as a
small icon on the launcher’s scope HUD.

  The Archon pulled the trigger and the thick missile shot out in a cloud of smoke that covered him from all angles to reduce the recoil of the launch, save for the front of the launcher where the scope and laser ended. Paul kept his concentration on the target as well as the laser dot as the missile swooped across the rooftops at a shallow angle, crossing to the target and ramming into the topside of the transmitter where it detonated.

  Paul waited for the debris to clear, glancing up at his still inactive battlemap, then back down at the hole the weapon had torn in the transmitter…but the array was so big that it was going to take more than one to knock it out.

  Pulling his head back from the scope Paul set the launcher down on the ground and loaded a second missile into it, checking again to make sure that the roof was clear of lizards behind him. Being patient enough to forestall any mistakes he hefted the launcher back up onto his shoulder and repositioned on his knee to get the correct angle before dipping the tip of the long tube over the top of the railing and sighting in on a different segment of the transmission ‘table’ covering the other building’s rooftop.

  Another trigger pull and the second missile fired off, streaking over to the target and blasting another hole into the opposite side, but still it wasn’t enough to knock it out. Paul had wondered if two would do it, but had brought four along just in case not wanting to come up short, but now he was starting to get worried. He loaded up the third missile and aimed for the biggest section of intact transmitter that he could and fired it off…then a split second after it hit his battlemap lit up with new data, showing all but three areas of the city with a huge number of Star Force unit signals.

  Paul smiled, not having realized how much progress the others had been making. The three remaining dead zones had to be from smaller jamming transmitters, but from the looks of it most of their defensive forces were now in communications range…included a large number of mechs assembling in five locations out in the grassy perimeter zone.

  Paul adjusted his comm to the trailblazer only teamcomm. “Anyone online?”

  “Paul, I hear you,” Jason’s voice answered back. “My battlemap just lit up. Did someone take out a jammer?”

  “Guilty as charged, but it looks like there are still three smaller ones in play.”

  “Nice work,” Morgan commented. “I especially like the little naval engagement you’ve got going on.”

  “That wasn’t my handiwork. I’ve been with Canderous working out of the command building and incommunicado aside from courier runs. Whoever arranged that, I’m glad we’re finally getting more mechs into play.”

  “What? No, I meant the engagement in space.”

  “What engagement?” Paul asked, frowning.

  “I thought that was you too,” Jason added.

  “What engagement?” Paul repeated.

  “It’s still going on, but we’ve downed two cruisers that tried to hit our shipyard,” Jason explained. “Another pair are still going at it with our fleet, but they’re losing badly.”

  “Where are you getting that feed from?”

  “A mantis laser relay back to colony 4. I thought you’d hooked into the link and were organizing things upstairs.”

  “I’ve been blind for days…and at the moment I’m behind enemy lines,” he said as a small flashing icon indicated that he was receiving a signal on another frequency. “I’ll get back to you later.”

  Paul dumped the missile launcher onto the rooftop as he adjusted his comm. “Paul here.”

  “It appears you were successful,” Raines said. “Our comms are no longer jammed and we’re getting requests from new mechs on the field to link up with our ground units.”

  “Organize and secure a conduit straight in to the safe zone. We’re sticking to the plan and pushing out, sector by sector. Add them into the fold until I get back.”

  “Same extraction point?”

  “Negative. I’ll call for pickup when I get in range. I’m not heading back by the same route I came in on. I might as well scout out the enemy positions a bit while I’m here.”

  “I’ll leave a shuttle standing by with pilot and extraction team onboard.”

  “Copy that,” Paul said, ending the conversation and walking up to the railing so he could see the streets below that made an ‘X’ directly underneath his position. Three of the directions were clear, but there was another patrol coming his way from the upper left portion of the ‘X’ so Paul loaded up his last missile and sighted in on the anti-air vehicle trailing the anti-personnel vehicle a few meters in front of it. Both were hovering less than a meter off the street as they moved down the wide lane between buildings with ground troops flanking them on the sidewalks.

  Paul pulled the trigger and held the launcher steady until there was a small ‘puff’ of an explosion in the distance, then he stood up and chucked the launcher over the edge of the railing, hoping it might hit a passing lizard on the way down. He pulled out his plasma rifle from the rack on his back and headed over to the stairwell entrance, then disappeared inside the building and lizard territory, slowly making his way back to Star Force-controlled streets.

  9

  April 3, 2266

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Corneria

  Paul stood side by side with Jason in the back of the mantis as its boarding ramp lowered into open air. Behind him stood Morgan and Rafa, each loaded up with weapons, explosives, and ammo, especially Morgan who was carrying an insanely large pack. As soon as the ramp locked into place Paul walked off the edge and dropped half a step ahead of Jason and fell to the upper hull of the lizard cruiser a few meters below.

  He caught himself as his feet hit damaged armor plates and tried to roll over, then he walked out of his stumble and clear of the drop point while the other two trailblazers came down, then the mantis roared off into the city skyline, taking a bit of anti-air fire from the ground as it left, but it wasn’t enough to take the transport down.

  All around the downed cruiser the lizards were making their final stand. Dozens of assault vehicles were battling it out with mechs as thousands of lizards dug in to the surrounding buildings, but the Archons didn’t have time to look around. As soon as they were boots down on the hull Paul ran over a few meters and hopped into a hot and recently cut breach point and dropped inside. Jason followed quickly, a few steps ahead of the trailing pair. Two seconds after Morgan slipped through last in line the cruiser’s shields reformed a meter and a half above the hull in a brief shimmer, then disappeared into their standard invisibility.

  Over the past week Star Force had systematically swept through the city sector by sector as the lizards continued to land more troops, but with the mech reinforcements coming in they hadn’t been able to hold the streets and had been forced to either retreat or stand their ground and fight it out in a long, losing campaign, making the Humans earn every block and building they retook. Then 3 days into the mech-backed counteroffensive one of the lizards’ remaining cruisers had landed within the city, crushing several small buildings underneath it as it sank down into the cityscape and out of targeting range of the remaining defense towers.

  Its shields had then been reconfigured to cover not only the ship but several surrounding buildings as well, all the way down to ground level in some cases. In addition, some of the cruiser’s weaponry was still intact, which made mech assault problematic. They could weather brief exposure to their strong anti-air batteries, but one square hit from a main cannon was all it would take to knock a mech down, and given the narrow confines of the streets they were fighting on several of the approaches were all but death traps, which forced the mechs to attack through a limited number of approaches that the lizard ground troops had heavily reinforced.

  The other remaining cruisers were now dropping reinforcements directly onto the downed cruiser and pushing back forcefully to carve out a niche within the city that they could hold against the mechs. Meanwhile, they’d dis
covered the underground network of tunnels and chambers that ran beneath the city and beyond and had been fighting desperately to push down into those areas, knowing that they stood their best chance underground where Star Force air and orbital power couldn’t get to them.

  The mechs still could, however, and had been stalling their subterranean advance, but with more and more lizards being poured into the effort it was only a matter of time before they broke through, especially given the amount of anti-mech equipment being brought in. Larger and larger portable turrets were popping up on the streets, almost as if the lizards were custom designing them to meet the needs of the battle.

  Booby traps were also beginning to pop up on the defensive lines and had forced the ground teams to move cautiously around the perimeter, buying even more time for the lizards to press underground. Paul knew they were pushing the enemy to the breaking point, but their adaptability and industrial resourcefulness still posed a significant threat should they be able to establish a secure base of operations to work out of…and if they did manage to get set up underground it would all but disable their primary weapon against the lizards, that being their orbital bombardment.

  Taking the grounded cruiser out of the equation was critical, so Paul and the other three trailblazers had opted to try something a bit reckless. Skeet and gunship assaults on the shield had successfully brought it down, but only after a massive salvo of missiles…something they couldn’t maintain indefinitely. While the skeets then tried to disable as many shield generators as they could the mantis had sped them down to the hull and into one of the newest breach points, intent on getting them into the ship before the shields regenerated and closed over the hole.