An old man sat behind a desk in an office high in the central tower. Smoking on a pipe and gently petting the head of a white mouse that sat on his shoulder. He thought about what he had just witnessed in his scrying orb. The Familiar summing ritual went off without a hitch like it had every year, that is until Miss Vallière's turn. It was the most violent summoning he had ever seen, heard and felt. Miss Vallière's volatile magic was well known throughout the Academy, not a day went by that wasn't rocked by an explosion from a misfired spell. The repair costs alone were insane but looking down at the letter before him was something far scarier. It was from the Duchess Karin Désirée de la Vallière aka the Heavy Wind, he was used to receiving letters demanding to know why the Academy couldn't seem to be able to teach her daughter how to cast even a simple spell, but this latest one said in no uncertain terms that if she failed the summoning ritual she was to be sent home as quickly and as quietly as possible no exceptions. At least he wouldn't have to send her home for she had in fact summoned something, what exactly remained to be seen. Which was why he sent the maid that was cleaning the office at the time to retrieve Miss Vallière he needed answers before informing the Duchess of her daughters' success. Cause what he saw was very similar to something in his own past and he wanted confirmation. He was interrupted from his thoughts by a knock on the door. The door opened and a woman with green hair stuck her head in "Headmaster Miss Vallière is here to see you" she said, "Well send her in," he replied, " there's a slight problem with that" she said, opening the door all the way, he could now see into the outer office and saw the problem, Miss Vallière's familiar was too big to properly fit through the door way, the large blades on his back made it difficult for him and it appeared that he had damaged the outer door. Miss Vallière was in the middle of berating her familiar for not being careful when he spoke, "Miss Vallière, there you are." Turning to see who had spoken, Louise then suddenly bowed her head before speaking. "Headmaster! I apologize for the clumsiness of my familiar, I will accept any punishment that you deem necessary! Looking down at the nervous girl, he allowed himself a small smile. "Don't worry about it Miss Vallière, I feel the office could use a remodeling, so some minor damage won't hurt anything." "But Headmaster…" She began when he interrupted her, "Not another word about it Miss Vallière. Now please step into my office so we can discuss your successful summoning and your most unique familiar." The headmaster said as he motioned her toward his office. Louise steadied herself before stepping through the doorway, concerned about what the headmaster wanted to discuss about her familiar.
Beta CE007 now stood with his new commander in front of the headmaster's desk. The old man seated at that desk was staring intently at him as sizing him up and trying to understand something about him. The Commander for her part was nervous but trying to hide it. Finally, the headmaster spoke, "Congratulations Miss Vallière on not only your success of the summoning ritual, but also on your first successfully cast spell. Even if it was a rather unique one. I'm sure your mother will be most pleased at your progress." At the mention of her mother the commander seemed to visibly stiffen. "Now what did you summon I wonder? A unique type of golem perhaps?" asked The Headmaster, Beta CE007 looked at the old man behind the desk, who acted like he already knew the answers to the questions he was asking. The commander seemed to be struggling to come up with an answer. Like she was afraid to tell him the truth. Sighing to himself he spoke, "I am not a golem, I am a cyborg combat engineer designation Beta CE007." "So, you are capable of speech I see." Replied the headmaster, Beta CE007 Looked at the headmaster. Just what was the old man's game, he was clearly asking questions he knew the answers to, so what was he hoping to gain? "So, tell me what a cyborg is?" asked the headmaster, glancing at the commander she seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. "A cyborg is the merger of man and machine." he replied, "So, you are human?" asked the headmaster, "Yes and so much more" he replied, the headmaster sat back in his chair and began to stroke his beard, "That is most interesting." He said,
Louise couldn't take much more, the rule of steal her mother instilled in her was crumbling. Beta was telling the headmaster everything; she could die from the shame alone. Would she be expelled, would she be marked as a failure, what would her mother say? All these questions filling her head she almost missed the Question that the headmaster had asked, "So are you able to remove your Armor?" "Yes." Replied Beta, "Wait a minute!" She interrupted; "You can remove your armor?" "Of course, Commander." He replied, "Would you be willing to remove it for us?" asked the headmaster, "With the Commanders permission." He said while looking at her. Louise looked dumbfounded; he can take his armor off. What does he look like under there? Is he disfigured? As these thoughts ran through her head, she noticed the headmaster looking at her, as if waiting for a response. "Yes, do so at once." She commanded. The next thing she heard was a hissing sound and the front plate of the armor swung up and a under front plate split down the middle and swung to the sides. The arms and legs also split down their length exposing the wearer inside. She watched as Beta stepped out of his armor and then removed the last piece, which was his helmet. Louise was slightly surprised at what she saw. Before her was a young man about her age, with short dark hair in what might be called a military cut. He was about 8 to 10 inches taller than her dressed in a dark green outfit that seemed to be a shirt and pants sewn together that opened in the front, but it was his face that was what caught her attention the most. He wasn't bad looking some would even say handsome, he had a scar on the left side of his face around his eye, his right eye was a beautiful brown color, but it was his left eye that made her wary. His left eye while obviously an eye, didn't seem natural. The color didn't match with his right eye, and it felt artificial. She had seen glass eyes before but this one seemed to almost pierce her with its gaze.
Beta removed his helmet and looked at the commander, she was looking intently at him with what appeared to be caution. He then turned his gaze to the headmaster, he was sitting behind his desk with a small smile on his face, what was he happy about? He wasn't sure. "Now isn't this better for conversing?" Asked the Headmaster, Beta CE007 simply continued to stare at the headmaster. "Now that I know who you are, I am hoping you can help me with something, that I have tried to figure out most of my life." Continued the headmaster, "And that would be what exactly?" he asked, the headmaster reached into his robes and pulled out a necklace with two small metal plates attached showing it to him. "I cannot read what is inscribed on this necklace, and I can find no one who can. Do you know what this necklace is, and can you read what is inscribed on it?" asked the headmaster, while holding the necklace out to him. Beta CE007 took the necklace already recognizing what it was, having seen so many on the skeletal remains littering abandoned and destroyed military installations. After confirming that they were American tags he spoke, "These are U.S. Army identification tags pre-collapse, Belonging to one, Corporal Andrew J. Kemple." Before handing the tags back to the headmaster. Staring at the tags the headmaster gave a sad smile. "So that's his name, I never knew it." "Headmaster do you mind me asking where you got the tags from" the headmaster sat back in his chair seeming deep in thought before he spoke. "I got them from the man who saved my life." The headmaster paused before continuing.
"Many years ago in my youth, I had run afoul of an ancient dragon" Beta simply listened to his story, but young Miss Vallière gasped before interrupting. "An ancient dragon! But those can destroy entire nations, it takes an army with multiple square class mages to take one down! How in Brimir's name did you survive!" she exclaimed, chuckling to himself, the headmaster continued his tale. "If it wasn't for the arrival of a stranger, I wouldn't have. I was exhausted, my wounds slowed me down and the dragon was upon me. I had said my prayers and simply waited the final blow. When the dragons head simply vanished in a massive explosion. To my side stood a warrior in armor, very similar to yours Beta, in his hands he carried a weapon, which I will simply call the staff of destruction. The warrior collapsed and I rushed to his side. I could see blood oozing out of his armor, but I couldn't figure out how to get his armor off. Not that I think I could have done much to heal his wounds. He took his own helmet off and then removed the necklace and forced it into my hands. He died shortly after that with me holding his hand, not a word spoken between us." As he finished his tale Miss Vallière spoke, "Why would he want you to take the necklace?" Beta decided to answer her question. "Probably in the hopes that the headmaster would contact his unit or family and let them know what had happened to him." But then Beta had a question of his own, "Where is the staff of destruction?" "He had two of them with him, one I buried with him, and the other is in a secure location." He replied, "And his armor?" Beta asked, "Also buried with him, I was unable to move him due to the weight of the armor, I barely had the strength to carry one of the staffs and after several days I made my way to a small village, where I was able to get help." Beta continued to push the issue "Where is the grave?" at this the headmaster looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head. "I have no idea, he replied with a smile. Louise stood in shock as the headmaster's story unfolded, to think that the headmaster not only survived an ancient dragon attack, was saved by a warrior like Beta but not the same as him and to add the icing to the cake, he acquired a magical staff powerful enough to one shot an ancient dragon and then has no idea where he buried the soldier, his armor or the other staff. "What do you mean no idea?" she asked, "I really don't know Miss Vallière. The villagers of Tarbes found me unconscious a short distance from the village. They took me in and nursed me back to health. When I came to, I had no idea how I had got there and only the Staff of destruction and the necklace as proof that it even happened." Beta was lost in thought, there was so much data to process, it made since that if he could be brought here through some weird form of supernatural magic, so could someone else. The exciting and terrifying thing was, there was pre-collapse technology in this world. The armor could be more advanced in some ways. Most of the armor recovered by the project was what was reversed engineered by other factions, not original pieces, and when original pieces were found it was never a full suit. If it was like his own, then no one would even be able to use it without a Synaptic Link. No, the terrifying piece was this staff of destruction. It was not mounted to the armor, meaning it was shoulder fired. So, anyone could use it and he shuddered to think, what kind of damage a weapon that could one shot a creature capable of destroying nations would do on a civilian. "Headmaster you said that the staff of destruction was in a secure location?" Asked Beta, the Headmaster simply giving a nod in response. "Has anyone messed with it since you retrieved it?" "Only the most brilliant minds of the Royal Magic Research Division." Replied The Headmaster, "They studied it for years but could never make it work, it was finally decided by the king, to seal it away for safe keeping." "Would it be possible for me to see it?" Asked, Beta. The headmaster paused before answering. "Why would you want to see it Beta?" "The Artifact is clearly from my world and appears to be of pre-collapse origins. Meaning if it is a lost piece of tech, the retrieval and research of the artifact takes highest priority and is vital to the success of the project." Said, Beta. "You said that before." Interrupted Louise, both men stop to look at her. "You mentioned the project before. What is the project?" Beta looked at her, well no time like the present to begin briefing the new Commander. He thought, "The Project was founded by a group of survivors after the collapse. Their goal is to rebuild civilization using pre-collapse technology, their mission is to search the wasteland for pre-collapse technology called artifacts. Once an artifact is retrieved, it is researched and then replicated. My purpose is to build for the Project and to assist the Commander in the completion of the Projects goals." "And those goals are what Beta?" "The Projects primary goals are to recover artifacts, the research of them and then to apply the knowledge gained from them to rebuild the world after the collapse." "You keep mentioning the collapse, what is the collapse?" Beta paused for a moment trying to decide how best to describe the nightmare that lay his world in ruin. "The collapse was started by an entity know as Nexis. Nexis infiltrated the defense network called NASDA. The NASDA system was supposed to protect us, instead it became our executioner. Nexis used it to target every major city on earth. Within minutes, billions of lives were lost. In the days weeks and months that followed, disease, famine, and small wars over what little remained, claimed even more."
Louise and the Headmaster stared in awe as the story unfolded. What kind of weapons could kill so many people in only a few minutes. A dozen square mages would be necessary to destroy a city and even then, it would take hours and it still wouldn't kill everyone. "Beta, you said billions, just how many people lived in your world?" asked Louise, "Before the collapse, there were over 8 billion people in my world. After the collapse the project only had a few thousand members as did most other factions that we ran into. As for total numbers I have no way of knowing as we had just finished defeating Nexis and had started the rebuilding when I was brought here." Louise struggled to wrap her mind around billions of people dying in minutes. There weren't even one billion people in all Halkeginia.
The headmaster wishing to steer the conversation away from what was essential a mass murder event asked, "Beta you said you build for the project. What do you build?" "I am capable of building any technology recovered by the project from simple structures to complex machines." Replied Beta, "Would you be able to build something in this room for us?" asked the Headmaster. "With the commanders permission." Replied beta, again looking to the commander for permission. Louise still shook up from everything she had learned so far, was excited at the prospect of seeing what he could do, gave the order. "Go ahead Beta, build us something simple." "Yes Commander." Replied Beta as he put his helmet back on and stepped into his armor, the plates enclosing him in seconds, the blades on his back came down to point towards his front. Inside the armor Beta scanned through millions of schematics in seconds due to the synaptic link. Picking a very basic design he adjusted the truck turret before speaking. "Please cover your eyes its going to get very bright in here." Louise and the Headmaster covered their eyes as a white light filled the room and the sound like that of someone casting a lightning spell echoed in the room. Looking through the gap in her fingers with squinted eyes, Louise watched, as whatever Beta was building almost seemed to be growing out of the floor. Within seconds the light and sound stopped and the two of them looked upon Beta's creation. Louise didn't know whether to be annoyed or pissed at what was in front of her. "Beta this is a chair!" she exclaimed, "You said to build something simple Commander." Replied Beta, Louise paused as he was right, he followed her orders, and she couldn't get mad about that. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. As everyone turned their heads towards the sound, it opened and the same woman with green hair came in with a look of concern on her face. "Headmaster is everything alright?" she asked, "Ah Miss Longueville, everything is fine. Miss Vallière was seeing what her familiar was capable of, its quite interesting." Replied the Headmaster, "I believe that will be all for today Miss Vallière." "Wait I'm not going to be expelled!" She said, with hope filling her voice. "And why would you be expelled? You successfully summoned a familiar, and a very interesting one at that. I look forward to seeing what he is fully capable of." Replied the Headmaster with a clear hidden meaning in his response. Louise smiled bowed and turned to leave when the headmaster called out. "Miss Vallière may I keep the chair your familiar made? I wish to study it." "Of course." She replied, as she and Beta made their way out of the office. Miss Longueville looked in the room seeing the chair that wasn't there before and while she couldn't make out what was said, she knew she heard three voices in the room not two. Just what had the brat summoned? She would need to keep an eye on her to make sure it wouldn't interfere with her plans. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash followed by said brat yelling at her familiar to be careful.
As the door closed the Headmaster got up and came around his desk to examine the chair. Touching it, it felt like metal. Upon picking it up it was surprising light. Its design was also interesting. It only had two legs on the front which upon contacting the floor bent towards the back of the chair. The seat was higher in the front than in the back with a slight curve and the back of the chair curved inwards before curving back out again. As he sat in the chair, he noticed that it had a slight springiness and gave with his weight. The seat's curvature was surprising comfortable for a hard metal surface, but as he leaned back into the chair, and the small of his back made contact with the curve in the back of the chair. There was a loud crack, followed by a cry of, "Oh that feels so good!"