Ivan Kal - Warpath

“Whoa.” Adrian whispered.

“Whoa indeed.” Iris chimed in.

“Let’s see what this thing can do.”

Adrian started issuing orders to his ships. It was as easy as it was to use his implant, he controlled everything with his thoughts. The ships were simulated, just like their crews were, but he still got communications from the commanding officers, acknowledging his orders. He “heard” them all. He watched as ships under his commander moved on his orders.

The orders were relayed via FTL comms and a system similar to the command board that commanders of fleets used. The difference was that by using Watchtower Adrian was able to focus on more things at once, he could send multiple orders at the same time and access information the moment it was available. Everything that the ship scanners saw he saw. Every detail about every ship under his control he knew.

“This is awesome Adrian!” Iris said. She through him could see everything he could.

Adrian watched as his ships neared the enemy. He saw a slight change in the enemy formation, and he could clearly see the beginning of a trap. He adjusted his ships formation to catch the enemy off guard. Then he waited as the enemy tried to spring its trap, only for his ships to turn it against them. The battle was in its full swing when the pain returned.

“ Adrian, how are you feeling? We are detecting some erratic brain activity.” Alexander said.

“Just some pain, it’s nothing I can’t take it.” Adrian said.

“ Adrian—”

“It’s nothing!” Adrian said. Alexander remained silent.

But as more and more time passed, and more and more enemy ships came into range flooding the battlefield with their weapons and additional information for Adrian’s brain to handle the pain got worse and worse.

“Are you alright Adrian?” Iris asked, worried. But Adrian couldn’t respond from the pain. He tried to push it aside, but the more he struggled the stronger it became. And then finally it intensified to such extent that he could no longer see anything on the battlefield, his mind froze.

“ I’m pulling you out Adrian!” Someone said, but Adrian was too far gone to respond, the pain swallowed him and he lost consciousness.

Adrian opened his eyes slowly. He had a painful headache and didn’t even want to try and move his head. The room he was in was dimly lit, for which he was thankful. He realized that he was in a hospital bed. He released a gasp as the pain intensified for a moment. Then he felt a weight on his leg and the pain dimmed a bit. Adrian turned his eyes down and saw Sora’s head leaned on his legs, and Akash standing with his two front legs on the end of his bed. He smiled at them.

“Oh good, you are awake.” Iris’s voice said in his head.

“Yeah… How long was I out?” Adrian asked via his implant, as he didn’t trust himself to try and speak out loud.

“A little more than a day. I commed Alexander he should be here soon.” Iris said. Then the doors to the room opened and Alexander walked in with a white coat over his skin-suit.

“Well, it’s a good sign that you woke up at least.” He noted as he walked to the side of the bed and placed some kind of device on Adrian’s neck. “Your vitals are normal, there are still some fluctuations in your brainwaves but they are slowly returning to normal.”

“What happened?” Adrian managed to ask.

“The information load was too much.” Alexander said, in a tone that conveyed his ‘I told you so’ meaning clearly.

“How long was I able to handle it?”

“Thirty minutes from connection, twenty from the start of the simulation.”

“I remember the pain, but not much else…” Adrian said.

“We don’t know exactly what happened. What we do know is that at some point the load became too much for your brain to handle, your brain temperature started rising, and we detected a… alteration in your brain waves.”

“Alteration?”

“We don’t know what it was, no one has ever seen anything like it. It could be because of your already unique state, but we just couldn’t risk letting you stay connected any longer.” Alexander answered.

Adrian just nodded, and suffered through one more stab of pain.

“Anyways, you should be fine in a few days. Until then you are going to stay here in this bed where we can monitor you.” Alex said.

“Yes mother.” Adrian said mockingly, Alex snorted and left the room.

“Well guys, it looks like it is just you and me now.” He said looking at the two wolions. Akash came closer and sniffed him a bit, then turned and left the room. Sora watched him go, and then turned and settled on the floor beside his bed.

“So… You think we are going to do that again anytime soon? I liked having a body.” Iris chimed in cheerfully.

Two weeks later, Adrian was almost fully recovered, an unusual fluctuation in his brain waves persisted, but as no one knew what it was and it didn’t seem lethal as every other test they ran came back good, he was let go. His brain scans were sent forward to Sanctuary for further analysis. Now Adrian sat in a meeting with Isani and Warpath chief ship builders.

“Have you gone completely insane?” Isani asked his palm making a gesture for a crazy person.

“No.” Adrian said offended. “I am the same as I always am.”

“Then you were always crazy.” Isani added.

“I already told you why we need it, without it the fleet will never operate at its full capacity.”

“The ships you are talking about are already the most advanced ships we have ever created! Actually, they are the most advanced ships built by any race we have ever encountered, and that includes the Ra’a’zani!” Isani yelled out. “In any case we can’t use it, and if you try you will end up in a hospital bed again!”

“Just because we can’t use it now, doesn’t mean that we never will. We might figure it out before our ships even see combat.” Adrian argued.

“Well then we can put it in later, when we find the solution.” Isani said.

“Why? We can easily put it in now. Why make more work for ourselves later.”

Isani glared at him, then finally sighed and relented. “Fine! You can have the system installed. But you will not try to use it again until we fix the problem.”

“Of course. I am not suicidal.”

“Then let us go on to the next point on the agenda.” Isani said, then cleared his throat. “The Titan, Tiamat, Specter, and Lighthouse will all be finished by the end of August. The Valhalla, Twilight, Retribution, my Invictus, and Ras’tar by the end of September. Your ship will be the last to be finished. The Harbinger will be done by the end of October.” Adrian was a bit needled that Isani’s ship Invictus would be finished before his but he nodded.

“Good, the Sowir are still waiting, but I don’t think that it will be much longer now. They have over sixteen hundred ships not counting their auxiliaries, and the influx of ships had slowed considerably.”

“Yes I agree. But even if they started towards Nelus today it will still take them about six months to get there as they are limited to hyperspace. We will have plenty of time to finish the ships and get there at the start of their siege. Trans-lane travel form Warpath to Nelus is twelve days.” Isani added.

“I doubt that they will wait until the end of the year. In a two, maybe three months they will be ready.” Adrian said. “Okay, let’s see what’s next on the agenda…” He quickly moved on to the next topic on his implant. “The MD cannon.” He said looking at Chief Lasani.