Star Force: Initiation (SF61) Read Free Page B

‘fish’ spit out of several holes in the hull and
swam towards the missiles, knocking out several with a single hit and ‘popping’
the water around them out into short-lived voids.
    That disruption not only allowed the secondary
explosion to hit more of the clumped missiles but it knocked others askew and
slowed their approach, with only a few making it through the counterattack to
hit now that the ship was defending itself, which allowed the shield to begin
to recharge a bit as more missiles from the nearby warships began shooting in
laterally and a slew of hammerheads motored in as fast as they could, intent on
ramming the sides of the Star Force battleship with their full array of plasma
nubs.
    Holding off on any return fire the battleship
continued shooting out intercepts to lengthen the duration of its stay while it
broke through dome after dome below. Some were air domes, others were water
ones. Either way they were taking heavy damage and attracting a lot of
attention while the other three battleships settled into the water at their
more distant positions and began releasing the onboard craft and infantry that
this one was holding onto as it played bait, soon to retreat to the atmosphere
to recharge its shields and reposition to another location to continue the
assault.

 
    Davrel Stinson flexed a bit in the cockpit of his
aquatic mech, still in the hold of the other Human battleship as he waited for
the go order. Right now his body was strapped into the control harness similar
to that in a neo, but his movements were not translated directly into this mech
for his body didn’t match its configuration. The harness he was in was
essentially a full body controller for the live videogame he was about to play.
    It wasn’t a drone, as he was situated inside it, but
the various arm, finger, leg, and even toe movements controlled a variety of
functions in the mech…with him very eager to get the new prototype mental
interface. Word was it was still experiencing glitches, but once they got it
hammered out he could forgo the tricky harness that took such a long time to
master. The up side was that aquatic mechs didn’t move as quickly as their
ground-pounding cousins, but now with a heavy dose of Elarioni influence they
no longer had the option of just walking around on the seafloor or motoring
along as clinging brawlers.
    Right now his mech was in transit mode, meaning its
various arms and other protrusions were tucked into the hull in a little bit of
a homage to Voku transforming tech. When Davrel finally got the go order he
followed another mech out into the ocean water, passing through the shield that
separated the bay from the exterior and feeling a bit more resistance as he passed
through, for the ocean water was more compacted at this depth.
    The mech looked like a finless dolphin, stretching out
long with a narrow silhouette that allowed it to move through the water far faster
than previous designs. Davrel had been one of the first aquatics regulars and
stuck with the military ever since, hence he was one of the few capable of
piloting these mechs that weren’t Archons given the intricate design interface
that most of his peers hadn’t been able to pass the qualies on.
    As soon as he was out into the ocean he directed
towards one of the lizard destroyers nearby. It wasn’t on the seafloor, nor
would his mech be. Now the mechs were full-fledged anti-ship weapons covered in
armor more dense than what the battleships carried. It was rich in corovon, and
therefore very expensive to produce, but it gave them extreme tankiness against
the lizard weapons…so much so that he sped his mech towards the six distant
warships with little worry. He was going after the largest one and knew the
others wouldn’t be able to do much more than tickle him throughout the process.
    A slew of missiles came his way as he got close, with
the other mechs heading to different locations leaving Davrel on his own. His
mech didn’t