Star Force: Evacuation (SF50) Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘grease
the gears’ rather than exhaust herself again, with that sensation lingering on
the edge of her senses as it was.
    Riona went through a series of kicking drills against
the target, some hitting with her foot and others with her shin…which was usually a bad idea for there was no muscle covering it,
just skin over bone for the most part and not a good place to get hit. The bag
was soft enough to alleviate that but firm enough to give necessary resistance,
so after several hundred kicks her shins were starting to complain a bit…which
was when it finally happened.
    As if protecting her leg from the next impact, Riona
felt an invisible bubble directly over her bare skin hit the bag without her
flesh ever making contact. She kicked three times in sequence, with the same
light effect, until she finally stopped and tried to figure out what was going
on. The Archon touched her bare leg with her fingertips, wondering if her skin
was starting to get abrasion fried, but there was no sign of it so she went
back to the drills with the sensation returning some 30 seconds later.
    This time she caught it, mentally speaking, and pulled
back from the bag while maintaining the feel over her right leg. She reached
down and touched it again, with her finger being stopped a few millimeters away
from her shin against a slick but firm force.
    “Holy shit,” she whispered, not believing what her
senses were telling her. She touched the invisible barrier again, then forced herself to let it go and reengage it, fearing
that she wouldn’t be able to. It took several tries but she did manage to find
the mental trigger and recreate the bioshield over her shin again.
    Riona stood up and focused on her left hand, forcing
what felt like a glove to form around it, then curling her fingers down into a
fist and forcing as much energy as she could out into the aura around it…then
she stepped forward and punched the target, hard.
    The hologram registered the impact, but she never felt
it hit her skin. Instead she felt the pressure all along her arm, as if the
shield were physically connected not to one piece of her anatomy like an
emitter, but to her entire limb…which was when she realized why her entire body
was aching. The bioshield upgrade Paul had got had created little bits of
tissue everywhere that acted as emitters rather than one or two solid chunks.
    Suddenly Riona was glad for the excessive pain, for if
she was right then she’d be able to create shields around any and all parts of
her body.
    She took a few more ‘gloved’ blows on the bag, then her head started to spin as she suddenly felt the
effects of low ambrosia sweep over her.
    “Dumbass,” she criticized herself. “Paul said it eats
ambrosia. I’ll need snacks,” she said, leaving immediately for the cafeteria to
collect a stash of ambrosia-laced foodstuffs along with several bottles of red,
feeling the draggyness of her workouts already.
    When Riona came back she spent the next 3 hours
probing her new ability and working through stretching and light sparring
drills while her snacks digested to continue to loosen up her body then, after
she was convinced she was fit to fight, went back to her quarters and set her
alarm for 45 minutes, catching a rejuvenating nap before heading over to the
hangar bay and grabbing another skeet. She headed out to the closest battle
zone that needed fighter cover, this one being a Scionate offensive, and dove
back into the fray, overly pleased with her new ability but knowing that she
needed to put it aside for the time being. She’d have an opportunity to train
later, right now there was a planetary assault requiring her skills and
attention.

 
    4

 
 
    July 12, 2536
    Gwet System (Delta
Region)
    Leonis

 
    Riona flew her trio of drone fighters in a triangle
formation behind her skeet, two positioned above and one below so they’d all
have forward firing arcs as she made yet another pass on the lizard cruiser
pummeling the TF