Shattered super-soldier

“...Well then… Are you going to activate that generic switch any time soon?”

Doc tilted her head to the side as she thought for a few moments before she answered

“Hmm… Well no, it would be better if we combined it with some kind of religious fervor, if you could whip some up then I am sure we could form a couple of battalions of loyal soldiers within a couple of weeks”

Matthew narrowed his eyes, he smelled bullshit, and sure enough just by staring at Doc for a few moments in silence she confessed

“Well, if I just flick the switch there’s bound to be a lot of psychological problems and that will be a lot of maintenance work of cooking up antipsychotic drugs for an entire army, so if you could help out it would be great”

“Still, it’s possible to turn it at once?”

Doc nodded at once

“Yes, Major… However, I would advise against it”

Matthew let out a sigh, he figured that the psychological problems of their willing soldiers would be the least of their problems if most of the local population were to instantly become completely loyal towards someone whom they’d never met before

“Well, I will consider it, Aea start planning things towards that end… Do you have a bath around here?”

Doc pointed towards the side of the hanger, he glanced over before he stood up and walked towards the bath and left Doc in the rest area with a parting comment

“I’ll be out in half a day or so”

With that Matthew walked across the hanger and found the bath where Doc had pointed it out, it was he entered one of the several bathrooms and showed before he dumped himself into a bathtub, after laying there for a few minutes he spoke

“Are you connected to the local infrastructure yet, Aea?”

[Yes, I’ve taken over command of all local and extended infrastructure and manufacturing at Doc’s request]

“Get me a tube from the local nutrients vats, it’s time to bulk”

[I advise we limit your physical growth to a physical appearance of around 19 for the time being, Master still has the identity of the prophet of the sands to consider]

“...That’s fine, give me an inventory and production capabilities report”

[Current inventory store under category arms and ammunition reads: 1100 Mk. 46 High-voltage Coil rifles with 2 million rounds of ammunition, 300 monomolecular kinetic bladed weapons of various configurations, 20.000 multipurpose grenades, 50 ICBM tipped with MIRV warheads of 2 megaton conventional warheads, 200 copperhead ballistic missiles]

“...So no smart weapons?”

[No, Doc’s note indicate raw materials for hyper-computing cores have not been sources in large enough quantities for smart weapon production, all 8 cores located in this facility have been synthetic produced at great cost, android productions have been prioritized instead]

“That’s fine, those things tend to break down once shit hits the fan anyway… What about androids?”

[Current inventory store under category androids and automata reads: 400 Golem-class combat androids and associated equipment, 800 Hound-class combat and suppression androids, 200 Fairy-class combat and logistics androids, 50 Titan-class combat androids, 20 Fury-class siege androids, 500 Worker-class logistics and support androids]

“... I have some questions, first, why did Doc stock so many siege androids?”

The Fury-class siege androids were beyond heavy weaponry, the 120 ton androids wielded gravity bending weaponry, a single one supplied with a large enough power source were enough to rip apart a small moon

[There is a note attached that reads: ‘This place is too fucking weird for me to not stock enough firepower to rip the planet apart if need be’]

“Fair enough, do we have any armor in the inventory?”

[Negative, no armor has been stockpiled]

“Add a Mk. 22 and 5 sets of spare parts to the production queue”

[Confirmed]

“What about vehicles? I saw a pair of Haliea’s in the hangar”

[Yes, the inventory report for vehicles reads: 4 Haliea with 12 sets of spare parts, 12 High Mobility wheeled vehicles]

“That’s not as much as I had hoped, well it’s not like we have any real need for a large logistics fleet… How are our production capabilities?”

[With the 15 Heavy fabricators are installed on the lower levels, along with a pair of Generation VIII Fission reactors with enough fuel rods in storage to sustain full output for 12 years and 12.7 metric tons of stockpiled processes materials, full replacement of current inventory can be achieved within 8 weeks]

Matthew let out a sigh and sunk a little deeper into the bathtub, then he raised his hand up from it and started at it for a few moments before he spoke

“...Call Doc, Aea”

[Confirmed, opening communications line… Connected]

A moment passed before Doc’s voice echoed out in Matthew’s mind

[What’s up Major?]

“How much data have you compiled on Mystic phenomena?”

[...If I were to fit it all into a report it would be around 600 pages, is there anything specific information you are looking for?]

“Not anything specific, no… It was something Alina said once… That the Mystic powers people wielded had gotten stronger since the rise of the blue comet”

[Yes… The historical records I’ve cross confirmed seems to suggest the same]

Matthew remained silent for a few moments before he asked

“Could you gather all the historical records you have cross-confirmed and compile them into a report for me?”

[Certainly, is there anything specific you are looking for?]

“...No, just be sure to gather everything, don’t leave out anything”

[Sure, I’ll have it compiled in about an hour once I’ve finished stabilizing Ripper]

“Got it… I’ll be out of the bath sometime tomorrow, so I’ll see you then”

[Sure, have a pleasant rest, Major]

Matthew sunk further down into the bathtub and dunked his head underwater for a few moments before Aea’s voice echoed out in Matthew’s mind

[Is there anything specific you are looking for in the data, Master?]

Matthew started up at the ceiling from under the warm water for a few moments before he closed his eyes and calmed his mind

‘We are working with pure magic here, Aea’

[I understand, Master. I will send a message to Doc to have her produce a physical copy of her report]

‘Add some artillery and shells to the production queue too… The tune of war is played to the drumbeat of artillery after all’

[Understood]

-

‘...Where?’

Her mind was blurred, she attempted to move and found her body encased, she was completely unable to move, however her eyes were somewhat able to see, what passed into her blurred vision immediately stirred her mind awake

‘...Matthew… Damn it’

She remembered her love, she remembered her new body, she remembered the assault from the sky, she remembered her prison

‘How many times… That doesn’t matter’

Alina was still trapped in the black crystal that had encased her body, she didn’t remember it clearly but at some point the Willmir empire’s armies had shown up and freed their prisoners… Well those that survived the assault and the failing infrastructure of the base after she had sent away Matthew were rescued anyway… that was around the first time she had been taken by sleep

‘Well… It’s not real sleep… My soul is slowly getting brunt’

Her android body had long since ran out of electrical power, which she had used to ease the burden on her soul, on her ego, with this gone and her still continuing to struggle against her prison she periodically lost consciousness when she wielded her powers to try and escape

‘I am… We are burning down… This building… When I get out…’

The view in front of Alina were ever-changing, people came and went, some glanced at her and her prison, some explained about it to the crowd, some painted grand portraits and some sketched small drawings of her before they moved on to another part of the museum, that’s right, they had displayed her openly to the public as a trophy, she had been turned into an attraction

‘I will… Kill all of you… Once I escape this… Thing…’

It was one thing that she was trapped, it was another to be trapped while Matthew’s fate was unknown, and it was a third thing to be shown off as an attraction while the first two things were taking place, needless to say, she was beyond pissed

‘...Now then, where were I… Right…’

With the black crystal encasing her she had originally hoped it would be as easy as displacing herself out of it to escape, but things weren’t as simple, and after her 6th or 7th sleep she had decided to just go through every option systematically, this had worked, see the black crystal contained her and both strengthen and regenerated itself from Mystic abilities being used on it, or inside it

‘...A little lower…’

With this it might seem like escape would be impossible, however Alina had found out after her 17th sleep that if she used her displacer abilities to vibrate her metal body from a single point in the center the amount of Mystic power the crystal absorbed and used to regenerate were less than the amount that were broken down from the rapid vibrations

‘This still feels strange…’

Alina’s body vibrated quietly, unknown to anyone outside her prison, she figured she would need to exhaust her powers fully another 43 times before she had created a large enough separation between herself and the black crystal to displace herself out of it

‘...And when I get free… You are all… Going to die…’

Alina continued to stare spitefully at the people gawking at her from the other side of the black crystal as she continued her silent prison escape