Star Force: Divergent (SF74) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sitting behind it with another databurst module on top inside a clear case sleeve. She
pulled the coordinates from it, finding that there were actually 18 different
waypoints updated, all of which were scattered around her current position and
not in order. No further information was given, and it seemed to her that this
was a collection mission now. For what she didn’t know, but having the speeder
meant she could avoid having to run out to all of them…which was fortunate, for
they were spread over an area with a radius of 130 miles.
    Jyra flicked the ‘on’ switch but the speeder didn’t
respond, drawing a sinking feeling from the commando. She tried again but
nothing, then pulled open the front panel and saw that the bike was in
mechanical disarray with missing components and disconnected wires…including a
burnt out chunk that functioned as the cooling unit for the gravity drive.
    Her eyes flicked to the crate.
    “You had better be spare parts,” she said, opening it
and sighing with relief when she saw that was just the case. Apparently she had
to repair the speeder or submit herself to hiking the insane back and forth
distance, for which she probably would have to ration her supplies. That wasn’t
doable when one was physically propelling oneself across miles of forest,
meaning that if she didn’t get the bike fixed she was in a world of hurt.
    Mechanical repair wasn’t something Commandos were
heavily trained in, but they were taught the basics of how to tinker with their
equipment in the field. That underlying knowledge had been expanded upon
heavily in her Arc Commando training, giving her more options for situations
just like this. She didn’t carry a full tech rating, but repairing speeders was
one of a handful of tasks that she had been taught how to do, along with
bypassing the control interface to circumvent any locking mechanisms if
necessary, though today that didn’t seem to be an issue. Star Force speeders
were typically free use and had no key sequences required, but a lot of
civilian craft did, including those that Star Force produced and sold on the
open market.
    Those didn’t have weapons, but this one did. A single
sammy barrel mounted on the front of the bike. Jyra knew it was more powerful
than a sniper blast, but not as potent. More for blowing away a chunk of mass
than punching a small hole through armor. Why this was an armed variety made
her wonder if combat wasn’t forthcoming on this mission…or more likely some type
of impediment that would difficult to remove without the weapon.
    Didn’t matter now, for if she couldn’t repair the bike
she wasn’t going anywhere with it, for the gravity drive would overheat even if
she got the power supply hooked up, and it was missing several conduits to both
the drive and the controls, which was why she hadn’t been able to turn it on.
Going back to the bike she pulled out all the damaged components and made a
mental list of everything that was missing, then starting fishing items out of
the crate and assembling them up until her gloved hands became too thick to get
into some of the smaller areas.
    Jyra disconnected her right glove but kept her left
on, allowing her thin fingers to slip into certain crevices and keep working up
until the cold started to numb her touch, then she switched hands, putting her
glove back on and taking the other off. She kept switching back and forth until
she got the bike working, then started it up and ran it through some basic
diagnostics ensuring that all functions were operational.
    With it floating half a meter off the ground she
closed the access panel and grabbed her own pack, which she’d taken off when
she realized it wasn’t going to be a quick fix. Checking her internal clock she
noted that she’d spent some 4 hours working on the bike, most of which was due
to a number of unforeseen problems with components that appeared to be intact
but were really sabotaged in a subtle manner…and then she