Free Star Force: Newbslayer (SF64) by Aer-ki Jyr Page B

reach, so she and Levi were
going to back off and let this play out without them. Jenna didn’t like that,
but sometimes it was more important to keep yourself righteous than to worry
about the outcome, and this was, unfortunately, one of those cases.
    The issue of defense wasn’t enough for her to come
down on the locals’ side, and the merc commander had
even admitted that he was here for the payday more than for any concern about
the planet…though he had pressed the significance of this world to the
surrounding region. That may have been true, but the locals weren’t exactly
upstanding individuals and a change might do some good. If that change occurred
through bloodshed it was unacceptable, but if she couldn’t stop it from
happening she wasn’t going to contribute to it with the same.
    Brayden had been insistent that he was going to keep
the Marauders here and try to win this fight, but that he’d need Star Force’s
help to do it. Jenna had reminded him that even if she helped him fight off
this invasion, they wouldn’t be sticking around to protect the planet
thereafter. Then, after even more arguing she offered him a limited amount of
help, which he politely accepted. They sealed the deal with a handshake, skin
to skin, which gave her a quick glimpse at his thoughts.
    That quick access was all she needed, for she was very
good at reading Humans. A lot of the concerns she’d had about the mercenaries
evaporated, but it was clear they weren’t Star Force troops anymore. A lot of
what they had once been still remained, and because of that the planet might be
a little better off if they did indeed prevail, but the merc commander was definitely being driven by credits and reputation, seeing this as
the biggest opportunity his unit had ever had and wanting to climb the ranks in
militants for hire crowd.
    So as they’d planned, his troops were on their way
here…but not to attack the walker. That was reserved for the Archons.
    As Jenna and Levi ran towards the Type-5 the gap
between them diminished, with them eventually coming together on a stone
courtyard with the big, elevated golf ball visible across the next line of
trees. Around them a scattering of infantry took notice and fired a few shots
off at them, but they were running so fast that when they missed they didn’t
get a second shot. Jenna saw one of the tanks on the western side of her park
battlemap begin to move their way, but it was going to be too late.
    They had a straight line approach to the walker, with
only some infantry units in between and they weren’t going to engage them.
Before the Archons hit the trees they linked up in battlemeld, with Levi’s
psionic component of Neritu adding considerable range
and power to Jenna’s Ikrid, letting her stretch out all the way to the distant
walker and probe the minds inside as they ran.
    She could feel them, but the range was still too great
for her to access them enough to assert control. The question was how close
would they actually have to get, and would it involve dodging plasma blasts.
Both Archons thought they could do it from at least plasma spit range, but with
the bit of available terrain in the park they had a backup plan if their
strength wasn’t enough.
    Jenna took the lead on this due to her greater skill,
for identifying the minds was easy compared to accessing them. New races, new
difficulties…and that meant she needed more time and power to do the necessary
override work.
    Meanwhile the pair raced forward, looking for all the
world like they were intent on committing suicide. The infantry tried to stop
them, but the shields on the Archons’ armor held up against the few lachar
blasts that hit. Levi crossed in front of Jenna as a group of three Varshoo
tried to block their path and rammed them aside, clearing the road for her to
keep running and as much attention on the walker as possible. Once past that
group they were in the clear, literally, for the trees had disappeared