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

Force could
match.
    And he had to…for the Skarrons were learning. They
knew they had to attack the planet periodically to draw Paul’s forces out from
the Sentinels and had done so this time with an insertion of several warships
into the atmosphere to bombard ground troops, which was something that Paul
wasn’t going to allow. Likewise, when Paul had attempted the same thing the
Skarrons had come down into atmosphere to stop him. Neither side was going to
allow the naval game to be played in atmosphere, though that hadn’t stopped
Paul from getting in a few quick strikes here and there.
    The Skarrons knew Paul would react when they went to
ground and he had to send his fleet out from the Sentinels’ protective radius
to get after them. The point had been to draw them out so the Skarrons could
eat up a few of his ships, for they knew that if he was allowed to pool them in
safety as more Star Force reinforcements gradually trickled in then their
technological edge would tip the scales of the stalemate to their advantage.
Thus they had to keep an attrition rate on the naval forces while their ground
ops continued.
    But the reverse was also true, for if Paul allowed the
Skarron reinforcements to build their fleet to insane numbers then they could
conceivably take down a Sentinel with far less casualties than he was counting
on. The whole idea of the Sentinel defense grid was to make the enemy pay a
heavy price to remove them from orbit, but the more weapons they had in play to
throw against one the quicker it would go down, thus preserving more of their
ships.
    So Paul had to eat away at the Skarron fleet, and the
Skarron fleet had to eat away at Paul’s and the Dvapp’s .
His ally’s wasn’t linked into the Star Force battlemap the same way the drone
fleet was, but with dozens of movement and targeting orders going out of his
mind per second some were going to the Dvapp fleet none the less, with both
races working out a shorthand that Paul could use to quickly communicate with
them.
    At the moment the fighting was in a gap between
Sentinels and just above the atmosphere. Paul had driven their in-atmosphere
warships back up…or crashing down in some cases, with the fight turning into a
moving slugging match. Both sides were making constant adjustments, with Paul
needing to get his drones in close to make use of the talon and mauler cannons.
Given that Skarron armor was designed to be plasma resistant, more than a third
of the drones in Paul’s fleet were a special variety built with no plasma
weapons whatsoever. They had a mix of Ta’lin’yi, maulers, rail guns, and
missiles, making them very hard hitters in close range.
    The Skarrons knew this by now and were constantly
moving ships back to outside the talon and mauler range so they could hit them
with their plasma. That kept the whole mess of battling ships constantly
moving…with new groups coming in from both sides to try and blindside the
others. Right now Paul had a group of 52 Dvapp ships coming in to counter the
range differential with their Sammies. When they started to engage the Skarron
ships from the rear the enemy had a choice. Move in closer to plasma range or
run.
    They chose run, knowing that if they went head to head
with the Dvapp they’d have to hold position and Paul’s short-range sluggers
would come after them. To counter the run the Skarrons were bringing more ships
down into low orbit to hit the Dvapp from the top side, forcing Paul to choose
from reinforcing them or chasing the fleeing lower group.
    That sort of back and forth chess match had been going
on for more than two hours with both sides losing ships…but the Skarrons were
losing far more. That didn’t necessarily mean a win, for Paul had to average
nearly a 14 to 1 kill ratio just to hold even with the reinforcement rate the
Skarrons were getting. He was near to that at the moment, but he needed more
and was tweaking formations and targeting assignments all across the