After my fight with Chunky, the other kids kept mostly away from me. Which fit me well, as my stress levels were high enough already. Being stuck in a prepubescent body as the possible end of the galaxy crept closer, all the while some unknown entity watched over me from the shadows, wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Then again, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it either. If there was one thing those coming days would teach me, it was that – while certainly carrier sized between its vast corridors, endless halls, and countless facilities, the BROW/WING undeniably remain one of the Astral Fleets lesser vessel.
I felt trapped.
Every day seemed to pass endlessly slowly without me being able to achieve anything. I hadn’t even been able to confirm if the future I knew would come to pass.
On one hand, I was stuck to the same schedule as all the other kids. For no matter who I was on the inside, I was an eleven year old boy to everyone else. No matter what I said would convince anyone otherwise.
I’d even been taken to a psychiatrist a few times.
On the other hand, even if I’d had all the time in the world, any way for me to get ahead of our galaxy’s impending doom — if it was really coming — was reduced to baseless planning while I remained stuck on that carrier.
Whatever information I could get or marketplaces I could access were limited to those of Sector M94’s, a low-economic bum hole on the rim of civilization, macro relays. Garbage, scraps, pointless rumors, and leftovers.
I couldn’t even begin planning what mods and splices I should opt for in this life before I got a proper gene-scan.
Evey genome was unique, and by the time I could afford a scan in my previous life, I was already mid-transition onto my third class as an Officer. My genetic code was a hot-mess by that point, and without a scan of my clean DNA, theory crafting my future build was just as mad as doing it without a proper mold.
Another thing which I couldn’t afford.
I need credits. Thousands upon thousands of credits…
Which would be impossible while I remained stuck in the Academy. There was a reason the rich and affluent usually possessed the most dangerous people themselves; they could afford to create them. I couldn’t afford to remain weak until I graduated from the Academy. By that time, things would have already begun to turn shit.
I needed to get ahead now, before I hit my teenage years to maximize my potential for growth.
I knew my basic genetics were fairly decent, maybe B-grade or above, considering I’d managed two class changes in my past life without completely breaking down.
But beyond that, I was lost without proper data to work from. I needed something that could tell me what mods or splices to pursue.
With a sigh, I looked down at the tablet in my hands.
Will it be a graft and gear life this time around? Just another metal bucket with a lot of toys…
Scan, Complete
Charles Davis
Age: 27 years, 8 months, 2 days
Height: 176.4 cm (69.45")
Weight…
I sorted through the information until I found what I was looking for.
Class: Soldier (Tier 1); Guardsman
…
Genetic Mods (3): Enhanced Physiology (E Grade), Enhanced Aim (F Grade), Enhanced Speed (E Grade)
…
Threat Level: 11
Run Battle Simulation (y/n):
Odds Of Winning, 0%
…
This time, I didn’t doubt that the Battle Simulation value was accurate. Even if I’d been a grown adult, without any advantages of my own, I would never have been able to beat three Enhancement Mods, no matter what grades they were. Although the man’s stats weren’t impressive, exactly, he was a monster compared to any normal human.
It seemed the same thing went for most guards around here.
Charles Davies was the fifth guard whose UI I’d managed to access after a week of trial and error. They were harder to crack compared to the kids, and even those weren’t easy getting into anymore.
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After my brilliant stunt on that first day, they’d given us a few basic lessons in how to protect our UI and uplink.
While they’d been held on the level you’d expect for kids, leaving much to be desired, it did ensure that I couldn’t waltz around inside random uplinks anymore without some proper effort on my part.
Effort that wasn’t really worth it to see which kids needed to pee, and which ones were hungry.
So, instead, I’d decided to look towards more interesting targets. Or, as interesting as a low-grade Soldier can be.
Whether it was poor talent, unfortunate mod integrations, or lacking ambition, they were all destined for the lower ranks. Had it been the old me, just my mere presence would’ve put this entire vessel under my command.
Then again, maybe these men and women had simply been wise enough to avoid that kind of glorious life.
With each subsequent gene modification you went for, the risk for mutations or becoming sterile rose exponentially. Not to mention how, the more someone invests in you, the less likely they are to let you go.
The highest grade soldiers didn’t retire except in death.
Though, in a sense, the fact that our crew was little more than human was relaxing in a sense. The fact that none of the Stratiotis Ouranios were present meant that they expected this entire voyage to be a peaceful one.
Or that it wouldn’t be a big loss if it wasn’t…
With a sigh, I flipped over to the one thing that’d kept me sane over these past days – two blinking notifications at the corner of my tablet.
Hacking 12 > 13
Scan Electronics 5 > 6
I’d made a thing out of grinding them out as far as I could to see what they did. So far, it seemed to mostly be incremental improvements in speed and talent that were really hard to measure.
As I reached level ten in Hacking, however, I’d been granted an F Grade Skeleton Key. I hadn’t been able to try it out yet, but it seemed like some quick bypass for weaker security systems.
Enough to save me a few seconds here and there maybe, but nothing too revolutionary. It did make me curious what would happen at higher levels, though.
Then again, just like with most of my other abilities, it seemed to be slowly plateauing out. The notifications were getting fewer and farther in between, which was doubly true for my physical skills.
Strength 2
Endurance 3
Flexibility 2
Running 3
Is it the limits of my prepubescent body slowing it down? Or did my past life’s experience simply make skills such as Hacking rise much faster?
Once more, there was only so much I could figure out from the confines of this carrier. I hadn’t even manage to convince any of the crew members to lend me their guns to test how my marksmanship translated between lives.
Vexing. Understandable but vexing.
Only as I leaned back against the tree I currently occupied, letting my eyes wander, did I feel a sliver less trapped.
The 3rd deck garden was the closest thing you could get to outside within this ship. Above me, a transparent canopy stretched across the ceiling, offering a panoramic view of the cosmos beyond.
To me, the view was liberating. Familiar and home. To most other kids, however – seeing the endless dark dotted with occasional stars pass unobscured above their heads and beyond the walls, held at bay only by a weave of metal frames and windows – a single step out here had been enough for them to nervously flee back to their rooms.
Only a few of the more curious ones remained out there between spindly trees and coarse grass, their tiny noses pressed against the transparent walls as they watched the great beyond pass by with awestruck expression.
I could tell that their minds were filled with great tales of adventure, cities that spanned entire planets, exotic species, ships that were larger than stars, and heroic battles; a life beyond the weathered farms, ranches, and mines of their home worlds.
It made me smile. Some part of me had completely forgotten how peaceful and innocent life could be. But much as I enjoyed seeing the playing children, and watching my old comrades at work, I couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Blink carelessly while drifting through space, and a decade will have passed before you realize.
That made me nervous.
Seven years I’d spend locked inside the academy, and by the time I got out, things would already have started going to shit. What little I knew of this time was vague and fuzzy at best – second hand recollections that wouldn’t become relevant until years from now.
Will it happen/won’t it? Was the end of civilization a fever dream/wasn’t it? Trying to plan for a future I wasn’t even sure if it would come to pass was driving me crazy.
In a few days, by the time we reach the Academy, I’ll know for sure…
I drew a deep breath, the scent of summer filling my lungs. Artificial, but still calming as I looked back down at the tablet.
I’d been reading up on this garden before the scan completed. Just to waste some time and maybe level up my information gathering skill.
The notification that eventually popped up, however, was a different one. It came as I began inspecting the leaves of my current tree, along with quiet giggles from the shadows below me.
The latter I ignored.
>Botany 1
By now, I’d even figured out how to open the accompanying tab, not that the information within meant much to me.
Botany 1/50
Chance of Successfully Identifying Unknown Plant:
+2%
Growth Modifier When Tending to Plants:
1%
Price Modifier For Seeds And Plant Mater:
±1%
Efficiency Of Harvested Biological Materials:
+1%
Success In Using…
The text kept going on seemingly forever, and all the benefits seemed minimal. Too much so at these early levels for me to really notice any difference. Botany, just like most skills I’d seen, seemed to cap at level 50. Maybe the boons would be more tangible at that point?
Just like those stifled giggles had become, slowly making their way up the tree behind me. I could even hear the rustle of leaves now, as well as hushed whispers.
I let out a deep sigh.
“You’d be far more effective on sneaking up on someone if you knew to keep your mouth shut, Myla,” I said, leaving a moment of dead silence to linger behind me.
Then, as I began turning around, there was a startled yelp and the rustle of someone falling from the branch behind me.
Recent Skill Acquirements:
Tier I
>Bartering 2
>Negotiation 1
>Meditation 2
>First Aid 1
>Learning 2
>Deception 3
>Information Gathering 5
>Persuasion 3
>Threat Assessment 3
>Hacking 13
>Scan Electronics 6
>Athleticism
> >Pushups 4
>
> >Sit-ups 4
>
> >Vaulting 1
>
> >Climbing 3
>
> …
…
Tier II
>Imperial Body Strengthening 1
>Cyber Security 1
>System Engineering 1