Anji narrowed her eyes into slits as she sprinted even faster inside the jungle.

She weaved her head from one side to the other as she dodged the branches that would have smacked her right in the face just days ago. For the bigger branches and higher bushes she simply raised her arm to protect her face. But despite all the bruises and scratches she received, Anji was smiling to herself. She just couldn't believe it.

She saw the last river tributary and instead of slowing down, she sped even faster. She changed direction slightly and finally noticed a nearly uprooted tree that is leaning toward the river. Anji ran on top of its trunk then jumped sideways and hitting a tree in the middle of the river. The tree was massive and Anji managed to take 2-3 steps running sideways in its trunk before pushing herself upward across the river. She grabbed a nearby branch on the other side of the river, then she swings and summersault her way deeper into the forest. She flew in the air for several meters, then at the last minute, tucked her feet under her and roll herself into the ground, only to stand up again from the momentum and then ran away immediately.

One final will of speed and she burst out of the bushes and into the majestic beach beyond. She slowed down but her feet brought her to the edge of the water, her feet slightly sinking in the white sands. As her breathing went back to normal, her eyes traced the horizon and the other islands within her sight. As far as her eyes can see and beyond it... it now all belong to her. Not a bad place to retire for a beat cop in manila, Anji thought, amused.

Two months ago, when she first met "Mother," Anji would never have expected this kind of scenario.

For an entire week, Anji spent a lot of time simply talking to the AI mother. She also endured a battery of medical test and a series of massive injections of ever more powerful nanites into her system. "Am I still even human after all this?" She complained once.

"The nanites are not changing your core DNA, they are simply... reinforcing it."

The Brykars offered her a palatial apartment inside the core sphere. She finds the mile high ceiling a bit disconcerting but the empress-size circular bed was just divine. There were two spider-like droids waiting for her beck and call and when they brought a massive pillow-like thing that was moving on its own like a freaking caterpillar towards Anji, the girl almost freaked out. "Mother" explained that the device was called bedpartner ver.236 and it replaced the teddy bear by the 25th century.

At first, Anji was still suspicious as she let the damn thing crawl on top of her but when it started vibrating all over, she relaxed. 10 minutes later as she lay on her belly and the pillow-like creature massages her back, she was already purring like a cat. And when she slept, snoring lightly, the device was squeezed tightly in her arms and legs, generating warmth and synchronizing its breathing like a real life partner. After that first night, Anji brought the floppy pillow-like droid where ever she goes.

The apartment also has a bubble bath the size of a small swimming pool and Anji couldn't wait to try it out so she tore her body-hugging nanite suit off her and begun to dip her toe into the warm clear water. She find the scented flowers floating in the water a nice touch and-

Something scraped near her.

Anji moved without thinking and scooped water from the pool and threw it behind her. The water splashed into thin air and showed the outline of a humanoid person. Anji charged it and they both fell to the ground with Anji's hand in the intruder's neck. The invisibility cloak was disrupted somehow and a blackguard appeared under her.

Anji instantly recognized the armor and blurted out, "What the fuck are you doing here?!"

The blackguard didn't respond nor moved.

"Answer me, damn it!"

The blackguard didn't want to answer but he received a direct command from his superior. "... Guarding you," he said in a clipped voice.

"Guard-" Anji stopped when the realization hit her. She shouted at the empty room, "Everyone that is guarding me, reveal yourself right now!"

To Anji's shock, another eleven blackguards appeared out of nowhere, plus Alpha Codex 4. Five of the blackguards are hanging upside down in the high ceiling. Anji was mortified and screamed at her bodyguards to leave her bath immediately while she tried to hide her modesty. Only the direct appearance of the Mother's avatar calmed her down. After hearing the explanation of all parties involved, Mother told the guards that they need to back off from the Command Alpha everytime she is taking a bath by at least 25 meters.

Both sides were not happy with the compromised. Despite the tinted glass mask that covered his face, Alpha Codex 4's objection and disapproval were plain to everyone seeing him. "That will increase our response time by 3.4 seconds. It is not acceptable," He said darkly.

"Nevertheless, that is your new order, Codex 4," Mother said gently but firmly. "Command Alpha must be protected not only physically but from the stress of the mind."

"I do not understand."

"You will... in time. Besides, once the nanite program is fully embedded in her, she won't be that easy to kill."

And so Anji stayed in the Artificial planet for another 3 weeks, with a regular nightly walk with Mother in her garden as she asked all the questions in her mind and Mother answering her in a lengthy explanation. She also continued with her scheduled biological transformation to make her stronger, faster and simple improvements that gave her better protection and faster healing. She did this mostly to appease her guardians who are always fretting all over her like mother hens. But mostly she stayed there for the luxurious surrounding and to heal her bruised mind from everything that happened to her.

But by the fourth week, she started becoming restless. Mother offered to dropped her in one of the layered rings in the artificial planet, filled with fresh air and grassland for miles and miles. But Anji had a different idea. She wanted to hunt and to live off the grid for a while. camping was something thought to her by her dad who happens to be a prepper and camping enthusiast. Anji still remembered her camping days with her dad when she was barely 10 years old and some of the happiest moments in her life.

Instead, Anji decided to stay with one of Eden's planets. She decided to land in the biggest M-class planet in the system: Gaia. After checking it out and downloading the latest satellite map of the planet, Anji decided to land in one of the clusters of islands near the equator, since the weather and atmosphere in the place are familiar to her and she loved it.

The moment a Kavak transport ship drop her in the islands with nothing but a backpack and her nano suit, Anji fell in love with the place. It's like the Maldives on steroid. A few splashes can be heard behind her and she sighed. No doubt that that jerk Codex 4 is following her with at least a platoon of those silent and invisible blackguards. But she reached a sense of equilibrium with the guys, no one touched her and no one helps her in any way and she can pretend that they are not there.

The group of virgin islands is big enough that if you move deeper inside the white sand will gradually change into the dark earth of fertile land. massive faunas live undisturbed in the islands for thousands of years and it grew to uncheck vegetations, making sure that there is an abundant supply of sweet ripe exotic fruits, seeds, nuts, and edible plants. Anji pulled out a black bag that resembles the plastic bag people normally used in her time as garbage bags but is actually made of nanites. She used this to collect the edible plants, and nuts and seeds and fruits she found along the way as she walked deeper into the jungle.

Unknown to her, the Blackguards are busy scanning around and in front of her for any dangers. They have already eliminated several snakes, scorpion, poisonous bird, and a furball with massive wide mouth with razor-sharp teeth. Alpha Codex was frantically analyzing Mother's database and checking every known poison or acid in the area. He knew that the nanites in Command Alpha's body will eliminate most of them but some are too exotic and complex for the nanites to easily breakdown.The chemical composition and amino structures of the antidotes for this poisons he immediately downloaded to his considerable memory bank and prepared for immediate recreation in a moments notice. He continued to flinched though as the child continued to receive scratches from the shrubberies and small tree branches around her as she continued to force her way deeper into the jungle.

Eventually, Anji found a clearing in the island. She cleaned the place as best she can of dead barks and leaves and rotten roots. then she gathered branches and dry leaves to start a fire. She gathered a big hull to one side before the fire even started. The Blackguards watch in silent fascination (and bafflement) as the girl started grabbing stones and uproot giant plants and wild grasses the height of an average human. She studied the stones meticulously then she began smashing them to a nearby boulder. The stone crack then she studied them again. Occasionally scrubbed the stone vigorously to the side of the boulder then check it again. The droids simply could not understand what she was doing. Eventually, she found the right size and shape stones then set them aside. One of the blackguards realized what she was doing and sent the signal to the rest of his platoon. Only then did Alpha Codex 4 understood that one of the stone was a crude knife but the other stone wasn't familiar.

It took another hour watching the girl slowly and carefully peel off the middle stem out of at least twenty giant leaves. and only when she used the stems to combine the unfamiliar stone and a sturdy branch did the Blackguards realized that the second tool was an axe.

With her new tools, the girl tackled bigger tree trunks 4-5 inches thick and fell them. She gathered them to her clearing and with the stems she set aside, began to create makeshift bed 5 inches from the ground. She is able to do this by using bigger stones as a base for her bed. She also made a lean-to to cover her bed and used the same big leaves she gathered the stem from and used them as effective roof covers.

She arrived at the island at sunrise and it is now already way past the afternoon. She had been working almost none stop for more than 10 hours now. When she finished with her lean to did she only started scraping some of the woods and fashioned herself with some crude spears. She noticed when she first arrived that the fishes were swimming around her ankle back at the sea. So she made sure that her fire continues to burn even without her by throwing more woods, then she threw several stones in it before marching back into the beach and started fishing.

Her memory did not betray her as she waddled into the water knee deep, fishes started swimming all around her. most of them are the size of her finger and are useless to her but some bigger fish swam nearby every now and then. Anji was patient and waited for the right size fish to swim practically to her feet before striking. After three hours of fishing, Anji caught a total of two medium size fishes. She wanted to continue but her two spears broke and she is forced to retire.

Anji cleaned the fishes as best she can with her crude knife then covered it with fresh giant leaves and tied it with the same item she used for her makeshift bunk. Then with the broken spear she dug a hole in the sand and drop the burning stones she threw in the fire pit hours ago. After covering the stones with more dried leaves, she careful put the covered fish on top of it. She walked back to the beach and using her nano suit, she grabbed a small amount of water from the beach and drop it in the hole which then started sizzling. She carefully covered the fish and the heated stone with more sand then put a hollowed out branch on top and watch as smoke escape mound. Anji stood up and nodded to herself. Her dad did this a lot even at the construction sites he used to work in and perfected steaming fish.

Alpha Codex 4 watched in a nearby tree as the girl wipe the sweat off her face and continued to give off that self-satisfied smile on her face. He knew intellectually at least that this human and the modern humans who left the brykar are completely different in terms of culture and understanding, but are they this primitive in her time? No wonder she acts like a savage, he thought.

He returned his gazed back to his protectee and watched her eyes bulged in surprised as she learned something new. She sipped the remaining water she gathered from the ocean and was surprised by its taste. This one Alpha codex believes he understood. With all the battles he fought for the Brykar Unity, he had visited countless numbers of planets, and many of them but not all, have a semblance of an ocean in their planet. Some are acidic and poisonous that no life can live there, but many others oceans are normally a breeding ground for many forms of life and what is naturally common about the seas in every planet is the fact that they are salty. It has something to do with the ion in the rocks that are swept away by the rivers and eventually settling in the seas of the world.

But the planets of Eden are unique because their oceans are fresh water. This happened simply because this is the preferred state of the ocean by the humans and so the Brykar kept it that way. Deep in the oceans of the blue planets are massive factories that actively desalinate the oceans. This was not done in an instant but gradually in a span of several years, making sure that the fishes and other sea life forms are able to adapt. Of course many died out, but the ocean is still the home of million of species of animals and insects and plants.

He watched as the girl happily used the nano bag to pull water back to her camp.

At night, the girl enjoyed her fish and finally slip into her lean-to and eventually succumbed to an exhausted sleep, while the Blackguard remained as silent sentinel around her.