by Aer-ki Jyr
3
Two days later…
Kip knelt down and pressed his back up against the low upper bunker wall and held the single-shot paintball ‘shotgun’ up at an angle aiming back over his head. The butt of the thick weapon was set on the floor and with an iron grip Kip adjusted the angle as Randy gave him instructions.
“Five meters port,” Randy said from his spotter position up in the corner of the squarish cupola that topped the bunker the 2s were tasked to defend for half an hour against continual trainer onslaughts. “Ten shallow.”
Kip used his two arms as levers and marginally adjusted the angle of the weapon then nodded at Brian, who was squatted down on the opposite side of the paintball gun. With Kip holding the barrel in place, Brian pulled the trigger and the oversized paintball flew up into the air and out of sight.
Randy watched it land a meter short of one of the trainers on high ground who was sniping the hell out of the trainees. “Trajectory on…one shallow.”
Brian recycled the weapon and Kip made the barest of adjustments to their improvised mortar, then gave his teammate the go ahead to fire, launching another green ball up into the air.
“Splash damage!” Randy reported.
“Has he moved?” Kip asked.
“Yep.”
Kip released his hold and shook out his arms as Brian picked up the shotgun in a more traditional pose and walked up to the wall and took position in the nook between two castle-like wall protrusions, exposing only a piece of his head and the barrel of his weapon. Down below him Megan fired off a similar oversized round at one of the trainers trying to advance toward the bunker through a cluster of boulders set on the grass just outside the bunker.
It caught the man in the right calf and forced him to crawl back behind cover while three other trainers took the opportunity and opened up on the first level wall, causing Megan to duck down as they plastered the bunker with a volley of the fast firing, normal-sized paintballs.
Kip and Randy ran back down the inside ramp in the cupola and emerged in the northwest corner of the small bunker just in front of the mission end pedestal that the trainers were trying to get at. The 2s had to defend it for 30 minutes against 30 trainers equipped with the standard issue semi-automatic weapons that the trainees usually used…however, the ten trainees were only given two of the slow firing, over-sized shotguns to use in defense, leaving them seriously outgunned.
Their only other means of disabling the attackers was the stun sticks they were all equipped with. Barely an arm’s length long, the silver rods looked like short lightsabers without the glow, ending with a rubberized hilt. The ‘blade’ was metallic and ended in a curved cap, but otherwise was just a long silver cylindrical tube that charged with stun energy then released on physical contact.
It gave the trainees a means of hand to hand combat, but that meant they had to wait for the attackers to get inside the base, which was problematic because all they would have to do to beat the trainees was rush forward and tap the button on the pedestal once.
It was a tough challenge, but not something overly complex. The trainees were meant to be huddled up inside the bunker as the trainers made their way across the boulder-strewn park that greatly resembled ‘blood gulch’ from Halo, where upon a hand to hand fight would ensue for possession of the bunker…at least that’s what it had been intended to be, but the 2s weren’t going to play that game.
Using the shotguns as mortars had been a trick the 4s had perfected on an earlier challenge, then shared with the other teams after the final scores had been tallied. It gave the trainees a way to break up any sniper positions as well as being able to fire back without exposing themselves directly to the attackers’ mass fire. The larger size of the shotgun balls also meant additional stun potential, meaning a direct hit on a cluster of targets could disable them all with a lucky splash.
That said, the shotguns had to be recycled after each shot, making them poor choices for hand to hand fighting against multiple opponents. You could take down one target with even a glancing shot, but you’d be exposed to the others too long with the slower rate of fire, meaning their best use would come in fire support.
Knowing that the challenge would inevitably end in a fight inside the bunker, the 2s had decided to change the ground rules. While Kip, Brian, and Randy kept the attackers distracted with the mortar fire and Megan made sure they couldn’t just run across the open areas with impunity, Paul, Jason, Dan, and Emily quietly snuck out the back entrance of the bunker and split up in pairs, one going north, the other south.
Paul and Emily headed north and kept behind the rocks and trees as much as they could as they flanked the trainers who were approaching from the west end of the park. This was the first time the 2s had run this scenario, but not the first time they’d been on this training site. Paul knew there was a series of small paths through the bits of forest that bordered the north and south edges of a wide open grassy area that encompassed most of the park and made for an intense free for all engagement zone.
The 2s had beaten the 8s three weeks earlier in one such throw down…with the temporary bunker having been removed. Paul had gone down in that engagement, but thanks to Jason’s skills the 2s had come out victorious and earned a few bonus points, even though he’d been the only man left standing.
How familiar the trainers were with this park, Paul didn’t know, but the three that he and Emily were coming up behind either didn’t know of the paths or they just didn’t expect the trainees to leave the bunker…at least maybe not on the first go around.
Big mistake. The trainers should have learned by now to expect the unexpected.
Emily exchanged glances with him and gave Paul a ‘shove of her fist with thumb and pinky extended’ hand signal towards the three trainers who were starting to inch their way forward, looking like they were going to make a break towards the next available cover, which was probably the clump of trees cattycorner right.
Paul nodded his agreement. They would rush the group together.
Emily slid to the side and up behind a tree, waiting for Paul to get in position. When he did, he pulled his stun stick out of his belt holster and thumbed on the power button. A slight crackle/pop sounded as the weapon charged, but the trainers didn’t notice. Paul counted down on his fingers so Emily could see, starting at four and dropping his hand on two. They both continued the mental countdown in sync, then jumped out of cover and ran towards the backs of the trainers some 15 meters away.
One of them heard them coming and turned around just in time for Paul to kick his weapon out of his hands, followed by a quick jab of his stun stick into the man’s chest, dropping him to the ground unconscious. Meanwhile Emily took her target down with a slap across the back of his shoulders, never having seen who hit him.
The third man turned and took a pair of shots at Paul, but he ducked behind cover as Emily came up on the man from behind. A quick whack on his butt and he was down as well, with the trainees graciously appropriating their paintball rifles.
Paul took the extra weapons and headed back through the trees as Emily crept her way along the flank to harass more of the trainers. When he got back to the bunker he gave the extra rifle to Jack and they took up firing positions in the bunkers, spraying the trainers with suppressive fire while the rest of their teammates slowly picked apart the trainers.
There were nine opponents still active on the battlefield when the thirty minutes expired and the challenge end tone sounded, with only Ivan going down among the 2s. Paul and the others were proud of passing the scenario on the first try, which would bump them ahead of the others in the training rotation and temporarily put them ahead of the 7s in points.
Unlike most other challenges, this one had simply been pass/fail, with 1000 points awarded for completion, so there was really nothing to gain or lose to the other teams here, just the prestige of beating it before anyone else had.
Still, a lead was a lead, and it was the first time the 2s had
risen to the #1 ranking, and even though they knew it statistically wouldn’t last, Paul and the others took it as a sign of things to come. They had gradually whittled down the 7s’ lead to the point where this leapfrogging of the score could start to take place, and they were chomping at the bit to close the gap even further.
Later in the day, after all their training and challenges were finished, Paul was in the main lounge working on a snack and some navigational calculus drills on a datapad when Greg and Scott walked over to him with grim expressions on their faces.
“Well?” Greg asked.
Paul put the pad down and glanced up at him from his comfy, overly plush chair. “Well what?”
“You went through G-2C today, right?” Scott said pointedly.
“Yes,” Paul answered, a bit confused by the breach in protocol. Neither the 5s nor 7s had beaten the challenge yet, as far as he knew. “We got it on the first try.”
“How’d you take him down?” Greg asked in disbelief.
“Take who down?” Paul asked, getting more and more confused.
Greg and Scott exchanged glances. “You should know who if we’re talking about the same thing. G-2C, bunker defense scenario?”
“I know what it is…what are you talking about?”
“You didn’t fight the Black Knight, I take it?” Greg finally asked.
“What Black Knight?”
“That’s a no,” Scott confirmed.
Greg shook his head. “I don’t get it…the challenges are supposed to be identical.”
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?” Paul demanded.
“Ok,” Greg said, lowering his voice to a whisper and slipping into the chair beside Paul. Scott stood and leaned on the back of another. “I know this is a breach in protocol and probably looks like the 7s are trying to get a leg up on the 2s but it’s not, I promise.”
“Go on,” Paul said, remembering the heads up Greg had given him earlier.
“When we went through the G-2C challenge the trainers threw us a skiffer…a 7 foot tall, black armored trainer armed with what we’re guessing is a stun sword. He jumped us in the bunker and knocked us all unconscious. When we came to he was gone and the trainers wouldn’t say a word about it.”
“Same thing here,” Scott added. “He didn’t even go for the pedestal. He went after all of us, even chased Kerrie down through the woods until he got her.”
“He is unnaturally fast and swings his sword like it doesn’t weigh a thing,” Greg continued. “Our two teams got hit by him, but the 8s didn’t…and apparently you guys didn’t either.”
“No, we didn’t see anything like that,” Paul said, thinking hard. “Some sort of trigger you tripped?”
“We thought about that, but we haven’t come up with anything. A few of us even snuck back inside last night to look for motion trackers or pressure plates but we couldn’t find a damn thing,” Greg admitted.
“8s didn’t pass, did they?” Paul asked.
Greg shook his head.
“You said this guy was wearing armor? Were you able to stun him at all?”
“That’s the worst part,” Scott said. “Brad wacked him good with his stun stick, but it didn’t take him down. I saw him do it and the guy barely twitched.”
“We were told that the stun energy soaks through everything,” Greg continued. “Now armor should lessen the bleed through, but we hit him with two shotgun balls and three stun sticks in less than 10 seconds and he didn’t go down.”
“Oh…” Paul said warily, realizing that things had gotten to be a bit too easy lately, “this is not good.”
“But why didn’t you guys get hit?” Scott asked.
“Good question,” Paul agreed. “I think this is something everyone needs in on.”
Greg nodded, already thinking along those lines. “Team reps in my quarters in half an hour?”
“I’ll help spread the word,” Paul said, putting the last bit of snack in his mouth before he left to track down the others.
Whatever this new training element was, he had a sneaking feeling it was some kind of payback on the part of the trainers…and given how much trouble and embarrassment they’d caused them, this could end up being one hell of a karma-induced ass kicking.
4
Three weeks later…
Jack and Paul walked side by side down the narrow desert canyon, feet crunching slightly on the hard packed dirt/sand that made up the dry creek bed as they watched the nearby rocks for movement. The rest of the 2s were also patrolling the park in pairs, cleaning out hidden turrets that the trainers had placed in random locations. Given the narrow confines of the erratic canyons, the pesky turrets could literally have been anywhere…and the team had been tasked to clear them all out in the minimum amount of time possible.
This was the third attempt the 2s were making on the course, set in one of three desert environment parks in Atlantis. Their first attempt had been a learning exercise, with them taking it slow and getting a feel for the challenge while coming in well above par time. The second time through they’d rushed it, making par but losing half their team in the process, which incurred additional point penalties.
Paul jerked back just as the barrel of one of the turrets came into view, with a paintball flying through the space where his head had been and splattering against the side wall of the canyon. Jack went evasive as well, then regrouped with Paul a few meters back and exchanged some quick hand gestures. They’d recently learned that a lot of the turrets had hidden mics so that the trainers could listen in and anticipate their tactics if they spoke them aloud.
Paul guessed that this turret was on auto…no trainer could have responded that quickly to him coming into view, but now that he’d been spotted one of the trainers in the control center could assert control over the quad barreled pain inducer and give the targeting a personal touch.
Paul and Jack weren’t going to wait that long and split up with Jack running over to the side of the canyon and Paul darting ahead into view again. He dove and somersaulted on landing behind a boulder near the creek bed, drawing fire as a distraction while Jack leapt over the angled rock the turret had been hiding behind and fired into its deactivation sphere at point blank range.
The turret attempted to swivel back around to face the rock but didn’t have time before Jack filled it with enough charge to permanently deactivate it with a confirmation tone sounding.
Paul nodded his congratulations towards Jack when he saw his teammate’s face widen in surprise. The sound of rocks/gravel falling prompted Paul to spin around just in time to see a huge black figure come sliding down the side of the canyon and drop to the ground a dozen meters behind him.
Jack peppered the figure with paintballs, half of which missed as the giant stood up out of his landing crouch and ran towards Paul, pulling a long black tube from a clasp on his hip and shoving it into Paul’s sternum as he awkwardly fired back into its midsection.
Paul hit him with at least three shots, but the man was so fast he was on top of him before he could move aside. The end of the stun sword knocked Paul back against the rock…after that he remembered nothing.
Jack stood by the deactivated turret and filled the air around the black armored giant with a hail of paintballs, then took off running back down the canyon the way they’d come, knowing that he had to stay out of range of that sword.
The Black Knight saw him run off and took after him, covering the ground in large, fast steps. Jack’s face went white with shock when he turned around and saw him closing rapidly. As a last resort, Jack tried to double back at an angle to avoid the intercept and fired off a few close range shots one handed as he tried to slip free…but the narrow canyon didn’t leave him many options.
It wouldn’t have mattered regardless. The Black Knight deftly spun about, reversing direction and ran Jack down in three steps, slashing diagonally across his butt and up to his right shoulder. Jack fell hard, bouncing off a boulder and breaking his nose.
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The next thing he saw was the synthetic sky atop the park with three heads partially blocking his view. One was a med tech, the other two were Jason and Paul. He tried to twist his head to the side, suddenly feeling a painful tightness in his face. As the anti-stun injection cleared his senses he also tasted blood on his lips.
“Remain still, 020,” the medic said calmly as he dug through a supply satchel. “You have a broken nose.”
“I don’t know, Paul,” Jason said casually. “Might be an improvement.”
“Can’t get much worse,” Paul added deadpan.
“Your compassion is touching,” the medic noted as he pulled out a small, shiny metallic…something.
“What is that?” Jason asked. Paul was equally curious.
“The proper name is Kich’a’kat,” he said, placing the device on the bridge of Jack’s broken and bloodied nose. “But we usually refer to it as a level 1 regenerator.”
“Dino tech?” Paul asked. The medic nodded as the small silver/gold device appeared to melt into rivulets that ran down the sides of Paul’s nose, then solidified. With a painful ‘crunch’ that made Paul jerk in sympathy, the device realigned the pieces of bone in Jack’s nose.
“Can he feel that?” Jason asked when Jack didn’t so much as blink in response.
“Shouldn’t…it numbs the affected area first,” the medic explained as the skin on Jack’s nose regrew impossibly fast, sealing up the cracks where the blood had been leaking out. When the device finished a little over a minute later, the metal rivulets flowed back into the main housing and the suction-like grip on Jack’s nose released, with a small blue light winking on, indicating that the injury had been healed.
The medic picked the device up, which still lightly clung to Jack’s face, and placed it back in his equipment bag. Paul wondered what else he had stashed in there.
“It will take a moment for the numbing to wear off,” he explained, looking down at Jack. “Your new tissue will be weak, so try to avoid landing on your face again in the near future.”