Ashia Nova's Story

"It's been about 5 or 6 years since I joined the Militia at the age of 18," she replied. "I had been born a... a prodigy, you might say. My noble parents gave me a whole bunch of tutors to help me learn things, but it seems my ingenuity is mostly focused on puzzle and stratagem solving. I wanted to be in the army, however. I'd always dreamed of leading soldiers into battle, getting to save lives, fight the villains... " Ashia gazed distractedly, in some sort of blissful state.
Quickly, she snapped back to the real world. "Er, sorry. Anyways, I soon found out that the Militia was nothing like that, but it was too late to change. Once I'd seen the true side of Gavax, I knew I may have made a mistake. But the soldiers. They depend on me; they look up to me as a true leader. That's why almost all of them came with me rather than that son of a-"
Again, Ashia cut herself off. Dammit! she thought. She was opening up too much. She was beginning to regret coming to see Rome. He had some sort of strange... something that drew her to him. Was it his confidence? The way he was so open with her? She didn't know, and wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to find out.
Just then, an engineer walked into the room, bowing low. He was from the Militian division, judging by the white cape and badge with the Militian symbol on it - a red star, surrounded by a red circle with a white line going through the whole thing.
"Apologies, Lord Rome, Lady Nova," said the engineer in a crisp, polite voice. "We have all but finished work on our 'spy'. Would you and Lord Rome wish to see the progress?"
Ashia raised an eyebrow. "How did you finish work in such a small amount of time?"
"Pardon, ma'am, but we'd gotten a good ways through before you left for Lord Rome's chambers. It has been about 2 hours."
Ashia blinked. She hadn't realized the time had passed so quickly. "I would very much like to see it. If I may have your Lordship's pardon?" she asked Rome.

Lord Rome looked a bit out of place, he always did when something unexpected happened. He cought his bearings and looked at Ashia, "You may, I will accompany you there. I would very much like to see how the first combination of The Blackrock Militia and the R.F.E. has gone."

With that they got up and walked to the hangers. Ashia and Rome walked side by side, he knew Ashia was well aware that Rome was looking right at her while they walked, the walk would take a good 10 more minutes before they would reach the Hanger.

Ashia was well aware that Rome was focusing on her as they walked towards the Hangar. At this point, it was obvious he had some sort of attraction to her. He was nice, she guessed; a bit strange, but so was everyone. She mused to herself if she could perhaps use this as an advantage to rise up to the top.
In any case, they reached the Hangar soon enough. On something that sort of resembled a surgical table rested the spy.
It looked exactly like the other robots. It would behave normally, but unconsciously destroy the core systems, finishing their enemy.
Ashia turned to Rome. "So what do you think?" she asked.

Rome looked at it and examined it for a bit "It looks good" He walked around it for a second and then looked back at Ashia and smiled "So when do we send it Blackrock?" He said as he looked back at the engineer.

In truth, he just wanted to be back in his quarters with Ashia talking. He needed information on her. The last thing he needed was a strong part of the R.F.E. turning on him, he needed to know her weaknesses, and her strengths. But she was nice, properly mannered, and not to bad on the eyes. He knew he liked her, but didn't know how to act arounf that. She had basically just joined up, and was already a higher rank than most of his military. Rome needed to clear his thoughts, but everytime he was near her, his mind was a spiral and he couldn't think straight. He needed to figur things out

"Soon," the engineer said. "Maybe in a couple days. We might want to review the strategy a bit more, just so we don't mess this up. But yeah, it's ready to go otherwise."

Three days later...

The spy was ready to go. The Roman-Militian engineers hauled it into a stealth pod, set to land on Blackrock without a trace, upon which the spy would integrate itself with the other C.O.R.e. robots.
They launched it down onto Blackrock. Ashia had a group tracking it's movements, just in case anything went wrong.
Ashia sat among them, watching it descend.

After the launch, Rome asked Ashia to escort him back to his room. When they arrived, he brought her inside. "So, where is it going to land at?" Rome asks as he lays down swiftly onto his bed, resting his head on a pillow, he analyzes her outfit slowly. "You look very nice today." He laid there stairing at her as sweetly as ever.

Ashia gave Rome The Look. The Look was dangerous. It meant that Ashia knew exactly what Rome was trying to do, and she wasn't falling for it.
"Are you trying to seduce me?" she asked very bluntly. "Because I'm pretty sure bosses don't chat with their female workers while lying in their bedrooms."

Rome looked at her bluntly. "I am not trying to seduce you. If I wanted your... 'company' I would have ordered you to do it. I look at you as a friend, maybe more. But I am being very serious. I am tired, so I lay down. Maybe common sense isn't so common..." Rome continued to look at her, but slowly shifted his eyes to the window, showing vast systems, stars... Metoers and planets, moving slowly in space. "Have you ever just stared into the sky and know you would do something great and help everyone... I may have a empire, but I don't even have a planet to rule, like a actual ruler. I have so much I need to work on, and I'm going to be honest, a Emperor can't rule without his Empress. So instead of forcing you, I want to do it conventionally, so I want you to look at me as another person, not a Emperor, not a general, just another being..." He looked back at her

Ashia looked at Rome for a long time. Then she sighed. "Look. You seem nice and all, but..." She paused. "I'm not... I gave up all dreams of romance a long time ago. You're a nice person - and maybe a little cute - but I can't. I really am sorry. I can't do it anymore."
The odd thing was, she really did feel sad and guilty. She did want to be with this man. But it would be hard. And he didn't know anything about her. Not what she'd done to innocent lives. Guilty ones, too. But still lives.
If he really knew anything about her, he would stay away. And she did want him. But she couldn't. And it was heart-wrenching.
All of this internal struggle passed in a second with a blank face. She excused herself, walking out of the hallway, cursing the man that had changed her life.

Rome jumped up chasing her down the hall, grabing her, and forcing her to look at him. He paused a moment before kissing her softly. "I know you aren't proud of things you have done to people in the past. But think, how do you think I got to the position I am in now? You think I haven't done horrible things in the past? I have... And I know, especially for a militia like you were in, being a high rank, you have done horrible things. I know. So please, just try... For me?" He looked at her hopefully, slowly letting go of her, waiting for a response.

Ashia looked at her employer, who was almost on his knees begging to be with her. She'd never really thought of herself as beautiful, but this did seem to show a little more about her employer. He did love her and wanted desperately to be with her. She was so used to people hiding themselves behind masks of secrecy and politics, she was stunned for a moment.
She stood there for almost a minute before saying, "Maybe. Maybe I will, at least if this plan to destroy the C.O.R.e. doesn't end with us as floating bodies in space." She smiled at him, and there was a bit of warmth in that smile. "So let's go insure that that doesn't happen, shall we?"

Rome smiled back "Of course!" He hopped back up onto his feet and they walked hand in hand to the mission room, where they saw that they just allowed the bot into the base and all was going to plan.

The Militian-Roman ship touched down, and Ashia Nova got out. She looked around at the bodies of dead mercenaries and deactivated robots. Some soldiers walked around collecting the bodies.
Ashia, personally, was quite stunned. "That was all it took?" she said to no one in particular. "I would have assumed it wouldn't have worked so well... I mean I'm happy it did, but I'm just so... surprised that it happened so easily."

A soldier that was stationed as Ashia's guard turned to her "They are on a nueral link to their bodies, destroy the link, which, in this case, was to far away from their capital to controll, and you have just unplugged the outlet. Look at it like that you pig." The guard looked at her closer "So is it true that the Emperor himself has feelings for a pig like you?" The guard smiles "I think it utterly impossible for that to happen, he would probably notice me sooner!" She smiled bigger "I am much more fit for the title of 'Empress' than you!"

The guard was crazy in short, she is part of Rome's Guard, and is most likely stalking and obsessing over Rome

Ashia looked the soldier in the eye. "Then go to him, and confess your love," the captain replied smoothly. "I have never made any claim to your beloved emperor, and it would be nice if he could focus on me in a more professional way than a lovelorn one. It would be better for him if he had someone who could give him love back, anyways." Her gaze hardened. "But be warned, if you insult me or stand in my way again, I will not hold back as I discipline you in the way that we Blackrock folk always have. Now, leave me, soldier. I would like to explore the ruins on my own."
With that, Captain Nova turned and began walking over to the ruins of the once-grand fortress, stepping over the various metallic corpses in her path.

It was easy to forget the scope of things in one small section of a very large planet, but it was fairly common knowledge among the population of Blackrock, whoever was left; that the planet was still contested.

That fact came rolling quickly to the fortress, where Ashia, and Rome were staying. The Aschen's advances hadn't reached this part of Blackrock.

It started with a deep roar, which quickly intensified into a deafening screech, a single Aschen B2X Century Bomber, escorted by a handful of Raptor Talon star-fighters passed overhead.

"Hotel-Bravo this is Papa-one... I've got additional bogeys landing on the planet. They probably slipped through the blockade... acquiring target now."

"Initializing target acquisition for JDAM Deployment..."

Following the shrill roar, came a rapid sequence of deafening explosions that rocked the wastes of Blackrock, as the single Aschen Century Bomber began carpet bombing the landing Militia and RFE Vessels, attempting to destroy them through the deployment of Aschen Damocles Type 3 Joint-Direct Attack Munitions, a 21,000 pound guided munition that was deployed en-masse by the high-altitude flying bomber.

There were exactly six-hundred of these munitions deployed, and expertly guided through AI to their targets, cutting a wide, and total swathe of destruction across the ground.

By the time the sounds of the explosions began to fade, the Aschen bomber began to retreat up into the atmosphere.

Rome looked blankly at the Aschen bomber "Do they realize we have defences for that, right? I mean, we are a space race of Humans. We have to deal with bandits, militarys, and whatever else, all the time. I mean common sense?" Rome talked to his War General. The General looked back "Maybe the Aschen are smart, but not intelligent?" Rome smiled "Most likely, and one other thing, they do realize WE cleared this place of the hostile C.O.R.e., we never attacked them, all we did was liberate the civilians, and they just bombed towns, filled with refugees, right?"

The Aschen bomber was completely useless against the R.F.E. ships, though it did destroy some old Militia ships, but the highest kill rate was the Blackrock civs, which totalled in 5,000. 1 R.F.E. soldiers was killed, and 7 Militia R.F.E. were killed

Rome looked at the Aschen forces in orbit of Blackrock. "This is why we help." Rome said. He suddenly got a report on his screen, people were in outrage that the 'glorious' forces of the Aschen bombed towns that were just recieving food and water from the people that just helped the Aschen re-claim a planet, and thats how they treat them. The R.F.E. had just gotten over 4,000 recruits from just one section of Blackrock, and the news was spreading fast.

Captain Ashia Nova's head snapped up as several bombs were dropped upon the Roman-Militian ships. The big ones were barely even hurt, though it did destroy some of the more flimsy Battle-Fighters.
Ashia's head snapped towards a group of R.F.E. soldiers who were standing around, staring in amazement at the Aschen bombers, including the one who had insulted her. "What are you lumps of muscle standing around for?!" she barked, startling the soldiers. "Get in your battleships, on the double! Move!"
The woman soldier sneered at her. "You cannot tell us what to do, pig. We were around before Rome decided to let you in. You have as much say as-"
The captain's backhand caught the soldier in the jaw, the force knocking her over.
Unfortunately for her, Ashia had been wearing her Gauntlets.
The soldier stared at her incredulously, as if she hadn't been disciplined by her captain but by a farmhand. "ON YOUR FEET, SOLDIER!!!" Ashia shouted, and she scrambled up, putting her hand in a salute by reflex. "You want to win this war for your emperor, you can't run around acting on every petty impulse! Now, get in your battleship and fight!"
The soldier and her allies scrambled away. Ashia was a little surprised at the force behind her voice. She'd never had to discipline her soldiers so harshly - her Militian troops had always jumped at her every word. To be honest, however, it had been quite liberating, especially with that rebel. She'd have to do something about her.
No. Focus on the battle at hand, she thought to herself. Smoothly turning around, she walked calmly towards a hulking War-Fighter that was waiting for her. A number of her personal guards, appointed to her by Rome, stood at attention, as well as a couple of engineers. These flocked to her as she entered the War-Fighter and the gateway closed. "Captain Nova," one said excitedly. "We finished redesigning the battlesuit that would work in conjunction with your Gauntlets of Doom."
"Good," Ashia said, still walking briskly. "Bring it here."
They wheeled the tube holding the battlesuit over, and Ashia climbed in. Immediately, the suit opened, and as she stepped in the parts began clamping down and tightening to suit her form. She stepped out, and the engineers gasped.
The suit was made of a hard, form-fitting plastic-metal alloy, colored white. This shell was nigh-impervious from most regular lasers and plasmas, and more importantly protected her from the various harmful parts of outer space, such as asphyxiation, ultraviolet rays and radiation. Over the base shell were more cosmetic grey-and-forest green ones, mostly cosmetic but also offering some minimal protection. Her helmet was white, with a dark visor and long, white, Mohawk-like ridge along the top of the head. She wore a dull green mantle with a clasp that was a cross between the RFE and Militia symbols; a planet with a red star on top of it, cut through the middle. The plastic-metal alloy shone, especially on the gauntlets - which were plated over her Gauntlets of Doom while allowing them to function properly - and the large boots, which included gravity drivers to aid her flight.
"It's beautiful..." a guard murmured.
"Which one, me or the suit?" Ashia asked. When the guard started, she smiled mischievously. "Kidding." The guard let out a nervous laugh. "I was talking about the suit, ma'am. I meant no disrespect."
"No offense was taken," the captain reassured. "Now, enough dallying. Time to move."
As the soldiers and engineers bustled around, Ashia climbed up towards the elevator-like airlock at the top, specially suit to the task she was about to do. It was going to be a bit hard, since the last time Ashia had done this had been back when all this had started, almost three months ago.
A memory of the young Sara popped up, and Ashia pondered for a second where she had gone. Then, the airlock opened, raising Ashia onto the top of the War-Fighter as it confronted the Aschen's B2X Century Bomber. Using the gravity drivers, she flew into a more strategic position.
Then, using the Gauntlets of Doom, Captain Ashia Nova blasted a pure, red-hot beam of plasma directly towards the heart of the Bomber.

Rome got a report of what Ashia was doing by a unkown soldier in her guard.

"Ashia, this is Rome, what the hell are you doing? Do you even have a escort with you? I swear to God, if you do ANYTHING stupid... Just remember what your promise was..." Rome waited for a responce from Ashia.