"Never underestimate what a species will sacrifice for the survival of their people." - Unknown


Prologue

Vladivostok, Russia, Earth

2014

"Lieutenant, can you give me a situation report, over?" A voice came after the static burst in Tuvia's headset.

Tuvia turned his head right, facing outside the window of the destroyed office building acting as a makeshift command post for the defensive line he and at least three dozen other troops had set up. He reached for the pouch secured to his left upper chest to activate the mic on his headset. "Colonel Ryaba, we're not equipped to defend against an entire Irken Company, let alone an Irken Brigade. We can hold them off for a short period of time, but-"

"Lieutenant. I assure you, the fifth armored column and the second VDV will arrive shortly."

"Colonel, I don't think-"

Tuvia's sentence was cut short by the sound of thundering jet engines washing overhead, a moment later, the street was engulfed in a radiant green light, and the building trembled. Tuvia hit the floor with his hands over his helmet, while the rest of the men in the room reflexively took cover behind the small cubicles and sandbags set up in the large breech in the office building wall.

Tuvia got up on his feet as he watched the smoke surface on the street as words were yelled outside. Tuvia shook off what he felt from the blast and reached for his radio.

"Comrade Colonel?" Inquired Tuvia through his mic. He tapped his radio twice when he received static. "Colonel Ryaba?" More static. "Chyort."

Tuvia made his way toward the door that led into the office he and his men were stationed in, he opened the door and ordered the two men outside to call for a medic and help any wounded inside the makeshift command post. He made his way down the small flight of stairs and into the small lobby, where the glass pane windows had been shattered completely and the doors blown off their hinges inward and laying on the floor. Tuvia made his way through the door frame as glass crunched under his boots, squinting his eyes to see through the smoke that slightly burned his lungs trying to find oxygen.

"Kurbashy?" Called Tuvia through the billowing blackish-grey smoke.

"I'm okay, Lieutenant!" Someone called back through the thick haze in raspy voice.

"Kurbashy, what the hell happened?"

"Steel Slicer!" Screamed another through the smoke as the sound of a jet engine blasted overhead, slightly swaying the flow of smoke in a westward direction before raising upward once more.

"Kurbashy, where the hell is it!?" Asked Tuvia, looking upward, trying to look through the smoke. He looked back toward the street. "Kurbashy!?"

"I don't know," Called Kurbashy. "I lost it in the sun!"

"Everyone, find cover, now!" Tuvia screamed as that Steel Slicer opened up with it's main gun as it doubled back for another attack. Tuvia had lost the building in the smoke as he entered the street, he bolted, trying to find another building to take cover in. He had sprinted for a few moments before he realized he had only run deeper into the street, right in that fast movers killzone.

"Lieutenant!?" Someone had called out.

Tuvia looked over his shoulder, toward the voice, and started to sprint toward it, hoping he was fast enough to escape the incoming fire. His chest hollowed out and his heartbeat stopped when the sound of an aircraft blasting over him at super-sonic speeds resounded overhead, and a moment later, just as he saw the doorway to another building, his feet had lifted off the ground as another radiant light pierced the smoke, the shock wave coursed through his body as the fire licked him.


SinoRus Laboratories

One Hour Later

The steady rhythm of the beep, beep, beep, from the EKG was the only thing that accompanied Tuvia in the darkness of his mind. Tuvia felt every muscle of his body burn in pain, screaming against him, and even the slightest movement made him envious of death. That cold feeling creeping up into his legs and chest wouldn't seize, and even as he tried to remember, he couldn't seem to recall the moments that had led up to this one.

"Wow. He looks in worse condition then when we brought him in here." Said a female voice in an echo. "If this procedure can become a success, it'll be one of the greatest advancements in medical sciences."

Tuvia wanted to rip the irritating tubes running down his nose and throat out, he tried to raise his right arm, his body tensed in pain and he let out a slight groan as his body seemed to enter a paralysis and his arm dropped dead to the cold table.

"Wait," The female voice began. "Is he conscious?"

"Yes." Said a male voice.

"So, he can feel what we're doing to him?"

"That is correct. This operation is very complicated. Even the most advanced anesthetics couldn't numb the pain... I'm surprised he's survived as far as he has."

"This is horrible..." The sound of pity hung heavy in her tone.

There was none to be found in the mans voice. "That may be true, but the only reason he is alive is because we haven't used them. His heart rate would have dropped too fast."

"Can he hear us?"

"Yes."

"So... He'll know we did this to him once the operation is complete?"

"No. He won't. We'll make sure of that."


When Tuvia thought he had "awakened" from the operation, he opened his eyes very slowly, but the room was pitch black. That same black was the only thing that accompanied him aside from the pain and the rapid beeping from the EKG during the operation. The operation had made Tuvia familiar with hell, and by the time it was over, it had transformed him and turned him into this new... Thing.

The words 'SinoRus Laboratories' flashed green at the bottom right corner of his vision.

"I just don't think we're ready to launch the system." Said a man in Russian from somewhere behind him. "There's still a few diagnostics tests we have to run."

"I know," Said another voice. "But Chief Science Engineer Khokol says he wants it running as soon as possible. Besides, his perimeters are set. That should be enough for the time being."

A moment later, another voice, much older sounding in comparison to the first two, sounding a lot more distant than the first two, as if in the corner of the room. "Okay. Start it up!"

Tuvia felt a wash of dizziness and nausea fall over him, and the sound of servo motors behind him could be heard, footfalls a moment later. Someone was typing something into what he guessed was a computer, a moment later, the sound of a door opening and closing could be heard, loud metallic clunks sealing and locking it. A few short moments later, more words on the left side of his vision flashed green.

: / Systems online /

: Gathering data...

: Brain mapping complete :: No errors detected

: All systems performing at optimal output

:Vital signs nominal

Tuvia felt himself shaking, the fear of the unknown coursing through his veins, the green words fizzled away into the darkness, the words 'SinoRus Laboratories' remaining on his right hand side.

: COMMAND

: Load bios :: Memory set

: Memory systems :: OK

Tuvia thought his eyes were already open, but he had felt his eye lids flicker open as all the green words across his vision fizzled away as the light came into his blurry eyes. He found himself in a room, a white cubed room with nothing else but himself standing in it. The sound of a buzzer going off came from behind him, and when he snapped around, finding a doorway with someone standing in it. Tuvia had first thought when he looked into that doorway, he had found a tortured creature that should have been put down instead of trying to be pieced back together, but when he leaned toward it and squinted, shock had set in when he had realized the doorway wasn't that, but a mirror.

Tuvia's quivering breaths grew loud and shallow as he slowly made his way toward the mirror with a slight limp. When he got close enough, he lifted his right arm toward the left side of his face, and his fingers had reached his left eye socket, where the crudely constructed eye with a glowing red pupil had taken place over his old eye.

Tuvia pushed down on his cheek, just under his eye socket, when he did, a vision flashed before his one good eye. For a brief moment he heard himself screaming, feeling himself struggling against the cold, unfeeling restraints holding him down to the equally cold metal table, just as a robotic arm moved in position over him to insert the artificial eye.

Tuvia found himself back in the white room, in front of the mirror. He drew away from his reflection as he raised his left arm, Tuvia found his forearm and hand consisting of, like his eye, crude dark metals. Wires of all sorts had been integrated with metal tubing. He caught a glimpse of his abdomen in the mirror, and instead of finding the section that should have been organic, he found his abdomen, like other parts of himself that should have been there, to be composed of some ugly, dark metal wires and panels.

"Can he hear us?" Echoed a voice in his mind.

"Yes."

"So... He'll know we did this to him once the operation is complete?"

"No. He won't."

Tuvia felt a tear stream down his cheek as his face twisted into a knot of anger, and he balled his left hand into a fist, Tuvia raged aloud and smashed the mirror, which shattered into a million shards as the wall it had been mounted to cracked and splintered heavily.

Everything went black.

: COMMAND

: Delete memory :: (!) Files remain (!)

: System reboot :: Failed

: (!) Caution (!) :: Unit command and control: Offline.


RFS Spire HHM-8013, Tuvia's Stateroom

2021 (Present Day)

Tuvia shot up from his bed in his personal stateroom with a gasp and shutter. He scanned the room and eased himself at the realization he wasn't in that cubed room with the mirror. He grasped the wool naval blanket over him and pulled it off, swung his legs off the bed and stood on his two feet. Tuvia sluggishly made his way to the tall, thin mirror across from the foot of his bed and lifted his right arm to touch his left eye. He then looked down to his left arm, then pulled up his shirt.

The engineers at SinoRus Laboratories had done a fine job of creating synthetic skin to cover the crude metals and wires that now consisted of Tuvia's arm, eye, and abdomen. But Tuvia knew what he was, the scars would never heal, and the memories that came during his sleep would never go away, no matter how much the engineers tried to prevent them.

Tuvia sighed and pivoted around to face the foot of his bed and made his way toward it. He had walked about four feet and dropped to his knees, he then coupled his hands together by interlocking his fingers in between one another and placed them on his bed. Tuvia closed his eyes and placed his forehead on top of his hands.

Tuvia drew a sharp, deep breath, and spoke in a low voice as he executed a routine part of his day. "Full of tears shall be that day on which from ashes shall arise the guilty man to be judged; Therefore, O God, have mercy on him. Gentle Lord Jesus, grant me eternal rest. Amen."

Tuvia stayed a moment.

Tuvia was guilty all right.

Tuvia was that guilty man who should have died time and time again. But those men wouldn't let him rest, and it brought eternal sorrow upon him to know that no matter how many lives he tried to save on the field, they'd end up gone, and he'd have to carry that memory on until those same men decided he was outdated and to be replaced. Only then would God answer his prayer.

'Soon,' Tuvia thought, eyes still closed with his head to his hands. 'They'll have more technology to work with... Then I can rest.'

"Commander?" Called a voice from outside his room as they racked a knuckle of the steel door.

Tuvia's eyes snapped open, he freed his hands as he rose to his feet and made his way toward the door. Tuvia reached the door and pressed his eye to the doors fish eye located atop a steel slat center mass of the large door, spotting a familiar face standing in his black naval uniform, waiting for him to answer the door. Tuvia was about to undo the lock to the door and open it, until he had realized he was still only in a simple white t-shirt and underwear.

Tuvia flicked the latch beside the fish eye upward and slid open the foot long piece of steel that would allow him to come face to face with the person outside the door without actually opening the door and embarrassing himself by being caught out of uniform. You had a better chance of spotting big foot more than catching Tuvia out of uniform or combat gear.

Tuvia leaned in closer to the door and looked at Lyuty standing outside the door, facing down to a metal clipboard grasped in his hand. Lyuty came to find Tuvia every few months, and Tuvia had thought he could go at least a few more before his next checkup.

"Yes, Lyuty?" Asked Tuvia, pretending as if he didn't know why the Chief Warrant Officer had come looking for him.

Lyuty looked up from his clipboard with his big blue eyes. "Morning Commander. It's o' eight hundred local and it's about that time again, says Senior Lieutenant Melekhin."

Tuvia hated meeting with the man. Hell, he hated anything to do with SinoRus Laboratories, but Melekhin was just enough to send him over the edge. Tuvia just simply nodded and placed a hand on his cheek and dragged it downward.

"Yeah." Said Tuvia.

Lyuty just stared at him for a moment before writing something on the sheet of paper attached to the clipboard, then faced him once more. "Commander, have you been experiencing any difficulties? I can have someone assist you to-"

"No, I'll be there."

Tuvia sighed and shut the slit on the door and locked it before walking away from the door and toward the closet to the left of his bed where he stored his finely pressed uniforms and his polished boots. Tuvia slid open the metal doors and started to dress himself. After he pulled on a pair of socks, he had put on a pair of black dress pants, he then buttoned up a white dress shirt and tucked it under his pants. Tuvia then unhooked his black naval gymnasterka jacket with the shoulder boards with the appropriate rank. Tuvia had finished off his uniform by slipping on a pair of leather dress shoes and walked toward the door.

Tuvia rested his hand on the main latch of the steel door and paused a moment. Did he want to turn that latch, open that door, and continue a life he didn't want? He could just sit in that room and make a blockade of all the objects in that room and just sit there until he died of spontaneous combustion, which in his case, was quite possible. Then again, what kind of man would he be if he didn't carry out his fallen comrades wills, the ones they begged for him to carry out.

He disengaged the lock to the large steel door and pushed it open to find Chief Warrant Officer Lyuty still standing there with his clipboard, he looked up from his clipboard and latched it onto the hilt of his utility belt wrapped around his waist. Lyuty simply stood there, waiting for Tuvia to leave the threshold of his stateroom.

'Soon. This'll be my last checkup. Soon...'

Tuvia stepped out.


Fifteen Minutes Later

Tuvia sat at the metal desk placed in the middle of the white, cubed room that one of the engineers had led him into. His breath was shallow, trying to hear something beyond the walls of the familiar, nightmarish room.

Tuvia nearly flinched at the whoosh of a pair of two large wall panels splitting apart in front of him to reveal a grey blast door, the door unlocked with a couple metallic clunks, and like the wall panels, it had opened up to reveal something behind it. The tall slender figure wearing a red jumpsuit with a black belt around his waist and black shoulder boards attached to the jumpsuit walked forth from the threshold of the door, and it closed along with the wall panels.

The figure wearing a bad black hairdo and a pair of old round spectacles in the jumpsuit could be identified as Senior Lieutenant Melekhin, or so he'd like to be addressed aboard naval ships. Tuvia knew damn well who he was, he was one of the Chief Engineers of SinoRus Laboratories, and he was responsible for Tuvia's 'checkups'... Routine system diagnostics, repairs, tweaks and upgrades.

Tuvia wanted to take his fist and smack that smug smirk off that bastards face as he approached the table.

Melekhin started to speak in Russian. "So, how are we doing today, designation FY7-1M? I hope-"

"My name is Tuvia." He retorted. "My name is Tuvia Volochenko, and I am a human being, not a piece of military hardware."

Melekhin pulled the seat across from Tuvia and took it, then set down an electronic clipboard he had attached to his belt and set it down on the table before he spoke again. "Forgive me... Tuvia." Melekhin started, then clasping his hands on the table and slightly leaning in before continuing. "This isn't a routine checkup, Tuvia."

"I knew I wasn't supposed to be here for another few months. So we're done here."

Tuvia pushed away from the table and rose to his feet.

"No, we're not." Said Melekhin sternly. "Sit."

Tuvia just stood a moment and stared down to Melekhin, who stuck out his left arm and gestured for him to sit as he raised his brows. Tuvia let out a frustrated sigh and took the seat again.

"Tuvia, this order had been decided by all the Chief Marshals... Marshal of the Russian Federation Voiska and President Harkov made the final decision. The fate of our mission rests solely in your hands."

"What kind of joke is this?" Tuvia huffed.

"Tuvia, I'm being serious."

Melekhin spun the electronic clipboard around on the table and slid it over to Tuvia's end of the table. Tuvia eyed the clipboard for a moment before drawing in a sharp breath through his nose and exhaling loudly out his mouth before pulling his seat in to examine the clipboards screen. Tuvia grasped the clipboard with his left hand and scrolled down the touchpad with his right index finger, and when he had read over the screen, his face twisted into a knot of confusion.

"Melekhin, you're a fool."

"Tuvia, this mission file is to be wirelessly downloaded into your memory. The mission file isn't even eyes only."

Melekhin leaned closer toward Tuvia, reached for the clipboard and placed his index finger on the touchpad and flicked it toward himself, scrolling the screen downward all the way. When the screen had stopped at the bottom, Tuvia turned his attention to the clipboard once more. Tuvia read the words 'DOWNLOAD FILE' at the bottom.

"Just scan your thumb and ID code, then your mission will be briefed electronically." Explained Melekhin.

Tuvia lifted his right arm and stuck out his thumb, then hesitantly inched his thumb toward the inch by inch square at the bottom of the screen. He looked up to Melekhin, who was silently staring at Tuvia through his glasses. Tuvia looked back down to the square at the bottom of the screen and pressed his thumb to it. The screen scrolled out a small form asking for his credentials, he entered them, the sound of ringing echoed lightly in Tuvia's ears and he felt the static in the air.

The information came to him in a flash, and his gaze darkened in the direction of the device.

The greatest honor had been bestowed upon him.

This was his chance to restore pride to his people and the motherland.

But... He had always blamed the Irkens for what he had become.

Nyet. This wasn't for honor, it was revenge now.

(End prologue)