Chapter 1: Godless lands

It was the year 3090, the world had advanced to a great degree over time. Humans had successfully eliminated almost all the things that plagued them in the past, world hunger, wars, poverty, and climate change. The world had entered an era of peace. Of course, something like this isn’t permanent. No matter how hard one tries, you simply cannot wipe out concepts such as “war”, it's simply built into the human psyche, there will always be someone with the want to conquer and reign over everything, all they need is the ambition to do so. An ambition Lan had an abundance of. Most of the world had been fixed, but not all of it, sat out of eyes reach rest a large continent, one that the Union could easily fix, but fix wasn’t what they wanted. They had years to reach out and help, but they chose not to. Lan refused to accept their help, he merely wanted to control everything, bring the Union down to his level. Lan was helping repel another raid team sent by the Union, they had given up on negotiations and had full-on labelled them as terrorists. Lan stepped onto the frontlines, he could only do so thanks to the tech he possessed, such as the force field that was active at all times, it wasn't unbreakable but it would last long enough. With his experience Lan would dispatch the Unions troops with ease, all it took was a couple of shots to the head to bring this skirmish to an end. He was one of the few people with access to the advanced tech brought about by the new world, eventually his entire army would have it, and when that happened was when he would begin his raid. The troops that were fighting were younger than he was, 15-17. They showered him with praise as he made his way back to base, others would arrive to reinforce the shores. “ You know you don’t have to go out every time one of our sectors are in trouble,” Lila says, lying upside down on the couch, her reddish hair flowing down the side. He doesn’t respond, he simply flicks her on the forehead and walks away, they both had a meeting to be at anyway. Lila followed after Lan as they both entered a new room, four others sat around a desk, and they all waited for his arrival, aside from Lila, who has a habit of only showing up when he does. “ The Union hasn’t changed their tactic, they’re still sending in troops whenever they can to see if they can capture a foothold. So far all attacks have been repelled,” Ren calls out, not bothering to look up from his papers. Lan wasn’t all that worried about it, they were more than capable of fending off whatever the Union could send, something else did occupy his mind however, And as if having read it someone else sat at the table spoke up. “ Not long ago another energy reading went off, it matches that of the Source, it's not too far from here, but it's along the border wall between our two countries,” Lilial says leaning back in her chair, “ You should be able to get there pretty quickly if you left right now. If we caught the signal then the Union also caught it so I suggest leaving after this meeting wraps up, alone,” she concludes, eyeing Lila with her final words. Lilial had her red hair tied up neatly, some people around the base often confused her with her sister, Lila, which annoyed her, so whenever she remembered she’d tie it up. Lila had made it a habit of going with Lan wherever he went, especially missions that took him off the main base site. He had promised to take her with him next time, he would be going alone. Time was of the essence. Lan would investigate what caused the surge, then head back immediately, for all he knew it could be a trap laid out for him, regardless he would take it. Lan doubted the Union had anyone strong enough to bring him down, anyone that was available. Lilia was right, he had made it by nightfall, hopefully, he wasn’t too late. Before he left Ren had given him a device that allowed him to track the point of origin, which was coming from a ruined building, one from the old ages. Lan was able to make his way in through the broken window, the whole place had been overtaken by plants. The power to the facility had been down for years now, he made his way deeper into the building. He would find himself descending, he would reach the end of the building, it opened up to a cave tunnel, a rather large one. This seemed to be part of the building, seeing as how cables were running along the floor leading deeper down, Lan crouches down as he enters the cavern, inside sat a large device that seemed to house something, it seemed someone beat him to it. Standing at the foot of the machine was a boy around his age, he didn’t seem to be affiliated with the Union, just some scavenger. The sound of footsteps echoing catches both their attentions, the union had arrived, and they sent the big guns. At the sight of the Union the boy panics, loses his footing and uses the machine to keep himself upright, in doing so the machine hums alive, a red strip in the middle pulses before emitting a bright light, forcing everyone to cover their eyes. When the light died down Lan was able to see that the boy was gone, he wouldn’t dwell on it any longer, he left the way he came, fighting the Union now would be annoying, especially considering who they sent. Lan slowed his pace to walking when he reached the lobby of the building, he was suddenly startled at the sight of the boy from before standing not too far from him, he looked confused as well. Lan would have to make a choice, and so he carefully reached for his weapon.