Star Force: Backdoor (SF53) (6 page)

Cora kept her madcat moving forward, holding off on
her primary weapons and getting within mauler range. Before she was quite there
she opened up with the four cannons on the central body of the mech and bathed
the Type-4 in mauler blasts that were spreading out and becoming impotent but
still containing some damaging effects. With each step closer she got they
became more condensed and dangerous, eating through the walker’s shields and
then the armor, with the Skarron walker going down before she even got all the
way up to it.

The tick-like design slumped to the ground with the
front half of it melted off and its legs collapsing like toothpicks beneath it
when they lost power.

“Well that was easy,” she said, ignoring the others
and heading straight for the more distant Type-1.

“I’ll get the rest of the little ones,”
Jarvan
said, killing his a few seconds after hers.

“Give me some support fire when you can,” she said in
agreement, focusing the primary weapons in her madcat’s two bulky arms and
aiming them at the middle segment of the lateral Type-1. She was coming in at
it from the flank…which normally would have been suicide given that all 7
segments would be able to target her with plasma.

Before she got within plasma range she opened fire
with one of her small cleansing beams, hitting the wall-like shield that the
Skarron walker put up in between it and the mech. The beam and shield collided
and held out against each other for more than a second before the pale white
beam disappeared. When its twin in the other arm fired a moment later the
shield again reappeared with the distortion effect but breached almost
immediately on impact.

The rest of it cut into the hull,
then
Cora began carving out a section of it like she was working on a giant
pumpkin…all outside the walker’s plasma range.

Looking like it was totally outmatched the Type-1
fired off a gravity grapple, with the device hitting her mech in the left leg
and nearly knocking her over. She struggled for balance and nearly had it until
the device powered up and sucked her mech down face first into ground and held
her there.

“Cora?”
Jarvan
asked.

She tried to leverage the mech back up, but the odd
angle it had her pinned was giving her trouble.

“A little help,” she asked.

A cleansing beam shot out from
Jarvan’s
mech and sliced a swatch across the ground in between her and the walker,
easily cutting the power cord to the grapple and releasing the gravity trap.
Cora, now with her mech’s muscles seeming to work again, worked her boxy arms
and legs around and got the mech back on its feet.

“Thanks,” she said, having
antipicated
that tactic but she’d been unable to get any of her weaponry pointed at the
device or cable due to the way she fell. “Let’s cut this guy up.”

“Mid section?”

“Yes,” she said, targeting both cleansing beams where
she’d previously been firing as
Jarvan
did the same.
With the beams alternating as they
recharged,
the four
bright but pale white beams sliced through the insanely thick armor on the
walker with little effort, cutting up the middle segment to the point where it
became dead weight and ceased to function.

Another gravity grapple came out and hit Cora again,
this time landing between her mech’s legs and sucking her down into the dirt
but she remained standing. Her arms dropped and nearly touched the ground while
her mech’s feet sunk in deep into the soil but she remained standing. With some
effort she got her body rotated slightly and fired a mauler blast out from her
mech’s protruding chest and cut the power cord herself, with her mech’s
handling once again returning to normal.

As soon as she did that the Type-1 began launching all
the missiles it had from all six intact segments, pinning both the Mk. 3s down
as they had to defend against it. While they were preoccupied the six intact
segments on the walker detached from the damaged one, creating two
three-segment sections that began walking towards the mechs as fast as they
could trying to get within plasma range as they kept the mechs pinned with
missiles.

“Looks like they want to slug it out,”
Jarvan
commented as his mech was throwing so many tiny
Sammie blasts into the missile cloud it looked like he was a wizard hurling
magic to keep the weapons at bay.

“Shall we oblige?”

“Since this is a test run, why not?”

“Let’s go,” she said, beginning to walk the mech
closer and giving the Skarrons what they wanted, eventually coming into plasma
range while the missile storm continued, but they didn’t stop there, with both
madcats moving into their own mauler range and unloading on the two segments of
the Type-1 and giving their heavy shields a good test…but in the end it was no
contest and the pair of madcats destroyed the largest walker the Skarrons had
without even taking a lick of hull damage, then they got around to cleaning up
the remaining Type-4s before Kip’s group could even arrive.

6

July 3, 2549

Interstellar
Space

Mid jump

Cal-com woke from his sleep early as a soft,
repetitive tone brought him back to full consciousness as it grew ever louder
in his tube. The Voku’s sight returned as he gave focus to his single eye,
previously ignored as he floated inside the vertical null g chamber that
encased his body. He reached forward and pressed a few buttons, canceling the weightlessness
and audio suppression a moment before he triggered the release and the tube
split in front of him.

The Voku naval commander stepped out, seeing one of
his advisors waiting for him in the rest ward where hundreds of other tubes
resided, many with occupants and more without. Neither Cal-com nor the other
Voku had personal quarters, for when they weren’t sleeping they were working or
training in some fashion, with time spent on anything else being viewed as a
waste for military personnel.

As Cal-com looked at the slightly shorter Voku Hem-
ra
bowed slightly in apology. “
We have received an update from our scout ships. The enemy fleet is
larger than expected by 32%. I assumed you would want to prepare before our
arrival.
”

“
You assumed
correctly. Were the ships discovered?
”

“
Not according
to the transmission
.”

Cal-com nodded. “
I
will be in the oracle shortly
.”

Hem-
ra
bowed again, dipping
his elongated head in a curt gesture before leaving Cal-com to his personal
prep. The commander, fully nude but with no exterior genitalia to be concerned
about, walked over to a curvy corridor that wound its way through many pod
sections and branches before he finally arrived at the prep area. There he took
care of biological needs and cleansing before pulling on a body-hugging suit of
clothing and thin shoes that covered his wider than Human feet. He added a few
accoutrements to his arms and popped out his eyepiece, revealing his natural
line of three eyes beneath.

Each was tiny and blacker than his skin with two ports
set between them that the artificial eye plugged into. It was a technological
implant that all Voku received once completing their basic training, but one
that required a power source that Cal-com now had to replace. He took out the
small charging bead and swapped it out with a new one despite the fact that the
one he had was only a few weeks old. Prior to going into combat it was expected
of all soldiers to replace the bead to give them maximum longevity with the
enhanced eyesight.

The lateral rectangle that stretched across 80% of the
width of his face actively scanned in a number of different modes as well as
allowed Cal-com to see in wavelengths that his natural eyes could not. Those
eyes still saw through the crystal-like implant, for otherwise they would
atrophy, with the sensory enhancements being added to the visual input from the
device and being smoothed together by the processing circuitry just beneath the
ports that functioned off of the charging bead as well.

With the new bead in place he reinserted the small
pylons into the ports and sealed the visor back in place with a double click.
Good to go he walked out of the prep area and headed towards the nearest
transit terminal, finding one some 40 seconds of walking away.

It was a personal model, barely larger than his rest
chamber, and when Cal-com stepped in he had the cover seal over him and an
options menu arise on the panel before him. He chose the oracle and the tiny
pod whisked him away through the monstrous conglomerate that was thousands of
individual base ships and a scattering of specialized ones that could be
configured into various combinations to suit battle needs. All of them had been
designed to be interconnected, with them now forming a giant jumpship/warship
that was traveling between stars.

The command center on the conglomerate was the oracle,
which Cal-com got to with only a bit more walking after exiting the pod. When
he arrived he stepped through a circular door and into a wide open plain that
only had a few workstations popping up here and there, with most of the 5 acre
wide area simply being empty, which was due to their being in transit. During
battle conditions this chamber would be packed with personnel, though it
wouldn’t be this large.

Cal-com walked over to what looked like a random
section of floor and knelt down, pressing his hand into a soft panel and
triggering a transformation. A pedestal and two display monitors rose up out of
the floor and gave him his command station which he quickly pulled up the
scouting reports on…seeing as Hem-
ra
had said, a much
larger Skarron fleet than had been anticipated. It was still within their power
to handle, but the amount of warships they were throwing at the Humans was
beginning to mount towards the level they were attacking the Voku with…to no
avail.

The Humans were temporarily weaker than the Voku but
the Elders had said they would grow stronger if they were preserved, and given
what little time he had spent with them, especially warlord Paul, he didn’t
doubt it. Never before had the Elders led the Voku astray, and while still
somewhat primitive in technology the Humans had shown considerable ingenuity in
their combat strategies and weapons development.

Keeping them alive long enough to become a worthy ally
was his duty, though he didn’t have as large of a fleet as required to fight
the battles for them. The Humans and their less capable allies were fighting
two major enemies at the same time and playing for a defensive engagement while
creating a safe zone in which to continue building and advancing. In Cal-com’s
opinion it was a wise play, but they were outmatched heavily, with the only
reason they’d survived this long without being overrun is that their enemies
didn’t consider them to be as dangerous as the Elders indicated that they would
become in time.

Ignorance had turned the tide of many wars before and
it had served the Humans well thus far, but as both the Skarron and Cajdital lightly
probed the Humans’ territory and discovered the level of resistance they could
offer their ignorance was diminishing and their military assets being deployed were
increasing. Soon, Cal-com feared, there would be too many enemies for the
Humans to handle, despite their skills.

Without being able to directly protect them the Voku
commander had to assist them. He couldn’t win it with the few troops he had,
but he could do things to help
them
win…which is what this current mission was designed to do in that it would buy
them additional time to increase their defenses and further develop their technology.

He only had 72 conglomerates at present to work with,
and he was bringing 43 of them with him now, given the importance of hitting
the Skarrons hard in order to diminish losses. The increase in fleet strength
on the scouting reports worried him, but not in the overall outcome. He didn’t
like the attrition that would ensure amongst his forces, so he spent many hours
reworking their battle plans and running
sims…
most of
which did not turn out favorable.

Frustrated, he kept up the effort until it was time
that he needed to get in his daily workouts. He wanted to stay and work, but
training was the lifeblood of his race…something the Elders had taught them
long ago, and he wasn’t going to forsake their lessons out of eagerness or
worry. Mentally setting aside the task at hand he left the oracle and cleansed
his mind of naval concerns as he delved into a myriad of physical training
exercises, letting his muscle take priority and drive his purpose for a long
period of time.

He returned to the oracle afterwards and found, as he
did most times, that his point of view had shifted as a result. Sometimes he
lost his previous insights, but this time was one in which a fresh perspective
was a welcome change. Reassessing nearly everything he had been trying to do in
simulations previously, he went an entirely different way then started pulling
back towards what he had originally planned.

He hit the sweet spot somewhere in between…as far as
sims
were concerned. The real enemy was unpredictable, but
the Voku had had enough experience fighting them on the border of their own
territory to program a computer enemy that mimicked their fighting styles
adequately. Still, there was no way to know for sure what would happen when
battle actually commenced aside from wading into it and working the problems as
they arose.

Cal-com finished his simulations for the cycle and
retreated to another section of the massive ship where he dealt with his
subordinates and the maintenance of the vessels and the troops they contained.
Such detail work was necessary and he never felt comfortable letting others
handle such things, for they could make or break a campaign…and with the Elders
specifically requesting they assist the Humans the importance of this campaign
could not be overstated.

After that work was done it was time for nourishment
and additional training, with him spending time in both physical activities and
in simulator work…not the speculative assaults he’d been planning, but in
combat games with other members of the crew designed to keep their skills sharp
during the long down times in between planetside activity. Cal-com often
piloted one of their Stranom mechs in the games and had an average ranking,
given that it wasn’t his specialty. That fact that he could hold par impressed
those with more experience than him in that type of combat and he liked to mix
it up with them in the games, both to gage their capabilities in order to know
how to best assess what they could and couldn’t do in missions he’d be
assigning them, as well as to push his own skills and learn from those superior
to him in their fields of specialty.

When it came to fleet operations he had few equals, so
it was usually him instructing and training others, including those on his
advisory staff. This cycle there was none of that, with them focusing on the
mission prep, so Cal-com satisfied himself by indulging in the games for many
hours up until his 79 hour day was complete and it was time he returned to the
rest ward.

When he returned to a random tube he sealed it over
him and deactivated the gravity with the sound suppression canceling out all
exterior interference. In a well-practiced mode, Cal-com retreated within his
own mind, cutting out most sensory stimuli and slipping into a vulnerable yet
deep rest. The armor plating on the tubes and the internal locking mechanisms
insured that no one could mess with him other than offering a soft tone to get
his attention. Not having to worry about physical threat the Voku could lower
their mental barriers and engage in a healing trance that allowed them to
recover far quicker than had they attempted to do
so on
the battlefield. In only 15 hours Cal-com woke again to a soft, preprogrammed
chime which brought him slowly back to reality and barely 30 minutes away from
system entry.

Refreshed and fully prepped, Cal-com returned to the
oracle just prior to the deceleration of the massive conglomerate against the
star, dropping them out of their drifting interstellar jump inside the
Skarron-held Achkor System. He triggered his own command center to rise up out
of the floor, containing a number of different control stations around which
his advisors situated with him taking center position and inspecting the battle
feeds while allowing his staff to handle the more basic organizational
tasks…leaving him free to watch and react as necessary.

There were no ships in orbit around the star…at least
not on the visible side, which meant their entry would go down without
incident. Cal-com’s conglomerate was the second in line to
decel
,
with the first having arrived some 20 seconds earlier. Both vessels moved in
closer to the star to clear the spacelane for the others to arrive and began a
slow transition around the perimeter of the star towards the primary jumpline
in to the planet of
Zenniza
, as the Human charts
referred to it.

If there were any hidden Skarron reconnaissance assets
they’d see the ships prepping to go in on that line, but as the others came in
some of them deployed elsewhere, jumping off to other planets as Cal-com got
additional updates from the scout ships that were already in system and now
transmitting their updated intelligence to him rather than the burst
transmissions they’d sent back along the incoming jumpline to his approaching
fleet.

These reports gave him nearly up to date positions of
the Skarron fleet and the Voku commander began tweaking his mission
assignments. At the moment the conglomerates were still together, but with new
orders going out a few tiny pieces began to break off and make microjumps of
their own elsewhere in the system. Cal-com wasn’t going for a blunt, break the
door down type assault. No, he was much
more cagey
than that, and was going to work this attack from multiple angles.

So when his conglomerate finally did make its
microjump into the planet he had them come out in extreme high orbit, getting
their first live sensor feeds and seeing what they were up against.

As expected, there was a huge Skarron fleet spaced in
clumps around orbit that was no doubt intended to transition on into the ADZ
and supplement the blockading fleets there. Cal-com also detected numerous
transport ships in orbit, with him knowing that Achkor was also a ground troop
staging system, with those transports potentially full of reinforcements being
run into the worlds that the Humans were currently defending. The more of those
he could kill in orbit the better, regardless of whether or not they were full.