It's the exciting climax of the Nomad Conflict. The battle rages around the Nomad shipyard. Small single pilot fighters and bombers flit between capital ships, dodging fire from alien gunboats while chasing the screaming engines of the Nomad Fighters. Taden Harrs stands rigidly on the bridge of the LSF Syracuse barking orders at his well trained crew. The Syracuse was in top shape and on point, dishing out heavy damage to one of the Nomad Cruisers under construction while her multitude of turrets rained laser death on all alien vessels within targeting range. The combat was intense and Taden was in his element at the command podium.
Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the Syracuse trouble is gathering. The small team of Infected insurgents that has been slowly infiltrating the crew over the port stops on the long journey from Liberty to the outer-rim systems. Now, this group of saboteurs gathered just ahead of the engine bay. They all huddled in a tight group around a complex metallic device that was emitting a faint white light and humming. As the light intensified, so did the humming, until it was a nearly deafening whooshing roar surrounding a blinding light. Then there was a concussive CLAP, knocking all of the alien terrorists flat on their backs in the pitch blackness.
Back on the bridge, totally unaware of the gathering Infected in the pits of his ship, Taden Harrs is in the middle of commanding the crew to begin targeting the next alien cruiser when the deck begins to shudder. Its subtle at first, and Taden thinks it must just be heavy blaster fire, but it's soon apparent that is not the case. The slight shudder slowly becomes a violent shaking of the entire ship, and some strange white light seemed to be coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Then, CLAP... Darkness!
Taden stood at the command podium staring in disbelief... The battle was gone! There was nothing on the outer monitors and view screens but distant stars and the blackness of space! "WHAT THE F*** JUST HAPPENED", he shouted and was met with blank stares and shrugging shoulders. Half a second later, an engineer barreled through the door onto the bridge.
"Captain!", he cried out, "I don't know what happened! Comms are out all over the ship! There was a bright light and a loud noise from the engine bay and then we were all knocked flat on our asses!" The man was hysterical and yelling almost incoherently.
"SUNS HOLEY FIRE!" Harrs yelled as he spun away from the command area and charged down the hallway to the lift. He had to find out how his ship had gotten somehow teleported away from the most glorious combat Taden had ever been in! He got in the lift and punched the keycode for the engine bay. When the lift pod began moving, Taden's personal communicator began trilling. He slapped the comm-bud on his neck and said, "Whats going on?"
"Mutiny, Captain" came the whispered answer. "That man that came in yelling jumped up as soon as you left. He took the bridge hostage with two other crewmen... One of them was the ensign on the comms." The man paused for a moment and Taden held his breath. Then he continued, "I'm hiding in the bulkhead. It was damaged when they were fighting. I'm sorry Captain."
Taden keyed his comm, "Dont say that, you did good Number One, I'm proud of you." Taden thought for a second then spoke very deliberatly so as to be well understood, "You need to get to your personal interface in your quarters Geoffryy", from there you can enter the second command line for the ships self destruct sequence,"
"But sir!", Geoffryy interrupted, "Blow up the ship!?"
"Quiet you nitwit! You'll give away your position! We have no idea how many of these Infected bastards have gotten onboard, but we can't allow them to take control of the ship!" Taden was still speaking in a slow, controlled manner. "We need to destroy the ship. A general alarm will sound when the sequence is initiated and the crew should be able to safely evacuate, but we've got to do this quickly before those alien sympathizing scum take control and reprogram the damn computer!" By the end of his speech, the emotion was too much to hold back and practially shouted the last command at his second in command.
"I understand", said Geoffryy
"Good, get it done and get your ass of the ship! Taden out.", and with that he raced down the hall out of the lift pod strait toward the engineering bay. When he arrived he immediately noticed the smoking hunk of metal that must have been some kind of experimental teleportation device. It was useless to ponder, so he quickly approached the control console and began to input the destruct command. As soon as he entered the command the ships red-alert alarm went off. Geoffrll must have made it to his comm unit safely.
Taden turned to head toward an escape pod when he heard an ear-shattering BANG and his right shoulder exploded with pain! Blood splattered out from the front and back of his shoulder where the bullet passed through shattering his shoulder joint. Harrs fell to one knee and drew his sidearm in one fluid motion. Even with the pain in his shoulder he placed a shot right into the sternum of the Infected insurgent that had come in while he was setting the self destruct. The alien host fell backwards and Taden struggled to his feet. He would have to hurry if he wanted to get out before detonation. He stumbled out of the engine bay into the hallway toward the fighter hangar. He was hurriedly hobbling toward the escape pods when a screaming mad Infected crew mate leapt out from an adjoining bulkhead. The madman was hissing and spit was dribbling off his enraged face as he knocked Taden to the floor with a thick thump. Taden struggled to get out from under the slobbering Infected, but the turncoat stabbed a fist-knife deep into Harrs's leg. Taden screamed out in pain and clubbed his assialant over the head with the butt of his firearm. The man slumped unconscious and Taden heaved himself free. He struggled to his feet and started limping towards the relative safety of an escape pod.
Once Taden reached the lift pod and punched in the hangar level the ship gave a shuddering heave. Taden was tossed up nearly to the ceiling and crashed back down, jarring his bleeding leg. When the lift pod doors opened, Taden spilled out into the hallway like a heavy sack of sand. He struggled up onto his feet and was just starting to move toward the escape pod wing when he noticed the strange lack of action. There was no commotion, no scrambling crew mates trying to get into escape pods before time ran out. Taden stopped for a brief moment to check a wall comm display... "HOLEY Mother of the Stars!" he exclaimed. The countdown timer was a good ten minutes further along than he though it should be! He must have fallen unconscious when he smashed back to the ground in the lift pod. He had only minutes before the ship would detonate! No wonder there was no rushing bodies hurrying to the pods... they had already left minutes ago!
Taden's eyes widened with panic, his heart began to race along with the thoughts in his head. He had to move as fast as he could or he was not going to make it out alive. He pressed on as fast as he could, half limping, half dragging his bleeding leg behind him. As he turned the corner to the escape pod wing his eyes met a scene of pure chaos. Cargo, supplies, weaponry, and even deceased or unconscious crew members were scattered about the floor. As he stumbled forward, looking for an unused escape pod, Taden's foot caught on something hard, jarring him to the floor. He looked down and saw the half open lid of a field med-kit. His heart jumped. Taden reached out and painfully pulled the hardcase over to himself. He quickly flopped it open and began rummaging through the hectic mess within. Eureka! Taden pulled his hand out clutching a med-stim epidural. He wasted no time in jamming the business end into the thigh that was still slowly hemorrhaging blood. A slight wave of euphoria washed over him, but he couldn't let it slow him down. He reset the med-stim and administered another dose directly into his wounded shoulder and cried out in agony as the crushed bone encountered the sharp lancet of the epidural. Taden gritted his teeth and shoved himself to his feet. It was clear that there would be no escape pods left for him to use, so gripping the med-stim in one hand and supporting most of his weight against the wall with the other, Harrs made his way back towards the hangar bay.
By the time he reached the hangar the powerful anesthetic was allowing him to move with a bit more ease, and he was definitely going to need to move. The hangar was another calamitous scene with wrecked Starflyers and Defenders littering the hangar bay floor. He had almost given up hope when Taden spotted an intact Starflyer turned on its side near the far side of the hangar. He shuffled his lame leg over debris and around sparking machine parts and eventually made his way to the overturned ship. Other than being on its side, the tiny ship seemed to be in good condition, and when he keyed the cockpit latch it swung slowly open with a satisfying hissss. Taden was strapping himself into the sideways cockpit when a thought struck him. Who was going to open the hangar bay doors? Years of tactical and practical combat experience flashed through his mind and Taden slammed the hatch shut while keying on the ignition and weapon systems.
The light fighter roared to life around him and he mashed both the throttle and the trigger down as hard as he could. Hot flames spat out of the engine behind him and hot lasers spewed forth in front. The Starflyer skated across the hangar bay floor sending sparks and bits of debris showering in all directions. Laser fire pulsed into the hangar bay doors and Taden struggled to keep them trained on the same spot through the violent acceleration towards his target. As he neared critical distance, Taden thumbed the fighters weapon controls and a Catapult missile flew from the tiny ship. With a massive explosion it impacted the bay doors exactly where he had been training the laser fire and with a tremendous whoosh of decompression the hull was breached. Continuing to spray lasers in an attempt to widen the gap as much as possible, Taden pushed the little bullet of a ship at maximum velocity strait at the whistling hole.
SKREEEAANCH! With a horrendous tearing metal sound, the Starflyer shot out of the minuscule breach in the hangar door. The impact tore off all the stabilizing fins and ripped a giant gash in the main engine. The thrusters sputtered and died out. The tiny ship was spinning uncontrollably with no way to change speed or direction. Taden took a deep breath and administered the last dose from the med-stim straight into his neck. He could feel the drugs from the first two epidurals really kicking in and he was about to start drifting in and out of consciousness, when at a distance of less than one hundred meters, the Syracuse went critical.
The blast drove Taden into his seat with a force over 15G! He blacked out immediately. His craft was nearly ripped apart and if the engines had been active they would have also gone critical and blown Taden into space dust with the rest of the crew left behind on the doomed Syracuse. Instead, the tiny craft was rocket propelled into the unknown blackness of space. Tumbling with no engines, life support barely active, and electrical systems on the bare edge of functional, Taden's limp, bleeding, comatose body hurtles through space on a collision course with destiny...
The tiny Starflyer tumbled through the inky blackness of space. Inside, an unconscious starship captain takes shallow, labored breaths of thin, nearly oxygenless air. He is bleeding in several locations and it is clear that he will not survive much longer. Time flies by, as do the stars swimming past the cockpit window at dizzying speed. Taden does not see the spinning stars, or the flashing warnings on the cockpit console. He cant notice the blinking light, growing in intensity as the distance to it shrinks. He is unable to observe the Observer. As the strange looking and extremely advanced science research vessel approaches it activates a point energy manipulation device in its forward array and begins to slow the derelict Starflyers momentum. Soon. the rotation is subdued and the approaching vessel can easily match its trajectory for interception. The science vessel comes within a few meters of the powerless ship and a grappling arm extends, gently gripping the Starflyer. With a firm grip, the tiny ship is maneuvered into the hangar of the research frigate before the arm returns to its original placement.
On the bridge of the expansive frigate, the crew is giddy with anticipation. What had initially appeared to be nothing more than stray debris from the nearby explosion had revealed itself to be in actuality a symbolic space geode. With the outer shell of mundane metal and the crystalline interior of organic matter, this bauble from space held untold possibilities for the scientists onboard. Once the cargo was secured in the hangar bay, a team of biologic researchers scanned the derelict ship for organic contamination. After it was determined to be safe a technical crew set out removing the severely damaged cockpit exterior to assess the condition of the as yet unidentified organics within. The expert team made short work of their task and it was not long before the familiar HISSSS of decompression filled the otherwise silent hangar. As the cockpit plating was removed an emergency medical team was summoned with hushed urgency. The huddled organic mass in the cockpit was a MAN!
He looked like he had been through Hell. He was severely burned and bleeding. He had several broken bones, severe head trauma, and was barely breathing. It was apparent that he had been trapped in this spinning tomb for some time. He had lost a significant amount of blood and his wounds and extremities had lost most of the color in the flesh. The medical team worked carefully but quickly to remove him from the tangled mess of wires and burned cockpit bits. Once freed from the mechanical deathtrap the medics put him on a fast track to the infirmary where he would be chemically sedated and have his most life threatening wounds attended to.
It was no small task. The patient had lost so much blood that most of his limb extremities had atrophied to the point of needing amputation. Unfortunately, the small medical facility onboard the Observer was insufficient for the necessary task. He was placed into a chemically induced coma and had his external wounds sealed to stop most of the bleeding. The search of the debris field was halted and the research vessel set a course for the outer rim, towards the Core. It was headed to the H+ Clinic. The most advanced research hospital in the galaxy! It would take some time, but Taden would fly again.
Cyber-Augments: CPU, Bio-Suit, Full Left Arm, partial Right Arm, Full Right Leg, Lower Left Leg, Various Internal Upgrades
Owned Ships: <Requiem> Heavy & <Blacktip> Bomber
Current Home:H+ Clinic, The CORE
Taden Harrs (AKA: The Dark Harrs)
Awaken In Darkness
Taden awoke on a cold metal operating table. It was dark, too dark to see anything at all, but he could feel the smooth cold steel of the table against his back. Taden made an effort to turn his head to the side, to see what he could observe, but his neck refused to budge. He made a second attempt, but gave up after a short struggle. Perhaps there was something restraining his head, possibly the same thing that was blocking his vision. He tried to lift his arm and feel around, but it refused to move as well! He tried the other hand, same result. Panic slowly began to creep into Taden's mind. He wanted to thrash about on the table, violently throwing himself to the floor, but his body completely refused to cooperate. He just laid there motionless on the freezing table.
After what felt like hours, but was probably closer to a few seconds, the stark panic began to ease as Taden assessed his situation. He forced himself to calm down. He was not in any pain. He could feel the table beneath him, but was unable to move. He couldn't see anything, either because it was too dark, his vision was blocked by something, or it was possible that he was actually blind! Taden struggled to remember where he was, how he had gotten there, what he was doing before waking up here. Bright, hot pain flashed across his mind. Re could recall nothing. He knew his name. He knew he was a pilot and a ship captain. He knew he was fighting a was against an infectious alien menace called Nomads. The rest was blank. Flashes of fire, blinding darkness, and suffocating pain wracked his minds-eye when he tried to imagine anything from his recent past. His distant past was a blur as well. It didn't hill his brain with electric fuzz when he thought about being a child, but he couldn't form a clear image or memory from his youth either. What was going on here? He couldn't move and he could barely think! The panic started to pry it way into his psyche again. Taden's mind was screaming towards insanity in this prison of black immobility.
Taden was momentarily blinded, then deafened, then bombarded with an inexplicable sensory overload! He tried to close his eyes against the blinding flash, bu once again it seemed that his body refused to obey him. An immeasurable moment later and the chaos ended as abruptly as it started. His vision snapped on with an audible ><CLICK>< and Taden was immediately inundated with an overload of information. Not only could he now see the very well lit and extremely advanced looking medical operating facility that he was trapped in, but a feed of other information was steadily streaming into his consciousness. What appeared to be a system boot check was scrolling down the very edge of his peripheral vision. It ran threw a check of critical systems that he had no recollection of and no clue what they were scanning. Elsewhere in his field of vision, his mind was picking out, highlighting, and cataloguing everything he could see. His brain automatically identified medical equipment, read electrical and chemical signals in the area, and fed him with tactical data involving the entry and egress points and fortified position possibilities. The tremendous flood of information was nearly too much for Taden to handle, and he struggled to maintain both consciousness and his sanity for several seconds. Shortly, without any effort or conscious thought, the noise in his brain caused by his augmented vision cleared and he began to effortlessly process the fluid stream of data he was taking in.
The room he was in must have been nearly silent, as Taden noticed that although he could see his surroundings, he didn't appear to hear anything. Wait, no, hadn't he heard a click when his sight popped on? Mere seconds after his vision returned, Taden heard the fairly familiar static click of an intercom. He tried again to turn his head toward the sound, but was still unable to move. He couldn't even shift his vision to one side or the other, as if even his eyes were paralyzed in his skull.
"Taden Harrs, can you hear me?"
Taden heard her perfectly. It sounded like she was right next to him. He could read the level of her emotions by the tone and camber of her few short words. Somehow, he knew that it was because his hearing was improved or augmented in a similar fashion to his vision. He could even hear in the background of the intercom transmission that someone in the room where the speaker was broadcasting was informing them that 'the subject' was picking up the audio clearly. Could they be monitoring what he saw and heard somehow? Taden was terrified! What was going on here?
"The subject is picking up the audio clearly... ... His emotional state is elevated... ... He is experiencing heightened levels of anxiety and aggression."
"Please, Taden, listen to me. Just try to calm down and I'll explain what is going on to you. My name is Dr. Elyxzer. I'm a cybernetic surgeon here at the H+ Clinic. Can you relax for me so I can explain your situation?"
She sounded very calm and extremely well composed. The Dr.'s words were surprisingly clear and soothing to hear. Taden did relax, bot physically and mentally. He regained his composure and tried to answer Dr. Elyxzer. He wasn't shocked to learn that his vocal abilities were also non-functional. It mattered not. Harrs knew by now that they could read his vital signs and would know he had calmed down more accurately than he could.
"Thank you Taden. I understand this is very difficult for you. I'm going to be blunt with you and try to keep this as short and simple as I can. The direct answer to why you can't move, your vision is strange, and how we can monitor your vitals without interacting with you physically is that a large portion of your body has been replaced with artificial systems and tissues. Before you freak out or demand answers, let me give them to you. This was entirely necessary. A scouting crew found you floating in a derelict fighter with failing life support systems. You were badly injured from what appeared to be violent hand-to-hand combat and had blaster wounds and severe burns on huge patches of your body. Honestly, when I looked at the initial scans from the rescue medical team, I was amazed that you survived at all. You were placed into a medical coma and transported here to the H+ Clinic where we began to repair what organics we could save on your badly damaged physical shell. In truth, there was little we could save. I can go into detail with you sometime, but for now, I'll just tell you that both of your legs, one of your arms and most of the other, many of your internal organs, and even a significant portion of your brain have been replaced with cybernetics. I realize this is a lot to take in, this is why we have kept you immobalized and sedated. Its for your safety, the safety of the equipment and facility, and the safety of all of us here in the monitoring lab. Your new physical body is capable of drastically increased strength, speed, and agility. It may take some time to adjust to your new body. We have a complete physical therapy routine planned to assist in getting you fully functional again... ... Now, I'm going to unlock your speech function so you can respond to me... ... There, How do you feel Taden?"
Another audible ><CLICK>< and Taden felt the muscles in his neck and face relax some. He tried to speak again, but he just uttered a weak, shallow croak. He cleared his throat, which took actual effort, and tried his response again:
Witha raspy harsh, mechanically filtered voice he says: ><Cough><"Yes, I understand. I feel fine. I'm not in pain. I, I can't move. Wha... What do I look like?"
He waited nervously for the response. He knew he must not look anything like he once did. Did he even have a face to look at?! Taden was almost afraid to get the answers he blindly searched for.
"Yes, ok I understand it must be very strange not to be able to control your won body. I promise this is only a temporary measure. This one of the most complete cybernetic replacement procedures we have ever undertaken and we are still very uncertain about the results and your ability to control your new augmented limbs safely. In time, very soon, you will have full unrestricted access to your body. Eventually, we will completely remove the override control systems and you will be free to live unrestricted without needing to fear unwanted external access of your mechanical systems in the future... ... OK, I'm going to unlock your upper extremities. If you sit up and look ahead of you, there is a large floor to ceiling mirror where you can see what you look like. I warn you though. It may not be a pleasant visage for you."
There was another ><CLICK>< and a sharp drawn out HISSSS and Taden felt his back and upper body relax from its rigid position. He let out a groan as he slowly sat forward and took in the sight of his new body. It was a lot to adjust to, but he was glad to be alive. Taden knew that his recovery had just started, but it was clear that his future was going to be a very interesting time!
Cyber-Augments: CPU, Bio-Suit, Full Left Arm, partial Right Arm, Full Right Leg, Lower Left Leg, Various Internal Upgrades
Owned Ships: <Requiem> Heavy & <Blacktip> Bomber
Current Home:H+ Clinic, The CORE
Taden Harrs (AKA: The Dark Harrs)
Becoming the Dark Harrs
[REBOOTING]... Standby...
[LIFE SUPPORT]
[SENSORY SYSTEMS]: Active
[MOBILITY SYSTEMS]: Active
[SUPPORT SYSTEMS]: Active
[WEAPON SYSTEMS]: Active
...
[REBOOTING]: Complete
It was going to take Taden some time to adjust to waking up with a CPU in his mind. Since his augmentation surgery, every day Taden awoke at the predetermined time, his vision snapping 'on' for the lack of a better term. On the up side, he no longer needed to set an alarm. In many ways it was very difficult to adapt to all the changes that being a cybernetic being brought, but often, Taden found, this was simply getting used to the benefits and abilities it bestowed upon him. Lots of it was small things. Like with waking up at a preset time. Taden no longer had to check the time at all. His internal CPU kept track and notified him of the time in relation to any know stellar system he had record of. At first it was strange that he never felt hungry, or thirsty, or tired. As his nutrient and energy intake was now all regulated by his cybernetic systems and administered at his 'Sleep-dock' he no longer needed to eat or drink, and sleeping was really just plugging himself in to recharge for the time allotted. Other things were completely new, like the automatic collision and trajectory information that was constantly provided to him, or the identification; name, organization, rank, known relationships or contacts, etc... of anyone that came into contact with. If they had anything on file with any computer network, be it local or confined to the Neuro-net web system, Taden had that information at his disposal. It was somewhat disturbing to know all these details about every person he spoke to or saw up close.
After the initial conversation with Dr. Elyxzer, Taden had gone back into cybernetic reconstructive surgery. When he awoke the next time, once again jolting awkwardly into consciousness with a rebooting screen greeting, he was relieved to see that the cold mechanical shell that held his brain and other vital organs had been covered with a DNA synchronized skin-graft. Large portions of his face, head, and chest had obvious metal adaptations visible, and he was permanently bound in what the staff here called a 'Bio-Suit', having to breathe through an atomic-ionization mask, but at least he was presentable as a Human instead of some soulless machine. When it was fresh, the skin graft was tender, often being painful and uncomfortable, but Taden was ecstatic that he had genuine feeling in his artificially grown skin. As time went on though, his skin healed onto his new alloy skeleton and he no longer noticed the feeling of it on a regular basis. It felt now just like his natural skin, complete with nerve receptors for touch, heat, and pain. Harrs was amazed by the level of technology these scientists and medical professionals had. He was learning through not only observation, but with conversation with the clinic staff, that they were members of a faction called the Core and had access to the most advanced tech that mankind could engineer. It was very clear to Taden that he would not have survived if he had not been rescued by that Core science recon vessel.
As the days and weeks passed and Taden healed and adjusted to his cybernetic body, he was also trained. His cybernetic body had been packed full of top of the line survival gear, combat augmentations, and experimental weapons systems. He had the ability to mentally command his internal CPU to turn up the functional output of any of his mechanical limbs, allowing him tremendous increases in movement speed, reaction reflexes, and general limb strength. Though he weighed around 900lbs, he could vertically leap onto a head height ledge, about 7 feet for Harrs, with relative ease. He could easily run twice as fast as an average athlete and crush solid granite stones with his bare hand. The Bio-Suit armor he was encased in was completely impervious to most small arms and light laser fire, and it was equipped with a heavy ballistics cloak. This cloak was a heavy, thick, non-Newtonian solid that both dampened the actual inertia of solid rounds and actively refracted even the most powerful handheld lasers currently in use. When he was not on personal down-time or resting in his Sleep-Dock, Taden's head and face were covered by a combination bio-enhancement, sensory augmenting, combat helmet. This helm not only protected him from munitions like the rest of his Bio-suit, but it also provided him with extended targeting capabilities, hazard detection and avoidance, and even low light vision and digital image reconstruction. With enough data about a given engagement and the surrounding area, Taden could actively 'look through walls'! On top of all this, his left hand and arm was completely mechanical and could be reconfigured to interact with nearly any computer or other information processing dock, such as the system operational input consoles of spacecraft and most terrestrial vehicles. And all of this was considered defensive or 'support' tech... The weapons tech that he possessed was on a level considered 'experimental' by most soldiers and scientists alike!
First up in his considerable armament arsenal was something the science geeks around him referred to as the "Super Excited Particle Emitter" or SEPE-cuff. To Taden, it sounded like the sci-guys kept saying 'seep-cuff', but regardless of what it was called, it was devastating. The device was built into the right cuff of his Bio-suit and could be activated with a mental CPU command and a flex of his fist. The cybernetics in his suit register the tightening of the organics in his remaining arm and activate the firing mechanism for the weapon. This compact device emits a ring of excited plasma which is projected towards the target at a regular ballistics speed via magnetic field manipulation. The resulting pulse blast has the effect of vaporizing any soft organic matter it comes into contact with. A direct hit to the chest of an average size man leaves them with a hole the size of their head punched through it and a head-shot completely vaporizes the subjects skull.
Another handy offensive capability that Taden now possessed was located in the massive shoulder-plates of his combat gear. Whenever Taden is not in his Sleep-dock, or the cockpit of a specially designed fighter craft, his Bio-suit is kept in what he considered 'battle mode' where the chest and shoulders retained heavy additional shielding. While in a dock-pod these thick armor additions are disassembled and reconfigured into specially designed 'quick-change' compartments in the dock-pod. While in combat, Taden could give his CPU a mental command and his articulated shoulder-pads would shift to reveal an assortment of bladed projectiles. These advanced blades featured fine control thrusters and a an edge utilizing hypersonic-atomic vibration, which allowed them to easily cut through or penetrate most solid materials. The average marines armor would be cut to ribbons, as protective as wearing sheets of paper. Each blade was approximately the size of a mans hand and vaguely crescent shaped. The tiny control thrusters built into the backsides allowed for both extremely high velocity and target tracking capabilities. Taden's pads were equipped with twelve of these deadly flying sickles, six to each shoulder, and they would be automatically replaced if used whenever he returned to a properly configured dock-pod.
But, the most incredible weapon at Taden's disposal made the destructive power of any of his others look like that of some kind of child's toy. The science engineers that developed it called it the 'Plaz-Blade', and Taden rather liked the name, and the weapon. In simple terms, it was a sword made of super-heated plasma contained within his left arm. With a mental trigger, a compartment in his left forearm opens to reveal a small, intricate cylinder shaped piece of equipment. A mechanical function in his arm moves the cylinder to the palm of his left hand, which transfigures itself in such a way so that each of the fingertips is set into one of four receptacles on the rim of the shiny trinket. The thumg digit is then pressed into the center of the cylinder and it snaps into place with the servo motors in Taden's wrist. There's a loud ><CRACK><, followed by the low constant hum of the plasma being contained within its magnetic field and Taden was now in possession a 3 foot long blade, capable of cutting through any substance currently known to mankind. The entire process of drawing the blade is governed consciously by Taden, and he can stop or reverse activation or extension of the blade at any point. It also takes less than a second to go from being concealed to being a fully functional dispatcher of death.
It took Taden a considerable amount of practice with extending and retracting the blade, before he could even begin learning how to use it properly as a weapon and a tool. Now, months later it, and all of the other considerable modifications to his cyborg body felt just as natural to use as going to the bathroom used to be... Another thing that Taden no longer had to do, and after a time, was glad to be done with. He had become molded into a strong tank of a cybernetic soldier and was ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting Nomad alien menace... Or was he? An interesting communication was about to put Taden on the path to a very interesting future with the Core, and its rambunctious leader, Guildmaster: Jack Daniels