Gingerly placing his hand just above the pad, he took a deep breath as he ran through the order of operations and pressed down.
The door hissed as it slid open to the right. The crab leaping at and attacking the door pad crab was caught out mid-leap and the crab attacking the door itself had its blade-claw an inch deep into it at the moment. It was dragged to the right with the door. As the door slid open Jack stepped to his right with his left hand holding the blade already cocked back. He drove the claw blade deep into the open mouth of the leaping crab as it quickly sunk to the back of it. The momentum from Jack’s swing carried them both downwards as his claw blade sunk into the metal carpet, crab suspended on it like some ancient totem. The movement had thankfully started shaking the Zappa as the crab locked into the door tried to snap and clamp him with its free pincer claw.
Jack rushed past around to the back of the crab as it managed to pull its blade from the door. Jack kept up his Zappa shake and shoved the shield against the crab's back, launching it out of the room.
Nice, the Strength upgrade did help.
He slapped the door’s handpad and let it slide shut. The third crab, a distant thought up to that point, hadn’t been idle. The half second to plant his friend into the ground had passed and it took the next moment to rush towards Jack in a zigzag pattern. Only his peripheral vision gave him enough of a warning as it leaped towards his head and he managed to throw himself to the side. The crab turned towards him with its unsettlingly precise 3-point turn as he pulled himself to his feet.
He discovered that his Zappa had fallen out of his two-fingered grip at some point.
He and the crab faced each other. One was angry and ready and the other looked back with an unhinged smile showing uncomfortable amounts of teeth. The crab shuffled briefly to the side to look at its friend pinned through the floor, he could swear that with a second to think it didn’t seem as sure as it was just a moment ago. He counted that as a good thing since he was completely unarmed at the moment. The Zappa sat languidly just beneath the crab’s body.
The smell took this moment to creep into his nose and he recoiled before his Cold-Blooded Mind isolated it. The Skill also threw into the lockbox the scraping on metal and chittering rage that was just barely making its way through the door he had closed. While the dissociative process was still running it happily grabbed and locked away the sight of the Human body in the middle of the room. Each time it did this he got colder. He shuffled back and forth trying to bait it and dislodge the crab from its position over his weapons. The crab didn’t seem keen on moving. Maybe it was scared. He didn’t want to consider that it might be standing near his only two weapons on purpose. His mind wintery and sharp, he tried a different tack and maneuvered the dead crab totem between them.
He hocked loudly and spit a blood-tinged wad onto the dead crab and flipped one of his two remaining fingers at the angry crab behind it.
He and the crab stood there for long seconds staring at each other. It then grabbed the crab corpse with his pincer, cutting nearly the entire way through its body and shattering his blade claw sticking through it, then flung it bodily across the room. Jack took a step back as it chittered and clicked in rage. His brain did the thing again where an errant thought pushed through the noise of combat, he thought that it sounded sad like it was mourning its little crab friend.
Good.
His smile widened as he backpedaled and the crab zigged and zagged to close the distance. Jack waited for the moment he knew was coming, standing tall. There. It jumped and he threw himself forwards at an angle away from it. A hot line carved horizontally into his side as they passed each other. He snatched the Zappa up with his left hand and as the crab turned he was ready. The crab leaped again and bounced off of the shield, then they were both forced away from the impact. Jack, being closer to the wall, was able to keep his feet as he bounced off of it.
They settled into a routine highlighted faintly by scraping and clawing sounds coming through the door. They would strafe around each other, the crab would jump, and Jack would set his feet to absorb the recoil. The crab would hit the shield and fly back several feet. Then they would each reset.
Jack felt his Constitution and Endurance stats shining through here, he would have been half dead from lack of Energy if this was his first crab fight. Even though the Medjel was doing an admirable job on his shoulder wounds, it was slow and it was, as of now, the same shoulder that was having to tank most of the recoil from the shield. He couldn’t afford the time to readjust the shield and get used to a new positioning for it. His biggest problem was that even though he was handling the extended close combat better than before, he felt his edge starting to slowly dull.
The crab half leaped at him and he overcompensated. Bracing himself too hard, he was slow in catching the crab’s quick reset and even quicker scuttle. It caught him moving too slow. The crab snapped its pincer towards his head and only the shield swinging around as Jack turned saved his left eye. Clipping through his eyebrow the pincer tried to snap out again but Jack felt the lateral strain on his movement muscles as he dodged and pulled out of range.
Well, that confirms that, it is getting smarter. My Dodge Skill definitely helped.
It was a sobering thought that the crab was figuring out a nearly winning strategy faster than he was. The blood kept its steady pour from his side and newly separated eyebrow.
The crab chittered and slowly circled. He didn’t know how smart it was but he knew that it knew he was getting tired and getting slow.
The crab roared, its chitter flush with impending victory, its pincer clacking repeatedly like a gunshot through the room. Its roar and the feeling of life flowing out of his body from his side and his face was draining the heat from his body faster than normal, whatever the concept of “normal” was in this place. He shivered violently. It took it as a sign of fear as it chittered and roared again. His left arm whipped in a blur as he flung the Zappa directly down its throat. Throwing away his only weapon was a risk, but as it was the math wasn’t working out in Jack’s favor. He knew that and he knew he had to make a decision. He calmly waited for the payoff.
It stopped suddenly. Then it stamped its feet and screeched again. It took a running leap at him as he dropped his knees slightly, ready to get in close and figure it out from there. He would do better against the crab, better than last time. As its final two back claws were about to leave the ground it flailed erratically and knocked itself into the wall. It lay there twitching.
He felt the cold comfort of his frantic grin spread from one side of his mouth to the other and up through the rest of his face. It didn’t feel… correct to take pleasure in the crab hurting, but damn did it scratch a deep itch of satisfaction.
The crab picked itself off the ground and then leapt again. This time it didn’t even make it through takeoff as the faint sound of the Zappa arcing came from its open mouth. It lost control and its momentum carried it twitching as it ran past. He casually stepped to the side and let it pass him.
He cursed as a new slash appeared diagonally up his right forearm.
It’s not over until it’s dead, he reminded himself.
The smile faded slightly then returned in even greater force as he looked over the crab twitching with internal electrical application, then, furthermore, as its twitching caused another shock which led to another twitch which led to another shock, over and over, again and again. Strolling now, he moseyed over to the pinned crab and planted his foot on top of it as he worked the claw-blade from its open mouth. Pulling it out with a sloppy, sucking pop he gave the blade a quick once over, even broken in half it was still pretty sharp even if it now possessed a jagged edge. He then used the broken blade to carve off the joint of a fresh claw-blade from the mangled crab totem. However much he was enjoying the moment he wasn’t about to get closer to it than he had to.
The small room and Jack’s calm walk brought him back to the crab busy enjoying its endless cycle of electrocution. Jack took long moments experimenting with the crab’s body, trying to find weak points in joints, where it would squeal and twitch in additional pain. Interestingly enough, after poking out all 6 eyes the crab didn’t seem as if it was in any additional distress than it had been after Jack had taken out the first 5. On one of his casual bladed bites into the crab, Jack noticed a clump of what looked like hair strands that had been carved off. The crab’s motions became less coordinated in trying to stab out at Jack after that. Some sort of additional sense then.
He took an additional moment to calculate and then drove the blade through its already broken eye and drove the blade down through its body all the way through and into the floor. Jack Smiled, another totem. As if in some final “f u” moment of hate the little shit drove its claw-blade into the top of his foot as it died.
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“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU agh!”
Shit that one hurt. He was startled for a second as he felt his brain rubber band as something shifted inside of his head. It faintly crossed his mind, that maybe, perhaps entering that state of Cold-Blooded, sadistic, crab-killing pleasure and ensuing torture session was perhaps not the best frame of mind for now.
With the use of the Magno-Tube and the rapidly decaying crab ceviche, the smell had broken through the mental block. That alone made sure he didn’t spend longer in the room than strictly necessary after vacuuming up the Nano-Traces. His first time using it was on an already popped and cooked alien corpse so he wasn’t able to appreciate how disgusting the whole process actually was. When these “Nano-Traces” were pulled out of the corpse it seemed like the body lost something vitally essential as well. Connective tissue started to rapidly denature and even the bonds between the same types of tissue decayed. The muscle and internals of anything extracted with a Magno-Tube turned into a ripe, flesh-slurry that seemed incapable of resisting decay. Even what flesh was left of the Human started to fall off the bone. It was yet another unpleasant experience to retrieve his Zappa from the middle of the corpse soup. Needed to help keep his head about himself he actively fought off his mind’s attempt to lock away the experience.
He dry heaved as he picked up the Zappa.
The Terminal was trashed, and the room’s prior occupant’s hand was still attached to the handpad, separated at the wrist. Reopening the Magno-Tube, Jack had it do its gross thing to the hand. The hand lost all integrity and cohesion and slopped wetly to the ground. Jack grimaced as he placed his hand on the cracked and, now, wet pad.
Nothing happened with the handpad or with the shredded Terminal screen. A small square slot opened up above the handpad. Not entirely sure if trusting the Terminal AI was the best move he looked at it and thought.
The steadily fermenting body soup forced a quick decision. He wasn’t going to come back in here. He pulled out the square disk he received from the Terminal AI. He inserted the rounded square disk that was backlit by a sour-green radioactive light. He heard static in the middle of his head. As soon as it started to ramp up the feeling disappeared and he yanked it from the slot.
He looked around; it was identical to his room. Yet, despite the fact that he had cooked crab intestine smeared across every corner of his room, this room was in considerably worse shape. The Magno-Tube seemed to leave the chitin of the creatures mostly unaffected as well as any uncracked Human bones that the crabs hadn’t managed to pop open for the marrow. Though when he checked the bones and chitin they both felt more fragile as he stepped through what might have been a shin or an arm and the bone burst into fine particles. He grabbed his newly acquired claw-blade, noticing that it wasn’t affected by the Magno-Tube. He had enough questions though and was tired of answers that didn’t immediately point to a solution, as he hooked the dull joint of his half-broken claw-blade through his uniform’s belt loop. He eyed it then turned it backward after looking at his two-fingered hand.
As the handpad acknowledged his touch he remembered that there was another crab on the other side. He started to shake the Zappa and readied his claw-blade. When had the scratching and chittering stopped? The door opened and he leaped out quickly looking side to side. There was nothing. He stopped shaking his arm, and the Zappa, but kept his blade ready. He strained his ears to listen. He tensed and then relaxed as he heard a scuttling sound that progressively grew fainter. He was idly curious as to why he couldn’t see the auto-lights going turning on and off. Were they keyed to Personnel or were they controlled by size?
----------------------------------------
Back in his sealed room, he turned the Magno-Tube to the open position and then placed it against the circle outline next to the Terminal. He locked his hand on the pad.
Allocation Network Expanded. Resource Distribution Updated. Some items have been removed. Some items have been expanded. Chit Total… Updated.
Mission Status Updated: Terminals Connected: 2.
You have begun Progressing in your Missions, Security Personnel Soldier-Trainee Jack!
Your Personnel Level has Increased!
You’ve gathered Nano-Traces. Allocation Increased!
You’ve Optimized your Skills!
This time, he was smiling as the handpad glowed as heat traveled up his trapped hand.
[https://i.postimg.cc/2yZtXRkV/Screen-Shot-2022-08-31-at-10-49-11-PM.png]
During his time “cleaning up” the other room he had already decided what he wanted to improve with his new Allocation.
Agility was first, he was tired of being cut by the damn things, and he needed to move faster. It went up to 10. As the wave of heat moved through him he felt jittery, like his body would start darting around at the slightest thought. He controlled himself with the reminder that his hand was still trapped on the pad. It settled into his body as an intermittent twitch. He hoped it wasn’t permanent.
Endurance got another Point. Endurance was an easy one to put another point in, if there was just one more crab there or if he hadn’t locked out the other crab it might have been him that someone would eventually turn to flesh-soup. As another of the smell molecules detached itself and headed up his nasal cavity, he added another point to End. He resisted placing his last point into Endurance as he recalled feeling the recoil from the crab leaping at his shield. Who knew if these crabs were all there were, then at the thought of potentially bigger crabs he tapped his last point into Strength. He wanted to stay ahead of the game, if these crabs started overpowering him it would be worse than his first experience. Agility had reached 10, Endurance had reached 12 and Strength was at 11.
He had briefly considered adding another point to IQ but was hesitant, would he be more or less likely to enter one of his hot or cold states as it rose?
He had been in considerable pain the first time his Skills Developed but this time he noticed that the feeling of them upgrading was oddly similar to the feeling of using them.
Cold-Blooded Mind. New Resources Available: Upgrade Caught Up! v.0.4 —> v.1.2
There’s cold and then there’s you. Don’t bother packing a sweater, the blood of your enemies is enough to keep you warm. Fear hormone, adrenaline, and pain encourage dopamine and serotonin production in this state. Negative effects are decreased minutely. Over-compartmentalization or significant blood loss can result in this state becoming active.
Deeply rewiring your brain chemistry alongside your Skills, “Take You to Hell with Me,” and your Non-Standard Brain Organ may result in SubOptimal, Dangerous, or Unstable Potentialities.
Suggestion: Monitor your emotional state carefully.
He audibly groaned; now he also had to worry about turning into a psycho in the middle of a ship full of crabs and who knew what else. Apparently, he had 2, probably 3, different ways of losing his mind.
On reflex he put his hand up to his mouth and noticed his face was still split into a rictus grin.
Had that been there the whole time? He wiped his hand and the smile off his face.
-
Dodge Level Developed! v.0.3 —> v.1
Dodge and dodge some more. Lateral fast-twitch muscle density increased further. Direct Neural pathways established. Balance and reflexes improved slightly while in motion.
Were there larger improvements at each Version Level? Why did it only sometimes tell me what improvements would be next?
-
Electric Affinity Developed! v.1 —> v.1.1
You’re gonna be more than a few light Zapps to improve this further.
“Terminal, I only need flavor text when progressing to a new level.”
The text stopped flowing in an audible pause.
-
Itch Resistance Improved! v.1 —> v.1.3
You hardly even remember what an itch is! Well except that one on your on your left jaw.
He sighed. Somehow through all the pain he’s experienced in his short time awake, the itching, the ITCHING was the worst. He scratched his cheek. Maybe he would figure out to turn off the constant remarks later. Hopefully.
-
New Skill Development!
"Me? MOVE?" Newly Acquired! v.0.5
Improves the musculoskeletal systems' response in the feet, legs, and hips alongside minute improvements in corresponding inner ear balance. TLDR: it makes it more difficult to move you against your will. Future Skill Development will modify Personnel’s Center of Balance.
The usual rolling burn flowed from his hips to his feet and back again. That was new, he liked the “Future Skill Development” part. Was that because he had told the Terminal AI to stop the flavor text?
Probably not, he shook his head.
-
Radiation Resistance. Newly Acquired! v.0.1
But where could you have been exposed to radiation?
That… that was a good question. At least he was resistant to it now he thought in small comfort.
-
The Boy’s got an Arm! Newly Acquired! v.0.3
Throwing things is easier and causes slightly less strain on the shoulder muscles of your dominant side. That’s it.
What? Did you want more?
He tried to not let his face twitch at that.
-
Swing it Harder. Newly Acquired! v.0.4
Shoulder muscles are strengthened and coordinated with back muscles along your primary swinging side. Now you can swing things harder, faster, and… well better than before.
He felt a slight burning roll from his upper arm, through his shoulder and over his back.
Wait. Why was it going over his left side? He… well he was pretty sure he was right-handed.
“Terminal I think I’m right-handed,” he told the AI as he looked between his two-fingered right on the handpad and his left.
Skill Development and Skill Upgrades are measured and applied based on Personnel Personal Usage Statistics (PUS).
Sometimes he felt that the Terminal AI put things in a way that was as confusing as possible while still barely being understandable. So, translated to Human-speak, because he used his left arm to swing the claw-blade and had treated it as his dominant arm, the Terminal now treated his left arm as his dominant one.
Taking a deep breath and releasing it in a sigh he asked the Terminal AI what he should do next.
Additional Mission [Locally Generated]:
Connect Local Terminal AI to Ship.AI
Find a Portable Terminal
There was a new mission to find a Portable Terminal. He had no idea where he would do that so he just added it to the mental list.
Chits Available: 38
He liked that though.