Behind the moon, quite a bit of action was happening, as Marcus had deployed most of his assets to this specific location.
The reason is that the far side of the moon is where Veda and Celestial Being, the mothership, are located.
The whole mothership thing was Aeolia Schenberg's side gig, a shadow project for humanity's survival in case aliens would turn hostile.
'Though I doubt if you had something like Reapers, your scheme would work, old man.'
The Emperor thought about it as he looked at the black box surrounded by multiple green consoles. The black box was more specifically a Dodecahedron.
"...This is it… Veda… damn, that is one big computer." Lockon commented as he looked at it. At that moment, Marcus A.S.P poured in, followed by mechanics and engineers.
"It is, a quantum computer is quite something, even my Legion is lacking in some fronts to this computer, and he gets support from my entire Empire," Marcus commented as he walked over and activated his code and interacted with the Computer.
Lockon looked surprised to see Marcus' chest glowing red.
'This must be his Precurson civilisation power.'
Soon enough, the floor section of the Veda opened, and a capsule was raised.
The Ex-Celestial Being's pilot sharply inhaled when he saw who was in the capsule.
"Aeolia Schenberg… damn…"
Soldiers and engineers picked the capsule, making sure the old man was fine inside it.
"Take him to Celestial Being, and prepare that asteroid for usage. We will use it as a base." Marcus instructed after turning off his interface with Veda.
"You are going to use that thing?"
"Yes, that is why you got Euclides for me."
Euclides is the moving factory that Lockon acquired for him after collecting Gundam 1 and GN cannons.
The mobile factory will manufacture assets which wil be used to develop Celestial Being Mothership. Marcus is planning to build a defensive line around Jupiter when ELS arrive.
Since the Emperor is aware of what they are, he can build specifically for them and, most importantly, develop GN drives en masse in that location. The excess of those can be shipped to his Empire.
The thing is, he has around… 7 years? But that's the canon timeline, and he can't trust that anymore. Simply because he doesn't have someone flexing their Brainwaves to attract the living metal, Setsuna is not even in this reality anymore. He has moved Setsuna to Marcus' Earth to get some holidays.
"I never expected something of that size to even exist. Celestial Being keeps impressing me with its size." Lockon shook his head; his old organisation was massive in scale.
"Indeed, thanks to you, I can rebuild all of that in my Empire.
I was a bit surprised as well. Moving factories never crossed my mind. I might be old-fashioned in that regard. Factories should be stationary, but Celestial Being proved me wrong, and I will learn from it, innovate." Marcus smiled. It might sound 'evil' or 'cruel', but war and conquest are what allow one to adapt and improve.
"I see… so you are collecting all of that and will build similar assets in your Empire." The sniper nodded; Marcus was learning from Celestial Being.
"Indeed, Rome was one of the greatest empires in human history, not because of some fancy doctrine but because it would learn from their enemies and improve itself.
They learned smithing and ship building from Carthage, hell, they copied gods from Greeks to look more like Greeks because they idolised them."
"...I am not big on History…" Lockon scratched one of his cheeks; the conversation took a turn he was not good at.
"You should, you are part of Rome now." Marcus chuckled as he said that.
"...Rome… But I thought…" The guy was confused for a second.
"I didn't take the Holy Roman Empire name because Napoleon dismantled it, I went with Holy Byzantine Empire because I hold Constantinople as my personally controlled domain, and to put it bluntly, Byzantine is Rome, just that western Europeans didn't like to call it Rome, they call it 'Greek Empire'." Marcus shrugged a bit; it was thanks to religion and the whole Great Schism thing.
"...Ugh…"
"Yeah, I know, jealous bastards." Marcus thought that was why Lockon was groaning, but it was not the case; the whole definition was confusing to him!
"Anyway, let's make Celestial Being livable first, then we can meet the illustrious founder of your old organisation."
"I am curious to see what he will say." The sniper smiled immediately when the conversation returned to where it was supposed to be!
~~~
A bit later, more people joined Marcus and Lockon aboard Celestial Being.
Fereshte's old leader, Chall Acustica and Leesa Kujo were there. None of the younger girls came with them, as those were with Milly.
The Empress took them as 'hers' as she wanted to spend time with them. She wants some female friends who are aware of her identity, and there is nothing to hide.
Besides what she told her husband, they want to compare notes on her world with their, a cultural exchange kind of thing.
Marcus shrugged at her and told her to do whatever she wanted. The guys who worked in Ptolemaios moved to Academy City. One of them was half a cyborg, which was wild, as the Emperor had forgotten that one of the crew was a literal trove of information on robotics and cybernetics.
Something Lloyd will find fascinating to play around with.
This only led these two ladies, who wanted to see Aeolia Schenberg in person.
…
…
…
It took a while, as the cryo capsule opened and a bald man in his… forties or fifties slowly emerged and looked around. It was a considerable-sized hall, and there were black-armoured people spread out in strategic spots throughout the area.
"...It appears my plan has failed." This was the conclusion the founder of Celestial Being came to.
"The Earth Sphere has been united under me, Aeolia Schenberg," Marcus replied as he walked over and stood in front of him.
"It was a bit of a flawed plan of yours." The Emperor poked at the genius before him.
"How come? Do tell me where I was wrong?" He frowned. The bald genius spent years devising the steps that would lead to his vision.
"You might be a genius who created the concept of GN Drive, the orbital system, but you lacked understanding of human nature." Marcus motioned for him to follow him.
He got a table ready with a set of chess.
"...hmm…"
Seeing that board game made the Genius, a bit… interested.
"Very well. Though, do tell who I am playing against?"
"I will, I will even tell you my story, so that you can understand the current world's situation." Marcus smiled thinly at him.
~~~
A bit of distance away, the trio from Celestial Being looked at Marcus, and the Founder of Celestial Being sat down in front of a table with a chess set.
The game started moments later.
"You think he even wants to recruit Aeolia Schenberg? Do you think that will even work?" Lockon Stratos whispered to Leesa Kujo and Chall Acustica.
"...knowing how proud he is, I bet that this is his final goal in this reality." The Tactical Forecaster nodded; she was positive this was what she expected from him.
"...If he does, I will be extremely impressed." The Fereshte leader nodded, though she is doubtful this will work.
~~~
Marcus explained to the old man the precursor civilisation cycle, how he ended up here, his world, and the difference in history.
And the conquest of this world, and how they have ended up here.
Of course, he mentioned how Celestial Being failed without someone to guide them towards the future.
"The innovades were supposed to unite humanity and lead them towards the stars." The bald man replied after listening patiently. He concluded why his plan failed.
There was a lack of Innovades capable of doing it.
"They were supposed to be the guides, with Veda's help, they should have united humanity when Celestial Being was doing their interventions.
Clearly, there was an issue somewhere there." He stopped playing chess and pondered instead.
"Indeed. You forgot that your Innovades were not some new species of beings, but humans with nanomachines and Quantum Brainwaves.
Some of these Innovades went rogue because they concluded that serving humans was beneath them."
"Impossible, they are programmed to follow the plan." The man frowned at this news.
Marcus instead pulled out a flat disc and placed it on the table; a hologram appeared above it, showing several innovades.
Their faces were familiar to Aeolia Schenberg… he knew the original donors who gave their DNA to Veda.
"These are Innovades that went against your plan, or more precisely, desired to amend the plan."
He pointed specifically at Ribbons Almark.
"This one specifically, Ribbons Almark, he was the original pilot of Gundam 0, the first ever Gundam Meister.
He went rogue after realising how much weaker humans were than he was, and he ended up believing he was the messiah who needed to guide them, as he saw fit.
I have all of his plans recorded for Celestial Being and Innovades, what he intended to do and how he was planning to prepare for dialogues to come." Marcus swirled the image of a long-dead Innovade.
*Sigh*
"So it was human nature in the end." Aeolia Schenberg sighed as he realised that his plan had failed.
"Indeed, it's the sin we geniuses have… You believed that everyone could be just like you. But people can be… extremely random, and extremely diverse.
Putting them in a single category is a bit wrong. Innovades while they can work, they are still biological beings.
And like any biological being, they need nurturing, like a plant that needs constant maintenance. Simple cloning and memory insertion is not the best solution to the creation of a guide for humans, as these innovades don't even understand humans themselves."
"Indeed. I prepared for this as well. I even made Veda capable of self learning, over the years, as Celestial Being was preparing for Armed Interventions, Veda should have learned what it means to be human, and it should have improved Innovades that were supposed to be guides."
The genius of the 21st century sighed as he leaned back into the chair and closed his eyes for a bit. He was in deep thought.
"Regardless, this is not why you removed me from the cryo state. What do you want, Emperor of Humanity, from other Reality?" The Founder of Celestial Being focused on the core of this meeting now that he had learned where he had failed.
"I want you to join me. You desire for humanity to be a multiplanetary species; that is my dream as well. I created Gundam, united humanity, and waged war on my father just to achieve that goal.
All I desired was space and the innovation that comes with it.
I am certain that you are no different." Marcus got a bit more emotional; this was his true ideals.
"...Indeed, while I don't approve of all of your methods, I can't deny results." Aeolia Schenberg sighed for a second.
"You will get my reply after I see your world. The ugly and the beautiful."
"I wouldn't want it any other way. The portal to my reality will open in seven days."
"...that is fine with me. In the meantime, your move." The genius returned to chess as Marcus' eyes widened as he realised that he was losing!
'Damn! he is good.' The Emperor began to sweat; it had been a while since he needed to think this much in a chess match!
~~~
"Unbelievable! He actually did it!" Chall looked with pure disbelief! She heard it herself! The Founder of Celestial Being is considering joining the Empire that conquered Earth and destroyed his organisation.
"It proves to me that Celestial Being was nothing more than a clutch needed for the unification of the world," Lockon smirked a bit as he was able to read between the lines of what it meant to be part of this terrorist organisation.
"...Yes, Celestial Being intended to unite the world against us; we were never intended to survive beyond a specific point," Leesa said with a sigh. She understood that as well.
"Then it's a good thing it worked, I had this feeling that I could have died if we continued with the whole interventions thing," Lockon commented with a relieved tone.
Lockon had no idea how right he was…
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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