Star Force: Evasion (Wayward Trilogy Book 2)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  13

  July 6, 4812

  Orlero System (Devastation Zone)

  Tauntaun

  Captain Bivandi was sleeping onboard the Ma’kri when the call came, with her ship safely cloaked and far away from any planet as it sat in a null orbit around the star. It had taken a while to lose the V’kit’no’sat pursuit, but once they put enough range between them and her ship the cloaking effect became good enough that they were able to escape. That was what Ma’kri were best at…running, hiding, and striking from anonymity, but there was no way her ship was going to be able to do enough damage to any of the Vik ships even if she could get the smallest of them alone.

  So when she was informed that additional Star Force ships were entering the system the Captain knew it was go time.

  The Protovic got dressed in a proper uniform, leaving only her head and hands glowing for all to see, then quickly got to the bridge just as the last of the huge Star Force jumpships enter the system…though on delay, for the sensor lag mean the ships were already here by the time the Ma’kri saw them. It was parked closer to Tauntaun than the star, meaning that realtime communication was out of the question.

  Still, she sent a message off in the general direction of the central star then had her Ma’kri reposition so the V’kit’no’sat couldn’t track her down…though at this point she didn’t think they really cared, for there were some 183 Warship-class jumpships here now to keep their attention. That wasn’t enough to remove the V’kit’no’sat, but it did mean that they no longer owned the system.

  Bivandi eventually got a reply indicating that she should move her ship in behind their formation and look for targets of opportunity as they counterattacked, making her wonder what exactly it was they had in mind. As far as she could tell they couldn’t win, but maybe they knew something she didn’t.

  She had the Ma’kri rendezvous with the Star Force fleet at Tauntaun, getting there first and securing their entry jumppoint while still cloaked. When the first of the 20+ mile long jumpships arrived the V’kit’no’sat responded immediately, coming up from their low orbit over the base and forming up into what amounted to a giant hammer that the enemy then would throw at the incoming fleet.

  But the jumpships weren’t here to fight themselves, rather they were carriers that immediately started disembarking the smaller warships that they carried. Each was far smaller than the Ma’kri and of varying sizes, but they contained no crew whatsoever and were controlled entirely by pilots on the jumpships that, as they each came out of their cross-system microjump, spilled out their complement of 50-100 drone warships…all of which had no internal space wasted on corridors, quarters, cafeterias, or other living spaces. No person could board a drone warship, for there were no spaces to occupy. They were solid machine from one point of their cubical rectangles to another, which made them a lot more formidable than equal-sized counterparts.

  However, they were tiny compared to the bulk of the V’kit’no’sat ships and had to operate in swarms to do enough damage to take them down. Early in Star Force’s history it had been the reverse, with an enemy called the Li’vorkrachnika using swarm tactics against Star Force’s larger and superior warships, and they’d learn well from their enemy how to fight with swarm tactics…then taken it up to the next level, meaning that even though the V’kit’no’sat would probably win this fight head to head, Star Force could still do a whole lot of damage and end up not losing a single person in the fight.

  That had to annoy the V’kit’no’sat, whose massive ships, while hard to kill, all contained crew that would be lost when one was destroyed. Their size prevented that in most cases against other opponents, but Star Force was built on V’kit’no’sat tech even if it didn’t look like it from afar with the jumpships spawning clouds of the drones that were for the most part under half a mile long. Star Force was an illegal offshoot of the V’kit’no’sat that had accidentally occurred when one of their frontier colonies…Earth…was evacuated and they accidentally left some Zen’zat behind.

  Those Zen’zat were Humanity’s ancestors, though no one knew who they were. What occurred after the evacuation hadn’t been documented and that first chunk of independent Human history was and always would be a mystery, but after the rediscovery of the planetary defense station in Antarctica and the wealth of knowledge and power it contained, Star Force had been born and grown out of the V’kit’no’sat legacy…which meant where the mighty empire could fight others without losing a single ship, the same was not true with Star Force.

  Not anymore, anyway.

  Even before the weaponsfire started Bivandi noted the jamming signals the Viks were throwing up, attempting to disrupt the drone control communications that operated off Star Force’s battlemap system. The V’kit’no’sat had never been able to stop it completely, for Star Force used multiple overlapping methods of communication and when some of them went down the others carried on, but the enemy did have a way to reduce their fighting range to a smaller one than otherwise preferred, though Bivandi knew the drones could be programmed to attack on their own, but such things were highly inefficient. Having a living, breathing pilot adapting as the battle progressed was always an advantage…especially when they could fight their hardest without having to worry about dying, meaning the drones became expendable with the objective being to do the maximum amount of damage to the V’kit’no’sat fleet possible.

  The jumpships were also heavily armed, but would stay out of range until the V’kit’no’sat tried to come after them, then they’d flee just far enough to stay out of the fighting while still in communications range with the drones in a naval dance that was one of the first things learned in Star Force naval warfare.

  You had to preserve the jumpships at all costs, else the drone fleet would become almost useless.

  Fortunately the jumpships were used to carrying all the drones inside them, so when they emptied out they got a lot lighter and more maneuverable, with sufficient engine power to stay away from pursuit for the most part, though it was never a sure thing…and that’s where Bivandi knew she’d get her best strike opportunities. When the V’kit’no’sat sent a few of their ships to harass the jumpships.

  She deactivated the cloak on a small lateral portion of the ship where the Viks might or might not be able to see and sent a comm request to the commander of the fleet, getting back a hologram of a Human that she didn’t recognize, but his uniform said he was an Archon. The purple stripe indicated a Trunks ranking, which was the third highest tier…currently, for the trailblazers were always increasing their skills and creating new tiers as they progressed.

  “If I counted correctly, we can’t win this,” Bivandi said evenly. “What’s the plan?”

  “We’re not hard engaging, just saying hi,” the Archon said without any trace of levity in his voice. “Do you have anything on the survivors?”

  “They’re in the tunnel network, but we’ve got no way of tracking them unless they break comm silence. The V’kit’no’sat bombarded the area around the base, so if any were that close at the time they were either cut off inside or destroyed in the attack, but I do know evacuations were going on for several days, so there are probably at least some that got far enough away.”

  “What are they doing with the base?”

  “They haven’t scratched it save to knock out the orbital guns. Whatever they’re doing inside I don’t know. They were disabling monitoring equipment all the way up to when they pushed the final evac group out.”

  “There’s more going on here than a single hit, so be cautious and just give them something else to think about than the survivors. And good work getting the Ultra.”

  “Thank you,” the Captain said, knowing that the Archon must have read up on their mission reports during the jump out from the star.

  “If they try any more landings and you can disrupt them, please do so.”

  “I was planning to nip on the heels of whoever went after the jumpships.”

  “
Appreciated, but we can hold our own. It’s those on the surface that need every bit of help they can get. Until we get numerical superiority we can’t risk pulling them out, so let’s try and diminish their pursuers as much as possible. That is assuming they’re going after them through the tunnels?”

  “Hard to say, but there have been a few pinpoint strikes beyond the base on or near tunnel locations. We have no eyes on the ground transmitting, but they’re not lighting up everything. I would think that means they can’t track the tunnels from the air.”

  “Good. Then our people still have a chance.”

  “If any have been captured, you know they’re better off dead.”

  “You’re suggesting we destroy the base ourselves?”

  “If there are V’kit’no’sat inside up to no good, yes.”

  “We’re not in a position to do so yet, not thoroughly anyway. Do they have shield control?”

  “Not that they’ve demonstrated, but there hasn’t been anyone shooting them either.”

  “Something doesn’t feel right. They want something here more than our deaths. Let me know if you come up with anything.”

  “Will do,” Bivandi said as the Archon commander broke the comm and she returned her attention to the approaching V’kit’no’sat ships.

  “Full cloak,” she ordered her bridge crew vocally rather than sending it through the control board. “Get us as low to the atmosphere as possible without giving our position away. We’re going to play this backside.”

  Esna didn’t know about the arrival of the Star Force fleet until she finished her turn on the treadmill in the third major base along the main tunnel line situated some 113 miles out from the base. When no one was waiting to take their turn she grew concerned and walked around the more empty but identical facility to the first two until she found the others, most of whom were crowded around a worktable that had the biggest holoprojector in the outpost.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, not seeing Rammak with them, as she nudged her dripping, sweaty body in between a couple of Kiritas techs without touching them.

  “Help has arrived,” a Commando said, but that was the only statement any of them made and Esna respected the silence as they watched the battling and sometimes broken ships fighting it out above the planet. There were a lot more Star Force icons on the map, but they were so tiny she didn’t know how to guess their overall strength. What she did figure out after watching for a few minutes was that Star Force was engaging the enemy without getting too far inside its lines. The Viks kept pushing forward and Star Force would pull back while targeting the forward-most ships.

  Esna didn’t know anything about naval combat, but she had looked through some of the older battles in the database, including the fall of Forso back when it had been known as Mace. That battle was huge compared to this one, but there was far more action going on above her…or actually below her given the fact that they were fighting over the other side of the planet…than she could comprehend.

  Basic rule in fighting though, the one pulling back is usually not the one with the advantage.

  And that turned out to be true here as well, unfortunately, as Star Force finally moved into a full retreat and disappeared from planetary orbit altogether as the ships jumped out. The Viks didn’t follow them, rather returning to their original position over the base.

  “Interesting,” the single Scionate mechwarrior in the group said as it stood in a group of Bsidd of varying sizes. “They didn’t pursue.”

  “What’s so important here?” the Kiritas beside Esna asked. “It’s like they’re glued to the planet.”

  “Is there data on the other bases to be found?”

  “No,” the Archon said, answering one of only two Irondel in this group and who were standing on the table while the others were gathered around it. “Everything was scrubbed unless someone screwed up, and if they did and that information has been recovered, then there’d be no reason for them to hold the base. They’re up to something else.”

  “Contact,” Rammak’s voice came over the comm, startling Esna because it was coming through every speaker in the outpost rather than her helmet which she and many others were not wearing. “Zen’zat on approach, foot only. ETA 3 hours.”

  “Why do I get the feeling like we’re being herded?” a Human Commando asked the Archon.

  “I know. Either they shouldn’t care and let us freeze out here or they should be hitting us harder and faster than this. Regardless, we either fight or run, and with their naval support that leaves run. Pack it up people. We’re moving out.”

  Everyone broke apart in a quiet, organized explosion of bodies that Esna held still so not to interfere with, giving her a good view of the Irondel diving off the table after everyone left and scurrying across the floor. How they didn’t get stepped on she didn’t know.

  “Better get some food and water in you before we leave,” the Archon said, not having moved from his position while everyone else left. “You look exhausted.”

  “Just got off the treadmill. Where is Rammak?”

  “Tunnel 3, here,” the Archon said, bringing up a holographic schematic of the surface as he shrunk and moved the orbital one aside. “They haven’t shown up behind us yet, either because they’re farther out or they’re not coming, but there is a group flanking us.”

  “Did they dig down or…”

  “Kill another group and cross over our way? I don’t know. It’s more distance to be traveled, but if they didn’t have as much resistance that could be the case. It could also be that they’re sending runners out through every tunnel they can find in order to map them.”

  “Can they get ahead of us?”

  “Only in one spot, 34 miles ahead. That’s the last cross connection. Beyond that the main line spurs but doesn’t reconnect again.”

  “So we’ll be cornered past that.”

  “We’ll have hundreds of miles of tunnel, but yes, if they get behind us we won’t be able to access any of the other tunnels unless we cut new ones.”

  “Are we breaking up again?”

  “I don’t plan to. We’re down to 58 now and that’s a manageable number. Get any lower and a single Zen’zat could theoretically kill everyone. This way we still make them follow us in groups or we’ll make another kill.”

  “And you can only go one place.”

  “Right. If we have to scatter more we will, but I’d prefer not to. Rammak will be back shortly. Get yourself a quick shower while you can. Outposts this size are getting further and further apart.”

  “Thank you,” she said, hurrying off to get herself ready to move again, but Rammak beat her back and found her as she was finishing eating a stack of food cubes on a small table in the corner of a room all by herself.

  “Want some?” she offered, having 5 left.

  “I have supplies in my pack,” he said through his helmet as he looked down at her clothed but otherwise naked body. “Where’s your armor?”

  Esna pointed to the next room and Rammak left to go get it. A few seconds later when he came back with the cube she gave him a strange look as she chewed.

  “What?”

  “There are three speeder shifts. You need to leave on the second.”

  “And you’re not?”

  “No, I’m staying with the final group. There are more Zen’zat coming.”

  “I know. I thought the Archon wanted me with you guys.”

  “There are more coming,” Rammak emphasized.

  Esna frowned. “How many more?”

  “Well over 50 behind the scouts. They’ll be here an hour later.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “A sensor I placed in the tunnel.”

  “Wait…” Esna said suspiciously. “I thought they were killing all our monitoring equipment?”

  “They have been. They missed this one.”

  “On purpose?”

  Rammak nodded. “It wasn’t hidden. The scouts just ran by it, then the main gr
oup did too until partway through. I think they wanted us to know how many were coming.”

  “So we’d surrender?”

  “No. We don’t surrender to Viks. They’d never let us live.”

  “Then why?”

  “I don’t know, but with that many coming I have to be the slow one. You’ll…”

  “Endanger the rest of you if you have to fight or run. I get it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Are you guys fighting it out?”

  “We’re taking off on foot as soon as the speeders get back for the second shift, then they’ll come back and pick us up enroute. You have to go with them.”

  “How soon?”

  “Sooner if you and the others start down the tunnel on foot now. The more distance we can put between the Zen’zat and us the better.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, getting to her feet and shoving the last few food cubes into her mouth as she hurried by him. “Restroom, then I’ll be out of here.”

  When she got back Rammak had already filled up her pack with supplies and had weapons on her rack, which she attached in a practiced motion once her armor was back on, then he led her to the outgoing tunnel spur they were taking. There were two to choose from and she hoped the Zen’zat picked the wrong one, but she doubted it. For all she knew they could smell them or something even if they were out of sight.

  There were a few other techs in envirosuits picking up and carrying small crates, while one was dragging others on an improvised sled. All of them were at least a few steps down the tunnel while the warriors were gathering their own gear, but it was obvious they weren’t hauling cargo. They were the rear guard while…

  “You’re staying behind to save space?” she turned and asked Rammak at the last moment.

  “You can fit several crates of supplies in place of me. Those will be needed later if we’re to survive.”

  Esna’s face scrunched up with emotion, but fortunately Rammak couldn’t see it beneath her helmet.

  “Run fast,” she told him, then turned and jogged up to the tech pulling the crate sled and offered her muscle to help them move a bit faster.