The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever will be born must first destroy a world - Herman Hesse
Prologue
Chapter 0: The Awakening
“Where am I?” the boy thought.
The boy opened his eyes and what enveloped his vision was darkness.
!!!
Alarms ring and reverberate everywhere. The noise created reached the ears of the boy albeit muffled as if blocked by some object.
A robotic voice emits several strings of notifications.
“Warning! signs of unidentified beings are within the premises."
“Warning! Trespassing ancient system property under the directorate will incur immediate extermination protocols. All trespassers shall be exterminated. Error. System shutdown imminent, unknown malfunctions detected”
"Error. Error. Force execution of extermination protocol initiated. Data lock secured. Error. Auxiliary systems shutdown. Vital facilities set to low power operation. Security measures set to maximum level. Error. Security measures have been temporarily disabled. System restart commen- Security measures have been temporarily disabled.
Flashes of red light suddenly fill the surroundings. The sirens repeating the same robotic lines from before. And the last bits of grogginess and daze escape the boy’s wellbeing.
'What is this?!' the boy thought as his mind began to grow clearer.
The clarity that the boy had found did not last as it was replaced with panic and anxiety. The boy saw his hands and feet and further inspected his body. His mind felt as if his body was fine or at the very least complete. As the boy attempted to move his body his hands hit a barrier, and then it dawned upon him.
'Glass? Liquid?', he suddenly thought. As if not obvious enough from a bystander, the boy was encapsulated in a cylindrical glass barrier which was connected to several tubes that link on the ground. The boy was connected to several smaller tubes from the spine towards the cylinder’s ground. In front of him, a respirator was connected to his nose and mouth.
The boy himself could barely see his reflection through the glass. Brown hair and eyebrows the color of cinnamon, bright emerald eyes, and whilst observing his floating unclothed body, a tall slender yet robust frame.
Away from the boy and through the glass there were multiple cylinders just like the one entrapping the boy. Some empty, others gruesome in the fact that the bodies' parts were missing and incomplete. However, there were outlines in the farther parts of the room that seemed. Complete as well…
The objects and sight that the boy had seen began to overwhelm him, the boy struggled to break free and slammed the glass barrier with his hands and feet. Spiderweb cracks form from the glass, the originally tranquil liquid enveloping him distorts and the tubes connecting throughout his body disconnect and break.
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*Crack...*crack...*crack...
The boy continued to slam his hands onto the barrier and in the blink of an eye, the glass shattered.
Fragmented pieces of glass accompanied by the unknown liquid spur forth on the room's floor like a water dam breaking. The boy escapes confinement and lands on his knees.
Confusion filled his entire being as no matter how much he tried to recall anything of even the smallest of detail, nothing but a sharp pain pierces his mind.
The boy turned and looked back onto the place that once confined him and spotted a tiny monitor near the shattered pieces of glass. “Cryptosleep suspender 0613: Prime”, the boy softly uttered. The boy didn’t have the time to ponder on the words depicted as his attention returned to the siren’s announcement.
“Error. Barrier System has collapsed. Hard lock on automated doors initiated. All personnel proceed to exit protocol red.”, the robotic voice continued to spew warnings through its sirens.
Every fiber of the boy’s being was screaming at him, telling him that something was wrong and that he must escape.
*Boom!!!
Thunderous explosions could be heard from a distance. The room itself quaked and several glass tubes shattered everywhere. This signaled the boy’s frantic escape trying to find an exit.
As the boy ran and looked everywhere a hand suddenly grabbed his ankle causing him to stumble.
“Ahhh!” the boy screamed not knowing what just grabbed him.
“Don’t leave me” a weak voice sounded in front him.
It was another person. And based from the shattered glass and its spilled contents, a person that was once trapped just like him. The person was a girl roughly the same age as him with pale skin and long snow-white hair and eyebrows. Large eyes that carry a light violet color as if to mimic the colors of wisteria. And a sharp nose and jawline that was as if one was looking at a doll.
“Please, help me.” the girl weakly said mustering up all the remaining energy she had.
The boy’s initial alarm faded as he looked upon the girl. He felt an odd sense of familiarity with the girl, but further thoughts would only endanger him more. A fleeting feeling of conflict grew within him whether to help the girl or immediately flee. He hesitated but inevitably decided to help her. Though recently awakened, the boy still had the strength to spare and carried the girl on piggyback.
Without turning back or even glancing at the monitor nearby the boy and the girl went on their way.
Cryptosleep suspender 0269: Luna (Failed)
Inside the already red-lit room, the two beings struggle to escape this unknown place.
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“Yes. The operation has begun. Extraction process is currently underway.” a husky voice of a man sounded as he spoke through an earpiece. The man accompanied with a full packed platoon looked towards one of his subordinates as he ended the comms.
“How long until the extraction process is complete?”, the man asked.
“Captian Svere, there has been a delay in extraction even with the malware our cyberweb sent through the system. It will take a while for us to break down its defenses. Should we begin breaching inside the facilities sir?” the soldier reported.
“No. Even with the intel we bought from those merchants and the cyberweb we are unsure if there is no hard-coded self-destruct sequence programmed into the system.” Captain Svere said sternly.
'If I move my men incorrectly and that damned decrepit glitterworld system does trigger a suicide sequence, our Alterra faction’s losses cannot be measured.' Captain Svere thought.
'To hell with this! To think the leader is gambling on an abandoned site! What use is there on ransacking this place? The owners would’ve long since retrieved anything valuable if they had half a brain.' Captain Svere mused to himself hiding his displeasure with the operation.
“We shall wait for the extraction to finish! All units on standby! For Alterra!”, Captain Svere shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Pillaging the Stars! Hail Alterra! Death to the Sentient Strays!”, the units shouted in unison.