Three Birds
Tsarberg forward operating base - December 2
As soon as the plane rolled to a stop, a set of stairs was rolled up to the door, and medics helped Elias and Gertrude out. Theodor was waiting for them on the tarmac.
“I take it the operation didn’t go so well?” he said.
Elias coughed up blood.
“You could say that…” he said.
“We’ll explain—” Gertrude said.
“
I will explain later,” Elias said, groaning in pain.
“What happened to you?” Theodor said. “Who the hell did all that to you?”
“The ex-princess…damn her!” Elias said.
“That woman?” Theodor said. “Impossible. You’re a veteran and she’s some…shut-in! She couldn’t possibly have—”
Elias stared at him with an angry ferocity.
“I know what I saw!” he said. “Why would I lie about this?!”
“Okay, okay!” Theodor said. “Just get patched up and we’ll talk about this!”
The medics led Elias away, the man still rambling.
“I…I still don’t know what I saw there,” Gertrude said.
“Then why are you telling me?” Theodor said.
Base hospital tent - December 3
Theodor walked up to Elias’ bed. Elias was awake now and reading a document titled “Unconditional Surrender of the Yavdian Government.”
“Well, at least
some good came out of that goddamn mess,” Elias said, “We won’t have to worry about Yavdi now.”
“Can you at least tell me what happened?” Theodor said. “I asked the Crusaders who went with you, but none of them would give me a straight answer.”
“Because those idiots got scared easily,” Elias said, “What shameful excuses of boys they are.”
“So what happened?” Theodor said.
“It was going exactly as planned, at least at first,” Elias said, “We assault the bunker entrance. Drive off the Chinese Han sent to make things annoying; they actually ran away like little girls after a while, which we didn’t expect but suited me. We storm the bunker, kill everyone in our way. Break into the inner bunker. I kill Chancellor Amur, the Tsar-Khagan, two Hohenzollern scum and a blood traitor. Then it all goes to hell when suddenly the ex-princess starts shooting freaking lasers at me!”
Wait…lasers? Has he lost it? Or…no way…
Theodor stared at him. “…lasers, you say?”
“Yeah, she was holding Enonon like she was some swordmaster, and get this…the blade was glowing. She hit me with one of her laser beams and slammed me against a wall…causing all this…”
Impossible…another one? I need to know more.
“Huh.”
“You don’t sound too surprised.”
Is there a connection? To Hansen?
“Well…based on what you described, I’m inclined to think this is related to a past incident.”
“You mean this happened before? And you didn’t tell me?!”
Internal company matter. You should know that.
“Didn’t think it was relevant. Do you know Angela Hansen?”
“Yes, that liberal collaborated with the corporate shill Anders Humboldt, fascist Diana Frank, and equalist Olga Kirova. How could I not know her name?”
“Well, Tesla Dynamic records—as well as footage recovered from about four years ago—seems to indicate Angela Hansen had a similar ability.”
“She did?”
Theodor winced.
“My name’s Angela Hansen. Ex-Athanatoi agent, survivor of the siege of Vienna, co-founder of X-Division, daughter to Erich Hansen, cousin to Anders Humboldt, friend to the Crown Princess Elisabeth Alexandra, and mother of Elisabeth Alexandra Hansen. If I’m going down, you’re all coming with me!”
“Four years ago, she was out of control. She tried to kill me. The operation to contain her was a disaster. I lost over a dozen good men that day. Thankfully, Colonel Johansen was on hand to put her down. Shame we couldn’t retrieve the body for study. Kirova stopped us.”
“Thanks to Johansen, she won’t be stopping us like that again.”
“He did well in Tsarberg. He’s done everything perfectly. Exceeded my expectations. He’s the ideal soldier…yes, the ultimate soldier.”
Maybe…too ultimate. Why am I feeling…fear?
“But do you know what this ability is?”
Now that I think about it…actually, I don’t know.
“Not exactly. You see, Hansen’s ability came from being injected with a certain nootropic drug as a teenager, known as Cortexiphan. Cortexiphan seems to unlock certain parts of the brain—and our junk DNA as well—to give certain individuals abilities like those seen in Hansen. What those abilities do seems to be random. We can’t say for sure, due to the small sample size in the original study.”
“Can we make more Cortexiphan? And give it to our soldiers? Immediately?”
Believe me, if I could still do that, I’d have already done it. You’d be the first to know. We probably wouldn’t need Pesah if not for the damned Humboldts. Imagine Argus with Cortexiphan! Imagine Josh with Cortexi—wait, actually, no. That’s genuinely terrifying. Even by my standards.
“No, no, and no. When our Head of Research Walter Humboldt, the creator of Cortexiphan, was smuggled out of Frankfurt by his traitorous daughters—the sisters of Anders Humboldt—he destroyed all of our samples of Cortexiphan and deleted all of the research we could have used to synthesize it. And even if we still had samples or the means to synthesize it, giving it to adults had a 100% fatality rate in previous tests. It appeared to only work in children and teenagers, who require a longer training period we don’t have at this point.”
“That doesn’t explain how the ex-princess had such an ability. Was she part of the Cortexiphan study as well?”
“No, she wasn’t, and I would know if she was. Which makes it all the more strange. I don’t know why she’s manifesting this ability. I need more information.”
“Check my Crusaders’ Panopticon footage.”
Theodor took out his tablet and began scrolling through Panopticon footage. There, from several angles, he clearly saw Wilhelmina desperately reaching out to save Friedrich and then generating an energy blast which knocked Elias and a few Crusaders around. Enonon flew into her hand, as if by telekinesis, white energy swirled around her, and then the hallway began shaking. Another second, and suddenly everyone was shooting, but none of their shots were landing, and Wilhelmina was moving at superhuman speed, quickly cutting through everyone’s guns before they could react.
Why did she go for the guns? She could’ve easily gone for their heads or something. That entire squad could’ve been dead, and we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, if she wasn’t a hippie idiot.
Afterward, Theodor pulled up Josh’s Panopticon footage involving the encounter with Angela in December 2034. There, Angela simply held up her hands and stopped the bullets, then started bringing down the tunnel with no theatrics.
“Okay, that opened up way more questions than it answered. How the ex-princess and Hansen used their abilities and how they looked are quite different. I can’t confirm the ex-princess is using Cortexiphan-enhanced abilities. I’m not even sure if her and Hansen’s abilities come from the same source.”
“Then what is she doing?”
“I don’t know, I keep telling you that!”
“Then how can we fight her like this? If she hones her ability and learns to control it, then comes after us…we’re all screwed.”
“Not really, just drop a nuke on her and that’s it.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Actually…
“I…no, at this point, I’m not sure if even that would work. But I have been working on a countermeasure, at least for more people like Hansen.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, it was on the backburner for a while since I had…other things to worry about first.”
Like Watchtower, the drones, and Pesah.
“But I was working on something that would at least counter the advantages of the Cortexiphan-enhanced. At least in theory, since we had no actually enhanced individuals to test it on. In light of what just went down, I’ll make it a priority.”
“What is it? Show me, now!”
“Let me show you. I have a prototype in a lab here.”
Elias tried pulling himself out of bed, only to grunt in pain again.
“Take it easy, you broke a lot of bones. From the footage I watched, you’re lucky you weren’t just turned into a splatter of blood on that wall.”
I wouldn’t mind the splatter of blood, though.
After some doctors had helped Elias into a wheelchair, Theodor wheeled Elias out of the tent and to the lab. Inside, his technicians were working on what looked like a humanoid exoskeleton.
“So your plan for dealing with someone who can move very fast and stop bullets is…a powered exosuit that makes you slower and doesn’t even solve the bullet issue.“
“I can explain. Even before we put down Hansen, Tesla Dynamic had been working on a way to counter enhanced individuals. Fortunately, we had a schematic we could use, from that data core I told you about.”
“Yeah, that data core full of ideas from your uncle in 2011.”
“Although his design wasn’t complete and made a lot of assumptions, I was able to fill in the blanks with the advances we’ve made since then. The materials specified in the design are much lighter and flexible than the ones I would normally use, allowing for greater speed and mobility. We’ve mounted a couple guns on it that fire bullets at a slightly higher speed than normal—borrowing from a special gun design in that data core—but your main weapon will be…”
He pointed to the ends of the exosuit’s “arms,” on which gauntlets with blades had been mounted.
“These melee weapons. Since the enhanced individual will most likely stop or deflect your bullets, why use bullets at all? Why not get in close for the kill? They’re probably not trained in close combat, like our Crusaders are.”
“I see what you mean now. This…this might just be your best work, Theodor.”
“Oh please, we all know it’s Pesah,” Theodor said, “Even if you refuse to condone it.”
“Actually…” Elias said.
Could he be…?
Theodor’s eyes widened. “Wait, what are you saying?”
“We might need all of the advantages we can get. I’m going to authorize Pesah.”
I never thought I would hear those words.
“Seriously?” Theodor pumped his fists. “Yes! You finally came around to it! Took you long enough!”
“But we should start with what we have first, while we prepare the infrastructure to release Pesah into the wild. I understand our Seraphim have been using chemical weapons in North Eimerica and the Baltics. I would like to expand their use to most of Scandinavia, and on a much larger scale.”
“Scandinavia? Larger scale? Shouldn’t we just hit Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, Trondheim, and Helsinki?”
Can’t make money if there’s nobody to buy my stuff.
“Yes, the Scandinavians have been surprisingly unruly even with the loss of their Fylkja and Olaf Finnson. But they cannot sustain their resistance without industry and infrastructure to back it up. I say we send a message by targeting every major settlement. Just like the Russians were always equalist barbarians, the Scandinavians are still bloodthirsty Vikings at heart. You know what they say: live by the sword, die by the sword. We’ll give them their glorious battlefield deaths.”
Wait. He’s not kidding, is he?
“Uh…”
“What? Are you not up to the task?”
“No, no, I’m actually
pretty excited. I just didn’t expect you to actually authorize it.”
Actually…is this overkill? Even by our standards?
“We will need to use every advantage we have. This is a war for the souls of humanity. We must win this war at all costs. And think of this as a test run for Pesah. Speaking of Pesah…I trust the rebels who interfered with production and testing were hunted down?”
“Not yet, Elias, but I’ve sent my best soldiers to deal with them. Nobody will interfere with the deployment of Pesah or notify our enemies of its existence. Though I’d like to recall Johansen as soon as possible so I can start training him with this prototype. He is the best candidate for any future operation to neutralize the ex-princess—”
“No. I will train in this prototype. I will be the one to destroy the ex-princess, not anyone else.”
“Elias, you need to rest first. Let a more qualified soldier handle it.”
Wait, no, frak! Why did I have to say that?! I TAKE IT BACK!
“Do you have…any idea…HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED ZO GEET HEEAR?!”
Frak, I have to get out!
All of the technicians in the room quietly and quickly fled, willing to risk being fired, getting their 5 minute lunch/bathroom break time revoked, increasing their shift to 12 hours, being put on an all-night shift, being assigned to the dangerous jobs, or having their children assigned to said jobs. Theodor was left all alone to face Elias’s undivided wrath.
“EE BEELDT ZEES NEHSHEAN! FIUHR ZEH LEUSHT FEURTY YAEHRZ, EE VEURK’D ZO MEACK ZEES GRAHT NEHSHEAN EENTOH VUAT EET IS TOAHDAEE, AEHLL EEN ZEH NEHM OOV MAEH ZEEZTAHR, SOOU NOOUVOOUZY VOOULD HAEHV ZO GOH ZHROAUH VUAT EE DID OOH VUAT ZHEH DAED! SOOU NOOUVOOUZY VOOULD ZAUFEEHR LEIEK HEEAR! SOOU AEVAEHRAEVOOUZY HOOU HAEHD EH HAEHN EEN HEEAR DEAHS NOOU HEEAR PAEHN! SOOU ZHAEH OOHL GOUH VAEH ZHEH DEEZEEAHRVZ! AEHN EE WEEAHL BAH ZEH OHN ZO EEVEEAHNGE HEARR! NOOH SOOUM RAAENZOUM BOIH! MAEH! ZEH SAYHVEEYAHR OOV ZEES NEHSHEAN! ZEH OHN VOOH VAEHL ZEHVEH ZEES VOOURAL! MAEH! MMMMMAAAAAAAAAEEEEEHHHHHHHH!”
What the hell is he saying? That accent of his is almost like another language. Nothing like in the old movies. So this is what happens if you give an eastern gangster all the power in the world. Uh…we have to retake control of the situation. Wouldn’t be good for business if he stays like this.
“Okay, okay, I get it! Fine! We’ll train you in the suit once you recover, whatever! Get your revenge, for all I care! In the meantime, I have to…go meet with the other committee members, yeah!”
He ran out of the room beore Elias could continue ranting. Heading back to his tent, he sat at his desk and pulled out his Panopticon tablet again, reviewing the footage from the fights against Angela and Wilhelmina.
Huh...she relies on that sword of hers a lot. I bet without it, she’s completely helpless. We could exploit that. Have to make a note for our training program.
His attention shifted to the other enhanced person he knew about. Regarding Angela Hansen…didn’t she have a daughter?
Last I heard, Alexandra Hansen claimed to have discovered a new element. Alongside my traitorous sister and that street rat Alex. All lies, I say. All she has are those two rats. No way someone like her could do something as complicated as discovering a completely new element when far more experienced and reputable men had spent years working on it with far superior equipment and failed. No, it’s just the party cartel’s equalist media making up a story for woke points. Wait, I’m veering off-topic again. Damnit. Not again.
Anyways…Alexandra was in the footage shot by Josh. He saw her climbing out of the wreck of the Impala just before Josh and his squad surrounded her group and Kirova intervened. So they were heading to Persia back then, which was backed up by the Shepherds of the Future footage he gathered several weeks later for the Tobias situation. Assuming nothing changed, that meant Alexandra, Thea, and presumably Alex (he didn’t care about the last guy, he wasn’t important) were in Isfahan.
Maybe as the daughter of Angela Hansen, Alexandra inherited her mother’s abilities, or at least had her physiology affected by it. Could be worth looking into. And the good thing is, Thea and Alex are likely with her. We could get three birds with one stone. A test subject for Cortexiphan. My sister back and properly punished as she deserves. Alex put in his place. ...Maybe I should build a second exosuit. And a third and fourth just in case…
Berlin - December 4
The three committee members sat around the table as usual, but they didn’t have much to say.
“So…” Heinrich said. “Can we please discuss the war?”
“No need,” Moria said, “Everybody knows their plans. They don’t need us.”
“Can I at least
know what the hell is going on? So I don’t have to rely on foreign propaganda outlets to at least get an
idea of what we’re doing?!”
Truth be told, at this point, foreign propagandists don’t even need to spin anything anymore. Unedited footage of our actions is far more effective than anything they could spin. Ironically, they’re telling me a lot more about my own country than these idiots around me.
Moria thought for a moment. “Nah.”
“This is just revenge, isn’t it? What did Elias tell you?”
“Same thing I’m telling you now. That High Command has been planning this for months, along with every scenario and contingency plan. They know exactly how this war is going to play out and what to do in each situation. You are unnecessary. You should consider it an honor that you don’t have to do anything, but you’re still paid for it.”
A lie. Nuclear missile silo operators told me the launch order came out of the blue. Gertrude said after receiving a certain message from Han, Elias flew into a rage. An hour later, the missiles are flying. No way the military was planning this under my own nose for a while.
“Yeah, bet they never considered the crazy scenarios in which the entire Russian army invades Vilnius on its way to cross the border while the Ryukyuans invade Sumatra.”
“Don’t believe everything you see on the foreign propaganda outlets,” Josiah said, “You already know they’re propaganda. Of course they’ll make stuff like this up to divert our forces and weaken our defenses.”
Unlikely.
“Yet if those reports are real, we should at least do something.”
“Eh, frak ‘em,” Moria said, “Sumatra is full of traitors. We wouldn’t lose anything there. And I assure you, the Russians will not cross the sacred border like they did in the days of the party cartel. Our brave Home Guardians will throw them back, just like we threw back the Indian hordes in Delhi. We’ll send some reinforcements to Vilnius too. No need to waste nukes on either target. Though we have enough nukes to spare.”
“Why am I still on the committee, if I can’t do anything?”
“Would you prefer to leave the committee?” Josiah said.
“And to stop being paid? I can certainly arrange that.”
“You might find my programs for economic parasites and social leeches to be very…thorough.“
They probably don’t know the details, but if I do leave the committee…there would be nothing stopping Elias and Theodor from making me…disappear. And I need more time to get the army on my side.
“…not really,” Heinrich said.
“Then suck it up and do your job,” Moria said, “Or whatever’s left of it. Be glad you’re still being paid the same rate.”
Be glad I’m not shooting you in the face right this moment. I’ll do that later. You’ll get your due, Moria. Eventually.
---
As you probably noticed from the last story update, I'm trying out a different style of internal monologues, but the issue is all of the upcoming updates I've finished in the last batch use the old style and I'm updating them now that my busy week's over. I plan on resuming writing new updates soon, and those will start out with the new style, but until then, there might be some awkwardness as I convert existing monologues to the new style or add in new monologues.
another friendly reminder that the easter egg is still out there!
