Star Force: Endless Crusade

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Another fighter, this one Skarron, slid down and almost hit the phalanx, splintering into pieces that flew everywhere killing dozens of Aronsic. One shard deflected off of Bi-tor’s phalanx shield, but it held firm and only bounced him into the Voku off his left shoulder as they turned and ran along the wall shield to the right, meaning their left flank was no longer taking fire from the tiny plasma pistols the Aronsic were carrying.

  The Voku followed the perimeter until they came to one of the outflows that quickly jammed with dead bodies as they fought their way in. More Aronsic climbed over them and down the rising mountain as the Voku fought hard to move mere steps forward as they were protected on the left and right by the shield walls. Behind them Aronsic were circling back to attack them, but it was those ahead that were the worst threat as several explosions ripped through them, one of which buried Bi-tor under a pile of enemy bodies.

  He was pinned for a moment, then he managed to kick and wiggle himself partially free, enough at least to get his legs under him and push his way back to the surface where a friendly black arm reached down and helped pull him up…then another grabbed him and both Voku launched him forward like a slingshot using a combination of muscle and flight harness. Bi-tor flew up and over the mass of enemies, falling on the far side and literally rolling down the backside of the mound, crashing through those climbing up and bouncing off the dead they were trampling until he hit the paved ground on the other side with a wash of plasma shots hitting him.

  His personal shields held, but his physical shield was lost on the far side with the other Voku. That meant his protection was low, and he knew from past experience that the best place to be was as close to the Aronsic as possible…so he could use their bodies to block ranged shots.

  Bi-tor kicked one so hard it flew into the air like an ugly ball, then he slid down onto a knee in the gap, shooting those around him while trying to diminish his height advantage on them, making his silhouette smaller while spinning on his ankles and fighting those around him at more or less their eye level until he got a comm from his unit. His physical shield then flew out over the pile as well, and Bi-tor leapt up into the air to grab it before it hit the ground.

  As soon as he did so its enhanced shields covered his body, with him cracking the neck of one Aronsic on landing as he took a much more aggressive posture, making himself a moving turret and plowing through the flow of Aronsic coming off the transports. He did the best he could to disrupt and slow their approach in the somewhat narrow gap between the huge shields.

  He was fighting so hard and fast he lost track of time, but eventually the other Voku were able to work their way up to him and the phalanx reformed on the other side of the massive pile of dead, though another one was starting to form around him. Before they could get bogged down in it they pushed through the gap and the interior shield ended, opening up the landing zone before them.

  They immediately took off to the left, traveling on the other side of that shield on the open pavement…which was a huge relief after having walked/fought over Aronsic bodies for more than the past half hour to get here.

  Getting up to running speed, the slower Aronsic couldn’t keep up as they chased the Voku inward and the outflows from the transports redirected to come after them, but the head start was too much and the phalanx was on one of the anti-air turrets before the Skarron elites could get to them. The regular Skarron troops there were augmented with Aronsic gunners, but neither offered much resistance as the Voku targeted the machinery rather than those operating it, for they’d be replaced within seconds while the turret itself could not be.

  After trashing it they moved on to another and another before finally getting to one of the transports and having to weather some of its anti-personnel weaponry as the Aronsic tried to tackle and hold the Voku down to give them better shots. It didn’t work well, but then two aerial fighters came through the topside shield and hovered nearby, firing point blank into the Aronsic that were trying to slow the Voku down.

  That hurt, and two Voku were lost after a few seconds of concentrated firing, but they didn’t just sit there and take it. A pair of Dwio orbs flew back and hit one of the Skarron fighters, dropping it to the ground while Bi-tor ran at and jumped up to the other, which apparently thought it was too high for that attack.

  Bi-tor grabbed unshielded underside using his adhesive gloves and crawled around the fighter as it began to get more elevation. When he got to an engine vent that helped cool the Skarron’s inefficient anti-grav he fired into it with his forearm weaponry, resulting in the fighter tipping over and flying with only one side elevated, but it still continued to gain height, nearly all the way up to the topside shield, before he managed to take out the other cooling unit.

  The fighter dropped slightly, then the emergency override kicked in and had the anti-grav running hot…both of them…and the fighter leveled off as it flew up through the shield.

  Bi-tor jumped off immediately, falling back through the energy shield before it switched to physical, and used his flight harness to drift him over on top of the transport as one of its batteries shot him twice. He landed on the hull and raced over to it, punching through the slim armor casing and denting the weapon so badly it ceased to function as he heard a massive explosion overhead.

  He glanced back to see the fighter in bits and pieces flying everywhere as a result of the anti-grav overloading. That’s what happened when they weren’t properly cooled, and the pilot had been so anxious to get him off the craft that he’d pushed it too hard in escape when he should have floated down to the surface.

  Voku craft wouldn’t explode like that, but Skarron technology, especially their anti-grav, was designed for maximum output in combat and had few safety protocols, which was why he wasn’t going to attempt the same sabotage to the transport beneath him.

  Bi-tor didn’t try to get back to the phalanx, for he was already at their intended destination. Rather he ran across the unshielded hull until he found a topside hatch that he blasted his way through and entered the ship, finding a wall of Aronsic and a Skarron amongst them waiting for him.

  The wall of plasma hurt his shields, but he pushed through it fast enough to get into melee range and went to work on them. The Aronsic were easy to kill, but one of the claws on the end of the Skarron’s arms got him on the shoulder and pinned him in place long enough that the Aronsic peppered him with enough shots to get through his shields. He felt plasma burns on his chest, but thankfully his body suit absorbed most of the damage as the impact points puffed in little explosions.

  Bi-tor twisted free of the death grip before another claw could come around and enhance the hold, then he dove underneath the Skarron rather than going on top of it, making the Aronsic shoot between the thick, elephant-like legs. They weren’t so reckless when shooting at their superior, but Bi-tor was still without shields and he needed a moment to recharge.

  Thankfully the Skarron did as he expected, bending its legs and dropping its underside down on top of him. Bi-tor was pinned between the heavy Skarron and the deck plates with the enemy’s body caving in enough that the Aronsic couldn’t shoot underneath. Bi-tor was next to helpless underneath, but the Skarron couldn’t crush him. It wasn’t painless, but Voku physiology was too tough to be overcome by even Skarron mass. Had this one been a bit bigger then it might have been a different story, but Bi-tor played dead and didn’t move or fire as he was pinned beneath it, all the time letting his shield generators recharge.

  The Skarron bounced up and down a few times, trying to increase the damage, then it finally stood up so the Aronsic could shoot what was left of the Voku…at which point Bi-tor turned his shields back on and scurried out from under the Skarron. He ignored it and went for the Aronsic instead, taking out the threat of their little pistols while the Skarron had none of its own.

  It didn’t take long until this part of the ship was neutralized and only the Skarron remained. It tried to fight hand to hand, but Bi-tor was too fast and delivere
d plenty of shots onto its back at just the right point, taking it down as the rest of his phalanx finally boarded the ship from below.

  He helped them clean out the upper levels where the crew resided even as the main hold was emptied of the fresh troops, but this transport was not going to take off again. The Voku made sure of that as they sabotaged key systems without triggering explosive overloads. They didn’t want the ship destroyed, but rather sitting here and taking up a landing slot that the Skarrons couldn’t use.

  Even if they chose to blast it the pieces would still be here in the way, so the functionality of this LZ was already diminished no matter how the Skarrons reacted, but that wasn’t enough. They needed to take it out entirely, so they proceeded to move on to other weapon turrets around the LZ and eventually to the other transports that kept stupidly landing and offloading more troops, some of which other arriving phalanxes just slaughtered as they came out of the holds.

  Eventually there was a captured and sabotaged transport at each of the slots, making mass transit to and from the LZ impossible…which was good, for the aerial division soon thereafter gave a warning that it wasn’t going to be able to hold air cover much longer.

  Their task done, Bi-tor and the others regrouped and blew up one of the shield generator walls, taking it down and rushing out across somewhat exposed ground before they came to the Aronsic swarms again. They were moving gradually towards distant targets, but it was more like a holding area where they were all corralled and stretched for tens of miles in every direction.

  With their air cover about to disappear one way or another, Bi-tor knew their only route of escape was back across that sea of enemies, so with their task done they focused on survival and with the help of another phalanx they fought through them losing a few more Voku on the way.

  Bi-tor was one that made it back to the front where there was more traditional combat taking place, but more than a third of the others did not. Desperate times called for desperate attacks, and they’d denied the Skarrons attacking nearby their LZ, meaning the reinforcements would have to walk even greater distance to get here so long as the Voku air cover could keep enough pressure on the enemy transports. If not, they could just set down wherever they wanted.

  Bi-tor couldn’t control any of that, he could only do his part and for now the navy was holding their line overhead and the Stranoms were keeping this front line adequately contained. That was the most he could hope for now, so as he and the other surviving phalanx members were met and escorted back to a ‘safe’ zone he held himself together despite the burns on his chest. He didn’t realize until he finally sat down how badly injured he was, not to mention how close to passing out his fatigue was making him.

  He’d barely lived through that, and many others hadn’t, but the Voku were winning small victories and as he looked to the sky and the mass of warships above, he wondered just how long this badly fought for stalemate would last. He didn’t expect much, but this was the first time he’d ever seen a stall in Skarron reinforcements in any of the campaigns he’d fought during this Crusade. He knew better than to hope for more, but he couldn’t help it right now. He was near the breaking point and even the slightest bit of relief was too much to ignore.

  He and others had to slow the Skarrons as much as possible. The rest of his race was counting on it, otherwise they’d have a free run through the most heavily populated Voku worlds. The Skarrons hadn’t gotten to them yet. Not even close. But every world that fell invited another invasion closer to those densely populated zones that could never be fully evacuated in time.

  The fate of their race rested in his and the other defenders’ hands…and right now they needed every small bit of good luck they could get, with the clear naval skies in stellar orbit being the best gift they could have hoped for.

  The only question was, how long was it going to last?

  6

  July 2, 3654

  Bavrenti System (Voku Regional Capitol)

  Hakibi

  Cal-com walked down the hallway out from the oracle, leaving it and his command staff behind. They’d continue to deal with information and movements on the overall warfront, but the Skarrons were here, at Bavrenti, and Cal-com wasn’t going to evacuate ahead of the others. They were going to defend the regional capitol, which was the second strongest system hit by the Skarrons to date, and not just in the Crusade.

  The Skarrons had attacked Bavrenti before, back when they were pushing out through the galaxy in far lesser numbers and before the Voku had received their civilization-wide upgrade. Even then they’d never taken it, and if it was finally going to fall to them Cal-com was going to personally kill as many of the bastards as he could before having to retreat.

  He knew others wanted him to leave early, but with some 12 billion Voku in this system that were going to be fighting and dying for lack of evac ships, he wasn’t going to leave them until necessary. They were his clone brothers, and where one stood all would. That was the Voku way, so as the naval battle around the star continued to escalate beyond holding and the first large globs of the Skarron fleet moved into orbit overhead and began pounding on the planetary shields, he strode evenly and purposefully through the cityscape, not running, not panicking, as others moved about at a more furious pace making preparations.

  He knew the shields wouldn’t breach for hours more, perhaps days, but when they did the Skarrons would come down through the foothold and begin the massive ground campaign to take the planet. Had the original defense fleet been here the Skarrons would have been fighting for weeks just to get to planetary orbit, but that fleet had been pared down greatly over the years with conglomerates sent to fight where the war was. Some had been retained to this system, but not enough.

  Had Cal-com not sent those ships earlier the Skarron advancement would have been here by now, so they were well spent in the strategic sense, but for this system it was a sad consequence of having to defend other systems that this one was so weak…navally speaking. As far as the ground defenses went, they had not been diminished save for the number of warriors, and those had been transferring back from the defeats on other worlds, so the ground fight was going to be fully staffed.

  Cal-com already knew where the foothold would be, for the Skarrons were only attacking one point on the planetary shields, and the Voku army was repositioning to fight at that location…or rather around it, for they didn’t want to get hit by the weaponsfire when it did finally penetrate. Evacuations of those under the affected area were already underway and the pace of attack seemed to give adequate time if the Voku moved quickly, but Cal-com wasn’t concerning himself with it now. Others could handle those tasks adequately well and he intended to apply his skills in a more personal manner.

  His singular march across the cityscape ended at a military base where tens of thousands of Stranom were waiting for their pilots. They were condensed down into approximate squares until activated, and many already were as they began leaving to head towards what would be the warfront in coming days, and while many would be flown out to it, it made more sense for others to simply walk and leave the transports to help the civilian evacuation.

  Cal-com walked up to an inert cube and used the controls on his left gauntlet to activate it, with the cube morphing into a bipedal approximation similar to his own body but with significant size alterations in various areas. A doorway appeared on the left leg and Cal-com entered, climbing stairs that melted behind him, resealing the leg as he climbed into the cockpit and sat in the control chair. He could fight standing or in any other configuration he wished, for the cockpit was also morphable, but the march out to the front was going to take a while so he decided to sit.

  His Stranom walked out of the grid it was in and moved towards a communal area where others were combining for the trip out, with him signaling many others to him. They walked up to and melted into his own, with the single Stranom growing larger and larger, to epic proportions, until it was taller than many of the surrounding bu
ildings. Some 83 level 1 Stranom eventually fused together, but none of the other pieces had pilots. Cal-com had ordered them to him remotely, meaning he was the sole occupant in the towering machine.

  Before combat began he’d pick up additional pilots, but right now he was going to move this monster on his own, with a single step moving it far faster than the smaller ones. Some buildings he actually stepped over as he began to prepare himself for the type of personal battle that he’d not taken part in for many centuries.

  But his memories were fresh, as were his skills, and he had no trouble walking his enormous Stranom off towards the horizon as others could be seen making the same journey ahead and behind him as the weaponsfire from orbit was just barely visible in the night sky to the far northeast even from his elevated viewpoint. The Skarrons wanted to hit the primary city on the capitol world, but it held the strongest shield generator segment, so they were hitting the one adjacent to it. That meant it wasn’t too far away and as he continued the nearly silent march of the giant machines he kept watch what was happening in orbit and the carnage occurring at the Skarron’s entry jumppoint as his defense fleet tried to whittle down their numbers as they came in, but there was no way they could stop them all.

  18 days later…

  Cal-com’s giant Stranom, aflame in multiple locations, punched straight down into the back of a massive Skarron walker, breaking through the yellow armor plates and sinking the hand all the way down into the interior as the weaponry on his Stranom was being fired in all directions by the other pilots inside it with him. He, however, was the one handling the movements of the Stranom, and the Dafchor used the new handhold to rip the entire spherical section off the Skarron ‘train.’