“Attention!”
Athena saluted alongside eight other members, all in space combat exosuits. Combined with James MacLeod, their Nexarm special unit consisted of a total of ten members. The primary recruiting policy for the Nexarm unit was the number of neuro devices that could be controlled by said member. The secondary requirement was that they had to have already received military training-- the Nexarm Unit needed to be ready to enter the fray.
James MacLeod could control twenty-six. Athena could now stably control twenty, up to thirty-six for a brief period if she pushed herself. Will Kyle,American descent, twenty-two devices. Olivia Gonzalez, Argentinian descent, eighteen devices. David Levy, Israeli descent, twenty devices. Liu Long, Chinese descent, twenty-two devices. Arianna Bellucci, Italian descent, twenty-four devices. Cliupatra Saad, Egyptian descent, twenty devices. Igor Smirnov, Russian descent, eighteen devices. Cyrus Amiri, Iranian descent, eighteen devices.
The average number of devices that the population could control were six to eight, as such, every individual in the group was already exceptional. Most of them were at the very least slightly older than Athena-- Athena herself barely made the cut, having just reached the end of her training tenure.
As for actual combat experience? There had been no war for a thousand years. Those who were in the martian fleet and have had skirmishes with pirates in the belt… they had long defected to Mars.
“Our original plan was to spend our final month training in space.” They had already trained in special underwater facilities that somewhat simulated space. “However! Extenuating circumstances has changed our deployment priority. It will be delayed.”
“High command will send us to ground zero of the Warsaw asteroid impact. Our role is to rescue any civilians. The central area of the city has already been vaporized, but areas further away need our help.”
“I will state that I do not fully agree with high command’s choice of action. But I also recognized the value of such action. Your goal is straightforward. We will connect the Nexarm core to many rescue related devices. Demonstrate our Nexarm team’s role as Earth’s savior. Demonstrate EFSF’s strength. Elevate the Earth Federation in the hearts of the people. We will launch in four hours after our visit to the Rebirth Bunker. Dismissed!”
The unit’s members began leaving, but James waved for Athena and Will Kyle to his side. James projected a holographic screen and flicked information to the two.
“Lieutenant and Special Ensign. Vet our reserve team.”
Will and Athena skimmed through the information on many potential backup and fill-in members.
“This girl is interesting. Apparently, she has a thing for blonde nobles.” Athena herself never reacted well to being vetted. However, now that she was the one participating in said vetting… She couldn’t resist poking fun at James, who she increasingly respected as a sort of older brother. James MacLeod was the closest thing to a blonde noble in modern days. The MacLeod family was behind Neurorevo.
“Reject her. We cannot have any elements that potentially disrupt our unit’s chemistry.” James was not provoked by Athena’s joke. Will was barely holding back a chuckle, his facial muscles tightened to maintain a neutral expression.
To be honest, Athena was not sure why she was placed in a position to vet the reserve team. It was likely something to do with the neuro passionates that seemingly supported her at every turn…
________________________________________________________________________
Rebirth Bunker, Pacific City, 15 June, 1000 Solar Era.
The team soon arrived at the Rebirth Bunker, a high security military facility. They entered an elevator that descended fifty floors downwards.
When they finally arrived at their location, Athena’s eyes came upon a squeamish sight. They were in a laboratory with many tube containers, each containing a different body. Athena was shocked to recognize the body of President Varoufakis floating within one of the containers.
“Oh! Welcome back, Oliver!” A man in a white coat walking past greeted Olivia Gonzalez. “Oh… I apologize, I meant Olivia.” He quickly corrected himself.
Olivia beamed and thanked the man, who busily marched away to his destination.
“Now,” James gestured to the group. “The technicians will collect your DNA sample and grow a physical body for every single one of us. Junior Lieutenant Gonzalez has been here before, so if you have any curiosities, she will be able to explain the whole process.”
The group followed a lab technician into a white room, while James MacLeod walked off elsewhere and began familiarly chatting with a number of technicians.
“So…” Liu Long’s gaze wandered around for a few seconds. “If our bodies are severely injured to the point the nanobots cannot help us recover, we essentially… transfer our brains to a grown body?”
“Yes.” Olivia’s eyes glittered, barely containing her joy. “It will be a quick recovery! Since your brain shares the exact same DNA, it’s simply a matter of reconnecting the nerves, a long perfected technology!”
“Now, if your DNA was used to create a body, and that initial cell influenced to develop into twins of different sex, then you even have the option of,” Olivia winked at Athena. “Switching to the opposite sex.”
In the Nexarm unit, Olivia was the one that Athena had gotten along with the best.
“Athena. If you switched to male, I’d be willing to date you!” Olivia joked. “You might need more time to recover from the adaptation to the new body of the different sex though. Though of the same DNA, the body will be a bit too different.”
“Sorry.” Athena brushed a strand of her copper hair behind her right ear then monotonously stated, “I think I’m into men.”
“Same!” giggled Olivia in response.
The unit’s other members were far less jovial. Many of them had frowns etched into their brows.
“So… Can someone steal and impersonate my identity?!” David Levy shook his head in disapproval. “This is some fucked-up shit.” He began murmuring a religious scripture.
“No,” Olivia denied that possibility. “It’s impossible especially with biometric data. This technology is tightly controlled, and even if someone were to get transplanted into your body, the difference in DNA would cause all sorts of problems. Aligning the different brain to different body is also a neurobody dissonant issue that cannot be resolved. Then, there is the fact that every individual walks differently with a unique gait.”
“You all know of Leticia, that famous singer? Have you ever wondered how she looks exactly the same as ten, twenty years ago?”
Realization dawned on everyone’s faces. Some of them had thought it was just simply surgery, but the use of such surgery was easily proven with modern day facial analysis available for all neuro circlet users. Leticia was such a case.
“This isn’t foolproof. I want you all to know that.” James had returned unannounced. “If your brain is damaged, you won’t be saved by this facility. The Nexarm cockpit has protocols to protect the brain from losing oxygen, but this technology, though not spoken of in public, is known to the military. This is one of the reasons why nanobots that target the brain exist. This is why a headshot is a true killing blow.”
Their DNA taken and their backup lives somewhat preserved, the unit returned to the surface and arrived at the EFSF airfield.
Ten large Nexarm units were already being loaded into ten thick cargo planes.
James MacLeod had sent all the members additional information on the unit’s coordination during their arrival at ground zero Warsaw.
“I understand this may be distasteful. High Command has given the order that we need to put on a bit of a show. Let us be about it and get this over with.”
____________________________________________________________________________
Devastated Warsaw, June 15, 1000 Solar Era
Ten navy blue cargo planes flew in a perfect arrow formation.
ETA in ten minutes.
The unit’s members all simultaneously looked out their plane windows. Although they were each on a different cargo plane, all of them simultaneously gasped in horror.
Warsaw was not nothing but a humongous crater. The closer one looked to the edge of the crater, the more collapsed structures one could see. The center of the crater was more or less flat, with everything leveled and vaporized.
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Nexarm drop in five minutes.
Athena took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. She entered the Nexarm’s cockpit and secured herself in preparation for the drop. The cockpit filled with a gelatinous fluid that would serve to absorb any force on the human body.
She believed James to be wrong in his assessment. In her eyes, this mission was pivotal. Not for the Nexarm unit, but for the people of Warsaw that still remained on the edges of the destruction.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Nexarm drop initiated.
All ten cargo bays opened, and ten Nexarms slid out simultaneously as the ten cargo planes tilted upwards at an angle.
The ten Nexarms fell in perfect synchronization. The ten cargo planes then lowered their velocity and began dropping many crates of neuro devices slightly behind them.
Deploying parachute.
When they were a thousand meters above ground, ten gargantuan parachutes simultaneously opened.
However, that was not enough to decrease their falling speed. Right before ground level, the ten Nexarms simultaneously blasted energy from their chest, and they seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds.
A resounding boom then filled the ears as the Nexarms finally landed with one knee bent, sending dust careening into the cameras that had already been informed of their landing spot at the very center of the crater.
The crates also landed with the assistance of parachutes, and automatically opened into medical, drilling, construction tools that could be used to rescue any civilians that remained trapped.
Athena’s sensory systems found many tent groups around their landing spot. Civilians had chosen to lay tents out on the flat crater area as some of them assisted with the rescue, while some had nowhere to go.
These civilians came out of their tents, and the first sight they saw were the ten towering Nexarms, each twenty meters tall, followed by on average, twenty devices that rolled behind them.
Sunlight gleamed off the metallic hulls of each Nexarm, and one could not help but be drawn to the phoenix coat of arms on each Nexarm’s chest, shoulders and back. The fiery illustration had its tail wrapped around the letters ‘EFSF’ in a sea of red and orange.
The Polish President Zielinski stood on top of a tank and welcomed them with a salute.
All ten Nexarms saluted in return with a whirl of electric release from their artificial muscles
They then formed a circle, each facing outwards, and began marching forth to different locations followed by their neuro rescue devices.
The small civilian crowd cheered before one began chanting.
“Death to the martians! Death to the martians!!”
This chant quickly infected the whole crowd, their voices reverberating within the hole that is the crater.
“Raise a fist,” ordered Special Lieutenant MacLeod. “In three, two, one, raise!”
The ten Nexarms simultaneously raised a fist pump into the air as lens devices captured the scene with innumerable flashes.
A young boy reached his hand skyward towards the face of Athena’s Nexarm, and Athena responded with a nod of the head. Every single step of the Nexarms rumbled and rippled the earth, but this was not the sound of fear--not to the remaining civilians. To these weary civilians who had lost their city, the shaking of the ground from the weight of the Nexarm was the sound of hope and vengeance!
________________________________________________________________________
Athena would spend the next few days in her assigned section. Using the many devices attached and assisted by the AI calculations, Athena would successfully open passages, free trapped civilians without further collapsing structures. They would receive immediate treatment from the portable medical bay.
On the second day, an unannounced visitor arrived.
Unknown aircraft approaching.
“Orders, sir?”
“Soildiers. I have already identified their origins.” James’ voice sounded into their units. “Stand down. They are of the Kasvallian Group. Observe.”
“Nine… snakes?”
“No.” Athena also had a holographic image of the approaching aircraft. “It’s a hydra.” She didn’t know the Kasvallian Group used this logo. At least, the group had a different one in the past.
The aircraft landed on a makeshift runway that had been cleared in the central area of the crater.
Zielinski walked forth, and was surprised to see the man descending down the mobile staircase that had connected to the aircraft’s door.
“Welcome, Vezna de Lerna!” Zielinski was overjoyed to have such an important visitor.
Vezna de Lerna had silvery hair framing a pale ivory face. His sharp sapphire eyes meticulously observed his surroundings before he greeted Zielinski with a firm shake of the hand.
“President Zielinski. I am here to personally deliver relief aid from the Kasvallian Group. As leader of my group, I felt it imperative for me to visit and understand the true nature of this devastation.”
“Thank you! Thank you!!” President Zielinski shook Vezna’s hand like a madman. Vezna did not seem bothered by it. He had a small and pitying smile as he gazed at Zielinski before him.
With a wave of his hand, workers began emptying many different technologies out of the aircraft. Food printing machines, crates full of e-cubes, water tanks, more automatons that had different specialized functions and more.
“President Zielinski. The Kasvallian Group is also willing to help you rebuild your city.”
These words shocked Zielinski to the core. He began crying tears of joy. He had received some aid from other nations as well as the Earth Federation. However, none of those had included an offer to rebuild any major parts of the city.
Zielinski had initially assumed he would receive no assistance from the Kasvallian Group. Five months ago, the Group’s prices had skyrocketed, damaging their customer base. Yet, in the past few months, the prices of the Kasvallian-related group had astonishingly plummeted to even lower than the produce from the other seven orbital colonies.
This price swing had made Zielinski believe that the Kasvallian group was facing some form of instability. Now that Vezna had offered to provide real assistance in rebuilding Warsaw, Zielinski happily accepted.
Zielinski proceeded to introduce a number of his new ministers to Vezna. Many had died in the asteroid impact.
When lunchtime came around, Athena noticed a buggy heading towards her. She had locked her Nexarm’s hand in a position that allowed her to consume her meal in the sun and breeze.
“Magnify.”
Her sensory devices followed her orders, and she gazed upon the approaching Vezna de Lerna. She had come to learn of his identity from the information the James MacLeod sent to the Nexarm units. This man was, in all aspects, exceptional. He was but slightly over thirty and yet had already come into control of the Kasvallian Group.
The buggy came to a stop before Athena’s Nexarm and Vezna hopped off the vehicle. Athena initially assumed that this man would behave in a somewhat conceited manner, but she was proven wrong. Vezna was clearly approaching her Nexarm unit with curiosity. Yet this man who was the head of the Kasvallian Group did not demand her to descend from the Nexarm’s hand to converse with him. Instead, he shot a magnetic pulley onto the shoulder of her Nexarm, and skillfully pulled himself up.
“Miss. Do you mind?”
Athena shrugged her indifference. Vezna beamed and retrieved a sandwich from his breast pocket.
“Miss Watanabee. I’m glad to have gotten the chance to meet you,” Vezna said after finishing his sandwich.
“Likewise,” Athena replied. “I never expected the leader of the Kasvallian Group to be so… casual with his station.”
“Hah! Miss Watanabe. You are said to be the first true transhuman. It would be disrespectful for me to think of myself as…more.”
Athena was speechless. Only neuro passionates spoke like this. She never expected the leader of the Kasvallian Group to be something of a neuro passionate.
“I apologize if I’ve misspoken, Miss Watanabe.” Vezna gazed into the vast crater dreamily. “You know. When I first came here, I thought there would be horror and terror in every corner of the city. Instead…this vast expanse feels almost…beautiful. Earth as nature intended.”
“Don’t misunderstand me,” the man added. “Warsaw was a wondrous city as well. And, it will be again.”
“Mmm” Athena muttered. “I would have liked to have visited Warsaw before the impact.”
“Well. Miss Watanabe. Perhaps you might not take me seriously because of my belief in the concept of transhumanism. But I heard you’ve gotten stronger. You could only control nine of each, a total of eighteen neuro devices before. I observed twenty earlier on.”
“You’ll understand me soon enough. When you enter space, your mind will expand in a three dimensional manner. You will find yourself rising to new heights, a peak of human growth and evolution.”
“I would welcome you at the Kasvallian orbital colony. It, too, is an exemplification of humanity’s growth, a stunning achievement of human history.”
“I have no doubt that it would be a wondrous experience.” Athena agreed-- she had seen images and video recordings of the colonies, but truly stepping on one would be a lifetime experience. Unlike her, the majority of terrans preferred having rock solid ground beneath their feet.
Vezna had a twinkle in his eye as he lowered himself off Athena’s Nexarm, and returned to his buggy. A goodbye wave and the buggy returned towards the aircraft that had delivered the relief aid.
Athena observed the leaving Vezna, his silvery mid-length tousled hair floating in the wind. She had certainly been pleasantly surprised by the nature of this man.
She finished her lunch and returned to Nexarm. Their mission here would continue for up to a week. As for after that-- it would be rather unlikely for any trapped survivors to still be alive past that point.
__________________________________________________________________________
Lodz, Poland, June 22, 1000 Solar Era
Luckily, this city, relatively close to Warsaw, remained functional, and was equipped with Earth-to-Space facilities.
Athena’s spaceship began accelerating along the Startram’s maglev system, and she felt the angle growing steeper as the spaceship tilted upwards.
Reaching end of launch rail. Initiating scramjet engines.
Athena felt a kick and the spaceship further accelerated again as a whistling sound echoed within the ship.
Initiating e-cube boosters for final stage into space.
When the spaceship achieved a certain altitude, the e-cube boosters ignited. Another kick and Athena could feel an increasing upward force sending her spaceship into space.
All parameters stable. Setting course for the EFSS.
Athena could still feel the butterflies in her stomach. Although she had gone through incredibly realistic simulations through the neuro circlet system, the knowledge that this was a hundred percent real, mattered.
When she looked downwards through her visor at the diminishing cerulean blue Earth with verdant lands that stretch beyond its curvature, she felt a deep desire to protect this globe that birthed humanity. Yes. She was right to join the EFSF. Any who threatened it would face her wrath. This, she swore.