Star Force: Evacuation (SF50) Read online

  The skeets from all areas coalesced at various altitudes in bunches, with Riona taking the highest grouping. As the TF rose up the aerial bays opened and the fighters flew inside during transit, making for a dicey catch even as the enemy cruisers followed it up continuing to throw plasma into the shields. The atmospheric friction cut down on the amount making it to target, but they didn’t let it go, eventually moving in close and using their primary plasma cannons in addition to the streamer to try and get through the now very weak shields before it could hit orbit.

  But that also brought them into range of the maulers…or rather their outside range. They weren’t nearly as effective, but what energy they could deliver to the cruisers added up, stripping off their shields and beginning to eat through their hulls while more and more fighters slipped inside the dropship.

  Another dozen lizard warships broke away from the orbital battle and dove into the atmosphere, flashing by Riona’s position and heading into the melee below as the TF couldn’t climb very fast given it had to pick up the fighters enroute…which was when Riona made a different call, linking into the comm of all those below.

  “Change of plans. If anyone doesn’t have intact atmospheric seals speak now because we’re going orbital. Rendezvous with the donut ring and get there as best you can or head back down to the planet and wait it out. The TF has to go, now, and we’re holding it up.”

  Riona changed frequencies and contacted the commander of the big dropship, with the TF immediately gaining speed upwards and actually bumping one of the cruisers out of the way. She cringed when she saw that, with the dropship’s shields disappearing in the collision, but soon it didn’t matter for rest of the Adamant had been coming down towards the atmosphere to meet it and the armor on the dropship would hold out for the rest of the trip up.

  Taking her own advice Riona launched her skeet up above the atmosphere and flew directly towards the Melee-class warship, mentally crossing her fingers as the space around it was filled with lizard warships. Their fighters weren’t built for space, so she didn’t have to worry about them, but there were so many ships exchanging fire with the massive donut that it looked like there was no way she was going to get through…but the sizing was deceptive, and what looked to be an unending net of plasma fire actually had huge holes in it, enough for her to shoot her skeet and drones through to one of the big ring’s docking bays just ahead of the ‘donut hole’ coming up from underneath and beginning to slide into the giant ship.

  Riona parked her skeet haphazardly on the deck, getting it out of the way of the others but leaving the crew to reposition it where it needed to go as she jumped out of the cockpit and ran towards the exit, headed for the nearest lift to get her up to the bridge.

  By the time she got there the TF had fully merged back into the Adamant and the ship had moved back further up into orbit, heading right into the heart of the lizard attack group while the Warship-class jumpships held perimeter positions while firing into the hoard of ships to keep out of the worst of it. The Adamant took the brunt of the attacks and tore through the enemy fleet by the dozens, but still there were more lizard ships arriving in groups and adding to the onslaught, making final fleet strengths impossible to determine.

  Riona got over to the command nexus and linked in, reorganizing the battle slightly from what the Admiral had them running and chewed through as many lizard ships as possible while the Hycre fleet really did most of the damage. Eventually the Adamant’s shields went down in several places, with the huge ship beginning to take hull damage but she didn’t pull it out, knowing the beast could stand up to the slugging and reaping the rewards from it. The lizards took to the dropped shields like a swarm of bugs to a light, which allowed the Hycre to literally rip them to shreds.

  Rather than retreating the lizards fought to the last ship, with several trying to ram the Adamant and one succeeding in slipping by the specialized shield emitters designed to ‘cushion’ the blow. That ship imbedded itself far enough that the Adamant had to stick around in orbit for another two days cutting it loose before they were finally able to withdrawal and make the jump back to Star Force territory.

  Eventually it was decided that the ship needed to be repaired rather than being sent into another campaign immediately, which it could have been given how big it was and how it could take several more such hits and still remain mostly operational. Star Force didn’t like operating that way when they could avoid it, so the Adamant returned to Earth where it could fit into a sufficiently-sized slip and undergo repairs…along with a few new upgrades.

  Riona went with it, hopping onto a dropship in orbit and riding it down to Antarctica where she eventually found her way into the V’kit’no’sat pyramid.

  “Knock, knock,” she said softly coming into the open doorway of Paul’s quarters as he was riffling through a drawer to find a particular headband he wanted before heading right back out to the sanctum.

  He looked up at the sound and smiled, not having felt her approach. “Hey.”

  “Hey to you too…you got a minute?”

  “I’m kind of in the middle of something, but if you feel like walking and talking you can come with.”

  “Works for me,” she said as he came back out and shut the door, walking at a brisk pace and her able to sense a bit of an adrenaline rush in him.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “You first,” she said, glancing at the headband…which with Paul’s short hair didn’t seem necessary.

  “Prototype sensor. Headbands aren’t my thing and I forgot to put it on this morning…then I got a whiff of instability and rushed back here. Might just be my imagination but I think I’ve got another ascension coming on.”

  “And that would be how many now?”

  “Uh, not counting battlemeld this will be the 5th if it pans out.”

  “And with?”

  “17th. Haven’t found any new ones recently, and neither have the twins. Whatever they are they’re buried deep…or we’re just going about it the wrong way.”

  “You have to start counting those.”

  “Can’t use them alone, so they’re a different category.”

  “If you say so. My count just escalated to two, which is why I’m here.”

  Paul looked over at her curious as they walked. “What did you get?”

  “Bioshield.”

  That stopped him in the middle of the hallway. So far he’d been the only one to manifest that ability, try as the others had.

  “Where and when…be specific.”

  “In battle on Leonis. Popped up after a crash that I had to crawl out of. I had to dismiss it at the time but was able to get it a day later when I got back to the TF.”

  “Describe the crash…it’s important.”

  “My skeet took a warship level plasma hit, then the stupid wisps finished me off. IDF was functional so I didn’t feel the hit, but what was left of my skeet went straight into a lizard building and I landed upside down. Had to lift the thing off to get out, and I’m really glad I had my striker armor on or I would have been in trouble. Fought my way back to our ground troops after that then stayed with them until fatigue started to win out. I was almost in the shower when the instability hit again, then I let myself pass out on the floor afterwards. That whole body transformation thing is sick.”

  “I know,” Paul said thinking hard.

  “What?”

  “Just working on a theory. You got time to talk in detail later?”

  “Ha. I came here to find you so you could teach me the ways of the Force. I’m your girl until you get tired of me.”

  “Never,” he said with a wink. “Give me four hours to finish what I’m working on then we’ll get busy,” he said, raising up his hand palm out. “Show me what you’ve got.”

  Riona did likewise, forming her weak shield over her hand and pressing it up against Paul’s. The two shields touched and…

  “That feels so weird,” he said, relishing in the new sensati
on until hers popped. “Sorry.”

  “That was probably just me. I can’t hold it long.”

  “With time and training, you will.”

  “Four hours?”

  He nodded. “Meditation room. We’re going to tackle this through battlemeld.”

  “Do I have to be naked like Rikku?” she said with a bit of disgust.

  “No,” he said with a laugh. “Though I’ll be honest in saying I didn’t mind those sessions.”

  “Well if you feel like going it in the buff be my guest,” she offered, “but I tend to concentrate better with at least a few clothes on.”

  “I wouldn’t be a distraction?” Paul said, mock shocked.

  Riona cracked a smile. “Ok, you have a point there.”

  The levity left Paul’s face. “Full clothes and full effort. I’ve had time to get a lot of ideas and haven’t had anyone to practice with until now. It’s going to be extensive, if you’re up for it?”

  “Always.”

  “That’s my girl,” he said, lightly punching her in the shoulder before heading off to finish up whatever crazy training he’d just been doing, for Riona noticed his uniform was already soaked with sweat.

  She let him go and stood in the hallway for a moment, trying to figure out exactly where she was for the Archon hadn’t been back here for many years and she’d never gotten the complete layout of the massive facility down. The residential area she was in now was newish, she thought, not able to remember completely given the continuing construction on the command deck and other places as Star Force added additional buildings inside the pyramid as needed. As of now it held a population of more than half a million, making it a busy city of its own, though still a secret to the public and most of Star Force.

  Riona walked around a bit until she found a familiar hallway and headed back out a different entrance than the one she’d come in through, heading out for a bit of a sightseeing expedition and catching up on the new developments and discoveries as well as to just enjoy the sights. The pyramid was pretty much Disney Land for Archons and she liked being here just for the ambiance…and the constant reminder of their true enemy and how formidable they were. It both scared and impressed her to no end. To have someone that powerful as an enemy was terrifying, but to have someone that powerful was also an opportunity to learn and grow faster than you would on your own figuring things out through trial and error.

  Which was why she wanted to come here to learn from Paul, knowing that he’d cut years off her own learning curve while remaining ahead of her the entire time. For bioshield he was the trailblazer, and she was immensely glad that he was still here pressing his abilities and developing others rather than out fighting in the field. She needed and wanted a teacher…not to mention the chance to get to know him better. Normally the trailblazers kept to themselves as far as any close personal bonds went, but that was to be expected. She was just a ‘second gen’ and they all outranked her.

  But now that she had something to offer Paul she was eager to help out, and despite the fact that he had years of training ahead of her in this discipline she now had something the other trailblazers didn’t, making her a ‘peer’ despite the fact that she’d been an Archon almost exactly as long as they had been.

  To her it felt like she’d just been bumped up to the big leagues, and now she felt different. The slight resentment towards the trailblazers was gone, now that she felt she was on par with them.

  Actually, she kicked herself for having felt the resentment in the first place. It was childish and, now seeing it from a different perspective, admitted that instead of being their equal they’d ‘believed’ they were their equal, which involved more whining than doing. Now that she suddenly found herself on the other side of the line, even slightly so, it was an epiphany moment, feeling like she’d all of a sudden experienced another upgrade.

  “Time to get to work,” she told herself, letting go of the last feelings of resentment and the ‘second gen’ label she’d worn with a mix of pride and embarrassment for centuries. She was an Archon, pure and simple, and it was her skills that defined her, not her birthdate.

  5

  September 13, 2536

  Solar System

  Earth

  Smooth, Paul reminded her as his thoughts transmitted through the battlemeld telling her exactly what she needed to do through memory rather than words.

  Trying, Riona responded, summoning up another weak shield in front of her and barely holding the effort. Manifesting the barrier around her body was easy compared to creating an independent wall not locked into a specific distance from her frame. With the invisible barrier visible to her senses, and Paul’s as well through the link, she held it in place and slowly began to walk a circle around it, forcing her to maintain its position while altering hers.

  The effort was intense, but not something she could achieve through raw power. Push too hard and her ‘grip’ would slip, which was what Paul was trying to teach her. Drawing on his experiences, memories, and realtime guidance, she soaked his skill in through the battlemeld and held up the shield for the complete walk-around, then took up a position behind it as the thud shooters in the walls warmed up.

  Or rather one did, placed directly in front of her while Paul was sitting with his back to the wall just underneath it and telekinetically adjusting the control panel from afar, which she could also feel through the battlemeld. He specifically wasn’t using any other psionics, such as Pefbar, so Riona couldn’t draw on those. Rather, he was letting her ‘pick his brain’ as to how her own abilities worked as the first tiny projectile shot out and hit her shield wall.

  It nearly overloaded it, and when she tried to repair it she suddenly got a lot of intricate instructions from Paul, again, not in words, but in raw mental images that essentially guided her with a level of knowledge she did not currently possess. This was Paul’s choice of instruction, and Riona had to admit she was making far more progress than she’d expected. He was showing her things above her level, almost like a cheat, and as a result was helping her level up much faster than had she been doing this alone or even with an advisor.

  It was almost as if he was controlling her shield for her, save for the fact that she was still making the actually projections and corrections, which right now involved reforming the damaged pieces of the shield matrix and holding them intact, for it didn’t matter how much energy she provided the shield if she couldn’t maintain the structure. Let go her concentration and the energy would dissipate…unless she recalled it, which was another trick that Paul was trying to teach her.

  Riona had learned that, like the emitters on their own armor, a semi-functional shield matrix was held inside prior to deployment…kind of like opening an umbrella. That meant when a shield first formed it could be somewhat stored away for later deployment. If the shield was completely destroyed then it would have to be reformed before it could get to full strength again.

  The bioemitters in her body weren’t quite to the ‘storing’ phase yet, and Paul said they’d have to be kicked in the ass to get it going, which was the next phase of this little calibration exercise…after she blocked 3 more staggered hits.

  Barely making it through those, Riona then had to recall her damaged shield. She tried, really, but almost all of the energy was lost when it hit her flesh, like a glass window shattering and falling to pieces on the floor, except that in this case the shield energy simply dissipated into the environment without so much as a sight or sound…though for Paul, he could ‘see’ it through Riona’s senses thanks to the battlemeld.

  “That’s better,” he said, releasing the link and standing up.

  Riona frowned. “How was that better? I lost it again.”

  “Not all of it. Your emitters pulled back in a touch.”

  “I didn’t feel anything.”

  “Yes you did, you just didn’t notice it because it’s a subtle sensation. The effort was blinding you but I was able to pick it up because I was specif
ically looking for it. From now on that amount you recall will grow, thanks to the small crack you’ve formed. That was the transition point, and you just achieved it.”

  “If you say so,” Riona said, not sensing anything different in her body. “Are we done or are you just tired of being in my head?”

  “Just taking a break, or did you not feel somebody at the door?”

  “I thought they were walking by.”

  A telepathic prodding resulted in the chamber door opening and Aaron walking in. “Sorry for the interruption,” he offered.

  “You’re excused,” Riona said sarcastically.

  Aaron smiled at her then turned to face Paul. “We just got word from the Hycre that the Elarioni worlds are getting hit by the Skarrons. So far they’re just fighting the Nestafar on the surface, but there’s no way of knowing how long that will last. They’re requesting any help the Alliance can give in evacuating their entire population to the ADZ.”

  Paul whistled.

  “I know,” Aaron agreed.

  “How many ships do they have available?”

  “Not enough, but they were able to get a messenger out through the fighting easy enough.”

  “How many worlds are currently under assault?”

  “They said 5 of 8, but the Nestafar are still on the other three, so they can’t just pack up and leave without getting shot at. They’re only safe underwater because the Nestafar don’t have the resources or tech to hurt them there.”

  “Is Kyler going to take this?”

  “Hasn’t reached him yet. I thought you’d like to handle it since you and Ariel are so close…and the fact that we’re talking a huge naval operation to get to them. Plus Kyler is probably busy with the lizards right now.”