Outside pnet Verpa, beyond its gravitational pull lies a starship.

  This starship is an explorer vessel called Titan, a ship capable of housing more than a hundred thousand organic beings and twice the amount of inorganic life; the ship is fitted with technology so futuristic that even their cups are made to be totally 'indestructible', why put ' ' on indestructible? Simple, because I just destroyed the cups by using them as ammunition on my junk uncher.

  "Fourteen O'eight!!! Are you listening to your superiors!?" A three-meter-tall humanoid shouts while gring at me, it's funny because, I'm not even tall enough to reach his thigh, yet I don't feel a single amount of fear from being looked at by the scariest being across all gaxy, the one and only, Admiral Say Gex, the only organic humanoid being to be able of destroying an entire hostile civilization by himself.

  Also hi, my name is Mech, but most people on the ship call me 1408, it's the number of the VAT I was born from, I'm one of the only subjects of project SLUG that was successfully made, even if, by some standards, I could be called a defective product because of certain 'QUIRKS' of mine.

  Said quirks resume in creating mechanical weapons that, most of the time, are considered crimes against all life, which, in my opinion, is nothing short of stupid; why would I make weapons against life? I'm made of it!!

  *WHAM!!!*

  "I said, are! You! Listening!!!?" Gex shouts at me on max volume after hitting my head so hard that if I had normal bones, I'm sure my head would be crushed.

  I clutch my head while looking at him before nodding, it doesn't matter if I say something or not.

  Seeing me nod Gex nods with a small smile on his lips before pressing something in a terminal and pointing at it. "Now listen close, your mission is both simple and almost impossible to do, you're going to Vorpa, a small pnet with a strange phenomenon which causes heavy rain once every seven days, these rains only stop after a whole month so you may need to find a safe pce to hide until the rain goes away.

  Your main objective is to find and collect a sample of something called The Rot. Be warned not to let it touch you; we found out the hard way when one of our drones was completely destroyed by it after staying still for less than a second, this showed us that this... Rot is either somewhat sentient or incredibly malicious, either way, we need to catalog which of them it is, if it is sentient we should do our part in trying to integrate it into the gactic council, whoever, if it is simply malicious we will need to destroy it entirely, we can't let any of the council enemies get a hold of it.

  The biggest problem lies with the fact that we can't send you down there using a drop-pod, the strong winds, and unexpected rain could very well end up throwing you in the middle of the sea, or worse... Anyway, we'll have to send you down there via teleportation and, as you know it, the teleport can't be used by anything that weights more than 20kg which means that you won't be able to take your Exo-gear with you, you will have three hours to pack food and other essentials after that go see Andromeda to get your gear."

  With that said, Gex opens the doors before shoving me out, using his feet; I know I'm small, but this is humiliating.

  ☆¤¤¤☆

  (Two Hours Later)

  I was finally done packing what could be considered important to me, not that there was a lot, but most of it was books, comics, and some old games from a destroyed pnet called Earth, poor idiots, they fucked around and found out that if you attack someone, that someone is gonna attack you right back with twice the ferocity.

  At least I could download all their data before the pnet was totally wiped off the universe.

  For food, I'm just taking the basic nutritional bar; they don't have taste, but they are lightweight and can feed a carnivorous four-meter species for a whole week; I still wonder what they put in these to make them have such an effect.

  Something tells me that I shouldn't worry about water on the pnet I'm going to; after all, it has heavy rain, so it should have an abundance of water.

  Of course, I'm taking a canteen just in case, with everything, I should be weighing almost what? 9 kilos already? Maybe I should take a data ste instead of the books and comics? Yeah, no, data stes are too fragile, and if I end up in a cold pce I can't use them as fuel.

  Anyway, I should be getting near the warehouse where Andromeda lives.

  "Good morning, Mech; if I'm not wrong, you're here to get your gear before going off on your mission?" A synthetic female voice greets me with a strangely warm touch to it, Andromeda, a mechanical lifeform from a strange world called Mechus, she's the closest I've ever got to a mother which is ironic taking into account that she is a robot and I am a... strange rodent that is somehow, called SlugCAT.

  When I first got out of my vat I was scared, so scared in fact that I ended up biting one of the scientists so hard I almost cut his nose off, it was so bad that they branded me a failure right away, if not for her I'm sure I wouldn't be alive anymore.

  I nod at her before climbing a stool; the bad side of being small is that most of the time, I need to jump or climb objects to reach somewhere.

  Andromeda chuckles before picking me up and putting me on the desk; she always had this strange warmth to her; it must be her energy core. "You don't have to worry; there's no one here beside us, so you can talk as much as you want; speak while I go get your gear," She says while patting my head before going a little deeper in the inventory to get my things.

  I sigh before getting myself comfortable in the desk I was put into. "I'm tired; it seems that even after everything I've done, the higher-ups at the council can't wait for me to die normally, so they always send me to dangerous missions, st time they threw me on a mission to DESTROY a sandworm nest all by myself!! And surprise!! The bomb they gave me cked a timer, which forced me into a horrible situation of having to be swallowed by one of them to survive!!" I stop ranting, taking a deep breath while Andromeda stops before getting near me and pulling me into a tight hug.

  "You've been through a lot huh?" She says with a sad tone in her voice. "But don't worry, after this mission is over, I'm taking you with me to a paradise world called Gaia; I have some friends in there who would love to have someone so incredible as you around," Andromeda says while putting me down and pushing a small crate towards me. "Here, this will be your gear this time around, most of the danger you will experience comes from the many dangers lurking around." She says while going back to her seat.

  Opening it, I see the "gear" I've been given, and the only word I can use to describe it is: If I didn't know how to make a generator with nothing besides wood, pstic, and animal guts, I would be beyond funked. "That's it?" I ask with fear ced into my voice. "An iron wool maintenance vest, a civilian-grade Omni-tool, and a wasp drone? If I didn't know any better I'd say that the Gatic Council really wants me to stay there." I say while putting on the vest, putting the Omni-tool on the utility belt, and locking the wasp on the vest back."

  Andromeda, seeing my reaction, does her best impression of a sigh before looking at me with pity. "I tried to get better gear for you, but the higher-ups said that quote on quote, 'it's not possible to waste more resources than these because of a war against a new hostile species they've found, something about they being capable of adapting against any weapon used on them you know, the basic lie which if transted directly means 'please go and die'." Andromeda once more pets my head before pulling a small box from behind her counter.

  "Here, I was hoping to give it to you on your fourteenth birthday; sadly, it seems we won't be able to celebrate it this year... again." She says with the most mencholy I have ever heard from her, Andromeda is... incredible; she's able to withstand situations that would make any other, be it organic or not, have a mental breakdown.

  Yet, even if she doesn't look like it, even if she hides it the best she can, I can feel, how whenever she loses what Organics sees as important, she becomes more and more downcast. That's the bad side of adopting something with a limited lifespan when you're almost immortal; you won't be able to feel the satisfaction of dying while being near those you have raised; it will always be the opposite; you will be the first, and st thing they'll see in their life.

  "Andro... No, Mom, I know that it sucks not to be able to celebrate something meaningless like a birthday with me but look at the good side after I'm done with this mission, we can find a way to make up for ALL the lost holidays, birthdays, you name it." I say while putting my tiny hands on one of her hands, sometimes, being small is a bad thing because you can't embrace completely those you love.

  Andromeda, still in shock at what she heard, picked me up with a small tremor in her arms before hugging me with enough strength that I wouldn't be able to slip by her arms, not that I wanted to anyway. "Mech, I know I never said it as much as I should but, I am the proudest mother that could ever exist in this whole universe, no matter what anyone says, you are more important than a stupid mission, if you ever find yourself in danger send an S.O.S and I will retrieve you instantly." She puts me on the counter before pointing to the box she put earlier. "Now, open it; I know I shouldn't tell you what it is, but it is my magnum, opsaw the second-best thing I have I'd made in my entire existence. "

  Opening the box I saw the gift Andromeda had made for me, an Aviator Hat with a pair of goggles on top, custom made to fit my head and let my ears through.

  "Do you like it? I saw the one you had taken from that mission on Earth, I even have some pictures of you 'wearing' it, it was really cute seeing how it almost made you trip was really funny." Andromeda says while putting one of her hands near her visor, I'm sure if she had a mouth it would be curled into a small smile. "Go on, put it on your head, it may look like a normal pair like those you got from Earth, but they're ANYTHING but normal, they have a inbuilt radar, a bunch of blueprint I'm sure you've never seen before and a heat vision mode, I made it to be sure you'd always be safe no matter what."

  Putting the hat on I feel how comfy it is on my head, even the holes for my ears fit nicely. "The one you got from Earth was made with a simple hide, unlike them, these are made of synthetic leather made using some of the sturdiest materials around." Andromeda speaks while locking the hat in pce using the straps, before giving a pat on my head to make sure it won't fall off.

  *BUZZ!!*

  "Oh...it seems it is time for you to go to the teleporter." Andromeda says with sadness in her voice, before giving me another hug and a small postman bag full of the food and canteen I had packed before... I knew I had forgotten something before. "Before you ask, I added some fuel packs, an air mask along with some filters, a fshlight, and a medipack, inside the medipack are three syringes, only use them if you get really sick or really hurt, there's a good reason they're called panacea by most people." With that said I hung my postman bag and start walking away down the corridor, almost getting stepped on by a quadrupedal machine, another bad side of being small, I finally reach the teleport ptform, soon followed by Gex and and a random non-sentient android.

  "Well 1408, it's time for your mission to start, I know you would love to stay longer but sadly, duty calls." Gex starts putting some coordinates in a terminal before looking at me once more. "Farewell Mech, good luck and, for the good of Andromeda, please don't die down there." Finished with his speech Gex pulls a lever and I'm soon engulfed by a blue light.

  (Gex Pov)

  "I hope you survive this ordeal kid, Because I'm sure as hell not ready to calm a berserker Andromeda." I speak one st time with no one but myself before turning around and going back to my headquarters, If there is any God in this universe I pray, I pray that 1408 won't be able of finding any material strong enough to make something like his Junkucher, the higher-ups are still mad about him destroying an indestructible set of dishes.

  ———

  [A/N: Well that's a wrap, can't wait to start writing the next chapter in which Mech will find himself on the outskirts.

  If you guys see any grammatical error tell me please, grammarly always get a stroke after one thousand words.]

  PS: This chapter was made to give a foundation to the story, so it's very unlike that the other characters will appear again anytime soon.