Backdrop - A Protogen Backstory

Part 2

                                                             (}-Part Two-{)

          After that little bout of revelations, I decided to explore the apartment a little more. Going back to the main room and looking around, I found a pod embedded into the wall near the bed. It had some symbols scrolling across the frosted glass front. "Charging is what that says," informed the voice in my head. "God damn, don't scare me like that!" "Sorry if I surprised you, I was simply translating for you, as I doubt you know that language yet." "Okay... got it. So, charging?"

          "Your body needs a constant supply of electrical power for it to function, and most common models use charging pods like this as a way to refill their internal batteries, along with repeated intake of digestible biological matter. You however, do not need to rely on such methods, as you have other abilities that allow you different options, along with an extended battery life." "What abilities?" I asked while entering the door next to the desk. It led into a room with a kitchenette, and next to that was an island that I inferred was also a dining table.

          "Your nanites have the ability to dissolve almost any substance - a much larger range of things than both common and uncommon models - and store them. You can then scan their molecular structures and reassemble them as you wish, being atomically precise. This allows you, for example, to find materials for a solar panel, dissolve them down, and remake those things into a portable solar panel that you can plug into your charging port." "Wow... that's amazing," I wondered out loud. "This ability is what you were made for, as you can create any medicine needed for any sickness once you analyze the affected person's ailment."

          "Do I have any more powers?" "You don't have to speak aloud to talk to me. And you can use Arcaite to perform telekinesis with surgical precision. In order to properly utilize this power within a body without cutting it open, you also have x-ray vision. Such vision is also used to scan the body structures of other living organisms." "God damn! My creator's sure packed a lot into me." But, why would someone trying to win a war make a person so powerful that can turn into an enemy?

          "You were a last-ditch effort to turn the tides substantially in one go. They were out of options. You are experimental, so they haven't fully installed the hud yet, but I can do that for you." "I have a HUD!" "This will be relatively quick, but I recommend that you lie down." I walked back over to the bed and took off the jacket Lichen gave me, setting it on the desk chair. I then crawled onto bed, trying to find a comfortable position with my tail. Once I find that lying on my side is good enough and get as comfortable as I can, the world again fades into white, and green text floats across my vision. Loads of code that I have no idea what does, until, for just a second, it stops on one prompt, and I drift into sedation.

          I awake feeling slightly refreshed, now that I had overcome the hysteria from the day before. Sitting up from bed, I decide to take a shower to wash off the grime from being in the wasteland that was that planet. As I walked into the bathroom, I took in my reflection a bit more. I REALLY wasn't human anymore. My body is covered in fur where there isn't that white plating, and my face is covered with that odd visor. Or maybe the visor is my face... in any case, it was white, sort of like my plating, and the projected facial features were neon. That's weird, didn't the other protogens have black visors? "The coloring of your visor is different because of the nanites it's made up of." "The visors are made of nanites?" "Yeah, they are especially durable and can be malformed, allowing you to consume food. As I said before you fell asleep, your nanites have the ability to dissolve almost any substance and reform its molecular structure into anything the substance allows. That's the reason for its different colorization," The voice explained. I looked around at my body a little more, and I saw that the symbol displayed on the screens on my shoulder guards and leg plates was that cross, but instead in a neon green.

          "Um, you said that you had to install a hud before, right?" "Oh yeah, just think of the words, activate hud." "Oh." Activate hud. Just as I finished thinking of those two words, a few windows popped up in the corners of my vision. Some of them had At first, the words consisting of seemingly random symbols didn't make sense to me, but gradually their meaning realized inside my head. What the hell is happening to me? "Along with the hud, I installed a word translator with a library of most languages so that you only need to read the words for it to detect them and download the translations into your memory base." I just realized that I never got your name. "I don't have one, you have yet to name me." I have to name you... hmm, what about Kiln? "Kiln... sounds good to me."

          Just as we were finishing our conversation, I heard a knock on the door to my apartment. "Who is it?" I ask. "It's Inok, I'm here to bring you to the captain's office for debriefing." I go over to the door and open it. "Oh, it's you. Ok, I'll go with you. Just give me a second." I hurry over to the chair and grab the jacket, slipping it on while walking back to the entryway. Inok looks puzzlingly at me for a moment, then leads me out of the door. "Just follow me right this way." We walk back out of that long hallway and onto the second floor balcony. I smell some odd scents coming from the door across from the entrance to The Grounds. "What's that smell?" I ask. "Ah, they're serving breakfast, you want some? If you haven't used the pod, you might be at a low charge. Even if you aren't low, some still find the taste enjoyable. We're not at all in a hurry." I take notice of the window in the top right of my peripheral, seeing the battery at 10%. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."