Excerpt of History of the Eras abridged

***2ND ERA***

The end of the era

The Era of war and development. The longest, most prosperous era.

It started with the humans expanding in the universe in the galaxy, developing new technologies and looking for riches.

Since then, it developed into an era of ongoing war, from small skirmishes to full out war that devastated some planets, however those wars where expensive and not very lucrative so some semblance of rules of war were kept, though from time to time, they were intentionally ignored.

The biggest event that caused the end of the era was the Greek Society massacre. Because of greed for their gene therapy technology a group of civilizations banded together to attack them.

The full population was killed with biological weapons, all to take control of their technology and manufacturing plants. Due to the complexity the Greek Society reformed their planets into complete planetary systems with the sole purpose of creating the required materials, synthesize them and create the genetic drugs.

The devastating biological attack was followed with massive amounts of troops and other prohibited weapons killing everyone but leaving the manufacturing centers intact.

While there were no survivors on the attacked planets there were many survivors who survived in other parts of the galaxy. They started to look for justice or revenge, any would do.

This led to the formation of an unknown group of survivors who ended up creating a virus that altered the genetic structure of everyone and it spread across all the galaxy.

On the last day of the era a communiqué reached the media but it wasn’t until later that humanity found some interest in it.

"The Greek Society was destroyed by foreigners due to greed and all others just closed their eyes and ignored the gross violation of human rights and decency forcing us to become foreigners, strangers in strange lands. Today you too shall be destroyed by xenos"

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"Marcus" shouted a strong and healthy voice from the speaker of a mech "How good is to see you, so strong, so intelligent. Could you do me a small favor?" Darius always praised you and then asked for something "Can you reinforce the ankle and knee joints of the right leg a bit more? Since the replacement part it feels a bit soft"

"bit busy Darius" the voice of a young man came from below a wrecked mech.

"Don’t be like that Marcus, is just a small thing, it will only take you a couple minutes tops, it’s just that the ankle feels like I’m limping with that leg"

From below the wreckage a thin young man came dressed in stained blue overalls, he had black hair, a squarish incredibly white face marked with some stains. He stood at his full 1.7 meters tall and grinned "Yeah sure, is just a little adjustment, just removing the armor" he extended a finger and started counting "the covers, adding more electrical muscles for the knee while shifting and adding more support for the new fibers, adding a secondary electrical circuit to the knee and ankle so it can handle the extra consumption for the fibers and extra motor power and then putting the covers and armor back on, you can wait there sitting I will go right now"

"Sarcasm... how original" replied Darius in a deadpan manner.

"You had a broken leg that needed full replacement, to save some money you paid for custom parts that didn’t fit properly and we remade the leg, then it broke while cutting some trees and I machined the needed parts as a favor so you could keep working that piece of junk you call mech and not lose your job. Oh, and you ALSO wrecked a transporter by overloading and then dragging it for 2km last week which you also asked me to fix quickly, Darius, don’t overreact but you should bu… "

"NEVER" replied Darius in a hurry "the mech is still fine and I’m sure I can keep using it for many more years but if you could I would need you to get the ankle fixed" replied Darius with his thickest smile

Marcus rolled his eyes and pointed at the wreck he is still working.

"Well maybe when you have a bit of free time then?" asked Darius with just a tinge of a blush in his face.

"Make a proper request with Val and someone will look at it when they can. I’m off to study, finals week" explained Marcus

"Really? Then the best of lucks Marcus, I will ask Otho then" said Darius while leaving.

Marcus went back below the wreck. He had to cut to more parts and it would be done.

5 minutes later the wreck was ready to be separated but someone else would do it, his shift had ended and the crane was broke. Marcus left the bay towards the locker room but ended meeting Valentina in the hallway.

"Hi Val, Darius came to ask help with his junker and wants someone to mess a bit with his replacement leg" explained Marcus quickly

"He is still using that deathtrap for logging? too bad for him" the harsh and raspy laughter of Valentina echoed in the metal walls. She was a 1.8 meters lithe muscle mountain, had brown skin, sharp brown eyes and a face filled with creases from frowning too much "How is the transporter coming?"

"Dead in the water, most of the structure is broken from too much weight, internal supports are cracked or warped what remains of the external armor is bent out of shape. Already left the generator and the 3 surviving motors ready for extraction along with the notes, since the crane is broken, I just separated and cut all the union points so the parts should remain down when they wreck is lifted with the crane"

"Good work Marcus. You ready for the finals?" Val was always asking; he had worked with her for the last 3 years of high school and 11 years and 11 months of university. She was a bit worried because he was moving too fast but he was smart, she had faith in him.

"When am I not ready Val?" he answered cheekily with a grinning.

Val rolled her eyes "Do you really want me to answer? Anyways, you asked for the next 3 weeks off and you come back the 3rd of August, right?"

"Yes" jokingly said Marcus while going into the locker room.

"Sober right?"

"Of course, mama bear"

"Good luck wiseass" added Val before he left and added for herself ‘best of luck Marcus’ before leaving the corridor.

The locker room of Val’s workshop was always the same, smell of body odor, oil, metal and a certain whiff of death coming from the big lidded white basket in the corner near his door.

He took the outer covers and threw them inside and walked in just his underwear to his locker, wore his normal clothing and left through the other end.

Marcus left the workshop. Val's Workshop, the best place to service mechs in the whole city of Quintus 6 with the slogan "When you only have one choice is the best choice" after the last attack and the death of Valentino, previous owner and father of Valentina, she came back and inherited the place making it the best workshop in the entire city. It was also conveniently placed right next to the main door this way any broken mech could be easily carried to them.

Marcus was thinking about how lazy was the New Roman naming convention. Every conquered planet was named by order Primus, Secundus and so on. And every city would take the number in which the city was built. They lived in the Agrippa system on planet Quintus, city of 6. It used to be an old manufacturing world but after the plague it was still being reclaimed.

Most cities where metal and concrete fortresses. Basically, each city was a small fully enclosed complex with no more than 20.000 people and maybe a few surrounding towns per city, usually with the purpose of exploiting some nearby natural resource or as a forward base for expansion.

‘The Old Roman Empire loved placing names on everything but the new one loves numbers’ mused Marcus internally while thinking about the nearby mining towns of 6-07 and 6-22.

The New Roman civ was what remained of the old Empire. Barely 4 planetary systems with technically 22 inhabited worlds.

12 minutes later Marcus was already in his apartment. He had hurried just to be home faster. He immediately went take a bath, to remove the grime and oil from working, and start to study for tomorrow’s tests ‘I have it in hand but I still feel better if I cram before the test’. Applied Physics 6 and Neural Networking 2 where a nice mix of hard science, guesswork and drudgery. Calculation coefficients of whatever for metal, deformation on impacts and regular work, amount of bandwidth consumed by modules in X or Y case, best practices for designing a system with multiple redundancies while eliminating duplicated reports to improve the efficacy of the network and other WONDERFUL, super fun stuff.

Marcus was very smart, a genius in his own right and had studied a lot but still he felt he needed to keep studying, though at this moment, the dying part was sounding better and better.

Marcus always wanted work with mechs. Both his mothers worked with mechs and he had grown seeing them.

Roxxanne piloting different mechs fighting or protecting while Whilemina, as a mechanic, took them apart fixing and improving it and then put them back together.

Like any child he dreamed of fighting with them like in the shows however that was brutally shattered when his neural connection tests came with very low scores, he had very low bandwidth meaning that he would only to be able to pilot a civilian mech with lots of training and effort and would never be able to really use a combat mech.

With such a bleak prospect as a pilot he looked at Mina and her passion as a mechanic, but he didn’t feel comfortable, he wanted more, so he took another look at his options and found a new goal.

To become a Mech Designer. A successful Designer had fame and fortune; their designs could become symbols that would last for ages like the current praetorian guard.

Sure, it was one of the hardest careers to pursue, the curriculum took at least 20 years for the university degree and not every year the New Roman Academy of Mechs would get a new graduate, fewer still would be able to work in that line and become decent, much less famous.

In the last 768 years only 13 designers would gain any renown outside their civilization. He knew he would need to study for years to reach there, to put a lot of work to do it, but he would do it, he would become a Mech Designer.

Roman education had a standard length for most civilizations. They would finish basic education by 20 and be considered adults only after having the basic degree. Then he would have to study for 16 more years for the university title.

He was undeterred, by the time he was 18 he had graduated from the basic education, and now almost 12 years later he was 2 weeks from finishing his degree. He had only 6 tests more to complete and would be granted the title of Mech Designer… well technically Mech Designer (provisional).

During the following 2 weeks Marcus used all his faculties to keep studying and taking the tests. 2 gruesome weeks of late nights, early mornings, constant coffee and energy pills.

But he did it. By the end of the 2nd week he had his dreamed title. He had become a Mech Designer.

The last test had been on Friday and he didn’t remember going to sleep, he remembered calling his mothers to give them the good news, opening a beer and falling asleep. He woke up on a shuttle with his mothers there.

"Congratulations Mark!!!" said both when they realized he was awake as they smiled broadly and hugged him.

"We are going to the pub we reserved last time for Nikko’s marriage" explained quickly Anne.

Roxxanne Caelum, The Red Ogre. A sweet and lovable woman with some character, 2.2 meters of muscles and augmentations with a blood red short hair, mustard yellow eyes and a perfect round face without any marking that could look incredibly sweet and innocent and then crush a head with her bare hands.

"Yeah, even after all the problems of last time they let us rent the place as long as there is no fire whisky" commented Mina.

Whilemina Caelum, the mechanical master. 1.7 meters a lithe and athletic body, black hair medium hair, sharp brown eyes in a sharp angular face. Few people could sustain her penetrative gaze.

"The Aquilae are already there drinking"

"The full merc squad will be there to celebrate?" asked Marcus surprised "You sure this is a good idea?" he added quickly. Nikko’s marriage almost got them banned from the space station.

"We reserved the complete pub so there will be no problem and they have private rooms to sleep although we are prohibited from leaving the place" said Mina calmly while Anne was grinning.

While making small talk they finally reached the space station.

Quintus Prime, the space city who served as the center for the trade of the whole planet and where most of the alcohol ended that week. It was endless amounts of alcohol, lots of food and medicines to prevent long term liver damage.

The party was great, or at least the parts he remembered, the post party hangover not so much. The Aquilae were a rambunctious group of mercenaries that liked to play and party hard and they kept the best at keeping party going.

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Marcus woke up in his room in Quintus 6 trying to remember how he returned there and trying to remember what had happened at the party. His headache wasn’t helping that much.

~one week earlier in a fancy club in Quintus Prime~

"Congratulations Marcus!!!!!" shouted everyone on the first day.

"12 years of study to become a Mech Designer… Our baby has grown up" said red faced Anne while hugging Mina and Marcus while some tears glistened in her cheeks.

"I stopped being a baby since 26 years ago mom" deadpanned Marcus.

"You will always be our baby boy, both your mother and I will always think of you like that" said Mina with love, her usual inexpressive face replaced with beaming smile and glistening eyes.

"And there you have it, the red orc all teary eyed because of their little man" shouted one of the mercs from the back which replied with a thunderous laughter.

"Fuck you Nikko" answered Marcus with a huge grin "with my full love of course" while giving him a smile and a finger.

"Nikko do you want a rematch?" asked Anne with a smirk, she had dangerous glint in her eyes "I could always give you some pointers" completed while still hugging her family.

Nikko sputtered something as he fell from his chair.

Raucous laughter came from all around, no one would dare to fight Roxxanne while sober and in perfect control of her abilities, much less now with little control of her monstrous strength.

"Still congratulations young man, the Aquilae congratulate you on this achievement and celebrate with you, now DRINK DRINK DRINK DRINK" said Castor, the leader of the group, while rising his bottle.

~flashback end~

After that there were only bits and pieces. Him drinking in a side table with some friends, Anne doing bench presses with Nikko for something stupid he said, Mina with her robotic arms juggling bottles while mixing drinks, the old eagle Aetius without both cybernetic eyes playing darts and landing them perfectly one over the other in the ass of an unlucky merc and by some reason he had a memory of Nikko’s sister Eva with a hair clipper in her hand.

"Best party ever" said softly with happiness. Sure, he had a massive headache, the mother of all hangovers, was a dehydrated, could eat half a rabbit and still had no idea who he came to be at his apartment but it was excellent.

However he still had to go back to work, his data pad telling him it was Monday, so he got back to his feet, into the bathroom, washed his face quickly, popped 2 food cubes into his mouth, downing some hangover medicine with water and left for work only to blinded by the outside light, go back inside, pick up dark glasses and leave again.

"Look at mister 'I Just Graduated and I’m a Certified Genius' coming to work with a massive hangover" shouted Val with a massive grin.

"Not so loud, please Val" replied Marcus with a grimace and holding his head.

"If I recall correctly someone said that he would be here sober"

Marcus could hear her smirk from a mile away while he squirreled towards the locker room looking for quiet and darkness.

"Go get changed quickly and go to the shop, there is tons to do" said Val with her grin getting bigger by the second while Marcus fled into the room.

The locker room was pleasantly empty and quiet, but as soon as he got into the main corridor, he saw Hilaria.

"Congratulations Marcus, as a reward you get to disassemble that lovely new wreck in bay 5" said Hilaria with an inexpressive face

When he entered the bay there was lower half of a mech with a laser sign saying ‘The best just for our new Mech Designer’.

With his blue overalls and black lenses still on, he lowered himself on a creeper and went below the wreck to check the base.

"SURPRISE" "THINK FAST" two shouts came as soon as he was under what looked to be a fluid valve.

"Wha… " Marcus didn't manage to ask anything as a flood of oil fell on him and his open mouth.

All the other workers where hidden nearby and then started the second party.

Tons of things indeed where in the docket, carts full of alcohol were rolled in, others with food and the smiling face of Val coming with a towel in one hand and a bottle in the other "Here you go, clean yourself and let’s start to party"

Marcus smiled again.