Futuristic Digital Symbiotes (+18)

[Foster]

-End of Cretaceous era-
​

A glittering sea of stars shone above ancient Earth, their brilliance yet to be muzzled by humanities ever-growing light pollution. Even in the dead of night it was possible to see with the naked eye, the shapes of the forest below familiar to its many denizens even in the dark. A dromaeosaur stalked his usual path through the thick undergrowth, feathers dappled in moonlight as he slunk through the plants with the fluid grace of a natural born hunter. Somewhere up above the chirp of a tree-dwelling insect caught his attention and he came to a halt upon a fallen log, head cocked to the side as he focused on the noise. The downed tree had obviously fallen some time ago as decomposition had already begun and a variety of fungus had taken hold upon the rotting wood, the dromaeosaurs’ claws digging into the soft fibers of the log with ease. The cycle of life and death was rooted as deep in this forest as any tree, the perfect natural order that no creature could hope to defy. The living feed death, and the dead feed the living.

Scanning the trees for the insect revealed nothing and try as he might the diminutive dinosaur couldn’t make out the distinctive chirp any longer. An eerie silence had settled upon the slumbering forest, thick and heavy. It was never this quiet, not even at night. Something was wrong. Where were the distant roars of the huge beasts that roamed these lands? The calls of those that flitted through the air high above? Even the wind seemed afraid to defy the stillness. His finely tuned predatory senses picked up on something slicing through the oppressive silence, a rumbling noise the likes of which he’d never heard before. It grew louder by the second, increasing until it was almost unbearable, seeming to come from everywhere at once. Through a gap in the foliage above he glimpsed the night sky, seemingly aflame.

The meteor tore through the atmosphere towards the planets surface, wreathed in fire as it descended from the heavens. High above the stars watched dispassionately as an era came to an end, indifferent to the millions of lives about to be snuffed out of existence. Death would always give way to life. The cycle demanded it.

-Present day-​

“So is this what you saw yourself becoming when you were my age? The world’s most overqualified Uber driver?”

The pilot of the C.A.M.P shuttle had the majority of her face covered by the reflective visor of her standard issue helmet, but Will could tell from the tightening of her lips that he was beginning to fray this poor woman’s nerves. Opps.

“Sorry, that was uncalled for. Just a little nervous about all this you know…. Might of helped if there was anybody else in here.” He hastily amended, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the many empty seats behind him.

“Sir, please sit back down and strap yourself back in, we’ll be leaving atmosphere momentarily.” replied the pilot through clenched teeth, gesturing for him to step back out of the cockpit. Will relented, holding his palms up in a ‘fine, fine’ manner before turning and making his way back to the shuttle’s vacant troop bay. He’d barely had one foot aboard the shuttle before the questions had began pouring from his mouth, and once the flood had begun he’d been powerless to stop it. Not that he could be blamed. When C.A.M.P had gotten in contact with him and asked that he, a mere greenhorn electrician, had been one of only four people on Earth deemed able to pilot their new generation of combat mechs they had been painfully light on details. It was one hell of a thing to ask, and even more hellish to turn down. He doubted there was a man, woman, or child on this planet that wouldn’t rise to that call and Will was no exception, but he wanted to know more. Much more. Surely there were a million more qualified individuals? Sadly, this pilot was either unable or unwilling to give him the answers he needed. An exasperated sigh escaped his lips. He supposed he’d just have to wait until C.A.M.P through somebody else his way to interrogate.

Sitting down in one of the seat’s closest to the cockpit Will strapped himself in, giving the safety harness a firm tug just to make sure it was all secure. To his left a viewport displayed the world falling away beneath them as they rocketed skyward, the shuttle punching through the clouds and into the upper atmosphere. The bright blue sky quickly gave way to the cold black of space and Will could feel a floating sensation as gravity failed to act, before a loud ding signaled that the vessel’s microclimate had been activated and the young man’s body slouched back down into his seat. This was his first time out of atmosphere but the state-of-the-art tech C.A.M.P loaded their vehicles with made it feel as if he were basically just riding the subway back home, albeit 62 miles above the ground.

“Woah.”

Will barely registered the word leaving his mouth as he stared awestruck out of the viewport. C.A.M.P HQ had drifted into view and it was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Well technically that wasn’t true, he’d seen the HQ itself from Earth, but it was nowhere near as impressive. As the pilot set them on approach to their destination he has plenty of time to take in every inch of the vast space station. It hung above earth like some great metal man-o-war, with it’s massive biodome trailing an array of sensors and mass drivers. The biodome was perfectly clear and within it a small city had been constructed to support the round-the-clock operation of this bastion of humanity. Insect like shuttles swarmed the great metal hive, transporting everything from basic supplies to stranger cargo, like Will himself. From the cockpit a brief conversation between HQ and the shuttle pilot could be heard but Will took little notice of the formalities required for them to land, it was difficult to focus on anything with a volatile concoction of anxiety and excitement flowing through his veins. He was really here, and there was no turning back now.

The shuttle was expertly guided into one of the station’s many docking bays and settled on the metal deck with barely a shudder. Behind them the bay was sealed so that pressurization could begin, a process that only took mere seconds. Once it was safe to do so the doors in front of them slid open and they were connected to the rest of HQ. Will had been so busy peering outside that he hadn’t even noticed the pilot had gotten up and entered the troop bay until she spoke right beside him, causing him to jolt in surprise.

“Alright kid, rides over. Head straight out of here and meet up with Dr. Ghoshal on the flight deck, she’ll be babysitting you and the other new recruits today.” She explained, walking past him to activate the loading ramp. It opened slowly with a pneumatic hiss and exposed the inside of the shuttle to the pleasantly fresh air of C.A.M.P HQ.

“Flight deck. Got it.” Will confirmed, unbuckling himself from his seat and taking a moment to stretch before moving to grab his bags, only for the pilot to shoo him away.

“Leave them, they’ll be taken to your quarters for you.”

“Oh.” Will stopped in his tracks, still a little unsure, his inner Brit screaming at him that this would have the dreaded effect of ‘causing a fuss’. “Are you sure? I’d hate to make you carry all that…”

“Not me dumbass. We’ve got drones for that kind of thing.”

It was impossible to tell for sure with that reflective visor, but Will was 99% confident that the pilot’s eyes had almost just rolled out of her skull.

“Right, right, yeah that makes sense.” Will mumbled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. Obviously the pilot wasn’t going to carry his bags, Christ what a stupid thing to say. All this craziness really had his head in a state. Turning on his heel he quickly made his way down the ramp, stopping only to shoot a quick “cheers for the lift!” in the pilot’s direction.

The docking bay was vast, easily large enough to accommodate a vessel four or five times larger than the shuttle that had delivered him here and as he trekked across the expanse of metal towards the exit each impact of his boots echoed faintly across the chamber. As they were coming in to land he’d noted countless similar docking bays all along this side of HQ and had to wonder exactly how many vessels this place was capable of housing. It had to be thousands. The N.E.C pumped so much cash into this place these days that they could probably afford to gold plate their mechs if they really wanted to. That hadn’t always been the case of course, back when Demon attacks were only small scale and rare occurrences the N.E.C wouldn’t have dreamt about funding something like this place. But now C.A.M.P was their best option, simple as that. No price was to high to keep a threat of that magnitude at bay.

Heading through the massive open door linking the docking bay to the flight deck Will was greeted by the true scale of C.A.M.P HQ, feeling for all the world like an insignificant insect staring up at a complicated and interconnected machine he could never hope to understand. Towering and interconnected buildings filled most of the biodome, and what wasn’t taken up by those was still utilized effectively. Plant life had been embedded everywhere, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. With so many staff aboard C.A.M.P HQ had to keep them all breathing somehow. The scene directly in front of him was abuzz with activity, an assortment of space-faring vessels being directed around a large airfield by personnel that didn’t spare him a second glance. But there was one individual who stood out amongst the working masses, partly because she was standing entirely still, and partly because she was the only one sporting a different uniform. The light grey worn by most C.A.M.P staff had been replaced by a navy blue, and she wore a white lab coat atop it all. He had to assume that was the doctor he’d been sent here to meet, and she was simply too busy admiring the spacecraft to notice his arrival on the scene.

Before making his way over Will quicky ensured he was presentable, brushing off his jeans and straightening the dark green jacket he was wearing. His hair was probably still a bit of a mess but there was no chance he’d be able to sort that out without a mirror and an hour to kill.

“Dr. Ghoshal?” He called out, raising his voice to make himself heard above the activity surrounding them.

The woman turned towards the sound and her face broke into a wide grin as she pinpointed him walking over.

“Ah! Pleasure to meet you at last Will, glad to see you’ve arrived intact.”

Now that she was facing him Will could get a better look at the doctor, an attractive middle-aged woman with dark rings around her eyes that betrayed far too many sleepless nights. Despite this her voice had a sing-song quality to it and what to Will sounded like a slight Bangladeshi accent. She clutched a datapad in one hand and despite the fact she was looking straight at Will it seemed she was flawlessly navigating it with her other hand.

“Likewise, on both accounts.” Replied Will, unable to pull himself away from the rapid series of commands she was blindly tapping into her datapad. Maybe this was just a weird hazing tactic and she was just typing in nonsense?

It seemed the doctor had noticed Will’s curious gaze as she suddenly stopped and folded the datapad under one arm, giving him a ‘don’t worry about it’ smile and shrug of the shoulders.

“The rest of the new potential operators should be here soon, care to watch the shuttles take off with me while we wait?”

Ramjammer Shotgunpenguin Siren77

 

[Siren77]

“So is there gonna be food when we get there or are you people just planning on starving me to death?”

The questions had become more and more hostile the longer the Spaniard had been left in silence. After a sleepless night of packing his minimal belongings and staring at his ceiling, Ezro had been anticipating atleast some of his questions answered upon arrival to the Starport. Instead all he got was an older quiet fellow with a baggy uniform that hung off of his slender frame, who had yet to say a damn word to him! In all fairness to the geezer, he looked dog tired. That or his face naturally sagged under his eyes like that. He couldn’t tell and was damn near close to asking as he sat in the empty troop bay of the shuttle.

“I didn’t grab breakfast or anything when I got up! The least you could have done is brought some fruit with you! You know what is fruit is right? Or do they not have any of that back on that janky Space Station?”

Not a word. Not even a turn of the head. The gentlemen merely sat there and continued to pilot the shuttle as the Earth’s surface continued to shrink in the viewport.

“What are you, broken or something? You can’t answer a single simple fucking question?? Great! Just great! They put me with a dysfunctional pilot, now I’m probably gonna get my ass killed before I can get there!“

A hearty exaggeration to be sure, but at this rate he was spouting entire nonsense just get some sort of reaction out of the man. Like before though, not a damn thing changed.

“Bah, forget you!”

The teenager moodily slumped back into his seat as his green eyes traced back out the viewport, hoping to atleast get some entertainment out of the new views. Space, to him, wasn’t any more special than the night sky. Just stars and an infinite void, and he failed to see any manner of difference. What did manage to catch his eye, however, was the glass sphere of the bio dome connected to C.A.M.P. They were getting close, and now that station that looked little more than a blip in the skylight had become a massive construct amidst the void he’d so nonchalantly written off as insignificant. He wasn’t sure what to have expected, but it certainly was not a view like this. It was admittedly a gorgeous sight, looking like something ripped straight out of a sci fi movie. Cloud City was the first thing that came to mind to him.

Just as he’d hoped, the ever shifting view kept him occupied by the swarm of questions in his rather volatile mind. Before he knew it, the shuttle began to adjust its course ever so slightly in preparation to dock at one of the many available bays linked to the biodome. Effortlessly it sailed onwards and came to a smooth halt next to another craft identical to itself. The docking bay was bustling rather vigorously, drones and humans alike moving from place to place. It was controlled chaos, atleast that’s how it appeared. Ezro knew the nerds aboard this station had some sort’ve fixed system that made it all possible, and frankly he was none too interested in learning about it. It was the technological marvels inside, specifically the one he had been chosen to pilot, that had all of his anticipation.

When a chime sounded to alert a freedom to move, Ezro unclipped his belt and stood, taking a king and exaggerated stretch before adjusting his jacket. Looking to his left, he noticed the old man was finally looking back at him, a friendly smile on his face.

“Your bags will be taken to your room, you can leave them here for now. It was a pleasure flying with you here! Your awful quiet for someone your age!”

Ezro stopped dead in his tracks, and he swore he felt a blood vessel pop in his forehead. This had to be a joke, a big gotcha gag just to get a rise out of him. But the man looked all too serious.

“Are you freaking kidding me?! I’ve been trying to ask questions this whole time and you haven’t said a word!”

The pilot’s brows furrowed, and he held a hand up to his ear, only for a look of realization to cross his face. Chuckling, he reached up to both ears, and the tiniest click was heard.

“Oh bother, I always forget to turn these darn things on. Now, what was it you were saying there my friend?”

All at once the frustration left and was immediately replaced by shame. He was actually deaf, and Ezro had been making every sly comment under the sun at his expense.

‘I’m a dick!’

“Uh…. Nothing, I’m all set….. thanks.”

“Oh! Heh, alright then! I’ll be seeing you around! Godspeed!”

Ezro departed as fast as he could, doing his best to clear his mind of that interaction. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Max confidence. Today was not the fucking day to let something so trivial get the better of him. No, today was going to be a good day. Because today, the level of adversary he’d contend with was going up by several magnitudes. From man, to demon. That thought alone did the trick, and a wild grin spread across his face as he strut from the vessel, initially unsure as to where he was headed.

Then he saw the individual amongst the crowd, navy Uniform and white lab coat in contrast to the mundane grey, with the company of a dude looking no older than himself. They were through a large gate that linked the docking bay to the rest of the Station, so he headed on through to greet them.

“Alright Doc!” He called out, excitement thick in his voice, “Where’s my mech? I’m itching to get this show on the road!”

His gaze shifted to who he assumed to be one of his counterparts, and he’d offer an upward nod in greeting. His eyes lingered a little longer than what would likely be comfortable. He was casually sizing them up, and taking careful note of their stature and theorized weight. Just a few inches shorter, but looked to have a healthy build to match. Unimpressive, but not bad. He just might be able to keep up, but that was a test for later.

“‘Sup, I’m Ezro.”

 

[Shotgunpenguin]

Komi Mashiba
Location: C.A.M.P. HQ airfield
Status: Uneasy, apprehensive
​

"Thank you for the information. I will try to not be a bother for the remainder of the transport."

Komi bowed her head and returned to her seat as the pilot, an older man with the faintest wisps of grey in his beard returned to his task of monitoring and adjusting the various knobs and instruments of their ship. He had been polite in a formal way, like that of a manager who had been asked the same question every day for a year by one of their employees. The kind of answer that on the surface was helpful, but was undercut by the thought that you should already have known what their response would be. Not wanting to come off as pushy, Komi backed off from the man and locked herself into one of the seats of the transport. With nothing else to do she quickly began to do a mental checklist of everything that she had brought with her.

"Let's see. Clothes, hygiene supplies, charger, notebooks, headphones, towels....."

Her thoughts quickly drifted away, much like she had begun to do without noticing as she felt the harness tug slightly at her shoulders before an audible ding was heard through the ship. As quick as the feeling of zero gravity had come it was just as quickly replaced by the artificial gravity of the ship. Komi fell a slight bit backwards before once again being seated, the pilot fiddling with more switches before announcing that she could now remove her harness. Deciding to do so, she unbuckled herself before moving around the empty section of the ship. While she was aware that there had been very few individuals who had been selected for this operation, the emptiness of the ship still had her wondering why they were all being transported to the C.A.M.P separately. Was there a reason for it or was it simply because of the distance between those chosen? Surely they could have taken the time to transport them all to one location, the amount of effort to do so was probably even less than-

Komi gasped, an audible sound that had the pilot turning his head to check on his passenger. Quickly assuring the man that she was fine, the pilot returned to his instruments with an inaudible grumble. Walking towards one of the view-ports of the shuttle she paused, looking back on the rapidly shrinking earth that she had spent her entire life on. That out of the entire world, out of all the possible candidates who could have been chosen for this mission it was decided that she would be given the opportunity. Her, a marked section in the history of the selfishness of the human race, was chosen to fight on the front lines against rampaging demons.

"No, do not think like that. You have no idea how much must have gone into this decision, how much funding and time spent just to reach this point. Do not doubt their choices, do not think of yourself as worthier than anyone else. You mustn't be selfish.

As the earth continued to shrink smaller and smaller, Komi turned her attention to the gargantuan space station known as the C.A.M.P. Even the term gargantuan seemed to do the station a disservice, it's size dwarfing any man-made structure on earth by a very wide margin. Ships buzzed to and from all along the station, some dotting in and out of multiple bays while some patrolled the outside of the structure itself. There were even a few ships that appeared to be making their way back to Earth, perhaps leaving to return with supplies or even transporting people such as Komi back to Earth. Being out in space for an extended period of time seemed like the thing that would cause issues with some, so regular incursions to the planet below seemed likely. At least, that is what she thought as the pilot conversed with a person on the other end of their headset.

The ship slowly descended into one of the docking bays as the doors behind them sealed shut with a pneumatic hiss. After a few seconds the pilot unbuckled themselves from their seat and stood up, removing their helmet as they approached her.

"We've successfully docked with the station. You are to report to Dr. Ghoshal on the flight deck with the other recruits. Leave your bags here, the bots will come around later and take them to your assigned quarters. Any questions?"

She shook her head and gave a quick thank you to the pilot before turning and descending down the ramp into the station. Despite not asking any questions Komi was still unsure of exactly where the flight deck would be. But the pilot had seemed like he'd rather be finished with his task sooner rather than later, so she just smiled and left so that he could return to whatever task he had next. Fortunately the massive doorway with the words 'air field' plastered above it gave her all of the directions that she needed. The scene in the air field was not unlike that of a bee hive, with workers running to and fro as they either directed large machines or began the process of getting into those machines themselves. The entire place was awash in activity, which meant that the trio who were completely stationary stood out like a sore thumb.

After a quick check to make sure that she was presentable, Komi approached the odd trio. One appeared to be a rather tall man with a head of ginger hair, although the way that she approached she was unable to get a good look at his face. The other was an older woman wearing a lab coat who was probably the doctor that she was supposed to report to. The final one was a man with a head of black hair who appeared engaged in some sort of conversation with the other two. A small portion of her mind noted that all of the people here were taller than her, the man with the ginger hair by quite a wide margin. Stuffing that thought away for the time being Komi cleared her throat and introduced herself with a slight bow to the trio.

"Hello. My name is Komi Mashiba. I will be under your care for the time being"

Mentions:
Foster
Siren77
​

 

[Ramjammer]

She wouldn't stop staring.

Johannes had come across all kinds of people during his stint as a pilot for C.A.M.P. Some passengers were talkative and chattered almost the entire trip. Others spoke as little as possible, preferring the company of their own thoughts. Almost everyone had one question or the other. How long the trip would take? Was there a bathroom on board or would they have to wait, et cetera. But even the most quiet, antisocial of passengers couldn't have held a candle to the woman sitting behind him.

She hadn't made a single sound from the moment that she stepped on board. Johannes greeted her out of a mixture of habit and politeness when she'd first arrived. All he'd gotten in return was a disinterested look. He didn't expect the girl to be cartwheeling over a mere 'hello'. But how she'd looked at him made Johannes feel as if he were a piece of furniture. He was expected to be there, but he damn sure wasn't supposed to be talking.

After strapping in and settling down for the ride, the woman had almost immediately busied herself with burning holes into the back of his skull. It was single-handedly the most nerve-wracking flight that Johannes had ever been on. He was almost positive that the chick wasn’t planning to murder him. The cold of space was the last place anyone wanted to be stranded and killing the pilot assured just that. But he couldn't be completely sure. All that he could do was to maintain an anxious grip on the controls and worry over just what the hell was going through her mind.

"I wonder if they'll have lunch for us. Something this important usually offers lunch."

Having ever been to any relevant meeting with C.A.M.P personnel, much less set foot on the organizations near legendary HQ, Lorette was at a bit of a loss about what to expect.

Oh, she understood the innate importance of being called upon. The number of people good enough to stand among their elite could be counted on one hand. It would do well for Lorette to treat the opportunity before her with nothing less than full seriousness.

But a sense of skepticism had shadowed her from the moment that she'd first been contacted. Just how did a Business Major from Seattle fit into all of this? It wasn't adding up in her mind at all, and Lorette silently wracked her brain for an answer.

That was how she spent most of the trip. Staring blankly ahead, buried in her own musings. Lorette was grateful that the pilot wasn't the talkative sort. She wanted to be left to ponder in silence.

Yet her thoughts were wiped clean away when Lorette first caught sight of the orbital station that C.A.M.P based its operations in.

To call it a station was to really be doing it an injustice. It was a fortress. A citadel. A walled city drifting amongst the stars and carrying humanity's hope.

Lorette had lived in the city all her life. But she'd been a part of it. As much as the asphalt and the plants that thrived between the cracks in the concrete. A massive organism of which she'd been but a single cell.

Through the shuttle's window, Lorette was given the rare opportunity to view such an organism in full from the outside. She probably wasn't alone in her feelings of smallness. Dozens of shuttles and transports flitted to and from the docking bays of HQ like honeybees buzzed around their hive. Soon Lorette would join them. Another nameless worker in the colony.

No, not quite. She was something else. A warrior drone. Tasked with protecting the nest and all that dwelt within it. Fighting for them. Killing for them. Dying for them. Trepidation had plagued Lorette as often as genuine excitement from the moment that C.A.M.P reached out to her. Awe and perhaps some giddiness was to be expected for someone in her position, but Lorette attempted to rein it in. She was adamant about reviewing the fine print of their offer before signing on the dotted line.

The shuttle docked smoothly and came to a complete stop. The pilot was quick to gather Lorette's luggage for transport to her lodgings.

"He's probably on a tight schedule. I'd better not waste his time." She thought.

Stepping gracefully past the man, she uttered a curt 'Thank you' before descending the loading ramp without a backwards glance. The noise that greeted her was overwhelming after spending so much time in silence. But Lorette swore she heard a relieved sigh from behind her as she walked away.

Figuring out where she was supposed to be going was her most pressing issue. Lorette assumed that the woman wearing a lab coat and standing next to three people without uniforms was the best place to start. Lorette strode briskly towards the group, adjusting her tie and inspecting her suit jacket for any wrinkles and stains. Next to everyone else, she was quite overdressed, but she didn't fret over it. Embarking on such a life-changing opportunity required some level of pomp after all.

That, and Lorette's personal aesthetic, demanded a suit. Her love of dark colors had followed the woman into adulthood, and it didn't seem like that would change any time soon. Dark eyeliner and lipstick matched well with a button-down shirt and pressed slacks. Mesh shirts, chains and ripped jeans simply weren't sufficient indicators of Lorette's commitment to darkness. Most Goths idolized vampires. Lorette insisted on dressing like one.

Schooling her face into a neutral expression, she gave each person there a cursory glance before settling on the woman in the lab coat. She had to be the Dr. Goshal listed on the itinerary she'd been given.

"Dr.Goshal I take it? A pleasure to meet you. I am Lorette Lècuyer and I think I might be late. I apologize."

Lorette fiddled with her cufflinks, a nervous habit. She hated being late on the best of days. So showing up late on her first day aboard HQ was an incredible faux pas. It would have sent her into a stroke if she wasn't so committed to making a good first impression.