Star Force Perseverance (SF81) (Star Force Origin Series) Read Free Page B

pointblank range.
    Their rifles and pistols were annoying, but it was the
    det packs that were the biggest concern. They’d cornered many Bsidd over the past
    two months and blasted through their armor. A handful had died, but most had to
    be evacuated with mangled bodies. This type of fighting was different than he
    was used to, but at least the lizards couldn’t throw hundreds of phaser shots
    against your shields at once…but the downside was that you didn’t have anywhere
    to run when one of the little bomb carriers found his way through the others
    and ran up in your face.
    Hence every square meter of clear floor was precious,
    and as he grabbed another lizard body…or rather the upper half of one that had
    been cut in two with a plasma rod…he chucked it over the side ignoring the
    blood splatters on his armor. His shields were down on his mandibles for the
    moment, and the purple battle plates were already covered in lizard gore. It
    was something he’d gotten used to, barely even noticing now as his mind was
    focused on the next engagement.
    A ping on his battlemap told him that was going to be
    on them soon enough. Star Force had already managed to conquer and secure a small
    slice of the shipyard ring, but they were having to defend it on both sides
    across miles of interior terrain, both up and down, as the lizards poured
    combat troops up the elevator shafts from the planet’s surface and continued to
    send them against the invading troops.
    The promenade below was a battleground that had
    already been fought on and won, with the entrances, the main ones anyway,
    having been welded shut so they didn’t have to leave guards. As it was, the
    Bsidd army was spread out across this front so much that it almost seemed like
    there were hundreds of battles going on rather than just one, with each
    corridor, level, and section having its own unique history that was seeing the
    typical Star Force victories be pushed back by the corpse clutter.
    Worse yet, the little lizards could crawl over each
    other far better than the larger Bsidd could do, so they had a movement
    advantage. Not to mention being able to crawl through maintenance shafts and
    other small passageways. Most of the Bsidd soldiers were Betas, but some of the
    smaller Epsilons had been dispatched to look for and hunt down lizards slipping
    through in odd places. They could never come in sufficient numbers to be a
    major threat, but the Bsidd couldn’t afford to have wounded personnel getting
    ambushed behind the front lines or a det pack carrier running up from behind
    them.
    It was a mess, but they were working their way through
    it. This was lizard territory, for sure, but Tavarini was glad there weren’t
    wide open fields for their tanks and aircraft to operate on. Det packs aside,
    the Bsidd were the largest, most heavily armored units in play and he liked
    that change from their ‘standard’ battles…as if there was ever such a thing
    with the lizards.
    Movement on his right caught his attention and he saw
    green lizard bodies wearing black vests moving on top of the piles ahead of
    them down the corridor. They weren’t wounded crawling for safety, but incoming
    troops slipping over the tops of the piles like they were surfing a wave on the
    ocean. Their rifles were strapped to their backs and they were running on all
    fours, something he’d rarely seen lizards do before this invasion, but it was
    obvious that the movement was all too natural for them.
    A pink phaser blast shot by him, missing one of his
    mandibles by a few inches as he reengaged shields across his entire body save
    for the treads on his shoe bumps and the weapon muzzles attached to a few of
    his numerous mandibles. Most of his body looked like a collection of thick sticks,
    upon which he could run or crawl or jump as he liked, but they were all covered
    in armor with some holding the tread for his ‘boots’ while others were free to
    grasp or hit with. A few others were