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All hope lies in Rome -- A science fiction Byzantine AAR

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Chapter 66: Tuscan Station

Max was confused. Did Tony allied himself with aliens? The ship was crewed by humanoids, but none of them looked particularly human.

"Oh, they were humans. Once,. Tony added. "I will explain more in full detail next time. Right now you have to win the land war."

Still processing Tony's first sentence, the next thing Max heard was that Tony would be sending her back to earth straight away. Max objected, telling Tony that the capes had united the Rome's enemies.

A classic smile spread across Tony's face. He had a plan. Before his arrival to Earth's orbit, he had prepared a special armour for her.

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"Your previous gear was simply made of carbon and iron. Here I give you titanium which is reinforced by nano-shields. This armour is powered by the arc reactor, which generates electricity via the zero-point energy --"

Max frowned. Being with Tony was like being in school 24/7.

Donning her new equipment, she was teleported down to Taji. The Imperial troops were engaged in a losing battle till her appearance. Using her razor-sharped blade, Max slew a path through her enemies. Not even a full energy blast from a nearby cape rattled her. The battle was won.

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Removing her helmet, she waved as the Roman troops cheered to welcome her back. Her aide, Colonel Vessery approached her in disbelief.

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"Where did you go?"

Unsure if Vessery could handle the truth, she explained that she was in "Tuscan".

"You were blown to Italy?" Vessery asked.

"Yes, I woke up in a station in Tuscan. Some guy called Luke Skywalker brought me here in a fast ship," she blurted out, using her second-hand knowledge of Star Wars.

Vessery remained logically unconvinced. He would have more words with her after the war.

Right now, they had capes to kill.

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The Empire in 1388
 
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Luke Skywalker? Oh Max...:p
 
Well, India in 1388 is a long time ago in a land far far away... :)
 
Chapter 67: The Great Mistake

With a mixture of field intelligence, time-manipulation, and advanced technology, Europe and the Middle East was finally united under Roman Empire. Although Emperor Bosporios wanted to expand into India, he knew that his immediate concern were the presence of starships in the sky. Were the newcomers friend or foe? Further adventures on Earth would have to wait.

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Tony knew he had to explain everything from the start. And to get support from the Roman Emperor, he had to simplify it. Max (Or Joan of Arc as she was known now) would naturally support him. The Roman representatives would be a challenge to convince.

"It all started with a war. Unlike other wars, it was not an European war, an African war nor an Orient war," Tony began. "This war engulfed the entire world."

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Towards the end of 1945, Germany had stood at the verge of collapse. As the Allies and the Soviets approached Berlin, the Germans discovered an alien substance called Uber that allowed them to produce the first cape. Using an army of capes, they drove their enemies from Germany. This sparked off the superhuman arms race, and only ended with the Soviet bombing of Tokyo in 1950.

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Although the Soviets and USA emerged the victors of the war, visitors from outer space attacked the manpower-depleted earth. Earth was annexed soon after (despite the use of capes), and every resistance was easily crushed. Surviving capes were sent to concentration camps, and Max managed to escape to the past.

Tony and his team managed to date the Uber's arrival to around 1400. Thus, Tony's initial plan was to dispatch agents to make the Ottoman Empire last by claiming monopoly on Uber by the 1500s. However, his machine sent his first agent, Reed to 867. Since then, Tony had been working with multiple timelines in order to save the earth from annexation. With the presence of Max, Tony was able to track her by detecting her chrono-altering radiation, to arrive at a more accurate timeline.

"So how did you get these ships?" Colonel Vessery asked.

Tony sighed. Going back to the topic of World War 2, he explained that Japanese had accelerated unethical human research from Unit 731 as the Soviets approached Tokyo in 1950. Tony had jumped into that time frame to take their research on wormhole technology.

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As a compromise, Tony had gotten the Japanese Emperor's son-in-law, Naruhiko to lead a small population into a wormhole into an alien planet to provide a safe space to develop human technology to counter the aliens.

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By finally making a time-tracker, they managed to find Max on the medieval earth.

Emperor Bosporios was excited by the prospect of new worlds, but the Illuminati were sceptical. There was a catch somewhere.

"For Earth to hope to survive, I need manpower," Tony explained. "My scouts have detected incursions of the periphery of the galaxy. We only have a few years to save the world."

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The Empire in 1393
 
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Interesting use of several Paradox games. All this time travel and alternate timeline talk has my brain spinning. :confused:
 
Nice,

I don't usually comment on the AAR, but this is getting pretty good. The inclusion of multiple paradox game to tell a story across time and space is a fairly creative way do deal with the whole Time Travel paradox issue.
 
Chapter 68: The Renaissance

Roman Emperor Bosporios awaited eagerly to meet the Nipponese Emperor Timaphon. What would these space farers offer him? Timaphon appeared in a strange garb which Max instantly recognised as traditional Japanese royal clothing.

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The Roman was the first to speak, pushing his luck. According to what was communicated to Bosporios, these Space Japanese needed manpower to defend earth. Rome had many men to spare. However, he was not going to give it for free. He wanted something in return.

Tony signed. Like all men, he had a price. Timaphon offered him riches, but the shrewd Roman wanted more than that.

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"We want power. We seek to share the universe ," Emperor Bosporios demanded. Max and Princess Petrina glared at the Bosporios in disbelief. Even at world's end, the Roman Empire still refused to cooperate to save the world.

Max whispered to Tony, suggesting that he should advise Timphon to lie and pretend to agree. Shaking his head, the technologist explained that the Japanese were a honourable people. They would not make false deals.

Yet Tony did not live so long to not have a Plan B. He had a counter offer. He offered variations of his combat armour in return for Rome's services. Bosporios saw potential in it. Under the observation of Colonel Vessery and Tony, an agreement was made.

The Nipponese Empire would provide training for Roman pilots to defend the solar system. Additionally, the Roman Empire would organise ground forces lest their attackers managed to land drop ships on Earth.

It took a full three years before their invaders came. And the aliens were surprised.

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Instead of being able to seed Earth with superpowers uncontested, the mysterious aliens found themselves under attack.

Back on earth, foreign agents convinced the capes of India to attack the Romans. With advanced technology, Emperor Bosporios won a decisive victory over the Indians at the Battle of Pavagadh.

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Yet the victories on earth would be for naught if the battle in space was lost. Despite being the numerous Romans recruited, the aliens were winning.

Tony watched helplessly as the foreign vessels edged closer to earth. Was centuries of planning all for nothing? Was the Great Mistake to happen again? He remembered jumping across different timelines and all the deaths he and his comrades experienced.

Watching Tony defeated was not something Max was used to. She was going to try something. "Did you ever read the movie. Edge of Tomorrow?"

Tony frowned initially. "No, but I read the manga."

"Then you know what I have in mind, and how I intend to bring hope."

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The Empire in 1396
 
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Ah, a brilliant plan!
 
So, there's 50 years left of CK II. Will you be extending into EU4 or finishing the story within CK2?
 
Chapter 69: The Long Goodbye

Max noted the risks. Tony already explained to her that the strain could potentially be fatal, but they were out of ideas. The mysterious aliens were creeping in.

A medical team was summoned to monitor her vitals as Max eyes turned white. She went into a deep mediation mode.

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At this state, Max was able to look deep into the future and her brain operated at hyper-velocity. She searched multiple timelines and had to quickly filter out the most practical solutions.

Meanwhile the alien ships closed in on the lead ship.

"Execute Operation Banzai," announced Tony to his ship's AI. Within a tick of a second, autonomous robotic suits left his ship to defend the lead ship. If the aliens destroyed that captial ship, all hope would be lost. With or without Rome.

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"Tony, her vitals are failing," a familiar voice called out to him. Tony turned to see Reed. Wait what? Reed was supposed to be dead. He was the first time-traveller to be dispatched, all the way in 867 AD.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, he noted that more people were in the same ship as him. Janet was found adjusting the morphine level of Max. Johnny Cage was seen coordinating the next attacks from the aliens.

They were all supposed to be dead.

Back on the ground level, the Romans were wrapped up final victory as their grand alliance beat the the Indian resistance.

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Yet the Romans watched in amazement as one of their number flew off from the ground the join the attack from space. For a moment the Illuminati thought that was Clark of Kent who disappeared years ago. Suddenly more of their ground forces started flying to space, clad in a mysterious suits of armour.

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No one knew what was happening, except maybe Max. She was bleeding from her nose, ears and mouth, as the team was stablising her. Pertrina begged Tony to stop her but no advice was getting through. Max was too engrossed in whatever state of mind she was in.

The aliens finally issued a hasty retreat. Earth was simply not worth the effort.

Tony quickly issued orders to revive Max, but found he could not move. Instead he was hit with an implanted memory. Strange, he had did not recall having this conversation with Max, and yet it felt so real.

"Tony, I don't have much time, but I examined 616 realities where we beat the aliens."
"Max, so what should we do?"
"Tony, I did something drastic -- I merged all the timelines. You will see people whom you thought were lost to us earlier. And you will also lose people whom we did not."

Max pointed to herself sadly. But she smiled and assured him that everything would be alright. Without alien intervention, no cape would exist before humanity was read for them. They had finally saved the world.

When Tony recovered his senses, Max was dead. While majority cheered at their victory, Petrina refused to be consoled and spat at his face. She will get over, Tony thought. But I will not.

With victory assured, Emperor Bosporois led the Romans into a new Golden age. Rebuilding continued with new technology provided from the Nipponese empire and the fallen alien debris.

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Learning from the lessons of the time travellers, the Roman Empire turned from being a superpower to the only superpower. Yet modern ideas of democracy and science creeped in making the Romans more tolerant and advanced than before. Soon, the Romans travelled to the New World, and founded New Rome City. They did not squander the hope that Reed gave time 700 years ago,

700 years later, the peace of Rome would still stand.

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So does this mean the epic adventure is at an end? The Romans certainly went through an awful lot, but they have prevailed against all odds.
 
That ended suddenly! Nice use of The Pillars of the Earth there. I'm assuming that the 616 merged timelines is another comic-book reference (Earth-616, perhaps).
 
Very well done, a good ending to this rocking series.
 
Amazing. Really amazing. A perfect ending. :) Thanks for the ride!
 
An interesting ending to be sure, but at least the hope Reed gave the Romans never died out. It endured alright.
 
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