After what feels to be a short nap Marieke wakes up once again. She instinctively grabs her glasses and puts them on without noticing the change of texture of her hands. She opens her eyes, but she quickly jumps back from what she sees.
"Booting Firmware 1.01.001. Designation M01-91."
She sees all kinds of strange markings in her vision that appear to indicate all kinds of information. Besides the markings her vision is blurry as if she isn't wearing her glasses. She quickly reaches for her face to see if she has her glasses on. When she feels that she is indeed wearing her glasses she takes them off and everything is suddenly crystal clear.
"What have you done to me?!" She yells to the ceiling until she sees Emily lying unconscious on the bed in her cell.
Her confusion evaporates and blind rage takes its place, so strong she barely notices the interface popping into her vision. Suddenly, one thing draws her attention: on top her vision, text appears. Current Mode: Combat. She starts banging on the steel door, jumping back in surprise when it actually buckles under her blows. She stares at her hands, for the first time noticing glowing green circuitry running through her skin. Marieke roars and throws herself against the door, stumbling in surprise when the whole thing flies off its hinges and crushes a synth guard on the other side of the corridor.
"What the fu-" she whispers, but before she can even finish the sentence the entire base turns dark. Out of nowhere a thought occurs to her, and it's like the lights have been turned on again. In the corner of her vision she can see a green marker next to Infrasight.
"Huh...night vision." she mutters, before bending down and picking up the plasma rifle the crushed synth had dropped. Feeling a lot safer with a weapon in her hands she turns to her girlfriend's cell. It appears to be locked but she pulls a bit harder and again the entire door comes off with relative ease. She tries to wake Emily up but soon synth guards close in on her position. As if on instinct a set of claws appear from the back of her hands and she immediately uses them to cut the shackles that bind Emily to her bed.
Marieke quickly gets up but is soon surrounded by Coursers and other synths. She notices blinking text appear in the corner of her vision, reading, Subcutaneous Micro-Relay ready and she suddenly teleports outside the circle. Quickly recovering from the surprise, she reaches for her weapon and kills the first two Coursers with ease. Two Gen1s try to hit her from behind with shock batons but she teleports behind them and rips one of the synths arms off and uses it to beat both synths to pieces.
The Coursers on the opposite sides open fire and Marieke answers with precision shots from her new plasma rifle. The other synths also open fire and she takes a few hits, but the shots barely leave a mark on her suit she appears to be wearing. Using her relay to close the gap she uses her new claws to rip one synth completely in half and smashes the other's head on a pillar. The Coursers in the back respond by opening fire but even they barely scratch her skin and suit.
Sensing no other threats in the vicinity she disengages her combat mode, making her claws retract.
"How did I know how to do that?" She thinks briefly, but dismisses the thought when she sees her girlfriend slowly waking up. She rushes over and kneels at the side of her bed. Marieke gently cradles the coughing woman, careful not to hurt her since she does not understand her new strength yet.
"Who… are you?" Emily stammers weakly. "And why did you save me?"
"It's me!" Marieke whispers, surprised and a little scared. "Marieke!"
Emily quickly recovers and jumps up to her bed.
"What have they done to you?!" She panics but Marieke manages to calm her down.
"I don't know, but right now all that matters is getting out of here. We don't know how many of these are left." She points at the pile of smoldering corpses between all the green puddles of goo. She sits beside the still confused Emily who appears to be inspecting her entire body.
"Is it really you?" Emily whimpers, confused and still a bit weary. "You've changed so much!"
"What do you mean?"
"Take a look in the mirror." Emily points at a mirror in her cell.
Marieke stares at her face not sure how to feel at the sight that greets her. Her skin is very pale with a plastic like sheen to it, lines of green circuitry crisscrossing on her hand. Black eyeliner surrounds a pair of glowing green eyes. On her lips she sees that she has been given black lipstick with some lip gloss. The predominant colors of green and black clash with her still blue hair.
"Aside from the hair they do have attention to detail, I'll give them that." She mutters to herself.
"We should visit John after all of this is over. That blue hair of yours doesn't mix well with those glowing green eyes."
Marieke turns around to reply but in the motion both her and Emily's reflection becomes visible for a moment, and the interface that appears startles her back into facing the mirror. She pays more attention to her own reflection and the following text appears:
M01-91 – female
Age: Not available
Occupation: Enhanced Courser/Human Hybrid
Weapon: Supercharged Plasma Rifle
Threat to locals: Unknown
Opinion: Unknown (Self)
She turns to look at Emily and sees the same happen only with different text:
Emily Hudson – Female
Age: 34
Occupation: Local newspaper reporter
Weapon: None
Threat to locals: NO
Opinion: 3 (romantic partner)
She quickly dismisses the text and helps her girlfriend get up from her seat on the bed.
"It appears that I have all kinds of enhancements made to my body and eyes. I don't need my glasses, I can scan people for all kinds of information and appear to have gained a limited range teleporter."
"Don't forget the scary super human strength…" Emily points at the reinforced door just outside her cell. "You just tore that thing off its hinges like it was paper."
Realizing what she just did she stares at her hands, disbelief written all over her face. She abruptly snaps out of it, turns her attention to Emily and says in a grave voice: "I have no idea what they did to me and what I am capable of, but this can't have been all of the people in this building. We need to get out of here!"
They exit the cell and walk towards the door, but as they try to get it open it gets stuck at waist height. Marieke crouches down to pass through it and hears a surprised exclamation behind her.
"Blue? Where are you?" Emily appears to have suddenly lost her. "I can't see you!"
"I'm right here!" Marieke shouts from her position just in front of Emily. After Marieke notices Emily can't see her she stands up, startling her in the process.
Emily quickly recovers and hits her girlfriend on the shoulder. "How did you do that?! You made me jump out of my skin!"
"Sorry, they must have installed something like Stealth Boy, I didn't know."
Emily stares at her for a moment before shaking her head." When we are done here we need to find your manual." she murmurs to herself.
'If there is a manual for me.' Marieke thinks, grimly.
Emily shrugs and searches around some gun cabinets for a weapon. Marieke quickly joins and after a short search in one of the security offices they find an old pre-war weapon with plenty of ammunition.
"Cool! A Colt 6520!" Marieke shows the weapon to Emily who immediately checks it out and looks down its sights. "How do you know this gun?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.
"This is what Nate used to carry as a side arm back before the War and I am happy to see it being put to good use once more."
The women explore the base in search of the operating rooms where they performed the procedures on Marieke, but they fail to find anything that looks like it would serve that purpose. After a while they take a break and sit down at one of the desks near one of the brain extraction machines.
Emily is taking notes on her adventure for her newspaper article and sighs. "These images will stay on my retinas for a while…" She takes off her glasses to rub the bridge of her nose, and when she looks to her right she stares right in the glowing eyes of her girlfriend who has a dopey smile on her face.
"What are you staring at?" Emily asks, raising her visible brow.
"The most beautiful woman in the world…"
"Charmer," Emily deadpans, "why don't you try and see if they installed some kind of x-ray vision in those gorgeous green eyes of yours?"
Marieke nods and concentrates on the thought of switching modes for her eyes. She knows she has thermal vision due to an indicator in her peripheral vision. After a few tries the eyes switch to thermal mode and she sees faint silhouettes behind a wall in one of the memory reprogramming rooms.
"I think I see them!" Marieke points at a suspicious wall that shows little rust compared to the rest of the room. They slowly sneak towards the wall and Marieke feels around it for hinges or handles but fails to find any.
"I think this is operated from the inside" Emily whispers, trying not to alert the people behind the wall.
"Not a problem now, let's give them a taste of what their 'creation' can do." Marieke positions herself at what appears to be a concealed sliding door in the wall. She takes aim and gives the door a firm punch, leaving a large dent behind, clearly alerting the people inside. After a second punch Marieke gives the door a final kick and it flies towards the opposite wall, crushing two Coursers in the process.
Marieke unholsters her weapon and steps into the room, aiming at a group of scientists who seem frozen in terror. "My name is Marieke van Dijk, NOT M01-91! "She shouts, "I am a Dutch immigrant from before the war, NOT your personal Guinea pig. You tried to take away my humanity and will now pay for what you have done to me and my partner!"
There is a moment of stunned silence, the whimpering of the frightened scientists being the only sound that can be heard over the humming of the air-conditioning. The moment doesn't last, however, as almost immediately doors open in the previously silent room with Coursers and Gen2's pouring through.
They immediately open fire, prompting Emily to dive for cover while Marieke answers with shots from her own plasma rifle. After taking some hits Marieke grins and teleports behind the defenders, using the confusion to shoot the Gen2's in the back. The Coursers barely have time to turn around before Marieke snaps their necks in a swift motion.
After making sure all the synths have been taken out, she sees movement in the door and looks up to see two scientist clutching laser pistols rushing into the room. They immediately freeze upon noticing the carnage and, seeing the murderous glint in the eyes of Marieke, one of them promptly faints and flops to the ground. The other one drops her pistol and falls to her knees, the stench of urine filling the room.
Glaring at the woman, Marieke leans over her, weapon aimed squarely at the scientists head and mutters one word: "Pathetic."
She directs her attention to Emily behind a desk. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"
Emily stands up and dusts herself off, checking her body for incidental injuries. "You go ahead and find the ones who did this to you, Blue. I will guard these assholes until you return." she reaches for a towel but before she can gag the scientists one of them shouts towards Marieke.
"You can't do this to us! We created you to counter a much bigger threat to the commonwealth than any deathclaw out there! Your predecessor also escaped us and has now gone rogue, and we do not know where they are!"
Marieke turns around with fire in her eyes and puts her heel on the scientist's chest and pushes her against the desk, forcing all the air out of the young woman. "Well you are too fuckin' late to tell me that, and frankly I don't give a shit. You do not kidnap the mother of your former director and plan to use her as your fucking guinea pig!" The green-eyed woman spits at the wheezing scientist.
The woman gasps for air as Marieke releases the pressure and turns towards Emily. "My dear, please make sure I don't have to hear these two whine anymore while I search for the ones responsible." Marieke reloads her weapon and kicks in one of the now locked security doors with ease. Numerous unarmed scientists scurry out of the room before Marieke has a chance to capture them.
She slowly steps towards the now open door and is immediately welcomed by synths firing from the other end of the corridor. She notices a scientist sneaking up from behind and quickly disarms and pushes him to the ground. She puts her leg on his chest to keep him in place while killing the remaining synths in the hallway. When none are left standing she turns her attention to her prize on the floor.
"You are going to tell ME who is in charge here." She calmly squats down over the fallen scientist and pushes her hand on his arm to prevent him from escaping. "I'm only going to ask you once…"
"Go to hell!" The black-robed scientist spits in her face which does not amuse the woman in the slightest.
"I'm going to find them eventually, you can save yourself by just telling me. Stalling only delays the inevitable and they have nowhere to go."
"I said, GO. TO. HELL!" The scientist spits once more.
"Ugh, fine. Have it your way. I'll see you in hell then." With the last words she shoots the scientist in the head, completely melting him into a puddle of green goo. Some of the green remains land on her suit and Marieke grimaces as she cleans it off.
"Yuck," She wipes the goo from her suit and proceeds to another locked door. This one appears to be a sliding door leading to an office where, using her thermal vision, she sees a scientist cowering in the corner. The door seems to be locked but with minimal effort Marieke forces open the door and the scientist escapes.
She huffs and proceeds to the terminal in the room. When she tries to access it, it appears to be still logged in under the name of Sarah Green, Lead Biomechanical Engineer of Project Omega.
"Crap, let one of the head honchos escape." Marieke mutters to herself while reading through the files. She finds all kinds of information on her enhancements and even reads up on her new clothing. She sees an earpiece which appears to be connected to intercom system and hooks it up to her pip boy, allowing her to communicate with Emily who she has determined is at the front desk.
"Um, Em?"
"Yeah Blue?"
"Remember this suit I am wearing?"
"Yes, I do, it's hard to miss honestly."
"Well, I literally can't take off this suit, it is for the most part my literal skin…"
"you're kidding." Marieke can clearly hear sadness in her lover's voice.
"I wish I were, it's still a shock to me too to be honest, but I read in logs that my entire torso is still intact and 'convenient zippers' have been applied to the suit."
There is a brief moment of silence before Marieke says: "Well, I can't chat all day, I need to get going. I'll be in touch soon!"
She terminates the connection and saves everything to a spare holotape for later use, before smashing the terminal so others can't use the information against her. She gets up from the surprisingly comfortable chair and closes the door behind her.
Marieke passes a few unarmed scientists and commands them to leave. A Courser tries to ambush her from behind but her heightened senses betray the use of a stealth boy. She grabs the Courser by the throat and throws him through the window before finishing him off with a plasma shot to the head.
"I love this gun…" She sighs to herself as she walks through the corridor.
Turning a corner, she sees a small group of Gen2's waiting for her in an ambush. Rather than openly attacking them she quickly teleports behind them and grabs one as a shield, before shooting the rest of them. Another comes from behind her, but she quickly breaks its leg and snaps its neck before eliminating the last Gen2 in the corridor.
Approaching the only open door she crouches down to engage stealth mode and sees what looks like the main office where the Project Lead is located. The door appears guarded by two heavily armed synths in strange uniforms while two turrets are attached to the ceiling. She quickly moves back around the corner to avoid being spotted and calls Emily.
"Em! Can you get some information on synths that wear a Courser uniform, but also have opaque face masks that glow around the edges?"
"Blue! Good to hear from you! I will ask these pricks where I can find that information. Give me a few minutes!" The other side falls silent, and after waiting a short while Emily calls back and seems very content with her results.
"Alright, it took me a while but one of my "friends" gave me pointers to a terminal close to my original position."
"I hope you didn't leave them there."
"Nope! They are safe with me in this tiny office while I scroll through this terminal."
"Alright, what do you have for me?"
"The synths you see at the door are Strigidae-class Coursers. They are stronger, more resilient and above all more dangerous than normal Coursers. According to these notes here they are two generations behind your design, Blue."
"Wait, there are more enhanced humans?"
"No, that's not what I said. The Strigidae Coursers are older types of your design." After that came Project Alpha. Reading through this it appears that the first Alpha-00 did not work at all but its successor Alpha-001 has been at large ever since."
"Interesting, does it mention where this Alpha-001 is?"
"No, but it appears YOU were supposed to be its successor and meant to hunt it down!"
"Well that backfired tremendously." Marieke huffs at this information. "Maybe we should see if we can find this Alpha or any of its kind.
"The Alpha class Courser designs were taken from a pre-war company out in the Mojave, and when I say taken I literally mean taken. They massacred every scientist in the building! Poking through these files I've found the company had planned to make solider class weapons of war. Only 27 were made and according to the most recent log, one is still active, but the location is unknown."
"Ok, I wouldn't mind paying the Mojave a visit when this is over. As a "beach holiday of some sorts."
"I'm reading here that the place is extremely irradiated."
"Why? Has the place been nuked or something?"
"According to this terminal it is but I have been told by Piper that the Mojave has not been nuked so, maybe if we ever get to going there I am up for a bit of a beach holiday at Lake Mead! Anyway…" Emily changes the topic back to why she did the research. "Strigidae Coursers are dangerous. Be careful Blue…"
"Will do! They can still be torn to pieces, right?" Marieke terminates the connection and readies herself for the coming fight.
She repositions herself just around the corner and tries to lower her heartrate. She has read on the terminal that While in stealth mode, it is most effective to have her body work in a low heat state. This turns off the glowing coolant veins on her body causing the stealth generator to work more effectively and it helps not getting detected by infrared sights.. She goes down in a meditative position and closes her eyes.
After a few minutes of meditation, she sees the green glow subside and the stealth generator appears to be ready as she sees on its indicator.
She stays calm and engages the stealth field. Slowly the now practically invisible cyborg creeps closer to the Coursers who have their weapons unholstered. The turrets above their heads appear to be in resting mode judging by their hidden barrels, but she can tell that they can reactivate at a moments notice.
She sneaks closer to the door and not even the Coursers notice the slight contours of the stealthed woman. After successfully sneaking behind one of the synths she stands up, disengaging the stealth field and gives a small smirk to the Courser who sees her now.
Before the Courser can react she hooks her foot behind his knee and yanks, throwing him to the floor. She uses the weapon of the now fallen Courser to kill the other and destroy the turrets which just opened fire on her. After she dealt with the first Courser and the turrets Marieke breaks the neck of the remaining Courser and tries to open the door. It appears to have been locked with a terminal that can't be hacked due to a new type of lock.
"Umm, Em? She calls through her earpiece.
"You have reached the office if Emily Hudson, She is not available right now but I can take a message" A male voice responds on the other side with a clearly arrogant tone.
"Who are you and what did you do to my girlfriend?!" Marieke feels the rage build up again and notices the glowing veins on her body glow bright green.
"She is safe and sound, I cuffed her to- BANG!" Marieke can hear a gunshot on the other side and suddenly, to her relief she hears Emily's voice.
"Sorry, my assistant has been fired on the spot for taking his boss hostage. How can I help you ma'am?"
"You get taken hostage and you still make jokes?"
"This idiot didn't take away my lockpicking set I hid in my bra" Marieke can hear the shit-eating grin on her side.
"Well, I'm glad you are safe and sound, but I need your help…."
"What can I do for you?"
"I am in front of the project lead's door but its locked with something that requires a hand print…"
"Well, I don't know why you haven't thought of this one, but have you thought about just kicking in that door? I mean, you have done it before!"
The resulting face palm was so hard that it could be heard on Emily's side of the voice com.
"Hold on. I just gave myself a headache." Marieke sighs. "I forgot these idiots gave me super human strength… Give me a sec."
She taps the door a few times to see how solid it is. The taps seem to dampen immediately as if she is knocking on solid steel.
"Em, this door is solid steel. This is gonna hurt I think…"
"Wait! Before you damage the entire structure see if you can see a seam. I read on this terminal that the door is a double sliding door."
"How does that make it easier?"
"Well, if you can manage to get those amazing fingers of yours between the two halves, maybe you can just split it open?"
"Let me inspect it a bit." Marieke searches the thick steel door for the seam and in the dead center she sees a tiny slit between the two halves. She gives the door a punch to make it bend just enough so she can force her fingers between the two halves and slide it open with a bit of effort. As she pushes open the door she hears hydraulic piping snap and burst while her target draws his gun in a panic and opens fire.
"Big mistake, asshole!" Marieke rips the door out of its frame and throws it to the side as she slowly walks towards the clearly panicking man.
She takes a few hits but the blue lasers barely bother her, she is set on ruining this man's day and even life if possible. She reaches the man who is ghostly white of fear, grabs him by his throat and lifts him up with one hand.
"How do you like your creation now, you fucking scumbag." She growls to the gurgling man. "You would expect me to kill you now, don't you?"
The man nods slightly and she returns with a half-smile.
"You won't get away that easy. I have some ideas for you to pay back for what you did to ME."
She throws the man through the window to what appears to be an interrogation room and calmly teleports to the wheezing figure. He tries to get up but she puts her foot on his chest to prevent him from doing so. Realizing struggling is useless against his own "creation" he gives up and lays flat on his back, softly sobbing in mortal fear.
Marieke stands up, laughing at the miserable pile of man that lies on the floor in front of her feet.
"You're not even pleading for your life? Pathetic little man." She laughs before stomping on one of his ankles, making him cry out in agony.
"THIS is for what you did to ME!" She yells angrily at the still squirming man and proceeds to break his other ankle too.
"And THIS is for what you assholes were planning to do on my girlfriend!"
"I- If you're so full of hate, why don't you just kill me?!" He wheezes before collapsing on the floor again from the pain.
"You think I would give you that pleasure?!" Marieke laughs. "I want you to suffer as I did and ESPECIALLY for the trauma you caused my girlfriend!"
"Go to hell!" He spits.
"Gladly, but not today…" She turns around and kicks in the locked door of the interrogation room, leaving the bleeding man behind.
She walks back to the front desk where Emily is patiently waiting. When they meet they exchange their kisses before exiting the laboratory, leaving the carnage behind.
As soon as the women leave the laboratory they feel the entire building shake followed by the sound of an alarm coupled with bright flashing lights.
"What is happening Blue?!" Emily squeaks with panic in her voice.
"Something or someone is attacking the lab and I think we have another fight on our hands. Get ready!" Marieke unholsters her weapon and readies herself for the fight.