The sound of waves beating against the belly of the great silver warship that streaked upon the blue expanse of the Mistver Ocean had an almost tranquil serenity to Juno Freya. The young Fainzi shivered underneath the cold breath of the morning winds which even her uniform padded with her undergarments could not stop
The mist hang thick over the waters with the only thing visible being the land ahead. A distant peak of mountains and hills that shimmered an unearthly blue underneath the touch of the rising sun. The Blue Belt was still a sight that took her breath away, few could say that they had lived to see continent born, much less one made from Blue Copper.
As the ships grew closer to the Blue Belt, she could feel the prickly tingling sensation of the concentrated amount of Mwari born of the Blue Copper ahead. It ran across her skin, raising hair and leaving the distinct taste of electricity in her mouth. She could almost hear a dull hum as if the Blue Copper that composed the Blue Belt was calling to the world.
With how mystical the Blue Belt looked Juno would have been forgiven for forgetting that no more than three hours ago, a bloody battle had been fought upon these very waters and it's shores.
Though the grizzly remains of that battle still remained as a reminder to all who dared to look into the deep aquatic abyss. From the prowl of the silver battleship, she could see the broken remains of other battleships, their once seemingly impervious halls torn open and exposing their water logged inners.
These twenty ton titans were now slowly vanishing beneath the waves of the Mistver Ocean to a grave that none could vist.
Amongst the corpses of these giants floated the scattered remains of airships. Seeing them made Juno wince. Before joining Zodiac, she had dreamed about a path in the Stratha, the Empire's air force, and in this aquatic cemetery, she could see what could have been her fate. The bodies or body parts of hundreds of thousands of men and women floated as grizzly remainders of mortality. Their blood blanketing certain portions of the Ocean as crimson patches.
"A true shame." an aged voice uttered besides her. Juno almost yelped in surprise, she turned quickly and saw Libra, the old elf of Zodiac. His weathered and leathery face looked even older as he looked into the mass of death that they sailed through.
"A shame?" She asked in confusion, as she looked back into the water.
"All of these dead boys and girls. Ours and theirs, a butchery and a waste of life." he responded, his eyes never leaving the waters.
Juno followed his gaze to the vast majority of dead in the water. Many did not wear the silver armor of the empire or the purple and black of the Luperon kingdom and princedom of Alan. Many of the bodies floating in the blue wore the emerald green and gold of the Ocean Lords and the scarlet of those nations that had thrown in their lot with them.
"They were traitors and Ocean Landers, this is the fate that they deserve." she responded, as her very physical heart almost seemed to tighten with contempt.
"Do not be too quick in lusting for blood, young Freya. They might have been rebels and our enemies, but it is always a shame when it comes to this." he said with a heaviness in voice and a slouch in his stance.
Juno wanted to argue with him, to tell him that his age was making him soft and emotional, but she respected the elder Zodiac too much to bring herself to do it. All that she did was bow to him in a show of acceptance. The old Zodiac responded with a smile and shuffled off, his form seeming more stricken and weedy.
Juno Freya had always desired to serve the empire in the eternal struggle against the Ocean Lords, they that had began the War Of Fire many millennia ago. Her family had a history in serving alongside the Zodiac in this important mission and it was with them that Juno and her sister joined.
The Zodiac were the second elite unit of the Unar Empire's military. They had cemented themselves with daring victories that every proud imperial patriot knew by heart.
"Juno!" her sisters voice rang out, halting her mental tirade.
Her eyes scanned for the familiar form of Ulfhild standing upon the other side of the deck, her armor glistening under the embrace of the rising morning sun. Her face as hard as stone, so different and yet so similar to Junos. And though the younger Fainzi nearly matched sister in height, she felt like a sapling before a oak, every time that she looked at her.
"Sister, a good morning." she mumbled out a barely audible voice with her face lowered to avoid her sisters hard golden gaze.
"Look me in the face when we talk. You are my sister, not my damn servant." Ulfhild grumbled and though every part of Juno's instincts were against it, she forced her face upwards to look at Ulhilds face. They might have been sisters, but Ulfhild had become everything that Juno marveled at and desired to become.
"Of... ah... of course... I mean, a good morning." Juno stammered out.
"Yes... a good morning." Ulfhild's voice was laced with a tinge of irritation. The Leo of Zodiac let out a deep breath and rubbed her face to sooth away the tension within her body.
Not that Juno could blame her, they should have been here to fight this battle, it was their duty. But the Commander-General, had them sweeping over that dread island of Fremeth, far too close to Meno-Ya-Chalo. What was it that they risked being swallowed into that dreaded storm of condensed Mwari? Juno didn't know. they just crawled through old ruins and tunnels which led to sections crawling with things best destroyed.
And now here they were, arriving as the actual fighting had ended. Juno could only imagine the way this shame would hang over the Zodiac for years.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, an icebreaker of a question for a clear answer.
"We should have been here. Our presence would have saved many of them, instead we are playing at N'angas and digging about old ruins for some old trinkets and abominations on Fremeth of all places." Ulfhild spat out, her face contorting into a tigress like snarl.
"Maybe, but we were looking for might be useful to win the war. Project apotheosis will save even more lives." Juno did not know who she was trying to convince, herself or Ulfhild.
Ulfhild rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Looks to me like nothing more than the old man having given to his delusions."
Juno gasped in horror as she processed what had just come out of her sisters mouth. If anyone heard her speak this way of the Commissioner-General, even the Mizihimo would weep.
" Sister, how could you say such a thing!" she hissed at her sister.
"Someone needs to say it. Dreams and fantasies can't win this war, Juno. We need to be out here, fighting through the trenches with our countrymen, not risking our lives so close to Fremeth and risking the touch of shadow." Ulfhild brought her fist to the nearest wall in anger, leaving her fists imprint in the steel. "This war is two thousand years old, should our children fight it as well? it has to end."
" Ulfhild please, do not say such things. The Commander-General has served for more than two hundred years, he knows exactly what he is doing." she pleaded with her elder sister as she softly placed her hand upon her sisters shoulder. "We will end this war and when we are old and my nephews and nieces are driving you mad, we will laugh about this time."
Ulfhild looked ready to respond with some more mutiniouse talk but after a second the elder Fainzi simply sighed in defeat. Her body posture that had been tight and tensed, slumped and she rubbed her face once more.
"You are right, I am just too tired and emotional after seeing all this." she gestured around them. "I should probably get some sleep."
Juno breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. " I was thinking about doing the same thing. Maybe it is best for us to rest".
Ulfhild finally smiled since they had started talking today, " let me escort you."
" That will be unnecessary, sister."
"You never complained before," Ulfhild said with a slight chuckle that reminded her of the Ulfhild who existed before she was made the lion of Zodiac.
"I was a seven year old child who thought monsters existed in her shadows." Juno reminded her and both sisters laughed as they thought about the past.
XXXXOOOOXXXXX
They arrived two hours later and Juno as well as the other four attendants were summoned to join the Commander-General who waited on the deck. Juno stood in her position amongst the vanguard parade , her axe held tightly in hand. They stood in the flanks with Zodiacs from Libra to Virgo standing at the front and rear, with the Commander-General at the center.
The ship's side lowered into a ramp and the attendants behind her took that as their signal to raise the scarlet banners of the Zodiac. The symbols of each Zodiac were drawn in a beautiful white paint upon the red cloth. Their first steps were taken in near perfect sync with each other like a well oiled machine.
The earth of the Blue Belt was intermixed with blue stones that jutted out of the earth like spears. Tendrils of pure Blue Copper lined the earth and intermixed with plant and water, their form was a never cooling molton liquid. Her eyes were moved away from the the familiar strangeness of the land to the troops who inhabited the beach of this new continent.
Many were alive, though blood stained white sheets lay across the beach in the tens of thousands. The living were an intermingling of Lunar Empire in their cold silver armour and Luperon troops in their purple regalia.
As Juno looked upon them, she could see blatant faces of contempt and anger that emerged from the exhausted dirty faces of men and women who had been fighting to take this beach for hours on end without Zodiac support. Some infantry man looked at them with a face contorted in hate, he spat at the blood splattered sand. Juno understood him and yet she could not hold down the rising vitriol at thought of some no name footman would dishonour Zodiac like this.
She instinctively tightened her grip upon her axe as her blood boiled with the desire to split the footman in two. But they simply continued further into the island were a hundred meters worth of land had its trees uprooted by the violent forces that had rendered the stone fortress which the Ocean Lords had raised here into smoldaring broken heaps of blackened stone.
They walked past the destroyed fortress to where an even greater gathering of the forces had gathered. As they approached the crowd parted and out of it walked a lone male Fainzi of a tall barrel chested stature. His black hair and beard in a wild disarray from the madness of battle that had taken place. He wore armor black as midnight, splatterings dirt and blood, though Juno doubted that the crimson life substance came from him.
" Commander-General Troder, I hail you." the black armoured Fainzi said with a respectful bow.
"Commander Nuadason, I hail you as well." the Lord Commander responded with a smile that appeared a little strained.
Juno looked at the Fainzi that many called the Black Raven for his onyx armor. Few were alive who had not heard stories of Conall Nuadason, the bastard half brother of the Emperor. He who had been born from a affair between the previouse Emperor and some random low born woman. She had heard of how their current Emperor had taken to raising his younger half-sibling after he came to the throne. Some said that Conall was arguably the greatest warrior of this age.
She very much doubted that. If the manwas as amazing a warrior as many claimed, he would have been brought into the Zodiac and taken up one of the mantels of the Zodiac.
"Well met, but I fear that you are late for the battle." the Black Ravens words though said in good humor gained many mocking chuckles and heckling from the mass of soldiers around them.
The Commander-General did not change the expression upon his face, even as Juno and her fellow Zodiacs glared at the crowd of soldiers who dared to throw obscenities their way without a care about who they insulted.
"A shame, I must be forgiven for missing this one battle. I am sure my past efforts in previous battles can grant me mercy for this one mess up."
" Your past efforts are always noted my Lord, though forgiveness is not for me to give. It is for EmperorNuada and him alone." the Black Raven responded with a smile that crossed the border into predatory, like a leopard with a antelope in its sights.
"I do hope so. Shall we go my dear Raven?"
"Of course, let's," the Black Raven replied and he led them forward to a series of silver tents where she knew the Emperor awaited them.
XXXXOOOOXXXXX
The tents that held the Emperor's quaters stood at the center of the camp with four whole rolls of guards who would have made it hell for anyone to pass. Thankfully the presence of the two Commanders and the Zodiacs, allowed them to simply pass the guards without a single fuss being raised by them.
Inside the tent, they found the Emperor and his aids standing around a floating war table with a near perfect representation of the Blue Belt. The war tables pieces were moved by unseen hands to reflect anything said by the Emperor or the Generals.
"...we can keep bombarding them with the lion cannons. Our scouts still cant confirm that their numbers have been reduced enough for a safe ground attack." the Emperor said as he gestured at a model of a blue mountain fortress.
The Emperor looked somewhat similar to the Black Raven, though while his half brothers armor was black as night, his was a milk white with the images of a scarlet half moon engraved upon it. Resting upon his head was a golden crow with the purple visages of beasts and thorns interlocked together.
"Your grace. Commander-General Troder and the Zodiac have arrived." the Black Raven declared, drawing the Emperors attention from the war table and to them.
"Commander-General Troder, I bid you a welcome." the Emperor said as he turned to face them and Juno winced in suprise as she saw that his blue Fainzi flesh had a deep shade around his left eye, a sign of bruising upon a Fainzi.
"I thank you for your graciousness, your majesty. I beg forgiveness for my late arrival." The Commander-General fell upon one knee as he spoke.
" There is nothing to be forgiven. I am sure that your impromptu visit to Fremeth was in the duty of some objective to the war effort." the Emperor paused and cast his accusatory gaze upon them. "Rise and speak, Troder."
"It was." the Commander-General replied as he arose from his knees.
"Really?" amongst the generals a young male Fainzi asked, his void dripping with mockery. " I would love to hear what these important objectives were?"
This young man was no general, his finely crafted purple and gold armor as well as the golden diadem upon his head made it clear that he was the prince himself. The beardless boy played with his spear, its tip stained with dried blood and its master looking eager to wet it again.
"Stupid brat." Juno thought as she looked at the impetuous boy.
"Prince Balor, it is a pleasure to see you as well." The Commander-General spoke with a calm compositor.
" Do not ignore my question. What were you doing that was so important to not lend your troops in our aid!" Prince Balor snapped as he stabbed his spear into the ground to emphasize his point. "We sent you summons a week ago and yet as we lost blood to retake this damn mine, you hid Leza-Mulungu knows where like a coward!"
"Balor, that is uncalled for." the Emperor reprimanded softly with his voice never even rising at the disrespect his heir exhibited. However his disapproval made the impetuous boy shrink into a more meek stance. He turned to the Emperor and he pleaded like the pampared child that he was.
"But father, what reason do we have to trust him. Has he forgotten the paramount need to keep the BlueBelt from falling to the Ocean Lords?"
"Prince Balor. " the Commander-General's voice was measured though his eyes burned like a lion. "What reason have you to trust me?. Have I not fought in the greatest of battles in the past centuries, did I not kill Marlock, Chulu, Paradza, Perseus, Constantine and Alaric, those champions of the Ocean Lords. Was it not I who led the vanguard into the Elephants pass, did I not lay the Empire's first Claim upon the Blue Belt in a battle that saw my own son slayed. Have I not...?"
" Enough! " Balor snapped at the rebuke, his blue Fainzi flesh now a deeper shade and his body trembling from the embarrassment. " Do you dare try and diminish the actions of others in those events, I fought and slew Constantine with my own men, all whilst you sat in a cave getting off of on leaves and worthless doodles left by some herder a thousand years ago!"
"Balor, calm yourself." the Emperor said once more and though the young prince looked ready to argue again, the Emperor's cold face silenced his flame of impotent rage.
"There is no need for all of us to become unnecessarily dramatic. I am sure that the Commander-General has important reasons to his actions. Which he will tell us now. " the Emperor spoke with a smile and yet his cold eyes made Juno squirm like his eyes were tearing into her flesh. "Now tell me, what have you found in Fremeth that could help in ending this war."
"I sought to find any possible locations on the Moon Dragon." the Lord Commander responded and Juno looked to him with suprise, for none of them had been told what they were looking for in Fremeth, only that it would help with Project Apotheosis.
"Well...did you anything?" The Emperor asked with a pointed look.
"We found nothing but barren rock." Commander-General shook a clear lie. Juno remembered all of collectedhundred artifacts from the lower levels of the ruins.
"So that is what you were doing, chasing fairy tales. " Prince Balor scoffed. "It looks like our mission to Valon was the only productive thing to happen this entire week. "
"Your grace, Valon is not to be trusted. They are a potential threat to us." the Commander-General said turning his attention back to the Emperor.
" Why would they not be trusted. As far as I see, they have kept out of this conflict and I would prefer them my friends than they be added to the pile of my already considerable number of enemies." the Emperor replied with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"They will step in sooner or later, the Blue Belt is too big a prize. Sooner than later we shall come to blows with them and if we are not careful the empire might burn. We must strike Valon now that they are unsuspecting, they must burn." the Commander-General almost pleaded.
" All so that we can open another front in this war with a fresh opponent who has not faced the ravages of war with the Conquering Sun himself at the helm?" the Black Raven asked with arms folded and a scowl that made his reassemblence to the Emperor even more uncanny.
"They might be fresh but they havent fought in a true war in so long. Their Crocodile War meant nothing, near everyone we have is a veteran of many recent battles. Valon's men might be fresh but that freshness also applies to their experience and skill, they can never prepare for us." The Commander-General argued passionately. "We must destroy them, before it is too late."
"I agree with Conall, this war is hard enough as it is. I will not begin a war with the Valonians unless I have to, regardless of what feelings you have for its rulers, are we clear?" the Emperor stated and for a second Juno thought that the Commander-General would say anything.
But finally he relanted and bowed before the Emperor whilst saying. "I will carry out the wisdom of your will and never stray from the path that you set for me."
As soon as they were back on the ship a grim faces Ulfhild came for Juno, she took her without saying much words and marched her to the personal quaters of the Commander-General where Libra, Virgo and Gemini awaited with the Commander-General.
Everyone had solemn faces, almost as if they were about to tell her about some death in her family. The Commander-General sat behind his desk that was littered with notes and old scrolls that filled the room with a sharp smell that reminded Juno of old leather couches that had seen several generations of owners.
"I will be quick about this." the Commander-General sat down on his wooden chair and grabbed a bottle of alcohol that was downed in one go. "Project Apotheosis has been pushed ahead of schedule. My partner and I have decided that we need to engage phase two. I am sending you into Valon to meet with our distinguished friends and get everything ready."
"But the Emperor..." Libra tried to argue but a raised hand from the Commander-General silenced him.
"I will deal with our Emperor and you shall deal with Valon. Should anything get in your way, Destroy it."