'Oy, my head...' Contessa thought to herself as she became very aware of
liquid surrounding her body. She woke up and became more aware of the
cotton bonds restraining her within a healing tank. She opened her eyes to
find herself looking out into what looked like an infirmary.
Then, all at once everything came back to her. The years of slavery, the numerous escape attempts, the standoff... Hey, the standoff! They won! But, Contessa stubbornly remembered that she had been killed by gunfire. She looked down and saw her body was fairly intact, some scars here and there. Something wasn't right...
The sound of opening doors caught her attention. Two men that appeared to be doctors had just entered the room. Contessa slipped her hands from the restraints and began beating on the glass of her tank, trying to yell around the oxygen mask in her mouth. They turned their heads in her direction, and she saw their implants shining in the fluorescent lighting. So, she had been taken to a Cybernetic base. This made Contessa begin to wonder what happened to the other refugees from the Hive.
"Our scanners said your vital stats were up to par, but after the massacre we thought our computers were malfunctioning. Now that you're awake you can be released." One of the men said flatly. He walked out of sight for a few seconds, and moments later Contessa felt the liquid draining from the chamber. The restraints crept away from her body as the door opened. After stepping from the tank she caught a chill from the cold infirmary.
The stainless steel walls of the base reflected everything in the room, including Contessa's reflection. She walked closer to the wall and scanned herself more thoroughly. The places where the bullets had penetrated her body were faintly visible, but not noticeable. She turned and examined her back, seeing that her old scars still remained.
At that moment, she would have said something along the lines of, "Some things never change, huh?" or, "These will really get me a mate...". But, metal triangles shone in the light and caught her attention. Contessa stared blankly at the small implant centered in her forehead. Two others had been placed on the left side of her head, and one particularly bulky implant on the right side of her head.
"Would you two mind explaining these?" she said, frantically pointing to her head.
"Aki Zeta will explain everything. But first, you had better put some clothes on." the other man said, just as flatly as his partner, "It's not very left-brained to walk around naked." he said handing Contessa a dark green work suit.
Following her outburst, Contessa dressed and let herself be escorted by an armed guard. She would have been slightly intimidated by the poised fusion laser in his hands, but her mind was too busy reeling from the tampering with her body. She absent-mindedly looked at her surroundings. She wasn't surprised to see that the base had a strong laboratory feeling to them. There was stainless as far as the eye could see in the high ceiling'd rooms and wide corridors. The workers were lacking in emotion as they efficiently went about their duties at consoles and on assembly lines. There were the obvious commodities that represented human life, such as lavatories, cafeterias and sleeping chambers. At the sight of those Contessa had to smirk inwardly, unable to imagine the members of this particular faction able to act like normal humans.
The pair was approaching the end of the corridor towards a room with a guard on either side of the door. As they approached the doors slid open. The room itself wasn't far off from the lab theme, but seemed slightly more inviting than the rest of the base. Contessa looked around at the screens in the room. They were parading things such as base efficiency, unit output, etc. Her eyes followed the sound of a monotone female voice to her left, and when Contessa turned she could see a blond woman talking into a communication link. The woman had apparently been alerted to the interruption, because at that moment she quickly wrapped up her conversation with the other party.
Void teal eyes turned to meet Contessa. The woman in question was Aki Zeta- 5, ruler of the Cybernetic Consciousness.
"Welcome-"
"Before you say anything more I want to know why my body has been tampered with." Contessa said.
"I was about to get to that." Aki said with what seemed to be indignity, "I bet you're wondering why you managed to survive. Well, it started about three decades ago. As a faction leader one receives every single little bit of information of the going-ons of Planet. One day my aids were looking through some reports, and one of them caught my attention. It was from the Hive. There were reports of a certain drone that kept trying to lead mass escape attempts, with some success."
"Don't you see?" she continued, "Before we found you you were brilliant. A bit misguided and without credentials, but brilliant nonetheless. After canvassing my closest aids we decided that you would be of great use to us, but with our current war we were unable to risk antagonizing the Hive. But then a year ago you managed to bring down the military powerhouse."
"I've been comatose for a year?!" Contessa exclaimed, "A whole year?! A year!"
"When the UN came to our aid that day my soldiers were given the task to find you. After digging through a pile of corpses you were found, unfortunately dead at the time. But, you have to pay homage to the advances of modern technology." Aki said with the faintest of grins, "We spent a good portion of the past year struggling to bring you back to life. Once your systems came back online we began implanting our trademark cybernetic enhancers."
"So..." Contessa said while composing herself, "You're telling me that I've been dead for months? And then, thanks to science, I was miraculously brought to life? Why though? And why did you take out my right brain?!"
"If we really did remove your right brain then you wouldn't be having these outbursts." Aki said matter-of-factly.
"Oh..." Contessa said, a slight blush creeping up her face.
"We knew we could enhance your intelligence, hence the routine implants. But, after you came back to life our sensors picked up something very unique about your right brain. You see, there is some strange connection between the emotional aspects of your mind and the sentient life here on Planet. We developed a new type of implant to amplify your psi abilities."
"So... What of my comrades?"
"The ones that managed to stay alive during the ordeal were dispersed among the other factions. They were free from Yang, but you must keep in mind that they were still looked on as drones. At least away from the Hive they have the opportunity to climb through the ranks and become something more."
"And what of myself?"
"Well," Aki said, "At the moment we're at war with the Believers. They're a fairly weak faction, and we have the capabilities to completely destroy them. But, they've managed to grease the palms of the Spartans and the Gaians. I highly doubt the Spartans will aid the Believers, but I have a strong feeling that the Gaians will take pity. Now that we have you though..."
"I don't know if I like that pause..." Contessa said, backing away from Aki Zeta.
"My plan is to send you to the Gaian faction. There, you will train and nurture your psi abilities, and then use the creatures Deirdre breeds to destroy their home base from the inside out."
"And what if I refuse?"
"You're not in the position to refuse." Aki said flatly, "Remember where you came from. You wouldn't even be alive today if it weren't for this faction. Consider yourself in debt."
Then, all at once everything came back to her. The years of slavery, the numerous escape attempts, the standoff... Hey, the standoff! They won! But, Contessa stubbornly remembered that she had been killed by gunfire. She looked down and saw her body was fairly intact, some scars here and there. Something wasn't right...
The sound of opening doors caught her attention. Two men that appeared to be doctors had just entered the room. Contessa slipped her hands from the restraints and began beating on the glass of her tank, trying to yell around the oxygen mask in her mouth. They turned their heads in her direction, and she saw their implants shining in the fluorescent lighting. So, she had been taken to a Cybernetic base. This made Contessa begin to wonder what happened to the other refugees from the Hive.
"Our scanners said your vital stats were up to par, but after the massacre we thought our computers were malfunctioning. Now that you're awake you can be released." One of the men said flatly. He walked out of sight for a few seconds, and moments later Contessa felt the liquid draining from the chamber. The restraints crept away from her body as the door opened. After stepping from the tank she caught a chill from the cold infirmary.
The stainless steel walls of the base reflected everything in the room, including Contessa's reflection. She walked closer to the wall and scanned herself more thoroughly. The places where the bullets had penetrated her body were faintly visible, but not noticeable. She turned and examined her back, seeing that her old scars still remained.
At that moment, she would have said something along the lines of, "Some things never change, huh?" or, "These will really get me a mate...". But, metal triangles shone in the light and caught her attention. Contessa stared blankly at the small implant centered in her forehead. Two others had been placed on the left side of her head, and one particularly bulky implant on the right side of her head.
"Would you two mind explaining these?" she said, frantically pointing to her head.
"Aki Zeta will explain everything. But first, you had better put some clothes on." the other man said, just as flatly as his partner, "It's not very left-brained to walk around naked." he said handing Contessa a dark green work suit.
Following her outburst, Contessa dressed and let herself be escorted by an armed guard. She would have been slightly intimidated by the poised fusion laser in his hands, but her mind was too busy reeling from the tampering with her body. She absent-mindedly looked at her surroundings. She wasn't surprised to see that the base had a strong laboratory feeling to them. There was stainless as far as the eye could see in the high ceiling'd rooms and wide corridors. The workers were lacking in emotion as they efficiently went about their duties at consoles and on assembly lines. There were the obvious commodities that represented human life, such as lavatories, cafeterias and sleeping chambers. At the sight of those Contessa had to smirk inwardly, unable to imagine the members of this particular faction able to act like normal humans.
The pair was approaching the end of the corridor towards a room with a guard on either side of the door. As they approached the doors slid open. The room itself wasn't far off from the lab theme, but seemed slightly more inviting than the rest of the base. Contessa looked around at the screens in the room. They were parading things such as base efficiency, unit output, etc. Her eyes followed the sound of a monotone female voice to her left, and when Contessa turned she could see a blond woman talking into a communication link. The woman had apparently been alerted to the interruption, because at that moment she quickly wrapped up her conversation with the other party.
Void teal eyes turned to meet Contessa. The woman in question was Aki Zeta- 5, ruler of the Cybernetic Consciousness.
"Welcome-"
"Before you say anything more I want to know why my body has been tampered with." Contessa said.
"I was about to get to that." Aki said with what seemed to be indignity, "I bet you're wondering why you managed to survive. Well, it started about three decades ago. As a faction leader one receives every single little bit of information of the going-ons of Planet. One day my aids were looking through some reports, and one of them caught my attention. It was from the Hive. There were reports of a certain drone that kept trying to lead mass escape attempts, with some success."
"Don't you see?" she continued, "Before we found you you were brilliant. A bit misguided and without credentials, but brilliant nonetheless. After canvassing my closest aids we decided that you would be of great use to us, but with our current war we were unable to risk antagonizing the Hive. But then a year ago you managed to bring down the military powerhouse."
"I've been comatose for a year?!" Contessa exclaimed, "A whole year?! A year!"
"When the UN came to our aid that day my soldiers were given the task to find you. After digging through a pile of corpses you were found, unfortunately dead at the time. But, you have to pay homage to the advances of modern technology." Aki said with the faintest of grins, "We spent a good portion of the past year struggling to bring you back to life. Once your systems came back online we began implanting our trademark cybernetic enhancers."
"So..." Contessa said while composing herself, "You're telling me that I've been dead for months? And then, thanks to science, I was miraculously brought to life? Why though? And why did you take out my right brain?!"
"If we really did remove your right brain then you wouldn't be having these outbursts." Aki said matter-of-factly.
"Oh..." Contessa said, a slight blush creeping up her face.
"We knew we could enhance your intelligence, hence the routine implants. But, after you came back to life our sensors picked up something very unique about your right brain. You see, there is some strange connection between the emotional aspects of your mind and the sentient life here on Planet. We developed a new type of implant to amplify your psi abilities."
"So... What of my comrades?"
"The ones that managed to stay alive during the ordeal were dispersed among the other factions. They were free from Yang, but you must keep in mind that they were still looked on as drones. At least away from the Hive they have the opportunity to climb through the ranks and become something more."
"And what of myself?"
"Well," Aki said, "At the moment we're at war with the Believers. They're a fairly weak faction, and we have the capabilities to completely destroy them. But, they've managed to grease the palms of the Spartans and the Gaians. I highly doubt the Spartans will aid the Believers, but I have a strong feeling that the Gaians will take pity. Now that we have you though..."
"I don't know if I like that pause..." Contessa said, backing away from Aki Zeta.
"My plan is to send you to the Gaian faction. There, you will train and nurture your psi abilities, and then use the creatures Deirdre breeds to destroy their home base from the inside out."
"And what if I refuse?"
"You're not in the position to refuse." Aki said flatly, "Remember where you came from. You wouldn't even be alive today if it weren't for this faction. Consider yourself in debt."