-------- Planet Andron – an extremely technologically advanced planet

Acaserina sat cross-legged on her allocated bed, which was more a piece of foam on the ground than anything else, but still, it's the best she’s had for a long while. She looked over at the hundreds of others around her in the great hall. Some were reading, some sleeping and those lucky enough to still have living friends sat together talking.

The huge room easily accommodated thousands of foam beds which were arranged in rows and columns with an occasional gap to maneuver around. The walls were high and made from brown, rusted metal and the floor, an unwashed cold slab of grey rock.

After the eighty-year long war finally ended, the remaining Andronians started to band together again. Andron is a planet with only one land mass surrounded by water and eighty years ago, the four Kings of Andron met to discuss some data on a couple of planets. No one knew exactly what happened during the meeting but afterwards, the Kings declared war on each and all hell broke loose.

For the ageless robots, death was not a common occurrence and could surely be avoided if one was careful. However, this time, unavoidable death swept through the lands. All manner of weapons were used, from handheld guns to devastating bombs.

Only those lucky enough not to be found, and didn’t fight for their nation, survived. You could say Andron was now a planet of cowards, so the fighting eventually stopped. Another reason for the end of the war was simply that there were not enough robots left to fight.

Despite the war, robots all over the world came together again in relative peace, as they knew any more fighting would lead to the extinction of the species. Camps like Acaserina’s were now the norm, with conditions much better than wherever the robots hid before, so no one complained.

Acaserina thought about her friends Liona and Divitus, how they were gunned down, Acaserina barely able to escape. These memories frequented her mind but as a robot, she lacked the capacity to feel much emotions like sadness or loss, so instead just had a sense of disappointment in the world. For what reason did they even have to fight? The last king died forty-five years into the war but still it carried on for thirty-five more years.

Acaserina sat on her bed for who knows how long. Robots don’t need to eat, or even sleep really, so inside a building, the sense of time was greatly diminished.

She waited for another announcement from Axel, the robot supposedly in charge. Last she heard from him had to be a few weeks ago at least. He said something along the lines of - “We can’t live like this forever; we need to rebuild the outside world and our population. To do so, we need more robots. I know you all think it’s impossible but the scientists at this lab are searching for a way.” before disappearing from the large screen mounted on the wall.

Acaserina thought about what Axel had said and laughed out loud, gaining strange looks from those around her.

There was no such thing as making new robots. They have no sexual organs, why there were even genders was beyond her, and creating robots was not an option. They could make the body easily enough, even add AI but that’s not enough.

The robots of Andron are different from regular AI: they are conscious. They have the thing that makes somebody that person, makes you you, a soul or whatever you will. No amount of technology can replicate that.

Still, Acaserina was curious of what Axel had in mind, so she waited patiently for the next announcement.

---------Planet Erasmas – a technologically backwards planet possessing a great amount of mana.

In a home somewhere on Erasmas, a baby was born. The mother looked with a delighted expression towards their nurse cradling her newborn.

“What will we name him” A deep, rough but gentle voice said.

“His name will be Ryuu, it means dragon, the strongest creature.”

The man bent over and kissed his wife.

“It’s perfect”

“Waaaaaaaaaaaa” The baby let out a wail.

The mother giggled cutely, as the nurse handed the baby over. The look of pure joy on the mother’s face suited her delicate features well. Her emerald eyes sparkled and wavy auburn hair tickled the baby who grabbed a tuft and started yanking on it. Even when faking a pained expression, she was still beautiful.

Her husband laughed heartedly at the display, brown eyes crinkling at the corners. With his short brown hair and stubble, he had quite a normal looking face giving off a firm yet gentle aura.

“I can already tell he’s going to be a handful” joked the mother.

After cleaning up and feeding Ryuu, the nurse gently placed him into a handmade crib by his mother’s bed and quietly closed the door leaving the three to settle into Ryuu’s first night in the world.

--------- Planet Andron

“Everyone it’s nice to speak with you again. I bring wonderful news. A solution to our problems! The scientists have done it my friends. A serum has been developed which when injected into sentient lifeforms, will fuse nanobots with their bodies, changing them into one of us. Only species possessing an affinity with the robot factor will survive the transformation. Upon success, the entire species will be harvested, and used to repopulate our planet.

We have enough serum to test a hundred individuals so far, so we will send out scouts to the nearest hundred planets to carry out the tests. Now I will call out the robots within this camp who will take part in this mission.”

The abrupt announcement startled Acaserina, especially as the screen had been inactive for some time. Axel was reading from a tablet; bright lights reflected off his black and silver body. He’s very attractive, she thought to herself. He must have been wealthy before the war.

The news of this seemingly magical serum was fantastic, although Acaserina still had doubts about whether it could really work. But perhaps, there was a sliver of hope if the right species where found. What the scientists were able to come up with was still in its own right, mind blowing.

“Rin, Gilagan, Tia....” Axel continued.

This adventurous mission excited Acaserina, who has wanted to get out of this dump and explore space for a long time. She would have gotten the chance to join one of the space explorer crews if not for the stupid war. But Acaserina knew the chances of her being selected were pretty slim.

Her attentiveness started to decline rapidly as the list of names went on, none of them being hers.

As all hope seemed lost, Axel’s words shone a light into her dull world.

Out of the twenty-three names that were called out, hers was the final one. Acaserina's body took over and without a second thought, she dashed toward the door as Axel had instructed. Hopefully, she would be one of the “bearers of good news” that Axel spoke of.

The selected group of robots were transported in black, armored hover buses toward the Northern Research Facility. The journey was over 150 miles but advanced technology allowed them to reach their destination in just under 15 minutes. The scenery barely changed from barren wastelands to deserted cities. The remains of once great, metallic buildings and infrastructure covered the ground reflecting the moonlight and creating a silver sheen. In a different circumstance, this view would be mesmerizing.

They drove in silence; clearly not everyone was keen to be part of this mission. Rightly so, as there would be more than a few dangers involved.

The bus suddenly came to a halt seemingly in middle of nowhere. Only when Acaserina looked out of the window closely was she able to discern the outline of a huge brown metal hatch in the ground. It started to open, revealing a tunnel which led underground and presumably to the facility.

The only reason this facility remained intact was because the science facilities were funded by all four Kings and was extremely valuable to the whole planet as well as being heavily armored, well hidden and too large to destroy easily.

Acaserina’s group, being the largest one, convened with the other camps in a sizeable metal-walled room illuminated by long bulbs arranged in rows on the ceiling, casting a harsh, white light onto the surroundings.

They were greeted by Axel who then briefed them on the mission, the main points being: everyone chosen for this mission was capable and there would be many trials ahead so be prepared for anything.

Axel also went through the travel arrangements. For example, those traveling to the closer planets would use the MechaPods, being essentially small one-man, tear shaped spaceships. Those going further away would take the larger Winstons which have more comfortable chambers and substantial storage areas for supplies.

Both ships were equipped with the same wormhole technology which, for lack of a better term, teleports the ship a certain distance through space to traverse long distances that would otherwise take thousands of years.

Leaving Andron, wormholing and navigating the rest of the way to the target planet in the MechaPod would take around five months in total. The Winston, a year as the ship needs to wormhole twice to get closer to the far away planets and the charge for a wormhole took months to build back up.

Another thing Axel covered was what to do when we arrived: find a suitable subject, one of a young age but developed enough to take solids. This was because adults no longer went through changes like a child so would be unable to adapt to the serum and a new-born was too frail for the serum to be a success. Once found, the serum needs to be injected into the subject. We then would wait and observe any changes. If the transformation was successful, we would report our findings back to Axel.

Details of the ship’s layout and main functions, how to initiate the autopilot sequence, the supply of food and weapons on the ship and what to do in case of an emergency were also instructed in the form of a datasheet.

After everyone was sure of their mission, each robot was assigned a planet and they separated into two groups, one headed toward the Winstons and the other toward the MechaPods.

Acaserina followed the group heading toward the Winstons. They were led down multiple corridors lit with the same white light. At first, she tried to keep track of the turns they took but soon gave up.

The twists finally led to an open space, the hanger. The room was gigantic, Acaserina couldn't even see the end of it due to its massive length. On the right side of the hanger, Winstons sat neatly arranged in three rows next to launch pads, ready for takeoff. On the other side much bigger ships, each different from the next, were docked. Those were presumably for whole crews, back before the war, when space exploration was still a thing. Dammit, that could have been me Acaserina thought to herself.

Nearing the ships, Acaserina couldn't help but be a little excited.

After what seemed like forever, she was finally shown to her ship. The Winston and MechaPod apparently looked very similar apart from the triangular wings on each side of the Winston and it being twice the size of a MechPod.

Acaserina stepped into the cockpit of the ship. The interior was sleek and used mostly white and blue colours. Beneath a huge windscreen, various blue monitors with radars and driving functions blinked to life.

Some of the Andronains who were guiding her helped her into the chair and reminded her of the autopilot monitor's location and its functions once again before the door closed and she was left alone.

Acaserina waited for the two ships in front to take off before a few moments later, she too activated the autopilot; her hand shook with anticipation.

The ship went slowly straight up through a tube like structure overhead. Acaserina remained in the darkness of the tube for about two minutes before a metal door opened with a hiss and light flooded in. She had been transported back to ground level.

After a seconds pause, the ship launched upward at a breathtaking speed clearing the planet's atmosphere in just over ten minutes.

Acaserina looked back at Andron. From this distance it appeared as a blue ball with a dark grey land mass in the middle. She turned away, greeted by the darkness of space.

Acaserina smiled, her mission had begun.

-------- One year later, planet Erasmas

After all that blackness the scenery finally changed. Acaserina saw the planet she was to land on. It was a beautiful mix of blue, green and brown; embraced by a thin layer of white.

As she got closer to the surface the ship’s AI initiated the landing sequence. On the way here Acaserina had read about this planet called Erasmas, not that there was much to read. All she found was this planet was still very much unaltered from its natural state so presumably the people here were quite primitive compared to the Andronians who’s planet was extremely built up with nearly nothing natural left.

The landing was smooth and quiet. After touch down Acaserina stayed still, surveying her surroundings through the Winston's window. She was encircled by a dense cover of trees. She had never seen any trees before, only heard stories of their rare existence on Andron.

For organic organisms trees were meant to provide the oxygen necessary to sustain life but as robots that was not needed so eventually trees were replaced by factories, houses and all manners of Andronian infrastructure. After staring out of the window for some time, Acaserina finally stood up.

A soft hiss and then a click sound resonated from the outside surface of the ship. Thinking nothing of it, Acaserina continued her business.

It took a while for Acaserina to gather all her supplies. She took care with the serum, placing it in a padded pouch which she tied to the belt on her waist. She selected two weapons, a small handgun and a battle rifle both of the laser bullet variant which didn’t need to be reloaded. The handgun was placed in a slot on her belt while the rifle was slung over the shoulder. A small energy combat knife could be seen sheathed in her belt. Thinking it would be important, she also took the Mimic device, which would allow her to be disguised as a human.

The trees provided great cover for Acaserina's disembarkation, she was undisturbed.

Locking the rest of the weapons, supplies and a spare vial of the serum in the ships, which was inaccessible to anyone but Acaserina, she abandoned the ship and headed in the direction of the town she saw while landing. Her enhanced eyesight making light of the night’s darkness.

On her way through the woods she saw three smallish animal walking on all fours. They had silver fur that seemed to somehow reflect the moonlight and red eyes that glowed in the dark. On Andron there used to be animals too but because there was only one land mass they had nowhere to go while the Andronians erected cities and built over all the land. So over time the animals died out, not that their deaths had any negative effect on the Andronians.

Acaserina locked eyes with the creatures, the red glow intensified for a moment before dimming and disappearing altogether as the animals turned and walked away, strange. Deciding to chalk it down to her lack of knowledge of this new world, Acaserina carried on her journey.

Before long the city wall could be seen, it was made from grey stone and was roughly fifteen meters high. Guards in leather and chainmail armor were standing on top of the wall, on watch duty. Scanning the area further she noticed a wooden gate about eight meters wide which was currently closed.

She made her way round and found an unguarded section of the wall. She activated the Mimic device and grabbed her combat knife which was currently only a handle. Pressing a button on the handle activated the blade which cast a soft pink glow. Digging her combat blade into the stone to help herself up she proceeded to climb over the wall. With inhuman agility, she was over in a matter of seconds.

Silently, she dropped down on the other side, pausing to survey her surroundings. The buildings seemed to be made from stone and wood, none were very high. The town was immensely different from the cities on Andron which teamed with skyscrapers, well at least before the war they did.

Some wheeled contraptions could be seen by the side of a cobblestone road.

Acaserina took it all in and realized just how different and primitive this place really was compared to her home, guess it would take some getting used to.

After walking for a short period of time, the cry of an infant sounded out from a nearby building. Perfect, Acaserina thought to herself, what a stroke of luck. She headed in the direction of the cry. Finding a test subject has been much easier than she first anticipated.