by Aer-ki Jyr
The two trailblazers blew right by them and made their way out into the subsurface forest of junk using their Pefbar to see in what quickly became almost near dark save for periodic yellow/orange orbs of light that Star Force had placed here previously to give some navigational aid. Paul and Jason didn’t need them to see nearby, nor did the V’kit’no’sat who also had Pefbar, but it was nice to be able to use your eyes a little bit and not have them completely unprepared for the flashes of weaponsfire that would follow.
It was still jarring as they came across a group of four Zen’zat that mindlessly engaged the two Archons…though traditionally that would have been to their advantage. Each of the four was over 7 foot tall and had the muscle mass to match, all encased within black/green armor that looked like moving stone and had weapon ports on the wrists so they could shoot with their hands empty, though one of the four also had an additional hand cannon that would do considerably more damage.
So at first glance it looked like the two Archons were going to get mowed down, and on purpose Jason shot out the nearest lights, dropping them into pure dark with only their Pefbar to see by…thus hiding the Star Force armor color before the Zen’zat could see it and realize they were about to be horribly outmatched.
When they came into firing range the Zen’zat opened up with their Dre’mo’don forearm cannons, spraying green orbs against the Archons’ shields with a few misses. Paul and Jason ignored them, knowing they could take a few before they got into trouble, and split directions. Paul went right and Jason went left as they reached out and activated their Pa’no’semak…otherwise known as ‘Battlemeld,’ linking their minds together and giving them access to 19 additional psionics that only worked in conjunction with one or more others.
When they were linked they activated their Lew, creating an invisible conduit of energy that stretched between the two of them with their intent being to drag it through the Zen’zat who, as far as Star Force was aware, still had not discovered the Battlemeld psionics within their own genome…meaning they had no idea what was coming.
When the energy hit the first one it passed through his shields and armor, doing no damage but when it came into contact with his mind the direct contact bypassed the Ikrid blocks both the Zen’zat and Humans had, giving Paul and Jason a momentary access to their minds. It wasn’t something interactive, meaning they couldn’t look into his memories or talk to him through it. Rather the trailblazers had programmed a specific Ikrid ‘message’ that anyone who hit the energy ribbon would get…in this case the command to fall asleep.
When it hit it didn’t fully succeed, for the Zen’zat minds were too strong, but it did partially register in the first all the way to the fourth, causing two of them to drop to a knee before they started to realized something was wrong, but that was more than enough time for Paul and Jason to circle around behind them and punch two in the back, firing their tiny Bra’hem cannons that drew power from their exoskeleton and released from the palm of their hands. The green beams nearly got through the shields on the Zen’zat before they realized what was going on, then the other two both threw telekinetic slaps at the Archons that would have been sufficient to knock them off their feet, but thanks to them expecting the counterattack and their Pefbar, they could see the wave of energy a split second before it landed.
They both pulsed their Rentar, melting the Lachka attack as it touched them, then they responded with individual Jumat blasts that knocked those two Zen’zat on their asses, giving the Archons a moment to deal with the other two shield-weakened ones. Jason went hand to hand with his while Paul threw another Jumat blast into the other and knocked him into a wall of debris, then kicked up into him as he fell…punting him high and to the side with a burst of his Yetu psionic that made his leg move a lot faster than normal.
The Zen’zat flew through the air and almost hit another, but he deftly dodged and fired on Paul…who yanked him forward with his own telekinetic attack enough to off balance the Zen’zat so he couldn’t evade when the trailblazer fired another lethal green beam into his chest plate. That set the recharge timer on that hand, meaning that both of Paul’s weapons were not able to fire save for weakened charges, for they were designed for large bursts and not rapid fire.
But the Zen’zat’s shields were now down and Paul punched into him, getting a very good parry from the Zen’zat that caused him to exchange several blows, delaying his next attack long enough that the other Zen’zat got up and fired on him, draining his shields even more until Paul dragged the big body in front of him and punched repeatedly into his midsection, hearing the armor crack a little before blowing him away with linked Jumat blast thanks to Jason’s help. Their Jumatran ability allowed them to combine their Jumat and enhance it enough that the 320 pound Zen’zat was tossed through the air like a toy back into his brethren.
Paul then had his right gauntlet recharged and fired at one of Jason’s targets, with the pair changing off and on over the following minute as they wore down the Zen’zat defenses and eventually made the kills without having to do anything too fancy. After that they moved on, linking into the battlemap and getting direction from the base commander on where the greatest level of threat activity was.
They diverted there, fighting a few more skirmishes along the way against Zen’zat and some larger Kar’ka, but eventually they ended up coming alongside one of their own mechs, Thor-class, that was holding position just beyond a narrow passage in the debris.
“They’re on the other side,” the mechwarrior said to Jason and Paul via comm as they approached. “They can’t get through without giving me a clean shot, but I can’t get to them either…and there are two of them.”
“Keep this side clear and watch our back. We’ll handle them.”
“Both?”
“Both,” Jason confirmed as the trailblazers pulsed their Yetu again and sprinted through the gap faster than either of them could naturally run…directly into a large cave-like chamber with a pair of Brat’mar standing inside flank to flank but facing different directions. There was another entrance on the other side that also had Star Force troops and a couple of mechs there that couldn’t get in either. The Triceratopses were pinned and going to fight to the bitter end, whether that be waiting for a precision shot from a warship coring down through the surface to get to them or killing as many ground troops as they could here before they eventually succumbed.
Paul and Jason weren’t going to risk anyone else pushing through those kill zones and just missed a large blue cannon beam that shot through the gap coming from the clear horns on the otherwise fully armored Brat’mar. Had that hit them it would have eaten away all their shields and most of their armor, which made it an effective anti-mech weapon and a huge danger to any Star Force unit to come in here…and it wasn’t even technological, but a biological weapon built into the Brat’mar biology same as the Zen’zat psionics.
The technological weapons on the flanks of the silver-armored Brat’mar were far more accurate and started bathing the two Archons in a myriad of hits that sucked huge chunks of their shield energy away with each hit, making their attack seem almost stupid…but to an Archon this was a worthy challenge, and one that the pair of trailblazers was going to have to fight hard to overcome.
So they didn’t hold back, using their mental array of psionics to go after the nearest Brat’mar’s mind while keeping its body between them and the other. With no Ikrid block, the Brat’mar only had the sheer strength of its huge mind to ward off their attacks, and when the amount of psionic tissue a person had came into play, having a much larger brain was a big advantage…and with each Brat’mar’s head weighing more than Paul, there was no way they would have been able to resist the telekinetic hold it tried to put on them…which would then lead to a cannon shot directly into their faces and that would be game over.
But the Rentar psionic was a lifesaver and allowed them to move freely no matter how many attempts both Brat’mar made to grab them, and while the pair
dodged around a bit they messed with the Brat’mar’s mind so much it could barely fire a shot from its armor’s many anti-personnel cannons. That gave the trailblazers the longevity they needed, else they would have been eaten up far too fast as they fired their Bra’hem beams into the easy to hit right flank of the Brat’mar as the other tried to circle around its tail and get into firing position.
A few shots from it did hit them, but the trailblazers dove underneath the head of the other, ironically using it as cover as they continued the assault on its mind, firing off numerous Saven and Jini mental flash bombs, the latter of which actually chained and hit the other Brat’mar too, but required a lengthy charging period. And while even the combined mental power of the two trailblazers was inferior to this Brat’mar, meaning they could never win a fight of wills, they used their Orren to delicately sidestep its mental strongholds and land some crippling blows coming in through the ‘backdoor’ so to speak.
That continued for over ten minutes, with the dance ensuing while one Brat’mar tried to get at them and the other was barely able to do more than stumble around shooting almost blindly at numerous phantom Archons implanted into its mind every time a Lew conduit passed through its head as Jason would jump over its neck and drag the invisible energy conduit down through it, but he would usually take a hit or two from the anti-personnel Dre’mo’dons on the armor that shot little green orbs at them. Bigger than what the Zen’zat fired, but of the same design.
The battle dragged on and on, with the Star Force troops on both entrances told to stay out of it and just keep the Brat’mar from escaping or getting reinforcements as the fight continued to play out in the makeshift rubble arena with the shields on the first Brat’mar finally going down…but it still had its thick armor in play, though Jason and Paul weren’t going to bother with it. Rather they switched their Bra’hem energy into a secondary weapon on their exoskeleton that fired concentrated pink orbs at a rate of about 1 every second and a half into the exposed horns that still hadn’t armored over due to the mental disruptions the Archons kept the Brat’mar under, for it couldn’t fire its main cannon with them covered and had to retract and extend the armor when needed.
The pink stun energy soaked into the horns and down into the Brat’mar’s head, but not enough to knock it out immediately so the Archon’s kept dancing around, avoiding the other and pumping more shots into the horns until they finally did armor over, but that didn’t stop the stun effect. V’kit’no’sat armor didn’t dampened stun energy by design, so a lot of it soaked through whereas Star Force armor made one immune to all but an overload of it. The V’kit’no’sat did that so they could fight each other when necessary and take an individual down without killing them, and they had never changed their armor design since the war against Star Force started. It was ego on their part, not wanting to alter it, and in situations like this it made the long fight a little less tedious as the Archons pounded away at the Brat’mar while they were still working it over with repetitive psionic attacks.
Those had more effect as the Brat’mar got loopy from the stuns, eventually causing it to fall to the ground. That made it a lot less tall and the other one started shooting over it, meaning the Archons had to do more dodging and get in a lot closer to the fallen enemy as they continued to pound it with stun energy until they were sure it was out of the fight.
That left the other one, and as soon as they turned their psionics against it they hardly had to dodge at all, for it could barely land a shot even with auto-targeting, for the trailblazers would just dip behind the other Brat’mar and take cover while sending their psionics directly through its body. That dampened some of them, but it was enough to give them opportunities to snipe with their Bra’hem until its shields fell, then they took it down with stun energy too, leaving the pair of Brat’mar with almost pristine armor, save for the damage done in previous battles on this planet that had brought them up to this location.
“Kill shots?” one of the mechwarriors asked, offering to save the Archons a lot of time gradually burning through the armor.
“No,” Jason said firmly. “We’re taking these two prisoner.”
“For what purpose?” the mechwarrior asked, not arguing but knowing that in almost all circumstances Star Force did not take the V’kit’no’sat prisoner because they were too dangerous even when confined. Any other race and Star Force would take prisoners whenever possible, but these bastards never gave them the luxury without the risk of losing more people in the process.
“We’re not taking them with us and we’re evacuating the base anyway,” Paul answered, still battlemeld linked with Jason and the two of them thinking for one another…though they often did that even when not using the psionic.
“If that’s the way you want it, but why not take them out while we got the chance before they fight us again later?” the pilot of the Ravager-class mech walking in from the other entrance asked.
“Because we’re not them, and I don’t like having to fight their way all the time. We have the advantage here, so we’re sparing them…besides, it’s not like they don’t have a bazillion more Brat’mar to send our way.”
“How long do you want us to look after them?”
“Keep one mech here, the rest of you leave.”
“Corvi?”
“Got it,” the Thor pilot said, coming in and pointing the two arms of his mech down at the Brat’mar just in case. “You want more stun blasts if they wake up?”
“Yes,” Jason confirmed. “Keep them down until we come back, then we’ll worry about their armor.”
“Fine with me. You two are better than a mech in close confines like this anyway. Happy hunting,” she offered, moving the metallic feet around to get in a better position to cover both sleeping quadrupeds.
“We’ll be back,” Paul promised as the trailblazers ran in tandem following the Ravager out the far side. “Keep them alive.”
“As you wish.”
“Love you too,” Jason added, then ran out of the chamber before the perplexed mechwarrior could figure out where that came from.
Corvi frowned, then while monitoring the biostats on the Brat’mar, brought up a database that the Regulars…meaning non-Archon…mechwarriors had created long ago to keep track of the not so rare usage of old and obsolete pop culture references that the trailblazers and senior Archons used. She input the last thing she’d said, then was almost surprised to see a correlation pop up.
Princess Bride, (movie) 1987
‘As you wish’ phrase synonymous with ‘I love you.’
“Cheeky,” she said, realizing that per that obscure movie she’d just told him she loved him. Corvi wondered what it would be like to be able to have such a knowledge of past centuries to be able to make jokes that no one else would get.
Well, the Regulars had taken up the challenge and this was yet one more that the trailblazers had failed to get by them…but there was no way of knowing how many the elder Archons successfully pulled without them realizing it.
9
March 1, 4813
Orica System (Devastation Zone)
Varooshser
As the evacuation of the base continued with Flynn staying in orbit to oversee naval operations, Jason and Paul moved around the perimeter helping fight off the surviving V’kit’no’sat that were bent on committing suicide while hopefully taking some Star Force troops with them. The two trailblazers made sure that didn’t happen, deploying themselves to the most challenging fights while ordering everyone else to be cautious, hold position, and stall until they could get there.
While both Archons were fully capable of wielding mechs and using their psionics from the cockpits, the debris field was so irregular that there were a lot of places the giant walking machines could not go so the pair decided to stay on foot even when fighting alongside other mechs. Some might call that reckless, dangerous, and stupid…but the skill level of the trailblazers was so high they could do such things and make it work, not to
mention that when battlemeld linked Paul and Jason operated as if one person in two bodies, allowing them to move and fight without getting in each other’s way and throwing down some impressive physical combos that seemed to defy reality.
Most of their fights were against V’kit’no’sat charging ahead, which they were happy to either kill or drive off, leaving the two stunned Brat’mar as the largest of the few that got themselves cornered and unable to retreat, then stunned into unconsciousness on the trailblazers’ orders. Paul and Jason were both tired of the constant killing, and letting these few live and those that ran away go was a breath of fresh air to battle weary minds.
As for those that were stunned, they were removed of their armor…which was not an easy process…and then had their minds evaluated for any valuable intelligence. They left the two Brat’mar for last, then recruited the highest ranking Archons on the planet to join them in a circle of 18 standing around the sleeping giants with a pair of mechs standing by just in case they needed to be stunned again.
Thankfully Star Force mechs were equipped with the secondary stun weapons as standard equipment, otherwise they would have had to use infantry weapons and keep shooting them regularly to deliver the necessary doses to keep these two powerful minds subdued…and when the Archons linked together in one massive battlemeld and entered the mind of the first Brat’mar it reflexively stirred, prompting a pink orb that hit and slightly deformed before soaking into the Triceratops’ right flank. The mech that fired it didn’t send another, but stood ready just in case.
The stun effect made the Archons’ mental connection to the Brat’mar harder, as if they were having to push their way through a fog, but with their combined power and skills they didn’t have too much trouble accessing their target’s memories while suffering through a mild headache that would only increase as they continued to hold the 18 person mindmeld. The more individuals included in it the more stress there was, but the Archons had learned how to minimize the senses shared between them, essentially putting blinders on some aspects that made them vulnerable…which was why there was another ring of Commandos and Knights standing alongside them to make sure they didn’t get attacked and blindsided while in this meditative mode.