Oh yeah. In media res. I would like to reassure you. The world wasn’t destroyed. Hell, even the Last War was a triviality if you’re only considering the impact on EX07. No Aliens invading. Our world didn’t become a dungeon. Heroes weren’t summoned from another world...well not really summoned, or heroes, but I guess some are from another world. What we experienced was the beginning of a dimensional bleed.

And now, a brief history. See as worlds raise in Valence levels, they tend to attract a ”covalent bonding” with other similarly tiered worlds. Now due to our vast history in electrical utilization, we found a way to minimize the bleed. We developed Aether traps...Aether containment devices. Normally dimensional spaces would collapse and produce a new “Element”. Well, the stupid capitalistic monkeys we are, refused to be merged. Instead, we decided to see how we could profit off this new world. That’s how the Coffin and Jack system was developed. We figured out that we could “mine” these zones of resources, in relative safety. We use Coffins to enter them. We call them that, because the first ones were little better than coffins, and you risked your life just stepping into one. The name stuck, but since then...well, they’re safer, and with the anchor, a.k.a deadweight system, people stopped having accidents. Mostly. Then came the Jacks. Dimensional bleeds happen in both directions. Their world wasn’t doing so well, but they had Aether technology that surpassed ours. These Jack’s started manifesting on our side causing havoc. It was bad. They were mining us for resources, as much as we were mining their world. They needed people. Fresh genetics really. We were genetically viable. They picked up the nickname as they all looked alike. Through genetic manipulation, they ended up very uniform. We lost two major cities in those days. We lost Los Angeles and Japan lost Tokyo. Russia lost some areas, but we were rallying a defensive by that point. Our weapon? The Inhibitors. By using an array of inhibitors we were able to rebound the flows between worlds. Essentially making a really thick skin between our two bubbles.

Of course, we weren’t willing to give up the economic value that their world provided so the dimensional bleed was funneled into “special economic zones” or SpEc Zones 1-17. The Sahara housed one of the largest, as large swaths of Africa had been converted, both Russia and the U.S.A ceded areas to gain zones, China, Australia, Northern Canada, Antarctica, a zone in each of the 5 oceans, or just about anywhere that you had low population and a government willing to relocate people to reap the financial benefits. Tokyo ended up with the best deal. They used their early development of the Coffin system to forge better relationships with the governments on the other side. Thus, the era of the Jack and Coffin system began.

They provided access to their wild Aether zones for harvesting by our Coffins and they, using their Jacks, provided immigration for those who wanted to live in the lap of luxury as genetic donors/celebrities. Around the Dimensional Bridged zones, Megacities popped up. Coalition owned cities. They became a new world power with Japan leading the charge for independent, free, coalition cities.

The Whitening, as some flippant news jockey called it, came next. With the introduction of the VALENT system, people noticed that their abilities with certain schools of Directions were largely based on genetics. The “White” Races were found to have very flexible options available regarding Directions, but often failed in more specialized fields, and vice versa. We ended up with a rush to Whiten the populace, providing as much flexibility as was possible. It was the same conclusion that the Otherworld had come to, but less extreme. Hence Jacks. They all roughly look the same. What they found out too late was, too much genetic balancing quickly killed off some of the more specialized schools of Directions. The Schools of Directions break down into Alteration, Biomancy, Destruction, Psionics, Peragomancy, and Technomancy. Technomancy was apparently new, according to the Jacks. It seemed to be tied to our development and reliance on Electrical systems. There were other, more specialized schools, but they usually still fell under one of the main schools or were hybrids.

That should bring you up to speed.

Today… Today was the first day of the rest of my life. I think that’s how that goes. After only two days in the recovery bed. I was shipped out to stand here. In front of the office for the School of Directions. Next to Suit 1 and Suit 2. Still shackled. Today was aptitude testing. I would figure out where I needed to be. Or...had to be.

This... was what I had to do. I don’t know who or what he’ll be, but I will find him. He’s my son. “Whuooa!” I find myself suddenly knocked out of my reverie.

“Move.” Suit 1 shoves me forward

“Okay! I was already intending to.” I mutter under my breath. “You think I want to have this shackle on aaaand a goon squad?”

“He said, Move!” Suit 2 shoves me forward just to spite me.

“I get it!” I bark. “persona non grata coming through.” Said at an obnoxiously loud volume. I head up the steps to the office. Great green silver marble steps. A luxury item from the Otherworld. I stand by the side of the door. Smugly waiting. “Please kind sir, won’t you open the door for me? I seem to be tied up at the moment.” Just as I think my jab could be no better, I find my head is uncomfortably greeting the wall. “Ouch, Fuck! What the hell! I literally can’t open the door. Could you please have a sense of humor? I’m already assigned to the skeleton crew. I can’t have it any worse. Do you have to make it uncomfortable too?”

“I don’t like wise guys. I can tell you think your funny.” Indicating Suit 2, “My brother over there missed out on his slot because of you, and it sounds like you lied to get there. He may not get a shot at the Vanguards because he ends up having to wait for another slot. That’s up to two years. Once your past 21 getting a slot gets harder and harder. No one wants to sponsor a risk.”

The copper taste in my mouth tastes just a little worse choking down that bit of information. My head lowers a little more, shame burns a little hotter. “I’m sorry. For what it’s worth. I’m not doing this for fame or fortune.” Looking to Suit 2, “I hope you get your shot.”

It apparently meant something. The pushing and shoving stopped.

They have me stop in front of a counter and proceed to remove the cuffs, and my lovely ankle shackle accessory. The room gets very dark. “Who turned the li…”

Someone’s shaking me. Voices start to sound like shouting. “Hey! can you hear me? Mr. Wolfe, can you hear me? Please don’t die. It’s my first day. I would really like to not have someone die on my first day.”

“He’ll be fine, it appears to be another bout of Aether shock.” Suit 1 attempted to reassure her. Maybe we could get the testing apparatus in here so that we could do the testing as soon as he is up? It might speed up the process.”

“Huh? Oh, the testing device. Yeah, it’s about the size of a briefcase. If one of you wants to help me.”

“That’s fine ma’am. I would be glad to help. My associate Mr. Thomas will remain with Mr. Wolfe.”

“Okay”

I feel a body move closer to mine. “Nikolai.” A moment's pause. “Nikolai. I know you woke up. I understand that you feel like a freight train just hit you, but we both know you can manage.”

“I disagree. It doesn’t feel like I got hit by one, it feels like one’s on me. Or, is that just you big guy...hmmm? Mr.Thomas? I mean, do you have a last name as your first name, or is it just a two first name ordeal.”

A great heaving sigh, “Why does it always have to be the wise guys. Why can’t I get normal crazies? Why’s it always the wise guys.”

“Is it your saint-like patience? My head disagrees, by the way.” A sudden wince overtakes me as my body remembers the stiffness. “Shit. Sorry. Gallows humor, friend. Seeing people, ‘appear’ to be vaporized for months messes with you.”

“You were there?” The incredulous tone hard to miss, with its sledge hammer like delivery.

“Fortunately? Unfortunately? But, Yeah. I was. Not many of us left. Most of the remaining veterans decided to either find a nice cliff to visit in a one-way fashion or jump at the Coffins. Most already acting dead before they stepped in. Look at me nattering on. Talking about ghost stories. You don’t want to hear this shit.” I finally looked up and was a little taken aback to see a stony, sad face listening intently. “You don’t want to hear old shit from a dinosaur like me.” I pantomimed ‘tiny arms’ trying to trivialize my history.

“No. Please, continue.”

Looking at his face again, I relented. “I barely made it back. Lost an arm to a freak ‘electrical discharge’. I was one of the test recipients of the engraph series of limb replacements. Better than new they said. I thought I was getting a golden ticket. A new lease on life. I got to go back to my family, with full function. A burgeoning little clusterfuck of a family, a wife that adored me and a son who didn’t really know me. I didn’t know it at the time, but I ended up in a recovery facility for almost 2 years. I wake up freshly shaven and a bit stiff, but with a working arm.” Looking back at him I take a moment to gauge his response. He continued to hang on my every word. “I had gotten the implant. Everything seemed to be working. Kinda. So they had me stay for observations. Something went wrong with the implants. This was before they understood the Aether resonance response. They thought Aether was free energy. It wasn’t. I was one of the backlash cases.”

“Explains you being a headcase. I heard most of the backlash cases were vegetables now.”

“Most are.” I grit my teeth a little, thinking about friends... the family I lost to those trials. “Most better than me” I push on, feeling compelled to finish my story. “The backlash affected around 85%. It only happened during sleep, but even then not every time. They found that people who were suffering from ‘Night Terrors’ or having PTSD episodes were the most susceptible to a violent backlash. During my PTSD episode when my backlash happened, I had managed to dislocate my engraph arm unit during my unconscious flashback state. I was reliving the moment I lost my arm and my removal of it. I got hit with one of their beams. It was only later we learned it didn’t disintegrate you, it just translated you. Heh, all they got was an arm. A burnt arm. It’s the only thing that saved me from frying out.”

Tears well up at the corner of my eyes. Fuck. God, I hate memories. I do my best to just wipe at my eyes inconspicuously. I feel a big arm, rest momentarily on my shoulder. I ‘soldier’ on. “To be saved by something you hate… it tears at you. Especially when you see better men reduced to the state of being a vegetable. Because of the disconnection saving my life, they figured out that they needed to sleep mode the units, until the user was awake, and could wake up the unit themselves. I guess I did something right. A broken clock is right-- twice a day.” I wince a little at the memory. Just feeling the weary ache in my bones. “So I make my way out of the facility to see my family and my son who looks like he must be at least four by now. He bolted away from me, scared. My wife beside herself with grief. It went downhill from there. Years went by, one day feeling worse than the next. I was a wreck. I couldn’t cope. My son blamed me for the hard life my wife lived. He told his friends he had no father. At 11 he forged my wife and I’s signature and volunteered to the Aether Research Institute. We tried to find him, we filed police reports, and no one would listen. We found him. We found them all. The ARI wasn’t being upfront about what they were doing or where they got kids from. We weren’t the only ones to ‘lose’ kids.” I stop the anger clear in my eyes. The hatred grinding my teeth. “We were too late. We thought we rescued him. We brought him home. He didn’t have the look of hate in his eyes when he saw me.” I stopped a moment as the memories blinded me. “I saw him one last time. He said, “Dad! What’s happening?!? Help me!” mere moments later we learned what happens to a human when exposed to a raw seed of Aether. They called them wildlings. They became... the children of the wild Aether” I pause lost in my hurt. Tears coming unbidden. “I fucked up! I thought I had it bad. I wasn’t there for him. I fucked up. My baby boy.” I grab the Aether unit that's under my shirt. “I didn’t do this because I wanted to. I’m sorry. I just have to save him. I have to try something. If it means selling myself to the Skeleton Crew just to get there. I gotta try.” The madness of sorrow causing my words to tumble out of my mouth in a rush. “I can’t let him down again.” Shoulders slumped, head in hands, grieving sobs heaving across my chest. “I’m sorry. I screwed up your chances.” My awareness starts to broaden as I start to process what I just blurted out. I realize a little late that Suit 1 and the counter girl are back standing in the doorway. Looking a little shell-shocked.