7 Prelude 3: Modification

He seethed silently. With effort, his rage subsided. He hadn't explained any of the specific circumstances so why would they know?

"Well?" the grey haired man asked again. "What can you do for us? We have tried to examine the bodies and we haven't found anything useful. The metallic armor is impervious to all measurement devices and seems to be downright indestructible. The deceased look to be human but even now, after all this time, show no sign of decay. We can only do a superficial investigation due to the suits. We can't even open the faceplates. The only thing that has shown progress is examining the er... Husks."

"The suits are merely shells. Except for their durability, their only other feature is as psionic amplifiers. It was the people inside the suits that made them formidable."

"Can you give us the designs for the suits?"

"I have repeatedly told you, they are useless to you. By the time you can make them, you won't need them. Even if you put one of your soldiers in them they would be turned into jelly the first time something hit them. The majority of the defensive capabilities came from the soldiers themselves."

"Were these creatures created in a lab?"

Salthuin looked balefully at the man before him. "These creatures were merely men like you or I. They had been upgraded through standard biological modification."

"Wait, that's the thing you want to do to our soldiers?"

"Yes. You wanted super soldiers, didn't you?"

"Will our soldiers be able to do the same things? They say one of them waved his hand and destroyed a jet."

"Eventually. The modification will be the mostly the same, however, you won't be able to activate the advanced features until your technology advances."

"Why don't you activate it for us."

"That was the deal. You learn how to do it yourselves. I just show you how."

"What about the husks?"

They were failures. They died during conversion. The bodies were recycled into low-grade footsoldiers."

"Are they actually alive?"

"Technically. However, I think you mean to ask if they are sentient. No. Each one has a psionic link with an evolved human."

"How strong are they?" the man asked with a rather subdued horror.

"Not very, however, the soldier can channel a portion of their own energy into the husk. The real question is, how strong is the soldier?"

"The husks are the only thing we can do any analysis at all. The scientists are saying they are not only dead but they haven't been alive for years. They are slowly decaying… at least when they are removed from the freezers."

"Naturally, after all, they failed mid-conversion, otherwise even in death bacteria wouldn't be able to get a hold. In the Empire, unless the head is completely destroyed they can be resuscitated."

"They aren't really dead?"

"No. They are dead." The Empire installed kill switches. Those it wanted dead would be thoroughly dead. Maybe the unknown arts the Rebellion held could reverse the process, but as far as science was concerned they were gone.