Star Force: Nemesis (SF3) Read online

  With two of the four center turrets down, the fire on the other groups decreased, allowing them a little breathing room, but not enough to try and break free. It was up to Paul’s group to take out the rest of the turrets on this side of the room.

  Emily exchanged hand signals with Jason, then took off running back to their position. He and Jack walked up and out again, distracting the few turrets aimed at them and clearing the way for Emily to slide feet first back onto the stairs. She skidded down several on her butt, but she avoided getting hit by any of the stingers.

  Paul followed her a heartbeat later, but ducked down behind the barricade, midway between staircases and waited. Meanwhile Emily came back up with Jason and Jack covering her in a wedge of shields. They sidestepped to the right, then backtracked along the edge of the stairwell opening towards the wall, careful not to fall down into it, for there was no railing.

  From there they advanced to the nearest wall turret, blocking paintballs at point blank range. Emily jabbed one of her stun sticks out in a narrow gap between Jason’s shield and the wall, poking the turret’s sphere. The stun charge deactivated it and the three man ‘turtle’ moved down to the next one.

  One of the turrets tracking Megan’s group suddenly turned away and aimed for the threesome, now under remote control from one of trainers. The barrels dipped down and shot at their legs from a distance, hitting Jack in the shin.

  “Down!” he yelled, half falling into Jason, but Emily grabbed hold of him by the waist to keep their shield wall intact. The three of them knelt down, covering the incoming fire but unable to move forward.

  Emily’s torso popped up suddenly and she side-armed one of her stun sticks into the turret they’d been heading for, now only two meters away and took it out, clearing that half of the wall so Jason could readjust his shield angle for better cover.

  Meanwhile Paul had leapfrogged to another barricade and ducked down again. There were two turrets left in this quarter of the room, on the wall beside Megan’s group. One held an auto turret shooting at Paul’s guys, while the other was the trainer-overrided turret, now doing likewise.

  Before Paul had a chance to act, Megan chucked one of her stun sticks out from their now clear left angle and hit the trainer’s turret, leaving only one left shooting at his group. Once they were in the clear, it wouldn’t be difficult to clear the others out and secure a path to the next level.

  About to rush the last turret, Paul’s peripheral vision caught sight of another floater to his left just in time for him to reverse his course and drop back down behind the barricade as it swiveled and shot over his head.

  “Damn,” he whispered, scolding himself for being so sloppy. The others hadn’t had a chance to take that one out yet.

  Jason stepped aside from Jack, who was now sitting on his legs behind his two shields, protecting Emily as they crept away from their wounded teammate, walking on their toes with their knees almost pinned to their chests toward the last turret on this wall. Emily caught a glance of Paul moving between barricades just as a sliver of splattered paintball caught her in the forehead.

  It immediately numbed her senses, making her a bit lightheaded, but she stayed on her feet. A few seconds later and they were right in front of the turret, where she jabbed out again along the wall when Jason created a gap and took it out of play.

  “You hit?” Jason asked as Emily slumped against the wall.

  “Yeah,” she said, grimacing. She pointed to her forehead. “Just a piece.”

  “Stay put,” Jason said as Paul jumped up, ran forward, and dove at the floater turret, slapping it inactive, then taking cover behind its base. “Here,” he said, handing her one of the shields. “You’re out of the heavy fire now.”

  “Get it this time,” she said, gripping one of the shield’s handholds and snugging it up in front of her knees and chest. Jason left her alone and moved off to help the others, meanwhile Emily rubbed the numb spot in her head, trying to disperse the energy into the surrounding tissue and blood, thus diluting the effect. The tip of her index finger went slightly numb in the process, but that only meant less charge in her head, so she accepted the tradeoff as she waited out the denumbing process. Regardless, she was going to have one hell of a headache afterwards.

  With one quarter of the level clear of turrets, the attack angles favored the trainees, who were able to overlap shields to greater effect and carefully pick off the rest of the turrets after a brief confab between Jason and Paul, who had gradually become co-team leaders of the 2s over the past few months. They were currently on level 14, with only one level more to go and the defenses increasing the higher they went.

  This was farther than they’d gotten in their previous attempt, and though they were down a man from earlier, plus having Emily and Jack partially incapacitated, they mutually decided to clear out this entire level so they could approach the final room from all the stairwells, as well as be able to move about below to reposition people for multiple confusion if the trainers chose to take direct control of the final set of turrets…which they knew they would.

  With 8 team members fit to continue fighting, for now Jack was back on his feet though limping heavily, they split up into pairs and probed the final level’s defenses, walking slowly up the final flight with shields held above their heads.

  They received incoming fire almost immediately, signaling that there were turrets on the ceiling this time. That wasn’t something they’d had to deal with on the lower levels and would provide a different challenge. Paul was trying to gage the distance that he’d have to throw from behind his shield when the impacts suddenly stopped. Jason frowned at him, and he returned the gesture, wondering what was going on.

  Suddenly something heavy hit his shield from the side and knocked him into Jason, with both of them falling backwards down the stairs, tumbling on top of their shields and stun sticks…which fortunately had been turned off and reattached to their belts.

  When Paul twisted around and got to his feet he looked up the stairs but saw nothing, then heard a similar clamor on the far side as Megan and Dan took a tumble down their set of stairs.

  “What the hell?” Jason asked, quickly grabbing his shield and hitting the stairs. Paul followed a step behind him but neither of them was shot at as they ascended, which he wondered might be a trick on the part of the trainers until his head cleared the last step and he saw the finish pedestal in the center of the room...with the Black Knight stalking about beside it.

  “You think those turrets are really off?” Paul whispered as the others emerged from their stairwells and stared down their opponent, who was keeping close to the pedestal and making no move towards them.

  On the other side of the room Brian walked sideways, keeping the Black Knight locked in his vision, and tapped one of the turrets with his stun stick. Likewise, the other trainees spread out the room, still hiding behind their meter-long shields, and deactivated all of the wall turrets.

  Paul threw one of his stun sticks at the ceiling, hitting one of the low riding turrets there and let it fall to the ground beside him, resisting the urge to catch it out of the air and potentially stun himself. With Emily’s stick held in front of him warily, he reached down and picked up the other…all the while the Black Knight walked about impatiently, never getting more than two meters from the finish pedestal that would end the challenge in a victory for the 2s.

  Ivan and Kip deactivated the other ceiling turrets, with Paul getting the last one. Now that they had made sure they were out of the equation, they looked at the Black Knight, unnerved by the sight of the 7 foot tall monster…but equally freaked out by the fact that he wasn’t attacking them. In every other encounter they’d had, he was constantly in motion, taking them down with lethal precision and never giving the trainees a chance to breathe, let alone plan out a counterattack.

  Paul slapped both stun sticks together, making a loud clap that got everyone’s attention, then he went through a series of hand signals before dro
pping his shield and thumbing both sticks on. He spread his arms wide in preparation and walked toward the pedestal.

  The Black Knight stepped in between it and him, holding up his long black stun sword in a guard position. When Paul got within three steps of the Knight he leapt forward and slashed sideways in a faint with his silver rod, less than half the length of the Knight’s sword.

  The Knight ignored the faint and spun his sword around his body, stepping forward once as it completed the circle and lashed out at Paul’s side. The trainee brought both stun sticks up in guard and wisely deflected the Knight’s ‘blade’ up and over his head, with him having to duck to avoid the arc. The power behind the Knight’s swing was mind boggling, and there was no way he could have stopped it with brute force.

  The blade swung up over the man’s helmeted head and came crashing down on where Paul had been a moment before, missing his retreating shoulder by inches. Twin stun sticks slapped at the blade, trying to delay its movement as Dan jumped out from the wall and tried to make a run for the pedestal…but the Knight was ready for him and revered his direction of attack in a blur and jabbed his sword out across the pedestal and caught Dan in the ribs, knocking the wind out of him and dropping him to the floor unconscious.

  Paul threw one of his sticks at the Knight’s back, but his impossibly fast blade whipped around and knocked it aside and into Brian’s shield, where it discharged, sending a tiny pinprick tingle through the barrier and into his hand. He thumbed off his own stick and tossed it to Paul, then picked up the live one the floor, hearing the crackle/pop as it recharged once the blade broke physical contact…a safety mechanism to keep the stick from emptying its power source uselessly.

  A moment of calm resumed, with the Black Knight stepping across Dan’s unconscious body and continuing to pace around the short perimeter.

  Jason signaled the remaining 6 trainees, realizing that their odds of success went down with each team member lost, so they had to maximize their chances now.

  Paul moved first and swung wildly with alternating arms at the Black Knight, who deftly parried each, almost toying with him as all the others rushed forward a split second later.

  The Knight battled Paul’s blades aside easily, then swung about and knocked Megan’s shield side, inverted his sword, and bought it behind his back catching Brian in the knee, knocking him down less than a meter away from the Pedestal.

  A whirlwind twirl of the intimidating black blade knocked Kip and Randy back, but they managed to hold onto their shields and avoid being stunned. A quick flip of his wrist brought the blade around again and down on top of Jack’s head as he clumsily rushed the giant. He fell to the floor, accidentally hitting Jason in the knee with his stun stick, taking him out of the fight.

  A silver stun stick flew through the air and hit the Black Knight in the back, bouncing off his armor and refusing to so much as make him twitch, but it did prompt him to turn around and slash at Paul, who barely managed to be able to duck underneath.

  Kip and Randy charged forward shield first and dove into their opponent, attempting to knock him off his feet. They felt like they hit a stone wall on impact, with Kip ricocheting off and Randy succeeding in buckling the Knight’s knee, but he didn’t go down. Instead he ignored them and jabbed out at Megan as she tried to hit the challenge end button on the pedestal.

  His blade caught her in the neck, and she fell face forward, her arm brushing against the button but not forcefully enough to press it down.

  Randy wrapped himself around the Knight’s legs, trying to take him to the floor or at least pin him in place, but he was too close to the pedestal and slashed at Paul as he tried to make for it, hitting his stun stick parry and forcing the trainee back a step. The Knight’s blade then twirled around and slashed down on Kip as he was getting to his feet, then came down on Randy, rendering them both unconscious.

  Paul made one last leapt for the pedestal, but the Knight freed himself from Randy’s grasp and stepped forward, catching him by the throat and stopping his arm from reaching the button. Paul jabbed his stun stick into the Knight’s arm, but his grip didn’t slacken, so Paul hit him again and again, with the third time resulting in a buckle at the elbow, but then the pommel of his sword came down in front of Paul’s face and the base of the blade tapped him on the head, knocking him out.

  On the floor below Emily heard the sounds of combat, but no turret fire, wondering what the hell was going on. She got to her feet and meekly walked across the room to the bottom of the stairs, her head so awash in disorientation that she had trouble walking in a straight line, just as the Black Knight stepped out in front of her.

  She froze...less from her numbness and more from the fact that she had no weapon, only her shield.

  The Black Knight didn’t hesitate and batted away her shield with his armored fist, then slashed down diagonally from overhead with his blade. The force of the blow knocked her aside, where she dropped to the floor unconscious.

  The armored warrior deactivated his sword and reattached it to his belt, walking off and leaving the bodies where they lay in testament to yet another promising challenge run thwarted by the mysterious nemesis that had become the trainees’ bane.

  6

  Seven days later…

  “Run!” Paul yelled at Megan, who stood holding the Black Knight’s heavy sword awkwardly, unsure of how to use it against him. From past experience they knew a single strike from their stun sticks wouldn’t take him down, but who knew about his own sword.

  Megan twitched with sudden understanding and wheeled about, running away to the nearest stairwell in the tower and headed back up, getting the Black Knight’s weapon as far away from him as she could.

  Paul leapt forward and slashed at the black armor with his stun stick, getting in two quick hits before he was kicked out of the way, flying back a good two meters as the Black Knight struggled to regain his footing as Dan and Brian had him half pinned to the floor. Jack and Jason were already down, but the four of them had managed to knock the Knight off his feet and luckily his grip on his sword hadn’t held, with it flying away on impact.

  Megan had promptly snatched it up and, if she had any smarts about her, would take it all the way back up to the top level, where this inverted version of the tower run had started, with the team having to fight their way down through the levels and turrets…which in some ways was harder than going up.

  The Black Knight had jumped them on level 6 and taken out Emily, but missing Dan in his first strike. He’d called out an alarm and everyone had retreated up a level. When the Black Knight followed the four of them had tackled him coming up the staircase, but his superior strength was showing through as he tossed the trainees off him one by one.

  Paul lay on the floor with the wind knocked out of him…and maybe a cracked rib…watching as Ivan, Kip, and Randy stunned him repeatedly on the arms, legs…whatever they could reach with their stun sticks. As soon as he got to his feet the repeated blows finally got to him, dropping him back down to a knee, but he wasn’t out of the fight.

  With his left arm, which hadn’t taken many hits, he caught Kip’s stun stick when the trainee swung at his head and pulled him off balance. Kip fell with the Black Knight holding the ‘blade’ and shirking off the stun charge, claiming the weapon for himself until Randy landed two quick hits on the arm holding it.

  The Black Knight’s grip slipped as his arm numbed and the stun stick dropped to the ground as Ivan slashed at his back yet again.

  Suddenly the bulk of black armor leapt up and forward, knocking Randy down and getting the Knight momentarily away from Ivan’s reach as Paul climbed back onto his feet to help his teammates. This was the best opportunity they’d ever had of taking the bastard down and he wasn’t going to let a little injury rob them of the chance.

  Stumbling, but still quick as ever, the Black Knight retreated a few steps to get clear of the downed trainees and set himself, wobbling slightly, but after a moment it faded and he was roc
k solid as ever. Ivan and Paul ran towards him as Kip picked up his stun stick and rejoined the fight, jumping over Randy who was just clearing the stars from his spinning head.

  The Black Knight waited for them to come to him, crossing his arms and touching the inside of his wrists together. Paul thought he heard a crackle/pop and realized a split second before he lost consciousness that they hadn’t completely disarmed their enemy.

  Paul’s blade landed on the Knight’s shoulder, which he let hit in order to punch at Paul’s chest before being batted at by the other two. Paul fell to the floor unconscious as the giant turned on the others and delivered quick blows to body and arms, surviving Kip and Ivan’s stun hits long enough to tap them out. Belatedly Randy came at the Knight, not seeing what had just happened, and swung hard towards his midsection which, with the height difference, was just in front of his face.

  The Black Knight caught the blade with a distinctive electrical crackling sound typical of stun blade charge trying to discharge on stun blade, holding it steady in between the two as he brought his left fist around and lightly punched Randy in the head, dropping him to the floor alongside the others.

  A flying stun stick hit the Knight in the chest, causing him to stagger a bit. Another followed it before Dan and Brian came at him after picking themselves up off the floor. It hit as well, missing his too numb hand as he reached to knock it aside. Dropping to a knee again, awash with stun energy, the Black Knight fought to stay on his feet as the remaining two trainees swatted at him with more of the stun sticks that were now littering the floor.

  In a move that was half inspiration, half desperation, the Black Knight leaned forward off balance and jumped towards the pair with outstretched arms, one each toward the two trainees. They collided and all three fell in a tangled pile.