166 A Blossoming Love...
"Never expected we would be stationed in Tunisia of all places across Africa." Emi Taliris, a female Xlartanian Commander and currently the one in charge of her Regiment that consisted of 3,000 soldiers.
Currently they were tasked with ensuring the peace and development of Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia.
Emi wasn't the only Commander situated in Tunisia, but since she held the capital, the other Commanders likened her to their superior.
Beside Emi stood Sam, a Zadrisian scientist whose field of expertise was creating Powered Armour Suits for the military forces of the Space.
Right now, he and Emi were viewing the soldiers testing out the newly designed and constructed DEUS Powered Armour Suits which combined a mixture of Armour Suits into one.
The current forces deployed only had access to the CE-01 Powered Armour Suit but certain squads and legions of the Space found themselves with the MJOLNIR and ODIN Powered Armour Suits after some modifications were made to make them more efficient and impactful during combat.
HardLight Energy shielding was made more efficient and easier to deploy during combat without needing to make a selective choice to activate the protective measures.
Emi found the DEUS Powered Armour Suit to be exponentially better than the current CE-01 deployed but she understood the DEUS Powered Armour Suit would be reserved for the team eventually settling in the Tartarus Zone.
A part of Emi wanted to argue with Kane and Vaazakra to get the DEUS Powered Armour Suit for her Regiment, but Sam assured her that the next armour, CE-02, would be close enough to match the durability and overall endurance of the DEUS Powered Armour Suit.
Just on the coast of the Gulf of Tunis, Emi and Sam watched two squads of 20 equipped in the DEUS Powered Armour Suit while conducting war games.
Certain members of the Regiment got the opportunity to use the suits while moving cargo from the ships that docked at their newly constructed port.
The Suits greatly reduce the strain on the body and made it easier to move without heavy restrictions of weight crashing down on them.
.
"To be fair… we have the ability to head over to Europe in no time.
I even thought about going over to Naples for some dinner tomorrow.
Care to join me?" Sam asked Emi since he didn't want to tour around a foreign city on his own.
"Sure, I'll tag along." Emi had to stop and think about her plans for the following night.
Thankfully the important meeting was in a few days' time when the conversation would revolve around landing an attack on Israel, Lebanon, and Syria before further expanding out into the Middle East.
Turkey was involved in the plans but other than that, Emi wasn't privy to anything else regarding the meeting discussion points.
The two sat back and enjoy the sights in front of their eyes while another member of the Space was cursing at his bad luck to be stuck in the middle of the desert.
Vishal joined up with a large team of Construction Androids and Veveliaans who activated production and crafting abilities.
Their job was to extent the Chott el Djerid by connecting the Rivière that allowed the Mediterranean Sea to send water through, filling up the Salt Lake.
The Construction Androids needed to extent the man-made river through Tunisia and Algeria before moving through the Sahara Desert towards Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and other nations until it the river exited into the North and South Atlantic Ocean.
Esmond's plan was to establish a second River Nile throughout the continent and help develop the lands from their dried state to something more luscious and greener.
Sam wanted to go and see the progress of the Construction Androids, but he wasn't allowed to leave Emi because of the DEUS Powered Armour Suits.
Eventually he settled on going to visit Europe for dinner with Emi, as long as the Suits were packed away and stored inside his personal Spatial Storage Ring.
What neither expected from their dinner was a blooming friendship that tied them closer to one another.
.
"~We will be soon arriving at the space anomaly, Tartarus Zone~" Celeste's voice rung out throughout the bridge deck of both the SAT Vocatus and PSS Necthea.
Carter, who were currently stationed on the PSS Necthea, decided to inform the fleet ready within the Space that they should prepare to move into the Tartarus Zone soon.
Esmond, while also stationed on the PSS Necthea after returning from the Space, told the Atlaesus Group to return to the bridge deck since they left to wonder around the crew lounge and access the Holospace that was built into the Starship.
The operational system of the holodeck used a combination of projected light and electromagnetic energy to create the illusion of solid objects.
Using HardLight technology perfected inside the Virtual Labs and the refined electromagnetic energy, the Spatial Ark Star World's Holospace permitted the users to enjoy the food and drinks of the events or times they wished to visit or see.
Some of the members of the Atlaesus Group who came onto the PSS Necthea already tried out the Holospace only to find themselves screaming to spend more time in the Starship device.
Sung of House Yi couldn't help but go back to see the first people who established the Yi dynasty in Korea and Joseon.
Similarly, the other Atlaesus Group members went looking back at the origin of their Houses, only to be surprised by the ruthlessness of the times and its affect on the founders of their Houses.
When Zaro came to the bridge deck, he informed Esmond about their family and its origin, which surprised Esmond since it appeared to be the only Royal House around the world that wasn't affected by internal conflicts due to their close familial connections.
Using this basis, Zaro tried to sightly influence Esmond to understand their family meant much more than power and influence within the free world, that it had become now.
Even if House Atlaesus understood it needed to be involved more in the free world politics and power struggle, Zaro wanted Esmond to know that family matter above all else.
Hearing Zaro's speech to Esmond, Carter decided to chime in as memories of another past came to his mind.
.
'… He sounds much alike Aliosa, when the old man tried to take away your research…' Carter remembered how Esmond's younger brother in another lifetime asked him to give up the research results to their grandfather, the Emperor.
Esmond refused at first to hand over the research data but after his younger brother came to visit him, speaking about the strength of their family and its closeness.
Unfortunately, Esmond wasn't lucky enough to survive the wrath of his grandfather and ended up dying before his family members, while smiling mischievously at his younger brother, who was horrified by the actions of their grandfather.
Esmond also noticed the same precious spark in Zaro and decided already in the depths of his subconsciousness to safeguard his cousin's heart from being corrupted like Aliosa who lost all of his kindness and love after Esmond's death.
'If Aliosa never saw my death with his own eyes and saw the cruelty of the old man, maybe he wouldn't have lost the spark of love and life in his heart.' Esmond replied back to Carter through their mental connection with one another.
Always able to know what occurred after Esmond's death, Carter watched Aliosa split aware from the Imperial family until he left in self exile with his wife and children to live a simple life once Esmond died.
Unable to trust anyone else in the Imperial family, including his own parents who asked him to convince Esmond to pass the research data to their grandfather, Aliosa blamed himself for his brother's death.
In the end, Aliosa lived out a peaceful life away from the Imperial family, even if they kept a close eye on the future heir after Esmond's demise.
Eventually, Aliosa ended his life after his wife and children passed away because of an unruly neighbour who wasn't a fan of the Imperial family.
Those who guarded Aliosa in the shadows were told to not interfere by their Emperor, the same person to end Esmond's life.
He wanted Aliosa to understand that the lady and children birthed into the world weren't truly part of their sacred Imperial family.
The Emperor wanted his last remaining grandson and future heir after his own son, wanted Aliosa to marry someone from an influential family rather than allowing a commoner women to become the Empress, yet his actions led Aliosa to kill himself out of grief, turning the Imperial family on its head.
Esmond's and Aliosa's parents lost all that they truly cherished in life, yet they only realised when it became too late to intervene.
In the end, they gave up their rights to the throne and moved away from the Empire after losing all that truly matter to them.
Even the Emperor failed to keep them from leaving, as regret filled his heart at his own actions, but it was too late.
.
Thinking of the past, Esmond thought about tightening the familial relationship between himself and the rest of House Atlaesus and its Branch Houses.
His only problem was the rules and laws of the Atlaesus Empire that didn't allow him to enter his true homeland, so Esmond could only wait for the result from the head of Noble Houses and the Emperor for joining the Spatial Ark Star World.
Everything told him it would work out, especially since the Atlaesus Group members all loved their time in the Space so far and their current adventures.
Zaro also appeared to be someone who wanted the Empire to join the Spatial Ark Star World because of its many benefits compared to their current method of hiding from the world and behaving in secret.
While thinking over the destiny of his true homeland and the future of the Spatial Ark Star World, Esmond noticed the startlingly huge space anomaly that made a rip through the abyss.
The display monitor on the bridge deck surprised every member of the crew who saw the images of the space anomaly, only to be left amazed by the beauty and chaos of deep space.
"Here we go…" Esmond said, before giving the okay to the pilots to enter the anomaly, leading into the great unknown Tartarus Zone, a place Esmond believe he wouldn't enter within the next decade at the very least.
