The small, brown-skinned boy sat at the table dressed in black clothing, causing him to stand out against the small white room that was his home. His golden eyes looked Anais over and he blinked, his mouth curved slightly in a polite smile. The ginger woman entered the room, sighing softly as she sat down and pulled her chair in. “Good evening, Osin.” Anais said, adjusting her white lab coat and pulling up her virtual interface display. The wispy holographic images floated just below her eye level.
“Good evening, Dr. Sawyer,” he replied.
Dr. Anais Sawyer smiled back and nodded. She made a check on her VI, noting that Osin’s Canter skills were still coming along. Despite her ten year long work to eliminate “devilish” influences from the boy’s mind, Osin still occasionally slipped up and spoke his native tongue. He often referred to Captain Simeon Grey as yasur and when Tarsus translated the word from its original language to Canter, it was defined as meaning, “father; master; king”. Naturally, Grey had taken quite well to being addressed as such, even if it was derived from a “lesser” culture’s language. Anais inwardly rolled her eyes at the thought.
“Captain Grey briefed you on your new assignment, correct?” she asked.
“Jinn lo kuua…” Anais gave Osin a glance and the twelve-year old boy gulped. “That is to say, kill the traitors.” Anais sighed softly and made another mark in her VI. “Traitors” was a subjective term, she felt. ORION operatives were a mixture of archaeologists and terrorists who held no loyalty to the Tribune run government of Blancus, only, they claimed, to “the blind and deaf babes, the people”.
Recently, they had threatened to bomb entire cities on the eastern coast of the country if they didn’t receive coordinates to some ancient secrets that they felt the Tribune of Blancus hid from them. That information had been given to them this time, but from Sawyer’s understanding, it was all a trap to lead them like sheep to slaughter with the twelve year old boy in front of her being the designated butcher.
The young boy nervously looked over at Sawyer and then outside of his room. Perplexed, Anais followed his eyes and saw Captain Grey standing outside. The fear and respect on Osin’s face looked deeply ingrained. Anais found the oddest part of her job was observing a child with the power to bench press a small military tank cowering next to a man with barely a fraction of that strength.
“It looks like Captain Grey wishes to speak to you, Osin. I’ll go get him,” Anais said with a smile. Osin’s eyes never left the looming figure of Captain Grey outside his room.
Anais gave a brief, awkward smile before she rose from her seat and left Osin alone in his room. When she faced the Captain, her smile faded.
“What is the problem, doctor?” Grey said in his deep, cold voice.
Anais sighed softly. “You. You’re interfering with my session with Osin.”
“And what of your session?” Grey asked. “Is he psychologically cleared for the mission?”
Anais frowned. You don’t even care, she thought before she said, “He’s as psychologically cleared for killing as any twelve year old could be.” Her tone caused Grey to raise an eyebrow and he stared deeply into Anais’ eyes.
“Do not allow your compassion for the little devil to cloud your view of FLOCK’s greater purpose. You are a psychiatrist...”
“And it’s my job to tell you or anyone else that what we’re doing...” Anais paused to glance at Osin through the glass before sighing and looking back at Grey. “You don’t think that sending him to Kasira could undo what I’ve worked so hard to do? It could break him. There’s nothing but violence etched into his brain and the resulting explosion could be extremely damaging to all of us.”
“That is all he knows, anyway. He is a devil. Or have you forgotten what he is capable of?” Grey said.
Anais balled her fist and turned red in the face. “And who the hell made him that way? He’s a child and he responds to the way he’s treated. You can’t beat him and torture him, then not expect him to react violently.”
“Is that what you tell yourself to rationalize what he did to your sister?” Captain Grey asked. Anais’ jaw dropped and her body shook. Without another glance her way, Grey said, “You are relieved of duty for the day, doctor.”.
Anais’ eyes widened and she swallowed a strong ‘fuck you’ that attempted to climb past her teeth. Calmly, she turned and looked at Osin through the glass. Golden eyes flashed from Anais to the Captain. The doctor turned away and walked down the hallway with her head down, tears welling in her eyes.
She remembered receiving the call that something had happened in the lab with Osin, only a few days after they had received him. When she had arrived, the boy had broken free from containment, a small wailing toddler with Liora dead at his feet. Anais had wanted to quit that day and write him off in her grief until she saw recordings of Simeon torturing him, Osin reacting and Liora attempting to step in. When Anais arrived later, Osin kept screaming, calling her “Mother” until she sat with him in his room and held him, weeping in her arms. She knew then that the boy would need her every day regardless of how she felt.
In her mind something awful clicked. She had the strangest feeling that she wouldn’t see Osin again for a long time. Sighing softly, she headed to her office to gather her things, fighting away the urge to grab Osin one more time and hug him.
—————
Osin kept his eyes down when his yasur entered his glass and white room. The king in white armor stood over him, casting a shadow that covered the young boy.
“What did Dr. Sawyer discuss with you?” Grey asked.
“The mission,” Osin replied. He gulped. “And my bad words.” He heard his yasur breathe hard.
“I have spoken to you on that, devil,” Grey’s voice rumbled. “Do you want me to punish you?” Memories flashed of the shock collar that Osin wore as a toddler until he spoke fluent Canter and the electro-bolts from Grey’s AC-8R that traveled through his body to distribute pain. Of the many punishments he had received, electricity hurt more than anything.
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Osin cowered and dropped to his knees to bow. “No, yasur!” the boy said, hoping that his term of affection didn’t set the Captain off. He heard Grey take in a deep breath, but a clubbing blow didn’t follow.
“It is time for you to leave.” Osin rose to his feet and stood at attention. When Grey turned and began to walk away, Osin followed.
The FLOCK facility that Osin had called home since he could remember was white, glass and metal, as cold as a winter day. It was small and secluded, with the only source of light being a massive skylight hundreds of feet above that gave access to the outside world, which Osin only saw during missions, which were in themselves few and far between. The only other people that Osin ever saw on a regular basis were Captain Grey and Dr. Sawyer. Others filed in and out of the building, usually potential pilots for Osin’s personal carrier and even then, they never spoke to him nor were they ever the same from mission to mission.
It made Osin feel uneasy. He recognized that everyone, except for Sawyer, treated him like he was different from them. And he was. Osin had never seen anyone with skin as deep and dark a shade of brown as his or anyone that possessed the golden amber eyes he found staring back at him when he looked in the mirror. That disparity between he and the people around him filled Osin’s young heart with a deep seated loneliness and sorrow that he barely comprehended. Captain Grey constantly called him “devil” and though Osin didn’t fully understand the meaning of the word, he felt venom whenever it left the Captain’s mouth. Osin couldn’t determine why someone he loved so much could speak with such malice towards him.
In his mind though, he had attempted to rationalize these odd emotion. His yasur was cruel, yes, but Grey’s cruelty shaped him and him stronger. He had prepared Osin for every sort of discomfort or pain he’d feel on missions until the boy was ready for anything. Grey’s methods readied Osin for combat and that made him inherently good and valuable in his view and despite what other emotions he felt towards the king in white armor, Grey gave Osin power and purpose, something that he had never felt he had.
Osin and Captain Grey stopped in front of a white paneled wall. The Captain raised his hand and pressed against it, causing the wall to emit several high frequency clicks. Osin heard the machinations behind the wall turning and unlocking until finally, the wall hissed and split open. A black, metal suit was racked up on display and pushed out towards Osin. The young boy felt a jolt of excitement.
He stepped forward and touched the black armor that had become synonymous with an adventure away from the trappings of the white walls. Called Corvus, the AI adaptive armor attached itself to Osin and closed around him. A thin, spongy cloth layer wrapped around his body first and the black metal plates followed. The helm came down last, hissing as it secured itself on Osin’s head and his vision blacked out. When it reset, Osin could see Grey’s resting heart rate as well as several counters indicating his own bodily functions, his level of elevation above the sea and the current level of the armor’s energy and life support.
When the suit had fully activated, Corvus spoke into Osin’s ear. “Combat Optimized, Reticent Visibility, Utility Suit online. DNA recognized. Welcome, Osin,” it said in a soothing woman’s voice, not too dissimilar to Dr. Sawyer’s. Osin smiled underneath his mask and then looked up to Grey.
“Everything’s fine, yasur,” he said, noting the heavy modulation to his voice that sunk it down several octaves. Grey nodded slightly and tapped a few buttons on his own white AI gauntlet piece. Corvus let out a barely audible chime and a map display appeared in Osin’s view, showing several markers that appeared to be on the move to the south.
“Board your bird. You should have a comm-link to this facility,” Grey said, folding his arms behind his back. Osin obeyed and walked out of the door to the carrier docking bay. His personal carrier, a small Harpy-class stealth fighter, rested in the center of the flight pad directly below the skylight. Several engineers looked it over before noticing Osin making his way forward. The crew of mechanics backed away and Osin didn’t look at them as he passed. His ship’s engines, though clearly on from the heat that Osin felt when he approached, were relatively quiet. When the boy boarded the ship, his pilot jumped in the front seat and turned towards him.
“G-good evening, sir,” the man said. Osin emulated his yasur’s body language when addressing his subordinates, straightening his small frame before he nodded his head curtly.
“We don’t have time to waste,” he replied, his high voice deepened by Cori’s modulator. “Let’s go.” The pilot blinked and quickly pressed a few controls and pulled back on the stick. Osin’s carrier slowly began to ascend, hovering as Osin tapped into Corvus. “Upload the map coordinates to the Harpy,” Osin said. Corvus did as he said and the pilot looked down and saw the virtual display.
“Sir…” the pilot said.
“Follow the moving dots and…”
“I know, sir. Captain Grey briefed me,” his pilot said. “However, the insurgents have all converged on a single location. Far south, away from Asticus and across the waters to Kasira. Even further south than that from the looks of it,” the pilot said. Osin paused. He didn’t even know what the hell Asticus or Kasira were, but he assumed that they were locations.
“Fly me there.”
The pilot looked back at him as the skylight opened and the moonlight hit the carrier. “South of Kasira is completely irradiated, sir. Even your suit will do very little to keep you safe from the toxic air and this ship isn’t designed for…”
“Please. Drop me near Kasira if you must. I can track the targets further from there,” Osin replied quickly. The pilot dropped his head and pressed a few key codes. The Harpy’s engines shifted towards the back of the fighter and with a flick of the pilot’s wrist, propelled the plane forward at breakneck speeds. Osin heard a chuckle from his pilot and imagined that he was admiring the machinery. Osin had been on the Harpy so many times, he had gotten used to the sudden jolt in speed. The young boy stared out of the window as the plane ascended into further into the sky. His eyes widened underneath his helm as he saw a massive cluster of buildings and vehicles below him. People the size of ants shuffled below. In his head, Osin asked Corvus to switch to telescopic view and zoomed in on everyone below him. He saw women like Dr. Sawyer except some had yellow, black or brown hair. Some were fat and ugly, indistinguishable from the males around them. He saw little people, seemingly smaller than even he was running around. Osin’s smile faded when he noticed one thing.
None of them looked like him.
Osin sat back in his seat and watched the clouds passing, growing further distraught at how white those were as well. He stared down at his suit, using the x-ray view of Corvus to stare through the metal plates at his own skin, the brown that wrapped his bones like dirt. What was he and why was he so different than everyone around him? Where had he come from?
“Sir, we’re over Kasira. Do you want me to set the bird down?” the pilot asked, his somewhat garbled and loud voice breaking Osin’s train of thought.
The boy looked outside of the fighter, taking in his surroundings. The city of Kasira below was nothing but dry, grey rubble and buildings that looked as if they were going to crumble at any moment. Craters dotted the cityscape like an enormous dusty sponge soaked with whatever life had been here. Osin had never seen a place so devastated, not even in pictures. Corvus spoke in his ear again.
“Environmental conditions, Class 4 hazard level. Nuclear radiation, smoke particles and low oxygen. Acclimating…”
“No, I’m fine,” Osin said to his pilot, rising from his seat. “Hover in the clouds above the water or something. I’ll be back in a little while,” He noted how high he was in the air, took in a deep breath and then jumped from the side of the plane.