Out of Space

Chapter 551: Cyborgs and Gods

The New World, Flight 114 en route to Fort Hensink

Dr. Sharon tuned out the excited exchange of conversation between the passengers onboard the C - 1 Sky Freighter and reread the report in her folder. The information in the report was mostly transcripts of interviews between Magister Thorn and the God girl entity called Plee.

A picture of a young looking dark toned girl with large red eyes wearing an oversized beret was clipped onto one of the pages. The God girl had both goblin and elfin features which surprisingly made her look very cute, though Dr. Sharon. She wondered if this being was a true god or just some kind of avatar like some of the divine beings they had encountered before.

A chorus of laughter made her look up from the report and she shook her head as she recalled the otaku part of the original crew had somehow found out there was some kind of loli ship girl goddess appearing onboard the UNS Vengeance. There had been a minor uproar among them as many of them all volunteered to be transferred over to the Vengeance.

In the end, only ten slots were available for the crew to transfer over and the otaku gang drew straws for the slots. Only then was the matter settled with those transferring promising to send pictures and video back to the rest. Those ten crew members were now huddled together in their seats devising some kind of plan to get close to the loli goddess.

She smiled quietly to her self, thinking how wonderful this planet was, with all its strange and amazing things yet to be discovered despite the brutal wars and lack of basic human rights. Her smile soon faded as her thoughts wandered off to Dijon's request to become a cyborg.

His agonized face and silent screams were still fresh in her mind. Under his request, she and her team of medical techs and doctors and moved him out of the medical tank and into a salvaged and repurposed Protectorate War Jack pilot pod that was surprising magically advanced. The original pod was filled with some kind of concoction that kept the pilot's body alive and allowed some kind of telepathy together with the magical mending of the pilot's nervous system into the War Jack's controls.

But instead of using both magic and the pilot's life force to operate the War Jack, the pilot pod was remodified to work with neuro sensors that were stripped off an Xbox X90's full body virtual reality dive kit, much to the disgruntled of the crew and its owner. It would enable him to move the War Jack as if he was moving his body once he fully mastered it.

Breathing tubes, feed tubes and waste tubes were surgically attached into the body of Dijon while he was under anesthesia. But the calibration of the neuro sensors required him to stay awake and seeing his heart rate and breathing spiking on the monitors, she knew he was in great pain despite being submerged inside the pilot pod in a medical fluid.

The template used for Dijon's cybernetic body was salvaged from the lightest Protectorate War Jack class code named, 'Stickman' by the military. Much of its clockwork mechanism and internals were redesigned, remodified, and miniaturized by Chief Engineer Matt and the Robotic Science, Korean and Japanese duo team, Tae Joon and Koichi.

Standing at a towering 2.4 meters tall, almost a third shorter than the War Jack's original height, the cybernetic body housing Dijon's medical pilot pod was encased in a 20 mm thick heavy duty ablative heat resistant composite steel plating stripped from the hulls of the UNS Singapore. Unlike the relatively skinny look of the Stickman War Jack, Dijon's War Jack was two times bulkier with protrusions on its shoulders and back, to allow ample storage of Dijon medical pilot pod, power generator, mana converter and both fuel and mana reserves.

To be able to wage war on the field, the War Jack had been modernized with a mounted 6.5 mm MG on its right arm, and an integrated mithril shield on its left with a retractable sword. On the right shoulder sat a 88 mm recoilless rifle system with a four shot revolver magazine while mounted on the left shoulder was an experimental magic weapon, the Magic Missile Repeater. Single shot grenade dispensers were also mounted on the outside of its large bulky feet with options of smoke, flash or explosives rounds.

The MMR on its shoulder looked like a mini railgun with its rectangular barrel. It had been nicknamed as the Gauss rifle from the way the weapon looks and fire. The weapon had a complex series of magical formulas etched into a circuit like board and lined up within the barrel. The spell formula was that of a Level Two spell, the Magic Missile, which had been developed by the mage girl, Elizabeth Regnar, formerly a party member of the Sun Hero.

She had worked out the formula of her most proficient spell and turned it into a spell formation. The Magic Missile spell was etched into an arcane material and installed into an elongated rectangular barrel with directing lenses to adjust its accuracy. Using the idea of a triggered trap, a pull of the self cocking trigger will snap an activating hammer forward which in turns sets off the Magic Missile spell 'trap', causing the spell to ignite.

To power the weapon, mana stones are used and experiments had found out that grinding the mana stones down into balls would not affect the amount of mana stored within the stones much. Hence, large mana stones were ground down into a standard 40 mm ping pong ball size and the mana dust used in other applications. The MMR uses a horizontally mounted feeding system where up to twelve processed mana balls stored in a detached box magazine slotted into the feed tray on the top of the weapon.

Using a spring loaded system, the mana balls will be pushed down into a cup where a small scale mana converter draws the mana out and powers the spell formation. Each mana ball had enough magical power to fire three to four shots before depleting and a pump action system will eject the spent magic ball away, allowing a fresh ball to drop into the cup.

For Dijon's shoulder mounted MMR system, a feeding hose was installed instead, granting him near infinite shots as long as his mana reservoir holds. The firepower of the magic missile spell was similar to a .50 calibre round but with a lot lesser penetration capabilities.

Dr. Sharon recalled the grueling process and time they took to ensure Dijon was properly calibrated and functional both physically and mentally before they allow tests to be run. He also had to relearn how to use his legs, hands and body from scratch again.

With his medical pilot pod unplugged from a main power source, Dijon's life support could function up to two days, or more as long as the portable power generator was fueled. But the use of his neuro sensors caused him extreme pain which drugs were needed to block it away. Dijon's first steps were wrought with many pains as he pushed himself to the limits. Each step of his feet that were as large as a fully grown elephant sent tremors down the earth and each fall shook the rehab site.

Only after Dijon had made progress in walking and picking up things with his massive three thumb digits did Dr. Sharon felt assured to depart on a flight to Fort Hensink to deal with the God Girl. She felt that her life had been too exciting of late, dealing with cyborgs and gods.

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The New World, Mecca, Fort Hensink

Saphia poked her head out of the large round roofed structure timidly as she felt unaccustomed to the people here who had weeks ago, killed many of her people, including her uncles. Her emotions and feelings were in a mess, as she did not know whether to hate these people or to continue to be friends with Blue Thunder.

She crawled out on all fours and looked around, trying to spot Blue Thunder in the area. Many people wearing strange mottled green and some with bright strips of yellow and orange ogled at her appearance, making her feel a tingle of unease and fear.

She quickly retreated back into the structure she recalled, Blue Thunder and the fierce short eared people calling it 'Hangar Six', and hid at a dark corner with her tail and wings tucked around her.

"Oh... Mother... what should I do?"

-----

Blue Thunder having finished the day's interrogation of the prisoners came poking his head into the hangar and found Saphia sniffing away at one corner. He felt alarmed and quickly crawled in, crouching low beside her and asking in a concerned voice. "Saphia? Are you alright? Are you not feeling well? What happened?"

Saphia sniffed louder in response as she cuddled up tighter into a ball, her wings covering her whole body. Blue Thunder was alarmed and he quickly scooted out of the hangar and found a passing jeep filled with the ground crew. "You there! Help me contact Captain Stamford and any of my crew if you see them! It's urgent!"

The ground crew waved back in acknowledgement before speeding off while Blue Thunder crawled back into the hangar. "Are you hurt somewhere?"

"N- no!" Saphia's crying voice came from under her wings. "G- Go away!"

"How can I leave a crying girl?" Blue Thunder quickly replied. "Tell me what happened? Maybe I can help?"

"Y- You can't help!" Saphia replied as she cried harder "N- no one can help me... Mommy!"

Blue Thunder sighed as he realised that she must be homesick and missing her family. He settled down next to her and started thinking of something funny to make her feel better. "What do you call a blind dinosaur?"

Saphia poked her head out from underneath her wings and had a confused look in her crying eyes, "A what?"

"A do you think he saurus?" Blue Thunder started guffawing away at his joke. "Ahahahahahaha!"

Saphia stared at him with confusion until Blue Thunder let out an embarrassed cough. She blinked her red eyes and frowned, "What is a dinosaur?"

"Oh! oh!" Blue Thunder realised his mistake as he smacked his own face. "I forgot that you do not know what is that creature!"

He started to get excited as he explained what a dinosaur was as it was one of his favourite hooman creatures. "Let me tell you! A dinosaur is a creature that lived millions of millions of years ago! Some look like us dragons but without wings!"

As he continued on, Saphia's sadness and pain in her heart slowly faded away as she listened in rapt amazement of the strange creatures that lived at an age that was beyond anything she knew of. With her attention focused on Blue Thunder, she soon was oohing and ahhing at the tales told by Blue Thunder who got very animated and slowly, she felt her eyes tired from crying, drooping down and she fell asleep listening to the words of Blue Thunder.

Only after a moment when Blue Thunder realised that Saphia had fallen asleep, did he pause in his talk about dinosaurs. He let out a yawn as he too had a long day interrogating prisoners and he rested his head down next to Saphia and he soon fell into a deep sleep.

It was this scene when Stamford and the rest came rushing into the hangar as they were informed that Blue Thunder said there was a very urgent matter. Stamford eyed the two sleeping dragons with a frown and cursed. "What the fuck is this? His urgent matter is to make us feel jealous he found another girlfriend?"

"Wait till I tell Raztraz about this! See if he still dares to show off!"