Star Force: Evasion (Wayward Trilogy Book 2)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  A short break an hour later saved her from having to bow out when everyone stopped to get some food and water, with a few people heading down the tunnel a ways to find a spot to relieve themselves. For some reason Esna didn’t feel the need, but as soon as she took a drink of water her dehydration made itself known. She probably didn’t have anything left in her to pee out, and greedily sucked down a full bottle before eating a handful of food cubes.

  A few minutes later they were off again, with Esna forcing herself to keep helping the Kiritas as much as she could, though the Human was convinced that the smaller guy was doing most of the work. Still, any effort she could peel over to herself would help him and she focused on that and nothing else going forward, finding herself too exhausted to even worry about Rammak. Right now she just had to focus on staying on her feet and maintaining tension on the handle.

  She got another 20 minutes before tripping on one of the little ridges in the floor. The crate sled hit and pushed her down a few meters before the Kiritas got it stopped, then he placed a small hand on her armored shoulder as his wide fan-shaped helmet appeared over hers.

  “Are you conscious?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m still here. Just lost my footing,” she said, pushing herself back into a standing position thanks to the low gravity.

  “You’re too tired and losing focus.”

  “I’ll manage,” she promised. “Let’s go.”

  The Kiritas’s helmet nodded and they started pulling again, then they had to work extra hard to catch back up to the others. Once they did Esna settled into a determined grind with her embarrassment fueling anger that kept her going a long time after, though she did stumble a few more times as her legs weren’t as fast to react to the toe grips as she thought.

  When Esna didn’t know how much longer she could make it the speeders showed up again and stopped for them, with the others loading the crates up and a Protovic coming back to get her.

  “We’ve got them,” he told her as he guided Esna to the front speeder. “Rest now.”

  “Is it that obvious?” she said, not bothering to argue. Her body would have overridden her mind anyway if she’d tried.

  “Normally Humans can’t be telepathically read, but you’re so fatigued its gushing out enough that I can pick up on it. When you get your feet in place lock your armor into rigid position then let yourself fall asleep for a bit. I’ll be behind you and make sure nothing bounces you off.”

  “Thank you, I will,” she said as she stepped up onto the flat floor and tucked her feet into the loops that would give her something to hold on to as the speeder accelerated and decelerated. Standing still was blissful enough, but it took her a couple minutes before she found the powered mode submenu that allowed her to lock her armor. When she did Esna became a living statue, but she was able to sag inside enough to get a bit more comfortable and didn’t have to keep her head erect anymore.

  As soon as her forehead tipped a fraction of an inch and the helmet held it up her head washed with fatigue-induced sleepiness that was only disrupted by the acceleration to come. As promised she didn’t fall off, then everything went black as she closed her eyes and drifted away in an odd but welcoming standing sleep in the low gravity.

  Esna heard someone’s voice, then a couple of hits to her back shook her awake. She deactivated the armor lock with the option she’d left open on her HUD and staggered a bit as she noticed everyone getting off and unloading cargo next to a hole in the ice tunnel.

  “You ok?” the Protovic asked.

  “Yeah, sorry. I was asleep. What now?”

  “Get inside and rest. We’ll be staying here until the others catch up, then taking the speeders all the way to the next main outpost.”

  “Ok,” she said, seeing that the hole was the entrance to a minor outpost that had neither artificial gravity nor heat, just several rooms with more supplies that the unloading teams were adding to, though there were a few tents already set up.

  “Over here,” a Bsidd said to her on a private comm channel that also provided a waypoint into the far chamber. When Esna walked through the first and rounded the corner into a short connecting tunnel a couple meters long she saw more tents where the Bsidd was standing along with a few others.

  “Yes?”

  “You can get cleaned up in here, use the restroom there, and sleep in one of those,” it said, pointing to the various tents. “Food is in the other chamber.”

  “Restroom?” she asked, pointing to the tent second on her left, and the Bsidd nodded.

  Esna walked over to the door and opened it, seeing that the inside had been segmented into two stations big enough to handle the Bsidd soldiers and Calavari. She walked into the one on the left and saw a button that she hit experimentally. It created a force field over the entrance that was mostly solid, though she could see just a little bit of the tent wall beyond it. Assuming it was a privacy screen she began disassembling her armor in the ample space provided when the outside door opened and someone else came in.

  She couldn’t tell who or even what it was, but it wasn’t a Bsidd and it went into the other chamber. Realizing that there might be a line she hurried as fast as her tired muscles allowed her then suited up again knowing that as soon as she stepped outside the tent the air would be too cold to walk around in and her slightly sweaty uniform would probably snap freeze in the few steps it took her to get to the shower tent.

  When she got there she opened the tent door and passed through the atmospheric shield keeping the warm air in and the cold out to see four different shower stations, one of which was being used by a Kiritas. These were not sectioned off from one another visually, with everyone apparently not concerned about seeing each other naked. Esna was also too tired to care and climbed out of her armor again as she spotted four clothing refreshers along the wall. She stripped off her uniform and underwear and put it inside, then walked a few steps completely naked over to a pedestal that activated with a clear containment shield that kept the soon to be falling water droplets where they were meant to be.

  The warm water was a relief beyond measure and worth the effort of standing up for. She didn’t even notice the slower speed of the droplets as she held onto an edge above her and closed her eyes, letting her mind roam as her body soaked.

  When she opened them again the room was full. The Kiritas was gone, now replaced by a Protovic and two Bsidd. She couldn’t help but look at the Protovic, whose entire body was glowing a combination of blue and green in exotic patterns. The Bsidd bodies were dull by comparison and looked more like…well, she couldn’t really tell. There were no visible body parts other than the stalks, and of the other three she appeared to be the only one with ‘bumps’ of any kind.

  She sighed, realizing that she was probably holding up someone else from taking a shower, but not wanting to leave. These were real water showers, not a cleansing shield thing like she’d used before, and she could have kissed whoever packed them into the cargo crates.

  “Tired?” the Protovic asked, and she guessed he was the same one from the speeder though she couldn’t be sure.

  “Very,” she admitted, “but I’ve done this sort of thing before. I’ll manage. Do you always glow that much?”

  “It’s constant. I can’t turn it on or off,” he said, blinking eyes that burned a pure blue.

  “Do you see it when you close your eyes?”

  The Protovic smiled. “Good question. No I don’t. Only the outside of my eyelids glow.”

  “I don’t mean to be rude, I’ve just never seen any of you naked before. Are you a male?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where’s your…parts?”

  The Protovic tapped on his pelvic plate. “Internal and only come out when needed. We’re not so easy to disable as Human males, and these dark spots,” he said, pointing to rough, hard patches that covered the top and back of his head and a few other stripes down his body, “are exoskeleton. It makes us a lot more durable than Humans. Even ou
r glowing skin is a bit tougher.”

  “You look…pretty.”

  “A lot of people say that of Protovic,” he answered as one of the Bsidd shut down his shower and began putting his armor back on. A process that caused an eyebrow to raise on Esna’s face as she watched it twist and curl all throughout the gaps in his torso in order to cover every bit of exposed area.

  She realized her jaw must have been gaping, for the Bsidd looked at her.

  “We don’t glow, but people still stare a lot.”

  The Protovic laughed and Esna realized it was a joke, but the Bsidd left before she could respond to him. Looking up, she found a soap release and pressed the button with it traveling down the containment shield on all sides and expanding out until it looked like it had frosted over, then there was a series of three tones before it suddenly blew inward covering most of her body. She closed her eyes and mouth before the third tone so she didn’t get any in the wrong spots, then began rubbing the soap around to the spots where the spray had missed.

  Then when the Bsidd left a Human tech came in and took its place, with her stripping down with far less hesitancy than Esna did and doing a remarkable job of taking a speed shower. That reminded Esna to hurry up herself, but she couldn’t help but stare at the Human. She’d seen and felt a few guys naked, but had never seen another girl other than herself in a mirror.

  Esna sighed, both impressed and embarrassed by how much fitter the Human tech was. She made Esna look puffy with all her slick, sculpted muscles and tiny frame. Height wise they were about the same, but the fitness comparison was shocking.

  Esna began rinsing off and reluctantly about to shut down the water flow when the other Bsidd left and another Human entered. It was a guy this time and suddenly she felt a lot more naked, along with a few other emotions that burnt away some of her fatigue. She averted her eyes as he undressed, then hurried over and got her now clean clothes back on before she looked at him.

  Even though he was a tech, he was still all chiseled muscle. A bit more than the girl, but they were the same motif. Whatever type of training they went through previously in their lives, it had to be a lot harder and longer than the little Esna had been doing, and if these were the visible results of it then she had a lot to look forward to…if she survived long enough to get off this planet and to a safe Star Force world.

  Esna crawled back into her armor and left, finding a couple of others waiting outside. She cringed a little at knowing she’d been holding them up, then Esna went over to one of the sleeping tents that only had one other person there, and it was one of the Irondel. He or she, Esna couldn’t tell which, was curled up in a tiny sleeping sleeve that was far too cute for someone probably hundreds of years old and far smarter than her, but she was tempted to go over there and wrap the little guy up in a big hug.

  Thankfully her fatigue prevented any such stupidity and directed her to a rack of varying sized sleeves. She pulled out one built for her body and probably that of a Protovic too and rolled it flat on the floor next to the far wall before taking off her armor again and this time condensing it down to a cube that she placed just over her head along with her pack. If somehow the Zen’zat got to them here she’d have it within arm’s reach, but guessing by the urging of her body towards blacking out, if they attacked while she was sleeping she was going to be toast regardless.

  Not really caring at the moment, she took her shoes off and set them beside her head as well, then slipped her socked feet inside the sleeve followed by the rest of her body with only her face still showing. Then when her head hit the built-in pillow her eyes rolled back a bit and she was halfway unconscious before she even thought of Rammak.

  The speeders should be heading back to pick up him and the others now, meaning that she at least had until they caught up to sleep without having to worry about Zen’zat, though at the moment a few thoughts of that male tech were bouncing around in her head until fatigue kicked them out and nothing other than rest occupied what little part of her mind remained functioning as she fell quickly fell asleep.

  16

  July 7, 4812

  Orlero System (Devastation Zone)

  Tauntaun

  Esna was comfortably asleep for a long time in the quiet tent that several others entered, but they were all but silent and allowed her to sleep uninterrupted until a rumble jolted her awake. Her eyes opened but she lay still, wondering if she had imagined it until a second faint rumble made its way through the ever still ice beneath the tent.

  Seeing the others rising from their sleeping sleeves and starting to get their armor on she did the same, but was slower than the rest and was the last one out of the tent after three more rumbles. No more followed, but everyone else obviously thought this was important and she even found Rammak waiting for her outside the tent.

  “When did you get here?”

  “A couple hours ago. You were asleep.”

  “What’s happening?” she asked as everyone else moved out of the tents.

  “Another group is getting hit from a low flying warship.”

  “How do you know?” she asked, belatedly looking at her battlemap and seeing a few new icons indicating new data streams.

  “The fleet is monitoring and transmitting the location. It’s the splinter group that took the mining vehicles.”

  “Why is that important? The vehicles, I mean.”

  “Unless they transmit their status we can’t know, but it could be they arranged another minefield area that the Viks had to remove. Either way they’re drilling another access point down through the ice.”

  “I thought we were past all the cross tunnels?”

  “We are.”

  “Are we leaving again?”

  “I’m not sure yet. How are you feeling?”

  “Good to go.”

  “How are you feeling?” Rammak repeated.

  Esna sighed. “Sore, tired, and flabby.”

  “Flabby?”

  “I saw a Human girl in the shower. I look flabby compared to her.”

  “No Esna, you’re not flabby. When you see some of the lazy civilians you’ll understand. You just don’t have the musculature underneath your skin yet to create the body lines Humans typically get when they’re fit. You’re not carrying extra weight, you’re just weak.”

  “Soft then?”

  “Soft works,” the Calavari said as they all heard the Archon’s voice over the comm through their helmets.

  “The V’kit’no’sat have landed Ari’tat, so expect them in the tunnels shortly. We’re moving out now and blocking access behind us. First group goes all the way to the next full outpost. Second moves equipment down a few kilometers while third and fourth groups backtrack and redecorate.”

  “Fourth?” Esna asked as she got a message prompt saying nothing more than the number 2.

  “Assignments,” Rammak said. “I’m in the second group. You?”

  “Same,” she said, relieved.

  “Good. We’ve got cargo to move,” he said as a couple techs came back into the tent area and began the short process of deconstructing them.

  “And then?”

  “Let the Archon worry about it. Find the light stuff to move, I’ll get the heavier things.”

  “I’m game. Show me where to start…”

  Diving through the atmosphere came a fast moving group of some 128 Star Force drone warships, both smaller and faster than the V’kit’no’sat vessels moving to intercept and fire upon them from range, but they’d gotten enough of a head start thanks to the much larger diversionary second attack that the fleet was making above them in orbit. Both sides were slugging it out again and all for the purpose of getting these drones down to the surface of the planet.

  They weren’t headed for the captured base or any of the landing zones for troops, they were headed for the Domjo-class warship that was sitting over the ice and had recently fired down into it going after the base evacuees still running through the tunnels. Kiev wasn’t just going
to let them get away with that, but he didn’t have enough ships to make a play for low orbit to shield and potentially pick them up, so he was going to exact a little payback and give them an excuse to pull back a little, for he was sure they wanted to draw this out and he wanted to keep the survivors alive as long as possible.

  So the drones raced down through the thick atmosphere that in the low gravity still amounted to an atmospheric pressure slightly greater than that of Star Force standard at the surface. The blocky drones augmented their shields so that they became knife blades and reduced drag, but they were still setting the atmosphere on fire for how fast they were moving in order to stay ahead of most of the V’kit’no’sat pursuit, though some long range shots hit and two of the drones were lost before they came down around the Domjo and spread out…then they all flew underneath the 6 point star-shaped 12 mile wide Ari’tat warship.

  Using it as cover against the rest of the descending V’kit’no’sat ships, the drones engaged in pointblank carnage on both sides for a few seconds before the Domjo began to rise up quickly with the drones following save for one Corvette-class brick that stayed low and fired down into the hole in the ice, blasting it wider and well as dropping energy orbs that blew out laterally in an attempt to kill whatever ground troops they had nearby.

  After a few good rounds that drone moved skyward as others fell to the ground as smoking hulks, then it put full power into its engines and made a jump pushing off the planet’s gravity well. It only had a few kilometers to accelerate, which diminished its impact speed, but the drone kamikazied into already weakened shields and punched straight through into the hull of the Domjo, tearing through the armor and creating a huge crater that even could be seen bulging out the top side just a bit due to all the material that got compacted inside.