With the Exploration Division sorted out, Marcus had peace of mind. There was another thing he needed to inspect for progress.
And that was the pet project he had with Shamna. The Emperor boarded his Tiranis and rushed towards the resort province of Zilkhstan.
The Capital of the province has gone through a monumental change. It was a desert coast; it has transformed into a beach resort with palm trees and a beautiful coastline. In the old city area built next to a cliff, there's quite something hidden.
And that is A.S.P Headquarters: the Secret Police and the Geass Order.
These two branches work side by side, and they even have their own R&D division, which became especially important with research towards Precurson Civilisation technology.
In fact, A.S.P. has many branches around the world, built near ancient sites, such as those in Peru and Egypt.
Marcus' Tiranis arrived at a massive, carved-out cavern with multiple complexes of buildings sprawling throughout the area.
The Gundam landed next to the hangar, where it walked inside and parked next to A.S.P. Cataphracts. Once stationed, he left the machine and walked over to the central complex, where one of his Empresses was waiting for him.
"Good to see you, my husband. I am happy to see that you find time in your busy schedule to see me. I heard that things are especially active around Jupiter." Shamna hugged Marcus' hand the moment he was in front of her.
"You don't say… Jupiter started with 400,000 people; now we are at 564,000. Over 62 thousand babies were born in a year, and over 100 thousand emigrants moved in.
In a couple of months since the addition of the colony, I already needed to issue orders for more living space complexes to get assembled.
On top of all of this, this year is going to be even busier." Marcus sighed. He was busier than he had expected. Should he assign a Viceroy for this particular territory?
Even he didn't foresee that people would be that excited to live next to a Gas Giant that can kill them in seconds if they are not careful.
"Hmm…" The blonde nodded a couple of times, then brought her face closer to his ear and began to whisper.
"Speaking of babies~~ I wonder if I could get one~?"
The Emperor rolled his eyes as he reminded the price she had to pay for that fancy tattoo.
"We could, but you forgot something crucial~ my gorgeous Shamna, you code things otherwise." His hand went to her stomach, a bit lower, close to her navel, where her code was.
"Hmph, that is a pity. I don't have much time to train it."
The Empress complained. She remembered a particular Witch who had no role in the Empire and was simply training her code day and night so that she could have children.
And her plan worked! She has a son with the Emperor, and that is annoying to the blonde, who is not that lucky.
"Now, on a more important matter, show me what you gathered on that little project we are working on." He had a knowing look on his face.
Shamna snapped out of her thoughts and slowly nodded. She began to take him to a specific location.
They walked to the back of the cavern, which Geass Order had recently expanded, and found a considerable amount of space, large enough for mobile suits to pass through.
However, there was not that much space for spaceships of any size. Sure, Marcus could get his stealth ships to pass; there is just enough space for them, but nothing else.
'Might as well use them.'
"What do you think? Not the largest, but it should work for your experiment." She asked for his opinion.
"Indeed. But this is not like the portal in the South Pole. I assume you are working on modernising it?" The Emperor looked at her.
"We are working on it. But as you might have figured by now. Their technology is a completely different form of technology; the amount of AI that can help us in developing is extremely limited."
Marcus slowly nodded. She is not wrong. AI doesn't 'feel' the same way humans do; it's like playing instruments. Orchestra is better than any AI-generated stuff.
"I do have a solution, and this is related to the army we have spoken about before."
Shamna perked up, wondering if he would give her new toys to play with.
"Oh?"
As she looked at him, the Emperor used his free hand and pulled out a palm-sized memory drive.
"This is all the data I have gathered while tinkering with Veda, and it's Innovades."
"I have straightened the Artificial creation system and artificial memory assignment. The only thing you need to do is build a central computer according to the schematics." He handed it over to her as he explained.
"...Does Legion work with it?" She asked as she checked out the memory drive.
"Yes, all you need to do is build the computer and install Legion. Once you do that, the caretaker Version of Legion will do the rest.
Before long, you will have Innovades that could assist you in building the portal.
Though be careful with Combat Innovade models. At first, we make the science models, gather data, and then we can decide if it's safe enough to make combat Innovades."
"I see, I will keep that in mind." The blonde slowly nodded at his orders.
'To think that I will be able to make people…' She looked at the drive before motioning for one of her Servant girls to take it from her.
"Did you source the Limestone for the archway?" He asked after looking for a bit.
"Yes, the closest compatible source is in East Egypt," Shamna replied with a nod.
"Good, you have my permission to start excavating. I assume you guys have altered the legion bots to use vibrations to cut them?"
"We do have schematics sourced from South Pole's research facility; we did some cross-referencing."
Marcus nodded, South Pole's base is far too big to be only for A.S.P, or Geass Order; it's 'public' enough. Well, not many people know that it's a gateway to another world.
But a research facility meant for a previous civilisation's technology.
Many people think that GN technology originated from that city.
"Good, I will give you any other clearance you might need."
With that said, Marcus was satisfied with what he saw. This place will be perfect for his little test ground.
Now all he needs to do is make a cosmic tablet.
Well, for that one won't be that hard, considering he has a working example, all he would need to do is link the worlds.
'I do wonder if I will need to make a pyramid.'
For a second, he wondered, but he recalled that the elevated platform should be enough.
With that said, Marcus realised that this project would be a true blend of his Empire's and Precurson's Human technology.
From what he imagined… it could be even considered 'magic' because of how 'mystical' it will be. There won't be any cables or things like that.
The Emperor imagined that at some point in the future, his Empire would have such technologies. Ships that would look as if they were made from a single piece, like they were 3D-printed. The source material will be a box that can be removed, as inside of it there is a fusion reactor, a sun.
In other words… so advanced that it looks arcane.
'Hmm… something to think about.'
~~~~~~A Year Later~~~~~~
It was year 9 of the Byzantine Cosmic Era, two years after Jupiter's addition to the Empire.
The colony has experienced unprecedented growth; it has close to a million people living there full-time.
There are six SWORD type 3 colonies, two of which have three rings and more on the way. Each ring around the 'spine' accommodates about 100,000 people.
That is, if it's purely a residential block, but Marcus allows far more flexibility as Jupiter is quite important in his grand scheme of things. After all, it's the place where his Empire assembles GN Drives.
The number of GN Drive chambers, which are separate space stations by this point, has grown by about 3 times over the past year.
The raw materials for the construction of so many stations come from the asteroid belt and Jupiter's moons.
The moons of Jupiter were another hot topic, as the empire was already mining many smaller ones; one of them is the considerably sized Ganymede. But it's not worth colonising as it has low density, unlike Io, which has potential.
And… it has a lot of water, in fact, it has more water than Earth, and that tells something!
Speaking of water… Europa is the most explored; there is even a resort station built nearby where enormous geysers erupt.
Apart from that, the empire will mine the icy moon for its water, after Ganymede.
Oh, and it does have life, sadly not big enough to be considered for a zoo, but good enough to study as living conditions are unique. Gas Giants like Saturn are notorious not only for radiation but also for gravitational forces, and life grew up in complete darkness.
Well, there are strange fish-like forms. Marcus considered them for aquariums and all that, but the way they evolved means these fish die off almost instantly in any aquarium they have tried.
At least it doesn't taste bad, so it's good for farming.
In a way, Jupiter even got its food source. And fish are not the only ones; some aquatic plants require warm water to grow. It evolved to absorb heat and release cold water that sinks, gets heated by the vents, and then rises again, where plants absorb it.
In other words, a fascinating small ecosystem.
Though there was another big thing happening, and it's a quite private one, and that is Julia attending her first class in grade school.
Marcus decided to do something special: go incognito with his wife to pick her up!
"...umm… I am surprised how well this works." Kallen commented, trying to sound as average as possible. It has been years since the red-haired girl was 'average'! The way she talked now was that of a noble and an Empress.
While it was quite simple for Marcus, it was like acting work for him.
"You do look gorgeous in regular clothes." The disguised emperor said to his wife, who was sitting next to him. The ruler bought a fancy four-seater flying car, just for this occasion.
Kallen blushed for a second as she perked up. Her choice of clothes was a blouse, jacket, skirt, and high heels; she looked like a 'hot mom'.
"Hmph, of course, anyway, I am surprised that you decided to do something like that." The Empress decided to address their current situation. They were in the school district, waiting for their daughter's classes to end.
"Got tired of all the brain waves mumbo jumpo, so I decided to get out." Marcus sighed as he leaned into the driver's seat.
The Emperor has been working tirelessly to develop a brain nuke for the living metals. The living metal thing is his next thing, next to Sakuradite, Resonance, and GN technology.
Each of these breakthroughs boosted his Empire's tech by hundreds of years, and the living metal will make his Empire a true interstellar giant.
"Oh! They are out!"
Kallen jumped out of the car and swiftly walked over. Marcus looked where she walked over. It was quite amusing how few recognised her.
Only a couple of parents in higher positions took a double-take, realising who it was.
'The magic of keeping family out of TV screens.' The Emperor chuckled as he fixed his sunglasses. He looked a bit more like a delinquent, but that's the point.
Moments later, the mother-daughter duo returned. The girl looked confused; she expected the usual motorcade and a bunch of maids.
But it was different!
"Hear this! Our cute little daughter got a friend!" Kallen exclaimed with an amused tone.
"Oh?" Marcus perked up when he heard that.
"Yep, his name is Johnathan Shepard~." The Empress said with a smirk.
When the Emperor heard THAT name, his eyes widened to a massive degree! Thankfully, he was wearing sunglasses.
If Kallen saw his expression, she would be confused. How can a seven-year-old kid's name cause such a reaction?
If only she knew.
~~~
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1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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