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Stranger Than Fiction (Worm Tinker of Fiction SI) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 110k+, Favs: 105, Follows: 131, Published: Dec 24, 2023

5Chapter 2: Second Page

Disclaimer: I own jackshit

AN: OK, so, things have been a bit hectic so I'm just going to say that I'm not sure when I'll be able to update any of my stories next, which is really something, given my slow update speed, I'll admit. Still, I managed to get this finished and, even thought it's pretty heavy on exposition, I hope you lot enjoy it. Cheers.

XXX

It took everything I had not to alternate between skipping the entire way back to my workshop, and simply bolting directly there. Patience and caution had been my watch-words for the past two weeks, and I had to fight my own giddiness to keep it that way as I spent the entire trip back trying to suppress the urge to tap on something impatiently.

Three Bus journeys, two different Taxis, a short walk and then a forth Bus journey took me across the city as fast as they could, taking just under two hours to get me from the Lord Street Market to the Docks and dropping me off within walking distance of my workshop. Even then, being so close to my workshop, it took everything I had not to immediately drop the pretense of calm I was presenting and just bolt straight into the Docks. Carefully, I kept up appearance long enough to weave a path through the Docks, engaging and disengaging my Tactical Cloak as I went to throw off anyone that might have still been determined to follow me, before heading for my workshop.

Finally, after two and a half hours of running around in circles, I reached my workshop at last.

Feet touching the ground of the entry station and entry way sealing behind me, I barely wasted any time as I jumped down the stairs at a rapid pace, lounging down three steps at a time before reaching the ground floor. Around me, VI-controlled Drones continued to work away, the hum of machinery filled the background as I went to my work station, dropping my cargo as I reached it before pulling off the fake glasses that rested on my nose. I barely noticed the prick of the needle, or the cool chill of the Medi-gel, as I ran through the login sequence without any unnecessary pauses. Such was my excitement at the prospect of what I now had that my body moved on automatic as it grabbed the neural reader interface as it was presented by my terminal before wrapping it around my head. A moment past as the configuration message appeared, before it was dismissed once more, discarded as I moved to get straight to work.

Within moments, half a dozen holo-windows appeared, floating in mid-air as the neural reader engaged, letting me hammer out lines of code across several screens at a blistering pace. Other screens were filled with a mixture of chemical formula and mathematical calculations, designed to assist in the fabrication of Ceph-based materials and nanotech layers. Off to one side, CAD-generated objects floated in an exploded view, information tags linking to each individual object. As more information was transcribed into the terminal, the detail of the design improved as I continued my work, absently watching as the entire finished device formed. Slowly, design principles and guidelines were translated into a function design as layers of Ceph-augmented Nano-weave were laid over a skeleton-scaffold in the shape of a person.

However, as the pieces came together, I could also see how this design differed from the 'stock' design that I had rattling through my brain. The integration of two additional techbases, along with the knowledge of the Ceph, allowed multiple options that simply weren't available to the original builder of the Nanosuit, Jacob Hargreave. D-cells, integrated and scattered throughout the entire altered design, provided a level of power storage several orders of magnitude greater than what was originally envisioned by the designer of the original Nanosuit. It wasn't a D-Engine, but it was the next best thing until I could work on Arcanotech without worrying about being driven insane by the mathematics involved. Or, at least, until I achieved symbiosis with the suit, then I could start looking into making enough space inside my own body for a D-Engine.

Until then, I'd have to make do with Eezo-based power generation systems, combined with an upgraded, Ceph-augmented, version of the original power generation systems already present in the suit. It wasn't a limitless power source, like a D-Engine, but it was the next best thing, thanks to the fact that half a kilo of Eezo would be able to keep the suit running at its new, higher, baseline for the better part of a decade before needing a refill. At the very least, it meant I wouldn't need to worry about running out of power in the middle of a fight, but I made sure to add a new project for my ever-growing list, with the aim of creating a D-Engine small enough to be mounted inside my body.

Further alterations had Eezo integrated into the suit on a much deeper level, lacing it throughout the Nano-weave and turning the Nanosuit into a Biotic, of sorts. Eezo nodes were buried into the structure of the Nanosuit, lining the pseudo-nervous system of the suit as a series upgraded form of Biotic Amplifiers were built into the entire suit. Eezo produced stronger Mass Effect Fields when exposed to a stronger current, and while an organic body could only produce so much power, even with a Biotic Amp, my future suit wouldn't suffer from those limitations. Rapid Discharge D-cells, or R-cells, pushed this even further, creating the option of pulling simply stupid amounts of power into a Biotic technique. So much so that, at a guess, even something as simple as a Biotic Throw would probably result in any target being reduced to mist by the sheer amount of kinetic energy being transferred to said target.

However, while constructing the hardware and integrating it altogether was relatively simple, the software was a completely different beast.

For one thing, constructing the Semiautonomous Enhanced Combat Ops: Neuro-integration Delivery (SECOND) AI was a difficult undertaking, even with a neural reader to let me transcribe the code directly from my head to the computer terminal. Due to errors in the neural reading process, I needed to stop every once in a while in order to go back and check for errors in what code I'd already made, a long and time-consuming task that was made more so by the sheer amount of code needed to create, integrate, and run all the functions of the SECOND AI, and the Nanosuit by extension. If the Nanosuit I was planning to use was bog-standard, things may have been simpler, but the changes I made also required parts of the coding for the SECOND AI to be redone, along with additions being made where they were required. One such addition being the inclusion of multiple LAIs based on the original coding for a Biotic Amp management VI, but upgraded to better handle the enhanced capabilities of the suit. Each individual Amp needed its own management LAI, all linked together in a web managed by the SECOND AI and the primary interface to the wearer of the suit, me.

A lot of work, to be sure, but it was required, given the alterations I'd made to the main software of the suit itself. Namely, I'd ensured that the safeties prohibiting cell alteration within both the suit and the wearer were deactivated right from the start. With this done, it would mean that the suit would be capable of shape-shifting and altering itself to meet whatever situation it might encounter, whether that was to allow both it and it's wearer to disguise themselves as someone else, or to produce weapons from the suit itself. There was a lot of potential there, and I'd already coded several 'quick-access' options into the suit software that included various forms of blades, claws, talons, spines, shields and spikes that could be extended from the suit as needed. Other, more complex, options were still a work in progress, but they included things like Spike Drivers, Monofiliment-wire whip-tendrils, nano-constructed objects, and several examples of Biotic-enhanced weapons.

Still, even as I worked away and considered the possibilities, I absently start tallying up what else I've got to finish coding and designing before I can even think about fabricating the new Nanosuit. At a guess, it would probably take another eight hours to fully code all the necessary protocols and programs to have SECOND ready to run, plus all the additions and updates I'd made. The fabrication time probably wouldn't be more than six hours, thanks to the upgraded fabricator, tentatively named a 'Forge,' that my VI-Drones were currently assembling for me. From there, Symbiosis would probably take anywhere from a week to a month of continuously wearing it, depending on how actively I was using the suit.

Of course, that option was right out the window, since I was due to see my assigned Therapist in two weeks time, and I didn't want to take the risk that the process wouldn't be complete by then. Thankfully, there was another option that I could work with. Simply put, I'd need to fall into a coma-like state while inside the Nanosuit, letting it complete the Symbiosis over the course of three days while I was dead to the world. Given my situation, this option was my best bet since I didn't currently have any friends that may report me as missing, and the local government wouldn't give a damn, so long as I continued to pay my taxes on time. Likewise, my landlord wouldn't give a shit one way or another, as long as I kept paying rent and didn't disturb the other people living in the building. So, really, it all worked out.

Well, except for the stocks of materials I kept in my workshop, which were probably going to be completely empty by the time I was done, but that, at least, was a price I was willing to pay.

XXX

By the time I had finished designing all the hardware, and coding all the software, before sending the design off to be fabricated, the sun had long since set over the city. Those who weren't already asleep were either trying to enjoy the club-life of the city, trying to drink themselves stupid, or were doing something related to the gangs. Even then, it was mostly limited to specific locations, since no one was stupid enough to want to try travelling long distances, alone, in the dead of night in this city. That fact, combined with the skills imprinted into my brain and the tech I had, made it easier for me to move around without being spotted by anyone. Key word being 'easier', not 'easy,' since I still needed to keep my wits about me, else I might find myself in a world of trouble.

Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case tonight, as I ghosted through the shadowed streets before returning to my workshop with a new backpack over my shoulders, a duffle bag in one hand and a paper bag from a fast-food place in the other. Climbing down the stairs, I dropped the duffle bag to the ground just short of my office space, hearing it drop heavily to the ground as I did so. My backpack followed soon after, as I put the paper bag down to one side of my terminal before logging in. Once that was done, I pulled the paper bag open and fished out the paper-wrapped bacon cheeseburger inside, along with a can of Cola to go with it, before digging into it for a late-night dinner. Taking that first bite, I smiled as my eyes glanced over the holo-screens appearing around me, denoting the progress of the tasks I'd set before leaving for my chosen cargo.

The Nanosuit would be done by morning, along with the three extra Forges I was making, after having my 'old' Omni-Foundries and Nanofactories recycled for raw materials. After that, I'd basically be out of everything, except some of the more common materials I could grab from any abandoned building or wrecked ship in the city. And even those were risky, since the former had the chance of me accidentally wandering into a gang storehouse, safe house or hideout, while the latter was worse, since everyone with an interest in Parahumans watched the Boat Graveyard. Admittedly, once I had my Nanosuit, I could probably manage it without being caught, but I'd probably stick to the ones further out in the Bay. Less chance of being discovered, that way, and a better chance of finding something that might have been missed by the waves of scavengers that couldn't get to them.

Taking another bite out of my burger, I considered the problem as the progress bar continued to tick away a decimal at a time as my eyes flickered to the backpack and duffel bag I'd brought with me. Both were filled with ingots of materials that I'd stashed away for either a rainy day or an emergency. Admittedly, they wouldn't be enough for a larger project, but a few ideas came to mind as I absently trawled through the vast array of knowledge currently occupying that corner of my skull. Like books in a library, I traced over the subjects of each mental book, looking for the one that might hold a potential answer for the problem I faced.

Said problem, in simple terms, was that I needed help; I needed a better workforce.

My VI-Drones, while effective at acting as little helpers around my workshop, performing simple tasks, wouldn't work as I scaled up my operations. However, outside of that, or being used as cannon-fodder, they were too weak to serve as a more generalized, adaptive work force that I could deploy for more labour intensive tasks. ME-Mechs might have worked, but the ones I had available to me were clunky and slow, along with being rather stupid to begin with. Even upgraded with CT-tech, I didn't think that would change overly much, and I'd still need to retool them to function as something more than general security and cannon-fodder machines. Ideally, I would have wanted something akin to a Rampart Mech to use as a basis, or the Geth, but my ME-techbase had only provided me with the knowledge to create FENRIS, LOKI and YMIR mechs. Given what I was starting to piece together about my power, I could guess that I'd need to go back to my ME specialty and, perhaps, spin the wheel once more to see if I could get more out of it.

Likewise, CT didn't really offer many options since they never really invested in a worker mech-equivalent. Mind-slaved clones and Nephilim were the closest things that were available in CT, but neither were options I wanted to try. The former, to the best of my knowledge, required an Eldritch Magic ritual to ensure the loyalty of the clones, while the latter had a limited control range, generally going berserk when the controller wasn't around to keep them in line, before trying to eat said controller. Blanks were an option, but those required me to surgically alter someone's brain to turn them into happy and productive servants, something that wasn't the best option. At best, it would attract attention to the area around my base, due to the increased foot traffic of people coming and going, or it would attract attention due to the number of people going missing in order to make up my work force.

However, thankfully, Crysis offered a solution, and that solution was called the Ceph.

Digging into the information supplied by my power about the Ceph, I made some interesting discoveries. For one thing, my knowledge was limited to the Earth-based Ceph from the Crysis games, meaning that I could forget about using whatever stupidly advanced technologies their creators, the 'True' Ceph, might have been capable of. Something confirmed by how 'complete' the specialty felt, reminding me of my previous, Cthulhutech, specialty, which had given me everything in the setting, and meant that there was probably no chance of future expansions to it. Unfortunate, but I wasn't going to complain about what I did have access to, since it was still light-years better than nothing.

Moving on from there, another discovery I made was that, in all honesty, the Ceph I could make were actually rather stupid. Turns out, the Gardener Theory that Hargreave went on about both was, and wasn't, correct. The Ceph that had awoken on Earth were actually a combination of terraformers, colonists and collectors that had been sent out to expand the reach of a parent Over-Hive. Seeding Ships would be launched from these parent Over-Hives in random directions, seeking out new worlds to land on. Once there, they would begin the three-stage colonisation process that I remembered from the Crysis games, adapting and evolving as they went, while also collecting genetic samples of all the life they encountered, integrating what they could as they went.

The only fork in this process was at stage three, which depended on whether the Ceph encountered resistance to their operations on these worlds. If they did, they'd open a wormhole to the parent Over-Hive, sending a message through and request, what was described as, a 'Warrior-Purge-Hive' to be dispatched to eliminate it. Once all local resistance was destroyed, the local Ceph would be subsumed by the parent Over-Hive and the planet would be developed by said Over-Hive as a new Hiveworld. Otherwise, the local Ceph would develop the planet into a full Hiveworld on their own before opening the wormhole and being subsumed.

As such, the local Ceph present in the Crysis series were basically the equivalent of a Ceph Roomba, with hardwired protocols and directives that were embedded in the deepest layers of whatever Hivemind they might develop before being subsumed entirely. From what I could find, the entire point of those safeguards was to prevent colonization forces from accidentally developing into new Over-Hives, if deployed far enough away from their parent Over-Hives and left to stew for long enough. There wasn't any further information about the formation of new Over-Hives after that, but I'm pretty sure that it was implying that new Over-Hives were also created intentionally, for whatever purpose. Honestly, the only reason I could think of was as a means of creating an evolutionary pressure via an artificial conflict that was under the control of the parent Over-Hive, but that led to questions about whether or not it was worth it.

Anyway, point was, the Ceph that were sent out in Seeding Ships were kept dumb and stupid by their implanted directives, preventing them from posing a threat to their parent Over-Hive. As a side effect, it also limited the creative capability of the Proto-Hiveminds that were formed from Seeding Ships. Which, honestly, explained a few things from the games, such as the fact that, despite the Nanosuit being Ceph-tech grown in a Human-wearable shell, you only ever saw Ceph capable of cloaking a grant total of once, across all three games. Something that I now knew, with the information in front of me, was a total waste of potential. Turns out, every single Ceph construct that had been deployed during their time on Earth had the capability to do everything that a Nanosuit could do, but better.

And the only reason that they hadn't stormed through New York as a horde of Nano-armored, ultra-stealthy death machines?

The Hivemind apparently didn't see the point in doing so, which, honestly, made sense.

At the time, the Ceph were basically butchering their way through New York city, and could output infantry constructs fast enough to easily outpace their own casualties. Most baseline Humans who had the misfortune to encounter any kind of Ceph infantry generally didn't survive the encounter for long, and the times they'd lasted longer than a minute were either due to heavy entrenchment, or sheer dumb luck. Prophet, and Alcatraz, were the exception to that, and, even with the Nanosuit, they'd still had to be careful not to be overwhelmed by hordes of Ceph drowning them in corpses. The Guardians were an attempt to create a high-performance, direct counter for them, but when it failed, the Hivemind decided that simply throwing bodies at the problem was easier, due to how cheap it was to produce basic Ceph Grunts in comparison to a single Guardian, plus managing its Nanosuit-style abilities. It still didn't work, in the end, but the records I had in my head showed that the Hivemind had come very close more than a few times, and the Nanosuit operator had only survived by the skin of their teeth.

Still, it put things into perspective. At the very least, if those directives hadn't been as strict, chances were good that Prophet would have been dead before he could pass the suit on to Alcatraz at the beginning of the second game. Not to mention, it made my choice a lot easier as I finished the burger I had been eating, and cleaned the grease from my hands and face. That done, a few swipes of the terminal in front of me brought up a new window as my fingers slowly began to type once more as a new plan started to form at the forefront of my mind.

At a minimum, I'd need a Hivemind Relay Node\Nexus, one or more Ceph Assembly Vats, and I'd probably need to crack open more than a few of my other stashes, but it was workable. I'd also need to wait until after I'd merged with my Nanosuit to fully implement it, but there was nothing preventing me from laying the ground work for it, among other things. Alterations in my security systems were a must as well, since I didn't doubt that merging with the Nanosuit might change things enough to not be recognised by it. A new interface was probably a good idea as well, since the merger would allow for a higher quality neural connection. From there, several other ideas chained together as the list of things I wanted to put into place grew and grew. Glancing at the progress bar of the Nanosuit, seeing that it still had another five hours to go, I couldn't help but think that, at the very least, I'd have plenty of things to do to pass the time.

XXX

It was around four in the morning when I heard the last of my Forges cease its work, the hum of working machinery disappearing as a notification appeared in front of me as a chime ringed out from the console. Rubbing my eyes, I gulped down half a can of Cola as I turned my attention towards it, fingers sliding over the surface of my terminal. A few quick taps later and I felt a grin spread across my lips, pushing back the tiredness I'd felt from the long night as excitement and anticipation overcame it for the time being. Even so, I couldn't help but consider the long night to be worth it several times over for both what I'd been able to do, and what was about to happen.

Appearing in front of me, my eyes scanned over the message once more, making sure that I was actually reading it correctly before I pressed the 'confirm' option that floated within it. A second later, the previously active Forge hissed open, steam rising from the interior as I rose from my seat and walked over to it. As I walked over, I saw the Forge open more fully, expanding outwards into a web of nodes held between a wireframe-like structure of struts and pistons, and revealing its contents in the process. Suspended by a Mass Effect Field, I watched as more and more of my new Nanosuit came into full view, Nano-weave construction on full display and looking like the Nanosuit 2.0 by default. None of the changes I'd made were visible on the surface, but that particular detail was hardly relevant, given what was going to happen soon.

Getting within arm's reach of the Nanosuit, I pulled it free from the ME suspension field and watched from the corner of my eye as the machine compacted itself back down, before slipping into stand-by mode. I barely paid it much attention beyond that, more focused on the suit I was holding at the shoulders as it hung from my hands. Under my fingers, I could feel the metal skeleton that the Nano-weave muscles had been fused on to, giving the entire thing structure and causing it to almost balloon outwards, despite it being completely empty. Even more, what this Nanosuit represented to me was far, far, greater than just a suit, it offered safety and a soon-to-be-constant reassurance, one that could not be taken away, not without blood, and pain, and more than a bit of death involved. Whether that was to be applied to me or not was the question, however, it wasn't something I wanted to put to the test.

Hoisting the suit over one shoulder, I carried it back to my office-space with a grin pulling at the corners of my lips. Reaching my office-space, I carefully lowered the Nanosuit down, laying it on top of a surface by my terminal as I quickly ran a check over my systems, making sure everything had be done, been implemented correctly, and was running as it should be. All the coding I'd been working on had already been installed into the Nanosuit as part of its fabrication, so the only thing left for me to do was activate it and put it on. Still, before I did that, I wanted to do one last check over the systems I'd spent the last five hours installing and updating. A few taps at the obsidian surface, and I was looking at a new holo-window that provided the answers I was after.

The Security update had gone through without any difficulties, rewiring the system to ensure that it wouldn't immediately target me, should my bio-signature change over the course of the Symbiosis. Likewise, internal and external response protocols had been tightened to ensure that it wouldn't confuse me for someone else, despite me already being present in the workshop. Further changes had included the removal of the blood-based DNA verification system, along with the other systems that took samples of my biology. In their place, I'd introduced several more unique passcode entry-locks with synced mutator programs that would be merged into me via my Nanosuit, with each individual passcode being around high-tens of millions of characters long. Plus, as an added bonus, I'd gone a step further and added quantum encryptions and salted the passcodes to triple their original lengths, just to be sure. Finally, I'd added an IFF recognition system that would be exchanged, after Symbiosis was complete, I made physical contact with the terminal, which had its own passcode exchange that was in the region of ten billion characters, without being salted or anything like that.

Admittedly, I wouldn't need to enter any of that after the Symbiosis was complete, but having it present before the merge started meant that I could check to ensure that it was all running correctly and hadn't been distorted by the Symbiosis, afterwards. Validation and testing were important stages to developing effective results, and I wanted to ensure that the new security features would work, after validating them once the Symbiosis was complete.

However, first I'd need to activate the Nanosuit.

Reaching to one side, I picked up a reinforced syringe filled with a clear liquid. One could almost mistake it for water, had it not been for the slightly red tint held in the liquid medium as I idly flicked it, removing any air bubbles that might have formed as I depressed the plunger slightly. A trickle of liquid dripped from the head of the needle, slowly tracing down the needle as I smiled slightly, seeing it working perfectly as I advanced towards the Nanosuit. Within any ceremony, I pressed the syringe into the Nano-weave of the Nanosuit's neck, forcing half of the needle into the material as I depressed the plunger, emptying the entire liquid into the suit before pulling the empty syringe free. Taking a step back, I watched for a long moment as nothing seemed to happen, my hand moving to one side as I let go of the syringe, idly handing it off to a VI-Drone that had been hovering to one side of my terminal. Another Drone floated over, visible in the corner of my eye, heading for the floor as a wave of light flashed over the ground. Droplets of liquid being pulled free from the bare-concrete floor before both floated off, heading to the Forges to recycle whatever they could for later use.

Seconds passed by in near silence as I mentally counted, anticipation building as I reached ten, then the Nanosuit convulsed.

Suddenly, on the stroke of the tenth second, the entire Nanosuit jolted and shifted as if it was having a full-body muscle spasm. Just as quickly, shadows made from purple-blue energy flickered over the surface of the suit as it seemed to rise from the surface of the workbench by a few centimetres, before lowering itself back down. The entire surface of the Nanosuit seemed to ripple, texture changing and altering as I watched from one extreme to another, flicking into and out of existence a few times in the process. By the end of it, the suit laid there, still as a statue, but looking more solid and rigid than before, like it was no longer empty, it was an illusion that was enhanced when a deep, base voice echoed out from the suit itself.

"NANOSUIT POST-ACTIVATION TEST SEQUENCE COMPLETE. NO ERRORS DETECTED. READY FOR DESIGNATED USER." Echoed out from the suit, speaking in the iconic voice of SECOND as I grinned at hearing that. The Nanosuits back in Crysis had originally been designed to be pretty open in who they'd accept into them, then would acclimatize themselves to their users over time and as the Symbiosis was carried out. However, for this suit, I'd be the only one to ever wear it, and I'd included protocols in the suit itself to ensure that would remain the case, even going so far as programming SECOND with my current medical data. Something that would speed up the process of Symbiosis by a minimal amount, but the faster it was finished, the less vulnerable I'd be. At the very least, getting that data had given me the perfect chance to check my brain for the Corona Pollentia and Gamma. Only to discover that I had neither, leaving me with the distinct feeling that, whatever had put me here, it was just showing off at this point. Then again, I wasn't about to complain, since that gave me one more advantage, and a lot of ways to loophole my way through a lot of Anti-Parahuman legislation that had been added to the law books.

Still, that was something for another time, for now, I had a Nanosuit to put on.

With that in mind, I grasped the bottom of my T-shirt and pulled it over my head, throwing it off to one side as I undid my belt, taking off the rest of my clothes in short order until I stood naked in the middle of my office-space. Completely naked now, I turned and picked up a bundle of folded cloth that I'd put off to one side, letting it unfold itself as I picked it up to reveal what it was: A one-piece body suit, complete with attached boots, fingerless gloves and biofeedback circuits built into it. It was the same suit that Prophet had worn at the beginning of Crysis 2; The equivalent of a Plug suit for the Nanosuit, designed to increase the connection between man and machine. It also had the happy side-effect of boasting the rate of Symbiosis a bit, but, once more, it was a marginal increase. Still, that didn't mean I wasn't going to try and take advantage of it.

With the Nano-Plug suit on, I turned my attention towards the Nanosuit itself. Taking a step closer, and coming within arm's reach, I placed both hands on the combined face plate and helmet and pulled. Being unlocked, the combined head of the Nanosuit came off without anything more than a moment of token resistance, letting me place it to one side before moving on. A finger traced the inside of the empty neck, slowly probing the material until I reached one specific point. Applying pressure to that point, once more, I felt a hint of resistance before that disappeared, swiftly followed by the Nanosuit itself slowly opening up like some kind of flower in coming into full bloom. From the neck to the crotch, the entire front section of the suit opened down the middle before expanding outwards like the petals of a flower, creating enough room for me to easily slip in.

Pulling a step over, I did just that as I first clambered onto the table itself, before slowly lowering myself into the Nanosuit. Feet slipped through the expanded suit internals as I slide my limbs into place, feeling the suit moving around me as I did so. Any time I encountered a bit of resistance, the suit automatically adjusted to give me a bit more room to move, shifting slightly to help me without having to become a contortionist in the process. After about three minutes of effort, and a bit of work, I felt my limbs fully extend into the entire Nanosuit, my body slotting into the torso of the suit as it slowly closed up around me, detecting that I was now fully within it. I felt the structure tighten around me within moments as the suit sealed itself up, pressing tightly in against my body, but not uncomfortably so.

Sitting up, I couldn't help but think about how odd it felt, wearing, quite possibly, the most advanced non-Tinkertech combat suit on the planet.

And it felt entirely too much like I was wearing a half-soaked wetsuit all over again, despite being bone-dry.

Snorting at that thought, I reached over and picked up the helmet before sliding it over my face, feeling it slot into position before sealing shut with the hiss of displaced air. Laying back down, staring up at the ceiling, I watched as lines of code ran across my vision, a HUD building in front of me as the voice of the in-built SECOND AI echoed in my ears, sounding like it was coming from all around me.

"FULL NUCLEAR BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL SEAL ESTABLISHED. OCCUPANT DETECTED. BEGINNING VERIFICATION PROCESS... VERIFICATION COMPLETE. OCCUPANT CONFIRMED AS DESIGNATED USER. TOTAL SYSTEM ACCESS GRANTED. READY TO COMMENCE ACCELERATED SYMBIOSIS. USER CONFIRMATION REQUIRED..." The words resonated through my skull as I watched the text and images scroll in front of me, displayed in shorthand as I watched a slightly expanded view of my own biology come and go, along with a diagram of my DNA as the verification process ran its course. Now, with that done, I watched as those final words floated in the centre of my vision, a blinking cursor trailing at the end of the statement, flickering with a sense of finality hanging over the words and their implications.

Taking a breath, I took a moment to centre myself, knowing that this was, perhaps, my last chance to back out, to remain a vanilla Human. Once I started this, there wouldn't be any chance to back out for a long, long time, depending entirely on the tech I could acquire through the cycling specialties that I seemed to be gathering. However, despite that prospect, I couldn't not take advantage of this, knowing what I knew, and knowing just how dangerous and utterly lethal this world could be. With that said, my choice was clear.

"Confirmed." I stated firmly. Death was a common factor of life on Earth Bet, but if I died, I wanted it to be on my terms, and no one else's. And if someone wanted to take my life or agency from me, then I wanted to ensure that, at the very least, I had the capability to fight back, because I sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight.

"CONFIRMATION ACKNOWLEDGED. BEGINNING SYMBIOSIS START-UP PREPARATIONS. ACCESSING DESIGNATED USER BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION... ACCESS CONFIRMED. PREPARATIONS COMPLETE. ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: 68 HOURS, 31 MINUTES, 18 SECONDS. INITIATING DESIGNATED USER HIBERNATION..."

And suddenly, like a switch had been thrown, the world went dark...

XXX

... Only to be thrown back a moment later.

"-DEACTIVATION OF HIBERNATION SUCESSFUL. SELF-DIAGNOSTIC STATUS: GREEN. NO ERRORS DETECTED. SYMBIOSIS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED: NANOSUIT FULLY INTEGRATED. READY TO COMMENCE OPERATIONS." The words echoed through my mind, mirroring the shorthand that floated in front of me as sensation and awareness returned to me in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, I could feel the workbench I was lying on, the cool air flowing over me from the air conditioning units I'd cobbled together, and the slight warmth from the lights hanging above me. Information slotted into place in my brain, sliding into that gap between instinct and practiced skill as I absently glanced at one of the lights above me. Staring at the light didn't bother me, my eye easily tracing over the heating element within the bulb without any discomfort as temperatures, materials and specific manufacturing processes floated to the forefront of my mind.

Entire reels of data flowed into my brain, etching itself into place as I glanced curiously around the ceiling of my workshop, taking in details that should have been impossible for a baseline Human to see as absent thoughts translated into actions. My vision shifted with each thought, transitioning from a false-colour impression of heat signatures, before slowly sliding up the EM Spectrum until the world was haloed in a shining mix of violets. Annotations, links and threat assessments all cluttered my vision for a long moment as I examined a limited fragment of my new existence, still aware of the world around me as I heard the rattle of distant windows like I was right next to them, the pounding of heavy rain sounding both loud and oddly distant at the same time.

Slowly sitting up from my position, I lifted my arms up to get a good look at them, absently noting that my vision no longer blurred or went out of focus around the edges of sight. Focusing on my hands, I could easily see the entirety of my arms, right up the shoulders as I traced over the limbs, focusing on the hexagonal patterns that separated my skin into oddly angled chunks of flesh. A slight cyan-coloured glow filtered through the gaps between the chunks of tissue, giving the entire arrangement a distinctly alien feeling to it, not helped by the asymmetric layout of the patterns that stretched across my arms and up my biceps. Oddly enough, the patterns ended just before my shoulders, primarily because my skin seemed to transition into a more overt covering of Nano-weave that decorated them. A glance down showed the same to be true of my torso, feet and waist, giving the impression that I was wearing one of those shorty wetsuits to go along with the Nanosuit's imitation of wetsuit boots on my feet.

Flipping around and sliding off the workbench, a few quick steps took me over to the main terminal in the room as my hand pressed against the obsidian surface. Instantly, I felt a connection form as hand shake protocols engaged, passcodes being exchanged as a feeling of acknowledgement flickered through the back of my mind. Immediately afterwards, a half dozen holo-windows appeared as I reached into the system, focusing on what I wanted in a way that felt both natural and alien, and made it happen. A new holo-screen appeared in front of me moments later, not displaying any relevant information, but acting as a mirror to display my current form.

It should have been unnerving, I knew. It should have been horrifying, I suspected. It should have been disturbing, I believed.

And yet, it wasn't.

Looking into the holo-screen equivalent of a mirror, I couldn't help but note my own lack of a strongly negative emotional reaction as I looked at my own reflection. Asymmetric, honeycomb patterns were engraved over the majority of my exposed flesh, covering my arms, shins, thighs, neck and portions of my face, while portions of the exposed Nano-weave seemed to ripple and shift as I watched them. Shining, Steel-grey eyes, once brown, traced over the exposed pins and anchor points for alien muscle bundles as short, pitch black hair shifted slightly as my head did likewise, turning to give me a better look at my own disfigurement. Almost automatically, one hand rose to trace over my face, following hardened lines over my cheekbones as it traced one particular river of honeycombs as they propagated diagonally across my face, from the right temple to the left side of my jaw. Fingers traced over it, feeling the texture of skin as it floated above where it should have been, flowing down one of the many branches as it eventually reached the right side of my jaw before I let the limb drop back to my side.

The calmness, I knew, was artificial. An aspect of the Nanosuit designed to keep the wearer from going into shock or having a mental breakdown in the middle of combat. Managed by SECOND, the suit was altering my brain chemistry, or what was left of it, to induce the needed clarity to ensure that I didn't have my own mental breakdown as a part of me wondered just how much I'd unwittingly given up. Then again, a part of me rationalised, the cost had been worth it, if it meant that I'd no longer be in a position where any Tom, Dick or Harry with a threat, more balls than brains, and the luck to catch me without any tools to defend myself. If that meant becoming a hybrid of both Frankenstein and his creation, then so be it. At the very least, I didn't need to look like a monster.

The thought caused my lips to twitch as I focused on that engrained-yet-unfamiliar sensation and pushed it just-so. The reaction was instantaneous, rippling over my skin as I watched the honeycombs of skin shiver and rotated, aligning themselves properly before fusing back into place across my body. Fingers traced over the areas that had once been disfigured, searching for any split or seam in the surface, only to find none as my eyes remained locked on the holo-window mirror as I watched the other changes take place. Pitch black hair rapidly transitioned to a more natural brown, the changes rippling up from the root of each individual hair, all the way to the tips. Elsewhere, I saw the visible Nano-weave slowly shrink into my body as fibres were extruded from my skin, glistening slightly as they wove over my body in complex patterns that quickly built to create a greater construct.

Namely, clothes.

Within a minute, I found myself standing in front of the holo-mirror, looking no different than I had been prior to putting on the Nanosuit three days ago, like nothing had changed. It was an illusion, I knew, since so much had changed over the course of those three days, because Nanosuits changed everything, creating loopholes that shouldn't have existed and making a mockery of perspectives that some considered to be immutable constants. I didn't even need to think hard on how many options I now had available to me, as they were already there, waiting for me, forming into a neatly organized list that I simply knew how to use.

A slight impulse proved that point quickly, causing purple-blue flames to dance over my fingers as Dark Energy condensed into physical shapes so concentrated that they appeared to be solid matter of a uniform colour, rather than energy constructs. Cubes, Pyramids, Tetrahedrons, Dodecahedrons and a dozen other shapes all formed and shifted in the palm of my hand as more and more Biotic techniques and applications floated in my mind's eye. Even then, half-formed ideas caused processes to spin off from the main processing block in my head, running simulations as they rapidly ran the numbers to narrow down potential applications before adding them to the fast growing list of capabilities I'd gained.

My lips twitched, stretching and pulling back to reveal teeth as I watched my own face pull itself into a rictus grin that stretched just a bit too far, a bit too wide, to be possible for a normal human. Hell, I was willing to bet that, had a normal Human seen my expression, they would have run away screaming, but I honestly didn't care.

After all, I was already at least half Eldritch abomination at this point, so I may as well act the part and have a bit of fun while I did so.

XXX

My hands slide out of the water without so much as a ripple, pressing into the rusted hull of one of the many ships that filled the Boat Graveyard in the Bay as I pulled myself upwards. Hydrophobic skin let water slide right off without finding purchase as Gecko-pads and Electromagnets allowed me to slowly crawl up the hull of the half-submerged ship. As I moved, light scattered across my body, bent and redirected as my skin shimmered with a mixture of the cloaking technologies I had available to me. A single one would have rendered me undetectable to most forms of detection, all of them working together basically turned me into a ghost as I finally reached the deck of the ship, climbing over the guard-rail and lowering myself into a crouch as eyes tracked towards the horizon.

Dawn had come to Brockton Bay, and I wanted to make the most of it, taking full advantage of my new existence in the process.

Stalking along the deck, towards an access hatch, I kept low as I moved out of habit as new senses expanded outwards from my body, expanding my awareness in new directions as a partition of my own mind picked over the new sources of information. Data was compiled, organized and presented in a quick manner as mono-molecular claws grew from two fingers on one hand, allowing me to easily cut through the rust that sealed one door before moving into the ship itself. Once inside, I closed the door behind me as my senses continued to expand, producing a comprehensive map of the ship, and surrounding ships, in my mind. Moving deeper into the ship, I watched as material concentrations were highlighted for salvaging, easily picked up by the advanced sensors that had either been built into, or flash-grown from, the Nano-flesh that now made up my body.

Titanium, Tungsten, Carbon, Silicon, Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Zinc, Bronze, plenty of Steel and a whole host of other materials were highlighted in turn, crisscrossing the length of the ship and filling me with a sense of bemusement in the process. This half-sunken ship was, admittedly, pretty far into the Bay, but I would have thought that most of the materials would have been stripped out of it long ago, either by random people looking to make a bit of money selling scrap, or by whatever new Tinker of the week might have shown up in Brockton Bay. The fact it hadn't been stripped completely bare wasn't too surprising, but the fact that so much remained was. Then again, I wasn't about to complain about that, since it meant more for me.

Admittedly, I couldn't harvest it all in a single trip, since I could only carry so much, but undergoing Symbiosis had pushed me into the realm of a Posthuman being. I no longer needed to really worry about things like sleep, food or toilet breaks and could work as hard as I wanted, for as long as I wanted. Getting all the materials off the ship, and whatever I could scavenge from the surrounding ships, while remaining unseen, would be a pain the ass, but the massive boast in materials would be worth it. It would also give me the initial resources to build a proper resource gathering system...

Well, more than that, but Ceph were rather multi-purpose, after all...

XXX

AN: Ok, so, hopefully that's a bit of an improvement over the last chapter, which a few of you noted was only a few steps away from being a wall-o-text, or there abouts. Still, hope you all liked it and, as always, feel free to give suggestions, feedback and comments as the story progresses.

Chapter 44 - 2