The Syren Conspiracy (For Floozer)

[Archangel99]

Rifling through the files, she looks through the names to pick out anything that sounds interesting...


'Project Deathball', detailing the construction of a gun that shot balls of acid. 


'Project Augmentation Revamp', detailing attempts to create mechanical limbs or organs that could be used by humans without fear of rejection. 


'Project Supersoldier', detailing attempts to create a drug that would bolster the human body, giving it faster reflexes, more strength, and an overall higher thinking capacity. 


'Project Doomsday', detailing attempts to create a virus that could wipe out an entire population overnight. 


'Project Controller', detailing the creation of a drug that would make people more submissive and responsive to commands. 

 

[Floozer]

"Ok, deathball is no, revamp is yes, supersoldier is no, doomsday is no, controller is yes." she takes the revamp and controller, setting them to the side, while she takes the others and sets them to the side for later review. "Way too dangerous, way to unethical, lethal weapons are for scrubs who can't bring in live targets. But none the less, they might have some information. Controller on the other hand sounds like exactly my kind of toy!" Once they are in a neat pile she picks up controller and reads it.

 

[Archangel99]

When she opens the file, it shows a picture of a blue liquid with a green tint in a vial with a red stopper. Turning the page, she begins reading the logs of the people who were working on it. 


Test 1: The Captain has very kindly provided us with a live test subject. It is some sort of a reptilian alien species, humanoid in shape. Unfortunately, our first live test of the drug was a failure. The creature became violent and had to be sedated. Second test will commence next week.


Test 2: It has been exactly one week since the previous test. The subject has showed signs of improvement. It was noted that the drug seems to wear off after a while. The previous week's efforts have gone into making it more permanent and peaceful. Unfortunately, this test was a partial failure. The creature, after being injected, simply stared off into space and didn't respond to commands. Third test will commence in one week.


Test 3: Our efforts have gone into creating a more stable version of the drug. We have reduced the amount of Varlinium, which we assume was the cause of the last failure, and increased the amount of Trinagum slightly. The test subject from the last test showed no improvement, and had to be put down. This test was conducted on a human prisoner we had been transporting. I am pleased to report that the test was a success. Third time's the charm, right? The subject exhibited no signs of free will and was responsive to every command we issued. 


Below is a list of the various chemical reagents and components needed to produce the drug, all of which she could get easily, and Olivia also had the picture in the file to show her what the finished product needed to look like. In the corner, someone had scribbled down the components for the antidote, if she ever needed it. 

 

[Floozer]

A wide, slightly sadistic grin, spread across her face as she looked over the components. "I have these on my ship already...oh yes, this will be perfect. I know just the psychotic bitch to use it on too!" She puts controller down and picks up revamp, reading that one next.

 

[Archangel99]

The file for this one is rather thick looking, most of it filled with pictures of mechanical limbs and organs.


To whoever it may concern, this is Head Researcher Karen Naari. This file details the attempts to create a mechanical limb or organ that could be used without fear of rejection. 


I am sorry to say that this project was a partial failure. 


No matter what we tried, the body of any organism will reject any foreign body. However, we have developed two alternatives. One is a drug called Galamica, which is basically an immune suppressant that allows the consumer to ignore the foreign body attached to them. 


The other, which was a far more expensive solution, required the growth of the host tissues in a cultured medium, which at the same time required complex machinery to be placed at key points in the tissue during the procedure. This process can take over a month, and the cost was far too high for it to be valuable. 


Following this, the project has been scrapped. 


The rest of the file is filled with technological jargon and chemical reactions. 

 

[Floozer]

"Yea, should have figured that would be too good to be true in this day and age." She put it with controller and looked at the more volatile folders. With a sigh she picks up doomsday and reads it.

 

[Archangel99]

The file is bright red, and stamped with the words NEED TO KNOW ONLY in big black letters across the front. Leafing through the file, Olivia could see lifeforms in various stages of death and decay, as well as notes on each one. 


Inside the file is what looks like a videotape. Olivia picks it up and puts it into the video player on the desk. After a bit of humming, a few clicks and hisses, the video starts playing. It starts off jerky, with the screen shaking a bit, showing a woman with red skin, whose head was turned and appeared to be conversing with someone offscreen. A few seconds later, she turns back to the camera, and Olivia is startled to see that she bears a very close resemblance to a particular mass murderer. She looks into the camera with sad, almost haunted eyes, her mouth pressed into a line. 


"Hello. My name is Karen Naari, Head Researcher of the research ship Discovery. I just want to say that I was against project Doomsday right from the start, as well as project Syren. The mass murder of thousands of innocents is just..." She looks down and shakes her head. 


"Project Doomsday was supposed to be a virus designed to wipe out entire populations overnight. I am sorry to say... The project was a success. We developed a virus that attacked first the immune system, and then the brain of the organism. The virus would first suppress the immune system, then take control of the brain, destroying most of it. Except... When we tried crossbreeding it with the Cordycephalitis parasite from Terra and injected the result into a dead mouse... The next morning, the mouse was alive. I don't know how, and I can't explain it, but the mouse wouldn't touch the food we gave it. However, when we put another mouse in there... The one that had... Returned from the dead, you could say, it... It tore the other mouse apart. We have tried to keep word from getting out, but someone must have spilled the beans, because somehow the whole crew knows about it, and in less than a month have formed a cult. The call themselves the Resurrectors, and they believe what we have created is a gift from God. Most of the others, thankfully, just think what we have done is an abomination. A disturbance in the natural cycle of life and death. There have been threats to cease all research into the project or else, yet we continue to research it. My log ends here. I'll have to try and get some sleep tonight. Narissa, darling, if you're seeing this... I'm sorry." The woman puts a hand over her mouth and sniffles before reaching toward the camera and shutting it off. Just before she did so, however, Olivia noticed the time stamp in the corner. 2765 AD. This video tape was nearly three hundred years old. 

 

[Floozer]

"What the fuck....." She takes the video tape and the file, putting it with the other two she had read. She looks up and slowly examines the room to make sure she is still alone before picking up deathball and reading that one. Once done, she grabs super soldier and reads that one too, rather eager to finish her reading and keep moving.

 

[Archangel99]

The Death all one showed a picture of an alien-looking gun. It was just a list of technical parts required to create one of these guns. Which, in fact, looked exactly like the on the worktable across her... A note at the bottom read:


I just want any readers, present and future, to know that this was all Jacob's idea of fun. Idiot. He thought it would be funny if we could make a gun that would fire balls of acid. Wait for the killer. 


He had seen a game of paintball once.


That guy really needs a psychiatrist... On the other hand, it could be useful for melting stuff down. Plus it's pretty much infinite ammunition as long as you load some sort of waste matter into it. We tried excreta as well. The result was... Not fun to clean up. Plus it smelled horrible, obviously. Stupid Jacob. 


The Supersoldier file was also marked with a NEED TO KNOW ONLY stamp across the front. However, this file was not red, for some reason. In it was a picture of a vial filled with reddish-yellow fluid, as well as some human candidates who volunteered for the test. It read:


Project Supersoldier: The new frontline soldiers. 


Test subject 1, Manfred Stone:


Characteristic Traits:  Gentle, helpful, follows orders well. 


Body Build type:  Skinny, looks rather weak. 


Result: Became overly helpful to the point of annoyingness, meddling in other's personal business, became completely submissive, follows orders that go against the ones we gave, would not use increased strength against others. Body type remained as is. 


Conclusion:  Failure, Subject Terminated. 


The report continues on as such, with the names of various candidates. Olivia noticed that most of them seemed to be okay afterwards, and were released back into the crew with warnings not to use their enhanced strength against other, weaker ones. This one was marked as a success. 


View attachment 4967

 

[Floozer]

"Good for melting things huh? I think I just figured out how to open that door." She grabs all the files and moves away from the cabinets. Heading over to the pieces of gun, she flips open death ball and tries to assemble it again. 

 

[Archangel99]

Luckily for her, all the parts were there, and she already had the frame of the gun. It takes her maybe an hour to piece the gun together, and before long, she's holding a huge rifle in her hands. It was heavy, of course, but she was probably only going to use it once. There was already a canister of acid there, and she loaded it into the gun. It was now ready to use. 

 

[Floozer]

"Rina, do you hear me? I have a way to get the door of the ship open. I also figured out what happened to the crew and the fact that this place is around three hundred years old. Anyway, this place is giving me the creeps. Go to the cock pit, lock on to my location and tell the auto pilot to fly over here. I want to get this pulse cannon before anything else happens." She moves out of the lab and back to her cart loaded with weapons.

 

[Archangel99]

"Got it!" She says. Olivia can hear a few beeps and then a distinct whine as the ship powered up and started moving to her location. Olivia briefly wonders if she should go and check out the captain's quarters to figure out what really happened to the crew. 

 

[Floozer]

She pushes the cart along the hallways and leaves it inside the door she squeezed through. her curiosity gets the better of her and she turns back around, heading toward the bridge and captains quarters.

 

[Archangel99]

She gets to the bride soon enough. The view outside is obscured by the vines and plants that have grown over the ship over the centuries. The bride itself is large and fan shaped. The controls are covered in a thick layer of dust, grime, and some small plants that have managed to grow through the cracks. The captain's quarters is to the right of the bridge, and this time the door is sealed shut. 

 

[Floozer]

She walks through the bridge and over to the captains quarters. "Hmm, sealed up tight." She pounds on the door a few times. "Hello? I don't suppose anyone is in there?"

 

[Archangel99]

There is no answer, of course. Looks like she'll have to use the acid gun. 

 

[Floozer]

Olivia sighs and steps way back. "Good thing I still have this hazmat suit on." She lifts the acid gun and aims at the door before firing it off.

 

[Archangel99]

The acid splatters against the door, and for a second, nothing happens. Then, there's a violent sizzling, popping sound as the acid begins to eat away at the door. She had fired it right in the centre, so now there was a jagged hole right in the center of the door, the edges still smoking. 

 

[Floozer]

Carefully approaching the door she tries to peek through the hole she has just made to see what the inside of the captains quarter looks like.

 

[Archangel99]

It's quite large, enough to fit maybe three people at a time. She can see an old fashioned coffee maker on the table, a bed, and a metal table with a computer on it. Off to the side is what she thinks could be a closet. The only thing marring the neatness of the room were two skeletons, both with a hole in their skulls. One skeleton was on the floor, and the hole was in the side of its skull the other skeleton was in the chair, and the hole was in the top of its skull. Judging by the clothes, or what was left of them, this was probably the captain. Looks like he or she had committed suicide... But why?

 

[Floozer]

Carefully stepping through the hole she made, she approached the skeleton. "Suicide? Were they trapped? If so, by what? The cultists maybe." She moves over to the other skeleton. "Who were you? Maybe a lover? First mate?" She looks around the room for any clues, maybe the terminal was still working.

 

[Archangel99]

There wasn't much in the way of clues, save a few dark stains on the floor that could have been blood. Checking the terminal, she found that it was still working, and there was a video cassette already placed in the slot, ready to be pushed in and played. There were other video cassettes lying around, but this one was already halfway in, as if the captain had put it there on purpose. 

 

[Floozer]

"well...this is probably the important one anyway." She pushes it in.

 

[Archangel99]

The screen flashes to life, and there's more hissing and clicking before the video begins to play. The first scene is of a woman, the captain, she can see now, from the bars on her shoulders. She was dressed in a black uniform with the Orion Tech logo on the left shoulder. The captain was a pretty woman. Blonde hair tied up in a bun, bright green eyes, high cheekbones, and tanned skin. She had delicate shoulders that supported a modest, C cup rack. 


"Hello! My name is Anastasia Garrow, or Annie for short. I'm the captain of the freighter class research ship named The Discovery. I am pleased to report that everything is going smoothly. The crew is happy, the scientists have begun their work, and we are currently en route to planet XJ – 5341. I will be recording every major event on separate tapes. This is Captain Anastasia signing off!" She waves cheerily at the camera before clicking it off. In a few seconds, another video starts playing. It's Captain Anastasia again, and it looks like she's sort of settled into her routine. She has a more relaxed expression this time, and she's still smiling. 


"It has been one month since my last update, and things have been going well. The scientists have made an acid gun. Don't ask me why, and don't ask them either. They'll just blow your question off with a bunch of science crap." She chuckles. "Anyway, I heard they're starting work on a new drug that should reduce the free will of the consumer. I have supplied them with a lizard-like species of alien for them to play with. Either way, it's barely sentient, so nobody really cares about it." 


The screen blacks out again before reappearing with captain Annie again. This time, she's got a wry smirk on her face. 


"I received word from Orion Tech that I was to tell the scientists to create a super soldier serum and mechanical limbs that wouldn't be rejected." She chuckles. "As if such a thing were possible. I guess they've been reading too many science fiction books!" She laughs, then suddenly stops and tilts her head. "Wait a second... We're practically living in a science fiction book... Ah whatever. It might work. Who knows." She shrugs and reaches forward to turn off the camera, giving it a nice view down the low cut of her grey shirt. 


The camera fizzes out and cuts to the next video. In this one, Anastasia is frowning, as if she's confused. 


"It's been four months since my last update. The Supersoldier and Revamp projects were both failures, the former turning out to be not as expected, with a few volunteer deaths, and the latter far too expensive and time consuming to be useful. The thing I'm worried about is... The crew members that were part of the Supersoldier volunteer programme... Have begun acting strange. I think the drug messed with their head or something. Either way, sometimes when I see them, I keep hearing them say "Look for the light." over and over again. Like a prayer. It's creepy, really... I should order a watch on them." She reaches forward to cut the camera off. 


The video fizzes out again before cutting to the next one. This time, Anastasia looks annoyed and a little afraid, frowning and looking around the room. 


"It's been a year since my last update. I had received word from OT to create a viral weapon. The scientists did so, and as a joke or something, decided to crossbreed it with a Cordycephalitis parasite. It..." She rubs her temple. "You're not gonna believe me when I say this, but... They brought a dead mouse back to life. This dead mouse instantly cannibalised one of its own. Somehow, word got out about this. The Supersoldier volunteers, the crazy ones? Well, they've formed a cult called the Resurrectors, and are pretty much worshipping this virus, calling it a gift from god or something. It's absolutely insane, is what it is. A week after that, in the mess hall, I heard screaming. I ran there, and everyone had surrounded a man. I pushed through the crowd. Jonathan, one of the volunteers gor the Supersoldier project, was down on his knees. His eyeballs... His eyeballs were on the floor next to him. He kept screaming "He has spoken to me! I have seen the light!" And laughing like a madman. We had to sedate him and lock him up. In his cell, we found these pictures... Written in his own blood." She holds up two pictures, taken from his cell. "He wrote this all over the wall... Anyway, we've prevented anyone from going to see him. Let's hope that works." She turns off the camera.


Another hiss and the next video plays. In this one, Anastasia is a complete mess. Her face is spattered with blood, and her eyes are wide with fear. She's leaning over the table with a gun in her hand and panting. 


"This is the third month after my last update... Those crazy bastards, the Resurrectors, they managed to get into the bio lab and steal a sample of the virus, which they injected into Jonathan's corpse. He was raised, and attacked them. They died laughing as he bit them... Oh god... And then... And then they went into the crew quarters. It... It was a bloodbath. Everyone... Everyone was torn to pieces..." She chokes back a sob and takes a shuddering breath. "I... Someone had hacked into my room controls. I was helpless! All I could do was sit and watch... Watch as they were..." She sniffles, and a tear rolls down her cheek. "I think... I think Karen and Jo managed to escape... They were the only ones who weren't in the crew quarters at that time." Suddenly, a beep is heard off screen. She frowns and turns around before gasping and stumbling back. "Barry! Barry no!" She's crying now, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Barry! What... What have they done to you!?" She shrieks. At that moment, somebody stumbles in from the side of the screen. A man. He would have been pretty cute, if it weren't for the gaping wound in his shoulder. He stumbles forward, reaching out to Anastasia. She runs into his arms and hugs him. For a second, Barry does nothing. Then, slowly, he reaches his head down and bites her shoulder. Anastasia screams, trying to push him off, then places the gun to the side of his head and pulls the trigger. Barry is no more. Shuddering, she sits in the chair, trying uselessly to staunch the blood. "I... I've set down on some abandoned jungle planet. I knew something like this was going to happen..." She almost passes out from the pain, but soldiers through it. "I hope.... I hope somebody finds this ship. They... They should know... What happened here..." She says between ragged breaths. "This.... Is Captain Anastasia Garrow of the freighter class research vessel Discovery... Signing off for the last... Time..." She says, smiling grimly before putting the gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger. The screen goes red, then black as her spasming fingers somehow turned off the camera from the keyboard. 

 

[Floozer]

She instantly reaches up for her com system. "Rina! Rina do you read me?! Activate the ships exterior defenses and keep it in flight! Do not land! Do you understand me?! There is an entire crews worth of psychotic cannibals on this planet doing lord knows what to the wild life! Keep the ship on and defenses active! Got it!?" She grabs the casset and does one last look around the room for anything important.

 

[Archangel99]

The comm crackles. There is no reply...


There seems to be nothing else of value in the room save for the captain's gun, which may or may not be working. 

 

[Floozer]

"Eeeh, you can keep that one honey. It's yours." She carefully moves out of the captains room and heads back down to the rusted door. Once there, she takes aim with the acid gun and starts firing at the hinges, trying to melt the door off the ship so she can get the loot out.

 

[Archangel99]

Bit by bit, the acid eats away at the door, creating a hole wide enough for her to push the cart through. 

 

[Floozer]

She gets the cart and pushes it back out into the open, looking up for signs of her ship. "Rina, can you hear me now? I am outside with the loot!"