by Jessie Wolf
Now once again, I stand between those who would place themselves above the people of this great Empire. Only this time I cannot use my greatest asset to fight this battle. This time I must gather and train a force of teenagers to face off against an army of religious fanatics. “I must be out of my flipping mind.”
“No child, I highly doubt that you are out of your mind. In fact, I believe that of all those who have ever tried to do what you are so rapidly succeeding at, you are the only one to be in your right mind.” When I roll my eyes at her she just giggles. “Don’t roll your eyes at me missy. I know what I speak of. True I do not have the political experience that you may have, or the hard won combat experience; but I do know history. For over thirty three centuries humans have fought war over everything. Of them all religion, political gain, and money are the top three. In all of these only the war we are about to wage has been the greatest calmer of innocence. Wars of religion are too often fought by the young. Oh, make no mistake about this, daughter. You are about to fight a very religious war.”
“And how is that mama? Why does the Imperial Temples hate the Temple of Ida-ten so much? What did they do, to get those four orders outlawed? Please, I need to know what I am getting these young children into.”
“Very well, I will tell you of the rise of the Temple of Ida-Ten, and the man who caused its fall.” I watch as mama moves over behind her to the coffee pot there. Seeing this I sit down in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Mama did not say another word while she waited for the coffee to brew. I could tell that this piece of Imperial history really bothered her for some reason. All Dee De was able to pull up for me on the Temple of Ida-ten was a two paragraph long report giving the date it and its orders were declared outlaw by the Imperial Temple Elders and the Emperor Gregory. It didn’t give a reason for why or what had led up to their disbanding. It was as if the Imperial Temples were trying to destroy all evidence of their existence.
Once mama had made the two of us a cup of coffee she sat down. After reaching inside of her jacket, she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She took one out then passed me the pack with a smile. “Go ahead; you’ll need one by the time I get done. Yes, I know that I normally don’t approve, but I have taken to carrying them around for … certain times. I have found your habit of smoking to be a calming influence in times of extreme stress.” I didn’t wait to be asked a second time, as the past few days have really pushed my stress levels to the max. After lighting up and exhaling my first drag I looked over at mama across the rim of my coffee cup.
“Just over four hundred and fifty years ago during the time of the Antimav Emperors the Temple of Ida-ten was the only temple that was allowed to crown the Emperor. For over three centuries this was the way of things. Then shortly after the death of Emperor Alexander Antimav there was a power struggle between his twin sons. You see he did not name one of them as his successor. The two men pressured the Abbott of Ida-ten to declare one of them Emperor. He refused saying that it was not the place of his Temple. The problem was only the Temple of Ida-ten was authorized to declare one of them Emperor. At that time all of the Imperial Temples answered to the Temple of Ida-ten in these matters. It was his lack of foresight that leads to one of the bloodiest moments in the history of the Temples.”
She leaned back in her chair and got a faraway look in her eyes as if she was remembering the time as if she was there. “It was not long before both sons gathered their own military forces and attacked each other. When the Knights of Ida-ten stepped in to restore order that was when things got out of hand. You see at the Battle of Imperial Hill the Knights of Ida-ten fought against both armies trying to restore the peace. This in turn weakened Prince Joseph’s army severely. This allowed Prince Gregory to move his forces into position to attack Prince Josephs’ Headquarters. During that attack Prince Joseph was killed.” Once again mama stopped to take a drink from her coffee and a drag from her cigarette.
I could tell that this story was not something most Temple People want to get out. If a Temple was responsible for one of the bloodiest time in our history the fallout would be catastrophic. I could see why they would want the Knights and Temple of Ida-ten outlawed, but something didn’t ring true with what mama said. “What was the reason for the Abbotts delay?”
“Very good, Maiha, you have found the fly in the ointment. There was a reason for the Abbotts refusal to crown one of the brothers. What most people did not know at that time was this. There was a third son with a far greater claim to the Throne. He was older than the twins by five years. The problem was that the eldest son was on the far side of the Empire at the time. He had also married into one of the High Families of the planet he was on. Because of the great distances, word of the Emperors death would not arrive for two years. It was because of this delay and the fact that the elder brother was unknown to them that they went to war. You see the elder brother was illegitimate. He was the result of a university love affair. The Emperors family disapproved of the relationship so the girl was paid to disappear with the child and never tell anyone of the child’s father. Only the Emperor Alexander did tell someone, his confessor a young priest in the Order of Saint George and a member of one of the four orders for the Temple of Ida-ten.”
“OH shit! I can see it now. That priest goes on to become the Abbott for the Temple. In seeking to right the wrong done to the true heir and his mother the Abbott tried to place him on the Throne.”
“Exactly, Maiha. That is exactly what happened. When the Abbott still refused to crown Prince Gregory the other Temples demanded an answered as to why. When he still refused to answer them until he could locate the missing son, the other Temples appointed and crowned Prince Gregory. Because Gregory felt he had been slighted by the Temple of Ida-ten and to make them pay. He had the Imperial Temples outlaw the Temple of Ida-ten and placed a death warrant on the heads of all the Knights of the Republic. He felt that they were the ones to blame for the war.”
“So an arrogant Royal, cast the blame on the ones trying to keep the peace for the death of his brother. All that bloodshed for a pretender to the Throne of the Empire or was there more to it?”
“Oh, yes there was a good deal more. The Imperial Temple that rose to power in the place of Ida-ten received a Royal License as the Imperial Temple. Their two Military orders were declared as the only legal Temple Guardians of the Imperial Temples.”
“Let me guess. That would be the Orders of the Black Rose and Crimson Shield. Making the Temple of Holy Light the top dogs of the Imperial Temples. So tell me whatever happened to the illegitimate son? You said he married into a High Family House, but not which one.” I think mama was trying to avoid telling me that little piece of information. And the look on her face confirmed it.
She took her time in giving me an answer. She got up and fixed us both another cup of coffee and lit another cigarette before getting around to it. Seeing as how she was going to have another I join her by taking one for myself. I could tell that she was stalling for time. This was some that must be very painful or very embarrassing. When she finally saw that I wasn’t going to change the question she relented.
“He was the great, great, great, great, great, granduncle of me and Matsu. Yes, you heard me correctly. It was our family that he married into much the way you did. Before you ask that branch of the family died off after two generations. He and my many times great aunt had only one child before both died of sickness. Their daughter left Hades with her husband a man by the name of Orwell. They died during the first year of the Frost Pines colony. They lost so many of the colonists during that first winter. No one knew how bad the winters were on that planet.”
“So no one knows if they had any children or not.”
“True, but it is unlikely they did. Anyway, it was the Emperor Gregory that gave the Black Rose and Crimson Shield the manpower to destroy the Temple of Ida-ten and the Four Swords of the Empire. All of whom were unjustly accused of High Treason to the Empire. It t
ook them almost thirty years to completely destroy the orders, or so they thought. The four orders went underground for a good deal of time. Unfortunately, time accomplished what the full might of the Antimav House military and the Temple of Holy Light failed to do. With no new penitents the orders faded into the passages of time.”
When I heard this everything began to make sense to me. For over four hundred years the underground Temple of Ida-ten has protected the secret of the true Emperor and his blood line. The Four Swords may have disappeared, but if those orders are revived in any way they become a threat to the Imperial Temples power base and the Emperor. To be exact a threat to the Temple of Holy Light and Cardinal Richelieu.
“So, what you’re saying is that no matter what, Richelieu is going to be coming after us. We may not know the secret of the lost heir, but he can’t let us find out. Even though we know that in all likelihood there is no lost heir. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“That is exactly what I am saying, daughter. That man would be coming after us regardless of what you do or don’t do. For over four hundred years our family has kept this secret. Now you know the Nakatoma family’s greatest and darkest secret. Well daughter, no, James do you still doubt what you are doing here?” the fact that she used my original name did not go unnoticed by me. That act alone guarantied she would get my honest opinion.
I reached over and took out another one of her cigarettes and lite up. I got up and fixed us both another cup of coffee. I needed time to think over what mama had just told me. The fact there might be an heir to the Antimav blood line would shake the very foundations of the Empire. After the death of Emperor Nicholai Antimav the imperial Throne passed to the current Imperial Family because of their marital ties. If I could find a living member of that lost bloodline the possibilities would be endless. All I needed was the colony lists from Frost Pine for that first year. Once I had that I could find out if Dai Etsu and Matsu ancestors had any children.
Then again did I really want to over throw one of my oldest friends and a man I had sworn to protect? Could I really break my word of honor? Yes, I had given him an ultimatum not that long ago in front of hundreds of silent witnesses. The more that I thought on it the more I realized that I needed to remove the Temple of Holy Light first, before going any further. I had wandered over to the window in mama’s office and was looking out across the campus at the construction going on.
I was surprised to see that the wall between the two schools already gone. Now this would normally take one HCP Suit all day, but then I saw the answer to how it was done so quickly. Instead of just the four I saw leaving this morning the entire Household contingent of sixteen were here. With eight HCPS’s they can have the foundations for the new Temple dorms done within a day, two at the most. Within a month the outer walls and inner structural support walls will be in place. By the end of the month they’ll be laying the Temples foundations.
However they have all sixteen of the House’s HCPS’s. I have no idea of how fast or what they will be able to get done. There were four off to one side working on an area that looked like they were building a training range. My House Engineers had already surveyed and staked out the training range. I could see the holographic projectors being setup by one of the HCPS’s. The other three looked to be building the control tower and observation building. Over on another part of the campus the last four were laying the foundations for what looked like one of the largest APS hangers I have ever seen.
Where in the Hell am I going to get enough APS units to fill that monster? The average cost of an APS was close to a million credits. That was one of the reasons why there were so few mercenary units who owned their own APS outright. The fact that I had given the APS’s to the pilots of my House Military cost House Nakatoma a great deal of money, but it had a return benefits far beyond the bankbook or accounting ledger. Could my House afford to do that again? Using Dee De and Charlie I quickly check our accounts. What I find there damn near causes me to spit out the coffee I had just taken into my mouth.
I knew that House Nakatoma was wealthy, but what I saw there was beyond anything I could have imagined. If the figures I was seeing were accurate, and I had no reason to doubt it, the Nakatoma Family had an income equal to close to three quarters of the planet Hades. Even with all of the expenses of running the estate, taking care of the Temple, supporting one of the largest private military units, the costs of running what looked like eight different boarding schools and two colleges, plus a myriad of other things, there was no way I could possibly spend the entire income of my House.
Even with paying for the total construction of the new Temple I have only spent a tenth of my personal money. That was when I saw that I still owned my Research and Development Company. I had inherited my own company. Talk about crazy. I was my own heir. No wonder, why mama never questioned my spending. Until now I had not thought of the monetary cost of this little experiment. Then again, if I had to, I could reach into the Planetary budget as the Governor. Sure, I knew that if I used the excuse of upgrading the schools, I would be stretching the truth; but it would have worked, if needs be, for a while. Thankfully I would not need to do that. Hell I wasn’t even collecting my pay as Governor.
I could do this and I could do it right. That hanger looks like it will be big enough to hold one hundred and ten APS’s. If I brought mine and my family’s here that would drop a good chunk of the cost. Also, it would basically cover the assault class and command unit all at one time. As I am trying to figure out where I am going to get one hundred APS’s when Dee De points out that there are currently twenty of all five weight classes setting in ware houses at the Nakatoma Iron Mountain Manufacturing facility. I just needed to figure out how many I really need and can afford.
Mama had walked over besides me and was looking at where I was. “I have already placed the order for the APS’s stored at Iron Mountain. Before you ask we own those AP Suits already. Those are the reserve replacement units for our House Military. It has been the family’s policy to always have at least one full battalion's worth in storage. We change them out every few years so that we always have the state of the art equipment for our House Troops. My great grandfather put that policy in place and none of us since have seen to change it.”
“Mama, those are for our House Military, I will not short them to get these Order’s outfitted.” When mama starts to giggle at this comment she knew I have given her, my answer to her question. “The Temple of Ida-ten can wait until we can afford to get the AP Suits or more can be built.”
“Oh Maiha, that is the beauty of it all. Those APS units are all the old APS units from when we replaced them last year. The Suits have all been paid for, for over five years now. They are only there in storage until we could sell them off or in case of an emergency. Now, who shall you mate with those beautiful machines? Will you only allow the Dragons Daughters to be pilots for them, or will you keep them only for the Black Sword of Saint George?”
Looking over at her I smile. “Neither mama, if we get all eight hundred of the students between the two schools I plan to make a fifth order.”
“Five order for the new Temple of Ida-ten? There has never been five orders within that Temple. What will you name this new order and why are you forming it?”
“Mama, I know there has never been a fifth order of the Knight of the Republic. However with the size of the student bodies and the equipment we now have I need to break them up into more than just the four orders. While the Nightingales will be our Healers, the Brothers of Balance will be arbitrators, and the Dragons Daughters and Black Swords peacekeepers. It will be the brothers and sisters of the order of Mars that supplies them with the firepower to enforce their decisions and covers their asses.” The look of surprise that comes to mama’s face when she hears the name of the new order is priceless.
Just as she surprised me earlier with knowledge of the AP Suits, I was able to surprise her with the name of the new order. I had been thinking over
how I was going to break down that large of a force to get the most bang for the buck, as it were. Yah she gave me the idea for the name. As I was thinking about it I realized that I needed to give the new Temple one more edge. Looking out over the grounds between the two schools I spot the perfect spot for my change. It didn’t need to be extremely long, in fact it only had to cover a hundred and fifty meters. The area would be perfect for both the hangar and flight line.
“Mama, do we practice the policy with our halo attack aircraft?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact we do. Just a moment and I’ll have the information for you.” I could tell she was accessing her AI for the information. “There are currently thirty halo attack craft over at the Haven Spaceport warehouse hangar waiting to be sold off. They are a mix of ground attack and interceptor/fighter craft.”
“Does House Nakatoma still own them?”
“Yes. Why? What are you up to now Maiha?”
“There is ancient military saying, mama. ‘Own the skies, own the battlefield.’ It was a General in the United States Army Air Corps by the name of Howell who said this. This fact has been proven true since the dawn of fight. Even to this day with all the firepower we can pack into an APS one good halo pilot can turn the tide of battle faster than anything else.”
“So, you plan to not only give this Order of Mars teeth, but claws as well. Very good, daughter, I see that you have grasped the true danger of the Rose and Shield. Do you believe that when they come they’ll come all at once or over a period of time?”
“If the Cardinal is smart, and listens to his advisors, they’ll come at us with everything they have all at once, including the kitchen sink. To be honest with you mama, if I was one of his advisors I would send in a fast, light, highly trained strike force before we have time to train the new orders. The longer he gives us to train them, the harder it will be to shut us down. Now if that should happen then we’ll have a much bigger problem on our hands.”