ManaTech: A System of Magic And Technology

Brave New World

I woke with a groan. 

My head felt as if someone were beating on the inside like a drum, and my tongue was so dry I could have convinced myself I’d been eating sand the night before. 

It must have been one for the storybooks. 

Sure, I couldn’t remember a single thing that had happened, but I hadn’t had a hangover like this one since the very first time I’d gotten drunk so I’d probably been on one hell of a bender. 

I let my eyelids crack open, winced at the bright light of the morning sun, yawned and then stopped dead. 

Waking up in someone else's bed was always a bit of an odd experience. For the bed you wake up in to look like it was in a room ripped straight out of a sci-fi show on TV? Well, that really turned the weirdness up a few notches. 

The room I’d woken up in was a wide and expansive space with walls that were made of some dark black metallic material and a light brown wooden floor. 

Across the other side of the room there were a series of wardrobes that seemed to have futuristic sliding doors and a mirror that read out the outside weather and had a scrolling news feed at the bottom that I couldn’t understand the language of. 

Two strips of high-tech lights lined the ceiling and there was a window that looked out into a city where it seemed as though every building was made of glass that twinkled in the light of the three suns that were rising up above the horizon. 

The longer I looked around the room the faster my memories started to return. 

There had been a little girl. I’d been hit by a van. There had been a creature that had sent me somewhere new. 

None of it had been a dream, the realization dawned on me. I’d actually been transported to a brand new world, one where I could live a full and worthwhile life, fulfil my true potential. 

I couldn’t help the bubble of laughter that worked its way out of my throat. 

I wasn’t just in some new world that was the same as my own or anything like that. I’d been transported to some futuristic city on a planet in a star system with not one, not two but a total of three different stars!

The orbital mechanics of that alone was something no one on my home planet would have been able to comprehend. 

Sure, I’d had to die to land the situation that I now found myself in, but all of a sudden death didn’t feel like it was the biggest deal in the multiverse. 

“Salutations, Victor!” A voice came from the room, the lights that lined the ceiling pulsed slightly with each syllable. “The weather in New Vostera is a balmy 19 Celsius, with a light south-westerly breeze and no chance of rain. Please be reminded that initiation for the Galactic Defense Corps will take place in two hours.” 

“Uhhh…” I said dumbly, “Sorry… what’s going on?”

The voice was silent for a moment but then said, “Today is the day that all Galactic Defence Corps initiates are sworn in and take part in the trials to join the ranks of the corps!” 

“Right…” I said, “And that includes me, I take it?”

“Of course! But before you go, please could you put your hand on the shelf to your left?” The voice requested.

I glanced to my left and saw the shelf in question. While I still didn’t quite understand what was going on, I figured that this was all part of setting me up in my new world. In fact, it almost reminded me of the character creation section of a video game. 

With a shrug a placed my hand on the shelf as had been requested. 

For a moment nothing happened, and then everything did. 

The rush of information that plunged into my brain was enough to make me squeak in discomfort, my mind was only just about able to keep up. 

I’d been connected through an interface in my shelf to an AI that had been assigned to assist me going forward, it’d take me through New Vostera and help during the trials for the Galactic Defence Corps initiation. 

The GDC was an interplanetary force of warriors and protectors, they tried to protect the galaxy from terrible threats, the most dangerous of all was the Devourers, a group of creatures intent on consuming all life in the Galaxy. 

The battle between the GDC and the Devourers had been waged for hundreds of years with neither side giving much ground in the fight. 

I was, it turned out, just another in a very long line of people who had joined the fight against the Devourers as part of the GDC program. Before that, though, I had to go through a brutal battle tournament to work out if I was even strong enough to enter the Guard. 

It was a lot to take in all at once and I was more than a little worried that I may have been thrown into a situation that was far beyond my current capabilities. 

When I lived back on Earth I’d lived a sedentary lifestyle. When I wasn’t working my part-time job or going to University I would spend most of my spare time chilling out and playing video games or watching anime. 

In other words, not prime warrior material. 

Nevertheless, from the second that I’d placed my hand on the shelf things had felt subtly different. I had felt subtly different. There was a… power… an energy that seemed to be coursing through my body and it felt like it was itching for a fight. 

[Yeah, that’s probably down to me mate,] a voice rang out from inside my head, [Dang, I’ve really got my work cut out for me here, haven’t I… Ah well, nothing worth doing is easy I suppose. Now, get out of bed. We’ve got work to do.]

I swallowed thickly, just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder.