The gunship hovered for a few more minutes, still searching in an erratic pattern. Terra felt a joint of panic when the searchlight moved over her hand. She held her breath, but the searchlight didn't linger. After a moment the gunship turned and moved to another part of the cliff. With a sigh, she continued her climb.
Terra neared the top. When she reached the base of the wall she paused. She could try to scale the wall and make it over the razor wire, but took the easier way. With careful steps, she put her shieldwatch hand on the solid concrete wall. Terra Sped time around a circular portion of the wall about her height in diameter. The circular area aged and collapsed. Terra then stepped through before Reversing time to fix the hole she had made as well as cover her tracks in the snow.
Terra found navigating the camp easy. Almost all the enemy stood at the wall, watching for further incursions or on patrol, looking for stragglers. However, cameras dotted the area so she still had to be careful. She crept along the shadowed edges of tents and buildings until she stood in front of a guard tower that bordered a frozen lake.
She made her way up the stairs with soft steps. When she opened the door at the top of the tower she stepped inside to see a tall man in Helcian armor who sat in a chair. He had a rifle slung over his back, but stared out into the dark of night inattentive to his surroundings. Terra tread with silent footsteps only for the man to turn around and jump back in surprise.
“Vand?” Terra asked wide eyed.
Vand hesitated. “Wait. Do I know you? You look familiar. I lost my memory at one point and the doctors said th–”
Terra attacked. She Sped time around her to quickly close the gap and wrapped her arms around Vand's neck. He struggled for a moment before falling unconscious.
Terra dusted off her hands. “Well that would have been more satisfying if he had remembered what a jerk he was to me.”
She moved to the searchlight and pointed it to where Roland hid in the frozen river below. She blinked it three times to tell him she had met her objective. There was no response, but she expected none.
Terra gazed into the inky darkness, but she couldn't see Roland at this distance. This was the most dangerous part of the operation. If the enemy caught Roland in the open they would overwhelm him with concentrated fire.
“Tower twelve check in,” came a voice over the tower's radio.
Terra felt a surge of panic. She searched around frantically for the radio receiver.
“Tower twelve respond,” came the voice again, more urgent this time.
Terra found the receiver and fumbled it before answering. “Um. Tower twelve here. We are fine. Everything is fine here.”
“Wait. Who is this?”
Terra's face paled as she felt sweat prickle her forehead. “I'm just filling in for Vand. He's on break.”
“Oh. He didn't bully you into it did he?”
Terra relaxed a little. “No. Not anymore. Sorry we didn't give you a warning. You know how he is. When Vand wants something, he takes it.”
“Yeah. Glad they kicked him out of the Shock Trooper Core. Command out.”
Terra sighed. Never was she so happy to have met a jerk. She then spotted movement. After peering out into the darkness, she saw Roland crossing the snow. When he drew close he jumped over the wall and down into the camp.
Terra opened the door to the bottom of the tower.
Roland turned to Terra with a neutral expression. “Ready to hasten to the gate?”
Terra frowned. “I thought we were going to disable the lights so the others could get in?”
Roland chuckled. “Why would we need to do that? We stand in the enemy fortress with them ignorant of our presence. Their guard is lowered and most of their forces are off pursuing others. The enemy is busy so let them remain busy. Thereupon we sneak past them to the gate while they are distracted and leave.”
“What about the others?”
Roland shrugged. “What about them?”
“We just leave them?” Terra asked, suddenly realizing why Roland had vouched for her. He just wanted an opportunity to escape for himself, but he needed someone to let him in first.
Roland stared at Terra with his ice blue eyes, his expression hard. She could feel the coldness in his voice as they both stood upon the glacier. “Yes. You owe them nothing. They insulted you and would sacrifice you if they had this opportunity. Leave them, just as Zaid left us.”
Terra stared at Roland, trying to sort out her own feelings. In a way he was right. Zaid had left her, but she withheld judgment until she caught up with him.
Roland averted his gaze as he scowled, staring down at the glacier. “I don't know why you find treachery so surprising. Everyone uses one another for something. Not even blood ties can overcome ambition and zealotry. Everyone will betray you eventually. So why not betray them first? Why not look out only for oneself? Even if you don't live by the sword, you can still die by one.”
Terra continued to stare at Roland as the snow fell around him lit by the lights nearby.
Roland looked at Terra, meeting her eyes. “I lie and I cheat yet still my hands are near spotless compared to so many others I have seen. Yes I just want my immortality. After all I have been through, I don't think that is too much to ask for. I am not going to risk everything for a few people I barely know who are no more pious than myself. As for us, the scales are balanced now. I owe you nothing. If not for my lies, you wouldn't have even made it this far. That bluntness of yours will win you neither allies nor opportunities. I don't know why you saved me during the Survival Test, but I have repaid the debt. Now let's go and be rid of this place.”
Roland turned to go.
“No,” Terra said in a quiet voice. She then marched in front of Roland and blocked his path.
Roland stopped.
Terra pointed at him. “No. I am not leaving the others and neither are you.”
“Why not?”
“That's what the bad guys do. I will not be the villain. I will put myself in danger if I have to, but I will not leave allies behind and you will help save them.”
“And how will you manage that? Forcing me to help, that is.”
Terra clinched her fists and glared at Roland. “Because I won't let you go. You can't just keep doing whatever you want, Roland. There isn't always a path of least resistance. Sometimes even a flowing river ends in a stagnant lake. You keep playing parts for everyone. Well now I need you to play the hero and help me save the others.”
Roland remained motionless as the snow stopped falling. “You are the real thing. No masks or roles. No bluster or boasts. As dull and blunt as a rock. Boring, but genuine. I don't think I have ever met anyone like you. At least no one who has lasted as long as you.”
Terra's brow furrowed.
He sighed. “Let's go rescue the others,” Roland said as he turned to go.
Terra walked beside him. “Why the sudden change?”
Roland shook his head. “I don't know what it is about you. At first I didn't like you because you reminded me a little of both of my brothers. Well that, and you were one of the few to see through my mask. I always thought you must have had a mask yourself. I didn't like you because I couldn't figure out why you were playing your role with such dedication. Even after you tried to save me during the Survival Test, I thought it all a clever trick. Now I realize that you are what you are. No tricks. Just you. And you have an annoying habit of making me tell the truth.”
Terra glanced to Roland as they walked. “Where are you really from then?”
“Well you see, in truth, I was a knight in service of Charlemagne the Great. I was at his side during the battle of Roncevaux. We fought against over a hundred thousand Saracens. However, just when victory was near, I was betrayed by my closest friend who had converted to Islam the night before. We dueled on top of th–”
“You're never going to tell me the real story are you?”
Roland smiled. “The real story is rather boring.”
&
nbsp; Terra knew it was another lie, but pried no further. She supposed that convincing Roland to help was victory enough today.
It didn't take long to find the camp power generator. It took even less time for Roland to distract the guards and for Terra to age the generator with her shieldwatch. The moment she did, the camp lights flickered out while shouting followed. Within minutes, Javed's team smashed their way through the front gate and met with Terra and Roland near the center of the camp.
“The gate?” he asked.
Roland gestured to an open area where two battle tanks had rolled to a stop. “There. They have it well guarded.”
With a few quick hand sighs, Javed's team bounded forward, covering ground between them and the bunker where the gate was located. The bunker entrance proved well fortified by a platoon of tanks.
The soldiers pointed and the tanks turned their turrets to fire. Their surroundings quaked as the tank's energy cannon fired and covered the area in a blinding orange light. The explosion rocked the camp as a ball of fire rippled behind them, but Javed's team was too fast.
Within seconds they had the tanks disabled as several aeon edge bursts turned their armored hulls dull gray. However, the roar of jet engines sounded overhand as three VTOL gunships swept in view.
Javed pointed to a gunship. “Give them a lightshow.”
One of Javed's team stepped forward, carrying a small grenade like device in his hand. He pressed a button and it unfolded like a pine cone. He whirled it around before throwing it high into the air where if fragmented with each piece shooting outward. Each piece then fragmented a second time, leaving a trail of blue glowing energy. It filled the sky with blue lines, like a sprawling spider web. The gunships tried to maneuver around the lines of energy, but the small tendrils cut right through their hull. The pilots ejected before their machines flew into pieces and crashed to the ground in an explosion.
With the outer resistance taken care of, they advanced inside the bunker.
“Be careful. The enemy has kept their best soldiers in reserve,” a tiro said.
The bunker had several layers of thick metal doors. They Sped time to rust the massive steel doors before storming forward.
Before long they spotted the gate ahead. Javed peeked around the corner before he drew back, cursing. Terra moved to a nearby entryway and glanced beyond while Roland moved up next to her.
The Kalians and Helcians had fortified the gateway with a large force. Scorch marks had burned into the ground around the gate from an attempt to destroy it, but the gate remained intact thanks to a reinforced frame. Barricades surrounded the gate along with Helcian soldiers in armored exosuits. Helcian shock troopers. They carried large kinetic dart rifles that could punch through walls. Kalian troops were present as well, wearing their masks and a second set of robotic arms that carried an additional energy rifle. All stood tense, waiting, and watchful.
Roland glanced before moving back. He looked to Terra and shrugged. Then he walked away, back the way they had entered.
Javed snarled, watching Roland go, but didn't try to stop him which might risk alerting the guards. Instead he whispered his assault plan over the cipher lines.
Terra stood with her mouth open. Her nostrils flared as she clinched her fists. She almost considered marching after Roland and dragging his worthless hide back into the bunker. Instead she clenched her jaw and joined Javed who planned their final assault. Javed tried to keep the tension from his voice. Everyone knew that their assault had suicidal odds of success given the entrenched enemy. Still, it was their only chance at escaping the salient.
Just as Javed finalized his attack plan there was a crash inside the bunker. Terra looked around a corner to see a spot above the gate on the ceiling darken, decay, and collapse, raining debris below. Before the troops had time to recover, Roland descended from the ceiling, landing in the center of their formation with his aeon edge drawn.
Roland's aeon edge arced like a tidal wave as he waded into the disrupted enemy formation. He cut down one after another as officers yelled, trying to restore order in the panicked defenders. Their orders went unheeded as Roland carved through their packed ranks, forcing the defenders back and clearing the area around the gate.
Javed turned to his strike team. “New plan. Charge and secure the gate!”
They rushed out, covering the distance in a flash. Within seconds they had the gate secured thanks to Roland's attack.
Two of Javed's team began solving the puzzle when Roland walked up in a lazy saunter after having pushed the enemy back enough to give them space. They looked up at him confused. Roland then smiled and smashed the gate with his aeon edge.
“What are you doing?” a tiro screamed.
Roland then moved his shieldwatch hand over the gate and Reversed it to when the gate was intact and unlocked. The fadeline activated.
Javed stared dumbfounded for a second. “Everyone! Into the gate!”
A Helcian officer rallied the remaining defenders. He pointed at the gate. “Grenades!”
The remaining soldiers lobbed grenades at the gate. Two of the tirones had already faded through the gate while those retreating Stopped the grenades that fell near, putting the explosives in stasis. Terra did so as well, Stopping several grenades that rolled close. However, one grenade rolled past her before she could Stop it. The grenade exploded and threw Terra to the floor.
The room spun as she felt pain in her side. Even in her daze, she could see the enemy moving towards her while Roland stood nearby, his gaze shifting from the gate back to Terra. After hesitating, he ran to Terra and lifted her before running back to the gate while shots flew over his head. They dashed to the gate and faded out.
“I thought you said we were even?” Terra asked, rubbing her neck as a new part of the Labyrinth faded in around them.
Roland smiled. “Now you owe me.”
Chapter XXVII
Trial of Blades
Terra Mason has a few valuable talents. A high threshold and tolerance for pain are the greatest two. A shieldwatch can infinitely Restore a body so long as it has power. The other limiting factor is a legionnaire's ability to endure pain and injuries without becoming unconscious. When death by injury no longer becomes a major factor, enduring pain to stay in the fight becomes the most important ability. This, coupled with her, quite frankly, downright scary levels of endurance, make Tiro Mason's potential far greater than I initially expected. I suspect I will not be the last who finds this surprising.
-From the personal logs of Praetor Lycus Cerberus
The heat washed over Terra as the new salient faded in around her. At first, the heat was a welcome relief compared to the cold she had just escaped. Soon it became intolerable.
Terra assessed her surroundings. The ground was barren while the skies hung low, clogged with ash which nearly obscured the underside of Saturn City above. Ruined skyscrapers dotted the landscape and loomed above heaps of rubble. Instead of a shore, the edge of the land was a sheer cliff that dropped into an ocean of lava.
She stared in amazement. It was as though someone had stripped away the Earth's crust, leaving the mantle bare. Other plateaus floated on the lava as if drifting on the mantle’s molten tides.
The other tirones shifted at seeing the apocalyptic landscape.
Roland chuckled. “Well I guess we should have known. Eventually they would throw us into hell.”
A tiro pointed. “Is that the gate?”
They all moved quickly to the gate, eager to escape the searing heat, but paused when drawing near as a strange device lay over the gate. It was pearl white like most Saturnian technology and had a blue glass orb in its center.
Roland crouched, trying to use his shieldwatch to unlock it as he did before. The device did not change.
Javed was about to touch the device when a holographic projection appeared over the orb. A translucent image of Lycus stood in front of them.
“Welcome to the Trial of Blades,” Lycus said. “You
have found one of the gates. To unlock this gate, you must find a key. Each key you recover can be used to activate these gates for one hour of rest.”
There were murmurs at the mention of rest. Terra thought that an hour of rest sounded amazing given how tired she felt.
“However,” Lycus added, “there are not enough keys for everyone. Someone will go without rest. You should also know that once you find a key, you must attach it to your aeon edge or it will vanish to another location. The key will only fall off if you lose a Trial of Blades.”
Roland narrowed his gaze. “So they are turning us against one another again.”
“This is a competition,” Lycus said. “The final gate will open once enough keys are found.”
Roland grinned and moved to smash the gate.
“I should also mention,” Lycus added, “that some of you may have figured out that breaking and Restoring the gate will unlock it. You should know that will no longer work.”
The holographic image vanished.
The tirones eyed each other before turning to Javed.
Terra turned to ask Roland to help her find Zaid, but discovered he had vanished.
Javed sighed. “Well I see he has a head start. Everyone, spread out and search. We will decide who gets a key once we find one.”
Terra searched as well. She wandered far away from the others to inspect the city ruins. Scorched modern buildings suggested that this was once an advanced society. She wondered if this civilization had shattered the Earth's crust when she heard voices nearby.
Terra peered around the corner to see several centurions gathered around a pool of lava. They put the lava in stasis before grabbing a burned husk and dragging it from the pool. Her eyes went wide when she realized the husk had been a person.
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