Star Force: Resolution (SF89) (Star Force Origin Series) (6 page)

“Those shields are extremely specific as to how they
repel the matter. We can create a customized weapon to partially defeat them
and get some mass to their primary shields. It will add stress if delivered,
but we will have to remove the Trinx fleet and conventional defenses because a
high speed ram is out of the question. That’s what their shields are probably
set up to defend against, therefore we can’t hit them in that manner.”

“
Why can’t we
send unarmed ships or masses into them repeatedly until their energy is depleted?
”
the Dati asked.

Oni shook her head. “Do any of you know the full
strength of their power systems? We can’t try that unless we have a target
number to hit.”

“
Unfortunately
the Archon is correct
,” the cyborg said. “
We will not know the full depth of their power reserves. If they are
expecting bombardment they will have ample redundancies
.”

“Which is why we have to defeat their kinetic
shielding rather than facing it head on.”

“
Defeat how?
”
the Bpret asked.

“Strike to weaken and bypass it, not deplenish its
energy.”

“
And you have
the technology to do this?
”

“We have some, but no way to bypass their shields
entirely.”

“
We can get to
the surface
,” Pattrel reiterated. “
We
can make this problem irrelevant
.”

“If it’s going to get your people killed, I won’t allow
it,” Oni said.

“
We are willing
to assist, but that doesn’t mean we take orders from you. No disrespect
intended
.”

The Archon stared him down. “Unless we work as one,
this invasion will not happen. I will not have you or anyone else doing your
own thing and potentially upsetting the plans I have in place. Such confusion
often gets people killed.”

“
How can you get
your people in?
” the Sety asked, deflecting that point of contention for
the moment.

“
We take our
time and infiltrate the planet using their own ships. We can hide within them
without the Trinx knowing.
”

“
How do you get
to their ships in the first place?
” the cyborg asked.

“
That is what we
must determine, and it will probably come down to exploiting a moment of
opportunity once in the system. We will have to arrive under guise or stealth
to get into position to make use of an opportunity.
”

“
And what will
you use to destroy the shield generators?
” the Dati asked.

“
We have our
ways
,” Pattrel said vaguely.

“And what happens to you,” Oni asked, “after your
presence on the planet has been revealed?”

“
The
infiltrators take their chances. Our ability to move through walls that the
Trinx can’t will give them a possibility of survival until our main ground
forces arrive. They will simply have to run and hide once the deed is done
.”

“I could go down myself and take out a shield
generator,” she said with a hint of anger. “But I won’t try because even if I
succeed it would most likely be a one way trip. I will not allow troops to be
sacrificed to attain an objective. This invasion must be an honorable one.
Getting through the shields from orbit will be difficult, but with proper
planning and construction it can be done. I am confident of that.”

“
And if you are
wrong?
” the Yisv asked.

“Then no one dies and we blockade their planets while
we look for another way.”

“
I am fairly
confident the Yisv could succeed
,” the
Domu
said.
“
But I do not think they could do so
without losses.
”

“
More to the
point
,” the Dati interrupted before Pattrel could respond. “
The Trinx know we’re coming and they’d be
stupid if they didn’t develop some warning system or countermeasure to your
abilities. You could be walking into a trap
.”

“
We will do our
part in this invasion
,” the Yisv said firmly. “
We have not been able to do much in the past, but so long as this Uriti
is sedate we will risk
planetfall
to achieve this
objective
.”

“
So all the
Trinx have to do is wake it up and you’re all neutralized
,” the Sety
pointed out.

“
If they do so
the shield generators will be compromised and we will have our entry corridor
.”

“Not worth it,” Oni said, holding up a hand to
forestall further comments, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t want your skills. I
just want to save them for situations where you can dominate the enemy.”

6

May 19, 3290

Paquat
System

Vikod
(Trinx homeworld)

Oni brought her fleet into upper orbit of the planet
after having received no challenge at the star. The warships came out of their
microjump high and began spurting drones as a handful of Trinx ships raced to
engage them, hoping to use the moment of opportunity to take down a few of them
before the Star Force fleet could get itself organized, but with Oni’s command
ship leading the way and actually initiating the combat, she was able to draw
fire to her and give the leading warships the time they needed.

Soon a swarm of the little boxy rectangles moved
forward and intercepted the Trinx vessels before the command ship’s shields
fell. Battle continued briefly then the Trinx retreated back down to a lower
orbit leaving a handful of partially intact ships behind. Oni tagged them for
retrieval and rescue operations after some precision weaponsfire plucked their
remaining weapon systems from use even before the allied ships of the Chamra
began to arrive.

There were a fair number of them, but when combined
with the ships of the other seven races, including only the three warships the
Sety had managed to provide, they massed nearly half again the strength Star
Force had brought with them and when all were visible in orbit they made for an
impressive display.

But just as impressive were the orbital defenses. The
Trinx had a small fleet here, either held back from the previous assault they
had launched or created since then. Immediately Oni saw a weakness and turned
her ships towards a position in mid orbit, highlighting several defense
platforms to neutralize without totally destroying as she sent surrender offers
that were promptly ignored. Her drones went in while the allies stayed behind,
on her order, so no living crews were lost. By massing drones Oni was able to
keep her equipment losses to a minimum but oddly the Trinx fleet did not
redeploy to intercept them.

Not that it would have mattered, but they were sitting
lower in orbit near to other facilities while Oni was successfully surrounding
their primary shipyard. As soon as she had the fixed defensive emplacements
knocked down she called in their allies and they began boarding operations as
she moved on to pluck a few more defensive installations from the Trinx arsenal
here and there on the fringes of their primary cluster. She wasn’t going to
make the mistake of diving in and slugging it out, but was content to take on a
handful while the boarding parties began capturing the surviving Trinx crews.

Taking out the weapons shooting at them was one thing,
but simply blowing away the defense stations was quite another and had been
strictly banned on Oni’s orders prior to arriving in this system. So far the
other races were sticking to plan and following her lead, but there were so
many defense stations in orbit of their capitol planet that it was going to be
like chopping wood to get through them all…not to mention the lesser defenses
around the other inhabited planets in the system.

But the Trinx fleet, aside from that initial attack,
did not move to engage. They could not win, and it was obvious, but they didn’t
come to the aid of their defense stations and the crews on them. Rather they
simply held position and Oni was beginning to wonder what their angle was.

Right now the planet was covered in layered energy
shields, sealed up nice and tight against whatever the attacking fleet could
throw at it and ready to punish them if they got too close with a host of
ground-based batteries. Oni had her Bra’hem-equipped Devastator still parked
back at the star with an escort fleet to keep it out of the fighting until
called for, which wouldn’t be for weeks, if not months, as they slowly picked
away the orbital defenses. Then they’d get their chance to start pounding on
the planetary shields, but right now the Trinx fleet, consisting of some 228
visible vessels, was a wild card.

What were they going to do and why hadn’t they done it
yet?

With the shipyard boarding parties reporting back that
they were successfully incapacitating the crew with a mix of Star Force units
and Yisv skirmishers, only to be collected and imprisoned by the other races, a
prompt in her command nexus brought her attention to activity on the planet’s
surface. Barely a minute after that warning the Trinx fleet suddenly moved…down
towards the planetary shields.

They parted and let them through, then the ships began
firing on surface targets in what looked to be some type of ground fight that
had broken out a moment ago.

Oni got links to the fleet commanders with a thought
and had
holos
for them ringing her as she looked at
them grimly, her eyes finally landing on the Yisv.

“Do any of you have troops on the ground?”

“We do not,” the Yisv said, then the others chimed in
with similar negatives, “but we are seeing the activity there. We have no
explanation.”

“I don’t need excuses, I need the truth,” she pressed,
wishing they were here instead of in holo and she could just read their minds. “If
you are running a simultaneous operation you will tell me now or I’ll make you
regret it, I promise you.”

“We did not infiltrate the planet,” the Yisv said
firmly.

“They are firing on their own buildings,” the Sety
pointed out.

“And the only reason I can see for that,” the cyborg
offered, “is that those buildings have been compromised by an infiltrating
army. It is not ours, I promise you that. Whoever made it down there has
considerable skill that I admit to being envious of.”

“I repeat,” the Yisv said firmly. “We do not have
troops or anyone else down there, nor do we know what is happening.”

“Whatever it is,” Oni said, trying to read them by
their visual cues…which was hard when she wasn’t all that familiar with their
races, “they felt the need to bring down their fleet to assist. My limited data
suggest these facilities that they’re targeting are not strategic?”

“No,” the Jonstar said, puzzled. “They’re nothing of
merit unless they contain systems that we are not aware of. They are not even
near the planetary defenses.”

“Does anyone know what these structures are?”

“No,” the cyborg said regretfully. “The Trinx have
never been forthcoming with data concerning their planets. Their isolationist
tendency has kept many aspects of their society in the dark.”

“The fighting is not near the Hamoriti site,” the Dati
pointed out.

“Be thankful for that. Could this be one of the races
present in the Preserve?”

“Possible,” Oni admitted. “But unless they lied to me,
the Knights of Quenar were sitting this one out until we’re ready to move the
Uriti.”

“They have extensive cloaking technology,” the Sety
pointed out. “They could have infiltrated the planet prior to our arrival.”

“That they could,” Oni said, clenching her fist. “But
if they, or whoever this is, is trying to aid our assault, what are they going
for in those buildings?”

“Perhaps the Trinx set up some ambushes for our ground
troops in innocuous places.”

“Hold on a moment,” Oni said, putting all the
holograms on pause while she keyed another
comm
channel. “This is Archon Oni-081 to any Knights of Quenar vessel or unit in the
system. Please respond.”

She wasn’t sure she’d get a response, but after a
short delay a single ship appeared on sensors far up in planetary orbit away
from all the fighting.

“What is it that you require, Archon?”

“Do you have troops on the surface?”

“You requested that we not take part in the invasion,
and we have honored that request. We are only here to observe, and had you not
contacted us directly we would not have revealed ourselves.”

“We’re picking up surface fighting but no one is
claiming responsibility for it.”

“Do you require our assistance?”

“Not militarily. Do you have any knowledge of who is
down there?”

“No outsiders have been detected.”

Oni raised an eyebrow. “How close have you gotten?”

“Close enough,” he said, suggesting to Oni that they
had more than one ship hidden in the system, for at this one’s current position
they couldn’t get very good readings of surface activity save for the large
explosions resulting from the Trinx warfleet.

“Thank you,” she said, ending that communication and
putting the fleet commanders back on. “There appears to be no visible sign of
an invading army.”

“Based on what surveillance?” the
Domu
asked.

“The Knights of Quenar are here, as you probably saw,”
she added as their ship disappeared again. “But they claim to be observing only
and they haven’t spotted anyone else involved.”

“There are other races with considerable stealth
technology that have shown up in the Preserve,” the cyborg pointed out. “And
from orbit it is almost impossible to pick out such things on surface streets,
let alone in buildings.”

“Granted. What are the odds that this is Trinx
fighting Trinx?”

That possibility left all the fleet commanders
stunned, with no one offering a response.

“A possibility that we have to consider,” Oni finally
added, “but not one that I’m convinced of. Recommendations as to how we
proceed?”

“This is surface activity and therefore doesn’t affect
our immediate goals,” the cyborg deduced. “We do not deviate from plan until we
are in a position to assault the planetary shield generators.”

“Agreed,” the Bpret echoed.

“Are any of your boarding parties having trouble?”

“Given that your troops are doing most of the
fighting,” the Jonstar said with mild objection, “we have taken nothing more
than light casualties, and I am speaking for the whole of us on retrieval
duty.”

“Define ‘light?’”

“A few minor injuries resulting from facility damage.
Your ability to incapacitate their troops so easily is to be commended.”

“We’ve had a lot of practice,” Oni stated. “We
continue with operations here and monitor the planet. If any of you spot the
other faction in this ground battle I want to know immediately. Patience is key
here, let’s exercise it and keep picking off their defenses slowly as we see
what develops below.”

“Shall we deploy scouts to the other planets?” the Dati
asked.

Oni nodded. “Good idea. Snoop around but don’t
engage.”

“We will handle it,” he said before others could
volunteer.

“Alright then, let’s get back to work.”

3 weeks later…

Oni was in her command ship’s sanctum when word came
through, delivered via another Archon that interrupted her automated sparring
session. She shut down the robotic opponents and headed straight to the bridge
not caring that she was dripping with sweat. When she into linked into the
nexus she found a Trinx hologram waiting for her and she regarded the red-skinned
alien quizzically.

“I’m listening,” she said stiffly.

“Will you allow negotiation?”

Oni raised an eyebrow. “The Yisv already tried to
negotiate and were rebuffed. What has changed?”

“Our leadership,” the Trinx said darkly. “I do not
speak for those that you’ve previously had contact with.”

“By contact you mean those that attacked us?”

The Trinx nodded. “And those that were contacted
through diplomatic means. I represent a faction of loyalists who are currently
attempting to depose our insane leaders. Will you negotiate a separate
settlement with us?”

“The fighting on the surface is internal then?”

“It is.”

“Who controls your warships?”

“The opposition.”

“Who’s winning?”

“We outnumber them and are galvanizing support from
the general population. We have no wish to see our world destroyed and are
trying to save our people before this invasion lays waste to the planet. While
we do not have control yet, I am asking if we can come to terms to avoid
conflict.”

“What sort of terms?”

“That is what I am asking you. What options will you
allow us?”

“What is your name and position?”

“I am Chosan, former commander of the Hamoriti
containment forces.”

“Former?”

“When I refused to assault your control vessel and
endanger the Chixzon I was removed from command. While we have no formal
structure, I am the unofficial leader of the rebellion.”

“So you were responsible for sending wave after wave
of Li’vorkrachnika to their deaths?”

“I was.”

“I do not find that fact reassuring.”

The Trinx frowned. “I do not mean to bicker with those
that I am pleading with for our lives, but are you not killing them in far
greater numbers?”

“We are, but we are doing so honorably. They always
have the option to surrender, but they choose not to take it.”

“Those that I sent to die chose that end.”

“They use many dishonorable tactics, which is one
reason we are fighting them. A race as advanced as yours I would hope to know
better.”

“We had no other choice,” Chosan said simply, “but if
there is blame to be had I accept it.”

Oni looked at his hologram for a silent moment, trying
to size him up. “We did not come here to kill you, we came here to conquer you
and end the threat you pose. Our boarding parties are equipped with stun
weapons and the captives will be taken out of the system to a holding
facility.”

The Trinx looked stunned. “I do not mean offense, but
what cause do you have for such mercy?”

“It’s the way we fight. We would do the same with the
Li’vorkrachnika if they didn’t kill themselves once captured.”

“What end did you intend for us?”

“Your sovereignty will be revoked. Our invasion line
into Li’vorkrachnika territory will be entering this region soon and we cannot
risk having your ships striking us where we are weak. You must therefore be
neutralized, but that doesn’t mean murdered. We are taking possession of this
system, and while some of you may die, and already have, it was through combat
of your choosing. Every defense station we have assaulted was ordered to stand
down and surrender, to which they refused.”