Star Force: Zealot (SF87) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  But what the Star Force task force did have was a lot of ships going to reinforce them within the hour, meaning that a stall play was in their favor, but more than that they had Paul onboard and there wasn’t another ship that Jarod would have preferred going into battle on than The Admiral’s.

  A pair of Ichod pulse cannons were slotted to him onboard a drone cruiser with a slew of incoming missiles as priority targets. None of the missiles were directed at the ship he was now virtually on, but were headed for other targets and soon to be within weapons’ range of Star Force’s 2nd big addition to the fleet. For years Star Force had been making modifications to existing weapon systems, then over the last few centuries had been fielding more advanced batteries in a variety of designs. When the Dre’mo’don had come out it’d been declared as a ‘staple’ of the fleet, meaning tweaks would be made but they wouldn’t be looking to replace it with a different kind of weapon.

  Given the sheer amount of firepower they possessed Jarod could see why. Just getting a weapon like that functional was a momentous achievement and he figured they’d been eyeing that bit of theoretical tech for a long time before finally making it viable even in the crudest of forms.

  Well now they had another one, for the Ichod put every other point defense weapon Star Force had to shame and he expected to be piloting drones containing them for centuries to come. When he lined up both batteries to fire in different directions at different targets, he located a narrow slice of space rather than an individual target and pulled the mental trigger on a weapon that was too precise to be operated by hand controls.

  The Trinx missiles glowed red and were the equivalent of tiny, agile spheres that were weaving in and out of ship formations and tracking whatever targets they wanted even if they had to fly far off course to get around obstacles. When they hit they stung individually, but in groups they could shred armor plates with ease…and they were even more dangerous against shields. Pelting them would drain their power so fast it was almost as if some of the drones had none the instant they were engaged in combat.

  But Star Force drones were designed to fight without shields if necessary, and the more of these missiles that could be knocked down the more defenses Star Force would have intact…making Jarod’s small task extra important as he used computer calculations accessed through a mental link established via touch that allowed him to gain the speed and accuracy of a computer while retaining his own ability to guess and think ahead.

  He fired the first pulse from one of the small cannons, sending a disc-shaped plate of white light out directly away from his ship, but as it flew it expanded in diameter, eventually covering some 23 meters by the time it hit the passing Trinx missiles, each of which was no more than 2 meters long, with more than enough lethality to wipe their little red glows from existence. The Ichod energy passed through, allowing another missile to be hit in the same salvo, but a split second later another Ichod pulse followed it, then another and another, firing off so rapidly that the pulse cannon looked like it was an oscillating lawn water sprinkler.

  The missiles were flashing by in the hundreds on multiple sides of the cruiser and the further away from his ship they got the more the Ichod energy disc expanded. Once it got out to around 37 kilometers the matrix snapped and the energy mushroomed out like a small explosion, making these weapons short ranged whether you liked it or not. Fortunately shooting down missiles was exactly what they were designed to do, and targeting them at range was an almost impossible task giving the slightly weaving courses they all exhibited when flying in a ‘straight’ line. It was obviously a tactic employed to make them harder to shoot down, but with the Ichod he didn’t have to hit them dead on, rather he just had to get close…and the further away they were the wider the virtual hand he had to swat them out of existence.

  Attacking two different targets simultaneously was old school for Jarod, a trick he’d learned long ago. He could operate 5 such weapons tracking individual targets with ease, but right now the massive command ship and its crew of drone pilots were packed into a relatively small number of ships given that a large chunk of those drones that they would normally oversee were trolling along behind the Uriti.

  That was alright, because the less they had to work with the better they got in terms of accuracy and situational awareness. Jarod was even able to take a few glimpses of the overall situation as he efficiently shot down missiles, a lot of which were headed towards the command ship on which his physical body sat as his mind was situated in the perspective of the distant cruiser.

  The pointed Trinx ships were teaming up to take on individual drones and take them down, with the tactic becoming abundantly clear that they weren’t going to let Star Force cycle them around to recharge shields. That had a disadvantage to it, for if the Trinx focused solely on a small number of ships the rest of them could pound the Trinx into oblivion…which is exactly what was happening.

  Jarod didn’t get to see much beyond the immediate area around the cruiser where he was oriented from, but he could see the Trinx fleet being so obsessed with going after and eliminating specific drones that they were needlessly killed when flanked because they didn’t respond with weaponry or maneuvering. They just sat in place and fired, or continued chasing their targets. Some of the Star Force ships were being destroyed, and uncharacteristically quickly, but the Trinx were suffering horrible losses in exchange.

  Then when a hole in the lines formed, the Trinx ships poured in towards the Excalibur with Jarod’s cruiser turned hard to starboard to cut across their path. The enemy ships ignored it, moving up and down to avoid a collision as they raced hard towards the giant armored donut. As their red hulls flashed by Jarod poured his two Ichods into their easy to hit targets, getting hundreds of repetitive hits that weakened shields and even burned away some armor from a ship that a Dre’mo’don hit just prior, knocking down its defenses.

  There was no time to think ahead, so he just poured fire into every available marked target that came within range. A few had higher priority markers, which he paid due diligence to, but most were just common ‘shoot this if you can’ clearances coming from the pilots or commanders that were tagging everything so he and other gunners didn’t have to worry about sorting out friend from foe or good targets and bad targets…like a fuel ship that you didn’t want to detonate right in front of your face.

  The Ichod were not meant to take on capital ships, but they were so damned powerful that they could do the job if given enough time. Like a chain saw cutting through a log, they’d whittle a ship down gradually though the enemy wasn’t standing still to oblige as they raced past his cruiser, so priority went to just inflicting whatever damage he could as they came into and out of range.

  Paul saw them angling around the drones he’d ordered to interpose themselves between the Excalibur and the Trinx, judging correctly that that the enemy was interested in taking out specific targets and that his ship was now next in line. Fortunately Paul knew how to play hard to get, and he had drones angling in from all directions to break up the thick tendril of ships the Trinx were sending towards him. If they didn’t engage the flankers, all Paul had to do was turtle up and wait for the attrition to ensue…and if they did engage the attackers it would weaken their attempted gut punch against the now obvious flagship.

  He sensed they wanted to eliminate him before the Uriti and the rest of the fleet arrived…which was why he gave the untypical order for the Excalibur to retreat as more and more drones darted in to fill the gap and play traffic cloggers.

  “Sacrifices,” Paul whispered to himself as he saw how the Trinx were fighting and dying recklessly. It worked when they were able to overwhelm a target, but stretch them out a bit and you quickly reached a tipping point where your advantage switched over to vulnerability…and if you weren’t aware of that you’d end up aggressively delivering yourself to a slaughter.

  The numbers the Trinx had here were significant, but if he could stretch them out just a bit more he tho
ught he could get them to that decision point all the while his ship and the drones were filling the approach vector with so much weaponsfire that the Fourth of July would have been envious. Bloons launched where available, but it was the Dre’mo’dons that really packed a punch and they were flying from all directions. Tight clusters of them on the Excalibur were launching in sync and literally blowing holes into the Trinx ships with each salvo. Firing one against their shields hurt, but launch eight side by side and even the advanced enemy shields couldn’t stand up to that.

  The drones couldn’t carry that much weaponry, but a few points on the Excalibur had been packed with it instead of spreading out the cannons evenly and Paul was rotating his big ship around to put those sweet spots into the most advantageous positions.

  As all that happened he saw a Warship-class jumpship also be targeted, with a slew of Trinx ships ignoring all else and heading for it. It was heavily armored, but not as much as the Excalibur. It wouldn’t go down quickly, but Paul could already see that he had too few ships and the Trinx had too many to keep them from picking off a few select targets if they didn’t value their own lives.

  That left him one option, and at the cost of the majority of his drones, he ordered all his big ships to turtle up and have the expendable weapons platforms form a defensive sphere around them to take the brunt of the attack.

  Getting them into position was costly, for they’d fanned out upon arrival to better fight with crossfire options and Paul had to sometimes ram drones into Trinx ships in order to clear a path for recall, but eventually the Excalibur and the six warships with it got in so close together that they were able to increase shield strength in select areas while counting on the bulk of the nearby ships to block firing runs on others. A few Trinx ships could get through into the gaps, but not enough to do damage when they’d be toasted at point blank range with weaponry hitting them from multiple angles.

  Now reinforced but with no chance of going after the enemy, Paul waited to see if the Trinx would back off or force the issue…and their tenacity did not disappoint. They refocused their efforts on a single warship on the edge of their 7 ship clump and Paul likewise reinforced the drone ‘hive’ in that area, but so much weaponsfire was getting through that the shields on the warship were already beginning to fail.

  By the time they fell completely the Trinx were literally sacrificing three ships on approach to get one into firing position, but they were scoring some very big hits and Paul couldn’t move the Excalibur in to block for them because of their already packed formation. All he could do was play with the drones and try and buy time.

  It wasn’t enough, and the warship took a huge hit on the port forward flank. Deck after deck was punctured even while other parts of the ship were still fighting. Drones flew in to interpose themselves like living armor, but the Trinx were in so close that they had to ram them out of the way in most cases. The carnage at that one spot was incredible…then all of a sudden the Trinx ships abandoned the attack and began to run away.

  Paul saw why immediately as the system battlemap showed the Uriti braking out of its deceleration phase and coming up right behind them. That freaked out Paul too, because he didn’t know how it would respond to them being so close. He got everyone moving immediately, including the damaged warship that still had some engine capability, and out of the way of the smaller, but far deadlier player that had just arrived on the naval chess board.

  It was ironic to Paul that something smaller than his command ship could pack so much power, but then again that’s why the V’kit’no’sat were all but unable to deal with the Hadarak…and the Chixzon had gone to lengths to add combat capability to the Uriti. This one wasn’t as large as the others, but still deadly enough to destroy all the ships with Paul in a very short period of time if they decided to stand still and slug it out. Running was to their advantage, thanks to the fact that for as powerful as the Uriti was, it was dead slow in comparison to starships.

  That said, if one came your way, and you had any brains, you were the one to move and move early…especially when your control ship wasn’t here yet to call it off if it took offense to your presence or just yawned in the wrong direction.

  As he got his ships out of the way he watched the Trinx, who were not sticking around to fight again. They were transitioning around stellar orbit to a nearby jumpline, making it clear that they had been sent here to do just one thing.

  Take out as many ships in the leading task force as they could.

  That told Paul that this was just the beginning and they were being whittled down for a larger strike to come. Next jump he’d have almost his entire fleet going first, though he was tempted to let the Uriti lead. While in lizard territory there wasn’t much chance of someone happening to get in the way, but now that the Uriti was on their leash they were responsible for it. That meant he had to go first and make sure the road was clear, even if there were lizard ships in the path.

  The real question was, where would the Trinx hit them next? They didn’t know where Star Force was taking it, nor did they know even the next jumppoint they were taking. And big as this fleet was that hit them, rumors had it that the Trinx had far more in reserve and he seriously doubted that they wouldn’t be using them. Star Force had upstaged them and, in his gut, he got the feeling that the Trinx derived their identity from being a Uriti, or as they called it, a ‘Hamoriti’ guardian.

  And he was pretty sure they didn’t want to relinquish that title or the power that it imposed upon them. Their priorities came before everyone else because of the Hamoriti, including screwing over a good portion of the galaxy by feeding the lizards tech in order to get what they wanted.

  But all because of the Hamoriti…

  He’d seen twisted logic like that before, and now that the Trinx were no longer needed and their impossible mission now ended, more or less, they were either going to be grateful or snap…and based upon the attack he’d just survived, ‘snapped’ was all but a certainty.

  7

  “Can your ships continue?” the Brpet’s hologram asked.

  “It’s heavily damaged, but can limp along faster than the Uriti can travel,” Paul said, his voice betraying just a hint of anger. “The rest of our ships are being recovered while the Uriti takes a dip in the star. We’ll be able to move when it finishes.”

  “Do you know how long it will take? Or do you tell it how long it has?” the Sety asked.

  “If we let it go too long without eating the likelihood of it ignoring our commands increases. We can monitor its status, so we know its reserves are deplenishing. It was told to restock. We will know when it is finished.”

  “Can you share this data with the rest of us?”

  “I’m not feeling overly generous right now.”

  “Do not hold us responsible for the Trinx’s attack.”

  “If I was, your ship would be in pieces by now,” Paul said icily.

  “Your curiosity about the Hamoriti can wait,” the cyborg told the Sety. “We have a much larger problem to deal with.”

  “Agreed,” the Dati said passively. “Not only are the Trinx very strong militarily, they control a Hamoriti site. While I do not believe they would release it, no matter how askew from their responsibilities they have gone, I no longer feel comfortable with them having it.”

  “If they do not release it, what threat is there?” the Sety argued.

  “Perhaps they do not believe that the Chixzon is the only one who can control them,” the Jonstar said ominously. “I do not mean to pry, Archon, but are you certain that only he can send the proper signals. Cannot they be copied?”

  “There are multiple redundancies in the signal to prevent unauthorized access,” Paul said simply. “I won’t go into detail as to what they are, but I am not worried about the Trinx being able to duplicate them. The Chixzon were very deliberate when they designed them, knowing that the galaxy would try anything and everything they could to stop them. The system is nearly fullproof. E
ven we can’t hack the system with the extensive knowledge we have of it.”

  “And there is only one Chixzon around to control it.”

  “Yes,” Paul said, understanding the significance of that statement more than they did, though he did not add the ‘for now.’

  “Then the Trinx may simply want to destroy your ability to control the Hamoriti by destroying whatever ship he is on.”

  “They’ve already tried that once,” the Domu pointed out. “Unless they mistook Paul’s ship for the other, they are pursuing a larger strategy.”

  “There are too many of us here,” the cyborg argued. “They can’t mount a straightforward attack. They are trying to chip away at our strength while they gather theirs. They will strike again when the numbers are more to their advantage…and when they do, we must fight them.”

  “They have been our allies for a very long time,” the Sety said cautiously. “We should not throw away that allegiance so casually.”

  “They have betrayed us,” the Bpret said meekly, its body shifting in and out of alignment with its current humanoid form as it spoke, almost as if it was shivering with fear.

  “I do not understand why,” the Breti said in agreement. “We have long hoped for a way to end the conflict, or at least to forestall it. Star Force has proved they are capable of this, the Trinx have seen it happen so there should be no doubt. Now they seek to destroy that control and return this Hamoriti to its rampages. What are they thinking?”

  “Perhaps,” the Sety said apologetically to defend against a backlash, “they see Star Force control of it, and potentially the others, as more problematic. They did almost release another.”