Entering the mineshaft, Ronin quickly realized he was in trouble. Not that he wasn’t already in trouble — being chased by men with weapons and all. But, there was another issue now as well.

  The mine turned out to be so dark, he couldn’t see at all. With the academy suit neither having lighting, nor battery power, and his optical implant not being of any help, he was forced to walk along the tunnel walls.

  On the topic of his optical implant though…There seemed to be some sort of interference in the valley, stopping signals from getting out. So, calling for help was out of the question.

  With one hand on the tunnel wall, Ronin moved further into the dark mine. Moving as fast as he dared, he repeatedly stumbled and fell. With the tunnels being riddled with abandoned mining tools, there was always something around to trip him up. Be it loose wires entangling his feet, to raised drill bits bumping his head, this place had no lack of annoyances.

  But falling was better than dying. Ronin forged ahead.

  Reaching deeper into the maze-like mine, the path he was on, began to slope downward. He didn’t mind. With his eidetic memory, he knew the path out regardless of how deep he went. If anything, this only made it harder for his pursuers to find him.

  Time ticked by in the quiet tunnel, and Ronin, alone with his mind, began pondering:

  Such a deep channel, entirely abandoned and without light… How many of these were there on Concordia? Also, how was it that there was enough air to breathe down here? He was, of course, very appreciative, but he’d heard of people suffocating in much shallower mines than this. Was it due to the width of the tunnel perhaps? Also, why did these people attack on the very first day the academy opened?

  It then struck him…

  Mandatory attendance.

  To Ironglades, this was just another regular day. But to the academy, each year, the very first day it opened, everybody had to show up.

  Those bastards must have deliberately targeted the academy, going for the day with the maximum amount of people related to the academy around.

  Ronin spotted something up ahead.

  A light?

  He'd probably walked for over an hour by now, stumbling his way down the sloping tunnel. Of all places, how could there be light down here?

  Could this be the path out? He wondered. Did I walk all the way through the mountain and over to the other side?

  No, this was not the red-tinted light of the sun. This light was golden, it was something else... something unnatural.

  As he walked further and the source of the light revealed itself, to Ronin's bafflement, it turned out to be a large rock fragment, placed right in the middle of the tunnel. The thing had to be at least 10 meters high, and in addition to the golden light, the rock also emitted a strange sort of pressure. It was almost as if the gravity around Ronin increased as he got closer.

  The tunnel itself, widened out around the rock but stopped shortly after. It looked as if the people responsible for digging the tunnel, had just dug around the rock, but then stopped.

  Could it be because of the pressure this thing is emitting? Ronin wondered, before turning excited.

  The rock looked like some sort of exotic material.

  He’d heard of these materials before. Supposedly, high technology often needed extremely rare and expensive materials in order to work. This was, however, only relevant to powerful organizations nested deep within the heartlands of humanity. If he could harvest this thing, then sell it...

  He moved in closer, feeling the pressure increase even more. It was becoming hard to walk now. Flashes of… something… seemed to appear at the edge of his vision, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

  He might not be able to harvest this thing now, but he might be able to hide behind it. Whomever was chasing him, might not bother looking with all of this pressure around. In an attempt to maneuver around the rock, he sluggishly dragged one foot in front of the other, but it was becoming difficult.

  Ronin grit his teeth. Just one more step!

  Suddenly, there was a rapid shift in the direction of the pull! Instead of being pressed down towards the ground, Ronin was now being pulled directly towards the rock!

  As he tried to get away, his feet couldn't maintain friction and began slipping. Unwillingly moonwalking towards the glowing thing, he tried jumping away.

  However, as his feet left the ground, the gravity increased even more, and Ronin, now airborne, stopped, then turned around. He was going to crash into it!

  BANG!

  “...”

  Ronin's hand slammed into the rock and his sight went black. Somehow, this thing not only affected gravity, but altered vision as well.

  When he came to, he was in the middle of fighting an enormous creature as large as a world. He also had... four fists?

  What is this?

  Ronin's mind ground to a halt from the vision he was seeing.

  The collisions from this fight reverberated throughout the universe, annihilating planets and stars. Anything that could be considered even remotely close, was torn apart as the aliens clashed. Space and time groaned and the void screamed, torn apart by the cataclysmic forces.

  Am I possessing this being? And why are these two aliens fighting!?

  Suddenly, the being fighting the enormous creature, the one Ronin inhabited, clenched its four fists. Time, space, gravity, all the forces of the universe seemed to shriek as they condensed into a supreme golden ring, circling around its mighty fists. An incomprehensibly momentous punch launched towards the creature, striking it, causing the folds of existence itself to implode. And as reality broke, the creature followed, dragged along by the forces until nothing remained.

  J-Just… what… am I watching?

  Ronin was stunned. He’d never even imagined something like this before. This was just too much, beyond imagination itself... At most, he’d daydreamed about a big warship...

  No! He fiercely shook his head. Spaceships were capable of anything given enough technological progress. He refused to let himself be misled by something like this!

  As Ronin was busy convincing himself, the being, or more accurately the alien he was inhabiting, was celebrating its victory.

  The four-armed, blue alien suddenly adopted a serious expression, then turned its gaze into the void, taking a battle stance, its momentum once again building up.

  Something began to appear in the void.

  It's not over!? And what in the world IS that thing?

  As something which might be called a gate appeared, the enormous scale of the object began truly revealing itself to Ronin.

  This... it's bigger than a planet... No, it's bigger than a galaxy!

  Numerous symbols began appearing along the gate as it “melded” itself into existence. The symbols extended, twisting into endless fractal patterns as the gate began radiating immense holy power.

  “The final shackle...” The alien spoke.

  Strangely, Ronin understood it.

  The alien began winding up for another strike and the universe, once again, groaned.

  Four fists struck the gate, and Ronin felt something crack within him as the conflict between the two forces raged.

  No, something else cracked as well. A piece of the gate had flown off… And pandemonium followed.

  Dark foul energy escaped from the crack, striking the alien with horrifying power.

  The creature screamed in agony as the corruption spread throughout its body, consuming more and more of its essence. Gaining a fierce light in its eyes, the alien, using the dwindling amount of energy it had left, detonated itself.

  BOOM!

  As the final embers of light were about to extinguish from its eyes, the alien looked at the piece of the gate that had flown off, then mysteriously began imprinting it with its mind.

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  “Legacy,” It uttered. It was the final word Ronin heard before everything went black again.

  “...”

  Ronin awoke to a piercing headache. In fact, this headache went beyond piercing, it was horrifying. He had never felt anything even close to it before. Digging deep within himself, he sluggishly began to think: This is a cave… THE cave... I ran in here...

  He remembered. He had fled here to escape the terrorists; they had followed.

  Pushing away the pain, he glanced around the abandoned mine. It was surprisingly bright! Wasn't the area pitch black before? There was no light here, the rock which illuminated this section was gone….

  It was gone... the rock that gave him the vision, the headache, the very same rock the workers had to dig around, the rock that couldn't be moved… It had just gone up and vanished after he touched it….

  Legacy, the alien had said...

  Despite the pain, a creeping feeling of horror began dawning on him.

  Forget it! He forced his mind to think of something else.

  For now, I need to get out of here. I can see in the dark now. The terrorists, on the other hand, can’t. I have an advantage, let's use it Ronin! Think!

  Dragging himself up from the ground, his legs wobbly and breath shaky, he began making his way back out of the mine.

  “...”

  Rattle...

  Step...

  Step, Step, Step...

  In the pitch-black darkness of the cave, several men walked along the tunnel wall, approaching another fork in the road.

  Squeezed into a crevice at the other side of the tunnel, Ronin held his breath for dear life. Hopefully, they wouldn’t notice.

  The fact that these people walked along the tunnel wall was a good sign. Someone would only do that if they lacked sensor equipment. Ronin felt relief fill him as his shoulders relaxed.

  “Why are we wasting time searching for this rat?” One of the men grumbled.

  “Beiner... right as we launched the biggest operation to date, a kid flies straight into our base. Don't you find it strange?”

  “Sure,” the man called Beiner acquiesced. “But we don't have time for this! Darth, buddy, the Planetary Guard will be bearing down on us any second now!”

  “Let them,” another man snorted. “The only good guard is a dead one.”

  “Listen...” The man called Darth breathed out. “This is the most secure location we’ve used yet; it took us months setting this up. The whole damn valley is net jammed, and not a single person, besides us, has been here ever since we arrived. If this is a spook, we need to know how he found us so fast. This is related to us in some way, and the fact that we don't know, is worrying. Why did he come here after the attack, not before, and what will he do if he leaves?”

  “Nothing good...” the others grunted back.

  While grumbling in agreement, the men reached the fork in the road.

  “You guys go ahead, I will guard the left path, you take the right,” Darth called out.

  As the terrorists felt their way towards the rightmost tunnel, Ronin squeezed deeper into the crevice. Fortunately, none of them noticed him, and after about a minute, they were all into the tunnel.

  Only Darth was left now. Ronin saw him fumbling in the darkness, taking out a pipe which he then added some sickly-sweet powder into. Ronin recognized the smell. This was fantasia dust.

  Not good, how in the world am I going to move now?

  Ronin's mind raced.

  If he moved, the noise would alert his unknowing jailer. If he stayed… Well, fantasia dust wasn't exactly a drug which enhanced perception.

  I will wait a few minutes. After he's done smoking, I’ll move, Ronin thought as he allowed himself some quiet breaths.

  Before the powder was fully smoked though, the man began waddling his way towards the hiding spot.

  Ronin froze up in fear. Have I been discovered!?

  The alien artifact had granted Ronin sight through the darkness. This also gave him a clear view of Darth as he approached. With the dope pipe hanging limply from his mouth, the man stopped but a meter or two from the wall. Grunting, he unzipped his pants and pulled out Darth junior as he began watering the rocks.

  In fact, more than just the rocks was getting watered...

  “Urgh!” Ronin coughed as the droplets bounced off the wall and splashed onto his face.

  Quickly realizing his mistake, he covered his mouth. By now, it was already too late.

  Wide eyed, Darth quickly reached for his pockets, then pulled out a knife. He’d heard the cough, he knew, and he was going to attack.

  Before Ronin's mind registered what'd happened, as the knife was pulled out, he pushed out from the wall, his knee landing perfectly on the pommel of Darth's own knife, stabbing it precisely into the man's heart.

  What!? How did I do that? I stabbed a man with his own knife, and with my knee at that! I shouldn't even know where the heart is, let alone be able to do acrobatics like this!

  Time seemed as if to stop at that moment... the two just staring at each other in utter silence. Ronin on top. Darth underneath.

  “How did you know about Operation Lightfall?” Darth asked weakly, finally breaking the silence.

  Ronin didn't answer.

  The silence returned.

  “Doesn't...matter...” Darth got out before coughing. “Listen…freedom exists, but not here... you’ll see... tomorrow... look...the news... they lie...”

  There was blood coming out as he coughed now.

  “Implant... they track it... they listen...”

  The man's breath grew weaker. There was no more talking anymore, he was too weak.

  Now, there was only waiting, waiting until...

  Ronin reigned himself in, a sour feeling welling up inside of him. He’d fought before, you had to in the slums, but this… this was different.

  I... I just killed a man.

  “...”

  Searching a body was more work than one would expect, not that Ronin had ever expected anything. Let alone robbing a dead man of his valuables, he’d never even pickpocketed someone before.

  Rolling over the body, his hands now bloody after the ordeal, he found another battery pack. The sum total from his looting? 5 times as many batteries as he’d had coming in here. His one-time energy shield could now be recharged, his jet pack could now be used, and the suit’s heat control could now be activated. There was some other device on Darth as well. Ronin had found it by accident inside a hidden pocket of the man's trousers. He had no clue what this device was, but it looked important, so he grabbed that as well.

  Rising up from the still body, Ronin noticed himself shaking.

  He still hadn't come to grips with what he'd just done. It had been so easy too. In all honesty, Ronin wasn't sure if he was shaking because of what he'd done, or from his own fear of how little he felt about it.

  Quickly slotting in two batteries, Ronin powered up his suit. The rest of the loot, he placed inside of the pockets along his legs.

  Looking back and forth between the rightmost tunnel and the dead Darth a few times, Ronin braced himself, then dragged the body into the tunnel to the left. It wouldn't do him much good if the men returned and found Darth like this. He hid the body inside of a crevice, then turned as he began backtracking out of the mine.

  “...”

  After climbing for a while, he encountered another group of pursuers, but with some quick thinking, he hid behind some abandoned machinery, and they quickly passed him by.

  Eventually, after moving through one of the narrower passages, he arrived just before the mine's exit.

  Hiding behind an outcrop, he checked the valley outside.

  To his surprise, the terrorists had neither left nor moved. For some reason, every single one of them looked as if they'd just laid down to sleep.

  He moved in closer to inspect the bodies. There were no signs of injury, but they'd begun to turn cold. So... they were dead, but how?

  Some kind of radiation weapon, maybe, but aren't those outlawed? Ronin wondered.

  Realizing his blunder, he switched on the suit's Geiger counter, scanning the area.

  The signal showed the air as clean, so whatever happened, it was over now at least.

  Looking around, there was nothing here which could have made such an attack.

  A radiation strike from orbit then? Ronin speculated.

  If it was an orbital strike, only the government could have done it. Further, if the government had just used a weapon outlawed by the galactic community, he needed to leave immediately.

  He didn’t mind the government one way or the other, but this sort of operation… Whatever had occurred here, the less people knew that he'd seen this, the better.

  Inspecting the long spiraling road leading out of this valley, he made up his mind. He would leave in the fastest way possible.

  “…”

  Opting for just straight up scaling the valley — instead of taking the normal spiraling road — Ronin was forced to use up nearly every battery he had. In any other situation, jump-running up steep inclines and scaling walls with a jetpack would have been fun. Now, he just felt scared and exhausted. Down to his last pair of batteries, Ronin made a tall vertical jump of 30 meters, landing on a wide road.

  BEEP! BEEP!

  Panting, he checked the suit’s remaining power.

  4 %, that's cutting it close.

  His already hurting back and legs groaned, and his headache had not gotten better, but that last jump had done it. There were people, and more importantly, ships here.

  Ronin called down a shuttle, opting out of using the implant this time. He still couldn't forget those last words Darth had said before he died.

  Implant, they track it, they listen.

  He didn't really believe it, but he would be stupid not to take precautions, considering the situation.

  “What the hell happened to you boy!?” The shuttle pilot shouted, his eyes wide in shock.

  “Bad day,” Ronin grunted, not wanting to get into it.

  “Void, how are you even alive? You need to go to the hospital!” The pilot continued, clearly not mollified

  “No, just take me to district 91, street 1204. I'm fine,” Ronin replied. I can't look that bad, can I?

  “Alright, but don't die in the shuttle, ok? If I see you drowsing off, I'm dropping you off,” the pilot skeptically voiced back, clearly having doubts about this entire affair.

  Not wanting to stay any longer than he had to, Ronin walked into the shuttle.

  “The optical implant got damaged,” Ronin stated as he handed over one of the batteries he’d looted earlier.

  “Nono, with the state you're in, payment is not important, just don't die on me boy,” the pilot graciously answered while not so graciously pocketing the battery.

  Leaning back in his seat as the shuttle began ascending, Ronin thought back on what had just happened.

  Legacy

  The words rang in his mind like he was still there. That had been an apocalyptic battle, something which could never be real. But the way in which he'd fought Darth... The way his body had moved…

  Perhaps he really should see a doctor.