Age of Space

Following a night of sleeping on the metal floor of his spaceship construction factory, Ronin woke up groggily. His back felt sore, and his neck had locked up.

They say prison hardens a man, but he wasn’t that hard, not by a long shot. He felt like an old man. Stiff, sore and tired. Yeah, he'd be damned if he was going to wake up like that again. He immediately ordered a bed online. Now there’s that debt…

The inmate he’d killed for the breathing apparatus on his first workday on Exodon was named Klepp Tulsi. Though there was a lack of information on what exactly happened to the man's family after he got locked up, most evidence pointed towards them now living in the slums not too far from their previous apartment.

After wolfing down a meal, then doing a few warmup exercises, Ronin happily welcomed the arrival of both a new power armor, the Heromaker-99 and a proper bed.

He put on the armor, walked past the factory’s security system, hailed down a shuttle, then had it take him over to the last seen location of the Tulsi family.

Scrabby had not found food for two days now. Before, in the dark alleys surrounding his shed, he could compete with the rodents and insects for the odd scrap or nutrient bar, but now? He could not…

The roaming hordes of ruddles ate everything, including naughty children. Scrabby had to be careful, yesterday, they almost broke down the door.

“Momma, food?” he asked hopefully.

“I’m sorry little one, not today. I will look tomorrow, ok?”

Ever since dad was taken, food had been hard to come by. They’d had a whole house before! Momma said it was an apartment, but Scrabby couldn’t spell out the word. His mouth didn’t want to move like that. It was a house to him anyways.

He laid down.

When he was hungry, he tried to sleep. If he thought very hard about food, maybe there would be some in his dreams? Maybe, if he dreamt hard enough, there would be some when he woke up later as well?

“Little one, mommy will have to leave later tonight, ok?”

“…ok”

He didn’t like when she left. Not when it was late. She was always so tired when she came back. Many times she had bruises as well, and sometimes she cried. He really hated it when she cried. Was it his fault? Did he eat too much? She always looked so sad and hollow, as if something had been taken from her.

Knock, knock, knock

What was that?! Did someone knock on the door? Was it the bad people again? Would they hurt him and his mom again?

They both kept silent, better if no one thought they were home.

Knock, knock, knock

“Is this the house of the Tulsis?” A man outside asked.

Why did he use their last name? Nobody used their last name! Was it not the bad men? Could it be someone else? Someone with food maybe?

Scrabby looked towards his mom, he could see the same hope in her eyes as well, but she didn’t speak.

“I'm here because I knew a man named Klepp Tulsi, well… I knew him as Inmate 1437.” There was a sigh at the other end of the door.

What if he really is a good man? If he has food, Scrabby would do anything. He didn’t want to be a burden anymore. He didn’t want to see his mom so sad. Still scared, in a low uncertain voice, he asked.

“You know daddy, mister?”

“Hehh, I guess you could say that. Is it ok if I open the door?”

Scrabby looked towards his mom. He saw the same fear and hope in her too, but there was something else there as well. She looked at Scrabby with steel in her eyes.

“Only if you promise not to hurt my son!” She said with a shaky but determined voice.

“Alright, I promise”

The man opened the door.

What greeted the little family was a young man, clad in bright red armor. The armor was adorned with black and golden flames and the man himself had strange golden eyes. On each side of his face, there were two jagged black scars running down from his forehead, through his eyes, down to where his nose ended. That’s not, however, what caught Scrabby’s attention…

The way he moved, how he scanned the room, his shaking hands. The man seemed to radiate a type of cold lethal energy, as if something, anything could set him off. It was as if he was just about to do something very violent. This was not a nice man. He had the same thing the bad men who broke into their shed before had, only more. Much more.

His mom drew in a sharp breath in horror. Scrabby had to move every ounce of what little will he had not to curl up into a ball.

This was a killer.

“Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you…I uhh, met your father on Exodon. I made him a promise.”

Scrabby saw the man try to smile, but it just came out wrong.

“Here, you must be hungry.” The man handed out two nutrient packs. One for Scrabby, one for his mom.

Is he really not here to hurt us?

“Eat.”

Scrabby didn’t dare disobey, first taking small nibbles to preserve the food for later. That didn’t last long though as he quickly ate the whole bar! The flavor was so good! He just couldn't stop eating!

The man scratched his chin, looking awkward. “I have a bit of a medical condition so if you’re scared, it might be because of that.”

Scrabby didn’t care whether or not the man was dangerous anymore. “What can I do for more food? I’ll do anything! I don’t like it when mom's sad!”

“Uhh, it's really that bad I see… Tell you what. How about this? I’ll find you two a good place to live. I will pay for the first year, and by then, if you still need help or if there's anyone bothering you, just call. I’m not planning to stay around forever though, so you will have to become self-sufficient. I plan on leaving this planet soon so you two should find a way to earn credits by yourselves.”

This was too much! What was going on? Scrabby was spellbound.

“Young sir…I mean no offense, but please stop teasing Scrabby, he is still young.” His mother said.

The man frowned. Is he done playing? Will he hurt us now?

“Scrabby and Elsa was it? Come with me, both of you,” the man spoke in an authoritative voice.

Both Scrabby and his mom shared a glance. He saw it in her eyes, the hopelessness.

“Mister pl-”

“I don’t have time for this.” He interrupted.

“We’re going to your new home, now! I’m on the clock and I have a favor to repay. Spending hours down here trying to convince you is a waste of time, and frankly, I doubt you’d believe me. Come”

After having hurriedly gathered their things, Scrabby and Elsa left their home scared and flustered.

“…”

Outside in the alleyway, Scrabby had to jog just to keep pace with the big man. As they continued on, the multitude of haphazardly made tents and sheds became sparser and sparser.

So many…

Over half of the tents were broken down. Some had collapsed, maybe because something heavy had walked over? No, many small creatures, he thought, recognizing all the small footprints imprinted into the fabric. Other tents had claw marks and as Scrabby was about to walk over to look into one of the tents openings, his mother stopped him.

“Why?” He asked.

Elsa simply shook her head.

“Listen to your mother. You don’t want to see what's in there.” The man agreed.

“Void, your how old? 6 years? Last thing you need now is witnessing something like that.”

“…”

They moved further down the alleyways, turning a new corner every now and again. There were no people outside, but he could see people spying on them from within the sheds.

“I’ll call down a shuttle once we get out. These alleys are too tight for shuttle taxis, found that out the hard way. Had to jump out mid-flight when coming here.”

“You jumped out of a shuttle?” Elsa asked back in confusion.

“Ah, heh, yeah, this power armors got a jetpack. Though, the driver wasn't too happy about someone suddenly jumping out of his shuttle. That's why you don't tell them before you do it.” He chuckled back.

This man was an enigma. Scrabby couldn’t make heads or tails of him. Nothing about him was normal. He walked and moved like the bad men, talked like a friend and had an amazing suit which could even fly!

While Scrabby was still deep in thought, there was a sound. Barely perceptible rumbles and squeaks began emanating from under the alleyway. Then, a series of DUNK, DUNK, DUNK sounds rang out, followed by the rings of rolling manholes.

The scarred man's expression changed, abruptly becoming serious.

“To me!” He shouted, unfolding his arms.

Before Scrabby had time to think, he was embraced along with his mother.

Gears and hydraulics activated within the armor as servos began moving, shifting and rearranging its various components. Metallic plates, covering the armors surface gave way and small boosters appeared along its arms and legs. Then, the backplates moved as wings grew out from its back.

“Sorry about this, but prepare yourselves, we’ll be taking a bit of a ride.” He heard the man say.

The power armor bent down, then jumped as the winged jetpack activated and the boosters began firing. Scrabby began rising up from the ground!

As they started flying further and further up, the narrow passageway below became small. As Scrabby looked over to the side, he could see through the windows of the skyscrapers beside them. There was a family eating inside a tiny apartment, six men standing along the window looking straight back at him and further up, he could see a couple fighting.

Wow!

This was incredible!

Before long, their flight path tilted off to the side, landing on one of the sturdier looking overhangs. As they touched down, the thin metal below them groaned, but fortunately, it held.

“If you two will excuse me for a moment, I have a bit of a ruddle problem to deal with,” the scarred man said, flashing a grin before jumping down again.

He’s going to fight them? All alone? Nobody can do that!

Ronin had a sneaking suspicion the reason these ruddles had begun roaming the city in hordes was because of him. He’d been so surprised when he first heard of the large hordes roaming the lower city that he’d written off any connection to himself, but over time, he began connecting the dots.

There’d never been hordes like that before in the city, ruddles weren’t supposed to group up like that. The only place he’d seen it was in the closed off abandoned part of the city, the place previously shut off due to the leakage of Eisenshaft radiation. The place he’d opened up.

There were now paths out for the hordes to escape out and onto the wider public. His paths. Just along the valley he’d walked with the mother and son he’d counted over a hundred dead, still rotting inside the collapsed and torn tents they'd lived in.

BOOM!

His power armor landed hard back onto the concrete as the sound of his landing was quickly replaced by the increasingly louder cacophony of squeaks.

I may have created the paths for these rodents to escape, but how was I supposed to know that this would happen? The government covered up the existence of that underground city and The Ghost Butcher pushed me down there by placing a bounty on me. There's plenty of blame to go around and I'm far from the top of that list.

As the half a meter large, naked and veiny animals began emerging along the alleyway, he activated the third and final form of his power suit. Gears began turning, his faceguard was lowered, and various support functions started turning on.

[Combat Mode Activated]

Boosters emerged along his arms and legs, not for flight this time, but for momentum. The air he breathed became filtered and the armor expanded a little, providing cushioning from impact damage.

Seems the planned casual test run of the suit, will become a whole lot more than I bargained for, he thought as the dozens of ruddles down the alley turned into hundreds, then thousands. The boosters on his legs activated as he stormed into the forming wall of flesh.

Squelch!

The sound of crushed meat sounded out as he smashed into the ruddles, crushing many before his momentum slowed and the cretins began climbing over the suit. His vision disappeared as the ruddles swarmed him, but he wasn't done yet. There was only him now. Him and the horde.

Reaching out he grabbed one of the ruddles before slamming it down and crushing it on his knee. Bad idea. His momentary drop in stability gave the horde the room they needed in order to topple him over.

Crashing down on his back, the swarm viciously clawed their way over him, biting and scratching as they did. He checked his internal display. The suit held up.

Phew, money well spent

He tried to move up again, but the sheer weight of all the ruddles on top of him, was too much. His arms barely got a few centimeters off the ground before they got pushed down again.

Hmm, if sheer mechanical strength is not enough… What about this?

Acting upon the idea, he activated both the boosters in his arms and his jet pack at the same time. VHOOM! He began sliding backwards across the street. He tried lifting his back while angling his arms towards the ground, letting the boosters lift him. It worked! Not by much, but his previously horizontal position began lifting up. He couldn't see where he was going, but he felt himself moving faster and faster, crashing harder and harder into the ruddles as he passed them.

BOOM!

He violently crashed into a wall, fortunately with ruddles there to cushion the impact. He could now fully angle his arms down towards the ground and with little time to plan, he kicked off the wall, flying upwards as fast as he could. He quickly broke through, giving him his vision back and the scale of the swarm began dawning on him. How can anyone be living in sheds here and expect to survive this? The whole street is flooded! This was an enclosed alley, not the open rooftops of the abandoned city where he'd first seen these swarms. The alleyways funneled the swarm, concentrating it into a pack so dense, no space was unoccupied, and no room was free. He'd seen the rinky-dink shed the Tulsies lived in, just how had they survived? He shelved the thought for later. Now he had to focus on himself. Due to it being illegal, there were no weapons installed on the armor, so, just how was he supposed to fight?

Well, just rushing the rodents didn’t work.

The horde, likely over a meter in height, from all the bodies crawling on top of another, covered every inch of the alleyway. This was not something his fists could break alone.

But I have more than fists, he thought as he continued ascending and when he was about 5 meters above the ground, he turned off the boosters and jet pack. Force = Mass times acceleration, and I have plenty of both.

Squelch!

Loud shrieks of dying ruddles rang out as Ronin and the 160 kg heavy power suit crashed heavily into the horde. He activated the jetpack again, flying up while burning vermin along the way. This time he flew 7 meters above the alley before dropping down. With the swarm serving as a cushion, his suit could take it.

Squelch!

The mind distorting energy built up inside his body from the alien artifact was getting released with every jump. The feeling was euphoric!

Not enough! He could go higher! Activating the jet pack again, he rose up, not stopping until he was over 12 meters above the ground.

Again!

As he dropped down, however, and began speeding up, he realized he’d maybe out done himself a little too much this time. Crap! I got too cocky!

With no time to reactivate the jet pack, he slammed into the ground so heavily, he felt the power armor groan. His knees buckled and sharp pain followed, but he’d managed to keep standing. Still, 12 meters was far too much, and his knees did not feel right. The implant aided interface also displayed significant strain on several of the suit's servos. At least he now knew his new armor's limits.

He kept doing the jump squats, this time dialing it down and sticking to at most 10 meters above ground before he made the plunge. As time passed, the pile of ruddle guts kept building up and he noticed the new strategy losing effectiveness.

Going to need hard ground to really get that good squelch going. I'm not feeling like I’m doing real damage anymore.

He began moving his jumping spot each time the pile of dead ruddles under him got too tall. Jump after jump, minute after minute, there was a strange type of rhythm to the movement once he got used to it. He became lost in the trance of the repeated jumping. The ruddles couldn’t break through his armor anyways, he wasn't really in any danger.

Up and down, up and down, up and…-

BEEP, BEEP

He checked the interface, only 10% left of the fuel supply. He could still do a few jumps and…wait, he still had a debt to repay. Those two were still waiting on the overhang he’d placed them on earlier. If he used up all his fuel, he’d have to go back home for a refill and the mother and son would end up staying there for hours before he got back.

Shit

He was still restless; the alien artifact had kept building up energy in his body for weeks now after he learned the battle soul technique.

Going to have to grind this out the hard way then.

He steeled himself as he landed for what would probably be his last jump.

As his vision was once again covered by the hairless veiny rodents, he began grabbing for what he could, squeezing with his hands as the gears and servos worked to squash the vermin. Ronin felt the suit strain to hold back the flood. As he was about to fall over: not again, oh no you don’t! He took a step back, then lowered his position, trying to balance while the swarm stormed over him. There… You can do it Heromaker... like riding a wave buddy…riding a wave…

Time passed as he tried to put down whatever mangy beast he could grab, all the while maintaining a very precarious balancing act. This can't even be considered fighting anymore. It's more like I'm resisting a force of nature...

“...”

Ronin, exhausted from the struggle, checked the time: 40 minutes. He’d kept going for so long, he’d spent two thirds of the suit's battery life. Good thing I didn’t buy the Black Hawk, he sighed, looking over the biological destruction left behind by the horde. The one-hour battery life in sustained combat of the Heromaker model was more than needed, and another model, such as the Black Hawk would have shut down long before it was over.

He’d barely put a dent into the numbers of the horde as it passed. He’d just been in its way, a nuisance, still, time really flew by when, well, was he having fun? It had at least been exciting if nothing else. He did a casual inspection of his suit: It was dripping with a viscous liquid, and there was more in there than blood… He'd been drenched in poison for sure, probably a range of parasites as well. Ruddles tended to do that.

As he began wiping off the poison, he looked over the suit's interface. The jet pack had suffered some minor fractures and there were some damages to the suit's lower gears and servos. Probably from all the jumping. But besides that? The armor was fine… Well, the paint was scratched, especially the codpiece, the ruddles had seemed quite obsessed with the thing.

He shivered a little at the thought of what would have happened if he wasn't armored. “Now… onto the Tulsies,” he mumbled, waving up at the pair, stranded up high on the overhang. Surprisingly, Scrabby waved back.

Flying up to greet the pair, Scrabby’s face lit up in excitement. “Mister, that was incredible! Are you a hero like in the movies!?”

Ronin looked down at the kid, eyes sparkling like they had stars in them. “Hmpf, heroes don’t exist, kid. Listen, there’s a range of reasons as to why I jumped down there to fight those animals, but none of those reasons has anything to do with being a hero.” It felt a bit strange to say that, considering the name of his power armor.

As Scrabby registered what he'd said and the light in the kid's eyes began dimming, however, he didn’t have the heart to continue.

“Be good to your mother and when you grow older, I might buy you a power armor just like this one, ok? You can be a hero to your mother. What do you think?”

“Really!?” Scrabby exclaimed, his little hands shakily balling up in excitement.

“Sure, now what do you say to us getting out of here?”

Elsa had fortunately warmed up a little to him as well and nodded in agreement.

Opting out of walking through the now poisonous and parasite filled alleyway, he spent half of his remaining fuel on flying up on one of the taller roofs before calling in a shuttle. Initially not wanting to land on a sketchy rooftop, it took a little convincing and a lot of credits before someone finally came over.

After boarding the shuttle, they were on their way to the apartment he’d rented for them. The apartment, being located close to his new factory, was maybe not of the highest quality, but it was miles ahead of the shed they'd lived in. It was also located in in a low crime area, far above the deep valleys so commonly associated with the slums. He was sure they’d be more than satisfied with it.

“What game are you playing? You’re a powerful man, you can do whatever you want with us. Can’t you just be honest?” Elsa said, every word dripping with suspicion whilst standing in front of the new apartment.

“It is just what it looks like, I have a debt to your husband. I know there’s nothing I can say to you that would convince you otherwise, I grew up in the slums myself. When something seems too good to be true, it always is. All I ask is to give it time. As the weeks and months pass by, you will see that it really is just as I've said, no strings attached.”

She sighed in resignation and began walking towards the door. Scrabby was about to ask something, but Elsa quickly quieted him down. However, as they walked through the door, the kid quickly turned around, “Just give her time mister, she’ll believe in you!”