Experiments--Chapter One
#2 of Experiments
The much-anticipated Chapter One is here! This should be a significantly larger chapter than the Prologue. The main character comes to terms with his new existence, discovers some new "features" and tries to survive on his own.
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I was a fox.
Well, an anthropomorphic fox, to be exact.
I had apparently passed out due to the initial shock; it was nighttime when I had arrived, and now it was day. Twin suns had risen over the horizon, and one appeared very much like a main sequence star. The other, however, was a blue supergiant, so large that it nearly dominated the sky. This domination was stopped by a large object (a moon, as I later discovered). There were three things I was sure of: I was a fox, the teleporter hadn't worked, and I was totally, irrevocably screwed. I wasn't sure what I should do; I didn't know anything about being a fox, nor did I know how I was going to get back. I decided that if I was going to die out here, I would enjoy the time I had left. So, I started walking.
I stopped walking after about ten hours. My feet, not suprisingly, were killing me. I had reached what appeared to be a grove of trees about two hours ago. This grove turned into a thick forest, in which I had become completely lost. I must have walked in a circle about three times before I decided that enough was enough and sat down. My stomach growled. It wasn't a shock to me that I was hungry; I had foregone breakfast that morning on account of the test. Breakfast would have been served on the trip back to the labs. My mouth began to water; even the swill that the Combine forces called "breakfast" would have been preferable to nothing. I was chewing on my tongue, contemplating on whether or not it was really all that necessary to have a tongue when I smelled it.
A rabbit. Moist, succulent rabbit.
I instinctually went into hunter mode, stalking around looking for the source of the tantalizing smell. And then I found it. A small rabbit munching on a plant. I swallowed my saliva to keep it from pouring out of my mouth, and it heard me and tried to run.
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I tried to consider what I had just done. I had torn that rabbit apart as soon as I caught it in my muzzle, devouring it in mere seconds, bones and all. Some small part of me felt sad, the rest of me was thinking DAYUM, this rabbit tastes good. It was starting to get dark, and I figured that I should find some shelter, which I created by digging a hole under a tree. As I curled up to sleep, I couldn't help but wonder if I would ever get home, or if I would ever be a human again.
I was jarred awake by a shrill beeping noise. As I opened my eyes, I saw something blurry in my field of vision. I swatted at it, only to find my hand swung right through it. Confused, I blinked several times. The blurry thing came into focus; it was a line of text that was perfectly contrasted to what I was looking at. It read, "Can you read this? If so, say yes. This message will exit in approximately 10 minutes. It will recur every 30 minutes until 48 hours have passed."
I said yes. The message disappeared and was replaced by something that looked like a brochure. An enthusiastic voice read to me. "Welcome! Since you have been officially missing in action for twelve hours, the full capabilities of your neural network interface have been unlocked to serve you better in your survival! Your previous neural network interface activity rating was: (at this point the voice became monotone) Zero. Your rating is now: (monotone again) Ten. Maximum."
I had forgotten about that interface. The neural network interface, or NNI, was installed into every single Combine citizen upon birth. Each person has a different NNI rating, which dictates what they can or cannot do with their NNI. Zero, essentially, says, "Hey, you have a useless marble in your head, congratulations!" This rating applies to everyone else who isn't in a Combine-sanctioned job (citizens, scientists, blue- and white-collar job holders). Most cops and military personnel have a rating of two to eight. High-ranking officials have a nine. Only the highest-ranking military officers, scientists who are assigned to top-secret material, and MIA personnel get a rating of ten.
The NNI offers enhanced sensory perception, enhanced motor skills, and enhanced memory storage/retrival capabilites to all ratings. For higher ratings comes more advanced features, such as IR vision, HUD, and the BioNet medical system. If you have a rating of ten, you have unlimited access to every feature the NNI has to offer. This fact, when the NNI and its rules were first introduced, caused many Combine soldiers to purposefully go AWOL, just to get an NNI rating of ten (but, with the advent of memory replacement technology, this became impossible for anyone in the Combine military except ranking officials). However, one thing confused me. As a civilian, I couldn't go MIA; I'd just be erased from the system. My confusion disappeared abruptly. "You have a message from Dr. Powers. Would you like to open it now?" I said yes. The message was text-only.
"Dear Matt. If you are reading this, then my activation codes worked. Apparently Breen found a more simple way to Earth than our teleporter. The Advisors approved and classified the entire op top-secret. Since we were in on it, we are now liabilites. They are raiding the lab as I am composing this message. I overheard their plans to send ten packs of Hunter synths through the teleporter." I shuddered. Hunter synths didn't stop hunting until their target was dead or until they were dead. "I scrambled the coordinates of where you are, so you should be safe as long as I am alive. I recommend running far away from your initial location. I--shit. I don't have much time left. This next part is important. Look out for //SYS--ERROR: EOF UNEXPECTED AT THIS TIME //SYS--ERROR: DATASTREAM CORRUPTED BEYOND REPAIR //SYS--MESSAGE: CANNOT COMPLETE DISPLAY OF MESSAGE //"
I immediately became aware of every sound in the forest around me, looking through the gloom to no avail. I thought how great it would be to be able to see, and suddenly everything was bathed in a greenish glow. The words "IR-Enhanced Night Vision" flickered across my field of vision. Cool, I thought, wonder if there's more. There was; a HUD popped into existence, listing my vital signs and showing a motion tracker and what appeared to be a crosshair. I shook my head around, and the HUD stayed centered in my vision. Wicked cool, I thought. The cool shock wore away quickly, as my motion tracker pinged a contact approximately ten meters to my left. It persisted for a moment, then died off. I stealthily crept over to the ping location and saw a large crate with a note on it. I read the note. "Are you reading this? Then they found you. Use this stuff. Dr. Powers" Now more worried than ever, I flung the lid of the crate off, exposing the contents. There was standard-issue combat armor, an FN Five-seveN, an Accuracy International AWP Sniper Rifle, a Steyr TMP, and, the coolest gun of all, a Benelli M4 Super 90 Semi-Automatic Shotgun. I looked deeper into the box and found a Combine Infinity Ammunition Device as well as a Combine Storage Cube.
The IAD, as it was called, was the third most advanced piece of Combine technology. The second was our teleporter, and the first was the Advisor Pod, which I now wish I had sabotaged. The IAD worked using a hypercube principal. The ammo (a type of nanobot that self-propagated) was assembled immediately prior to firing, seamlessly integrating with any weapon. The Storage Cube worked under the same principal, but instead of using nanobots, an empty dimension lies "within" the cube. Objects placed in the cube can only be retrieved by a Level 6 or higher NNI user. Seeing as I had full access, that wasn't a problem.
I plugged the Five-seveN into the IAD, and cocked the pistol. A round slipped into place. I sighted in on a tree using my crosshairs and fired. And the gun almost hit me in the face. Gotta practice that, I thought. The fun was better when I started using the higher-powered guns. The AWP hurt my shoulder, the TMP singed my fur on my left arm, and the M4 Super 90 knocked me on my ass so hard I fractured my pelvis. The NNI sang out cheerfully, "Pelvis fracture detected! Please wait while morphine and bone-growth catalyst are injected! This won't hurt at all!" This voice is annoying, I thought. I waited, and a small dialog box appeared. "Switch to text only?" the voice read. I chose yes.
//SYS--MESSAGE: Text interface enabled. To disable SYS prefix, use Menu>Tools>Config //
The pain subsided quickly. A new message appeared.
//SYS--QUESTION: Enable BioNet? //SYS--ELABORATE: This process can take up to four hours to complete //
I chose yes.
//SYS--MESSAGE: BioNet enabled. Please enter sleep to start the process //
Sleep was not what I wanted to do right now, but I began to feel tired as I felt the nanobots flow from my brain into practically every crevice of my body. Before I slumped back toward my hole, I stowed my weapons and donned my armor, which was somehow perfectly suited to my fox form. I dragged myself back to my hole, and quickly fell asleep.
//==========\
I awoke to the gentle cooing of a bird. I opened my eyes and was assaulted with a text message.
//SYS--MESSAGE: Success! BioNodes implanted! BioNet now fully active!
Dismissing the message, I exited the hole, began to stand, then froze. My motion tracker pinged five contacts. All of which were behind me. I crept around the tree, and activated my Forward-Looking IR vision. Then I saw them. A pack of Hunter Synths, creeping around the forest where the crate was, cooing nothings to each other. I slunk back to my hole and equipped my shotgun and IAD. The crosshairs synced to my gun's direction, and a small icon indicated what weapons I could switch to. I crept back around the tree directly into a Hunter's face. It let out a loud shrill and kicked me about 50 meters into a tree.
//BIONET--WARNING: MINOR FRACTURES DETECTED //
Dismissing the pain, I raised my shotgun and fired 6 times into the Hunter. The Hunter twiched as each shotgun pellet burrowed painfully through layers of metal and tissue, finally exiting through the other side. The Hunter screamed as it died, leaking hydraulic fluid out its bullet holes. I mentally celebrated before I saw the other 4 Hunters watching me. They opened fire with their deadly flechettes, which stuck into trees and detonated, creating a hellacious FLIR view. I switched to regular vision, and saw a Hunter barreling at me. I screamed and kept pulling the trigger. The Hunter was not dissuaded; it kept running toward me, eventually collapsing on me and pinning me to the ground. The Hunter's sharp antennae pierced through my armor and my chest. The pain was overwhelming and I blacked out. The last thing I saw before I went blank was this:
//BIONET--WARNING: STAB WOUND DETECTED IN LOWER TORSO //
//BIONET--WARNING: BLOOD LOSS DETECTED //
//BIONET--WARNING: BRAIN WAVE LEVELS DROPPING //
//BIONET--CRITICAL: USER DEATH POSSIBLE, IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ASSISTANCE REQUIRED //
//SYS--MESSAGE: BRAIN WAVE LEVELS NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN NNI //
//SYS--INIT: ENTERING RUNLEVEL 0 //
SYSTEM HALTED
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Let's wait for Chapter Two now! I hope it doesn't take as long...