The young boy of fifteen tapped his feet nervously on the steel platform as he sat on the steel bench with his head arched down. He bit down on his lower lip from time to time, as he started to feel bubbly inside. No amount of preparation seemed to calm him in anyway. Within the high transport vehicle that hovered over the metropolitan city were a dozen of people, the passengers all teenagers taken from different orphanages across the planet. Their destination, the small mech research division on planet Soto, a small planet in the Xadar solar system.
Soto was one of the newer established human divisions of the last 200 years, the population nothing remarkable than it should have but it did carry a significant number of people. It originally started as a redevelopment project but soon became populated by those who sought to be free from the world's struggles and former mech pilots who had been injured or crippled in battle. What best way to retire than on a planet that was too insignificant to be taken serious?
Time passed and small time businesses and branches from established and well renowned firms sought to make a claim on the growing planet in hopes that it would one day become a big name in the galaxy. But Soto became more of a residential plant never making a name in the Xadar solar system.
The planet also managed a number of small orphanages in one of its capital states, these orphanages served the purpose of finding potential genotes within the younger generation. Genotes were those who carried the X gene, the genetic composition a person needed to pilot a mech, without it linking up with a mech wqould be fatal. And since the percentage of having one genote within a thousand people was less than one percent they were well coveted like national treasures in every faction of human civilization.
And one of these genotes was a young boy called Alto, growing up with the delusion of being a mech pilot was one of his favourite passtimes. Especially when he found out that he was a genotes at the age of ten, he had been elated. He always had a shy personality and was someone who always exercise caution, he usually ended up getting picked on and lacked basic nutrition making him look lean and half dead.
He feared that one day he would die from the extreme hunger pangs or from being killed by the other orphanage children. The orphanage never seemed to care about him, all that changed when he awakened the X gene in his bloodstream and he had his ancestors to thank for that. He alongside two of the orphanage kids were genotes, they received executive treatment from the orphanage including good meals and a their own private beds. And soon after they started their formal education on the basics of Mechs, mech pilots and a brief history of humanity's evolution.
One of the three who had been chosen as the best was Alto the child who had attained the reputation of the small wimpy kid, the second was Amy— his one and only friend, and Kram his childhood bully. The three of them were sent along side other genotes to the main capital on Soto.
As the metal transport zipped through the air Alto could not stop his heart from racing, it was the first time he felt he truly mattered in the wide world. The thought of being one of the lower percentage of humans born to pilot a mech was nothing short of a dream come true and a way to escape his wasteful life. He was determined not to return to the orphanage again and become one of the greats but of course he had no problem taking things step by step.
In every aspect of the new world were Mechs, ever since the era of mechs started the world had changed drastically and it could all be traced to a thousand years in the past. Back then humans did not spread across the farthest reaches of the galaxy, back then the concept of space travel was nothing they could hope to manage let alone achieve. Back then technology was primitive and limited. The humans of that time did not really care about it, that was till calamity struck the planet. A meteorite shower rained down on the planet, meteors the size of mountains but this was just the start of it. The humans of that time did not have have a way to react to what happened next.
The strange asteroids that had fallen into the earth all hatched to reveal monstrous creatures, they were a walking force of destruction that devastated humankind. They came in groups that were magnanimous, the only weapon that was effective were weapons of mass scale destruction. Even under these circumstances humanity suffered an even greater loss, nations were wiped out and cities decimated. This was the first recorded time that humanity set aside their differences and worked as one. Even with their combined efforts they only managed to put a hold on their inevitable demise.
Humans being a very stubborn and intelligent species came up with the most absurd idea. With more than half the world corrupted they chose to venture out into space with the barest chance of survival. A number of spaceships were dispatched into the great unknown, years passed as many humans died and others left barely alive. Eventually they arrived on a foreign world where the atmosphere supported breathing. It was in that moment that humanity knew how vast the galaxy was. They soon came into contact with alien species that spoke of the kaiju's dreaded presence in the galaxy.
Despite falling short humanity started to evolve at a rapid speed, the scientists working tirelessly to bring the fallen race back to its zenith. After stealing and growing their own technology over years the world called for a way to defend their race from foreign invaders and the monstrous Kaiju humanity eventually ended up with the mechs.