it sitting in here so they might as well let them head on down
to the planet where they could do some good, otherwise they’d just be target
practice in here or their quarters.
The Calavari’s frustration
turned to dread as another target at the first jumppoint materialized on
sensors, with this being a second assault pillar amongst even more waves of
cruisers.
“What the hell is going on?” he said angrily, knowing
that they should have had some ships covering the star. It took some doing, but
he adjusted the battlemap to give him the lag-delayed data from stellar orbit
and his jaw dropped when he saw how many enemy jumpships there were. No more
incoming arrivals were being logged, but there were far more than he’d expected
the enemy to have available to counter attack with, especially after only 3
weeks.
The Calavari ships that had been there were gone, but
a quick check of stats indicated that they had redeployed elsewhere rather than
stay and get destroyed…which was smart. With the two Sentinels up and running
this was going to be a good fight that could go either way, but regardless of
who came out on top Uxtral’s fleet was going to get
trashed in the process.
But so be it. The fight was here and the more lizards
they killed…
Then the Calavari pilot saw the other large contacts
sitting around the star as they waited their turn in the long lines heading to
multiple jumppoints. There were three more assault pillars on the way, plus a
second invoker.
So much for the lizards poking around and
experimenting. The Calavari had wanted to hit them hard, and it looked like
they were counterpunching in the same fashion. Uxtral figured the ground
assault was now permanently off, with his transport and others probably going
to evacuate the system while the navy played with the enemy for a while. They
weren’t going to waste two Sentinels, but he didn’t think there was much of a
chance of them winning out, despite their range advantage with the cleansing
beams.
The lizard cruisers could compensate for that by
running ahead and screening for the bigger ships, and if more than one assault
pillar targeted a Sentinel at the same time it was unlikely that both could be
taken down before it was taken out. Add in the invokers that would rip apart
any drone warships that got within short weapons range, meaning their maulers
and talon cannons were going to be useless against them.
Just as Uxtral was mentally calculating the strategic
advantages that the lizards had his display lit up with a countdown just before
his transport made a microjump down into low orbit. He was so confused that he
didn’t register the deployment orders for several seconds, then blinked away
invisible haze over his eyes as he confirmed that it was telling him that they
were going to drop into the atmosphere and clear the way for the troop
transports to land.
Battlemap data was shunted his way showing swarms of
wisps near the target area and part of his mind immediately flipped into combat
mode while the rest was screaming out in panic, knowing that their naval fleet
was about to get their ass kicked.
He didn’t know what his commanders were thinking, but
he wanted to trust them…he just had no idea what angle they could possibly be
playing with all of this.
Uxtral was ready to fight though, and with the
countdown ticking off the seconds until they were in position for release he
committed himself to his part while hoping this whole thing didn’t turn into a
bloody mess. A few seconds later that bad feeling reversed itself as a rare but
familiar sound played out into his cockpit and every other cockpit and control
station throughout the Calavari fleet as more incoming jumps were registered on
the battlemap.
These weren’t lizard though, they were mainline Star
Force coming out of odd and difficult jumplines directly into ganking positions, and they were broadcasting the Imperial
March as both reassurance that they had the Calavari’s back
to the planet where they could do some good, otherwise they’d just be target
practice in here or their quarters.
The Calavari’s frustration
turned to dread as another target at the first jumppoint materialized on
sensors, with this being a second assault pillar amongst even more waves of
cruisers.
“What the hell is going on?” he said angrily, knowing
that they should have had some ships covering the star. It took some doing, but
he adjusted the battlemap to give him the lag-delayed data from stellar orbit
and his jaw dropped when he saw how many enemy jumpships there were. No more
incoming arrivals were being logged, but there were far more than he’d expected
the enemy to have available to counter attack with, especially after only 3
weeks.
The Calavari ships that had been there were gone, but
a quick check of stats indicated that they had redeployed elsewhere rather than
stay and get destroyed…which was smart. With the two Sentinels up and running
this was going to be a good fight that could go either way, but regardless of
who came out on top Uxtral’s fleet was going to get
trashed in the process.
But so be it. The fight was here and the more lizards
they killed…
Then the Calavari pilot saw the other large contacts
sitting around the star as they waited their turn in the long lines heading to
multiple jumppoints. There were three more assault pillars on the way, plus a
second invoker.
So much for the lizards poking around and
experimenting. The Calavari had wanted to hit them hard, and it looked like
they were counterpunching in the same fashion. Uxtral figured the ground
assault was now permanently off, with his transport and others probably going
to evacuate the system while the navy played with the enemy for a while. They
weren’t going to waste two Sentinels, but he didn’t think there was much of a
chance of them winning out, despite their range advantage with the cleansing
beams.
The lizard cruisers could compensate for that by
running ahead and screening for the bigger ships, and if more than one assault
pillar targeted a Sentinel at the same time it was unlikely that both could be
taken down before it was taken out. Add in the invokers that would rip apart
any drone warships that got within short weapons range, meaning their maulers
and talon cannons were going to be useless against them.
Just as Uxtral was mentally calculating the strategic
advantages that the lizards had his display lit up with a countdown just before
his transport made a microjump down into low orbit. He was so confused that he
didn’t register the deployment orders for several seconds, then blinked away
invisible haze over his eyes as he confirmed that it was telling him that they
were going to drop into the atmosphere and clear the way for the troop
transports to land.
Battlemap data was shunted his way showing swarms of
wisps near the target area and part of his mind immediately flipped into combat
mode while the rest was screaming out in panic, knowing that their naval fleet
was about to get their ass kicked.
He didn’t know what his commanders were thinking, but
he wanted to trust them…he just had no idea what angle they could possibly be
playing with all of this.
Uxtral was ready to fight though, and with the
countdown ticking off the seconds until they were in position for release he
committed himself to his part while hoping this whole thing didn’t turn into a
bloody mess. A few seconds later that bad feeling reversed itself as a rare but
familiar sound played out into his cockpit and every other cockpit and control
station throughout the Calavari fleet as more incoming jumps were registered on
the battlemap.
These weren’t lizard though, they were mainline Star
Force coming out of odd and difficult jumplines directly into ganking positions, and they were broadcasting the Imperial
March as both reassurance that they had the Calavari’s back
Similar Books
