Star Force: Evacuation (SF50) (8 page)

The other two kept running backwards until they were
out of the main firing lines, then Kali did a double take as the two came
together in what looked like a giant robot hug and melted into one another,
forming a stationary stature that the Archon couldn’t look at any longer as she
was now within mauler range of a group of spiders and giraffes that were just
now beginning to target her.

She slowed to a walk and opened up with her mauler and
rail gun, taking a spider out within 20 seconds before turning slightly right
to attack another, with all those involved constantly on the move and
repositioning, though her mech was by far the most agile…up until a pair of
starscreams flew in and landed nearby, transforming into mech mode and giving
her some backup with their own smaller mauler cannons.

A proximity alarm alerted her to a contact coming up
behind her, and she looked just in time to see another of the Voku mech/suits
run past and dive head first into three spiders. It landed on one, grabbing it
and rolling through a somersault with it locked in a death grip, then flipping
it through the air coming out of the roll before jutting to the side and
kicking another to the ground.

Kali landed a mauler blast on that one before the Voku
reached its arms forward and pummeled the walker with energy blasts while
ignoring the plasma raining down on its back from the third spider and others
further away. She adjusted her aim to the other spider,
then
held up as the starscreams crossed her firing line. With a moment to glance at
what else was happening she saw the melting ‘statue’ finally take shape and
walk off, now half again as tall as it had been with a similar biped form.

It ran up alongside the second voltron, now almost as
tall as it, and the pair ran forward together, with the second voltron joining
them in a shield wedge, with the Voku in the center and mostly protected from
the white plasma storm coming down on them, though the giant physical shields
were starting to show a few holes.

That was all Kali could see, for she had to turn her
attention to the second super dragon as it adjusted its sights away from the
voltrons and towards her little section of battle. She was still outside of
mauler range, barely, so she ran forward and began firing it and her rail gun
off as quickly as she could, with the metallic bullets not needing to be well
aimed to hit the giant machine.

It fired off one large plasma stream, hitting another
madcat and melting/exploding the missile boxes off it. The mech fell,
apparently already having its shields down, and buried its nose into the
ground, then suddenly all the anti-air weapons on the Skarron Type-1 lit up as
a mass dropped out of the air and impacted the ground with a large boom that
rocked
Kali’s
mech slightly. Before the dust cleared
a giant Voku mech/suit stood up and walked towards the super dragon and punched
it down into the ground with a massive fist.

Then, prompting a laugh of joy from Kali, it picked
the entire super dragon up and spun it around its body, building momentum
before releasing it sideways…and throwing it into the side of its twin, sending
both crashing in a tumble.

“Yes!” she yelled in a satisfactory manner as she
looked for another target of her own, finding plenty and settling on a spider
that was now targeting the Voku. “Kick their ass bro. I’ve got your back.”

8

August 29, 2537

Hachtat
System

Eliossa

One of the Elarioni, whose name was impossible for
Humans to pronounce, swam along with her sisters in a long, river-like flow of
bodies through the ocean towards the shore, escorted by their aquatics warships
to make sure that neither the Nestafar nor Skarrons interfered with the
evacuation process and attacked the defenseless civilians. Shri, which is what
she would eventually be called once they arrived in the ADZ, could sense her
sisters all around her, but not just in the line she was traveling with. There
were others nearby, all converging on the same area where the Human transports
were waiting on shore.

The Elarioni had a limited telepathic ability, not
enough to speak to one another or read minds, but they could feel each other
out and read basic emotions, such as when one of them was in danger the others
would know or when they were excited or happy. Right now Shri was swimming in a
sea of anxiety, kicking her tail rhythmically to maintain a decent pace and
having her hair swaying in the chop from the others ahead of her. She carried
only a small satchel with her, having been told all other supplies would be
provided on the transports and that space was at a premium.

They were going to have to endure some very close
living quarters in order to get everyone offworld, but that was a small price
to pay for their freedom. Already the Skarrons had attacked two underwater
settlements…futilely, but their intentions were clear. Not only were they going
to rid the planet of Nestafar, but they were not going to tolerate any other
presence here. Their aquatic weaponry was limited to infantry troops with spike
guns, but she and the others knew/suspected that the Skarrons hadn’t come here
equipped for aquatic warfare, for they didn’t discover the Elarioni
civilization until after they’d arrived…meaning that if they were willing to
start engaging them with what little they had available, then that probably
meant their true aquatic forces were on the way.

That was a fight they were willing to make in the
water, but they’d never be able to remove them from the surface. And if the
Alliance’s reports were accurate, the Skarrons would keep sending more and more
troops from their massive empire until they eventually succeeded. Shri and the
others had to flee before they could be enveloped in a no-win scenario that
would gradually grind down their population and resources until they were wiped
out of existence.

The fact that there was fighting going on now up above
was cause enough for anxiety, but Shri and the others weren’t very keen on the
idea of traveling on an alien ship…especially considering those aliens were air
breathers. That said, it was a way off the planet and they were going to take
it, trusting their leadership’s guidance despite their misgivings and
abandoning their homes for the evacuation lines, some of which stretched thousands
of miles.

Those long lines were being facilitated by aquatic
ships carrying and offloading evacuees to nearby locations, then allowing them
to swim the remainder of the journey on their own. Already it had been 13 days
of constant evacuations, with Star Force transports landing by the dozens,
loading, then taking off for the ADZ while others came down to replace them.
Shri hadn’t seen any of the ships in person, only on recordings, but they were
massive vessels that she had a hard time understanding how they could even land
on a planet.

Most of the Elarioni ships were small and agile, with
massive hulks being the way of other races…yet one more reason for their
apprehension, though in theory a big ship would carry greater defenses, yet
Elarioni combat philosophy held that speed and agility was more important than
armor and shields.

At least that’s the way it worked underwater. In the
air or space was another matter entirely, which was also why they felt so out
of place there. The Alliance was much better suited to such combat arenas, and
hopefully the two could learn and supplement each other…at least that
was
the stated purpose of this merger with the Alliance.
They rescue the Elarioni and in turn Shri’s people would help strengthen their
aquatics fronts, few as they were.

The pace Shri and the others were maintaining wasn’t
overly hard, but they’d been swimming for the past 14 hours and all were
getting tired. None the less they persisted, understanding the importance and
danger of the situation, and swam on with the seafloor gradually rising up
beneath them until they were in the coastal shallows…with that environment
eliciting even more anxiety, for the closer to land they were the more danger
they were in. Elarioni preferred deep water above all else, with the shallows
making them feel claustrophobic.

Shri had expected a large group to have gathered
around the loading areas, but to her surprise there was none at all. The line
she was traveling in merged with four others at various points in the shallows,
with the now super-thick line ending at the opening of a massive tube with
several Star Force armored suits floating nearby with flanking Elarioni
escorts, for crowd control she imagined. She was less than 100 meters away from
them when the line suddenly stopped and she got her first rest…though she found
that floating in place waiting was more disturbing, for she felt like the enemy
could drop down on her head at any moment.

Those in the tube swam on, disappearing around the
upward bend and into the ship beyond. Shri and the others couldn’t see more
than a giant shadow ahead of them through the water, for they were staying low
beneath the surface to avoid drawing attention from enemy fighters that might
be circling around overhead. A few minutes later that shadow rose up and
disappeared, letting the sunlight through that created a mild haze from the
dust in the water from the combat that had been occurring nearby.

Shri waited and waited, nervously flexing her three
fingers in and out while giving her tail and torso muscles a much needed rest.
There was little talking, for all were tired, but the guards at the entrance of
the tube told them that another transport was incoming and they spread the word
back down the line as the group at the end swelled up into a large crowd.

Eventually another shadow lowered over them and set
down on shore, connecting to the tube and sending a pair of red-armored Humans
down it and into view…whereupon the line started moving again, with them
leading the Elarioni up it with the guards at the entrance setting up the
spacing to keep the flow moving but not overcrowded.

Shri was held for a moment by the outstretched arm of
one of her sisters, then released without so much as a casual glance at her.
These guards must have processed thousands if not millions of Elarioni by now,
so the lack of personality was understandable. Shri swam into the 50m wide tube
along with the others and curved up, rising above the level of the ocean and
onto land, she guessed, for the tube walls were opaque with nothing visible
outside them…hopefully because they were covered in heavy armor.

When she got to the end of the not so short tube the
line was divided up, with her being shuffled into the leftmost segment and into
a much smaller tube with three others beside her. That little group swam
through the curvy course, with a feeling of claustrophobia choking her mind,
both from her own fear and that of the others washing over her but there was
nothing they could do but keep moving so they bravely swam on, not knowing what
they would encounter ahead.

About a minute later her group of four exited the tube
into a large chamber, with the transition being a physical relief on all the
Elarioni, but above and beyond that was the curious joy at seeing their own technology
inside. The room was alien, but small stations were constructed in Elarioni
fashion and even had their own language prompts and keyboards, with a
repetitive audial instruction to log in at an available terminal.

Shri swam over to an open one and followed the written
instructions. It was little more than a check-in station where she input her
personal identification information,
then
a small
armband was produced in a cupola beside it. She took the Elarioni designed
bracelet and slid it over her wrist and halfway up to her elbow, then swam
forward two meters and used it to access another tube, this one with a
waterlock. She swam inside the Elarioni designed structure, knowing how to
access it and closing the doorway behind her.

With the armband she touched a sensitive panel and
heard machinery moving for a few seconds before the other side of the waterlock
opened into a very narrow tunnel which she swam down following a guide light on
the wall. She kept pace with it easily enough, for it was moving slowly, but
its presence felt reassuring because Elarioni used such things in their own
cities to guide children and newcomers around. Eventually the tunnel split into
four branches, with her following the light into the upper right and down
another length before she passed through four more splits.

The last section of tunnel finally opened up into a
curious habitat area, reminiscent of Elarioni design but much more compact. She
saw a few others swinging around the choked passageways that were little more than
cracks between floating cubes in an otherwise huge water-filled environment.

Shri politely made her way through the crowds even as
a prompt was repeating itself, indicating that all should stay ‘indoors’ during
the loading procedure. Some of the others were traveling as she was, while
others were moving about out of curiosity and making traffic impediments of
themselves
.

Following the information on her armband Shri made her
way through the tight habitat to her section…a large cube suspended by beams connecting
it to others and the distant walls. She entered one of the 24 entrances and
swam inside searching for her compartment. After several twists and turns she
came to number 73 and opened the small round door and pulled herself inside,
seeing little more than an elevator-sized chamber.

Immediately she worried about claustrophobia, but the
entire design was Elarioni despite the difference in materials, and she settled
into a resting float in the center as she logged into the computer with her new
id and accessed the newsfeeds and other aps, one of which allowed her an
external view of the ship.

She unconsciously released a bubble from her nose when
she saw what was happening. The Human ships were truly massive and parked all
along the coast, each with multiple tubes connecting them to the water. She
could see fighters streaking by overhead in patrols while walking machines did
the same nearby. One of the giant transports pulled up, showing its true bulk,
only to be replaced by another coming down mere minutes later.

Shri knew there had to be millions of Elarioni in
these ships, and she was both impressed and afraid of so many people being
packed in together, for they made easy targets.

She kept looking around the other camera options, some
not even based on her
transport, that
showed the
distant fighting. The area around the evacuation zone was secure, yet riddled
with debris. There appeared to be at least two ongoing conflicts to the south,
but her ship was well outside of their weapons range. She did notice the Star
Force troops, which she was somewhat familiar with by this point given how much
information about the ADZ had been passing around, but there was another ally
in play that she didn’t realize. She searched the computer database and
couldn’t find a match, wondering if it was her own fault for missing something
or if they simply didn’t have information on whoever they were.

Regardless they were fighting the Skarrons more
effectively than the Nestafar had
been,
which gave her
a little bit of comfort as she waited for the transport to load. Inside her
compartment there was food, which she eventually started to nibble on.
Everything was right here that she would need for the trip, with the
introduction material on her terminal indicating that it was preferred that she
stay put for the duration of the journey, given that there wasn’t room for
lounging outside.

Shri knew that wouldn’t do for a long interstellar
trip, but the compartment was comfortable enough that she settled in and
distracted herself with watching what was happening outside…and within. There
was a separate, live feed showing the boarding process, how many compartments
there were, and how many were filled. At the moment there was only 2% filled,
and she’d been here for more than half an hour already, underscoring just how
large the Human transports were.

There were also ways of checking on
who
else was onboard her ship and even the others, with Shri looking up several of
her friends to see if they’d evacuated already. Some had come with her onto
this ship, she knew, but it wasn’t until she looked down through the lists that
she found out which ones were where…and the fact that she could send
them
messages.

That kept her busy for the hours that followed as she
had an ongoing conversation with two of them up until the transport
disconnected from the water tubes and began to lift off. Shri
paused
her conversation to watch and mentally cross her
fingers, hoping they wouldn’t end up getting shot down. Painfully slow the
transport rose up above the evacuation zone, with her getting an aerial view of
it all and seeing just how large it was from yet another perspective.

From there they moved up through the atmosphere with
her keeping a close watch on the surrounding combat to see if any fighters or
ships would be coming their way…but the trip up to low orbit didn’t see any
difficulties. There they stopped, however, along with several other fully
loaded transports and many empty ones under the protection of an even larger
Star Force warship that dwarfed the ship she was on. It and many smaller ones
guarded them as they waited, for what she didn’t know, but they spent many hours
there…with her feeling a mix of anxiousness and relief, for both she and the
others were off the planet they feared they’d be trapped on, but waiting in
orbit to be shot down was equally vexing.