Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Openmind ❯ Heimdall ( Prologue )

DISCLAIMER: All characters, locations, and concepts in this piece are my original creations. Period.

 

Openmind - Prologue: Heimdall


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"It is said that worlds are created by minds. I then pity the world created by the heartless man. Devoid of emotion, devoid of joy, devoid of pain."


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The BREACH-drive, or the B-drive as more commonly referred to by layman mechanics, is an invention several centuries old, having been developed during the late 25th century on Earth. With its initial application in personal, public, commercial, and industrial transportation, interdimensional travel became possible. Empirical colonization was revived as a feasible concept.

With the BREACH-drive, mankind began looking in new directions. With those broadened pathways came an equally broadened hunger.

A hunger for territory, a hunger for resources, a hunger for power.

With the territory came colonies, such as SIGMA. With the resources came new discoveries and new technology. With the power came upheaval.

Borders were violated. Ownerships were questioned. The fragile peace then in existence vanished, and the United Nations soon followed in the path of its predecessor.

Politics was already a game of the rich, cruel, and often famous. Through the passage of time, the colonies soon gained an independence of their own as Earth ignored the existence of its wards, having completely forgotten about most of them in the wake of chaos.

Some colonies soon died out from a lack of Earth support. Others barely managed to eke out a miserable existence from the meager resources they managed to find. A few, through an almost insane amount of fortuitous luck, such as SIGMA, actually managed to prosper.

The surviving colonial governments at the top of the battered political heap ran into things that threatened their prestige and power, of course. These were soon 'taken care of' and buried away, supposedly forever.


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It happened soon enough. First came the missing statistics. Next came the sightings. Then came the attacks. Finally came the tabloids. Ironically, the tabloids were reporting the truth. Most of the time.

Soon, Earth colonies from other dimensions began reporting similar "incidents".

The SPORE governments at first tried to keep the public calm with euphemisms and doctored silence. It soon became apparent that it was little more than a rhetorical band-aid on a gunshot wound.

The governments gave the threat a name.

RUAKH.

The scientists and scholars came up with a theory for the sake of rationalizers.

Vicious creatures that came from nightmarish, almost unheard-of dimensions, wriggling their way through the dimensional cracks in reality caused by constant use of BREACH-drives.

Then came the promise of a solution. A mutual colonywide defensive agency, created to handle the threat.

The Wardsmen.

The handshakes, contracts, and projects came soon afterwards.

Amongst them... the CHRONO.


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Mobile armored suits had already been in use even before the development of the BREACH-drive. With the military/industrial demand for robust manned vehicles possessing an optimal rate of maneuverability, speed and versatility, a fully-articulated suit of powered cybernetic armor became the rig of choice.

These powered suits came in varying sizes and shapes, depending upon their intended occupational use and the demands of the client who ordered their construction.

When the "RUAKH" were first detected, military analysts and consultants for the CHRONO project had already gotten it into their scholarly heads that conventional armored vehicles would be too cumbersome and ponderous to be able to deal with the approaching threat.

They turned to the mobile armor.

The first CHRONO was little more than a standard armor-plated suit with a rudimentary multiple-weapons-delivery system and prototype B-drive nailgunned into its frame. SIGMA, being the first colony to have made contact with the "RUAKH", would be its proving ground.

Surprisingly enough, the CHRONO became a success. The threat was quickly pushed back, and RUAKH attacks and sightings soon tapered off, becoming little more than a regular annoyance rather than a disastrous threat.

Within a matter of days, the Wardsmen became heroes. The colonial governments in turn increased the funding.

More CHRONO-related technology was soon developed and perfected. More CHRONOs were built. The BREACH-drive system became successfully miniaturized, able to fit in one's embrace. Armor was improved, and structural advancements were made. CHRONOs were now no longer merely paramilitary units. They now became superweapons, able to take on entire armies of conventional units and RUAKH alike single-handedly.

The colonial governments reached a stable point of prosperity, united under the Wardsmen peacekeepers. More technology, more conveniences were soon developed.

The public, feeling that their prayers for absolute security have been answered, gradually became indolent inside their floating colonies on SIGMA.

But despite the growing popularity and support for the Wardsmen, a shadier side soon began to develop. Governments began to view the CHRONOs as valuable symbols of prestige and power, and often resorted to them as the trump card in their military bids for power, despite Wardsmen protests of colonywide neutrality.

And so the CHRONO has reached the present day. The general populace has become complacent and apathetic. The colonial governments, convinced that Earth no longer gives a rat's ass about their welfare or even remembers their existence, have started to squabble amongst themselves and make their own petty bids for power.

And a single, desperate whisper echoes into the apathetic silence.