101 RE(Rebirth Era)

I woke up, hopping out of my sleep pod. I cracked my back and did some stretches. “Sabrina, what is the news?” I spoke out, eliciting a response from my personal AI. My white room came alight, some light blue strips of light bracing the wall. A small bead popped out of a charging case, my AI’s shell. The teensie gravity drive held within kept her afloat circling around my head. I popped into my custom-fit jumpsuit, the dark green trim flashed gently as it recognized my DNA, and the grey clothing melded against my body like a second skin. The dark green showed my rank, an Opheli, the rank just under the Rulers. I walked out of my room, hearing my AI list off various current events.

“Juol-isi has won the 1v1 combat tournament currently taking place.” A strong Giggam. Fought him once. Tough. She continued. “The scientific community is also abuzz in what has been revealed to be a discovery of what dark energy truly is.” She said.

I quickly stopped her. “Show further info.” I said hastily, tuning my brain into the hive mind of the debate on the info and what it could mean.

“Dark energy as shown by a multitude of sources and scans to be a sort of wind of the universe. It pushes out expansion in all directions, everywhere at once, all the time. There have been multiple ideas proposed, with some already being worked on, such as unique energy plants, far faster travel in between galaxies, where matter interference and gravity interference is nil. This would allow us to coast into our new home within the week. Weaponizing it would be hard and ineffective, however, if dark matter were to be discovered, and should it have similar properties, it could be a very useful weapon.” She spoke in her robotic voice.

Thank you, Sabrina.” I muttered quickly as the assault from the thoughts of billions in this simultaneos debate hit me. The hurricane of thoughts, accusations, and questions was hard to visualize, however this wasn’t my first rodeo and I took it in stride. I took the Dragonfly, a mode of public transportation akin to trains took one wherever they might want to be. The electrified magnetic rails it coasted sped me through the migration ship, traveling 344 Holj before I was ejected from the Dragonfly at the Cafeteria section of the ship. I slowly ate a Jup stick, a lemony, sweet tasting stick of plant matter. Beside it I also had a small meat cube made from lab-grown Kilo meat. Kilo were like feathery, large centipedes. As I ate I poured over the data presented by the abundance of minds, and I came to my own conclusion. I presented my data, inspired by a few others. Energy fins. They would be attached to the sides of our ships, and they would provide significant boost.

Over the course of the next hour many solutions were debated before one rose up to the top. Large haloes would surround the ships, and it would cycle the energy through, and this could potentially get us to the closest galaxy in the next twelve years. It would be risky however. There was a decision made. We would have to use our material stockpile for that instead of the additional housing that it could’ve been used for. So tomorrow, we would enter stasis. We would cast an enchantment on every crew member, and very few would stay awake, only to maintain the drones and ships. I would not be staying awake, so I too would enter stasis.

I decided where I would land. All in all, there were going to be eleven systems colonized, with hundreds of worlds that were going to be built on. I chose the hardest one. Krig’Guyo. The advanced military world. I was going to be a field general. However, I had to beat a challenge. Rank in the top 20,000 in the arena.

I was already rank 23,689, so I had some work to do. I returned to my quarters with a mission. I entered my closet, and equipped myself for the arena. It was a nonstop battle in there, and while virtual, copied your exact physical form and felt as real as anything else. The small dark blue triangles that dotted all across my light green armor reflected in the light of my visor. It was in the shape of a ‘T’ and was white. I activated my genetic tattoos, an enormous blue phoenix covered my back. The pattern repeated itself on my armor as well. I grabbed a RG-787 and a volt launcher. The long RG I held in my hands, and my volt launcher attached to my waist magnetically. I walked out of my quarters and took the Dragonfly again, this time to the arena.

I walked in and logged into one of the terminals. I logged into my arena account, and was greeted by my fellow team Salamander. We hopped onto the war game, and saw we were against team Helio. Some lights flashed, and we entered the battlefield. Small, green and blue birds chirped in the jungle environment, and the map appeared. Me and my team silently pinged a few locations, organizing ourselves.

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“I’ll take the left flank, and hope to ambush them.” Ordered one of the eight team members, then pointing at me. The Uro didn’t exactly point, for having no limbs to do so with, but did show the appropriate body language indicating it. “You’re the best we got, skirmish with them and pick them off if you can.” I nodded, and left running.

I had a secret weapon though, and it was about to come out. I pulsed my brain, then neurons releasing immense amounts of energy into the area. The ‘scanner wave’ easily leapt across the 200 miles of terrain in this massive reality. I identified the team, and marked them all for my teammates. One was missing however. Top-notch cloaking, the best we had. They would be tricky. I noticed they were heading the right way, and gave them some pointers on how to better approach. I then took off running. My muscles flexed as I soared across the tree-filled landscape, bristling with green leaves and red bark, not unlike that home left so long ago. The mossy soil beneath my heavy, armored feet left easily seen tracks. This was one of the quickest maps to play on, the tracks usually demanded a speedy confrontation. I barreled across the landscape dodging trees and rocks, soaring ahead, before launching a grappling hook around a tree, my brain going into overtime, the cybernetic enhancements giving the math and answers, enough for my genetically enhanced glial cells processing it in the half second.

The grapple reached out to the strong trunk of the tree, however not latching on. The metal rope ripped through the tree, slicing it in half, tearing the roots and wood up, launching them to the front of me while I slowed to a near halt, beginning a slow 5 mph jog. The tree fell into the forest, scattering the virtual birds. And as they fell, the earlier noted enemy team hit it straight on, sending two of their members careening into the ground. The other two in that section of the team, slowed as quickly as they could, but not fast enough. My volt launcher sent small chunks of electrically charged ionized matter, ripping through the weak shields of the scout unit I targeted. And as my grapple came back around, it caught the Heiive still in the air, and maneuvering my shoulder, rammed it into the ground. I continued to slam the rounds of my volt launcher into the armor of the Giggam, the electricity at such close ranges locking up the armor of the Giggam, and as the plasma-like substance drilled into the armor of the alien, it zipped out of sight. A ‘game over’. I dropped the volt launcher, picked up my RG-747, and launched a slug into the back of one of the slowing team members. They were launched far away, out of sight and out of mind. Not really, their location was still in my head, but they were of little consequence now. I quickly holstered my weapons, activated my cloak, and set off running. The movement around me wouldn’t stop sensors from seeing me, but it was far to late. I was gone.

Two of my team members launched artillery from where we had started, and the group still gathering themselves was blown to bits. I gave them the thumbs up, target down. This team was far out of their league.

That is half the team down, now is time to find that guy who I had blasted away from the coordinated strike. I pulsed my mind again, getting an updated location of their position. The enemy team had engaged with my team, surprising them. We had managed to break even with them, driving them away after the loss of two more members. However, we had lost three to a surprise grenade and a well hidden sniper. He was the one I had failed to locate, and I got very worried. Deep breaths flew quickly in and out. The panic attack hit, my body felt like it was crunching up. I had failed again.

Screams. Blood. Slaughter. I couldn’t get there quick enough. The all too familiar face grinned a wicked grin, burned deep. My armor injected the solution into my arm, and I got up. I could do this. This was all virtual. The person I’m going against is likely another PMI, like me. I shook it off, and ran towards the man downed. The crashed trees and destroyed path of his flight had provided a trail. I pulsed again, this time a tight scan, the energy flowing out in a cone. The blue and purple images rang in my mind, everything bigger than a pebble clear as day, though made confusing by the color. The ‘dragon’ Juncathari had launched into the sky, weapons ready and charging. On my position. The stream of highly condensed plasma rocketed through the air, covering the trees and ground, melting everything. I lept to the side, avoiding it’s fiery path.

I got my RG, and fired off a few rounds. They flew through the air, but now that I was at the disadvantage, I was incapable of doing anything but shooting up as the enormous genetically modified Juncathai sliced through the air and dodged my bullets. I pointed my left arm at it, my assistant AI helping me to aim.

A small beam launched from my arm, going far 1.7 times the speed of light. The thin, blue beam only had one use in my custom armor, but fuck it. How else would I take this asshole down? The Polyyiu beam made of G-energy and Radio-Locked Gallium, pierced the shields, shattering them, penetrating through the armor, and vaporizing the cells it came into contact with, giving that one the ‘game over’ too. I got my gun back in my hand, and began to hunt down the last of my enemies. Two left. They were the hard ones though, and with a psychic and a magic caster against us, it would be difficult to take them out.