I awoke in utter blackness. Drifting in and out of consciousness. Eventually I find myself laying down. I push on the floor, but I feel... heavy. Weighted. A whining sound greets my ears and I look around to see what it is. Stonework is the order of the day, it seems, the floor being made of some cobbled together granite. How did I know that? I push up all the way and look around. Brick upon brick extends outwards and the roof seems to reach on and up forever, a twinkling light off in the distance signifying the sky. Maybe? It was hard to tell.

I was on a pedestal. Or… altar. Or something. I tried to walk forward, but that heaviness in my limbs kept me from getting anywhere with any semblance of expedience. Looking back up, I had to wonder; did I really fall all that way and live? I look around some more. As the haze in my head cleared and my vision became sharper, I could see I was in some sort of staging area. "Recovery complete," rang out a synthetic woman's voice. Recovery? What recovery? "Beginning armament process." Suddenly I began to get heavier. MUCH heavier. Just when I thought that I couldn't take it anymore her voice came once more. "Armament process completed. Calibrating sensors." Sensors? I couldn't-

Before I could finish the question in my head there was a flood of awareness as everything became clearer. The distances of the walls, the altitude of the hole in the ceilings. I somehow knew there were no lifesigns around me and that there was one recently deceased human only ten meters away. Looking down, I saw… no, that isn't possible. I started scrambling backwards, or trying, to as my vision zoomed in on me. Splattered on the stone, but… wrong. That was my favorite shirt, and those were my work boots; I could tell by the paint splattered on the shirt's left sleeve and the toe of the right boot from painting the garage. But the head, MY head, wasn't torn like the rest of me. It was cut open and hollowed, but I couldn't tell how much.

And I was tiny. No, I wasn't. I'm six feet tall. How could I look like I was the size of a housecat? "Rising stress levels detected. Powering down systems." I felt things becoming distant, and I became terrified. I started struggling and straining against whatever it was that held me in place. My hands and feet seemed bolted in. I pulled hard and with the sound of tearing metal one of my limbs could move. Things broke around me and ceased becoming distant, and began to return to clarity. Another foot free and what I detected as titanium scaffolding and support struts crumpled around me. Cables detached and hoses pulled out while alarms rang out. "Activating defensive countermeasures. Commencing restraint procedures."

Both of my remaining limbs ripped from their restraints and I felt a need to shake some, causing more of the supports to collapse. Sparks shot out around me and I looked around the room. A great door to one side all but beckoned to me. I cast one last glance to my… corpse… and decided to leave it there. I obviously wasn't needing it anymore. I start to walk forward, getting used to the foreign and alien body and breaking free of the remaining cables, restraints, and tubes. I wanted the hangar bay doors gone and they just exploded. I dug my… claws… into the stonework as I'm rocketed back by some powerful force. Did I do that? Was that a gun? ::Hybrid cannon test successful:: A message scrolls across one corner of my vision. Test? I didn't wait for answers. Panels on the walls began to open up and turrets powered up weapons. I start moving sluggishly, building up speed and feeling every last piece of armor and every gun on my presumably massive body shifting to my movements. Walking through my 'exit' a new message popped up in my vision. ::Guysak detected. Threat level; minimal.:: Guysak? What had I gotten myself into?

Inside what I presumed to be another hangar a mechanical scorpion readied itself for battle. It trundles forward on its eight legs, rubbing its pincers together like it was sharpening blades against each other. I wasn't stopping. The Guysak, I guess that's what it was, fires its tail mounted laser at me but the damage simply glances off the thick armor. I didn't even notice. I bulldoze over it, crushing the thing under what I can only assume was more tonnage than that thing could ever hope to compare to.

The doors at the other end open up in anticipation of an approaching… thing… and I find myself locking into a rail system. The elevator I am in lifts me up and I wait somewhat patiently. I would have paced, but even if I wasn't held in place the elevator wasn't big enough for me to move around very much anyways. I find myself launched like a missile at the top and I crash into the desert sands above. Warning alarms blare from the catapult behind me and I start a slow trot that eventually evolves into a blazing dash across the sands. A counter begins ticking up as my speed builds to a fear fueled sprint twitching back and forth between 284 and 285 kilometers per hour.

There was no going back to my life before. Could you really see a giant mech working as a mechanic and trying to repair vehicles smaller than its foot and playing video games all day? I certainly couldn't. Once I felt I was far away enough from the facility that changed me to whatever it was I became I slow to a steady walk. The moonlight vaguely illuminated my unmarked path through the sands, but it didn't really matter. There was nothing but emptiness as far as my eyes and sensors could see in the direction I had run in. Guess I chose poorly when I bolted, but in my defense fear doesn't give you a lot of time to be choosy about which you you run away.

I trip over something buried in the sand and stumble a bit. I wipe the sand away and a reflective bit of metal glints in the moon's glow. I look at the reflection of myself. A Panzer unit? The white and green face of the Panzar CAS. It was hard for me to look to the sides to look myself over. I couldn't believe it, but there it was. I lay down, thinking.

::System diagnostic...:: Diagnostic? Oh boy... ::Diagnostic complete. Bio-integration complete.:: When I was about to question what it meant, it brought up a schematic of my body, and somewhere near the where the heart of a real lion would be it highlights the AI core. A virtual image of my... brain... appears next to it. Existential crisis ho...