Mecha System: Harem in The Cockpit

Breakdown

I’d never liked running before I’d gotten my mecha suit. 

In fact, before the strange biological changes that I’d experienced while in my two-day long hibernation, I’d never really liked doing much of any physical exercise. 

For all the terrible things that had happened over the past hour, I was enjoying running now. 

Each footstep was heavy on the ground, cracking the cement of the pavement, and yet it managed to launch me forward an insane amount at an insane speed. 

Even crazier? The last time I’d run like this I hadn’t been able to control my movements at all. Everything moved too fast for me to keep track of it. 

But now?

Now it was as if the entire world had slowed down around me, and I was moving through it like a fish through water. 

It was intoxicating. 

Just what the hell had happened to me?

“I’ve already explained what happened to you, Human,” the AI said, clearly able to tune into whatever I was thinking at any given time. 

“You know, it’s weird that you can hear my thoughts like that, not to mention a bit of an invasion of privacy,” I replied, ignoring the Intelligence’s statement. 

I knew what had happened to me, I more didn’t understand how it had happened. Was I even actually human anymore?

“Yes you’re human you weirdo,” The AI said with an unnecessary sigh of exasperation, “I mean sure, human with a little bit of spice. And anyway, if I couldn’t hear your thoughts how could I act as the relay between you and the suit? It’s like entirely necessary for what you’re doing right now.” 

That made an unfortunate amount of sense. 

Okay, so I had a weird alien brain worm that could hear all my thoughts. I had weird spicy new genetics that made me human and a little bit more. Sure, I could handle that. 

What I was having trouble dealing with was the destruction that was going on all around me. 

On the news it had looked bad, actually running through the streets of the city? It looked a whole lot worse. 

People were sleeping rough on the streets in numbers greater than I’d ever seen before. Entire families. Out in the cold. 

Was this the invasion that the AI had warned me about when we had first met? The species that created the intelligence, coming to claim the world that it had crashed down onto. 

“No, this isn’t that at all,” The AI responded to my thoughts once again, I was sure I’d get used to that eventually. 

Nevertheless, if that wasn’t the case, then what the hell was going on? Global impact events like this didn’t just happen. Something had to have wiped the fleet of ships out while they were on their way to Earth before they could actually get here, that or we were orbiting through some kind of graveyard of ships. 

Either way, the end result was the same. 

The destruction of the planet I called home. Potentially the death of the people I called family. 

With that thought, I pushed myself a little faster, a little harder. 

I needed to know what had happened to my mum. Fortunately, we weren’t very far away from her apartment block now at all. 

As I rounded the last corner I allowed my mecha suit to recede back into my body, changing from the rigid hard metal of the form I had chosen back into its liquid form as it slid back through my skin and wrapped itself in a protective shell around my heart. 

I didn’t even have it in me to pay attention to the people around me that seemed incredibly shocked to have a robot transform into a man. 

My mother’s building was… completely devastated. 

I felt my heart lurch as I looked at the destruction. 

The building itself hadn’t been impacted by an alien ship, but one had come down in the nearby area, gouging its way through the street and destroying a trio of buildings as it had come to rest in their rubble. 

The explosion that came after that impact, though? 

That had done a lot of damage to the building. 

Parts of the wall facing the crash site had been ripped away. Windows had been blown in. Scorch marks left across the parts of the wall that were still present. 

Surrounding the building were… bodies… lots of bodies, as well as a smattering of police cars and police forces. 

Was one of those bodies my mum…? 

I took a deep breath and made my way over to the police officers that were likely keeping guard over the location while someone else went through the building looking for the deceased. 

“Oi, stop right there mate, no one’s permitted inside the building while the… well… while this is going on,” One of the policemen said, his hand raised as if to ward me off. 

If I wanted to I could have just thrown my mecha suit back on. They wouldn’t have been able to stop me. Hell, I was stronger than a baseline human now even without the mech suit activated. I could probably take him without going through the effort. 

That would have been pointless, though. 

“My mum,” I called back, stopping where I was so as not to aggravate him, “She lived in this building, I… I wanted to make sure she was okay.”

The officer’s face softened and my heart fell. I knew what he was going to say, even before he said it. 

“I’m sorry son,” The policeman sighed, “If she was in that building then… then I’m afraid she’s gone. No one survived. Too much radiation from the explosion.” 

Before he could finish, I’d already summoned the suit again. 

I ran, without purpose this time. Without knowing where I was going or what I was doing. 

I needed to get away. 

I couldn’t… 

She had been everything to me. 

And now the world had taken her from me. 

As I ran. I cried.