Halls of Promiscuity

The duke stepped forward and returned the salute, chanting the greeting of the Republic  “Republikar Hvarjgardi, no’re vas pozdravam. Sol’pyo vodin te v’dužar.”  

A man then stepped out of the formation and walked over to the duke and duchess, his face obscured by a crimson mask.  This was none other than   The Sovitar-Khangor,  the right hand of the  current  Bellum Imperator and leader of the Janissaries. 

The man took off his crimson mask revealing the face of a young man with long silver hair.  He spoke with a voice that did not fit his soft features. 

“Bellum Imperator irta zhargal, eshan naru-kan veshka tora-ha.”  He beckoned them before he turned around and began walking away, the two followed him quickly with an entourage of both Maniideon troopers and Janissaries in tow. 

The Sovitar-Khangor led them away from the platform and into the massive city towards the tower of the Bellum imperator, a imposing structure covered in orbital guns and colored coal black.  The structure was built by Atriox Conor, the first Bellum Imperator and founder of the  Republic.  

 “Any idea why he refuses to speak the common tongue?” Yeji whispers to her husband as they followed, making sure to keep pace but have space. 

“He’s one of the old bloods, a line of Janissaries dating back to the founding of  Arthraxia itself” Chan responded, keeping a hand on his wife to ensure she didn’t wander off like she had a reputation for doing. 

They entered the massive tower, and the first thing they saw was a large banner bearing the oath of the Janissaries in their warrior tongue-Vashkiri.

When the Janissaries saw it they beat their left hand on their chest, while the other held their pulse sabers and chanted in unison. 

Resh’kala vrin-ta!” ‘The Republic lives’. They chanted two times when they passed under the banner, 

The Duchess had to stifle a giggle, having grown up in the capital she knew that the Janissary corps had been nothing but a ceremonial force since the crimson guild (a treaty between house Manjida and house Vzglyd) had put the  her family, the Harko family into the office of the  Princeps fidei imperatoris over 300 years ago. 

She loved watching the Janissaries walk around thinking they are so much more than a glorified propaganda unit, It really helped her laugh. 

Then a hovercraft  swung through the air and landed gracefully upon one of the landing pads of the building. 

The heavy doors of the vessels opened and out stepped 7 soldiers encased in crimson red armor, they were the personal security of the archbishop. Legendary leader  of the faith who had achieved immortality through service to the deities and is the only one who can influence the imperators, having been the original princeps fidei imperatoris . Whose entourage was composed of Elite cybernetic warriors who were older than the Republic who reported only to the archbishop, they were the soldiers of the original army that brought the Republic into existence and only 16 of them still exist. 

Their  robotic limbs  moved with an electronic hum in their skoratx armor  casing.   The warriors moved in  complete silence, surveying every Janissary and Manjideon Varangian for hostile intent.  They were each about 7 feet tall. 

They carried no rifle at all, armed only with electronic  zansabers that could cut through even the most advanced armors that house Manjida could conjure up.   

One of them finally spoke, vocabulator letting out what seemed to be a sentence of pure static code.  “[ ] THRA’KAI // — [ ]”.

The 7 warriors then made a shield around the platform of the ship as a figure  stepped off, they wore robes that were so white they almost looked translucent.   But their face was obscured by a tan helmet with a black visor. 

Gasps of shock erupted from several Janissaries and Varangians, including the Duke himself. But the Duchess simply smiled with a grin of knowing. 

 The archbishop  walked right over to where the Duke and Duchess were, and shook their hands before speaking.  “Greetings, Duke Chan  and Duchess Yeji of house Manjida. I congratulate you on your successful conquest over House Lron.”     Her voice was soft and melodious unlike the  robotic voice the helmets vocoder bellowed out earlier. 

Yeji trained her eyes on the archbishop, looking her up and down. She crossed her arms before deciding to voice the question she had.  “I assume you are here for the clones?” 

The archbishop nodded, motioning to her guards to  go grab the 6 pods. 

“I have, your brother is excited to add them to the great hall of promiscuity.”  

“Oh, he finally built it? I thought it wasn’t passed by the Soviet.”  Yeji replied

“He had it built 5 years ago, I forget that you’ve been away for so long.  How else do you think the Imperators green lit the conquests of the Zorback system which the Supreme Soviet was frothing at the mouth to begin?.”

Chan tried to say something but one look from Yeji shut him up. 

“Well, I believe its time for us to go. My brother expects us soon.”  

“You can come with me, but your guards cannot come to the temple. The crimson host is  already enough security wise.” 

Yeji grabbed her husband's hand and followed the  archbishop into the large craft.

 Everyone boarded and they took off.

The great temple of the Arthraxian religion was built out of a mountain in the center of Mo-Wol.  It spanned high into the sky with thousands of halls where religious artifacts and the Republic's history are kept in volts guarded by the crimson host, elite but emotionless warriors cloned from the champions of the  gladiatorial pits. The temple itself had 200 floors and this was only the upper levels of the temple. Below the temple was a massive labyrinth known as the hall of promiscuity, a place where the Republic kept its best pleasure slaves. 

Once they arrived the group headed towards the inner palace of the temple. 

Chan finally spoke,  ignoring Yeji’s nails digging into his arm.  “So……….you  decided to escape the honor of meeting the gods and chose to undergo mind swapping into the body of a slave?” 

His voice showed slight disdain for the ancient being, Yeji herself stepped back. As if waiting for the harsh response.

The bishop laughed,  a smile coming over her face as she walked over and grabbed Chan by the throat with a strength the young girls body definitely hadn’t originally had. 

“I’ve been switching bodies since before  your house was founded, boy. I’ve felt both flesh and living metal. I was there when the holy faith was created.”  She spat at him. 

She threw him across the room, slamming him into a wall with a thud.

“I helped found this Republic with your ancestor, the only reason your wife's family  has any power is because I stepped down.” 

Chan scrambled up, coughing.

The bishop looked at her hands.  “This girl……..I found her in the gladiatorial pits, her name was Moka……………she is my new vessel.” 

She turned to her red guards, her vocoder glowing purple as she spoke in binary. 

“KRR’ESH // SHA’KHEX-SEN // TOR’VA — TEM’ZHA-VARA”

The guards nodded, before walking over to the 6 pods and picking them up to carry them to the temple of promiscuity. A massive complex under the grand temple carved into a cavern with massive waterways where the massive harem of the imperators was held. It was created by the 1st imperators  and had been slowly built up ever since. It was bigger than the grand temple above it. 

The guards made their way into the central area, where the entrance into the  many halls of pleasure  lay and set the pods down before activating the awakening protocols.  

The 6 clones woke up.

[The scene switches]

Jeongin awoke with a gasp, had what happened  earlier been a dream? 

Jeongin looked around,all around was the massive temple of promiscuity, he-she had been officially inducted into the great pleasure palace of the Arthraxian Republic's capital.  

The temple itself was a massive complex, so eerily silent was the main corridor that you could hear the water moving as the enormous  natural aquifers churned water out through the main pool and into the manmade river that spilled into the rest of the complex.