Cindrac - Mikayla Lane

Chapter One

Earth: The year 2273

The sky appeared to be on fire as dark clouds resembling smoke rolled through the fiery sunset. As Cindrac watched the sun disappear for what he hoped would be the last time, he thought it was a fitting end to what had been nothing more than a shell of an existence.

After decades of fighting petty wars for a depraved and twisted group of elites that ran the world government on Earth, Cindrac had enough and welcomed death. He knew the re-genetics program would finally give it to him.

The highly dangerous and experimental plan would be the first of its kind to meld computer chips with open AI and nanites in a functioning human brain and body. The goal was to create the perfect soldier and father of a new breed of humans. Smarter, stronger, faster, and nearly indestructible.

If successful, it wouldn’t be used for the slave classes of Earth, only to enhance the elites so they could feel more like the gods they pretended to be. The elite would use Cindrac and a female slave named Loquan as never-ending experiments until they outlived their usefulness.

It would be hell for someone like Cindrac, who, like most male children born in the last century on Earth, had been genetically engineered before birth to be a soldier. All slaves had kill switch chips installed when they were born, but each slave class received others specific to the duties the elite created them to perform.

For soldiers like Cin, the elite introduced computer chips before puberty to enable control over their muscles, which allowed them to be paralyzed on command. More chips enhanced his strength, agility, and mental acuity to make him more useful in battle but unable to fight back against those enslaving him.

Over the last few centuries, the elite’s scientists perfected the chips, and the failure rate had been reduced to rare occurrences. The same success couldn’t be said about the open AI and nanite clinical trials. There had never been a successful integration of either in a living human with assimilated computer chips.

The scientists were baffled over why the nanites and AI fought the computer chips' programming instead of integrating, as designed. Horror stories of those who’d been driven homicidal and suicidal over the attempts were the only thing that rattled Cindrac.

He feared that he would be put down like a rabid animal and wanted to die with more honor than that. In a life where he’d had no choices, dying with dignity was the one Cindrac would fight the hardest for if he could.

From what Cin heard, all previous attempts at nanite integration had ended in the test subject's gruesome death either by their hand or through the kill chip placed into the brain stem of all Earth slave children at birth.

In one instance, the nanites and AI had disabled the kill switch, and the test subject had slaughtered a dozen scientists and one of the elite observing the experiment before soldiers gunned him down.

That was the death Cindrac preferred, one where he could take out as many of the maniacal elite overlords and their minions as possible before death. He hoped that he would have the same reaction as Private Crease and wouldn’t die screaming in agony, but on his feet, like a soldier of the old stories.

Cindrac wasn’t the only one who had such strong feelings regarding the elite, though no one dared speak anything out loud. None of the slave class were fooled by the lies and propaganda of the worldwide media and one-world government.

The entire planet of slave class citizens knew they were experimented on, genetically modified, and tortured for the elite's entertainment. Their compliance was guaranteed through the kill switches, indoctrination, propaganda, and the fear instilled in them daily.

Those who’d ever tried to fight back were killed in gruesome and twisted ways on live TV to intimidate and frighten the masses. Children, born only for specific slave classes, were forced to watch the horrific acts in their indoctrination schools.

The only way to escape the control and slavery was death, but even suicide had to be brutal. To ensure the elites couldn’t have the slave brought back to life only to be tortured to death as a warning to others considering it.

Suicide nets surrounded all high-rise buildings to prevent another mass event like the one 187 years earlier. More than 111,000 slaves around the world decided to make a statement and jumped to their deaths simultaneously. The people's outrage and sadness had nearly toppled