Star Force: Trials (SF68) Read online

  Davis and Wilson had designed it together, leaving the Archons out of the equation. The first major Trials had happened 8 years ago and were located in a number of other facilities reconfigured to utilize the new challenges Wilson had devised…but he’d gone all out on this facility and hadn’t let the Archons know what half of it contained. Part of the Trials was empire status marks, but Wilson had also added individual Trials so that Archons, like the trailblazers, could rack up scores even when they weren’t on Earth. Those Jason was familiar with, but everything else here was going to be a surprise.

  The first Trials had resulted in Clan Sangheili gaining a chunk of the first prize system, which they’d then traded away to Clan Scorpion, but the biggest winners were Clan Joanna and Clan Badass Mongoose, who took the top two prizes. Megan and Bo now each had a planet of their own within the Neffa System, while the rest of it had been divvyed up amongst the other Clans that earned at least small victories. Given how many subcategories there were some 28 Clans had gained territory there, but the current system they were working on was Chorra and it had more than twice the territory to be handed out, with a good 60% of it coming from what happened over the next month in the primary Trials.

  None of the Archons had been allowed within the Trials facility until today, which left Jason arriving more or less at the same time as the others. As his dropship approached the city that aptly was named Solitude, there were hundreds of others in the airspace with many more already on their way down from orbit or across the surface. Jason had arrived early to get some training in at the pyramid, but the rest of his Clan was coming down from orbit over the next three days, after which the first round of the Trials would begin.

  He was bringing some 1,023 Archons, Knights, and Regulars with him, all of whom were upper level and arguably the best the Clan had. They would be doing what he didn’t know for sure, but as soon as he landed he guessed he would find out…unless Wilson meant to keep it a surprise up until the moment the Trial began, which was a distinct possibility knowing the man’s tendencies. The previous Trials had been his typical brand of challenging, with all the Trailblazers feeling like they were back in basic again. That had prompted them all to return for this one, including Morgan, who virtually never got involved in the ongoing Trials save for her individual marks.

  Those she was racking up in one of the new Elite Sanctums that the trailblazers had collectively agreed to build. There were a scattering across the major Star Force systems like Sol and Epsilon Eridani, but most of them were within the Clans themselves. His Clan had only built one, which would service only mages and up going forward. That meant there were only 32 Archons within Clan Sangheili that could use it, yet it was the largest sanctum they possessed and held a lot of new training equipment and challenge courses, most of which Wilson was responsible for. He’d really taken Davis’ mandate to heart and was helping the Clans up their game by playing adversary and subjecting them to a whole new level of badassery.

  And the trailblazers were losing to his challenges…which they totally liked. Not the losing thing per se, but what it meant was they had real challenges to overcome now and that was something they’d been sorely missing. When Jason and the others had built new challenges for themselves they always knew how to beat them, in theory anyway, once they got strong enough, but with Wilson you had no clue what was coming and had to figure it out on the go.

  To put it simply, you couldn’t hide your own Easter eggs. And with this new mandate Wilson had taken the reins of Easter Bunny away from the trailblazers, for the most part, and returned them to being the searchers…which was why they were all coming here, eager to fight it out with the rest of the Clans, but just as eager to see what Wilson was going to throw at them.

  The elite sanctums were restricted to the upper levels because, literally, they were too dangerous for any of the weaker Archons. There were tons of safety protocols in place, but everything was built for the expectations of strength, speed, and agility far beyond what an adept could produce. There literally weren’t any ‘easy’ settings on the basic challenges, meaning that though the sanctum held the same stuff you’d see in a normal version, it was all supped up to the point where lesser Archons simply couldn’t use it.

  Jason liked that idea so much that he had started to see the normal sanctums as kiddy playgrounds. He used them when he needed, and they did have settings for mages and beyond, but he just felt at home in the elite sanctum and spent most of his training time there in isolation. Occasionally a few other mages would be training at the same time, but they were almost always off on missions, leaving the elite sanctums across Star Force territory empty most of the time. Clan Saber had the most mages of any Clan, currently sitting at 57, but that was going to climb greatly as the larger number of Archons behind them started to catch up.

  Originally there had been only one class per year, if that, but now they were graduating approximately 30 Archon classes every calendar rotation and that number was rising along with the Human population. It was never fixed, for it was derived from the amount of candidates that passed the tests, but the further you went down the timeline the more Archons there were, meaning that eventually the elite sanctums would start to fill up with mages as they earned the rank. As it was, Jason and the other trailblazers were nearing the end of their dark blue armor status.

  He was currently a level 498 mage and ranked 7th among the Archons. Ahead of him one level was Ryan, with the other five already having transitioned to the next 500 level rank of Titan that came with the golden armor. They were Greg, Kerrie, Aaron, Paul, and of course Morgan. She currently held a level 11 titan ranking, putting her 12 ahead of him. That was a chunk of training that would take him anywhere between 5 and 10 years to catch up to, though you never knew for sure how you were going to advance through each level. Some were harder than others, and with all 5 skill divisions having to be mastered it was always your weak area that determined your upgrade timetable.

  For Jason and a lot of the Archons that was aquatics, but for Morgan it was currently aerial that was her lowest area. Her commando skills were 42 levels above Jason’s, so the Archon rankings were a bit deceiving as to who could beat who in a fight and really a mark of overall skill, but he was still surprised that he had held so close to her after all these centuries. Right now the lowest ranking trailblazer was mage 424 and that was Clark-066, with the next closest Archon to him being level 392. There was definitely a gap between the trailblazers and the others that was widening a bit with time, which was both good news and bad.

  The second gen should have been closer than that, and aside from Kara they’d been losing ground slowly. On the up side Ginsi was continuing to tear her way up the ranks for Clan Croft. Her pace had slowed a bit from early on, but she was now a level 45 striker and pretty much leveling up twice as fast as everyone else. Her primary area of expertise wasn’t clear, for every time she gained a few levels in one area she’d shunt her training focus to the weak one, keeping all 5 marks basically the same. Jason doubted she’d catch up to the trailblazers, but it was impressive to see her working her way through the training so fast.

  His own scores were increasing in pace now that Wilson was feeding them new challenges, and it was clear to Jason that Ginsi wasn’t so much a prodigy as much as she was a peer. The difference was that every level the trailblazers advanced was crude, for they were pushing the limits and actually writing the level requirements ahead of them. Those usually didn’t get revised, but the more Archons that passed through them essentially left notes for others to come so they could maximize their training effectiveness for all the tricks needed. Ginsi was getting the benefit of all of that, so if her badass skills were on par with Jason’s then she should be leveling up faster than he did.

  Taryn had said she was bringing her to these Trials despite her lower rank, and Jason was curious to see if she had any magic in her. Archons loved a challenge and she was basically getting thrown in over her head. It would be fun
to watch, but if she came up against Jason he was taking her down quickly. Clan points mattered, and everyone was going to be fighting for each and every one they could get, as they should be. Territorial allotments aside, this was the type of competition that they needed to really ratchet up their advancement.

  When Jason’s dropship landed it came in through an atmospheric shield that kept the polar air out so that the crews could operate without wearing envirosuits. Jason stepped out into room temperature air despite the sky overhead being clear of any machinery. The shield was just a bubble covering the landing area, with a few other dropships coming down in through it as his unloaded him then took off again, heading back to where it had come. Only the crews necessary to facilitate the Trials would be staying here, meaning all dropship pilots would be stationed in nearby cities and called for when transport was needed.

  Jason had come without gear, knowing he could get whatever he needed here, so he walked across the landing pad and into a wall entrance with free hands and a clear head, looking around almost like a tourist to see what Davis and Wilson had built. He ducked into a tunnel and walked down two levels until he came to a reception area with a check-in desk.

  “Mr. Sangheili himself,” a male attendant said, pulling out a datachip from a special batch and handing it to him. “All instructions needed. I’m not allowed to say any more.”

  “Who’s orders?” Jason asked curiously.

  “Head Trainer Wilson. Please step into the car and insert the chip.”

  Jason smiled and walked towards one of the three pod cars with open doors. He chose the middle one and stepped inside, pivoting around and finding a tiny slot on a wall panel but no other controls. He slid it in and the doors closed, taking him elsewhere in the facility.

  He half expected there to be a holographic interface, maybe a brief explanation of where he and the other Sangheili would be billeted, but nothing happened. He couldn’t feel the movement of the pod due to the artificial gravity and IDF so he just waited in silence, not knowing how long it would take. After what seemed like a long time he began to wonder so he pushed out his Pefbar to look through the walls and see how fast the pod was moving…which was when he realized he couldn’t. He could see everything around him inside the pod, but not past the walls.

  “What the hell?” he said, spinning about and looking with his eyes. He reached out to touch the walls but stopped short as a slight buzz sounded over his head. He saw the energy shield materialize there both with his eyes and Pefbar a moment before the floor dropped out from under him.

  He fell fast, brushing up against his hip into the angled tube of a dry waterslide that was completely dark. Jason could make out the interior of the tube with his Pefbar though, but again he couldn’t see through it. His mind went through several scenarios in a split second, with him knowing in his gut this was Wilson’s doing even before the short ride ended and he exited the tube into freefall.

  His Pefbar opened up around him just in time to make out the wall of water below him. He hit it butt first and smacked the back of his head on his way in, getting a jet of water up his nose in the process that he clamped down on. The pool was deep and he couldn’t find the bottom for a moment, but he could still see the surface with his Pefbar so he clawed towards it as he forced himself to tolerate the water in his airways knowing that his Hanme would start giving his bloodstream the oxygen stored in nodules around his body automatically.

  Having no knowledge that this was coming he was caught off guard, but pulled himself together enough to get himself to the surface. When his head came up into the air he coughed out the water and used a telekinetic wedge to move it out of his nose that his Pefbar allowed him to see internally. Treading water he tried to get his bearings, unable to see the bottom of the water or anything else around him in the pitch black. Wherever he was it felt like a void, with only the distant ceiling just barely registering to him.

  He kept his senses keen, not knowing what was coming next. If this was a test by Wilson then it was also a signal that there were no holds barred, for one didn’t mess with water in training situations unless one had knowledge of it going in. It was very easy to drown when you got dunked, for with the loss of air also came confusion and disorientation, with the submerged person not knowing which way was up. Jason’s mind flashed back to his childhood and the few times he’d dunked others in the pool and got dunked himself, never realizing how stupid they were being.

  Wilson knew better, and even with Jason’s psionics this was crossing a line. Even if there were hidden safety teams nearby it didn’t matter. You did not mess with water in the lungs…period.

  With that realization slapping him in the face Jason picked a direction and started swimming, his soaked uniform dragging him down as he moved. He wanted to peel it and his shoes off to make himself more agile, not knowing what was coming his way, but he relented for the same reason. He didn’t want to lose his clothes and then need them going forward.

  Jason swam a good ways before he finally saw something in his Pefbar, coming up on a containment wall that he then followed to the left. It arced on a predictable curve, but there were no handholds or entrances within sight. Expecting it to be the edge of a circular chamber he knew to just follow the perimeter around until he did find an exit.

  Jason spent the next half hour swimming, finding the ‘predictable’ curve to disappear within 100 meters and transition into a twisty curvy nightmare. He held to his plan and followed the outline, but without a battlemap he had no way of knowing where he was and the other side of the water was outside his Pefbar range, so all he could see was the nearest piece of the wavy wall that had several inlets, all without exits, ladders, or even a dot of texture. They were sheer and unclimbable without his armor tech, not to mention blocking his Pefbar…and Ikrid. If there were minds on the other side he couldn’t sense them, and his Ikrid range was much larger than his Pefbar’s.

  Trying to measure his distance and location by mental plotting, Jason figured he went all the way around the water at least twice before the undulations in the wall became familiar. That frustrated him to no end, having spent the past half hour swimming around in a lumpy circle, but he knew it was probably part of the test. He’d looked everywhere he could swim, so what the hell was he…

  Then he realized he hadn’t looked everywhere. Taking a deep breath he sunk himself below the surface and swam down following the wall and searching out the bottom of the tank, for there was no way this was ocean. Too warm and not salty.

  His lungs began to burn mildly before his Hanme kicked in, and would remain that way letting him know he was on the clock. A second sensation accompanied them, as if it was a mental progress bar that was slowly diminishing, which to his point of view felt like a metallic bar that was being consumed. He could ‘taste’ how much of it was there, which was how he knew how much reserve oxygen he had. It was the biological equivalent of a status bar on a helmet’s HUD, and Jason knew he had a few minutes to work with while he was actively swimming.

  That bar got below half before he finally found the bottom. As soon as he did he used his telekinesis to push the water around him out in such a way that a little bit of it vaporized and created an unbreathable atmosphere around him that he then sealed inside a bioshield. Releasing the Lachka and holding the shape with the shield only, his buoyancy pulled him up quickly, enhanced as he changed the shape of a shield into a cone to give him less drag.

  When he got back to the surface he let go the shield and began to breathe in healthy gulps of air to recycle what was in his lungs as well as to start refilling his Hanme reserves, now even more frustrated, knowing that searching the bottom of the large pool was going to take forever.

  3

  As soon as he recovered enough he headed back down again, this time pushing his pace with the technique Paul had taught him using bioshield ‘tractor treads’ to provide propulsion along the outside of his legs. He hadn’t practiced it much and it was very tricky to pull o
ff due to the control factors, but he managed to goose his speed in spurts, unable to hold the effort for more than a couple of seconds. He did manage to reach the bottom with some time to spare, then he began swimming laterally and scanning the bottom with his Pefbar.

  He couldn’t stay down there long and found nothing in his limited search area before he had to come back up…then wait through another Hanme recharge period. If this really was Wilson’s doing then he guessed this was going to be a grinding process, with Jason setting his mind to the task of multiple dives with tiny search areas below in order to map out the base of the artificial pond. In the meantime he had to tread water one way or another, for there was nowhere to get a handhold.

  He flipped over on his back and floated there with a slight leg kick to keep from sinking as he breathed in and recharged, keeping his Pefbar locked on the nearby wall to keep from drifting and losing his position. He had to be meticulous in his search else he could miss something on the floor. Without a map or light to see by he had to be very careful in this else he could be looking for something forever…and to make it worse he didn’t even know what he was looking for.

  When Jason was on his 18th dive the silence of the dark chamber was broken by an impact overhead. It was too far up for him to see with his Pefbar, but the sound waves traveled down to him none the less. He jerked with surprise and lost an air bubble from his mouth, then abandoned the search and created another mist void bubble around him to bring him up to the surface as quickly as possible, for while his Pefbar couldn’t reach up that high his Ikrid could and he sensed a familiar mind.

  When Jason reached the surface he took a couple of deep breaths then began swimming across the chamber for a few strokes before thinking better of it and holding position.