Lasers, tracers and various other armaments frantically intercepted incoming fire around a faltering ship. Its energy shields made from different segments now had minimal coverage as the continuous impacts over-strained its generators. At an instant the remaining segments moved piling in front of one another in a certain direction as the ships weapons and countermeasures fired in a panic.
Following the direction of fire a large torpedo could be seen targeting the ship. All of the incoming fire seemed to phase right through it as the torpedo continued its inevitable march towards the panicked war ship. The torpedo had phased through the first shield segment when the ship pulsed and the torpedo became more material and at that moment the various weapons that had been firing on its prior illusive form tore it apart.
The ship seemed to have sighed in relief as its shields moved to block other fire however at that moment time seemingly reversed bringing the torpedo back to a complete state right next to the ship.
The explosion was silent with a flash of energies. However when the flash had subsided the scene was once again repeating itself. The ship tried to defend itself from the torpedo time after time after time.
Fay watched this ever repeating scene through a window as strong winds buffeted against the tall ruin he had taken as shelter.
While carrying the fuel for his shuttle he had not been able to make it back before the strong gales of the night set in so he had found this place to rest his weary body.
Yet despite his exhaustion, sleep had not found him this night. Whether it be his excitement for the hopeful trip out of the ruins, his successful slaying of the most powerful creature he had ever hunted or the aching of his body. Fay could not fall asleep so he simply watched an area under the stormy skies where the ship had been stuck repeating its inevitable demise within a bubble of time.
Despite Fay’s complaints he truly would never go back to his life before. Back on earth he only really had his uncle that he would not really miss so there was little else for him back there. However here there were so many possibilities and mysteries. He looked at the torpedo that was once again charging at the ship. Like what is that weapon and how does it work. What would it be like to build something like that?
Fay looked at the ship which was rebuilt once more. What about the ship? How does its various systems work? How cool would it be to own something so big and powerful?
He looked over the currently dark world. What happened here? What caused such a desperate war?
He touched the side of his neck where there was a tattoo. Why do I have a tattoo that matches the logo on that black card that I got from the test?
This new world had so many things to learn, explore and do that Fay would never go back. However there was one thing missing that he yearned for and that was some human interaction because at the end of the day humans were never made to be alone.
The thought still made him stressed though. Would he be able to talk to people again? Would the people he finds accept him? What would society be like? What happens if he leaves the wrong impression on people?
He shook his head, interrupting his thoughts.
“Let's just see what the future holds.”
*grrrrrrumgrr*
Fay sighed and grabbed another tasteless jelly in a tube and sucked it through a straw.
“This brain uses far too much energy”
During high intensity activities such as combat his entire nervous system is processing loads of information at an extraordinary rate. This gives Fay a massive advantage as his perception of time essentially slows allowing him to react to things consciously where a regular human would only be able to react based purely on prediction or reactions built by prior training.
However this comes at a cost of consumption. Long battles at high strain leave him starved of energy so even with this massive advantage Fay still tries to rely on the brain's natural ability to train his prediction and instinctual reactions without using too much energy.
Still in the battle just prior he had been too caught up in his emotions to regulate himself and his nervous system ran rampant for longer than he needed it to. This caused the current energy deficit his body is suffering from.
Despite the volatility of this body and the toll it takes on his sanity he has truly fallen in love with it. For example even while he is contemplating and looking at the grand scene that continued repeating in the sky he is also performing another task. At that moment he was communicating through the neural interface to the mobility pack testing and diagnosing the issue with one of the thrusters while using the digitized portion of his brain like a design software that simulated the mobility pack. Right now he was both figuring out how he might repair it and how he can best optimize its utilisation now that one of the thrusters can no longer vector being jammed in one direction.
He has lived the past year like this even while performing other tasks he has been exploring the new world of technology around him and even with his enhanced learning efficiency he still has barely scratched the surface of the new world of possibilities opened to him.
Like a great man had once said ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants’. Fay understood that even if he stayed here in the ruins he would spend years to barely understand what lay broken around him. This is because he would spend most of his time figuring out the basics of how this stuff works while in society this is taught to kids.
Ultimately Fay believed that no amount of brain power could defeat the efforts of the collective human population given time. As all it takes is one idea which may sound stupid to change all of human history yet all that comes after they have the foundational knowledge of those before them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Fay sat there once again contemplating his mind flowing with thoughts.
Sleep would escape him this night.
***
The dark skies had brightened enough for the dead city to be revealed from the darkness.
A boy could be seen puffing hard as he quickly scaled a long vine eventually reaching the top where he quickly slipped into the depths of the building.
Stumbling and taking the large container off his back Fay laid down exhausted from hauling the container here. After gaining back his breath he got up with reluctance and kicked the round container letting it roll toward his shuttle.
Once there he looked for a marking where he pushed his thumb. A leaver popped out which he used to open a seamless panel. He looked at the internals and found a well marked hole deep inside. He opened the container and removed the fuel.
The fuel was in a housing that had a handle on one end. Holding the handle, Fay reached into the hull and pushed the fuel into the hole and locked it in with a twist.
Closing the exterior hatch he hit the shuttle's hull twice.
“Kate, see if that works.”
The shuttle hummed however unlike the previous times it seemed to have more vigor. Fay jumped into the cool cockpit taking a second to wipe the sweat off his face with a rag now that he could remove his mask. He looked over the diagnostic screen that was currently showing data on the power the ship was now generating topping up its backup storage.
“Hmmm looks good, how long do we have with this fuel Kate?”
“The fuel will last months with just the cloaking and low power maneuvering systems.”
“Seems good enough. What about with the main thrusters?”
“About a week under peak usage.”
“It will do us just fine then, let's get out of here.”
The shuttle silently left the penthouse flying towards where the aircraft should be flying over later.
***
“Alright so we are only using passive detection systems now the aircraft should be coming soon. Oh and make sure to collect data on their exact flight path we will be following in their exact foot steps. Once we lose track of their path we will stop and wait for the next ones. I'm not risking flying into some sort of anomaly or trap.”
Having gone over his plan Fay sat still, calming himself while he waited. Soon the ship's sensors detected the aircraft, this time there were just over twenty. The optical sensors took in their appearance some sported holes here or there, burn marks or panels wobbling in the wind. Despite the damage they kept a tight formation as they weaved among the taller buildings of the ruins at decent speed.
Fay watched intrigued at the damage on the craft trying to piece together a story of the battle they had fought. This was a pastime of his as there were many such puzzles scattered around the ruins for him to indulge in.
He waited until they passed before taking off and silently following them picking up speed.
It wasn’t until he was nearly at the maximum range that Arc’s passive sensors could track them that he used the rear thrusters to match the rapid speed of the aircraft.
He followed them for hours and it wasn’t until they had dipped to a low altitude for some reason that he lost them.
“Alright Kate lets pull up and wait for the next ones tomorrow.”
Fay sighed.
***
Meanwhile inside one of the aircraft.
“Did you feel that?”
The copilot responded.
“Yeah, felt like it stopped following us.”
“You didn't detect anything?”
“Nothing, could have been the wildlife.”
A voice came through the comms.
“Oi Dazzler your sensors pick that up?”
“Nothing at all feels like we lost it though.’
“You don't think it might be one of those scaly fuckers?”
“Nah you know when they are after you, they don’t use anything we haven't seen already besides they always give that hungry feeling when they look in your direction.”
“That's only you Dazzler none of us are that sensitive.”
“Given enough experience you pick it up.”
“Well the merits we earned this time should give you enough to redeem a mech, I heard you originally graduated from the mech academy.”
“Yeah these things are good to fly in but the big boys don’t play in these little death traps.”
“True we are like a side show to the true heroes.”
“Not in my books we may not earn as much glory but those mechs are too complex so not enough of them can be fielded. If anything there are too many capable pilots wasting their gifts because they can’t afford one while the snobs get one when they barely qualify.”
“Well you probably won’t hang around when you get one but don’t forget to buy us drinks when you make it big.”
“You don’t have to worry I’ll be joining the Apocalypse Crawlers.”
“Fuck me thats a full blown heavy battalion, how did you land that gig?!”
“To be honest they have had me and others lined up since we left the academy however they let us all go to develop in these cheap aircraft only keeping those who survive.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to train you in a cheap mech as you know while these aircraft are decent they aint quite a mech?”
“Well there is something else they look for in mech pilots and unfortunately this can be developed in other ways. You know these nobles, if they can get what they want at the cost of our lives they’ll do it.”
“Couldn’t you just join a mercenary group instead of signing a deal with those nobles.”
Dazzler laughed as though he had heard a good joke.
“Even among mech pilots there are differences. Have you ever seen any of the non affiliated mercs truly make it to the top. Besides, they are all under the thumb of someone one way or another.”
“I guess I can only wish you luck then my friend. Oh and what do we put down the disturbance as?”
“I don’t know, it was weird it didn’t seem hostile but sort of reminded me of a beast's gaze it was also good at concealing itself… just log it as a low threat beast encounter, that way the next crew through here won't be spooked.”
