Read Online Star Force: Proving Ground (SF66) by Aer-ki Jyr - Free Book Online
Authors: Aer-ki Jyr
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be able to operate high altitude aircraft and
bring down transports anywhere in this area it had to go down along with its
neighbors.
Those were being taken down as the colonies fell one
by one to the seemingly inevitable march of Star Force troops across the
planet, but that slow march was going to be hindered even more so if they left
this orbital gun intact until the final days of the planetary assault. It’d
been decided to send a team in to take out the tower and the tower alone, then
leave the rest of the city to rot while they moved on to other targets. Trouble
was, with so many troops conceivably hidden inside waiting to be released, a
standard Clan assault to target the key structures was problematic.
Their solution was to send an Archon team in on foot
and exploit the vulnerability of having the forest that close to the perimeter,
which Iden now was as he sprinted across the gap and jumped up onto the wall,
sticking there for a moment then climbing up with no one else aware of his
presence other than his fellow wall-crawling Archons.
Sonya-837 and Chrissie-10398 had the lead on this
mission, being a master/apprentice pairing and bringing their experience and
unique psionic skills to bear while Iden and the others were strikers and
rangers. They were all carrying heavy packs with jump packs layered underneath,
making their transit a bit clunky, but destroying the tower with psionics alone
was almost impossible, hence the myriad of explosives that he and the others
were carrying.
Send a missile in and it’d get shot down by the
numerous anti-air turrets within the city. Carry their own version of det packs in on the backs of Archons that the lizard
infantry would have to counter and the odds increased greatly. That said, this strike
was incredibly bold.
Which Iden rather liked.
When he got to the rooftop he followed the pair from
Clan Vulcan at a running pace, crossing the wide building and jumping across
the street below to the next…and having to fall a couple of stories in the
process. He cushioned his fall with his jump pack easily enough and ran on,
with the other seven Archons doing likewise as they avoided the streets
entirely and pressed to get as far into the city as they could before being
spotted.
The little armored fleas had come in at night for just
that reason, and were able to hop across the cityscape with remarkable speed
until a patrolling wisp finally shot a pink blip down into the rooftop 12
meters away from Iden, blasting a small crater out of it and blowing up a pyre
of vaporized plating and water, for the recent rain was still puddled
everywhere.
A telepathic prompt from Sonya told everyone they were
headed indoors, with them altering their running direction as soon as the
Vulcans pulled the fighter down and into a nearby building with their psionics.
Once it was out of line of sight they broke away from their run to the next
building jump and swerved into a rooftop entrance, taking the stairwell that
led down into the building.
“Stay tight and focus on point defense,” Sonya told
them over the comm. “We’ll handle ranged targets.”
Doing as told, Iden pushed out his Ikrid and Pefbar to
cover the rooms closest to them, traveling behind a Clan Sneaky Fox ranger.
Most of the minds he came across were already unconscious by the time he sensed
them, with the lead pair knocking them out at range like she’d said. If they
missed one or couldn’t handle a large number of them then it’d be his and the
others’ job to take them down, either through Ikrid blackout or by shooting
them, but their mission wasn’t to kill lizards this time, it was to kill the
defense tower, so they couldn’t get distracted with firefights and had to keep
moving at all times.
For Archons that meant constant running, but that
wasn’t a challenge considering the kind of workouts Iden and the others did.
The mage and padawan weren’t moving too fast so he wasn’t having a problem
keeping up, but he
bring down transports anywhere in this area it had to go down along with its
neighbors.
Those were being taken down as the colonies fell one
by one to the seemingly inevitable march of Star Force troops across the
planet, but that slow march was going to be hindered even more so if they left
this orbital gun intact until the final days of the planetary assault. It’d
been decided to send a team in to take out the tower and the tower alone, then
leave the rest of the city to rot while they moved on to other targets. Trouble
was, with so many troops conceivably hidden inside waiting to be released, a
standard Clan assault to target the key structures was problematic.
Their solution was to send an Archon team in on foot
and exploit the vulnerability of having the forest that close to the perimeter,
which Iden now was as he sprinted across the gap and jumped up onto the wall,
sticking there for a moment then climbing up with no one else aware of his
presence other than his fellow wall-crawling Archons.
Sonya-837 and Chrissie-10398 had the lead on this
mission, being a master/apprentice pairing and bringing their experience and
unique psionic skills to bear while Iden and the others were strikers and
rangers. They were all carrying heavy packs with jump packs layered underneath,
making their transit a bit clunky, but destroying the tower with psionics alone
was almost impossible, hence the myriad of explosives that he and the others
were carrying.
Send a missile in and it’d get shot down by the
numerous anti-air turrets within the city. Carry their own version of det packs in on the backs of Archons that the lizard
infantry would have to counter and the odds increased greatly. That said, this strike
was incredibly bold.
Which Iden rather liked.
When he got to the rooftop he followed the pair from
Clan Vulcan at a running pace, crossing the wide building and jumping across
the street below to the next…and having to fall a couple of stories in the
process. He cushioned his fall with his jump pack easily enough and ran on,
with the other seven Archons doing likewise as they avoided the streets
entirely and pressed to get as far into the city as they could before being
spotted.
The little armored fleas had come in at night for just
that reason, and were able to hop across the cityscape with remarkable speed
until a patrolling wisp finally shot a pink blip down into the rooftop 12
meters away from Iden, blasting a small crater out of it and blowing up a pyre
of vaporized plating and water, for the recent rain was still puddled
everywhere.
A telepathic prompt from Sonya told everyone they were
headed indoors, with them altering their running direction as soon as the
Vulcans pulled the fighter down and into a nearby building with their psionics.
Once it was out of line of sight they broke away from their run to the next
building jump and swerved into a rooftop entrance, taking the stairwell that
led down into the building.
“Stay tight and focus on point defense,” Sonya told
them over the comm. “We’ll handle ranged targets.”
Doing as told, Iden pushed out his Ikrid and Pefbar to
cover the rooms closest to them, traveling behind a Clan Sneaky Fox ranger.
Most of the minds he came across were already unconscious by the time he sensed
them, with the lead pair knocking them out at range like she’d said. If they
missed one or couldn’t handle a large number of them then it’d be his and the
others’ job to take them down, either through Ikrid blackout or by shooting
them, but their mission wasn’t to kill lizards this time, it was to kill the
defense tower, so they couldn’t get distracted with firefights and had to keep
moving at all times.
For Archons that meant constant running, but that
wasn’t a challenge considering the kind of workouts Iden and the others did.
The mage and padawan weren’t moving too fast so he wasn’t having a problem
keeping up, but he
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