Ch2: T3ST Colony

Edge of the T3ST colony. The Belt.

Xeight groaned as his carrier, now back in space after being launched by a combination of magnetic rail and rockets, flew back toward his home, the T3ST colony. He had been resting within the cockpit of the Nexarm, blasting synthwave music from an age long past-- supposedly music from 1980 CE if that was accurate. This too was what he liked to listen to while completing asteroid harvesting missions.

This trip to Mars and back had been too tiring. Such journeys took multiple days-- not to mention he had to land on Mars to demonstrate the Nexarm at his elder's behest, and return back to the T3ST colony in time, which had a narrow window. This narrow window occurred only once per Mars' rotation around the Sun. He did not fully understand why this whole demonstration had been necessary, but he did it at the behest of the T3ST colony's leader.

E-cube levels have dropped to eighty percent. Deceleration rockets activated. Oxygen levels at ninety percent. ETA is 1 day, 2 hours.

The robotic lady's voice elicited another groan from Xeight. He could only rummage for a silvery packet and chew his boredom away.

He had wanted to reject his elders of this task, but his elders had insisted upon it, stating that as a seventeen year old, he needed to begin taking responsibility with regards to completing various communication tasks of the T3ST colony. He himself preferred to continue his daily task of harvesting asteroids in the Nexarm while floating through space. The task brought a peace to his mind that he loved beyond anything.

An alarm suddenly sounded along with a flashing red light.

Warning. Multiple heat signatures detected.

Xeight's travel box was passing by a small asteroid when a small ship hidden behind sped out and aligned itself at the same speed as Xeight.

"Fucking pirates!" Xeight muttered. The belt was littered with them. He thought he would be lucky and not bump into any of them on his return trip. The martian arm of the terran fleet was supposed to protect the resources exported from the belt, but they were sparsely seen.

Whenever Xeight transferred resources to the companies ferrying resources from the belt, it was far more common to see some private mercenary group guarding them.

The neuro circlet around his head lit up.

"Activate body and Nexarm full-sync." Xeight ordered.

Acknowledged.

Multiple elastic cords snaked around Xeight's limbs and secured his body. Metal bindings then popped up from a contraption and provided further support for his body. The cockpit of the Nexarm then filled with a sort of thick gel fluid. Xeight was already in the Neurorevo suit, thus his oxygen needs were satisfied despite the gel fluid filling the cockpit.

"Activate twelve of the strongest laser devices on board. Activate sensory devices of visible light, UV, x-ray, gamma, microwave, radiowave, infrared, fermion, molecular, debris, force propagation, musculature release."

Acknowledged.

"Activate Nexarm extreme heat absorption and debris projectile defense."

Acknowledged

"Open!"

The carrier opened into a flat cross and the twenty meters tall Nexarm floated in space, surrounded by twenty four devices, facing the approaching pirate ship.

A side panel slid open on the ship and ten figures in armored exo-suits jumped out. Every single of these exo-suits already had deployed turrets on their forearms, as well as multiple neuro devices floating around them as well.

The figures attempted to scatter when they sensed that Xeight was already ready for them.

Xeight saw everything all too clearly in his mind. He did not have any real weapons-- the lasers he had were mining devices designed to harvest asteroids. However, they would have to do for the current situation. 

Though, even without any real weapons, he was far stronger. His multiple different sensory devices provided his mind with a flood of useful information. He could precisely tell the positions, movements, the weapons on the suits, their activation time and much more. He could certainly predict the movements of every single pirate with the information he received.

"Sync laser systems."

The circlet around his head glowed as he simultaneously fired the twelve laser devices at a single figure.

No sound could be heard as the heat burned through the left side of the frontrunning figure's torso, rendering the figure limp and tumbling through space.

The sensors detected the activation of the guns on the others' exo-suits.

Xeight wrapped the Nexarm's arm around the front of his cockpit, and the metal plates on the Nexarm's forearm turned a slight bright red as it absorbed the impacts from a multitude of bullets.

Meanwhile, Xeight continued activating the laser systems with impunity, and two more pirates fell with nary a sound. It was impossible for them to dodge due to Xeight's ability to predict their movements-- he was observing every twitch of a muscle on their bodies.

Desperate, the remaining seven pirates attempted to fire on the laser devices instead, but Xeight controlled the twelve laser devices to move in a sweeping fashion while completely in sync.

It was as if there was an invisible sword that sliced through the space like a child scribbling on paper. A few pirates had their bodies dissected into pieces, but the attack only drew a bright and thick red line on a few other pirates' exo-suits.

After all, Xeight's lasers were of various different wavelengths and intensities, meant to be selectively used during his asteroid harvesting operations. He had tried to position them at various angles and distances in an attempt to allow the multiple devices to cooperate together, leading to this unreliable result.

He was already controlling twelve laser devices, a number that would shock the terran military if the martian command hadn't obscured such information. If these lasers were instead all military grade, this would have been a complete massacre. Instead, the few remaining survivors dashed back towards their ship.

Xeight allowed them to leave-- he had no desire to strike down these fools that were clearly new to the whole piracy gig.

As for the bodies of the fallen pirates; their bodies when exposed to space had rapidly frozen-- there was not a single drop of blood that leaked out.

Xeight sighed as he rotated his sensory devices in every direction as a precaution for any additional ambushes.

He rarely had to kill. Most pirates that he had encountered would usually immediately run upon laying their eyes on the Nexarm. If a pirate group had a leader, said leader would even give him a wave of the hand.

But not this group. This group did not even leave a single person on their ship to provide support. As for why? Xeight had no idea. There were many pirate groups, and some were complete amateurs, new to the scene.

He reentered the cross, which folded back into the cubic carrier.

Feeling a bit fatigued by the whole ordeal, he attached an alarm device that would directly awaken his brain through the neuro circlet, and comfortably drifted off to sleep.

After a long sleep, Xeight woke up, happy to hear the robotic lady's announcement.

Docking procedure initiated. Request manual control if desired.

"No thanks." declared Xeight. This AI was not designed to imitate human behavior, but Xeight still occasionally liked to talk to her as if she was such an AI.

Xeight observed his monitors as a precaution, keeping track of how his unit traveled through a tunnel toward the center of the asteroid.

After ten minutes, Xeight finally found his feet back on the ground in the T3ST colony, a heavy security settlement on a three hundred kilometers wide asteroid in the belt.

A group of engineers received the Nexarm and began locking it back in place beside a few other domineering Nexarms in the bay area.

Before he even had a chance to rest, Xeight found himself face-to-face with the profile of a similarly young man who he had not quite seen for some time.

"James MacLeod. It's been a long time." The two gave each other a hug.

James MacLeod had blonde hair and caucasian features. Xeight, on the other hand, was very much mixed-- it was impossible to tell which part of Earth his ancestors could be from.

"It's been a long time, Xeight. When was the last time I visited? A year ago?"

Xeight nodded. James had been visiting yearly for the last six or seven years from Earth. Xeight had always loved listening to James talk about Earth. As for why James visited, it was the MacLeod family that funded every trip. For inexplicable reasons, the two had gotten along rather well despite James being a good ten years older.

Unlike his previous visits, today, James was dressed in a military uniform with the beautiful green and blue globe proudly plastered over his deltoids.

Xeight exaggeratedly examined James head-to-toe. "So, finally, all your trips here have fully prepared you to join the Earth Federation Space Force? It sure took a while." This elicited a laugh from the man.

"Let's at least have a meal before I leave. It was lucky that you made it back before I had to return to Earth. We MacLeods feel responsible for this place, and well, you know how my father is like. I've mentioned him to you."

The two shared a brief meal, and unfortunately, James had to return to Earth. A pity, Xeight felt. It would have been great to hear more about Earth from James. Once again, that boring duty to demonstrate the Nexarm to Mars interfered with his good time.

He reminisced about James' previous visits. He generally stayed for a good two weeks each visit, and the two had been drawn to each other like magnets from the very start. Initially, James acted like an older brother on his first visit, but that had gradually changed. Xeight was unable to explain any of this though.

"Elder Enine summons you." A martian soldier broke Xeight out of his reveries. Xeight compiled and after going through a few tunnels, found a main white paneled room.

"You do know that McLeod is but a spy sent to check on the colony, yes?" Elder Enine chastised Xeight. This old man with a goatee was clearly not a fan of Xeight's association with James McLeod.

"Yes," Xeight nodded lazily. He had been reminded of this many times over the years. "And I've never discussed anything that should not be mentioned in his presence."

"And still you laugh and smile alongside him. What do the two of you even discuss?!" The old man harrumphed.

"Simple stuff… like I've said before, he talks about what Earth is like, and his odd stories growing up there."

Elder Enine sighed. He had recordings of their conversations during meals and more. Though he did not like Xeight associating with this spy, he also couldn't find much fault in Xeight-- for his words on their mundane conversation were true. With a shake of the head, Elder Enine reaffirmed more important information.

"You only demonstrated twenty, yes?" Elder Enine questioned.

"Yes." Xeight nodded.

"Good. Information can leak, so it's best if not even--"

"For once, you followed things to the letter, younger brother?" Another young dark-haired man laughed as he walked into the room, interrupting the elder's 'interrogation' of Xeight.

"Second brother does follow instructions when he feels like it, of course." This was followed by the melodious voice of a young brown-haired lady.

Xeight sighed. This brother and sister of his were not truly biological siblings. It was more like they grew up in the same room, so they called each other brother and sister. His older brother Bone, and his younger sister Yfour, held the opinion that Xeight often did things his own way. Not entirely true, Xeight would argue. He simply did what he believed best when he felt the situation meritted such a response.

Unfortunately, to his elders' chagrin, such as Elder Enin, Xeight's judgements often did lead to a positive result. At least, not necessarily the result he so desired.

"Quiet!" ordered Elder Enine. "You are the new generation's leaders. So behave as such."

Elder Enine expression was grave. "It is time for you three to be entered into our confidence. War is coming. It is time for us to free ourselves off this piece of lab rock. The Martians are moving. Our hidden ships are ready. The modifications to the Nexarms are ready. Even some of the Terrans' vendors are on our side. All of you have been well-trained for combat in space. It is time."