Star Force: Survivor (SF52) by Aer-ki Jyr

when
something goes boom and they’re probably dead. You can’t wait around and count
corpses when the enemy is on your throat.”
    Sally dipped her head. “You’re right…I. I just hate
that we left people behind, even on accident.”
    “Anyone that felt otherwise would have to turn in their
good guy card,” Dravis pointed out.
    Sally halfheartedly smirked. “Yeah, I guess so.”

 
    Iden-202747 walked into the cockpit of the dropship
and stood just behind Davi who was intently watching
the control board as he flew the eagle in formation with two others, both Falcon -class , with
him lagging a bit behind.
    “What’s wrong?” the acolyte asked.
    “This bird took some damage on the way in. A couple of
plasma hits to the hull, nothing major, but they hit on a patch from previous
hull damage and I’m not getting full speed out of the gravity drives. I’m not
showing any warning lights, but something is off.”
    “What kind of damage was done?”
    “I’m not sure, this is my 4th
dropship in 2 days. Everything was fixed, but I’m guessing those hits found a
crevice and seeped through. I don’t know, maybe just my imagination, but I’ve
flown enough eagles to know this one is a touch slow.”
    “Don’t suppose there’s anything we can do about it in
flight?”
    “Not unless you’ve got a tech back there?”
    “I can check…” Iden said , half turning as a beep from the pilot’s battlemap pinged.
The Archon immediately brought up his own in helmet and saw the cause for alarm…Skarron fighters heading their way that had broken
through the skeet formations covering their tail.
    “Oh shit, not again,” Davi said, having a quick conversation with the other dropship pilots.
    Iden checked the battlemap
at further range, seeing that there were no other friendly units nearby…then
suddenly the three dropships split up, each going a separate way. There were
only two fighters coming up on them, so this way, he knew, at best they could
only shoot down two, assuming the third got far enough away.
    He watched the pair of enemy fighters continue forward
for a while, then they split up, one each coming at the middle and starboard
dropships…with theirs being the starboard.
    “Don’t suppose you have any special powers that can
take down fighters?” Davi asked sarcastically.
    “I don’t have the range, no,” he said, thinking hard.
“If we’re going to go down, find us some terrain.”
    “I’d prefer not to go down at all,” Davi countered, trying to milk a little more speed out of
the smaller dropship. It was faster than a falcon, but this stupid drive wasn’t
cooperating.
    “I’d shoot out the back, but our rifles aren’t going
to scratch their armor with its shields up,” Iden said, stating the obvious.
    “Well, we’ve got about 2 minutes to figure something
out,” Davi said, seeing a thick section of forest
slightly further to starboard. It would take them further away from their
destination, but it looked like they weren’t going to get there anyway so he
took the Archon’s suggestion and altered course, guessing they’d make it there
in about 45 seconds.
    “Do what you can,” Iden said, abandoning the cockpit and heading aft where everyone else was. There
were 36 people onboard, not counting himself and the
pilot, and only about half of them had armor.
    “Listen up!” he yelled through his helmet’s external
mic. “We’re about to get shot down. Ready yourself, and grab whatever supplies
you can find. One way or another we’re going to be on the ground shortly.”

 
    As soon as he heard the Archon Rio’s attention
immediately turned to the light cargo onboard the dropship, then his eyes
crossed over to the emergency kits imbedded into the walls. He ran over to one
and began to pull the panel off when a Knight came up on his left and detached
another. Inside Rio’s was foodstuff packets, highly concentrated, with a carry
satchel rolled up and stuffed in next to them.
    He