Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (27 page)

I would advise against
letting a newly accepted tiro even touch an aeon edge. I have seen
far too many a squire mutilate themselves by accident. Thankfully,
the safety lock feature reduced training casualties, but I still
recommend caution when introducing an aeon edge to a tiro. Too many
become enamored with the aeon edge when it is the shieldwatch that
often provides the decisive tactical edge needed in combat. A soldier
with an aeon edge alone is not as dangerous as a soldier with a
shieldwatch alone.

-Excerpt
from Chapter Seven of the Aeon Legion's
Squire Recruitment Manual
by Praetor Lycus Cerberus

A
n
air of
excitement lingered amongst the tirones as they stood in the
armory. Many had been looking forward to this, as did Terra. Today,
they would get to hold an aeon edge.

A surprising variety of aeon
edge swords lay on a series of weapon racks. A few blades reached
only one or two paces long while others stood as tall as Terra.
Curved designs existed, but most were straight with a spear point.
All regarded the blades with wide eyes.

Terra still didn't have enough
points for an aeon edge. It took twenty five points. She had four.
Even though it was late in the second week, Terra still hesitated to
spend her points. Not that she could buy much with them. A gun from
her time costs five points. Even if she had an extra point, Terra
would be hesitant to spend it on a gun. She had seen a team battle
yesterday where a small team skilled with a shieldwatch defeated a
larger one equipped with assault rifles.

Isra entered the room and
stood between the tirones and the aeon edges. “You will not be
issued an aeon edge. None of you even deserve to hold a true aeon
edge. Instead we will use rejected blades. These are not true aeon
edges, but rather scrapped models that we have salvaged for training.
They are weighted with lead to train strength during sparring, but
today we will only practice maintenance to get you accustomed to the
inner workings of an aeon edge.”

A collective groan rose from
the group.

Isra lifted her chin. “No
complaining. You are lucky that we even allow you to touch the
rejects for maintenance practice. Earn enough points and then you can
be issued one to wave around all you wish. Until then, you will have
to be content with taking it apart and putting it back together. I
will return in a moment to inspect your progress. I expect each
person here to present me with a clean blade upon my return. Failure
to do so will result in the loss of a point.”

An optio brought Terra a short
sword for which she felt thankful. A few of the others received
larger more unwieldy blades to fix. Terra inspected the blade.

The dull gray color contrasted
with the pearl white or silver she had seen the other legionnaires
carry. The blade was straight save for the small angular sections cut
out of the middle edge and the tip was tapered. A fuller lay in the
middle of the blade and panel seams made it distinct from ancient
swords. The segmented grip and cylindrical blue ringed pummel made it
appear as something that came from a factory rather than a forge.

Terra thought it strange to
look at up close. An ancient tool of war, thought dead in her time,
now stood as the primary weapon of the far future. It seemed to fit
Saturn City which itself stood on the Edge of Time where all things
past and future merged in strange ways.

Terra opened the clip housing.
There was no clip inside and the housing area was dirty. She sat at a
nearby table after gathering the tools the optios had laid out and
went to work. Although she knew little of the aeon edge's technical
details, she had watched Zaid when he showed Hikari how to fix her
own blade. Hikari had learned how to care for the blade annoyingly
fast. Terra took careful notes while they worked, and had already
spent extra time in the strategy study learning about an aeon edge.

Others hesitated to reach
inside the strange inner workings of the aeon edge. Terra did not.
Within moments, the timecore lay on the table with its the glass face
cleaned. She then took out the burst trigger before removing the
stasis cell clip housing. Soon she had the entire blade gutted,
cleaned, and ready to put back together. As Terra stopped to wipe her
brow, she looked up to see Roland. He sauntered around, brandishing
his blade while talking with others. She ignored him.

Roland wandered by several
tables, chatting and telling stories. Terra wondered how he cleaned
his blade so fast while still finding time to bluster. After a moment
he moved to a small fountain to get himself a drink of water, but
paused when he saw Terra.

“You are still here?” he
asked, raising an eyebrow.

Terra looked up, wiping the
sweat and grim on her forehead. Dirt lodged in the upper edge
projector had soiled her hands. “Yes,” Terra said in a curt tone
before turning back to her work.

Roland grinned. “Well good.
I had hoped, for lack of other hobbies, to continue our wonderful
conversation. You are so charming with your words after all.”

Terra's jaw muscles twitched
while she worked. She struggled to bite back a response knowing that
Roland was baiting her. He wouldn't make her mad again.

Roland flourished the clean
sword. “Not going to inquire as to how I cleaned my blade so
quickly?”

Terra stopped and looked at
Roland. “You didn't clean it. You cheated somehow. Again. Who did
you steal it from this time?”

Roland put his hand on his
chest in a mock wounded gesture. “Steal? Never. I am a knight of
honor after all. No I exchanged it. There is a rack of perfectly
clean swords right over there. I simply waited until no one was
watching and switched them out. I can't believe no one else thought
of it.”

“Good for you then,” Terra
said, trying in vain to not sound irritated. She relaxed a little
when Roland offered no response. She then looked up to see Roland
staring at her, his normal flippant expression gone. He gazed at
Terra with those deep blue eyes. She felt unnerved by his gaze, like
staring into the dark depths of the ocean without knowing what lurked
underneath the high waves.

“Why are you here?” Roland
asked in a direct tone.

Terra paused, taken aback by
the candid question. “Why do you care?”

Roland shrugged. “No real
reason. Just curious. I had assumed you would be quickly eliminated
and I don't like being proven wrong.”

“I am here because I want to
be heroine, unlike you who just wants to keep his stupid immortality.
At least I still have my idealism.”

Roland chuckled, his playful
demeanor returning. “Idealism? If I had any of that left, I would
be dead.”

Terra's knuckles turned white
on the part she held. “You can't be a real knight. You are some
kind of con artist. You probably just got lucky with that sword the
first day.”

“Con artist? That is the
first any have ever accused me of art,” he said, smiling. He walked
over to the fountain before splashing water on his face. He then
moved to an open area. Others watched as Roland assumed a fighting
pose, aeon edge in hand as though to strike. After a moment of
silence, he practiced with the sword. Everyone stopped to watch.

Terra wasn't sure if Roland
was a con artist, but Roland was an artist of sorts. His blade
strokes flowed into each attack with a fluid speed that Terra's eyes
couldn't follow. Each stroke of his sword seemed to have the power of
a wave crashing over a rocky shore. He was a storm at sea. The poetry
of his swordsmanship made Terra's awe grow with her hatred of him.
Roland didn't deserve to be that good.

As Roland finished the final
stroke of his blade, Centurion Isra returned. Roland weaved the last
stoke into a smooth motion that ended with his hand opening the
stasis cell housing. He peered inside as though he had held this pose
the entire time.

“You were not practicing
with the sword were you?” Isra asked, holding out her hand for the
blade.

Terra
smiled.
Finally
,
she thought.
He's
about to get busted.

Roland handed the blade to
Isra. “Just getting a better angle to look inside.”

Isra took the blade and
inspected it. “Good job, tiro. Two points. I seldom see a blade
cleaned this well.”

Roland smiled as Isra moved to
the next person.

Terra scowled, but didn't have
time to dwell. She finished reassembling her aeon edge just as Isra
arrived.

Isra took the blade and
thoroughly inspected it. Finally, she looked at Terra. “You are not
very good at this are you?”

Terra pursed her lips. “At
least I tried to clean my blade, centurion. Roland just swapped his
dirty blade for a clean one when no one was looking.”

“Did he now? Are you so
eager to betray one of your own?”

“Centurion? He broke the
rules.”

Isra turned her gaze back to
the blade. “I never said they were forbidden to do so. Attention to
detail, tiro. If you have an issue with this tiro, then settle it
with a Trial of Blades. Don't involve me in your personal feud.”

Isra moved off after leaving
Terra with instructions to fix the areas she had missed. Thankfully
she did not lose a point, but had again lost her temper. Terra could
weather Hikari's insults, Alya could test Terra's patience, but only
Roland could make her angry with minimal effort.

After Isra visited every tiro,
murmurs rose of wishing to practice with the blades. Terra suspected
Roland's little performance had something to do with that.

Isra faced the group. “Not
today. No sparring yet. Not until everyone has finished the safety
qualifiers.”

There was a collective sigh.

“Safety?” asked a tiro in
an irritated tone. “It's a sword. We don't need safety lessons for
it.”

Isra turned to the tiro.
“Thank you for volunteering, tiro. Please step forward.”

The tiro turned pale, but
stepped forward.

Isra took an aeon edge from
the weapon rack. She pointed to a metal band near the glowing, glass
faced timecore. “This is a safety lock. We take this off during the
later parts of the Labyrinth. So long as this device is on, then a
training aeon edge is locked into its nonlethal state.”

“Why is that, centurion?”
Roland asked.

Isra loaded a clip into the
aeon edge and the edge began to glow blue. “The blade will not cut
living material when in the nonlethal stasis mode. Instead it locks
everything it passes through into stasis. In simple terms, it will
stun any living target or lock up moving parts for a machine.”

Roland raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting, centurion, but why would a sword need such an
ability?”

Isra pointed the weapon at the
tiro who 'volunteered'. She then slashed at him with the blade
passing right through him as though he were incorporeal. As the sword
passed through the tiro, color bled from where the blade touched.
Although unwounded, the blade left a gray streak where it passed that
took on a static grainy appearance. The tiro then fell to the floor,
convulsing while crying out in pain.

Isra turned to the other
tirones. “The Legion is hesitant to take lives since it would erase
their descendants from time. This problem becomes worse the further
one travels back in time. The stasis mode prevents alterations to a
continuum's history while still allowing the Legion to use force if
needed.”

After a moment the color
returned to the tiro. He stood before shaking his head. “Does it
have to hurt so much, centurion?”

Isra nodded. “Yes it does.
That prevents the target from reacting even from a partial hit.”

“So there is no way to block
it?” another tiro asked.

“There is,” Isra said
before throwing the aeon edge at the tiro again. The blade passed
right through him and he again fell to the floor, stunned. Isra then
turned to Roland and flung another blade at him.

Roland shifted his stance and
brought up his shieldwatch arm, holding it out like a shield. The
Blade bounced off with a disc shaped flash of blue translucent energy
centered on the orb of Roland's shieldwatch. The flash reminded Terra
of a round shield that a soldier might use in antiquity.

“Good,
tiro. You get a point for that,” Isra said before pointing to her
shieldwatch. “Why do you think it's called a
shield
watch?
The stasis shield is the only known protection against an aeon edge.
This shield can also be extended to work around the entire body, but
this weakens it and can only be used to keep out environmental
hazards like radiation or poison gas. It can even block an aeon edge
burst when used in its normal shield form, but it will not completely
absorb the force of the burst. A burst can still knock you off your
feet. Remember that. We will get into burst mechanics another day.
Now everyone return to your cleaning.”

Roland leaned forward.
“Centurion Isra. If I may?”

Isra faced Roland.

“Mayhaps it's too soon to
practice, but perchance it would be wise to show us the aeon edge's
full capabilities? After all, you have already shown us some of what
it can do. Would it not be prudent to show us the rest, including the
more destructive modes? Especially since I heard some of the other
centurions speak of your skill.”

Isra glared at Roland.

Terra smiled. She always knew
Roland's charm would run out eventually.

Isra grinned. “Of course
they did. I am the Academy's blade master after all. I suppose I
could show you more.”

She touched her shieldwatch's
holoface before motioning for everyone step back. A series of rings
formed near the center of the room, fading to reveal a row of
different objects. In a line stood a gray manikin with plate armor, a
short stone pillar no taller than a man and twice as thick, a tall
but thin metal beam, and last in the line loomed a huge solid steel
obelisk ten paces thick.