Jess stood up, tidied his barely messy bed, and proceeded to move downstairs.
"Ouch! What the…"
A numbing pain suddenly surged from Jess's foot. Shards of broken glass were on the floor in front of the staircase's last few steps. Lifting up his leg, blood dripped from Jess's sole as multiple lacerations caused by the glass shards could be seen.
Broken glass? Jess pondered for a moment before remembering the scene that happened last night. The sudden appearance of the pod from his arm caused quite a ruckus that destroyed some of the things in the living room. Jess was so shocked that he had gone upstairs without cleaning any of the mess.
A few of the smaller pieces of the glass were easily removed by Jess, but the larger ones sank deeper. It would be too risky to brazenly pull them out. He did not have any medical supplies with him. He hadn't needed any until now. Besides mild injuries from digging up metallic scraps, Jess fortunately never met any serious injuries for the past five years. It might have been some sort of apology from fate itself after having almost a third of his body ripped away during the invasion.
Carefully skipping with one leg, Jess went towards the washroom. He remembered picking up a few extra clothes after scavenging for parts. He could at least prevent severe bleeding after pulling the shard out.
A fatigue-patterned uniform hung loose on a clothing rack. Feeling the sturdy fabric of the uniform, Jess decided that it was a better choice for tending the wound than the towel he used for showering. Besides, it would be too much of a waste to use such a precious towel for cleaning the blood.
Grabbing the uniform and a bucket of water, Jess carefully plucked the glass shard out. He immediately poured water to wash out the dirt. Surprisingly, not a single drop of blood followed after ripping out the glass shard. With his middle and index finger, Jess lightly pressed his sole. Nothing. The wound was gone in a snap. He couldn't even see a line. Jess's face contorted in confusion. The pain he had felt surely wasn't some sort of illusion. Looking back at the plywood floor that led to the washroom, Jess could clearly see droplets of blood. The injury was real, but the wound somehow disappeared.
Jess was shrouded with so much confusion that he did not notice the buzzing of his bionic arm. Green lights that could be seen through the thin line in the arm flickered back and forth. A rich and invigorating energy surged from within. It was almost absurd in a way that Jess wasn't able to notice it in the first place. His mind was way out in the open, muddled and perplexed from all the recent happenings.
***
"It's a hit!" the middle aged man in the space station exclaimed. It would seem that he did not need to wait and work another week to find the lost object - the Green Seed.
At first, he felt dejected after seeing that the next area would be the planet's supercontinent. For him, it was better to find things that were underwater or on a small patch of land. The ocean currents weren't strong in the first place, so it was fine, as energy radars work best underwater. But having the object in the supercontinent would mean that he had to work carefully in order to not miss an inch. Lucky for him, it barely took two hours before he found a lead.
The middle-aged man hurriedly stood up, moved the coordinates from the mainframe to his personal device, and went towards the space station's hangar.
***
"Commander Zhang, you look extra cheerful today? Had a nice breakfast?"
A woman in a skimpy semi-armored suit approached the middle aged man; Commander Zhang Wei. Even though her facial appearance was quite average, her curves and the way she carried herself made her, Sheya Stanford, an extremely attractive woman.
"Ah… No, Miss Stanford, the breakfast was quite bland," Commander Zhang awkwardly replied. "It's just that I don't need to stay any longer if I find this thing that the government lost a few weeks ago. I could not help but smile after finishing such a task, you know?"
"Oh? The lost Seed thing?" said Lady Stanford. "Ah, I couldn't be bothered by it too much. I, for one, have too many troubles maintaining this station. Shame that the planet below is just a dump site. Could've been fun mingling with actual locals. Anyways, It would seem that you were heading towards the hangar. Are you going down there to retrieve it personally? Could you not let a random soldier under you do it?"
"The matter is too important for me to let some else handle it. Say, you don't seem to be doing much either, care to accompany me?" Commander Zhang asked. Of course, he knew that all the things she had said up until now were bluffs. Her being busy was such a made up story that even a child could smell the bullshit from afar. What was she "busy" with in a station hosting a trash planet? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
***
The hangar within the space station was extremely wide in size. In it were towering humanoid figures. Some of them, the smaller ones, were kneeling on the hangar's floor, while the taller ones were dangling from the hangar's ceiling, tied with thick alloy chains.
At the centermost part of the hangar were five of these giant humanoid figures. Two of the five were especially outstanding. One looked like a knight in golden armor holding an extremely long jousting spear, the other a black armored demoness with blade-like claws. These were the units of Commander Zhang and Miss Sheya respectively.
Chapter 3: Towering Starframes
Space Station 0025. Currently assigned to monitor transportation of waste on Planet 14. Led by Lady Sheya Stanford, the station hosts the fourth strongest fleet in the entire human civilization. For unknown reasons, they had been reassigned from an attack fleet to some sort of garbage monitoring system, opening jumpgates here and there for trash pods to enter the sector. It was a degrading job.
After hearing Commander Zhang’s proposal for them to go on a ride and explore the planet below, Sheya could not hold her excitement. Although she feigned ignorance and acted like she was busy, in reality she really did want to go out of the station and pilot around. The energy expense for using a Starframe was quite high. Even if Sheya wasn’t poor herself, an unpaid use of them is just straight up wasteful.
Starframes. The greatest creation of mankind. On their birth, space exploration became as easy as a walk in the park. The UN dubbed these machines Planet Conquerors. Even though the name was highly accurate to its overall purpose, the engineers and pilots decided to come up with a more pleasant title.
“Your Starframe is as beautiful as ever, Commander Zhang!” Sheya exclaimed. Arriving at the hangar, the sight of the five main Starframes would easily capture any and all attention, especially the two Starframes that stood mightily at the center of the hangar. One white accented with golden lines, and the other black accented with red.
"Well, your Starframe is as… intimidating as ever, Sheya," Zhang said. He wasn’t sure how to compliment the Demon Mech Galgaran, besides commenting on its threatening appearance.
Commander Zhang was part of the ‘older generation’ of pilots. He was around 42 years of age. Lady Sheya, on the other hand, was a bit younger; only 32 years old. Zhang could not relate to the flourishes and flair of the younger generation, as he took battles, and his personal mech, much more seriously and did not adhere to having his Starframe going by an obnoxious nickname like "Demon Mech".
Lady Sheya smiled, not sensing the sarcasm in Commander Zhang’s tone. “Would it not be better if we bring a few more people?” she proposed. After seeing that Zhang was quite serious about retrieving the Seed, she could not help but think that deploying a few more units would do no harm.
“I do not think that would be necessary, Miss Stanford. We should be fine,” Commander Zhang replied with an earnest smile plastered on his face. It was apparent that he was confident with Lady Sheya’s ability. She was more than good enough.
The mind-numbing height of the Starframes became even more apparent when Commander Zhang and Lady Sheya walked towards the docking bridge. One hundred feet of technological monstrosity stood motionless in front of them.
After contacting the control tower of the hanger,
the docking gates were immediately opened for them. Chains as thick as electric poles fell from the hangar’s ceiling. A hook in the chain’s tip automatically clamped into the bodies of both Starframes; Galgaran and Leonel.
Hoisted upward, the image of both Starframes became clearer. After a few breaths, a few rotund drones from the control tower hurriedly flew towards the two Starframes. A device attached to a suction cup was securely fastened by these drones at the shoulders and backs of the gigantic mechs. These were gravity stabilizers, helping objects as heavy as Starframes to maintain altitude as if standing on solid ground, with or without proper gravity.
Demon Mech Galgaran - Lady Sheya’s precious Starframe - was a sight to behold on its own. Its slender body, painted in matte black anti-corrosion paint, outlined with lustrous crimson tint, would awe any witness without fail. Both enemies and allies would gasp from its mere presence. Besides the attractive dichromatic paint, the lady-like curvature in its design added a peculiar hint of beauty to its overall image. But the outer design isn’t the main thing the Demon Mech boasts. Four blade-like fingers on both hands, each around five feet in length, were its deadliest asset. Its pincer strength was a thousand times stronger than that of an alligator jaw. As these blades were made of high-grade titanium-diamond alloy, they could easily slice through steel like butter.
On the other hand, …
Leonel, Commander Zhang's companion mech, is a gallant Starframe, highly contrasting the vicious image of Sheya’s Starframe. Its pearl white color shines brightly under the ceiling lights of the hangar, while the gold along its joints shine on their own. Unlike Galgaran’s dichromatic paint job, Leonel has more bright colors to show off. Its eyes glowed bright green, while the great sword on its back was orange in color. Standing side by side, these two mechs would seem like two different sides of the same coin. They boast the same height and relatively similar stature, but their image seems to contradict but at the same time complement each other.
The artificial gravity within the space station’s hangar was temporarily disabled. Both Commander Zhang and Lady Sheya made their way towards their respective Starframes. They gently floated over the docking bridge as they expertly maneuvered their bodies, as if simply swimming, towards the pilot hulls, which were located at the mid-upper part of the Starframe’s chest, just below the neck.
Sheya then signaled the man running the hangar’s control tower with an "OK" hand gesture. Soon after, the glass doors above the pilot hulls opened. Commander Zhang and Lady Sheya made their way in.
Clank!
The seven-inch thick ballistic glass slammed tight, securely locking both pilots inside their mechs. The noise of pressurized gas exiting the hull resounded. A light buzz soon followed, as the device that provided the Starframes stability lit up once more; this provided the pilots with just the right amount of g-force to walk normally within their mechs.
At the furthest part of the pilot hull, a pitch-black jacket with a glowing spherical center could be seen. This was the most vital part of a Starframe, and the most needed object for a pilot to be able to run a mech - a Vitality Replicator.
Besides the core that provides the energy for the Starframe to move, the vitality replicator is needed for it to have consciousness. The replicator syncs both the Starframe and the pilot into one entity. Movements done by the pilot would then be precisely mimicked by the Starframe. With such an advantage, a disadvantage was inevitable. What damaged the mech could also damage the pilot.
A pilot would feel the pain of getting decapitated without actually having himself beheaded. That was why it took a lot of training and experience to become a pilot. A commoner would quickly go insane after experiencing vivid death-like experiences, let alone actually feeling the pain of it. Both Commander Zhang and Lady Sheya experienced the same things countless times. Every now and then, even the best of the best pilots would experience defeat, the more worlds they tried to conquer.
A slight ding resounded within the pilot hull of Galgaran which was soon followed by the voice of an inquiring Commander Zhang, “Are you all set now, Miss Sheya?”
“Sure thing, Commander Zhang. It's not my first time piloting a Starframe you know,” Sheya replied, giggling. She then tightly secured the jacket that contained the Vitality Replicator. Puff! Another sound of pressurized gas echoed within the hull. Thin tubes then appeared from the hull’s roofing. Those thin tubes then attached themselves to the jacket which contained the Vitality Replicator. These were what the engineers called Sync Pipes; they were cables that relayed the things the replicator detected and sent them as commands towards the Starframe’s main system, its head.
After Sheya and Zhang stood atop an oval-shaped platform at the centermost part of the hull, more sync pipes appeared, intertwined, and soon connected with the jacket’s lower part, responsible for the feet’s movement. With this, they were now set to jump-start their Starframes.
Starframe Model 7112- Galgaran, Pilot Name: Sheya V. Stanford— Demon Mech, On!
Starframe Model 1251- Leonel, Pilot Name: Wei G. Zhang— Leonel, On!
A whirring sound followed right after they activated their respective Starframes.
The floor right under the two floating mechs opened, revealing the bright orange planet below them.
“The planet’s weather seems pretty good at the moment, just the perfect time for us to stroll around,” Sheya commented.
Commander Zhang smiled, and replied, “Let’s not forget our objective, alright?”
***
Two spearhead-like figures zipped through the atmosphere of Planet Nera. With these figures’ descent, an ear-splitting sonic boom followed. Commander Zhang and Lady Sheya arrived and safely landed on the planet in no time.
With each step of either Starframe, the trash beneath was utterly crushed by their sheer weight. These mechanical monsters were indeed huge and terrifying. The ground trembled as they scoured their way through the dumps of Planet 14, looking for an object known as the Green Seed.
Even though these giants were a hundred feet in height, the planet that they were in wasn’t small. Planet 14 was approximately three and a half times bigger than Earth prime. If it weren’t for the coordinates provided by the locator back in the space station, it would take them a year or so just to find the Seed's general location.
After half an hour with no lead, Lady Sheya started conversing with Zhang once more.
“Say, Commander Zhang… I have been meaning to ask. If this thing that you’re looking for is that important for the government, why are they not sending a special task force to retrieve it? Ah, don’t take this the wrong way sir, I do not mean to belittle your skills, it's just that…”
"I understand," Zhang replied. "If you do not mind, Sheya... The Seed is something that is under ‘classified information’ by the government. We do not want to mess with things like that, do we now?"
Although he could not see Lady Sheya’s reaction, Zhang knew that the smart woman was not the type to just accept his vague reasoning. Her silence entailed that she was pondering further.
Zhang decided to give her a bit more.
“The item in question is going to be used for the advancement of the planets that are currently under our rule but are still totally useless up to this day, including this planet we’re on right now. We could then inhabit these planets and farm their resources to make newer models of Starframes. As for how it could help us in other ways, I have no knowledge regarding that matter."
Zhang Wei thoroughly explained what he could. It was apparent that he could not continue depriving Sheya of the general information, and so he partially conceded.
“Oh? Really now? That sounds great!” Like jolting thunder, Sheya’s enthusiasm skyrocketed, a reaction which Commander Zhang somehow… anticipated. As a person known as the “Demon-riding Queen of the Battlefield”, Lady Sheya was a full-blown war freak. Commander Zhang knew of this and thus hesitated to say anything regarding the lost item, but hiding something fr
om a coworker is a no-go especially in potentially dangerous situations. After hearing that it was an item which could “advance” the planet for the creation of newer mechs, Sheya excitedly started foraging through hill-sized trash piles.
***
The noise outside his house shook Jess’s attention back to his surroundings. He was in a daze due to the fact that his foot, which was injured just a few seconds ago, was now completely healed. It was as if nothing happened. Not even a scar was there! Although he was still quite distracted with such a healing miracle, Jess couldn't just ignore the loud commotion outside.
The ruckus outside somehow reminded him of the event, which happened around a year ago, when a mountain-sized trash pile collapsed, causing a loud noise and a life-threatening trash slide. Jess cautiously peered outside, only to witness two towering figures closing in on him.
It did not take long for Jess to recognize what the towering figures were.
“Humans!” he inwardly exclaimed. Although he did not know what the giants were exactly called, he knew that the pilots were none other than the menace race. His blood boiled at the sight of them, but instead of rushing out and being reckless, Jess opted to stay put and observe. What were they doing here?
For five years since the invasion, Jess had never seen any humans. It was also unlikely that they inhabited other places besides the supercontinent of the planet, leading Jess to believe that the humans totally abandoned the place right after their invasion. His theory was then proven correct a month after abandonment when autonomous drones started arriving and dumping trash all over the place. What happened that called for them to come back?
Still peeking through a tiny slit, Jess continued observing. He did not dare open the door again. Even though his blood boiled and bad memories were stirred, he wasn’t foolish enough to confront a hundred-foot-tall monster, let alone two of them.
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