Star Force: Revision (SF78) Page 2

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  Brad and Kip followed up with a pair of Fornax fields that dropped everyone around them to the ground, giving the pair a moment to charge their Jini. When it reached saturation levels they released the battlemeld ability into the nearest minds, with the Ikrid ‘bomb’ transmitting from one to another like lightning strikes and rendering each of them unconscious. The effect spread like a virus among all those close enough together, sending everyone in the chamber to the ground, including the Protovic with their rudimentary telepathic blocks.

  The trailblazers didn’t stay put, running across the downed bodies and out the open door heading back to the dropship that they knew would be in danger. Before they even got halfway there they got a report about ground troops attempting to fight their way past its shields, with both Brad and Kip slipping past the addition ‘Brutes’ in the hallways with ease. They were big and heavily armed, but their minds were weak as hell and they couldn’t touch the Archons save for a stray weapon blast, but their blue orbs were absorbed by the Archon’s energy shields and did nothing to slow them.

  Evading the huge arms of the Brutes was easy when all you had to do was mess with their minds, but when the pair came back to the entrance tunnel they ran into the sealed blast doors which were more of a problem.

  “They’re targeting us with fighters,” one of the pilots reported over the comm. “Our shields aren’t going to hold up for long and the roof dome is still sealed, so there’s nowhere to run.”

  “Adjust shields 90% top and hold on, we’re coming to you,” Kip said as he used his Pefbar to look inside the walls and the door to find the mechanisms holding them in place while Brad covered for him, rendering anyone who came close to them unconscious, usually before they made it around the nearest corner. The big brutes made for good roadblocks, and Brad pushed a couple of them further back with a Jumat blast to hinder the approach angles of the Protovic that were coming. Apparently the number of brutes was limited, for there were many more lightly cloaked minds headed their direction than the open, crude ones that were shining like beacons in the night and easy to spot at distance.

  Kip telekinetically leveraged the internal components, unlocking the clamps and forcing the door mechanism to turn. The heavy doors split apart slowly, with him needing to borrow Brad’s strength in order to move them faster. With their combined Nemsa making their Lachka far stronger, they pried open the doors about a meter wide then slipped through, knowing that any brute following wouldn’t be able to get through the gap.

  “Taking hits.”

  “Almost there. Find something to hide under and ride it out,” Kip said as they ran down the tunnel and up to another blast door. There was no one in their way, so both Archons used their combined strength to pry this one open faster, letting the sounds of weaponsfire drift in as they pushed as hard as they could. When the gap widened they slipped through and into the free air within the dome as six Jhar aerial fighters were hovering near the dropship and unloading their red energy weapons into it…with the shields already down and explosions ripping across its upper surface while a ring of troops keeping their distance were firing on the underside.

  The mix of brutes and Protovic saw them coming and suddenly began to ignore the disintegrating dropship, turning their attention to the two Archons and rushing to reform their lines and offer a salvo of weaponsfire while the fighters continued to pound the dropship…then one of the craft ceased shooting and turned to the right, only to open fire on one of its twins a moment later.

  Not seeing the attack coming, the other Jhar fighter didn’t respond immediately and was taken down as the Archons flew their remote-controlled fighter over to the next one and repeated the process. That one, along with the others, stopped firing on what was left of the dropship and engaged briefly, only to flee when they realized what was happening. Two of them didn’t make it, with their craft suddenly taking a nose dive and lightly crunching into the landing pad, followed by the damaged puppet that the Archons angrily drove into the surface.

  They blew through the infantry next, using a combination of Jumat and Ikrid suppression to dislodge and then render them unconscious with Brad cleaning up the stragglers as Kip ran to the wreckage of their ride…that was now missing the wings and its upper half.

  “Captain, we’re under attack,” Brad said as he stood guard and contacted his warship, having to use a higher powered pulse to get through the dome and whatever other countermeasures the Jhar were throwing up, for his normal signal strength wasn’t getting through. “Our dropship has been destroyed and we’re sealed inside the dome. The locals have friends that look like Donkey Kong and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have ships in the area. Lock down orbit and clear the airspace over this city, then arrange for a pickup. We’ll try to find a way to open the dome, if not you’ll have to blast through.”

  “Copy that, though there’s no activity up here yet.”

  “Make some,” Brad said angrily as he took control of the minds of two armored suits with Protovic inside as they came through the tunnel and out onto the landing pad. Punching through their blocks, even without Kip’s help, wasn’t difficult now that he didn’t care if they noticed or not. They were definitely telepaths, but nowhere on the level of the Archons, let alone the trailblazers. Obviously they didn’t understand the power of their would be victims or they never would have been this stupid, but there was no going back now and they knew it, with many more minds approaching.

  The fighters had backed off because they realized that Brad and Kip could take control of them. He’d sensed that just before they’d retreated to the far side of the huge dome and out of his range, which their limited blocks reduced. Why then were they sending more infantry?

  Brad searched their minds as he caught and knocked unconscious several more coming through. They thought that if they got enough people in place at the same time they’d overstretch the Humans’ powers…but that didn’t feel right. More like a placebo to tell the ground troops they were sending in, while Brad suspected this was just a cover for something else.

  Captain Mendez watched from the bridge as his warship dispersed its full complement of drones and moved them out into defensive positions while the Jhar fleet did the same, sensing a fight was coming. He wasn’t going to give the order to attack until all his ships were off the racks, but either the Jhar were going to retreat from this orbital slot or be destroyed. If they had attacked the trailblazers on the surface he didn’t care about their reasons…they were going to pay for it, one way or another.

  As the two sides squared off the fleet behind the moon finally showed itself, but to his mild surprise it wasn’t Jhar ships, rather a different variety altogether and probably belonging to the other player involved that Brad had mentioned. He thought they’d be coming to his current location to aid the Jhar, but as soon as he saw their movement tracks alter towards a surface endpoint he realized that his warship wasn’t the target.

  “Damn them,” he said, punching buttons and setting waypoints on his control panels. “They’re going to ground. We have to secure the airspace over that city all the way up to this ship before we can launch dropships. No holding back people, blow us all the cover we need. Comm, get me a translation program and tie it into the message I’m about to send broadband.”

  “Copy that…done. You’re live.”

  The Captain hit the transmit button, activating the mic on his command chair. “Attention enemy ships. We will not allow you to capture or kill our ground team. Withdraw immediately or you will be destroyed. The firepower we possess is beyond anything you can imagine, and we’re not holding back while our people are in jeopardy. This is fair warning. If you value your lives, get clear now.”

  Kip dug through what was left of the dropship’s door using both his hands and his Lachka to pry apart burnt and still hot sections of the hull. Putting his shoulder into a gap he pushed hard and shot his torso through, then pulled himself into the messed up interior that had numerous gaps
in the shredded ceiling and divots everywhere in the floor where the weaponsfire had passed through and exploded/melted whatever it had hit.

  Given the two minds in the ship, he could sense that both pilots were still alive but he couldn’t see them. There was too much debris in the way that he had to dig through until he got to what had been the cockpit. Armored as it was, the control boards were gone, as were the chairs that were now stumps protruding up from the floor…but the minds were in fact beneath it, and he realized the pilots were in the emergency storage hatches below.

  He kicked away debris from the appropriate section of floor then yanked on the handle that broke off in his grasp, having been damaged itself. Using his Lachka he pulled up on the mount, only to realize that the nearly invisible seam had been melted together. He reached out a battlemeld prompt and quickly got Brad’s help from outside, then using their combined strength he tore off the concealed hatch to reveal the pair of tightly packed bodies beneath what had been the floor of the cockpit in a ‘smugglers’ compartment that usually held survival supplies.

  “Smart move,” Kip said, then saw that their uniforms were covered in blood. “Damn.”

  “We’re alive, but filled with shrapnel,” one of them said, reaching a hand up that Kip took, dragging him out and having to clear off more debris to give him a place to stand. “Most of it’s superficial, but Harry has a deep gash in his leg.”

  “You’ve lost a lot of blood as is,” Kip said, telekinetically lifting out the other pilot and looking at the wound with his Pefbar. “This is going to hurt, so I’m going to knock you out first.”

  “Please do,” the copilot said as his eyes rolled shut.

  Holding him aloft over a stack of debris where there was no available foot space, Kip reached inside his leg and gently pried apart his flesh, sending another river of blood out on which the metallic fragment followed. He pinched the flesh back together temporarily, then did his best to remotely start the healing process…failing miserably.

  “Hold him up,” Kip said, floating him over to the other pilot and standing him practically on his feet. Reserving all of his mental power to the task, the trailblazer pulled off a golden glove and made flesh to flesh contact with his fingers, triggering the man’s body to start healing rapidly, enough at least to stop the bleeding on the major wound as well as the others. He had more shrapnel, tiny bits, across his left side, but there was no time to work on those. Kip had to get both of them stabilized and that meant stopping them from losing any more blood, so he sealed up all the wounds with temporary heals knowing that he could get the bits of sand and metal chips out later.

  When Kip stood up the pilot cringed, having to adjust the copilot’s weight, then it suddenly disappeared as both of the pilots were taken in Kip’s invisible grip and moved back through the remains of the ship.

  “I can walk.”

  “You’re bleeding out too, so I can’t waste time,” he said, setting the unconscious man down in a little nook and being careful to blunt or reposition any nearby debris so he didn’t get another injury. “Sit down,” Kip ordered, then he took the man’s bloody wrist in his own hand and began to heal over his shrapnel wounds without pulling anything out, for unlike the other he had no large pieces in him.

  Incoming, Brad warned with a telepathic flash that indicating falling objects overhead. Kip reflexively emitted his own bioshield into an umbrella that covered both pilots as an explosion occurred…but not overhead. Several more sounded, with Kip’s Pefbar stretching out to see the incoming grenades or mortars being redirected midair, hopefully back towards those shooting at them.

  They’re learning to stay out of range.

  We can’t go anywhere with that dome closed, Kip replied. And we can’t go after it with these two here.

  I know. One of us has to go, but not until we get them some better cover.

  Got any ideas?

  Take one of their ships and turn it into a fort. One of the big ones they can’t blow up easily.

  How far?

  Far…and out in the open.

  I can carry these two if you can provide cover.

  Not yet. Something is up. Get them out of the ship though, I have a feeling they’re going to bring in something bigger than mortars.

  Wonderful, Kip said, dropping his bioshields and using his Lachka to redecorate, clearing a path to the twisted door that he’d entered through. “We’ve got to move. I can carry you both if needed, but if he does more than stand he’s going to rip open the patches I made.”

  “Just tell me where to go.”

  “Over there, squeeze through that hole and just hang out underneath the ship. Don’t go more than a meter away or I’ll have trouble shielding you once I’m out.”

  “And before you’re out?”

  “I’m coming down right after you. Just stay in line of sight.”

  “Alright,” the pilot said, trusting him despite the worry spiking within him at the thought of leaving the somewhat protective confines of their dropship. He walked/crawled over to the opening and held position there as Kip brought the still unconscious copilot through midair, setting a knee to the ground beside the hole and giving the man a nod with his helmeted head.

  The unarmored pilot slid through feet first, catching his uniform top on a barb and tearing a new gash in it and his chest but otherwise coming through cleanly into the ‘fresh’ air. Kip heard him cough, but there was nothing he could do about the toxins at the moment. That was another reason they needed to get them into one of the intact ships on the deck.

  As promised the Archon came down a split second later, nearly stepping on the pilot who scooted to the right and partly behind one of the landing gear as he saw Brad busy doing his invisible magic casting. There were sporadic explosions nearby but nothing directly overhead, and the pilot was fine with staying right under the ship for now rather than going out there into the direct firing lines.

  Kip maneuvering the copilot’s body through the gap, having to widen it at a few spots to avoid cutting him, then he had them both within arm’s reach where he could cover them with bioshields if needed, though is focus was pressed outward to see where the incoming threats were.

  Brad extended a battlemeld link and he accepted, suddenly getting his situational awareness and vision added to his own so he could see what was going on around what was left of the dropship while still squatting underneath it.

  You picked one yet?

  Yeah, but hold on. We’ve got company.

  Shit, Kip said, seeing the approach through Brad’s eyes of several mechanized exoskeletons with their pilot’s seats empty. Apparently they could be operated remotely and thus avoid the Human’s psionics.

  Combat models by the look.

  I can’t help you with them while I’m babysitting.

  I know, Brad said. But I can’t block the mortars for you and fight them at the same time.

  We’ve still got some ship left. Go full offensive and we’ll turtle up here.

  You sure?

  Only way we stand a chance.

  Alright, Brad said, disconnecting from the battlemeld as a chunk of ship broke free and dropped down over one side of the light coming in from all angles beneath the dropship…a last second addition to the plan.

  “Move over there,” Kip said, pointing to the now blocking debris. “We’ve gotta wait this out while Brad kicks ass.”

  “Happy to,” the pilot said as he scooted around the landing gear and put it behind his back, giving him a bit of cover in two directions. Kip moved himself and the unconscious copilot on past him, using the bit of cover but not relying on it, knowing it could blow apart with an explosive impact and turn into shrapnel itself…but it would at least block rifle fire if it started up again when Brad left. “Thanks for sticking with us.”

  “I get bonus points if I keep you alive,” Kip joked as he stretched out his senses and tried to pick off some of the mortars before they fell on the ship, though a lot were now angling toward
s where Brad was headed…which was straight to the Jhar combat exoskeletons.

  3

  Brad didn’t waste time and sprinted towards the empty exoskeletons as they fired at him with what looked like high scale lachars, based on the glow and the pop they made when they hit the ground behind him. He juked and dodged on approach, making it very difficult for either the onboard targeting systems or the manual controllers to hit, then came up in front of the first one and dove into its empty pilot’s chest cavity and impacted the protective dome there, knocking the machine back a step but failing to take it down.

  He dropped to the ground in front of it, inside its firing arcs as his shields dropped and a distortion appeared around his arms. A moment later he released an invisible Jumat blast that threw the entire exoskeleton back into two others walking up behind it, bowling them all to the ground and leaving the tiny Human standing in its place.

  The rest of the mech-sized exoskeletons continued to converge on his position, stitching the ground with red streaks that blew up bits of the hangar deck on impact as Brad sprinted to his left and jumped into the chest of another one…but this time when he hit he threw it back with a simultaneous Jumat blast, essentially turning himself into an energy-enhanced wrecking ball and slamming it back into a nearby parked transport ship. As it bounced off the immovable rim of the ship, he dropped to the ground and used his Lachka to yank one of the arms of another exoskeleton away from him, causing it to shoot the one beside it with the rocket launcher it was bringing to bear just before he dashed to the side to avoid a rocket from another one that came streaking in next to him.

  The smoke cloud momentarily covered him, but he shot out from it and took down another exoskeleton, temporarily, and began bouncing around from one to another and bringing them down to the ground and out of firing range on the remains of the Star Force dropship, making as much of a ruckus as he could to get their attention on him and away from the others.