Star Force: Persistent Ravage (Wayward Trilogy Book 3) Page 4

  Still, that left him at a decided disadvantage. Titans didn’t possess the flight psionic. That was reserved for the highest ranking Archons and Tyrenk hadn’t earned it yet, but if he could get close enough to the Kat’vo he’d have an advantage…the problem was they could easily run away, so as soon as he got a location on one of them he kicked on his Kgat psionic and disappeared from their Ikrid view, in addition to blinding his own. Now that he was close, he was going to force them to operate on their eyes and Pefbar, and taking Ikrid out of the equation was going to force much closer combat.

  If they didn’t run, that was, so the Archon climbed a tree a few kilometers later and peeked up through the canopy to use his eyes. He spotted not one, but four immediately as they circled above a point further away than his initial contact point that was close to their crashed ship. Apparently they weren’t stupid enough to come after him, and if they were guarding their ship then that would pin them in place, more or less. If they fled they’d do it without whatever equipment or supplies they’d been able to salvage from their ship, so him heading their way was going to be a win/win situation for him so long as he didn’t walk into some form of a trap.

  Tyrenk dropped back down to ground level, bracing against the high gravity with a Lachka ‘bubble’ that he used as a crash bag to diminish his momentum, then he landed heavily with his Commando boots sinking into the ground 4 inches. He pried himself out and began running again, heading towards the V’kit’no’sat fliers’ last seen location, but he stopped short when a bit of movement caught his attention.

  The Archon knelt behind a thick tree trunk and extended his Pefbar out as far as he could…with the ‘touching’ sense feeling out every tree, leaf, bug, and other physical objects within his range, including the body of a Zen’zat.

  As soon as his Pefbar touched it the Zen’zat moved and Tyrenk knew he’d felt him. The Archon abandoned subtlety and took off sprinting towards him, keeping his Kgat active so the Kat’vo couldn’t pinpoint his location so easily as he ran the Zen’zat down, but when he got within a few dozen meters he abandoned the technique knowing that the mechanical armor the much larger warrior wore would be picking him up at this close range despite the sensor dampening effect in his Commando armor.

  It was almost like Archon armor, but built a bit more bulky. It wasn’t ideal for him, but it was far better than going at the V’kit’no’sat without shields and with multiple holes poked in his old armor. There was little chance of the Zen’zat thinking he was a Commando now, after being touched by his Pefbar, for Commandos didn’t possess the psionic and Arc Commandos had never been publically acknowledged to exist. The Zen’zat probably didn’t think he was the same Archon, but psionics were not something that most Humans possessed, so as soon as he used one he gave away the fact that he was an Archon and what type of armor he wore wouldn’t matter.

  Some Zen’zat could defeat him one on one, but they had to really outscale him in strength and speed, for his numerous psionics gave him one hell of an advantage in combat. This Zen’zat probably knew that and that was why he was running…but that also told Tyrenk he had something to run to, otherwise he would have stood his ground and fought. If there was one Zen’zat still alive here then there might be more, which was why he kept a piece of his mind actively searching with both Pefbar and Ikrid looking for more targets as he finally got up to the Zen’zat and used his Lachka to telekinetically whip the right leg into the left and make the 7 and a half foot tall biped stumble enough that he bounced off a tree…after which Tyrenk was on him.

  Fists, elbows, and weaponsfire flew rapidly and at extreme close range as the two fought, shields dropping with each hit as the smaller of the two men quickly showed that he had the advantage, batting the bigger mass around with strategically placed kicks until the Zen’zat ripped off a tree branch and started using it as an impromptu sword, forcing Tyrenk to dodge briefly as the Kat’vo swooped in overhead and began firing down through the canopy in a blanket pattern just in front of the Zen’zat.

  The Archon took hits, but he launched himself up into a nearby tree with what his kind called a ‘Jedi jump’ and landed on a branch where he repeated the process and got up into the sky briefly before the heavy gravity pulled him back down. He shot one of the nearby Kat’vo with a pistol twice, then yanked another one down into the trees with his Lachka. The telekinetic grip wasn’t strong enough to pull it all the way down and it was able to break free and get back into the air, but because it’s wings were having to beat at the air hard to gain even a few meters its ascent was delayed long enough for the Archon to jump back up out of the trees again.

  He using his invisible grip to pull the Kat’vo closer to him and then contact was made, shield against shield as Tyrenk took a pointblank shot to his helmet, but he weathered it and leveraged himself up with a hand pressing down on the Kat’vo’s right shoulder. He rolled himself partially on top of it, then briefly dropped his shields and released a Jumat blast downward.

  It disrupted the Kat’vo’s shields, but that was merely a side effect. The concussive energy wave, in conjunction with the planet’s high gravity, knocked the avian down into the treetops as Tyrenk fell beside it. He grabbed a branch and kicked off as the Kat’vo struggled to get loose of the mess of leaves and bendable sprouts that briefly ensnared it, then Tyrenk launched himself back towards the Kat’vo and wrapped it up in a grapple hold.

  The next thing the other Kat’vo saw was the Archon and their brother sinking out of sight down through the trees, but their Pefbar allowed them to see the pair fall all the way down to the ground where the Archon savaged the Kat’vo with the nearby Zen’zat racing to assist.

  It didn’t make it in time to prevent the Kat’vo’s shields going down and multiple armor breaches occurring as a result of blunt force trauma and strategically applied pistol shots as the Archon was a blur of motion that eventually picked up and threw the quadruped into the approaching Zen’zat…who caught it and twisted it out of Tyrenk’s firing line as he got another pistol shot into it.

  The Zen’zat blocked two more shots then ran towards the Archon…who obliged him by holding his ground and letting him get back into hand to hand range. The giant took damage in order to strip off Tyrenk’s shields, then the overhead Kat’vo raked him again through the canopy, which ate up a lot of their weaponsfire as the leaves were shredded and the sunlight level beneath increased with every shot.

  The wounded Kat’vo ran off on the ground, searching for a canopy break to get back up into the sky, but Tyrenk went after it a few seconds later, bouncing the Zen’zat into a tree before sprinting off…into a hail of ground-based weaponsfire as two more Zen’zat appeared on the edge of his Pefbar. He’d been so busy fighting the others that he hadn’t sensed their minds approaching, but now it seemed obvious that the V’kit’no’sat had not sent everything against the Star Force survivors…and that was a mistake that had cost them dearly.

  With the numbers edging out of his advantage, Tyrenk ran off with the Zen’zat chasing and the Kat’vo peppering him with shots from above, but he was able to evade most as he circled around to the crash site and finally got out from under the trees to a long road-like furrow of dirt and burnt wood from where the ship had crashed and scraped for more than a kilometer…or rather a piece of it, for there were several in view with the previous trails of smoke marking their positions having been finally silenced by the sporadic jungle rain.

  As soon as he got in the clear Tyrenk pulled out his other pistol and began dual wielding them as he ran from the Zen’zat, but he was shooting up into the air at the Kat’vo whom he’d damaged earlier. A few shots took its shields down and hit its armor, with at least one hitting an existing hole. It fell from the sky for a few meters before recovering, then it flapped hard to peel away, no longer able to fight with its injuries or knowing that another shot could finish it off completely. Its armor would heal it if given time, so it fled as the others were joined by more Kat’vo coming out of the ruins.


  Tyrenk counted, seeing their numbers climb to 17 as he continued to run ahead of the Zen’zat who couldn’t quite catch him and didn’t have much luck hitting him with shots as he zigzagged in and out of pieces of debris all the way up to a larger section of the ship that appeared partially intact. He dove inside after quickly checking the interior with his Pefbar, then with the cover from the increasing aerial attacks he let his shields recharge a bit while the Zen’zat did not follow him in.

  “Smart bastards,” he whispered, hoping they’d have come in after him. He needed to isolate the V’kit’no’sat, for he couldn’t kill them in a group this large.

  In the brief standoff he looked through the walls with his Pefbar, finding that there were multiple chambers only partially damaged, so he retreated into those and found a weak wall with a few holes of light poking through. He shot a few key places, then used several Jumat blasts to open up a second exit for himself to use, but he didn’t leave just yet. If there were any more V’kit’no’sat out there he wanted them to gather in one place so he could count, and if it looked like they had him cornered they’d want to amass as much firepower as possible…

  Then two more Zen’zat arrived, coming out of other pieces of wreckage a few kilometers distant, and one of them casually walked up to the secondary entrance he’d just made while everyone else stayed back.

  “Oh shit,” Tyrenk said, guessing this Zen’zat was stronger than the others…or he wanted to talk. Maybe he wanted to talk.

  “Feel like surrendering?” the Archon yelled in the enemy’s native language at the Zen’zat as he continued to walk forward.

  “You don’t have that option,” the giant said scornfully. “You’ve spilt V’kit’no’sat blood. Now you will die.”

  “Come in here and try it yourself.”

  “I intend to.”

  “Great,” Tyrenk cursed as he got within a few steps. “They had to have a badass on a scout ship. Damn waste of personnel if you ask me.”

  The Zen’zat ducked down and pushed through the gap, not even bothering to fire a shot…then Tyrenk hit him with a huge Jumat blast and knocked him all the way back outside and onto his ass.

  “Gonna have to do better than that, newb,” the Archon said as he stood just inside the debris and raised his left middle finger at the green/black armor as it rolled back onto its feet. With an audible sneer the Zen’zat stepped forward, throwing a telekinetic wall at Tyrenk, who parried it mockingly with a Rentar energy field that pulled apart the Lachka with ease.

  “I’m waiting,” the Archon mocked, curling his middle finger over in an inviting gesture.

  5

  Tyrenk slammed into the inside wall, hearing his armor crack from the concussion a split second before he reengaged his shields to block the two Dre’mo’don shots from the Zen’zat’s forearm gauntlets…then he dropped them again as the two bodies closed and the Archon batted away the Zen’zat’s fist just in time to avoid a third shot.

  He had to move his body more than he moved his opponent’s arm given the sizes involved, but the knee that came up and hit him in the chest hit armor rather than shields, otherwise it would have drained so much energy out of them that he’d lose them entirely after several rounds of body blows…which is what the Zen’zat was trying to do to the squirrely Archon so he could make the kill from range.

  The Zen’zat’s shields were already down, but Tyrenk had lost a pistol that now lay as a melted heap of junk on the floor somewhere nearby. He only had the one left and was saving it for a finishing shot as he took the body blow while momentarily charging his Jumat again. When he released it a split second later he knocked the Zen’zat badass back more than 5 meters where his legs hit a low piece of debris, causing him to involuntarily cartwheel backwards into another wall where Tyrenk heard the V’kit’no’sat armor crack.

  The Archon dropped into a crouch, then leapt forward as the Zen’zat got up and the cracking disappeared. Little microscopic bits of destroyed armor drifted off him like dust as the remainder reformed around him, now just a tiny bit thinner. Star Force armor, on the other hand, had caught up in technology for the most part but the Archons had chosen a different route for most of their varieties. Solid plates offered more protection than the fluid forms that allowed the Zen’zat to retract the armor down into just his forearm gauntlets, and for Commando armor especially it was how much damage it could soak up that mattered.

  The down side was that once a breach was made it didn’t seal itself, but when hit with overwhelming firepower in a single moment the Commando armor would prove more survivable than the Zen’zat’s protection. Problem was, Tyrenk didn’t have any attack of that magnitude at his disposal, meaning this was going to be a grinding fight that the Zen’zat’s armor was uniquely suited for.

  Keeping a bit of his attention outside and on the entrances with his Pefbar, Tyrenk jumped for the Zen’zat as it got to its feet while he threw a Fornax blast towards him. This one, he’d realized earlier, had the fairly rare Snu psionic that made a person almost immune to the nervous system disruption of Fornax, so when he hit him with it the Zen’zat didn’t lose bodily control and fall to the ground. Rather he stumbled just a touch, and that split second delay let Tyrenk get to him and deliver an Archon punch into his abdomen.

  The blow was essentially an elbow ram with a torso twist while running, with the three movements combined adding as much kinetic energy as possible. When he landed it the Zen’zat doubled over, then the predictable return Fornax blast hit Tyrenk but he was ready for it. Also possessing Snu, as did all mid to upper level Archons, he felt a little twitch in his movements but he’d already given himself enough wiggle room to account for it as he ducked under and grabbed the Zen’zat’s left arm, dragging it backwards as the Archon walked his feet up on the wall and to the other side of the Zen’zat…then yanked hard.

  The 340 pound mass of Zen’zat moved thanks to the Archon’s crazy strength, but not as fast as one would have hoped. As he was flung around he turned into the spin and used it to his advantage, feigning a forearm shot at Tyrenk’s helmet that the Archon ducked away from, loosing his foot placement enough that a quick telekinetic slap knocked a leg out from under him, causing the pair to drop to the ground together.

  The Archon released his grip immediately, trying to get clear of the larger warrior before he could grab hold but Tyrenk was a bit too slow and was suddenly thrown into a wrestling match that he knew he was going to lose. He had to extricate himself from it as the Zen’zat leveraged him around trying to get a forearm pointed into his body so he could shoot him…but no. Tyrenk suddenly realized he was reaching behind him, going for his other pistol, and the Archon quickly got a Lachka hold on it and threw it away from the two of them.

  The Zen’zat reached for it with the same psionic, forcing a tug of war as the pistol floated in the air two meters away even as the two physically wrestled each other. Tyrenk realized the Zen’zat had a bit more Lachka power, probably due to the fact that his brain was larger and therefore he had more Lachka tissue to work with, but the Archon was more skilled in the psionic and his fine motor control allowed him to spin the pistol around even as it inched back towards the Zen’zat.

  Pumping the trigger as it floated in the air, Tyrenk was able to put six shots into the Zen’zat’s back before he finally let go of Tyrenk and fired a flurry of shots through the air towards the pistol, junking it immediately and taking away the Archon’s last conventional weapon.

  But he paid a price for it as Tyrenk got up close to him and pummeled him with a kick to the leg and then another up into his head as it fell, snapping it around so hard the Zen’zat lost motor control for a moment…with his disorientation getting worse as the Archon unloaded a Saven mental flash bomb into his mind. Even with the Ikrid blocks, the overload clouded his mind for a moment as Tyrenk punched multiple times into one spot on the Zen’zat’s armor, just below the neck on his back as he dropped to all fours, then the very dirty white armor over Tyrenk
’s hand withdrew as he punched with his other twice, then the bare hand shot down into the cracking green/black armor with straight fingers.

  As he did so the Archon used his Ubven, which he’d been holding back for a finishing move, and a huge Lachka field dropped over both of them so thick that neither could move…except for the neutralizing energy that the Ubven psionic also created. It allowed the Archon to move through the field like a hot knife cutting through butter while the Zen’zat felt like he’d been encased in concrete. He fought it, moving a few centimeters as the field strength diminished quickly, but during the hold Tyrenk had on him the Archon’s fingers, now super hot thanks to his Rensiek which he’d been charging while he beat the armor down, melted through the cracks in the armor even as it tried to flow in and reform.

  It took several seconds, but with the Zen’zat’s shields gone and his armor momentarily thinned at that point, Tyrenk was able to burn his way through to the skin beneath, then jammed his fingers into his body half an inch…but that was all he needed. This Zen’zat, skilled and powerful as he was, did not possess Rentar, which was a defense against the telekinesis of Lachka. The Zen’zat armor offered an immunity to it, one which Star Force had yet to fully replicate while allowing the wearer to use their own Lachka, but when the Archon’s fingers got past the armor the interior of the Zen’zat’s body was now exposed and the only defense he had now was to push back with his own Lachka in an invisible tug of war.

  If he could hold Tyrenk off the Ubven field would dissipate and he’d be able to fling the Archon and his burning fingers off him, then his armor would reform and protect his internal organs again, but the skill with which Tyrenk operated his Lachka split it into multiple tendrils that he snaked down through his fingers and into the big chest of the Zen’zat…who pushed back on many of them, blocking their progress as the Archon kept splitting them up into smaller and smaller ones.