23 story concept

(an: I really want to write this as a full novel, but I also know starting another novel right now probably isn't a good idea, but I wrote the first chapter for fun anyway, so have a read, its about a supersoldier, who while fighting a war, suddenly finds himself transported into another world, filled with magic, monsters, and cultivators, trying to survive as he quickly builds up an industrial base and establishes himself in this new world, he wont have any really crazy sci fi technology aside from nanobots, as I plan to focus more on current day type equipment, but there will be some of that, mostly in the form of logistics and industry, the concept is inspired by the novel "Sexy sect babes" by Bluefishcake on royal road. which I heavily recommend if you like sci fi tech novels. tell me what you think, and if you would like me to turn it into an actual full on novel)

I hung my head in exhaustion, struggling to keep awake beneath the crushing pressure 173 hours of constant combat with absolutely no sleep, the only thing keeping me conscious being the cocktail of stimulants coursing through my dying system, as I stood upon my throne or corpses and decrepit warmachines, surrounded by the din of ear shattering cracks of rounds shattering the sound barrier, ground shaking artillery, and the screams of dying soldiers. The thick scent of ozone and blood covering the vast landscape of slag and gore that spread out as far as the eye could see. The once beautiful meadows of a luscious gaia world now reduced to a smoldering hellscape, another victim of the unceasing war between megacorps.

I barely managed to keep on my feet as an ear shattering shockwave bracketed my form, the distant mushroom of nuclear fire a familiar sight after weeks of battle, as a hulking mass of twisted, molten metal that once a great voidship fell upon the planet, many hundreds of kilometers in the distance, its scuttling charges bringing the unfortunate millions to close along with the ship, a representation of the constant struggle between megacorps to maintain technical superiority.

When I had been informed of my participation in this battle, I had already known it would be my deathbed, not out of some metaphysical ability, nor some sixth sense, but simply a conclusion built from the understanding of how these wars worked.

There was no surviving a war like this for any soldier sent to the surface, for even were you to survive the battle, there was no surviving the aftermath.

After all, Megacorps were incredibly petty institutions. Like feral animals, even when they knew they had lost, they would continue fighting with suicidal abandon if it meant dealing more damage to their adversary, leaving the victor wounded and open for someone else to mop them up.

It was not an uncommon story, in fact, it was the very same pettiness that had caused the downfall of the original terran empire so long ago, leaving the remnants of humanity a fractured mess of factions spread across the galaxy in a ceaseless struggle for power and resources like the warlords of ancient terra.

Now, most megacorps don't attack one anothers capitals, at least not directly, preferring to fight smaller wars over worlds and resource rights, rare was it for two corps to engage each other in full on war, and those that did were incited by that very same petty revenge.

But as a result of their petty nature, these world wars always ended with a single conclusion, at least, should the winning side fail to prevent them, which was most of the time.

And that was the destruction of the world being fought over.

After all, it is far harder to mine a planet when it is spread across an entire star system. And while most of the resources can still be collected in the end, not to mention the added bonus of destroying whatever terrestrial army is on the planet.

But even with this forgone conclusion, I, and many billions of others still fought, why? Well certainly not out of some kind of fanatic loyalty, but simply because death was an option far preferable to what megacorps could, -and would.- do to those who disobey, after all, death is far preferable to becoming a preserved brain subjected to endless torture for the rest of your days or some kind of labrat for any number of depraved experiments.

But now, it would all be over soon, this terrible, terrible life would end, and I would finally be free. And as I waited for my inevitable death to come, trapped within the shattered remains of my power armor, I reminisced on my life thus far.

My name was Nox, Callsign Reaper, and commanding officer of the 1st Hoplite division, a group of elite, heavily augmented individuals, I was trained in every conceivable form of combat, and had climbed the ranks as the most feared soldier in the Hoplite core. I had served the Combined forces of sector #2973 for centuries, accumulating enough achievements, ranging from defending worlds from invasion fleets with my division alone, to fighting off a dreadnought with a single light cruiser, to raiding numerous pre collapse ruins, and much, much more. To be worthy of entering the true elite of the CF, if not for one single problem.

I had been born poor and an orphan, in the slums of the Forthright Ecumonopolis. And no one, and I mean no one, ever rose beyond their class at birth, the ruling class would simply not allow it. As such, the best of gene therapies and augments were unavailable to me, even if I had the money to buy them, and as such, I had begun to grow old, and alongside my age, I began to lose my value.

That was how I found myself here, standing upon a mountain of corpses. I had run out of ammo and power days ago, as the rest of my company had died, and I had been abandoned, but I had not given up.

I had fought and fought, using every means at my disposal to survive. I tore apart enemies with my bare hands, commandeered vehicles, stole weapons, and used others' bodies as shields and weapons. I fought and fought even as my armor shattered, even as my bones cracked, and my muscles tore, I would continue to fight, like the mythical berserkers of ancient terra, and now I stood here, having fought an entire army on my own, my shattered dying body barely kept alive by my numerous augments.

It had been a hard life, growing up in the slums, I had cheated, stole, manipulated, and killed to survive, barely making it to the age of 18, born a sociopath, I was a natural genius, easily learning almost everything I could get my hands on, and retaining the information well, my mentality reinforced by the tribulations of my life, I had become a hired gun, the most feared individual around, I was consistently hired by anyone with enough money to spare, eventually catching the attention of the CF#2973 military, I was chosen as a suitable candidate for the then new Hoplite program, and had quickly proven myself as a promising individual, my combat acumen, and analytical mind making me stand out from the rest, I became the first ever, and forever more, most powerful hoplite ever created.

And now, here I stood, standing above the corpses of my enemies, watching as the distant horizon lit up with the light of a thousand suns, as a massive dreadnaught fell from the skies above, its disintegrating form leaving a trail of glowing plasma in its wake as it plummeted towards the world below, its surviving weapons still firing in a final act of defiance.

I stared in awe at the scene when the burning light of a rocket engine stole my attention from the scene, as I watched a brilliant arc of light plummet towards me, revealing itself to be a small missile when it got closer, suddenly disintegrating in the air when it was mere meters from me, -the fact that there was not even any debris would have struck me as strange was my mind not so hazy.- Leaving behind a solid core of mass that I instantly identified as antimatter, again the fact I even saw it before it detonated should have struck me as strange, but I was not thinking of that at the moment, as I shut my eyes waiting for my impending death.

Which never came.

Hesitantly I opened my eyes, and there, floating in mid air, was a solid ball of antimatter, somehow not detonating despite being surrounded by an atmosphere made of regular matter. I blink slowly in confusion, before a burning sensation and light emanating from my neck caught my attention. Leading me to pull out my pendent, a necklace I had kept with me for centuries, made from a piece of scrap shaped like a spiked monolith I had pulled from an ancient terran empire ruing with a small stick on the back culminating in a loop I used to attack the trinket to a chain.

I had thought nothing special of it, just that it was a cool trinket, yet now, here before me, it somehow floated in the air, releasing a soft glow as it pulled gently towards the mass of antimatter similarly floating a few meters before me, only held in place by the thin chain of durasteel I used to make the necklace.

I had no idea what was happening, but overcome by curiosity, and with nothing to lose, I stumbled forwards in numb curiosity, barely managing to keep on my feet as I spent the next few minutes approaching the core of antimatter, the pull growing stronger as I grew closer, before as I stood directly before the core, I slowly reached my hand forward, until the tip of my pendant touched the core, which suddenly disappeared, far faster than I could ever perceive, as if it was there one moment and gone the next, the only evidence of its existence being the sharp crack and shockwave of imploding air filling the empty void it had left behind.

And so I stared at the pendent, still floating in the air, as soft golden lines ran along its surface, growing in luminosity as time went on, before it suddenly spun around to point towards my face, as I stared at it in confusion, as it slowly turned in place, the chain once binding it disintegrating into a cloud of metallic particles that floated around it, but yet I still didn't move my hand.

Suddenly, it turned again, and faster than I could react, buried itself into my right palm, a terrible, unnatural pain, far worse than I had ever felt in my life wracking my body as I fell to the floor clenching my wrist in my left hand, before just as fast as it had came, it was gone, and I suddenly found myself in a lush forest, naked as the day I was born, and very, very confused.