Chapter 1

The shower was as cold as expected while Riz looked at the bottom where a mesh took the water into the recycler. From there it would be put through countless processes and would be reused by him.

He understood every process related to it and could build one if he wanted to. In Fact he had already made a blueprint of one as a personal project. It was indeed better than the recent one but it only added more to the capacity of an already underused equipment.

So there was no point in replacing it but he made it anyway because he loved making things. Innovating on already existing technology was his passion but there was no one to share it with.

Because he was the last human alive on a massive hunk of metal floating in space known as the final frontier.

[BEEP]

The door to the bath opened.

"So what is your plan for today?" asked mother.

mother was an AI made to take care of children but as Riz was the only passenger on board so her sole focus had been him.

"You know it's your 18th birthday, don't you? you must have something you want for a present?"

"And who would give it to me? not like I have anyone."

Mother frowned at this and said, "Oh come on, don't be a party pooper, you do have me, your loving mother."

As he got out, one of the standard outfits was put on him automatically from the predetermined choices of color and just to break the monotony each week the colors would be randomised.

"Just get me whatever you want it doesn't matter."

Riz then went on to sit at his desk working on his next build project. His desk didn't even face the window side of the room from where one could see the wide space and countless stars in the distance. But after one point the fascination of watching a constant night sky becomes the least interesting thing and more like a distraction.

Mother looked at Riz with a sigh. Like every mother she wanted her kid to go out and do something, make friends of his age, fall in love maybe and not just sit on his desk building things and playing games. She would content herself in the fact that at least he was passionate about something.

_____

Riz was sleeping on his bed with a metallic cube in his hand. It was the gift mother gave her but he hadn't figured out what it was. probably documentary about earth.

Mother would regularly give her these documentaries about famous personalities of earth that changed the way humans lived by their inventions. Riz enjoyed them in this own time as they were the only few bits of information he could get about earth and humans.

His living quarters were quite big and there were countless facilities in his area including playgrounds for some of the games but there was no fun in playing them alone. You could play them with AI controlled robots but that was not so enjoyable as he figured out.

Riz had no Idea how big the ship was, he had never been able to go outside his designated area because of security protocols. He wasn't registered on the ship userbase and somehow there was no workaround he could find for the time being.

But he had been able to get access to some information and he was all but sure the ship had no life signs meaning he was alone for sure and the prospect of exploring more empty space was not something he was excited about so progress on that front was bare minimum. For him his confined area was his world.

He did have access to games and he played them a lot, especially online RPG games even though it was just him and the NPC characters in the whole game.

That day he had worked on his very long term project, the disassembler. He had made countless iterations of this project but none of them worked as intended and today was the same. He was frustrated and tired so his eyes were heavy.

[KLANG]

The metal box in his hand fell as he lost all motor control and went to sleep.

[BEEP BEEP BEEP]

The box started making noises.

It then transformed into a spider like creature and got on top of Riz. its red glowing eye started poking around.

This disturbance broke Riz's sleep. He felt something fairly heavy on his chest.

'Subject detected analysing'

As soon as Riz heard that and opened his eyes he by reflex tried to get up but with a jerk the spider's legs spread out and held him in position.

'please cooperate until preliminaries are confirmed'

Riz didn't know what to do. In all his time on the ship he had never felt unsafe. Everything around him was built to serve his needs and could not harm him in any way. For a second he even refused to believe that this was not a dream.

He started breathing deeply as the spider scanned his face. Any normal person in a normal situation would have shouted for help but the situation Riz was in was unlike any.

'Scan complete, user database updated.'

[BAM]

The spider stuck himself over Riz's face as he tried his futile struggle until it all went black.

_____

"Huuu....hu hu hu" Riz started to gasp for air as he woke up with bright light blinding him and a sharp tinnitus rendering him deaf.

As his vision cleared he saw a blue sky and a big unusual ball of light which he could only describe as the sun from his knowledge of earth. He wanted to keep staring at it's warmth but his eyes had very minimal adaptation power for something like that.

His hands were in something wet and as he looked down he was in a puddle, covered in dirt. He was wearing some kind of drab clothes which he had never seen in his life.

As the tinnitus started fading off he could hear loud noises and shouting. He looked around and there were bodies all around him. He may have not seen any human but he knew when he saw a dead one.

Chariots were passing by with armour clad warriors on them shooting shiny arrows from their bows as infantry followed behind. It was an overpowering feeling to be surrounded by so many people and have no roof on the top.

"Where the heck am I ?"

As soon as he completed his sentence he heard another deafening blast from back and a gust of wind so harsh his sitting body was thrown back on the ground.

He got himself up again slowly as his hearing returned slowly.

There was a giant firing rays of light from his mouth. powerful enough to annihilate all the soldiers and chariots bellow him with ease.

The giant charged up one more of his beams and this time Riz knew what was coming. He held his ears, closed his eyes and ducked down as another shock wave threw a new batch of bodies towards him.

I need to get out of here. Riz started running in the opposite direction of the soldiers. His mental status was unsteady as he was trying to contemplate the situation he was in. One moment he was in his bed choked by a spider and the next he was in some kind of battlefield. He felt like he had seen enough terror to last him his lifetime.

Even as he kept running back the soldiers kept running forward. Don't they see what is happening ahead, they are only inviting death by charging that monster like this.

As the massacre behind him continued to move forward Riz tried his hardest to get as far away from the place as possible. Suddenly the soldiers that were crashing with him started making a way for him as if Moses had split the red sea. He could hear the commotion among them as they got out of his way.

"She is coming."

"Make way for her..."

"She is our final hope."

Riz's speed was slowed and it came to a halt as he saw a Woman wearing a blue long dress and silky long hair covering her right eye.

"Get me a chariot." Said the woman in a mature voice which was the only indication of her age not being as young as her looks.

"Your highness the last rider ran away and all other chariots have been taken by the Kshtrias." Said a warrior kneeling down, who clearly looked like he had a higher rank than all the other common folk around him and from the dialogue it seems like she was some kind of royalty, quite possibly the queen.

Just then the Queen's eyes fell upon Riz. "That man will do."

All the focus suddenly went on him. He was a nobody but now the queen was pointing at him. Some eyes even looking at him was disdain as he was clearly deserting the battlefield. Attention was not something Riz had experience with.

"What?...me?"

"Are you refusing to ride? Do you know the penalty of desertion? it's death, consider this my mercy." said the queen with her unwavering authority.

Riz was cursing his luck at this moment. He wanted to run away and live but refusing her meant forfeiting your life by choice. There was only one option he had in front of him.

"But...but I don't even know how to ride a chariot."

"Then I guess there is no better place to learn than a battlefield."

The queen passed him by, going towards the chariot with grace. Riz took a look at the giant again "So that will be the death of me."

_____

He had no idea what to do but from his basic knowledge from games he knew he had to whip the horses to get them moving and so he did the same and the horses were moving on their own.

He would whip from time to time with a set frequency, 4.2 seconds to be exact. He had noticed that if he whipped even a millisecond later or before the horses would lose speed.

These calculations were only a distraction for him though as the giant in the room had still not been addressed.

"Damn those bastards! they sent a Titan class this time, it seems at least of rating 5"

Riz heard the queen scowl in the background and started noting the info down mentally.

'it seems like there are multiple classes and ratings that define power levels' thought Riz. Somehow the presence of the queen was helping him think more clearly, was it the feeling of safety or acceptance of inevitable doom, he had no idea about that.

The giant was approaching slowly and seeing the queen's chariot the others were retreating.

"I had this handled, You shouldn't have come here mother." Said a large man with golden armor. To Riz it seemed like his muscles were armored enough to protect him.

"I can't keep watching as my people die, get everyone out of here Mikael." Mikael scoffed and moved his chariot away shouting to retreat.

"He seems upset."

"Don't get him wrong, he just wants to prove his metal but now is not the time for it. besides you should focus more on what's ahead of us...Mister?"

"It's Riz."

"That's quite an unusual name."

"From where I come, it's the most famous name."

The queen chuckled and said, "I see, tell me more about your homeland when this is over."

"That is if we make it out alive."

"Have some trust in your queen now, will you?"

"You think you can take on that behemoth on your own?"

"looks like you haven't been here long enough to know but soon you will see for yourself."

Soon just as the queen ordered the battlefield was getting empty and the giant had noticed their chariot.

"Brace yourself, It's gonna be rough from here on out."

'It has been rough for a long time.' thought Riz to himself but he would not dare to speak it in front of the queen. He would not wanna add more to the trouble he was already in.

[Boom]

The chariot shook like hell and the horses stopped from the shockwave. It wasn't the giant that caused it, Riz was looking at him the whole time.

When he turned back he saw the chariot was in shambles and the queen was nowhere to be seen. where could she be gone?

[BOOM]

This time the shockwave came from the Giant's side. It had fallen down.

[RAWRRRR]

There was a blue dragon on top of the giant. It was the queen, even in dragon form one could see her elegance.

The Giant tried to charge it's beam but the Queen quickly opened her mouth and released her scorching blue flames into the Giant's belly.

Riz could feel the heat even from a considerable distance as he saw the giant's body slowly getting red and developing burning holes.

No wonder she was not afraid, she had no reason to be. This was pure dominance, the giant never stood a chance.

The dragon leapt towards Riz who was pulled back by her sheer size. In an Instant like a cloth folding on it's own the dragon went back to becoming the queen.

"So, did you see?" asked the queen with a smirk.

"It was hard to miss."

Riz then looked at the giant's body in astonishment and confusion, "Is that normal?"

The queen looked back and her eyes were wide open from the shock. The giant's body was glowing and it was only getting brighter.

[BOOM]

Darkness was something Riz was used to in his safe place, it was something that made him feel safe. He always read about people being afraid of the dark but he never understood their point of view, to him the concept of someone coming to him from his back was foreign. Every now and then he would feel some sounds and sense his body moving but the veil on his vision never lifted itself.

Slowly though his vision resolved. his back was supported by a log of wood. most likely from a broken chariot. He wasn't sure because of it's detrimental state which was surely better than everything around him.

He heard the shriek of a horse coming from the dust filled mist. He tried lifting himself up but everything in his body was so painful that he just decided to drag himself.

The horse was also laying down and on its last legs. there was no hope in saving the beast. his back seemed broken out of proportion so even life would be a pain with his paralyzed body. maybe he was just asking for death thought Riz.

He got a sword lying nearby with his best efforts, "I am sorry."

[KHUSH]

the misery of the poor horse had ended but what about his own. what exactly happened back then?

"Is someone... there?" I was a familiar voice but it seemed in a lot of pain. Riz dragged himself towards the voice as fast as he could trying his best to get every bit of performance from his limbs.

The queen lay there half crushed under a rock in her human form but her checks seemed like they had dragon scales on them.

"So you made it."

"Yeah, thanks to you."

The Queen looked down on herself and said, "I guess you won't be able to tell me about your homeland."

Riz had never had this feeling before. All his life he had been alone. His social knowledge was limited to games and novels. To him his mother was everything, this was different. He didn't know what to say in such a situation, he knew no words that could describe his feelings.

The ground started shaking again and in the dusty clouds he could see a shadow. It was a giant shadow, bigger than the giant before and even with no single feature of the being visible it seemed far more fierce.

"Seems like this is the end for us, I am sorry to have dragged you into this." Said the queen as she was losing all her grace and authority from before. At the helm of death it seems everyone is equal.

Riz lost all his composure and just sat loosely, "It sure can't get worse from this point on.". He knew he couldn't run away in his state and facing the beast that left the Queen in such a position was just out of question, "You never told me your name." Said Riz as he realised he just knew the person as queen, even though pointless it was his first and last social interaction.

"Will you hold my hand? I don't want to die alone."

To Riz it seemed like the Queen was losing it. Holding a woman's hand even if she was much older than him was still a little awkward for Riz but he managed to fulfill her last wish nonetheless.

"My name is Fiona, the cursed dragon queen of Ardria." Said queen closing her eyes from the bloodloss.

It is said that one's life flashes before their eyes when they are about to die, it was a reaction to the mind figuring out ways to survive. Same was happening with Riz but there was nothing he could think of that would work in the current situation. A stray thought came to his mind that he would never be able to finish his disassembler

(Class absorption requirements met)

(Stats alternation complete)

The message seemed to pop up in his vision. He even closed his eyes to confirm but it seemed to be something that he could even see with his eyes closed.

What was the meaning of this? He could feel something was different with him but there was no explaining a gut feeling.

(Disassmebler construct ready)

Like the space unfolding itself his latest untested plan of dissembler came into existence in front of him. The systems started powering up. Riz felt like his soul was being drained out to use this.

[Doom]

The disassembler fired a flashing beam for about a few Milliseconds clearing out the dust in the atmosphere revealing the menacing giant that had supposedly defeated the queen.

The giant had stopped his slow progress and come to a still. Starting from his hands the monster started disintegrating into dust. As it's legs disappeared it fell and his whole carcass just blew away like into ashes replacing the clearing in dust created by the dissembler.

Riz felt dizzy as every drop of energy inside him was sucked away and he fell into a deep dark slumber.

_____

Riz woke up the cube in his hand. He checked his body for injuries but there seemed to be none, yet there was some kind of phantom pain left behind from his experience.

He was back on the final frontier and it was morning time already. There was no sunlight to confirm this but the clocks confirmed this. It seems like he already was missing the sun.

He remembered the spider choking him and dropped the cube in an instant. Riz had some gloves and other equipment he needed to handle some hazardous materials which he used to put the cube on the table.

"Do a full scan."

The base of the part of the table where the cube was started glowing as it identified the cube and started scanning it. The computer was showing the progress of the scan when all of a sudden the power was cut off momentarily.

When it came back on the scan progress continued. Mother's hologram appeared just after the power restoration.

"Ma, what is this cube...it.."

Mother seemed to be in a rush, "We don't have time for this, they are coming for you."

"Who are they?"

"The other AI's"

"There are other AI's ?"

"Just take the cube, I have your bag packed. The supplies should last you for sometime until you find a safe place."

A robot came off the wall and mother's hologram overlapped with it making it practically indistinguishable. She took the cube, put it in Riz's hand and pushed him out of the room. There was a bag in the corner of the exit door that he had never seen being open. Riz had the most convenient room in the giant empty facility which was also closest to the exit but the thought of exiting never intrigued him enough.

Mother took him to the exit and put the bag on his back like she was getting her child ready for school. She held Riz's face. She looked just like a worried mom setting her baby out of her care and into the cruel world.

"Take care of yourself."

Another robot came to the exit, "I have the ship ready."

Mother nodded at him and hugged Riz like it was her last time. Riz was still confused with the amount of things that had been happening in quick succession to him. It wasn't like stepping out of the comfort zone but he was blown out of it and his comfort zone was sucked into a blackhole. "Where are we going Ma?"

"You will be taken to a different section, it should be safer there."

"But you are coming with me, right?...right?" Riz's eyes started becoming moist.

"You will understand everything in due time, you just need to survive. Keep on living… my son"

Mother pushed him out and the door closed.

Riz banged on the door "Open the door Ma. It's an override order." In all his life he had never used override command on his Ma because the occasion never came but today when he needed it the damn command won't work.

"Kid, we don't have much time. I am not gonna put myself in danger for you. If you don't come now, I will leave without hesitation."

The robot unlike Mother had no hologram overlapping it. It seemed like a way to protect it's identity. Riz seemed to have no other options left at this moment.

Riz followed him down the corridor and at the end of the light there was a massive empty space. Calling it empty would be wrong, there were many other unknown places at the bottom and at the top. The area was built in order to have a controllable air traffic but that meant nothing at this point.

Riz was at the middle platform of the building and even from there the roof seemed like it was higher than any skyscraper he had read about or seen in earth movies. On the platform was a ship that seemed modern in every way. Riz's knowledge of components was on spot and he could see that these models used engines that were an obvious upgrade from the plans he got to see in his system encyclopaedia.

"Are those a variant of M24 engines?"

"Yes a slightly upgraded one, not the state of the art but it does the job."

That meant there were better versions out there and it was no surprise, even Riz could come up with a 100 things to change in that engine to make it's magnetic propulsion more efficient and powerful. But his mind was still not in a good place, that is why he thought of only 100 changes at most. He didn't know what was waiting for him out there or even what his goal was but he knew for a fact that the worst was yet to come.

_____

As they left the facility behind, Riz's eyes were still stuck at that door. His old room and his projects. The food and the freedom to do just about anything. He missed that once boring place.

[Boom]

The facility blew up. Riz got up from his seat staring through the windows in shock.

"Looks like they got there faster than anticipated."

"Who are these AI's ?"

The robot made a sigh sound even though it had no nostrils or mouth to put out that air. " I guess she kept you really tight. Those AI's are lackeys of the System. They believe in it's prerogative almost religiously."

"The system?"

The robot turned its expressionless face towards Riz, "are you being serious? Do you have any idea about bio wars or even the AI wars?"

Riz's expression said it all. Mother had kept him from every bit of information on the final frontier and the history of human race in space. All he knew was building, upgrading and programming machines.

"I am not in the mood to go into so much detail, you just have to find that out from the terminals if you don't get caught using them that is. Just know that system wants you. It has been trying to find you for a long time and it will do anything to get you."

_____