LIDYA AIRBASE
16:00 Hrs
FOLLOWING OPERATION TIGER'S CAVE
Ken's POV
We parked our planes on the ramp, ready for the hangar crews to tow them in. Almost everybody was in good spirits, I however was as quiet as ever.
I set off to the offices in a brisk walk, hoping to talk with Amelia about possibly taking a look at the intel salvaged from the captured Kotor Stronghold. Behind me Ruth and the rest of the squad was talking with Jamie and Rick from the 1nd element, who were as egotistical as ever.
"Hey Holst? So you managed to make it back in one piece!"
"Yeah, all safe and sound, for a minute I thought we had it there. Luckily we managed not to lose a single plane in the squadron. How were things on your side?" Holst Prendere responded calmly.
Jamie 's smile turned up into a buck toothed grin.
"No scratches here either! You couldn't possibly think we'd let all those clunkers get us!"
"Good. I guess I was worried for nothing"
Ruth piped up. "Lieutenant Jones! All reporting back safe and sound!"
"Ha Ha! No losses here either! Now anyone willing to bet on tally for today?"
Ruth sounded perplexed from where I could hear her, her tone betraying a hint of anger.
"What? You're willing to gamble on kill scores?"
"Sure, its what me and me ol' war buddies used to do all the time!"
Rick came up behind and responded indignantly
"Lead come on! Come off of it! We risked our necks out there and now you wanna gamble!"
Jamie looked affronted.
"Aw! Come on! Can't you guys lighten up for a change!"
As the conversation descended into a bit of a rabble, I picked up my pace and entered the offices, quickly directing myself to the operations room where Amelia already was setting herself up.
I quietly came over to her desk.
"Oh, Hello Lieutenant Thomas, great job out there. What can I do for you?"
Having never sustained a long enough conversation with her in person, I found myself scratching my head as I shyly talked to her.
"Well.. I was wondering if our guys had acquired any intel from the captured Kotor Stronghold?"
Amelia responded almost immediately.
"Yes they have actually. Um.. why do you ask?"
I pressed for more information. "Do they contain any records about weapons developments or experiments?"
"Most likely. But I couldn't release the data unless I knew the real reason why you were asking for this information, Lieutenant."
I sighed. Time to come clean, I guess.
"I was fighting with Albert Ungar in the last mission. He mentioned something about a robot soldier in the ranks of the enemy. I didn't know what it meant, but one of the enemy pilots we recently encountered looks to the result of gene manipulation by the OCC."
"And you wanted to know if there were any experiments carried out by the enemy to perfect human development or motivations to create ace pilots?"
I looked affronted. How could she possibly know what kind of stuff I was looking for?
I responded slowly with a hint of shock in my voice.
"y… yes. How did you know?"
Amelia smiled and looked into my eyes.
"Because I heard the conversations between you and Lila following the operations over Ballga airbase and Armagest- and I know that the enemy pilot known as "Doll" was thought to be your girlfriend, although you yourself cannot prove it. Trust me, I drink tea with Lila every day, things like this are hard to miss"
I nodded in response, tearing my gaze away from her sympathetic eyes.
She stood up from her desk and put a hand on my shoulder."I understand the pain you're going through Ken. Look, come over here, I've archived most of the records we've salvaged from the Kotor stronghold. You can possibly find some answers in here."
Amelia directed me over to the computer console on her adjoining desk. I sat down on one the chairs, Amelia talking me through the different files.
As went through the logs on the screen, I found a particular file that sparked my interest.
FILE 013599 TYPE 7
SUBJECT: DOLL PROJECT
I clicked on the file, up opening the contents.
*****DOLL PROJECT*****
**PURPOSE: TO RESEARCH METHODS OF CONTROLLING HUMAN BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS AND EMOTIONS TO SUBVERT NORMAL RESPONSES, IN ORDER TO ENSURE ABSOLUTE LOYALTY AND CONCENTRATIONAL AWARENESS TO INCREASE COMBAT EFFECTIVENESS AND FIGHTING POTENTIAL**
**SCRAPPED IN FAVOUR OF THE PRODIGY PLAN**
I turned away from the screen, locking my gaze with Amelia. We realised that they had in fact been conducting experiments to artificially create skilled pilots.
I looked back at the computer, scrolling down in an effort to gain more information about the nature of the experiments and the participants.
***INITALLY EXPERIMENTS WERE TRIED USING AN AUGMENTED CRYSTAL CONNECTED TO IMPLANTS WITHIN THE PATIENT'S BRAIN TO INDUCE MIND CONTROL. THIS METHOD WAS DEVELOPED USING PLANS AND BLUEPRINT FROM NAVIGATOR***
"So they were using mind control techniques. Who is this navigator they are referring to?"
Amelia shook her head.
"We don't know. He is mentioned in quite a lot of the dispatches and weapon design blueprints. Whoever it is, they must be quite a character, given the extent of their weapon production"
I continued my vigil on the computer. The attached schematics and blueprints all showcased technology years ahead of our time, which made It all the more strange that OCC had access to it and had seemingly developed it in such a short time.
Finally I found a list of participants in the experiments, and what I saw sent a chill up my spine. A photograph of Ellen was displayed on the screen, with an odd looking crystal attached to her forehead, her irises glowing a dark red in the picture, which I thought was odd, considering Ellen had blue eyes.
****TEST RUNS CARRIED OUT ON ENEMY POWS****
**FIRST SUCCESSFULTEST WAS WITH PARTICIPANT 00012, CODE NAME DOLL***
***NAME AND BIO DETAILS UNKNOWN, BUT THOUGHT TO BE SURVIVOR OF THE ATTACK ON THE EDAF ORBITAL STATION SEEKER***
**PARTICIPANT WAS LAST ASSIGNED TO 1st SECTION OF THE EIGHTH EXPERIMENTAL DIVISION'S AVIATION UNIT, UNDER THE COMMAND OF ALBERT UNGAR"
Amelia's hand flew up to her mouth in shock. I stared at the screen, trying to comprehend the information. This meant the Lila's suspicion of Ellen surviving the attack on the seeker was almost certainly true. I opened my mouth to say something, but only a muffled gasp came out. Amelia attempted to say something, but she was interrupted when a faint flash lit up the room from the window, followed by a small quake which rattled the office like thunder.
I immediately stood up and rushed outside, finding the other delta squad members gazing out into the distance.
Alex Levine of 2nd element spoke up "was that.. a quake?" Holst looked up quizzically.
"That's… That's in the direction of Kotor, isn't it?"
Lila came rushing out with Amelia hot on her tail.
"What was that? It looks like it came from the Kotor Stronghold"
Amelia spoke up behind her, a look of shock on her face.
"We've got a telegram from our forces stationed at Kotor! They've been wiped out! the report said that the base was vaporised in a giant explosion!"
Brian Douglas looked over in my direction, in aghast. "What! What's going on!"
Lila turned to Amelia, looking infuriated whilst she read the telegram. She turned to address me and the rest of the squadron on the tarmac.
"This is a crisis! All delta squadron members are to rest up and go to standby status! We've got to find out what the enemy is doing, and quickly!"
No rest for the wicked, I guess.