Tag Archives: Sons of Sword

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #038

Truly thankful that the toilet room was clean, Insula sat and quickly pulled up the holographic map on her handheld to see her student’s progress.  Metcalf was moving fast, really fast, but randomly through the business district. There seemed to be a general purpose to her progress. She was meandering towards a housing area nearby.  Insula thought back to the large equipment moving with the bot patrol.

So, that’s where they were going.

Metcalf’s blip kept moving, speeding through the streets and alleys.  She occasionally seemed to fly over buildings as she backtracked and moved in large circles.  Apparently, she was eluding captors. The Commoner peasants Insula has employed as speeder controllers have been the best for years.  Metcalf would have to be better than most to escape them.

Insula’s eyes glued to the image.  Her student’s progress was on the line.  So far, she had little to worry about. Metcalf wasn’t slowing even after sprinting for so long.

Then the blip stopped moving.

Insula held her breath as it stayed in the middle of an intersection.  Metcalf apparently was caught for a few seconds and then sped quickly on a direct route towards the convenience store.  

According to the map, Metcalf was still a ways away.  Had she been sprinting for the last few minutes? If so, it was a few minutes more than she had run in training, but tests were tests for a reason.  Metcalf’s increased stamina was a positive result.

Guesstimating Metcalf’s arrival time, Insula got up truly in a hurry.  

#1 – Lost and Found #37 

 

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #037

The moment the lady walked through the door Nolwenn knew something was wrong, not exactly wrong but, very not right about her.  It was her skin.  It was too… good.  Nolwenn had had extensive conversations about how to bring out her adult color faster.  She spoke with her parents, read all of the holo-pages, tried all of the creams; even the expensive ones.  At best, all the advice and secret techniques almost worked for a short while; but not really.  In the back of her mind, she knew they wouldn’t.

Even after the expensive skin creams and painful scrubbings, she and all the other girls in her class had a little, a little green in their hue.  She knew why but didn’t want to admit it.  In the end, their basic biology dictated that the nymph green skin never really disappeared until a crisho was in the twenties.   

This lady looked only a little bit older than Nolwenn’s classmates but had a definite, clear, yellow-orange hue with long bright golden-brown patches.  The colors had a certainty unknown to those under the age of twenty seven!  

Something worked for this lady, or did it?  She looked young but, she just… wasn’t.  She couldn’t be.  This lady dressed the part but carried herself way too strongly and properly to be a teen.

She doesn’t match herself.

The suspicion was amplified as the lady was in a hurry and seemed quite aware of her surroundings but not aware enough to close her van door.  

“Excuse me! Miss,” waved Nolwenn.  The lady kept walking but Nolwenn Yan didn’t get promoted to the front desk lead at such a young age by being ignored.  She continued waving her dark green and black spotted hand frantically and raised her voice almost to a shout before the lady stopped and turned.  

“That van your’s?” Nolwenn was pointing just beyond the lady’s line of vision.

“Oh ey,” the lady said, but seemed unwilling to turn her head until absolutely necessary.  Something was definitely off about this lady.  Her eyes were distracted with something that was quite urgent and she was headed towards the toilet.  However, something about her spoke that her urgent diversion was beyond the basic.  

Nolwenn saw a similar facial expressions before, usually when customers were in a pinch.  This lady was way more intense.  The lady didn’t need more cash for food.  She had just stopped by, and left her door open.  “You left your door open.”

“Oh!  Thanks,” the lady said smiling, “but I’ll be quick.”  She started heading for the toilet again in a rush.

Who is this lady?  

After a few months Nolwenn had gotten familiar with everyone that went in and out of this store.  This lady was a new and awkward one.  Nolwenn stood by the panic button in case the bot patrols needed to come here, they were nearby after all.  “The droid patrols have really been moving today,” she said with questioning eyes, “There may be some dangerous types about.”

As to emphasize her point, a large group of speeders flew by just as she finished talking.  Among them was a much larger much slower transport ship holding a machine.  The loud hum of the motor made sure that no one in the convenience store could ignore it.  

The lady’s eyes were shocked at the sight.  Of course, so was everyone else.  “Then again,” the lady said with a giggle, “I should check the door.”

 

—–

 

Insula walked out and felt the clerk’s eyes followed her.  

She may be one for watchtower training.

As for now, Insula had to keep her uncertain enough not to raise the alarm for just a bit longer.  She looked up to see more speeders passing above her in patrols high in the sky.

Unfortunately, there was no time for funny business.  No matter how much Metcalf would want an open window, an open anything, Insula’s character was supposed to be in a big hurry.  She had to cause as little suspicion as possible.  

Of course, it could already be too late for that.

On turning back towards the store, she realized that the clerk had indeed been keeping close tabs on her.  She had given notice that the town would be used for an event.  That didn’t mean that everyone had checked their notices.  All in the same, it was good to have someone truly authentic there.

Walking through the store, Insula made a quick dart to the facilities.  She couldn’t help but take another glance at the clerk.  Still looking at her, he hadn’t moved from the register.  

Perhaps there’s a panic switch and he was waiting for an excuse to use it.  

She didn’t have time to figure any of it out.  At least, a toilet run explained her situation suitably enough.  

A few minutes there, and then ‘groceries.’  

#1 – Lost and Found #36 – Lost and Found #38

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #036

So much for that idea.

The high pitched motor to the rear was unmistakable.  Metcalf was just a few turns ahead of a speeder and had a pretty good idea what the driver intended.  She went into a sprint to gain ground on her pursuer.  It was working but the walls and turns came up that much faster.

Uhh… Left turn

Speed training in armor didn’t seem a useful lesson during classes, but now her half hearted participation was greatly rewarded.  She had learned to use her motion energy skills to push herself faster while running.  She moved quite well before in her armor.  Her current suit was cloth-like; made for stealth.  She managed wondrous speeds, but there was a slight problem.  With the maze of alleyways and vacant streets, she had next to no time between seeing a wall and turning to avoid running into it.  And, as realistic as her current test was, there was most likely a stiff punishment if she failed even once.

Right juke, Forward

She didn’t know exactly how fast she was going.  She did know she was running out of time.  There was no audible alarm but the bots were most likely on high alert.  This meant there would be a trap waiting somewhere.  Hopefully, it was in the wrong place.

Left wall run, Right turn

There was so little time to chose a turning direction as the walls approached.  It was too important that she keep moving and not back track.

Right turn.  WALL!!  Right turn

But, it was also quite important that she make it to the rally point on time.  The map on her visor was always there.  As always, it directed correctly but she was primarily concerned with the ever present walls appearing out of nowhere.  When she had time to choose a direction, she went the way that made the most sense to be the correct.  However, she often saw the location beacon behind her.  

Great!  Wrong way again.  

Hopefully, her wrong turns confused her pursuers as well.  It would be the worst to run headlong into blaster fire.

The state of the art cloaking suit was keeping up with the street patterns.  It was changing colors so quickly, that it appeared a lightening shade of grey to her.

Daylight was starting to become a real problem.  With more light, there were more colors.  With more colors, there was more work for the suit.  It was already getting warm again.  It was only a matter of time before it got hot.  She could not continue like this.  Metcalf needed an idea; hopefully one that works.

Left tur… HARD Left

She hit an impressively hard turn and watched the map on her visor spin.  After the corrective turn, an idea was fully formed.  Finding the perfect four point intersection ahead, she leapt into the air and hovered for the briefest of moments.  Her sleeves were already slightly opened.  She duplicated the wind transfer from before but pointed her right sleeve to the sky and her left sleeve to the ground and intensified it into a blast .  

The blast caused her to spin unexpectedly fast and lifted her into the air.  Dust and debris kicked up from the ground in a large cloud that spread as an explosion from her intersection.  The action caught her off guard but did not overwhelm her thanks to her Crisho wings.  Landing slightly dizzied she blew the dust off of her feet with her motion skills.  Her disorientation training came into play as she began running in what her visor stated was the correct direction.  

 

“Dusk!  Eyes Up!!”

“Wha?”

WHOOOSSH

Mahari’s warning came too late.  Dusk’s tunnel-visioned pursuit turned his bot’s speeder directly into the dust explosion.  Knocked off kilter as random bits of debris flew into the speeder’s air intake Dusk was unable to correct the speeder’s orientation from the controls in the factory.  Dusk was too familiar with this sight as his remote station shut off and then reset his controls to another bot flying in a far off patrol.

Mahari saw the explosion from the roofs and went to investigate.  Tuning into all the scans available, he searched the epicenter of the blast.  It was illogical for someone to stay there after such an event.  However, this one was clever.  She may be counting on that assumption.

After a thorough search of the area, he realized that he had guessed wrong and lost several precious seconds in the process.  Angrily, he continued in the general direction she seemed to be going since they left the factory.

#1 – Lost and Found #35 –  Lost and Found #37