The Second Grand Sol Empire. This was when Mech’s were first introduced to unwashed masses of humanity. Both this particular empire’s use of the platform as well as its introduction of Mech to civilians firmly placed it as the most famous iteration of humanity's various interstellar empires. These grand works are a testament to the ingenuity and technological superiority of the human race compared to all who oppose them. From the smallest Alien temple to the monstrous creatures that dwarf stars roaming the dark pits of the galaxy, they all feared the power of humanity’s war machine heralded by the fearsome mechs.

However, historians prefer to refer to Mech as a feat of scientific brilliance in addition to the technological landmine they became for all of the Sextillion humans in the galaxy. Once humanity achieved dominance and the different tributaries of the Second Grand Sol Empire, human nature made all of the different factions turn their attention inward. The war that broke out between everyone caused such untold destruction that it is said that no crime against humanity has ever, or will ever, be so great as this Age of Great War Crimes.

From monstrous battleships launching nuclear weapons at undefended worlds to Mech's terrorizing all of the different peoples of the galaxy, humanity would never truly recover from this infighting. No one to this day knows if it was simply due to incompetence, simple human nature, or some Machiavellian plot designed to weaken humanity. Yet the truth of the matter does not change the outcome, humanity was broken in that millennia of infighting.

Few relics remain from this time. With so much technology and resources lost to the abyss of the conflict, humanity had resorted to building cheaper and more primitive vessels before eventually losing the knowledge of their most advanced wonders completely.

And yet, in this hopeless era that was a shadow of the pinnacle of the human race. There was at least one survivor…

Lord Samuel gasped awake from his cryo-vault. His steps feel like fighting against a whirling hurricane with every muscle movement. What he was assured was simply a defect in more primitive cryo technology haunted him now even in his top of the line cryo vault.

He would have to speak to those cocky engineers later about this.

“Status?” Lord Samuel asked, waiting for the Cryo-Vaults basic computer to compile a readout on the nearest panel.

[Identity: Lord Samuel, The Flame of Ilkurin, Doomsday of Henkori, the REDACTED…]

[Cryo-Time: 2039 Standard Years]

[General Status: UNKNOWN ERROR]

“IMPOSSIBLE” Bellowed Lord Samuel, furious and slightly fearful at the same time.

“Check again! Priority ALPHA-ALPHA!” He screamed into the air, such a high priority order would be grounds for execution if the situation presented wasn’t so severe.

This time, he received a verbal response instead of the basic text layout due to the priority request.

[Status confirmed. 2039 Standard Years have passed since the activation of Cryo-Vault.]

Lord Samuel wanted nothing more to rant and rage against such a fate, but his years of military training and discipline kept him in line. He began slowly making his way towards the ship's bridge, every step a torturous experience from his body's cryo-decay.

“Who is in command!” He demanded, he should have awoken much sooner than now. Even the hard-coded restrictions upon the cryo-vault should have awoken him after 500 years.

[Unknown.] The ship replied to his query in the same monotone voice.

“Who gave the order to awaken me?” Lord Samuel tried again.

[Unknown.] Was the reply once again.

Lord Samuel took a deep breath and tried another approach.

“Execute succession protocols!” Lord Samuel commanded.

Normally a Mech Lord like himself would never execute such a command, however with the ship's computer acting up and having no one else to contact aboard he knew it was his only choice.

[Succession protocol activated. No other human with higher authority than Lord Samuel has been detected alive. Lord Samuel has been granted temporary status as the ship’s captain!]

By the time he has received this proclamation, he has already reached the ship's bridge. The Damnatus was considered a medium sized cruiser by the Second Grand Sol Empire, mainly used for deep strike missions or pacifying weaker opponents. The particular vessel that Lord Samuel served on was a lesser known variant designed for those very deep strike missions. The ship was packed with all sorts of advanced technology and wondrous conveniences. Fortunately several of the local teleport pods were active and made his trip to the bridge considerably quicker then it could have been.

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Lord Samuel was able to gain control of the ship completely via the succession protocol and the bridge security systems allowed him passage. The thrice layered energy shields powered down and the massive security doors disassembled themselves to permit him passage. The environment filled him with more passion and courage as he pressed onwards.

The various consoles and monitors came alive as his presence enveloped the bridge. From tactical readouts to reports on crew count, everything awoke as a human once again stepped in its halls. Lord Samuel was now able to get a much better idea of the current situation. And from what little he could gleam, it was certainly not good.

[Alert! Unidentified corvette sized vessel detected!]

He immediately paused his work to counter this new threat. Lord Samuel ran over to weapons control and began to activate everything he could. Fortunately a Mech Lord’s had some overlap with operating many different weapon systems, thanks to the advanced and intuitive nature of their technology base. He quickly reviewed what little he had access to.

[Primary and secondary weapon systems are offline!]

Lord Samuel cursed silently as he was instead forced to rely on the point defense weapons of the Damnatus to deal with this unknown ship. With communications down and what little sensors operating detecting no identification from the oncoming ship, it was best to simply shoot first and ask questions later.

A silent hum filled the void of space as the time-neglected point defense cannons warmed up. These weapons, millennia old, were all that stood between the Damnatus and possible destruction.

[Unknown power surge in unidentified vessel!]

Acting quickly on this new information the ancient Mech Lord had the point defense weapons immediately begin firing on the unknown vessel.

The void of space was filled with bright flashes of light as scorching hot beams of magnetically contained plasma barreled out of the point defense weapons and slammed directly into the unknown ship.

Flashes of bright orange made themselves known as the unknown ship’s shields absorbed the salvo from the Damnatus.

Lord Samuel angrily slammed his fist on the desk before forcing himself to calm down.

Before he could fire another salvo, the unknown corvette opened fire onto the Danmatus.

[Incoming kinetic weapon fire!]

The warning barely finished before the Danmatus ate the entire salvo of weapon fire, the bow of the ship taking some minor damage.

However, Lord Samuel noticed something else.

“WHERE ARE MY SHIELDS?!” He yelled, outraged that such weak weapons fire was able to damage his pristine ship.

[Primary and Secondary shields are offline.]

Lord Samuel growled slightly before setting the point defense weapons onto intercept mode, which better suited their intended purpose then merely scorching the shields of such a weak corvette.

After doing everything he could from the bridge, the Mech Lord ran out of the bridge as fast as his cryo-fatigued body could take him. He made it to the first teleport pod before his com was pinged again.

[Warning: Cowardice is punishable by torture followed by a painful execution. The Captain is given 30 seconds to explain themselves!]

“I am saving this ship!” He called out to the incompetent ship’s computer.

[Invalid response. Twenty five seconds remaining.]

“Be silent!” He snapped.

[Invalid response. Twenty two seconds remaining.]

Grunting in disgust he disabled his comms unit. It was not like there was anyone to carry out his execution. And fortunately for him, the empire had been wise enough to hard-code all ship computer’s with restrictions that prevented them from doing anything other than basic core functions.

Summoning strength from the depths of his reserves, the Mech Lord pressed on.

It would take him another few teleport pod trips to reach his destination. Regretfully due to the natural dangers of teleportation the teleport pods had a designated pair and could not connect to another pod under any circumstances. The Danmatus would normally be covered in a gravimetric disruption field that completely negated any teleportation attempts other than the ship's own pods.

He had personally witnessed the horrors that followed after teleporting antimatter warheads and black hole emitters onto the primitive ships of the empire's many enemies and shuddered at the thought of being on a ship without the disruption field.

One teleport pod and a brisk walk was all that was left to reach his destination. He looked at his tactical pad attached to his wrist for an update. He ignored the notifications from the ship’s computer and focused on the battle.

The corvette was sitting far outside the optimal range to be hit with the point defense weapons but more than close enough to fire upon the Danmatus. The majority of the shots that the enemy corvette fired had been intercepted by the point defense weapons.

“What I wouldn’t give for a single shot of the Particle Obliterator Cannon.” He muttered.

A single shot from one of the ship’s POC’s would have been able to completely destroy the weak enemy corvette, but the once proud Danmatus had fallen into a state of dire disrepair.

Finally at last, the ancient Mech Lord stopped for a moment to catch his breath as he reached his destination. The giant doors opened to reveal a spacious hanger bay, both star-fighters and mechs filled this hangar bay.

The center of the hanger contained a large device coated in gold and diamonds, with Lord Samuel’s personal insignia flying on flags on each side. This device contained the solution to his current predicament.

Placing his hand on the ancient device, Lord Saumel waited for the device to unlock and reveal what sat within. The unlocking process would take a couple of minutes, there was simply nothing he could do to make it any faster so he simply reactivated his comm unit.

[Additional enemy vessels detected! Three corvette class and one frigate class inbound.]

That was dire news. In such a bad state, the Damatus would not be able to deal with even such a paltry force.

He confirmed with the ship’s database that all of the enemy ship’s were completely alien to the empire. The new inbound ships shared the same design scheme as the one that was already fired upon. The primitive and ramshackle nature pointed to one main possibility.

“Scavenger scum.” He spat.

Lord Samuel looked around the hanger bay at all the star-fighters and mechs. All of them were in terrible condition due to the ravages of time. Whatever crew and automated systems once took care of them, unable to preserve their beauty and combat strength. It was a travesty for any war machine to fall outside of a battle, it was a pitiable sight to any Mech Lord or fighter pilot.

The Starfighters looked to be completely useless and probably good for little more than scrap materials. This was not a surprise as Mechs had a much higher priority for repairs, being much more powerful, larger, imposing and expensive than the more disposable starfighters.

Star-fighters still had their roles to play, but due to a great many factors Mechs had become the rulers of human space. Superior in every way except for disposability and cost.

As Lord Samuel was pitying the state of the hanger’s other occupants, the vault-like device opened completely and revealed its prize.

Coated in his house colors, with tier two technology from the empire’s military, and boasting an armament that would scare the denizens of any task force sat a wondrous sight.

Lord Samuel’s personal Lord Mech.

In pristine condition.

May whatever god they prayed to have mercy on the poor souls who attacked him, for his mercy had dried up.

[Hanger door opening!]