by Aer-ki Jyr
As juvenile as the Era’tran commanders had been previously, the Zak’de’ron did not appear to be much better. They were pulling units from key areas and leaving them undefended, perhaps expecting Mak’to’ran not to have any other armadas in play. After all, he had to strip everything from the surrounding area just to assemble this one. What more could he have?
The answer was a great deal. There were places on the planet that were in no immediate danger, but they still had light defensive units there above and beyond their infrastructure. Mak’to’ran had quietly pulled them all out, forming additional armadas that were moving up at the same time the primary one went out to hit the depot. At the same time he had all-Zen’zat teams near the Zak’de’ron border waiting for moments of opportunity, and the stupid enemy commander was giving him plenty.
Mak’to’ran began sending out a flurry of orders, leaving his backlines undefended where they were safely tucked in underneath the planetary shield generators and too far away from the enemy to be flanked…and even if they were, their city turrets were intact and could fend off a small attack without support. And the enemy wasn’t going to be able to mount more than that with all their attention focused on the supply depot.
It was a gamble, and no maneuvers in this dystopian war zone could be classified as anything else, but right now he had the Zak’de’ron reacting to him, and that was the best way to protect what was left of Holloi. He didn’t have enough troops to adequately defend all cities and sites. Neither did the enemy, so going on the offense while relying on your infrastructure…something the enemy did not have the luxury of on someone else’s planet…as a backstop was the smart play, and one that should have been made years ago. There just weren’t any real commanders left alive to spot the opportunity and seize it.
Mak’to’ran hadn’t looked too closely at the death tallies. He’d searched for any senior leadership and found none still active. At least none that were linked into the tactical grid. As Mario’topa had said, they’d gone with the main defense force to resist the Zak’de’ron at their first landing point and succeeded enough to create this creeping stalemate that the enemy was winning due to their sporadic reinforcements trickling in over the years, but not enough to take the entire planet within the next 50 unless something major changed.
If Mak’to’ran’s troops could summon up enough courage to remember who they were, then this was going to be easy. But they’d lived through this nightmare that he’d blessedly missed. So while his mind was fresh theirs were weary, but as they saw a quick and instant victory maybe some hope would work its way in.
He had no way of knowing that from his position, organizing from afar from a place of secrecy. Some of the Elders should have done this and survived to make sure the resistance was adequately led, but Mak’to’ran guessed they saw no way of winning and had chosen the most honorable of deaths they could arrange, leaving the non-combat portion of the planet with the least enemy forces to face afterward as they took as many as they could to death with them.
Mak’to’ran was going to make use of the advantage they had left, but he was dismayed that there was no one here that could have seen it before him. Was Holloi totally devoid of a single experienced commander? This planet used to be the heart of the Era’tran Empire where the wisest and most experienced came to live when their time of frontline service came to an end and they were replaced with others that needed the experience more than them.
Holloi had been a brain trust for the Era’tran, and now it was devoid of that legendary skill…save for him.
Mak’to’ran didn’t know what the situation in the rest of the galaxy was like, and he hoped there were systems out there still intact, both Era’tran and their allies, but he suspected that those would be likewise drained of their best troops, if not leadership, as they went to war in other places. Mak’to’ran was alive by sheer luck and the determination of his fellow Era’tran to protect and restore him, and in doing so he’d been spared this war…but his absence was also responsible for it. None of this would have happened if Eldorat had not come, or if he’d not tried to overthrow Mak’to’ran and seize control of the V’kit’no’sat for himself.
The arrogance of that astounded Mak’to’ran, and it was a bad sign if the Veloqueen were of a similar attitude. If they were so powerful they thought they could do whatever they wanted then meeting them in battle again was going to be horrific. The V’kit’no’sat were not prepared for a war of Essence, and now that Mak’to’ran had tasted his first bit of that power he feared it even more, for he knew it was not a power that could be constructed quickly as Legion had been. This would take a lifetime to build, and the Era’tran did not have a lifetime. They were half dead already, and even if they survived this war the Hadarak were right there on the doorstep of the Empire, chewing away at it while these idiots…
There. Mak’to’ran just saw more Zak’de’ron units from the northern flank begin to reposition, and he sent orders out to Team 2 to begin their stealth attack. They were all Zen’zat on foot and speeder bikes moving through the jungle, and it would take them quite a while to arrive, but when they did they’d have another mismatch in their favor…and if the Zak’de’ron pulled troops from somewhere else to counter that attack, he’d activate another of his waiting teams to hit something else valuable that they left lightly defended.
He had to time this right, and keep making adjustments as the course of events went along. Some of his troops would fail him, for their resolve was weak and their training limited. These were the survivors and the rookies, and he was going to get the most use out of them that he could, but he also knew that victory would inspire them more than any speech, and today they were going to get to inflict plenty of damage on the enemy, for the Zak’de’ron were so badly positioned they could not redirect reinforcements fast enough, and Mak’to’ran wasn’t going to allow them a chance to do so.
More orders went out to units waiting on the border and those moving up from the rear areas, some coming from half the planet away, but all were able to see what was happening ahead and Mak’to’ran made sure the battle vids were being passed along to every unit and every city still in Era’tran possession on the planet…along with the fact that Garuva was still alive and now taking command. The presence of an Elder would do much in addition to the victories, as would the industrial orders Mak’to’ran was making in his name. Everything on this planet had become sloppy, if not downright broken, and he was going to put it back into order as quickly as possible.
This was no longer a resistance. It was a counterstrike. And while he couldn’t do anything about the Veloqueen or the Hadarak in the foreseeable future, if he could hold Holloi then he could eventually recover the rest of the V’kit’no’sat Empire. His presence here was an unpredictable event for the Zak’de’ron, and he needed to keep it an unknown for as long as possible. This was the only chance the Era’tran and the V’kit’no’sat had. He was the only chance. There was strength left in Holloi, but it was scattered, dejected, and wasted without proper leadership. He’d never thought to see Holloi on the brink of defeat again, let alone this kind of collapse, but as long as the Zak’de’ron didn’t get a massive amount of reinforcements he was going to stop the losses here and now. Forcefully.
He waited until the raid on the supply depot was complete, and his units were pulling out before the Zak’de’ron units rushing there could engage them in a costly battle, but once victory was his and the volunteers remaining were shooting down ship after ship as the enemy crossed right over weapons batteries they thought had been destroyed…that was when he rescinded the hatchery restrictions.
When the planet was looking like it would fall, reproduction had been stopped. Mak’to’ran now reversed that order and indicated that the hatcheries should begin filling again. This was going to be a long term war, and replacement troops and general population would be needed, no matter how green. The slow death of Holloi had been terminated, and it was now time to start growing
again, even before the enemy had been repelled.
Time was not the Era’tran’s ally, and they couldn’t afford to waste any of what they had.
Mak’to’ran had an immense amount of work ahead of him, but in the back of his mind he knew that even if he was wildly successful here the Empire was still doomed without Star Force. They were now the dominant power in the galaxy, and he would have to come to terms with them eventually…otherwise the coreward half of this galactic empire would be lost to the ashes of history.
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