on, jumping out
from the planet on a brief trip to the star where they met up with thousands of
others, most of whom the computer tagged as being empty and waiting for their chance
to go down to the planet.
Only then did she fully realize the scale of the
evacuation effort. Seeing numbers on a chart was one thing, but looking at all
these ships here and knowing how packed hers was underscored just how big this
operation was…and how much they owed the Alliance for doing this.
More of the alien ships were here, guarding them
closely as a handful of Star Force warships also patrolled the area. Things
appeared quiet at the moment, with no enemy ships in orbit…as far as her sensor
feeds indicated. There was another long wait, one in which Shri slept through while
her transport slowly docked with a jumpship, before the console pinged an
update alert as they finally got moving towards their jumppoint in a much
larger convoy with one of the Star Force warships escorting them out.
Her jumpship went first, followed by the others
shortly thereafter that she was then able to detect mid-jump through their
location beacons. It took a while for them to register over the vast distances
they were coasting between, but she did see the warship bringing up the rear,
glad to have the military vessel with them and even more glad to be out of the
war zone.
Now was the longest wait of all,
with them having to make multiple jumps that would take weeks to get to
their eventual destination. Shri stayed in her compartment for three days
before venturing out and over to one belonging to a friend and talking with her
in person, as most of the other Elarioni were doing. Other than that she
explored a bit, finding nothing but habitats and spending most of her time in
her own and accessing the entertainment, social, and knowledge software to pass
the time.
Of particular interest was their destination world,
which she studied intently and happy to find out that it was completely a water
world with no land for enemies to occupy. If they wanted to take it, they’d
have to fight an aquatics war, which she knew her people were more than capable
of doing.
The database called it ‘Atlantica,’ which she had a
hard time pronouncing, but by the end of the trip she had it down well enough
in her own dialect and was eager to feel its waters on her blue skin.
9
November 2, 2537
Hachtat System
Eliossa
Riona was woken from a sleep cycle onboard the TF and
groggily ran to the hangar bay, half dressing in the hallway as she went and
getting into her skeet just in time to hit the air along with a dozen others
that met up with some 100+ Voku fighters a few miles off enroute to a fresh
enemy LZ where the Skarrons were just now beginning to land transports. There
hadn’t even been enough time for an orbital battle, with the enemy dropping
into the atmosphere directly from their jumppoint and burning hard to get to
the surface past the chasing Voku vessels.
Several dozen Skarron warships broke off from the
group to intercept them, screening for the transports to get to ground and
unload thousands of new walkers onto the planet a few miles off from the
evacuation zone…and within easy walking distance for the machines to begin a
new assault from. So far, after an intense first three weeks of combat, both
the Skarron and Nestafar had avoided the Star Force foothold on the planet
while they continued to battle each other in other areas. There were a few
attempts to get at the evacuation ships over the two months that followed, but
nothing that the defenses couldn’t repulse with ease.
As was typical, that was about to change. Riona
blinked away the last traces of sleep from her eyes and focused on the sensor
readings from the LZ ahead as she and her impromptu squadron tucked in behind
the much larger Voku fighters. The skeets were faster in super pursuit mode,
but she wanted to arrive with their allies because it was going to get
from the planet on a brief trip to the star where they met up with thousands of
others, most of whom the computer tagged as being empty and waiting for their chance
to go down to the planet.
Only then did she fully realize the scale of the
evacuation effort. Seeing numbers on a chart was one thing, but looking at all
these ships here and knowing how packed hers was underscored just how big this
operation was…and how much they owed the Alliance for doing this.
More of the alien ships were here, guarding them
closely as a handful of Star Force warships also patrolled the area. Things
appeared quiet at the moment, with no enemy ships in orbit…as far as her sensor
feeds indicated. There was another long wait, one in which Shri slept through while
her transport slowly docked with a jumpship, before the console pinged an
update alert as they finally got moving towards their jumppoint in a much
larger convoy with one of the Star Force warships escorting them out.
Her jumpship went first, followed by the others
shortly thereafter that she was then able to detect mid-jump through their
location beacons. It took a while for them to register over the vast distances
they were coasting between, but she did see the warship bringing up the rear,
glad to have the military vessel with them and even more glad to be out of the
war zone.
Now was the longest wait of all,
with them having to make multiple jumps that would take weeks to get to
their eventual destination. Shri stayed in her compartment for three days
before venturing out and over to one belonging to a friend and talking with her
in person, as most of the other Elarioni were doing. Other than that she
explored a bit, finding nothing but habitats and spending most of her time in
her own and accessing the entertainment, social, and knowledge software to pass
the time.
Of particular interest was their destination world,
which she studied intently and happy to find out that it was completely a water
world with no land for enemies to occupy. If they wanted to take it, they’d
have to fight an aquatics war, which she knew her people were more than capable
of doing.
The database called it ‘Atlantica,’ which she had a
hard time pronouncing, but by the end of the trip she had it down well enough
in her own dialect and was eager to feel its waters on her blue skin.
9
November 2, 2537
Hachtat System
Eliossa
Riona was woken from a sleep cycle onboard the TF and
groggily ran to the hangar bay, half dressing in the hallway as she went and
getting into her skeet just in time to hit the air along with a dozen others
that met up with some 100+ Voku fighters a few miles off enroute to a fresh
enemy LZ where the Skarrons were just now beginning to land transports. There
hadn’t even been enough time for an orbital battle, with the enemy dropping
into the atmosphere directly from their jumppoint and burning hard to get to
the surface past the chasing Voku vessels.
Several dozen Skarron warships broke off from the
group to intercept them, screening for the transports to get to ground and
unload thousands of new walkers onto the planet a few miles off from the
evacuation zone…and within easy walking distance for the machines to begin a
new assault from. So far, after an intense first three weeks of combat, both
the Skarron and Nestafar had avoided the Star Force foothold on the planet
while they continued to battle each other in other areas. There were a few
attempts to get at the evacuation ships over the two months that followed, but
nothing that the defenses couldn’t repulse with ease.
As was typical, that was about to change. Riona
blinked away the last traces of sleep from her eyes and focused on the sensor
readings from the LZ ahead as she and her impromptu squadron tucked in behind
the much larger Voku fighters. The skeets were faster in super pursuit mode,
but she wanted to arrive with their allies because it was going to get
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