Four
Pretoria Research and Training Base
Planet Val-kyre
7 August 2017
The principle actors gathered in the main conference chamber in the massive underground complex that was the research part of the training base. A large circular table dominated the room with a hanging ring of lights directly over it. It could seat a dozen people in comfortable black chairs, each with their own monitor angling up from below the surface and a control panel. A holographic projector was set in the center of the glossy black surface to display objects in greater detail.
All six Guardians, General Hammond, Captain Majourny, Colonel Markson and one of Commander Harana's aids were in attendance awaiting the arrival of the commander and the Queen Mother. They hadn't been waiting long when Harana and Silvara exited the commander's office to join the group. Everyone rose from their seats in deference to the Queen Mother and sat after she did.
"Before we begin," Silvara said, "we all recognize that the assaults made on the training base by my people and the Guardian Force were not strictly real world. As Guardian Cobretti pointed out in the exercise planning, any assault force approaching the base would have been shot down long before reaching the base. That was not the point of the exercise. The point was to see how our respective people operate and learn something from one another."
That said, the briefing commenced.
The exchange was informative. The Shrike APCs were vulnerable to a determined enemy despite the impressive firepower they carried. One Guardian took out all four, and was destroyed when the last APC self-destructed. The fighting inside the base ran about as expected regardless of the composition of the assault teams. Although all teams and Guardians had been destroyed in the simulations, there was something to be said for the teamwork of Colonel Markson's platoons. Val-kyrie tended toward single combat dating back to their beginning over a thousand years ago. There was no greater honor than taking on an opponent in single combat and winning. Even a defeat could be honorable depending upon the circumstances.
Warship crews fought with the mindset of ship and crew as one entity for honor and glory. As individuals, the Val-kyrie were fearsome. Moving as one race, they were unstoppable.
Commander Harana had gotten her wish to engage Adrian one-on-one. It had been an epic battle for the commander. It certainly lasted longer than she had expected; over an hour of harrowing hunter/hunted stalking through the corridors of the base. Her only demand in the planning stage was that they leave it all on the battlefield.
They did and then some.
When it was all over, the battle turned out to be Harana's only draw with still no defeats on her record. Adrian had known early on that he probably couldn't defeat her outright, but a draw would be respectable. Each warrior had made the other earn that draw in spades. Both were so exhausted that there was a concern that Adrian would be in no shape for the second battle the following day against Colonel Markson's platoons.
Adrian slept the majority of the time while the base was reset for the second exercise. The Sorceress woke him up about an hour before the dropships arrived to deploy the four platoons. Aside from the Sorceress, he had been the most energetic in the second exercise. Unconfirmed reports had it that Captain Takamora was smarting from his bout with the Sorceress. Even though he'd won the engagement, he had not been in very good shape to enjoy the victory. That was the reason for his late arrival for the final engagement with War Wing.
All the training exercises were meant to evaluate personnel and equipment for performance, to identify weaknesses and to develop ways to best employ them. Adrian also suspected that the intense evaluations of the Guardians and their operators was for more than just how best to employ them in future operations. He suspected that they were a guide in how best to defend against them should the unthinkable happen.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The battlesuits represented the ultimate power. While they were not indestructible, they were damned hard to kill. And they could do a lot of damage in the meantime. Five of the six operators sworn that they would never be corrupted by the power of the ancient weapons, but the temptation was always there. The Sorceress was the one in the best position to know that. The secrets inside Castle Grayskull had lured despots, tyrants, and would-be dictators into trying to capture the castle and take those secrets for their own ends. Even she admitted to the temptations Falcon's design offered.
The meeting broke up after several hours of intense review. Adrian retreated to the workshop to continue working on a saber to replace the one he had given the Queen Mother after hers had been damaged during her fight with the rebellious Senator Bregata. Adrian had not asked for it back nor had the Queen Mother offered to return it.
Silvara found Adrian hard at work putting the finishing touches on the new saber handle. Design schematics lay scattered across the top of the work bench along with tools and parts. While beam saber design was basic, handle designs varied by the person using it. War Wing's saber in battle form were two individual handles meant for two-handed combat. The combat form sabers were meant for the same purpose. Since Adrian was building a new one, he decided to add a feature to connect the handles end to end and create a dual blade weapon. Where Darth Maul's weapon was a single unit with a blade at each end, Adrian intended his to be assembled and disassembled at will during combat.
"I hope you didn't finally work up the nerve to return the saber," Adrian commented without looking up from his work.
"How do you do that? Hardly anyone hears me sneaking up on them."
"Then you admit to sneaking around in your own kingdom." Adrian spoke it as a statement rather than a question. "I sensed a presence. Thought it might be a certain bird woman."
"I believe the Sorceress is checking on Falcon. I think she is also concerned about her battle with Captain Takamora."
Adrian shrugged absently. "Hohiro doesn't hold grudges; if anything, he'll be happy that his little girl is all grown up. I heard she made him work for the victory." He turned to face the Queen Mother. "I noticed Commander Harana was moving a bit stiffly."
"Indeed, but she's happy her win streak is intact."
Fighting to a draw didn't count for or against a fight record. And since the commander had never lost a fight in personal combat, the best Adrian could have hoped for was to fight her to a draw.
"You didn't slink down here just to gossip. I hope you weren't thinking of returning that saber I gave you."
"Oh, no. I just wanted to give you this." She held out her right hand and uncurled her fingers. A red shard lay in the palm. It was the focusing crystal from the saber. "Red really isn't my color."
Adrian plucked the shard from the woman's hand. "I'm guessing silver?"
Silvara chuckled. Being that the Queen Mother's hair was silver from birth it contributed to her mother naming her Silvara. "How is the training on the new starship going?"
"Well enough. Kragor was an excellent pilot so I have all his experience and knowledge. Cirandar was the better navigator. We have been changing up the roles so that either of us can operate that ship as needed," Adrian explained.
"Although few records survived the Great War, what little we do have on the original operators turned up some interesting rumors."
"Such as?"
"Kragor and Cirandar were excellent in their respective tasks of piloting and navigating. As good as any pair could be," Silvara explained. "There was another which indicated that Kragor and Cirandar may have been…involved."
"You mean a personal relationship?"
The Queen Mother nodded.
"Well, if they were, the Sorceress and I have found no indications of it. There was nothing in the life experiences impressed on the battlesuits in that regard. So, there is no influence on us concerning that."
Satisfied, Silvara said, "Good. There are enough complications where those battlesuits are concerned."
Adrian changed the subject. "I noticed the computer is not active in the simulator. I hope no one is planning to spring something on us."
Silvara put her best innocent look. "I don't know what you mean."
"I've heard some of the computers your people use "speaking". All of them have female voices. One or two had learning programs and personalities. There have been rumors about those personalities."
Silvara muttered something under her breath. Adrian guessed it had to do with Anyssa. "The class of starship we are giving you as a replacement for the Ladyhawke is the latest in our line of testing platforms. We have been testing computer control systems in them," Silvara confessed. "Some of them have had issues. The one in your ship should feel right at home."
"Why does that not put my mind at ease?"
Silvara simply smiled knowingly and left him to finish building the new energy saber.
The Sorceress slammed herself back in the seat and threw her arms up in frustration. "This is impossible! Cirandar was a navigator, not a pilot."
After completing the new energy saber, Adrian had met the Sorceress in the simulator to continue training on the new starship that was to become the replacement Ladyhawke. He turned in his seat to look at his pilot. "And Kragor was no navigator, but we have to learn these positions. You know why. You flew the Ladyhawke when I got shot up on that planet in the unclaimed zone between Horde space and Val-kyrie space. And you landed on the deck of a battlestar without ever having done it even in a simulator. That's more than I've done."
The Sorceress knew Adrian was right. They couldn't just keep to their respective tasks. The mission to the penal planet was proof enough of that. However, the old bounty hunter ship had been an extensively modified freighter. This new starship was more technologically advanced and not as easy to learn to fly. They had made a few runs in the actual ship, but those had been conducted with Adrian in the pilot's seat.
The simulator mimicked the real ship. The bridge was long and narrow. The wall was a giant wrap-around monitor screen instead of small forward one. Small pop-up windows could appear anywhere the crew desired for convenience. The floor was dominated by the crew station's module that vaguely resembled a spaceship without wings. The two aft stations faced – one each – to the port and starboard sides. Those stations could be configured to monitor sensors, shipboard functions, and could operate the offensive and defensive weapons on those sides of the starship. The navigator's position was at the forward end of the module with the pilot's right behind that and just forward of the aft positions.
The older controls were tactile buttons, switches and levels. The latest version was mostly touch screens with few buttons. Only the joystick on the right-hand console and the multifunction throttle lever on the left in the pilot's compartment were retained. There was an overhead console that would lower from the ceiling for the pilot or navigator to use when required. Any one position could be configured to fly the ship if necessary, but the pilot and navigator positions were the most interchangeable in that regard.
When the Sorceress refused to do anything more than sulk, Adrian continued. "When you first took over as the guardian of the castle, did magic come easy to you?" He had to prod her several more times to answer.
"Simple spells were a matter of thinking what I wanted to do and it happened," she finally answered. "Later, I began experimenting with my newfound powers."
"And?" Adrian prodded.
"I had successes…and failures."
"Did you give up?"
Annoyed, Sorceress snapped, "Clearly, I did not."
"Then why is this any different? You told me once that being away from the castle is probably the best thing that could have happened. Knowing everything but being restricted from helping your friends tore at you every time." Adrian paused to see if he was getting through to her. "Now you have to learn as you go along just like the rest of us. Personally, I think you are becoming a better person for it. Besides," he gave her a lop-sided grin- "men are intimidated by know-it-all women." She tried to keep a straight face, but finally cracked a smile and relaxed. The Sorceress did not have to master piloting the starship before they left Val-kyre, she just had to have an understanding of how to do it in a pinch. There was the computer to assist in operating the starship, though Adrian confessed to an unease over what they were getting after his conversation with the Queen Mother.
"You can be so annoying at times."
"Well, I've had lots of practice," Adrian said, turning back to the controls.
They went through the simple maneuvers a couple more times before quitting for the day. The Sorceress made some improvement, but she acknowledged she would need a lot more practice. Adrian vowed to make her practice just as much as he was going to practice at navigation even if it meant dragging the Sorceress kicking and screaming onto the starship's bridge for simulator runs.
General Hammond met with Jo-jo Majourny onboard the Eternia to see how preparations were going. As much as he liked building a relationship with their new ally, he needed to return to Earth and report to President Alexander about the mission and what they planned to do next.
They met in the drop bay where Colonel Markson's platoons were securing the Shrike APCs in the aft equipment bays where the old APCs had been kept. A load of spare parts for the most common breakages due to wear and tear had been moved aboard and stored earlier in the day.
"We should be ready by tomorrow," Jo-jo said. "I know you need to get back and report to President Alexander. I hear Adrian and the Sorceress will be ready to leave for the planet Wayfarer at about the same time. I heard they went up for their first flight in the starship."
Hammond nodded. "They shuttled up to the orbital docks and will spend the tomorrow getting checked out on the ship. It will be painted after that. Then we can leave."
"You know you could have asked for anything you wanted after we helped Silvara save her people from a very bad situation."
"Yes, but I'm more interested in allies then gathering all the technology we can get. That's why she gave us the assault carriers. The offer of the starship was made strictly to Adrian and Sorceress," the general explained. "After all, they need a replacement if they are going to keep up the charade as bounty hunters."
Jo-jo looked at him, a wry grin touching her lips. "You know we created a monster, don't you? I think the Sorceress is enjoying that charade a little too much."
Hammond shrugged. "It beats her average day in the castle, or so she says."
Jo-jo couldn't put off what she was thinking any longer. "Do you have any idea what we will be walking into back home?"
"No idea. The World President gave his blessing, if you can call it that, when you recovered the battlesuits." The general sighed. "If he goes back on that, it won't be overtly. His team is embattled enough as it is. Roshenko has no time to worry about us." Hammond didn't voice his own opinion that the World President might be in league with the Horde. Or someone on his cabinet. The infiltrators in his command, the attack on his people when they had gone on leave into Las Vegas, failed attempts at sabotage all pointed to someone high up colluding with the enemy.
People had hobbies. Adrian built model airplanes and starships. The Sorceress researched ancient Eternian history and experimented with spells. General Hammond collected secrets other people would wish never to see the light of day. The secrets he had come into possession of since that day two years ago when the Horde starships arrived on Earth were disturbing at worst, with a few frightening ones thrown in for good measure.
As they continued to watch operation in the bay, Hammond wondered what would be thrown at them next. And who would be behind it.
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