Free Star Force: Proving Ground (SF66) by Aer-ki Jyr

from the mage’s mind. Whether that was intentional or not he
didn’t know, but as soon as Chrissie landed the rest of them started going
across one by one at slightly staggered intervals, with the two rangers going
next and leaving the most psionically capable Archons for last.
    Iden went 7th in line, feeling the push from behind
but unable to create a repulsor conduit because he
hadn’t yet learned that ability. He compensated by goosing his jump pack to
maximum and floated across the gap until he smacked the edge of the tower,
bouncing off it and only grabbing on with one hand. There was no leverage
whatsoever, but his fingers stuck to the wall and he thumped against it as his
body finally bled off the momentum of the bounce.
    Chrissie was below him and to the right, and he realized
she had a specialized cutting tool as their battlemeld links reformed that was
literally melting the plating away, with the pieces being held up in the air
nearby telekinetically by the others, with Iden also grabbing a piece to help
out so they wouldn’t fall to the street and alert anyone to their presence.
Before she could get them a man-sized hole, Chrissie paused what she was doing
and braced herself against the wall in a three point stance, then reached a hand
out toward Sonya, using a repulsor conduit to help
reel her in with no one left to push the mage across.
    The set of dark blue armor smacked the wall three
meters to the right of Chrissie and more than a story below, bouncing off like
Iden had but holding both hands to the wall and keeping them there. Her legs
rebounded and flopped against the wall as Chrissie got back to work, soon
prying loose an entire section of the weapon and diving in head first, with
more parts coming back out as she dug like a gopher through the equipment with
her cutter leading the way.
    Iden took a moment to look around. There were no
fighters nearby angling for them, and no one down on street level looking up.
In fact, there was no one down there on the plaza surrounding the tower, with
all the defensive troops tucked into overhangs that would protect them from
aerial bombardment…and fortunately now cutting off their lines of sight upward.
    “I’m in,” Chrissie said over the comm after cutting the battlemeld link.
    “Junk first,” Sonya reminded them, telepathically
steering a few floating pieces through the gap. Iden passed the two that he was
holding aloft and felt Chrissie take them, sucking them inside the hole along
with a steady flow of others.
    Sonya went in after the parts, then the
master/apprentice pair began clearing out the immediate area, putting lizards
to sleep from afar but finding only a few nearby as Iden and the rest of the
Archons slowly climbed inside. When he got to the opening he saw how tight a
fit it was, having to press his chest down as low as he could to keep from
snagging his weapons rack on bits of machinery. His Pefbar allowed him to see
it all so there were no unintentional snags, just a lot of slow, deliberate
movements up until he came to the proper wall and the hollow space inside.
    From there he slid along without broken components
trying to grab him until he came to another hole, this one cut by Chrissie that
led out into an internal hallway. As he ducked down to crawl out he felt a
telekinetic tug hasten his transit, with him throwing the ranger on the other
side a ‘thank you’ gesture with a wave of his free hand while he reached back
and took his rifle off the safety hook on his pack with the other.
    He waited for the others to come through, then stepped
over the junk pile and followed Sonya’s waypoint, running to catch up to the
pair that had already moved three floors up and wasn’t slowing down.

 
 
    7

 
 
    Iden dug through his pack, which he’d disconnected
from his armor and was now laying on the ground as he pulled out his portion of
the explosives all the Archons were carrying. They’d worked their way up to the
top of the tower,