[b]Heiwa no tochi, Space[/b]
If the Roman soldiers held any suspicions or signs of worry at the Collective’s forces, they did not show it. Each soldier held their ground, not flinching, not even shifting in the slightest. It was clear to the Collective that the Roman Army expected nothing less than total discipline out of it’s soldiers. As the Collective’s forces entered the door to the hangar opened and out stepped a female. Soldiers saluted her as she passed by, and unlike the suits or power armor they wore 
her outfit was more ornate, it appeared to be a suit of power armor but unlike the soldiers it was silver instead of black, and had golden trimming. Her brown hair flowed down behind her as her green eyes stared down the Triarian before her. She commanded an air of authority.

One of the more notable things to the Triarian was while it was clear she had made no attempts to use it, she had a vast psionic power within her, as well as two other mysterious forces the Triarii had yet to identify. Her mental barriers were also appeared to be extremely strong, as would to be expected of someone of her station. 

She began to speak.

“Welcome to my command ship Collective, I am Aurora vi Italia, 2nd heir to the throne of the New Roman Empire and the Emperor’s personnel military commander.” spoke Aurora, pulling a small metal device out of her pocket. Putting it down on the ground a holographic projection of a unknown planet came up.

“This is Kibō-hosh, the planet I intend to attack next with your assistance. We Romans already suffered a defeat here, and we shall not again. The main reason for our lost was the fact that they are a warrior race. Most of their “citizens” are armed and even if the weapons are outdated they still pose a threat. We lost too many forces in the first battle, but we can support your ground forces with deployments of our more elites forces as well a mechanized forces. Space should not be a concern, as you have brought 200 ships with you, and we have 200 ships with us. Combined that with the fact that your technology is clearly superior to the Abh we should be able to take space easily. Beyond that they did deploy multiple antimatter missiles against our space fleet, these were designed to kill cities. While I doubt they have more we recommend bring anti missile countermeasures just incase. Any other questions?”

[b]Heiwa no tochi, Ground[/b]
“If you decided to even try to tear my arm off, you would be dead before you could.” said the Roman, picking himself up off the ground. He was clearly the commander, and the abh was now surrounded by a squad of rather angry Bellator.

“Leave now, and continue about your business [i]one[/i]” spat the Commander at the Abh, in a clearly insulting tone. 

[b]Arcadia, Statue Garden[/b]
“Unfortunately as much as I like to see how far Lelouch has progressed I must attend to my duties back on New Rome. Please inform Lelouch that his father is thinking of him, and please tell Nox that I thank him for this chance to visit.”

And with the Emperor headed off, returning to his Dreadnought and then New Rome.

[b]Arcadia, Training Camp Lar'varis[/b]
Lelouch what as around him the two who were assigned to train summoned various magical constructs, vague humanoids made of entirely of magical energy. They had taught him various spells and then wanted to test him, to see how he would do, to see how well he had mastered his abilities. To see how powerful he was.

He did not disappoint.

As the first wave of the constructs descended on Lelouch, he wiped them away with a mere flick of his wrist, all of them be ignited. He withdrew the blade that had been given as gift to the Romans from the Roa’marii, he taken it do to his abilities. He used it as a spear, using a levitation spell to throw it into a construct, destroying it. The blade quickly flew back into his hand, as he sheathed it.

“[i]Before I never thought I would be able to take the Abh head on, but with these abilities…[/i]” thought Lelouch, as he summoned a lightning bolt from the sky, it crackling down on another group of constructs.

“[i]I shall make the Abh pay for what they did.[/i]”

Lelouch watched as the number of constructs grew larger and larger, surrounding him in a circle. He watched as they began pressing towards him. However Lelouch no longer saw the magical constructs as hardened shells of magical energy, he imagined them as Abh. His arms outstretched he began summoning a vast amount of magical energy to him. It swarmed in a huge cloud, as he smashed his fist down into the ground. Smoke and dust filled the air, clouding the vision of the General Blu'deri Escal and the Prime Magus. When it had finally cleared Lelouch was left with a huge black spot surrounding him, almost like a explosion, and none of the magical constructs left. Lelouch was harmed, but what was even more marvelous was that Lelouch had not cast a spell. He had manipulated the energy directly, instead of casting a spell to shape the energy.

Lelouch stepped up towards his two mentors.

“I do not think fighting magical constructs will get me anywhere anymore. I need a real challenge to test my abilities.”

[b]Roman Colony World A-01[/b]
Klaus paused for a minute as he marveled at the machine. He gladly shaked the Builder’s hand, as a few guards carried the device off elsewhere, Klaus quickly saying something to them.

“Thank you, I am sure the New Roman Empire will appreciate this for centuries to come.” spoke Klaus.

[b]New Rome, Magical University[/b]
Llyod tipped his glasses forward slightly as he bent forwards, observing the Roa’marii who had asked him the question.

“You are in a Roman Development lab, having come from the United Roa’marii Empire to assist in the discovery of a magical artifact. How odd that you would seem to suddenly forget that.” commented Lloyd, with a slightly creepy tone of curiosity in his tone. Llyod began stepping forward as he explained how they had come across the artifact and what little research they did have on it. However both Roman and Roa’marii gasped in shock, as a strange white orb descended down from the artifact. It magical signature was strong, broadcasting a wave that could be felt across New Rome.

The ball floated downs towards Sca'reti, beckoning to her almost to touch it. Everyone except Llyod just watched, waiting to see what would happen.
 
[b]New Rome, Knightmare Frame Development Labs[/b]
Shortly after Nina had begun observing the projects and making sure everything was running smoothly, Llyod had sent in a message saying that he forgot to mention the testing of a new Knightmare Frame had begun today, and that he would like Nina to be there to make sure nothing horrible happens and that all protocols for testing are followed.

Nina had made her way to the Knightmare Frame Wing of the Lab, which had been constructed shortly after the project began. Besides actual development itself orders had been issued from command to especially train groups of soldiers for Knightmare Frame combat, rather than just relegating the task to the Space Marines. Several model chairs and such had been set up and acted as simulators. While not the best as they were not the VR of some nations, the Romans had managed to set them up to the point where they were sufficient to test for the abilities of a pilot. Nina ignored these, skipping straight to the heart of the Knightmare Frame Wing.

Nina watched the new Knightmare Frame model being placed alongside the old model, the old model had been named the Ganymede, while the new model was named the Berliner. The Ganymedes seemed much more bulky with their huge blue legs and arms, compared to the sleek black Berliners. The old Ganymedes also only possessed a antiproton streamer and railgun on each arm, while the Berliners had clearly been built much more deadly. While like the Ganymedes they had a railgun on each arm, instead of a regular antiproton streamer a dual-beam one had been placed. In addition to the float system that allowed the Knightmare Frames to fly, a artillery like device had been placed on their backs. Odd spear-like devices had also been placed on the hips and wrists of the Berliners, 4 in total. Special scanners had also been placed on the front, called fact-o-spheres by the development team, allowing the Berliners to get a much more detailed view of the battlefield. Special wheel like devices had also been placed on the legs, giving the Berliners a much greater degree of mobility on ground.

A member of the development team stepped up to Nina. Nina turned towards them and squeaked out a Hello, as he began to strike up a conservation.

“The massive amount of development we have put into the Berliner model is thanks to you Nina, without your advanced Yggdrasil Drive which effectively doubled the output of the drive we could not have done it. Also in addition to the new systems we were also able to increased the speed of the float system and the shield strength.” said the development team member.

“It all looks great...but wasn’t there more planned functionality? I remember submitting a design that almost tripled the output original Yggdrasil Drive.” quietly commented Nina, watching as the researchers prepped for the test.

“While that is true the drive is expensive to manufacture and will not work with mass-production frames like the Berliner. Llyod said he would reserve them for specialized commander versions of the Berliner and unique frames for Elite pilots.” responded the researcher.

“I see…” finished Nina, as the test began.

As the test began it was clear that the Berliner was superior. It outperformed the Ganymede in all aspects, moving faster and gathering data faster, as well as beating it in the weapons and combat test. The purpose of the spears-like devices were revealed, they were attached to the Berliner by a long carbon nanotube rope, and acted as piercing weapon as well as a device that allowed them to scale walls or mountains if needed. The artillery piece on the back fired off bombs, which the development team member told Nina were called chaos bombs. They exploded into a shower of plasma, causing a lot of trouble. At the end of the test the Berliner was declared superior, and the team celebrated.

“I have nothing to say beyond to begin mass-producing the Berliners. With the sakuradite from Area 1 we will be able to construct hundreds...the Abh will fall easily.” commented Nina, leaving to attend to other business in the labs.

[b]Ashes to Ashes[/b]
A short while after the Triarii sent their message a message was received from a small base on the surface, which scans by the Triarii revealed had a huge underground section and was surrounded by a environmental shield.

“Coordinates transmitted. Please note that due to security concerns the base is enforcing a radio-silence policy wherein no message are to be transmitted by comms systems outside of the system, messages may only be transmitted in-system. If information must be revealed to your main governmental body, a courier ship can be provided or you may supply your own.”