by Justin Sloan
The first ones came at her, slithering across the ground, while a large one from the wall pounced.
Her sword sliced through the air. The monsters dodged, coming up at her from another angle, but this time she twisted the blade, bringing it down without hesitation. The first monster fell with a crunch as she cut through it like butter, bits of it flying around her. The blade nearly hit the next one, but it was a big sucker and lunged at her, knocking her backward and onto her ass.
More monsters were slithering over to her. She swiped at her feet, sprung up and punched the flying monster before driving it into the wall with her sword.
Catching her breath, she stepped back. Her eyes flitted from one side to the other, scanning the cavern for her next attacker.
But as she stood there, she noticed a new glow, and realized it was on her sword. The green line was now glowing partially up the blade. Another light caught her attention, this one from her arm. Four little dots lit up, then a fifth. She counted the dead monsters—five. Interesting.
There was no way that was a coincidence, but she wanted to test it out. Again she charged, and the fighting continued. One after another, she cut them down, pausing from time to time to watch the green light increase on her sword. The little blue lights lit up along her arm until they were almost to her shoulder.
Now the chamber was positively glowing, and only three monsters remained. The same number of unlit circles on her arm’s armor.
She threw herself at them, quickly destroying them, then stepped back and looked down. The sword glowed to its full potential, and her last blue circle filled in.
A rush of energy filled her, tingling up from the suit. She felt it growing thicker, stronger... better.
As if she had just leveled up. Holy shit. This was too much fun. She checked, and sure enough, the lights had reset back at zero.
With a new zest for the fight, she charged into the cavern, her battle cry piercing the darkness. Now the creatures were falling left and right, but she noticed that the blue lights weren’t filling up quite as fast as before. When she came to a fork in the tunnels, a light appeared inches from her face and she nearly stumbled back, not expecting that.
“Danger,” a voice in her head said as the light flashed with the same word. She realized there was a layer of something in front of her—no, not in front of her, but surrounding her face. She lifted her hand to try and touch her face, and realized her hands were gloved now too, but still allowed for feeling through some sort of sensors. Around her head was a helmet, though she wasn’t sure if she had gotten it when she leveled up or if it had been there the whole time.
“This is too weird,” she said, and then stared as the word danger on her display disappeared. Unable to recognize command appeared in its place.
It was a HUD. But how did the helmet allow for full visibility—cameras around the sides or something? She was pretty sure the whole thing couldn’t be made of glass, but she had to know. Pausing to take it off, she ignored the words that popped up saying, Danger, do not remove helmet in combat. She found a switch near the back, twisted, and off it came.
Sure enough, it was a metallic helmet with a black faceguard, opaque at this angle.
She was about to put it back on and continue when a screeching sound came from one of the passageways. A moment later, a burst of red light rushed at her.
Throwing herself backward, the light hit the wall behind her and sent pieces of red rock flying in all directions. One hit her in the back, sending her staggering forward and causing her to drop the helmet.
Again the sound came and a flash of red. She leaped up, but only had time to brace herself, arms up to shield her face. The action caused a circle of blue light to form an inch from her left arm, and when the red light hit, it sparked, then vanished.
Without pausing to think about how she had made the small force field, she grabbed the helmet and put it on as she stood and charged down the tunnel. The danger warning was flashing, but she didn’t care. Something had just shot at her!
The next laser came at her and she swatted it aside with her sword, causing the green light of the sword to increase—Hell yeah! More experience points toward the sword upgrade she realized, as she spotted the creature holding a gun and screaming at the sight of her.
Instead of continuing to run straight, she pushed off of one side of the tunnel, then hit the other and pushed again, coming at him from an angle he hadn’t expected. Her sword sliced through the weapon first, then the creature. When he lay dead, she looked down at what appeared to be a short, purple-skinned man wrapped in various cloths of black and purple.
This simulation was a little too real. Her skin goose-prickled under her armor, and she could sense the change of wind in the tunnel through her sensors.
“Turn sensors off,” she said on a whim, and was glad to see that the HUD display responded that it would do so. A moment later, the feeling of wind stopped. Now she could hear her breathing in the helmet, and it felt much more like she was in battle armor.
Another message flashed across her screen. Unspent skill points.
She frowned, then laughed. That was a message she was all too used to from her video game days. She saw several options flash before her on the HUD, along with the number two.
DEFENSE
Grip
Strength
Speed
Shield
Weapons
THE LAST ONE made her wonder. But she had always been one for upping her strength and speed before bonus skills, so she said, “Speed” and “Shield.”
An image of herself appeared, looking quite badass, she had to admit. She was in full combat armor, the sleek metal conforming to her figure without being constraining.
Confirm Upgrade?
“Yes,” she replied. She watched as the word Speed appeared over the figure and a line of yellow increased from zero to one beside it. Next to the word Shield, a blue line extended from zero to one.
This was too cool, in her nerdy she-never-would-have-told-her-friends kinda way. The HUD display vanished, leaving only the image of the tunnel that had been partially obscured a moment before.
Unsure how to test her supposed upgrade, she moved around, then paused and raised her left arm quickly, as if defending from an attack. Sure enough, the light shield appeared, slightly larger and more intricately designed than the last time she had seen it.
She was about to test her speed when another shrill sound came from farther down the tunnel, then more… and more. With a grin, she hefted her sword up to her side as Dex had shown her, and charged.
9
HADRIAN’S SHIP: TRAINING ROOMS
Hadrian had lingered in the large room just long enough to ensure Samantha’s heart rate didn’t escalate, but he wasn’t surprised when she began her training in the simulation room without delay.
The next stop had been Training Room B, where he had Napalm and Kwan working together. The door swished open at his press, and he watched intently as Napalm attempted a feint before coming in with a punch that Kwan easily swept aside and countered.
Napalm stumbled back, fire raging in his eyes, but he regained his composure and came in for another strike. Again, Kwan sent him back without apparent effort.
The two turned to face Hadrian as he stepped into the room. It was very much like the room he had Sam training in, with metallic walls like the inside of a hollow egg.
“Keep at it,” Hadrian said, nodding his approval.
“Easy for you to say,” Napalm grumbled. “You’re not the one covered in bruises.”
“Which will make you stronger,” Kwan said, with almost a smile on his lips. The man never smiled, so he was clearly enjoying this.
“Both of you are experts when it comes to shooting,” Hadrian stated, “but Napalm has a distinct advantage in that area. Especially considering the added explosions he can create with energy. You have taught me this skill, Napalm, and I in turn taught it to Samantha. Though she seems to have forgotten how t
o harness it for the time being.”
Napalm frowned, then his eyes widened as he understood. “And now you want me to teach Kwan?”
Hadrian shook his head. “Not exactly. Maybe… Truth be told, I’m not sure regular humans can learn it.”
Now it was Kwan’s turn to frown. “But the girl…?”
Hadrian simply nodded, not ready to answer that half-question. “We will try regardless.”
“So this guy can punch, and that makes him deserve my powers?” Napalm turned to Kwan with distaste. “Sorry, big guy. But I don’t think it works that way.”
“How does it work, then?” Hadrian asked.
“I signed up to kill baddies, to get them for what they did to my people and yours. That don’t mean I’m ready to trust humans with our secrets. You already taught Sam, why don’t you teach this one too?”
Hadrian shook his head. “She was unique. As I said, I’m not even sure other humans can learn. But if they can, it would have to be from the source.”
Kwan grunted. “I never said I wanted his power.”
Napalm stared, then motioned and said, “There you go.”
Hadrian raised an eyebrow, then nodded. “Very well. Let’s see how the two of you do as a team. Maybe that will change both of your minds.”
With a wave of his hand, liquid metal rose out of the middle of the floor and formed into two pods, each large enough for one of the fighters. Just like Samantha, they were hesitant to enter, but complied soon enough.
He lingered, watching the images of the metallic room shift as Napalm and Kwan checked out their new body armor, then began taking down enemies to grind for skill points. Hadrian noted how little Napalm used his ability to manipulate energy and cause explosions, instead mostly focusing on the use of his sword and trying to improve his hand-to-hand combat.
It was only when they found themselves surrounded by enemies that Napalm finally shouted for Kwan to get back, then unleashed his power. The enemy was gone, though Napalm’s experience didn’t rise as much as it would have if he had used the sword or hand-to-hand combat.
Watching them move on to their next enemy, Hadrian thought back to his own training days, when he and his friends back home had been through the gauntlet, as they called it. Fighting and leveling up until their armor and weapons were the best around.
The only one to best him had been Noraldian. He still remembered the day she strode past the city temple in her armor. She had paused to lift up into the air and float by, proving that she had reached the level he had been attempting for several months.
He had rushed to the training halls and spent every waking hour training, even going without sleep for two days, before finally achieving it. When he rushed out and found her to show off, she was of course at the next level already. But they had floated up to each other, sharing a smile that he would never forget, and he’d felt a spark that would never leave him.
If the invasion hadn’t happened, that spark would still be the raging fire it had grown to be between them, and he would have a child soon. Instead, they had ripped it all away from him.
Now the fire still burned, but it had taken on a different direction—one of destruction. He would fuel the flames until they consumed all who had been involved in the death of Noraldian and the rest of his people.
Hadrian turned from the training room and decided to check on Carma, nodding to Dex as they passed in the hall. Dex was the only one he had no need to train, and he didn’t worry about his ability to perform when it came time for action. But there was something else there, too. Another reason he didn’t put the being in one of the simulations. If Dex’s race learned how to use these simulations, learned the secret of his jump spots, the alliance would lose their advantage. He couldn’t risk it, no matter how much he wanted to trust the being.
Carma was already in her simulation, so he stood nearby and watched, observing. She was good. Even if her skills had been used to declare war on men back on her planet, he had to admire her abilities. When he had first met her, sensing her power and the advantage she would bring to his team, he had gone in the guise of Noraldian. Her death allowed him to take on her likeness, as did all others of his species, but he had found this likeness particularly painful to wear. Carma had tried to seduce him in that form, but the minute he revealed himself, she had attacked. After the fact, he often wondered if she had known all along, and her attempt at seduction had been a trick to get him to change form and reveal the ploy.
Either way, she had agreed that the fight for the universe was greater than her civil war, so she had come.
She had already increased her speed by five skill points, though it was clear she didn’t need to. The blur across the screens made him dizzy, so he departed, leaving her to it.
As he left, he realized there was another reason he had turned away. Carma had a way about her, even in body armor, that tempted the strongest men. While he grieved over his loss, it had been many years, and he couldn’t help his mind from wandering.
Couldn’t help it, but didn’t like the feeling. Especially the guilt.
So instead, he headed back to observe Samantha and be ready for her when she came out of training. She was the youngest and needed the most guidance.
But also, he had to remind himself, had the most potential.
SAMANTHA HAD GAINED two more skill points, but the enemies were coming too fast for her to take time to upgrade herself or her sword. Every time she cleared a path, more skittering bugs came at her, more purple shooters. Finally, she decided she’d had enough.
Lasers shot out from behind her as she ran, the tunnel caving in around her as she felt the extra boost in speed. Her feet were taking her faster than she had ever run before, though she still felt in complete control as she navigated her way through the tunnel and back to the cavern.
Emerging from the cavern, she suddenly found herself rolling across metal, bright lights surrounding her, and the form of Hadrian looming over her.
Samantha pushed herself to stand, only then realizing she still had on the full armor and helmet. She removed the helmet and started to take off the gloves, then stopped when Hadrian approached, amused. He pressed a button on the underside of each wrist, and the armored gloves pulled back into the sleeves of the body armor.
“It works the same with the helmet. No need to pull it off like that.” He stared at her a moment longer, then said, “So?”
“That was… insane. I loved it.” She beamed, sweat casting a shine across her forehead. “I want more, but…”
“Yes?”
“Those enemies… They weren’t Syndicate.”
“You’ll find many of your enemies aren’t.” Hadrian gestured to the walls. “That was a simulation… Next time, it might not be.”
She frowned, then shook her head. “Explain.”
He smiled. “You see, this ship has been places. It keeps memories and knows where enemies lie in wait for its return. It can also send projections of me, or anyone in that armor, to those locations. You will be fighting the enemy, but only lesser ones, for the point of training. I have taken to calling this training ‘grinding.’ The term’s from your Earth video games.”
She laughed at that. Video games had been a product of her youth. But what she was doing now was so much better.
“But… how is the armor still with me?” she asked.
He gestured to where the liquid metal pod was sinking back into the ground, forming a dark gray hexagon on the floor. “It is made from the same material. An ancient form of metal from my planet. It is very strong, a form of biotech… though some call it magitech. You have earned it by proving yourself to the tech. Congrats.” He turned to leave, but added, “Get some rest. We don’t have much longer now, and I’ll want you all to get some group training before we arrive.”
Samantha crossed her arms. “I can rest when we’ve killed the enemy. How do I get back in there?”
Hadrian laughed, shaking his head. “When wearing the armor, j
ust step into the middle of the room. But… be warned… It’s not all simulation.”
“You mean I can be hurt for real when in there?”
He nodded, then exited.
For a moment she considered leaving, resting as he advised. She shook her head and laughed at the idea. Her, resting when she knew this was here waiting for her? Hell no.
With that thought, she turned and stepped into the middle of the room. The liquid metal rose up around her in a bright flash of light, like a waterfall going backward, and she was engulfed in it.
THEY WERE MOVING in the right direction, but something felt off to Hadrian. His eyes roamed the stars, hoping for a sign of what it was. Normally he might catch a glimpse of something in the future right about now, but it was as if there was a faint veil of fog over that part of his vision.
What could be causing this?
A buzz sounded, interrupting his thoughts, and his captain’s voice rang through.
“The Elders, sir,” Jackal said.
“Thank you, Captain.”
Hadrian secured his gold robe and turned to face a display on the wall, making sure his normal self was showing.
“Put them through,” he commanded. A moment later the wall lit up and a life-sized hologram of the table of the Elders appeared. He took a seat in his chair, pushing it up to the holo table as if he were really there.
“Where are you and these knights of justice?” Orlean demanded. She had features similar to him, though her species had eyes of pure blue, no white to them, and hair that flowed as if alive. He often joked, when discussing Earth lore, that Orlean had been where the legend of Medusa had come from. Though he never said so to her face.
She had apparently done her own Earth homework, referencing King Arthur and his knights of justice here. Hadrian smiled, finding he liked that, especially since in this scenario that made him King Arthur.
“I have them each in training, High Elder Orlean.”
She smiled dryly. “I was more getting to the fact that you and your ship have yet to arrive.”