SHK CH 34 (Patreon)

Planet Mars.

Alongside Venus, it was one of the planets that had been slowly developed enough to be terraformed by humans to form an inhabitable planet as they were both planets with very high potential of housing life. In fact, they all had the right elements to form natural life on the planet and would have surely produced sparks of life if certain unfavorable conditions weren’t produced, for example, Venus did not find its rotation speed weakened after an accident during its creation.

Thanks to the insistence of a man from the previous era who had been one of the richest men alive at the time, humanity heavily focused on terraforming Mars to its full potential first rather than developing and exploring the Earth of all of its secrets so that they would be able to control all the available resources of the planet they originated on.

In hindsight, and now knowing how the system worked in general, Noah understood that focusing on terraforming other planets first had been a mistake by humanity. After all, due to this venture, they ended up becoming a Civilization that had not been able to reach even Type I even though they had some of the inklings of a post-Type I civilization like planetary expeditions and solar system-wide space travel.

While the enthusiastic man had, at first, good intentions in mind in terraforming Mars, as he wished for humanity to have a second home in case of an extinction class event taking place in the coming future, it seemed like even he could have never guessed that they would be attacked by aliens and what followed the attack was perhaps the most devastating defeat that humanity had ever faced.

Many historians and tacticians even went on to form opinions that… had humans not been so devastated and separated due to the many wars that followed… the following fights against the aliens would have been far less difficult for them.

Mars, which had become a military colony, as the different countries fought over the resources on the planet was not able to move appropriately and efficiently to counterattack the invaders. Furthermore, because of their lack of understanding of what the Parasites represented, many human activist groups rose and proffered the desire to have peaceful talks with the aliens.

Even as he read the files detailing the information back then, Noah did not have much opinion on what transpired. With insight and information at disposal, it was easy to see and understand what should have been done back then by humanity.

But hindsight was always a 20/20 vision and far removed from reality. There was fundamentally nothing wrong with wishing to discuss peacefully with the first alien races they had encountered in the vastness of space.

Sadly, while he could not give a subjective judgment, reality did the job for him. Because of politics, military, and civil protests, the army was mired in a plain of incomprehension and was swiftly annihilated by the invading alien species. Annihilated and incorporated into their ranks and turned against their comrades.

The Mars outpost fell at the hands of the Parasite and the invading aliens started assimilating humans in their evolution process to make better versions of themselves by learning human characteristics. They learned new things, new tactics, new ways, and capabilities of thinking like humans. They thus imitated humans and increased the numbers of their soldiers exponentially as they had so many surviving specimens.

Thus, it was deemed the most catastrophic defeat in the history of humanity and paved the way for the Parasites’ domination in the subsequent fights.

“So now, I have to annihilate them? Alone while they are boosted?”

Was it asking him to change the course of history? It did not seem to be the case but Noah always wondered one thing— what would his life have been like if they never appeared?

Surely far worse.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on the past. Fleeing from his pursuers while employing all of his honed skills to erase all of his traces, Noah swiftly entered the abandoned fortress.

He felt like he was entering some sort of military & art museum, showing the history of a world long forgotten in the vestiges of the past.

He couldn't help but wonder what was the purpose of this place. However, he was soon able to realize the significance it held for humanity.

Perhaps this was truly a record of history for the human race.

After all, for him who already knew what happened, he had no need nor interest to search around this place, but for the people who knew nothing, these ruins would be a great page of history they would be keen on inspecting and understanding to further realize the evolution and significance of humanity.

This is all good and all but now. What do I do?

Sitting on the ground, he spun his mind into thinking things through. The parasites of those times were at the first stage of their evolution, but they were already able to move in large numbers, far surpassing the corresponding human numbers.

Noah was sure that he could kill many of them without much problems but he was anything but a tireless machine.

He had been fighting nonstop since his time in the spaceship and now if he started wagging some kind of war on the parasites of all things, he would most likely lack enough juice to fuel himself and he really didn't want to get captured by those disgusting creatures.

“Well…”

His brain, which had slowed down to a crawl due to processing all the information he had collected, started churning the gears once more to figure out a solution to his predicament. Sooner than he expected, he realized that the answer was quite simple all along.

After all— he had been in the same situation in the past.

Though at that time I had people paving the way for me.

For all his pride and arrogance, Noah would never say that he could have done it all alone.

Not only because he could have not razed through everything on its own without expending all of his juice, but also because it would have been an insult to all the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives to bring more information about the parasites.

An insult to all the scientists who never went home and experimented even on their selves to find answers regarding the parasites— their invaders.

Finally… To all his friends who fought alongside him for a better future for all of humanity.

This time though, he was all alone. No mecha to his name, no companions to fight alongside him, and no support to help him out.

— You are wrong.

Oh? What do you mean?

— You are not alone this time either.

…. Heh… Hahaha.

Noah laughed inwardly. Not caring whether he would be found or not, he laughed out loud to himself.

“Truly ironic.”

In the end, he leaked out a sigh. His eyes became cold as he prepared his mind to fully enter combat mode.

Indeed. The situation was different from back then but so was he.

“Where was the Mother Ship?”

— In this period of time. I should have already landed on Mars. Let me guide you there.

Very well.

Instantly, Noah moved along a guided path as new information was fed into the screen of his visor, directly before his sight, acting as a makeshift GPS to the mother ship, housing the Queen of all Parasites.

Even as he ran in the opposite direction and towards the parasites, Noah still found the situation extremely ridiculous even by his standards.

Here he was, trusting the very being who had caused the whole situation in the first place by invading Earth and killing his friends in cold blood.

Now they were about to fight a past variation of this very being…

How could this be anything but an astonishingly ridiculous situation?

But this happened and this was reality.

Back then when he woke up with her in his mind, Noah had thought that he was going crazy and that he had been compromised by the enemy already, becoming a Parasite of his own.

The two of them fought against each other every step of the way, but fighting against an entity that was one with you was no different from fighting against yourself.

Furthermore, back then he had not been as physically strong as he had become now. He suffered greatly at first.

Until they started to work together.

From hatred. To reluctant partnership. To acknowledgment and finally an awkward relationship of what could be considered trust.

As his time spent with the Queen increased and the total amount of time with her in his head surpassed the time he had ever lived on Earth, most possibly, his own sense of self became far blurrier as he continued to wonder.

Was he truly Noah?

Was it truly the Queen of Parasites in his head?

Or were they nothing more than a new being created with the memories and capacity of the two melded into one?

What did make Noah, Noah? What made him what he was?

Such philosophical questions tormented him in the past but were swiftly buried in his mind as he fought for survival.

He was Noah.

The Strongest Mecha pilot on Earth and it was time for him to add a new legend to his long line of accolades.

It's time to kill!

Like a mad bulldog, Noah started to rush towards the horde of over 100 parasites that seemed utterly astonished to see him quite literally jump them.

The armor encasing his body started to change, wiggling and morphing as the aesthetic form changed to a more burly shape without any significant detail.

Numerous crimson eyes appeared all over the body while deadly spikes and jagged teeth-wielding mouths formed all over the exoskeleton.

Noah was sure that from afar, he looked like nothing more than a monster but it did not matter to him.

Sometimes…

To kill monsters…

You had to become one yourself.

———

(AN: I sometimes wonder if I give Noah too many monologues but at the same time when half his discussions are internal monologues with a different entity, it's pretty hard not to. Will need to work on that)