Elder Enine had an incredulous look on his face, and immediately tried to find the mysterious man who delivered all these armaments. His goal was quite obviously, to get said man to remove Jennifer MacLeod from the T3ST colony. However, that man had long left on a ship.

“Fuck!” Another spy sent by the MacLeod family, so he thought.

The woman took off her helmet. She had an oval face framed by shoulder-length light brown hair with a few strands of blonde here and there. Also unlike James MacLeod, her facial features seemed to be a mix under an ivory skin.

“Oh.” Jennifer MacLeod had a wide bright smile and she seemed to be taking great joy at Elder Enine’s reaction, barely keeping herself from laughing as she shook in mirth.

“I’m actually of a dissident faction within the MacLeod Co. So you needn’t worry.” Her expression hardened as she turned serious, her voice soft yet firm. “I consider my part in all of this as repentance for my ancestors’ transgressions on humanity.”

“You…” Elder Enine examined the young woman before him, surprised at her young age. “How old are you, young lady?” He felt rather shocked that  someone of such a young age would have already developed a deep understanding of all the Neurorevo tech. Or could contemplate the legacy left to her by her ancestors.

“I’m a nineteen year old genius.” Jennifer MacLeod harrumphed as she pointed her nose upwards while placing her hands on her hips.

Her response immediately made Elder Enine feel relieved. At least, he would find it much more troubling if Jennifer MacLeod was also some experienced player on the political landscape with many schemes in hand. After all, some people do use modern day tech to appear significantly younger than their real age.

Once he put aside the initial turmoil from this surprise within his heart, he realized that surely, the current grand elder would know more of this arrangement, so he needn’t worry too much about it. He resolved in his mind to further discuss this in the impending council of elders.

___________________________________________________________

“Is she truly a dissident?!” An elder slammed his fist on the acrylic ring-shaped meeting table.

“Yes,” an incredibly calm half-dead man replied. This man showed absolutely zero emotion; it was quite obvious that he completely disregarded the enraged elder’s concern.

“Is there any… information we have on her?” Elder Enine had long gotten over his initial emotional response. He was hesitant, yet also had an unshakable faith in the grand elder.

The half-dead bald grand elder’s neuro-circlet lit up, and soon after, the surrounding twelve elders used a neuro device that brought up a holographic screen. This screen used a 3D holographic layered image to provide depth of vision to the elders’ 2D visual direction.

Multiple neuro circlets activated and without a word or any use of hands, the images and words as well as scenes played out one after another as the elders examined the evidence.

As he viewed the deluge of information, Elder Enine felt both shocked and amazed. There were intricate details of the McLeod family, the internal disputes over multiple generations large or small, their connections to Neurorevo, Jennifer McLeod’s actions and behaviors during her upbringing.

Frankly, Elder Enine felt like he was stalking the young woman with multiple hidden neuro devices monitoring and hacking her details. He even felt slightly disgusted with himself for going through all this information.

“How?” There should have been no way for them, the T3ST colony, to acquire such information in such detail.

“The Martians. They do not want us to be compromised either. They have been preparing for this for a long time.” The grand elder monotonously replied with a raised eyebrow at Elder Enine.

Some may think Elder Enine dense for asking such a question with an obvious answer, but Elder Enine is the next Grand Elder in line for a reason.

“Allow me to clarify, Grand Elder. My question regards Neurorevo.” 

“Neurorevo…” The Grand Elder stared into space, and the room slipped into a long awkward silence. The other twelve elders also had their foreheads furrowed into contemplation.

Neurorevo had indirectly sent them much of the necessary technology to turn their existing Nexarms into combat capable weapons. Not to mention, a newest neuro-based combat capable spaceship.

To build such a ship and then sneak it to the T3ST colony. Even with the assistance of the Martian forces… Elder Enine struggled to fathom the methods through which Neurorevo could have accomplished this.

Granted, Neurorevo did this indirectly through many  smaller subsidiaries within their group, but…

“Well. It must be for profits, no? Although they have competitors in their neuro circlet system, exo-suits and other space and neuro related technologies, there are only two other Nexarm competitors, and to my knowledge, this neuro-controlled ship is a completely new one,” One of the elders suggested. Many nodded in agreement-- this was the most obvious benefit for Neurorevo.

However, Elder Enine did not feel that this was worth mentioning. His mind was much more occupied with determining the state of the Earth Feds and the politics on Earth between the countries, and Neurorevo’s potentially criminal action.

Try as he might, he couldn’t come to any definite conclusions. The half-dead Grand Elder’s eyes were similarly unfocused as he stared into space.

____________________________________________________________________

Xeight entered a pristine gleaming lab in nothing but a thin white linen gown. All members of the T3ST colony had to get their bodies routinely examined due to the risk of bodily function failure from their genetic modifications.

Well, genetic modification of their ancestors. Many problems persisted generation to generation, though some of the problems seemed to be significantly improved or even vanished in the previous two to three generations. The Martian Branch, in charge of monitoring the T3ST colony had conveniently failed to report this to the Earth Feds. Currently, as far as anyone was concerned, the Martian Fleet was of the Earth Feds.

Xeight had been told repeatedly that his generation was the truly ‘stable’ generation-- and all the lab results indicated so. His close monitoring was simply a precaution, and to create the illusion to visitors of the T3ST colony, such as James McLeod, that the T3ST colony’s group remained genetically compromised.

This stability was mostly true, except for one point-- although Xeight would most definitely not die of sudden death or unexplained bodily function failure, his age-span was at best a hundred and thirty. This was in contrast to the Terrans, who could live to two hundred with the necessary supportive technologies. Still, Xeight was satisfied. It was already much better than many of his ancestors supposedly dying in their thirties to sixties.

There was also the risk of diseases and all that, but medical technology had long solved all of these sorts of ailments.

Xeight laid down on an angled examination seat, and greeted an elderly gray haired woman with bronze skin in a lab coat, and she wore large rectangular glasses.

“Dr. Goodman.”

“Let’s get this over with.” Dr. Goodman curtly nodded. Dr. Goodman had been around for as long as Xeight could remember. She used to have shining black hair back when he was three-- that was the furthest point in time Xeight could recall.

This elderly doctor had the sole responsibility for those in the current young generation, spanning those of birth to around twenty years old. The total number amounted to approximately four hundred members.

The population remained quite similar for certain age ranges. For example, those aged twenty-one to forty also approximated to about four hundred members. However, if one examined the number of members in eighty to one hundred years old, there would only be around one hundred members. That previous generation still had body issues, as well as a naturally shorter lifespan-- quite a number of them had long passed away.

“You’re a troublemaker, you know. The elders are constantly bitching about you,” Dr. Goodman smacked multiple sensors that stuck onto Xeight’s body and snorted, “And I thought I was the old woman.” She was assisted by other floating devices as well, but she would always use her hands as well to speed up the process.

Dr. Goodman was not of the T3ST colony-- she was Martian, but had long integrated into the T3ST colony. Most children saw her as a sort of brusque yet caring grandma.

She slid down her large rectangular wooden-stripped glasses and gave Xeight a bit of a staredown.

Although Xeight felt a hint of fear in his heart due to his grandma’s stern expression, he felt it imperative to explain himself.

“I just don’t believe we need to fight a war. Perhaps we could simply… sneak into the other colonies.”

Dr. Goodman paused her actions for a moment, before shaking her head.

“Perhaps that might work. Or perhaps it won’t. But how could Terran-based politicians truly understand our needs all the way out here?”

That question certainly made Xeight think. Perhaps his older brother was right-- he was the only one that felt content with mining asteroids for the rest of his life.

A beeping noise suddenly rang in the lab room.

“Oh, for god’s sake!” Dr. Goodman’s neuro circlet whirled and she yelled. “What is it?! I’m on a schedule to get these bums examined!”

The sound of stressed coughing sounded out from an intercom.

“Dr. Goodman. Sorry to interrupt you but… this is a request of the Grand Elder and If you could--”

“Out with it!” Dr. Goodman yelled.

“Yes, yes!” stammered the intercom. “The new neuro tech engineer… er… Jennifer MacLeod has requested to analyze the data of our Nexarm users so that she can properly adjust the Nexarms and their devices!”

The lab door slid open and Dr. Goodman immediately noticed a lady standing outside.

“You must be Jennifer MacLeod. In!”

Jennifer McLeod, rather intimidated by Dr. Goodman, quite literally rapidly tiptoed into the lab room like a sprinting emu. She had already donned a lab coat. Her eyes widened as she examined all the equipment and devices floating in the air.

“Data chip?!” Dr. Goodman ordered the young lady as she examined her.

“Yyyes!” Jennifer MacLeod handed over a small information storage device.

Dr. Goodman plugged this device into a lab computer on the side. Although neuro devices were the norm, most security systems made sure to use archaic methods to limit the intrusion of neuro connective access.

“It’ll take around twenty minutes.” Dr. Goodman promptly ignored the young lady and returned her attention to Xeight. “And Xeight. You already fully know what you need to do.” She then sat down on a roller chair and fully focused on a screen with a deluge of numbers flashing across it. Her neuro circlet repeatedly lit up as she manipulated some sort of data on said screen.

Xeight complied and began executing the same procedures that he had done uncountable times during his bodily examination.

Basically, he had to control a number of neuro devices, sync and switch between a good number of them and control them to fly around the lab room in some sort of low to high intensity usage, with different patterns. Meanwhile, the sensors attached to his body would analyze how his body responded under these types of conditions.

Xeight was told that supposedly, the genetic manipulation for neuro enhancement many years ago ran into an issue, that being, the brain would suppress other important functions, such as parts of the nervous system, in order to give way to such neuro enhancement. Another aspect was that the genetic manipulation caused the brain to become imbalanced in terms of how it would control the many different bodily functions.

This was why the current examination Xeight was participating in was created-- to ensure that the body functioned with no issues even when he pushed his neuro devices to the limit, in both number and intensity.

Jennifer McLeod stared at Xeight with interest. She started striding forward but stopped herself in her tracks as she took a peek at Dr. Goodman.

Dr. Goodman had  certainly noticed the young lady’s actions, but she waved her hand uncaringly and returned to staring at her screen.

Jennifer MacLeod skipped to Xeight’s side, absolutely overjoyed.

“So, you’re Xeight. You can call me Jen. James often talked about you whenever I asked about the T3ST colony.” She whispered, worried that she would disrupt Dr. Goodman’s concentration.

Xeight was absolutely baffled.

“Oh, I’m a dissident faction within the MacLeod family, don’t worry.” Jennifer MacLeod had explained this many times today already.

Xeight remained absolutely baffled.

“If you’re the dissident faction, why would James randomly talk about me many times…?” he replied.

“Oh, well… he used to take care of me when I was younger… and we are still family. Well, we got to know each other before our views diverged.”

Xeight returned his full attention to manipulating the various test neuro devices at various speeds on strange paths. He wasn’t sure what to say to Jen MacLeod.

Seeing that Xeight had no interest in maintaining a conversation, Jen swiveled her head in every direction at the numerous neuro devices moving about in the lab.

“Wow…” she softly exhaled, amazed at the scene, before looking back down at Xeight who was half-naked in an inclined examination chair. She even reached forward to poke and run a finger lightly along his biceps. “You are a… fine specimen indeed.”

His eyes wide open, Xeight wasn’t sure of what to make of this… ‘compliment’. The MacLeod family was supposedly a key pusher of the genetic modification of his ancestors…

Should he be mad…? Instead, Xeight could only perform the only response he could think of. He ran his gaze up and down the young lady dressed in a lab coat, ensuring that she noticed his wandering gaze.

“Well. I wish to return your compliment in the same vein, but it is currently difficult for me to make an assessment as of now.” His tone was perfectly neutral.

Jen appeared red in the face and tiptoed beside a wall, staring at the ground.

A beep sounded and Dr. Goodman tore her eyes from her screen and detached the data storage device from the computer.

“Oh , that was much faster than expected.” She handed it to Jen and shooed, “Off you go!”

As Jen was about to leave, she turned around and squinted her eyes in concentration at the neuro devices flying all over the place. She was lost in thought previously, but she suddenly  remembered how James praised Xeight as the most productive member of the T3ST colony, and felt compelled to do  her best to examine Xeight’s abilities.

She attempted to track all the devices the Xeight was controlling, which was rather difficult since Dr. Goodman was also controlling some devices to monitor the situation. Also, the constantly flying neuro devices at different speeds and strange paths made it rather dizzying to accurately track all the devices. There was also the  fact that some devices had both motor and sensory devices integrated as one, and she had to use educated guesses to determine the ones that were of this type.

After a while, Jen MacLeod had a big O mouth in astonishment, and her eyes were filled with apprehension.

“Oh my god. That’s… that’s forty-two device channels.”