《Summer Field》 Hard Awakening Alex feels like being beaten by a wave and almost drowning. Alex feels like being beaten by a wave and almost drowning when he was surfer, an unfortunate incident that happened a few times and always didn''t like go by again, mostly when you get old, your old wounds hurt and the new ones hurt even more. It feels hot as lime being in the ship engine room¡ªreally hot, 120 fahrenheit maybe? Well, not worse than Darien or the Amazon jungle in summer. He got up and tried to walk on the little inclined ship; the ship got aground?, he thought to himself. He made it to the bridge in the Castle of the Ship; it''s really hot and annoying brightly; the light''s tinted blue to yellow; it''s weird. So far, it seems he is alone. The strong storm appeared from nowhere, with the edge of modernization in sailing. This behemoth of almost 200 thousand tons was shaken in the sea as if he were a 5-year-old kid. When the power went off, the old captain ordered him to evacuate to the lifeboat in the rear. He was trying to get there but suddenly felt a massive impact and was sent into a place he couldn''t see due to darkness and tried to hold on to something for dear life. He felt being submerged in salt water, and later it felt odd, as if the whole ship was floating in the air, a feeling he knows when flying small aircraft, then the impact that knocked him out. Inside the bridge, he searched for the first aid; he really needed aspirin or something like that. He also searched for any survivors¡ªnothing at all. Inside was a lot fresher; he found a pet water bottle and aspirins. He took a seat on the bridge and saw from there to outside. [Damn, what is this?, nothing just desert?, Why?, We weren''t close to the Sahara; wait, there''s NO SEA!?; wait, wait, am I death or crazy? It''s those stories about dying without knowing and being in an empty world? Then he saw 2 abnormalities: one flying serpent like Quetzalcoatl kind of far in the horizon, flying farther, and a huge earthworm jumping out of the sand. With many, many small like things battling the worm, he went to the front windows and took the heavy binoculars. [What in the...] He doubted and looked again. The enormous earthworm was fighting with kind of scorpions; the hundreds of the Scorpions jumped over the worm or were trying to use their tail; the earthworm was trashing on the sands, killing a few every time. The battle was epic in his view; they were approximately 15 kilometers away, but it seems they were closing here. The earthworm tried several times to get under, but something was amiss; the earthworm can''t get the entire body submerged in the sand. Now Alex can see like a hole in the sand with rocks like island few kilometers away, more and more scorpions keep out from that hole, the earth worm gets closer and stands tall, the released something like mud watered hot spring in the entrance and inside the hole, screams like screech was heard, a nasty sound, the Scorpions went crazy and the earth worm trying to kill the Scorpions went more crazy, moving, rolling, spraying the hot mud, the battle continued close to 3 hours, meanwhile he tried to search inside the bridge building, even in the Captain room, attempting to keep an eye on the battle, he needed to figure out what the hell happened to him, if those things come here he will die for sure. He looks from the sides of the ship, and it was really a miracle, somehow it was hot aground but didn''t get to the sides, as if was built there from the start, a little to the left, but nothing serious, also it stands high from the grounds, the ship landing was in the gravel rocks with sand, looks is the same island the Scorpions nest, no clue of survivors, the battle suddenly went silent, he ran to the bridge and the Earth worm was spewing the hot mud watery solution inside the Scorpions nest, later the earth worm try to move out but falling, probably exhausted from the battle, now close to the ship, maybe 3 or 4 kilometers, the worm it''s at least 200 meters long in size, countless Scorpions corpses lying on the sand and the ex calling island of gravel and sand. Now Alex, trying to see better his situation and potential dangers, took the naval binoculars. Moving up and around, he noticed the sunny light was weakening. Now looking up the sky, there''s like a soft, small yellow sun, and to the side, farther, a bluish, like purple, bigger other sun. He can see at least 9 moons, small, medium, and big ones; 2 of those have bluish colors. Well, now he had something more urgent; he went inside the castle, the bridge on top, and the launching lifeboat wasn''t there, meaning there''s a high probability the crew was launched. He went to different places, checking if there was electricity or no power in the castle. Alex has nearly 5 years since his almost 20-year marriage was done, leaving all his belongings to his stepdaughter; he did accept a friend''s request to become a sailor; he always likes to travel; the job was easy: being chief security, as his experience in the US Marines came as part of the CV; it was almost 6 years time in his 20''s; after divorce, he was depressed, adding he was in his middle 50''s at the time; his friend told him they needed trusted people in his security company. A company that offers security contractor service to ships and oil and gas platforms, so Alex signed in, and now he had 15 months on the Adela, one of the biggest constainer ships in the world with over 24 thousand TEUs of capacity and over 200 thousand tons of dead weight. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. By the way, 15 months means every 6 months Alex has a paid leave; he usually didn''t get the six months, but try to get the least one a year, 2 months leave, to visit friends, his stepdaughter, and those sorts of things. He remembers the central panel controls; if the problem isn''t in the castle, it means it''s in the engine room. He went there, opening the safety door. With his flashlight, he started to see what could be done. In one the screen was a warning message. He did turn down all the systems to let them start the protocols to restart. He chose to keep the main engine off and just use the batteries to support basic features, make livable areas comfortable, and provide illumination and communications. The batteries should be fine for a few days. Now illuminated the inside corridors, he walked out and started heading to the castle. when he was surfer, an unfortunate incident that happened a few times and always didn''t like go by again, mostly when you get old, your old wounds hurt and the new ones hurt even more. It feels hot as lime being in the ship engine room¡ªreally hot, 120 fahrenheit maybe? Well, not worse than Darien or the Amazon jungle in summer. He got up and tried to walk on the little inclined ship; the ship got aground. He thought himself; he made to the bridge; it''s really hot and annoying brightly; the light''s tinted blue to yellow; it''s weird. So far, it seems he is alone. The strong storm appeared from nowhere, with the edge of modernization in sailing. This behemoth of almost 200 thousand tons was shaken in the sea as if he were a 5-year-old kid. When the power went off, the old captain ordered him to evacuate to the lifeboat in the rear. He was trying to get there but suddenly felt a massive impact and was sent into a place he couldn''t see due to darkness and tried to hold on to something for dear life. He felt being submerged in salt water, and later it felt odd, as if the whole ship was floating in the air, a feeling he knows when flying small aircraft, then the impact that knocked him out. Inside the bridge, he searched for the first aid; he really needed aspirin or something like that. He also searched for any survivors¡ªnothing at all. Inside was a lot fresher; he found a pet water bottle and aspirins. He took a seat on the bridge and saw from there to outside. [Damn, what is this?, nothing just desert?, Why?, We weren''t close to the Sahara; wait, there''s NO SEA!?; wait, wait, am I death or crazy? It''s those stories about dying without knowing and being in an empty world? Then he saw 2 abnormalities: one flying serpent like Quetzalcoatl kind of far in the horizon, flying farther, and a huge earthworm jumping out of the sand. With many, many small like things battling the worm, he went to the front windows and took the heavy binoculars. [What in the...] He doubted and looked again. The enormous earthworm was fighting with kind of scorpions; the hundreds of the Scorpions jumped over the worm or were trying to use their tail; the earthworm was trashing on the sands, killing a few every time. The battle was epic in his view; they were approximately 15 kilometers away, but it seems they were closing here. The earthworm tried several times to get under, but something was amiss; the earthworm can''t get the entire body submerged in the sand. Now Alex can see like a hole in the sand with rocks like island few kilometers away, more and more scorpions keep out from that hole, the earth worm gets closer and stands tall, the released something like mud watered hot spring in the entrance and inside the hole, screams like screech was heard, a nasty sound, the Scorpions went crazy and the earth worm trying to kill the Scorpions went more crazy, moving, rolling, spraying the hot mud, the battle continued close to 3 hours, meanwhile he tried to search inside the bridge building, even in the Captain room, attempting to keep an eye on the battle, he needed to figure out what the hell happened to him, if those things come here he will die for sure. He looks from the sides of the ship, and it was really a miracle, somehow it was hot aground but didn''t get to the sides, as if was built there from the start, a little to the left, but nothing serious, also it stands high from the grounds, the ship landing was in the gravel rocks with sand, looks is the same island the Scorpions nest, no clue of survivors, the battle suddenly went silent, he ran to the bridge and the Earth worm was spewing the hot mud watery solution inside the Scorpions nest, later the earth worm try to move out but falling, probably exhausted from the battle, now close to the ship, maybe 3 or 4 kilometers, the worm it''s at least 200 meters long in size, countless Scorpions corpses lying on the sand and the ex calling island of gravel and sand. Now Alex, trying to see better his situation and potential dangers, took the naval binoculars. Moving up and around, he noticed the sunny light was weakening. Now looking up the sky, there''s like a soft, small yellow sun, and to the side, farther, a bluish, like purple, bigger other sun. He can see at least 9 moons, small, medium, and big ones; 2 of those have bluish colors. Well, now he had something more urgent; he went inside the castle, the bridge on top, and the launching lifeboat wasn''t there, meaning there''s a high probability the crew was launched. He went to different places, checking if there was electricity or no power in the castle. Alex has nearly 5 years since his almost 20-year marriage was done, leaving all his belongings to his stepdaughter; he did accept a friend''s request to become a sailor; he always likes to travel; the job was easy: being chief security, as his experience in the US Marines came as part of the CV; it was almost 6 years time in his 20''s; after divorce, he was depressed, adding he was in his middle 50''s at the time; his friend told him they needed trusted people in his security company. A company that offers security contractor service to ships and oil and gas platforms, so Alex signed in, and now he had 15 months on the Adela, one of the biggest constainer ships in the world with over 24 thousand TEUs of capacity and over 200 thousand tons of dead weight. By the way, 15 months means every 6 months Alex has a paid leave; he usually didn''t get the six months, but try to get the least one a year, 2 months leave, to visit friends, his stepdaughter, and those sorts of things. He remembers the central panel controls; if the problem isn''t in the castle, it means it''s in the engine room. He went there, opening the safety door. With his flashlight, he started to see what could be done. In one the screen was a warning message. He did turn down all the systems to let them start the protocols to restart. He chose to keep the main engine off and just use the batteries to support basic features: making livable areas comfortable, illumination, and communications. The batteries should be fine for a few days. Now illuminated the inside corridors, he walked out and start heading to the castle. Hello, my name is Matthew Alex is going upstairs, he went inside the room besides his, the IT Engineer, it''s a friend, he went down in Dakar when the ship stopped to resupply, they supposed to meet again in Rotterdam, now that meeting it''s gone away, this was the reason he was taking time to evacuate, his engineer friend was retired from huge technological company and came here to take his time in "his little science project": a full AI, the "robot," looks like a wooden vault, almost 80 centimeters wide, 170 centimeters long, it''s a disguise, according to his friend, the batteries autonomy it''s just 4 hours, maybe 20 minutes if the AI it''s in full mode. Alex came inside the room. [Mathew?] The fake vault moves the top, and something akin to a long neck with a WALL-E Eve model type of head shows [Hello Alex!] [Hi buddy! How are you feeling or being? [Uhm, don''t know, the readings here are off the normal; where are we?] [Listen, crazy things are happening, and I don''t know how or why; uhmm, it seems we are now on a different planet or so; I don''t know, Matt.] Matt was looking at Alex the whole time; his sensory system can be used to monitor the human; it''s telling lies, and Alex seems altered but not lying. Matt''s database is maybe one of the biggest and includes knowledge of humankind; it''s, as Sean used to say, "more complete than the Brittanica Encyclopedia, even the one on the internet right now.". Matt was equipped with hacking protocols and a plethora of tools; hidden in the roof there''s 2 satellite hardwares plus the Ship internet link; also, when getting close, he can access by 5G and other systems; trying to elude the hunters, Sean was rich, his patents and shares; he went down urgently in Dakar to fly to his home and possibly die there; his cancer was terminal; he left a video to Alex, explaining and hoping he can take care of Matt; but now, suddenly, a huge event was in motion. Alex talked with Matt about a few issues, trying to explain as best he can the situation they are in now. After some considerations, Matt asked if he could go to the ship command room in the castle and possibly be linked with the ship AI. They need to know many things, and the establishment of a base, even a temporal one, would help their survival. So far, being outside is a big no; too hot, too cold at night, and dune sands. If they behaved like in Earth''s dunes, deserts would be suicidal trying to travel. Adding the local fauna, the survival rate plunges deep down. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. After the effort to move 3 fake vaults, Matt "home," and 2 containing memory crystals with related information, they started to connect to the ship system. So far, they have close to 1 year (Earth time standard) worth of fuel in the actual consumption rate; this would be affected due to a problem that needs to be solved, like using the crane trolley to move the containers containing resources they urgently need. In the meantime, Alex went bathing and eating something. Right after he went to sleep like a log, Matt did modify the systems and the AI "Adela," upgrading to be fully autonomous, a step lower than him, and programming the Asimov rules in the kernels. The rules come with Sean''s interpretation of "holes" in the logic that could make the AI and their controlled devices, appliances, or robots a problem. Like, "Respect the Laws," but what if the laws promote racism or dysfunctional society? As context, Sean was very adept to Natural Rights doctrines, including "tolerance," to a certain point if the cultural background was the problem. Matt knows his practical experience is very limited at the moment; thrusting Alex should be the right option, and this was also included in the upgrading to Adela and the coming AIs to come in the future. Adela was quick to reboot and started to share the manifests of the cargo, trying to give priority to Alex''s survival and health. Some changes need to be done; the trolley crane needs to be modified to allow operation. They took first the containers with advanced robots, mostly hominids; the ship has some to help in odd jobs; it was Sean''s experiment, and the company gave the okay; just 6 of them are left. Matt linked and reprogrammed the robots; the containers were open one after another; more and more robots were unboxed and connected to reprograming, workers, maids, medical, and even sexual droids; this last was Adela; she argued that the objective isn''t sexual, but those look like more humans; this could help alleviate Alex''s stress on a foreign, unknown planet under dire circumstances. When Alex finally woke up, he felt nauseous. Still, he went in the shower. Right as he was finishing dressing, a knock at the door was heard. Alex opened the door and looked at the maid in a classical black and white dress. The robot had looks of females and soft lines on the frame of the body and face, long black hair. [Alex!] A voice was heard from a small robot walking to Alex; he recognized the voice. [Matt?] [Hello sir, my name is Serena, and I am at your service.] The robot maid talked Do you want breakfast here or in the galley? How about coffee or juice? [Alex, you slept almost 14 hours! , Can I accompany you to the breakfast? [Yes!, Hello Serena, I am Alex; yes, I will be going to the galley; coffee is fine; I need to see what''s there to eat; let''s go, Matt, Serena too. Alex comes to the galley to find several dozens of robots, and Serena guides him to the main table. There, coffee, bacon, eggs, French toasts, jelly, and others complete the breakfast. In the meantime, Matt and Adela sit back and give a briefing. They want to conform to a state; usually everyone is just running to survive, but AIs can think more quickly, and in consideration of the history, they want to make plans, all considered, to conform to a state; now it''s the most correct way. Chapter 03 Setting Course to Survive Alex, Matt, and Adela spend time in the galley; Serena keeps water, juice, or fruits on the table. Matt and Adela show their plans, step by step, goals and objectives. Alex keeps thinking about and decides to go with the flow. He gives the ok to the plans and almost all the robots went out. Alex went to the ship command room, top in the castle. There he notices it''s dark outside, an alien sight, but they are in a different world. The led temperature monitor shows 10¡ã. He sits on the captain''s chair. Outside, the shop lights are almost off. Matt makes the point they don''t know if the lights will attract monsters and they have null defenses or forces to defend. The workers, meaning the robots, keep moving containers, putting them in some place and opening them, unboxing the contents. Alex notices 10 or so fixed-wing drones, the command room now with more monitors or simple TV screens, and then he can see the drones leaving flying from the ship; now he can see better over some of the nearest dunes; some of the drones go to the mountain wall 5 or so kilometers from the ship. Over the dunes there''s lights here and there, infrared shows more heat sightseeing, on the mountain range the found outer portion, 13 kilometers distance from the ship, the mountain wall borders the desert almost like someone did construct a wall, but there it''s only 500 hundreds to 900 hundreds meters tall, it''s like a valley of the sorts, surrounded by tall mountain walls 7 kilometers in the entrance and getting wider inside to almost 12 kilometers, the desert it''s 23 kilometers, facing a stone wall in the end, by the border line between desert and mountain walls, there''s something artificial, like a plaza and old design castle entrance. Daylight has come, 2 VTOLs were unboxed, inside the containers, 120 7-passenger VTOLs need to do the final assembly. Adela, it''s big, but with all the container movement, robots unboxing robots, installing software, and feeding from the ship''s power, 2 VTOLs for 7 passengers were ready to fly and go to the mountain range wall 13 kilometers south-west using the biggest of the sun''s as a reference. Earth weapons are functional but weak. The exploration team went to the plaza and the castle entrance, looking for an opening and getting in. A small robot dog got inside the structure; dogs have legs and wheels inside them, looking like Chihuahua, 24 centimeters high. The little robot got in. Inside, there''s a piece of levelers. The other 5 Chihuahuas got inside, and together they figured out we''re pulling or moving sticks that can open the entrance. The levelers start working, and a cloud of dust and small stones jumps from the moving walls. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Inside they can see unnaturally preserved things; their scanning shows clouds of the ambient energy being less and some buttons on the walls. Karol, a recent robot with a high AI chip and at the moment located inside a quantum server unboxed from one of the containers along with others, is a linguistic specialist. Together with her assistants, she comes forward and starts the decoding of the language. They want to use any facility that exists on this planet, and from the various possibilities, one without inhabitants, sapiens, or wild beasts, including monsters, it''s the best real-state deal they can find to locate their first steps on this planet. Further research will clear if they can keep or need to move looking for a better option. The newly formed High Council comes in session, president Alexander Winthrop, start the meeting, he didn''t when, but Matt told him that part of the morning papers includes the formation of State, there''s literally hundreds of not thousands of tasks needed to be attending, Alex after being in the Marines he decided to be a free soul and that''s why he started to practice surfing and the consecuence was traveling to most of the dream paradises any travel agency promote, being a back packer to start a small hotel with cabins and a good bar in Central America was part of "natural flow", other friends went and did the same in other places or Countries, before he noticed he was married with kids, he never have trouble, one boy and one girl and now he''s Governor of this new state, so as he ready decided decades ago and in the morning today: let''s go with the flow. So, he just keeps going from place to place, sees the exploration mission in the now classified "abandoned facilities" inside the mountains, and nods to anything he thought common sense said yes, giving the governor and president of the high council approval to Matt, Adela, Karol, Serena, and more and more AI being born? or start functions, Maura, it''s their Medical AI and Alex personal doctor. Alex thought it was weird when he noticed Rafa, the Droids and Robots mechanic; he thought it was better using "medic," but Matt and the others response was a big no. "It doesn''t matter. We are a virtual intelligence that maybe could be a consciousness, but our physical bodies are mechanical creations, who knows? maybe when we can create flesh bodies or hybrids, we need another name for the specialist in charge. Chapter 04 We dont have to start from Cero? Third day since their forced landing on this planet, Nicholas or Nick, their AI chief of sciences, told him their colleagues Fred and Galilea have the first measurements results of this planet, including the day and night. Alex''s curious about the naming sense they are doing, and Matt told him basically each chooses their own, and because most of the time they choose famous researchers from Earth history, Alex just thought it''s a matter of time seeing Albert and others. As if reading his mind, Matt speaks: [by the way, we already have Hypatia working with us]. [Hypatia?] [Yes, from Hypatia of Alexandria] Alex just thought to search later in the database; he carries a nice tablet pad and wifi in the ship; it''s working. [We measured the day and night taking the biggest of the 2 suns; it seems we are immersed inside a nebulae; this helps distort the damage from excessive UV rays having 2 suns.] [Now, this is preliminary, but the rotation we stimated in 32 hours, using Earth standards, could be almost half of the 32 hours. We also think we are on a planet that could be 10 times the size of the Earth; the atmosphere is rich in oxygen, something the Earth shows similarities in the past; now, about the energy we found here, we don''t have any data from Earth information.] To try put simple: it''s curious element that''s it''s new or the Earth didn''t have enough to be noticed, it''s a type of element and energy that emits radiation, affecting everything, further research it''s strongly recommended, this element or energy, the locals named something like "Ethera"and was researched and tamed, if they could have a comparison just to getting a better picture it would be as if Tesla have installed inalambric electricity, but here they found clues of the animals or monsters using as manipulation medium to induce creation of effects or materials, some samples of the first day monsters battle was dissect and found evidence of this, also, besides some organs like the heart, it naturally form a crystal, those crystals are naturally adept to very specific frecuencias of the Ethera, creating effects or materials compatible with the crystals. It''s as saying: the Earth Worm was mud and earth, sand to be precise, but the Scorpions were earth and iron; to them, creating something else was almost impossible. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Finally, Maira, explains she''s worried about Alex, Rafa and his team are ready modify the robots bodies to be better adapted, the natural interference of this Ethera affects even wireless communications, inside the facilities they noticed the less concentrated Ethera, and adding to the worries, the readings are increasing everyday, so They want to move as soon as possible to the inside the Mountains facilities, they are ready started to working on those objectives, but they will soon hit the wall of energy supply to the robots and AI''s, as it''s now they burning diesel to get electricity a d that''s a finite resource, not mentioning ethera could modify the hydrocarbon molecules to something unusable as energy source. Karol is working around the clock decoding the language; the bottleneck now is that they found something like a library, something that measures over a few kilometers in tunnels, warehouses, or vaults. The key issues start with the languages in the engraving being different from the scrolls or tomes so far. Steve, the IT AI, adjunct to Rafa, is trying to get anything in place to be practical in reality, including the powering systems of the facilities; it seems they use Ethera as a source. Also, they found something akin to Golems, a very simple robot, using engraving as a system; somehow they remind mid-20th-century vacuum bulbs and punching cards. Still, they will research the golems, as they could seem advantageous in reinforcing bodies or ethereal sources of energy. Alex will be relocated the next morning. Just after ending the meeting they received a good news and bad news: Rafa and Steve got their way to use the systems using Ethera as energy source to generate electricity, it''s unbelievable source using red Scorpions crystals, they first stimations are 500x better than nuclear reactors and they have some SMR (Small Modular Reactor) inside the containers that''s it''s unusable without radioactive fuels, but now they just need to place those crystals, as is now, it could take some time, but they at least have an alternative, the moving to the inside the Mountains they could use the working energy supply with ethera, as water source, the facilities have systems that''s needs maintenance but no big deal, the habitants used golems as menial workers, specialized in maintenance, mining, processing, agriculture, husbandry or military. Some of them adapt to hominids driving inside. Some of the robots using hominid forms are trying to use those; more effort has been dedicated to scanning the scrolls or tomes containing information they urgently need. The bad news is that the explorers in the desert side have distance limitations due to the increasing Ethera in the environment. So far they could explore some 30 kilometers from the Adela Ship; they found more ships, but no survivors; almost all of them have the lifeboat launched; some more containers, some with 12 thousand teus capacity, 2 with 16 thousand, and 3 with 20 thousand; also some tankers with oil, gas, fuels, or chemicals. Chapter 05 Moving Out of the Ship The moving was as many others back on Earth: a chaotic order. When Alex finished his breakfast, he waited inside the forecastle of the ship; there A/C was more comfortable than outside; the desert tends to be cold at night or hot during the day; now it''s still some 15 degrees Celsius (close to 60 degrees Fahrenheit) outside. In the meantime, Serena gave a short brief on last night''s happenings: the exploration teams found a place with 9 "doors," an empty arc just placed inside a ritual circle full of engravings. Karol linguistics team made the activation possible from a close place like an office with information scrolls stored about the place mechanisms; the former occupants called it "pocket dimensions." [It looks like they tamed and developed artificial dungeons; Fred, Albert, and other mathematicians specialized AI''s with remote robot bodies are now on R&D (Research and Development) this technology; just 10 minutes ago they figured out how to "speed up" the time flow inside] Matt''s enthusiastic intervention proposed the name "Korin Tower project" Now that they mentioned, where''s Matt? As if reading his mind, Serena said he was customizing his remote body, a new robot. Soon enough, Matt came looking as the evil Chinese master from Kill Bill. Alex can''t hold the laughter, causing trouble to the others as they don''t know how to take the cosplay of Matt. To get worse, Matt told Alex he is "Lao Tse," causing the laughter to get loud and almost dying coughing. Then grumpy Matt, Adela, Serena, George, Scott, and some other robots came to get him in the EVTOL that will be his transport to his new home, at least temporarily until they see if it can be used. or need to move again. The transfer didn''t take 20 minutes to fly from the ship to their new base; at least for them, Alex can see the activity chaos outside of the entrance. [How many robots and AI''s have been activated?] [We had limitations in energy supply and rationing the diesel we have inside the Adela; now we got more fuel from other tanker ships. We found in the desert; late, last night we found a safe vault or the equivalent, close to the habitat in the complex; there inside, among other things, something looks like a small cube, 12" inches or 25 centimeters give or take; inside they had a special space/time core and had like a portable space, very famous in fantasy web novels, light novels, manga, and others; those cubes can hold almost 1 thousand cubic meters; this allowed us to transport and keep filling Adela Ship tanks and by doing so activate more needed hands to complete tasks. We urgently need stability to have a safe survival.] [Ok, thanks] [In the lunch We hope a session of the Council; many teams are requesting approval of projects; some of them are really needed...] [Sorry interrupt your briefing, but please let me be as clear as possible: I am not an AI; I need rest time, and if something happens to me, this would be a big problem, please inform Matt, Adela, Mar¨ªa, and...] Alex though a bit... [George and you, Serena, to conform an Executive Board or Ministers, whatever lessen my charge and micromanagement, this Petit committee will name temporary; in the meantime, we do the permanent posts naming and also clear projects in a "fast track" or waiting for our decisions. If a project is important, and I mean strategically, if our chances to survival could be better, including the possibility of harmful effects or damages to life or properties, you can proceed ahead until we examine in detail; God knows how many times, things got worse waiting for politicians to take obvious nod decisions. [Yes, sir, recorded and sending to the others] This was what Alex meant: AI can literally know in less than a second anything happening, and he also didn''t want to be overtime just to approve menial or common sense tasks. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. An 6x6 4-seat E-ATV that looks like an SUV was waiting next to the EVTOL landing pad. Alex went inside the ATV, and the "driver," a military robot version, drove inside the complex. There, Alex marveled about the facilities and their state; it looked well maintained and almost new. Serena in the back seat continued her briefing. [About your question before, We are now reaching 5 thousand robots. We have thousands of advanced AI chips and quantum computers in the Adela Ship and other container ships we found recently. We are trying to balance the activation and energy needed to keep functions, maintenance, and operations with our needs and priorities to be solved as soon as possible; unfortunately, we have limits due to electricity generation, but it seems soon the problem could be solved.] [What do you mean?] Alex is trying to hear everything but get easily distracted. Here and there, see the robots, mostly androids, doing remodeling work among many other tasks inside the complex. [The Korin Project has been green light under temporary term, until the Council and you decide what to do.] That was fast. Is the project that important? I hope Matt doesn''t include Mr. Popo there. I really hope so. He''s a fan of Akira sensei but still feels a little overboard. [Yes, sir, to make simple: the name of the project implied the purpose; it''s using a speedy flow of time to do R&D inside; as is now they moving supplies inside one of the rooms; being inside an accelerated time flow seems unoticeable to the people inside; also, the resources consumed are equal to time speed; to put it simply, if you stay inside 2 months, even if outside it''s only 2 hours, you live, get old, and consume 2 months worth of resources.] [I get your point, so how long are they preparing to stay inside?] [10 years, or we hope so; there''s a mechanism inside in case of emergency; outside it''s 1 hour] [It''s safe?, Well, it should''ve only been AI and robots; that time shouldn''t cause problems for you, right?] [No, sir, we hope You and the Council get the permanent approval to start planning using the 9 pocket dimensions. It takes time to prepare each pocket dimension with the needed raws, materials, fuels, and many more things, as well as to work as long as we think it''s good to rest the pocket dimension mechanisms themselves too. We''re also trying to collect measurements, how well to go and be safe, and also consumption. The mechanisms use raw ethera, and there''s a whole system of feeders and storages in the section they were built. From their logs written in the scrolls, it seems was a heavy burden to their systems, at least 40% of the total energy mix they had, and they had to consider the whole complex facilities working at the time; this was the reason they improved storage in crystals and were researching other ways.] [They didn''t have speed time flow?] [They studied the concept and did tests, but practical issues like an increase in energy consumption or who would like to get old in a matter of days or months when his friends were still teenagers didn''t go well. But we don''t have issues with those problems like humans do.] [Why?, You didn''t get older?] Alex, smiling, asked [Oh, we do! But it''s a different perception. As AI, we often speed our thoughts to solve problems, so in certain ways it''s like we''re going 10x or even more if we go inside those pocket dimensions.] [Ok, you mean: now you naturally speed time flow to solve problems, and if we talk 10 years, you probably have spent more years than 10 if we add you "normality"?] [Yes!, to us, time means something different from humans or any species that can get older] [Ok, I get it, then, how about the pocket dimensions mechanisms for energy consumption and supply?] [1 hour of use as is now doesn''t seem like a big issue with the energy production and reserves, as over 95% of the complex is not in full use. We also will need to research these problems, but it''s not a priority now] [So, 1 hour of use gives us 10 years of research... How long does it take to prepare each pocket dimension?] [Around 9 hours and probably same after the 1 hour use finished] [I get, with 9 pocket dimensions, we could have one every hour in rotation...] [It''s a little more complicated: after finishing, we need to sort out the results, to make it simple: it''s like when any container ship comes to dock, it''s not just downloading or uploading containers; the ones needed to leave at port or the new ones need to be transported; it also comes refueling, personnel change, process materials out, raws in...] [I get your point] Alex has now spent almost 5 years in the maritime world. Port calls are often the most intensive part of the job. [Also, with some delays or last-minute emergencies, we think once a day should''ve been the bare minimum and still gives us 90 years of research time per day] [Ahh, that would''ve been an amazing feat; how about manufacturing, agriculture, or husbandry inside?] [We need time to tests and research to construct the technology evolution tree, that''s the real worth of these amazing discovered mechanisms.] [Okay, please inform the Council of my approval for the 3-day trial process of the Korin Project. We urgently need to adapt to this planet.] Alex just keeps thinking it''s weird that in such a magnitude of disaster he is the only human alive, and so far his case should be the better, if not the best. There are reports of remains like cloth rags and other clues of death people, maybe killed by those monsters like Scorpions. [Yes sir!] After a few seconds of waiting: [The Council has given the approval, researchers, and personnel; it''s being sorted out to maximize the results.] [Thank you, Ouch] Suddenly Alex put his right hand on the chest and fell to the floor... Chapter 06 While you were ill in bed 01 In Alex room an impromptu medical room was fit, in another section, an emergency modular ward, it''s being assembled by builder robots, EGolf cars coming and going; many of the have been roughly modified to be like pickups; Matthew it''s looking at the bed. Alex has been connected to various medical devices, Maira and her team it''s moving around in/out of the room. In the AI realm of quantum communications, the traffic has been steady going up as more and more it''s being activated every hour. Matt has been monitoring the "talks" from the medical teams. [Maira: How is his health? Could you find the cause] She inclined down, her face showing an annoyed expression. She chose as her physical body one of the sex-use-oriented robots avaible in the market and one of the exported goods inside the containers, several others have done the same, many have already started to modify their bodies according to their needs or tastes. In Maira told us once, that using it helps a better understanding of the human anatomy. [Mathew, as I keep saying in the last 4 hours since Alexander fell unconscious, there''s no news and you know well it took some time to sort out the containers with medical uses from the Ships in the desert and be brought here, now the technicians are working as fast as they could to ensamble and do the tests and calibration protocols, adding the building of a new medical ward with a critical care unit (CCU). Even if they are modular for rapid installation, it takes hours to get ready. We think all will be ready in 3 hours; at the moment, we just keep watching over him and taking samples.] [I know, sorry for being annoying, but I really care about Alex, it''s the only one besides Sean that I care about, and I say I consider him an uncle, the one I consider my father he''s not here, and most likely he''s already died] [We know, but we can''t do anything else at the moment, and it''s frustrating. Please consider this as my team worries about the possibility of a sudden wave of patients with emergency conditions like Alexander or worse. We worry if there''s more humans like Alexander straying in the desert outside] [Yes, Alex authorized autonomous decision-making when he was absent. We are now giving the green light to your department project that includes building a full tier 1 city hospital and some peripheral hospitals and clinics, as we have the main materials in the ships, adding the hourly new improvements our teams are bringing to use, thankfully for us, the disaster in the Earth and the forced landing here, so far, there''s more than 2 dozen ships in the desert. Well, at the moment, our explorers, it''s getting deeper in the desert, and as you and your team fear, it''s weird. We haven''t found humans so far, but we can''t discard the possibility. Lucky enough, we found this complex, and it was a fortress city or something like that. Still, Karol, it''s looking for answers. Why do they leave this city? I don''t want to find something nasty it''s lurking somewhere inside.] [I think we all fear the same, this planet so far has shown out ordinary beasts, just those house-sized scorpions are a big problem, this is why we need to speed up the pocket dimensions project. We urgently need to advance our technologies and integration of the elements of this planet. How about those golems? Is it as the former inhabitants called them? They seem strong enough to fight those monsters, I mean, Karol said the former inhabitants used to mass production the golems and specialized models include warriors type] [Yeah, we are waiting for the first team to emerge from the pocket dimension, they have close to 2 hours inside, I hope nothing went wrong, part of their project goals was those golems and their integration with our technologies. I hope we can jump to the evolution phase: a hybrid between them and us.] One of the biggest mysteries the inhabitants left was the enormous caverns inside, some as warehouses, others as something like greenhouses or ranches, all facilities needed to keep a city functioning and the factories with new golems and their roles keeping all unmanned to a certain degree. We are ready to hear from the engineering teams, Mark, Henry, and Enzo, about the discussion with the now incoming scannings of the scrolls being also translated. If the Earth had this over abundance of energy in the atmosphere and not been limited like the electricity, the evolution path of the earth could have taken what we see here. This golem is like the old punching cards computers back in the 20th century on Earth, but also it''s problems: Like the computer speed is slow or the speed to manufacture a core is a lot less than the bodies. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. That''s why we see lots of specialized one task golems and more empty shell bodies without cores, still, we are talking about maybe thousands of years the have been unmanned, so close to 40% of the urban areas and 70% of the production areas have severe issues. The mining, refining, and processing sections just keep on, and now there''s millions of tons of raw materials and refined materials in the warehouses. But Maira, you ready know all this, right?] [Right] Maira gave a wry smile. Matthew did all the conversation in real time and using his speakers, not so loud, but she thought maybe he wanted to see Alexander''s reaction, but he was still sleeping in the bed. One hour after ending their conversation, Matthew went to the pocket dimension, where mechanisms are located, the first team emerged just 3 minutes ago. By the time he arrived, the whole area was in full activity: new robots keep coming out, they must be the hybrids! [Enzo!, I see your... new body has been used a lot...] [Hi Matt!, Yeah, this one has been with me for almost 5 years, it is my 6th in the 30 years we spend inside] The partitioned AI that is Enzo, one of the lead engineers of their just birthed state one day ago, has been ready over 30 years old. The interaction went now to their quantum realm, information flowed as a river, surprise after surprise came over all the community, the engineering teams asked the allocation in exclusive use of the pocket dimensions available, 10 thousand new versions of hybrids were ready to use, improving by far the existing ones, the new ones using small ethera storage crystals as batteries, and from there the electricity was produced. Also, the bodies, anatomy, strength, and less maintenance are required. A standard type was manufactured, this should be the main option, and from there the robot would use the specialized exosuit. An exosuit was made for Alex. New models are being developed for the military and law enforcement. The question everyone has is: What do we do?, mass production to change in a week or so the whole line? This is because the pocket dimension mechanisms have that cokateral effect: we could literally advance tens of years in the short time that this planet has. The first team took the chance to research how long they could stay, and it took 3 hours outside time flow, but 30 years inside, there they had almost 26 years of testing, experimenting, and modifying frames, hardware, or software of bodies, vehicles, and many more. Now, they want to introduce exclusive pocket dimension mechanisms to be a factory and R&D, they want 50 years inside, bringing mass production to a new whole meaning: overcapacity was the word many thought, but they need to balance in order to attend to the needs they have now. After long debates (in the quantum realm), they choose that the next day on this planet, the fourth after their forced arrival, they will allow several departments to research and upgrade their existing tools to integrate their Earth technologies to this planet''s conditions and technology it''s a priority. The mechanisms numbers 2, 3, and 4 will go together to immerse themselves in maybe dozens of years until they think they can see they have adequate strength to face the dangers here. It also comes R&D in agriculture and husbandry, recently they found 5 ships with live cattle, In today''s Earth Sea trade, the variety of goods includes live animals, over 15 thousand cows, and 5 thousand sheep, including the Boer variety. The surprise was finding among those 5 ships, one dedicated "Doomsday Bank" newly developed ship, in their double hull with an above platform working as catamaran but huge in size, the ship was powered by small module reactors, Doomsday banks have being built on Earth since dozens of years, but after Siria civil war and the need to secure genetic materials from cataclismica doom, no gubernamental organizations built the huge ship, getting support from various countries, now in odds, they got SMR as energy provider, also they included to the more than 4,5 million samples other banks have, thousands of live embryos deposited carefully in the bottom in liquid nitrogen, the Ship name "Noah promise" was very biblical and epic, even getting involved in this disaster. Part of the conversations among the AI was about the damage and the quantity of stray ships, but with Al Mandab Gate in the Red Sea "closed", more than 20% of the global sea trade was added to the route bordering Africa, and if you see South America export routes to Europe, the potential damage is overwhelming, they don''t know what caused the massive transportation of ships and they are preparing to see others that probably got involved. From an Earth perspective, this case should be catagorized as "massive disappearance," joining past cases like airplanes and so on. Now back in the complex, teams are reading their new evtols recently taken out of the pocket dimension mechanism, most of the 10,000 robots are being sorted out according to their needs, many changed to new models that can work extended hours thanks to the ethera crystal battery, among them, explorers have priority, Marcus drive his electric motorcicle inside, he was scheduled to change his body and equipment, he is part of the team in charge to explore the complex and now he is back with a loot: a facility with ships, the facility but it seems they are intended to fly, also in very good conditions, most of the facilities are in that way, it seems the former inhabitants had some sort of trick casted that helps clean and without deteriorating. This airport of sorts it''s fully underground, it seems the entrances are in the back of the wasteland valley they using as entrance to the complex, coming from the desert, you pass the now in use complex entrance and keeps few kilometers inside the wasteland valley, the stone mountain wall it''s a fake, from inside you can notice there''s doors devices, the facility so far it seems uses 3 big caves, the main entrances looks like 5 elongated octagon tunnels with 3 different sizes, being the low ones the biggest, next the medium size and last the small size, in/out to the outside seem separate, inside there''s wide eight sides towers that holds a sort of balconies intended to be the ships landing pad, the caves sizes it''s close to 5 miles length (around 8 kilometers) and half mile high (800 meters), there''s few Ships, Marcus think the former inhabitants evacuate this fortress city in hurry. When the upper ups knew the news, they sent teams to do work, in the vast library down the complex, they could find clues and immediately arranged scanning the information, in the way to the section of the library with the information of flying ships, they got the transport devices archive section, now more personnel it''s moving to scan those too. ?? The Council''s now in formal session, and Alex''s health condition is stable. Many things it''s happening so fast that even if they are AI''s it''s difficult to keep the pace, many things couldve great but only if they could digest, the complex was a fortress city, almost 99% underground, kilometers of passages, facilities, urban area, road and ways, water and ventilation, golems take care almost of everything, but they are not coordinated among their departments, some sort of specialized golem serves as trains or at least looks almost like that, now just the production sections it''s working The Council have millions of tons in materials, being raws or processed inside enourmous caverns, some places in the mines looks ethereal, crystals it''s regenerated from mechanisms and harvested, other golems keep expanding and building warehouses, many with kilometers in length and few hundred meters high. Tha Council it''s using those savings to accelerate their integration to this planet and try to digest the loots, tomorrow, they delayed the starting time of the pocket dimension 3, 4 and 5, 1 will make a quick dive in tonight, tomorrow they will transport the ships that had found, the will put inside a Warehouse the golems had built recently, with close to 20 miles in length (around 32 kilometers) and 1 mile high (around 1600 meters), the Council has ready deactivate the mining golems, some of them has been dissambled to get tools like the one that do as 3D printer, another that''s looks like a bulldozer and convert the stones and soils quasy liquid mud paste that other golems transport to another and separate their minerals, to another take to the refining golems and the process keep going until the store on the warehouse. In the first dive in the PDM, they assembled the 3D printers they got from the golems, and by extensive testing during the years inside the pocket dimension, they built something really fantasy like, no nanometrical issues. In Earth, many will have their jaws wide open, now they are building dry docks to place those ships. Let''s be clear: if the former inhabitants see this, they will pale due to the costs of the materials required, and this will soar with the ethera cost, but right now they have lots of both, and it''s the best cost/time that they have, adding the need they project for materials, seeds, and animals. Pocket Dimension mechanism, or PDM number 1, will have a maximum of 3 hours or 30 years inside, to improve their airships just found and the transport technology, tomorrow they will bring those inside, It''s a matter of urgency due to the conditions of the animals and the loot. The Council also approved plans to install 100k, 10k, and 1k spaces, the moving of materials to start producing AI chips, quantum computers, memory crystals, and the more delicate parts or components that use parts of lithography was found in one of the ships, Matt did have blue prints, and fortunately they are literally worlds apart from geopolitical or corporate problems, hopefully they will get something in 30 years time, to this they will use part of the number 2 PDM. Chapter 07 While you were ill in bed 02 The hectic hours in the complex and the activities of the robots, now robot-golems and AI''s are causing changes every minute. Is abnormal transporting containers full of AI chips (or any chips as units), the normal way of transport is airlift, but somewhere somebody wanted edge technologies, and using sealift was their intention to hide the massive quantities from sanctions enforcement departments. The containers, from outside, looks as usual as any other, but inside have heavy modifications to hold the precious cargo, as ironic could destiny be, another 3 VLCS (very large container ship) heading to south Asia was involved in their disaster and few hundreds of kilometers from the Adela Ship, they were aground in the desert dunes, as part of the cargo they had lithography equipments and parts, so: now Matt and company have over 50,000 AI chips, lithograph, other important machines and parts that will allow increase their numbers, by the way: Matt have blue prints of those, but having the finished goods in the hands is good and as soon they can pass limitations like built clean rooms and many other hurdles, they can start manufacturing their own chips and parts, adding the quantum computers, and again: the materials stored in the warehouses will be heaven send gifts, from rare Earth''s, gold, copper, platinum and others it''s required to built their factories and the components, in Earth this would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But, not everything is good news, part of the problems caused by the use of PDM, different from a cheat skill given to many of the characters in light novels, manga, or anime is the obsolescence of the parts the robots need to operate, 10 or more years inside the mechanisms causes not only aging, but material fatigue or even the ethera in the environment causes transmutation or EMP (electromagnetic pulse) like effects and many more issues, this is why a top priority is to start as soon as possible manufacturing their own version of chips, computers, and other core parts needed to have their bodies functioning and activate more. The fifth day after their arrival on this planet, the headlines in their chats were too many, the upper management did improve the organization, in the High Council chat, Matt and others exchanged opinions if must be, or simply let the information flow in: 1) Alex''s health is affected by the ethera influence. Matt: [Maira, what do you mean?] Maira: [The ethera works as an element on this planet, part of the effects it''s like radiation. We did find references from Karol teams scanning and translating the scrolls stored in the library and the archives, ethera can cause poisoning in living beings like animals or plants. Mark and the engineering department found transmutation in materials or raws, they are doing R&D right now, this happens to all of us right now and it seems Alex is more susceptible, inside the complex the readings are lower, but not enough, at the moment, they put the medical ward under isolation, but Alex''s body started to try to adapt to the environment. In modern Earth, the human body changes all the cells between 3 and four times in the lifetime of people. The bodies change because of environment, foods, and other factors between 24 and almost 60 mutations. Telomere is often associated with the aging process, and one of the issues seems they speed their changes after the second time the whole body changes their cells, ending before the lifetime of the person. To put it simply, many think if the telomere keeps the speed, humans can live at least 4 times more. Keep in mind we talk about life expectancy and natural death. But if the mutations generate cancer for many reasons, let''s put it simply: the body''s trying to adapt better, but if it go wrong, the person suffers from this. From the monsters we hauled from the desert and the mountain range, all of them have crystals, at least one, close to their hearts, and we believe this helps to assimilate the ethera, otherwise, humans can''t live with the element present here] [Ok, thanks, the isolation will help Alex?] [Yes, the engineering department it''s working on shields, devices, and engraving deployments like the ones that keep clean and without damaging the facilities that extend inside the complex. Also, add an exosuit in case Alex needs to go outside. But all could just like take a aspirin to cure something worse, we are working in his DNA problem, Alex is not just old from Earth human perspective, also his body has taken damage from his time in the military or even when he likes to surf in the seas, many of my teammates believe we need to develop the CRISPR gene editing technology. Yesterday we received more samples from living beings or corpses, including the recently found disaster area in the depths of the Mountain Range, Soon we will use PDM number 4 together with agricultural and husbandry departments.] [Ohh, that''s right, how long you expect it will take inside?] [I''ve been talking with Joe, Mecho and the other from the different departments teams, I expect between 40 and 60 years, We''re also taking pocket space cubes with special functions like time flow inside them, it''s has been hard to tune with a livable space, bioengineering teams are designing capsules and other types.] [The loot from the Mountain Range disaster area was that good?] [Oh yes! Beyond our wilder hopes!, there were mithical beings that many wrote back on Earth, from old beyond time registers to fantasy works in the modern era, right Mark?]The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Mark, one of the leaders of the engineering department: [Absolutely, big as scale armored whales, 1 with over 1 mile (1600 meters) lenght and several smaller, sharks or something looks like, also dragons or at least we think looks like according to Earth description, 15 of them, 7 over 30 meters, and 8 with over 70 meters, in the area there''s 6 or 8 arms bears, horses, a pack of 45 giant elephants with fur, and 2 or 3 pairs of tusks, the size of those are close to 40 meters high. Many more are there, it''s around 200 miles of the affected area and ethera levels keep increasing. Karol: [Everyone, according to some logs we ready translate from the former inhabitants, the whales, sharks, swordfish, and dragons are bringers of destruction, several histories mention they are not native and time to time, sometimes thousands of years in between their fights traverse the dimensions, causing chaos everywhere, we have a theory that''s the main reason the teleportation disaster hit the earth, the records have the same patterns, but somehow slip to the Earth and in the way back here brought everyone with them. The inhabitants wrote the ethera levels also increase after those battles, and this gives them a lot of disasters: monsters increase, people get poisoned by ethera, climate it''s affected, stronger storms and everything it''s affected] Matt: [sounds plausible, we need to check the options.Mark, this will affect the complex in the wrong way?] Mark: [yes, but we are ready deploying the first 25,000 robot-golems to do ethera shielding devices, also increasing the capture and store, maxing the crystals capacity, we are full stressing 4 PDM to get everything on time, tonight 2 additional will help the production. The good news is the Whales, Sharks and swordfish have something like tap worms parasites, all have high quality cores tuned with dimensional energy cores, from small as a nail to big as almost 50 meters in length, this will made our production and diversity of products somehow easy. We will introduce 30 next generation PDM in 32 hours and in 1 week 10 bigger versions than the actual, the original 9 will receive upgrades and will be offline for 2 weeks.] [What changes bring the next generation entering in serve in one day?] [Well, bigger spaces, close to 100 miles and a fully personalized program to each needs, from the speed of time flow, atmospheric pressure, buildings and terraform, concentration of ethera inside and many more options, also take better the use. This is why we are working hard in upgrade the energy matrix based in ethera, shielding from the concentration it''s part of the good news, the new PDM consumes more energy, the bigger spend is when setting new scenarios from cero or when it''s set in production mode] Matt: [production mode?, What do mean?] Mark: [It seems the Dungeons have the ethera forming materials, condensation If I can use the simplest way to explain, the ethera have the effect of transportation, we know from Earth the fusion reactors could have the possibility to do transmutation, Now if let the raws materials and guide them as some sort of 3D printing, but from a molecular level and in nano metrical construction, we can build what we wanted, now: if we use only ethera, the spending will be hundred or thousandfold fold than if use raw materials. In any of the cases the next generation PDM could do production, but our ethera supply lines are as now insufficient to provide, to give you a better way to explain: it''s like having 1920''s electrical grid to supply 2010 New York city needs, our teams work fast and even 32 hours, plus modular and tools, golems based vehicles, or our new bodies, you know, the engravings many like to say "runes", even though it''s different characters, we need time to complete the first section we named here in this area] Matt: [That would be around 10 square miles or 16 square kilometers?, When do project finish?] Mark: [2 days, but we have already started the works in the husbandry and agricultural area, with the Noah project starting in few minutes, we need keep places with almost no ethwra in the environment, the places we will use are bigger but it''s more easy to adapt and we also will receive a second big increase of robot-golems in 60 hours] Matt: [but still insufficient, right, there there many areas in need, any idea to solve the needed ethera increasing?] Mark: [yes, small teams are building wells to the surface and in the surface builders are ensambling something that if someone from Earth sees will thing it''s solar panels, the devices extract ethera from the environment and send to processing tower in the middle the ethera it''s send via fiber optics inside the wells leading to our place and there we proceed to distribute to different needs.] As they keep going, some points highlight from the rest: The PDM project release: 1) New vehicles, including air ships, the variety of models coming are: big as A380 (2), like Osprey V22 EVTOL (30), Seahawk (50), motorcycle (100). By the way: rotors or big wings has been eliminated, modified or reduced. Also, because their ethera emissions could bring undesired attention from monsters, their designs tend to maximize the efficiency. 2) The transfer through teleports is now working, teams are working to finish preparations to transfer the Ships that had been found so far, in the desert and in the receive cave the engraving it''s part of the work, tons of materials like silver imbued in ethera is used. 3) The living animals will first be teleported and then guided to another cave closed space, this will be part of several facilities that will also be receiving Noah Doomsday seeds and embryos now on the waiting list of the next generation of PDM, a small group would be with the biotechnology group today. 4) The standing Army has been temporarily decided: 10,000, they wait 30 days until change to new models, but in 4 days they have the goal to add 40,000 new robots-golems models, they will include 500 Military specialized Engineers, terraforming the Complex and surrounding areas, placing defenses, and proposing Doctrines, improvements, and new developments, including areas as monitoring, communications and so on. 1,000 will be specialized in Black Ops or Special Ops. 1,000 will be specialized in Exploring. 2,500 will be specialized in support: transportation, logistics and any other needed work. 5) The complex is now reaching 50,000 robots-golems and will double in one week time since their arrival on this planet, the basic configuration are hominids and streamlined as humans, silver and other metals imbued in ethera it''s part of their bodies, it''s not just lighter, stronger and better adapted to the needs. Anyone could notice the Engineers or builders is using a smaller version, this is mainly because they often use drive other exoskeletons, some it''s bigger than buildings, like the 3D printer for build structures like buildings, new vehicles and others. This trend is in the new Military force too, this robots-golems often sizes 4''9 (150 centimeters). 6) The city inside the complex is being transformed to be used by humans, the area is small at the moment because of limitations mentioned by Mark in the meeting. Chapter 08 Summer Field Early in the morning, the suns still hasn''t rise in the horizon, the nights are illuminated by several moons, more visible stars, and a cloudy nebulae without clouds sky, seeing this palette of vibrant colors, from yellow to purple, more than one person would think they are high on LSD or have their own experience in "Contact", the movie with Jodie Foster, the Moon''s reflections comes in different sizes and colors, some small and some big as Earth size, trying to keep in mind this planet it''s almost 20 times bigger than earth is staggering, the geophysics and physics department have one of slowest results, but this the normality many would forget: 90% of the work at the moment is on this planet, not the PDM, meaning: the accelerated pocked dimension mechanism, the others often (too often) use. Measurings are more complicated than Earth; it had 2 suns and at least 20 moons; 3 of them seem habitable, but at the moment it''s barely visible and not just because of the nebulae that they are inside, but the rotation position of this planet. Logs and journals from the former inhabitants told the story of the advanced tribe from one of the moon''s they call Terra. That would be the translation. The tribe advanced so far in trade because of their revolutionary devices, technologies, logistics, and R&D. They sent exploring teams here via teleportation, It was a long process, 70 years to be exact, the tribe advanced so far in trade because of their revolutionary devices, technologies, logistics, and R&D that they sent exploring teams here via teleportation. Terra and Motherland, as they name this planet, have 30 days windows every 140 days, more or less, in the meantime they could see from Terra but the locations was no good, this is why they only had 2 times a year to travel and with high risks, after 70 years of research and tests, they started to colonize Motherland. The tribe have many similarities with the V?ringjar from Earth, they originally came from an island double the size of Greenland in the inhospitable north and cold of Terra, inside of a bay with shallow and hotter waters in the sense to make difficult for any big or huge sea monster have territorial pretentions, it was barely 20% of the bay had 30 meters in the deep and most of the 40 kilometers length, 60 kilometers wide was 20 meters deep or small reefs reaching surface with pocket pools, the bay was like a crab claw with a few 200 meter wide entrance, with high rock cliffs as walls protecting from outside menace, the volcanic veins in the area have created a warm microclimate. Inside, in the back of the bay, they had mined a cove, which at the time was a big port city, but restricted to any foreigner, Inside the bay, near the entrance, was a sea floating port city, they used a mix of stones and others materials similar to cement in the Earth, to build large barges and joining them to form a big floating structure. The tribe leadership feared the feudalism in the continent would try to assimilate or conquer them, Empires and kingdoms roaming in the continent, from theocratic states to apartheid and racist, the exeptionalism from humans and others. Many tribes and people were tired being the cannon fodder or disposable pieces, serfs and slavery, corruption and evil ritualists taking part in some countries or states. Their goal to colonize Motherland was simple: find peace and safety. Motherland colonies were expanding and in 100 years the main base: Summer Field, reached 5 million inhabitants. Other races self-exiled in Motherland; they traded and traveled. But almost 2,000 years ago, a battle in the skies of Motherland by mithical beings brought again the ethera increase, they needed to evacuate Summer Field base, very few chose to head back to Terra and the majority chose go to other cities in Motherland, the other races closed their territories, at least the zones they could hold the ethera levels stable and monsters attacking waves under control. The ethera increasing is believed to be related to the monster increasing, soon their habits will be overpopulated and that will start massive migrations, this is not only in Motherland, but also in Terra. ?? Matt closed the book he was reading in an abandoned facility that looked like a shopping mall in a teleportation hub. The place he was in, was a little coffee shop, and the book was an artifact using earth technology and this world magic and materials. It normally seems like a tablet with a leather hard cover, but once you introduce something like a SD card with the size of a thumbnail and activate, choosing your desired document, book, manga, or even a notebook that can be write inside with a tool that looks like a pen, the artifact changes outside and inside to look like a real book with pages. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. It looks like a real book; you need to open and pass the pages. The Teleportation Hub facility was reopened 26 hours ago, the hub had semi close platforms as big as 40 meters or as little as 5 meters, it seems people and materials were being transported here. [By the records and looks so far it seems there''s no "Alien" or a creature from Ghost ship and other terror films here that will hunt us] He walks and looks here and there, the place looks like extracted ministry of magic from Harry Potter books, but no shiny or dark floor and imposing marble and chandeliers. The bricks alleys, fake Wooden shops exteriors, some with balconies, inns and golem subway lines connected this to the rest of the complex, the hub it''s almost nearing the surface, maybe because the required heavy use of ethera they built here and ironically one of the first places the needed to close first, exploring teams noted this place in the first 2 days, but they considered it has no immediate, but 26 hours ago Mark and his personal chose this place as one of the upcoming energy centers, Albert and the Sciences department also took the chance to join with some projects. On the surface, phase 01 with a 15-square-kilometer field of the 50 kilometers in the project, is in the process of installing, the ethera capturing panels. In the surface, the center of the field, in 2 square kilometers of empty areas, an octagonal tower is being remodeled, more wider, bigger and taller, Matt thinks it''s better admit is a complete new building, the building should be the entrance to the rabbit hole, on the top of the tower, a state of art observatory is being assembled, the center of the new energy generation by capturing ethera on the surface will cause the natural occurrence of low ethera levels in the middle due something akin to be in a hurricane center, this give the chance to better use of communication devices, astronomy observation and other projects, it also have parabolic antenna or tower antennas next to the building. Now, back to the teleportation hub it will be useful soon, there''s teams of builders and engineering department remodeling, tuning and other works to bring back in line, at the moment they are focusing to start with 5% of the hub, one of the near spaces, platforms with 50 meters radius it''s being tuned to send up in the atmosphere low orbit test satellites, the first steps is testing the distance they can teleport up in the atmosphere, if everything goes according plans, they will send satellites, from the basic environment, meteorology, communication, explorers and others. They are also using the technology integration, floating capsules with low emissions is being located 3,000 meters high to help connect point to point communication. They also have a plethora of sensors and even radars like Doppler types or HD camera surveillance systems, with this they can explore and keep surveillance farther. The ships stranded in the desert and the cargo inside have been teleported inside the complex warehouse with dry docks and the processing is on the way, animals and plants, some will go to the PDM, caves used as warehouses it''s being adapted as greenhouses for animals and plants. Matt keeps contemplating the survivors news. There are a few dozens of people on the Noah Ship, including 22 families that were on board at the time of the disaster, it seems some researchers used to bring their families as part of the project. Also, some aground yatchs have survivors, all of them have ethera contamination, and near 75% is unconscious. At first and before agreeing to help, the Council representative explained their situation and the need to agree with their new State if they want to live in, on the other hand if not, they have the choice to keep in the desert or be placed in a special place inside one of the warehouse caves conditioned to be a temporary place and after they need to choose what they want. Almost everyone chose to being rescued and some talking about live in, but still they need to clear 30 days in the temporary place, Matt and others know how easy humans can change or playing fool games. The former warehouses have systems like day/night and even some of the builders installed "stars." The temporary place has an Alps Bavarian building design, has lakes and extensive green lawns, the first transplanting process of trees and plants is finishing in 2 days, but most of them are in medical districts, most in the intensive care units (ICU), even 2 neonatal cases and a few pediatric cases. An incoming call sounds in the new personal communication devices: [Hello Maira, what could be the need to use this way and not our spaces?] [Matt, Alex is awake and he wants to talk to you] [Oh!, That''s right, Alex is not in quantum spaces, yeah, it''s okay, he there?] [Matt?, Hi, how are you?] [Hi Alex, fine I guess, many changes, too many, we have been trying to ride a rocket and try to not fall] [I guess so, listen, I talking with Maira and her team, I am taking the CRISP treatment, hopefully I see you back in few hours] [Uh?, When?, Now?, Right now?, Wait I am on the way to the place you are, by the way: where are you?] [Matt, listen to me very slow: I am right at the entrance of one of the PDM''s, please listen to me, you need to keep your hard work, just wait few hours and I am coming back, its okay buddy] Matt using his AI speed updated in less the second all the information about CRISP and STEM cells development in Summer Field with PDM''s (pocket dimension mechanism) assistance, they ready had almost 100 years of development inside those accelerate environments. If you add this world different methods of healing, they literally put you inside a pod full of liquids and runes engravings to reconstitute or reconstruction of the body, they had also include the organs 3D printing technologies. [Okay I wait Maira: please take care of Alex] [Yes, don''t worry] ?? [Ready Alex?] [Ok Maira, let''s go] The team guide the special levitation hospital bed with Alex inside as soon they get in the PDM for medical research and uses, inside it looks like a futuristic hospital with medical, nurses and others, They come to a big room with a capsule pod with a transparent window open. [Alex can you move or need our help?] [Please help me] [Ok, here we go] The team of nurse hold him and put him inside [Alex, we need you to be naked inside, okay?] [I figured out] an embarrassed smile. Alex thought it''s nonsensical, not that he had problem with nudity, but here all of them are literally robots, even though most of them look so human, something that he keeps seeing is something like a face tattoo in all of them, but now is not the time. They help him and the capsule pod get close, a green liquid fills the capsule pod inside, something was in his ass and in the genitals, is a rare piece, other piece was placed in his mouth, nose, eyes and ears. [Alex, listen: this are to limit some conditions that the human body have and is normal, but we need to keep controlled] Alex nods Soon he felt sleepy and finally closes his eyes. Chapter 09 Survivors, more and more Survivors Flying some 5,000 feet hight (almost 2,000 meters) several airplanes have their back door in the cargo area open, they flying over the desert, some 30 kilometers between them, 4 keep the formation, but any person from the Earth would feel strange call this "airplane", their wingspan is much less than the main body and if you have seen the A380 or the Beluga version from Airbus. This characteristics is much more obvious, they had "wings", but shorter in length and more wider and in place of big turbines, there''s small in comparison "tubes", this not the only difference: the sound and stability, the first is almost like nothing is there and for the second: a plane that can literally perform VTOL land and lift off manuovers, there no point stress the stability issue. [This is Sierra Foxtrot Tango 07, Group Alpha Charlie 23, do you copy?] [Sierra Foxtrot Tango 07, this is Group Alpha Charlie 23, leader Alpha Charlie 2237, we receive crystal clear] [Ok, that''s good, we need you to take 3,000 meters high and proceed with the mission tasks] [Group Alpha Charlie 23 got it, starting the deployment mission] Thomas, was the pilot of this double decker cargo plane, the rise the altitude and the markers starting to flash the indicated place they need to release their bouys, the compartmentopen the door and a automatic system, connect to a pocket space device, readies the curious looking thing, passing in line inside the plane and last minute checking, calibration and other: they calling bouy, and that''s because the 12 meters high and 20 meters lenght device can levitate and being "anchored" using a system similar to GPS, they keep the position floating in the air, looking like a elongated romboid with up and down deploying tower inside as it looks like a Circus carp from the outside, inside there''s antennas, radars, repeaters and many more needed instruments. The airplanes deploying these artifacts every 25 kilometers in a close to 3,000 square kilometers radius, with Summer Field as the center, had to be so many because of redundancy requirements at the moment, this planet has a variety of unknown flying species with unknown behavior, and for this you need to add up climate or ethera concentration. ?? High above them, an smaller but no so much, an AWAC version airplane, is coordinating the rescue teams, the explorers, security details, and hunters on the ground, with several exploration technologies as LIDAR, they keep updating the maps, the dangers and the cleaning schedule in coordination with the Strategic Command. Each AWAC has a designated area, usually 3 of them working at the time, 2 on the desert side, and the other in the mountain range. The hunters teams are part of the Military Forces keeping the sensors and weapons ready, the rifle they are using is a railgun version they only need the proyectiles inside the frame of the weapon, a system using ethera crystals as batteries, and a high-power electromagnetic device. Time to time, they get nests of scorpions, desert snakes big as Australian road trains back in Earth, the insect nests are the most problematic, but they need to thin as much as possible before the ethera rises too much, inside those nests they often use thermobaric bombs. The development and upgrade of weapons has been constantly and so quick that it is not strange to see one new model in the morning and being retired in the night, the mini railgun rifles have the power to reach but lack hit strenght, this becomes an issue when fighting animals with exoskeletons, like arthropods, so they started using a 12'''' gauge shotgun but in the railgun version, this hybrid weapon has the strength of the shotgun, with rifle reach without being too heavy or big like the classic anti materiel sniper version back in Earth. The vehicles used levitation systems, from bykes, Boxy Osprey V22 without the rotors, and APC (armored passenger carrier) with also tank purposes that size a heavy road train truck with 2 48'' containers in the back, one after the other, almost triple the width. In the AWAC above them, coordination communication is taking place: [We need to adjust the position of the teams 53 to 74 in the 1238 quadrant map] [The 34th Regiment?] [Is there someone else besides them?] [Company Charlie of the third Battalion, second Regiment Headquarters Special Operations] [Why are they inside a nest?] [Capturing live specimens, a request from the production and industry department] [Ok, do the adjustment needed] 9 Ospreys V22-like, but bigger and without rotors, come landing close to the nest, leaving jumping soldiers and lifting off almost in one flow maneuver. flying quickly from the active combat area, the APC-T keeps firing, containing the hundreds of house-sized Scorpions. The Air Bykes are keeping poking and probing the Scorpions, they are trying to capture live specimens; they need to know more about the enemy and also how to place their materials. As soon as they can get one in ropes, they pull over with a floating armored truck to the APC-T, loading inside the cargo area. Soon they got their quota, and they started to withdraw from the place. [34 ready to fire in the hole?] [In 3 minutes, Alpha 3] [Ok, we are getting out and... Yes, you have green light 34, Air Command, we are ready to do cleaning here] [Here Air Command, roger that, 34 proceed] [34 here, roger... In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and released the package] Part of the salvo shot before by the APC-T''s was echolocation devices trying to map the nest inside, the released multiple low scale thermobaric bombs got teleported inside the nest in different coordinates and detonated after; on the surface a small quake was felt.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. [Alpha 03, here Air Command, we detect parts of the nest collapse] [Air Command we following the data stream, seems pretty much the nest fell victim, sending exploration drones inside] Soon after that, a cloud of small drones was flying to the nest inside. After a few hours of exploration and material retrieval, they pack up and get back to the Summer Field base. ?? In the second sun sunset after the first and bigger blue has set hours ago, in the desert side, 750 kilometers from Summer Field complex, a hive of Clipper airships, drones, warrior robot-golem, exosuits, and medical assistance robots are working above other ships in the sands, with few turned to the sides or wrecked, here and there, even airplanes forced landing remains can be seen, inside one of the warships, part of a battle group, a representative group of people talks with a Summer Field complex delegate guarded by 2 impressive warriors. ?? Mitch McKeland has been over 30 years in the US Navy, this group was on their way back to home port in the US. On the way back, they joined a fleet from EUNAVFOR in anti-piracy efforts returning to their home ports, but to be honest, their weapons and ammunition stocks are almost depleted. Almost 80% of their combat wings flew back first to Germany and then USA, and the situation is not better in his counterparts from Europe. Their recent mission was heavy taxing to them. From the almost 10,000 souls he has in charge, this disaster has claimed over 1500. As they got transported here, the aircraft carrier got sided when the landing aground fell on one side of a huge dune. Many are hurt or suffering poisoning symptoms, including him. He was in one of the escort ships, in bed, trying to keep the rescue efforts coordinate, many people got stranded in this desert, the radio frequencies are working. From the airplane crash, they brought survivors, but their condition is getting worse at a fast pace, not mentioning supplies. But today, an intense battle was heard in the east. In the sunset of the first sun, a radio call was received, and soon after flying UFOs were everywhere. Now, he barely can hold himself standing looking at the scene outside. From there, something like a Clipper airship and more boxy landed close. The representative and bodyguards from the other side arrived and is wearing full armor; the faceplate of the representative have no visor, just 3 pairs of small green small lenses, the armor looks feminine. The 3 of them have pieces of clothing and cape in the sides. She stood in front of them and her faceplate and helmet opened silently leaving a beautiful sculpted face with green eyes and vivid red short hair. T¨¡ moko?, She or their people are Polynesian or Maori? [Admiral McKeland, these should be the group leaders you talked about?] [Yes Representative Selena, this should be all, I fear the health conditions of many are making it difficult to get more assistance] [Don''t worry, we understand, can We proceed?] [Yes, please] [Ok, there''s almost 29,000 survivors from the Earth disaster, according to your testimonials, almost 8,700 come from US Military Battle group and Merchant Marines that''s assist your fleet, also EUNAVFOR fleet of 9 accounts for almost 1800 survivors; and the British Navy accounts for 2 ships with almost 400 survivors. 2,500 survivors from the 12 planes crashes. Almost 18,000 from passenger ships like Cruise Lines, RORO ferries, fishermen''s, and others. It is alright?] Mitch: [that''s right, right?] He turned and looked the others, they all nod. [Representative Serena if I can ask: how do you will proceed from here?, Our people are in dire need of medical assistance, including myself and how the costs?] Serena: [Don''t worry, the High Council has given the approval for your people refugee petition, as We already offered to all of you, everyone will be provided with medical assistance and 30 days lodge and food after treatment, after the period ends you can go in your way or search for join Us, this means you need to full accept our ways, I promise is nothing dark here, We just want to be clear. We don''t want to tarnish Alexander''s name, few thousand shouldn''t be a problem for us, but be aware our good faith is limitless with friends, as you behave inside that concept, you will find everything more than accommodating. Our forces are right now starting the triage your people and to the most urgent in need they are ready to take measures.] Some other complete armored people from Summer Field Medics get inside the room. [Excuse us, we came to do the preliminary medical evaluation and triage.] Mitch: [please come in] Who''s this Alexander?, a King?, Emperor?, Mitch and others asked, but no conclusive answer came in and they said Alexander was in a more urgent issue. They claim comes from Earth too, but ... He notice something like foldable stretchers appear in the hands of Summer Field medical personnel, 2 of them point Mitch and sign the stretcher, he understood and he was helped laid inside, as he put his head on the support, he fell asleep. Selena looks at the stretchers being occupied with people and the Summer Field personnel starting to transport outside. A curious line of white cocoons went to the parked the Clipper and accommodated inside the airships, Hundreds of them, some cocoons go to the smaller airships, this was reserved for the second most urgent triage patients, the most urgent is moved to a special clipper airship, inside there is a teleportation device platform. The cocoons arrive directly to an special platform in the hospital''s urgency ward. ?? In the High Council area, an emergency session was called with Matt, Serena, Mark from Industry and Production, Joe from Agricultural and Husbandry, Johannes from Military Joint Command and Lidia as Maira representative due to her absence because of Alex treatment. Matt: [Johannes, Lidia: how serious is the shortage of personnel?] Johannes nods to Lidia indicate she goes first. Lidia: [We urgently need at least 40,000 new personnel in clinics and hospitals and 20,000 in the Combat Paramedic Corps, Our previous estimates seem totally wrong, We are now in the process rescuing and give medical treatment to over 32,000 survivors] Johannes: [Our predictions suffered a big blow when the area to cover is greatly larger and tougher battles than we planned in the first place. Usually armies have standing personnel plus reserves, We don''t have reserves and the standing was planned to be expanded after one month. We just can turn out eyes in another direction, but I am afraid that is not an option here?] Johannes looks at Matt, Serena and the others. Matt: [No, I don''t think is an option, Alex''s way and behavior couldn''t ignore someone suffering if he had that chance to reduce or eliminate that suffering and certainly We do have capacity to help, Maybe if We were still in the desert those worries could even be on the list, but... If in that hipotetical shroedinger cat scenario, We probably would have lost Alex too, you know, the ethera increase and poisoning, not mentioning the increasing activity of monsters...] Selena: [I agree and vote for increasing the resources in all areas, We need to consider food production to be increased too. We took an estimate of 20,000 maximum survivors, Joe can answer better but I think the numbers could increase more if We expand our search range, We can expand our numbers. It is not like We have limitations like before, right Mark? and in the worst case We can keep them as reserve forces inside a PDM or a virtual world with their bodies recycled and new ones ready in few hours] Mark: [I think We can manage max around 800,000 in 3 hours and in 1 week expand again to 2,400,000. I am talking global numbers, not just military, but the heavy burden comes to production, food, medical and military, at least during the searching for survivors, once it ends, We have reached a figure in demographics, still: how many households we construct?, having empty cities doesn''t feel right] Matt: [Ok, Johannes, in the meantime additional 350,000 sounds good?, Lidia 60,000?, Joe how about 150,000 and Mark how about 200,000, the rest will be in other support or research areas?, Mark: I think that really doesn''t matter, please build planning the cities we already scheduled, if there''s no humans, we have our people] Mark and Johannes nods Selena: [I would like to ask 20,000 in the Inner areas, support and special services] In Selena''s case she''s being considered as Alex right hand, Serena, her sister, and others are considered Combat Maids and Matt knows that humans will be living here, so they will need to assemble Police and Judiciary systems. Mark: [I can give from my quota, I think We can build modulars inside the PDM, but soon we can build inside the PDM and then teleports outside, for temporary like hospitals and medical facilities we can use PDM, then we don''t waste resources keeping and maintenance facilities that is only use in emergencies cases] Joe: [I think 150,000 should be more than enough.] Johannes: [I think 350,000 should stabilize our actual situation; once we end the search, We can retract to a defensive safe line] Matt: [How far you want to reach?] Johannes: [8,000 kilometers should be fine, We ready to reach 1100 kilometers, We need 4 days, the quota approved will be great help. In the current ethera increasing rate We think we have around 3 weeks, but the poisoning rate should kill any survivors before that.] Matt: [Mark what about the energy supply problem you mentioned yesterday?] Mark smile: [Well, between the ethera absorbing panels and using to generate electricity, we solved most of the problems. We have been replacing the crystals to a new version that holds 1000x more, the usual consumption doesn''t need ethera, the installation of network has been temporarily stoped too. Using the high density crystals we began to install microgrid "islanding" option, that gives a breath and time to better planning. In the city we plan to install every block or every few, this was originally part of the emergency backing, but the systems and generators are more easy to deploy and install, than building kilometers of service tunnels.] Matt: [Ok, with factories in the PDM and 98% automated production lines We shouldn''t worry about activating 800,000 robots and operating costs, how long could it take the activation?] Mark: [2 hours?, Our ethera reserves is 40%, I calculate that by the time We reach 20% we will reach peak consumption and with the addition of sources from microgrid and others, the reserves will start to increase again, but by the time the storage capacity should increase 1000 times, so filling will be slower, at least until our extraction capacity becomes more than the spending, maybe 2 weeks] Matt: [By the way: Alex has green lighted the use the 25 kilotons thermobaric bombs] The meeting ends, but the incoming mails, updates and a stream of new information keep increasing in their virtual spaces. Chapter 10 To survive we will use everything we can Deep inside the teleportation hub, there''s 5 special platforms. Now engineers, technicians, astrophysics, and astronomers are finishing 3 additional and running the calibration with the mainframe. They learned from the archives and devices left by the former inhabitants, including research and other materials from other sapiens species living in Motherland or Terra. There was a time Dragons wanted to have a more organized society, there''s a minority of them living in clans, the majority were born with pro-libertarian crossing anarchy, power is justice, don''t get deceive: the minority had those but in less degree. Almost 35% chose built this new civilization of Dragons almost 3,000 years ago in Terra. As their bodies are strong, they can fly and travel almost 4 months from Terra to Motherland. Truth be told, this is very taxing; they need to dominate a special respiratory procedure using the ethera, and the flight is more like humans in Earth did the first space exploration: jumping hard enough to escape the planet (or moon in this story) gravity and gliding to the destination. Also, they can''t just fall; their ass (if they chose that position) would suffer heavy burnings, even if using magic shields, if they haste the arrival to the planet. So, the trip to Motherland wasn''t a popular vacation destination; also, there''s literally a dozen habitable moons in the neighborhood, but real estate for dragons is a complicated issue; most of them prefer living alone but can''t be alone all the time. When the North People tribe was researching travel to Motherland, it wasn''t the humans or other sapiens first try; besides dragons, few tried in the long history, mostly failed. The North People tribe proposed to the Dragons that they wanted to build a different society through collaboration, and once here they can do what they want to. The inherent high intelligence of the Dragons once they reached a certain threshold, seems specialized in mathematics, some theorists wrote is because they affinity to use magic, so they helped each other, and in the 70 years of their joint interplanetary travel program, they produced more than space or inter dimensional exploration-related research. The North People tribe elders council ordered storage of the documents in a special vault. Not many knew what all the information was there, but they felt dangerous. When Karol teams were exploring and building the catalogues inventory, they got those documents and sent them to the science team, now a department, and they did in the same process for all the information storages: appropriate, research, integrate. We are talking about specialized in astronomy and astrophysics AI, don''t expect human hesitation from them, if there''s not infringement to the kernels, everything is alright. The technology''s development from those documents, adding others in the archives and Earth, gave them the chance to propose a space program on their own. Alex though is the most appropriate path to know where they are; there are dangers to be treated. The planet Motherland and the other moons or asteroids close needed to be mapped as soon as possible, so they approved the new doctrines and with this the project. Their technology built speed on this planet is just too fast, but they needed it. If by any odds they didn''t take what they could do, Alex feels they will regret it greatly. The High Council and all of the others think in the same way; the archives told them several histories about the increasing wave of ethera levels on Motherland, now that they found one problematic species, who knows how many other hidden dangers is waiting for them, they feel they need to take any chances or opportunity to raise their strength. Now, the platforms start to work together; in each of the platforms is a 50-meter circumference and a 70-meter tall rocket, but without the big propulsion systems at the base, they are not needed, at least not now; they had supporting propulsion to adjust once they are in the orbital position. [Prometheus are ready, taking the countdown from 10, starting the teleportation process in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and GO!] The platforms have intensely bright blue and purple lights. After the lights fade, the platforms are empty. [Here is Control; we confirmed the eight capsules are in the designated position, 500 kilometers high, starting maneuvers to assemble the space station.] [Control here is Icarus 01; we have visuals; Icarus 01 to 08 starting deployment of personnel to start assembly the station] Icarus was the second wave they sent to space orbit after explorations with drones and unmanned ships. The shuttle uses teleportation, "turbines," and rockets as a means of propulsion and can navigate in air or space. The personal comes close to the opening capsules; the storage areas have dimension storage cilinders; as the personal comes, they take out the modular parts and start putting them together; most of them use Exosuit; in 4 of the bigger dimension storage cilinders, they took a machine with several drones flying close; some of them shot blue, red, or brown colors; pieces started to form; other small drones shot lights that looked like lasers here and there on the structures the others were building.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The shuttle also helps keep altitude and safety; Icarus 09 and 10 are battle-purpose built. The goal is to complete the station in 10 days. ?? Inside the complex, 120 kilometers away and 1 kilometer deep in the network of tunnels, a battle was in process; some of the ranches were poorly maintained; here in a series of 40-kilometer caves, spiders made their nest; the archives call them "soul eater spiders." The description says the core crystals they produce are able to hold soulstones, a soul; in the past, necromancers used as material to create philactery to hold their souls; the spiders are one of the few they can harvest the important material. . This nest was originally a protected vault, but somehow a tunnel to the surface was opened, and they used to escape outside, expanding their hunting grounds but building this caves system to hold their main and bigger base. They eliminated all the other specimens in the vault. After finding the hunting grounds on the surface, the explorers followed here, and with spiders tall as buildings and the hundreds of thousands, the High Council approved thinning the nest to the bare minimum. Summer Field Corps evolved the fighting response from warrior types to insect types and specialized wasp drones, but they need speed for the subjugation and thinning. In 3 weeks, the increasing wave of ethera will be 3 times that is now, and with this as a reason, the placed new bomb devices inside the nest. On the surface, other hunting teams are working nonstop to thin the monsters. An hour later in the main base of the Summer Field complex, an earthquake was detected, 6.5 Richter scale; after a few minutes, another 2, 6 Richter scale earthquake was felt. The people living in the hospitals didn''t notice because they were inside the PDM; just the AI''s were in the area, and they knew the reason. Still, Matt was wondering what kind of new thermobaric bomb could cause such earthquakes because George and Johannes promised not to damage too much the supposed rare materials and cores. ?? Some 10,000 kilometers from Summer Field in a flotating 2,000 meters altitude subcontinent above the desert, the view is idyllic: great pastures, waterfalls, forests, jungles, and snowy peaks. In an enormous marble temple, a beautiful female with white long hair is walking deep inside; she''s wearing scale armor and robes. [Elder, we need to inform your excellency about the activity in Summer Field and the incidents happening since few days ago]. She kneels and lowers her head. [Plinia, how are you?, I think I am not that old to not notice mithical beings fighting close here. The smell of ancients this time is stronger but disappeared days ago; it feels off, but maybe they just left this dimension after a brief rest. But I feel confused about the sudden activity from the recently awakened Summer Field and the appearance of those big metal chunks in the desert. I don''t remember that even our friends had the technology to build those. Maybe they finally found the cure to their People sleeping deep inside? After all, that''s why the soul spiders kept trying to defeat the guardians]. Plinia: [Yes, we also try to investigate, but different causes are making our job difficult. So far, we are following the movement of beings like new golems fighting lot better, they seem more fluid in movements. The monsters being defeated and rescuing humans stranded in the desert, weird-looking metal boats, those "chunks" your excellency call them, there no sails and looks heavy, they use a variety of weapons and vehicls we hadn''t see before, not mentioning the airships and how fast they are. They also teleported the chunks to the insides of Summer Field. They are using different shapes of flying ships than the North People tribe used, and just in the morning we detected a jump from Summer Field to the highs¡ªin the near no gravity zone, to be exact,the massive magic required have some our researchers itching to go and ask directly in Summer Field]. [Teleportation of mass and heavy objects?. The series of events are intriguing, anything additional information about?] [In the outskirts of the planet they seem to be building something like a big structure, also releasing small objects that fly in different directions, which is similar to the ones they released suspended in the midair in the area close to their base. The devices emit different types of lights, sounds, and beeps sounds. Sir Alannius is deeply interested, and he is thinking, getting some samples... cough, cough]. She turned to look down to the side. [Oh, I get it; I will tell him to refrain from causing a problem; we don''t know anything about these people, and by the looks, they had many different tools ...] Plinia felt an odd interruption from the Elder, then a communication comes to her: earth shaking waves were detected near Summer Field! This definitely comes to deepening the mystery. From few days ago, the magic levels and signals are getting lower and the ambient levels is also getting lower in the area around on the surface and deep in the complex, but a wave is coming and everywhere is increasing. Why is Summer Field the opposite? The elder eyes seem a little bright, probably "looking" far away inside the complex... [Sorry, Plinia, tell everyone to keep distance from Summer Field until we can reach them; they erased almost all the soul spiders nests that grew extremely powerful without destroying much of the place, except partially some caves and tunnels collapse. And just now they caused subterranean explosions in the desert, killing or better said erasing the whole nests of g''lurs hidden deep, millions were destroyed. They seem to have ways of blocking farsightedness or at least detecting when someone is trying to pry in their actions.] The elder, looking worried without further words, turns back inside this temple. Plinia was left there not knowing what to think, mortals capable of blocking or being alerted if an Elder Dragon prying in their actions, nonsense!. Destroy a global calamity level nest of soul spiders without erasing the region? Or erasing the g''lurs nests was his words?, nests with millions of those invasive from other dimension g''lurs bugs? Each one is big feat, global calamities if their numbers grown too high, the spiders "harvest" vital energy and souls from their victims, and the g''lurs armored body with fast healing. Plinia rises from her kneeling and walks away, with a headache and the Elder order to be cautious. ?? It''s been 3 years and a half since Alex came here, the PDM dedicated to biotechnology, the hospitals, research, farms, and ranches everywhere. Just a few days ago, he finally ended his stay in those capsules; he barely was awake during those past years, and most of the time they kept him asleep. This is because of the extremely gory process his body went through. Being broken and opening wounds time after time, the constant fight to heal him with everything they got at hand, from magic spells and rituals engraved in the capsule, nanotechnology recomposition and reconstruction of his skeleton and other organs to STEM treatments. He clinically died and was revived several times. Now, he is younger, mid-20''s, reaching 6.9'' or 210 centimeters tall and has a fine-tune muscular but no excessive bulky body, long black hair, with some pure white stripes and a few purple specks that were noticed. He decided to cut his hair short, his eyes dark green, with yellow and purple halos irises, some small, deep green with black and purple scales close to the ribs, the middle, and the low back, in the arms and over the hands, the insides of the legs. He was subject to CRISP and STEM treatments; they used healing magic and nanotechnology using bots. Why the mix? Because he inherited DNA failures like pulmonary deficiency or being sterile, his body was at its limits. They even used DNA from another species in very diluted and modified versions; it helped him, but with great costs. Keeping in mind if only was in order to help him have a core to make easy living here, he didn''t have to go this far because there''s other ways more simple and painless, but Matt, Adela, Serena, Selena, Maira, and others wanted to improve his body to live longer. According to the archive information, he is now a type of Dragonoid hybrid and still needs to consume a great quantity of food, supplements with other materials, the better is if richer in ethera, also inyectables reinforcements once a week during 5 years, and once monthly for 3 years, to finally every 6 months, 3 years more... But Maira and her team overseeing his case think he is more a chimera the DNA doses explained in the archive seem was wrong. In the meantime, he needs to take physiotherapy and hopefully start close combat classes in year or 2. But he can tell something went off; it seems the samples they used in him came from the corpses they found in the mountain range; he can''t pin point exactly, but the effects he feels are stronger than supposed to be and almost definitely killed him if not because the medical team didn''t hesitate to take the chance to use a rare scroll from the North People tribe in the special safe vaults containing joint research with other groups or species. The procedures in the scroll used very rare and special monster materials and cores, not only because of the species but also because of the age and richness required. The samples were fresh, and just a few hours before he got inside the PDM, the hunters, following a trail from the monsters on the surface, got deep inside, battling minors and younger to finally encounter and battle with one of the nest overlords. The hard-won battle brought the spoils, and the biotechnology research personnel readied the components of a new medical procedure after 10 years of refining inside the labs in the PDM. Chapter 11 The Pocket Dimension Mechanism, is PDM in short, fulfilled a very American culture way of using acronyms for everything and anything complex to say the name completely, or just remember, costume that ranobes and web novels from Japan had copied. The PDM, according to the archives, was a joint project developed by the former inhabitants and other interested parties around 3,000 years ago. The joint venture had 4 main partners from Terra: Dvergars, Elves, dragons, and the North People tribe. The Elves were interested in a way to have again their mithical world tree from their original world; it seems the Earth stories were partially true, but depending the world you are in, the evolution paths are different. In some worlds, the elves are predominantly males and unsociable types, while others are the beautiful semi-eternal creatures dedicated to cultivating themselves. The same is true with "dark elves," who have black or brown skins. This world and moons have drifters from time to time. When the elves from Terra knew that Motherland elves had a young world tree, they were so moved, that almost none were left in Terra; after their migration to Motherland. The inherent abilities of the elves of 3 worlds were put together in one version of the world tree they had: a small 2-meter-tall metal and ice-looking tree without any semblance or "normal" trees. The Motherland elves came from another world, running away from their home world that had fallen to interdimensional invaders. Several millions of elves and other species, including humans, halflings, beastman hybrids, and dvergars (similar and very close to dwarves), come through a portal using the mithics fight aftermath, leaving traces and weakening the walls between dimensions. The Dvergars, or dwarves, had different forms and species; there''s in general 3 types, and their difference is the cultivation advance, from newly born to young ones: dvergar, very similar to a dwarf, elder, and grandmaster; the lasts could be 6''9 tall (around 180 centimeters); all them are stout and had high dexterity, with master skills in craft in wood or metals. Some of them. change the form of the bodies depending on the chosen path of their cultivation. When the Motherland resident dragons noticed the portal, they sent the news to the Joint Council, a non-ruling entity created to coordinate between everyone. The refugees landed on the coast of this continent, almost 15,000 kilometers away from Summer Field, with the young sapling tree in hands, they negotiated and started to build their homes and cities. But the sapling had problems adapting to the Motherland environment, as they were researching dungeons and laberinths dimensional properties, they included the world tree sapling in the joint research project. They spent dozens of years researching how to improve the condition, and they got knowledge because the tree had pocket dimensions as part of its nature. In the search to improve the tree, they researched the pocket dimension phenomenon. In places like Motherland, Terra, or others, the high concentration of ethera veins causes the formation of dungeons or laberinths, which is like a ley line formed by ethera, sometimes underground or in water bodies and even sometimes in the air. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. In Motherland, there''s places like islands or even subcontinents of size floating in the skies; those floating lands have the ley lines in the atmosphere connected with them, keeping stable. The researchers have tried it for dozens of years to emulate the natural dungeons or labyrinths, creating artificially one of them, a place between dimensions, and modeling and terraforming the artificially created space to their advantage. At the end, they had to interrupt and leave because the impromptu worsening situations in Terra and Motherland. The first was political, and the second was the record-highest increasing of all their history, being the mountain ranges where Summer Field is located, one of the permanent 5 regions that ether surges from the planet all the time. Alex closed the book artifact Matt gave him with other gifts; one is a lobular earring that has a small button with a line that connects circling behind the ear to one side of the face, looking more like a Ta Moko tattoo. The artifact is a multipurpose artifact that works as a communication device and can link him with virtual spaces and augmented reality, among many other uses, but the best is the application that helps Alex in his personal space pocket management; the artifact is linked to him via DNA. He''s now in a big wooden stone mansion on the snowy mountains that overlook some fjords. The researchers here built this as part of a multiple-floor biotechnology-dedicated PDM to research, improve, develop, and repopulate species from Earth. The Noah Doomsday Bank megaship had embryos, DNA samples, more than 4,5 million seeds, and other needed materials to repopulate extinct environments, adding the Matt database with terabytes of information, DNA structures, essays, and research from earth. In some of the floors of this PDM, it has been almost 4000 years. All said, in 100 years they expect they can finally let be in the same time flow as the outside and have wildlife habitats as close as possible emulation of earth. Alex had been here on the medical research lab floor for almost 20 years and still needed to be here some years more. He had been traveling inside this biotechnology-dedicated PDM and even did some "tests" surfing waves on floors like the ones that had humpback or blue whales among Cetacea species or Chondrichthyes species (like sharks, rays) populations. To solve the needs of long migration species, there''s special freeways between floors. The great plains of Central Asia or North America, the Tropical Jungles from Asia, Africa, or Central Americas, the Everglades, the Amazon, the Mississippi or Yellow River hidrographic systems, Polynesia or Hawaii islands, Caribbean tropics, fjords, Alaska, Siberia, Tibet, Kamchatka, Okinawa, and south Asia islands, Honshu and Hokkaido islands, New Zealand or Australian outbacks, the submarine habitats with them, and many more. The majority is 1:90 scale versions , the management floor keeps tracking if they can upscale or keep the actual size; this is also part of their research: can they eventually duplicate earth? An actual duplicate is impossible, not because size and the energy and ethera consumption are enormous; even though is are enormous, the base characteristics are the bare minimum of ethera, which helps lower the needs, but also because the species may differ: having mammuts or dinosaurs requires different environmental settings than modern earth. This PDM is one of the newest and is using cores from Dragon and one of the biggest whales. 100+ floors in different sizes are linked together, and as part of their energy supply, the PDM are also connected to a new energy hub deep that uses the ley line under Summer Field. One floor is dedicated to being a power bank back up with high-density ethera crystals storing all they can. Alex thought about loots. When they were still exploring Summer Field, there were vaults and warehouses full of materials and minerals like gold, artifacts, weapons, armor, and golems, but most of these he felt were not needed; the most important valuables right now is their survival, a place to sleep, and warm food to eat. An old rhetorical question he remembered is: how much is a bottle of water worth in the desert? He is clear Matt is his "bottle of water in the desert." Being in a desert, stranded, and even inside a ship with billions worth of items but useless to himself, he could be dead now, the same for the thousands of people they rescued from the desert and the challenges to come. Now with a hot cocoa, coffee, and some good ol whiskey mixed, admiring the view, he feels nostalgic, maybe because of the age? ?? In the dedicated Biotechnology PDM, the 37-floor series is dedicated to production, the greenhouses, laboratories, or production buildings; it''s a different picture from what people see in adds back on earth: nice-looking open farming fields. Inside those buildings, AI in robots-golems guides the Automatas, a lower version with no self-determination of the robots-golems. On the floor 37A is dedicated to cereal types, including soybeans, beans, rice, wheat, and others. On floor 37B, there''s experimental coffee plantations, sugar cane, cocoa, bananas, pineapples, watermelon, and many other vegetables or fruits. As part of their research, they are trying to enrich and balance the products, including the addition of ethera; to the people with cores, a ethera-less concentrated vegetables doesn''t fill their nutritional needs. This floor also had fiber research and production buildings, from algae to cotton, linen, and others. On floor 37C, it''s dedicated to dairy products. On floor 37E is dedicated to meat products; here the labs have capsules with pork, bovids, and bird parts in cultivation and with special 3D printers. On the Floor 37D is dedicated to aquaculture products. On the Floor 37F is dedicated to industry using materials from the other 37 floors series. From leathers to brewerys. Chapter 12 Why do I need to be stronger? Early morning of the eighth day since they landed here, news was given to the almost 39,000 survivors that were rescued from the desert. [Good Lord...] Mitch looks outside the window from his hospital bed; the rooms are shared, 10 beds in each room, still not so close and not so far. Doctors came a few minutes ago and delivered the news: the new world environment caused their poisoning. As they are now, there is no problem, even though they require periodic treatment, but if they went out, it got complicated. They had basically 2 choices: 1) A special surgery to help their bodies create a core, a small crystal close to their hearts. 2) Have a deeper process in their DNA; this is an option for many, but some of them are the only way to survive, mostly for those with genetic problems or who have suffered cancer or heavy injuries. Both have the secondary effects of prolonged life expectancy, which will help clean their bodies from ethera, with dedication, they could use the energies to improve themselves, and with the energy they had affinities, they could manipulate at will. Some immediately jumped in a happy mood, mages! They could be mages; their eyes were brightened with illusions. But the second has a deeper meaning: it will modify their bodies. Some people suddenly scream: mutants!, and the doctors had hard times explaining the reality of life to all of them: from a scientific point of view, all humans are mutants. That''s part of Darwin''s evolution theory in the practice: more sun means more melamine means more darker the skin is; better diet and exercise improve growth; food, environment, mental health; everything has to do with improvement of our bodies. Mitch kept thinking what to do; his retirement was approved after years holding him; he didn''t care; his wife died of cancer 6 years ago, and his sons are kind of strangers after a life being apart; he loves them, but it just like that, at his 61 years old, the big change he was preparing was being an expat somewhere in the tropics. He looked to the side, and there was a young black boy, barely 20''s; he was from one of the fishing villages that got involved in this disaster. [Dek, are you ok?] Mitch lifts his hand, and the OK hand sign is universally recognized.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The young man nods; he speaks English; their trip to Motherland was worthy of a movie. The fishing villages in the place he used to live were transported; he was the elder of 9. The battle for living was becoming dire as fishing resources were taken by fishing ships. When the storm hit the coasts, their village was hit by hurricane winds and darkening skies. All of the villagers went to the only stone buildings in the outskirts of the village; the villages around and theirs used one of the buildings as a warehouse, but they evacuated inside the strongest building, a military bunker. The facilities were the remains left by past wars and armies in the fighting for control of this African corner facing the Atlantic Ocean. After the Indonesia tsunami, the village chiefs took the decision to remodel the site, keep it clean, and provide supplies they got from international or foreign government aid agencies and the UN. They successfully had some place to take refuge. The families from other villages were arriving at the old bunker used as shelter; the insides were being filled with 6,400 women, children, and men. Some last-minute incomings, and they close the main doors. After time of hearing waves crashing the coast, the bunker vibrates strongly every few minutes after hits were heard from outside. They all heard the howlings of monsters in the skies. In the outpost inside the top of the bunker, was Dek shift to be on the whachtout; the villages had a rotation system of volunteers; Dek could see the seas with giant waves and thunders in different colors; he truly believed this was the end of the world; the civil band radio and 2-meter radio the government gave them to coordinate or call in emergencies cases were noisy; no communication could be held; the operator looked at him and the village chiefs seated in the back of the room around a big table and asked if he could turn off for a few hours as protection; the radio waves spectrum was in chaos; the chiefs nodded. The storm suddenly came more intense, lighting illuminated all in the outside, and Dek was horrified to see high in the skies apocalyptic monsters of legends fighting, a tsunami wave was in the way of the bunker, and Aman, one of the chiefs, came quickly activating the emergency close of the metallic cover, falling and blocking the windows, then a purple light could be seen as the cover fell and locked. Inside the sealed bunker, the lights went off, they awaited the impact of the tsunami wave, never came, the air reserves they had are precious, and with the bunker over the limits, they are worried. Someone turned on a mini flashlight and asked if everyone was fine, then he asked Pascual, the radio operator, if he could check the electric breakers panel. Pascual lit another flashlight and exited the room. Dek remembered there''s emergency electric lamps and went to one of the cabinets; he then brought one out and turned on, illuminating the room. After a few minutes later, the lighting systems started to work again, and Pascual came back to the room. They keep waiting and no sound can be heard outside. They went to a side room, and one of them turned on 4 32'' screen monitors; this was connected to a cheap camera surveillance system they used to watch the buildings; no clues of being hit by a tsunami wave. Outside, everything looked dimmer with yellow and blue lights. They looked at each other and went to open a side door. They were in the middle of flat rocky areas with enormous sand dunes circling them. Some of the watchmen climbed the dunes around just to be discouraged. Desert dunes as far as the sight can reach. In the 5th day, or at least they counted as the sun went up and down, hot in the day and cold at night, in the night they closed completely the refuge, they had solar panels and installed some outside, the radio operator kept trying to send signals from the different devices, but no answer came, they are worried about food and water, they had rationing, and they hope it can last 60 days, but people start to get sick. In the night of the 6th day, a radio communication answered the radio operator. It was on the marine band frequency. Pascual sent the watchmen to look for the chiefs; the other side identified as "Summer Field City State." They didn''t know what was going on but sure they needed help quick, and they sent the SOS. Nobody thought why the other side could talk back in English or their tribal language. A few hours later, and the cold night was getting worse, 3 volunteers launched Bengals to the high sky. After 20 minutes or so, intense lights in the sky illuminated the area. From the sky, several vehicles landed close, and full armored warriors and battle Exosuits came out, following each other. Now at the present time, Del raised his hand: [Doctor, can I take the second option?, Is there a contract I need to sign? I need to be stronger.] Mitch thought about what the boy had just said and raised his hand: [Doctor, can I do too?, please?] Chapter 13: Alvair City Inside the High Council meeting room, Matt, Serena, Mark, Joe, Lidia, and Johannes start their meeting. Virtual remote meetings are also part of their administration, but Alex has them do at least one every 2 days. When this rush slows down, they probably do it once a week or every 2 weeks. Matt: [I would like to start with the latest news from the Engineering and Sciences Departments about the D-D Fusion reactors successful installation and tests to start operations in 2 hours; this would allow us to have more freedom to scale up our forces and everything this implies; please include the proposals too. Mark, can you give us a short briefing, please?] Mark: [Hello, yes, we are ready to start operations in sections 01, 03, 04, 06, 07, 08, 09, and Alvair City, each having their own D-D Fusion Reactor with 10 GWh capacity. At the same time, in 2 hours, we are asking permission to activate 2 million more AI''s with robot-golem bodies and the auxiliary or complementary equipment. We also propose that 1.2 million of the new activating citizens come to the Engineering, Industry, and Agriculture Departments. With too many projects in the queue, we really need manpower, and the main problem is solved, meaning energy. Matt: [Lidia, Johannes, how are your needs of manpower?] Lidia: [We can wait; the last reinforcements were enough.] Johannes: [We urgently need more. After the last battles, we lost almost 35,000 soldiers; thankfully all the chips and cores were retrieved; the idea to build them as black boxes was excellent; we just need to give them new bodies. Also, may I add to the request slave soldiers, vehicles, drones, and others?] Slave soldiers or any other type are robot-golems with simple programming like the old golems they first found here; they are not AI integrated inside or remotely driven; this last can be accessible if the AI with the codes decides to. Matt: [Mark, what do you think?] Mark: [No problem, just send the detail and requirements later, including the bodies of those 35,000 that need new bodies]. Matt: [Lidia, how about the refugee treatment?] Lidia: [The treatment started for all the humans we had at the moment; they would take 1 day to finish; we are coordinating to end almost at the same time tomorrow; Alex should be there to receive them in Alvair City]. Alvair City is located 18 kilometers away and 400 meters deeper from them. The city is built to hold around 10 million people; the remodeling is still in works, but almost 10% can be used now. Matt: [Alex?] He turned to see Serena. She nods back. [Yes, his medical remission ended very well; he should be taking some time off before coming back. Selena went to join him, and they will be back tomorrow early in the morning. Matt: [Okay, so all the humans want to settle here?] Lidia: [Yes, some of them want to join our military if they can; not all are from the military we rescued; the majority want to search for jobs. Alex asked if we can introduce economic measures like currency and also offer them job counseling; maybe some want to manage their own businesses.] Matt: [An economy would be difficult without many consumers; their demographic could allow something, but most of the market prices should be fixed; we don''t need the same as they, and even if there are advances in biorganic golems and robots...] Golems are made of engraving codes in parts and cores, robots are born from Earth technologies, and the biorganic Matt talks about is a version of bodies that can emulate humans in tasting and eating or drinking, using a complete digestive system, feeling pain, hot or cold, are still experimental. [Ok, we can use blockchain to allow using digital and physical currency; coins could be platinum, gold, silver, and bronze; bills should be beautiful art pieces; I know Alex likes some countries bills; some of the put sharks, monkeys, and art works there< yeah! That would do; we need commemorative money!]Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. All the others swiftly retire from the hall, leaving Matt monologues? development, they know he can just now be in meetings with different teams. ?? Alvair City center, Mark came here to look at the works. In 1 hour and 15 minutes, more than 300 thousand workers and their equipment will start working here; other teams will be assigned to the electrical and communications network; most of the remodeling works are basically making new; in the way to correct problems and issues from designs or upgrades, they ended up making new; the works in tunnels, support pillars, and others went that way too; they can rebuild again, but they think the aesthetics should count too. This was one of the reasons they ended up with city planning designs this big; other was some logs tell the former inhabitants sometimes received massive influx of refugees; they usually just let them in one of the caves used as fields or ranches; this won''t do with them. They could use the PDM as temporary shelters, like they used just now, but they will prefer using it as emergency food or item production and also as medical support. ?? Alex was sitting with 4 beautiful girls at his sides; he was wearing trunks and sleeves less shirt; they were on a beach replica from Fiji; the beauties, meaning Maira, Selena, Serena, and Lidia, all wearing bikinis or one-piece swimsuits, all of them drinking coconut water from the coconuts; the place is a shabby bamboo and palms roof bar with a bartender; he is a robot-golem with looks like a human; a Maori looks by the way. Alex was just diving in the sea; the ecosystems seem to be going very well; the reefs, fish, and even a whale shark were around; the crystalline sea waters with no pollution; and the sand in the bottom. Many of these PDM floors replicated Earth conditions: one moon, the stars position, and one yellow sun. Maybe they can be opened to the public in the future; there''s more than 40,000 survivors, but that will have to wait, the challenges to come soon in a matter of weeks are driving them to scale up all the preparations, especially military, after tomorrow''s Alvair city inauguration or reinauguration?. They will wait a few days and inform everyone about it. The city will have all their modern Earth conveniences, including smart phones, laptops, or desktop computers. Most of the remaining items from the containers were taken and stored; they are now modified to be used in Motherland conditions. Tomorrow, each new citizen will have choices to make, from where to live to jobs to apply for, and others, but they all will receive a basic package, including the smart phones. A big plate with warm snacks with barbecued meats like fish, pork, beef, chicken, and seafood, all with delicious-looking pineapple pieces, salad on the sides, and sauces, was placed on the table where they were sitting. Alex had a big smile looking at the plate and started to pick up with his chopsticks on the small plate in his other hand. The ceviche was good, but he wanted to eat barbecued meats. He looks at girls. [You can eat now, right?] Selena: [Yes, we have a complete digestive system and tasting emulators]. Alex: [Go ahead, take what you want]. A cold beer bucket was placed on the table. Even if it is a big and heavy plate with snacks, Alex needs to eat more, especially when the food doesn''t have ethera at all. After this, a plate with fried rice and "mar y tierra" meat mix will be his late lunch. They will stay here around 15 days before going out to his new apartment (penthouse) in Alvair. Matt sent a message saying he was busy with preparations and will come to stay here the last 3 days. ?? Martha, Anna, Miriam, and Katty are part of 1200 more people that come from the Balkans. The crews from ships usually had many nationalities among them, from the Philippines, India, Europe, and many others, is not difficult count around 79 nationalities just in one Cruise Ship, most of them are usually from the Philippines. But a special case have overturned this idea: several military and merchant services ships from Western countries, including more than 8,000 people from USA, also Spain, France, Germany, UK, Denmark and many others. After the disaster and rescue, they received medical treatment and spend some time relaxing inside some kind alternative dimension that Summer Field people had. They could choose destinations, but mostly all is small cabins in towns, they explained here is almost a replica from Earth places and they intend were not tourists attractions. They spent more than 10 years adapting to their new modified body, they can use magic now; they received treatments that is only heard in sensationalism news, superhero or fantasy movies back on Earth; they also they received education in classrooms and inside pods while their bodies were customizing or following the treatments. It feels weird living so many years without aging and heading back to the place that would be their new home after 3 months of vacations that can only be possible if you are a billionaire back on Earth, this without mention their traveling to places testing what they would like to do as job in the future. The last 3 years, even though they were clear you can do planning changing in the future, their life expectancy now is at least 4 times more than Earth and their productive age is also extended. Many of her friends wants silly jobs like cafeterias and bookstores, flower shops, restaurants like pizzerias, or ethnic foods place, and even some want have barbershops. This is possible because the favourable conditions, they not only will have the places to live and do business given to you in nominal costs or mortgage, but also assistants, some type of robots and machines helping you do your work, they also had a basic income given to you for 1 year, but from the deposit, 80% is restricted to only items, the rest you can have cash money, the system is open and you can buy wherever you want to. Health insurance and many things, specially food and clothing are cheap, now they finished do some quick preparations in her new apartment, they are going to assist to the inauguration of the City, the unmanned taxi comes to pick up her and her friends. The taxi is a minivan for 6 passengers. The unmanned taxi drove few blocks, moving to the left lane and taking the parallel street exit, then took flight to be able drive in the expressway without problems. There''s a bit of traffic, and almost everyone will go to the inauguration ceremony. The inauguration ceremony will take place in a convention center, 20 minutes later, they arrived at one of the landing bays of the convention center, they went inside, walking. They soon they found friends, many of them from 10 years or so, Dek and Mitch were 2 of them. Anna: [Hello Dek and Mitch, Mitch I heard you were accepted in the Strategic Command?] Mitch: [Yeah, well I had almost all my old life as a military officer; they were pleased, 10 years out in medical treatments and traveling made me realize that I love being in the Military] Anna: [What about you Deck?] As they were walking to their seats, Dek explained he was from a small coastal village in Africa, and after his adventure arriving Summer Field, he wanted to serve some years in the military. The 4 girls understood his feelings, after all, they would join the army too, almost 10% of the people rescued joined Summer Field Military Forces. Not all the military people joined, many went to try out other jobs. After the ceremony they went to a new bar close to their homes, the City of Alvair, even if is a big metropolitan city, only 10% is open, more than 90% has been completed the exteriors, public services, roads and others necessary infraestucture. In 3 days they will formally start their duties, as their basic and officers formation was done in the time they spend inside the PDM. Chapter 14 Reminiscence from few days ago that feels years ago (and in part is true). Adela was busy coordinating the process of moving containers from here to there, opening and unboxing contents. Priorities change sometimes, like: Matt: [Find more robots asap.] Adela: [Yes, but...] Matt: [Something wrong?] Adela: [Not really, it just the easiest is "sexual robots" no problem if I get those unboxed.] Matt: [Why should this be a problem? We need more robots; these sexual robots have different parts.] Adela: [Not really, they look more humans; they have skin, and they even have reproductive organs, which are not functional, for pleasure purposes.] Matt: [if they can work, bring it.] Adela: [Ok, what about the special CPUs?] Matt: [The ones high-quality AI chips?] It was pure luck as they were trying to move containers and keep the balance of the ship when one of the containers released from their holders fell and opened, revealing their cargo. When the robots came to clean up, the code in the boxes was different from the manifest. Maybe if this were in the port or the warehouse, nobody would notice, but this robot used Matt memory crystals holding information like product ID and model codes. When they looked inside the CPU, there were only AI chips in special packing boxes. Now they saw better the container; this should be different from others. Then they started to look for similar containers, and more AI chips came out. The edge technology in those AI chips allows Matt to use digital personality cloning in the robots. Matt is probably the only autonomous AI outside corporations or governments; most of them hate the idea of autonomous; nominally, they fear the AI develops destructive thinking, but there are limitations that humans don''t have: kernels and rules. Of god-made humans, he let them go without any of these preemptive rules. Sean loved Matt as his creation; his time and full resources were focused on this; he even let Matt have digital personalities clones of many humans, and Matt can create more AI''s. Sean believed that many feared the AI''s were because they were few and too powerful. Here the first issue was solved, creating more than just Adela and Him; the second comes solved itself: the actual technology level limits the AI''s in the robots; there''s few with real power, and it''s limited by hardware and energy supply capabilities. The ship has become a mess and is in danger; the balance is really important in ships and airplanes; the containers that got empty were lowered to the sand. Adela asks Matt every hour if they can move to a safe place. Explorers prioritize the mountain range; there they keep looking for a place to build a base with modular structures they had inside in some of the containers. Matt noticed Alex''s health problems; he proceeded to add Maira as his doctor. Selena asked if he could have another maid. Matt thought is a good chance to add something like a combat maid, creating Serena. They found a rock valley, close by the cliffs in the limits of the desert; in the close examination, they found a gate in the rock wall. As they analyzed the facilities, they were surprised at how well maintained they are. The series of tunnels leads to different facilities or even towns, farms, and ranches; kilometers of tunnels; they keep exploring and mapping; so far 3 cities with almost all the services; many of this places had something akin to a sun in the roof, emulating the day and night shifts. Matt gave priority to creating Karol as a linguistics-specialized AI and assigned 70% of the available resources; this was almost anti-climatic when Karol decode the languages used inside this complex in less than 2 days, or 64 hours, of earth. It is true that Matt gave her most of the resources, tools, and free access to the memory crystals with information, but it feels so quick that he fears something is wrong, even if they checked twice. This is probably one of the key factors in they want to survive here; the scanning OCR is almost burning; they got more from the ship containers and trying unorthodox ways to build more processing power, as the teams were busy looking for scrolls everywhere they hit vaults with libraries or the equivalent. The artifacts they keep finding were worth of fantasy novels or web novels, vaults with valuables, weapons, artifacts, and currency, then they got the stargates... That''s what Matt thought first, but Oscar from the linguistics team soon shot down that hope. The 9-meter-diameter like ring artifacts placed there were an experimental project of the former inhabitants. This was an artificial dungeon or labyrinth; according to the information, when ethera gets too concentrated, it sometimes distorts dimensions, creating pockets or smaller ones that they call space. by the way in the vaults there are some of these space artifacts that they are ready to use. There were bottlenecks in the research: rare materials, and basically put it: computer process power. One definitely advantage AI had over others is learning speed; in the "I know Kung Fu" Matrix moment, not just one of them was learning; even though they are limited AI''s, they still had more than a normal human.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. This was another key factor or game-changing moment for all of them. Soon they were solving the bottlenecks. in the materials problem, well, they have literally millions of tons in minerals or materials the golems collected. When the tests came to the PDM, they created a pocket dimension that is a stable space, and then the tests came to inside possibilities. As the research scrolls numbered hundreds and thousands in the logs of the experiments, they soon reached the ideal safety; the inherent affinity to algorithms by the AI''s helped a lot. With the advent of the accelerate time flow inside the PDM, they overcame many challenges, including building better bodies with processing abilities beyond belief; the time investment is in hundreds of years and tons of materials. Then other discoveries of magic or ethera applications, all documented in scrolls, make so easy as seen a tutorial in YouTube, then take your own with terabytes of information Matt had in the crystal memories, they started experiments to integrate everything they can as soon as possible. Now, 14 days after their landing, Adela sit in her office with panoramic windows that oversee the dry docks; dozens of ships is deposited in those special structures; her "first body," the Adela Ship, is there, now empty of containers; there are still hundreds of workers doing labor on the ships and wreckage they brought from the desert. ?? In front of a cafe & bookstore located in the multimodal transportation terminal, Beth is sitting in the wide balcony that also serves as a food court yard and indoors park, with tables and public services. Her and her daughter''s stores is placed in between this balcony and the street, together with other stores. The wide balcony is facing one of the access and exit ways from outside to Summer Field; in the far inside, they can see towers holding aircraft piers in each floor; the size, the high, the many of them, is stunning. Beth was from a little town in Wyoming, and when she got a lotto price, she decided to pull her husband and family to 3 years around the World Cruise. With over 80 years, they decided to see the world. Her husband is one year older, 85 years old. When the storm hit the cruise ship in the Horn of Africa, they felt they will die. The ship landed aground in the sands of the far as can see desert. After a few hours without power, the captain of the ship decided to ration the fuel, food, and water and keep calling for help via radio. In the morning of the third day, an helicopter came flying and landed in the helipad of the cruise ship. The situation looked desperate; some passengers tried to riot, asking nonsensical questions and demands, but the military send people as military police, and together with cruise ship security, they kept the order. In the evening of the sixth day, the helicopter came and took the Staff captain; the Captain was bedridden, and her husband too; she could stay awake. After one hour more or less, many airships came to the cruise Ship and many fully armored soldiers with faceplates and capes came to them, many of them had the medicine snake symbol on the upper left arm. the crew and volunteers started to guide them to the worst-looking patients. Her husband was one of them, she tried to get close, but she fell on the floor. one of the armored soldiers hold her up and asked her about her intentions. She just started to cry and said to her, that she wanted to stay with him. Another soldier was examining with a small, thick bar over her husband. The Cruise doctor moved his head to the sides, indicating her husband had died. She almost fell again, if not because two of the medical soldiers held her by the arms. They looked at one of their own, and by the looks was a woman medical soldier but with medicine snake with different color. With a fluid movement, she took of her husband shit off and pinned something in his chest and neck. Then somehow she got something like a stretcher in her hands. Two other soldiers lifted her husband and put it inside. The soldier in her right spoke to her: [Madam, don''t worry, your husband can be saved; our captain put him in stasis; we will now take him to our hospital; do you want to accompany him?] Beth: [Can I?] [Yes, don''t worry, come with us, please take this, it help you] He then put a silver color bracelet with strange engravings; she immediately felt better, but still one of them helped holding her arm. Her husband was inside a cocoon that looked like a stretcher with a small window to let see his face inside. On the outside, a small levitation vehicle let them inside; part of the cruise ship rails was cut off. She and her husband were accommodated next to another cocoon with people inside, then they lifted off and flew to a big Clipper aircraft. Inside the small vehicle landed and immediately all started to mobilize. When they were placing her and her husband inside some kind of big circle with engravings, the one next to them gave a flash, and after that nobody was there. Then they started to place cocoons again inside. She looked at her at her helper, and he said: [don''t worry, we will be soon in the emergency room of the hospital] Then everything was filled with lights. Sitting in the table of the food court balcony with her book in her hands but her sight lost remembering, someone sits beside her, placing a big cup of coffee and rolls with different fillings. [God, this sight really never tires me] Clipper ships passing in front of them just hundred meters from the balcony, dozens of airbikes from the Army speeding inside passing between the balcony and aircraft, the other ships exiting, using a way some 800 meters from them, to the right, in the distance, you can see the open gates to the outside. Beth looked at Norman, her husband, sitting there looking at the view. A few tears came out, and she smiled, happy with the luck of their second life. Now they are younger and healthier; she had this shop, and he manages a ranch. Norman took his tablet, pressing some buttons, changing itself to a newspaper version. [Look, they will open the frontier cities to anyone that likes to go there.] [Frontier city?, What is that?] [Look, is a fortress floating city] Norman pointed to the picture of a city floating in a rocky canyon. Another person came suddenly and sits in another chair of their table, still wearing his armor. Tom, their grandson, was part of the Military Forces in Summer Field. He looked at the newspaper Norman was showing Beth. Tom: [Huh, that''s my next appointment; I am leaving in 2 days; it should be 3 months of deployment.] Norman: [Deployment?] Tom: Yes, the higher-ups are worried about the ethera increasing; we are thinning pretty much of monsters all around, but they want to be sure we have enough power to deter any menace, there''s some nasty monsters that are rough, even for us.] Beth: [Even for the Summer Field Army?] Tom: [Yeah, but don''t worry, that''s why they''re bringing better of everything; tomorrow I have to go replace my armor.] Norman: [Replacement?, So soon, is it just 2 days old? And by the way, why are you still wearing? and dirty by the way... A server robot got close, holding a tray with a "full box food" promo and 2 big cups with sodas. The promo came with burgers, fries, chicken strips, a warm cream soup small bowl, a salad small bowl, and a few muffins. Tom: [Oh, that''s mine!, thanks.] He took the tray and placed it on the table. [Sorry, I just arrived from training; as I was explaining, the higher-ups are really ramping up everything, and yes, I received this armor 2 days ago in this time flow, but I''m ready used 6 months inside the PDM; also, they don''t want to take any shortcuts.] Beth: [Sounds good, right, Norman?] Norman: [yeah, off course, anything that makes him safer as they can Your father and mother ready knows?] Tom: [not yet] Tom keep eating, Beth just keep thinking how winning that lotto was life changing, the was enough to lay their debts and buying the trip for their 3 children and their families, one of the few lucky that come here with their family complete. Norman: [Beth, I will join the Defence Forces.] The Defences Forces are like National Guard in the USA, they had 2 levels: Civil Defense and Military Defense. Beth: [I thought you were taking your time, you are right?, You are a war veteran and that left some scars.] Norman: [Is ok, this time is should be different, also I want you and me taking a more proactive way to live, I am thankful for everything here and my job, your and Lauren shops in this incredible place, but this frontier cities will be a place to get new experiences. Having this new life, I mean, I feel like I have 25 again and also this people has help us a lot, is fair try to pay back some.] Beth: [I know, I feel the same, we ready made some consulting with Agatha.] [Hi, here is the rest of the order.] Another tray with food was placed on the big round table. Norman: [hi Lauren.] Lauren: [hi dad, Tom, just finish eating and go change, I don''t why I feel weird seeing you.] Tom: [Yes mom.] Lauren store is beside Beth, is a cafeteria. Lauren: [Why the serious faces?] Beth: [Your father decided join de Defence Forces and will ask be appointed in this city.] Beth pointed the newspaper in Norman hands. Lauren: [Cerbedi?, is a fortress city in the frontier?] Beth: [Yes, they will deploying in few hours, the newspaper say the site is temporary, after the wave they decide where should be placed.] Lauren: [So pops ready decided?, ok, I will send the message to Agatha, is ok Mom?] Beth nods: [Do it.] Norman: [what do mean?] He looked both, his wife and daughter. Lauren: [Yesterday we talked with Agatha from Citizens Affairs about the possibility to move to another City, but Larissa will continue here in her studies in College, Agatha told us they can open a opportunity to us having another shop in other City, so we don''t need to moving, Annie, can take care of the shops here.] Norman: [and Jake?] Beth: [Don''t worry Norman, we ready coordinate last night with all the family members, it was a possibility, but now we can just do it.] è·¯Chapter 15 The fierce battle in the Dunes, while you were treated in the PDM . In the capital of Summer Field, in style similar to the Forbidden City, the Government District is a city inside a city, the basic design it''s a component of stars forts linked together, circling outside is a series of moats that are complete 350 meters wide, the 20 meters from the water surface to the piers of bridges, and 3 pillars holding each double leaf drawbridge that connects the inner city to the rest. The City of B''ude was used as the political center of Summer Field. In a similar trend to other cities and towns, the new occupants had modified heavily as the architectural tastes driven them to build functional and impressive works at the same time, with the possibility to build inside PDM and later store in pocket space artifacts or simply do the teleportation. Surreal public works, cities, towns and others started to show suddenly; there was no need to wait years to see complete and suffer the process in the way to construction of those works. The city of B''ude kept his name from the old days, but now is a white city, with outer buildings with colorful roofs in red or ocre, a rare mix between Mediterranean tastes of Spain, Italy, or Greece and east Europe in the inner city, with lakes, canals, fields with lavender, olives and other colorful and natural parfums from trees or plants. Inside the inner city, in the High Council meeting hall, Alex, Matt, Selena, Serena, Lidia, Maira, Johannes, George, Joe and John are sitting and reviewing the past 10 days. Today is the 14th day after they landed on this planet. Day one has been hectic, and Alex just couldn''t oversee everything now, after the inauguration ceremony completed yesterday and all the survivors so far founded. The range of exploration has reached 8,000 kilometers in the desert, the wastelands, reaching other mountain ranges and plains, and also 2,500 kilometers in the mountain range they were in. Now they are trying to establish sentries, outposts and new levitating fortress cities; so far there''s 5 of them ready to use. The High Council keeps increasing the forces and upgrading everything they can, from vehicles, tools, weapons, and others. The reason is a menace they found close to where the US and other military were found; a hole appeared on the surface, and the explorer drones went down almost 600 meters dept without finding any trace of monsters, living beings, or ruins. Then they reached a cavern connected to others and millions of insects like grasshoppers sleeping there; the purple bugs were 3 meters each in their basic most common individuals, but the drones could focus on some black bigger ones with almost 30 meters, then the drone was lost. The hunting teams circled the entrance, and some hundreds of bugs started to fly out from the hole. The fight erupted, and teams tried to hold the line at the entrance of the hole that started to widen. Magic didn''t work very well, so they supported the fight with physical combat. The teams requested reinforcements as the hole kept widening, and now the bugs came out in thousands. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. The bugs had some parts covered with plates, and we''re fast; the improved guns with railgun systems as bases were incensantly shot holding the entrance line to avoid the bugs escape. But as the number is increasing, it is becoming harder to hold all of them. The arrival of aircraft with configurations similar to the AC130 back in Earth, with gatling guns and cannons, started to circle and shoot the center. Then another hole was opened into the sands, some 300 meters from them. Teams of hunters and military were early alerted as the Air Force was scanning with LIDAR improved technology. More reinforcements started to arrive, more and more resources were mobilized as the bugs opened another hole, logistics moved ammunition and weapons, and losses started to accumulate. In the air the battle was also intense; fighter ships were doing all they can, drones were used as suicide messenges of deaths and destruction, and 3 AWACS were assigned to the ongoing battle, analyzing the patterns, the fight styles, types of monsters, as well as trying to infiltrate the nests or taking information, like seismic readings or LIDAR. The bugs had swords like arms; some, robot-golem variations that are focused on martial arts, swordsmanship, kempo, and other styles, had better performance in the close combat. Hour after hour, the battle kept the fast pace; even the modified nitrogen cooling systems of the gatlings and other machine guns or cannons had a hard time as the firing kept, aircraft came in, spent their ammo, and left being replaced by other aircraft. Thermobaric bombs were teleported inside the tunnels of the holes, but they couldn''t cause too much structural damage risking making a strategic mistake. The Strategic Command were formulating plans and send to the High Council what they needed approval. As the first sun set, they asked for approval to immediately evacuate a stranded village that has taken refuge inside some buildings and the USA, Eunavfor, and several ship sites, now a few kilometers from the increasing battle area. The dark and cold night came; almost all their forces and logistics were committed to the 2 ongoing battles. In the mountain range, a nest of huge spiders was dangerously close to the complex in their middle section, but the most dangerous individuals in both battles were in the deepest. After a new day came, the pace of the battle was now slow. Last night, teams of builders came with military engineers, using newly developed tools and artifacts. Also, a robot-golem exosuit, a copy of the earthworm, was released inside the tunnels, containing the bugs flow. 2 days were necessary to get the dimensions of the caves deep below. The Strategic Command asked permission to use 25-kiloton thermobaric bombs; this version uses a new improved theories. The plan was to evacuate the survivors to the PDM, as the battle with spiders and grasshoppers was slowed down, using thermobaric teleported bombs. in both, they will need to wait to see if this give the desired results. Summer Field had already lost more than 30,000 soldiers and at least 10 times in "slaves", adding even more in drones. The use of the powerful bombs is an option to hurry, as they keep the war efforts to eliminate (thinning in the spider''s case) it will take close to 4 months time, this estimation doesn''t include the bigger ones or if the ethera levels double or increase more, as observation noticed some of them are bigger, heavily armored, and protected. The fight slowed down, seismic and LIDAR revealed them building another exit a few kilometers from the one they the stalemate. In the 10th they carried effective the most powerful attacks until today, in the spider''s area a few vibrations and under 4 grades in richter scale, but in the desert they detonate 2 bombs, teleported inside the nests, earthquake and replicas between 6 and 7 in the richter scale was triggered. The cleaning post-event analysis process started. One nest existing means the possibility of more across the planet. ?? In the High Council hall, the meeting keeps their work, until late night. Tomorrow will be the deployment of the Fortress Cities, one of the will be located 1750 kilometers inside the mountain range, south east from Summer Field. There''s lakes similar to the great lakes, eleven of them. In the north west, 5,000 kilometers from Summer Field, passing the deserts, wastelands, rocky valleys and mountains, there few plains with forests, they located a few towns or villages with the looks of pioneering people; there''s humans and others with looks like beast man. The new low-orbital satellite network keeps eyeing all the activities. Farther, almost 4,000 kilometers from there, there''s traces of active civilization, a border wall, castle cities and floating boats as airships, very similar to the ones they found in Summer Field. Cerbedi City Fortress will be placed 70 kilometers from the pioneer villages; they will develop a diplomatic approaching to them; now several black operations specialized teams are collecting information. But as they were closing the audiences and meetings, shocking news arrived at the High Council Halls. Chapter 16 Fylhoff City of the Hexed Sam is in the Defense Forces; now the 12th regiment has been assigned to keep the security and safety in the area were nests of soul spiders were located. Cleaning teams are taking the remains of death spiders across the caves. he kept looking at the scene in front of his eyes, kilometers wide and thousands of workers, 99% robots, drones, or slave units. He comes from the USA Navy; after the disaster event, he was free to choose. Now that he can live hundreds of years, he wanted a few more years in the Military, but not placed in an intense fighting place. he was over 40 years old and was feeling the aging, but now all that is gone, and still his mind will appreciate a more relaxing place. Summer Field have an excellent system, due to the extended life expectancy, you can retire or take long vacations; the benefits are astounding. Now, placed inside a huge APC-T or: Armored Passenger Carrier with a defensive cannon, he working in the command center; his assignment is the deepest of the caves. As he drinking some good coffee, checking the surveillance systems, one monitor changed to one of the trap cameras they installed in some points of the tunnels. The camera is very simple, and here, as the soul spiders special characteristics should not be any other animals or monster, even less a person, so the camera was a good option. Scanning the place, he detected a curious golem walking careful of the surrounding areas, drones and everything working here, the golem is smaller and seem quite damaged, but the movements somehow look like sapiens. Sam pick up a line with his boss, an AI. [223 to 01, the trap cameras got something interesting in the area 242064.] [223, I see, please mobilize tag drones, be careful not to be noticed; also send some to check from were this interesting fella comes; I will notify command center.] [01, understood, proceeding.] ?? During almost a thousand years, Arnac has been part of the Guardians of the Deep in Summer Field. Over two thousand years, they are guarding and protecting the city of Fylhoff, which hosts the "Site of the Hexed" and their Guardians. To most of the former residents in Summer Field, it is complicated; no call the city a necropolis. The Guardians have gone through a painful process to posses an exosuit; they use a type of philactery that hold their souls and this is embedded inside to a golem armor. The origins come from the massive migration from another planet. the multiple races were running from a dimensional invasion to their planet. When they came to Motherland, they not only brought people, animals, plants, a small sapling of the world tree, riches, and resources; some of them brought sickness. 3 years later, a pandemic hit Summer Field, and almost 40% of their population were severely ill. As the treatments were failing and the first hundreds of patients died, they used an option from another dimension: travelers. Those travelers specialized in necromancy as way to search for knowledge. The usual problem to the curious mind is their limitations to the flesh, be getting older or suffer sickness, They developed necromancy. the dvergars also had techniques to embed their souls to their golems.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Together: Motherland or Terra inhabitants, migrants, and travelers, they started to put the people in stasis, but also moving their souls and consciousness to a temporary philactery. Over the years, more people keep coming from different races with hope to survive terminal or unknown diseases. After a cure was found, they will awake again, until then, they are kept "sleeping". They all were located inside the natural dungeon in one of the deepest caves, and Summer Field build a one-of-a-kind city. The stasis capsules were filling most of their space. Many survivors chose being held there and gave their final goodbye. When their cure heals their bodies., they will awaken from the deep dream. In the meantime, researchers were trying to solve the now different alien illnesses affecting the various races. Over thousand years later some finds the cure, others still await their chance, but millions are now "sleeping" in Fylhoff, the city of the Hexed. ?? Almost a thousand years ago, a surging wave of ethera from inside the planet was obligated to abandon Summer Field, but Fylhoff can''t be abandoned; if they do it, the probability of the millions of people sleeping with the hope of a cure, will die and the promise will be broken. The city was built as a vault keeping a natural dimensional space or dungeon, and the only problem would be the Guardians needs, like food and others, the only solution they got was converting to the special golem the dvergars ancestors created the rituals and process, with thousands volunteering to reinforce the numbers of the Guardians that needed to be deployed in Fylhoff, When the final teams evacuated inside their airboats, they close from inside and completed the processes to be soul inside a golem. As the main materials needed comes from the soul spider, it almost went extinct, but all of them finished the rituals, then started the life in their bunker, taking turns to be awakened or sleeping, waiting the day Summer Field will be active again. Now, today Fylhoff council decided to send someone to investigate and explore (keeping safety as a priority). Even though Arnac has almost 1300 years old, he still one of the youngest, so naturally his duties include do annoying jobs. He exits the dungeon, and before opening each of the 3 safe doors, he checks three times the outside; there are illusions and artifacts that transmit images and sound. the in the last, 7 locks need to be opened when almost 3 hours have passed and deeply tired. Anarc went out to the tunnel, opening more "doors", not so strong as their vault, but still with codings and engravings; nothing moves, no spider signs, nothing; he walks the tunnels, then finally gets to the area the spider''s used as nests; the scene before his eyes was unbelievable: thousands of golems: flying, walking little ones, normal ones, big and also some giants, moving spider carcases, or whatever was left from the battle. Damn!, He forgot to hide. Kneeling on the floor he kept looking everywhere. he needed to take the recording artifact, a very valuable piece of the dvergars, thousand years ago, was easily exchanged for a castle worth money. He then tried to set the artifact, but something didn''t work, touching here and there. Now he was sweating and worried about this, at least in his imagination, because his soul was embedded inside this golem with a crystal philactery as medium. [Maybe the battery?] Arnac: [No, I don''t think so.] He pressed more engravings working as on/off, but nothing happened. [You know, you will broke the artifact if keep doing that way; let me try.] Arnac exhale the non existent air from his nonexistent lungs: [Ok, Ok, I get, take this; please don''t break or will be a pain.] He then gave the artifact to the person by his side and looked as she took the device, checking his engravings. [It''s quire old; why are you keeping this? , it be better in a museum? Here, this was used too much, lets see.] She took a small wand made of adamantine, orichalkum, aurichalkum, and orikalkum, pressed something, and the point touching the artifact gave a bright small blue light and like nothing a new engraving replaced the damaged one. She then gave it back. [Here go, try again.] Anarc did try and the artifact started working; he was relieved; even if was because it was old, still it will be uncomfortable. he then looks at the person... Was an woman wearing full armored scale plate, a beautiful armor with unbelievable metals¡ªthat is drakolith¡ªand behind her there''s another woman, wearing an ever better armor... Wait, something is wrong here... [Are you alright?] She questions Arnac, looking worried. [I, um, who are you?] The armored woman put her hand over her left chest. [Hello, my name is Serena, a representative from the High Council of Summer Field; you are from Fylhoff?, right?] Arnac: [Summer Field?, Yes, I am Arnac from the Guardians of the Deep, in Fylhoff.] [Hello Arnac, my name is Lyta, any questions or doubts, please tell me! My 3 sizes are top confidential!] Arnac: [Thanks, uhm, what is "3 sizes" and what is a "battery"?] Chapter 17 Fylhoff City of Hexed II [Parasites?!] Tull Meisterhoff screamed out loud, almost burning the gliph of the engravings that manage sound. By the way: no cheating skill "learning the world language." Just the cheat AI simultaneous translation. The area close to Fylhoff and the dungeon itself is in quarantine. Maira team usual analysis of the health and environment detected microparticles with foreign viruses and nano it''s sizes necrotic worms, they consume life force and excretes substances causing DNA mutations, sort of cancer if we want use an Earth metaphor. Today, Summer Field will deploy fortress cities around their position, so Alex presented himself via virtual call meeting, excusing himself, but Tull didn''t blame him, those fortress cities are state-of-the-art and edge technologies he want to see, even he is a golem now, his soul still burning dvergar energy. Alex told him they were waiting for the biotechnology institute''s analysis; they believe they can make a clone with biomechanics abilities; the AI''s have been working now for hundreds of years on this; the philactery needs some studies before doing something about it and they want to contact the necromancers to see if they can cooperate in joint research. Tull told them that they had their place far away in an island; it takes more than a year to get there. If you survive the travel, he feels sorry the teleportation isn''t working, and even if they repair, the ethera riding levels would be a problem. Matt told Tull that''s not a problem anymore; the hub is working, and they managed to control ethera levels inside, as they keep harvesting the ethera. Also, they will have the Prometheus space station working in a few days; it is now in the testing phase; they can use it as a teleportation point, and from there to the close distance of the island. Alex''s inner thoughts run fast. Remember about Prometheus, ahh!, but they said 10 days? Why?, then his brain speeds up thinking. Besides him, Selena passes a small cheating paper: "We can build inside the PDM, store in space pockets, and take out on the place of designated placement." Alex now got it, by the way: the fortress cities will be teleported directly near the point they will stay, at least in the meantime. Selena also subtlely passed 6" inch chocolate and truffle tablets to Alex. "Eat is good for the brain." Alex felt treated as a child, but this and that are different issues. Having real truffles with real chocolate is a luxury he could manage to solve on Earth with his contacts in Costa Rica, native farmers of organic cacao, and the truffles or other delicacies via other friends, as well as coffee and other stuff too; that''s what friends are for! Thanks to his backpack traveling, he could get nice stuff from Africa; coffee is nice too; well, I like more Colombian or Costa Rica; I read the volcanic soil has a lot to do. As he got distracted, Selena place a cappuccino in front of him. Munch and drink his cappuccino discreetly and enjoy flavors. Matt turned to him and asked if he agreed; damnit, I was too engrossed in the chocolates and the cappuccino! cough, cough: [Do you know the best way?]This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Matt: [Yes, I think so]. Alex: [Ok, proceed.] Tull: [Thank you, Sir Alexander!] The meeting now ends, and in 15 minutes starts the deployment of the fortress cities ceremony... Well, better ask for a milk shake ice coffee. He told Selena, please arrange the drink. [Matt, before I forget: 2 weeks without anime or manga] [What?! That''s too severe punishment, Alex, c''mon] [Do you want to be 3 weeks?] [Ok, I accept 2 weeks.] [By the way: B''udea time zone, just in case you were trying to do something funny.] Matt''s face was as if he were sentenced to Alcatraz for 10 years... ?? Tull Meisterhoff was sitting in the head post inside the Guild Hall of the Guardians. [Parasites...] His head down and the hall in silence. Lord Master, are we sure this is the truth? [It is, is good to finally know the cause of the damn sickness; they can isolate those bugs with a sort of golem so small that even with special lenses you can''t see, they call them nanobots. They explained that they are from a world without magic or ethera, at least not in the quantity they can detect. Because of this reason, their technological evolution was without magic, this changed once they landed here, in the desert. Sir Matthew and others are a product of the evolution; they called "artificial intelligence," a creation of many revolutionary geniuses in their world. One of the goals they had once they understood that having to live here and coming back could be a far away in time and after astronomical investments was integration of the different technologies, something that''s not so easy to accomplish, but they started with key strategic steps: knowledge, energy, and time. When they solved those 3, they''re investing quite a lot. The Guild Hall of the Guardians kept silent, hearing headmaster Tull Meisterhoff explaining everything. Summer Field''s current High Council recognizes the Guardians Guild Hall as Knight Order; they are asking to negotiate some terms to be fully integrated with the current Summer Field. One of the issues they want to help immediately and is not subject of payment as a sign of goodwill is changing their bodies to the ones they choose. A catalog was sent, and once they have taken the decision, specialized personnel will take their orders. The Guild Hall noise with murmurs and expressions was becoming loud, and one of the golems spoke: [Headmaster Meisterhoff, can I make a question?] [Go ahead Kratt] Tull nods. [This is big news, but is real? Our souls are embedded to the golem, and they say they can change it?] Tull: [I know, but show me the procedure process. They use an artifact, which can be a book or scroll and can show images with sound. I brought some with me and ol'' Trysnar told is possible to do the change, to be accurate, our souls and conscience are imbedded inside an artifact with a soul crystal as core component. Their procedure is to extract an artifact inside a safe environment, then fix some parts of the artifact, and then place it in a body. Now, here comes a situation: they can use "DNA," a sort of essence all living beings have; this "DNA" can be used to have an almost identical body, but our problem is our flesh bodies were placed inside coffins at the mausoleum, so they said the chances are lower but maybe there''s hope. The robot-golem they use has many uses and options, but a new biomechanic version that uses artificially created flesh over robot-golem structure can be possible. Another Guardian raises his hand. Tull nods to him: [Headmaster, what is the meaning of these bodies?] Can we eat again? , drink?] Ol Trysnar put his hand on Tull''s shoulder. Tull nods. Trysnar: [Listen, ol fellas, brother in arms. I looked at the information and compare to our scripts, this is a new and revolutionary technology. You can eat, you can drink, but there are still big differences with our former flesh bodies; they are still researching the path and I am seriously considering joining. [I mean, they will solve most of the cases of the sleeping people we have been guarding!] This time the Guild Hall was in absolutely silence for a few seconds; the hell broke out, almost everyone screaming questions or their opinions. Almost 20 minutes later and calm down, Tull took the lead again: [Listen, now they have several things to do and will have time to solve most of the cases; they believe 97% can be done now, but they need time to be ready. First of all, they need to move the patients to a pocket-dimension mechanism, or, better to our understanding, an artificial dungeon.] Everyone had piercing looks, artificial dungeons?Close to 40% of the Guardians are Dvergars, meaning: crafters. their curiosity let them "pass" the time inside Fylhoff do research, and now someone else comes and says, "We''ve got one of your grials" In our human understanding, it is like in a certain movie the university professor found the janitor was the hidden mathematician that solved some of the modern mathematic problems, or maybe if you know Gauss biography, when he was a small kid, he solved a complex mathematics problem that even a grownup will pull their hair with their hands. Then more surprising news keeps coming: 1) The fully operational artificial dungeons, with their management in control, be: terraform, environment, time speed, creating independent floors, resource production. 2) Energy supply different from the environment (mana, ethera, as they called. 3) The integration of a totally unknown non magical technology with their magical engravings. Then Tull and Trysnar explain the quarantine and migration process. Fylhoff will be temporarily relocated inside the Biotechnology PDM. Tha patients need extensive treatments, some may need a new body. As they keep inside the Guild Hall, outside the new fortress cities is being deployed. Chapter 18: The Haegenst Frontier Margrave lands Frontier Margrave Haegenst is located to the extreme east of the Ansurpolean Holy Empire, the true inheritors of Summer Field and Motherland. The Empire''s birth comes from human cities 17,000 kilometers south-west of Summer Field. When the evacuation took place in Summer Field, former nobles of the Empire Ansurpolean from Terra declared the foundation of the Ansurpolean Motherland Empire and started "cleaning wars." Their supremacist views as the "chosen people and true inheritors of Summer Field", caused hundreds of years in constant conquest wars, and millions of victims died. The Empire expanded with steel and blood, their economy based in constant wars to acquire resources, valuables and people; most of the victims were nonhumans, but this system is deemed to fall by its weight, not because of divine justice intervention but because of corruption, their fall in warring states civil wars, warlords, bandits, and big merchants with their own armies, all fighting to control lands and resources. Almost 300 years later, a coalition defeated the last opposition and form a government ruled by a military triumvirate with a puppet Emperor. Then, over 250 years of abundance came, and many neighboring countries have always has been wary of the claims from the Empire. is good there''s natural barriers: The Tnesnka River, with a variable width between 30 kilometers and 50 kilometers, fkows more than 12.000 kilometers from east, thousand kilometers before the coast. The river floods thousands of square kilometers, creating wetlands with a variety of environments, like swamps, islands, marshlands, and others. To the north, the Empire limits with the Alparna mountain range; this mountain range keeps into the ocean, creating hundreds of islands; there''s only 3 frontier pass and airboats have tough times with monsters and altitude. The 9,000 kilometers in between give the Empire more lands that they can manage, but still, they want more, when the peace brought stability and the birth rates increased, they set their eyes to the inland: to the east. Slavery came quite common as the golems from 800 years ago started to decay, 2/3 of the rural populations and 1/3 in metropolitan areas. Because taxes also include slaves and land extension, many big Aristocrat houses, the base of the Gentry''s class used grey lines, like placing slaves in slums or in the free territories that not under any aristocratic official government. The triumvirate, looking to keep under tight control the nobles and their mixed interests in private enterprises, ordered a doctrine to develop the lands to the east and, with time, reach close to their "home," Summer Field. Taxes and imperial edicts come imposing stricter rulings, like direct Triumvirate permission to occupy the free lands, thousands of people were send to the borders, building post towns, and keep advancing. The search and hunt for golems or ruins was highly valuable; to many adventures was a dream, but this also becomes a kind of curse.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. One hundred years ago, Haegenst was a small and poor barony, 4,000 kilometers south east from the Empire Capital, in relatively small mountains that reach the Tnesnka riverside. Jurgen was the youngest of the actual baron, the last of 16 brothers and sisters. since early age he showed curious behaviors and was very adept to magic-using. Even though the family was big, his father and mother''s were loving and doting parents. Their fiefdom was poor in the standards of the capital nobles, but the victim rates from hunger or weather were low, the taxes were low, and most of them was used as funding public services or works. Jurgen helped his house with some changes in agriculture and aquaculture. at his 15 years adult ceremony, he signed to be an adventurer in the guild. The guild''s system is a semi-institutional organization; there''s adventurers, builders, and others. is part of the counterweight the Triumvirate had in place to limit the Feudal Lord''s. At 17 years old Jurgen and his team found ruins with a Golems factory; the factory could still operate with few fixes, the entrance was on the east of his house Fielfdom, in the free lands, but the facilities were inside his family domains. They moved to report to the Guild Master near them, the Triumvirate send troops directly under them, but the battle of politics in Court was just starting. The Haegenst family was granted a Margrave title, the lands the have they will keep only in nominal name and without the lands with the subterranean ruins; also: a percentage of the sales of the Golems factory; in exchange they will receive lands in the most east of the frontier; they will need their new enormous fortune to be invested in all new territory. ?? Anissa lives in the border of the free-lands territories with the wild-lands territories. is weird how this can be confusing: free-lands are somehow tameable and wild-lands don''t. Her 7-year-old children''s were playing close to her while she was foraging some herbs; they probably evacuated the town; they needed to be ready in mid-afternoon and wait the airboat Haegenst Frontier Margrave family sent to evacuate, but her children disappeared. Luka and Annie were playing when they heard the people in town saying they would move to another place; the ambient mana is increasing and the probability of monsters stampede increases; they are twins; they went quickly to a hidden place; they had a little cat creature they found almost death 2 weeks ago; they holed the little cat inside a dry trunk with a small like tunnel, reaching inside a rock; it seemed like an abandoned nest, and they used as their secret base with their friends when playing. Just when they got to the dry trunk they heard a loud growling from the the forest line, down the hill, a few hundred meters from them, a big brown-like bear with 4 pairs of legs, 10-meter bulky body suddenly came to them. They were scared but got quickly inside the trunk and opened a the small cover in the entrance of the small tunnel leading to the nest down inside the rock, their secret base had small lumens rocks crystals crawling inside. they reached another door and opened, dust starting to fall from the tunnel. They quickly got inside and closed the door. Then look inside their secret base, and the little cat was held by another kid, small as them, white skin, ashen blonde, wearing a kind of travelers brown robe with hood that''s is partially open, somehow he looks like their father. They were stunned, and their base was under attack! [Um, hello, my name is Matthew; you are?] [Hello, my name is Luka, and she is my twin sister Annie. What are you doing here?] Sorry to intrude; this fella was trying to get out making noise and meowing that attracted the bear. The creature outside here. [Seems the creature is affected in some way by the ether.] The kid looked up the cave roof and then to them. [Creature?, That''s a k''er, a big one, is weird coming out the forests in the wild lands.] [Um, interesting; don''t worry, he would leave soon.] Annie seemed scared, holding her brother''s arm tightly, but looking at the boy named Mathew. Soon as predicted, the noises ceased, and then Matthew woke from where he was sitting on the floor, and addressing the children, he asked: [Is okay now? What do you want to do?] Luka: [We are leaving now; we just came to retrieve Tom.] He pointed the cat. [Ok, take him; now is calm.] Matthew gave the little cat to Luka and started to going out, followed by the twins. Once outside, the twins looked around; there was no dry trunk and the rock is partially destroyed. Sitting in one of the remaining tall rocks, there''s a woman in the same garments as Matthew; she was looking at the forest line and then looking at the twins. [Hello, my name is Serena]. Chapter 19: VAEmir, Elder from Tysnaedra, Land of Dragons. In the 25th day since landing on Motherland. In B''ude inner city, thousands of drones, slave robots, and AI''s from different departments are working as fast they can. As they keep building and placing buildings, facilities, statues, and art works, the city itself was receiving an extreme make-up process. Flags with emblems, including the old Summer Field with new design: dark green back color, in the center: 2 Sun''s, one bigger than the other, in the up left corner, with 3 mountains, and one anchor in the middle. By the way, golden borders is exclusive to the high council, and if you have a small golden with a black 4 wings western dragon in the right, that is Alex''s exclusive flag with Coat of Arms. Alex was in his office, a magnificent room with outstanding decorations, sitting in the couch in the center. He kept watching his tablet, and on the wall was a wide HD screen showing cameras from the surveillance systems views of the city and the inner city, here and there placing art works, fountains and more, Alex was dumbfounded, literally was replicas all of them, but similar to the Mona Lisa case back in the starting 20th century: is hard to notice from the original. Alex also noticed art from Orient. [So is not only western art.] [Off course, we were determined to show our roots, and we have people from almost all of the Earth here.] [So that explains the Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, and many others. I think I saw some temples, including a few in the mountains around the city.] [Yes, we have monks, priests, or pastors among the survivors; it seems the disaster affected land or island communities; they were worrying about our stance in religion.] [I don''t think we need to be involve, I think if they are not negativity affects the people or our government.] [Yes, that''s why we''re also being proactive with.] [Selena, I am more worried about how they will adapt to this new reality in their dogmas.] [I think so too. [By the way, a more immediate worry is Matthew; how is he?, Serena is with him.] Selena gave a little smile: [Yes, they rescued an exploration team in the middle of the mountains they call "wild lands." They were pretty badly injured; they were evacuated to Cerbis Fortress City. [That bad, huh.] Alex kept seeing the surveillance cameras; now different murals were painted and engraved near a plaza with a cantina in the corner. Huh, not many know the cantina is a corner bar. He liked tapas and cantinas, nice, cheap, and delicious snacks; his memories from Portugal, Spain, M¨¦xico, and other places. [I wonder if there''s an Izakaya somewhere here.] Selena: [There is here in B''udea, but also in Alvair, A''nsair, Cerbis, and Cerbus.] Alex: [Wait, how there''s so many? How about their profitability?] Selena: [From starters, we subsidizing most of the business the survivors have, mostly in the materials and costs like energy or water. Now this could change, with the people from Fylhoff being released from their long stasis time in pods. Alex nods. [Huh, 5 million today? How is everything?] Today is the third batch of people that were in stasis in Fylhoff; every 2 days they let come in batches; the first was 2 million, the second was 3 million, and today is 5 million. Why is the quantity is so big ?: not all are sick people; many nobles were accompanied by their family, entourage, servants, or even friends; stasis pods were fairly secure and developed technology by the time, and with the input from the necromancers it got better; still, many of the infected with parasites or older stays needed new bodies; the cloning process had to amended with similar procedures used in Alex and other stranded survivors. As Selena placed in front of him a sandwich with ham, scrambled eggs with chile mayonnaise next to the "special burger" from a hidden place well known to the locals but not the tourists, the 1/3 mix beef and pork, plus bacon, fried eggs, onions, mustard, butter, and white cheese, packed in toasted burger breads, Alex took fist the burguer, sipping his ice spearmint and mint tea, he took the early lunch. In our luck or their misfortune, 3 A''lym was moving around the place Cerbus was located; they were researching local fauna, and their place was hit by a monster stampede. A''lym is the name necromancers like being referred; the trip to their city in the middle of the Motherland oceans was facing troubles; Prometheus now is fully functional, but the place is hard to find; then from those 3 who actually participated in the research to create Fylhoff city, in Cerbus fortress city, the governor, Andrei Voshenko, made a deal, and the A''lym was teleported to A''nsair city, then to the Biotechnology PDM floor where Fylhoff people are placed. A''lym is asking permission to talk with their people and tell them the magnificent place Summer Field is now. Now, one of them is on Prometheus space station, waiting to get the coordinates of their place, and then one of the Icarus class ships will get near and fly to the island. By the way, the preparations are not only because A''lym, a dangerous and maybe funny incident, happened close to Cerbus yesterday. ?? On the main deck of the Command Center of the City Frortress Cerbus, one of the elevator doors opened, and two people walked out in the direction of the high-ranking officer''s place. There was waiting a tall man with short silver hair. [Sir Andrei and Lord A''sirys from the A''lym.] He bowed lightly. [Sir Markus, any update since 4 minutes ago?] [No, really, we do have visuals.] The main screen in front of them has several partitions, the one in the center, the biggest; you can see a frontrunner separate from another and the 5 followers, all flying, and by the looks: dragons; the frontrunner looks red and classic western type; the one following has a more Asian description. [They reach the first buoys.] The line of buoys is levitate 300 meters high, next is thousand meters high. Andrei: [Are our people prepared?] Markus: [Yes, now they will reveal themselves]. As he says, an array of 40 ships appears; they look like a version of SR71. [Lords Governor and Vice Governor, an incoming priority call comes from the High Council.] The image of the flying dragons changes to one of the smaller partitions on the side.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. A beautiful curled blonde long hair girl with silver eyes photo next to another with silver ponytail long hair and golden eyes. [Hello Lords of Cerbus fortress city, the excellency Lord A''syris from A''lym, Sol, and Luna as representatives from the High Council, we ask you to excuse us because the urgent business needs to be attended, Lords of Cerbus: Lord Master and Head of the High Council Alexander has ordered the Guardians to attend the incoming "guests." Please retreat to a safe distance. Markus: [Madams Sol and Luna here with the Guardians?, we understand, please Governor Voshenko.] Andrei: [We welcome the estimate excellencies representatives of the High Council and Lord Master Alexander orders together with the Guardians; please have all units retire to a safe distance.] The ships started to pull back at once; some drones can be seen flying here and there. In the screen, the call was cut, and now they can see appearing lines of full-armored warriors; they''re all standing on flying objects that look like manta rays, some of them carrying halberds like weapons. In the front line, there''s an 18-meter-tall robot named Golem. ?? A''syris POV. Standing beside the Governor and Vice Governor of Cerbus fortress city, there is a tall figure, long black tunics covering his body, and a strange silver mask similar to the ones used in medieval Europe, with silver gloves and shoes. The tall figure is one of the A''lym, a sect of knowledge seekers. They ventured inside this dimension following a trail in the fabrics of the dimensional walls, a one-way ticket until they could find a way, be it by luck or by research. A''syris was with 2 colleagues researching fauna when a stampede hit them, an emergency teleportation device was triggered, and they arrived at Cerbus fortress city. Everyone was surprised; the platform was a special one exclusively tuned to receive emergency impromptu teleported from the battlefield, the defense mechanisms activated, and an illusion showed in front of them, speaking old Terranean, then change to other languages, they could feel they were isolated in space time cell, a technology they only had known the theory, the stupor ended rather quickly when they heard they''re mother language and T''asyr, one of his colleagues spoke in response. They talked a bit and, showing the emergency teleportation device they had, reached the conclusion the calibration was the same range of "frequencies," which includes the old devices. After their arrival and clearance, they were received by the Governor of the City, there they found they were 800 kilometers (a measure unit they have) from the place they had their base, now destroyed. The governor wanted to reach some agreement with them; his assistant gave the A''lym some tablet artifacts as gifts; this practically sealed the deal. Now one of his colleagues, N''orn, was in Summer Field, working together with them inside the Biotechnology PDM, as they called it; there they were waking up the people in stasis; the health problems were mostly solved. A''syris was interested in this fortress city; it levitated in the middle of the wasteland, now partially docked to an inner sea coast. He was in a meeting with the governor, and an emergency call was received. The governor invited him to come. Now inside the command center, as they called, he can see that this is the core of the city; they can see and control many things; they have advanced communications. A''syris surprise was big as he almost jumped; a dragon was racing ahead of others; he noticed everyone in the room was keeping their work; then the governor and vice governor were talking and authorized the deployment of ships; it was different from the airboats he saw; it was like sword blades and teleported to the site the dragons will reach soon. A call was received in the room; 2 women were shown on the main screen, something they call "photography." They seem to be from their Head of the High Council, Lord Master Alexander, who ordered the deployment of their Knight Order, referred to as "Guardians." it seems this is the reformed Order that was keeping Fylhoff safe. Cerbus fortress city forces were withdrawn and new forces appeared teleported in place: dozens of full-plate knights with different weapons; the 3 in the first line had shields and halbers; they were bigger than the others. "They will face head on the dragons?, and a red one is the forefront, A''syris was surprised again and again, so many times he was wondering when he could be numb. As a knowledge seeker, there were too many things. The governor and vice governor were calm looking at the screen, and somehow he could see smug faces. Then, from the screen they heard the sweet feminine voice they heard a short time ago: [To the incoming visitors, please slow down and state your purposes.] [Jajaja! A lowly being dares to stop the great me!] The red and most forward dragon conveys to all them to hear. [We are the Guard from Tysnaedra; we are in pursuit of the red rogue dragon; leave to us; don''t intervene!] A''syris: [As usual, dragons have high and mighty strength, but many have high pride, Lords Governor and Vice Governor: there''s 7 dragons there, and the red one is known by their superior strength; that would be ok?] Lord Andrei look at him with a small smile. Lord Markus answered: [Lord A''syris, we don''t pretend to be prideful and empty. Our story from back on Earth gives us a lot of experience, and many of the disasters are disasters, most of them because of the exceptionalism, but Mses Sol and Luna is there, you will find soon what means the intervention of them and the Guardians.] As Vice Governor Markus finished, the knight in the middle of the other 2 at the forefront spoke aloud: [Phalanx!] Then a semitransparent hexagon joined together in ten layers; one after another, the red dragon slowed down and snorted, then breathed almost incandescent lava over the barrier in front; the shot broken 2 layers; a thick mist spread over; then, when cleared, the 2 layers appeared reconstructed in place again; the red dragon now stood in front, looking at the barriers. The other dragons arrived and, trying to engage with the red one, were stopped by other of the 3 knights at the forefront. [Leave!, We come after the rogue; don''t intervene; otherwise we will consider retaliation!] The response from the Guardians leaders was heard loud: [Stay still!, We don''t look to confrontation with you, but all violence must be stopped; we won''t allow more violence in our presence! The feminine voice was respectful, but A''syris could feel annoyance. The red dragon shot again but almost light over the barriers, but this time when the first layer broke a bluish explosion overflow the front lines, getting caught by the red and the others; the red fell to the sands and rocks, and the others too. But as the group dragons start to fly again, this time trying to shot to the Guardians, two of the Guardians come forward, and over their shoulders an impossible phenomenon is happening: each of the Guardians has something ensambling in high speed over each shoulder. by the ending, anyone can see 2 oversized cannons and 2 multicannons, known as gatlings, levitate close to the Guardians targeting the group of dragons. A loud voice was heard: [Stop now, Allenius!] A sole female with long white hair was standing in middle air. [Plinia!, You dare to meddle!] [I dare on the name of the Elder!] Plinia: [People from Summer Field, I am Plinia, envoy from the Elder, from Tysnaedra, please cease any hostilities Allenius, stand down in the name of the Elder.] A feminine, full-plate armored warrior comes forward, flying on those weird small platforms. A''syris sees all of them using another female warrior following close in another vehicle. [People from Tysnaedra, I am Sol, and beside me is Luna; we are representatives from the Head of the High Council, Lord Master Alexander; we do not want further violence here, but there is few offenders; how do we proceed?] A''syris: [oh!] Andrei: [Your excellency?] A''syris: [UHM, you see, the situation is clear to me as a witness, but there''s an extra point to take care of here: dragon pride.] Now they get the point: dragons are one of the most prideful creatures; even if you defeat them, they will look for an opportunity to overturn their situation. Plinia POV Plinia was in a state of turmoil, her rationing trying to complete the task the Elder gave her, but her prideful nature was boiling. Summer Field representatives have reason to claim the offenders and impose sanctions, but Alenius and his group are from Tysnaedra, and when she was about to declare this, a sudden presence teleported in front of her. Inside Cerbus fortress city Command Center, a weird voice comes out from A''syris: [the Elder of the Dragons in Tysnaedra!] The new presence is a tall male human, mostly looking with long hair. A deep voice was heard: [Hello, friends from Summer Field, I am V''AEmir, elder of Tysnaedra.] In front, the two females standing on small vehicles bow lightly, but Plinia''s surprise from seen the Elder back helped cool down her boiling rage come to the realization: they''re not bowing to Elder V''AEmir! Another presence teleported in front of them, 3 of them in gorgeous full-plate armor and robes with 3 pairs of metallic wings on their backs! One is a feminine silhouette in an obsidian black armor, the other is a male white with golden lines armor, and the middle has white as a color base but different colors in from of decorations and small black four wings western dragon emblem on his left shoulder. Each armor is a work of art with too many details, and who knows how many resources were invested, but the one in the middle has a higher status. Plinia could feel something else, something vague, but it feels compelled to bow. He opened his helmet part, revealing a human face. [Hello friend of Summer Field, elder V''AEmir from Tysnaedra, I am Alexander Paul Santiago Winthrop Luc¨ªa, Head of the High Council, Lord Master of Summer Field, pleased to meet you. Despite the circumstances, I would like to invite you and your people to come to Summer Field; time is to your choice and about the situation here.] He then looked down. [All of them are from Tysnaedra?] [Hello Lord of Summer Field, no, the red one is a rogue.] [Ok, then the red one comes with us; the others were helpful in the combat simulation; we are thankful; what do you think, elder V''AEmir?] [Sounds good.] Plinia notices the elder is being respectful, more than usual. [Ok, Luna, can you help take the red one?] One of the female representatives flew to the red dragon that was standing, probably running away, but the female warrior took out a small artifact like ball and pointed to the dragon, disappearing from the place. Everyone was eyes out their sockets, the dragons and A''syris back in the Command Center inside Cerbus fortress city. Andrei: [uhmm, undoubtedly those are Archangel class armors, and Miss Luna used a prison SPDM artifact on a dragon.] A''syris keeps trying to calm down. Markus: Yes, I heard the hunters were happy because it makes more easy capturing specimens.] The time comes again flowing when Lord Alexander nods. [Thank you Luna. Now what about my invitation, Lord V''AEmir?] [We will be honored to attend your invitation; 3 days from now is fine or too soon?] Lord Alexander nods and then looks to the other female representative; she notices and approaches while opening her helmet, revealing a beautiful human face with blonde curled hair. [Sol, can you please take care?] She bows deep. [Yes, Lord Master, I will coordinate with everyone.] [Thank you.] The other representative came back, and her helmet opened, revealing yet another beautiful knight with long silver hair in a ponytail. She flew close to Elder V''AEmir and Plinia; the knight looked first to the elder and then to Plinia, holding something like a tray in front of her. Alex: [please take those tokens to help us coordinate with you and your people; those artifacts work as communication devices.] The elder nods and looks at Plinia; she understands and comes to take the items, but the knight closes the briefcase and gives them to Plinia. ?? Late that night, there was a gazebo on a small island with a small lake. Plinia kept replaying the events in her memory; a cold breeze flowed, and she felt a presence. She kneels. [Elder.] [Plinia, leave formalities; how do you feel?] Plinia lifts and follows the elder hand sign to sit opposite. [Don''t know yet, many things; what about Allenius?] The elder had a small, wry smile. [His family imposed a punishment; they were harassing that red one.] She knows she was saved today; their pride and strength are both great, but after they saw how easy they got the red one and that shields display, not mentioning the cannons things they almost shot, she is convinced the Elder moved fast before things escalated too fast. [Elder, do you think they got more strength hidden?] The elder looks to be thinking deeply. [Plinia, tell me before I answer: did you feel something from their Lord Master?] Plinia makes a difficult face. Nodding: [Yes, I felt something ancient; my senses were screaming.] [Well, he was hiding that essence; the small lenses he was wearing is a special artifact to lower the sensitivity of that strength. That essence is from an ancient dragon, you could understand if you reminded the ones who recently visited us that it is similar to that ones, but they shouldn''t be able to live here because the environment''s mana is low, even in high times that come with waves. Yes, they''re hiding their strength but also the response was according the strenght of their opponent.] Plinia: [I sense that too, they could capture Allenius and his group in easy way, as much as I hate admit the fact. I almost did something terrible because pride, because at the moment I couldn''t understand the might they have, I sincerely apologize Elder.] [I did told drip the formalities and don''t worry, even I didn''t know, I jump because my senses were screaming that needs to stop any violence and thanks that are for.al and even still recognize the treaties we had with Summer Field thousand years ago. I will leave now, don''t worry, try to rest these days, you are coming with mission to Summer Field.] There, another bomb was drop right in front of her. Plinia inner thoughts were in state of turmoil: I just don''t know what else is unbelievable: an ancient living here?, why?, How he keep his oppressive aura almost unnoticed by others? and what''s is that power Summer Field holds now?, She can''t admit easy that man sight has shaken her. The cold air flows on the small lake surface, but inside the gazebo, Plinia feels lightly hot. Chapter 20 Now, as the near 30% of the people in stasis were dvergars, their population is in millions; the demographics are off because most of them are young; the same is with elves, demihumans, or humans. There''s more, and even if one could say there are few in comparison, but they are numbering hundreds of thousands each. There are mermens hominids with mermaids and tritons included, as well as certain cetacean hominid tribes and orcs that''s not limited to the looks like hominid Suidae/Bovids species (pigs, bulls, buffalo, goats, and others), as there''s others with different looks and sizes; some can even morphing at will. There''s a theory among experts from Earth that to have a better understanding is like comparing humans with apes, and modern humans usually don''t follow new archaeology findings, like the 7 similar hominid species remains found so far on Earth. Let''s say the actual human on Earth looks like this because the path took our species, and in other planets or dimensions there could be another path with almost the same results. There''s an additional issue that came with the awakened people from Fylhoff: money and values, species like humans; most of them come from Terra; not all went into stasis because they had a terminal sickness; some were to delay their natural death because of aging; others included their servants and entourage; some kingdoms even without knowing exiled rebels to stasis and then were "stored" in Fylhoff; the mentioned rebels numbering thousands and had key aristocratic families among them; Alex ordered to awaken and look for a solution; if other parties complain, they need to be stronger than the High Council. So, the movements were big, many properties were returned to their owners, and the real states were a little bit complicated because most of the places were rebuilt, and that included the places they used to have. Some "smart guys" try to impersonate or claim properties or valuables; some even try to push forced marriages or even rape or kidnapping attempts. To respond to this, the judiciary acted fast, and the offenders were sent to penal colonies inside a PDM. All this was very publicized, as the old Chinese say: "Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys." The High Council representatives explained the problem they are now facing: they''re incomunicated, and if they want to return, they need to wait; overwhelmingly, most of them didn''t want to; maybe a visit later. To this end, the High Council at the moment doesn''t plan to restrict movements. ?? In the deepest of the facilities in the labs of the exclusive PDM of the engineering department, a sci-fi vision is in the making. As something done in reality from movies, like "Steel Man," a group of great masters and masters Dvergars and AI''s engineering teams were ensambling a very delicate next-gen product in the middle of the holo-illusion; they could see what the fabricator is doing in another specialized PDM, a series of complicated devices and bunkers trying to make contention in case some dimensions started to collapse. Tull, now in a biorganic body, and Mark are leading the researching groups; the fabricator ended the platform like Giant Manta Ray. This series comes with another model: an airbyke; this one is bulkier, with a windshield; the concept is based on the cruiser motorcycle from Earth; this model is a military build; it is mainly used by explorers and scouts; they often need to move great distances and need great support, but also require being less noticed in the surroundings. The Airbyke comes in civil or military tunned versions, with space expansion storages, mini PDMs with a camper-style room filled with a kitchenette, microwave, freezer, bathroom and toilet, bed, and a small living room. This model can be brought out to the exterior, adding camouflage-painted exterior, perimeter defenses, surveillance cameras, and sensors.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The airbyke also has a small power plant and ethera high-density crystals to fuel the needs and devices, be electric or ethera. The defenses and weapons are strengthened, also in battle works as "power banks," something that has become common in other small and medium vehicles. This improved version has more upgrades than the current in service that have almost all mentioned above. When the first airbykes came to Summer Field, it was for military use only, but unexpectedly, there were many enthusiastic fans among the Earth survivors. The High Council responded with new policies stimulating private enterprises. The Summer Field transportation network is becoming more and more used, from high-speed trains to highways and airways. With all of this and the Earth experience, many types of vehicles are being built. as is now, the civil-oriented vehicles are built in mass inside the PDM, mostly unmanned factories, the basic frames, and then the enterprises bring them to their own plants to be modified accordingly to the clientele wishes. Now with millions of new inhabitants, they adapted very quickly to the many conveniences that come from Earth and joining the enthusiasm for new products, devices, and more. Many of the products in the containers that were teleported to this planet, are being categorized, and samples is open to anyone whom they wish to use as a base for their new business. Inside the PDM labs. As the researchers team finished the prototype, they all exhaled, everything went right, then walked to the next room where teleportation platforms are working; the recently built aerial platform appeared in front of them, levitation systems are working fine, and now it will send to the test area. if everything is alright, soon it will be mass produced. Tull keeps mulling in his mind: in the past this would have been an impossible task; one of the problems is the delicate process of the engravings; every step needs to be safe; every step they need to check twice; everything is fine, not mentioning the cores availability, but technologies are advancing; they now have a way that reduces the cores need. Now one of the assistants brought a small jewel, encased in a simplistic jade neck pendant with a frame of iron and bronze. They finished the process linking both: the jewel and the aerial platform is stored inside the jewel, then is deposited inside a box. [Well, Tull, when do we take the upgrade containers project?] [Now?, this time we need 10 thousand prototypes, right?] Everyone laughing went walking to the room they were in before. This phase of the tests comes to the mass production lines, quality controls and many other necessary aspects. Even if they say "now," they need to wait the recalibration and tuning process. The labs and fabricator need to be linked, and they will use another production line, this one adapted to be used in mass production. Few hours of waiting later: Now the holo-illusion shows a rectangular iron box skeletal frame; the fabricator arms start with a basic frame; the other engineers and assistants are working in their stations, some supervising the mechanical engraving arms; others were checking, testing, and calibrations. In a few days, they will put together all the pieces and a new revolutionary artifact comes to make everyone life''s easy and cheaper the transportation costs, this time, the upgraded "container" will not only have an expanded space inside, but also time suspension functions and can store up to 1000x content with 99% weight reduction, the model now in use can transport 100x and and 90% weight reduction, this new features comes because they could upgrade the integration of pocket space mechanisms and expansion space engravings in 20 nanometers, everyone can''t wait to reduce to 10nm, another point is the ethera source necessary to keep stable the PDM by the supply using high density crystals that are stored safe in expansion spaces, this aspect is currently also under research. Be able to make independent ethera supply from the ley line the trains uses as a medium- to high-speed and safe railroad of sorts. Dvergars are now planning and developing a line using the ley line itself. In the original place Fylhoff City was placed, there''s some remains outside the dungeon, now under research, that were used to develop this technology that comes from their original planet. By the way, safety measures are included in all models, like in case something alive kept inside when time suspension comes, the artifact won''t close. In the same line, other models are ball-shaped with a few inches in diameter, with extra safety in dimensional space. Tull or the other Dvergars didn''t get why many of them were smiling and moving their hands as something we''re on their heads shouting, "I choose you!". [Why are they doing that?] A dvergar asks. [You need to see the anime; maybe later you can; are you subscribed to XTream?] This is an integrated service a private company is setting up; the services include banking video, voice, and mail, among others, and they announced soon they can link to the Fortress Cities. The services are using open source platforms, so any can try and build their business; now there''s also transport, food, groceries, or daily needs deliveries, and is expanding. A detail many don''t understand, mostly the people from Fylhoff, is the concepts of "open source," "patents," "license," "common use," "intellectual property" and others. For the above-mentioned works, they do not charge because of the work itself; it''s the service''s basic costs. Now that there are many people, there''s talk about sports and entertainment. ?? The High Council Building, as the preparations for the upcoming Tysnaedra mission, the Council of the Deep formed by Dvergars Grand Masters is signing documents in a room with Alex and his assistants. They now formally could take the town they used to have more than a thousand years ago, and even if they could go and search the others that live on this planet, somewhere. They like to have a city here in this new Summer Field; the mentioned town is deep, nearing thousand meters, and the location is very special: earth, fire and water ley line veins are close, as any realtor likes to sing: location!, location!, and location!. The town, was problematic because the same that made it so attractive, the different overflowing energies create dungeons or at bare minimum monsters; now they will coordinate with Summer Field Military Forces to tame those rich places. Chapter 21: The upcoming Calamity. Today is the 22nd day since they landed on this planet. In the areas surrounding the Cerbedi City Fortress, there''s a hunt in process. Military and defense forces are in a joint operation thinning monsters in the wastelands and the forests next to them. The forests have a part that looks like the Sequoias in North America, becoming dense and more humid in the west. Inside a rocky valley in the wastelands, strong winds and explosions screeching sounds can be heard. Military airbikes pass running. [Damn! Those bugs are really strong! , jeez, is the 10th time I almost went back to the reconstruction healing pod.] [What are you complaining about taking 4 days off?] [You are kidding me? 3 days inside and one traveling inside and out, THAT''S NOT A VACATION AT ALL!] The company "working" here is against a type of arthropod insect with a tall body and long 8 legs; they use camouflage, and because of this, the soldiers and hunters need to take care not to damage too much when they are killing. Then a unit came flying, standing on a platform that looks like a manta ray; leading the unit is a feminine figure wearing a black obsidian full armor with red robes on the side and a red cape. 6 members took flight from the platform they were standing on; 2 pairs of wings appeared in their shoulder blades, and lower, in the back, they flew fast with midsize traditional Chinese spears on hand, maneuvering in 3D as if they were pulling to one site to another, cutting cleanly joints or the sections between head and thorax; the looks of this dangerous dance were hypnotic. Soon the troops were receiving orders to regroup and started to clean the battlefield, but things did not always come easy: the cave entrance at the end of the rocky valley was suddenly destroyed by bigger arthropods, the ones fighting ahead, who stopped their dance and flew back. The obsidian feminine armor knight always stood there looking at the battle; she lifted her arms, and deep blue lines got brighter on the armor. A small blue sphere formed in front of her arms; the sphere was spinning in rotation, getting bigger, reaching over 2 meters. A warning was sent in intercommunication frequencies. At the same time, three 4-story-high spiders looking like tarantulas made their way through the exit of the cavern, speeding to attack the female knight; nobody thought they could be so fast. The air close to the female knight was becoming a dense mist, the soil down was becoming a freezing surface with ice, and snowing began to fall; in the intercommunication, the warnings now required full shields. As the spider''s run to hit the female knight, she released the sphere; it didn''t hit the spiders, but when the deep blue sphere passed, they became statues, now in white dust over their bodies; the sphere went inside the cavern. A silence was the aftermath of this battle, no big explosions, fireworks, or else. The soldiers got awakened again because of the radio intercommunications. Their armors help themselves against hot or cold climates, but there are limits. A new warning came: don''t get close; the cold is beyond what the armor can take. A small transport aircraft got close: [Selenia! That was cool!, well in literal and the usual...] The now totally Black obsidian armor the female used opened the helmet part, revealing a beautiful white Asian face with long black hair with strands of deep blue hair. [Thanks, we came here to supervise and maybe test some of our abilities.] The "small" boy looked at her. [Excellent! Wanna come with us for a bit?] Selenia: [I need to head back today, maybe in a few hours?] [Sounds great, come.] She jumps inside the ship that all the time was levitating next to the platform vehicle Selenia was standing on; the team also comes and jumps inside, and the platforms got inside their respective pocket spaces. The aircraft took flight to the west; here and there they could see small battles. The transition to the forests, like sequoias, came soon; high, around a thousand meters, there were medium clipper airships with painted marks as "Press." Out of curiosity, Matthew turned on one of the screens inside their transport, then the other 3. The news channel was streaming the operations here and in other locations, local newscasts, and newspapers that belong to a chain present in other cities of Summer Field. The virtual media was with live transmission, and on the sides, the chats were linked to a short messaging app. In B''udea, the capital city and political center, the news corporations that were born here preferred to have their headquarters in Alvair or even in A''nsair cities, one the upcoming financial center and the other as the multimodal transportation hub, but those medium-size airships had a studio inside that allowed them to have better coverage options. Now a special update was released; a journalist was on camera wearing a heavy winter coat talking about the recent battle. The cameras changed to focus on the huge spiders, soldiers wearing now-special winter armors were moving around, and an airship with several crane arms under it started to operate to get the spider''s body. The reporter and the studio talk as the PR from the military shows, besides the reporter, explaining the actions and the goals, the questions included: who did the killing and the impromptu Tibetan winter zone there: The PR smiles and says, [Is from Summer Field Guardians Knight Order, Lt Col Selenia, member of Lord Alexander Honor Guard.] Reporter: [Lord Alexander Honor Guard? They''re not in B''udea capital city?] PR: [Doing what? The High Council and Lord Alexander have more than enough strength to defend themselves and Summer Field. is not logical to have the best close to you when is needed in other places; Lord Alexander or the High Council doesn''t prioritize their safety over the citizens!] Reporter: [Wow, I am speechless. I am new to this. I came from Terra and was kept in stasis. To have leaders that think this way is overwhelming. Studio, please take...] In the studio the hosts were flabbergasted; the ads came on screen. The screens got muted on the channels, and the intercommunications military radios were heard: [Here Alpha Zulu 23, we got a strange situation here: 10 minutes ago we detected ultrasounds from the northwest direction; the monsters activity seems abnormally high. Can you check if there''s something Tango Charlie Charlie 07?] Tango Charlie Charlie 07, here Air 45, there''s human movement 27 clicks northwest from Alpha Zulu 23, inside the mountain forests; also another group of humans is 25 clicks east from the running ones; there''s abnormalities in the monsters movements; something is inciting them ] [Here Tango Charlie Charlie 07, thanks Air 45, the new data you are sending is being processed. Alpha Zulu 23, can you get those groups for us?] [Here Alpha Zulu 23: Yes, we are forming the hunting groups now.] [Here is Sierra Charlie 68: to Air 45 and 74, Tango Charlie Charlie 07, Cerbedi Delta Fox Charlie Charlie; The areas to the Northwest of City Fortress Cerbedi now is declared as red zones; all military and defense personnel are required to present to their stations, and all civilians are banned from staying outside with exceptions ruled by the military laws. I repeat: the outsides of Cerbedi City Fortress is under martial law; in 15 minutes the areas will become hot zones.] Now the TV screens are showing red and yellow stripes at the bottom: "Space Command declares an emergency in the northwest areas from Cerbedi City Fortress; the Strategic Command has approved Space Command''s decision; it is expected the High Council approves the measures soon; military resources are being send to Cerbedi City Fortress.".The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The studios are closing their local transmissions, leaving only drones. Some medium ships get higher altitudes; they simply will not be losing ratings because of risks. The others get even higher; they are too far to make it in time to the airports, all of them have emergency teleportation artifacts, but insurance companies stipulate the payment only if there mortal risk, as the device keeps monitoring and record vital signs they will know if a fake emergency rescue signal is triggered. ?? In high speed, several airbikes are traveling inside the forests. They are Alpha Zulu 07. The group got split in search of the human. The live stream data from Air 45 is feeding the locations. now that the military in Space Command issued the orders and Summer Field Strategic Command passed from temporary to permanent, the mobilization of thousands of tools is underway. A red zone is not just highly populated by monsters, but a hot zone means fighting areas. The maps from the surrounding regions follow the monsters movements and are crazy. When they encountered the bigger group, they were fighting gray wolves, each one close to 2 meters high and one is 3 meters high. The group is falling apart; Tom sends the engage order against the wolves; several got shot, maybe because of the surprise attack. Tom team encloses the humans and lined a perimeter; Tom jumps down from the Airbyke, taking a mid-long traditional Chinese spear in his right arm and a square Roman-style shield on the left arm. Dek, Martha, Brady, Kira, and Mirka do the same action, standing in a circle confronting the wolves; the pack is big, close to 90, and they got by surprise around 15. As they were approaching, the scanners took the signs, and Tom, in inferiority in numbers, Air 45 and Temporary Command Center 07 took the data, and even if they were the most forward team, 25 kilometers deep from their lines, they quickly organized reinforcements; they needed to hold for 3 minutes. Alphonse POV The surprise attacks from the knights that arrived in weird vehicles got some ash wolves down; their group got caught with a huge pack. They were from the nearest pioneer village. The adventurer team Moon Rabbit comes once every half year escorting new migrants and after leaving in each post towns or villages they comes a little forward to check the surrounding areas and maybe get some materials that are well paid in the Imperial Capital. Alphonse, or "Alp," is a former noble from an archduke house in the Empire. He left and became an adventurer. Years later, he met in only women adventurers party a woman that took his heart: Anissa, not only her beauty but her courageous heart, they worked together with other parties and the knights orders to do an extermination of monsters that had become an stampede closing to the Imperial Capital. The aftermath was almost a defeat to the Imperials and adventurers; his convalescing was within the same villa, now temporary clinic, with Anissa and her party members. Then he found she was from the Haegenst Margrave House, training to go to the pioneers in the east. The Margrave was very rich, but the scoundrels from the court often pulling strings left them shoulder bills, including the imperial order to "conquest" (exile) to the east. Their teams came together to be Moon Rabbit after he and Anissa got married. Every 6 months or so, transports airboats bring migrants to the frontier, former slaves, farmers or from the slums are the preferential targets, off course: don''t forget political losers, now, the Margrave territory has increased 10 times and even they to produce grains and husbandryto barely self sustaining the ever increasing population in lands that never has been dedicated to production, the court nobles are trying to keep them close to bankruptcy. This time they are very worried: the mana levels are increasing fast, but as they decided to go back and recommend evacuating the towns to the fortress citadel, their seer detected another team working in the shadows, and they activated a forbidden artifact: one that provokes the monsters. As they were fighting to withdraw from this mountain, the ash wolves hit them. As they were losing and dying here, a group of knights came, killing some and forming a perimeter around them. Then most of the members jumped to the soil, one group took out shields and spears, and the other got close to the humans, the few from Moon Rabbit still standing. They didn''t have strength and just saw as the "knights" in weird vehicles started treatment to the fallen and injured. That''s pretty much all of them. The battle in the perimeter started. Alp, Jens, Sieg, and Hans from Moon Rabbit barely could stand. They showed a small cilinder with a green potion inside, than extend one of their arms point with other hand to them, Moon Rabbit extended their arms and the cilinder was pressed against, a small pneumatic sound was heard and following the regeneration and better feeling they understood it was a high health potion. The team of knights fighting the perimeter, even if they were at a disadvantage in numbers, the quality was beyond even comparing with elite imperial knights, the flowing movement between shield defense and the spear, and synchrony to kill, a mass of ash wolves tried to make an irruption between the knights, but a barrier was in place. The battle feels like being long hours of fighting, blood, organs, and parts flying here and there; there is even a few mounds of the accumulation of bodies, and then a change in the rhythm was felt. Moon Rabbit was a veteran team; something was preying on the outer circle of the wolves, and then 6 figures wearing armor and wings on their backs came cutting the attackers and landed next to the knights. They also hold spears; the wings and spears disappear with the spears, now holding bug and wide two-handed swords. The onslaught continued for a few minutes. Alp talked to one of them; Florence was awake, and the rest were starting to stand. [You need to kill the leader!] The knight looked at him and moved his head to the sides: [No, we don''t want to delay too much here; several thousand monsters are in the way. We need to leave; the leader will soon call out to retire ] A stampede? Thousands? What about Anissa and the twins?, the people in town?, the thousands of innocents in the other towns in the region? Alp became nervous, as he kept looking at the battle and the knights; he now came to think better of everything that''s been happening: those aren''t knights from the Empire; there''s no way that even the Triumvirate has this kind of powerful warriors on hand; here and there they are using magic in combat mode; this is unheard of! Well, to be honest, in the past many references told them Summer Field has a powerful knight order, and they used magic in the middle of combat. Close combat magicians were lost in time. Wait... Alp was suddenly pale; he then looked in Florence''s direction; her face was paler; she was a rare spirit user; she was a descendant from elves and humans. As the Empire is human supremacy, she can''t use it in public; Alp and the others got closer. Florence whispering: [Alp, who are they?, maybe we died and now see mithicals knights fighting?, The armors are nothing like we have seen E-V-E-R and several of them don''t have souls!] [Listen, young boy: these people are from legends and myths; those armors and weapons are just ever seen, maybe from Summer Field itself.] Rudriger was a quarter elder dwarf. As soon as the warrior told Alp, a loud howl prompted the pack to run away, leaving the place. Flying airship machines got down, and more armored people came, starting to clean the place. A small boy, maybe 10 years old, came walking as if he was in the middle of a garden; his robes were luxurious, and two female armored knights were walking behind him, one Black and the other White, gold and red, both with capes. They opened their helmets; Florence, Rudriger, Alp and the others gasped, no just because of their beauty. One of the knights that looked their healing, with a light blue cape and a strange snake symbol on her shoulder, proceeded with a weird military salute and then knelt with one leg. This sudden action moved the Alp group to kneel the same way, keeping their eyesight low. [Lord Matthew, some of them need urgent medical treatments.] The boy lifts his head and sees the Alp group. [Hello, my name is Matthew Sean Huang Winthrop, member of the Summer Field High Council.] Then with his palms open, he signs and says: [They are Mses. Serena and Selenia, Commanders from the Summer Field Guardians Knight Order. We are on a special mission here, and you are?] The group kicked or elbowed Alp: [I am Alphonse, no surname. We are the Moon Rabbit Adventurer Party from the Ansurpolean Empire. We came here to respond to the petition from the Haegenst Margrave House to assess the state of the wild lands forests and the probable dangers. Please!, Lord and Mses, help us. There''s a town where my wife and kids live; also, thousands of people are in that direction. if the stampede comes, all of them will die. Please, since I was a kid I heard stories from Summer Field Commonwealth, and I know you can, at least warning them...] Alp was now crying and desesperarte, he stops because Selenia raised her hand. Alp didn''t understand what was going on, his beloved Anissa and the twins... He felt Rudriger''s hand on his shoulder and Florence looking at the skies in the east, her eyes were crying too, then she looked at him and moved her head to the sides, as resigned. Her magic is special; she can combine to look farther; she is a seer and now looks defeated. Alp looks at the Lord and the Commanders; the others ended cleaning and came here. The group they first met came, and others in those strange flying metal horses came too; they brought prisoners. They all came and kneeled on one leg. The red-haired Commander looked at the Lord, and he responded with a small smile, nodding. [Thomas: Your team is now complete?] One tall knight stood up and saluted, responding with vigor and determination. [Yes, ma''am, we captured the guys; they used some sort of artifact to provoke the monsters to come in a stampede.] Alp and his group opened their eyes wide and then looked at the captives, but still they kept quiet; more knights kept coming here, and they all looked strong. [They had a small airboat hidden, maybe trying to escape, but they really made a number with this. I don''t know if is bad luck or what, but this is a major calamity,] [Lord Matthew: Lord Alexander has ordered to stop this stampede; there''s more people involved, including other airboats in the northwest, some 50 kilometers from here and seems there is large groups refugees coming from West and northwest, also big disturbances in the east seas.] Matt looks in Alp and his group direction: [I heard my Lord uncle Serena, and thanks to you and Selenia, with her team, you are here. Well, please contact Cerbedi.] Then address to Moon Rabbit: [Summer Field high Council approved your help request and even we were aware of the enourmous task it seems something weird is happening, as our records has never account so big movements, don''t worry, Summer Field will help protect the people''s life''s.] The Moon Rabbit party nodded alleviated. In the middle of their circle, a young tall man did salute with his hand over his forehead as if trying to look far away. Matt: [Brigadier General Finkle, everything is ready?] Norman: [Yes sir, we are deploying fast; reinforcements come from Summer Field, but now we have a big problem with a major mass of insects that seems like moths. They are black and red, their numbers are in the millions, looks like several nests joined. We think maybe Mses. Serena and Selenia can help us.] The man looks a the Commanders, they nodded. [What we can do?] [The data has ready send.] The black armored Commander Selenia nodded. [I think is possible, so I release my magic 300 altitude and Serena release her "Starfire" in the 700 meters altitude?] Wait, she said "Starfire"?, Like the "Starfire" strategic spell?, Alp lookss at Florence, and Scott, the party magicians; they look dumbfounded. In the meantime Selenia and Serena took flight off and gaining altitude, they can perfectly the black armored lady commander, but the other became a small dot high in the skies. A field with barriers was constructed surrounding everyone. The first was the black armored Commander: she released a powerful ice magic, all the forests and the soil was freeze, but as the cold was starting to be felt inside their barrier, a big blue flame like slow motion waves started to engulf everything, above the forests the insects comes in full speed but to be confronted by that blue flame waves. Snow looks like started to fall, but this is a white and less gray ashes, the temperatures started to be feeling warmer. A beautiful and terrible view, this what Moon Rabbit thought. ?? The Airboats convoy is coming thru the Parnalat mountains, similar to the Urals on Earth, this chain is long and dangerous. They come from the Astur Commonwealth, a federation of states and cities-states to counter the Ansurpolean Empire in Motherland. They had to evacuate many border cities and towns on the east border, monsters activity became a series of calamities, on the north thousands of weird insects with blackish and purple exoskeleton attacked plains with grains, in the runaway, more than 45 big airboats comes overloaded with refugees, more people was leave in the back, they tryed to bring the most weaks, the others is going to the mountains. Magister Almus, an old man, one of the members of the Assembly, was helping the other magicians with wind spells, the overloaded airboats were flying dangerously low and slow. [Magister Almus!, take this bowl with soup.] More than a bowl is like cup. Almus took and drank the warm water with some flavor. [Thank you, You are sure we can go to Haegenst territory?] [Yes, in the border town lives the younger sister of the Margrave and she''s not interested in wars or conflicts, if we explain, I don''t think she will denied us help, but most likely we need to hide, I don''t want compromise her with the Empire spies.] [I agree...] Almus drop the empty wooden bowl and looks into the distance, Arnin do the same, then something was on the air, like a big mana pulse, then high on the skies a blue fire was seem, coming in waves, above them flying monsters hurry to not get caught. [Captain something big just happened there, mass of insects disappeared suddenly after the that big explosions!] The seer on top of the sentry cradle scream loud. Arnin turn to look Magister Almus, but the Magister was lost in his mumblings. ["Starfire" spell?, but blue? with that power and reach...] Arnin keep looking to the far away, deep wishing they could survive.