by M. J Kreyzer
The Durant, anatomically, is nearly identical to that of a human. However, on an atomic level, Durants and humans couldn’t be more different. The Durant’s body tissue contains an element that I have yet to classify. It does not affect the physical properties of any skin or organ tissue but gives them the ability to sense Furo with any portion of their body. It’s like a sixth sense. We have sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. The Durants possess those same senses and have that sixth sense of being able to see the world through the sensation of Furo, which as you all know is a subatomic particle responsible for balancing out the positive mass of every atom and is the fundamental building block on which all matter is formed.
The Durant brain is truly fascinating and I am remorseful that I didn’t save more specimens from the time when they were studied on a more intimate and regular level. It creates electromagnetic impulses which travel through the body through the nervous system and can be channeled into the surrounding environment. From that point a Durant is able reorganize Furo and the atoms to which it’s attached through a type of magnetism and create a seemingly limitless amount of offensive, defensive or completely benign constructions which I will review later.
Now depending on the skill of the Durant, these electrical impulses can be as far reaching as a Durant’s line-of-sight (their line of sight not being limited to their visual senses but including the areas that can be sensed through their sensitivity to Furo. Note though, that it is extremely difficult and takes years of practice to produce vivid, Furo-based images in one’s head, be able to view all of one’s surroundings and even zoom out and view themselves from a third person perspective. Only those who are forced into such a practice, like Luke Semprys, typically take the time to master.). As such, it is important to space your stabilizers accordingly and try to make sure that the Durant is within that stabilized field. The skill that is required to stretch one’s abilities to those distances is immense and only the most experienced Durant is capable of doing so.
Now onto the abilities that a Durant is or can potentially become capable of. Depending on the skill of the Durant these abilities may or may not be possible. In order to create the desired reactions a Durant must first gain a knowledge or an intuition as to how the atoms must be rearranged. The complexity of some Elemental reactions is spectacular and I myself am still in the process of discovering the how’s and why’s of Elemental. As those discoveries remain to be seen I will simply describe the known manipulations, starting with the most simple and working towards the more advanced.
The first and most simple of Elemental is that of Fire. Any Durant is capable of creating fire. It’s that simple. However, a skilled Durant can make raging infernos capable of consuming an entire platoon in a single column of flame. I remember watching the Darks take one of my research facilities just after the war for the Commune had been won. Only one man stood at the front of the army, juggling nearly a dozen columns of flame and incinerating an entire company within minutes. It’s my strong belief that that man was Luke Semprys.
The second is the ability to freeze an object. Now it isn’t freezing in the typical sense of hot and cold. Rather, it’s the ability to restrain an atom from further movement, causing an object or person to become immobilized and frozen in place. However, Durants are capable of lowering an object’s temperature to extreme degrees.
Next is plasma bolts, or more simply lightning. By duplicating the conditions existent in a lightning storm, the Durant is able to strike ground based targets with bolts of superheated plasma.
Now Barriers are an interesting anomaly that I have yet to figure out. When done correctly a Barrier can be near impervious to any type of attack. One immediate instance that I recall involves the Durant champions Thompson and Ranjak. Together those two were able to hold a barrier stretching several hundred meters that repelled the fire of over twenty Forge Tanks while the Dark colony was evacuated. The barriers themselves are invisible, though they ripple with every object that impacts upon them. It’s a strange thing to see. Like rippling water that isn’t there, though a bright flash will result from a direct impact. But if you know that there is a barrier between you and the desired target, cease all fire immediately. Anybody who’s skilled enough to use it is skilled enough to repel any attack imposed upon it. Anything that doesn’t explode on impact will ricochet off and cause potential damage.
The next ability is much more difficult to master, not because you must understand the different structures of Elemental, but rather be able to interpret and understand brain activity. The Durant brain is quite conductive to the electrical brainwaves of other living things and they are able to make different interpretations of what is going on in one’s mind, whether it be emotions, thoughts, or physical actions. This telepathy has lost us more valuable intelligence than I’d like to recite. Any soldier captured by the Darks should self-destruct at the first available chance.
My most favorite form of Elemental is, for lack of a better term, known as a Grav-Field which can be created and eliminated at the will of the creator. Our understanding of the Grav-field has led us to a new era of propulsion and hover technology, giving us technological marvels such as the Helio battlecruiser. What it does is create a field of gravity alternate to the gravitational field created by the moon we live on. Many soldiers have reported seeing Durants fly. I find the assumption amusing and absurd. In order for it to work properly, a Grav-Field must have a gravitational attraction at least slightly stronger than that of the planet. The more powerful the Grav-Field the faster the acceleration due to alternate gravity. And there is an infinite amount of ways in which Grav-fields can be used. For example, one might create a Grav-Field and rise up in the air, reaching the desired altitude, eliminating that Grav-field and creating another in the direction they wish to travel. Through this process of creation and elimination a Durant can stay aloft indefinitely. Another example is how a Durant might have a set destination but there are objects in the way. They would then create weak Grav-fields that would pull them one way or the other and steer them away from harm while maintaining their progress towards the given destination. When it comes to Grav-fields, the usages are only limited by the user’s imagination and ingenuity.
Now we get into the more destructive forms of Elemental. These can be extremely difficult to create as the Durant must be able to make a volatile substance that isn’t just destructive but destructive on massive scales. The other manipulations can be turned around and used to our advantage. However, the more dangerous forms of Elemental are purely towards our disadvantage. If you encounter a Durant who is capable of manipulating Furo to such a degree call in an emergency stabilizer without hesitation.
The first of these devices is known as a Decimator. The Decimator is merely an explosive sphere (different from Chargers.) that a Durant can create anywhere within sight; assuming, of course, that a Durant who is skilled enough to create a Decimator is also skilled enough to use Furo anywhere they can see. Now without initiation, the Decimator is hazardous but ultimately harmless. However, something as small as a knife prick can set it off, resulting in an explosion roughly the strength of ten pounds of C4. But other things, such as fire or lighting will also set of a Decimator. While it is a typical explosion, the one creating the Decimator can direct the explosion in any exclusive direction, which is to say that he may be standing right next to it, trigger it, and not be harmed as the force of the explosion would be directed away from him.
We come now to the Charger, something that in many ways is quite similar to the Decimator. However, those differences make it unique and doubly dangerous. A Charger is created in the palm of the Durant’s hand. The longer they hold it the more powerful it becomes. Once the Charger reaches critical mass it can be launched from the palm of the hand like a rocket. It is self-propelled and can maintain its trajectory for an upwards of one kilometer. A Charger is extremely explosive and in unfettered by infantry armor, even the high-density alloys used by the First Legionna
ire. The Charger may also be hazardous to the one who is firing it. Once it has been created, a Charger may only disappear through impacting on any hard surface. Once it has reached critical mass (a time frame of about ten seconds) it will detonate whether it has left the hand holding it or not. As such, if you can prevent any Durant with a Charger from releasing it, you can subsequently destroy them with their own weapon.
Healing is an ability that most are familiar with. It’s difficult to master but the results have saved thousands if not tens of thousands of lives. It accelerates the body’s healing process by stimulating and enhancing the growth and multiplication of healthy cells. By accelerating the Furo to a certain degree, there will be a recall of cellular memory, resulting in the repair of any damages and purging any foreign or destructive anomalies, such as cancer or immunodeficiency. Before the birth of the Commune Durants would make millions off of dermatology, while using this same method to reduce the visible effects of aging and even prolong life. Of course, those benefits are no longer readily available. It’s quite regrettable. Only those who have the most intimate of knowledge of healing should attempt it. My exploits concerning healing have resulted in disaster. The frequencies of Furo acceleration between healing and a Decimator are minute. As such, if you get the healing process even slightly wrong then you make the one you’re trying to heal into an unpredictable human bomb. All human attempts at duplicating this process have been stopped until further notice.
We once again come to an area that is still in the process of being studied. Durants are capable of telekinesis. The process through which they do this is vast and complicated. I have my top physicists and biologists working on it as we speak. There isn’t much to say on the matter, but keep in mind that ability as it can be extremely deadly.
Now it’s extremely rare to find a Durant who can chain up endless Elemental attacks. Whenever a Durant uses Elemental they use up a certain amount of calories based on what ability they’re using and how long they’re using it for. Some of the more experienced veterans of Elemental, such as Luke Semprys, Thompson, and Ranjak, have figured out ways to take in massive amounts of calories with little to no harm to them using what they refer to as ‘Power’ or ‘Calorie’ packs. But again, Elemental cannot be sustained indefinitely, so letting a Durant wear themselves out is always a possible strategy.
And again I will stress the necessity for a Stabilizer. Without a Stabilizer the Furo in the air becomes volatile and pliable; the last thing you want to give a Durant is unstabilized Furo. When you introduce a stabilizer the Furo becomes secure and a Durant cannot manipulate it. However, if the Durant is not inside that field of stabilization they can still volley things such as Chargers into an area that is stabilized. Don’t think that just because you have a stabilizer you are safe. The Durant must be inside the field in order to be decommissioned.
I come to the point now where I am going to explain the most dangerous of our enemies, Luke Semprys. From what our intelligence has told us, the Darks for one reason or the other, despise Semprys. I found this fact to be quite surprising, especially since it was Luke Semprys who started the Dark movement in the first place. It just goes to show that being a hero isn’t a matter of action but rather a matter of good PR. And if the Darks can do it to one of their own then it shouldn’t be difficult in the least to sway public opinion against Luke Semprys.
But Luke’s social situation is irrelevant. How he treats those on his side is his meaningless prerogative. Being his enemies though we should expect his treatment and regard towards us to be slightly different. Over the past six years I have come to know Luke Semprys on very personal terms. I was present at every psychological and physical examination he was given as I conducted quite a few of them myself. The results show that, despite what many have come to believe in the past, Luke Semprys is very human and he can be broken. So do not let those under your command come to any other belief then that of Luke Semprys being a man that they should feel no hesitation in engaging and arresting. He is not invincible.
When he was first put under my supervision, Luke Semprys was an extremely idealistic man who had proven impervious to bribes and any form of threat. Not only did he seem resilient to psychological affronts but physical ones as well. Never before have I seen a man more tolerant of pain than Luke Semprys. I say this because I have never seen a man dissected alive and without anesthetic and not so much as flinch a muscle. I would take the blame for that conditioning, however, considering that when the initial research began Semprys would yell like there was no tomorrow. And luckily for us we had Vladmir Frenz available to heal Semprys’s wounds after each examination.
Which brings me to yet vulnerability within Semprys. Before I explain, this vulnerability is also one of our greatest disadvantages as it is what is now one of his primary goals. When he was first put into the prison and made available for my research, Semprys was resilient. Over a dozen soldiers lost their lives just escorting him to the operation room. We tried sedation, but that numbed the body’s ability to obviously exhibit Durant characteristics, of course making it more difficult to examine him and study him. Eventually we sent in only Monoliths to escort him. Being eleven feet tall on average, a group of four found no trouble at all in getting him from point A to point B. Of course, there was the time when Semprys broke one arm free and crushed the tracheas of two Monoliths before paralyzing another and breaking the fourth’s neck. To this day I don’t know how he did it. But he was captured and we then resorted to beating him to submission. There were more injuries through that method, more so to the Legionnaires who escorted him than to him, but along with that came a complete absence of escape. Eventually Semprys ceased to struggle and actually came willingly. That, of course, came after four years of us beating him bloody on a semi-weekly basis. During the latter years of his imprisonment, Luke Semprys appeared to have lost any desire for escape. No longer did he speak of his companions the Ditrinity or of his daughter Tess (of whom he spoke often). He spoke less, moved less. Most of his time was spent hunched in the corner of his cell, staring into the darkness. I have video records showing instances where he would go several days without so much as moving a hand. In fact, now that I come to think of it, Luke Semprys ceased to talk at all, save the occasional passing word or phrase that he’d growl to a person immediately involved with his captivity. In every occurrence that I am informed of the words would involve death and revenge. The workers became extremely uncomfortable with being in close proximity to Semprys. I assured them their safety as Semprys was a prisoner in one of the most secure facilities in the world. So imagine their trepidation at his escape. I haven’t heard from several of my senior staff members since his escape. Seeing as how the city of Styne was captured by the Darks, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason for that is due to their untimely deaths.
Merely a few days before his escape, I spoke with Luke again. Our psych evaluations no longer consisted of us analyzing what he was saying. He had stopped speaking to us. Instead, we had to focus on what he was doing, and looking at that makes it unequivocally certain that all idealism that he has once felt has fallen by the wayside in favor of vengeance. During his imprisonment Luke Semprys became an extremely brutal man, sometimes inflicting more pain than he should and in violent and barbaric ways for unknown reasons. Semprys is not a sadist. That much is certain. It will be interesting to see what his future behavior is.
I have been reprimanded for keeping Semprys alive and healthy. However, some of the greatest breakthroughs in technology have come from studying him. Anti-gravity and battlecruisers based around it are a part of those discoveries, as are the long-distance plasma rounds shot by the miracle-weapon, the Forge tank. We can now influence weather and even teleport in some cases. (I will not take credit for the teleportation, though. Those devices, formerly known as Dimenisors, are reverse engineered pieces of stolen Durant technology responsible for the Ditrinity’s formerly unrivaled mobility.) But I digress.
Luke S
emprys’s skeleton is reinforced with Eternium. For those of you unfamiliar with Eternium, it is the densest metal known and is considered to be nearly indestructible; it’s our most rare mineral that, with great effort, we mine from the world’s inner core. In most cases this kind of skeletal enhancement would prove superfluous though it is completely necessary considering the next fact.
In some cases a Durant is born with an innate ability to manipulate Furo in ways that are unavailable to any other Durant. These abilities are known as Singularities. I’ve heard of Durants who’s bodies heal themselves at accelerated rates (in fact I believe one of the members of the Ditrinity is capable of this ‘hyper-healing’, though she is only half Durant.)And Luke Semprys has a Singularity of his own; he has the ability to increase his strength in excess of one hundred times over. To put that in perspective, that gives him the ability to bench-press over twenty one thousand pounds and give him the ability to throw a punch packing over forty thousand pounds per square inch. Without a skeleton reinforced with Eternium his skeleton would turn to dust under the impossible stress that he puts it under. All the bones in his hand are completely incased in Eternium as are the bones surrounding each joint as well as his neck. His skull is only framed with Eternium, the framing arranged in such a way as to let the stress travel along those areas as opposed to the whole of his head, consequently crushing his skull. The way that this magnification works is Luke channels Furo through the part of his body that he wishes to strengthen. That Furo works to increase the mass and density of those muscles, the amount of enhanced strength he possesses changing depending on how much Furo he is channeling. It should be obvious when he is accelerating his strength. The part of the body he is channeling Furo through will exude a thick, bluish glowing steam. Caution with Semprys should be exercised in all scenarios, but if you see this blue steam rising off any part of his body then you must drop whatever you are doing and formulate your way out. If you run, he will catch you. If you fight, you will die. We are working on a way to defend against those attacks and will relay them onto you when new information yields itself.