Dragonball
X
Act III
True Light
Prologue
The sands of time churned and whispered to the rocks. This pale sea of specks rode the wind with unstoppable vigor.
The transport rocked and rode over the hills with equal will. The box shape was hammered and pounded relentlessly by the wind and sands. At an odd moment, it settled to the moving ground, grinding six long, flexible pikes to steady itself in this vulnerable position. After a few moments of sitting, the small hatch on one side folded into itself and revealed a sliver of the dark quarters inside. There were voices over the loud, crashing wind.
"Sir! I advise against leaving this way!" was a stressed voice.
"Don't worry, boys, I've had worse in Antarctica." Was a composed one. The composed individual stepped halfway out, steadying himself with one hand on the hatch frame. He wore dark, round shades, and pulled his crimson scarf over his mouth from the swirling dust. The rest of his clothes were a heavy desert collage: heavy, metal infused boots; thick, small gauntlet type gloves, also steel-laced; and finally three layers of thin, terra-cotta tunics for protection of the weather. A medium-sized case was strapped to his back; he unlatched it, and set it down. It never touched the ground.
The case floated there momentarily, then reconfigured itself. The top and bottom slid across each other in opposite directions, stopping at the end of each. The top went down, the bottom moved up, and they linked together, forming a sort of hover-board. The young man boarded the small vehicle while, from its front end, a small rod and top control stick, to administer weight and steering, grew up. He grasped, called, "Don't worry about me, guys!" and turned the rod, speeding him off over the hills. Sand shot away on both sides of the dashing board.
The stressed advisor poked his head out once more, "I sure hope he sets them straight." Then ducked back in. The hatch enclosed. In six slick sheathings, the pikes returned to the transport and it lifted off, fighting its way back home against the wind.
Chapter 1
Beacon
People stared. The young man expected it, with his desert clothing covered in sand and the compacted hoverboard hanging over his shoulder. His jet-black shades masked his eyes from any souls willing to look at his face. They would notice, however, his soft tones and slight darkness in skin. Also his short blond hair with two large, separated locks hanging down over his forehead, one on each side.
The young man walked with his metal-clad boots clanking loudly and grooving the pavement, then came to a stop with a click at his heels in front of two big double doors and the emblem of a sword aiming down floating over them.
"Explain yourself, Agent." Jonathon ordered.
"Jamming signals from the Trinity Beacon are interfering with our communication to Direct. And my presence is not welcome there at this point in time." The young man explained.
"What is your plan?" Erik asked, before Jonathon could interrogate again.
"To infiltrate Trinity Beacon and disconnect the central shaft to the communication dishes." He answered thoroughly. "I have the coordinates."
"Trinity Beacon has been tranquil for thirty years! Furthermore, there are three central dishes, what are you going to do, blow them up!?" Jonathon exploded. The young man grinned at the thought.
"What, then, do you need from us?" Erik continued his less loud questions.
"An aid." The soldiers there straightened. "I've heard your reputation and received footage of your battles during the Wars and even some choppy footage of you," he nodded toward Erik, "in that movie theater."
"How much would you charge?" A brave and inexperienced Sergeant Jefferson ventured.
"My payment to you would be the renewal of the best of leadership..."
"A Stronkhold Activist!" Jefferson cried and leveled his blaster. He expected the scenario of the shadowy individual drawing his own gun and a dramatic standoff to play out. But the young man just stared at him, at least it seemed so with his dark shades.
"Jefferson." Erik warned. His fellow Lieutenant lowered the gun, then hesitantly shouldered it.
Only then did the young man comment, "I see a mishap has even the lesser-known factions a little stirred and paranoid."
"You could say that." Erik leveled. There was a tense silence. No one could comprehend where from and why this young man had come. Why he had come especially to Vengeance, when Direct and Wing were available?
Erik popped the question, "But why us?"
The young man constructed his answer. "I know that you all...everyone standing in this room...has had extensive combat training. You have been built for every situation and every terrain. This place is my best bet right now." He paused again. "If you will allow me the honor."
"He seems sincere." The deep voice enveloped the room. Vengeance had been listening from the now open window.
All lower officers tensed at their founder's presence. Only those who had the experience of feeling his wrath didn't change their stance. "I'll go." Erik stepped forward.
"Then it's settled." Vengeance stood, Jonathon gaped. "Dismissed." Those all frozen in fear found their nerves and moved.
"What?? Just like that?" Jonathon gagged out at Vengeance as Erik quietly strode out behind the young man.
"It was a voluntary situation. Erik volunteered, and I know he's more than ready for a real infiltration mission. Stand down, Captain. And calm down as well." And Vengeance was gone again.
"Now who wants to join some high revolutionary, huh?" the soldier was saying, his voice slurred from the heavy dosage of whiskey. "Ya' know what I did? I didn't join no revolutionary, no sir, I stayed with Direct, I'll be loyal to the end." He stood up then and yelled at the drink mixer, "Hey! Can I get another one over here?"
The bartender had already seen to that, setting a fresh whiskey in front of him, but the soldier looked at it as if it weren't there and yelled back at the bartender, "Didn't you hear me? I said I wanted another one."
"You do have another one, look in front of you." The bartender said coolly.
"I don't want that one," he screamed, swatting it away.
"Hey, man, settle down." A civilian was standing as Thomas set his hand on the soldier's shoulder.
"Get off me, Wing scum!" He whirled on Tom, and socked him, but not very hard thanks to the whiskey.
Thomas' eyes narrowed when he looked back at the soldier, wiping his chin. Without warning, he hooked the Direct soldier hard in the jaw, sending him against the counter. He took him by the collar and lifted him to his face, "Now, I tried asking nicely." With that, he threw the soldier across the counter so that he crunched through a table at the end.
This triggered the other soldiers to leap onto Tomas, drunkenly trying to beat him up. The civilian that had stood before strode up and yanked two men off the officer, easily throwing them into another table. "Yeeehhaaaa!" a soldier ran at the civilian, a broken bottle waving in his hand.
The civilian ducked under the swiping bottle and broke one of the man's ribs. Thomas had just thrown off two men when the civilian yelled over the growing crowd, "Alec!"
"Tom!" Tom yelled back.
"Looks like we'll be fighting these idiots." Alec maneuvered around a couple of "idiots" to Thomas.
"Are you sure? You might get in trouble." Thomas cautioned.
"Hell. So will you."
Tom agreed and drove his fist into the closest guard's jaw.
Erik and the young man waited behind the sand dune. Over it lay a surprisingly flat dune, then the perfect half sphere of the Trinity Beacon. At the sphere's peak, a long shaft with random wires entwined around it rode into the support for three identical satellite dishes, each of which pointing sixty degrees away from its partner target.
"So, I was wondering." Erik opened up.
"Yes?" the young man asked, and waited.
"If we're gonna' be undergoing tactical and/or chaotic combat, you know, uh, yelling at each other and stuff, well, I gotta' have something I can call you, I can't just say 'Dude' can I?"
The young man chuckled, then shook his head "no" for "Dude". "I'll settle for Shades." He replied, touching his jet-black sunglasses. "Ready?"
Jarring Erik back to the matter at hand, he nodded. "Shades" and Erik charged over the hill onto the flat slate of sand. "Watch the mines!" Shades yelled.
"What mines?" Erik asked. As if by cue, it happened. Sift! Sift! Sift! They exited the sand and floated level with the intruders. They popped up everywhere, forming a tactical grid of spinning, gyrating orbs of death, complete with flashing lights and onboard blasters.
"Oh." Was all Erik said before yanking out his rod sword. A Mine immediately sensed the action and gyrated its upper and lower cannons to Erik, and fired. Erik's training fields kicked in as he arched his upper body back and moved his neck to dodge one beam, then the other. The last two shots he reflected off his sword, a convulsory vibration hitting at every contact. The Mine charged for another volley, but the round shaft of the sword smashed it to bits.
"Show time." Shades threw his higher sand-covered cloak over a Mine, which in turn started shooting randomly, its motor sensors blocked, hitting mostly sand but also a few neighboring mines. His suit underneath was the same tan desert brown, but with gold, dark violet, and black armor. In fact, most of his upper tunic, under the armor, was this crimson violet. He drew from the holder on his shoulder a small Force blaster, similar to the models in the city, except the barrel was dramatically larger and it had nooks and unfinished latches lining the outer barrel, as if it were missing a component.
Shades backflipped three times out of range of the sectioning streams of laser fire, then picked his targets. The long-gun-size barrel discharged a blast spanning a meter long, and it sang through the center of an orbiting mine, leaving a window through to the earth before it exploded. Shades continued to pick off the scouting mines one by one while Erik drew their fire.
Erik was once again back to his training experience. All shots would have killed a normal man, but with enhanced reflexes and sensory activity he performed a dance of simple moves, exerting the least amount of energy. He arched his back, bringing his neck down by reflex, and struck his heels together and six shots zoomed past him.
Erik's sword was proving quite effective against the mines. Finishing off one by swinging the bashing sword in from his left side, he followed through, spun it around and stabbed behind him to his right, piking another orbison. He waited for it to sputter and grow heavy, then lashed the blade out and swung up in front of him, knocking a third mine to the clouds.
A shot jarred over his right shoulder pad. Rage and intensity filled his eyes and they turned first. In split-second time, the Vengeance combatant spread his legs to a proper throwing position, turned on his heel, and flung. He froze the position to watch the spinning pike arch high in the air, then imbed itself through the center of another mine. The mine moved a few inches in the air from impact, then thunked to the dirt.
Shades spun back behind from view and set to work on his gun. He revealed two bulkier versions of his gun's barrel, slapped them together, where they fused into each other, forming a vast double barrel. This, he latched into the "unfinished" notches and clefts in his original barrel. Shades now held a hefty Force, double-barreled pulse cannon at his side.
As this was happening, the auto-defenses of the dome kicked in, and ever-so-slowly their doors were being reinforced by secondary and tertiary layers. "Erik!" Shades' call jarred the officer back to the doors, which were nearly closed. He took the initiative faster than he believed possible, yanking his sword out of the metallic carcass and bolting for the door. He was not ten feet from it when a massive beam of hot, molten energy sang over his head and smashed into the door. Erik jumped instinctively back from the fray of ash. When the smoke cleared, the secondary and tertiary layers were gone, and the primary layer blackened. Curious, Erik tapped the blackest spot with his sword. It fell away. "Well, that wasn't so hard." He murmured.
"You don't know the half of it." Shades walked past him inside.
The two trudged silently over the stone, black floors and darted their eyes around to the presence of the triggers of traps, if there were any. "Why didn't you bring a gun?" Shades asked him quietly.
"I don't need one." Erik was even quieter. There was only the minute clicking of their combat metallic boots. "So what's the plan?"
"Well, how's about we take it one step at a time." More clicking. Erik waited for him to continue. "First, we need to get past their automotive defenses."
"And when do they kick in."
Shades hesitated. "I don't know."
They turned a corner and entered a pitch-dark room. They both stopped short in the center of the doorway, daring something to happen. Something did: the walls lined themselves across with ten red dots. They flashed.
"Down!" Shades grabbed Erik's shoulder and shoved him down with him. Beams grew as lightning from the dots and laser charges ran along the bars into ten consecutive places on the higher wall, filling the air with ash and electrons.
"Get down!" Shades screamed. "They use sensory lasers!"
Erik complied, ducking just under a long array of red bars. A beam cascaded down to his original spot and left a six-inch hole. "Why didn't you bring a gun!?" Shades chastised him again.
"Like I said, I don't need one." Erik shot his palm forward and a burst of energy lapsed from his skin. The bolt found a straight path through the sensors and scrapped the head of a Guardian. Nine left, and now they knew their position. The Guardians were hulking metallic spiders, ranging only four legs, and laser-sighted spectrum pulse cannons reigning on their heads. With one of their spiders fallen, the lights turned on in unison through the room and the invaders' eyes were blinded by flooding light.
One of the ten, a large, black-etched "7" on its belly, protruded a fifth leg from its number, and propelled itself up. It crashed down over the two men, them falling on their backs. Erik took the advantage, charged up, and loosed twenty volleys of blasts into the underbelly of the Guardian while Shades shielded his eyes. They disintegrated the fifth leg, then propelled the metal beast up and arching over to land twenty-five feet away on its back, ashen, and scrapped.
"What do you say we stop them from doing that again?" Shades commented/asked, attaching a third piece to the barrel of his Force Rifle. He took aim from the ground and loosed a constant stream, riding from one end of the room to the other. The shots ran down the line, melting through the hinges and slicing off the legs, six of the remaining eight lost most of their limbs and fell, their cannons still functional.
"9" leapt. "Split!" Shades and Erik rolled in opposite directions as 9 filled their place, twirling its head/cannon from side to side, contemplating who to follow. It split the difference and contracted its head, unleashing two cannons facing opposite directions, one to each side, and fired both simultaneously.
Both invaders dodged behind their consecutive pillars, noticing the 8-inch holes each blast was making in their directions. "We have to get to the main communication shaft!" Shades called to Erik, "Start heading up! I'll handle this!"
Erik hesitated behind his pillar, "I don't think you can take them. There're still two healthy ones and one of them's firing at us!"
"Don't question me, MOVE!!" Shades answered, then dove out from behind his protection, only firing once. The shot sang into the barrel of a top cannon and half of the module exploded. The Guardian had found its real threat, and turned its full battery onto the young man, also signaling its remaining partner.
Erik took to scaling the walls as Shades shied to his pillar. The two Guardians froze, and shivered. Their legs stiffened, then folded into each other. Their fifth legs appeared, and reconfigured themselves into bulky wheels. When the belly was near to the floor, the fifth tendril spun rapidly, creating a spine-shocking wail as the excess outer shell was shattered, leaving behind a smooth, balanced, indestructible tire.
"Oh Shhhhhh-!" He whirled on a blind impulse, fired a blind shot, then bolted down the adjacent hall, still teaming with darkness. The spiders lowered themselves further, then sped forward. He felt and witnessed their red laser sights crisscrossing over his head. He dodged right, the ground splintering with fire, then left, with the same conclusion. He sensed the charged and coiled his legs together, launching him high up. The mushroom cloud-esque explosion detonated at his feet. The generated air and extra force of the blast propelled him higher, where he flipped forward twice and landed hard, his armored boots absorbing the shock.
Shades turned and took aim with his Long Force Blaster. But another explosion behind him rocked him. The partner Guardian appeared, driving in and turning sharply, catching the smoke so it rode and split over its hull. "They're thinking." Shades cursed. "Looks like I'll have to use some improvisation." He leapt away from the next explosion, then dashed into its own mist.
Erik entered the rectangular room. It's floor and walls were a bronze/gold tint, while its ceiling was pitch black. The walls were lined with what looked like arches, but they were indented into the metal, making them look like hatches. On the farthest end, to Erik's right, was a mounted platform by a pillar. Attached to the platform, and touching the floor was a firm, steel-pole ladder. Above the circular platform was a hole in the ceiling emitting blue light. The hole was an identical circle as the platform.
Erik was shaken by nearby explosions. He turned back to his entrance point and murmured, "Damn, I hope he's not dead."
Shades had found his way to the upper exterior of the ceiling, where long, crisscrossing bars and pillars gave him cover...and leverage. He now knelt at the foot of a long chasm between two bars lining the wall, each ending at a heavy pillar. Shades' gun was slung over his back and he was fiddling with his belt. He revealed a small handle, like one you'd see for a lightsaber. Hitting an even smaller switch on it, it produced a knife on one side. Holding down an adjacent button, it stayed down and flashed green.
The young man tossed it up and caught the blade tip between his thumb and index finger, then took aim for the other side. He flung the knife with skill and it sang across the chasm. It made a hard Twink! in the opposing pillar. The flashing green button flashed red. The blade spun clockwise and drilled further in. The rim just under the blade split in two, jettisoning both ends with ting, strong strings trailing them around the pillar. They crossed each other, came back around to the front latched back into the short shaft. The light now shone blue.
Now, the lower half of the shaft shot back across the chasm, another invincible, tiny rope with it, to Shades' waiting hand. He took the handle and hooked it into his belt. The remaining slack he entwined around his left arm. He whirled his gun back before him in his right hand.
As if by cue, Shades ducked a shot from the Guardians now below him. They had found his position. "Here goes." With that, he leapt back for momentum and off. The rope tightened. He swung with the skill of Tarzan down close to his opposing wall, then ran against it. Almost completely horizontal, he opened fire. The shots rained down on the two Guardians and they lost sensory of their target in the confusion.
Shades changed the course of his feet to vertical, using his built momentum to scale the far wall, a flight stairs waiting for him. Now on solid ground, he cut his arm loose and took the stairs two at a time.
Erik whirled on the door. A constant, echoing banging came up from the from which he had come. "Guardians." He whispered, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Not quite." The young man's voice emerged before he did. "They're subdued, for now." He scanned the area, locking on the platform. "Ah, there it is." He dashed to it.
"What're you doing?" Erik called after him.
"Setting the charges!" he was on the platform. It shuddered, then began to ascend into the hole in the ceiling. "Keep a look-out while I do this." He was gone.
Erik turned away from his exit. "Great, you get the fun part."
Shades scaled the ladder through the long pipe straight into the outside. The sun was setting, and the wind only a light breeze. The young man took a moment to take in a few breaths of fresh air and feel the wind a little, then set to work.
The upper dome consisted of one long shank, with various wires and bulges where necessary for power sources. At its peak it spanned into three other smaller shanks, these ranging diagonally, then horizontally. A medium-sized satellite dish rised on each horizontal end.
Shades set to work climbing. He used the random wires and modules for hand and footholds. At the top, he placed a small explosive behind each base of the three dishes. Scaling back down, he stopped somewhat near the center of the shaft, and strapped a large remote mine against the metal.
He sought refuge in the long, horizontal tunnel he had come up from. "Detonate this, then we've got to deal with the higher security." He reminded himself, then hit the switch.
There was a powerful silence. Then all hell broke loose on the butts of the satellites. Each fell from their post with odd similarity. Then the shaft melted and split across the middle. All of it fell harmlessly to the sand.
But the blue light floating in the tunnel turned yet. "Damn it. Gotta' move."
Shades dropped from the catwalk. "How much time do we have?" Erik asked. Shades was bolting toward him, screaming a direction, he wasn't close enough for it to make sense yet.
It finally did. "No-time-down!" was enough. A siren blew. Erik became extra-alert, grasping his sword hilt still in the sheath. Shades reached him in a flash, but Erik spoke first in quick bursts, without even making eye contact. "You! Down! Now!"
Shades hit the deck. The one hundred hatches lining the walls opened, revealing nearly a hundred guns per hole. At the same time, they all opened fire; Erik drew his sword. He spun the blade fluently, rolling the hilt butt over his palm and letting it flow with his fingers. The first wave of instantaneous shots reflected nicely of his edge.
The second wave was more random, and less "all-at-once". Erik got his workout fine. Two blasts sang off his sword, each time absorbing the shock, then he fired an energy blast into one of the hatches. He continued the technique. One blast, fire, two blocks, fire, fire, and so on.
Shades, realizing he was safe from his spot on the floor, rolled onto his side and flashed off his gun with a few rounds into the bottoms of the rows of guns. They fell and scrapped into themselves. He rolled to the other side and executed the same action. With the combination of gun, sword, and energy, the walls had become nothing but melted metal and protruding wires.
Before the two could celebrate their victory, however, a heavy banging caught their attention from the over-sized air ducts. They followed the noise as if they were watching whatever was banging up there.
Without warning, the sound split. It parted ways. One end of it clanged on one side, while the other, twice as noisy, made its way through a solitary duct across the middle. It stopped at a grate. In fact, both separate entities of noise stopped at the same time. "They think alike too." Shades noted.
"Huh?" Erik said.
Both grates fell simultaneously, and both Guardians mashed their legs together to leap through the square. They landed on either side of the room.
"What the hell do we do??" Erik nearly burst.
"Play it their way." He aimed to the floor. The metal was no match for the Force Generator he was packing, and he drew a crude circle, then jumped on it. He drove it clean through to the innards of the dome, then beckoned Erik to follow. Not seeing any other real option, the Vengeance officer humbly obliged.
The mode of transportation consisted of non-gripped boots down a rather slippery pipe. The innards were mostly black, but with a blue tint, and hardly any light, at least none that was artificial.
The Guardians dropped in after them. Using their spiked legs, they dug into the pipe, and therefore traveled faster. Shades took the initiative and pushed Erik ahead of him. Erik, not expecting this maneuver, lost his balance, and slid down on his rear. Worry about his companion gone, Shades halted himself, steadying himself against a rusted wheel. He didn't bother to aim, and fired off a few charges behind him.
The Guardians didn't bother to dodge. A couple of shots make permanent grooves in various pipelines, but only two were shrugged off by the front spider. Somehow, this little upset, caused them to disappear from sight. Shades expected them to cut him off, but they never came. He found Erik waiting for him, a little disgruntled, at another large grate.
Shades and Erik dropped from the rafters to the ground below. All the lights by then were activated, and their escape was now covered by a secondary layer of metal. "Stand back." Erik ordered, and started to charge.
He had hardly got a spark when they both arched their upward to the ceiling above their destination. The ceiling shattered, and the two Guardians landed...and opened fire.
"Crap!" Erik ducked behind the right pillar, Shades went left. The middle was filled with laser streams. Erik armed his sword, and dared to reflect a few shots. Every so often, Shades would volley off a few of his own. "Ya know," Erik began after reflecting another volley, "After we came up with a name for you, I haven't had to call you 'Shades' not once yet."
"Well, there's Once." Shades breathed.
"Anywho, before we die burning deaths, I'd like to know who my comrade was."
There was an eerie silence. The two men looked across at each other. Perhaps it was the strange glow emitted from the blazing guns, or the pounding of the spiders' legs on the metal floor, but they were silent. Maybe the thought of both of them dying killed any paths of secrecy.
"I'm an agent of Venoson!" Shades broke the silence across the streams.
"Of what?!" Erik yelled back.
The young man fired off a few more charges. "Do you know of the Infiltration Training Facility?"
"In Africa?" he blocked several charges with his rod sword.
"Yes!" he paused, took aim, and loosed a single shot. It sang through the Action chip in the head of a drone. "That title is just a cover for it!"
"Is it even in Africa?" another reflection of shots.
"Yes and no."
Erik's confused stare asked the question for him.
"Yes, we're in Africa. But that was only one location. We trained for six months in each continent. Learning all the tactics and secret techniques of every faction of the past and present. We are actually the Venoson, named after James Venoson, who recorded all the lessons and taught all of the first instructors."
Erik mouthed a long "Oh" before shouldering his sword and half-standing. He brought the bottoms of his palms together, fingers bent. "Give me some cover fire!"
Shades complied, but asked in the process, "What're you doing?"
He brought his arms back behind him. "Showing off a classified technique." He squinted his eyes shut and focused. Beads of sweat zigzagged down his forehead. Very strained, and very gravelly, he began the incantation, "Kaaaaaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-
The young man noticed a more than normal vibration in the floor, and ceased cover fire momentarily to notice how much Erik was trembling. He did not notice, however, from the smoke and excess ash, the bluish light emitting from the outline of Erik's palms.
"-haaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy-
The drones were multiplying, flooding their only way back to outskirts. But out of nowhere, Erik's eyes shot open; his face was a mix of anger, insanity, and odd composure. Teeth clenched, energy strained, he leaped in before the constant fray between the two pillars of shelter.
"What the hell! Wait!" Shades screamed to him.
"-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he flung his arms forward, palms releasing, the locked in energy shining forth. The holy lance of God was unleashed upon the metallic, demonic blockade.
The drones' sensors only picked up extreme heat that blew out their temperature moderators and a higher load of psychic energy before their cameras were blinded and their wire tendons torn asunder. In less then two seconds of mass annihilation, their path was cleared, including a gaping hole in the far wall.
Erik was near to passing out, so the young man, after screaming a long expletive to the wreckage, half-carried/half-dragged the Sword of Vengeance officer to the outside.
The night sky was gorgeous, a million shining specks smiling down upon the pair. Erik had passed out, but they were already far enough away from Trinity Beacon not to care. Certain that Erik wouldn't hear, then, he murmured to himself, "This is only the beginning."
X
Act III
True Light
Prologue
The sands of time churned and whispered to the rocks. This pale sea of specks rode the wind with unstoppable vigor.
The transport rocked and rode over the hills with equal will. The box shape was hammered and pounded relentlessly by the wind and sands. At an odd moment, it settled to the moving ground, grinding six long, flexible pikes to steady itself in this vulnerable position. After a few moments of sitting, the small hatch on one side folded into itself and revealed a sliver of the dark quarters inside. There were voices over the loud, crashing wind.
"Sir! I advise against leaving this way!" was a stressed voice.
"Don't worry, boys, I've had worse in Antarctica." Was a composed one. The composed individual stepped halfway out, steadying himself with one hand on the hatch frame. He wore dark, round shades, and pulled his crimson scarf over his mouth from the swirling dust. The rest of his clothes were a heavy desert collage: heavy, metal infused boots; thick, small gauntlet type gloves, also steel-laced; and finally three layers of thin, terra-cotta tunics for protection of the weather. A medium-sized case was strapped to his back; he unlatched it, and set it down. It never touched the ground.
The case floated there momentarily, then reconfigured itself. The top and bottom slid across each other in opposite directions, stopping at the end of each. The top went down, the bottom moved up, and they linked together, forming a sort of hover-board. The young man boarded the small vehicle while, from its front end, a small rod and top control stick, to administer weight and steering, grew up. He grasped, called, "Don't worry about me, guys!" and turned the rod, speeding him off over the hills. Sand shot away on both sides of the dashing board.
The stressed advisor poked his head out once more, "I sure hope he sets them straight." Then ducked back in. The hatch enclosed. In six slick sheathings, the pikes returned to the transport and it lifted off, fighting its way back home against the wind.
Chapter 1
Beacon
People stared. The young man expected it, with his desert clothing covered in sand and the compacted hoverboard hanging over his shoulder. His jet-black shades masked his eyes from any souls willing to look at his face. They would notice, however, his soft tones and slight darkness in skin. Also his short blond hair with two large, separated locks hanging down over his forehead, one on each side.
The young man walked with his metal-clad boots clanking loudly and grooving the pavement, then came to a stop with a click at his heels in front of two big double doors and the emblem of a sword aiming down floating over them.
"Explain yourself, Agent." Jonathon ordered.
"Jamming signals from the Trinity Beacon are interfering with our communication to Direct. And my presence is not welcome there at this point in time." The young man explained.
"What is your plan?" Erik asked, before Jonathon could interrogate again.
"To infiltrate Trinity Beacon and disconnect the central shaft to the communication dishes." He answered thoroughly. "I have the coordinates."
"Trinity Beacon has been tranquil for thirty years! Furthermore, there are three central dishes, what are you going to do, blow them up!?" Jonathon exploded. The young man grinned at the thought.
"What, then, do you need from us?" Erik continued his less loud questions.
"An aid." The soldiers there straightened. "I've heard your reputation and received footage of your battles during the Wars and even some choppy footage of you," he nodded toward Erik, "in that movie theater."
"How much would you charge?" A brave and inexperienced Sergeant Jefferson ventured.
"My payment to you would be the renewal of the best of leadership..."
"A Stronkhold Activist!" Jefferson cried and leveled his blaster. He expected the scenario of the shadowy individual drawing his own gun and a dramatic standoff to play out. But the young man just stared at him, at least it seemed so with his dark shades.
"Jefferson." Erik warned. His fellow Lieutenant lowered the gun, then hesitantly shouldered it.
Only then did the young man comment, "I see a mishap has even the lesser-known factions a little stirred and paranoid."
"You could say that." Erik leveled. There was a tense silence. No one could comprehend where from and why this young man had come. Why he had come especially to Vengeance, when Direct and Wing were available?
Erik popped the question, "But why us?"
The young man constructed his answer. "I know that you all...everyone standing in this room...has had extensive combat training. You have been built for every situation and every terrain. This place is my best bet right now." He paused again. "If you will allow me the honor."
"He seems sincere." The deep voice enveloped the room. Vengeance had been listening from the now open window.
All lower officers tensed at their founder's presence. Only those who had the experience of feeling his wrath didn't change their stance. "I'll go." Erik stepped forward.
"Then it's settled." Vengeance stood, Jonathon gaped. "Dismissed." Those all frozen in fear found their nerves and moved.
"What?? Just like that?" Jonathon gagged out at Vengeance as Erik quietly strode out behind the young man.
"It was a voluntary situation. Erik volunteered, and I know he's more than ready for a real infiltration mission. Stand down, Captain. And calm down as well." And Vengeance was gone again.
"Now who wants to join some high revolutionary, huh?" the soldier was saying, his voice slurred from the heavy dosage of whiskey. "Ya' know what I did? I didn't join no revolutionary, no sir, I stayed with Direct, I'll be loyal to the end." He stood up then and yelled at the drink mixer, "Hey! Can I get another one over here?"
The bartender had already seen to that, setting a fresh whiskey in front of him, but the soldier looked at it as if it weren't there and yelled back at the bartender, "Didn't you hear me? I said I wanted another one."
"You do have another one, look in front of you." The bartender said coolly.
"I don't want that one," he screamed, swatting it away.
"Hey, man, settle down." A civilian was standing as Thomas set his hand on the soldier's shoulder.
"Get off me, Wing scum!" He whirled on Tom, and socked him, but not very hard thanks to the whiskey.
Thomas' eyes narrowed when he looked back at the soldier, wiping his chin. Without warning, he hooked the Direct soldier hard in the jaw, sending him against the counter. He took him by the collar and lifted him to his face, "Now, I tried asking nicely." With that, he threw the soldier across the counter so that he crunched through a table at the end.
This triggered the other soldiers to leap onto Tomas, drunkenly trying to beat him up. The civilian that had stood before strode up and yanked two men off the officer, easily throwing them into another table. "Yeeehhaaaa!" a soldier ran at the civilian, a broken bottle waving in his hand.
The civilian ducked under the swiping bottle and broke one of the man's ribs. Thomas had just thrown off two men when the civilian yelled over the growing crowd, "Alec!"
"Tom!" Tom yelled back.
"Looks like we'll be fighting these idiots." Alec maneuvered around a couple of "idiots" to Thomas.
"Are you sure? You might get in trouble." Thomas cautioned.
"Hell. So will you."
Tom agreed and drove his fist into the closest guard's jaw.
Erik and the young man waited behind the sand dune. Over it lay a surprisingly flat dune, then the perfect half sphere of the Trinity Beacon. At the sphere's peak, a long shaft with random wires entwined around it rode into the support for three identical satellite dishes, each of which pointing sixty degrees away from its partner target.
"So, I was wondering." Erik opened up.
"Yes?" the young man asked, and waited.
"If we're gonna' be undergoing tactical and/or chaotic combat, you know, uh, yelling at each other and stuff, well, I gotta' have something I can call you, I can't just say 'Dude' can I?"
The young man chuckled, then shook his head "no" for "Dude". "I'll settle for Shades." He replied, touching his jet-black sunglasses. "Ready?"
Jarring Erik back to the matter at hand, he nodded. "Shades" and Erik charged over the hill onto the flat slate of sand. "Watch the mines!" Shades yelled.
"What mines?" Erik asked. As if by cue, it happened. Sift! Sift! Sift! They exited the sand and floated level with the intruders. They popped up everywhere, forming a tactical grid of spinning, gyrating orbs of death, complete with flashing lights and onboard blasters.
"Oh." Was all Erik said before yanking out his rod sword. A Mine immediately sensed the action and gyrated its upper and lower cannons to Erik, and fired. Erik's training fields kicked in as he arched his upper body back and moved his neck to dodge one beam, then the other. The last two shots he reflected off his sword, a convulsory vibration hitting at every contact. The Mine charged for another volley, but the round shaft of the sword smashed it to bits.
"Show time." Shades threw his higher sand-covered cloak over a Mine, which in turn started shooting randomly, its motor sensors blocked, hitting mostly sand but also a few neighboring mines. His suit underneath was the same tan desert brown, but with gold, dark violet, and black armor. In fact, most of his upper tunic, under the armor, was this crimson violet. He drew from the holder on his shoulder a small Force blaster, similar to the models in the city, except the barrel was dramatically larger and it had nooks and unfinished latches lining the outer barrel, as if it were missing a component.
Shades backflipped three times out of range of the sectioning streams of laser fire, then picked his targets. The long-gun-size barrel discharged a blast spanning a meter long, and it sang through the center of an orbiting mine, leaving a window through to the earth before it exploded. Shades continued to pick off the scouting mines one by one while Erik drew their fire.
Erik was once again back to his training experience. All shots would have killed a normal man, but with enhanced reflexes and sensory activity he performed a dance of simple moves, exerting the least amount of energy. He arched his back, bringing his neck down by reflex, and struck his heels together and six shots zoomed past him.
Erik's sword was proving quite effective against the mines. Finishing off one by swinging the bashing sword in from his left side, he followed through, spun it around and stabbed behind him to his right, piking another orbison. He waited for it to sputter and grow heavy, then lashed the blade out and swung up in front of him, knocking a third mine to the clouds.
A shot jarred over his right shoulder pad. Rage and intensity filled his eyes and they turned first. In split-second time, the Vengeance combatant spread his legs to a proper throwing position, turned on his heel, and flung. He froze the position to watch the spinning pike arch high in the air, then imbed itself through the center of another mine. The mine moved a few inches in the air from impact, then thunked to the dirt.
Shades spun back behind from view and set to work on his gun. He revealed two bulkier versions of his gun's barrel, slapped them together, where they fused into each other, forming a vast double barrel. This, he latched into the "unfinished" notches and clefts in his original barrel. Shades now held a hefty Force, double-barreled pulse cannon at his side.
As this was happening, the auto-defenses of the dome kicked in, and ever-so-slowly their doors were being reinforced by secondary and tertiary layers. "Erik!" Shades' call jarred the officer back to the doors, which were nearly closed. He took the initiative faster than he believed possible, yanking his sword out of the metallic carcass and bolting for the door. He was not ten feet from it when a massive beam of hot, molten energy sang over his head and smashed into the door. Erik jumped instinctively back from the fray of ash. When the smoke cleared, the secondary and tertiary layers were gone, and the primary layer blackened. Curious, Erik tapped the blackest spot with his sword. It fell away. "Well, that wasn't so hard." He murmured.
"You don't know the half of it." Shades walked past him inside.
The two trudged silently over the stone, black floors and darted their eyes around to the presence of the triggers of traps, if there were any. "Why didn't you bring a gun?" Shades asked him quietly.
"I don't need one." Erik was even quieter. There was only the minute clicking of their combat metallic boots. "So what's the plan?"
"Well, how's about we take it one step at a time." More clicking. Erik waited for him to continue. "First, we need to get past their automotive defenses."
"And when do they kick in."
Shades hesitated. "I don't know."
They turned a corner and entered a pitch-dark room. They both stopped short in the center of the doorway, daring something to happen. Something did: the walls lined themselves across with ten red dots. They flashed.
"Down!" Shades grabbed Erik's shoulder and shoved him down with him. Beams grew as lightning from the dots and laser charges ran along the bars into ten consecutive places on the higher wall, filling the air with ash and electrons.
"Get down!" Shades screamed. "They use sensory lasers!"
Erik complied, ducking just under a long array of red bars. A beam cascaded down to his original spot and left a six-inch hole. "Why didn't you bring a gun!?" Shades chastised him again.
"Like I said, I don't need one." Erik shot his palm forward and a burst of energy lapsed from his skin. The bolt found a straight path through the sensors and scrapped the head of a Guardian. Nine left, and now they knew their position. The Guardians were hulking metallic spiders, ranging only four legs, and laser-sighted spectrum pulse cannons reigning on their heads. With one of their spiders fallen, the lights turned on in unison through the room and the invaders' eyes were blinded by flooding light.
One of the ten, a large, black-etched "7" on its belly, protruded a fifth leg from its number, and propelled itself up. It crashed down over the two men, them falling on their backs. Erik took the advantage, charged up, and loosed twenty volleys of blasts into the underbelly of the Guardian while Shades shielded his eyes. They disintegrated the fifth leg, then propelled the metal beast up and arching over to land twenty-five feet away on its back, ashen, and scrapped.
"What do you say we stop them from doing that again?" Shades commented/asked, attaching a third piece to the barrel of his Force Rifle. He took aim from the ground and loosed a constant stream, riding from one end of the room to the other. The shots ran down the line, melting through the hinges and slicing off the legs, six of the remaining eight lost most of their limbs and fell, their cannons still functional.
"9" leapt. "Split!" Shades and Erik rolled in opposite directions as 9 filled their place, twirling its head/cannon from side to side, contemplating who to follow. It split the difference and contracted its head, unleashing two cannons facing opposite directions, one to each side, and fired both simultaneously.
Both invaders dodged behind their consecutive pillars, noticing the 8-inch holes each blast was making in their directions. "We have to get to the main communication shaft!" Shades called to Erik, "Start heading up! I'll handle this!"
Erik hesitated behind his pillar, "I don't think you can take them. There're still two healthy ones and one of them's firing at us!"
"Don't question me, MOVE!!" Shades answered, then dove out from behind his protection, only firing once. The shot sang into the barrel of a top cannon and half of the module exploded. The Guardian had found its real threat, and turned its full battery onto the young man, also signaling its remaining partner.
Erik took to scaling the walls as Shades shied to his pillar. The two Guardians froze, and shivered. Their legs stiffened, then folded into each other. Their fifth legs appeared, and reconfigured themselves into bulky wheels. When the belly was near to the floor, the fifth tendril spun rapidly, creating a spine-shocking wail as the excess outer shell was shattered, leaving behind a smooth, balanced, indestructible tire.
"Oh Shhhhhh-!" He whirled on a blind impulse, fired a blind shot, then bolted down the adjacent hall, still teaming with darkness. The spiders lowered themselves further, then sped forward. He felt and witnessed their red laser sights crisscrossing over his head. He dodged right, the ground splintering with fire, then left, with the same conclusion. He sensed the charged and coiled his legs together, launching him high up. The mushroom cloud-esque explosion detonated at his feet. The generated air and extra force of the blast propelled him higher, where he flipped forward twice and landed hard, his armored boots absorbing the shock.
Shades turned and took aim with his Long Force Blaster. But another explosion behind him rocked him. The partner Guardian appeared, driving in and turning sharply, catching the smoke so it rode and split over its hull. "They're thinking." Shades cursed. "Looks like I'll have to use some improvisation." He leapt away from the next explosion, then dashed into its own mist.
Erik entered the rectangular room. It's floor and walls were a bronze/gold tint, while its ceiling was pitch black. The walls were lined with what looked like arches, but they were indented into the metal, making them look like hatches. On the farthest end, to Erik's right, was a mounted platform by a pillar. Attached to the platform, and touching the floor was a firm, steel-pole ladder. Above the circular platform was a hole in the ceiling emitting blue light. The hole was an identical circle as the platform.
Erik was shaken by nearby explosions. He turned back to his entrance point and murmured, "Damn, I hope he's not dead."
Shades had found his way to the upper exterior of the ceiling, where long, crisscrossing bars and pillars gave him cover...and leverage. He now knelt at the foot of a long chasm between two bars lining the wall, each ending at a heavy pillar. Shades' gun was slung over his back and he was fiddling with his belt. He revealed a small handle, like one you'd see for a lightsaber. Hitting an even smaller switch on it, it produced a knife on one side. Holding down an adjacent button, it stayed down and flashed green.
The young man tossed it up and caught the blade tip between his thumb and index finger, then took aim for the other side. He flung the knife with skill and it sang across the chasm. It made a hard Twink! in the opposing pillar. The flashing green button flashed red. The blade spun clockwise and drilled further in. The rim just under the blade split in two, jettisoning both ends with ting, strong strings trailing them around the pillar. They crossed each other, came back around to the front latched back into the short shaft. The light now shone blue.
Now, the lower half of the shaft shot back across the chasm, another invincible, tiny rope with it, to Shades' waiting hand. He took the handle and hooked it into his belt. The remaining slack he entwined around his left arm. He whirled his gun back before him in his right hand.
As if by cue, Shades ducked a shot from the Guardians now below him. They had found his position. "Here goes." With that, he leapt back for momentum and off. The rope tightened. He swung with the skill of Tarzan down close to his opposing wall, then ran against it. Almost completely horizontal, he opened fire. The shots rained down on the two Guardians and they lost sensory of their target in the confusion.
Shades changed the course of his feet to vertical, using his built momentum to scale the far wall, a flight stairs waiting for him. Now on solid ground, he cut his arm loose and took the stairs two at a time.
Erik whirled on the door. A constant, echoing banging came up from the from which he had come. "Guardians." He whispered, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Not quite." The young man's voice emerged before he did. "They're subdued, for now." He scanned the area, locking on the platform. "Ah, there it is." He dashed to it.
"What're you doing?" Erik called after him.
"Setting the charges!" he was on the platform. It shuddered, then began to ascend into the hole in the ceiling. "Keep a look-out while I do this." He was gone.
Erik turned away from his exit. "Great, you get the fun part."
Shades scaled the ladder through the long pipe straight into the outside. The sun was setting, and the wind only a light breeze. The young man took a moment to take in a few breaths of fresh air and feel the wind a little, then set to work.
The upper dome consisted of one long shank, with various wires and bulges where necessary for power sources. At its peak it spanned into three other smaller shanks, these ranging diagonally, then horizontally. A medium-sized satellite dish rised on each horizontal end.
Shades set to work climbing. He used the random wires and modules for hand and footholds. At the top, he placed a small explosive behind each base of the three dishes. Scaling back down, he stopped somewhat near the center of the shaft, and strapped a large remote mine against the metal.
He sought refuge in the long, horizontal tunnel he had come up from. "Detonate this, then we've got to deal with the higher security." He reminded himself, then hit the switch.
There was a powerful silence. Then all hell broke loose on the butts of the satellites. Each fell from their post with odd similarity. Then the shaft melted and split across the middle. All of it fell harmlessly to the sand.
But the blue light floating in the tunnel turned yet. "Damn it. Gotta' move."
Shades dropped from the catwalk. "How much time do we have?" Erik asked. Shades was bolting toward him, screaming a direction, he wasn't close enough for it to make sense yet.
It finally did. "No-time-down!" was enough. A siren blew. Erik became extra-alert, grasping his sword hilt still in the sheath. Shades reached him in a flash, but Erik spoke first in quick bursts, without even making eye contact. "You! Down! Now!"
Shades hit the deck. The one hundred hatches lining the walls opened, revealing nearly a hundred guns per hole. At the same time, they all opened fire; Erik drew his sword. He spun the blade fluently, rolling the hilt butt over his palm and letting it flow with his fingers. The first wave of instantaneous shots reflected nicely of his edge.
The second wave was more random, and less "all-at-once". Erik got his workout fine. Two blasts sang off his sword, each time absorbing the shock, then he fired an energy blast into one of the hatches. He continued the technique. One blast, fire, two blocks, fire, fire, and so on.
Shades, realizing he was safe from his spot on the floor, rolled onto his side and flashed off his gun with a few rounds into the bottoms of the rows of guns. They fell and scrapped into themselves. He rolled to the other side and executed the same action. With the combination of gun, sword, and energy, the walls had become nothing but melted metal and protruding wires.
Before the two could celebrate their victory, however, a heavy banging caught their attention from the over-sized air ducts. They followed the noise as if they were watching whatever was banging up there.
Without warning, the sound split. It parted ways. One end of it clanged on one side, while the other, twice as noisy, made its way through a solitary duct across the middle. It stopped at a grate. In fact, both separate entities of noise stopped at the same time. "They think alike too." Shades noted.
"Huh?" Erik said.
Both grates fell simultaneously, and both Guardians mashed their legs together to leap through the square. They landed on either side of the room.
"What the hell do we do??" Erik nearly burst.
"Play it their way." He aimed to the floor. The metal was no match for the Force Generator he was packing, and he drew a crude circle, then jumped on it. He drove it clean through to the innards of the dome, then beckoned Erik to follow. Not seeing any other real option, the Vengeance officer humbly obliged.
The mode of transportation consisted of non-gripped boots down a rather slippery pipe. The innards were mostly black, but with a blue tint, and hardly any light, at least none that was artificial.
The Guardians dropped in after them. Using their spiked legs, they dug into the pipe, and therefore traveled faster. Shades took the initiative and pushed Erik ahead of him. Erik, not expecting this maneuver, lost his balance, and slid down on his rear. Worry about his companion gone, Shades halted himself, steadying himself against a rusted wheel. He didn't bother to aim, and fired off a few charges behind him.
The Guardians didn't bother to dodge. A couple of shots make permanent grooves in various pipelines, but only two were shrugged off by the front spider. Somehow, this little upset, caused them to disappear from sight. Shades expected them to cut him off, but they never came. He found Erik waiting for him, a little disgruntled, at another large grate.
Shades and Erik dropped from the rafters to the ground below. All the lights by then were activated, and their escape was now covered by a secondary layer of metal. "Stand back." Erik ordered, and started to charge.
He had hardly got a spark when they both arched their upward to the ceiling above their destination. The ceiling shattered, and the two Guardians landed...and opened fire.
"Crap!" Erik ducked behind the right pillar, Shades went left. The middle was filled with laser streams. Erik armed his sword, and dared to reflect a few shots. Every so often, Shades would volley off a few of his own. "Ya know," Erik began after reflecting another volley, "After we came up with a name for you, I haven't had to call you 'Shades' not once yet."
"Well, there's Once." Shades breathed.
"Anywho, before we die burning deaths, I'd like to know who my comrade was."
There was an eerie silence. The two men looked across at each other. Perhaps it was the strange glow emitted from the blazing guns, or the pounding of the spiders' legs on the metal floor, but they were silent. Maybe the thought of both of them dying killed any paths of secrecy.
"I'm an agent of Venoson!" Shades broke the silence across the streams.
"Of what?!" Erik yelled back.
The young man fired off a few more charges. "Do you know of the Infiltration Training Facility?"
"In Africa?" he blocked several charges with his rod sword.
"Yes!" he paused, took aim, and loosed a single shot. It sang through the Action chip in the head of a drone. "That title is just a cover for it!"
"Is it even in Africa?" another reflection of shots.
"Yes and no."
Erik's confused stare asked the question for him.
"Yes, we're in Africa. But that was only one location. We trained for six months in each continent. Learning all the tactics and secret techniques of every faction of the past and present. We are actually the Venoson, named after James Venoson, who recorded all the lessons and taught all of the first instructors."
Erik mouthed a long "Oh" before shouldering his sword and half-standing. He brought the bottoms of his palms together, fingers bent. "Give me some cover fire!"
Shades complied, but asked in the process, "What're you doing?"
He brought his arms back behind him. "Showing off a classified technique." He squinted his eyes shut and focused. Beads of sweat zigzagged down his forehead. Very strained, and very gravelly, he began the incantation, "Kaaaaaaaaaammmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-
The young man noticed a more than normal vibration in the floor, and ceased cover fire momentarily to notice how much Erik was trembling. He did not notice, however, from the smoke and excess ash, the bluish light emitting from the outline of Erik's palms.
"-haaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy-
The drones were multiplying, flooding their only way back to outskirts. But out of nowhere, Erik's eyes shot open; his face was a mix of anger, insanity, and odd composure. Teeth clenched, energy strained, he leaped in before the constant fray between the two pillars of shelter.
"What the hell! Wait!" Shades screamed to him.
"-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he flung his arms forward, palms releasing, the locked in energy shining forth. The holy lance of God was unleashed upon the metallic, demonic blockade.
The drones' sensors only picked up extreme heat that blew out their temperature moderators and a higher load of psychic energy before their cameras were blinded and their wire tendons torn asunder. In less then two seconds of mass annihilation, their path was cleared, including a gaping hole in the far wall.
Erik was near to passing out, so the young man, after screaming a long expletive to the wreckage, half-carried/half-dragged the Sword of Vengeance officer to the outside.
The night sky was gorgeous, a million shining specks smiling down upon the pair. Erik had passed out, but they were already far enough away from Trinity Beacon not to care. Certain that Erik wouldn't hear, then, he murmured to himself, "This is only the beginning."