Free Star Force: Resistance (SF75) by Aer-ki Jyr

get before having to
put down and make camp before the sun began to rise.

 
    Six days later Alpha 9 came up on their extraction
coordinates, which were little more than an anonymous spot out in the barren
countryside near to the front lines and just on the Star Force side…but far
away from any of the captured cities or friendly firebases. They set down
inside a shallow canyon and sent a signal straight up to orbit where the
lizards couldn’t detect it, telling the fleet that they were here and needed to
get pulled out. Their speeders’ fuel cells were almost on zero charge, as
expected, and they couldn’t fly the rest of the way to one of the Star Force
held regions if they’d wanted to, though they didn’t, for that would invite
wisp attention that the speeder bikes were ill equipped to handle anyway.
    After a couple of hours a dropship was sent down from
orbit along with a convoy heading towards one of the secure landing zones. It
split off from the group near the surface and buzzed the terrain all the way
out to their position with the lizards not bothering to follow it, fortunately. Jyra watched it coming on the battlemap that they
were now fully reconnected with given their distance from any functioning
lizard city…though there was one about 75 miles out that had been reduced to
rubble. It had been the first they’d targeted from orbit and thoroughly razed
in order to clear a decent perimeter to set down their first prefab structures
around. Since then they’d been taking the other cities over land save for the
anti-orbital guns and shield generators that they’d plucked from them.
    Destroying an entire city took time and Star Force
hadn’t brought many bombs with them, knowing how inefficient such weapons were
in a long campaign. The charred wreck beyond them had been taken down with
energy weapons only, with all of the high buildings being torn down to the
point where Jyra had only been able to see a few
jutted pieces on the horizon before they’d come down into the canyon.
    There was nothing left there to pick up their signals
even if they’d transmitted in the open, so using their normal ‘secure’ signals
was of no conceivable threat this far out. And if even they were picked up,
there were no lizard units nearby to intercept them…so long as their ride got
here, otherwise they’d be in a heap of trouble.
    But it came without incident, zipping into the canyon
and dropping down right over their location. It opened its boarding ramp midair
and the four speeders flew into the hold of the Falcon -class dropship, passing inside its IDF field and allowing
the craft to start accelerating away before the door had even began to shut.
    Jyra popped out the landing
gear and set the speeder down on the deck, with the cloaking sheath having
already been powered down but not removed, for it had been firmly attached at a
few points before the mission. She peeled it back and climbed off at the same
time the others did to find an Archon acolyte standing at the end of the bay
looking at them.
    “You guys alright?” he asked.
    Leo pulled off his helmet and looked at the helmetless
Archon that was otherwise fully clad in his silver armor. “We’re good.”
    “Blow up anything useful?”
    “We didn’t stick around for the fireworks,” Brandon
said, likewise removing his helmet, “but unless they found and disarmed the
bombs, which I think is highly unlikely, then you can scratch one lizard
hatchery off the list.”
    “A hatchery?” he said with a satisfied nod. “I was
under the impression you were going for some firearms warehouses, or maybe a
production facility.”
    “ Gotta have lizards to shoot
them or they don’t work,” Jyra said as she and Mace
also pulled off their helmets.
    “True,” the Archon said, looking them over. “I gotta ask…why the old armor?”
    Brandon shrugged. “We haven’t always used it, but I
personally like the extra 7% armor on it.”
    “Yet you aren’t wearing the