Star Force: Trailblazer (SF4) Read online

  Paul pulled up an interior schematic of the station from available blueprints and noted the 5m thick armor plating covering vital areas. The thinnest armor he could find was just under .6m thick, covering the connective ‘tissue’ between the thicker plates which extended up past some of the intersections like fort ramparts. All in all, the trainers had designed a tough nut to crack this time, and Paul knew that any assault force he assembled would take heavy losses when he assaulted the station.

  Fortunately he had another option, and he bypassed the preprogrammed ship designs and went to the customization screen. The program was familiar to him by now, and it didn’t take him long to design a new variant of ship. He ordered up only a single unit, placed it at a considerable distance from the station, then began the challenge.

  The ‘Admiralty’ controls, as he liked to think of them, popped on screen around the edges in addition to a selection arrow similar to those used in popular RTS video games. Using the rolling ball on his control board, he highlighted his single large warship and input a flight path directly for the station and kicked in the engines at maximum power.

  The heavy ship didn’t accelerate very fast, but Paul had included ample fuel reserves in the design, so he sat back and waited while it gradually picked up speed relative to the station. As it did he played with the targeting program and tried to get a lock on the station, but it was too far away for his zoom function to target, plus it was bouncing around a bit from the engine thrust.

  Gradually the image enlarged and Paul guessed he could have tried for a lucky long shot with the medium rail guns he had attached to the centerline of the warship, encapsulated in an armored cone three meters thick, which was part of the reason why the ship wasn’t accelerating very fast. It was heavier than any of the standard designs, but only protected on the prow, with no armor on the sides, making it a very badly designed warship…or so the trainers probably thought.

  Time to teach them another lesson in the art of space warfare.

  When the ship’s fuel load finally burnt out the jiggling of the targeting reticule stopped as well. Paul used the ship’s thrusters to make a minor course adjustment, then targeted the station with the medium rail guns and fired off the full 20-round magazine one at a time towards the station with precisely aimed shots while he was still out of weapons range.

  Mathematically speaking, he knew that the ship’s momentum would add to the muzzle velocity of the metallic slugs being fired, giving them more kinetic force upon impact, but also reducing the time to target and thus the amount of drift possible during transit…which meant slightly improved accuracy. After the ship’s entire arsenal was depleted, Paul switched viewing angles and watched from ‘above’ as the rounds traveled the distance between ship and station.

  Three of the rounds missed the station cleanly, four others clipped the edges and ricocheted off at odd angles while putting deep furrows in the armor plates, but the other 13 that hit squarely against the station broke through the 5 meters of armor and into the station interior, clawing out much larger holes as the metallic rounds deformed on impact. Using his ‘omniscient’ camera view, he studied the damage to the station, curious as to how much damage he’d inflicted.

  While the holes were aesthetic eyesores and decompression hazards, the damage was minimal to the overall structure. Had there been people inside, many would have died in the affected compartments, and Paul did note that several weapons batteries had gone offline, ostensibly because their power feeds had been cut, so that was an added bonus there, but it really didn’t matter.

  The rail gun attack had been nothing more than an experiment of Paul’s, for the more he delved into the possibilities of space naval warfare, the greater concern he had with finding a way to protect their own ships. The kinetic velocities of attack weren’t limited like they were in atmosphere, and even with putting meters of armor plating over their hull, an attack such as he’d just launched would punch right through. There had to be a better way, he knew, but so far Star Force hadn’t developed an armor strong enough to stand up to physics involved, nor had they developed any other effective countermeasure.

  Paul did know of a countermeasure to the second part of his attack, though apparently the trainers didn’t…it was the old school defense screen, that had mobile ships deployed at distance around static targets to intercept enemies before they could do things like this…

  Paul smiled as his navigational prowess shown true and his racing ship slammed into the approximate center of the station traveling several kilometers per second. Its armored nose cone punched through the armored hull, then the station exploded in a shower of debris with both large chunks and small specs of dust expanding outwards erratically. Even on slow-mo replay there wasn’t much to see, the collision having occurred so fast, but Paul did give the designers of the basic physics engine in the simulators credit, for the program didn’t glitch up and it provided quite the view as both the station and ship disintegrated in a mathematical fireworks display.

  The challenge end symbol soon appeared on the screen along with an insanely high points score, given the fact that he’d only used a single ship to utterly destroy the entire station.

  Paul popped open the hatch and left the simulator pod well ahead of schedule, planning on using the extra hour plus to get in some additional training time with the ‘mongoose’ four wheelers prior to their team challenge the following week. As he walked through the empty room he tossed a brief salute up at the one-way window where he knew the trainers were watching, underscoring the fact that he knew just how much egg he’d thrown in their faces.

  Wilson, who’d made it a habit to be in the control room every time Paul or the 2s underwent a naval challenge, shook his head in a mixture of disgust and respect. He glanced over at the other trainers and programmers in the room, making brief eye contact with each of them.

  “We’ve got to find a way to beat that punk.”

  8

  5 weeks later…

  “Oh man,” Dan said as the 2s walked into the southwestern aquatics bay and saw their fellow trainees motoring out the open door into the calm, sunlit ocean water, “5s beat us here.”

  “The 1s are out there too, along with a lot of challengers,” the bay master said from the counter. “Looks like it’s going to be a busy day. How long do you guys have?”

  “Two hours on the schedule,” Jason answered, “but this is the last session of the day so we can stay over as long as we want.”

  The bay master smiled. “I’ll make sure the refuelers are fully stocked. Go put up some new high scores…the water’s perfect for it.”

  “Will do, Hank,” Jason said as he and the others hurriedly walked past the counter and onto the narrow walkway that stretched out into the shallow swimming pool that held over a hundred jet skis. Two other pools were present in the bay, on flanking sides holding larger craft, but the jet ski pool was the only one that was elevated.

  A third of the personal water craft were multi-seaters, but the 2s went straight for the highly agile and fast singles with the activation keys already in the ignition. Jason hopped off the walkway and swung onto the seat of one of the 40 blue jet skis reserved for trainee use. The rest of the craft were available to the rest of the Atlantis personnel as both a means of training and recreation.

  Jason’s half inch thick padded wetsuit ended at the elbows and knees, doubling as a life vest and body pads. It also had a small tracking unit imbedded in the material that allowed each person in the field to be monitored by bay control, along with a panic button in the collar which, if pressed three times in succession, would call for a pickup crew with medics to be dispatched.

  Security and safety precautions aside, Jason didn’t bother to worry about such things. He rarely got tossed off his ride, though when he did he was more worried about getting eaten by the critters roaming the ocean than anything else. To date no one had experienced any problems in that regard, but every time he went out onto the ocean he
was conscious of the fact that the Humans weren’t the only ones in the water.

  That wasn’t on his mind at the moment as he activated his jet ski and backed away from the walkway prongs separating each of the craft. He spun about then slowly maneuvered through the various lanes until he came into the only open section of the pool directly in front of a smooth ramp leading down to the commons area where the three pools met in front of the massive bay doors.

  Megan and Ivan beat him to the edge, ramping up their speed suddenly and sliding up and over the flexible ridge holding the pool’s water in. They skidded over the ‘dry’ edge and slid down the white slip’in’slide into the ocean water below, then jetted on out of the bay.

  Jason followed them over and down the extra long drop, thanks to the current low tide, and accelerated through the short tunnel connecting the bay to the exterior of the city. He emerged into the bright sunlight and blinked away the glare as he followed the others towards the rightmost of three small ‘islands’ in the distance while the rest of the 2s split up to go their separate ways.

  Emily and Brian met up with them at the obstacle course start pad, bumping up and over the soft edge of the island and into the small raised lagoon where the control staff logged them in from an elevated control cabana on the far side. A group of ‘civies,’ as the trainees thought of them, were waiting for their turn while a group of staff reset the course, but they gave up their slots upon seeing the blue jet skis arrive, as was standard procedure. They looked a bit bummed to have to wait longer, but also a bit eager to see the rock stars in action.

  The five civies were familiar to the 2s and were regulars out on the water, having crossed paths with the trainees on multiple occasions.

  “We’re getting your record today, Mathis,” Jason taunted as they swapped places.

  “Go for it,” the off duty aquatics bay worker responded pithily as Jason slid his jet ski up onto the release ramp. “We’ll beat whatever you put up.”

  “With this crew?” Megan teased, gesturing to the others. “Overly optimistic, I’d say.”

  “New blood, new opportunities,” Mathis replied as the controller in the booth signaled that the course was set. “Give us something decent to shoot for, will ya?”

  “Happy to,” Jason said, gripping the handlebars as he looked back over his shoulder and nodded at the controller. A countdown tone sounded, and on the third electronic bleat the narrow ramps underneath the five jet skis fell out and dropped them down at an angle into the ocean, where they immediately jetting off, water spraying in their wakes.

  Large display screens on the walls of the cabana showed a diagram of the course with moving dots indicating the placement of the 5 teammates, along with a clock which would be the measure of their final score. The civies watch both the screens and the water as the group of trainees split up and headed for the various inflated obstacles tethered to the distant ocean floor below.

  Jason let the others veer off left and right while he continued straight on ahead towards a neon yellow ring on a breakaway cord suspended between two inflatable pylons, equally as yellow and standing five meters high above the almost perfectly calm ocean water. With the lack of waves to buffet his craft around, Jason raced towards the target at high speed, literally feeling the seconds peeling off the clock. They hadn’t had a day this calm since the aquatic bonus challenges had been added six months ago, and the past week had been so turbulent that none of the trainees had been able to get out on the water.

  The 2s’ team challenges had been winding down, now that they were approaching the final stage of their training, and given the fact that they were way ahead on their naval challenges and had just completed the last of their vehicular ones, they’d started using their extra daily team challenge time to double up on the remaining ones, as well as go back and try for higher scores on those that allowed repeats after completion.

  They also had begun spending more and more of their time going after bonus points in the voluntary challenges, such as this water course. If they finished under par time, they’d receive a small amount of bonus points, enhanced through time brackets, but even if they totally rocked the course there wasn’t a lot to be gained, but they were eager to grab whatever they could to pad their points lead, especially with so few big point scoring opportunities left.

  Jason slowed to half speed as he approach the inflatable gate and reached up with his right arm and grabbed the bottom of the ring, yanking it off its tether and collecting it over his shoulder as he turned hard to port and accelerated towards the next gate. Once he straightened out his line he reached back and attached the ring to a small clipped hook behind his seat, freeing his hand and arm from his bounty.

  His teammates were likewise collecting rings from dozens of gates along the first segment of the course. The yellow ring Jason had collected was considered an easy grab, and therefore only 1 gate point. The red gate he was headed towards now was a medium one and had its ring suspended higher above the water…too high to reach up and grab.

  It did however have a small ramp on the north side of the gate, which Jason had to swing a bit left to get in front of, then pulled a hard right turn to line himself up properly. A few hard seconds of charging later and he was to the ramp, decelerating just before he hit it so he could have a smooth jump.

  He didn’t slow down enough though and overshot his mark, catching the red ring on the front nose of his jet ski and pulling it off as he flew through the air and started to head nose first into the water.

  Jason stood up, pressing the rear of the craft down with his legs and managed a half decent landing, but he had to break hard and then reverse a meter or so to get the ring off the nose. It floated up on the water in front of him where he quickly picked it up, leaning way over the side as he motored by and sped off across the water.

  He met up with the other 2s at a primary gate…which was actually a ‘gate’ gate. Two pylons, each twice as large as their smaller cousins, were connected by a solid wall of green padding blocking access to the other side. Each pylon had a hook near water level, which the 2s quickly deposited their captured rings on. Tiny chips imbedded in each ring were scanned on the hooks, determining their point value and number, and after a sufficient amount of points had been deposited the main gate raised up, allowing the 2s to cross into the second section of the course.

  Here there were less yellow gates, along with a few blue ones, indicating the hardest to capture and worth 3 points each. Jason immediately roared ahead while the others fanned out again, as was their agreed upon plan to keep them slip apart and not headed towards the same targets and wasting valuable time.

  The nearest gate to Jason was a red, but this one didn’t have a jump. Instead, it had a mount suspended above water with a ring half imbedded into its surface. He decelerated heavily as he approached and slid his jet ski up the short ramp, hoping not to overshoot or cut it short, which would leave him sliding back down into the water.

  Fortunately this time he did neither, sliding up the ramp and coming to a halt on the flat top next to the ring. He had to get off his seat and take a large step to his right to grab it, stretching out his safety cord, but otherwise he had timed the ramp perfectly. Hooking the ring on the back of his jet ski, Jason gave the watercraft a strong shove then ran and jumped back up on before it could pass all the way over the edge.

  He bounced around on the seat awkwardly until it slid back into the water, then righted himself on the pommel and raced off again to collect more rings and more points for the next big gate, which required twice the points of the first to pass through.

  Jason eventually arrived at the gate with four reds and a yellow, but saved one of the reds when the green padded barrier opened before all the rings had been placed on the hook, meaning they’d grabbed more than they needed, but that was ok because they could use the spares on the last gate, which required four times the points of the first.

  When they moved through and fanned out again there were
no yellow inflatable markers visible, only a spattering of reds and a lot of blues…

  Jason snagged another red, having to maneuver through a marsh of poles that required precise movements, then headed towards one of the blue gates with its two inflatable pillars showing, but without a ring in between them.

  “Here goes,” Jason said to himself has he slowed to a crawl and positioned himself carefully before ramping up the engine and yanking on the handlebars to launching him into the air…where he pulled some impressive aerobatics to get the jet ski to come down nose first and penetrate the water. Both he and the craft disappeared below the surface for a few seconds, then reappeared on the other side of the gate, bursting up out of the water with a blue ring in hand.

  Jason coughed some water out of his mouth and nose as he slowly turned about and got his bearings, adding the three point ring to his stash. In the distance he saw Megan fly off an angled ramp doing a corkscrew, rotating an entire 360 degrees and managing to grab the suspended blue ring just before she hit the water.

  Her hand hit the ring and knocked it off, but she couldn’t keep hold of it, nor the jet ski as it landed at an twisted angle. She flew off the seat, pulling the activation key out with the long bungie attached to her left wrist, and hit the water hard. Jason, still coughing up a bit of water, motored over to her position.