Time for a new chapter as we head toward the culmination of the anime. And beyond that? More story to unfold of course! So sit back and enjoy the ride. Read and Review because this story would be nowhere as successful as it is without the active contributions of my readers.

Chapter 51: Defiance

The Jade Palace

Bozes frowned as she looked over her disposition of forces. She had three hundred skilled knights at her command. One-on-one she would trust their training and skill to match any other soldiers in the realm. Certainly, they were more than a match for the Scourgers. The Scourgers were thugs, pure and simple. They were well suited to intimidating victims who could not fight back.

Unfortunately, once Gimlet returned, Bozes was certain he would have Imperial Legionnaires with him. They would have both the equipment and numbers to prevail where Gimlet's thugs had failed. Given the proper time to prepare, Imperial troops would overwhelm her knights. Her three hundred would either die in battle, to be soon forgotten, or worse, be taken alive in disgrace. They would either be put to the sword or most likely for women of noble birth, imprisoned as both a shame and leverage on their families.

"We have neither the numbers, the equipment, or the supplies to hold the Jade Palace from any serious assault," she finally admitted to Captain Morgan.

Morgan nodded, understanding what such an admission meant to the knights. "We're not here to re-enact The Alamo. If the mission requires, my men and I will hold to the last but if there is nothing of value to be gained by staying here then it's time to go. I'll call Alnus. Tell your people to get ready."

"Where shall we go?" Vifita asked her Commander.

"Italica. While I would prefer to gather the new companies first, if we attack the Capital guard, WE will be the ones in rebellion against the Empire. And we will tarnish Her Highness with our treason. At Italica, we can try to come up with a better plan than suicide or treason."

"Prince Zorzal and Gimlet will likely declare us to be in rebellion anyway," Vifita noted.

"I know but we have to survive first. Worry about the charges of traitors later. Unfortunately, that means our sisters of the Blue and Pink Roses will have to hold tight. If they are not actively fighting with us, Prince Zorzal may be content to disarm them. I wish I had a better answer but I have none. I only hope that Hamilton can get Her Highness out of the Capital."

"Agreed," Vifita nodded.

"Now Captain," Bozes addressed the Marine commander. "Let us discuss the details of our withdrawal."

Emerald Palace, Sadera

Hamilton hurried back to her quarters. There was not much time. Her first priority was to let Captain Morgan and the Pacific Allies… Perhaps the only allies that had the power to help Her Highness… know of Pina's detainment. Hamilton was aware, of course, that the mage Lelei La Lalena had a computer the same as hers, so she also made certain to forward this information to Lelei and thereby to Sir Itami. While Hamilton was no traitor to the Empire, Viscount Maio and his cohorts had given her no reason to be loyal to them. And if her skills with a sword lacked, Hamilton still possessed a sharp mind and a sharply focused mind was the most dangerous weapon of all.

Having relayed word of what had happened to Princess Pina, Hamilton knew she needed to leave the Emerald Palace lest the Viscount decided she was a loose end that needed cutting. She turned to the head maid.

"Pack Her Highness's wardrobe and her sword and armor. In fact, I want everything of value packed! Those jackals will surely return to loot Her Highness's treasures. They will have none!" Hamilton declared, unknowingly echoing Pina's elder sister Claudia several weeks earlier.

"Yes, Lady Hamilton but where shall we take it?"

"The training barracks. It's the safest place in the city." Hamilton knew that Zorzal's dogs would not simply let her leave the capital and she also considered it her duty to make certain that someone look after the less experienced members of the order.

"Yes, My Lady," the maid acknowledged and headed off to carry out her instructions.

With that, Hamilton gathered her own gear. She would observe and inform their allies of any developments and for the first time contemplated that in her heart, she was now at war with the men who were currently in command of the Empire.

Janus Field Command Headquarters, Alnus

"Yes, Admiral. We're evacuating the diplomats right now. Captain Morgan is requesting extraction for both his men and the knight contingent. Knight Commander Bozes considers defense of the Jade Palace untenable without our intervention and Captain Morgan and I both agree that once the Vice Minister, Ambassador Russell, and their parties have been evacuated, the Jade Palace has no intrinsic value of its own." General Hazama paused, waiting for the reply from CinC: Janus Theater…

"Very good, General. I presume you intend to honor Commander Bozes' request for evacuation?"

"Yes, sir. We're already 'harboring fugitives' from the Empire and if granting safe passage to the Rose Knights might be construed as an act of war against the Empire, we know that Prince Zorzal never intended to negotiate in good faith anyway. If we're going to have to go back to shooting, I see no reason to wait for the enemy to call the dance."

"Agreed. But that brings us to the difficult part," the admiral noted. "Unless we want to get stuck trying to occupy the whole of Falmart for however many years, we need a government we can actually negotiate with that can actually govern."

"Bletchley Park Station has identified the whereabouts of most of the known 'Peace Faction' senators. We expect the rest may be dead. We need to get the survivors out now."

"Agreed. You do what you have to. I'll handle the politics on our side…"

After finishing his call with Theater Command, Hazama ordered Colonel Kengun's Fourth Combat Team to evacuate the Jade Palace. This and the forthcoming Operation Drive Thru depended on a series of FARPs or Forward Area Rearm and Refueling Points. These small bases effectively doubled the combat radius of his helicopters, placing Sadera just in range of his attack helicopters.

As for the transport mission, Hazama sincerely wished that his JSDF troops had V-22s as the Marines did. He hungrily appreciated the Osprey's speed and range but one fought with the tools at hand, not the ones one wished to have. The MV-22s had the range to reach the Imperial Capital from Alnus but it would be more of a stretch for the Chinooks and King Stallions. But this had been long anticipated and FARP station 'ESSO' was fully equipped to handle its role in the forthcoming operation.

Colonel Kengun's team would go in first, his birds needed to hurry and get clear ahead of General Takada's force. Hazama implicitly trusted that Kengun would handle his mission with all proper diligence and efficiency. After that, First Brigade and Team Bastogne would seize control of one of Sadera's main gates and use it to evacuate the Peace faction of the Imperial Senate. Already, their people from Bletchley Park had been slipping out into the main city and bringing the Senators and their families into the safe haven of Akusho.

After that, Hazama did not pretend to know what would happen next.

Imperial Palace, Sadera

Pina Co Lada, Third Princess of the Imperial family, scowled as she followed Viscount Maio, Marquis Calasta, and General Mudra down the corridors of her Father's palace. The iron shackles on her wrists did little to improve her emotions as annoyance and indignation warred with a growing sense of dread. She feared not Herm or the others, Herm had shown himself long ago a weak-willed fop and an opportunistic bottom feeder but the smugness of these jackals grated her. But her brother… Zorzal was a man of mercurial temperament and Pina's knights had defied him.

And her brother had the power to make his displeasure known. Soon they entered the Imperial throne room, where her brother waited. Zorzal followed Pina's eyes to their father's vacant throne which Zorzal had not yet steeled himself and dared to sit upon. His own eyes flicked with irritation.

"Sister… I have tried to protect you. Why do you betray me, dear Pina?"

"I have not, dear brother!

"When your knights defy my will, do I take it they are acting against your wishes or at your command?"

"They obey our father's commands, brother! Nothing more."

"Yes, our dear, beloved father. I regret I cannot wait to consult father right now. I must do what is best for the Empire. You will order your precious Roses to stand down and surrender their standard. The time for games is over, sister."

"They will not surrender their honor… or mine so easily."

"Then I am afraid I cannot help either you or them from the consequences of their pride. I am afraid you must remain here, sister." He turned to a tall, Vulpine woman.

"Vendetta, I am going to be very busy. Please tend to my sister, won't you?"

"As you will, My Lord." Vendetta looked at Pina and frowned. "Your Highness, please follow me," she said, "I've arranged suitable quarters."

Adurni

Entering the walls of Adurni, William Taylor, tried wrapping his head around what he saw. This was his…. And it was more than a bit intimidating. Almost all men can handle adversity, the old saying went. If you wish to see a man's true character, give him power! Or something to that effect.

"I'm sure you have plenty of changes you will wish to make," Vespasia said almost casually.

"For the most part? No. In time, I'm sure I'll want to test out a few ideas But as I already said, I don't know enough to go tinkering with things yet."

The Steward nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Do you wish me to assemble your household staff?"

"I suppose best to get it done," Taylor replied. However, it was only a minute later that one of the Marines on radio watch signaled for Sergeant Davis, who, after a quick listen, interrupted.

"Skipper! Getting a Priority message from Starbase! We're being recalled immediately back to Italica, Sir. Lady Merisa and her people too!"

Taylor shook his head ruefully. "Looks like the introductions will have to wait, Steward. Wait while I find out what's going on." He hurriedly headed over. "Any details as to why?"

"According to Starbase, all hell is breaking loose!"

Rondel

Itami Youji was sick of this. Being a human target was a lousy occupation. Nearly being knifed by gullible if well-intentioned bellhops, A senile old man who thought he was an old rival who had stolen research from him, and three separate run-ins with honest-to-goodness bounty killers had left him really annoyed with this 'Piper' to just hurry up and make a move already. Well, maybe not just yet, Itami told himself. There was still the matter of Lelei's presentation.

For weeks, Lelei had been carefully organizing her presentation before the College of the Sages. So certain of the potential of what she was going to propose, she had actually opted to discuss it with Rory Mercury first. Rondel may have been founded by the gods of learning but the gods could be very strict with what they considered permissible to study. Of course, Lelei now understood that so much of it was twaddle, nothing but mindless twaddle. There was no giant dome of stars, no 'retrograde circles' for heavenly bodies… Their world was not the center of the universe.

It was funny when one considered Grandmaster Mimosa's own studies on The Gate of Beginnings that any learned person could think in such a nonsensical fashion. Humans, Warrior Bunnies, Orcs, Sirens… They had all come from the Gate and that meant other worlds. Other worlds like Earth, and Earth was a planet, a large ball spinning in space. Oh! How much Lelei had learned from Itami's people, the people of Earth: Gravity! Force, mass, acceleration, inertia, satellites, stars… Stars that were more than just torches lit in the heavens or rather they WERE torches, Giant, balls of hot gas so huge that to seem so tiny meant they were so very far away. And around those tiny pricks of light were other worlds, some that might have people of their own. It was… It was overwhelming!

And it was probably much more than the College of Sages or her peers would be able to accept. She pitied them because her eyes had been forever opened to knowledge and truth far beyond their imagining. But this was different from what she intended to show them. No. If others were to follow in her path, to see and grasp the things she had seen with her own two eyes, they would have to learn a new way of thinking. It wasn't entirely new. Grandmaster Mimosa had carefully laid out her research on the Gate over fifty years, gathering evidence before coming to her conclusions about how the gods had brought the people of this world all here. Mimosa did not pretend to know why they had done so but that was a different question. But contrary to what an outside observer might think of Mimosa, the Grandmaster was very organized when compared to many of her contemporaries.

Lelei intended to change that. By teaching them Scientific Method. Teaching them to organize their thoughts, observe, question, postulate, test, and record the results. To question those results and test again. To go forward and not merely endlessly argue the same ground over and over again.

To Lelei's surprise, the Apostle had given her consent to Lelei's presentation, though warning her that she had better leave the concepts of nuclear fission, fusion, quantum states, or temporal mechanics alone, noting that what Lelei had managed to accomplish by combining her own talent with an understanding of mass, acceleration, and force made for a weapon of great power as it was and while Rory trusted Lelei not to abuse her talents, the Apostle had asked Lelei whether she would willingly trust just anyone with that kind of power.

"Destroying the world is a poor way to understand and improve it," Rory noted.

And Lelei agreed. But to become what Itami's people were, to stand as their equals in the universe, then her people needed to think differently and had to embrace reason. This was what Lelei would present for her degree.

In the meanwhile, Itami just hoped that his would-be assassins would have the courtesy to wait until Lelei was finished with her presentation. Naturally, no such luck was granted as finally, the frustrated Piper made her move.

A quick little sting and… Odd… that she suddenly felt dizzy… She turned around to see Mari Kurokawa smirking as the medic withdrew a hypodermic needle from Norra's rear.

"And Good night!" Kurokawa said mildly as the Dar passed out.

Itami shrugged as a couple of onlookers glanced in their direction.

"Too much excitement I guess…"

After the presentation, Lelei's friends, her mentor, and even Arpeggio gathered to celebrate both Lelei's presentation before the College of Sages and the apprehension of 'The Piper', who was now in the custody of the local constabulary.

"So what will you do now, Sage La Lalena?" Arpeggio asked. She couldn't quite keep a faint touch of pride in her sister's achievement out of her voice.

"I have much more to learn and study back at Alnus," Lelei answered. "I will found my School of Reason there." She glanced over at Itami. "Also I believe you should accompany us."

Arpeggio blinked. "Me? Why?"

Lelei chuckled. "The people from Itami's world know many things. But they do not know magic. They need a 'consultant' to help advise them on such things. You would probably also become very famous."

"Hmmm…. Well…. Magic is very dangerous to those who don't understand it. I can hardly ignore the need…"

"Or the opportunity?" Itami pointed out.

"Kurata?" Shino teased."Didn't you always say you wanted to meet a real Sorceress? I guess your wish just came true!"

"Wha…?"

Tomita walked in a few minutes later. "Sir! We've just received an urgent signal from base. We're being recalled immediately!"

"Has something happened?"

Lelei nodded as she looked up from her laptop having noticed a message there from Lady Hamilton. She turned the screen for all to see.

Itami's blood froze as he saw the message. "Everyone! Pack up! I want us ready to go in fifteen minutes!" Soon they were nearly ready to go. Itami nodded as Sir Grey mounted his horse as Itami made one last check to see that everything was ready.

"Shandy! Mount up! We have to hurry!" Grey urged.

Shandy stepped toward Itami and drew her knife. "I'm sorry Lord Itami… I have to kill you now…"m sorry Lord Itami… I have to kill you now…"/p