by Aer-ki Jyr
There had been a considerable amount of traffic heading out of the lizard core systems and across the growing gap to the other half of their empire. It was under continuous attack by the Preema and the Skarrons, but what limited intelligence Paul had on that region said that the lizards were growing as fast as they were losing systems, while the rimward half was shrinking fast on the coreward side. Star Force was now on the doorstep of the core systems while the lizards still had a humongous stretch of territory on the far side that ran all the way out to The Nexus’s H’kar border.
Paul and their allied H’kar fighting partners weren’t going to target those weaker systems, rather they were going straight at the core now that they had it exposed. If/when they defeated the strongest of the lizard systems they could begin sweeping up the others, but so long as these remained, with their orbital ring shipyards pumping out more ships every hour of every day, they would meet heavy resistance. Take out the heart of their empire and the rest would fall much easier, though it would still take centuries to complete, given how many systems had fallen to and been colonized by the lizards. That couldn’t be undone quickly, but it was going to happen one way or the other…and he had a feeling that other parties would be more inclined to jump into the fight once the lizard homeworld fell.
The Preema were not going to help Star Force assault the core worlds, that had already been made clear, but they were still cleansing systems on the spinward side and opposite from Star Force territory. Paul was thankful for the continuing help, even if the Preema were dodging the heavy fighting. The less systems the lizards held the less they could spread, though he knew that completely eradicating them from the galaxy was going to be virtually impossible.
This fight was personal anyway, all the way back to when they first invaded Corneria. Star Force had beat them off with the help of the Hycre, otherwise they would have lost the planet and probably Earth…save for a patch of Antarctica. Their ally had come to save them at a very critical point, with it being fitting that Star Force was now the stronger and had returned all of the Hycre’s captured worlds to them. Their empire was now lizard free and it was the Humans that were leading their multi-racial empire on a crusade to destroy or capture the lizards…with the ‘capture’ part still never playing out, even when the lizards knew they were going to die they never accepted the surrender offers, and Paul didn’t expect any different with their core worlds.
Right now Paul was just waiting to board his new flagship, which right now was officially the beastliest command ship in existence and barely 4 years old. It’d been sitting in Sol undergoing upgrades almost the moment it came out of the shipyards, then was kept here while a proper crew was assembled, both to man his command ship as well as the new warships. This wasn’t a hastily thrown together fleet going off to the front, it was a specially designed one built to be a core world buster…and it wasn’t the only one.
Two others were likewise being assembled, one in Epsilon Eridani and the other in Rotunna. Those were being built up of a combination of old drones/new drones and were drawing from the industrial capability of multiple systems to fill them out while Paul’s was exclusively coming from Sol and tailor made to his wishes under Davis’s care.
The fleet in Epsilon Eridani was going to be under Roger’s command, while the even larger one being assembled in Rotunna going to Liam. The three of them were going to hit the lizard core worlds simultaneously, forcing the enemy to choose where to reinforce and keeping them from throwing ships from all their systems into one to meet them. If they did that the other two fleets would push on from one core world to the other, not even bothering to mount ground campaigns but focusing on destroying the massive ring shipyards.
Paul knew there was an advantage to building ships in space but there was also a disadvantage, and in this case it meant that the Star Force fleets wouldn’t have to fight past ground defense batteries and shield generators to get to them.
But there would be, he suspected, even larger fleets than what the lizards sent to Gvaris guarding those rings. They were the key to the lizards’ only advantage over Star Force, and with the Dre’mo’don-equipped drones that his fleet had it didn’t matter, not to Star Force anyway, but it did matter to the other systems out there that were just coming under lizard attack. Taking out the rings not only helped protect Star Force warfleets going forward but it also protected the anonymous civilizations out there that Paul might never even know about. Deny the lizards their ability to make more ships and you shielded far more people than you could ever count, so they were the prime target and Paul was in the prime slot.
Roger’s and Liam’s fleets were larger than Paul’s, but not as strong. His was to be the primary knifeblade into the core worlds and the other two naval specialists hadn’t objected. They liked the challenge of using the ‘older’ ships to get this done, and were more than eager to get at it. Even though they wouldn’t be in the same system at the same time they were most definitely going to be working as a team, with each invasion fleet bringing a mobile comm relay so they could coordinate with each other.
That amounted to bringing a specialized seda in with each fleet, as well as positioning a few others in nearby systems to add links in the chain, but when they entered combat they were going to adapt as needed, even if it meant abandoning their target system and moving to another if there was an opening to do so, for this wasn’t just an assault on 3 systems. This was to be the first move in a campaign to take out all the core worlds, including their homeworld.
Paul had been fighting the lizards for a millennia, basically his entire life, and finally it was down to this. It wouldn’t end the lizard empire, for they were beyond the coreward no-go line and out of their reach, but this was the seat of their power, the implacable enemy that everyone else fell to or ran from…and he was about to go up on their porch and punch them in the face.
He wasn’t sure how this was going to play out, and he was fairly confident the lizards would have a few surprises waiting for them, but as far as karma was concerned this had been a long time in the making.
The trailblazer looked out through the nexus, seeing every ship in orbit of every planet, every space station, every bit of infrastructure that Star Force had in this very clogged system. The strength of the fleet he was taking with him was a mere fraction of the firepower situated here, most of which was defensive emplacements rather than warships, but the irony of it still amazed him. They’d come very far in a millennia, and were now the dominant faction. With that came responsibilities, primarily to not sit on one’s ass while others were getting theirs kicked, but there was a great deal more to it than that and all the trailblazers realized it. They weren’t just leading Star Force anymore, but this entire region of the galaxy, small as it was on the full galactic scale.
And that was going to remain the status quo unless the V’kit’no’sat came back. Paul’s never-ending nightmare was still on the periphery of his mind, but right now they were the dominant power and it was time they loudly proclaimed that.
A ping on the nexus system told him that his dropship was loaded and ready to depart, so Paul disconnected and powered down the station. He locked it away behind sealed doors then made his way across the massive starport that was off limits to tourists. Venus was still a ‘work zone’ and reserved for people that had actual Star Force business here, so everyone on this station was one of the busy bees building or outfitting his fleet and many others.
When Paul hit the hangar deck there was no fanfare, no well wishes or goodbyes. This was just business as usual, though a piece of him felt the significance riding underneath the surface. What they were about to do was going to send ripples across this galactic arm, and if there was ever a shout to the galaxy that could reveal themselves to the V’kit’no’sat this was it. But the only other choice would be to let the lizards spread and consume everything outside Star Force territory and just stand by and watch them do it.
That was never going to happen, a
nd even if they did just turtle up the V’kit’no’sat could still come for them. No. This little chunk of the galaxy was theirs to dominate and protect, regardless of what would or would not happen with the V’kit’no’sat. Better to go down fighting for what was right than live in apathy.
But Paul intended for neither to happen, and even if the V’kit’no’sat did come back they had plans to deal with them. Plans that he and the others had been working on their entire lives. The odds were not in their favor, but at least they’d have home turf.
Paul walked up into the dropship and gave the pilot the go ahead to take off, sliding into the empty copilot seat and riding over to his command ship there as he got to see with his eyes the array of ships in orbit that he was about to take out of the system once they were fully equipped. It was a full naval fleet, no ground troops, though those ships were being assembled as well under the command of others.
Paul was an Archon and fully comfortable with leading any of the five divisions of Star Force, but he still preferred naval above the others. His peers knew this, which was why they’d politely taken the other duties on themselves and given him the most badass fleet Star Force had ever built. He was to be the tip of the spear in this campaign, and like his nickname stated, this was what he was practically built for.
Grand Admiral Thrawn was now a newb in comparison, and Paul was more than ready to show the lizard core worlds what a true Admiral could do.
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