The City of Romulus, Mars, Year 999, Solar Era

A young woman barely of age strode briskly down a hallway, the sound of her boots a deadset beat. She was dressed in a military uniform of red and orange pattern, and her black hair pulled back and bundled underneath a red cap. She had no observable makeup, and had no outstanding features. Without the military uniform, she would blend into your average crowd on the street.

When she reached the end of the glazed metallic hallway, she reached forth and gave a set of imposing arch metal doors a good few raps with her knuckles.

“Vice-admiral Zheng. This is Ensign Khan, reporting for duty.”

“Come in.” A stalwart voice boomed down the hallway in reply. 

Ensign Khan took a step back as along with the voice came the sound of grinding gears that slowly but surely swung the set of metal arch doors outwards.

She took a deep breath, patted her chest and resumed her rhythmic steps into an brightly-lit expansive office, giving her the feeling of coming out of the cave of the metallic hallway.

The office itself was of an elliptical floor plan, with its longer diameter a good hundred plus meters. Half of the office was a row of pure glass, allowing the outside sunlight to stream into the space. Luckily, the ground was fully lined with a maroon carpet. If it was metallic like the corridor, it would be impossible to work in such an environment.

She entered the office and came upon the sight of a tall and bulky Vice-admiral Zheng in an at-ease pose. Contrary to his name, he had caucasian features with light skin and tousled blonde hair-- not that it surprised Ensign Khan in any way. Afterall, the 11th century of the Solar Era was on the horizon, and over the years Terran integration had long made it unreliable to simply connect surnames to gene features. To be accurate, this phenomenon had begun long before even the Solar Era, Ensign Khan reminded herself.

Coming to a stop a few meters behind the man, she removed her military cap to reveal a thin and whitish circlet around her head. She then compressed the hat against her left shoulder.

“Congratulations on the promotion, sir.” Ensign Khan bowed her head in veneration.

Vice-admiral Zheng’s square jaw lined with an anchor beard came into view as he turned around to give Ensign Khan a wry smile. That smile gleamed alongside the many medals that demonstrated his achievements. He, too, had a circlet that went around his forehead to the back of his head, though his was of the color black.

Zheng was naturally also in a military uniform similar to Ensign Khan, though his was of a shade darker, closer to a mahogany hue. A fiery neon circle with an arrow emanating to the up and right, wrapped in a single silver circle, flashed sunlight from the crown of his shoulders.

“And yours as well Ensign Khan. I daresay you are the youngest ensign in the whole of the Martian security fleet.”

“And you, the youngest vice-admiral, sir. I daresay there will never be another below 40 vice-admiral ever.” Ensign Khan kept her head bowed.

“Only because of the untimely death of my predecessor.” Vice-admiral Zheng scoffed in annoyance. “The idi- man thought to contain those damn pirates at the behest of those corps and wasted what little resources we originally had. What was he offered?! Anyone who has been in the martian fleet branch for any amount of time would know those terran politicians never ever provide us with enough funding to control the piracy in the belt in any meaningful way!”

Ensign Khan kept her silence. It was inappropriate for someone of her station to voice opinions even on past marines. In her heart, she rather agreed with Vice-admiral Zheng-- in fact she had long sworn loyalty to him.

“So, how is your father? As I’ve stated before, he raised me through the ranks. If you need any more help, you only need to ask. And raise your damn head. I don’t need you prostrating like an abused dog before me.” Zheng ordered the woman before him.

Khan scrunched her eyes in frustration. Too often, she found this higher up of hers uncaring of what she viewed as protocol. Unfortunately, she was in no position to ‘admonish’ this superior of hers.

“He’s doing as well as possible. Sir, you’ve done more than enough for us already. We both know my father’s condition is unlikely to improve or worsen.”

Vice-admiral Zheng suddenly swiveled his head around with narrowed eyes. The black circlet around his head glowed. A few devices hovered into the air and proceeded to fly around the elliptical room, examining every nook and cranny.

After a few minutes of doing so, the devices returned to their original place and Zheng’s suspicion was dispelled alongside the glow of his black-colored circlet. He continued his conversation with Khan, relieved.

“Do you remember when we first met?” Zheng’s eyes locked onto Khan’s. “You were only fourteen then. I promised you then that I would punish the culprit once the chance presented itself. And I continue to stand by that.”

“Yes, sir.” Ensign Khan bit her lips hard enough to draw blood. “And I swore that I would be your spear for perpetuity.”

Zheng nodded then turned back to look out through the glass panels lining half of the elliptical room. He beckoned with an arm and Khan hesitated for a few seconds before giving up on protocol. She stood beside him and shared the glorious panoramic view.

“I called you here for a reason.” Zheng tilted his chin to the cerulean blue sky. “Look.”

A carrier descended slowly with the help of parachutes, down onto a runway right below the row of glass panels lining half of the vice-admiral's office.

A number of figures dressed in bodysuits and airtight helmets supplied with small oxygen canisters strapped onto their backs ran forth to receive the carrier. They all had glass panels held in their hands, often raising these panels in front of their eyes as if looking through it would reveal secrets about the carrier behind the glass.

“Where does your loyalty lie, Ensign Khan? Tell me.” Vice-admiral Zheng’s voice was methodical and slow as he asked this with his back straight as a pole, eyes fixed on the engineers doing their work below.

Ensign Khan’s eyes wandered in a state of confusion. Her father had mentored Vice-admiral Zheng. Then Vice-admiral Zheng had mentored her, and provided assistance when her father was, well, in her opinion, schemed against. And Zheng was the one who identified the culprit, even if until now, no action could be taken against said person.

“Sir, I’m not following fully-- but my loyalty to you is as resolute as the red iron ground beneath our feet.”

“Ensign Khan,” Vice-admiral Zheng’s voice was louder than his normal tone and had a hint of anger. “Your loyalty should not be to me. It should be to your history. Your ancestors came to Mars, and they have bled to build this world. Yet, generation after generation, here we are, fighting the pirates in the belt at the Terran’s behest. My predecessor was a fool.”

“Yes sir,” Ensign Khan bowed her head. In her opinion, this was precisely why she would remain ever loyal to Vice-admiral Zheng.

“Finally.” Vice-admiral Zheng stood even straighter-- if that was even possible.

The engineers stepped back as the carrier spewed exhaust out of pipes attached to its corners, and then one side of the carrier flipped open to form a gentle ramp.

Then, the top of the carrier as well as the other sides, with the sound of whirling gear and cogs, flipped open-- the carrier appeared to be no more than a flat metallic cross that had been mechanically folded into a cube-shaped carrier.

The vice-admiral appeared tense. He had not said or displayed it with his words or body, but Ensign Khan had been around him long enough to tell just by the air.

The carrier had opened up to reveal a well-known but rare device.

“A Nexarm…?” Ensign Khan was partly wondering why this would make the vice-admiral tense. Nexarms had been developed for quite a while. They were effectively a sort of large scale armored suit that allowed skilled pilots to efficiently harvest materials in the asteroid belt.

The Nexarm was expensive but incredibly useful in certain situations. It could effectively function in all terrain, combine or pry apart pieces of a structure during large-scale construction projects, all under one pilot’s control. Not to mention, it offered high protection in high risk operations in the belt.

Ensign Khan still recalled her one-time experience. She had once gotten the rare chance to sync her body with a Nexarm. It was beyond exhilarating-- the Nexarm’s limbs had become fully synced to her body through the neuro-circlet around her head. However, that experience wasn’t all magical. She had attempted to control the numerous gadgets connected to the Nexarm, only to find herself soon with a ringing headache.

Anyways, the far cheaper robotics and drones handled a huge load of work in most areas, but remotely controlled robots or drones always lacked that extra bit of response time, especially if the signals had to travel the long distance of space. That was why the expensive Nexarm were mostly used in special circumstances.

“Not just the Nexarm. It’s also the pilot, Ensign.”

_____________________________________________________________________

A young jet-black haired man stepped down the ramp of the carrier in a white neosuit-- a form-fitting space suit developed by Neurorevo; the company’s name was plastered right across the suit in bright orange.

He raised a hand tapped the side of his helmet with a finger.

“This is Xeight of T3ST special colony. Here to demonstrate the capabilities of the Nexarm’s ability.”

“Welcome. Please proceed.” A figure in a suit among the engineers gestured with his right arm.

Xeight returned into the carrier and with a flourish, pulled away a large piece of cloth to reveal a giant humanoid mechanical armor.

He jumped into an open cockpit in the chest area of the Nexarm, and upon the closing of the cockpit, the mechanical armor stirred into life, standing to a whopping twenty meters tall.

For all its majestic presence, the Nexarm looked somewhat weather-beaten, its pure gray hull tarnished by scratches and a multitude of dents.

Every movement of the Nexarm released a high-pitched static noise, fiddling with the surrounding engineers’ eardrums. Most of them slightly winced in minor discomfort with the exception of those with full grayed hair.

Searching for the source of this static, the engineers glimpsed through the temporary gaps between the sliding silver plates, feasting their eyes upon a bundle of cable-like structures underneath the armor.

“Artificial muscle…in such quantity…” One of the engineers whispered.

A slow buzzing wave of a mechanical arm and amazingly, up into the air flew twenty different devices of a multitude different shapes and sizes.

A large truck carrying a large asteroid five meters wide rolled in front of the Nexarm in a timely fashion as planned, and the asteroid was allowed to roll off the back of the truck, coming to rest right in front of the Nexarm in a cloud of red dust.

Xeight controlled the Nexarm to demonstrate its capabilities by manipulating these twenty devices that floated around the asteroid. Lasers would shoot out from some of these devices, while another would attach itself with mechanical legs to the asteroid, and start drilling at Xeight’s command.

Another device seemed to be venting air to clear away dust. Multiple other devices just floated stationary in the air and pointed themselves at the asteroid-- they were likely some sort of measurement device, monitoring the progress of the excavation.

At some point, Xeight decided to make use of the Nexarm to even lift the asteroid into the air and rotate the rock while simultaneously excavating the asteroid with the devices that hovered around in the air.

The Nexarm worked perfectly in sync with the devices, the rotation of the asteroid in its arms assisting the devices’ excavation’s process.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Twenty…” Khan rasped. She herself could only comfortably control just eighteen neuro devices through the circlet adorning her head. Nine active devices and nine sensory devices. Perhaps if she strained herself, she’d be able to control ten of each. She was lauded for being able to do so by the Martian military…

“Yes,” Vice-admiral Zheng nodded. “And look at how smoothly he is manipulating all those neuro devices simultaneously. As you know, every extra active and sensory device added on increases the strain but also the work done exponentially under the right combination of devices. He is the most productive individual in the whole of the belt.”

“The subjects-- no…” Vice-admiral Zheng’s eyes narrowed. “The people of T3ST special colony will be our allies. Our predecessors and theirs have long negotiated the deal a hundred years ago. Now is the time.”

“Come.” Zheng bade Ensign Khan to follow him. They left the elliptical office and weaved through the metallic corridors of the Martian military complex in Romulus City.

They entered a large dark room, carpeted wholly in gray with a large black oval table in the middle. The seats around the black oval table were already filled by many military men and women, all with uniforms that carried the mark of Mars-- a fiery neon circle with an arrow emanating to the up and right, wrapped in a single silver circle.

At the head of the table sat a white-haired man with a lampshade mustache.

Zheng bowed to this man before sweeping his gaze and making eye contact with every single one seated at this oval table.

“Admiral Sullivan. There is no doubt. The citizens of T3ST colony are ready. As per recent reports, their genes have stabilized. They no longer suffer from premature death at the age of fourties or so. The latest generation live to eighty or so. Not quite normal human lifespan, but close enough. Also, their neuro capabilities to control multiple devices simultaneously remain at a heightened level and continue to grow beyond imagination. The new generation can control twenty plus devices at the same time.” He stated all this calmly. However, all in the room could detect the excitement brimming deep within his veins.

“Any signs that the Terrans may suspect the data we have been sending to them regarding the subjects of T3ST colony to be false?” A military official questioned. Her voice too, seemed to shake uncontrollably with energy.

Vice-admiral Zheng shook his head.

“No signs. It’s been a hundred years and throughout, our control over T3ST colony has been immaculate.” He scoffed with derision, “The Terrans are busy playing politics among themselves.”

“As for our arrangement with Neurorevo?” Another military official questioned.

“No raised suspicions with the Terrans. The supply chain for our military from the belt has been solidified and is fully separate from the normal belt to Earth chain.”

Every official couldn’t resist plastering grins across their faces. On the other hand, Khan closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Finally…” She whispered to herself with anticipation of the things to come.

Admiral Sullivan stood up and raised his arms in an all-encompassing manner.

 “May the twin cities of Romulus and Remus protect us and bring us to a new era for martians high and low!”