Code Golden: Gundam War

"From what I saw, you Imperials love your birthdays. At least that is what your uncle told me." Garrus commented in an amused tone.

"...Do you know how many uncles, aunts and grandmothers I have?" Jane said with a strained smile.

"..." For a second, Garrus processed that, then mentally did some counting.

"Oh."

The red-haired girl nodded at his 'oh'.

"Precisely, last time my grandfather threw a birthday party, we had a King of the Hill championship. Retinues waged literal war, including Gundams. It was streamed through the whole Empire." Jane deadpanned.

But Garrus looked fascinated by that.

"I would pay to watch that." The Turian commented, making her deadpan at him.

"I consider that a waste of resources. But that's beside the point. It was to celebrate my birthday, and it's a bit embarrassing that they will do that." The girl sighed.

"You do need to accept the fact that it is your family."

"Yeah, I know, the issue is that many of them don't have kids of their own, so they spoil me instead." The girl sighed even more.

"...Right. I suppose that is because you guys are Innovators?" Garrus pondered out loud. From what he'd seen, these guys were strange now. They can resist biological urges and only have kids if they want.

"Approaching Anaheim System."

Garrus perked up as he walked over to the observation deck.

"I heard that not even some Imperials can visit this system." The Turian commented, getting a bit excited to see what it looked like.

"That is true. Though Grandpa showed the system to Quarians that one time." Jane walked over as she crossed her arms and looked at the star that was getting closer.

"Exiting jump space in…3…2…1… finishing Trans-am." The space slowed down around them as they were some distance away from Big Blue.

"By the spirits." Garrus's lower jaw opened as he saw hundreds upon hundreds of warships around the Big Blue; even next to a gas giant, it looked absurd.

"I-I can assume… they brought their retinues with them?" The Turian realised it was simply too much to have this many ships for simple star system defence.

"Correct, they use this moment to practise Retinue tactics and upgrade and maintain ships in the Emperor's Arsenal." The girl looked at the ring around the gas giant, where ships were docking.

"...Spirits…how big is that ring?"

"...I think Big Blue's diameter is around 120 thousand kilometres." Jane pondered aloud.

Garrus nearly choked on his saliva as he realised how big that is.

"Yes, the Gas Giant is not the biggest, but it's just big enough to function as a Reactor creation workshop." The red-haired girl explained as she watched the White Unicorn fly by battleships as they were getting closer to World of Anaheim.

"That's not the point. The point is that to build something like that is absurd!"

"Not for us. We've been making rings around planets for the past 150 or so years." Jane shrugged; while big in size, it's not that groundbreaking for her.

"...Let me get this straight… the moment your species learns how to fly in space, you decide that it will be a great idea to make a ring around your homeworld?"

"Yep, and when we saw your home, at least that is what Aunt Claudia saw… it was nothing. She was… dissatisfied. She might order a ring to be built around your homeworld one day." Jane joked as she spotted Avalon docked in the orbital ring of World of Anaheim.

"...It appears Grandpa is home for a while if Avalon is docked like that." All of a sudden, the girl got worried when she saw the Mothership getting refurbished.

"...Is that a big deal?" Garrus noticed her worry.

"... It depends? He could be preparing for my birthday for months. Now imagine someone who will abuse his empire just to make a big party." She explained while looking at the mothership.

"...You… know…"

The girl stared at him, realising that the Turian would love that.

"No wonder your kind gets along so well with Uncle Trajan and Grandpa," Jane complained, realising that Turians are made of the same cloth as her uncle and grandfather.

Garrus shrugged.

~~~

"Quite the gathering…" Aria looked with wide eyes at the sheer absurd amount of ships that arrived in this particular system.

"It's father's favourite granddaughter's birthday. What do you expect?" Scipio rolled his eyes.

"Besides, the Central Command use this opportunity to run some maintenance on ships and dock with the Emperor's Arsenal."

"...That big ring?"

"The drydocks." He nodded.

"...Are you serious? Those are docks?" Aria was speechless; she had seen many things, but this… this.

"At maximum capacity, it could make over 110 thousand battleships…per day. If you need to."

When Scipio declared that with a proud look, the Asari looked at him with disbelief; these numbers were hard to wrap their heads around!

"And the crew? Logistics…" She tried to reason with such numbers.

"We make those. The best part is that Father specifically chose this system for his Arsenal. The star systems around this star are mostly mining worlds; thus, if we really need firepower, we just make ships and mobile suits." Scipio smirked as he watched retinues of his siblings.

"Most importantly…" Scipio turned around and looked at his crew. "This time we are winning the championship! Are we clear? We will be the greatest retinue in the whole Empire and damn Galaxy! I don't care about some silly excuses! Aquilla Legion is the best, end of story!" The Prince barked, making his crew salute and declare their readiness.

"Yes, Your Highness! We will do our best!"

'Umm…what?' Aria looked around. What are they talking about? What championship?

"...What are you talking about?" She asked, as confused as ever.

"Retinue championship. It started decades ago when retinues' numbers reached over twenty. The gathered fleet and its land retinues would participate in mock battles to decide which one is the best.

Though father's retinue doesn't participate, as it would be cheating, the rest do. Well, we duke it out in the world below." He looked at the moon that was getting close; his Rubicon would dock soon, and he saw ships with familiar regalia.

"...That…is interesting."

'All of the retinues fighting each other? Now that is something that I need to see.'

"You do know that you're part of the Aquilla Legion. In other words, my Retinue." He reminded her of her allegiance.

"Well aware, my prince." She replied with a dramatic bow.

"Good enough."

With that said, Rubicon docked, and they could disembark.

"That reminds me. You are the first-ever Asari to be here. No one else was here before." Scipio commented on that little fact.

"I know. I figured that much. We are in the Empire's core worlds." Aria was not dumb; she knew what this meant. Some of the Princes and Princesses will be seeing her race for the first time, and that matters for a first impression.

~~~

Over the years, the World of Anaheim is slowly becoming a major and very important world. Not just because it's next to the Emperor's Arsenal, but because it's the Emperor's residence.

Not the Homeworld of Terra. But the World of Anaheim. Terra is the home of the Senate, where policies are drafted and, most of the time, declined because the previous ones were working just fine.

It's the civilian capital, as they say, and Leila and Kaguya spend most of the time there. Apart from that, Terra is the 'official' capital and the birthplace of the Empire.

But apart from that, it is mostly the 'rich' and 'old blood' who live in that world and the system in general. Newer-world citizens use a term for anyone from Terra or Sol in general: a 'Terran'.

It's a term used for people who live there. And the number of citizens that have such a 'title' is getting lower by the year as the Empire gets bigger by the day.

One of the biggest reasons the World of Anaheim fascinates people is the rare tournament that happens on this planet.

The Retinue Championship. Each time it happens, it's different.

Last time it happened, it was eight years ago, and it was the King of Hill. Retinues clashed in melee, gunfight and mech skirmish. It was total war, and the population watched.

The people of the Empire dubbed the whole thing the new Olympics, only flashier and on a bigger scale. Ever since then, everyone wanted to be part of one of the 'factions'. Since every royal had an 'identity'.

Scipio is Roman-like with his legionaries; Trajan is all about the marines; Empress Kallen is Japan-like with samurai and their bushido code. Though her elites never had a chance to get deployed in war against the Batarians.

So the aliens never saw those angry masks and katanas.

Regardless, it was a great advertisement for the military and its meritocracy; everyone was to get promoted and join one of the retinues.

Or some luckier people were simply born in territories ruled by a Royal.

As the retinues gathered, one of the Empresses oversaw their arrival at the command tower in the orbital ring. Leila oversaw logistics and inspected the ships.

The whole solar system, especially Big Blue's sphere of influence, is full of scanners that connect to the warship's Cosmic Drive, access the FTL engines and check the black box.

By doing so, the Command can see the ships' mileage. From that alone, they can deduce which ship needs immediate attention or refurbishment.

"Prince Scipio's retinue entered the Big Blue's Sphere of Influence." The navigation officer lady notified the Empress.

"Sending over the logs." With a flick of her finger, a hologram appeared in front of the blonde Empress, who mentally skimmed through the list and highlighted some of the ships that require a checkup.

"Double-check all of the ships that he brought over. We need to inspect the pressure they went through. This is the first time an Imperial vessel has gone through that much."

The Logistics Empress checked the travel logs, basically the routes they went through from the west side of Arcturus Stream, into Exodus Cluster, then Argus Rho, Shadow Sea, Ninmah Cluster, Styx Theta, Hawking Eta, Pangaea Expanse, Pylos Nebula, Omega Nebula, then back to Pylos Nebula, Far Rim, Perseus Veil, then back to Far Rim and so forth.

Prince Scipio has the most 'light-years done' of them all, and top of that, because of his massive travelling resume, he even developed a temporary Booster tech that the Emperor has accepted as an apology for using Vulcan so randomly.

In other words, the Prince is a literal Pandora's Box.

"Understood… Holy… Over 80 thousand light-years… I think this is almost the entire Milky Way diameter, no?" The Officer commented in disbelief.

"Something like that. We don't have exact numbers, only mathematical formulas." Leila shrugged as she continued to read through the logs.

"So do take it with a grain of salt." The blonde said with a sigh as she realised that those Cosmic Drives will need to go through reassembly. That much of Trans-Am puts a strain on the engine.

"Rubicon needs refurbishment as well. Tell the crew to take a break."

"Understood."

~~~

The moment the Rubicon docked into the World of Anaheim Orbital Ring, and his crew was ready to disembark, they were greeted by someone the Prince didn't want to see.

"Ugh…" Scipio grimaced as he saw the ship master and his lined-up crew.

"Let me guess…" The 2nd Prince commented as he watched the rough, middle-aged man walk over and show a tablet.

"Congratulations, my Prince, your ship got 86 thousand 72 hundred light-years of mileage. It's more than Avalon, though Motherships don't count as much; they can switch and relegate the Cosmic Drives.

Regardless, you are not going anywhere any time soon." The Ship Master patted his shoulder before walking towards the Prince's flagship.

"I am honestly impressed it didn't experience a meltdown; 95% of that mileage was FTL travel." The Ship Master commented from behind the Prince as he and his crew walked into the battleship.

"...Sassy Avalonians," Prince complained for a second before walking towards the shuttle.

"...Avalonian?" Aria asked, but the bridge crew explained it to her.

"We are deep in the Emperor's controlled territory. All of the people who work and live here are descendants of Avalon's crew, his Majesty's flagship; they all have this pride that they are purely the Emperor's people.

That is why His Highness is calling them Avalonians."

"Oh, so it's similar to Asari and the ones who live in Thessia. Makes sense." Aria shook her head.

"We have those too. We call them Terrans; they are a different breed as well." Scipio snorted as he got into the seat, followed by his crew.

The shuttle will take them to the orbital elevator.

"We are not taking a direct shuttle?" The Asari looked confused as she didn't expect… a bus…

"A direct shuttle would mean that we are in a hurry. If we do that, then one of my mothers, maybe even my mom, would be there to pick us up.

And trust me, I don't want that." Scipio explained as he looked through the window.

"You probably think that we are in a proper world with cities and all that. But this world is far from that.

This is literally an estate, and we are at the front doors of it." He explained with a strained smile.

"..." The ex-pirate Queen didn't comment on that. By this point, she has seen everything.

"That is why we will take a bus and a train to the planet's surface, because anything else will mean that we are in a hurry and we need my father's or mother's attention.

And honestly, I only want to answer their questions at the dining table." He said while watching the bus start moving.

"...Fair enough. I am certain from the last meeting there is a lot to talk about." Aria smirked. She realised that Scipio was quite a naughty prince, and he needed to answer for a lot of things.

And that is amusing for her to watch.

For now, they watched through the windows a bunch of warships docking and the ship masters taking them away.

For more than ten minutes, that is all that she saw.

Eventually they arrived at a massive hub in front of a tower that was stretching upwards away from the ring's surface.

As the bus parked, many of them were at the parking spot.

Only now did she realise that all of the people who were waiting were Imperial Retinues, maybe Scipio's siblings or their followers.

'That's a lot of people…' At that moment, she realised the Anaheim family was more like a nation within an Empire.

"Big bro!"

The prince sighed when he heard that. A blonde guy in his early 20s rushed over, looking excited.

'And a bit naive aura…' Aria could immediately see through the young adult's nature.

"Roland, so you're already here." Scipio smiled; his smile was a forced one. There was a reason: he gave him the Western Expeditionary Fleet.

So it's painful, and now he is being rubbed in passively.

The 14th Prince has admiral's stripes.

"I've been here for a couple of days now! Meeting and greeting our siblings and a couple of mothers. Your mother arrived a while back, so you can see her once you are at the estate."

Scipio 'smiled' even more as he simply nodded; there is not that much that he can say there.

"Yeah, I guess I will." He walked toward the terminal that would take him to the world below.

"By the way, I heard that you waged a war against the pirates; sounds cool! I can't wait to join one of those expeditions one day.

I've been in Viper Nebula, but it was mostly empty star systems, boring as hell." Roland commented that his mood went from excited to giddy and settled on boring.

"Well, you are Admiral of the Western Expeditionary Fleet; I guess you will have your chance to wage war since you are at the border all the time.

Anyway, I have to take my train to the planet's surface so that I will see you later." Scipio got into the tower building.

It was a literal train station, full of military personnel in different uniforms.

"Sure thing, I will see you later!"

Roland dashed outside to meet other siblings who might be arriving soon.

"That's quite an excited little guy."

"...That's Roland, the 14th prince. I gave him my old position so that I could explore the galaxy.

One could say he is lucky since he has hundreds of ships now."

"Haha, so you are jealous now? You were the one who gave them away. Besides, I am a bit surprised that princes who never left the empire have no reaction to me at all." Aria noticed that small detail. From what she understood, many of these people had never left Imperial space and had never seen aliens in person. Not to have any reaction at all is… interesting.

"Don't get fooled by the fact that he is carrying emotions on his sleeve.

He is the son of one of the best knights the Empire has produced. That little brother of mine went through rigorous G-Force training, and he has trained to have a mental switch that flips when he needs to fight.

That Roland is one of the best fighters in the Empire, making him one of the best in the Galaxy." Scipio explained with quite a serious tone.

"None of my siblings is useless. To have a title of prince in the Empire, one needs to showcase their talent and prove themselves." The pair walked over and checked when the next train was. Thankfully, it's not too crowded.

"Yeah, I know." She rolled his eyes; the Ex-pirate Queen was not born yesterday.

"My, Scipio. It has been a couple of years." A proud voice came from behind. "I have heard quite some stories about you."

The pair turned around and saw a line-up of black-and-gold-dressed officers. Their regalia was three suns on a shield held by a golden eagle.

"Lucian, little brother, how have you been? I hope those stories were great?" Scipio used his most common and most annoying card. Almost all of his siblings hate being called 'little' in front of him.

"Among other things. So that's an Asari. I heard you waged a war for her. Trying to recreate Troy?" Lucian chuckled as he looked at Aria.

"More like Vikings. I think it was one of the Norwegian kings who waged war for a princess. Can't remember the details." Scipio played along as he tried to recall ancient history.

"Right… only in space?" Lucian rolled his eyes as he looked at Aria, who was observing the whole thing.

"I am Lucian Anaheim, 13th Prince, the Governor of Alpha Centauri. Welcome to the ever-expanding Anaheim family, Pirate Queen." The Prince introduced himself.

"Likewise, you might already know, but I am Aria T'loak."

"Indeed, I have done my research on you. Most of us have. Not surprising; there are not that many famous Asari in your field, from my understanding."

"...we love our art and diplomacy; I doubt there are many Asari who could get your fancy." Aria snorted as she said that.

"I suppose that is why Scipio went out of his way to get you. To the other side of the galaxy. Quite the love you got there, big brother." Lucian snorted, calling him 'big brother' sarcastically.

"You could say that." Scipio wasn't sure how to answer that.

"Regardless, it was nice catching up. I have things to do. Prepare for the event."

"...Prepare?" The Prince sprang into action as he looked at his little brother.

"Indeed. What? You don't know what it's going to be?" The light brown-haired prince teased as he smirked with amusement.

"Damn those cheaters!" Scipio gnashed his teeth.

Aria looked at the prince's group walking away, then back at him.

"He looks like one of those overly rich ones," Aria commented. Even though she didn't see 'wealth', this guy was radiating it.

"He is the governor of Alpha Centauri. His system has four colonised worlds and four resource-rich mining worlds.

Most importantly, he is the closest thing you can call an old blood. That system is the first one the Empire has ever colonised.

Most of the interstellar industries started in that place." Scipio explained to her.

"So he is richer than that Martian guy?" Aria recalled the other glasses prince.

"Hmm, I suppose similar-ish? Nick is like an ever-growing entrepreneur, while Luke is just sitting on his ever-growing wealth." Scipio explained in layman's terms.

"I see. Well, I wonder what kind of tournament it will be?" Aria asked curiously.

"Probably his mother fished it out from father." The 2nd Prince snorted as he started walking towards the first and closest train.

"Yours didn't find out?"

"Hah. I doubt she cares the same way Mother Marrybell does for Lucian. Being Empress of Justice and all that prestige."

"Oh, one of those."

~~~

Aria looked at the map of the world. When she heard that this world was like an 'estate', Scipio wasn't joking.

The continents of this place are simply named 'Home' or 'Garden', which is mind-boggling to her.

The Home continent is basically a city around the Orbital Elevator, like the other two Elevators. Still, outside the elevator there is only a single huge Imperial Palace with a massive building complex named Armoury.

The whole thing spans kilometres; the entire portion of the continent is dedicated to a single palace. The sheer extravagance is absurd even in the current age of space travel.

The garden is just a massive farm complex growing an array of things. But it's mostly organic material used for clothes.

Though it looks fascinating, as the whole continent is a huge 'farmland', it doesn't look that bad, as the whole process is heavily mechanised with hydroponic and sealed environments. Not only that, but there is a massive rotation in crop growth and specialised satellites that boost certain productivities.

The whole continent looked like a workshop from the eagle-eye view Aria was getting.

It reminded her how deeply into planetary sculpturing this Empire is.

"Oh, that's Dad's garden. It's not bad, but where you should pay attention is here." Scipio got closer and brushed his fingers through the hologram and showed the continent that is named 'Pen'.

"...Pen?"

"Yes, not the writing tool but pen for animals." The Prince clarified as he saw her confusion.

"The northern part is the colder part, and it's where Terra's animals from the Ice Age are from. Ice Age in Terra was around 12 thousand years ago. Most of those animals were extinct, but it's where my older sister used experimental gene technology to bring them back." He explained as he zoomed in, showing woolly mammoths, smilodons, and dire wolves.

"All of these used to be extinct."

"Hmm, so similar to Salarian technology, they have great cloning technology. Though not a continental-sized zoo." Aria had a strained smile while commenting. Once more, she saw the imperial extravagance.

"Not just that. Checking here." He zoomed to a specific part of the pen continent. It was the middle, and it looked like a desert.

"This is where my father and sister do research on Thresher Maw."

"!"

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"You mean…"

"How do they keep that thing secure?" The Pirate Ex-Queen asked.

"Vibration barriers, and force field technology. It's very specific tech, and they are researching how such creatures exist and can spread from planet to planet.

Is it plant-based or pure organic? Stuff like that. If you are interested, you should talk with Claudia." The Prince shrugged, not really into the whole thing. However, he wouldn't mind taking it down.

"Right." Aria sarcastically replied with an eye roll.

~~~

On another linear train, Garrus was staring at the window and watching how the planet was getting closer. The other Turians were doing similar stuff. Only Jane and Trajan were used to it; for them, it was a normal means of transportation.

"I see the attraction of these things. But the undertaking to build should be enormous, no? Unless there is infrastructure… right, there is one." Midway, the Turian sniper realised that yes. There is.

"Indeed. We have literal factories that only make orbital elevators." Trajan replied with crossed arms.

"It's essential construction to every single colony. It's part of Imperial directive. Every civilian has the right to the space.

You probably already know about our 'manifest destiny' initiative." The 1st Prince reminded the turian about Imperial expansionism.

"...Yes… and honestly, from my perspective… it's terrifying." Garrus didn't mince words. It's literally stated that the entire cosmos belongs to them, that it's their right.

"You do know that 'Imperial' is not the name of our species. It's an idea, an ideology that our people are following.

Most of the people that live here, we call them Avalonians. They've been my old man's direct followers for generations. Their mentality changed compared to other worlds and colonies." Trajan explained the 'deeper' parts of the Imperial culture.

"...I see… so that's how it is." Garrus realised why he was here. He was here to learn and accept their way of life.

And honestly, it works, not just for him but others as well.

"More like people who follow my gramps are Imperials," Jane commented as she casually looked at the world that they are getting closer to. She can already see the horizon line.

"Hey. That applies to the Princes and Princesses. Something you will be soon." The 1st Prince reminded her.

"Ugh… don't remind me. I hate that part. I will need to wear a dress." The girl grimaced; she was annoyed before, but not as much. It's a teenage thing that she is growing out of.

"You are not the first or last one to experience that, Jane. Don't forget you will most likely be getting your Gundam and Jaeger soon."

"..." the red-haired girl's lips twitched. She was excited for that!

"Can you tell me the process of that?" Garrus, being a literal alien and outsider, had no idea how one gets a mobile suit in the Imperial family.

Clearly there is some sort of ritual.

"Usually we gather data, and based on that data we make a completely customised machine.

Unicorn Corp and my old man's G-Force work hand in hand in their development. I made multiple Gundams for my siblings, like Darius' Xerxes.

My old man's retinue is the only retinue in the whole Empire with an elite unit of just Gundams. It's the most destructive military in the whole Empire and, by extension, the Galaxy.

You don't want any race to face those. They laid waste to entire nations back when they were primitive and powered by simple fusion reactors.

Now that group is several times bigger, and their machines are multiple times stronger.

It's simply not fair, and that is why they don't participate in the upcoming Retinue Championship." Trajan smirked just from mentioning the upcoming games.

"Do you know what it will be?" Jane asked all of a sudden.

But the Prince shrugged; he had no idea.

"My mother is angry with me, so she didn't share what Father had in mind, so I am going blind."

The red-haired girl groaned while Garrus wondered how 'official' this event was. Do they have sponsors? Or is it just a simple family gathering, magnified many times over?

~~~

As the Royalty was gathering at the front doors of the enormous estate, an Empress was nearly bouncing to see her children.

"Mother, calm yourself." Julia motioned for Kallen to calm down.

"I haven't seen you since the whole nonsense with the Horsehead Nebula takeover." The red-haired Empress hugged the Princess, who nerviously laughed as behind her was her flagship crew.

They snickered, barely keeping their professional faces.

"It's only been a few months." The 2nd Princess tried to reason.

"Few months? FEW MONTHS? It was two years! You dum-dum!" Kallen pulled back and looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"F-Fair point…" Julia felt that she couldn't escape from that.

"Besides, where is Jane?" Kallen looked behind her daughter, looking for her grandchild.

"...With Trajan, they should be arriving soon." The red-haired Admiral lady explained in a nervous tone.

*Tsk*

The Empress clicked her tongue. "I wanted to be the first one to give my gifts. But it appears I won't be able to." She complained, but then she looked around, sensing the other kid of hers.

"Do you think you can hide from me, Julian!?"

"Oh crap. I thought I could sneak past." The 8th Prince tried to use Julia's crew to sneak into the Estate complex.

"You are a hundred years too young to pass my Quantum Brainwaves!" She strolled over, and Julia's officers split apart like the Red Sea, allowing the Empress to approach Julian, whose crew was half the size of Julia's.

"...Hehehe, so… how is going— ahtatatata," Julian screamed at the top of his lungs when Kallen grabbed his ear and did a spin. Everyone grimaced when they saw that scene; it was… brutal.

"You are so like your father, who drops off the grid for months at a time and makes Legion pretend that he is him.

Now that he has a literal planet to play around on, he is even less responsible."

The red-haired empress started ranting about the Emperor, who skips his duties and focuses on his new toy called Ilos.

"L-Let me go, I get it! I am sorry that the galaxy is that b—big— Ahhhhh." The red-haired prince screamed even more as the Empress dragged him into the estate.

"...Damn…" One of Julia's officers looked pale when he saw that.

"...Princess, I hope you don't forget to call her next time."

Julia slowly but very seriously nodded, as she brought her hand to her ear. She could feel it, without even being pulled. It's like Julian is sharing his pain through Quantum Brainwaves.

~~~

More Chapters (Book Three Chapter 34 [50k words] is up!)

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