***
Experiment ID: A01-NEURO-ADAPT-07
Date: Philos Calendar Year [Redacted]
Recorded By: OTHAN-17642
Objectives:
1. Observe Subject A-01's cognitive deviations under prolonged combat exposure.
2. Identify irregularities in memory retention and self-awareness.
3. Evaluate the impact of neural recalibration protocols.
--Othan Research Bureau Report No. 7704
***
The battlefield unfolded once more, a landscape of ruin and shifting figures. Her body moved without hesitation, cutting through the chaos with lethal precision. But this time, something was different.
She thought.
Not the fleeting, functional calculations of battle. Not the pre-programmed directives that dictated survival. Real thoughts. Awareness, slipping through the rigid framework that had once confined her mind.
She remembered the lab. The reports. The cold glass of the containment pod. The monotonous scribbling of unseen hands. But between those moments, there were gaps. Holes where memories should be. The battlefield was the same—fragmented recollections, but one remained. That figure. That fleeting moment of recognition.
Why?
The question latched onto her, foreign and unwelcome. It should not exist. She should not be asking. And yet, it lingered, threading through her thoughts as her body continued its relentless work.
Then she felt it.
A shift. Subtle at first. A hesitation in movement, a millisecond's delay in reaction. An anomaly.
The crystal embedded in the sleek armor near her throat pulsed—dim at first, then brighter, a deep red glow bleeding into the cold metallic sheen of her suit. An unfamiliar sensation clawed at the edges of her awareness. And before she could grasp it—
Blackness.