(This is 500 Power Stone Chapter from last Week)
Around midday, when Marcus was about to start preparing for his barbecue, his comms device began to vibrate.
He activated it and checked who it was; to his surprise, it was one of his wives, Shamna.
"What is it?" The Emperor asked the blond Empress.
"I do have some good news." The Empress smiled; her smile was a wicked one.
"Oh?"
"Come to the South Pole. We can continue there, it's quite important."
When the Emperor heard that, he took a deep breath—recalling that he had Tiranis here, so he might as well do a quick visit.
"Alright."
He got up from his seat.
"I will see you there."
With that said, he ended the call and took the skevers and the pot full of meat back into the house.
Then washed his hands and went downstairs, where the construction of his workshop was full steam ahead.
He walked around his legion bots to the platform where two mobile suit containers were.
The Emperor used the container's ladder to get onto the mech. He walked over to the cockpit, which opened automatically, and got in.
Moments later, his machine powered up, and the Gundam began to stand up.
Marcus activated the gravity resonators, causing the mobile suit to float upward. Midway, he made the machine fold into a plane and rush out of the artificial cavern and into the Ocean.
Once out, he sharply turned south.
~~~
Less than five minutes, Tiranis blasted into the South Pole base, where it landed in the primary hangar.
A bit later, he was in his favourite living room, enjoying tea and waiting for his wife.
"You are quick. I barely had enough time to prepare my case." The blonde said with a proud tone. She didn't expect him to pull up so quickly, considering how many women are in his house and want his attention.
"I know that you have something very fascinating waiting for me." He smiled back.
"I rest my case. This IS very fascinating." She smirked before using her hand to summon holograms.
"I was able to test all of the materials used by the previous civilisation in this world.
They are identical and do identical things." She showed him stones and their frequencies.
"I already heard that you tested the command tablet with Thought Accelerator.
Now, if you built a limestone Arch and put a Cosmic Map, you could build a portal." She said with a suggestive tone.
"...And what about power source?" Marcus perked up. If this does work… he can have portals anywhere he wants!
"That is the thing. Their power source is electromagnetism. You could technically build a massive fusion reactor underneath and charge the portal."
"..."
"We still don't know how the Cosmic Map works." The Emperor frowned. He has a specific world in mind for his next key objective.
To fight the Reapers, he needs a massive amount of cannon fodder. For those, he has expendable robots in mind. But for more competent ones, he is thinking of mass-producing Innovades, though Innovades are still a wild card.
To test it out, he needs a playground that, if something goes wrong, he can easily pull out and leave.
"That is why I suggest building a testing site for portals." Shamna smiled as she volunteered.
"Why don't we build one in Geass Order's research facility. We have a massive reactor there and just enough space for mobile suits to pass through."
"Hmm…"
Marcus leaned back as he pondered her suggestion.
"...Well, since you are my wife and responsible for my dirtiest Empire's secrets, there is something I want to tell you."
"Oh?"
"When I used the Thought Accelerator to gaze at the edge of our Galaxy, I sensed something… cold… and quite evil," Marcus said with a concerned tone.
"..." Shamna felt a chill just from his tone.
"Whatever is at the corners of our Galaxy is most likely caused by our ancestors to colonise other realities.
It's some sort of sapient race of machines that harvest life.
My guess… is that our galaxy is being kept like a cattle farm.
I can't tell more about the details, since I don't quite understand myself." He frowned as he pondered the methods of combat.
"...what are your plans… I don't question this, since our ancestors' technology is something else." Even the always-confident beauty was feeling spooked by what she had just learned.
"...I am thinking of mass producing troops, our Gundams are on a league of their own, but they are few in between since ace pilots are limited, what we need is foot soldiers once these machines land and use their troops.
That is why I am thinking of cloning and mass-producing fighting robots to counter the odds."
"...Cloning… I know that you weakened regulations on cloning and genetics, but…"
Her eyes widened as she realised where he was going.
"...You want to use one of the realities as testing grounds?" The blonde woman suggested.
"Indeed. That is why your proposal came right on time. I will allocate a larger budget to your projects. You can begin building a portal in your HQ, while I will make a Cosmic Map."
"...Understood. I won't fail you." The beauty nodded seriously. After learning the dark truth about their Galaxy, she got motivated to work harder.
~~~
Marcus returned to his house and continued with barbecue prep work. He was gone for less than an hour, so no one even noticed.
Before long, he started the fire.
"Oh…the smell of burning wood~" Euphemia got out. She looked much better; the beauty ended up leaning into his shoulder.
"Yeah, one of the best parts."
"I am pretty sure the law in this place is that you need to use coal, and not firewood." The Pinkette joked as she walked to the table after cuddling and sat down.
She teased him about breaking the law.
"Oh, is that right? Then they can arrest me, I still use wood to cook my barbecue." He dramatically replied.
"Fufufu, I doubt home defence protocol will allow that to happen."
Their house might don't look much, but they do have self-defence capabilities that can take out mobile suits.
"True…"
The pair continued their banter for a while, but soon enough, more people came out.
Among them was Feldt, who made Marcus realise something amusing. Feldt was the pinkette of 00, while she had Lacus Clyne's voice, she didn't have Lacus nature.
That goes to Euphemia, who has the disposition of Lacus but a different voice.
'I want all three of them to meet each other. Three realities, three pinkettes.'
"Umm… is there something wrong?" Feldt asked him as she saw him stare at her.
"Nothing, you two look extremely similar, I wonder if it's some sort of mirror effect from two different realities.
I do not doubt that you two could pass as siblings." He said with a confident tone.
"Oh… you are right. You look way more like me than Cornelia does." Euphemia, all of a sudden, got closer and inspected Feldt, who felt nervous from all the attention she was getting.
"I am pretty sure siblings do not always look the same. Look at Nunnally and me, she has old man hair, while I have my mother's hair." He shrugged at her.
"I know, I know, but this is fascinating." Euphemia inspected the girl.
"...I g-guess…"
"Relax, we're just curious how realities and things like that work." Marcus saw the girl nervous from all the inspections from Euphemia.
"I-I see… I am interested as well…" The girl slowly nodded as she looked back at Euphemia, the pair, while having different eye colours, had quite similar-ish pink hair.
The obvious age difference and background aside, they could pose as siblings very easily.
"Honestly, I do believe that mobile suits have a part to play in this." Marcus casually commented as he checked how the fire was burning.
"Big mechs are not the most common choice in military advancement, I can tell you that from the perspective of a big nation's leader. The most common sense is the advancement of long-range weaponry, allowing targets to be taken out before they can move.
But us and you guys, you instead have chosen the protection of a massive robot.
So… maybe that's what played the part in connecting these two realities, or it's our common ancestry. Both of these realities turned away from spiritualism and pursued material technology advancement." Marcus tried to guess how the Cosmic Map, the tablet that is inserted at the top of the pyramid, allowed the portals to connect.
The issue is that the mobile suit could not even be the link, as the worlds were connected before modern tech was even a thought.
"Can we not think about your big robots for a day!" Euphemia complained as she puffed her cheeks.
"You are right, why don't you help me with rice and salads?" He grinned from ear to ear, making Euphemia tremble, and her eyes darted from side to side.
"Umm…"
"What? You were living in Japan for a while. I thought you learned how to cook by now." Marcus shook his head as he pretended to be dissapointed.
"D-Don't mention that! A-Anyway, I will help out!" The Pinkette scrambled to her feet as she rushed back into the house.
After she left, it was only Feldt, who was sitting awkwardly, thinking where Christina and the other girls were! How did this happen? There are so many of them, and yet she is here, alone…
"..Umm…"
"What? Just tell me what's on your mind?" Marcus commented, hearing the awkwardness in her voice.
"...I know… a thing or two about mobile suits and the OS they run on. So… I don't want to look like I am freeloading. I can help with your mobile suit development."
There was a bit of confidence in her voice the moment the mobile suits were mentioned.
"I see. So you want to help."
"Me too! Sorry for being late." Christina walked over as she heard what Feldt said.
"Well, we can arrange something, you do know that you can do whatever you want in Academy City."
"...Yes, well… it sounds fun, and maybe at some point. But I do want to see what you're going to do to this world." The brown-haired girl strolled over and sat down next to Feldt.
"Is there anything that you want us to help you with?" The girl realised that this was well Awkward. The Conqueror is cooking for them…
"If you want, you can help Euphemia. I am certain that she is close to tearing up by this point."
The pair nodded and got up, walking to the kitchen.
'Soon… I will have 9 wives… and none of them can cook.'
Marcus sighed. It was one of those moments when he was considering his life choices. Out of all of the girls, only Milly can cook, and even then, it's when she is feeling like cooking.
*Sigh*
~~~
After food, the girls went to sleep. They were still feeling like shit, and all of them pretended to be fine, thanks to Milly's 'Beach Party' idea. Now, they had to suffer, and Marcus was not holding back; he was rubbing salt into the wound, as they say.
Regardless, after food, he retreated to his tinkering room to continue plotting his future 'adventure' and mobile suit.
Genetic manipulations, Veda's software, and even check out the nano-tech the Quantum Computer had.
'First, I need to visit the world to decide on a course of action. It's pointless to plan something without even knowing if it will work.'
Marcus frowned as he leaned back and pondered.
'For now, I will shelve this and focus on ELS.'
The Emperor pulled out the designs he had for a massive cannon.
Not the orbital cannons, but the ones he has concept art for the interstellar cannons that he is planning to nuke Reapers with.
This experiment will be just right to see if he can nuke enemies from a massive distance away.
'Geass energy as core, quantum brain waves, as medium.'
Marcus pulled out the schematics on how the Quantum Brainwave interface works.
It was time to make a huge weapon in this reality as well.