by Aer-ki Jyr
Though to be honest, Paul and all of the 12 trailblazer girls also had a ‘little connection’ that was just a part of their inter-badass relationships. They considered each other to be brothers and sisters, but they were also all godly fit and attractive, and the trailblazers were too smart to delude themselves by pretending otherwise.
But Riona wasn’t a trailblazer, so she got the ‘girlfriend’ label and it’d stuck seeing how Paul cringed a little every time he heard it…and he doubted that was going to change, because every time someone said ‘girlfriend’ it was also a slight insult, for those who delved into romance were inferior…
And the trailblazers lived, breathed, and bled superiority. They had to, otherwise they’d never be good enough to toe the line against the V’kit’no’sat, and it’d taken every ounce of naval skill Paul had to pull off this mutually damaging victory.
Though as he’d stated before, it was a team effort. And if he didn’t have an insanely skilled peer and highly trained empire backing him, this fight would have ended in a slaughter rather than a slim victory.
Paul didn’t stay angry at Morgan. He didn’t have the energy too. On impulse he decided to skip the shower and go straight into a regenerative crash…which amounted to him standing up out of his chair, walking a couple steps, then falling face down on the bed where he got to work repairing his frazzled mind. Workouts would follow later, but for now he needed sleep…and lots of it.
3
October 16, 4812
Orlero System (Devastation Zone)
Debris Field
Paul dove off the platform, falling extra fast through the air until he hit the water hands first and shot underneath, pinching his nose closed telekinetically so the water wouldn’t shoot up it. He twisted underneath and angled towards the glowing underwater marker beacons as he kicked to increase his angular speed. He was swimming for time in the ‘heavy water’ course that was entirely submerged with only a few emergency air pockets in case he needed them, but popping his face up into one would disqualify the Archon.
Not many could use this course in its entirety without a breath mask, but as Archons ranked up through their ability levels they got additional psionics. The lowest rank was Adept, which had no powers as those just out of basic training learned to use ambrosia and train to fight in the Trials, gaining experience and power in their physical abilities to ground them before they ever got their first psionic.
Acolyte level was attained after passing through the 99 ability levels of adept, each of which was attained through skills tests, and the transition came with the unlocking of the 7 basic psionics that all Zen’zat defaultly possessed and were lying dormant within Humans. In those 7 came telekinesis and telepathy, known as Lachka and Ikrid, which gave acolytes a huge advantage over adepts and the rest of the Star Force empire…as well as most of the galaxy…despite the fact that they could barely lift a marble in the beginning. Their strength level would increase with training, but size of tissue in their brain was a limiting factor…and the V’kit’no’sat races were much larger, meaning that a novice telekinetic there could lift far more, so the Archons had to be far better than their arch nemesis just to pull even.
And that was why most ground combat against the larger V’kit’no’sat races was fought in mechs and not hand to hand.
Zen’zat, however, Archons did fight…but Zen’zat had growth enhancements that put them in the 7-8 foot range. Star Force had a counterpart to them, known as Knights, which were just as large, but they did not have psionics. Why Star Force didn’t just copy the Zen’zat was a lingering question for outsiders, but within the Archon ranks it was well known.
Speed was more important than strength in most combat scenarios, and with the Zen’zat’s larger bulk came a slight speed penalty that many overcame with additional training, making them faster than Archon adepts and acolytes…which was why those two lowest ranking Archons were not put into the field.
The next level up were Archon Rangers, but they didn’t receive any additional psionics unless they unlocked them on their own through a process known as ‘ascensions’ where they met the genetic prerequisites the V’kit’no’sat had created to judge one’s worth. If such a benchmark occurred a wave of physical and mental stress would wash over an individual that they then had to control. If they couldn’t it would go away and the moment would be lost…or if it came in combat the individual could pass on it because they were in an bad situation…but if they successfully held onto it a flash growth of new psionic tissue would occur within seconds, painfully so, but they would have their upgrade without any medical treatment required.
That was how the trailblazers had unlocked their psionics beyond the basic 7, and after stumbling onto a workaround via the Twins, they learned a mental process were one individual could mimic the state of another and cause their own ascension to trigger. Archon protocol held that a higher ranking individual could share a psionic with a lower ranking one if they deemed them worthy, but that sharing ability required an Ikrid level equal to about a mid level ranger to accomplish.
Such early ‘gifting’ was rare, but it did happen. After another 99 ranger levels were met, one would gain the rank of Striker and continue to improve on their skills, both physical and psionic, until they passed through another 99 levels and transitioned to Padawan rank. When that happened they were paired with a higher level Archon for an apprenticeship of sorts, much like the Jedi Master/Apprentice relationship that the rank was named after, during which they would go through training and field missions as the ‘master’ would gradually share all their tier 2 psionics with the padawan.
That took time, for there were a total of 27 of them, and it was up to the ‘master’ to determine what order they gave them and when, but during the process they also unlocked…either through sharing or medical intervention…the Battlemeld ability.
It worked as a sharing between 2 or more individuals of their senses and thoughts, essentially linking their minds together so they could work together more efficiently, fighting in close quarters without bumping into one another because they felt where each other’s bodies were and how they were going to move before they did.
It was a powerful psionic hidden in the depths of the Zen’zat code that even the V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat had not discovered. The Zak’de’ron had put it there without telling the other races, along with many other psionics that their own personal branch of Zen’zat did unlock and use during the civil war that destroyed the founding race…but irony had it that they believed that the Zak’de’ron had given their personal Zen’zat extra psionics, not realizing that they were buried in the genetic code of all Zen’zat and those that served the rest of the dinosaur empire simply hadn’t worked hard or long enough to awaken them.
Star Force, knowing the threat they faced before the V’kit’no’sat had returned to Earth, had ample motivation to work their asses off along with a little information the Zak’de’ron had implanted in Kara to guide them in finding these hidden psionics, with the battlemeld being the most impressive. Padawans were paired with another so they both could practice the battlemeld psionics, of which there were 19, all of which Star Force had discovered and unlocked.
That meant the padawan rank was full of discovery and becoming acquainted with new abilities, which was why they got through their 99 skill levels they became a Mage, signifying that they had this plethora of almost magical abilities and knew how to use them. Usually it would be a mage paired with a padawan so they could continue to learn the battlemeld and increase the skill level of their psionics while adding only one new one…that being Sav.
It was a tier 3 ability and one that was rare within the V’kit’no’sat Zen’zat, but not unheard of. It upped the processing ability of one’s mind, allowing you to think faster and multitask at much higher volume. This essentially upgraded a lot of the other psionics the Archon already possessed, so this rank was spent incorporating Sav into what was previously learned and gaining a bit of
mastery in the long catalog of abilities one had recently gained as a padawan.
At this point, if the Archon was moving along quickly, they’d be improving one level per year, meaning each Archon rank signified about 100 years. That put mages at 500 years old, more or less, and each individual’s progression varied. Archon ranks were determined by their weakest of 5 military division skills, those being Commando, Mech, Aerial, Naval, and Aquatics. Paul’s least favorite was aquatics, because swimming had always given him trouble, but with some help from an Elarioni friend named Ariel he’d managed to become a fairly good swimmer, though his best skillset of the 5 was clearly naval…and by naval, that meant space navy, not water navy, which was designated as ‘aquatics,’ though there was some skill overlap there.
Paul had progressed through all those Archon ranks at or better than the average 1 year/1 level speed, but he had a disadvantage because he and the other trailblazers were having to write the training manuals for them as they went, while those coming up in later generations of Archons had their example and workout notes to learn from…but they still never caught up to the trailblazers, and the trailblazers were keen to make sure they never did, adding yet another small reason for them to continue hammering themselves in the infinite training that had become Archon culture.
The rest of Star Force was also obsessed with training, because it was the only way one would advance and obtain the point of ‘self-sufficiency’ where the body healed at least as much as it was damaged, meaning a person didn’t grow old. If they did and then obtained self-sufficiency at a decent level they’d actually de-age, as had occurred with the Star Force Director Davis, though a lot of credit for that went to Head Trainer Wilson, who valued the creator of Star Force enough to continually pester and drag him through workouts until he got to the self-sufficiency point, for the businessman had originally not been keen on doing workouts.
Now, after a couple millennia, Davis and learned and grown so much that he’d actually gone through Archon basic training and joined their ranks. That was something that had genuinely surprised Paul, for Davis hadn’t told them about it until he’d succeeded, but it made for a good example for others to follow. No matter how damaged your body was, there was a way to recover and regenerate what was lost so long as you were willing to put in the work necessary and had the guidance needed.
Star Force made a point of providing that guidance so even the most naïve of individuals had a starting point to work from if they chose. All children, which Star Force had come to call ‘younglings,’ were trained from birth in how to obtain self-sufficiency and most did, but one had to keep training to maintain it or it would gradually be lost…and therein some people lost their way, but Star Force gave them every opportunity make a comeback and a large chunk of the empire’s population wasn’t growing old as a result.
But that challenge, while impressive in its own right, was just entry level for the Archons. Self-sufficiency was so basic for them they didn’t even think about it, and their healing rates were so high by the time they reached mage that they could stop training altogether and not lose their self-sufficiency for years…but that would never happen, for training was ingrained into them by this point. The only question was how much, how hard, and how fast…with the trailblazers typically outworking everyone else by at least a small margin.
Once an Archon got through the 499 mage levels required to master all the psionics, they became a Titan, gaining the oh so powerful Jumat psionic, then another 499 levels later they became a ViLord and received the other 6 tier 3 psionics…which were the big ones as far as the V’kit’no’sat knew. Also they gained a little outward marker whenever they obtained a tier 3, including Sav, where their irises changed color to a grey with sparkling specs. It had been programed to be able to identify the more advanced Zen’zat at a glance, but within Star Force it denoted the difference between an Archon and Zen’zat, for everyone mage level and above had those eyes…including the psionics that went with them, and all of them by ViLord level, which no Zen’zat in V’kit’no’sat history had ever obtained, other than the Zak’de’ron Zen’zat, whom records of were sparse and incomplete.
But the Zak’de’ron had put even more powerful psionics deep into the Zen’zat code, these buried behind a much different test to unlock, one that occurred within the dream state. Star Force had accessed these, but did not know for certain how many of them there were. To date they’d uncovered 6, one of which was biological gravity drives similar to what allowed starships to fly between stars. That meant Paul could actually fly, but this current training challenge required him to swim using his muscles and he wasn’t about to cheat, for it was designed to make him stronger and he’d only be punishing himself if he did.
When an Archon got past ViLord’s 499 levels they became a Frieza, which was when all the tier 4 psionics that had been discovered were given to them. Most Zen’zat had between 7 and 12 psionics, depending on what they had unlocked through ascensions beyond the basic 7, but currently a newly minted Frieza had 67 and the psionic tissue that came with them all. Paul’s body was packed with it, almost to the point of not being able to handle anymore, but the Zak’de’ron had done their programming well and besides a rare few unintended consequences regarding the order in which the psionics were attained, everything fit perfectly within his body, though he was a bit heavier because of it.
That didn’t visibly slow him down as he swam at decent speed for a Goku, which was lightning fast compared to the lesser Archons. After one passed through the 499 Frieza levels one became a Trunks, then a Piccolo, and not too long ago the trailblazers had created the Goku rank as they began to work their way out of the Piccolo levels, creating harder and harder training requirements to stay ahead of their current skills. About a third of the trailblazers had reached Goku 1, with Paul currently at Goku 18 while Rio was all the way up to Goku 117. Morgan was at Goku 29 and it annoyed Paul that she’d pulled 11 levels ahead of him, but it was what it was. This war wasn’t kind to their training schedule, and fighting the damn Dinos always came first.
But when they weren’t, and as of right now the fleet was finishing recovering their debris and what bits of V’kit’no’sat ships they wanted, Paul and the others were training hard to make up the time lost and push themselves to new heights, both to compete against the others and to increase their power level so they could become more lethal on the battlefield…for while Paul had far more psionics than any Zen’zat in recorded history, he wasn’t stronger than them all. Some had lived hundreds of thousands of years and were faster, stronger, and more experienced than him. With his psionics he could fight them and maybe win, but the longevity that self-sufficiency allowed was a major advantage for very old civilizations…and unfortunately Star Force was relatively new at not even 3 millennia old yet.
The V’kit’no’sat empire was millions of years old, and when Paul ever came across one of the really powerful Zen’zat he needed to be ready…as well as if he had to tackle one of their dinosaur races, many of which he couldn’t even scratch despite his superhuman state.
And at the end of the day, it didn’t matter how physically powerful you were if there was a warship overhead bombarding a planet, which was why naval skill was more important than everything else in this war…but Paul needed to be as powerful as he could in all 5 divisions, because when the aquatic combat came he couldn’t afford to get caught off guard. And Humans were already at a huge disadvantage to the races that actually lived in the water. Fortunately Star Force had a few of those, but aquatic combat against the V’kit’no’sat was where the enemy held the greatest advantage.
It didn’t happen often, but Star Force had a lot of catching up to do and Paul was surrounded by reminders of how inferior he was. The galaxy was so vast and diverse there was no way to dominate it all, so Paul simply focused on improving his skills and facing the challenges that presented themselves…as well as reminding himself that there was no such thing as ‘too much power.’
So Paul continued to swim and swim underwater, drawing on his tier 3 psionic called Lovo’nek that allowed him to breathe oxygen through his skin. There wasn’t that much in the water, so he had to hold back his effort enough to match, but at least he didn’t have to worry about drowning anymore. He could even let his lungs be flooded with water and he wouldn’t die…but that was not pleasant and not what they were designed for, but it was nice to have a backup just in case he got knocked unconscious.
Paul swam through glowing rings, around and through currents, and through moving obstacles all the while fighting against 3x standard gravity that kept trying to pull him to the bottom of the pool given his muscular build that was less than buoyant. He could have cheated and used his Yen’mer to counter it, but that would be pointless so he strained to swim upwards slightly at all times and pull through the thicker water that the gravity compression created.
After 36 minutes he pulled himself out after making several laps, sucking in a breath of air and replenishing the slight lack he’d been tolerating over the last stretch as he ‘sprinted.’ His arms were burning a bit, as they normally did after hard swimming, which was a good sign. Too much burn and he’d damage himself, leaving Paul stiff and sore later, but a little meant he was pushing his skills and his body would adapt and grow stronger for it.
And on top of that, he’d made the course in his 4th best time, meaning the stagnation from his recent lull in training had been burned off and he was back in the groove…swimming wise, anyway.
Paul crawled up out of the pool and stood up, using his telekinesis to wring the water out of his hair and push it off his naked body. Most Archons wore minimal suits when swimming, but Paul had picked up the habit of going in nude because it left him at a slight disadvantage and he wanted his swimming skill to be firmly entrenched…not dependent on clothing and slightly diminished if he ever was forced into the water without them.