Smith was bored. Sitting at the office cubicle desk in the vehicle hangar, he was tapping one foot against the ground, agitated. Arthur was busy working away, often leaving the hangar to acquire parts and tools from the storage rooms and the APC outside.
Kra'tak and Tol'din were now moving around the rooftops of the complex, watching Heather and her team. They had earlier gone back to the APC and worked more on Kra'tak's equipment with little luck. Tol'din had re-patched his gunshot wound, sustained back at the base when he'd been looking for Kra'tak.
Heather, having enough of twiddling her pretty thumbs after lunch, took her team on a tour around the outside of the large complex. Kra'tak and Tol'din had agreed to cover them from the rooftops.
Inside the operations room, Amy and Adams continued working away at the systems. Remnants of their lunch were scattered about.
"Got something," she announced.
Adams sat a little straighter in his seat. "What is it?"
"I've gotten access to some sort of logging system." She looked down the menu options. "Facility N1, N2, S1, S2..."
"Different parts of this place?" Adams pondered.
Amy chose Facility N1. In response the main display now showed a three dimensional view of a large facility. It was different to the map they'd examined earlier.
"This...isn't this place is it?" Adams asked slowly, uncomfortable with the implications.
Amy's eyes darted around the map. "No."
She entered a few commands and shortly after the mapped pulled back to a two dimensional overhead satellite view. Zooming out, more labelled facilities popped up. When she'd zoomed out enough, a total of eight facilities set in a square were visible. There was a large gap in the middle of the square where a ninth facility could fit going by the scale of the map.
Amy blew out a breath, overwhelmed by what she was seeing. Adams, arms folded, gave her a look similar to how she felt.
"Eight of them," Adams simply stated.
"Something big was going on here." Amy managed to say after a long pause.
Many questions were on their minds. They continued examining the map and the other screens, taking it all in.
On one screen was a list of options for Facility N1:
- Video Logs
- Audio Logs
- Text Logs
- Camera Feeds.
Amy chose the camera feed which gave an access denied. There were a number of video logs, each sorted by what seemed to her an unfamiliar dating system. She chose one at random.
A small window popped up on the screen. It showed a tired looking older man wearing the typical white lab coat of a scientist. He reminded Amy of Tom, except with glasses. An ID badge hung around his neck: it was blurred out. The man spoke:
"Well, it seems our earlier hypothesis was incorrect. The 4th generation genetic engineering we thought would be stable resulted in a new unexpected side affect. The subjects demonstrated the super strength we'd hoped for. However, it was unrestrained, meaning the subjects were capable of forcing their muscles to overload beyond physical capacity. The pressure simply destroyed the muscle in a burst of blood and tendons, shattering the bone too, rendering the limb completely useless. The resulting blood loss sent them in to a permanent coma. They will be further studied before being destroyed as per protocol."
The man reached toward the screen and pressed a button off to the side, ending the log.
Adams and Amy sat back, thinking it over.
"Specimen 2218." Adams stated.
"They were trying to create an advanced soldier," Amy agreed.
"Try to access the cameras." Adams requested, grabbing his radio. "I'll tell Heather to bring her team back. She needs to see this."
Heather had just begun the tour around the outside of the facility when Adams radioed and strongly recommended her team to come back to operations. She agreed.
Amy showed Heather the map and then replayed the video log her and Adams had watched.
"2218..." Heather mulled it over. "Was he a success? That's why they stored him?"
"No idea." Amy replied. "I haven't been able to access anything else so far."
"Ok. Eight facilities. Do they all have logs?" Heather asked.
Amy nodded.
"Bastards..." Callum exclaimed.
"Ok. Field trips postponed for later," she told her team. "Let's see what they were doing in these facilities."
"Show us the video logs for this place," Heather requested.
"We're in S2, south east corner," Amy pointed at the map.
She chose S2 from the main menu then tried to load one of the video logs. An access denied error flashed. She looked and Heather and shrugged.
"Go through all the videos. Let's watch what we can and see how much we can find out." Heather told her.
She tried S1 which worked. The various logs contained scientists working on Xenomorphs. They were conducting various research and experiments. One of the logs was outdoors with a number of Aliens lined up in steel cages. A number of personnel were standing by with various equipment and weapons. It was a weapons test.
The first Alien was burnt with the flamethrower. The second was shot with high explosive bullets, destroying it in one shot. It went on: an ineffective chemical weapon, explosives, laser which cut right through an Alien, a sound emitting microwave weapon which literally shook the Alien to pieces.
The group gathered around the display watched with a mixture of horror and fascination.
"Weapon testing and research." Adams said flatly.
Amy moved on to N1 which contained the super soldier video they'd watched earlier. The logs were horrific, showing various mutilated bodies and experiments going wrong. The scientists recording the logs seemed to have little to no emotional connection with the 'subjects' as they referred to the people throughout.
One video showed a before and after of a normal human modified to inhuman proportions. The scientist went through the list of procedures which to the group watching seemed more like a punishment fitting of hell. The scientist casually talked about the human now strapped to a bed, in obvious agony.
Further videos showed endurance tests, strength tests, pain tests, aptitude tests, mental evaluation. The list went on.
The videos showed these in fast and furious snippets as if some evil man had taken great delight in putting together a highlight reel to show how evil he really was.
The group stayed silent throughout, gaze locked in disgust at the sight before them. Amy was about to move on to N2 when Heather put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Hold on," Heather spoke grimly. "Show me the text logs for N1."
There was a huge amount of information here, all of it accessible.
"Can you download this to take back with us?" Heather asked.
"Yes. There's a lot here so I'll have to choose." Amy replied.
"Ok. I'll leave that choice to you." Heather said.
Heather lifted her hand off Amy's shoulder. N2 showed more super soldier experiments, though this time the scientists referred to them as the successes. The videos showed the soldiers carrying out various combat scenarios. In one they had a soldier take on an Alien using only a small hand knife.
The group were stunned to see the soldier move so fast, pin the Alien to the ground and slice its head right off. A few small splashes of acidic blood had no effect on the soldier's skin. Throughout, the human carried a completely blank expression, as if its emotions had been removed.
The camera turned to show a number of staff watching. There were high ranking military personnel in the group. One of them turned to the man operating the camera and spoke:
"It's coming along nicely, isn't it?" the man spoke giddily, his excitement obvious. "Our new friends have been quite the help! When do we get to see them pitted against one another?
The word 'friends' carried a sinister undertone.
The man behind the camera answered. "We're doing some final tests and we'll be ready to go within four days."
"Excellent! I'm here for the week."
Adams turned to the group, frowning. "New friends?"
"Can't be...can it?" Hale hesitantly replied.
"Move on," Heather said, bringing the group back to focus.
She tried W1 and W2, both of which refused access with large 'Classified' text flashing across the screen.
"Classified?" Amy was puzzled. "That's different. S2 said access denied."
She moved on. With some trepidation, she chose E1. The scene confirmed Adams thoughts. A scientist stood by a table. On it were laid various items which, up until 11 weeks ago, none of the group would have recognised.
"Pause it," Heather ordered. She activated her radio, "Kra'tak, this is Heather. Can you hear me?"
There was a long wait. The reply came over all their radios at once. "Yes. I hear you."
The voice sounded a lot less like Toms now, Amy noted. It was becoming more heavily influenced by Kra'taks own way of speaking along with an almost electronic undertone.
"You should come back to the operations room. We have something important to show you." Heather said.
Another wait: the reply again coming over all their radios. "We are coming." The radio clicked off.
"We'll have to teach him about that," Gustav spoke for the first time since entering the room.
Smith, who'd been startled awake by Kra'taks voice on the radio, went to check up on Arthur. He was nowhere to be found. Smith frowned and radioed him. "Arthur, where are you?"
The reply came quickly. "I'm getting some parts from the store room. I'll be back in five minutes."
"Tell me next time," Smith said, annoyed.
"You were asleep. Looks like you needed the rest so I left you alone." Arthur said.
Smith, still annoyed, paced around the hangar. He gazed at the bent doors for a while. A small smile crossed his face as he mused over Finley's words from the day before. He'd joked to Smith to not let Amy press too many buttons, which was exactly all she'd been doing since they'd got here.
The massive figures of Kra'tak and Tol'din strode into the operations rooms. Everyone turned to watch, unable to shake the thought that the two of them looked ready to enter a major battle.
Heather explained the situation. "You need to watch this. Play it."
Amy restarted the current log. They watched a scientist go through the familiar items on the table and explain his thoughts on each one. Afterwards, he turned to the camera. The group listened carefully to his next words:
"As expected, this species occasionally passes over this planet. We successfully tracked and shot down a ship containing three of them. Interestingly, they seem to be a mix between the primitive and technology more advanced than our own."
The next few logs detailed the results of biological analysis, attempts to communicate and a battery of tests. Tol'din spoke up at the next log, Kra'tak stayed quiet and watched.
The log showed a Predator attached to an upright 'bed' with its arms, legs and body in thick metal restraints. It looked far stronger than the bed to which Kra'tak had been restrained. What they saw next sickened the group: the scientists called it a response test. It was torture. This log lasted ten minutes.
Before moving on to E2, Amy stopped and turned to Kra'tak with a distressed look and tears forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
Kra'tak, face covered by his helmet, replied. "You did not do this."
She moved to E2. There were three logs here. The last one was written in bright red and was flashing, drawing their attention to it. Amy started with the first log. It showed another scientist, this one was examining a dead Predator laid out on an autopsy slab. It was different to the one they saw earlier.
The Predator had obviously suffered fatal damage in some sort of close quarters combat. One arm and leg had been broken, the camera moved over the body revealing a number of large gaping holes. Remnants of helmet were still attached to a face which had been battered to a pulp.
Tol'din spoke angrily and Kra'tak replied to him. They both fell silent. She loaded the second of three logs. The same general they'd seen earlier watching the super solider, was here looking at the dead Predator. He had the same beaming smile and giddy look.
"Boy, oh boy!" he sneered. "Our boy did quite a number on him!"
The scientist explained the wounds and answered the generals numerous questions. The log ended.
Amy's hand hovered over the key to access the flashing red final log entry for E2. She pressed it hesitantly.
This log was very different to the all the others. There were two scientists in this one. The same bold one that reminded Amy of Tom and a blond female who looked somewhat similar to her.
The detached calm of every other video was gone. The two on screen were panicked and scared. Muffled gunshots, explosions and the occasional scream could be heard in the background. The man shouted in frenzy at the camera.
"The soldiers have gone berserk! They've destroyed most of the facility! THEY'RE KILLING US ALL!"
A loud bang caused them both to jump.
"They're here! Oh, god," he spoke hurriedly. "I've initiated lockdown protocols. They'll all die within 72 hours from the inbuilt safety measure. We're all dead! Everyone's dead!"
The female scientist picked up a gun and looked at the man. She was frightened. The thick metal door behind them flew into the room, followed by one of the super soldiers wearing only shorts. He looked at the two scientists, quickly strode over and violently killed them both. The woman had managed to shoot him in the chest a couple of times. The bullets seemed to have only gone skin deep, he didn't react.
The super soldier threw the dead man into the camera, ending the log.
The group sat in stunned silence.