Ch 1: Wake up sleepy head.

Under a dusty green sky, a great battle consumed; legions of men like black waves crashed one against the other, their weapons ranging from swords to spears and oversized hammers.

The cracked ground, whom for years had been longing for rain, finally had his wish come true in a shower of blood and tears. It slowly turned red as the life of fallen soldiers seeped in its belly.

Few men dared stand up in the all-out melee, talented veterans inspiring comrades with their valour and striking fear in the enemies, but turning themselves into targets as well. One such spearman, busy collecting heads at his feet, suddenly sensed danger and ducked.

Where his neck had been a moment before, a hammer-head passed with a whooshing sound. Taking advantage of the unbalance created by the missed swing, the spearman hit his chin with the butt of his spear and prepared to skewer him from below.

However, as he prepared for his gory shower, the unthinkable happened. With a kick, he redirected the spear and dropping his hammer he lunged

forward and captured the spearman's neck as if he was a frail kitten.

Fear appeared the spearman's eyes as he felt going dizzy from the massive man's grip. Beside them, the battle ensued between the spearman's comrades trying to save him and the hammer wielder's colleagues giving him time to finish his fight.

Suddenly a *crack* came from somewhere below his face; The spearmen eyes shook once more and turned white, his struggling limbs went limp falling along his body. As his consciousness grew dark, he realized that his neck had gone crack.

His last image was his foe's body glitching soon followed by the rest of the world. *RING**RING**RING**RING*

His faint self suddenly woke up; he found himself in a circular water tank. Mysterious medical machines orbited him like curious tourists, some of them latching to his naked body. Little by little, he started to remember how he arrived there.

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The year 2050 ran.

Climate change had resulted in catastrophic consequences for Earth; mass extinctions happened almost daily as the world's ecosystems failed. Massive temperature spikes took turns in scorching and freezing the surface.

Faced with the threat of going down with the planet, humanity worked to preserve what little civilization they could. First, everything and everyone that could be tied to a rocket were sent into space; the hope was to create a self-sustaining colony in orbit.

However, not everyone left for the universe. Unwilling to leave Earth or merely distrustful of their chances in the great void, the rest of humanity remained behind.

They built shelters underground waiting for Earth to naturally recover and once again welcome them on the surface.

As the surface condition worsened, only a few chosen were able to get in a shelter before the civilization collapsed and with it the struggle to build more habitats.

The spearman from before, Alessandro D'Angelo, had been one of the lucky few. Whilst not having an excellent academic or military background as most others had, he possessed a precious genetic code that earned him the right to survive.

From there on, while his body had spent an unknown number of years in a suspended animation sort of, his mind had been thrown into simulation after simulation;

He learned how to fight from being thrown in battle after battle, learned how to execute medical procedures, how to grow crops and build settlements. Why sleep when you have an eternity to master every skill.

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Finally, it all came back to him, calming down he identified his surroundings, he was floating in a high oxygen-rich liquid that allowed him to breathe even underwater.

It was the first time he had been awake since the apocalypse, and the reason came from the ringing sound in his ear. A red hologram blinked in front of his face.

[WARNING: PERIMETER BREACH, INTRUDERS LOCATED ON FLOORS 1-2-3, INITIATE DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS]

Clear-headed, Alessandro pulled the exit lever on his left, the water he had been spending a few lives in quickly disappeared in the floor. After a few seconds, the capsule opened, and he stepped out.

His body felt healthy; looking down the muscles flexed almost involuntarily with veins popping all over him, startled he examined his god-like body leagues above what he had years ago.

A thought passed through his mind, had something been done to him while sleeping? However, the ringing sound of the alarm hurried him not to waste time.

The room he was in had a total of eight capsules in an "X" disposition. The glass half-cylinders appeared much older than when he first saw them; actually, everything in the room did. The steel walls had a thin layer of rust, and even the yellowish lights emitted a low buzz as if they could pop any moment.

He had been the first to get out; he could see the water level dropping in the capsule next to his, without waiting for the others he kneeled down and opened the metal floor panel in front of him.

Underneath he found his emergency kit, a red case containing the following: stun baton, pill rations, first aid kit and the gem of the shelter; the blanket, a high tech jumper equipped with internal temperature control and dozens of other startling functions.

The name came from the way of putting it on, you would get it on your back as you would with a blanket, and the nanomachines would sew the suit on your body.

Quickly donning his gleaming azure blanket and setting the colour to emerald green, he heard the capsule beside him opening. Another perfectly toned man came out, and, from the way he looked down on his body, he seemed as startled as Alessandro had been.

"Do you-" Tried to ask the man, clearly confused. However, his question died in his throat as a voice appeared in their heads.

"This is colonel Yong HuangXiao; As Chief in charge of security of Habitat 78, I'm setting up a blockade on floor 5 to repel intruders. I request to every combat abled personnel to reach me here.

Non-combattant should instead head to floor 23 and prepare for evacuation in case we fall."

The voice disappeared as it came. If Alessandro recalled correctly, colonel Yong had been the hammer-wielding man that killed him in the previous battle simulation. Setting away stupid revenge thoughts, he equipped the baton on his side and waited for the other capsules to open.

In less than 3 minutes, the eight capsule occupants had stepped out and were fully equipped. The man that stepped out after Alessandro took two non-combatants and headed to the evacuation floor while Alessandro took the rest and headed for colonel Yong.