Star Force: Divergent (SF74) (5 page)

But still she didn’t stop, running away from the
region she was tasking to travel to and just putting distance between her and
the machines before eventually allowing herself to rest and taking up position
behind a thick tree while she waited and watched. Jyra stayed there for more
than 20 minutes before finally allowing herself to sit down and dig into her
HUD options again, pulling up the log and finding that the transponder had been
activated days ago at approximately the same time she’d completed the disc.

“That stupid button turned it on…I did it to myself
again!” she said inside the confines of her helmet, then forced herself to
stop. Without instructions the only way to figure out what to do was to
experiment, and not pressing all the buttons would have led her nowhere. There
was a lesson in this, she realized, and it was that there wasn’t always a clear
cut solution to follow. No protocol to trust in. Jyra had to take action and
deal with the consequences, for staying put and doing nothing was a road to
nowhere. When inaction wasn’t an option, well, she was just going to have to
play things by ear and dig herself out of whatever trouble she got into.

Jyra didn’t like that, but this mission was showing
her the hard way that the odds of her guessing right and having a ‘clean’ run
were laughable. She had to be a scrapper, and mentally kicking her own ass was
only going to slow her down. The trainers had set up this ambush and she’d
fallen for it, and would probably fall for more to come. If she could avoid a
few it would be by prudence and luck, but when she did fall for one she had to
act quickly and adapt. Self-recriminations wouldn’t help, and in truth she
hadn’t made a misstep, for that would require her having known or been told at
some point what to do, and in this situation she was flying completely blind.

“Live, learn, and move on,” she reminded herself, but
for the moment she just pulled her helmet off and sucked air, letting her body
cool down what heat wasn’t being dissipated by the internal regulation systems
as well as testing a theory as to whether or not the machines could track body
heat.

A few minutes later when the buzzing started again and
grew rapidly stronger she had her answer, with Jyra putting her helmet back on
again and running off out of range and into a wide circle that eventually put
her back on course towards the waypoints and whatever lovely surprises they
held for her.

5

July 28, 2896

Epsilon Eridani
System

Corneria

Jyra dropped the final prize in her scavenger hunt on
the tabletop in front of her Archon instructor, her body still covered in her
white armor but with her helmet tucked under her right arm and a slight breeze
carrying in fresh snowflakes through the open doorway to the forest outside.

“For the record,” she said with a stern look on her
face. “I hate you.”

“Have some trouble?” San-1299 said innocently.

“
Psshh
,” Jyra said, closing
her eyes and shaking her head.

“Learn anything?”

“Quite a bit, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, sitting in a chair within
the small modular firebase that had been dropped into this section of forest.

“How did you know I’d be here if you weren’t
monitoring me?” she asked as the slowly falling precipitation outside blew in
past her sweat-dampened hair and stuck in a few places.

“Perimeter scans. I only got here half an hour ago.”

“
Hmmn
…are we done, or is
this just another waypoint?”

“This mission is complete, but you are far from done,
Trainee.”

“How’d I do on time compared to the others?”

“Time isn’t a measurement on this one, simply
completion.”

“But how did I compare?”

San looked up at her from his sitting position. “18th
overall, but if time had been an element I believe the others would have gone
faster.”

“Just curious as to how much trouble they had.”

“That I can’t tell you. We don’t monitor you, so
unless you feel like telling stories, what happened to you out there is
something only you know.”

Jyra leaned forward, setting her helmet on the table
and propping her torso up on both extended arms. “So no one was controlling
those little droids…or whatever they were?”

“Automation only.”

“You’ve programmed them well then.”

“They’ve been in the works for a while now, first
designed to test the trailblazers in a special Trial. Since then we’ve found
other uses for them.”

“You cleaning up the playground or leaving the ones I
trashed out there?”

“The ones that are active will be recovered, along
with anything else we spot, but we’re not searching miles of forest to pick up
pieces.”

“Sloppy. And I will note that I found one of your
earlier pieces with my boot.”

“If you didn’t see it that’s your fault. Plenty of
rocks out there too.”

“It was buried in snow,” Jyra said in disgust, but she
knew he was right. “It’s
gonna
get cluttered out there
eventually.”

“If we had hundreds of thousands of trainees coming
through it’d be a concern, but so far we’re only through a few hundred and this
program is already 22 years old.”

“Funny. No one’s ever mentioned that before.”

“You’re training to become the elite of the
elite…outside of the Archons anyway. Not even Arc Knights are being given the
range and depth of training and responsibility that you are, if you complete
the program.”

“Oh? I thought we were pretty much carbon copies.”

“Not at all. The Arc Knights have become public
knowledge, more or less. The particulars, which you’ll learn about later, they
don’t know, but their role is as limited as the Knights. They’re meant to
dominate hand to hand combat, and the Arc Knights do so in much greater effect.
You’re being trained to fight in a myriad of other ways, often quiet ways,
which is why the few Arc Commandos out there now are active ghosts and we
intend for it to stay that way. That’s why you get no special armor, whereas
the Arc Knights do, color-wise anyway.”

“So you’re saying they’re just mega bruisers?”

“They’re smart mega bruisers.”

“And they didn’t have to go through this kind of
bullshit scavenger hunt?”

“Nope. How are your food and ambrosia levels?”

“I’m alright.”

San nodded. “Some of the others came in on rationing.
Two came in with nothing left and in not so good condition, but they chose to
stick it out rather than hit the emergency transponder.”

“Would they have gotten a second chance if they did?”

“Let’s just say their course to becoming Arc Commandos
would have veered down another path. You don’t get a second shot at this
course…and you will never mention it to anyone else, save for other Arc
Commandos that have already completed it. Understood?”

Jyra nodded.

“Just know, that this mission was a solitary affair,
so you might want to keep what happened to yourself.”

“Why?”

“If you want to become an Arc Commando you need to get
comfortable with keeping secrets from everyone else except yourself…and not
because the rest of us are untrustworthy. We have to be able to trust one
another, from the trailblazers down to the newest tech. But the thing with
trust is that we don’t have to check up on each other. Like this mission, you
will be entrusted to keep secrets of your own in order to aid Star Force. What
they are only you will know, but it’ll be a backup in case we’re compromised
someday.”

“Compromised? Are you talking technologically or
traitors?”

“Both, though the latter should never happen. That
said, we can never be sure. Take off your right glove.”

Jyra raised an eyebrow but did as told, disconnecting
the armor piece and laying it on the table.

San raised his own hand. “With Archons you will learn
that a handshake is more than a gesture. Take my hand.”

“Going to let me in on one of your tricks?”

“Just one,” San said, feeling her moist hand within
his. “I want you to think of an alphanumeric sequence 4 digits long of your
choice.”

There was a moment of silence, then San looked her in
the eye and said aloud. “H93C.”

Jyra went wide-eyed. “What the hell? You can read my
mind?”

San released her hand and waved his own fingers in the
air before her. “It requires flesh to flesh contact for Humans, but with other
races we can do it remotely so long as we’re not too far away.”

“How?”

“That’s a secret we will keep for now, but know that
there are other races out there that can do the same. Fortunately none near the
ADZ, but we know of at least one within the Nexus that has telepathic powers,
and the Preema also have considerable ability in this area, to what extent
we’re still not fully sure. I can tell you that it depends on the strength of
the individual, and that the ‘power’ responds to training like other things.”

“You’re afraid of someone compromising security by
being brain scanned?”

“It’s not a big worry at the moment, and Humans have
some blocks that only allow flesh to flesh connections. That won’t protect the
other races in Star Force, but we don’t think the Preema or the Dsevmat have
touch telepathy. That should make Humans immune, and there are other ways to defend
your mind, but the best defense is the person being interrogated not having the
information in the first place.”

“Doesn’t exactly fit with the free flow of information
that Star Force operates on.”

“We’re not going to start keeping people in the dark,”
San assured her. “But there are already some secrets we have that even a
Commando of your rank doesn’t know. It’s not even those I’m referring to when
I’m referencing trust, but rather things that you will create going forward.”

“Create?”

“How do you feel when you’re depleted of ambrosia?”
the Archon asked, seeming to change subjects.

“Not good,” Jyra admitted.

“Incapacitated?”

“Reduced,” she offered instead.

“Then if someone could destroy our ambrosia supplies
we would be…reduced, and at a disadvantage. Unless someone hid a small stash
that no one else knew about.”

San saw a spark of understanding in her eyes.

“That’s what I mean by trust. Arc Commandos will be
trusted, encouraged, even expected to operate off the grid. It’s not a betrayal
of oversight, for those who are trustworthy don’t require oversight. If we all
know where everything is, then one of us being compromised, or even turning
traitor, allows our enemies a battlemap. But if there are elements they do not
know exist, or perhaps even do not expect to exist, they are at a disadvantage
similar to what you just experienced on this mission.”

“I can only prepare for what is before me or what I
know is out there,” Jyra translated. “Everything else I have to wait to deal
with until it ambushes me.”

San raised a warning finger. “It’s not a matter of
deception, not regarding other Star Force personnel. Trusting you means I don’t
pry, and vice versa. Some people erroneously believe that trust means having no
secrets, but in truth, trust means being comfortable with someone having
secrets and having no worries about them betraying you. Secrets can be weapons,
the more powerful my friends are the stronger Star Force becomes.”

“I get what you mean, and understand the significance
of it, but other than playing packrat what do you have in mind for us to do?”

“Arc Commandos are given codes, some of which you are
already learning to use, that will allow you to bypass security measures and go
where you like. There will also be specialized equipment that Regulars don’t
get, and some very specialized toys made specifically for Arc Commandos. But
all of that isn’t the point. You have to learn to be sneaky on a regular basis,
but to do so without disconnecting yourselves from the rest of us. Your ability
to function as a team cannot be hindered. You have to learn how to switch from
being a teammate to a rogue unit in a fraction of a second. It has to become a
secondary mode that you can slip into, but the only way to train that skill is
internally. We can’t train you to do that, or a lot of other stuff that Arc
Commandos are mandated for.”

“So we each have to customize ourselves?”

“All people do, warriors more than others, and Arc
Commandos even more so.”

“I’ve noticed something before, but didn’t think until
now to ask. Why don’t you refer to us as soldiers?”

“I’m not a soldier. Neither are you.”

“I’m not?”

“Not if you’re in this program, no. Ideally no one
within Star Force is, though that’s only partly true. What do you think a
soldier actually is?”

“Someone who fights in an army.”

“That’s one definition…a simplistic one. Shut the
door, it’s getting cold in here.”

Jyra turned around and hit the button on the inside of
the door frame, with the view of the outside falling snow being eclipsed by the
sliding panel.

“What a soldier actually is,” San explained, “is a
hybrid. Take a normal person under the instruction of a warrior and the warrior
passes on knowledge through instruction and training that the normal person
would never have been able to accomplish on their own. Not because of a lack of
time or resources, but because they don’t have an intuitive mind. They’re copy
cats, people who grow strong from training but have no idea what they’re doing.
They follow instructions but do not know how it is affecting them. I can write
workouts for other people because I understand training. The people who do
those workouts probably won’t, but by using my knowledge they gain power that
they otherwise would never have achieved.”

“Then a warrior is…?”

“Someone who can self-navigate. All Commandos can to
some degree, you’re not mindless machines following protocol and nothing else,
which is why you’re part soldier, part warrior. Archons are full warriors, as
are Arc Commandos.”

“Because we can operate off the grid without instructions.”

“Exactly. Soldiers are created by militaries.
Militaries are created by warriors. Star Force doesn’t utilize traditional
soldiers, like the lizards or Skarrons or hundreds of other races do. We
recruit and encourage people to think, and if you can’t do that at least
partially you don’t make the cut. That’s why Archons don’t usually refer to
anyone within our military as soldiers.”

“We’ve always used that term as a matter of pride.”

“How so?”

“It separates us from the useless civilians…well, useless
as far as combat. Techs aren’t useless. And technically the lazy ass
freeloaders serve to increase the population, but being a soldier is a huge
responsibility and honor. In a firefight we can’t rely on others to aim our
weapons or micromanage our movements. We have to think on our feet and act
quickly and effectively, else we’re probably going to get injured or killed. So
I guess I’ve always thought of ‘soldiers’ as your definition of ‘warriors.’”

“Then I would amend your definition to include that soldiers
operate partially within a framework that connects them to other soldiers,
gives them missions, and takes a portion of the thinking process out of the
equation. Warriors can and do fight in this manner, but they can also step away
from it at will where a soldier cannot. If a trailblazer is commanding a naval
fleet from within a nexus I trust they know what they’re doing and will follow
their cues, which allows me to be more efficient in my tasks by taking some of
the thinking involved and having another do it for me.”

“But if Arc Commandos operate off the grid,” Jyra
said, making the full connection, “we have to do all the thinking, planning,
and reacting ourselves. We can’t rely on anyone else.”

“And you have to thrive in that environment, not simply
survive it.”

“And this mission was to prod those warrior circuits
within me?”

“You can’t learn to improvise from others, or by
studying. You have to grow through experience…hence we’re giving you an
opportunity for that.”

“Without monitoring us to see if we’re succeeding?”

“You made it here, therefore you succeeded. How you
did it is immaterial. Each Arc Commando will develop tendencies and skills.
You’ll share some with each other, if you choose, and some you’ll develop
exactly the same by coincidence. But having everyone operate in exactly the
same way makes you predictable, and we don’t want that. Letting each of you
develop individually, somewhat in secret, makes you more effective. It also
allows you to discover new ways of doing things, which perhaps aren’t the best,
but if you followed a protocol you wouldn’t experiment and discover them.”