Dolmayan's transport arrived at the height of a Firestorm. I'm sure there was symbolism there, but I was a bit distracted to explore it. Namely; the fact that I had guests.
The twenty chosen candidates were a diverse lot, as intended. Men and women with just about every phenotype seen on Rubicon being present on at least one of them, though all of them were within the same age range. All of them were physically fit, and their profiles that I'd been given told me that they had what I expected to be compatible personalities with the Augmentations.
They seemed as curious as I wanted them to be, at least. Respect for Dolmayan was holding them back for the moment, but I had no doubt that once he left and they had free reign to explore the place, most of them would be doing so.
I wasn't against that, really. So long as they didn't get themselves hurt.
"Good evening, Dolmayan." I greeted them with a floating drone, a common enough sight anywhere that had a significant enough industry. It didn't really do much, but it had a hologram projector, so it could serve as a point of contact. Until they had received their Augmentations and became capable of Contact, text was our only method of communication.
Dolmayan made the introductions for me. I made a note of their names, and arranged for them to get a tour of the facility.
It was a fairly simple tour, all considered. The base could be divided into a few sections. The entrance connected to the hangar and garage, which branched into three more areas; the manufacturing facilities, the living quarters, and biological wing.
The hangar and garage didn't yet have anything in it, but in the future, it would play host to the machines I would build for these candidates. The manufacturing facilities ought to be self-explanatory, with the biological wing actually serving multiple purposes. It was where the majority of the Augmentations would take place, and so it doubled as both medical and bioscience areas. Attached were a few extra areas, gyms, fields, a pool, simulators, all things that would let me track their progress as the process proceeded.
The living quarters were both actual living quarters, as well as exercise and entertainment. I made sure they all had their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and private spaces, but there was one big kitchen and eating area for all twenty of them and most of the exercise and entertainment areas were also communal. That was mostly for cohesion purposes; I didn't want twenty lone wolves, and letting them engage with each other was going to be fairly critical to make sure they got along.
There was one more area to the base, but it was for the most part intentionally inaccessible. It's where I kept power generation and processing.
And by that, I mean Coral.
It's where I kept the Coral.
Since I'd built a set of vacuum chambers here so that I wouldn't have to worry about Coral growth and replenishment, they were obviously not something I could let people just wander into. It's vacuum chambers, after all.
"Hopefully, that shall satisfy your curiosity for a while." I 'typed' at the end of it. "Since this place will be your home for the foreseeable future, I would like to know if there is anything I can do for you."
Once they were all settled in, I gave them the rest of the night to relax and get themselves sorted out, before we got started.
So, naturally, displaying that indomitable spirit that refused to die in the face of the shitstorm that had been their entire lives, all of them had a celebration together in the dining room. It turns out that two of them had packed their instruments, small ones, just to keep their skill sharp. I didn't disapprove, and I even participated to the best of my... rather limited... ability. Dolmayan, it turns out, knows how to play a guitar, and he's actually pretty damn good at it.
He left the first thing in the morning, catching the last of the Firestorm, while I got all the candidates on schedule. First up was a long series of physical tests, gauging their exact abilities and limits. It was one part actually useful data, and another part a good comparison; once they were Augmented, they would be able to see for themselves just how much more capable they were. It really helped settle the difference, mentally.
They went through it with an air of considerable familiarity. It wasn't that different to what most MT pilots had to go through, after all.
Once that was done, I gave them an hour to cool down, and moved through an array of medical tests, mapping their genomes and bodies in preparation for Augmentation. It wasn't, strictly speaking, absolutely necessary, but it sure helped a lot when it came to getting the best results out of the process. I wouldn't be just forcing their bodies to do what I wanted them to do; I'd be adjusting the augmentations specifically to each of them.
The next day, I gave them a round of light exercise, and then had them rotate through the preliminary Augmentation stage; the genetic preparation for Human body alteration. It involved a lot of things; complex chemical injections, complicated retrovirus introductions, a bit of bacterial modification. All of it was standard, common stuff; necessary for most cybernetic and bionic implantations. The Human body usually does not like having foreign elements introduced to it, and I was about to introduce quite a bit of foreign material.
I fortunately do not have to worry about said foreign material outside of that. While Coral is, for all of the damn near miraculous abilities it exhibits, still an organism that interacts biologically with other materials and organisms, it is also a wholly alien life form that appeared on a different planet to Humanity. It didn't share anything in common with Human biology, so there was nothing to worry about in terms of infection or the like. Nothing fed on Coral at a cellular level; and there were no Coral equivalents to virii or bacteria. The Institute had attempted to create something like that out of what I assume was sheer mad science-inspired fuck-around energy, but all that they found was this was an excellent way to cause Coral to instigate a stress response and start Surging.
In any case, once that's done and they've had the time to for it all to proliferate through their bodies, I can move on to the next step. Theoretically, it was possible to do every step afterwards in a single shot, here. I did not intend to do that; a slower, granular process would be quite a bit more stable.
Augmentation itself begins fairly simply; cleanup. Right here and now is the point to eliminate any cancers, tumours, or maladies afflicting the body and posing potential problems for future efforts. I didn't need to do much here; they were all healthy, with only a single one having a genetic disposition to diabetes; something that would have been easy to fix three hundred years ago, and actually a genuine surprise to see that it was still around now. Easily rectified, though.
After cleanup comes improvement. The Human body was not exactly the most well-designed organism, and you can get quite a bit of mileage out of even a few small changes. Hell, in some parts of the galaxy, those changes were part of standard medical gene therapies, set by governments who had some pretty good healthcare systems. Augmentation would be going much further than small changes, but right now I was just tweaking genes related to muscles, ligaments, and bones, as well as adding some artificial genetics to enhance the body's healing system. There was a lot of small, complicated things happening here, but the short version was that their bodies were going to kick into overdrive over the course of the next few days and start rebuilding from the inside out. They'd be stronger and faster than normal Humans even just from this, but a person's strength and speed doesn't matter on the battlefields of Humanity these days.
Far more important at this stage, and what made it actual Augmentation rather than Human 1.02, was the simultaneous introduction of Coral into the body. Several injections would be taking place, here; small amounts of Coral being introduced at various points throughout the body. Most of them were going into the head, neck, and spine, but there would be additional injections along the arms and legs. By itself it wouldn't be doing too much, but combined with the previous genetic prodding, their bodies were primed to accept the Coral, forming sheaths and systems that would integrate throughout the body. It would get everywhere, from nerves to cerebrospinal fluid to even the brain itself.
What they noticed over the course of the next few days, aside from the fact that they were eating more, drinking more, and running a temperature a bit higher than normal, was that they were getting noticeably more quick. Reaction times were shrinking, even as muscle control heightened and the world seemed to slow down just a bit when they needed it to. This, too, was simply the first step; there was a great deal more to go through that would push their limits even higher. I just wanted to make sure that they were actually prepared for it, so that they could adjust to it.
After two full weeks, there had been no rejection issues, and they'd all adapted fairly well.
"The next part of the process will be more severe." I warned them.
I got only smiles and determination in response.
I started them on the next step the next day. Most of the genetic side of things were done here; they just needed another preparatory injection so that their bodies would incorporate the future material.
This time around, we were moving to full enhancements. Physically, there was a host of physical alterations coming. Muscles and ligaments were getting enhanced, altered into incredibly durable formats with the introduction of molecular weaves made of various materials integrated throughout both. The goal there wasn't actually strength, that was simply a byproduct of just how much was required to survive the stressors of an AC. Bones, too, were being merged with metal, carbo-titanium for strength and weight, while the marrow would see the introduction of reinforced scaffolding that wouldn't interfere with it. More Coral was going to be introduced into the body as well, though this time it would be focused on the brain, stem, and spine rather than distributed everywhere. Eyes were being sharpened, cones and rods added and made more efficient, even as ears and auditory nerves were being built up even further, Coral layered onto both in order to ease the burdens such changes brought about.
I gave them another two weeks to get used to all the changes again when that step was done. As expected, their tests showed their dramatic improvement. Strength and speed were both up significantly, but reflexes were now dramatically exceeding Human normal. Coordination was shooting upwards alongside fine control, mental processing speeds seeing significant boosts. Their ability to survive inertial stresses was significantly better. They could see in the dark, hear a whispered word from another room.
I started them, at this point, on AC training simulations. All of them had experience with MTs, but ACs were so far beyond them in capability that it barely translated. They got thrashed, at first, but their Augments meant that they started to adapt quite quickly.
"The next stage will be the final one." I explained to them. "It will be the most critical, as well. Everything that has occurred so far has gone according to plan, but the next stage involves significant additions of Coral to your brain and grey matter. After this, you will truly deserve to be called Generation Five. After this, you should be able to hear our voices. Are you prepared?"
Smiles and grins greeted me. Eager and hungry.
The final stage started the next day. One last injection of Coral, focused mostly on the brain. For the severity of it, I had to sedate them and place them into specialised vats, hook them up with face masks and intravenous tubes, and then inject specialty nanomachines into their body. It was not a simple process; I was building an entire secondary network of Coral 'neurons' that existed alongside the brain's normal one. Filament structures were being formed throughout the skull and neck, providing reinforcement and stability to even that part of their bodies. Coral-based semi-liquid microcomputers were forming inside of their skulls, their cerebrospinal fluid, and even within a few sectors of their brains.
Four full hours of careful, nerve wracking, effort, the culmination of nearly a month of data to make personal refinements for each and every single one of them...
It went about as well as I could have hoped. No rejections. No mistakes. Every one of them, completed as intended.
What a relief that was.
I waited until they had all awoken the next day to conduct the final, most important test.
"So, we don't need to do anything?" Maryna, C5-03, asked, confirming what she already knew.
"Let me handle this." I prompted them. "All ready?"
A wave of agreements met me. I had my drone wobbled up and down, a nodding gesture, and then began.
Carefully, I reached out, feeling for the Coral within their bodies. With a featherlight touch, I made Contact-
"Ah." I breathed a sigh of relief. Twenty exclamations greeted me, surprise and awe in equal measure. "Oh good, it did work."
Ezra gazed curiously at them. Twenty presences, no blending, wholly themselves, minds not lost in the flow, and here, in Contact.
"How lovely it is to finally speak to you." I smiled at them. "My Firekeepers."