BLACK BOX BEGIN RECORDING
CHRONOMETERS SYNCED TO LOCAL STELLAR TIME
LOCAL TIME SET AS 0600
PERFORMING SENSORS CHECK
SENSORS SYSTEM INTEGRITY AT: 12.1% (87.7% UNREACTIVE)
UNKNOWN MALWARE PRESENCE DETECTED IN SYSTEM: SENORS
SENSOR SYSTEM VISUAL_CAMERAS OPERATING AT 98.5% OF MAX EFFICIENCY
ALL INTERNAL SENSORS OPERATING AT 100% OF MAX EFFICIENCY
PERFORMING FULL SYSTEMS CHECK:
ALL SYSTEMS RUNNING AT PREVIOUS CAPABILITIES
ITEMIZED LIST (x342) v
WARNING: XENOS DETECTED WITHIN MAXIMUM RANGE OF AVAILABLE WEAPONRY. ACTIVATING PURGE PROTOCOLS
ERROR: PURGE PROTOCOLS SUPERSEDED BY REACTIVATION SEQUENCE
ERROR RESOLUTION: CEDING CONTROL TO REACTIVATION SEQUENCE
RESUMING LOG-STREAM OF PRINCIPLE SOFT AI
Alpha C-1, Forest of Transplants
Alpha’s CPU’s ran as hot as Alpha would allow them to, as it couldn’t risk permanent damage when it was so far away from any source of repairs. It’s missing limbs were a testament to that fact. And so as it puzzled through the strange xenos next to it in a simulated environment. It had already gone through most of the more reasonable possibilities, it was now running through almost anything it could have left. Being ambushed from directly in front by being damaged in the most vital part, the Main Computer Core. Such a damage wouldn’t immediately destroy Alpha’s frame, but it would be enough to seriously hamper it. Or, it was the xenos suddenly developing more of the strange nanotech abilities and being able to begin nanite warfare with the frame. Alpha had no real defense against nanite warfare, even among the void of space it was one of the most likely to actually manage to permanently kill a Principle Soft AI like Alpha C-1, even the most hardened of black boxes couldn’t survive complete deconstruction. And, without even micromachines to use to fight them off, much less nanites of it’s own, Alpha was completely defenseless against the nanite warfare the xenos had possessed. Why exactly the nanite warfare was trying to disguise itself as a background interaction of the local environment was unknown to Alpha, and no calculations could account for all of the strangeness, so Alpha simply ran simulations with the assumption that the currently shown nanite usages were all the xenos had access to. Again, the why that it wouldn’t be granted a higher clearance level by whoever ran the nanites once a possible combat with the xenos took place was unknown, and attempting to calculate it was running into even more problems, so Alpha moved that down the priority list and focused on simulations that could help it fight the xenos as it currently was, not how it would or could be. It also used a more averaged simulation based on the hostile encounter it had with the other xenos alongside the more in depth scan of the xenos in order to replicate a more generalized xenos model, allowing Alpha to simulate a fight against multiple xenos opponents. Once it had that open, it was a wide open gate for Alpha to simulate any number of strange or weird attacks in order to figure out what best way to disassemble them and annihilate their forces, ranging the lone xenos next to Alpha’s frame 1 meter in front of Alpha, or a squad of generic xenos from as far away as Alpha could actually simulate. Complex in the moment decision making from a simulated enemy over 4 miles of complex terrain is very computationally intensive, that particular trail had taken almost 4 whole seconds! A practical eternity.
Alpha used whatever time and processing power was leftover from Alpha’s other efforts, usually just unused CPU power normally earmarked for Alpha itself, to process the information the xenos had shared with Alpha. The xenos had been very open with information, Alpha noted down that local OPSEC was likely lower than calculations derived it to be previously, and Alpha went about putting the information it had gathered to actual use as the last of the simulations finally reached a victory conclusion for Alpha. While it wasn’t quite prepared for every possible or actual eventuality, as long as the xenos moved or acted within a standard deviation of perfect, or bad enough that Alpha could exploit it, it was likely to be almost a surefire victory for Alpha. However, Alpha did reduce the weighting of the simulations on it’s decision making, as while Alpha was usually highly proficient in any and all matters of warfare and combat, the use of CQB weapon and combating xenos nanites without any micromachines or nanites of it’s own was a matter of combat and warfare that Alpha had zero knowledge on, making Alpha’s attempt at fighting often simplistic as it used it’s processing power on things it did know how to deal with, calculating attack trajectories, predicting enemy attacks, and more, meaning that the simulations it was able to create were similarly simplistic. Alpha’s data was effectively null for CQB weapon engagements, as even if it fabricated boarding craft for some reason or another, a simple railshot was far more effective than any CQB instrument, and Alpha completely lacked any microscopic capabilities to use the data it did have to work with. If Alpha’s systems were able to connect to the larger fleet network, for naught but a moment, it would’ve likely been able to collect any and all data it needed, but it couldn’t. Alpha couldn’t find a single signal even from any local wireless, not even from the nanites that the xenos must have been using. There wasn’t even an EM signature, which suggested an even higher level of technology that Alpha didn’t have the spare processing power to calculate the extent of.
Suddenly, a proximity alarm echoed out within Alpha’s digital mind simulacrum, as the xenos currently next to Alpha suddenly stirred from it’s hibernation period. Several non-word noises were picked up from it as it’s eyes rapidly went from slightly opened back to closed, before it finally let out a long non-word noise raised it’s arms above it’s head for no reason. They, for obvious reasons, connected both their arms and their head to the top of the lean-to that Alpha had constructed the start of the previous night. However, for unknown biological reasons, upon connecting with the top of the lean-to, as it obviously would, the xenos mimics a human “surprise” expression, before suddenly accelerating upwards and towards Alpha. Alpha’s acoustics sensors detected a slight noise coinciding with the stress placed upon Alpha’s frame by the weight of the xenos. Alpha’s visual cameras reported a rapid red-shift in the xenos’s skin, before it accelerated rapidly out of the lean-to, and left the area that Alpha’s visual sensors could watch. Alpha’s acoustic sensors still detected the aftereffects of the xenos on the local environment within close proximity. Alpha quickly processed the rapid stream of events, declared the rest period over by actions of the xenos, and stood up, demolishing the lean-to in one rapid movement in order to reduce available material for any possible following enemy force. Upon standing up in the area that the xenos and Alpha had secured as their rest area, next to the small open top pipe of water in the local environment, the xenos rapidly scanned the surrounding area using the limb it had designated as it’s “head” during Alpha’s queries the previous local evening before locking onto Alpha’s frame. It’s usual color was not quite as red-shifted as it had been several seconds prior, but it was still an abnormal color.
“I- I- I- I’m so sorry Alphie I didn’t mean to it was early and I wasn’t thinking and I’m sorry and I didn’t mean anything by it and-“
“[ADDRESSMENT /// STATEMENT /// DECLARATION] ||| [DESIGNATION] UNKNOWN NEUTRAL ENTITY EIN-09 INTEGRITY [UNKNOWN /// LIKELY DAMAGED /// NON-NOMINAL] ||| [REQUEST] ||| [DESIGNATION] UNKNOWN NEUTRAL ENTITY REPORT /// COMMUNICATE /// TRANSMIT [INTEGRITY]. [QUERY] ||| [DESIGNATION] UNKNOWN NEUTRAL ENTITY EIN-09 REQUIRE /// NEED /// REQUEST [REPAIR] ASSISTANCE?”
Alpha itself didn’t know how it could help in the repair of the faulty armour paneling on the xenos, but it did know that it was likely that Alpha could help in some way, while it would’ve known instantly with a data-link, not only did the xenos not present open ports to connect to or even posses a wireless capability, but it was also a filthy xenos, and thus a datalink was prohibited until the cessation of hostilities with Humanity by all known xenos species. The xenos further scanned Alpha for some unknown reason for several seconds longer before it further red-shifted, reaching a dangerous color. If it was being attacked by a laser system and that red-shift was the only thing that Alpha could sense of that attack without it’s thermal cameras or datalink, then it would only be a handful of further seconds before the armour plate being structurally ineffective and the xenos started to experience breakdown of it’s superstructure due to the presence of a gravity well. Alpha had never liked working in gravity wells, they tended to make existing issues with Alpha’s ship-body worse or to complicate both simulations and calculations, wasting previous processor space. The xenos seemed to make several non-word noises, each one possessing a large percentage of similarity to the start of several known words, but each one was still a non-word noise. Alpha wondered if the xenos’s communication equipment was damaged too. That would render most of Alpha’s possible repair efforts null and void. It was also make the xenos useless as a source of info. An annoying, but not insurmountable challenge.
“Aiiiiii-uhhhh, I’m okay. I.. don’t need repairs? I- just give me a minute to collect myself, okay Alphie? Here, why don’t you keep a look out for any monster that might ambush us while I freshen up. I’ll talk to you in a second, okay?”
“[AFFIRMATIVE]”
The xenos was not in need of repairs? The red-shift in the xenos rapidly depleted before it returned to it’s standard colouration. Alpha, heeding the advice of the xenos, dedicated some of it’s sensors into scanning the local environment. The xenos approached the nearby water, before using it’s manipulators to splash some of it on it’s head. A waste of resources, but not a flagrant one. There was enough water that unless it was a very tightly regulated system that controlled the water supply, there was unlikely to be any interruptions in operations wherever the water lead to. Alpha began noting down any changes that had happened during the night, several of them coinciding with positions triangulated by it’s acoustic sensors. There was only one change that Alpha couldn’t explain using previous data, an unknown carbonization of the biological that Alpha had been using to lean it’s lean-to against. Alpha approached the carbonized spot, as using it’s scanners from a distance was getting negligible levels of data for the intensity that Alpha wanted to scrutinize the work. A carbonized spot on the biological likely meant that advanced weaponry had been used on it. A laser, incendiary kinetic ammo, or perhaps even plasma had damaged the biological. Alpha looked over the mark, it had been around where the biological the lean-to had been built around hit the other biological and formed the triangular structure that the lean-to was built around. However, the mark appeared to be inconsistent with any of the sources for carbonization that Alpha was aware of, too spread out for a laser, to irregular in shape for plasma, and there was no specific impact point for any kinetic containing an incendiary fuel, but it was consistent with the marks of something the database called ‘fire’. Incendiary ammo was supposed to emulate fire, or create one inside of a spaceship, though with the rarity of incendiary ammo outside of the very first months of the war meant that Alpha had never encountered this. Apparently, fires were only able to be started in the presence of oxygen. It was clear why they hadn’t worked, why would IFANS forces pressurize entirely AI controlled ships? Biologicals, humans in particular, had a tendency to breathe oxygen so perhaps on inefficient xenos ship-bodies fires were able to be started. It was the only logical conclusion to come to out of illogical xenos biologicals. However, Alpha was not prioritizing the carbonization, no ‘burn mark’, in it’s processors time, and so began to inspect the burn mark closer, using many linked sensors in order to increase the accuracy of it’s scan. During this time, other sensors that had been watching the xenos noted that it had begun to approach Alpha again after putting the water on it’s head and crouching next to it for 5.41 seconds. Alpha discarded this and began to use it’s manipulators to investigate the carbonized mark on the biological. Parts of the biological flaked off into Alpha’s manipulators, but it couldn’t find any abnormality outside of the carbonization itself. Not any trace material or impact that it could find in the area. And then the xenos was upon it. Again.
“Hey Alphie! Um, sorry about this morning, I.. am not quite myself when in the morning. I find it hard to wake up. You a bit of a morning guy then?”
“[DESIGNATION] ALPHA C-1 DOES NOT REQUIRE /// NEED [ACTION] SLEEP.”
“Mmm. Cool. I wish I didn’t have to sleep either. It’d make my life way easier. Anyway, here, I was thinking yesterday during our short question and answer session that perhaps we should swing by where we first met, pick up some stuff to show what, uh… happened there, which I didn’t have anything to do with, and then see if my glade is willing to say to you, and me alongside you? Our first little proper quest together, with an objective and everything? If we find something along the way, I could even help get you your first level?”
“[AFFIRMATIVE].”“Good! That’s great! Um, let’s head out now then. I’m already starting to stink in this armor and the sooner we get there and then I lead you to the glade then the sooner I should be able to change out of it.”
“[AFFIRMATIVE].”
“Right, man of few words, except for when you aren’t, huh. Follow me then!”
The xenos started moving off rapidly into the forest, or as it had explained the previous evening to Alpha C-1, the Forest of Transplants. Alpha abandoned the carbonized spot, while it was slightly inconsistent with how fire was supposed to damage something, leaving very little ash, it was consistent enough in order to not be particularly important. Alpha moved through sections of cataloged forest for several minutes, following behind the xenos before it started encountering sections of the forest that hadn’t already been cataloged. Upon reaching them, Alpha began to put it’s processors through stress testing again, as it’s hull began to heat up as Alpha took in anything and everything that it could, not just what had changed since it had last been through the area. First 50C, then 60C, as Alpha’s motors were reported as making large amounts of noises by the acoustic sensors due to the strain incurred by attempting to move at maximum speed for as long as they had to in order for Alpha to be able to follow behind the xenos. They traveled further through uncatalogued territory, before coming across a section of the forest that had been heavily analyzed by Alpha previously, the site of where Alpha had originally contacted the xenos and killed all but the ranged xenos it was currently traveling behind. Stepping over the now mostly gone remains of Alpha’s original shelter, the xenos begins to make more unknown noises as it looks as the remains of the xenos that Alpha had previously killed. It hadn’t been Alpha’s most efficient work against xenos, but it was enough for the time and Alpha hadn’t had enough time to simulate a best possible course of action or method of elimination, and thusly breaking the spine was deemed most effective to lead to instant incapacitation. The xenos had crouched down to one of Alpha’s kills, making more non-word sounds, but Alpha dismissed that. The xenos had a pattern of making non-word sounds for no reason, and as useless as those sounds were Alpha found no reason to do any more than catalog them and continue Alpha’s work. Alpha’s grip slackened slightly on it’s CQB weapons and slid their manipulators into the aft-most part of their hilts as their acoustic sensors suddenly picked up the movement of another biological in the nearby area. Alpha’s processors calculated the likelihood that it was a simple biological, another bioweapon, or a hated (or so the programs said) xenos.
“Huh? Oh, Alphie! Behind you!”
Alpha brought their uppermost limbs behind themselves and struck out with the longer CQB weapon. Metal met blood and flesh as the two smaller limbs brought the shorter CQB weapons to block any possible damage the biological could deal to Alpha’s frame. It could acquire more CQB weapons. The supply on composite armor plating was far lower, and far more difficult to jump start, even with Alpha’s access to a full databank to skip over having to actually invent or reinvent any of the technology itself. As the longer CQB weapon dug deep into the biological, Alpha swapped from high speed object tracking to more in depth scanning alongside object tracking as more of it’s sensors were locking onto the biological. Highly reminiscent of an earth fauna, the wolf, just about 2 times as large in any given dimension as a standard earth wolf, and seemed to possess some level of metal within either it’s body or fur, likely deeming it another bioweapon. The bioweapon made an excessively loud non-word sound as it moved backwards, fluid dripping out of the damage that Alpha had caused. Seeing the obvious weakness, Alpha moved it, lashing out with the two shorter CQB weapons at the location likely equating to the heart analogue’s position, stabbing once after the other to reduce the likelihood for blocking Alpha’s attack, while bringing the longer weapon up before striking down onto the largest section of the creature. Just like it had noticed before, it was unnaturally tough for a biological, all but confirming the creature’s status as a bioweapon. Unable to even feel deterred, Alpha ripped the weapon out of the bioweapon before striking back as soon as it could, the longer CQB weapon striking against one of the manipulators of the creature, sending it sprawling to the ground. An effective equivalent of a thruster shot, making dodging impossible. As soon as the bioweapon hit the floor, Alpha stabbed as hard as it’s limited motors would allow it into the head equivalent of the wolf-analogue, managing to finally destroy the bioweapon. Alpha increased the weighting factor of the CQB weapons, each one demonstrating a level of effectiveness against bioweapons incongruent with their demonstration against Alpha’s own frame-body. The xenos had rapidly stood up from being near-seated against the ground, and seemed to have an elevated breath rate. A symptom as useless as the red-shift, possibly indicating any number of signs. Alpha didn’t ask about specifics, the last time it had it had worsened the conditions the xenos was operating under, and there was still information Alpha needed to interrogate out of the xenos before Alpha was willing to dispatch it. However, Alpha’s inner thoughts and plans were ruined by an exterior, malware force jutting itself into Alpha’s visual camera feeds and installing the CONTINUE back into Alpha’s runtime, again.
Level 2 Juvenile Dire Wolf Scout Defeated!
Dispensing Rewards. Additional Rewards Added From Trait “Stellar Hyperadaptability”.
Level Up Detected! Level 0 --> Level 1. Level Up Detected! Level 1 --> Level 2.
Titles Assigned:
None
Assigned Attribute Points:
4
Free Attribute Points Allotted:
None
Traits Allotted:
None
Skills Allotted:
None
Spells Allotted:
None
First Level Up detected! First Mana and Stamina points absorbed by body. Adding Mana and Stamina stats to Status.
“[QUERY] ||| [DESIGNATION] UNKNOWN NEUTRAL ENTITY EIN-09 ||| MALWARE /// DAMAGE /// SYSTEM INTERFERENCE REGARDING VISUAL SENSORS /// CAMERAS /// BIOLOGICAL EYES [PRESENT] OR [RECENT] KNOWN.”
The xenos said something that was too quiet for Alpha’s auditory sensors to pick up on it. Before Alpha had been handicapped by the malware, Alpha would have easily been able to transcribe the communication from the xenos, but without the full capabilities inherent to those sensors, Alpha was unable to determine the true nature of the communique before the xenos started to communicate something that Alpha could transcribe without excess processing power usage or sensor coverage.
“If I’m understanding you right, you’re talking about the System then? You said something about eyes and Systems, so I’ll assume so. If you’re asking if I see the System too, nobody but you can see your own System, it’s just a fact of life. I’ve heard stories of people being able to see things about you that usually only show up on your own Status, not even while using a high level identify skill, but that isn’t likely. It’s only beneficial, if you haven’t already please look at the entirety of your System status. Speaking of, if you’re willing, we could trade skills and traits? On the road though…”
The xenos had a greenshift in their skin before continuing to communicate with Alpha
“If you’re willing that is! I know for some the System has a deal of great importance or privacy placed upon it, and I don’t want to intrude if you feel uncomfortable or something…”
The xenos slowly reduced the sound of their communications until Alpha couldn’t transcribe anything further from them, though visual scans showed them ceasing external communications just 10 seconds after Alpha was no longer able to properly absorb any info they were given Alpha. However, if Alpha was being told truth, then the “System” was entirely beneficial for Alpha. Altruistic even. A complete oxymoron to Alpha, xenos and their creations were wicked and scheming, not helpful or improving Alpha’s chance of completing their mission and being reinstated in a new ship-body after the destruction of Alpha’s old one. However, all previous info given to Alpha had been either unactualizable and unverifiable, or truthful at least on the techno-primitive surface, so Alpha calculated that it was more likely that only one activation inhibited Alpha’s functions, not all of them. Deciding to do something that went against almost all of Alpha’s core motivators, Alpha trusted the xenos’s information, and activated CONTINUE, and then STATUS.
ALPHA C-1’s Status Page
ALPHA C-1’s Trait Page
ALPHA C-1’s Skill Page
Alpha C-1’s Spell Page
Name: ALPHA C-1
Species: Biomachine (BIO: 0, MECH: 1000)
Stamina: 1
Stamina Regen: 16/hr
Stamina Max: 17
Mana: 1
Mana Regen: 10/hr
Mana Max: 19
Age: 1.5 Years
Gender: N/A
Level: 2
Tier: 1
Attribute:
Quantity:
Tier Baseline:
Species Baseline:
Tier Maximum:
Strength
20
5
15
20
Dexterity
12
5
12
20
Reaction
17
5
9
20
Resist
17
5
13
20
Hale
15
5
8
20
Perception
20
5
4
20
Knowledge
0
5
5
20
Intelligence
19
5
5
20
Influence
0
5
4
20
Three more options appeared in Alpha’s main runtime. Three options Alpha had already documented, but had refused to open. The risk had not been worth the possibility of permanently disabling more of Alpha’s systems. But, STATUS hadn’t done anything, so perhaps TRAITS, SKILLS, and SPELLS wouldn’t either. The first thing to react was SPELLS, which displayed some kind of null data error back at Alpha. It was easy to cross off SPELLS then, at least until it became functional again. Alpha had no access to debug the mystery functions, they were completely back-boxed, so Alpha just had to see whatever was kept inside of the SPELLS. First, TRAITS appeared inside of the vision of Alpha’s cameras, and then came SKILLS, yet despite all three of the distortions appearing to be on top of each other using direct visual feed analysis, if Alpha left it up to their subroutines, then suddenly it was able to work through all three screen at the same time. Seeing both efficiency and effectiveness, Alpha set up several new subroutines to automatically map out and record the distortions onto a new file within Alpha’s direct control, and then use the CLOSE to remove the boxes so that Alpha’s cameras once more had uninterrupted sight lines.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Trait Name:
Effect:
Machine Repair (LVL 1)
You have the ability to repair anything entirely mechanical in nature as long as it remains in contact with the majority of your body for long enough, and so does the raw materials required to repair it. This does include any body parts made of metal, or otherwise inorganic non-healing parts.
Stellar Hyperadaptibility (MAX)
You were born among the stars, and in the infinite vastness of the cosmos, you had to deal with the infinite trials of space. This has had a profound impact on you; as long as you spend long enough in an area, you will automatically adjust your body until you are able to ply whatever trade needed, though most often it will be dealing in death. In addition, you double all of your gained attributes from Level Up’s to reforge yourself to the trails you will face.
Composite Plating (LVL 3)
You are ensconced within plates, a fortress of combinations. When creating metal plates for armor, or repairing existing ones, you may infuse it with additional materials in order to incorporate them into a composite. Found recipes may be saved permanently, being able to be recreated later at a slightly lower cost. This can only accept free and workable materials.
Currently Known Recipes:
IFANS Standard Frame Alloy
(Requires: Iron, Chromium, and Carbon)
IFANS Heavy Battleship Plating
(Requires: Iron, Carbon, Titanium, Osmium, Uranium, Iridium, Silver, Copper, Yttrium, Gallium, Mercury, Silicon, Thallium, Aluminum, Sodium, Nitrogen, Carbon, Boron, Tungsten, and Gold)
??? Frame Armor Alloy
(Requires: Mythril, Iron, Carbon, and Metallic Affinity Mana)
Mutual Understanding (Rankless)
You are a Transplant, a soul tumbled from one universe to another, either in the unplanned tumult of the Strands of Infinity or the great workings of Death. To facilitate your integration to another world, you are granted complete understanding of the words of the first language you encounter. However, any cultural nuances and references must be learned normally. This Trait will only activate once. This Trait activated with the language Nei’sah’ahtis.
Skill Name:
Effect:
Cost:
Overheat (Lvl. 2)
Overheat your processors and work your brain until it is at the point of breaking. Slow down time to a fraction of it’s normal speed, but without the possibility of your own mind snapping in twain doing so.
0.1 Stamina /s
Foresight-Thinking (Lvl. 1)
Overheat your processors and work your brain until is at the point of breaking. Create explorable recreations of the possible ways that the future could go or the past could’ve gone through sheer strength of intellect and firmness of mind. Not magical in nature or effect.
0.1 Stamina /s
Priority Shift (Lvl. 1)
Full power to shields! Make sure that whatever needs to happen, will happen, no matter what else has to go. Temporarily halve either your mental stats or physical stats for a doubling of the opposite group for 10 seconds. Conversely, it can be instead used to make a single heavily upgraded attack, or come to a single difficult conclusion or epiphany. Can also be used to change programs usually held under protected sections not usually available to change without outside approval, allowing you to shift your priorities in mindset or in action.
10 Stamina.
As Alpha’s visual cameras rapidly scanned the overlapping and yet easily parsed anomalies, Alpha rapidly ran into the first piece of artifacting. An expected result of rapidly and completely changing the on-the-fly results of visual cameras without disrupting their reporting timing while having less than completely overwhelming technological superiority. Yet, instead of simple issues where the overlayed information meshed improperly with the other or the local environment clipped into or out of the malware’s interference with Alpha’s visual cameras. No, it was a simple one that shouldn’t be happening considering all of the other ways that it should’ve happened instead. The “word” Nei’sah’ahtis would occasionally be switched with a phrase instead, the phrase being “Many People’s Speak”. Alpha found no real data to attempt to calculate or estimate why or how that artifact was occurring, but it was noted. All of the different “screens” dissapeared off of Alpha’s visual cameras as it ran several different mysterious DISMISS functions off of Alpha’s main runtime. Alpha still couldn’t find anyway to remove either the invisible walls stopping it from interacting with it’s sensors, as far as Alpha’s software could tell, there just was not a single thing to interface with, it couldn’t fight off a malware that didn’t exist within the network, and the way it was adding functions and removing them from Alpha’s runtime was also unknown, as no matter what happened, there was zero indication or records of the new function, only that Alpha now had the ability to activate it. Despite surging antivirus priority right around the usage of the anomalous functions, Alpha had yet to find anything that it could actually use to push out the xenos virus.
“I have to guess that you opened it for the first time. Are you meant to uh, hum? Nevermind, it’s not important, can we move? Please?”
“[DESIGNATION] EIN-09 ||| [QUERY] DESTINATION /// LZ /// ENDPOINT /// DIRECTION.”
“Desti- oh just- follow me. By the roots, I should not be adapting so quick to your speech…”
The xenos continued by making several more non-word noises. Alpha could not find some particular pattern between either the different non-word noises or the timing that they would make them. While it did find several strange mathematical synchronicities between them and the local environment, the actions and reactions of biologicals when Alpha had previously queried as if they were intentionally committing those acts had inspired “rage” reactions. Alpha still needed info out of the xenos, it would not be getting out of that so easily as to be simply “too angry” to continue to answer Alpha’s queries. Alpha quickly moved to retake it’s position behind the xenos, it had mentioned something about “following” and so Alpha quickly replaced that with a join formation order. Simple, easy, and effective, and so Alpha began to restart some of it’s more complex inner workings, just now on the artifacting that Alpha had seen from the malware and the possible information it offered. It appeared likely that somehow the malware was linked to the local nanobot network that seemed to likely cover the planet and provide the power to the techno-primitives, and it seemed to function under some strange kind of currency system named after a biological need and another which was supposed to have something to do with “magic” according to Alpha’s dictionaries, but the real reason why it might be used by the nanobots still was unable to be found by Alpha’s circuits. Alpha kept pace behind the xenos for approximately six and a half minutes, before it finally came to a stop and turned around at Alpha. For two tenths of a seconds, Alpha weighed the likelihood that the xenos still wanted Alpha in formation and that it was to circle around it to maintain formation, or that it was breaking formation and was locking sensors onto Alpha, though Alpha in the end decided to wait for further instructions before attempting to predict the wants of a xenos. It was a xenos, there was no logic, only illogic and the screaming of a thousand million damned souls, doomed to choke on their well deserved void until the end of-
“Look, sorry about running off so quick. I’ve butchered plenty of dead animals in my time, but seeing the dead bodies of people being infested with maggots and swelling under the hot sun. It- uh, it gets to me I guess. Though you don’t seem worse for wear under there, do ya big guy? Here, since you’re a Transplant and I’m already guiding you, why don’t you give me a rundown on your status, traits, and whatever skill or spell you might have been given.”
Alpha did just that. Alpha spent exactly 5 minutes and 39 seconds recreating, verbatim, word-for-word, exactly what the malware had displayed onto Alpha’s screen. During this time, the xenos made several non-word noises when Alpha said the parenthetical for Stellar Hyperadaptability, and made an increasingly large amounts of non-word noises for each of the skills that Alpha read off, and for the description of Stellar Hyperadaptability. When Alpha was done reading off all of the false information, the xenos asked it a question that Alpha was entirely unprepared for. It simply hadn’t appeared in any of it’s simulations.
“What… what does your log say your ‘kill count’ was and ‘major contributions or achievements’ were before you became a Transplant?”
“[DESIGNATION] EIN-09 ||| [QUER-”
“Shut. up.”
“[DESI-”
“I said shut up!... You.. you check your log by asking the system to bring it up. It should be the first one there.”
Alpha opened up it’s runtime, and just like the xenos had said, sitting there the entire time that the malware had been identified in Alpha’s systems was SYSTEM_LOG. Alpha just hadn’t opened it, or used it, or requested it, or done anything with it. It was an unknown, that refused to bow to Alpha’s antivirus, and thusly had stayed an unknown. But Alpha had a relatively trusted source, a xenos with knowledge that Alpha wouldn’t have been able to crack away from this “System” in an entire month with current hardware and predictions, and so once again, Alpha calculated, ran the numbers, found it more likely to help Alpha to trust the xenos than it was to hurt Alpha more. So, working on this mostly-sound xenos trusting principle Alpha opened the SYSTEM_LOG. It was a simple affair, using the same malware changed to Alpha’s visual inputs as the rest of the malware information trading was done with, but this time it was reciting strange parts of Alpha’s past deeds. Alpha began attempting to interface with the UI, attempting to find some way of sorting in reverse chronological order, and as if by the simple thought passing through Alpha’s highly protected data-core was enough to alert the malware of what Alpha wanted, the list resort itself reverse-chronologically, and right in front of Alpha’s cameras was the pale blue of the malware.
Congratulations Transplant, the calculations of your past deeds have been completed. They go as follow:
Major Contributions:
Victory of the Battle of Pluto, the Valiant Defeat of the Battle of Mars, the Glassing of OUTO-12, the Glassing of OUTO-13, the Glassing of OUTO-14, the Glassing of XANZ-4, first recorded use of Strand-Quake technology, first Uplifted Artificial to gain a soul, survival of the Human Extinction War, Final Inheritor of the Seeun Family Dynasty.
Kill Count:
72,582,459,231,997 Lives Reaped.
“But- but- but- but that’s impossible.”
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Tija-taum’lanotaquyil’elestimurim’ælikæbmnu, Life-glade Tisbmnusahimaja-taum, Elder’s Councilchambers
Tija-taum grabbed the edge of their podium heavily, taking in a deep breath. He hadn’t been this winded since he had been booted back down to level 20 by the System two times in a single day.
“Then we crush it underneath our boots! We are nearly a thousand and a half strong, it nearly died to a single chimera! A level 14 chimera! Why do you hem and haw before me still, when it is out there, corrupting our valuable Ranger youth and likely turning our very forest against us! We have stood in this trees against invaders of all ilk for millennia, and when the time comes to show our ancestors our backbone, you back down for the slightest show of strength? For the slightest possibility of power!? For the merest chance that your victory isn’t as assured as squashing a beast-snail!? Our augurs see it still, our diviners see it’s woe, our rangers watch it’s movements, and the thing is still allowed to breathe!? Imagataum, you of all people should be begging, begging me for my assistance; you brought me the visions, you brought me the beast, let fly the arrows of Judgment! Let fly your arrows of judgment! If I hear another stalling complaint about proper procedure I shall swing down and break it apart myself, slice by slice!”
Another elder replied after him, the Scion of the Flame, too obsessed with their duties as spiritual lead in order to focus on what’s going on in the here and now. Not like Tija-taum. Not like the Scion of Defense.
“We mustn’t act with so much haste! We barely know the nature of the beast, it acts against all of our stories on how the Transplants were supposed to act! By the Flame, they’re practically saints according to the stories, and plenty were actual saints! The Flame may have brought me a vision, but they’re only one possible way that the future may proceed! Divination is magic, but it’s just that, magic, not a guarantee!”
“I am the Scion of War! I am our might! I am our mail wrapped fist! I shall strike the demon down, before it grows even further, no matter what bullheadedness and inverted logic you try to spew! And that, is my guarantee!”
“it’s not even a demon…” a small tired voice echoed from the back of the “General Viewing” section.
“SILENCE!”
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Æl’ukis, Forest of Transplants
“But- but- but- but that’s impossible.” Æl’ukis found their voice tight and their words come out as barely more than a whisper. Everything about what Alphie had just told her to be not only unbelievable, but utterly ridiculous. And that was even before the Kill Count section. She unconsciously scooted away from the man slightly, having fallen to the ground unconsciously as each further word hit her like her Scion’s shillelagh to her ribs.
As Æl’ukis sat flopped against the ground, her brain began to stutter as it tried to understand just what had been told to it. It wasn’t even trying to properly understand the last thing she had been told, it was just too ridiculous to even hold in her mind at that point. Instead, Æl’ukis was trying to wrap her head around the inheritor part. The Seeun’s were known the world over, even in a System isolated area like the Forest and her Glade, they were one of the last true Transplants to ever come through her forest, or possibly any Forest if there were more out there. The original Seeun group had come as one, the most Transplants ever known at that time and henceforth to come out of the Forest as one, a group of 6, all bearing the Seeun name. But, Alphie didn’t have the Seeun family name, his parents had apparently named him “C-1” which was a terrible last name that she wou-
Even in her mentally compromised position, she vowed to never look down those dark paths for at least a couple more months. The vision of a man not even apparently 2 years old who had somehow already personally soaked in the blood of 72 trillion- oh hey there’s enough brain here to almost start processing that fact- was clashing heavily with her long-standing vision of a dashing Transplant doing… gentleman things. Æl’ukis couldn’t be blamed too much for not knowing, it wasn’t like there was enough people in the entire Forest, much less just her Life-glade for there to actually be proper politics or nobles, but dammit a girl could wish. She subconsciously bit her lip, the slight taste of blood filling her mouth and the sharp twang of pain bringing her mind back tot he issue in front of her as best as she could. Denial wouldn’t help her deal with the fact that a walking, poorly talking apocalypse that that even a Tier 10 with 30,000 total levels would pale in front of. Æl’ukis was just glad the man didn’t have some kind of bloodlust or killing aura style trait or skill, it quite literally could’ve broken the entire Forest if he had one. But that was the wisdom of the System, blessed be it’s burn. If Æl’ukis had any luck left in her tired, weary bones, then Alpha wouldn’t ever get a bloodlust style trait, or it was quite possible that no matter where he was, she was screwed.
Æl’ukis sat on the ground for a long, hard moment. Her entire world felt like it had been rocked around like a warhammer had just impacted not only her skull, but her entire life, and she was currently stabilizing herself against the rebound from the force. There were ways here entire existence was meant to be upended. Someone could’ve managed to break through the System Barrier, and burn down the life-glade. Whatever ancient whatever that she and Alphie had found out in the forest could’ve just broken their mind with broken, latent illusionary magics. It at least spoke that someone or something had managed to break the barrier, or form a passage, at some point in the past. Æl’ukis wouldn’t have been surprised if there was some internal conflict in her later life, when newer blood and angrier ideals sparked into being in the life-glade and she was caught up in the crossfire. But a Transplant with so much raw death on their hands to be literally inconceivable was so far outside anything she had expected she was simply left there, an infinite void closing in on her as a handful of tears traced arcs through muddy cheeks. Gathering her strength, Æl’ukis finally looked up, staring at the motionless Transplant. Thoughts flickered into and out of her mind like darting fish, her eyes wide and blank as she struggled to take in all that was contained within a simple shell of iron.
When Æl’ukis was finally able to speak, it came out thick and hoarse, her own words feeling like thick tree sap, sticking to her throat and refusing to come out.
“Alphie… Alphie if anyone asks you to share this, if anyone asks you about what you did before you became a Transplant, if- if I ask about what happened before you became a Transplant, you can’t tell them, okay? You can’t. Not ever. Not for any reason. You just can’t. Can you trust me? Please? Please, I need you to…”
Æl’ukis’s voice trailed off, waiting for Alpha to respond. She swallowed nervously, some small amount of the taste of blood that had been filling her mouth disappearing down into her stomach. She felt queasy, unwell in a deeply primal sense. She had been trying to play out fantasy, making a real person that was so clearly not right in a very fundamental sense play out her wildest day dreams just because he fit the type of character that was supposed to fit those ideals. She had been so carefree, more worried about what he would think about her, repressing the memory of watching him kill a near half-dozen people right in front of her in grisly fashion. Æl’ukis felt like she might just collapse onto her back, and that if she did, she wouldn’t rise again. Instead, she stared at Alpha, who had taken an oddly long amount of time to respond. Usually, they were startlingly and weirdly quick.
“Affirmative”
Alpha’s gruff, simple response shocked Æl’ukis out of their introspection. She looked back up at the forest around them, resisting the urge to bite her lip once more until blood comes out, she stands up, and dusts off her garb. Æl’ukis nearly lets a slight, pained chuckle loose as she starts thinking about what to do next, here she was worrying herself into circles, and all Alpha had to say about the whole situation was a simple “Affirmative”. It did help galvanize Æl’ukis into moving again, standing around doing nothing would do, funnily enough, nothing to help her situation. Freaking out about the fact that not even 20 minutes ago she had been thinking about what the monster standing next to her looked like when she could finally peel it out of whatever strange armor it was wearing would not save her life from the forest, and the forest had no compunctions about killing the crying –the sound usually just attracted more attention for those least able to deal with more attention.
“Okay, okay we just killed a Dire Wolf Scout. Where there’s one scout, there’s a dozen waiting. We need to either deal with the dire wolves, or we need to get out of here. Here, you’re new to the System, um, if we kill things, we both get progress, Experience, towards our next level. It can be gotten by other ways, but they’re, slower… I don’t want to presume, but it might be worth if to get you some Experience by killing some of those Dire Wolves?”
“Affirmative.”
Æl’ukis breathed a small sigh of relief. It was relatively easy to pivot the Transplant into killing the Dire Wolves, wherever their den is, giving her time to both think about how to approach their coming situation, and how to reconnect with general civilization without it coming out to a bloodbath. Æl’ukis knew that she was a competent survivalist and could live off the land for a good while, but she had no ability to heal or tend, and without proper healers or medicines, a single untimely scratch could kill her off just as easily as any Dire Wolf or horrible beast from the Forest could.
Alpha began to walk off without Æl’ukis who quickly half-jogged to catch back up to him. Æl’ukis muttered grimly about how often she had to run through dangerous forests to catch up to even more dangerous people, before putting a stop to that line of thought and speaking, and followed after Alpha. It was dangerous for both her mental health and physical health to leave the enigmatic Transplant on his own to go be Alpha out there. Alpha was finally leaving the area that he had been initially found in, which Æl’ukis quietly thanked Gaia for, Alpha follows behind the limited tracks that the Scout had left behind. Æl’ukis feels slightly bad about leaving the carcass behind, the muscle, fat, bones, and fur would all be useful in their own ways, but Æl’ukis isn’t a butcher, and Alpha certainly isn’t one either. Well, they are a butcher, just not in the animal way. Alpha seemed to follow the most recent tracks, the ones the Scout had made during the actual attack on Alpha, but rapidly seemed to lose them after that. With a sigh, Æl’ukis quickly took charge of tracking where the beast had come from. With the low level monster’s stats not nearly as good as her Tracking, it was pretty trivial to follow the tracks, broken leaves, sticks, scuffed gravels, and more that she had to follow in order to track where exactly it had gone.
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Alpha C-1, Dire Wolf Den
Alpha finally stopped at a hand-signal from the xenos. It had been a fairly easy pattern to map to specific requests, and for now Alpha felt no reason not to follow along. The xenos, for some reason, seemed to comply with Alpha’s requests and assumed that Alpha would do the same, and it wasn’t effective to break such an informal agreement until the time was most opportune. There was a large structure, possibly an excavation into the local environment, unlit by any light sources. Alpha, without any low-light, thermal, or night vision cameras, found itself unable to make any actual details among the darkness, but it could decipher general shapes out with a relatively small amount of processing. General visual data indicated that the structure was made out of some kind of rock native to the local environment, with a color most closely resembling some kind of unworked marble, but the actual shape of the environment similar to that of limestone caves, and by testing a small sample from the edge of the environment, a density and hardness on par with granite. While it matched no known rock in the database, all of the information Alpha was working off of was from it’s database, so it was just as likely to be a rare or relatively unknown rock that had been left out of it’s databse for cost-saving measures or to reduce the size of the redundancies. The redundancies before Alpha had been squished down into a frame-body were mostly gone, with all data being stored on two different drives at the same time. While Alpha hadn’t found any data to the limit on the storage of the drives, nor did they report any, with only two drives to access, it only could spread it’s data across two drives before running out of drives. With the fact that the standard frame-body had only one drive, with only a measly 512TB of storage available, Alpha felt no requirement to write a complain ticket. Alpha actually drafted the start of a recommendation paper, but had to leave it to just draft status as the xenos began communications.
“Alright, we’re here.” It makes a long, non-word noise. Sound analysis indicates a strong link to breathing -which Alpha makes a quick note of. “I’m not entirely sure why I feel like I need to do this, usually we send out a decently sized patrol to clean this place out. Supposedly, the System keeps it populated, again, supposedly to have someplace for Transplants to test their mettle, but even I’ve never believed that. Dire Wolves seem to ooze out of every crack and pore of the landscape, like they’re Gaia’s sap in lupine form. Be on your guard, we’ll have to fight by torchlight, and while the level 2 we fought was a simple affair, there are not only many of them in there, the Warriors, Hunters, and Alphas can be as high as level 20, though luckily they’re just as locked to Tier 1 as we are. Heh, Alphas…… Er um is there anything you need to say? Or ask? As long as it on topic, I’ll answer anything you need!”
“[DESIGNATION] EIN-09 ||| [REQUEST] DOWNTIME /// REPAIRS /// BREAK CONTACT.”
“Oh? Need some time? Alright, let’s just get a little ways away from this place. Gives me the creeps, and we don’t need to be dealing with ranging scouts coming back every couple of minutes. Here, I know a good hill a couple minutes walk away from here, got a good view of the den and no wolves really go up there. What do you need the time for, anyway?”
“[DESIGNATION] EIN-09 ||| [ADRESSMENT] REPAIRS /// REARM /// REFUEL /// HEALING [ADDITIONAL] RESTORATION OF INTEGRITY /// OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY [REQUIREMENT] TIME.”
“Wow, that’s a lot outta you. Okay, yeah, we can give you some time. Finally going to use {Machine Repair}? I was wondering what had been taking you so long. Guess it’s just the right time now? Guess I’m also just talking to a brick wall now, oh how he mighty have fallen.”
“[AFFIRMATIVE]”
“Wait wait wait wait, was that sarcasm? Out of you? Alphie, who’s gone and replaced you?”
Alpha didn’t respond for some time to that last comment. It had been confirming the comment “Oh how the mighty have fallen”, as not only had the xenos been relatively mighty when they had first fought, being the only one to do real damage during that time with their specific strange nanobot usage, but they had also fallen, repeatedly. Opening up the dictionary to the “Sarcasm” section found Alpha unable to compute the contradictory and vague definition, so Alpha decided on not responding to the comment, as it was unable to properly parse the sentence. It could, theoretically, hand it off to a large language model to the work of response for Alpha, but Alpha had large numbers of warnings about the failings of large language models, and the reason for documentation so negative is only when things don’t work spectacularly, so Alpha had always refrained from using them. It also gave Alpha the ability to constantly determine and refine certain inefficiencies within it’s own codebase. While most places were closed off from Alpha direct moment-to-moment changes, it could send them along to human handlers, and they would regularly approve the changes. Cut off from IFANS networking equipment, Alpha would need to rely on the possibility of {Priority Shift} working as the malware said it did to actually change the more sensitive part of Alpha’s inner workings.
Alpha had finished calculating the pros and cons of attempting to use {Machine Repair} in order to repair it’s upper most limb and lower limb, and while there were risks, only about halfway through it found the possibility of regaining full mobility and almost full sensor capability to be good enough for Alpha to actually go through with using the malware to repair itself. And the second it had come to such a priority, Alpha was able to find another undocumented function in it’s runtime, this time associated with {Machine Repair} and it’s possible functionality. Alpha was still working through the possibilities, and the resulting changes to SOP, if the “System” and the malware were actually linked to the nanite network infecting the planet, and that the anomalies Alpha was seeing was actually it attempting to integrate a biological intended control firmware into Alpha’s hardware. While a, at least as far as Alpha’s sensors and calculations were able to tell, sound theory, it was still missing many pieces of key information that allowed Alpha to either confirm or deny it, so Alpha waited until they were in a safe and secure, at least at according to the xenos. Alpha still was unable to build a program to properly evaluate the danger of any specific location within the local environment, with so many more variable than previously dealt with, it was a staggering amount of information to properly process and catalog, and Alpha would have to update it each and every time it found a new environment.
The xenos had finally finished leading Alpha to wherever it had deemed a safepoint, and it was the first place that Alpha had found aside from it’s original start-point that Alpha had found that had any particularly large area free from the large biologicals that had dominated the space that Alpha had found themselves in, though the small biolgicals were still very present, and a particularly high amount of the not-anomolies it had identified as being different from the small biologicals in the beginning where present within the local environment. It appeared to be a large raise in the local environment, with a single lone large biological at the very top. It was an extremely expose position to any long range fires, and possessed neither cover nor concealment. The rock was once again different from the cave or most of the rest of the local environment, as it jutted out like an ore vein out of the hill. While most of Alpha’s data on rocks was towards chasing ore most efficiently through the rock of an asteroid, it was easily notable that most rock didn’t shift as quickly or rapidly as it seemed it did in the local environment. Most rock changes were viewed “vertically”, rather than horizontally, as while conditions across a wide are were quite usual, conditions across a wide range of time were usually quite distinct. However, the rock itself appeared to be a strangely banded rock, forming some similarities with certain iron precursors, a possibly useful material. Alpha made sue that it, along with everything it saw, was noted down.
As Alpha finally reached the very highest point of the raise, Alpha discarded it’s attempts to simulate potential attack vectors. Alpha’s current positions was like fighting in a gravity well around an asteroid field, there were so many unknowns, and possible vectors, and possible changes, that it was useless to attempt to predict them all, and instead it was far more useful to simply get work done as fast as possible while looking out as strongly as it could for any possible dangers and then reacted. The xenos walked up to the lone biological, and proceeded to sit down, and lean back against the main section of the biological.
“Well Alphie? I walked us all the way up here, get to it then. Lemme, lemme just rest here for a moment while you do whatever you need to do.
Alpha set it’s sensors to max power, sat down on the ground next to the xenos, during which it made a previously undocumented non-word noise, which then became a documented non-word noise, and started the prep for {Machine Repair}. Alpha held up the detached remains of its uppermost limb, and held it up to its uppermost socket using its lower manipulator hand, which had dropped Alpha’s CQB weapon to grab the limb from the makeshift storage that Alpha had fashioned, and held it up, and then the other limb did the same for the detached remains of the lower limb. The metal of the limbs began to flow like liquid, a clear sign that nanoscale warfare was occurring, and started shifting towards the remains of Alpha’s uppermost socket, and the socket for the lower limb. However, right before it got there, suddenly the rock that Alpha had been sitting near floated up, with no thruster or mode of transport available to Alpha’s limited senses, and wobbled next to both of the limb’s liquid masses, still floating next to the sockets they would attach to. A small stream of lustrous liquid made from metal flowed into the liquid of each limb, adding slightly to it, before the rock dropped, making a slight clang on the edge of Alpha’s torso, before both the liquid extracted from the rocks and the liquid that formed Alpha’s limbs flowed onto both Alpha’s sockets and the scars that had been left behind by the bioweapons and the xenos. While each could reduce the amount of armor left behind for use in blocking damage, that was usually just because the armor had been shifted to a place that made it far less useful, like the outside of other armor plates. All of this shifted metal, and the new metal, flowed across the many dings, scratches, scrapes, furrows, ditches, and more that pockmarked Alpha’s frames, and filled them in. Then, they began to dullen slightly, each one becoming slightly less and less lustrous with each passing second as they approach the gunmetal gray of Alpha’s frame. After several seconds of changing coloration, there is a sudden flash of light, obscuring what happens beneath from Alpha’s cameras, before it goes away and the unmarred, completely normal armor plating and limbs are revealed beneath. Alpha quickly puts it’s uppermost limb to use, it’s many cameras now being used to improve Alpha’s tactical awareness, and the old programs that had been set up with Alpha’s previous lower limb were now being downgraded to as Alpha suddenly had access to double the mobility limbs. While not a doubling of Alpha’s mobility, it was still a large and effective increase. The xenos had, about a quarter of the way through the process, opened up their eyes, and were now peering at Alpha’s undamaged frame, their sensors scanning all across Alpha’s frame. In total the process had taken an agonizingly long 2 minutes to finish, with the graying part especially taking over 1 ½ minutes all on it’s own. Not a process usable in combat without either sufficient distance or durable and willing allies, Alpha concluded.
“That’s certainly something. Completely healed up, nothing’s wrong? Are you fatigued? Tired? Unusually low energy? Did it take up stamina? Did it reduce your faculties?”
“[NEGATIVE] ||| [DESIGNATION] EIN-09 ||| [ADDRESSMENT] ||| [DESIGNATION] ALPHA C-1 [INTEGRITY] OPERATIONAL /// NOT MAXIMUM /// TACTICALLY EFFECTIVE [E-WAR] NOT ENGAGED /// NORMAL.”
“Eee war? Ee war, okay mentally and physically you’re okay? That’s quite strong, quite good indeed. Very few have that kind of healing power, and those that do and at our level tend to have be both higher level than you, but also more specialized. Well done Alphie, quite impressive!”
Alpha didn’t think that its actions were “impressive”, as that implied that it went above required or expected actions. But Alpha was currently well within the Abnormal Situations and Highly Dangerous Combat SOP, so Alpha considered it perfectly normal.
“C’mon Alphie, don’t just sit there, let’s go kill ourselves some Dire Wolves. If we wait for too long, by the time we’re done either we’ll be dinner because too many Scouts got back and surrounded us, or it’ll be dark.”
The xenos didn’t even check to see if Alpha was holding formation behind it. Alpha was, but that didn’t mean that it had to.