by Aer-ki Jyr
Jack nodded, then Rafa’s hologram winked out as well.
“Captain, put priority on distribution of the rail gun slugs,” the trailblazer said as he stood up and headed aft towards the hangar bays. “Then pick us a nice camping spot.”
Mark ducked under a lightning fast roundhouse kick, barely getting underneath Kara’s calve and feeling the near miss run through his hair. Before he could make a decent move forward Kara was already backpedaling, increasing the amount of time it would take him to get to her. Mark hit her in the chest with his head, but a quick slap/push to the side of his temple moved him off center and Kara avoided most of the blow, knocking the trailblazer down in the process.
He rolled out of the fall and made a fake jab coming up as a distraction. As she moved to sidestep it he launched into her with his opposite arm, elbow first, and planted an Archon Punch into her shoulder as she hastily tried to back out away from it. The blow spun her torso around enough for Mark to get a quick lasso of her waist with his other arm, then he pulled her up off her feet so she couldn’t move out of reach. His other arm came around and crossed wrists with his first, locking her butt against his chest as he lifted and spun the Clan Saber pilot through a half circle before tipping her laterally and throwing her to the floor.
Kara landed on one outstretched hand and pivoted her body around gracefully, coming into a football stance and looking back up at Mark before she jumped forward up out of her crouch into a two-legged kick, bringing her knees up to her chest and tipping backward…then lashing out at him with both heels.
Mark held his ground and did a backbend, letting her outstretched legs clear his head by inches as he fell backwards, wrapping his arms around her thighs and pinning her to him. They both went down on the mats and Mark used her awkward position against her, twisting her to the side so he could get his right leg free, then he gave her a none too gentle kick between the shoulder blades as he released his grip, knocking her aside. The ranger spun the opposite way and came up to his feet as Kara chose to roll over twice before coming up and drawing back her right leg in a stretchy Zen’zat combat stance.
Mark knew better than to rush her head on, so he ran to the left three steps then cut back at an angle, forcing her to alter her stance or get sideswiped. She did the former, literally transforming from one pose to another and reached out with wrists touching in a two-handed palm attack that caught Mark square in the gut as she ducked under a side hand swipe from the trailblazer.
He got the wind knocked out of him for a moment, but Kara didn’t relent. She pounded his chest with a pair of quick jabs, then kicked him in the side of the leg, knocking him off balance long enough to switch direction and snap down an angled roundhouse kick that knocked Mark to the floor with a decisive thud.
He spun around in a defensive kick, barely two inches off the training mats, to keep her back as he reset himself and got some air back in his lungs. He faked getting to his feet and drew her in, then collapsed back on his heels like a coiled spring and lunged low towards her legs.
With the combination of her forward momentum and his counter movement Kara pitched forward and banged her head against the floor…or rather she should have. Instead her upper body floated above it with her scrunched-up face spared a few inches of clearance between it and the mat.
Mark looked down at her head, still holding her legs in an arm lock up near his shoulders.
“Cheater.”
“I know,” she said, relaxing her face and pivoting her body up high as if Mark was rotating her up like the hands on a clock…except that he wasn’t. He let go of her legs and they fell down underneath her as she floated half a meter off the floor with a frustrated look on her face. “Reflex I guess.”
“Well that makes 3 for me, 5 for you,” he said, taking a step back as she floated down to the ground. “Again?”
“You’ve only earned one of those,” she reminded him, dropping down into another Zen’zat combat stance, this one painfully low to the ground.
“It’s not my fault if you can’t learn control,” he mocked, taunting her forward with his hand.
Kara’s head tilted to the side in an annoyed look, then she launched herself forward and the pair began exchanging a flurry of arm blows and blocks, forgoing any kicks or lunges and simply testing each other’s speed and reflexes. For the first time in a very long time Mark found himself outmatched…and reveled in the challenge of facing a superior opponent.
His arms began to grow warm and numb as the lightning fast exchange lasted the better of two minutes before Kara got enough of a speed advantage on him to throw in a twisting grasp on his right wrist with her left, then pull it forward across her body as she spun around his arm, pinning it to her back as she whipped her right elbow around towards the side of his head.
To his credit Mark moved forward just in time, hiding behind her back where she didn’t have much leverage to hit him, but at the last moment she released her grip on his wrist and opened up her turn into a full pivot that wacked him solidly in the head, blacking him out for a moment. He woke up a moment later, staring up at her face looking down at him.
“Six,” she said, reaching down and offering him a hand up.
He grabbed it, then halfway up put his shoulder to her waist and lifted her off her feet, then satisfyingly smashed her down onto the ground back first, banging her head against the mats just before planting a forearm across her neck to keep her down.
He stared down into her eyes from a much closer distanced with a ‘you forgot who you were facing’ look.
“Four.”
“Now that is cheating,” she said with him pulling back off her quickly so she couldn’t return the favor.
“She still kicking your ass boss?” Boen asked from the edge of the sparring mat.
“More or less,” he said with a smile.
“He has such a crush on you now,” Boen teased.
“And you don’t?” Kara mocked, stepping laterally around the ring and keeping an eye on Mark as he did the same.
“You need something?” Mark asked, looking Kara over and trying to find a weakness to exploit. Ever since she’d gotten the wrist jewel from the dragon her abilities had spiked well above his, making sparring with her a unique challenge, given that there weren’t any other trailblazers on Daka. He’d jokingly referred to her as ‘Trailblazer 101’ a few months back and she’d latched onto that title like an Iratus bug. Since then she’d been almost giddy, and more than willing to kick Mark’s butt outside of the cockpit in order to offer him a chance to test her growing skills…as well as hone his.
“Jumpship just came in,” Boen said, looking at Kara.
“Ah man,” Mark groaned, abandoning his combat stance with a pouting face. “Now I’m going to be stuck training with these weaklings.”
Kara smiled broadly, both at his compliment and the news that her ride was finally here. “You know I can’t stay here forever when there’s a war going on.”
“And I…we can?” Mark said, glancing at Boen mid statement.
“You’re the master pilot, so you’re needed here more than me,” she said, brushing off her skintight training uniform that had a special notch cut out on the left wrist for her diamond-like jewel to show through. “But I know you’re not sticking around here forever either.”
“Not forever,” he admitted. “But we’re still not top dogs, so there’s a lot of training experience to gain and take back to the others.”
“Which you’re uniquely suited for. Me, I need to get into the action. You can see the big picture clearer from your position. All I can think about is Calavari fighting and dying out there while we play with simulators.”
Boen frowned. “I thought you wanted to go lizard hunting?”
“They’re the bigger threat, but from what I’ve read there’s not much ground combat going on yet. I don’t want to get stuck on a jumpship waiting…that’d be worse than staying here.”
Mark sighed. “How long does she
have?”
“Hycre said they want to leave within the next 10 hours. Sooner if possible. Their jumpships are in short supply right now.”
Mark walked over to Kara, hands up for a moment to call off any sparring action, and wrapped her up in a big hug. “Go kick some ass, 101.”
He couldn’t see, but her eyes got a bit moist at hearing that.
“That’s the plan,” she said, returning and holding the hug for a long time before letting go and looking over at Boen. “Did they bring replacements?”
“Another 500 or so,” he said, referring to the growing number of Star Force pilots accumulating on the planet. Kara wasn’t the only one going back, as more than 100 of the Archons/Regulars that had been insystem for a long time were finally cycling out with the intent of putting their newfound skills to use, either in combat or in kicking the asses of their fellow Clan pilots in training exercises.
“They’ll keep you busy,” she said, glancing back at Mark. “See if you can’t find Boen a girlfriend. He’s going to get grumpy without me around.”
Mark laughed at the slight, but Boen didn’t seem too happy with it. Archons didn’t date, and to suggest one did was akin to saying they were inferior.
“Unless you plan to fly up there yourself, you’d better get going,” Boen said.
“Catch you guys later,” she said, winking at Mark and walking out past Boen…only to have him catch her off guard with a punch to the gut on the way by that doubled her over, but didn’t knock her down.
“That…was for last month,” he said, taking a cautious step back that Mark found hilarious.
Kara stood up and pointed a warning finger at him. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that was a love tap,” she said, her glare turning into a smile as she silently walked out of the room and off to get ready for her trip back to Star Force territory.
Boen rolled his eyes and let her go, then glanced over at Mark. “She’s been like that ever since you called her a trailblazer.”
“Like what?” Mark asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Cocky, arrogant, sarcastic, flirty.”
“She’s not arrogant,” Mark said, dismissing that sentiment.
“She didn’t used to act like that.”
“She didn’t used to be that strong either,” he pointed out. “I think she’s acting just fine…and you should take the flirtyness as a compliment.”
“Sounds more like teasing than flirting to me.”
“You said flirty,” Mark reminded him.
“Whatever…we still on with the Protovic later today?”
“Yep. We’ll tag Hanson to replace Kara,” the trailblazer said, clapping Boen on the shoulder. “Let’s go see what kind of newbs they sent us.”
Two hours later Kara sat onboard a dropship reading a datapad as she transferred up to a Gargantuan-class freighter that the Hycre would be taking back nearly empty for Star Force to fill up with additional supplies and personnel in Epsilon Eridani for a future return trip. Kara flipped through the large data packet that the Hycre had brought with them, first checking on war news and deployments, seeing that Morgan’s armada had finally been cycled out of Hycre territory and replaced by a brand new fleet under Taryn’s command. That’s where she eventually wanted to end up, but didn’t know how soon the next fleet would be deploying, though she imagined that the ships Morgan was bringing back would be sent back out sooner rather than later.
Next she cycled through the Archon files, noticing the recall order/suggestion from Davis along with the news that a small number of Archons were developing Zen’zat abilities, some of which were potentially damaging. The Director wanted everyone experiencing even the slightest signs to return to the pyramid and pool their ingenuity to get a handle on these new abilities, as well as try to find a way to stimulate them in others if possible, while avoiding the damage that Jason seemed to be incurring as he developed telekinetic skills.
Sarto’kan, she corrected Davis, using the V’kit’no’sat word. With a sigh she leaned back on the dropship’s seat, sinking into the cushion as she realized that she wouldn’t be heading for Calavari territory after all.
“Fren sen ta’zel mit janco bey ich Earth,” she said, speaking the alien language as easily as she did English to the empty dropship bay. Glancing down at the datapad that was sitting in her lap, she narrowed her eyes and telekinetically floated the device up in front of her, spinning it about in place like a decorative ornament.
“Hang on, Jason. I’m coming.”
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