Chapter 1

Engineer Grayson Michaels

It was a cold rainy night on the year 3026, as the rain drops fill the Earth with its wet and sticky breeze. A lot has changed since the Galactic war, it has been almost 10 years now. I am currently on earth helping the rebuilding process, as the message was directed from the Galactic sphere. I was assigned to organize and repair the vessels that were used to probe new clusters. We recently discovered a planet that was almost a replica of earth in the Darak solar system. Which was home to the Konors. They joined the union after the war, in which they thought was unnecessary, but they were the first ones hit by the Absorbents and almost lost their planet to a nuclear like attack. If it wasn't for the union, the planet would have been destroyed and 95% of the Konors would have been whipped out. Since the new earth like planet wasn't inhabited by any species, it was left untouched when the invasion was over. Studies were all directed to that planet because it had a xenon surplus, which was used to replicate a type of fuel that were used to travel clusters. There were disagreements on which species would colonize the planet; Humans, Fores, Graners, Terrians and the Konors. The Humans and the Konors were the more concerned ones. Sometimes I just think why we keep on searching. Humans already colonized the entire southern galaxy, Pandora's solar system, Phoenix solar system and the Local solar system in which earth is located. We also colonized some of the south western solar systems like the Crab and Eagle Nebula named after their shapes. Ever since the first colonization on Mars, we have been obsessed with finding more planets. I stopped building ships for them because I knew we were heading to a path we couldn't return from.

Humanity was never satisfied with what we had; I don't know about other species since I only left earth 3 times. One was before the war; I was needed at the Galactic Sphere to repair a broken vessel that was made based on my design. Damn Basterds stole my design and made a new version for the Galactic Federation. But there were some parts they didn't know well enough to fix. The second one was when the invasion started, I had to go to Aparel, Phoenix solar system, to start building the defense turrets based on the ones built on the probing ships. They wanted it bigger and needed it to have lesser time regenerating. The third one was a few weeks ago. The Graners wanted their ships to have better probing and scanning systems. Their planet was destroyed due to the invasion. The Galactic federation couldn't get there in time so the Absorbents and the Polaws destroyed the home world of the Graners and now they are on their fleet, in search of a new one. The Graners breathed helium and it was very rare to find a high concentration of helium in a planet. Due to their advancement in technology, they had state of the art ships in which all the surviving Graners were living.

So, there I was, on earth, rebuilding the Magna Vessel. It was the most expensive ship designed on the entire galaxy. Its defense mechanisms were made from the Graners, which was one of the best. The Federation copied the blueprint of their design of the gunship and assembled it in the Magna Vessel. It used Uranium to power up and needed careful handling in order for it to be completely operational. So, I and a couple of scientists and engineers were given the task to complete the reconstruction of this vessel. I was the head engineer in the project. "Sir, Grayson" someone calls, I turned around to see who it was. It was one of my accomplice, Peter, he was pointing his hand on the AI operator, "I think it needs to reboot, I tried cutting off the power supply from the ship and manually stabilize it but it keeps shutting down as soon as I start to override the security protocol", I start to walk towards his direction as I keep my head up "why don't you let it self reboot", he turns around towards me "It will take more time, but if I can override the security protocol, it would be easier to reboot by using my operator and get the AI back online in no time" he pauses for a moment "plus I have to install all the original data it lost due to the holes breached in the drive core and you know that is going to take about a day or two". I think it through, reminding myself that we were given 5 days to complete the reconstruction. The damn scientists need us to finish it by 3 days since they want to take it on a "test drive" of their own. "I will find you another power source and you can try it from there, since it was designed to shut down once it is disconnected from its main power source, I think it would be stable once it gets another power source, since it would have a different code than the original one". He smirks feeling relieved it would be done in one day "Thank you, sir". Then I call Adam, my son in law, he approaches me with a steady pace "I need you to get Peter a power source that would be best suit for an AI operator". He nods and walks outside the station to search for a power source.

I get back to my station and start working on the Graner built gun when suddenly I hear a murmur outside the station, I walk towards my window and look outside when I see a group of crowed people surrounding an area. I walk outside and all the scientist and engineers are trying to look at a certain place. Last time I saw this many people trying to see something was when the Absorbents left their DCC tracker on earth. I started walking towards the crowd and passing my colleagues one at a time then a certain voice hits me. I kept thinking "I know this voice somewhere" as I keep walking further in the crowd the voice becomes brighter and brighter. Once I end up in the center of the crowd it was the war hero, the person that saved the galaxy, the killer of Volters. It was "Joseph Samuel". Then I remembered, he was there on Aparel when I was setting up the turrets. He was talking to the Lieutenant and the counselor of the Fores. He came to me and asked me if I needed help. I got up and said no. I was done anyway so I walked away. I sometimes think why people like him gets all the fame, respect and publicity. Without us designing the ships and recalibrating the defense systems, they would be dead in a finger snap. But after the war he earned major respect, after all a human killed not one but five Volters. Immediately after I saw him, I turn back and start walking outside the crowd and then he runs and approaches me. "Sir" he yells out, I didn't look back because I knew a war hero wouldn't be calling me sir then I hear his footsteps approaching me and says, "Sir Grayson". I was startled when I found out he was calling me, then I turn around and start to wonder why a guy like him would approach an old Engineer…