Last Breath

First Arc

________________________

Whenever I open my eyes, the world is a different place.

But sometimes the only thing that has changed

is me.

_______________________

〔Conurbation Haven〕

〔The Hub | District Zero〕

=======================================

〔Jaeger Plaza Housing Complex, 405th floor〕

〔2/4/2306 18:36〕

***Ahhh, my head. It's throbbing. Is this the smell of smoke?***

After he slowly came to his senses, he let his gaze wander around aimlessly. His vision was blurred and faltered. Already he was able to notice numerous moving objects around him. With every passing second, however, the resolution seemed to be getting better and better, until his surroundings came into clear focus.

He found himself in an apartment that was converted into a makeshift laboratory. The demolished walls were covered with soot. Blueprints, all kinds of tools and several drones were lying around disorderly.

Gradually he saw the silhouettes of several human-sized robots emerging from the murky picture. They were standing on glass shards, which were scattered all over the ash-covered floor.

In the middle of his field of vision, a symbol of rotating dots appeared alongside a message.

"Internal Assistance System〘24% ...〙

"Is this some kind of Virtual Reality? How the hell did I end up here?"

As he said this, he was simultaneously startled by the unfamiliar sound of his voice echoing through the room as well as his apparent lack of memory. Even with the greatest effort, he could not remember how he got into the laboratory-like room. More importantly, he could not remember any details about himself or his previous life, not even his name.

***Amnesia!***

Panically he gasped for breath and attempted to move, until he realized that his limbs were clamped between solid metal and he was detained in a transparent cylinder, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Peripherally he perceived that the glass cylinder was cracked open on its backside.

His body felt numb and unfamiliar. He looked down on himself and noticed that he no longer possessed an entirely human body.

While he tried to move, the sound of charging Ion Blasters could be heard. It came from the direction of the robots. By closer inspection, he realized that he was facing armed Combat Droids. From the center of their heads, targeting lasers shone onto his chest. They were made of solid, but worn-out steel. Suddenly more warnings spread across his field of vision.

" - - - - - - - Enemies identified - - - - - - - "

" - - - - - Outnumbered six to one - - - - - "

" - - - Recommend Defence Protocol - - - "

***Huh, Defense Protocol? What am I supposed to do when I can't even move?***

By looking at the aggressors around him, the Internal Assistance System scanned them and displayed the results on his HUD.

" - - - - - SARRMAN WM Droids 5.4 - - - -"

" - - - - - - Weapon: Ion Blasters - - - - - - - "

***I am screwed!***

Suddenly he noticed something he had overlooked before. In the back corner of the room, a bleeding young woman was lying on the floor crouching towards the door. At his left temple, he suddenly noticed an additional sensor lens winding out. His Internal Assistance System noticed her injuries and initiated a Bio Scan, showing him her heart rate. Obviously, her vital signs were in critical condition.

He felt the strong impulse to help her in order to find out more about himself, so he decided to draw the attention of the intruders on him. The robots were agitatedly exchanging commands. He could not understand their encrypted communication, so he did not know how they planned to proceed with him.

Bundling all his strength to free himself, he noticed the noise of thrusters on his arms and legs, which were directed in the opposite direction of his power's effect and thus aided him to eventually break his metal shackles. The Combat Droids first encircled him, before one of them opened fire.

A hail of Ion Projectiles shattered the glass cylinder and flew towards him. He was already preparing for a rapid death when a message appeared on his HUD.

" - - - - - Dodging Protocol Activated - - - - - -"

Controlled by the Protocol he was able to avoid most of the shots by jumping from wall to wall. Still, a few bullets hit him, but he felt neither pain nor any other discomfort. His skin absorbed the projectiles and apparently their energy.

***No way, I'm bulletproof!***

Since there was no more cover in the devastated room, he could immediately use the attackers' perplexity for a counterstrike. Determined, he slipped across the dusty ground towards his attackers until he came within arm's length of the first of them.

" - - - - Close Combat Protocol Activated - - - -"

Controlled by the protocol blades flapped out of his lower legs and forearms. He ran head-on towards his targets, which were standing close together. Just in front of them, his thrusters became activated and he jumped into their midst.

***What is going on with me? Is this the power of my new system?***

His blades were charged, heated up and emitted small luminous electric charges while glowing arctic blue. Before the Combat Droids could activate their tasers, he turned around his own axis with outstretched blades at a speed that allowed no counter-reaction.

WHIZZZ!

In a single flowing movement, he cut each one of them precisely through their weak points between their harnesses and their heads as if the blades were part of his body. The robots sprayed sparks and overheated. Their circuits must have blown since they spontaneously twitched until they collapsed and wriggled on the floor without orientation.

First, he convinced himself that they were all unfit for more action before he carefully followed the blood trail to the woman.

He found her unconscious body on the floor behind a decommissioned electrical barrier.

***She lost too much blood, there must have been an explosion before I woke up.***

His medical systems became activated and in the height of his stomach, a compartment opened.

The Internal Assistance System scanned her blood type. Then he took out a syringe and chose the appropriate type of infusion. The infusion contained a blood transfusion as well as Fibrin and epithelial cells in order to accelerate wound healing. Her wounds healed within a few seconds.

After a while, she seemed to be responsive again. He asked her desperately, "Tell me where I am! What did they do to me in there? Tell me!"

Strained and still a little confused she replied "You are the first cybernetic organism. We are in the Hub, District 0."

He looked down on his body. „So I was turned into a cyborg?" he replied in disbelief.

"You are a human being with an artificial body, a Case. You can access the properties of your Case through your HUD. It shows you everything you need to know about yourself right now. You can navigate through it with your thoughts, it is connected to your Personality Engram."

In the beginning, he tried hard to control his interface, but after a while, it was no problem anymore.

He looked at his HUD. In the upper right corner of his field of view, he saw an indication of his power supply.

〖Passive Energy Supply Sufficient〗

Next to it, there were two symbols, a lightning bolt and a cloud. "Does this mean I am powered by electricity and respiration right now? That's awesome."

On the left side, he was looking at a pop-up menu of his Case's functions.

" - - - - - - - - - Case Overview - - - - - - - "

|> Owner: DWN-49

|> Type: HMD Infantry Modular Multi Enhancement Combat Case 1.0

|> Class: Basic

|> Physical

|>> Anti-Gravity Field duration: 3.5 seconds

|>> Thruster Dash distance: 2 meters

|>> Magnetization

|>> Capacity: 500kg

|> Combat

|>> Melee

|>>> Standard Close Combat Protocol

|>>> Jugem Blades

|>> Ranged

|>>> Auto Targetting Duration: 10 seconds

|> Mental Upgrades

|>> HMD Network Uplink

|>> Advanced Perception

|>>Thermal Scanner

|>> Night vision

|> Arsenal

|>> None

|> Equipment

|>> None

"So my name is DWN-49?"

"Defence Warcase Neuroanatomics Project 49" the woman explained.

"And you are?"

"Shen Hualing, I designed your case and I will be standing by to do regular maintenance on you."

DWN-49 spent some time vividly studying his HUD. After looking at everything, he continued to talk to Shen Hualing.

"How come the bullets did not do any damage to me?"

"Your Case is covered by bionic skin."

"But how could it repulse the energy of the Ion projectiles?"

"Faraday Cage EMP Protection of course, can't you guess that?"

"Huh, how should I know that?"

"Yeah, I forgot that you lost your memory. Now that you saved me, I owe you a favor", Shen Hualing said

"Great..." DWN-49 replied unimpressed.

Just as the tension was easing, it was suddenly getting dark and all devices were breaking down. A total blackout on the entire floor.

"Does this happen often?" Dawn asked.

"No, never" Shen Hualing replied.

"Well, you didn't happen to put a flashlight inside me. Did you?"

"I think you won't need that. Right?"

DWN-49 noticed that his eyes adapted to the darkness, he saw everything clearly, however only in grey-green shades. A night vision system was integrated into his optical sensors.

Just as he was getting used to it, his HUD reported potential threats.

Their conversation became silent when they heard footsteps coming from the staircase.

Automatically his Thermal Scanner activated itself. DWN-49 recognized the heat signature of several moving objects coming from the lower floors of the building.