“Alright so today we are going to be doing a solo exercise.” Aegis informed me.

“I was getting comfortable working with everyone.” I replied.

“I know, but everyone is going to be all over the place. Some are also solo, others in pairs. We try to provide a wide variety of encounters to keep you flexible.” She said.

“That makes sense but knowing my back or front was covered still helped me mentally.” I said.

“Sorry, it was nice to watch you enjoy yourself with friends and allies. You also need practice in many different scenarios… So this one will be a bit different, you will be attacking a base solo but with access to multiple heavy assault bodies.” She said moving into a more teacher like role.

“You will have two objectives, first is to disable the vault security system via the Security Center, second to locate and collect an ancient alien artifact from the vault. The base will be on a heightened alert to start with, but this still means sneaking is an option.” Aegis continued.

“Alright and I am going to be using an augmented robotic body?” I asked.

“Yes, 3 in fact that you will be able to switch back and forth between. As well as send basic commands to me which I will then execute. I will also note that assuming you are discovered the security response will continue to escalate the longer the attack goes.” She said.

“Alright do I get to practice with the bodies for a little bit?” I asked.

“No need, they will be similar to what you have used in some scenarios prior to this, just more enhanced.” She said.

“Alright, what about the enemy facility, anything you can tell me about that?” I asked.

“The facility will be a randomly generated former human structure that was taken over by an organic mass. The organisms protecting the place will be spawned by the facility.” Aegis told me, I suspected more but she would not tell me. I figured this was some sort of test that was evaluating more than the obvious stuff.

With that I was transferred to a lush jungle next to a small pod that must have represented my insertion onto the planet. The entire scenario was virtual just like all the other times we had been doing combat. This however would be the first time I got to actively switch between bodies.

Aegis gave me a waypoint to the facility based on old records. I began to follow travel towards the way point when Aegis came on the line.

“Don't forget the other two, also I would recommend a stealthy approach.” She told me.

“Oh right… Wait, you said you would handle basic commands? How does that work?” I asked.

“Some examples would be to follow active unit, Defend position, so on and so forth. I'll let you know if what you are asking is outside of what a basic AI would normally be able to handle.” She told me.

“Alright, umm stealthily follow the active unit?” I asked.

“Following” I heard her respond.

While we were traveling Aegis went over some of the more useful systems and utilities built into these bodies or maybe calling them drones fit the concept better. This included several stealth systems, a deployable shoulder mounted heavy plasma cannon, duel wrist mounted flechette rifles, a selection of grenades, passive and reactive ballistic armor, multiple sets of sensor suites, and a deployable bladed tail just to name a few. All for something that was maybe a third bigger than a human which meant it was a good bit bigger than me normally. The body was currently set to be similar to my physical proportions regarding arm, leg, and torso length and such. While a step could take me further or I could reach higher it really didn't feel all that different.

Sneaking forward I finally got a glimpse of the facility in question. It was a large concrete affair and I could see loading docks for both wheeled vehicles, aircraft, and had some sort of small tower. Based on the size of it I also heavily suspected it went underground. The other most noticeable feature was all the plant-like vines all over the place. Well except they were red and maybe pulsing a little, I could see leaves all over the place that looked black as well.

“Aegis how deep does this place go? Also what's with the vines?” I asked.

“The facility is over 500 meters deep, however the first 100 below the main entrance is solid stone and reinforced concrete to act as a bunker.” She began

“The leaves and plants are a rough facsimile of the Verdant Nexus. Also this is indicative of a large-scale infestation so any number of biological entities might hop out.” Aegis informed me.

“Can it feel through the leaves and vines?” I asked.

“Sort of, there are individual nodes every 100 meters or so that act as localized brains. If you take one out you can blind entire section, that will alert the rest of the entity however.” She continued to inform me.

“Okay… so it sounds like there are tons I will still need to learn… umm how long does the Verdant Nexus workshop normally take?” I asked.

“About 3 weeks to go over many of the basics… they are incredibly advanced and flexible from a biological standpoint.” She said.

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“Right… so not enough time to go over everything that could be helpful right now…” I commented.

“Agreed but I will let you know about relevant information when it seems appropriate.” She told me.

I continued forward in the jungle-like environment. It seemed to be very hot and humid but other than some of the basic feedback I didn't really register it.

“So I will add, when a new colony of Verdant Nexus material is found in an environment like this it tends to ignore wild life if it does not appear to be a threat. You could go up to a leaf and touch it and not get a reaction. You damage the leaf in any way and it will go crazy.” Aegis informed me as I approached.

I took cover behind some heavy foliage about 50 meters away from the facility's loading dock. Zooming in I could make out several creatures basically milling about, 2 bipedal and 7 quadrupedal.

“Aegis, do they have guns?” I asked in confusion.

“They do have captured standard issue SC Military plasma rifles, but be aware they will also have semi-organic needle throwers at this size. The biggest can have semi-organic plasma cannons. Oh umm also every single unit has some method of melee strike, these are particularly nasty as the blades are commonly made out of carbon nanotubes, fullerene, or graphene. Your armor and skeleton are resistant but you will start to lose mobility and functionality if you are taking too many hits.” She said.

“Yikes… how well can they sense me?” I asked.

“About as well as you can detect them, however you are currently trying to hide.” She added.

“Alright… any other points of access… also I am wondering if I should leave one up here as a distraction.” I commented.

“You certainly could and I will leave that up to you. As for other access points there is a thermal heat exchange, it is part of the facilities reactor system. The Verdant Nexus infestation is very likely tapped into that at least partially however there is a chance they are ignoring errant or faulty sensors for now. ” She told me.

I followed her directions to the vent in question that was maybe 500 meters away from the front door. A large quantity of steam was coming out of it but I didn't see any plants or anything.

“Alright I'm going to guess they are ignoring it, this vent is used for waste heat removal aka cooling, and it is superheated…” she said.

“Okay? What does that mean?” I asked.

“Oh, if superheating is occurring then insufficient water is being pulled into the thermal exchange chamber. Which means the water is being used elsewhere or there was a system failure at some point.” she said.

“Ok will the bodies hold up to the temperatures?” I asked, she then had me stick my hand into the steam.

“Yes but several of your active systems will be degraded and will even have to be shut down if they get too hot. Even standard Verdant Nexus biology can't handle these temperatures, more specialized biology is required for these temperatures.” She said.

I cracked open the metal grate then started to climb down. The walls were super smooth concrete in fact it was so smooth that even the bodies had initial differences starting to climb down. Luckily Aegis caught me by pressing the legs and back into opposite walls. It was a very slow process descending 400m.

Eventually I reached another grate on the north facing section of the walls and was able to break through that. The temperature was indeed starting to play hell with some of the more sensitive electronics and had to be shut down. I was at least now in a horizontal vent which was incredibly large although I was still having to crawl. I eventually came to an access hatch that was supposed to allow robotic drones access to inspect the exchange system. It was not very secure but it was very heavily insulated, Aegis then indicated where I could apply a wire probe that could cut through the hatch and deactivate the locking bolts. My three bodies eventually crawled out of this vent then closed and reengaged the access hatch.

“Hey Aegis, are parts of these bodies glowing?” I asked confused.

“Yes, due to the temperatures, structurally the bodies are currently repairing themselves after the prolonged heat. The superstructure is not steel and most of the rest of the systems will be fully repaired in the next 10 minutes.” She told me so I sat down and waited.

“Alright so if this place was still normal where would the closest security access point be?”aaI asked.

“Should be in subfloor 4 we are currently in subfloor 8, vault is in subfloor 10. You will have less than 5 seconds to trigger the door open sequence after deactivating security. By the way the security office and vault are both protected by trans-dimensional suppression fields, as well as more common signal jamming and disruption.” She informed me.

“What now?” I asked confused.

“They block signals that we use to communicate to your remote body. Don't worry we have options to workaround that if need be but as a warning this could get complicated.” Aegis said.

I positioned my primary body near the door and had Aegis snake a fiber optic camera to the other side. I was greeted by a long low lit corridor that ran roughly parallel to the tunnel I just entered from. As I was waiting I saw two creatures hauling a large heavy object. The creatures look similar to the bipedal creatures on the surface but maybe more utilitarian and still very much organic with metal objects ‘built in’. The object they were hauling was clearly of human origin.

“What are they carrying?” I asked.

“Looks like one of the water pumps for the cooling system. They are more than likely going to take it back and try to repair or augment it.” She said.

“That seems odd…” I commented.

“How so? The Verdant Nexus as an organism while far more generalized, they avoid specialization due to the added resource cost. It is easier for them to use human equipment at the moment then try to replace it with their own.” She said. I wanted to question it but I didn't know why, something just felt off about watching the pair.

As soon as they moved down the hallway I exited the room with the other two remote bodies following me. The hallway was a solid concrete with a solid blue line at eye level, with metal conduit and lights that were dim. All three had a lower power active camouflage. If I stood still I was impossible to see, hopefully these workers would overlook the group as they were clearly focused on other tasks. I continued down the hall before coming to a T junction. That was when I noticed a thin vines or tendrils down this far and Aegis informed me that it was only just building up a path for later usage. Eventually I was directed to both a set of stairs and elevator.

“Hey I figured the plant stuff would have used the elevator shaft or stairs. How has it been growing from floor to floor?” I asked.

“Currently it is burrowing through the walls and bedrock to reach different points. At the moment it is finding the facility more useful than a hindrance.” She said. With that I gave a virtual shrug at the information and headed to the stairway entrance.

Right as I was in the process of kneeling down the door opened and I was greeted by the two workers I had seen before. They seemed as startled as we were of them. They however reacted first by pointing their wrists right at me and barrels appeared from under the skin.