6

Play: Meditation

We walked along the path towards the place Shifty marked on our map. It looked to be a distant building on the opposite side of the power station.

But as we walked, Rapi called out to me. "Commander."

"Hm?" I glanced back. "What is it, Rapi?"

Rapi stared at me and said, "I've been meaning to ask. But... Why are you leading?"

Marian paused at her spot beside me, tilting her head. "That's... a good point." She frowned and looked at me. "Commander. Why ARE you leading? We're Nikke. We should be the ones up front."

"Huh." Anis blinked. "I didn't even notice. Our commander just makes it so natural to be at the front like that."

Neon adjusted her glasses, puffing out her chest. "That's because Master is a Master of Firepower! He doesn't fear no Rapture!"

I paused. "...Technically true."

Rapi frowned more. Then she said, "That's not... incorrect. But it's more than that, isn't it, Commander? I noticed earlier. When Neon first arrived... and even in that first encounter with the Black Smith. You can sense it, can't you? The presence of Raptures- No, of living things."

Silence.

Anis froze. Then she stared at me. "...That's true. Commander... you always react first. Even before we do."

Marian looked at me. "...Commander?"

"Well." I hummed. "I mean, you're not wrong? Can't you guys feel it?"

Rapi blinked. "...Feel?"

"Yeah." I looked at Rapi. "It's like... not uneasy. But... a sense of being watched? Intention?" I tapped my finger along my thigh and said, "It's like directed attention."

It was something I'd been noticing since I 'woke up' as the commander here.

The Raptures gave off a strange sense of focus? Kind of like how you could feel when someone was looking at you through a window. But like, more intense.

And even back in my own body, I was always good at sensing someone's presence in a room. That only seemed to have been amplified since I got here.

Shifty's voice echoed over the comms. "...Are you sure you're human, Commander?"

"You guys keep saying this, but it's just sensitivity to presence, you know? If you train your body enough, can't you sense if the atmosphere changes? Like... how the level of water shifts when something comes in and out?"

Anis gave me a blank stare. "...Commander. You're sounding like some kind of martial arts master with that hocus pocus stuff."

Marian slowly nodded. "That makes sense. Like how I can always feel your presence even if I close my eyes."

"Right." I nodded. "Like that."

Neon's eyes lit up. "So it's love!"

"No, you idiot!" Anis groaned. "It's- Agh, forget it." She rubbed her hand through her hair. "...I kind of get it though. Like ill-intent, right? Kind of like how some bastards glare at us in the Ark..."

Rapi tilted her head, processing everything. Then she said, "...Hm. This isn't logical. Or something that can be sensed. Then again..." She shifted her gaze to Marian. "...None of what our commander has done since we've met him has been logical."

"On the contrary, my dear Rapi." I smiled. "It's all very logical to me. You just don't see the axioms I'm running on."

"Oh?" Rapi looked at me. "Do enlighten me then, Commander."

"It's simple." I paused. "Ah, Shifty. I suggest not listening for about thirty seconds. What I'm saying might compromise you."

"O-Oh my." Shifty's shaky voice echoed over the comms. "What is this interference-" After that, the comms went dead.

Smart woman.

But anyway.

I looked at Rapi and said, "It's a basic premise: The moment that Raptures took in biological material, they compromised themselves. Before, they were perfect killing machines. Now, they are imperfect weapons. Mortal and living."

Silence. From not just Rapi, but everyone.

Anis broke it first. "Wait. You're saying..."

Marian spoke up next. "The reason that you can sense them, Commander. And the reason you can kill them with ease..."

Rapi finished with, "It's because you know how to dismantle life. Commander..." She stared into my eyes. "...You can 'sense' it, can't you? The pulse of all living things. No, you have 'that.' A refined killing instinct. The capacity to see through a living being's mechanisms and how to dismantle it in the most efficient manner."

"W-Wait." Anis held up her hands. "Hold on. Rapi." She looked at Rapi and said, "You're saying that our Commander here... that Hoopa is, what? Some perfect murderer?"

"Not a murderer." Rapi slowly spoke while looking at me. "A hunter. The same kind that humans used to be. The ones who looked at creatures far beyond their physical prowess and dismantled them with knowledge alone. The one who looked at the kings of the jungle and saw not death, but prey. In other words..."

Marian giggled. "Commander is a king."

"Whoa." Neon looked at me. "...No wonder you know so much about firepower."

I slowly blinked and rubbed the back of my neck. "...I think you're all overestimating me. I mean, anyone else could learn how to do this-"

"Learn, yes." Rapi interrupted me. "But to know it from the start like you? Impossible. If someone like you existed the moment the Raptures first arrived, humanity would have long defeated them. Commander." She looked me in the eye and said, "You have to admit it. You are different. Somehow, someway. You are exceptional."

Before I could respond, the comms crackled and Shifty's voice echoed again.

"U-Um. Is it safe to listen in again?"

"...Yeah." I looked at Rapi and then shifted my attention to my data pad. "We're back on operation detail, Shifty. No worries."

"R-Right! Then... you're almost there!" Shifty typed on her keyboard and said, "I'm pulling up the override sequences! Once you arrive, use your CombiLink on the terminal!"

"CombiLink?" I blinked. "What's that?"

Anis groaned. "This whiplash, I swear to god- It's the protrusion on your phone, Commander."

"Hm?" I looked at my phone. Not my datapad, but the one I used for comms. "This thing? The one that looks like a USB jack?"

"USB what?" Anis blinked.

I pointedly ignored her comment and said, "Oh, got it." I tugged on the protrusion, revealing a long data cable. "Huh. Neat. Hm... Hey, Shifty. How exactly does this work? Do you send in a remote data packet? Is it machine level assembly code? Or is it just raw bytes?"

Shifty blinked on my data pad. Then her eyes lit up. "You understand that stuff, Commander?!"

Anis facepalmed. "Right. Of course he does. Our Commander is a superhuman who just keeps pulling shit out of his ass..."

"Anis." Rapi's curt voice echoed.

"What?! It's true!" Anis looked at Rapi. "Don't tell me you're not bothered by it! I mean, I get Marian since she's CLEARLY not all there..."

Marian huffed. "I resent that statement."

"...And Neon is like a kid in a candy store..."

"Hey!" Neon pouted her cheeks. "I'm not a kid!"

"...But come on, Rapi! You can't seriously tell me you've met anyone else who knows as much as our Commander? And you're telling me this guy got average grades at the academy? Him?!"

I checked the documentation Shifty sent over after my inquiry. Then I said, "To be fair, Anis. I have average grades because I just didn't do half the work."

Dead silence.

Rapi slowly turned to me. "Commander."

"Yes, Rapi?"

"Are you... telling me. Telling us. That the reason you are NOT at the head of your class..."

Anis jabbed a finger at me and said, "YOU WERE SANDBAGGING IN THE ACADEMY ON PURPOSE?! WHY?!"

I shrugged and closed the documentation Shifty sent. "Don't remember the EXACT reason. But probably because I heard that the top candidates got sent on impossible missions from the get go to try and recreate Johan's success. If I was near the bottom of the barrel, I became cannon fodder though. So in the middle of the pack, I get an average mission with a decent survival rate." I paused. "...Plan CLEARLY failed. But it worked out."

Silence again.

Then a collective sigh echoed.

Anis rubbed her face. "I hate that you have a proper reason for this that makes sense."

Rapi let out a strained smile. "...Commander. You have EXCELLENT survival instincts, it appears..."

Marian nodded. "As expected of Commander!"

Neon adjusted her glasses, chuckling. "Of course! That's why Master is an excellent spy! You were in disguise all through your academy days!"

Shifty let out a nervous laugh. "Should I... leave this out of the report?"

"Nah." I chuckled. "Put it in, Shifty. If I read Ingrid and Andersen right, it'll make them laugh. Then groan. And then have a major headache wondering about if there are any other average commanders coasting by on purpose."

"...I'll... do that, Commander Hoopa." Shifty sighed.

===

Play: Maze in Abyss

A few encounters with Raptures later, artillery upgrading session, and then a long walk and we arrived at the control room.

I plugged in my phone's jack to the control mainframe and then said, "Alright, Shifty. All plugged in. I'd love to do it myself, but it's your job. I suggest seeing if you can access anything regarding the memory sections though."

"...Commander Hoopa." Shifty sighed. "...The power is off. But honestly, why are you a Commander and not working directly for the Central Government in another capacity. With your skills, couldn't you have a safer job?"

I unplugged my phone and looked at Rapi and Anis, both patrolling the area, before Marian and Neon, both standing guard nearby. "I could. But then I'd probably see firsthand how bad various areas of corruption are before flipping my lid and staining all of the Ark red with government official blood."

"...I am beginning to understand why our positions require mental screening."

"Right?" I laughed.

Rapi and Anis came back.

Rapi spoke up first. "No Raptures detected, Commander... although you likely realized it already."

Anis nodded. "What Rapi said. We DID see a bunch by the power station in the distance though. It's weird though. They aren't like moving at all."

Marian frowned. "...Not moving? Are you sure, Anis?"

Anis held up her hands. "I saw what I saw. There's some guarding the station, but other than that, silence."

Neon adjusted her glasses. "Perfect! That means we can just blast them and-"

"No blasting." Rapi interrupted her. "We are here to recover the power station, not destroy it."

Shifty's voice echoed over the comms. "Please do not resort to destruction. The power station has enough power to fuel the Ark for two months. It would be devastating to lose it."

I hummed. "You say that... but..." I tilted my head. "Shifty. There aren't humans up here, right?"

"...There shouldn't be. Why, Commander Hoopa?"

"Well. How did the station turn on?"

Silence.

Rapi tilted her head. "...That is a good point."

Anis frowned. "Yeah. That's right... if there's no humans up here, how'd it turn back on?"

Marian looked at me. "Commander... maybe there are some Nikke around who turned it on?"

Neon's glasses flashed. "A rogue faction of Nikke? Perfect material to report on as a spy!"

Shifty shook her head. "That's not possible. If it was Nikke, we would detect them."

I rubbed my chin. "Hm... Humans would probably be murdered by the Raptures too. I'm very much an exception to the rule..."

Anis rolled her eyes. "Oh, NOW you admit it."

"...So that leaves one of two possibilities. One, a rogue AI-"

Rapi shook her head. "Impossible. The technology of the station wouldn't support it."

"...Or Raptures evolved to run it."

Silence.

Neon looked at me, serious for once. "You think that Raptures can change like that, Master?"

"I said it before, right?" I looked at Neon. "Raptures were perfect killing machines in the past. At least, according to the records. They were purely mechanical and ran on pure logic. But they took in biological components. Which means..."

Rapi's eyes widened. "They can evolve. Adapt. Maybe not perfectly, but..."

"...Over time, they can break the rules." Anis clicked her tongue. "Dammit. Just like how Marian-" She cut herself off, looking at Neon.

Neon blinked. "Just like Marian what, Anis?"

Marian smiled and said, "Like how I was tricked by a Rapture in my first mission with the commander. They convinced me to blow up our transport ship because they imitated our teammates too closely."

"THEY CAN DO THAT?"

Anis hesitated and then said, "...Yeah. They can."

It was a lie. At least to Anis.

But I affirmed it because I knew the truth based on the specs of the Raptures I saw. "They definitely can. It's not cells, but I think some Raptures possess a form of genetic code in a way. They don't have offspring, but they DO have generations."

Neon adjusted her glasses. "I see! Like how a tree can grow from a single branch if grafted on another tree!"

I blinked. "That's... not an inaccurate analogy. But yeah. I think that's how they're doing it. Whether they originally developed sentience or there's some sort of hivemind, the current status is likely that Raptures have some low-level cognition that's been created due to the continuous grafting of biomatter interfacing with their mechanical components. And if they somehow grafted human biomatter of researchers who knew how to operate things, or even Nikke..."

Rapi frowned. "...Then they might be able to utilize human technology. At a rudimentary level, but... in time..."

Anis groaned. "Don't tell me we're going to start fighting Raptures who can talk or something..."

I shrugged. "If they can talk, they can be reasoned with. And I'm good at reason."

Shifty cleared her throat. "Um... Commander Hoopa..."

"Feel free to include it in the report to Deputy Chief Andersen, Shifty. In fact, send the audio file verbatim."

Shifty let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Hey, I'm very considerate of my subordinates and colleagues. Now." I clapped my hands. "Game plan. Assuming worst case scenario, if we show up at the gates, we're heading into a fortified structure with sentient enemies, unlike the normal Raptures."

Rapi frowned. "...That means a frontal infiltration is suicide."

Anis crossed her arms. "Yeah, hard pass."

Marian tilted her head. "Can't we just kill them all?"

Neon held up her gun and said, "Yeah! Guns blazing, pure firepower... We got this!"

Rapi's eyes flitted towards the stockpile of coilguns and gave me a questioning look.

I chuckled. "As simple as that would be... no." I shook my head. "If we do that, we ruin the mission. Our objective is to take the station back, remember? Not destroy it. Moreover..." I frowned. "...Think about it. Why are they running a power station?"

Silence.

Rapi tilted her head. "...They're powering something."

Anis frowned. "But what?"

Neon furrowed her brow. "A weapon?"

Marian looked at me. "...Children?"

I paused.

The others looked at Marian.

Anis rolled her eyes. "Mari... Now's not the time to think about that sort of stuff."

Marian blushed. "N-No! I mean... Commander mentioned it, right? How the Rapture have generations?"

Rapi's eyes widened. "...You think they're grafting things."

Marian nodded. "Right. And... remember what we fought?"

Anis paused. "...A Black Smith. Right. And if THAT Rapture had been trying to get Nikke to graft things..."

Rapi frowned. "Then others could be doing the same. And there HAVE been an uptick in missing Nikke squadrons."

Neon frowned. "So what? Are we... not going in guns blazing?"

I glanced back at my data pad and said, "Shifty. Can you report to the Deputy Chief? We're safe here, so we'll set up a base. But we'll need further instructions. I'm not confident in our ability to take the station back with our loadout without destroying it. I have a few things I can try, but it'll take time."

"Of course, Commander Hoopa! Wait just a bit!" Shifty went off the line.

I waited and stared at the power station in the distance. "Hm..."

Rapi noticed and said, "What are you thinking, Commander?"

I subconsciously ran my hand through Marian's hair and said, "What are the odds that they have an insane electron beam cannon built up of composite Raptures and they're waiting to fire it on an unsuspecting party?"

Dead silence.

Anis let out a nervous laugh. "That's... a joke. Right, Commander?"

Rapi quietly said, "Commander jokes, Anis. But not at times like these."

"...Dammit." Anis clicked her tongue. "...I SERIOUSLY want you to be wrong on this, Commander..."

Neon stared at the power station and slowly said, "...It's big enough for it. A giant cannon, I mean. And large-scale Raptures HAVE been found that are the size of a building..."

Marian leaned against me, letting me comb through her hair. As she did, she looked at Rapi and said, "Our Commander's intuition hasn't been wrong yet though. Has it?"

Rapi looked worried. "That's my concern..."

At that time, Shifty's voice crackled over the comms. "Deputy Chief Andersen said to proceed with investigating. The mission objective has changed. If your hypothesis is confirmed, destroy the enemy facility. But otherwise, retrieve the station. But prioritize mitigating damage."

Anis raised her hand. "Uh, Commander? Shifty wasn't here for the whole 'power station might be a giant electron beam cannon' theory..."

"Wh-What?!" Shifty's eyes widened.

"Don't worry about it, Shifty. For now... How versatile is the CombiLink?"

"H-Huh? Um, pretty versatile? Why?"

"Hm..." I stared at a destroyed flying Rapture nearby. "...Hypothetically. If I cobbled together a drone, could you pilot it?"

"Yes?"

"Good. Neon, help me out here again. Rapi, Anis, Marian. Grab some things for me. Since we're here at this control room, I should be able to do something useful..."