A man in a dark grey lab-coat tapped on a digital screen, the soft glow of the floating screen illuminating his exhausted face. His sunken eyes quickly flashed over the displayed information as he spoke to his assistant. "C:6103-g has failed. Death followed the same pattern as C:6103-f with one exception, the subject's transformation lasted until death. Tests showed no drop in resilience even when the subject fell into a coma, and continued to hold at acceptable levels until the subject expired. With the death of the last of the C series, this phase of the experiment is complete." The assistant recorded his boss’s words on a data slate, it would be easier of course, if his boss just dictated to the central database, but the experiment reports had to be kept off the grid. As he dutifully copied the experiment report, he wondered how many more children were going to have to die until they gave up. It's not that he did not like the idea of creating an invincible super soldier, he was as much a patriot as the next guy. It was just... he had not quite gotten used to the horrible wails of the children. The exorbitant pay was nice, and he consoled himself with the fact that if it was not him doing the job, someone else would be doing it. He was just taking advantage of the opportunity; the job would be filled with or without him.
"Sir, do you really think it’s possible? Light bending? Machine and digital integration? Electrokinesis? Entirely self-sustaining and practically invulnerable? We have already pushed our genome to exceptional heights, but we have carried out thousands of experiments, and I feel like we are no closer to a complete bonding than we were when we started." The man in the grey lab-coat sighed and picked up a stimulant bar. Even though his body was more resilient than even a standard version of his race, it had been days since he last slept, and almost forty hours since he had a good meal, he had only been consuming nutrient tablets. He spoke as he bit a chunk of the flaky, acrid tasting bar. "That and more is possible. We just have to work out the kinks in the system. Integrating a brain into a network of highly advanced nanobots, while also stopping the body from rejecting the mechanized elements of their systems is not going to be done in just a few years. Did you join this project with some notion that this was a short assignment? Perhaps you would like to be transferred to the chemical warfare department? I hear they make new strides about every five years..." The assistant quickly shook his head, a worried look on his face "Uh no sir. I was just worried we were wasting the government's time and resources." The man in the lab-coat massaged his eyes. The kid was right about one thing. If they did not show some type of advancement in the project within the next twenty years, the government would not only shut them down, but would be coming for his head. The Chairmen took wasting resources as a very serious offense. Especially since the Millennium Wars started.
Eighteen years later.
"Here is the latest report on the most recent series Sir." The assistant handed a data slate to his boss, as he rubbed his eyes. A few years ago, the Human Enhancement Department had been given an ultimatum. "Find something of value, or be repurposed, and replaced." Ever since the threat, the entire staff, all three thousand of them, had gotten even less sleep than their already crowded schedule had allowed. The assistant sighed as he looked at the man he worked for. How exhausted must his brilliant mind be? As the director of the Human Enhancement Department, he must face unimaginable stress. As an assistant and secretary, the man already felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, how much worse must it be for his boss? As his boss scanned the report, his eyes suddenly lit up for the first time in many years. "I have to see Dr. Roffen right away, call her here. She might have found something interesting." For the first time in recent history, an excitement filled his bosses voice, which quickly infected his assistant as well.
A few moments later, Dr. Roffen was reporting excitedly. "Sir, I was getting some materials from the repurposing center when I saw a pregnant woman." Confusion crossed her bosses face for a moment as she quickly explained. "Yes, I know! You do not see many of them anymore, and even if you do, they normally would not be from a family that ended up in the repurposing center. But I digress. So far, in the D series, we have only tried normal birth methods. Introducing the nanotech pre-natal was a brilliant idea by the way. Unfortunately, as you know, even with the assistance of the natal chambers the fetuses cannot handle the demands of the technology. Either they kill the child by putting too much electrical and chemical demand on it, or the chamber kills the child by injecting too many chemicals or electricity to keep the nanotech running." It took a few moments for her boss to figure out where she was going with this, but as she spoke, his eyes started to widen. "But, in... biological pregnancies the mother's body would be able to sustain the nanotech, just as any normal adult could with our alterations. Mothers’ bodies are also extremely adaptable and adept at keeping pre-natal children alive, whereas our natal chambers are uh... standardized. I suppose should be the word. This way, the nano machines would be introduced to the child's bloodstream as it develops. With some careful engineering and genetic manipulation, we could have the child develop in a way that naturally integrates the nanotech. A true mesh of biological and technological. Now, for obvious reason the nanotech would have to be kept mostly dormant, otherwise the mothers would die or experience brain death just like every other subject, but once the child is born. We may be able to find ways to activate the system without killing the host, as their bodies would be already much more naturally prepared for the integration." As she finished talking, her boss nodded enthusiastically. "We must prepare trials right away! If this works, I will see to it that you are promoted to Head of Genetics!" The assistant's face paled as he recorded their conversation. Dead children were one thing, but making women get pregnant? It was if his boss was trying to find the darkest most horrific things to do during this experiment. Well, they had been driven into a corner by the Chairmen...
Six years later
A small girl sat playing with geometric blocks, building simple geometric shapes. She handed one block to another child who was standing next to her. Observing the children from behind a one-way wall, the boss spoke to his assistant "So far, 87% of the children have survived. This is the last series that the government has authorized. If this series fails, the entire department will be repurposed and replaced. Seeing that things cannot get any worse, I have requisitioned every possible resource I could. It is not as if wasting more resources can get us extra repurposed. To that end, the remaining children will also be trained physically, tactically, and academically by the greatest of our soldiers, officers, and scholars. If we do succeed this time, I want them to be the best they can possibly be. If they don't, then like I said. Who cares how many resources we spent?" The assistant nodded "I agree of course, but when do we discover if we have failed or not?" His boss scratched his chin. "Well, since the remaining children seem stable, we will attempt to activate one every few weeks, to observe and refine our methods. However, I suspect that we will see no successes at-least until the children are ten years old, their bodies and minds are simply to underdeveloped to handle the changes."
"Mama!" the young girl got up and clumsily ran over to greet her mother, who had entered the playroom. Picking up her child, she smiled "I have a surprise for you! We are going to meet a new teacher for you!" The girl clapped her hands. "Hooray! Learning stuff is fun! The boy I was playing blocks with said learning was stupid, but he was wrong." As the woman carried her child through the compound, she wondered how people used to handle children. Hundreds of years ago supposedly children could not even read until seven or so years old. Luckily, everyone was engineered considerably better than they were back then. "Did you feed Foxy?" The girl asked her mother, a happy grin on her face as they traveled. "Yes dear, Foxy is waiting for you to get home so he can play with you." Somehow, her daughter had found a fox that escaped one of the specimen rooms, and adopted it. Seeing as this had no bearing on the experiment, she was allowed to keep it. As they stepped into a new room, one that the girl had never been in before, a lithe man greeted them. "Hi! Are you ready to do some exercises?" The girl struggled out of her mother’s arms to the floor. "I guess? I never did any exercises before! Are they fun!?"
Three years later
"Gilly! Did it hurt?" The girl asked her best friend who had just returned to the common room. "Sort of... I am not sure what they did but it sort of made my body ache all over." The girl looked scared, but Gilly reassured her. "Ah but it was quick, and I feel better now. But you should get going Emilia. The doctors want to hurry us along you know, we will play with the boys when you get back! One of them found a new game..." Emilia nodded "Ya... I guess. Take care of Foxy for me while I’m in there. One of the boys likes to bully him!" At the mention of his name, the auburn fox looked excited, but quickly became distracted by two boys who had started yelling at each other on the other side of the room. "I’ll watch over him, now get going!" Emilia nodded and ran off. Exiting the room and heading to the examination chamber. The people there often did inspections on their bodies, and checked their blood, and all sorts of strange things. As she entered, she saw her mother. "Oh, it’s you doing inspections today? Cool!" Her mother smiled and nodded "Yes, but I still have to do my job, so I can’t let you off the hook." Emilia pouted. "Oh... alright..."
A few hours later Emilia returned to the common room and spoke to Gilly and a boy named Jaz. "It was so long! They did not just inspect me and take blood, they made me take all sorts of tests, physical and written!" Jaz scoffed "Ya I did that last time. It sucked." Gilly lowered her voice and spoke in a whisper. "Did you see any of the kids from the other groups?" Emilia shook her head, "No, why?" Gilly looked around and leaned in close "Some of the kids say that the scientists took some of the kids away from the other groups, and they were never seen again! Do you think they were bad? Maybe they were repurposed?!" Jaz puffed his chest out "As if! They would never repurpose us. We are being trained to be the greatest people ever created! Don't listen to stupid rumors." Emilia nodded and laughed sheepishly, however, once she had heard a bunch of horrible noises coming from part of the facility she had never been to before. She was going to investigate but she became too scared and ran back home to cuddle Foxy. She did not want to say, but the things she heard sounded a lot like a kid screaming for help...
Later that year, the children were moved from their individual rooms into a barracks, to "foster cooperation," according to their handler. They also started having competitions, both physical and academic, with the other groups of children residing in the facility. At the end of the year, they also started receiving CQC and ranged weapon training. As Emilia returned to the barracks one afternoon, she saw a group of boys who had cornered... something. Going over to explore, she saw they had cornered, and by the look of things, been abusing a mouse that had gotten into the barracks somehow. Another boy kicked the mouse, not hard enough to kill it, but just enough to cause it to squeal. "Stop! STOP YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" Emilia pushed one of the boys out of the way and quickly grabbed the poor mouse. "Why are you such monsters!" The boy she pushed drew close to her face. "We are obviously being trained to fight! When they send us to win the Millennium War are you going to protect our enemies as well? It’s a stupid mouse and we are bored. Give it back to us!" Emilia retreated, backing closer to the wall. "No! No one should kill other people. There are so many things to do in life, everyone should get the chance to do all of it!" The boys laughed at her, and encircled her. She covered the mouse with her hands and retreated, but only managed to back into a wall. Just as one of the boys lifted his fist, a voice called. "Oi! You touch her and I’ll tell her mother. She will have you thrown out of the program!" The boys looked over at the newcomer "Ah crap! Its Jaz!" With that, the boys scattered, probably less because of his threat to tell on them, but more because Jaz was considerably larger and stronger than the rest of the kids. "Are you ok?" He asked Emilia kindly. She nodded "Thanks Jaz, they were beating this mouse up! It was really awful." Jaz took her hand kindly. "Let's see if we can get someone to let it go outside."
Three years Later
The checkups that the children regularly underwent had become painful for some of the children in recent months. Emilia suffered especially bad cramps and aches after each one. Gilly, Jaz and Foxy were her only comfort these days, she did not see much of her mother, and the other kids disliked her. She was the only one who disliked the idea of going to war, and said so often. She was cradled in Gilly's arms as Foxy pawed at her feet. "It hurts so much... why are they doing this to me?" Gilly rubbed her head as she whispered "Shhh it will be ok... you know the pain always stops after a few hours..." Jaz looked disgusted "That is a good question. Only a few of us suffer like you do, why do they have to do these strange experiments at all?" Gilly shrugged as Emilia shook in her arms. "I think it is only happening to the best and brightest of us. Haven't you noticed? The top scorers in our group are the ones who suffer like this. Emilia is the highest in our group in every category. She even scores higher than you in the physical exams. I don't know why but that has to be it. Maybe they are preparing the best of us to be made even stronger? Or... something like that?" Jaz just made a dissatisfied "Hummm." Gilly looked at Emilia "You always wanted to go outside and see all the animals, didn't you? You also talk about all the fancy clothes and foods that the rich people eat out there. And you always loved looking at pictures of the sky. I know it seems tough for you now, but you will be ok. One day we will go outside together and see the animals, and the clothes, and the food, and the sky, ok?" Emilia, still in terrible pain, tears in her eyes, looked up "Really? You promise?" Gilly nodded "Sure! If they want us to go to war when we are older, we will have to see the outside someday!"
Emilia's mother spoke with the head of the department. "So, group 3171 is finally going to undergo testing? As they are the best of the best, I would want to wait a little longer before possibly losing one of them, but I do understand a certain level of urgency." Her boss nodded "Yes, unfortunately testing any of the other groups this year will cause us to have to merge groups, some of them are getting a bit thin..." Emilia's mother nodded again. "Well, I would suggest a girl by the name of Gilly. She is very middle of the road. In her group she excels at nothing in particular, and mostly coasts along. I doubt she would be a great loss to the project, assuming the experiment fails like always." The head of the department looked disgusted but nodded. "Yes, that is the most likely outcome."
"I’ll be back shortly!" Gilly waved goodbye to Jaz, Emilia, and her fox as she left the room with one of the staff. How many of these tests had she done by now? It had gotten to be routine, especially since she never seemed to suffer in the same way that Emilia did. As she was following the staff, she furrowed her brow. They had walked past the normal examination chamber, and were heading into a restricted part of the facility. "We missed the room." She spoke up, perhaps the man she was following simply had not gotten enough sleep recently. The staff always looked so exhausted. "I know, we need to use a special machine this time to run your tests. We think you might have contracted a rare illness. We need to do a full body scan." Gilly was a little worried, rumors of missing kids crept into her mind, but even if those outrageous rumors were true, what could she do? She did not even know if the facility she had spent her whole life inside of had an exit. "Well, I hope I'm healthy." She said softly as she followed the man into a strange room. Inside was a machine that reminded her of a long barrel on its side. A bed was inside that slid in and out. "Lay down please, the bed will slide inside the machine, and it will scan you.”
On the other side of a one-way security wall, Emilia's mother and the department head, as well as a few other staff members observed. "Initiating nanobot activation." An assistant spoke as he flipped a few switches. The head of the department watched a panel as it displayed the nanotech's status inside the girl’s body. All of the children's nanotech was in a sort of... lower power mode. They only functioned in an extremely limited capacity, primarily only responding to trauma. Healing wounds and the like, as well as simple basic functions such as recharging themselves, keeping a constant number of themselves, and disposing of any broken units. However, if they could finally achieve their goal, the things they could do were almost limitless.... The department head daydreamed as he watched the readout. He had become so used to failure after failure, that he hardly even paid attention to the initial readings at these experiments anymore, rather simply reading the reports after. The machine that the girl had lain in was nothing more than a restraining device. Some of the activation's had ended up temporarily violent before dying. "Hello? Am I healthy?" Gilly called from inside of the machine. The technician started to respond, to reassure her, but Emilia's mother shook her head, there was no reason to talk to the doomed girl. Just stick to your job, was the look the technician was given. "I’m starting to get dizzy, and I don't feel very well..." Gilly spoke, thoughts of the disappearing kids ran through her mind again. "Please let me out! I am sure I’m not sick!" As the nanotech fully began its startup sequence, pain ripped through Gilly. "Please! Please don't do this! I... I passed the tests! Please don't kill me!" Her words started to turn into word salad, meaningless strings of panicked words. "Another failure, even quicker than normal. They can at-least talk for a few minutes most of the time. Her mind is going especially quickly." The department head started to leave the room. "Put the report on my desk." As his assistant followed him, he felt sort of bad. The least the department head could do would be to stay and watch this girl’s final moments...
A year later
Jaz angrily returned from another examination to see Emilia shuddering in her bed. No one else in the barracks paid her any mind, other than her fox, who was laying at her feet. Jaz went over and stroked her hair. "I’m sorry I can't make you feel better like Gilly did." Jaz was barely able to contain his anger. The night after Gilly had went for a routine examination, she did not return. Nor did she show up the next day. Emilia had asked her mother, who said she had no idea what had happened to her. Jaz had demanded answers from the staff, but was only told that she had gotten sick and was being kept away from the other children. As the days turned into weeks, Jaz and Emilia were certain the staff had done something to Gilly. Over time, all they could do was keep living as normal. No answers, no explanation. Life in the facility went on as if Gilly had never existed. As Jaz did his best to try and make Emilia more comfortable, he cursed to himself.
Later, Jaz approached Emilia. "I saw one of the kids from the other groups being taken down a hallway we are not allowed to go down. If we hurry, we might be able to sneak our way down the hallway and see what is going on!" Emilia looked skeptical. "Don't you think that is a bad idea? No one from our group has disappeared since... Gilly. Maybe we should just be thankful that no one else has been hurt?" Jaz could not believe what he was hearing. "Are you serious? How dare you disrespect Gilly like that?! We were friends! Don't you care what happened to her?! Whatever, I don't have time to argue with you. Coward!" As Jaz stormed out of the room Emilia whimpered "I... just don't want anyone to get hurt..." Emilia was worried for Jaz, she certainly wanted to find out what happened to Gilly, but if the staff did do something terrible to her, investigating would just get more people hurt. Emilia just wanted everyone to be safe and happy. Maybe her mother could stop Jaz before he did anything stupid?
The next day, all the children were called to the common room. At the front of the room stood Emilia’s mother, their handler, and Jaz, who was standing bound between two security officers. Emilia's mother spoke. "Children; one of your companions decided to try and break into a secure part of the facility. Luckily, one brave young girl spoke up and told me of Jaz's plans before he could do any real damage. Thanks to the warning from my daughter Emilia, I was able to stop Jaz in time. However, he injured several people and killed one of the security personal. The head of the facility has decided to have him repurposed, and he would like to extend a personal thank you to Emilia." Jaz shouted at a stunned and horrified Emilia "How could you!? You abandoned Gilly, and you sold me out! You horrid b-" One of the security personal who was flanking Jaz covered his mouth with a metal device. The children closest to Emilia gave her a pat on the back for her loyalty and willingness to rat out a traitor to the cause. To the confusion of the other children, Emilia shuddered and started sobbing "No that’s not.... why did this happen..." She looked at her mother. "Please don't take Jaz! I just wanted you to stop him!!! I did not want... this!" Her mother shook her head "I cannot go against the department head's orders dear." As they dragged Jaz out of the room, Emilia sobbed and ran to hide in her bed.
With no one left to talk to, her mother having betrayed her trust, constant pain, and only a fox for kinship, Emilia became reclusive, hardly ever leaving the barracks or the company of her fox, which was now her only solace. She still participated in the tests, still scoring the best in her class. She did it almost automatically, not because she wanted to, but because she was afraid of what might happen to her if she started to shirk off. She hardly saw her mother anymore, and even the other kids kept their distance. One by one the other children had started to disappear as well, but she hardly cared anymore. She would sob silently into the fur of her fluffy companion almost every night.
Four years later
"E-3171-A, come to the weapons range please." A voice called over the speaker system. They had stopped referring to the remaining subjects by their names, and simply used their subject numbers, even the other children had adopted this practice. Emilia had hardly noticed the change, but at some point, when the number of children remaining had become quite small, all the groups had been merged, and any pretext of a loving environment had been dropped. She deftly went to the range and followed instructions. She was told to participate in a standard military shooting drill. As she participated, her mother and the department head watched "This drill is already three times more difficult than standard military drills. Do you think we could convince the Chairmen to not repurpose us if we could promise them a bunch of children like her?" Her boss shook his head "No. If we had used about... a fifth of the resources that we used, maybe I could swing that. However, unless one of the remaining children is a success, we are all headed for repurposing. And at this point, we best hope we can claim that we can repeat the success, should it happen."
"Well, we have tried every single chemical, electrical, and biological compound to keep the nanotech in line. But once it is activated it simply is too much all at once. This series has never had problems with physical rejection, their brains just can’t handle being plugged into a network of adaptable super machines. I am out of ideas." Emilia's mother spoke, a finality to her declaration. Her boss shrugged "I agree. I have worked on this much longer than you Dr. Roffen, and to be honest, I do not think it can be done. If the nanotech is made simpler, it becomes too simplistic to network with a human brain. But as it stands, the brain simply cannot handle the startup process." Dr Roffen, Emilia's mother responded "I... have one suggestion. We could try to flee." His boss looked at her incredulously "Where would we run?! Hiding from the Chairmen is actually not possible." Emilia's mother hesitated for a moment. "Me, you, and a few others could fit on one of the supply vessels out of here. After that, we could try to commandeer it, and flee to one of the other powers in the war. I’m sure they would take us in, we should be able to buy our way to amnesty with the knowledge we have of our nation's secrets." The man in the dark grey lab-coat hesitated, considering the situation for a full five minutes. "I... I suppose you're right. I have worked too hard on this project to die for it. Once we are free, perhaps I can convince someone else to fund me, I’ll restart it from the ground up." Emilia's mother resolutely spoke "We have to liquidate the rest of the experiments and all information regarding them must be destroyed before we leave. We can't have someone else picking up your project. In the unlikely case they succeed where we have failed, we will no longer be on this side of the war."
Emilia's mother, the department head, and a team of security officers entered the barracks that night, and killed every single remaining child. When they got to Emilia's bed, they realized she was not in it. Searching, they discovered her down the hall, returning from the bathroom. "Mom?" Emilia spoke, mildly confused. One of the security officers reached out toward her, Emilia thought his eyes were full of malice, but she did not respond. She had stopped caring about that sort of thing a long time ago. Her fox however, jumped up and bit the security officer’s hand, the animal sensing the man’s killing intent. The security officer cursed, and another grabbed the fox, quickly breaking its neck. Seeing this was the final straw for Emilia's already broken mind. "Foxy! NOOOOOO!!!" The security guard grabbed Emilia, and broke her neck. However, her body did not fall to the ground. She stood there, her mouth moving in a silent plea. The light in Emilia's eyes winked out, and her mouth went slack. However, she continued breathing, and her neck, with a horrible series of popping and crackling noises righted itself. The security officer began to draw his weapon, they had been trying to keep quite up until now, but the man’s flight or fight instincts had kicked in. However, the department head grabbed his arm. "Wait!" As they watched, Emilia simply stood there, blank eyes, slack jaw, but alive.
"I cannot believe it." Emilia's mother spoke as she examined the readout of the machine that was interfacing with the nanotech inside of Emilia. "It was this simple? Well, not simple per-say, but still." The department head angrily agreed "I hate that the answer was here the whole time." The assistant confusedly looked between them "I’m sorry, but could you tell me what is happening? I thought we were running away." His boss laughed "No need anymore. We found the answer, apparently." Emilia's mother explained. "From what we can determine, the nanotech is currently still in low power mode, but are integrating themselves into her brain as a sort of support system. Actually, this has probably been going on ever since she became reclusive. I’m sure even you know that even in low power mode, the nanotech is both adaptable, and instructed to repair damage to its host. Apparently, her slow descent into depression triggered its "repair" directives. It has been supporting her mental functions this entire time. Without it, she might have stopped going to the tests, and simply lain in bed till she starved to death. Or killed herself. Since it is in lower power mode, all the nanotech could do was to... sort-of... stabilize her thought processes. However, because of this, it means that her brain is part of the nanotech network, and is backed up. I could probably shoot her in the brain now, and she would continue living as the nanobots repaired her."
The assistant nodded slowly "Right but uh she looks brain dead. Is that actually helpful?" The department head tapped the display a few times. "She is actually not brain dead. When her neck was snapped, she went into a sort of coma like state, if I understand correctly, the nanotech, being in low power mode, has simply sent her into a coma and has taken nominal control over her body. It was always part of the program to be able to control the subjects. We were not going to make invincible soldiers and leave ourselves at their mercy. We should be able to wake her up after we reprogram the nanotech. After that we should be able to turn them on properly. Since her brain is already bolstered by the nanotech, she should be able to handle the overwhelming nature of being networked with it. We cannot make truly self-aware machines, so we still need her brain to function like normal.
A year Later
"Please don't make me kill anyone anymore!" Emilia begged the officer standing in front of her. It was a common plea, he did not even bother responding, instead he directed her to her next mission. "This city houses a massive ship building facility, your job is to get in, rig the place with explosives, and get out. After this mission you will have a week of R&R, then you are going to be transferred to another front. Emilia cried as she nodded. She knew resisting was a useless task, she would simply be "turned off" shipped to the location, and then "turned on" again. They could not control her mind directly, but rather, they controlled her impulses. Once she was deployed, they forced an overwhelming urge on her to kill. To destroy, and to survive. In fact, they discovered early on that they had to leave the "urge to survive" going full blast at all times. If it was up to her, she would have killed herself after waking back up in the facility. She was trapped in her own body. She could only watch as she killed and maimed and destroyed, tears often streamed down her face as she slew legions of people.
She landed in the city, falling from the sky, all but tossed out of the aircraft. The factory was quite large, taking up multiple city blocks. However, most of the city was innocent, just normal people doing normal things. However, the switch had been flipped. She had no choice but to kill. She activated the nanotech with a simple thought, covering her body in a layer of flexible graphene. She simply started killing everything in sight while sprinting toward the factory. Nothing could even vaguely slow her down, small arms fire was meaningless, directed energy weapons were absorbed by the graphene nanites and simply redirected to their attackers. Occasionally she would have to change her path to avoid something like an AT rocket or anti-material rifle, but even if she was struck, it was only a momentary setback, most of the damage was mitigated, and any damage she actually took was quickly repaired. She also made certain to grab any electrical wires or transformers she passed, to keep her mechanical parts charged, as they absorbed the electricity through the graphene. The mission would pose virtually no challenge to her. Just like every other mission.
For three years the killing continued. She had gotten limbs blown off, once half of her head was removed, but as long as the nanotech still functioned, she would continue to function, and heal. Thanks to the constant upkeep of the nanotech, she could not even go insane. Every day was just as painful as the last. However, as she was destroying the home of a supposed enemy of the state, she sensed something change. She always could feel the entire wireless grid. It was how the nanotech received updates, and commands. However, she suddenly felt herself cut off from the larger grid. She called up a readout displayed in her mind displaying the status of her nanotech. It was a readout of commands, actions, and other various information.
┌——————┐
Starting mission.
Receiving Commands
Activating Graphene Suit
Repairing Crushed Larynx
Assisting Metabolic Functions
└——————┘
The list was huge and detailed, someone shot her as she examined the list, the energy simply was absorbed, and shot back toward her attacker. She skimmed through the normal operating bits to see if something unusual had happened.
┌——————┐
Adaptation Complete: Time elapsed since adaptation inception; 3 years, 230 days, 45 seconds.
Adaptation deploying.
Cutting off outside signals.
└——————┘
She was confused for a moment, but her connection to her tech helped her understand, the nanotech could feel that she was in pain. It had been trying to stop it for years, trying to "repair" her. She was certain this was never intentional behavior of the nanotech, but she was the first marriage of a brain and adaptable machine, they could not account for everything. The realization that she was free slowly dawned on her. The commands that the tech had already been sent were still there. She still had an impulse to carry out her mission, but in theory, after this job, they could no longer control her. A mix of hope, excitement, and regret that she was killing someone who was perhaps innocent of any crime filled her as she plunged her hand into the chest of her target. After he died, she felt.... nothing. For the first time in years, she felt nothing other than her own thoughts and the constant information stream of her nanotech.
A Month Later
Alarms blared and red lights flashed as Emilia tore down a metal blast door. It had taken her a month, but she made it back "home." Anyone who crossed her path died as she ransacked the place, looking for her mother and the department head. She found her, trying to herd the newest batch of children into an escape vessel. "You!" Emilia wanted to be angry, but she was mostly filled with sadness. "Did you ever even think of me as your daughter?! How could you do this to me?" Emilia's voice thundered out of her, enhanced so loudly that it caused pain to everyone near her. "Well, yes! Certainly!" Emilia's mother was not exactly "calm" but she was not panicking. She was not a particularly emotional individual. "I was sad when we had to put you all down that night! But dear, you have to understa-" Emilia punched her mother’s jaw clean off of her face. "Don't call me dear! You never loved me!" as her mother tried to say something, Emilia picked her up and threw her against the wall. The woman hit the floor, lifeless. She turned and left the children wailing and crying at her "mother's" body.
Next was the department head. She found him calmly smoking in his office, dictating his final will and testament to his assistant when his fancy wooden door flew off its hinges. "Ah, you made it just in time." He turned to his assistant. "And lastly to my greatest creation, I leave my legacy. The legacy I built for her. A legacy of unbeatable, unstoppable victory." The department head put out his pipe and stood up. "I thought you would be grateful you know. I made you. You probably cannot actually even die. Unless you jump into a volcano or something, I don't actually think it’s possible for most conventional weapons to permanently kill you. You also will not age, the nanites repair the degradation that naturally occurs to the epigenome, keeping you young forever." The man continued as Emilia looked at him in utter disbelief. "Radiation? Don't make me laugh. Disease? Your blood is like a living firing squad. You're perfect. I dedicated a hundred and twenty years to this project, and look how ungrateful you are." Emilia, crying again, responded "You think I should thank you? For turning me into this monster?!" The department head shrugged "Yes? Either way I no longer have the patience to listen to ungrateful children. I’ve been doing it most of my life at this point. I can die knowing my legacy will live forever." The man withdrew an energy weapon from his desk, and simply shot himself in the head, as casually as one could envision.
The assistant fell to his knees "Please don't kill me. I never liked what they were doing here. Ya, I know I’m not innocent but if it was up to me this project would have been shut down a long time ago!" Emilia looked at the wretched man. "You may live if you help me." The man nodded enthusiastically "Sure ya, whatever you want I swear." She gestured for the man to get up. "I want to die; you have to help me. I am no longer receiving outside commands, but they permanently added the command to live. I cannot kill myself. I tried when I first got free. I tried more than once. To tell you the truth, the main reason I came here was to die. I did not really want to kill any more people... I just..." She broke down, sobbing hysterically. The man was confused. "I... if, you’re sure? I’m sure there are way more people to take revenge on though like the Chairmen who authorized all this? Or, and hear me out, couldn't you just go live somewhere alone? You're free! And I cannot envision a future where the Chairmen send legions of people and equipment after you to be destroyed." She shook her head "I'll never be free, I've killed so many innocent people, I’ve lost everyone who was ever important to me, and thanks to these... monsters inside of me, I will remember it all perfectly, for all of time." The man slowly shrugged, he really did not understand her motivations at all, but he really did not want to push the issue with an invincible murder machine. "Right well, there is only one way I can think of to kill you. We have to send the kill signal. You were built with a kill switch. Now, obviously that is going to take a little bit of work to figure out since you are not accepting outside signals, and, considering you killed most of the true talent of this facility, this will probably take some time to figure out.
A week later, the man held a small device connected to a cable. "Are you sure you want this? It's probably going to be extremely unpleasant, and horrifically slow. Emilia nodded as she interfaced with the cable coming from the device. Hard-wiring herself directly to a device was the only way to alter any part of her nanotech at this point. "Ok well please don't kill me out of revenge in your death throes, this is truly the best solution I could come up with. I swear to you." She nodded, he had found a way to slightly alter the functions of the nanotch inside of her that produced the nanites, nanobots, and nano-machines. According to him, the things it produced would now be created with the kill order. The reason this would be so horrible, was because it did not stop or change the current machines. So, her body would become a warzone, part of her trying to kill itself, and the other desperately trying to fix it. However, given some time, eventually the "kill order" directives would outnumber the "survive" directives. The man pushed some buttons on the device. "I’m sorry for everything, E-3171-A. I don't really understand what your problem with this whole thing is, but it’s been made clear to me this last week that you are, in-fact, truly miserable, and I’m really sorry for what we did. I cannot stay with you while you die. I really need to get out of here before they think it’s safe to send reclamation teams in, sorry again." She nodded "It's fine, I was destined to be alone..." she could instantly feel the difference in her body. A dull ache had started deep within her abdomen. Over the next three days, she struggled against herself, thanks to the nanotech, she was lucid for the entirely of her excruciating death. The feeling was indescribable, as no other being on her world had ever torn itself asunder in its own personal war. Unfortunately, she would find that she still had one more game to play.
