[[Palmer POV]]

My name is Commander Sandra Palmer. I command the Flagship of my colony fleet – Savior. Under my control are 7 Destroyers, 2 aircraft carriers, 4 subs and 15 other civilian ships comprised of large fishing tugs and oil tankers. I was born on one of the fishing tugs, raised by my wonderful parents who were both fishermen. My fellow captains and I were part of the 7th generation of humans to be born and raised aboard the fleet.

I never really knew much about my ancestry, only that one of my great great great great great great..etc.. grandfathers was also a commander of a large ship like me. But that was before the cataclysm that brought humanity to the brink of extinction, or at least that’s what the history books on board one of the carriers say.

My parents used to tell me a story that was passed down from their parents who in turn heard it from their parents. They say that Humans used to be the dominant species on the planet, but we destroyed our home with irresponsible and selfish actions. Then, to ensure the survival of the human race, the world’s leaders came together to start a project that aimed to preserve human life as we expanded out into the stars. They build a colony space ship capable of supporting human life and selected ‘prime candidates’ for a wide gene pool. My ancestor was one of them and he was chosen to be the leader of the new human race that left earth for a new home. The rest of us, were left to die on this planet.

As harsh as the conditions were, with the raging storms, earthquakes, sinkholes, tsunamis and floods and whatnot, it would seem that those left behind refused to be left to fate, and instead trudged on in an effort to survive. With most of the resources from earth having been taken by the colony ship that left, lawlessness became the new law. They say that it is in times of crisis that you see the worst and the best in people. I was fortunate enough to be born into a community of good natured people.

Being the 7th generation, my ancestry was long forgotten and my parents were simple fishermen whose job was to provide the people of the fleet with sufficient food. They always took me out on their fishing trips since I was old enough to walk. They would teach me how to read the scanner for schools of fish and how to deploy and control the UW (UnderWater) drones to herd the fish into our nets.

Our carriers were refurbished to house civilians whose jobs comprised mostly of mechanics, scientists, and crewmen. Most of us fishing folk lived on our tugs. The oil tankers were by far the largest of our ships and they were the most heavily guarded. Even though they were called oil tankers, what they housed was our sole supply of freshwater, with desalination plants installed within their hulls. The tankers were at the heart of our fleet, the hardest to reach.

My first accomplishment came when I was 8 years old, and we were out on a fishing trip, straying not too far from the fleet to follow a school of blue fins. That’s when I realized the odd behavior of another school of blue fins that swam right into our nets. When I alerted my parents, who in turn reported it to the destroyer in charge of our circle of tugs, alarms were raised immediately and we were recalled back. True enough, within 3 hours, we came across another fleet of pirates who had chased that school of blue fins in our direction.

Thanks to my report, the fleet was prepared for an engagement and we chased the pirates away with ease. The commander at that time took me in to teach me fleet maneuvers and made use of my pattern recognition skills to avoid pirates and storms.

By the time I was 25, my parents had retired from their line of work and passed the tug on to another family of fishermen, while I was able to support them with my income of rations tickets thanks to my rank within the fleet command. I gradually climbed the ranks and became the commander’s Right hand woman at the age of 35, and was promoted to commander at 42.

During my time in command, from when I became first mate of the Savior, I’ve seen many new changes. We’ve repaired and taken over more farms on land. We’ve upgraded their defence system to prevent bugs from stealing our produce. Our scientists and engineers even came up with ingenious ways to improve the farm’s output.

By the time I took command, it was as if everything had already been placed nicely and served up on a silver platter for me. We had 5 strategic farms located on different continents with different harvest times. Our travel route between each farm is fixed according to studies done the past few generations, studying and recording the tidal patterns, fish migration routes, and common pirate attack paths. We would simply travel from one farm to another on a predetermined route and arrive in time for the harvest. Our survival was ensured.

However, now, 6 years after I took over command and multiple expected pirate encounters later, I am met with my first anomaly ever. One of our automated farms had sent an alert signal to the Savior, indicating the presence of intruders. I thought it might have been the bugs from the forest initially, but I changed my opinion when I took a look at the surveillance feed sent to the Savior.

Whoever stole our food, did it on the conveyor belt feeding into the processing unit. That was the only blind spot in our visual surveillance. The fence and gates did not register a breach so they must have found a way over the electrified fence safely and avoided the gates since the security feed did not show anything out of the usual.

“Commander Palmer! We’ve just received more footage from the farm. And a 3d reconfiguration of the scene! I’m sending it over to you now.” One of my officers reported, as a new video footage showed up on my screen.

What I saw was a 3D rendering of the suspects stealing food. What was odd though was that the vegetables seemed to be flying off the belt on their own and then disappearing into thin air. The grey and black models on my screen did not have much detail, but one thing was for sure, they were humans. There were 4 of them, possibly 3 adults and 1 child.

“The 3D rending is corrupted. See if you can clear it up. Send the report and the rendering to our IT specialists, inform them that the Scanners need to be fixed and updated.” I ordered my lieutenant. I immediately opened the footage from the surveillance camera at the main gate. There was no way they could carry all that food they took without a vehicle of some kind. And with a vehicle, they would have to go through the main gate.

Looking through all the footage from various cameras, I could only determine one thing, they had some method of disabling the cameras, and somehow, they knew where every camera was, even the hidden ones. The video feed would always cut off, halfway through the video, not revealing even their faces. The thought that this could be an inside job scared me stiff. Only the gatherers from our fleet would know the locations of all the cameras, and yet to be able to disable even the hidden ones would mean that the perpetrators either had help from one of our crew, or is actually one of our crew members.

Sieving through even more camera feeds, I finally stopped at one particular video. It was only a single man, about 175cm tall, short black hair, in a blue military uniform. He had a really outdated rifle slung over his back and he was staring intently at the plants in one of our automated farms. He did not seem to notice the camera, but seemed intrigued by the machinery in the farm. Then, he turned around and smiled, I’m assuming at his companions before the video feed cut off once again.

I immediately rewound the video and sent a picture of the man to all of my captains. Ordering them to disseminate that information, I wanted to make sure everyone was familiar with the face and would be able to identify the man once we land. It will be only another 2 hours before my Flagship drops anchor at New Manhattan, and soon, I will be able to capture the culprit.

[[End of Palmer POV]]

Over the past few days, Kiefer had ventured through the forest and found that the ecology on earth had pretty much changed from when he last knew. Dragonflies had a wingspan of 50cm while spiders were even bigger, as if they weren’t scary enough when they were small and venomous. Kiefer made a mental note of all the wildlife he came across.

Most of the animals had evolved to have bigger frames, but were still just as adept at maneuvering through the jungle. He did not know how tall trees use to grow but here, the shortest fully grown trees were still taller than the tallest on Aioa. Birds had extended wingspans while reptiles seemed to have developed multiple rows of teeth, probably to aid them in holding down the now giant insects. However, even with these new physiques, the wildlife posed no threat to Kiefer and the titans, with eagles the size of cars smashing into his dome shield in an attempt to carry one of the humans off as dinner.

Besides the vegetable farm, Kiefer had not come across any other signs of civilization. Following the main road only seemed to lead them back to the debris island where he assumed might have had a bridge at some point in time. The group would occasionally stumble across a broken brick or a metal pipe sticking out of the forest floor, but aside from that, they didn’t really find anything that might suggest intelligent life still existed.

Deciding that the search was fruitless and that they should move further north the next day, Kiefer directed the group back towards the debris island. While they had the option of staying at the farm and eventually waiting for the owners to show up, Kiefer was sure they wouldn’t be too delighted to find their food stolen. Not sure how advanced the world has gotten, considering the new technology in the weapons he found, Kiefer was hesitant about finding himself in a conflict with any humans he met, if there were any left.

The group had cleared out a sizable portion of land on the debris island and turned one of the conference rooms in the empire state building into their temporary lodging. Kiefer had packed what he thought he would need on earth into his PD back on Aioa, and among those, included 3 King size beds. 2 of them were laid out in the conference room right now while the other was still inside the PD.

It was still about 4pm and the sun was still a long way from setting. Kiefer and the titans were just starting a pot of water boiling and about to have an early dinner. With nothing better to do, they lazed around the rest of the afternoon while Kiefer made target practice out of some seagulls with his mana bullets. Kiefer watched the sunset with Isana seated on his lap and Sher staring enviously at her sister before deciding to retire for the night.

In the middle of the night, Sher suddenly rose from her slumber and sniffed the air. With her extraordinary sense of smell, she felt alarmed and quickly stood up on the bed, glaring at the doorway to the conference room.

“Master! I smell some humans. They are close, most like on this island.” Sher informed Kiefer who was rousing from his sleep due to Sher’s sudden movement.

“Everyone stay here.” Kiefer ordered after waking everyone up. “Rashael, take this, keep it by your side.” Kiefer whispered as he pulled out a fully charged titan laser from his PD. “Stay here, I’ll make contact with them. We might not speak the language but it’s safer for me to communicate with them rather than you guys.” Kiefer explained as he fully recharged his mana with Isana and Sher’s mana. Deploying his mana armour and enhancing his senses, Kiefer crept his way up the stairs and out the broken glass roof.

“HALT!!” one of the intruders bellowed as he aimed the long rifle with a floating sight at Kiefer. Following his yell, 6 more men formed an arc quickly and all aimed their rifles at Kiefer.

“At least they speak English…” Kiefer sighed with relief internally, raising his hands into the air with his palms wide open.

“Drop your weapon and kick it over to me!” The leader of the intruders ordered. He watched Kiefer intently as Kiefer slowly lowered his arms, slung the weapon over his shoulders and place it on the ground, before kicking a good 5 feet away towards the group.

Just like how the intruders were studying Kiefer’s movements, Kiefer scrutinized each and every one of the men in the darkness. With his enhanced eyes, the dim moonlight lit up the intruders like daylight. They had some kind of exosuit on that hugged their body tightly, reminding Kiefer of a game that he used to play a long time ago. Similar to Cr*sis 3, then men’s suits covered hem head to toe with what looked like night vision goggles on their heads.

The 6 men slowly stepped forwards towards Kiefer as the leader seemed to radio back to their base. “Commander Palmer, we’ve found the suspect from the videos you sent us. He is now unarmed and seems to be alone. How shall we proceed?” He said as he deliberately bent down to pick up Kiefer’s Rifle and tossed it even further away.

“Umm... Can I help you?” Kiefer asked, hoping that he would not have to kill them like the first humans he met on Aioa.

“Good. You speak English. What is your name? Where are you from? And what are you doing here? How many of you are there?” The leader of the group asked, still pointing his rifle at Kiefer.

“My name is Kiefer. I would like to talk to your commander is possible. There is a long story behind how I got here and it would be simpler to just explain it to him directly.” Kiefer replied, not answering the most important questions.

“Ok. Wait for a moment.” The leader said as he spoke back into his radio once more to make contact with his commander. Then after a seemingly quick chat, the leader pressed a series of buttons on the terminal on his wrist. Then, the suit seemed to respond to his input and from the side of his tight, a pocket opened and ejected a small flat triangular device. He took the device, laid it on the ground and typed something into this wrist terminal again.

The triangular device lit up and after a few fuzzy blurs, a holographic image of a woman dressed in a neat uniform appeared. She seemed to stare right through him as if it was just a video recording. Kiefer waved his hands a few times in front of her face and did not get a respond from her, but instead seemed to jerk the men into high alert at his sudden movement. “She only has audio input. She can’t see you. Just speak and explain your circumstances before one of my trigger happy boys put a bullet through you accidentally.” The leader of the squad of men informed Kiefer.

“Ah ok. Alright then. Hello there Commander Palmer. My name is Kiefer. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Kiefer started, trying to sound as polite as he could.

“Hello Kiefer.” The woman spoke, “I’ll get straight to the point, please return the food you stole from us. Tell us where you have hidden them and my men will escort you to our fleet. That is the best offer I can give you right now, with the other options ending with a bullet through your head.”

“Before anything, I actually have a few questions for you.” Kiefer spoke back, ignoring her threats. “What year is this?”

“Is that a real question or are you just messing with me?” The woman replied with a question.

“No, I’m being dead serious here, and I will just warn you, threats don’t work against me.” Kiefer answered back with a serious tone, glaring at the squad.

“Fine, I’ll humor you then. I don’t know what year it is. None of us do. Do you have any more questions or am I going to have to deploy every men I have to secure the food that you stole from us.” (Palmer)

“Thank you for your answer. I do have many questions, and once again threats do not work against me. It’s not that I don’t have anything to lose, it’s just that I seriously don’t think you have enough firepower to take me down. Next question. What happened here? What happened to the world? Why is everything in ruins?” (Kiefer)

“I don’t know who you think you are, or why you are asking these nonsensical questions, but as long as you show me the food, I will gladly answer any of your questions.” (Palmer)

“How about this? You invite me and my family onboard your fleet as you have mentioned earlier and I will show you where all the food is. Of course, I expect to be treated with respect. You can have my weapon for all I care, I don’t need to be armed to defend my family.” Kiefer bargained.

“Fine. Sargent, escort them onto your boat and bring them directly to me. I will warn you though, if I deem you to be a threat to my fleet or any of its passengers, I will use everything in my power to eradicate you.” Palmer warned, before cutting off the feed.

“Gather your family and follow me.” The squad leader ordered. Kiefer quickly retreated to the conference room where the titans were waiting eagerly and nervously for his return. Sher was the first to respond, jumping and hugging Kiefer the moment he stepped through the door.

“Good news and bad news guys. I found some form of civilization, and they are on board a ship, I think. Bad news, though, they are not happy that we stole their food from the farm. I think the alarms must have tipped them off. Quickly gather all your things. I’ll chuck them into my PD and we will head up where their men will take us to their ship.” Kiefer explained to the worried titans.

Storing away all their weapons and bed into his PD, Kiefer led the titans up onto the surface where they were then escorted by the men onto their boat. After a brief boat ride, the small attack boat docked into the side of a large ship about 3 times as big as his Frigate on Aioa.

“Nice to finally meet you, Commander.” Kiefer greeted. “This is my family. My brother Rashael, my wife Isana, and my daughter Sher. They don’t speak English, so I will be doing the negotiations.

“Well, now that I’ve put up my end of the bargain, how about you put up yours? Where is the food you took from the farm?” Palmer interrogated, not the least bit interested in wasting time.

“Right right. Your precious food. I brought it with me right here.” Kiefer replied as he stretched his hand and took out a single turnip from his PD.

Everyone on the deck who was watching the young man had a shocked expression on their face. They had just seen the man stretch his hands out and watched half his arm disappear into thin air, only to reappear again as he pulled out a turnip out of nowhere.

“Everything I took is right here with me, but it will be a hassle to bring it all out here in your control room. So I presume you would like me to do that in your storage room maybe?” Kiefer asked, as he looked at the titans grinning from ear to ear at the expression of the sailors.

The commander was the fastest to recover, quickly clearing her throat and replying Kiefer. “Ok, I don’t know how you did that, but as long as you are willing to cooperate, I won’t pry into your matters. However, if you are going to be staying with us, then I will need to know your entire background. More importantly, I don’t want the food here on this ship. It is actually better if you return to the farm’s processing units and return the food into the hopper where they will be processed and preserved.” Paler explained.

The moment Palmer said that, Kiefer disappeared from her sight instantly. Palmer looked at the titans quizzically, as if to ask them what happened. She tried asking them but they did not seem to understand. Or rather, it was more like they understood what she was asking and was replying, but she just could not make out what language they were speaking in.

“Trenton, see if you can run a scan through the database to match what they are saying with any known language on earth.” Palmer ordered one of her crew members. Trenton promptly starting hitting the keys on the screen, running voice match through the system before the screen died out in front of him.

“Captain, there seems to be a problem with the onboard computers!” Trenton complained as he tried turning the terminal on and off. Following him, other complaints began streaming through the comms about short circuits and electrical failures until finally, even the communications system was compromised. Just then Kiefer reappeared at the spot he was standing at earlier, except now he was surprised by the chaos that ensued around him.

“Where’d you go?! And what did you do to our computers!?” Palmer yelled as she ripped open a wall panel door to reveal a smoking mess of wires.

“Huh? I don’t know anything about your computers,, but I was just returning the vegetables into the hopper in the processing unit like you said to.” Kiefer nonchalantly replied. Unbeknownst to him, because he had been constantly converting the 3 titan’s mana into his own, he had been limiting the mana that leaked out from them significantly. Only after he left did the mana mess around with the electronics and fry the circuit boards within range.

“What? How is that possible? You were here just 3 minutes ago!” Palmer asked, baffled at the nonsense this man was spewing.

“Well, if you just let me explain, everything will be clear. Since it looks like your ship won’t be going anywhere, why don’t we have a nice long chat back on mainland? There are so many question I need to ask, I’m just glad I did not have to kill anybody to get the answers.”

“On land?! No that’s too dangerous. The insects alone could kill us a few times over, not to mention the lizards and wolves. I’d very much rather stay here- AAAAAHHHHHHH!” Palmer screamed as Kiefer grabbed her and the titans by his mana ropes and shot out into the night sky, not waiting for Palmer to finish her sentence.