《Machina Arcanis: Two Worlds Collided.》


 Prologue: Light of Punishment

    Engine humming, the hall trembling, trusters burning red hot. A cylindrical-shaped bot, with a size of a 10 metre-in-length, rippled through the vast, emptiness of space. A leading bot drifted ahead, propelled by its triple rear trusters across the darkness, and accompanied by another fourteen bots under the command of a debris collector, Jack Squire.


    "Hahahaha!" Jack blurted out laughing, his hands still trembling after a recent triumph and last-minute snatching of the treasure trove. A large, rectangular metal box was now secured tightly in the mechanical arms of the leading puny bot that he was piloting. His last mission in the low orbital ring was soon accomplished and he would then reunite with his family on earth within a week.


    "Hahahaha! That''s what I''m talking about!" A raw, cheering laugh from his best friend echoed through the speakers, "Wonderful mission as always, Jackie! You almost gave me a heart attack there, my good man!" David voiced in, smiling ear-to-ear. An image of a fat man in his 50s beaming up at the left corner of Jack''s HUD screen inside the metal composite cockpit.


    "Let''s have one last drink before you leave, alright? It''s on me!" David suggested, lifting his fist in the air in celebration.


    "Of course, of course¡­" Jack answered before disconnecting the comm as he switched to autopilot. His hands now disconnected from the mechanical gloves controller that he used to manually pilot ''puny bots''.


    Puny bots were just the common jargon DebrisX employees used to refer to the multi-purposed debris collecting vessels, deriving from Petite Node Interface or P.N.I. (puny) in short.


    Jack glanced down on the earth once again, mesmerised by her beauty and admiring her for one last time. In the morning news, the friction between the Osten Empire and the Dunkelheit Empire escalated and erupted into an all-out war. None of which could be visually perceived from Luna base or where he was, their little selfish game of greed and power seemed insignificant and unreal.


    No matter, soon he would reunite with his lovely wife and son.


    As his vessels flew automatically back to Luna base, he got a bit of quiet time to himself. Jack shifted in his cushioned seat to find a sweet spot and rested comfortably. One thing he loved about space was the absence of gravity, his middle-aged back no longer ached. And he would miss that very much undoubtedly.


    Under no acceleration and constant velocity, his craft floated through space with little to no vibration. His eyes traced around the shorelines of the continent, seeking out the country he left behind, two long years from home.


    Germund, a country under Osten Empire''s reign, a land of magical wonders, where his family resided. He couldn''t help but think to himself, we were so tiny compared to the colossal body before him, he could barely discern the human city, let alone a single house from here.


    "Well¡­ I''m going to miss the magic and machine debate with David when I''m gone¡­" He lamented with a hint of regrets, chuckling at their silly-but-fun arguments during their non-working hours. But then he realised he had set aside one night out with David before he descended to earth forever. Then he would retire and live modestly with his family, spending his accumulated wealth away.


    "Bzzzzzt!"


    Suddenly, an enormous ripple tore through space. Defying the laws of physics, the vibration was visceral and violent, reverberating through his body as if the void itself had found a way to scream ¡ª despite the deafening silence of the zero-atmosphere vastness.


    Jack''s eyes widened in shock, inexplicable tightness in his chest, sweat appeared on his wrinkled forehead, and he reflexively swallowed hard to calm his nerves.


    "Huh!? Something isn''t right!" He murmured to himself, then a golden sigil of ancient rune slowly materialised in the sky above his home country, the size of it must be enormous to be visible from space. Another glowing sigil materialised and slowly it began to form into a colossal circle like an arcane spell. They violently pulsed in erratic rhythm and rippled the nearby clouds outward. They illuminated the firmament as though there was a local star, so bright that its golden light fell through the sight port and illuminated Jack''s face.


    With his rudimentary knowledge of the arcane, Jack''s instincts screamed that this was no ordinary power ¡ª nothing like the spells whispered about in the tales of old or the chronicles of new. This was something far beyond the natural order, a force so immense it eclipsed even the boundaries of his wildest imagination.


    Although he couldn''t explain it with his feeble mind, he could feel it in his guts as it rolled and churned. Once the celestial circle completed the rotation, something terrifying and menacing would occur like an impending doom bestowed upon humankind.


    Nauseating, Jack felt like he wanted to vomit but there was no time for that, his finger reflexively pressed the comm button, calling to warn David.


    Once the green beeped, indicating an established connection between them, Jack roared, his voice trembling, "David! Did you see the glowing ring of the spell over Germund?!"Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "What?! Ye~yeah, I''ve seen them now, what do you think? Another magic trick~" About to make a mockery of his hometown''s ''magician'' but Jack snapped frantically. "~Listen! This is not a trick, initiate the evac protocol right now!"


    "Evac?! Are you mad?" David exclaimed incredulously, not convinced by Jack''s baseless suggestion, but he saw the pure terror in Jack''s eyes.


    "Listen, you fat prick! Now it''s not the time! Get your fat ass out~" Then the comm went static, leaving only disturbing noises in the background.


    "Damn it!" Jack boomed, sucking his cheeks in exasperation, he hoped either his friend listened and evacuated or he was wrong and overreacted about the solar spell.


    Jack tested all types of communication, radio, laser, microwave, satellite relay, and quantum entanglement. Nothing worked, no amount of effort could bring the communication back at this time. All human-invented comm systems had gone completely haywire.


    "ARH?!" Jack yelped in full panic after the gargantuan spell had finally completed its circle, and then the space and time ripped apart. The deafening pulse vibrated his entire world, Jack scrambled onto his pilot seat as if there was a force field buckling him down. The electrical device completely darkened. The engine stalled and the thrusters went cold. Puny bots erratically veered off course with their remaining kinetic energy.


    Stumbling to his sight port, the only visibility he had left from his craft, Jack watched the colossal beam of light, like pure condensed energy shoot skyward, annihilating everything on its course. Microbombs sparked distantly along its path like fireworks during New Year''s Eve, Jack knew exactly what they were, the destruction of arcanite engines. And with the size of these microbombs, he surmised that they were millions of Armatus knights and drones being obliterated by the light of punishment.


    Jack couldn''t imagine an all-out war between the two empires being orchestrated right in front of his eyes, never in his wild dream, it would be this scale.


    He watched from a safe distance, dumbfounded by the overwhelming display of power. It was a force that seemed almost celestial, reminiscent of the gods from ancient myths he had heard as a child. His mind struggled to piece together everything that had transpired in the past fifteen minutes, a chaotic whirlwind of events that defied comprehension.


    As the backup power hummed to life, faintly illuminating the scene, his puny bots flickered back to operational status. The sight rekindled his resolve. He knew he had no time to waste; he needed to find his friend before it was too late.


    "Setting a shortcut to DebrisX''s headquarters on Luna base, sending a distress comm until it reaches them!" He barked orders through voice command. His fingers snapped and motioned inside the mechanical glove controllers, all puny bots resumed their flight pattern and headed straight to the heart of the moon.


    "...David?!... David?!" Nothing but dead silence, as dread crept and nested in the corner of his heart. His eyes throbbed and twisted with sheer terror, but he kept them fixed at the light of punishment, it didn''t stop there as it swirled and shifted toward the moon.


    "How long does the light travel from earth to the moon again?! 1.3 seconds?!" Before he could realise the divine light pierced through the moon like an arrow speared an apple.


    The grey rock shook violently and crumbled almost in an instant, its grey infrastructure and buildings wiped out a fraction of a second later.


    Suddenly, one of the lights fractured, slithering through the void like a serpent of death. It twisted and turned with malicious precision, zeroing in on his fragile bots. In mere seconds, three of them were annihilated ¡ª cleaved and fried to a crisp, their metallic shells glowing red-hot before collapsing into lifeless heaps.


    "Activate shield!" He shouted a command as the engine twirled and overloaded like a roaring thunder and then blue translucent layers engulfed all of his crafts like protective shells. Another stray light chased down five more of his commanding drones, he quickly activated evasive maneuvers, but it was too late, they were blasted through and detonated into microbombs.


    From Jack''s keen observation, the shield took about three to five seconds to penetrate this time. He would need to use this knowledge to his advantage.


    The wrath of deadly lights knew no bounds and seemingly had consciousness of their own. Another stray serpent slithered and targeted his primary vessel, the one Jack was piloting.


    Luckily, Jack broke away and evaded the killing beam, he hissed air out of his nose in thrill. But it circled back and chased him down like a hungry hound with ever-increasing speed.


    "Layer manuveur!" Jack roared and the remaining puny bots piled up and formed a multi-layer of protecting bodies. The light of death clawed its way through all of them, it bit through his primary bot now. Slamming into his craft, it rocked his hall as though two asteroids collided, it jerked him around causing his helmet to ram into the composite dashboard in front of him.


    After less than 1 second, Jack was completely blinded by its brightness, he couldn''t hear anything except his throbbing heartbeat and his panting. But he knew he was alive, breathing heavily, and bleeding from his head.


    Fortunately, all of the protective shields sufficiently absorbed the damage and shredded away until only a fraction of its destructive power stampeded his hall, it crippled his engine whatsoever but he was still alive. After a while, his eyesight returned, stars burned in his retinas along with the smell of burning composite pierced his nostrils.


    Before him, the moon ¡ª Luna Base, the city of a new civilisation, the culmination of three hundred years of sweat, tears, and effort ¡ª crumbled in an instant. Jack''s wide eyes were fixated on the moon as it split into two massive halves, debris scattering outward like a cosmic storm. Microbombs exploded in rapid succession, followed by colossal shockwaves, each blast echoing like a final death bell. It was a vision of utter devastation, impossible to imagine. His arms dropped limply to his sides, overwhelmed by desperation and desolation, the weight of the loss pressing down on him like an unbearable, crushing force.


    "No one on Luna could have survived that¡­ All is lost, billions of people¡­ gone just like that¡­" A dark thought hung heavily inside of him.


    But before he could ever gather himself up, before he could even process things, the large debris suddenly crashed into his vessel, rocking his entire cockpit. His body was thrown by the kinetic force and slammed into a solid console, creating a loud meaty thud.


    Then nothing but darkness¡­ as everything faded.

 1. Debris I

    Have you ever stopped to realise how small our lives truly are? How little do we seem to matter in the vast expanse of the universe? How lasting or fleeting the impact of our actions might be in the grand scheme of things?


    Standing still, gazing at the sheer enormity of Mother Earth, you can''t help but feel captivated by her divinity, her boundless majesty rendering our existence both insignificant and extraordinary.


    Two years ago, I boarded a space shuttle to join DebrisX, a private company specializing in space debris management. My assignment was at their grand space station, a marvel of engineering that revolved in the low Earth orbit ring.


    It was the first time I laid eyes on her ¡ª not from the ground, but from space. Our massive blue world unfolded before me in all her glory. A peculiar sense of euphoria erupted within my chest, shifting my very perception. She was breathtaking, her vast greenery intertwined with shimmering blue oceans, glowing under the gentle caress of sunlight.


    Someone once told me that astronauts often feel an overwhelming wave of elation upon ascending into space for the first time. They weren''t lying.


    Yet, as I marvelled at her beauty, a sudden wave of bitterness washed over me. It struck me how utterly insignificant we, the so-called master races; humans, elves, Wildrens, and Animori, truly were when compared to her immense, unyielding scale.


    ***


    "Come in! Come in! This is Redrooster, Section 11 Command Centre!" A sudden, static-laden voice crackled from the comm speaker in Jack''s cockpit. The blue glow of the holographic HUD screen flickered to life in front of him, illuminating the face of a man in his early 40s.


    Deep indentations lined his gaunt cheeks, and the wrinkles etched across his forehead seemed even more pronounced under the dim light. His dull eyes, tinged with a faint red hue, hinted at a brilliance that once burned brightly, perhaps twenty years ago. Short silver hair floated listlessly in the zero-gravity environment, giving him an almost ghostly appearance.


    He was clad in an orange full-body jumpsuit made from heat-resistant composite fabric. The material clung tightly to his malnourished, tall frame, accentuating his frailty. His skin, pale as a ghostly sheet, added to his overall unassuming look. If judged by modern standards, Jack knew he wouldn''t be called ''handsome.'' On a good day, maybe a six ¡ª if the person rating him had a drink or two first.


    Instinctively reaching his hand to press the comm button on top of the compartment, "This is Jack speaking! Jack Squire, employee number 0423¡­" He replied after a green light flashed once. His voice was deep and somewhat mysterious, according to what his wife told him and she loved to listen to him rambling on and on.


    Awaiting the reply from the centre command, his eyes lazily drifted to a locket with a picture of his son in it. The digital locket illustrated a handsome boy, aged 10, who shared all of his genetics, with the same eye and hair colour, smiling like he was the happiest boy in the whole galaxy. Jack found himself grinning as he watched the locket swimming weightlessly. He knew what he had to do and once he completed the orbital mission, he could return home to family, to his lovely wife and son.


    Actually, this was his last mission before he descended to earth and enjoyed his retirement with his family. As he gazed absentmindedly at Germund from his cockpit''s sight port of a puny bot, a cylindrical-shape and compact robot with two of 6 dimensional axis arms for debris handling. They called them Petite Node Interface Bot or P.N.I. in short.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.Glancing at that green and blue canvas of Germund now, he wondered what his family was doing at this time. Was she doing fine, raising his son on her own? Had she and his son been eating well? No matter, they would be set for life next week when he returned to them with his pockets loaded with the wealth of a lifetime. Just imagined it, he could even taste her home-cooked meals in his mouth.


    It wouldn''t be long now, suddenly the voice cracked out of static noises, "Yo, Jack! This is David McDonald, speaking! Do you read me?!" A hologram image of an overweight man in his 50s beamed up in the left corner of the HUD. Despite his weathered complexion, his smile never once faltered.


    "Hey! David, I read you loud and clear," Jack answered with a smirk, seeing a friendly face in his final mission, switching up on stand-by mode with a click of the button. One after another, his puny bots'' thrusters came to life as they dissipated rippling blue heat.


    "Terrific! It''s good to assist you today, my friend!" David exclaimed with delight and then let out a roaring laugh.


    "The sentiment is mutual!"


    "System checking¡­ 1¡­ 2¡­ 3¡­ and¡­ we''re all green!..." David informed methodically, as he commenced the system start-up protocol.


    David monitored the readiness of each puny bot in Jack''s fleet, abruptly his thick brows furrowed, "Fifteen?!" He yelled in disbelief, raising one of his brows.


    "Well, I don''t have much choice~," Jack said but David cut him off.


    "Don''t you get it!? This is a life-threatening condition! What if you ended up with brain damage?!" his big friend scolded, his voice heavy with genuine concern. "Most people can barely handle six of these ¡ª six! Even an Armatus knight would be pushing it to manage ten, at most!"


    The weight of his concern bore down, his frustration evident in every word.


    Jack took a long minute to examine the coordinator, "Don''t be such a worrywart, my good friend! I''ve done this countless times in the simulation¡­"


    The fat friend exhaled deeply in defeat before uttering matter-of-factly, "Simulation is not exactly accurate to gauge your mental load, I don''t want you to fire your brain over this, we still need~."


    Jack interrupted respectfully, "I''m resigning after this mission¡­"


    "What?!"


    "I''m going back to earth after this mission, David. So¡­ pretty please?"Jack added, using what he did best; persuasive skills accompanied by his deep, charming voice.


    "Okay¡­ You gotta be shitting me like those magicians of Osten!"


    "Pfft! You just called the arcanists ''magicians''?!" Almost couldn''t contain his laughter at the absurdity of David''s claim.


    Jack asked amusedly, "Like juggling bottles around, pulling a hare out of the hat? That type of magician?"