Aron had found himself alone with Rina’s mother just after attending his final state funeral. He had spent 72 hours nonstop visiting the funeral locations, prompting discussion among the people about whether he was among the blessed or simply superior to “normal” humans on a genetic level.
Many people easily “debunked” the possibility that Aron was among the blessed, as it was obvious that he wasn’t in a medical pod in the process of receiving a blessing. In fact, he seemed perfectly fine as he flitted here and there, attending state funerals. Even though the wave of fainting people had begun a few days prior, even those who were among the first to be blessed were still in the medical pods and showing no sign of the process being complete anytime soon.
So that left the second option. It was an open secret that ARES soldiers were genetically enhanced, as they hadn’t even tried to keep their performances to mere human levels. Thus, there were thousands upon thousands of video clips showing them exerting their monstrous strength even without their power armor on. And it only stood to reason that the Emperor of the Terran Empire would be at least as enhanced as his soldiers, if not even more.
The argument went back and forth, but little did they know that both possibilities were true.
There was also a third argument going around, propagated by conspiracy theorists and trolls. After the video that Rick’s cult had released claiming responsibility for the terror attacks and calling Aron the devil himself, a small, but vocal, minority of imperial citizens began parroting some of the more troll-worthy quotes from it. It was hard to tell whether those were their actual beliefs or if they just wanted to see the world burn, but that crowd argued that Aron was using the power of the devil to keep himself going.
Still, the discussion had taken the limelight away from his personal shuttle, causing him to be caught between laughter and tears. He now knew what it felt like to be a star and have unrelated people discussing every last little detail about him.
Mothers, though, had different perspectives, a point that Virginia Rothschild was demonstrating now. “How are you holding up? You haven’t slept for more than three days. Have you lost weight?” Question after question was fired at Aron without end.
“I’m fine,” he sighed. “I’m a bit tired, sure, but what I’m feeling is nothing compared to the people who lost loved ones in an attack that we promised we could, and would, protect them from.” He tried to project the same casual smile that was normally on his face and wasn’t entirely successful, though it was true that he wasn’t exhausted. His tiredness was purely emotional, as he had been keeping a refreshing rune active on himself over the past few days. Though it ate into his concentration a bit, due to the need to constantly supply mana to it, it was still enough to have kept him going for a short three days.
“I know it must weigh heavy on your heart, but you still need to take care of yourself. You can’t keep everyone from making evil choices, but if something happens to you, then....” She patted his back, then changed tack and continued, “Go get some rest. The work is neverending, but if you don’t rest, you won’t be.” She subtly pushed him in the direction of his room as she would do for her own children.
“I’ll go take a break, then. Thanks, Virginia, and I’ll see you later.” With that, he headed to greet his family, then go off to rest.
……
While Aron rested, the rest of the military armament stockpiles were delivered to Avalon Island. At least those that weren’t stolen, hidden away, or simply forgotten due to shoddy recordkeeping on the part of the former militaries. With the last freighter unloaded, any military-grade hardware left anywhere else had immediately become contraband and anyone linked to it would be tried and convicted by the efficient imperial justice system.
That efficiency had already been proven by the initial sorting of the prisons and ongoing trials around the world. Almost all of the innocent prisoners who had been falsely convicted had been released and the true culprits behind their alleged crimes imprisoned in their place under the new imperial law guidelines. And once the fortress cities began being constructed, even those prisons would be emptied, as most of the punishments under imperial law involved labor, at least in some capacity.
The hardware itself was mostly sent to the pit for recycling, though one of each object was rendered safe, its engines, weapons, and any dangerous parts stripped from it, for display in a museum... once it was built, anyway. For now, the safed hardware would remain in storage in one of the warehouses in the Cube on Avalon Island.
Though the physical objects were placed in storage, “working” versions were available to be viewed, and even rented, in the simulation. Once that was announced, there was a flood of people visiting the War Museum of the Imperial Archives and lining up to rent the hardware and join special instances where they could reenact famous battles from the past, living their fantasies and learning about history through blood-pumping role play. The people could even experience firsthand what it was like to face the ARES troopers deployed in The Last War, though for security reasons, they were prohibited from “playing” as the ARES troopers themselves; anyone interested in that was directed to an ARES recruitment station instead.
The mass disarmament marked the official end of thousands of years in mankind’s ever-escalating quest to discover better, more efficient ways of killing their fellow man. That said, it had become something of a joke since Aron’s rise anyway, as the moment he began introducing 14th-generation military hardware was the actual moment humanity’s violent quest to kill each other with bigger and bigger booms was rendered obsolete. And the empire had recently even begun introducing the 75th generation of military equipment, no less.
In addition to that particular closed chapter in the history of humanity, the Imperial Archivist, who people only knew as Mnemosyne, informed the empire’s citizens that January 1, 2018 AD had been officially declared as January 1, 1 AE (After Empire). Everything prior to that date was labeled as BE (Before Empire), so the year 2017 AD was now the year -1 BE, much like humanity was used to referring to things on the Gregorian calendar as BC and AD.
