Star Force 82 Hradeiti (SF82) (Star Force Origin Series) Read Online Free Page A

happened Paul knew it was time to go. He still worried about a lizard counterattack on this system, but so far none had come and he couldn’t wait any longer. Some more regular fleets had arrived to supplement the system’s defenses and guard the ground troops as they made an ever increasing bid to eradicate the lizards from the planet, so Paul felt comfortable taking two thirds of his surviving fleet out of planetary and stellar orbit and assembling them at an exiting jumppoint. Megan and Jack would be staying behind to oversee the further conquest of this system but Paul had to leave with the bulk of the advanced fleet he’d been given.
           Knowing that the system was in good hands short of a massive reinforcement effort, he assembled his jumpships with their drones tucked safely onboard and jumped out, heading across several other lizard systems and knowing that they would probably relay their presence ahead of their progress via the lizards’ interstellar comm system but this time it didn’t matter, for there were already Star Force warships at their destination system.
           They didn’t control stellar orbit, so rather than fight a large scale battle there Paul had his fleet make a very slow final jump and come out in middle orbit far from the star in the center of the Jenspat System where Roger had been whittling away at the lizard fleet for years. It was also a core world with an equally large defense fleet that had subsequently been reduced by over a third despite the ongoing construction taking place. Convoys were still coming and going, bringing in raw materials and taking out finished products, new ships, and more ground troops. None of them were heading to the system Paul had left, but obviously the lizards were still reinforcing something somewhere, as Roger had been informing him all along via a relay seda that had been sitting in this system and keeping the three naval masterminds in delayed, yet constant contact with one another.
           It took a long time for Paul’s fleet to come out of its jump and get assembled, with some of Roger’s ships waiting for them and driving off any lizards that finally found their way out to their arrival point. No massive response took place, for the lizards didn’t seem to be trying too hard to kill Roger’s ships, mainly buying time to keep their shipyard rings active, for this system had two planets with rings, and they desperately needed to keep the supply chain flowing. So long as Roger didn’t make any massive assaults against infrastructure or try to blockade the star the lizard fleets held position and had taken on a defensive posture aside from some constant light probing actions against the invaders.
           But now it was time to change that, so once Paul’s fleet got assembled he coordinated with Roger and moved down into stellar orbit and hit the lizard fleet there straight on. No subtlety or tricks, just a direct assault that had him and his Dre’mo’don-heavy drones cutting like a buzz saw through the enemy that Roger had done a good job of reducing in number. That, combined with the increased ship count thanks to Paul’s fleet, gave Star Force an advantage it wasn’t going to squander.
           To their credit the lizards didn’t blink, nor did they just sit back and watch. They reinforced the star, deciding to make their stand there and try to overwhelm the combined Star Force fleets. It was really their only play, for if they didn’t go all in and stellar orbit was taken, their convoys should shut down and this system would be off the grid anyway, after which point all they could do was hope to take some of the Star Force ships with them as they were eventually destroyed.
           To the rest of the lizard empire the system would have been lost as soon as it was cut off and the two rings were no longer accessible to the trade routes. Time now was on Star Force’s side, with a blockade equaling a win,