by Aer-ki Jyr
Prologue
January 29, 2045
Solar System
Earth
“So we have to work with different people?” Jason-025 asked.
“Yeah, but they didn’t say how many or how often,” Paul-024 confirmed.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked as they walked back through Atlantis’s city corridors after the Tandem Challenges brief they’d just gotten in the amphitheatre from Head Trainer Wilson.
“We work together on everything then pair up with others where we suck?”
“And go for the top tandem pair,” Jason finished. “That will help protect our team score, but if we pair with non-team members…”
“They didn’t say we had to.”
“When it comes to swimming, I’m not sticking with you for my high score buddy.”
Paul frowned. “Yeah, you have a point. But we’ll still have to do the swimming challenges together for our pairing points.”
“And then do them with someone to boost our individual ones…and it’s our individual ones that get added to the team scores. So if we find someone outside the team that we work with well, it’ll help the team score more than trying to hold out on people.”
“Probably right about that, but we are doing most of these together, right?”
“We’re doing all of them together,” Jason said confidently. “Then we’ll review where we’re weak and pick other partners. We might learn something from them that we can use to bump up our sucky scores. We get to try run these challenges an unlimited amount of times.”
“They did say it was a 2 month estimate. I wonder why it’s not a firm deadline.”
“Probably because we’re getting close to the end of training. Which do you want to hit first?”
Paul chewed lightly on his lip for a moment as they turned a corner and headed back to the areas reserved for the trainees and kept off limits to the rest of the Atlantis population.
“Let’s save the naval ones for last and start with the running. I think they implied there was some coordination skills to be learned before we can get good at any of this. You and I probably have an advantage already, but let’s hammer one of them and see what improvements we can make there…”
“And apply it to the harder ones later. We don’t want to learn this while swimming.”
“No,” Paul agreed, being one of the weakest swimmers amongst the 100 trainees. “We need to be in sync before going there.”
“And you’re so far ahead in naval I couldn’t keep up,” Jason agreed. “Running it is then.”
“Let’s hurry. Looks like some of the others are already pairing up. I think we have a race for points going on already.”
“Let them try,” Jason whispered as two more A-7 trainees jogged past them in the corridor enroute to somewhere in a hurry. “We’re the dynamic duo and they know it.”
“You got that right,” Paul said, fist bumping his co-team leader and best friend. “Now let’s go prove it for points.”
1557 years later…
Paul came back to his quarters onboard his flagship Excalibur after a semi-hard 20 mile run on the ship’s halo track, allowing himself to run straight with no turns for maximum speed and consistency as he maintained a 4:30 mile pace. Before that he’d been doing a variety of training drills in the Archon sanctum as he impatiently waited out the many weeks of transit between the Rim Region and the ADZ.
He’d been in Vedran territory where Clan Saber was heavily focused on integrating that race into Star Force and securing the surrounding region, with great success thus far, when he’d got word that the V’kit’no’sat had been detected in Star Force territory and headed towards Sol. Immediately he and many other trailblazers across the Rim region gathered up a significant portion of their fleets and began heading back, but the journey was not fast. The galaxy was larger than large, and even Star Force’s little corner of it was huge. Messages traveled faster than ships via relays, meaning updates were only available when Paul’s fleet stopped in star systems for navigation redirects.
So during the interstellar jumps there was no new information, and while Paul had been doing his running workout the Excalibur had braked against a giant star, bringing it out of its faster than lightspeed jump and allowing the ship and following fleet to transition around stellar orbit until they got to the outgoing jumppoint for the next leg of their journey back home. It had to be on a perfectly straight line between stars, meaning there was only one line of trajectory a ship could jump from, pushing on the star’s gravity with anti-grav tech that greatly increased the effect, slingshoting the vessel out from it at many times the speed of light and letting it coast all the way to the next star where it would brake again and repeat the process until they got back to the heavily populated region of the Star Force empire known as the ADZ…in the center of which was Sol, the home system that contained Earth.
Paul knew that was the V’kit’no’sat’s target, for it had originally been their possession…a colony in their galaxy-spanning empire long forgotten with a few of their advanced slaves left behind during a major rebellion. The outer regions of the V’kit’no’sat empire had been abandoned, with Earth never seeing them again, but according to the records and information recovered in a buried pyramid in Antarctica, Paul and the others knew that if the V’kit’no’sat ever found out they existed they would be back to kill them all.
For Humans were the descendants of those left behind slaves…slaves given awesome powers under the condition that they never reproduce. Whatever had happened long ago had been lost to history, but those Zen’zat slaves had reproduced and had their powers go dormant in their offspring. Paul and the other elite Archons within the empire had found a way to unlock theirs, making them more powerful that most races in the galaxy…but not compared to the V’kit’no’sat. They were a massive empire comprised of 193 races and the Zen’zat that served all of them.
Many of those races were known to Earth as the Dinosaurs, with the true history of the planet and those skeletons found being far different from what anyone had ever imagined it to be.
Star Force wasn’t ready for them…not that they ever would be. Paul knew they couldn’t win, so the plan was to fight, stall, and withdrawal as they began evacuating Earth and every other planet and system in the war zone, eventually pulling all the way back to the Rim Region if needed while Star Force continued to work to advance their technology and skill level to the point where they could pull even with the V’kit’no’sat…but even then they’d be horribly outnumbered, so right now this war was simply one of survival and delaying the annihilation of the Human race and every other race that had allied with them to form the Star Force empire.
And Paul needed to be there. He, along with Liam and Roger, were the best naval commanders Star Force had…which was why he’d been out in the Rim Region where most of the hard fighting was as Star Force worked to wrangle an unruly region of the galaxy into some semblance of order in the wake of the withdrawal of The Nexus…a huge and power alliance of races further out into the Rim. Not as powerful as the V’kit’no’sat but still far larger and stronger than Star Force.
But they had their own problems and were hemorrhaging territory, having worked out a mutually beneficial agreement with Director Davis that had Star Force absorbing member races of The Nexus that were being abandoned as their territory shrank down to what they thought they could maintain hold of. That left Paul and the other trailblazers with new races to absorb into their own empire and a whole wealth of territory surrounding them that were being ravaged and exploited now that The Nexus had withdrawn and every pirate, privateer, and opportunistic race for thousands of lightyears knew it.
But now that di
dn’t matter. The V’kit’no’sat had come and the lesser fighting in the Rim Region would be left to subordinates. Paul had to get back to the heavy fighting that was breaking out in Sol and that he knew would expand elsewhere as the Dinosaurs came back to annihilate those they decreed did not have the right to exist. No race within the V’kit’no’sat could leave or have independent splinter colonies, but with Zen’zat it was worse because they were not a race, rather individuals enhanced from the Ter’nat slave race and sworn to oaths to serve the V’kit’no’sat…which included their abandonment of reproduction, punishable by death to both the Zen’zat who violated their oaths and any of their illegitimate offspring.
Paul was one of those illegitimate offspring, along with every other Human in the galaxy, and now their final doom had come and he and the other trailblazers…the original class in the A-7 program that had later become known as the Archons…were the only hope for survival that Humans and their empire had to survive. How long they stayed alive was going to be determined by how many ships the V’kit’no’sat sent and how well Paul and the others fought, but first he had to actually get there.
When Paul got back to his quarters after his run he sat his sweaty body down in the chair of his comm terminal and checked for new data, knowing they’d passed through another system but had not wanting to interrupt his workouts to check immediately. He couldn’t do anything other than send messages back, and right now that was worthless. He was a spectator until his fleet got back and could join the fight, but he still wanted to keep up with what was going on so when he did get back he could hit the ground running and do the maximum damage possible to the giant ships the V’kit’no’sat fought with.
The information packet that the Excalibur had picked up did have updated battle information, but it also had several messages for him, including two from other trailblazers. One from Andy-082 and one from Jason, with Paul pulling up Jason’s message first.
It appeared as a small hologram above the control board on the comm terminal, with Paul hitting a slide lever and increasing the size up to half a meter tall where his best friend and fellow 2 was standing in a typical pure white Archon uniform, but without his normal blonde hair.
“Andy had a good idea, citing that since our Clans were formed to fight the V’kit’no’sat he was going to alter his hair color to match until we defeat them. He’s gone with Teemo orange over green and a few of the others are following his lead. I’m going with chrome rather than white, and while it’s a little odd to look at in the mirror I suppose I’ll get used to it. Guess this is what I put you through with that bet, only this is serious. We’re going to have to be at our best every day from here on out and that may still not be enough…but if we’re not we’re sure to fail, so my chrome hair is going to be my reminder. Not that we really need one, but if we get so punch drunk later that we don’t know up from down it might come in handy. Anyway, what do you think? I can go white if I want, but thought chrome would be a little more distinctive.”
The message ended there, and knowing that there were still considerable time lags in communications across the empire he figured Andy’s message had reached Jason first and Paul was only now getting both at the same time, collected and held at the recent relay until ships passed through to pick up the backlog of messages and data.
“You’re right, that’s a good idea,” Paul said to his empty quarters as he stood up and headed out before checking on the rest of the updates. He headed straight to one of the Excalibur’s medbays and got the attention of a medtech there.
“Need an alteration,” Paul said, walking across the spacious room to the cage-like chamber situated alongside the far wall.
“Sure,” the medtech said, having altered the genetics of crewmembers on a regular basis for inkless tattoos or fingernail colors. Even deactivating hair follicles to shape beards or eliminate shaving altogether. “What do you want?”
“Change my hair to Saber blue,” the trailblazer said, walking inside the cage and pulling the armature closed before putting his hands on the cold sphere in front of him that would connect him to the machinery.
“Eyebrows?”
“Yes.”
“Just a second,” the tech said, finding the exact color match for Paul’s Clan Saber, which only had one identifying color. Jason’s Clan Sangheili designated colors were white and chrome, based off Halo lore from centuries long, long ago. Paul’s color of blue was actually a light blue, and based off the original lightsaber color from Star Wars…another bit of lore from long ago back before almost all of the current Human population had been born. Each trailblazer had been able to name and configure their own Clan as they wished, with most of them citing reference to cool things from the distant past.
Paul’s hands went slightly numb, glued to the sphere while the nanotechnology sent little snakes of material through his body that were likewise numbed, causing him no pain as they altered his genetic code ever so slightly regarding his hair color…then they made the physical changes to his existing hair rather than waiting for it go grow out naturally, with his short black cut shifting to almost neon blue over the course of a few seconds, after which his hands unnumbed and the process was over.
“All done,” the medtech said, stepping over and unnecessarily pulling up the armature for Paul. “Going back to the blue…I like it. Why’d you change back? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“War colors,” Paul said calmly yet firmly. “Trailblazers are going with Clan colors until the V’kit’no’sat are destroyed…or we are.”
1
August 8, 4812
Orlero System (Devastation Zone)
Stellar Orbit
Paul was standing in the command nexus on the bridge of the Excalibur, concealed behind a wall in the dedicated alcove that gave him visual separation from the crew while leaving the entrance behind him open. He could hear what was being said if he focused on it, but right now his mind was more in the computer than anything else as he guided the massive battle still ongoing in the Orlero System.
It had begun on the planet Tauntaun when the hidden Star Force base there had been discovered and attacked, with the survivors fleeing through escape tunnels bored into the thick ice on the small, frozen world. Even now other Archons were attempting to get as many of them out alive, but so long as the V’kit’no’sat held the captured base that was a tricky rescue to pull off.
But right now rescuing those people wasn’t Paul’s job. Fighting the largest V’kit’no’sat fleet to enter the Devastation Zone in years was, and this battle was already days long. He couldn’t stay in the command nexus continually and he knew it, having fought battles larger than this against the lizards, but they were not the V’kit’no’sat’s equal. That experience helped Paul pace himself, taking breaks and letting others lead the constant naval fighting as ships from both sides sought out one another in strategic maneuvers looking for an advantage…for neither side was stupid enough to just plow into one another as many rookies would have.
No, with this type of naval combat it was easy to turn and run, and it seemed that neither side wanted to do that here. Paul certainly didn’t, for he and the other trailblazers running the war against the V’kit’no’sat along the front and in the Devastation Zone were eager to get the enemy in a position to clobber them without having to backtrack to a planetary stronghold. Fighting ships was bad enough, but going up against planetary shields and anti-orbital weaponry was more than just unpleasant. It required a sacrifice of ships who had to sit and take fire while the shields were gradually weakened.
The V’kit’no’sat had to face the same scenario when they assaulted a fully developed Star Force planet, like those that currently made up the front on the rimward edge of the Devastation Zone. Had Tauntaun been heavily fortified they wouldn’t have been able to take it so easy, but it had only a small outpost on it hidden underneath the ice…and even that was enough of a threat to prompt the V’kit’no’sat to land a ground assault force outs
ide the boundaries of its shield rather than slug it out with the anti-orbital weaponry and lose some of their ships in the process.
But now that had all changed with the arrival of more ships from both sides…numbering in the thousands. V’kit’no’sat ships were larger than Star Force ones, primarily because they carried living crews and most Star Force warships were drones flown remotely by pilots in nearby control ships. The drones were tiny in comparison to the V’kit’no’sat vessels, but they had the advantage of not requiring internal living quarters or life support. They were 100% weapons and Star Force fielded them in swarms to take on the massive V’kit’no’sat ships, some of which were 36 miles long. Those Kafcha were the largest the enemy empire fielded in regular combat, and there were hundreds of them here already mixed in with a massive V’kit’no’sat fleet made up of ships from about a third of their member races.
Those races were what Earth had once mistakenly referred to as the Dinosaurs, but some were not, for while Earth was a long abandoned colony of the V’kit’no’sat not all of their 193 member races had lived there…but the main land dwelling players had. The T-rex, the Brontosaurus, the Stegosaurus, and the Triceratops…whose actual names were the Era’tran, the Oso’lon, the Hjar’at, and the Brat’mar. There were other major land powers previously unknown to Earth, but the majority of the other powerhouse races were aquatic or aerial, with the swimming J’gar being just as strong as the Oso’lon and forming the two primary races within the V’kit’no’sat…not counting the third founder that was no longer around.
The Zak’de’ron had been more powerful than the Oso’lon and J’gar combined, but had fallen when the entire V’kit’no’sat empire turned on them long, long ago. Paul knew of them from the historical records found in the pyramid discovered in Antarctica, as well as from the restricted files that they had been given access to by a living Zak’de’ron. The only one to have survived the war that the V’kit’no’sat did not realize still existed. One of Paul’s peers named Kara had helped the Dragon when he came out of a long period in stasis. Weakened and vulnerable from the hibernation, she had earned a bit of favor from ‘Puff’ in the form of a trinket and had negotiated an exchange of information that had seen the Dragon quietly come to Earth and unlock the pyramid with his priority codes, then disappear into the galaxy never to be seen again.
