The Dawn of the Future

by Jun Eishima

　As pathetic as it was, the roll saved her life. One giant fist came smashing down beside her.

  　Aranea stared, horrified, at where the monster’s blow had crumpled the heavy armor plating like paper. With a single strike, Diamond Weapon had inflicted more damage than the full, sustained firepower of an imperial dropship. This time, she stood. Gotta stop this thing, she thought. Can’t let it reach Tenebrae.

  　She angled her spearpoint skyward and jumped high.

  　“Never imagined myself going toe-to-toe with a giant magitek weapon,” she shouted into the rushing wind. “Just goes to show, you never know what life’s gonna throw at you!”

  　Her spear bored into one of exposed areas in the monster’s midsection, and she silently thanked the ground forces for chipping away the armor on its chest and upper arms. The Stoss couldn’t generate enough altitude for her to reach Diamond Weapon’s head in a single jump, so it looked like she was in for some free-climbing. She hoped at the same time she might find a way to slow down the thing’s limbs.

  　When she finally made it to the upper arm, she let out a frustrated grunt. The Stoss was planted firm and deep, but she was at a dead end. She couldn’t find any route to get higher. Worse, Diamond Weapon’s giant hands continued to flail at her. She leapt down, withdrawing to the safety of the ground to regroup for another attempt.

  　“Let’s try that again,” she said. A high jump, and she made it to the chest, spear anchored deep. Another jump, and she scaled the upper arm. The shoulder was next, but in swooped a giant hand, swatting her away, and she was back on the ground, game reset.

  　But she was getting the hang of things.

  　“Y’know, it’d be real nice,” she began, leaping up once again, “if you’d just die already.”

  　Diamond Weapon’s arm swept in. She jumped again, before it could knock her away. This time, she just might make it.

  　“Hrrraaaugh!” Her war cry echoed as her spear drove into the core. She hadn’t connected right at the middle, but it was a solid hit nonetheless. She flicked the controls on the Stoss, transforming the speartip to its hook shape, and then she thrust in again. The spearpoint began to rotate rapidly, churning that section of the core’s rotten red tumor mass to mush.

  　Her body lurched downward as Diamond Weapon staggered, her assault seeming to have an effect. She kicked one boot against the core, thrusting herself away from the monster before its arm could knock her down again.

  　The ground was rushing up at her fast, but the Stoss was slow to respond, and she couldn’t change the spear’s mode back in time to engage the retrofire. The hard landing sent her tumbling across the ground. Diamond Weapon’s arm was overhead before she could get back up. So this was the end.

  　“Almost had it,” she muttered.

  　Granted, it had been pretty rash to take on a colossal superweapon while armed with a single spear. Still, she’d done her best. And her best hadn’t been too bad, she thought, shutting her eyes against her impending doom.

  　But the blow never arrived. She heard a sound like machine-gun fire, and her eyes flew open. The arm should have been right on top of her, but it was nowhere to be found.

  　Voices crackled over her comm. “Heads up, Lady A!”

  　“Sorry for the wait.”

  　Two magitek armors slammed down in front of her, machine guns rattling. She saw Diamond Weapon beyond them, its ass planted squarely on the ground.

  　“Biggs! Wedge! What are you doing back here?!”

  　What had happened with the train? Were the people all right?

  　The answers came before she could ask. “Don’t worry! All the passengers were safely evacuated!”

  　Wedge was the one speaking. He must have still been feeling the buzz of his earlier drinks. She could tell, even over the comm. She chuckled and stood.

  　“All of them,” Wedge added, “except for one lout who wanted to come along and play hero, that is.”

  　Aranea let out a snort. Biggs couldn’t even muster a comeback, so he changed the subject. “You two ready to put an end to this?”

  　She lifted her spear in lieu of a spoken answer. Diamond Weapon was already struggling to its feet. No more time for banter. They had to get serious.

  　“It’s almost down! We just need to give it one more push!”

  　Biggs and Wedge laid into the monster’s plating with their guns, and she went after the parts left exposed once the armor was stripped away. If they could knock it back down on the ground, it’d be just a short jump with the Stoss. She’d be right between the eyes, perfectly positioned for a direct hit at the core.

  　“Legs! Focus on the legs!” she shouted.

  　She saw the muzzle flash of the two MAs’ guns, now pointed low. The plates on Diamond Weapon’s left shin came loose, and the monster’s hulking form began to limp. It roared and flailed, kicking up huge clouds of dust. Visibility went to nil. The monster’s temper tantrum had created a smokescreen that lay across the entire battlefield. Fat chance of finding the core down on the ground like that.

  　“Biggs,” she shouted into the comm. “Got a favor to ask. How’s your throwing arm?”

  　If the free-climbing part of the competition was over, maybe it was time for the javelin.

  　Biggs caught on quick. “Good to go! Hop on!”

  　Flung with the force of the MA, she was a missile on its way through the cloud of dust. When she could see again, Diamond Weapon’s face was right in front of her. She’d reached the apex of her trajectory level with the monster’s head. She opened the Stoss’s throttle to max, hoping to maintain enough velocity for the strike.

  　“Just remember who started this,” she yelled as the spearpoint drove in. About a third of the core had been destroyed by her previous attack. Time to put the rest of the damn orb into the blender.

  　She tended to avoid using the Stoss’s overdrive function, since it was rough on the machine, but if there was ever a time of need, this was it.

  　“Open wide!”

  　One more thrust. The spearpoint was wrapped in a red light that burned like flame. It spun at high speed, drilling deep into the partially destroyed core. She pushed hard, driving it deeper still. With the engine limiter off, the body of the Stoss was getting very hot, very fast. Her hands felt like they were being held above scalding water. Then came the acrid stench of her gloves melting. But she wasn’t going to stop. Not now.

  　The body of the spear began to vibrate and grew hotter yet. Suddenly, the material at her spearpoint swelled into a white-hot bubble and . . . boom. The explosion ignited Diamond Weapon’s core and sent fragments arcing six ways to hell. Aranea didn’t even have time to rejoice. She’d been caught in the wave of the explosion, too, and now she was hurtling toward the earth, with no Stoss to stop her fall.

  　“Lady A!” someone shouted.

  　Biggs. The arm of his suit stretched toward her. A touching gesture, but it was going to fall more than a bit short if he’d meant to actually catch her.

  　“We’ve got you!” Wedge yelled.

  　Then the second MA was leaping onto the arm of the first, and Biggs sent Wedge’s machine flying toward her trajectory. Aranea stretched her own arm out, reaching desperately.

  　“Wedge!” she screamed back.

  　The moment the cybersuit’s appendage closed on her singed glove, the shock wave hit. Diamond Weapon’s explosion dwarfed that of her tiny magitek spear. She clung to the MA’s arm as they were slammed into the ground. The smell of burning daemon and scorched earth flooded her nostrils.

  　A great big goodbye from Tiny, and all three of us going with it, she thought bitterly.

  　And then she blacked out.

  When she awoke to darkness, her first thought was, There’s no way that didn’t kill me. But she tasted grit in her mouth, and her face was pressed into stinking mud. She tested her arms and legs. They moved, but she couldn’t get up. She didn’t even know which way up was. There was
little other choice than to flail her limbs and see where that took her.

  　It was a bit like swimming in place. The weight on her back shifted, cueing her that she was facedown. She pushed down with her palms and knees. Her body inched forward. Again. She was crawling her way free, one laborious push at a time. The area before her eyes grew lighter.

  　And then she was out of the mound of mud under which she’d been buried. She coughed repeatedly, hacking up the dirt lining the inside of her mouth with each convulsion.

  　She turned in a slow circle, still coughing. The wreckage of the two MAs lay nearby. They were well beyond repair. Not too far off, she saw the remains of a big billboard.

  The Most Relaxing Stay of Your Life

  Tenebrae Highland Resort

  Straight Ahead

  　The letters were stripped away or faded in places, but from age, not from the explosion. Tenebrae hadn’t been a hot resort destination for residents of the empire since before the occupation of Fenestala Manor.

  　As for the sign’s message, it was an irony not lost on her.

  　“Most relaxing stay of my life, huh? Could use that right about now.”

  　She looked around. “Biggs? Wedge?”

  　“Over here.” She heard a groan.

  　Then another, pathetic moan. “Any chance I could get a hand?”

  　Each voice came from directly below a mound of mud and rubble. At each, a small section of mud parted, enough for a single hand to pop out. The first was thick and rough. Biggs. The other, with its knobby knuckles, definitely belonged to Wedge. Aranea grabbed each in turn and helped the men pull themselves up out of the debris.

  　“Looks like it’s mission accomplished, boys,” she said, with a long sigh of relief. Biggs and Wedge both coughed and spat on the ground, their saliva brown with mud and sand. They’d all been to hell and back, but at least they were still alive. The evacuees were safe, too. Aranea shook her head in disbelief. All’s well that ends well, I guess.

  　A grin lit up Biggs’s face, and he cleared his throat.

  　“I just want you all to know . . . It’s been an honor to serve with you,” he said, voice pitched an octave too high.

  　Aranea turned away, hoping to hide her flushed cheeks. Seems they’d heard the little parting message she’d given during her dive.

  　“She ever say anything like that before?” Biggs asked, nudging Wedge with an elbow.

  　“Don’t think so.”

  　“Those’re some pretty heavy words.”

  　“Got that right. The kind of thing people say before they up and die on you.”

  　Their skit finished, the two lapsed into a fit of chuckles.

  　They’re never going to let me live this down, Aranea realized, her lips pursed tight.

  　And they were still at it.

  　“Hmm. Sky’s clear, but it feels like we might get a spot of rain,” Biggs jested.

  　“Real thunderstorm, I reckon,” Wedge chimed in.

  　“Ha ha, very funny. Now give it a rest, would you?”

  　But her words were drowned out by a piercing shriek overhead. Daemons. Flying ones. Probably inbound from Gralea.

  　Seemed about right, given their luck.

  　“Well,” Biggs said. “Here comes our thunderstorm.”

  　“I knew there was gonna be trouble,” Wedge added.

  　They both looked at their commodore, with matching irritated looks on their faces.

  　“Oh, what, so this is my fault?”

  　But there was no time for the blame game. The three scrambled to the wreckage of the two MAs, grabbing anything that looked like it might serve as a weapon. They had to stop the daemons, keep them away from the civilians in Tenebrae.

  　“When the hell are we gonna get some sleep?” Aranea groaned.

  　It looked like the worst day of her life wasn’t quite over yet.

  When they’d eked out a victory against the last pack of flying daemons, killing what they could and sending the rest scattering back the way they came, it was nearly evening. They made for the dropship, dragging themselves along, bodies battered and limp like old rags. They got the craft into the air, and then they were heading toward the people they’d saved in Tenebrae, the children they’d evacuated on the train, and the girl entrusted to them by Loqi.

  　When they arrived, no sooner did the girl’s eyes fall on Aranea than they were filling with great big tears. It was another scene that seemed all too familiar, an unpleasant echo from a dark corner of Aranea’s past. Before she was even aware of her actions, she’d scooped the girl up into a tight hug and was walking over to settle on one of the benches, running a gentle hand over her hair.

  　“I was so scared,” the girl whispered.

  　“It’s all right now. You’re okay.”

  　“Everyone . . . went away, or died, and . . . ”

  　Aranea felt the small body trembling in her arms. She knew that fear. She knew that sadness. She wouldn’t have wished it on anyone else in the world, least of all the young girl before her now.

  　She’d been so eager to wipe every last daemon from the face of the star, she’d not even been able to wait the full ten years to hit her legal age of majority before she joined the mercenary forces. And there hadn’t been anyone left around her to tell her to wait, to not be so reckless.

  　But her life had gone smoothly enough, all things considered. She met Biggs and Wedge, gained new comrades in arms, and eventually made enough of a name for herself in the imperial service to earn a bit of rank. It had been rough when the empire started toying around with daemons, though. It didn’t feel right owing allegiance to an army employing the same monsters she’d wanted to destroy. She’d strayed a bit from her one great aim in life, but she went on nonetheless.

  　“Tell me. What’s your name?” Aranea asked. It was a detail she’d overlooked in all the rush.

  　“Sol,” the girl replied. “Solara Antiquum.”

  　“Sol, huh? Not a bad name.”

  　It had an air of dignity to it, bringing to mind that grand, ancient civilization the nation of Niflheim aspired to.

  　“I want to be strong.”

  　Aranea smiled. That was another thing she remembered herself saying, all those years ago.

  　“Like you,” the girl continued.

  　“Like me?”

  　Sol nodded, her face earnest.

  　“I’m not really that strong. I barely even managed to make it through today. Thought I might break down at any moment.”

  　The girl paused, clearly processing the information, before asking, “Honest?”

  　“Honest. It’s a good thing a certain little someone showed up to inspire me. What was that you said back there? ‘I wanna fight, too’?”

  　As Aranea said it, she playfully tapped Sol’s nose.

  　“Couldn’t let myself get shown up by a little pipsqueak like you.”

  　Sol gave a bashful smile, and Aranea breathed a silent sigh of relief. It was the first smile she’d seen from the girl. It looked like she was going to be all right.

  　When Aranea finally lifted Sol off her lap and set her down, a small sparkle caught her eye. It gave her a start. She hadn’t noticed the brooch before, thanks to the blanketing folds of Loqi’s mantle. In fact, she hadn’t noticed the girl’s outfit at all. Sol wore fine clothes, well-tailored and obviously expensive. The design of the brooch was more than just familiar: it was a symbol practically burned into the mind of any member of the imperial forces. The crest of House Aldercapt.

  　What had Loqi said back there?

  　Direct orders of His Radiance, to be executed with utmost discretion.

  　The possibility had occurred to her, faintly, aboard the dropship. Iedolas had lost his son in battle several years ago. Officially, there was no heir to the imperial throne. The emperor was dead, and the line of succession had come to an end . . . unless there was a child nobody knew about. An il
legitimate child born to the imperial prince.

  　And her name, Sol.

  　The sun will rise once more.

  　Those had been the emperor’s final words.

  　Maybe Iedolas hadn’t fully trusted his chancellor. After all, Izunia had that air about him, like he was concealing some kind of secret. Or a thousand secrets, more like. It would make sense if the emperor decided to keep quiet about his only living heir. When Ardyn Izunia had finally bared his fangs, the emperor must have given the order to Loqi to find and secure the child.

  　“Listen to me, sweetheart,” she said.

  　Aranea didn’t know where or how the girl had spent her days until now. But there was no question in Aranea’s mind that the people in Sol’s life had loved her dearly.

  　“You’ve got a great big life ahead of you. Let’s see that you make the most of it.”

  　It was what all of them would have wanted, from the people who’d lovingly raised her since the day she was born, to those who laid down their lives to see that she could live hers.

  　Aranea hugged the girl once again.

  M.E. 766

  Lady A, you seen the little miss?”

  　“She took off a couple of hours ago. Why?”

  　“She did?”

  　“Yeah. Said she was meeting you two over at Beta Point. I guess if you’re here, she must’ve run into Biggs on the way. Give him a shout over the comm.”

  　“I, uh . . . ” Wedge said, concern painted on his face. Something smelled like trouble.

  　“I was just over at Beta,” he continued. “Biggs is the only one there. And I’m pretty sure . . . ”

  　Aranea realized she’d been had.

  　Hmph. Clever little twerp, she thought, as she recalled the conversation she’d had with Sol two hours ago.

  　“I’ll be fine,” the girl had said. “I’ll be with experienced hunters. And we’re not even going that far. I don’t need Biggs and Wedge babysitting me.”

  　“It’s precisely because they’re experienced that I want Biggs and Wedge along. Meldacio’s people have a job to do. They don’t have time to be looking after you.”