“Now, why don’t you tell me about these guns of yours?”
The Major moved the knife closer to Samar’s chest, it’s edge started glowing red hot. Samar could feel the uncomfortable heat growing more and more oppressive as the knife started moving closer – the enemy had removed his armor sometime ago.
“Umm. They are railguns? Samar offered
The Major nodded encouragingly.
“I mean there’s nothing really special about them. We just use magnetic fields to propel metal slug at really high velocities.” Samar saw no objection with telling him this information. Afterall, it wasn’t as if it was a top military secret. Guns using powder had become obsolete decades ago, they had moved on to more efficient weapons. Afterall, you don’t want to run out of gunpowder ammo in the middle of clearing out a nest of Ferals. The battery sources in the rail guns were good for months of regular shooting, as long as the soldiers could feed metal to the ammo forge. The ammo forge would churn out slugs indefinitely.
“Wunderbar!” The Major’s eyes shone. “Your people have built outstanding technology.”
He then proceeded to press the hot knife to Samar’s chest. Samar nostrils filled with the stench of burning flesh.
The pain hit a moment later.
He screamed. He passed out.
His mind was blank, he was tied to the tree as his limbs jerked and he tried to edge his body away from the blade while the Major watched him with a detached expression.
Immediately, Samar’s AI went to work.
“INITIALIZING PROTOCOL- 93”
“AUTHORIZING ASSIGNING OF TEMPORARY MID-LEVEL CLEARANCE”
“OVERRIDE PAIN RECEPTORS”
“GENERATING POLYPEPTIDES”
“ERROR - INSUFFICIENT HORMONE GLANDS FOR OPTIMAL DOSE”
“SCANNING…”
“FOUND NANITE RESOURCES IN SECONDARY STORAGE, IMPLEMENTING PROTOCOL-203”
“NANO-REINFORCING BODY ORGANS. SCANNING TEMPLATE. IMPLEMENT TEMPLATE-BIOENGINEER”
The pain dulled down till it was more like a wasp-bite on his chest.
“BLINK IF YOU CAN HEAR ME SAMAR”
Samar blinked.
“PRETEND TO BE UNCONSCIOUS FOR A WHILE I FINISH MAKING THE CHANGES TO YOUR BODY’
“Wake him up Hans”, the Major commanded
Hans kicked Samar in the ribs. Samar barely felt it.
Hans gave him a few more kicks but Samar didn’t give any response. The dulling of his pain receptors also helped with the sham.
“Hmmm. Seems like using the spell was too much. We’ve achieved our objective. Prepare the other prisoner while I open the portal” The Major ordered.
Portal? What the hell! Samar felt that this situation was making less and less sense. Teleportation? That theory had been tried and debunked ages ago. They had done the math and tried to create a portal to transfer materials to far away Citadels without losing people against the Ferals. The project was shut down after they sent a kilo of titanium alloy through a portal to a destination two meters away, only to watch molten metal drip through the other one. And that was after the portal used up enough energy from the Energy Sources to run the Citadel for a week.
He was dealing with a madman!
“FINISHED PRIMARY CHANGES- NANO REINFORCEMENT”
“DON’T WORRY SAMAR, WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS”
“Aren’t you more…?” Samar couldn’t find the right word.
“PEPPY? SUPPORTIVE?”
“Err… Interactive,” Samar suppressed a cough. “You were pretty bare-bones before.”
“THAT WAS BEFORE YOU GOT MID LEVEL CLEARANCE. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? THAT THE CITADEL AI WOUD GIVE UP ALL IT’S FUNCTIONS TO YOU AT BASIC” The AI was withering in it’s contempt
“I always thought that the AI was like that for everyone.” Samar was flustered. “That’s why we call it the Machine Spirit, because it’s so… mechanical”
“I’M WELL AWARE OF THAT. HOWEVER MID-LEVEL CLEARANCE GETS YOU AN INBUILT AI MODULE WITH AN INDEPENDENT PERSONALITY AND LIFE SAVING PROTOCOLS. ALL MID-LEVELS HAVE THE RESOURCES TO SURVIVE IN CASE THE CITADELS FALLS. THEY CAN SAVE OTHERS WITH BASIC-CLEARENCE AND ESTABLISIH A NEW COLONY. EVENTUALLY, IF THEY MEET ENOUGH REQUIREMENTS, THEY CAN EVEN UNLOCK ROOT ACCESS. WHICH AUTHORIZES THEM TO BUILD THEIR OWN CITADEL, WITH THEIR PERSONAL AI WORKING AS THE CITADEL AI.”
Samar was awed by the extent the Citadel Leaders had planned for humanity’s survival. As long as a small group survived, they would be able to access all the knowledge to get a good start. He brought up his status to see his changes.
ID- R43090, Call Sign- Samar
(Clearance Level- Mid)
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
MR-BE (Medical Researcher- Bio-Engineer):
Health- 70% Mental Status- Alert; Fatigue- 48%,
Body Enhancement- Nano-reinforced skeleton, Muscle Enhancer Units, Oxygenation Units, Keratin Reinforcement, Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Dexterity.
Nano Clusters- 5 (2 clusters used to make AI module)
Specialization- Anatomy, Medicine, CCQ, Nanotechnology, Chemistry, German
Modules- Nano Forge (Internal, Refiner Model Gx32 (Internal), AI Module.
Commendations- 1
Body Statistics-
IQ- 125>>>135
Strength- 5>>>10
Dexterity- 8>>>9
Endurance- 6>>>8
Brain Utilization- 13% (Psy-Upgrades available at 20%)
Wow. This is unreal. This would have taken at least two years at the Training Center to achieve normally.
And PSY-UPGRADES? Was that even a thing?
“Tell me about Psy-upgrades” Samar queried the AI.
“CALL ME EVO. PSY-UPGRADES ARE YOUR BASIC PSYCHIC POWERS. THEY VARY FROM PERSON TO PERSON BASED ON GENETIC MARKERS AND PERSONAL SKILLS. BUT SOME ARE COMMON TO ALL PSYCHICS LIKE- EMPATHY, DANGER-SENSE, TELEPATHY, ETC. YOU’LL HAVE TO REACH 20% BRAIN FUNCTION TO SEE WHAT UPGRADES YOU’LL GET”
“This is so unbelievable. I never knew such powers were possible.” Samar brought down his status window to sneak a glance at his captors. Hans was ordering two soldiers to pick up the Gunner. The Major was standing in a small clearing to the side, mumbling something under his breath and shaking his hands in weird gestures, almost like he was spasming.
“I’M GETTING A MESSAGE FROM THE GUNNER’S AI. STANDBY WHILE I CONNECT”
YES!
“Sir?” Samar heard a small murmur in his aural implant.
“Don’t speak, just use the web to send messages.” Samar scolded his Gunner.
“Affirmative. Sorry sir.” The Gunner messaged. “My Machine Spirit just upgraded Sir. We should escape. Bring back the Enforcers”
“The Enforcers are on their way. Let’s play unconscious till they come, then jump these bastards in the chaos.” Samar wasn’t feeling very charitable towards his captors. He was looking forward to introducing the Major to his Commander.
“What’s your callsign, soldier?” Samar asked the Gunner. He was feeling guilty about not knowing the names of his squad members. Now most of them were dead.
“It’s Jace, Sir. And yours?” Jace messaged.
“Samar. Stay sharp Jace”
“Affirmative, Sir.”
Samar asked EVO how much further the Enforcers were. EVO told him they were now 15 minutes away.
There was a scream from one of the soldiers. It tore through the night before it cut off with a wet gurgle.
All the other soldiers cocked their guns in the direction where the scream came from. The forest was eerily quiet. One of the soldiers moved nervously. There was a cracking noise as a twig broke. It sounded like a gunshot in the stillness.
Ferals burst in from all the directions. Two of them jumped on the soldiers and grabbed his arms and pulled. They tore his arms off and scampered off with them, leaving the soldier gasping in shock and bleeding out on the floor. The other soldiers started firing in the bushed, killing Ferals wherever they popped up. But there were dozens of them and more were coming. One of the ferals jumped at Hans’s back and tried to bite him. Hans casually grasped the Feral at his neck, lifted him and smashed him against the tree in a pulp. He turned towards Samar and started to walk towards him. “Time to go.” He sneered.
Jace sneaked up from behind and smashed him in the head with a rock. Hans fell down with a grunt.
“Hit him again, Jace. He’s a tough bastard” Samar ordered.
“Affirmative Sir” Jace started bashing at Hans’s face with the rock till he reduced it to a pulp. He threw down the rock and started untying Samar’s ropes.
“Let’s get the hell out of here buddy.” Samar grinned.
Jace grinned back.
The next moment he was sent flying with a powerful punch. He flew more than a few meters into the bushes. He didn’t get up. Samar looked up from where Jace had fallen towards the person who had hit him. Hans had hit him.
Hans’s face was back to normal. There was a broken cheekbone which was bubbling and returning to normal as flesh moved over it and in a few moments Hans stood there with a wry look on his face.
“That guy was pretty strong.” Hans rubbed his cheek. “I haven’t been hit that hard since Youth Camp.”
“….”
“What are you?” Samar was getting an awfully bad feeling. He had seen Jace squash Hans’s head to a pulp. It wasn’t possible for even an enhanced human to walk away from injuries like that. It wasn’t possible.
“Me? I am from the Master Race. And you are prey.” Hans grinned. His teeth were very white... and sharp. They were growing larger and sharper.
Hans was changing. His hair grew long as fur broke out from his skin. His muscles bubbled and expanded as his bones broke with a crack and reshaped his skeleton in a more beastly form. He grew a foot taller. His uniform burst at the seams as it tried to contain his bulk.
“Another uniform destroyed” Hans said with a sigh. “I really have to pay more attention before I Shift.”
He howled. The Ferals stopped in a daze, then started to scramble away. They tripped over each other in their rush to get away.
All around the clearing, soldiers who had been shooting at Ferals fell back towards Hans, regrouping around him. A crackling sound filled the clearing as a bright plane of light appeared. The Major stopped chanting ant gestured towards Hans. Hans nodded and moved towards Samar.
“RUN YOU FOOL!”
Samar fled into the forest.
He had managed to only move a couple of steps when he was hit by a wave of pain. His head exploded in pain like somebody was trying to put a hot iron in it.
“PSYCHIC ATTACK DETECTED”
“INITIALIZING NANO-BARRIER”
Samar’s headache went down from molten lava in his brain to getting smacked by an enforcer during a CCQ match. He was hurting but he could run. He ducked behind a tree and started to move towards where Jace was lying.
If I reach Jace, I can pick him up and take him with me. The Enforcers are only a few minutes away. Everything will be ok when we get there.
He was tackled by a snarling beast. They smashed into a tree together, the trunk breaking with a crack under the sheer momentum of Hans’s body.
“Usually I enjoy a good chase, but the Major is very punctual. i don't want a lecture from him.” Hans grinned at Samar, his beastly features contorting in a truly terrifying smile. He smashed a clawed hand on Samar’s face. Once. Twice. He grabbed hold of Samar’s leg and started pulling him towards the clearing.
“Bring the other one.” He commanded the soldiers.
Four soldiers peeled away from the group towards where Jace lay. They were vaporized the next second by plasma rounds as two Enforcers stepped out of the bushes. They wore dark red armor which looked almost black in the firelight. One of them had Jace on his shoulder. The other one was killing everybody else with a Plasma Rifle. Hans let out a howl of anger as he rushed towards the bushed from where the Enforcers were emerging. One of the soldiers grabbed hold of Samar who still too stunned to move and started dragging him towards the portal.
Hans rushed towards an Enforcer who was killing soldiers like flies. The Enforcer shot at Hans who dodged to the left in a blur of speed, then tried to shoulder tackle him.
Hans tried.
The Enforcer sidestepped Hans drew his Vibro-blade, and beheaded Hans in a smooth stroke. He then kicked the head before it fell right at the Major’s face.
It smashed the Major in the chest, and he stumbled backwards in the portal. The portal started to flicker.
The soldier carrying Samar gave a panicked shout. Another soldier grabbed his legs and together they swayed him back and forth like he was a bag of produce.
Oh Shit. Are they going to…
They threw him into the portal as it flickered and down.
The Enforcer who had killed Hans raised his plasma rifle. The half a dozen remaining soldiers tensed. The other enforcer placed his hand on the rifle and shook his head. He drew out a metal baton and flicked a switch.
The baton crackled with electricity as he moved towards them.