The Path to Ascension

Year 38 of the Age of the Dragon…

“Heaven to Ocean, Ocean to Earth, Earth back to Heaven.”

Using the welding torch was hot work. Being accustomed to an indoor life in climate-controlled buildings made it even hotter; so he shut the torch off and opted for a short break.

Joshua slipped down out of the harness and backed away from the currently olive green Tora to examine his handy work.

Like everyone in his family, Joshua was a great warrior. Being bound to a wheelchair for several years had made that a little hard, but he had managed until he was able to escape and gain the freedom he now savored. So maybe he couldn’t swing a sword or fire big energy blasts from his hands like his mother, he had chosen his own theater to fight in.

Joshua fought in battle mechs.

The mech which had been both his close friend and companion since he’d first lost his ability to walk sat in front of him now. The white Tora was huge, a giant battle cat type mech that had never lost a fight.

Right now he had it draped in olive green armor for a fight against one of the Victory Facilities new Sniper mechs. Joshua had no doubt he would win, but the other mech’s pilot had perfect aim and he wanted a little assurance he would come out on top.

He stepped slowly back as he put the torch on a worktable next to the mech. The hanger was well air-conditioned, and its thick stone walls locked out the scorching sun that reflected off the planets golden surface.

But Joshua was still over warmed from his labors on the mech. Through the thick visor of the helmet he wore while working with the super bright torch he couldn’t see his watch, so he’d lost track of time. He was just hot though, all he needed was to step back and rest for a bit.

At least he’d thought so at first, then he realized he was having some kind of attack.

Joshua blinked sweat out of his eyes. He was dizzy and dehydrated, and wanted to lay down. The yellow hewn stone of the hanger began to blur and he slipped—

“Ouch.” Joshua muttered resiliently when he awoke some minutes later. He’d blacked out and fallen flat on his back on the wide, dusty hanger floor.

Groping along the wall and still woozy, he realized he’d also lost his thick glasses, and set about retrieving them. He didn’t have much hope of getting around without the coke bottle lenses, so his mind was set. His sweaty fingers picked up a fortune in gold dust as he felt along the solid seem where wall and floor met.

Gold, that was what dragons loved. In full blooded dragons it was more a question of practicality, stone is hard and a dragon’s breath will ignite almost any form of bedding. But hoards of gold are quite a bit softer, and don’t burn as easily. That was the practical reason.

It was no small wonder his grandfather Hunter had chosen this planet to build his house on. The planet was literally made of gold, it comprised close to seventy percent of the planet’s entire mass. Hunter was only half dragon, but he probably had more gold than any full dragon in history.

The stuff was EVERYWHERE, and only Hunter didn’t seem to mind it. The atmospheric patterns had changed recently and going outside meant blistering hot winds and a gilding of dust. The Dragon’s Lair was practically hermetically sealed against the onslaught of fortunas winds, but the hangers were another story.

Most mech battles took place off world, but the victory center needed to be able to test their weapons someplace private, and an empty planet in your own backyard was a wonderful place to do just that. Hence the hangers had to have doors big enough to fit mechs through, and that meant that a lot of sand and dust had a chance to blow in.

The small cleaning robots that scurried around the entire complex like ants took care of most of it, but there was still a thin layer that just persisted. Bare stone was comfortable, soft even if it was clean; but there was something very uncomfortable about dusty rock that made Joshua hate laying across it.

Still, he had to find his glasses if he wanted to get out of here, and to do that he had to grope along the dusty floor.

Without warning Joshua felt a blast of cold air to his right, where he’d been sure there was a wall. At the same time his grubby left hand caught the rim of his glasses and he pulled them up to his face.

A few moments work had him lying on his back and looking for a clean spot on his soiled jump suit to clean the lenses.

He’d never let his poor vision slow him down. Sure, his thick glasses got in the way of things like flight helmets, and it made the other warriors laugh at him, but he didn’t care. Glasses were nothing after years in the wheelchair.

He remembered well how he’d felt, those first few days after waking up in Jason’s medical room. He remembered the horror of being unable to feel his legs, and the unending sadness he’d felt when he’d been informed that despite the gifted surgeons best efforts, Jason could not restore the damage that had been done. By his grandfather’s sword, Joshua Jusenkyou would never walk again.

That was quit a few years ago, and he had adapted pretty well before the mysterious Arkinoid had healed him. Right now he was wondering how well he and the victory facility would all adapt to they’re planets changing environment.

Sure, living on a planet that was approximately seventy percent gold was nice, but it go into absolutely EVERYTHING! Yesterday one of the Red Hornets he’d been testing broke down out on the Zria Plane north of Victory Facility Outbase. Lacking proper salvage gear at the time he’d left it out there and gone home for the night. The Zira Plane was like a wind tunnel at night, at times the gusts kicked up to one hundred twenty miles per hour. When he’d gone out to retrieve the suit it had been gilded by the dust storms.

On most parts of the planet the weather was fairly predictable. During this part of the year they had a nice day night cycle, and at night the dust storms raged. In a few months they would be in an area of the solar system where they had twenty-three hours of daylight and about two of twilight.

And dust storms every six.

Everyone at the Victory Research Center was complaining about the weather. There was nothing outside anymore; in days long past there had been pools, machines, open pit mines, even a golf course.

The dust storms had destroyed it all. The mines were still their but any equipment was ruined. There had used to be a fully automated geo-lift mining operation; The satellite was still there in orbit, but all the ground equipment was wrecked. Joshua had once gone out to where the golf course was; he couldn’t find a single trace of it. The only remaining feature was Dune Lake, about fifty miles from the house. Joshua’s mother had told him several times about the lake; she’d played their as a child and had wanted to take him their, but by the time he had been born the dust storms had turned the wide, shallow pool into a quagmire of shinning mud. The only thing outside anymore was one big battlefield for the extensive collection of mechs.

It had to be even worse for the people working in the research center, on the other side of the planet from The Dragon’s Lair. When the weather had taken its turn for the worst, they had hastily built a series of domes over the small city, there was no other choice. Hunter was starting to look into the idea of teraforming his planet, just to improve the weather if nothing else.

This little planet was in an odd place. The Dragon’s Lair was smaller than most planets, but had a comfortable level of gravity thanks to its mass. Gold weighed a lot, and there was plenty of that around.

The solar system was as odd as the little planet. Who ever heard of a tri-nary system before? Worse still whoever heard of one where for parts of the ‘year’ the planet actually passed between all three suns.

And if you want to bring up the subject of orbital paths, how does a sort of figure eight sound? The planet didn’t just orbit one sun, or all three; it actually orbited one, then another, then another, then the first one again. If the suns hadn’t been so small there would be no way for people to survive here, despite themselves.

And it was a good place to as well, for the planet on which Hunter had built his lair and later the Victory Research facility was very well hidden. Their little piece of solar system was its own galaxy, the walls of ether space were just a stones throw away.

A long time ago one of Hunter’s team mates, Kendrick, had discovered the planet using a multi-spatial probe launched by the Geomancer. But the Gudersnipe GATE system couldn’t penetrate the millions of miles of inert matter surrounding the solar system. There was an Ancient Road, and using his knowledge and the Ancient database Hunter had managed to determine the coordinates.

The system had been complete jerry-rigged. Hunter and his team had recovered one of the ancient portals that made up the Empire of Roads, and after quite a bit of experimentation had successfully opened a passage to the planet.

That was just the problem, it only went one way.

All the equipment the team had used to reach the planet was on the other side, and the portal only worked one way. Rather than attempt to repeat the process from inside, Hunter simply ordered the equipment to construct a Gudersnipe GATE hub be sent in, and from there they had easy access in and out.

After building The Dragon’s Lair to be his team’s base of operations after graduation, Hunter had constructed his own private GATE network around the Multi-Verse.

Technically, people like Hunter weren’t supposed to have GATE technology. The Gudersnipe GATE was the most heavily guarded secret the school possessed. Not that the GATE itself was a secret, everybody knew about that, just the technology that made it go. With sole control of the GATE, Gudersnipe had the ultimate upper hand against any opponent.

It was lucky the mercenary and assassin school had no desire to rule the Multi-Verse, only profit from it.

Joshua blinked a few times after cleaning his glasses as best he could. During the last part of the year the dust storms had become very unpredictable. He could only take the mechs right outside to test them and hold various pitched battles and when the dust kicked up they either had to sit it out or come inside the hanger.

He looked over to his right to where the invisible blast of air had come.

There was a room he was sure he’d never seen before.

The floor didn’t have any gold dust on it, so the room wasn’t open to the hanger very often, if ever. The walls were also granite, which was strange because the rest of the hanger was made of gold ore hewn from local quarries.

It wasn’t very big, just a little alcove that may have been a corner of the hanger at one point. The system of hangers had been rebuilt and rearranged dozens of times even in Joshua’s own lifetime. He supposed it may once have been granite and steel as opposed to the ore bearing stones and creet they used now.

As continually interesting as the room itself was, the contents were even more surprising; two gunjins unlike any he’d ever seen. They were average sized, but gray all over and by their features female. Most mobile suits were gender neutral, he’d certainly never thought of his Tora as anything other than a big metal tiger. But these suits were feminine, each with one black tear down the left cheek.

These were Gunjin Goddesses.

Their build matched the Gunjin Goddess X almost perfectly, except these had large angle wings like Hunter’s Tsubasa gunjin.

And there was something else about them.

The one on the right was missing its left shoulder, and the piece was sitting over on a worktable down towards floor level where he could see the inside, down under the armor. The thin layer of metal was covered with dozens of tiny brown cells, multi spatial circuits without a doubt. If all the armor was like this…

He picked up a composite scanner from another table and scanned the surface of the armor. It was almost totally smooth on the microscopic level. The tiny cells were indeed multi spatial circuits, E types from what he could tell. There was now no doubt in his mind: these suits were meant for breaching the dimensional barrier.

He’d experimented with the technology himself once. He’d equipped a GS Special Edition Storm Sorter with similar circuits and left the atmosphere of a flat dimensional plane. Unfortunately, he’d not given the craft nearly the kind of power it needed to plow through ether space. He’d literally jammed every available inch with circuits, but they simply could not generate a strong enough field to let him pass; the thrusters weren’t nearly powerful enough either, the experiment had been doomed from the start.

After going over the data from his flight he had theorized that the field might have been strong enough but was the wrong shape, and had tried desperately to calculate one that would work. To no avail, he’d spent years working on the idea, but every field shape he tried didn’t work—on the simulations.

There was something magical about the size and shape of a gunjin. As a scientist and once mage, he knew both magic and technology fairly intimately. He also knew that no good could come from mixing the two. The magic of the gunjin wasn’t really magic at all but a strange chance happening of science. At the exact size, shape, and proportions that all gunjins conformed to the mass and balance ratios were in perfect equilibrium, even more so than any other levels. It was literally a one in several billion chance that someone had happened upon the measures and made the construction of Real Type suits possible.

Why not? There was already something special, why couldn’t a gunjin equipped with multi spatial technology also have the right size and shape to generate the field that could push that imaginary envelope just a little further?

This also left no doubt about the maker of these suits. It was clearly his grandfather’s work, and after all his talk about not pushing the envelope here was this little experiment.

The technology was to new to have been built many years ago. The GGX and Real Type technology had only been obtained and developed recently, and the Dynasty Project had begun. Joshua had been deeply involved in the project, but they hadn’t even started the first proofs. Real Type Gunjin Goddesses would be the most formidable suits ever, and they had been working hard towards that end. The three leaders of the project were himself, Hunter, and Jason.

This realization gave him another hint; Jason had been involved in this hidden project. Only those two could build something like this but keep it such a complete secret.

These couldn’t be Real Types. It took months of constant work to build one unique Gunjin, and to reach the level of Real Type several proofs, or prototypes, had to be built first. But these were Goddesses, and exceptionally well built at that.

There was something to them though, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. The original Gunjin Goddesses built by Gudersnipe had been extraordinarily advanced, even for there time.

There were advancements in the core mobile suit technology that had been made since then, and so the Goddesses now being built at the Victory Center looked different.

The doors had been perfectly camouflaged. He’d been in that hanger every day for the past several years, and had never even for a second suspected there was anything at all besides solid stone behind that wall.

As he thought more on it he realized that that wall hadn’t moved. It was the inner most wall, the house was supposed to be on the other side. This specific wall had been exactly here since he’d first set foot in this hanger.

He remembered it well, his first glimpse of this particular room. He’d still been able to walk then, and had walked into the hanger. There was the Tora, standing still as a statue and covered with a fine layer of tan colored dust.

Back then he had no idea of the awesome power contained in that mound of metal. It had turned, and the green eyes glowed, and he swore it was looking right at him. Then it turned back and didn’t move again.

Years later, after the unpleasantness they wouldn’t speak of, he had had his first ride in a mobile suit. All gunjins used foot pedal systems for at least part of the piloting, or a mobile tray system. Either way you had to walk to use one. That’s why his grandfather had given up trying to refit a gunjin for him, and started training him in an XZS Saber Tora. The old unit was fine quality, but there was no soul to it. It was a mass-produced A Type in Real mode, an expensive suit but not good enough for Joshua’s immerging skill.

Around that time he was going to the hanger to see the white Tora every day. When Hunter found out he gave the weapon to Joshua saying he was better off with four good legs than just two.

But dwelling on the past wasn’t what he needed to do right now. There certainly wasn’t anything nefarious about a pair of well-hidden mobile suits. He realized what it was that seemed so odd about them: the basic design was barely modified from plans for the original Gunjin Goddess X.

It was entirely possible they’d been built years and years ago; Jason had had the GGX technology for over forty years. But still, what could these be for?

A brilliant light behind him reflected off a large mirror mounted above and behind the suits. The bright light blinded him and he found himself throwing up his hands to shield himself.

“You won’t turn around, if you know what's good for you,” said a deep, angry voice behind him. He recognized it right away as Jason.

“I can shot the wings off a fly,” Jason continued. “Don’t move, don’t talk, don’t even blink or I swear to god I’ll plug you.”

Jason rarely swore oaths like that. There was no doubt that he was serious, but his threat was made even more serious by his solemn oath.

Joshua rested his hands at his sides and waited for Jason to make the next move. Their was no point in resisting, Jason had proven himself time and time again both willing and able to do practically anything, definitely anything he swore he would do.

“Leave him alone, Jason,” Hunter said. “Theirs no need to scare the kid half to death. Turn around boy.”

Joshua carefully followed orders. Hunter usually referred to him as Joshua, and treated him as an equal as was his way. Whenever Hunter acknowledged a difference in age, Joshua knew he was in trouble.

Jason was holding a small cube with intense light coming out of a corner. It was a fairly standard piece of spy equipment that Jason always carried; shinning an intense light on someone had a very intimidating effect.

“What are these?” Joshua asked.

“I’ll ask the questions thank you,” Hunter replied. “What are you doing in here?”

“I just—the door opened—I didn’t know—” Joshua stammered.

“There are certain things you shouldn’t know,” said Jason. “So what are you doing?”

“Leaving?” Joshua suggested hopefully, figuring maybe if he acted like he didn’t know anything they’d just let him go.

“Unfortunately no,” Jason replied. “In fact I’m afraid we’ll have to kill you.”

“Jason, stop,” Hunter put an arm in front of Jason and pushed his gun and light cube down. “You’re not going to kill my grandson. Joshua, I thought I told you to mind where you point your scanners in here. The conducting par of the rock can destroy the delicate calibrations and—”

“You know damn well that’s a lie,” Joshua replied levelly. “I know those scanners inside and out, pointing them at walls doesn’t do crap, they just scan it. You’ve just been trying to keep me from finding this room.”

“This is the most out of the way hanger in the complex, it was the perfect place to keep something secret,” Hunter admitted. “But I figured it would look odd if you moved out but he and I kept coming in here. I needed to keep your operation in here to help disguise ours. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t get it,” Joshua shook his head. “Why?”

“These mobile suits have a very specific purpose,” Jason explained. “One that is none of your concern.”

“I think we can let him in,” said Hunter. “After all, he’s a smart kid. And he might just feel its time to redeem himself.”

“All I did was stumble on a fricken hanger!” Joshua shouted. “Why are you acting like this is so important?”

“Those two suits,” Hunter replied. “Are Gunjin Goddesses that will allow us to ascend.”

Joshua looked back at the suits in awe.

Gunjin Goddesses were not ordinary mechs by any means. He knew mobile suits inside out almost as well as Hunter, but Ascension was a concept he’d only heard of vaguely, and even then it was all theory.

“Hunter,” Jason said as he glanced at his watch. “Its time, we need to get going.”

“Right,” Hunter replied.

“What do we do with Joshua while we’re gone?” Jason asked solemnly.

“If we attempt to lock him up, he will only escape,” Hunter reasoned. “We’ll have to take him with us.”

Jason nodded and turned to Joshua. “Get a transport ready; quietly.”

* * *