Tag Archives: Sons of Sword

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #030

Metcalf couldn’t take her eyes off of the factory.  Training-bots kept piling out of the main building forming more and more search parties.  From the small gap between two distant buildings, she focused on them with her monocle hoping to find something that she could use to get an edge.

This test, if it was a test, was far more intense than any she had ever taken.  The training-bots were acting a lot like real people.  The loud alarms were most likely interrupting real lives in the town but they were Commoners.  Having little to no abilities and being of the lowest class, they were probably used to interruptions by now.

She didn’t know how well the training-bots were programmed to fight.  She didn’t want to learn either.  She did know that they were all hunting for her.  Any sign of her presence would rally a constant stream of bots to her general area.  Consequently, hostility or disturbances were out of the question.

Metcalf had no intention of making things more difficult for herself or Master Fu.  She was still planning on a smooth extraction.  Things were hard enough, no need to add a high speed chase.  It was time to avoid capture but it was harder to do with her present surroundings.

The text book’s method to evade capture was simple.  Haruna and the gang had drilled her quite a bit over the last few months.  All she had to do was outrun her pursuers then blend in or hide within her surroundings.  Over time, they would lose her trail and move on.  If they didn’t put a tracking device on her she could disappear without a trace.  Easy, not that pure knowledge would help her now.

In practice, it was quite difficult especially here.  The training-bots were filing out into the streets and even more of them filled the skies.  Granted, she had outrun them and they had no idea where she was.  But she did spy heat sensing scopes on their blasters.  Also the bots didn’t seem to be losing interest; at all.

She caught herself giving up before the chase even begun and shook herself out of that mindset.  This was no time to be frozen in fear.  She had to take control of herself, will herself away from the wall, and move on.  She did not want to end up fitting inside a small bloody box like that one guy.  She needed a plan to get out of the area.

Blending in was not at all reasonable.  She was alone in the factory district at a crazy hour of the morning; the only warm body to track.  She would be hard pressed to convince them that she was taking a morning jog while armed to the teeth and in a stealth suit.

A stealth suit!

Metcalf resisted face-palming.  She wore a major part of the solution.  The time she could have spent using her gear was wasted on worrying about her problem.

The indigo cloth suit she wore was state of the art technology.  It could change to any color that she set with a simple command.  On its highest setting, it could cloak her completely for short periods of time.  It also could capture her heat to resist detection from heat seeing sensors.  She would waste no more time.  She had to get safely away from here.

Metcalf quickly changed the suit to the exact color of the concrete pavement a dull tan/grey mixture.  The cloaking system only lasted a short while and drained the suit causing a shutdown and recharge period.  The natural shadows should blend her in and keep her hidden from the flying patrols for now.

Activating the heat system was simple enough as well.  Her gear came equipped with goggles and a breathing mask.  The material became freezing cold as the system activated.  Master Fu told her about that minor effect of the technology.  She didn’t know exactly what she meant until now.  Every part of the suit was cold.

Master Fu!  She suddenly remembered that she was not in this exercise alone.  Perhaps that was another major part of the test.  Pressing her now almost invisible body to a wall, she made a quick call to Master Fu.  The suit mimicked the color and patterns on the wall.  Only her visor maintained a clear image of her eyes.

“Master,” she started, placing her finger to her ear, “We need a place to meet.”

“’bout time,” Insula muttered as she answered the call.  “I just so happen to have a place set,” she said much louder, “A Wang’s Convenience store.  I’ll patch the location to your visor.  I’ll get some snacks and leave the side door unlocked.  Good luck hide-and-sneaking.”

“Thanks…  I think,” Metcalf finished.  She ended the call and started for the street.

#1Lost and Found #29

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #029

Still sprinting, Metcalf had accepted her failure a few city blocks ago.  She would have to try to retrieve the microchip another day once things cooled down.  Infiltration would be more far difficult.  Master Fu loved to make her tests very realistic.

Metcalf would worry about getting back into the factory later.  Now it was time to rest and catch her breath.  She was far enough away to avoid problems.  The training-bots would probably have reset to their original positions by now.  She stopped running and settled for a good slow walk back to the extraction point.

Somewhere in this part of town, Master Fu waited in their techno-van.  Once Metcalf reached the point, Master Fu would probably drill her on focus and concentration techniques, again.  The review would continue until Metcalf finally got it right, then she would try to infiltrate the factory again.

The morning sky started to brighten slowly.  The Moss Hill business district looked rather nice in the morning hues.  In this smaller but well established city, there were fewer attention grabbing neon signs and more brick walls, painted concrete walls, and simple wooden banners.  The city looked rather plain on its own.  However, the slight reflection of the purple clouds and blue shaded sky had a simple charm as she looked down the street.

But, where was the van?

It had to be around here somewhere.  Metcalf had followed the main road the same road she used to get to the factory from the drop off point.  She was careful to check down all the streets since she was unfamiliar with this city.  As with most cities, the factory district streets were empty this time of day.  If there was a van down any of the streets, it was most likely Master Fu.

Finally having enough of searching, Metcalf looked up the van’s location on her handheld.  A hologram of the city appeared in the air above the metallic circle in her hand.  It was a bit harder to see outside, but she was certain that the van’s location was moving and was currently near the park.  Her escape vehicle was at the other side of town!

Pressing a few buttons on her handheld, Metcalf angrily called Master Fu, “Why are you by the park.”  Her voice was as calm as she could keep it.  However, she struggled to keep from yelling angrily.  Not only would that give away her position, it would be an outrageous breach of protocol and rank to speak that way to a Founder.

“Excuse me?  You never called for extraction,” was Master Fu’s response, “I’m not psychic.”

“Well I need it,” Metcalf turned her ear towards the factory’s commotion, “As fast as the bird dives.”

“I should get to you in a few minutes.”

She had already sprinted for a few minutes.  By now, Metcalf was a good distance away from the factory but could still see it through the buildings around her.  In her monocle, she magnified the sight of the factory to gather what had happened there within the last few minutes.

The factory security had become quite active.  Training-bots were leaving the warehouse in small attack squads with blasters and various melee weapons.  Other training-bots flew around searching the area in air bike patrols.  Apparently, they had already searched the factory’s immediate area.  They had fanned out and begun sweeping larger areas.  Master Fu must have really put a lot of thought into this test.

One of the sky patrols was dangerously close to Metcalf.  With a deep sigh she said, “I may not have that long.”

#1Lost and Found #28 – Lost and Found #30

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #028

Moss Hills, Oakwood Factory:

“Focus.  Be ready for anything,” Insula Fu instructed from Metcalf’s earpiece.

Metcalf had no choice but to remain silent.  She was already doing what Master Fu had said.  She had so much to focus on simultaneously and keeping her shaky position on the wall was hard enough.  She preferred not to be reminded of the obvious.

After only two months of intense training, Metcalf’s abilities had greatly improved.  Her friends turned out to be wonderful teachers.  Their crunch-time classes combined with Master Fu’s early morning sessions taught Metcalf far more than she thought possible.  Though painstakingly well-constructed and realistic, Master Fu’s lessons were also unorthodox and challenging.  She never knew what she would have to do next.

This time, Metcalf found herself just outside an open fifteenth story window of a factory guarded by training-bots; the androids that trained with and sometimes defeated the highest level of students.  Her task required that she retrieve a secret microchip from a room in the factory.  Metcalf knew she was good at combat, but she didn’t consider herself good enough to take on a factory full of highly skilled fighting machines.  Instead, she used stealth and her motion energy skills to find and hopefully remove the chip without combat.

Metcalf found that the stealthiest body positions were rarely the most comfortable.  Currently, she was upside down looking into a large open window avoiding the nose shattering window sill and the annoying breeze an open window creates.  The only thing keeping her body pressed against the brick wall was her motion abilities.  It took a lot of concentration to pull off this trick especially with the wind outside.  Of course, the trick was impossible a few short months ago.  She was excited about her improvement but knew full well the safety risks.

Metcalf was masked and dressed completely in an indigo cloth outfit.  With a night seeing magnifying monocle over her right eye and a set of small mirrors, she searched the room hoping not to make too much noise.  She had to examine every inch of this room for something useful.  There had to be something in the room with information about the layout of the building or the location of the chip.  If she was really lucky, she could find microchip itself but that was pushing it.

These crucial moments of her sessions were the ones she dreaded the most.  Master Fu’s training methods were as bizarre as they were intense.

“What’s the square root of half of eighteen,” Master Fu shouted quickly into her microphone.  Master Fu could afford to yell; she was safe in a van half a town away.

“Ni… Uhh three,” Metcalf replied.

The answer was correct, but the sudden change in brain function broke Metcalf’s concentration just enough.  The distraction was all it took to end the mission.  She cursed as she slipped down the wall.  The mirrors she held so steady seconds ago fell to the floor.  She could climb back up to look into the window again but she needed her mirrors to search properly.  She would have to enter the room herself and find the mirrors before she started searching again.

Not willing to take the risk being caught and beaten while searching, she preferred to abort everything and come back another day.  Mirrors were cheap and could be found anywhere.  If that was all they had to go on, she was in the clear for now.

Metcalf continued sliding down the wall but started to control and slow her decent.  Finding a ledge on the wall, she leapt off the wall and used her crisho wings to guide herself and land on a roof across the street.  She heard the sirens in the factory start to sound.  By now she was far enough away to evade capture.  Still she kept running.

She wouldn’t be caught, but she would also have more problems when she tried again.  Next time, the guards would take more precautions to secure anything of value.  That’s what real people would do anyway.

#1Lost and Found #27 – Lost and Found #29