Chapter 1
"These are the ones?"
"Yes. They are Dr."
"Hmm. I must say Mr. Calister, you haven't done a terrible job. However, I hadn't realized this is what they would look like."
"Yes, we were almost surprised as you the first time we realized what their appearance looked like. Then again, these freaks are hybrids after all."
"Hybrids. Who would have thought? Forgive me, but why spend so much time on developing hybrids?"
"It's not just hybrids we plan to work on. The hybrids are more, how should I put this, they're really just experiments. Prototypes. If we are able to understand DNA to the point we can fuse it with that of another species..."
"I see. A new kind of Bio-weaponry?"
"Dr. Wolfenstein, that is just one possibility; but yes a new kind of Bio-warfare could be created from it~"
...
"Did you hear something Dr?"
"Well, I thought I heard something; but with my age I hear many things."
...
"They can hear us."
"Hm?"
"I said: 'They can hear us.' The glass is surprisingly thin."
"Really? I still don't know much about the hybrid process. How much can they understand?"
"We can't be sure, but we estimate somewhere around their bodies' age. Say they've grown to be the size of 6 year olds when they are born, they will have the mental and physical abilities of a 6 year old. They grow to the size of a 22 year old when they are born, they will have the mental and physical abilities of a 22 year old."
"When you say 'born,' you mean~"
"When we drain their artificial wombs, and let them breathe."
"Ah. What's the approximate time of when that will be?"
"When they reach the age of what we believe is 16 for them. Which should be tomorrow if our calculations are correct, as they usually are."
"Good. I can't wait to see these freeks can do."
Concensness.
Awereness.
Existence.
These are things I began to experience that day. The day of my- well; more our birth. The process was slow, like waking up after a good night's sleep. But it wasn't a dream I was waking up from. I was going to enter the land of the living for the first time in my personal history.
Before then however, I was floating in the womb; not rising or sinking. My eyes were closed, as if I were asleep. I could feel the liquid around me, warm and soothing. It was like floating in a bubble of bliss.
I'm not sure what was the first thing I felt. I am sure though that it was either warmth, or cold. Warmth, because the artificial wombs are always kept at a very controlled warm internal temperature. Cold, because it was the first change my mind registered.
Imagine only taking warm showers for 16 years, then after that jump in a frozen lake to take a bath.
Ah, there I go being too poetic again...
Day 1
My eyes fluttered open as I awoke from my slumber. The light was as harsh as knives on my eyes, despite how said lights were probably dimmed to try to help that very complication. My eyes had never been used before, and as we would find out later we had inherited the eyes of a fox. Sensitive to sunlight, but great night vision.
My eyes were only open for a split second before I was overwhelmed and I forced them shut again. I groaned and my paws quickly moved to cover my eyes. I rolled to my side on my bed and continued to rub the orbs in my head, trying in vain to squeeze the cursed light out of my eyes.
"Yeah, that's how we all were when we opened our eyes for the first time."
It was a male voice, but I couldn't tell if his tone was more bored, understanding, or just annoyed. I simply groaned again and turned my head in his general direction.
"You'll get used to it in a minute, don't fret about it. It's harsh on all of us at the start."
"Yeah Ligomore," a different voice spoke up, another male. "But thank goodness she's the last one. It's really starting to get annoying."
I finally worked up the courage to open my eyes again. I blinked a few times as my eyes finally began to adjust to the harsh light. My vision came into focus for the first time and I was able to get a look at the first voice I had heard outside of my womb as I sat up.
When my vision cleared, I saw what I assumed to be a member of my species. The mammal's body had the silowet of a rabbit, the only immediately noticeable difference in shape was that his ears were slightly shorter and had more of a point. A definite and obvious mix between a fox and a rabbit. The most noticeable difference was with the mammal's coat. The same exact red, white, and black skyme of a fox.
"Good morning sleeping beauty," he said to her with a kind smile, showing off his pointy K9 teeth. The body was connected to the first voice I heard. That was a relief.
Ligomore... that was his name right? Well, Ligomore was sitting on the bed across from mine. I noticed then that the room we were in held more of our kind. Counting me and Ligomore, there were a total of 6 of us. We wore Heer uniforms, with a simple side cap. A symbol that we were part of Berlinator's armed forces.
"So Cinda; how are you feeling?"
Cinda? Was that my name?
"How do you know my name is Cinda?"
"That's what it says on your jacket."
I looked down to where he pointed and sure enough, there embroidered on my uniform, was the word: "Cinda". I looked back up at him, and saw "Ligomore" on his jacket. Curious, I turned to where the second voice I had heard was. He was lying on his bed with his fore-paws behind his head...
(God, why am I so poetic all the time?)
Any way, before I could ask him his name the door at the far end of the room opened. In stepped two mammals, one a grizzly bear, the other a fox. The bear wore a grey uniform with a black patch on each side of his collar, with two white lightning bolts on his right patch. His muzzle seemed to be permanently in a toothed snarl, and he possessed a form that just screamed authority. He even had a scar running across his eye under an eye patch to add to the look.
The fox also wore a grey uniform with a black patch on each side of his collar. The patch on the right, held two white lightning bolts. As we would later find out, the bear was a General and the other was a Major in the Berlinator army. Both held high positions of authority in the SS.
The bear stopped at the other side of the room before he spoke.
"Stand in front of your beds you freeks!" Ok, less speaking and more shouting like the drill sergeant he was.
"Move! Now!" I quickly obliged along with the others and we did as we were told.
"I am General Hermann Himmler, I will be instructing you freaks on physical training and military procedures. You will answer to me personally with a harsh penalty upon defying the orders of your superiors. Ask me a ligament question and I will give you a direct answer." At that, he walked straight out the door into the hallway he entered from, slamming the door shut behind him.
Talk about a warm welcome.
The fox sighed after the bear left. "I recommend sitting down, chances are this is the first time you've ever used your legs."
Not a second after he said that, someone on the opposite side of the room collapsed to the ground. He turned and smiled in embarrassment. The fox chuckled, and helped him back into his bed.
"There you go, Rutsch," the fox said glancing at the fallen's uniform as he helped him into bed.
We all crawled back into our own beds as the fox stood by the door. "Don't let the bear bother you too much. However, do follow his orders for your own safety. And whatever you do, DON'T make him angry at you."
"Who are you?" the one named Rutsch asked.
"Major Vernher von Brown. I'll be teaching you physics, and mathematics. If you need something from me, do ask. Just be careful what you ask and when you ask it."
At the time, I'm sure none of us knew what that meant. We would find out what he meant later though. That's how we met Major Brown. He was a rocket scientist, who was doing testing on long range rockets. His desire was to create spacecraft, but the Berlinatore military was using him and his genius to create weapons.
He didn't like it.
He had come to Reiche Insel because Berlinator had offered him funding and resources. There was a treaty that held Berlinator back on the development of many conventional weapons. It did not however cover the development of rockets. So when the warmonger filled government discovered Brown, it almost seemed too good to be true.
Because we were a Bio-fusion genetic hybrid species created for the purpose of...
Wow that got away from me.
His job for when he wasn't testing his new rockets was to teach us what he knew. We basically were the guinea pig for countless programs the Berlinator government were testing. A few days later, the tests began.
If there is a God above, may He never allow me to go through those exercises again.
Project X-02