Project Eden Zero

Chapter- 2 The Storm Returns

Meanwhile, on earth...

“Specialist Adiran, for your service in the field, and bravery due to dire circumstances and coming out with great conditions the Board of directors has decided to give you this medal of valor and a promotion to Captain. We are terribly sorry for the loss of your team and your commanding officer, but your actions in taking charge and leading an outfit to apprehend the enemy has been noted. Congratulations soldier.” Chief Councilman General Firefleet salutes Neely promoted Captain Adiran and they both shake hands.

“Thank you sir,” he salutes and turns to the board of directors, “thank you,” he salutes them and turns and walks out of the office. Outside there is a group of men lounging around waiting on him. And when they see him walk out they all stand and clap for him.

“Woo yeah!” They all cheer.

“Ok ok,” he laughs waving them off, “I’m just glad to see all you guys in one piece.”

“We wouldn’t have made it out of there alive if not for you sir!” Gunnery Lt. Frenchy tips his hat.

“I think we owe most of our gratitude to a guy who actually gave me all the info and strategy to escape. But disappeared right as we were escaping with the prisoners.” He looks down and then a shuttle flies in to the landing pad that looks like a medishuttle. “Another round of survivors.”

All of his men turn to look to see who was being brought in from the battle at the void. There’s a lot of damaged mechs but no sign of human or vysterns. Suddenly everyone perks up when they see a human body being transported on a gurney to the med bay. “Who could that have been?” Him and his men chatter about who it could’ve been, noticing stripes and chevrons on his armor and a familiar helmet. “Is that....? No....couldn’t be? He....disappeared! What? No way!?” Everyone still chattering amongst each other about their commanding officer that they lost. They all get up and run over to the med to investigate except for Adiran.

“If it’s really you, then you deserve this, not me. If it not for you then none of us would be here....” he turns and walks back into the directors office. “Excuse me.” He stands at attention and salutes.

“Yes Captain?” They all turn to him and salute him, he stands at ease.

“I just noticed a man get carried into the medbay and seemed alive. If it’s who I think it is then he deserves this not me. If it weren’t for him and his direction we wouldn’t have made it out of there alive. I just followed what he said to do if he wasn’t able to make it. Sir.” They turn to each other talking amongst themselves. A few moments pass and they finally turn back to him.

“As it would seem. Commander Mark, or Viper as everyone calls him, and the GMS Iceborn has been retrieved from the void. He is in the med bay, however...under the circumstances, you are now in command of the unit. He will be reinstated once he makes a full recovery. You however, need to report to Recon Station XTA for your new recruits, briefing, and orders for your next assignment, dismissed.” They salute him and turn back to each other.

“Yes.....sirs......” he turns back to the door and walks out. He sees his men looking through a window and waving at him saying that it really is Commander Viper of the Iceborn...was anyway. He trots down the stairs and makes his way across the arid dusty orange rocks. Coming up on the window he sees his old CO and salutes him. Then he tells his men of their orders and they proceed to Recon Station XTA. He takes one last look at him and then slowly follows suit. During their briefing he gets a Vid call, he decides to walk out of the room to keep from interrupting the session. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

“Hey little bro......It’s me Russ.......calling to say........and that.......when Mom.........it was like that........one day dad.........and now........you should see........I’m sorry.......love.........................................”

“Russell? Russell?!?!! RUSSELL??!!” He hits the Allserver many times trying to get it to clear up but it was all static. He starts to cry from the day he’s had. “I don’t know what to say, if you can hear me Russell I’m sorry too, and I love you brother, tell Ray and Dr. Ollison that Viper is still alive, they just brought him in on the shuttle. I’m gonna have to go back into battle soon. I’m sorry for lying to you and ray, but my orders were to keep the real info classified. The data is on her crystal!” He stops and ends the call knowing Russell never heard a word after it went to static. He knew what that kind of static meant, he seen it before. He returns to the briefing room. After getting their orders and gearing up, they head to the Iceborn and head off planet.

I wake up frantically as if out of a nightmare and try to move my arms and legs. To my frantic dismay, I couldn’t feel my legs and only my right arm. I also notice I can’t move the left side of my face above my mouth. I raise my right arm and noticed significant burns and bruises, I feel of my face and head to realize they shaved my damn hair off, and there is a huge bandage over my left eye. I tried to move my left arm but couldn’t feel anything so I move my right arm over to feel it and a hand catches my wrist. “He’s awake, give him another two doses of sedatives. Now! He doesn’t need to be awake, we can barely keep him alive as it is. He needs to prepare, and start project Eden Zero now.....he.....to.....Plo.....see.....Ty.....” I drift back off to sleep and the nurses strap me down and escort to me to a cryo tube. They freeze me and then ship me to Ploitum Krot. It takes 2 hours to arrive and they start the thawing process as they get me into the mainframe operating room. They have already made arrangements for Dr. Tydis to be there along with their top engineers. Dr. Ollison, and Lt. Ray are also there. The head surgeon walks into the room and introduces himself to everyone.

“Good morning all, my name is Dr. Alexeiaus Fromiore. I will be conducting project Eden Zero with the assistance of Dr. Tydis and If Dr. Ollison will provide the prototype metals, we will begin.”

Lt. Ray tries to make sense of the whole situation, and even wonders, “who is so important...that they get their own project to be rebuilt?”

Dr. Ollison standing next to her replies, “Don’t know Katie, all they will tell me is classified. Though the face kind of looks familiar.” She shrugs and puts her newly robotic hand on Ray’s shoulder.

“Yeah I was thinking the same thing,” she shuffles for a moment and then turns to walk out the door with Dr. Olly. “Hey Kelley, where did you leave Sam?”

“It should be right outside the room here, it carried the Edenium for me.” They both walk out and Sam is sitting on a couch in a waiting area watching a looping medical advertisement. “See?”

“Oh good. I just wanted to be sure. It is supposed to come with us to Yelevene and tomorrow is our last prep day. I’m not sure if Kenneth is sending us tomorrow or the day after.” She opens up her Allserver and brings up General Rectis’ and calls him.

“Ah Lt. Ray! What do I owe the pleasure?”

“You can call me Katie sir, I call you Kenneth when not in certain company.”

“Fair enough, I see you brought the lovely Dr. Ollison with you.” He smiles cheekily to her.

“Hello Kenneth, we were wondering when we were going to be moved to Yelevene? Tomorrow or after?”

“I believe that you have tomorrow for prep and packing, then shipping out the next morning. Is there anything else?”

I turn my arm back to me. “No sir thank you. Have a pleasant day.”

“Noted, you two as well. Rectis out.”

The Allserver turns off and they both walk over to Sam and sit down next to it. “Hey Sam are you enjoying the show?”

It looks at them, “Yes, this one is finding entertainment value in this advertisement. The educational value is quite extensive seemingly 2 hour loop and having no commercial value. Contributes nothing to gain besides knowledge of common sense, don’t understand, wish to learn.”

As the surgery comes to a close Dr. Tydis walks out with Dr. Alex. “And that’s when I said, two cheeseburgers for the price of 4? You’ve got to have a cow in the garage on a Sunday morning in Pennsylvania. But then he collapsed from a fatal heart attack.” They both look over at the three sitting on the couch. “Looks like your students are enjoying themselves, what’s with the bot?”

“Well Alex, that bot has showed quite the promise for a potential AI. I used some of its parameters on another mech we built in the lab. Also threw in some of that same platinum in our subject in there. Just to see how it all works out.”

“Sounds a little dramatic, but I’m not gonna step on your toes. I’m just glad we were able to give him legs, a new arm, eye, and an interface visor that’s far more advanced than anything we’ve done before. This new edenium metal, very unique and hard to understand what it is. But being some rare metal found out in the void won’t stop me from putting it to good use. He will be the best, if he recovers all of his memories.”

“Very true. I’ll see you later Alex, thank you for helping me with project Eden Zero, I just wished you would come with us to Yelevene, we could use someone with your caliber of medical and biological experience.” He pats Alex on the shoulder.

“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea, they’ll miss me here but I’ve trained four really aspiring students. I’ll give it some thought and get back to you. See you later Tydis.” They shake hands and he walks back into the operating room. Dr. Tydis walks over to the three on the couch and stands behind them.

I wake up in the recovery room in more pain than I thought possible. I’m able to feel my legs, and my left arm, and I can see out of my left eye again. But there seems to be a screen in front of my face. I move my left hand up to push it away and realize I have a robots arm, it looks like a normal human arm but without any skin, just blue metal muscles and bones. With wires and circuits instead of veins and nerves. “What happened to me?” I raise myself up enough to look at my legs and see that the screen in front of my face moves with me. “Must have a visor on.” I feel around and realize there’s an entire metal frame around my eyes like a pair of snowboarding goggles. I find a button on the right side and press it, the screen disappears and the frame splits in the middle sliding back into the recess on my temples. “Hmm seems the implanted in on me. Guess I’m stuck with it...” suddenly a female robotic voice interrupts him.

“Yes, Sir, you are stuck with it, with me.”

He looks around in surprise but doesn’t see anybody. “Who’s there? Show yourself!” The metal visor slides back across his forehead and the screen appears. Then a female body appears in a 3d framework.

“Yes? I am your on board virtual assistant, programmed by Dr. Tydis to assist you and help with combat analysis, hacking, and other useful functions that will become available as they are necessary.”

“So you’re my own personal AI? I didn’t think they had a breakthrough yet...” I looks down at my legs and see that they are the same as my arm, from the mid thigh down.

“I do not think I am an AI, I do not know what I am, other than your virtual assistant.”

“Alright, well what do I call you? I’m not gonna go around asking for my personal virtual assistant to pop up if I have questions.” I move my toes and feet to see if i have feeling in them, since the last time I was awake I could barely feel anything.

“I do not have a name. Maybe you wish to give me one yourself?” The very attractive female wire frame body moves around the room while she is speaking, as if she were really there in the room with him. There is another frame that is just her wireframe face that also mimics a real face, and looks very beautiful. I reach out to try and touch her but it’s like she’s not even there.

“I don’t know, hell. Your body and face seems to glitch a little when I blink. Just for a second then you’re back to normal. So why don’t I call you Glitch?” I reach down with both hands to feel my feet and toes and realize that I can feel with my left hand, and I can feel my feet and toes being touched. Amazing, it feels like they’re real but just not covered in skin.

“The term glitch provides there is a bug in the programming, and I assure you that my programming is flawless. Dr. Tydis was very thorough and had many assistants to overlook his programming. I have no flaws or bugs. I want to cause no offense, but would you mind selecting another sir?”

I look around curiously. “Hmm...” I notice a bible laying on the side table next to the bed. I pick it up and start reading from the beginning. “Huh, haven’t heard any of this stuff since my days on earth.” I keep reading and get where Adam and Eve are in the garden of Eden. “Hmm, this project is called Eden Zero right?”

“Yes sir, my records indicate that after your proposed death they were able to recover some metal from the planet you were on. There was only 1.56 tons of metal recovered from the Planet Eden, and your body was also found burned and torn to shreds by battle and falling from orbit. You should have died.”

“How does Eve sound to you?”

“That is a very pleasant name, fitting to the project and is pretty. I like it, thank you sir.”

“You’re welcome, don’t call me sir though. Just Viper is fine. And do I have to have this visor on to talk to you?”

“No, I am not actually talking aloud, we are communicating wirelessly inside your mind due to nanomechs coursing through your bloodstream. But I can however talk aloud when speaking to other people from your body through an auxiliary output on this template system you refer to as a ‘visor’. But actually no one can hear us talking but you when we are talking like this.”

I press the button to make the visor go away. “You mean it just looks like I’m daydreaming? And you said nanomechs in my blood stream?” I look at my arms and legs again, then around the room for a mirror and notice one by the sink.

“Yes, they installed nanomechs into your bloodstream to heal any minor wound you my get within minutes. Any major wound that would need first aid would only require you to close the wound and the nanomechs will take care of the rest. Also, if you break any bones, the nanomechs will rebuild the bones with themselves as such they reproduce and multiply by the second. But do not be warned as they will not over run your body, they only multiply until a certain number is met.”

I try to stand up off the bed and fall to the floor, “argh! Dammit! Why can’t I stand up?” I push myself up to a sitting position.

“Your body hasn’t gotten used to the prosthetics yet, and your scars will take time to heal. Your body was in a very fragile state when they begun surgery. The nanomechs are working tirelessly to fix everything they couldn’t. Please, get back to the bed and rest.”

“Can’t believe I go from commander and having my own ship and crew to taking orders from an artificial intelligence...” I raise myself up back onto the bed and lay back down.

“I am not an....”

“I know I know, not an AI, I’m just gonna go back to sleep.” As I drift back to sleep a nurse rushes into the room and looks around for the noise she heard. Confused to find nothing she walks back out. But the door lingers open for a couple of moments.

“Viper, wake up, there is a dangerous person walking into your room.”

“How dangerous?” My robotic eye lights up inside my eyelid and it shows the security camera in the room, Eve turns on the infrared and it shows a figure holding a short blade in their hand.

“They are cloaked and you will need the visor to see them...”

“Actually I can smell them, smells like ramen...” then suddenly the assassin slams the sword down into the bed and finds nothing...