[https://i.imgur.com/MModCK3.png]
Concept art for recruit level suits on default mode. *subject to change
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"Let's play that game."
Penelope was bored of her paperwork and wanted a break.
"No." The captain was hardly amused.
"The cocoon fluid has been sucked back, there's not much time left to pick". True enough, on the monitors the cocoons were appearing less ovoid and now human body parts could be seen. It wouldn't be long until someone awakened.
Penelope continued, "I bet 1 platinum on that woman in K11 near the blood splatter."
"1 platinum? No, I will not participate."
Penelope raised an eyebrow, "that wasn't a no. That was a 'the stakes are too high Penelope I refuse to gamble.' " She perfectly imitated his cadence, but mocked him with tonality.
"Your persistence is incessant. I would rather play and end this matter. But 1 silver is all I will bet. I do not believe in gambling savings."
"You're boring."
"No, you always lose and I'm giving you a saving grace."
"1 platinum on that yellow skinned woman in K11."
The captain quickly retorted. "1 silver on the olive skinned man in B5. That's all I'm going to bet."
"Fine. 1 silver it is."
They shook hands.
Penelope started to cackle. "Classic Sunderland."
He turned around to look at her, confused. "Classic Sunderland?"
"I've read your research, Captain. Which includes your theory that the enzyme to break down the anaesthetic in the diluent leads to olive coloured skin. The deeper the olive coloured skin, the higher concentration of enzyme there is. And then there is your hypothesis to choose a larger male so that he can proportionally have a larger liver to break down said toxins, and don't forget your other decision to choose a male curled in a foetal position so as to limit the exposure of the drug? You think I don't know what you're doing Captain? You mentored me. I know you like the binder knows your research".
"Then you're a fool for not choosing him when you had the chance. You think the smell of blood will arouse your woman from her slumber? She can't even smell, the cocoon is not letting her breathe! Even if she could, she's asleep, you don't smell when you're asleep!" He laughed, "Or maybe you think the close proximity to the encounter with that sociopath has increased her adrenaline and/or endorphins, thus giving her a mental edge to arouse first? Why not choose the attacked woman in question? Or an olive skinned man near them? Think again naïve Penelope. Think. Again."
She smiled. There's my Captain. "So, do you want to up the stakes? 1 platinum. I believe the yellow skinned woman in K11 will wake up first."
"Laughable. I will not fall for your tricks. No. No matter how assured I am of success, I will not compromise my rule to never gamble my savings."
"So you're a coward?"
"That's right. I'm a responsible coward."
—--------
For the second time today Zac awoke from his slumber. A pulsatile tight band around his head was throbbing like someone was knocking a hammer against his temples.
Zac's mouth and eyes were restricted and couldn't open. He could feel something in front of his face and clawing at his face, he ripped off a thin skin. Zac immediately vomited up a bloody gruel which brought some immediate relief.
Zac opened his eyes and was met with two slightly different, overlapping images that were moving fluidly as his eyes translated and rotated independently of each other. He continued to rip out more of the transparent skin out of his ears and drained out not an insignificant amount of fluid from his ears.
The running in his ears left as the fluid drained. In its place, Zac heard a low sine waves rumbling.
Zac was left in absolute clarity. Headache disappeared. His body was suddenly refreshed and his mind was present and active. Gone was the anxiety, stress, and rage from before. It such was an unusual feeling to him after being suppressed for so long. Light. He felt so light, like the previous events didn't matter.
He slowly adjusted to this new world internally and externally. A whole new world was opened up to him. He could feel the same skin covering his whole body. It was skin tight and supportive. He tried to rip it off to no avail. It was very strongly adhered, like it was just another layer of his skin.
⟡Default mode activated.⟡
A voice echoed in his mind.
Default mode? What was that?
The voice didn’t reply. He rolled over onto his elbows and knees and saw that a black suit now covered his arms. Inspecting further, it covered his torso and legs, hands, and feet. The suit ended at the top of his neck right below his jawline and, he supposed, where his hairline might have started. Zac wasn’t entirely certain but figured as much when he ran his hands over his face and head and found that he didn’t have a single hair on his head. Not even eyebrows.
Zac inspected his hands closer and used one hand to pinch the other. A flexible material was pulled slightly before the adhered skin was also dragged up. It's like I'm wearing a glove, yet my tactile sensation is more sensitive than before.
He realised his vision was also much clearer than before. The tears and brain fog had cleared, but even then his vision felt augmented. He could see the small holes in the shower head meter above as if it was right in front of him.
Zac looked around. The concrete floor was more porous than before. The gore that surrounded him was now missing. Further away he could see all the other humans covered in the same pulsating semi-transparent film.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Zac touched the cocoon closest to him. It was transparent, showing the body of the yellow skinned woman. He immediately crawled forward and ripped off the layer covering her face. But she didn’t take a breath or wake up.
"Hey, lady. Wake up. Waakkkeee upppp!" Zac shook both of her shoulders and with no response, put her on her back and began to perform resuscitation by compressing her torso rhythmically with his arms. Suddenly her forearms instinctively lifted off the ground to try and push him away. She was starting to rouse. She turned to the side and also expelled a bloody gruel before also falling onto her back again, intermittently opening her eyes and closing them, wincing.
Reassuringly, the lady was breathing regularly. She too had lost all her hair on her head, including eyebrows and eyelashes. Whatever dissolved their skin before must have also removed all their hair. Actually, Zac began to think and inspected her skin closer. He was surprised that her skin had no blemishes. No burn marks. No scarring. There was no evidence that anything had happened, save that goop on the floor from their stomachs and the transparent film over their bodies.
Suddenly the film that covered her body morphed and turned into the same black suit that Zac was wearing.
A concrete wall near to them opened to reveal the captain and the drill sergeant. They slowly walked over the bodies, making a bee line for Zac and the lady. The captain put his hand inside his breast pocket.. Zac's heart skipped a beat. That's where he kept the device. Adrenaline flooded his body. Wait, this feeling of peacefulness. Was this intentional to lull me into a sense of insecurity? Rift what is he going to do.
⟡Detecting raised heart rate. Insufficient power, unable to initiate battle mode, please connect a power source.⟡
The voice rang out in his head again, distracting him.
The captain instead pulled out a small purse and withdrew a small silver coin which he placed in a dissatisfied drill sergeant's outstretched hand.
They arrived in front of Zac and the lady and the drill sergeant squatted down inspecting the woman.
The lady opened her eyes. Penelope, seeing this, asked her, “what is your name?”
“Lucy.” She croaked out before closing her eyes again.
Penelope placed two fingers on Lucy’s neck, she looked at the captain and nodded.
"Well she did wake up to vomit and talk, so I guess that counts, right?"
"Yes, it takes incredible mental fortitude to wake up this early. She probably fell unconscious again because the bonding process to the blu-flo hasn’t completed."
They both observed Lucy in silence, confirming that she didn’t rouse again, before the captain asked the drill sergeant. "How did you know?"
"Sorry?"
"You seemed so assured of yourself. How did you know?"
"Well, a girl can't reveal all her tricks right?"
"Wrong. I am ordering you as a superior officer to tell me".
"Tsk. I didn't know, it was a random guess okay? You were down and I wanted to help, that's all."
"Then why bet 1 platinum?"
"To be honest, it was just to egg you on. I was hedging my bets that you wouldn't accept it. And I played you like a fiddle."
"That's… reasonable…” The captain struggled to accept her explanation. “Still, this was a 1 in 300 chance. To even guess the right person purely on chance without an adequate theory seems highly improbable."
"You just can’t accept that I beat you at your own game with pure chance. Believe it." she shrugs, "You wrote the book, I hold no information that you don't already know".
The captain sniffed and then reached into his breast pocket again and took out a small metal orb. It had multiple layers of constantly rotating metal which protected a tiny, shining blue orb. Rotating the outer metalwear in a particular combination, the rotations stopped, allowing the captain to take the orb out. It was half the size of his smallest fingernail. He crouched in front of Lucy and began to talk to her.
"Life is a competition. We are already limited by our degrading genetics and by our life expectancy. So humanity fights to excel, grow, and surpass the limits of our mortality. As the first to awaken, I congratulate you with a prize: your first step to gain powers beyond your imagination. Others fight to survive. You will fight for greatness. The extent that you can bond with this is up to your fate. I welcome you, initiate, as a fellow traveller on the path of transcendence."
He opened her mouth and dropped the orb inside her mouth. Zac leaned in to see better. Suddenly a blue glow spilled out of her mouth and blue lines arced across her lips and face. Her armour turned transparent again and Zac could see blue lines spreading across the rest of her body. Lucy’s body was lifted up into the air, hovering on its own, as more and more blue lines appeared across her skin until every pore was seeping some blue light.
Lucy arched her back. Her jaw started to clatter first before her whole body began to seize in mid air and all her muscles started to spasm, jerk, and stiffen repeatedly. Finally the light faded and the convulsing stopped. Lucy fell back to the ground unmoving, bleeding from every pore.
"Rejected?" The drill sergeant asked the captain as she pulled out a spray bottle and began to spray the woman. Mysteriously all of Lucy’s superficial wounds began to close and heal within seconds.
"Administrator override, codename Penelope. Activate default armour." Lucy's transparent film became a black suit again.
"Hard to say. There definitely was some rejection, but I haven’t seen such a strong penetration into tissue before. I wonder how much will be translated into actual ability." He sighed. "If there’s any talent, she'll have to spearhead the first campaign. Every other recruit could be a dramatic failure."
Lucy replied, "I'll show you a report back inside. We might need to change our target planet. He haven't had hunters cull the numbers of rattips for the last 2 weeks."
"No don't change it. I think this lady has more surprises for us." The captain stood up and saluted Lucy. The drill sergeant followed, showing a modicum of respect with a salute while squatting.
"Work hard initiate. Don't die."
The captain walked back to the open concrete door. The drill sergeant seemed to be staring absentmindedly at the empty floor in Zac's direction, reminded of something. She smiled.
Zac was watching all this happen and could just make out the drill captain say "I guess I had a hunch." under her breath before she stood up and followed the captain out.
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On the other side of the room another man began to stir. He brought himself up on his knees and elbows, clawing at his face before also vomiting and falling unconscious into his own mess.
In the control room, the captain smashed the metal table one more time. It was now fully decommissioned.