Maksim bolted to the room where Nikola stood, as soon as the “cyber-angel of destruction” froze in place, breathing hard. Racing down the corridors, he kept an eye on the girl through the drone feeds and saw her flushed face slowly getting pale, beads of sweat gathering on her temples.
The battle she’d just waged might have been one of the toughest of her life, leaving Redhead with the inevitable backlash of stress and exhaustion. But that wasn’t all — her cybernetic limbs, though not flesh, were deeply integrated with the human nervous system through specialized neuro-interfaces and biocompatible connectors. And now, these implants had taken severe damage during the brutal overload that had pushed her to extreme speeds and unimaginable strength.
Pain started to ignite throughout her body, building up into unbearable agony. Fortunately, her Cyber-Core and the armor’s life-support system eventually kicked in, bypassing Nikola’s settings to keep painkillers off and injecting into her bloodstream a potent dose of medication to mitigate the aftermath of the fight.
Seeing Max burst into the room at full speed, Nika tried to force a smile and slowly raised her left arm to flash a victory sign. But something kept her from it. She struggled to focus on her palm — and saw the chunk of Shaiszu spine still clutched in her hand. With a delayed reaction, she unclenched her fist, and the bloodied remains of the monster dropped to the floor with a soft thud.”
“What a quiet, peaceful sound,” she thought absently, “after all the chaos that was going on here.”
Redhead shifted her gaze back to the person who had become so dear to her — and finally managed to form a ‘V’ with the fingers of her left hand. Then, as if fulfilling its duty, her arm dropped limply, hanging like a lifeless whip.
[Everything that just happened was one big mistake. And I will chew you out for it,] Maksim sighed in a private voice-message, [but not right now and not in front of everyone. Maybe a dumb question, but… how are you?]
[I won.] Nika managed to gather her strength and send a message in the conference. It felt like even that took all her concentration and willpower. [Did you see that, Max? I was awesome, right? Wasn’t I a champ?]
He grimaced, stepping closer and carefully examining her condition.
[Yeah, you won. And you were awesome… one hundred percent. But as a solo fighter, not a soldier or a team player. Thanks to that reckless and unnecessary stunt of yours, all your limbs are now up for replacement – you’re in no shape to keep fighting. Alisa, bring in the Big One over, it’ll serve as a wheelchair for this brilliantly reckless fool.]
[Max, you promised you’d scold me later!] Nikola was secretly relieved she could type in the chat instead of talking — no one would hear how weak her voice sounded right now.
[And I’m not scolding you!] He managed to step up just in time, grabbing her by the shoulders to help her ease down to the floor. Redhead was about to make a very un-cool collapse, as her legs had literally given way beneath her.
At the same moment, her right arm also started sparking, released black smoke from the slightly open automatic panels with a loud pop, and dropped limply. The knife she’d been holding fell and clattered loudly against the concrete floor.
[Oops…] Nikola responded sheepishly.
----------------------------------------
Ten minutes later, they brought Redhead to the team’s “temporary HQ.” At her request, Max took off her blood-stained helmet and wiped her face gently with a damp cloth — thankfully, there was a small bathroom nearby. He settled Nika into a comfortable chair, while the rest of the team took their seats across from her.
“Nikola, please explain to us what… no, that’s not it. What the… ugh, never mind,” Maksim started, struggling to rein in his urge to swear.
“Let me take this one,” Alisa intervened diplomatically. “I’ve already gone over the footage frame-by-frame.”
“That’s not even why I’m upset,” he muttered, waving his hand dismissively. “I’m more angry at myself! I should’ve just flat-out said, ‘I forbid you to go in there, period.’ That would’ve been an order, and orders aren’t up for discussion in combat conditions.”
“But we did learn something important,” Nikola countered. “Namely, that we’re not the only ones with superpowers. The Shaiszu have them too, which means next time we’ll be ready and play it safer.”
She tried to put on an expression like ‘I am sorry for what I did,’ but in the eyes of this thrill-seeker, there was anything but regret or remorse. The sparkles flickering in her gaze, along with the corners of her lips that kept twitching upward, pointed more toward satisfaction.
“Anyway, I guess I’m officially… a ‘mage’ now too, as Dasha would say. And if you ask me, the risk was worth it. Guys, just look at this…”
// SYSTEM
Group: Magic (System) Attributes
Cybernetic Berserker
An attribute enabling a cyborg to fuse the power of cybernetic implants with biological abilities to reach unprecedented combat efficiency. Berserker mode enhances the strength and speed of cybernetic limbs, boosts physical capability of biological muscles, accelerates reaction time and perception, and suppresses pain. In critical situations, it may trigger combat rage, transforming the cyborg into an unstoppable death machine on the battlefield.
Level (1) “Initial Synergy”
PASSIVE SKILL:
Optimized Neural Link:
* Enhances connection between the brain and cybernetic implants.
* Increases reaction speed and movement precision by 5%.
ACTIVE SKILLS:
“Spark of Mechanics” (Implant Overdrive I):
Energy Cost: Low.
Effect: Temporarily increases strength and speed of cybernetic limbs by 10-20% (based on energy usage).
Duration: up to 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
“Warrior’s Awakening” (Berserk I):
Energy Cost: Low.
Effect: Suppresses pain. Enhances biological muscles, boosts reaction speed and perception by 10-20% (depending on energy usage).
Duration: 15 seconds.
Cooldown: 10 minutes.
Cybernetic Berserker (2) progress bar - 0% complete, locked.
Notice: To unlock the progress bar, cyber-implants must be upgraded to the required level (see details).
“It’s all kinda weird, to be honest,” Nikola tried to gesture, but her arms refused to cooperate. Cursing under her breath, she sighed and continued.
“Right now, I’m only at Level One, as you can see. If I’d stayed within those limits, maybe my implants would’ve been fine. But at the beginning of the fight, it suddenly jumped to Level Five. And then it was like… everything else just dropped away. The whole world outside my opponent and the fight just…ceased to exist.”
“To us, you practically vanished, just became a blurred whirlwind. Even the cameras could barely keep up. I only managed to pull up this mess of a recording,” Alisa said, showing the blurred footage on the augmented reality screen.
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Nikola nodded.
“Yeah, that’s exactly how it went down. Those fucking dogs pretty much froze in my eyes. But…,” she hesitated, struggling to find the right words. “Basically, I really became a berserker. I… I could feel everything, knew what I was doing, but couldn’t stop until I killed the last creature. With my bare hands. Ripped its spine out.”
Hearing this, Dasha paled and whispered, “That’s… horrifying…”
“Looks like you’ve become our very own ‘Ultimate Last-Resort Weapon,’” Maksim concluded with a hint of dry humor. “That’s an insanely powerful ability, especially in close combat — like it was now, against the Shaiszu. It could turn the tide of even the most hopeless battle. But you mentioned you hit Level Five for a bit, and then dropped back down to Level One, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t understand why that happened.”
“I have a theory,” Dasha interjected, momentarily squeezing her eyes shut to push away the mental image of a spine being ripped out alive. “It’s… well. I think we acquire these ‘super abilities’ as a whole package right away. But the access is only given to the level we’re, uh, ready for… And I don’t mean just… uhm… our own readiness. I’m talking about energy consumption, too. It’s something we can check, actually.”
“Check? How? What do we need to do?” Alisa, Max, and Nika asked almost in unison.
Before answering, the girl quickly pulled out her vape and, after Maksim’s approving nod, took a deep drag.
“So, here’s the thing — these magic powers… each one’s a new attribute added to the existing ones. Each level unlocks abilities that consume energy. And the module, I’m working on right now, can not only track how much energy is left but also, sort of… well, assess how much extra ‘energy’ was drained from your body when it ran low during an ability’s use.”
Dasha took another quick hit from the vape and added, “If Nikola went into energy debt, that means she was definitely granted access to a high-level attribute. But she couldn’t handle it, and the level dropped back to what was manageable. I read about something like that. In the docs. From the Informatorium. Yeah. Anyway… I’ll soon add it to the interface soon, so it’ll display everything clearly, yeah!”
Redhead looked at Daria intently and nodded a couple of times — unfortunately, other gestures were still out of her reach at the moment.
“So… maybe we could check it right now?”
“Absolutely!” Dasha grinned. “You’ll get a request from the System. Just accept it, and grant permissions. Then it, I mean the System, will be able to work with the Informatorium’s API on your behalf. The second request will be for Cyber-Core access. That’s to let the System pull your data.”
A brief half-minute passed as they waited. Finally, Dasha, visibly thrilled, practically bounced in place.
“Aha! What did I say! You’ve got an energy overdraw of a hundred and sixteen percent. But! That’s not why you got knocked back down. Hope you don’t mind me reading the full description of your Cyber-Berserker attribute? Okay, get ready to be amazed by what I found! Yeah!”
Dasha took a dramatic pause, looking at her friends with smug satisfaction, as if she herself had just fought a tough battle, and won it, risking her own life.
“So, this attribute is pretty rare, yeah. Generally, only D-grade partners and higher get it. These are experienced battle cyborgs with a lot of combat missions under their belts…”
At that moment, Nikola gave a slightly apologetic shrug, as if to say, ‘Hey, I never claimed to be inexperienced…’
Dasha went on, “Most importantly, you can’t get Cyber-Berserker without TACTA implants and specialized cyber-limbs. Well… it was thought to be impossible. And now, well… here’s Nika. She got it. That’s it. Yeah.”
Redhead stared at Dasha, astonished, and muttered, “Jebać to… Damn, what a hell of a ‘gift’ from TACTA. So, where do we even get those implants? Buy them in the Informatorium for a gazillion grants?”
Alisa raised her right index finger, catching everyone’s attention.
“I also managed to check out some available info. Turns out Nikola really did get access to Level Five. And all of the abilities she unlocked at that time are still logged. Sure, the descriptions are vague — classic TACTA style — but it’s still something. And right at Level Five, there is a passive skill called ‘Reinforced Structure.’ It strengthens bones, connective tissue, neural links, and so on. Which means, theoretically, her neural interfaces and connectors might have survived. We’ll need to run a diagnostic, and if they’re functional, we can swap out her limbs with the spare ones we have on hand.”
Maksim stood up, looking pleased. “Great news, sis. Get the truck over here; the three of us will unload and hook up the cyber-station to the warehouse power grid. Then we’ll park the vehicle over here,” he pointed to a spot on the map. “Next, we’ll reactivate the stealth mode and set the drones on guard duty to wait for the Rzeszów’s arrival. Hopefully, two Shaiszu portals in a row is still an exception rather than the rule.”
“Usually, two in a row… if they’re wandering, it doesn’t happen,” Daria commented. “The Ravens clued me in.”
“Good to hear. Then, let’s get to it. Nika, hang tight here for a bit, okay? Don’t try to walk or anything; we’ll be quick.”
“Okay. I’ll be here waiting.”
----------------------------------------
Maksim and Alisa unloaded the cyber-station as quickly as possible. Fortunately, at least the Big One was still functional and could help with its manipulators for the heavy equipment.
Meanwhile, Dasha was crawling around inside the truck body, with wires between her teeth, soaked with sweat, as she prepped the cooling and power system for Mei Li, the specialized AI they’d brought from Zelman’s clinic.
Alisa’s knowledge level, after all, couldn’t quite match up to a specialized artificial intelligence designed for medical operations on cyborgs.
Once everything was ready, the girls moved the cyber-station to a secure area using a small forklift they’d found in the warehouse. And Maksim hurried over to Nikola to help her out of her gear and get her, on her barely functional legs, to the shower.
After fifteen minutes of tests and diagnostics, it turned out things weren’t as bad as they’d feared. Nikola’s implants had held up well overall, thanks to the military-grade durability and redundant control circuits. The damaged parts were non-essential for civilian model cyber-limbs.
“Well, what can I say,” Maksim summed up with a smile. “The good news is, we’re putting ‘paws’ for you right away — both front and back, as you like to call them.”
“And the bad news?” Redhead asked curiously.
Alisa approached, unfurling a large AR screen that displayed info from the Informatorium.
“The bad news is that almost all of your Cyber-Core should ideally be replaced. At minimum, you’ll need an additional TACTA Sub-Brain expansion module, which, by the way, comes with upgrade slots — pretty convenient. Next, the entire interface connecting your limbs with both the CNS and Core requires an update, and, as the cherry on top, your Core itself could also use a boost.”
“Go on, spill the rest of it all. No point in dragging it out,” Nikola said with a wry smile. “I can tell by your face that there’s more.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call this ‘bad’ news exactly,” Alisa replied. “It’s more… food for thought. You’ll need more energy for all this hardware than your digestive modules currently generate. So, either we find space for additional fuel cells in your body… and, spoiler alert, there is no extra room…”
“Or?”
“Or we do another full overhaul of your gastrointestinal tract, using TACTA modules. But keep in mind, you’ll need to eat about twice as much as you do now. Maybe even three times as much.”
Nikola’s grin spread from ear to ear. “Now that’s a gift! I get to eat three times more snacks and meat, chug beer — and not get fat! Any sane girl would kill for that. Look, even Dasha’s staring at me, practically green with envy!”
“Me?! What? No! I… I’m not staring… yeah!” Vasilevskaya protested, though she had actually been gazing intently at Nika, but for an entirely different reason. Practically on the verge of complete immersion in Deep VR, Dasha, along with the Ravens and Alisa, who was participating with several treads, were figuring out their next steps. So, in reality, the girl was staring into empty space. It just so happened that this ‘empty space’ weirdly aligned with a stunning naked cyborg with an amazing chest.
“Well, it seems our patient has finally decided on her operation of choice,” Maksim announced, imitating a ‘chief surgeon’ at a medical board. “Now, colleagues, where should we start cutting flesh, considering our… oh-so-generous budget?”
A heated debate ensued, eventually leaning toward the idea of setting up their own manufacturing capability. But funds from the last mission wouldn’t cover all their “wish list” items. They’d have to go with a minimal setup — first, replace Nikola’s connectors and neuro-interfaces with TACTA models. These could also work with standard, “earth-made” cyber-limbs. Then, reprogram the Core to recognize the new hardware properly.
To save on costs, they would buy compatible cyber-bio kits from the Informatorium Catalog. With the combined skills of Alisa, Moira, and Mei Li, they could install everything using the surgical complex they had brought along. The only issue was a lack of suitable space fora makeshift operating room.
That’s when Max came up with an interesting idea. They could adapt standard Earth military-based setups for mobile medical centers, the kind used for field hospitals. The atmosphere control system and vibration protection could be installed in the trailer they’d been promised.
Yes, it would be tight and cramped, but they’d have their own mobile hospital!
And as for working on the Cyber Core code, Dasha could handle that, especially with her new super-ability, making the process a lot faster.
Twenty minutes later, Nikola finally had her damaged arms and legs replaced with civilian-grade spares from the “reserve.” After packing the equipment back into the truck, the team headed off to wait for Rzeszów’s arrival, leaving the drones on patrol.
“Good thing we grabbed those spare ‘paws’ from the clinic! Nice job, all of us, yeah!” Nikola announced, stretching, and adjusting to the new limbs. “They’re civilian-grade, of course — not much good for acrobatics or a fight. But at least they work.”
“Don’t look a gift cyber-hardware in the gears,” Maksim quipped.
“You do know there aren’t any gears in these, right, Max?” Redhead shot back with a smirk.
“Of course I know. Which is why there’s nothing to look at,” he retorted, grinning. “Alright, finish your warm-up and get back into your armor. Dasha, same goes for you. It’s been a while since the last portal opened, so let’s stay ready. Those monsters could pop up at any moment.”
Nikola decided to get into clean outfit right there, while Dasha, feeling shy, ran off to the shower. After setting up Mei Li in the hot truck, she, too, wanted to change into something fresher.
“We’ve got about an hour before Rzeszów arrives,” Maksim said, checking the time. “Let’s hope there are no more surprises.”
“We’re all hoping for that,” Alisa agreed. “While they’re en route, I’ll dig around in the Informatorium and prep a detailed report on our crafting options. Assembly machines, resources, recipe costs, the possibility of developing our own designs, and so on.”
[Take half of the Ravens,] Dasha chimed in via the conference right from the bathroom. [They’ll help with the report and gather info for the System update to integrate crafting management module. That’s crucial too, yeah.]
“I’m set,” Nikola said, snapping her helmet shut. “Hey, Max?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, with the drones patrolling, they don’t need us just yet. So, we have a bit of time for now. How about we can dive into the Informatorium, and see what TACTA actually offers in cybernetics? I mean, we know they’re advanced, but how much? We have me, kinda a field expert, and you — the robotics engineer. Could also get a handle on pricing. That might be helpful to know what to expect.”
“Great idea,” Maksim nodded. “I’ll join you in a sec. Just going to start the coffee first. The previous owner left a coffee machine here — and it even has beans in it.”