His enhancement ports felt like molten glass under his skin. Kasper tasted ozone and copper as another adaptation cycle failed, each rejected command burning neural pathways like acid. Through dying systems, he watched Circuit stumble slightly – the third time in ten minutes. Her hands painted commands through encrypted interfaces with forced steadiness, fresh neural patches barely hiding the tremors that spoke of stims pushing past safe limits.
The factory's industrial heartbeat pulsed through enhanced senses – ancient coal furnaces still burning deep below, their heat making enhancement cores run hot. Steam whistled through brass pipes in binary hymns while coolant dripped from corroded valves, each drop hitting marble floors with metronomic precision.
*Alert: Climate compatibility at 18%
Secondary: Neural pathway degradation accelerating
Tertiary: Estimated survival window – 35 minutes*
"Association channel secure." Circuit's fingers never stopped moving, but sweat traced paths down her neck where old patches had left chemical burns. Static crackled across tactical feeds as the factory's quantum shielding interfered with team communications. "Santos confirms exchange point. Old industrial district."
The maternal edge in her voice made Kasper's dying systems spike with recognition. The same tone Sarah used when explaining enhancement rejection. When pretending everything would be fine.
Ghost's fingers brushed his outdated hardware – a ritual check that spoke of lessons learned in blood. Kasper caught Santos's barely hidden wince at the ancient tech, combat-seasoned eyes measuring obsolete frequencies against modern threats.
"White Forest." Scope's enhanced hearing picked up the subtle shift in Ghost's breathing. His prayer beads clicked faster against carbon fiber. "Same layout."
"Different outcome." Ghost's ancient combat protocols hummed at frequencies that made nearby windows resonate. "Has to be."
A message from Valerian burned across Kasper's feed, breaking through the interference: "Watch the rooftops. Church sensors detecting unknown patterns. -V" What does he gain from all of this?
The exchange point loomed through quantum-encrypted haze: abandoned Tesla factory, its brass towers reaching toward a sky turned mother-of-pearl by processing heat. Rain-slicked marble caught dying sunlight like polished bone. Santos waited with his tactical team, their enhancement signatures pulsing with pure military precision.
Static crawled across Kasper's vision as another system crashed. His spine felt like it was being rewired with barbed wire, each nerve ending screaming rejection. Through the pain, he caught the wrongness – enhancement signatures blooming where there shouldn't be any. Evolution patterns that made his experimental hardware scream recognition.
"Ambush!" His warning carried the taste of burnt nanobots and dying tech. "Multiple teams, northeast and—"
Reality fractured along quantum fault lines as Circuit's virus hit hostile systems. Enhancement cores screaming electronic death across quantum-encrypted channels. The first wave died screaming – but their deaths made the second wave stronger.
"Grid override!" Santos's command fought through bursts of static interference. "Martinez, realign defense protocols. Ghost, your old hardware might—"
"Already on it." Ghost's ancient combat protocols sang war hymns as he engaged three hostiles simultaneously. His outdated tech operating on frequencies too archaic for modern countermeasures, each strike hitting systems that never evolved defenses against pre-Reformation patterns.
"Northwest!" Kasper's hand moved with lethal precision despite failing enhancements. A brass paperweight blessed by tech-priests crushed critical ports in the lead attacker's skull. Letter opener through another's neural link. Each throw guided by muscle memory as dying tech failed.
The factory's art deco architecture turned every shadow into an ambush point. Steam vents hissed sacred binary through brass pipes, making enhancement signatures stutter and shift. Perfect territory for an evolving enemy. The acrid smell of burnt coal mixed with ozone from overheating cores, creating a toxic fog that made targeting systems unreliable.
"Patterns shifting!" Circuit's warning carried genuine fear beneath professional distance. Her hands painted emergency protocols through dying light, fresh tremors betraying the stims' cost. "They're learning from each death!"
"Motion sensors compromised," Martinez cut in, her voice breaking through random static. "Switching to thermal tracking. Ghost, your outdated protocols are actually helping – their evolution algorithms can't adapt to obsolete tech they've never encountered."
Scope's rifle spoke precise death from above, each shot guided by clicking prayer beads. Two hostiles down before they cleared cover. A third losing enhancement cores to a round that somehow curved between coolant processors. His enhanced hearing tracked threats through walls while filtering out the constant background thrum of the city's industrial heart.
A flash of memory hit Kasper as his ports wept blood and coolant: Sarah in her laboratory, explaining evolution's price. The same patterns now spreading through enemy systems like digital cancer. Each death making the survivors stronger.
His targeting system outlined another kill zone as thunder rolled across Costa del Sol's quantum-encrypted sky. He sent a piece of sanctified glass spinning through the air, muscle memory guiding it home while enhancement ports screamed rejection. The target dropped, neural pathways severed with surgical precision.
Through fracturing vision, he watched the teams move like deadly clockwork. Ghost's obsolete hardware turning weakness into strength against modern threats. Circuit's viruses dancing with Martinez's attack protocols. Scope's rifle speaking judgment from on high.
Rain started falling, each drop hitting his burning ports like liquid nitrogen. The world began going dark at the edges as his adaptation package entered final collapse. But there was time for one more throw. His hand found a brass coil that had fallen from a broken processor. The metal felt warm, like Sarah's blood had felt that night against his skin.
His last conscious act was sending it through a hostile's enhancement port with perfect accuracy. The world tilted sideways as Ghost caught him, the old soldier's ancient hardware singing lullabies of war. Circuit's trembling hands already moving to emergency protocols. Scope's prayer beads clicking like nervous heartbeats.
Some violence was sacred as prayer.
Some wounds never healed clean.
And the void claimed another piece of his humanity as darkness took him.