Star Force: Newbslayer (SF64) Page 3

October 5, 2735

  Mak’ri Jor-El

  Mid Jump

  Jenna and Levi sat in the meditation chamber again, going through another round of Orren drills for the padawan. It was the second set since their experimental training, with both Archons having devoted themselves to physical workouts as Jenna sought to recenter herself. Yesterday Levi had taken the sexual distraction route again, finding it effective but in a different way. Today though was going horrible, for he couldn’t get any useable amount of traction from her with that tactic.

  He knew he was scoring hits and tweaking those emotions, but her recovery rate had become so fast that they didn’t offer more than the slightest of head starts. With the entrenched defenses that Farchor gave Jenna, there was no way Levi was going to have enough time to undo them, making her mind virtually impregnable unless he could find a way to distract her. As it was, he was having to work a bit harder to access any part of her mind, with her sexual areas having been her weakest blocks. Those defenses had ticked up a bit already, which made Levi begin to search around her mind’s many facets trying to find another way in.

  Going easy on me? Jenna asked during the doldrums.

  Hardly. You’re locked up tight.

  I don’t feel like it. Everything is still a little loose.

  Not enough for me to pry free, and your sex drive isn’t having as much an effect on you.

  Are you sure? Yesterday I thought you were being gentle.

  I was at first, but I’m not holding back anything today. I can’t distract you for as long as I used to. You’re snapping back too fast for me to go elsewhere.

  Keep trying. I don’t think I’m that good yet.

  If you have another weak area, feel free to point it out. I’m not finding anything.

  So you’re saying it worked?

  I know I’m not holding back, so yeah, it seems to have. Care to share what you’re doing different?

  As far as I know I’m not, Jenna admitted. But I’m no longer worried. Wary, but not worried, if that makes sense.

  I think so. It was my idea, after all.

  And I’ll return the favor later. Right now make sure it’s a genuine quality control test. If I have any cracks left, find them. Forget other avenues and just focus on this one.

  I have been. I can’t do much here that I haven’t tried.

  You haven’t tried a binary.

  Levi mentally cringed. I don’t think I’m strong enough for that yet.

  Give it a try anyway. The more failures you have the more data you’ll have to learn from.

  Alright, Levi said, finding her sexual programming again and concentrating. What Jenna meant by ‘binary’ was a double attack, one using the Orren to slip in unannounced and the other being a brute force Ikrid assault, trying to overpower her defenses and fight his way in. He didn’t stand a chance against her superior strength, Farchor aside, but in theory if he could make enough mental noise to help cloak the Orren angle it was possible he could get some traction right under her nose, so to speak.

  Trouble was, applying so much power basically took away his finesse skills, like trying to fight a boxing match while balancing an open bottle of water on his head. He didn’t think he could do it, but if she wanted him to try he’d give it a go.

  Levi amped up his mental pressure and applied it directly to that subsection of her mind. He felt her press back without counterattacking, as if holding a line rather than trying to push him out of her head. That gave him some freedom to experiment, but when applying full power to any point, or across her entire sexual program, he couldn’t concentrate enough to engage a separate Orren tendril. He pulled back a bit, going at about 75% strength and knowing that was pretty much a joke from Jenna’s point of view, but he didn’t lose any ground and she didn’t kick him out, merely holding her own against his lesser pressure.

  The padawan managed to summon up a secondary attack on the same area and at first it managed to get through and he was able to create a little bit of euphoria in her. That sent a quiver through her power levels, reducing the pushback for a split second before she just amped it up to compensate. The window of opportunity wasn’t enough for Levi to act on, for he was tapped out just maintaining the two simultaneous attacks, and a moment later his Orren tendril was discovered. Jenna pushed it out and regained her iron wall against him, with Levi abandoning the effort less than a minute later.

  Sorry, that’s all I’ve got.

  Not bad.

  Looks like you finally got your sexual resistance you wanted.

  It’ll be armor once I get around to customizing my Farchor there, but yeah, looks like it. Keep poking around to see if you can find anything. I want to be sure about this.

  Well I’m sure. I got nothing left to try.

  Maybe you’re subconsciously holding back after the pathetic mess you left me in earlier?

  Feel free to check, Levi said, immediately feeling Jenna’s presence enter his mind. He didn’t resist her, not that he could have kept her completely out if he’d wanted to, but he let her poke around his memories and current analysis of her, also giving her a chance to look at herself through his eyes. She lingered there for what felt like a long time, then the Archon eventually pulled out, satisfied.

  Jenna disconnected their mental link and let go of his wrist, opening her eyes and looking at him. “Didn’t realize I was that resistant.”

  “Happy now?”

  “Relieved, not happy. I’m still a little loopy.”

  “I figured you would have burnt it out of you by now with all those cardio workouts.”

  “Not completely. Still missing a bit of my edge, but it’s coming back. Feels like I missed a week of workouts.”

  “When was the last time you missed a week…ever?”

  “Combat mission, about four decades ago. A lot of hunting, very little fighting. I was very rusty by the time I got back to a sanctum. This is different, but with a similar diminishing effect.”

  “Kind of makes you wonder why anyone has sex.”

  “What you did to me was far worse, youngling. But yeah, it just cuts your badass mojo right out of you.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ve also noticed you’re being a bit nicer to me.”

  Jenna frowned. “Really?”

  “Yeah, but I guess that’s just a side effect. I tried to use that inside your head but it didn’t work because you were already holding back. When we spar again you’ll probably have to shake that off.”

  “Do me a favor and give me a reason to hate you a bit.”

  Levi suppressed a smile and, without warning, ripped a side-fist punch across her head. He hit her so hard it knocked her off her pedestal and left a big red mark on the side of her face.

  Jenna shook her head, having had her bell rung a bit. “Bastard,” she said, standing up and staring laser beams at him. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” he said, rising gracefully from his pedestal to join her, figuring that the mental training session was over.

  Jenna thumbed over her shoulder. “Sparring ring.”

  Levi sighed. “I’m going to pay for that, aren’t I?”

  “No, I’m just going to beat the crap out of you like normal.”

  “Oh, well then…” he said, a mock expression of relief on his face as he walked past her and out the door. “Let’s get to it.”

  Four days later…

  “What have we got?” Jenna asked the Captain of the Jor-El as it entered high planetary orbit over Tieor.

  “Low orbital traffic, no known ship types. Definitely no Skarron presence.”

  Jenna bit her lip, squishing her face up in a confused look. “Find their toys.”

  It took a few minutes, but eventually the crew brought up a bad hologram of the surface of the planet. It was being scanned from high orbit, hence the poor quality, but it made out the shape of a Skarron Type-5 walker well enough, sitting in the center of a city. Another hologram came up showing an identical one with several damaged spot
s, then the zoom panned out and numerous vehicles were surrounding it beyond plasma range.

  “Put us down there, then find a camping spot in orbit,” Jenna said, heading for the bridge exit. “Don’t get involved until we figure out what’s going on.”

  “And if they involve themselves with us?”

  “Pull out to an orbit they can’t follow, but leave a comm buoy within our suits’ transmission range.”

  “Copy that.”

  Jenna reached out with her mind and found Levi in another chamber nearby. Gear up, we’re heading down.

  Brayden sat in the pilot’s seat of one of their hover tanks, with it being the most advanced model they fielded and completely useless against the Skarron walker they were engaging. He knew that closing to within the walker’s plasma range was suicide, so the Marauders were hitting it from afar using a combination of rail guns and missiles, neither of which the Colonel’s tank possessed. What it did have, however, were strong anti-tank plasma weapons and a multipurpose low yield turret useful for both anti-personnel and anti-air functions, both of which were getting a workout as Brayden was fighting off the Tangos’ counterattack.

  They were hitting the Marauders with their own small tanks, infantry, and aircraft…the latter of which were a big problem given that he’d ordered his own fighters to keep well away from the walker. He’d gone so far as to keep them out of this mission entirely and had them sitting at a staging base, both to secure it and their line of retreat if it came to that. Right now he was having second thoughts about that, for a good pilot could stay away from the walker and still engage their fighters, though them having a safe haven to run to would have made engaging them very difficult.

  His tanks were taking a beating, but they had enough anti-air capability spread out among them that they were picking off a few of the enemy fighters and keeping them back from the assault tanks, which had been modularly fitted to hit the walker and nothing else. They all had to have escorts, and Brayden knew he’d be better suited to fighting that battle than taking pot shots at the more or less stationary walker. It was moving constantly, trying to close with the Marauders who wouldn’t let it, but from a gunner’s perspective it was so big and slow that it was easy to hit.

  And hit it they were. The shields had already been breached and the bright white armor was cracked and burnt in many places, but it was still very much alive and lethal. Brayden had six attack groups spread around the perimeter, all of which constantly kept adjusting their position on the grassy plains to keep near to it, but far enough outside its own weapon range. The walker had its own escorts alongside its thick bipedal legs, but most of the Tango’s units had moved out to engage the Marauders, leaving only a handful behind within the protective halo of the walker’s plasma.

  Brayden knew they were wearing it down, but his tanks would come out of this with heavy damage at minimum. He just hoped he didn’t lose any crew in the process.

  The mercenary commander swung the front end of his triangular tank around and fired off a pair of red plasma orbs ahead of a group of infantry that contained a few rocket launchers. The ground exploded and the grass caught fire, scattering the troops as he accelerated towards the flames and eventually pushed through, with his secondary gunner chipping away at those infantry with the small turret on top of the tank.

  Just then another of the Tango fighters zipped by low overhead, stitching the ground with plasma strikes, three of which hit the tank. Its shield held up against the first two, but the third got through and kissed the hull, followed by several hits from surrounding enemy tanks as they focused on the single Marauder target…as Brayden had hoped. His wheeled tanks were less resistant to weaponsfire, and in order to keep them operational he needed to play bait with the more advanced units, and the best way to do that was dive down the enemy’s throat and dare them to ignore him.

  If they did he could hurt them badly, if they didn’t then they’d pour firepower into his tank leaving the others free to fire at will. Every operational unit he kept in the game meant more firepower for his side, and for that reason he didn’t mind his own armor getting hit and melted off in spots. This was a messy fight, and they were going to have to fight messy if they wanted to bag that walker. It was doable, otherwise he wouldn’t have committed his forces against it, but if they handled this right they should be able to kill it and keep themselves alive…but there was a narrow margin of error there and as the Marauders’ commander, his place was in the thick of it, taking out enemies and keeping his people alive.

  So that’s where he kept his tank, protecting his group of rail guns as they peppered the distant walker with huge metallic slugs that were slowly breaking apart the Type-5’s armor with concussive damage that their plasma resistance didn’t affect. A few missile plumes would be seen going in with the slugs, but most of them had been fired off already to take down the shields as quickly as possible.

  The Marauders were having to fight a battle to allow them to fight a second battle against the walker, making for an unusual mission, but one that his men were more than capable of handling.

  Unfortunately they weren’t able to handle it cleanly, for after another twenty minutes of fighting one of the other attack groups lost a tank in the final stages that didn’t just go out of commission, but it was blown apart by repetitive attacks that were more vengeance than tactical. It was the last gasp of the Tangos on that part of the battlefield before they retreated, leaving the now smoking and motionless remains of the Skarron walker behind like a giant statue memorializing their defeat.

  The other groups, now free to turn their few remaining rail gun slugs on the surrounding tanks, made quick work of those that lingered, with about 20% of the counterattacking forces pulling out successfully. Brayden had lost some 42% of his equipment, with tanks down all across the burning plains, but it was that one vehicle that had got pounded repetitively after it was down that he lost two people in. The rest of his mercs were able to be pulled out, and while some were seriously injured they would all survive save for that unfortunate pair.

  He knew this was war, but that didn’t mean there had to be a lack of honor. Once the tank was down it was no longer a threat, and the same was true of the Tango’s tanks that he was now ordering his people to search for survivors, calling in his fighters to scare off what was left of the enemy’s now that the walker was out of order while a number of shuttles came in with search and rescue personnel, both to attend to their own wounded as well as take captives.

  Brayden eventually popped the hatch on his tank and went out on foot to help safe the enemy craft and recover their pilots. He was angry at having lost two of his men, but he wasn’t going to take out that frustration on these pilots, otherwise he’d be just as bad as them…though a part of him wanted to, just to even things up.

  He knew that others might be feeling the same way, so he sent a comm message out reiterating standing orders just as he got a signal from his own controller, indicating that there was an approaching dropship coming in from the southwest.

  A Star Force dropship.

  Brayden tagged another of his infantry to replace him in the search and recovery efforts and looked up into the sky, seeing the all familiar silver silhouette gleaming in the sunlight as it flew down towards the surface about a kilometer off. It didn’t land though, merely hovering over the ground briefly and dropping a pair of armored troops out the side hatch to land about three meters down, then it took off again and disappeared up into the sky.

  Brayden wished his armor had Star Force comm protocols, for he was used to being able to see who was who at a glance, but these two sets of armor had no ID, though he knew they were transmitting constantly. His equipment just couldn’t pick up the cloaked signals.

  His eyes did catch the armor make as he got closer, with him realizing that it was Archon armor. What they were doing all the way out here he wasn’t sure, but assumed it had to do with the Skarron walker. They probably wanted to know where it had come from
too, but a part of Brayden was surprised they cared to respond given how far away from Star Force territory this was.

  But that wasn’t what took his breath away, for when he got close enough for his mind to register colors he realized that the armor wasn’t green and black, as his eyes had guessed looking through the smoke trails. It was brown and dark blue.

  That meant a padawan and a mage, two sets of armor that he’d never laid eyes on before that designated their highest ranks. Having one of them here was mindboggling, but two…that was inconceivable.

  Brayden didn’t know what was going on, but this mission had just taken a turn, probably for the worst. While an Archon was always a welcome sight, where they went there was usually trouble.

  And a padawan and mage meant a lot of trouble.

  4

  Jenna saw one of the Marauders wave to them and jogged over to his position with Levi following a step behind. In the distance the dead walker stood smoking, though the thin trails coming off it were insignificant compared to the amount of smoke coming from the grass. Huge patches of it had already burnt off, leaving the ground she was running across now being little more than black char coated with the occasional bit of debris. Larger tank remnants were spread around, obviously the source of the small bits, and she could sense minds still inside some of them.

  “Archon,” the Marauder greeted them when they met up. “I’m surprised you came.”

  “We were in the area,” Jenna answered. “Which one of you is Brayden?”

  “I am.”

  “Situation report.”

  “The locals are losing, badly. It’s not a complete rout, but cities are falling without any real hope of holding out. We still don’t know who these guys are or what they want, and the few prisoners we’ve taken haven’t been forthcoming. We’re fighting here on contract, but I don’t expect this to be the winning side when all is said and done.”

  “There are still men in some of those tanks,” Jenna pointed out.