Imperial Legacy

The war destroyed everything. From cities to entire countries. And all because of the simple, small mistake of pressing a red button.

It was that red button that commenced a nuclear war, and then the apocalypse began right afterwards, in the form of a nuclear winter. Humans almost went entirely extinct, since the environment at the time was so incredibly harsh and scarce.

But then, the first [[High Prodigy]] came to be. Humans with the brain capacity and capabilities to become perhaps even nigh-omniscient.

Esra Skar, who was also the first Mutant, could be identified as one due to the marking on his head which could only be described as a tattoo resembling abstract thoughts.

And then, Mutants soon slowly began to surface everywhere across the world, even during the harsh nuclear winter, and this was the start of a new era for humanity. As the intelligence of these Mutants began to rapidly increase, and they could now fully endure the nuclear winter, so with the leftover technology of the past, soon, the first Mechas came to be.

Then, technology began to advance further, and these Mechas could even be controlled by the mind, through a piece of technology called the [[Centralised Cybernetic Chip]] that was inserted into the brain, developed by Esra Skar and a few other High Prodigies.

It was at that moment that Esra Skar declared himself as the Emperor of Humanity, and things started to change to an unnatural degree.

Under his decree, the [[Society of Knowledge]] was created, and soon after that came many inventions, such as the coming of Cyborgs, which made all Mutants surpass all previous limits they had, and functional spaceships that could carry humans for hundreds of years through space.

And now, after hundreds of years of developing such great technological advances, fleets of spaceships carrying Mechas and Cyber Mutants, who called themselves the new humans, began to drift through outer space, each one the size of a building back on Earth. They were looking for a planet with plentiful resources, enough to develop the human race to the point where they could become the supreme race amongst the stars.

And they found it, soon enough, in the form of [[New Earth]]. Also coinciding with that finding came the discovery of the numerous species native to space.

<>

"Eurgh… urgh… what the… what the hell?…"

"What is this…? And why… why can't I remember… anything?" Someone with short raven hair and silver eyes said, panicking almost the instant he awoke.

He found himself in a cybernetic enhancement tube in the side of a large room. A laboratory.

Every spaceship had a laboratory of sorts, which was meant for repairing and restoring mechanical forms. The Laboratory Hall of Cybernetics. But, for some reason, his body was incomplete.

Wires were hanging out of his body, and a silver fluid, known as cirrenite, leaked out of such wires continuously, though it didn't pose a threat to him, as cirrenite only acted as blood, but didn't retain its actual functions.

"Eurgh… I can feel the liquid leaking from my body, I need to…"

He attempted to sit up from the cybernetic enhancement tube he laid inside of, but then as if it had now only just registered him inside, one of the mechanical arms inside the cybernetic enhancement tube clamped down on him and spewed the words:

[Injured cyborg model - [[XRKM-1000 - Higher Tier]] - detected. Registering the name of the injured cyborg model from the spaceship's database…]

"What the hell?!" He exclaimed, but as he tried to squirm, the mechanical arm only clamped down harder.

[…]

[…]

[…Name registered. Nathan Kean. 24 years, 5 months, 21 days since first consciousness. Upgraded 1 time before. Royal Knight Model…]

"…What…? That's… that's my name? Nathan? And, Royal Knight Model??"

[High tier model detected, currently waiting to be upgraded. Upgrade needed. Seeking permission to upgrade to the Mecha Knight Model. Permission granted?]

Nathan paused his squirming and thought.

He didn't exactly know what this machine was going on about, but some of the words it spewed were familiar to him. He felt that he needed to say yes, or else things would go bad for him.

"…Granted."

At that moment, the tube closed shut, and something bright sparked, hitting the lavender marking in the middle of his forehead before he faded into unconsciousness.

…

"…"

"…"

"Nathan, my love."

"What do you think of this empire?"

"Is it glorious? Beautiful, or is it just nothing to you?"

"…There may be an inevitability that is the end of this empire, and the end of all humans across the vast galaxies, but, as long as the strong, like you, are here to protect our civilization, what would we need to fear?"

…

"…"

"…"

"…I see," Nathan muttered as he awoke once more. He couldn't see anything in the small dream that he had, but just now, he had recalled a small bit of his most important memories, and a few other things also.

"No wonder the machine called me a high-tier model. I was a knight… but I can't seem to remember who, or what, I guarded. Or who that voice belonged to. But, aside from that…"

Nathan had now upgraded to the Mecha Knight Model, a superior cyborg battle model, and one most suited for wars and battles. For these models, suited for battle, how well they would perform would depend on the tier.

The low-tier battle models included: the Warrior Model, the Knight Model, the Space Sailor Model, and a few more.

The mid-tier models included: the Greater Warrior Model, the Flying Knight Model, the Blaster Knight Model, the Bruiser Knight Model, and a few more.

The high-tier models included: the Royal Knight Model, the Mecha Knight Model, and a lot more, with even greater-tier cyborg models on the way in the future.

Nathan gazed at his mechanical hand, forged from a formidable black metal called Cipherrium, and glanced around his whole body. As a cyborg, only 1% of his body was organic matter, and the original, fleshy humans were now a thing of the distant past.

The Mecha Knight Model he had now upgraded into was massive, standing at seven feet tall, and also exceptionally muscular and heavy, with all of the advanced mechanical components his body was equipped with, some parts hidden with artificial skin. It was extremely thrilling to see with his own eyes.

But, truth be told, most cyborg models excelled in one thing, and although the lower-tier models excelled in their specialised fields less than the higher-tiers, the Mecha Knight Model still only truly excelled in wars and large battles. Things like one-on-one fights, even though he could still be remarkably strong in them too, were not exactly his thing.

"…Wait… but, according to my recent understanding, only a Commander Grade Spaceship should be able to transform me into a Mecha Knight Model, so, does that mean I'm currently in one of those city-sized ships right now?"

"…If so, that'll be tough to direct. I'll have to abandon ship soon enough if there's nobody else here."

He felt the laboratory's floor tremble and outside the doors of the facility, repeated banging was heard.

"…From the smell, that must be…"

[Xenobeast: Beta-1 detected. Deploying defensive measures…]

Following the automated voice, a gas infiltrated the facility, one that posed a threat to Xenobeasts like Beta-1, beings that were like abnormalities in nature, ones which were once also creatures from Earth that had mutated so severely that they could now breathe in space freely, and even utilise a form of interdimensional travel.

"This won't be enough," Nathan said, before opening his left arm's compartment and lifting out a mechanical blade's hilt.

This transformed into a plasma blade.

"A Beta-1 shouldn't be able to match me, but I should still be careful, just in case."

Finally, the laboratory's doors came loose, and a beast that moved around with about fifteen of those slimy green tentacles and had the head of a crocodile with a ram's horns appeared. Most Beta-1's had a similar look to this, and they were mostly feral.

"Come at me, you slimy fuck!" Nathan said provocatively.

The Beta-1, in response, shrieked and leapt at Nathan. He knew that the plasma blade wouldn't be able to cut through the head of the Beta-1, as its skull was made of the same impenetrable material as the exoskeleton of a Xenobeast: Prime, Esper Bone.

So instead, he cut through its tentacles while avoiding the attack.

"Shit…! I should've killed it with that attack! My memory loss is messing with my senses!"

The Beta-1 screeched and swiftly charged again, but was stopped in its tracks with a sudden punch, and a follow-up attack, the plasma sword piercing through it and stabbing through the heart itself.

The Beta-1 jerked and squirmed for a good minute but then stopped entirely.

"…I need to regain my battle sense again." Nathan whispered, "Damnit."