NationStates Jolt Archive

Prologue:

Colonel Saito was standing inside one of the Striders* that was gaining ground on the enemy position. It was his fitted for his mobile command post, and he watched over the entire division on the screens provided for him. It was a formidable force they were up against, some alien species where their lack of technology was made up for in their size. It was always harder to invade an inhabited planet, but this one was full of resources and in perfect position for an orbital fleet headquarters. Saito was poised to make general if this mission was completed in a timely matter, and he was yearning for that gold star to put on his shoulders.

On the ground in front of him, the black and red sea of the Crimson Guard was raining down on the savages that tried hopelessly to fight back with their rudimentary guns and vehicles. It was like a drizzle compared to the hurricane that was Crimson Machine. The strider’s guns blazed away at the enemy positions, tearing their bodies apart. The waves of Tekken—the robot soldiers—walked right up to the enemy and tore them limb from limb from limb. The battle was going as planned.

Suddenly, the battle took a new shape. There were explosions from within the ranks, caused by mortar rounds of some sort. The Strider’s sensors registered nuclear fallout, though well within the limits of the armored suits worn by the Crimson Guard. On his Division Commander’s suit, Saito powered up his armor to ensure he could withstand the radioactive material that would soon engulf the area. The troops were not losing any ground, though they were beginning to lose numbers.

The strider shook, and then began to buckle. Warning alarms started lighting up and sounding off. The computer sensors registered an EMP burst, and then shut down. Apparently we underestimated them. I underestimated them, Saito thought.

Over the battlefield, the colonel noticed his Tekken ranks fall, and then heard the sounds of mortar fire. One of the shells hit Saito’s Strider in the ammunition storage, causing a large explosion to come from the head of the large ant-shaped walker. Saito managed to escape the fireball coming from the front compartment, but he was sure the others were dead. He opened the bottom hatch manually and slipped out. A Guard platoon formed around him, and they made their way away from the major fighting to plan for a counterattack from a strict infantry standpoint. Explosions centered around his position, and Saito was hit. His armor was pierced in the Strider, something he hadn’t noticed until it was too late.

Dropships hit the ground, and the Division Commander was loaded onto one of them. The ship took off with as much speed as it landed, heading back to the ship from which it had originated. The last sight Saito saw was the hatch closing and his battlefield getting smaller and smaller as the ship ascended.

*****************

An aide rushed into the office with the speed afforded to a man of such a high rank. “Lord Meitou,” he said, bowing, “Colonel Saito is dead. He was killed while trying to take the planet from the natives. Apparently they put up more of a fight than we imagined.”

“Saito…” Meitou let his thoughts trail off. “The perfect candidate.”



*Strider (for reference)

http://plaza.ufl.edu/bcav/Online/strider.jpg

The doctors stood around the stasis chamber in the medical bay of the Kako, waiting for the authorization to go ahead with the project. There was supposedly a representative from the Inner Circle that was going to meet them on the Mogami Class Battlecruiser. Captain Ryuken waited on the bridge for her ship to meet up with the light cruiser supposedly carrying the "guest of the hour," as she had taken to calling this mysterious member of the Spartan government. They were waiting at the coordinates transmitted, when the operations station's readout changed.

"Captain, a ship is decloaking off the port bow. It's the Mogami. Identification codes check out," the officer at the station reported

Certainly enough, the light cruiser named for its class stood off the port side of Ryuken's ship, dwarfed by its size, but able to outmaneuver the Kako.

"Open a channel and alert them that we await our guest's arrival," she ordered. "And run a thorough scan of the system. There's a Ryuku out there somewhere, let's see if we can find it." She was right, of course. The intelligence ships always travelled along with dignitaries, always cloaked, and always ready to relay important messages to whomever important was on the other ship. They had the best cloaking devices in the fleet, and with good cause. She'd expected to find nothing, but there was no better time to test her sensors.

"Captain," it was the communications officer. "We're being hailed. They're sending over the transport now."

"Acknowledge them and clear for docking bay three."

"Aye aye."

They watched the viewscreen as the shuttles made their way from the smaller ship to the larger one. Ryuken knew they would be teeming with Crimson Guardsmen, as if her ship didn't already have a big enough complement of the "marines" aspect of the Stellar Corps. Ryuken felt it was a symbiotic relationship, even if it was that of a parasitic symbiosis. They needed the troops in the rare event of being boarded, and the troops needed them for transport to faraway worlds.

"Captain, the ships are about to dock," the operations officer announced.

"Very well, I'll be in the docking bay. You have the bridge."

The docking bay was bustling with activity as final preparations were made for the arrival of the shuttles. The bay doors opened and the forcefields activated around the control panels as Captain Ryuken entered through the large blast doors. The two Archangels landed inside and the outer forcefield activated. As the landing area filled with breathable air, the outer bay doors closed, giving way for the cold innards of a warship over the spectacular view of the stars outside.

When the inner forcefields dropped, the Crimson Guard soldiers present formed up in two lines and faced each other, leaving enough room for the dignitary to make his way to the ship captain.

The Archangel's rear hatch slid down and out, providing a ramp to walk down. "'Ten hut!" Captain Ryuken barked. The Crimson Guardsmen straightened themselves and stood rigid. She heard footsteps and then saw the figure. He was standing at his regular 6'4", and wearing his usual red and black tight-fitting suit with numerous swords slung down his back and guns hanging from his belt.

Ryuken dropped to one knee, as did the other Stellar Corps officers present. Lord Meitou was the most feared of the entire government cabal, and therefore he commanded the most respect. It wasn't that the citizens disrespected the others, but they went out of their way to see that Meitou was treated the best. The captain was surprised to see another superior with Meitou, Admiral Ogana. This was not specifically a Stellar Corps project, but they had the best doctors and therefore needed an admiral to breathe down their necks to make sure they did a good job.

"At ease," Meitou said, allowing the "sailors" to stand up and the soldiers to relax slightly. "Captain Ryuken, there is an interesting project that will happen on this ship soon. You will need to be briefed, and one of my aides will make sure that you are. It has been a long trip for me and the admiral, and we still have some important work to do. I need to get to my quarters so that we can begin immediately."

"Yes sir," she replied. "I will take you there myself."

The two visitors, along with Captain Ryuken and her Executive Officer, sat in the mission briefing room receiving information about the operation. Dr. Yasumasa Takeda, the lead doctor of this project, was speaking technically but bluntly about the operation. If it worked, Crimson Sparta wouldn't have to worry about soldiers that die in combat, being able to fix them up and get them back to fighting-- and with better abilities-- with little turnaround time.

*****

Colonel Saito was laying on the operating table. His body was taken out of stasis prior to the briefing, and was now ready to be operated on. The ship's medical bay did not have a suitable place to observe the doctors, so Meitou, Ogana, and the others watched the video feed from the briefing room. Dr. Takeda's voice came through his surgical mask and to the microphone located on his uniform.

"Colonel Hideki Saito, Crimson Guard. Beginning Wampyr Test Project. Scalpel please."

The doctors cut open a small area in the cadaver's stomach and implanted a device. It wormed a tentacle to the heart and began a vacuum effect, draining all of the blood out of Saito's lifeless body. The doctors maintained a supply of blood in Saito's brain, because it was needed to keep Saito alive during the operation. There would be time for the blood to mix with the new formula, without any adverse affects on Saito's thinking processes and memory.

Not long after they had started, Saito's blood was completely out of his body. They had not spilled much on the floor, but the room would be scrubbed after the operation anyway. If this worked out, there would be factories constructed for this purpose, with built-in drains in the floor. Although the blood looked thick and hearty, the doctors soon one-upped that with another fluid in a clear container. It was a dark brownish color, but the observers could tell it was a blood-like liquid.

The new liquid was comprised of nanites and several complex chemicals, all mixed in with normal human blood to achieve a hopefully horrifying and loyal soldier. The doctors hooked up the container to the device in his stomach and reversed the switch. The serum slowly emptied out of the container, with Takeda excitedly watching the process. It was relatively simple for the machine to handle, and all the doctors had to do was cut their subject open and implant the device.

Minutes passed, and the blood formula was almost entirely pumped into Saito's system. There were some minimal vital signs showing already, thanks to the nanites that were starting up his brain functions again. It would be a few hours before Saito was "alive" again, and then it would take him a few days to learn his motor skills.

The doctors disengaged the device inside Saito and sewed him back up, with the tiny box still implanted. Although the nanites would rework his system so that Saito could receive new doses of the chemical and blood mixture through his digestive system, there might be a need for a massive infusion of blood again, and the machine would be needed for that. For now though, the machine would act as a central processing site for the nanites to coordinate their business. Although Saito's brain would do most of the work, there would be vital memory loss if any more brain functions were taken over by the nanites.

*****

"That's it?" Meitou asked. "Billions of Gold Templars for a half-hour surgery?"

Soon, he would see what all those costs would bring to Crimson Sparta, and those in the room would never bring it up again.

He-- it-- stirred and notified the doctors that "his" transformation was complete. His eyes opened, but when the doctors saw them, they were shocked at how different they looked. Instead of the normal colored iris, there was only grey. The pupils were still black, but they were smaller and looked more like slits.

The whites of his eyes matched his skin. Although he had looked like a normal human while in the stasis chamber, he was dead, and his bodily functions were now slaves to the nanites. Since they did not require heat to stay active, the body went cold and pale. His internal temperature read at 10 C, and the doctors noted that his skin was indeed cold and clammy.

Saito tried to access his last memory, before being here. It was easier than he'd thought, considering what he remembered going through. He remembered being on the dropship, seeing the sight of a lost battle down below him. He tried sitting up but found himself restrained to the table. The nanites compensated for his strength and tried again for him. He broke the straps off and sat up.

The faint humming of the ship was suddenly all Saito could hear. To a normal human ear, it would not even be heard, but to a robotically enhanced ear, it was deafening. Saito clasped his hands over his ears and began making a grunting noise. His couldn't even get his thoughts straight through the noise. Noticing the change Saito's condition, the nanites inside him made quick adjustments and soon his hearing was roughly on par with what a human would hear.

He then looked around the room, at the doctors in their white uniforms. He wondered if he had survived, but then distinctly remembered dying. I remember my own death, he thought-- with superhuman speed-- but now I'm here and alive again. "Where am I?" he asked.

Lord Meitou had entered just before Saito asked, and answered. "You're on the Kako, and these doctors gave you a chance at a new life. You did die, and for that reason you are no longer human. We saved your memories, but now nanites control your bodily functions. You are a Wampyr now.

Saito was a little surprised, but not totally. The nanites had implanted memories of the surgery into his brain, and the confusion was starting to wear off. "So what does that mean?"

"This means that you will be the head of our newest fighting force, fighting along the Crimson Guard and serving onboard the Stellar Force ships. Your job is to train the future Wampyrs as this project continues. And my job is to train you."