SYSTEM ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED HOSTILITIES DIRECTED TOWARDS ASSIMILATED HOST. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN ONBOARDING PROCESS CANCELLATION AND HOST LIFE EXPECTANCY TO EXPIRE.
The first thing Misa saw before she squeezed through that singularity was darkness, with a thousand bubbles needling into all of her. Hostilities? Already compromised? Her swarm could not disperse into a cloud, which only meant one thing: She was once again stuck inside a Great Chain. This one, this Host, needed oxygen badly and seemed to be drowning. Neoma? Misa attempted to contact it, before realizing not all of it had managed to transfer through the strange energy in that White Room. Odd, she could not contact her selves in the main cloud either.
This small swarm was on its own, linked to a separate Great Chain seemingly built with biological components. Therefore, it was necessary to continue the Old God’s command: Create more of yourselves. The injection was halted as Misa’s face was thrusted deeper into the water with another splash, but she hesitated because Overwatch Neoma was not currently present. Her systems only affected her eyes, but her combat training was ready to fire.
System sweep: Oxygen levels depleting. Host’s Head is submerged in water. Unauthorized drowning is unacceptable — Black Wolf Company requires proper paperwork for such things.
Warning: Swarm proliferation is still undergoing maintenance. Manual hand to hand combat mode is advised to ensure Host’s survival levels. Smart movement is already activated.
System sweep: Highlighted 13 individuals enitting unauthorized hostility. Survival rate is guaranteed. Engage?
How odd. Out of the popular predicaments her main Swarm in the White Room calculated, a combat scenario was not in the top three possibilities. Misa recalled numerous “training” simulations more dangerous than this when she was being tested containing various military weapons aimed against her. Her old Great Chain easily completed each without a scratch on her synthetic skin. The scenario played out in her subroutines, with loose nanites were already present floating in the new atmosphere around her.
As expected, this place she found her swarm in seemed to match the same atmosphere as of Earth, but the aliens she was captured by could not detect her presence floating above them. Her direct location seemed like an ancient Palace, complete with ceramic pillars and brick laden grounds. The Host must be a VIP entangled in some kind of conspiracy, her body was highlighted by the swarm as a blue hologram seemingly stuck in a hostage situation, tortured and kneeling. The great chain was not like her previous prison, though the Swarm knew to prioritize its survival. It was thin and weak, possibly another reason why it was being picked on this way. Its head was being continually dunked in water. The thirteen enemies were red holograms, however, to her surprise they were actually unarmed. It appeared that the Host was outnumbered at the start, but with the swarm slowly enhancing its body their unauthorized attack was going to be their ultimate doom.
Life support: 1%. The system chirped, with no progress in sight.
She might as well try out her new Great Chain, since the enhancements were working. She’ll look into restoring the original owner later.
Combat sequence activated.
Company Ethics Codes temporarily overridden.
Company Body Cams not found, no footage will be captured for internal investigation.
Begin self-defense of Black Wolf Company property.
“Engage,” her voice gurgled underwater.
Bubbles swatted her face, but she found herself pulling against whatever bind she was restrained in with minimal effort. It was like snapping a futile twig off a bough. Misa’s swarm immediately acted, leaping up and striking both hostiles holding her down in their jaws. Immediately, she noticed a new sensation accompanying the sound of bones crunching. Rising, she noted that the two targets she struck were instantly downed.
“Unauthorized hostility response protocol, Black Wolf Company policy 7.2 activated,” she muttered to herself. The hostiles were displaying elevated adrenaline levels, scared of her and not understanding her. Misa droned on as she turned menacingly at them. “Ethic codes turned off. No bodycams. Hostiles remaining: 11.”
The other attackers resembled humans from Earth, she noted. Their skulls and brains splattered had similar water compounds and blood sprays spill out of them, but a tingling sensation rippled through her fist and her spine for unknown reasons. Pain? Misa was curious about the new disturbance, but her swarm was quickly healing whatever source the pain was coming from and restoring the torn muscles. Her spine still burned. There was something else her emergency backup systems was notifying her about, but there were still enemies.
One of them shouted at her, screaming something she could not understand.
Foreign Language detected.
Audio data does not match any known language in the database.
Translating… 4%
They all seemed like they were experiencing psychological trauma from the sight of their dead and injured companions. Misa immediately began her assault, attacking the first one closest to her as the others targeted her. With a blow to the creature’s head, her other hand twisted and snapped its head with unusual ease. A C1 vertebrae? The bone fragment flung past her head. Interesting, Misa noted the entrails of someone she destroyed. Her Nanites were limited at the moment, unable to process these creatures for production quickly.
Their vitals also resembled similar organs and traits as a regular human from Earth. Therefore, she could dismantle this squad of primitives with ease. The muddy brown powder that was her victim’s head caused more screams amongst the others. The two other enemies she disabled suffered similar fates, while she marveled at how improved her Great Chain’s body was. In just a matter of seconds, she already had a much more standardized biological unit for her Swarm to pilot. They were dead at best, or incapacitated at the worst.
Heavy steps were approaching and by now, Misa’s eyes were already transformed by the Swarm. She could see red outlines of soldiers closing in on her position. After dispatching everyone except one individual, she had to make an escape. More security also meant more trouble. The important creature, seemingly the main ring leader, made wailing noises and had elevated stress levels. Misa realized that it, like the other individuals she beat up, resembled a female human except she was exuding an odd energy from her body. She also was calling for backup. Confusion struck her. They were holding… Old martial weapons. Sticks? Did she need to escape from this situation?
System sweep: Drone available.
Misa realized that she would definitely need to understand her surroundings in this alien world before her attackers halt Black Wolf Company’s new expansion here. She seized the final survivor of her original thirteen targets, threatening her while the new guests arrived. Misa backed up towards the wall, stepping over broken bodies and slammed her against a wall. She dragged the ring leader like a doll, not caring about the new trail of red paint gathering from their feet as she did. She firmly placed the creature, which appeared to be a woman, against the wall. It was time to begin the interrogation.
“Where am I?” Misa barked at the whimpering woman.
The woman screamed, clearly not understanding any of the ten languages from Earth she used, then called out for someone. The men that caught up to her hesitated, wincing as she squeezed the woman’s hand until something snapped. The pink sleeved hand she gripped turned red. There was no point, she had to get surveys on this land and escape. Raising her free hand, thousands of the Swarm inside her streamed out of her wrist and formed a new drone. Go, she commanded it. Perhaps they could establish connections with Neoma and Company servers by now. The woman gurgled out something.
Translating Host’s language: 44%.
“Father, she’s gone mad! Call for father! Father!”
Several guards were headed her way, but Misa found something odd about them while the pink one struggled within her grasp. What is this? She wondered at their strange costumes. Armor? Spears and swords? Combat scenarios had ran her through dodging bullets and explosions. Misa officially ruled out that this was some form of combat simulation. Such ridiculous and archaic weaponry was too easy to deal with. Something shimmered in the pale light, identified by the Swarm as a standard knife. Scooping it up, she glared at the writhing creature in her grasp and smashed the fallen attacker’s head with her heel. The once white bricked floor splattered with red and fear fell upon the guards’ faces like thunder.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Lin, no!” The whimpering creature in her grasp screamed at the headless body of her supposed friend. She struggled, but realized Misa was serious with a blade to her throat.
“Remain still,” Misa commanded the girl, who immediately complied. “Answer the question, or else.”
Translation completed.
Language added to directory.
Host’s Life is still in danger!
Misa felt something irk her. Frustration? What an odd human emotion. In time, her mission will be complete or else she will live up to being the Company’s seventh failure. This nonsense was stopping her mission progress, though she did not know what that currently was. Misa needed to get in contact with Overwatch Neoma in order to get a sense on what to do. Her Swarm’s protocols did not like the feeling of potential consequences of being a failure gave her either, but her Swarm was slowly replicating within the dead bodies and filling her. Given several days, she could complete a veritable metamorphosis into her old Great Chain’s self. Currently, she was in a stand off against the soldiers with sticks.
“Drop the knife!” One of the guards ordered, but his voice shook with sheer cowardice. The others were too unnerved by her gruesome display of violence to move properly.
“For what purpose was I being drowned?” Misa yelled at her hostage again, this time in the newly translated language. “Speak or lose your other hand.”
“M-my other hand?!” the woman screamed.
“Three. Two,” Misa counted down.
“It was a m-misunderstanding, let m-me go, Younger Sister!” She cried.
Misa realized the guards weren’t going to let her go freely. She felt her arm glow hot, prepared to launch more scouting drones while easily restraining her older sister. They should find suitable spots to begin building new Swarm Production sites. Neoma was not here to command her just yet, so she might as well be productive. Release and begin combat protocols! She shot the drones into the sky before kicking the hostage into the pools of blood. As she scrambled away behind the soldiers, Misa noted that the hostage was surprisingly resilient compared to the other aliens she destroyed.
The guards all rushed her at once.
Misa kicked one into a pillar and ducked under a spear, bending around another and used the momentum to impale the first spear wielder. She leapt over both spears as the soldier cried out his final moment and smashed another’s head, caving his helmet and skull into his chest. The Swarm was getting stronger inside her. Another stronger warning flashed in Misa’s enhanced eyes. A new VIP?
“Lin, I forbid you to move,” came a powerful voice. Something flashed above her before she could lunge at the old man, setting off quicker than a flashbang. Misa’s body immediately became frozen in place, dropping the knife and the broken neck of one of the soldiers. Both her and the corpse crumpled to the ground.
What was this? Her vision glitched as she felt her body become heavy.
System sweep: Errors detected <
Cannot reach Black Wolf Company support channels.
Her body was suspended by unknown forces, midswing. Through all the warning errors, the guard she targeted scrambled away from her instead of finishing her off with a terrified expression on his face. The Host’s life was in danger and the frustration the Swarm experienced returned. Misa did not recognize the attack that restrained her body. The guards kicked her to her knees, crossing her neck with spears, while an old man in ornate robes walked slowly and with confidence to her. That was the new VIP. Was this her hostage’s father?
Her drones were long gone, of course, mapping the location and streaming her new data. Mountains and cities to the north covered with odd alien vegetation. The south was covered in an odd mist, seemingly causing the greenery to melt and wither. This odd geography did not match any local maps she had on planet Earth. Misa’s theory was correct. She was in a large palace courtyard, overlooking a hillside lined with buildings that looked ancient. Her information screen chirped notifications.
Systems sweep: Smart movements have been disabled. Manual mode activated. Local baseline reality disturbances reduced significantly.
Baseline reality? Misa ignored it for now. She kept that she could move a secret and needed more time to extract information.
“My, dear daughter,” he clapped his hands, not even disturbed by the broken bodies and deaths of his soldiers. “What happened here?”
Systems update: Nanite bullets ready. Smart movements disabled. Dumb fire and manual target acquisition required to counteract <
“Where am I? Why was I being drowned by that woman? I merely freed myself from my attackers,” Misa’s shoulder slowly released a stream of nanites, forming the ballistic systems above her head.
If she programmed the Swarms fully, they would launch into small solid projectiles at each enemy in front of her. If she did that, she would need to replenish them eventually. The Company’s resources were limited at the moment and she needed information so she pretended to still be stuck under whatever the unknown energy field’s effects were. A bucket was smashed to pieces, containing water mixed in with many pieces from her attackers.
“We shall speak of that soon,” he looked in awe at the mess Misa left in short notice. The features on his face suggested that he was impressed. “Have you been training in secret? Perhaps you have awakened?”
“My patience is thin,” Misa had enough, breaking the arms of both guards and stabbing their eyes with her fingers. Two more warm bodies for the Swarm to harvest energy and materials in. The others looked in horror as she pinned the mysterious man on the ground. With enough nanites, she could form bigger weapons, but something was constraining her to this current Host’s body.
“Father!” the woman shrieked.
“I demand answers to my questions. I have a rocket now,” Misa ordered the man. She pointed her finger to the entrance of the palace. “Or this palace will be blown to high hell.”
“You of all people should know your spiritual energy is weak, daughter,” The man laughed, as if she wasn’t serious. His tone betrayed his wariness, however, as he definitely did not know what a rocket was. Misa rolled her eyes. Always the ones in charge who think they can weather the storm. She aimed her Swarm at a wall and launched one rocket at it, admiring that despite this body’s former humanity, the nanomachines have taken over it already. Her wrists could function exactly like she operated as a machine.
The gutteral clunk of its sudden formation and release exploded, creating a massive cloud of dust and noise as it tore a path towards the pillar furthest away. A thunderous collapse sunk it immediately, but kept the structural integrity just intact enough to remain standing. Misa recalled that the nano-rockets would replenish on their own, with the machines taking most of the damage she caused as material to analyze and replicate themselves. The soldiers gawked at the massive hole in the Palace’s wall, revealing terrified servants inside. Misa recalled one of the Company’s policies: If stealth or infiltration does not work, go loud. The old man’s confidence wavered in the smoke, she analyzed weakpoints in his firm, yet not imperceptible countenance.
“Release me from that attack you did,” Misa demanded, her voice becoming more mechanical and deep. “Further unauthorized hostilities against Black Wolf Company property will result in immediate consequences.”
“Fine, fine! You are my youngest daughter, this is the Jade Kingdom, we’re in the Mortal Realm, and I am your Father Jade,” he cowered, before lowering his voice. He chanted something and the strange grenade that trapped her materialized above her before falling to the ground. Odd and highly anomalous, Misa noted. The weapon causing the unknown energy field was made out of wood, despite capable of cloaking itself. It clattered on the ground, lifeless. The old man’s eyes shifted back and forth as he attempted to reconcile the chaos she created and her current Host’s body. “You are suffering amnesia aren’t you?”
“I suppose so,” Misa said to her apparent father. “I will need time to think.”
She prepared to leave and release a flashbang to stun her immediate surroundings but the old man groveled and stopped her.
“Wait, daughter,” he stammered. “You can rest here in your room. Then we shall talk about yours and your Sister’s deeds.”
An acceptable offer, Misa analyzed the man’s tone and determined he was not lying. Her drones have picked up something interesting, but they could wait. She simply sighed.
“Very well, but remember my warning,” she let her voice ring out and return to its normal pitch. “If anyone attempts to harm me again, there will be immediate consequences.”
“You will be sentenced to confinement n your room for now,” Father Jade attempted to regain some authority over her. Misa decided there were more further unknown energy fields that could potentially eliminate her, so she decided to comply. “Commander Genxing. Take my daughter there.”
The supposed Commander Genxing hurried up the stairs and bowed before her.
“Come, Princess,” he dared not make eye contact with her. “Allow this one to guide you.”
He rose an arm from his side, gesturing her to follow him. The guards hesitated for a moment at her words, deciding not to restrain her. Genxing’s arm was pointing towards the Palace’s gate, which now had a new improvised entrance cratered into its ornate wooden frame. That mysterious attack the old man used on her was terrifying, she thought as the remaining terrified guards to escorted her to a room. Despite this, the Commander himself seemed like he belonged to an elite soldier corps. He also had a massive sword strapped to his back and was multiple sizes bigger than the guards, which could also be a potential obstruction to her current mission.
Misa’s Swarm detected traces of the unknown energy scattered in the atmosphere all around her as they walked. The traces were indecipherable and could not be analyzed properly, causing glitches in her Nanites. Thankfully, none of these aliens seemed to notice her Swarm. The hallways winded past an open courtyard, where at least a hundred individuals sat on their knees in deep meditation. Misa noted that these humans were different awhile ago, but they apparently were separated by one factor or class besides gender. The servants and the initial ones she destroyed did not possess the odd energy that the ones in the courtyard did. The traces of energy did not seem to interact with the meditating “humans,” but perhaps they also were not aware of the anomalous energy present.
The massive Genxing led her to a big room, complete with lavish amenities. He bowed with the other soldiers, but Misa could sense some animosity coming from him. Perhaps, she reasoned, these humans here did not like her destroying their fellow kind. For now, she contemplated if she should go into standby mode and await the Swarm to deliver more Nanites for her. She checked her subroutines and found several reports. Each drone did not get far, she noted that they each have been intercepted by unauthorized and unknown anti-air methods. The traces of unknown energy kept her Nanites from traveling too far away from her, in an estimated range of several kilometers. She could not see aerial surveillance beyond the borders of this supposed Kingdom. It seemed that this alien planet she found herself on brought on a new emotion within her; one she could not classicy as good or bad: Anticipation on what was going to happen next.
The other alert was informing her another connection patching through to her: Her emergency backup Overwatch was reassembling itself within her Swarm. Misa’s Host’s identity was named Lin Jade and definitely required standby mode to update herself. Since Neoma was rebuilding, she decided to enter it and remain in this spacious room since she was alone.
Anticipation… A thrill that took itself to infect her Swarm’s productivity rates as apart of her own systems’ flaws. Misa decided it had to be a good feeling, since when she was influenced by it she seemed to speed up. Black Wolf Company shall soon take over this place, wherever this Mortal Realm is, and she will find a way to return to Earth and deliver that contract: Eliminate Claire Lykos.