She stood alone for a long while, thinking. Terra couldn't help but feel that there was a warning there of something worse to come.
∞
Terra stepped onto the edge of the salient, feeling far more tired than when she had entered. Another Sybil waited for her there, the one named Morta.
“So the null has crossed both fear and truth,” she said in a condescending tone. “Well you should not worry now, null. The darkest moment is over. One test remains.”
Terra shot the Sybil a nasty glare before checking her shieldwatch. her eyes went wide. “What? Only four hours left? I wasn't in the Trial of Truth that long!”
Morta grinned. “Walking near the Temporal Singularity distorts time. You were in there for over a day. The Fatigue and hunger are catching up to you now.”
Terra could believe that. Her stomach hurt from hunger while her mouth felt dry. It was hard enough just to stand and her feet seemed so heavy right now. She then Restored herself with the shieldwatch, but the mental fatigue remained. Despite the fatigue, her vision during the Trial of Truth lingered in her mind.
“I saw an omen,” Terra said as she turned to Morta.
“Really, null? I find that difficult to believe.”
“I saw Saturn City destroyed,” Terra said, feeling as though she had to warn someone.
Morta chuckled. “I doubt that. If there were a threat to the city, we would have precogged it.”
Terra sighed. She should have expected the Sybil to ignore her, though Terra didn't know if she should take herself seriously.
“Besides,” Morta said as she turned back to the salient. “If another threat had emerged, fate would have then led Silverwind to a new squire.”
Terra hesitated. “Um.”
Morta then pointed at the edge of the salient. “The Final Trial awaits you, tiro,” she said before turning to go.
Terra walked to the fadeline ahead while pondering the strange sights she had seen in the Trial of Truth. There couldn't be a real plot to destroy the city? Saturn City was such a huge place to her. The thought of something or someone powerful enough to destroy it seemed absurd. She stepped onto the fadeline, but rather than fading out, the fadeline flickered and shut off.
Terra searched the area. She looked for another key puzzle or something else wrong, but found nothing. After a moment, Terra sighed, thinking that this must be part of the trial. She walked to the salient walls and jumped over the side. There she saw the crisscrossing network of catwalks and metal access walkways that webbed the outer parts of the Labyrinth. However, she paused when finding two optios lying on the ground.
She ran to their sides before checking for a pulse. Both were alive and she saw no sign of damage. Their shieldwatches had Restored them. Terra stood and began scanning the area.
A loud metal groan cracked through the air. Terra turned and stared as a massive chunk of the city creaked, shook, and then fell away into the Edge below the city. She gazed at the falling slice of the city, panic flaring as part of her vision came true. In front of her was a small salient that someone had partially taken apart.
Then, in the salient's center, a platoon of steel-gray uniformed soldiers appeared in a bright green flash of crackling energy. In front of them stood a man Terra recognized. Hanns turned, facing Terra and smiled as Saturn City fell apart behind him.
Chapter XXXI
Trojan Horse
However, do not become arrogant in the presumed supremacy of time based singularity weapons. Complacency and hubris can be critical weaknesses that even the most ill equipped foe will exploit. A well prepared force will always destroy an ill prepared one regardless of the gaps in technology, numbers, or training. Truly no weapon has killed more soldiers than ill informed assumptions. Especially when that assumption is invincibility.
-Excerpt from Core Stratagems of Post Time Warfare, by Time Queen Ananke the Unbeaten
Terra drew her aeon edge in a flash.
Hanns faced Terra as his smile faded. “You do so enjoy getting in my way don't you, Terra?” he said before pointing to her. “Fire at will!”
The Zeitmacht soldiers leveled their weapons and fired. Terra felt a moment of panic before she Sped her reflexes and perception.
The bullets slowed as they drew near and Terra raised her shieldwatch to block. Her Sped vision allowed her to see the green glowing tipped bullets in detail as they bored through her stasis shield. Terra ducked, avoiding the bullets that snapped past her by mere inches. He's found a way past a shieldwatch, she thought.
Hanns rolled up his sleeve to reveal a shieldwatch before touching a holoface. His shieldwatch had a gray glowing face rather than a blue one.
“How?” Terra asked before more gunfire cut off her question. She rolled behind one of the salient's metal pillars. As Terra peeked from behind the pillars, she saw Hanns and his soldiers fade. Seconds later several grenades exploded. A pillar of the salient collapsed while the rest began spark. Terra ran as the whole salient began shaking.
An explosion rocked the ground as Terra jumped behind a metal wall. As Terra looked up, she watched a vortex of blue energy engulf the damaged salient. The swirl of energy drew in everything around it before dissipating to leave only a twisted mass of metal in its wake.
Terra stepped out to survey the damage. With the salient destroyed, she couldn't follow Hanns. She wondered what Hanns sought here? The Labyrinth was far away from anything useful like the Legion armory or the Temporal Singularity. In fact it was under the Academy...
Terra's eyes went wide. They stood under Aevum Academy that contained Saturn City's Archives. Hanns wasn't after a simple book any longer. He would steal the single most complete database of all human history.
She activated her sonic cipher. Chatter erupted from the lines.
“Tartarus has been ejected! Please confirm!”
“There is a riot in here!”
“All security personnel, secure the lower levels!”
“All Legion timeships, converge on Tartarus!”
Terra switched lines, trying to find one that would listen. “This is Tiro Terra Mason. The Aevum Academy Archives are about to be attacked! I repeat the Archives are about to be attacked! Anyone respond!”
The chatter continued with no acknowledgment. They all seemed preoccupied with Tartarus.
Terra clenched her teeth. What was she going to do? She had less than four hours to complete the Final Trial, yet she had to do something about Hanns. She hesitated, looking to the last salient in the distance. This might be her one chance to pass the final trial. Maybe someone else would stop Hanns?
Terra frowned and grabbed the hilt of Zaid's aeon edge while she thought. Hanns had no one to stop him. No one was going to help her. No one was going to save her. She would save herself and this time she had the skills, training, and equipment to do so.
“There you are,” came Roland's voice.
Terra turned to see Roland and Hikari approaching.
“We heard you over the cipher lines,” Hikari said.
Terra took a deep breath. “I need your help.”
“Terra,” Roland interrupted.
Terra ignored Roland. “There is a dangerous criminal who has invaded the city. We need to stop him!”
“Terra,” Roland said, again trying to get Terra's attention.
“The city is in danger,” Terra continued to explain. “If we don't stop him th–”
“Terra!” Hikari yelled.
Terra stopped.
Hikari nodded. “Where do we need to go?”
Terra looked from Hikari to Roland. “Really?”
“Wherever you go,” Hikari said, “I will beat you there.”
Roland shrugged. “I thought this was all part of the final trial.”
Terra shook her head. “It isn't. This is a real invasion. If we try to stop it, though, we may lose our chance at the final trial. We will have to start the training all over again.”
Roland chuckled. “Don't worry.
I will convince them otherwise. Now where are we going?”
Terra looked up to the underside of the city. “Back to the Academy. We have to get to the Archives, but Hanns sabotaged the fadelines.”
“How will we get there?” Hikari asked.
Roland looked up too. “The shortest way would be straight up.”
Terra nodded. “We climb up where the Labyrinth salients came down from.”
∞
Hanns smiled as his troops stormed the Archives with ease. As expected, the Legion guards were ill prepared for bullets piercing their shields. He had been unsure about the time-bore tipped bullets, but that gamble had paid off well. It was a simple enough device, a time travel machine shrunk down to the size of a bullet. If Saturnians used time to shield themselves, then Hanns would use time to pierce those shields. Yet the Legion's complacency was a far greater weapon than anything Hanns could have invented. The ease of distracting them by ejecting Tartarus had been the greatest asset in this heist.
The Zeitmacht secured the area, rounding up the staff that worked in the Archives, bringing them where he stood outside the fadedoor. They had blasted open the fadedoors and taken care of the guards inside the Archives. His men had shot the two guards at the fadedoor. They now laid on the ground with their bodies Restored, but still incapacitated. The other guards had seen the first two shot through their shields and retreated when faced with overwhelming firepower. Hanns then had two squads push them back into a fadeline before destroying it to prevent reinforcements.
The last of the staff members fell to their knees in front of Hanns. Hanns surveyed the gathered silver haired individuals.
Alban approached. “We have them all. I was thorough this time,”
Hanns nodded. “Excellent.”
A sweaty Emmerich shuffled up to Hanns. “Very good Hanns. Now get us out of here.”
Hanns looked at the blasted fadedoors to the Archives. “Leave?” Hanns asked, turning back to Emmerich. “Here we stand beyond time itself, ready to witness the glory of the Third Reich in its entirety and all you wish to do is leave? Not yet Emmerich. I am about to win us our glorious history.”
Alban gestured to the captured staff. “What about them?”
Hanns nodded. “I never make the same mistake twice.”
Emmerich looked to the hostages. “We kill them?”
Hanns turned to Emmerich and scowled. “No! Why would we do such a thing? That's a war crime. No. We will make sure they are out of our way this time.”
Emmerich frowned. “How will we do that?”
Hanns smiled. “I know the Saturnians' weakness,” He said before turning to the staff. “Listen carefully. You are to stay in this open library and you are not to move. I do not wish to hurt anyone, but if you move I will assume you are a combatant. No heroics this time. I know how you Saturnians love your immortality. Don't waste it trying to stop me.”
The staff remained calm as he had expected.
Alban turned to Hanns. “Should I set a few men to watch them?”
Hanns shook his head and walked inside the Archives. “No. Threats against their immortality should hold them for now. Timeless citizens value their immortality more than anything else. They won't risk it by trying to stop us. That's why they use mercenaries. If they flee, they will be out of our way regardless. Now I want you to set up just inside these doors. Position the men so they have all angles covered, then shoot anyone who comes through that door. We layer our defenses.”
Alban nodded. “And what about these so called conscripts?”
Hanns spared a look to the prisoners who had aided him. They had helped him ambush several staff members so he could bring his soldiers to the city by modifying a salient. “Them. Yes. We bring them back with us if we can, but tell our soldiers not to risk their lives over it. These prisoners are not real soldiers.”
Alban saluted and walked off to prepare.
Emmerich looked around nervously. “I don't understand Hanns. Why are we here?”
Hanns looked up at the titanic internal structure of the Archives. The outer walls stood hundreds of paces high, packed row upon row with books. Twelve towering pillars stood around the room and were also shelved with books and devices of every kind. Holofaces circled around the pillars, illuminating the area in a pale blue glow. In the center, a platform drew his eye. That is where he knew he had to go. He made his way towards there.
Emmerich followed behind Hanns. “Do you even know how to escape from here, Hanns?”
Hanns kept his gaze forward. “You should relax, Emmerich. This will not take long.”
Hanns walked up a large set of stairs to the central platform. A device in the center projected a hazy blue holographic sphere above it. Words appeared upon the sphere, changing to a script Hanns could read.
Minerva’s voice read the words. “Your Access to the Archives is denied.”
Hanns smiled, holding up his shieldwatch. “Oh? But I have a key.”
The holographic sphere flickered before changing to gray. “Accessing Archives. Downloading to shieldwatch,” came a masculine computerized voice from Hanns's shieldwatch.
The holofaces in the Archives all turned gray before streaming towards Hanns. They circled above the platform in a cyclone before compacting in the palm of his hand. Hanns smiled as the glow illuminated his face. He spoke in a whisper. “All human history in the palm of my hand.”
∞
Terra stopped outside the Library’s entryway and looked around the corner. A dozen staff members knelt on their knees in the center of the library. “He's already here, but I can't see anyone except the staff.”
Roland glanced around the corner. “Two guards are on the ground. I don't know if they are alive or not. Let's go.”
Terra grabbed Roland and looked to Hikari. “Remember what I said.”
Hikari sneered. “Yes. We remember. Their weapons can pierce our shieldwatch.”
They moved inside on the edge of the walls. After circling the room, they found no one watching. They gathered at the fadedoors to the Archives which lay blasted open.
Roland knelt and took off his shieldwatch. He held it next to the open archway and used the reflected surface to peer inside the Archives. After a moment he put his shieldwatch back on his forearm. “A lot of them. They have fortified their position inside.”
Terra bit her lower lip. “How are we going to get inside?”
Hikari kicked aside a sheet of fadedoor debris out of her way and strolled into the Archives.
Terra frowned. “Hikari! What are you doing?”
“Staying ahead of you,” she said.
“Fire at will!” yelled a soldier on the other side.
A hail of glowing green bullets streaked towards Hikari. She grabbed her aeon edge by the grip and put a hand on the flat of the blade. Hikari then used the flat of the blade and Sped her reflexes to block the oncoming projectiles. Sparks flew around her as the bullets bounced off the metal of the aeon edge while Hikari moved in a blur of motion.
Seconds later a small mob of prisoners, like those Terra had seen during the first trial, attacked Hikari. She struck down each one with ease.
Terra turned to the staff. “Go! Run! Get help!”
They stood and ran.
She then charged into the Archives to help Hikari. When Terra arrived next to Hikari she found her standing amongst a pile of unconscious bodies.
“Fall back to the inner defense,” yelled a soldier.
Terra found the Archives vast. It was the largest building in the Academy. Old books and other items filled the walls. Terra saw computers from her time amongst many other things she didn't recognize. Large pillars lined the outer edges and spiraled upward with endless history books.
The center of the room hosted a series of ramps that led to an elevated platform. Above the platform was a cyclone of holofaces that circled around the center plate. In the center of the holofaces stood Hanns, holding up his shieldwatch while it copied and store
d every bit of information in the Archives.
Hanns and his forces had fortified the area around the central platform, turning over shelves to erect a makeshift fort. When Hikari attacked, they drove her back with sheer firepower.
Terra frowned. “How are we going to get past that?”
Roland glanced around before moving off to the sides of the Archives. Terra then watched another attack by Hikari, but she could not block every shot. The sheer volume of firepower forced her back again.
When Hanns's soldiers began taunting Hikari, a loud crack sounded and a pillar began to fall right on top of their defensive position. The soldiers screamed while they scrambled away. The pillar smashed into the ground with a loud crash.
Hanns looked up. He took a single step and dodged the falling pillar which missed him by inches. He then went back to downloading the Archives to his shieldwatch.
Terra then saw Roland standing at the base of the pillar that had crashed, aeon edge drawn, with a satisfied smile on his face. With Hanns's forces in temporary disarray, Terra ran along the collapsed pillar in a charge directed at Hanns.
Hanns saw and drew his pistol. “I grow tired of this, Terra. You have gotten in my way one too many times!” he said as he fired at her.
Terra stole Hikari's move and blocked the bullets with her aeon edge, but her advance slowed in spite of Speeding her run.
“Oh no,” whined the SS officer. “I told you Hanns. We should have left when we had the chance!”
“Archive download complete,” came a male voice from Hanns's shieldwatch.
Hanns then turned. “All done here,” he said as he activated the watch like device at his belt. Portals opened and engulfed all his men. Another formed right next to Hanns, who then kicked the SS officer into it.
“No! Not this time Hanns!” Terra said as she ran to the portal just as Hanns stepped through it. She jumped into the portal seconds before it vanished.
Aeon Legion: Labyrinth Page 40
