INIQUITOUS DOMINION: The Galactic Classic

by Justin Conley

  EPILOGUE: HOW TO CONTINUE

  With the death of Hector Bozario Lysander Santos, the Santos family line that started in brutal fashion ended in the exact same manner. The ATM rejoiced as the news of the Crystal Metropolis Rebellion right in line with the Battle of Solaria resonated to the stars.

  Also, the death of Hector scored a victory for the Second Renaissance. After so many wars the Santos waged to control the desert planet, with the exception of Ichiamo's victory through diplomacy, none of them were able to conquer Solaria. Second Renaissance ministers and religious figureheads claimed the planet as their own.

  However, one lingering question remained: what happens now?

  Every ruler that appeared on the throne emerged from the line of Pisanio Santos. With no more of the line, the Crystal Metropolis throne was up for grabs. So far, there were many contenders, but no one deemed worthy to take it on after what happened with Hector.

  For the next three years after the death of Hector Bozario Santos and the Crystal Metropolis Rebellion, the newly appointed leader Menelaus was given the chance to clean up the mess that Hector and the entire Santos regime made. He entered the ATM history books as the first strator to become a leader of the planet. Before that time, the law and royalty never merged, nor could a strator make himself a king.

  Menelaus became known as Menelaus Santos, taking the advice of the person that presented the idea to him by using the last name as a title.

  He was also given another title. Using the model of Second Renaissance hierarchy, the age of the kings as a title at an end, the days of the trader were born.

  It was a trying transition, but a new age was inevitable. Menelaus knew this as well as anyone, but a part of him didn't want to be the first one to spearhead it.

  Maybe the second, he thought.

  However, he made it worked for him. Among his first few years, he had to get Crystal Metropolis back to the way it was, and he needed the rest of the ATM to do it. Eventually, Crystal Metropolis went back to normal, but the majesty it possessed during the Santos family regime has lost its luster.

  The people of the ATM knew that Crystal Metropolis would no longer have that kind of richness. Like the change of rulers and titles, soon Crystal Metropolis' title as the capital of the galaxy would be relinquished and become just another planet that just happened to be located in the center of the ATM.

  Another planet had to take on the central stage for the ATM.

  Luckily, there was one planet already pushing the agenda of the new age of the ATM:

  Solaria.

  Ever since the last battle that brought down the aura of invincibility from the Democrat Guards, the rebel soldiers rebuild what was lost. Most of those brave men and women became leaders in their own right. Three of the heroes’ future generations would form political families in Solaria, thus making the desert planet the most influential: the Gaines, the Fentons, the Lavatchs and the Cartiers.

  With the help of Second Renaissance, also going through changes in doctrine while sticking to the Code, Solaria would become an enhanced and peaceful place to live. Opportunities presented themselves as Solaria backed the campaign of Menelaus to rebuild Crystal Metropolis. In return, Menelaus sent some of its operations into Solaria’s only moon newly named Ellsinore after the safe haven used to build Solaria’s Second Renaissance Army.

  Many predictions came into the reign of Trader Menelaus. Besides predicting that Solaria would become the new capital, there would be future Santos traders. He knew that not only strators will become authoritative leaders, but also regular citizens would take the throne. Good, bad, or indifferent, the Santos name remained as a reminder to the galaxy that if not for the warlord known as Pisanio Santos, there wouldn't be a reason for change.

  Menelaus would continue his reign as the Santos trader for the next two decades. They were to be peaceful times with no power struggles or hostile takeovers.

  When Menelaus died, another strator would rule. The first seven traders of the ATM would be strators. It would be after the death of the seventh around 160 B.E. that the rule changed hands from a strator to a curser, thus filling another page in the Aventine Monarch Galaxy’s history books.

  However, for the next few decades, it would be the cursers that would bring on more wars and carnage. Most of them took on the roles of warlords like Pisanio Santos. Unlike him, they wouldn't live to be elders. A total of ten cursers ruled as traders during this period would live fast and die young, not making it over thirty years of age.

  Then, there would be another influx of change. Going into the 190's B.E., a citizen of Crystal Metropolis would become the first to take the throne without having any kind of royal tides. He became one of the best rulers to ever live. He was the descendant of a man from Solaria; and to some that knew of him and his legend, the same descendent that set everything in motion for a new transition.

  His name was Darmon Ramirez.

  Darmon and his future family would rule, becoming the first time a family legacy ruled the ATM since the Santos. That was, until an old adage from the past reared its ugly head in the form of a dynastic power struggle between future children, eventually destroying their rule.

  Before that, it was a time of peace and tranquility.

  Then, a woman from Solaria, an offspring from a merger between two of Solaria’s dominant political families in a new century that would put her into the ATM history books twice: the first woman in the ATM to rule the Crystal Metropolis throne after being abandoned for so long and the first woman to become a sole ruler in her own right, bridging the gap between her and Santos predecessors Luciana Boardwalk Santos and the Lysander sisters Katharina and Bianca.

  Basically, life went on in the ATM after the original Santos family died out. Throughout the history, it would always remember the Aventine Monarch Galaxy's first royal family meant something as well as the first century that set the tone for the galaxy's future.

  In the end, no matter what, it was a new machine...