***
Experiment ID: A01-ANOM-LOG-09
Date: Philos Calendar Year [Redacted]
Recorded By: OTHAN-17642
Objectives:
1. Assess cognitive stability post-mission retrieval.
2. Investigate the cause of Subject A-01's battlefield anomaly.
3. Ensure neural conditioning integrity and recalibrate as necessary.
--Othan Research Bureau Report No. 7705
***
A dull hum pressed against her senses, the familiar weight of sedation slowing her thoughts. The sterile light above felt too bright, an unwelcome intrusion as her mind clawed its way toward consciousness. Her body felt heavy, detached, as though she were still floating between reality and something else.
Something else…
Her thoughts were fractured, slipping from her grasp like water through open fingers. But then—
She turned her head to the side, vision blurring as she focused on the figure beside her. Encased in the same containment pod, his cybernetic enhancements gleamed under the artificial glow. The shape. The features. Something about him—
A flicker of memory. A battlefield, the cold air, the clash of metal, and—
Him.
The sharp murmur of voices beyond the glass broke through the haze clouding her mind.
"Her reaction time faltered. Millisecond delay."
"She hesitated."
"Unacceptable. A-01 is designed for precision, not doubt."
"An anomaly in cognitive function. We've pulled her for evaluation. Adjustments may be necessary."
She closed her eyes. Their words felt distant, but their meaning was clear.
Anomaly.
A flaw.
Something inside her had changed.
And yet… there was something more. A feeling. A sense of displacement, of being somewhere she did not belong. It gnawed at the edges of her dulled consciousness, unfamiliar yet undeniable. But how could she feel out of place when she had no place to belong?
Her memories were fragments—battlefields, cold steel, the ever-present commands drilled into her mind. No past, no history beyond war and sterile walls. The only certainty was the lab. The orders. The purpose assigned to her. But now, even that certainty wavered.
Something was not right, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Not through the cloud of sedation, not with her sluggish thoughts resisting clarity.
Her gaze drifted back toward the glass, to the figure beside her. She tried to focus, to make sense of what little she could grasp.
But the weight of the sedation pulled her under, and she drifted into darkness once more.