The Emperor's Jubilee

[Proto Man]

For the first time since his arrival in the city, the busy streets were empty, with floating barricades preventing any travel across streets adjacent to the parade route. Proto Man paused for a moment to look at the empty sky streets, and for the first time, he realized just how vacuous they appeared when they were filled with dozens of rows of cars and bikes.

As he neared the closest point of the parade route, Proto Man kept his eyes to the skies in some desperate hope to catch another glimpse of sunlight gleaming off a polished helmet or for another shadow ducking behind a window. By the time he reached the outskirts of the parade, he realized he wouldn’t need to be extra attentive, because the imperial military presence was already out in full.

The men in the giant suits of armor—Imperial Space Marines, so his CPU’s connection with the Dataverse indicated—were perched on every tall building and on makeshift observation platforms on the sides of taller structures. The rank-and-file troopers in the white armor could be spotted everywhere: Some where casually strolling through the crowd, while others could be seen accompanying the various parade floats.

From this distance, Proto Man could barely see the main thoroughfare which the parades were using. Unfortunately, the pathway in front of him clear for about fifty feet before it hit the edge of the fenced area designated as the parade grounds. Beyond the small metal fence, the street and sidewalks were choked with the various residents of Coruscant’s first few tiers. The android eyed the various balconies of building inside the parade grounds, but he wondered whether or not he’d be attracting unwanted attention if he just started jumping onto the sides of high-rises.

As Proto Man surveyed the sides of the structures, his computer began running a series of diagnostic scans of the crowd. By the time the preteen robot had abandoned his first scheme, an illuminated walkway popped up on his HUD that provided him with his best path through the mass of people milling about, along with additional routes that stopped at some of the assorted games and food stands set up by businesses on lower tiers. Proto Man had to appreciate that about his CPU, even though it knew he didn’t need it eat, it was still kind enough to factor in that he might want to anyway.

Following the indicators, he gave a courteous nod to the marine standing near the entrance to the parade grounds and made his way through. As he started toward the main street down the block, the pathway continued to update as people shambled and meandering about the area.

By the time he reached the stand selling some sort of off-brand of protein shakes, Proto Man couldn’t help but feel like the whole thing was pretty mundane. Most of the floats were either advertisements for businesses or some sort of reference to city history that he didn’t understand yet. More than a handful of the floats were dedicated to various detachments of troopers and marines who had fought against the Underverse, which seemed to be an analogue for the Bible’s Hell.

Although he was a sentient machine, Proto Man had never invested a whole lot into the notion of afterlives back in his home universe. He knew that machines didn’t have souls, so by virtue of their nature, they would just cease to exist upon cessation of their functions. Even with his sapience, he knew that he had been born from metal and synthetic organs. Anyone with religion he had ever spoken to had made him feel like he was less than a human being. And sure, he didn’t have a heartbeat, but he still felt and he still experienced everything they did, which to him meant they were on the same level, regardless of their weird beliefs.

But none of that mattered now that he was in the Omniverse. Based upon the cheers for the floats and how nicely they were decorated, it was clear that they were talking about real, actual events rather than ancient stories that had grown from oral traditions. That meant there was some sort of realm that existed beneath or outside or alongside the Omniverse where suffering and misery were the norm.

A quick search told him that the Underverse had been created by a Prime called Diablo, and that this self-proclaimed ‘Lord of Terror’ had sought to swallow up the rest of the Omniverse before he’d been stopped and his verse sealed for good. Proto Man’s computer was having some trouble accessing a few of the articles that detailed how exactly the demon was stopped, and it seemed that they had been blocked through some means by the imperial government.

Another Underverse-themed float passed by: This time, it was a stately-looking man grappling a giant demon and easily besting him. At first Proto Man figured it was King Bradley, but a closer analysis and cross-reference informed him that this was Palpatine, the ruler of this city and the entire Empire. Rather than the stern, soldierly appearance of the one-eyed Bradley, Emperor Palpatine had a far gentler look, despite his expression as he fought the monstrous Diablo. Judging on looks alone, the ruler of Coruscant seemed more befit to serve as someone’s grandfather than the ruler of a multi-verse state.

I’m sure there’s more to that than meets the eye… As the float passed, Proto Man continued his weaving through the crowd. The closer he got to the actual main street, the more soldiers he could spot. His processor labeled each of them with a red reticule and kept a running tab—it was up to three dozen. Did Judge Dredd really expect something sinister to happen at this parade? As he took another glance at the high-rises, the android wondered if the Judge had a command center somewhere in one of those structure’s that overlooked the entire route.

Or he might be concealed in this crowd. Proto Man frowned as he glanced around at all the nondescript people milling about. He had a few algorithms that could help him assess potential threats in the way people moved, looked, or acted, but the best he could make was a hypothesis with a significant margin of error. Need better tech. I need some scanning equipment or something. For all he knew, the stroller that woman was pushing had a bomb swaddled in a blanket. He’d never seen Dredd’s face, so any one of these older-looking men could have been the Judge in civilian clothes.

There were too many variables at play. If something was going to go down, it would happen, and the best case scenario was that there’d be enough time to react accordingly before too much damage occurred. Proto Man frowned once more as he looked up at a marine on a nineteenth story balcony. What someone with poorer vision probably wouldn’t notice was that the soldier’s firearm was concealed, undoubtedly to make him seem like his role was cursory rather than necessary.

In a civilization full of technology, Proto Man hoped that the Judge had more information to go off of than he did. Based on the soldiers, it seemed that they were opting more for the ‘Have enough guns to stop anything’ approach, which meant they were probably just as clueless as the android shuffling awkwardly through the throng of people.

As he reached the barricade that separated the viewers from the parade’s route, Proto Man leaned as far out as he could without attracting attention. A glance in both directions informed him that the floats stretched on in both directions without end, which meant there was probably a ways for this showcase to go before it ended. Leaning back over the barricade, the android eyed a nearby stand that sold ice cream in the form of cartoon characters with bubblegum eyeballs.

Well I have some time to kill…