Chapter 553: 4th & 10

Vuxten was very aware that he was late as he walked from "The Morgue" to the ACQC practice area.

--told you be late-- 471 transmitted from the armored hunch between the shoulders of his armor.

"I know," Vuxten said, moving at a steady walk with the fluid over-exaggerated movements of a long time power armor jockey. "We'll get there."

--cant believe armor was late-- 471 said.

"They kept getting bad diagnostics. It's not our armor's fault," Vuxten protested. He popped up a piece of stimgum and started chewing.

--cant run leave holes in asphalt-- 471 said. He threw up a meme of tracks hammered in the ground from a bank and someone in power armor saying "You can't prove I robbed it."

Vuxten got a chuckle out of it.

It took a few more minutes before Vuxten arrived, coming in very late.

"Captain Vuxten, good of you to join us," the ACQC instructor, Major Phtelmon said, swishing his armored tail back and forth. "Take your seat and pop your helmet."

Vuxten nodded and moved over to the reinforced bench, sitting down and putting his hands on his knees. He tapped the controls with his chin and nose and the helmet seals popped, allowing him to remove it.

"All right, as I was saying, this will be divided into three sections, each of which you will do singularly, followed by three more sections, which will be by group," Major Phtelmon said. "The sections will be against light Dwellerspawn units, medium Dwellerspawn units, and then a mixed unit."

Everyone nodded, some looking back at Major Phtelmon after staring at Vuxten's armor.

"You are not required to use Confederate Standard ACQC," Major Phtelmon said. "We're not grading you on form or balance or fluidity during this, you merely have the goal of 'surviving'. In the group phase, it will be teams of five, one of you and four enlistedbeings, against the 'Spawn with the goal to survive."

Vuxten raised his hand.

"Captain Vuxten?" Major Phtelmon said, pointing.

"Will this be hard light eVR terrain or just wireframe in the training bay?" he asked.

"Hard light eVR terrain," Major Phtelmon said.

Vuxten nodded. "Thank you, sir."

"Let's get to it. Angrawrk, you're up first, Bay One" Major Phtelmon said. "Artveln, Bay Two. Crestikla, Bay Three, Drevestis, Bay Four."

Vuxten watched as the big Rigellian got up and moved slowly into the middle of the room. The heavy macroplas sparkled with the integrity field as the door closed behind her. Everyone saw the urban area come up.

"Three, two, one, BEGIN!" Major Phtelmon snapped.

One second Captain Angrawrk was standing motionless, the next she was being assaulted by Dwellerspawn, the largest of which were the size of a small groundcar. She was fighting furiously, moving from target to target. Just over four minutes she started slowing down, not moving as fast.

"She's out of breath. She needs to crank up her atmosphere exchange rate and give herself an O2 nose squirt," Vuxten said softly.

"Yeah, well," the Pubvian, Pardnavan, said softly. "Jesus, fucking Ring Locusts."

At the five minute mark she went down, the holographic image overlaid her body ripping into several pieces as the Dwellerspawn managed to grab her from different directions.

It went again and again and Vuxten quickly grew slightly bored watching.

Pardnavan had just been eliminated by not avoiding a large gobbet of acid being hucked at him when there was a slow clapping from the entrance.

Everyone turned and looked and Vuxten saw the same Terran as he had seen in the gym the night before. She walked forward, her expression making it obvious her clapping was mocking. She was flanked by two Tukna'rn MP's.

"You have a comment, Madame..." Major Phtelmon said.

"You may refer to me as Lady Khoonkeenadee, Lady Keena, or Your Grace," the woman said. She looked in at Bay Three, where Captain Ovuntik was trying to keep from being pulled into the mouth of one of the Dwellerspawn the size of a small house. "I am unimpressed by what I have seen thus far."

Major Phtelmon looked up at the Terran, clenching his jaws. He had forgotten how arrogant some Terrans could be, having grown used to the professionalism of the Confederate Armed Services. "Do you think you could do better?"

The woman laughed and Vuxten recognized that kind of laugh. Sharp, mocking, deriding, it was a weapon to provoke a reaction.

Vuxten realized she did believe she could do better and was interested in proving do.

"Me? I am with child," she said, putting one hand on her slightly protruding belly. "And armed only with a sword," her other hand went back over her shoulder to the hilt of her blade.

Both Tukna'rn took several steps back as they leveled their weapons. Their shoulder weapons activated, both locking on the Terran female.

"CEASE!" both Tukna'rn stated at the same time.

The woman's eyes twinkled as she lowered her hand from the blade. The Tukna'rn kept their weapons lowered, their backs to the walls, and Vuxten noticed that both had their shields up.

Major Phtelmon shook his head. "Then I would request of you, Ma'am, that you watch silently as my trainees practice."

The woman's eyes sparkled and she smiled, revealing sharp looking even white teeth. "I didn't say no."

Major Phtelmon blinked, going back to stare at the woman, who was touching her wrist datalink. Vuxten noted she didn't have a datalink, merely a patch of scar tissue where the datalink implant should be.

"There. I have filed the required paperwork and received permission to use your combat training facilities," she said, still smiling. "Your move."

Sighing, Major Phtelmon turned and waved at the bays. "Simulation is set for small and medium Dwellerspawn battle units, timed to run for ten minutes or a set number of opponents in the opposing force. You can enter whichever bay you wish."

The Terran woman nodded, undoing the leather cord holding her top together. She let it fall, exposing her mammary glands, and walked toward Bay One. She turned her head and blew a kiss at the Tukna'rn on her left.

"Stay right here, boys, momma needs some exercise," she said.

Captain Hwarkakwarg reached down and picked up the leather overbreast corset. She looked at it, then looked at Vuxten.

"I think this is real leather, not nanoforge," the Rigellian said.

Major Phtelmon shook his head at the woman's actions. He brought up the terrain. "All right, Lady Keena, in Three," he said.

Vuxten saw the Terran burst into motion, running for a wrecked car.

"Two," Major Phtelmon said. The Terran jumped up on top of the car, drawing her weapon.

"What in the world?" Pardnavan asked as lightning wreathed the weapon.

"One," Major Phtelmon added. "BEGIN!"

The simulation started with Dwellerspawn the size of dogs, nearly a dozen.

Vuxten and the rest of the class watched as the woman hewed her way through them, constantly moving position, forcing them to move to her, circling and coming in at angles. When the larger ones started to arrive she quickly got in close, often jumping up onto them.

Vuxten noticed she was laughing.

"Never fight a Terran," Pardnavan mumbled as the woman snatched up a piece of chitin to block acid, threw it at a second, then charged into the face of the one that had spewed the acid at her.

Vuxten watched as she run out the number at the eight minute mark.

Lady Keena raised her face to the sky. "Is that all the Gods have for me? Sunny days and a street fighting the weakest foes they can find? Where is glory in this?"

"Setting for mixed. Setting weather for rain and storm. Three, two, one, BEGIN!" Major Phtelmon said.

Again, the class watched the Terran female go to work. Vuxten noticed quickly that she was shielding her stomach, that she was compensating for her balance being thrown off.

"Nothing like a Terran to remind us all why they're the apex predator," Captain Angwark said, shaking her head. "Look at those muscles."

"Jealous already," Hwarkakwarg commented. "Bulk and definition, not for show, but for raw speed and power."

"Digital Omnimessiah, she's actually winning," Shilshren said, the Kobold shaking his head. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I have," Vuxten said quietly.

Both Hwarkakwarg and Shilshren looked at him, Pardnavan leaning out around Shilshren.

"When?" Shilshren asked.

"The Crusade of Wrath. The Dokigurlz. The Kawaii Boiz," Vuxten said softly. "During Second Telkan."

"Man," Shilshren said, shaking his head. "That must have been something to witness."

"Yeah, witness," Vuxten said softly.

--easy brother-- 471 said. --vitals are up--

"I'm OK," Vuxten subvocalized.

"Shit, she won," Shilshren said after a few minutes.

Lady Keena came swaggering back, her sword sheathed after wiping it off on the 'grass', one hand on her hip, the other over her belly.

"Stimulating," was all she said as she passed Major Phtelmon. She sat down on the bench, picked up a towel, and mopped her face before dropping it back on the seat.

There was murmuring.

"Vuxten, Bay Three," Major Phtelmon called out.

Vuxten stood up, feeling his armor whine slightly in response. He felt the tickle down his spine, felt his mouth go dry as his helmet wrapped back around his head. 471 blinked the ready icon three times as he walked in.

He was in a city, wreckage everywhere. Vuxten closed his eyes.

"Your weapons are locked out. No chainsword. Goal is to survive," came Major Phtelmon's voice over the comlink. "In three, two, one..."

"BEGIN!"

Vuxten opened his eyes and jumped up and to the left, somersaulting in place, landing three stories up, his grav-spike twisting to hold him in place thirty feet off the ground as he scanned the street and the walls.

He saw the small flood of 'jelly-wrigglers' moving down the street and jumped up and across the street, gaining more height.

"You're supposed to be engaging them," Major Phtelmon said.

Vuxten jumped again, watching.

They crossed into the closer side of the intersection and Vuxten launched himself off, tucking and rolling in mid-air.

"I AM KRATOS THE DESTROYER!" rang out from his speakers, echoing through the silent city.

He slammed down in the middle of the pack, spiking his gravity up to 5G's just before he hit. Pavement exploded out from around him as a bright purple flare rippled outward.

"I'M THE HARBINGER OF DEATH!" rang out as he jumped up to a second story, then shot down at an angle, slamming his shoulder against a wrecked car as 471 fluttered the grav-spike so the car shot away with an explosion of the debris breaking the sound barrier.

The car slammed into the Dwellerspawn as Vuxten backflipped up and away.

"ALL THE GODS TREMBLE BEFORE ME!"

Vuxten's mind was blank as he moved from group to group, crushing them with his sheer mass, gravity, or debris he grabbed. At one point he jumped up and down twice on a wrecked grav-limo, smashing the frame together, kicked it upward, grabbed it, and started smashing everything around him as 471 jiggled the gravity generator to increase the wreckage's kinetic output.

"FINISHED!" Major Phtelmon said. "Good job, Captain. Round two, medium Dwellerspawn."

"Give me a full mix," Vuxten snapped before his brain could catch up with his mouth. "Give me a fight, Phillip stab your eyes!"

He was unaware of the lighting crackling around his feet, down his arms. Unaware of the white hot burning cutting bar chain wrapped around his fist and forearm smouldering.

"Good luck, Captain," Major Phtelmon said. He could taste blueberries across the back of his teeth and he wondered if the phasic energy was a remnant of Lady Keena's workout.

The street suddenly went green. Moss and vines everywhere. The skyrakers were coated with them, covered in nodules that waved fronds. Veins were scattered across the street. Overgrown cars here and there, and bones peeking out from under the moss here and there.

The massive Dwellerspawn thundered around the corner and Vuxten narrowed his eyes. He'd seen those, fought those before.

His mind went blank as he launched himself up and out, tucking and rolling.

When he hit his grav-spike howled as he burst through the armor and into the internals. His feet hit the battle-steel hard 'spine' inside the creature and he kicked off instinctively, knowing the armor was designed and anchored to prevent external damage.

Not from him exploding outward.

He was in the thick of it now, his brain consumed with nothing but fury.

"NOT ONE MORE PODLING!" he screamed as he grabbed a stingstirge out of midair by one wing, grabbed the stinger, and ripped its guts out. He reached out, grabbed a bus stop kiosk, and swept a dozen dragonflies from the air, finishing with throwing the kiosk at one of the whippersnappers.

"EVERYBODY HURTS!" came from his speakers.

He followed it close, keeping it between the whippersnapper and him. When the cheap plas bounced and shattered he took two more steps.

"EVERYBODY BLEEDS!" rang out as 471 juggled the power versus cooling, keeping an eye on Vuxten's vitals the whole time. He could read a lot more of them since he'd gone to Advanced Operator Assistance Training last month.

The whippersnapper exhaled, the mucus flying out around the crude gill lungs.

It all made sense. No command. No worries. No paperwork.

Just fight.

Vuxten smashed his hand in, plunging his arm in to the wrist, grabbed the tendon at the base, and jumped away, ripping a good twenty meters of fibrous gill-lung from inside the whippersnapper. The creature screamed and turned toward the injury instinctively but Vuxten bounced off the building face, using his boots to crush a deathbee hive, rolled in midair, and landed on the other side.

"NO MORE PODLINGS!"

He repeated it, sticking one leg out during his mid-jump roll to cave in the jaw of a skyspitter just as it vent to vomit out bioacid that could pit and melt warsteel. The bladder flexed, found nowhere to go, and acid exploded back into the creature's skull even as Vuxten landed.

Vuxten ran along the side of the building, his grav spikes howling as his footsteps ripped away whole sections of the ferrocrete face.

Another massive creature crawled around the corner as he reached the far side end. Vuxten launched himself across to the other skyraker, then back, hitting just below the line he'd carved, the grav-spike howling. He flexed his legs, jumped, rolled, and hit the street. He was fifteen steps when the computer system running the eVI ran all the computations.

The whole section, all twelve stories, of the skyraker ripped loose and fell into the street, crushing the last creature.

"WE BOTH KNEW... IT WOULD ALWAYS END THIS WAY!"

SIMULATION ENDED appeared in Vuxten's vision.

--woot-- 471 said.

"BRING THEM BACK! COME BACK! I'M NOT DONE!" Vuxten screamed over his mic.

--buddy youre not looking good--

He turned and faced down the street. "BRING THEM BACK!" He clenched his fists, the chain still white hot and smouldering, sparks shooting from between his fingers.

The door opened and Vuxten saw the Terran female walking toward him.

He stood there, breathing heavy, as she squatted down.

"They're not real, Knight," she said softly, touching the side of his helmet. "They're just pictures of memories. You can't go back and change any of it."

Vuxten stood there a second.

"Come, follow," the Terran female said.

Vuxten knew everyone was staring at him as he followed her to the bench. 471 opened the faceplate at her urging, and she used a wet cloth to wipe the sweat from Vuxten's face.

There was some uncomfortable coughing.

The woman suddenly smiled. "You, you have ridden the Hasslehoff and become a man," she said.

Vuxten nodded. He noticed that Hwarkakwarg and Shilshren were staring at him, Pardnavan leaning out around Shilshren.

"I've never seen anything like that," Pardnavan said.

"It's how we fight," Vuxten admitted.

"The glove. The chainsword chain," Pardnavan clarified.

"Oh," Vuxten lifted his arm. The chain, wrapped and half melted into the warsteel plating of his forearm, was glowing a sullen red, slowly cooling. "Yeah. That."

"You have tasted it. Drank deeply," Lady Keena said, standing up. She tossed the cloth down. "Perhaps there is hope for the Confederacy yet."

Before anyone could answer, she turned and walked toward the door.

"Coming, boys?" She asked mildly.

The Tukna'rn, in power armor, followed her.

Hwarkakwarg held up the corset. "She forgot this."

Vuxten laughed.

It was nearly an hour before Vuxten was up for the squad level practice. He got up, his armor hissing, and walked toward the door.

The eVR kicked in, showing that he was in the middle of an intersection. On either side of him were two Telkan infantrymen in the early generation of Telkan Marine armor.

"Running full simulation, Captain, like you asked. Good luck," Major Phtelmon said. "Three."

Vuxten snapped his hand out, pointing at the ones on his left and then up the building. They bounded away.

"Two."

He repeated the motion on his right.

"One."

Vuxten jumped up, twice more, gaining height, crushing deathbee nests each time. The spores and pollen were thick, but he could still see.

"BEGIN!"

He saw the veinlike neon-green flowing down the streets, up the buildings.

"POWER BLOOM!" one of the simulated squad mates called out.

Vuxten jumped down, landing just in front of the lightning bolt of the nutrient fluid being pumped through the veins, destroying the thick pipe before it could gain pressure, then jumped away, hitting two more arteries one right after another.

Around the corner came on the big ones, something kaiju class. A thick six legged lizard thing with thick pebbled hide that had smaller ones hanging off of it. It's tongue flickered out and it gave a roar of anger.

Vuxten grabbed the half-crushed taxi as the creature's mouth opened and slung it just as it started to roar. He jumped after it, rolling in place. The taxi slammed into its open mouth, deep into the soft tissues, and Vuxten slammed against it right afterwards. As he kicked off he saw the other four Telkan jumped down, getting close, throwing punches at the smaller ones as they fell from the hide of the massive one.

"NO, YOU IDIOTS!" Vuxten yelled. He jumped up as the lizard thing hacked and coughed around twisted endosteel. "DON'T!"

Vuxten landed, dialing up the gravity to 15G, the max his armor could handle. The joints screamed as he slammed against the creature's skull, crushing it into the ground as a massive crater exploded into the ferrocrete road.

Two of the 'Marines' went down under the Dwellerspawn, screaming over the radio as the eVR simulated their deaths in all their glory.

Vuxten went to fire a duo of Low-Ex from his grenade launcher and "LOCKOUT" appeared in his vision.

He tasted stale stimgum.

Part of him knew that the two remaining ones, who were fighting desperately against a bladeswinger beetle even as glittercrabs swept around the beetle in a rush to get at them, were just simulations, but part of his brain insisted it was real.

Vuxten gritted his teeth and pushed at the launcher.

Major Phtelmon's eyes widened as he saw the Telkan's weapons go from "LOCKED OUT" to "ACTIVE" suddenly. He looked up in time to see the Telkan fire off a quartet of rockets that exploded with enough fury to make the ferrocrete training center tremble. He tried to shut down Vuxten's armor and for a second he saw the hashed readouts of his handpad control crashing.

Captain Shrilshen jumped up and ran for the emergency shutdown. He could faintly hear music from inside the simulation as Vuxten landed with a Mark One Cutting Bar in one hand and a heavy bulky and ornate stubber in the other, lightning coursing up his arms and across his shoulders.

He slapped the emergency shutdown as Vuxten waded into the hardlight constructs.

The eVR shut down, a pulse threw everyone's armor into lockout mode.

Inside the heavily reinforced room Vuxten stopped in mid-chop.

"PAGE ONE SAYS OPEN!" sounded out, then suddenly wound down.

There was silence for long moment until Vuxten's voice broke it.

"Oh."

----------------

Vuxten sat in the chair, leaned back slightly, staring at the russet Mantid.

"I heard you had difficulty yesterday," Doctor Holds Hands said gently. "I hear the second one was worse."

Vuxten nodded. "Armored Close Quarters Combat - Squad Tactics class."

She looked at her datapad. "Your mantid had difficulty too. You both overrode your weapon lockouts and went full bore on the simulation."

Vuxten nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Your armor rejected shutdown commands from your instructor to the point of attempting to counter-attack with a warboi hash," the Captain said.

"Yes, ma'am," Vuxten said. "It did it reflexively."

"And your weapons used Gen-One Mat Trans to leave the armory to appear in your hands."

"Again, armor combat reflex," Vuxten said.

Holds just nodded.

"It's... uh... it was modified by Bellona. It reacts to me sometimes, which is why it has to be stored separately in a psychic shielded container. Something Bellona did to it. You've heard of her?" Vuxten asked.

Holds nodded. "Indeed, I have," She leaned back slightly. "How do you feel today?"

Vuxten sighed. "Strangely, I feel better. Like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders."

Holds nodded. "Felt like you were back where you belonged. Back to a familiar place where it all made sense, didn't you?"

Vuxten nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Did you notice where the eVR simulation took place?" Holds asked.

"Not at the time, not until partway through it. I recognized it when I caught a glimpse of the craters," Vuxten admitted.

Holds nodded. She set down the stylus pen she was chewing on. "I'm familiar with your record, Captain. I've seen what happened to you, reviewed your suit logs, reviewed the First and Second Telkan Wars quite closely."

Vuxten frowned. "Because of me?"

The mantid shook her head. "Not just you. The Imperium of Wrath broke their exile for the first time in three thousand years. All of the Martial Orders, including the Neko-Marines and the Sons of Venus landed and fought. The psychic trauma inflicted is of interest to me and many others in my profession."

"Really?" Vuxten asked.

The mantid nodded. "Do you know the story of the Neko-Marines and the Sons of Venus? How they came about?"

Vuxten shook his head. "Just that the Dokigurlz were children."

The mantid made a motion of embarrassment. "Yes, they were," she looked at Vuxten sharply. "They are both a product of the Mantid Glassing of the Sol System. Many of them are eight thousand years old," she sighed. "Then there's the infectious side. Any of the Sisters of Wrath that fall become Dokigurlz, and of the Brotherhood of Wrath that falls can become a Son of Venus."

Vuxten frowned.

Holds stared at Vuxten. "But that's for another time. How did you sleep?"

Vuxten smiled. "Better than I have in months."

Holds made a motion of pleasure. "Good. I don't think you're in too much danger, and I believe what you went through may have been therapeutic."

"Does that mean I'm cleared for combat again?" Vuxten asked.

Holds nodded. "You came out of it as soon as the simulation ended. You didn't stay stuck in combat psychosis. You didn't become Enraged and I'm seeing no sign of Enragement. We'll meet back together in two weeks, before you ship out for Telkan, and if you continue to show improvement, I'll clear you for combat."

"Thank you," Vuxten said.

"Have a good day, Marine," Holds said.

"Thank you, ma'am, you too," Vuxten said.

Holds watched the Telkan leave, then swiped at the holotank.

Two images were side by side. The outline of a Telkan on the left, the outline of a Terran on the right. Both in heavy armor.

Holds nibbled on the stylus pen as she stared at the phasic levels in both images.