9 Mecha
A small robot entered the medbay with two sets of clothes for them, to their surprise it fit perfectly with their size.
"What did you do to us? How can we breathe without air? What with this horn?" Ed asked the AI in a realization that he didn't actually need to breathe.
"To qualify as captain of Alpha-Charlie and take part in emergency plan omega, Gene modification is required," The AI replied.
"What gene modification? We did not sign up for this!" He protested.
"Yeah, I don't want to be an alien! Turn us back please," Aya begged, but it was futile.
"I'm sorry but the modification is not reversible. Moreover, Daemo DNA is already part of you since the beginning, your compatibility with our gene serum was superb, we have succeeded in changing your DNA into a pureblood Daemo, as for your boyfriend over here, unfortunately, he can only be a half-blood Daemo." It explained.
"Eh? Boyfriend? Ehehehe," Aya fidgeted in embarrassment as Ed was called her boyfriend.
Ignoring her reaction, he asked his own question, "What is this pure blood Daemo and half-blood Daemo?"
"Pureblood Daemos are Daemos who had close blood relation to the main bloodline, they typically stronger and live longer than half-blood Daemo, a pureblood Daemo could live up to five hundred galactic years while half-blood Daemo could live half of that, that's why they are called half-blood." The AI's woman voice explained.
"That long?" he was shocked as a galactic year is six hundred days on earth, which means pure blood Daemo could live for a thousand years.
"Even in this era, normal humans could only extend their life up to a hundred galactic years, Daemo is basically almost immortal compared to humans," he thought.
"If Daemo could live that long and have this kind of technology, then how did they lose the war?" Ed questioned the AI.
"I'm sorry, I'm unable to answer this. My database contains no information on the conclusion of the Galactic war between humans and Daemo," The AI could not answer his question.
"What about the emergency plan omega? What is it about? I believe you can tell us now since we can't return to human space," he asked the AI in distaste, Ed still held a grudge for what it had done to him.
It did not actually change his condition since a pirate was not welcome in human space; they were grouped together with aliens as parasites that needed to be terminated, but he still didn't like the AI for going against his consent.
"Let's move to the cockpit room so I can show you something," The woman voice said as the medbay hatch opened once more and an arrow pointed them toward their destination.
"Alright," he replied as he followed the arrow.
This time Aya took his hand and held it in her hand. He looked at her in confusion but she only shook her head at him.
"Is this why people's back home always say girls are the hardest creature to be understood?" he wondered as they continued forward.
As they went, they met with the melting hole that pierces through the ship. This time they could see the source of the destruction. Through the hole they saw giant robots scattered through the room.
The hole was connected to the ship's hangar where they keep the robots or more accurately mecha.
"Is that Mecha? It seems they were fighting among themselves, which resulted in this destruction," he analyzed.
From his memory, he knew that people in this world developed mechas and starships to fight in a war, Mecha was favored for their mobility and utility.
Mecha could be deployed with a single pilot while starships require a dozen or even a thousand crew depending on the size of the starship.
If not for the difficulty of raising a mecha pilot, then the starships might not have any place in galactic war.
"What happened here?" Aya asked the AI as they continued their way toward the cockpit room.
"According to the log, Alpha-Charlie was on a mission to deliver new mecha type called Holocaust, it was a vital technology to turn the table on our war effort, but unfortunately, there was a traitor among the crew, they used the Holocaust prototype to and caused havoc in the middle of FTL jump." It explained.
"The ship's hull was breached in the middle of FTL jump that killed everyone in the ship and caused a lot of malfunction," the female voice added.
"Holocaust? What is that?" he asked in confusion.
"Holocaust is top secret technology developed by Daemo, to know more about it you need to sign the needed document for emergency plan omega." It replied as they reached their destination.
A giant hatch opened revealing an empty cockpit room. It was thrice as big as their passenger ship's cockpit room and could be crewed by a dozen people.
"Welcome to the main control room of Alpha-Charlie," a robotic voice welcomed them.
"This ship seems to have a lot of AIs," he thought.
"Altea, can you explain about the emergency plan now?" he asked the female AI.
"To gain permission for any secret information, either one of you needs to sign the document and become the official captain of Alpha-Charlie, It will give you half of the ownership of this ship and the right to know any restricted information, only when you finish the mission win you gain the full ownership of Alpha-Charlie." The AI explained.
A holographic file appeared in front of them, Ed did not hesitate and sign them, "As if we have any other choice," he grumbled as he could only follow what the AI wanted.
"Welcome Captain Edward of Alpha-Charlie, you may now access restricted information in the database," the AI congratulated him.
"I'm starting to hate all this AI. First is the system, now this Altea," he lamented.
"Altea, tell me the detail of project Holocaust," he commanded.
"Project Holocaust is a secret research project regarding mecha, they develop three applications of metaphysic on mecha, the first one allows mecha to generate energy shield by tapping from the sixth dimension." It started.
"The second one is an auto repair module by reversal cause and effect, given enough time, the mecha would be back to a prime condition as long as it was not completely destroyed."
"The third research was not completed yet, it's a teleportation technology based on wormhole phenomena."
"Alpha-Charlie was carrying both prototypes of the first and second holocaust project when the accident happened, Holocaust A-1 is currently missing while Holocaust C-2 in perfect condition thanks to the metaphysic engine" Altea reported.
Ed got a premonition as his memory seems to have something similar to the holocaust project. He looked at Aya to confirm his thought.
She nodded at him, "The first project's prototype most probably fall to the hand of humans since energy shield was a common practice in some high-end mecha in our current era, If I'm not wrong, one of the reasons humanity won the galactic war was because of this technology," she confirmed his thought.
"There is 80% chance that unit Holocaust A-1 could survive even if it escaped Alpha-Charlie during FTL jump, according to the information given, the chance of it falling to the hand of the human race is 89.9%," Altea responded.
He could only sigh at what happened in the past, "this is the nature of war, no one knows the result until it ends," he lamented.
"How about emergency plan omega?" he asked the AI.
"Emergency plan omega is the worst-case countermeasure planned by the Daemo high council," It started.
"If the emergency plan started that means Daemo had lost the war and on the brink of extinction, Emergency plan omega is designed to retake the Daemo home planet Hel III in Hel star system and save the Daemo from extinction."
"Your mission is to take back the Hel Star System and recolonized the planet as Daemo's home planet once more," The AI explained.
Both Ed and Aya were alarmed by the information, "Isn't the Hel system is a military base controlled by The Terra Legion?!" they wondered.
"Can we decline? The Hel system is currently under one of the founding members of Galactic Alliance, not even a thousand starship, and mecha could conquer the star system. There is no way we could retake the star system!" she tried to reason with the alien AI.
On the other hand, Ed was having a secret conversation with the system, "System, is it possible to retake the Hel star system?" he asked.
'Answering to the host, It's possible to do anything with the pirate harem system, please get to a higher rank to make this possible... Beep...' it replied.
"It took me ten years to build the best international company, now with all this technology and system in my hand, why don't I conquer the galaxy?" he thought.
Ed was an ambitious person, he would always aim to be the best at everything and would not shy away from any challenge as long it is possible to be finished.
