Free

I’m a bio-droid. That’s what they called us. A combination of flesh and machine, combined to form the ultimate soldier. We aren’t even human. We came from no womb, no loving, caring, flesh and blood mother. We are designed, millions of dollars invested to create the ideal specimen. The ultimate human to be converted. There are whole warehouses filled with rows and rows of vats, each containing a potential bio-droid. If any develop an unforeseen anomaly, they’re eliminated. The government has no need for cripples. We don’t need sleep, thanks to their augmentations. For the first few years they program you, telling you what is to be expected of you and explaining that anything less will result in elimination. We were taught that we weren’t even human, and that we would take what we got, or pay the price. Once they thought you were old enough, they started to train you. Hard. By 8 years old I could fight 2 armed opponents while solving a calculus problem in my head. By 10, I could shoot a moving target with a pistol, a mile away. By 13, I could take throw a ball in the air, and take out an entire armed unit before it touched the ground. They trained us, every second, of every day, of every month, for 18 years. And every year, there were the tests. They would put us in groups of 16 and have us fight. To the death. The winner made it another year, until the tests came again. This was their final elimination process. Their culling of the herd. What better way to find the best of the best than having them face off against each other? We didn’t mind it. We didn’t feel an entitlement to life. We were taught that only the powerful should survive, and the weak are doomed to death. If you survived those 18 years, and that was a major if, you were upgraded. They would personalize your augments to you. The sneakier would get stealth tech. Camouflaging skin, feature altering bones, everything you’d need for the perfect spy, or assassin. The faster would get speed tech. Stronger legs, capable of out running a race car, reinforced joints, capable of moving at and withstanding incredible speeds, a total brain overhaul, allowing them to process that speed. I once saw a runner bio-droid enter a room of 50 men, and kill all of them before it looked like he moved. The strong would get stronger. Diamond bones, reinforced muscles, bodies capable of smashing through buildings like they were little more than sheets of paper. There are infinite combinations, all with a specific purpose in mind. I received a combination of strength and speed augmentations. My legs can achieve speeds of 500 km/h, my muscles have been augmented to be able to grind diamonds to dust, my bones are made out of some experimental material whose durability limit has yet to be met. I am a bio-droid, the perfect soldier, capable of toppling entire nations in a matter of hours, and I yearn to be free.