Soaring

This story was inspired by a song titled "Infrared" by Emil Rottmayer.

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

"..And lovely citizens of Barceny, be aware. This is a heat advisory. After double checking the readings of the planetary weather monitoring system, the Orbital Security Council has confirmed that we are going to witness an unprecedented amount of heat in the coming days. Temperatures could exceed the historical record of 58.6 degrees Celsius.." The weather reporter on the holographic screen states.

This is all heard as Lycus fiddles with his mechanized gauntlet designed for his routine training exercises. He hears a ring from the door of his seasonal dormitory and makes his way to it.

As he opens, a man wearing a white exo-suit walks in, bursting with energy, and says, "You're still not ready, mate?"

"Isatis, there's no rush. The later the better anyway. There's a heat advisory."

"Uhh yea. It's an advisory, not a mandate.." Isatis rebuttals while Lycus gives him a stale look.

Isatis continues, "I never would have thought the 'Young Mantis' would be scared of some hot weather."

"I'm not scared of the damn weather. And don't call me that. I hear enough of it from Commander Stirn and Colonel Marx as it is."

"It doesn't get you excited?! You don't get a sense of pride every time you hear that? It's so cool that Commander Idel is your father."

Master Idel, also known as The Mantis, is the head of the Megalachorin special forces. He's extremely pragmatic and well respected by everyone in their military and intelligence institutions. And, yes, he's also the father of Lycus. 

Lycus finishes gearing up. He plates on his advanced Nova Defense brand leggings over his tightly fixed exo-suit then looks at Isatis and asks, "You're wearing the whole getup? I understand you need the Gray-Honor headgear for the time distortion technique, but you know it's going to be hot with your whole suit, right?"

"Here you go again with the damn weather." Isatis responds.

"Mate, I'm just telling you that because I'm concerned for my teammate's well-being."

"Well, don't be." Isatis responds, clicking his helmet and his visor reinforces with a silver and orange lining. "If I die of heat exhaustion the Tempora program will send me back a few minutes and warn me."

"You're lucky that AI has a protective protocol. Most of us don't get the luxury of having a computer program to hold our hands through danger." Lycus says with a smirk.

"You're kidding, right? You want to switch abilities? I would love to summon birds and reign meteors onto the battlefield on command." Isatis remarks with his voice being projected through a speaker in his helmet.

"You know I can't do the Skyfire Burst without permission from the Optimum Guidance comm specialists. I think time travel is much more overpowered." Lycus says as they walk into the elevator.

They make their way downstairs and walk through the ground level of the complex and Isatis brings up their previous conversation, “My ability has restraints too. I can’t even go back in time as far as I’d like and the program only authenticates permission when it’s following the Megalachorin protocols of combat.” 

“Yeah, yeah. You can ‘only’ go back in time when you’re told. What a burden.”

They exit the building and their third teammate, Cypris, is standing there. She has a rather sassy pose and it’s pretty obvious she’s been waiting longer than she’d like. 

“It’s about time.” Cypris impatiently states.

“Look, you sent me in to get him. Go up yourself next time if you’re in a hurry to start our brutal training session that badly.” Isatis says, knowing he’s testing the limits of her patience. It brings him joy that he can annoy her. What’s she going to do? Stab him with her plasma blade so he can go back in time and get her in trouble with their CO?

The three operatives make their way to their designated training facility that holds various tracks, platforms, weight lifting facilities, and a massive comm tower erected out of it. This comm tower is of similar stature to that of a commercial airport communications tower. However, it doesn’t serve the same function. This comm tower is specifically designed for arial training operations within the Megalachorin military facility. 

They pass the towering part of the massive complex and find themselves on Zone 11, the largest training ground in the facility. 

When they start warming up, Commander Stirn walks up and says, “Decided to show up on Battalion day?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, sir.” Cypris responds.

“Kiss ass.” Isatis murmurs as she immediately responds by lodging her left elbow into him. 

“What the hell is this, Isatis?” Commander Stirn authoritatively asks.

“Sir?”

“You trying to smother yourself? There’s a record-breaking heatwave today.” 

“He thinks he’ll be fine. He said the Tempora program will protect him.” Lycus states as Isatis gives an irritated, tilting head movement.

“You put too much faith into that technology, Lieutenant.” Commander Stirn states.

“It’s a great opportunity to show off what the AI program is capable of in intense heat, at least.” One of the combat engineers standing next to the commander remarks. 

“Alright. Isatis and Lycus, you two go up first.” The commander orders.

They get to a circular maneuverable platform in the center of the training ground that can rise up to about 335 feet (which is approximately 30 stories of a commercial building). 

“On your mark. Ready?” A combat engineer radios in as the platform reaches the peak of its voyage. They are approximately 200 feet off the ground. 

“Sync.” Lycus and Isatis respond at the same time.

“Begin training sequence Delta Otto.” Commander Stirn says with anticipation.

In the next moment various holographic tanks, combat support vehicles, and gunships appear on the ground and immediately use ranged attacks on the two operatives. Missiles and gunfire and all sorts of madness occurs around them as they swiftly evade incoming projectiles. 

The simulation creates these holographic scenarios by combining the modern technological blueprints of military armaments with various forms of eco. Eco is an essential energy for these supersoldiers to operate their equipment properly. In a similar sense it is also essential for the functionality of this training scenario. There is a massive field that surrounds the simulation ground where any and all simulated components will be instantaneously disintegrated. This is what they call the “Null Point.” Make no mistake, though. These simulated soldiers, vehicles, ordinance, etc. are all very real in terms of their effects on the trainees. 

Commander Stirn radios in, “Lycus, let’s see what improvements you made to your lockpoint technique. Initiate bombing sequence Forma Foxtrot.”

The two operatives nod at one another and Isatis forms a shielded dome around them. Lycus claps his hands together and shouts, “Lockpoint! Flying Fortress!”

Then a loud, dragon-like screech is heard and in the next moment Lycus is seen soaring through the air, mounted atop of a large mechanical beast with golden armor. Missiles start to wizz past Lycus and his flying fortress. 

Isatis communicates, “We need to take out those Skyshield Transports first. Two anti-air squadrons. One at 20.0566, +31.2277 and the other squadron at 24.0567, +33.2334.”

“Understood.” Lycus responds as his flying fortress swoops around and evades more explosive projectiles. He closes in on one position and as they retaliate, the armored bird twirls through the bullets of the automatic turret placements of the transports. The bird opens its mouth and explosive, yellow bolts fly out destroying the entire squadron. The combat support vehicles let out a small burst of gunfire as he evades and begins his assault on the second transport squadron. He is then interrupted by two pursuing gunships. 

“Lockpoint. Air to Air Missile Bind.” Lycus orders as missiles shoot out of the side of his armored creature. The missiles launch from the bird while bursts of smoke are released and they fly at an unprecedented speed, whistling and screeching while they make their way to the gunships.

“Need some help over here.” Isatis communicates. “I can only redirect so many missiles from the rocket artillery squadron.” 

“Let’s see what they do here. Throw some more missiles at Isatis.” Commander Stirn says with intrigue to the combat engineer. 

“They’re intensifying their attack. Lycus, I need support.” Isatis radios in. 

Lycus outbursts, “Fine!” He claps his hands again and interlocks his fingers, “Lockpoint! Sheathbill Missile!” 

A loud, echoing screech is heard and a smaller bird comes out of the mouth of the flying fortress. It makes a noise like some kind of fleshy-paper texture crammed into the larger beast’s mouth. The smaller bird shoots out intensely, with speeds far exceeding the sound barrier, and it rapidly locates and completely annihilates the second transport squad.

While that happens, Lycus makes his way to the rocket artillery vehicles and one of the wings is shot, causing him to spiral into the ground. 

Mechanized infantry trucks pull up to the crash site as one of the combat engineers asks, “Is that it?”

A cloud appears around the crashed Lycus and eco-ridden warp sounds are heard. A trail of thorough blue lines are seen as Lycus dashes up to one of the trucks and detonates it with explosive, yellow eco. 

Isatis radios in, “They stopped targeting me. They may go after you next.” 

Explosive plasma shells begin howling and crashing around Lycus. He gets to the second infantry support truck and says, “A little help, maybe?”

“Sure. I had to fend for myself, but I’ll help you out.” Isatis sarcastically rebuttals. 

Lycus looks up at one of the heavily armored marines as he exits the vehicle and Lycus dashes up then lands a powerful roundhouse right into the marine, lodging his helmet into the side of the vehicle and his arms go limp. 

A third support truck comes to a screeching halt and another marine, fixed atop the vehicle, pulls out a rocket launcher and points directly at Lycus. Before Lycus does anything, a large, clear cube surrounds the third vehicle and Isatis says, “Lockpoint. Space-time exchange.” Then the vehicle vanishes as the cube seemingly warps it out of existence along with a plot of concrete.

“Increase the number of launchers.” Commander Stirn utters to the engineers. 

“Lycus, I’m detecting an increase in TVLs.” Isatis says.

Lycus is seen, dashing, with blue eco leaving trails behind him. One of the Topaz Vertical Launchers shoots bullets from a secondary defense auto turret and he dashes out of the line of fire. Then, several missiles start closing in on his position at the same time and he flares up with enormous amounts of yellow eco and shoots the ground beneath himself. This propels him straight into the air as the missiles all strike the ground simultaneously. He claps his hands together, still in mid-air, and says, “Lockpoint. Mounted Companion Recall.” Then the Flying Fortress spawns again (fully restored to its original form) and swoops down as he lands onto its back. 

He flies straight up as more heat-seeking missiles make their pursuit. His Flying Fortress launches more missiles from the side, this time shooting straight out with no specified targets, causing a diversion.

He reaches an extraordinarily high altitude and looks down on the sim battlefield and notices a great number of Rocket artillery squadrons bunching together. This is a common siege tactic of the modern day, something the Megalachorin Alliance calls a “Mega Barrage” that’s rather difficult to defend against, even with the most advanced missile defense systems. The sheer number of projectiles that are fired at once can overwhelm the best defenses when 4 of these squadrons synchronize their firing sequence. 

“Commander, do I have permission to initiate bombing sequence Sigma Beta?” Lycus radios in.

“He knows Isatis is still down there doesn’t he?” The combat engineer asks.

“Affirmative. You have the green light, Lycus.” Commander Stirn responds, ignoring his concern. 

Lycus closes his eyes, breathes in a long and deep breath, exhales and opens his eyes. His right eye glows yellow as he stares at the training ground beneath him. The glowing intensifies and if one looks close enough, a small, yellow dot appears on the ground. Then Lycus calmly touches his palms together, with his fingers curled and confidently shouts,

“Lockpoint! Skyfire Burst!”

Every observer goes quiet as the zone is shaded.

“Woah.” The combat engineer says on his mic. 

Isatis slices through another mechanized infantry vehicle, splitting it into two and causing it to explode behind him. He notices things are dim and looks up.

What can be seen is a large chunk of rock covered with infuriated layers of yellow eco. It roars downward, flaming hot, and ready to cause some literal astronomical damage. 

Isatis looks around and thinks [Where’s the projected contact point?]

He turns around and notices the yellow dot, 3 feet from where he’s standing.

“You have got to be shitting me.” Isatis speaks, and begins to make a break for it. He jumps over a destroyed tank, dashes through barricades and SWAT troops, dodging and swiping at supersoldiers with plasma katanas. 

“Tempora. How much time until that thing touches down?” Isatis asks his AI program.

“Given the past few Skyfire tests, maybe about 33 more seconds.”

“Not good.” He quavers.

He jumps from roof to roof of the artillery tanks while dodging incoming gunfire. 

He hears a loud, air-shattering gunshot and turns his head and a large bullet is slowly spinning in his face.

“50 Caliber SWG round. What's the course of action here, Agent?” The Tempora program asks Isatis while they contemplate in a drastically slowed state of time.

“Warp it. I have bigger fish to fry right now.” Isatis answers.

The bullet enters a tiny bullet-sized portal as Isatis proceeds to land onto the ground in the relatively normal timeframe again and sprints with blue eco intensifying his speed. 

“Time?”

“Approximately 14 more seconds.” Tempora responds.

The fiery meteor gets larger and larger as the rocket artillery tanks pay no attention to it. They proceed to barrage Isatis while he desperately continues to flee. A gunship hovers immediately before Isatis, shooting rapid MG rounds as he is seen warping right to left to right to left and in a split second his blue and red steaming right foot plants into the cockpit of the helicopter, crushing the glass from the sheer force he applies into the eco-intensified kick. He launches up as the smoking gunship spirals out of control and crashes several yards behind him.

“5 seconds, Agent.” Tempora observes.

“Shit!” Isatis states aloud, turning his mic to an open channel and then saying, “Danger close. Danger close. Requesting immediate time recall.”

No response.

The massive rock slams into the ground and a destructive shockwave begins to annihilate the entire zone as Isatis barely lets out the words, “Lockpoint. Time Retraction.” 

And right before the blast obliterates him, everything goes back 55 seconds right where Lycus finishes his Skyfire bombing sequence routine. The time warp is only experienced by Isatis and the Tempora AI. 

“We’re taking a different approach.” Isatis says.

He dashes around with a greater amount of blue eco than before. Instead of forcing his way through the Artillery vehicles, he sprints in the direction of the sniper nest. He waves through and warps several SWG rounds that are aggressively beaming at him. He breaks his way into a Sniperwolf troop truck and engages each and every sniper team member in hand to hand combat. He swiftly takes the team of 6 down and handles one of the rifles.

“Tempora, we have enough eco to create a locational transfer with one of these bullets?”

“Affirmative.”

“Let’s make that happen.”

“Affirmative.”

He cocks the rifle as an empty cartridge expels from the side of it and a couple of metallic clings are heard as it bounces around. He carefully aims for a spot outside of the simulation field.

He fires and cautiously watches the bullet in a slowed timeframe. Just before it reaches the edge of the sim boundary, he whispers, “Lockpoint. Space-time Exchange.”

And in a second, just as the bullet reaches the boundary limit, a vibrant distortion of the physical space surrounding the bullet is seen. He appears right at the edge of the boundary, physically swapping places with the bullet, flying forward, and dramatically rolling next to Cypris. 

The entire simulation zone is annihilated seconds later. 

“Phew..”

“Idiot! You know how close that was to me!?” Cypris yells as she swings at him, causing him to flinch and back away.. 

“Hahaha! I know! It’s pretty funny isn’t it?” Isatis ecstatically states. 

“A second later and that bullet would have reached the Null Point. It would have disintegrated and you’d be dead right now because the lockpoint wouldn't have worked.” Commander Stirn criticizes. 

“I would’ve figured something out.” 

Lycus walks up and says, “That was mighty quick, mate.”

The combat engineer walks up to them and says, “Sir, We’re told no more simulations are to take place today due to the alarmingly high temperatures.”

“Why’s it so damn hot anyway?” Isatis asks.

“Supposedly, it’s because of the freak incident that happened a few days ago. The one with the Orbital Security Council’s Protectorate named The Cyclone. He almost single-handedly pulled the planets toward the center of the solar system within an hour.” The commander states.

“Didn’t that chick Emily Foster take him down?” Isatis asks as they look at Cypris. “Her older sister was your rival, right?” He asks her as she stands there, clenching her fists and silently fuming with anger. 

“I heard it was that Cobra commander we encountered named Carter the Bull.” Lycus responds. “I think they’re dating or something.”

“Sounds like a pretty dangerous duo.”

A harsh bang is heard and they double-take as the angry Cypris stomps away from a destroyed holographic console dangling from its pedestal. 

“I think that’s enough training for today.” Commander Stirn states.