Ardi’s eyes narrowed.
She then looked Meredith over and realized that she could have her unit be test subjects for a few ideas she had.
And while she didn’t want to actively hurt them, she couldn’t promise it would all be painless.
“Alright but are you prepared for all that following me entails? To cast aside a large piece of your humanity?”
Meredith gave Ardi a sharp salute.
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Good. We still have sixteen hours before we start Grav hopping to Plinth so gather your men in one of the med bays while I have a quick chat with Heatdeath.”
Meredith curtly nodded before leaving the room.
Ardi glanced at her reflection in the mirror again.
She noticed that her hair had grown quite long and this was so that she could better disperse heat generated by her CQNN but it looked rather unkempt.
A large ball of kinky hair that was a vivid of black, cyan and pink heat-dispersing coils that were each a hair wide.
She instructed her Ardinites to braid her hair as she walked out of the bedroom and now that she had gotten some rest, she could finally look at all the artefacts Zenith had in his quarters.
There was everything from ancient earth pottery to Pre-Colonial technology like the first Aetherium Cores which were actual nuclear power sources instead of pumps that simply circulated Nanites as was the norm in the present.
Aetherium was the name given to the form Nanites took when they were gathered.
A cyan-coloured fluid which was nearly endlessly applicable.
Ardi admired each piece of art and technology as she walked toward the exit where she was greeted by two guards who were clad in white armour.
They were Archons and, unlike most of their kin, they had faces.
This was probably because they were designed to guard VIPs and were supposed to be human-looking to an extent.
Ardi walked past them only for the two to immediately follow her and while she wanted to tell them that they didn’t have to, she was a high-ranking official now. It was only natural for her to have bodyguards.
The two followed her to the bridge where she was met by Heatdeath.
“Good morning, Admiral Ardi. How may I be of service?”
“I’d like to help you, actually. What are you up to right now?” Ardi asked as she walked up to his side by the helm, a circular pedestal in the centre of the bridge.
“Currently, I am coordinating the two hundred captains under your command, excluding Tsuro and Gudo, and the fleet at large. The captains have a lot of questions and I’m taking care to answer them with due diligence.” Heatdeath detailed.
“Oh? The fact that you didn’t try to contact me suggests that none of them have brought up any serious concerns.”
“Indeed. They want to know what future awaits their regions and what it will take to stay in your good books. I took the liberty of telling the to simply listen to your instructions. I’m assuming my judgment was correct?” The floating sphere asked.
“It was. Are there any dissenting voices?”
“Less dissenting and more worried and flat-out frightened.” Heatdeath chuckled robotically.
“And you? Where do you stand? Feel free to speak your mind.”
“You won’t kill me?”
“I won’t kill you.” Ardi smiled and, fortunately, Heatdeath couldn’t see her face because her Ardinites were actively creating a [Disruption Field] in front of her face that saved people from their curiosity.
“Well, as I said in the assembly hall, it was your show of force that led to my decision to join you. I probably speak for everyone when I say that my relationship with Zenith was purely professional. That’s because he rarely ever left Plinth and so I was allowed to manage the fleet fairly autonomously. I decided to side with you because I have a strong feeling that you are not going to change my post or take away that autonomy.”
Heatdeath was right in being so confident.
He was more useful to Ardi alive than dead as she could delegate the general management of the fleet to him while she took care of things that were above his pay grade.
“I appreciate the honesty.”
“Anytime.” Heatdeath nodded.
“Now, I’d like to perform a few tests in one of your med bays so is there anything you need from me before I go?” Ardi turned to leave.
“Nothing yet. Zenith made sure that everything smoothly transferred to your name and all of his accounts transferred their assets to one he made just for you, one which you should have access to soon.”
“Alright- wait a minute. Why isn’t Gudo here?”
“That’s because he promoted himself to General of your armed forces and is currently in the New Genesis’s armoury testing out all kinds of weapons.”
Tsuro sighed as she approached the helm.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I…” Ardi genuinely didn’t know what to say.
Gudo was such a strange Archon.
Was it even possible for an Archon to be a knucklehead?
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She awkwardly laughed while walking out of the bridge.
She genuinely trusted Gudo’s combat prowess and strength but she was curious as to how he would perform in a senior leadership role.
She planned to test him once the opportunity arose but shelved that as she made her way to the med bay where Condor Unit awaited.
Meredith greeted her with her usual weary expression, Chin had since cooled off but now looked like she was on edge, as if she was afraid something terrible was going to happen at any moment and B hadn’t said anything since they left Obsidia.
The three stood in one of the med bay’s many rooms which had three hospital beds in it.
“Sorry, but I wasn’t sure if I should have brought the pilots.” Meredith apologized but Ardi simply raised her right hand.
“It's alright. They can remain as they are so that when you finally return to your home world, your people can recognize that while your group has gone through a lot, it’s still you.”
“And just what are you gonna do to us?” Chin didn’t even try to hide her fear.
“That’s what I’d like to discuss with you. The way I see it, we have one option if we want to bring you all up to the level of an Archon: we will have to swap most of your organic parts and replace them with enhanced components.”
They all looked at each other after hearing Ardi's words.
“And just how much of us will be left after this procedure?” Meredith asked.
“I think leaving your brains as they are should be acceptable. Although the rest of your nervous systems will need to be appropriately modified to communicate with your new components.”
They exchanged glances again before Meredith finally, and on behalf of her unit, nodded in agreement.
“Good. Now please lay down. Depending on what design I end up choosing, this process may take a while.”
They all rested on the hospital beds, armour and all.
Ardi knew that their Nanitesuits had been surgically attached to their skin and hooked onto their Skeletons, all in order to greatly boost their speed and strength via Nanite networks and matrix that, while good enough to make them nearly four times stronger than any human could ever hope to be, was nowhere near the level of the Archons.
In order to do that and perhaps even surpass that, they would need new bodies although Ardi would use their originals as reference.
These new bodies would not only boost their abilities by multiple folds, but they’d also be able to adapt to different environments and maybe even tap into Ardi’s CQNN to gain combat and environmental information at near-instant speeds.
But first, Ardi would need to strip them of their current suits.
“Uh- ma’am, I don’t mean to disturb but is there anything we can do to help?” a human doctor asked while fearfully peering from behind the other side of the room’s only door. Behind him were several other doctors and nurses who all seemed rather spooked by her unannounced arrival.
Ardi made sure to take note of that as Condor Unit nervously awaited what was to come.
“Yes, actually. Could you bring me three Carbon Composite Skeleton frames, three containers of Myofiber strands, six of your best optical sensors, three Aetherium Cores, three packs of PolyFlex Dermis platelets and about twenty litres of Nanite Fluid?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The door was instantly closed and Ardi promptly raised her hands as high as they could go, dispersing a mist of Ardinites which landed on their targets, the Condor Unit.
“Will this hurt?” Chin whined.
“Possibly. That’s why you will be deeply unconscious during the procedure.”
Chin nervously nodded as her eyelids steadily grew heavier.
The Ardinites had already made their way into her brain and were inducing a deep sleep on all of Condor Unit.
The other Ardinites then set about breaking down all of the connections between them and their Nanitesuits.
The process was rather quick, taking only a few minutes for the Ardinites to slowly dissolve the Black carapaces.
This revealed the muscular but heavily bruised bodies of the Condor Unit members.
It was clear that the Nanite were limited in what they could do because, since they were in human bodies, they couldn’t self-energize efficiently as this would generate a lot of heat which would damage the cells and tissues around them. They also weren’t able to receive specific instructions from Meredith and company since their brains couldn’t instruct millions of Nanites to do much of anything.
That said, they were far from useless, so Ardi kept them pooled up beneath Meredith and Co.
It wasn’t long before the doctor from before returned with what she’d asked for along with an entourage of people who moved e everything into the room.
The Composite Skeletons were housed in large cylindrical units that kept them upright, while the Myofiber strands and Dermis platelets were in large white boxes.
“Alright, let’s begin although, since you are all licensed medical professionals, I’ll need you to conduct a majority of these procedures and yes, since this is on such extremely short notice, you’ll be aptly compensated.”
The doctors, technicians and nurses all exchanged nervous glances before one of them, the doctor from before, stepped forward.
A man of average height whose bright blue eyes remained lowered as he spoke to Ardi.
“I am Director Hans and it would be our delight to assist you in whatever way we can.” He bowed prompting his entourage to do the same.
“Alright. Let’s bridge the gap between man and machine, shall we?”
.
..
[System booting...
Connecting to Ardinite Nerve Bridges...
Running full system diagnostics...
Syncing with Ardinite Network under the designation: "Meredith"...
Diagnostics complete.
All systems are operating within optimal parameters.
Initialization sequence complete.
Name: Meredith
HP: 10 000/10 000
EN: 2000/2000J
STR: 60 000N
SPD: 55m/s
DI: 100%
Available Modes:
1. [Assault Boost] – Doubles Strength and Energy Costs of Attacks.
2. [Speed Boost] – Doubles Speed but running costs twice as much energy
3. [Dermis Boost] – Doubles Dermis Integrity but halves total Energy.
4. [Ghost Mode] – Activates [Distortion Field] Skill which generates a field over the Dermis that disrupts most types of detection, rendering the user almost invisible at the cost of 500W.]
Meredith gasped as she regained conciseness although she was taken aback by the flood of new sensations she felt.
Her eyes opened, revealing a world of detail that eclipsed anything she once knew.
Everything was so… clear.
She fully expected to have a headache or at least some kind of pain but there was nothing.
She slowly sat up and while she expected to feel heavier, she felt lighter.
It looked like Chin and B had also just woken up as well.
They took turns in looking at each other and Meredith before looking at themselves prompting Meredith to do the same.
She let out a soft gasp upon seeing that the scars from where her Nanitesuit was once attached were gone along with her bruises.
Instead, her skin was smooth and Radiant.
“I…”
Meredith looked up at Chin to see that tears were welling in her eyes. Her scars were gone and it revealed her youthful face which practically glowed.
“I’m sorry, Cap’n.” Her words were soft but they were clear to Meredith.
“For what?”
“For being such a pain in the ass.”