“[3rd attempt re-aligning successful….Time until arrival 8 minutes 34 seconds…]” The lifeless system informed me of the successful re-aligning of my shuttle. I most likely will be the first to reach earth at this rate, which is far from good news for me.

“System, keep the personalized A.I systems offline until reaching the space anchors” I commanded the system, unlike the rest, I could not afford to be connected to the Personalized A.I systems more than absolutely required, I was only an intermediate skill level pilot and being connected to the PA.ISystems would cause a disastrous backlash on me.

“[Command confirmed….]” The system obediently fallowed instructions.

It is simple to explain. The body and Guànjūn are like separate islands, the BCBS ‘Basic Control Bios System’, was like the bridge between both the pilot and Guànjūn, the consciousness was like a traveler that moved between both, passing messages of information.

However, If the bridge between both the Guànjūn and pilot ever became unstable, which rarely happened, the pilot would have to immediately disconnect. If the BCB connection between both ever broke down then the consciousness would get stuck in between body and machine, and the pilot would become a doll with no soul.

There has been cases of human consciousness slowly burning away piloting the Guànjūn after the connection severed over a small period of time.

The human consciousness was a traveling messenger that moved between islands, yet, could not live without its home. Meanwhile, the ‘personalized A.I systems’ also called PA.IS used the connection between the pilot and Guànjūn to keep making bigger and better bridges between both body and machine, which over a small period of time would become so strong that the mind would have a hard time distinguishing between the real body and the machine, allowing the body to completely move to the machine, and overall greatly enhancing the performance of the pilot by a large margin.

Sadly, this process is a great burden to the pilot, the PA.IS are not able to keep up with the stress put onto it by the constant transfer of pure information by the consciousness. When the pilot disconnects and goes back to his body, the after effects would last for a couple hours, sometimes days, in extreme cases it could even last months, and there have been unique times where it has been permanent.

“[Time remaining 6 minutes….]” The machine announced.

The most elite and best pilots often got the worst of it, their minds would be too immersed, the mental bridges too many, it would take longer to disconnect. It was the same as forcibly having a limb torn away, and worse, this burden was all placed on your mind.

It made sense why all the most elite pilots often took long breaks after missions and their deployments were often short lived.

Many pilots slowly went crazy, and the very few pilots that survived the previous war disappeared, even the ones that had become vegetables, it was a mystery that no one wanted to talk about, even if most if not all of them were heroes, but some say the Research Institute of Gods Development had something to do with it, and I really do not like them.

Every pilot had to pass through vital tests in the Gods Institute, and the results would decide their fate as pilots or not.

Gen 1 pilots are now non-existent, they were born along the very first Gen 1 Guànjūn. after which, a rule of thumb appeared, that each new Gen of pilots was fallowed by a new Gen of Guànjūns.

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The Gen 1 were deployed in the Rising Sun front, the Rebelling Island and the One True Korea Region. In the history archives very few survived , while the Gen 1s were in the front lines their major success put Gods Institute and Mach Research on a pedestal.

“[Time remaining 4 minutes…]” The machine announced.

The current 6th Gen pilots were new and upcoming brats which is rare, as every new gen required the most elite and experienced pilots of the previous Gen, and the Gen 6 Guànjūn was also a weird mess. To most 5th Gen pilots, it just looked like some simple upgrades with bulkier nano-neural sensor connectors.

It must’ve bothered me a lot, when I went out to drink with some pals and brought it up some of them got quiet, real quiet. One of my more conspiracist friend started yapping about how the new systems that were installed had major changes, and that not just any 5th Gen pilot could upgrade to a 6th gen, not even if they were the best, which sounded like crazy talk, after which most stopped listening, he kept talking all night about crazy things, the part that lost me was when he claimed that he had done some digging and found out the Gods Institute had replaced the PA.IS system with their own version, and that the new set of upgrades to the Nano-Neural connectors were done to increase the hosting capabilities of the Guànjūn, but why would they remove the PA.IS system if they were increasing the hosting capability of the Guànjūn?. It made no sense, and thats when his crazy talk lost me, he claimed that with the new upgrades that the God’s institute wanted to have 2 pilots controlling a Guànjūn at the same time, he was a dumbass.

“[Time remaining 2 minutes…]” The machine announced.

Why would the hell would the major institutes, companies, and government entertain much less support such a dumb idea.

The 6th Gen had a lot of uncertainties fallowing it. Many say that it might be the most underwhelming yet potent Gen so far. The pilots are kept under secrecy as is the A.I program that will run it, unlike the schematics and engineering which were made public.

“[Enemy anti-space has locked onto positioning….. Nearby friendly space support is intercepting…Be on standby for command… 1 minute 34 seconds until arrival to space anchors for Guànjūn fall]”

The lights of laser blasts could seen through the outer cameras. Hundreds of lights flew by almost at random towards my pod, few too close for comfort. The cannons firing them were many dozen Kilometers away, some probably even hundreds, the Americans truly had the luxury to waste energy away. Firing back where few but slightly more accurate shots. Every now and then you would see a stronger light going off in the far distance, it symbolized the destruction of a space-cannon or turret.

now that the war was at a standstill, neither side bothered sending the interceptor fighters, heavy cannons were often heavily guarded and far from the front lines to make sure to small misfortunes happen as they often did in the first war, and space posts settled for their peaceful skirmishes as well.

War had been declared, yet there was no war being fought. Both sides were not even testing the waters yet, as if they both were holding back, was it because they were afraid?, as bastardy as those Americans were, afraid or cowardly would not be a word I would use to describe them. Then maybe they were developing a crazy weapon and just weren’t finished yet?, but if it were so then what were we doing waiting?, I have faith in our intelligence network as it saved the Red Hope many times before during the first war, and if it was us making the crazy weapon then the United Corpo’s would’ve definitely made the first move, after all they should’ve learned from the previous war that The Red Hope and secret weapons in the same sentence is the only reason why we still exist.

Yet no one was attacking each other.

“[Space anchors on standby and ready for connection…pod thrusters commencing slowdown…]”

Maybe both sides just wanted to see the willingness of each other in again?, another war wouldn’t end the planet ,after all, the continental stabilizers and catastrophe retainer faculties all around the surface and space made sure the planet wouldn’t blow up from all the fighting and continuous destruction of entire regions.

“[Space anchors connected and calibrating Guànjūn fall to pre-selected parameters…]”

Logistics, food and nutritional problems had been solved by Sung Fung Foods during the first war, it was funny to many, that fixing the general hunger issue would be harder to solve than accomplishing aging regression technology.

“[Anchers calibrated….Thrusters recharged…Comms On….Guànjūn fall….Commencing….]”

I wonder what this calm means, but I embrace it.

“Hey guys, glad you are all here still” said 3 as calmly as usual

“Oh looks like the blasts got some of the space anchors…we will be deployed separately” claimed 1.

“Hey Jacket, seems like you are up first” added 4.

“Fuck…” I exhaled while turning off my comms.

“System, warm up PA.IS to the highest Immerse Percentage I’ve reached so far”

“[Warning, exceeding stable parameters will cause backlash and could cause……]”

“Skip over the details, it won’t matter if I don’t make it out alive”

“[PA.IS system commencing with…]”

In the historical archives there was once an animal called Raven, they had large strong beaks, fluffy neck feathers, and wedge-shaped tails. They sadly perished in 2046 when the…..