Grimmsdottir Concert Hall, Tharkad City
Tharkad, Lyran Alliance
March 4, 3076
A heavily accented voice spoke over the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Weiss Schnee."
The heiress to the Schnee Mining Consortium, clothed in a pale blue-white long-sleeved blouse whose cuffs flared out with matching skirt and knee-high boots and wearing her unusually-early silver-white hair in a ponytail shifted to the side, stepped into the spotlight's beam and looked around the hall, taking in the large number of people who had come to see her perform. I don't know why. I'm not that good.
Then the slow piano melody began, and Weiss took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. When the right note arrived, she closed her eyes and joined in.
Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all.
As she sang, part of her mind drifted back to a recent duel her father had arranged to test her skills.
Weiss checked the fit of her armor while her father's technicians maneuvered each piece into place. When the chest-plate pinched, she let out an indignant, "Hey! Be more careful, you dolt!"
"Sorry, ma'am."
"Hmph. Just make sure it doesn't happen, again, Perry."
In truth, her irritability had a different source. Her opponent had said he needed to change suits due to a mechanical failure, but he never said what his backup armor was.
"Ma'am? Your helmet."
Weiss stared at the carved metal and ferro-glass, the mirror-polished visor reflecting her perfect visage. The helmet, itself, was superficially visually similar to that of the Blakist Tengu battlesuit in that it had fin-like protrusions on the sides and top, but the similarities ended there. Where the Tengu was hard edges and harsh lines, Weiss' helmet was built of graceful, flowing curves. The only hard edges on the helm were in the tiara-like decoration around the brow fashioned after the Schnee family's snowflake crest. That, and a color scheme of white with pale blue highlights, earned Weiss' armor its unofficial name: Ice Queen.
Mirror, tell me something. Tell me who's the loneliest of all.
Weiss strapped her custom-crafted vibro-rapier to her hip and walked out into the arena. When she caught sight of her opponent, she blanched.
He was using a suit of Clan-made Gnome battlearmor. It was twice as massive as her Ice Queen and possessed more than enough firepower to obliterate her in a single volley. When this is over, my father is going to have a very serious 'talk' with someone.
For now, however, as the Gnome raised its laser arm in her direction, she had to focus on surviving. She turned to her right and back-flipped to her left to throw off the suit's aim, the laser turning a line of sand to glass while two short-ranged missiles sailed through the space her torso had occupied.
Fear of, what's inside me. Tell me can a heart, be turned, to stone?
She drew the sword, her suit's armored glove pushing the vibroblade's power connections into place, and the weapon's menacing hum reached her ears. She charged forward, her opening stab glancing off his chest-plate as he turned to the side. Several more slashes followed, focused on the right side where the laser was mounted to keep it from being brought into play. Each slice carved new furrows in the thick armor of her opponent.
Weiss slipped around to the other side and slashed twice more before jumping over her foe, her suit's mounted support laser adding a small, glowing ragged scar to the cuts her blade left. That was when she miscalculated.
Her opponent swung his suit's laser in a wide swath, turning more sand to glass, but she hopped over the beam. When she came back down, the Gnome's fist was there to meet her. The heavy battle claw crashed into her helmet with what felt like the force of a train, sending her tumbling head over heels.
She must have blacked out for a moment, for her next view was that of sand through her broken visor, the latter flecked with blood. Her blood, she realized as a small stream of the coppery-tasting fluid dripped over her lips when she pushed herself to her feet.
Standing straight in defiance, she raised her sword and overrode the targeting safeties of her LRMs, ready to reengage.
Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world. Why won't you let me hide from me?
Her opponent aimed the laser at her and fired, but her sword was placed between her armor and the beam. The reflective materials it was forged from allowed it to scatter the laser beam until it could do no damage.
Weiss fired a missile at each knee of her foe, using the smoke to cover her charge. When she reached the Gnome, she thrust her blade, the vibro technology allowing it to easily pierce the laser's housing and disable the weapon.
Mirror, mirror, tell me something. Who's the loneliest of all?
She jumped onto her foe's back, used the mechanical jump booster's full power to leap more than six meters further, and blasted one of the steel rafters; for her plan to work, she needed a platform. As the girder collapsed on one end, she spun herself around and coiled her legs. Wait for it, wait for it. Now!
I'm the loneliest of all.
The instant her feet made contact, she kicked off and aimed her blade at the armor covering the Gnome's power cell. Feeling the blow connect, she used the momentum of her dive to pull out the blade and pirouette into a three-point landing in front of him. And then the power cell exploded.
Applause at the end of her performance brought her back to the present. Almost startled, she glanced around before realizing that the crowd was praising her, and she curtsied and walked back off-stage. Once out of sight, she reached up to feel the scar that she refused to cover with makeup, keeping it open as a reminder of the life she had taken that day.