The Mech Touch

Earth. The mother planet. The cradle of humanity. The symbolic capital of one of the greatest human empires in history.

On the surface, there was nothing special about the third satellite of the Sol System.

Terrestrial globes like these were like a dime in a dozen in the Milky Way.

While there weren't many of them that happened to satisfy all of the harsh conditions to foster organic life, this still amounted to a huge number given that there were hundreds of billions of star systems in the galaxy!

From a galactic perspective, Earth really wasn't that special. Even the Red Ocean featured a lot of livable planets that played host to comparable plants and wildlife.

In fact, not only was Earth rather common as a life-bearing planet, it also ranked among the lowest of classes!

The home planets of the once-dominant Seven Apex Races were much more impressive in comparison!

Each of them were rife with an abundant quantity of medium to high-grade exotics. These powerful and in some cases unique materials not only transformed the environment of the planets they resided in, but directly affected the evolution of all of the life forms that grew up on their surfaces!

This was how individually powerful races such as the phase whales and the Alshyr were able to rise from their home planets and conquer a portion of their respective galaxies!

Since the races that evolved from more high-class planets tended to possess a lot more inborn advantages, they often overwhelmed their alien rivals and gained supremacy over the weaker races!

What was strange about the human race was how its weak members overcame their disadvantages and defeated alien civilizations that were much greater, much more powerful and much older than their own nascent civilization!

Though mankind was just one of the many organic species to have evolved from Old Earth, it was by far its greatest natural product!

By providing the circumstances that facilitated the evolution and proliferation of ancient humans, this once-savage race of hunter-gatherers had risen up and developed traits that gave their descendants a chance of overturning the previous order in a galaxy that had long been carved up by many alien hegemons.

In fact, many races with the potential to dominate had emerged throughout the history of the Milky Way.

The vast majority of them had failed to displace even a single existing alien civilization!

Only a few newcomers succeeded in toppling their rivals, and none were as successful as the human race!

The tale of humanity's rise was extremely improbable. Not only did it rely on a lot of lucky encounters, but also received a push from the shadows.

Regardless, the human race succeeded against all odds and exploded onto the galaxy with indomitable momentum!

With each successful expansion of the borders of human space, the people that reigned over their expanding empires became more convinced of their specialness.

Although it did not look like it at first, the human race was the chosen race of the galaxy!

Humans were stronger than any alien species!

The victors of many wars and the heirs to the conquerors attempted to find a clear and simple explanation for all of these successes.

Just like other typical humans, they ignored the many factors that contributed to humanity's unlikely rise and latched on to just a handful of factors as the central basis of their theories!

This resulted in the rise of popularity of many odd and not-so-logical beliefs.

One of them was the worship of the planet that spawned the human race.

This ordinary globe that was not that remarkable or even unique in the Milky Way turned into an object that was worshiped by many humans!

No matter whether they were Terrans or citizens of other states, as long as they became steeped in the remarkable history of humanity's extraordinary rise, many of them developed the tendency to worship the planet of origin!

For this reason, Old Earth became the most famed, desirable and precious planet of human civilization.

Once the seat of power of humanity's only unified empire at the time, Old Earth and much of the Sol System had become a lot calmer these days.

This was because the Greater Terran United Confederation decided not to risk any further damage to mankind's greatest planet and shift their capital elsewhere.

Once the Terran Confederation started ruling its massive superstate in a much more powerful star system in the galactic center, the Sol System seemingly went back in time before humanity became dominant.

Though much of its defenses remained, a lot of urban settlements and other man-made traces disappeared from the surface of the planet.

Under the guiding hand of the greatest experts of the Terran Confederation, Old Earth slowly and steadily regained a stable and healthy ecosystem. Tranquility had returned to much of the surface as the number of cities and towns drastically dropped!

In addition, the Terrans heavily restricted access to their historical heritage site, thereby preventing a flood of tourists from overrunning and ruining its idyllic environment.

For many centuries, Old Earth regained its status as the jewel of the human race.

As the most precious heritage of mankind, only a tiny proportion of Terran citizens were allowed to reside on the planet.

The right to live and breathe on the same planet where their grand species had emerged upon was considered one of the highest honors a Terran citizen could receive!

No more than 1 billion residents were allowed to live on Old Earth at any time!

Deaths and departures frequently took place among a population of this size, but the free slots instantly got filled up as the people on the waiting list finally received their turn!

The selection and order of the waiting list was an entirely different subject altogether. No average Terran citizen could realistically get to the front of the list in their lifetimes.

In fact, most people didn't even have the qualifications to put their names on it in the first place!

The reality was that only the richest and wealthiest citizens of the Terran Confederation were able to grasp this precious opportunity.

This basically translated to the members of the ancient clans that dominated the different star sectors and star clusters of the Terran Confederation!

Almost every single person walking or floating above the quaint and historical streets of the settlements of Old Earth were the elites of their grand society.

In general, the demographics of the planet's population could roughly be split into three categories.

First, there were the old and retired Terrans who had once contributed much to the Confederation.

To reward these dignified statesmen and soldiers for their exceptional service, their sponsors arranged the highest and most precious form of retirement for them. No Terran could dream of a greater way to enjoy the twilight of their lives than to pass their remaining years on humanity's origin planet!

Second, there were the enthusiasts of all ages who insisted on living on Old Earth for at least a portion of their lives!

While not all of them were diehard fanatics, they still possessed a lot of reverence towards Old Earth and weren't afraid to sacrifice a huge amount of money, resources and opportunities just to gain permission to live on this sacred planet!

Third were the young and growing scions of the ancient clans. While their contributions to the Confederation were too trivial to count, their powerful relatives were different.

On this particular day, a youthful woman in her late teens sat in a park while studying the archival battle footage of one of the most famous and renowned mechs of the Terran Confederation!

The slim and blonde woman garbed in an exquisitely tasteful yet anachronistic brown adventurer's coat sighed.

"None of my teachers and professors have the knowledge I need."

The woman happened to be a recent graduate from Newcastle University, one of Old Earth's many ancient educational institutions that had managed to survive up to this date.

In the backdrop, numerous younger students garbed in their interpretation of ancient human Earth wear hurriedly ran or floated through the campus of the university in order to catch their next classes or appointments.

The woman studying the footage of the legendary Ouroboros no longer had to attend any of them because she already had a coveted degree in mech design in her pocket.

"I thought that I could find the secret of designing a mech like the Ouroboros after five years of living and studying on Old Earth. I was wrong."

Her expression turned glum. Though her ancient clan was on the rise, it had only been able to give her a temporary student quota for five years.

Regardless of whether she obtained her university degree or not, the authorities in charge of the planet would mercilessly boot her out of the planet if she stayed just a second too long!

She enjoyed her precious time in the city of Newcastle and made a lot of friends and connections among the talented and wealthy scions that had been her classmates.

Yet she never managed to get close to the only goal she truly cared about.

"I promised grandpa that I would reproduce his greatest work and design a second Ouroboros! If I cannot accomplish this on Old Earth, then I will find my chance at another place!"

This was the conviction of Alexa Streon, the granddaughter of General Axelar Streon!

As Alexa switched off the physical projection and stood up in order to prepare for her departure from Old Earth, the air suddenly froze.

Every student, every professor, every guard and every staff member at the campus felt as if the air around them had become charged.

Other Terrans living on the other parts of the planet also experienced the phenomenon.

Then, they started to feel the rise of something great!

Many of the shocked and bewildered Terrans looked down as they felt as if an enormous earthquake was about to beset the entire planet.

Their eyes dilated as they felt incredibly small as humanity's home planet seemingly grew unstable!

This was extremely weird as none of the sophisticated sensors that watched out for incidents like these ever detected anything weird!

Old Earth was completely stable as intended, yet every single resident of the sacred planet could not help but feel as if the planet beneath them was shaking like an overloading engine!

"What is this…"

"Did the Rubarthans set off a superbomb?!"

"Wait! It's not an earthquake! Our planet… is coming alive!"

"What?! Have you been smoking too much of that stinky grass lately?!"

Only a few people made the ridiculous claim that Old Earth was coming alive. Others instantly shot down their theories as they did their best to find a rational explanation for what was happening.

Alexa Streon was different, though.

As one of the few Terrans that not only obtained the privilege to reside on Old Earth for a time but also had the honor of visiting, touching and interacting her grandfather's impressive ace mech many times in her youth, she felt that the grand presence buried deep below her feet shared at least few semblances to the Ouroboros!

"What is this?!"

It was as if Old Earth had awoken for the very first time!

As the planet seemed to rouse to life, the Terran residents became so enthralled that they didn't know what to make of this odd phenomenon.

Though the strange feeling emanating from the planet hadn't been that strong or well-defined, millions of pilgrims and fanatics dropped to their knees and prostrated in what they believed to be the mother of humanity arousing herself from her dormancy!

Yet before they could experience any more of this, the rising presence buried deep below the surface suddenly weakened until the Terrans could feel nothing more.

In the end, every still or prostrating Terran felt awkward as the sacred planet turned completely normal in a matter of seconds.

"What… happened?"

"I don't know, but we need to find an explanation for this phenomenon!"

Despite the brief duration of this global event, its ripple effects gradually spread far and wide, affecting not only the Terran Confederation, but also the rest of human civilization!