Capítulo 173: Chapter 38: New Olympus
A month is nothing longer than a mere speckle in the flow of time on cosmological timescales, and yet for the people living in the galaxy, their entire world is flipped upside down during this time too. The Olympus system is no longer known as a binary star system, and Olympus 2 is now technically Olympus 1 as Olympus Prime settles in a way further orbit than before. The once booming city planet, especially during the Galactic Celebrations not that long ago, is now a shell of its former self as more and more people continued to move away from the planet under the influence of propaganda from the New Rocky government as well as long held resentment towards the current Galactic government.
In the meanwhile, actions in the offices continued to move on, and one of the first political and economic acts done by Brakagi was to resign the treaties that were put in place by his predecessors who chose a softer stance outwards in exchange for smaller profits and welfare for the Rocky people. However, Brakagi ensured that that remained a thing of the past, as he summoned the representatives of the Big Ten with offices on Geb 4. As expected, Infinity is not going to be here as the biggest tech giant stood alongside it's oldest ally. However, for the smaller companies, they are eager to change ship and seek out new opportunities.
The newer trade deals were easy enough to be confirmed by Brakagi, as the population that would be able to freely move around in the galaxy are the more economically advantaged ones regardless, so there isn't a shortage of money and cash flow on Geb 4 anytime soon. During this time, he is also engaged fully in reformation of the educational and political system, though that is taking place slowly as he consults as many researchers and experts out in the human and Aquarian territories.
He called the program the 'Recalling Heroes Program', as he called out for the researchers that are spread all across the galaxy and promised them this version of the government will listen to their sentiment, and is willing to change on the dime. An obviously good move in terms of publicity, and an even better one in terms of actually being productive for the society. There are certainly critics and doubters of this move, but Brakagi simply ignored those media and continued revamping the system that he viewed as being so wrong and failing before with actions rather than words.
The first wave of academics came by slowly as they are mostly from evacuated institutes around the Olympus system, and was surprised to found themselves offered reins to an entire unsettled city habitat just outside of the capital. Caliditas obviously will remain by Brakagi side as he did offer her a chance earlier in the decision making process.
'I am not going anywhere, what do you mean!' Caliditas slammed her little fist on Brakagi chest and rubbed her forehead on him, 'are you sick of me already?'
'Of course not.' Brakagi said, padding her shoulders and pushing her gently away, 'none of this could have happened without your help.'
'Appreciate me more!' Caliditas demanded, pointing a finger on Brakagi as she refused to be pushed away, 'and I help you more.'
'I am counting on it.' Brakagi gave her a soft smile, and she's melted in his presence again as all forces of resistance from her dissipated away. She skipped and hopped away happily humming a little tune as Brakagi returned to his work.
The second waves are mainly Rockies that are victims of the growing anti-Rocky sentiment across the galaxy, not really because of what has happened to Olympus Prime, but really because of the recent radical political and economic changes ran out by Brakagi. Perhaps they are jealous, or perhaps they are waiting for this new government to fail.
However, Brakagi will not allow his reforms to fail. Not after the opportunity that he has created, not after the universe gave him this second chance.
Time flew, and Brakagi bounced around between his political duties, public appearances and his training of his artifacts in his own mansion outside off the city limits with Caliditas and Jozzor. Caliditas and Jozzor seemed to have become pretty good friends over their shared love for Brakagi, and Brakagi occasionally left Caliditas' training in Jozzor's hands.
One of the first things that Brakagi made Caliditas promise to do is to train to use her artifacts adeptly, as it is one of the most valuable assets of the current New Rocky government, and there is no saying when other artifact users may come crashing down on the surface of Geb 4, aiming to tear everything they have built together down.
Such drastic developments continued for weeks on end as both sides are now focused on internal developments rather than pointing fingers at each other and the new status quo began to slowly settle. That's when a pair of Rocky visitors entered the frame. Rather, they directly entered into Brakagi's office.
This morning is going to be a busy one, and Brakagi was more than alarmed when a pair of unfamiliar Rocky faces appeared on the other side of the safety doors. Brakagi swiped his hand to call for Jozzor, and he slung shot himself into the room immediately, apearing next to him.
'Who are those?' Jozzor asked as he stepped towards the pair, 'representatives?'
'No idea.' Brakagi said, 'can you check on them?'
'Comrades, what brings you here?' Arriving at the security doors, Jozzor spoke through the audio channel, and male Rocky of the pair replied.
'General Jozzor, President Brakagi, we are artifact users, and we might be of use for you in this age.' A rather exaggerated demeanor, and yet undeniably Rocky, the male immediately grabbed the attention of the two in the room, 'I understand this matter is sensitive, but can we talk inside?'
Glancing quickly to the scanners, there are no weapons in the two of them, though Jozzor know perfectly well himself that each artifact users are walking weapons themselves that are nearly impossible to be spotted by the unknowing. He pressed a button, and the doors slid open. He prepared himself for an attack, but the pair of actually rather good looking Rockies walked in. Brakagi stood up from his seat and gestured towards a pair of sofas placed by the window of his office as Jozzor shut the door behind and turned on the audio interference device.
A gentle buzz echoed before it quickly faded into ambiance.
'Comrades, what are your names?' Brakagi addressed the two formally as they sat opposite each other, 'Could you tell me more about...this artifact matter?'
'I am Hong Fu, and she is Vindy.' The male Rocky said, as he crossed his arms in front of him, 'we have been out and around for a long while, until recently. President, I am certain you have seen the news of what Senator Zender has done, and about the phenomenon.'
'I have.' Brakagi said, leaning backwards onto the sofa and listened patiently. His expressions clearly not someone that is hearing about this artifact thing for the first time, and yet Hong Fu needed to manipulate and guide the topics in the correct manner in order not to rise any suspicions.
'These artifacts, both of us have them activated long before, and it wasn't until it become somewhat of a public knowledge that we realized that it was something different...' Hong Fu explained, 'it was powerful, unreasonably so, and I can do unexplained things with it. And I figured that this power is exactly what New Olympus needs right now.'
'I see.' Brakagi rubbed his fingers along his cheeks and looked over at Jozzor, 'we would certainly welcome any assistance from our comrades. Jozzor, why don't you take Vindy on a tour of the building while Hong Fu and I have a little chat?'
'Yes, Master.' Jozzor acknowledged and rose up from his seat, reaching a hand out to Vindy who looked a little concerned over to Hong Fu. He replied with a smile and a nod. Vindy took Jozzor's hand and they walked away.
This is an obvious technique as Brakagi and Jozzor are going to take this chance to talk to the two directly and compare their stories. Fortunately, they have already had extensive preparations and rehersals for any potetial scenarios and questions that are going to appear, and Vindy should be more than ready for this. Hong Fu, on the other hand, has done this sort of training way back when he was at the Absolute Academy, and have been dealing with these kinds of scenarios ever since.
'I suppose we are just going to cut to the chase?' Before Brakagi spoke, Hong Fu was the one to start everything off to the president's surprise, 'Suns are not supposed to move out of the way like that, President.'
'What are you suggesting, comrade?' Brakagi asked, his tone suddenly cold and threatening as the kind and polite exterior eroded away as he leaned forward and brought himself closer to Hong Fu.
'Opportunities are not given, they are created.' Hong Fu said, 'And the artifacts allow such exact things to happen, doesn't they?'
'What are your powers?' Brakagi asked, his voice now assertive like a true leader, 'you never talked like a true Rocky.'
'The same goes for you, president.' Hong Fu said with a grin, 'guess that's what happens to those of us that's been out and about?'
'Perhaps.' Brakagi said, 'you come budging into my office in the morning, and you sounded like you wanted to fight?'
'There are no better testing grounds for weapons other than the battlefield.' Hong Fu said, leaning back and glancing at the shiny ceiling and the arrays of lights gently bathing the room in the warm light, 'I may not speak like a true Rocky, but nothing is truer than the taste of battle, isn't it?'
'Hahaha...You are right, my dear comrade.' Brakagi had to acknowledge it with a laugh as he kicked his favorite sliding table aside, 'Here I come then.'
At that moment, both artifacts on the two Rocky man are activated as orange lights glowed from different parts of their body, and they lept towards one another, cross a blow of the arms in mid air. Brakagi moved fast, and his strike is much stronger after the initial exchange. However, Hong Fu used his artifact in a flash and manipulated his body to evade Brakagi's strikes in mid air while grabbing onto his wrists and shoving him away.
For Brakagi, it was a strange sensation of being technically outclassed as his strikes were knocked a side and made contact with nothing but air. Hong Fu's movements are slow, but they are calculated and precise. If there is anything that he has learnt, it is that Hong Fu's artifacts aren't directly the combat strengthening type.
Brakagi was initially planning to give Hong Fu a simple taste of what his artifact can do for a living being, potentially throwing his entire body and mind into a loop, however, to do that, he actually need to make physical contact or project from far enough away for a long enough time. However, if he spends that time to peer into the systemic levels of Hong Fu from far away, Hong Fu can also use that time to close the gap in between the two of them and take him down.
'You move well.' Brakagi complimented.
'You move fast.' Hong Fu replied, and the two Rocky measured each other with probes and jabs, but no further attacks were made. Brakagi acted like he was about to activated his artifact from a range with his right hand reaching forward and the Ring of Instability glowing, baiting for Hong Fu to attack. Seeing Brakagi exiting the combat stance was the signal Hong Fu needed as he dashed forward.
Check mate. Brakagi murmured underneath his breath as he turned his outreached hand around into a fist and stepped forward into Hong Fu's path with a forward strike of the hand directly towards his chest. This will just be a lesson in combat, as Brakagi can move so much faster despite initiating the movements much later. As his entire body coiled and prepared to release all that pent up energy from his fists, Hong Fu looked like he is directly running into the tip of the spear recklessly.
Then, right before their bodies made contact, Brakagi saw Hong Fu clip the ground with his toes as he was sent flying. Manipulating his body into an arch, Hong Fu let the fist flew right past him as gusts of wind accompanying the fist let him know the power contained in the punch should it have landed. Brakagi saw a pair of Rocky paws getting ever larger before tilting his head back slightly and braced for the impact.
The hit landed from Hong Fu as Brakagi's head is cocked back, his arms flailed all around and his body was flicked up from the ground, spun in the air and landed back down. He grunted painfully and backward rolled away to maintain some distance between the two. Hong Fu remained at the point where he landed the hit as he looked on at Brakagi once again. The orange light of the artifact flashes a few times in a short amount of time before it went down again.
Brakagi jumped forward for another barrage of attacks, but Hong Fu moved so fluidly from point to point, evading, deflecting and counterattacking his much faster and stronger strikes with little effort, regardless of the layers of combat tactic that Brakagi tried to do. He tried to martial arts he learned since his childhood, he tried variants showed to him by Jozzor and ones he saw performed in the human world, and yet...
Is Brakagi just this outclassed technically? A novice fighting against a grand master, a human chess player against a trained program.....every move Brakagi does, Hong Fu exactly what to do to counter against it. And worse yet, every move after that was also effortless countered as if Hong Fu is guiding Brakagi towards the sequence of moves that Hong Fu exactly wanted.
This isn't a fight for the showing of power from Brakagi to Hong Fu, but really a complete breakdown of technique from Hong Fu. A demonstration of combat superiority.
This isn't a fight, it's a lesson.
A mirage of counter strikes towards Brakagi's torso followed by a kick was enough to send him flying into the seat as it flipped over and kept Brakagi rolling backwards. The impact wasn't enough to hurt him, but it was enough to spell the end of the fight.
'I yield, comrade.' Brakagi hopped back up from lying on his back, 'I don't know what your powers are, but you are strong, and we can always use people like you.'
'....' Hong Fu wasn't really expecting this humbling response, but he will happily take it. The two Rocky grabbed onto the arms of each other and touched their foreheads gently, 'you haven't used your artifact powers too, president.'
'You can call me Brakagi from now on,' Brakagi said, brushing off the remark, 'Jozzor should be back soon, and he shall assign you with your missions and work. You will be provided a place to live, a handsome wage, but you are also expected to aid the One Rocky government in times of need with both your own and your artifact's power. Can I expect that from you?'
'As long as what we do is proper.' Hong Fu said, bowing his head, 'as long as what we do is best for the people.'
'If I deviated from that path, I urge you to stop me.' Brakagi said before pointing a finger towards the room that's now a mess and asked, 'help me rearrange the furniture?'
The two worked on everything as Jozzor has finished with the tour of the building, and a Rocky assistant came up to bring Hong Fu and Vindy towards the accommodation complex. With the entire office to themselves, Brakagi and Jozzor was able to compare the stories, and there isn't anything that's too overtly obvious to the two of them, apart from the fact that two artifact users seemingly came out of nowhere to join them.
'Master, what are you thinking?' Jozzor asked.
'More artifact users are always better.' Brakagi admitted, 'especially when I suspect the galactic government might do something with the artifact users in secret. They will have to earn their trust, and they will work under you, if that's okay with you.'
'I will train them to the best of my knowledge.' Jozzor promised as he looked around at the scratch marks on the flooring, 'but I have doubts for Hong Fu in particular.'
'Me too.' Brakagi agreed as he rubbed a sore spot in his torso that's yet to go away, 'but as long as he isn't doing anything suspicious, we will just have to keep a watch on him.'
'That is done.' Jozzor said, 'they will be monitored regardless of what apartment complex that they have chosen.'
With the matters of the two new artifact users out of the way, it is finally time to get to the busy day of work for Brakagi.
Right outside the main city on Geb 4, where the first few of the space elevators onto the space ports are built on Geb 4, millions of daily arrivals from the Olympus system began their lengthy registration and unloading process. In this time of business, it's always wise to travel light, and among the millions of beings that arrives of the booming planet was a small human covered in a black cloak. Humans aren't exactly a rare sight on the planet, and her smaller stature is also quite easy to be mistake for a taller Rocky. She walked alongside the crowd of people along the arrival terminal as she looked onward towards the city landscape far out in the distance.
Reaching out with a finger to the point on the window glass that's inline with the tallest building in the city, she gave it little rhythmic tap.
'So it begins.' She said with a grim smile, 'Mr President.'
The reinforced glass lets out a gentle chime as a web of cracks extended out from her fingers.
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