Warstrider by Ian Douglas

Warstrider by Ian Douglas

Author:Ian Douglas [Douglas, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, First Contact, Galactic Empire, Military, Space Fleet, Space Marine, Space Opera
Amazon: B00LLHOTFS
Publisher: War Planet Press
Published: 2014-07-05T12:00:00+00:00


Chapter 18

Healing, like so much else of Man's endeavors, has been transformed by nanotechnics. Injuries once fatal can be erased in days, the body itself reshaped into new and more efficient vehicles of the spirit. It is when the spirit is wounded that even the god of nanotechnology may fail.

—Introspections

Ieyasu Sutsumi

C.E. 2538

The Hegemony Military Medical Center occupied most of a dome adjacent to the Tristankuppel. It was a doughnutshaped RoPro building, the hole roofed over with transplas to create a pressurized central courtyard with a circular patio and garden.

Katya stopped at the HMMC's main entrance long enough to check with the patient information 'face, then followed a glowing holographic guide to the courtyard. Dev was in the garden, she learned, practicing with his new walker brace.

It was amazing that Dev was alive. It had been touch and go getting him back from Norway Ridge.

She'd attached her suit's PLSS to his helmet in the Warlord after shooting him full of emergency medical nano. After that, she'd had no time to spare for him as she submerged herself in the Blade's linkage. There'd been a moment's terror there, when she realized Dev had recalibrated the pilot module's linkage to his own brain; her own calibrations were still stored in the AI's main access RAM, though, and a palm 'face command had set up the transfer and completed the linkage. She still remembered the dismay she'd felt as the data had flooded in, detailing the inventory of damage and systems failures the Warlord had already suffered. With energy weapons all but useless, with only fifty rounds remaining in the hivel cannon, all she'd been able to do was turn and run, Xeno Gammas writhing up the slope behind her like a living carpet.

Eight seconds later, she'd broken out from beneath the blanketing umbrella of ash and dust that had kept the Warlord from establishing a lasercom link with the Stormwinds and Lightnings circling the battle area. Dev had left the appropriate commands; as soon as a clear L-LOS appeared, the Warlord's AI established contact, transmitting all recorded data in a decisecond burst. Lara Anders's VK-141 had led the air-ground strike that shattered the pursuing column of Xenos, as a Stormwind with vacant striderslots had touched down and slotted her in. They'd unloaded Dev's mangled body at HMMC less than twelve minutes later.

They'd kept him unconscious while they worked on what was left of his legs. She'd glimpsed them as they pulled his body off of her; everything below his knees had been gone, and the rest was raw, bleeding tissue and white bone halfway up his thighs.

Katya had not seen him since then and wasn't sure what to expect.

She found Dev in the garden practicing with his personal walker, a lightweight frame of nanolayered alloys that did his walking for him. He was standing with his back to her, staring at the atrium's small Japanese garden.

"How are the new legs shaping up?" she asked.

Dev turned. A jack in his C-spine socket connected with



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.