Difference between revisions of "Atlantis Rising: Chapter 2"

Latest revision as of 22:30, 26 December 2010

The second chapter of the series.

Previous Chapter: Atlantis Rising: Chapter 1

Homepage: Atlantis

I've done some switching around of chapters, and a bit of off-line work, which brings this chapter into play.

Also see: Reaper's First Drop

15:19 Hours, February 8, 9406 BCE (Military Calendar), Inner Ring Middle Education Facility, Atlantis

“The world began as a flat liquid void. In the void there was nothing but the liquid that expanded forever, and the mist-filled sky, where the gods reside. There were no animals or plants. No life. The void was not called Earth yet. The liquid was flat, stretching on forever, and devoid of waves. There was no air.

"The three patron gods were born from the thick mist permeating the sky. They emerged from the cloudy vapor fully formed. Their bodies, humanoid, were perfect.

"There was no time to measure, but sometime later the gods grew weary of the vast emptiness that was the world. They formed the earth and the heavens, and later the soil, plants, land animals, fish, squid, and all other creatures. The pure-liquid that made up the world formed and flowed under their hands into the substances they wished to create, all the components of all substance being derived from the void liquid that was not water.

“The different gods chose for themselves specific regions out of the earth they were forming that they wished to control. There is Father Poseidon, the firstborn of the gods and the first to decide upon creating something out of the void. Poseidon formed the pure liquid into the great bodies of water on our Earth, thus making the first planet. Poseidon also introduced gravity to the universe, proportional to the mass of a body. This causes our world to take the form of a sphere, and thus, we know our world is round.

"Second, there is the powerful Ra that made the skies and the clouds. He refined the empty sky and created the weather patterns and the sun, an eternal light, which later came to help sustain life. It was he who made the first, pure gold from the scarp particles he used to create the sun. And for the spans in which the sun was not in sight, due to the curvature of the Earth created by Poseidon, he developed the moon to reflect the light of the sun onto the earth. And from the particles of the moon he created silver.

"Last, there is Freya. She is the goddess of the land, the goddess who created and governed all of the land we live on. She is also, fittingly, the goddess of all earthly ties, such as beauty, love, lust, and grief. She is also the one who first created land, and thus, a platform for life.

"Atlantis was the first continent that the gods created. They made this original land perfect, a utopia filled with everything needed for a pleasant life - it was, in effect, the Garden of the Gods. Poseidon, as I stated earlier, created the world as a single body of water. Freya created a single mega-continent of land in the middle of the world's ocean, and Poseidon and Freya and Ra together made the terrain and weather currents. And thus Atlantis, the perfect world, was formed.

"While creating the flowing rivers and streams and mountains and valleys and the different weather patterns was amusing for a time, the gods eventually again grew weary of their surroundings. Poseidon was the first to create life of any kind, but it was Freya that made we humans.

"Poseidon started out small, tinkering first with only a single cell. He made his creation perfect, and released dozens of them deep into his oceans. He then moved on to bigger and better things.

"The other gods took notice of Poseidon's work and began to expand upon it. Poseidon made all the creatures of the sea, Ra, the creatures of the air, and Freya began to work on land.

"And then, about 3 million years ago, it was Freya who started to hit upon human life. It had become an established protocol for all the gods to improve upon their past works, called "Evolution" in your science classes. So Freya took one of her creations called an ape that she had created and improved the design slightly. And thus we have the first female human, named "Liften", modeled after Freya herself.

"The years passed, but Liften did not age. She grew lonely, so the gods made a partner for her, Lif, modeling this male after Poseidon and Ra. And together they were happy. They bore three daughters and one son, and began to establish the first beginnings of what today is the Atlantis City Proper. The gods aided them and gladly gave everything that the first humans needed. After a time, it was decided that Lif and Liften should leave their earthly world to become gods in Heaven. The second generation of gods were thus born.

"And thus came a Golden Age unto Atlantis, from 11,000 to 9,400 years before Lif and Liften are prophesied to return to Earth.

"Liften instructed her children to go forth unto the world and multiply, assuring them everything they would ever need would be provided by the lands, and thus, indirectly, the gods. Generation followed generation, and each life was new, and had his or her own ideas to contribute. Eventually all of Atlantis was inhabited by we, humans. We have made many advances in science, the arts, and literature.

“Along with scientific advances came military advances. We discovered the power of explosives when we experimented with igniting a certain mix of native plants found here on Atlantis, and thus we made today's 'revolving rifles' that our infantry and sailors use to such great effect on the primitive Stone-Age inhabitants of the rest of the world created by Poseidon, Freya, and Ra.

“Beyond this, we made many more advancements, both trivial and non, that make up the technology we use today, from our metal aircraft to our heavy tanks to our simple furnaces and plumbing in our homes. This is how the world began. This is how Atlantis came to be.”

A large, church-like bell resounded three times, signaling the end of the class and the end of that school day.

Jason stood, leaving the cramped, uncomfortable Lotus position he had been sitting in for the past hour. He got up and bowed respectfully to his teacher, Pocrates, and gathered up his papyrus scrolls before hurrying after his friends.

In truth, he was lucky to have Pocrates for a history/religion teacher. Some of the other kids at the Middle Education Facility (MEF) envied him, but Pocrates just wasn't the most interesting of teachers.

Jason packed his scrolls into a satchel slung across his single-piece blue, red, and gold-trimmed tunic. He walked out the arched doors and filed down the hallway with all the other students. The hallway opened into the community social center, the popular place to be during free time. Kids played Hoops over in a corner, tossing a bouncy rubber ball through a hollow ring parallel to the ground. A group of Seniors tossed a light-weight, foam discus around.

But the majority of the students here were simply talking. Jason joined a group of his friends where they were hanging out in a corner, gossiping and laughing hysterically. He immediately joined in on the conversation and spent a good 15 minutes mingling with his friends.

"Hey, Jason!" Jason instantly recognized the deeper bass tones of Heracles. Heracles was 15, 6 feet tall, and 180 pounds of muscle. "When's the party?"

"1600 Hours at my place." Jason announced to the general assembly. "Two weeks from now." The crowd whooped and yelled. "So what is it?" Someone asked.

"Swimming and sparring at my house for a while, then we'll all go out for a show and some of the new "pizza" stuff the Marines picked up from Rome. Then more swimming and music."

"Sweet!" was the general response. "How bout some hoops?"

Jason smiled, pumped fists with Heracles, and walked off to the combined History and Economics classroom. This was one of the few classes that actually had seats in it; most of the others had soft mats to sit meditatively in. In Jason's opinion, you could focus better when you weren't inwardly complaining about your cramped legs. He got into the class just as the teacher, Persolacles, was starting his after-school lecture on the history of Atlantis and her colonies.

"...and as you have learned from your religion classes, the world started as a flat void of pure, sweet liquid. This is one of the few area subject matters in which religion and science agree. After this, though, they will branch off into two different paths. Your religion teachers will tell you that the gods above simply grew bored, and on a whim created the world.

"Science stands a little different. This void was not only of flat, empty liquid, but also of a heavy, dense mist or fog that covered the face of the waters. Furthermore, this void did not simply make up what is now the world as we know it; Atlantis and the surrounding continents, but the entire universe. This expanse was infinite. Not only that, but evidence suggests there was a single piece of earth, an atom, if you will. All of the universal matter was contained in this one atom. For reasons unknown, this atom simply exploded upon itself. Some say the atom was of an extremely volatile type, and it no longer exists in this world. This is the main standpoint of scientific theories, although there are others. From this explosion, we have a primordial soup of various vapors and gases, that under changing conditions and temperatures, invariably solidified.

“The temperature at this point, roughly 15 billion years ago, was extreme. Today we have no measure for the temperature, but there was no solid form because it was too hot. No liquid existed either - everything was gas and vapor. Does anybody know what causes heat?" Persolacles asked the crowd in general. Several hands went up. Jason had only a foggy idea. Chemistry wasn't his strong point. It was something about vibration...

Persolacles pointed out one student, who answered, "Atoms and molecules vibrating?"

"Correct. Heat is a by-product of molecules, and their atoms, vibrating. The higher the speed, the more heat. In this world of non-solid, non-liquid, every molecule that existed was in constant motion as matter and anti-matter sped apart in opposite directions. Hence the heat.

"As this begins happening over the course of thousands of years, we see fascinating items come into play. The first piece of land to form was the now-dormant volcano at the heart of Atlantis. And-"

"Excuse me, sir," A student's voice piped up. Jason craned his neck, but was unable to see the source. Probably Aaron. That brown-nosed nerd. “But is it not true that the Phoenix King has a secret military base housed in the hollowed out volcano? Rumors have been, well, circulating through the Education Facility, and I just needed to be sure." Yep, definitely Aaron. No one else referred to the "Middle Education Facility" as an actual "Education Facility." Everyone else just said school.

"Yes, and I'm sure these rumors probably caused you great pain." Persolacles answered gravely. Even he didn't like the way Aaron tried to suck up to the teachers and show-up the other students. "But I'm afraid it is beyond my ability to answer. Mount Heliotropos, as it is known, is indeed shrouded in a cloak of mystery, and it is true that the military guards its borders and lets none visit the top of the mountain, but beyond that nobody knows but the Phoenix King himself." Aaron ducked his head, face heating, and sat quietly in his seat. Jason glanced around at the quiet classroom, bored. The class could seat twenty five students, and only eighteen were in the room. A dusty board sat against a richly paneled mahogany wall, with a matching mahogany desk for Persolacles.

"Now where was I? Ah, yes. The first piece of land to form was Mt. Heliotropos. We know this from studying the carbon levels in the rocks here and on other parts of Atlantis, and we were able to get a date based on the amount of carbon levels we discovered in the rocks." Jason started writing out notes with his pen, using the long, graceful strokes taught to him in the Lower Education Facility years ago.

"Mount Heliotropos was by no means the stable, dormant volcano it is today as at the beginning of the world. When Earth begun, Mount Heliotropos was spewing an almost constant stream of molten rock and volcanic glass.

"This great deposit of volcanic glass, or obsidian, is the mainstay of our armed forces' blades today. With an infusion of steel or titanium at extreme heat, the obsidian becomes less brittle, and thus we have our sword blades and axe heads. We are unsure whether or not the entire universe spawned from this one atom on what would come to be Atlantis or whether there were more atoms of similar cosmic makeup that contributed to the universe as we know it." Jason yawned.

"The evolution of life on Earth came about a billion years ago, keeping in mind that the solidified, life-sustainable Earth is 4 billion years old. The first life began as single cells in the ocean, which is why we pay respects to Father Poseidon in our temples. Over time, millions of years, the single cells evolved into dual-and-quad-cell organisms. From this point on, increasingly complex and intelligent creatures come into play."

“The first creature to come on land was an amphibian. Today we have no name for this creature, but we have been able to find casts of its skeleton buried in the muck 100 feet off shore. Keeping in mind, of course, that 89 million years ago, when this amphibian roamed the seas, the shoreline was a lot different. Several theories have been proposed as to why the creature suddenly crawled onto a previously inhospitable, strange world of substance as opposed to the watery void that made his home, but the most viable of these is that this creature was simply trying to escape from the hostile waters. Casts of its skeleton show no significant weapons with which to defend itself besides fairly large teeth.

“This creature was also only four feet long, a shrimp compared to all the other Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs that swam thence. This process, in which the lesser genetically equipped or skilled animal is naturally killed off due to its ease of hunting, is called natural selection, which is part of the reason humans are the dominant life-form. Humans are adaptable, and can live in a vast range of conditions.

“And so, whatever the cause was, this creature crawled on land. While it was there, it presumably laid a clutch of eggs, which in turn spawned a small group of creatures that had naturally been born on land and so were more accustomed to it. Then some of these creatures grew up, laid their own eggs, and spawned even more effective land creatures. So on and so forth, each breed of new creatures mixing genes with other creatures and populating the earth as we know it today.

“Skipping ahead a bit, we now move on to human history. The year is 9406. The first humans, dubbed Lif and Liften, came in 15,000. Atlantis, or the start of modern Atlantian culture and technology, came in 11,000. Throughout the years we have been steadily advancing in technology and power. Today Atlantis controls all of the known world. Atlantis is conveniently situated in the middle of civilized cultures, such as 'Europe' to the North and East, the Mayans, Olmecs, Incans, and Aztecs to the South and West, 'Africa' to the East, 'The Orient' to the far East, among others.

"Atlantis is the ruler of all the known world. We have taught the savages farming and agriculture. We have taught them about using more advanced simple machines. And we have left our mark.

"In Egypt; the great marble pyramids. In the land of the Celts, the great stone megaliths," He pronounced it 'Kelts'.

"In the land of the Olmecs, the great stone heads depicting the men of Africa. In Babylon; the giant stone Zigguarats. These we have left to mark our command over the primitive tribes of the rest of this world."

A bell rang, signaling that it was five minutes till 16:00, or 4:00 PM. Jason packed up his scrolls and his notebook he had been doodling in and followed the crowd out the door. After talking for a couple minutes with his various friends and asking them if they were coming to the match tonight, Jason left the Middle Education Facility through the heavy penthouse gate and walked down the busy street.

Jason's leather boots made no audible noise against the wall of sound that reverberated throughout the city. The school was a giant fortress behind him, right in the middle of the activity. Behind its walls, very little of the outside sound could be heard, but out here, the combined voices of over a thousand people on the one ring of the giant city was overwhelming.

The entire capitol city of the continent Atlantis was basically a series of three man-made rings, each about 9 stadium (measurements of 600 feet) wide, with rings of water in between each ring of land, also about the same width. The whole city was 50 stadium in diameter. The central island, where the school was located, was for the upper class. Only royal, religious, and educational buildings and dwellings. The Phoenix King's palatial fortress was housed beside Mt. Heliotropos in the center, and only a few hundred feet from it was the legendary temple to Poseidon. The Phoenix may have been the official symbol of Atlantis, but the sea was her lifeblood. It was imprinted into every aspect of their society.

The middle ring was where the mainstay of the population resided. It was built to house the people comfortably. Plenty of markets, shopping centers, public baths and sporting pavilions to keep the population supplied and entertained. Although Jason's family lived with the Royal district on the central ring, he wasn't needed at home until five thirty, so he had an hour and a half to poke around. Might as well head over to the town centers and see what there was to see. He might even catch a play or something if he was lucky.

The outer ring was where the industry and military shared quarters. It was the biggest of the rings, with a circumference of 160 stadium. The many canals and water-gates to the city were each guarded by a small fleet of the Navy's best, and blocked from direct access by large, chain-steel nets that were left lowered during the day so commerce could proceed apace. Docks crammed most of the space on the shores of the ring, loading and unloading goods, luxuries, tools, and weapons. The military's blades and guns were carved and honed from the volcanic obsidian and wood, which was needed all throughout the vast continent and its far-reaching empire. Most of the civilized world payed tribute to Atlantis, which was part of the reason they could afford so much luxury and grandeur.

The three rings were all connected by four bridges that followed the four Cardinal directions, and although walking was the main transportation in the city, there were mass-transit options such as ferries across water and the treaded locomotives on land, run by steam power that turned a gear which turned the axle. Several of these stations ran in major points of the city, such as the bridges, and Jason hooked a ride on one, handing the conductor several silver Obols (Atlantian dollars). Three minutes later he was sitting in a spacious booth on board the train with a couple other kids his age.

The booths had an amenities station stocked with drinks and snacks. Jason fed an Obol into a slot in the box, whose locked glass door sprang open, grabbed a tin can out of the iced clay box and popped open the lid, taking a long draught from the sweet drink, Nectar. Of course, the rest of the world usually just drank wine, even the kids, but the medical docs had found out that the alcohol was bad for kids and tampered with their frontal lobes of their brains, causing them to make stupid decisions.

At the next stop Jason got off, which was one of the main, outdoor shopping hotspots. Shaded overhangs cropped up all over the place, selling all kinds of stuff. Atlantians of all shapes and sizes and colors laughed and bartered with the local shopkeepers. Jason found himself unconsciously moving over towards one corner of the stone-walled, open aired building where the arms and armor traders had set up shop. Jason approached one of the smooth-stone counters and appraised a rack of viscous looking halberds.

"Hello there, Jason. Would you be coming just to look, or was there something you wanted?" The storekeeper Pisces asked in a friendly tone. "Got all kinds of stuff up here."

"Just looking today, I'm afraid." Jason replied. He came down here most days, and Pisces had always been nice.

"That's plenty fine too. Just got a big shipment of those new Halberd things up there. Supposed to be great against cavalry."

"Yeah, I can see that. So, what, it's a cross between an axe and a spear?"

"You betcha. Plenty of leverage power to the axe blade, and of course the two foot long spike at the top won't feel great inside of the horses' belly."

"Nice. I wonder if our school's gotten any mockups of those things for tonight's exercise."

"Oh, is there gonna be some action tonight?"

"Yeah, the Arena's being reset for a boarding action battle. Should be fun."

"Well, one piece of advice; make sure you're never without a weapon. Guns are great till you have to reload. Spears are fine till you throw them away, and then what? If they've got 'em, I'd take one of these Halberds myself. Any weapon is better than none, and two weapons in one is better than one."

"Makes sense. I'll try one out tonight. Speaking of which, what's the word on the Minoan front?"

"Thera? We've got a pretty good establishment there. The natives weren't much to mention. They had the basic stone and wood and a little bit of copper weapons, but those didn't do much against the mass amounts of orichalcum and titanium and steel we're sending down there. But there was still quite a battle, I understand, between a couple battalions of Marines sent ashore to secure their commanders and the Minoan army.

Jason grunted.

"Course, the flyboys came in and swept some of 'em out, and put some droppers behind the lines. By then the Marines had managed to cut through most of them, from what I hear."

"Yeah. I hear they're setting up a new establishments on both Crete and Thera?"

"Yeah, we'll see how it goes. I dunno why the King wants those positions so badly. But I guess he has his reasons."

"Yep. Well, I'll see ya later." Jason said, took a swig of Nectar, and walked on, admiring sets of gleaming orichalcum-titanium armor, with crested gold-and-silver paneled helmets. These new ones were supposed to be able to deflect a full-force sword blade. Though one of those new Halberds might do the trick.

Jason walked into another section of the enormous recreation center. The baths here had been created specifically for the public comfort, and the multiple stained-hardwood-and-stone rooms were crowded with relaxing citizens. And the best part was, the baths were completely free, except for the towels. Jason gave the young female receptionist a gleaming silver Drachma. The silver ones were worth six silver Obols, and the gold ones, ten. A gold Obol was worth two silver. Jason smiled at the receptionist, then went and took a pair of folded white linens from a stack by the wall and entered the locker rooms. He undressed and wrapped one of the linens around his bare waist, stowing his tunic and other items inside a small cubby and tossing the other towel casually over his shoulder.

Jason entered the steamy, humid sweat room and relaxed on a wooden bench, shutting his eyes for a while before he entered the next room, which was a long, salted pool.

Jason left half an hour later, putting his used linens in a basket after getting dressed.

It was about 5:00.

Jason walked out the door of the bath houses. He was surprised to find it dark and stormy outside, the ocean lapping against the strong metal and stone rings. No matter. They would just raise the storm shield, which was basically just another big ring 10 stadium out from the industrial ring that could be raised and lowered to deflect waves and winds. It was made from titanium and steel, and was attached to the ocean floor by paired metal struts. This was done in order to give the walls a little bit of give while maintaining integrity, unlike the regular rings, which were just attached to the ocean floor 100 feet below with strong, metal-laced cables. When it wasn't raining, diving to the sea floor was a popular form of recreation for the more active citizens.

Jason boarded the next train at the station and headed back for home.

Jason let himself into his house, not even needing a key. For one, his mother was home, since her sandals were tucked neatly into a corner by the door. And two, they had only one simple lock on all the doors. Crime rate at the heart of Atlantis: zero. Though they had an extensive system of courts and police enforcers, most criminals came from beyond the city shields.

Jason pulled the handle and the doors glided open on oiled hinges without even a creak. He knocked his knuckles against it twice anyways, to let his mom know he was here.

"Hey sweetie," His mom said brightly. "How was school?" Jason gave the usual answers as to what was for lunch, how his classes had gone, what was new with his friends, etc.

"Well, your father will be home shortly. He's working late again down at the Palace, trying to secure the funds for a new temple down in the Middle Ring. King Juliius supports it, but the Council and the Senate are in a bidding war over it. Politics." She finished with a slight huff.

Jason well knew what kind of politics could be entangling his father. This stuff could take months to sort out.

"Anything in the freezer?" Jason asked.

"There're a couple of Nectars, I think. If you're hungry, I can cut you some pork and dish up some fruit,"

"Sounds good."

"Any homework?"

"Nah. Did it all during after-hours."

"Dinner'll be ready in about twenty minutes if you wanted to go outside for a while."

"Twenty minutes. Got it. I think I'll go practice in the courtyard."

Jason found his older and younger brothers both in the courtyard, dueling with wooden staffs. His younger brother was 13 and his older brother 16, yet it was a pretty even match. His younger brother was built tall and solid, and his older brother was thinner, lanky, and coordinated, but not quite as strong. Daedalus compensated with strategy and applying force to key vulnerable areas, which made up for more than his lack of strength. He was the braniac of the family. Brutus was the athlete. And Jason was in between.

"Brutus!" Jason called in a deep voice. His younger brother, Brutus, was momentarily startled, and Daedalus took advantage of his brother's lapse to give him a good whack on the thigh, then to the back, then back to the leg to trip him up and topple him.

"No fair!" Was the instant yell from the prostrate Brutus.

"A good warrior must learn to block out all distraction." Daedalus said, using his best wise-old-sage voice.

"Yeah, well I'll tell you what. A good warrior also needs to bulk up a bit, Daedalus." Brutus said hotly.

"Your words speak wisdom beyond your years, Master Brutus." Daedalus said, repeating the voice. That was another thing. Daedalus could mimic sounds to near perfection. It was uncanny.

"Ha ha. I'm sure you wouldn't mind a go with Jason, based on your canny retorts."

Daedalus lost his mocking tone, the grin wiped off his face. The last time he had fought Jason, he had ended up with his tunic over his head and his sandals laced together and tossed into a bush.

Brutus tossed his staff to Jason, who caught it out of the air. Jason twirled it once around his body so he was holding it suitably, then launched an opening strike, which Daedalus deflected, twisting his own staff both to cushion the blow and to toss Jason off balance. Jason compensated, then whipped the other end of the staff around. Daedalus was expecting it, but the blow was simply too strong for Daedalus, and Jason levered Daedalus's staff out of his hands with his own staff.

Daedalus bent to retrieve it, but stopped when Jason's staff halted an inch from his neck.

"Not bad. You're getting better, at least." Jason said. Brutus was rolling on the floor cackling at his brother, while Jason, with a little more tact, was suppressing a grin.

"So, that only took you what, half a second?" Brutus cackled.

"Brutus, you're next." Jason interrupted, which ended the humorless laughs.

At 7:00 exactly, Jason walked up to the big castle-like Middle Education Facility, both his brothers in tow. Herakles was waiting for Jason at the penthouse gates. The entire education facility was built like a castle; indeed, the original design was for some bygone Phoenix King and his army. It was a fortress built for comfort, with a hundred rooms that had been converted into classrooms. The soft, natural lighting by day, complimented by the occasional mirror-amplified gas lanterns, was easy on the vision, and the darker, earth-tone colors in the flooring and walls were meant to relax the eye.

The whole school was beautifully lit with hybrid gas-and-oil lanterns. It took five minutes for Jason, Heracles, Daedalus, and Brutus to get to the PhysEd building, one of the rounded towers next to the main Keep. Once they were there they changed out of their red-and-gold tunics and donned realistic, if smaller, sets of battle armor worn by the standard infantry in the front lines.

Jason slipped on his chain-mail hauberk over a special padded tunic, cinching it at the waist with a small, thin strap of leather, and a soft coif went on his head. Next a bright red-and-gold tunic over his mail and pads, decorated with a simple Phoenix design signaling him as one of the standard infantry, then came the heavy armor plates used in combat. The males were to wear black titanium trimmed with orichalcum, a silverish-gold metal that was both decorational and extremely protective. It was the hardest substance known to Atlantis, and was found only on the one continent.

"Whoa, Hannon, got enough weapons there?" Jason asked. Inevitably, there was always one guy who went crazy and packed as many weapons as he could carry on his back. Hannon was currently decked out with a short sword and long dagger as his secondaries, a Battle Axe across his back, on top of which rested two medium-length, medium range carbines with 15-round drums, and a Halbred as his main weapon. Plus Armor. "Can You even move?"

Hannon picked up a Legionary square shield. "All set, guys."

The armor was extremely expensive but extremely protective, due to the hard nature of the metal and the pads he wore underneath. Jason, and the rest of the soldiers, could take four arrows to the chest and keep running, fighting. Sword blades would glance off the sides, as the armor had angled edges to deflect blows.

However, that was all well and good against regular blades, but the standard Atlantian blades were made of polished, reinforced obsidian that cut through most armor like butter. But not the practice blades, so if you hit something, you pretty much had to rely on the debilitating bruises from a steel weapon taking the target out.

On his head went a metal helm with a crest that ran down the bridge of his nose to stop just above his upper lip. Trimmed with orichalcum edges, it was one of the most valuable pieces of the armor next to the breastplate.

Next for arms. Using a sharpened metal blade would have been fun, but it would be too easy to accidentally kill somebody. That wouldn't be good. So Jason strapped a solid, extremely dulled practice blade to his waist and grabbed a figure-eight body shield in one hand, grasping a blunt-headed spear in the other. He tucked a small handgun into his belt.

The arena had a scheduled small-scale ship-to-ship engagement mockup enactment that was written down to begin at 20:00 hours. Five minutes.

Jason and Herakles trooped out the door to the arena with the rest of the crew, where several other kids were mulling around. The arena had been set up with to look like two separate ships, and it looked real. Jason and Heracles joined the blue team, as they had donned the blue team armor. Daedalus was already out in the midst of the blue ranks. Brutus joined the red team in a fit of rebellion against Jason and Daedalus.

The red team on the opposite side of a large, circular penned-in area raised a banner. A phoenix was artistically printed onto the red cloth. Blue team raised their own standard. An azure banner with a stylized image of Father Poseidon and the Kraken, which they planted at the helm of their 'ship'. The goal was to capture the other team's standard.

At 20:00 exactly, large mirrored lights lit up and a horn blew somewhere, someone yelled, "Team, stand by to repel borders!" and the two opposing sides crashed together. Three "crows," or gangplanks, extended between the two ships over a gap of about eight feet, and the red team swarmed to board with a many-voiced yell. Several grabbed lines attached to fake riggings and swung across. Below was a startling drop of twelve feet into a shallow pool about waist height that opened at the end of the game to let anyone who had been knocked down out.

Jason didn't hurl his javelin off like some of the other blue-team members at the oncoming reds swinging across; instead, he waited for one to throw a javelin at him before he launched his at the Red in a counter-attack.

The Red caught Jason's javelin on a torso-sized metal Legionary shield, and Jason had no problem deflecting the Red's spear with his full-body figure eight shield. Jason retrieved the fallen spear and charged the Red, who was still balanced on the rail of the ship a little precariously. The man caught Jason's blow on his shield, but he was driven back, and without anywhere else to step, he fell into the pool below.

Then Jason was striving to block a sword slash from another Red until Herakles appeared by the Red's arm and gave a solid boot to the Red's chest. The Red went flying, and Jason lashed out with his spear, holding it in the narrow lip of his figure-eight shield. A Red blocked it, countered, but Jason feinted right and then whipped the spear left, hitting the Red with the butt of the spear.

The Red was hit in the back as Jason stabbed out again with the blunt-headed spear. He was nailed to the deck with Jason's foot until he surrendered and submitted. Jason tagged him with a patch of blue dye on his helm, signaling that he was 'dead'. Then he ducked behind his massive metal shield as another sword slashed out of nowhere.

He parried automatically with the shaft of the spear, lunged, fell back, and then lunged again, the dull head nailing the Red in his shoulder. Even with a sharp blade, the Red would have still been able to fight unhampered, because the armor had a large shoulder-plate to protect against just such a move. The look of shock and mild pain that came with getting dead-armed, though, was worth it.

Jason whipped his shield forward and hit the Red in the mouth. He spit up blood from a cut tongue and charged angrily towards Jason. Jason sidestepped and bashed the Red with his shield again, sending him down and out.

On the opposite ship, a Red took aim through a revolving seven-shot rifle and plugged off three large shots at Jason.

The shots were simple blobs of congealed paint. They hurt when they hit, but not as much as a real bullet. Jason ducked behind his shield, his arm shuddering with each impact, then hurled his spear at the shooter, making contact with the rifleman's hip.

The riflemen wore similar armor to the infantry, but the plates weren't as large, and the helm not as elaborate. The dull spear found a weak point in the leg armor and toppled the rifleman, who was dispatched by another Blue.

But one problem. Now Jason was spearless, and his figure-eight body shield wasn't practical for sword-fighting.

Jason cast off his body shield after weathering another barrage of shots and drew his dull obsidian longsword with both hands. He crossed one of the gang-planks, mentally switching from defensive to offensive warfare as he shoved a Red dueling a Blue over the side.

A Red was crouched behind a body shield with a spear in his other hand, just as Jason had been. Jason approached from the man's left, the side he was carrying his shield on. The heavy piece of metal blocked the Red's view, and he didn't see Jason pop up next to him, take out his knee from behind, and 'skewer' him with a sword. Jason drove the dull metal into the Red's gut, stuck the guy with a dye-patch, and moved on to the next soldier.

Herakles was fighting three at once. Jason leaped up out of nowhere and stuck one under the armpit with his sword, ducked under a blow from the second, and swung a double-handed uppercut to the third. It hit the helm and sent the man flying. Herakles took out the second while he was standing on the first with his boot.

A swarm of reinforcements leaped up from the opposite side of the ship, leaving Jason and Herakles in a bad spot for a second, until Hannon appeared out of nowhere, holding one of his carbines in each hand and strafed the whole group. While the half that weren't tagged in the chest or head recovered from behind their shields, Daedalus materialized and stuck two before engaging the third in a spirited duel.

They threw dye-patches on all three, then moved on, Herakles with a double-handed flamberge and Jason with his hand-and-a-half longsword. Heracles advanced in front of Jason, drawing the fire of the rifle and pikemen holding a defensive wall at the edge of the ship.

With his scalloped flamberge, Heracles chopped the heads off of any spear or halbred that came too close. Jason followed close behind, fending off the scores of Reds that assaulted him. The Blue riflemen on the opposite ship opened a volley, sinking entire lines of Reds. Retaliatory fire chipped at the bulwarks and rails, but the line of Blue riflemen had taken cover and managed to avoid the worst of the volley.

Most of the school had turned out for the match. Jason grinned as he saw a thirteen-year-old red swordsman swept away by a huge blue fifteen year old. Herakles batted aside a line of pikes, and Jason charged through the gap, slashing, parrying, stabbing, and jumping out of the way.

Fake cannon roared beneath the decks and on the forecastles of both ships, flinging larger balls of paint at soldiers. Blues scattered as the cannon raked their lines, and the Reds scrambled for cover as at least three went down with their chests covered in blue paint.

Jason grunted as someone behind him took out his knee with a well-placed kick, making him collapse. On the ground, Jason could do little against an attacking foe. The Red that had clipped him advanced. Jason yanked his secondary obsidian dagger from the sheath on his side, surprising his attacker and slashing across the Red's greaves. Jason withdrew into a half-crouch, bracing himself and holding his dagger high, backhanded.

A squad of Blues swarmed the attacking Red, at least five spears thrusting forward and a good other four broadswords. Jason holstered his dagger as one of the Blues tossed an extra spear to him. Jason caught it and parried a longsword stab, whipping the weighted butt end around and under a plate of the armor on the thigh. The Red staggered, and Jason took him out with a downward stab. The rest of the battlefield continued apace, with crowds of spectators in the stands surrounding alternately moaning and cheering out loud as the blue team swarmed the Phoenix decks.

The Reds were pushed back up onto the forecastle, which also housed the flag. They fought all the harder as they were pushed back farther and farther. The winner of the engagement got instant bragging rights and won free of a week's KP duty in the student's mess.

Long, sturdy pikes were brought out from a small arm's room housed on the deck specifically for that purpose, proving much more effective from a higher point, defensively blocking two small staircases that served as chokepoints. Body shields were passed out to the pikemen and five-barreled “volley guns” were passed out. The guns were much shorter than the standard seven-shot rifles, but they were much more powerful at close range and held two shots per barrel.

Jason snatched a revolving rifle from a Blue's “corpse” and emptied the rest of the tube, plugging off five shots at the defenders, causing them to lay aside their pikes for a moment and duck under their shields, winning the Blues valiantly charging up the stairs a second's distraction. Herakles was in the thick of the mess, using his flameberge to lop off the heads of pikes. Blues were swarming the ship's rigging and spars, climbing to a higher elevation for maximum effect with their rifles.

If it had been a real engagement, likely both opposing sides would have been tossing ceramic jars of oily napalm at each-other's ship, and the captains would have been dueling in the center. As it was, several of the Blue swordsmen were duking it out with as many Reds, viscously hacking and slashing.

A knot of Red pikemen guarding the stairs collapsed; Heracles had been leading the shove to push them out, engaging hilt-to-hilt in a titanic shoving match, with the other Blues behind him shoving against the Red's by pressing Heracles with their shields. One Red's leg buckled after Jason's burst of shots, and the rest of the group soon followed suit.

The Blues broke through onto the forecastle, swarming the deck and pushing the defenders back to the standard, which was raised partway at the very tip of the ship.

Jason cast aside his rifle and followed the swarm of Blues, nodding at Daedalus as they passed eachother. Brutus was currently running around madly trying to cut down the Blue offenders with an axe, and was succeeding to a point in that none came to attack him. Daedalus fixed that as he splattered Brutus's chest with a couple shots to weaken him, then went in with his own sword.

The Red sharpshooters in the tops fired again and again, mercilessly taking down groups of Blues, but just as many Blue riflemen returned fire and took out half the Red sharpshooters in one volley.

Jason charged ahead, swinging his sword one way and then the next, delivering crippling blows left and right to be finished off a second later by the other Blues in their unstoppable charge.

The last few defenders were cut away from the flag. Heracles grabbed the rough, wooden flagpole. Now the only problem was getting back to the Blue ship.

The assembled Reds knew it wasn't done yet. They turned and now blocked the Blues from coming in the opposite direction, holding them off with pikes, spears, swords, any other weapon available. The sharpshooters focused their shots on Heracles and Jason as the ring-leaders. A body shield was hurriedly thrust into Jason's arm, and he covered Heracles, who was likewise outfitted. Heracles had snapped the eight foot tall pole in half and slung it in his sword sheath so as to have his hands free. He traded out his flameberge for a eight-shot officer's pistol lying on the ground.

Jason holstered his sword and grabbed a larger, more powerful five-shot handgun. The remaining Blues herded themselves around Jason and Heracles, protecting their heroes. Pikes and swords were cut back and knocked aside. Charging reds were redirected over the sides. There was no way anyone could stop them.

Cannon roared on either side. The gun-crews below decks were manning realistic shooters that fired blobs of hardened paint instead of cannon-balls or shot. At the moment, the Red gun-crew was attempting to surge up through the trap-doors in the deck, but the Blue forces hurriedly shoved boxes and nets of spare cannon balls and other equipment over the doors.

They were home free! Jason could see the crow that would take them back across. This was it.

Suddenly the trap door closest to the crow burst open, shoving off a squad of Blues caught in the way and tripping several others, who were immediately hammered into submission. A tidal fury of Red soldiers swarmed out, hefting one-hand axes and daggers. Under their furious onslaught, the Blues around Jason and Heracles fell to the floor and were trampled.

Jason barely aimed before he pulled the trigger, and watched as the Red barely an arm's length away jerked backwards and fell. He emptied the pistol and chucked it at the next Red, but he easily dodged it and jabbed with his sword.

Jason fell backed, shocked. He had been hit. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, the soldiers around him pushing and shoving in a half-speed beat. He gazed up at the smug look of the Red soldier who stabbed him. He could feel the sword, lodged against the joint between his chest and shoulder. The dull point dug into his arm. Even as he watched, the Red leaned against the blade and turned it 90 degrees to the right. He couldn't believe this. He had lost.

Herakles glanced down with a look of disbelief. Jason gritted his teeth, and on the ground ripped his dagger out of its sheath, surprising the Red soldier and cutting him across his breastplate. The Red stumbled, and Jason took his last kill of the day, slashing the Red's helmet. After a moment, three shots rang out, and as many bullets cut right into Jason's chest. Not even Atlantian armor could protect against that, and although he could have gotten up and started fighting again, it would have been against the sacred school law and he would not further disgrace himself by cheating.

Jason lay his head back and rested as the struggle continued. It was over.

One by one the Blue defenders succumbed to the onslaught of Red reinforcements. Several of the braver few Reds had crawled over to the Blue forecastle and grabbed the Blue standard, and now swarms of Red reinforcements were crawling over to assist their heroic squad.

A Red stuck a dye-patch on Jason's chest. The Blue flag was brought aboard the Red ship almost immediately afterwards, and the Reds were announced victorious.

Jason closed his eyes and let the hot water stream down his face and onto his shoulders. Herakles and the rest of the Blues filled the shower stalls around him.

Another blessing of Atlantian technology, Jason and everyone else on the island continent could enjoy indoor plumbing and heating. It was simple, really. Aqueducts drew the water from the surrounding mountain reservoirs and tributaries, then funneled it all down to special pump control nodes, which used either burning coals or gas to heat the water to a lukewarm temperature before pumping it through underground pipelines and from there into homes, schools, and any other building that had a restroom.

For showers, further heating took place directly at the showerhead, which used a tank of gas that was housed inside the shower stall. The temperature could be adjusted by tampering with the flow of gas from the tank. Right now, Jason had it turned up to the max, the water steaming as it hit the air, and the flow turned on full blast.

There went his reputation of never having lost.

Next Chapter: Atlantis Rising: Chapter 3

Homepage: Atlantis