Read Online Star Force: Fiddlesticks (SF65) by Aer-ki Jyr - Free Book Online Page A

we’re not blind when we arrive.”
    “If they’ve got an invoker or assault pillar I’d like
a crack at getting onboard before they go on alert. If not I can at least take
out a dreadnaught for you.”
    “I envy you that. But I’m not sure how secret we can
keep our arrival.”
    “I just need a few hours head start. If I can’t get
onboard so be it, but I’d like to try regardless.”
    “Alright, I’ll take us to the front of the line and
make sure we get there ahead of the others. When I release the scouts to do
their thing you can hitch a ride on one of them. They’ll be paying attention to
the donut, so you may be able to slip in a back door.”
    “That works for me. I doubt they’d send one of the big
ships out to deal with a single command ship.”
    “Not without a support fleet, no. But we’ve been
kicking the crap out of them so bad that they’re bound to find a new wrinkle or
two in their tactics to make it harder on us. I didn’t check earlier, but
what’s the phaser distribution like on the Skarron front?”
    “Oddly enough I didn’t see a single phaser-equipped
ship. They’re doing everything with their plasma tech.”
    Morgan raised an eyebrow. “So they ignore us with the
bulk of their fleet, but start sending their most powerful ships after us and
not the Skarrons? That doesn’t sound right.”
    “It may be that they’re just burning off the old
vessels rather than trying to upgrade them, and doing so against us won’t gain
them much in return.”
    Morgan considered that. “Well put.”
    “I’ve had some time to think on it. How many are you
seeing out this way?”
    “Their roaming fleets seem to have all switched over,
but the planetary defenses are still mostly plasma. Not sure what we’ll find in
Pagaliss, but give the lizards a few decades more and I think their plasma
weaponry is going to start being a rare find.”
    “Their turnover can’t be that great.”
    “Might be upgrades too. The hull designs are
identical, so if they want to take the time to swap out the interior it might
be more prudent than building entirely new ships.”
    “Save for the places you know you’re going to lose a
lot of them anyway.”
    “If they’re beating the Skarrons with plasma, then why
not send your best ships to somewhere they’re more needed? I just hope the
techs get the bugs in the Keema worked out soon. I
want our range advantage back.”
    “We still have the cleansing beams,” Kara pointed out.
    “If Paul were here he’d smack you right now,” Morgan
said with a smirk.
    “I think he’s more interested in getting a Dre’mo’don
prototype up and running. That’ll far outclass the Keema damage at medium to short range.”
    “True, but I still prefer our base weaponry to
outdistance the lizards’.”
    “They were bound to make an upgrade at some point. I’m
surprised we haven’t seen more, to be honest, with all the races they’ve
conquered up till now.”
    “Annihilated, not conquered. When you kill everyone in
sight there’s no one left around to tell you how to make their toys.”
    “Point taken, but they did incorporate a Kvash plasma
streamer into their ships.”
    “Which is now obsolete.”
    “How much better are the phasers? I’ve read the
numbers, but what’s the feel like?” she asked, referring to how they affected
the fleet engagements when viewed through the command nexus, and therefore
‘felt.’
    “They’re still weak ships compared to ours, but it
feels like we lost Teemo’s blind and he’s just
playing regular, dominant ADC.”
    “That bad?”
    “The Keema will give us that
back. Just have to get the damn beams working. Hey, we can talk later. Get your
butt over here before we jump.”
    “Going,” Kara said, deactivated the nexus and turning
around. She jogged down the L-shaped hallway and onto the bridge, pausing when
she got to the Captain’s chair.
    “I’m transferring off and you’ll be entering Morgan’s
group.”
    “Going