54v

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

Her thoughtless clear pale blue eyes remained on Dom, completely oblivious to his inner thoughts as she smiled and listened to him explain that violence would perhaps not be necessary. A bummer, Han thought, her smile waning as non-violent alternatives were presented. “Awh-” She let out. Nevertheless, she followed him as he walked over to the board.

“Something easy to remember?” She echoed, bringing a finger up to her chin as her countenance immediately changed. Her focus was spent completely on this simple task, what would be easy to remember? She recalled people would not usually remember long numbers, nor unknown words, but she also had to make it memorable. “How about Lattice?” A simple yet not too simple word, two syllables, and with no real connection to her. She liked it though sought approval from what she now saw as her new mentor, Dom.

Being who she was of course, she got a sticky note and wrote down her new code-name under Dom’s number. Han made sure to pick a sticky note that was magenta in color, and a pen that was red, as to make it very bright to the eye and hard to read, almost asking to be examined further. “Neat!” She exclaimed, her arms forming two handles at her sides as her fists rested on her hips. One affirmative nod later and she was ready to go.

There was just one thing she had to get though. Her head turned to Dom, her smile brightening as he said she could get whatever. “Anything…” She thought out loud as she rushed over to the hotdogs and took a bottle of Canola Oil, downing half of it before capping it again. “Let’s go.”

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

The blondie expectantly waited for his reply, keeping her young blue eyes on the man as he tried to collect himself before replying. It was no problem for her of course, all processes usually had delays and waiting for an input was not that grave of a situation, this was no hard real time system after all. “Huh…” She noticed the man staring down at her attire, as well as the bulge within his pants, though something within her made her think about that more. Image processing was something she could do very effectively, so after a few moments she knew what to do.

Reaching for her gun she immediately took it out and stashed it in her crotch, imitating what the man had done but with her small subcompact 9mm pistol. “Is this how it is supposed to be done?” She said as she adjusted the pistol inside her pants. “It seems a bit hard to-” She now tried to whip it out, taking a few moments just to get it out. “-Aim and shoot rapidly by keeping it there…” With her theory confirmed, she once again placed it on her hip, being held by her black jeans and web belt which contrasted with her pale skin, the only thing matching her clear skin being the chrome buckle that kept her pants from falling with the extra weight. Lowering her shirt, she continued her way to the table alongside the man.

Following Dom, Han took a seat. She reached over and grabbed one of the many fold-able chairs that were available and, after grabbing two of the hotdogs and filling them with mustard, she sat down, heeding his advice on the matter of nourishment. “I didn’t remember this place having food-” She commented, looking around as she took a bite, chewed, and swallowed remarkably quickly. Hearing his comment, she stopped herself from talking too much about the interior of the Holy Knights of Terra headquarters and instead focused on answering his question. “I want to shoot things again!” She said cheerfully, her smile contrasting with her statements. “It has been a while since I went to the range, bullets are expensive, and I have not yet used my hog.” Though, she was also left with a small blank, a gap in her memory that she could not call from her libraries. “Dragon? Who is that?”

Her attention was immediately shifted once the Dragon began speaking, her focus being diverted entirely as the other spoke. With laser focus, she listened to what the man was saying, her eyes scanning all his movements rapidly as well as the photos, cataloguing them for future reference like a mechanized target acquisition system. Each of the contracts was interesting, though there was one that felt like the easiest from her perspective, something she could do as a start. “I like the performer one.” She said with a smile after the speech was over, turning to Dom. “May we take it? It seems like the least dangerous.” How exactly Han came to that conclusion was unknown, even she did not why she felt that way.

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

The sudden changes in her environment made Han become very alert, her smile dropping as she rapidly turned around to face each of the perceived threats thrown at her, with her navigation off she felt compelled to just shoot the thing but was never quite able to get enough time to measure a clean shot against the illusion. Even though her eyes moved about, and her hand remained hovering over her pistol as she twisted her body no fear came out of her, lacking an amygdala from extensive neural degradation suffered as a result from the constant experimentation done on her.

This all changed once the Reader introduced himself. Her face went from cold and focused to her usual bimbo face. “Oh hi! I am Han, pleased to meet you.” She smiled, extending a hand, and offering a handshake. The strange sensation that the brain behind the man’s eyes was her own quickly vanished as she realized she had no brain, though did make her comment on it as she did not think before speaking. “Nice brain by the way, it looks like mine.” Though she was interrupted by the incoming service car before she could continue her stupidity any further. It was strange, not like how she remembered getting in here though she was also gone for a very long time, long enough for anyone to doubt her intentions and her mysterious arrival. Distracted, she stopped what she was doing and went to inspect the service car.

Before the man was done speaking she was already entering the car, fully trusting the complete stranger to have good intentions as he introduced himself. Surely, she thought, no bad person would do that.

Eventually she moved on from the exterior of the cart and walked inside, listening to the strange choirs and being once again filled by a sense of familiarity, though not brought about by an illusion this time. The sounds were very pleasant, something she missed though she did not know exactly why.

Once she arrived she exited the vehicle without looking at her surroundings, waving goodbye at the Reader with another cheerful smile. “Thank you, Reader!” Before she turned to the Nerd Central that was the Holy Knights of Terra headquarters. For some reason she found it hard to remember exactly what it is that she did, all of her memories somewhat foggy and not very reliable in spite of her mechanical nature, why this was she did not know. As well, she felt that same sinking feeling she got when she first entered, remembering that vividly. “Is it normal to feel weird here?” She asked the same shadowy figure of her previous flashback. She still could not discern what he looked like. “They’re a bunch of nerds, pretty sure it would be weird if you didn’t feel weird being looked at by this many grease-faced weirdos.” Her question remained unanswered, but the reassurance of the man kept her from turning back. ‘What a strange instinct.’ She thought, shrugging off the feeling after remembering that interaction and moving on.

Her first questioning was unsuccessful, with some dismissing her and others stuttering so much she found it impossible to communicate. Eventually, she fixed her sights on Dom. That feeling came back, something drawing her to the man. “Hi, how are you?” She asked Dom nicely, having skipped over. “You give me good vibes. Can I work for you? I need to eat so I don’t die.” Very straightforward, she thought it would work like how machines understand simpler things in a much easier manner. “I can’t recall what I did here, I think I shot things but that’s all I remember. Oh and you look like someone I used to know, he brought me here so I thought maybe you would also know since you look similar. You do shoot things right?” In spite of what she said, her smile and tone remained the same as if this was a genuine conversation and she was not fucking with Dom.

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

Han remained smiling as Fesyen closed her hands, only nodding along before replying. “Thanks! I will be sure to head there once I check out the spa.” What awaited her there, the human made horrors beyond her comprehension, were of course unknown. Fate itself, for some reason, dictated that she had to watch someone disfigured into an anthropomorphic fox. Observe powerlessly as the bones and flesh were molded into an aberration that mocked all of creation, followed by a howl, a scream of defiance against nature, the defiler’s bow, his macabre finished product now on full display for everyone to see.

After the nice little window into the depravity of humanity Han did a 180 turn and spoke again. “Actually, I think I should get going instead.” Her smile unchanging, she speed-walked to her car, waving goodbye to Fesyen and adding a little “Don’t worry sir, I promise you I will get the bits!” Before she fully left both the homeless man’s and the tailor’s field of view.

One rapid entrance followed by a gear shift and enough acceleration to make the wheels slightly slip later she was on her way to the flooded underground. “Just like the old times, right?” She asked to no one in particular, eyeing the middle of the back row as if able to see the gun in the vehicle’s trunk. ’I wonder what he would do in a time like this…’ Han thought as well, a small memory being indexed and then played by her nervous system automatically; the heavy traffic facilitated this, having flashbacks was one hell of a time-consuming activity. Why exactly traffic was this bad she did not know, did some highway blow up or something?

It was a regular Tuesday evening, the sky was cloudy and the night was warm. Light pollution reflected off the clouds enveloping the city in an eternal twilight only eclipsed by the city’s own artificial lights. A dark figure drove calmly towards a destination Han had unindexed and overwritten a long time ago. “Those fucking Xenos.” The man spoke, his voice raspy like Marlboro Red’s smoke. “Brought war here and sold us the guns to kill each other with. If you ever get the chance to, crush their skulls and skin them.” Then a brief pause. “Reverse that order, actually.” After, a prolonged horn followed by screaming at a cyclist who just got out for his morning ride. “Fucking asshole, anyway the only good thing they brought here was some damn fine ass- “His sentence was interrupted by the man taking a sip of his bud light. The conversation was deafened as Han already knew he was going to go into extreme detail of how he fucked an alien while in Africa even though he somehow does not even know if it’s a continent or a country. No, her eyes were focused on the man’s machine gun resting in the backseat. “-Hey, you even listening kid? Ah whatever-” He threw his empty beer can out the window. “Tell you what, if you can field strip this pistol I got from one of the guys I killed today in a cleansing operation you can keep it.” The man then reached over Han’s lap for the glove box, opening it and browsing past a bunch of fines before he finally took out the gun, a black Springfield Hellcat. “Who knows, maybe you’ll shoot someone accidentally with it.”

The pale woman finally reached one of the entrances to New Venice. Luckily for her they were still kept in the vehicle’s navigation system. ’Can’t beat good old GPS.’ She thought as she stopped and left the car in a not so stupid place before she exited it and made her way to the underground. Memories rushed back in as she stepped down the stairs and into the dilapidated flooded part of the New York metro. Han did not even need to follow the swatches, her memory implants already knowing the way to the place Fesyen described earlier, yet her conscious self could not help but wonder where she was going. As she got closer the endless tunnels and corridors started to sport banners, xenophobic messages, and culminated in some sort of makeshift frat house in an area previously unknown to her. ’This must be the place.’ She thought as she made her way through nerd-land and approached the first person she saw, hopefully her appearance would come in handy for gathering information from these social outcasts. With a naïve smile she asked: “Good afternoon, sir! Would you be so kind as to point me to the current job openings? I am a bit strapped at the moment and could use some bits.”

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

The "hipster", whose attire's only hipster element were the Nazi boots, seemed quite puzzled at first as she could not find the short man, but sighed in relief after spotting him. Just as she was about to speak however, Mateo interjected with his demand to not be left out. Without a space to talk, she only stood there, looking back and forth between Fesyen slightly confused until she was addressed again and she had to reply with a nod.

She also tried to peek under the tarp, her mouth slightly opening as she raised her head and tried to get a nice look. It was not enough though, as she was unable to make what was under the tarp before the robot took it away. Of course, she also paid attention to the other, living, load being carried away to the spa. She smirked lightly at the clother's remarks and then laughed as she caught a glimpse of the cursed penis of Mateo. "He has ze baby dik!" She uttered rapidly in a slight German accent as she laughed.

"Oh yes-" She said as she collected herself, moving back to where she was and opening the white thick plastic bags she brought with her. Inside were the boots in question, which seemed more worn than in the photo. Their soles were almost run to the fabric, the leather had sun damage and also a few cuts, and the laces had gained a few strange stains and had unraveled themselves in quite a few spots. Either she did not care about these relics, or she cared so much that she felt it would be disrespectful to not use them as they were meant to be used, probably the former considering she was a young white blonde woman. "I did say I would pay in cash but I kind of am running short on that. Sooooo~" She said as she reached into her pocket and took out another interesting artifact. This one was an original First Class Iron Cross medal, it was not very worn and even had the cool and edgy swastika in the middle of it. "Could you take this as payment? I don't have any use for it at the moment." Although not as rare, it could still fetch more than 300 dollars if you were lucky, though of course you would have to know about these artifacts to know that.

"Oh also." Han continued, keeping the medal in her hand as she spoke. "Do you know any fixer in need of some assistance? I could work a normal job but honestly... that sounds very boring and totes not worth it." After all, it was a capitalist dystopia. Crime was probably the only way to make it if you were not born to a family of money like her. "Or if you have any jobs I can tell you what I can do." Han finished, offering the man a quite charismatic smile that made her look less like a solo and more like a stupid teenager that did not know what she was getting into. It was quite common for college aged students to get into stupid things too, which did not help her case at all.

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

Without the need for an alarm Han rose from her bed at an exact hour to go see a vintage boot specialist. She had no need for rest though with how low she was running on money she thought it would be best to save as much as possible, if she did not move as much then she would not need to eat as much food. However, whenever she did have to move she needed shoes, and as any hipster knows, they had to be nice shoes from a hundred years ago. 'Let's see... Oh yup, there it is.' She thought as she reached for her phone, checked the messages sent to one of the anonymous board members, where she met the one capable of mending her boots, and readied herself to drive to the location of the tailor.

Her apartment was quite nice, having a lot of space, two bathrooms, and two bedrooms, one of which was used more as an office than anything else while leaving the master bedroom which had a connected bathroom as a normal bedroom. Located in Greenpoint, it was the perfect place to camouflage her 'historical appreciation' for 1940s Germany. After a nice and brief shower she readied herself to go out, taking her pair of worn paratrooper boots and placing them on a bag before going down without eating breakfast. On her way down she greeted and got compliments on her retro style, further exemplifying how oblivious the others were to what exactly she was wearing.

Han opened her car door and placed the white bag containing her worn boots on the passenger side before turning on the engine, waiting for it to heat up, and then left calmly to her destination. Although she knew the way to the warehouse where she'd meet the tailor, she enabled the built-in navigation system in her car. It sometimes guessed right which way to go to avoid traffic, good enough and certainly better than her in this regard. The drive was uneventful, she only listened to music as she made her way there, a mix of metal and electronic music. Unknown to her even her taste in music was set beforehand by her creator to match an European.

The modified 2008 C63 silver gray Mercedes-Benz came to a stop just in front of the dilapidated warehouse. The neighborhood did not look any better but this was the only person Han managed to fight, able to maintain and fix her boots, with a sigh after looking at the surroundings she took her white plastic bag and exited the car. The electric tint made it impossible to look into the car, something not true for those looking from inside to outside, which led to Han only being visible once she got out. Rapidly, she walked across the street and towards what she suspected was the entrance to the warehouse, looking both ways to make sure no strangers were coming before she made her way there. Her gait was slightly rushed as one would expect from any upper middle class person who is put into a not perfect area.

"Uh-" A female voice said from behind Mateo before Han entered the premises. "Are you Fesyen?" She asked as the short man was completely camouflaged from her by the many things inside the warehouse. Her pale blue eyes met with Mateo, her gaze uncertain and slightly worried about the man not too far away from her. From her pristine pale skin, short grunge naturally blonde hair, black jeans and leather boots, and a darker black Metallica 'Ride the Lightning' t-shirt it was clear she was not only foreign to the neighborhood but also its way of life and inhabitants. "I came to get these fixed, we met on the board. I’m Han."

Gaslands: a Palimpsest’s Tale

Han

Full name: Hannelore Amsler. (Goes by the nickname "Han")
Species: Synth variant (partly biological).

Physical description
Han’s hair is blonde, thick wavy, and cut short like that haircut popular with every single alt girl in the entire western hemisphere. Also has blue eyes, pale skin, the whole “aryan gf” package except for gigantic tits. The creator of this construct instead gave her a petite frame that looks like an 18 year old with normal proportions, a bit on the flatter side of things. 5’2”, her weight does not match her weight at all, being a hefty 83 kg (183 lbs).

As a shapechanger her appearance may change for missions, but unlike most she does not go through different appearances like one does outfits. Her clothes however do vary. She wears mostly dark clothes, especially black or dark gray ones. She especially likes black jeans with leather boots and one of those metal band t-shirts, but may sometimes go for something less strange like a pleated skirt with a dark gray hoodie (The boots stay on though). The black leather boots are genuine German paratrooper combat boots, made in 1940 and fixed quite a few times already through expensive nano procedures to keep wear at bay.

Out of the ordinary

• Multi-state Physiology: Like a T-1000, this construct can withstand kinetic attacks very efficiently. Instead of damage her body enters a temporary liquid state that allows it to be deformed, though it hinders mobility, with the wound channels being as large as they’d be on a normal human. It may withstand temperatures between -200 and 400 degrees celsius, though it becomes immobile below -40 degrees celsius.
• Shapechanger: Made up of a mix of nanites and organites, Han can change her appearance to resemble the texture and look of most materials. Unlike the liquid metal terminator, she may generate small pieces, detached pieces, and moving parts. The strength of these can vary between liquid gallium and tool steel. The overall volume may not vary too much however, she can look like most humanoids and things close to their size but cannot turn herself into, for example, a penny.
• Internal systems: Like a Poltergeist Val’gara, she is able to take over systems (of her current technology level, unable to breach large corporation’s and governmental cyber security) via touch through side-channel attacks and generate strong electric currents, allowing her to attack by contact, make use of electronic warfare, and defend herself from contactless psionic, magical, and cyber attacks. Coupled with this is a military grade cybersecurity system, modified to make the most out of her hybrid bioelectronic internal computer, and special biosecurity protocols to neutralize natural and artificial pathogens. These systems also allow Han computer-like accuracy and processing capacity and, combined with her touch technological possession, allows her to operate machinery at an expert level after being breached or after making contact. Immediately learning its capabilities as well as how to best make use of them.
• Enhanced Physical Attributes: Strength wise Han can lift up to 10000 kilos, with anything 5000 kilos or below being easily moved while being able to support 10500 kilograms at maximum. She may run up to 45 miles an hour and move her appendages at higher speeds than normal without losing precision. As long as her body isn’t disintegrated, she may regenerate lost weight through the same mechanisms it uses to sustain herself, namely eating, receiving radiation, or consuming fissile material. Han can store energy in the form of uranium instead of fat, allowing for very long operation periods without sustenance though she will starve to death eventually. Her telemetry is however not as advanced as she only has slightly enhanced eyesight and hearing, a shortcoming of being so adaptable. As well, she is as vulnerable to acid as a normal human.
• Equipment: Rather than using one of the many relics her owner had, Han uses a modified M60E6. It has an adjustable gas mechanism to achieve the ludicrous fire rate of the original MG42 without losing the option of running lower rates of fire, can fire from a closed bolt when semi-automatic like an FG42, has a few 100 round belt pouches to feed the ammo hungry light machine gun, a vertical grip, a foldable bipod, and an adjustable zoom scope for better accuracy. These add-ons can be adjusted from its grip biointerface, which reads the intent of the shooter and adjusts the weapon accordingly, deploying the bipod, retracting it, changing the scope’s zoom, and firing rate. It is not encrypted so anyone can make use of it. The ammo it fires is normal surplus 7.62 NATO FMJ, not particularly devastating but it gets the job done, hopefully. In case it is lost or cannot be brought to battle Han always has a Springfield Hellcat on her person.
• Property: Inherited from her creator, Han has a 120 square meter apartment, a lot of world war two Nazi paraphernalia and guns, and an old Silver Mercedes C-class with electric tint windows. The latter has been modified to be easier to maintain and more robust, explaining how it has been running smoothly for the past two decades.

History
Han began as a Xanathan project to cure the Val’gara virus on a patient that started at the beginning of the first contact war. The success rate of this procedure was even lower back then and so it took millions in funding for this project to get off the ground along with the other many that tried to achieve this, due to its complexity it was never completed. Cost overruns and schedule extensions could only last so long, and by the time the war ended the project was transferred to another company, a subsidiary of Xanathan. Thus began a phase where the incredibly expensive F-35-like project was passed from subsidiary to subsidiary as it continued. Eventually, the focus of the project shifted away from curing the patient.

The new direction of the project sought to make the subject express genetic material of many of the other Val’gara instead of curing the virus, with a lot of genetic material being inserted into the patient with the aim of granting it the ability to alter its genetic code on the fly. When this did not work through biological means a sample of nanites was injected into the patient. This had the unexpected effect of both the organic and inorganic materials recombining into a single one that rapidly altered the rest of the body in its image. At first it was thought this had killed the subject, though it was later found that this had instead made it able to change form to its will through certain impulses.

After this breakthrough the aim once again changed as it was theorized this could serve as a way to transfer consciousness as they could now control the nervous system of the amorphous liquid through computer commands. With this discovery more funds and personnel were allocated to the project, one of them being an extremist. This scientist had been an HKT member for a long time though did not directly interact with any alien materials, he silently rose the corporate ladder until he finally found something that could truly hurt Xanathan and, in his view, punish them for experimenting with Val’gara abominations. Eventually he used his anonymous board to tell HKT what they were doing in the facility and how to breach it, though unfortunately for him once they raided the complex they also killed him.

The project was left behind as once they had shot the test tube it was in it simply slipped out and looked dead. However, after a few hours it stabilized itself and formed into what it had been programmed to do by the same one who called in the HKT members to the black site at the outskirts of North Capitol City. Forming into a young German girl, programmed personally by the 4channer to be extremely xenophobic, she took the place of the now defunct scientist after scanning his computer. Now, she is looking for a job as the left-over money by the incel tech guy has started to run low. Not entirely sure of who she is, or why she is here.

Stats:
Clout: 0
Intelligence: 1
Magic: 0
Physical: 3
Technological: 3