Chapter 2: Estcallia
Folkvangr steadily arrives at a Terran planet entering orbit at a steady pace. Oceanic blue catches the crew's eye, returning to their home planet as some of them smile in happiness and wanted to wind down at the available facilities after a long journey. Atlas on the other hand is still in the hangar, finishing assembling the final part of his fighter. The signal of the battleship entering the observation tower makes them send two escort ships for docking guidance in the floating dock. After a short while, the ship docks with the commander giving a go for R&R echoed through the ship. Atlas quickly reroutes the wiring for the main cockpit as he hears a voice searching for him. "Hey, rogue!"
He peeks over to see the commander call him out. "Yes sir?" Atlas toned the words normally.
"Don't call me that, c'mon let's go."
Atlas climbs down to meet the commander. "Where to?" He asked. Callan scratches his head while answering. "To the palace. This is the first time for me to report directly to the king and queen. Mind playing the role of my escort?"
"All right, I will go with the flow." Hearing that, Callan leads the way to Atlas's room. "You have eaten and well-rested I presume?" Atlas nods at the question that Callan asked.
"Good, you smell like oil. Take a shower. I don't know your clothing preferences, so I put a portable cloth fabricator for you in your room. Make any uniform that you like. I'll wait at the mess hall. I haven't eaten anything yet."
He pats Atlas's shoulder and heads directly to the mess hall. Atlas enters his room and sees the machine that Callan speaks of; it is as big as a cupboard. He sets his uniform to make with his favorite two colors representing the Cybran Empire. He smirks as he takes a brisk shower. The sudden ping of the machine marks its completion. All dried up, he puts it on and goes to the mess hall. The ship is empty of its crew as he walks there. Callan enjoys a quick meal of mixed food on his plate with a soda. Seeing a black hooded figure with pulsing red lining surprises him as he drops his fork to grab his gun. Atlas puts the hood down and Callan breathes in relief with his astonishing impression. "Damn, for a second there I did not recognize you. Old school huh?"
Atlas smiles as he puts on a circuit pattern handkerchief on his neck and right leg. Callan looks at him from top to toe while finishing his soda. "You look like a real rogue now that it might startle the palace guards. Try not to put the hood on while in the palace alright? Let's go." Both of them exit the battleship in the evening light and each takes a skimmer to travel there. The commander blasts away full speed enjoying the free time out of all of his duty as the airway is not congested with traffic. Atlas sticks at his side till they reach the palace. The palace is glittering white with blue crystals as decoration on its walls. "Is this it?" Atlas asked Callan while both parked up their skimmer.
"Yep. Somewhat I am getting nervous because my father is here too."
Callan grabs his smoke but Atlas stops him from doing so. "Commander, man up, or I will take your rank from you." Atlas threaten him lightly. "Ha-ha, alright. Seems like the cat has become the tiger eh." He gives a light laugh to Atlas.
Atlas moves in first to the gate entrance. Weapons pointing at him make him jump back in guard stance preparing for combat. "Identify yourself!" The palace sentries shouted the order. Callan waves off the sentry. "Commander Callan Van Wolff. He is with me to report directly to the King."
"You may pass."
With the sentry giving them a go-to enter, Callan signals Atlas to enter. "Let's go, Commander Atlas." He pokes fun at Atlas; only returning a smug as he follows him. Stepping inside the palace door, a wide hallway makes Atlas sigh. Callan confuses about his behavior. "What's wrong?"
"Not much. Only remember a part of old memories."
This piques Callan's interest while they were entering the second part of the palace. "Oh, you remember something? Is it important?" Atlas suddenly stops as he sees from afar a fox figure in the focus of training against life dummies that are attacking her. She evades flawlessly with side steps to make an attack. It catches his interest and takes a better view near the open training area entrance, analyzing her battle style. Callan snaps a finger in front of Atlas. "Eyes of the princess, she will be married to another prince of the royal family in the next 2 months." As atlas was about to walk away the fox managed to catch a glimpse of him before returning to her room.
"You took a liking to her, aren't you?" Callan teases him. "No, her fighting style is rigid but exposed to sudden attacks. She focuses too much on the front rather than her surroundings. Might cost her life someday if it is not fixed." The words that come out of Atlas's mouth surprise Callan.
"Do you want to train her or do something about it?" Callan asked.
"No, not my job. Right now, it is to escort you. How long is this palace?"
"Nearly there." Callan scoffs as he takes a deep breath before signaling the sentry to open the dual doors. Atlas scanned the palace room as they entered, it is highly decorated and has a few touches of futuristic sets of items. Both of them walked to the front of the throne as they see a pair of Sakhalin foxes sitting on the throne while another fox stand by the side. "This must be them," Atlas says to himself. Callan nods politely at them. "Commander Callan Van Wolff has returned from the investigation, your majesty." He speaks lightly. They eyed Atlas, he trusts in his old ways of greeting a royal figure and kneeling at them. The foxes were surprised by him doing it including Callan. "We don't do that here. Stand up. We are equals in this throne room." The resounding voice commanded Atlas as he stands up.
"My apologies your highness. He is not from here. I cannot find his biodata in our database" Callan politely says.
"Where are you from? Draconian? Zran? Lanza?" Asked the king of Atlas's birthplace. He flinched after hearing a familiar name. Lanza was once the name of Admiral Chase's flagship.
"He lost most of his memories but I assure you he is not of our enemy. My brother risks his life in saving him."
"If that is true, my son died in protecting him; he must be an important person." A bold voice rang from afar. The sight makes Callan stands awkwardly. "You're back my son." He stands briefly beside Callan and goes directly to the lord's chair row at the side of the throne room and sits there.
"What is your name, shadow warrior?" The fox beside the king asked of him. Atlas nods before introducing himself. "My name is Atlas, your highness," Atlas speaks in a deep tone. The king and queen stand from their throne. It shocks Callan as they go to greet him. Atlas stays calm as always when the king introduces himself. "I am King Aiken Leonard of the Estcallian house. The current ruling of this parliament. If anything, that you need; just ask." The king smiled at him and direct his eyes at his wife. The queen introduces herself next as the other fox comes down following the king's footsteps. "I am Queen Kelsey Leonard. You must be through a lot in your past; I can see it in your eyes." The white-clad full armor-plated fox introduces himself in turn after the conversation ends. "My name is Prince Nixon Leonard. It must be hard for your memory loss." He extends his hand to Atlas. Atlas awkwardly shakes it as the prince smile at him. "Mother, have you seen Lenora?" The prince asked the queen. "I believe she is training to catch up to your skills." His mother noted him.
"We are here to celebrate the return of Callan as he will hold the title of his father, right?" The king says to his wife.
"Yes, dear."
"I will go and get her." The prince says to his father.
"There is no need for that brother. I am here." Chimed in from behind them. She hastily stands by her mother's side in her casual clothing. "Black clothes?" She speaks of him. Atlas bowed as she talks to him. She introduces herself after inspecting Atlas. "I am Princess Lenora Leonard. Pleased to meet you." They circle him asking about his health and trying to make him remember something. Callan stays at Atlas's side to answer as much as he can. The conversation brings them to a nearby star chart table as Callan and his father update the situation to the royal family. Atlas has a weird feeling of this is one of his styles when meeting new people that the royal family did him and he hides his smile as he walks behind the royal family slowly.
The prince notices him doing that and tugs his sleeve to walk by his side. "Come on Atlas, don't be shy. Like my father says, there is no need for formalities. The Draconians and the Zran are, we are not."
"It's is calm on this planet," Atlas speaks plainly.
"Yes, the other royal family is busy managing their planets. The Draconians are getting aggressive in conquering this side of the parliament using brute force." Lenora joins the conversation.
"We prefer diplomacy rather than force alone," Nixon says to him. He sees Atlas unarmed and not like Callan that have at least a weapon set.
"Father, may I bring Atlas to the armory? He is not well equipped and we have too many weapons." Asked the prince the king.
"Alright Nixon, he will need the best equipment that we have if this situation gets any worse." Aiken nods at his son with approval. Nixon leads the way to the armory as Atlas follows, out of curiosity Lenora follows him to see what sort of weapon he will pick.
"Princess Lenora, isn't this palace lightly guarded?" Atlas asked her. "Oh, come on. Warm-up on us more Atlas. That title is nothing in here. Just call me Lenora." She says in response to Atlas.
"Or you can call my little sister here Len or Lena." Nixon grinned.
"Hey, no bringing the old childhood names brother. Sometimes you called me out loud using that nickname makes me embarrassed in front of others." She hides her blush while looking away.
Nixon stops walking to answer Atlas's question. "The war has taken a toll on our forces Atlas. In truth, we are losing; only 20% of this planet's population is left because most of them wanted to fend them off on our fallen planets."
"We have the equipment, but now much of our people is less than now after they mercilessly depopulate planets for their use a week ago using orbital bombardment." Lenora continues her brother's sentence. Hearing this makes Atlas boils in anger as he tightens his fist. She is surprised at seeing his reaction and tries to alter the topic.
"That is why I am engaged to a nearby planet royal family. The Zithra family, so that we can protect each other if they came for our capital planet." She speaks lightly about the topic without mixing her feeling in it. After the short brief situation with Atlas, the three arrived at the armory. It is packed with equipment of all sorts ranging from blaster guns to large caliber rail guns.
"Pick anything that you wanted Atlas. This is the best we can do for you." Nixon speaks to him.
"Thank you." Atlas smiled at him as he observes the weapons. The first thing that he picked is a pair of hand bracers, it has a twin-barrel laser gun under it hidden. He eyes around the sword section in the armory. This makes Lenora watches what he picks next. Atlas sees a dust-covered sword; he pulls it out from the scabbard. The sword laser lights up in purple color extending from its main core base and changing to dark red shortly after. It matches his color of red and black. Lightening the grip of the sword turns the laser off and puts it back in the scabbard. Lenora's eyes widen from seeing it, she looks at her brother that is mouth agape. "T-that sword cannot be activated before," Nixon says to him. "Well, it works well with me. What's wrong with it?"
"The sword 'Phantom of silence' chooses its master. If an unworthy person tries to wield it, their life energy will be drained by the sword in an instant." Lenora explained.
"You wanted me that bad huh?" Atlas says at the sword having a strong feeling that the sword knows who he is. It suddenly repels all the dust have been gathering at it. This makes Nixon steps back a little. After finding a perfect waist belt, Atlas equipped the sword at his right waist and picks up a normal-looking dagger for his left side of the belt. With two-gun holsters he puts at the side of his legs Atlas grabs the rapid-fire plasma guns and a customizable laser rifle.
"Try this on Atlas." Nixon opens a light armor locker and gives it to him. He carefully straps it on and shows it to them. "Wow, mother and father will be surprised by this," Lenora says aloud. "I already am. Especially that sword." Nixon says to Atlas. Finished equipping most of the stuff that he wanted, Atlas, Nixon, and Lenora head back to the throne room. All present in the throne room is astonished by Atlas's weapons, the king and queen notice the sword that is by his side. "A weapon that suits even a king; as it chooses its master." Aiken describes the sword to Atlas. "Why don't the both of you rest here for tonight in the guest rooms? Most of the palace is empty except for some of the guards." The queen speaks to Atlas and Callan. Callan directly accepted and looks at Atlas as a sign to accept.
"As you wish your highness." Atlas nods while answering. They continue their briefing including Callan wanted the celebration to be short as a royal family of Zithra will come tomorrow as well. They all eat at one table; making Atlas feels comfortable around them. After the briefing, all of them returned to their room. Atlas is being guided by a maid to his room while Callan follows his father around for some family talk before resting in their rooms. "This is your room, master Atlas." The maid speaks to him. He nodded in thank you and enters it. Without making too much of a fuss about how big the room is, he put the weapons at the side of his bed and dresses off in his light clothing. Feeling the calm gale of air from the veranda, Atlas goes there just to remember what happened to his empire back at home and the warm feeling of being in a family once more that was long forgotten by him.
Unnoticed by him, Lenora is also on the side veranda of her room still in her casual clothes. She sees him and goes directly at him using the walkway. "Not tired yet?" She asked of him.
"No, not yet." He answers. She sees how sharp Atlas looks at the nearby moons. "Is something wrong Atlas?" Out of worry, she asked while popping in front of Atlas view. Not wanting to tell the truth he faked his answer. "Nothing much. Just seeing the sight of the two moons." Without making eye contact with her, he enters his room hastily and locked the veranda door with the lights turn off. Lenora is surprised by his passive attitude and has a hunch that something is bothering Atlas. Understanding him, she did not poke over and returned to her room for rest. His strong feeling for his own family rises as he remembers the once family that he has back then; his father, mother, and uncle together with the guardians enjoying the peaceful time. He shakes the feeling off and sleeps.