Excerpt of History of the Eras abridged

***4th ERA***

Pilots and physicality

Since the coming of the System and mana to this universe all matter and life forms were showing changes, all except humans.

If animals and plant could change then humans should also be able to change but it didn’t happen. There are numerous explanations, from conspiracies, to religious nonsense *¹, to multiple logical possibilities.

One possibility said that it had to do with both our intelligence and our wills. This was partially confirmed with the first pilots who broke the physical limits of what was possible.

Some pilots were found to be able to push the limits of the mech beyond what was possible but it wasn’t until they managed to completely bend the laws of physics that people started to believe it.

The first proof of this was of an undisclosed pilot from the Technocracy. They had a mutated plant that started to destroy a space station and while using a fireman mech he managed to sap the heat and freeze the plant while spraying water. The water was at 12 °C according to the recording yet the plant started to lose heat quickly evaporating the water and freezing over. The only scientific explanation possible is that mana had something to do with.

The first recognized pilot to do this was Augustus Silva. Defending from a pirate attack with a lone spaceship he managed to manipulate his mech beyond all established limits. His laser shots changed directions unerringly hitting all enemies while his ship could evade any and all shots.

In later tests it was found that he could manipulate consciously mana to apply this effect in a semi-controlled manner, his shots regardless of type, be it normal ammunition, laser, or plasma would chase it’s target while he could avoid anything that directly targeted him. In his honor the New Roman civilization used his name as the category for those who can manipulate mana consciously. They started to call them august pilots*².

*¹ to this day (3/6/209 4th era) all religions have failed to present credible proof for their belief so as agreed by international consensus it is disregarded due to lack of proof.

*² all other civilizations started to use the term awakened pilots for those who can manipulate mana conciously

After removing Darius from the wrecked mech and sending him to the hospital the 3 visibly relaxed however they still had a few more things to do before they could rest.

"Good job guys, Darius was rescued, there are not standing problems so let’s finish this carefully rest for a while" said Hilaria. "Marcus, do a full check on power, fuel and fluid. Otho you’ll help me slagging what remains of the beast and then do a full decontamination to destroy all biological traces"

Marcus was still energetic but a lot more relaxed, he had lost part of the edge that he had while trying to save Darius. Now with a more clear and less stressed mind he found his previous state incredible. He tried to trigger it and get into that state again but it eluded him.

On the front Otho was dragging a plasma cannon while Hilaria had a hose in her hands.

Hilaria started spraying the chemical compound over the already released parts with bloods and viscera and they started to dissolve it. Now that Darius is out, they could use chemicals without worry.

"Let’s finish this with care and fast, don’t try to save anything just be sure to do everything carefully" reminded Hilaria as she kept dousing the discarded pile.

It was a messy job but since they didn’t have any more security concerns they finished quickly. The big monster parts where separated, placed in a special container filled with a green glop and locked. The parts of the mech were left in the box at the middle bay after a good dousing. Then the box rearmed itself and locked every part that came back inside

"Good work both of you, we had a job, did it well and we have finished. You both know the procedure so assume position and stay still" said quickly Hilaria as she activated the appropriate decontamination measures both in the bay. A pressurized green mist started coming in filling quickly the room. 2 minutes later the mist stopped and the airlock opened. When the trio entered the doors closed and they went for a second decontamination shower and then a secondary mist came congealing the green liquid into thick green glops of the cleaning agent.

"Nice slime suit Otho, it looks wonderful on you" chided Marcus while smiling.

Marcus had little contact with the pieces of wolf so the glop stuck to his suit was minimal, on the other hand Otho was completely covered in blood before and now in a thick green and gooey slime.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want smartass" replied Otho while throwing some glop directly at Marcus.

Hilaria sighed while looking at the ‘Glop War’ going inside the airlock "We have the two most hard working, knowledgeable and precocious children" she moved a bit to dislodge the glops that were on her suit and said in a soft and whiny voice "kidz, KIIIIIIDDZZ" a maniac smile in her face "I’m a bit tired, want to remove the glop, the suit and do my mandate quarantine quickly so if you don’t mind" and pointed at the exit door of airlock.

Both men looked at Hilaria’s face, shuddered and went right next to her. A secondary door closed the space inside the airlock and some grooves appeared in the floor. Pressurized mist of clean water coming from ceiling and floor at a variable angle remove all glop from their suits, then some sonic oscillators popped from the ceiling to finished drying them. The air was finally vacuumed, replaced and they could finally leave.

They quickly went into a side room for quarantine where their clothing had been deposited. They changed into normal clothing throwing the suits into a basket for further cleaning and relaxed.

"You were incredible Marcus" said Otho "Honestly I didn't expect that it would have been easier to remove the back plating faster than to just cut the monster at the front and finding that it was a split model was unbelievable"

"It truly was incredibly Marcus, you have been working much faster and more efficiently lately" coincided Hilaria.

"Maybe because I’ve been happier lately, working in my own Mech design and all puts me in a better mood" replied Marcus, he was noticing that since the mana jolt, he had been working a bit better but he couldn’t just come out and say it.

4 hours passed quickly while talking nonsense, watching a few VD (virtual display) shows and generally rested there. They also received multiple messages with congratulations and offers of drinking after the job due to the whole ordeal.

Otho and Hilaria accepted the drink offer but Marcus declined. He went home to keep working, he had some new ideas to test after today’s debacle.

After Marcus reached his home he felt drained but happy, he took a shower and went back to the living room to keep working at his design.

He wanted to review the capsule position, escape plans and connections only to find a better solution that could work or be adapted to the few remaining schematics. On one hand it was good to find a better solution while on the other he should have thought of them sooner. It would help a pilot to exit in case of any problem or even for an external mech to retrieve the capsule with minimal danger and damage to the structure.

He also remembered his focus and whatever had happened with his sight and kept trying to make it happen again with no luck. He tried to see faulty areas, better solutions and except for an obvious one and the previously made changes for the capsule no genius insight came to light.

The next day after coming to work he found a message from Val, she wanted to speak with him for his assignment.

"Hi Marcus, sorry for the rush but I have to deal with a few problems with the idiot of Romilius Crassus" said Val as soon as he entered her office "I was told that my workshop had to service the broken and non-working buses for the city, you and Marcellinus are the only ones that has experience working with the complex automation and AI integration that those vehicles have and Marcellinus has a few scheduled jobs already so I need you to take care of them. I’ll send Marcellinus as soon as he is free but it won’t be today and the buses have to be running by next Friday"

Great 3 days to work with buses and no chance of taking new mana though Marcus to himself "How many buses Val?" asked cautiously, he could tell she was under a lot of stress.

"7 buses with unknown problems, the local government never even tried to fix them, thankfully there had been no problems with the reduce bus per route but somehow it came out and the general AI is demanding this to Romilius who now needs a solution"

Politics, great… "Sure Val. Which bays?"

"About that Marcus… they are in bays 11 and 12 in the big deposits" for a moment Valentina looked a bit guilty, she knew working on those bays would be far more troublesome than the rest which is why they used it as deposit and not active bay but also were the only ones that could be used for so many buses.

A resigned Marcus just said "OK" and left for the frontal bays. Because of the easier access for wheeled vehicles most trucks would leave their load there so they usually had different amounts of stock to be distributed or for long term storage for parts that were on sale.

As he entered bay 11, he could see the big bay with 4 automatic intelligent buses there next to a generator, 2 custom left legs that were never used and some other parts that had no use.

Servicing automatic vehicles was not direct part of the curriculum for a Mech Designer, the most difficult part was the high degree of automation the buses had but it was also something that he had studied. Due to limited pilot’s bandwidth, many civilian modules had a lot of automation so he should be able to fix them.

Without having probable causes or know errors he had to either check them completely or use the automated feature to do that. He entered all the buses in bay 11, connected them to the local network and left them running a full diagnostic and then do the same for 2 of the remaining 3 buses on bay 12. The final bus refused to turn on the electronics, checking battery levels, connection ports and easily accessible modules brought no clear indication of the problem and he had no space to disarm it where it was.

Another reason to hate bay 11 and 12, they had no big mounted crane, you had to use an automated small one that could barely carry the 12-seater bus and use the old mechanical lift outside of the bays. It was made for a small plane mech so it was more than enough to rise it up in case of need.

Time passed while Marcus tried to diagnose the problem of the last bus, most of the cover for the electronic equipment had been removed when a voice coming from his back surprised him

"What are you doing to my grandmother’s?" asked a firm and fierce voice from the entrance of the bus.

Marcus turned around only to see a young girl no more than 30, dirty blonde hair shoulder length, a round pale face and 2 eyes glowing with a bit of fury in them. "Sorry?" asked Marcus with no idea what was happening.

"What are you doing to Dextra?" asked again the woman "Why are you dismantling her?"

"Dextra?" asked with even more confusion in his voice "Look, my name is Marcus, a technician from Val’s Workshop" said Marcus while pointing at the workshop right next to them and then at the tag in his chest "I was given the buses for repair jobs and this one has some problem in the electronic system so I need to access all modules for testing" explained carefully. He didn’t like being ambushed like that and hated to deal with crazy people. Also, she had climbed into the lift and then in the bus yet he didn’t hear her. He needed to pay more attention.

The girl seemed taken back for a moment "Then you are going to fix Dextra?"

"Who is this ‘Dextra’?"

"The bus, obviously"

"The bus?"

"My name is Dextra Elsa Becker. My grandmother Dextra Anne Becker who was killed protecting this bus over 50 years ago in an animal attack. She saved multiple people by loading them in the bus and protected them with her exo armor, in her honor some parts of the armor were used in the body of the bus and it was named ‘Dextra’ to remember my grandmother" explained with excitement Dextra.

"Sooo what does have to do with me fixing the bus?" asked Marcus in a slow manner with some caution, this girl didn’t seem all that well up there.

"I thought you were going to dismantle her. She had been left on an old deposit rusting since about 5 years ago and the government and their mechanics did nothing. The last time I went to ask why she wasn’t getting fixed I was told she was going to be soon dismantled" Dextra winced while telling the last part "3 months ago she wasn’t in the deposit, no one would tell me why or where she was, now I saw you here, Dextra loaded on a lift and parts laying all around so I thought you were taking her apart"

Now it all made more sense. The bus was old because it was a relic but also it was a cultural shrine to a Vigile or some defender or worked. When little Dextra started to ask questions after the disappearance some governmental AI realized that there were unaccounted tools not in use or repair and sent it to an external shop while an audit was being conducted. Even with so much control there were always people trying to get away with corruption mused internally Marcus.

"We were sent 7 buses for repairs just today miss Becker and I’ll do just that, however because this bus is unresponsive, I had to do all this" Marcus kept a steady tone "Most likely though I would have to replace most of the electronics for an update and to fix whatever is broken"

"REPLACE THEM!!?" exploded Dextra "And why do you say unresponsive, did you activate it properly?"

"Neither remote command, button press or the secondary power switch at the battery worked so yeah unresponsive" deadpanned Marcus.

"Silly, why did you do that?" replied Dextra almost with relief "This is an older model and the covering plates that they placed never fit properly, the button you have there is not connected to anything, the battery thingy and command is only for the newer models" she quickly pointed to a module "Here, look, see the main AI module? That red button on the side is a work around for turning the whole thing on" As she pressed the button the bus went online and started looking for networks to connect.

Marcus realized that he could either keep fighting the nutty woman OR "You seem to know a lot about this bus miss Becker, would you like to help me fix it… HER up?"