“You can’t catch me!” shouted Henry through our coms channel as I chased him through Erak plaza, dexterly dodging in between piles of trash in ways that only us children could.
“Yes, I can!” I said in between my rebreathed breaths. We often used the masks to reenact deeper voices from our favorite movies. Like that one scene of Darth Mum from sun wars “Psss, Ekul I am your mother!”
Not for the first did I curse Henry’s running ability.
I Ran to the left and ducked in between the opened crack of an old corroded store corner, momentarily losing Henry out of sight. Once I reached my destination I came to a stop, took a breath, and waited.
Five seconds later my hand struck out to claim my prize.
“Your it!” I shouted triumphantly. I couldn’t see Henry’s face but I didn’t have to imagine the shock he must have felt as he stood stock still, giving me a headstart.
Sadly Henry quickly recovered, now he was the Hunter and I the prey.
We exchanged roles frequently as we exploited the terrain to our advantage, me through intelligence and Henry through his speed and reflexes.
I could feel the exhaustion catch up to me.
Just a little bit more and then I’ve won! I assured myself, despite the lack of any other rules we set.
As I rounded the corner I felt the need to duck, and had I not done so my head would have been crushed, as the mutated rat quickly turned around and prepared for another strike.
My legs clamped up, my heart pounded in my ears and my eyes could not look away from the mutated horror who wanted to have lunch. I was too tired, not even a scream could leave my throat.
As the monster’s maw opened wide I closed my eyes.
I’m sorry Mom, for sneaking out, I’m sorry Dad for not listening to your lectures, I’m sorry Xander for stealing your access card, I’m sorry, I promise to do better, so please help!
But I knew they wouldn’t come. The expected squelch was even worse than I had imagined, luckily I could not feel the impact. And then the scream that would haunt my nightmares came. Quickly opening my eyes to see my own doom I saw Henry’s right hand dangling in between the monster's jaw.
Henry tried to fight the monster as he screamed.
My body rocked forward, powered by a cocktail of fear, adrenaline, and desperation. My foot propelled ahead to meet the three sacks of squishy meat dangling beneath the monster. When contact was made I had no time to check how many sacks remained. I grabbed Henry by his left hand and called my mom and dad, all the while Henry kept on screaming.
“Jason! Jason!, Jason!!”
Opening my eyes I could see Henry standing over me whilst shouting my name. His short blond hair covered parts of his cybernetic implants. He had grown into the engineer suit over the years, it now fit him quite well, though I would never tell him that.
“How many fingers am I holding up” asked Henry whilst holding up his right hand.
“Six.”
“Hmm seems you’re alright after your little beauty sleep.”
“Fuck off Henry. ”
Henry flipped me off with two of his six mechanical fingers on his right hand.
I sighed. “I should have made the hand have five fingers..”
“Nah, once you go six there’s no going back.”
“It’s only you who shares that sentiment.”
Henry grinned “Me and Linda.”
I made a gagging noise, “DON’T. WANT. TO. KNOW.”
He just kept grinning.
“So how long was I out for?” I asked in a bit to change the topic.
“Only Five hours, it took a bit longer than expected but everything seems fine, why don’t you try to access the A.V. System now?”
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No rest for the productive.
I opened my internal UI and searched for the A.V. system, it took all but a few seconds to find it.
[A.V. CHIP 108055 - COLONIZATION TYPE CHIP]
My mind sent the next command “Execute chip program.”
[Executing chip program 108055]
[Creating User profile]
[Race: Augmented-Human | Gender: Male | Age: 25 | Name: Jason El Rafar | Occupation: (Temporary) Planetary Ruler]
[User profile is now locked in, This chip is now inaccessible to other users as agreed upon by the Terran Coalition under Rule 42]
[Booting up COLONIZATION systems]
[Adminstration System - Status: ONLINE]
[Construction System - Status: ONLINE]
[Management System - Status: ONLINE]
[!!ERROR!! CAN NOT ACCESS ALL DATA!]
[Validating chip data]
[Chip integrity - Integrity at 50%]
[Initiating Repair.exe]
[Estimating Repair time…]
[Repair time: ???]
[Repair progress 1%]
“Can I access the three COLONIZATION systems while repairs are underway?”
[.|]
[..|]
[User can access the basic functions of the COLONIZATION systems while repairs are underway, additional functionality will be unlocked as the system un-encrypts the remaining data.]
“Why is the remaining data encrypted?”
[.|]
[..|]
[Chip integrity was reaching unfunctional status, to preserve all the advancement data and slow down the loss of functionality the remaining data was encrypted and compressed to be regained at a later date. Once integrity is restored to a level where the repair program can be reactivated the de-encryption process will be activated.]
“Is there any way to speed up repair speed?”
[.|]
[..|]
[The system will recover faster when the user’s cognitive load is reduced. This will free up additional resources to speed up recovery speed. It is recommended that the user relaxes and rests as much as possible to increase recovery speed.]
“Are there any instruction manuals for first-time users?”
[.|]
[..|]
[UNABLE TO FIND START-UP GUIDE]
[Repair progress 3%]
[Startup guide found]
[Activating startup-guide.exe]
[Congratulations Colonization Leader! You have been chosen by the Terran Coalition to spread our glorious way of life to the many corners of the galaxy!]
[To assist in your mission your A.V. chip has been provided with three main systems: Administration, Construction, and Management]
[The Administration System will allow you to command and keep in touch with your subordinates, (both biological and mechanical) and ensure that any problems they can’t deal with are immediately brought to your attention so that they can wait for further instructions]
[The Construction system will provide you with the means to construct both standard template designs such as worker drones as well as create new designs to help combat unexpected situations that might arise during the colonization effort]
[The Management system will keep track of all the colonization’s resources, subordinates, and tasks set by the Leader so that there is no loss of efficiency during the colonization progress]
[As is standardized the A.V. chip will grow with the user, over time new functionality may be unlocked to suit the characteristics of this individual user's needs.]
“So any luck?” Asked Henry.
“Yes and no, apparently the system is still quite damaged, so most of the data that was encrypted is currently being unencrypted. The good news for now is that the three main systems that this A.V. chip comes with are at least operational on a basic level.”
“Administration, Construction, and Management right? Any idea what they do?”
“Yeah, in short, they help me with colonizing a world.”
Henry raised an eyebrow “Fat load of good that will do us, this planet is already colonized.”
“True, but the system will also grow with me. Besides that, it also mentioned that the three systems will help me deal with ‘unexpected situations’. One could imagine that not every planet the Terran colonizers found would be habitable, besides that they might not always have had a choice on where to settle.”
“Hmm, that sounds a bit more promising. By the way, what’s a Terran?”
“I don’t know..”
“Try asking the system?”
“What is the Terran Coalition?”
[.|]
[..|]
[The Terran Coalition is an organization made up of a collection of planetary governments that reside within the sol system.]
“What does ‘’Terran’ mean?”
[.|]
[..|]
[Terran means human or “One from Earth”.]
“What is earth?”
[.|]
[..|]
[Earth, now commonly referred to as Terra is a life-bearing planet residing within the sol system, it is the birthplace of humanity.]
“Henry.”
“Yeah?”
“Remember the name Terra.”
“Sure but why?”
“That is our birthplace.”
“Uhh, last time I checked we were both born on Rafar Jason.”
“I meant the birthplace of Humanity.”
“Wait you mean our great ancestors from before the colonizers came here are from a planet called Terra?”
“Yeah, though apparently, it used to be called Earth.”
“Huh. Well, I can certainly see the resemblance of our great great ancestors in you.”
“Henry..”
“You both have shit naming sense.”
“Fuck you.”
As I was catching Henry up on what I knew from the chip Grimar came up to us.
“Master Grimar.” said Henry with a bow.
“I told zje lad, I don’t need em formalities down ere.” Grimar turned to me.
“Xander needs ya upstairs lad. He says it has somzing zo do with da convoyz.”
“I see, I’d better be on my way then. Good work on the chip both of you, let the engineers know I appreciate the work they do and have done so far.”
“Will do lad.”
“See ya around Jason.”
I waved goodbye for now and headed out.
Let’s see what happened to the convoy.