Post by Maelstrom on Apr 28, 2015 22:56:34 GMT -6
"Good job in training today," Elizabeth, the sentinel and their unit leader, congratulated as they headed towards the shower. "I've never seen you hack anything that quickly before."
"It was that or fail the exercise," Erin replied with a shrug. Compared to the rest of her sisters, Erin never felt particularly useful in the exercises.
"Keep doing things like that, you'll be able to hack the base's database someday, Sis," Emily said, offering her own form of congratulations. "Maybe then we could watch some decent programming instead of just educational shows all day long." The infiltrator sister was not alone in her loathing for the limited forms of entertainment. There was pretty much study or training for them.
"I'd even take the news," Emma, the adept sister, moaned, beginning to strip off her armor the moment she crossed the threshold to the woman's locker room.
Erin began to feel embarrassed. She did not know why she was the only one of them to feel any modesty. After all, each of them shared the same face, the same voice, the same body. One could hardly have told them apart were it not for their armor, weapons, and haircuts.
Elizabeth's hair was mid-length and usually kept in a bun. Emma's was very short, almost boyish, matching her playful and mischievous demeanor. Elise, their soldier sister, kept her hair in a long ponytail that stretched halfway down her back- she had to coil it to get it into her helmet for training. Elysia, their vanguard sister, kept her hair in a set of pigtails. Emily's hair was the most beautiful, her auburn hair cascading down onto her shoulders in gentle waves. For her part, Erin's was short, not quite reaching her shoulders, and wavy without any true curls. She hated the way it looked.
"If you keep this up, soon we'll master the top difficulty," Elizabeth assured, touching Erin on the shoulder. "I mean it."
Elizabeth's words were haunting her, as Erin lay in her own bunk in the barracks she and her sisters shared. The assurance that they would soon be able to defeat the highest difficulty felt more to her like a threat than the promise of something grand. Other than the tests of their knowledge and their routine checkups to keep an eye on their condition, there was really no other purpose to their life.
That condition is what seemed off. Supposedly, that was responsible for the loss of their memories, why none of them remembered their childhood together or their parents. It made no sense, though. They woke up within minutes of each other. No disease should have been that coordinated, and even if some treatment had worked, it should have taken time for them to treat each of the girls individually. And why were there no symptoms or side effects to the "medicines" they were administered daily.
She craned her neck around, and she found that she was, as usual, the last up. Again, she found the security camera's blind spot and brought up her omni-tool, checking the access point she had managed to create weeks ago into the base's mainframe. For the past several weeks, she had made it more and more secure, apparently without having been detected. Her skills were more than her sisters knew. It was her courage, she decided, which was lacking.
Erin looked around again, then returned to her hack. What she had been reading the past several weeks concerned her. Reports that seemed to be about her and her sisters, but regarding events that never happened... or that she could not remember.
Her brow furrowed, as she began reading over the files again. Unlike what she and her sisters were constantly told, the women she was reading about seemed not to be ill at all. At least, they were not ill before the checkups.
"So, you can hack it after all," Emily whispered from the bunk above her.
Erin looked up in shock.
"I thought so," she said. Rather than being harsh, she had a smile on her face. "You know, you're the one holding us up in the exercise."
"I know."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Emily sighed. "You know that the rest of us actually want to win."
"Yes."
"Then tomorrow, we're going to."
Erin was silent.
"If we don't, I'll tell the others," Emily said.
"Then tomorrow, we win," Erin agreed.
"Don't worry so much. It will be fun," Emily assured.
Erin doubted it.
It was as Emily said and Erin promised. Though it took over an hour, with Erin giving the exercise her full effort, they bested the top difficulty with little trouble. Even with those random elements introduced, she and her sisters managed the mission without losing a single member of the team.
Now they were each undergoing a checkup. The first time one was ever required right after practice. Erin was panicking, and she found a blind spot to access files again. This time she was more brazen, going after the most secure files in the database.
They scared her. The women who came before, the other Erins and Emilys and Elizabeths were all put into stasis with no date for revival. Her breathing quickened as she read the project conclusions. The minor genetic modifications of the template to specialize them were effective, however their methodologies for educating the young women to be loyal to the organization always came up short. In each batch, there was a rebel, someone who led the others astray. It stated that the original means of programming still seemed the most effective.
There was another related file, a summary of the whole program being prepared for someone higher up in the ranks. She opened it. Every muscle in her body froze in shock as the report scrolled by. There appeared to be memories embedded in their genetic code... or maybe it was some sort of engrammatic imprinting- she did not know biology that well. Memories salvaged from some woman who came before them. A kind of original template. The method of unlocking those memories practiced with the cryo-tube was still non-functional. With the infiltrators, soldiers, and engineers, rather than increase knowledge and ability, it seemed to cause some sort of mental reset.
For the biotics, though... Something else seemed to trigger in them. While the knowledge, memories, and skills took hold in them, something else snapped. In every case, they turned on the doctors at the base, their sisters, and even themselves. None of them were captured alive to be asked questions or diagnose the problem.
Erin wondered why they would let the women develop personalities of their own at all, before she stumbled across that paragraph. Apparently, the entire neural structure of the subject would burn out if the latent memories were activated before there was a naturally-formed structure for them to be assimilated by. Equally chilling, though, it seemed that the goal was for the original memories and personality to completely overwhelm and erase the original over time. And they already had a way of doing it, though it seemed the success rate was staggeringly low, hence the project going on at the base.
"Bad news," Elizabeth said, coming up to Erin, "I just got done with my checkup. Emma and Elise went first. It looks like the disease is getting worse. They're going to have to put us under until they can find a cure."
God, is it me? Could they tell I hacked the system? Erin wondered, panicked. Or maybe it doesn't matter whether we rebel or not. Maybe that's just what we have to go through every time.
"We'll be alright," Elizabeth comforted. "They'll find a cure, and then we can all get out of here."
"No," Erin said, pulling up the files and holding them out for Elizabeth to read. "No, it won't."
At first Elizabeth looked confused, and then the same look of horror that Erin could only imagine was on her own face a few moments earlier appeared. "We can't tell the others. Not all of it. But we need to get out."
Erin knew she had made a mistake the moment the doors closed behind her. The protocol should have just sealed off the ducts in front of her and to either side for several dozen yards, but it appeared someone had modified the protocols in the station so that any such tampering would cause the hacker's life too. She closed her eyes, wincing a moment later as the cold chemical spray drenched her face and the retrieval squads all around her started to make panicking noises.
In a way, though, she was glad. No more running. No more fear. Soon, she would have peace.
Warm tears formed in her eyes as she remembered Elizabeth dying in her arms as they raced away from the base that had been their home. More formed as she remembered Elise jumping on a grenade to save the rest of them and of Elysia being impaled on a sword. Erin had stayed quiet about the true facts surrounding their creation and planned destiny. She wondered if she had done the right thing.
After all, the experiment might have worked. Maybe the prior failures had given them the information they needed to fix the problems. At least then some small part of her sisters and herself could have survived. Even if they did not remember their time together, it had to have been better than the absolute finality of death.
Then another sound drew her attention. A banging from the other side of the bulkhead. The muffled sounds of Emily and Emma calling out to her, begging some unseen and uncaring power to prevent their sisters' death.
Maybe our lives weren't such a waste after all.
A terrible whooshing sound filled the room, along with sharp cries from grown men.
Just keep running you two.
Even with her eyes closed, she could see the light a fraction of a second before the intense heat overwhelmed her and pulled her mercilessly into eternal darkness.
"It was that or fail the exercise," Erin replied with a shrug. Compared to the rest of her sisters, Erin never felt particularly useful in the exercises.
"Keep doing things like that, you'll be able to hack the base's database someday, Sis," Emily said, offering her own form of congratulations. "Maybe then we could watch some decent programming instead of just educational shows all day long." The infiltrator sister was not alone in her loathing for the limited forms of entertainment. There was pretty much study or training for them.
"I'd even take the news," Emma, the adept sister, moaned, beginning to strip off her armor the moment she crossed the threshold to the woman's locker room.
Erin began to feel embarrassed. She did not know why she was the only one of them to feel any modesty. After all, each of them shared the same face, the same voice, the same body. One could hardly have told them apart were it not for their armor, weapons, and haircuts.
Elizabeth's hair was mid-length and usually kept in a bun. Emma's was very short, almost boyish, matching her playful and mischievous demeanor. Elise, their soldier sister, kept her hair in a long ponytail that stretched halfway down her back- she had to coil it to get it into her helmet for training. Elysia, their vanguard sister, kept her hair in a set of pigtails. Emily's hair was the most beautiful, her auburn hair cascading down onto her shoulders in gentle waves. For her part, Erin's was short, not quite reaching her shoulders, and wavy without any true curls. She hated the way it looked.
"If you keep this up, soon we'll master the top difficulty," Elizabeth assured, touching Erin on the shoulder. "I mean it."
#######
Elizabeth's words were haunting her, as Erin lay in her own bunk in the barracks she and her sisters shared. The assurance that they would soon be able to defeat the highest difficulty felt more to her like a threat than the promise of something grand. Other than the tests of their knowledge and their routine checkups to keep an eye on their condition, there was really no other purpose to their life.
That condition is what seemed off. Supposedly, that was responsible for the loss of their memories, why none of them remembered their childhood together or their parents. It made no sense, though. They woke up within minutes of each other. No disease should have been that coordinated, and even if some treatment had worked, it should have taken time for them to treat each of the girls individually. And why were there no symptoms or side effects to the "medicines" they were administered daily.
She craned her neck around, and she found that she was, as usual, the last up. Again, she found the security camera's blind spot and brought up her omni-tool, checking the access point she had managed to create weeks ago into the base's mainframe. For the past several weeks, she had made it more and more secure, apparently without having been detected. Her skills were more than her sisters knew. It was her courage, she decided, which was lacking.
Erin looked around again, then returned to her hack. What she had been reading the past several weeks concerned her. Reports that seemed to be about her and her sisters, but regarding events that never happened... or that she could not remember.
Her brow furrowed, as she began reading over the files again. Unlike what she and her sisters were constantly told, the women she was reading about seemed not to be ill at all. At least, they were not ill before the checkups.
"So, you can hack it after all," Emily whispered from the bunk above her.
Erin looked up in shock.
"I thought so," she said. Rather than being harsh, she had a smile on her face. "You know, you're the one holding us up in the exercise."
"I know."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Emily sighed. "You know that the rest of us actually want to win."
"Yes."
"Then tomorrow, we're going to."
Erin was silent.
"If we don't, I'll tell the others," Emily said.
"Then tomorrow, we win," Erin agreed.
"Don't worry so much. It will be fun," Emily assured.
Erin doubted it.
#######
It was as Emily said and Erin promised. Though it took over an hour, with Erin giving the exercise her full effort, they bested the top difficulty with little trouble. Even with those random elements introduced, she and her sisters managed the mission without losing a single member of the team.
Now they were each undergoing a checkup. The first time one was ever required right after practice. Erin was panicking, and she found a blind spot to access files again. This time she was more brazen, going after the most secure files in the database.
They scared her. The women who came before, the other Erins and Emilys and Elizabeths were all put into stasis with no date for revival. Her breathing quickened as she read the project conclusions. The minor genetic modifications of the template to specialize them were effective, however their methodologies for educating the young women to be loyal to the organization always came up short. In each batch, there was a rebel, someone who led the others astray. It stated that the original means of programming still seemed the most effective.
There was another related file, a summary of the whole program being prepared for someone higher up in the ranks. She opened it. Every muscle in her body froze in shock as the report scrolled by. There appeared to be memories embedded in their genetic code... or maybe it was some sort of engrammatic imprinting- she did not know biology that well. Memories salvaged from some woman who came before them. A kind of original template. The method of unlocking those memories practiced with the cryo-tube was still non-functional. With the infiltrators, soldiers, and engineers, rather than increase knowledge and ability, it seemed to cause some sort of mental reset.
For the biotics, though... Something else seemed to trigger in them. While the knowledge, memories, and skills took hold in them, something else snapped. In every case, they turned on the doctors at the base, their sisters, and even themselves. None of them were captured alive to be asked questions or diagnose the problem.
Erin wondered why they would let the women develop personalities of their own at all, before she stumbled across that paragraph. Apparently, the entire neural structure of the subject would burn out if the latent memories were activated before there was a naturally-formed structure for them to be assimilated by. Equally chilling, though, it seemed that the goal was for the original memories and personality to completely overwhelm and erase the original over time. And they already had a way of doing it, though it seemed the success rate was staggeringly low, hence the project going on at the base.
"Bad news," Elizabeth said, coming up to Erin, "I just got done with my checkup. Emma and Elise went first. It looks like the disease is getting worse. They're going to have to put us under until they can find a cure."
God, is it me? Could they tell I hacked the system? Erin wondered, panicked. Or maybe it doesn't matter whether we rebel or not. Maybe that's just what we have to go through every time.
"We'll be alright," Elizabeth comforted. "They'll find a cure, and then we can all get out of here."
"No," Erin said, pulling up the files and holding them out for Elizabeth to read. "No, it won't."
At first Elizabeth looked confused, and then the same look of horror that Erin could only imagine was on her own face a few moments earlier appeared. "We can't tell the others. Not all of it. But we need to get out."
#######
Erin knew she had made a mistake the moment the doors closed behind her. The protocol should have just sealed off the ducts in front of her and to either side for several dozen yards, but it appeared someone had modified the protocols in the station so that any such tampering would cause the hacker's life too. She closed her eyes, wincing a moment later as the cold chemical spray drenched her face and the retrieval squads all around her started to make panicking noises.
In a way, though, she was glad. No more running. No more fear. Soon, she would have peace.
Warm tears formed in her eyes as she remembered Elizabeth dying in her arms as they raced away from the base that had been their home. More formed as she remembered Elise jumping on a grenade to save the rest of them and of Elysia being impaled on a sword. Erin had stayed quiet about the true facts surrounding their creation and planned destiny. She wondered if she had done the right thing.
After all, the experiment might have worked. Maybe the prior failures had given them the information they needed to fix the problems. At least then some small part of her sisters and herself could have survived. Even if they did not remember their time together, it had to have been better than the absolute finality of death.
Then another sound drew her attention. A banging from the other side of the bulkhead. The muffled sounds of Emily and Emma calling out to her, begging some unseen and uncaring power to prevent their sisters' death.
Maybe our lives weren't such a waste after all.
A terrible whooshing sound filled the room, along with sharp cries from grown men.
Just keep running you two.
Even with her eyes closed, she could see the light a fraction of a second before the intense heat overwhelmed her and pulled her mercilessly into eternal darkness.