Page 84 of Stars in Mist

He made it to a precarious ledge. Looking behind him, he couldn’t see anyone as the bushes and the trees hid their bodies. They were well camouflaged, and so they should have been. This was their territory.

Just as he turned on the heat sensors on his HUD, he was hit with a salvo of fire. One sustained enough that his stealth shield began to flicker and loop him in and out of form.

He glanced over the edge of the escarpment.

The sheer rock face fell at least fifty meters, ending in a steep slope and a narrow dirt track leading to the chasms.

He didn’t have any other choice but to jump.

With no time to activate his mag boots, he soared into the air, hitting the ground hard and rolling onto his back.

The rush of the pillagers thundered behind him.

Riv turned to gauge how far the men hot in pursuit were.

They dashed across the crevice ridges that snaked over the top of the chasm-like landscape of Devansi.

Riv leapt from fissure to fissure but found most topped in deep soft sand that sucked in his boots, slowing him down.

Glancing back, he spotted the Devansi assailants leap from one boulder to another. He, too, began dancing from rock to rock, but he’d lost precious time, and they were closing in on him.

That was when even more battle cries sounded over the fissures, and Riv looked ahead to find another band of advancing raiders. Over twenty flew toward him this time, powered by the packs on their backs.

Fokk? For real?

He needed Mirage.Now.

He locked onto the AI’s neural node.Mirage, I’m under attack from a band of sand hustlers. Requesting support.

Mirage responded in milliseconds. I’m over a hundred thousand klicks away. It’ll take some time.

Riv cursed.Please get here as freakin’ quick as you can.

Naam. Thrusters are at maximum.

Appeased, the Rider pulled his second weapon and began to walk in a circle, firing in an arc even as a barrage of laser beams slammed into his suit.

Riv upped his meta counteractions, so his body disappeared into a blur, his feet sailing midair, arms pumping his Ccyth laser shotguns.

They pulsed in rhythm as he moved across the plain so fast his assailants couldn’t get a fix on them.

The Sable Rider flitted in and out of sight, bursting in and out of shimmering silver noid energy, materializing and de-materializing at will.

Boulders and bushes exploded, and chunks of trees flew into the air, igniting infernos as the fight intensified.

The enemy sent another wave of attackers hurtling into the fray, and they, too, were hammered.

With a pull and click, Riv’s weapons turned into electrified swords, cutting like butter through their limbs and torsos.

However, the raiders had the advantage of numbers, and after a while, their direct hits began to have an effect.

One of them held a cannon and aimed a rocket at the Rider.

It hit him with such force that he jerked. His breath left him in a rush as he felt his suit take most of the explosion.

Ignoring the searing pain of impact, he shot at one assailant, and the man’s chest combusted in flames.

It wasn’t enough.

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