=Central Base=
Caitlyn walked through the dim-lit corridor, accompanied by her own two Elite Androids. Her body was supposed to decompose due to her lack of any circulatory system besides the endoskeleton she possessed, but surprisingly, the research AIs have found a way to use M1(Magic) as a way to prevent decomposition by injecting the liquid form directly into the flesh.
With further help from Caitlyn with her prewar knowledge, it has been rediscovered that Magic was indeed the energy of the fantasy world in which they were in, similar to the Earth's passive Gaia. Though for now, they could only use this M1 as a way to maintain the wormhole which serves as the bridge between Earth and this planet, dubbed Fordalt. And using it as a form of preserver for bodies which lacked essential functions such as a circulatory system.
But, it's only a matter of time before the Machine Empire finds a way to weaponize the M1 against its world.
Caitlyn has been no short of a mystery for Artemis. Her sudden appearance and her mysterious nature of being sadistic yet sympathetic to those around excluding the machines was enough to maintain Artemis' suspicion of her.
Nevertheless, she has contributed so much for the past month since her integration as Artemis' second in command. The Machine Empire has begun to reverse-engineer lost prewar technology in the hopes of finding a way to improve themselves further and undertake research on how to transfer M1 to Earth via the wormhole, most importantly, how to extract M1 from the continent at an industrial scale.
So far, little progress has been made for the latter while significant improvement has been made for the latter. The newly improved Hovercrafts were now indeed prewar hovercrafts unlike their previous versions of just being upgraded ospreys. The hovercrafts still followed closely to the design of the osprey but possessed much more powerful engines and a more flexible aerodynamics system which allowed them to perform flexible maneuvering mid-air.
They could now reach speeds of up to Mach 40 if allowed to do so; their engines have been redesigned to be as silent as possible when the situation for such action arose.
The Androids themselves have seen their fair share of improvements. Through the use of reverse-engineered prewar tech, they are now deadlier than ever before. 10x as efficient as an Elite human soldier back in the past, the Androids now had the power to punch through a 10 inches of Divine-class armor they took from the Cults they first encountered a month ago, and could obliterate a large boulder made out of diamonds to dust in a matter of seconds.
To avoid implications such as temperature problems, several modifications were made for the Recon, Enginner, and Research Drones to adapt to temperatures ranging from –10000 degrees Celcius(Cold) to 10000 degrees Celcius(Hot). This was a response to the death of R-232 during its encounter with Valentine with her frost magic.
Speaking of Valentine, Caitlyn took a liking to the girl. Her traumatic past, as presented by her harmless memory extraction by Caitlyn, gave her the idea she'd switch sides if promised for a place in the Utopia for humans or or races, which was to come.
Utopia.
A Utopia is an idea of a near-perfect society. An ideal community in terms of law, government, and social conditions. A plave where every human and other races shall experience a paradise which has never been done before, even in prewar Earth.
The reason it also includes other races was because she was also interested in them, shes not some supremacist thing, not to mention she also met other alien races from the past, both civilized or barbarian type ones.
But Caitlyn took note of Artemis' preposition and found out that he just wanted humanity to live on, regardless of whether or not it was the same humans from Earth. Caitlyn knew Artemis was the only original human from Earth left, all the others? Are dead.
Everything from Earth and the entire civilization is dead.
She still remembers prewar Earth and the entire civilization, she still remembers the war, she still remembers who Artemis was, she still remembers how Artemis came to be. The horrors of the past still lingered at the back of her soul encased by complex wiring and programming which she has done herself. The site of total human destruction would periodically haunt her.
"The past is a nightmare," She always thought. She did not want Artemis to remember what happened. Artemis? She disliked that name, she much prefers calling him by the name she remembers still, Zack.
Again she was lost in her thoughts; she stood still in the corridor with her Androids behind her frozen in place.
"Tsk,"
She continued her walk towards the facility where the adventurer was held. Two days ago, they arrived masquerading as merchants from a faraway land; such bullshit was so obvious it nearly made her laugh. By orders of Artemis, the Androids let them into the city.
But instead entering the Fortress City, Artemis used an advance teleportation to transport them towards the wormhole and into Earth unnoticed. Unlike other teleportation technology from the past, this one could teleport you without feeling any difference nor feeling an affect.
Caitlyn doesn't know why Artemis did that but she didn't care whats currently on his mind right now.
The Adventurers were suddenly felt a sensation a bit when they teleportated but they ignored it, while they entered earth, they were flabbergasted when they arrived; they saw structures made from materials they've never seen before. Pristine architecture which seemed sturdier than what the dwarves of the land made.
They were even greeted by a few civilians, all of whom seemed to be accustomed to their surroundings.
And the facade ended, the Androids surrounded the adventurers and subdued them before they could react.
They screamed helplessly.
No help would come.
The adventurers were dragged off back to the Central Base, deep underneath the surface, they were placed inside chambers and their memories extracted.
They screamed, wailed, and begged for mercy from their captors.
But none replied, their captors stared at them with glowing eyes. Seemingly uncaring of the torture they felt, were they men? Were they beastmen? Were they demons? It was there mistake.
Adventurers? They were not.
Mercenaries? Yes.
Alive? Nobody knows.
Only the Lion's Alliance most stalwart adventurer managed to roll through the extraction process. Except be no longer possessed any essential human intelligence and has been left in a state of dumbness.
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The metal door rolled open, and Caitlyn walked in, followed by her Elite Guards.
Similar to previous specimens, the room the adventurer was in was a purely white room with monitoring equipment and a special glass on one side of the walls for observation. In the middle of the room was the adventurer, still clad in his blue armor, he was chained on a metal chair, and continued to bang the back of his head with the headrest. His sword lied near his right side, his mouth was not covered because there was no reason to, he ripped off his vocal cords.
Caitlyn waived the Androids to go out, the Androids left and closed the door behind her, leaving her with the specimen.
Caitlyn walked towards him, his eyes met hers, and they began to bulge.
Caitlyn stood just a few meters from him, staring at him with her cold eyes.
"Sigh... Artemis has one of the strangest ideas," She whispered underneath her breath.
She took out a syringe she had been keeping in one of the back pockets of her dress and made her way towards the adventurer's right shoulder. The syringe she held possessed a condensed liquid of M1, and Artemis was curious if the M1 would return the adventurer's intelligence if administered through the blood.
He could've just asked for the other Androids to do the job, but he wanted to see how Cailtlyn would handle it, and how she'd fair if the M1 caused the adventurer to indeed regain his strength and abilities and attack her.
They already knew their abilities; Artemis was just curious as always.
The madman began to shake and panic, his bulging eyes fixated on Caitlyn.
[Android, reporting]
A voice ringed in her ear.
"Yes, what is it?" Caitlyn replied via the neural link.
[Report on the subject; eyes are fixated on your chest, we also detected blood circulation sped up on the lower parts of his body. It has been hypothesized that the subject's animal behavior of breeding remained after complete removal of basic human intelligence. Confirmed right now, subject possesses animal behavior]
"Huh, noted. Continue observation,"
Well, it was an unexpected surprise but a natural one at best.
She placed her right hand over his shoulder and crushed it easily with immense force, paralyzing his right arm entirely. She then carefully injected the syringe's contents to one of the major blood vessels; the blue liquid slowly went inside until the last bits disappeared.
Caitlyn then removed her grip on his shoulders and jumped back, there was already a reaction.
[Subject appears to be reacting, monitor suggest injected liquid is circulating faster than anticipated. Heart rate has skyrocketed, nervous system continues to 'reboot']
The adventurer's body began to bulge, his skin slowl became blue as it bulged further and further from its natural state. His eyes popped out and his brain grew out from his skull. The whole ordeal lasted for a minute, and the man was reduced to nothing more than a blob of dark-blue substance with a horrendous smell.
[Subject's life signs have disappeared, uploading results to mainframe]
Caitlyn was silent, she expected to be attacked by a powerful beast of a man but expectations would often betray.
"What a waste," She uttered.
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The sun was brimming hot, the eastern winds blew, and the grass danced in harmony, forming pleasing waves as far as the fields of grass went. Artemis looked through his enhanced eyes, observing the approaching group, which was about to enter the plains.
He was at the tallest building in the machine base which towered five stories high, from the roof he observed the surrounding landscape.
"Walking calamities, quite a good show you gave us at the swamp. I wonder what show you'll show us next,"
A smile appeared on his face.
For some reason, he was excited.