Almost half an hour had passed, and the colossal building, larger than ten stadiums combined, was filled to the brim.
People of different walks and cultures had arrived, some draped in robes of living fabrics, others with bionic modifications etched across their bodies like luminous tattoos.
From the floors above, one could see the entire sprawl of the ground floor below, a shifting ocean of beings and light.
The building had the kind of hush that comes right before applause or panic. Above them, a cathedral of sounds and glass spilled stadium lights into the crowd. On the front rows on the ground floor, some dignitaries and potential investors who refused VIP treatment filled the area. Some of them weren't even humans—Alien species from different Sectors of the galaxy.
On the stage, a slim, charming man stood before a podium.
"Ladies, gentlespecies, and exalted visitors, my name is Jinan and I am your host for the night." The host began. His words were immediately translated, tinting his words into dozens of tongues, many of which didn't originate from Earth. "Welcome to the grand unveiling week. Tonight you all will see why this century rewrites survival and evolution of human nature."
Most of the audience was filled with excitement and tension.
In conventions like this, one wouldn't make such bold claims unless they were true. And not in the micro level, rather in the larger, grand scale of things.
"But before we get to the main events of the night, we have an honorable mention to make. A technology that we stumbled upon, however, our progress has been stumped for a while now. The Government is hoping to cross this obstacle by making the data of this advancement open to the general public, humans or not."
Upon hearing this, almost everyone present was caught by surprise. Technological has long become a treasure to hoard till death, and here they were. In this age, it was a very weird and unusual thing to do.
It's not that there aren't such good Samaritans around, however, they were few and in-between with rarely any great inventions.
With a hand signal, a conduit the scale of a cradle was brought up on the stage from beneath. Following its appearance a large hologram stretched all the way to the roof of the building. It would be hard for anyone to complain about not seeing what was being presented.
"This piece here, is still a prototype, with no concrete name yet for it." the host began as he walked closer to the cradle. He tapped on the metallic surface of the machine for a few seconds before it finally opened up.
Within the conduit was an interface, a lattice of motes, lights gathering at a point continuously. It looked like a habitat seam knitting itself whole. The movements of these lights were clinical and somewhat natural.
For those who were Egomaniacs, they could almost tell what it was that they were seeing as something within them resonated with this light.
"This, my esteemed guests, is Idra! Live and direct. A physical and pure manifestation of the mysterious energy that transforms one into an Egomaniac. For the first time since its inception, a form of this energy is finally being presented to the world." Jinan introduced.
At first, the hall was silent before it burst into a clamor. Everyone was immediately interested in this conduit.
"If this is only an honorable mention, then what's the main thing going to be?" People from the crowd reasoned.
It was easy to understand what it meant for them to be able to produce a physical, pure form of Idra. The possibility and probability of artificially creating Egomaniacs had just burst through its previous ceiling.
This was an advancement that could as well push the entire human race across galaxies into a new chapter, and yet the authorities were making this an open source. People couldn't wrap their heads around it.
Were they that desperate to make progress in this?
As for those who could think even deeper, they came to two different conclusions. It could be many things, but these two were the most probable. Progress has already been made and they've come to a dead end where their findings have shown that any progress down this path will be detrimental rather than otherwise.
So they were leaving it to the public to figure out another path.
As for the second probability, it could be that they didn't really care about this advancement. They might have made other advancements that put this prototype to shame.
Either way, there was certainly a catch to it.
Though many were interested, those who were capable hesitated to take the jump. They decided to wait until the end of the convention before making their decisions.
…
"Things might get out of hand. Shit! Now I know why they even have bounty hunters hidden amongst the crowd." Armand muttered. His teammates heard everything. "Hey, misfits, be on your toes. Have your eyes out for suspicious movements from now on. Use your monocles to scan the crowd for wanted criminals. Even if the resemblance is 50%, note down their positions." He ordered.
At least he's not as much of an airhead as I thought. Narvel thought. He was also able to guess the outcome of this convention. It was highly likely that a lot of criminals had already infiltrated.
For the fact that the government has the technology to scan every individual coming into the stratosphere, a technology more advanced than what their monocles were capable of, and yet, they let these people in… something wasn't right about that.
From Narvel's perspective, they were setting a honey pot, a trap to catch a lot of ants and bears. The Federation is likely behind this too.
Jinan let the crowd simmer in its frenzy before raising a hand, silencing them once more.
"Now then," he said smoothly, "to the main event. Tonight, we unveil six technologies that will redefine not only Earth's place in the galaxy, but the very boundaries of civilization."
The hologram suddenly shifted to the shape of a titanic weapon mounted on a spaceship's hull. The barrel of the weapon shimmered with coiled energy, dwarfing the engineers standing beside it.
"This is the Ark Cannon. A weapon that draws energy from Yttrium Cores, a rare resource as you all know."
The hologram then began to show a live demonstration: a barren moon, light-years away from Earth's solar system came into view. This moon was about fifteen times larger than Earth.
Then grey motes of lights sped towards the mouth of the weapon's mouth, at first it started slowly, then progressed to a speed where the eyes could barely follow. With a silent launch, the gathered energy blurred through the void as it crossed a vast distance in a few seconds and landed on the barren moon.
A cut from the weapon's blast melted the surface into a molten scar before penetrating through. A shockwave exploded upon impact, causing more damage to the barren moon.
The audience gasped in terror.
"With sufficient charge, its destructive potential grows exponentially. The conspiracy about Earth working on creating a 'planet-breaker' was never an unfounded theory. We'll leave other speculations to your imaginations."
Jinan's sent chills down many spines, especially those who weren't humans.
An insectoid dignitary with mandibles, raised her claw. "This violates at least three federation accords on planetary-scale armament. Do you present this as a weapon… or a deterrent?"
Jinan smiled faintly. "Both, perhaps. As always, intention rests in the hands of those who wield it."
His answer only deepened the tension.
Other dignitaries began muttering amongst themselves. The Ark Cannon was enough to overturn a lot of things.
Without waiting for the crowd to fully absorb what he had just revealed, Jinan went ahead to introduce the next on the list. He introduced a new and more powerful version of the Kestrel Exoshell, the fourth Model of the suit's version. After revealing what the suit was capable of, the crowd was once again stunned.
After that, he revealed the Sentinel Nanites. Once again, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
…
Armand exhaled slowly as nervous sweat dampened his collar despite the cool air. He muttered into his comms. "This isn't a convention. It's bait."
"Correction," Narvel's voice came through. "It's a declaration of war. They're flaunting all of this that could have been kept hidden to the entire galaxy, daring them to come take it."
Declaring war at this point, is this boy crazy? Armand thought. He wasn't the only one with that notion, even the rest of his teammates felt he was exaggerating.
This convention wasn't unique to Earth, other races hold conventions like this from time to time, revealing their breakthroughs to the galaxy. It was like a show of power to deter enemies from having nefarious intentions towards them.
"How so?" Still, he didn't dismiss Narvel's thoughts.
"Unlike other Sectors of our galaxy, Earth has always been looked down on, even by those humans born on other planets. We've been bullied for a long time with little to no way to fight back. We barely get a portion of the resources found within our galaxy because of the suppression of other powers. Even the Federation could barely do much to help Earth… do you guys believe this Ark Cannon is a research made explicitly by Earth's engineers?"
His words immediately sent sparks in the minds of his teammates.
"Wait, I don't get what you're getting at," Tomas whispered.
"Sure you don't, big boy." Narvel mocked.
"He's trying to say that the Federation is using Earth to wage a silent war. If any criminal from a different species or any sector that's been openly hostile towards earthlings makes any wrong move, they would be bringing a lot of trouble to their home planet." Armand explained.
Even he didn't want to believe what he had just uttered. Rather than being on protective duty, they were being used as bait too.
The thought of this didn't sit well with any of them.