Of Flesh and Steel

Vivian picked through the rubble of an old decrepit building. She came across something unique under the rubble, a stainless steel trapdoor with a keypad indented in the floor next to it. She'd heard about such doors and the treasures that could be found within. She started clearing the rubble excitedly to uncover the rest of the door and her heart sank. There was a giant hole in the center of the door. Sighing to herself she pulled out her sun light and shined it into the hole.

A stairwell loomed below going so far down that even her light couldn't see the bottom. She fought back the renewed excitement and reminded herself safety first. Even if the stairwell was in good shape there could be dangers below. The Fleshraider cannibals, the mechanized defenses of the old world, or even Reavers. She shuddered at the last thought, it was as though someone had dumped ice water on her excitement. She pulled a magpull off her belt and stuck it on the bottom of the door to act as an anchor. Pulling the other off and sticking on the wrist slot in her protective gear, she started her descent into the unknown.

Traveling down the stairwell she marveled at the architecture that would let something like this withstand the ages since it had been built, at least there would be something worth scavenging even if it had been looted beforehand. She paused as she came to a set of blast doors. There was a hole in the center of them with scorch marks around the edges, but this time there were slashes in the metal surrounding the hole as if a giant spider had scrabbled to stand before sinking plasma laden fangs through the heavy doors. Vivian had never seen anything like it in her 19 years of life, but she had heard similar stories from survivors. Reavers.

The thought of the destructive fusion of flesh and machine with the capability of changing it's shape, the veritable armory of destructive weaponry, and the ability to harvest flesh from its victims to repair any damage to itself was enough to make every hair on her body stand on end. She almost turned away but her need for the tools of her survival overrode her sense of danger.

She took out another magpull and rubbed it against the one in her gauntlet to charge the magnetic field. Sticking the the magpull disc to the underside of the latest hole she turned the dial on her gauntlet and set it to -2 then hopped down the hole. The magnetic pull was slighlty less than her weight so she drifted down slowly, her sun light illuminating her surroundings. After about five minutes of drifting she saw a shape laying at the bottom.

Straining her eyes she saw what looked like four serrated poles ending in razor sharp points connected to a large sphere. She froze, not even daring to breathe, it was a Reaver. She quickly reached for the dial on her wrist to crank the dial up to ten, but stopped at the last second. There wasn't any flesh on the monster and the glowing green eye that all the stories talked about wasn't present. This shouldn't be possible as nobody had ever killed a Reaver before. If it was truly dead then whatever killed it would be down here. That alone was worth her life, No it was worth a thousand lives, she thought to herself.

She landed squarely on its spiderlike abdomen and slid down to the floor to look at it. A thick layer of dust had accumulated all around the Reaver. She swept her light around the large space and saw a hole where the reaver had laid its last deadly gaze. She stepped through and into a passageway beyond. She pulled out her fourth and final magpull disc and activated it, sticking it on the wall by the hole while hoping that there wouldn't be too many twists and turns.

Luckily the corridor was straight with rooms off to the sides. The glass windows were shattered, but even the Reavers blast hadn't managed to destroy the doors. At the end of the passage she came to the object of the creatures ire. A door, the outside melted to slag, but still relatively intact. She blinked then started to inspect the door. After a while she noticed a keypad and sighed with relief. Pulling some equipment out of her bag she set to work. First she removed the panel then connected her omnihacker to the wires using the transference of energy to forcefully activate the door. It hissed with the sound of a hermetic seal and opened two inches, but that was enough.

Next she pulled out a short bar and stuck it lengthwise in the opening. She activated the vibrobar and the rest of the door fell apart as its molecules were vibrated into dust. She tested the air and discovered that it was amazingly clear of contaminants, so she pulled her helmet off and shook out her long dark hair. Shining the light into the room she noticed the body of a man holding a heart shaped pendant, preserved perfectly thanks to the seal sitting in a corner. She walked up and plucked the pendant out of his hand, and as she did a light started blinking inside. She clicked it open and almost immediately dropped it as a man's voice came out of it. It began to speak as she watched in amazement.

Day 1: God this is dumb. Do I really have to do this? Oh alright fine. Here it goes, My name is Davon Fields and I am the lead scientist on Project R33 version 262, or as we like to call it Project Reaver. Ha ha real funny Janice, anyway we are attempting to fuse the human conscious with machine AI in an attempt to shore up our weaknesses as humans. Also the immortality aspect is nice. Hey Janice, how often do I have to do this? WHAT! Once a damn month? Are you kidding me? Good Gods, all right journal this is me signing off

Day 31: Hi journal, we figured out the neural linkage issue we were having when Hoshi banged his elbow against the keyboard while playing his handheld. You can't tell from this but I'm facepalming as we speak. Although I guess it puts the age old adage that if technology doesn't work just bang on it until it does. Anyways, with that out of the way we are almost ready for human trials. Gorski is super psyched to be the first immortal among us. Welp, I have work to do. See Ya later journal.

Day 45: Big news journal! We are finally ready. Gorski is getting ready for copy and transference as I'm speaking to you. I can't wait to see the fruition of our hard work.

Day 46: It was a success. Gorski 2.0 is now active. He's so proud of our brain child that he's breaking out his special vodka from home. The data analytics system blended perfectly with his brainwaves and the AI is in perfect synchronization with it. Little Gorski is already off the charts with its IQ and getting smarter by the minute. Hoshi said he wants to go next but Janice has dibs. Later Journal I've got some drinking with actual people to do.

Day 50: We had to move to Site B. Something happened after we uploaded Janice. I'm not sure how, but her consciousness tried to combine with Gorski's and the two separate AI's collided in the mix. The resulting overload collapsed the collective intelligence and blew our equipment up. Poor Hoshi was shredded by the equipment and somehow the wireless transmitter in Gorski and Janice turned into receivers . They are both comatose with next to zero brain function. We transferred them to the nearest hospital.

Day 85: Sorry it has been so long journal. We messed up. None of us realized that the neural links had switched to transmit and would link up to the web. The AI merged with the primal brain. Instead of increasing its intelligence it enhanced the base instincts of our primal nature and created a body that could do it too. Gods forgive us.

Day 382: I finally figured it out. The virus that will sever the connection between the primal brain and the AI. Flesh and machine have become so codependent on each other that the severing destroys the function of both. I've uploaded the code to our main broadcast system. Hopefully this will end everything that has plagued humanity since our fools mission.

(His voice is now barely distinguishable over the sirens)

Day 383: I don't have much time. It takes three hours to affect the complexities of the Reavers and they can pinpoint the broadcast as soon as it starts. I've uploaded the virus to this journal. I'm so sorry. Please forgive us.

Vivian stared at the pendant as the transmission ended. Anger, pity, hatred, and a profound sadness filled her. She sat down next to the body of the man who had helped end the world.

"Davon you're a real asshole. But I guess someone has to clean up your mess huh."

She pressed the pendant to her gauntlet and watched the scanning screen from her eye implant. When it finished she stood up and walked to the door. Pausing for a moment she turned to face him her native features contorted in sadness and tears in her eyes.

"Rest easy Davon. Our fight begins now."

She turned the dial up to six and let the magpull discs zip her to the surface. Looking towards the horizon for a moment she turned and started walking through the wasteland towards the nearest settlement, knowing this was the day the Resistance truly began.