The Chronicles of Inthandonia: The Wizard Wars Coalescence I carefully evaded the chittering robot units and, with my aching and exhausted body supported and bolstered by the strengthening nanobot-construct endo/exoskeleton, I hid in an unmonitored service shaft. While the body/mind/machine interface was optimising its internal coms protocols a shining framework of electromagnetically powered shape-shifting metallic crystals grew through and around my body. The human part of me, the original Smeckter, watched in awe and excitement as the augmentation of my biological components was completed. As final programming linkages and subroutines were booted up and bought online I felt myself growing stronger – very much stronger. The sensation was euphoric – my hearing and vision were enhanced, glandular and muscular processes streamlined for greater efficiency. My mind felt preternaturally clear and focussed even though it was somewhat dizzying to experience and contemplate the amazing changes I was undergoing. I watched crawling lines of electromagnetically shaped plasma form around my hand and slowly began to realise the extent to which the nano-network within me was augmenting and emphasising my natural biological processes. As an individual my magickal connection with the planetary quantum probability fields made me already a Wizard of unusual power – now, with my body and mind boosted exponentially by Skrellian nano-tech my magickal abilities were also vastly increased. The quantum computing power of the nano-net meant that I was now able to process vastly more powerful magickal incantations with a skill and subtlety orders of magnitude greater than before. Without doubt I was now becoming the most powerful entity on the planet – I was now virtually a god! ************************************ Much of the background of this scene is constructed from the excellent free Sci Fi Corridor model available from Cornucopia3d. I've de-constructed the model and rebuilt and re-textured most of the elements. The Character mesh was originally derived from Makehuman and extensively rebuilt in trueSpace. The 'lightning' effect around the hand was made using Ivy Generator and removing the leaves. Somewhat surprisingly, this is the first time I've ever used DOF in a Vue render. I hope it works. As always, all comments are gratefully received. For more of this story see www.wizitch.com