Free Star Force: Survivor (SF52) by Aer-ki Jyr Page A

cover and not moving a muscle it found them and
started blasting away as they jumped up and ran for their lives…with only two
making it to the forest edge, both commandos with plasma damage to their armor.
    Rio waited on the others until the last of their
battlemap tracking signals cut out, including the Knight’s. He’d almost made it
across, but was gunned down within 150 meters of the forest edge. Biting down
so hard his jaw hurt, Rio forced himself to keep going with the others, four of
which were unarmored, including their pilot.
    Prodding the civy along as
fast as he could manage, the survivors kept moving on…with what would be a
constant trail of Skarron infantry following them, making it a footrace to get
to friendly territory that the commandos couldn’t excel on, given that they
could only move as fast as the slowest person…and damn their luck that they had
to have an untrained civilian with them.

 

 
    7

 
 
    Chad ducked behind one of the commandos who half swung
him around with a firm grip on his upper right arm as a salvo of white plasma
dots flashed past with a few impacting the dull white armor’s shields, with the
commando taking the hit for him. The man fired back but stayed put as more commandos
moved around them, falling back and intercepting the Hobbits that had flanked
them. The stupid little things were fast and there were many of them, with this
being the third time since the plain that they’d been attacked.
    Like before the commandos chewed them up, focusing on
the weak point around Chad and the other unarmored personnel and moving outward
like an exploding nova killing everything they came across. Soon the commando
shielding him stood up and released his grip on his arm…then they were off
running again, with Chad’s legs protesting heavily. He’d thought he was in good
shape, having attained self-sufficiency long ago, but the aliens were just as
fast and he knew the commandos were itching to run faster, but they wouldn’t
leave him and the others behind, which Chad was immensely thankful for.
    Pumping as much speed out of his fatigued body as he
could manage he followed the commando through the trees, not worrying about
where he was going but just with keeping up. Nearby was their pilot and a couple of other civilians, both techs. The pilot seemed to be
holding pace fine, but the other two were just as worse off as Chad, each of
which had a commando with them to keep them on pace and to shield them should
the enemy close in. Fortunately none of the Skarron monsters were pursuing them
through the forest, just the little ones, but they were deadly enough and
didn’t seem concerned about their own losses…just in killing the Humans.
    And what was worse was that the Humans couldn’t stop
running. Chad was getting slower and slower, but if they stopped they’d be
overwhelmed. He thought the commandos realized that they’d have to eventually,
because every now and then he’d see some of them dropping back and hear
weaponsfire behind them and he guessed they were going back to kill some of the
enemy before catching back up to the slow moving group.
    Chad didn’t know how much longer he could keep going
without walking, but he had to at least try to keep moving. The others might
not make it much longer either, but he didn’t want to be the one to cause them
to stop. If the others did, then there’s nothing he could do about it, but if it
was just a matter of his being able to stretch himself further then damn him if
he wasn’t going to find a way to do it.
    Thoughts like these were running through the back of
his mind as he focused on his steps and keeping pace…then all of a sudden the
commando he was following hit the brakes and grabbed him again, slamming him
against the trunk of a nearby tree and holding him there as the forest erupted
with a barrage of white plasma from ahead.
    “Stay here, stay down,” he said, then the commando disappeared ahead as well. Chad did