The KL-99 Station normally served as the headquarters and training center for the young defense force known as the Justice Titans, but now a different group was prepared to do battle in the holo-arena of KL-99.
On one side: Kajza Dox a.k.a. Brainiac 4 a.k.a. Twelfth-Girl, a Coluan genius who requested the opportunity to study Human metahumans in action.
On the other: Mitchell Shelley a.k.a. The Resurrection Man, an immortal warrior considered one of the greatest tacticians in Earth history.
It was a battle of minds of which only one would triumph, the winner receiving bragging rights over the other.
“Fair Warning, Twelfth-Girl,” Shelley cautioned, “I’ve had a perfect record for the last fifty years.”
“Beating children and humans is no large task,” the girl spouted. She didn’t like being compared to beings with minds equivalent to Coluan babies.
“Player 1: Resurrection Man,” the computer chimed in while establishing a telepathic interface with Shelley. “Current Year’s Record, 32 victories, zero losses.”
A second device was hooked up to the young Brainiac. “Player 2: Twelfth-Girl. Current Year’s Record, zero victories, zero losses.”
“That will change after this,” Twelfth-Girl added.
The current game of choice for the two was a popular space combat simulation game, used by everyone from potential military officers, to teenagers, to professional sim players. It was common throughout many civilized worlds as a popular activity to relieve stress and hone the mind.
The holo-arena of KL-99 Station would be perfect for displaying all of the units for both sides and keeping the game interesting.
“We’ll have 10,000 points to use for our space forces and defenses,” Twelfth-Girl said, having been given the option to choose the terms of the combat. “The first person to destroy the enemy’s forces completely and seize their world will be the winner.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Mitch Shelley replied. “You can choose your planet first.”
“Colu,” the Brainiac replied. “Superior technology and limited weaknesses.”
“Figures,” Golden Hawk chuckled from the gallery, where the rest of the Justice Titans were watching the confrontation, enjoying themselves.
A holographic facsimile of the planet Colu appeared behind Brainiac 4.
“I’ll choose the Khund Homeworld,” Shelley decided.
“The Khunds? You can’t be serious? Aside from their dreadnaughts, they’re little more than barbarians.”
“I made my choice and I’m sticking to it.”
A suitable representation of the Khund Homeworld appeared on Shelley’s side.
“Very well,” the girl said unsure of the decision, “We’ll have 15 minutes to choose our forces, then we’ll begin.”
Units and ships began filling the screen between Twelfth-Girl and the Resurrection Man.
The girl seemed to be loading up with Coluan warships with superior enhancements, while her opponent filled his fleet with fast strike-craft.
After the selection was finished, Twelfth-Girl silently calculated Shelley’s forces.
“You’ve used less than half of your available points. You don’t get to keep them.”
“I used them all,” Shelley replied, his small fleet dwarfed by Brainiac 4’s forces.
The girl couldn’t figure out what he was hiding, but she was sure it wouldn’t be enough to stop her.
Now that all of the forces were selected, the two players would take turns moving their forces in the space between the Khund Homeworld and Colu. Shelley’s ships were various shades of blue, while the Coluan’s were various shades of red.
“Feel free to go first,” Shelley offered.
“The sooner I go, the sooner you’ll lose,” the girl replied. “Warship 1 through 3 advance to Centerpoint.”
Three of the red craft moved to the center of the arena.
“Advance Scout 1, advance to Centerpoint while scanning for cloaked ships and orbital mines.” Using an action forced Shelley to move less of his ships, but he knew it would be better for him in the long run.
“No Player 2 forces detected,” the computer chimed.
“You wasted an action scanning your side. Only beginners use orbital mines.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“Very well,” the Coluan replied. “Warship 1, fire on Player 1 Advance Scout.”
The red ship massacred the miniature scout as the computer recorder, “Player 1 Advance Scout destroyed.”
Shelley mentally gave his next move to the computer, but no apparent movement occurred on the holographic display.
“What did you do?” his opponent asked.
“I’m not required to verbally state each of my moves. Normally players wouldn’t be face to face like this.
“Whatever you choose,” she said, also mentally giving a command to the computer.
The computer responded by having Dox’s warships launch three squadrons of bombers.
“Open Rannian jumpgate, move Advance Scouts and Khund Dreadnaughts.”
“You have a Rannian jumpgate? I thought you were playing the Khunds?”
“The Khunds have access to certain technology used by their allies for an additional point fee. I simply took advantage of the enhancements available.”
All of Shelley’s forces moved to Centerpoint, barely outnumbering the Coluan forces.
“Well, that at least explains what you did during your silent turn, but it won’t do you any good. Bomber Squadron 1, attack Dreadnought 1.”
The bombers peppered the hull of one of Shelley’s ships, causing massive damage but not destroying it.
“Advance Scout 2, attack Warship 1.”
The small attack craft, one of many in Shelley’s fleet, fired at warship, but all of the lasers missed by inches.
“The Coluan Anti-Targeting Field will make your laser and torpedo weaponry useless.”
“That’s not my only trick,” Shelley replied, despite his forces being sorely outmatched by Colu’s.
“Warship 2, attack Dreadnought 1.”
The Khund Dreadnought was pounded by Coluan lasers before exploding in a flash, followed by the computer confirming the destruction.
Shelley gave another silent command, followed by another attack run on one of his Dreadnoughts.
“Open Rannian jumpgate, move Advance Scouts and Khund Dreadnaughts to Colu.”
“Tricky,” the girl replied, “But you neglected to consider my reserve forces. Launch Reserve Wing 1. Attack Dreadnoughts.”
A half dozen strikefighters left the surface of Colu and sprung on the Dreadnoughts.
“You must have used up a lot of points to enhance your reserve wing. Must’ve had to sacrifice your defensive capabilities to improve your offense.”
“It was the correct thing to do as advanced Coluan shields wouldn’t stand up to sustained Khund weaponry. Staying on the offense was my only option.”
“Good tactic,” was Shelley’s only response.
Before long, the small fleet around Colu was gone after a few suicide runs by Twelfth-Girl’s strikefighters.
“It looks like you’re all alone now,” she taunted, while eyeing the unprotected Khund Homeworld.
Shelley silently responded with an unknown move.
“Advance Warships to Khund Homeworld.”
Shelley didn’t voice his next move.
“Begin attack on Khund Homeworld.”
The planet automatically raised a planetary shield, which stood up to the brunt of the Coluan onslaught.
“A Heavy Planet Shield must have set you back a lot of points. Too bad it only delays the inevitable.”
Shelley smirked as he gave his next move, “Advance Durlan Stealthcraft to the surface of Colu and activate Terminus Warhead.”
“Terminus?” the girl replied, shocked at the move by a ship that wasn’t even on the board.
“If you’d bothered to scan the board, you might have detected it. Fortunately, one of the few Durlan units that the Khunds have access to are their bio-organic stealth scouts. Their Black Market enhancement gave me the opportunity to buy a Terminus Warhead. I just kept my ship at the edges of the play area to limit your chances of detecting it. Under the rules, we’re not required to reveal our full forces or their positions until they come into play.”
“But that’s cheating!!”
“No it’s not, and obviously, you’re not familiar with an Earth game called Battleship.”
Miffed, the girl replied, “Not a huge loss. It will take you too long for the Terminus to take Colu anyway. I’ll have your planet by then.”
“You forget that the Terminus only takes one round if it’s launched on a primarily cybernetic world filled with automated systems everywhere. And the only world available to play in this game happens to be…”
“Colu,” the girl said, stunned.
“By the way, thanks for revealing you had a reserve wing of fighters on Colu. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have any ships to infect.”
“What do you mean?”
“Upon successful Terminus infection, all ships based planetside immediately revert to the Terminus player.”
The barrage of Coluan lasers on the Khund homeworld continued as a half-dozen Terminus-infected strikefighters left Colu’s surface.
The Khund Shield was only at half-strength by now, but it would be long enough.
“Disengage assault on Khund homeworld. Warships move to Centerpoint.”
The warships moved, followed by the Terminus-controlled fighters.
“Warship 1, attack Reserve Wing 2.”
The warship fired its laser weaponry, but every shot flew wide.
“Good thing about your Coluan Anti-Targeting Field applies to your own weapons as well.”
“So what, we can’t destroy each other’s forces, so the game can’t end.”
“Not quite,” Shelley said with a smile. “Strikefighter 1, infect Warship 1.”
A single strikefighter flew forward and smashed against the hull of the Coluan Warship.
“Warship 1 is now Terminus-infected. Warship 1 reverts to Player 1 control.”
Brainiac 4 tried to stop the fighters from infecting her warships, but nothing worked as the rest of her ships were assimilated by Terminus.
Finally, the computer reported, “Player 1 wins.”
The over-confident Coluan slumped down at her console. “I lost,” were her only words.
The Resurrection Man walked up and put his hand on her shoulder. “You did good. You almost had me a few times.”
She ignored the compliment and responded, “The Terminus only worked because my planet was Colu. It wouldn’t be as effective against other worlds.”
“I came up with the Terminus tactic ahead of time because I figured your Coluan arrogance would require you to choose your homeworld. If you had chosen another world, I’d just choose something else and make it work.”
“I doubt it.”
The Resurrection Man sighed at the remark and continued, “If you had chosen Durla, I would have gone with anti-organic weaponry to destroy your ships and capture Durla. If you’d chosen Rann, I’d have used Coluan technology to create an anti-Zeta beam field. With Thanagar, gravity weapons would have done the trick. There are at least 3 strategies I could have used depending on the world you chose. It was a trick I picked up from an ally in the 21st Century. I’m not as good as he was, but I’m getting there.”
“You seemed to think this out pretty well,” Twelfth-Girl said, almost with a gleam in her eye.
An odd pause seemed to occur for several seconds.
Eventually, she said something.
“Do you want to play again?”
The End...
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