Welcome to Gaia! ::

A young, blonde soldier entered the dimly lit room. His crisp black officer’s uniform was brand new, as was his new rank of Captain in the United States Space Corps which was sewn above his name, reading “Captain James Alexander.” The Captain walked through the dim room, approaching an array of glowing glass panels along the wall, some protruding from the wall as keyboards and other instruments.

James tapped a few of the highlighted keys on one of the thin, glass panels, as he asked to seemingly no one in particular, “Jonas, you there? Come on, hurry up.”

After a moment of humming from the wall behind the glowing glass, one of the panels started glowing brighter. The glow emanated a moment longer, before being redirected into the form of a semi-transparent man. The illuminated, golden man blinked his pupil-less eyes a moment, before speaking in a toneless voice through nearby speakers, “Jonas-316 online. What is it you require, Captain Alexander?”

“Well for one, I’d like you to stop calling me my rank and last name. Didn’t we go over that last time?” retorted James as he was running a series of manual searches on the many computer monitors.

“I am sorry, James Alexander. My adaptive matrixes seem to be malfunctioning. Perhaps I require a software update?” replied the computer, going through a series of rigid shrugs and other “more human looking” quirks and only succeeding in appearing confused and uncaring.

“No, that’s fine. Just remember it for next time; I have a more important task for you.”

The digital man nodded his glowing head slightly, “Let us get underway then. What do you require?”

James shook his head, before replying to the machine, “I need you to access the report files of Colonel Drake Shepard and Operation ‘Taming the Beast.’”

“One moment. Accessing USSC networks. Please wait…” said Jonas as it started to seemingly will what it wanted from the computer mainframe back on the Earth’s surface, bringing it to the orbiting space station. “Files found. WARNING: Files are restricted access only. Please insert authorization key.”

James sighed, tapping his fingers on one of the computer’s glass pads, staring at the blank screen in front of him. ‘Now or never,’ he thought to himself as he swiped a keycard into an adjacent panel. Once he swiped the card, James watched his computer’s hologram intently to see its reaction. At first, Jonas stood passively by while processing the new information before stating blandly, “Authorization confirmed. Systems Updated. Archives opened. Welcome, Commander Johns. What information do you require?”

“I’d like to have a summary of the events occurring in Attica during Operation ‘Tame the Beast,’” said the young Captain, after confirming the computer successfully mistook him for the Commander aboard the vessel, who was no doubt wondering where he misplaced his keycard this time.

“Where should the report analysis initiate, Commander?”
“Start just before things started to go wrong. I need to know what exactly happened down there,” said James curiously, sitting in the chair in the computer deck.

“October 21, 2270: 13:40, Colonel Shepard went against protocol in the USSC at the start of the Operation and offered his squad of twenty-two other soldiers out of the mission. None refused, much to their superiors’ relief. This model assumes morale must have been high indeed,” commented the computer, Jonas-316. “October 22, 2270: 06:30, Colonel Shepard’s squad dropped down in the quarantine zone and proceeded to the objective in the city hall.”

The Captain waved Jonas off, interrupting him, “Details on the quarantine and the objective?”

Jonas paused for a moment, looking blindly forward, “Quarantine zone initiated October 17, 2270: 12:00 by USSC special forces to keep the beasts inside the city. Plasma shielding installed to keep civilians out and the beasts in. Objective: source of the alien hive, an irradiated crystal shard that fell from orbit thirteen years before.”

“What about the people inside the city?”

“No records found regarding the occupants of the city.”

“Yeah, right. They were killed when they were trapped in that cage weren’t they?”

“No records found. Indigenous humans could have been evacuated or left behind, but the records mention nothing about the citizens of Attica, simply that the metropolis was swarming with human-sized rodents.”

“What can you tell me about the beasts themselves?”

“No scientific research has been done on the beasts inside the quarantine zone due to safety regulations, and no bodies have been found due to the detonation of the city on October 26, 2270: 19:35. All this unit can conclude with certainty is that reports indica-”

“What detonation? You mean the city exploded?” interjected James again, as he leaned forward in the stiff chair.

“Records indicate one final radio transmission from inside the city of Attica relevant to that subject. Displaying audio message:”

Suddenly a different voice echoed inside the dark room, replacing that of Jonas. It was full of static in many places, indicating the old-style radios being used, “This is Colonel Drake Shepard, we have engaged the enemy as ordered. Crystal not…the infestation. Say again…not the cause… Mole-people won’t stop. …last remaining option…blowing the city’s…power core. …if all goes well…-ll die… underground…”

Jonas’s voice reentered the conversation as the message came to a static-filled end, “That is the end of the radio message. Files indicate that ten minutes after the sending of this fragmentary message, Attica’s fusion power generator exploded, filling the plasma quarantine shields with a five-mile crater. USSC cover-up never put into place, current story is that the city is still under quarantine.”

“That’s not what I heard, Jonas.”

“No other audio files recorded, Commander. I am not sure what others have told you, but-”

“There was one more message sent. One to his family. A copy of the real message.”

The computerized face turned toward James, narrowing its eyes slightly, “The real message?”

“The one that says that the USSC created the beasts, which they labeled ‘Mole People’ in the genetic labs twenty miles beneath the Attica subways.”

The usually passive computer hologram looked more angry than usual, “That is a traitorous accusation, Captain Alexander. This one is filing a report to the command offices of your treachery.”

“It doesn’t matter what they think now or what you may do. My uncle, the Colonel, was right. I’ve already heard reports of more of these ‘mole-people’ digging their ways out of the burned grounds surrounding the Attica crater. The war has come and this time, and I’ll be there to finish it,” said James slamming his hand down on the power button of the computer, before Jonas could react, and stormed out of the computer deck to join the fight on the planet below.