Chapter 1: Judgement
In the unfortunate situation; even after multiple tries to pry open the locked door, He quickly tries to regain his thoughts on what he got into this time. "Well enough of that. This is not me, I am pretty sure I did not die on my empire, just conscious transferred to this body. What is your real name?" he says to himself for amusement while looking at the mirror from afar and approaching it. Seeing the tag on his prison uniform with the marking "Rogue 09" he sees himself detailed in the mirror. Black hair with yellow predator iris, the body feels nearly the same as his old self but more aged and roguish. A sudden hard knock on his door. "Hey, prisoner, you up yet?" A lioness-faced anthro pops her head in with a gun on standby pointing at him with two other fully armored guards behind her.
"Yes, just now." He answers simply. She signals him to come with her "Let's go, the commander wants to speak to you. Well, since you are the only prisoner on this ship." He nodded and follows her directly. Seeing a bunch of anthros, half-humans, and humans. He always wanted to see these species working together like this back in Ulysses but was afraid of hostilities that his kind against the others. "You have been out for like a year now. Still, remember your name?" She asked out of the blue. He is extremely surprised of hearing that and is quick to make a fake name. "Just call me Atlas." Seeing she wanted the answer; he gives the name he makes up since he did not know the body owner's true name.
"Atlas, you are charged with the destruction of one of our space fortress, Tasilios IV to be exact. We are not sure what happened back there but you are the sole survivor in an escape pod that we recovered. I'm Maya by the way." She briefed him. Again, Atlas was dumbstruck by the situation he got himself into but was only able to comply. "What nation is this ship is?" Atlas asked while looking into the interior of the ship. The two guards at his back look at him with Maya sees him from the front. "You look like you lost your memory huh. I hope not all of It," she says to him. "I am, I don't remember anything including what happened in the past," Atlas says to her.
She shakes her head. "This ship is the Estcallian parliament forces, the battleship Folkvangr. One of the strongest five parliaments that fight for unity in this part of the system. There are other notable forces but their strengths are non-worthy of our time." Atlas nods. They arrived at the front of the commander's briefing room. Maya knocks on the door and is permitted to enter in a short time. A crimson-haired human is standing, looking at the star system charts displayed on the wall monitor while smoking a short tube-like digital device. He turns around to greet them. "So, you are awake and alive?" he says in a devilish tone while looking at him with death-gripping grey eyes while inhaling his smoke. Not wanting to piss him off; Atlas only bowed to him. After seeing Atlas bowed he exhales the smoke. "I am Fleet Commander Callan Van Wolff. You may call me Callan or Wolf if you like. What's yours?" he pointed his tube at him. He saluted at him before answering making the others surprised "Sir, I am Atlas…I don't remember my surname and the memory of my past." What he says also surprises others.
"I thought so, you have been unconscious for a year now; seeing the date of the escape pod activation plus, recovering in our ship. We have retrieved and decoded the backup data of Tasilios IV and are finally able to know what happened after the long investigation." Callan looks back at the chart and changed the monitor into surveillance footage, the others see it too as he plays it. It was seen the space fortress was indeed sabotaged by other forces as all of the escape pods were malfunctioned in the footage, the explosion point is precisely placed at the major systems such as the power reactor, life support systems, weak segments of the fortress and others. In one of the footage, Atlas sees a person rigorously fixing one of the escape pods as another part of the station was being destroyed by hidden explosives inside the fortress creating a chain reaction. Another high-ranking officer pushes someone into the escape pod, it was him. With that, the commander focuses on the screen with audio on it. "You are the only one that can say what happened here, go! The escape pod only has enough oxygen for one person as it is partially fixed. Go on! Don't worry about me." Says the high-ranking officer to Atlas in the footage.
As Atlas struggles to go back to somewhere in the footage, the officer strikes him out cold and put him back inside the pod. The two ejected the pod just before that part of the fortress engulfed in flames as it exploded and cuts off the footage. Callan ended the scene and changes back to the chart. "The person that knocked you out is my younger brother, he commanded the fortress for 10 years of his career. He trusted you to share the knowledge of what happened to the fortress. But here you are; having no clue whatsoever even your surname. You are free of the charge, you are not guilty in my eyes too."
He pauses while inhaling his pipe and continues "My younger brother trusted you, I will do the same. I will clear out your name in the ship's crew 'watch list' so you have full authority to roam inside of this ship or do something. For now, go and grab some food and drink, Dismissed."
"Sir if I may?" Atlas politely says it for his attention.
Callan looked at him "Hmm?" Atlas continued. "Can I keep this tag name as a call sign?" He pointed out at his left clothing marking. "You mean Rogue 09? You like that name as a call sign?" Atlas nodded at him. "Heh, alright rogue. Go and eat up, I am not that strict with my crew. I need to check the database of your past rank and post, I hope they are any." Atlas saluted at him and leaves the room with Maya following him. "You live and breathe another day Atlas. I was surprised to see the commander have a younger brother before. He never tells a lot of us of his life."
"Sometimes, it is better not to poke around other people; Maya," Atlas answers her while taking a sharp turn. "Hey, you are going the wrong way. That's the gravity pool area." He makes a u-turn back to Maya as she laughs. "Still, who takes care of me the whole year?" Atlas asked her. "That would be me. I sensed you are a good person and not evil, a little mischievous but good."
As they approached the mess hall, Atlas can feel some wary gazes and silence from the people around him. "I see that coming a mile away." He says to Maya. "I thought so; since you are the only survivor of that fortress. It creates rumors on my unit."
Atlas sighed. A tall half-human that has a cat's tail comes in front of him, he stretches out his hand to Atlas's left shoulder. Atlas started backing up a bit but he was able to grab his shoulder tightly. "Ey! The sole survivor of Tasilios IV has been resurrected to life by our Special Forces captain! Come on, let's grab some food and drinks. Currently, it's her unit's turn to eat at this mess hall. The lot of us want to know your story."
Maya steps out in front while crossing her arms. "Well, bad news for you fellas. Atlas here lost most of his memories."
"Ehhh!?" all of them shouted. The quiet turns to normal as they talked to Atlas and share information about what is currently happening between the five parliaments and summarize what has happened to Tasilios IV. Back in the command room, Callan is reading the news about each parliament's movements. A sudden communication invitation snaps him out from the information gathering. He quickly turns it on only to be surprised by the figure. "Commander, return to our home planet as soon as possible to report directly to his highness and resupply." He saluted the order. "Yes sir." The stern face suddenly drops out of the figure. "Be back safely my boy. I cannot lose my only son now after the incident." He saluted in return and log out of the communicator. His search for Atlas data was in vain as all of it have been wiped clean by the saboteur.
Callan briefly takes a breather. His nose picks up the strong smoke smell from his clothing. "I smell like a walking gunpowder." He says to himself aloud while giving a faint laugh before going to his room to take a shower. As the ship makes its way back to the home planet, Atlas is shown around by Maya. "Say Atlas, do you know how to fly a space fighter?" Questions Maya before reaching the hangar. "I will do it if I have to." He briefly says it. Maya pats his shoulder to follow her into the hangar room, it is filled with multiple types of space crafts. His brief smile caught his attention of Maya. "Well look at you, the other rookies seeing this is with their mouth open while your reaction is only just a smile. See anything that caught your eye?" A beaming voice speaks from the top of the entrance platform overhearing their conversation.
A rigid fellow drops down with his grappling hook to greet him. "Names Paul, the hangar head engineer and logistics in this ship." He extended his arm to Atlas as he quickly grasp it. "My name is Atlas. This is a lot of fighters for a battleship." Paul scratches his head and grunts. "Lots of good pilots have fallen during the border clash with the Draconians. Those scums did not have mercy on their enemies." Atlas awkwardly agrees with that statement. Maya questions him. "What's wrong?" he answers while looking around. "Heh, I kind of know an Empire that is just like that with their extreme powers and infinite resource." Atlas accidentally says what should remain a secret since he is not his emperor self. Paul drops the tool he is holding once he heard of the world empire. "Wait, there is a much stronger nation out there in the galaxy?" Paul pats him. Atlas slowly nods since a single truth has been said. Both of them stare at each other at Atlas's words.
Maya suspects that he is not from this side of the galaxy but did not ask any further; she tends to think positively of the situation. "So do you want some of the stuff here?" Paul asked. Atlas gives a quick look at all of the fighters. He answers with determination. "Give me the whole lot. I'll make a new one." Paul smiled and give him a thumbs up to Atlas. He gives the enclosed hangar to Atlas with heavy equipment to start working. Many engineers and mechanics watches Atlas work with dismantling the parts that he wanted. Paul sits in the top room of his office to take note of what Atlas has taken. Satisfied, Maya starts her daily routine with her unit; she is relieved that Atlas fits in just fine with the crew of the ship.
Meanwhile, Callan enters the Captain's room. A demi-human female wolf is laying down in her bed. She notices Callan's entrance to her room. "Camilla, how are you doing?" Callan sits by her side on a nearby chair. "Commander, I should go and resume command of the ship." She answers while coughing. Callan sees a flask container and pours the water out into the glass. He handed it over to her. She drinks the water and changes position. "Please just rest for the time being. We are ordered to return to the capital and I have to report our findings to his highness. Don't worry too much all right?" He pleaded to her as Callan reads that her health is not well since the shock of exhaustion that she relentlessly observes her crew for five days without respite.
"Yes commander, I will continue resting. They surely wanted to know what happened to our fortress from our investigation. How was the prisoner?" Camilla asked him. "He is not guilty, he did not remember anything but his name. The security footage shows it. The Draconis is up to something because the other royal families did not give their support to his highness overruling Estcallian." Callan gives a short brief. Saying the Estcallian parliament name makes him laugh sometimes remembering how his father is so loyal to the current ruler that he named his son's name nearly the same as the parliament's name. Having updated the captain with current things that happened, Callan goes back to the command room to monitor the ship's route back to the home planet. The head engineer sees what Atlas is doing, he is so fixated on rebuilding a space fighter while summarizing what to put on it. Maya worries that he might forget to eat sooner or later, she comes back and left some neatly packed food for him. "Hey rogue! I left some food for you here!" She loudly says to him, Atlas peeked out of the fighter engine bay. "Okay, thank you." Satisfied with the answer, she leaves him with what he is doing.