Free Star Force: Cascade (SF73) by Aer-ki Jyr Page A

through
a limited amount of rock and dirt, so he didn’t lose his linkage to the drones,
but he had to keep them within a tight radius that he was also pressing out to
find the fail point. This entire challenge run was more about finding ways to
fail than finding a way through, for a lucky run wouldn’t do him much good.
    He had to lose, over and over again, in order to build
a playbook for this new type of aerial warfare, and while he certainly didn’t
like losing, he had no problem thinking outside of the box and trying new
approaches, no matter how odd or seemingly stupid. For when he was piloting a
squadron solo he didn’t have to explain himself to anyone and could experiment
on a whim if necessary.
    And that freedom was always necessary when searching out new ways to do something.
Success on this course was learning, not finishing it. That would be bonus, and
right now Mark seriously didn’t think there was a way through, for he’d made it
overly hard and, honestly, not entirely fair, but in the back of his mind he
just saw that as an even sweeter challenge.
    Tell a trailblazer something couldn’t be done and half
the time they’d find a way to do it anyway. He recognized that tendency within
himself and the others and wasn’t above self-goading. He’d spent a long time
planning out this course before putting all thought of designing it aside and
switching his mindset over to beating it. Now it was just a fixed thing,
immutable, with no one actively changing it up to thwart him. He’d created a
monster, but it was a static monster that he was going to figure out how to
beat if he could.
    Meanwhile there were many betting pools in the pilot
corps as to if and when he’d actually get around to pulling it off, with a
little over 60% wagering on completion despite their knowing how insanely
difficult the course was. They had that much faith in their top pilot to figure
out this puzzle that they were willing to put credits on it, while others were
hoping to clean up by betting against him, knowing that it would be a win/win
scenario.
    Either they’d get a boat load of credits or some
valuable new tactics and equipment tweaks. Either way this was on Mark’s
shoulders for now. What he was able to achieve, limited or whole in this
endeavor, would set the stage for their contributions on this project to
follow.

 
 
    7

 
 
    August 2, 2890
    Solar System
    Europa

 
    Daniel-002 received the package from Lens on one of
the surface landing pads that connected to the moon’s underwater cities through
the thick ice sheath protecting them from space. It was a cargo crate the size
of a house and had been dropped off via a cargo ship passing through the system
with other ports of call to attend to. The slight detour had been negligible,
but saved his fellow trailblazer the trouble of sending an entire jumpship to
get him the package when sending it through the ‘mail’ was far easier.
    Time wasn’t an issue here but Daniel was glad he
finally got it, for when he brought the crate down into the Clan Westley colony
situated on the ocean floor he opened it to find a series of Dvapp aquatics gel
packages. Daniel’s Clan was only ranked 28th in aquatics, but he’d been working
with Lens for the past few decades in order to develop some new technologies in
an effort to undercut Erin’s Elarioni advantage. Eventually the tech would get
distributed out to Mainline and the other Clans, but for now it was a private
affair that had Daniel more than eager to incorporate the advancements into his
own Clan craft.
    The gel had been a work in progress for a long time,
but what Lens had sent him was the prototype for a new matrix that should allow
Daniel to create the morphing properties he required for his Project Tentacle.
Unlike Lens, who was building ‘standard’ aquatics craft, Daniel was going in a
more Elarioni fashion and working on limbs rather than beams and torpedoes. He
saw the potential in the gel that, while