Episode: Atlesian Revolution: Chapter 1: Child King

Chapter 1 of the story of the Atlesian Revolution.

Hearts Can Be Tainted

Hearts Can Be Changed

Hearts Can Do Many Things

We Do Not Believe They Can.

 

 

 

 

Two Days Before First Shots Fired
The Kingdom of Atlas

Schnee Manor

 

 

 

            Whitley stomped his way up the stairs like a child throwing a tantrum.  His fists clenched, he marched down the hall and pounded loudly on the door of his father’s office.  At first, there was no answer.  So he kept pounding the door, as if he were trying to break it down with his bare hands.  Still no answer.  Finally, Whitley began channeling his aura to try and summon a creature similar to how his sisters do as well given the family Semblance, but before he could summon his robot machine that he “killed in combat”, the door slowly swung open.  An old Jaques Schnee stood in the doorway, looking at Whitley with a piercing yet sad look in his eyes.

            “I am attempting to file reports in here Whitley” Jaques said with a voice that sounded like it would give out any day at this point.  He turned to return to his desk, while Whitley marched into his father’s office.

            “You authorized the payment rate hike for workers in Vacuo?” Whitley yelled waving his hands in the air furiously.  “What are you thinking?!  You’re going to bleed this company dry!”

            “No I am not.  We are the only true competition for Dust in the entire world.  We make more money in one second than one of our workers will make in their entire lives.  Besides, it is only a minor raise.  They will still be sending more money to us than we are back to them.”

            “But we should have it all!  We should be ruling Vacuo like we do in Atlas!”

            “Oh not this again Whitley…..” Jaques said pinching his forehead.

            “Yes this again!  You gave up in Vacuo!  We had the Oasis in our grasp!  Another jewel in our crown, the prize jewel that would have meant we could have finally lorded over that wasteland and shaped it in our image!  We could have….”

            “ENOUGH WHITLEY!” Jaques yelled at the top of his lungs, coughing a bit after doing so.  “Enough.  There was nothing more that we could have done in Vacuo.  If I had kept pushing, we would have lost everything that mattered.”

            “We would have still had all of this father!  The manor!  The money!  Even if we somehow lost Vacuo in the long run, we would still be rich beyond compare!  And if you had the courage to push this company further to what it could be, we would be even richer than we are now!”

            “But at a cost Whitley?”

            “Your love for my sisters is a weakness father.”

            “No, not a weakness.  A reminder.  If I kept going, your sisters would have been standing on that battlefield on the front lines against us.  Can you say for sure you would pull a trigger if you knew your sisters were on the other end of the barrel Whitley?”  Whitley stood silent, and then turned to leave.  He slammed the door of the master study and sulked off to the garage where he got into one of the automated cars.  He put in a few coordinates and the car took off into the city of Atlas.  Whitley looked back at the manor and muttered under his breath,

            “I’m not as cowardly as you father.”

 

 

 

            Whitley stepped out as soon as the car reached an office building in the middle of downtown Atlas.  He stepped out and waved the robot driver away.  The car sped off and Whitley entered the main lobby where a single receptionist was sitting there waiting.

            “How can I help you?” the receptionist said without looking up.

            “I’m here to see Katie.”  Whitley said in a stern voice.  The receptionist nodded her head and pressed a button just below her desk.  As soon as she did, the elevator doors opened up and Whitley stepped inside.  After a few minutes, the elevator reached its target floor and Whitley stepped out to a room that had a lone couch on one wall and a desk with an office chair on the other wall that was occupied by a woman with flowing hair and a giant window filling the wall between the two sides of the room.  Whitley sat down on the couch and the woman turned around in her office chair with a wry smile on her face.

            “You’re back sooner than expected Whitley” the woman said.

            “I tried doing it my way one last time Katie, but I believe the time has come.  You’re right.  I need to take over the company by any means necessary.”

            “Of course,” Katie said, her smile growing larger as she put a finger to her temple.  “You deserve everything you want.  Why should your old father get in the way of that?”

            “You’re right.  I just needed one last push in order to see it.  I will do what needs to be done.”

            “And we shall be prepared to help you as we discussed.”

            “I am grateful,” Whitley said as he stood up and turned to leave.  As soon as the elevator doors closed, Anima pulled out her own Scroll and activated a holo-call.  Lord Sangui was there as well as a handful of lieutenants.

            “He’s beginning to take action” Anima said with a smile.

            “You’re sure?” Lord Sangui said scratching his chin.  “The Order is no stranger to children betraying or surprising us in the past.”

            “I believe that he will honor our agreement to let us be his consultants in the Schnee Dust company.  But if he doesn’t, he could still prove useful.”

 

 

 

 

            Whitley stormed into the family armory, and logged into the primary terminal.  With a few quick keystrokes, everything around him started turning red.  The lights went red, the monitors went red, he just simply smiled and pressed a single button.  Within an instant, all of the androids within the Schnee Manor began waking up and taking up arms.  Suddenly air raid sirens started going off in the distance towards the skyline of downtown Atlas proper.  From there Whitley got a notification on his Scroll.  He smiled as he saw several messages from General Ironwood come in demanding to know what was going on.  Ignoring the messages and inputting more keystrokes, a message popped up in front of Whitley, which he clicked aggressively to agree.  Moments later, his father barged into the armory, struggling to catch his breath.

            “What did you do Whitley?” he said with a glare.

            “I decided that my inheritance should be more than this measly manor father.”

            “You’ve got the drones marching on Atlas!  Attacking the military!  We’ll be ruined!”
            “We already were ruined father.  By your cowardice.  I am going to take what is rightfully mine.”

            “Enough of this” Jaques said pulling out a small card on a lanyard around his neck.  “I am the head of this company, and I am putting a stop to this….” but before Jaques could even take another step, Whitley pulled out a rapier similar to the one that was made for Weiss and ran it through his father’s heart.  He screamed in pain, and tried to get away.  But he couldn’t.  Whitley smiled as he watched the light fade from his father’s eyes.  For a brief moment, he felt a well of sadness creep up on his soul, remorse for his actions.  But then, those feelings gave way to laughter.  Whitley began laughing, louder and louder.  And as he did so, tears streamed down his face, while sporting the biggest and most frightening smile one could ever have imagined.

 

            Anima stood outside the gates of Schnee manor as the androids and robotic drones began marching on Atlas.  She smiled and saw Whitley approaching the front gates, a bloody rapier in his hand and a sick massive smile across his face.

            “Well done child” Anima said placing her hand on her temple.  “You have taken your first step into a larger world.  Now, as for our agreement?”  Anima put her hand out expecting Whitley to reach out and take it, but he just started laughing even louder.  Anima started to grow nervous, and placed both of her hands on her temple.  “We had a deal, Whitley” she said sternly.  But Whitley paid no heed.  He simply waved his rapier and activated a summoning circle.  Suddenly, several glyphs of Atlesian robots began appearing from thin air.  Anima pulled out her staff and used a wind Dust Crystal to launch herself away from Whitley as the glyphs started swinging their swords at her, while he continued to laugh.  He then pushed a button on his Scroll and a massive barrier appeared over the entirety of Schnee manor.  It started from the central tower in the middle of the manor and slowly began to envelop the entire property.  Scared workers and servants began running as fast as they could to try and get off the manor grounds before the barrier fell.  Some of them managed to escape and try to flee to anywhere safe since the city was already under siege.  Others decided to take up refuge in the dorms just off to the side of the manor, a space that Whitley seemed to have all but ignored.  Others were unfortunate in that they were caught in the gaze of Whitley, and he turned his weapons on them, cutting down those who had not unlocked their aura, and knocking out those who managed to survive the first salvo.  Some of that number managed to gather themselves in time to continue their escape.  Others faced the horrors of the second salvo.  Finally, the barrier settled around Schnee manor, and Whitley retreated back inside, still laughing more and more.  Anima watched as the chaos unfolded in downtown Atlas.  She pressed a button on her Scroll and a dropship appeared carrying Lord Sangui on board, which she quickly boarded and sat down.

            “You broke him Anima” Sangui said with an annoyed tone.

            “I’ll admit I pushed a few blocks that I shouldn’t have” Anima said with a growl, “but I did not expect his mind to be that fragile.  Compared to his sister’s, his mind is an interesting specimen.  Regardless, chaos reigns, and we can do some much needed work in the meantime.”

            “What do you propose we do?”

            “The Monolith is in dire need of some new data; I say we gain that data while the world turns its eyes towards Atlas.”

 

 

 

            General Ironwood was furiously pressing buttons on his Scroll, trying to get back into the system, but it was no good.  He was locked out.  And the Atlesian drones were marching on the city at a rapid pace.  The human soldiers were doing their best to try and keep everybody safe, but the numbers were too great.  Atlas had spent the last several years determined to take human lives out of the equation of battle, so the machines outnumbered the living.  Ironwood smashed his fist into his desk, causing it to crack.   As he started to prepare another round of orders to try and help push back against the machines, he noticed that his connection was starting to waver.  The CCT was being hacked.  If he waited any longer, he was going to be cut off from the world, nobody able to come and help. He quickly activated the messaging portion of his Scroll and sent out a blast message, SOS to all his contacts.  From there, Ironwood sent out a local message to all his troops and retreated towards the hangar.  From there, all the students and soldiers in Atlas boarded as many command ships as they could.  As they took off towards the sky, several drone aircraft attempted to intercept them, but to no avail.  The command ships managed to take to the skies and orbit the city.  Ironwood reached the bridge and activated a local communication line to the Schnee Dust Company.

            “Jaques!” Ironwood yelled at the top of his lungs.  “What do you think you’re doing?  How is this protocol even still active?  We agreed…..”

            “Father can no longer take your calls” the smarmy voice of Whitley gloated in response.  “I am going to do what he couldn’t in Vacuo.  I will claim the world as my own!”
            “Whitley, don’t be a fool!”  Ironwood said clenching his fist.  “We WILL kill you if you escalate this further!”

            “Oh my dear general, you won’t get the chance.  I kill all who stand in my way.  First father tried, and you are the next obstacle in my path.  I suggest you prepare to join him.”  And with a laugh, followed by a loud crashing of presumably Whitley destroying the communication device, there was nothing but static.  Ironwood clenched his fists and started barking out orders.

            “Get everybody you can out of Atlas and Mantle!  We have a few command ships that should have the space to help get civilians out of harm’s way!  Send the dropships into the combat zones to shuttle people to the command ships before the machines take the city!”  The soldiers acknowledged the orders, and ships began darting in and out of Atlas.  Ironwood looked on as the horde of machines continued to close in.  His anger growing, he took control of one of the big guns and took aim at one of the massive mech suits, and opened fire.

Author's Note

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