It had been roughly two years since Kouji had joined the team, the team had been transferred from Earth to one of the Federation's forward command posts on one of their colony worlds near Valin, a small planet named Maridia. It was under siege from the admiral’s main force, The efforts to hold the position up to that point from the military were only just able to hold it but not push the Separatists back.
When they arrived at the base it was being pelted with mortar barrages and fire from tanks. The first one to make a counter strike was Anya along with some of her father’s Guardian unit. They flew up to a high vantage point above the waves of tanks and mortar encampments, and with her leading she channeled a pair of amplification glyphs as a spell circle formed in front of her.
“Amplification complete, ready to blast away!” Angela said with a very energetic voice. Anya raised her staff weapon and she called out “Load Cartridge!” as her staff chambered a few ACD cartridges.
She looked over at the other members of the unit as they followed suit and the glyphs and spell circles they nodded in response and began to charge their spells as she began to call out “Lords of fate and destiny that exist beyond time and space. I summon your power and ask you to add them to mine. Darkness beyond the deepest night. Light beyond the brightest day. The three who guide us from beyond the realms of which we know. Those that shine like the sun in the darkness in the blackest of times. Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power that we share and possess.” she took a deep breath and shouted above the noise of the spell charging “Nova Strike!” as she slammed the staff into the orb of energy that built up in the spell circle as a blast of energy began to stream from the staff.
The other mages unleashed duplicated versions of the attack which ripped through the tank line and destroyed most of the mortar emplacements. When the battlefield had cleared the lion's share of the tank and mortar line was devastated and the troops in the base relieved. But when the mages descended back into the base the long-range radar picked up something that left the troops in the base feeling rather antsy.
The Admiral’s elite mech corps, a unit of bipedal robot suits piloted by his elite troops. As Kouji and his squad made their way out on deployment. He had planned to let his unit meet them head on while he pincered the front line in the valley below the base with Takaru.
As the robots trudged their way down through the valley between the Separatist hold point and the base they fired their guns at the main line of the defense force. The Magia defense corp managed to defend against them while the Federation's heavy armor battalion bore down on them with their fusion accelerated Sabot cannons. The barrage put some heavy damage on their front line but more continued coming simply mantling over their fallen comrades.
Kouji and Takaru took their positions on two small plateaus on opposite sides of the valley. The skies began to darken as they summoned their armors and followed by activating an amplification glyph beneath each of them.
“Let’s go Sonic Form!” the Blue Dragon Blade’s AI core called out in a more computerized version of Hayato’s voice. As Takaru’s armor transformed into a flight mode and the blade thinned down to a razor sharp katana form.
He began to jet toward the front line of robots with his sword drawn into its sheath. When he got close enough he quickly drew the blade and unleashed a wave of spirit energy that cut through the first few waves of them serving them at the waist to disable them without harming the pilots.
Then Kouji followed suit diving into their back line and activating his Lightning Drill Excel while he passed through them. While he tried to avoid causing harm to the pilots he knew the electric nature of his attack would probably cause at least a few casualties due to the electricity zapping the equipment and causing it to explode.
Between the two of them and the support of the Federation armor units they were able to push back the Separatists and force them off Maridia allowing them to get a foothold closer to Valin.
As the team took stock of what was going on it was clear the Admiral was gearing up for a major offensive. According to reports from the troops there the main Separatist fleet was moving toward them and the thought of that sent shivers up Kouji’s spine.
Knowing that while the Amaterasu heavy assault cruiser he and his unit had brought with them when they defected were a formidable force in battle the flagship of the fleet the Shin Amaterasu no Okami. It was a larger version of the base Amaterasu design but big enough to pass for a small planetoid for those who aren’t aware of it. While it had an upscaled version of all the armaments of the vanilla version of the Amaterasu but its biggest difference was the Mass Accelerator Cannon.
It was a weapon that used highly charged plasma particles to plow through the surface of a planet and destroy it from the inside out by detonating the core. It's only inherent flaw was the level of power consumption the cannon required. The onboard power systems of the ships that have it have to divert most of their non essential power resources to powering the cannon for a single shot, not unlike the smaller versions aboard the Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi fleet
The long range defense systems in orbit above the planet suddenly gave off an alarm, A large enemy vessel was making its way toward Maridia. Just from the radar signature Kouji could tell it was the Shin Ookami, his eyes gave a forlorn look as he ordered his unit to retreat to the ships they’d arrived on only a few days before as the base scrambled to evacuate its crew knowing full well the planet wouldn’t be there for much longer.
---
Aboard the Shin Amaterasu
“So that Inara wretches son managed to turn Kouji, feh. Not that he did anything to contribute to the cause. Kouji is just one of many of my failed experiments. But I have yet to prepare for them.” A voice spoke to himself as an officer addressed him from the main deck.
“Admiral Isagarra, We’re in firing position. Awaiting final firing confirmation.” the soldier said as a view of the planet came up over his view screen.
“Firing lock released, Fire when ready.” the Admiral replied from his quarters caring very little for the procedure and with a more vested interest in quashing what little resistance had come up as a result of the Valion Force’s involvement.
“I’ll be disembarking for Valin once this planet is wiped from existence. I have things to attend to there.” he said his face contorting into a wicked grin. His thoughts were on the woman he’d taken captive all those years ago, Saya Nisaharra. While the life of a prisoner had ravaged her former beauty, he’d been able to use her for many experiments including the cloning experiments that were responsible for both Kouji and his latest surrogate. He’d yet to name the subject but he believed that the unborn infant would serve his needs once he’d been allowed to grow in incubation.
His plans were to have the infant be put into stasis until after the conflict had been decided. If the army fell the team responsible for tending to it would take it into hiding and incubate it offsite raising it to adulthood while implanting its mind with the Separatist ideology and raising it to be his successor
---
On the bridge
“Firing lock canceled, Targeting confirmed preparing to fire the Mass Accelerator Cannon. Power circuits routed, all non-essential power diverted to the Mass Acceleration Cannon.” the first mate called out as the other crew members looked on with one of the bridge crew manning the targeting systems.
“Compensating for gravitational and magnetic drift. Fire!” the first mate ordered as a solemn hush fell over the crew. They knew all too well the destructive force of the cannon, it had become routine annihilating planets that proved too troublesome for the admiral to tolerate. That didn’t stop it from causing an aura of grief and sadness from coming over the bridge crew and most of the rest of the troops aboard every time it fired.
The cannon fired in a bright flash that whited out the front of the ship and eclipsed the planet by about double its own size. When the light had faded there was only a large blast wave of nebulous gas and dust where the planet had once been.
----
The crew of the base and the colony of Maridia had managed to evacuate to the Khilari’s flagship while Takaru and the main team were aboard Kouji’s old Amaterasu MK4 with one of its Tsukuyomi support carriers providing shielding from the planet’s blast wave.
Even with a large number of the main Federation fleet there the higher ups in the Federation opted to disengage rather than attacking having already taken notice of the Shin Tsukuyomi fleet amassing around the Shin Amaterasu. By combining their barriers they made a nearly impenetrable defense for the otherwise crippled ship. It also meant that Takaru and the others didn’t have an easy way to reach Valin and hopefully resolve the war they’d been fighting for nearly 10 years.
They could see off in the distance the red husk of a planet Valin had become under the Separatists. They could only guess most of the troops aboard the ships blocking their way were blinded to the destruction the Admiral’s ambitions had caused.
----
A few weeks later
The Valion Force team and their personal detachments had gotten the approval to move aboard the flagship of the Magia fleet, The Arc Evolza. When they arrived they were greeted by the commanding officer and Admiral of the Magia high command Darius Ulkari.
“So it's clear we have a dilemma, as most of you are aware of the situation as it stands We don’t have a means of blasting directly through the shields surrounding Valin. While we recovered most of the data from the Maridia base before its destruction. It's clear the intent of the attack was an attempt to kill off the Valion Force. With the resources from the Arc Evolza we may have a way to get through the shield.” Admiral Ulkari stated to the team.
“Yes, We’re aware of things as they stand, I’ve heard that most of the Federation has had trouble dealing with the Separatist fleet’s Tsukuyomi barrier shields. Even with the data we’ve used to reverse engineer their shields we’re still having a hard time figuring out the best way to break them. Some of the techs around here mentioned that the Evolza had some special missiles that the Magia had developed to work around kinetic barriers.” Takaru stated
He was referring to a special weapon type that only a few of the top Magia ships had. Commonly referred to as Spatial Distortion Missiles. They used special sub warp capacitors to generate small worm holes in their flight path to transport them around physical barriers to their target. The technology was still fairly new and while it had been in development for the past two years, there was still some polish needed before they figured out if it would be applicable to more of their weapon systems.
One of the field officers stepped up and said, “Well a few of us had thought of the idea of repurposing a few missiles to use as drop pods for the trip to Valin, they’d be small enough to slip past their defense system but with their explosive payload removed they could fit a stasis module and allow for safe transit through space.” Takaru thought about it for a few seconds and while he’d considered bringing the idea up he didn’t know if it would work without any confirmation from the research staff.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The Admiral pondered the suggestion for a few moments, after a bit of consideration he asked the team to run some preliminary testing before they actually saw to retrofitting the missiles with the life support equipment.
------
Within a few days the preliminary testing had come back and it seemed to be the best available solution. So Admiral Ulkari gave approval to conduct the needed changes to a stock of missiles large enough to accommodate Takaru and the main team.
When they’d finished the team was asked to be placed in stasis to hide their life signs from any scans they may pass through on the way to the surface. In addition their pods were fitted with synchronous radar systems that allowed them to ensure their landing location would be kept within a reasonable range of one another
----
All the preparations had been made and it was time to launch. The crew aboard the ship gave their regards to the team and wished them success in their journey as the Arc Evolza lined itself up with Valin.
On the bridge Admiral Ulkari gave send off to Takaru and the team.
“We’ve come to know this group of youthful and spirited fighters, through hard times and easy times. Through conflict and peace, They’ve fought with everything in them to defend a world that wasn’t theirs to defend. Let this hopefully be the final time they have to resort to such measures to free their home world.” and with that the missiles fired from the bays immediately boosting into a small cluster of worm holes to avoid detection as they flew toward the barrier.
When they emerged on the other side of the barrier they fanned out slightly to avoid detection but their radar’s kept them close enough together to avoid them landing too far apart. The navigation systems used the energy signatures from the Separatists body armor and mech units as a simple friend or foe identifier system.
---
When they’d landed the missiles wound up in the middle of a large dense forest. They were found by some villagers who lived in a settlement near the crash site.
Once the onboard systems had identified the environment around them and confirmed it was habitable outer shells opened up releasing the stasis lock allowing them to emerge from the pods.
Takaru woke up rather shakily and looked around, seeing the sights of a humble looking village, it reminded him of some of the descriptions of Hisanarra's homeland from Hayato’s journal. As he was greeted by the villagers he reached into the pod and grabbed the Blue Dragon blade from its storage compartment within the pod.
One of the villagers caught notice of the sword and darted off. Takaru shrugged it off and helped the others out of their stasis pods When he’d finished, they introduced themselves to the villagers and explained why they were there.
After a while the villager returned with an older one. The elder of the two introduced herself.
“So you’ve come saying you plan to assist us. Before we proceed any further let me take a look at the weapons you brought with you. This one said they have a resemblance to the weapons from the prophecy.” she said in a calm but weathered voice.
Takaru drew the Blue dragon blade and removed it from its sheath allowing the elder to examine it. The elder looked over the sword, her eyes scanned over it taking note of the details in the weapon compared to the descriptions of the sword in the prophecy.
“This sword, hmm. It makes me think of the legendary Fabled Arms.” she said as she glanced at the AI core, “You claim the blood of the Inara family don’t you boy?” she asked as she stared at him.
He looked into the elder’s eyes and as the light began to glint out of her eyes he saw the faint image of a blue dragon glint through her eyes. She rubbed her hand under her chin as she noticed him flinch back at the sight of the dragon.
“You saw something didn’t you boy?” she said with a stern and inquisitive tone as Takaru gulped and staggered back nearly falling. The image of the dragon having grown to fill her eyes
“Y-yes.” he stuttered, not knowing how to respond.
“Ah, so that answers my earlier question. I descend from the Hisanarra shrine keepers and my eyes will reflect the spirit of the dragon who you associate with. That’s the sign that confirms your lineage.” she said with a grin developing on her face at Takaru’s startled expression.
“You see, the Hisanarra clan are the sworn guardians of the Fabled arms, or as they were known to those outside the village, the Legacy arms. We have waited for a few generations to see the return of those capable of wielding them. When they were destroyed in battle during the last Great War. We thought the legacy had been broken. But it seems that there are still those who may bear their power.” she said as she waved to the villager who had gone after her. The villagers ran off toward a temple in the distance and she let out a sigh.
“We managed to recover the remains of the weapons your precursors owned but they remain in a state where we’re unable to bring their potential out.” She glanced over at Anya and noticed her staff weapon and took notice of its resemblance to the ones shown to belong to the beings that eventually became the dragon spirits.
“I’ll show them to a lot of you and see if you are able to awaken them.” she said motioning them to follow her back to the temple.
----
In the temple there were a group of shrines each adorned with tapestries depicting the dragon that was associated with each of them. She uttered a prayer quietly under her breath as she took a seat in a circular indent in the middle of the shrines and began to meditate.
As Anya observed this, she noticed a mix of mana and spirit energy flowing around the elder. She closed her eyes and a glyph flashed on the AI core of her staff. “She’s of Magia descent, it's very distant but it seems like there’s no other explanation.” she said as she looked over the woman with her watcher’s eye.
The elder began to levitate and the flow of energy around her seemed to be stifling the other villagers who’d followed them into the chamber. After a few moments she opened her eyes and a faint blue glow began to fade in around them.
“So you’ve come seeking my power.” she said in a different voice as she turned to Takaru. “I am Ysurill the guardian of the Fierce Dragon Blade. I sense the Inara blood in you, It has a long history with my blade. Do you want to hear it?” the voice asked him.
Takaru nodded as he felt his body shake, almost in fear of whatever kind of being the elder had conjured.
“It was roughly two thousand years ago. While the world was in shambles from a great war that ravaged the population. My compatriots and I were banished here during the aftermath of it. We were originally as that one is there.” she said as she locked eyes with Anya. “ Another race loyal to the Shuria guard but our captain had committed a grievous act that violated a treaty that we had newly entered into with the Federation. We’d been sent to the world known as Maridia as ambassadors of the Federation but our captain saw the looks of awe in the eyes of the primitive people who inhabited it. For a while it was nothing too serious but over time the captain became more prideful and began to exert his powers as though he were a god. When word of his actions came back to the Shuria High command our superiors were sent there and he was stripped of his powers. As morbid as it is to think about in a joking manner I admit it was rather humorous seeing him stripped of his powers during an uprising of the people he saw as his inferior. He was slain by the mob and we were escorted off the planet and likewise stripped of most of our powers. We were banished to Valin as a sustained imprisonment.” she said a forlorn look coming over the elder's face.
“So that explains the fact of how similar to Magia weapons they are. They were developed by the former Magia and I’m guessing this spirit may be the spirit of one of those responsible for making the weapons. Seeing as Sentient Arm AI technology wasn’t around during that time period to my knowledge at least.” Anya said, trying to process this information as she heard it. In spite of being awestruck by the sight of what she was seeing.
“Yes, Upon seeing the state this world was in we decided to rather than abuse our remaining powers as our captain had, we would use the last of our power to bring peace to this world. My brother Astaroth and I used our powers to create the twin swords, the Fierce Dragon Blade, and the Darkness Dragon Blade. Hyoga and Enrin use their powers to create the Inferno Dragon Gun and Aquos Dragon Gun. And last but not least Raiga created the Roaring Thunder Glaive. These five weapons were designed to provide a balancing fulcrum for the four families. believing that in a time of need a great group of warriors will bring out their power and bring peace to Valin.” she said looking over the group each with their respective weapons drawn.
Her eyes came to rest on Kouji noticing his weapon wasn’t a Glaive but gauntlets. “Ah so you took your preferences in design after Sakura and Sasuke. They had their incarnation of the Glaive take gauntlet-like forms as well. On these pedestals are the remains of the soul gems We bound ourselves to, No one here has the means of repairing them Due to the lack of contact Valin has had with other worlds. If you are able to restore them you may be able to infuse our power into your weapons. Sadly the only one that hasn’t been found is the sword belonging to Astaroth since its last owner wielded it a few hundred years ago. He was an estranged member of the Kosaharra Clan named Sensui Kosoharra. To our knowledge it wasn’t returned to this village. But our contact with Astaroth has been nonexistent for quite some time even before it fell into Sensui’s possession. Your ancestor Hayato actually returned the weapon to the dojo prior to it falling into Sensui’s hands. I recall it having been taken by another young man of the Kosoharra clan, one whom Hayato fought defending my village. The young man had an aura of absolute and supreme malice about him I couldn't tell at the time since I'd only awakened from my hibernation if it belonged to the man or to something else. I remember vague recollections of Hayato’s battles with the man whose name was Suichiro Kosoharra if memory serves me.” Ysurill said taking a pause to gather herself
“The last time our warriors were assembled I could sense a strong presence overshadowing Astaroth’s spirit. It sickens me to imagine he may have fallen to some evil spirit.” a slight sense of grief coming over her voice as she thought back to her brother.
Takaru said “We’ve come this far, I’m sure if we’ve come this far we can manage to do whatever’s needed to take care of this. Let’s take a look at them and see if we can repair them.” giving off an optimistic but slightly reluctant tone.
The elder’s voice returned to normal and she said “I’ll let you take a look at the orbs and see if you can handle repairing them.” as she walked over to each pedestal and revealed each of the orbs and the remains of each weapon.
Anya looked over the materials and she let out a sigh, Takaru walked up to Ysurill’s altar and picked up the gem that sat among the remains of the broken sword. He held the gem with a firm grip and began to focus on it.
As his spirit energy began to charge the gem he heard a voice speak to him, it wasn’t Ysurill, nor was it Hayato, or at least the Hayato AI.
”So I finally have some time to be awake after all these years. Boy, yes you.” the voice said “So you’re the next chosen one. the one fated to wield this sword in my stead. I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Hayato, Hayato Inara, last born prince of the Inara royal family and originator of the Valinian High Council.” a visage of him faded into his subconscious. It matched the appearance the Hayato AI took but Takaru could tell that this person, spirit or otherwise was much closer to the original.
“Yes, I’m here to help repair the sword and bring it back to its old glory.” Takaru replied humbly as he stood before the former prince
“The weapons as I knew them are beyond repair, but there may be another solution. Since your weapons are a facsimile of our weapons it's not a far stretch that you could bond the remnants of ours into yours the only issue being these soul gems, ancient artifacts meant to preserve the soul beyond the body’s life span. There’s no way to integrate them, so our legacy and connection to them may be lost.” Hayato said with a slightly solemn look on his face.
Takaru let himself slip back to consciousness and he handed the gem to Anya explaining what he’d heard from the spirit. She took some time to consider everything he’d said, in addition the others consulted with the spirits within the other gems.
Once she’d gotten as much information as possible from the spirits she devised the idea of melding the AI cores with the soul gems to allow the spirits of the past warriors to unite with their AI counterparts.
----
A few hours later Anya had gathered a few villagers to help with the tempering process. When she’d finished gathering the best smiths in the village she asked them to fire up the forges while she channeled mana into them to amplify the flames and allow them to get hot enough to temper the metal of the older weapons into the new ones.
Once the tempering had been completed the next step was to bond the soul gems into each AI core. First was Hayato’s AI core and the Fierce Dragon Blade's soul gem. Anya used a few ACS cartridges to cast a spell which let her convert the gem into soul essence without causing undue harm to the consciousness of the soul bound to the gem
The process went fairly smoothly aside from the damaged state of the gem having caused some erosion of Hayato’s consciousness since his soul was bound to it in a weaker state than what it had been when Ysurill had bound herself to it. She figured that the AI could probably fill in any gaps in the personality while the original would provide the needed memories to allow the two of them to blend more adequately and become a singular entity.
The combination of the two would result in the AI becoming vastly more human-like but it would also give the spirit incarnation a better chance of retaining itself.