Nolan's fist crashed into Jessica's cheek with the force of a sledgehamr.
The impact sent her sprawling across the tal floor, her body skidding several feet before coming to rest. Her pale skin imdiately darkened with bruising, purple spreading across her jaw like spilled ink. Half her face swelled, distorting her features.
Nolan exhaled slowly through his nose. He looked down at the girl sprawled at his feet, his expression cold and unyielding.
"Get up," he said flatly. "Again."
For a mont, nothing. Then movent.
Jessica's black hair fell away from her face, revealing bloodshot eyes burning with determination. She didn't speak, didn't waste breath on complaints or protests. Instead, she adjusted her breathing, found her rhythm, and pushed herself up from the floor with trembling arms.
It took several seconds. Her body shook with the effort, muscles screaming. But she made it to her feet, swaying but upright.
She paused there, taking stock of herself. The pain radiating from her ribs, her jaw, her shoulders, everywhere Nolan had struck her during this brutal training session. And in that pain, she found sothing unexpected.
Relief. Release.
The physical hurt drove back the mories, the guilt, the endless loop of horror playing behind her eyes. For these brief monts when her body demanded all her attention, her mind could finally rest.
Her brow furrowed with concentration. Then a roar built in her throat, raw and primal.
Jessica clenched her fists and charged.
But she'd only been learning basic hand-to-hand combat for a few days. Her technique was nonexistent, her approach predictable. To soone with Nolan's experience, soone who'd lived through countless simulated battlefields, she might as well have been moving in slow motion.
He didn't even bother to counter-strike.
A simple sidestep took him out of her path. As she rushed past, he placed his palm against her back and pushed, redirecting her montum.
Jessica went down like a teor. Her body slamd into the tal floor with a resounding crash that echoed through the training room. The impact drove the air from her lungs in a pained gasp.
She lay there, face-down, breathing hard. Every part of her hurt. Every muscle quivered with exhaustion.
She didn't get up this ti.
Seconds passed. Her breathing slowed. The tension drained from her limbs.
Then her eyes drifted closed, and consciousness slipped away.
Nolan watched her for a mont, making sure she was truly down. Then he gestured to the edge of the room.
David stepped forward, blue light pulsing in his optical sensors. He moved to Jessica's side and ran a scan, chanical eyes analyzing her vital signs.
"My lord," David reported in his synthetic voice. "She has exhausted her energy reserves and fallen unconscious. However, due to her tahuman physiology, her injuries are already beginning to heal. She'll recover fully with rest."
Nolan rolled his shoulders, working out the kinks from the warm-up session. "That's enough for today, then. Her fighting skills are a disaster, but her refusal to quit is worth sothing." He paused. "How's the dical room coming along? She might need it sooner rather than later."
"Construction was completed overnight," David replied. "The facility is functional, if sowhat basic."
"Good. Let her rest there."
Nolan turned and walked out of the training area, his footsteps echoing in the empty space.
David's tal head swiveled, tracking his departure. Then the automaton looked down at Jessica's unconscious form. She'd started snoring softly, small sounds of deep exhaustion.
"Human," David murmured, his voice barely audible. "You should consider yourself extrely fortunate."
He bent down and lifted her easily with one tal arm, cradling her weight as if she were a child. Then he carried her toward the dical room, his footsteps a steady tallic rhythm against the floor.
In the base's rest quarters, Nolan stood under the shower spray. Hot water cascaded over his shoulders and back, washing away sweat and tension. The temperature was perfect, just shy of scalding.
He found himself humming, so tune he couldn't quite na. The lody drifted from him unconsciously, carried on the steam.
A smile tugged at his lips as he thought about Jessica. She'd co to him in desperation, grasping at straws, looking for any excuse to keep existing. And sohow, through that chance encounter, he'd gained sothing valuable.
A capable assistant. The first brick in the foundation of sothing larger.
Jessica's will was stronger than he'd anticipated. The trauma that had broken her also made her adaptable, willing to accept unconventional solutions to her problems. She'd embrace the brutal training because pain gave her focus. She'd follow him into darkness because she'd already been there.
The only real flaw was her youth. She had the impulsiveness and occasional naivety that ca with being in her early twenties.
Though her reaction to David had been surprising. Most people would freak out when confronted with a sapient robot. Jessica had simply shrugged, accepted the impossible, and imdiately asked if David could help her deal with her credit card debt.
Nolan couldn't help but laugh at the mory.
He finished rinsing, dried off, and pulled on clean clothes. Then he settled cross-legged on the tal bed in his quarters and opened the simulator interface.
His eyes went imdiately to the salvage page. The countdown had completed while he'd been training Jessica.
He frowned slightly. Still no sign of a flying vehicle, nothing that would let him reach Kansas quickly and quietly.
But what was there...
[Salvage Harvest: Ancient Gauss Blaster (1 unit)]
Note: Produced by the Necrons. Please stay a mont, human... You appear to have quite the connection with the Necron race.
[Salvage Harvest: Grav-Chute (1 unit)]
Note: Produced by the Elysian Drop Troops. Our mission is simple... fall from the sky and raise hell.
[Salvage Harvest: Kasrkin Stormtrooper Carapace Armor (1 set)]
Note: Produced on Cadia. Soldier, this armor will stay with you through every battle... until you die wearing it.
[Salvage Harvest: Photon Flash Grenades (10 units)]
Note: Produced by the Blood Ravens Chapter. "Who says flashbangs can't kill?" - Captain Alexian, legendary hero of the Blood Ravens, raising one eyebrow.
Nolan's eyes moved between the gauss blaster and the Kasrkin armor. His frown gradually eased.
This salvage had been worth it. Not just worth it, actually valuable.
Kasrkin carapace armor was elite-grade equipnt, far superior to standard Guard issue. And a Necron gauss blaster... that was a weapon that could disassemble matter at the molecular level. Terrifying in the right hands.
Still, he didn't lack offensive capabilities right now. What he needed was support equipnt, utility items. Transportation, primarily.
The Valkyrie assault carrier remained his white whale. A reliable, proven Imperial Guard transport that could get him anywhere he needed to go.
"Looks like I've exhausted my luck for now," he muttered. "Can't rely entirely on salvage. Ti to try simulation again."
He closed the salvage page and took a mont to center himself. His breathing slowed, deepened, beca almost ditative.
Then he opened the simulator interface again and whispered a brief prayer to the Emperor.
Ti for another dive into the Warhamr universe.
[Simulation starting...]
[Current identities available: Catachan Recruit, Death Korps of Krieg Grenadier, Kashezin Sergeant Major, Letalis Storm Squad Trooper]
[Please select your identity]
[Declining will result in random selection]
[Identity selection declined]
[Simulation starting...]
[You have arrived in the Warhamr Universe]
[Ti Period: M41.999]
[Location: Milky Way Galaxy, Ultima Segntum, Ultramar Sector]
[Planetary designation: Loading...]
[You find yourself lying on a stretcher, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling.]
[Around you, dozens of other stretchers hold wounded soldiers. Their moans and cries fill the air, a chorus of pain. So call for water. Others call for their mothers. A few simply scream.]
[dical personnel move between the rows, dressed in blue and white protective suits that cover them from head to toe. They carry auspex devices that they wave over each patient, scanning for injuries. Green light pulses from the scanners, painting the wounded in sickly illumination.]
[You try to sit up, to get your bearings.]
[One of the dical staff notices your movent. He turns toward you imdiately, his voice muffled by his fully enclosed mask.]
["Soldier, remain still. Movent may aggravate your injuries."]
[You open your mouth to ask where you are, what happened.]
[The auspex in his hand suddenly emits a harsh, warbling alarm. The sound cuts through the background noise like a siren.]
[The dic's body goes rigid. He stares at the auspex reading, then at you.]
["He's infected!" The dic's shout carries urgency and fear in equal asure. "INFECTED! We need containnt, NOW!"]
[Around you, other dical staff freeze. Heads turn in your direction.]
[Then they start moving, fast, reaching for weapons that shouldn't belong in a dical facility.]
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