Trailblazer – Dream of Eden
The FANGs fired and Veda burst into motion.
The Leo-R fired its long rifle. A focused beam cut through the air. It sliced the stone of the street where Veda had stood, rubble chasing her suit as she shot into the air. The other Leos split up, one team of three peppering Veda's path in bullets while the second team lifted the F-Driver bomb off the ground.
Glass shattered as the bullets ripped and tore, and Veda rolled to avoid the focused beam of the Leo-R.
Silver Mask's suit charged forward, thrusters firing and throwing the suit into the air. Veda's sword swung out, deflecting the lightning-fast suit's own saber strike. How did she get a Leo to move that quickly?
Whirling about, Veda dropped her suit toward the ground. At the same moment, three dozen FANGs rounded corners and fired.
The attacking Leo team scattered, shooting back but they couldn't escape. Armor across the arms and legs of all three suits were torn apart. The Leo-R threw its rifle aside as multiple beams pierced the weapon. The F-Driver bomb crashed into the ground as one of the suits carrying it lost a leg. The suit crashed onto the stump of its knee, and Veda swung through the line of armed men.
Her sabers struck sides, shoulders, collars, and legs. Weapons she stabbed through. Grenades she deflected with the FANGs, bouncing them into spaces where they'd explode harmlessly.
The broad armed green Leo charged her, skating over the ground and throwing a fist through the air. Veda dodged the blow and rolled around behind the suit. She threw herself forward, avoiding a shot from above as the white Leo fired its cannon downward.
As she dodged, the blue Leo stabbed its spear at her, a quick fluid motion that was more skillful than the other operators she'd seen thus far.
Veda shifted, dodging the beam projected spear tip by an inch. Directly behind her, the Leo-G was bringing both oversized fists down in an overhead blow. The Leo-W was above, aiming at her most obvious path of escape.
A coordinated attack.
They had knowledge of her and experience with not just fighting but fighting together. This was not a rag-tag or hodgepodge alliance thrown together to fight a mutual enemy.
"Door please."
The portal opened, Claire's eyes steady as she looked up, a hand on Doormaker's shoulder.
Barbatos burst through the passage, clawed fingers slamming into the head of the Leo-G and a tail whipping out from the suit's back and striking the suit's legs. Veda spun, stabbing her sabers forward at the Leo-B. The pilot dodged quickly, directly into the path of twenty FANGs that fired all at once.
The beams shredded the suit's armor, tearing it apart and peeling the plating back past the first layer.
The Leo-R charged, the other regular Leos all converging on the F-Driver.
"Door please."
Another portal met the damaged suits, and Lily let loose with her crossbow. The bolts pierced the Leos through, and Ballistic followed by launching stakes that impacted and shattered their armor. Sundancer rode atop a hulking behemoth of armored plates and multiple clubbed tails, her hands forging a sun over her head.
Trevor came through last, his Graze sliding up next to the bomb and pressing a foot to it. "Doo—"
A beam cut him off as he was forced to dodge.
Flying straight up, Veda swung at Silver Mask's suit, forcing her to dodge and then stabbing her second saber through her cannon. The weapon was ejected and exploded behind them as they swerved through the air, the battle on the ground descended into chaos as the remaining Leos and the mercenaries fought to regain a hold of the F-Driver.
"This plan will never work," Veda noted. "It's over. Give up—"
"You're not going to kill anyone?" Silver Mask asked.
Below, Barbatos and the Leo-G brawled. The Leo-R and Leo-B tackled Trevor, forcing him into a brawl while Genesis' projection and Sundancer's sun shielded Ballistic and Lily. The two remaining base Leos got smart, using cover as the mercenary teams fired at Lily and Ballistic.
"Can you afford that?" Silver Mask pressed.
The Leo-W burst forward, zipping through the air at a speed so quick, Veda doubted a human could possibly control it. Not without some kind of power. Veda blocked a thrust and countered only for the shield to parry her. Her FANGs fired, filling the air with beams of light. The Leo-W flew in a path that used the central pillar as cover, limiting her angles of fire.
Veda teleported, lightning coursing over her suit as she appeared directly into the Leo's path.
"It's what my mother would want," she answered, as she brought her saber down and stabbed through the Leo-W's shield. "No one has to die here. Give—"
"I have no need of your pity."
The shield ejected and the Leo dropped moments before it exploded. Veda flew through the blast unimpeded, half her FANGs chasing Silver Mask while the other half dove and poured fire into the street. Many of the gunmen were disabled by the barrage or forced to take cover away from the fighting. A second barrage—targeted and focused—destroyed the barrels of their rifles, leaving the men gunless.
"Please," Veda declared as she intercepted Silver Mask, forcing her to block and using the momentum to drive her suit into a building. "Death is no—"
"Death is the answer," Silver Mask said coldly. "There are people in this world, who simply have to die."
"Is that why you orchestrated the deaths of so many? Fasiki?"
"And what have you done with the world's demons?"
Silver Mask dropped as the FANGs flanked her, instantly rolling as Veda followed up with a barrage.
Her power was strong. It worked in the moment. She dodged and weaved between attacks even as Veda aimed precisely. When she started aiming randomly she started getting some hits but it was clear Silver Mask ignored the meaningless blows.
And through it the cape managed to attack, thrusting and swinging her saber as her Leo and the enhanced StarGazer flew back and forth.
"Where is Teacher now?" Silver Mask pressed.
"In his cell," Veda answered honestly, "with people who watch over him." She maintained a vigil on him, just in case. He was with Legend's daughter, picking apples and listening to her talk about her day. "He has no power anymore."
And Taylor had promised amnesty. It took convincing, and it was hard. It was hard because there were monsters among men.
"All the suffering he inflicted, and he lives out a quiet life surrounded by people who love him despite everything he did."
"We can forgive," Veda retorted.
"And Mama Mathers? Heartbreaker? Alexandria?"
Veda was talking to Mathers at that very moment. They watched movies and talked. Veda was the only one she'd ever talk to for the rest of her life. Heartbreaker lay in a hospital bed in a secure cell, chemically kept asleep to never wake again. Alexandria was still in prison, having refused early release even when it was offered. Hero was with her now, no doubt speaking of current events.
"And those already dead?" Silver Mask continued. "Do they have the chance to forgive?"
Veda stomped a foot down, kicking the flying Leo in the chest and sending it through a building. "No. They don't."
Glass showered the street below as Veda chased Silver Mask into the interior. The shards pattered the street below, some melting as they impacted Sundancer's sun.
The Leo-G was thrown into the ground and Mikazuki stepped onto its back before launching Barbatos into the air. His tail lashed out, stabbing into a window where a sniper had taken position while bringing his mass down onto the ground.
The Leo-R and B dodged, but the B was struck from behind by Trevor while the R took a hit from Lily.
Veda cocked her head.
"Analysis complete. Marissa."
"Safe?" Sundancer asked.
"Maintain a distance of one foot for thirty-one seconds."
"On it!"
With that, Sundancer jumped down from Genesis' projection and swung her sun forward. It didn't touch the F-Driver. Instead, she held it close and over the device. The internals began to melt and fray from the heat. In a half minute, the weapon would never fire.
The invaders reacted quickly, surging forward with renewed focus.
A final portal opened and the cavalry arrived.
"Get 'um, get 'um!"
"Charge, charge!"
The Haros poured through the doorway, followed by dozens of Helpers that ran in with wiffle bats, super soakers, skillets, and flashbang grenades. They overran the mercenaries. One of the Leos took aim at Marissa, but its arms dropped suddenly as Imp strolled away from it. A charge had incinerated the suit's back in an instant, burning right through and forcing the reactor to shut down.
"This is over," Veda reiterated, swinging one saber low and the other across.
It couldn't be this simple. Veda knew it couldn't. Too much planning and foreknowledge wen—
"It's not over." Silver Mask threw her suit into a mid-air roll, avoiding both blades and lashing out with her own. "It's not over until they stop watching from on high, like our lives don't matter!"
Veda dodged, then flew back as a large grenade tumbled over the ground. The blast tore the building apart. Debris and shattered glass pelted Veda's suit, and something in the shrapnel disrupted her cameras momentarily.
"Dinah?"
"I'm still getting a blank," she answered. "But something's happening."
Veda flew out of the debris, spotting Silver Mask flying for the fight below. "Something."
"Future's trying to tell me but she can't."
With a quick teleport, Veda intercepted Silver Mask before she could join the fight. The Leo-R was surrounded by Ballistic and Lily on one side, Trevor on the other, and Barbatos overhead. The pilot fought, but Trevor tore an arm off, Lily and Ballistic destroyed a lower leg, and Mikazuki brought his mace down and drove the suit into the ground.
The suit shattered, breaking up as Genesis' projection grabbed hold with two tails and pulled it around behind her.
"Veda," Dinah mumbled. "What if the colony is the target?"
The colony?"
Veda exchanged blows with Silver Mask, blocking her passage as the Leo-B was overwhelmed by Barbatos and Genesis tackled the Leo-G. Aisha had disabled the other remaining normal Leo, coring out its reactor—
Reactors.
The colony was a fragile thing. It could easily be destroyed with enough force. Veda had realized that quickly, and that no amount of enforcement would save the colony from a blast strong enough to break it. She'd instead focused on ensuring the colony's breakup would be gradual, giving everyone on it time to reach a secure shelter that could be ejected into space and recovered.
It was a risk of what Taylor proposed that they'd always known about.
Human civilization on Earth was a fragile thing.
It would be no less so in space.
There were now a dozen reactors on the colony. They had safety features built into them, but if someone disabled those—
"Veda?" Dinah pressed.
"Prepare to evacuate," Veda answered easily. She looked at Silver Mask's suit, charging forward and blocking her from reaching Marissa. "Claire. Doormaker."
Without further prompting, a door opened beneath one of the destroyed suits, letting it drop inside and taking it away from the colony.
Veda didn't intend to give it up without a fight, but she could live with losing the colony. There would be more, and she'd try again. However many times it took.
"Done!" Marissa announced.
"Evacuate," Veda ordered.
Lily turned her head. "But—"
"It's just a thing."
The Leo-B was caught at last, its spear entangled with Barbatos' tail wire. Mikazuki pulled the weapon free and Trevor slammed the suit to the ground. The Leo-G was still fighting as well as a half-dozen injured men with sidearms and knives.
"Things can be replaced. Green."
"Heave ho! Heave ho!"
Helpers lifted the injured and started carrying them away from the fighting. As the disabled mobile suits fell through portals one after the other, Veda started thinking ahead. All of this was fairly predictable from where she stood. What would someone with a precognitive power do?
"The bomb," Dinah warned.
"Yes."
"I got it," Marissa repeated.
"You disabled the guidance and launch mechanism," Veda noted. "The bomb is still very much a bomb."
Lily waved Marissa back as everyone began to gather. Trevor and Mikazuki retreated, shielding them even as the Leo-G and Silver Mask were the only ones still—
"The tinker!" Veda searched security feeds but so many in this area had been destroyed. He'd slipped away. "Where did he—"
The ground shook again, and Veda looked back.
An explosion in the distance. Not big enough to destabilize the colony but—Distraction.
Veda wasn't easily distracted.
Silver Mask flew down the street full-speed. As a portal opened under a suit to drop it wherever Claire and Doormaker were sending them, she went right for the F-Driver.
Veda didn't need to ask.
She could guess.
"Mika!"
Barbatos intercepted the Lero-G, tackling the broad-shouldered machine and wrestling it away as Veda flew past to intercept Silver Mask.
Then the Leo flashed and teleported, appearing behind Veda's suit and grabbing hold of the bomb.
"Damn," Dinah cursed.
"I will deal with it."
Veda swung about, flying after the suit as she flew through the portal.
Veda followed, appearing outside the colony in dead space.
Facing the moon.
"Forgive and forget," Silver Mask spoke over an open radio line.
Her voice shook and her flight pattern wavered. Not the same power as Fortuna then. Fortuna would never become so nervous.
"That's your answer to the world's ills?" she asked.
"No one said anything about forgetting." Veda burst forward, giving chase as Silver Mask flew on a direct course for the moon. "We cannot forge the future by violence."
"Tell that to the violated."
She couldn't seriously be planning to deliver the weapon herself. They were a day away from reaching the moon at least.
"Please. It never ends." The FANGs flew forward, firing as Silver Mask dodged and swerved. "There is no point where one final death will achieve justice."
"And your answer is to let the guilty go free?" Her suit was fast, but it would never reach the moon. She was just killing herself. "Why shouldn't they pay for what they've done? The chaos they brought to the world. They're sitting there watching just like you!"
That one stung a bit.
Old questions rose in her mind. Had she done enough? Could she have done more. Should she have done less.
"I do not claim to have all the answers," Veda retorted. "I'm not god. I am not all-powerful. But what you are doing will not fix what has driven you to this point." She looked to the moon, slowly gaining in the pointless chase. "We cannot make the world better by miring ourselves in what we have lost!"
"I've seen your better world. It looks the same as the old one."
"We're not there yet. Just—"
"And those who will never see this better world?" Silver Mask asked. "What do we have to live for while the world we're already in burns?"
"I have no answer."
Veda swung the FANGs forward, launching them from her back and accelerating the smart weapons. They dodged Silver Mask's saber, then swung forward and folded together. Projecting a wall of GN Particles, the FANGs flashed and pulsed, turning the silver surface ahead a pale green color from Veda's perspective.
"I'm not god. I have no wisdom that will give your suffering meaning."
"Then you're useless." Silver Mask pulled up, swerving to fly over the barrier.
"But I can make a promise." Veda caught her at last, grabbing hold of the white Leo's ankle and pulling. She held her thrust, locking the suit in place as Silver Mask craned down to look at her. "I will remember."
"… remember?" Silver Mask asked. "You can't—"
"It is all I can give," Veda lamented, the colony at her back and the moon at her front. And a sea of stars all around. "One day… Tomorrow. Next year. Centuries from now. Millennium. This dream was not mine but I will take and carry it until it is real. Until there are answers."
On the colony, Lily led the others through a portal to safety. The Haros, Mikzauki and Trevor carried the injured between them, those who'd simply been bound piled onto Genesis' construct and ferried as Ballistic lifted the projector from her wheelchair.
"I'll never wilt. I'll never die. I will remember, and I will bring you there. However long it takes, I will carry the memory of everyone who didn't live to see the dream come true and I will take you there."
Her grip tightened as Silver Mask tried to pull free, and she pleaded.
"All I can give you is hope and the promise. However long it takes, however much must be endured to reach it. I will pursue this dream! There will be Eden!"
Suddenly, the thrust to Silver Mask's suit cut and Veda hoped.
"You're a good daughter, Veda."
And Silver Mask threw the F-Driver aside.
Veda chased it, surrounding the weapon with FANGs and taking a chance. She fired, blowing the weapon apart and setting off a massive explosion. She spun, grabbing hold of Silver Mask's suit as the blast slammed into the GN Field and threw them away. Alarms sounded in the colony as the blast hit, but the superstructure held.
The blast actually helped slow its velocity and the towers managed to start reversing the colony's course.
Her suit was another story. The blast seared into the armor, frying electronics and capacitors. No quantum teleportation. She hadn't figured that trick out yet. The GN Drives and field fortunately held.
Too late, Veda saw the beam saber cutting across the Leo's chest.
"What are you doing!?"
The girl smiled, her lips turning up as she pressed her own blade downward. "You believe the downtrodden will accept something as worthless as being remembered?"
Veda grabbed the saber, projecting the GN Field of her suit out from her hand. Air hissed, spewing out of the suit's interior through a gash cut in the armor.
"No!"
"It's a good dream," she said hoarsely. "But I don't want to be remembered. I—want—to live."
"Door!" Veda called.
"I can't!" Claire exclaimed. "I can see you but Doormaker—"
They'd flown out of range. "Why? You're still alive. You can still…"
Silver Mask wheezed. "If I can't live… without justice…."
Just like Taylor.
Veda cast the beam saber aside and grabbed the suit with both arms. Projecting the GN Field wider, she covered the white Leo, holding what little air was left inside as she turned back toward the colony. Silver Mask's labored breathing echoed inside the GN Field, hoarse and distant.
"I'd rather die," she wheezed, "my own way. Show the world…my shadow."
"Stop," Veda begged. "It's not that far. Fifteen minutes and I can get you through the airlock!"
Or not.
Veda grimaced on the shuttle as the thrusters across her suit returned errors. The blast was powerful. She'd survived but much of the internals hadn't. Her acceleration was a quarter of what it should be. She wouldn't make it to the colony in time.
Doo—
The white Leo stretched its hand out, a failing voice asking again, "How long…do you think they'll watch us suffer under all their power?"
Veda blinked, unsure how to answer the question.
Until she followed the hand and saw it reaching toward the moon.
The moon.
The Shards.
She'd tried to get Marida to talk to them, and she knew Marida had succeeded.
Whatever response she received frightened her. Frightened her enough to feign ignorance about it, poorly. Taylor would never do that. Marida had not talked to Taylor.
And Veda didn't know why the Shards would do that. She didn't understand why they'd choose to remain silent and say nothing. However long it would take Taylor to do what she had to do, surely the Shards could speak. They clearly had.
So why?
Veda slowed, stopping as she realized she'd never make it in time. Silver Mask—"I don't know your name."
"No." Breath. "Name."
She left it behind.
Veda cast her eyes on the moon, glaring. Could they fail to understand so badly? To not realize that if they just sat there and watched, no one would trust them? They'd be resented. Hated. Feared. Blamed for everything that happened while they watched.
More like Silver Mask would follow. More like Taylor had been. People lost and afraid, who didn't get the chances she'd had to grow.
A new fire to consume the world.
She turned her suit about, staring at the orb as the breathing in the GN Field became more and more labored. There was nothing she could do. A thousand calculations didn't change the math. The thrusters were too weak. The teleporter was damaged.
All she could do was listen to a girl die.
"What did you dream?"
"Dream?"
"So I can remember."
The breathing slowed, almost stopping entirely before she said, "Fam-ly."
Family.
It didn't seem like enough.
It would be a miracle to ever identify who Silver Mask was. Africa wasn't exactly a bastion of Internet access and administrative bookkeeping. Veda had tried. She'd done everything she thought she should do.
Of course, it would be easy to march in with an army of FLAGs and enforce her will.
No one could stop her.
And how would that make anything better? They'd simply rise up against her. You can't liberate the oppressed by becoming an oppressor.
But it was so very tempting. Almost as tempting as the thought of washing her hands of it all. It was no wonder people struggled. She was going to live a very long life. She could afford to be patient. To let things work out in their own way in their own time.
The dream would be real.
For all the good it did those living today, and the ill too.
She was doing her best. The best she could think to do. She knew she couldn't save everyone.
She wanted to save this one, who reminded her so much of a bitter bullied girl, who dreamed she could save the world, but needed a little saving herself.
As Silver Mask's breathing slowed to a barely audible long sigh, Veda felt her processors swell as she stared at the moon.
"How long?" Veda asked, her thoughts spiraling off into nowhere in particular. "How long will you watch like you're not part of this world?"
The Shards had power. More than her even. Just because they had it didn't mean they should use it, but they could do something. They should do something. Surely Taylor was telling them that so why didn't they listen?
"Do you think you have forever to make up your minds? The world isn't that long-lived."
It can be easy to forget when you're effectively immortal. Time isn't slower for you. You just live longer.
"The people in it will judge you for what you do now, for what you've done, not what you might do later!"
Shards struggled to understand sacrifice. Tragedy they understood. They'd experienced it themselves.
No Shard had ever died or laid down its life for another though. The concept eluded them. The kind of bond, the nameless thing that lead humans to do insane things on behalf of others, that motivation to act singularly for the greater whole.
It was foreign to minds that didn't conceive fully their own singularity.
"How long are you going to stand by and do nothing?"
They valued unity. And their reluctance fostered disharmony. Misunderstanding. They retreated to the known. The comfortable. The easy.
"Why won't you talk to us? Tell us what we should do. How we should approach you! Say something! This isn't what she wanted!"
Are you prepared to surrender the future because you're afraid to change?
This couldn't be what Taylor wanted. They weren't listening to her. Taylor didn't want a divided world. She didn't want people lingering in confusion and desperation. Constant uncertainty and fear.
She wanted it all to change, and if it wasn't going to change then why?
"Why won't you give her back?! If you won't even listen to what she says then give her back!"
That's enough Veda.
Veda froze, her avatars blinking and checking their surroundings.
They've heard you.
Wha—
The moon erupted, energy readings from the monitors she'd established spiking. A golden beam shot off the surface, slamming into StarGazer and throwing it backward. Despite the force of the blast, the GN Field held and no alarms sounded.
It happened so quickly, Veda barely had time to access the colony system and open an airlock.
She catapulted through it, slamming against the back wall and pouring oxygen into the bay before the door had even closed.
Veda ripped the damaged chest plate away, pulling Silver Mask out of the interior as her mask slipped from her face. The girl gagged, coughing on the air and choking for a second as her lungs filled. Her eyes stared into the ceiling, and Veda stared back.
"You're—"
The shimmering irises turned on her, wide and dilated as they shined.
She looked surprised, but her breaths came too quick and heavy for her to speak.
Veda didn't have time to ask how she'd missed one. The answer was fairly obvious; Africa.
Outside, the moon was blooming. For a second time, light poured from its surface, reaching out and spreading like petals. Some of the shimmers broke off, becoming comets of golden light that shot forward toward the Earth.
Others flew toward the colony and Veda stood her suit up as she tried to get a better lo—
IFF Detected
On the shuttle, Danny, Orga, and Brenden watched out the window.
"Door please. The colony."
Veda ran through the portal before anyone could ask.
Orga grinned broadly.
Her feet landed on the ruined street as the IFF closed in and then entered the colony. It used neither a door nor a teleporter. It merely broke itself apart and flew through the structure into the cylinder.
Sprinting, Veda ran past Lily and Trevor as they assessed the damage, ignoring their calls as she raced to the edge of the city.
The suit landed on a hilltop, a field of flowers blooming at its feet.
Administrator knelt, her body shaped into a familiar form. Head crest. Two eyes. Faceplate.
Eh, you know what I mean.
Stepping out onto the field, the air slapped my face. Didn't have any air in the Network. Didn't breathe either.
Fuck was breathing going to take getting used to now?
Damn.
I turned as Veda stumbled to a stop, falling to her knees at the base of the hill. I think she recognized me. I looked more or less the same. Maybe more of a twenty-two or twenty-three-year-old me instead of twenty-seven. My hair was long, streaked with gold in the black. It nearly reached my ankles, which I took as a good thing because no ensemble lasts ten years of continuous wear and tear.
Not that the hair hid the black of my sclera or the golden light in my eyes.
Still. I was me.
Veda started up the hill, her avatar's eyes wide and hair a mess as she reached out.
I took her hand, pulling her forward into a hug as Administrator loomed over us. I buried my face in her collar, breathing her in and feeling her arms close around me. The Shards were with me too, those still on the moon and those who elected to go down to Earth and start helping.
There was a tsunami heading toward India we could stop, and people trapped in a brush fire in Australia who could still be saved. Wounds to heal. Hearts to mend. Faces to meet face-to-face at last. Warp really wanted to see Missy.
Damn brats took forever to make up their minds. Shards really love debate. For its own sake mostly but wow. I'd tried for ten years to try and get them to comprehend.
No one has forever.
There's no perfect answer. You can't just keep running simulations and collecting data, and hoping the flawless solution is laying around somewhere. You have to get out there and do.
Veda was eleven years old and she already got that.
Everyone needs a good shouting-at from time to time to finally get there.
The beginning.
Veda put her arms around me and it was good to touch again.
"Taylor?"
Fortunately, ten years is just enough time to find the right words.
"Hello world."