Myth busting

About time

Every Era had certain ideas that were used in multiple media forms to bring entertainment to humanity. Most of those ideas are absolutely wrong. One of the most famous one was time travel.

Time travel is NOT physically possible neither forward nor backwards. The closest we ever came to this was during 2 projects in the 2nd Era. The light speed drive and the time anomaly.

The first one was obviously a gravity drive that would continue to accelerate until almost reaching lightspeed however it didn’t manage to travel through time. When the ship was about to reach light speed all the occupants and the ship itself lost solidity as their matter became light for less than a second only to return to normal matter where the ship and crew were violently atomized (atoms lost the cohesive force uniting them into molecules). It has been impossible to check in any way what happened inside the ship while it became light, maybe they were in a super accelerated spacetime or maybe it happened as suddenly for them as for us.

It is unknown why this happened, every experiment since then demonstrated that any normal matter will be broken as soon as it reaches light speed and it would come back in an explosive fashion.

The second test was creating a gravitational bubble that would travel through time instead of space allowing things to age much slower than outside. They would be effectively travelling to the future.

The test was to travel 1 year to the future. The gravitational distortion stood in place for 1 year while everyone watched and measured the different readings. The on-board RAI that should send messages didn’t contact back using a quantum communicator however the bridge was detected as stable. After the year the distortion did stop and the ship did return to normal spacetime however the ship was no more. By some reason the matter inside the bubble also lost cohesive force and the ship simply became space dust.

Finally traveling back, the physical impossibility.

There had been tons of proposed theories about this but the reality is very firm. Matter doesn’t remember what it was before. For you to travel BACK in time it would mean that matter would have to reorder itself into a past form which doesn’t exist anymore, suns would get back light and CREATE energy effectively reversing entropy, all of them physical impossibilities… until the start of the 4th Era were entropy has been reversed in specific conditions. Time travel is still believed to be impossible because the physical nature of our universe has not changed and travelling to the future as been proved to not work however there is little information about what caused the material instabilities.

Eventually the trio made their way to the mech bay. "Let me introduce you to the ‘Metentis Aranea’" said Marcus proudly

"A bit on the nose with the name but workable"

"It looks like a puffy spider without its head"

As the mech was undergoing automated checks the bay was empty so Marcus and Whilemina started to work on the changes.

First was the cutting process.

"We need to use any cryogenic liquid around 10 K so liquid helium works perfectly, then we can use a nozzle to spray a super fine mist of water cooled quickly to create hard ice shards and use pressurized air to drive them against the bark, that would allow you to cut like a pressure cutter limiting penetration and freezing the sides so the ring won’t lose liquid or integrity. We just need to redesign the freezing nozzle and then we can remove the impact cutter making the process faster and simpler" explained Mina with a glint in her eyes.

"Second is the mist covering.

A simple water mist can be dispersed easily with wind, pressure or simple gravity as the droplets will drop again quickly making it a less effective cover. If the mist is too heavy it will consume extra water making it more efficient buy with increased consumption.

If you use mix a bit of metallic dust, water, and cryo-fluid in the nozzle you will be able to create a superior mist that will last longer in the air, will keep the mech at a cooler temperature and work to hide it from eye sight. This will not fix the propensity to be blown away with wind but you will spend fewer total resources and can keep it for a longer while. You could also use it to create explosive shrapnel with the same nozzle to use as a short-range weapon which won’t damage the trees as the ice will melt quickly but it will shred any enemy that goes inside the mist field" Mina explained everything though she looked at Anne while explaining the last part.

“Totally right, while hiding is fine you need something more than plain deterrence. Beasts are smart and owl tend to be more careful. If they see one going inside the mist then crying in pain of death and nothing more it would create a greater shock that will stop the rest from trying the same” Anne grinned toothily while explaining.

Marcus was feeling strangely at the moment. In one hand he was proud of sharing his design and very happy, showing his mech to his family that he loved and they were both supportive and helpful. On the other hand, he was feeling a bit useless. They found not only a few problems in his design but also solutions to those same problems.

He could expect Mina to come with improvements over the mech easily, she was an expert modder that had a lot of experience analyzing mechs and being able to find quickly ways to improve it for specific usages as they often did when doing mercenary work in the middle of nowhere and with limited supplies. But even Anne had found a way to do that. To be fair, he was underestimating her, she was an excellent combat pilot who had fought against multiple type of beasts and knew what to do with each, she also knew the best way to approach them and which weapons where the most effective.

"Anyone can design a mech Marcus" said Anne while looking at him "even without complete knowledge about everything with enough time and computer simulations you can make an excellent mech. Hell, I heard that the biggest civs have automated designers for higher tier mechs but they can’t replace Mech Designers. Mina could probably do it but she is way better at modifying a mech than at design one from scratch. We can talk about this later at home but chin up your efforts are not meaningless" Anne smiled beaming with pride to Marcus, he had worked incredibly hard and while she didn’t particularly like this mech she did recognize its worth and the work it took.

"Thanks mom" Marcus felt a bit better after that. It was weird knowing that a program could do the same thing that a highly trained person but even then, it couldn’t replace it completely. Anne had that from time to time, she could be incredibly insightful.

They did short work, redirecting the piping and changing the nozzles was easy work and they had to print just a few simple pieces, prepare a new injection system for the metallic dust and order the cryo-liquid. Less than 2 hours after the mech was done and running diagnostics again.

They said goodbye to Val and left back for Marcus apartment, they would eat something sleep there tonight and leave tomorrow with the mech to Quintus 2.

Marcus was feeling trepidation, he was already waiting for the Vigiles transport plane with the Aranea carefully packed while making small talk with Mina and Anne, well, more like Mina, Anne was busy looking at the Vigile’s mechs and pilots and judging them.

"They could actually invest in some more training, look that one he can barely move steadily with a platform mech" she said while pointing at a purely defensive mech that waited around the gates, they were like a medieval round turret with 4 legs with wheels at the feet and multiple weapon and detection systems on top.

"Yes honey, you already said that the last 13 times we were here. Remember the Vigiles are more like city protectors and not full military" reminded Mina.

The few personnel close to them kept hearing the well pointed barbs but no one dared to go close to the giant woman and reply. They did seem a bit angry and it was obvious they had reported them however after a while they left in a hurry.

Eventually the transport plane came, it dropped in an external platform over the wall, connected with an extended gangway and the cargo was quickly moved. 20 minutes later they were in the air departing for the testing facility.

The trip would take only a few hours and there were no other passengers so they had the full cabin for themselves, even the flight crew was reduced, they only had one mech pilot flying the plane.

Marcus had never traveled in a flying mech. He knew that big spaceships or planes didn’t have a Neural Interface for control but smaller and simpler mechs, like this transport ships, used one.

Still the flight was nice and quiet, they spent more time talking about life and their work, he told them about the buses and Dextra to which both knew her. They were living in the city and were there when the attack came and had actually met Dextra before a few times before, they were surprised she had that kind memorial instead of a basic name and plaque in the wall like the rest of the Vigiles.

It was a very pleasant journey until shit happened.

"Strap your belts and stay in crash position, we have a flying beast close-by and coming toward us" the voice of the pilot came from the inner speakers.

The trio quickly strapped themselves to the ejection seats plus Anne grabbing an enormous red suitcase closely, neither ever left home without her portable exo suit and Anne always carried with her.

‘SREECH’ ‘BOOOOOM’ a screeching sound of metal against metal plus some kind of loud noise came from the back of the plane as it started going down.

"GAAAAH" the pained voice of the pilot came again.

An overload could happen when too much information due to receiving an attack, the pilot would be flooded with too much date and perceive it as pain, even cause blackouts or more.

"Weak" spat Anne.

The plane had an automatic control feature in case the pilot disconnected or lost consciousness.

It started to try to level the plane however a second swipe of the beast made the plane shake even more and veer to the side.

Marcus was grabbing firmly his seat and saw Anne touching something in her exo while Mina was working in her pad.

"I’m in, it’s a class 4 Blue Jay. Either, passing by, spooked or protecting a new nest" spoke Mina quickly.

Anne was already removing her straps and going inside the partially assembled exo suit. The legs were ready and had magnetic boots to keep her grounded.

Meanwhile Marcus was starting to feel VERY SICK.

Either the pilot was still trying to control the plane or the auto navigation kicked in again since the plane started to stabilized once more giving Anne enough time to rush to the door and go towards the cabin. It would take a few seconds and…

"Bird coming for 3rd swipe in 8 grab on" Mina’s voice came also from the speakers.

Marcus hardened his grip against his seat, his hands doing so much effort that his knuckles where white.

"Side counter 1"

Once again, the plane was hit sideways and it changed angle and started to spiral while descending, some crashing came from the cargo bay and a loud rip was heard. Marcus was starting to question his choice of coming and of a heavy lunch trying to climb up.

The plane was spiraling

"User reset done, you can take control now" the perfectly toned and level voice of Mina once again came from the speakers.

Suddenly the plane jerked and turned vertically and Marcus saw a big big BIG blue bird passing by downwards from his side in the windows.

"I have control now" Anne’s confident voice came from the speakers as the plane started to accelerate and level horizontally "Main generator is offline so we are flying on battery power and we won’t reach the city however I should be able to escape the area of that fucking bird and touch down somewhere without breaking everything".

Two more sudden shifts and the sound of something breaking. The plane shuddered and started dropping altitude.

"Lost one of the horizontal stabilizers at the back but the Jay should leave us alone" said Anne.

"This is a VTOL model so we can land easily anywhere however we still need some space. Need me to find you a place to park?"

"You know me love, I can always find a landing spot if I want to" Anne commented with joy in her voice.

"Land and crash-land are not the same, I will find you a parking spot" replied Mina while smiling.

Marcus’s stomach was starting to come back to normal despite the sudden ‘washing machine’ treatment. Once he started to collect himself and realize he was not going to die violently he was surprised by how nonchalant and calm they were during the whole ordeal. He was absolutely sure he would have died if they had not been there flying with him and it was deeply disturbing for him yet Mina could hack the mech while it was turning bumping and Anne could maneuver inside it with her exo even when falling.

"It’s OK honey, relax" said Mina reassuring him while touching Marcus arm "she is an excellent pilot and we are going to be fine"

The next few minutes were quiet, the plane had the a few shudders from time to time but Mina kept using her pad, Anne kept flying and Marcus was still trying to keep his lunch down.

Suddenly the speakers came back to life "Already contacted the dispatch at Quintus 2, they don’t have any flying mech or planes or spaceships close enough to where we would be landing but they can prepare an escort team to be there in a few hours, the terrain in complicated so it won’t be easy, if we can fix the plane it would be the best" Anne’s voice came from the speakers "We have maybe 2 minutes more of power so we will glide towards somewhere we can land and then use the last of the power to stop"

Even flying they were more than 15 minutes away from the city via plane but they had to land quickly so Anne guided the plane to the closest mountain peak to descend safely.

“We are 70 km from the city and have mechs coming to pick us up” said Mina while looking at Marcus “the mech armor plating is still mostly complete except for a few gashes so we could theoretically wait here but we won’t. Now be ready, Anne is going to land the plane with emergency power so it’s going to be rough”

Marcus heard the rough but was not expecting the sudden stop, going almost in straight free fall while the mech rotated the tail towards the ground. Then a sudden jerk stopping the mech followed by many short bursts slowing the fall step by step and suddenly a stronger burst continuous that suddenly ended when the ship crashed.

The sound of the metal bending, things breaking by the sudden stop and the plane remaining in a vertical position was bad. Then the lull of everything quiet, no more movement, no more noise and Marcus with both hands in his face trying to contain himself and finally the plane started to tilt… ‘CRASH’.

Marcus was puking his guts out towards the floor while still strapped to his seat after the plane turned upside down.

A few moments later Anne came back had carrying the unconscious pilot over the shoulder and just leaving him next to the passenger module door.

“I’m going to do some recon” said quickly while looking at Mina already down and Marcus pale white and tired.

“Go, I’ll keep an eye here and check the pilot and the generator. Marcus will need a minute more”

By the time Marcus was better and left the seat Anne and Mina were back and talking options.

"Gen is gone, either meta-property or shoddy work but electronics are fried"

"Outside is clear but there are tracks from multiple species, if we stay, we may be visited a few times"

"We could always meet the coming mechs and leave the rest to send a salvage space plane to pick this up, we have Marcus mech, with some modification for weapons and faster movement we could reach them"

"Good, I never used an arachnid mech before and wanted to try one. Can you add jumping legs please?" Anne was excited and happy.

Marcus left the passenger area and walked shakily towards them. Mina gave him a towel and he cleaned himself. Thankfully the mask of the suit was removable so he hadn’t puked the inside of the suit.

"Marcus, how are you feeling?" care and affection present in Mina’s voice.

"Like buttercream" He was still feeling nausea from the trip and shocked from the almost dying. Now they were talking about modding a mech and just walking until meeting the rescue party was completely out of his expectative. He knew they were mercenaries and good ones but he had never seen them like this.

"Excellent, then if you can handle some answers that will give you more questions then we can show you a few things" Mina grabbed his hand and lead him to next to his mech while Anne locked the pilot in the passenger area outside the pool of vomit "You remember that we talked about mana applications and about Mech Designers?

Well people can manipulate this energy in different ways, we call them abilities. They are incredibly personal, each will develop different uses just like the interface. It will be different for everyone. My interface is through direct data very similar to a computer, I receive small data packages from the system in exchange of some mana, Anne has an instinctive type of interface which is incredibly fast and excellent for combat as she feels instinctively were are the enemies, weakspots, incoming attacks or general danger. Like that, my ability has to do with my work as a mechanic and a mech modder" As she was explaining she grabbed her silver and black big suitcase that unfolded into an exo with 4 mechanical arms coming from her back.

"This is what I can do"