Star Force: Resistance (SF75) Read Online Free

had chosen to set up there and were coordinating
all of the retreats to buy time to layer it with tech from the fleet in orbit
that was barely hanging on to an overhead slot.
    It was a turtling up strategy that was daring the
lizards to hit them and suffer the consequences, but it also meant that the
enemy could now land reinforcements on the far side of the planet without
contest and move them across land or air given enough time. If they tried
anything closer they’d be harassed or shot down, and even now there were some
naval groups out elsewhere around the planet and system doing just that to the
lizards, but the bulk was with the command ship Jyra was on that was protecting the ground troops and feeding them supplies. Without
them providing cover the lizards could kamikaze ram their cruisers into the
captured cities and it’d be bye bye ground troops.
    “What am I looking at?” Jyra asked.
    “A nightmare situation,” Brandon said, referencing the
entire ground campaign, “but not one without holes to exploit. We can’t do
anything about the supplies coming down from orbit, and blowing up a few on the
ground won’t do much good, but these lizard cities are still actively producing
material and warm bodies to throw at us. If we knock down even one wellspring
it could make a sizeable difference over the months to come when you do the
math.”
    “I think ‘negligible’ is the term you’re looking for,”
Leo countered.
    “We’re not going to win the war on our own,” Mace
agreed with Brandon, “but we can save our guys some trouble by taking out
factories and avoiding them having to face off against the produce later on.
Almost impossible to measure something like that, but it’ll have a real effect
so long as we don’t eventually concede the planet and withdraw.”
    Jyra raised an eyebrow. “Is
that actually being considered?”
    Brandon shook his head. “I don’t know, but unless the
trailblazers can pull some magic on a scale I’ve never heard of, there’s no way
we can win this without a lot of reinforcements. Even then this is going to be
a bitch on the ground. We could be looking at a decade-long planetary
engagement.”
    “Or worse,” Leo added.
    “So one factory out of commission adds up to a lot of stuff not being produced over that timespan,” Brandon summed up.
    “Alright then. Where do you want us to go?” Mace
asked.
    Brandon pointed to one city in particular, then looked
at the other three Arc Commandos for their reactions.
    “Behind enemy lines?” Jyra spoke out what the other two were thinking.
    “Wouldn’t be the first time,” Brandon offered.
    “This,” Mace said, pointing into the hologram of the
city that spanned more than a 60 mile radius, “would be a first. Our troops
only took down a tiny slice of the exterior. That means it’s still lizard
central and it’s where they’re routing the reinforcements through.”
    “Part of the reinforcements, and it’s not the front
line anymore thanks to the ass kicking we’re getting down there. That means it
won’t be heavily defended. They’re throwing everything at our troops, not
putting up defenses in the rear.”
    Leo reached over to the controls, nudging Brandon
aside, and zoomed in on the city in question. He brought up the formerly Star
Force section of it and jabbed a finger at the new construction zones popping
up.
    “They’re rebuilding the turret defense.”
    “Which will take time. We’ve got a window of
opportunity to hit them where they’re not expecting us to. If we wait it
disappears.”
    “Most of their troops are moving through,” Mace
commented, thinking hard. “They’re not hunkered down in defensive slots, which
is odd if they were worried about counterattack, especially with their shield
emitters being slagged .”
    “They’re not even thinking about a counterattack,”
Brandon emphasized.
    “How much damage could we do?” Jyra asked.
    Brandon zoomed in again, showing several markers