Star Force: Upgrades (SF41) Read online

That fight Kip was going to leave to them. They knew their own cities far better than Star Force did, and the trailblazer did not want to get his troops caught up in an underground war. The Skarrons couldn’t take their big walkers down there, so it was personnel and tank-sized craft only, which gave the Protovic an advantage…unless the ceiling came crashing down on top of you when one of the Skarron walkers stepped on the wrong spot.

  No, Kip was going after the big walkers. They were the key to the Skarrons dominance on the ground and they had to be taken out…he just wasn’t going to start with a Type-1. There were several Type-4s escorting a trio of Type-3s about 20 miles ahead, with the Skarron fighters and the Star Force skeets and gunships going at it above the Star Force landing zone, along with a couple of Protovic Valeries. The enemy knew Star Force troops were incoming and was trying to poach the dropships and transports as they came down…but the Archon and Regular pilots were having none of it.

  As Kip walked out onto the Protovic’s wide streets he wasn’t concerned about the ongoing, scattered aerial combat. His pilots and craft were proving superior, and he had no doubt everyone would get to ground intact, for they were coming down to surface further to the east and flying level to the ground to get to this position to avoid the Skarron anti-air, but so far, other than their fighters, there had been no aerial response, though Kip knew the Type-3s could probably shoot this far out with their lachar cannon if they had a decent line of sight.

  “Commander,” a nearby Protovic said in the trade language as he approached.

  Kip turned to face him as a handful of other Archons walked out of the dropship alongside him.

  “Ren’san’do,” he greeted his assigned liaison.

  “I’ve just received a report,” the Protovic said from behind his armored helmet as they pair walked towards the main landing zone where the mechs were being offloaded, “that indicates that several Skarron ground teams have broken through in the undercity and are headed for this location.”

  “What size?”

  “Uncertain, but they’ve secured a route of access to bring in as many as they wish.”

  “Alright, I need your people to show mine where the access points are. We’ll set up a perimeter around the LZ and hold it ourselves. How deep do the structures go underneath us?”

  “Several kilometers. It is virtually impossible to block off all access to such a large area.”

  “Leave it to us, just get us guides for the undercity.”

  “Consider it done.”

  “And feel free to reroute your forward troops through here as a fallback position.”

  Ren’san’do nodded gratefully, then with a tap of his hand on Kip’s armored shoulder he ran off.

  Kip likewise accelerated up into a run, turning his green ranger armor into a little blur as he headed off into the landing zone and weaved his way around the unloading areas, not wanting to get stepped on, and eventually ran his way over to the area where the larger transports were set/setting down and found a portable control post set up nearby. It was similar to their firebases and constructed of transformable cargo cubes, but this one was tiny in comparison, consisting of only 9 blocks in a three by three grid.

  There was no entry gate through the walls, just a staircase on the outside that he climbed up to the top level on, which held three octagonal platforms with gaps in between that showed the area below, accessible by ladders only, which he knew held extensive comm equipment, plus shield generators and a tiny barracks.

  “Where’s my mech?” he asked the tech manning the control console, who had a pair of commandos flanking him in guard positions while another handful stood ready along the wall, keeping an eye out for enemy ground troops.

  “There,” one of the commandos said, pointing at a grounded transport, “and there,” he finished, pointing up at another just landing.

  Kip nodded. “Give it priority. I need to get out and scout the area while the rest are unpacked.”

  “Understood, Archon,” the commando said, gesturing to the tech who was already logging the priority into the database. That cleared deck space in front of the transports, which eventually got around to unloading the gigantic, lumpy bricks of mech out of their holds via internal anti-grav units bolstered by anti-grav tugs that maneuvered the three pieces out into a star formation…or the top three segments anyway.

  The other two came down in the next transport and were laid out at the bottom two points. Once they were stationary and the tugs were pulled back, the Clan Protoss commando in charge of the command post gave Kip a go.

  The trailblazer jumped off the wall and landed in a crouch on the ground, then sprinted off towards the five huge blocks, running for the one at the top of the star. When he got there he climbed into an access door that was near ground level, then through a short crawlway before getting to the mech’s pilot compartment. He sealed the interior door, then telekinetically hit a switch that pulled armor plates together, removing the access way and giving him meters of protection around his pod.

  Next he powered up the life support, which altered the gravity in the pod and sent his feet towards the wall/floor. At the moment the mech’s pod was laying on its back, resulting in the disorientation, but once the inertial dampener and artificial gravity kicked in the cockpit righted itself from Kip’s point of view and he immediately took his helmet off and began unlocking his armor. He stepped out of it and collapsed it down into packet form, then stashed it and his helmet into a bin attached to the back wall for just that purpose.

  He took two steps and moved into the control sphere, where he stepped up onto the foot pads and began wrapping the control harness around his legs, getting a decent connective feel through his uniform as he snugged the straps. Other mechwarriors preferred to strip down to their underwear for a more direct connection, same way they did with going sockless in their running shoes, but Kip had never felt the need…and with the way this behemoth moved, he wasn’t going to be getting too creative with the mech’s movements anyway.

  Once he got his chest, arms, and head locked in he used a redundant control panel in front of him, one placed there specifically for psionics-capable pilots, and synced the harness alignment with the mech’s…causing limbs to stretch out and go rigid, despite the fact that he was in a block of material rather than a mech.

  But that was about to change. Using a combination of hand, eye, and psionic controls he triggered the block that he was in to transform its shape into a torso, then used the anti-grav to lift it off the ground a couple of meters as the block to his right also went through a transformation…or rather a partial one, extruding a thick support pylon.

  Kip’s center block, now in torso form, drifted over and pushed into the pylon, sucking it inside the right shoulder assembly and locking it in place before pulling it snug. After that he ‘landed’ back on the ground and let the anti-grav capacitor recharge as the right block finished transforming into an arm, complete with a neo-esk, fully functional hand.

  When it did Kip’s right hand in the harness lost its rigidity and he experimented with the fingers, seeing the mech’s operate in sync on the intricate holographic display that now surrounded him in the cockpit. With that arm locked in, he levitated both it and the torso up off the ground and moved over to the left block, accepted its pylon, and got his left arm operational.

  He did the same thing with the leg blocks, accepting them one at a time, then finishing the transformation of those pieces on the ground and feeling all maneuvering capabilities loosen up in his control harness. Fully powering up the Voltron-class mech, he bent at his waist and sat the thing up slowly, throwing back an elbow and hand for leverage.

  Once in sitting position he looked around, now visibly higher than the ‘small’ mechs roaming about. Seeing that the area around his was clear, he rolled the voltron over onto its right side, got its hands underneath the torso, then came up to a knee. From there he slowly stood the thing up to its full height, some four times taller than a neo and
covered in so much armor he literally had more on his forearm than the little mechs carried on their entire frames.

  Once Kip was standing he shuffled around a bit, refamiliarizing himself with the controls, for he hadn’t had a lot of training time in this type of mech, and most of what he did have was in simulators. Spinning the headless mech around once, he spotted a pair of hoths off to his west, both of which only came up to his mech’s armpits…but the Mk. 2 hoth further behind them stood more than half again as tall as his voltron. It was a beast of a walker, and definitely earned the ‘heavy’ moniker. Unlike the smaller Hoths, the Mk. 2 had the unique distinction of carrying the smallest cleansing beam ever built, and Kip intended to put that to good use, as he had brought down four of the beasts to this landing zone…or would have, once the rest of the transports arrived.

  As big and heavily armored as they were, they weren’t meant for dancing, and were just narrow enough to fit into the Protovic streets. They’d be sitting ducks for counterattacks once they demonstrated their firepower, which was why Kip and the others had to get out ahead of them and engage the enemy, taking down their ‘smaller’ units.

  But at the moment all he was doing was blocking the LZ, so he walked his mech off towards the edge of the clearing, making sure not to kick aside the smaller mechs, and made room for others to be unpacked or brought down from orbit.

  Kip gingerly walked into one of the city streets, making extra care not to step on anyone below, though the area should have already been cleared of civilians, save for the designated evacuee routes. With so many mechs around it had been a necessity, and Kip was thankful that it appeared that the Protovic natives were adhering to the geographic restrictions.

  Risking a little more speed he accelerated up into a brisk walk, then turned one of the angles in the street and began heading off west towards the distant Skarron lines. From his vantage point he could see over more than half of the Protovic buildings, while much taller versions sprouted up around him like trees, both for their height and their penchant for leaf-like landing pads clustered around the tops, which were well above his head, and even that of the Mk. 2 Hoth.

  The battlemap superimposed over his view of the city, with him immediately seeing Protovic engagements taking place ahead…a few of which weren’t that far off. He triggered an auxiliary view, with him being able to see the plane of the city from above, and noted that there was a ground battle going on between Protovic tanks, infantry, and what looked like an upwelling of Skarron ground troops coming out of a region below…along with some type of armor that wasn’t their huge walkers.

  “Kip, nice to see you in play,” Lonigan-839 said, transmitting from a Mk. 3 raven out on the perimeter of the LZ. “Do you mind if I swing a few boys out and help the Protovic put out some of these fires?”

  “Just looking at one of them now. Permission granted, so long as you keep the LZ secure.”

  “You know I will,” the mech specialist said, who, ironically, had a higher rating in that division than Kip did…by two levels.

  “I’m going to take a stroll and see what’s up ahead, break trail for the heavies. Do you know anything about this small-scale armor I’m seeing?”

  “Armor is right. I’ve been in contact with the Protovic field commanders ever since I set down. They say they’re exoskeletons that some of the Skarrons are wearing. Apparently these guys come in different sizes. I’d guess these are their version of Knights.”

  “Well, step on a few, will ya? I’ve got bigger targets to worry about.”

  “Copy that. Keep your fat ass mech behind the bigger buildings. If they knew who you were, I’d light you up with a missile barrage first thing.”

  “I think they’re saving those for air assets, but point taken. There’s two Type-2s within moderate missile range, at least as far as we think they can fire. Still haven’t got firm numbers there.”

  “I suggest you take a couple of madcats with you, just the same.”

  “Thanks, but the Hoths need them more than me. They’re going to be priority one once they get their first shot off.”

  “Take pictures,” Lonigan quipped, with Kip seeing his raven shoot up to a building top on its built-in jump jets…which in this case were anti-grav, now that thrust-based maneuvering had been replaced with the more versatile tech.

  “Watch yourself, not all of these buildings are uninhabited.”

  “I know,” he said seriously, “but they built them sturdy. At least enough to support a light mech like mine.”

  “Just keep an eye out. We don’t want to crush the people we’re trying to save.”

  “Once the shooting starts, we might not be that lucky,” Lonigan said somberly.

  “I know,” Kip echoed him. “Watch your step and firing lines…save who you can.”

  “Ditto…and keep count. The big walkers earn painted tally marks.”

  Kip smirked. “Agreed.”

  6

  Kip leaned his voltron forward, bent the right knee and kicked its left leg back, bringing the torso lower to the ground as he punched into the street, burying one of the armored Skarron infantry beneath his mech’s clenched fist. He pulled it back up and swept the fist side to side, knocking others around as they were annoyingly darting in and out of his feet firing tiny missiles at his escort mechs. A few dodged the giant hand but most got knocked aside, and splattered when he got the chance.

  After he’d killed a few dozen he stood the mech back up and continued walking forward, leaving the rest for the smaller mechs. The voltron might not be the most agile of mechs, but it was still built with the neo’s design philosophy of hand to hand combat, meaning the enemy wasn’t going to be able to hide out underneath his feet, and it was time they realized that…for he wasn’t having much luck stepping on the things.

  The Skarrons quickly got the message and pulled back from the immediate radius around his mech, taking cover around and in between the stalk-like Protovic buildings, ready to jump out and ambush the other mechs. Each of the Skarrons was a fourth the height of a Raven-class mech, and they could run and jump well enough for quadrupeds, with some of them ganging up and knocking the small mechs off their feet in what looked like an ugly football game…but they didn’t have the weaponry to destroy the mechs quickly, making the things more of an annoyance than a threat, but give them enough time to gather greater numbers and Kip knew that would change.

  There were a pair of Starbright-class mechs preceding Kip on the road they were taking towards the first of the Type-4 walkers, bathing every target they came across in plasma, along with several neos spread out onto other streets forming a ring around the voltron, while a handful of ravens were keeping pace with the big mech to clean up infantry that might be getting in the way. Behind the big mech was a pair of madcats equipped as anti-missile platforms, standing ready should the voltron require cover fire against the big Skarron missiles.

  The little ones coming from the infantry weren’t requiring any intercepts to be fired, with the lachars picking them off easy enough when given a moment to target, but some of the infantry was running up and firing them almost directly underneath the mechs, chipping away a little shield strength with every shot…something the ravens were trying to keep them from doing.

  Kip’s mech group was running point, with 6 others coming up from behind him in a staggered line. Two of those were Mk. 2 hoths with a much larger escort, 3 were original hoths with escorts, and the last one was a rogue group of smaller mechs looking for whatever targets were available, especially the Skarron Type-5s that were likewise biped, the first of which Kip was about to come up to.

  His neo escort got to it first and engaged it with probing attacks, finding that it had a primary plasma cannon set in the chest, while the rest of its armament seemed tooled towards anti-infantry operations. It was an extreme flanking escort for the Type-3 that was Kip’s eventual target, which was likewise surrounded by Type-4s, which then had escort rings of other Type-5s…which then had escort
s of their primary infantry. So far Kip hadn’t seen any Hobbits, suggesting that skirmish duties probably didn’t mean going up against mechs, but it was still odd that they hadn’t spotted any as scouts.

  Then again, if they were out there in the buildings they’d be almost impossible to spot. If they were smart they’d stay out of the mechs’ way, which the Skarrons themselves were not doing. They weren’t going to slow down his voltron with their little missiles, but given enough time they could wear down his escorts.

  By the time Kip got up to the Type-5 it was already toast, lying on its back with the chest section torn out. He did notice an open flap between the legs that he thought was a cockpit entry, which suggested the pilot had fled after his ride had been damaged.

  Kip checked the battlemap, looking for the next closest target and finding several Type-5s nearby, but he ignored them and set a waypoint for the closest Type-4 for his group of mechs to follow.

  “Take out the 5s on your own,” he said into his group comm, “I’m heading for the 4. Lay off it until I can size up what it’ll take to take it down. I might be able to get it without backup.”

  He got a host of acknowledgement signals in the form of tiny flashing lights next to the name icons for all the mechs, letting him know they’d heard him without vocally creating a mess of overlapping confirmations. Kip ignored them and goosed his walking speed a bit once he rounded the next bend. His escorts matched his new speed, keeping their spacing as they waded through yet more infantry, a lot of which were just shooting at them with pistols and rifles.

  Even though it wasn’t doing much damage, it felt like they were walking through a gauntlet…and had they tried this approach with their own infantry they would have been in for a world of resistance. Thankfully the mechs gave them another option.

  Kip saw another Type-5 icon on the battlemap go down off towards the north where his neos had swung out to get it, leaving only one in the direct path between him and the Type-4, which another pair of neos were racing towards, eager to take down another of the Skarron walkers. Meanwhile the other mech groups were making their way forward at a slightly slower pace, with the hoths having to take extra time maneuvering around corners…or stepping over them in the case of the Mk. 2s.