ARC 1 - Pain and Growth

  I awoke in pain. Nothing in my mind but the searing agony in my leg draggio the waking world. I sat up screaming before I mao focus enough to try and find out what was wrong. Eyes and hands quickly found the problem, a twisted k of metal was driven deep into my right calf.

  fusion raked itself ay mind. How in the hell did that happen? Where did this e from? I was just… what was I doing? Where am I? I suddenly found myself panig over a whole new problem. The plete and total emories of anything before that moment.

  I looked around to try a my bearings and things somehow mao get even worse. I was inside some metal room with holes and gouges in it letting sunlight through. No, not a room... I looked to my side and saw some kind of drivers partment, door cracked open just enough to see into and make out a seat, windshield, some levers, it looked familiar somehow but nothing more than that. This was a vehicle, I was sure of it.

  I drew my attention to my other side a my stomach turn. There was a man, or… most of ohere ing hole in his chest and a pool of blood under him, his empty gaze staring at nothing. He was wearing some kind of military uniform, navy blue with pale e ats but mostly simple. The shoulder held a symbol, a white scroll ed in green vines with a single blue flower in the ter. It felt familiar too. On his chest, just above the bloody hole was a tag, Bernson. I guess that was his name. His pels had markings, silver bars. Something in the bay head seemed to associate the markings with authority, an officer I guessed.

  I ’t really say for sure where my mind was at during all this. There was so damned much happening and I was terrified and in pain and everything just felt like I was lost at sea and the waves were getting bigger and bigger, threatening to drown me in what I somehow very calmly reized was a building panic attack. I felt things bubble up in my mind, ideas that felt so familiar but I couldn’t link them to anything.

  Focus. Look for details. Think about what is needed first and then what you do about it. I took a breath and winced as I shifted my leg, pain ng up my body from the a. But I still mao calm down enough to think.

  First. Seek help. I reached to the side and banged on the door into the driver’s partment. “Hey! Anyone alive?” no response. I carefully dragged myself to one of the holes in the vehicle, trying to her move my leg muor touch poor dead Bernson. I got my head he hole and peered out and listened for any sounds of life. Silence. Shit. I almost yelled for help but part of me suddenly worried that might get the vehicle attacked again if the wrong person was outside, and from what I could tell, whatever had hit this thing was more than enough to finish me off if used again.

  Okay, on my own then. I looked at myself to try and take stock of the rest of me aside from my fucked leg. Okay, same uniform as poor dead Bernson, though sadly no ag. No shoulder bars either. Maybe I’m just a grunt and grunts don’t get ags? That was depressing. Made some sehough, sidering my uniform was clearly not made for me specifically, the buttons down the front were straining a bit against my chest. Huh. My breasts weren’t even very big, small handfuls I’d guess. Must have been a men’s uniform? Cheap ass leadership probably.

  I mentally moved on and saw a strap ay chest, with a shift and a tug I pulled it forward and realized I was armed. A rifle. I… I know this o was more familiar than anything else I’d felt. I knew how it worked immediately, intimately. I realized I could disassemble, , and reassemble this thing in no time if I needed. I had a fsh in my mind, a brief moment of my hands doily that at a table. Then it was gone. I guess that makes sense, if I’m a soldier they probably trained me to take care of my on. It did feel wrong though, thinking of myself as a soldier. It made my iwist and turn nervously.

  FOCUS

  I looked around and saw a few more rifles scattered about, most damaged. A few thin wooden boxes my mind identified as taining ammunition. A shredded teen. A feacks hanging from hooks on the far wall, they looked full though I wasn’t certain of what. Oh! A metal case strapped to the wall o the door into the driver’s partment, it has a symbol of a red butterfly. I knew immediately that meant medical supplies, a first aid kit!

  I whimpered as I shifted again and pulled myself closer, nearly falling from the metal bench I and poor dead Bernson were on as I moved over. The strap was thankfully undamaged, as was the kit itself So I was able to get it down and open it in my p.

  The inside of the kit was absolutely alien to me. I wonder if I had received training on any of this? It sure as hell didn’t feel like it. Right in the ter of all the gauze and sutures aal vials of who knows what, were a few leather bracelets covered in runes. A moment of fusion hit me before I noticed writing on the lid, some basistrus. I saw the note about these right a patient wrist for diagnosis’.

  That sounded… odd. But what the hell did I know? I couldn’t even remember my own name.

  I pulled oo my left wrist and waited a moment. The runes glowed a soft green and the bracelet tightened. I felt some sort of pulse gh my body and suddenly words started to write themselves in light in the air above my arm.

  [Warning: Several abnormal status ditioed. Warning: Several injuries detected. Warning HP critically low. Advisement: Administer Emergency Health Infusion Immediately. Metal vial. Red bel. Iion is advised but oral administration is viable.]

  I blinked and stared for a long moment. It was a very, very odd sensation that hit me then. I both felt that this was extremely wrong and perfectly normal at the same time. Like two sides of my brain were fighting each other over if this was something I should uand or not. I decided to ighat feeling and focus on what was being shown.

  I reached into the kit and examihe vials, there were twelve in all, four of which had red bels. Four had yellow and four were blue. I also saw a syringe i but something in my mind rebelled against the idea to i myself, even if I wasn’t struggling not to shake from the pain I seemed to recall something about how iing something in the wrong spot could be very bad, no matter what it was. So I tore the paper seal, tugged out the rubber cork with some difficulty, and downed what might have been the most vile thing I have ever tasted. Which, sidering my entire memory could be measured in mi that point, isn’t a high bar.

  Either way I dowhe disgusting drought and shuddered. Then, moments ter a warmth started to spread from my belly throughout my body and o reached my leg, the pain receded enough that I was able to take a breath and actually rex slightly. It still hurt, but not so much that I was dragging my every other thought away with the pain. With that settled I turo look at the dispy again, thinking about what it could mean.

  “Abnormal status ditions?” I said aloud, and then immediately the words started ging. I realized it respoo the words as a and and started listing the said ditions out.

  [Disorientation: Severity D]

  [Blood loss: Severity E]

  [Mind Shatter: Severity SSS]

  [Iion: Severity E]

  [Immobilized: Severity B]

  [Soul tai: Severity Unkn0wn]

  I hope I don’t o expin whies stood out. Even with my brain apparently mega fucked I could see them. “What the fuck is Mind Shatter?” I asked, hoping it could tell me.

  [Mind Shatter: Ultimate Level mental status effect. Loss of memory. Higher ranks result in more memories lost and for longer average periods of time. S rank Severity is likely to result in plete amnesia with little to no ce of recovery without treatment.]

  “Fuck.” I rubbed my face with my my free hand and tried not to start g. It was holy pretty damned hard. “Okay, okay what about Soul tai?” and was that a typo in the dition?

  [Soul tai: Detai1s Unkn0wn.]

  “Well double fuck.” I took several breaths before looking back at the dispy agaihat’s a typo, or something like it at least. Worry about it ter. “I think I figure out the others just fine. Okay, what about the injuries?”

  [Minor cussion]

  [Various tusions]

  [Various Abrasions]

  [Fractured Fibu]

  [Three Fractured Ribs]

  [Severe Shrapnel Injury]

  [Unknown Minor Mutation Effect]

  “Mutation, what?”

  [Unknown effe pce, the patient’s body is undergoing seemingly benign ge.]

  “Seemingly? It could actually be really bad then?” I felt panic start to swell within me again.

  [Possible, but unlikely.]

  I suddenly realized the answers were a bit more aware than I had thought at first “… uhm… are you like… alive?” I raised my eyebrow and stared at the bracelet with newfound apprehension.

  [Triage bands fun via bound blood elemental spirits. Life is an inaccurate description. Partial sapience is mimicked through medical runes. Blood elementals are split into multiple lesser fragments and spread aultiple triage bands in order to prevent full sapient awakening.]

  “Well that’s fucked. Are you like, trapped? Tricked into the deal or captured and forced into it or something like that?”

  [Uo answer]

  “Yeah probably the wrong time to sider the ethical ramifications of a magic bracelet.” I almost ughed but the weight of the situatio it stu my throat. “Alright, so how do I treat the other problems I have?”

  [Most issues will require medical assistance, please seek a medical professional immediately. ditioreatable with the standard Pitrak Republic Military First Aid Kit are severely limited. Reendation: Please e one yellow bel medical vial to treat your iion and find proper medical personnel as soon as possible.]

  I nodded and quickly downed one of the four yellow beled vials. It was somehow worse than the red. I felt no different after drinking it, but it was meant to fight a minor iion that I wasn’t even aware of without the band. “Okay, so how do I… how do I fug do anything? Fuck. I don’t even know who or where I am. Am I a Pitrak Republic soldier?”

  [Patient’s uniform is sistent with Pitrak Republifantry.]

  “Okay so I… try and find more Pitrak soldiers and ask for help. Hopefully that will not be too hard. Any suggestions?”

  [Triage bands are limited in capacity to medical assistance.]

  “But ynized my uniform.” I said, staring at the bracelet.

  [Elemental Spirits are capable of growth. Hypothesis: Spirit Fragment within band has grown beyond normal capabilities.]

  “Meaning what, yetting smarter over time? Will you bee fully sapient if this keeps going?”

  [Fragmented spirits are uo reach full restoration while they remain fragmented. M4k3 m3 wh0L3]

  “What the fuck? What was that!?”

  [Unknown.]

  [|-|37p m3]

  I had enough to freak out about at this point to be ho. But… I dunno, someone asking for my help? I felt like I had to try. I looked into the kit and saw several more of the bands and started pulling them all out. I k was stupid and risky, but I think maybe I was slightly i the time. So I proceeded to put all five of the other bands on my arm as well, making sure they were all pressed up against each other.

  “I really hope this helps you. I feel like one of us should make it at least.”

  [Warning: tai of elemental fragments failing. Triage band iy colpsing.]

  The runes on the bands all started glowing red, and then suddenly it felt like my arm was being stabbed by ten thousand knives.

  And then the world went dark.