— February 3, 2553 A.D. day of the great nightfall.
— 8:23 AM Earth time.
— Current location: unknown.
A young man with brown hair and black eyes is standing in front of a series of command consoles, on these are the operators in his charge.
In front of them, a massive window shows a dark, empty, lifeless space as far as the eye can see.
Ten rocky masses were drawn on the horizon, more distant but no less dazzling was the star.
The area in which they are located is a safe one, however, in the far distances asteroids can be seen traveling at high speed.
Naturally he isn't here for nothing; he is conducting an exploration for compatible planets.
Apparently a possible candidate was located here.
However, not the slightest trace of habitability was visible to his expert eye.
｢... Could it have been an error in Arac's equations?」His view ran through some of the many consoles ｢It seems unlikely」.
"Operator B-Zero Three Expand the shi-!" his voice stopped, at the same time a blue light began to glow, on the bracelet covering his right wrist.
He raised his wrist to his abdomen and swiped over it his left hand, a holographic image flashed in front of him.
As he saw the sender, his eyes became tired.
✠ —
From: OGCH
To: ID:60072379
Subject: Invitation to the first demonstration of the new complatium.
Your attendance is demanded at the demonstration of the new generation of space travel engines with space folding technology.
Attendance is mandatory.
Message of D+ importance anyone disseminating it without permission will be penalized.
Coordinates attached and encrypted in message.
— ✠
｢D+... Why would they want the in-betweeners.... It seems that as usual, Kran risks everything to be the center of discord...｣.
He could only lament, immediately dropped his arms and let out a defeated sigh.
It didn't take long for him to speak again, with some bitterness and coldness he raised his right arm, his hand hung disinterestedly "Prepare the complatium engines, we are heading to planet earth. Identification Zero One-A."
Hearing the quick action of the operators, he turned around and reloaded on the railing ｢The sound of the keys can be so stressful」.
Quickly the space outside the ship began to warp, the young man watched this without the slightest hint of emotion
Perhaps the sight is extremely common to his eyes.
The stars blurred to lines of fading lights.
— 12:43 P.M. Earth time.
The lead operator could see that the coordinates were getting close.
He braked the complatium engine and slowed the thrusters.
In front of them was drawn a planet that lost its brightness and lacked life.
Still, parts of it show recovery and seem to be slowly regaining their former brilliance.
Upon seeing the panorama, the lead operator said "Sir we have arrived at planet Zero One-A".
"I can see that" replied the young man with a wry smile, he was reviewing old files on his chair.
He looked up at the approaching planet "Deploy ionized particle shields".
The main operator again checked that the protocols were being carried out correctly, when he checked that everything was going according to the letter, he said "Deploying energy shields".
The young man was aware of what it meant to go to that place.
Still he could not refuse, which he secretly cursed.
Just thinking about the stupidity of the matter made him dizzy.
Then with a bitter tone he said "When we are a hundred meters above sea level, activate the magnetic suspension field and navigate to the base of the ogch."
The lead operator had a little idea of what the event entailed so he shared some of the sentiment, he immediately said "Yes, sir".
— 2:45 PM Earth time.
Rather than a military base, the environment resembled that of a stadium.
The young man understood perfectly that the ogch does not want its own defenses used against it.
During such an important event it is necessary to maintain discretion.
To which he showed a wry grimace, this action is a double-edged sword, like the convocation itself.
In fact the whole thing turned out to be a terrifyingly dangerous gamble.
Shortly thereafter, seeing on his armband that the hour was approaching, he said "Clear the ship and go to your ranks at the entrance."
At that moment everyone complied with the order, in unison they replied "Understood".
The scene was somewhat strange, however, before he could say anything, all the crew members went down to their corresponding ranks, shortly after the young man went down as well.
In formation they marched up to the main entrance of the building.
In front of them, a large entrance was displayed, followed by a grayish corridor.
he paused for a moment, tapped briefly on the left wall.
He closed his eyes, listened carefully to the returned sound.
｢So this is not the real form」.
From the entrance line, a girl recognized the young man, then hurriedly walked towards him; overtaking the entrance controls.
The guard simply smiled and let it happen.
The girl walked over and patted the young man's back "It's been a long time Jack!" she pronounced playfully.
After a pause her expression turned serious, she let go of Jack's back and sighed "Seeing you were called, I can assume that at the very least your crew made it to rank ten, not bad."
Before he could respond, the girl continued "Especially considering you barely made it to legal age."
Jack immediately understood what she means, calmly stepped back half a step and replied "Miss Beatrice you are barely a year older than me, possess a grade fifteen crew. Mine is nothing compared to your achievements, besides the New Dawn ship is an old model, soon I'll have to replace it."
Beatrice smiled and showed a face full of joy "Hahahaha, come on, we both have been friends since we were kids. If that wasn't enough we both have the rank of captain, friend to friend and captain to captain stop calling me miss."
Then she winked "Okay?" was all she said. Jack could see sparkles around her eyes.
Sigh. He sighed and said slowly "If you consider since little... Like, since the age of nine... Then yeah.... Anyway, the presentation is about to start, let's get to our seats."
Poof. Beatrice turned around irritated ｢Unfortunately.... He's right」.
Haah. She let out a long sigh and started walking towards the end of the aisle "Let's go.
...
Each of the New Dawn crew members took their seats in their corresponding places, while Jack sat next to Beatrice and other captains.
About 40 in total ｢.... What a disappointment, really kran has ruined the military power」.
She sighed quietly ｢When was the last time someone exceeded rank fifteen?」.
Beatrice looked confused and asked Jack "What changes do you think the new engine will attain?".
After some thought, Jack showed confusion as well.
It took him some time to answer "The current one is as functional as it can be, I don't think they could have improved it much, on the other hand, I wouldn't have come if it wasn't a call from the ogch, my expectations are at, rock bottom".
Beatrice showed a strange grimace and laughed somewhat confused.
A middle-aged man stepped out from the curtain backstage, he showed an arrogant expression, his green eyes were showing great disdain and accentuate his blond hair.
His black robe hardly matches the white platform, plus his pants and shoes are white.... As if he had reversed the colors.
Then he said "Gentlemen and ladies, as you may know the complatium engines serve from the use of extraordinary amounts of energy to bend space and allow the connection between two separate points of space, being the most common way to connect human colonies, however, the new model is capable of allowing the connection between dimensions which is planned to serve to expand us beyond the horizons of the universe and a relatively short trip between galaxies."
Jack sighed, ｢Are they trying to move things forward?.... No, there's a trap here」.
He moved his seat back a few centimeters, pressed a button and spoke "Sorry for the intrusion but.... We've barely explored half a galaxy... Leaving that aside, we don't know what we can find inside other dimensions."
The man showed an even more arrogant face and without considering what he mentioned about the dangers, said "Science is all about discovery and experimentation, if we didn't explore what we don't know... We would never have arrived here, at this point."
"Added to this..." he paused slightly, turning his gaze to Jack "You know very well what's in other dimensions."
Jack rubbed irritated the base of his nose "You haven't run it through experimentation in controlled environments yet, so it's not safe and even if it were we could open ourselves up to threats beyond us."
The furious man said "And how do you know I haven't experimented!!! Where's the evidence?".
Jack looked at the engine on the stage, it was simple for him to see it as if it was right in front of him, he squinted his eyes analyzing every part.
He pointed to the power input "It possesses no sign of use as is the quantum anomaly, the engine is gleaming despite the harsh conditions it faces in the process, it shows no signs of having been installed anywhere, the inscription indicates that it has not yet been tested. Finally, the message itself states that this will be the first test of the engine."
The man laughed loudly and brushed Jack aside.
Jack gave up, ｢This guy won't appeal to reason, how did such a guy get hired for an official display?」.
｢More importantly why didn't anyone question anything?」. In the end after pondering he calmed down and whispered "I knew it was a bad idea to come...".
The man seeing that Jack stopped bothering him, regained his arrogant expression and said "The time has come to show it."
Three workers brought a table, the engine was on top and they left after a few seconds.
The man with an increasingly arrogant expression, as if he was the center of everything, said "Now turn on the engine and the barrier".
An energy barrier was deployed in front of the engine and it began to generate too great of a gravitational pressure.
Despite the barrier everyone felt the effects of it.
The man with a surprised expression shouted "Now close! We just needed to show it's power".
The control booth at the side of the stage cut the power, however, the engine did not even lose momentum.
The middle-aged man's face changed to one of fear and he shouted louder "Huh? Shut it down immediately!".
The control booth restored power and tried to redirect the process but, to no avail, they got nowhere "We can't, it's still sucking energy, we don't even know where from!".
The motor flashed, blinding those present.
That man who looked horrified suddenly smiled and his body disappeared in the whitish flash.
Jack did not hesitate as he deployed an energy shield, there was little or nothing else he could do.
The shield covered Beatrice and her crew.
At the last moment, the engine spun out of control and there was a roar, followed by a gigantic energy wave that caused the building to collapse.
That wave of energy is colossal, brimming with an amount impossible for all the reserves on the planet.
Few lights shone in the dark part of the planet, the night covered one by one the zones with light... Until swallowing that half of the planet in darkness.
In the part where the sun still hit, the light was no problem, but in every place with human life... The sounds of clashing pieces of metal, explosions and screams spread.
If someone watched from above they would see ships falling, buildings collapsing, a large number of robots failing at the same time. Possibly exploding from the huge overload.
Not to mention the unprotected people.
Countless things stopped in a short time, many people died in a few seconds and so on... an immeasurable amount of events reduced the little civilization on the planet to chaos.
But the worst has not yet begun.