Nature made humanity imperfect, we can fix that.
-Nexus Corporation gene editing advertisement
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Several specimens were suspended in large incubators, hooked up to life support machines. The one on the left had visible feline appendages, namely ears, and a tail. The one in the middle had shown more extreme signs of modification, featuring cat paws instead of hands or feet, but it still retained most of its human features. Lastly, the one to the right couldn’t be recognized as human anymore. It has a cat muzzle, a slim figure, fur instead of skin, and looks like an anthropomorphic cat.
George Nelson sighed deeply as he looked at the one on the right. It took them over a thousand test subjects who died horribly and 4 years for them to get this result, which greatly disappointed and saddened both him and Shawn. It wasn’t that they cared about the test subjects, no. Losing this many test subjects meant that there were fewer available test subjects for them to work with later.
They could just clone humans, however, the power cost of that was astronomical, and the lab-grown humans could result in biased results. George rubbed the bags under his eyes and reached into his coat and pulled out a small syringe. With the Overseer on site, all personnel, even those at the highest level, had to be on alert and productive, lest they piss off the Overseer and get demoted. Or worse.
He flicked off the caps and injected himself with some basic stimulant. Instantly feeling refreshed, he rubbed his bags again and tossed the empty syringe on the floor, which was quickly sucked up by a Roomba.
George can then vaguely hear footsteps, and they soon get louder. “Oh? Hello Director.” Said a voice.
George looked over to see who they were. “Ah, Senior researcher Sean, didn’t expect to see you here.”
Senior researcher Sean nodded. He was a typical Nexus Corporation Researcher. Smart, professional, and with larger than average moral separation from the terrible crimes he has committed. Also, his defining trait is that his face always looked like someone forced him to eat shit minutes earlier.
“Did not expect to see you here, Researcher Sean.” George nodded back.
“Mhm, just inspecting our work,” replied Sean.
The two stood in silence, admiring the 3 test subjects in the incubators in front of them.
“Uh, Sir,” said Sean, in an unsure tone. “Some of our Experimental Accelerated Growth Dampeners in the lab have been taken. The logs have been wiped too. The guards claim to not know anything. I don’t know who else exactly to approach with this information. Security cams were wiped too.”
George furrowed his eyes. “Alright, I’ll have Internal Security investigate this.”
“A test subject is missing too, test subject FTS-0983 was to be executed via gas and its body cremated, however, the subject was not present in the headcount and none of the guards claim to know anything either.” Sean continued.
George’s face darkened. “Sean, you are too observant in all the wrong ways. Someone at the top wanted all of this swept under the rug quickly. Keep your mouth shut from now on.”
Sean’s eyes widened at the implications. “Got it, sir.”
Sean observed the incubators for a few more minutes, before leaving the room quietly.
For a short while, the room was silent once more.
Another person walks in, this time, his footsteps are drowned out by the clanging of metal against metal. George doesn’t even need to look to know who they are, and he remains silent.
“That could’ve gone bad for us, huh?” Said Three, throwing a hand around George’s shoulders. “What do you think? Georgy?”
George muttered shakily “Ye-yeah. I told him to keep his mouth shut from now on.”
“Hmm…” Three hummed “Not good enough, looks like he was also forced to eat cement when he was six.”
Three patted George’s shoulder twice, removed his hand from his shoulder, and snapped his fingers.
Immediately, one of the Elites behind him shimmered into cloak, and not even their footsteps were audible anymore.
“Hope you don’t miss him too much, yeah?” Laughed Three.
He then snapped his fingers again at the security camera in the room.
“Wipe the past hour on this cam and have it replaced, you got me? Security Director?” he said to the camera. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re watching.”
The camera nodded like a person would, and went dark. Three turned back to George.
“I know everything in this facility, George. Our insignia should have given you enough hints already.”
Three then turned to look at the incubators, then whistled. “Not bad, not bad at all. The middle one, change them so that their entire arms are replaced with those of a cat. I want it done soon and without as many failures. Death row inmates aren’t infinite, even though we had laws passed that decreased the severity of crimes that would be handed the death sentence.”
George just nodded.
“I’ll be sending you tiger DNA later this week. Make sure you get to it as soon as you can.” Three patted his shoulder once more and headed out of the room.
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From: George Nelson
To: Shawn Anderson
Date Sent: 1/23/2117
The Overseer is displeased. Our plans have to be accelerated. He wants us to do tigers next. What is even crazier is that he wants to launch ‘Dei THEATRUM’ by the end of this century. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically where we release all the sentient creatures we have made into the wild and play with them. The Department of Anomalous and Exotic Developments is also apparently getting an interim Director, however for some reason I have a feeling the ‘interim’ director won’t be so ‘interim’.
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From: Shawn Anderson
To: George Nelson
Date Sent: 1/23/2117
I know, however, it’s a bit challenging to modify all the creatures to the exact specifications Three has ordered. With Four withdrawing her guards since seeing that her plans to humiliate Three have backfired, I’m less confident about being around him now. Test subjects are dying in droves, partly because of severe internal hemorrhaging caused by the rapid introduction of new organs. I don’t understand why we can’t modify the genes of the AGE’s?
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From: George Nelson
To: Shawn Anderson
Date Sent: 1/23/2117
You were drunk again when the Overseer told us what we had to do, right? You’re absolutely correct, in that we can modify the genes of the embryos directly to result in severely fewer test subject casualties, who however the Overseer has also ordered a rapidly changing serum that can work without killing the victim to be developed. I don’t know why exactly, and I’m too scared to ask.
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From: Shawn Anderson
To: George Nelson
Date Sent: 1/24/2117
Can’t blame you. However, the Overseer is also sending massive amounts of new test subjects over. They’re not for us, since I can see loads of them being packed into the hyperloop trains and sent directly into site-003. From what I can gather, it’s for magic testing or something. And shit, you see the age range of them too? All young as fuck, oldest I’ve seen is not older than 24. I swear that the youngest are teens. I ‘worked’ with teens before but not with this massive amount.
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From: George Nelson
To: Shawn Anderson
Date Sent: 1/24/2117
Meh, it's not my job to care about the test subjects.
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From: Engineering and Construction Regional Director
To: Site-001-E44 Command Staff
Date Sent: 2/1/2117
Global Atmospheric Alternation Sites-015 through 019 have been successfully constructed.
Concealed Surface Observation Sites-020 through 028 have been successfully constructed.
Sites 003 - 12 have been successfully linked with train and hyperloop networks.
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From: Nexus Corporation Official Prisoner Exchange Program
To: United States Federal Bureau of Prisons
Date Sent: 2/3/2117
Ramp up the shipments of prisoners. Increase the number of prisoners from juvenile detention centers tenfold. Ages preferably from 14-18. Cease shipments of prisoners over the age of 55. Failure to meet quotas will result in the reduction of annual salary by 30% permanently. Enact operation thysía if necessary. We do not care where the inmates' origins are. As long as you slap the standard orange uniform on them, we will accept them regardless.
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Task Force 99 Operative Talia Marsh hated her job. Well, not really, considering she was kidnapping suspected terrorists and protecting the will of the people. But at the current moment, she did. She was near invisible in the dark alleyways in slums-986.
She liked it here, the darkness made her feel secure and safe. It was completely unlike the overdeveloped cities, where bright neon lights and the over-augmented populace could easily make her out, even in the dark. Granted, some suits could stop even that from happening but her Task Force was probably too low in the Federal eyes to be given those.
Very soon, she spotted her target, although, this time, they weren’t like all the others. Instead of being shady men or women who lived alone on the outskirts, her target was a child. A teen, barely old enough to drink.
“Guess the terrorists are getting bolder now, using kids as shields, despicable bastards.” She thought.
Her target was currently behind a small convenience store, one where he likely worked at. He was smoking a cheap cigarette and was looking at a primitive phone, one that probably didn’t even have a terabyte of storage. She swiftly aimed her dart gun at the teen’s neck and fired.
The dart impacted his neck, and it hasn’t even been a second when the teen dropped his phone on the pavement and collapsed onto the ground. She smiled at the successful hunt and snuck up to the body. After confirming that he was indeed knocked out cold, she draped him over her shoulders and prepared to leave, but not before looking at what was on the phone.
Its screen was a bit cracked, but she should soon make it out to be in some sort of messaging app.
“Hmph, as expected of a working dinosaur, the screen's already broken from a single drop.”
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Douglas: U gon be there tonight
Millie: Definitely, I heard that they’ve fixed the seats, we can actually sit in them without them poking our asses now lol!
Douglas: Finally! I knew this place was underdeveloped but damn this is too much
Millie: It’s not like it’s better anywhere else, we are in a Level-J slum.
Douglas: Hey, once I get enough money, do you want to move out of this shithole? I know a guy that knows a guy
Millie: Wdym
Millie: The only way to get out of this place is to buy an official district transfer ticket. Those things are not cheap and the waiting times are years long. You’re saying you know someone that can help with this?
Douglas: Even better, trust me. I’m making my way over to the movie theater rn, be there soon wait for me.
Millie: Alright.
Millie: Hey you want popcorn?
Millie: Hello?
Millie: aajfewdsv fssfhdfhksdakf
Millie: ???
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Talia frowned as she finished reading the conversation. “This doesn’t seem like the writings of a terrorist,” She thought. “No, it could just be code words.” She affirmed herself. She banished the thoughts in her head and quickly carried the kid to the drop-off point.
In another dark alleyway lay an inconspicuous black van. And outside it stood 2 men, dressed in black and carrying submachine guns with silencers. The weapons were quite crappy, being completely obsolete and quite dirty, however, in these slums, even weapons of questionable quality such as these were highly valued, whereas even crappy pistols and the occasional barely functional SMG were only reserved for high-profile crime bosses. However, silencers? Even with connections, they were impossible to find in the slums.
The two men had their weapons raised, and looked wary. “Which fool dares to approach us?” They call out to the dark.
“A fool with 99 knives.” Replies Talia.
The men lower their arms. “Oh, it’s just you.”
“Just me? You sound disappointed to know that it’s just me.” snarkily replied Talia.
“Guard duty’s boring as fuck, if you were some thug we could at least light you up for some fun.”
“Fuck off Luke, fuckin cunt.” snorted Talia. She tossed the body into the van, on top of 2 other similarly aged boys.
“Oh? This guy looks like a kid, how old is he?” asked Luke.
“Don’t know, and don’t really care. Terrorists getting damn bold, using kids to smuggle contraband.”
Talia reached for her earpiece. “Unit-9932 to command, requesting data on the next target, over.”
“Next target, Donald Doterres. Las-Loc, Movie Theater 324. Crimes, participating in human trafficking, murder, and drug dealing. Locate and Apprehend.” Said a voice over the earpiece.
“Got it, but can I know the target’s age?”
“Information irrelevant. Complete your objectives, Unit.” The voice over the earpiece went silent.
“Tsk, dickhead.” Talia leaped up onto a nearby balcony. “Well, I’m off to my next target.”
“Pff, not like we can go anywhere anyways.”
Talia smirked as she expertly parkoured up the building and disappeared over the roof.
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Millie was freaking out. For the past 5 minutes, she had been blowing into a bag, grabbing her hair, and frantically checking her phone.
“He’s not answering! Shouldn’t we look for him?!”
“Come on, he probably just ran out of battery or something,” replied Donald, in a bored tone.
“It’s been 15 minutes since he said he’d be here! Where he works isn’t even that far away!”
“Well he’s just taking his sweet ass time isn’t he?” Sighed Donald. “Can you check over the place he works?” Imma just wait for him here behind the movie theater.
The girl shook her head immediately. “Me?! A girl who’s alone is like money on a sidewalk!”
Donald sighed again and reached into his pocket. He looked around him to make sure nobody else was looking and tossed something to Millie, who barely caught it.
“This is- It’s a-” Millie stammered.
“Shhhhh” smirked Donald, as he put a finger to his lips.
In Millie’s shaky hands was a small pocket knife, made by some dead company called smith and Wesson.
“Collector’s item, a gift from Douglas. don’t lose it.”
Millie quickly nodded, stuffed the item deep into her pocket, and with one last look at Donald, headed for the convenience store. He lazily looked over to the 2 large cartons of popcorn set on top of a nearby trash can.
“Hope they don’t mind,” he said to himself, as he reached over to grab one. However, just before his fingers even touched a single popped kernel, he felt a sharp cold object enter his neck, and he was out before he hit the floor.
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Talia grunted as she hoisted her target onto her shoulders. For whatever reason, the boy seems to be… heavier. Despite seeming slimmer than the last. She swiftly sneaked and slithered her way into the alleys, before eventually making it back to the van once more.
“Which foo-”
“This fool is going to put 99 holes in you if you don’t shut up.” Grunted Talia sarcastically, as she dumped this body into the van as well.
“Another kid?” questioned Luke.
“Don’t question me about it.” Scoffed Talia, reaching for her earpiece.
“Unit-9932 to command, target apprehended. Requesting data on next target, over.”
“Command to Unit-9932, next target, Millie Finley. Crimes, participating in human trafficking, possession of contraband, and murder. Locate and Apprehend.”
Talia froze. “This girl… wasn’t she talking with the other two that I-”
“I do not see how this information is relevant.”
“I’ve had to sedate 5 kids today, five. Last week, it was 3, and the week before that, it was none.”
“Interesting observation but I still do not see how this is revel-”
“All the kids I’ve had to shoot all have the same crimes, same age range, and do not seem like terrorists at all. The one that did fight back last week had absolutely no combat training. These kids… are they really guilty?”
“Targets are part of a terrorist group that is rooted deep within society, their origins date back to the twentieth century and are known as the Red Wolves. They have recently begun using children to conduct their operations, many of whom do not know that they are being controlled. Does this satisfy you?”
Talia thought for a moment. “Yes… yes, it does. Alright, I’ll get to my next target.” She then looked over to Luke.
“You heard that?” She asked.
“Yep,” responded Luke. “sounds like shit to me. Haven’t heard of the red wolves since my history class.”
“Fucking hell, I will be barraging them with questions when we get back to base.”
“Good luck with that then.”
Luke then looked over to the other guard beside him. “Hey, Rob. You’ve been dead silent this whole time, you good?”
Rob coughed awkwardly, “Sore throat, sorry.”
Luke raised an eyebrow. “Sorry? Did you get a headache too? You never apologize.”
“Get off my case, asshole.” coughed Rob.
Luke smirked. “That’s more like it.”
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“So he’s really not here?”
The manager groaned. “Told you many times, girl. Your man went out the back and I haven’t seen him since, and no. He’s not in the bathrooms either.”
“Oh '' Dejected, Minnie walked out of the convenience store and pulled out her phone. She tapped the messages app and sent Donald a message.
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Minnie: Douglas is not at the store, I’ve checked the back as well and there was nobody.
Minnie: Did you see him at the theater?
Minnie: Hello?????????????????
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Panicking at the fact that Donald wasn't responding either, she quickened her pace toward the theater.
The girl, on the verge of tears, put away her phone and put her hand around the pocketknife.
After reaching the theater, she headed for the back, and her fears were confirmed. Besides a carton of knocked-over popcorn, there was nobody there.
The girl clutched the pocketknife firmly and thought about calling for help, however, her thoughts were interrupted when a cold object was pressed into the side of her neck.
“Sorry kid.” was the last thing she heard before her legs gave out.
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“Fucking hell.” Grunted Talia as she hoisted the small girl onto her shoulders. “Still can’t believe I’m doing this shit.”
She jumped into the trashcan and onto a nearby ledge, and made her way to the top of the building.
After almost slipping on a puddle of rainwater that had collected in a small concave on a building, she made it to the alleyway.
Surprisingly, there was no callout this time.
“Weird, Luke was always laid back but never on an op like this…” She thought.
She carefully set down the unconscious Millie and crept up to the ledge of the apartment rooftop, just in time to see Rob put a bullet between Luke’s eyes.
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“WHAT THE FUCK!???” Screamed Talia, leaping down and body-slamming Rob into the pavement.
She kicked away his gun and pulled out her own. “WHAT THE HELL? WHAT THE SHIT, ROB?” She screamed, no longer caring that this was supposed to be a stealth mission.
But Rob only smiled. “You shouldn't have spoken too much.”
Suddenly, Talia sensed 2 more people behind her. She swiftly turned around to face them but was tackled from behind by Rob, and sent them straight into some nearby dumpsters and garbage bags.
“You-”
Talia felt her throat close up as a hand gripped it roughly.
“Still speaking in this situation, huh?” mocked Rob, as his two allies came into view.
They wore specialized stealth armor, just as, if not more advanced than hers. There was a small red engraving on their helmets, depicting a red wolf howling at a red moon.
Talia’s eyes widened, but quickly shut them again in pain when she felt a sharp burning pain in both her knees.
Rob loosened his grip, and Talia fell to the pavement, completely immobile, as blood steadily leaked out of both her kneecaps, forming small pools on the ground.
“You- you exist…” Talia uttered, taking in deep breaths to try and ease the pain, however, her pained expression morphed into anger.
“Rob, you-”
“Rob? HahAhHahaha!” Rob interrupted. He then laughed for a bit, before his body shimmered like a mirage and revealed a man covered completely in bright white armor.
“I offed him before the mission began, he was a smart one too. Noticed my cloak before I managed to copy his voice. Real name’s Mikheil.”
Behind Mikheil, another red wolf landed silently, holding the body of Minnie. Who after examining her pulse, tossed her into the van. “Area’s clean, sir,” he said.
“Good. get in the driver's seat and ready the engine. Then we can get the hell out of this shithole.”
Talia smirked through the pain. “You evil fucking bastards, getting these kids to be your puppets, fucking degenerates.”
“Puppets?” Mikheil frowned, but then let out a laugh. ‘Ha, you think we’ve using child soldiers? How stupid can you be?” He then gave a hard kick directly to Talia’s chin, sending her head flying backward, slamming into a dumpster.
“Thought TF99 would know better, but I was proved wrong. Wanna know a secret? You’ve been trafficking civvies since the day you fuckin joined!”
Talia spat out a bloody tooth. “You think I would fall for your shit?”
Mikheil put his foot on Talia’s chest. “You should. Wanna know another secret? The same people write our checks.”
Talia froze. “Bullshit you’ve spouting is enough to fill a-”
Mikheil pressed down into her chest with his foot. Talia gagged as strength far greater than what a normal human could exert and pressed a hard metal boot into her chest, robbing her of her ability to speak.
Mikheil sneered. “Stupid bitch, using kids as puppets? Fucking moron. We’re both puppets. Your strings are just so fucking long and tangled that you can’t see the one pulling them.”
“Sir! Engine’s warmed up and the car's all ready to go!” A red wolf yelled.
“Be there in a sec! Just gotta cut a puppet from their strings.” Mikheil yelled back and turned back towards Talia, who was still looking at him defiantly.
“Still don’t believe me? You were so close to finding out the truth too. I was ‘rob’ after all. I heard everything. It’s all true, too. Command’s been feeding you all bullshit, and you, for the most part, have been gladly wolfing it down.”
Talia’s eyes widened, her face was filled with realization, and tears welled up in her eyes.
“Crying, are we? Shame I don’t have time to entertain you further. Be free.” He crushed Talia’s chest with his foot, sending rib fragments into all her major organs. She made miserable hacking and choking sounds as he tried to breathe with her punctured lungs. Utilizing the last of her strength, she forced her eyes open long enough to see Mikheil grab her by the foot with a single hand, lifted her entire body up, and tossed her in the van.
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From: United States Federal Bureau of Prisons
To: Nexus Corporation Official Prisoner Exchange Program
Date Sent: 2/21/2117
We have complied with the quotas and have shipped the required amounts of prisoners over to the nearest processing facilities. There are approximately 6000 Death Row inmates ages 14-18. Around 5500 were obtained through operation thysía.
There are approximately 2700 Death Row Inmates Inmates ages 19-25.
None of them were acquired through Operation thysía.
There are approximately 7500 Death Row inmates ages 26-35.
Around 300 were acquired through Operation thysía.
There are approximately 4000 Death Row Inmates ages 36-55
Around 1000 were acquired through Operation thysía.
There was an incident where around half of all thysía acquirement operatives (Task Force 99) were killed during the latest iteration of operation thysía alone. As per our agreement, no further action has been taken by us in response and their deaths will be covered up.
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Term(s):
Las-Loc/Losloc: Commonly used military-style slang for “last known location”
