Prologue

*** Present Day, Capitol Summit, Ukhozi City, Ukhozi Empire

Ukhozi City's Capitol Summit was one of the largest constructions in the entire sprawling metropolis. It was on the very top of a hill, in the very center of Ukhozi City, which was built around the magnificent palatial building. In spite of its incredible size, there was all of one person seated at the grand round table situated inside the main hall of the Capitol.

The Ukhozi Empire's Chief of Police, Gil Glaucous sat at his designated place at the gigantic table, nervously biting his fingernails while awaiting the arrival of his fellow invitees.

Despite technically being one of the military leaders of the Ukhozi Empire, in his time as Police Chief, a position he had held for quite a few years, there had never been a meeting like this one, which involved every single Military Leader of the Ukhozi.

While the necessity of such a large-scale meeting was certainly a cause for concern, Gil was more than a little excited. He had met the Army General before, and even the Emperor, but today would be the first time that he would ever meet any of the Three Captains of Ukhozi, who were collectively considered the greatest military asset of the Empire.

"Breathe, Gil, breathe." the normally dignified Chief muttered to himself.

Slowly but surely the room began to fill up, as various officials joined the meeting, from the Head of Border Security to the Head of the Department of Protectors, it seemed like every piece of combative power that the Empire held was being assembled all at once.

As he went around and introduced himself to the other members present, he heard a few sharp intakes of breath and looked around as to its cause, seeing nothing, causing him to be puzzled for a fraction of a second before he heard it too.

The loud deep telltale growl of a car engine.

And not just any car engine, the car engine of one of the Three Captains, the Sparkling Captain, Jan Maroon.

Just as Gil had registered this, Maroon strode into the room. Immediately, the entire room silenced as everybody in the room stared at the figure of the Captain, very few of them having ever interacted with the legendary man before. The first thing that Gil noticed about Maroon was his height.

The strongest of the Captains of Ukhozi stood several inches shorter than himself, five foot seven at most. Despite his height, however, it was still clear that Jan Maroon was among the strongest men in the country. Maroon's arms bulged with well-defined muscles, and his aptly maroon eyes sparkled with the power that he no doubt held. Humoring the tactless gaping of his audience, Jan stood still for a second before moving to his seat, at the right hand of the throne of the Emperor himself.

Seated just two seats to the right of Jan, Gil cleared his throat, "Captain Maroon, do you know when your fellow Captains will be getting here?"

The Captain waved his hand dismissively, his tremendous musculature flexing in the process, showing off the raw strength the Captain possessed, "We Captains aren't really as bound by such summons like you employees of the Empire are, the others will be here only if they want to be." he explained, sounding a whole lot friendlier than Gil would have assumed from his social stature and physical image.

"And the Emperor? Surely, he cannot be late to his own gathering?"

Jan opened his mouth to say something before, having seemed to sense something, closing it again, with a knowing grin, "He'll be here, don't you worry.

Gil looked around, peering around to figure out what exactly the esteemed Captain had noticed, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary for the life of him. He had just turned to say as much to Jan, who still had that grin on his face, when he felt a smothering presence, which he had only felt once before in his life, enter the room. Even before he turned his head to observe the newest arrival, he knew there was only one person who it could be.

After all, only the Emperor of Ukhozi could possibly have an aura larger than the Sparkling Captain.

The Emperor, Arrion Rouge his brain supplied, walked into the room, the surprisingly old man greeting all those in the room as he passed them on his way to his own throne at the head of the table.

He nodded to Gil as he walked past him, "Good Day Chief," he said more casually than Gil would have thought of the formally dressed Emperor, who wore his velvety red Emperor's cape over a sharp black suit, the crown on his head being more of an understated affair which highlighted his authority as opposed to a gaudy showpiece.

The Emperor simply threw Jan a questioning glance as he walked past the man, not bothering with any kind of greeting as he had for the rest of the room.

"It's good to see you too, Arrion," Jan said sarcastically.

The Emperor's face broke into an uncontrollable smile, which looked out of place on a man so dignified in appearance, but he didn't say anything, continuing to look at the Captain.

"Yes yes, I know what you're asking. No, the other two are no-shows."

At this, the Emperor rolled his eyes, "You bloody idiots never show up to anything," he mumbled before finally taking his seat, and surveying the collection of people in front of him.

After a second of silent expectation, Rouge spoke.

"Yo."

Silence.

Maroon sniggered slightly.

Even though he'd only had one past experience with the Emperor of the nation, somehow, Gil was not surprised in the slightest by this start to the meeting. Expecting the Emperor to be serious was probably the furthest thing from the truth of the man possible.

As the Emperor let the silence drag on, Jan sighed and stood up himself to explain the situation.

"There are very few global powers in this world," he began, "Which can match up to the might of the Ukhozi Empire, over the last few centuries, we have become quite possibly this world's greatest military, economic, and cultural power in all of history. This past 100 years has brought our country untold prosperity and technological advancement, and we have been more than content with the land and resources that our Empire possesses, and have engaged other nations as partners in trade rather than opponents on the battlefield, and for the most part, these other nations have been happy with this arrangement too, well, that seems to have changed. Our Intelligence Department," at this he nodded to the head of Intelligence who was seated directly opposite Gil, "has been informed by a relatively reliable source that the Kingdom of Sol, under some form of unknown new leadership, is not planning to be as friendly with our Empire as its past administration." he finished.

The Sparkling Captain heard clapping and looked to his right to find the Emperor with a bowl of popcorn in hand, sipping on a drink and clapping as if at the end of some kind of one-man theatre show.

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Jan waited a few seconds for all he had said to sink in, "Questions?"

A man who Gil recognized as the head of the Army asked, "That is all well and good, but considering this meeting has been called, there must be something that you want of us, what is it."

His piece done, the man sat down and looked expectantly at the Captain.

For his part, Jan shrugged, "I have no idea what we plan to do about it, after all," at this he turned to glare at the still-grinning form of the Emperor, "I'm not the Emperor of this damn nation."

"And who would that be?" Rouge asked mockingly.

"Some forking imbecile who can't be bothered to do his own job," Jan shot back.

"Touché." the leader of the nation conceded.

"Thank you." Jan smiled smugly with an expression on his face which screamed 'I win'.

Gil cleared his throat, "If I may, Emperor Rouge, what is our plan regarding this so-called plan of the Sol Kingdom. After all, you say the source is reliable, but we have heard nothing from the Kingdom for decades now, they cut contact with us before I was even promoted to this position, and we did not take any action back then, so why, and what, now?"

"That's a good question," Jan raised an eyebrow at the man in charge.

The Emperor's smile faded slightly, "That question is based on a false premise because we did take action. At the time, I was one of the Three Captains, and I was dispatched on a spying mission to the Kingdom. Posing as the Protector of a traveling merchant, I entered the country to spy upon the proceedings. The government was in complete upheaval, it was practically a free-for-all war inside the borders of that country. While there is a significant danger even within the very borders of our own nation, our government still maintains order and law but Sol was truly gone, the government had little to no authority and were waging a bloody war against the crooks and rebels. There was no way Sol could ever organize any kind of significant military force that could harm us."

"So then, the change of administration that Captain Maroon mentioned…" Gil said, thoughtfully.

"Yes, there has been a change in the administration of the country, we do not know for sure what level of political stability Sol has reached, and whether this anti-Ukhozi sentiment is really serious enough for us to consider a threat."

At this, Jan spoke up, "So what's the plan in regards to us. Do you want me to go in and spy on them as you did all those years ago?"

The Emperor scratched his chin, looking truly thoughtful for the first time that day, "Actually," he began, "I think that sending Lulu in first might be a better idea."

Gil blinked in surprise.

Lulu Jaune was one of the Three Captains as well, the only woman out of the current three members, and conspicuously absent at the meeting.

"Isn't she busy teaching at that school or whatever?" Jan asked.

"That can wait, this matter is more important," Rouge said dismissively, "Besides, Ukhozi University believes in very hands-off teaching, Lulu can throw those brats into a really deep hole for a couple days and pick them up once she's back."

Gil stared.

Jan laughed.

"And the rest of us?" The Army Chief asked, "You could have communicated this directly to Captain Jaune, and she isn't even here at this meeting."

"Well, firstly, I was expecting her to actually show up-"

At this, Jan snorted, "You've clearly forgotten your own days as a Captain then, the government has basically no control over what we do."

Emperor Rouge frowned slightly and smacked the Sparkling Captain around his head, "Regardless, I expressed the importance of this meeting, and now I shall have to take out time to talk to her separately which will be a pain in the ass. However, I have called the rest of you here because I have a premonition that this conflict is going to become larger than simply a small spying mission, granted it is simply a feeling but I am unwilling to halt preparations until we have definitive proof that Sol is hostile."

"With all due respect, even if Sol is intent upon razing Ukhozi to the ground, that country is way too small to provide more than a minimal threat to us. We wouldn't even need to use half the force that this room commands. A single one of my units along with one of the Captains, and bam, there goes the Sol army." the Army Chief said, gesturing wildly in accordance with his 'bam'.

"We have no idea what kind of force the Sol Kingdom has, they have not ventured outside their own borders in several years." Gil supplied.

"Yes, yes, but how much of a threat could they really pose?"

"That is not the point at hand," the Emperor interrupted the two Chiefs, "I want preparations to start because I believe there will be a war and regardless of how short it may be, we should take it seriously. First and foremost, I wanted all of you aware of this operation, secondly, let us discuss the actions that each of us must take to ensure that we are ready in the case that military action is taken against us, or our hand is forced and we must come to arms ourselves."

With that, Gil settled in for what was sure to be a boring tactical meeting.

***