Star Force: Newbslayer (SF64) (7 page)

That made this invasion a mess of a situation. Jenna
released the Varshoo leader’s head and stood up, putting her glove back on and
reaching out her mind to Levi to find where he was. Her battlemap had lost
track of him, given so many floors of material in between them, but her Ikrid
didn’t have that limitation and she saw he was near the ground floor.

“We’re leaving,” she said, using her
comm
and seeing his signal ping on the battlemap when he
responded with the stronger signal.

“With or without answers?”

“They scavenged the walkers. There’s no link to the
Skarrons.”

“Scavenged how?”

“I’ll fill you in on the way back. How’s it look
below?”

“Quiet for now, but I had to grab four more people
coming in.”

“Meet me at the window,” she said, starting to walk
away from her sleeping prisoner and head that way herself.

“Are we helping the locals?”

“Both sides need helping…which we can’t do this far
out.”

“One of those, huh?”

“Yeah. That said, you don’t make someone else’s
problems your own, so we’ll throw the locals a bone or two on the way out.”

“The other walker?”

“You read my mind,” Jenna joked, coming to a ladder
and beginning to climb up to the waypoint on her battlemap that marked where
the cut window was. By the time she reached that level Levi’s mind was catching
up quickly from below so she didn’t rush, getting to the room they’d entered
from a few seconds ahead of him. She reached out with her Ikrid and made one
last check on the minds nearby, finding
them
still
unconscious.

“Slingshot?” Levi guessed.

“Yep,” Jenna said, getting a telekinetic hold on the
window slice and yanking it free of the melt points. She managed to do it in a
way that didn’t result in any pieces breaking off and keeping the circle’s
shape intact, then she gently set it aside and began to move the various pieces
of furniture away from the opening by hand along with her padawan. When they
finished she knelt down
beside
the opening as a gentle
breeze blew in, making the potted plants rustle, though neither Archon could
feel the effect inside their hard armor.

Jenna offered a battlemeld prompt, with Levi taking it
immediately and beginning to run across the room for the few steps of
acceleration that he could manage. As he did so a
repulsor
conduit between the two of them yanked him forward, helping him get up to
greater speed until he flashed past Jenna, jumping off the edge of the floor
where the glass had been cut away and out into the nighttime air towards the
far roof.

When he passed her they reversed the conduit, with
Levi forming it off his back and Jenna using it to push him forward across the
gap. She added a telekinetic lift to it, gaining him a little more height,
which translated to meters of additional distance that eventually dropped him
right at the rooftop edge. His legs hit short, but he grabbed on with his arms
and thumped over the edge, hitting on his abdomen and crawling the rest of the
way up.

Jenna backed up to the wall and activated the powered
function of her armor, then took off sprinting and jumped out the hole in the
window with Levi yanking her across the gap with another
repulsor
conduit. Without the telekinetic boost she fell short, but her
padawan’s
invisible rope swung her against the building
three levels below. She crunched her legs up on impact, softening the thud she
made when her boots hit, then walked up the wall and onto the roof with Levi’s
help.

The pair took off running for the far side and began
an equally quiet exodus from the city.

7

October 12, 2735

Noop
System

Tieor

Jenna shot one of the Varshoo infantry in the face
with a stun pistol, dropping it to the ground as she ran past and hopped over
the short wall on the perimeter of the park that nestled up against one of the
partially captured cities. Most of the fighting was over, but a full quarter
had still to be pacified. That sort of street and in-building fighting wasn’t
suited to the Skarron walker, so it had been positioned in the park so it could
guard the city against any heavy tank retaliation while intimidating those
within by its mere presence.

But it wasn’t alone. After the takedown of the other
Skarron walker at the hands of the Marauders, the Varshoo had surrounded their
second key chess piece with an army of tanks and infantry that had not moved
into the city limits. The exterior park sat nestled up against the northern
border and was partially encroached on by a forest, with the city and the
eastern and western approaches covered in wide open grasslands where the walker
had done the majority of its damage against
Seriprin’s
perimeter defense turrets.

Right now the Marauders were approaching over land,
but at a considerable distance. Whether the Varshoo were aware of that or not
the Archon didn’t know, but there was no way they could miss the Valeries
streaking over the city and hitting selective targets within, all the while
staying low enough and positioning themselves on the other side of buildings to
keep away from any potential spray from the Type-5. So far it hadn’t responded,
having no real anti-air weaponry of its own, and sat parked in a large picnic
area that was perfectly flat and covered with some type of short, blue grass,
looking like it was a statue that belonged there.

The tanks ringing it were on the eastern and western
sides, given that those were the overland approaches. The south was the city
where more of their tanks were roaming about and securing those sections they’d
already taken, but the north wasn’t covered by vehicles. There was a decent
amount of infantry spread out there, but it was the Marauder rail gun tanks
that the Varshoo appeared most worried about.

That left the pair of Archons with a window of
opportunity, if they were fast enough. As Jenna crossed the low wall and
entered the park on the northern border Levi did the same some 400 meters away
to the west, stunning a few infantry as he passed them. Both of them were
running casually towards the south where the walker was, but they accelerated
up to a near sprint as they got into the clear and out on the wide open tracts
of the park that were segmented by rows of trees and clumps of bushes and
ornate flowers.

Jenna zapped another Varshoo soldier as she ran by,
hitting him at a range of some 20 meters, after which she tucked her pistol
away onto her back rack and just focused on her movement. They weren’t here to
fight it out, despite a long argument she’d had with the
merc
commander. He seemed to think this was exactly Star Force’s type of work, but
given that he’d quit the military he didn’t get to carry such opinions anymore.
Jenna didn’t mind stunning the Varshoo when she came across them, but she
wasn’t about to start killing them.

There was a fight here, to be sure, and every fight
was potentially Archon business, but this was one of those times when, in order
to fix the problem at hand, you’d have to fight both sides and take control of
the planet for yourself. That was outside of her reach, so she and Levi were
going to back off and let this play out without them. Jenna didn’t like that,
but sometimes it was more important to keep yourself righteous than to worry
about the outcome, and this was, unfortunately, one of those cases.

The issue of defense wasn’t enough for her to come
down on the locals’ side, and the
merc
commander had
even admitted that he was here for the payday more than for any concern about
the planet…though he had pressed the significance of this world to the
surrounding region. That may have been true, but the locals weren’t exactly
upstanding individuals and a change might do some good. If that change occurred
through bloodshed it was unacceptable, but if she couldn’t stop it from
happening she wasn’t going to contribute to it with the same.

Brayden had been insistent that he was going to keep
the Marauders here and try to win this fight, but that he’d need Star Force’s
help to do it. Jenna had reminded him that even if she helped him fight off
this invasion, they wouldn’t be sticking around to protect the planet
thereafter. Then, after even more arguing she offered him a limited amount of
help, which he politely accepted. They sealed the deal with a handshake, skin
to skin, which gave her a quick glimpse at his thoughts.

That quick access was all she needed, for she was very
good at reading Humans. A lot of the concerns she’d had about the mercenaries
evaporated, but it was clear they weren’t Star Force troops anymore. A lot of
what they had once been still remained, and because of that the planet might be
a little better off if they did indeed prevail, but the
merc
commander was definitely being driven by credits and reputation, seeing this as
the biggest opportunity his unit had ever had and wanting to climb the ranks in
militants for hire crowd.

So as they’d planned, his troops were on their way
here…but not to attack the walker. That was reserved for the Archons.

As Jenna and Levi ran towards the Type-5 the gap
between them diminished, with them eventually coming together on a stone
courtyard with the big, elevated golf ball visible across the next line of
trees. Around them a scattering of infantry took notice and fired a few shots
off at them, but they were running so fast that when they missed they didn’t
get a second shot. Jenna saw one of the tanks on the western side of her park
battlemap begin to move their way, but it was going to be too late.

They had a straight line approach to the walker, with
only some infantry units in between and they weren’t going to engage them.
Before the Archons hit the trees they linked up in battlemeld, with Levi’s
psionic component of
Neritu
adding considerable range
and power to Jenna’s Ikrid, letting her stretch out all the way to the distant
walker and probe the minds inside as they ran.

She could feel them, but the range was still too great
for her to access them enough to assert control. The question was how close
would they actually have to get, and would it involve dodging plasma blasts.
Both Archons thought they could do it from at least plasma spit range, but with
the bit of available terrain in the park they had a backup plan if their
strength wasn’t enough.

Jenna took the lead on this due to her greater skill,
for identifying the minds was easy compared to accessing them. New races, new
difficulties…and that meant she needed more time and power to do the necessary
override work.

Meanwhile the pair raced forward, looking for all the
world like they were intent on committing suicide. The infantry tried to stop
them, but the shields on the Archons’ armor held up against the few lachar
blasts that hit. Levi crossed in front of Jenna as a group of three Varshoo
tried to block their path and rammed them aside, clearing the road for her to
keep running and as much attention on the walker as possible. Once past that
group they were in the clear, literally, for the trees had disappeared behind
them
and they were now out on the open picnic area where the
walker stood motionless.

Tanks were on approach from the west, but given their
rate of advancement and the Archons’ running speed they were going to be kept
out of this little battle, so long as Jenna didn’t have to delay their approach.

That almost happened, for she could feel the gunners
begin focusing the walker’s plasma cannons in their direction, ready to pepper
the ground in front of the two fast moving infantry and either kill them or
cause them to veer off. At the last moment she got control of the one in charge
of the batteries on their side of the walker and froze him in place. That was
easier than making him power down the weapons, and as the Archons ate up more
meters of their approach she was able to freeze another of the crew.

Technically both Jenna and Levi were doing the
freezing, but he let her lead their combined effort, though he could ‘see’
everything that she was doing, and vice versa. The mental strain was
significant, but it was also shared by them both, making it manageable enough
for them to disable the
crew
and keep the walker
standing still and quiet as a statue as they raced their way towards it, trying
to beat the approaching tanks.

When they got within 400 meters they had enough power
to assert remote control over one of the crew, with Jenna instructing him to
lower the boarding ramp. She managed to do it with a suggestive impulse rather
than having to play puppet with him, which was
fortuntate
,
for at this range that would have been difficult with them both being on the
run. Had the individual been more mentally resistant it could have caused them
problems given the unfamiliarity of his mental structure.

A lachar blast streaked across in front of them, but
the infantry weapon had been fired at considerable range from the east with
little chance of hitting. There were more soldiers over there, now running
towards the Archons who were nearly at the walker’s feet. With the boarding
ramp lowering and no return fire coming from the Type-5, the rest of the
Varshoo knew something was wrong, but
they
weren’t
going to have the chance to do anything about it, even if they managed to get a
few lucky shots in.

A bit of plasma spit burnt through the grass ahead of
them as one of the tanks made a long range shot, but the air had dissipated it
so much that it was no threat to a fully armored soldier. Jenna and Levi ran
through the low flames and jumped up onto the boarding ramp before it was
completely lowered and climbed up the ladder-like contraption, disappearing
inside the walker.

Jenna had the crew raise it immediately, with the two
Archons crawling up inside the contraption the Varshoo had created to allow
their pilots to operate the device. In sync, the two Archons pulled out their
stun weapons and shot all four of the crew, relieving them of the need to keep
their minds suppressed or frozen.

“Woo…that worked,” Levi commented as he released the
battlemeld link to his master and started pulling bodies out of the chairs and
dumping them on the floor. “Can I drive?”

“Help yourself,” Jenna said, sitting down and
accessing her battlemap. “Holler if you need help.”

Levi grabbed a seat and went meditative, crossing his
arms and legs and doing his best impression of Yoda, knowing that the way to
drive one of these was telekinetically in order to compensate for the physical
differences between Human and Skarron. This wasn’t the first time he’d driven
one, for he’d trained on a mockup simulator along with a lot of other Skarron
and lizard craft, as all the veteran Archons had.

Outside one of the giant legs pushed off and tilted
the Type-5 ever so slightly to the side, then it stumbled forward taking a
short step and establishing the robotic gait that they were known for. Watching
the display screens so he didn’t step on anyone, he began walking the giant
machine forward and beginning a turn towards the west.

Jenna waited a heartbeat, then telekinetically reached
out and flipped on the shields.

“Duh, thanks,” Levi said as the tanks approached. They
didn’t fire on the walker, not sure what was going on, and the Archon didn’t
fire back. They were just going to deny the Varshoo the war machine that they
didn’t deserve, leaving the primitives to fight this messy war using their own
tech.

Whether out of confusion or prudence, the tanks never
fired on the walker, but they did run alongside it as Levi drove it to the west
towards the approaching Marauders. Jenna got a
commlink
to Brayden and confirmed their rendezvous point, which the walker would reach
in two hours. The Marauders beat them to it and secured the area, fighting off
the Varshoo tanks and forcing the survivors to abandon their charge and retreat
back towards the city.

Once they were gone Jenna lowered the boarding ramp and
helped drag the crew out one at a time down to the surface where Brayden and
several other
mercs
waited. A Star Force dropship had
already arrived, escorted in by the
merc
Valeries,
and a group of commandos came out to Jenna, taking the prisoners off their
hands and carrying them back to the dropship. She let Levi handle the others
while she stepped off to the side to talk with Brayden.

“Don’t make me regret this,” she warned.

“You made that look easy,” the
merc
commented, pulling his helmet off.

Jenna left hers on, and he should have too. One rogue
sniper shot would be all it would take to end his day in a very bad way. Yet
another sign that these people were no longer Star Force, and starting to pick
up some bad habits.

“I ought to blow it up.”

Brayden shook his head. “No, we’ll put it to good use.
I promise.”

“I’m taking a chance on you, and the sad this is I
won’t be around to find out if I’m right or not.”

“Any chance of getting some naval assistance on your
way out?”

“No.”

Brayden sighed. “Very well. You’ve aided us quite a
bit already. The new toy aside, it would have taken everything we had left to
take it down, and that was after weeks of refit to our surviving tanks, so you
have our thanks.”