Part of the moon base was sectioned off and practically abandon when the base lost it's tactical value several years before, and that was where Master Miller chose to train. "Your mission is this. You have been ordered to engage and eliminate a rouge terrorist group that is being lead by a reploid. We'll begin with you already inside their compound and their security already alerted that you're there. They've locked themselves inside their facilities warehouse and have taken up arms to resist capture."
The warehouse scenario was one that we went through fairly often. Master Miller would play the role of the terrorist leader, and the other terrorists would be play by his modified sentry bots. The bots were made up of a small hover generating base with a platform on top of the base for the weapon system and targeting camera. They were smaller than a person and gave a much smaller target. They were fast and capable of quick bursts of speed that were over twenty-five miles an hour. The worst part was that they were controlled by Master Miller's personal pet AI that had more data on combat formations and firing movement than I knew existed. Being integrated with the AI gave them instant communication between each other. So where as one of these bots was not difficult to deal with by its self, they were never alone for very long. The warehouse itself was a huge, three tier storage area with cris crossing catwalks on the second and third tiers. Because of all of the storage containers I would have an ample amount of cover and concealment, but then so would the bots and Master Miller. So in short it was the perfect place to set up an ambush.
"Your main objective is to take out the groups leader." Master Miller said opening the door to the warehouse. "In one minute you may begin." he said as he entered the warehouse and the door closed behind him. While I waited I did a quick systems check of my armors weapons and movement systems. On both arms I had retractable shockhaven cannons that fired a much more condensed and concentrated shockhaven blast that was more than enough to damage or destroy the sentry bots. I brought both cannons online. They split into four segments along the length of my forearm and came up and over both fists. When they weren't active they acted as additional armor. The opening at the end of each cannon would glow white when they were fully charged but they could also be fired continuously without needing to charge. I brought both arms up and on my visor two different colored cross-hairs came up. The right arm's cross-hair was red, because right and red both started with an R. The left arm's cross-hair was suppose to be lavender, because left and lavender both start with L, but to me it looked more blue so that was what I called it.
On the bottom of each boot was a port for shockhaven to travel through. They worked as jets that could turn a continuous flow of shockhaven energy into thrust. With them I could hover, fly or dash with great speed. I forced some energy through them and I started to lift off. That was good enough for me so I cut off the flow of energy and dropped back to the ground. I just wanted to make sure that they worked so there was no need to waste any energy that I didn't need to. It wasn't as though the ports wasted energy, but it was no small feat to lift three quarters of a ton of person and armor off of the ground. I touched the tip of my right hand cannon to the handle of my sword for reassurance that it was there, and with that my checks were done and my minute was up.
I kicked open the door and ran in with both arms up and ready to fire. One of the main differences between the sentry bots and humans was that the bots never got tired of watching the same unmoving door and lose focus. Even though it had only been a minute, I knew that the moment that I came through that door the bots would open fire. I knew that my armor could take plenty of hits before anything would penetrate it, however it was never pleasant to get hit with live rounds. That was another thing that Master Miller was very clear on ever since we first started training. He didn't believe in using training rounds, so instead, each round that was shot carried the potential for death. The second that I cleared the door frame I went to the right. Three rounds went through the door just as I cleared it. I had no idea how many sentry bots Master Miller had at his disposal, since he'd conveniently failed to mention that during his quick brief. I jumped and using the booster ports in my boots went to the second and then to the third tier. Until I found Master Miller my main mission was to cover as much area as possible, which meant that I needed to keep moving and avoid getting cornered. Being on the top tier lowered the different directions that I could get shot at from substantially. As long as I stayed to the perimeter, kept the wall on one side and kept moving, I could thin out some of the bots before finding Master Miller. Once I found him I'd engage him in close quarters. even though he was one of the most powerful Reploids in the galaxy, close quarters combat was not his specialty. The only problem was that while I was fighting one of the most powerful beings in the known universe I would also have to try to keep from getting shot by an unknown number of sentry bots. It wasn't a great plan, but it was the best one that I had come up with since Master Miller had closed the door behind him.
I'd have to be fast, I thought to myself as I landed on the third tier. I abandoned the idea of running in my armor and relied on my boosters to keep ahead of the bots. There were three already behind me and I saw at least two more shadowing me on the catwalk to my left. They were trying to cut me off, surround me and gun me down without ever exposing their leader, who they knew was my real target. It was a sound tactic, but it would fail. I was coming to the corner of the room which was going to limit my exposure to two directions. As I passed the last catwalk intersection before the corner the three bots behind me opened fire. I was doing my best to weave back and forth on the catwalk to make sure I wasn't an easy target, but the catwalk wasn't too wide and it wouldn't take long for one of the bots to get a lucky shot off. I spun around and used my shockhaven to put up a wedged shaped barrier. Two rounds impacted into the wall beside me and one veered off to the right and into a storage container. All three shots were aimed for my back and not meant to do anything more than push me into the corner for their ambush. I raised both arms and returned fire with three shots of my own, two from the right and one from the left. The first two blasts hit the closest two bots and they exploded in a shower of debris that caused the third one to crash. I stopped and shot another blast at the fallen one that was still mostly intact. I turned back to the corner with both arms up. As I did the two bots that were shadowing me came into view from behind the storage container. Two more shots made quick work of them and for the moment I was alone. I used the moment of peace to extend my haven awareness outward as far as I could manage. It almost covered the whole room, but over such a large area I couldn't make out small details like the bots that weren't moving. Luckily I didn't need to. A reploid as powerful as Master Miller shown like a star in my haven awareness, and I found the general area he was hiding in. He was in the back of the room, towards the center, on the second tier.
Good, I thought to myself, I had a location and I was going in the right direction. With that I took off and rounded the corner. No sooner had I made it around the corner did I have to throw up a hasty barrier to block the fire of six sentry bots that were hovering right behind the storage container. I swore under my breath. The AI was getting smarter. A trap inside of a trap was the sort of thing that I had grown to expect from Master Jason and something that I had tried to emulate in my own technique. It shouldn't have caught me so off guard, but I was to busy finding Master Miller to clear the corner and it was sloppy enough to cost a lesser man his life. It was hard to pinpoint the separations between the volleys and then it hit me. They should've been shooting as one to try to overwhelm my defenses. Not that it would work, but it was the best chance that they had to actually hit me. Unless that wasn't their goal at all. They were trying to pin me down while another element came around on my exposed side. A third level of the trap made of a classic flanking maneuver. I didn't have anymore time to waste and I needed to move. Six bots shooting in intervals may not have been too much for me to deflect, but twelve or even twenty-four might be. They w
ere staggering their shots to keep my barrier up and me from shooting back. I reached out with my shockhaven, took hold of the six and pulled them all to a center-point. They crashed together in a heap and the shooting stopped. I fired two shots into the heap and it was gone. I didn't bother standing around and continued down the catwalk. I was halfway to the back of the room when two more bots came up from the lower tier. I used the same center-point pull technique on them and blasted their tangled remains to nothingness before they could fall. I flipped off the third tier, kicked off of a storage container and landed on a catwalk on the second tier. I extended my haven awareness and realized that I was closing in on Master Miller. I retracted my right arm cannon and stretched my fingers. Fighting Master Miller with my arm cannons would get me nowhere, I said to myself as I continued to close the distance between us. I took a turn at the last catwalk before the back corner and saw him standing in the middle of a intersection.
I pumped even more shockhaven into my boot's boosters and dashed towards him. He raised his hands in an exaggerated clap. His raw power rivaled my own, and from either side a storage container came tumbling down from the top of the stacks. I reached up with my right hand, caught both containers with my shockhaven and shuddered and dropped down to one knee under the weight. The containers that I was holding over my head were thirty feet long and had a combined weight ten tons.
Then from either side of the catwalk came twenty bots. I was in the place that I really didn't want to be. I was surrounded and even trapped in from above by the containers that I was holding up. I had to act. I let go of the container on the left and threw the one on the right at the intersection, and Master Miller, and jumped. I jumped to the right, out of the way of the falling container and got behind the one I threw and used it for cover. Master Miller was more than powerful enough to catch one container. Knowing this I pushed with both my shockhaven and my free hand. Even with as powerful as he was, he couldn't hope to over power, gravity and the kinetic energy that it already had, but he still tried. I smiled as I saw through my haven awareness that five of the sentry bots had been smash by the container and that three more had crashed trying to avoid it.
Then the container lurched in my control and its speed was cut in half. Master Miller wanted to have a power struggle, but this wasn't just between the two of us. If I stayed the course and tried to prove that I was stronger I would wind up with a shooting squads worth of sentry bots on my back and be in no better of a position than I was in when I started. I abandoned my cover and flipped on top of the container and drew my sword. Shifting the angle of the booster ports on my boots I spun like a tornado and slashed through four more bots before any of them could take aim and get a shot off. The container had nearly stopped when I reached the other side and Master Miller let it fall. I jumped clear of the intersection and the bots continued to move in to try and surround me.
Master Miller had already drawn his weapon. Normally he was more of a gun man, but he knew that if I got in close he couldn't do much of anything with his guns to defend himself. The weapon he drew was a morning star that acted like the haven scepter that Master Jason used to train my haven awareness. The amount of power that he could channel through that weapon would've made me hesitate had I not been able to send all of it back at him with the rebound technique. As I closed the distance I took two shots at the two bots that had taken position behind Master Miller and flipped into their place. He spun around with a horizontal swing. It was at his shoulder height which made it easy enough for me to duck underneath. I came up with my left arm cannon and blasted him from point blank in the chest. It was too close for him to try and deflect anything and he was knocked back a good ten feet. I through up a bubble shaped barrier around myself as Master Miller was thrown back. Now that there was no chance that the bots surrounding me could hit Master Miller the didn't hesitate to open fire. I expanded the bubble out and knocked the closest bots back, off balance and sent two of them crashing into the containers.
Master Miller didn't waste any time getting to his feet, and he used the booster ports in his own boots to hover. He flipped his shoulder mounted rail gun into its firing position. I reached out with my right hand opened and with my shockhaven. Controlling the mental battle field was just as important as the physical one. Master Miller hesitated, thinking that I was going to somehow turn his attack against him. I closed my fist and pulled it back. Master Miller flinched at the motion, and I could see in my haven awareness that he flared up thinking he needed to defend himself. Then he realized that there wasn't much I could do from behind the barrier, so as he relaxed and took aim, I pulled with my shockhaven. The container that he'd dropped after I threw it at him lurched forward, smashed into his back and drove him even closer to me. I dropped my barrier completely and took off on a collision course at top speed and drew my sword. I buried it into the container up to the hand-guard right between his rail gun and his head.
"Index?" I asked, in an even tone. The fight was obviously over and he had lost. The only reason that the sword was buried in the container and not in his helmet was that I had no intention of killing him, and we both knew it.
"Index." Master Miller said, with a nod, and I withdrew my sword from the container I stepped back from him and he stopped hovering. I looked around and took in the vast amount of damage. There were pieces of the modified sentry bots everywhere. One of the containers that Master Miller tried to drop on me, the one that I just let fall, was somehow still intact, even though it had fallen all the way to the ground level. On its way down it took out about a twenty-five foot section of the railing on the second tier. The other container was still intact, short of the small stab hole I'd put in it. However, the whole intersection was a mess. The catwalk itself was sagging, but was stable, but the railings were mostly on the ground other than a few pieces that were hanging on by a stubborn bolt that just didn't want to let go.
"You did well." Master Miller began. My eyes settled back on him and I prepared for him to point out any and all of the flaws that he'd seen. I didn't ever let it gt to me, cause I knew he only did it to help me get better. When we'd first met he'd told me that we strive for perfection and the only way to reach it is to practice until you're free from flaws, but if we don't see the flaws then we'll repeat them. Assumption is the enemy of perfection. "But, you need to remember to clear your corners." he said.
I nodded, knowing that was my first mistake. "Yes Sir, I was careless and acted with too much haste." I said. It was no good to have your flaws pointed out if you weren't going to take responsibility for them.
"Being fast is no good if your just going to trip over your own feet." he said. "Remember, slow is smooth and smooth is fast." he added. I nodded, but didn't say anything. there wasn't much I could say, other than that I understood, which he knew I did. "Other than that little mishap, you did quite well. You reacted and adapted to the battle field around you. You used the things in your environment to your advantages and turned your enemy's attacks into your own defense and offense as you saw fit. Even with that little mishap you were never actually hit" he said with a smile. His praise was completely unexpected and my confusion must have shown on my face because he started to laugh. "You're getting better each and every day and I'd like to take credit for that. I'd like to say that it's all because of my great training and all that nonsense, but..." he paused for a moment. "But you're good and it's got half as much to do with my training as it does with who you are. There were over forty bots in this room, but the path you took you made sure to avoid most of them. I made sure to stage them ahead of time so that you couldn't cheat and find them with your haven awareness. You're beginning to think more and more tactility each time you go into combat and weather it's subconscious or not is unimportant. As a hybrid you have enough power to do great things, but what will give you the ability to do those things is your mind. Your mind will be what lets you conquer foes that have more power and speed past those that are faster. You are destined for grea
tness in battle Eathen and you will win with your brilliant mind." he said.
"Thank you Sir." I said, with a bow. I knew that any praise from Master Miler was well earned.
"Don't jump to thank me too quickly," he began with a smile. "You've still got quite the mess to clean up before you go." he said, gesturing to the general destruction and state of dismay that the room was in. "Don't bother wasting your time on the little bits of the sentry bots." he continued. "They'll get recycled, just get the containers back in place and straighten out the railings as best you can."
The task of reconstructing the torn up parts of the warehouse was daunting and I was sure that it was showing on my face. "Yes Sir." I said with a bow, that was more to hide my disappointment.
"Next time we'll give the bots automatic rifles and after you get some fly time, you'll be ready for a real mission in no time." he said, heading off towards the door. "Besides," he began, calling over his shoulder. "Think of it as a little extra exercise. I'm not foolish enough to think that you have to work as hard to beat me as you did a few months ago." he said, as he turned a corner and was out of sight.
I didn't bother trying to argue against that point. I was in the training phase which meant that with each day that passed I was getting more and more skilled and powerful. The Masters however, had plateaued and at some point I was going to catch up to them. Still he was right. Putting the room back in order was good exercise and I spent the rest of the day putting back together the room that we had destroyed.