System of the Damned

Chapter 4

Good news and bad news

When my eyes finally opened and it wasn’t that groggy haze of drug fueled bliss, it only took a few seconds for me to realize I was aboard the Yangtze, and that it was on the planet. I also felt like someone had beaten me with a hammer. There was this horrendous burning feeling in my right shoulder, a spot on my stomach, and my thigh. My neck was in a brace, so when I couldn’t turn my head I groaned, licking my dry lips. I felt the restraints on my wrists and ankles, which wasn’t a great sign, but at least it wasn’t an “I love me” coat. I really hated being put into one of those, you always got an itch that you couldn’t scratch.

The next thing I knew there was a squeak and something bounced up my body to reveal a worried bunny face. Xavier chittered and hugged my jaw and binged to my chest to let out a shrill squeak, which let me then hear a yelp and the sound of someone crashing to the floor from a chair. A moment later, Noble was at my side and grinning like an idiot as Xavier squeaked at him and made motions like drinking from a cup.

It took a second for me to get out. “Water” through the concrete it felt like had formed in my throat, and that barely came out in a rasp. Noble blinked and Xavier growled at him. “Oh! Water!” He moved away and after a moment came back with a cup and a straw, carefully holding it for me to sip. “Jesus sir, I’m glad to see you awake after that beasty flattened you…”

As he spoke, I sipped greedily from the straw and even the movement of shifting a tiny bit and sipping hard made my shoulder burn more. I heard the straw sucking air and sighed as I closed my eyes. “Pfc...is Evans ok...and how long have I been out?” I asked and licked my lips. “More water…” I trailed off as happy bunny face hugging resumed with chittering and squeaking.

Noble moved to refill the cup and snorted. “She’s fine...hell everyone’s alright thanks to you...Sir, you defended one of the mimic’s kids. Every one of the mimics in the valley moved to defend against the herd chasing Bubbles.”

The word “Bubbles” caused my pillow to shift under my head, it was an oddly comfy, then an eye on some kind of stalk came around in front of my face. “AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH” Came out of my mouth in a panicked scream worthy of a small scared girl, and I wet my catheter.

“Oh that’s just Bubbles sir! You’re fine...he’s friendly I swear.” I wasn’t having much faith in my Pfc’s words as the eye blinked at me again, but Xavier’s soft chittering made me blink and sigh as I looked at the eye.

“So you’re Bubbles?” I asked softly and it nodded its eye in a rather human manner. “Why is Bubbles aboard the ship, and why am.” Noble put the straw to my lips and my thirst cut me off and demanded I drain this cup too.

“Evan’s said to let her tell you, she’s been in charge for the…” He scratched his head in thought and I could tell he was doing the math in his head. “Eight and a half local days, er I think fifteen standard.” He looked to Xavier and the bunny chittered and nodded. “I’ll go get her Sir. You just stay awake and…” He set down the empty cup and fled the room, leaving the straw still in my mouth.

I groaned and worked my lips. “Ere…” I mumbled around the plastic as I held it toward the eyestalk, which shifted into a mouth as I watched. The straw was slurped down and vanished after a single chomp and gulp, then the eye reformed and watched me curiously. “Xavier...you approve of Bubbles?” I asked softly, my voice still rough as I relaxed into what I knew wasn’t a pillow. It was squishier, like a water bed for my head...that watched me.

Xavier chittered and hopped up lightly onto my forehead and all I could see for a moment was a bunny butt, then he turned and pet the eye stalk. My pillow quivered and the only way I can describe it is it quivered like a happy hyper puppy. I could just picture some wound up puppy with too many eyes quivering and wiggling, happy as could be with the loving it got. I snorted and then groaned in pain as my shoulder and stomach burned.

“Hey...get off my forehead...if he had to go far for Evans...I’m going to close my eyes.” I’d realized again that I was strapped down, and that worried me just a little. The bunny chittered at me and I was forced to close my eyes as he shifted and moved to lay over them. “Oh...ok...you nap too...you too Bubbles.” I said softly and practiced the ancient marine tradition, passing out into a soft sleep within seconds.

*********************

When I woke up, it had been an hour or so, and Evans stood over me with Captain Rowland at her side. Both of them looked tired and must’ve been woken up from trying to sleep when Noble had run off to get someone. Evans looked worse than Rowland, her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags under them that spoke for themselves. “What happened?” I asked softly and my arm shifted in the restraint some.

Evans sniffed and the Captain pat her on the shoulder. “Your sword cut through your collar bone, and in its death throes, the creature punctured your stomach, and thigh with its teeth. The only thing that kept you from bleeding to death was…” He cleared his throat and nodded toward the now three eyestalks beside my head. “Bubbles, who wrapped themselves around your wounds and made some form of stasis bubble from itself. Though we have no idea how Bubbles did that.”

I couldn’t nod, so I groaned and smiled. “Thank you Bubbles…”

Evans giggle-snorted when I said that and leaned over me, hugging me gently and getting my chest damp with a few tears. How she leaned over me left a bit of her where I could rub improperly, but I fought the urge and just pat her crotch. It was honestly the only thing I could pat since I was tied to the bed. “It’s ok Evans…I’m alive, still here and bitching...and I can feel my left hand still, so I should heal up…” She sniffed again and stood, nodding to that.

“You damned well better sir...but there’s some issues.” She looked to the Captain and he nodded to her. “There’s a mineral in your body now that we’ve found in the armor of the creatures and also in the ground where the mimics were. The mimics don’t seem to keep it in themselves, but it seems to be present in almost everything here.”

“Which is the reason you’ve been strapped to a bed, the mineral in your body puts off an energy signature. And that energy has been spreading through you for two standard weeks.” The Captain said with a poker face that made me want to poke him.

“So...it's a mineral that puts off energy, I can still feel hair moving on my body and head...so it’s not radioactive.” I blinked. “My shoulder, stomach, and thigh burn, but that’s it Sir. And well I’m sore as hell, but the last thing I remember is getting slammed into by something bigger than myself.”

The Captain snorted and reached to pull a pen from his pocket. “Curious...those spots are burning eh?” He spun the pen in his fingers and reached to gently stroke it from one side of my stomach, over the burning patch, to the other side. “And?”

I went cross eyed and hissed at the sudden sensory overload as what had to be fresh nerves fired madly at being touched. What I noticed was there was the feeling of thick stubby hair there, and I blinked. “The fuck...how is there hair there?”

“So you felt that…” Evans said and nodded to Xavier, who hopped over my head and used his fuzzy hand paws to rub over my left shoulder.

I jerked and convulsed in the bed as he rubbed his fuzzy self into all those new nerves and body hair? That should be barely sealed or sealing and still be broken and braced, but that little shit was wiggling on it like a bed. Then he was standing on my forehead watching me pant for air. “The...fuck!?” I snarled at them.

The Captain just raised a brow. “You’re healed….you’ve been healed since the night we got you in here, and we have no idea how Major. And yes I do mean Major, I’m reactivating your old rank. Captain Evans has been running the teams since you got hurt.” I opened my mouth to protest and he casually ran his pen over my stomach again. “And you’re going to shut up and let me finish. The air here is safe to breathe, but this mineral is in literally everything. Based on you, we can survive it...but you’re off of active combat duty. At most, you will be allowed to scout for now.”

I groaned. “So I’m promoted again, and you get to keep me where the doctors can watch me and jab me with needles?” I couldn’t keep the annoyance out of my voice.

Xavier squeaked and pet my cheek, then I was suddenly free from the bed and able to sit up as Evan’s had hit the release buttons. “Actually you and Xavier both, though no one prods him. He may have stabbed one of the doctors already.”

“Yes, your...First Sergeant...yes that sounds like a proper rank for someone saddled with a cranky Major.” Xavier squeaked hearing the Captain and chittered as Evans moved to help me sit up and get the brace from my neck. “Would you mind showing what’s happened to you since you ate your fill of that creature’s raw meat?” He asked my bunny buddy.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Xavier ear saluted Captain Rowland and hopped over to the wall, unplugging one of the monitors with a grunt. Then he hopped up and rammed his ear tips into the wall socket, there was bright arcing all around Xavier and I almost made it to my feet before the power went out in the room. A breaker tripped and I noticed an odd light blue glow from the floor. I stared like an idiot as the glow hopped itself up onto the arm of my bed, and then I realized...it was Xavier.

The little furball was glowing like a lava lamp, a strange light blue tint, almost a teal to the light his fur gave off. It wasn’t just his fur though, it was his eyes, teeth, all of the bunny radiated the strange glow. Evans cleared her throat. “He was panicking when we got you loose and someone tried to stun stick him. They hit him, and then he touched the tech and blew him across the room with the stored…”

Xavier hopped up and poked my nose, the world seemed to stop around me as I felt him push thousands of volts at high amperage into my head. I could actually feel it hit my bones and travel like fire through my entire body. The ache vanished and the burn faded as the voltage flashed through my body. When the world started to move again, I blinked. “Voltage. I mean it was like he soaked up the full charge of the battery and hit the tech with it.”

I blinked and grabbed Xavier, pulling him to my face to kiss the top of his little head and nuzzle him. He of course squeaked and swatted at me until I opened my hands and sighed contently, while the duo in the room watched me curiously. “He just did it to me….the soreness is gone and so is the burn.” I turned my head and rolled my shoulder, the scar looked like it was years old, then I realized I could see more clearly as well! There was more variation to the colors!

Hands grabbed my face as the lights snapped back to life, Evans leaned over me and opened my eyelids to look at my eyes, and then stepped back and nodded. “Then you get cleaned up in the shower...and let the doctors get their samples. You’re going to no doubt need to eat…” She said and clicked her tongue.

I turned to look at Bubbles, who looked like a pillow with eyes. The mimic shifted to a black mass of goop and bounced from the bed to Evans shoulders, draping over her and blending in with her uniform blouse. “Damn...that’s a cool trick.”

The Captain sighed. “No, the trick is whether or not she actually has a top after that. Mimics here are curious as hell, we have a “tree” atop the Yangtze currently.” He actually made the quote marks and I snorted. “Yes, those giant forests of massive bloody trees...they’re Mimics. The whole bloody lot is groups of mimics the size of the old nuclear submarines, some even larger than that. And the mimics don’t have that mineral in them, they process it out of what they eat.” He sighed. “So far it’s the closest thing to taking a shat that we’ve seen them do.”

“Well I for one am going to go grab a snack, then let Bubbles eat a trash can, and go back to bed. It’s late and I’m tired.” Evans saluted us both and walked out of my room, Bubbles looking around curiously with eye stalks.

“If you ever do something heroic and stupid like that again, and live...I’ll have you beaten until you pass out.” Rowland said firmly to me as I slowly stood from my bed. “Evans can be a CO, but she’s not the CO...you are.” He said firmly and huffed. “Worried the shit out of me you numpty.” Then he shook his head. “I’m going back to bloody bed and getting some more kip. You shower and then go eat, if the doctors don’t dart you down.” He winked at me.

“Go get some more rest ya tea sipping redcoat, I’ll find you after you’re less cranky.” I waved him off and moved carefully for my bathroom, barely noticing Xavier sitting on my shoulder. I felt oddly good after the high voltage exchange with him and knew I needed the shower.

*****************

It was a toss up which panicked the doctors most between my being able to literally lick a light socket and be fine, suddenly having violet blood, or the fact that Xavier and I ate more now. They calmed when both our appetites were eased if we consumed voltage, and it actually made a nurse faint when I touched a stun stick to my tongue and set it off.

I had gotten used to the lab rat treatment when I’d gotten my gene mods, but it was starting to drive me nuts now after four days of not being able to escape the ship. So I slipped out on their sleep shift. I just couldn’t handle it anymore being cooped up and had to get out, Xavier slipped out with me. The two of us came out of the vehicle bays on the forest side of the ship and bolted past confused workers and techs that were getting buildings raised. It never reached true full dark, the night was a sort of twilight thanks to the gas giant and the other moons.

What surprised me was when Xavier jumped off my shoulder and kept up with me, springing into the air at shoulder height every time he hopped. Even when we got to the grass and I sped up, he kept up with me, bouncing further with each hop to match my stride. And then a one and a half pound bunny took out my knee, his feet slamming into the back of my joint and dropping me into a tumble.

“You little shi…” I lost my train of thought as I saw he’d dropped me before I ran into the leftover scale plates of the creatures that’d charged us. It was odd seeing so many of the plates piled up, something that’d stopped twenty millimeter rounds. Not just stopped them though, but shattered them like glass. When I went to lift one on its side, I felt energy flow up my arm and I paused. “What the…” I said as I still wasn’t used to being a walking grounding rod, heh, rod. Anyway, it was strange, and just like always seeming to draw energy out of things, I could sort of will it to go to other things I touched with the mineral in it.

Xavier hopped onto a plate and chittered as I looked over to see his fur glowing softly, his head nodding for me to finish lifting my plate. “Yeah….” I said softly and lifted the heavy plate up, realizing it felt rather light to me now. I heaved it up and flipped it over to land behind me away from the others, then I noticed that Xavier was watching me curiously and chittering. “What?” He chittered again and pointed to me and then held his wee arms up in a body builder pose.

I just shrugged. “I don’t know...it felt lighter after I got that odd energy feeling.” I looked over at the plate and saw the odd gleam of the alien mineral that was inside of us now. I pulled a stun stick from my pocket and triggered it against the plate, watching as the entire underside glowed softly with stored energy. “So even if the creature is dead, the mineral will still hold a charge.” I scratched the back of my head and tried to think as I started to pace.

My pacing didn’t take long before I got an idea and grinned. “I wonder if it stopped the shells because it was charged…” I trailed off and looked to Xavier, the bunny’s face thoughtful before he hopped on the plate he’d landed on. “Let’s give it a try, you see if you can find me something to hit them with.” I smiled and shrugged. “I didn’t think to bring a gun.”

The little bunny just chittered and rolled his eyes, hopping from the large plate into the grass to start off in his search for something heavy to use. I on the other hand was busy dragging the second plate from the pile and setting it to the side. It only took a couple minutes before I heard the squeaking and saw a certain fuzzy glow stick hopping up and down back where we’d first landed. When I got over to him, he was hopping atop my sword, which was mostly buried in dirt from the herd’s charge.

“Holy crap, I thought they’d eaten this thing…” I knelt down and dug my hands down into the soft soil, gripping the handle to pry out my sword. One half of it was caked in a goop of old half dried blood and dirt, which took me longer than I’d hoped to get it scraped off with a rock. I was sure I’d used a rock, because I’d poked it first, you poked things before grabbing them when it might be a snoozing mimic. That was becoming the new trending habit in camp, along with shrill screams of panic or surprise.

A few more minutes using fresh dirt to scrub the blade and I got all of the crud off of it, I’d have to brush it and oil it after this. I was walking back to the plates when I felt a soft shift in the balance of the sword as it rested on my shoulder, making me look back and smile at the bunny riding on it. The little furball had jumped up nearly seven and a half feet to land on the sword, and I’d barely felt the shift in weight. “You know...I’m not the only one that’s getting stronger, you are too, ya little glow stick.”

Xavier seemed to regard me for a moment and then shrugged as he waddled down to hop onto my bare shoulder. A few punching motions and chitters came from him and made me shake my head. “A pound and a half of fluffy glowing fury eh?” I grinned as he nodded. “God help whoever pisses you off when you’re charged up...you’re as scary as a live wire.” I teased him and he made a punching motion, and then another like something flying off and pointed to me. “Yeah yeah...I can punch people further...but you took out my knee.”

Xavier chittered and beamed at me, grinning pridefully and bouncing on my shoulder like a tiny prize fighter. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee eh?” The little bunny chittered and nodded, making me roll my eyes. “I gotta have a conversation with the XO on the things he tells you to watch.” We’d already figured out that Xavier’s mouth and vocal cords were ill suited to speak human words, but I was getting more than used to his ear movements, expressions, and subtle little sounds he made. It was interesting, like having my own tiny Chewbacca, a tiny glowing, biting Chewbacca. Ok, not Chewbacca, I liked Xavier more.

As we got to the plates of shell...armor...carapace? I don’t know, it looked like heavy scale plates to me, but I’m sure the egg heads would call it something overly long and complex. As we got to them, Xavier hopped from my sword and I used it to make sure I was testing the uncharged plate first. A quick test swing of my sword caused me to just stare at it. “That’s odd...feels lighter and the planet is higher G.” I just heard a squeak and looked to see Xavier roll his eyes and then make the muscle man pose again. “Yeah yeah...just odd really.” I shrugged and drew my sword back, slashing down into the uncharged plate.

There was a crack of the material fracturing, the mineral shattering off of the back almost like how thin concrete breaks from impact. My heavy sword sank into the ground and I was forced to wiggle and work it free of the dirt and broken plate. “And that shattered twenty millimeter rounds like they were glass...but no doubt were charged. So it’s weaker and more fragile when uncharged…” I looked to Xavier and he hopped over and checked over the plate, pulling a chunk of it free.

My friend held the shard of dull unshined mineral and nibbled on it, nodding as he was able to, then I saw the shard softly glow. He’d charged it and leaned to nibble again, this time I could hear the clicking of his teeth on it. A second later it lost its glow and he took a big bite of it, giving a little squeak. “You sure you should be eating it?” He squeaked at me and took a few more bites before tearing another chunk free and tossing it over.

I just looked at the heavier than normal lump of mineral before I brought it up to take a nibble of it. It didn’t really have a taste to it and the consistency paired with the bland lack in flavor had made me thinking of a calcium tablet. “Well the good news is that it doesn’t taste bad….the bad news is that it is about as appetizing as chalk.” I huffed and took another bite, then thought for a moment and ground the rest of my chunk into the edge of my sword. “There...now let’s see here...a little zap of.” I took my stun stick and made it crackle against my sword, the rough edge glowing soft and making me smile. “I think I’ll reforge this and work this mineral into the blade.” I looked toward the second plate and sighed. “After I test it on this.” My fingers gently ran over the sword, causing it to lose its glow.

Xavier hopped over onto the stack of armor plates, out of the way of my sword. “Ready?” I asked him curiously and he nodded, squeaking once. I drew back and brought the sword down just as hard as I had before, only this time it felt like someone detonated a bomb when I hit the plate. I was hurled back through the air and through several twisting backflips as my now glowing sword flew away like a fired arrow. I could see some of the plates had been thrown into the air by whatever had happened, and I’m sure I got quite a bit of attention with my screamed curses.

A mimic possibly saved my life again when it bounced itself into the air and turned into its gelatinous natural form. My entire back from scalp to heel stung painfully as the loud wet cracking sound of my impact sounded through the night. I had to hold my breath as we landed and waited for the boulder mimic to quite literally spit me out onto the cleared ground. I looked around in half panic, realizing I’d just flown nearly two hundred yards before being caught. A quick look behind myself and I was thankful I’d been caught, the next thing I’d of hit was an unfinished metal building, with lots of girders and rebar exposed.

There was also cursing from behind me and the sounds of panic that made me jog around the building to find a tracked loader...with my glowing sword sticking through its two inch thick steel bucket’s wall plating. The driver was cursing and trying to catch his breath still when I came over and jerked the blade free, running back for the blast site. Why the hell had it done that and where the hell had Xavier ended up?

Hell, was Xavier still alive? Was he hurt? I was starting to panic and screamed out repeatedly for the bunny. Then I saw the bright glow blurring through the grass toward me. “Xavier!” I yelled and ran for the blurring line that had started toward me from much further out than I’d gone toward the ship. The deep angry warble and the distant sound of something large moving out in the forest toward the southern end of the valley. Had he flown that...I was impacted by one and a half pounds of panting blue and green stained bunny.

He was squeaking and chittering and making little motions with his hands and pointing from where I’d hit the armor plate and then made a fast arcing motion out into the forest. “C’mon lets go wake up the nerds and let the on duty teams know that apparently you woke up something.” I pet him and scritched around his ears trying to calm him as I headed back for the Yangtze’s monstrous hull.