Space Knights: The Arrival

by Gregory Samuelson

  Trance had learned from the knights and pawns that he had gotten to know when he lived on the Markem’s farm that the left side was raised higher to give the knight more protection on that side as he held it and yet he could easily look over the right side of the shield. Overall it had struck him as a very sleek and modern shield shape.

  It appeared that most of the teams from Althora had this shape of shield. Some had more of a traditional shaped shield yet it seemed the pattern to have the left slightly higher and a place for the knight to look over the shield. Trance also noticed that there were a couple of teams that had round shields. One of the round shield shapes had a notch out of the top center for the knight to look out. Some teams had oval-shaped shields.

  Trance vividly remembered the Boulthorian shield from his encounter with them when they had raided the town near the Markem’s farm and had attacked the farmhouse. The Boulthorian shield was a vertical oval and had a notch cut out at the top of the oval. One team had a horizontal oval shield with a notch out of the top center. Some teams had rectangular shields such as the Azarians. One team even had a diamond shaped shield.

  As he was fascinated by the shapes of the shields used Trance saw something else that caught his eye. There were a couple teams that had chariots. They reminded him of either Roman or Egyptian chariots and were pulled by a robot horse. Some chariots had a single driver, and some had two riders in it. Trance watched amazed as the chariots raced around and their riders, mostly archers, swung about and used their bows and arrows. They were swift and efficient. How could he cope with them if his team faced a team with chariots?

  Trance also saw that the teams from the planet Kainanth used a rather intriguing field weapon. He was used to teams using great crossbows and catapults, but this was new to him. The arm of the weapon would flip up and swing around three slings as if they were a bola and then when ready the gunner would hit a trigger and one of the slings would launch its ball at the target. In many cases all three balls would be launched. There were three sizes being used. Large slingapults were used with great success for knocking down fort walls. Medium-sized ones were also used on the fort and then turned on castle defenders. The small models seemed to be used just for gunning down opponents.

  “Wow, those sling weapons are cool,” Trance said as he watched one team from Kainanth defeat their opponent. He also noted that not only did the teams from Kainanth have the slingapults; they also had men that had slings. Their sling men were just as deadly accurate and efficient as their archers. Remarkably that was one of the smaller teams. Trance was told by Gracer that this particular team, even though they were fairly small, was one of the better small teams. They had in fact come in fifth last year.

  As the day moved on Trance saw some other unique teams. There were four teams that were like Samurai warriors and a couple teams that resembled Arabian knights. Each team had their own style that reflected their home planet’s military. To Trance it was fascinating to see all of these knights.

  “Come on team let’s go,” Neklon said as he rushed up to Trance and the rest of the Gray Mountain Warriors. “The battles are going a bit faster than usual. We need to go and get ready.”

  Trance and his teammates jumped up and rushed back to their locker room to get in their armor and get ready for their battle. Twenty minutes later an official came in and said that they would need to go out in about ten minutes. One battle had just finished and they were clearing and preparing the fort for them.

  The official appeared and told Neklon that they were ready for them. Neklon lead his team out to the field and marched with them to the fort. They were at field number four. Neklon gave the team some last minute strategy hints and moved off to the coach’s area. Trance then lead his team into the fort and set them up with their strategy. He was slightly nervous as he had marched in ahead of his team, but as he set himself up with his archers he relaxed.

  The Zinfinians came out and advanced on the fort and began their assault. Trance waited for them to get in range of their bows and then gave the order to his archers to fire; his first battle at the tournaments had begun. Arrow after arrow left his bow with three out of five hitting opponents.

  The Zinfinians were rather efficient with their catapults. They opened a fair-sized breach in the wall and rushed in. The Gray Mountain Warriors were ready and came out as Trance had planned. The battle really picked up. To the surprise of the Gray Mountain Warriors the Zinfinians put up a very valiant fight. Trance drew his sword and had a real duel with a number of opponents and was nearly eliminated by three of them; however, his natural ability with the sword was evident as he defeated them one at a time.

  The Zinfinians didn’t seem to choke at all. They fought bravely and chivalrously to the end. The Gray Mountain Warriors were taken by surprise as they fought and began to admire their opponent’s tenacity. In the end the Gray Mountain Warriors won.

  Now they’d have to wait for tomorrow for the second part of the Castle Defense tournament. Trance learned that in this particular tournament his team would defend and then assault the fort against an opposing team. To advance your team had to win both battles; however, if your team won on the defense and lost the assault then the victory to advance would be determined by how many survivors each winning team had. The team that had the most survivors for their victory would advance.

  Trance returned to the locker room with his team and changed again before joining them to watch more battles. He met his family later that afternoon and was able to have dinner with them. The next day had more opening battles. As the last opening round battles ended, the first teams came out for the second part of this round.

  Many of the teams that had lost on the first day really tried to best the other team and hope that they would have the numbers to keep them in the competition. Trance watched and learned how the elimination process worked. He saw a few teams just beaten and eliminated. Then there were three ties that had to be fought out and one team that lost on the first day won today. That team won so convincingly that they eliminated their opponents’ chance to advance.

  Very late that afternoon Trance led his team out to assault the fort now defended by the Zinfinians. He had prepared his team very well and they protected themselves as they approached. As expected the Zinfinians did all they could to defend their fort. However, in the end Trance and the Gray Mountain Warriors were the better team. They celebrated and were congratulated by their opponents. Trance looked at the great board and saw his team marked to move ahead. The tournament had really just started.

  The next few days saw his team gradually advancing through the Castle tournament. As they advanced Trance also caught sight of how the White Knights were doing. It seemed that both teams might meet in the championship match for this tournament.

  One team that really gave his team trouble along the way was a team from Kainanth. Trance really had to duck several times to dodge balls from the slingapults. Their sling men were also hard to defend against. For once his team lost their turn of defending the fort. Yet they struggled and managed to win their turn at assaulting the fort, but just barely. Trance was relieved when he was told that his team had advanced by having three more winning survivors.

  The next round was harder to win. Trance was actually eliminated by a lucky archer that caught him from behind. Yet his team really rallied and defeated the other team to put them in the quarterfinals. Trance’s friend Hamon was also having a good tournament and had led his team the Amorites into the quarterfinals. In fact it would come down to the White Knights against the Amorites in the semifinal. The Gray Mountain Warriors also advanced and had to battle a Samurai team.

  This would be one of his toughest challenges taking on this team. They were very gifted warriors and Trance was stunned at how accurate and lethal they were. It was all he could do to defeat one warrior after another to lead his team to the assault part of the competition. He knew that the next day t
hat his team would have to win the defense part also because Zam, Gracer, Mandor, and himself were the only survivors.

  Trance was more nervous for this defense because his team couldn’t afford to lose. He knew that there was a lot riding on his team to win and advance to the final. There was a lot of speculation as to whether he could really lead his team in the tournaments and especially if he could get his team to a final. Here was his first opportunity to get to a final.

  The Samurai team was very determined to eliminate the Gray Mountain Warriors. They were very efficient in using their catapults and battering ram to breach the fort’s wall and invaded. However, Trance and his team were ready. He had only placed half of his archers on the wall this time. The remainder he held back until the wall was breached.

  Now he and his archers concentrated on sending volley after volley at the invading team. When his team was out of arrows, Trance led his archers and the remainder of his team to meet the invaders right at the breach. The battle was intense as both teams showed their grit and determination to win. In the end the Gray Mountain Warriors advanced to the final.

  It was as many people suspected; the final of the Castle tournament would come down to the White Knights and Gray Mountain Warriors of Althora. Trance knew very well that this was going to be the biggest battle of these tournaments.

  Both teams went out and faced each other for the coin toss. The winner of the coin toss would get to choose whether to defend or assault the fort. To Rex’s delight his team, the White Knights, won the coin toss and he leered at Trance as he took his time to decide that his team would assault the fort first. He had seen how exhausted the Gray Mountain Warriors were from their defense the day before. Now since his team had had a longer break they could focus their anger at Trance and his team for constantly embarrassing them, rush the fort and not allow the Warriors a break.

  Trance led his team to the fort and had a fairly good idea of what was coming. What his team really needed to do was get a break, and to do that they’d need to keep the White Knights away from the fort for as long as possible. He had his men take their places and then went to the top of the wall with his archers. He had an idea that might work to keep the White Knights back a bit to allow the rest of the team to get ready for the inevitable invasion.

  Quickly he called his archers and told them what he wanted them to do before Rex got his team in position to begin their advance on the fort. What Trance and his archers were to do was to wait as long as they could and then individually target one opponent at a time, fire at him and then move to another target.

  Rex took no time getting his team in order. They were no sooner ready to go than he gave the order to march. With rather reckless abandon the White Knights boldly marched toward the fort, planning on taking their opponents as quickly as they could.

  They were approaching faster than normal, and the catapult crews were working themselves into a great sweat trying to fire the large foam boulders as fast as they could. However, in their rush to get to the fort they were more careless about their protection and let their guard down. They were ready for a vast volley of arrows to fly at them but they were not expecting to be picked off one at a time.

  Watching the White Knights approach brought a smile to Trance, as this was what he had been expecting. He made a signal and the first archer aimed and fired, taking down the first of many of the Knights. Trance took aim and fired and the shooting match was on. His archers took careful aim and fired at individual targets and then reloaded to shoot at a new target. Trance smiled more as Rex tried to keep his team together and rush the fort; however, more and more of his team were looking about confused and slowing way up and trying to shield themselves. They almost jumped any time one of their teammates was hit by an arrow. Trance couldn’t help laughing at this point as the Knights stopped and looked around to see who was hit next.

  Sure enough Rex led the majority of his team to a small breach in the wall and ordered his men in. Yet here Trance had prepared his team. As the first few Knights rushed into the opening in the wall they met the majority of the Warriors and were defeated left and right.

  Some Knights made their way further into the fort and defeated a number of the Warriors. Rex seemed to stay where he couldn’t be hit by an archer and outside of the fort and continued to send more of his men into the fort. Trance almost found it easier to hit Rex’s men right before they got to the breach. Soon, however, he was out of arrows and he had to lead his archers down to the ground and engage their opponents there.

  Slowly more and more of the Knights entered the fort and were met by a surprisingly ready defending force. Rex finally entered himself after the last of his men and was astonished to see that his team, which was rested and eager to rush in and obliterate the competition, was actually on the defensive side and fighting to survive. He yelled and attempted to rally his team. To his dismay and utter rage he found his team was losing once again. Furiously he battled his way through one opponent after another till he spotted his ultimate goal.

  Trance had those familiar feelings as he spotted Rex enter the fort. He watched him battle his way in and defeat a number of Warriors. Almost instinctively Trance knew Rex was going to come after him. With a grimace and a new determination, he decided to take the battle to Rex and made his way to him. They met and glared at each other for a couple seconds before they both swung their swords. The battle lasted for seven minutes as the rest of their teams fought around them.

  The crowd roared and cheered. The sound was almost deafening to Trance as he and his team walked away victorious in their defense. They were one step closer to winning their first major event in the tournaments. Now they would have to wait until tomorrow for the second part of the final. The Warriors knew that they would be facing a very disgruntled and determined team in the White Knights. Trance in particular knew that Rex would really be in a foul state of mind.

  Trance didn’t sleep well that night and continued to try to prepare for what the next day would hold for the final, and then the start of the Battlefield Tournament would start. He woke the next day and got ready as usual. When he arrived at the stadium his team was excited and raring to go. They hadn’t been in this position to win a major tournament for a very long time and they were completely expecting to win today.

  Trance led his team out to the field and into position. As he looked up the field at the fort he was surprised not to see any of the White Knights on the fort wall. “I wonder what they’re doing,” he said mainly to himself. It was curious, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on the absence of opponents on the fort walls as the signal was given for the battle to begin. Fearlessly he led the team toward the fort and he noted that his team was a bit more apprehensive than they had been back in the locker room just a few minutes earlier.

  Trance was still puzzled and as he took a quick look around he saw that his team and the crowd in the stands were also. At the right distance away from the fort he ordered his team to prepare and fire the catapults. Within a few minutes the catapults had done a number to the fort wall.

  As Trance watched his team’s catapults slowly pummel the wall he had a funny idea form in his head. What if Rex had his entire team waiting on the ground at the back of the fort waiting for the Gray Mountain Warriors to breach the wall and enter the fort? Then they could come at us from both sides of the breach and overwhelm us as we would slowly enter, very clever. Immediately as this thought fully enfolded in his mind he decided to test his theory.

  Trance had his guys halt and shield themselves. Some of his team questioned this order since there was still no sign of their opponents. He then went and talked to his catapult gunners and instructed them to launch several shots up where they would clear the wall and land in the back area of the fort. It took them six tries before they started to prove that his idea was worth the effort.

  Rex indeed had his team at the back of the fort and he was convince
d that Trance would look entirely like a fool and not know what to do when he didn’t see anybody on the fort’s walls. He had been joking with some of his lead troops when they looked up and saw the first shot fly overhead.

  They had of course heard the front wall being battered and knew that it would be breached in just a matter of moments. Now they could swarm out and knock off Trance’s men easily just as soon as they entered the fort. Rex noticed the second and third catapult shot fly overhead and joked about the accuracy of Trance’s catapult gunners. However, he wasn’t joking much when the fourth fell in the fort and the fifth fell in the inner fort.

  Suddenly Rex looked up and all joking gone yelled for his team to run as catapult rounds seemed to rain on them. “How did he know we were back there?” he yelled at his second-in-command. As he rounded the corner and came to the front area of the fort, Rex got another shock.

  Trance had sent his spearmen and archers to the breach and set them up in an arc, waiting for the unsuspecting White Knights to come out from hiding and then open fire. The plan worked and now the battle was on.

  Rex was furious that Trance had seemingly outsmarted him once again and led his team to brutally storm the archers and spearmen. Yet as the White Knights closed in on them the rest of the Gray Mountain Warriors flooded into the fort. Rex battled fearlessly to get to Trance. Trance was battling valiantly, defeating every opponent that came his way. Now the two met again and dueled.

  The battle raged on around them and they fought blow for blow. To Rex’s glee gradually his team slowly started to get the advantage. Trance seemed to notice also and started to take a mental count. It didn’t take long for him to realize that Rex might finally have beaten him, yet as he counted a glimmer of hope came to his mind. Trance started moving from Rex and sweeping in and defeating several other White Knights. Rex was infuriated that Trance could defeat more and more of his men.