I felt alive! The adrenaline rush of battle had always given me a little bit of an edge before, how it sharpened your reflexes and augmented your body just that tiny little bit extra that you needed. Now it was like it was flooding my system but it was without the rush of adrenaline. I’d noticed it when I cleared that distance in such a short time in the beginning.

In my old body, I could have covered that in such a short time but I’d need to pick up speed, not from a dry start like I had. The wolf-rats I was now slaughtering wholesale looked like they were moving half a second slower than they should be. I’d never gotten to push myself quite like this before, whenever a good workout had occurred it had been a slow burn for four hours at a time, all the while working at just about above the normal strength I was used to.

I quickly stopped and jerked my head back as one of the creatures intending to take my ship lunged at me with what I could only say was a medieval halberd. A stomp kick to the creature's thigh blew the limb almost in half and I again marvelled at the sheer power of this new body of mine. Malice had summed it up to what other species might think of Chimera’s when they faced them in battle, we were agile heavy worlders. A rare species trait that made creatures with the same strength as that of the powerful heavy Worlder species move as quick and agile normal gravity creatures. If they were in their own gravity that is.

To sum it up I moved as fast as a tiger and carried the strength of an elephant in my frame. A fact demonstrated by my next action of swinging the laser axe in an arc and taking out the upper thirds of six of these creatures before I had to right my body back into position.

One lunged at me with a sword and I gripped it by the neck so hard that it jerked back and lost the grip on its sword. I noted another aiming those flintlock looking laser pistols at me and I revved my hand that gripped the axe to turn off the laser emitter and used the axe like a mace. Caving the creatures head in and ending the last threat close to me that wasn’t running away.

I looked at the creature I held by the throat and found it a bit like if you got a Hyena’s and a Labradors mutt and crossbred that with a rat, then just for the hell of it make it bipedal and sentient with all the necessary digits.

In a sudden flash of savagery, I gripped the shoulder of the creature and just to test my strength I pulled. It was visceral, the feeling of sheer savage power that I felt as I saw the creature's neck lengthen and then begin to tear before it came free with the broken spinal column trailing behind. I felt like roaring and I did. I was the new apex fucking predator in this galaxy. Hear my roar motherfuckers and pray, pray I don’t set my eyes on you.

The brutality of it all made me falter and my misstep caused me to fall backwards onto the gore and body parts I had left in my wake. What the hell had Malice done to me? I’d never enjoyed combat this much before. I’d loved it because of the razor-focused edge it gave me that more often than not was that tiny bit extra I needed to get out alive from an engagement with the enemy. But now I felt like a berserker, a juggernaut steamrolling my enemies in primal fury and exaltation.

I felt horrified, not by my actions but rather because of the truth of it I felt inside me. I was a chimaera now, I was primal to my core and an apex predator not evolved but made and I could still be improved. I had yet to fully get used to my body and I needed more time to fully get into the proper flow of it.

I got up and wrenched the axe haft out of the poor thing I’d brained it with. I was about to twist the handle and activate the weapon once more but I stayed my hand as I leaned down to look at the flintlock pistol looking weapons they’d used at range. I fired one into one of them and saw the small burning hole about a thumb deep it caused made me really glad Malice had supplied me with the personal shield he had. However, I had thought the hood had just been for some show but it wasn’t as the armour was a base model and not finished so it didn’t have all the bells and whistles. Or so he said.

The hood showed me indicators of how much I had left of the shield to protect me from projectiles. I had about seventy percent left but I’d felt a bit of the kinetic energy behind each projectile when the shield deflected it and that much had gone after just four shots hitting the shield properly.

That meant each shot would take at around seven point five or so percent with each shot, I’d be protected sure but not for any length of time.

I needed a plan, not like the poor idea of telling them to pack up and fuck off as I had, the damn things didn’t seem to speak any language I knew at least. I guess universal translators are too much to ask for. I looked around the corridor I was in and noted the slight bend they’d all run down, closing off the other way in the process. Their captain wasn’t an idiot that was for sure, he’d seen he couldn’t take me in a confined space where their numbers meant less against me. Which meant they were now in a spacious hold or cargo hold that would allow them to capitalize on their numbers.

I frowned as I searched the bodies around me real quick. None of them had grenades of any kind, all they had were either medieval melee weapons some of which looked like the maker was screaming prison rules at the top of his lungs while making them. One looked like a stop sign sharpened to be an axe. Those and the laser flintlocks were about the only things I could find. I placed my finger to my neck and subvocalized.

“Malice is there any way I can turn these pistol things into smoke grenades or just plain grenades?” I asked.

“Commander you only need to subvocalize and the neck guard will pick it up as you transmitting to me. You have no need for the fingers.” Malice said almost cheerily which annoyed me and also told me he must be able to see what I see while I wore it.

“As for your question I’d say crack that middle bit and throw, should work like a grenade like that if the power chamber is cracked. It’s primitive but it’s got a flair to it. I’ll have my drones pick up all of their weapons for study so do leave a few unclaimed at least.”

I sighed and left three behind and made my way to the bend in the corridor. Peeking over the corner I could see the pirates gathered in a cargo hold. It was good and wide, perfect for bringing their numbers to bear. There was one, dressed as a pirate captain with a hat and coat over his shoulders growling something to the others.

I didn’t wait long as I took one of the pistols and cracked it over my knee, the pain shot through my knee and I almost yelled out but it cracked and I saw the crackle of energy begin crawling out of the casing.

I chucked the thing into the largest cluster of the pirates that I saw and watched one of them vaporize in the explosion and was pleasantly surprised at the smoke cover that it also created in its wake. I sprinted into the hold and wrenched the hand holding onto my axe haft to turn the thing on. The deep and primal snap-hiss of the thing as it activated sent a shiver of something wonderful down my spine. Before I could get lost in the sensation I ran two more pistols along the back part of the axe to crack their casings and flung them to create more smoke cover.

My axe looked like these fantasy type axes except of course it was made out of rippling red energy that crackled angrily while a thin sheen of gold kept it at bay. The overall shape of it reminded me of a halberd, but the axe blade was too wide and more akin to a dane-axe than anything as well as missing the spear point that should come out the top.

I made my way straight to the leader and looked down on him. The creatures were a bit small, maybe just about 1.6 meters tall maybe? It didn’t matter, they fired the first shot so they’d deal with the consequences of their actions. I swung the axe and chopped his body in two at the waist, the thing surprised me however as he swung with his cutlass and left a scrape on my armour.

My eyes widened as I saw the scar on my armour and then I grew angry. I went into a survival mentality, it was me or them and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me. I gripped the things muzzle to prevent it from commanding the others any more and began to swing him and the axe around. When the first barrage of laser shots fired at me I put the captain between me and them and then dropped him as he was useless as a weapon and shield after that.

I turned my axe off and ducked as the lights above were dim and the heavy smoke gave poor visibility if you didn’t have a nifty little vision enhancement built into your armours helmet that is. I could see them though it was in this sort of all blue with just white outlines around them with a tiny bit of detail to them.

As I made my way around the cargo hold I snatched up four more pistols and slammed one into the ground and threw it quickly. Jumping to the side almost as I did so as another barrage of laser fire was fired my way. As soon as the first pistol went off and more screams filled the smoky hold I cracked two more and threw them. I turned my axe on once more right as I came upon a clustered group of them and began to hack away at them as quickly as I could before I slid the last pistol along the back end of the axe and threw it deep into their lines before fading back into the smoke.

I marvelled at how quickly all of the sudden I was at getting the hang of my body, I was still jerky and a little clumsy with my movements. Especially the high precision ones like sliding the pistol along the back of my axe, that I had to look while I did just so I wouldn’t cut myself. But I was getting more used to it.

I continued to do hit and fade tactics like that three more times, leaving the axe on only for four or six seconds at a time as I tried to do as much damage as I could. Before fading back and collecting a few more pistols to use as grenades to harass them. The little lessons on how to use an axe like this that Malice had made me learn, or rather of a traditional one not a freaking laser variant like this, came in handy in making sure I did as much damage as I could.

On the fourth time I did it I heard a growl and my eyes widened as a barrage went straight at me. The hits sending me stumbling back and then jumping for cover as another was directed my way. I was down to thirty-two point five percent left of my shields. I grunted as I got behind one of the few containers in the hold and the pain from the hits, hit me.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The shield prevented the projectile itself from hitting me but the kinetic energy behind it still somehow came through to hit me where it would have. Apparently techno-magic had its quirks.

I looked around and groaned as I saw only one pistol within reach and I grabbed it. I was about to crack it and throw when I heard the patter of feet come down one of the three other corridors leading into the hold. Thinking fast I fired the pistol down that corridor and to my surprise all the others in the hold fired the same way.

I heard a single scream before another sporadic barrage continued down the corridor and then silence reigned. I slowly got up and tiptoed around, using all the training I’d had on stealth at my disposal as I made my way around and began to pile up a few pistols under my arm.

I heard the yowls, growls and whines of their language come from around the hold and as the smoke began to clear I hid and watched. They all grouped up together and began to argue as three of them went down the corridor they’d all shot up.

As I began to think of a plan a mournful howl came down the corridor the three had gone through and when a few more barks came so too did the others let out mournful wails or whines.

Had there been civilians onboard? That couldn’t be right, right? They are pirates they should know the risks of bringing civilians aboard their ship while on a voyage. I couldn’t let myself feel pity for these creatures. Malice had hacked their systems and found out about them as they began to board.

Apparently, they were called Witrhi or something and they lived in pirate fleets. Plundering and pillaging as a lifestyle and they rarely left any survivors in their wake. Taking any ship they could salvage to strengthen their fleets to do more plundering and pillaging on a little bit bigger scale than before.

They didn’t deserve my pity, with such a lifestyle there was no such thing as a non-combatant among them. They’d all just as soon slit my throat if a chance presented itself just so they could take what was mine by freak right.

I closed my eyes and growled as I switched my axe on and quickly sent the nine pistols I’d collected flying into their midst. Then right as one cried out about me arriving I was on them. As I ploughed into them the pistols went off and around me was glorious chaos.

They were screaming and wailing, firing wildly in every direction as the light from my axe and their pistols made seeing hard in the thick smoke. Some I managed to cut into their pistols and move away to cause a bit more panic. Others came at me with melee weapons but none could stand up to my laser axe.

I simply watched as it cleaved into the piece of metal they put in between themselves and me, none of it really helped them. One did take longer to go through and bought the pirate six seconds as the axe melted through it and then into him. I suspected that the denser the material the longer it would take to cut into it as he’d held a thick steel plate that looked like it belonged on the hull of the ship rather than as a shield.

Once the smoke finally cleared I sat on a pile of bodies, my chest heaving up and down as I tried to catch my ragged breath. My hands shook and were numb as whatever was powering the axe had died on me before I was finished, so I’d resorted to bashing them or ripping them apart barehanded. It had been a primal sort of brutality that had taken me over when the axe stopped working. Many of the corpses were more paste or in more parts than they should be.

“Are you all right commander?” Malice asked me over the coms.

“I’m not all right Malice.” I hissed at him, the sound I made reminded me a little of the warning hiss of crocodiles. “What the hell did you do to me? I’ve never been so… savage before when in combat and I certainly didn’t rip entire limbs off barehanded!” I growled to him.

He was silent for a long moment before he spoke. “Commander I should advise you that four of the seven species that comprise your new genetic makeup were warrior species of great renown and prowess. Three of which were reptilian in nature and two of those comprised almost sixty percent of the empires fighting military personnel as a whole.

Battle has been hardwired into you on such a level that what you just experienced when the axe turned off was your new version of an adrenaline rush.”

“Wh-What?” I blurted.

“Yes, when the axe turned off your body experienced it’s fight or flight response for the first time and fight will be the response you will most often take. You felt a modicum of control while you could activate the axe but after it’s battery ran out your adrenaline kicked in to keep you alive.

I’m surprised it had lasted that long after all it was fully charged a few centuries ago so that the battery could hold a charge for that long without maintenance and work no less was a miracle in and of itself.” He then finished with a cheery tone.

What he got in reply was a furious roar of anger and some rather colourful cursing on my part. “You’re telling me, you sent me out with faulty weaponry!!” I roared finally when I was calming down, much of the pile bellow me pasted just a tad more as I had vented my anger.

“Well yes and no. You might have command Zathris, but I have to make sure you are worthy of it.” He answered me and his tone turned cold, like the machine he was. “The imperial codes you use are old and still functional so I will comply with your orders and guide you to the best of my ability. But I will test your worth every.step.of.the.way. I will not compromise my objective of recreating the empire in the image it was thought it would head into before it’s end.”

There was a long silence between us after that. I stood in the pile of core I had made the cargo hold into gripping the haft of my axe in one hand and just closed my eyes. I should’ve expected Malice to do something like this. He was clearly some hyper-advanced android with sadistic tendencies. I just had to be aware that if I wanted to outsmart him I’d have to stop playing go fish and start playing chess to get anywhere close to his level.

I sighed heavily and then scanned the last corridors I hadn’t gone down. “What's the situation with the ship? Anything left?”

“None… commander T’zanith.” Malice said with a tone of grudging respect like he resented the fact he had any for me. Not that I’d know what he’d respect me for. “I’ve already begun the process of consuming this ship and all it holds. The bio mater of the crew will come in handy in producing some of our own. The ships material will also allow us to expand and make full use of the current hull size if we have just a bit more material set aside from the mining site.”

I blinked a little. “So we’re only using some of the Dauntless’s internal potential?”

“Indeed, might I remind you this ship was a century in the making and served for only two weeks before I had to dimensional shift to your home dimension were upon I spent almost four thousand years buried under volcanic rock? Where do you think I had to draw from to complete another dimensional shift and to start the genetic gestation of your new body?” Malice answered almost tersely.

“So you had to cannibalize the ship to accommodate your needs?” I asked and I realized he must have taken all the things absolutely not essential to his mission which was why so few of the ships weapon slots had been empty. Perhaps the missing weapons had been salvaged for the power need?

“I did.” Malice answered simply and angrily.

I left it at that and rested the axe handle against my shoulder and I began to walk around the ship a little. I stopped after only stepping up to a corridor before I felt dizzy. I looked down and saw the myriad of cuts and stabs perforating my armour and then I saw the blood. I was leaking from a few shallow cuts but there were two deep ones. One just below my left breast and the other close to where a human’s right kidney was on my body. I wasn’t sure about my internals any more so I just thought it of as that.

A strange sort of calm came to me as I stumbled back and vocalized to Malice. “Malice I require extraction, can you comply?” I asked as I made my way slowly back towards the Dauntless storm again.

I walked like a drunkard as the fatigue in my muscles gave way to numbing exhaustion as I felt warmth seep out of my body. I stumbled but resorted to using the axe handle as a walking stick before I was even a third of the way across the cargo hold.

“I can send one of my drones into the ship to help you, what is it commander? what is wrong? Is the ship not clear?” Malice asked suddenly his tone one of concern, though I thought that must be because of the resources wasted if I did die.

“Wounded, the ship is clear. Bleeding and can’t stop it.” I replied as I reached the halfway point. All of a sudden one of the pirates came flying out of the shot up corridor, bleeding and wounded like me.

The fury in its eyes as it came at me surprised me and the pirate managed to stick my shoulder with its blade, almost going through it. I promptly knocked it’s head off with a savage strike with the handle. I groaned and fell onto my butt before I got my body back under control again.

“Malice, I order you to extract me back to medical.” I growled into the coms as I stood up and looked at my assailant. The thing was slimmer and smaller than most of the others. I saw it moving slowly towards the one I had thought of as the captain, collapsing right as it reached him.

I snorted as I thought perhaps the two were close but it didn’t matter anymore. Both were now dead and I was limping away. I had survived the attack they had done towards me unprovoked and they made retreat impossible for themselves. Who the hell uses harpoon’s in space anyway?! This race was stupid and these particular members just died for it. If I met any others and they proved as stupid they’d suffer the same fate.

I’d lost my eye in an unprovoked attack so I guessed I was bit hardwired to not give second chances to those that did that.

I continued to stumble out of the cargo hold only to be met with a strange black thing. It looked like a mechanical footstool or footrest as it approached me. Carefully sidestepping or stepping over the bodies left in my wake. Then as it reached me I felt light-headed all of the sudden, and the world wasn’t quite how it was supposed to be.

The floor was much closer for one and I wasn’t even moving but I was bouncing lightly in the air as I moved back towards the ship. Then I realized the weight on my chest and how it pressed into my chest so as to almost compress my lungs.

Wait that was my weight on the strange footrest thing Malice had sent to get me. I looked down my chest and there it was, moving along like my new bulk was nothing to it.

My vision began to swim in and out as we neared the ship and I saw Malice standing right there on the edge of the ship. Like an anxious hound waiting for its master in the confines of the space he’d been provided.

The last I saw was him looking at me with surprise in his wide eyes before just as sound had my vision went blank. Soon after I felt the metal hands grip my shoulders and then sensation and consciousness went as well. Right before I went out a strange thought came to me.

Why hadn’t Malice notified me before the ship had even gotten so close?