Star Force: Trials (SF68)

by Aer-ki Jyr

“Same for us,” Greg answered. “And if the others will be doing the same once they arrive we need to get to them before the bugs do. I don’t think we can stand up to them directly. Bioshields won’t last for long and all they need is one of the little things to slip through to get us in the head or chest. I got hit on the shoulder and lost the use of my arm on the way down here, and I’m still a touch numb. No destunning serum that I’ve found yet, but this place looks huge and I wouldn’t put it past Wilson to have left caches of equipment hidden somewhere.”

  “So this is some giant new test?” Blade asked.

  “Has to be,” Greg said as he stepping through the tunnel and held up just from the exterior on the other side, with the artificial sun making his eyes squint. “Our Final Challenge was the same way. No heads up as to what we have to do and we have to work our way out of it.”

  “The Trials are supposed to be Clan versus Clan,” Jason argued. “Seems like we’re all on the same team in this.”

  “Or maybe its survival of the fittest,” Blade suggested. “No way out and it’s just a matter of who lasts the longest.”

  Greg wrinkled his brow in disdain. “If it is we’re definitely not playing it that way.”

  “We need to find Dina,” Jason insisted, “and hook up with any others coming in. Any chance that this isn’t the only entry point?”

  “I haven’t sensed anyone else, and I’m curious to see just where the walls are. Some of that view has to be holographic.”

  “Agreed,” Blade said, looking ahead. “How were you marking the traps?”

  “Stick ‘X’. It gets squashed flat and is easy to see so long as you stay on the trails.”

  “And off the trails?” Jason asked.

  “The brush is so thick that you can’t move fast enough to evade the bugs. I don’t know if they’re programed for only the other side, but I don’t want to take the chance of getting caught out here. I’ve stuck to the trails and was working my way around the circuit when you came in. There are a couple points where you can jump from trail to trail, but it looks to be a deformed loop.”

  “How far down?”

  “There’s another trail below it, but my spidey senses said there might be a trap in the crossing so I haven’t explored there yet, but I did get around most of this loop.”

  “And no bugs over here at all?”

  “Not that I’ve seen yet, but it’s not very hard to fly up and over this tunnel.”

  “At least we can see into the ground here,” Blade commented, able to stretch out his Pefbar below them and into the rock.

  “There has to be more than one pond,” Jason said, thinking out loud. “No one knew when I was going to get here and the others will be coming in at random. That room was designed for 2 and I bet they keep it that way.”

  “One of us needs to stay near the top to key in the others if they do enter the same way we did,” Greg pointed out. “I could sense you from here, but it’s out of telepathy range. I had to sprint up the trail a ways before I made contact. If you can find a hiding spot further up be my guest, but someone has to start exploring the immediate area. The Trials aren’t supposed to start for 3 days and we can’t assume everyone is going to arrive today. If there’s food out here we need to find it.”

  “I’ll take care of the newcomers,” Jason volunteered. “You two go exploring. We’ll make this our base camp until we find something better. Looks like Dina is going to have to wait until we get a handle on the geography.”

  Further down the mountain, following the water flow, the ravine spread out into a small crater with a lake in the center. The creek continued out the far side and continued going downhill at a much softer gradient, but left the mostly calm pool behind it mostly contained as only a small opening was available for the water to flow out through a pair of overlapping rocks. The nearly mirror smooth surface of the water suddenly rippled as a disturbance in the center pushed up a pipe to just over the waterline, then it sprayed forth a geyser of water well up into the air that arched over into a tree-like fountain and fell back down into the pool on all sides but with a slight list to the south.

  A few seconds later a body came flying up with it and shot 6 meters up into the air before splashing down into the water beside it, then was followed by another as Paul landed on top of Brian, knocking the wind out of him and pushing him underwater. The two separated with a stern kick from the lower Archon and swam back up to the surface, with Brian spitting out a gulp of water then coughing out the rest.

  “Sorry,” Paul said as he treaded water and got his bearings, seeing a wall of greenery all around the pond they were now in, as well as the bright sun overhead. “Where the hell did we go?”

  “Gravity alterations,” Brian said, swimming over next to him. “There’s no way of knowing which direction that slide took us. I thought we were going down, but apparently not…unless we crossed to the other side of the planet.”

  A slight rumble sounded as the tube that had spat them out shut down its fountain and retreated back below water level, with both trailblazers watching it go down.

  “So now what?” Brian asked.

  “Let’s get to shore and find out,” Paul said, beginning to swim over to the edge. Brian came with him and they got halfway there before they both noticed another mind nearby…and a familiar one at that.

  Randy? Paul asked.

  No time to explain. Keep swimming but don’t touch button. I’ll yank you out when you get close to shore. Ignore the fireworks behind you.

  Taking his fellow 2 at his word Paul and Brian both kept swimming towards shore, then a few seconds later there was a huge blast of water behind them. Paul saw it in his Pefbar but kept swimming as instructed, seeing a small aquatic mech rise up from below the surface as not one, but four trailblazers jumped out from the trees along the shore and on top of it.

  Just then he felt Randy’s presence run up near to them but still hidden behind the greenery, with Brian being lifted out of the water and deposited on the shore ahead. A second later Paul took flight through the air and did likewise, landing on a platform of moss just short of the excessively thick brush.

  Randy telekinetically yanked them both through and into sight of him, with Paul seeing a worried expression on his face.

  “Run!” he yelled, taking off through the tree trunks as a buzzing sound began to overwhelm the noise of the mech.

  Paul and Brian both followed him, not having a clue where they were going but apparently he did, for Randy ran a very evasive pattern through trees and around rocks and overhangs that Paul couldn’t have guessed at, eventually leading them to a small creek that flowed into the pond.

  “Under,” Randy said, diving in head first and disappearing beneath a bit of calm water.

  Paul took a breath and dove in second, following Randy as he made his way through a rocky tunnel and into a submerged chamber. He came up into a pocket of air only two feet high but one that was large enough to hold ten people. Brian followed him in and the three wet Archons stood on their knees in the claustrophobic den with their chins just above the waterline.

  “What’s going on?” Brian asked.

  “A lot,” Randy said, relaxing for a moment. “What day is it?”

  “Last I checked the 21st, but we spent a while in a dark pond before getting spit out into that lit one.”

  “I’ve been here about a day then, and by last count there were 77 of us already in. You two make 79, but 11 have already been captured.”

  “Captured?” Paul asked.

  “Wilson’s got some wicked challenge set up for us this time,” Randy said, shaking his head with dismay. “The reason why I told you not to touch bottom in the pond is because some of the others entered the way you did and got swarmed by stun fish. We think it activates when you touch the shoreline. A few of those buggers hit you and you’re unconscious, with a lung full of water to boot. We lost Ben that way, but we’ve learned from it and several other mistakes.”

  “Los
t?” Brain emphasized.

  “He’s not dead. As soon as he went under a drone flew in and yanked him out of the water. Same thing happens everywhere in this park. They’ve got traps and stun bots galore, including little flying bugs. You go down and you get picked up. We’ve tried to stop them but only succeed once. You can’t mess with those swarms, and the lemmings are the worst.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Paul said, not fully catching on.

  “Little agile robot rabbits that stun to the touch…and they come at you with lizard-like numbers.”

  “Sounds fun,” Brian said with an ironic laugh. “What was that back with the mech?”

  “Multitasking. This little hideaway actually had a few prizes for us on those ledges,” Randy said, pointing at the empty slabs now. “Foodstuffs, a touch of destunning serum, comlinks…which will just lead the swarms to you, so don’t use them…a few weapons, ammo cartridges that don’t match, and a lot of other little challenges. We’re finding and collecting as much as we can, and that mech was guarding a big underwater stash. When someone comes in the fish congregate in a specific place in the pond and it draws them off from the mech location, so we had to wait until someone else came in to jump it. Look up.”

  Randy tilted his chin upwards, with both Paul and Brian extending their Pefbar through the ceiling and thin layer of soil to the forest above…where a cloud of tiny objects was passing by.

  “Those are the stun bugs. They fly in swarms and should leave this area shortly. We need to stay here until they do. They can move as fast as us and will drain your bioshields with too many hits. You have to use Lachka, but miss even one and you’re in trouble. Single charge, equivalent to a pistol shot.”

  “Damn,” Paul said, realizing his day had just gone from bad to horrible. “What’s the objective?”

  “We don’t know. We’re just trying to collect everybody and not lose any more newbs falling into traps we’ve already sprung.”

  “Thanks,” Brian offered.

  “Ditto,” Paul echoed.

  “Do either of you know when Morgan was supposed to arrive?”

  “Not specifically, no,” Paul said, with Brian likewise shaking his head in the negative.

  “We haven’t found her yet, and I’m really hoping she didn’t come in first and get captured. We need her Jumat to take down these swarms. The weapons we’ve found are pretty much a joke. No area of effect. Just a tease from Wilson, we think.”

  “Sounds like him. Is Jason here?”

  “Yeah, he was one of the first in, and the sooner I get you back to link up with him the better. We really need the dynamic duo out here.”

  “Guess that makes me a cheerleader,” Brian quipped.

  “You’re not hot enough,” Randy said with a smirk as he sensed the area over them clear. “Let’s get moving, but stay tight and follow my lead until you get the lay of the land…and don’t touch any of the berries. They’re stun-laced too.”

  5

  “We’ve found where the others are being held,” Jace said, pointing to a scribbled map in the dirt with a few pebbles highlighting key locations as Paul, Jason, and a half dozen other trailblazers looked on. The rest were out continuing the scouting efforts and trying to locate supply clusters while the tunnel in the ridge had become their storage area, which they were standing just to the outside of on the ‘safe’ side away from the bug zone.

  “Held?” Paul asked.

  Jace nodded. “They’re unconscious and laying out on pedestals like prizes…and there are 100 pedestals in total.”

  “That’s our mission fail,” Jason said with certainty. “And probably bait.”

  “We didn’t get too close, but were able to make Ikrid contact. They’re the real deal, not holos, but the place is guarded to the hilt. We spotted every known trap laid out on this mountain and then some. It’s going to be almost impossible to get in there and out with them, and we might lose more than we rescued.”

  “Highlights?” Sara asked.

  “They’ve got dinobots.”

  “What?”

  “Oh crap,” Jason said, knowing what he meant even before Jace sent the telepathic memory to all nearby so he wouldn’t have to explain in words. “That’s something Jax was working on with Cora. They’re experimental mechs they’re using to try and map out the movement idiosyncrasies of the V’kit’no’sat so our own mechs don’t get blindsided.”

  “And they’re both prisoner…wonderful,” Sara said with a sigh.

  “Well these were patrolling the perimeter and we could hear more inside the compound. All Rit’ko’sor and Era’tran models with no obvious weapons.”

  “They’re not automated,” Jason said. “That much I know. They have to be remote-controlled using a neural interface, and I bet Wilson has a host of trainers on the other end just waiting to pound…oh shit, I bet he even got the ones that we had in basic. That’d be just like him.”

  “The patrols looked automated.”

  “Maybe for walking in a circle, but if they’re going to fight they have to be driven. Next gen rovers I’d guess.”

  “The old rovers couldn’t step on and squash you,” Page pointed out. “Don’t suppose they have a target sphere?”

  “Not that we saw,” Jace said regretfully, “but then again, nothing here has. I think Wilson wants this to be live.”

  “The weapons he gave us aren’t stun,” Paul added. “Let’s just hope these dinobots are.”

  “Still begs the question of what’s our mission goal?” Sara reminded them.

  “Until we find the edges of this park there’s no way to be sure unless we stumble across it,” Jace said with a touch of awe. “They really went all in on this one. There’s at least a 2 mile radius around the mountain.”

  “Did you get beyond here?” Sara asked, pointing to the pebble that he’d used to mark the holding facility on the plain to the northeast.

  “We couldn’t. Everything past this line,” he said, dragging a telekinetic finger through the dirt in a very precise fashion, “is dino territory. I don’t think they’re just there to guard the prisoners.”

  “Our endgame is probably in there,” Paul said, rubbing his left knuckles with his right hand.

  “Or everywhere around the mountain has them,” Jason added as a mental signature popped up above them.

  “Incoming,” Kent said, running back through the tunnel and up the mountain on the other side as a pair of Archons fell from the waterfall in the sky down into the collection pool.

  “Get them out,” Jason said as he sprinted up behind Kent with Paul trailing on his heels, “we’ll hunt the bugs.”

  As Kent made mental contact with directions for the Archons to flee down the creek, Paul and Jason ran further up the trail as the stun bug swarms gathered near the top, but one group nearby the Archons spotted them and diverted their way. Paul and Jason both ducked into the thick vegetation and got off the trail, using their bioshields to push through the thorns and branches at decent speed and met the bugs further in where the darkness kept the vegetation a bit more sparse, though the varieties that had been planted were used to little sunlight, so both Archons were mired in growths that came up to their waists as the bug swarm came down through the canopy above them.

  The duo linked up and stood back to back, then Paul threw up a bioshield around them both while Jason corralled the bugs with cup-like telekinetic walls. When those cups overflowed and the bugs came in at them Paul added his own Lachka and pushed as many away from the bioshield as possible so they wouldn’t drain its charge. Meanwhile he pulled a small grenade off his equipment belt and passed it through the bioshield where Jason then grabbed it and held it aloft nearby.

  After he had gotten most of the bugs where he wanted them both trailblazers used the linked Nemsa ability to combine and enhance their Lachka skills, granting Jason enough power to fully enwrap the bulk of the swarm into an invisible sphere…into which he primed and sent the grenade. As Paul kept th
e other bugs off them, both of them squeezed the sphere down as tightly as they could before the explosion, which overloaded and broke their telekinetic hold, as well as destroying most of the bugs.

  “Well that worked,” Paul said as the pair took off running back the way they’d come and telekinetically squishing a few isolated bugs that zipped off after them.

  “Unfortunately they have friends,” Jason pointed out, literally, with a mental prod to their right. The stun bugs that had been going after the others had finally gotten around to coming back to them, suggesting that the others had gotten to safety and were no longer priority targets.

  Both Archons busted out of the brush and onto the trail simultaneously, with them turning left and running down the path just in time to see the other threesome duck around a curve below them. Having gotten used to the trail intimately by now, Jason and Paul caught up with them before they made it to the tunnel. Jason threw up a bioshield over the entrance just in case as they slipped inside, then flinched as a whole swarm impacted and overloaded his shield.

  “Shit,” he said, throwing a telekinetic wall at the bugs to push them back. “They’re coming through.”

  “Other side,” Kent yelled, getting Kian and Hans moving and smashing his map with boot prints on the other side…only to realize that the bugs were also coming up and over the ridgeline.

  “So much for predictable,” Sara said, with her and four others linked up and pushing them back with massive invisible walls where they could spot them, knowing that all it would take would be one getting through to really mess up her day. “Grab some gear and run!”

  “This is fun,” Hans said, grabbing a container of who knew what and taking off down the trail following Kent.

  “They touch you, you’re unconscious,” Kent explained. “So stay with me until you get up to speed. Kian too. And don’t step near the Xs,” he said pointing out one ahead and running to the left through a section of brush that had been cut out and piled to form an X that was smashed flat save for the extreme edges.

  As he ran around the detour a whole new swarm of stun bugs came up from somewhere in the vegetation to the left and flew directly into him. He threw up a Lachka wall and bioshield, blocking most of them but a few came through and released their charge on his inner barrier, draining it of power. Paul and Jason threw a combined wall up covering him and the others across the detour, allowing them to continue on sheathed in bioshields from head to toe, then the pair threw the wall back into the vegetation and smashed it all back two meters as the last of the Archons passed the by.