Star Force: Backdoor (SF53) Read Online Free Page A

to make the kill with the aquatic mech letting them
finish it off as it retreated back to shore.
    Meanwhile the Reen finally got to the city, with their
mechs breaking off into two groups. One went to fight the walkers outside while
the other led the Reen inside and began patrolling the main streets and sniping
infantry where they could. A host of navigational beacons and target icons
popped up on the Axius battlemap and the Reen broke up and headed out on
individual assignments to aid the Star Force infantry already in the city…and
to hunt the Skarron elites who looked like tin cans compared to the armored
Reen.
    No Axius small-scale infantry had been deployed to the
city, but their large scale supplemented the mainline units there and broke
through any strongholds/barricades that the Skarrons had laid down with ease,
supplemented by the mechs that had come in with them. Though larger, the Reen
could wiggle their way into everywhere the Skarrons could go, leaving only the
Hobbits for the regular infantry to hunt down inside the buildings.
    The slaughter of the walkers on the exterior was
mirrored on the inside, with the latter taking much longer to execute given the
sheer size of the city and ample opportunities for the enemy to hide out. Not
long after the beatdown began the Skarrons responded strongly, throwing their
aerial superiority down on the city with waves of hundreds of fighters sniping
the Reen, Ikrotor, and mechs…with all taking cover inside the city walls and
hiding behind buildings as the mechs returned anti-air fire, downing many of
the Skarron’s bulky fighters that then crashed into the city, wrecking building
exteriors but not damaging the beefy superstructures.
    The city defense shield was down and would stay down
until repairs could be made, but for the moment it was Star Force territory
again…with distant enemy walkers and troop transports mobilizing to come in and
take it back in the days to come. Shield or no shield they were going to push
Star Force back off the continent, but for the moment all they had to strike
back with was fighters, which they spammed heavily.
    Eventually the Axius fighter squadrons made their way
over to the city and began chewing into those swarms, culminating with an
hour-long feeding frenzy that eventually saw the Skarrons retreat with the
armor on the Ikrotor having been chewed up considerably. The Reen had managed
to avoid most of the incoming fire while the mechs were middle ground, being
enough of a threat to the fighters to make them keep a little distance, but
also taking some damage when their shields went down.
    The Ikrotor armor wasn’t exactly easy to replace, but
none of them had been injured and the city was theirs. With cleanup of the
smaller units still to be finished, the Axius troops stayed on location to
assist then headed back over to their armadillos for repair patch work on their
armor and provisions. A few hours after that the ships took off, repositioning
elsewhere on the planet while allowing others to hold the city. When the hammer
came back down on them the giant infantry and their mechs would return, but
until then there were other engagement zones to gank…and they planned to milk
their size advantage as much as they could until the Skarrons learned to adapt
to it.

 

 
    3

 
 
    May 26, 2549
    Jennit System (Dvapp
territory)
    Urrit

 
    Paul sat in the command nexus onboard the Excalibur , having found that standing
was too much of a distraction, as he directed a large scale orbital assault.
The raised platform that he sat crosslegged on was a new addition to the nexus
and brought him up to a level head height to where he normally stood, but his
eyes were closed and not looking at the numerous holographic displays
encircling him. His hands were forward and resting on the Ikrid interface
sphere, linking him to the ship’s computer system as he issued orders, some to
crew and others to automated devices, at a rate that no one in Star