#mtbow

[writingsfromthecactus]

Mars the Bringer of War: Masterlist

Author's (me :]) Intro Post: x

Intro Post: 1 Excerpt: 1

Prologue: 1

Act 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Act 2: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Interlude: 1

Act 3: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Epilogue: 1

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May 2022 Writing Challenges

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[writingsfromthecactus]

Story Masterlist

Mars the Bringer of War:

A sci-fi tale about a woman who is kidnapped from the past and brought forwards into the future by the space empress, who wants to turn her into her champion. Masterlist here. Status: Completed

The Impulse Protocol

A superhero tale about a couple whose bodies are swapped by a mysterious man with even more mysterious motives and learn who each other truly are: a hero and a villain, which is only one of their problems. Masterlist here. Status: On Hiatus

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 20th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

A little look into how the space travel system works, written by someone who definitely does not know how this stuff would actually work in real life. Sera and Ammie get to take a short ship ride to Mars. No spoilers, is canonical!

Content Warnings: None

May 20th: Exaggerating

~

Sera blinked in surprise. “Say that again?”

“The trip to Alpha Centauri takes a half an hour,” Ammie said, leading her into the ship. It was a smaller one, designed to hold five people maximum. The cockpit could hold up to two people. Ammie settled into the main seat up front, gesturing for Sera to take a seat in the copilot’s seat.

“Isn’t that, like… light years away from us?”

“Yes, about four. The average speed of our faster-than-light drives is ten light years per hour, and the extra time includes traveling at sublight speeds so we don’t accidentally shoot past it. The furthest colonized planet in the Empire is about ten thousand light years away, and when we’re traveling there we tend to bring extra fuel so that we can engage the overdrive, and then it still takes about twenty days to get there.”

“You’re exaggerating. Ten thousand light years in less than a month? I thought it took, like, a year or something to get to Mars.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know how fast pre-hyperlink drives went, but it was absolutely at sublight speeds. If you’re going less than one light years per hour, you’re pretty much going to end up in the middle of space for a long, long time.”

“Doesn’t going the speed of light means it takes a year to go one light year? How fast are you going in these things?”

Ammie smiled. “Well, twice the speed of light would mean it takes six months to go one light year, thrice is three months, and so on, so… well over ten times the speed of light? I can’t remember the exact calculation.”

“And the human body can just… sustain this? I remember hearing that if we could go the speed of light, weird things would happen. I don’t know.”

“That’s the beauty of the hyperlink drive. It accelerates space around us, rather than accelerating us through space. While going at superlight speeds, we are technically not moving. There’s a ton of physics stuff going on that I’m not really an expert on, which is why I’m not an engineer. I do know how to turn it on and keep us on course, and that’s all I really know.”

“You’re kidding me.”

She grinned. “Want to see it in action? You said it would take a year to get to Mars? Let’s try for there.” She powered the ship on and left the Imperial hangar, orienting the ship so that Mars was a straight shot. The HUD on the windscreen of the ship, not that there was any wind in space, pointed out Mars’ location.

“Keep that in sight, okay? Try not to blink.” Ammie messed with the controls and the screen flashed with the indication that the hyperlink drive was charging. At 100%, she pulled the throttle and all of a sudden, everything zoomed in. Sera expected to feel the force of moving shove her back in her seat, but there was nothing there. An instant later, the ship was in orbit around Mars. It was as if the small dot on the horizon had zoomed closer in the time it would take someone to blink. Sera started.

“Holy shit,” she said.

Ammie chuckled. “I’m sure you’re impressed at how quickly we got here, but you should be more impressed with my piloting skills. It takes a lot to be able to start moving at superlight speeds only to stop a moment later. WIth any hope, you’ll be as good as I am. That’s partially why the Empress picked me to train you with piloting. No offense meant to her, of course, but I could absolutely win in a race.”

Sera nodded. “This is insane.”

“For the people living in the Empire, it’s everyday life.”

Sera stared down at Mars’ surface, the planet she was named after. On the dusty red rocks below, she could make out buildings and ships flying around. “Are there people down there?”

“Of course, every planet in the Terran System is inhabited. We can visit, if you want?”

Sera nodded. “Sure. Yeah. Didn’t think I’d ever get to actually walk on Mars.”

“If you make it home, your friends would think you’re the one exaggerating,” Ammie joked, but Sera felt sorrow creep into her chest. She forced herself to chuckle.

“Yeah, maybe.”

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 19th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

Another one from Venus' perspective and containing the prior Mars, in which the empress and the royal spymaster have a conversation about Venus' preferences. No spoilers, and canonical!

Content Warnings: Death/murder mention (not tagged)

May 19th: Companion

~

Empress Venus stared at Mars as he fought off in the latest championship snapshot game. She remembered watching the game back when he’d first been promoted to Mars, and he’d been incredible, the best snapshot player she’d ever seen. He didn’t lose a single bout, and every time, he was chosen for the triple-o. Now, it was exactly the same, but it was boring. Obviously the team would pick Mars for the triple-o, and obviously he would win every bout, even if the rest of his team fell back. Even without the failsafes, it was obvious that her team would win.

Saturn sidled up to Venus, obviously ignoring the unspoken rules that the Empress’ row was to be for her alone. Venus cast her glance over to her. She was the same Saturn from when her mother was still in charge, and she was also the only other person in the whole palace who knew that she’d killed her mother.

“Enjoying the show?” she asked.

“It’s fine.” She propped her chin up with her hand, keeping her eyes on the game.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“No. Should there be?”

“Well, you just seem a little… what’s the word? Bored. Not into it. Why, one would think that watching their companion win games for them would be exhilarating.”

“Companion?” Venus shifted her gaze to her. “What do you mean by that?”

“Haven’t you heard the rumors?” she asked, feigning surprise and pressing a hand to her chest. “Between you and Mars?”

“I should know better than to listen to rumors from you of all people, spymaster.”

“And yet…?”

Venus sighed, rolling her eyes. “Go ahead.”

“Well, the main one is that Mars killed your mother. Mostly because she disapproved of your relationship with him, so he elevated you to empress so that you two could be closer.”

Venus’ top lip curled up and Saturn noticed, a smile touching her lips.

“I knew it,” she continued.

“What did you know, exactly?”

“You hate Mars.”

“Was this an elaborate scheme to learn how I truly felt about my champion?” Venus asked. “You could have asked me.”

Saturn inhaled, thinking over her words. “You know me, empress, I’m never direct. So, what is it about him, exactly? His personality? How good he is at his job? How…” Her eyebrows shot up. “I’ve got it.” She leaned back.

“What have you learned about me now, Saturn, since I can’t seem to keep a secret?” Venus was certain that she couldn’t see how nervous she was, considering how closed off her body language was, but that didn’t help her emotions any more. She had an inkling over what Saturn had figured out.

“Nothing.” Saturn laced her fingers together. “You’re entitled to your privacy.”

“If you already know, then spit it out. I’m not in the mood for your stupid games.” Venus waved a dismissing hand at her.

“If you command, empress.” She smirked as she spoke, the respect not quite in her words. “It could be that you hate Mars because he’s a man. I seem to recall hearing that you wanted a female Mars when you were younger.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, the one opposite from where Saturn sat. “Is that what you’ve figured out? That I prefer women?”

“Well, if you’re not denying it, I might as well say yes.” She tilted her head. “Honestly, I didn’t connect the dots until now. Did your mother know?”

“Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why her demise came about,” Venus replied.

“It’s 2248 and people are still intolerant,” she shook her head. “Unbelievable.” She shifted in her seat. “In any case, I wonder if something can be arranged.”

“Concerning…?”

“Mars. Not that I want you… responsible for anything. Rumors do spread, after all. Enjoy the rest of your game, empress.” She pulled back, returning to her row and leaving Venus to ponder exactly what she’d been suggesting.

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 18th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

A continuation of the last scene I wrote and also a callback to May 3rd's scene. It's pretty short, but at least I got something down for today's. Ammie confronts Mars. No spoilers, canonical!

Content Warnings: None

May 18th: “Not everything has to do with you!”

~

Ammie watched as Mars emerged from the restroom. She stretched out her arms, not that her metal one needed to stretch. “Okay. Where were we?”

“We were heading to the circ train,” she replied. “To see the… general.” She frowned. “I was hoping to go somewhere non-work related. Get some nice time away from it all.”

“Right. Well, maybe if we have time afterwards.” Mars took the lead in heading down to the train. Ammie followed.

As they marched down to the elevator, someone charged from around a corner, obviously in a hurry. They failed to see Mars, and as such, ran directly into her. They stumbled back, apologies already on their tongue, when they saw that it was Mars that they’d run into. They were human, pale, so it was obvious when all of the blood drained from their face.

“My—My apologies, champion, I am so ever sorry, please forgive me.” They bowed so deeply that their hair nearly brushed the floor.

Mars shoved them to the side. “You should be.” They hit the wall and fell to the ground, staying down there as Mars walked past.

Ammie helped the person to their feet, whispering an apology, and jogged to catch up with Mars. “Champion,” she started. “I… don’t you think that was a bit harsh?”

“No. They ran into me, they knew the consequences.” She shrugged, continuing on.

“It was unavoidable, it wasn’t their fault.” Ammie worried she was pushing her too far, especially when Mars stopped walking.

Mars tightened her fists. “So what? I’m the champion. Besides, we’re in a rush, we have to get to the circ train. We don’t have time for this.”

“Then we keep moving, we don’t have to antagonize the workers.”

Mars turned on her heel, glaring up at her. “And what about it? I thought you were on my side.”

“Not everything has to do with you!” Ammie shouted. Hurt flashed in Mars’ eyes, the first bit of emotion other than anger that she’d seen in Mars.

“I…” Mars slammed her jaw shut. “Whatever, let’s just go.” She turned back around and continued her marc to the circ train. Ammie opened her mouth to apologize for snapping at her, but Mars was already gone.

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 17th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

Another snippet from Ammie's perspective, on Mars' changes once she fully embraced her new identity. You'll see more of this kind of stuff in MtBoW 2 since I try to expand on Ammie a little more through flashbacks. No spoilers, canonical!

Content Warnings: None

May 17th: “You haven’t gone outside in weeks” “That’s an exaggeration”

~

Ammie watched Mars train in one of the hologram rooms, facing off against one of the default pirate holograms. Ever since she’d gotten her new arm, and Neptune had ended up dead, it was like a switch had been flipped. Her anger problems had only gotten worse, and she was finally acting like an actual Mars, not that Ammie thought it was a good thing. Mars had been here for nearly two years, and the Empress’ influence was already incredibly obvious. It was only a matter of time before her strings had tied up around Mars so tightly that she’d never break free.

Mars finished the fight and took a breather, watching the hologram reset itself and wait for her command to start fighting again. Ammie stepped closer into the room, clearing her throat.

“Champion?” she asked. Mars turned around. Ammie noticed that her gaze didn’t soften like it once had whenever she looked at Ammie; it took a lot to get an ounce of visible emotion from her now, and the only person to break through that was the Empress.

“Ammie,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to leave the palace, get some fresh air, before the next mission in a few days.” She rolled her lips together. “If you want, of course.”

“Why would we need fresh air?” Mars’ eyebrows pulled together.

“Well… you haven’t gone outside in weeks,” she replied.

“That’s an exaggeration,” Mars huffed.

“The last time you left the palace was before you… uh…” She gestured towards Mars’ arm. “That was a month ago.”

Mars blinked. “Oh. I suppose time gets a little away from you when you’ve been inside for a while. Sure, why not? I could probably use a distraction.” Her words were casual, but the tone was sharp, clipped, like someone who obviously saw themselves as ‘better than.’ Ammie was used to it, but it coming from Mars felt wrong.

“Great. Where did you want to go?” Ammie tried to pull up enough confidence to avoid Mars noticing how hesitant she was, and to not bring up anything about how much she had changed.

“I know the empress wanted me to check in with the general down in the military district. That’s outside, right? We can stop by there.” She wiped some sweat from her forehead and walked to the door, where she grabbed her jacket as it was folded on the floor, throwing it over her arms.

“Perfect, the circ train is arriving in the station in ten minutes. I’ll have it held for us.” She marched out of the room without a second glance at Ammie.

Ammie sighed, letting her stress show on her face as she hesitated in following Mars. She was hoping for something to get Mars’ mind off of work, not more work. Still, she’d seen what would happen if someone argued with her, so she didn’t say anything. Instead, she simply followed Mars towards the elevator, worry gnawing at her stomach.

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 16th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

Sera and Ammie talk about the vastness of space, from Ammie's perspective. No spoilers, is canonical!

Content Warnings: Claustrophobia mention (not tagged)

May 16th: Claustrophobia

~

Ammie launched off of the ship’s airlock. She was in orbit around Astria Five with Mars; she’d been teaching her how to fly the ship in case there was an emergency and the pilot couldn’t fly, and she was a fast learner, all things considered. It was a lot easier to control a ship considering there was a lot of empty space available. Mars had recounted her experiences with a car, something Ammie could barely even imagine being used, and considering it couldn’t change elevation, it sounded downright unusable, but she had to concede that it was a different time.

Now, they were practicing navigating zero gravity in orbit, which was something that was similar to navigating a smaller space station, one without a gravity generator. Mars was getting better at using her boots to control her movements in the vacuum, though she was still uncoordinated; fighting wouldn’t be much of an option at the moment.

Ammie went through her zero-gravity trainings with her, naming specific locations that Mars had to head to in a certain amount of time, or completing a specific maneuver in zero-gravity. After that was all done, they hovered in orbit, staring down at the planet. It was one and a half times bigger than Earth, and the single ocean that took up three-quarters of the planet was a light orange, the ground was silver, on account of buildings taking up the entirety of solid land. With the twin moons circling around several hundreds of miles away, and the sun a small ball of fire in the sky, the entire picture looked impressive.

“I remember a long time ago,” Mars mused. “There was something called the overview effect. Basically your whole perspective changed once you saw the Earth from space. I get it now,” she said. “It just looks so… small, compared to everything else.”

“I know that well,” Ammie replied. “I grew up on the middle floors of the palace, and when I went up top for the first time, it was incredible, just how small Earth could look.”

“I’m not even around Earth. I mean, if I were on Earth, and I was looking directly at this planet, it would barely even be visible as a tiny star in the sky. It’s so hard to imagine the distance between there and here, and yet it took, maybe, six hours to fly there at faster-than-light speeds.”

Ammie hummed in response. She could see Mars’ facial expression, it was awe. “This is probably incredible to witness.”

“Yeah.” The conversation lapsed into a comfortable silence. That was, until Mars spoke again. “You ever think… spending enough time out here…” She paused, as if looking for the right words. “One could get some kind of claustrophobia?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, if you get used to the extreme vastness of space, and then you go back to some room that’s like, ten feet wide, or whatever, that you feel cramped? Being crushed by everything that’s so close?”

“I’ve… never thought of that.” She did some quick searching on her implant. “Oh, here,” she shared the article with Mars. The title read The Effects of Space Travel on Rates of Claustrophobia. The two of them read it, which explained that people, humans specifically, who spent large amounts of time out in space had a higher chance of developing claustrophobia later in life. Everyone the article studied had reported feeling at least some amount of cramped while indoors.

“Huh,” Mars said. “I guess the human mind wasn’t quite equipped to handle the vastness of space.”

“So it seems. Looks like we conquered it anyway.” She smiled, watching Mars as she shifted her attention towards Earth, with the help of her implant.

“If only my friends could see me now,” she muttered, just loud enough for her helmet mic to pick up. She sighed. “If only.”

[writingsfromthecactus]

May Writing Challenge: May 15th

Prompts are from @deity-prompts 's May Writing Challenge, original post linked here

~

This scene is a look at some of the Empire's history through Empress Venus' eyes, and the first time we ever get to meet the prior Mars. This is canonical, but it does go over some things that aren't revealed until some flashbacks in Act 3 , so slight spoilers.

Content Warnings: Death mention, abuse mention (not tagged)

May 15th: Heirlooms

~

Venus paced up and down the hall. Her mother’s funeral was coming up, and she was expected to give a speech. Considering she’d killed her mother, she wasn’t really inclined to say anything nice about her whatsoever. Still, it was tradition that she say something, and most of the Planets liked tradition, so she didn’t want to get on their bad sides right away.

“Empress,” a voice said from behind her. She turned on her heel to see Mars standing there. He had on his uniform, as impeccable as always, with his long black hair in a ponytail. “You seem distressed.”

She gave him a dismissing wave. “It’s nothing.”

“I haven’t known you to pace. But, if you insist.” He crossed his arms. “I was on my way to the relic hall, should you wish to join me. Perhaps it will get your mind off of whatever is on your mind.” He continued walking.

“I suppose so,” she said, walking ahead of him. Considering she’d lived in the upper levels of the palace longer than he had, she knew exactly where the relic room was. It was a glorified museum of expensive items that the royal family and the Planets had no clue what to do with. It was commonly visited by school field trips and not much else.

She had reason to wonder why Mars needed to go to the relic room, but he did so much without her telling him what to do, so it was no surprise that she hadn’t been told until he ran into her in the hallway. What he did wasn’t secret; she could find out at any moment and he wasn’t hesitant in answering her questions. Her mother trusted him with her life, which was saying something, since she’d been incredibly paranoid. It was more like Venus just didn’t care what he did.

They arrived a few minutes later, where Mars approached the curator. Venus took to navigating the relics, all behind glass shields and with plaques detailing what the object was. Her mother had taken her to see all of these when she was younger. There was the original Emperor Earth’s robe and scepter. The robe was closer to a quilt, with his rise to power embroidered across the back. The scepter was painted gold and had a smaller replica of the Earth at the top. She had to wonder what would have happened if the first Empress hadn’t killed Earth and the royal lineage remained patrilineal. She probably wouldn’t have been born, and if she had, she’d be married off to someone else, or possibly given the chance to become one of the other Planets instead.

Another relic was the first holofilm history book, inscribed by one of the prior Venuses. It was strange to consider that the empire was older than most of the technology that defined their lives, including holofilm. Sitting beside it was something even older, a paper history book that contained the exact same content. The glass shield was temperature and humidity controlled to keep the paper from falling apart, part of the reason why the empire shifted to holofilm in the first place, paper was so… flimsy.

Her eyes trailed across the first implant ever designed. It was larger, clunkier than the ones the used today, of course. The wires were well over a hundred microns, thicker than a piece of hair, while the ones today were barely a micron in length. Venus had to guess that it was pretty intrusive and uncomfortable to have one of those older models installed. Even the motherboard, which had links made to interface with neurons, would take up a substantial portion of the brain, as opposed to the current ones, which were almost the size of the neurons themselves.

She stalled in front of a locket. The bronze looked worn, and inside was a picture of the original Venus. Given that Earth was nowhere in the photo, this must have been taken after she’d taken over. Venus could recognize the familial traits that she herself sported in this photo, the curve of the nose, the shape of the jaw. On the other side was an inscription that read ‘To my future empresses. May you make the Empire proud.’

A foreign feeling welled up in her chest, making her jaw clench slightly. Nostalgia? Sentimentality? Whatever it was, she sat in it for a moment. While the secrets of the afterlife hadn’t been discovered, even two hundred years later, it felt as though the first Venus was watching her. Had she done her proud? She’d killed one of this Venus’ future empresses. She’d killed her husband, so perhaps assassination was something she’d be proud of, especially when it came to the assassination of an abuser.

“Empress?” Mars asked. She snapped out of her own thoughts, though she kept her eyes on the locket.

“What is it?” she asked.

“My business is concluded. Do you wish to join me for lunch?”

“No,” she said. Walking with him here was enough interaction. “I’ll stay here for a bit longer. You can return to your duties.”

“As you wish, empress,” he said, backing up. She turned her gaze to watch him go. The way her mother had talked about him made it seem as though the connection between Venus and her Mars should be a strong one. Not romantic, necessarily, but they should be close. She just couldn’t feel that with this Mars. So why was it that she didn’t even want to eat lunch with him?

She closed her eyes. Maybe once he got himself killed during a mission, she could find a better one. One she could actually connect with. That was all she could really hope for.