Excerpt of History of the Eras abridged

***3rd ERA***

The beginning of the era

The era of death and destruction, the era where humanity changed forever.

Historians classify this era to have started with the firsts deaths.

Human populations started to die across the galaxy bringing panic and desperation to humanity. From space stations, capital ships to even the most protected capital cities of all civilizations. No place was spared and it all happened within 2 months.

No one knew why this happened, there was no explanation for the massacre.

However not all human populations were wiped, it was found that, by some reason, smaller places were left alone. Small towns, spaceships with many families, vacationing planets.

Humanity as a whole was shocked. How had this happened? Why had this happened?

Someone remembered a video and it was then linked to the communiqué that spoke about the Greek Society massacre. It talked about being killed by xenos and thus the xenos plague was named.

The deaths brought shock, grief and disbelief. Shared emotions by all survivors but, sadly, it wasn’t the end.

With so many people dead whole industries had stopped. Food, medicine, quantum communications, gravity drives, space ships, everything industry had stopped, there were no more factory planets working, no more miner outposts mining asteroids or whole planets.

For the first time in millennia each planet was basically alone with no trade, no advanced production systems and little to no infrastructure working. The few human populations that survived had to adapt quickly or would also be destroyed, not by weapons or plague or other things, they would die of hunger, of thirst, of an infection.

Amid the destruction a glimmer of hope appeared. A new group had started to hack most communication nodes and where creating a new network called Coalition network. Within they started to release lots of basic and useful knowledge. How to filter water, prepare food, how to work with dead machines. Over time more and more knowledge was added and shared between all.

The Coalition was a new group but quickly heralded as the saviors of humanity. Knowledge, locations, coordinated effort between surviving groups, they did a lot.

And so, humanity begun to rebuild.

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For the second consecutive day Marcus awoke in his house without knowing how he got there, with yesterday’s hangover and the one from before all together giving him a massive headache, only that this time he was puked all over and had awoken in his bathroom.

After throwing his clothes into a waste basket, taking a sonic shower and popping two pills for his headache he left the bathroom in a mix of walking and passive falling over.

He was greeted by his living room that had 2 boxes of different sizes covered with bright gift paper and his blinking data pad on top.

He picked his pad and the drunken smiling face of Val greeted him "Hello oh great and wonderful Mech Designer who is by no means hungover as hell. This is just to remind you that today we will not be working, hell I doubt anyone will be able to do much more than groan, shuffle and puke today. Rest, drink water. Bye" her voice climbing into a sharp tone.

Marcus grabbed his head and groaned a bit, the harsh light from the pad and Val’s last note did not help, at all.

With a speed that resembled a paraplegic snail he finally staggered into his bedroom just to fall into bed and pass out.

SOME HOURS LATER

A zombie rose from the bed, a coarse groan escaped his lips, 2 red eyes opened. He was alive, it was a miracle of science it was a mon… Marcus.

Marcus was alive, well, kinda alive, and, sort of, well. He scratched his head relieving the itch of his soft skin and, while the headache was almost gone, he was feeling parched and famished. A relatively fast hobble later, using the wall as support he reached his kitchen, took 2 food cubes and a canteen of water just to tide him over, then with a bit more surety in his steps he walked into the bathroom.

The mirror reflected a squarish pale white face, huge eye bags, red tired eyes and that beautiful black shave…

"MOTHER FUCKER" the shout escaped Marcus lips suddenly, he felt angry but the sudden shout brought another headache. In a more passive tone he added "Who the fuck shaved my head? WHEN?".

The anger helped him to not feeling the second coming of the headache, but it came back with vengeance. A groan after, some water in his tired face and 2 more headache pills he went back to the living room and landed on the sofa, face first and right next to the coffee table with the gifts

"Fuck, fuck, fuck" muttered softly against the springy cushion. "OK, need to organize my life. Again."

"First, find who shaved head. Kill"

"Second, open boxes"

"Third, find why pad chimed"

"Fourth, eat before pass out bed"

"Good, good plan, excellent plan, me not crazy talking aloud" a grin appeared in Marcus face enjoying his not complete lack of mental stability.

Turning his head and seeing the data pad still blink he simply said though ‘Pad first’ and struggled to grab it still laying in the sofa with his head against the cushion. It was right next to him after he heard Val’s message.

While activating and praying to not get another popup video message he saw 5 pending messages. He picked the one that came from his mothers first.

The faces of Anne and Mina came in picture, both smiling widely and with some bags under their eyes. This was clearly the day after the party.

"Hi honey. We already talked about this at the party but just to be sure that you remember, we are sending this message" Mina, always thoughtful.

"We already had a contract so by the time you see this we should be leaving to another expedition just for 2 or 3 months into the closest asteroid belt. The old eagle still believes that there is an old automated mining base there that was abandoned and forgotten.

Remember to eat properly, drink lots of water and that we are very proud of you.

We LOVE YOU

PS: remember to open our gift in a safe and secure environment" hearing the voices of his mothers brought a slightly deformed smile as his face was still partially against the cushion.

The second message was from Val asking for confirmation that he was alive and not dead in a pool of vomit which he answered with a short and concise "Almost"

The third was and automated message from the University telling him that his profile should already have the update with his new status, congratulating him again on finishing his degree and a reminder that he could order a commemorative plaque if he wanted for a small fee.

The fourth and fifth messages where from something called Demetrius's Workshop and the New Roman government so he would check them later "Probably something about me becoming a new Mech Designer" muttered Marcus

With the data pad done, Marcus just left it to the side, did an incredible effort and managed to seat himself. With that done he started to open his gifts. The biggest box had a small card attached that said Val's Workshop so he opened it first. Inside was an old model of a Neural Interface with a small card saying Augustus's Neural Interface.

"NO WAY, no fucking way this is possible" shock and awe exploded in his face. He couldn't believe it. Augustus had been the first pilots to break physicality, hell every pilot to do that since then were given the title of Augustus. Sure, it was almost 700 years ago and he died but the Interface of a legend was still incredible. As gifts go this was incredible though the Neural Interface itself made for drab décor, who would put the back part of a black matte metallic helmet anywhere.

The second gift was from his mothers. He remembered the warning and just to be sure he activated the privacy protection features of his house. While thinking it was too paranoid, his mother Mina had installed it for him, they had used it from time to time to speak about secrets related to their contracts, or about forbidden technology or simply when the neighbors where too loud… ‘they did stop after Anne visited them’ thought Marcus with a chuckle.

The package contained a small cube barely 10cm across and small video projector on top of it.

The projector deployed automatically 2 small antennas and a light pulse came scanning the house, once it finished the message was automatically played.

Both Anne and Mina appeared in the video smiling but also looking very serious.

Mina spoke first "Hi Mark, sorry for the cloak and dagger but this one is worth it. Since you have finished your degree and so early too, we decided to give you a big gift. This gift comes with a BIG and personal secret, it may surprise you at first but just keep calm and you'll be alright" a hint of worry betrayed her voice.

Anne spoke next while chiding Mina "Don’t worry, he is strong and will do just fine won't you Mark?" a small smile came into Marcus face while looking at his mothers.

"As I was saying" continued Mina "first is the gift, you'll notice a black box under this recorder, when this message ends please push the button at the top and 5 grooves will appear on both sides, then just put your fingers there for authentication. Once it’s done it will activate the second part of the message" then Mina’s face shifted into a more serious face with a stern remainder "DON’T TINKER WITH THE CUBE MARCUS. Love you honey"

"As a side note, be seated when you are doing this. Love you too Mark" said Anne.

The video went silent and Marcus was left wondering what the hell was that and why did it required so much secrecy ‘Oh well, I'll find out’. His head felt a bit clearer now and his curiosity and expectations started to rise.

Moving the video projector to the side he took the black matte cube from the box and placed it in the table. It looked to be perfectly square of some black matte metal, about 9cm across and had the lone button on top.

With some expectation he pressed the button and as Mina said, 10 small groves appeared on it, 5 on each side. He placed his fingers on them waiting for some reaction but it felt inert, he tried pushing with his fingers but nothing seemed to be happening feeling only the cold surface of the me…

A violent jolt of energy jumped into his fingers almost burning them from the inside, it climbed to his hands and up his arms, he felt his bones crack and yet the energy didn’t stop. It reached his torso, he felt like he was burning and some mad howl in the back of his mind, then the energy spread through his body and finally darkness.

For the third time in 2 days, he woke up in his house wondering what the fuck had happened.

This time with no hangover nor headache and laying on the couch which, arguably, was an improvement, scratch that, no general pain or anything though his throat was a bit sore. He expected to at least have some pain in his fingers yet he felt no pain or discomfort at all, he felt great. The pain he felt while that had happened was gone.

After sitting once more he saw the video projector with both sensors deployed and the screen blinking, as soon as he touched it the second part of the message started playing.

Both faces where in the video, now with a bit more of relief and still smiling.

Anne spoke first "We may have forgotten to tell you that you may feel some pain" her comment received a chuckle from Mina and a curse from Marcus.

Anne grinned "OK tons of it, however if we had told you that you were going to suffer a major energy crash that was going to alter your physiology and most likely knock you cold, then you may not have acted properly and the procedure may had failed"

Mina’s explanation came after "The jolt of energy came from a pure mana stone, yeah one of those "let's buy a city" mana stone" disbelief showed in Marcus face.

"The reason you didn’t die horribly is that you are not fully human, neither are we" scratch that, the disbelief had turn into abject horror.

"No silly we are not Alphas or any of their ilk either, relax" Marcus chuckled, the sudden change had erased most of that horror feeling. He was always impressed by how Mina could anticipate his reactions.

"The truth is that we have some more secrets, many that we won’t tell ever and others we will talk in person when we meet next time.

We did this procedure NOW because we felt it would be the best moment help for you and it may better prepare you for your career as a Mech Designer"

"Also to heal your hangover" added Anne while Marcus chuckled "On to the important matter Mina" reminded Anne.

"Right, well the mana jolt should have charged your body and make a 2 main changes.

First it will work as a primer, preparing your body to absorb little bits of mana from the environment and from beast bodies. We recommend you try this at Val’s whenever you clean or disassemble a mech.

Second, it will allow you to also generate some mana and forge a minor connection to the System, maybe enough for an interface.

For now don’t pay too much attention to this, it won’t change you too much, so go about your life normally" Marcus face was a mask of shock

"We will talk more when we come back from the expedition, it should only take 2 to 3 months so it won’t be long. Now I know that we can trust you but please keep all of this to yourself until we come back and talk, OK?" reminded Mina.

"Bye bye honey" "See you in a few months Mark"

"Take care" said both and the video stopped.

Marcus brain was in a state of shock trying to understand any of the events that just happened.

First the fact that his mothers HAD a mana stone. Not only where super rare, they were incredibly expensive. You could buy a city with the smallest of them and maybe a full planet with one the size of half fist.

Also, he had survived pure mana, scratch that, the planet was still intact. The last test with pure mana had warped the gravitational fields of the entire planet changing the entire planetary system.

Then the human thing. Completely genetically modified organisms had been a failed experiment of the second era after the Alphas and the destruction they caused. Thankfully, it seems he wasn’t one of them.

And finally, the System. He quickly reviewed his knowledge about it.

768 years ago, anomalies had appeared in the galaxy, possibly the full universe. They looked like a crack in space that behaved erratically, some were jagged, others perfectly round; most were flat, like a piece of paper that you may not notice from the side.

Then something contacted all humans telling them that this universe had started to become unstable and to prevent its destruction the System had come. The contact was strange, some felt a voice talking to them, others saw virtual displays with the text printed. They all were in their own language and in a way they could process.

This all happened because somehow another universe had managed to break a dimensional barrier in an unorthodox way that destroyed the stability of their universe and caused a ripple effect throughout every universe that was close to them, lucky us…

This ‘System’ explained that to prevent this from expanding it would eventually merge all the connected universes into a new one however because in differences between them that would kill and destroy all that existed. To prevent this an energy called ‘Mana’ would appear in all universes. This new energy was a highly mutable metaphysical energy which would, in theory, mix with anything and everything and, with time, make all existing things malleable enough to survive the merging of the universes.

The good part is that our universe had a very low base of mana absorption which means changes will be very slow. It also had a countdown in an unknown format for how much remaining time was left till the intermixing. In the last 768 years the countdown hasn’t changed.

Regardless, little was known about both mana and the System but some things where found.

Anything with mana could, in some unexplainable way, break the limits of what was physically possible. From beasts mutating in unique ways, plants becoming huge or interconnecting with others, even plain stone becoming harder than any metal. Anything with mana could change yet most didn’t. However, humans didn’t appear to change like that, instead some very rare people could do things that were impossible.

Marcus kept trying to make sense of the new information without much progress.