“Sir, I believe you need to see this.” Koi said with an attempted nonchalant tone. The nondescript JSLIST uniform looked rather uncomfortable on his frame, and the M50 gas mask made his mouse-like voice even harder to hear.
“What is it now?” the recently promoted to Lt-col Muller replied wearily, and not just because he has to deal with some CIA goon. He too, is wearing a M50 mask and a JSLIST ensemble, and that shit sucked harder than the last time he had to wear it for annual training… years ago, before it was a given that he would get the waivers annually.
The reason for the two of them, and really everyone else in the vicinity, are wearing those stuffy suits and masks was the task laid out before them: lines of corpses as far as the eyes could see, lining the open field next to the husk of what’s left of a city. The sight made more unnerving by the scattered reports that it’s far from an uncommon sight.
While Cameron and his merry band of misfits managed to pull a miracle out of their collective asses, an act which ensured his promotion to the rank of captain, many of the other units were far less lucky in that regard. Thus the blood of many innocents had to be spilled, to sate twisted notions of honor and duty of a world sorely lacking in both. Of course, it being almost exclusively the blood of others being spilled should be something they should all be thankful for, but the amount of PTSD cases in the coming years has already loomed heavily on the minds of anyone in a position of responsibility.
“This.” Koi simply pointed at a set of eight bodies, even in their disfigured and decaying state it was obvious that they were alike in appearance, very alike.
“Siblings?” Muller hazard a guess. It would be very tragic, but not exactly something relevant to anyone besides their family. He was already numb to it all. He had to. All of them had to, and those who didn't were already rotated out.
Koi shook his head.
“We thought so at first, which was why we rushed in the DNA testing.” Koi begins explaining. “However, the results just came back...” He handed a tablet to Muller.
“What the fuck…” Muller muttered as he read the summary on the tablet, before looking back up at the spook. “You telling me that they’re all clones?”
“Human cloning is unlikely- '' Koi began to explain before Muller waved off the incoming arsecovering and bullshitting.
“That is known, there’s no way that this world would have something like that.” Muller spat out the words impatiently. “Get to it already.” To his mild surprise Koi’s posture seemed to have relaxed from that. Then again, he probably wants to get out of that MOPP suit ASAP. All of them do, why couldn’t the greatest country on earth have better kit, like the Fins or something?
“It’s just a theory right now, but it’s likely that these… copies were pulled from different worlds.” Koi explained quickly, as if the speed of the words coming out of his mouth would cover up the leap of faith of the contents. Muller nodded slightly, or perhaps just trying to shake off the sweat accumulating behind his mask and fogging up the lens.
“Some multiverse thing? Like in those Marvel movies?” Muller hazard a guess, not really caring if he's making a dated reference or even a correct one. Koi shrugged wearily.
“Something to that effect.” He said flatly. “We’re still not sure that-”
“Why haven’t our counterparts in these other worlds invaded here as well?” Muller butted in, coming to the same conclusion at around the same time. “And what are they up to?”
“Sir we are looking into-” Koi begins before being quickly cut off again.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“So no idea, figures." Muller sighed. "Well, maybe it's luck, or coincidence, or whatever. Shit's complicated enough as is." It's almost unsettling how quickly everyone has gotten used to the extraordinary situation that they had been thrown into, and every new revelation becomes just another problem to be tackled.
"So what are you going to tell his- their next of kin?" Koi asked. Muller suddenly snapped out of his internal dialogue.
"What do you mean?" He asked. Whether fishing for clarification or just the heat getting into him it's hard to tell.
"It is your job to tell them the fate of their relatives in this world." Koi clarified, taking the safer option. Muller nodded wearily at the reminder.
"Well, the paperwork takes some time, maybe we'll find a live copy somewhere in the meantime." He muttered. "The bearers of bad news are overworked as is." He whispered the last sentence to himself. Even if it's just signing signatures, the sheer stacks of the letters flying out of the printers was enough to hammer in the gravity of the situation, and what they have done.
What they had to do. What those outside will never understand, never wanting to understand.
"If nothing else, this does explain a lot." Koi suddenly muttered to himself.
"Explain what?" Muller asked, not sure if he actually wanted to know, but also knowing that ignoring uncomfortable information never works out in the long run. It doesn't work out for the regular rank and file, and he's not important enough yet to be above it all.
"Dying from being hit by a truck is actually a rare thing in the developed world. There's probably more isekai stories written with the cliche than actual people getting run over." Koi blurted out the seemingly useless info dump. "Also the demographic of moderately educated young males in the developed world just aren't dying at the rate to justify these numbers we have found…"
"And there's tens of thousands of these… people, we have found so far." Muller waved a hand at the lines of corpses, putting two and two together.
"And that's just the ones that survived long enough to die from us." Koi added.
"Right…" Muller let out a sigh. He had skimmed over the reports of the numerous other unmarked mass graves and former battlefields that were being discovered almost nonstop. It was almost as if they couldn’t even dig anywhere for anything without bumping into a few thousand corpses and skeletons. And all the problems associated with that, already filling out enough forms to choke all the S-shops and then some. "Any estimates on total counts?" Not that he wanted an answer, or even needed one for that matter, but it was just something he's expected to ask.
"Millions." Came the reply. "Literal millions, and not metaphorically." Koi clarified, just to emphasize that it's not just some off the cuff remark. Muller whistled at that, though the muffled sounds that came out of his mask was something else entirely.
"Just what have we gotten ourselves into…" he asked rhetorically, shaking his head. Life in the pre modern era is well known to be short and harsh, but the sheer callousness of the world in the implications of the amount of corpses found still send the mind reeling. If anything, the numbers suggest an outlook on warfare more akin to the industrial era of earth’s history.
"Something to be worried about by those above our pay grade." Koi noted with a shrug, not wanting to dwell on the matter more than he has to. For once Muller agreed with the assessment.
"Yeah I'll get this matter sorted out." Muller finally said as he made the motion of straightening out his blouse, before remembering that the MOPP suit doesn't work that way. "That being said, try not to cause the end of the worlds will you?”
“Sir? I beg your pardon?” Koi asked, not seeing what that last comment had anything to do with him or what he’s doing.
“You in the sense of your higher ups. Nothing ever good comes from them bastards.” Muller clarified. “Now that there’s a bunch more of clones or whatnot of you all somewhere out there don’t think for a second some bright mind wouldn’t cash in on that.”
“Sir there’s nothing I can do about what my-” Koi began before Muller cut him off with a weary wave of his hand.
“Hence try. If nothing else it’ll soothe your conscience, for the day of reckoning and everything goes to shit.” The Lt-col said with a tinge of sorrow in his voice as he shuffled off, other pressing matters awaiting him no matter where he was in the worlds.
Koi stared at the walking figure for a handful of seconds before looking down at the tablet that had been handed back to him. The words of an unimaginable tragedy still printed impassively, just another among countless thousands. Yet now he felt nothing, not even numbness.
Just another day moving the dust of another mess around to give an illusion of doing something about it.