The Lupine System

The 9 Apex Families

Mike had never experienced outer space before, and he had to admit, the endless darkness with thousands of stars was as beautiful as it was terrifying.

About a week had passed since they had evacuated Klein 4, and Mike spent most of his time looking outside the ship windows into the endless expanse of space.

They'd enter FTL at certain intervals as, while convenient, it wasn't something they could sustain indefinitely, so they used it at certain intervals to allow their warp drives to recharge using the dark energy that passively exists throughout the universe.

This past week had been... enlightening, to say the least.

As it turned out, most of the people who had been evacuated, at least in this ship, were from one of the main settlements on Klein 4.

Due to his new appearance, Mike had become quite popular, especially with the children, and he couldn't help but marvel at their innocence and how quickly they seemed to move past the fact that they were now homeless.

Due to being popular with the children, the parents quickly followed as he got to know some of them. Some held decent business enterprises on the moon or had shares of some of the mining operations going on, so they had some assets on other planets.

Others weren't so lucky, but at least had family in other star systems they could return to, but a few, just like Mike, had lost everything.

Other than getting close to people, Mike had been figuring out a few things about his new nature and the system.

For starters, he realized that his appetite had spiked. He was used to cutting down his meals due to a lifetime of hardship, but after his transformation, no matter how much experience he had with holding himself back, his appetite would inevitably start to act up.

This wasn't great, both because the ship had limited rations, and Mike was startled to find out that if his hunger grew too much, his ferocity would start to rise rapidly.

By the fourth day, he had to come clean when he'd accidentally snapped at one of the children after their pestering got a little too much. He explained that after getting his ability, his hunger had grown to a tremendous level.

Surprisingly, the people were understanding, and the Captain had a logical explanation for it.

As it turned out, once one obtained an ability from whatever means, their cell activity became numerous times higher than a normal human. One result from this was a greatly increased metabolism, as such, ability users tended to get hungry faster than normal people.

After that, the Captain revealed that they had some high-energy food which, admittedly, didn't taste great, but as someone who'd lived on stuff that could barely be deemed edible, Mike wasn't complaining at all.

Other than that, though, he spent most of his time observing outer space and speaking with the people on the ship.

Mike wasn't surprised when he found out that his knowledge of many things was lacking. He lacked a pretty fundamental understanding of how things worked in the universe and humanity as he hadn't exactly been educated beyond basic English, math... yeah, that was it.

Most of it was miscellaneous information that wasn't particularly useful but nice to keep in mind. After all, it wasn't like he'd be able to learn advanced stuff in a week, also, most of the other evacuees weren't great at teaching.

However, the piece of information he got that interested him greatly was information on the elites of humanity. Specifically, the 9 Apex Families.

As their names implied, the Apex Families were at the Apex of humanity, and their founders were each recorded to, at the very least, possess an S-rank ability that was passed down from them.

The abilities the descendants obtained gradually differed from the original ability and underwent more and more changes, with more variations appearing with each generation. Some were stronger, some were weaker, but at their core, they possessed traits related to the original ability of the founder.

Each of these families played a key role in humanity's existence as they usually acted as the main forces behind its power and usually spearheaded most of the big issues for the race.

There was the Vortan Family, which possessed abilities related to kinetic energy and force manipulation, with later generations gaining abilities that allowed them to control things like motion and momentum. They typically specialized in defending planets and star systems of high importance due to their exceptional defensive abilities that could extend over a large area.

Next was the Altherion Family. Their abilities centered around the mind. Telepathy, mental acceleration, memory reading, and so on. They leaned more in the strategy department as their influence lay in surveillance, psychological warfare, and tactics that sometimes spanned over entire galactic battlefields. Their minds are a sight to behold.

Next was the Caedryn Family. Their abilities centered around blood, and it came in many forms and shapes. They can manipulate their blood and use it as a weapon, or use that same blood to forge weapons and armor, enhance their bodies or the bodies of others, or even act as poison in many cases. Later generations developed sensitivity to bloodlust and could sense enemies as long as they had flesh and blood. They excelled in close combat and had many members who were special operatives. Other than that, they were quite talented in bioengineering.

Then there was the Sairell Family. These people were also called the Masters of Space. Sairells can phase through physical matter, open spatial rifts across vast distances, and manipulate gravity. There were even records of their descendants being able to create things like small pocket dimensions or localized zones of space where they were almost invincible. But ultimately, they excelled in creating transportation networks for humanity across the galaxy and also acted as navigators for large space fleets traversing less-known regions of space.

After that, there was the Nerevas Family. Their abilities centered around the classical elemental manipulation, but it wasn't so simple as they controlled elements through resonance and not individually. Mike wasn't quite sure what that meant, though. Anyway, their descendants often used hybrid elements, like magma or mist lightning, combining elements to create more advanced things. They typically focused on terraforming worlds for human use and made things like simulated environments that had a myriad of purposes.

Up next, we have the Vexar Family. Compared to the rest, their numbers were lacking. Not significantly, but if the chances of seeing someone from the other families were 60%, then the chances of seeing a Vexar were around 30%. As for their abilities, well, they centered around time. They all have a strange perception which was widely known as Time Perception and could influence the concept, usually on themselves, by hastening their movements or slowing down others. The stronger ones can extend this ability to their surroundings, with some records of them creating entire areas where time moved according to their will.

If the Caedryn Family excelled in special operations, then the Vexars were the ones that did the real 'hard work' as they often performed extreme-risk operations, time-sensitive missions, or assassination tasks.

After that, we have the Arkwright Family. To sum it up, they were technopaths. However, the ability varied wildly, and in the past century, it has become a common theme for them to be able to merge technology with their bodies. They have immense control and influence over most, if not all forms of technology, and they spearhead humanity's technological advancements. Their A.I.s are also some of the best, and they are great at cyber warfare.

We then have the Zevran Family. Similar to the Vexars, each of them has a common ability called Predator's Domain which gives each of them heightened senses and instincts. Each one is said to be like a beast, which is further accentuated by the fact that they have differing forms of shape-shifting or beast mimicry. Their speciality is more focused on law enforcement, but they are excellent trackers and are at the forefront when it comes to scouting out new worlds or enemy lines. Their instincts also make sneaking up on them extremely difficult.

Finally, there is the Solmere Family. Their abilities revolve around light. Both literal and metaphorical. Their abilities, like the others, come in many forms. From being able to create light constructs, to creating light that has mass and can sear through most matter, to even some who can use their light to reveal lies.

While they aren't stronger than the other families, none really are, they each seem to possess a natural charisma and attraction. Hence, they tend to do the best in politics, but also serve as great commanders on battlefields with tgeur leadership skills and morale boosting.

When he learned of all this, Mike was, unsurprisingly, entranced by it.

He knew that ability users came in many forms, but to learn of the Apex Families and their areas of expertise was simply tantalizing for his information-starved brain.

It was also nice to get a good idea of what his race was capable of, and he had to admit, he wasn't disappointed. Also, while the 9 Apex Families were the strongest, they weren't the only Families that existed.

In fact, there were some people considered to be on the same level as them, but weren't given the label of an Apex Family for one reason or the other.

All in all, it was all good information that he willingly took in.

"We will be arriving at the Thescera Satellite Station shortly." The voice of the pilot suddenly sounded across the ship.

Mike perked up as he was snapped out from his thoughts.

He then heard several exclamations, primarily of awe and mostly from the children as they looked out of one of the windows.

Mike went over to see what the fuss was about, and when he saw, he too was taken aback.

Floating in outer space, an utterly massive megastructure floated like a metallic anchor in space itself

It had a long cylindrical shape that was at least a thousand miles long, with several rings floating around the cylinder with what looked like pathways connecting them. Its width alone was several hundred kilometers, and at its base, there was a large sphere that was easily as wide as a small moon.

'This is... a satellite station?!' Mike exclaimed inwardly.