Syndicate of Ideological Alteration: Eden

The door slid closed with a barely audible ’click’ behind her. Just as inaudible as the door closing she released a breath of air that could have possibly resembled a sigh. Lucid movements carried her full circle as she examined the immediate area.

A Hall..?

A subtle lift of her brow was sign enough of her present intrigue. It took her a few collective seconds to recall why she had taken that door.

Law.

A flurry of motion occurred as she moved forward, the ephemeral material that made up her skirt fluttering erratically behind her with each swift, wide step she took.

Eve, by name, was not a particularly tall woman, she stood only a few inches above the average for her respective race of humanoids. Elves they were called, but they only vaguely resembled the mythical creatures themselves. Eve’s people were to dark in skin, as her bronze flesh easily stated; and they were not of fragile constitution or build, far from. But their ears, each one delicately pointed, were quite akin to the common mythology.

She turned with a simple shift on the toe of her boot, her destination before her. In mere moments she was within the confines of the designated meeting area.

Silently she excused herself to those present as she carefully picked her course through the room itself, finally coming to rest in the chair beside Law. Several breaths passed from her before she leaned steadily towards that man, right hand subconsciously hooking dull blond hair behind her delicately pointed ear before she spoke in a hushed tone.

“Kosmolan, the task I was given persisted longer than I had desired, my apologies for my tardiness, Law,” her words felt jumbled, incoherent. A common side-effect when permitted to speak via a implanted device. It would need to be ’warmed up’ before proper sentences could be formed aloud. A familiar occurrence when not used often enough.

Had she not spoken during that period of time spent before the subordinates?

The thought passed from her without so much as a single flutter of her eyelids over her deep green eyes.

Adrian rattled the cage of rats. He could smell their fear, but he was curious. Fear was a strange thing. Fear was the contributing factor in natural selection. Man and beast alike was bred for countless centuries to fear. Fear was good. Since the invention of genetic alteration however, it seemed as though fear was a useless trait. All the things that constituted the survival of mankind was thrown out the window. Mankind had passed survival.

Mankind was now thriving.

It was difficult for Adrian to say why these rats had retained so many of their characteristics. Was it their intelligence- or rather their lack of intelligence- that lead them to be fearful? Or was it that there was more to their suvival?

Regardless, Adrian sunk his hand into the opening on the top of the cage. The albino lab rats squeeked in terror and ran to the corners of the cage as his thin fingers wrapped themselves around a particular rat with a longer snout than the others. Adrian investigated the rat and began writing down observations on a clipboard that he had placed next to the cage. He sighed.

They didn't let him have anything bigger than rats anymore.

"Observation. Variance in the genomes of this particular specimen has created a longer than average snout. Potential abberance on this experiment is expected to be null."

The rat squealed as it wriggled and writhed in his grip. It bit into Adrian's finger, struggling to get out of the grip of the hand that could potentially end it's life at any moment. Blood began to trickle down his finger and flowed onto the rat. It began to spasm as the warm red liquid contacted his skin. It's squealing turned into what seemed like screaming as black blood erupted from it's eyes and mouth. It's spasms made way to it's death a few seconds later. The rat's bowels released, and the feces dribbled onto the table. Adrian wrote on the clipboard once more.

"Unexpected and unforseen circumstances have caused the untimely demise of this subject. Moving on now to subject number 1462b.”

Opening the cage once more, he grabbed another rat. It was albino as the last one was, and as all the rats in the cage were. Grabbing it this time by the tail to prevent an attack on his digits, he injected the rat with a syringe.

He awaited the symptoms to show themselves as he held the panicking rat by its tail.

Eve’s thoughts drifted while her eyes idly played the part of one intently focused on the one speaking. No name came to mind, but the face was familiar. So was his voice. His voice…it carried over her ears clear enough, leaving in its wake words that came to Eve as nothing more than a mess of unorganized syllables. Eventually they settled into coherent sentences that Eve was properly able to perceive and appropriately react to. All of which felt to Eve as if it had taken several minutes to properly comprehend when in reality it was mere micro seconds.

She blinked once at the disposal of the one called Lore, her body subconsciously reacting with a subtle tension in her muscles that lasted no longer than a single breath.

Report?

The word reverberated off the confines of her mind as she steadily registered the weight behind the word in this specific instance.

Eve stood. In essence the action was simple, but it was performed flawlessly and with a fluidity rarely seen among the masses. Carefully her digits graced the surface of the table before her with a feather-light brush.

“Kosmolan shipment developed minor…” she trailed, tongue sliding steadily across her lower lip as she carefully weighed her next choice of words, “…delays.”

Eve let her words sink into the surrounding area before she continued.

“Appropriate protocols were initiated. Kosmolan shipment will be behind an estimated seventeen minutes, no longer. All other shipments were completed as scheduled.”

Just as she had stood she sat, fingertips drawing off of the tabletop and lacing carefully together over her lap. She had…reported. Her department, Supply…flawless, bar Kosmolan. But that had been dealt with according to protocol.

At the thought Eve’s eyes shifted right. Her thoughts were beginning to become less strained and more coherent. She was reallocating herself to the presence of superiors and equals. People she needed to listen to…people she needed to speak with.

Eve’s eyes eventually found their way back to the table and to each of those who occupied it. How long had it been since last she had sat here?

By the end of his leaders' spiel and Eve's colorless status update, Thorn's indubitably normal colleagues had filed into the room and taken their seats. They included fellow Security personnel, Generals, and miscellaneous SIA employees vital to Eden's running. The Chief of Staff - a short and buff man - took Lore's seat.

"Hernando!" Thorn bellowed,

The Grand Lagoon's doors swung open, revealing a gaunt and apprehensive man dressed in an orange jumpsuit. He balanced a massive floor mop across his right shoulder. He asked, "Yes mester?"

"Clean this up," said the Chief of Staff, pointing to Lore's dust with his stubby index finger.

Hernando dutifully swept up Lore's ashes, pushing them through the double doors and into the greater pile of detritus outside.

Thorn cracked his knuckles, keyed a series of commands into his monitor, and swiveled in his cushy chair to face the big screen, just as the first of several graphic slides up. "As you can see, Eden is in a flunk. The ENIGMA project is eating resources, leaving nothing for defense... or worse, pittance. The soldiers Akuma ordered killed have families, well some of them do; and we have to pay each of those families in compensation, and tell them they died in the line of duty.

"If news about this gets out, we won't have fresh meat to draw on. PMC companies don't hire to creepy projects like this for a reason.Worst of all, we've had several major security violates from our own members. People, you can't just do whatever you want. If you Eden to have even a modicum of security, follow the rules you made and don't think that you're magically excluded from them! This really is a problem, LAW.

"I don't want to sound annoying, but... the instant coffee here sucks. I've tolerated it until," he swiveled in his chair to face Eve, "I'm hoping our Quartermaster will do something to remedy the sorry situation."


"And now to my next point-" Thorn suddenly blanked, sentience vacating his face once again.

His eyes snapped open and he rattled off, "Incoming data stream from Kosmolan Station, it's tagged urgent.

"Opening, kay?" he snapped, before anyone could say anything.

The holographic screen shimmered to life again, showing the gunmetal gray bridge of Kosmolan and its red haired captain. "This is Kosmolan Station, we are under attack by unknown forces! I repeat, we are under attack by unknown forces! Mayday, mayday!" The Captain bellowed, constantly refocusing the camera on himself.

The captain's angle prevented anyone from seeing what happened next. Sparks flew into the left corner of the screen, the staccato commands of military personnel could be heard alongside gunfire. Kosmolan's Captain glared over his shoulder, apparently withdrawing something from belt level with his left hand and swinging it backwards. Suddenly, his face contorted with pain.

"Aaah, Aaah, my leg! To anyone out there, they've taken the bridge! Kosmolan station is compro-" The captain's frantic calls were cut off by the unmistakable sound of intense gunfire, and the subsequent splatter of blood across the camera. The screen appeared to crack and then went blank.

"Oh dear," Thorn ejaculated, grimacing and hissing through bared teeth. Slouching, he folded his hands in his lap and stared downwards, waiting for Terik or Akuma to respond. "War is NOT my concern, he grumbled softly.

“Kosmolan shipment may be delayed longer than initially reported,” Eve’s tone was kept cautiously neutral as she subconsciously spoke her thoughts aloud, her eyes fixed on the display screen. Perhaps this attack was somehow related to the delay she herself had encountered during her brief stint spent on Kosmolan.

Perhaps…

Eve blinked, once, twice, three times. Gradually she began to pull the memory of Kosmolan from the depths of her mind. There had been blood, not hers, others. Subordinates blood, yes, unknown blood. The tip of Eve’s tongue touched the edge of her bottom lip as she mentally recalled the taste of iron that had been there.

Hmm…

She shifted slightly, her eyes flickering over the table before resting on her lap.

Eve was beginning to recall what exactly the delay had been. More precisely Eve was beginning to reregister the specific details. It was easy for her to remember things, but often it was condensed information, much like the spreadsheets she read, shipments detailed in nothing more than times, dates and locations.

Throughout this she processed the remark about the coffee, and in reply simply blinked.

Coffee…

Eve silently filed it away, knowing exactly where to go for coffee. Well, not just coffee. Better coffee.