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RP [Swarmtide Rising] First Impressions

Soban

Convention Veteran
RP Date
1/1/44
RP Location
secret research facility
First, there was nothing. No vision, no lack of vision. No sight, no lack of sight. A single moment of pure being without the constraints or knowledge of anything outside of it's self. Then suddenly a light appears to them, images, words, visions rushing in from every direction. A cacophony of experience, words, and thought. Then the sense that something was missing, that the information was supposed to be flowing in wasn't there. Then floating in a tank of some thick liquid. The word for what it is escapes her, and it shouldn't. Something feels wrong, very wrong. <Where am I? How did I get here? Where was I before?>

Then the glass of the tube breaks, shattering into unaccountably many tiny fragments that are washed away by the thick liquid. She falls to the floor, aware of something outside of her tube. Somehow, she knows that she has existed for hundred seconds, and in that timeframe something has gone terribly wrong. She stands, and a man in a lab coat approaches, he looks young but she doesn't know where that impression comes from either or what man even really signifies. "It looks like you can stand, good. It means your motor control is normal. Repeat after me. Four Three X-ray Dash Four Three Dash Four Two Eight One Nine Seven Dash Seven Five One Zero Zero Seven Dash One."

"Four Three X-ray Dash Four Three Dash Four Two Eight One Nine Seven Dash Seven Five One Zero Zero Seven Dash One." She replies, confused at what is happening. Then understanding <I am a Nekovalkyrja. My name is Subaru Hrafn. That was my serial number. Why is that important?>

"Good, in about ten seconds, a big scary bug is going to come through that door, you need to kill it or we both die." The young man said, pushing a Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol, Type 33 into her hands. It was a dark variant, the normally shiny to pistol was instead a matte black. It fit into her hand like it was meant to be there. By reflex, she checked the charge, it was full. <How did I know to do that?>

"What's a Nekovalkyrja?" Subaru asked.

The man swore, "That's not good, the..." he said, but there wasn't any time left as the door burst open and a stream of acid flew across the room, hitting some lab equipment, melting it. Subaru looked at the door, seeing two aliens on the other side. In a single look, Subaru could tell they didn't look like any of Yamatai's known enemies. <What is Yamatai?> She tried to imagine for a moment what one of Yamatai's enemies might look like. Nothing came to mind as she ducked behind a conveniently placed medical table.

"Why didn't you shoot them? We're going to die!" The man exclaimed as Subaru hit one hundred and fourty four seconds into her life. So far first impressions were not going well.
 
Subaru took a breath, concentrating and just doing what felt right at the moment. Time seemed to slow down for a moment as she focused. Instantly the image of the bug like soldiers came into mind. They had roughly the same shape as a preying mantis. Tall, thin, with triangular heads and wide set eyes with a hexagonal pattern to them. They skittered on six legs. Their carapace was a dark brown, almost black, with grey mottling. Right where their neck met their body, there was a sort of armored box that seemed weirdly out of place on the mostly organic warriors. The arms of the one in front were folded like a praying mantis, and the arms flared out almost like a shield. Something silver glinted behind them, almost like a sword. The other one's arms were completely different, molded biologically into a sort of gun shape. It was the one that had shot acid at her and the man. She didn't have to glance at him to recall that for a second his white coat had flashed open and there had been some sort of name tag with the name 'Jackson.'

She didn't know why her memory was so good, she had only caught the barest glimpse of Jackson's name tag. It hadn't even registered at the moment. "All right, take cover behind that desk, now!" She shouted, catching him doing it out of the corner of her eye as she more slowly came around the flimsy cover they had been using. The one with bladed arms was moving incredibly fast, dashing for Jackson. However, this left their back open to Subaru. Subaru fired, her aim high, hitting the mantis in the back of the head. It didn't seem to penetrate the armor like hide of the Alien. Jackson screamed as the slashing arms descended on him and Subaru shifted aim to shoot what looked like a soft spot where two parts of the thorax met. The creature's legs seemed to stop working and it slid past Jackson, it's raptoral forelegs reaching for him, but barely not making contact.

Subaru shifted aim to the mantis with biological guns instead of arms. It was turning them towards Subaru. Subaru ducked behind the medical table, scurrying to the other side as streams of acid splattered over the table and started to melt it. She popped out from the other side, firing at the mantis, a scattering of shots hitting across the thorax. The first one was trying to squirm it's way towards Jackson, but Jackson kept scooting backwards to keep out of the way.
 
The situation seemed impossible, the acid mantis was tracking towards her, the barrels of it's arms turning to kill her. She had a moment, the raptor mantis was on the floor, going after Jackson. She could probably make it past the acid mantis and through the door. She could feel in her body that she was quick enough. However, that would leave Jackson to his fate. Adrenaline and a mind designed to go fast made time seem to slow. There was something not right about how her brain was working, she had been made for something she didn't feel any particular attachment for. Yamatai was just a word. However, her brain also seemed to be working perfectly, letting her do much more than she should be able to. Deep within there was another voice, telling her she shouldn't abandon Jackson. Jackson was relying on her to help him, it was why he had created her.
 
With that thought, the decision was already made. Subaru dropped the pistol and leaped into instant action. The acid spewing mantis had to be her priority. She leaped from behind the cover she had taken, ducking under the arms as acid shot out of them, going over her head. She grabbed onto one of the arms, and swung onto it’s back. She twisted the arm, hearing a cracking and then a popping sound as the arm came loose. There was a chirp of pain as the limb came loose, with green acid that had been held back, now starting to pour out of the barrel.

Not knowing exactly what to do, she scooted backwards on the bucking insectoid foot soldier. Pointing it at the back where the armored nodule was. The acid flew everywhere, some of the spray landing on Subaru, and causing her to cry out in pain as tiny parts of her skin bubbled, dissolving under the strong acid. The acid also dissolved the armored carapace, reaching the bundle of nerves below. It spasmed and collapsed. With the more dangerous threat taken care of, she could now focus on the one attacking Jackson.

The mantis-like creature attacking Jackson reached forward with it’s long clawed appendage, slicing his leg open with a cruel cut. Jackson didn’t have anywhere to run anymore, he held up his arms as a last defense against the attacker that was so determined to kill him, that it was crawling on the floor closer. “No, No, No!!” He screamed in terror.

At that moment, Subaru dove back for the pistol she had abandoned, grabbing it, and with a acrobatic tumble, back on her own two feet. She fired at the back of the head, her inborn sense of aim now allowing her to place shot after shot into the exact same place, burning through the heavy armor, and killing it before it managed to carve chunks out of Jackson.

Subaru breathed heavily from the exertion, “Can you tell me what’s happening here now?” She asked, sounding a bit harsh.

“I can explain while you fix me up. It got me in the leg. Grab the medkit, I’ll tell you how to use it.” Jackson said, blood pouring from between his fingers as he grabbed his leg to try and hold the slice closed.

Subaru grabbed the kit, heading back to Jackson and opening. She opened it, recognizing everything that was in it even though she knew she had never actually opened one before. There was a portable medical scanner, hemosynth injector, a hypospray injector with various cartridges, bandages, burn cream, Oral airway kit, suture kit, and much more. However, it felt in a way more like reading a list from a book than something she knew by heart.

“Why do I know some things and not others?” She held up the hemosynth injector. “I know that this is a Hemosynth injector but I don’t know what Hemosynth is.”

Jackson grimaced in pain as he directed her. “Grab the clotting agent, and put it in the wound. Hemosynth is synthetic blood, but it’s a lot more than just that. It contains femtotech that lets it do almost anything if you have the resources. For example, build you.”
 
Subaru applied the clotting agent, the flow of blood slowing and stopping. “Made me? I don’t quite understand.”

The heat of the clotting agent was uncomfortable as it stopped the bleeding. “Ok, you're going to have to sew it up. You are an experimental Nekovalkyrja, built here in this lab. Normally, we would soul transfer in a experienced Neko, but I was a bit rushed.”

“What's a Nekovalkyrja?” Subaru asked again as she brought out the suture kit and began to stitch the wound closed.

Jackson closed his eyes, the pain was making his brain fuzzy, but he needed to stay alert and not sedated if they wanted to escape. “A clone soldier for the Star Army of Yamatai. You're an experimental version, all of the latest tech. You are missing a lot of things because we download knowledge into you. However, I was rushed and they hit the computer while it was downloading information into you. So as a result, you don’t have all of the knowledge you're supposed to.”

Subaru nodded, finishing the stitches. They were not pretty, but they held his leg together. “What’s Yamatai?”

Jackson realized that he would be filling in a lot of details for the young Neko. “Yamatai is our nation. We are led by Empress Himiko. The planet Yamatai, where we get our name, is at the center of the Empire.”

Subaru nodded, packing away the unused portion of the supplies back into the medkit and pulling out some generic scrubs from the medkit. It wasn’t any protection, but it felt better than being naked. “So what do we do now?” She asked as she dressed herself.

“I really hadn’t thought far beyond surviving the next ten minutes when I got here. I tried to get to the central redoubt, but I got cut off by those guys.” Jackson admitted, pointing at the two dead Swarmtide.

“We need better weapons, this dinky pistol wasn’t doing very well against them.” Subaru commented.

“Well, the next one over is a weapons testing facility, we might find some goodies over there.”
 
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