Retrieved from “The New Human” by Shi Xian Jia, Elder Lengti Flesh-Tailor, Published 2254.

  Ah, and so we reach the fun part of this guide! For all you junior Flesh-Tailors, those who have not yet had the pleasure of carrying out your work on a living, breathing person, I envy you. You must feel the excitement already! But we cannot rush into the act of improving the body, and drawing strength out of weakness. First, you must know our past to lead our future.

  First, you must know, that what we do as Flesh-Tailors is not some barbarity of sticking metal into a person and hoping it works – that leads to weakness and failure, as our ancestors discovered. The first problem we found when trying to improve man was the body’s rejection of the ‘other’. Transplants of foreign tissue, despite our best efforts, remained a difficulty for most of the 21st century. Medicine did improve, certainly, but never enough to make it an easy process. And for prosthetics? Don’t make me laugh – they allowed the dismembered to act at a less than standard rate with soreness, and stiff nerve-based controls.

  Yet, it was us who led the path forward. Thanks to the glorious decree of our holy Jade Emperor in 2146, we were made the Imperial Masters of Weapon and Advancement. Now, work requires sacrifice, as is part of our core tenants as the Lengti, and that is something we’ve come to accept. Sacrificing others, however, is much easier – that we can all agree. And so, a few hundred thousand slaves tested and worked on later, and we discovered the true talent of humanity when it came to our evolution.

  Gone were our days of mere genetic superiority, though we still devised the best ways for that too. Instead, we found the new way to work forward for our technology. Instead of trying to make the body fit the implants and cybernetics, we fit the soul to them. It turns out, through our lord’s means or otherwise, the human QIS Pattern contains a specific section in the Kether spiral, located at the 78th nodule down from a standard Pattern’s peak. This subsector of the Kether spiral, now known appropriately as the Ein Sof connection, allows material connection of the physical world directly into our QIS Patterns. This allows human bodies, if we wish to even bother with flesh any more, to no longer suffer from overactive immune systems rejecting new parts, and allows the same level of control over them as our birth bodies.

  Now, usage of the Ein Sof requires far more skill and technique than simply rewiring nerves from the stump of an amputated limb to the wires of, say, a Neckcrusher-Mk3, but if those fools in the CCH can steal our method and do it too, then it can’t be that hard. And so, with this great development, humanity has been able to surpass our bodies of flesh and bone to those of sterner stuff. Early cyborgs created with this method, even those still bearing both organic and superior parts, vastly outperformed even the best Paradisian goreskin. Needless to say, it was our efforts that paved the way to the New Human that leads the front of the Emperor’s armies. If I have to say a criticism of our usage of our best troops, it is that saving the honour of such a transformation for the most elite of soldiers is far too wasteful – we should be turning men into true warriors the second they sign up. Let the seas overflow with men of steel and power!

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  Now, as strong as a man of steel, wires and Kevlar is, there is one improvement possible – exotic matters. As strong as steel is, a well aimed railgun can punch through a cyborg’s armour, as is the limit of human manufacturing within the laws of physics. Outside of those rules, however…

  And that is where you, the next generation come in. We must go beyond. Only a few such individuals have had access to these so called ‘wonder materials’, those resources in such short supply that they are spared only for S-Drives and the rare ship hull, but the results are beautiful. Of note, the Jade Emperor’s personal guard have undergone the implantation of exotic armour plating, increasing their durability to near unstoppable levels.

  Yet, there is one shining example, one who I cannot wait to meet again – Mikhail Olegovich. I had the personal honour of bestowing my best student to join his personal tailoring-crew, and he has possibly surpassed myself. Both protected and made stronger by syraline, potentially the most concentrated spot of the substance in the galaxy, ‘One-Shot’, as he is so nicknamed, is more durable, stronger, faster and versatile than any other in the whole of the Doctrine. Sure, a Kronos Full Body exosuit could push out slightly more force per swing, but when the Broken Fang’s finest can hit just as a hard but also move at nearly Mach 5, there is very little content. Truthfully, in a one-on-one fight, I doubt there is truly anything that could rival him.

  Of course, to go along with this improvement over the body is our advancement of our tools, our weapons. The standard chemical-based firearm has served mankind well for nearly a millennium now, and I suspect it shall not disappear any time soon. For as long as people have bodies capable of dying to mere bullets, then the cost-efficiency, ease of manufacturing and high volume already in circulation will lead us down the route of these weapons for many years to come. In the horizon, however, I can see a change. As we improve our bodies, so must our tools. One such weapon, created long ago but only now seeing proper usage as the technology improves, are railguns. Using electromagnetic force, nature’s force, we can accelerate slugs to speeds capable of shredding the insides of ships and even destroying our own tailor-made warriors. Perhaps this is why we have not yet used them to their full potential.

  In addition, though few have been made, the production of high-frequency weapons has been placed in our delicate hands. These blades, created with a specific molecule arrangement in mind, are not meant to cut through metal or armour as a sharp blade, but to instead vibrate through and atomically separate them apart. Limited only by their number and their power requirement, I soon hope to see the day when every Doctrine man, woman and child has such a weapon at their hips.

  Closing this chapter, I bestow onto you, young tailors, to find a means to instil strengths I espouse not only onto others, but also in vaster amounts. Perhaps as the filthy, honourless Paradisians increase the capabilities of their brain-dead armies and those cowardly corporate dogs finally meet us on the battlefield as true fighters, then we shall have a need to reach our uttermost limits. Should we acquire a greater means of producing syraline, our armies will become not just holy warriors capable of serving our Jade Emperor to the fullest, but gods in and of themselves.

  And so, I believe the quote never should have been deus ex machina, ‘god from the machine’. Instead, I think it should be deus est machina, ‘god is the machine’.

  - Chapter Six of “The New Human” by Shi Xian Jia, Elder Lengti Flesh-Tailor, Published 2254.