INIQUITOUS DOMINION: The Galactic Classic

by Justin Conley

  Before he could finish, a cheerful and somewhat drunk Lucius came out of the building. “There you guys are. Where have you been?”

  “I was trying to find your friend,” Juliet said.

  Lucius put his arm around his two best friends. “I love this night. You know what, there’s something I want to tell you both. I think we should make a promise. That no matter what life has in store for us, that we always remain friends. What do you say?”

  Juliet smiled. Cassio grinned slightly.

  “Sounds good,” Juliet said.

  “I guess,” Cassio said.

  Lucius gave them a big hug as some of the couples were leaving the party.

  ****

  Graduation went off without any problems. Everyone had received their diplomas and was thrilled to be out of secondary school.

  The circle of friends led by Lucius Gaines was equally satisfied. They were going off on their separate ways.

  Lucius observed the faces of his classmates. He was not too distraught that he would never see his friends again because he was going to see a few in university.

  Another chapter of Lucius Gaines’ life was over and a new chapter had begun.

  SEVEN: ILIAD HOUSE AND THE DREAMWEAVERS

  74 B.E.

  Unlike Solaria, the planet Tier was relatively small and mostly salt desert, which made Tier a major commodity. Anyone who took over the salt trade could be rich beyond their dreams. Throughout the years, wealthy merchants put money into the land, improving on the towns and despite it being mostly desert, their main water source, the Tier River, had become better with the enhancement of Second Renaissance technology.

  Plus, it has done wonders for Tier’s number one university.

  Alexius University was one of the most populated colleges in the world, next to Constans University. Everyone from all over the ATM who was not of nobility could be a student with curriculums for everyone, especially if a student wanted to explore the agricultural and medical fields.

  Lucius Gaines loved the large school body, completely different from his small-town upbringings. He have not been passed a year, but he was already having fun. He was a starting player on Alexius' blitz-drift team. He dated different women, but managed to stay in touch with Juliet whenever he had a chance. He had his friend Cassio to talk to, but they were so busy they never had a chance to have a fruitful conversation. He was doing better than realized with his studies. He went to the parties.

  Every day was an adventure for him.

  One day, as he walked in the street, Lucius looked on a television hooked to a large, stylish building, showing the University President’s face, but it was a reporter’s voice. He knew those images, even though he did not know what they were talking about.

  He went back to his apartment and turned on his television screen where once again, the same reporter offered the same news story.

  According to the reporter, another drug war had occurred among the gangs of Troyuvant. Once upon a time, they had been meddling in the business of the Santos clan for years and have been trying to find a way to get rid of them and take over the ATM. Since the death of Ajax Santos, the only leader that could have bridged the gap between Troyuvant and Crystal Metropolis, there was not a stable leader that could make up for it. Since the ATM drug game continued to flourish, crime families were vying for the top spot once again.

  This time around, instead of keeping it around Troyuvant, they spread their action all over the smaller planets of the galaxy and it was possible they were making another target for Tier.

  For now, people saw it as nothing to worry about, but Lucius placed it in his memory bank.

  Then, as the days went by from classes, heading back to the street, he saw a strange sight. He viewed different men and women wearing strange dark blue uniforms. Lucius thought they were some kind of troupe, but these men were serious. He was given a flyer by one of them. The flyer dealt with getting involved in a future-changing life in a fraternity called “House of Latium.” Lucius had no opinion whatsoever on it, but he kept the flyer just in case.

  Every day he came out of class, he saw the same men with the same dark blue uniforms, passing out the same flyers.

  One day, as he went the same direction where the blue uniforms were numerous, he saw Cassio Ramirez, taking one of the flyers after ignoring them several times. Before he knew it, they came together from a bump. When they exchanged hugs, they caught up on old times and new times at a cafe. Cassio told him about the difference in college life and Roostertown Chapter. He was getting more girls than he thought he could handle and was doing well in his classes.

  The two decided that one night, they would hang out at a club.

  The get-together would not come until weeks later at a club called Fire near Alexius University. The name spoke itself of its atmosphere and the passionate youth that was the ATM's new and exciting generation. Cassio and Lucius were the toast of the club in their own minds. They were on the dance floor and raided their bar.

  As far as they were concern, this was Roostertown all over again.

  “We’re in university now,” Cassio told Lucius. “It’s okay to be a little arrogant.”

  Suddenly, some of the partygoers turned their heads. Lucius and Cassio did the same. Then, they saw them. The same dark blue uniforms.

  “What are they doing here?” Cassio asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lucius said. “I know they’re not here to give out flyers. Not here. Not tonight.”

  Sure enough, Lucius was wrong. They traveled all around the club, passing out the flyers to the people. Cassio saw something stranger as well. Someone else came into the club.

  “Get a look at this,” Cassio said.

  Lucius took a look. It was none other than Chosen Toshio.

  “I know he’s not a student,” he said.

  What was worse, Chosen saw Lucius and Cassio at their table and walked to them. Cassio brought out the frown. He drank some of his wine so he could get some kind of buzz.

  “Well, well,” Lucius said nicely. “Chosen! I didn’t think you went to this university.”

  “My Gods!” Chosen said. “I didn’t know I had to have your permission to try and enroll in this university.”

  “Maybe if that was the case, we could say no,” Cassio said sarcastically.

  Chosen laughed out loud. “Cassio Ramirez! I didn’t think after all this time you could still make me laugh.”

  “Have a seat,” Lucius said. Cassio shook his head wildly. Chosen took it upon him and sat down right next to Cassio. Cassio ordered another bottle of wine.

  “Tell me something,” Lucius said to Chosen. “Do you know about these guys with the dark blue uniforms?”

  “The guys passing out the flyers?” Chosen responded. “Yeah, I know about them. They gave me a flyer.”

  “Do you know who they are?”

  “They worked for the House of Latium Fraternity!"

  “What’s that?”

  “What’s that? They’re one of the biggest groups in the universe. They specialized in Second Renaissance technology."

  "Second Renaissance!" Lucius repeated. It was this that gave him chills. He always thought Second Renaissance was based in just Solaria.

  Chosen continued. "They try to recruit anyone that’s interested in becoming a server.”

  “A server?”

  “A member of the religion. They have an array of majors to study and can get set up anywhere in the ATM for any job you want."

  “What’s with the blue uniforms though?” Cassio asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Cassio received his bottle of wine from the waiter. “Why wear that to make a point?”

  “From what I hear, they like to be unique and presentable,” Chosen said.

  “Some presentable,” Cassio said.

  Chosen looked into another direction. “If you guys excuse me, there someone I have to see.” He got up quickly.

  “Thank the gods,” Ca
ssio said.

  “Why do you always act like that around him?” Lucius asked.

  “Sometimes, he acts like he’s better than everyone. Then, sometimes, he acts like he’s a… I don’t even want to say it.”

  “What?”

  Cassio cleared his throat. "Sometimes I think he acts like there's more wrong with him than even he recognized.”

  Lucius laughed. Then, Cassio chuckled along with him as he took another drink of wine. A soldier in a blue uniform came by and put a flyer on their table. Lucius picked it up and zoomed through it. It was the same message. Cassio took it, crumbled it up, and threw it across the room.

  “I’m sick of these,” he said.​ "I don't know about you, but I need a girl to ride with tonight. But we need to do this more often."

  Cassio got up, gave him a hug, and what has always been Cassio's trademark, he went out among the crowd of club goers to get laid.

  Lucius snickered. "Same old Cassio!"

  ****

  A month went by and Lucius was back to dealing with classes. There were no more dark blue uniforms walking by and giving him flyers. For all he knew, it was a nuisance he did not want or need.

  As he walked out of a class one day, he decided to go shopping to buy a gift for Juliet, who he was visiting in a few weeks. He was already thinking of everything he was going to do and say to her when he went to Constans University.

  He came on the sidewalk looking at the sky and saw planes flying by. They were going slow from a distance; then coming further and further downward. Others observed the same sight as well and Lucius asked them about the planes.

  Then, something came out from one of them. When it landed on one of the buildings, the building exploded. The fires spread to anyone in its way. Lucius took cover, along with others.

  A missile, Lucius thought.

  More missiles came down, dropping on buildings and towers. Some of the planes lowered in-between buildings, firing its machine guns. Lucius ran trying to get out of people’s way. He was going one direction and others were going another. The planes dropped lower and lower, shooting their guns and dropping their missiles. Lucius managed to hide in an alley until the planes were gone. He waited for the planes to find him and blast him out of existence, but it never came.

  After a few hours of hiding and falling out, Lucius came out of the alley. He saw doctors wandering all over the streets trying to revive people. He saw puddles of blood and dead bodies on the street. All Lucius Gaines could do was look at the sky and see if there were any more planes in the sky ready to finish the Tierans off.

  The planes never returned. The damage had been done.

  ****

  Juliet Barao was having the grandest time in Constans University, especially since she managed to find an apartment and roommates to share in rent. One of them was Juliet’s high-school friend, Hermia Rasetta, girlfriend of fellow Constans University student Alonso Fontaine. Her other two roommates, Sylvia Lavatch and Diana Cartier, both from the Cyprun Valley planetary system.

  For this particular day, it was going to be a get-together for someone visiting the girls. Sylvia and Diana had no clue, but with the snickering between Juliet and Hermia for the past few hours could only mean one thing.

  It had something to do with the boy.

  Juliet had missed Lucius for a while. They were going to be a couple for the next few days when he arrived. She was going to make sure they were most unforgettable days of their lives.

  Sylvia went to the television and turned it on to the news. She saw the face of King Ichiamo Santos on the screen speaking. She saw some wretchedness with a mixture of antagonism in his face. She turned up the volume.

  “Hey, girls! You have to see this.”

  The other three girls came to Sylvia and were sitting together. All were being attentive of King Ichiamo’s speech.

  “…I come with terrible news. The Aventine Monarch Galaxy was embraced suddenly and deliberately with an attack from a terrorist group on the planets Tier and Syra...”

  Then came footage of the damage shown on both Tier and Syra that took the breath away from the university girls viewing it with shaken nerves.

  “As you can see, there has been death and carnage all around the planets, with causalities in the hundreds. No one knew when exactly this had happened, but we know from the damage that missiles were fired on the buildings and towers of the city…”

  All four girls were distraught with Juliet the most worried of all.

  “Lucius!” she whispered. “Could he be…?”

  A phone rang. Hermia got up and picked up the phone.

  “Yes, Alonso, we're watching it now,” she said. “We don’t know when it happened.”

  Hermia took the phone to the television as Ichiamo continued.

  “…One thing is for certain. An attack like this will not go unpunished. We will fight back against this terror. Something like this cannot and will not happen again. As your king, I’m going to issue the Force of Arms Order."

  The girls opened their mouths when they heard this slightly older, bigger but healthier king issuing a special order that had been buried with other old laws of the old warlords. Even though they did not live during that time, they learned about the Force of Arms Order from school.

  An old warlord named Fracellion was the first to issue this order, centuries before the Santos Era, when the entire galaxy was attacked by beings from a nearby galaxy. It was the first time ever that all citizens of the ATM came together against one common enemy.

  The issue had arisen once again. This time, the enemy was in the ATM.

  The girls continued to listen.

  “…to bring together all of the armies of the ATM and making them into one cohesive unit to fight this destructive force. They will be known as the Children of the ATM. Since this is a threat to the security of the entire galaxy, I think it is up to all of us to fight this disturbance that has corroded our way of life…”

  Ichiamo went on to talk about who the supposed terrorist group was as well as show more footage of the damage that has been done. Some of the damage shown was on the campus of Alexius University.

  All four women were silent. Juliet got up and left out the house. Sylvia put her head down.

  The heavy-set Hermia, however, was not sad anymore. She clinched her fist tightly. Diana was the first to glance at it.

  “Hermia, are you okay?” she asked.

  Hermia said nothing, but the statement was loud and clear.

  “I’m going to enlist,” she said.

  Sylvia raised herself up. “You what?”

  “I’m going to enlist,” Hermia repeated. “I’m not going to sit back and wait until they attack us next. I’m going to fight.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Diana squeaked.

  “I’m not surprised you don’t want this,” Hermia said irately.

  “I think something has to be done,” Sylvia said, “but we can’t just jump into this.”

  “Who said we’re going to do that? I’ll go alone if that’s the case, but I’m not going to let this slide. Someone attacked those planets and killed those innocents.”

  Hermia stormed out of the room. Sylvia and Diana stared at each other. Both of them thought that maybe she had the right idea. Then again, she had friends in Tier and could have been hurt or worse from the attacks. Additionally, they thought maybe there was no other way around it. If people were not going to volunteer, they were going to be drafted regardless.

  ****

  Juliet ended up on the roof of the complex, looking out at the exquisite view of the town of Constans. She stayed there watching the sky until the sun shining from the distance of the moon was backing away.

  In that limited time, all she could think about were her friends.

  Unknown to her, Hermia walked to her direction. She put her hand on her shoulder. Then, Juliet put her hands on top of hers. She could tell it was Hermia from the softness of her skin. Although Hermia was toug
h and willing to duke out problems like any other male, she was a female first and foremost.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Juliet said. “Lucius… Lucius was in Tier. He could be dead."

  “Don’t think like that. I don’t think Lucius’s dead. If he was, we would have found out already.”

  “I don’t know, Hermia.”