by Aer-ki Jyr
To his credit, Jayden had thought to reposition himself half a meter to the left, forcing Jason to realign his shots from where he thought the Archon would be but it didn’t catch the trailblazer off guard. He’d been in so many firefights that his aim had evolved into a lazy general area lock until right before he pulled the trigger, during which he’d make the final adjustments rather than assuming where the target was and pinpoint aiming prematurely.
Jayden took a hit to his right arm, dropping his trigger finger away from his weapon as Jason’s second stinger hit him in the right pectoral. The Sangheili’s head disappeared from view as his hop stalled out and gravity pulled him back down. When he came back up a moment later he added two more shots into the falling Archon, insuring he was out of the action before he climbed up and ran down level 2 away from the main action, where he quickly ascended three more levels.
Behind him all hell broke loose as the Sangheili charged forward, hopping down from cover to cover like a hesitating waterfall, firing as they came. In response the Humungousaurs tried to snipe them, but had to pull up out of cover far enough that two of them took hits from Jason’s men that really were deployed as snipers up on the higher levels. Seeing that they were screwed one way or another the Humungousaurs decided to meet the opposing Clan in close quarters and began dropping down towards the median before the Sangheili could get across.
Several Archons went down on both sides to snipers…then the snipers began pinpointing each other and started occupying each other’s attention as the bottom three levels became a crisscrossing mesh of stinger paint, covering the pristine white padding with a hoard of green splatters.
Jason scaled the opposite side of the ravine at random points, moving up as fast as he could and taking down two more Humungousaurs in the process. He didn’t meet up with Rex during his ascent, which both pleased and worried him…for if he wasn’t hot on his heels what else was he up to?
Jason arrived on the 22nd level on the flank and approached through eerie silence as he stalked around the slight curves of the snake-like layout until he came to the entrance of the alcove that had been cut out of the three higher levels, giving the defending Clan excellent sniper positions to fire down on anyone foolish enough to make a run for the finish pedestal that had a holographic red flag waving above it.
With no one in sight guarding the entrance to the alcove Jason got a very bad feeling creeping up his spine but he knew better than to slow down and give his opponents more time to react to his presence. He approached with caution, shield held in front of him to defend against the most obvious firing angles, but he didn’t run across any of the Humungousaurs, making him think they’d all gone down low to join in the ongoing melee or maybe to make a run at their flag…in which case he really did need to hurry.
The trailblazer stopped short at the entrance to the alcove, poking his left flank around into view with his shield pressed up against his torso for protection, but he didn’t draw any fire. He jumped out then back into cover experimentally, but still no stingers flashed his way. He also caught a full glimpse of the empty alcove. The Humungousaurs had left no guards inside.
He jumped out again, this time with his eyes focusing upwards to the level cutouts where snipers were likely to be hiding but he couldn’t find any, nor did he draw any fire.
Checking his flanks again, he steadied himself. This was either extremely good fortune or Rex had a trap in store for him. Either way it was time to find out.
Jason jumped out again, but this time ran forward, huddling behind his shield for maximum cover as he bolted for the button on top of the finish pedestal. As his mind was already halfway there he felt his legs go out from under him a split second before he blacked out, falling on top of his shield and knocking his safety glasses off as his head hit the padded ground.
Rex smiled when he heard the proximity mines go off, knowing that Jason hadn’t thought to look for the small stinger devices placed on the inside of the alcove entrance, too eager to get to the flag just meters ahead. He didn’t have to see the evidence, the lack of a finish tone told him that Jason was down and his primary threat to his flag had been eliminated.
Patience, Rex knew, was the key to winning this challenge. While his Clan was down low fighting it out he stayed safely placed up on level 25, unarmed, waiting for the right moment. In exchange for using the proximity mines he’d had to forego his typical armaments. He didn’t even have a shield, but he knew that there would be equipment enough for him to grab below, so when the sounds of fighting had died down he crept out of his hiding place and carefully took a look at the far side.
What he saw was one remaining sniper, firing down on a few of the remaining Humungousaurs that were dug in opposite the last of the Sangheili. Keeping down and out of sight, Rex moved over and down a few levels to the position of one of his own snipers, finding her unconscious from a head shot that had covered half her face with paint.
He picked up her sniper rifle and very slowly brought it up into firing position, sighting the Sangheili sniper without alerting him to Rex’s presence. One shot was all he needed and the Archon went down, having been elevated too much and exposing his torso to Rex as he poached the last of his men.
Dropping the large, cumbersome weapon the trailblazer picked up his sniper’s pistol and began stalking the last two Sangheili who were now climbing up his side of the ravine and heading for his flag. Patient not to give himself away, and with him eliminating the opposing sniper who could no longer warn his Clansmen of the Humungousaur’s presence through suppressive fire, Rex snuck up and tagged one of them in the chest as he hauled himself up to level 16, falling back down the way he came.
The other Rex had to slug it out with, her having seen him coming. His pistol fared better in the close confines than her rifle and he nailed her on the go, rushing her position and slipping over the side of a barricade, dropping to the level below where she was hunkered up and rendering her unconscious before he hit the ground with a pair of shots to the chest and shoulder.
He hit hard though, having focused entirely on his shots as he fell. His elbow jammed into the tight pads and forced his left arm up, punching himself in the face. Disoriented for several seconds afterwards, Rex finally cleared his head and got up, rubbing his jaw as he wondered how in the hell he’d managed to land like that. He climbed down the levels with impunity, knowing that everyone else was stunned unconscious and that all he had to do was climb up the far side and tag the finish button.
He wasn’t going to go straight in the alcove, however. He’d come down from above and check for any booby traps like he’d set on their flag. This challenge was all but over, so there was no need to be hasty and risk screwing it up now.
He passed across the median without incident, keeping an alert eye out in case he’d missed someone. Rex stepped over several downed Humungousaurs on the opposite side, seeing that they’d successfully made it across before being gunned down. He stepped respectfully over their bodies and moved up another level, finding two Sangheili lying in a mess of paint.
“Ouch,” he said sympathetically, knowing that they’d have a headache afterwards. Getting hit by that many rounds would leave them with pins and needles at least for a few hours after the destunning serum was administered.
As he stepped over the pair a hand shot out and grabbed his leg, pulling Rex down on top of one of the men as he rolled over, pinning the trailblazer against his chest as the Sangheili’s other arm came up holding a pistol that he pointed back down at himself and Rex, firing three point blank shots into the Humungousaur’s chest.
Rex blacked out after the second shot, but the third saturated him with so much stun energy that some of it bled through and into the already half stunned Sangheili below him, rendering him unconscious along with everyone else in the chamber.
“That did not just happen,” one of the course operators said from the observation booth.
“I think it did,” his counterpart said, laugh
ing loudly.
“What do we do, call it a draw?”
The other man shook his head firmly. “No draws. We wait it out.”
“Until they wake up?”
“The stun will wear off eventually,” the more experienced operator explained. “Wanna place a bet on who gets up first?”
“That would depend on who got hit the least.”
“Come on, choose a man…or a side.”
“No thanks,” the junior operator said, not having a clue.
“Twenty credits says Jason wakes up first.”
The other man frowned. “Why him?”
“I’ll let you figure that one out on your own,” the man said smiling as he leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head in a comfortable pose, indicating that they might have to wait a while to see this challenge play out.
His head awash, Jason slowly returned to consciousness enough to realize that he wasn’t fully awake. Knowledge of that fact prompted him to try and wake himself, and on the third try he succeeded in blinking open his blurry eyes.
The input of vision data to his brain jolted his consciousness up a bit, but he was still super groggy. He fumbled around a bit, unable to feel most of his limbs other than a faint tingling sensation that gradually morphed into the uncomfortable pins and needles associated with the destunning process.
This wasn’t what it felt like when he usually woke up, and eventually his brain wrapped itself around the fact that he hadn’t been destunned. He was processing out the stun energy naturally, which was why he was so out of it.
He twisted and jerked around his numb body enough to roll himself off his face and tried to blink away the haze seeming to swirl around his head. After a few minutes he was able to roll over onto his shoulder and partially right his head, looking at the ground and paint-splattered walls and let his eyes gradually refocus.
When he partially got his bearings he scrimped up using phantom limbs and contorted himself around and up into a sitting position with his torso hanging over heavily as he looked down at his bent and paint-splattered legs that he still couldn’t feel. He poked a calf with his finger, realizing that he couldn’t feel his finger either, seeing it bend on contact but making no sensory contact with it.
Where’s my injection? he wondered, slowly moving his head around and flexing his hands, trying to get some feeling back into them. His neck, back, and upper arms felt like they’d turned into pin cushions and he knew it’d only get worse as the rest of his body caught up.
Jason blinked multiple times, able to finally feel his eyelids as his body’s nervous system began to reassert control of his body. He readjusted his sitting position into a cross legged pose, having to push his legs into the approximate arrangement to take pressure off his back. As he did so he noticed the glowing red flag waving over the pedestal a few meters to his left.
I’m still live, he suddenly realized, the adrenaline of which helped clear his mind a bit further. He reached out with his right arm, but could only bring it up half way, feeling nothing from the movement. His legs wouldn’t move at all, but his abs were still partially working so he tipped himself over onto his side and used what little movement his arms were capable of to worm his way over to the pedestal, placed his back against it, and wiggling up into a sitting position after several futile tries.
He twisted his right shoulder against the pedestal then tried to lift his left arm up, not making it past horizontal. Jason tried a second time, failing again, then attempted to get some momentum into his arm swing, forcing it up off the ground as fast as he could. It rose up in a 45 degree angle then smacked back down on the floor with a loud ‘whack,’ but he still couldn’t feel a thing.
He wanted to laugh, but that required more muscle coordination than he had available at the moment. Noting the ironic similarity to the ‘man in black’ from the Princess Bride, he swung his arm up again three more times with it almost reaching the tipping point before slamming back down to the ground.
Resting a bit, then focusing as much energy as he could, Jason swung his arm up again, seeing it top out and gently tip over in the right direction. He tried to control his hand’s fall as much as he could without being able to see where it was landing, nor feel what it was landing on.
The room’s lighting shifted over to a blue hue, indicating that the challenge had been completed as Jason stared at the crook of his arm for what felt like an eternity before a cool jet of relief finally flowed into his arm, spreading throughout his body bringing it uncomfortably back to life with a rush of a thousand pins and needles. A few seconds later most of those disappeared and he found himself able to stand, though a firm hand initially helped him to his feet anyway.
“What happened?” he asked the medic.
“You took each other out,” the man said with a smile as he moved on in the wake of two others that had emerged from a hidden door behind the pedestal. “Then you woke up and captured the flag.”
“Well that’s a first,” Jason said, pleased but a little freaked out at the same time. As he looked around he noticed the two proximity grenades attached to the inside of the circular alcove’s walls on either side of the entryway.
“Doh,” he said, mentally kicking himself for walking into that.
8
After a shower and a quick lunch Jason stopped by his temporary quarters in the sanctum for a brief nap before the finals of the tournament would take place that afternoon against Clan Ninja Monkey. As it was, the Sangheili already had the trial won by racking up enough points on the earlier challenges so that not even if Morgan’s Clan got the bonus points for beating them in the finals would they be able to overcome their points lead. Overcoming Clan Humungousaur had secured the trial win and the Pluto micro-territory for the Sangheili…the finals match was just a formality, but one Jason wanted to win. Going up against Morgan was always a stiff challenge.
Before Jason crashed for a powernap he checked the newsfeeds and his inbox, finding a new video message from Paul. His friend hadn’t accompanied his Clan’s detachment for the trial, instead heading off to Atlantis on some urgent business.
Paul’s face appeared on the video screen, equal in size to Jason’s so that it looked like the Archon was sitting across a window pane a meter away as the message began to play.
“You’re probably wondering why I skipped out on the Mars trial,” Paul began to explain as Jason noticed the backdrop of a research facility behind his friend. “I got a call from research and development on a breakthrough that I had to check out for myself.”
The screen view shook as Paul detached the portable camera and walked it across a wide open floor to a test device in the center that looked like the lid of a trash can. Paul and the camera both dropped to the ground with the Archon positioning the view so Jason could look under it.
“Notice anything?” Paul asked as he swung his arm underneath the device without encountering any resistance. The circular ‘lid’ was floating perfectly still a quarter meter off the floor.
“Son of a bitch,” Jason whispered. “They finally did it.”
“As you’re probably wondering by now,” Paul continued, panning the camera closer to the device, both on top and underneath to give Jason a composite view, “this isn’t phase one, it’s phase two.”
On the screen Paul’s image touched a handheld remote and the device levitated upwards another meter, bringing it up to almost shoulder height before another button press stopped its ascent.
“Yeah, I thought that’d get your attention,” Paul said as Jason leaned forward, his mind fully blown. Star Force had been working long and hard to create a phase 1 gravity drive, so far without success. It was no wonder Paul had skipped out on the trial and went to directly to Earth. If they had an applicable prototype then they were mere years away from a total revamping of their engine systems, both in space and on the surface.
But what was even more significant was that Paul had said, and shown, that this was a phase 2 dev
ice. Jason didn’t see how that was possible, unless the techs had been holding back on them for years.
“No, the research team hasn’t been holding out on us,” Paul said, guessing Jason’s response. “Turns out the upgrade wasn’t so hard as the initial creation. They got a prototype for the enhancement up and running before full testing on the phase 1 device was completed so they went ahead and combined the two before notifying me. We now have repulsion enhancement up to 220 times, but nothing on attraction enhancement.”
Jason nodded, knowing that didn’t matter right now. A phase 1 gravity drive was a device that reversed the gravitational polarity of a core component within the drive so that gravitational fields repelled it instead of attracting. The stronger the gravity, the more the repulsion in a 1:1 ratio. It was basic anti-gravity technology that Star Force had been vying to create for over 100 years, and now with C-type elements available en mass they’d finally been successful.
As significant of a breakthrough as that was, it was relatively meaningless with regards to technology. The gravity drive was limited in propulsive power to the inverse of the gravitational attraction of the drive’s core…meaning that a device with a core weighing 1 kg would only produce sufficient lift to negate 1kg of machine and leave it ‘floating’ in null g. If the engine itself weighed more than the core it wouldn’t float, let alone be able to lift anything else.
Furthermore, if an engine was constructed whose core weighed more than the rest of the components then it would be able to lift off and fly away from a gravity well…but at only 1 speed. You’d have an ‘on’ and ‘off’ control, but that was it. Not very effective or reliable, but it was possible to launch a tiny object into space in this manner, though it wouldn’t be able to make orbit given the lack of lateral acceleration. It made for a good proof of concept project, but little else.
