I Wanna Write, Ok

You cough and spit as you come to, feeling as if you were submerged in some kind of liquid for who knows how long. As your eyes flicker open, it’s… clearly the case, though; you’re inside some kind of tank that’s slowly emptying. Your skin, quickly coming into contact with the air, tingles. You try to move your arms, but the thick liquid makes it somewhat difficult. Still, you manage to get them out, then bang on the glass. There doesn’t seem to be anyone out there, though; the room looks deserted to your eyes.

You look down at your body; the bluish liquid that you were submerged in continues draining past your waist, and you shiver lightly. Your skin’s a pale grey, with symmetric lines running across it… not lines, seams; you brush your hand across them and feel a subtle indent. There’s also a barcode above your right breast, with some text above it, and numbers below. With a bit of difficulty you can parse it, though. V-X01 | Valerie… so that’s probably your name. Or… a codename; whatever that means. The numbers below are probably a manual equivalent to the barcode.

You look at your hands, finding them pristine; the inner sides have dermal discoloration, but they seem fine. Maybe it’s even intentional.

As the liquid finishes draining, there’s a sudden and loud hiss as the glass of the tank shifts, then slowly rotates upwards. You shiver at the inrush of much colder air, stepping out as your nipples perk up. Where am I? Is your first thought; the room looks like a laboratory. Curiously… uninhabited, though. There are no lights, and the camera looks to be destroyed.

You walk towards the only door, finding a somewhat damaged labcoat draped over one of the chairs. Wearing it to cover yourself some, it fits… surprisingly well. The name tag on it reads Alex Z. and C. Division.

C… Cloning? Creation? You glance back at the tanks, then at your own skin. Creation… maybe? With a sigh, you move forwards. None of the devices in the room seem to be powered except for the machine you came out of, and that, too, seems to have powered down. The door, though, does have power. You reach out to the panel to open it, and a keypad appears. Instinctively you type in the code 6311*958#, and the display flickers to an override menu. After a moment of confusion you tap Open in the override menu. The door slowly opens, then creaks to a halt half-way through; enough or you to get through, but… barely so.

With a grunt, you try to force it to open more, but… no. It seems to have locked up, and lost power. So you carefully shimmy through the gap, and start to explore this… facility you’ve found yourself in. It’s dark, but not dark enough to impede your vision. There’s… two things you want to find. People, and… a mirror. A third, albeit optional, objective is information. But… that seems unlikely to be found in a powerless place.

Of those three, a mirror is the first you come across. And in it can see… yourself. Pink eyes that faintly glow in the darkness, and the same pale skin. You also have long hair, black as far as you can tell, that goes down your back. You hadn’t even noticed while walking here.

You leave the bathroom, and continue exploring. People… seem less and less likely to be found here. But information… is a bit more likely than you’d first thought. You find some signage that suggests this place’s name is ‘Apocrypha’… meaning secret, private, or… to hide. So some kind of secret facility?

You come to an intersection after a while.

A - Explore up the stairs

B - Head left (D. Division)

C - Head right (A. Division)

You veer left, headed for the D. Division. Defense? Destruction? Dissemination? D… I don’t know. You sigh, unsure what you’ll find. After a bit of walking, you come to a bulkhead. Not unlike the one you passed going from C to the intersection, but… closed. You go for the panel and try the same code… which works. The Open button works as well, as the bulkhead starts to slowly open. Inside… is a lot more chaotic than C was. Burns and damage coat the walls, floors, ceilings, and most furniture. But… there are no corpses. No… bodies, or such. Dried blood, and spilled oil; broken machines and such, yes, but… no corpses of people.

You continue to explore the division, finding most of the supplies here gone. Every one of the storerooms seems to be stripped clean, save for one. The door to which is… depowered. But open enough that you can slip your fingers into the gap, and with considerable effort, budge the doors. The metal creaks and groans under the stress of being forced apart, but eventually gives in, and you manage to make a wide enough opening for yourself. The storeroom seems to hold… clothes, primarily. Replacements for any that get destroyed during work from accidents, you’d guess, but can’t be sure.

Instead you start to rummage through, searching for clothes to replace the labcoat with. And you do quickly find ones that fit you. Underwear first, then a shirt and pants. A new labcoat, and footwear, too. All of which seems to be made of pretty good materials, and with the exception of the labcoat, has no branding or such. The coat is… ‘Apocrypha’ once again.

d100: Poke around a bit more

27

You keep poking around for a while, but find little else of interest. The storeroom has nothing else for you. The rest of the division, though… does manage to grant you something extra. A partially charged omnitool. But it’s locked. So… it’s useless for now. You put it on anyways, hoping to find somewhere you can dismantle it and reset it. With nothing else of value here, you head back to the intersection.

A - Head straight (A. Division)

B - Head left, up the stairs

You head for the A. Division next, unable to really guess what this could be either. There’s a bulkhead here too, but it’s open. And inside is… less chaotic than D was. And inside you do find some… things. A workshop with a good variety of tools and equipment. Most of it’s offline, but manual tools are still enough to open up the omnitool you’ve got, and to reset it. So… you start doing just that. Having some kind of additional device will come in handy, to keep notes and such, if nothing else.

It takes a bit of time, but when you finish up and power it back on, it’s going through the new user experience. Which… you go through carefully. Focusing on maximum security over anything else. Once you’re done, you get up and circle around the workshop, putting together a toolkit into one of the toolboxes, then take it with you as you continue exploring.

This place seems to have been a manufactury of some kind, so maybe Assembly Division is appropriate. Either way, there’s a good amount of devices and such here that… if you could power up, would let you make some fun things, both additively and subtractively. After a while, you come across another storeroom, and get to work on getting it open.

d100: Poking around and finding out

67

This time your luck’s better, and you manage to find a few useful things. A gun and some ammo, a knife, and a vest that has holsters and such for them. So… you put it on, as well as the gun and knife, putting the ammo away into some of the ammo pouches. Then… you head out from A, finally returning to the intersection and heading up the stairs. There was an elevator too, but they were depowered, of course.

You move more carefully; armed, you can take down a threat if you find one, but… you hope there’s nothing like that. At the top of the stairs, there’s a larger room; an atrium of sorts. With… barricades and such set up, facing inward towards the stairs. So… something broke out? You sigh and poke around the edges. There’s some recreational and common areas, primarily for eating and resting. Security rooms that are blocked by more secure doors, that also lack power. You don’t think you need food, so you skip trying to check for anything. With your luck, it’d mostly be expired anyway.

Instead, you head for what seems to be an exit. The obvious option’s an elevator, but that’s… fucked up. Instead, you start heading up the stairs. Several floors later, you come to the surface, finding passage to the outdoors. It’s… hellish. A sandstorm battering against the walls and windows of whatever building you’re in; the last building between you and the outside world. You can make out that this is some kind o compound, but… with the sandstorm, you don’t want to risk heading out.

Especially as all the sand seems to also be causing electromagnetic interference; you can feel the charge in the air and the occasional arcs, and even lightning strikes. It’s… not a good place to be. So… you sit down, to wait it out. Watching the sand outside continue to be a mess.

The approaching lights you spot after a few hours make you pull out your pistol, readying it. You watch as two shielded trucks enter the compound, barely visible through the sandstorm. They drive up to one of the other buildings, and then vanish inside. After a few more minutes, several armored people come out, as well as a hexapod robot that’s acting as a portable shield against the sandstorm… or maybe against the electromagnetic interference. There’s a long cable trailing behind it.

The people start to enter buildings, clearing them and searching for something. You watch their flashlights move through the windows, their visors flickering against the darkness. The omnipresent light blue glow of the robot’s shield acts as a pretty good indicator of how close they are.

Before they get to your building, you’ll have to figure out what to do. Theoretically you could rush out into the storm and look for a better place to hide, but… it’s dangerous. Staying here is just as dangerous, though. Since the soldiers are just as much of an unknown as the storm’s effects on you. And… you doubt your pistol and knife will do much against what seem to be rifles; automatic weapons.

But you have to do something.

A - Sit and wait, ambush

B - Rush out

C - Head toward them

You glance around the room, then start moving things, subtly, to make for an ambush; to be able to shoot them from behind after they’ve entered, potentially stab a couple. The group of 6 will not be easy to take down, but… you’ll have to try. Your own security is, after all, more important. They slowly approach, so you take your position, readying both the knife and pistol. After a bit, the hum of the robot’s shield enters your ears, and you know to silence yourself; to be quiet and unnoticeable to the group.

The door suddenly groans, and six sets of footsteps come in; two of them are lighter than the others. Soon you can see them, too. A lead group of four, primarily with frontal armor, though thick padding on all sides. And the two in the back; one doing communications, the other… seemingly taking notes and cataloguing what they find.

“We’ve got a staircase. Passage down. Must be Apocrypha. Signal had to have come from down there.” “Copy, we’ll lose contact with the surface once down there, since power seems to be out.” “If you find a generator down there, don’t power it on. We don’t want to risk the defenses coming back online.”

You smirk a bit, slowly sneaking up behind them. With a rapid movement, you bury the knife in the neck of one of the rear two; the comms guy. Then, the cataloguer, followed by shots at the backs of the lead group’s heads; from behind and aimed below the brim of their partial helmets… it’s quite effective. They’re all dead before they knew what happened.

You start to go through their things, quickly finding some information. ‘Atlas Security’ is the company they’re from; a private military company, it seems. You grab their electronics, packing the cataloguer’s backpack with them. And then you grab one of their rifles; one with a multi-function scope, as well as ammo for it.

Their gear seems quite good, but… they weren’t prepared for anyone alive here. Or… at least, anyone capable of ambushing.

A - Commandeer the hexapod and head to the garage

B - Go through the sandstorm toward the garage

You head outside, and walk around the hexapod to its control panel. A shiver runs through you, alongside a flicker in your vision. And… then you command it to return to the garage, moving along with it. It’s a pretty slow tool, but it’s also having to retract a rather chunky cable, so… you’re not too surprised. You keep the rifle ready, since you don’t know how many more soldiers there’ll be.

But you don’t get a chance to find out, as you’re spotted first; a few shots whizz past you, and the hexapod stutters mid-step, before halting. It’s been ordered to stop by way of the cable, judging by the screen stating OVERRIDE ACTIVE. You look for any emergency stops or other such controls, but there doesn’t seem to be any. So… you’re effectively trapped in a bubble, between the garage and the lab.

A voice comes over the radio attached to the hexapod. “Surrender, or we will open fire.” A voice commands over the radio.

You hesitate for a moment, but… not having a clear line of sight on your foes means you’re at a disadvantage. A flicker goes through your vision again, and you shiver. The electromagnetic interference isn’t great for you, so you can’t stay outside for too long. It’s unclear how good of a sightline they have on you as well…

A - Surrender

B - Run into the sandstorm

C - State your identity, see how they react

You click the mic switch on the radio. “I am Valerie.” You state, somewhat hesitantly. “Identify yourself.” You request, releasing the switch.

“You must already know who we are, since we lost lifesigns for the away team when they entered the bunker. We can see you have one of their rifles.” They respond quite firmly; clearly not intent on… just letting you go. “Put down the gun, and approach us slowly, or we will open fire.”

You shiver, unsure what to do. You don’t want to die, but… this isn’t how you want to live either. Being captured doesn’t sound like a good idea.

A - Try again, this time with your designation as well

B - Surrender

C - Run

“My designation is V-X01.” You try again. “I woke up within Apocrypha.”

The response takes longer this time, and when it comes, it’s a different voice. “What do you mean by ‘designation’, exactly? And how did you wake up inside? This Apocrypha facility has been offline for two years until a week ago, when we received an SOS signal from it.”

You hesitate, but then respond. “I saw it when I woke up, on a document next to my… pod.” You say; you don’t want them to know exactly what you are. Maybe that’ll be useful for you, maybe not. “I don’t remember anything from before today, other than… random knowledge. Who am I speaking to?”

“I am the head of Apocrypha’s security team Kilo. You may call me ‘Command‘.“ He pauses. “Judging by the state of the facility, there’s no way there should’ve been any electricity left. And yet, here you are, so I can’t be sure about what’s going on. Did you kill the away team?”

What do you say?

“Who?”

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AN: Ends here for now. There’s technically more, but… idk yet.