"The data we recovered from the Prothean ruins is not that impressive." Lloyd began his speech in the meeting with the rest of the Senate members. This is where half of them finally learned about the existence of aliens for the first time.
Though the ones who were blind to this were the civil sector.
"Simply put, what we got is that they were observing us and checking if we are worthy to join their Empire.
There are also planetary observations of our world 50 thousand years ago. Like I said, nothing fascinating.
Now there was other stuff that piqued our interests." Lloyd smiled as he looked at Marcus, who was just sitting there with closed eyes. He was not, doubt, pondering his next decision.
"Technology."
The Emperor mentioned a single word.
"Indeed. The technology is based around an advanced element called Eezo. Or Element Zero. This element warps reality.
Something we have achieved already with Gravity Resonance."
"So we are either way working towards what they have," Marrybell concluded as she looked at Marcus. Gauging his reaction and expression, the girl was worried about him, realising that her relaxed Emperor was gone.
"Yes, but we are fundamentally a bit more advanced in that regard simply because we achieved what they have with basic technology without advanced elements.
The reactor that was powering that computer does use power cells. They use Eezo to store basic electricity.
Nothing like our fusion technology."
"You mean they use basic electricity stored only with this element?"
"Indeed. They don't need anything else. It warps space. Isolates in power cells to keep it for a very long time and store a considerable amount of power."
"Where we use Dyson Sphere technology to basically have perpetual energy, only it's a specific and locked output, while they have incredible amount of storage to store a limited amount of power.
In other words, we generate a limitless amount of specific energy that they can theoretically store a limitless amount of limited energy."
"...Can we get this Eezo?" That was the question! Sakuradite combined with Eezo… they could rule the whole Galaxy!
"That's what I was thinking." Lloyd looked at Marcus.
"Do it. Study and assimilate this technology." The Emperor said without hesitation.
"Now the question is how they got here." Marcus took over from giddy Lloyd.
He showed them a massive relay close to Pluto's orbit.
"...What is that!?" People gasped at the sight of the construct.
"From the data we got. This is a Mass Relay. Once it's online. It generates a Mass Effect field around a spaceship and slingshots to a different location in the cosmos." The Emperor showed them an AI simulation.
"With this, we could rapidly expand through the whole cosmos!" Some people got extremely excited.
"Think for a second!" Marrybell stopped the excited minister.
"We have no idea what is on the other side." Cornelia finished for her.
"This is a gamble. We should not gamble that easily." She looked at her brother.
"Indeed, sister. We shall take these relays apart and reverse-engineer them to add to our spaceships. Our borders should be solid, not spread out and open for other aliens to exploit."
Marcus recalled how bad it was in some of the territories in Mass Effect. Piracy? Slavery? Are you for real?
He won't bother with Mass Relays.
"Remember OUR goals." All of a sudden, he got deadly serious.
"WE shall have Humans on every single solar system in the cosmos. No more, no less. Cosmos belongs to us, not some Protheans or other aliens. This is our destiny." With his declaration, everyone in the room got goosebumps.
"YES! YOUR MAJESTY!"
~~~
"The relay thing is a huge object. It will take a considerable amount of effort to move it." Cornelia caught up with Marcus after the meeting.
"We can use their technology against them." He said plainly as he looked at the starry sky.
"Do you think these Protheans are there?" She looked where he was looking.
"...No, they are gone. Someone or something has dealt with them. The data is there, but we can't point it out or prove it." He said with a serious tone.
"...You mean there is a threat there? And why didn't it attack us when we were playing with sticks and stones?" She asked with crossed arms.
"If it's a sapient lifeform, it could have unique goals? Or has rules, my dear sister, there are many different possible answers to this." He smiled a bit.
"What we do know is that they abruptly left without an explanation. Legion concluded from the data that it was a retreat. Most likely something happened to them that they could not continue with their observations."
"Hmm…"
"As you can imagine—"
At that moment, a pair of slender hands wrapped around Marcus as he was hugged from behind.
"Lulu~~"
Cornelia turned to the side and looked at him. She saw her little sister hugging the Emperor.
"Euphie. What are you doing?" The War Princess asked with a resigned sigh. Her little sister only got more affectionate over the years. She is a bit afraid that she loves her brother a bit too much.
Given how genetic science has advanced over the years, she is a bit afraid that her little sister could cross a line one should not…
"Nothing~~" the pink-haired princess leaned her head against Marcus's back.
"It has been several days since I last saw Lulu. SO, I missed him." She explained herself.
"I missed you, too."
'And it doesn't help that he plays along.' Cornelia massaged her forehead. The Emperor, while he can be a ruthless man sometimes. He ends up doing pretty much everything Euphemia asks him to do.
It can be dangerous sometimes. As she was thinking, he turned around and hugged her for a second. The pinkette grinned from ear to ear before making a bit of distance from each other.
"Do you want me to keep the public clueless about what we found on Mars?" Euphemia asked him. Since she is part of the civil sector and is part of the military police, she is very flexible in opinion management.
"Do what you can. However, this won't stay silent for long."
"We could release the information but keep the site off limits." She suggested, all of a sudden, she got serious.
"Hmm, do it." Marcus nodded, then he got some ideas.
"Do it so that we can discover the ruins of an alien observatory. Spread the information that these could know about us for a long time and that we should be united more than ever in our goals to dominate the cosmos." The Emperor explained to her.
Euphemia sharply nodded. This was no longer a war between them, but it's them against other alien lifeforms. The Pink-Haired Princess will do everything in her power to keep THEIR peace, even if it means they have to shatter other species' peace in the process.
After talking to a pair of them, Marcus returned to his workshop in the Palace on top of the Citadel.
He needed to speak with someone else.
With a couple of presses on the holographic display, an image of a certain well-developed blonde manifested before him.
It was Shamna, his Priestess and someone who runs his Geass Order.
"I have read the reports. It would seem we are in the next stage now."
By the next stage, it means they are approaching the next level of politics now. From inter-human politics in a single world, it will now be interplanetary, interspecies politics among many species.
"Not there yet, but close."
"Fufufu, that expression. It's telling me something else." The woman seductively smiled at him, telling him that she could read his expressions quite well.
"Which part do you want to hear?"
"The honest one." She sharply said which one she wants to hear.
"In that case… I am worried. There could be a very dangerous threat hiding in the shadows of our Galaxy." He sighed while leaning in his chair.
"And I mean something frightening. The data is there. But we have no proof. It's like a murder scene, but we can't prove it. We know it's a murder… however, we can't call it a murder without proof. It's frustrating and hard to put into words.
"..."
Shamna nerviously nodded. When Marcus starts mumbling like that, she knows that this is serious; she hasn't seen him like that.
"What do you wish of me, Your Majesty?"
Marcus sighed as he massaged his forehead.
"I am diverting more resources to Geass technology development. The data we got from Protheans hasn't indicated whether they have or know about our Geass.
The brain-related technology could be our trump card.
I want you to increase in scale and reach a scale of mass production. If we can wield it en masse, we can destroy our enemies or even make them kill each other." He explained to her.
"However, do not rush this. This technology is dangerous. I don't want this blow-up in our face, do you understand? This is serious. I don't want someone to snap and cause a genocide or something like that."
He explained to her in a dead-serious tone.
Marcus knows that Geass could easily backfire because it's literally in its name. It's a byproduct of human minds, and human minds are not that trustworthy.
"Understood. I simply increase the scale of current research." The Priestess nodded at his orders.
"Good. I know I can trust you with that."
Just saying that caused her to smile as the call ended.
~~~
"I never thought it would come a day that we would be talking about something like aliens." C.C.'s voice said from behind Marcus as the Emperor was looking at the moon and the colonies in the night sky.
"I always knew they were there. I am a realist when it comes to this. It's simply impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. Just look how many galaxies, solar systems you see in the night sky." The Emperor said while he lifted his hand and 'grabbed' the stars themselves.
"But something next door? I lived long enough to know that this is not that simple." The green-haired Empress walked over to his side and looked at the stars herself.
"Indeed, this is why I am increasing the scale of production. Allocating resources to weapons, defence, and fortification technologies."
"...You assume they will want to conquer us?" She 'smiled' at him.
"Maybe not, but I will." He looked at her and smiled.
"It's our destiny to rule everything. We evolved by looking into the stars and wondering what is out there. We want to go there. That is the very same curiosity that made us not fear fire and lightning. It's what allowed us to crawl to the top of the food chain in this world and in the end in this very cosmos."
"...You don't need to persuade me of that." She shook her head as she leaned into his shoulder.
"...Heh…"
"For now… why don't you come with me? There is that one mission that you still need to fulfil ~~." She then moved and looked at him with lustful eyes.
"Is that why you were looking for me?" Marcus chuckled.
"I need to do my part in this conquest of the whole Galaxy. A son by the name of… hmm… Ah, right! Scipio would do just fine. He could be a great Conqueror who would conquer stars for your glorious Empire." C.C. began to pull him aside as she needed to continue with this task she had been working on for the past five years.
She has finally mastered the control of her Code and Geass. This is needed to make her 'mortal' when she is mortal, then it's possible for her to get pregnant. It's that simple: when she is immortal, her body is 'frozen'; some of her body functions don't work.
"You need to turn off your code as well!" C.C. complained as she could see a bird symbol on his chest.
Marcus achieved his Code in the South Pole, where he visited the thought elevator.
"As my Empress commands me~~~." Marcus chuckled at her behaviour.
~~~
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