Star Force: Evacuation (SF50)

1

May 2, 2536

Gwet
System (Delta
Region)

Inner Zone

Riona-111 read the message from the Hycre on her
command chair’s personal display then nodded to the Admiral, indicating for
them to make the jump. Her warship and the others in the assault armada leapt
off the largest of the three stars at system’s center and crossed the short gap
to the desert world of
Leonis
where the Hycre fleet
was just finishing up with the lizard incursion, tearing apart what looked like
three battle stations in low orbit while chasing dozens of other ships as they
fled down towards the surface.

Like the message had said, the road was plowed…now it
was time to bring in the convoy.

Riona searched the updated map, receiving new data
from the Hycre as well as from the
Adamant
’s
sensors as the
Melee
-class warship led
a handful of Star Force
Warship
-class
jumpships into planetary orbit ahead of the troop transports that were to
follow a few minutes later. The warships moved out into escort positions for
the incoming ships while the
Adamant
moved down to low orbit as Riona quickly picked her position.

Three months ago a routine scouting expedition through
the ADZ had picked up lizard activity in this system, which was on the very
edge of the upper curve of the sphere that made up the Alliance Defense Zone.
It was an uninhabited system, but it lay inside their ‘line in the sand’ and
signaled that the lizards were attempting to bypass existing strongholds and
make a push towards the nearest Alliance worlds, though none were close to
Gwet
. Greg had assumed it was an attempt at creating a
stepping stone in closer to the prime worlds, and one that had to be gotten rid
of.

How many other incursions there
were
Star Force didn’t know. They could only patrol so many, with the lizards having
had at least a few months head start setting up here before they’d been
discovered…and had they not had scout ships out and about in the ADZ the
incursion could have gotten considerably more advanced prior to their finding
out. Greg had counted them lucky that they’d picked it up when they did and
assigned Riona to taking care of it while he and the trailblazers mounted other
assaults outside the ADZ ‘encouraging’ the enemy to fight them there rather
than inside their borders.

Underscoring the importance of this mission, Greg had
loaned her a
Melee
-class…something
that Riona had never had the privilege of commanding before. It was here, not
to cleanse the lizard fleet from orbit, for the Hycre were just finishing up
that, but to protect the ground troops and secure the system while they fought
on the surface…though in point, that was going to be Admiral
Bocco’s
job, for she was going down to the surface with one
of the teams for cleaning duty. Which one yet was still to be determined, with
Riona assuming she’d end up wherever they encountered the most trouble.

When the ship settled into low orbit it decelerated
into a temporary hover, something the big ship wasn’t well suited for, nor had
it been designed to enter the atmosphere…though Liam had assured her it could
do so in a pinch if necessary. She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary, but a
piece of the ship was going down and Riona was riding it all the way to the
surface drop zone.

The armor plates on the center underside of the huge
warship began to peel back slowly like a metallic ripple, exposing the armored
hull beneath that eventually began to detach once the opening was clear. The 2
mile wide center ‘plug’ of the ship pulled out from the giant donut and began
to descend into the atmosphere as the
Adamant
then accelerated laterally to get itself back into a proper drift orbit.

According to sensor reports, mainly comprised by the
Hycre but now being backed up by Star Force’s own, there were over 1200
grounded lizard cruisers in some 833 surface facilities that were busily
recreating the sandy landscape into infrastructure. A few of those facilities
already had full-fledged bases set up with defense shields, while most of the others
were either still under construction or building underground where orbital
bombardment wouldn’t reach. Riona had ordered assaults on the exposed ones from
orbit, with her taking the
Adamant
’s
‘TF’ dropship down into an open area of the surface situated between three of
the largest bases.

It landed on hundreds of thick leg-like pylons,
sinking down into the sand and requiring some finesse by the pilot to get the
ship to sit level. Once it did doors opened up all around the exterior and
troops began to pour out as anti-air batteries all over the dropship began
shooting down the lizard fighters coming out from their bases to engage the
dropship.

Riona left the ship in a skeet, zipping out of a
special aerial bay and into clean air a moment before she saw an approaching
enemy cruiser on the horizon get skewered by a cleansing beam from orbit. The
ship listed to port and smashed down into the sands, taking one of several out
of the sky that were approaching as rail gun rounds began to fall on the others
and would continue to do so until they got within the perimeter line…after that
it was up to the dropship and its defenses to keep them off the ground
pounders, which is why Riona had decided to go pilot today rather than sit on
the ground and hope not to get shot.

She flew the neutral grey skeet away from the dropship
as fast as she could then dove into a cloud of approaching wisps along with two
other pilots, unafraid of the mass of 200+ fighters. They peppered her shields
with tiny green plasma blasts, but the advanced matrix that protected her tiny
craft absorbed all of the plasma fire that hit it and was thirsty for more.
After a long time trying, Mark had finally got the techs to work out a plasma
resistant shield setting, allowing the skeets to transition back and forth
between ‘normal’ shields and the anti-plasma variety, and with it Riona felt
very safe amongst the enemy that relied almost entirely on plasma.

Their warships were known to carry some missiles at
times, but the fighters only had plasma weapons. Combined with her craft’s
maulers and hyper lachar, the skeets were clearly the superior fighter, so much
so that they literally gobbled up the lizard wisps, leaving Riona with a target
rich environment that she eagerly dove into and began racking up kills with
ease, for the maneuvering capability of the skeets were also greater.

Riona was in a standard fighter, but coming out of the
dropship were also anti-air versions specifically designed to shoot down
missiles and other fighters, with those pilots heading directly for the swarms
along with her while the anti-infantry and anti-mech versions held back as a
secondary screen around the dropship, also capable of eating up a lot of wisps
if needed, but without that being their intended purpose.

A train of equipment poured out of the dropship at
ground level behind an army of mechs, bringing the base assault gear out and
getting it moving towards the nearest target some 28 miles away. It was going
to be a long hike for the mechs, during which they’d be picked at by the enemy,
but they were ok when dealing with airborne targets on their own and this time
they had ample fighter cover so Riona assumed they’d get to the shield
perimeter intact, though when going up against the lizards you never truly knew
what to expect.

Riona was going to get to the shield far sooner than
they would, with the defensive barrier being a flat circle riding high above
the base rather than the bubble shield that Star Force used to protect its
cities. The lizard version was designed simply to protect against orbital or
aerial bombardment, leaving its ground troops able to fight it out against
whoever dared hit them up close and in person. Creating a flat shield like that
allowed for more matrix strength, maximizing the lizards’ limited technology
and making for a potent deterrent. That said, Star Force knew it could breach
the defenses from orbit if they spent enough time pounding,

With so many bases to take out Riona wasn’t going to
waste time and ammunition hitting them from orbit…at least not all of them.
Even with cleansing beams the shields would hold up for a long time, and the
largest cleansing beams she had available were the medium grade on the
Adamant
, which could only target one
base at a time if it got really close and the weather was favorable, otherwise
the beam could be scattered, reducing its effect.

So the navy was going to pick at the surface targets
while the mechs, aerial, and commando divisions did the real house cleaning.
This opening gambit was all Star Force, intended to hit the strongest lizard
targets as well as probing to see what kind of reaction they were going to get.
What they couldn’t have was this invasion being a multi-year affair. They had
to take the lizards out quickly before they had a chance to resupply and
reinforce, otherwise this could become the beachhead for a new offensive corridor
if the enemy chose to devote enough materiel to it.

Riona didn’t know what their plans were, but the more
she could destroy before their friends had a chance to react the better, so it
was full on assault after this opening move, with the rest of the fleet waiting
in orbit for her staff on the
Adamant
to assign them landing zones and targets…and for her to give the final word.

That fleet wasn’t made up of Star Force personnel. 42%
of it was Axius, with the balance being Scionate. Only the ground troops she’d
brought down on the dropship were Star Force, given that they didn’t have so
many to go around…but they were the best by far, hence she was using them in
this initial assault to test the waters.

Riona chewed up some 6 wisps before breaking off and
making an attack run on one of the lizard cruisers that was getting a bit too
close to the TF, pulling a lot of pursuing fighters in her wake. She saw
several hits on the underside of the kilometer long yellow/tan warship from
mechs, along with a bit of mauler fire coming from other skeets as they dove
into and out of the plasma shards, able to survive short runs then circle out
and recharge their shields…allowing the skeets to literally pester the big
ships to death and the enemy knew it, hence the fighter screens that were doing
their best to overload the little fighters.

As the Archon made her first pass over top landing
some 19 mauler hits to the upper side of the hull she immediately lost her good
mojo. She’d made a run from aft to fore, with something on the ship not looking
right. Riona turned around and flew high, looking down at the top of the ship
and seeing an unfamiliar bump in the hull that had otherwise been burned into
her memory given that the lizards had used that exact design for centuries…but
now something was different.

A minute later she got her answer as to what when a
solid green lance of plasma leapt out the front of the now burning hull and
shot into the shield covering the dropship…and didn’t let up for some 13
seconds.

“What the hell?” she asked, immediately refiguring
strength numbers in her head and opening the ‘all’ comm. “Heads up, looks like
the bad guys have got some new toys. Cruisers have plasma streamers now. Keep
them off the
TF,
I don’t want it taking hull damage.
Ground convoys increase your spacing. I don’t want them laying that streamer
down on several of you at once. Make their gunners earn their hits and maintain
evasive weave to target until we knock them down.”

Riona adjusted frequencies to a secure line. “Admiral,
get a few drones in atmosphere. I need them nearby just in case.”

“Already gave the order, Archon. They’re heading to
atmosphere now.”

“Thank you,” she said, signing off and heading back at
the cruiser again. Its shields were more or less down, with small segments
coming back online with minimal power, one which she targeted and knocked down
again before peppering the hull plates with mauler fire and vaporizing more
divots into it along with toasting one of the few anti-air batteries remaining.
Between her and the other skeets it was nearly plucked of its anti-air
defenses, making their survival a bit easier even with the hundreds of wisps
circling the big ship in a desperate attempt to fend them off.

All the while the green plasma streamer was pounding the
side of the dropship. She was about to inquire why there was no return fire
when she saw several small explosions on the front end from lachar hits eating
into it like a rapid fire chain gun…but the cruiser didn’t continue to move
forward, wisely keeping out of mauler range as it continued to deliver plasma
at a greater distance than lizard weapons were typically effective from.

That said
,
the ship’s other
plasma cannons weren’t firing, which suggested it was only the streamer that
had the extended range. That was good to know, but it was still hammering the
shields on the dropship along with four other cruisers…make that three, for one
had just gone down on the north side, but there were still 17 more enroute and
only so much she and her air cover could do to hold them off if they didn’t get
close enough for the TF to eat them up with maulers.

Riona knew the dropship’s shields were solid, but
there were gaps where the troops were still coming out. Fortunately those
hadn’t been hit, but land a streamer into one of those and it’d mess up the
interior bad…not to mention killing any personnel out moving around the deck.

No, they had to keep them back, and if the lizards
weren’t so inclined then she had to take them down before they could overwhelm
the shields or go kamikaze against them.