Read Online Star Force: Trials (SF68) by Aer-ki Jyr - Free Book Online
Authors: Aer-ki Jyr
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wall when he stumbled across a clearing in the forest. Approaching it
carefully sensing a trap, he scanned everywhere he could with his Pefbar and
slowly walked out into the daylight towards the single object at the center…or
rather buried beneath the grass. It was hidden underground and when the trailblazer
neared it a hologram formed in front of him in the image of Obi-wan Kenobi.
“Greetings, younglings,” it said in a reasonable
knockoff of the original. “By now you’ve obviously realized that these aren’t
the Trials you were looking for. Be that as it may, it was decided that the lot
of you deserved a greater challenge. And for any proper challenge you must have
a mission objective, which I will give you now. Be wary, for I will state this
only once, then you’re on your own.”
“Find the heart of the storm and quell it at its
source, then the light of day will guide your path onwards…oh, and did I
mention you should run now? Farewell, and may the
Force be with you,” the hologram said as the dirt beneath its feet burst up
through the grass and a series of tubes emerged, out of which flowed little
mechanical quadrupeds by the dozens.
“Shit,” Mark said as he turned and ran, diving into
the underbrush and pushing through it with his bioshields. He wasn’t near a
path so he was just going to have to improvise. The lemmings were damn fast and
if he couldn’t get out in the open he wasn’t going to be able to evade them.
Then again, if he delayed to fight them more would
catch up to him, so he decided to just try and make a run for it.
The first little rabbit-sized machine that caught up
to him got picked up and hurled backward telekinetically, followed by others as
Mark pushed his way through a wall of vines. He’d been trying to run the way
he’d come, but these hadn’t been there so he must have already veered off course.
The forest was so dense off trails that it was almost impossible to keep your
bearings without a battlemap and right now all he had to work off of was a pair
of mental signatures that were both more than a kilometer away.
As he ran Mark relayed the hologram’s message just in
case he did get caught and stunned, then did his best to lose his pursuit,
hoping like hell they didn’t have any flanking units ahead of him or he was
going to run square into a trap at the pace he was being forced to move at.
“Heart of the storm?” Paul repeated, exchanging
glances with the others in their new base camp.
“Like…cloud storm?” Kerrie suggested.
“Oh hell no,” Morgan said, realizing what she meant.
“There’s still a lot of the park we haven’t searched
yet,” Greg pointed out.
“She’s right,” Jason disagreed. “It means the
mountain. We have to go back up there.”
“We barely made a supply grab. We can’t go exploring
up there.”
“We’ll need everyone,” Kerrie insisted. “And maybe
some specialized equipment is hidden out there somewhere for us to find. If a
return to the mountain is the endgame, then the size of this park suggests us
doing a lot out there before we get to it.”
“It didn’t say endgame,” Paul pointed out, drawing a
few cringes of agreement.
“Regardless, it’s where we have to go eventually,”
Morgan said, dropping into a crouch and resting on her ankles. “But we’re going
to need everyone, which means a prison break has to come first.”
“I get the feeling we might be in here for a long
time,” Rio said, sitting down on the ground next to Morgan. “I’d prefer getting
the others back sooner than later, so if it’s possible at this point, we need
to get them out now.”
“If it’s possible?”
“There could be time locks, in the form of unbeatable
challenges. Or like Kerrie said, maybe there’s something else out there that we
need to earn first to be able to take those dinobots down.”
“Oh we can take them down,” Morgan said dangerously.
“We just have to link up into a massive
carefully sensing a trap, he scanned everywhere he could with his Pefbar and
slowly walked out into the daylight towards the single object at the center…or
rather buried beneath the grass. It was hidden underground and when the trailblazer
neared it a hologram formed in front of him in the image of Obi-wan Kenobi.
“Greetings, younglings,” it said in a reasonable
knockoff of the original. “By now you’ve obviously realized that these aren’t
the Trials you were looking for. Be that as it may, it was decided that the lot
of you deserved a greater challenge. And for any proper challenge you must have
a mission objective, which I will give you now. Be wary, for I will state this
only once, then you’re on your own.”
“Find the heart of the storm and quell it at its
source, then the light of day will guide your path onwards…oh, and did I
mention you should run now? Farewell, and may the
Force be with you,” the hologram said as the dirt beneath its feet burst up
through the grass and a series of tubes emerged, out of which flowed little
mechanical quadrupeds by the dozens.
“Shit,” Mark said as he turned and ran, diving into
the underbrush and pushing through it with his bioshields. He wasn’t near a
path so he was just going to have to improvise. The lemmings were damn fast and
if he couldn’t get out in the open he wasn’t going to be able to evade them.
Then again, if he delayed to fight them more would
catch up to him, so he decided to just try and make a run for it.
The first little rabbit-sized machine that caught up
to him got picked up and hurled backward telekinetically, followed by others as
Mark pushed his way through a wall of vines. He’d been trying to run the way
he’d come, but these hadn’t been there so he must have already veered off course.
The forest was so dense off trails that it was almost impossible to keep your
bearings without a battlemap and right now all he had to work off of was a pair
of mental signatures that were both more than a kilometer away.
As he ran Mark relayed the hologram’s message just in
case he did get caught and stunned, then did his best to lose his pursuit,
hoping like hell they didn’t have any flanking units ahead of him or he was
going to run square into a trap at the pace he was being forced to move at.
“Heart of the storm?” Paul repeated, exchanging
glances with the others in their new base camp.
“Like…cloud storm?” Kerrie suggested.
“Oh hell no,” Morgan said, realizing what she meant.
“There’s still a lot of the park we haven’t searched
yet,” Greg pointed out.
“She’s right,” Jason disagreed. “It means the
mountain. We have to go back up there.”
“We barely made a supply grab. We can’t go exploring
up there.”
“We’ll need everyone,” Kerrie insisted. “And maybe
some specialized equipment is hidden out there somewhere for us to find. If a
return to the mountain is the endgame, then the size of this park suggests us
doing a lot out there before we get to it.”
“It didn’t say endgame,” Paul pointed out, drawing a
few cringes of agreement.
“Regardless, it’s where we have to go eventually,”
Morgan said, dropping into a crouch and resting on her ankles. “But we’re going
to need everyone, which means a prison break has to come first.”
“I get the feeling we might be in here for a long
time,” Rio said, sitting down on the ground next to Morgan. “I’d prefer getting
the others back sooner than later, so if it’s possible at this point, we need
to get them out now.”
“If it’s possible?”
“There could be time locks, in the form of unbeatable
challenges. Or like Kerrie said, maybe there’s something else out there that we
need to earn first to be able to take those dinobots down.”
“Oh we can take them down,” Morgan said dangerously.
“We just have to link up into a massive
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