Episode 7: Spartan Legion

The 2050s, Island of Crete.

The turquoise blue of the Aegean Sea and shimmery pearls in the shape of the ocean have concealed sorrow within the beautiful scenery. The breeze is as barren as it was thousands of years ago.

For thousands of years, the Aegean islands were bare, without any vibrant green vegetation, but this did not at all hinder the rise of the first maritime civilization in human history - the Cretan civilization (Minoan civilization).

The furious Diamondagis takes his huge double-edged axe from his weapons rack and fearlessly cuts off the head of a defeated mercenary officer, then throws his bloodied head to several mechanical bio-dogs as their meal. The hard skull is crushed by their steel teeth and claws.

"This is the price for insulting the reputation of the Legion: the Spartans will either return with the heads of their enemies or have their heads chopped off by their enemies, or else I will be the one to chop off the heads. "

"μολὼν λαβέ (molon labe)!" (Famous Spartan saying: If you want my weapon, come and kill me!)

"Now that's Spartan."

The sharp roar is lingering back and forth in the lobby as the giant marble statues of Leonidas, Agis, Lycurgus, Pausanias, and other Spartan sages made from lasers, stared down at the new Spartan warriors in front of them.

Diamondagis licks the blood on the corner of his mouth and lets out a cold smirk.

In the future Cyberworld, the Uranus Group, the super enterprise that has a sphere of influence above the state and the government, has taken shape. As the military agent of the Uranus, the organization has mercenary groups with all-rounded forces, including the navy, army, and air forces as their standing arm. They follow the orders of their employers and fight with other mercenary groups, as well as large and small gangs and armed forces. The disciplined Spartan army stands out from the chaos to become one of the most successful mercenary organizations in the world.

Just like his name, Diamondagis, "diamond of the Aegean Sea", he has a diamond-like will and muscular body. He comes from a Greek shipping family known as the "ship king's family". In addition to the shipping business, the family also operates wine estates, olive oil refining, and other businesses. As the sixth-generation heir to the family business, Diamondagis could have enjoyed the wealth and entered politics in his later years; running for president and further building the family's reputation. Or he could have taken advantage of the rapid development of science and technology for profitable innovations while keeping the family business running. However, he somehow became a mercenary leader.

In the era of Cyber Earth, what is commonly known as "Old Europe" is undergoing an unprecedented change. The Uranus are reshaping the economic and political landscape using various means to eliminate and expel the old forces. Their ultimate goal is to make themselves the new monopolies. Gradually, the original order formed over the centuries is slowly broken. As a representative of the old power, the family industry of Diamondagis undoubtedly bore the brunt of it. The business is running more and more difficult for him, the freight prices offered by the Uranus are so low that he cannot even cover the cost of operating the fleet. Many ships have to be sold at a discount, all of which makes Diamondagis extremely annoyed. As for the wine estates and olive oil business, there is nothing he could do about it. People are so used to eating the biosynthetic food made by the Uranus that they have long forgotten what quality wine and olive oil taste like. Not to mention serious environmental pollution nowadays, spoiling the family's plantations in Europe with chemical fertilizers and turning them into saline land. He has no choice but to sell the business to the Faun Group at a ridiculously low price.

Fortunately, the Diamondagis family still controls several Mediterranean islands. With the worsening public safety situation, the calm and safe Mediterranean Sea has been transformed into the gang's paradise. The waters hold all kinds of evil: pirate gangs hijacking fleets, smuggling, and looting. Merchant fleets in the Mediterranean waters all have to be armed with escorts. The official navy at this time has basically been abolished, and mercenary groups generally do not have sufficient naval power, thus such tasks are too challenging for them. Diamondagis saw the new business opportunity, he completely stopped his own shipping business. He only retained several new, fast, strong-hull cargo ships, and sent them back to the dockyard to convert them into armed escort ships. Meanwhile, he also acquired several sealed decommissioned warships and recruited former military personnel. Afterward, he listed the establishment of the Spartan Escort Company. The crew departs from the Mediterranean islands’ ports and carries out escort and anti-bandit tasks according to orders. This was the predecessor of the future Spartan Legion.

In just a few years, the well-built Spartan Escort Company basically cleared every pirate gang out of the Mediterranean Sea, and the ancient sea gradually returned to peace. But some new problems are waiting for Diamondagis to solve: the native inhabitants in Europe and the “new forces” the Uranus brought (robots, cyborgs, etc.) are not at peace. The conflict between the two leads people to put aside their race, color, and religion to fight against the new forces hand in hand. The Uranus, who despise humanity, and regard humans, robots, and cyborgs simply as means of production, do not want to reconcile this conflict at all. Instead, they wish the conflict to grow bigger and bigger so that they can gain profit from it. Therefore, many of the indigenous people have left their homes and fled to the lands of Diamondagis. However, the limited resources of the Mediterranean islands make things difficult for those refugees. Everyone is annoyed and angry deep down in this small place, and nobody could ensure this peaceful life, at least peaceful on the surface, would last. They must find a new way out. Other than that, the Spartan Escort Company's military strength has already made the Uranus feel uneasy, and it is likely to be liquidated by the Uranus when the banditry is completely cleared out.

The headquarters base of Diamondagis is located on the island of Crete. As the origin of ancient European civilization, the waves of Crete are still churning with myths and history. The ancestors are full of myths of power and beauty, and the Ship King is also well-educated in poetry, and history, and has a reverence for martial virtues. The subtle philosophical debates in history books have given him endless inspiration.

Regarding himself as the founder of the Cretan civilization - King Minos like Plato described, he begins to think cautiously about the future of his company and his territory. With the expansion of the Uranus and the increased tension in the region, Diamondagis feels like only if he revives the robust and martial traits of ancient Greek history could he restore hope in the refugees. The free, accepting, and poetic Athens, was New York, Boston, and Paris in the old days, but it definitely sounds odd now.

In contrast, it is the oligarchic and aristocratic city-state represented by the Spartans that is closer to Plato's republic. And Spartan is exactly the ideal republic of Daimondalos.

To avoid being strangled by the Uranus, Diamondagis decides not to be a direct competitor with them. He continues to make a living by selling out his forces, striving to become the most powerful and disciplined mercenary group. He is accumulating wealth and military power while eliminating other gangs and mercenaries to clear the way for himself. Once the Uranus become weak from all these conflicts, he will order the generals to fight back and destroy the Uranus to restore the glory of the old continent. He is waiting for the time to come. To this end, he announces that he would further expand the scope of his business to include all mercenary businesses with the army, navy, and air force. He renames the company "Spartan Legion". At the same time, he signs long-term contracts with several groups of Uranus to conduct military operations around the world, locating his bases on the Mediterranean islands.

The reorganized Spartan Legion is in fact a militarized society, which is almost a modern reincarnation of ancient Sparta in terms of cultural outlook and social customs. The only new feature would be the military technology of the Cyber Age. Under the compulsory requirements of the Legion, each family has to reach the reproduction target to provide backup soldiers based on their wealth, age, and health of family members.

According to the social structure described in Plato's "The Republic", the members of the Spartan Legion should be divided into three main divisions: soldiers, peasants, and rulers (philosopher kings):

Peasants include all economic producers. Some of them, led by agronomists, carry out modern agriculture on the barren lands of the Mediterranean islands, setting up greenhouses and factories to produce high-energy food and life-supporting medicines and, of course, brews. Others have to sail and fish under the protection of the escorts, and also search for all available resources to trade with other forces. Those with CS experience, aka farmers, are responsible for data mining or obtaining information from other consortia. The later established Spartan Spindle Weapons Factory is under the peasant division. All women of Spartan Legion‘s worker’s families are required to work in the Spindle factory, and many of them stand out as excellent female engineers.

Soldiers are defined as any human being who serves the Spartans, regardless of color, race, or experience. Anyone can become a soldier as long as they want to fight. The Spartans are also open to robots and cyborgs who come to them for shelter. Generally speaking, the Legion only allows men to go on the battlefield. Their daily job is training and fighting. In addition to killing spies and pirates who attempt to infiltrate the control area, their main task also includes the employment of the Uranus. Meanwhile, the Legion also sends members to participate in triathlons, as well as the Military Olympics organized by various large gangs, mercenary groups, and arms dealers. They also fight against the Berlichingens, Owls (OWL), and other mercenary organizations to sustain the army’s reputation. In their eyes, the able-bodied Spartans should not hesitate to beat up those cripples and sissies. Well, indeed they do. In the quadrennial Military Olympics, the Spartan Legion often mops up most of the medals.

The philosopher king is himself. He grew up studying classical literature and practicing martial arts. Compared with those armchair philosophers, he believes that clear-cut actions are more useful than those metaphysical talks. If they do not even have basic execution capability, it is no different from the Karma quacks. He makes direct decisions on every one of his company’s affairs: from the direction of an important offense, to whether to plant genetically genetically-modified corn or the old chickpeas in the greenhouse. Without his say, none of the generals, engineers, scientists, or captains dare to make action. Diamondagis does not trust the AI decision-making system. He is extremely busy; he does not have a life outside of work, fitness, martial arts training, eating, and sleeping. His everyday work must follow a tightly drawn schedule. If any unexpected events interrupt him, he would burst into a rage, which explains why those defeated mercenary leaders are always in pieces.

In this warrior society, the military culture has affected all aspects of the population. Everyone admires simple and powerful language rhetoric; facing the battle, they only have two options: fight to the death or win. Therefore, anyone who returns to Crete with the name of the defeated will be publicly executed. The Spartans on the battlefield are mostly fierce and once they feel like losing, they will calmly activate the self-destruct device built into their helmets. They know that once they are captured, it would be worse than death. After all, they have defeated countless enemies. Despite bringing shame to the Legion, the captives themselves would also be subjected to extremely cruel abuse.

Based on elitism and the ancient Greek pursuit of the perfect body, Diamondagis believes that man must have perfect flesh. Therefore, whether natural humans, cyborgs, or robots, all Spartan warriors must have fit bodies. They must be strong, proportionate, and aesthetic on the outside. Each summer, those without combat duties must be naked and paraded for inspection at the Spartan-style classical games. Diamondagis believes that man as a human being must respect the natural flesh. Any strange semi-mechanical body with defective flesh or unnatural righteousness would be blasphemous. Except for some brave and famous mercenaries, anyone who installs prosthetic limbs or is found to have physical disabilities, or abuses genetic modification and euphoric drugs will be immediately expelled without mercy. And they will be kicked out together with their families from Legion territory. This cruel elimination mechanism is reminiscent of the ancient Spartan tradition of infant abandonment and also adds a sense of mystery to the already mysterious organization.

Under such a mechanism, some of the experienced but physically disabled Spartan warriors will choose to join the Berlichingens Gang - or the BerLame Gang out of revenge, against their former comrades. As the Crips are at odds with Spartan Legion's philosophy, they are constantly teased as steel cripples. Once they are defeated, they will be brutally slaughtered by Spartan mercenaries.

The hierarchical culture of the Uranus is similar to the setting of "The Republic", where the rulers determine the fate of the violent and economic machines and a small group of oligarchs keep each other in check. Therefore, Diamondagis feels close to Oswin, who seems to have great visions and ambitious goals, and is different from other Uranus leaders. The two also speak the same language; when they aren’t talking business, Diamondagis gets relaxed simply by sitting and talking about artifacts with him. He is happy to help Oswin with his battle against resistance groups and mercenary groups. He does not care about Oswin's comments, or how their relationship would end. Of course, he is not aware of Oswin's heavenly conspiracy, otherwise, he would directly break Oswin's head off using his muscular arms.

However, contrary to the vision of Diamondagis is the various resistance groups in recent years. Gangs are still rapidly growing in power, bringing more and more fights here and there. The Uranus group also increases the fight against them correspondingly, sinking the Spartan Legion deep in the mire of war. Under the blackmail of the Uranus, Diamondagis had to give up the idea of a counterattack. There was this one time when Diamondagis was invited to the annual meeting of the Thoule Group, Oswin showed him how the Skynet is operating and revealed the revenue status of Spartan Legion through Skynet: organizational structure, base location, army capacity, relationship maps of generals and their family members, secret properties including Diamondagis’, the exact place where the artifacts are placed in the villa, and even the hidden mistress in somebody’s apartment. He suddenly had a feeling of standing naked under the hot sun. Of course, he was not standing on the top of the reviewing stand, he did not have a say. Instead, he grabbed the wine jug and drank up.

The Spartan legionary generals have been conquering for years and have long brought back dozen times more wealth for Diamondagis than in the days of the Ship King. Sitting on countless possessions, he needs to set an example of extreme self-discipline and honesty to spend the budget where it should be spent. On the surface, he only has one extra small villa compared to other generals, but what people don’t know is that he has a hobby of buying property. New York, Paris, Berlin, Budapest, and even the neo Danzig in the meta-universe, you name it. He buys properties wherever he goes, and of course, in the name of "investment".

Although Diamondagis knows that his generals might also make some harmless "investments", he does not expect that these guys to be so generous in their investments. The few venal officials who got caught were aggrieved.

Before heading back, he and Oswin placed an order for an AI decision system, which Oswin promised would be completed within a few months, and the Spartan Legion would get a free upgrade of servers and networks at delivery. If the system falls short of their expectations, Thoule can launch a satellite matrix specifically for Spartan, along with a personal satellite for Diamondagis. His personal data will be processed through this satellite from a special line with the highest level of defense, totally away from Skynet.

Diamondagis does not show his agreement or disagreement. Nevertheless, according to the intelligence sector of Matr1x Alliance, the Spartan satellite matrix does have an outstanding one compared to its draft.

It is also in recent years that technology companies such as Thoule have made great progress in prosthetics and bio-modification technology, bringing the physical limits of human flesh to a whole new level. The actual performance of modified warriors is often more outstanding than that of natural warriors with able-bodied bodies. There is strong opposition within the Spartan Legion, resisting the existing discriminatory policies. After realizing that too many elite veterans had gone to gangs and other mercenary groups because of this, Diamondagis personally announced that the dismissal policy would be canceled, allowing all disabled veterans to remain in the army after being fitted with prosthetic limbs, and offering high salaries to recruit previously dismissed disabled veterans. Meanwhile, he also begins to equip the able-bodied with power armor to compete with the modified warriors of other legions. But still, he does not allow able-bodied warriors to volunteer for the modifications. The application of cortical discs would make the elite warriors even more spiritually indestructible. Even if they died in battles, they could continue to fight with new prosthetic bodies. At the same time, it makes the cruel execution policy a joke, which is finally abolished. Many Spartan generals secretly install cortical discs, whom Diamondagis killed one by one. Nevertheless, in a few months, they would appear intact on the battlefield once again, working for their new master to take revenge on Spartan. These can be counted as reformist moves by Diamondagis to embrace change and follow the trend, but they also led to inevitable damage to his prestige and laid the groundwork for the turmoil the Spartan army would later experience.

After the loosening of the policy, the Spartan Legion gradually divided into two forces within. One is the conservative faction that firmly supports Diamondagis, refusing reformed warriors and letting them take on the most dangerous tasks. The other is "Iron legs" (as opposed to the Berlichingens, which might have something to do with the conspiracy of Oswin taking over the Spartan market of human modification), who not only stand up for the rights of the reformed warriors, but also advocate that all warriors should employ human modification, and implant cortical discs to maximize combat power. This party is supported by almost all robots and cyborgs. Finally, at the critical moment of a major battle one day, the Iron Legs officers rush back to headquarters shouting slogans. They arrive at Diamondagis's villa demanding him to abolish the ban on modification, or else they would take their men out and defect to the resistance forces including Berlichingens, leaving behind his military bases and unfinished missions. They knew that Diamondagis was the most credible man when it comes to business, and it would be better to kill him than to have him break the contract.

Diamondagis, who is in the gym after returning from the command center, sees the imposing gang and is shaken up. He sighs and shakes his head. He does not kill anyone but makes a hand gesture telling these people to stop calmly this time. The Spartan predecessor in the 3rd century BC, Cleomenes III, comes to his mind. The Spartan king risked reform at the end of his rope and eventually abandoned all Spartan legal reforms under the backlash of internal and external opponents and ended up in exile. The only difference between him and this predecessor is his adherence to the old ways, but his fate might be similar. Then, gesturing for everyone to be quiet, he picks up the satellite phone and contacted Oswin.

"Mr. O, we can still talk about the bulk purchase of power armor. Your sales manager hasn't gone back yet, right? Also, bring the latest model of combat prosthetics to, not on the metaverse, I want to see the real thing."

"Can able-bodied people also try out prosthetics in a metaverse environment too? Very good."

Diamondagis realized that he is too old for this. He was able to do a 400kg bench press, but he can’t even do a 300kg one now. Last winter, he sprained his back from a discus throw. If it continues, he might need to inject some of the Faun's enhancement agents, otherwise, he would need an exoskeleton to walk by 70. Can he still order his men who have undergone body modification and with power armor by then?