Considering that the people living there had just experienced an apocalypse, things had been going pretty well in the Kingdom of Leinwan. The general chaos and confusion that had surrounded the sixteenth birthday of Pacifica Casull (also known as the Providence Breaker or the Scrapped Princess) had died down rather quickly when the “deity” Celia Mauser proclaimed that she was no longer a threat and proceeded to unseal the cage in which humanity had been unwittingly imprisoned for 5,000 years. At the time, it really had seemed that the world would end, what with the political intrigue and religious demagoguery and massive military efforts, not to mention the destructive forces of the Peacemakers colliding with those of the D Knight Shannon Casull in the skies above.
But now that was over: Forcis had been crowned (and personally forgiven for literally stabbing Pacifica in the back); Shannon and Raquel Casull led relatively normal lives as swordsmiths with their adopted sister and Zefiris (well, as normal as life can be when one of the people you live with is actually a highly advanced AI/weapon from a long-dead civilization, while the other spent most of her life on the run from large, angry mobs); Winia Chester had married Baron Christopher Armalite-Bailaha, which meant she was now a noble (and it was to her credit that she did not use her newfound status to snub the relatives who’d rejected her when she was just a penniless orphan, though the uncle who had taken her in found himself reaping the rewards for his generosity, both financial and otherwise); and perhaps most importantly, the whereabouts and activities of Pacifica were no longer a matter of national security, which in turn meant she was able to stay out of the spotlight — an amazing feat, considering that she was not only still something of a celebrity among the general population but also technically the heir apparent to the throne of Leinwan, at least until her (biological) brother fathered his own children. No: now, the only attentions Pacifica had to worry about were those of Leopold Scorpos, who still pined for her almost constantly (and caused her no end of consternation as a result).
Moreover, it seemed that humanity was finally going to be allowed to once make the technological advancement that had allowed for the creation of such beings as the Dragoons and the Peacemakers in the first place. Sure, it wasn’t going to be easy, but now there was nothing to stand in the way of Seness, Eirote, and other similarly-minded people who were determined to use reverse engineering to jump-start the first Industrial Revolution in five millennia.
All in all, the end of the world hadn’t really been that bad at all, and humanity managed to transition into their new reality without trouble.
Well… not quite.
For in the course of humanity’s liberation, there had been a rather glaring oversight — Celia had taken her call to protect the species homo sapiens quite seriously, and had devoted quite a few resources to making sure that several fail-safes were in place in the event that something happened that could compromise that mission. Of course, these shouldn’t have been a problem, as Celia had shut down the entire system that had kept the world sealed, which should have eliminated the fail-safes as well. And for the most part, it worked.
The problem was that not all of the fail-safes were dependent on the system for their existence. Peacemakers, for example, had existed prior to the system (though they were known as Valkyries, then), and therefore, theoretically, did not need it to exist. But that was irrelevant, as all of the Peacemakers had been destroyed — right?
Yes, the Peacemakers were destroyed — the primary Peacemakers, that is. But because these AIs were seen as vital to the preservation to humanity, Celia had made sure that at any given time, at least one “backup” Peacemaker was in place, somewhere in the human population. Of course, when these backups finished decompressing, they were never activated — there was no reason to have any more nigh-omnipotent beings than necessary, after all — and they lived out their lives as human beings, albeit ones that always seemed able to convince anybody to do anything for them. There would only be unzipped into their full “Peacemaker” mode if something drastic caused all hell to broke loose in the system.
Unfortunately, the total deactivation of the sealed world more than qualified, as “all hell breaking loose,” and because of all of this, someone’s life was about to be turned upside-down:
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(Posted Sun, 03 Dec 2006 21:59)
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