| Transition |
Description
|
 A Gift to the Outlands
BP Level 01
|
[STIM SERUM, BATCH: #1215010-c] SELFTEST: Tuesday, 5:08am
RECORDING: On
Mmm. This one is… stronger. Acts faster. Flows smoothly through my veins... My arthritis— the symptoms are easing! My vision, stronger. Not 20/20, but… close. Note to self: Purchase non-prescription glasses. The previous test gave me lockjaw and a less-than-desirable mood, this is much improved.
We move ever closer… This stim will be my legacy, my gift to the Outlands: a cure to age herself! Or near enough. Projections are strong – 20, maybe 25 extra years… Think of what a man could teach his great-great-grandson?
It will be a product more ubiquitous than antibiotics - manufactured by one company, of course - and available to all… who live within Syndicate rule.
When the Fringe witnesses a generation of Syndicate citizens outliving two of theirs, well… I suspect we’ll need to make room for more friends. The price of submission is never cheap.
Hmm, what’s— my hands are trembling. The serum, it’s—
*sigh* Unacceptable. …But we are close. We are so close.
RECORDING: OFF
|
The Art of Control
BP Level 11
|
This isn’t art, Kaleb.
You don’t have an artist’s eye, Kaleb.
Art is about control, Kaleb.
Who was he to talk to me like that? A pathetic bag of skin and bones parading around as a being of sophistication and intelligence. As if this landscape he was forcing me to paint wasn’t just oil slathered on canvas. And he wouldn’t SHUT UP.
So I took the palette knife and ripped through his throat, relishing every moment of it. The soft fleshiness of fascia and muscle tissue, the slight twang of tendons snapping, the gurgle of blood in his mouth when he dropped to the floor in a motionless heap—and it felt good. His crimson droplets spattered across the skyline of the canvas, the only part of the piece I could truly appreciate.
Then I looked into his eyes, filled with abject terror—and realized that he was right; art was about control, and for the first time, control belonged to me.
|
D.O.C. Audio Log 10.15.0103
BP Level 36
|
<<AUDIO RECORDING MODE ACTIVATED>>
A. CHE: I can’t believe it. She KNEW it was his head and she kept it from us!
M. KŌHERE: What’d I teach ya, Che? Ya rely on a “friend,” yer just askin’ for trouble.
A. CHE: We wouldn’t have gotten into that facility on Salvo without Loba. I get what yuh sayin’, but we can’t do this alone. Even YOU have people yuh trust.
M. KŌHERE: I got people who answer ta me, not a bunch of idiots I’m buddy-buddy with. When are ya gonna learn? First Zippy screwed you over and now you’ve got Sticky Fingers doin’ the same thing. When we find the head, you really think she’s just gonna hand it over ta you?
A. CHE: No . . . but if she does, I’ll do what it takes to destroy it.
M. KŌHERE: Oh really? Even if she thinks yer stabbin’ ‘er in the back?
A. CHE: If it stops Duardo . . . I’ll be the one holdin’ the knife.
M. KŌHERE: Cold, Che. I like it.
<<NO FURTHER AUDIO DETECTED>>
<<SAVED AUDIO RECORDING>>
|
Shiny and New
BP Level 45
|
1211.CRITICAL-EVENT.REDIRECT.EXECUTE>>>!!!REDIRECTING…REDIRECTING…REDIR
ECTING…[notagainnotagainnotagain]>>>”45t001”>>>UPLOADCOMPLETE
1642.OCULAR.BOOT>>>[whysitsobrightinhere]>>>”82t82T”...
[Wait. This isn’t an upload chamber. I don’t recognize— I’m tied down… Something doesn’t feel— my body is… WRONG!]
9424.MUSCULATURE.BOOT[whatisthispleasedont]>>>”1014”
[These aren’t my arms. These aren’t my--- WHAT IS THIS. LET ME OUT SO I CAN KILL YOU!!!]
3443.SERVO.BOT>>>[regretthistheyllall]TESTING…
[STOP! IT’S NOT--- LET ME GO!!! STOP!!!]
888.TRANSFERCOMPLETE<<<UNITONLINE>>>
<<<UNLEASHED>>>
<<<WELCOME, MR. CROSS>>>
…
[I’m… stronger…]
…
[You have no idea how much.]
…
[Guess they were trying to make the perfect killing machine. They don’t know the secret: Never was the hardware that made me a monster…]
[It was the man.]
|
Eyes of the Mona Lisa
BP Level 93
|
TEAM WELLNESS SURVEY: Second Quarter, Employee ID: CM14
Its eyes keep following me.
I should clarify: JUST me. Not Edgar, not Alex. Me. I walk into the room, and the eyes… turn. Not so much that the security cameras catch the movement. Edgar checked, of course. “Crazy”, he said. “Lay off the stims.” If he were working the hours I am—
The eyes follow me, unblinking; even when I’m not looking... I feel them.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TEAM WELLNESS SURVEY: Fourth Quarter, Employee ID: CM14
It knew.
The eyes, we built them to detect and trace wounded targets. And that… was me. Cancer. The kind that’s terminal if they don’t catch it soon enough.
And the eyes saw. Long before I knew, long before I felt it growing inside of me, THEY SAW.
And if they hadn’t…
This technology, it’s going to save millions of lives!!!
|
Charge Rifle Rearmed
Free on login
|
On behalf of Vinson Dynamics, please accept this gift to celebrate and/or mourn the removal of the former Charge Rifle from the Apex Games.
|
