=Beep. Beep. Beep.=

  Hello there… check?

  Check. One, two. One, two.

  …Still recording?

  (female voice in the background)

  “Yeah. It’s live.”

  Good. Good.

  Ahem.

  Entry Log Number 4-4-5-0.

  Imperial Prince Marcus Torres of the Empire of Men.

  First Knight of the Earth’s Imperial Order.

  Mini autobiography.

  Heh.

  That sounds… narcissistic.

  (faint chuckle. A chair creaks.)

  Ahem.

  I can still remember the days when I could walk.

  When I could run.

  Clumsy as hell—always tripping over my own feet—but I managed every step.

  Every stupid, glorious step.

  I remember my family.

  Mom—foreign. I never knew which country she came from. She didn’t like talking about it.

  Doesn’t matter now.

  Dad. Quiet. Strong.

  And my little brother…

  (pause)

  The happiness we had together… it feels like a dream I borrowed from someone else.

  Like someday I’ll have to give it back.

  War was coming.

  Conflict between the three most powerful nations on Earth divided the planet into opposing alliances. I was too young to remember the names.

  The flags.

  The ideologies.

  (audible shrug)

  Doesn’t matter.

  They all lost.

  Pathetically.

  Greed. Hunger for power. Useless pride.

  Nuclear bombs fell without hesitation.

  Lands that were once green and full of life turned barren.

  Poisoned.

  Useless.

  (soft static pop)

  My uncle—General Arthur Tassle.

  My mother’s brother.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  He fought.

  Not for pride.

  Not for greed.

  For peace.

  For freedom.

  …At least that’s what he told himself back then.

  (female voice in the background)

  “You admired him.”

  Yeah.

  I did.

  I barely remember how it all started. I don’t even recall which country we were in.

  Everything happened too fast.

  I lost everything.

  Mom.

  Dad.

  My little brother.

  (long pause)

  But I wasn’t completely alone.

  My uncles were still there.

  Uncle Arthur… and Uncle Joseph.

  Between the two of them?

  Arthur was my favorite.

  He treated me like a real son.

  Gave me the same love he gave his own children—Arthur Jr., James, and Ella.

  They accepted me as their real brother.

  And his wife… Auntie Marge.

  I really loved that woman.

  Uncle Joseph?

  Nah.

  He was… strange.

  Distant.

  Always staring at things that weren’t there.

  (whispering aside)

  Or maybe they were.

  But his daughter, Faye…

  We were close.

  We stayed in a safe haven during World War III.

  Sheltered underground.

  Waiting for the world to stop burning.

  (dry laugh)

  Spoiler alert:

  It didn’t.

  Before all of that… I had a friend.

  A very energetic little guy.

  Naughty.

  Always getting himself into trouble.

  (female voice in the background)

  “You mean you?”

  No.

  Shut up.

  His name was Jericho.

  Cho, for short.

  He had a big brother.

  Nice guy. Patient.

  Always pulling him out of trouble.

  Cleaning up his mess.

  We were best friends.

  But like everything else…

  I lost him.

  (long pause. Soft inhale.)

  When I was eighteen, Uncle Arthur had changed.

  He had his own army.

  Militias.

  Policies.

  Speeches.

  Desperate people loved him.

  …Even I did.

  He was my idol back then.

  Remember Jericho?

  We met again.

  Turns out he was Faye’s boyfriend.

  (short laugh)

  Small world, right?

  They went to the same academy.

  It was… comforting.

  Knowing he survived.

  And his brother?

  Yeah.

  He survived too.

  Still cleaning Cho’s mess.

  (mic crackles)

  Uncle’s war wasn’t going well.

  Earth’s resources were nearly exhausted.

  They started recycling scrap metal—mixing steel with plastic and resin to create durable armor.

  For a while, it worked.

  Then new ammunition appeared.

  Armor-piercing.

  Devastating.

  Overnight, the entire system became obsolete.

  I wanted to help Uncle fulfill his dream.

  Peace.

  Equality.

  Order.

  So I studied.

  Hard.

  People started calling me a genius.

  (female voice in background, teasing)

  “They still do.”

  Don’t.

  Extraordinarily smart, yes.

  I know.

  But intelligence without resources is just frustration with a large vocabulary.

  Uncle Joseph gave me an idea.

  He kept rambling about something he called “unobtainium.”

  (snorts softly)

  He said whoever controlled it would rule the world.

  I laughed at him.

  I knew the laws of physics better than he did.

  What he described was impossible.

  But then…

  Maybe I didn’t need the impossible.

  Maybe I just needed something close enough.

  I spent years searching.

  Running equations.

  Simulations.

  Failures.

  The laws of physics refused to bend.

  I’m not religious like Uncle Arthur.

  But I thought…

  Maybe I needed a little divine intervention.

  (female voice in background)

  “You? Praying?”

  I do pray sometimes.

  So I went to his so-called Meditation Hill.

  It wasn’t much of a hill, really. More like a lonely outcrop of rock at the edge of the land. Uncle

  Arthur loved the place. Said the wind cleared his mind.

  The hill sat beside a towering cliff that dropped straight into the sea.

  Far below, the waves crashed endlessly against the jagged rocks. Even from the top, you could hear the ocean roaring—like the earth itself was grinding its teeth.

  Sometimes the mist from the waves climbed all the way up the cliffside and wrapped the hill in cold, salty air.

  Uncle Arthur said the sound of the sea helped him meditate.

  Personally, I thought it sounded like the world slowly breaking apart.

  Under the night sky, I knelt.

  Closed my eyes.

  Slowed my breathing.

  Tried to connect to whoever—or whatever—

  might be out there.

  I started feeling sleepy.

  I fought to stay awake.

  And then—

  A sudden whooshing sound.

  Like something tearing through the sky.

  An asteroid?

  A bomb?

  I looked up.

  Something was falling.

  Straight toward me.

  And then—

  Impact.

  But not an explosion.

  A body.

  Something had fallen from the heavens.

  It crashed directly onto me.

  I didn’t black out.

  I was still conscious.

  Lying on the ground.

  Eyes wide.

  Shocked.

  I couldn’t move.

  Something—someone—was pinning me down.

  I forced my head to turn.

  And my suspicion was correct.

  There was a body on top of me.

  A woman.

  Naked.

  And very much alive.

  (sharp inhale)

  (female voice in background)

  “Ooooh. I wonder who that could be.”

  You know it’s you.

  Stop interrupting me.

  So, there I was…

  =Beep. Beep. Beep.=

  Oh, come on—

  Battery low?

  Now?

  (coughs, light laugh)

  Perfect timing.

  Entry log—

  Entry log—

  —end.

  Heavy breathing.

  Static crackles.

  A long pause.

  Click.

  Static fades out.