It was the defensive key she needed to badly encode into Essence technology if she was going to build a trap in the Temple, and Kara had no idea how much time she had before a Founder would show up and try to kidnap her and Strovok.
She knew she was risking a lot staying here, but it was crystal clear that she and Strovok were the only ones that stood a small chance against a Founder, and probably none at that. If they weren’t here to draw out the target and then direct orbital bombardment, Kara wasn’t confident the Elcee or the Paladin could get the job done. Which meant she had to stay.
Stupid or wise, she wasn’t sure, but Kara knew she had to have Black Shield and she couldn’t wait for the normal progression of skills. She had to cheat jump again, and this time she couldn’t rely on random chance. She had to make it happen.
And right now that mean shooting everything in sight and seeing what hidden treasures could be hit with random shots. It wasn’t the best way to explore the universe, but right now it was all she had. So despite the growing pain inside her arm that her Vorch’nas was hilariously trying to figure out the source of, she kept pressing on the Black Shield and trying to bend a bit of it on her own.
And failing.
7
December 25, 128885
Solar System (Home One Kingdom)
Earth
Esna sat down in her quarters in Atlantis, covered in more sweat than usual after her workout in one of the 7 major training centers in the city that had an insane number of options for specialized challenges, even outside the Archon-only sanctum, but she’d felt off since she’d arrived here from the Deep Rim where she’d been doing a lot of hunting for bad guys that felt an opportunity for mischief while the Core distracted everyone, and they were coming out of the woodwork in droves.
When the Director had called her to Earth she hadn’t resented that, knowing it had to be something damn important…and it was. Too damn important.
Esna took off her right shoe and sniffed it…a habit she’d had since all the way back on the planet Mace where she’d been born. Why she’d done it then she couldn’t remember, but now she knew that a person’s sweat didn’t stay constant, and one’s scent altered with their mood, toxin levels, and several other factors, and she was detecting one now she hadn’t had in a long time.
Stress sweat.
She’d had a whiff of it ever since coming to Earth, but now it was reeking. Normally her sweat smelled neutral to good, and it was only when her body was under some sort of duress that it turned bad.
Esna pulled off her other shoe and checked it too, then took a whiff of her armpit and flinched.
“Wow, that is bad,” she said to herself with a sigh. It wasn’t the food here doing it, nor the water, nor the air she was breathing. Everything was top notch, like in the rest of the Empire, and she wasn’t injured. The only thing that had changed was her mission.
An impossible mission, with her body reflecting her mental distress at having been thrust a problem even the Archons couldn’t solve, nor the Director himself. He’d made it clear that unless they found a better way to fight both the Hadarak and the Founders, Star Force was going to be crushed between them.
One war they might survive, even find a way to win. But two at once was going to be their doom, even if it was a long, drawn out one with the Archons doing maximum damage to both enemies…but fall they would. And now Esna and 7 others were being tasked with finding a solution.
And she knew it wasn’t going to happen.
They probably weren’t the only team the Director had consulted, nor would consult, but right now they were the ones with the weight of the empire on their shoulders, and Esna didn’t like failure…but more than that, she didn’t like being helpless.
Helplessness is what got Rammak killed. And she’d vowed shortly thereafter to become as strong as he’d been so that she’d never have to face the same situation.
And yet here she was, and she’d gotten far stronger than Rammak had ever been…well, not in muscle, obviously, but in other ways. Esna was now one of the leaders of Canderous, and she knew Rammak would have been proud, but part of her still wanted to go back in time and take his place. She didn’t feel worthy then, and since then she’d tried, but part of her never would.
And her body was agreeing with the mind, stinking like a damn newb who’d never known combat after a little 3 hour workout.
Esna threw one of her shoes across the room, bouncing it off a wall just as the door chime sounded. For a second she wondered if she’d hit something, but the panel was more than 4 meters away from where her shoe hit.
She got up and walked across the carpeted floor in her sweat-soaked socks and just opened the door, not bothering to see who it was first…only to look up at the very tall man standing there. Someone nearly as large as Rammak had been, though he was missing a pair of arms.
“Can we talk?” Bren asked, not wearing any armor, which was unusual for any of the Esquires or Golden Knights, who were obsessive about always being ready for battle wherever it chose to show up.
“If you don’t
