Star Force: Sav (SF51) Read online

They could have made it even heavier, but how far you sink into the ground when stepping was something that couldn’t be mechanically countered, so there were limits to how heavy they could make them…short of including a permanent anti-grav to compensate, which would never work with the way they moved, at least not to the efficiency levels they wanted.

  Bo needed just a few more marks to get there, three of which were in Aerial, so he’d been making sure to get more simulator time in and use it as rest breaks between his physical training. Already he’d adjusted to a 36 hour day, as had the others save for Vermaire, who was already pressing 48 hours. That man was a beast and Bo was very glad that he’d insisted on joining them, for he was definitely competition that was tapping on their egos and driving them on even harder than they normally would be pressing.

  When Bo and Emily split he headed over to the small simulator room and locked himself away in an isolation pod that cut out all exterior noise, light, and vibrations…giving him an exact replica of a skeet cockpit that, since it used holograms in lieu of windows anyway, was essentially the same as being in a real craft, allowing him to get whatever practice in he needed without having to be in an actual aircraft.

  There were always some differences, but the programs the Archons used to train had been developed to such an extent that they were almost indistinguishable by now, as far as rookies were concerned, but veteran pilots knew that wind was one thing the computers could never get right because of its chaotic nature, though by now it did come close.

  The trick with Aerial, Mech, Aquatics, and Naval advancement versus Commando was the lack of an abundance of physical skills. Aquatics had swimming, but the other three were strictly remote control of machines which didn’t allow for training increases the way the body did. Paul’s naval skill was pretty much the same as it had been 100 years ago because he couldn’t advance when his ‘body’ was the machines that he was controlling.

  So the Archons had developed experience points, requiring repetition of high scores that focused on making their great, once in a lifetime scoring sims normal affairs…as well as giving them an opportunity to pick up more tricks along the way. What Bo had to do to get to the next level in Aerial was, for this particular piece of his division score, hold out against an unending wave of enemy fighters that never exceeded 9 at a time. When he killed one another would fly in to replace it, meaning he had to last as long as he could.

  Now, while that score could go up basically forever the idea was to not just have one lucky day but rather to put in multiple impressive runs. Bo had to last at least 10 minutes and kill 150 fighters for a 1 point score, with higher levels incurring more points. In order to advance from striker 99 to padawan 1 he had to have 1200 points on this one scenario, meaning that any bad runs wouldn’t count as anything. In comparison, an adept level 10 had to kill 2 fighters to score a point, with the same difficulty level being used.

  Another challenge scenario that he had been working on had him going head to head against a single fighter, with the computer-controlled craft having an insanely difficult setting. The goal there was simply to kill it…which was nearly impossible. To advance to the next level he had to kill it 141 times, no matter how long it took him. That same scenario would be used to advance from padawan 1 to padawan 2, except he’d have to do it another 144 times.

  That was how Archons trained in skill areas, always looking for minor improvements once they became really good at something, but measuring their level advancement by experience…whereas their physical skills required progressively higher and higher performance, given that they were essentially customizing their bodies while they couldn’t do that with their fighters, mechs, and warships.

  That said, Bo’s naval scores had jumped 6 levels since he’d attained Sav, for he simply had better mental processing capability now. Those six levels hadn’t even required any training, he just racked up the scores easily enough and would be much higher in the coming weeks as the experience points came in, for he was getting through what had previously been ‘hard’ challenges that would usually end in failure, in bunches per hour.

  That wasn’t the case for the skeet training, for he was only flying one craft at a time, whereas with naval a lot of the challenges were in ‘Admiral’ mode and had him controlling a large fleet. Already he was noticing improvements across the board in all five divisions thanks to his Sav, and he’d barely begun to even train the ability, making him wonder just how far he would advance until he plateaued and came back to a normal advancement rate.

  He wanted to catch Paul and maybe take the lead, but he knew that was a lot easier said than done. Both Paul and Morgan were beasts, and even while they were fighting on the Skarron front they’d be training their asses off, he was sure. He liked the challenge of the situation regardless, and as long as Bo had an advantage he was going to milk it for all he could get.

  But that was almost a secondary concern now. He and the other 7 in his training team were beginning to accomplish some pretty impressive things working together, with David already having triggered another ascension, this one being Hanme, which gave him small nodules throughout his body that stored up oxygen and acted as a backup supply. It was something that only 3 other Archons had achieved to date, with all of them being Aquatics specialists.

  Trouble was when you were swimming underwater, holding your breath, and heavily exerting yourself that wasn’t the best time for an instability surge to hit you. David had almost not made it back to the surface without having to dismiss it, but he held on just long enough that when he got back into the air and pulled himself up onto the side of the training pool he was able to force it up into red level on his own, then when Kiran come over and helped with a metal fixed point he made the full conversion and the upgrade…which had him now able to swim and fight underwater for several minutes without problem or a breath mask, so long as he had full reserves beforehand, which took some 20 minutes or so to replenish.

  According to the database that replenishment time would come down with training, and he was eager to press the new ability. The medtechs were also excited, because with every ascension they caught on biomed sensors they got a little closer to finding the triggers…but they kept reminding Bo that he was the key to it all with his supposedly longer ascensions. That theory hadn’t been tested a second time yet, but he’d been making tweaks in his swimming training as a result of what they’d learned from Kiran.

  And so the cycle continued, or rather just began. Training with others on, near, or above your ability level truly made a world of difference, especially when they were just as fanatically obsessed with it as you were. All eight of them were constantly driving themselves and helping each other out, barely taking any free time at all aside for meals, naps, and sleep…and reducing the latter down to as little as they could tolerate in order to get more training in, bumping up their advancement rate while adding an extra element to their training that the fatigue induced.

  In fact, it induced it so much that only a few weeks later Vermaire ascended to a brand new ability…and fortunately they’d convinced him to wear a headband, which he’d been disinclined to previously, not expecting to be able to match the trailblazers psionically. His insane training regimen, which was both longer and more intense than even Bo was doing, caused him to ascend to Inas after three tries…the last of which had Jason nearby to help.

  Inas was, unsurprisingly, an ability that was healing related and allowed one to take and process a lot of stress above and beyond the norm, including fatigue that induced a need to sleep.

  After Vermaire achieved that his ego blossomed even more, as did his schedule. The man pushed himself to a level that Bo couldn’t hope to match in 100 years, if not 1000. The infamous Black Knight now only slept for 5 or 6 hours every 4 days.

  Inspired by that feat and how much training he was getting in…which would invariably lead to even greater adaptation and advancement…Bo added a bit more to his own schedule, literally falling into
bed when his sleep cycle came and dragging himself out when he woke up 9 hours later, but he knew it would be worth it.

  And he loved it. They all did. Archons needed and thrived off of challenges, especially physical ones.

  Hyperbolic Time Chamber was right…except that this was way more intense, and the gravity was higher. For the variable chamber they used for that type of training had Bo enduring bouts at 12g and Vermaire at 14g.

  10

  September 27, 2546

  Solar System

  Earth

  Bo woke up, still in a haze but no longer missing his alarms. He rolled himself out of bed and immediately pulled on a shirt, shorts, and his running shoes, then headed over to the nearby track for an easy 3 miles to wake himself up before hitting the weight room for one of Wilson’s callisthenic programs that had, as usual, the Archons active under weight restriction. That was intentional to make sure they built strength rather than bulk, for a slow opponent was an easy one to defeat.

  He latched on custom built weights to his shins and forearms before going through a series of prescribed movements over and over again. Halfway through Kiran came in and started doing an identical set off to his left a few meters and both trailblazers fell into sync with each other. As usual Bo’s weakness came from his muscles, for his coordination and awareness of what he was doing was so much higher with Sav. He had to fight to keep himself in alignment, but succeeded in doing so…which also helped keep Kiran in line by matching Bo’s pace and timing.

  After that it was time for ‘breakfast’ despite the fact that it was evening. The area the training group was located in had no windows and they never left it, so time of day quickly became irrelevant, especially with each Archon on their own sleep schedule…with Vermaire virtually being awake at all hours.

  After about a 10 minute break for food it was off to the simulators, this time a command nexus where Bo worked on his naval skills, or rather two of them…fleet coordination and gunnery, the latter of which had him target shooting. He could have used manual controls but his mind processed so well that he just kept with the Ikrid link and mentally targeted his simulated weapon with slightly better accuracy. The trick of it was to keep your mind focused, for even an erratic thought could have you aiming the completely opposition direction or freezing in place.

  The mind was much more loose than the body, which was why mental control was key to using any tech Ikrid related. Bo found that the physical training actually helped calibrate his mind, acting as an anchor, and liked to hit these targeting drills while his muscles were still warm and the impatient part of his mind was still partially satiated with the previous workout.

  He spent quite a long time on the gunnery today, racking up experience points on hard scenarios before getting in a few more easy fleet runs when he checked the time. He wore a watch to keep himself aware, otherwise he’d completely lose himself in the training. Wilson had them on a strict schedule as far as what they needed to get in per ‘day,’ and while it was up to them to figure out how to fit it in they knew better than to fall behind. Bo had to section out his days into time blocks and cut himself off when he reached his limit, otherwise some of the challenges he would get so annoyed with that he’d stick with them for hours until he passed or it became obvious that he had to get to other workouts.

  That bit of self-analysis had been crucial, with him now moving from one segment to another as if he was staying ahead of an enemy chasing him. He got in what he could, when he could, but always kept moving forward no matter how tired or impatient he was. By now that had just become routine, with him bouncing around the training area from one individual drill to another before meeting up with the others for team activities.

  Those were reserved for the second half of today, and at hour 21 he left the pool and headed over to the psionic training areas where he met up with Aaron and the two linked into battlemeld immediately, not even bothering for pleasant conversation. They’d gotten so invested in their training they didn’t want to waste even a few seconds, with both of them searching for tiny switches in the walls and objects in the room that they had to trigger with Ikrid.

  It was a V’kit’no’sat tech they’d reverse-engineered a while ago, but these switches required two minds to activate, as well as being on tricky timers and pressure sensitive panels. Bo had to stand on one to activate a certain set of switches, or rather to make them live. Aaron likewise had to stand in certain places and do so in the time allotted, leaving both of them hopping around the room while scanning the various invisible switches and combining their Ikrid skills to ‘flip’ them.

  It was training designed to go after another psionic that Kara had told them about, but that no one had gotten yet, as were many of the drills that Wilson was sending them. After completing it both Archons moved to another psionic, and another, and another, staying together for the next 8 hours before splitting up again…with Bo finally heading for food and bed.

  He woke up six and a half hours later and began the cycle again, with many of the workouts being the same but some changed. No day was completely identical, but in order to improve you had to have repetition.

  Bo took a few minutes and picked up a datapad, scheduling next week’s workouts ahead of time and seeing who was available for what. It took a little juggling to get what Wilson wanted them to do in, but after about 12 minutes of trying he worked out what he was going to do and when, then disconnected his mind from the big picture and focused on what he had to do next, which was another easy morning run.

  Five months later Bo was working another Ikrid session with Aaron when the instability hit him. Both knew it instantly, for they were locked in battlemeld, with the other trailblazer withdrawing and making his limited mental presence known as Bo dropped to the floor and sat down crosslegged, chasing the mental storm forming and urging it on within certain pathways. The fixed point formed in his mind from Aaron’s presence and he used it to stabilize himself through what was another extra long ascension.

  He got it on the first try, taking him some 43 minutes to do so…all during which his headband recorded the biotelemetry of what was happening inside his head. The tissue growth at the end wasn’t as extreme as before, but it still hurt. Both of them thought they knew what it was, for Aaron had ascended a week previously gaining Neritu…the very specific psionic that Wilson’s training had been aiming for.

  It was a battlemeld ability that allowed two individuals to link together and combine their Ikrid and Ensek abilities, with both growing stronger above and beyond the sum of the two. The new tissue acted as a binary and created a powerful transmitter when the pair were within a short distance from one another.

  Aaron hadn’t been able to test his because no one else possessed it, but once a quick assessment of Bo’s telemetry by the medtechs confirmed it was Neritu and was communicated to them via datapad, the pair immediately adjusted their schedules to give themselves half an hour per day to work on developing it…with new workouts from Wilson soon to follow.

  But the new ability aside, the significance of that ascension was the confirmation that Bo’s Sav was going to make all his ascensions longer. One could be an anomaly, but now two had been extended, essentially confirming their theory…meaning that he was going to be the key to unlocking the triggers, with the medtechs already confirming that they were close to finding this one between his and Aaron’s data.

  That discovery would come four days later once they had the chance to really crunch the numbers, and within two more days Aaron was successfully able to share Neritu with Jason through the twin link.

  Three triggers down…and many more to come.

  Paul was in his quarters onboard the Excalibur when word came that the Skarron fleet had begun to arrive, reading through recent intelligence reports that he quickly threw aside, with the datapad landing on his bed as he rushed out of the room enroute to the bridge.

  By the time he got there and linked in with the command nexus a good 129 Skarron
warships had already entered high orbit around Urrit, one of the most forward Dvapp worlds on the ADZ border and the one that Paul had guessed the enemy would hit first. He was glad he’d been right and was here to assist in the defense, though he doubted this was the only incursion that was happening. The sheer number of the enemy fleet suggested a widespread campaign…or at least he hoped. If they threw everything against one world then they were going to be in for a world of hurt.

  Other fleets were positioned along the inhabited worlds on the Skarron front, with the trailblazers playing a game of chess that hadn’t officially started. They split up their reinforcements as they chose, but to date no word had come through the relay network of any assault, suggesting that Paul was going to get the first one to deal with…which was what he wanted.

  The arrival of the Skarrons had already gone out over the comm network, just in case they managed to knock it out…though they had several long range Star Force transmitters scattered across the system to prevent an easy takedown. That said, they weren’t going to take any chances and intended to keep transmitting updates as they had them. That news wouldn’t make it to the nearby systems for days, but the sooner they got word out the better.

  Right now that was someone else’s concern, orchestrating the orbital defenses was Paul’s…or rather the Star Force part. The Dvapp were loosely coordinating with him but their fleet outnumbered his 6 to 1, despite him having brought Mainline, Clan, Axius, and Canderous units in to both counter any assault here and give him the ability to reinforce other nearby systems if the call for help came down.

  All together he had a massive armada centered on the Excalibur, including a large number of ground troops standing by to be thrown into the mix if and when needed. Those jumpships were holding position elsewhere in the system and safely out of harm’s way as he watched the number of Skarron vessels tick up over a thousand…and continue to climb.