T3ST Colony, June 22, 1000 Solar Era
Xeight opened his eyes as his cubicle brightened up. He felt the warmth of Jen’s lithe form glued to his body, her head resting against his shoulder, her light brown hair with blonde streaks softly brushing against his neck. Peeling back the covers, he ran his eyes down her bare form and couldn’t resist running a hand up her smooth ivory thighs.
“Mmm.” Jen woke up at his touch. They continued lying in bed for a few minutes. “Say. What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing much.” Xeight returned his gaze back to the brightening artificial sunlight from the ceiling. “I was just thinking of what you said. About finding a path forward to guarantee a future where I can mine asteroids in peace.”
“Yes.” Jen inched her lips closer to Xeight’s right ear and whispered, “Your elders chose the current course of action. So, war is inevitable. You just need to find a path that leads out of it! So… have you thought of seriously participating?”
“No,” Xeight replied. “It’s pointless, is it not? If we lose, we will become terran’s lab rats again. If we win, terrans would hate us and the martians would fear our existence as a nexarm unit, a colony that needs to be controlled.”
“But… I would have far more data to advance my neurotech research.” Jen even began licking Xeight’s ear with her tongue in a circular motion.
Perhaps a couple in a normal relationship would have jumped into a huge argument at this point, but Xeight only lightly gripped the woman’s neck with his left hand and gently pushed her head away to halt her licking motion. Jen’s puppy-dog eyes made it difficult for even such a tender rejection.
Over the past five months, Xeight had realized that Jen was a cuckoo genius. Based on the responses of others within the colony, Xeight also recognized that he himself was somewhat unhinged as well. At least in the eyes of the others. He had more or less been pelted by his compatriots with queries on why he was happy to just live his life away mining asteroids daily.
Others might feel used, but Xeight was fully aware that although Jen was partially drawn to him because of her crazed search to further develop neurotech, she could also have gotten adequate data without jumping in bed with him.
She had stuck to her word of ensuring that the Nexarm unit he had been operating would maintain asteroid mining functions. She even had to face his father, the Grand Elder Enine, to explain her actions.
As for himself? Xeight felt that only Jen truly understood his stubbornness. The desire to continue his asteroid mining task without a worry in the world.
Regardless, to outsiders, their relationship was certainly wacky if not outright deranged.
The two climbed out of their bed pod and dressed in their form-fitting spacesuits.
Xeight activated his neuro circlet system and a holographic device lit up and began displaying information in multiple formats. This information was shared by the Grand Elder of the T3ST Colony every morning.
Xeight found himself stupefied as he witnessed a speech from James MacLeod.
“I am James MacLeod, of the Earth Federation Nexarm Special Force. As the leader of this unit, I hereby announce our departure to space to protect our bounty from the belt! We have completed our mission of rescuing civilians in Warsaw. We will continue protecting the Earth and her people! Long live the Earth Federation!”
Nine figures in exosuits saluted alongside the man at the camera.
Xeight swung his head and gazed into Jen’s eyes.
“You want me to pilot the nexarm and face your cousin in battle?”
“...” Jen was rather troubled, and quietly whispered, “He wasn’t meant to lead a Nexarm unit! My family’s leaders had denied him multiple times! I… I don’t know what he’s thinking!”
“Will you be withdrawing your support then?” Xeight had been notified that Jen was of the dissident faction within the MacLeod family. However, literally providing technical support and development to a group of nexarms that would often target lock onto said family member was taking it to the next level.
“I haven’t received any reprisal or rebuke from my family’s leaders to cease my activities…” Jen was distraught in revelation. “That can only mean that James has been… abandoned.”
Xeight wasn’t sure of what to make of it all. Despite Jen’s explanations, he found the MacLeod family’s method of operation rather perplexing. She was supposedly of the dissident faction and yet did not receive any rebuke for her aiding the T3ST Colony. Then, the MacLeod family was the support behind Neurorevo…who equipped them with weapons. He assumed this must be the work of the dissident faction too. What are the motives of the primary faction?
Perhaps if he spoke to James MacLeod, the supposedly abandoned son of the family, he would gain an understanding.
“What does being abandoned even mean?”
“It means the family will not save him. Or protect him. Or find fault in the other party if he were to… fall.”
Perhaps the MacLeods simply did not wish to appear in public as an active participant in the war, Xeight figured.
The two left Xeight’s living unit and winded through the silvery white metallic corridors to meet Grand Elder Enine. They had been somewhat discreet in their activities, but the T3ST colony’s members operated numerous sensory devices daily-- the whole colony shortly gained awareness of their… questionable relationship.
Although Jen had been cleared by the council of elders, the colony’s members remained vigilant and suspicious. As for Xeight? Although he received some funny looks, his compatriots remained friendly towards him. He was one of them, one of their own. This was the nature of the T3ST colony. Some even chose to believe that he was only keeping a close eye on the ‘MacLeod bitch’. Some even whispered into Xeight’s ears to ‘punish the bitch for her ancestors’ gene manipulation transgressions in bed’.
Grand Elder Enine was fully aware of all the words flying in the T3ST colony. He gazed at Xeight, Jen, Bone and Yfour who now appeared before him. Though his face remained serene, his head was hurting.
He had originally wanted Xeight to distance himself from the woman. Yet, he knew Xeight to be like a stubborn old man. Then, Jen had promised to try to convince Xeight to participate in the war. The T3ST colony would have a much better chance with Xeight in a nexarm. Thus, Grand Elder Enine found himself… utterly unable to intervene in the two’s activities.
Bone was his much more obedient son, easily convinced to participate in the war. He was even filled with an aggressive zest for action, and often practiced with the newly arrived nexarm unit assigned to him. Yet, Grand Elder was also troubled by this. He was worried that the martians might induce Bone to perform some form of ill-conceived action.
If only he could combine the personalities of Bone and Xeight… was his self-deprecating thought of himself as a failure of a father.
As for Yfour? he knew of her nightly activities with Bone. They were adoptive siblings, so there were no issues gene-wise… But Yfour had a bad habit of going along with Bone’s choices. He had hoped that she would become more like the other wise women in the council, and keep Bone and Xeight in check.
Grand Elder Enine inwardly sighed as he placed four exosuits before the four young adults before him.
“Here are the newly-received exosuits. They are equipped with eight highly maneuverable, flexible and durable spider arms, as well as mini-turret systems and e-cube energy docks for ray weapons and the sort. The spider-arms, under proper control, can block most projectile weapons.”
Bone, Xeight and Yfour wore their exosuits and began experimenting with the functions. Xeight soon found himself climbing the walls of the elders’ rocky chamber with the eight spider-arms.
“Xeight! Can I… observe?” Jen shot her man puppy-dog eyes, her go-to move when she really wanted something from Xeight. She was far more interested in Xeight’s manipulation of the exosuit than the actual testing of the exosuit herself.
Grand Elder Enine could only pretend to be oblivious as Jen happily indulged herself with neurologically observing Xeight’s control of the exosuit’s functions.
“Has Xeight agreed?” Enine questioned as he looked to the side, not wishing to acknowledge Jen’s ecstatic indulgence.
“No…”
“I can hear you, father,” Xeight interrupted. “Don’t you dare pressure her to convince me!”
“Younger brother. War is here! Stop being stubborn. We’ll take the fight to the terrans and earn our freedom!”
“It won’t be any better with the martians!”
“Well, Xeight.” Grand Elder Enine put a hold before the siblings' discussions could escalate. “We only have four nexarm units, so I will be placing another pilot into your unit.”
“Very well.” To Enine’s surprise, Xeight was not baited into piloting the nexarm unit into war.
Enine could only sigh in defeat.
“Father. The Earth Federation Nexarm Special Force has ten.”
“Yes, well,” Enine waved to dismiss Xeight’s concern. “The martians have four units as well. Our strength with the neuro circlet system will be enough to overcome that minor gap. Xeight. come along anyway.”
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“Why?”
“By the stars!” Enine slammed his hand onto the council of elders round table. “In case you change your mind!” He hadn’t quite admitted defeat yet after all.
“I’ll be there.” When Xeight ceased being a spider on the walls, Jen wrapped her hands around the neck of his exosuit.
Once again, Grand Elder Enine remained expressionlessly oblivious. To think he’d find himself relying on this woman to convince Xeight to even board the battleship.
She did end up successful in this endeavor.
“The ship might need to recover resources along the journey. You could always jump in a nexarm in between the battles to assist with replenishing those resources, you know? There are also many lesser units even if the nexarm is under use!”
Grand Elder Enine inwardly berated himself for not coming up with the argument that Jen had convinced Xeight with.
They traveled to the dock and strode briskly across a walkway into the humongous polygonal tube that was the battleship.
There were already many T3ST colony workers within. A few hundred of them would be operating the ship, while the T3ST colony would soon go dark with the other remaining thousand plus members and operate as a resource gathering base in the belt.
The average terran could operate six neuro devices. The genetically augmented descendents in the T3ST Colony could operate fourteen to sixteen on average, at the cost of a shortened lifespan. With even less than a hundred, they could perfectly maintain this battleship’s functions. A few hundred having boarded the ship was more than enough.
Although Xeight originally did not wish to board the battleship, he could not deny its beauty upon setting his eyes on it.
The battleship was a shining black pearl. It had a central decagon tube, with additional half-polygonal tubes jutting out of its surfaces.
“Weapon system test!” An engineer shouted.
Numerous x-alloy plates slid open and many turret, torpedo, missile, projectile systems popped up before Xeight’s eyes. His sensory systems notified him that there should be over a hundred of these weapon systems.
Bone began laughing maniacally at the sight of these weapons. “Xeight. Do you still worry?”
“I do. The terrans will have access to such systems too.”
“Hmph. We have grown up training with these devices. Brother! We will be much more effective controlling the neuro circlet systems. A system on a similar scale guarantees our victory!”
They entered the decagonal tube and found the original grand elder already waiting for them, with a youngster beside him.
“Grand Elder Zseven.”
“It’s just Zseven now. I’m retired.” Though his bald head and flat demeanor appeared half-dead, his eyes brightened with joy upon seeing Xeight, Bone and Yfour. “Welcome, children.”
“Grandfather.” The three intoned simultaneously.
“We became adults months ago!” Yfour pouted.
Zseven was the one who raised Enine. He rather spoiled his three grandchildren, though he was often occupied as the Grand Elder before his retirement. The three had only fond memories of this grandfather entertaining them when younger.
“Well, you all need to stay professional.” Zseven ordered Yfour to behave herself. “The martians are not at all that happy with our lack of discipline.”
The terrans often sent observers, such as James MacLeod, to keep an eye on the T3ST colony. The martians had provided combat training to the members in a secret area, but if they were to actually instill military discipline, any visiting terran observer would notice the change in behavior of the colony’s members in a single glance. Children trained in such a manner would not be able to mask that sort of training. Thus, the T3ST colony functioned very much like an informal and hastily put together civilian unit in a sudden war.
“This is Asix. I’m sorry Xeight. But every Nexarm counts.” Zseven did not berate Xeight for his choice. Zseven had seen enough in his lifetime to know the type of man that Xeight was.
“I understand, grandfather.” Xeight nodded. He patted Asix’s shoulders before tapping his own brows. “Best of luck. May the stars be with you.”
Asix nodded. The two occasionally bumped into each other on the colony and had an amicable relationship. However, they resided in different sections of the colony, and as such, had no deep camaraderie.
“Asix. Go ahead and get yourself adapted to the nexarm unit.”
Asix nodded and promptly departed towards the docking bay for the nexarms.
“Now, Xeight. I plan to have you control the central neuro unit for this battleship.”
“But--”
“No buts.” Zseven was firm. “Look around you. These are your fellow T3ST colony family members. What do you think would happen to them if the ship were to fall? I can understand you not wishing to… kill James MacLeod. He is not to blame for the existence of our colony.”
“But this here.” They had reached the bridge, coming into full view of the many operating members of the T3ST colony. “This is your family. Do you understand, son?!”
Xeight found himself unable to deny his grandfather. His grandfather had alway doted on him, but very much brought the hammer down on certain issues. When he brought the hammer down, it was also accompanied by irrefutable reasoning.
He could only nod.
“Grand Elder! I mean.. Senior Zseven!” Asix’s panicked voice echoed down the halls into the bridgehead.
The group turned around somewhat befuddled. Asix was meant to test himself out and connect to the nexarm that Xeight originally used.
Asix was panting, his hands on his knees after sprinting the whole way to the bridgehead.
“Senior! The Nexarm won’t respond!”
“What do you mean? Won’t respond?”
“I… I don’t know. It won’t respond! I tested the other unit-- that one responded!”
“Lead the way.”
The perplexed group followed Asix to the docking bay for the nexarm units.
Xeight soon found himself resting his eyes upon the nexarm unit that had accompanied him on countless asteroid mining operations. It had become a rather odd-looking unit in appearance.
It was a mishmash of mining functions combined with combat functions. Though it looked incongruent, there was a hard-to-describe mechanized half-shod beauty to it. It was best described to look like a warrior that had been through many battles, back to plant the crops for his family on a farm.
“I call your unit the Chimera,” giggled Jen. “I think it’s a great name!”
Xeight barely thwarted his own lips from breaking into a wide smile; meanwhile, Asix appeared to be pulling his hair out to the roots.
Asix entered Xeight’s chimerical nexarm unit, and his voice reverberated out of the entry hole.
“The energy source is on, but the unit simply won’t respond to any of my input!”
The Nexarm certainly stayed stationary. How odd. Xeight clearly remembered the unit in perfect condition, responding to his every neuro command just a few days ago.
Senior Zseven climbed into the cockpit as well. A few minutes later, the elderly man descended from the wire to the cockpit.
“Xeight.” He pointed at the cockpit.
Xeight nodded and entered the cockpit. When he connected to the Nexarm, the machine whirred into action as it shifted its arms in its docked standing position. The machine felt the same as ever, the same as every single time he had used it for asteroid mining in the past.
He had been designated as the Nexarm’s primary user once he was identified as the most skilled neuro circlet system user, but in the past, others had often piloted the unit for mining purposes as well, with no issues.
The fact that Asix and Senior Zseven failed to activate the Nexarm was extremely puzzling.
“Jen MacLeod.” Zseven narrowed his eyes. “Your turn.”
Jen could only control fourteen neuro devices. High for your average Terran, but barely average compared to the T3ST colony’s citizens.
Though bewildered, Jen boarded the Nexarm, and to her surprise, the Nexarm responded to her commands!
In response to this information, Senior Zseven beckoned a few engineers over.
“Perform a factory reset on the AI running this nexarm unit,” he ordered. “No. Actually, wipe the current AI and reinstall the system. And Jen MacLeod-- you will not be participating.”
“Father…” Grand Elder Enine muttered. “I highly doubt the girl would have been able to tamper with the AI in any form, with so many of our engineers working with her and quality checking the nexarm unit’s every modification.”
“We’ll know soon.”
The engineers were quick. Just after ten minutes, the testing continued.
Asix popped in once again-- the unit did not respond to his commands.
Xeight in the pilot seat? The nexarm unit worked perfectly.
Bone was someone who had used the nexarm unit quite a few times. He entered the cockpit only to find that the unit did not listen to his commands anymore-- he felt as if he was trying to propagate sound through airless space.
“I really didn’t do anything!” Jen began proclaiming anxiously. She was aware that many in the colony did not fully trust her. “The engineers working with me can attest to that!”
Asix was the most suspicious-- or perhaps, the older Zseven and Enine was simply better at masking their suspicion. As for Xeight, Bone and Yfour? They were thoroughly confused by the current situation. Xeight had fully expected another willing to fight, to occupy the nexarm unit he had admittedly grown attached to.
“Senior.” An engineer had opened a model of the functioning pattern of the AIs on their four nexarms. “There is zero difference between this malfunctioning nexarm and the other three functioning ones.”
“Keep investigating. I will settle these youngsters first.”
The group was thoroughly silent as Zseven brought the newcomers to their assigned bedrooms.
A door recognized Xeight’s identity and slid open into a room with a sleeping pod within, many useful sensory and motor devices, and also quite a lot of generic entertainment devices, for example, a holographic device that played 3D movies.
“Jen MacLeod. Follow me and Senior Zseven to the chamber of elders.” Enine beckoned to the young lady.
Soon, Enine, Zseven and Jen returned to an area close to the bridge, and entered a room. This room was originally meant to be a lounge for military officers of the ship to take a breather in, but the T3ST Colony was no military organization. Thus, they had altered this lounge into a chamber for the elders to discuss rather important matters. Of the twelve elders, four of them would be on this ship, along with the Grand Elder Enine and the retired Zseven.
“Jen MacLeod. Do you have an explanation?”
“I truly did not do anything to the unit.”
“No. I’m asking for your theories on this malfunction.”
Enine performed this ‘interrogation’ while Zseven observed from the side.
Jen had certainly pondered this issue when the other newcomers were being dropped off to their quarters on the ship.
“The only possibility I can come up with right now is… perhaps the unit’s hardware-- the very core central neuro sphere had gotten so used to Xeight’s input over the years that well, it might find another’s neuro signal input to be dull or insufficient. A type of wear and tear, so the speak.”
“Yet you could activate the unit, no?”
That was the most perplexing aspect of the malfunction. Jen herself only had fourteen neuro channels, and yet, the unit had responded to her. Jen already had a possible explanation prepared.
“I may only have fourteen device channels, but I do know that my brain does have a strong neuro signal. A slightly stronger neuro signal has never mattered ever, so this might just be a… special situation.”
Both Zseven and Enine bowed their heads in quiet contemplation.
At length, Zseven waved his hand and dismissed the young woman, and Jen MacLeod returned to her own quarters.
“Enine. We cannot allow Xeight to pilot any of the ship’s functions, defensive or otherwise. Asix will be switched to being the main coordinator on the ship, unless we resolve this current issue.”
Although Enine was the new Grand Elder, he was more than happy to follow this advice of his retired father.
Zseven did not retire early for no reason-- this elderly man might appear half-dead, but he still had some life left on his legs. He had retired early to serve as the leader of the nexarm unit on this ship. He was putting his life on the line to protect and lead the newest generation. The newest generation, though on average more stable and stronger, lacked the wisdom that he had. He saw this as his final duty, as a godfather figure to so many in the T3ST Colony!