I do not own Infinite Stratos or Crysis

A bit of an AU that somewhat follows the events of Crysis, with some minor (and major) tweaks.

INFINITE CRYSIS

Chapter 1: Arrival and Conflict

I had gotten sent to the IS Academy because I was marked as the third male on Earth to be able to pilot an IS, but in truth.

I had ceased being male directly after the accident.

In my younger years, I used to be the son of a wealthy businessman, and my sister was sent to the IS Academy to represent my country, Russia, though another Representative from our country (a very important one at that) had been sent before her, then a few days later as a helicopter was landing carrying an IS core, it happened.

The helicopter was an old model and had some faulty parts that people just did not want to bother with replacing, and one of those parts was the helicopters stabilizer, and the whole thing broke apart, with the whole helicopter slamming into the ground, right where me and a few others were standing.

I woke up in pain, and saw the others dead around me, and then saw myself. The entire lower half of my body, from the waist down, had been cut to pieces, and many metal fragments were in my upper body and arms¸ all of it was just shredded, and I wondered why I didn't die, when I suddenly saw it.

Among some of the wreckage and right above me, was the shining sphere of the IS core, and a small cut was in it, causing a strange fluid to spill from it and into my injuries, which somehow kept me alive all the way till I was found alive, rescued and taken to the hospital.

I still remembered the core number, the last core made by Tabane Shinonono …

… core # 467.

At the hospital, which was in a different country and the operation paid for by my father, they found out that when they used regeneration technology, the male parts of me would just not regenerate, and even my body started to show less and less signs of being male and they informed my father of what happened and believe it had to do with the liquid from the IS core, and my father consented to going with a different approach.

When I finally woke up, I found that my body had become female and the doctors were quick to explain the reason was that the IS cores liquid had done something that made my body start to become female and also that I had developed a form of regeneration because of it, though they then explained that I was female in the physical sense, genetically I was neither female nor male, something no doctor could not wrap their minds around, and also said that the IS core had healed itself and to their shock, after they did a neural scan of me, they found that a signal from the IS core had been found in my brain, showing that I had linked with it and then they decided on something.

They soon created the IS for the core, and it was the mid/short range 3rd (and close to 4th) generation IS, and since the name Snow Maiden was the name of my sisters IS, who is another of our countries representative candidates other than Tatenashi Sarashiki, who uses the IS Mysterious Lady (do not ask about the name, though it is quite appropriate, given the personality of the pilot) of the very prestigious Sarashiki family, the name of my IS was Snow Knight, and its weapons were basically an enlarged version of a very advanced type of Kalashnikov (a gun my country is famous for making) which also had an extendable barrel for long range shooting, along with an excellent scope for far off targets, a back mounted rocket system with micro-missiles of potent power and speed, though nowhere near the level of most sci-fi shows, especially anime, and finally was a specially made black High Frequency, electricity-infused Katana that was hardened and could cut through tank armor like it was butter, making it five times more potent than the ones used by the Uchigane IS (the company wanted to make the best IS they could), and when I was asked to pilot it, it was already obvious that I would be able to pilot it (which I did), and they found that because I was linked to the IS's core, I could use it to its fullest.

Then they had me sent to the IS academy and I boarded a plane that would get to IS academy, but along the way, something happened.

As we flew over the ocean one night, we passed over an area controlled by North Korea, which had become a super-power through its vast usage of Techno-dollars, and had apparently cordoned off the Lingshan Islands in the Philippine Sea, and as we flew over, something suddenly smashed the side of the plane.

"WHA-What the," I said as I got up.

"We need to get you out of here," said one of the crew.

They had me dress up in one of the armored uniforms that were given to current Spetsnaz soldiers which had been tailored to my more feminine body as well as some military gear and a pistol for defense and then they gave me a parachute and pushed me out, and as I look back at the plane I see the attacker as some sort of large robotic creature, which had metal that was either silver or black, blue lights all over it, had multiple tentacles coming from its main body making it resemble some type of bizarre cephalopod (scientific grouping for squids and octopuses), and its whole body is a very advanced mix of organic and technologic factors, making it seem like the machine itself was some type of living creature, and it tore the plane apart and I see it crash into the sea.

Then I see it head toward an Island and I decide to use the military gear I had from the plane, and use the latest Russian made NVG and see that there is a team of soldiers dropping onto the island, the thing goes right at one and hits the person before flying off, and I angle myself to get to them, and then the land is very close and I open my parachute, and I soon land on the ground within a forest.

Then I look around and run to where I saw a chute land in the distance, and find a spot overlooking a beach where I saw a chute go down.

I use binoculars and see someone coming out of the water, wearing a very advanced armor and then I see him suddenly disappear, and then notice several soldiers are on the beach, all from the North Korean army, and appear to be guarding the area, then the one on a rock who was closer to the spot where the soldier with the suit disappeared and he was pulled over the edge by some unseen force, then another guy was killed when he was shot, and then I saw the armored soldier using a silenced assault rifle and kills multiple men, and then I realized that there were two soldiers coming from behind him silently and I decided to do something that I would either regret later or would save my life in the end.

I got up ran out and I noticed he spotted me, and I pointed behind him and he turned just in time to catch the knife of a soldier before it could strike him, and as the other soldier was about to fill me full of holes, I shot him through the head, killing him before my life could end, and the armored trooper then brutally twisted the other guys arm, broke his neck and threw him into the sea.

Then he walks over to me and says, "thanks for the help and who are you, and I can tell your not one of them since the KPA rarely recruit women, much less young girls into their ranks, unless you count there IS force, and I notice you have Spetznaz gear, which either means you trained with them or there's another Black ops going on," he finished.

Then I say in my currently more feminine yet still with a very small masculine tone, "Well to answer in order, my name is Yuri Sorachev, and I was on a plane heading to the IS Academy when I was attacked by, something, that something looking like a flying metal cephalopod, and I have gotten training from a Spetznaz instructor thanks to my father, and I have been trained in the usage of many weapons and driven a few vehicles, and I have very good skills with my IS," I finished.

"Wait, you said IS Academy, as in the place where girls go to use those advanced combat exoskeletons called Infinite Stratos, and where recently two guys who are able to pilot IS have also gone," the soldier finished.

"Yes, yes and yes," I say.

"That means that you currently have an IS," he stated.

I moved my arm to show him a large bracelet on my arm and I activate it, and I am soon in Snow Knight, and he is pretty much very surprised.

Then I deactivate it and say, "I could use it to help you but the Alaska Treaty pretty much makes that difficult for me, and if I had worn the suit longer, the internal alarm beacon placed on it would go off and pretty force my suit to lock-down and then have it destroyed, as per protocol," I finished.

"Damn," he said.

"Since I am stuck here, I might as well help you with your mission since obviously the KPA won't help me since I just put one of their men down for good," I said.

The man thought for a moment and said, "How long of a time limit do you have before the armor locks up," he then says.

"About ten minutes, then I have to shut it down when the limit is reached, and when I turn it off I have to wait the same ten minutes to reactivate the armor, and if I were to use it, the smart thing would be to ensure that no one reports it back, meaning that we need to kill everyone in the general area, but it was designed so that I could still use the shield system even when its inactive and I can still run a lot faster and have a very strong punch with it " I finish.

"Well I guess it would help with the mission, well then my mission name would be Nomad, and I know you definitely need a different name in order to hide who you are and maybe something to cover your face and keep anyone from seeing who you actually are," he finished.

At that I take out and put on a balaclava and then red tinted goggles over my eyes, which have their own infrared and night vision as well as a monitor for my vitals, and then I grab an enemy assault rifle an FY71 and four clips, and then tell him, "call me Knight."

"Alright then," said Nomad as he also grabs a rifle and ammo, "let's move."

We made our way up the beach and then Nomad got a message from his Commander.

"Nomad, come in, what's your status," came the voice of his commander.

"Good Sir, I cleared the beach of hostiles and also found a survivor of the plane we saw go down, and get this, she's an IS pilot," said Nomad.

"IS, really, damn this will complicate thing a bit," said the commander.

"She's agreed to help with our mission, and has already killed a KPA soldier, granted it was self-defense, and she's had training with a Spetznaz combat instructor and can access her IS, though only for a limited time and can use some of its functions even when its inactive, so she's pretty much low on options and considering were just jumped by something that came out of a Sci-fi/horror film, I think a little extra help would do," finished Nomad.

"Fine, but if this goes wrong, I'm holding you responsible," said the Commander.

"Yes Sir," said Nomad.

"Does she have any comm. gear," he said.

At that I pulled out a small comm. unit, put it in my ears and then tune it to their frequency, "Hey you hear my voice okay," as his voice came in over the radio.

"Perfectly," I say.

"Good, I'm not going to ask you for your name for sake of security, but I do believe you may have a codename, mine would be Prophet and yours," said Prophet.

"Knight, my name is Knight," I tell him.

"All right then Knight, our mission is pretty much top secret and we can easily leave you for dead if you screw it up for us, but were here because a research team is believed to be held captive by the KPA, and we received a beacon from their vessel, so we're here to find and if need be, rescue them."

"Understood Sir," I say.

"Good, now get moving, times not an element we have a lot of," finished Prophet.

We then continued on past a cliff and then the radio came alive, "Nomad this is Jester, I'll be meeting both you and our new buddy in just a bit."

Then a person came from a low cliff and jumped down to meet us, he appeared to be African-American, and had the same suit as Nomad and walks up to us and introduces himself as Jester and I introduce myself as knight, and we soon head off to find another member called Aztec.

Then we heard him over the radio, saying that a KPA patrol is near him when suddenly we hear a very ominous and very mechanical roar in the background and then he screams out, "Madre Santisima!"

Then we hear screams and gunfire in the distance and we all pretty much book it, Jester and Nomad using the Speed boost of the Nanosuits and I use the Speed enhancement ability of the IS, useable when the suit is inactive.

Then as we get closer we hear him scream through the radio, "No temerémal, no temerémal, no temerémal, Prophet 'Help Me!"

Then we put the pedal to the metal and run as fast as we possibly could through the forest, but then the sounds die down and a short while later, we find the area where it happened, and I seriously thought I was going to be sick.

We saw a four man KPA patrol, that had been brutally torn apart, and as Nomad walked up, the dead body of Aztec swung down in front of him, causing him to jump back, Jester and I pointed our rifles in fear as we both thought it was the attacker.

Then Prophet tells us that the mission needs to continue and then I turn away as he activates the self-destruct of Aztecs suit (god that made me sick seeing the suit and Aztec's body break down) to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, and then Jester heads elsewhere and Nomad and I head off until we reach the top of an

incline and look as the sun rises, showing us a rather beautiful Island that would be perfect for something like a vacation, then we see a GPS jammer and I then put a silencer and a scope on my assault rifle and Nomad goes into cloak mode, and we head to the area in complete quiet, and see a patrol boat go off into the distance, and we then use headshots and in Nomads case, a silent knife kill to eliminate the soldiers quietly, and then Nomad walks up to the Jammer, sticks some C4 that a very careless KPA soldier had left nearby, stuck it on and ….


Nomad and I look on as the Jammer blows sky high, the whole thing reduced to metal splinters and melted components and with the destruction of the Jammer, communications on the Island can be used again.

"Well that was easy," I said to Nomad, "let's hope the others are doing well."

"We'll be finding out soon," Nomad said.

We continued on through the forest, trying to find the rest of Nomads team, but then my IS picks something up from a good mile off, and it rates it as a major threat.

"Nomad, my IS is picking up an unknown enemy signal, and its rating it a major threat, coming from at least 1.6 miles north, northwest," I say to Nomad.

"Let's see what it is, that hill should allow us a better view," Nomad said, pointing out the hill in question where there is a break in the trees.

We go through the break and soon we are looking out to a nearby KPA outpost, and we look through the goggles, we did not need to look long to see the threat and it make's both Nomad and myself shudder.

Standing in the center of the outpost, with dull green and blue armor in all its terrifying glory, was an Infinite Stratos (IS), a KPA Mass-Production type, its name was Jinrai, a modified rip-off version of a Rafael Revive IS unit, it pilot being a girl close to military age wearing a special armored IS suit with the symbol of the KPA on the shoulders, and holding a bull pup .60 caliber Assault Rifle, and is currently giving out orders and then she rises up into the air and goes somewhere else, where, I do not know.

Either way, the mission just got more complicated.

"Prophet, this is Nomad, come in Prophet," Nomad says as we run to where the team is, hoping the IS did not see us.

"This is Prophet, I am reading you, over, what's going on," said Prophet.

"You're going to be glad this girl is here, we have confirmed that KPA forces have deployed IS units, all Mass Production types, Jinrai, we just saw one take off from the outpost," Nomad said back, and while I wanted to say something I chose not to.

"Dammit, this mission just got harder huh, either way, we have a mission to complete, and we are going to complete it, got it," Prophet said to Nomad and also me.

"Yes sir," we both say into the comm.'s unit, though quietly.

"And Knight, consider this your official joining of our team," Prophet said, and with that, the comm.'s were once again silent.

We continued on, Nomad and I, going through the trees, heading for the remains of a research boat, and then as we get close, we see the others and also the ship …

… which was encased in a thick layer of ice, the whole thing completely coated in the stuff.

Jester soon starts complaining to Prophet, asking what the hell is going on, and Prophet of course says that he knows about as much as anyone else what the hell is going on and why the research team's ship had been turned into an ice-!

ROOAAAAARRRRR

A load roar with an electronic edge to it comes from virtually nowhere, and I start shuddering as I remember the crash, and realize that the roar was the same that I heard when the plane I had been on was destroyed.

Then, without any type of warning …

BOOM

RAARR

A massive, metallic creature, looking like some type of incredibly advanced machine octopus tears right out of the ship's hull, and uses one of its tentacles to grab Jester, and flies off, however I wasn't going to just let it get away, and I activate my IS and grab the things tentacle as it flies by me.

The thing drags me along with it, but I soon tug on it, and I managed to pull it to a stop, and then it turns and faces me, while it holds a screaming Jester in one of its tentacles, and then its other tentacles immediately come up, and I can only look on as the tentacles slam into me, knocking away a very large number of my shield points, leaving me with only 560 out of 800 points, but I held firm.

Then its face opens and from it, it releases a beam directly at me, and I dodged the beam, but I see it freeze several trees behind me, allowing me to realize that it is a freeze ray, and then the beam moved and got my shoulder, encasing my shoulder and a lot of the IS armor in a thick sheet of ice, and this started to eat away at my shield points, the energy getting lower as the ice remained.

Then as if deciding enough was enough, it pulled one of its tentacles back, the end opened and my eyes opened wide as I saw an energy blade take shape, but the blade was many times more refined than any current energy based melee weapons used on any IS (heck, even the White Knight IS would probably wish it had a blade like that), since the blade looked more like a slightly vibrating glass, and then it swung the blade, just barely getting me but cutting the tentacle I had grabbed off, and I am thrown back, the ice on my shoulder and upper arm breaking off as I fell backwards into the ground.

The machine, appearing satisfied then took Jester and flew on, and then as if on a whim, it discarded him and threw his body on the ground before it finally disappeared elsewhere, where, I don't know.

I manage to get to Jester, just as the others appear, but it is too late …

… Jester, was dead.

I blamed myself for it, for not being able to stop the creature, even though Nomad said that it wasn't my fault or anyone's since nobody could have possibly seen what had attacked us coming.

Prophet got to work activating the self-destruct on Jester's Nanosuit, Nomad had a chat with Psycho about 'how screwed up the mission was getting', while I myself decided to look over the strange tentacle I got off the creature.

I found something very interesting, that being a blade system similar to the one the creature had used to almost cut me in two, and I managed to remove it from the tentacle and secretly got it into my IS storage system, just as everyone else finished what they had been doing.

We went a bit farther, and found that the thing had decided to play a bit with some KPA at a small outpost not far from the ship, though luckily much of the equipment was still usable (though coated in a thin layer of ice and blood).

Afterward, Prophet explained our next course of action …


"…Nomad"

"Yeah"

"Prophet said we had to go into this base"

"Yeah"

"To get a Doctor name Helena, who was part of the research team,"

"Uh-huh"

"And standing between us and her, is a garrison of over 50 KPA soldiers, 7 ATV's, 4 Main Battle Tanks (MBT's), and I am pretty sure that my IS's systems are working right because I am seeing four girls with inactive IS's, playing poker near that large building where the hostage most likely is, right"

"That's the gist of it, yeah"

"….."

"We'll, at least it was a good idea to keep those sniper rifles we found near that small outpost, since if I activated my IS or tried to bring up one of its weapons, those four would be able to detect it, but luckily they can only detect an active IS, and not simple soldiers on the ground, shame Psycho threw his away though," and then Knight brought up her Sniper Rifle, and Nomad got his out.

"I was out of bullets for the thing," said Psycho, ready to sprint.

"We will have to be fast," Nomad said.

Nomad aims for the girl on the left, entering strength mode to better center his shot, while I use a tree and the IS's strengthening systems to aim the weapon.

We both get our targets …

… and …

BANG-BANG

The heads of two KPA IS pilots are ventilated and they both fall to the ground, however the other two and an entire base are now very aware of our presence, but Nomad managed to get his rifle aimed enough at one of the girls to put a round through her shoulder, just as her IS activated along with the other girls.

Either way, the whole base had been stirred up, and then I got Snow Knight ready, and then fired off the micro-missiles into the base, and the missiles do their job very beautifully, just as Nomad and Psycho took off to the base.

Nomad activates sped mode, the missiles hitting targets around him, blasting apart battle tanks, turning IFV's into burning wrecks, and blasting apart several smaller structures, killing the soldiers within, all the while expertly gunning down any KPA soldiers nearby, his Assault Rifle spewing NATO 7.62 AP ammunition, tearing into any soldier foolish enough to be caught in the line of fire.

Then one of the Jinrai was in front of him, the IS pilot looking right at him as he ran at her, and she decided to kill him then and there, and got out her CQC (Close-Quarters-Combat) weapon, which was a Knife, and then stabbed at Nomad, but Nomad immediately activated the suits cloak mode, instantly disappearing in front of the IS, and leaving her shocked that her target had vanished, and she immediately started to look around.

Then Nomad appeared in front of the door to the main building, looking at the IS through his visor, the IS pilot spotting, and she was ready to charge …

… until Nomad pulled out a detonator …

… and pressed down on it.

KA-BOOOOOMMMMM!

A mighty explosion consumed the Jinrai in an instant, tossing the unit into a nearby building, the cause of the explosion being the C4 that Nomad had put on the IS while invisible, and he entered the building.

Nomad easily cleared the floors of the building of enemy soldiers, three soldiers coming down the stairs went down in a spray of automatic fire, and the soldiers on the top floor are also easily dispatched.

Then Nomad finally reaches the room, Psycho close behind, picking off any stragglers …

… he soon opens the door, while outside.


BANG, KA-BOOM, BA-BOOM

I was blasting away at the two enemy IS units, and also attacking the KPA soldiers nearby, my IS Assault Rifle tearing into the enemy soldiers, killing them en mass, and I cut through many APC's and 4x4's, and I continue to launch missiles at nearby enemy units, even taking down some armor.

However, I was still taking damage, the two Jinrai IS units are not about to let up, and thus keep firing, and thus I have to dodge and return fire, but I knew that I had to get rid of one IS to relieve some of the pressure on me.

Then I notice one of the Jinrai's pilots is not really holding her rifle right, and in fact looks to be in pain.

Then I notice it, the bullet wound from Nomad when he shot the pilot, it was hampering her.

I decide to focus my attack on her.

The other IS I hit with a missile volley, sending her into a building, which collapsed on her, leaving me with some time.

I hammered away at the enemy IS with a very long stream of fire, until I see it's Absolute Barrier start to waver, then I followed up with the missile pack, and 15 missiles hit the weakened IS, causing it's shield's to finally collapse.

I then rush the pilot will pulling out my Katana, and I instantly plow it through the girls chest, cutting through her heart, her death pretty much instantaneous as she collapses to the ground, blood pouring from the wound and out of her mouth.

Then my IS immediately detected an enemy attack, and I barely dodge the last IS's close combat knife and two shots from a main battle tank, the tank I dealt with using two missiles, then I focus on the final IS, and I fire into it with the gun, but then I realize that I am almost out of rounds (.60 caliber rounds to be precise), and I am forced to block its knife with my Katana.

Then it pulls its gun out while using the knife to hold me where I was, I prepared to take the violent impact of bullets …

KABOOM

A missile from a rocket launcher smashed into the IS's back, causing her to lose her ground, and I am pushed back a bit, and the IS pilot turns around, and I also look to see Nomad holding a rocket launcher, and a woman behind him that I can guess is Doctor Helena.

The pilot then curses in Korean and then lifts her gun, ready to shoot both Nomad and Helena, and Nomad moves to protect Helena as the pilot prepares to shoot them both.

I then remember the weapon from earlier, and I immediately got it out of Quantum storage.

I activate it, the energy blade glowing a very light cyan-blue, and I thrust the blade forth.

The pilot immediately raised her shield to block …

… and the blade passed through the shield, her Absolute Barrier and then through her skull.

I knew it, the weapon used some type of energy to go through an enemies shields, directly killing them, which was why it tore through my shield and almost killed me, if the deep burn in my side was an indication, by the way, I was in an IS suit as well, though it was made to look more like a bodysuit than a swimsuit.

"Wow," said Helena as she saw the end of the fight, "that, was impressive, and I saw some fights when I watched the Mondo Grosso," she said as I powered down my IS, just 45 seconds short of the activation of the shot down system.

"Now that was some awesome shit there," said a voice and we turned to find that it was Psycho, who had been nearby and had seen the whole thing.

It was a meet and greet for us and Doctor Helena, and she told us what she knew, and that was the fact that they had come to the island, researching a statue of some kind, one which they believe belonged to an unknown ancient civilization, long gone now, though it turned out it wasn't as it started transmitting an unknown signal that led them to the mountains, where the head Professor, Dr. Rosenthal had set up a dig site, and that was when things started to go bad for them, first with the KPA moving in and she had to witness a member of her team being torn apart by 'something', which we could guess was the certain giant metal octopus that had killed two of the team already.

Then we got word from Prophet, saying that a KPA armored column was heading our way, and that we should prepare ourselves.

Suffice to say that we were lucky that the KPA had a large amount of anti-tank missiles in the place, and the armor column was dealt with, quite soundly before we made our escape, Doctor Helena going with Psycho and Nomad and I heading to meet Prophet.


Unknown to the group, something had been watching, though it was mostly watching the fight that had occurred, but it mostly focused on Knight, measuring Knight as she had fought.

The data it got would be enough, though right now, it had to get hold of the one of the ones who used the Nano-tech unit, and while it was of a lower standard compared to that of its own kind, it still warranted attention, as much attention as the Combat Armor's that had fought.

It soon boosted away, straight into the forest.


This was fast turning into a disaster, we had been going through the forest, following Prophet, and we stopped to talk for barely a minute, and the octopus machine grabbed Prophet, and was gone, before we could even make a single move.

With that, we were forced to find the dig site, which was not easy, considering that the KPA had several checkpoints and a Jammer that messed with communications, and we had to go through all of it, and fought of troops, some tanks, a gunship (all of this without an IS), and we were lucky that the only IS we came across was from a pilot we caught taking a break, and was now taking a permanent break in a pool of blood with a tear in her neck, and her IS's inactive form broken in pieces.

Either way, we destroyed the Jammer and were now sneaking into the dig site, though we did need to deal with the security detail, granted it was mostly Nomad who did it, but we finally got to the level of the dig, unfortunately we learned from Psycho that the KPA had taken Helena with the, having managed to capture her during a battle that forced Psycho to flee.

We snuck into the room, and we found Dr. Rosenthal talking with a KPA General wearing a strange yet oddly familiar suit on the screen, who Nomad said was a the leader of the KPA forces on Lingshan Island named Ri-Chan Kyong (I actually giggled a bit at the name), and we listened in on what they were saying.

It wasn't good …

"General Kyong, listen to me," Rosenthal began, "I'm picking up some very strange readings, we need to know what were dealing with here before we go on-."

Kyong cuts in, "I am tired of these delays, you were never this cautious with any of any of the other finds," what, other finds I thought as I peeked a bit from behind a box to see …

… I almost had a heart attack when I saw it, and Nomad saw it to.

It was the machine octopus, fossilized in the rock, and even with how long it had been in the rock, the armor still kept its shine and most of its structure was still intact.

We turned to listen to Rosenthal from where we hid, well I hid while Nomad went to get a closer look (in stealth mode, damn I want one of those Nano-suits), "… the other samples, the Afghan artifacts, the Siberian, they were all fragments," they found more of those things in different parts of the world, "this is the first intact specimen we ever found, we have to proceed with caution-."

Kyong cut in again, "there is no time Doctor, the Americans are already on the Island," really, it took the death of most of your forces to figure it out, "more-so, they possess Elite IS support, a number of our pilots have already been killed, though I mostly blame them for their incompetence," I can agree with that.

"I am not concerned with your diplomatic maneuvering's General," Rosenthal said to Kyong.

"You should be," he replied, "do you realize how much we used to hide this project, do you really think they would allow you the same latitude we had."

"I understand, I just need a little more time, my scan is almost complete," Rosenthal replied, while I decided to do a scan of the thing myself.

"This temple is our only concern," Kyong said to Rosenthal, "I'm not interested in your fossil doctor," I am.

"Not just a fossil, a fossilized carbon based machine, a machine that predates man by 2 million years," THAT got my attention; I had almost lost my life wielding the greatest weapon on Earth against a machine older than mankind itself (heck, the thing was probably from the time of the dinosaurs for all I know).

"That doesn't matter now, this temple is the source of-," this time, Rosenthal was the one to interrupt.

"Temple, good god man, we don't even know what that thing is," I would also really like to know what it is, I really would, "if you open it, there is no telling what could happen."

Then, my IS started to pick up a very large buildup of energy, an UNKNOWN energy, and it detected it coming from the supposed inactive and fossilized machine Rosenthal was analyzing, and the energy reaction was getting bigger.

"Hang on, the first scans are coming in," he said, looking at the data, while I looked at the scans I was doing, "my god … that-that doesn't seem possible, KYONG stop you don't know what you're doing," he yelled in a tone of urgency.

"Dad, what's going on," Helena was there; man those guys can move people quick.

"Get out of there, their still alive," I do not like where this is going.

"What is," this times its Helena.

"The fossils, their still active, their still alive," yep, it was going to be bad.

Then all of the electronic equipment in the room started to fizzle and spark, even my IS sensors were going crazy, and I see as the screen soon fades, and the unknown electro-magnetic disturbance causes Nomads stealth mode to fail, and I soon rush up beside him, my IS on standby.

"Wh-what the, who are you people," Dr. Rosenthal said, shocked by our appearance.

"US special forces, were here to get you out and your team out of here," said Nomad as I looked at the machine corpse that was in the rock.

Whatever else was being said was lost as I focused on the machine, and I slowly approached it, somehow feeling compelled to touch it, feeling like I truly needed to, and I moved to it while the other two talked, and then …

… I touched it, with my right hand which had my IS in its inactive form on it.

WHHHIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEEEE

The sound got louder and the machine was now glowing, and al-pain, pain-pain-pain-pain-PAIN-PAIN, OH GOD IT HURTS!

An indescribable pain shoots through my whole body, the energy of the machine cutting through my whole body as the whole thing glows a shining light blue/white, and soon I cannot see, but I hear Rosenthal utter an, "Oh my god," before.

SSSRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM

Everything goes completely black right then.

I then start to come to, though my whole body feels numb, and I realized that it was quite cool all around, but for some reason it felt … really nice.

Then I open my eyes, and am met with white.

I get up and see that the whole entire room was now covered in ice, the floors, walls, crates, railings, stairs, equipment, pretty much everything was covered in ice, even Dr. Rosenthal was an Ice stat-!

"Dr. Rosenthal," I was up in an instant … and then doubled over in pain, "oh god I am hurting."

"Knight, are you okay," I heard Nomad, and saw that he was still okay, more than likely protected by his Nano-Suit, "you still look ok- wait, what happened to your hair, and I'm pretty sure your eyes weren't that color before," he said to me.

"Wh-wha," I then look around and see a piece of reflective glass covered in snow, and I grabbed it and looked at myself … I gasped quite loud.

My hair had been changed, almost going past my shoulders and was now snowy white with a sort of cyan blue hue at the fringe, and my eyes had become Azure-Cyan in color, and my skin now looked far more paler, much like porcelain, but with a healthy skin glow.

I then see a device lying on the ground, while Nomad tells his superiors about the status of the currently frozen and quite dea-*CRASH*, okay now he is most definitely dead, and in pieces, and I pick up the unusual device that appears to have come from the Machine when it sent the pulse, the device looked like a component its weapon, more specifically it looked like it belonged to a rapid fire weapon located just beneath its Cryo Beam weapon.

I took it and then I suddenly got it in my head to modify my IS Assault Rifle with the device, I don't know how I thought it could work, but the idea was very solid in my brain and somehow I knew of the method to properly adapt the system to my weapons, though not at the moment so I stored it away until later when I had more stuff …'

… right now, Nomad and I only focused on leaving the dig site, getting word of a VTOL pickup which was where we headed next.