GHSL Incident

[AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT, COUNCILMAN VARGAS – DR. GLASS]

[TIMESTAMP 9th Moon, Sol 249, 1651, 0832]

Vargas. Dr. Glass, having watched your neuro-cam footage of the GHSL Incident, I understand that you have a new weapon against the Axeris-Flodai threat. I need clarification. If you would please, start from your arrival in Darija, and allow me pauses that I may interject. And, for my sake will you please spell out the acronyms you may use as or before they are spoken?

Glass. Of course, Councilman. Our squad dismounted the Defensive Anti Magic Vehicle in the ruins of Darija City at roughly 0900 hours and set it to security mode. Being wary of arcane husks we planned our search for survivors within 1 kilometer from the DAMV. Troop Commader 2 Bohris assigned two teams, North-South and East-West. I was leader of N-S Team composed of Troop One Phillip Sterling, Troop Three Donnatov Abbot, Volunteer Jaine Trieu and Manufactured-Troop Commander One OVR 674-A3, “Hajishite”.

Vargas. This was Jaine's first mission. Why did you have a 14 year old girl join the squad?

Glass. She is one of the only people we have been able to rescue over these last 6 months, and when we found her she demonstrated advanced control of multiple magics.

Vargas. But the use of magic attracts the husks. Is she not a liability?

Glass. Magic also draws attention away from survivors towards a group of people who are now trained and experienced enough to deal with the threat of arcane monstrosities.

Vargas. Strategic. Please, continue.

Glass. We began at hour 1000. Jaine flew to check the rooftops, Sterling listened for heartbeats with his drone. Hajishite scanned using both infrared and x-ray vision, Abbot moved cars, and I sped us up with manna. We only found ashen corpses.

I amplified Jaine to lift us atop a hotel, searching windows as we ascended. Flame lances hit Sterling's drone and Jaine. Hajishite found the arcane conductor in sub IR and neutralized it. Its body was floored inside the penthouse suite. On the roof, I inspected Jaine's wound. Her personal repulsion field generator had been damaged and she had exhausted her manna sustaining our flight after her injury. I gave her my last manna injection, healed her burn, then attended to Sterling and his drone. The power supply was burnt, and Sterling remained unharmed by the interrupted neuro-link.

Vargas. We are here to discuss a gold locket. I fail to see how this is relevant.

Glass. I admit that my neuro-cam footage does not clarify. I assure you Councilman, it is of the utmost importance here.

Vargas. As you were.

Glass. We descended into the hotel. The penthouse suite proved the only room of interest. Hajishite harvested the conductor into his power supply while the others investigated the area. Holographs, a calendar with marked days, an annotated holo-map, and a hasty written note evidenced the family of nine who survived here before being killed by their father.

Vargas. Why did their father panic?

Glass. They were not survivors because he thought killing and burning them in their sleep was more merciful than having his loved ones kill him and live in this plagued world. He had contracted Ax-Flo.

Vargas. And this affected you. From the nuero-cam it is clear to see that there were useful items which you could have taken. Would not more equipment have been wise?

Glass. We have been more than fine with what we have, and of myself I will not violate my principles. To take from them would be both disrespectful to the wife and children he murdered and would serve to justify his judgment, which I cannot.

Vargas. I appreciate your integrity, but your response colors you as biased, more so for the dead than for the living.

Glass. Councilman, grieving my family enhances my performance that I may preserve the living. I am confident you will find this backed by circumstances of the heart shaped locket. It is at the penthouse suite where I found it.

Vargas. You have my attention. Continue.

Glass. The locket rested neatly upon the charred remains of a woman in the bed, as if another had placed it there. It appeared to be in pristine condition. Neither the homicide note, the holographs, nor the family's “looting log” made any mention of this item. I felt a tinge of manna, and a W-Scan measured over 9000 potential. Because the placement of this item seemed intentional, showed no signs of physical damage, and measured high magical resonance, I took the locket and placed it in my hip pouch.

Vargas. Your neuro-cam stops for a while.

Glass. Abbot awoke me some time later. He informed me that I had fallen unconscious. I dreamed my wife and son were still alive, and that Ax-Flo never happened. I kept the locket to myself, as blue smoke diffused from Jaine. We used a teleport disc to arrive at the DAMV.

We found our transport overturned, a 3 meter slash across the hull, and the remains of the husks its cannon had blasted through whilst we were away. We reported this to TC2 Bohris and were advised to leave it until he, Bohris, could trigger the vehicle's grav-field to aright it, but to slow our pace in the event we encountered whatever slashed the hull. The damage to the hull shattered the vials of the Ax-Flo slowing agent, and I was unable to administer that to Jaine.

Vargas. Even so, that medicine only prolongs the inevitable. What's amazing is she is still alive, and you attribute this to the locket?

Glass. Yes and no. The locket alone is not enough. Please allow me to continue. She soldiered on, and we moved south.

Vargas. The view of the shore from your nuero-cam heavily suggests that Global Evacuation should happen sooner. Do you claim that this locket counters seas of dead fish and sands of red and green?

Glass. Councilman, I understand your incredulity. Please employ your best judgment when my testimony reaches its conclusion.

As we searched the shore side residences, Jaine vomited a slurry of blue and purple. I carried her from that point forward and attempted to radio Bohris. We were all immediately deafened by the supersonic screams of husks nearby.

We took cover. Abbot demanded we leave Jaine and run. I exclaimed that such was cowardice. Hajishite counted 27 that he could see. Sterling was visibly shaking. I was worried about how we survive.

I made the decision to stand our ground. I would be the one to bait the creatures to a fatal funnel. Having made this known, a white light radiated from my hip pouch. I felt calm. I took the locket in my hand, feeling the warmth of its glow. Abbot, Sterling, and Haj seemed affected too.

Vargas. So it calms emotions?

Glass. Yes. I am sure of that. But it is not my claim that an item which brings calm can turn the tide against a magical disease which has left at this time 4.3 billion dead.

Vargas. Continue.

Glass. Sterling configured his drone to maximize its RF deployment. Hajishite powered the drone remotely via his own supply. Abbot loaded plasma grenades into his launcher. I magically warded and shielded Jaine, assuring her that as I had already lost my son to these monsters, I would not be losing her.

Counting down from 10, I removed myself from cover. With my shotgun I obliterated 4 husks, though I was hit twice with lightning and ice, flame lances grazing my side. Adrenaline carried me past the pain in my shoulder in hip, both from my hard-suit and from my brain. I rushed towards Sterling's hovering drone. I slid behind cover as Abbot launched 3 grenades over the just deployed repulsion field.

I informed the team of the 3 conductors that must be present. We waited in cover for as long as Hajishite could manage. I went left, Sterling went right, and Abbot stayed center. The blue dust spoke of our victory. A bolt of lightning bounced from Abbot's pRF, to the drone, then to Jaine. Flame and ice lances missed Sterling and I. The three of us opened fire to unveil the conductors to the ground. Hajishite powered down. Jaine was prone and still.

The ground shook beneath us. Our hard-suits' radiation alarms sounded. Approaching from the rear we beheld a new creature, possibly a new stage of infection.

Vargas. Please give some details here. The footage gets distorted.

Glass. Appearing as a conductor with well developed muscles wrapping its shape. It stood in the air upon writhing tentacles in its back. These whipped themselves into the ground, and with a tremor the scene of our success yielded to ethereal tendrils swallowing the remains of the husks and conductors. The creature then pulsed as if a human heart, and expanded to be 5 meters tall. The air around it was a milky, off-blue haze.

We unloaded our weapons, only to find our blasts deflected with a wave of its hand. I attempted an S.O.S to Bohris but found my communications link damaged. I signaled to Sterling who got the message through. Bohris said he and his team would be at our coordinates in the DAMV within 10 minutes. Our new foe stood before us as if awaiting our permission to attack.

Jaine's skin was now a deep blue and began to burn through her clothes. Her hair finally relinquished its attachment to her skull and above her eyes. The infection was complete. She groaned, stood up, and began walking to the creature. I protested. Sterling scrambled to hard wire his drone to Hajishite. I watched as this creature slid on its tentacles towards Jaine, aware of our presence but ignoring it all the same. It stretched its hand towards her. Sterling attempted to deploy the repulsion field but to no avail. Abbot lifted a car as a shield.

The car was cut in two as the arcane monstrosity sent a crescent shaped wave of manna through it, knocking Abbot down. Sterling managed to tackle Hajishite out of the way. The creature then magically catapulted Abbot into the air. I slowed his descent with the last of my manna.

My adrenaline stores depleted, our weapons useless, and our magic gone, I found the locket in my hand once again. The locket was warm. Its light grew brighter. I recalled my dream from just hours before. Thinking to make that dream become reality, I planted a plasma grenade to my chest, clasped the locket, and charged into the creature.

I remember feeling a warmth and a blinding light. Turning my head I saw Jaine, asleep on a table, but with olive skin. Sterling finished connecting me to the med-table and Abbot and Hajishite were gathering samples from the new creature for the lab. I realized I was in the DAMV.

Bohris stood over me. I asked what happened. He said that he had the same question. He said, “According to Abbot and Sterling, you became a blinding light that made the big boy's chest explode, and when the light receded you and Jaine were both holding that golden heart shaped locket.” Bohris asked me what I remember.

I said, “I remember feeling the love that was once in this world when families still existed. I remember feeling fear for Jaine, Abbot, Sterling, and Haj. I remember thinking that if I go down with a fight and they still lose, at least I will have done what I could for my friends. I remember feeling what it felt like to embrace my wife and son.”

Sterling notified us that the med-scan revealed I had no infection, despite my injuries.

Bohris spoke. “I don't know which golden heart to thank, yours or the one in Jaine's hand.”

I responded. “I do.”

[END OF EXCERPT]