Aeon Legion: Labyrinth

by Beaubien, J. P.

  All the other Kings and Queens of Time had died or were forced to give up the title. Only Deucalion and Pythia survived to relinquish the title willingly before rejoining the Aeon Legion. Time King Endymion, alone, still held the title. It had required a lot of political maneuvering to prevent his arrest and execution at the Legion's hands.

  Caelum glanced to Endymion and scowled. “You wasted a good shieldwatch on him, Master.”

  Endymion smiled. Caelum needed to work on his charm more. The boy was charismatic enough in a public setting, but all that appeal faded outside the public eye. One more thing to work on, he thought. “To me, a shieldwatch is a mere trifle. The artifacts you recovered are far more important. Hanns was a good distraction and a single lost shieldwatch for the spoils I gained from Tartarus was a cheap trade. Besides, I like Hanns. He will be useful to me in the future. I will need men like him to reclaim what's mine.”

  Caelum grimaced as he glanced back down to the chess board. After a moment he made another move. “How do you know he will serve you? He seems loyal to his nation.”

  Endymion grinned. “Oh he will join me. Hanns hasn't realized yet that he has nowhere else to go. The thousand year Third Reich doesn't quite live up to its lofty goals of longevity. I intend to make a nation that will never end,” he said before putting Caelum in check. “I also forgot to commend you on your little excursion into Tartarus. You did well. Those in the Legion still haven’t figured out who ejected Tartarus from the city and you were never spotted.”

  Caelum looked at Endymion. “You think they will discover that the Singularity Thief was the one who broke into Tartarus?”

  “Eventually. They are slow, but Orion will figure it out. They won't discover that the Singularity Thief is you, so you shouldn't worry. So long as we remain inactive for now, Orion will be too busy with the death of Cerberus to bother with us.”

  Endymion stroked his chin while wondering. Who could have killed Cerberus? Cerberus was as nasty as the myth he was named after. The bloodshed left on the battlefield by that man made even Endymion cringe. He couldn't think of anyone capable of killing a monster like that. Perhaps Tyche or Reva, though both of them have been missing for centuries. Endymion himself could do it, but it would gain him nothing. There was one other.

  He felt a chill run up his spine when he thought about Kairos. Kairos had the skill to kill Cerberus. She had a good reason to come after Endymion next. After a moment, Endymion dismissed the thought. If Kairos wanted him dead, then she could have killed him on that day long ago. Endymion grimaced, remembering the day Kairos had cornered and forced the truth from him. He might have avoided that unpleasant situation if Alya hadn't stumbled into his plans once again. One day he would get even with Alya. He would steal something precious of hers.

  Caelum glared at the chess board. He made his final move, knowing the match lost. “I am disappointed. I have trained for three years now. Master, I would wish for more opportunity to use my skills. Tartarus was a good warm up, but I didn't even get to match blades with the guards. I am rather eager to draw blood for the first time.”

  Endymion grinned as he put Caelum in checkmate. “Opportunity comes to the patient.”

  Chess was not Endymion's favorite game. He found it too symmetrical. It did not reflect his current tenuous position. The Aeon Legion had far too many pawns for him to put in checkmate. At least for now.

  A soldier in dark gray armor entered the room bearing the mark of the crescent moon on his upper arm. Endymion's mark, the symbol of the Knights of Endymion. The armor was of similar design to the Legion's armor though more utilitarian. Sadly they had lost all the older dress uniforms from the glory days.

  Endymion's expression darkened as he regarded the soldier with a sidelong glance. “It must be important if you are interrupting my afternoon. Otherwise, I would have to assume you foolish for doing so, seeing as how your immortality rests in my hands.”

  The soldier bowed. “Infinite apologies your Eternal Majesty, but I think this will be of interest to you.”

  Endymion sighed. He had always rewarded his knights for valuable information, but often in their zeal to seek a reward they would bring him irrelevant tidbits. “Show me.”

  The soldier touched his shieldwatch's holoface and slid it over to Endymion.

  Endymion glanced to the picture that showed Saturn City's timeport a few months ago. It showed Silverwind standing in line.

  He sneered while regarding the image of his old rival. Then he chuckled at the thought of the mighty Silverwind standing in line and waiting. “This has to be a lookalike. The Legion has a few of Silverwind's mindless worshipers in its ranks. This is probably just one that dresses as her for whatever reason. I know she would never just stand in line even if Prometheus himself told her to. Is there something else here?”

  The soldier pointed to the young girl standing next to Alya. Endymion thought her rather unimpressive in appearance. A softtimer if he had ever seen one.

  The soldier then generated a second holoface and presented it to Endymion. The soldier pointed to one of the Aeon Legion's graduates. There the girl was again, though she had changed. Still, he saw it. Somehow that girl had made it through the training.

  “I also thought it was an Alya lookalike that day at the timeport,” the soldier explained. “I barely even noticed the girl with her. However, a few days ago I went to the Aevum Academy graduation reception. I was scouting for potential talent when I saw that girl there and she seemed familiar somehow. After I heard the rumors about Silverwind finding a new squire, well I decided to investigate.”

  “Ah,” Endymion said with a wide smile. “I see now. She would have to go through processing if she wanted to let someone into the city. Alya Silverwind, you went and got yourself a new squire.”

  Caelum regarded Endymion. “Master, I have not seen you this happy in a while. Is this not bad for us?”

  Endymion stood. “Oh no. This is wonderful. This is the opportunity I've been waiting for. Ever since Kairos slipped through my fingers, I have been waiting for Alya to find another squire. This girl is now my key.”

  Caelum raised an eyebrow.

  Endymion turned to the soldier. “Good work. I'll see you get a promotion for this and a twenty year bonus. Go tell the rest of the knights that their leave is suspended until further notice. I want everyone back on duty and tell them to ready my dreadnaught. We will be busy soon.”

  The soldier smiled. “Thank you, your Eternal Majesty,” he said before turning to leave.

  Caelum stood and stretched.

  Endymion faced the youth. “It would seem that you are about to get your wish. The Singularity Thief is about to become very busy.”

  Caelum grinned, but it faded when he looked at Endymion. “Wait. I don't understand. How is this girl the key? The key to what?”

  Endymion's eyes narrowed on the holoface. Terra Mason the holoface read. “She is Silverwind's squire. That makes her the key to the most powerful singularity artifact in all of Time. She is the key to the Legacy Library.”

  Aeon Legion Index

  Index of Terms

  AEON EDGE any weapon that has a time accelerated edge. An aeon edge accelerates the flow of time around it 10 to the 15th power (1,000,000,000,000,000). This effectively allows the blade to cut through any known material with ease. Each aeon edge also has a burst mode that releases the time containment field around the edge. This gives the aeon edge an area of effect attack for anti armor or anti building capacity.

  AEON LEGION A military and police organization founded to protect Saturn City, history, and all of Time. Founded at the onset of the First Temporal War, the Aeon Legion charter is the Temporal Accords which empower it to enforce all laws contained within. The Aeon Legion is considered the mightiest army in history with no known rivals. Saturn City is where the Aeon Legion is headquartered and they function as its formal military and police organization. The Legion also employs a large time fleet to aid in its patrols of the
Edge and works closely with the Sybil to prevent alterations to history.

  AEVUM ACADEMY Saturn City's only formal school. It is mostly known as the location of Saturn City's Historical Archives and for hosting the Aeon Legion training program. The school contains a number of changing arena like rings that can recall any area within time called salients. Many time travelers and citizens of the city also take classes there.

  AION The sole deity of Aionism. Aion created time and is considered the perfect fusion of thought and memory. Worshiped by many in the city and by the Sybil who are its priests and priestesses. As a religion, worship of Aion grew out of the old Abrahamic religions which followers of Aionism hold to be imperfect prototypes of true Aionism along with every other religion. Over the years, Saturn City remains largely secular as the more fanatical tenets of Aionism died out with fall of the Kings and Queens of Time.

  BEGINNING OF TIME An anomaly that is the source of all time. The Beginning of Time is a large mass of temporal energy that all time flows from. Time flows from the Beginning into the continua. It is possible for a time traveler to visit there, but few return and those who do never speak of their stay there even if under torture. Sybil refuse to read such individuals as well.

  BIOLOGICAL SINGULARITY A single point in spacetime where biology becomes undefined. Creation of the Biological Singularity resulted in the evolution of the Manticores. It is shared between the first two Manticores; Typhon and Echidna. This singularity is currently in the Bleak guarded by the majority of surviving Manticores and largely considered unrecoverable.

  CONTINUUM A single continuous line of history also sometimes called a timeline. Continua branch at certain points in history called a nexus.

  END OF TIME A large black hole at the end of time during the universe's Big Crunch. Inside the End of Time, all time has stopped, making it impossible to escape. Around the End of Time, continua dissipate and bleed into the Edge. This overlap is called the Bleak. No one has ever returned from the End of Time and the only thing to come out of the End of Time was the Faceless. How the Faceless were able to do this is unknown.

  ENERGY SINGULARITY A singularity where energy becomes undefined. This singularity was created by a rogue singularity AI that the Kalians later stopped. The Energy Singularity later became property of the Kalian Military Council and was used to manufacture high powered energy weapons along with powering their massive military industrial complex. Tapping into the Energy Singularity gave the Kalians access to infinite energy in the form of plasma. The fate of this singularity is unknown and it is thought lost when Continuum Sigma underwent a temporal crash. Others say that the famous Kalian general Reva stole it and hid it from the Aeon Legion.

  FACELESS Masked, formerly human monsters that threatened all of Time. They get their name from their smooth metal masks that are grafted into their face. These masks are impossible to remove due to being completely integrated with their host's nervous system. These creatures use decay as a weapon and then tend to rust their surroundings as they move and even darken their surroundings by decaying light particles. Although seemingly intelligent, they appear incapable of speech. Faceless produce more masks to attach them to human hosts, creating even more Faceless. They were finally stopped by Kairos and the Aeon Legion after nearly wiping out all of Time in an event commonly called the Faceless War.

  FIRST TEMPORAL WAR The first large scale armed conflict fought in the Edge of Time. Tensions between Saturn City and the Kalian Military Council grew as each wanted to be the one responsible for policing time travel. Tensions came to a head when the Kalians began exploiting time travel for their own gain. The war began when a Kalian military task force attacked Saturn City in an attempt to make the city capitulate to their demand for control over Time. The ensuing war resulted in the founding of the Aeon Legion. The First Temporal War ended when Tahir, Alya's first squire, secured the unconditional surrender of the Kalian Military Council.

  FORGOTTEN GUNS A group of thirteen temporal criminals dedicated to the assassination of all serial killers, dictators, and other particularly loathsome or brutal individuals within Time. By using singularity class null technology, their guns were able to pierce a shieldwatch as well as cancel out other singularity tech when in close proximity. Their actions caused the collapse of an entire continuum, resulting in the loss of billions of lives to a Temporal Crash. After a large scale manhunt, the majority of its members were killed by one of Alya's squires. Its leader, Samael, was captured and imprisoned within Tartarus. Only a few members remain at large.

  GRAND DESIGN This is what the Sybil consider the destiny of humanity. Only Sybil can see the Grand Design and they say it guides humanity's future. They cannot see the Grand Design in its entirety, but can see far enough ahead to predict major events.

  HANDS The three large mega structures that are part of Saturn City. The hour hand repairs large scale damage to Saturn City. The minute hand makes minor changes to the city like picking up unwanted items. The second hand sends data to the other hands, recoding the state of the city every minute.

  HELCIA A post time nation where time travel is common knowledge. Officially an ally of Saturn City, the Corporate Republic of Helcia is allowed to police time travel within their own continuum so long as it does not threaten others. They are known for their Helcian Shock Trooper Core, though most of their forces and organization are similar to a twenty first century military. Their culture still highly prizes wealth and is likely the reason they still have a traditional scarcity economy. They manage the majority of the time tourism industry.

  HOLOFACE A holographic interface or holoface. Also called a holo for short. It is part of the shieldwatch's operating system. The shieldwatch places certain spectra of light in stasis to create holographic images. The stasis effect also allows the holoface to be touched in order to give feedback to the user.

  KALIANS An ethnic group descended from the survivors of the Kalian military during the First Temporal War. Worship of Kali is still commonplace and this religion and ethnic group forms the majority of the post time nation of Kavacha. They still use equipment similar to that used during the First Temporal War. They are officially allied with Saturn City and were one of the few Bleak nations to survive the Faceless War intact.

  LEGENDARY BLADES The twelve best legionnaires within the Aeon Legion. To become a Legendary Blade requires one to defeat an existing member in a Trial of Blades. They can be identified by the distinctive patch on their upper arm that has a number of aeon edges equal to their number within the organization. Challenging a Legendary Blade to a Trial of Blades follows specific requirements. A Legendary Blade may always refuse a challenge if they wish regardless of rank. A challenge from a Legendary Blade can not be refused.

  LIGHTSHOW Legionnaire slang term for an anti-air fragmentation grenade. The AAF grenade blossoms out into a pine cone like shape when activated and is then tossed into the air. Once in the air it ascends to a preset height and then fragments. Each fragment will travel some distance before fragmenting again into hundreds of pieces, producing a fractal pattern. Each piece travels at high speed, leaving a glowing trail of age accelerating lines that cut through materials much like an aeon edge. Maneuvering a high speed aircraft through the maze of age lines is near impossible and the grenade is useful for dispatching small aircraft such as fighter jets and gunships. The trails fade within a few minutes and are less effective against larger armored timeships that can shrug off the blow or ground based vehicles that can stop quickly.

  MANTICORE A large, hyper adaptive arthropod apex predator that was the result of a Biological Singularity. Each Manticore is fully sentient and can spawn an entire ecosystem by itself. The Manticore can control this ecosystem to a limited degree and if left unchecked, can easily displace any native species, eventually overrunning an entire ecosystem. It has a specialized organ that allows it to time travel and its nervous system can sense changes in time.

  MINERVA The singularity AI that destroyed Continuum Al
pha and made the Temporal Singularity. Prometheus used the first shieldwatch to contain Minerva and then gain control of the AI by freezing its self improvement programming to the point just before singularity. Minerva was then integrated into Saturn City to run the city's many technological functions.

  MOIRAI The collective organization of the Sybil.

  NEXUS A point within history where a great change is most likely to occur. This always results in a continuum splitting off into a new path. Basically this is a point of divergence in history that leads to an alternate timeline. This often occurs when a series of major decisions are taking place regarding the future of history.

  NULL A person without a connection to fate. In more practical terms this makes them resistant to Sybil precognition, but such individuals don't seem to have much an impact on history. Exceptions exist such as the members of the Forgotten Guns. All were nulls, which made them difficult for the Aeon Legion to track down.

  QADAR Individuals who greatly effect history. Sybil claim Qadar share a special connection with fate and destiny. They are considered the opposite of nulls.

  RESTORE A shieldwatch can restore a physical human body back to a state it was before. By storing the biological data of a human into a state, the state can then be recalled at any time, allowing the user to change their own body to that state. For example, the user can save their state while they are very young and have just sculpted their body with exercise. They could then allow themselves to gain weight and age for a few years before rolling back their body to their previous athletic state. This also allows the user to heal themselves of nearly any damage by restoring their body to a healthy state, effectively making them biologically immortal. A restore does have limitations though. A user cannot restore memories should their nervous system suffer extensive damage. Should the user die from blood loss or a head injury, then a restore cannot heal them either as it will restore the body, but the mind remains dead.