Raptor One – Chapter 76
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Getting to the Captain’s Bridge was somewhat of a workout for me because of the numbness, but I mange to sit on my dear Captain chair.
I never thought I would need the redundant harness that I kept on my chair just for looks... And safety rules, so I get the harness in place around me, finally being able to focus my tired self on the others.
They are all seated and ready, working on their consoles trying to calculate the best course of action on the next planetary sling waypoint, of which have a higher danger factor than the last one we managed to ride through.
“Grr... So? How’s it going? I think we will need more hard work on the radar station, or we may become canned poultry.” I ask out while chuckling.
“Heh, that’s the least of our worries!” Li’luk reply, also chuckling.
Zu looks back at me before saying. “I’m more worried about being ‘devoured’ by you.” Zu say with a coy smile and a deep look before returning to work.
Yeah, looks like I'm not the only one getting thirsty here, but I still need to get some loose ends done before diving in.
“Your current appearance would look better if you had your old mask.” Li’lak say, getting me out of my thoughts.
“Oh? How so tovarishch?” I ask smiling.
“*Idea noted. One medium cycle.*”
“Well, you look like you evolved backwards while having a breakthrough in technology, giving the look of a Primal Apex Predator, and coupled with your growling voice gives you a very strong aura of a leader, and a I am the Alpha vibe.” Li’lak give me her honest thoughts about my look and how to better implement it.
“GRR... Da, that’s a good answer.” I say and nod.
“*Times over, Waypoint set! Red alert mode!*”
Sigma voice brings us back into focus as we double our attention.
The first waypoint was a breeze, but as soon as we arrived to the second waypoint where we had to burn, a red alert started blaring, looking at what it was I see a real time log from Zu’s station.
“GRRalking about loose asteroids! Chert! Prepare for extreme stress maneuver!” I yell at my crew and they get right to work.
Both of the Li sisters start calculating and getting reports at high speed before they say in sync.
“DONE!” both Li sisters say at the same moment.
As soon as the word came out the Su brothers started adjusting our thrust vector, both brothers do a excellent job while at high stress as I watch from the ship camera the big asteroid pass under the belly of our ship, a big bulged part of the asteroid rotated very close to the ship but we passed with no damage.
“GRRigma, we need extra calculations.” I say, asking Sigma to help more proactively.
“*Rigma? Uh... Your growls and words must have started mixing together due to the compatibility cooling... Right, proactive help, understood.*”
I tilt my head at Sigma little rant, but see that each of my pack are getting extra help.
With Sigma working in all five fronts, giving special attention to the radar station we managed to pass by the third waypoint, and moving fast to the fourth one, the G forces getting very high.
I see that the pack is starting to breath very fast, some are already swaying, so I start playing with the Inertial Dampening configuration, after some seconds of thinking and tinkering with the Inertial dampeners I feel the pressure on me reduce, so I give my pack a second look.
They are recovering slowly and no longer about to have a blackout.
The fourth waypoint was hard on both ship and crew, I scowl and growl at the sound alike to a submarine beyond full depth and the sound of something slowly being ripped off the ship.
“GRRamage control!” I say, my growl two times angrier than normal.
The Li Sisters shot into action immediately, searching for the failing components, seconds later I hear Li’luk talk.
“Light damage on the left ship armor! Sending vector adjustment!” Li’luk reply, her hands never stopping.
“Left Solar sail damaged! Ship alignment error at 23% and increasing! Rerouting energy!” Li’lak also reply, hands also moving.
“*Planet gravity and magnetosphere calculation complete! Inserting new waypoint data!*”
With the work of the Li sisters and the help of Sigma, we managed to pass the fourth waypoint, the hardest part of the gravity sling.
“GRR... Ears sharp and hands ready, we are almost done.” I try to pump out my pack with the prospect of relaxation.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
I see tired grins on every mouth, so I guess it worked.
The last two waypoints passed with no issues, with my modification on the inertial dampener, the pack managed to resist the rest of the G forces from the burn, now we just need to relax and get ready to dock.
I and the pack looks very tired, but with big smiles as they head to the recreation area on the upper deck, most likely to grab a drink to lessen the nerves.
I on the other hand head back down to the lower deck, my primal wolfs following me like trained guards.
Squatting besides the crate where I placed all the components of my dismantled power armor I grab my old mask, it’s yautja markings and four breathing slots still shining while looking menacing.
I sit with my back to the crate, resting a little, my primal wolfs lying around me as I watch the old mask.
“GRRo I need this mask? I don’t think it will help much.” I say to myself.
“*Your thought process is wrong. Remember that your nanites replicate flesh ‘to a fault’ as you said, that means your breathing will also affect your combat performance. That means you will be a lot less efficient with nothing to breath. You won’t suffer death by hypoxia, but my analysis says you will agonize until you get something to breath.*”
“GRRell, that’s bad news, how do I get this mask up to date then?” I ask Sigma while looking at all the old tech on my flashy mask, stimulants induced rebreathers, jaw lockdown and sharp flesh hooks that sink on the meat of the mouth...
Not to mention the oh god long tube that slides all the way from the nose to the throat.
I shiver just remembering having to use it to alleviate my now long cured ‘spore zombie infection’.
“*By my analysis, I can rebuild the mask using your freshly researched technology while keeping almost all of the mask looks while synching it’s looks to match your new augmented self.*”
“GRR? Tell me more, if we have the components for the technology I'll build it.” I say and nod.
“*The needed resources are already there, we can use the resources of the dismantled power armor to make the ‘Mask Augment’.*”
“GRRust the word bring pain... Shoot, what’s in it for me?” I say after a grimace.
“*’Mask Augment’: Four Energy Dense Rebreathers, will allow you to recover lost energy 4 times faster than normal. Metallic teeth: The mask augment mouth lockdown comes with a built in teeth and fang expansion, allowing you to bite through even the hardest of metal while still having a passive toxin injector. The overall look will blend with both ‘Arm’ and ‘Leg’ augments giving a very high tech yet clean look after the ‘Torso’ augment completes it’s synchronization process.*”
“GRRu... That’s surprisingly... Very few things.”
“*Please note that it will be covered in cyber nerves. Want me to show the blueprint?*”
I shudder at the mention, but steel my mind while staying a little curious about the mention of my Torso augment still linking with me?
Anyway, I nod and Sigma show me the new Mask augment, Black just like my new arms and legs, yet it makes my innate exotic look resurface a little.
“*After the Mask augment is installed, it will link with the rest of the augments and finish changing your look. Warning, to complete the look you need to allow permanent activation of your eyes cyber grid. Allow process?*”
“GRRhy not? Da, I allow.” I say and close my eyes, focusing on the ‘Mask Augment’ blueprint, it’s composition is made into a three layer modular build, the internal cyber nerves, the equipment and lastly the outer shell, made with pure precision and sync in mind...
As I was deep in thought I hear a fake cough, the voice giving out the person.
I open my eyes and look at Li’lak, the more shy of the two sisters.
“GRRU?” I ask her while tilting my head.
Li’lak give me a weird look before talking. “I can’t seen to feel that your actions and appearance are in sync, feels like somethings missing... Ah! Sorry Captain, I saw your two big guys there and thought that they needed something to charge from.” Li’lak say while pointing at my Power Shield modules.
“GRRit’s true I need a capacitor to be able to use all of my current augments.” I nod at her while ignoring her ranting.
“Here, I bought two semi expended capacitors, they should have at least have 15 units of charge each, sorry for not bringing more, I took both from a malfunctioning ship class small capacitor.” Li’lak say placing two heavy duty capacitors in front of me.
I give a nod in thanks and levitate both capacitors while opening the capacitor port of each arm, as soon as they hit the discharge node my arms closed, hiding both capacitors snugly inside it while leaving a lightning node barely hidden, the node itself is used to charge the capacitors without having to expose it by using the concept of lightning rods.
I barely feel the difference in weight on my arms, but I feel all of the equipment on my arms lit up, a check on the capacitor charge show me that each capacitor have 20 units each, with both arm augments sharing the energy pool the total is 40 units of charge out of 100 units.
“GRR... Spacibo, Li’lak.” I struggle to a little, not wanting to get my russian butchered while thanking her.
“Can I sit next to you? I also got coffee.” Li’lak ask me while showing two closed containers with hot sweet coffee.
I nod and pat the space besides me, the primal wolf that was lying there giving space for her to sit while giving me one of the containers of coffee.
Opening the container and taking a sip of the hot and sweet coffee, I sigh in contentment before placing it down between my legs and getting to work on my ‘Mask Augment’, levitating all the resources I need while getting the D.C.O.K working.
The ‘Dual Cyber Organic Keeper’ tendrils expands out of it’s case and start working on the project, melting and molding all types of materials together one after another while placing each component into it’s needed place, I work somewhat entranced at the usefulness of the ‘D.C.O.K’, but never forget to take a sip of my sweet coffee...
When I least expect, my coffee is empty and my Mask Augment is done, it’s bright black shining on top of my hands as each tendril returns to it’s place and get disinfected with a jet of hot pressurized air.
I give a side glance and see Li’lak looking with pure focus at me and the mask, I give it a last look before testing it for faults...
None.
So I place it on my face, it engulfs my muzzle completely and locks snugly to it... That is, before the searing hot pain starts.
I growl in pain for a second before getting silent again, waiting the pain go away as the new augment devour the fur on my muzzle and latch to my flesh, bone, teeth, fang, and most of all, make the air I breath fool proof.
It takes 10 medium cycles, all of which passed in utter silence before I finally feel my mouth again.
I place the new air cartridges on each of the four slots, all of which I made along with the Mouth Augment, as soon as all four are in place I start to feel the rush of breathable air slowly getting denser as the cartridges start charging using the current air.
I give a sigh, a deep growl and four hiss of pressurized air leaving my... Mask, startling Li’lak back into the world of the living.
“Gruuu... I’m exhausted, let’s go?” I say and barely manage to get up.
“O- Oh! Sure, Let me help you, you seen worse... Looking cool though.” Li’lak say while lending a shoulder and grunting a little.
“You are heavier than what your looks show.” Li’lak say while puffing a little as we walk to the stairs on the low deck.
“Gru? Da, I'm heavy alright, much more now that I have specialized augments, good thing that my wings are already augmented, they just need to finish linking.” I tilt my head at her words but respond nonetheless.
Getting to the stairs I let go of Li’lak shoulder, managing to stand upright properly for now, the numbness I'm feeling is slowly getting stronger, I should rest, a priority I'm ignoring a lot for some time, most at the times when I worked at Jason’s bar.
“You okay?” Li’lak ask me, taking me out of my thoughts and making me look up at her on the stairs.
“Grr... Da, just getting absent minded... Lack of sleep or energy.” I reply before starting to climb the stairs along with Li’lak.
When I finally reach the top deck I was out of energy, I managed to walk out of the range of the stairs before getting wobbly, but managed to keep standing due to my augments.
I huff a little and start walking to the crew quarters, nodding at my pack that was looking at me with worry.
Su’ra did not like the shape I was in and got up, heading my way, his brother hesitated but seeing his brother helping me joined in.
“Gruu... Spacibo, I’m barely keeping myself standing.” I give my thanks to both brothers and let go a little of my weight, Su’ra frown at my weight and Su’zu buckle under it before recovering and helping me get to the crew quarters.
As soon as we get close to the pile of pillows I let go of the guys shoulder and fall face first into the pillows, a groan of contentment leave my mouth as I easily get into dreamland...