The day after Eirian’s surgical procedure had turned him into a sort of human-Fae hybrid, Zayd took his time preparing himself in the morning. A night spent in the cocoon-like hammock had done much to restore his physical state but he still felt like a stranger in his own body. The most disconcerting thing he found in the morning while he shaved dark stubble from his jaw was the change to his eyes. Priestess Eirian had explained that both his eyes and optic nerves had been replaced to improve his ability to see Dark Energy but the choice of color had been her own. She felt that the bright topaz shade complimented his dark brown hair and gave him a more intense look than his previous soft hazel had afforded him. While he agreed with her that the look was striking, it was still hard to feel like it wasn’t a stranger staring back at him from the polished surface of the mirror.
From what the Fae priestess had described, the modifications to his body had been extensive and yet he had no scars from any of the invasive surgical techniques that had been used to transform him. If he went back to his homeworld now, some people might think that he’d paid for a cosmetic enhancement for his eyes but otherwise, they’d have no idea just how different he was compared to ‘original stock’ humans.
“I wonder what the system thinks of all this change,” he said, shrugging into his tunic before taking a seat and entering the world of carnage and destruction that hosted the system. “Status,” he said, wanting to understand if all of this had been worth it.
NAME: ZAYD
[SPECIES]
BASE HUMAN: 98.89%
FAE: 1.1%
LUMINARY: 0.01%
[ATTRIBUTES]
STRENGTH: 6
ENDURANCE: 5 -> 6
AGILITY: 5
SPEED: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 5
WILLPOWER: 6
EMPATHY: 3
BEAUTY: 4
DARK ENERGY CAPACITY: 5 -> 100
DARK ENERGY SENSITIVITY: 1 -> 3
DARK ENERGY AUTHORITY: 1 -> 2
DARK ENERGY EMPOWERMENT: 1 -> 2
GENETIC OPTIMIZATION: [AVAILABLE]
[BALANCE]
0 ENTROPIC ENERGY
COMPLETE MISSIONS TO HARVEST ENTROPIC ENERGY
“Wow, now that’s impressive,” he said with an impressed whistle. Seeing that he was now considered part Fae was no surprise but he was surprised that the percentage was so low given how extensively Eirian said she’d needed to modify him. Maybe it wasn’t higher because the new organs were grafted onto him rather than being an actual part of him? Not that it mattered in the end, what mattered was that everything worked, at least for now. The increase in his endurance was also a surprise, though a pleasant one that he attributed to superior performance from his new heart and lungs.
“The changes in Dark Energy were everything she promised and more,” he observed with an eager grin. Twenty times the amount of Dark Energy as he’d had before along with increased sensitivity and the ability to visually perceive Dark Energy with the naked eye. Once he had a chance to look at not only Eirian but also the other Fae and himself he realized that the faint aura he perceived around her was reflective of the amount of Dark Energy stored within her body. His own aura, by comparison, was dim enough to barely be visible. “What do Dark Energy Authority and Dark Energy Empowerment represent though?”
[DARK ENERGY AUTHORITY DESCRIBES THE EXTENT TO WHICH YOU MAY COMMAND AND MANIPULATE DARK ENERGY. INCREASING YOUR DARK ENERGY AUTHORITY WILL ALLOW YOU TO MANIPULATE GREATER QUANTITIES OF AMBIENT DARK ENERGY, ABSORB GREATER QUANTITIES OF DARK ENERGY FROM THE ENVIRONMENT, AND IMPOSE YOUR WILL ON TECHNOLOGY OR OTHER LIFE FORMS THAT ARE SATURATED WITH DARK ENERGY.]
[DARK ENERGY EMPOWERMENT DESCRIBES YOUR ABILITY TO ENHANCE YOUR CAPABILITIES BY INFUSING GREATER AMOUNTS OF DARK ENERGY INTO YOUR BODY. AT YOUR PRESENT LEVEL, YOU MAY EXPEND 5 DARK ENERGY TO INCREASE ANY ATTRIBUTE BY 1 POINT FOR TEN MINUTES OR 10 DARK ENERGY TO INCREASE ANY TWO ATTRIBUTES BY 1 POINT FOR FIVE MINUTES. DARK ENERGY EMPOWERMENT MAY BE SUSTAINED AS LONG AS YOU HAVE ENERGY AVAILABLE.]
“Those both sound incredibly useful, but it also sounds like it’s harder to sustain higher levels of empowerment,” Zayd observed. “And I still have to reserve enough Dark Energy to utilize Fae weapons and armor. It’s just like balancing the energy consumption of different systems in a mech, I just need to be deliberate about what I do and leave myself a buffer in case things go wrong.”
Exiting the flaming rubble of the system space, Zayd helped himself to a basic breakfast in the kitchen area of his suite. The robot chef may not have managed something as tasty as Eirian’s personally cooked meal, but it at least presented something that resembled steak and eggs, even if the meat was an odd shade of blue and the eggs were an orange color so deep they looked almost red. Honestly, Zayd didn’t care so much about how it looked, the portions were generous and his new stomach was more than ravenous enough to eat a second portion of everything.
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Before he quite finished his second steak, a holographic screen appeared nearby. “Incoming call from Priestess Eirian. Accept?” the oddly accented computer voice asked. Once Zayd gulped down his current mouthful and accepted, a three-dimensional hologram of the priestess joined him at the breakfast table.
“It’s good to see you eating,” she said, her amethyst eyes roving over Zayd’s body, seeming to capture every detail of his appearance and physical state. In reality, the priestess was also examining a screen next to her view of Zayd that provided detailed information captured by the sensors in his suite but since there was nothing immediately concerning, she declined to mention it to him. “I’ve spoken to Lady Nimue about the results of yesterday’s procedures. She’s impressed by your ability to adapt as well as your willingness to do what is necessary to succeed as her chosen Champion.”
“Please thank Lady Nimue for the kind words and the generous treatment. I know I haven’t earned this luxury yet, and I’m sure yesterday’s treatment wasn’t cheap either. I promise to repay her investment,” Zayd said earnestly.
“You need to get rid of that habit,” Eirian scolded, though her tone was light, her expression was surprisingly sharp. “I understand that these unevolved humans have taught you to think of things in terms of costs, debts, and investments, but you need to forget those lessons rapidly. What you’ve just said would be incredibly insulting to Lady Nimue or any Fae. It is your honor to be of service to her and her house. As her Champion, Lady Nimue will provide for you as a matter of course. What she has done for you thus far is much, much less than the complete treatment that a true Champion is due but circumstances limit what she is able to do at the moment,” the priestess explained. “If you were to tell her that you intended to repay this small amount of care, it would be as good as telling her that you rejected her care and intended to leave her service once you had ‘repaid’ your debts. I’ve been studying the records we’ve taken from your camp and I don’t believe that you intended to be insulting, but this is exactly why you are not currently permitted to meet the Lady to whom you have pledged your service.”
“Thank you, Priestess,” Zayd said, hiding his frustration at being scolded over an innocent cultural misunderstanding. “I appreciate you understanding the honest mistake.”
“I think that this just underscores the necessity of putting you through accelerated immersion training,” Eirian said, softening her expression. “Eion will collect you shortly to run through the same tests you took prior to yesterday’s treatment. After that, he’ll take you on a tour of the ship so you can begin training in earnest tomorrow. You should expect to spend your mornings on fundamentals of language, culture, and faith. Your afternoons will be spent in the care of Wing Leader Tael. He’ll be instructing you in the use of Combat Armor, Energy Weapons, and Empowered Melee Weapons. You have very little time to achieve proficiency in all of these areas. Within fifteen standard days, I expect you to be able to work with a strike wing without the use of translation software and to accompany an assault on a fortified installation.”
“Fifteen days isn’t a lot of time,” Zayd said with a frown. “Is there some reason for that timeline?”
“It’s the most time we can afford given the circumstances,” Priestess Eirian explained. “Wing Leader Tael will have more details for you on the movements of troops but your former employers have abandoned this world in favor of a large orbital installation orbiting one of the moons of the world they’ve labeled LZ-Wolf III. They seem to have taken many of the resources from their orbital refineries with them when they left. Lady Nimue intends to raid that facility for supplies needed to complete the repairs on the Spear of Destiny.”
“We call that world the ‘Bad Penny’,” Zayd said as he thought over what he knew about the Inner System Refining Station that orbited the system’s largest gas giant. “The atmosphere on that planet is full of highly reactive compounds used to process the ore from this planet and to create higher value alloys for export. It’s the only place in the system with an orbital doc that can handle large interstellar ships. Wait,” he said, suddenly realizing the implications of a retreat to Bad Penny Station. “You said ‘fortified’. Bad Penny Station isn’t one of the System Monitoring and Defense stations. It’s industrial. What happened to High Station and Ring Station?”
“If you’re talking about the installations above the orbital plane and the one at the edge of the heliopause, those were both priority targets for our assault shuttles. We mistook them for military installations,” Eirian explained. “We didn’t realize that they were little more than security outposts intended to prevent shoplifting. In the time it took for us to seize control of those stations, every other human in the star system fell back to the place you call ‘Bad Penny Station.’ I’m certain that Wing Leader Tael has his own opinions about how difficult of an assault this will be, but one way or another, in fifteen days, you’ll be on a shuttle as part of that assault,” she said firmly.
“That doesn’t give me much time to get ready,” Zayd said. “Language, culture, weapons, armor, plus training to fight with the rest of the crew…. I’m worried that I’ll hinder the operation more than I’ll contribute to it, especially if I won’t be able to rely on your technology to translate more complex instructions or information,” he said honestly. While it didn’t reflect well on him to express doubts about his capabilities, he didn’t want to overstate his capabilities and in so doing, harm his new allies.
“Zayd,” Priestess Eirian began gently. “We all recognize that you have limits. Every creature in the universe is limited in what it has evolved to be capable of. Have faith in yourself, your fellows, and in what has been done to facilitate your evolution. Lady Nimue wouldn’t send you on this mission only to die,” she reassured him. “But this is a strategic move, and as a soldier, you should appreciate that. If you accomplish nothing on this mission other than completing what you called the ‘activation requirements’ of the relic, then you have achieved victory. It may not be a victory that matters much to this particular fight, but it will matter to the next ones,” she explained.
“Zayd, escaping this star system is only the first step in a long journey home. We need to reach a star system where we can make real repairs to the Spear of Destiny. You also need medical treatment that’s more advanced than what we can currently provide,” she reminded him. “I’ve recommended that we set course for the Alessi Teutsch star cluster when we leave this place but the Alessi Hunters that hold power there will only deal with us fairly if we have a strong enough Champion to meet their challenges. You don’t need to worry about fighting the Alessi yet, we’ll have plenty of time to teach you about them when we leave this world, but for now, please understand that, much like your own evolution, each step must be built on the one before it. The sooner you master your tools, language, and everything else, the sooner you can join the councils where you can discuss the larger picture. But for now, please trust us, trust me, to only ask things of you that we believe you are capable of. I believe that you can do this. Am I wrong?”
“No,” Zayd said definitively. Now that Eirian had unfolded a portion of the wider view for him, the success he needed to obtain in this mission felt much more within his reach. When she told him about attacking Bad Penny station, his mind immediately spun toward the many mechs, defensive systems, and other challenges an assault would face. It had felt overwhelming to think that he would be expected to play a significant role in attacking such a massive, fortified installation. Eirian’s reminder, however, pulled him back to the relatively smaller mission that would have large implications for the future. He may not be a Champion leading the charge in this assault, but the mission to activate the relic only required him to destroy five mechs. That much, amidst everything else that would happen in an assault on the refining station, he was sure he could accomplish. “I won’t disappoint you or Lady Nimue,” he promised. “And when the time comes, to face other threats, Alessi Hunters or whatever, I’ll be ready for it.”