Star Force: Trials (SF68) Read online

  1

  August 18, 2822

  Solar System

  Earth

  Jason ducked under a spinning holographic Zen’zat arm, dropping down to his ankles before jumping up and backwards into a flip, kicking out simultaneously into the opponent’s gut with both feet, but he wasn’t fast enough and the warrior twisted at the midsection and sidestepped causing Jason’s feet to miss. The trailblazer arched his back midair, not getting the backwards momentum he expected, then he created a Lachka field in between the two of them on reflex, knocking them apart before the much taller warrior could grab hold of him.

  He dodged a kick by a few inches and rolled sideways onto his feet, deciding to stay low and launching himself back towards his opponent. Jason went for a grapple, throwing in a feint with his hands. He reached them upwards as he lunged, then snapped them back down and got hold of one of the giant’s legs. This one was bigger than most Knights by a good six inches and had the body mass to match. It would have been hard for Jason to move him if he hadn’t been so strong, but pulling aside and tossing a 320 pound mass wasn’t a big deal nowadays, even without a psionic boost.

  Jason used it though, surging his speed using a Yetu boost as he stepped to the left and pulled the big leg with him as he also twisted and extended his grip, throwing the male Zen’zat simulation program across the ring near to the out of bounds marker. For this exercise it was activated, so as the very agile giant caught himself in a three point stance Jason launched into him, again feigning high but dropping low instead. He balled up just shy of the Zen’zat’s feet then exploded upward, shoving both coiled arms into the man’s pelvis in a Kamehameha-like shove that knocked the hologram up off its feet and backwards.

  The green-clad hologram passed by the out of bounds line and the simulation ended with the man disappearing as if he’d been Jedi-ghosted. The control board on the other side of the room lit up with holographic stats as Jason walked over to it and read the V’kit’no’sat script. The point of this drill was to keep himself from getting thrown out of bounds, for the Zen’zat programs didn’t hesitate to use their mass against him and even one grip point was enough to send him flying into disqualification territory, which usually ended up with him bouncing off the surrounding walls.

  Jason had to move quickly and not make a mistake, but so long as he could do that he owned this program, for his Sav made everything look like it was in slow motion. The fighting never overwhelmed his mind causing him to miss things, and even when he did get hit in the head or otherwise disoriented he recovered so fast he didn’t miss much. This challenge would punish him handily if he made a single mistake, but this time at least he’d come out on top, making him 11/5 today.

  That should have been a clean score, but if these training simulations were accurate then the Zen’zat were beasts where commando skills came into question. There were 6 basic tiers to Zen’zat strength levels, which translated into status positions. Level 1 and 2 constituted the bulk of their forces, as of 100 millenia ago anyway. Level 3 was their elite class, with the others being rare to acquire and making up less than .5% of their number. Ironnsey had been a level 6 and over a million years old when the Zak’de’ron had killed him in an orbital bombardment during one of several civil wars, though it had also been their largest and most costly internecine.

  There had been two more previously, with the known Raptor Rebellion later that had led to the abandonment of Earth. Jason knew most of the elite Zen’zat had been killed when the V’kit’no’sat had tried to destroy the Zak’de’ron, and thankfully so. With any luck the Rit’ko’sor had knocked off a few more, but even Zen’zat being born on the day Earth was abandoned were now more than 100 times older than Jason and the eldest Archons, which worried him considerably.

  However, he and the trailblazers did now have an advantage on most of them, for it wasn’t typical for Zen’zat to possess as many psionics as the mages now did. Zen’zat had to individually discover each beyond the first tier and battlemeld didn’t exist as far as they knew. That meant an opponent with roughly equal hand to hand skills as Jason would be a pretty easy takedown with the psionics added on top…though it’d depend what the other guy had as well, not to mention to what level he’d adapted them, for the psionics had a great deal more potential than even Jason had attained.

  The telekinetic wedge push he’d just used was such an example and was something that he could not have even attempted to do when he first developed Lachka, for he had to project the field independently of himself. That little trick had taken a long time to learn, then even longer to develop to sufficient levels, and there were many more in the database that he’d not yet figured out, plus who knew how many other applications that had yet to be discovered.

  The Archons were basically writing the book on the battlemeld customizations since there were no records in the pyramid, but so far they hadn’t created any new tricks with the known psionics, for the Zen’zat had millennia to figure out, work on, and refine those. That said, Jason and some of the others were seeing potential in some places now that they had Sav to work with, and that was an ability that few Zen’zat had ever achieved.

  The training program Jason had just used was a tier 3 level 82, and had he not possessed Sav there was no way he could have held his own. Though there was no true translation between Zen’zat levels and Archon ones, for they both trained and measured skills differently, a level 1 mage was roughly equivalent to the boundary line between tier 1 and tier 2 Zen’zat. Throw in the slew of psionics the mages had and that meant that, per their levels 100,000 years ago, the mages could best more than half the Zen’zat population…in theory.

  Archons were smaller than Zen’zat, and that factored in heavily in a way that the V’kit’no’sat measurements couldn’t fully anticipate. Jason knew that with their smaller size they would have an easier time attaining the mobility and agility necessary to really put Sav to use, though individuals like Vermaire had shown that the extra bulk didn’t mean one was slow and the thought of Zen’zat like him coming after them really made Jason worry, for right now he couldn’t take him, nor could most of the trailblazers unless they were working together.

  Now, that was because they weren’t using psionics when they sparred, and Morgan especially with her Jumat could take Vermaire down with little trouble, but in sheer hand to hand combat the Black Knight was superior and Jason knew he ranked somewhere in the 2nd tier of Zen’zat levels…and that was without Sav, which presently only the trailblazers possessed.

  Their battlemeld skills gave the trailblazers the ability to take on higher level Zen’zat in groups, so Jason felt fairly confident that if/when they faced them they could hold their own, but the real problem now was the fact that the V’kit’no’sat wouldn’t just deploy a small team of Zen’zat, they’d deploy them in the millions if necessary. They were their infantry, and the Archons were not for Star Force. They had the Regulars and Knights for that, so when you compared apples to apples it was still going to be a slaughter.

  Time. Time was what Jason and the others needed. Given that, he was confident they’d find a way to defend themselves, though how that was going to work he wasn’t sure. And the Zen’zat were the least of their problems.

  Jason went through another 12 rounds in the small sparring chamber then left the upper levels of the pyramid, running down the ramp system until he got to what had originally been the Oso’lon section. Given the huge size of the Brontosauruses their chambers were likewise large, including their own holographic training chamber. When Jason got down there he coasted to a stop at the entrance and saw a group of Clan Metal Gear Archons going through some sort of joint challenge against what looked to be three Zen’zat.

  “
Jason,” one of the Metal Gears who was standing off to the side observing said when he finally noticed the sweat-drenched Archon. “You need this room?”

  “Yeah. How close are they?”

  “They just started a 45 minute drill.”

  “Oooh, yeah. I’m not waiting that long. Sorry.”

  “Not a problem,” he said, turning around and walking over to a very large control board that was set into the floor. “You’ve got priority. Mind if we stick around and watch?”

  “Just stay out of bounds,” Jason said as the Archon brought up a much smaller holographic interface that was built for Zen’zat and deactivated the current program. The three Zen’zat disappeared and one of the Metal Gear’s who was throwing a punch at the time tripped forward when the blow hit air instead of body. He recovered going through a somersault and flipped back up onto his feet as he looked over to the side in question and protest.

  “Clear the ring. Jason’s called dibs.”

  “Sorry guys,” the trailblazer apologized as they walked off the parking lot sized sparring area and over to the control station near the door. Once they were all outside the designated area he stepped up to the holographic controls floating in midair and pulled up a different training program with the Metal Gear’s training officer’s eyes going wide when he saw which directory we was accessing.

  “I thought those were banned?”

  “They are, save for us,” Jason said as a 4 meter tall Voro’nam appeared in the center of the huge ring, which had been designed for combat training amongst the larger V’kit’no’sat races.

  “Holy shit,” the Archon whispered, then turned to the others. “Grab a seat and some popcorn fellas…up next to the wall.”

  “Thank you,” Jason said as he headed towards the holographic Pachycephalosaurus. Like the Zen’zat holograms this training program had no safeties involved, meaning this monster was quite capable of stepping on him and breaking bones in the process. Jason wasn’t wearing armor either, which made things even more dangerous, and was why the trailblazers had banned the use of any of the programs other the Zen’zat ones.

  As soon as Jason stepped into the ring the Voro’nam charged him, lowering the bony dome atop its head into a battering ram as the Human likewise ran towards him, crossing a football field before the two met. Dangerous as the head dome was, the spikes coming out the back of it were quite lethal, even if holographic, though with regenerators handy it was unlikely that any V’kit’no’sat actually died during training. Star Force kept several here and the medical staff running the facility were amongst their best, trying to decipher more of their secrets as well as to aid the numerous teams that were both training and analyzing the small city built inside the V’kit’no’sat structure.

  Jason knew what recovering from that level of an injury would mean and didn’t want to go through losing more of his hard earned levels with new tissue having to be grown, so while he wasn’t worried about dying he really didn’t want to get jabbed. That said, he did have bioshields that could block him from getting spiked if he made a mistake whereas most Archons did not, but still this was risky and he was intentionally doing it without armor.

  And it wasn’t the first time either, which was why he was confident that he could handle the basic level training programs of the much larger race. Voro’nam had a variety of sizes, growing larger with rank rather than years, and this one was a third tier, which made it larger than most of the skeletons found on Earth and easily outmassed him equivalent to that of an elephant, save this one wasn’t slow at all.

  Voro’nam were amongst the most agile of the V’kit’no’sat races, and the head butt attempt the hologram tried was merely a feint with the biped twisting around on its feet in a level spin at the last moment, swinging its thick tail around and trying to roundhouse Jason. With his Sav and well-trained reflexes he could see it coming a mile away, for while the Voro’nam were fast by the big guys’ standards they weren’t nearly as fast as Zen’zat or even Rit’ko’sor.

  But they were strong, and had that tail hit him Jason would have been sent flying and possibly cracked a few ribs. He jumped over it, then landed in a spring hop that brought him up and over the Voro’nam’s head as it rotated around to nail him a moment later. With his Pefbar on Jason could see everything as he flipped over in midair, knowing where he was coming down so he could juke to the right before that tail came at him again.

  When it missed he shot forward, jumping into a kick that hit the Voro’nam in the left side of its body between foreleg and aft. The impact barely moved the big thing, and Jason had to retreat quickly to get out of range of either tail or head, which is what the program typically fought with.

  Crouching down so that its front legs touched ground and it momentarily became a quadruped, the Voro’nam loaded its back legs into a power crouch as it oriented towards Jason. He held still for a moment then tweaked his Yetu to launch him into a power jump up and over the Voro’nam as it flashed horizontally across the ground towards him in its own power jump.

  Its head crossed a meter underneath Jason and he came down on its flat back, for it had no spines or tusks other than the four on the back of its head. He landed well away from those and let himself slide off to the right before latching on with his left hand. From there he quickly pushed off with both feet and landed hands first on the ground beside the Voro’nam, springing into a second bounce that landed him on his feet and he ran for distance.

  The Voro’nam’s tail swung towards him but missed, then it rotated around in a full circle and charged after him, head low enough to the ground to show Jason the tips of those spikes on the back of its domed head. While the training simulators couldn’t replicate psionics, neither could they replicate any energy expenditures, leaving them simply hand to hand practice tools, otherwise a ruby red beam of energy would have been coming off those and sniping him down.

  It wasn’t the same type of energy as what the Hjar’at had, but a type of slow moving laser-esk bioweapon that could be used to shoot enemies off their backs or tail, but could also be used in a limited forward arc when they lowered their head such as this. Rit’ko’sor especially liked to jump and land on the backs of their opponents, and Voro’nam was one race that had been genetically engineered to counter that threat.

  Jason knew that, but as long as this hologram didn’t have them then he was still going to hop on and off the thing whenever possible. He couldn’t beat this thing, and never had been able to pass even the first level tests due to his simple lack of concussive damage. Unless he could get some hard hits in the internal counting mechanism wouldn’t give him any credit for the light taps he was attempting to lay down now and the sparring match would continue indefinitely.

  To Jason that was a challenge he couldn’t refuse, plus he wanted the practice for if he ever went up against one of these things in real life. It’d have its weaponry, he’d have his armor, so he figured this was about as fair of a training sim as he could imagine. And as a sim, none of his Ikrid tricks would work on the thing, so he was going to have to use brute force alone…which was laughable given the matchup he was in, for he had no brute force to work with, relatively speaking.

  Jason kept playing with the thing, ducking and dodging for several minutes before he finally made an attempt to land a heavy blow. After getting use to the Voro’nam’s movement patterns he baited it into another spin then yanked down telekinetically on its tail as hard as he could, forcing it to drag across the ground and slow the spin to a stop. The Voro’nam’s legs got twisted up underneath it and it stumbled for a moment, dropping to a knee as Jason darted forward with a Yetu running burst and aimed directly for the top of its horizontal back as it sat head up and tail down.

  His sprint arced ever so slightly into a jump that brought him elbow first down onto the place where tail transitioned into torso. Without armor on his elbow he impacted the holographic representation of a hard, callous plate that sent tingles up his arm on impact as he nailed his
own funny bone, but the Voro’nam sunk slightly with the hit, which was enough time for Jason to whip himself away and kick off into another jump that got him clear of the damn tail as it swung around again to nail him as the Voro’nam sat on the floor, leaning forward with both arms and shuffling frantically to create the momentum swing.

  “Check that hit,” Jason said to the Metal Gears as he continued to evade as the Voro’nam came after him again. He didn’t bother to look at the distant Archons, knowing that if he lost his focus and this thing even stepped on him with its small legs he’d end up in the med bay.

  “Two point six!” he heard one of them yell back, but that number impressed him far less than the observers. He was hoping at least for a 4, with other Voro’nam typically registering 12 or better with even their light grazes against each other.

  Jason kept trying for another half hour then stopped before he got too loopy and made a mistake. Rather than use the far controls he simply linked into the telepathic array, finding the node in the ceiling and shutting the hologram down directly. The dangerous Voro’nam disappeared in the blink of an eye with just a hint of pseudomotion as it vanished, then Jason walked back over to the very stunned onlookers.

  “That’s why we need to shoot the things,” he explained to the rangers and strikers. “We can’t land blows that do more than tickle them. If you ever find yourself up against one of these things, run away, find a damn mech, then go kick its ass. You can’t do it hand to hand.”

  2

  August 20, 2822

  Solar System

  Earth

  Jason’s dropship flew him across the planet to the opposite pole, taking him from the Antarctic pyramid up to a brand new city built in the Arctic Ocean. Technically it was sitting in the ice, poking up above the surface while its substructures went all the way down into the seafloor. The city was a third bigger than Atlantis and her copies that covered Earth’s oceans, but there were no civilians here, nor Star Force employees. This city had but one purpose, and that was to house the elite Archon Trials.