Chapter 7: Chapter V5.25 OPTIONAL:  Rough Start Part 1

ACCESSING PANDORA’S BOX -Search Query: “PRE-COLLAPSE” 55234 RESULTS -KEYWORD SEARCH: “HECKETT” 9698 RESULTS -FILTER YEAR: 2000-2100 3560   -REFINE BY CATEGORY: “AUDIO LOGS” 2255 RESULTS ACCESSING FOLDER: “DISASTER PLANNING” AUDIO RECORDING FILE 1 OF 2255   NOW PLAYING FILE 30 of 2255...     “We are talking about the extinction of our entire species! There won't be anyone left to judge our actions if we don’t go through with this. No one! Do you understand?! Any! And every! Alternative is preferable than the complete eradication of our species. You’ve seen the numbers, we all have. Billions will die, but at least with this… with this, we give humanity a fighting chance. May God...May God have mercy on our souls.”- U.S President Tayana Heckett to the World Council discussing Operation Spark of Hope. Circa 2055 REF/PC-TH1/2055

 

Chapter V5.25 Optional:  Rough Start

 

While Jack was passed out on the floor of Wong’s shop, Angelica was busy having her life changed.

 

“What do you mean I’m being transferred?!” Angelica exclaimed in disbelief, as she stood up and slammed her hands on the Commander’s table, nearly causing several stacks of folders to fall off the man’s desk.

Commander Nolan raised an eyebrow at the woman in front of him, who quickly apologized and sat back down.

Overlooking her outburst he continued.

“Exactly what I said Sergeant, HQ is working on a special project and they requested more hands. I’m not at liberty to fully say what that project is, but I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors of an academy?” Commander Nolan said, passing a file across the table towards Angelica who promptly took it and began skimming the contents which immediately gave her a rising sense of excitement.

 

“No way! so it's true! An academy for Awakened. Where the hell did we even get the budget for this?! Is this why we’ve been using  two rusty sporks and a rock to solder metal sheets together?!”

 At Angelica’s outburst, the commander chuckled before answering Angelica. 

“HQ works in mysterious ways, Sergeant. As far as I’m aware, it’s a joint project between Independent contractors,” Nolan frowned, raising his hands to make air quotes while drawing out the word independent. Regardless of where the funding came from, Angelica was ecstatic at the prospect of working on something real. 

 

“Namely the Corpos, some goody-two-shoes in the Church, and General Osiris giving us short notice as usual. So effective immediately you’ll be transferred from us to the seventy-seventh Rear Core Division. There's already a car awaiting your arrival in hanger two. As one of our better engineers, I’m personally sad to see you go, but… It’s been a pleasure having you here Sergeant Crosby.” The Commander said, reaching over and extending a hand.

 

“The pleasure was all mine Commander,” Angelica replied, shaking the outstretched appendage. When he nodded, Angelica took that as her cue to leave and stood up to make her way toward the exit.

 

“Oh, and Sergeant!” Nolan called out, stopping Angelica just as she was about to close the door and leave. “I forgot to mention, this is all still classified and the development of such a project hasn’t been made fully public yet. So I would appreciate it if you kept this underwraps. Other than that you're dismissed.”

 

“Yes sir. Understood Sir.” Angelica replied, closing the door one last time before she headed out into the brightly lit hallway.

 

With the file in front of her, Angelica started walking through the corridors, skimming the contents of the folder while playing with a hand clencher that was gifted to her by Jack.   

Engrossed in the contents of the file, Angelica didn’t notice when a petite blond woman began reading over her shoulder on her tiptoes.

“Watcha reading?” 

“Gah!” Angelica yelped in surprise. “It’s classified, Sara! Stop peaking!”

“Ah you’re no fun, what’s going on? What did the Commander want to talk to you for?”

“Classified Sergeant Hains… but I am transferring,”

“Transferring?!” Sara exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the hallway as Angelica moved on. “What do you mean you’re transferring?! You can’t do this to me!” 

“It’s out of my hands boo boo,”

“But there's only like, five women in this entire battalion! They can’t transfer you! I need you! What am I supposed to do without you? Who will I confide in? Who will lend me cash or buy me lunch? Who’s gonna make sure I’m not drugged during a late night out and taken advantage of by some strange men!?” Sara rattled off, tears forming in her eyes as she begged Angelica to stay.

“There’s always Morne or Baker in Squad B,” Angelica offered, trying to fend off the young woman’s needy attempt to hug her.

“Please! Morne would bang anything with a pulse, including me! And Baker is mean! You can’t go! you just can’t! I don’t think I have the strength not to stab Rudus or Noah the next time they say something stupid.”

“Sergeant Crosby?” A man asked, his tone deadpan as he interrupted the duo. Without noticing it, Angelica and Sarah had walked all the way to Hanger two and to the parked car at the end of the driveway.

“Yes Sir. Reporting in.” Angelica replied, squinting her eyes to try and focus on the agent. For whatever reason, Angelica felt slightly unsettled by his presence, as if what she was looking at wasn’t really what she saw.

“Get in.” He responded, interrupting Angelica’s train of thought while he opened the driver’s side door and entered the vehicle.

“I’m going to miss you D:” Sarah whined. 

Angelica looked at the young Sergeant and spread her arms, surprising the woman with an embrace.

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“Oh my god. Is this a hug? Are you hugging me right now? :O”

Angelica rolled her eyes at the woman’s theatrics before noticing the gazes of several engineers and soldiers eyeing the pair.

“Alright, time to go, Sara,” Angelica said trying to ply the woman off her. “Seriously woman, people are staring!” 

“You literally never hug me! I don’t care if I get written up!” 

“Well, I do!” Angelica said bonking the woman on the head.

 

Dark, was Angelica's first thought entering into the backseat. The entire interior was black, from the seats, the lining, the hard plastic, and even the windows including the windshield. The darkness of the vehicle seemed to suck in all the light around it, only allowing Angelica to barely grasp the outlines of the interior.

“Strap in.” The man ordered, the vehicle only began to move after Angelica fastened the seat belt. It had taken a few moments due to how dark it was in the van, but the vehicle immediately lurched the moment the belt clicked.

“How the hell do you even see?” Angelica complained, trying to adjust to the sudden darkness. Looking up she was astonished to find that the man had disappeared. In his place was just a steering wheel that looked to be moving on its own as the vehicle navigated what she assumed was the road out of the facility.

 

“Oh, now that’s cool as hell,” Angelica murmured, looking around for a port or sensor that allowed for what she thought was a lifelike hologram to appear and operate. Curious, she began straining against the seatbelt as she felt around the interior for anything that could validate her idea when suddenly she was interrupted by a loud shrill voice.

“Hey! Stop that! This prototype is worth more than you make in twenty lifetimes!” A female sounding shrill rang out through the car. Causing Angelica to wince slightly at the pitch of the sound.

“Ah, my apologies for yelling! Would you mind putting your legs up, you’re a wee bit too tall.” The voice continued, in a much deeper tone as the front two seats began to rotate.

“Did we not adjust the spring mechanisms? Why are the chairs taking so long to rotate?! Safety concerns? What safety concerns?! Do as you're told! Yes-yes Ophelia already approved this! Why would I lie?!” The voice screamed, less shrill and high pitched, after a moment, Angelica could finally make out that it was actually a man’s voice.

A few minutes passed which almost fully consisted of the man ranting, and constantly apologizing about how long it was taking for the seats to move. When his ranting ended, the driver and front passenger seats of the vehicle were now facing in Angelica’s direction. Once they locked in with an audible clicking noise, the interior of the vehicle lit up, causing Angelica to blink in reflex.

When she opened her eyes, a skinny pale looking man in his early thirties, with heterochromatic eyes, and bleached white hair in a ponytail now sat across from her. He looked a bit hollowed out as if he could use a meal or two and a couple of nights' rest, but besides that, he looked kind of decent in his lab coat.

“Howdy friend!” The hologram exclaimed in excitement, placing a hand in front of Angelica to be shaken. She hesitated for a moment before shaking it. Much to her surprise, she could actually grasp the hand. It didn’t feel warm like human skin, in fact, the hand she shook felt light and rigid as if it were made of some kind of malleable plastic.

“Yah like?!” Noticing Angelica’s expression, the white-haired man broke out into an excited grin.

“Its... hardlight?” Angelica replied skeptically, causing the man to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

“Correcto! First try too! I knew I saw potential in you. Ah, where are my manners!? Hi, I’m Mi’shka Domino, Chief Medical Engineer of the seventy-seventh Rear CORE Division.” The overly excited Man introduced himself.

“Sergeant Crosby sir,” Angelica replied, stiffening up as she realized that this man was her new boss. 

“Oh, none of that friend! Call me Mi’shka, minds like ours shouldn’t be confined by the pretenses of our stations. After all, we’re better than everyone, they just can’t recognize pure genius!” The man quickly interjected, waving his hand in an attempt to get Angelica to relax.

 

“Anyway, I would like to welcome you to your onboarding for our division. I’m sure you’ve read the file and the nature of your duties?”

 

“I’ve only skimmed the files, I haven’t had time to look through them all just yet... Sir.” Angelica responded truthfully, hesitatingly adding the sir at the end.

 

“Didn’t I say we’re friends now?” Mi’shka insisted, his eyes narrowing as he leaned too close to Angelica and began to stare at her, making her a little uncomfortable.

“With all due respect sir, I don’t know you,” Angelica replied, turning her head away and trying to set some boundaries with the overbearing man.

Seeing her reaction he quickly backed away and adopted a wounded expression before it rapidly shifted to one of deep thinking.

“I see, I do often hear that a lot. But not to worry, we'll get to know each other a lot better after the testing is done.”

“Testing?” Angelica echoed back confused. She wasn’t aware of any testing that she was required to participate in, and she was sure she didn’t sign any release or consent forms prior to entering the car.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing too extreme. We’re just going to knock you out for a bit using a new concoction I came up with, it won’t kill you... I think, as long as I got the larkspur concentrations right.” Mi’shka replied, a thoughtful expression blossoming on his face as he hunched over a bit and began scratching his chin while reaching for something out of view.

 

“WAIT WHAT?!!” Angelica yelled out with a shrill, alarmed at the prospect of being turned into the madman's guinea pig.

 

“Didn’t I say not to worry? We’re friends, as a friend I wouldn’t let you die! Though on the off chance you do, I would just like to state that I’m not actually a doctor, but at least you have life insurance…" The hardlight construct paused, appearing to ponder something serious as his tone abruptly changed to one showing concern. "You… Do have life insurance right? I'm pretty sure we offer that as an incentive for enlistment. It’d be pretty irresponsible not to.”

 

“Of course, I have insurance you jackass! But that doesn't mean you can use me as part of some experiment!” Angelica protested, attempting to undo the seat belt which immediately locked in place with a clinking sound, preventing her from attempting to escape. She swatted at the projection causing it to make a thunk sound as her hand bounced off the man’s face. The projection hesitated for a moment with a look of surprise before switching back to thoughtful, as if thinking about the ramifications of what he was about to do. This didn’t last long however as he shrugged and responded back to Angelica.

 

“That's good as long as you're insured. Boop.” Mi'shka said, pressing an unseen device in its outward-facing palm, completely ignoring Angelica and then suddenly disappearing. A few seconds passed before a hissing sound could be heard, causing Angelica to panic and begin frantically clawing at the door handle to no avail. When that didn’t work, she raised her legs and kicked one of the chairs, causing her foot to get stuck in the seat.  After a few moments of struggling, she began to settle down as a sweet odor flooded the interior of the car.

 

“Fugking ashotle.” Angelica slurred, struggling to stay awake to no avail. Her body quickly went limp with all attempts at struggling ceasing, as she quickly found herself without the strength to move. 

I’m going to kill you! Angelica raged internally, her eyes beginning to shut. The last thing she saw before her vision went black was the hologram of the white-haired man reappearing again, this time with a frown on his face.

 

“Huh, you’re still awake? Guess I’ll need to up the dosage. Oh! Nope, there it goes. See, now, this is how you get results! it works!” Mi’shka exclaimed with a laugh, his expression turning to excitement as Angelica drifted off. Just before she closed her eyes she could see a look of fear abruptly appear in the hologram's eyes, followed by a loud, 

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING MI’SHKA?!”

 

 

 

 

A/N

OPTIONAL Chapters are typically parts that serve to provide additional context and world building.

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