Imposter System

Alexandria seemed to be genuinely afraid but his experiences so far made him warry. Without responding to her, he hardened his emotions and began to warp the dream. The keywords he was using to change the dream were memory based. He wanted to watch what happened directly. The situation with Willard made Matt realize that even people that are hypnotized may still be able to act outside of the bounds of his ability.

The dream changed and Alexandria was vanished only to appear further away in a room by herself. Matt stood in front of a one-way mirror and watched the dream unfold. She sat nervously until a man stepped in. His face was obscured in the dream in a way that implied Alexandria didn't have a solid idea of what he looked like. He sat down and waited for until Alexandria was at the peak of her nervousness.

"You don't have long to live."

"What… is the result?"

"It has already reached stage four. Even with our current mainstream medical technology, we would only prolong your life."

"Mainstream…? What about non-mainstream?" The man seemed to smile which made his distorted face seem even more mysterious.

"As you know, due to your illness, you have been making many mistakes on this mission. Due to this, you would normally be retired to live out your days in peace…" He purposefully spoke in a way where he paused just before saying the most important part of the idea which only caused Alexandria more stress.

"Your condition brings us a unique opportunity. It is an… experimental treatment. If you agree to the terms, you will be given our full support."

"I agree!" Without even considering the terms, she didn't hesitate.

"Heh, very well. I have sent you the terms and conditions for this. In order to maintain security and secrecy, you will be called to do a repair in the lower decks. There, you will encounter an accident. Do not worry, your safety is our top priority. An agent will meet you and send you to your handler."

Alexandria nodded and the dream shifted to her next prominent memory. She walked down the corridor passing people occasionally. Everyone whom she encountered also had a distorted face. Matt started to ponder and make some assumptions. He was certain that she had some type of cancer. The conditions the man was talking about must be related to rapidly multiplying cells. It was indeed an interesting idea. if the living metal consumed the cancer, what would happen?

She arrived at the designated location and began to repair the panel on the wall. Her hands constantly shook and she had very poor coordination. These symptoms combined with the distorted faces gave Matt an idea of what happened. It seemed that she suffered a stroke and lost the ability to recognize faces. Additionally, as a mechanic, losing her coordination and steady hands would prove to be difficult.

After a few minutes, she saw the piece of metal that was intended for her accident and she quickly pricked her abdomen with it. However, instead of a small prick which was the instructions, her body jerked due to her condition, causing a large gash to happen instead. She began to panic and ran to the nearest lift. The man who was waiting for her immediately administered the drugs with a facemask and breathalyzer.

"What… did you give me?"

"Don't worry, it'll help the pain. Once we reach the next floor, just go straight and you'll be saved."

The man's face was distorted like the rest. However, as time went on, his features became more defined. Alexandria was shocked due to the pain so she didn't really notice herself, but her subconscious had. The face of the man was getting clearer and clearer. However, they reached their floor and Alexandra was sent on her way.

She turned back once more and Matt saw the general features of the man. The shape of his face, the position of his features, with these things he would be able to narrow down the search. After moving forward for a while, she collapsed in front of his lab and saw Matt come out. Alexandria hadn't been able to recognize or remember a face in a long time. So, when she saw him, and then later recognized him when seeing him for the second time, she was instantly enamored.

However, Matt was bewildered. This showed that the living metal was capable of the same healing and strengthening as the parasite. But based on his previous understanding, it made sense. If the body of his ancestor was fully evolved to the peak of the Faceless Devourer, it would have many powerful abilities. This was a natural predator, devouring life forms across the stars. He couldn't even begin to predict all of the abilities it had acquired during its life.

Although the parasite seems to become symbiotic with its host, the living metal seems to be more domineering. It completely devours and takes over the body of whatever it infects. This line of reasoning led Matt to remember the things the dream monster told him. They had gathered a plentiful harvest. He was reminded of the evolution points he gained from absorbing the living metal and put two-and-two together. This must be a method of harvesting a large population of lifeforms.

The process of releasing this metal to a population, infecting a portion of them, then retrieving the saturated cells, was brilliant. A primitive civilization wouldn't understand this as anything but a plague or act of god, allowing for a decent harvest. An advanced civilization may take the organism and weaponize it, just like the combat suits. This would only increase their interest in the organism and, fueled by greed, willingly feed the organism to make more of it.

However, this was far too dangerous for Matt to allow. This was the type of reckless abandon that he was trying to avoid in the first place. His intention isn't to destroy all life on this ship. And, from what he can guess, this living metal does not spare anyone. He was suddenly determined to find and destroy all sources of this living metal in order to protect his future. The first step would be to figure out a way to remove it from Alexandria without killing her.

Matt left the dreamscape and returned to his body. On his way through the dark void, he had a strange sensation. He looked around but there was nothing there. There was nothing he could currently do, so he had no choice but to ignore the strange feeling. Perhaps once his skill was stronger, he would be able to figure out what it was.

Once Matt woke up, he went through the documents about the living metal. He was looking for specific cases of strengthening and healing. He discovered that there were in fact some studies that showed the application of the living metal in medicine. That was when he discovered the article that talked about the production of medical instruments using the living metal. The idea was that the healing property would be usable in the surgical tools. The method to stop the infective nature of the living metal was also described.

"Eureka!" Matt shouted.

Following that line of thought, he found more and more references to the process of making the metal stay in its form. The reason he hadn't found this before was because he was too focused on weapons and armor that he didn't even think about other uses. The method described in the articles was actually quite brilliant. They take an animal bone with fresh marrow and shape it how they want. Then, by feeding it to the metal, it takes its shape and solidifies.

Matt wasn't sure why this worked, and he was even less sure about how a suit was created with this method, but this must just be the early technique. It seemed that unless he discovered the method himself or stole the military technology, he wouldn't be able to figure it out completely. However, this was a good start. That was, until he read an article titled 'Durations of stability of TK45b in the use of medical tools.' It listed various different tools created with different sizes and from different animals.

The shortest was a few hours, and the longest was three weeks. After the stability phase ended, it would become infective again. Matt thought about the missing people in the First Strike squad and the various subjects being experimented on and gulped at the possible connection. Until he figured out how Alexis would react to the living metal, he didn't dare let her wear that suit again.

'But what happens to the suits that revert to their original function?' Matt connected to Alexis through their mental network and asked her directly. To his surprise, she knew the answer.

{There is a storage space designated for broken or malfunctioning suits, weapons, and armor. Did you discover something?}