Adventures of Pangaeus (eBook)

Part 1:
A Bounty Hunter

Hello, I am Ace Ikasame, and I will be telling you of the adventures of the super-planet Pangaeus.

Long ago, a solar-system–sized god named Kronos attempted to absorb the sun and take over the universe, but a hero named Tarak stopped Kronos. But this came at a cost. All the planets in our solar system were destroyed. But Tarak merged all the planets together into one. Mars, Mercury, Earth, Venus, and Pluto formed the ground, and Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus formed the atmosphere (with oxygen in the atmosphere, of course). And Pangaeus was formed. Every planet and civilization lived harmoniously together, for the most part. Cities, countries, villages, and all that stuff came. Since civilization had to restart, our technology is at the thirty-first-century level, which means we are very behind for a civilization that has existed for millions of years.

5456 AD: Valhallan City.
Earth Sector:

“Aw man. Another boring day,” I said as I awoke and stretched. My alarm blared. “Shut up!” I yelled as I slammed it on the ground, and it instantly crumbled to pieces. I got up, stepped over the pieces, and walked to the kitchen. I opened the drapes and looked out the window. “The same,” I said. Valhallan City was truly beautiful—white shiny impressive buildings, clear skies, and good people. It was a paradise. But looking at it out the window for twenty years kind of gets boring. But I had another day of work. And my work was definitely not boring. I poured a bowl of cereal and ate. I washed my dishes and got my coat on. “Alright. Another day of work,” I said as I opened the door. “AW MAN!” I said in irritation as I covered my eyes from the sun. “Jeez,” I said as I started walking on the sidewalk. I walked past buildings and shops, which were perfectly placed to attract tourists from other sectors. I continued walking until I got to a smaller, less attractive building, tinted brown, with cracks spread across the foundation. I opened the door and walked down the staircase, admiring once again the pictures of the greatest bounty hunters in Pangaeus.

“Oh! Ace, you’re back!” a man named Akat said.

“Yup,” I responded. Akat was definitely a toughie. He had scars all over his face and arms, and an eyepatch over his right eye. He also always wore black and red armor for a reason I never understood.

“Do I have a task for you!” he said excitedly.

“What is it?” I asked him.

He rubbed his hands together. “The Dyson sphere is being attacked. Take out the enemy and repair the ship. If you do this efficiently, and without dying of course, I will pay you a pretty penny,” he told me.

“But the area around the Dyson sphere is over 5,500 degrees Celsius! I will burn to death!” I told him.

“We’ve got you prepared. Weapons, supplies, and protection are all on us,” he told me.

“And why do you want me to do such a task?” I asked him.

“You’re the only one who can,” he responded.

“Alright,” I agreed.

“Your ship is landing,” he told me, smirking.

I heard the hum of the ship. I smiled and climbed the stairs and opened the door to the grassy field. “Well, that ship is bigger than I expected,” I said, surprised.

The ship was twenty-five meters wide and fifteen meters tall. In the front was a circular cockpit with windows that wrapped around it. In the back of the cockpit there was a large box-shaped part of the ship, probably the seating area. I walked towards the back of the ship where the hatch had been opened for me to enter. “What have I gotten myself into?” I said, out loud.

“Your future,” a man in full black body armor said to me.

“Darn, Bro, that’s deep,” I responded.

He laughed. “What are you waiting for?” he asked me.

I walked onto the ship. “My name is General Taketh. Welcome aboard the Hephaestus.”

As I looked around the vast room, everything I thought that I knew about today’s technology went out the window. There were many large compartments on the ship and each compartment held a smaller, slimmer spaceship with weapons attached on each one.

“Those are drones. The project that created this ship was highly protected by the government, so the people have not seen this ship, as it is only for Dyson sphere missions,” Taketh explained.

“Why do I need such a huge ship?” I asked him.

“You need to be protected. This is a very important mission. Follow me to the cockpit,” he told me. We walked through the box room and up a metal ramp to the cockpit. “Sit,” he told me. I sat in one of the pilot’s chairs.

“The Dyson sphere makes all of that possible,” he said as he pointed behind us at the Earth. It glowed with cities, and you could see the colors of the different sectors, Earth, Mars, Mercury, Pluto, and Venus. It also had a beautiful blueness to it. “If you don’t stop whatever is attacking the Dyson sphere, we will go back to the Middle Ages,” he told me.

“Why don’t we just use coal and all that stuff?” I asked him.

“Not enough resources,” he responded. “Coal only exists in the earth sector, where the most plants grow.”

“What exactly is the Dyson sphere?” I asked him.

“The Dyson sphere is a machine that harnesses energy from the sun. Built a century ago. Brand new,” he told me. “Pangaeus is a planet made from a solar system, which means we need the energy to power a solar system,” he explained. “But the Dyson sphere has stopped suddenly,” he told me.

“Activating full thrust, sir,” one of the pilots said.

I now noticed that everybody on the ship was wearing the exact same uniform, a white jumpsuit with an earth symbol on the left arm. Ever since Pangaeus was formed, there were no longer individual countries, instead, each sector had a ruler. And we made sure that none of the rulers became power hungry, or we would kick ’em out of office. Communism was now a thing of the past.

“So . . . What’s the deal with the pilots and the other people?” I asked him.

“DSPF,” he told me. “The Dyson Sphere Protection Force. A very secret agency. The people here are part of the Earth branch,” he told me.

“OH MY GOSH!” I yelled as I was thrust back in my chair.

“You will get used to it!” he yelled over the growl of thrusters.

“I don’t think so!” I responded.

“Destination reached, sir,” the pilot said as the thrusters stopped.

“What a slow ride,” I muttered sarcastically.

“Initiating docking sequence,” the pilot said. He flipped a few switches and pressed a few buttons. I could kind of feel a magnetic field under me, like the way you feel when you jump and fall back down, only it was under me.

“Normally, we wouldn’t be able to land on the Dyson sphere, but since it’s stopped, we can,” he said. “And it’s coming into view!” he informed me.

“Oh my god . . .” I said in pure amazement. There were many rings around the sun, but there was also a metal shell around it. The only thing that allowed light to escape were holes. The Dyson sphere was so vastly large it could intimidate the fiercest warriors. It glowed with a yellow light, and I thought I saw buildings on it. “Why are there cities right next to the sun?” I questioned.

“Oh no. Those aren’t cities. Those are stations. The energy gets pulled into the stations and put in canisters,” he said.

“What exactly is the Dyson sphere?” I asked him.

“A machine that holds the power to harness the energy of the sun itself,” he told me.

“Alright, suit up,” he told me as he gave me a square glowing device. I stared at him confused. “Just press the button,” he told me. I shrugged and pressed the button. I watched as a black matter climbed its way up and around me from my feet to my shoulders, encasing me in armor. The armor was black and had glowing purple wires going from place to place just like Taketh’s.

“Here. You will need this,” he said as he gave me an old black gladiator helmet from ancient Rome. “Put it on,” he told me. I put it on, and I felt a little debris fall off. “Press the button on the right side of it.” I did so and the part of the helmet that covered the face crumbled off and was immediately replaced with a more high-tech see-through visor. The new feature included an augmented reality heads-up display or HUD, which showed current temperature readings. “Never take it off. If you do, the sun will literally melt you. The armor is made of Ikamium, the most temperature resistant metal. Straight from the Mercury sector,” he told me. I noticed a circular structure that the ship was heading for. The ship eventually reached it and landed directly on the structure. “I will explain how it works. There is a metal shell around the sun. The metal shell transmits energy to the rings via energy pods. Once it reaches...