325 Far Future, Ch. 35 - Sharkey’s Machine, Part Five (1/2)

”We're going to change a bit of the focus of the whole organization today, so listen up.”

I had everybody's instant attention. I didn't often address them in person vocally, so me showing up to do so was something important, and dual Mark/live show-and-tell was in effect.

A lot of eager baby Claws were looking at me, wondering what life-altering thing was going to take place today. Even the Ghost Knights didn't know, and they were as eager as the rest of them.

”First of all, everyone who has a Mindclaw is aware of the limitations and powers of it now. The eager among you want to advance to using a Mindblade with a Focus, and are taking the special training to actually become competent enough at fencing to do that.

”But!” I looked over everyone, in and out of the Markspace, ”A Mindblade is an offensive weapon. It is a tool, and it is a tool made to kill. It literally has no other purpose but to do so. A Mindclaw is marginally better in that it can be used to parry, and to grip, but really, it's there to rip things apart, too.

”This means that when we manifest our Claws,” I raised my arm, they did the same, and many, many Claws flashed into existence, ”we are drawing a weapon.”

Hundreds of them. The Mentats would go apeshit, if not for the fact that Null Psions couldn't even be used to power the Terrestrial Beacon.

The colors of the claws ranged from soft, dark green, through emeralds, metallic greens, and edgings and symbols of gold intruding here and there, to occasional shows of yellow and gold among them. There were also blue and white scattered around, those kids aware they were recruits for the Coronal or Umbran Striker squads as soon as they became competent enough. Some had the translucent blades and whitish fires of a Ghost Knight about them, their Claws clearly more crystalline than the rest.

”We are going to be unique, and we are going to change that view of us, as just another group of people with killing skills. And we will do it, with a Focus like these.”

I drew out a round buckler. It was only about a foot across, the size of a dinner plate, built of polished durasteel, and had the sparkling crystalline patterns of psionic circuitry upon it, especially around the rim.

I held the polished steel-blue of it up for all of them to see, and dropped my Claw, the signal for them to do the same. I grasped the buckler with that hand, and drove my Focus into it.

There was a familiar snap and hum, louder than manifesting a Claw. A field of golden force an additional foot in radius spread out around the buckler, very obviously turning it into a shield.

There were whoa's from everyone, staring at the new Focus VERY intently. They'd never seen anything like this...

”As you can see, this is not a Mindblade Focus, this is a Shield Focus. The purpose of a shield, before anything else, is to PROTECT.” I looked over all of them over the top of the shield. ”When you pop a Mindshield, people aren't going to be leery of you, like they are a mindblade or a mindclaw. A shield is not there to harm people. Oh, you can use it to do so, but that is not its primary purpose. If you have your shield up, people will know that you are there to protect, and to defend... because that is what a shield does.”

I flicked my off hand, and my Claw came up. ”Which does not leave you defenseless. If you can manifest a second weapon, you can still manifest a Claw.” I let it snap off, and then flicked Chalice down into my hand. Everyone straightened as I snapped up my Blade, and the four Suns and two Stars upon its glittering golden length, poised and ready over the edge of my shield, like some techno-knight of yore. My hair fluttered behind me, while the rest of me was motionless, waiting in a stance like a statue.

Yeah, I pretty much had all of them right then.

”And lest you think so,” I flicked them both off, and then my Nimbus flared up around the buckler. ”This is a hunk of durasteel with psi going through it. You can reinforce and keep it strong, enhance its damage, just like a Claw or mindblade.” I slammed it down on the ground, and blew four Suns and both Stars, rupturing a small crater in the duracrete with the edge of the Shield. Eyes widened in appreciation.

”A shield is also a weapon, and it's stronger than a fist,” I told them. ”Henceforth, combat training is now going to include usage of a shield, and Shield Foci will be made available to everyone who wishes to purchase one, as quickly as we can get them made. We will have them available in combat and non-combat forms, if weight is an issue and you don't want to use them for attack.”

Making the practice bucklers was easy, and they were Disked in as I ordered them. Everyone stayed in lines as they were passed out down the ranks of those gathered here. To keep them Vajra viable, they'd had to been forged by hand, not by stamping, and this had taken me and my assistants a decent amount of downtime to make. Again, funny how the old skills were coming into use in a techno age, simply to keep stuff from going Inert.

Teaching via use of the Mark was very quick and thorough, and if they had Visual Files, could be recalled endlessly for practice on their own. I spent hours going through the forms and stances, bashing techniques, deflections, parries, binds, blocks, hunting cover, calculating angles, and showing sparring and combat techniques against weapons ranged and close-combat. They watched in rapture as I bull-rushed people, hammered them, spiked them with a targ coming out of the center, adjusted the edge to razor-sharpness and chopped things off, weathered a storm of slugs and laser fire without harm, and parried strikes from shock and vibro weapons, as well as Claws, without any problems whatsoever.

Another regimen of training going on...

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The expansion of my forces had a major bottleneck, and that bottleneck was me.