**New Rome, Research Lab 0-1**

The Emperor and the Head Captain of the Space Marines entered the Lab. The Emperor Apollo had black hair, and deep green eyes. Unlike most Romans he had not experienced the same changes in appearance, with the rest of features looking very much like the Southern Slavs of Earth. The Head Captain had the look of most Romans, with dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes. Unlike most of the time he was not wearing his heavy Space Marine Power armor, rather he had taken on a more simpler suit of power armor used by the Bellator.

The man approaching them unlike the Emperor in his fancy robes or the Head Captain wore a simple lab coat, with is hair being dyed a light lavender color. His glasses stood straight on his face, his cheek bones coming down at a angle to form a pointed chin. His eyes were a light blue, as he took a short bow before the Emperor and the Head Captain.

“Greetings your majesty, I am Lloyd Ashland, and I am honored to have you in my lab today. I have quite a few things to show you that we have been developing lately, the first of which is new shell we have been developed for our rail-guns and siege tanks.” said Lloyd, leading the Emperor and Head Captain to a firing range. 

A siege tank rested there as four spikes came from its underside and fired into the ground, with its cannon now pointing upwards like an artillery piece. It fired a single shell at another tank down range, when the shell impacted its outer layer split into 100s of pieces of shrapnel, that had clearly been superheated by the firing of the shell. The sharpnel shredded the tank and much of the ground around it.

“The outer coating on that shell is what we call depleted uranium, rather effective and brutal do you not agree? I estimate it is about a 50% increase in combat effectiveness.” stated Lloyd.

“While this is a nice advancement, when you called me the Emperor here we were expecting more than just a new shell.” responded the Head Captain.

“Indeed, I thought we were getting something to turn the tide on our alien enemies.” said the Emperor.

“Oh I do have something to do so, just follow me this way please.” said Lloyd, leading the two to a different part of the lab.

When they arrived in the other section standing before them was a large mech. Unlike the other two mechs used by the Imperial Guard or the Roman Armed Forces it looked much more sophisticated and futuristic. The metal the robot was built out of shone a bright silver, with the head of the mech and arms and legs being colored blue.  The mech appeared to have several cannons attached to the arms, including one on each arm that glowed the red of antiprotons. The mech also had an artillery piece loaded on the back. The rest of its weapons consisted of large rail-guns and plasma cannons. Also on its back was a wing like structure that what was labeled as a anti-gravity generator.

“Behold the weapon I promised you! I call it a Knightmare Frame, it is the first of its kind.” stated Lloyd, gesturing to the large mech before him.

“A mech? Hardly something that is going to help us.” responded the Head Captain.

“Ah yes but the Knightmare Frame is unique! It’s float system makes it capable of air travel unlike our other mechs, and it is capable of spaceflight. It’s weapons include multiple plasma cannons and space ship rail-guns, with an artillery piece using the shells I showed you earlier. It’s greatest weapon however, just let me show you.” narrated Lloyd, as the Knightmare Frame began moving to a range, pointing its fist at a target on the range. The weapons attached to its arm spun around, changing to the red glowing weapon from earlier. Upon firing it shot a pure red beam of antiprotons, annihilating the target it had fired at.

“Was that a antiproton beam!? How did you get it on a unit of that size?” asked the Emperor, turning towards Lloyld.

“A mining team recently discovered a new material I call Sakurdite, however it is rather rare so do not expect to see thousands of knightmare frames on the battlefield. And do how extensive it is with controls it will either require Space Marine pilots or extreme amounts of training.” stated Lloyd.

“Regardless this will definitely allow us to turn the tables on the aliens. You may continue Lloyd.” said the Emperor.

“I will gladly your majesty.” responded Lloyd, bowing as the Emperor and Head Captain left the lab.