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~~~~~Lab 5 The Citadel~~~~~~

A meeting room, dimly lit, with little amenities, behind closed doors.

"I've looked into everything we have left," STM # 13 said, "But there isn't much more to go on than we already know. Iskugawa and Yaits himself were the only ones authorized to work on the project, there is nothing on the computer systems about their work, and there is no paper trail. Everything about the Eden project is locked away in the minds of two great men. One is dead, the other is unaccounted for. But I have a theory."

"By all means, then don't hold out on us," STM # 1 said.

"I think Project Eden ties in with the massive search for this Victor Fah that Yaits had grown increasingly obbsessed with, and that means it also ties in with the cloning project on The Fire Arm who claims to be Victor Fah's brother, and also possibly the cloning project on the siren with ties to the GSF. So I've reveiwed all of Dr. Iskugawa's records on the cloning project concerning those two subjects. It took me some time, as this was a pet project of his and he had written numerous logs of his progress. On ten seperate occasions, he mentions the cloning potential of the siren's blood sample as being the key to his research, on seven occasions he mentions the key to finding what the world needs, on two occasions he writes that the siren's blood is the key to the future."

"So, what is your theory?"STM # 3 said.


"The blood sample of Lucind Vartheel, or the woman herself, is a very important aspect of one of Dr. Iskugawa's projects. And the only thing that fits would be the Eden Project."

"And how did he intend to use this key, and what is she a key for?" STM # 1 asked.

"Only Dr. Iskugawa knows that, sir." STM # 13 said,

"All I know of the Eden Project, is that Barthovos was scoured for artifacts. We have finally gained access and are working on deciphering those, as Iskugawa left no record of his findings. I'm just saying that I think Vahn, Lucind, and Victor are intimately tied to this whole thing, and that Lucind is the key to unleashing something, God or Dr. Iskugawa are the only ones who know what."

"What about Melissa Yaits, the little kidnapped princess?" STM # 11 said, " She was supposed to have taken Edward's incarnation into herself, so wouldn't she know as well. My sources have identified her as being alive and well, of course, in the care of none other than Evan White himself."

"West Fall has priority over her, she's the daughter of Yaits himself after all." STM # 1 said, "The Preacher has been preventing us from staking our claim, but he won't be around much longer. As soon as the elections are over, he will be charged with treason for leaving West Fall, and properly disposed of. Then we'll get the girl back, disect her, and find out if there really is a God inside that frail little shell, along with whatever other info we might need. We'll tell the world she died of a prolonged illness brought on by the stress of suffering through the death of her dearest daddy."

There was a muffled laugh throughout the room.

"We certainly don't need another dictator with a God complex when we can hold the power from behind the scenes," STM # 1 said, "Anyway, who's keeping tab's on that annoying preacher?"

"He's evaded every agent who is sent to tail him," STM # 11 said, "But I'm keeping an eye out for sightings."

"Hmmmm," STM # 1 mumbled, staring at his watch, "Well the debates are just about over. I want you to watch the closing, it should be most interesting."

A wide screen high definition television descended over the front of the room, turning on directly to the West Fall Elections coverage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~The News~~~~~~~~~

"............ We are at the scene of this gruesome event. This just in, the assailant responsible for the death of Helena Yaits has been captured and was discovered to be a reanimated corpse, an undead."

A picture flashed on the screen, the corpse showed little signs of rot, but was indeed an undead. Actually, once the authorities got a hold of it and the Order purified the corpse, it was simply a corpse. On other networks, Natalie Slemsky was already decrying the attack on West Fall from the Necropolis and courting voters who were once with Yaits.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Government Morgue.


"That Yaits?" the coroner asked.

"Yep."

He pulled back the black sheet.

"Where's her head?"

"In the black box,"

"Must have been some shot, take her back to number 132, it's empty."

There was a substantial fervant minority in West Fall that held zealously to the notion that Edward Yaits was the greatest man in Gaian history and could do no wrong. Also, among the inteligent robots who had moved to West Fall when it was still Yaits city, Helana Yaits had a large following. But even in West Fall, purely manufactured beings with no link to an organic past could not vote.

If this man railed long enough, showed persistance, he would have a full house. Over half of those present were robots, synths, & meta-humans. They were all Yaits diehards, first for Edward Yaits, and then for Helena because she had changed her name and blindly espoused what she thought his 'ideals' were.

This little rally would go unnoticed by the other candidates, and even if word got out, what could this man do, he wasn't a candidate.

Not only that, Slatsky had full charge of this race, there was war ferver growing among the citizens of the new republic. There was talk of purifying the northernlands and filling in the Necropolis, and eliminating the undead and their master races so completely that the world would regard them as ancient legends instead of an ever-present threat. And behind this was Slatsky, leading the charge. Slatsky also lavished praise for the now dead Yaits in order to court her base. called her a pillar of courage and someone determned to do what was right. It was working, former Yaits supporters and undecideds flocked to Slatsky. Averaging out the polls with Yaits out of the picture, she had fifty eight percent of the vote, while Herm and Manning polled at seventeen and sixteen percent respectively.

With the election a week away. It no longer looked like a tough fight.

"Sorry, sir," the receptionist said, "But this is a restricted morgue, and we have no appointments before the autopsy is conducted. You'll have to come back later, and don't forget to bring I.D."

There was decent security right behind the desk, about three gaurds, beefed up because of the autopsy of the one who had arrived. With the undead threat so prevelant, there were a few preists of the order suplementing this guard, none of whom were rent-a-cops. Even the receptionist was an undercover military agent. If these people would have been recognized, they would have had no problems getting in.

Anyhow, it was a fairly small facility, unguarded outside, but heavily secure within, so to speak.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kain Demitrius got his media attention, but the Slatsky Campaign didn't regard him as much of a a threat. The next day, the only thing their officials said was that he was a rather suspicious figure trying to gain from the death of the late Helena Yaits.

Slatsky's campaign had already gone to the Yaits party for their support, now they sought to solidify that move, before this unknown could fly under the Yaits banner and undo some of their momentum.

As for the other's parties, they dissmissed the newcommer as a madman. In a few statements, Manning actually attempted to tie Slatsky to Demitrius in order to split the hawk vote.

It would be easy enough, breaking in to the corpse of a minor candidate for Prime Minister. They would get into the morgue, and have time to scrounge, but to throw a small complication into the mix. One of the guards had pressed the alarm utton before falling unconcious. It was a silent alarm, but it was a code one, within minutes the facility would be surrounded by police and special forces.

Only a few nights before the elections, Kain had picked up momentum with his relentless stumping campaign. Many of the former supporters of Helena Yaits had suscribed to his cause, forcing to the Yaits party to withdraw support for Slatsky campaign and support Demetrius.

The upper echelons of the pentagon decided to leak reports of the abduction of Yaits corpse. Since there was an eye witness and camera footage of three men who looked exactly like Demetrius, the Slatsky campaign decided to take it's focus from Manning and Hearn to have a field day against the suspicious nature of the Demetrius campaign and the illegal way it had hijacked the Yaits party for a spot on the ballot and seats in the upcoming Parliament. Even going so far as to hint that Demetruis might have connections to the undead.

"Raiding morgues for spare parts, sounds like an undead terrorist plot to me," Slatsky's aid quipped on local news shows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, at the Pentagon.

Dr. Iskugawa walked through double doors into a dimly lit room. He was well rested and feeling like his old self again. His gold wire-framed glasses slid down his nose. The rest of his former science team members looked on.

"Dr. Iskugawa," STM # 1 said, "We are glad to have you back. However; there will be from changes from here on out, you will work for us now. Do you understand? We need to see that Slatsky gets elected as the nations next leader to restore our funding."

Iskugawa walked forward, putting a hand on STM # 1's shoulder. There was smoke. The smell of burning flesh filled the room along with the screams of the cooking scientist. The scream soon stopped, leaving a blistering corpse stuck to a conferance chair.

"I understand perfectly," Iskugawa said, "When you have someone give a man medicine, you should better understand the dosage and timing."

"Now," Iskugawa said, sitting down and injecting himself with a needle from underneith table, "I want to know more about this Kain Demetrius."

Manning had lost a lot a traction on her grounds of disintigrating the nation, especially with the recent surge of nationalism coordinated by Slatsky and now Demetrius, who chose to deride Slatsky's nationalism.

The military vote had gone over to Slatsky in a sudden wave, some could say the nation was in the midst of a war ferver, and her plans to take it to the undead increased her support instead of dampening it as it would have done in the peace loving east, in the Gaia Republic. Slatsky polled in the hig 80's among active duty militia in West Fall.

A few of Mannings hardcore supporters defected to Hearn, who had gained a little momentum, but the race still belonged to Slatsky despite the core following Demetrius had gained, which showed his foothold on the city. Slatsky refused to respond to Demetrius personally. Though the aides of every other campaign said outright that the man should be arrested for desecration of corpses and threft of state property, as Helena Yaits has explicitly left her remains to the state.

"Natalie Slatsky isn't the one desecrating the Yaits name, she has had nothing but respect for Yaits and his acheivments and seeks to preserve them by all means possible. She is the only candidate both willing and capable of doing so. Cain Demetrius, where did this man come from, out of nowhere, and nobody really knows what his plan for West Fall is. Slatsky has a clear plan, revive the economy, establish independence, assert ourselves abroad, and protect the living world from the foulness emanating from the north."





They would eat every word, he was preaching to his crowd. There was something strange as well, there were agents in the crowd, and around that section of the city. They were watching every move the candidate and his 'siblings' made. When Demetrius was done, he would receive a message from one of his people. Typed on a piece of paper was an adress to one of the city casinos owned by the fated to be dissolved Yaits corporation:

MEET ME HERE. I WISH TO TALK. NOTHING IMPORTANT. I'LL KNOW WHEN YOU ARRIVE.