If I cannot inspire Love...

Posted on Sun Jul 7th, 2024 @ 12:25 by General Heinrich Falkenrath & Doctor Astrid Hohenberg & Effigy

Chapter: Besieged
Location: Undisclosed G.O.U. Research Facility, Northern England
Timeline: Monday, 25th of January, 1993
1575 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The thick walls of the underground facility caused the high pitched clicks of the heels to bounce around, making it seem like a small army of high heeled women making their way down the corridor. Everytime the cacophony stopped there was the sound of thick steel doors arduously sliding aside. Once the final set of doors parted the smell of chlorine and other cleansing agents assaulted the senses. Lights overhead flickered into action, illuminating the room beyond just the greenish glow of computer monitors, whirring away along the far wall in the room.

Four doors around the central room, with roman numerals distinguishing otherwise identical slate grey steel doors. The doctor, in a long white lab coat over a perfectly creaseless black power suit, leaned forward and put in her credentials on the nearest console. large monitors lit up around her. Four of them showing the insides of the cells beyond the numbered doors. "As you can see, dear General, all the subjects are docile and complacent." Only one of the screens showed a pacing individual, the other three had taking up a spot on the small bunk in the room.

"For now," the General corrected lightly. "It only takes one misstep to tarnish all of our work this far, Doctor." He paused, scrutinising the monitors. "But let's not allow that to take away from the fact that I find myself continually impressed by your work so far." He tapped the camera controls, focusing in on one individual. "How close are we to live deployment?"

"Subject number three, Effigy, is in a state where I would be comfortable deploying her to the field with two or three more stress tests." She stepped up to the monitor, "we have some additional leverage on that particular subject, even if some of the controls fail I'm confident we can reel her back in."

In the bunk of containment unit III lay a woman, quietly asleep, or so it seemed. Her muscles twitched as the wires connected to her muscles kept checking their connection and sending signals. There was no pain, and the combination of cybernetics and genetics had pushed the limit on the young woman's body far further than she could've ever achieved on her own in the past couple of months. Her eyes opened and she stared into the darkness of the cell. The greyscale infrared camera in the top corner lit up her eyes, giving a menacing look.

Effigy was stirred from a dream, not quite sure due to what. Her senses had been enhanced beyond what she could comfortably manage and even the typing of the doctor in the other room caused her to stir. The dream had already been forgotten but left her with a sense of longing. A sense of lost love. She didn't remember for whom. She didn't remember anything aside from these four walls and the doctor beyond the door. She wondered how long before she was shoved into another testing chamber, or into another surgical suite.

"Would you like to see her in action?" Astrid seemed altogether too giddy at the prospect.

Heinrich's eyes widened, turning back to the doctor; he was just as interested in that idea, though his enthusiasm was tempered by his more cynical outlook. "By all means. I'm very keen to see just how much progress you've made with this subject."

Astrid moved to the door and pressed down on the intercom next to it. "Effigy, please get off the bunk and face the wall." She looked back over her shoulder towards the general and gave a bit of a smile. The monitor showed that there was no hesitation from the subject in the room, stepping up to face the wall and put the hands behind her back. "This will go a lot easier once Trask sends over those collars he promised Cavendish."

"All in good time, Doctor," Heinrich noted. "These things cannot be rushed without drawing too much attention; part of the reason why we had you enjoying the Swiss climate for so long." He eyed the young woman on the monitor again. "You'll get the collars. But until then, we'll use more innovative methods," he added, pointing to the screen.

It took a moment to cuff Effigy and lead her into a separate training room. It was a large open space that seemed just slightly padded on the floor for when people sparred. Four pillars, one in the centre of each quarter, were the only other obstacle inside. Effigy stood in the centre. From the top of the room the two GOU officials stood looking through a thick layer of glass.

Some of the fog in Effigy's brain lifted. Not enough to remember anything of value, but enough to know what was about to come next. She waited for the feeling of hot needles sticking into her muscles that were the tell tale signs of her implants being activated.

The pillars shifted, large rods jutted in and out of them and they started spinning. It wasn't going to be long until she needed to move in order to avoid getting slapped around by the mechanical menace circling her.

There was no fire in her veins.

"This is what she was capable of before we made our improvements." Astrid gleefully informed the General as the first rod slapped across Effigy's side, sending her reeling into the other pillar across the way. Another crack of bamboo hitting flesh.

Heinrich watched impassively. The sight of the blood and punishment drew no feeling or empathy from the old general.

Effigy lay on the floor, avoiding additional whacks from the spinning devices. The sound of electrical build up let her know she couldn't stay down. She attempted to avoid an incoming kinetic blast from one of the corner sentry gun installments. She was hit in her lower back and screamed out in agony.

"So far this one isn't impressing me, Doctor..." Heinrich remarked, glancing at the scientist. "So far I see only a creature that can take a few hits-"

Astrid typed in a command on a nearby console and pressed enter.

Suddenly a jolt. Fire roaring in her veins. The sound of the rods rushing through the air. The whirring of distant sentry guns in standby mode. Effigy effortlessly lept to her feet dodging a second kinetic bolt from the emplaced guns. She jumped over a spinning rod and under another one. Within seconds she was bouncing around avoiding all incoming hits from the blasters and pillars alike. Her senses were on fire, so much so that she almost seemed clairvoyant in regards to the patterns of the weapons in the room.

She kicked at one of the rods and it broke away as if she had put her foot to a rotten twig. Grabbing it in mid-air as it spiralled around. With it in her hand she rushed towards the far wall, the one directly across from the glass observation booth, she forcefully jabbed the broken rod into the fortified concrete wall. She used the newly created step to launch herself into the air, grabbing onto one of the higher rods whirring around on the pillar, violently changing direction as she grabbed hold. Unperturbed she pulled herself atop the pillar. Like a feline she squatted down and looked over at the glass observation window, locking eyes with the man and woman behind their protective layer as the pillar spun around.

"Impressive." Heinrich eyed the young woman, unaffected by her glare. "And the command functions hold fully under stress? I want to make sure our attack dog has a firm leash," he noted, glancing at the doctor.

"They do hold under any stress stimulus we've been able to expose her to." The Doctor remarked, keeping her academic roots to hedge her statements within strictly defined probabilities. She pressed a few buttons on the console, stopping the devices in the room, then opened the intercom. "Front and centre."

Effigy leapt off the pillar with ease and stood back in the starting position, though this time she was turned to face the glass window. Moments later the world around her dulled. The sharp sounds of the machines around her ebbed away, her muscles seemed to lose some of their tensile strength and as always the fatigue struck. She kept to her feet despite her shaky knees.

Heinrich stared down at the mutant as though gazing upon a new piece of military hardware. She was a strategic asset now, rather than a person. "Good. Very good. I may have a mission for it, very soon." He snapped the heels of his boots together. "Make all the preparations for deployment, Doctor. If the first live-fire operation is successful, I will see to it you have as many new subjects as you desire."

"Yessir." The Doctor already had several subjects but the prospect of getting additional resources was always one that made her quite happy. She pressed the intercom again, "Effigy. Please prepare to return to your holding cell." She called before starting to make her way down to the main area. It was only a short stroll back to the cell, but mutant scum like subject number three there was always risk involved, even without the enhancements they had provided it with. "Whenever you need us, we'll be ready, General." She called back as she found Effigy, facing the wall, hands behind her back, waiting to be escorted back to her cell.