“Is time linear, Yeva?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“It only travels in one direction.”
“True, but does that make it linear?”
“I… I think so.”
“You think so. Time is relative, Yeva. It is the fourth dimension, remember? That means as you move through the third dimension, your position in relation to time also changes. How can something be linear if it can be warped through a mere shift in perspective?”
“I guess it can’t.”
“So easily convinced? Come now, Yeva, your understanding is lacking. Is there no way you can disprove my argument?”
“I dunno. I guess, if we move, time passes differently, but it doesn’t actually change? It’s only the observer that has changed relative to it?”
“So then you are arguing that time is linear because it’s a relativistic constant, and that its dilation is merely a product of differing perspectives within a lower dimension?
“Yes?”
“Hmm, well argued.”
“Am I right?”
“You’ll have to decide for yourself, Yeva. Can you prove it?”
***
“Name?”
“Yeva Smirnova.”
“Let’s see here… interesting. How long have you been with the company, Miss Smirnova?”
“My whole life, why?”
“Your nanite documentation is classified. What model of NNIM are you running?”
“I dunno, whatever my parents’ had installed when I was born?”
“No, that’s not quite right, it looks like you had one upgrade logged about a year after your initial injections, but there’s no specifics. Hold on, I found something. Give me a second while I look up this classification code.”
“... “
“Hmm, well, I don’t know what you have, but it looks like it’s cleared for add-on integration. So, you’re good to go.”
“So, I don’t get an upgrade?”
“Afraid not.”
Do not be foolish. Of course I cannot be upgraded. I am already far superior to all other known forms of Neural Nanite Interface Matrices.
“Can you try giving me the upgrade anyways? Please? My nanites are, I dunno, kinda dumb, and super judgmental.”
“That’s not your nanites. Nanites don’t get judgmental, it’s probably just your subconscious brain mimicking the sound of the nanites. It happens sometimes. Try using the voice changer command to make them sound different in your head. That usually works.”
“Hey Nim, use voice changer to sound like this nurse guy instead.”
Request denied.
“It didn’t work. Can I have that upgrade now?”
“Sorry kid, rules are the rules.”
***
A new modular external kinetic enhancement is attempting to connect to your nervous system. Would you like to interface with this upgrade?
“Yes.”
Compatibility analysis complete, modular external kinetic enhancement is operating at 67.3% efficiency. Would you like to nickname this enhancement?
“Smirnova is fine, Nim.”
Modular external kinetic enhancement has been given the nickname ‘SMIRNOVA’.
“... “
“Now that you’ve all completed the initial exo-kit set up, allow me to give you an overview of its function. This is a top shelf piece of Exotech. You will be issued one and only one for the course of your time here at the academy. There will be elective courses where you can learn to use additional exo-kit attachments, which will vary depending on your track. I strongly encourage you to master at least one of these attachments, as they are arguably just as important to your survival as the extra strength and stamina provided by the exo-skeleton.
Speaking of that strength and stamina, keep in mind these kits are designed primarily to bear heavy loads, not let you punch through walls. So while you may be able to lift ten times what you could, you will still only hit about twice as hard as you had without the kit.
Now, I’ve found the fastest way to learn to use these things is combat training. So, we will be starting by teaching you to throw and block punches in turn. Each of you will pair off with the person on your left, and that person will start with the catching mitts. The other will practice throwing jabs. Ten sets of two jabs with each hand, then you switch. Understood?”
“Yes sir.”
“Begin.”
“Looks like it's the two of us. I’m Duncan by the way.”
“Yeva.”
***
“I’m bored. How long are we going to throw punches for? I mean the teacher isn’t even paying attention, he’s been on his smartpager for the last half hour. Is this actually supposed to be teaching us something?”
“Doesn’t bother me. With this exo-kit, I feel like I could keep doing this all day.”
“Obviously, that’s the point, Duncan. I said I’m bored, not tired. What do you say to a real fight? No mitts.”
“Against a little girl like you? I would - Ooph!”
Bruising detected in the knuckles of your 2nd through 5th digit on your right hand. Administering pain suppression.
“You would what, huh, Duncan?”
Bruising detected in ribs 6, 7, and 8. Adrenal glands indicate signs of an ongoing conflict. Reallocating resources accordingly, nonessential repairs deferred. Beginning predictive reflex algorithm. Bruising to left knuckles and elbow detected. Running pattern analysis. Pivot torso 18 degrees clockwise. Reverse momentum and destabilize. Strike brachial plexus to incapacitate.
“Cadet Smirnova!”
Operation terminated.
“Sir, I was just-”
Impact detected to the left hemisphere of the parietal bone. Minor concussion detected. Consciousness fading. Administering immediate medical attention to prevent brain damage.
“Stand down, Cadet Wiesner!”
“Never take your eyes off the enemy, Yeva.”
***
I’d been climbing through ichor filled tunnels for about fifteen minutes. The warm, slimy warp had stopped urging me to go save the evil lake, which I took as a sign that my revenge had been successful. Now that it and the warp weaver were dead, whoever was left alive between my squad and Honeybadger squad would only need to finish off any remaining breach tumors and the warp would become a mindless, directionless horde. It was rare for breaches to even have two tumors, and barring extreme outliers five was almost unheard of, so I’d be surprised if there was more than a single extra one beyond the juvenile, class 11, we’d seen in the messhall.
With the additional context of what I now knew, I was putting together how exactly the warp really worked on a breach by breach basis. From what I figured out, it seemed breaches were started by a single person’s nanites getting warped. That ‘person’ - now a juvenile breach tumor - would send out feelers, which were the long artery like tendrils that grew throughout warped areas. These would attack anyone and everyone in the area, devouring them and turning them into more biomass and nanites for the breach tumor to use. It would start making progressively scarier warp beasts to roam past where its feelers could reach and bring back more food for the warp, and by coating everything in its sphere of influence with a thin layer of ichor, it could command its little beasties as well as track intruders. The longer the warped nanites survive, and the more they consume, the smarter and more complex they get.
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I reached a branch in the tunnel. I could feel through the warp that both ways would eventually lead to an intruder. It seemed that some of my friends were still alive, though it was hard to tell exactly what the warp was trying to tell me. Whatever breach tumor was left alive to coordinate the defenses was definitely no warp weaver, as the only information it was giving me was to attack the intruders, which wasn’t terribly insightful. I tried using my own senses instead, but I could barely see anything in these damned tunnels.
“You know, Nim, if the warp’s alterations to my body were really so great, how come I can’t even see in the dark?” I complained.
Perhaps you would see better in these conditions if you opened the rest of your eyes, Nim said, making me pause half way through choosing at random.
“Eh?” I eloquently pontificated.
Perhaps you would not be so confused if you had let me tell you all the changes that were made to your body.
“Gee Nim, that sounds great, let's start with the extra eyes I’m apparently not using,” I said with righteous indignation.
Very well, in addition to increasing the size of your primary eyes, and their subsequent quantities of rods and cones, you have also been given a set of six secondary eyes. These are arrayed around your face, two below each primary eye and one just above to the sides. This is intended to both increase your vision in low light environments as well as to increase your field of vision around-
“Yeah yeah yeah, great, how do I use them?” I said impatiently
I… I will open them for you so you can get a feel for the new muscles, Nim said, defeated.
I felt the muscles in my cheeks and brow tighten slightly, like I was squinting, and the world expanded around me. One moment my vision was normal, if a little better in the dark than it had been before the transformation, the next it was twice what it had been before. The secondary eyes weren’t able to see in as much detail as my main eyes, but they expanded my periphery to be nearly the size of my normal vision in each direction. I still had a blind spot behind my head, which I was grateful for. This was disorienting enough as it was. If I’d had to deal with 360 degree vision, I would have probably just reclosed the secondary eyes and forgotten about them. Most importantly though, it did allow me to see better in the dark, and with this new found power, I could see… absolutely nothing new. Figures.
I picked a tunnel at random and continued climbing.
***
I finally found an exit to the maze, the tunnel ending abruptly in a hallway. I dropped cautiously down the two meters to the laminated floor, landing in a crouch. Despite the lights being out, I could see in both directions pretty well… at the same time. Man that was weird. Someone else had clearly come this way, as evidenced by the vaguely person shaped indentation in the wall opposite the tunnel mouth. Fortunately, it seemed that - like me - this person had survived their little unsolicited joyride down Warp Rivers - patent pending. This corridor must have been on the edge of the warp's influence because there wasn't warp ichor coating everything. However, there were still a few veins of warp snaking out of the tunnel's mouth and growing along the wall and ceiling. I reached a hesitant hand out and placed it on the slowly pulsating alien mass. Immediately, warp ichor coating its surface flowed over my outstretched fingers in a disgusting embrace. The familiar sensation of command filled my mind, telling me which way to go to find the nearest intruder.
I had a decision to make. I could follow the sensation and try to regroup with whoever was left alive, but risk getting mistaken for a warp beast and shot, or I could go the opposite direction in hopes of finding my way back to the tubeway. It wasn't a hard call. Even with the warp weaver and evil lake destroyed, this breach was crazy deadly. Add onto that the fact that my squad's entire command structure - Richard and myself - had been taken out by the warp weaver, meant they were probably still in a desperate fight for their lives. Even with the fuckery I'd been through, I'd be a pretty shitty captain to bail on them now.
I stretched my new limbs, enjoying the elasticity and flexibility of the joints. It was time to see what this body could do. I took a runners pose and sprinted, pumping my legs with all my newfound strength. I was fast. I easily hit forty kph before reaching the first bend. The sound of gunshots echoed down the corridor, which only motivated me to go faster. I couldn't stop in time to go around the corner and didn't really want to anyway. So, I leapt, hitting the wall at full speed, feet first. My legs absorbed the impact like a spring, and I shot around the bend, rolling smoothly back to my feet mid stride.
The hallway terminated into a larger room ahead, which was being illuminated by the constant flash of gunshots. I flew from the portal at full speed, only having an instant to assess the situation. The room was open, with lots of space to move around in. The wall on my left opened into a large, five meter wide stairway that led to the upper floor. One of the heavily armored forms of Honeybadger squad stood backed into a corner near a reception desk as a decanid - presumably a survivor from the mess hall - loomed over him. The rest of the room’s details were ignored as I launched into action, literally. I bent my legs and flung myself directly at the decanid's main body, jumping three meters into the air to where the black, eye and tentacle covered sphere floated. My eight clawed limbs struck, digging deep into its thick, leathery hide. It felt wrong to touch one of these things, to carve into its flesh with my bare hands instead of a nano-blade. To have its deadly black blood spray my exposed face and chest and not a leaded glass helmet and heavy sealed hazmat armor. It was surreal, as I rode the alien abomination to the ground, hacking at it with my claws and teeth. Like I had stepped across an event horizon. The sensation under my thirty fingers was that of the decanid’s slimy and warm insides instead of the dry fabric insides of my gloves. The coppery smell of blood should have been the stale, filtered air of my respirator. The way my many eyes observed the room around me, despite the lack of light. But especially the look on my compatriot's face, which should have been one of triumph instead of horror.
I had made a mistake. I was no longer one of them, was I? No longer human.
I slowly stood, watching the stunned lieutenant Duncan Wiesner, and absentmindedly tried wiping the black blood from my face with one of my many arms. He tensed, training his heavy machine gun and exo-rifle at me. I raised my main hands and folded my other arms across my midsection.
“Hold your fire, Lieutenant,” I said, wincing at just how unintelligible I sounded. I had no lips, and considering all the other things I was now missing, it was entirely possible I didn't have vocal cords anymore either. Sure, Nim could understand me, but he didn't really need to hear me to get what I said. He couldn't read my thoughts directly, but even if I plugged my ears while speaking, he could just analyze the electrical signals sent from my brain to my lips, tongue, and larynx. Poor, dim, Duncan had none of these advantages, and didn't seem to understand a word of it. “It's me, Captain Smirnova,” I tried, desperation creeping into my tone.
“Captain?” Duncan said slowly.
“Yes, it-”
“I’ve got a situation here,” he continued, not listening. “New type of beast, could be a nine or ten. It came out of nowhere and killed a decanid but it’s not attacking me. It’s just standing there and growling. What should I do?”
He… he wasn’t talking to me, was he? He went quiet then nodded. Nope, he hadn’t understood a word I said. He was talking to Captain Coldwell over his comms. I just couldn’t hear them anymore because mine were destroyed along with the rest of my gear. Well this was awkward. I was trying to think of some way to effectively communicate this when I saw it. A shimmer in the air was creeping through the room, right across the middle of my secondary vision. It was a stalker, class 6. They could warp light around them, causing them to appear nearly invisible. I’d seen one trying to flank us earlier, near the facility’s entrance, but Corporal Sasaki had scared it off. They weren’t that dangerous so long as you spotted them before they could get in close. They were slow, but could punch a hole straight through most armor with their stinger.
“It looks kinda like a half formed warp weaver,” he said over comms to his captain. “Understood.”
Shit, he didn’t see it. He was too focused on me. If I didn’t do something, the stalker would skirt his vision and carve him a new windpipe.
“Wiesner, lookout,” I said, pointing frantically at the stalker. “You dense asshole, you’re going to get yourself killed.”
It was getting closer, only a few meters from the unsuspecting corporal now. If anything, my pointing and shouting had only made him more focused on me. I could see sweat beading on the pasty german’s chin through the yellowed glass of his faceshield. He was ready to shoot me as soon as I made any move. I was running out of time and options.
“Nim, what are the chances I survive getting shot these days?” I said, hoping the answer would be concise for once.
Once? he specified.
“A lot.”
So long as he does not destroy all three of your nanite reproduction organs, I should be able to repair just about any damage done to your body. I had nanite reproduction organs? A question for later.
My drill sergeant would kill me for what I was about to do. Then again, Lieutenant Wiesner might beat him to it. Quick as I could, I reached down and grabbed the decanid's mutilated corpse from the ground where it had fallen beside me. Duncan, of course, took this to mean it was time to start firing his guns again. I hoisted the disgusting mass of eyes and tentacles into the air, using it as a shield against Duncan’s onslaught. Even with the wall of flesh between us, a stray bullet made it through and ricocheted off my cheek, leaving a deep groove in my skin carapace. Pain flared in its wake like a groove of fire as more lead projectiles rained around me. I guess regardless of what you used, warp fuckery or bulletproof vest, getting shot still hurt like hell.
Well this wasn’t ideal. I had been planning on throwing this thing at the stalker, but it didn’t look like the lieutenant was going to give me the chance. I braced myself, holding the meat shield up with all six arms, and charged straight at Duncan. Sorry pal, but this was for your own good. I could hear the beefy lieutenant screaming as he pumped the corpse full of lead in an attempt to stop me. It was actually kind of working, the decanid was rapidly disintegrating in my hands as I charged. Luckily, I didn’t have far to go. I hit him full force, slamming the eldritch meat pudding into him like a battering ram. The weight of it toppled him over and sent his heavy machine gun sliding across the laminated floor.
“Just stay down for a second, okay?” I said, catching my breath.
Duncan started screaming. Only, it wasn’t your typical battlecry of a man with an IQ of 83. It was a scream, frantic and bloody. Something wasn’t right. I flung the desecrated decanid off the writhing lieutenant and knelt down to examine the damage. His heavy hazmat armor didn’t look any worse off than before, if a little more soaked in black warp ichor, and I hadn’t hit him nearly hard enough to break the seal. He began clawing at his neck, the bulky armor making the movement awkward. Then I saw it. Black veins were spreading up his neck. They crept across his cheek as the skin palled around them.
I watched in horror, my new insights into the warp finally allowing me to understand exactly what was happening, as the warp claimed another victim. His screaming sobs grew weaker, his chest pumping for more air as the nanites got inside his arteries and cannibalized everything to replicate themselves. It was like a venom, the faster his heart beat the faster the nanites would travel throughout his circulatory system. There was no will or greater intelligence behind these nanites, they were simply digesting their food. The infection had started from the neck, where an impact had broken the seal on his helmet, allowing a small amount of the decanid’s nanite rich blood to leak through. Of course, if my visor had cracked from falling into the warp weaver’s trap, there wasn't any reason he wouldn't have sustained just as much damage to his suit in a similar fall. I had even seen where he'd landed in the hallway, hitting hard enough to crack cement. All the signs were there, if I'd just been paying more attention. His struggling weakened further as the nanites interfered with the electrical signals being sent from his brain to his muscles.
It took less than a minute. Every blood vessel in his body was now black and his skin had gone the same color as mine. I knew from experience that over the next few minutes, his body would slowly decompose into a nanite and nutrient soup, which the warp would consume to replenish its strength and grow. I suppose that included me now.
“Fuck,” I said feelingly. “I mean, I didn’t really like the guy, but… goddamnit.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin when my ‘mourning’ was interrupted by the stalker appearing out of thin air beside me. I’d forgotten about this asshole. I took a moment to examine the creature, as I’d never seen an alive and visible stalker this closely before. It was a freaky, spindly, two legged, mantis looking thing, with smooth pearlescent black carapace that shimmered like oil. A pink and black tongue with a wicked sharp stinger on the end lulled out of its beaked mouth as it looked hungrily at the decomposing lieutenant.
I took a step behind the monster and took hold of it with all six hands, pinning one of its legs to the ground using my own clawed foot for good measure. The thing struggled in my grasp, but I was far stronger. I dug the fingers of my main hands into its long, narrow neck. Part cutting, part crushing, and part tearing, as I worked. With a satisfying and wet crunch, the vertebrae of the neck finally gave and the head came off. Some of these things could survive decapitation, however, so I rammed my fingers down its esophagus and - like ripping a chicken carcass in half - tore it down the middle. Black blood and guts cascaded between the stalker’s two halves and pooled around my feet.
“Didn’t you know? You should never take your eyes off the enemy,” I grunted. I’d never really been into video games, but If Corporal Avery were here, he’d have called that a finisher. Speaking of Aiden, perhaps I’d gone a little overboard.
