Star Force: Origin Series Box Set (1-4) Page 20

  “But we have to go through? Someone would have to…”

  “Can you do it?” he reiterated, knowing time was short.

  “Yes, I can. But someone will have to input a second code from this side…hold on. I’ve got it.”

  Megan and Paul repositioned immediately, training their weapons on the closed door.

  “Open it,” Jason said, moving to block her from the doorway. “And get that other code.”

  The metallic door groaned open, sliding into the thick concrete and out of view. Megan pushed through immediately, followed a second later by Paul. Jason couldn’t hear any weaponsfire, so he assumed the area immediately on the other side was safe. He signaled to Ivan to pull back, who relayed the order out to the others who were still some distance away.

  “What do you want the code to be? I have to write a new one.”

  “How long?”

  “Any sequence will do.”

  “The number 2.”

  Neira tapped rapidly into the data device, then suddenly stopped and disconnected. “Done,” she announced, crudely sliding the panel back into place. It hung slightly ajar, but she didn’t bother with it further.

  “Emily, hold up,” Jason said as she and Kip came back to the door. “Give me your stun stick.”

  Without hesitation she unclipped it from her belt, trusting her teammate completely.

  He dropped one of his shields to accept the second weapon. “When everyone is through, hit the number 2 to close and lock the door, then run.”

  “I understand,” she said, walking over to the panel and setting her shield down so she had a free hand.

  “Come on,” Jason prompted Neira, leading her through just as Jack and Randy arrived.

  Dan came through last, hefting his long sniper rifle across his chest. “Twenty seconds,” he said as he ran past, indicating how far behind them the Black Knight was.

  When he was a good two steps through the doorway, set inside the three meter thick concrete wall, Emily tapped the ‘2’ key and the door promptly slid back into place. Grabbing her shield and rapidly turning about, Emily ran across the courtyard and up onto a large elevated patch of mulched dirt and trees, eschewing the path that the Black Knight was coming up. She dropped behind one of the larger trunks and hid, hoping he’d pass her by, but knowing that if he didn’t she’d still be buying time for the others.

  She first caught sight of him running into the courtyard, sword still attached to his belt, as he went up to the door and tried to input the open code. Emily found it mildly curious that he would know what it was, but when it didn’t work he didn’t waste any time with a second attempt and took off to the left, backtracking slightly and crossing over to another of the available passages through the wall.

  Emily blew out a steady breath of relief at him having missed her, then began tracking after him from a distance, alert for other enemies laying in wait.

  After fighting through a nest of well imbedded trainers on a diagonal terrace full of outcroppings to provide them cover, Jason dispatched half his remaining team to intercept the Black Knight behind them and buy time. He, Paul, Megan, and Dan escorted Neira up towards the final climb that led to a small square surrounded by columns and imbedded inside the park sidewall at the end of the course.

  Dan found himself some decent cover and held position, covering the advance of the skirmishers while Jason stayed with his ward, keeping her down and out of sight behind another of the giant pots holding tropical trees. His teammate’s sniper rifle puffed once and a trainer abruptly stood up from behind cover, his left hand covered in green paint.

  Paul downed the careless man with two quick shots to the chest and ran up one tier, drawing out another trainer which Dan then downed. Megan came up along a different path and took out one of her own, with Paul flushing two more, which Dan promptly took down. A few moments later Paul signaled back that the finish area was clear.

  “Move,” Jason said quietly, but firmly, picking up Neira by the arm and almost dragging her forward. Her feet caught up to the motion within a few steps and she slowly ran forward, carrying her shield with her. Dan went with them, running ahead and taking up a sniping position to defend the hacker against the other trainers still out on the course, who could be redeploying to this end at any moment.

  “Megan,” Jason said, gesturing for her to come to him as Neira got to work on the pedestal.

  With a careful glance towards the other end of the course, Megan broke cover and ran over to Jason.

  “Stay with her,” he said, handing her his shield.

  “Good luck,” she offered, accepting the shield in addition to the one she still wore on her back and ducking down behind the tech to cover her otherwise exposed position directly in the center of the square.

  Jason unclipped his second stun stick and activated them both as he started to run back towards the fight in the distance. “Paul!” he yelled, jumping down from one terrace to the other.

  “Right behind you,” his teammate said, dumping his shield as well and brandishing his single stun stick.

  The Black Knight, already finished with their teammates, save for Brian who was at a distance sniping in an attempt to distract the bastard, met them halfway, intent on getting to the hacker before she could win the challenge for them. Jason took at him with both stun sticks slashing, keeping his body moving about as the Black Knight blocked his attacks and swung back.

  Paul got there a few seconds later and circled around to try and attack from the back, but the Knight’s long sword swung around in a circle, causing him to step back to avoid getting hit.

  Jason pounced on the opening, brief as it was, and jabbed into the Knight’s midsection, then ducked and rolled left to avoid his return swing. He batted at the incoming overhead blow, barely deflecting it in time.

  Paul jumped in from behind and jabbed into the Knight’s back, then retreated as he was swung at again…staying in the fight and buying valuable seconds.

  Seemingly perturbed with the trainees lasting more than a few moves and the fact that the hacker had reached the finish area, the Black Knight ignored Paul completely and ran bodily into Jason, taking the quick hit by his stun stick and kneeing him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. He also took four quick strikes on his back by Paul as he inverted his sword and drove it down into Jason’s chest.

  A fifth and sixth hit by Paul caused the Knight to stumble, but he swung around awkwardly, prompting Paul to retreat a step, during which the black armored giant righted himself and brought his sword up. He ran towards Paul and slashed him across the leg after four quick moves, stunning him unconscious and out of the fight.

  Another stinger hit the side of the Knight’s helmet, causing him to stagger again. Two more followed to the chest as Dan added to the massive amount of stun charge already delivered to the saturated black armor. Ignoring the snipers, the Black Knight slowly ran up the stairs to the next terrace, two below the finish area.

  Megan saw most of what was happening and dropped her shields, leaning one up against Neira’s back as she picked up her rifle and ran out, seeing the Knight wobbling and knowing that every stinger delivered would bring him closer to falling.

  “Got it!” Neira shouted, prompting Megan to skid to a halt just as she reached the entrance columns. She did an abrupt about face and ran back to the pedestal and smacked down the finish button.

  A ‘challenge-end’ klaxon blared out across the park as all the sunlight equivalent ceiling lights turned blue, indicating that the challenge had been successfully completed. Megan, not completely believing it, walked back out onto the terrace and looked for the Black Knight, wondering if even the end of the challenge would stop him from beating them unconscious.

  She found him standing one terrace down on the steps, just staring back at her through his opaque faceplate.

  Behind him Emily ran up and around, making sure to stay out of arms reach, tossing him a one-fingered salute as she passed by, but he didn’t
see her. He just continued to stare down Megan for a long ten seconds before finally swinging his sword around in a vertical circle and smoothly reattaching it to the clasp on his belt, breaking eye contact and walking off back into the center of the park.

  Brian caught up to the others a few seconds later, never taking his eyes off the giant. The trainees had never finished a scenario with the Black Knight, and it was unnerving to see him up close and not attacking. They were used to waking up to the face of a medic with the Knight long gone.

  “Well that’s a first,” Dan said, walking up beside Megan.

  “About time,” she echoed, finally turning around and looking for Neira, who was waiting by the pedestal, unsure of what to do next. “Nice work.”

  The petite blonde smiled widely. “Happy to be of help.”

  Just then a hidden doorway in the back of the square opened and a squad of medics ran out and passed by the trainees, though one lagged behind with the group.

  “Any of you hit?” she asked.

  Megan glanced around then answered for the others. “Nope.”

  The medic moved on, taking her anti-numbing injections to those who needed it.

  Behind them an unfamiliar man walked out of the doorway and approached Neira.

  “Well done,” he congratulated her.

  “Thank you, sir,” she said with a muted smile.

  “You adapted well, especially with the trainees’ unexpected request. Your mission score will reflect that.”

  Neira nodded then turned and waved gently to Megan and the others as she left with the man, passing by a grumpy trainer waiting in the shadows on the other side of the door to log out the trainees after they were all tended to and flag the course for cleanup.

  Paul and the others were revived to the view of a blue landscape, which at first seemed to be a side effect of getting stunned. When their heads cleared enough to look around they realized it wasn’t their eyes at fault.

  “Did we win?” Paul asked when the others walked down to join them.

  “That we did,” Megan said, offering her hand to pull him up, “by a whisker.”

  “How close did he get?”

  “About thirty meters,” Dan said, walking over and helping Jason up. “Nice job with the diversion. You kept him busy longer than I thought.”

  “That was the idea,” Jason said, rubbing his chest and wincing in pain.

  “Cracked rib?” Paul guessed.

  “Oh yeah,” Jason confirmed. “But worth it.”

  “We’ll get you fixed up inside of an hour,” one of the medics hovering nearby assured him.

  “I’ll tag along,” Paul added, walking out with his teammate. When he passed Megan she leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Your girlfriend did well.”

  Paul paused and leaned back. “So much for the dumbness of blondes,” he said, returning her sarcastic kiss from earlier and walking off with Jason and the medic.

  “We finally beat him,” Emily said, stepping up beside Megan.

  “Escaped him,” Megan corrected. “But yeah, it’s definitely a long overdue victory.”

  “You think he’ll be extra pissed next time?” Emily asked, cringingly slightly.

  Megan blew out a raspy breath, feeling her elation mildly deflate. “Probably.”

  The 2s went back to the shower/equipment room, got cleaned up and headed off to lunch, after which they had another Dino class and, aside from Jason, got in another two hours of training time, followed by two more hours of individual challenge work.

  Victories, as they’d learned long ago, were never an excuse for laziness or its twin, celebration. Victories were to be stepping stones to even greater skills and abilities, and were best followed up by new challenges.

  As the old sports slogan went:

  Losers quit before they win...

  Winners quit after they win...

  Legends never quit…

  Trailblazer

  1

  November 12, 2044

  Sean Davis sat in his Atlantis office, leaning back in his chair for a few brief minutes in between administrative paperwork and looked out at the heavy tropical downpour that was soaking his nearly complete city along with the workers finishing up the last bits of major construction. Unique to all of Atlantis’s buildings, the spire in which Davis’s office was located was the tallest of the lot, standing a good five stories higher than any of the others, though to be honest the entire artificial island was one single, humongous building, but the individual units on the surface were, in their own right, miniature buildings, of which his afforded him an unobstructed view of the cityscape beneath the heavy rain.

  His office was a perfect circle, with his simple desk little more than a clear sheet of smoothly curved glass, held aloft by equally clear, spindly support struts, giving the office an anti-cluttered effect which, combined with the 360 degree windows that ringed the mushroom-like top of the spire, imbued a vastness to the workspace that Davis felt both necessary and symbolic of Star Force’s grandiose mandate. The view reminded him of the sheer magnitude of his self-assigned undertaking and of all that was at stake.

  The center of the office had three heavy support struts that shot up into the ceiling to support the top of the spire where the endless window wouldn’t, in the center of which was a simple twisting staircase leading up from below. A man dressed in the rare white uniform of the elite trainers that Davis had hired from all corners of the globe quietly walked up into the office as Davis’s back was to him, his mind and eyes on the city beyond the windows.

  His hearing, however, was not distracted and even the soft footsteps of his lead trainer were enough to prompt him to spin around in his ergonomically small, yet flexible chair.

  “Wilson,” he said in greeting, sizing up the man and guessing as to his mood. “More trouble I take it?”

  “Frustration is more the word,” the tall and muscular former Olympic Decathlon triple gold medalist said, emphasizing the point by placing his balled hands on his hips. “The flight training is progressing well, but the naval challenges are a joke. We’ve got the trainees chewing us out about them not being hard enough…or accurate enough. They’re picking out flaws left and right, and the stupid programmers you sent me aren’t keeping up. Honestly I don’t think they know what they’re doing, and I don’t know how to explain it to them because even I don’t know how the hell you’re supposed to fight in space.”

  “And therein lies the problem,” Davis said, standing up and crossing his arms over his chest while still half looking out the windows at the storm. “We don’t know how to fight in space, and what little information we’ve retrieved from the pyramid’s databanks has been mysteriously devoid of any references. We know what their ships look like, and their approximate capabilities, but nothing about how they’re used.”

  Wilson’s eyes narrowed. “You have ship schematics? Why wasn’t I given that information?”

  “Because I don’t want to give the trainees anything in simulations that we can’t produce,” Davis said, showing mild frustration of his own with the never-ending torment of their technological inferiority.

  “They need a challenge,” Wilson reminded him. “What simulations that we have that are fully functional are downright boring…like playing chess where all that matters is the strength and position of the pieces in the game. We’ve trained them to be fighters, and now we’re giving them crap that some 8th grade geek could handle. Something has to change, and soon.”

  “Do you have any suggestions?”

  “A few. Higgins thinks he can rework the gunnery simulations if you can send us some game designers.”

  “You already have some game designers on the team,” Davis pointed out.

  “Aside from Robbins and Mendez, that entire team is a failure. We think it’s time to clear house and start over with a new group.”

  “Are you wanting to keep those two?” Davis said, finally turning his attention away from the rain pelting the window.


  “Yes.”

  Davis nodded. “Alright. What else?”

  “The navigational interface has got to go. It feels like math class, not combat.”

  “It’s the same we currently use in the field.”

  “Well it and a lot of other things the trainees are complaining about, and I can’t say I blame them. The whole program feels wrong. We’ve got to do a major overhaul, and even the trainees are so bored they’re starting to design their own challenges and send us the recommendations…and I really hate having to admit to them that they’re right.”

  Davis raised an eyebrow. “They’re telling you how to train them?”

  “Unbelievably annoying…but I can’t fault them on this. We’ve dropped the ball, big time.”

  Davis began slowly pacing around his desk. “Then let’s turn this to our advantage,” he said, ideas beginning to flow. “I’ve always planned on having them design our military, especially the warships, which is why we’re holding off production until they can provide us with the basic designs. So let’s give them some challenges along the lines of mission parameters and let them design their equipment and tactics sufficient to complete them.”

  Wilson considered that. “Possible. The basic physics engine was never the source of their complaints, it was the application of it by the designers. The trainees said they were creating ‘cheat units’ that didn’t match up with the physics when they ran their own calculations, so maybe they are smart enough to use it on their own.”

  “Would you agree that they prefer to work with modern entertainment tie-ins?”

  “Definitely,” Wilson confirmed. “They reference them all the time. Hell, I’m pretty sure they got the idea for their hand code from one of their games.”

  “Good…we can use that as a basis then. I’ll get you a new team of programmers, then go through as much pop culture space fiction as you can get your hands on and see if you can copy it into some real life applications.”

  “That’s not the best description you’ve ever given,” Wilson noted, “but I think I see where you’re going. Challenge them to make the fiction reality.”