12th of July 2022
Objective: (unofficial) Mission Aonar. Investigate on the new NWO base and eliminate Saitoro.
Agent Aurora location: South-Western shore of Eilean Mhealasta, Scotland
Arriving in the morning, Dawn had crossed the Atlantic. She woke up just on time to land the helicopter on a safe and hidden part of the shore on the island she arrived, behind a cliff on a flatter area.
She opened the map in the cockpit. Didn’t land on the wrong island, good…
Dawn turned around and started putting on all her equipment. Clothing, done. Extra protection, done. Silenced weapon, done. Grappling belt, done. Ready to go…
Dawn stepped out of the heli and approached the cliff. She activated her grappling hook. It planted itself in a rock and Dawn started climbing up.
Arriving at the top, she peeked over the rocky plateau. No enemies here. Would they install cameras around? Hopefully the radar jammer of my helmet works well…
Dawn climbed up and advanced forward, all while staying crouched and looking around. She noticed the outer end of the little dock left of her down the cliff. The real entrance.
Pure suicide to pass by there… Gotta be smarter. Another way in. Let’s see… A mostly underground base, what does it require?
Dawn saw a bit further a metallic plate with smaller structures on it. It needs air!
Dawn rushed to the plate. There were two air vents. Out of one came a bizarre smell. The grid was already rusting a bit. Dawn put her fingers in-between and could pull the grid off.
She looked down. The vent system was dark, but not completely. No step back now, Dawn…
Night vision on and grappling hook planted on the side of the vent, Dawn slowly went deeper inside the system until she touched a ground. She continued crawling in one direction.
At one point, the air vent split up in three directions. Dawn went left. New voices emerged, making her advance slower. She arrived at the end of this part of the aeration system where she came across a hatch, but Dawn waited for the voices to leave.
“Ugh, I’m getting quite annoyed with her madness around that dead project! We’ve been turning in circles, wasting money, and for what? Nothing! We could have used it for so much better things!” One voice complained.
Dead project, getting worked on? Didn’t they, abandon it?
“I understand. I feel the same way, but orders are orders. Our problem is getting test subjects that are persisting enough,” another voice replied.
“And the only subject that can bear it isn’t here, under our surveillance! She’s free and dangerous to us! And don’t forget they took all the documents from the raid in Switzerland, including the recipe for the working version of 12B!”
“They might try to replicate it for themselves? Who knows…”
“I sure hope they don’t find solutions for our invention’s problems!”
“I don’t think so. We have the best scientists on our noble side.”
“I’m still pessimistic…”
“Oh well. I’ll hear from Saitoro’s orders when she’ll be here.”
“When did she plan to arrive?”
“Should be today, I believe. But I gotta go back to the inner labs. Good luck with your relocation, Jessica.”
“Thanks. Take care…”
Dawn heard a door slide open and close after, then a sigh from the other scientist.
A sink went on. Dawn looked through the hatch and saw it was right above the sink, with the scientist washing her hands. “Can’t miss the boat, or they’ll just leave without me. But I really needed to wash those hands…”
Dawn breathed one bit and quickly opened the hatch…
“Wait, wha— Aah—” then jumping down on the scientist. And before she could react, Dawn had taken care of her. The bump to the metallic floor knocked the scientist out.
Dawn landed in a little room with lockers against the walls, with a table in the middle. She rushed to the door and locked it via the control panel. She also closed the shutters from the windows next to the doorway.
Looks like the place where all employees store their stuff for the work day… Dawn looked in the corners of the room, but found no cameras, luckily.
So Saitoro still has to come. Best place to wait for her might be her desk, or the lab she works in… I could follow that other scientist… But first I need to find a way, and I’m not feeling like going back in those vents. Hmm…
Dawn saw the scientist’s body and had an idea. She took off her lab coat and put it on herself. Then, Dawn started forcing the lockers with her knife.
In one she opened, the agent found a surgical cap and surgical mask.
Dawn put her weapon in one of the front pockets of her newly acquired coat. She approached the exit door and unlocked it. Hopefully this’ll work…
Dawn went left and saw a guard standing there. She slowly started looking more to the ground and away from the guard. When she passed him… He didn’t react.
It worked, for him… Dawn thought with relief. She wandered further in the blue-cold, metallic hall.
Dawn passed a sliding door at some point. The hall in front of her continued for some metres, but turned in a T-junction. She looked both sides. On the right were two elevator doors.
The more I go down, the better… Secrets are often hidden the deepest…
Dawn neared the elevator and called it up. One minute of waiting later, it opened up, with no one inside. Dawn stepped in and pressed the button to go to the lowest floor.
Just as the doors were about to close, a young man rushed through them, breathing intensively.
Dawn looked at him. Quite young… Probably younger than me. What the Hell is he doing here?
The doors closed, and the elevator went down, catching Dawn’s attention. The boy looked at her.
“Just on time, hehe! Don’t you think, Dawn?”
Dawn frowned and glanced back quickly. “Arnaud???”
“It’s dangerous here, we must leave!”
The elevator shocked a bit, shaking Dawn too. She looked back at the boy. It wasn’t her friend.
“N-no, I’m Adam… N-nice to meet you, Jessica?” He said. Dawn saw a name tag attached to the lab coat. Dawn didn’t reply and continued staring around.
Damn hallucinations… Now I’m seeing, h-him, around…
“Ehem, I’m the intern. For the, security, centre…” The boy continued.
“That’s great!” Dawn dryly replied. Starting to resemble him nonetheless…
The elevator got down and opened its doors. Dawn entered a square room. On her left and right were halls with informative panels. In front of her was a large sliding door with two guards.
“Ah eh, good day!” Adam said to Dawn before going left. Dawn ignored him, she was busy analysing the room.
Dawn carefully approached the guarded door. Above it was written ‘inner labs, authorised personnel only’. One guard glared at Dawn, making her subtly turn around.
Gotta get past those guards, one way or another. Quickest way would be to put them to sleep… But— Dawn looked in the corners of the metal room, noticing security cameras.
NWO surely likes to monitor their employees, apparently. I must deactivate the cameras and unlock the door.
Dawn looked to her left and saw the hallway that boy from the elevator took. Intern for security centre… Let’s see that way.
And the infiltrator strolled away. Dawn found a stairway going up. The hall turned smaller, darker with only blue lights on the roof sides, giving a server room vibe.
On the end of the hall she noticed a double door. Security centre, wasn’t too hard…
Dawn tried to hear for voices by putting her ear against the door, but she couldn’t notice any. She sighed and peeked through it instead.
The room was dark too. The only light came from the dozens of monitors in the back and the large command panel. Dawn noticed two people, the intern and another employee.
“And as you see here, there’s a problem with air vent 3 on the surface. It’s directly marked with a red triangle here and—”
In the dark I go… Dawn thought. She pushed the door to go through, but it creaked a bit. The senior employee turned around.
“Hey, who’s this?!”
And shit… The employee approached her. “Jessica? Shouldn’t you be relocated? The boat is almost leaving!”
Dawn gulped. Think Dawn, think. Okay, he didn’t catch you, yet. Do you bluff, or go in?
The employee looked a bit irritated, being interrupted during his work.
Bluff…
“They are waiting for me, but I quickly had t—”
“That’s not Jessica’s voice! Who are you?!” The employee yelled, pulling his gun out. The pistol pointed at Dawn.
Go in then…
Dawn reached for the enemy’s gun and pushed it away. She grabbed his arms and they started wrestling.
“You’re an infiltrator! From the WSC!” The employee yelled.
Dawn received a kick on her leg, making her fall a bit.
“Argh, activate the alarm, quick!” The worker shouted to the intern. The boy was looking over, being terrified and unsure on what to do. He turned around to the command panel and bit his fingers.
“Where is the alarm button!?”
Dawn pushed her opponent against a wall, hands first, making him drop the pistol. He returned a punch to Dawn’s face, making her step back.
“The one, to the right!”
Another attack followed from Dawn’s enemy, but she blocked it this time. With one hands, she grabbed the man’s arm, with the other, she reached for her knife under the lab coat.
In a quick series of actions, Dawn planted her weapon in his arm, punched his head with her free elbow, turned around, and stabbed his neck.
Forgot about the voice, beginner’s mistake. Be better next time…
“On the right, on the right! There are several buttons on the right! Why don’t they writ—”
“Shut up, you,” Dawn turned up behind the intern, pointing her silenced pistol at him. The innocent guy looked frightened.
“P-please, don’t h-hurt me! I-I’m new here! I have done n-nothing to y-you. P-please…”
Dawn looked at him. The guy didn’t look back. She sighed and lowered her mask to breathe better.
“I need you to deactivate all the cameras, and to unlock the door to the inner labs, understood?” Dawn ordered.
“B-but, I-I never u-used this!” The intern sobbed.
“Is it that different from the NWO-school books? Do what I ask or this could end badly!”
“O-okay okay! P-please, don’t sh-shoot!” The intern put his hands in front of his face, then carefully turned his chair around. He started observing the command panel, filled with buttons.
Dawn looked at her stolen coat, seeing various blood stains on them. She tried to wipe them off, but that didn’t work.
She glanced back at the intern who was trying his best. “Is this done yet?! I don’t have all, day!”
The intern pressed one last button and the screens all turned red, showing ‘cameras deactivated’. He slowly turned to Dawn.
“H-here y-you go… The d-door should be unlocked t-too…” He looked to the ground. Dawn was staring at him, deciding on what to do.
“P-p-please…”
Dawn looked frustrated. It’s, just an intern… But I can’t risk letting him alert his friends… Third way…
Dawn knocked the intern out with her weapon and turned around to leave. But suddenly, she heard the 12B beep again, and her vision turned colourless yet again.
What, now, ugh… Dawn looked around. The thing that turned white was the unconscious intern.
He’s the solution? He just arrived here. No, this can’t be true.
Dawn continued staring at him and realised… He, will wake up, at some point. First thing he’ll do is alert the rest…
Dawn looked around the room. Nothing in it sparkled an idea in her mind to help her. She sighed.
Lesson four, don’t trust anybody… Lesson five, it’s imperative not to bond with the enemy…
Dawn reloaded her weapon and looked away.
In the other central room, the guards were surprised by the sliding door suddenly opening. One was busy at its control panel. Dawn appeared back, and the other guard looked at her.
“Hey you, what hap— why is there blood on y— aarh!” Before finishing, Dawn had shot the guard right between the eyes. The other one heard the silenced shot, but didn’t have time to turn around.
The alarm can’t be activated now, but I have to find Saitoro quickly before they discover their bodies…
Dawn dragged the bodies behind the sliding door and accessed the control panel from the inside. She could close the door, but not lock it again. Dawn turned around and saw another elevator door at the end of the hall. She went in, and down.
Deep underground now, Dawn arrived in another straight hall. It was dark and only several blue lights shined in the area. It gave Dawn a high-tech style or atmosphere.
Still unseen, but not hidden. Coat’s still bloody, people will notice. And I don’t think they do any type of surgeries in this base. More a, technology-focussed area…
Before continuing, Dawn had damaged the elevator’s control panel, preventing it from going up again from this side. Trapped myself, but can’t risk people going up and seeing the dead guards… And the agent turned around.
The hall had the same rooms with windows on both sides. On her left, Dawn’s curiosity made her look through the glass. She saw two scientists in an experimental shooting range. One was holding a white weapon.
A shot was fired, Dawn startled a bit at the sudden flash. Testing laser-rifles? This is straight out of fiction. I hope we didn’t underestimate the NWO…No time to waste now, Dawn.
Find Saitoro’s desk or lab. It should be down here, probably. If she’s there, shoot and try to escape. I still can climb up through the emergency hatch with my grappling hook. And if she’s not there, search around, hide, j-just wait, okay? Go on…
Dawn moved from the window and continued forward. She did observe the other testing rooms while walking by them. One scientist on her right was testing a humanoid hologram. A bit further down the hall was another one testing an exoskeleton.
But Dawn’s attention was elsewhere. She noticed a lonely metal door with a hazard sign marked on it. Dawn approached it. It wasn’t locked, and she pushed to look inside.
She entered a little metal room, dark too, with only one flickering light in the middle. In one corner was a little table with a chair next to it. On the right were some closets and a monitor. In the back left was another door.
Hazardous… Mysterious indeed… Dawn thought, walking in. She approached the other door and reached for the handle.
But arrived in the back, Dawn heard the door behind her slam. She turned around and felt a slight panic-wave. She jumped to the door.
Aah, it got locked! This wasn’t a good idea Dawn, this never was! Get back to your senses and find a way out!
Out of the little air vents from the roof came a noise of spraying gas. Dawn looked up. What’s going on? Wh-what’s, t-thi—
“Well well well, what do we have here?” A loudspeaker said. Dawn felt more dizzy. Her vision blurred and at last, she fell unconscious.
“Dawn. Dawn! Please…” Arnaud’s voice said. Dawn looked at him. The image of the hill, the tree, the ocean. It all came back.
“I didn’t do the right thing…”
“It’s not your fault, Dawn… Stop being obsessed with it. We get over it together, okay?”
Dawn sighed. A hot breeze hit her cheeks. She saw the sun go down.
“You wouldn’t understand it…” Dawn looked down.
Arnaud put his hand on her shoulder and smiled a bit. “No matter what you saw, what you feel… I’ll understand it…”
Dawn looked up at him and grinned a bit.
“Hey…” Arnaud got a bit closer. “Don’t forget to breath…”
Dawn had a sudden shift back to reality. She opened her hands and felt attached to a chair. She looked around, still in the same room.
From behind her approached a person. It showed itself, and it was Saitoro in a lab coat. She grinned a bit.
“We haven’t really had the pleasure to see each other from this close, did we, in person?”
“I don’t think that would end well…” Dawn replied. She glared around, trying to find anything that could help her. Saitoro turned to the closets.
“You know what you are, 女 アーシャンボー?”
Dawn frowned. “I, don’t think I understand Japanese…”
“Too bad, it’s a beautiful language, you know… 女 or onna is ‘miss’… But you might prefer that I call you Dawn?”
Dawn didn’t react. “So, what you are, Dawn, is a gift from heaven… Coming out of nowhere, when we needed it!”
“What do you need me for? You just want to kill me…”
Saitoro grinned. She put some tools on the table next to her. “Unlike your goal, I’m not here to kill you… I’m here, to revive a project!”
Dawn understood. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to regulate her breathing pattern. She felt her hope vanish.
“The project didn’t die with Isermann!”
Saitoro shook her head. “I collaborated on the project… And to honour Seth’s work, after his departure for a better place, I continue the research.”
Saitoro took a jet-injector from the closet.
“You’re being disloyal to your own organisation, what an indignity…”
A quick laugh escaped from Saitoro’s mouth. She sighed, looking at Dawn. “It’s not against the rules if you don’t get caught! I see potential in this project, not something everyone can perceive… A lot of people don’t know what’s good for them, or their causes! Our leader is part of that group!
“And luckily I have lots of collaborators who do understand me…” Saitoro sat on the edge of the table and sighed. “It’s when you start to think differently that you get misunderstood, don’t you think?”
Can relate, somewhat… Dawn thought, but she didn’t answer. Saitoro stood in front of her.
“I’m glad you are here. With some security precautions, you will stay here for our research. Don’t, worry, you’ll be treated well…”
Saitoro walked behind her prisoner. “But enough talking! はじめましょう, let’s start!”
Dawn got a bit more agitated and tried to look behind her. “Wait! What are you up to now?! I’ve already had an injection!”
“Ooh I know. That was phase one, see if the patient survives long enough. You passed that phase. Now, I’ll start the second phase…
“The control phase! What I have in my hand is an injector that will plant a special chip under your neck skin. Normally it will be able to connect with the microchips that are already in your brain…” Saitoro looked surprised on purpose. “Microchips you are thinking? From the first injection? And they weren’t noticed during the brain scans? How weird! Hehe, no. How innovative…”
Saitoro went to Dawn’s side and gave her an injection. She winked at her. “Just a bit of morphine, against the pain…”
Saitoro stood up again. She pushed Dawn’s head down. She tried to resist, but she felt weak again.
“The 12B effects will be controllable by you now! Luckily you came alone, and hopefully you will stay a bit with us, I have hundreds of tests to do on you to optimise the effects! For the hallucinations we’ll see later… You can still bear them I hope?”
Dawn was breathing faster. Saitoro grinned. “Don’t panic too much… It won’t, hurt, too much… Hahahaha!”
Saitoro raised her tool and planted it in Dawn’s neck who started yelling. Dawn bit her lips, retracted her stomach and pinched her eyes. She felt weak.
Don’t weaken here, you can make it out! Aargh!!
“And done!” Saitoro excitedly announced. She turned to Dawn who was sweating.
“What, have you, created?!” Dawn mumbled. Saitoro’s smile disappeared.
“Focus on the place of the chip, and you should be able to trigger 12B… Wait for my command, I need to install the brain scan first.”
Saitoro turned around, back to the closets. Dawn was stabilising her breathing pattern. The pain softened. She looked around.
I need, to use it, against her! Dawn thought. She started concentrating, but nothing happened.
On the spot she said! Come on, Dawn! You can do it! Dawn tried again. She closed her eyes too. And suddenly, she heard the beep, her vision turned colourless, but Dawn also felt more energetic.
It worked! It worked! Dawn started looking around for a white glow. She saw the rope of her right leg that loosened.
How can this help me? Or maybe… Dawn subtly liberated her leg. Saitoro didn’t notice and continued looking in the closets.
“Where is that stupid tool? Someone took it?” She mumbled to herself.
The rope stopped glowing. Then, the rust stains under the left armrest.
A puzzle! It shows the steps… Still gotta figure it out on my own…
Dawn moved a bit with her arm. She felt the metal wasn’t too solid. After a precautionary look at Saitoro, Dawn lifted her arm up. The armrest creaked a bit, but Dawn could quickly glide the rope of her arm in between the opening.
Left arm freed too… What next? Dawn saw a syringe and a knife glowing on the table. She sighed.
I have to risk it… I feel, energy again…
Dawn moved her chair a bit closer to Saitoro.
“What are yo— Aaah!” Dawn hit the closet door against Saitoro’s head, making her fall to the ground.
Dawn, still with the 12B effects, hopped to the table on one foot. She looked for one second at the two items. She took the syringe, turned around and planted it in Saitoro’s leg.
“Aaah! No! Not, the—”
Dawn turned around, but her vision gained its colours back. Dawn felt a bit dizzy, still half-attached to the chair, fell to the ground.
The, energy. It’s, gone! Dawn looked at the table, then at Saitoro. She was also weakened, bleeding from her nose.
“You! This, will, end, now!”
Dawn did her best to sit back on her chair next to the table. She slowly stretched her arm to the knife while Saitoro crawled to her.
“This could have been, the biggest, breakthrough! But you, are created, just to destroy!” Saitoro yelled. Dawn forced her arm further towards the weapon.
Saitoro climbed to Dawn. She couldn’t kick her away. Saitoro slowly reached for her neck and started pressing it.
Aah! Argh! My, breath! C-come on! Couple, inches. Aah…
The knife was heavy. Dawn’s vision faded a bit. Saitoro looked on her side, and with her last efforts, Dawn swiped the knife to her face, scarring her right cheek.
“Aaah! Aah!” Saitoro released her grip. Dawn’s vision stopped fading, but she still felt weak. She cut the ropes of her remaining limbs and tried to stand up, but immediately fell on her back, dropping the knife.
Saitoro tried to reach for it. Dawn kicked it further away, but couldn’t grab it either. Saitoro turned a bit and still managed to take the weapon. She glared back at Dawn, and stabbed her lower leg. Dawn felt it.
“Here it ends, for you!” Saitoro grabbed Dawn’s legs and pulled herself slowly more towards her. She panicked and looked around.
“We planned to kill you last! You were of a certain interest, to us!” Saitoro crawled closer. She was half-a-metre away from Dawn’s head.
Dawn didn’t see anything around her that could help her. She couldn’t get concentrated for 12B either. She was too tired.
Saitoro raised the knife above Dawn. “At least, without you alive, we will have an advantage against the WSC!”
Dawn was panicking, but she couldn’t move properly. She closed her eyes. Concentrate Dawn! Concentrate…
“And our rise will be guaranteed!” Saitoro’s knife went down.
Focus, please!
Dawn inhaled, and grabbed Saitoro’s arms. She heard the beep and her vision turned colourless. The knife started glowing again. Dawn didn’t feel tired any more. She pushed the knife away from her.
“No! Nooo! This can’t be!!!” Saitoro now panicked. Dawn kicked her enemy of her body. Saitoro dropped the knife, Dawn took it.
Saitoro leaned against a wall, exhausted. Dawn kneeled next to her. She started glowing white.
There was also, suddenly, a distant explosion, coming from above. But Dawn didn’t pay attention to it. Her leg still stung.
“Scientists use their inventions to do good. I will use your invention, to do good. Starting with you…” Dawn planted the knife in Saitoro’s neck. She was no more.
The 12B effects disappeared again. Dawn fell to the ground, almost unconscious.
I can hear far-away voices. They are coming for me… Good, or bad, I don’t know, yet…188Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCg6LnWWHF5
