chapter Twelve: Repairs

(POV: second, Peter)

You ran, carrying the dying adolescent feline towards her salvation.

"Computer, open auto-doc one, prep for poison control and head trauma."

The glass door to your right opened, before you rushed to it, desperate to save the girl in your arms. When she was put into the bay, several robotic arms came down and put needles into major arteries and veins, beginning filtering or replacement.

WARNING: HEMOGLOBIN DETERIORATING; DEPLOYING SYNTHETIC HEMOGLOBIN

A black liquid slid through some tubes, and a white liquid through others, quickly replacing the polluted blood.

WARNING: CELLULAR DEGENERATION DETECTED IN: MUSCLE TISSUE, KIDNEYS, LUNGS, SKIN, BONE MARROW, AND RETINAS

IMMEDIATE SUBSTITUTION RECOMMENDED

That only left her brain and nervous system, she was about to be a brain in a jar. You couldn't let that happen.

"Bates, is there a way to replace everything but her brain?"

"Well... yes, but it is highly experimental and very invasive."

"Do! It! Make sure to model her new body to her old one."

"As you wish, but you need to be ready to teach her to control her own strength."

"Just do it."

You watched as the auto-doc started stripping away skin and muscle, exposing nerves and blood vessels, which were immediately replaced with synthetic vessels. Quickly climbing into the other auto-doc, you began the procedure on yourself. Using this much ERSS at your age was probably bad for you, but, who was going to find out about it? It's not like these mammals could scan for fatigue on a cellular level. As soon as the procedure was done,yo you stumbled out, before slowly realizing that Gazelle was still standing there, watching Sara's reconstruction. Right now, Sara was having her main compartment finished, which was a housing for her brain, with two tubes for blood, two for coolant, and a spire with millions of contact points. The milky looking fluid was still being pumped through the brain, which was recently repaired by installing a neural chipset or two.

Gazelle was standing there, quivering in disgust, before bending over and emptying the few contents of her stomach onto the cracked and bloodstained concrete. She looked up at you with sad eyes, still caring more for you than her own well being. Over in the bay, you could see Sara's new body being constructed, the core was way more powerful than anything you have ever seen go into someone else's prosthetics.

"Bates, what kind of procedure is this?"

"Well, that has some backstory. After you had volunteered for the super soldier program, they realized that augmenting everyone would have been rather expensive, so they got to thinking. What field of expertise was both cheap and high yield in the market today? The answer, simple; robotics. Eventually, the techs got to thinking, if you can fit all of that junk inside a rescue bot, what can you fit inside a cyborg that was built for combat?"

"So, she is a combat borg now?"

"Essentially, yes..."

"DAMMIT!"

"...But, also not, I have disabled her combat systems."

"Are you ok sir?"

"...Yes..."

"I can warm a towel if you are about to go into shock. Are you about to go into shock?"

"No, bates, I am not going into shock... I... I just messed everything up again... Here, take my hand gazelle, let me get you cleaned up."

"Sir, I have detected a small group of survivors closing in on your location."

Gazelle flattened her ears and tensed her body, ready for the trauma that was sure to ensue.

Soft footsteps crunched rubble underfoot, coming closer, raising the tension. They came around the corner, revealing something you never thought you would be glad to see, or see at all, a civilian zebra, brandishing a sword. His eyes went wide, before he shouted to someone else that the coast was clear. He sheathed his sword as he came closer, until he was right in front of you.

This zebra spoke up to you, "My name is James, I am the leader of the resistance group."

You straightened up, military training telling you to do so while speaking to a man in arms, "Commander Peter Pax, United Nations Galactic Navy, seventy fourth battalion, Destroyer class fleet, military ID nine nine four seven three two five alpha, super soldier volunteer." Your information was quickly rattled off in his direction.

"Uh... Yeah..."

"If you have injured, I can have them treated. And, Bates, send down a combat exo-suit, There are probably some terrorists still alive."

"Who's bates?"

"Short for Beta Program, don't worry about it."

"What kind of mammal are you? I've never seen anything like you."

"... *inhale* How in the FUCK has nobody seen me on television? I am the first extraterrestrial in recorded history, saved the planet, and was on the news, TWICE!"

"... Oh. Oh! You're-"

"Yes."

"And you-"

"Yes."

"And the-"

"Yes."

At least ten other mammals gathered around, all in various states of wellness. There were a couple of black panthers, probably twins, both wielding what appeared to be this world's version of a katana, one supporting the other, who had a knife embedded in his left leg.

"Bates, send down more auto-docs, we have civvies here in varying states of fucked."

More mammals limped their way into view, including a wolf who was holding an assault rifle in his intact paw, a fat, excuse me, thicc cheetah in a police outfit, also holding an assault rifle, and an LMG wielding, Buff. Ass. Water buffalo. This particular guy had taken two shots to the chest, and looked a little dazed, which was bad to say the least.

"You, buffalo butt, get in the auto-doc, you are in need of medical assistance."

The lumbering fool pushed out a response, "I am in need of no assistance from you... Martian."

A deep breath calmed your nerves, "First, I am not a martian, I'm honestly surprised that you have a planet that translates to mars in my language, second, I was born and raised on Earth, my species' home-world, and third, like it or not, you will go in that auto-doc, because you have been hit in vital areas."

"Why you DARE... talk... to me..."

-He's down... Of course.-

"Someone help me, he won't survive without hemoglobin."

After you and the uninjured panther helped him into the autodoc, you turned your attention to Sara's auto-doc. It had finished constructing the compressed titanium endoskeleton, moving on to the graphene inner hull. It seems that the weapons were still installed, including hard-light claws. They were rather impressive, anti-tank rail-guns, type four atomic weaponry (plasma cannons), and electronic signal jammers.

"Bates, how will she hold all this? It's like half of her size!"

"Detachable armatures of super-cyborg prototypes are stored inside the slip-space storage prototype."

"Oh, so she doesn't carry them, alright then. What effects could the gas have had on her?"

"She may have lost a significant portion of her memory, there were similar instances of this happening to humans as well."

"We can only hope she has. I wouldn't want to know a child was suffering in the same way I am. ... Computer, scan for direct genetic relatives to Sara."

SCANNING

NO MATCH FOUND: INCREASING RANGE

NO MATCH FOUND

"This is probably wrong, but... Good."

Gazelle walked next to where you had sat down, before coming to a resting position. Her eyes were dull, ears drooping behind her, and tears streaming down her cheeks.

She wrapped her arms around you, "I don't blame you for feeling that. I only just lost people, and I already feel like I would say the same thing. And I don't care if you look weak in front of me, because we're all just mammals, beings of flesh, blood, and feelings. I know what's going on inside your head right now, you feel sorrow, and if you want to help us later, you need to let out those feelings. Let your defenses down, so you can bring them up stronger."

And so you did, slowly at first, but it soon became soul wracking sobbing.

(POV: third, limited: Judy)

Judy ran, following the trail of heavy footprints and destruction. She eventually came across one of those vehicles from earlier, appearing to have been ripped open, locked in the grip of Peter's armor. Four bodies lay nearby, two were grotesquely mutilated terrorists, one was a poisoned civilian, and the last was another terrorist, nothing seemingly wrong with him. Underneath the vehicle, was a slowly growing pool of liquid, dripping from the cracked hatch on the bottom.

Judy hopped up on top of the vehicle, in order to look inside, before having to look away, resisting the urge to vomit. Inside that vehicle was a whole new story, blood covered the walls and floor, they had been disemboweled by their own knives.

Though her ears were drooped behind her head, Judy heard voices, they were close. She hopped off the vehicle, before sprinting towards the source.

Judy slowed to a stop, in front of her, was a group of survivors, including gazelle. She was holding on to a shaking, sobbing Peter. The sad setting of her suddenly changed to an unsettling one, before an inexplicable feeling of fear made her hair stand on end.

He wasn't crying, he was laughing.

(POV: Second, Peter)

There, tied up in front of you, was a familiar cougar, dressed up in the same uniform as all the other terrorists. Your sobbing rapidly turned into a mad cackling, making everyone's eyes widen in fear.

You slowly walked towards the feline, picking up a stray sign post along the way.

"It was you, wasn't it? You breached the reactor, nearly destroyed the city, you called the attack didn't you!?"

A swing of the metal post brought him down to his knees.

Rage, now renewed inside you, urged you to speak again, "Answer me Jeremy! Tell me it was you! Because of you, all these innocent people died!"

Jeremy, now staring you in the face, teeth bared, spoke in the surest way possible, "Yes, it was me. I did this. I destroyed the heretics!"

You growled back, disgusted with his reply, "Elaborate."

"They refused to believe in our gods, so we destroyed them with their gifts to us."

You grabbed the wildcat by his neck, lifting him up to eye level, "Those gifts of yours... THOSE GIFTS WERE CREATED BY MY PEOPLE! TELL ME ABOUT YOUR GODS!"

Gazelle was staring in fear at you, quivering against a wall.

Jeremy was still unfazed, "The sky lords, they came from beyond the veil, their leader blessed us with their knowledge. They called themselves UNSN."

"Are you shitting me!? UNITED NATIONS SPACE NAVY! You dumb piece of SHIT!"

A quick flick of your wrist sent him flying into the side of a building.

"It was a pioneering vessel, your ancestors came across a pioneering vessel, sent to ensure humanity's future."

"*cough* Heresy, like you would know of our past."

"Look around you Jeremy, look at the logo on my equipment, UNSN. Your gods are false, and whoever told you we were gods, they're lying to you."

"But, you can't be, you were different."

"you're right..."

*crunch*

"I'm different."