Star Force: Battlemeld (SF45) Read online

  1

  36 years ago…

  Travis-189377 hopped over a barricade on the ‘indoor’ paintball training chamber, ducking down and rolling to the left before popping up and shooting the target sphere on a turret with a red stinger…with a purple one coming in almost simultaneously from behind him where Karen-189376 emerged, jumping over the same barricade then hurdling the next. The pair repeated the process on the next turret, working their way out from the start area in the center of the chamber towards the outermost ring where the finish pedestal lay.

  They didn’t know where it was, hidden behind the barricades and pillars, with various bunkers on the outer wall where trainers were stationed to add their sniping skills to the tandem challenge. To make things worse, each of the turrets had to be hit by both colors of paintballs, else they wouldn’t deactivate…and the shots had to come in together, meaning the Archon trainees had to coordinate fire, all the while ducking for cover and keeping themselves from getting hit.

  Travis and Karen were having little trouble, moving from point to point in a snake-like pattern that coiled them in an expanding spiral rather than trying to head straight towards the outer ring as most trainees attempted. Even now, after completing several circulations, the pair was nearing the outer areas with most of the turrets atop of the pillars inside of them still active. There were too many of them to take out with their limited ammunition, so they had to pick and choose as they found a path to the outer ring.

  Their chosen path was longer, but more reliable. Travis and Karen had ran this challenge multiple times, and had worked out the route they were most comfortable with, allowing them to move quite quickly, despite the extra distance they had to run and jump. The two trainees were so in sync that they very rarely had to stay behind cover, with most of their ducks followed by rolls, runs, and jumps that kept them moving constantly.

  The trainers were a wildcard, for there were many hidden bunkers in the exterior walls and they never knew which ones would contain the sniper rifles throwing stingers at them. There was also a rover moving about through the rings, passing through the gaps between the low walls that were heavily guarded by turrets, discouraging trainees over the centuries from taking that direct route to the outer ring.

  Travis and Karen had tried that way before, as many others had, but like their predecessors they knew that running the gaps was a sure way of getting hit, though the rover had no such difficulties. If trainees stayed put for too long the rover would come up on their flank and dislodge them…which was another good reason to keep moving, and at the speed the trainee pair were progressing the rover wasn’t going to be an issue. Their indirect path kept it moving around chasing them, reducing it to a ranged sniper like the trainers, except it wasn’t designed to operate as such.

  Travis leapt over another of the low walls, firing at a turret simultaneously as Karen popped up out of cover to his left, with their binary rifles tagging and disabling the target sphere on top and deactivating it. By the time the trainee had dropped into cover with a few stingers passing over his head, Karen was already coming over with him, but a few meters to his left. When she ducked down, drawing the turrets her way, he popped up and moved over the wall, ducked down, rolled to the right, then came up and fired on another, becoming a distraction for Karen who likewise came over firing, hitting the same turret and deactivating it before she dropped down behind cover.

  Both of them then moved left, rotating around the wide curve and taking out two turrets that were actually inside their ring before coming up and moving over again…this time with a feint from Karen that drew sniper fire just long enough for Travis to go over. As he did he spotted a barrel within a wall bunker over the outer wall. Remembering the spot as he dropped down, he rolled to the right and came back up, sending three shots towards it.

  Two missed and hit the upper wall over the small firing slit, with the third hitting low and doing little more than throwing a few red paint splatters up onto the barrel…which flicked his direction.

  A muffled groan sounded as Karen’s more carefully placed purple stinger slipped through the four inch gap and hit the trainer inside. That gave Travis an opening that he took, flinging himself up and over the last wall, whereupon he landed into a somersault roll and came up with his back towards the outer chamber wall, glancing side to side.

  He didn’t see the finish pedestal, but he knew from gut instinct that there was a sniper nest to his right, and as he looked he saw two stubs of barrels sticking out around the curve of the wall move towards him. Travis dropped to his belly as he turned, giving him an extra split second, then fired off two quick shots. They hit low, but were followed up by Karen’s shots as she came over almost directly in front of the snipers, firing as she fell.

  Both barrels went askew, and Travis knew the trainers were unconscious or numbed to the point that they couldn’t hold onto their weapons. He got to his feet, pushing his safety sunglasses back up a fraction on his nose, and followed Karen further around the curve of the outer ring, combining fire with her on another turret as the rover finally showed up ahead of them…but on the far side of the short finishing pedestal.

  Travis sprinted ahead, dodging left as Karen went right and the rover shot between them, then Travis jumped up into a superman pose over the middle, giving the rover a very shallow firing angle as Karen went low and ducked behind the pedestal’s silhouette some ten meters away, using it to block the rover’s shots. Travis fell to the ground hard behind her, but he rolled out of it and came up shooting a couple of pointless shots at the rover as she scrambled forward and came up next to the pedestal.

  Just then a distant sniper caught Travis in the gut and he doubled over…but remained conscious. His uncontrolled landing smashed his face into the ground, popping his glasses off as he fought to twist his neck around to unblock his nose that was filling up with blood from the impact and allow him to breathe easier as his torso seemed unwilling to respond to his body’s commands.

  His legs still worked, and he got them up underneath him, flipping him over to where he could see the blue finish lights on the ceiling, indicating that Karen had gotten to and slapped down the button on the finish pedestal…but he already knew that, even if he didn’t actually see it happen. She’d been close enough that there was no way she was going to miss.

  “Looks like your rifle took half the hit,” she said, suddenly appearing over him and helping stretch out his body into a more comfortable position. “Your face is a mess though.”

  “That I can feel,” he told his sister, finding it a little hard to talk, for once the stun energy hit his blood stream it spread throughout his body in small amounts…which actually helped to mitigate the larger amount in his torso as it slowly broke down and absorbed into his cells.

  The sensation didn’t last long, for a medic came out to him and injected the destunning serum that returned life to his body, then applied a small device to the side of his nose that triggered an acceleration of the healing process enough to clot up the breach within seconds. He kept the small Star Force device on for several minutes, knowing from past experience that if he didn’t his nose might break open again, for the thing wasn’t a regenerator. He’d never been injured bad enough to need one of those, but Ender-189388 had when he almost snapped his arm completely off in what looked like a harmless enough fall on Blood Gulch.

  The thing had repaired him on the spot, making it obvious that the alien technology was far superior to the weak ass devices Star Force built, but he was glad to have the help, otherwise he’d be holding a bloody cloth to his face for a half hour or so. This way was much quicker…and cleaner.

  “Congratulations,” the medic offered. “Is that your f
ifth?”

  “What…oh, yes. Yes it is,” Karen said, belatedly realizing that he was referring to the challenge record once she took at glance at the display board on the ceiling that held their time. She’d gotten distracted by Travis’s faceplant and forgot to look. They’d finally got the mark…but only by 1.4 seconds.

  “Thanks,” Travis offered as the medic retreated.

  Karen reached down and offered her brother a hand up. “Good?”

  “I think so. We got lucky that it was that close this time. Not sure we’re going to be able to shave much more time off without a hundred more runs.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” she reminded him, referencing the end of their training. Their class was through all of the challenges, with them going back to boost their scores with redos that theoretically had an unlimited amount of attempts, but all of them knew that they wanted to get to the Final Challenge and graduate before too long, so they weren’t going to draw this out forever. A few more weeks at most, maybe, but not more than that.

  “Agreed,” Travis said, picking up his rifle and walking off around the ring until they came to the open doorway that the medic had entered through. “Let’s focus on the Ring-out course. There’s points there to be had.”

  “Aquatics first.”

  Travis sighed. “You still think we can add anything there?”

  “If you quit moping, yes.”

  “Alright, we’ll play it your way.”

  Karen lightly punched him in the ribs. “We’ve got this.”

  “We’re still 70 some points off their mark.”

  “Doable.”

  “But not easy.”

  “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be a challenge.”

  “We’re talking trailblazers here. That’s more than just a challenge.”

  “We just took another course record away from them,” Karen pointed out.

  “Small stuff compared to the tandem record…and I don’t want to hold everyone else up while we’re scraping for points.”

  “We won’t need to,” she said confidently.

  Travis half laughed. “Right, let’s get to it then. At least underwater my nose isn’t going to bump into anything…so long as you don’t kick me again.”

  “That,” she said, pointing at finger at him, “was half your fault.”

  “And all my pain,” he added as they checked in their equipment and slipped out of their challenge uniforms and into their traditional trainee uniforms. From there they headed over to the aquatics section of the training facility within Atlantis.

  Two weeks later they’d give up the ghost and turn in their final score, abandoning any further attempts at gaining more points. A few days later the last of their class did the same, moving them all on to the Final Challenge.

  And the two siblings went into it carrying the overall tandem record with them.

  Nathan-47434 ducked underneath Travis’s sword slash aimed at his head, then rolled across a knee to his left to avoid Karen’s thrust that came within an inch of his butt. As he twisted he flicked his double-bladed practice sword around, causing Travis to flinch backwards and give the level 83 acolyte enough time to get back to his feet.

  He didn’t stay there long, jumping up into a dropping kick towards Karen as she came at him. The level 52 adept jabbed up at his knees, but a quick twirl of the double blades knocked her blade askew, prompting her to jump/roll to her right, over top of which Travis came and locked up blades with Nathan. A moment later Karen kicked up at his gut from somewhere on the ground and the Sangheili was propelled backwards a couple of steps…ending with a satisfied smile on his face.

  He came back at the two, no longer holding back now that he’d gotten a feel for the way they moved, and attacked Travis hard for a pair of sword blows that the level 51 adept barely blocked, given the acolyte’s greater strength…then he switched to a jab towards Karen, knowing that she’d be coming at him in the blink of an eye.

  Then he was back on Travis again, not giving either one much of an opportunity to move or think without having to defend themselves until the pair split, with each going to the far sides of the training mat. Nathan let them go, then sprinted towards Karen, knowing he had a few seconds of time to get at her alone.

  She recognized that too and ran to her right around the perimeter, but Nathan caught up to her and exchanged three blows before he got her off balance and set up a fourth hit that swept her left leg out from under her. Nathan brought the stroke high, pulling her calve up above her waist and flipping her over, then spun around, pulling that half of his double sword away from his body as Travis came down on him from behind.

  He caught his attack and repulsed it, pushing the adept backwards and taking him down quickly with a foot to his gut…then Nathan retreated to the center of the mat and waited for the pair to come at him again.

  The brother and sister pair brushed themselves off and walked towards the much older and stronger acolyte slowly, watching their spacing, then the pair rushed him…with Travis just slightly in the lead. When Nathan moved to counter his blow first Travis hit the brakes and let Karen arrive ahead of him. Nathan switched targets quickly, then the pair reversed again at arm’s length away from him, with Travis jabbing his sword past Nathan’s as Karen locked it up with a two-handled leverage hold that used most of her right forearm for bracing.

  It was all she could do to resist Nathan’s strength, but she didn’t have to hold it for long and down the acolyte went, bending over forward with the impact, then getting both adepts’ swords coming down on his neck/back at the same time, smashing him down into the mat face first…after which they backed up and waited on him to get up.

  Nathan did so slowly, trying to learn from the encounter. Travis and Karen had developed quite the reputation for their tandem skills, not just by beating Jason and Paul’s trainee record, but by the near magical ability they had to coordinate with each other…and without telepathy at that. They’d gotten so good that they were able to take on higher ranking opponents together that neither could touch individually, with Nathan being their latest attempt. He’d requested the sparring session to test their skills…as well as his own, seeing how he’d react to such an unusual pairing.

  He was getting quite the education, for even given a handful of seconds he could own either one of them, but the way they were working together exploited weaknesses that he didn’t realize he had, for virtually every time he struck at one he was leaving himself open to the other, causing him to rethink his defensive posture on the fly, with the pair of adepts getting the better of him in roughly a 2 to 1 ratio, leaving him the inferior in this engagement.

  But Archons liked challenges, and he was loving this, so even as he pulled himself back up he was eager to get back at it…and was glad they were beating him, because that meant he had cause to up the difficulty again. So far he’d been sticking strictly to swordplay, but he was an acolyte, and that meant he had other options.

  Nathan walked towards Travis, seeing him reposition accordingly as Karen rotated around the pair, getting in almost behind Nathan but not quite out of his peripheral vision by the time he struck. The acolyte locked swords with Travis and pushed him back with one half of his double blade, then reversed his handhold, whipping the other half forward and knocking the adept in the head before he could get his footing enough to evade, then Nathan spun both ends of his sword around in a defensive twirl, not knowing where Karen was.

  When the first quarter turn didn’t contact blade or body, Nathan released a Fornax field, intending to catch her wherever she was…then found his legs being knocked out from under him as Karen slammed into him. He fell on her and their swords, getting poked in the groin and bending around the point of impact as much as he could, but feeling himself get sick to his stomach from the blow.

  He laid there for a moment, then rolled off her and onto the mat where he lay in sickened agony for a number of seconds until it began to slowly wear off. Forcing himself to stand up
he put a knee on the ground under him and got his head upright enough to see where the other two were.

  He frowned, and not from the awkward pain he was still suffering from. Both Karen and Travis were laying on the mat and not moving. They were limp, and for a moment Nathan wondered if he was somehow still transmitting his Fornax energy, but he wasn’t. And even if Karen had somehow gotten knocked unconscious when they were tangled up, slim as that possibility was, that didn’t explain why Travis was also down.

  “Guys, you alright?” Nathan asked, getting to his feet and walking over to Karen. He knelt down and put a hand on her head, linking with her telepathically as much as his limited skills allowed. When he did he jerked back, getting a none too pleasant feeling in his own head, almost like he’d touched a live electrical wire.

  “What the hell is going on?” he whispered, checking to make sure they were both still breathing. They were, so he tried to wake them up physically, but no matter how much he poked or shook them they were both out cold, so he jogged off the mat and found the nearest comm terminal, calling for a medic.

  2

  May 3, 2476

  Solar System

  Trunks

  “And?” Nathan asked as the head medic walked over to him while both Travis and Karen were lying unconscious in the med bay on adjacent table/beds with other techs doing further scans.

  “They’re not injured as far as I can tell. If I had to guess I would say it’s something psionic…except that they’re adepts. At this point I have no idea why they’re out, but they’re both showing anomalous brain activity.”

  “Could it have anything to do with them being twins?” Nathan asked, grasping at straws. He didn’t know how a Fornax field could have done this to them, because it actively disrupted the nervous system, meaning once he stopped transmitting the effects equally disappeared.

  The medic shook his head. “Fraternal twins are no different than any other sibling pair, aside from their birthdate.”