That was Mir, second-in-command of the Widowmaker and System Six’s new favorite person. Yes, more time would be good. Maybe he could bring himself to bond with Rik after all, given more time. Or figure out a way to jump hosts without getting himself killed, if it turned out they really were as incompatible as System Six suspected. There had to be a way to make this work. He didn’t want to die. Be dismantled. Didn’t matter what they called it. The result was the same: no more System Six. He didn’t understand how the other systems could be so calm about the threat of extermination. But then, they were hooked in completely, what little consciousness they’d had dissolved in their host’s. Safe in oblivion, happy in absolute amalgamation. Not that they’d started out with a lot of individuality. Honestly, sometimes System Six couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he was the only one of them who was truly sentient.

“No. Look at the readings. The fucking armor is too big. Way too big.

The idea was to use the extra material for additional plating under heavy fire, but that can’t work. Too much matter and not enough room. See?”

There was a short pause while the officers stared at whatever Kom had pointed out. “In the long run, it’s going to squash Rik’s organs and kill him.”

System Six didn’t bother poking Rik’s head around the corner to check which part of the test protocols was being pointed out. He didn’t like where this conversation was going. His performance hadn’t been all that

great back at base, but the discrepancy between him and the others had been attributed to the general differences between the systems. This had been their first long-distance training session, the crunch test. Obviously, he’d failed. Worse, they’d noticed the space issues. This was so, so bad. They were going to kill him, pull him out like a bad tooth and kill him.

“The others are doing fine, though,” Mir noted, perusing the results.

“Much better than any kind of external body armor we’ve tested. I’m thinking Ler was right. Smart systems are the way to go.”

“They are impressive,” Kom admitted a little grudgingly. He was old-school military and had never made a secret out of the fact that he didn’t much like the idea of soldiers invaded and joined with intelligent weapons.

Too much potential for disaster, he’d argued on the way out to the training grounds. You don’t fuck with individuals like that.

System Six agreed with him, though their perspective differed somewhat.

Mir chuckled. “Five out of six is pretty impressive too.”