The Cyborg (Revisted)

Here's another entry for 's August theme of Mecha-muscle!!!
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The not-so distant future...

...21 years ago....

Ladies and gentlemen…we are honored that you have joined us for what is to be a monumental occasion today.  As you are probably well aware of, Earth is embroiled in an Intergalactic War with a semi-intelligent alien race of bio-organic and parasitic bug-like creatures that we have dubbed the Udrathians.  We have found that our conventional weapons, armament, and assault vehicles are only minimally effective against the Udrathians and have not been able to properly defend our planet.  Many women and men have lost their lives either from being outright slaughtered by the Udrathians, or from being infected and mutating into an Udrathian, and even more have suffered a great deal from living in a constant state of fear not knowing when another swarm attack invasion will take place. 

Entire cities and land masses have been invaded and infested by these vile creatures and in many cases have formed sub-hives here on Earth.  This has caused an uptick in the reproduction of new Udrathians along with those that still are coming from their main hive in outer space, not to mention those that they’ve acquired via infection.  We have been hard at work developing new technology to bolster our arsenal to withstand any further invasions and to also eliminate the threat of the Udrathians once and for all. 

While some may look at our present circumstances and wonder about the fate of our world, we believe that there is still hope for our future and we absolutely refuse to simply lay down to our enemy without a fight!  We are standing at the precipice of the future…a future where life as we know it will have completely evolved and adapted beyond our wildest dreams when it comes to technology!  By now it is no secret that cybernetics and nanotechnology are becoming more commonplace within our society, and with the increased need for higher safety and defense measures calls for our military to also increase our standard when it comes to weaponry and technology. 

Over the years and after countless hours of careful planning and research, we have successfully discovered how to merge organic and mechanical systems to function together in harmony.  Of course, cybernetics augmentation and bio-synthetic implantation aren’t at all new concepts…however it has still remained a widely unexplored frontier, especially in the realm of ballistic combat and bio-weaponry purposes.  We have been implementing cybernetic replacement parts to soldiers who may have had irreparable damage or have lost limbs and other body parts or organs for some time now and the Cyborg Supersoldier program has been in development for several years to limited success…until now.  In all confidence, I will go as far to dare anyone to prove me wrong that we haven’t seen anything remotely like what you are about to witness other than in science fiction lore.  Now, if you would, please turn your attention to the stasis pod and behold the ultimate hybrid of human and machine!

Allow me to introduce to you our latest creation from our bio-weapons division and what we firmly belief is our most effective weapon at our disposal, prototype unit model, Project: Cyra-2.  One of the challenges that we’ve had with the Cyborg Supersoldier program is finding willing participants to experiment upon and submit themselves to the moderately extensive cybernetic transformation surgery, so much so that we had to offer lucrative incentive packages in hopes of getting soldiers to volunteer and even still only six people showed any interest, one of which being our subject here. 

Lance Corporal Audra Denise Ambrose was the name of the young woman and enlisted soldier who bravely subjected herself for consideration to be the prototype model for our Cyborg Supersoldier program, undergoing the extensive and complex surgical procedure to become Cyra-2.  LCpl Ambrose’s reason for offering her life to our experimental project was quite noble, as she elected to have her bonus incentive pay sent along with her normal military pay back home to her struggling family…specifically to support her ill mother and her young daughter.  LCpl Ambrose is a seasoned veteran, having served in the Marines for about four years now, including two tours of duty in battle against the Udrathians; one here on Earth and one on space station Vatruvius.  Physically she was an absolute perfect specimen, a model soldier for the most part…I’m sure her commanding officers would beg to differ, and the best overall candidate to receive the cybernetic augmentation procedure despite the fact that she was the only soul brave enough to offer herself to the program. 

The transformation process consisted of six separate phases over the course of about a month.  Over the course of the entire six phases these alterations were made to the subject’s body: we transfused the subject’s body with the muscle enhancement serum along with thousands of nanomachines pre-surgery; the nanomachines began to transform her muscles, tendons, and epidermal composition on a cellular level and reconstruct them bio-synthetically; her top epidural layer has been fitted with a myriad of micro-circuitry, wiring, and servos; her eyes and ears were replaced with bionic cyber-optic and audio implants; her entire skeletal structure, including her skull and spinal column, was replaced with a near-indestructible titanium steel alloy endo-skeletal frame; we replaced and reinforced her major joints; replaced all of her major organs with synthetic implants and intestinal tubing; part of her brain was replaced with a highly advance internal computer and databank processor unit, and her entire brain encapsulated within a virtually indestructible ‘cyberbrain’ casing which not only protects her organic brain and processor, but also aids her in the interfacing and syncing to other machines; hydraulic pumps were installed into each of her limbs to aid in strength and speed purposes; transfused bio-synthetic blood and various other vital fluids into her system; a highly advanced respiratory system to better make the unit durable for intensive space travel; and various other alterations that are too complicated to explain here.

Cyra-2 has been designed to be 115% more efficient than a peak human soldier and 85% more efficient than an enhanced soldier.  Cyra-2 is capable of metahuman levels of strength, speed, and reaction times; she can lift up to 10 tons, run up to speeds of approximately 75 mph, and her reflexes are lighting fast.  Her body is highly durable and her exo-skeletal armor is comprised of a lightweight and flexible, yet near indestructible metallic alloys that has been surgically fused and plugged directly into her body; it is removable for maintenance and repair purposes.  Her highly advanced targeting system has a 0.001% margin of error.  She has over 100,000 combat sequences and fighting techniques uploaded into her databanks and available at a moment’s notice.  The unit has a plasma shield system to protect her from moderate ballistic fire and a themo-optic stealth camouflage implant for more covert missions.  And her cybernetics are fully upgradable, meaning that as we develop more breakthroughs in technology that we can fit the unit with even more weaponry…including but not limited to built-in ballistic projectiles and melee weapons, armament, jet propulsion and aeronautic systems that would allow flight, and other augmentations to make her even more effective and powerful.

Initially, the unit model’s name was to be Cyro-1, as it was wrongly assumed that our ideal subject would be a male.  Of course, being that she was a female, we had to change some of the specs to accommodate her female form as well as her body chemistry.  Naturally, we also changed the name of the project from Cyro to Cyra to make her designation more feminine.  One of the things that we could not accommodate for was the muscle enhancement serum that we administered to her, which had an adverse effect on her genetic makeup and would explain why she is so muscular and was completely unexpected. 

However, this minor oversight actually worked in our favor as we did take aesthetic appeal into consideration when we designed her body schematics and wanted to avoid oversexualizing her as well as making her look too bulky or masculine for that matter.  We think that her strong physique and sleek design is both alluring and formidable and the ideal size for graceful mobility as well as durability.  As for her head being shaved, we need to have quick access to her brain for maintenance purposes and have even replaced parts of her skull with metal cranial plating…plus, quite frankly, she has no need for hair or any other cosmetic additions; she will most likely be wearing a helmet when on the battlefield anyways.  At the end of the day the Cyra-2 unit is a cyborg supersoldier, not a supermodel. 

But, we haven’t completely dehumanized her!  We’ve allowed her to wear her eyebrow and nose piercings despite the fact that those are far from military dress code!  And even though she is the very first Cyra unit, she insisted to be designated as Cyra-2 rather than Cyra-1, citing that it was her number that she wore on her jerseys when she played high school basketball; she also shared with us that her nickname is “Deuce” after the fact that her first and last names both begin with the letter A, hence her affinity for the number two.  Reluctantly, we obliged.

Of course Cyra-2 is the first of what we hope will be many Cyra and Cyro combat units to come; unfortunately, we have neither the time nor the resources to duplicate one more Cyra unit let along an entire army of elite class cyborg soldiers at the moment.  Project: Cyra-2 costs millions of dollars; the government has only budgeted the project with enough funding for the prototype model unit.  If the project proves to be successful, then they will green-light a grant that will allow mass production of Cyra and Cyro units with artificial intelligence if we are still unable to recruit willing participants to undergo the cyberization process. 


But, as of right now our hopes of victory against the Udrathians ride squarely on her shoulders.  We will send her along with a platoon of soldiers to the Udrathians’ hive planet, where Cyra-2’s primary objective is to eradicate the queen and destroy the hive from within; meanwhile we will position our ground forces and focus them strategically around the sub-bases here on Earth.  They will be waiting at the ready to attack them once the queen of the main hive has been eliminated.  The Cyra-2 unit clearly understands her task and that the possible fate of the Earth is hanging in the balance and dependent upon her completion of her primary objective; she confidently assures us that she will not fail her mission.

In summation, our subject’s conversion into the Cyra-2 prototype unit was a success; making her the very first fully-functioning female combat cyborg ever…the unit’s composition is now 75% machine with only 25% of the subject’s original organic composition remaining. As mentioned LCpl Ambrose's enhanced organic body was in excellent physical shape and rather than jettison all of the unused organic remains, we have harvested vital organs and salvaged what we could of other body parts to either be used for life-saving transplant purposes or laboratory research specimens.  After only a day of recovery followed by another day of combat programming system configurations, our subject has been beta tested over and over in real-time combat scenarios with very few glitches or bugs found since her activation.  We even sent her on a covert mission to a sub-hive located in Sector 37 to see how she would fare and were pleasantly surprised with stellar results of the complete annihilation of that particular Udrathian hive.  And now, in just five short days we will send her off in a space cruiser to be the catalyst to turn the tides in our favor in the war against the Udrathians by destroying the queen.

Now…I am opening up the floor to any questions or concerns that you may have.  And while we have uploaded an obedience program and control parameters to better help her control her new multi-million-dollar body since LCpl Ambrose had a tendency to get a bit reckless in combat, we have chosen to allow Cyra-2 to maintain her free will in order to take advantage of her raw natural instincts on the battlefield.  I highly encourage that you engage her or ask her any questions that you may have…you’ll be delighted to see that while very little of Audra Ambrose’s organic body remains, that her vivid and extroverted personality is quite intact!  Any questions?
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If you go and check out the original of this piece , which I originally posted back in 2008, you'll see that the very last line in the description says, "Still got some coloring/shading work to do on this one.....stay posted!"  If you've been posted for the past eight years, then happy days are here for you b/c I've FINALLY finished the coloring and shading! 

It's funny to even think that I was just starting to add shading to my work back then like it was something special.  I've always really like this piece, and since I've been on a weird on again/off again thing with my artwork lately I figure I can just ride the artistic wave whenever it hits me.  Earlier this year I switched from PS to Clip Studio Pro as my primary coloring program and I'm REALLY starting to love it waaaaaaaay better than PS!!!! I just randomly got the whim to go back and finish coloring this.

I did a change a few things anatomically, mainly the module thingy on her boob and her left hand...I "borrowed" Nikki's hand and boob module from here since it's the same pose (which I admittedly bit from this classic Jim Lee X-Men cover 1.bp.blogspot.com/-_k6tTNpFdlA… and even they revamped the colors from the original cover that came out waaaay back in the early 90's!).  I'm sure that Nikki won't mind sharing her hand with her mom....

WAIT, WHAT?!!!? 

Anyhoo...I did add a few other things as well to give her design a bit more pop, like that cool cyber font for her name which is extremely flat, yet still looks cool.  I also changed her eyes and her lips to make her look more alluring.  I love how the chrome effect came out on this one.  I didn't change everything, so it still may look a little rough in a few areas, but this was just me creating something so that I don't go insane from artistic constipation!!!!

As for the story, this is supposed to be at the beginning of everything...a prequel of sorts far before Nikki becomes Adora-1 or Scarlette becomes the evil Matriarch.  I haven't really been using Deuce a whole lot lately, as I've been trying to figure out where to put her with everything.  So I came up with the idea...how about a prequel?  This is supposed to be a military press conference of sorts introducing the revolutionary Cyra technology that you may have read about in many of my other stories!

I've go newer stuff that I need to be working on, but I figured I'd take a little time out and just get the hang of my coloring program more with an old favorite of my own.  And just maybe we'll soon learn more about Deuce's and Nikki's mother-daughter connection!!!