Hello guys, this is chapter 1, i hope you enjoy it :)
i know it start slow :( but have patient please :)
“We are the guardians of humanity. We aimed for survival and protect the legacy of our people.”
Each time they go ‘Battle’ they say their ‘oath’ .
“Corporal Leo, Zeus squad ready for mission.”
He is Leo, a pilot from the Human Universal Conglomerate, right now he is inside of his unit, its common name is Goliah.
[table=black] Incoming transmission.[/table]
The voice lacking of emotion is from a man. It was the voice from his unit, specifically the A.I installed on the unit. the A.I has many ways to communicate with the pilot, through the inner and outside speakers of the unit, the pilot armor has speakers as well so the A.I can communicate with him if he is not on his unit, lastly the pilot have some Nano instruments inside his body, the A.I is able to use them as well for communication if it is necessary to give secret information.
A message is display in front of his screen, he touch it with his right hand.
‘Hello little boy.’
The face of a woman with black eyes, yellowish skin and a deep scar that cross over her left cheek appeared in front of him, she has a teasing smile. She is wearing a white helmet similar to those for fighter pilots, but without the visors and oxygen mask, her hair is not visible due to the helmet.
“…my name is Leo.”
He say it with a monotone voice.
‘Hmmm~’
-Wink- -wink-
‘You are stiff as always Le… u will die young u know?’
She used her left eye to wink at him, the gesture made her scar do some perturbing movements…
“……that is common here… and I am not young anymore”
He has 36 years already.
‘… You sure know how to ruin the mood, you know?’
Even though she said those words, she didn’t mean it. She is still smiling even her eyes try but fail to show a coquettish glimmering.
“As I said Corporal Leo De la Cruz Flores ready for mission, first sergeant Emily.”
'Jezz… ok Leo, today mission is quite important for us even more for you~'
“Please, elaborate a bit more?”
'In this mission if you ac-'
[table=black]4000 kills achievement. If you are able to kill 3 more owls today you will be granted with one of top 3 rewards of the Human Global Conglomeration.[/table]
'… He is correct. Today you may be able to get that huge achievement… congratulations.'
Her smile changed subtly; the glimmer in her eyes change to a common one for her, killing intent. Sadly it was hard for others to notice it.
“Thanks for the trivia… May I ask for the mission briefing?”
'…Actually as your superior I have to give you a proper explanation of this reward. To begin with the reward is-'
[table=black] Human breeding. First sergeant Emily, the A.I. assistance is supposed to explain the reward, the methods and the difference between them so that he can choose which one to claim, after that the conglomeration will show him possible candidates. Your explanation is actually on an intimate level, such as what ca- [/table]
'Leo, why is your ‘goliah’ cutting me out?'
She stopped smiling and show quite the displeased face.
“… He has this issue some time ago.”
He really didn’t know what to say, this issue started like a week ago.
“hmmmm~ goli make a complete scan on Leo’s goliah please.”
[table=black] Scanning, main files ok… O.S… ok… BIOS… ok… Leo’s goliah no errors detected. Hypothesis… Leo’s Goliah have reach the transcended upgrade… congratulations goliah.[/table]
'D*mn not only Leo is about to reach THE achievement, but also goliah reach a new phase on its A.I evolution… hmmm someone is finally on the verge of ascension~ congrats~'
She said it this time with her left hand on her face showing an astonished expression.
“… I beg you please tell me the mission’s briefing.”
‘hihihi I love it when you beg me~’
He saw her say those words but he subconsciously heard ‘You can’t beat me’.
Her smile turn a little lascivious this time if one didn’t look closely, one would have thought that her smile reach her left ear… but suddenly her expression turned serious.
‘Ok Leo the time to play is over.’
Leo for once changed his poker face to an “about time…” face.
'Our mission has 3 phases.
Phase one is to go to gamma base located at Altair’s orbit, secure its perimeter, load up the package and deliver it to cruiser HOPE, route will be updated in real time.'
“We are a named squad on a carrier… And currently we are at Gliese 570.”
Named ships and squads are the elites among the army, using them for a mere escort mission is not something normal.
'Yes… The mission have been sent by the main H.Q. We will be using phase jump engines from carrier Zeus and we will be using the cryogenic chamber made by engineer Lapiz. They are… ‘Special’. You can ask her about that, you are her favorite after all…'
His expression turn to a shock once again with the information with the 1st and 2nd part, but changed after hearing the last part.
“Ok. Will we have back up? And what is the package?”
'Tiger’s squad will move to our carrier and will escort us until we arrive to Altair. They will remain on Altair’s base, owls have been detected over there. Their evacuation will start immediately after our departure… regarding package information is … labelled black…'
Black color means information is only accessible to people of the highest rank on the military.
'phase 2 consist escorting HOPE to the Sun. Carriers Attila, Giraffe and Apollo will support us escorting it, also battlecruiser Lance and Sword will escort HOPE as well… lastly with so many squads, carrier Prometheus will assist us with maintenance and human support.'
Her eyes told him that this mission is bigger than he thought at the beginning. Even now his eyes are full of shock, to begin with each carrier has its own set of battlecruisers and cruisers (2 and 4). And battlecruisers that have their own name has a military might above that of a carrier, while Named cruisers are used for cover missions using strategic class weaponry. The size of this escort could be regarded as an assault unit, not big enough to call it as an army and not big enough to reach the solar system in one piece.
“Shouldn’t we move as a bigger force? Owls in the solar system are too many and very strong.”
[table=black]
Negative. A bigger assault team will reduce the chances of success for this mission. [/table]
“Success rate that we can accomplish phase 2?”
[table=black] 0.5% with current data, with the package that we will escort, the changes may increase by another 4.5%. The network current news are showing a massive movement from the owls. Hypothesis, Headquarter maybe took this time to try this assault. [/table]
'Goli is right, our main army is making movement on their main sector. All I can guess is, they are the bait and we are the main force…'
“Main force? The Solar System is deep in the enemy zone, conquering it won’t change anything, we will lost it sooner rather than later…
Destroying the solar system doesn’t guarantee anything our victory over this war as well, because we don’t even know if they have a pyramid hierarchical system.”
Some believed that they are some sort of form of insects even though some of their classes seems more animal-like than insect –like.
‘Sorry this is all the information I have.’
“Why is that? Did they find any indoctrinated?”
The current information that have been shared to their squad, is too small even if they do not need to know relevant information.
'Nothing conclusive…'
Indoctrinated, they are people kidnapped and massively brainwashed, although humanity main enemy didn’t use this kind of tactic, some other ‘lesser’ enemies did this bringing major losses to human kind.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
“… ok, phase 3?”
'I haven’t been told. Main HQ briefing never mentioned it. I will explained all that I mentioned you once again at carrier Zeus, if you got any questions ask them there. Emily out.'
[table=black] We will encounter owls in all three phases. Chances for 4000 kill achievement is high on phase 1.
Protocol says immediately after you reach the achievement, you are allowed to leave the mission and begin breeding as soon as possible. But missions related with black labelled information, or equipment overrule most protocols. In exchange H.Q is allowing you to choose up to 3 partners for the reward after success of the mission, I am uploading the list for you.
[/table]
“… Why are you telling me this and not the details of the mission?”
The topic going back to breeding is unnecessary or so he thought.
[table=black] In the best scenario, success rate of the mission is below 5%. It is considered a suicide mission. Giving the pilot incentives will increase the success rate or at least the survival of the him. [/table]
“I do not even know what breeding means…”
[table=black] You should have learned it at the academy. Lesson 8, 3rd class, year 3 subject general anatomy. [/table]
“Year 3… I started my missions at year 2. Right after indoctrinated destroyed Keyes colony”
[table=black] Information noted for future reference. Breeding is the act to produce offspring.[/table]
“Offspring? You mean clonation?”
He knows he is a clone.
[table=black] Incorrect. That is one way to create more humans. As a matter of fact, it is the standard manufacture. But as said before, breeding is an incentive to increase efficiency of the pilot. See this video for reference.
[/table]
2 minutes later.
“… It seems painful and confusing… ok… Let’s take care of this. Show me the list.”
[table=black] … Downloading. Remember protocol for this time reward has change. You are allow to choose up to 3 candidates.
[/table]
“… This list… call Lapiz from Prometheus…”
His eyes showed total confusion… he blinked several times, until Lapiz answered the call.
‘Chief engineer of carrier Prometheus, Esmeralda Lapiz Green. How may I help you Leo?’
Unlike him and Emily she doesn’t wear armor but a uniform, to begin with she can be considered as a civilian, but her outstanding abilities on her area of specialization, earned her the position of chief engineer of carrier Prometheus. This carrier, for the conglomerate, is the state of the art ship.
Her parents were civilians as well, one can notice it on her. The color for eyes and long hair is pink, she has white skin. Unlike Emily that is a warrior trying to act as a coquettish woman, Esmeralda way of speaking, looking and playing with her hair force all man close to her to forget what they are doing and stared at her like stalkers, for this reason her entire team for research, build and repair consist of female only. Although most of her hair cannot be seen because she is wearing a miner helmet some of her hair can be seen on her shoulder.
“I have three questions:
What is special about the cryogenic chambers that you created for our squad?
Why is your and first sergeant Emily names on my candidate breeding list?
First sergeant Emily said that my goliah A.I has transcended. Can you elaborate please?”
If one didn’t know him, they would think that he is teasing her, but that is his way of interacting with people, born as a soldier and miss that 3rd and so on years at the academy forced him to pay a heavy toll on interpersonal and emotional intelligence.
Her serious attitude broke apart, her white skin turned pink… her mouth open and close at high speed… after a few seconds she regained some of her composure. But she couldn’t stablish eye contact.
‘…I-I see Emily was too shy and never mention it? Isn’t it?
Le-lets lets follow your order… those cryogenic chambers, specifically Emily’s and yours, have a special concept behind, it should work when you are moving at light speed or faster, to summarize… you will grow young although it reeeeeally is a slow process. That will help with interstellar travelling that require centuries or more. It will help keeping the pilots at their ideal age. It has some other uses but it is not for you to know.’
This time she began to play with a lock of her hair.
‘Th-the-thezecondqueztionizhe-heri-idea, conzultitwithherpl-ple-pleaze…’
She stopped for a while, she breathe in and breathe out to regain her composure once again; Leo remained with his poker face all this time.
‘You-you are not helping me you know?’
This time she successfully did eye contact, she was mad indeed, but soon she forgive him. She knows he is not doing it intentionally.
´About goliah I need to make a major maintenance on it to give you a proper answer if he really upgrade or not, the engineers in your carrier should be able to confirm it, but they won’t be able to give the proper hardware update. Let’s do this… ok done. They will verify it and explain it to you. If the A.I is an upgraded version, the O.S, BIOS and data storage won’t be enough so they will be adding 3 black box on your unit, each black box will contain an extra A.I with all of them together, and your goliah supervising them, your unit can become a terraformer unit, until we complete the mission, goliah will remain as a warrior unit.’
Right after she answered all him answer, she sigh of relieve.
“… ok I will ask Emily later. But you didn’t told me what it does means for goliah”
‘Oh! Sorry, you know the ze-second question you did was a bit too much… a transcended A.I means that, it not only could make hypothesis but also can think and act on solutions at its own discretion… most of the time those A.I are sent to the main H.Q for research material, each transcended A.I has a different train of thoughts even personalities… even with all those A.I we create a year, very few are able to reach this level… also we can’t create a transcended A.I from the get go because of lack of information how it is created.’
She is fascinated with this area of research. So much to learn, how they could help humanity. If she weren’t chief engineer of a state of the art carrier, she would have volunteer to be part of that research group.
“hmmmm~”
He still didn’t understand, but it seems that he will get more help for battles, that is all he need to know or so he thought.
‘Any other questions Leo?’
“None for now. Thanks for your time lapiz.”
“… Ok Leo, on another note… pleazechoozeEmilyandIpleaze… you… wontbedizappointed.”
She cut the call.
…
“Goliah.”
[table=black] Yes?[/table]
“why was she talking so fast and in an odd way?”
[table=black] …Data unavailable.
[/table]
the reason why he took some time to answer was because he tried to search for a possible answer on the network, but didn´t found a solid argument.
“Ok… start the chamber. It will take some time before we reach there right?”
Before going to sleep, he mark 2 names on his candidate list.
[table=black] affirmative. Have a nice rest.
[/table]
He forgot about the mission briefing on carrier Zeus, but it was a common ocurrence, that is why his A.I didn´t say anything as well.