Star Force: Divergent (SF74)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  For here and now a single navigational point was making the difference between having a path forward and wandering aimlessly to her eventual death. Yes, she had a backup beacon in case something went wrong, but had that not been the case she’d be relying on the gear in her helmet to survive. If it was lost or damaged then she would be in a world of hurt, unlikely to be able to stay alive longer than her supplies lasted, for these trees were not fruit bearing. Roots perhaps could be scrounged, but that would just be a delaying tactic.

  If she couldn’t get to the waypoint she would be lost.

  Now that she had plenty of time to consider that, the danger of life began to sink into her. She’d been through numerous battles and never thought of those as ‘dangerous’ because she had a fighting chance, but the idea of being in a no-win scenario was truly terrifying. She was a fighter, and not having some path to victory, no matter how unlikely, left her completely vulnerable and dependent on the little device in her helmet.

  She didn’t like being dependent, nor did Star Force, hence the redundancy they built into their infrastructure, but as an Arc Commando she didn’t have that luxury. She had to go where others wouldn’t, or couldn’t, and sometimes that would mean walking the razor’s edge. Jyra hadn’t expected that to be the case on this mission, for it was little more than a long run across terrain, but now that she was here, unwatched, reality was dawning on her.

  It was both scary yet liberating. She was in control, so long as her equipment functioned, and unlike being under water she wasn’t going to die immediately if her air cut off or her armor breached…which was one reason why she wasn’t fond of aquatics. No, out here she’d last for a long time, it was that inevitable defeat looming at the edge of her mind that worried her. As a last ditch effort she could always try and make it to one of the distant cities, so there was a slim chance she could survive and that would give her something to fight for, but the isolation here made it feel like the entire planet was empty…and that made her think through the ramifications of being on another world that had no cities, and what she would do then.

  The disturbing answer was nothing, for there was nothing to be done but wait and hope for rescue. Dependent on someone else again, unable to win, let alone even fight, if she was lost on a world with no way off it. She knew better than to give up, for there might be some unseen angle she was missing…a way to win that was hidden, and if you gave up you were precluding that possibility, but since this was a theoretical situation she allowed herself to consider the what-ifs of being in a position where there was no way out.

  Jyra didn’t have an answer for that. She was a fighter and could never stop trying, it just wasn’t in her nature, and perhaps that is why the thought of a no-win scenario was so damn frightening. It was like a line that you could not cross, yet drawn plainly in front of you, with no one forcing you over it. Knowingly you’d never cross it, but the fact that it was there and danger lay on the other side meant that if you accidently crossed it you’d be doomed.

  But then she’d still be in control, wary but wise enough not to cross that line. But what if that line shifted, or she lost her focus and wandered across? That was the truly scary part, that she could end up where she didn’t want to be on accident…and her HUD failing would be just such an accident in this situation.

  Normally Jyra’s mind didn’t wander this much, but she literally had nothing to do other than keep running. The terrain was mildly challenging, but not enough to consume her conscious mind so her thoughts wondered up until she finally decided to stop and rest after having traveled some 82 miles, straight line. How far she’d actually ran with all the twists and turns she didn’t know, for her HUD wasn’t set up to track it with this limited capability.

  With the terrain all seeming the same Jyra just came to a stop when she felt like it and looked around, finding a suitable gap between tree trunks and walking over to it, then taking a moment to pull her helmet off and breathe deeply, bending at the waist and resting her right hand on her knee. She hadn’t been running fast, but only now that she’d stopped did her fatigue begin to fully register. She could have gone on further with ease, but apparently she’d dipped into a bit of combat mode numbness that had blocked her mind from fully realizing the extent of her physical depletion.

  In those few seconds her face and hair frosted over in the cold, but it felt good at the moment so she kept her helmet off as she got her breathing under control and stood up, disconnecting and pulling off her heavy pack. She set it down in the snow and laid her helmet on top before reaching inside and pulling out a small knife that she used to cut away a few bits of scrub brush to form a bigger clearing. Those tumbleweeds she tossed aside into the snow where small rays of sunlight were breaking through the canopy and painting the dim white with numerous bright spots.

  Night would be on her soon though, for the planet had a 22-hour day and she’d began just after dawn. Had she not been equipped by Star Force that would have been an issue, for the nights would get considerably colder, but her armor and survival equipment would make that a moot point.

  Jyra took a moment to go through a few stretching exercises, making use of the flexibility her armor allowed and working out her stiff body, for the running motion, while dynamic enough, didn’t allow for certain movements and she’d gotten a bit rigid in those areas. Above that the stretching just felt good, especially in contrast with her warm body and chilling head.

  Once finished she began kicking away the snow and getting down to the frozen dirt below. When she had her campsite cleared she put her helmet back on to keep from getting too cold and pulled out a cylinder from her pack about the length of her forearm. She set it down in the center of the clearing and pressed a button before taking a step back. Four seconds later the hard canister broke apart and began to unfurl a thin prefab building.

  It spread out into a flat octagon, then rose up as it stretched its cloth-like walls rigid around telescoping supports that interlocked automatically. Once the building reached its height of 2.8 meters the material of the walls and ceiling solidified as the tiny segments firmly locked together. Altogether it took 18 seconds to form, with Jyra tapping an armored finger on it to check on its rigidity before grabbing her pack and going inside.

  The door was solid but unpowered, operating on a hinge that swung outward. Jyra closed it behind her then walked to the far side of the 6.4 meter wide room and set her pack down, from which she pulled out a small power source the size of her thumb and inserted it into a matching slot in the center of the floor. Once connected nothing happened, but the equally small heating element and light that she unpacked next slid into slots on the ceiling that then drew power from the generator, bathing the interior in blue and starting to warm the chilly air.

  More items followed, being plugged into additional slots on the floor and ceiling. Star Force built smaller survival ‘tents’ but on a mission like this there was no need to skimp, though she did have one of their smallest units as a backup in case the one she was in now became lost or damaged. Redundancy was the name of the game, and Star Force had gone to great lengths to devise and fabricate personal gear that could be condensed down to as convenient travel size as possible.

  While the chamber warmed Jyra pulled out a roll of what looked like candy discs, popping one into her mouth before stowing the rest. Her body had been fully depleted of ambrosia, she realized after the fact as she sluggishly moved around and her heartrate diminished, with the ‘candy’ being a very condensed supply. Each disc was equal to her typical daily requirement of 13.2 doses, which another roll had small bits in lesser amount so she wouldn’t have to try and break the tiny discs apart to manage her levels. Each roll had been custom designed for the dosage levels she required, and while it wasn’t mission critical it was, to her, one of the most important items in her pack.

  One item that was more of a luxury was a chair that she unpacked, setting it into a slot in the floor that locked into place and then expanded in size
as the components realigned. It required power, for it was more than just for sitting on. It had a small backrest, on which was a button that altered modes. She punched it with her little finger and saw the seat uncover into a toilet seat as she pulled off her helmet and began taking off her armor. It was a segmented version rather than the all-in-one units that most preferred nowadays, and gave her a slightly greater defense rating due to the rigid pieces. It was also unpowered, which had been a requirement of this mission, but from the inside it felt virtually identical to all the other versions she’d worn, for only under extreme situations did she utilize their powered-augmented movement capability.

  The air wasn’t fully warmed by the time she stepped out of her boots and tossed them into a corner with the rest of her sweaty armor but she didn’t feel like waiting a few more minutes, for her bladder that had been quiet the last few hours of her run was now reasserting itself. She pulled off her uniform pants and sat down, glad to have the chair in her inventory, for otherwise she would have had to go out in the snow and relieve herself the old fashioned way and use a portable scraper.

  She had one in her pack as well, but the chair had a unit built in so when she finished she hit a button and a cleansing force field scraped across her butt cleaning and sanitizing far better than the old fashioned toilet paper ever did. When she felt the wipe finish she stood up and pulled her pants back on, flicking the ‘compress’ button that would take her waste material and dehydrate it into pellets that she could toss into the forest later. For now they were stored in the base of the chair along with the pure water recovered. That could be critical in other environments, but with all the snow here she wasn’t going to have to worry about water conservation on this mission.

  On that note she also pulled out a water bottle from her pack and downed it in one long drink before pulling out some prepackaged foodstuffs that were also volume compressed. She ate quickly then pulled off her clothes once the chamber had fully heated up, stepping into a ring on the floor that she had already installed, along with its opposite on the ceiling. Using her toe she flicked a button on the floor and the two rings encapsulated her in a weak shield tube that she could break out of if necessary. With it a second plate-like energy shield began bouncing from one ring to the other in slow motion, operating similar to the scraper and pulling some of the grime and sweat off her body.

  It was nicknamed the ‘tickler’ and functioned as a lesser replacement for a water shower. Originally developed for races that didn’t take well to the water, it was used by some Human civilians that preferred it but mostly used as a backup when water was scarce. It never worked well on Jyra’s hair, but got most of the workout stench off of her. In the field that was a luxury, and on a lot of occasions she slept in her armor, sweat and all, until she could get to a secure facility.

  But since there were going to be no secure facilities on this mission the extra amenities were appropriate, and Jyra had chosen to carry the extra weight to accommodate them. This was a longevity mission, and any small augmentations to her survival inventory would factor in down the line. She could rough it out in her armor and no shelter, but that wasn’t a good way to operate long term and Jyra hadn’t been told how long this mission would actually last.

  A lot of that depended on how fast she traveled, and with the solitude beginning to wear on her she didn’t intend to linger any longer than necessary. After a few minutes in the tickler she got out and put her clothing inside it, allowing the sweat and grime in them to be mostly removed, then pulled them back on save for the socks. Knowing it wasn’t super cold outside and wanting to give her feet a chance to breathe, she grabbed four small cubes out of her pack and opened the door, stepping out barefoot onto the frozen ground and shutting the door quickly to minimize the heat loss.

  Jyra sucked in a deep breath, feeling her body begin to chill instantly and taking a moment to absorb the sensation along with the first few trickles of ambrosia hitting her bloodstream. She looked around in the dimming light and listened, not expecting to hearing anything but taking the moment just the same. There wasn’t anything mechanical or living to be heard in the eerily silent forest, but to be on the safe side she walked out into the snow, feeling and resisting the cold on her tiny feet as she moved out about 20 meters and attached one of the cubes to a tree trunk.

  She walked in a long circle around her octagonal structure, placing the other three devices at approximate cardinal points while curiously wondering how long she could tolerate the snow on her bare feet. Residual heat would offer her a bit of a shield, but as it bled off she’d start to get into trouble. She’d never tested that notion before to see how long it would take, and to her surprise she was still ok by the time she completed her circuit and got back to the door.

  Jyra opened it and quickly got back inside then wiggled her toes around, finding that her feet had already started to get numb.

  She raised an eyebrow, making a mental note to not trust her senses on that one in the future. If they were numbing up that would allow her to move about in the snow better under combat conditions, but it would also not inform her as to their condition and what damage could incur. Cold wasn’t something that you could mess with and was as dangerous as heat in ample amounts, but this environment wasn’t that frigid so she knew a little exposure would be alright so long as she kept it brief.

  Yet another razor’s edge to walk, but this little barefoot mission hadn’t gone too far and now she had a baseline for the future…though she hoped she was never caught without her boots or shoes in the future, for that would be a major pain in the ass.

  For that reason many Commandos slept in them when in the field. After running for so many hours Jyra knew that would be a bad idea, but if she kept her uniform shoes with her the perimeter sensors that she’d just set up would hopefully give her a few seconds to slip them on if something did happened.

  It wasn’t a good situation to be in, for she was alone and there was no one to take watch while she slept, but she had to make due and didn’t want to sleep in either her boots or the shoes that slipped into them. A few Commandos wore the boots without shoes underneath, and they were adjustable for that purpose, but she never did, wanting to have them on for when she got out of her armor.

  Jyra configured another device she had plugged into the floor to sound an alarm if any heat or technological signatures came within scanning radius, excluding those already present and extending the minimum range out to the confines of her building so if she moved around inside it wouldn’t go off. If she stepped outside it would, but she also configured the alarm to transmit to an earpiece that she slipped on rather than audible to everyone…which in this case would be anyone outside trying to sneak up on her.

  There was no one on Corneria to bother her, not even any wildlife, but she wanted the extra layer of security regardless, for you never knew what unknown factors were in play.

  Jyra grabbed her shoes and stuffed her socks into them as she set them to the side and unrolled her sleeping sleeve. She plugged it into the a slot on the floor then slipped her bare feet inside and crawled into the double-sided blanket that would regulate her internal temperature while blocking her external heat signature. There was a head cover that she didn’t bother using, but she did trigger the underlayer to inflate and lift her an inch off the hard floor, along with a pillow section that rose another couple inches up.

  Keeping her shoes and socks next to her head and ready to grab at a moment’s notice she closed her eyes and got to sleep quickly, not intending to linger here any longer than necessary for her to rest and recharge. The alarm system had also been configured to wake her in 7 hours, meaning she’d be off before sunrise and onto the waypoint, hopefully, by the end of the next day.

  3

  July 4, 2896

  Epsilon Eridani System

  Corneria

  Jyra had gotten up just before sunrise and taken off on her second running segment of this journey but had found that she’d presse
d herself too much the previous day and intentionally cut it short after only a few hours, took some downtime and a long nap, then went back out to complete the rest of the first leg of this mission, eventually arriving at the waypoint…which was floating in virtual form over top of a small frozen lake.

  “So much for easy,” she told herself on the shore as a weak beacon appeared beneath it, indicating that there was something under the ice for her to get to. To that end she disconnected her pack and dropped it into the thick snow before gingerly walking out onto the ice. It was frozen thick enough to hold her, so she moved out further from shore until she was directly over the beacon location and actually standing inside the virtual waypoint. Shutting the vents on her mask and switching over to backup oxygen Jyra jumped into the air, hearing the ice crack beneath her, then pulled her knees up towards her chest midair before smashing her legs back down like a jackhammer and breaking through.

  The ice was thicker than she thought and only her legs went through, with the jagged corners of the ice pinning her waist above water level until she added a few fist smashes and her white armor sank below the ice and out of view. All was quiet for more than a minute, but before the water could begin to refreeze her helmet poked up through into the air and an arm came out, pressing down and breaking off another piece of ice.

  Jyra clawed further into that small indentation, getting her elbow on one side and reached up out of the water with her other arm to throw a small canister clear before using that hand as a counterbalance to gently ease her upper body out of the water and onto the ice like a worm, crawling inch by inch over cracking ice until she was completely out of the water and could roll to the side a couple of turns and up onto her feet. She walked over and picked up the canister while opening her air vents and allowing her reserves to start gradually replenishing.

  The Commando waited until she was back on shore before she chanced to open it, finding only a small databurst module inside. She toggled it on and linked to it via her HUD and got the flash transmission of data…which in this case was just another set of coordinates for the next leg of her mission.