The Holy Precincts, Aeterna City, Alejandra District, Laptev
The early hours of the morning
Tai-I Aoi Yoshida gripped the hilt of her hikatana as she marched steadily towards the wide front steps of the Holy Precincts, the home of the San Alejandran Catholic Church and official residence of Pope Absolvo III. The Church had once been the most powerful religious institution on Laptev, but that had been a century ago or more and now it was a tolerated minority when ranged against the towering triple alliance of Jade Shinto, the godless Imaginariumese to the north and the dark rituals of Ystovia to the east.
Now, however, the Church had finally outlived the patience of the Jade Empire. A JIAN investigation had discovered proof positive that the Church was funding and abetting the Resistenza di San Alejandro in their futile and violent war of attrition against the Jade Empire, and the Jade Empress herself had decreed that the Holy See must fall.
With the professional Jade Marines deployed at crucial spots around the city to handle the inevitable uprising that would occur, the local forces of the feudal nobility had been mustered to storm the Holy Precincts and several other churches. Aoi Yoshida was a senior member of the retinue of the mixed race overlord of Alejandra District, Fujin-Daimyo Terranova and had been given responsibility for this night's primary objective. At Yoshida's back were nearly six hundred members of the Imperial Jade Guard, conscript ashigaru militia armed with everything from energy lances and crude .50 calibre bolt-action railguns to the reliable old Burnham M2A6 assault rifle. Barely trained and poorly armoured, they were however more than a match for the ceremonial Barsus Guard who protected the Holy Precincts. Barsus had ceased to exist long ago, and these few half-trained policemen in their ceremonial white and orange tunics were the last remnants of a once great Empire, and the two men laid aside their ceremonial spears and reached for their laser sidearms. Yoshida drew her hikatana and ignited it, casting a red glow over the leading ranks of the Imperial Jade Guard. Among the throng, other samurai officers did the same. Yoshida called repeatedly for her soldiers to hold their fire and the hugely outnumbered Barsus Guardsmen, sweating beneath their steel helmets, did not fire the blaster pistols they had aimed at the huge crowd. Yoshida stopped barely four feet away from them, her followers clattering to a halt behind her and raising a variety of weapons, so that nearly forty muzzles were weaving patterns across the two Barsus Guardsmen's chests.
She stared at them for three heartbeats, willing them to surrender, and then shrugged and spoke a single calm word of command. Moments later she was stepping over their corpses as her soldiers crowded after her, their weapons still smoking. They spread out, gunshots and laserfire echoing through the ancient halls as cries of outrage and pain marked the progress of the Imperial Jade Guard through the buildings. Yoshida led a core of several dozen warriors, including many heavily-armoured samurai. They clattered through the Chapel of St. Mark, dispatching three more Barsus Guards and a pair of minor priests who got in the way, before one of the warriors kicked in a small oak door that led to a flight of spiral stairs. He rushed up the stairs and was promptly thrown backwards, blood spurting from a bullet hole in his chest, but Yoshida pressed upwards in her shielded armour and gutted the brightly-liveried guard who was defending the staircase, the crackle and hiss of evaporating blood drowning out his gasp of pain as he tumbled past her and down the stairs.
Emerging at the top, she found a small but well-appointed bedroom with an ancient four-poster bed, many bookcases and thick drapery lining the walls. An elderly man in a plain white nightgown cowered in one corner, beside a bureau with a small decanter of wine on top of it. His eyes widened as the Jade warriors spilled into his room, his mouth working silently as he waved his hands, trying to brace himself on the desk.
"Bertoldo Vignone, you are under arrest for treason against the Jade Empire. Come with us," said the samurai woman in scarlet and white. She had just captured Pope Absolvo III.
Now, however, the Church had finally outlived the patience of the Jade Empire. A JIAN investigation had discovered proof positive that the Church was funding and abetting the Resistenza di San Alejandro in their futile and violent war of attrition against the Jade Empire, and the Jade Empress herself had decreed that the Holy See must fall.
With the professional Jade Marines deployed at crucial spots around the city to handle the inevitable uprising that would occur, the local forces of the feudal nobility had been mustered to storm the Holy Precincts and several other churches. Aoi Yoshida was a senior member of the retinue of the mixed race overlord of Alejandra District, Fujin-Daimyo Terranova and had been given responsibility for this night's primary objective. At Yoshida's back were nearly six hundred members of the Imperial Jade Guard, conscript ashigaru militia armed with everything from energy lances and crude .50 calibre bolt-action railguns to the reliable old Burnham M2A6 assault rifle. Barely trained and poorly armoured, they were however more than a match for the ceremonial Barsus Guard who protected the Holy Precincts. Barsus had ceased to exist long ago, and these few half-trained policemen in their ceremonial white and orange tunics were the last remnants of a once great Empire, and the two men laid aside their ceremonial spears and reached for their laser sidearms. Yoshida drew her hikatana and ignited it, casting a red glow over the leading ranks of the Imperial Jade Guard. Among the throng, other samurai officers did the same. Yoshida called repeatedly for her soldiers to hold their fire and the hugely outnumbered Barsus Guardsmen, sweating beneath their steel helmets, did not fire the blaster pistols they had aimed at the huge crowd. Yoshida stopped barely four feet away from them, her followers clattering to a halt behind her and raising a variety of weapons, so that nearly forty muzzles were weaving patterns across the two Barsus Guardsmen's chests.
She stared at them for three heartbeats, willing them to surrender, and then shrugged and spoke a single calm word of command. Moments later she was stepping over their corpses as her soldiers crowded after her, their weapons still smoking. They spread out, gunshots and laserfire echoing through the ancient halls as cries of outrage and pain marked the progress of the Imperial Jade Guard through the buildings. Yoshida led a core of several dozen warriors, including many heavily-armoured samurai. They clattered through the Chapel of St. Mark, dispatching three more Barsus Guards and a pair of minor priests who got in the way, before one of the warriors kicked in a small oak door that led to a flight of spiral stairs. He rushed up the stairs and was promptly thrown backwards, blood spurting from a bullet hole in his chest, but Yoshida pressed upwards in her shielded armour and gutted the brightly-liveried guard who was defending the staircase, the crackle and hiss of evaporating blood drowning out his gasp of pain as he tumbled past her and down the stairs.
Emerging at the top, she found a small but well-appointed bedroom with an ancient four-poster bed, many bookcases and thick drapery lining the walls. An elderly man in a plain white nightgown cowered in one corner, beside a bureau with a small decanter of wine on top of it. His eyes widened as the Jade warriors spilled into his room, his mouth working silently as he waved his hands, trying to brace himself on the desk.
"Bertoldo Vignone, you are under arrest for treason against the Jade Empire. Come with us," said the samurai woman in scarlet and white. She had just captured Pope Absolvo III.
