Doctor Ziegler was able to perfect biotic technology to such a point where she could reanimate people, but she could not get coffee right. Thinking back while staring down at a picture of her college days, the doctor reflected on how the invention of coffee might have been more beneficial to humanity than all she had invented, or how it might be the same. Both inventions helped keep people productive for longer periods of time. Coffee led to incredible inventions and to what people thought was eternal peace through mutually assured destruction in the XXth century. Coffee essentially ended war between human beings. Could her biotic technology be coffee? But was it coffee that did that? Or was it the people?
The slim blonde doctor was inside a tent the color of yellow vomit, when it was built, they intended to be the same color as the Valkyries wings, but throughout time, and through long hauls and trips, it just became a sad, almost putrid yellow. With furniture to match, it was not a tiny tent though. It was the size of a small room. It featured an old oak desk, which doubled as a treatment table, 2 tall lamps, a comfortable-looking bed, and a smaller table with a microwave, 2 small fridges, and an old coffee maker. The doctor left the picture on the desk as a woman wearing an army uniform. It was a plump looking woman, she was young and short but had scars all over her face, making figuring out her age quite difficult.
“Doctor Ziegler, I bring news from the battlefront” the scared woman said trying to imitate a strong voice, but clearly cracking up from nervousness
“If this is from the general Cortés, tell him I do not want a thing to do with his ‘Final solution’ plan. I’m here to heal your wounded, and nothing else. I come here as Angela Ziegler, not Mercy” Angela snapped, she had been annoyed into joining the front ever since she set foot in Chile a couple of weeks ago, she was helping soldiers combating a new faction of Talon sympathizers.
“I’m… I’m not here for that doctor, I come here to bring you updates from the battlefield, we had several wounded, but we were successful carrying out the operation”
Angela sighed, she was against that “Final solution” operation since the beginning and thought that not getting involved would stop the general from executing such a ridiculous plan. She was clearly wrong.
“Couldn’t have he just sent me an email?” The doctor said as a whimper “What is your name girl?” The doctor said while standing up, grabbing a cup to serve her coffee
“Mikaela, ma’am. Mikaela Chavez Hinojosa, at your service”
“Call me Angela” she said after serving a dull colored coffee and offering it to Mikaela. After apprehensible accepting Angela’s coffee, Mikaela said with an equally apprehensible voice “Do you want me to tell something to the general?”
“No Mikaela, that will be all. I know why he sent you here instead of an email”
“And that would be?”
“He knows I can get mad at emails”
Angela left the tent and Mikaela gave took a sip of coffee. It tasted like ash.
Outside the tent was a site grimmer than the tent, bodies of injured all around the floor and what it looked like thousands of doctors treating them. A sight that Angela, sadly, had become very accustomed to. Around the tents and houses, there were pictures of Angela in her Valkyrie armor, with cringy Spanish quotes that translated to things like “Hope is a person”, or “You could be hero too”. That day Angela was wearing her usual medic coat, a green shirt with jeans, slightly crooked glasses. Her hair was the opposite of what it looked like in the pictures; it looked more like a big ball of yarn compared to the perfect silk hair in the pictures. Angela hated the pictures, everywhere she went, they were put up as calling cards for ignorant teenagers to join the combat effort, exactly what Angela was trying to stop.
After walking for what seemed dozens and dozens of injured people, she went up to the nicest-looking building in the area. She was now in Chilean territory, outside the battlefield. She approached a distracted looking secretary who was sitting in the main lobby, looking down at her phone.
Angela tried to make her smile not look forced “Excuse me, I need to go in to see the general”.
The secretary gave a glimpse to her, and then went back to her phone. Her hand lazily pressed a button under her desk. Suddenly, a show of lights appeared to the side of them, it displayed a logo that proudly read “Vishkar Corporation” and then, a hallway, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared to the right of them. “First elevator to the right”
Angela tried to give one last smile to the secretary, but she clearly was busy with other matters. She went into the elevator as the secretary had enthusiastically pointed out. The door to the elevator was already open, the inside was painted with a very bright blue color, with a flag of Chile on the back. The doors closed, and the button for floor 32 illuminated. While waiting, a peaceful jazzy song played. It made Angela think of her mother.
As soon as the elevator dinged and Angela left the elevator, the doors closed violently behind her. The room was only illuminated by a couple of monitors on the back and the room smelled putrid, worse than the injured camp. Angela knew this was not normal behavior for the normally pompous general. She had expected the fake laugh the general always gave her when trying to be friendly. So, it was particularly weird for her that she was greeted with a voice of a woman.
“¡Angela amor!” After the strange womanly voice said this, the lights turned on and Angela saw one of the most gruesome scenes she had seen in a while. The body of the general hanging upside down from the roof. Angela gagged, what was the meaning of this? Hadn’t they won with their final solution? Angela didn’t have time to think when the same voice directed at her “Hey! Over here” Angela turned to see a tannish woman, not too different from the ones she was fighting with. She was wearing a suit that clearly featured body enhancements, the same as Angela had implemented in her body some years back
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Angela snapped, all thoughts of the hanging corpse out the window, Angela had to confront this woman now
“He’s just taking a break from all of his hard work” The woman stood up, surrounding Angela “I mean, he did almost succeed in taking us out of here. You see I did not want to come down here, but when they told me the all-powerful mercy was here, I could not resist!” Angela cringed. If being related with Mercy was a pain, this was torture for her
“You’re sombra aren’t you?” Angela retoured, trying so hard to not look frightened “You are talon’s hacker lap dog, taken in by lunatics like Gabriel and Moira”
“Wow la mujercita did her homework! And I was thinking I would not be recognized by someone of your… stature” Sombra scanned Angela, from top to bottom “You know, pictures do make you look slimmer”
“Are you here to take me to them?”
“C´mon Angela, have a little sense of humor” Sombra went beside the general and poked the cadaver, making it spin slowly. Some blood dripped out of his head “I’m not here to kidnap you, do not worry. I just wanted to say that Chile is ours now. We got all the other military officials on our pockets and the army is in with us”
Angela was stunned, was what happened in Cairo going to repeat? Is this now for the whole country? Can she even do anything? Angela opened her mouth, but nothing came out, she was out of words, out of time
“You know, the plan of the general was good in concept. Use foreign tech like the one Brazil uses to cut us. Hard light is difficult to hack indeed, but possible” Sombra inched closer to Angela, Angela could smell her breath, it smelled like coffee. “Capturing you now just wouldn’t make sense, you’re too good at making people convinced that technology can cure every single thing and can be used in every single place, it just makes my job easier honestly” Sombra stepped back, took a sip from the generals cup and pulled out a weird device from her pocket “Now, you either leave Chile and go back to wherever you came from, or the soldiers of this place will have to kill you. Imagine that headline ‘Mercy conspires against Chilean government, soldiers have no choice to take her out’ Wouldn’t that be something?”
Mercy swallowed; there was nothing to do. Her modus operandi had failed, not only once but twice now, and apparently talon had a way to exploit her. Angela thought of Ana, and how she ran away from the system to still protect people while protecting her daughter too. Was that the right choice? What there a right choice at all?
“The headline for today, Angela, is going to be ‘Chilean government defeats talon, tragically general Juarez died in the attempt’ okay? Hopefully, we can see each other in better circumstances” Sombra smirked Angela before pressing a bottom that made her disappear, a few seconds after the elevator door opened, Mikaela and a strong looking man were holding rifles and were staring at Angela. Mikaela made a gesture to Angela indicating that she had to come with them. Angela, reluctantly, followed. They took her to the roof where there was a helicopter waiting for Angela, before getting inside, Angela thought she saw Mikaela move her lips, as if she were trying to say, “I have people to protect too you know?” Angela just looked back at the ground, wondering if she was trying to say to her or to herself.
The jazzy elevator music kept playing as the elevator went up, this time memories of her mother didn’t come to Angela, but the dread of what was waiting for her after the music stopped. She really thought she was going to be taken to her tent again, forced to smile as she grabbed her gear. She couldn’t wrap her head around what just happened. Does every person in the military know about Talon winning? If Mikaela knows, then at least some people know. How long was this happening, she wondered. Sombra said they almost succeeded in driving them out, so it couldn’t be the whole time, right?... Right?
Some questions were answered whenever the elevator dinged as they reached the rooftop. The noise outside was so strong that Angela couldn’t hear her own thoughts. People were celebrating and Chilean flags were flying as men shot their weapons to the sky, and women from everywhere embraced the soldiers on a sea of laughter, cheers and joy. From above it looked like the people extended everywhere, and more where coming, the passion of a war won. Angela looked at Mikaela, she seemed pleased with herself, as if she wanted to celebrate with them too. She didn’t look worried or sad that Talon had won the war but wanted to go back to what she wanted. Mikeala's smile vanished as she noticed Angela peeking at her. She signaled towards a helicopter that was parked on the helicopter pad. It was a relatively small helicopter, but it had the Valkyrie symbol on the side, and the words “The world could always have more heroes” written across the other. Angela thought to herself what Lena would’ve thought as she climbed the door. The spinning blades deafen the sound of the people below, the pilot handed her a pair of headphones and a helmet that covered the sound blades quite well. Now all she had was herself, as the helicopter flew by the ruined city she could see the people below, some of them chanting her name... Or better said, Mercy’s name. She couldn’t handle it she thought, she felt as she was going to throw up. So many lied to, so many that don’t know. Why did she have to know? What was the point? She thought the general won, things could’ve stayed that way and she wouldn’t think twice about it.
Angelas thoughts were interrupted as a voice came out from the headphones, the co-pilot was looking over to her. He was a bulky man, probably in his 40s. He was extending a little torn up notebook and a black pen. The notebook had the words “Para Mariana” written on it. The co-pilot with shivered voice asked” Please, my daughter would love having the autograph of a hero like you” Hero? Her? What an insult, she thought that it could be sombra behind the helmet, but she decided lashing out at him wasn’t the best idea right now. Even though she was determined to keep the secret, at least for the time being, she couldn’t force herself to smile as she tried to scribble her signature in that tiny helicopter. She just handed back the notebook and sat in silence looking at the floor.
Some tears leaked out from the helmet.
The helicopter was beginning to slow down, Angela didn’t know where she was taken to. She didn’t bother to ask. She was done with everything. She couldn’t think why. Why did she have to know?
The blades stopped their overbearing sound as the helicopter landed softly on the ground. It looked like a city airport, far out from the battlefield she was in.
“Welcome to Santiago!” the copilot sang to Angela, sadly, she couldn’t be bothered to sympathize right now. She took off her helmet and left the helicopter. The landing strip where she landed was empty even though she could see buildings not too far away. The sight of what once was a busy airport loomed over the distance, now empty and devoid of life.
“Kinda sad if you ask me” the copilot said while jumping off the helicopter. “This once was a great airport, but now that everything’s over maybe it can have life again”