Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (36 page)

“Dinosaurs,” Terra
corrected.

“Dino-things,” the tiro
continued, “are monsters that died out a long time ago? How could
something so big die out?”

Terra raised an eyebrow.
“Haven't you taken Temporal Biology yet?”

The tiro shook his head. “They
have me in something they call remedial courses. Apparently, I'm not
well educated compared to people from other times. Gladiator school
means little here.”

Zaid nodded. “I was exempt
from such classes since I was already a scholar. They put me in the
advanced courses.”

Terra's brow knitted when she
realized, she was in the advanced courses as well. Her education, as
miserable as it was, had been something she had taken for granted.
Maybe she wasn't as far behind as she thought.

It was then she heard the jet
again followed by a distant rumble. A flash lit up in the distance.

“Thunder?” Another tiro
asked as he gazed at the distant lights.

Terra shook her head.
“Weapons. I think that's Tacitus's camp.”

“I see them!” Hikari said
pointing.

The others looked, but Terra
did not see them at first. A line of figures in black moved towards
their camp. She counted at least a dozen in a loose line formation.
Terra could just make out the glow of laser pointers from their
weapons.

With a single gesture, Zaid's
team scattered with everyone grabbing what they could from the camp.

A tiro shook her head. “They
are moving in too fast. We need to slow them down.”

Hikari lit the end of a branch
in the fire.

Zaid looked at Hikari. “What
are you doing?”

Hikari dabbed the burning
stick into the dry foliage, setting the area around the camp ablaze.
The fire spread fast towards the pursuers who stopped to pull back as
the blaze turned into a firestorm.

Zaid motioned for his team to
retreat.

They fled to the edge of a
gully while the pursuers moved around the blaze. By the time the
pursuers had navigated around the fires, Zaid and his team had moved
a fair distance away. Zaid slowed their pace after a fast march and
once night had settled to give them cover. It was when they were
passing by a river bank that Terra saw something.

Terra pointed at Zaid's
shieldwatch face that flickered before turning blue. “Hey Zaid.”

Zaid glanced to his
shieldwatch and tapped the face. He then pointed to Terra's
shieldwatch which did the same. Within seconds, everyone's
shieldwatch had reactivated. Terra basked in her returning connection
with time. She felt whole again.

Hikari drew her aeon edge. She
loaded a stasis cell clip and the blue edge formed.

Zaid looked at his
shieldwatch. “Minerva, what's going on?”

“Error,” came Minerva's
voice from Zaid's shieldwatch. “I am disconnected from Saturn City.
A backup has activated. I do not have access to my full capabilities
until my connection is restored.”

Terra rubbed her forehead.
“What do you mean you are disconnected?”

“This disconnect is
consistent with old temporal jamming signals,” Minerva said.
“Though I can't be sure without access to the processing power in
Saturn City. I know that cross time communication has been cut off
and time travel is currently impossible. However, local shieldwatch
and aeon edge functions have been restored.”

Zaid thought. “Jamming.
That's a military term from the future right? It's a way of stopping
the enemy's messengers.”

Terra nodded.

“Why did Lycus cut off
communication with us?” Hikari asked.

Terra scanned her surroundings
with a wary gaze. “Maybe it wasn't them. Didn't Centurion Shani say
the Legion has a lot of enemies?”

An aircraft roared across the
sky. Terra looked up to see search lights from the aerial vehicle
moving towards their location.

Zaid motioned for his strike
team to hide. They all blended into the shadows cast by a nearby
forest.

Terra got a good look at the
aircraft when it drew near. It was black and sleek with orange
stripes and highlights, like an attack helicopter though without the
blades. Instead it had two large engines on either side of its wings
that pivoted and moved to keep it hovering in the air. As for its
purpose, Terra could guess that by the missiles and guns on it. As
its searchlights swept the area, Terra knew it was a gunship on the
hunt.

Seconds later a half dozen
soldiers roped down from the back of the gunship. They wore dark
gray, almost black armor with orange edges on the shoulder and knee
pads. In their hands were bulky guns that looked worn, but the
glowing lines on the sides along with an overall complex design made
the weapons appear technologically advanced. The most distinctive
feature of the soldiers were the solid masks they wore. Oval in
design and black, each had an orange symbol painted on them. The
graphics varied from eyes and teeth to glyphs that Terra could not
decipher. She wondered how they could see through them since the mask
had no eye holes.

Zaid whispered to his team
while they hid. “This may be part of the training, but just to be
safe I think we should try to contact the Legion and ask for aid.”

They all nodded in agreement
as a second gunship arrived to reinforce the first.

Minerva spoke through the
sonic cipher devices in Terra's ears. “If you can escape the range
of the jamming device then it may be possible to contact the city.”

“How far?” Zaid asked who
had heard Minerva as well.

“Unknown,” Minerva said.
“Most temporal jamming devices have an effective range between ten
to fifty miles.”

Zaid shook his head. “We
will never make it that far.”

Terra faced Zaid. “Then let
me draw them off.”

They all looked to Terra.

“Look,” Terra said. “I
am the slowest one here.”

Zaid shook his head. “But
you have good endurance.”

Terra nodded. “Which is why
I can lure them off. I'm not good in a fight, but I can be a good
decoy. It will take a long time for me to get tired enough for them
to catch me. Plus it will buy you enough time to get out of range of
the jamming device.”

Zaid thought for a long
moment. He glanced to each tiro before looking back at the gunship.
“I authorize it.”

Terra scowled.

Zaid raised an eyebrow. “What?
It was your idea.”

“Yeah, but I thought you
would think up a better one,” Terra grumbled as she climbed out of
the ticket and walked toward the soldiers. She surprised herself by
how little she hesitated in this suicidal plan of hers. The pit in
her stomach told her she had made a bad decision, but the connection
to time felt great. It coursed through her, each heartbeat carrying
her into the future.

The soldiers saw her and all
spotlights shone upon her.

“Halt!” came a voice over
the loudspeaker of one of the gunships.

The soldiers all pointed their
weapons at Terra.

“Wow,” one soldier said as
he brought out a pair of handcuffs. “It's nice when they just
surrender like that.”

“Easy rations,” another
said.

“And a week of leave for
each capture,” the first soldier added.

Terra took a deep breath. She
Sped time around her. The soldiers and gunship now moved in slow
motion and she ran past them in a flash before Slowing gravity and
jumping over the river. She cleared to the other bank.

“Kali cursed!” yelled a
soldier. “Their shieldwatches went active!”

The gunships whirled around
while the soldiers shouldered their weapons and fired. Orange glowing
bolts of energy streaked towards Terra. The bolts struck the trees
near her and blasted them apart. Terra ran.

“Tiger three, target is on
the move!” she heard over the soldiers' radios.

Terra
returned to normal speed. Her decoy plan must be working as a third
gunship now flew nearby. One gunship lowered to pick up the soldiers
stranded on the other side.
Good
,
Terra thought.
That
means none stayed behind to search for the others.

Within seconds, the gunships
were flying low near Terra. They moved in a predictable pattern which
Terra found easy to evade while under the cover of the forest. Just
when she thought she was about to evade them, Terra saw lights ahead.
A line of soldiers advanced, surrounding her. She frowned, realizing
they had flushed her into a trap.

Terra cursed, searching her
surroundings for a way out. Small open glades dotted the area, but
the gunships would spot and attack her there. Soldiers prevented her
from moving through areas with more cover. Terra regretted not having
an aeon edge for the first time all week.

On the verge of panic, Terra
stumbled into a pile of bones and the smell of rot hung heavy in the
air. It was then she saw the massive feathered mound of a
Tyrannosaurus Rex. It sniffed at the air and looked up at the
searchlights overhead. It tilted his head as though curious at the
arrival of the newcomers. Terra stopped and turned with a new idea.

The soldiers shined their
lights on Terra rather than the large creature behind her. One
soldier shot at her. The bolt streaked towards Terra. She Sped her
sight to track the bolt and then Sped her reflexes, dodging the bolt
before it hit. As the bolt flew past she Slowed gravity and jumped
above into a tree.

The bolt impacted the large
beast in the tail. Terra could see the wound on its tail as the huge
beast stood and roared. The pursuing soldiers hesitated. The
monstrous creature searched for the thing that had burned it. It
spotted the soldiers.

One of the soldiers lowered
his rifle. “Don't worry everyone! I read that this one is just a
scavenger.”

The tyrannosaurus roared and
charged at the soldiers who scrambled out of the way. Terra slipped
through the rather large opening the beast had made for her. The
gunships moved in to support the soldiers who now had an angry,
several ton animal chasing them. In the chaos, Terra slipped off into
the darkness.

∞

By morning she felt exhausted.
She rested next to a small creek to get water when she heard
footsteps and voices.

“Sector eight clear,” a
voice over a radio said.

Terra clenched her jaw before
peeking from behind a nearby rock. The same dark clad soldiers moved
through the area. She counted fifteen soldiers sweeping the creek in
a long line. How had they found her so fast?

One of the nearby soldiers
stopped a few paces away before checking his radio. “Tiger twenty
reporting. Quarry not spotted in this area.”

“Tiger twenty, continue
searching the sector. Intel suggests at least seven targets
remaining. Tiger five is still in pursuit of five targets in adjacent
sector. Keep alert for the other straggler,” a voice over the radio
said.

Terra let out a quiet sigh.
Her team was still safe. The guards continued their conversation
while Terra stalked slowly by. She paused when a soldier leaned on
the other side of the rock she hid behind.

“They said this would be
easy,” a soldier said as he squatted to fill his canteen. “Just a
bunch of recruits. Easy catches.”

Another soldier, one with a
good deal more patches on his uniform, turned to the soldier who had
just spoken. “It's the Aeon Legion. Even their throwaways are
tough. Don't underestimate them, especially now that their
shieldwatches are active. I always hate phase two, even when we get
gunships.”

Terra moved past the soldiers.
Her quiet motions got her to the forest when she encountered another
group of soldiers moving towards her. They marched forward with guns
raised and left no nook unchecked. She hid behind a tree before they
spotted her.

Terra suppressed her panic.
The soldiers stood spaced apart in a line, each within the view of
another. She hid and waited. When one neared she Sped her movements
and darted out of her hiding place. Everything slowed down as she
Sped time around her as fast as she could manage. The soldier walked
in slow motion and she spotted grenades at his belt. Terra grabbed
the ring of a grenade and pulled it as she streaked by in a blur.

“What was that?” asked one
soldier as Terra hid behind another tree.

They all stopped and searched
before a scream drew their attention.

“Grenade! Grenade!” a
soldier said, struggling to get the now glowing orange grenade off of
his belt. He managed to fling it away seconds before it exploded into
a bright glowing burst of energy.

Terra slipped away again. When
she was far enough away she checked her shieldwatch power and
frowned. Five percent of the battery remained.