Back to the past (1) - The end is merely the beginning

***Boom***

Explosions rocked the area as a battle that spanned several miles raged on. Fires so large they could not be extinguished spread across the land.

Plasma guns went off as war cries echoed everywhere. Accompanied with those cries were the sounds of those drawing their last breath.

"Keep the lines, we can't give up now!!" Several humanoid robots armed to the teeth moved in on the humans. None were captured, all killed without mercy.

"We have to leave now!" There was a tone of underlying urgency. A group of people wearing mechanized suits stood in front of a middle-aged fellow and a young man that stood beside him.

"We are surrounded. Sooner or later, our defenses would be broken. Once that happens, we won't have a chance." Their leader stood out, a woman wielding a Tachyon blade. She had an aura of authority around her, her strength not to be scoffed at.

"We can survive this." The middle-aged fellow said, his body trembling with each explosion that went off. "How?"

"It's a failsafe. I've been working on it for a while. It's not finished but we can try it." The soldiers exchanged looks. "Let's go then. We don't have a choice. If there's a sliver of hope. Then I'll take it."

Seeing as their leader was willing to go with the scientist, they prepared to set out.

The lady led the group of twenty-two as they moved to where the scientist directed. Just then.

"Watch out!" The lady yelled as she sensed something incoming. Alas, she was a tad too late as a projectile suddenly landed in their midst, shattering their tight formation with ease.

"Tsk, tsk… I would never have thought I would see the day you would run from a battlefield with your tail between your legs" The dust cleared to reveal a human docked in full mechanized armor.

"You betrayed us… I should have known you were a snake." She struggled to her feet, her eyes filled with hate towards the one that had attacked.

"I did what I had to, do not blame me for picking the winning side."

She bit her lower lip, her heart hurting as she watched humanity make its last stand against its most powerful enemy.

"Doctor, please take your assistant and leave. If he is here, reinforcement would soon follow. I believe you know what to do." She activated her weapon, ready to engage in battle.

The scientist had a blank expression as he stared at her, he knew that he was partly responsible for what had happened. "If only I was a bit smarter, I would have made a more accurate prediction."

He turned over to find that his assistant was unconscious, his right leg separated from the rest of his body. "I must ensure this works."

At that moment, attacks headed their way. The lady's unit recovered as they activated plasma shields that looked like a blue honeycomb. "Doctor, run away!!... We will cover your path."

"Trying to leave!!" The human that had caused them damage exclaimed as he released his aura. Without warning, the lady attacked.

***Boom***

"You are so impatient. I would have entertained you in a moment if you had just waited." Their battle began in earnest. The scientist used the opportunity to quickly escape, his assistant on his back.

He ran till he reached a spaceship that was still in pretty good condition, though its shields were down. He quickly opened the entrance. At the same time, a bright light shone behind him.

***Pew***

He took a look down to find that his left leg had been shot. Turning over, he found several androids headed his way.

Alarms went off in his brain as he rushed into the spacecraft, not waiting for the stairs to drop. Once in, he hurriedly closed it.

Of course, this only pushed back the inevitable as the ship soon began to receive a barrage of attacks. Its exterior already closing in on a compromise.

The scientist hurried into a chamber and after turning on the system, he said. "Activate Counteroffensive. I need a bit more time." A female voice replied in turn. [Counter-offensive activated.]

At the same time outside, revolving guns appeared on the roof of the spaceship as it began to rain down heavy fire on the androids.

Buying himself just a little more time, he rushed and placed his assistant on the platform in the middle of the chamber. A moment later and the latter opened his eyes.

"Where are we?" The doctor heaved a sigh of relief. "You are awake. We are back on the ship."

His assistant immediately frowned. "What about the others?" The doctor shook his head. "Boy is that the first thing you ask when you wake up?... You just lost a leg."

"All this shouldn't have happened. We would have won." His assistant said, anger and regret present in his words. "No time to dwell on the past. Right now, we can only place our bets on this." The scientist pressed a button at the side of the table with a holographic image showing in front of them.

It looked like a normal portal with a design somewhat similar to a clock with the top and bottom separated and a little space between the left and right portions.

A bunch of words was used to identify most of the components, most unreadable because of their font size.

"What is that?"

"A little project of mine. It was meant to be something that would allow us to travel through space-time if we had won the war. Now it's our only hope."

"Space-time travel?" The scientist nodded. "I am entrusting everything to you now, Nathaniel. You have to be the one to save humanity from this."

"No, I can't. This is too much. I don't have what it takes, you should know that Doc."

"You are the best bet we have at this point. There's no one else around I can entrust with this task since they are all busy fighting. The only way we are going to win the war is by outsmarting the enemy. I know you have been a shut-in for most parts of your life but I believe you have it within you to save mankind. Trust me."

The scientist and his assistant shared an intense look for a moment before the rocking of the ship made them realize that they did not have much time.

"Lay back down." Without waiting for a response, the scientist pushed his assistant back on the platform before activating cuffs that clamped down on the latter, ensuring he did not move.

"Remember everything that has happened here. I am sending you back to the past to undo our mistakes." As he spoke, he crunched in numbers to the system whilst informing the AI aboard the ship to fulfill the other tasks.

Nathaniel felt dizzy as the ship rocked even further. "It's ready." The scientist rushed to his side. "Activate the warp drive." [Activating Drive.]

At that moment, Nathan felt as though his soul was leaving his body as he became weightless. "One more thing to recall… Be mindful of what you do, we were betrayed once, don't let it happen again."

He could have sworn that he saw the good doctor mouth a name to him but due to his dizziness, he could not make it out. After what felt like the ship exploding, Everything went blank.

***

After an unknown amount of time, Nathan opened his eyes to find himself in a familiar environment and laid back in bed. Instead of explosions and gunfire, the sound of a clock ticking floated into his ears.

"It worked…" He sat up and took a look at his condition. Everything was fine, almost as though nothing had happened. "We can start over."

Just as he was about to get out of bed, a male mechanical voice-over sounded in his ears. [Mech System activated… Scanning user.]

"Huh, what was that." He was just about to freak out when a blue screen appeared in front of him. [Scan complete… Welcome, Nathaniel Holt.]

"What is this?" [To access user information, just say inform.]

"Inform…" He didn't mean to say it but as he did so.

[System activated ]

[Species: Human ]

[Age: 16 ]

[Sex: Male ]

[ Level - 1 ]

[Strength: 25/100 ]

[Endurance: 30/100 ]

[ Vitality: 100/100 ]

[ Coordination: 70/100 ]

[ Dexterity: 60/100 ]

[Passive skills: Leonardo's touch Lvl.1, Unshakable will Lvl.1, Team player Lvl.1, Eyes of Laplace Lvl.1, Troubleshooter Lvl.1 ]

[To acquire Active skills and level up, user must complete missions with a significant completion rate.]

[ Daily Mission – Refurbish ten worn-out Exo-suits before the end of the day. Time remaining; 16:00:00 ]

"Is this some sort of anomaly caused by my travel back in time?" Nathan stared at the screen for a few seconds as he scrutinized it. "Its interface is similar to the Exo suit AI window, only with different stats. But what's the point of the mission?... I have to refurbish ten worn-out suits by the end of the day."

[To close interface, Exit is the word.]

"Whatever, I'll think about this later." Nathan closed the interface as he got out of bed.