Star Force: Trials (SF68) Read online

  “Yeah, Morgan made a good call there,” Jace agreed, knowing that the generous amount of destunning serum hidden within the monstrous beast was worth the headaches they’d had taking it down. “And I’m loving this little baby.”

  Greg glanced at the sword. “You know their armor will have stun resistance.”

  “Just means I have to hit them a lot…and what do you mean by them?”

  “You think there’s only one?”

  Jace frowned. “Probably not. I just hope the mother isn’t down here.”

  Greg winced. “Don’t call him that. It’ll just piss him off.”

  “Come on, Braum. Let’s see if there are any traps in here to set off,” Jace said as he jogged off towards the door the Knight had escaped through.

  Knowing that there was a trap waiting for them, Paul and Jason had come down together and dropped out onto the floor with two short shields blocking their backs as they were essentially hugging each other when they landed. They got the ‘all clear’ mental signal from Oni a moment before they came through so they didn’t spring into action, merely letting go of one another and walking out of the drop zone as they got their bearings.

  Most of the Archons were here already, with about 10 left to come through, though it looked like four were already down. Paul knew the destun and ambrosia carriers were coming through last so they didn’t risk losing those precious supplies, and he was glad it was just four of them, for they’d already used a chunk of the serum after that big raid and trying to wake someone with psionics alone was troublesome. They needed to flush their system of the energy rather than circumvent it and leave them a walking zombie for the next half hour.

  “Where’d he go?” Paul asked.

  “Ran off through the wall,” Morgan told him as she met up with the dynamic duo. “No gravity traps or other little surprises that we’ve found yet. And the door won’t open from the inside.”

  “Walls shielded?” Jason wondered.

  “Of course.”

  “What now?” he said, looking at the ceiling and visually scanning the entire chamber as the last of the trailblazers came through. There was nothing here, for the walls were entirely smooth without so much as a hint of texture and pure white, emitting a low glow that lit the area. Jason couldn’t even see any doors, guessing that they were built with the first level transforming tech that Star Force had begun employing based on a Voku homage.

  “At least there are no more sticks and rocks to step on,” Morgan said as Olivia dropped out of the ceiling, bringing them back to a full 100. Morgan gave her a telepathic heads up as to the ones that needed waking with the destun serum just as the room exploded with sound.

  Everyone jerked from the transition, with the music playing so loud it immediately shot their adrenaline up, for it was a song that many of them were familiar with.

  Define your meaning of war, to me it’s what we do when we’re bored, blared from the speakers as Olivia took off sprinting towards the downed trailblazers, knowing that she had to get them woken up as fast as possible.

  Jason and Paul linked up in battlemeld and moved to the outside of the trailblazer group as the others around the perimeter scouting out the walls fell back in towards the center.

  I feel the heat comin’ off of the blacktop and it makes me want it more.

  Jace twirled his stun sword as he flicked the power switch back on, stepping up alongside Sara who had a metallic bar the length of a doubleblade sword and linking up with her to form a swords pair as Greg ran over to group up with the other 7s.

  Because I’m hyped up out of control. If it’s a fight, I’m ready to go, played as a giant holographic clock appeared over their heads with 20:00 gleaming in bright blue, then twelve man-sized doors opened up around the perimeter of the room with bright white light shining out behind black silhouettes of Arc Knights as they casually walked out together.

  I wouldn’t put my money on the other guy, if you know what I know that I know.

  Then a thirteenth door opened up, revealing another silhouette of black armor with a stun sword…except when this one stepped out into the open his armor had no golden trim. It was full black.

  It’s been a long time coming, and the table’s turned around. ‘Cause one of us is going down. One of us is going down.

  “Fuck,” Morgan said, her ponytail flicking up as she sent out a Jumat pulse in anticipation as the clock flicked over to 19:59 and started to count down. “He’s mine. Paul, Jason, help me!” she said as all thirteen of their heavily armored opposition started running towards the unarmored trailblazers at the center of the room at Archon speeds, indicating that there was no more theatrics or holding back. They were going to beat the crap out of them if they could.

  “Don’t get cocky,” Jason warned as they joined Morgan into their personal battlemeld, forming a trio that jogged towards the juggernaut sprinting towards their group. Morgan took the lead and came to a halt with Paul and Jason fanning out to either side as she summoned up a huge Jumat blast and held it contained in front of her, waiting until he was close, then flicking it towards him in the hopes that he wouldn’t dodge the invisible Kamehameha.

  She caught him with a partial hit, for he was so fast even in armor that he twirled to his right in a moving sidestep that got exaggerated from the blow. He got tossed off balance but found his feet easily enough until the trio forced him to the ground with a Lachka wall that formed over his head and crushed down on top of him.

  That wall melted as he activated his Rentar and jumped up, closing the gap with them and swinging his stunsword down on top of Morgan as she staggered backward in her casual shoes, which weren’t the best for quick movements, but Paul yanked her to the side with a Bataf conduit so that the sword blow missed by about a foot. Vermaire pivoted and went after Jason but another conduit pushed him clear of the next blow, then Morgan yanked him towards her in another redirect that left the Black Knight whiffing with each hit.

  There was no way they were going to take down the thirteen of them in armor, and the countdown clock made it clear that their objective was to survive until completion…with the Knights doing their best to take out as many of them as possible and needing only a single hit with a stun sword or gauntlet to disable them enough to make a quick takedown, even if that blow fell on a finger or toe.

  Vermaire knew this too, so as soon as he saw that this trio was merely diverting him he made another lunge at Paul as a feint and sprinted through it, crossing the next twenty meters and coming up on Greg from behind. Rex saw him coming and threw a Lachka wall at him, which barely slowed him before melting into nonexistence. Greg was dodging an Arc Knight’s sword at the time and only had time to accept a Bataf link from another nearby Archon that tried to pull him away from the Black Knight in time, but failed.

  That big stun sword came down on top of Greg’s shield, bathing it in stun that numbed his arm a bit with the bleed through, but the physical power behind it knocked the Archon to the ground and a swift boot kick tore the shield from Greg’s grip. He tried to pull himself free with another Bataf from Rex, but Vermaire brought a fist down to the ground in an overhead punch that caught him in the foot as he slid away, numbing his entire lower body.

  The next thing Greg knew his momentum stopped as his midsection crumpled in a telekinetic grip that held him in place just a split second, which was more than enough for Vermaire to dash forward and smack his sword tip across Greg’s head, knocking him out instantly.

  10

  The Black Knight turned and went after Nik as a slew of Lachka fields wrapped him up, but aside from a slight hesitation they didn’t stop him, for he melted through them all and closed on the Archon rapidly, jumping up and coming down with an overhead strike as an Arc Knight stopped Nik with his own Lachka grip onto the Archon’s ankles.

  Nik tripped up and turned it into a somersault to keep his momentum, then the Black Knight’s sword came down on his back and he was out, but just as the sword blow fell Paul came f
lying into the back of the Black Knight’s legs as Morgan and Jason mutually hurled him towards their target. Vermaire went down and Paul scurried away, sending a Saven flash into his mind to temporarily overload his Ikrid and hopefully distract him. He could still see with Pefbar, but the locations of all minds around him would be momentarily lost during the sensory overload.

  That and a Bataf yank from Jason got him clear as the Black Knight snapped around on him with a kick/punch combo just before Morgan got up to him and did a full Kamehameha into his chest. That was something he couldn’t block with Rentar and Vermaire went flying through the air as a pair of Arc Knights came to his aid and went after Morgan…which was a mistake.

  She balled up pools of Jumat on her arms and ducked under the first sword slash, dipping down to the floor then jumping horizontal in a Yetu flash to land her left palm into the Knight’s abdomen. He went flying off to the left as Morgan rolled under the other Knight’s sword and quickly reversed her momentum, soon to do the same thing to him.

  Jason and Paul knew they had to stay on the Black Knight at all times or he’d wreck them all, so they’d followed him through his tumble and added to it with a few Lachka pushes midair before Bataf yanking Morgan back towards them like a slingshot. With the help of Mark coming in behind the Black Knight as he was standing up and hitting him with as strong of a Fornax blast as he could, Vermaire stuttered ever so slightly, which was just enough of an opening as they needed.

  Both of them yanked on his sword telekinetically, freeing it from his hand an inch before he grabbed it again…just as Morgan slammed into him as she put a shoulder into his chest and released another Jumat blast from her own torso.

  Mark ducked down and turned himself into a log, catching the Black Knight’s legs as he flew backwards and using the man’s momentum to flip him head over heels with Morgan eventually ending up on top of Mark. He telekinetically pushed her up to her feet so she could keep hammering on Vermaire, but as soon as she was off him and moving forward an Arc Knight came in and jabbed Mark while he was still on the ground, cleaning up the bodies that Vermaire was dropping and taking another Archon out of the equation.

  Paul and Jason ripped the sword out of his hand as Morgan hit him, momentarily disabling his Rentar. Paul let Jason have it, with the Archon immediately taking off towards the Arc Knight that had downed Mark. They went through a slew of blows and counterblows, but the Knight was no match for Jason’s skill with a sword and he slipped a blow in on the man’s upper left hip. The stun soaked into the armor and did little to slow the giant, but every little bit made him slower and slower with the small hits adding up and allowing Jason to make bigger and bigger ones as the other trailblazers covered for him.

  It didn’t take long before the Arc Knight went down and Jason telekinetically kicked the sword out of his hand and into Megan’s as he delivered one more stun blast into the man’s helmet before running off towards another Arc Knight…but only a few seconds later this one stirred, his head clearing as the armor soaked the lingering stun energy up, but he wisely stayed on the ground until he was ready to fight again. Waiting for the proper moment, he let one of the Archons get close to him, running away from Vermaire, then he jumped up and tackled Andy around the left leg, stunning him with his armored glove and taking him to the ground as Vermaire finished him off with a punch to the chest.

  Then Morgan was on him again, knocking the Black Knight 10 meters away where he rolled onto a knee and got back up again, not even trying to engage the top Archon and going for the weaker ones instead as the Arc Knights made plays to set him up with kills. It was clear to Paul and Jason what they were doing and it was working, with 8 of the trailblazers already unconscious.

  But they had his sword, and two of the others, with the dynamic duo deciding that’s where they needed to focus their efforts as others helped Morgan. With Jason taking the lead the pair headed towards the nearest Arc Knight with a sword and Jason engaged him while Paul used his psionics to disable or disrupt him enough that Jason didn’t need more than 10 seconds to take him down…then Paul got his own sword.

  Both of them got a prompt from Kai, then after linking him into their battlemeld he pulled both of them across the room as if they were on skis and up behind two other Arc Knights that were chasing down a group of 5s. Paul took the one on the left and Jason the one on the right, with Tyr throwing the metallic ball he’d brought with him into the back of Jason’s, knocking him forward and into the sword tip of his opponent. A few more quick disarming slashes and the trailblazer was able to kick his sword loose, then proceeded to stun him up enough that he eventually went down.

  Tyr let the basketball-sized metallic lump of junk bounce off the Knight then telekinetically picked it up and threw it towards the other one, but he saw it coming in time to evade both the ball and Paul’s blade. Tyr stopped it midair once past the Knight and redirected it back towards him, catching him in the right leg and knocking him off balance…which was all Paul needed to disarm him as well.

  Then the lucky bastard telekinetically grabbed Paul’s leg and yanked him towards him, getting a feather’s brush of his armored fingertip on the trailblazer’s leg.

  Paul jabbed the sword down into him multiple times as he fell, his leg completely missing from his mind’s eye and his head more than a little wobbly. Someone else yanked him away from the Knight and he gave up his sword to Kerrie as she swooped in beside him and finished off the Knight, albeit temporarily.

  A prompt from Olivia ended up with her dragged Paul across the room and over to her, where she administered the destunning serum a moment before Vermaire got over to them, intent on not letting them undo the damage inflicted. Morgan reacted instantly, letting others fling her like a weapon through the air towards him before he could get to Paul…but that’s just what he wanted. Expecting the attack he turned into it, head down so that Morgan flew over his head. She battered him into the floor with her Jumat as she did so, but he got a hand on her and she rolled uncontrollably when she landed on the ground, now unconscious.

  “Damn,” Paul said as his leg returned to working order, then he saw the Arc Knights all coming towards him and he realized it was Olivia they were after. “Run!”

  Kerrie stepped in front of Paul and flicked him his sword back while linking with him, then they both grabbed and threw one of the Arc Knights so fast that he didn’t have a chance to break the Lachka hold. After that she was off elsewhere and Paul was exchanging blows with another Arc Knight, parrying each and knowing he could own one of them if he just had a few seconds to work with, but Vermaire was headed directly for Olivia and two Arc Knights were now standing guard over Morgan’s body so that no one could wake her up.

  Then Rio pulled an insane backdoor move, sneaking up on them using Kgat until he was so close that he Yetu jumped the last few meters in between both of them, stepping on Morgan’s bare abdomen in the process but knowing she wouldn’t care afterwards. With only a moment to use before they twisted around and took him out, he surged his Lachka as quick and as forceful as possible, forming two ‘crash bags’ and expanding them off of each of his hands as he touched the armor on both Knights.

  The result from Brad’s perspective was a sneak jump in on top of Morgan with Rio blowing both of them off and away from her, then pushing her body even further away. Brad grabbed it with a Lachka hold and dragged her over to him where he got hold of her wrist and picked her up, running her across the room to a safer area where the ‘hot potato’ of the destunning serum was eventually going to end up as the Archons passed it from person to person after Olivia chucked it away just prior to going down.

  Rio took three sprinting steps away from the Knights as others with swords came in to counter them then he froze, not because of anyone doing something to him, but because of what was happening inside him. It took him a moment of hesitation to be sure, then he was suddenly knocked to the side by Scott as another Arc Knight lunged for him with his stun gauntlets.

  “Wh
at’s wrong?” Scott asked, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him away as others intervened seeing that Rio wasn’t fighting anymore.

  “Ascension trigger,” Rio said, fighting a huge surge of instability that made him trip once and Scott had to catch him again.

  It took all of a tenth of a second for Scott to realize what was happening, for all of the trailblazers had shared all of the known triggers, meaning that whatever Rio was getting was going to be a new ability and they couldn’t squander that, so he pulled him into a telekinetic hold just above the ground and moved him like an anti-grav cargo crate away from the center of the room.

  Seeing an opportunity to down a weakened opponent, an Arc Knight shot after them at full sprint with Scott putting out a mental ‘help’ call to all the Archons along with a priority marker on Rio. Within 3 seconds four bodies flew across the room to hit the Arc Knight. He stunned one of them, but the others knocked him down and away from Rio, trusting in Scott’s judgement even though they didn’t know what was going on just yet, though that would change shortly as he transmitted to everyone in the room what was happening.

  The Black Knight stopped instantly, raising an arm and calling off the Arc Knights. The trailblazers stopped when he did, then Vermaire ran over to Rio, pulling off his helmet mid sprint. Scott stepped aside as Rio was kneeling on the ground trying to focus on the instability, letting Vermaire get to him. The giant pulled the tiny biomonitor off his own forehead and put it on Rio, then stepped back and watched.

  “I could use some help,” Rio asked. “This is worse than I’ve ever had.”

  “I’ve got you buddy,” Scott said, grabbing his wrist and linking to him mentally and feeling the huge storm surging throughout his entire body, meaning this was going to be tissue growth in more than just his brain and those were always the nastiest ascensions to go through. He gave Rio a firm point to center himself on and he felt Rio latch onto it desperately. He needed to let this go and try again the next time it manifested, but there was no way the trailblazer was going to let a brand new trigger get away, for there was no way to know when or if it would come again.