Star Force: Consensus (SF43)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  A lot of those were dead, but many had been able to flee from one city to another given the slow speed of the Skarron armies. Air superiority was being split between the two factions, with the handful of conquered cities remaining in Skarron control while Star Force still held sway over the others. Not wanting to wreck their own cities with orbital bombardment, even the empty ones, Star Force had been engaging the Skarrons via mech drops and trying to draw them out into the open…which in the case of Ida meant the regions of forest that had been cut down to facilitate further expansion or to create roads from site to site.

  The Skarrons had taken the bait, mostly, and the mechs had dragged their forces out away from the cities, even if only a few hundred meters beyond the perimeter on the dirt plains preceding new construction.

  On those plains and roadways the Skarrons fell prey to the rail gun slugs coming down from orbit. Star Force had already pulled its armies back, drawing the Skarrons out further or causing them to give up the chase. The aiming of the metallic shards wasn’t precise at a range of 110 miles, plus the thick atmosphere of Ida would play havoc with the descent as well, but over the centuries Star Force had gotten good in containing the randomness of the bombardment and concentrating it to select areas, carpeting the ground with so many impacts that through statistical probability the Skarron walkers were going to get hit.

  As soon as the rain began to come down every Type-1 and Type-2 within range started popping missiles that shot up towards orbit, intent on taking down the warships dropping the ordinance. The few walkers that got hit initially remained intact, protected underneath large circular defense shields that stopped the falling metal in superheated splashes, sucking vast amounts of energy out of the protective barriers…energy that they could not replace fast enough, meaning that if the walkers didn’t take out the warships they were going to succumb to the attack in short order.

  But that’s what the Skarron anti-air defenses had been designed to thwart, and the missile plumes rising up towards the drone warships were thick and fast moving, not to mention carrying very strong warheads. Those plumes diminished as they passed out of the upper atmosphere as addition elements of the 19th fleet, stationed around the edges of the rail gun-equipped formation, began pouring lachars and launching intercepts at the coming swarms that continued to rise up unceasingly from the walkers.

  The collision between ordinances was heavy, but nothing was going to stop the rail gun slugs from falling. Some of them took out missiles on their way down, but there were so many coming up that a lot got through the maelstrom of destruction in between the ships and atmosphere that was ballooning out in an ever growing debris cloud.

  Anti-missile lachars on the bombarding ships opened fire in the last moments, picking off a few more as the leading missiles hit shields, with each explosion firing multiple weapon systems within the warhead, one of which was designed to suck energy out of the shields above and beyond the kinetic impact. Another element was a shrapnel component that threw out small chunks of material that effectively sandblasted the shields over a wide area rather than a pinpoint attack that the primary blast afforded. The smaller impacts drained the physical component of the Star Force shields, as well as diminishing the energy pools around the center of impact.

  Those energy pools, in some shield designs, could be redeployed to adjacent areas to quickly cover weak spots rather than waiting on more energy to come through the emitters. By diminishing this amount in the same missile detonation, each attack blasted a wider divot in the shields and set up a longer-lived weakness for the next missile to exploit.

  Star Force shields had gotten progressively stronger over the years, now on par in strength to all others in the Alliance save for the Kvash, so they didn’t go down quickly, but the swarming effect of the missiles didn’t give them time to recharge, so after 15-20 seconds of nonstop pounding the shields on smaller drones went down, opening up the hull armor to the attacks.

  It looked like all the missiles were getting through to Aaron, but he knew better. The other ships were knocking down more than half of what was coming up, but there were so many the bombardment ships were visibly being clouded by the detonations. Never the less they continued firing until their weapon systems went offline, including their plasma and maulers, which they were using to take out missiles at point blank range by simply pointing and firing them into the swarm.

  The first drone went offline at 43 seconds into the engagement, with many more following. Aaron kept an eye on the walkers, seeing several of the Type-3s and 4s being scrapped, with some of the 2s starting to get hit as their shields failed, but the Type-1s were still untouched and continuing to pump out missiles…far more than it looked like they should have been able to carry, but from intelligence gained from Kip’s ongoing war in Protovic space he knew that the things were literally walking armories.

  Then again, if Star Force had a walker that big and slow Aaron would have been concerned about it being taken out from orbit too, and he had to admit the missile plumes were a significant deterrent, though the walkers weren’t going to be able to rearm, so once they ran out they were out, but to get them to that point Star Force was going to have to lose ships.

  Aaron hadn’t expected that initially, given the number of ships at his disposal. He’d expected to spam low orbit and knock down all missiles coming his way, but the sheer number of walkers deposited on the surface in overlapping firing ranges shocked him. Still, he could have pooled his ships into one place and took out the walkers with near impunity a handful at a time, but neutralizing them quickly was more important, and he was only going to be able to lure them away from the ground infrastructure once, so he had to spread out his ships and attack them all simultaneously.

  As his interceptor-laden warships began to run out of ordinance before the Skarrons did they moved off, making room for others to close in and take their place up next to the bombardment fleet. Meanwhile a host of cutters and corvettes dove into the atmosphere on attack runs, staying clear of the bombardment corridors, but heading down to engage the walkers at close range and making the Skarrons choose who to shoot at.

  Altogether Aaron had 8,372 drones in play, that being the full complement of the 19th fleet spread out around planetary orbit. The 22nd and 41st fleets were split up on multiple missions throughout the rest of the star system, with the trailblazer intent on hitting the Skarrons as hard and as fast as possible on all fronts, for he knew the longer he took to engage the enemy the more Star Force personnel they’d kill, and he’d rather lose some unmanned ships than fail to come to his people’s aid fast enough.

  A small flashing light updated one of the red flags with a green icon, indicating that the Star Force personnel in the area had been withdrawn around a Type-1 and its escorts within one of the cities. It hadn’t been drawn outside the boundaries, for it hadn’t been a skirmisher. Others had moved out to engage the Star Force mechs miles away, but the Type-1 sat within the city, pumping out missiles at other targets while the fleet designated to take it out sat waiting overhead.

  Aaron really didn’t want to bust up their own city, and hoped no one had slipped through the cracks in the evacuation, but now that he had a green from the ground commander he acted on it.

  “Admiral, point 14 is clear. Bring the rain.”

  Nellis nodded, inputting the command into his control board. “This is going to get messy.”

  77 drone warships, ranging from cruisers down to frigates, began launching rail gun slugs with impunity on the Type-1 and four Type-3s ringing it at various points on the Star Force city streets. Fiery streaks came down in straight lines, burning from the friction with the atmosphere, and slammed into city buildings, shattering their structures and blowing out plumes of debris.

  The defense shield over the Type-1 activated, with its missiles diverting around the edges of the circle, flying horizontal a short distance before angling up to continue firing on the nearby attack group rather than the one Aaron had just ordere
d to engage it. That was wise, for spreading out their anti-orbital firepower would allow Star Force to shoot down more missiles before they could make it to target, but it also left this Type-1 vulnerable, essentially giving the Humans a free shot.

  Streak after streak came down atop the shield, while many more hit around the edges, blasting apart buildings and every now and then coming down near one of the Type-3s that were creeping their way off from the Type-1 and spreading out the targeting area. With 30 or so rounds hitting per second, the attack wasn’t light, but neither was it heavy, given that not all of them hit the Type-1. It was the consistent and unrelenting nature of the attack that gradually wore down its shields, eventually letting some of the rounds through to hit the armor and buildings that the shield had been protecting.

  More infrastructure than enemy was hit, but that was unavoidable. The slugs that hit the thick armor didn’t deflect, nor did they explode, instead they stuck inside it like a pin cushion being hit by lava, for the impacts sites glowed orange as the rounds deformed partially from the sudden deceleration. It wasn’t a sudden as a shield impact, but the torsion literally tore the rounds apart as they dug through the heavy armor.

  The long, caterpillar-like chain of seven body segments took damage irregularly, but the missile swarm continued to flow out of each body segment until a round slipped into the launching port on the third segment and eviscerated the inside. Those missiles stopped launching after a large internal explosion marked the airspace above the walker with a mushroom-shaped cloud.

  Around it one of the Type-3s got hit by a smaller slug from one of the frigates. Its shields held up, but the impact knocked the walker over, twisting its end around and tangling up the legs, causing it to list to the left and ram into a building, after which it dropped halfway to the ground before the legs supported its weight. Some shield matrixes were standalone, others were hard linked to the emitters, meaning that a physical impact to them would move the emitter and whatever was attached to it, and in this case the Skarrons had the hard links on the Type-3s. That might not have seemed the best tech choice to make seeing as how the impact had knocked it down, but had it been a standalone the point blank deceleration stress probably would have penetrated the shield.

  The more technologically advanced a race became the more shield options one had, but in this case none would have saved the Skarrons, for the Star Force fleet had full magazines and jumpships standing by to resupply them if/when they ran out. The rain continued to fall, obliterating both buildings and enemy walkers, and punching a circular wound into the city, visible from orbit after the smoke and dust eventually cleared.

  Randy observed the Type-1 go down from miles away, him having been the ground commander clearing this section of the city. Originally that task had been slated for another Archon, but Randy’s last mission had ended early so he’d come over to personally oversee the evacuation.

  Standing atop one of the tallest buildings on the other side of the city he watched Aaron’s fleet do its work and take out the walker that would have been extremely hard for their ground troops to take down. The sight of the vicious bombardment reminded him how naval superiority ruled all, and how much infrastructure he was going to have to throw together to defend against something like this.

  Bigger shield generators, anti-orbital weapons batteries, etc…but if an enemy had time to plan and assemble what was necessary, there was virtually no surface target that couldn’t be taken down from orbit, and that fact chilled him to the bone even as he felt an enormous amount of relief seeing the Type-1 and its minions go down under the continuous rain.

  Others would have been concerned, being so close to the bombardment, but Randy wasn’t, knowing full well the accuracy their weapons had. Four miles away was sufficient, as well as giving him a good view while additional evacuations were taking place beneath him. The Kiritak they’d just pulled out of the other half of the city were being funneled into an underground rail line…one that was still intact…that led to another secure city, via a transition at a mining outpost.

  The train cars had been removed and the tunnel opened up for hover traffic, with all manner of vehicles pouring down into the well-guarded opening. Randy had two stars of mechs covering it, with several more around the perimeter hunting down Skarron infantry as they made their way across the city. He’d had to abandon many of their previously held positions in order to clear the bombardment zone, putting distance between them and the Skarron lines, but some of the ambitious bastards had followed them out and now had to be killed, with Randy’s troops on constant alert not to let even a single one of their Hobbits get through, for almost all of the Kiritak waiting for evacuation were unarmed.

  Randy watched the Skarron missiles shoot off on a slight angle up into the sky, along with plumes from three Type-2s elsewhere on the horizon but outside the city. The sheer amount of firepower they were throwing up at the orbiting warships was impressive, but the rain continued to fall and Randy watched it all from the rooftop, with each stream of missiles eventually cutting off. The Type-1 continued firing up until each of its seven segments took hits, making Randy wonder how much more ordinance they had inside.

  He glanced at the battlemap in his helmet, seeing that one of the Type-3s was still active, so the bombardment continued up until it was killed, then suddenly the sound of the impacts ceased and the smoke was let to drift into transparency, revealing a battered and shattered cityscape more akin to a sandbox than anything structural.

  Randy uplinked to the fleet and declared the bombardment site a black flag, indicating that it was done and making sure that no more rain would fall without checking with him first. With that status logged, he ordered his mechs to begin sweeping the city out from their current positions and identify remaining Skarron infantry locations for the Archons to clean up.

  Taking one final visual look around the city, both of the intact sections and the damaged zone, Randy spotted a glint of armor moving in one of the streets off to the south. He called in a nearby dropship to pick him up, after which he had it drop him near the Skarron armored infantry, knowing that they were tricky to take down with anything short of a mech…or a ranger.

  4

  September 12, 2467

  Rotunna System (Beta Region)

  Ida

  Randy sat crosslegged on top of a table with his eyes closed as Aaron walked in the door behind him, seeing the large containment field separating his fellow trailblazer from the Skarron prisoner on the far side. The elephant-sized quadruped was pacing back and forth, only able to walk a few meters in either direction, but its pent up energy was manifesting itself in obvious contrast to Randy’s static pose.

  Aaron walked over to the table, hopping up on top of it to sit next to Randy as he stretched out his Ikrid to take a brief assessment of its mind, which to him seemed a chaotic mess. The Skarron didn’t like being imprisoned, and was not one to take the matter lying down.

  With the arrival of the second Human the Skarron lashed out with two of its arms and punched the containment field, though Randy didn’t react. Aaron flinched microscopically, but the shield held firm and the Skarron returned to its lumbering pacing.

  “Nice to see you too,” Aaron said, knowing that it wouldn’t understand. So far they hadn’t established a common language…any language…with the Skarrons, which was making the prisoner interrogations exceedingly difficult.

  “Any luck with the engineers?” Randy asked, his eyes still closed.

  “Not really. All I can get are a few visuals and emotions. I’m not very good at reading non-Human minds. That’s your specialty.”

  “Just takes practice, but this bastard is giving me trouble. I could use some help.”

  “How so?”

  “Processing power…use me for context,” Randy said before Aaron could ask the question.

  “Alright,” the Ikrid specialist said, linking to both the Skarron and Randy, though for the latter he had to grab the other man’s wrist. Wh
en he did he followed a mental prompt to the vector Randy was using to access the Skarron’s mind and immediately saw that it was, as he had inferred, underpowered.

  That was to be expected, for Randy hadn’t spent nearly as much time developing his Ikrid as Aaron had, though his own training had been focused on communication and combat applications with other Humans. Delving into the path that Randy’s mind had already ‘cleared’ through the Skarron’s mental geography, Aaron expanded on it, though the pieces he was accessing he couldn’t understand, so he fed the information to Randy, and once they got in sync with one another the pair’s abilities acted as one.

  With Aaron’s greater strength of ‘signal’ and Randy’s familiarities with the quirks of alien minds, the two began making steady progress sorting through the Skarron’s memories and emotions. None of the language would transfer over, however, but there were ways around that, Randy knew, and slowly, bit by bit, the two trailblazers started to glean information on their enemy.

  Tracking back from where this one had gone, there was a Skarron-inhabited world being used as a way station. This one had been picked up there, then shipped out over a considerable distance for the assault on Rotunna. There was no way of knowing how many lightyears they’d crossed or jumps they’d made, but the overall impression was that the Skarrons had traveled a considerable distance to get here.

  That wasn’t surprising, for if they had worlds near to Beta Region Star Force most likely would have known about it, whether through their own scouting expeditions or from the other races in the region whom they conversed with regularly. Even now some of those races’ ships were coming in to Rotunna, unaware that there had been an attack. Some had left immediately, others had stayed behind to conduct business or gather information that they’d spread on their journeys. It was through this commercial transit that most information flowed, slow as it was, but if the Skarrons had been nearby someone would have noticed, just as they were now, and spreading the word.