Well, it's been now officially one month since Blackwatch has started. Construction of the helipad is on schedule, we got a new medical doctor and thanks to Joy's secret training, all of BW's squads are no longer green rookies. But you still don't have a head spook, which until you acquire one, BW's intelligence ops will not be as effective. The growth of the stones will be completed at the end of the current month and the translation is still ongoing.
When you told Walter to find some way to increase our federal funding you though that it would be a small increase or no increase at all due to BW being a young op that just started up but when you asked Walter what the new income was after he came back from DC, he told you that an extra zero was added to its total, causing you to nearly have a heart attack. When you asked him how he got that amount, he told that he spoke to some bean counters he knew and managed to convince them to simply add a zero at the end of the income budget in exchange for some favors they owed him.
You really lucked out in getting Walter on your staff.
Unfortunately, because Walter's dealings with the budget, he did not have time to make any connections with any group in DC. Still, looking at the new budget, you told him that it was no problem.
Joy told you that it would be best to acquire new squads to help increase HQ's defense capabilities, so you sent an order for a squad of soldiers to be assigned to Crown Wall and you received the confirmation that they were going to be sent. But after a few days waiting for their arrival, which they past their ordered time of arrival, you called to find out where the hell they were. You nearly blew a gasket upon finding out that the squad you ordered was changed to a base in California due to someone mixing up the paperwork and the change could not be reversed. So, no new troops for now and Joy was not exactly pleased either.
With the failure to acquire new troops, Joy threw herself into making sure that the base defenses are completed this time; which according to her later she was lucky that she took a personal roll in making sure this was done because it almost resulted in the fence ended up being flawed.
Thanks to the efforts of Hart Construct, the electrified fence was completed in record time. While it's not exactly a large increase to HQ's defense, it was still something.
Not even in your wildest dreams you though you would end up meeting one of the greatest scientists in the world, Robert Oppenheimer, in the middle of a bar in Hartford where you were trying to forget about the frustration at not finding a head spook or that the troops you ordered did not get to Crown Wall. Apparently, Oppenheimer was traveling the world and he was just passing through here knowing that there was a less of a chance of being spotted in the middle of a small town in the middle of nowhere.
You knew that he was accused of being a traitor from that hearing in 1954 but in your honest opinion that hearing was nothing more than a farce that those that hated Oppenheimer and those that supported the bastard McCarthy put together to shame Oppenheimer.
Feeling that you had huge opportunity, you formally introduce yourself to Oppenheimer as the leader of Blackwatch, a black ops group in charge of biological situations and that you wanted him to join the group since expertise would be invaluable since nuclear waste could be used as a biological weapon. He told you that while he would normally would never consider ever working for the US military ever again, he did admit I was the first military soldier to ask him to come back and that my convincing argument was solid. Thus, he told me that if you could somehow restore his clearance back, he would join BW without complain. You took that as a challenge.
You had to use a lot of political favors you had in order to grant Oppenheimer his Q Clearance back; including some Joy had herself since she told you that charges of Oppenheimer being an enemy of the US was a load of bullshit; and by the end you went directly to President Kennedy himself. Once he learned that you wanted Oppenheimer to work for BW, he authorized it personally seeing as the perfect way to rehabilitate Oppenheimer back on the US's side after the fiasco the previous administration did to Oppenheimer.
The look on Oppenheimer's face when you showed up at his home days later with the presidential order that his clearance was completely restored was worth the political hoops you had to got through. In the end, Oppenheimer formally joined Blackwatch.
As for the first introduction of Oppenheimer to your main staff, you swore that Marcus and Brandon were acting like fanboys meeting him, while Joy had this look on her face when she introduced herself; you did not want to ask her about that.
With the arrival Oppenheimer into BW, Brandon nearly almost forgot about upgrading the infirmary. Luckily, he managed to procure the necessary equipment and supplies to make the infirmary better and in no time, it was upgraded.
You are really starting to wonder why the hell you even bother trying to do this; or if you should shot someone the next time you talked to someone from Langley.
You were planning on meeting with the mayor of Hartford to discuss the possibility of investing in the town and early plans to turn the town into a military town but because of the Independence Day Weekend and other events in Crown Wall, you forgot to set an appointment.
Thanks to Hart Construct, the helipad's construction went smoothly well and was finished in time. Though the biggest surprise came when a convoy came with a large container came into base with papers from ARPA. According to the papers inside the container was an experimental aircraft that ARPA wanted to be tested in field conditions. Once the container was inside the base and moved to the helipad, it was opened. Now that the container was opened you could see that the aircraft looked like a plane with helicopter rotors on the side.
According to the pilot that came with the aircraft, Army Pilot Ronald Anderson Franklin, callsing Owl; the craft was called a vertical take-off and landing, VTOL for short and this model was called the U/AV-17 Hawk. The VTOL was basically the attempt of making an airplane that had the ability to take off like a helicopter and that this model comes from a patent Nikola Tesla filed. The specs on the Hawk says that it's able to travel anywhere in CONUS with enough fuel to make one two-way trip and that it had the payload capacity such as carrying one tank, two squads of soldiers with the ability to deploy with ropes and could provide tactical support due to its double-chain mounted .50 caliber cannons on the side and a .30 caliber gun on the bottom of the front of the Hawk.
While you knew that ARPA was basically asking you to be the guinea pig for this aircraft, if the aircraft works as intended, it would really help BW in deployment actions.
Seeing as it was Independence Day Weekend you decided to not only give R to the entire base except for those that volunteered to stay behind; but also, a bonus to all of BW's employees, including your main staff. To say the base was happy was an understatement. With their new bonus and R , the men and women went on to celebrate in the town of Hartford, which upon seeing the number of newcomers enjoying the festivities, the town was happy to see that the people from the military base were enjoying their R in Hartford, which increased the number of business the town made.
You stayed behind at Crown Wall and had a simple toast with your main staff, though in the case of Brandon and Marcus they were just drinking in sadness at remembering that fourth of July was the day their country lost their colonies; while Joy had this look on her face that felt both sad and happy while celebrating the day.
All in all, it was a good weekend.
Well you can honestly say that the number of good things that has happened to BW at least outnumber the bad things that occurred to it. We still don't have a spook, the troops we requested were diverted to another base and no new connections were made in DC with any group. However, now we got possession of an experimental aircraft courtesy of ARPA, our budget increased, BW's personnel are happy that you gave them a bonus and most importantly of all, we got Robert Oppenheimer on our staff. The status of the stones is that they will be finished at the end of the month. The question is driving your head is that, should you touch one of the stones after they are done in order to see if they are change a person or not.
Walter did not have time to fly to DC since the entirety of Blackwatch was busy with making sure construction of the Nuclear Lab went without problems.
Just like with his failed duties with DC, Walter did not have time to make an appointment with the governor of Montana in order to discuss BW's potential way of helping law enforcement in the state. Walter will try to make a new appointment next time.
This time, you hardly noticed the issue of trying to find a spook since you were busy making sure the construction of the nuclear lab was on schedule. Same old, same old.
You had ordered Hayden to build some water tanks for HQ in case the main water source of the base was cut. Hayden admitted that he almost forgot ordering the water tanks with all the requisitions he had to managed regarding the Nuclear Lab, but he managed to add the order for water tanks just in time.
Even with most BW's personnel and the construction company primary focusing on the lab, the installation of the water tanks was completed on schedule. According to the specs, the water in the tanks could support HQ for one month if it's rationed correctly.
Unfortunately, while the water tanks arrived at HQ without problems, the diesel generators, even though they were ordered correctly, someone managing the paperwork on the other side ended up sending the generators all the way to a military base in Europe.
You are really starting to hate paperwork.
With the whole fiasco regarding the Nuclear Lab, we almost forgot about upgrading the primary lab. Luckily Marcus and Robert were able to acquire the necessary equipment to as well as making the lab more secure.
Though later, you don't know if was a good or a bad thing that the lab was upgraded since because of it, one of the roof tiles was put in badly due to the job rush and later fell.
When Robert told you that he wanted a laboratory that only ran nuclear related experiments, you told him to get anything he wanted to make sure the lab was not only well equipped but also protected in case of an accident.
The next day Robert came to you proposing that instead of a single room, the lab instead be made into a whole new building. While you knew that would cost a pretty penny and would require to contact the nearest army engineering corp group to help with the construction along side H.C.; you agreed with Robert that a dedicated building for nuclear experiments sounded like a good idea. You gave him the go ahead.
Thus, for the next two weeks, HQ became a hive of activity as the newest building was being made with Robert directing on how to make the building, while Joy was making sure security around the base was tight.
According to the plans, the building should be finished next month. Though both Robert and Joy told you that the biggest challenge will be that after the building is finished, the transportation of the required nuclear material.
Due to the construction of the Nuclear Lab, you assigned Joy to make sure security was tight around HQ since building the new Nuclear Lab building was a serious business where one accident could be a very bad thing, thus there was no time to upgrade the base's defenses.
Due to the construction of the Nuclear Lab, the construction company did not have time to begin construction of the training ground, especially since Joy wanted to make sure it was build by her specifications and she did not have the time to do so since she was in charge of security at HQ.
Thanks to the entire operation regarding the building the Nuclear Lab, which required overseeing several things at the same time, from the construction, getting the supplies to the security of the nuclear material transportation; you learned the hard way how to multitask, which you knew that in the long run will help in managing BW.
Finally, after an entire month, you were finally going to see the result of this experiment. Marcus was also very excited, since as a scientist seeing his own man-made experiments come into fruition was also something good to him.
You and Marcus were in the main laboratory alone, taking a break from all the controlled chaos that was happening around the base regarding the Nuclear Lab; knowing that Robert had it handle directing everything.
Upon opening the lid on the container, you and Marcus are shocked to see in the middle of the container was a glowing red stone the size of an entire hand.
"Huh, only one stone, kind of a letdown it's only one, but since it's the first try, I guess it's better than nothing." Marcus said, kind of sad.
"Hey, cheer up, the experiment was a success; the formula really worked, a stone was created after all; and nothing exploded." You told Marcus, trying to cheer him up with a joke at the end.
"Yeah, your right. I guess I should consider this as a victory. By the way, are you not going to touch the stone, since you told me that you wanted to since the moment we began this, even though I told you that might not be a good idea to touch something like that." Marcus said, worried about your decision.
You wanted nothing more than to touch the stone to see if the tablet was correct or not. But common sense was yelling at you that touching a glowing red stone that was made from a weird formula from a stone tablet was a bad idea.
"Naw, as much as I want to touch it now, I think it's better if I wait for you to run test on the thing. For all we know the reason the stone is glowing is some sort of new radiation that somehow the combination of those chemicals you said you used made into existence." You said.
"Nice to see you are taking my advice seriously. Don't worry, once I begin to test the stone through a battery of tests I can maybe find out if this thing is safe to touch or not." Marcus said.
However, it seemed that fate, destiny or that guy from the air force named Murphy had other ideas. Since a moment later, one of the ceiling tiles came off and fell directly on the table, right next to the container, which upon touching, it causes the container to flip up into the air, sending the stone in it to fly off said container, and going in the direction you and Marcus were.
You were shocked as the stone came flying out of the container and was heading straight toward you. Out of pure reaction of something coming towards you, you catch it just as it's going towards you with your right hand. Only second after catching you realized what you just done.
"Oh shi…" You began to say when suddenly, the stone begins to glow in his hand and in that moment every changed.
The pain you felt was beyond anything you ever felt. It radiated across your entire body. You really wanted to blackout because of the pain but you held on, some part of your mind telling that falling asleep would be a bad thing.
After what felt like long excruciating hours; though Marcus will later tell you it was only a few minutes in reality; the pain finally stopped; and while you felt tired, you also felt like really strong for some reason.
Upon looking at Marcus, who had the biggest surprise face you ever seen, you realized that somehow you were now towering over him a by a large margin. Looking down at your body, you realized two things. One your military clothes were gone, with only some bare remnants like they were burned off, except for your underwear for some reason, though it was stretching a lot; and second, you were now sporting muscles that would make beach bodybuilder green with jealousy. You also realized that the stone that was in your hand was gone.
"M...Marcus wha-" Your words are interrupted by a sudden wave of nausea. You felt dizzy and your legs could not hold you and thus you fell on your knees and then you felt what tasted like blood coming out of your mouth.
"JACOB!" Marcus yelled as he saw you on the floor and ran to you.
After spitting out blood for a few moments, you answered Marcus.
"I am fine… at least I think I am fine except really starting to feel tired." You told him as you took a better position on the floor by sitting, with Marcus trying to help keep you still, which was kind of hard due to your body now being bigger than him.
"Jacob, your eyes, they are bleeding." Marcus told you in a worried tone.
"What?" You said as you felt the blood on your cheeks and used your right hand to clean your face and see the blood on your hand. You still had the taste of blood in your mouth.
"Marcus, what's happening to me?" You asked him in a fearful tone while trying to wipe the blood of your face.
"Jacob, um maybe you calm down for a bit. There is no need to panic." Marcus said as he tried to calm you down.
"Don't tell me to calm down. LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" You yell at him angrily for some reason, which results in your eyes feeling hot and your vision going blue for a few moments and suddenly a nearby table that was lucky empty, parts of the ceiling and a nearby locker were destroyed to smithereens by what looked like blue lighting. After that, your eyes began to hurt a bit and still bleed a bit more.
You and Marcus stood still for a few moments, taking in the sight of what just happened.
"Uh Marcus?" You asked him slowly.
"Yeah Jacob?" He told you still looking at the remains of his actions.
"Did I just destroy those things with blue lighting that came out of my eyes?"
"Yes, yes you did."
"Huh. Marcus, I just realized two important things."
"And prey tell what the bloody hell are those two things?"
"One, that tablet was no supernatural mumbo jumbo."
"No really, I didn't notice, with my friend now being a literal musclebound jock. And what is the second thing?"
"The second thing is how the hell are we going to explain this to the rest of Blackwatch, especially Robert and Joy, because I doubt we are going to be able to hide the fact that I just went from 5.7 feet with a normal body to a giant muscular body in a single day. And let's not forget the whole blue lighting from my eyeballs." You said somewhat exasperated and spiting out some more blood from your mouth.
"No idea. Another thing that you should worry about is where the hell are you going to get clothes to fit you know since I doubt Sears comes with your new size." Marcus said trying to calm you down with a joke.
"Gee, thanks for reminding me of that. Well, at least it can't get any worse." You said.
"Colonel, Dr. Marcus, are you two all right? I heard a crash coming from…. WHAT THE HELL!!??" A yell came from behind us. Marcus turned around quickly while you moved a bit to the side to see who just spoke and both are shocked at seeing Joy, who apparently just entered the lab. If it wasn't for the current situation, you would have remarked that this was the first time you ever seen Joy with a shocked look on her face.
Not really knowing what to say, you just spoke the first thing that came to your tired mind.
"Um, we can explain this." You said, knowing what you just said was total bullshit; how do you explain a man who you just saw a few hours ago having a new body, on the floor naked with blood on his face and parts of the lab destroyed.
You now realized that everything you knew just changed.