The New Makron Book 1: Tranformation

Prologue
David Honen sprinted out the open double doors at the main entrance to his school. As he ran by William Reit, a classmate and good friend, William called out "See you on Monday!" Dave replied "See Ya!" and continued on his way. He had just entered the alley that ran behind the headquarters of the Marines, which he used as a shortcut to get home. Of course, there were armed guards and fences around the complex, but Dave had always been good at getting in and out of places he wasn't supposed to be in. He had just left the alley when he heard a loud clang behind him, but just as he was turning around to investigate, something grabbed him from behind! He felt something hit him hard in the back of the head, and then everything went black.

Part I
Cold. That was the first thing David felt when he came to. He strained against an unrelenting pressure, then he looked around. He saw that he was chained to some kind of operating table, which was attached to an assembly line. But this was like no other assembly line he'd ever seen; as the walls were splattered with dried blood. Then the slab began to move forwards, stopped, and a...thing descended from the ceiling and encased him. He was scanned by a trio of lasers that moved up and down one side of the sort of rectangular container, then the box lifted and he was moved on. At the next station, he saw a mechanical arm with a massive needle on the end of it, and seconds after observing this, his slab stopped under the arm, turned sideways, and tilted forwards. The arm extended, then jabbed downwards, driving the needle into his abdomen. The pain was incredible. The needle pumped something into him for what seemed like an eternity, then pulled out, leaving a huge bloodstain around the injection point. The assembly line moved on.

He was distracted from the pain by the sight of the next station, which was even more hellish than the first: A giant saw blade on a robotic arm was waiting for him. As the line stopped and the blade began to spin, Dave thought, "Oh crap. This is gonna hurt." Then the saw blade descended, and for the second time in as many minutes, everything went mercifully black.

He awakened to the awful sensation of missing something vital. He looked down, and realized that he no longer had anything below the waist. He stared at them for a second, to horrified to move, and then he screamed, long and loud. He ran out of breath just in time to feel something slam into his lower back, sending him into unconsciousness again.

When he next awoke, he found that he was no longer strapped down to the slab, instead finding himself inside some massive transparent green tube. He was moved to a large, wormlike appendage protruding from the ceiling. His tube stopped directly in front of this three-eyed machine, which began to move towards him. Its red eyes began to glow, and then the world exploded into a mass of movement, color, and noise. He heard the rattle of machine-gun fire, and then the tube dropped to the ground with an earthshaking crash. One of the humans, whom Dave quickly realized were Marines, turned to another and said, "Well, we've succeeded with our mission: we got to the facility and deactivated it before the neurocyte was activated.  So, now that we've prevented the Makron's activation, what do we do with it?" The marine whom he had been talking to replied, "What other options do we have? Break open that tube and euthanize that thing!"

This last statement was so horrible that Dave wondered why the marine had even made it. Dave then noticed that the marines seemed awfully small compared to his tiny four-foot-seven frame. Glancing downwards, everything that the Marines had said suddenly made sense. The Strogg had replaced his original body with a massive robotic suit of armor. The suit had 4 large, crablike legs, along with two arms loaded with an incredible arsenal of weaponry. On his right arm, there was a massive hyperblaster, an automatic rocket launcher, and a huge gun with a gigantic barrel. His left arm had a fearsome-looking rotating melee weapon with three razor-sharp blades, each of which could be moved independantly of one another. "...So, the remnants of the human being inside that thing should still be human." The euthanasia-happy marine to whom the soldier bent over the instrument panel beside the staircase had addressed his last statement shook his head in disbelief. "So, what you're trying to tell me, Strauss, is that we have a human being stuck inside the Makron's body? That is the dumbest statement I have  ever  heard!  The chances of that would be..." At this point, Dave realized that he now had control of his new body, so he decided to make use of it. He smashed a fist into the side of the cylinder, cracking the green glass-like material. This action had the added side effect of causing all of the Marines to nearly jump out of their skins, then level their weapons at the monster inside. Dave decided to take the chance of getting shot, so he hit the tube again, this time shattering the container's walls, allowing him to step out of the compartment and onto the surrounding floor. The Marines looked like they were seconds away from opening fire, so he raised his hands and said, "Don't shoot." The marines were taken aback, and the Marine who had wanted Dave to be euthanized muttered to the man beside him, "Damn, Strauss, you were right. He is still human."