Report Log - Othan Laboratory
Subject: A-01 and X-02 Incident Analysis
Days Unaccounted For: 5
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPTION]
Lead Scientist: "Five days. Five entire days unaccounted for. Not only did we lose our strongest subjects, but we failed to retrieve them without unnecessary complications. The security breach left a portion of our control systems compromised. Explain to me, how did our system fail?"
Researcher 1: "The external hack was unexpected, but that wasn't the core issue. The anomaly was within the subjects themselves. Their functions should have been completely dependent on our directives, but A-01 exhibited… deviation. A complete break in expected behavior."
Researcher 2: "X-02 as well. His directive recognition was compromised. Instead of eliminating targets efficiently, he resisted, adapted."
Lead Scientist: "This should not have been possible. A-01's combat awareness is engineered for immediate response. The probability of resistance—of independent action—was statistically negligible. And yet, here we are."
Researcher 1: "They are contained now, in an isolated chamber. The restraints are reinforced, the monitoring systems run at maximum efficiency. We won't risk another failure."
Lead Scientist: "No more deviations. If they have formed an unauthorized cognitive link, it will be severed. Their minds are expendable. Their bodies are not."
[END TRANSCRIPTION]
Objectives:
1. Conduct full system diagnostics on A-01 and X-02.
2. Identify and eliminate any foreign interference in their cognitive programming.
3. Reinforce neural regulation to prevent future behavioral anomalies.
4. Enhance physical containment measures to avoid further breaches.
5. Begin immediate recalibration of memory and directives.
---
Mira stirred, a dull ache settling behind her eyes. Her limbs felt weightless, as if her body was no longer entirely her own. The cold, artificial air hummed around her, sterile and suffocating.
She blinked slowly, her vision still unfocused. White walls. Reinforced glass. A dimly lit chamber devoid of anything familiar—except the presence in her mind. A name surfaced, fighting against the haze threatening to consume her thoughts.
Caleb.
She grasped onto it like a lifeline, the only thing tethering her to something real. The sound of his voice, the warmth of his presence, the promise he had made beneath the endless sky.
She flexed her fingers. Movement returned sluggishly, her body unresponsive as if something was blocking her senses. Restraints, perhaps? No, not physical ones. This was different. A pressure, a weight holding her in place—not just in her body, but in her mind.
Her memories... there were gaps. Large, gaping voids where there should have been something. The lab. The wastelands. The battlefield. The heat of the summer night, the glow of the silverglow seed in her palm. And Caleb's voice—
"It's a promise. We'll stay together every day and never be apart."
Her breath hitched. Was that real? Or was it something they had already taken from her?
She turned her head, eyes searching the chamber. Across the sterile expanse, past reinforced barriers, she saw another form, still and silent. The flickering dim lights cast shadows over his features, but she didn't need to see clearly to know.
Caleb.
He was here.
The tension in her chest loosened, just a fraction. They had been captured. They had failed. But he was still here.
A sharp noise outside the glass—a distant voice, unreadable through the layers of reinforced barriers. The scientists. Discussing them. Studying them. Deciding what to do with them next.
Her pulse steadied, and for the first time since waking, her mind cleared just enough to form one singular thought—
They will not take this from me.