by Aer-ki Jyr
Halfway into the main chambers an elite guard unit caught up to them, wearing full armor that they’d only just now put on. They didn’t bother trying to shoot at the invaders from range, but ran and jumped at them, intending to subdue the smaller Humans in hand to hand.
Paul, now linked to Morgan via battlemeld, stepped in front of her and raised a forearm…then the two Scionate midair rammed into an invisible wall and bounced off, with Morgan coming forward a moment later and throwing back the next three with a concussive blast. Those that went down didn’t stay down, and both Archons silently agreed not to hit these guys with Ikrid. They were clearly better trained and equipped than the others, and since they were here to make a statement they decided to take the 9 of them hand to hand.
Without using Bioshields or Jumat again, Paul and Morgan jumped after the Scionate closest to them and proceeded to beat the crap out of the quadrupeds without even having to use their powered armor. Their opponents were good and got a few hits in…even managing to take down Paul’s shields as three of them pinned him down momentarily, but the Human was simply too fast and skilled for them to subdue, with him punching them into a haze before pulling out a stun pistol and finishing them off.
Morgan did likewise, only using her stun gloves, finishing off her fifth a moment after Paul returned his pistol to its slot on his back rack, sensing more Scionate lurking around the corners, both ahead and behind them. He stretched out his Ikrid to its maximum range, getting a feel for how many there were and where they were, picking up on a large group moving through another area of the den. As Morgan joined him he isolated one of those minds and was able to pick up a flicker of emotion…fear and haste, meaning this wasn’t a combat-oriented mind.
Paul pointed out the location through their battlemeld and they both took off running, with Morgan knocking the next two armor-less Scionate into the wall with a wave of her hand as they jumped them at the next corner. Six more after that and they had a clear hallway that the pair sprinted down, not bothering to render the two behind them that got back up unconscious.
Morgan continued to battle those they came across as Paul tracked the ‘civilians’ as they were moved about trying to get them to an auxiliary entrance, of which there were 13 possibilities, none of which was a hangar. Despite encountering fanatical and extremely pissed Scionate throwing themselves at the Archons at every turn, the pair was rapidly closing on the closest group of evacuees. When they did get up to them Paul had already identified who they were, so as Morgan took care of the guards accompanying them he pulled out his rifle and stunned the younglings, not letting any get away but doing no physical damage to them.
The trailblazers moved on in a flash, darting here and there inside the massive den and laying waste to all those who challenged them…but they still hadn’t found the ones they were after, prompting Paul and Morgan to split up, with him going out to the auxiliary entrances and Morgan staying more in the center, given how little real opposition was being thrown up against them.
Paul got to one of the entrances and engaged a dozen Scionate coming in from the outside, none of which were armored, jumping into the center of them and emitting a Fornax field. He held the effort long enough to stun them all then ran on. He had a senzu bean in his cheek too, holding it back for when he needed a recharge, though Fornax didn’t eat ambrosia, so he had to be careful not to drain his mental power reserve there, and same with his Ikrid. Neither would completely extinguish, but it’d get to a point where they’d be laboriously hard to use.
That wasn’t going to happen for a while, given how advanced both he and Morgan were and how much time and training had gone into developing their skills and increasing their mental reserves, but his bioshields were a different matter. They did eat ambrosia, but unlike Morgan he wasn’t pre-dosing, instead monitoring his current levels by feel with the senzu bean there to start replenishing his saturation level when needed.
That moment came a few minutes later when he ran up against a group of Scionate armed with heavy plasma weapons. He put up a bioshield over his armor’s shields that were still recharging in order to avoid taking damage, and the invisible wall blocked the plasma easily, allowing him to close with and disable the Scionate hand to hand, but getting there had taken an enormous toll on his shield. He’d learned how to continuously recharge it, or nearly so, meaning that the longer he held it the more ambrosia flowed into his biological emitters.
If enough plasma hit it the bioshield would breach, but it had avoided that fate this time by a narrow margin. As he knocked down and stunned the last of the group, Paul felt the first twinges of ambrosia depletion, prompting him to chomp down on the senzu beam as he ran off down the far hallway. It wouldn’t work as fast as a DBZ senzu bean, but he knew from training that it wouldn’t take long for the first of it to hit his blood stream…after which he was going to have an overload if he didn’t keep using the bioshield, which was less handy than Morgan’s Jumat, for she could just fire it off as many times as needed to keep from overdosing.
A minute later and another 37 Scionate down Paul sensed Kara entering the building, with her explaining why a moment later as he came up on another group of 5 unarmed Scionate.
“These guys just don’t quit,” he whispered to himself just before he punched the first one so hard he actually lifted it up towards the ceiling. He felt/heard ribs crack, but he was fairly sure that it wasn’t a lethal blow.
“Paul, I’ve found the leaders,” Kara said over the comm. “They were heading for an exit and I just turned them back. Looks like they’re heading for the audience chamber.”
“Thanks. What’s it…look like outside?” he answered as he took down the last Scionate with a kick that launched it into the wall.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Sounds like fun,” Paul said, heading towards the waypoint that Kara sent him and Morgan.
“Where do you want me?”
“Can you give us a few minutes alone?”
“I’ll see what I can do, but I can’t cover all the angles simultaneously.”
“I know, just slow them down,” Paul said, ducking under a running paw slap and coming up with a reverse right elbow into another Scionate’s back as it tried to reverse course and nail him from behind. That dropped it to the ground then Paul ran on, coming across 8 more in three separate hallways before he finally got to the audience chamber, which had a single entrance that he saw Morgan knock down with her Jumat as he approached.
The small double doors flew inward, both of them dislodged from the doorjamb and trailing electrical wires as they hit the ground and skidded a few meters towards the 18 Scionate assembled inside the large chamber. Two of them rushed the Archons, with Morgan letting Paul take both guards down hand to hand as she looked at the others, searching their minds and confirming that they were in fact the Scionate leadership…or rather 16 of the 21 on their ruling council, with the other 5 having been outside the city at the time being, but these would do just fine.
“Who are you?” one of them asked, a mix of anger and fear as Morgan and Paul casually walked towards the group as they retreated back towards the ornate pedestals on which they normally sat during official sessions.
Linked together as they were in the battlemeld, the trailblazers combined their Lachka and lifted the Scionate that had spoken up into the air and held him there as the others recoiled in sheer terror. Paul walked up underneath him and removed his helmet.
“Human…” the Scionate growled, unable to move aside from flailing its paws.
Paul reached into his pack and pulled out the bag of senzu beans and tossed another one to Morgan, knowing she was getting low again, then he turned and lightly punched the Scionate in the underbelly before letting it unceremoniously drop out of the air as Morgan turned back towards the doors to deal with another pair coming in at them.
9
As she ran back Paul moved forward and emitted a Fornax field that took the others to the ground, ho
lding them there for several seconds before letting them up and running forward three steps into a light jump kick that sent one of the younger Scionate leaders toppling several meters across the floor. Paul then proceeded to work his way around the group, hitting or kicking them all at least once while Morgan caught the few that tried to make their way to the doors.
Like Paul, she kept them conscious and with light injuries, considering that some of them were very old and decrepit… though they were all younger than the pair of Archons calendar wise.
Paul finished off with a punch to one, then he picked it up by the front two paws and spun it around him in a circle before throwing it through the air towards the middle of the audience chamber where it smashed into another that Morgan threw at the same time. The two collided with a ricocheting thump and dropped to the ground, one of which managed to land on its feet.
“Do we have your attention now?” Paul growled as both he and Morgan came to a standstill, with her still blocking the door and staring down several nearby Scionate that wisely backed away towards the others that were taking cover amongst each other behind the lounging pedestals, most of whom were showing teeth and other gestures of anger and pain.
“If not we can continue with the lesson?” Morgan added when none of them spoke.
“Why are you here?” one of the old ones finally said, walking forward with a limp. He was both angry and curious, as to how they had managed to make it this far and how they were doing what they were doing with these invisible powers.
“We are here because you violated the terms of colonization,” Paul said, pointing a finger at the Scionate and seeing him reflexively flinch backwards. “You’re killing for food and running an underground meat market…which we are in the process of dismantling,” he said, pulling his helmet through the air with a gesture and landing it back in his hand, sending yet another shock through the Scionate.
“Not only is it a violation of your word, it is behavior that Star Force will not tolerate in the ADZ or anywhere else,” he said loudly, with considerable steel in his voice. “You thought you could hide your meat farms outside the ADZ and smuggle it in through dummy organizations and get away with it. Well, you’re wrong. And if you think that because your entire race is already set up in the ADZ that you’re too numerous or powerful to remove…you’re also wrong. I don’t care how many ships you have or how it’ll weaken the front, we will not allow this to continue, and we will do whatever has to be done to stop it, even if it means destroying your empire.”
“But it won’t come to that,” Morgan said, walking up to join him and pulling off her helmet so they could see her face…as well as the recording devices in the chamber. “Because you’re going to stop, now and forever. Isn’t that right?”
“We don’t take orders from Humans,” one of the Scionate in the back half whispered.
“But you will honor the agreement you signed,” Paul responded. “Else you will be punished…and when I say ‘you’ I mean those of you right here, plus the few that are elsewhere. You are the leaders of your race and responsible for its actions…and by responsible, I mean responsible. We can show up on your doorstep with a war fleet if necessary, but like Morgan said, it’s not going to go down like that, because we know where you live, and now you know that we know.”
Paul let that sink in for a moment.
“We haven’t killed any of you,” Morgan continued, “and let that be a lesson. Star Force doesn’t kill unless necessary, and it is not necessary to maintain a food supply. It is dishonorable and downright sick. I don’t care if you personally knew it was happening or not…you are responsible, and let your current injuries be a reminder of that. This ends, now…or we’re coming back and removing you,” she said, pointing in one long arc to include them all, “from power. I’m sure there are other bloodlines that could do a better job of running your empire, so I doubt Star Force would have to actually take full control, but that’s still an option.”
Paul abandoned Morgan and walked up to the Scionate group, with those closest dropping to the floor in a preemptive crouch ready to defend themselves…but it was no use as the pair of Archons telekinetically pulled the one Paul wanted up off the ground and over to him.
The trailblazer punched him in the side of the head, spinning him around as he landed on the floor.
“No you will not,” Paul said coldly, having read his thoughts just a moment ago. “You will not hide this from us again, and you will not be able to negotiate your way around it. The terms of the original agreement are firm, and if you doubted out willingness or ability to enforce them, I can beat you as many times as necessary to get the point across.”
Paul flipped a hand in his direction and telekinetically pushed him back across the floor to the others.
“Note that we’re being far kinder to you than you were to the bernen we rescued from your farms. You’re fortunate you didn’t set up any on your worlds, else our fleet would be over your heads pounding the crap out of your defenses in order to rescue them. You do not and will not subjugate another race, no matter how ‘inferior’ you deem them…which is fortunate for you, because as you can see, I’m far superior to you.”
Another Fornax field went up and knocked them all to the ground, with Paul flinching slightly as he felt the effects from Morgan as well. Once she released it he walked up to one that was starting to stand up and took it back down with a second Fornax blast, then held its head down with a telekinetic hold unaugmented by Morgan.
“This is how Archons file a diplomatic protest,” he said, focusing on the one individual with the others bare meters away staring him down with looks more of anger than fear now that it appeared the Humans weren’t going to kill them. “Which means this is also your warning. Break the terms of colonization again and we’ll be forced to take action, because we would not allow you to colonize here otherwise, and now that you are here going back on that agreement is not an option. You will acquit yourselves with honor or you will be removed, one way or another. There is no middle ground.”
Paul pushed the Scionate’s head back down into the floor with a pop of its jaw before releasing it and walking through the others, daring them to strike him, and he could tell that some were eyeing his helmetless head for such an attack, but they wisely backed down and retreated a few steps to give him room.
“You can tell your associates in the meat market that we will deal with them in the same manner. What you have been doing is an abomination and we will not permit it in any form. If you go outside the ADZ and keep the meat out there…we may stop you. If you bring it in here, we will stop you. If you kill for food you are an enemy of Star Force. This we explained clearly before, if you did not listen that is your problem. We will not permit this…not now…not ever.”
Paul walked out the far side of the knot of Scionate and pulled his helmet back on as he got a telepathic update from Kara, indicating that heavy ground troops were massing outside.
“Remember,” Morgan reiterated before putting her helmet back on as well, “we know where you live, and if we have to come back we’re coming for you first.”
Both Archons walked across the chamber, turning their backs on the Scionate but watching them with Pefbar just in case they were stupid enough to try and jump them…then when they moved through the doors and around the corner they took off running, with both of them pulling their helmets back off and Paul digging out the senzu beans again. He took and cheeked two of them, with Morgan wanting three, then he secured the pouch and his helmet before Kara caught up to them, with the three Archons skidding to a halt facing each other.
“I think they want us pretty bad,” she said, sending both Paul and Morgan a mental image of what was gathering outside. “They’re already in the building and sending more, but I think they’re waiting for us to come out.”
“Let’s not disappoint them,” Morgan said as she crunched down on one of the oblong spheres that felt and tasted like jelly beans, this one with a
purple flavor.
“They’ve got tanks on the way too…and plenty of fighters in the air.”
“Hang back and go out a side entrance while we distract them,” Paul said, feeling multiple minds approaching from both directions in the building. “Get clear and get our ride. We’ll meet you part way.”
“You’re going to need my help,” Kara insisted.
“We’ve got this,” Morgan said confidently. “Go.”
Kara nodded, then disappeared into a shadow that held next to the wall as the first of the Scionate caught up to them from behind.
Morgan turned and knocked them back with a concussive wave, careful not to hit Kara, then she and Paul took off running the opposite direction and met up with three Scionate coming towards them, taking them hand to hand just enough to knock them down and get by, finishing them off with a Fornax blast each to keep them down long enough to get a few meters ahead of them.
The pair kept up the same tactic as they worked their way back towards the main doors, with almost as many Scionate trailing them as there were ahead. Morgan had to blast their way through a crowd of 30+ just to get through the doors, throwing off wave after wave to plow them aside…then they were through into open air, with hundreds of armored Scionate soldiers waiting for them.
Battlemeld linked, both Paul and Morgan knew they couldn’t stay put or the Scionate would overwhelm them with both plasma and muscle. As they came out the doors the yellow-armored Scionate fired a slew of plasma blasts at the Humans, with Paul stepping in front and forming a shield wall just small enough for the two of them to hide behind, then as he got a few steps away from the nearest of the quadrupeds he reached his right arm back and linked it to Morgan via a Repulsor conduit as she jumped forward up over his head.