by Aer-ki Jyr
“The order? It’s a shrill whistle, artificially created. We haven’t discovered the source yet, but they all turn tail and run when hearing it. We’ve documented six separate incidents.”
“Did they take anything?” Morgan asked.
“In this raid, no, but they did grab some palladium from Clan Star Fox a couple weeks later.”
“They hit a Mantis flight,” Mara explained, “and forced it down into the forest. We recovered a few survivors and half the cargo after our skeets drove off their ships, but they did get several large crates of palladium and iron ingots. Some of their attacks seem to be resource driven, others are just hit and runs. The only major engagements have been defensive ones when we’ve trapped them. I don’t know what they’re up to, but I’m fairly sure we haven’t seen their full strength yet.”
“They have limited resources,” Paul said, his voice low and even as if half his mind was elsewhere as he spoke. “They’re facing an unknown enemy and don’t want to overplay their hand.”
“Because they’re scrounging?” Harrison asked.
Paul shook his head. “No, because they came by jumpship. Even if they have more than one insystem, which I doubt, they’re probing our defensive capabilities without serious depleting their own resources.”
“Why are they taking cargo then?” Greg asked.
Paul shrugged. “I don’t know, but with the naval firepower they appear to have they could overrun any of our defenses with a massed attacked. The fact that they haven’t means they’re waiting and watching…or have some other agenda.”
“Which brings us back to the question of what we’re going to do about it?” Anders pointed out.
“Paul’s going to kick their asses in space,” Morgan answered pithily, “and we’re going to kick their asses on the surface.”
“How?” Harrison asked, curious what the four trailblazers that’d been sent out to deal with the lizards would come up with.
“I won’t speak to Paul’s plans, even though I already have some guesses,” the level 4 Archon Ranger said, “but as for down here we’re going to be doing a lot of redecorating. I’ve developed sort of a fetish for concrete infrastructure, and over the next year we’re hardening up our outposts to make the enemy either hit us with overwhelming firepower or face us in close quarters. They’re smaller than us, so if we can box them in we should own them. Meanwhile he gets to play with the major installations,” Morgan said, pointing a thumb towards Greg.
“We brought some heavier weapons with us, as well as the factory pieces to make more onsite. Those cruisers they’ve got could walk right up to the front door and pound their way in if they wanted to, so we need to increase our ability to pound back. Up until now we’ve counted on our early warning systems to be able to give our fleet the ability to intercept possible threats before they got to ground, but since that is no longer the case we’re going to have to start writing a new playbook…to that end, tell me, have you seen any use of their fighter craft in atmosphere?”
Harrison glanced at Jaime, but the Sangheili shook his head. “Nothing that I know of aside from when we got near their jumpship.”
“And were your sensors able to pick them up?” Greg pressed, already having sorted through their records on the trip across the system.
“Yes.”
“At what range?”
“As soon as they left the jumpship. I don’t think they were equipped with the same sensor camouflage their larger ships are.”
“But their raiders are?”
“The ships they’re using to ferry troops to the surface and use as air support, what we’ve decided to call ‘Kirbies,’ are virtually invisible to sensors unless they get inside a kilometer, and even then they barely register as thick vapor cloud. There’s almost no reflectivity at all.”
“But they’re not invisible?”
“No, not to visual wavelengths.”
“Why is that?”
“No clue, you?” Harrison asked.
“I think it’s their hull armor, based off of how the damage you did to their cruiser made them pop up on sensors. The question is, why don’t they equip their fighters with the same material?”
“Do you know something,” Anders asked, “or are you just running through a summation?”
Greg raised an eyebrow at the younger Archon, but took no other offense to the impertinent question. “The difference in design suggests an answer. The fighters are meant for defense, or perhaps even standard offensives, while the cruisers, the kirbies, and even the jumpship have been designed for a special purpose. I’d bet other races’ sensors are better than ours, but they’ll still have a limited range against the lizards’ ships. If that is the case, what does their design suggest to you?” he asked, glancing around the table to open the question up to all of the local Archons.
“It’s not an assault force,” San said after an awkward few seconds.
“Good,” Greg said, pointing at the Ninja Monkey, with Morgan nodding her agreement as well. “Keep going.”
“The timing suggests they only recently discovered us,” Jaime added. “Which means they’re probably not from this star system.”
“A bit obvious, but a valid point,” Greg offered.
Mara held up a finger as a thought came to her. “They hammered us when we fought back effectively, which means they’re not used to losing. They expect to come in, take what they want, and leave.”
“Getting warmer,” Greg prompted.
“They’re space thugs?” Anders asked.
“If we’re lucky,” Greg said, finally getting them to the point he wanted. “Paul was right in saying they haven’t hit us very hard yet, despite our casualties. They’re toying with us. The reason for which I can’t say, but that toying has given us time to get here and hopefully some more to get us better prepared. Up until now Star Force has had a technological edge in all of our engagements, now we’re seeing the reverse. We’re playing on the big boys’ playground and the local bully has just come up and punched us in the face. So what do we do?”
“Hit him back,” Harrison said without hesitation, which drew an imperceptible smile from Paul.
“We can’t find him,” Greg reminded the second generation Archons. “We’re being picked on, made fun of, and robbed. What can we do?”
“Tell the teacher,” San sarcastically offered.
“Star Force has been the teacher,” Morgan corrected him. “Now we’re on our own.”
“And we’re the little guy,” Greg continued, “so we’re going to have to start thinking like one.”
“Run away?” Mara asked, unsure.
“Last resort. We need to expand, and there’s no guarantee they won’t follow us back to Sol. Keep with the bully metaphor. How do you stop one?”
“Gang up on him,” Jaime said.
“The only other little guys are the nations, and they’re too weak to matter,” Greg explained. “What else?”
“Duck and cover,” Harrison said, not able to think of anything else. Bullies were trouble because there wasn’t a sure fire way to deal with them other than growing stronger than they were and then flattening their nose the next time they came around.
“Exactly,” Greg said, no pleasure evident in his voice.
“You’re saying there’s no way to win?” Mara asked, not believing what she was hearing.
“Unlike you, we’ve been faced with the dilemma of how to deal with the V’kit’no’sat if and when they come back. No matter what strategy we try, in every single simulation based on even the minimal assault force profiles generated from the pyramid database we get annihilated. Our only viable course for victory is to stay alive, which is why we’re developing evacuation protocols for the entire system, subsurface hideaways, pirate jumppoints…anything we can think of to help us duck and cover when the hammer blow falls.”
“Now, these lizards aren’t the V’kit’no’sat, fortunately, but they still outclass us technologically. Until we ca
n develop at least a minimally effective sensor array to detect their approach, all we can do is duck and cover. This is going to be a grinding fight, because we’re not giving up the system. We may take a lot of casualties, but this is a fight we have to make. All of the troops we brought with us are volunteers, and anyone that wants out can leave the system on the jumpships we came in on.”
Harrison frowned. “What’s the end goal?”
“We learn, we adapt, we grow stronger, and we keep them busy here so they don’t look towards Earth. Every year that passes we unlock more of the V’kit’no’sat technical knowledge, so our research curve is going to dwarf that of the lizards. They’ve got a sizeable edge, but given time it will dwindle, especially if we start making better use of our current technology as we start learning more about our new enemy. There’s nothing in the database about them, we checked before we came, so this one is completely fresh. We don’t know what we’re going up against, and we could very well lose. Is that something you want to stick around for?”
“Dumb question,” San said, sitting up a bit straighter.
“No it’s not,” Morgan differed. “Most of the Archons have never seen real combat. You’ve lived off of challenges and trials where you get to come back and try again later. This conflict is going to be for keeps, where even a lucky shot puts an end to 100 years of tedious training. Is that something you want to risk now, or wait until we get a better idea of what we’re facing before you jump into the fray?”
“We’re already in the fray,” Harrison pointed out. “You guys just got here.”
“We’re used to dealing with unknowns,” Greg said evenly. “The rest of you have always followed our lead. This is brand new to you. We’re here to take the lead on this one, but the difference is you’re not following us up a year or two later, you’re dealing with the same uncertainty as we are, and to be blunt you’re newbs at it.”
“Only one way to fix that,” Mara said, resting her elbows on the table. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Greg held up a hand to forestall the bravado. “Think it over. You’ve got a few days before the jumpships leave. Some of you we are sending back whether you like it or not. The rest of you, present company all included, will be allowed to volunteer if you choose.”
“If I may say so,” Anders said respectfully, “you sound scared.”
Greg stared him down for a moment. “What part of ‘they’re toying with us’ don’t you understand?”
4
May 1, 2262
Epsilon Eridani System
Corneria
Harrison ran through the underbrush along the creek/river’s edge, busting out into the water and sinking in to the knees in his red armor. Spinning about he let himself sink down, kicking his legs out to the side while keeping his plasma rifle above water, then fired as fast as he could at the hoard of lizards chasing him.
Several return shots hit in his general vicinity, generating plumes of vaporized water shooting up and out like grenades going off, covering Harrison’s helmet, but the nonstick coating wicked the water away a moment later clearing his vision. He downed six of the aliens before one of them shot him in the shoulder, which was depressed about two inches below the waterline that was fluctuating with the steady current. The moisture plume blinded the Archon, obscuring both his vision and that of the lizards for a moment…then he was gone.
Thanks to the muddy waters Harrison was able to slide downstream unseen, pulling his head up out of the water more than a minute later. His armor’s internal oxygen supply sustained him so that he didn’t have to hold his breath, but he still kept a tight control of his breathing out of habit. He was a fair swimmer, but like their Clan leader his airways always seemed too wide for underwater ventures, filling up instantly no matter what angle he kept his head at.
Harrison caught his foot on an underwater rock and used the leverage to stop his advance. Feeling the current tugging at his armor, he flipped over face down and got a knee under his chest before pushing his helmeted head up into the air. His wide faceplate cleared instantly, but he saw no lizards chasing him. A quick glance left then right confirmed that he’d escaped the combat zone, leaving Clan Saber’s colony well back upstream and putting him near the end of the valley it sat in, just ahead of the intersection of another river, this one twice as large in comparison.
As he walked with most of his body underwater towards shore he saw that he was barely 20 meters away from the outflow into the larger river, meaning he had traveled further downstream than he had anticipated. The recent downpour they’d gotten had swollen the waterways and increased the speed of the flow, causing him to misjudge his position greatly.
He pulled himself up on the muddy bank, tipping his rifle down so as to clear the barrel of water as he ran up through the riverside brush. The sharp spines and sticks bounced off his armor harmlessly as he punched through into the underside of the thick forest canopy where little sunlight fell and the underbrush transitioned over into the bluish moss that seemed to coat most of the planet.
Harrison took off at a run back through the woods and up towards the colony. The lizards had opted to bypass their exterior mining facilities and hit the main colony directly with what appeared to be hundreds of ground troops. Clan security was holding positions within the colony while the Archons had flanked the lizards in the woods, trying to sow as much confusion and damage as possible while the Knights held the entrances with a vengeance.
A skeet zoomed past over his head, obscured by the canopy but clearly audible. A pair of throaty whines indicated the aerofighter was firing on surface targets, but Harrison couldn’t see where. Unlike previous engagements, the Clan Saber colony had air support on site, making it seem all the more unlikely that the lizards would attack here…but they were, and that worried Harrison more than the waves of the ground troops hammering the outer defenses.
The sound of return fire ahead prompted Harrison to change his direction and climb up the shallow valley incline at the base. Following the sounds to their approximate location he came up upon a small bowl-like indentation in the valley just shy of the steeper gradient that climbed up towards the border-like ridgeline. Inside that bowl were a number of downed trees obscuring a direct line of sight, but the light streaming down from the breach in the canopy and the smoke rising up from recent plasma strikes told him there was a kirby here.
Flanking around near to the ridge he came up quietly on the downed trees, seeing the yellow/tan hull of the alien transport reflecting the sunlight from high above as another flash of plasma dropped down and impacted the force field covering the ship…then Harrison suddenly realized there wasn’t one kirby here, there were several backed in under the canopy, having come down in through the hole and knocking aside what trees they needed to carve out their little landing zone niche.
One of the kirbies drifted in under the sunlight and rose up out of the hole, firing its own plasma cannons at the strafing skeets then flew off in a hurry, drawing immediate pursuit. Harrison advanced towards the three kirbies that were still on the ground, running up to cover behind one of the toppled tree trunks, looking for any troops on the ground or landing zone defenses.
He saw none, then decided to make another run in closer, hopping from one bit of woody debris to another until he was less than 50 meters away from the closest of the landing craft. That was when he heard the engines of another kirby approaching, soon to drop in through the opening and land where the other had just departed from. As soon as it ‘touched down’ it opened its boarding hatch and little lizards began dropping out in bunches, falling a couple of meters to the ground before scurrying off towards the colony to join in the fight.
“Control, this is Harrison, copy?”
“Copy,” one of the non-Archon Clan staff answered over his helmet comm.
“Mark my position,” he said, activating a tiny beacon in his suit via a set of hidden controls beneath a flap in his forearm armor. “Enemy landing zone. Four kirb
ies on the deck, one of which just brought in fresh troops. I’m heading in pursuit. Consider the LZ open to heavy fire within 60 seconds.”
“Coordinates confirmed. Get the hell out of there, Archon.”
“Already on my way,” Harrison said, skirting around the edge of the camp and following the trail of the newly deployed ground troops. They were fast, but not running at full speed so he was able to make up some ground on them. About halfway up the valley to the colony he caught the trailing trio and opened fire, nailing one in the back and a second in the tail, both of which fell to the ground, wriggling in pain. The third ran on a few more steps before realizing what was happening, then it turned and fired back as Harrison ran over and across the others, finishing them off with point blank shots then diving to the side to avoid the green plasma blast coming his way.
The Archon rolled across his shoulders and up into a crouched position, firing back on the lizard with two fast shots, one of which hit the enemy’s weapon, melting it on contact along with its trigger finger. Harrison jumped forward and ran up to it, killing it with two shots to the chest, the first of which melted through its body armor. The second expanded on the damage, blowing apart the thing’s small pair of hearts.
As Harrison jumped over it he noticed more lizards further ahead turning around at the sounds of battle behind them but he didn’t hesitate. Firing as he ran he charged the lot of them, spread out as they were, downing one after another while having to go evasive occasionally. Fortunately for him they were getting stretched out, and in ones and twos they weren’t hard to take down when he had armor that could absorb a few shots.
He nailed two more as he ran up the trail, realizing that most of them were getting too far ahead of him to catch before they got to the colony…where they would then be bunched up and far more dangerous to confront, even if he was coming in at them from behind. He took aim at another that saw him coming and decided to run ahead instead of fight. He aimed at its back, adjusting for the zigzag the creature was executing to throw off his targeting, then pulled the trigger…with no plasma forthcoming.
