June 4th, 2263. Planet of Kuma Prime. 10:12 Research Lab K4-4LZ90
John had been creeping around the base for over an hour without being detected. Reams of data and intelligence had been uncovered. They had hard proof that Dr. Norman’s organization was funding it, but they lacked any proof that they were green lighting the more, extreme or barbaric, research. John’s focus was momentarily broken when his coms flared up.
Lukas spoke in his thick accent, “Target has been dropped off at the party bus.”
Darryl then chimed in, “My squad is moving back into position. ETA is twenty minutes.”
Jerad spoke up, “Lieutenant, suggest we assault the base around then.”
“Sending the location of individuals that I’ve restrained and locked in their rooms,” John said, “I’ll lock all the rooms and open the main doors when the assault begins. Have one more room to inspect.”
John closed the coms and crept down the corridor. Moments later he was in front of a large double door. There was a fair amount of traffic in the hallway, John was waiting impatiently in the corner for an opportunity to open it.
“Eve, begin crosschecking the roster here for Ph.D. dissertations at all known universities,” John said as he looked down both corridors, “And open that door in three… two… one… NOW!”
John said as he dashed inside the room. He had expected to find a room of horrors. It wasn’t exactly what he had expected, but it was close.
The room was dimly lit with green-hued lights. The center of the room was a secured clean room, presumably to keep bio-contagions or other nasty things the scientists were working on contained. Inside that room, there were three medical slabs, each with a person laying on them.
“Eve, also pull all correspondence, messages, and security recordings of everything that was discussed or approved. We need to make the assholes that believe in this bullshit fry and also use that as leverage on the quasi-innocent here.”
“I will begin running the necessary runtimes to process the data. I expect this request will take forty-two hours to finish.”
“Do it. Once you have damning messages on someone, flag them, and move to the next. We can return to the flagged ones later.”
“Understood.”
John walked over to a terminal and pulled up what appeared to be the status of the three individuals. Two of them had passed on, but the third was still clinging to life. He was horrified at how the living man’s skin was fluorescing lightly.
Eve then spoke up, “These subjects' genetic code was changed through an mRNA viral load to introduce the ability for humans to have photosynthetic reactions. The surviving man has not eaten in over a month.”
“I imagine the ability to produce your own energy by just being in sunlight would be advantageous in many situations,” John said, “But this had to be excruciatingly painful.”
“I created a transcript of the lead scientist’s logs. Upon scanning them, it appears it was quite painful,” Eve paused a moment, “The orange button on the terminal will deliver a lethal dose of drugs to the individual. Doing that will alert the lead scientist though.”
John pulled his hand away from the button, “Not now, but soon.”
For the next fifteen minutes, he scoured the records in the room. John had to concede that the research was fascinating. Despite it being entirely immoral and unethical though. A soldier being able to operate with minimal supplies deep in enemy territory would be highly advantageous.
“Lieutenant, we’re in position,” Darryl said.
“Hold a moment,” John said as he walked back to the terminal, “Need to do a couple of things.”
John scrolled through a list of actions for Eve to do in his HUD. When he was done, he transferred those run-times back to Eve. She then loaded a clone of herself onto the server and was awaiting the order from John.
“What do you think of my masterpiece?” boomed a bright baritone voice.
John very nearly jumped out of his suit. His heartbeat shot up as he tensed up and reached for a sidearm. The voice continued.
“I assure you that with continued funding we will be able to perfect the serum,” the voice continued.
John relaxed a bit when he noticed who owned that rich voice. Following behind him was a hovering camera with a holographic display. The display had an outline of a man’s silhouette, but their face and any distinguishable features were hidden from sight.
The voice was also clearly altered, “Two of the three subjects have died doctor.”
“We were only planning on injecting them. They survived without food or water for nearly a month,” Dr. Peter Weller, “Obviously we need to make strides in the initial application of the vaccine. Right now, it requires a unique, to the person, mRNA viral load for the subsequent vaccine to function.”
“And it effectively neuters the individuals, correct?”
“Yes, these three lost the ability to reproduce. The addition of individuals with their altered DNA would be incredibly risky.”
John pressed the button to euthanize the final surviving test subject. The faint heartbeat monitor, which was on the far side of the room, instantly recognized the lack of a heartbeat and flatlined. Dr. Weller spun over to the monitor and sighed loudly.
“Alas we lost the last one,” he said as he stared at a readout, “Please take some time to research…”
Dr. Weller paused and scrunched up his face as he looked at the readout. The individual he was speaking to couldn’t see the look of surprise on his face. They then spoke up.
“Doctor, send me the information and I assure you that I will send you our official response by the end of the week.”
“Yes. Yes,” Doctor Weller said, “Apologies for my lack of attention. But I will have the information for you by the end of the day. Good day.”
John knew that the doctor was aware the kill switch was engaged. He sent a command to Eve to engage the trap program when he disengaged the suit’s cloaking device. The doctor was shaking his head.
“No, no, no. That was not supposed to happen. Why was he euthanized? What terminal…”
The doctor turned and walked nearer to where John, who had taken a couple of silent steps away from the terminal. John observed the doctor was very upset at what he had seen from the other terminal. It was very nearly time to spring the trap.
“Why was this done? I didn’t authorize this,” Dr. Weller said as he looked down at the terminal’s readout, “Who’s log-in is this? Root, why would anyone be logged in…”
Stealth suits were incredibly effective at rendering a user invisible to the naked eye. But they made noise, which usually was a dead giveaway that something was there. Normally this noise wasn’t easily distinguishable from the background noise, but the lab was eerily quiet. An electric-sounding crackle was faintly heard by Doctor Weller.
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“Who… Who’s there? Show yourself!”
John complied and deactivated the suit’s cloaking field. He immediately reached out and grabbed the doctor’s left arm. John twisted the arm and pulled up, driving the doctor to his knees. In all the grace of an Olympic gymnast, he had slipped behind the doctor and grabbed his right arm. The doctor was in restraints in but a blink of an eye.
“All teams, converge. Exterior doors are open. All interior doors are locked,” John said.
“Who… who are you?”
“Who I am is of no consequence to you,” growled John, “The Confederate Navy does not take kindly to this unlawful testing. Now shut up.”
John walked back to the terminal. He desperately wished he had some knock-out gas or something simple like that to lock down the base. But over eighty people were locked in their rooms. Another twenty-five were in areas John hadn’t locked down yet, though the hallway bulkheads began closing locking in the residents of this base.
John then spoke to the common areas where he couldn’t lock down and trap people, “Good morning. As I’m speaking a full platoon of Confederate marines is racing to take control of this base and place all of you in custody. Any attempts to fight back will be met with lethal force. When you see the Marines, turn away from them and lay down on the ground. This is your one and only warning.”
“Entered the west door,” Derek said to their shared coms.
“East door entry in twenty seconds,” Erica added.
Darryl was the last one to speak, “Hangar is secure, five in custody.”
John nodded, “Good work. Corridor-by-corridor and room-by-room sweeps. Everyone outside of the common areas is not going to expect you. Weapon stations have been remotely locked, and there’s a dumbass in the server room to pick up.”
He turned and loomed over Dr. Weller, “Now then, let’s have a conversation.”
John unsheathed his knife and held it menacingly near the doctor’s face.
“What are you doing? You can’t do this!”
“Piss me off, and I guarantee you that I will cut you into many pieces,” John hissed.
Jerad had been intently listening and monitoring everything that John was doing and spoke up, “Uhh, sir. We aren’t…”
John ignored his warrant officer and continued with his threats, “Who were you speaking to doctor?”
“A benefactor. I have never met the man. He was interested in the theoretical work that I had put together years ago.”
John turned to face the terminal and searched for the Doctor’s information. He was a Confederate citizen. Graduated from a university in Luna. He got his doctorate from the Royal University of New Cambridge in Manchester.
“Small world,” John chuckled to himself.
“What?”
“Doesn’t matter. Who funded this horror show?”
“It was privately funded, partially from a corporation in the Union. We also got money from the Science Academy of New Berlin.”
“I doubt that very much. You realize that they would literally be shut down because of this horror story you call work that you were doing.”
“These three volunteered. They knew the risks. We properly compensated their families!” Doctor Weller exclaimed.
“Do you really expect me to believe that just because you got them to sign off on illegal genetics testing that it clears you? You know damn well that research like this is highly illegal, even the theoretical work is frowned upon.”
“We need to keep an open mind to expand humanity’s possibilities.”
“By making us be a part plant? And neutering us?” John shook his head, “How in the hell do you think it’s both moral and ethical to do this to people? Then not feed them or give them drink until they die so you can see how long the body could self-produce energy.”
“It was partially successful! We proved that human cells can be modified to conduct photosynthesis.”
John shook his head, “You are a fucking monster. But don’t you worry though. When the two of us are done talking I’ll make sure you understand what true monsters are. You have never seen what I’m capable of doing to living beings.”
“No… you can’t… We are…” the Doctor then fainted.
“Well shit, the pussy fainted,” John said disappointedly.
“You did threaten to basically flay him alive, sir,” Jerad said sarcastically.
“Chief, I’d do way worse.”
He bent over and pulled the man up by his shirt and lightly shook him. That resulted in no reaction. John then grabbed his face and squeezed his cheeks. Still no reaction. Lightly slapping the doctor’s cheeks didn’t get any reaction either. He then dug through the utility belt and cursed himself for not having any smelling salts with him. The interrogation would have to wait.
Thirty-five minutes later the entire facility was locked down. A third dropship had landed outside of the facility. John’s platoon was getting them seated and secured in the cargo hold while he was leaning against the bulkhead of the cockpit having a conversation with the captain of the CNS Fargo.
“Yes, it’s both a live site and we caught them completely unaware. As far as we know the enemy isn’t aware of that,” John said, “We also got some data from the enemy database.”
“You have got to be shitting me. I figured your warrant officer was embellishing the op somewhat,” Darryl Erickson said laughing, “When are you coming up?”
“Second or third ship. Sergeant Nielsen and her squad are accompanying them. I suspect we have space for eighty-four assholes?”
“Oof. Uhm. Yeah, we’ll figure something out.”
“Daggers 1 and 2 are going to reposition to this flat space after Scattershot 1 heads back up to y’all,” John said as he looked back at his senior sergeant, “Alright, I’ve been given the green light. I’ll manage things down here for now.”
The pilots gave John the thumbs up. John nodded and began walking through the cargo hold. At the ramp, he stopped and turned.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, if it is not already painfully obvious, you have all been arrested due to violations of the Eugenics Accord of 2212. Your detainment will be for an undefined period of time. You are not privy to legal representation, but fear not, you will face a military tribunal in due time. I suggest spending the time thinking about your next actions very carefully,” John turned and took two steps down the ramp, “Oh, and a helpful hint for y’all, I’ve spaced people for lesser offenses than lying to me. Please use this time for introspection for when we speak next.”
The marines played along without missing a beat and nodded their heads solemnly. The mood amongst the marines was casual, not quite pleasant but damn close. The base personnel though were already terrified. John’s words did nothing to quell that feeling.
The ramp began closing when John stepped off it onto the grassy plane in front of the research base. A smile was on his face for the first time in who knows how long. That fact was not missed by his troops.
“Lieutenant, I didn’t know you could smile,” Nathan said.
Lukas let out a belly laugh and joined in, “Before you’d almost pass as a good German.”
“We hit the fucking jackpot here,” John finally let the success sink in.
“So, you space people for lying to you, sir?” Derek chuckled as his heavy armor made deep divots into the ground.
“What can I say? I gotta keep up the image of me being a ruthless bastard.”
“Will that work though?” Arianna asked over their coms, “If you push people too much they may lie and tell you what you want to hear.”
Dagger 1 loudly came overhead and landed. The Marines, and John, that were present looked away to protect them from dust and debris that was strewn everywhere. John and the others began brushing junk from their hair.
“I’m sure there’s a fine line between what can and can’t be said,” Jerad said from the cargo hold, “Though I’m sure NI will take issue with what you said. Speaking of them, the team on Titan green-lit you to begin interrogations. Command just contacted Captain Erickson moments after you spoke with him. Seems they are getting more serious about this, sir.”
John turned to the transport and saw Jerad jog down the rear ramp and over to the group of Marines. He quickly saluted John. Then he continued with that surprising revelation.
“Seems like leadership back on Titan wants this lead run properly. Chief Watanabe supposedly insisted on it.”
John was almost speechless, “Shit, I didn’t think they’d do that.”
Jerad added, “Yeah, the Commander isn’t running any of the interrogations. She’s only allowed to observe. Her team is to run transcription and analysis duty.”
“Then we’re heading back to the Vigilant then,” David said as he walked up to the group.
“We will break orbit in three days. The CNS Delaware will be arriving with a team to relieve us. We have thirty days before the enemy knows this base is compromised.”
“If they don’t know that already,” Arianna said, “Are we not doing a deep dive into this facility?”
John and the rest of the Marines looked at Jerad.
“Yeah, well. We’re staying down here. We’re just to guard the facility but we won’t be doing any investigative work on that. Next ship’s duty. The Lieutenant is heading back to the boat because they want him to get to work on the interrogations.”
“Good work everyone. I mean it, damn fine job. I want the squads to do another sweep of the facility. Full cameras on, document everything without touching,” John said, “I’m gonna clean up because I smell fucking awful.”
“Oorah,” the Marines shouted then laughed.
“I wasn’t going to tell you the obvious, sir,” Nathan said with a smirk.
“Back to work you slackers,” John said as he walked into transport.
Twenty minutes later a rank stealth suit lay on the floor. John put on some shorts and jogged down to the creek a mile from the base with a bar of soap in one hand and a bottle of shampoo in the other. It wouldn’t be a great bath, but it would suffice for the moment.
John hadn’t accounted for how chilly it was and the run back to the transport was basically a sprint. It was far too cold to be wet, without a shirt, and in shorts. He hurriedly changed into more appropriate clothing when he got back to the transport.
There was no time to waste. He sat down in front of a terminal and began to review and create dossiers on the scientists and employees. John knew this wasn’t going to be able to shift the opinion of the influential leaders within the Mercantilist Union’s government, but it was the best step they had taken to accomplish that feat. And John was not going to let this opportunity pass by him.