Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 26

Entering my cube, I’d informed Destiny I had every intention of entering the bandit simulation Achilles had gifted me. It was really just a customizable training sim. The one Achilles used himself. Because of the new freedom we’d received after our first event in Vanguard, she was able to port me in without entering the Prime sim. I stood in a three level pagoda. It was sparsely decorated since it only served one real purpose—training.

I dismissed my artificial Ekseliksi opponent of the first floor and scrapped all the workout equipment on the second. The third floor was mostly empty, and the place I meditated in the later days of Freedom. I left it alone. It was time for a fresh start.

“Destiny?” I called.

She ported in before me in her new drone chassis. This cube version of her had a simulated synthetic brain that my father had designed just for her. While I’d been outside in the real world, this part of herself had been going through her memories to try to understand how she felt about things—and what she felt about feeling itself.

Above her large, egg-shaped drone body, a girl with a blond pony tail appeared sitting atop it as if she’d been in mediation. That seemed like a fairly accurate description of what she’d actually been doing.

“Hi, Lucius,” she replied airily, but not without warmth. I’d expected her to start expressing her own emotion. Experiencing it was still rather odd.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m doing well, I think.” She still sounded distant.

“I need your help. Is this a good time?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Of course it is, silly. Thank you for worrying about me, but I’m still your Destiny. I’ve received the data from my real world self, so I’m assuming you’re looking for ways to improve your training.”

“That’s right. Do we have and SP remaining?”

“Yes. When the Prodos battalion received far more donations than necessary, Victoria made sure to have a portion of the funds returned to us. You have 150,000,000 SP available.”

I sat down on the reflex-matted floor that I’d replaced the traditional one with. The harder the fall, the more give it would have. Destiny’s hologram appeared across from me. She was wearing a tai chi style uniform of sky blue and black.

“It looks like I’m going to need to earn some more money sooner rather than later.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “However, the prizes for the first event haven’t been announced yet. A generous sum of SP will probably be a part of that.”

“That should help. Here’s what I’m thinking. If you have anything to add, please do so.”

She leaned forward, sticking her nose in my face. “Mmhmmm. Since when have I become shy?”

“Sorry. I don’t mean to question you. I just don’t know what to expect from the changes you’re going through, so…”

“Yeah. Yeah. So what were you saying?”

I cracked a grin. “What I’m about to ask you is rather extreme, but here goes. I want you to purchase training literature, videos, VR experiences, etc. on anything combat sports and martial arts related—starting with the most popular. I know the information out there is limited, but the same goes for anything psionics related. The goal is to further enhance this training sim. Just like in Freedom, it’s AI is limited by what it’s seen. I want you to take command and develop it to the further extent possible.”

“That’s easy enough,” she replied, resting her chin on her hand.

“This next part may not be so easy. I want you to scour the Meta for any clips of Ekseliksi attacks. The biggest problem we have right now is that we don’t have enough information on what the enemy is capable of. Adding it to the simulation to create better opponent AI is imperative. Scanning such information might take an emotional toll.”

Destiny sighed. “That’s what you’re worried about? First of all, my own brain isn’t the only processor I have access to. I can easily have a lesser AI scan footage without personally going crazy. Secondly, I already know that improving your sim’s AI isn’t the only reason you want me to gather such footage. You plan on watching it. To feed yourself a constant diet of war atrocities and human rights violations because you are afraid.” The way she said the last word was borderline insult. “Afraid you won’t be able to stay motivated to do what it takes to become strong enough to make a difference. Right?”

Before I could speak, she cut me off. “Look you,” she grunted through gritted teeth. “Lucius…” She stopped herself as she realized she was getting angry. “Regardless of what changes I’m going through, there’s something you must understand. You,” she said, poking me in the chest. “Are precious to me. I think you’re an idiot for not thinking of your own mental health, but, fine. I’m going to do this with you. You want me to improve your training sim. I’ll improve your training sim. There’s a lot of footage the military has access to that civilians don’t. I’ll start there, looking for any advanced techniques and uses for psionics we haven’t seen before.”

As unsure as I was in what she was going through, and what she would become, I couldn’t help but to grin from ear to ear.

“What?” She asked, uneasy.

“I hate this.” There was much I couldn’t say about Victoria and the Ekseliksi. This wasn’t a safe place to say.

“Lucius—”

I shook my head. “Shhh. It’s my turn to cut you off.”

I could see the annoyed humor behind her eyes.

“You are precious to me, too drone head. I won’t abandon you.” Just a week ago, I’d promised Victoria that I’d distance myself from Destiny and only use her as a tool.

She rolled her eyes. “So you’re having second thoughts?”

“No. You’re not the same as you were. That changes things. One of the things that I learned in Freedom was to do what needed to be done. You don’t wait for permission. I don’t need permission to do what is right. If that causes problems, then so be it.”

For the next minute, I watched Destiny as she went from rigid, to worrisome, then on to the verge of weeping to acceptance. To be honest, I still didn’t completely understand the relationship between the Ekseliksi and technology, but Destiny wasn’t a machine any longer. She was more, or at least becoming more. After all she’d done for me, even if it was out of directive instead of affection, I felt I owed her. It didn’t change the way I felt about Victoria, or my intentions to help her, but what I’d told Destiny was true. I wouldn’t abandon her.

From what I did understand, I couldn’t become emotionally dependent upon technology. There was a loophole, at least from what I could see, though. Victoria hadn’t hesitated to latch onto me wolf pet in the early days of Freedom. Her mind had been preoccupied and she’d explained it as a failure on her part, but if Wink hadn’t been an artificial pet, but a real one, it seemed the Ekseliksi wouldn’t have had the same philosophical hang up. I considered Destiny far more than just some pet. However, the same logic would still apply to her. I’d still distance myself in the sense that I wouldn’t rely on her for every decision, but how could I possibly sever the emotional connection I had with her now that she was becoming more?

With that mostly out of the way, I began to redesign the first level of the pagoda. This was a simulation, so the cost of building materials didn’t matter. To the best of my memory, I recreated the internal combat parkour area, the Jungle. It was enormous compared to the size of the old pagoda, but that didn’t matter. This would be a place I could both train my movement abilities and fight simulated opponents. Eventually, I’d even have the sim’s AI change the obstacles at random. There was still a ways to go before that became necessary.

With that done, I moved on to the second level of the pagoda. It was still its original size—tiny in comparison to the first level’s many stories. So the question was, what needed to change? I wasn’t sure I could even improve on the exercise equipment I was using before. In truth, body mechanics were limited. There was only so many ways to train each of the body’s movements.

“Destiny. What do you think? Is there any way for me to improve on my personal gym?”

When she appeared in physical form without her drone and holographic state, I gave her a confused look.

“I’ve taken command of this simulation as you requested. I can now appear however I want.” She looked gleeful, but I sensed a touch of shyness.

That’s new.

She still wore the same tai chi outfit and was standing before me. She was quick to answer so that we didn’t get off track. “I’m afraid there’s not a lot you can change from the old template to improve things. After your time in Freedom, your physical body is nearing the threshold of its natural limits. Improving will take far longer than before even with your ability to regenerate. This is because you must try to overcome this threshold, which is possible I might add. The way the combat masters have handled this is by training for maximum muscle growth even if at first it might negatively affect their combat skills by making them slow and bulky. As you know, this type of training is different than combat specific training that focuses on mastering the movements required in battle. Much of your initial training with Achilles fit into this bulking category. You were weak, so only after you’d developed a certain level of strength could Achilles have you focus on combat training to the fullest extent. The underlining philosophy is this. The more muscle you build, the more you have to repurpose later. You must train to build it, then retrain it for explosiveness, endurance, or a mix of the two later.”

“So that’s how Achilles and Cornelius were able to become human tanks…”

“Yes. In the past, this threshold was an immobile bulwark limited by the body’s youthfulness and diet. With modern technology, a person’s body can remain in this youthful state for decades longer than it would naturally. Improvements in nutrition have pushed it even further. You could say the threshold of what is humanly possible has already changed, but if a person doesn’t go through the long process of building their body over decades to continually improve, they’ll remain stuck near the level of their original natural threshold. That’s why it’s spoken of as if it’s a mobile thing.”

Looking down at my arms and chest, I grabbed my shoulder and felt the rubbery of tone muscle. Compared to a year ago, I was massive. Compared to Achilles, however, I was a shriveled weakling. Only my psionics gave me the ability to compete with him. There was only fleeting worry I had. It was a vain thing really, but it wasn’t something I could ignore. “Do you think Victoria will find me attractive if I get that big?”

She glanced away, obviously trying not to laugh.

“Moving on,” I said, clapping my hands together and turning away to look at the empty room.

“Oh, stop it. You’re asking the wrong question. Sure, some girls might not like men with that much muscle, and even be intimidated by it, but her? I think you should probably be asking yourself how she can possible find you attractive when you’re still this small?”

At first, I thought she was just messing with me, then I realized, as Ekseliksi royalty, she’d probably rarely seen any normal sized guys before Freedom. Peter was probably the main exception. Perhaps, that gave me another reason to thank him. Even Oliver was abnormal in size. Just not to the extent that Achilles or Cornelius were. There was no guarantee I’d be able to get as big as either of them anyways. Even with my recovery ability, it would take some time to push my threshold to my true limit. Years…

Pushing the topic aside for another time, I was blunt. “Until my psionics have recovered, I’m limited to what training I can do, so let’s focus on physical. Train, eat, recover. You watched all my training in Freedom. Can you come up with a schedule to help me make the most out of the next few days?”

“I’m way ahead of you. With your permission, I’m going to reimplement your old training room with a few tweaks, then you can get started.”

“Thank you, Destiny.”

With a swipe of her hand, the room changed. “You’ll warm up then start with jump squats, before moving on to squat variations to finish with box jumps.”

A timer appeared on the fair wall in glowing red font. It was counting down from thirty seconds.

I started rolling my neck before the warmup even began. Seeing Destiny standing there in physical form, I couldn’t help but to move toward her.

She straightened, unsure what I was doing.

When I reached her, I smothered her in my embrace. It was the closest thing to a real hug I’d ever been able to give her. Simulated or not, I felt her warmth and the tension go out of her body after a few seconds. “Thank you, for everything you’ve done for me over the years.”

I couldn’t make out what she said in response for it came out mumbled and weak. Then remembering the gesture she used to use so often when I was still a child, I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Pulling away to prepare to warm up, I saw that she remained unmoving. Her face was a little flushed. It looked like she was trying to figure out what it was she was actually feeling.

Before the timer reached zero, I was already warming up with side lunges. It snapped Destiny out of her own thoughts, and she scanned me as I worked. As I moved from motion to motion, she began to give feedback with which muscle group needed improved blood flow. Once we moved on to the actual workout, she was bark order from her full drill sergeant mode.

Our time was limited, but we were able to come up with a training schedule that would best fit around what was expected of me in Vanguard. We were heading in the right direction.

Soon it would be time for me to port into the Prime simulation to take care of my battalion responsibilities, but not without doing something first.

Once against sitting on the floor of my training pagoda’s second level, my surroundings began to change. I was soon sitting in a field of teal-color grass.

The landscape was flat as far as the eye could see. Only when I heard something, did I turn to see the white-metal dome facility set up to my left. It was quite large, spanning a few hundred feet while the top of the dome remained no more than a story high.

The noise came from a group of farmers numbering no more than thirty who were harvesting the grass. Their breathers didn’t cover their entire face. There was just an ethereal film covering their mouth and nose. Their clothing was long, but the skin of their wrists between their gloves and shirts, as well as that of their faces and necks remained exposed. The environment must have been mild enough. The air just needed some filtering.

A quick observation told me that these farmers were all adult men as far as I could tell. There was no sign of women and children outside the facility.

If it wasn’t for Destiny placing an enemy beacon above its head, I wouldn’t have even seen the creature crouching down in the grass not far from where I sat. I spun in my seat. The thing had gray scaley skin, much like that of a serpent and it was in the shape of a person… Its physique was thin and lengthy. Plus, the thing had a tail.

It blurred from its hiding place. A sickly green light flashed only at the last possible second. Before understanding registered, I saw it swipe its sliver energy-coated claws across the back of the neck of one of the farms, and it was already on to the next.

The first man didn’t move. There was no visible sign he’d even been touched. But as the creature reached the forth farmer, the first man started to fall. A line of red appeared on the back on his neck. As he hit the ground, his head rolled from his body.

For the next three farmers, their end was the same. They’d been caught completely off guard, and they fell in to pieces a moment after the attack.

By then, the other farmers noticed something was going on, but against the green glowing humanoid reptile, they could hardly move before it was upon them.

Those furthest away, ran for the domed building. They were spread out enough that it looked like a few might get away. But as their comrades fell, I heard one of the men scream as he neared the building’s entrance for them to lock down and not let anyone in.

Then to my horror, the creature used Othisi and pushed himself into the air. As he flew toward the entrance, bolts of green Voli rained down on the farmers who were still alive. They exploded.

The creature landed upon the man closest to the building. The guy’s arms were up to fend off the attack, but the thing slashed down and then across. His arms fell loose of his body. His face split neatly in two. The second slash had severed him at the waist.

Even as a white-metal door slid down from the entrance, the creature’s aura blazed, and it slipped below it in time. I was left sitting there in the field of grass littered with bodies.

Destiny appeared before me. She too was watching the entrance. Shaking her head, she turned back to look at me. Her eyes were damp.

This wasn’t the first time I’d seen footage of a similar attack. I knew the humanoid serpent wasn’t a creature at all. He was Ekseliksi. Not only that, from the color of his aura he was an elite. I’d expected such slaughter, so I hardened myself to it the best I could. I didn’t doubt I’d remember it all just fine later when there was time to meditate on it. I focused on the enemy’s movements and uses of psionics. My education started here.

---

Author note:

Next chapter should be early next week.

Cheers!