Darwin's Soldiers

StarfallRaptor · **Reply #220 on:** November 07, 2008, 07:18:25 PM

Hawkeye gave Dr. Joe a smile.
"Sorry. That's just my observations. If I was being too blunt, I apologize."
He said calmly...

"Sure thing. I don't see why not. I mean, if people don't accept us, that's they're problem, isn't it? I mean...We can just live like normal people, Snow..."
Neku said, wrapping his his arms around her affectionately...

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #221 on:** November 07, 2008, 11:20:35 PM

"Just be careful guys I've got a bad feeling about this,' Werner said over the raido.

Serris · **Reply #222 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:05:23 AM

"Thanks Vic!" James said.

Zachary went over to Oli and glared at him after his diatribe with Shelton. "I'm not interested in your delusions. I want to know what the hell you did with those notes!"

Oli ignored him.

"Zach! Didn't you hear Shelton? You're not going to get an intelligent conversation out of him. Just give this lab another search! Shelton thinks that Oli might have left the notes somewhere." James said.

Zachary went over to James. "Any idea where the notes would be kept?"

"I'm betting that they are either hidden in the storerooms, the back office or some of the cabinets." James replied.

"I'll take the cabinets and the lab section. If they are locked, I'll be able to smash them open." Zachary said.

"Fair enough. I've got the storerooms and the back office."

James went into a storeroom labeled "Chemical storage". He opened the door and noticed the usual lab reagents except for one thing. He noticed that large bottle of copper sulfate was bizarrely labeled. He retrieved the strange bottle and placed it on the workbench.

"Hmm. I thought hydrated copper sulfate's formula was 1 mole of CuSO4 to 5 moles of water. This label says 1 mole of CuSO4 to 10 moles of water." James mused. He gently shook the bottle and noticed that it did not sound like it was filled with gravel. "Ok, this makes me suspicious."

He opened the bottle and tipped out its contents, several folded pieces of paper. He unfolded the papers and read them.

He grinned as he noticed it was roster of kidnapped children for the 'Dragonstorm' project. "Jackpot." He grabbed a plastic bag from a box containing several bags and placed his find inside it.

He then lifted up the bags and found another piece of paper inside. He retrieved it and noticed that it was part of a materials list for 'Dragonstorm'.

"Wow. Shelton was right. Oli isn't that bright."

He searched the rest of the storage room and found nothing.

"Zach! You found anything?" James said as he left the storeroom.

"I found the results of 'Dragonstorm Experiment #1' inside a locked cabinet; it was sandwiched inside the Merck Index and a chart detailing the stats of some of the kidnapped children was found inside a fake gas tap but the worst thing I found is a set of instructions on kidnapping, that was under a floor tile."

"We'd better get these back to Shelton." James said. He then radioed Shelton. "Shelton! We have found some Dragonstorm notes, but it seems the majority of the notes are either destroyed or held by other scientists. What shall we do with our 'guest', Oli, and the notes we found?"

"I'll get you for this!" Oli shouted.

"I'd like to see you try." James said icily, turning so Oli could see the Remington 870 shotgun strapped to his back.

----

The Dhole scientist wandered to the back of the room, near the hole and cautiously peered in. She noticed a rope dangling from a pipe.

"Guys! It looks like whoever made this hole is trying to drop down a floor." she said, pointing at the rope.

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #223 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:24:31 AM

One of the terrorists at the next floor looked up and fired his M60 wildly upwards.

Serris · **Reply #224 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:28:39 AM

The bullets whizzed by the Dhole scientist, missing her snout by inches.

"Guys! There's terrorists below us!"

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #225 on:** November 08, 2008, 01:33:27 AM

Suddenly the terrorist clutched his throat and started choking a figure steped out from the darkness 'I told you to hold your fire,' the figure saidbefore closing his fist with a loud cracking sound eminated from the terrosists neck and the thud of his body hitting the floor.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #226 on:** November 08, 2008, 03:10:39 PM

Shelton couldn't figure out why the radio wasn't allowing him to contact Zanasiu. "It's almost like some kind of sensory jammer's been put into place," he muttered to Werner. "I'll try to override it."

For a second, contact was made, in time to hear gunfire and "There's terrorists!"

"What the hell?" gasped Shelton, swiveling around in his chair. "They didn't even appear on the radar!"

"What's that mean?"

"Means they've either got some sort of frequency modulator that's screwing with our systems' command controls, or a rogue experiment that can do it naturally." Shelton gulped. "And again we've got no way of warning them!"

"Why should we warn them?"

"Anything that requires any sort of signal, such as radios, auto turrets, Neku's lightsaber, none of them will work. If Zanasiu's team don't know that, they might base their counterattack on a system or object that isn't functioning!"

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #227 on:** November 08, 2008, 03:16:09 PM

Werner heard the the terrorists neck snap and his body hit the floor "What was that,' he asked shelton.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #228 on:** November 08, 2008, 03:21:26 PM

"If I'm not mistaken, sounds like they do have a rogue experiment on their side," Shelton shuddered. "And if it's part of Dragonstorm, Lord only knows what else it can do."

Serris · **Reply #229 on:** November 08, 2008, 03:47:17 PM

(OOC - The project's name is "Dragonstorm")

James tried to radio Shelton. "Shelton, this is Dr. Zanasiu, Zachary, and Vic. We are continuing our search."

The radio crackled with static but there was no response. "Zach! See if your radio works!" James said.

Zachary tried his radio, nothing except static. "Nope, mine's dead."

"Damn. We're on our own for now."

---

In the AWTR, the Iguana guard tried to radio Shelton. "Shelton! I can hear noises below us. We need to get more soldiers, pronto!" No response except static from the radio. "Great." He then turned to the rest of the group. "It seems like something is jamming the radio signals. We'll have to work without support from Shelton."

Mirumoto_Kenjiro · **Reply #230 on:** November 08, 2008, 05:42:18 PM

While in his embrace, Snow looked down at her paws and sighed, when gunfire echoed across the room from the hole the Dhole scientist was examining.

Dr. Joe grabbed the Dhole and pulled her back so she's no longer in firing range. There was an awkward silence from the floor below when she spoke. "They've stopped. What are they up to?"

----------

Vic knew his radio wouldn't work either, so he made no attempt and trained his weapon on the mad scientist. "I don't think we can take him with us," he said. "He's too big a risk, even if he isn't bright."

----------

A set of sinister red eyes peers through a ventilation shaft to home in on a group of prey that it has detected...

StarfallRaptor · **Reply #231 on:** November 08, 2008, 08:37:36 PM

Hawkeye clutched his head in a wing...
"Gods...My head! It's splitting apart!"

Neku turned to face Hawkeye.
"What the? My...Something's wrong. There's a jamming signal being broadcast, and... Something bad's close... it's above us!"
He said, looking up at the vent...

Serris · **Reply #232 on:** November 09, 2008, 02:22:42 AM

"Thanks." The Dhole shrugged. "I don't know but I've got a bad feeling. I mean the radios just suddenly die." She readied her AK-47.

The Iguana guard looked at Neku, then the ceiling. "Something's very wrong. The radios die and gunfire erupts from below us." He readied his shotgun.

The three Cobalt Squad Soldiers also looked uneasy.

----

James nodded at Vic. "You're right. Oli may not be too bright, but we can't discount the possibility he could call for help or even lead us into an ambush if we took him with us. We can't leave him here either, again he may try and call for help.

"Vic what should we do if we encounter more 'Dragonstorm' scientists? Shall we simply shoot them on sight or attempt to negotiate? I find the idea of shooting someone who isn't shooting back repulsive; but these 'Dragonstorm' scientists probably have no compunctions about putting a few bullets in anyone who gets in their way." Zachary asked.

"It's futile to try and stop 'Dragonstorm'." Oli said.

Zachary grabbed the box of gloves and jammed a pair of gloves into Oli's beak. "Put a glove in it!"

At the same time, James bound Oli's legs with duct tape he found in a drawer. He handed the tape to Zachary who bound Oli's beak.

"Vic, James and I are going to carry Oli to Shelton." Zachary said.

James and Zachary left the lab and headed towards the control room.

After about a half hour of walking, Zachary placed Oli down. "Man, he's heavy."

James noticed a hand cart normally used for transporting furniture. "Easily solved." He pushed the handcart over to Zachary.

Zachary grunted as he lifted Oli onto the handcart and taped him down.

After about 15 minutes more of walking they arrived at Shelton's control room.

"Werner, Shelton, got something for you." James said.

Zachary pushed Oli, taped down to the handcart, into the room.

"I also got this for you." James placed a DVD on a table. "Found this in the same lab where Oli attacked us. By the way, what happened to our radios?"

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #233 on:** November 09, 2008, 03:23:21 AM

(OOC: I fixed my above "Dragonforce" post)

"They've been jammed. I can't tell if it's mechanical or by a rogue experiment, except to tell you that of the experiments in the record logs, none of them were given the ability to jam sensors. Since these terrorists are anti-technology, I'm guessing it's someone that was created off-the-record, possibly by Dragonstorm."

Oli tried to say something, but only a muffled squeal came out. Shelton looked over at him.

"What, nothing to say? Keep it that way." He turned back to James. "Thanks for the DVD. I'll play it right now."

He slid it into the laptop's C-drive, and waited impatiently. "Sorry for the wait; this thing's slow as molasses. It's also why I'm not as responsive as before; takes forever to load the info you want."

Eventually the screen lit up. 0s and 1s began filling the screen, separated in six-digit intervals.

"What the hell?" Shelton interjected, swiveling his chair around.

"What?"

"It's BASIC! Who the hell uses BASIC anymore?" Shelton slid a green pen out of his front pocket, grabbed a notepad, and started scribbling furiously. "Give me a second. I got to decode this."

(OOC: Is there anything in particular you want me to find on this DVD?)

Serris · **Reply #234 on:** November 09, 2008, 03:35:56 AM

(OOC - You could have Shelton find some more data on "Dragonstorm". It's up to you what that data is.)

"Let's hope this DVD isn't a porn flick." Zachary joked.

"Nah, I don't think even Oli is that stupid." James said.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #235 on:** November 09, 2008, 04:00:04 AM

The numbers stopped scrolling down the screen. The only movement was the flashing cursor at the bottom of the screen.

Shelton sat back with a long exhale. "Okay, got it." He studied the notepad, now filled with shorthand. "Dragonstorm is a three-person experiment line headed by Dr. Johnson Zenarchis. The program composes of--" Shelton broke off.

"Composes of what?"

"Composes of, and I quote, 'continuing Pelvanida's genius while overcoming the flimsy moral issues of the mainstream staff." Shelton looks up. "This guy's nuts. Not even nuts nuts. Machiavelli nuts."

"Keep reading."

"Right." Shelton furrowed his brow. "According to this, Dragonstorm steals top quality embryos from the research labs, clones them, and returns them overnight. Then, it injects each embryo with an untested stream of DNA, chemicals, and/or hormones. It then uses --oh my god, how'd they get one of those? -- an Accelerated Growth Pod to speed up the growth process of the embryos to birth."

"I thought Accelerated Growth Pods were illegal."

"They are, due to the almost guaranteed retardation of the subject's brain waves. You'd think that would render the experiments worthless." Shelton kept reading. "Once born, the experiments that reacted favorably to the injections move on to the next phase. The others are disposed of." Shelton broke off. "This is just sick."

"Shelton..."

"I know, I know. Okay. Phase Two of the process involves altering and improving the surviving experiments through psionic and cybernetic enhancements."

"Wait, they use both?"

"Which, once again, would cause any normal brain to overload, much less these experiments' already mentally unstable ones. This just wouldn't work!" Shelton scanned the page. "Oh, God. This is how it would work."

"What?"

"Once testing is done, the subjects are placed back in the Accelerated Growth Pod and grown to fighting age. Then, after the subjects are removed, their brain, which had died long ago, is surgically cut out and replaced with a neural net." Shelton looked up. "This causes them to have little to no individual thought processes, and unswerving loyalty to Dr. Zenarchis! Not to mention cyber and psionic enhancements, and genetic superiority!"

(OOC: How's that? Is it too long, or are the bad guys too powerful?)

Serris · **Reply #236 on:** November 09, 2008, 11:30:00 AM

(OOC - It's good. The experiments seem a tad too powerful.)

James and Zachary stared at the screen in stunned horror.

"This man is even worse than the fictional Dr. Moraeu. Well, at least Dr. Cass killed him, so that means 'Dragonstorm' is dead too. But why would Dr. Zenarchis leave such a DVD with such damning evidence for anyone to find?" Zachary said.

"Remember, Shelton said that there are two other scientists as well. And there are an untold number of researchers who participate." James said.

The Cobalt Squad soldier suddenly entered the room. "Dr. Zanasiu, you forgot this." He handed a plastic bag filled with papers to James.

"Thank you." James said. He then turned to Shelton, "This bag contains some more notes we found on 'Dragonstorm' up to and including a kidnapping how-to guide." He placed the bag on the table.

The Cobalt Squad soldier then left the room.

"So, what shall we do? Find and destroy the 'Dragonstorm' experiments and scientists or deal with the terrorists?" James asked.

"I'll go back to Vic." Zachary said.

"Ok." James said, "Feel free to tell him about what we learned and let him decide the course of action."

Zachary then left Shelton's room and headed to the lab where they found Oli.

After about 30 minutes of walking Zachary entered the lab. "Vic! We've found more data on 'Dragonstorm'; it's a series of covert and illegal experiments that are designed to create what amounts to a private army for Dr. Zenarchis."

f-22 "raptor" ace · **Reply #237 on:** November 09, 2008, 02:07:37 PM

Werner was still stunned after watching the DVD and collapsed in a chair.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #238 on:** November 09, 2008, 02:52:46 PM

(OOC:Don't forget that a neural net can have a host of its own problems of its own. Maybe the Dragonstorm experiments have slow reaction time, or their cyber/psi-enhancements are weaker because they have both.)

Shelton read some of the new information. "Well," he said to Werner, "the good news is that each experiment takes a lot of effort to create, so there aren't that many out there. The bad news is, the ones that are out there seem pretty powerful. I'm going to look up more on the neural net. Maybe there's a flaw Zenarchis didn't think about."

Serris · **Reply #239 on:** November 09, 2008, 09:58:36 PM

"We may have to resort to using the experimental weapons." Zachary said.