Star Force: Kaalo (SF99) (Star Force Origin Series)

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Physical Neofen conduits knocked them down clothesline style and a multitude of other battlemeld techniques let the Archons literally wreck the defensive Zen’zat forces in remarkably little time compared to the throwdown that was expected…with the Brat’mar on the surface responding by opening fire on the building where the prisoners were being held.

  “Shit,” Rio said, heading for the nearest stairwell or elevator he could find as the others scrambled after them. By the time they got to the surface the building was junk and the minds in it were gone, but the Brat’mar, 5 Kar’ka, and a handful of Zen’zat were still there, firing into the rubble intent on not allowing the Archons any recovery of the prisoners…then the Brat’mar turned towards them and fired a cannon shot into the doorway they were coming out of.

  Linked as they were in pairs and trios, they were able to see it coming and dodge out of the way…then all 15 of them were in the streets and facing off against more than just Zen’zat.

  “Take them,” Sara said, even as Rio telepathically told two of the ViLords to head for the destroyed building and see if they could dig someone out. That left 13 Archons against the Brat’mar and company, and despite the stupidity of attacking one without a mech, neither Rio nor Sara were afraid. They were both enraged and going to take at least a few seconds to do as much damage as they could before they were forced to flee. It might not have been the most prudent course of action, but after all the prisoners he’d just killed they wanted the Brat’mar. The rest were just bonus points.

  Rio and Sara extended their battlemeld out to two more ViLords, greatly increasing the stress on their minds but not beyond practiced tolerances. With their combined Ikrid they reached out and sparred with the Brat’mar even as it fired at them with its secondary weapons and the Kar’ka didn’t back down either. The other Archons knew to deal with them and the Zen’zat, giving the most powerful quartet their opening.

  This Brat’mar’s mind was large, as Rio guessed all of them would be given the amount of brain tissue they possessed, but it was not particularly skilled. The four Archons were able to jam a freezing impulse into it fairly easily with Rio and Sara actively fighting countermeasures, both autonomic and conscious, with the help of one of the ViLords while the other created and maintained the impulse…causing all of its weaponry to cease firing and it to stand still like a statue as the four Archons ran towards it untouched.

  Rio unloaded his baby mauler into its shields as they continued to fight with its mind, trying to trick it into doing what they couldn’t force it, for like the Zen’zat it wasn’t a pushover like the lizards were, and its shields and armor were so thick that it would take forever for the Archons to blast their way through…with their attack doing little more than provide visual cover for the true conduit of their assault.

  Meanwhile the other Archons were using their battlemeld techniques to great effect against the Kar’ka, though they often had to jump into the air to get their Lew to cross the heads of the taller, chicken-shaped dinosaurs, most of which had a height of over 3 meters, but they did not have the same Ikrid blocks that the Zen’zat had, and with some work the ViLords managed to take control of one enough to trick it into shooting the Brat’mar.

  Its Chi’parat weren’t all that strong, but they were far more powerful than anything the Archons carried…and the sight of that happening sent the V’kit’no’sat into a flurry, for it wasn’t just one shot that landed, but several in a row before the Kar’ka momentarily shook off the Archons’ hold…and it looked like there was a traitor in their midst.

  Two of the Zen’zat, apparently loyal to the Brat’mar, turned on the Kar’ka instantly and attacked it, not even bothering to mess with the Archons anymore…and that gave Rio an idea.

  Their hold on the Brat’mar lessened, allowing it to see clearly what was happening around it as the weak Kar’ka shot it again, then had to fend off the two Zen’zat as the rest of the fighting finally contributed a Zen’zat death at the hands of the Archons, but with many others showing armor damage and two of the Kar’ka with bleeding punctures…but it was nothing compared to the damage the Brat’mar inflicted when it shot the Kar’ka with its cannon blast, ordering the Zen’zat back just as it fired and catching the other V’kit’no’sat completely off guard, for as far as it knew it was the Zen’zat that were the traitors.

  The Kar’ka’s shields, already weakened by the Zen’zat attacks and Archons, popped instantly under the heavy energy blast that proceeded to tear through the body armor and gut the Kar’ka in explosive fashion, spraying charred bits of skin and internal organs everywhere…with the other Kar’ka immediately turning on the Brat’mar in a fury and completely ignoring the Archons who quietly turned and backed off the big boys. Some of the Zen’zat were still trying to take them down, but with a few evasive moves the Archons retreated into the nearby buildings and the Zen’zat that followed them soon wished they hadn’t…all the while the rest had to pick sides as the two V’kit’no’sat races fought it out with messages and reports flying through their comm grid for all to see.

  And as subsequent notice was taken, the Archons were no longer involved. Leaving only V’kit’no’sat fighting V’kit’no’sat and making them all wonder if one of these two races wasn’t the secret sponsor of Star Force now backstabbing the others.

  “Damn that was brilliant,” Sara said as they met up with the two ViLords they’d dispatched into the rubble and who were now carrying four bodies, two apiece, though several had missing limbs and huge gashes where building rubble had skewered them…but the bleeding had been stopped and temporary heals were keeping them barely alive after the Archons had managed to bring them back from the dead with their Haemra.

  “Can they travel?”

  “We’ve got them buttoned up as much as we could. There’s a few more that might be recoverable, but I don’t know if they could make it back.”

  “Rio,” Sara said, picking up one of the living pieces of cargo to lighten the ViLord’s load.

  “I’ll check. Angel, Mathis, with me,” he said as they split up with the main group taking the four recovered prisoners back through the underground as quickly as they could manage, hoping the distraction up top would keep the V’kit’no’sat preoccupied long enough to allow them an easy run back to the mechs.

  Rio and his two ViLords headed the other way, working their way back up and to the destroyed buildings where they found bits and pieces of buried bodies with their Pefbar under the rubble and went to the most intact one they could find…which was missing a right leg and right arm. They dug him out of the debris, seeing that most of his bones were crushed but his head was only superficially wounded…meaning they had a chance.

  “I’ve got him,” Rio said, with the other two trying to find someone else to potentially save. The trailblazer bared his left hand and pressed it again the gore, hacking into the deactivated nervous system all the while keeping an eye on the surrounding minds that were busy fighting it out and ignoring them…save for one that was heading their way.

  “Got him,” Angel said, leaving Mathis to try and dig out the other body while Rio kept working on his, causing flash growth in vital places but finding so much damage that…

  He broke contact the moment he recognized the incoming Zen’zat mind.

  “Angel, get back now! You can’t take him,” the Frieza said, jumping to his feet and pulling Mathis off as well, but Angel was already within firing range and the Zen’zat wasn’t going to let her retreat. He ran her down with ease and punched her so fast she couldn’t respond, with her pink armor bouncing into the ground as Rio flew into view and tackled the Zen’zat off her.

  He threw Rio off him in the following roll, then went back towards Angel as she got up…but Mathis came in just in time for him to link with her and they split directions around him, sending a Lew conduit straight through his head as he reached out and grabbed her arm.

  She broke free as soon as the Zen’zat staggered with disorientation, then Rio link
ed with the pair of ViLords…taking a quick mental glance around the area to make sure there were no other Zen’zat heading in…then as a battlemeld-linked trio they grabbed him with their combined Lachka and pulled him towards them through the air, only to be defeated by a hasty Rentar pulse that broke their grip, but the Zen’zat landed off balance long enough for Mathis to get in his face and hammer him back with an Archon punch to the pelvis.

  Rio pushed Angel out past the Zen’zat’s left, dragging another Lew energy ribbon stretched between her and Mathis through the Zen’zat’s head, trying to freeze him up for a second but only managing to slow him a bit, but it was long enough for Rio to get in near him and fake a punch…only to pull back defensively into a crouch as Angel came flying through the air on the end of a Bataf conduit as Rio pulled her to him.

  Her feet landed in the Zen’zat’s back, shoving him into Rio where the trailblazer knocked out his legs and sent him spinning overhead, with the Archon pointing his arm at the Zen’zat afterwards and unloading a couple of mauler blasts as the bigger warrior righted himself and dove back towards Rio with the two exchanging blows for a few seconds and Rio losing out, especially with his heavy right arm carrying the mauler, but the few Dre’mo’don shots the Zen’zat got in on him were worth the beatdown that the two ViLords laid on him from the sides.

  All three grabbed him with another Lachka field, which he responded to with a Rentar pulse to break it and free himself, but in that bit of delay both Mathis and Angel pulled out a death stick and jabbed them into his armor…Angel into his back and Mathis into his right leg…with the resulting explosions blowing through his shields at both points and leaving him with large craters of armor damage beneath.

  7

  Sara!

  The trailblazer skidded to a halt at the telepathic yelling of her name, then motioned for the Archons around her to keep going as some slowed and looked back.

  “Go and keep going until you get them out of here,” she said as she started running the opposite way, heading for where she felt Rio’s mind. It wasn’t holding still, but coming her way in short little bursts that suggested he was retreating along with the other two Archons engaging in similar movements.

  Coming! she replied as the level 3 Frieza ran through the various corridors and turns in the undercity, sensing a growing fight happening up on the surface between the V’kit’no’sat and each other, hoping it would continue for some time before they got things straightened out.

  Rio threw another Jumat blast at the Zen’zat, barely knocking him off Mathis before he added to the crack in the Archon’s armor. Angel tried to bounce hit the Zen’zat from behind while he was off guard, but he was too fast and turned on her, slapping aside one of her arms and getting a hand on her throat. Slippery as it was to touch shields, his grip didn’t falter and he used his formidable strength to pick her up and throw her at Rio as he flew a few steps forward.

  The trailblazer, still linked with both Archons through the battlemeld, twisted to his left while Angel did so the opposite way midair, causing the two to brush each other but not collide as the Zen’zat intended. Rio passed her by and landed a punch followed by a mauler shot that took down the Zen’zat’s shields again, then Rio backed up a step and played defense as furious blows came his way. Ever since the two ViLords had managed to detonate their death sticks on him the Zen’zat had shown a strength that Rio hadn’t seen before, and it was all they could do to manage a fighting retreat while trying to whittle down his defenses.

  Rio received a battlemeld prompt from Sara when she got in range, accepting it immediately and feeling his head tighten up with the increased stress, for there were now four of them in the link, but even before she came into view their comms activated and a very familiar battle song began to play, making it clear that Sara…in addition to spending too much time around Paul…had no intention of helping them retreat. She intended to take this bastard down.

  Angel and Mathis felt it too, and their movements suddenly shifted from one of controlled panic to determination as they pressed off one another with a Bataf conduit that spread them apart so fast that the Zen’zat couldn’t hit Mathis with another hammer blow, though he did manage to follow up with a Dre’mo’don at a few meters range that melted a new spot on the pink armor.

  The Archons had been drawing the Zen’zat further and further underground and away from the ruckus up top, and with no other Zen’zat minds nearby Rio knew they had their opportunity. If they couldn’t take him down here, then they’d at least find out what the depths of his strength truly were.

  Sara finally emerged in the corridor behind them some 150 meters away and took off sprinting towards the fight as ‘Duel of the Fates’ played over their comm channel, and fittingly so she didn’t pull out a ranged weapon as she approached, but rather a long cylinder that quickly expanded into a double-bladed staff. It wasn’t a plasma sword or any other type of energy weapon. Just a solid, durable stick.

  When she got closer and Rio was punching and kicking in defensive blocks, Angel connected to her with a Bataf conduit and pulled her through the air at increasing speed, throwing her at the Zen’zat.

  Sara spun vertically like a buzz saw, but the Zen’zat saw her coming and ducked in time. She passed over his head, nearly hitting him with the end of her sword, then unfurled and landed a few meters away as Rio extricated himself from the fight with a hasty Lachka wall that the Zen’zat didn’t even bother to try and break through. He turned to face Sara as she took her two-handed grasp on the long black rod and stepped into him, swinging with short, choppy strikes and taking advantage of the experience of the other three as they saw through her eyes and vice versa.

  The Zen’zat flicked away several hits on his arms then dove forward trying to knock her down, but only succeeded in landing a couple Dre’mo’don shots when his fists fell short. Sara hopped back gracefully, then took a step back in and whacked him across the side of his head as Rio shot him with his mauler, melting a little armor only to be grabbed by a Lachka field and pulled towards the Zen’zat.

  He reacted, pulsing his Rentar and breaking the grip, but it off balanced him enough for the Zen’zat to get moving his way. Rather than try to fight or run, Rio let himself fall to the ground face up, and as the Zen’zat came over him shoved a Jumat blast upward that lifted the green/black armor into the ceiling with a crunch.

  Sara stepped under him as he fell, swinging one end of her sword up but she was knocked back by another Lachka push, this one coming instinctively at the end of a flattened palm from the Zen’zat, suggesting that his mental fortitude was flagging a bit if he was having to rely on physical triggers to use the psionic, as he knocked her and then Mathis back, but he didn’t get Angel who was coming in a step behind and dove at him with her last death stick.

  The Zen’zat couldn’t dodge in time, but the weapon never hit his armor. Instead a bioshield emerged and took the brunt of the condensed Ta’lin’yi, absorbing all of the one shot weapon as the Zen’zat brought his knee up and kicked Angel back, firing three Dre’mo’don shots into and through her shields as she fell before Sara knocked him aside with a whack of her sword and Rio told the other two Archons to stay back and snipe when they could.

  The top Archon pulled out his own cylinder and extended his single blade sword, also a simple rod, and together with Sara they went at the Zen’zat who kept putting Dre’mo’dons into them routinely and eating away their shields…but the two trailblazers had no intention of letting him do that anymore, forcing him to block their sword strikes from both sides while Sara engaged and sustained her Da’nu. The tier 2 psionic was a rare one, and it allowed her to emit a field of energy that interfered with both her and everyone else’s Pefbar within the area of effect.

  That made her, Rio, Mathis, Angel, and the Zen’zat unable to see aside from with their own eyes, and with the two trailblazers attacking him from both sides that was a significant advantage…in addition to neutralizing everyone’s Lachka, for Pefbar was the
guiding mechanism for it, and if they couldn’t control it they couldn’t use it.

  Almost immediately the Zen’zat turned his full fury on Rio, ignoring Sara and jumping/clawing his way into physical contact with the Archon and pumping Dre’mo’don shots into his armor, burning away his recovering shields and putting a melt mark on his upper torso…then the Zen’zat latched onto him as he rolled, throwing the trailblazer into Sara and bowling her over as the other two Archons got some plasma shots off at him from range, adding a little bit more damage to his armor.

  The Zen’zat ignored the trailblazers and went after the weaker two, springing towards them and sending out a Fornax blast just prior to reaching them. It didn’t have full effect, for both ViLords had Snu that greatly reduced its influence over them. They remained standing and used their battlemeld Cerden, linking their bioshields into a much stronger barrier and put it out in front of them like a wall as the Zen’zat ran into them. His Dre’mo’dons absorbed into it, as did his momentum, giving the pair a moment to charge one of the most powerful battlemeld abilities.

  The Zen’zat hammered his fists into the bioshield, pushing the pair back a step as they dropped to their knees to get better leverage, then they released the amount of energy they’d summoned into their Jumatran…and shoved an upgraded, mutual Jumat blast into him so hard he flew all the way back to the two waiting trailblazers several meters down the hall.

  Sara and Rio both hit him midair with their swords, bringing him to the ground as Rio poured three mauler blasts into his armor, finally breaking through in one spot and hearing the Zen’zat roar in pain as he sent a wind-like Lachka pulse off him, but unable to control the energy matrix and make it do more than tickle. Sara tried to drive her sword tip into the breach in his armor, but the Zen’zat twisted around to deny that and started firing with both forearm weapons into Rio, not bothering to try to close range with him.