by Aer-ki Jyr
The Meintre would do their duty and come to the aid of their fellow members when able, for that was the way they operated. Their word was their bond, and even if they hadn’t been supported when needed they weren’t going to return the lack of support. If the day came when they were able, they’d send forth a fleet and do what they could to confront the instability seeping through The Nexus like a disease…but there was no longer any good will with the Sety or the other major members. The trust had been broken, and the Meintre felt they were on their own in fact if not in name.
And if Star Force didn’t hold to its promise of protection, the excessive vulnerability the Meintre now suffered from during this transition would be the death of their race…which was why they were so pleased to see that promises were being upheld, at least during this initial phase, and the Meintre were getting the chance to put down new roots that would see them growing stronger year by year going forward.
If it lasted. And with the Great Promise already broken, the Meintre had no illusions of anything being as stalwart. They’d been let down once and they were losing every world they’d ever possessed because of it, and that bitterness would permanently reside in the Meintre going forward.
3
June 20, 3543
Solar System
Earth
Rio ran out of a surface cupola on the surface of Atlantis with the doors telekinetically flying apart before he rolled out at an easy cadence. They shut behind him and he took a hard left, ‘jogging’ along the length of what had once been the location of a long since removed runway. Now it was a much wider landing pad split up into segments with buildings sitting in the middle of what had originally been the longest airstrip in the city when the trailblazer had first arrived here well over a millennia ago.
Atlantis had changed a bit since then, but it was still his home and the other trailblazers felt the same way. Right now though most of them were out doing important stuff while he was on permanent vacation, though he was still running Clan Rwby from afar. His duty to Star Force now was digging into his dreams and dragging out as many Tier 4 psionics as he could. That meant he did nothing but train, train, and train some more. He’d learned early on that his dreams occurred more frequently when he was pressing his limits…so that’s exactly what he now did on a regular basis, and as of three days ago he was now the top ranked Archon.
He was pleased with that, but also sore about it. Morgan was busy prepping to prepare Star Force’s defense against a possible Skarron Crusade and Paul was out in the Rim Region desperately trying to save as many people as he could from the failure of The Nexus to control their own turf, with neither of them being able to train 24/7. Even Rio’s Clan duties occurred when he was on brief rest periods, with every moment that he could spend in action being so. Even now Rio had on a headset that he could use to handle administrative duties while he was doing an ‘easy’ workout in between harder sessions.
That easy workout had him jogging at 18 mph and ducking into narrow streets between buildings as he made his way from one landing pad to another, zigzagging across the cityscape that most people never came up to. Most of the city was internal, and those who didn’t need to go topside usually didn’t given the humidity this time of year. Rio actually liked it, and even as he was running easy in a T-shirt and shorts he was sweating a bit that would gradually escalate until he was thoroughly drenched.
He ran for an hour exactly, not caring where he went, and ended up in front of a building that handled flight pack rentals. There was a sparse crowd inside, all of them Star Force personnel, for the tourists of old were no longer allowed in Atlantis. This was simply a perk of living in the city that had off duty personnel flying with anti-grav backpacks up and over building tops in a particular sector that wouldn’t interfere with the light ship traffic coming and going from orbit and other locations on the planet. In fact, Atlantis was a lot calmer than most cities, for those who were here tended not to be visiting. Hence they lived here and there wasn’t a lot of non-cargo flights in and out, with most local travel being accommodated by rail lines on the ocean floor that connected Atlantis to its nearest twins.
Most of the oceans were now full of cities that blanketed the seafloor. Some rose up to break the surface, but the vast majority were fully submerged and Atlantis was plugged into them via a transit grid hidden beneath the water. With that and occasional dropship or mantis flights coming from far off places, only a dribbling of orbital cargo and personnel flights remained, leaving the surface of the city a low key and almost lackadaisical place.
The ocean around the city was the same, with a lot of recreational facilities that were packed on good weather days like this. Rio kind of wanted to hop on a jet ski or put on an aqua pack and go out to play, but he wasn’t going to waste time on that when he had a job to do. People were dying out on the frontier that he could have been helping to save…but the problem was there would always be that need. There would also be one more thing the Archons could do, and if they let themselves think on those terms they’d never get around to doing things that were needed to plan ahead. Archons lived in the moment but they couldn’t afford to get lost in it, and Rio’s mission here was definitely forward looking. Already Vortison was studying the two Tier 4s he’d unlocked and developed, hopefully one day to be able to trigger them manually.
But unless he could find the hidden ones too, someone had to access them the way they were designed to be earned, and that someone was Rio. His skills climbing to the top Archon spot were an extra bonus, and while he was competitive as hell with the others…and had sent Morgan an appropriately mocking message…his real fight was with the future and the hidden gems the Zak’de’ron had hidden within his genetic code.
When he stopped outside the flight pack shop he glanced around and smiled at those few people that took notice. He crossed his arms over his chest and activated his Yen’mer, rising up slowly into the air without having to get any equipment of his own. He waved sarcastically before he got out of view, then he accelerated and flew up overtop the building before veering off from the safe zone and cruising out over one of the landing pads with a dropship currently coming down from altitude.
His biological anti-grav wasn’t that strong yet so his acceleration was limited, but he had more than enough strength to lift his own weight. Flying up near the dropship as it slowed into a hover several hundred meters up, he waved at the pilots then made a quick loop around the Dragon-class craft that was a bit challenging, but worth it. He angled off and let the dropship continue its descent, then he moved laterally and crossed Atlantis until he got to the far edge, suddenly seeing blue ocean well beneath him.
Knowing he couldn’t press his strength too far, he let himself slide down at an angle until he was over top the jet skis and flew over one of the obstacle courses where Sara still had a few of the records, the rest of which a bunch of second gen Archons had gone after and plucked from the trailblazers. They hadn’t mounted a decent challenge to retake them given other priorities, but those running the courses now weren’t that good. They were just personnel out having fun or working on improving their own marks.
He didn’t interfere more than visually, coasting along in an upright position and waving to various people that freaked out seeing him there, then freaked out again when they realized he had no flight pack on. His ability to fly wasn’t officially known by anyone outside the advanced training group, but there was no great secret in it and Rio liked flaunting the ability for the simple reason that it would make people flip out that weren’t in the know.
But eventually he leaned forward and flew superman-style horizontally out past the recreational courses and into open water. He came to a hover there some 60 meters up and scanned the water for minds. Finding nothing close, he placed his palms together at the base and opened both Choratrik ports in the center of his hands, igniting a fiery blue plasma from both that melded together into one small ball that he shot down towards the water and pushing mor
e in its wake in a line that never made it to the waves.
It dissipated into hot unglowing air before it hit, making a few wind ripples on the surface but nothing more. Rio frowned, finding himself a very poor substitute for Goku, but still, he was the only person who could do this, possibly ever, unless the Zak’de’ron had Zen’zat that had unlocked both these psionics. There were no records on them so it was impossible to say, but even if they had they wouldn’t have known what Goku or Dragon Ball Z was, so he was for sure the only person in the history of the universe capable of trying this homage.
He summoned up the plasma again, but this time when he formed a ball he grew it rather than releasing, with his hands having to pull back to accommodate its width. He held the plasma within energy fields, both to guide it and to contain most of the heat, but some still leaked out and he could feel it hit his face. He didn’t need to throw up a Rensiek to shield himself aside from what was already around the orb, but it did testify to how much of a beastly bioweapon he’d developed.
Resisting the urge to say the words, he released the ball and threw it towards the water, seeing it shrink as the outer layers cooled and dissipated, then it ballooned out when it passed beyond his control range. The blue dot mushroomed but stayed somewhat intact by the time it hit the water, eliciting a huge geyser of steam that shot straight up and sprinkled his sweaty clothes with salty ocean rain.
Rio laughed, both at his inability to do a full Kamehameha and the fact that he was literally able to do a partial one. Who would have ever thought that particular anime could ever be something other than pure fiction?
Well now it wasn’t, and he was digging his newfound powers enough to stay here and throw some more plasma balloons into the water, but his flight muscles were starting to get tired. If he didn’t want to swim back to Atlantis he needed to head there now, so he tipped over into a more aerodynamic position and began to accelerate, suddenly realizing he was more fatigued than he’d thought. He wasn’t going to make it all the way back, he wagered, so he found one of the jet ski paddocks and landed on the lagoon-like artificial island amongst a sea of scantily clad Star Force personnel waiting for rides.
Jaws dropped everywhere, but Rio brushed off his flying in as inconsequential and sat down on a nearby railing with his back to a couple of girls waiting in line on the other side.
“Who are you?” one of them asked, with Rio turning around innocently.
“Name’s Yamcha,” he lied. “Have any of you seen Bulma recently?”
Both shook their heads, unaware of the fact he was totally punking them out, but so be it. If they didn’t know DBZ then they deserved it.
“How did you do that?” a guy asked just ahead of the girls as everyone, including a couple of chicks on jet skis that circled back and were floating nearby, stared at him.
“Have you heard of psionics?”
“You mean you’re an Archon?” a guy said, suddenly turning to the girl standing beside him. “Can you do that?” he asked her.
“No I can’t,” the acolyte said, though without anything more than a very defined six pack to separate her from the other personnel, for none of them had uniforms on, or much else for that matter. “What Tier?” she asked Rio.
“Four,” he said with a wink.
The pink pigtailed Archon raised a matching eyebrow. “I thought there was only 3.”
“There’s a fourth, but I’m the only one that’s been able to break through to it. Flight is a power, but I’m still not very good at it. Thought I could make it back to Atlantis, but needed to stop here and recharge a bit.”
One of the girls on the jet skis shouted at him. “Do you give rides?”
Rio laughed. “Honestly, I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Can I get first dibs?”
“You’ll have to wait a few more decades. I can’t lift twice my body weight yet.”
“I’m light,” she argued.
“Not light enough. I’m still a wimp.”
“Yeah right. What’s your Archon number?”
“058.”
Somebody further back in line slipped when he said that and a guy slid down the short embankment into the shallow lagoon, though few even bothered to look at him with a trailblazer in their presence.
“Really?” someone else asked.
“Really,” Rio confirmed. “I only need a few minutes, then I’ll be on my way. Don’t let me hold up your runs.”
“As you wish, Captain,” one of the girls on the jet skis said with a sarcastic salute, but as she spun her watercraft after in a twirl Rio grabbed her with a telekinetic grip and yanked her off it, flying her through the air over to him and landed the bikini-clad chick down on his lap with an appropriately startled giggle coming from her.
“Archon,” he corrected her. “Not Captain.”
“You do have magic,” someone else said nearby as the girl was too happily flustered to say anything else as Rio looked into her eyes from a few inches away.
“Not magic,” he said, twisting his head around, “just really cool science. Pretty much the same thing though.”
“Archon means single, right?” the girl on his lap asked, whom he quickly identified as a computer tech thanks to the skin to skin contact that allowed him to get past Jennifer’s Ikrid block.
“Permanently single,” he said with a hint of regret. “But someone has to bear the responsibility of being total ass kickers…and you can’t do that when you’re getting fucked up.”
“Word,” the acolyte said approvingly.
“So why am I sitting on your lap then?”
“Just being friendly,” Rio said with a smile. “But I’d better put you back before someone steals your ride.”
“You sure?” she asked, pouty faced.
“Yeah, pretty sure.”
“Alright,” she said, rolling her eyes mockingly. “If you must.”
“Find me in 20 years and I’ll give you that ride,” he promised. “The aerial one, anyway,” he added as he sensed a different thought coursing through her mind.
“I’ll hold you to that, Yamcha.”
“His name is Rio, newb,” the acolyte said with mock disgust as she floated through the air and landed back on the pommel of her jet ski, then Rio hopped over the railing and took a few steps through the crowd to the acolyte.
“That it is. Thanks for noticing, babe,” he said, leaning in and kissing her on the lips, then he pulled back, smiling as deviously as she was, then dipped down slightly to flex his legs into super jump that sent him up above all of their heads where he caught his weight with his partially recharged Yen’mer and floated there for a moment, waving to everyone below, half of which waved back while the others were still laughing with most of the guys wishing they could steal a kiss from the Archon and get away with it.
Knowing his strength was still low, Rio didn’t hang around and accelerated away from the paddock, reaching a decent speed as he angled up to the much higher elevation of the top of Atlantis. He really had to fight to keep his effort up the last minute, but he reached the edge and dropped down on top of the nearest roof he could get to, landing in a crouch that he stayed in for a moment as his burning flight muscles protested that last little push he’d made to avoid losing his coolness by falling short and taking a dive in the ocean before making the edge.
He stood up a few seconds later and turned back, seeing the paddock he had been on as a tiny dot in the distance.
“Whoo,” he said gratefully. “That was too close. Sorry Goku, I still suck. I’ll work harder.”
With that half sarcastic promise he ran across the rooftop and jumped down several stories over the far side, braking his fall with a telekinetic crash bag rather than stressing his flight muscles again, then he was off and running back to an entry point that would get him into the city proper and over to the advanced training group’s private sanctum for his next ‘real’ workout in the High Gravity chamber.
4
April 4, 3545
Jec System (Rim Region/Zargor territory)
Inner Zone
Brad-050 stood on the bridge of his command ship just in front of his seat watching the hologram of the system before him. His Protovic fleet was in enemy territory along with some Clan Sangheili battle groups and the Jec System held 4 highly populated Zargor planets that he was inspecting as his bridge crew worked furiously. They’d just arrived in the system and were analyzing everything as the Sangheili were keeping the Zargor busy near the third planet.
They’d been here several months already, but Jason didn’t have enough ships, let alone troops, to take out this stronghold so he’d been having them raid it continuously. Shipyard production had been reduced by more than 30% as a result and only large convoys were making it in and out, but Star Force needed to remove this thorn from their side and that’s exactly what Brad and his Protovic were out here to do.
His Clan Beyond wasn’t out here holding territory like the 2s and some others were, rather he was here leading a massive Protovic force that was operating independently and going after the bad guys rather than waiting for them to make their move. Already the Protovic had been responsible for the capture of 12 systems and the destruction over 43,000 enemy warships, but they were just getting warmed up and this assault is really what Brad had come out here for…an enemy that wouldn’t yield and a major system to nut punch.
He could have been standing in his command nexus watching all the information in mind’s eye, but that wasn’t necessary. His crew knew what they were doing and right now they were just gathering their fleet as it was coming out of convoy jumps. His calm demeanor was reassuring to the Protovic, who took it as a compliment. They’d been fighting with him for a while now, so there wasn’t much that surprised them other than the fact that he wasn’t commanding from a Clan ship. He was here with them and they grew emboldened to have the trailblazer onboard. The only Human in the fleet at all, but he felt just as much at home here as elsewhere and the Protovic felt the same about him.