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Corporal Benjamin Stone eyed the console intently. There would be no nomad sneak attacks on his watch.

A hand rested on his shoulder. "Your vigilance is commendable, but you look like you're about to burst a blood vessel." Major Gordon Lee was a friendly man and perhaps a little informal when it came to addressing his subordinates. "One can never be too careful sir. I'll not take a break until it is my designated time to rest."
"Well then, take five, we'll manage."
"As you wish." Stone was unhappy with the decision, but he would not make a fuss because Major Lee was doing him a favour by allowing him to work aboard the Retribution. He'd always wanted to serve on such a ship and now he had his chance; he would not be found slacking.

---

"Five minutes is up, I'm here to return to my duty."
"And not a minute late, I admire your punctuality."
"Thank you sir."

Stone stepped over to his station which, was currently manned by Corporal Barry Hill.
Stone looked over Hill's shoulder and to his dismay, noted several large contacts on the scanners. "Hill, have you reported these contacts to the Major and if so, why has the alarm not been raised?"

"Contacts? What have we got?"

Corporal Hill looked away from the console and frowned at Stone. "We will be the end of you human." As he said this, Corporal Hill lunged at Stone. "You'll all be ended!"

In a few moments, the rogue soldier had pinned Stone to the floor and was attempting to strangle him. Between breathes, Stone spoke. "Bastard's....infected....take....him....out!"

When it came to killing nomads, Major Lee was all too enthusiastic. He drew his over-sized sidearm and walked over to the struggling pair. The rest of the crew were busy gawking at the spectacle until Lee paused and gave them "that look." The Major placed the barrel of his weapon against the temple of traitor. "Alright, back to hell with you." He pulled the trigger of his weapon. Suffice to say, Corporal Hill no longer had a place for his brain which, was now messily strewn across the floor.

"Phew, that was a close one."
Stone stood up and brushed several lumps of flesh from his normally immaculate uniform.
"Indeed, now the unknown contacts on the radar..."
"...are bearing down on us! What do we do sir!?"
"Man the turrets, let's see if we can fight them off."
"Ah sir, the contacts consist of several nomad fighters and a nomad battleship."
"You're kidding, right? What's the distance on these buggers?"
"Four klicks sir!"
"FOUR KLICKS!? Engage the cruise engines! We can't handle this kind of firepower!"
"Negative sir, cruise engines are offline. We believe the fighters are disrupting us.

The entire ship began to shudder as the monstrous form began to open fire. In less than 30 seconds, the Retribution's shields had failed and explosions were occurring along the ship's hull.

"Dammit! She won't hold it!"

Stone leaned back against a reinforcement in the wall. If he'd insisted on staying at his post, he would have seen the nomads approaching. He could have informed Major and saved them all. As another shot landed near the bridge, a pipeline behind the reinforced bracket Stone leaned against exploded. Huge billows of flame leaped from either side of him, incinerating his arms. His jacket caught fire and burnt his chest and neck. With no muscle left on his arms, he could not move them to take the jacket off. He looked down at the right moment to see an auxiliary ammunition pouch on his shoulder explode after the flames engulfed it.

Blinded and maimed, Stone fell to the floor and screamed. The sympathetic Major ran up to him and ripped the jacket off to prevent further damage to his already battered body. "There we go. I'll fetch the medics." Stone could do naught but whimper.

Just as the call for the med team was made, another detonation aboard the bridge sent shrapnel flying through the air. Everyone not lying down had their organs shredded.

---

The medics arrived to a gruesome scene. Mangled bodies lay around the room and a battered Corporal twitched before them. Without a word, the medics loaded Stone on to a stretcher and hurried to the escape pods.

The escape pod wasn't really a pod. It was the size of a small shuttle and was able to navigate several systems before running out of fuel. However, it would only be able to do so if it went unnoticed. This would prove difficult if the nomads gave chase.

Doctor Eugene Bynes was the head physician aboard the OCV-Retrubtion. He was a tall man with icy blue eyes. One would expect someone of his profession to be friendly, however, Bynes was cold and efficient. This lack of social skills stemmed from his feeling of superiority. He was one of the few who could replace a lost hand with a prosthetic. This made him feel godlike, especially amongst the Order where such skilled people are hard to come by.

Bynes stood over Stone with a rather snobbish look on his face. "You had better survive journey back to Toledo, or I will be most displeased."
"Doctor, he most certainly won't survive if the nomads spot us. We should worry about those in the land of the living before those with a foot in the grave."
"I will hear your opinion when I deem necessary Sergeant, until then, do stop the contents of your jarhead from spilling out."

Sergeant Jackson had an expression that resembled the face of a dog that had just been kicked out and hosed. He would normally bite the head off any un-ranked staff who would say such a thing. However, Dr. Bynes was respected by several powerful people and it would be unwise to earn his ire.

With a few button presses and the pulling of levers, the pod detached itself from the Retribution just before the remaining ammunition detonated. The brilliant colours and heat signatures seemed to distract the nomads as they did not notice the last survivors heading towards the Omicron Minor jump hole.

---

As the pod floated through into Minor, it was greeted by a small patrol consisting of a handful of snubcraft.

This is Omega-Lead, do you copy?
"Yes, hello? This is Dr. Bynes, escort us to Toledo."
"Ah, okay, before we do that, could you tell us your status?"
"Important, now take me to Toledo. I need to access my Laboratory."
"Well we were tasked with finding survivors from the recent catastrophe, I take it you lot were aboard the Retribution?"
"Yes, now cease wasting time, I'm a busy man."

The pilot with the call sign Omega-Lead made a gun out of his fingers and mimed shooting himself in the temple. After he had finished making several gestures that resembled blood spraying from the opposite side of his head, he hit the comm switch.

"As you wish, Doctor."

"Careful now, he was hurt bad enough during the onslaught. I don't need some clumsy buffoon injuring him any further." As instructed, Bynes' team transferred the Corporal from the stretcher and on to the operating table as carefully as possible. An audible sigh was heard from the team as the Corporal finally came to rest. "Now I want you all gone, the only hands I trust are my own." The Doctor's tone didn't surprise the medical team; they knew it was best to quietly leave when Bynes was in one of his moods.

As the last of the team left and the door hissed shut behind them, something unusual appeared on Byne's face. A grin. "Let the operation commence." Bynes whispered.

During the coming hours, the only sounds that could be heard in the operating room were the mechanical whirs and hisses of the mechanized medical equipment and a few grunts of approval from the Doctor.

After what seemed to be days in the thearte, all noise had ceased. The operation was complete. Whether it was a success remained to be seen.

The operating theatre was ill lit, save the flood lights shining upon the immobile form of Corporal Stone. It gave the impression that it was some bright monolith in a sea of darkness. The only sound that was audible was the tapping of fingers upon a keyboard. Then there was silence as Doctor Bynes held his finger over the initiate key. He breathed in slowly and spoke "Arise..." The key depressed with a clack.

Stone's mind was somewhere between here and nowhere. Memories and dreams intermingling to form a cloudy haze of uncertainty. "Am I dead or alive? If I'm alive, what is left of me? If I'm dead, am I about to find out what lies beyond?" Suddenly, as if being dragged down by an anchor, Stone's consciousness was pulled away from the haze. Stone gasped awake. His back arched as he felt the pain of his injuries and his arms flailed as if they had their own mind. Stone looked to the lights and squinted; he recognized the equipment and realised he was still alive. His vision leaped forward as if looking through binoculars then back to normal. "What's wrong with me?!"

"Nothing is wrong with you, in fact, you've been improved." Stone flinched at the sound and turned to Bynes. His eyes could see little of the man's features while his vision adjusted. The man suddenly erupted from the darkness in shades of orange and yellow. Stone was more afraid than he had ever been before. What was going on?

"I am Doctor Bynes, I saved you from the Retribution before it was annihilated."
"Yes, I... recognize you."

Stone was afraid to look at himself. What would remain? He took a deep breath and looked down. His arms were of black metal and polymers that gleamed in the light. His chest was lined with several implants that sat just under the skin. Stone screamed. He knew he would lose his arms, but he wasn't prepared to become part machine. "What have you done to me?"

Bynes adjusted his spectacles and lifted a datapad to his face, a satisfied grin decorating it.

"The series 3 type B augmentative prosthesis I have installed include:

• Cranial implants for advanced use of machines and of course control of your other augmentations.
  
• A prosthetic eyeball, capable of enhancing sight with features such as infra red vision and 10x zoom.
  
• Retractable lenses to protect your eyes during combat.
  
• Titanium alloy ribcage replacement capable of producing a miniature graviton shield to protect the heart.
  
• Titanium alloy high performance arm replacements with retractable combat blades and a cigarette lighter.
  

I trust you are satisfied?"

Stone looked down again. He moved his arms experimentally; a blade swung out startling him and cutting a large slice out of the table.

"So what part of me is still human?"
"Sadly, everything below your ribs and most of your face. I do wish I was given more to work with."

Stone sighed. Clearly unhappy at his lack of choice in the matter.

"You may rest for now. I'll have an assistant move you to your accommodations in a few hours."
Bynes began walking into the darkness, towards the door. He stopped for a moment and turned to Stone to say one last thing.

"Oh and congratulations, you're one of a kind."