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non-prophet-organization-hub » MTF-Alpha-10 "Extraordinary Evidence"
"You're going to China?!" Rex's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. The researcher trailed his superior, Dr. Everwood, as they marched down the Site-55 living quarters. "And you're going to fight people?!" he stammered out, exiting the stairwell behind Everwood.
"Yes, Rex, China. And yes, I will be joining in the fighting. You're welcome to come too." Jay answered nonchalantly, stopping in front of a sealed door. They pulled out their ID from their pocket and scanned it against the receiver, which then opened the door with a small hiss. Both of them entered.
Now standing within the small living quarters packed wall to wall with various memorabilia and pictures from times past, Rex stopped following Jay, and merely watched as they approached their closet and began rustling through it.
"No offense, but how? Are you secretly a thaumaturge?"
"With this." They pulled a sleek white container out of the depths of their closet, and placed it on top of their bed. "What was it now…" Jay mumbled as they started poking at the digital lock screen on the object.
"What is that, a Prometheus arm cannon?" He scoffed, folding his arms.
"Close. It's an Anderson Robotics prosthetic arm. Lightweight, yet capable of incredible feats of strength, and custom built to suit me." Jay said, inputting a series of numbers into the lock screen. "Aha," they exclaimed as it finally opened, revealing a sleek metallic arm colored eggshell white with a black 'AR' printed along the forearm in black.
"In the 3 years I've been here, I haven't seen you put that thing on once, Jay."
"Because I haven't had to use it."
"What do you mean? I'm sure you could use it in daily work—"
"A weapon is hardly appropriate for daily work. Come, help me put it on." Jay signaled for Rex to approach as they took off their lab coat, to which they complied. Once removed, their right stump was revealed; it was an ugly thing that Jay hated being reminded of, much less looking at. Buried deep within the scars was a small blue port, which would serve as the link between Jay's nervous system and the prosthetic.
Rex wisely held his tongue and stepped towards Jay, rolling up the sleeve of their stump. He picked up the contraption, momentarily marveled at how light it was, then moved to introduce it to Jay's stump. Nudging their flesh aside to make way for the node to meet with the port, Rex felt almost as if he were—
"Like putting a flash drive into a computer, huh?" Jay asked, a wry smile on their face.
"I… yeah. Sorry." Rex mumbled.
Suddenly, there was a jolt of electricity which caused Rex to jump away and Jay to let out an agonized wail. They grabbed the stump where flesh met metal and groaned before ultimately taking a deep breath and letting it all out in a long exhale. The prosthetic powered on and moved just like a normal arm.
"You never get used to it," they said, panting slightly from the pain. "The prosthetic is powered by a soul fragment. Even on a good day, it can cause problems for the native soul in the body it's attached to. Thanks for the help." Jay grabbed their lab coat, throwing it back on.
"Jeez, Jay. Your soul? That can't be good for you."
"In 24 hours I'm going to be deployed to an active anomalous combat zone. I think that's the least of my worries right now. Speaking of that, are you coming with me or what?"
Rex contemplated briefly.
"That depends, boss. What's our mi—"
"—ssion is as follows: we will deploy to Yunnan; more specifically, Xishuangbanna Rainforest, where we are to meet our local contacts. The Society of the Atheist Partisans of Progress for the Halt of the Irrational and Religious Enemy, from here on known as 'SAPPHIRE', have begun attacking members of anomalous religions in China."
A woman with dyed black hair sat on top of a stack of crates, rolling her eyes. She was annoyed, mostly because she had been dragged out onto a field mission.
"Their first target appears to be the Children of the Torch, a group who's focus is the worship of avian entities and the Sun, which is given a deific status. Are any of you familiar with SAPPHIRE?" Samara tried not to smirk at at the MTF Alpha-10 leader, a white-coat wearing a robot arm, as they excitedly strutted around as they spoke. Someone is spirited today, she thought.
Several arms shot up to answer the question, which the woman tuned out. Her mind was still fixed upon the vision she had a few nights ago. A temple to a three-legged crow on fire, its defenders slain by outsiders. She didn't know what it meant, but she still reported it to the Director. This robot-armed individual reported the SAPPHIRE attacks to Director Alder later the same day. Apparently, this was what she saw.
And so, she was selected to join Alpha-10 as a reconnaissance agent immediately following this revelation. What really annoyed her was that Alpha-10 had the stupidest name she'd heard for a Task Force. 'Extraordinary Evidence.' Come on. Maybe if she hadn't been on her nonprognostics, she would have been able to see that she would also get lumped into going out on the field.
Maybe.
There was no real way of knowing, and when it came to visions of the future, prophecies were often cryptic, so even if she hadn't been taking her nonprognostics, the odds of her still being dragged to the middle of nowhere on the other side of the world were still high. Ugh. Now it was too late though, and she was already instructed to stop taking her nonprognostics so she would be having visions more often. Double ugh.
"Samara Maclear?" A voice interrupted her train of thought. It was the short man with a shitty mustache and purple streaks in his hair. "Please get down from there. Also, here is your debriefing." Researcher Rex held a document out to her.
"Fine," Samara rolled her eyes, standing up on top of the crate, then took a step off it. Rex's eyes widened as instead of falling, she simply walked the 3 or so meters she was off the ground as if she were descending an invisible staircase. Once on terra firma, Samara took the document from Rex.
"Let me guess—" Rex was interrupted by Samara almost as quickly as he started speaking.
"No, I am not a thaumaturge. I'm what you would call an ESPer. Now let me read this, it should be easier than reading your mind. Not that that was hard to begin with." She held the paper up and quickly scanned over it.
"SAPPHIRE is actively destroying anomalies and attacking the Children of the Torch, blah blah blah. It may seem like we exist only to keep humanity at large away from the anomalous, but it is important to keep in mind that we are also chroniclers of the anomalous, blah blah blah. Charming. Anything else you got for me, kiddo?"
Rex fumed for a moment but quickly composed himself. "No, I think that should be all. Doctor Everwood is already on the transport, so I think it would be best if we started moving." He turned, starting towards the ship.
Samara crumpled the document into a ball and tossed it behind her, only for it to levitate at head-level as it traveled towards the entrance of the hangar, where a waste bin sat present, and deposited itself within.
"Great. Because I totally look forward to spending the next god-knows-how-long with MTF-bros and a glorified politician turned soldier." She grumbled.
Rex sighed. "This is going to be a—"
"—long trip, isn't it?" A short woman with a walking cane asked as she took a seat beside Doctor Everwood on the transport, placing her cane on her lap.
"Faster than the average plane ride at least." Jay shrugged, looking over a copy of the debriefing document. They had left in a typo, something that irked them greatly. At least no one had noticed it, and if they had, no one had told them about it.
Rex walked by, followed by Samara, who smacked him in the back of the head. The Researcher groaned but did not complain further as he approached Everwood and their companion. Samara, for her part, wandered off elsewhere in the transport, likely trying to put some distance between herself and the members of the task force.
"What was that about?" Jay asked.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it. Anyway, what gives, what's with the cane? Unless its secretly Anderson-made or she's actually a thauma—" Rex pointed at the woman's cane, which was suddenly swiftly traveling towards his arm with all the force she could muster. "Fuck! Ow!"
"Atlas really needs to learn how to choose his words." Jay glared at Rex, eyes occasionally shifting towards Cooper as they continued to make harsh eye contact with him. They knew that he knew better than to act like this. Rex indignantly scowled and hung his head briefly. Apparently not.
Jay cleared their throat, to which Rex sighed, then nodded.
"I apologize on behalf of Atlas. He can be a bit much. Anyway, I don't believe we've met. Our host's name is Rex, I am Janus, and you already met Atlas. Wally is a bit timid so he won't be saying hello yet."
"Junior Researcher Ariadne Cooper. Tactical Theology."
"Junior? But you're so much older than me, how are you sti—"
"Just shut up, dude." Jay palmed their face. "I'm sorry Dr. Cooper, he's… well… I don't know what's wrong with him."
"My reasons for not being promoted are not your business." Cooper stated plainly, placing her cane on her lap again.
"Again, I apologize on behalf of Atlas. He is just anxious because he fears we will not survive the coming engagement with SAPPHIRE." Rex said nonchalantly, folding his arms.
"We've got some of the Foundation's best with us, Rex. This team was carefully put together by Director Alder to give us the best odds at succeeding at our mission. Plus if you're worried about our relatively small numbers here, don't worry, we will have more once we land in Xishuangbanna." Everwood moved their hand from their face.
"If I am to be honest, we shouldn't expect much support from the Children of the Torch, if any. SAPPHIRE have already destroyed SCP-1428, SCP-2814, and changes have been observed in SCP-2995 as the Children of the Torch's faith falls apart. Moreover, we still need to locate SCP-4519, and we only have a faint idea of where it is." Cooper added, looking straight ahead at Rex. "We also suspect SAPPHIRE are working with a third party."
"The gov—" Everwood started, but was abruptly cut off by Cooper.
"Them too. But I mean someone on our side of the veil."
Silence for a moment.
"Great."
"Come on," Jay patted the seat next to them before strapping themselves into their own. Rex complied, sighing deeply. "We're going to be okay."
"India Golf Niner-Niner, you are cleared for takeoff."
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