"Pancaek, come to the hangar please. It is time." Miyamoto said through his radio. All the preparations had been made, it was time to get the ball rolling.
”How ominous. I'll be right there ."Pan got out of vr and went to the hangar.
"You know what to do, right? The general said, as he gave Pancaek two objects: a small recorder, and his chem thrower, loaded with namite.
"Go with your protégé, play the recording when we get to the place, then make sure he makes his own decision. Gotcha.”He then went to stand next to Miyamoto, slightly behind him, and put his nice new military hat somewhere close by out of sight. He activated his stealthskin and waited.
Miyamoto waited for a moment before activating his radio again.
"Hasala, come to the hangar please.” Upon hearing the summon, Hasala finished unplugging from the VR machine and headed to the hangar.
"Ah, there you are, good. It is time for your next... Lesson. If you can call it that.
Just go with Pancaek here. He knows what to do.
Good luck."Then, right on cue, Pan decloaked next to Miyamoto and put on his new hat. He got out a cigar as well.
"I'll be your friendly morale fairy, here to scream when you go too slow. Follow me."He grabbed the namite cannister and headed off to the place. He knew where they were going. Hasasla soon followed suit.
”Do I need to grab any of my equipment?” He asked the synthflesh man, still wearing his standard ship clothing.
"Nah, I'm here to do the heavy lifting if need be. Don't worry about that."Hasala just nodded, and followed. They were shown to a door in the rear of the infirmary and through a series of halls, and finally to a large freight elevator.
"Don't want to talk on the way over, eh? Fair enough." "Well, I'd like to know what we're doing, of course, if you're willing to share before we get there." "No can do, I'm afraid. Can't spoil Miya's big dramatic moment that he's planned out. But basically, he's putting you through another test. He's grooming you for bigger things, I suppose. It'll become apparent when we're there. Don't worry, there isn't really anything you can do wrong, per se." The rest of the trip is spent in silence, each man lost to his own thoughts. The red LCD display near the door read -88 by the time the doors opened.
The room beyond the doors was freezing cold, Hasala’s breath visible the moment they wheeled them in. It smelled strange, antiseptic and copper. It was a massive room, multi-leveled and lined on either side with enormous green tanks. Inside these tanks were what looked like synthflesh bodies, but far too large and only vaguely humanoid. In the center of the room was a hole, with a ring of mechanical limbs around it. Over in one corner of the room stood what looked like a modified stasis tank. Inside the tank they saw a mass of flesh, about the size of a human torso. It looked like a smooth capsule of skin, save for a few frozen eyes which stared out of it toward the ceiling.
Hasala shivered as they enter the room, standing there in a thin t-shirt and pants, with bare feet. He stared at the synthflesh forms, silently counting their number. Pancaek led Hasala over to the tank containing the fleshy mass.
"Whelp, this is why we're here." He takes out the recording device Miya gave him earlier.
"I'll let his highness do the talking"And he presses play
Hello Hasala. You are now in an Avatar Containment Facility. The freezer you see in front of you contains the third iteration of the individual known as 'Xan'. As you undoubtedly know, he is the one responsible for the failure of the arctic mission on Kano, and the subsequent death of at least 3 ARM troopers. His clone then proceeded to explode into a fleshy horror, which the Doc himself, the one who gave him these powers, eventually had to deal with. What you see is the latest copy Xan made, which until recently was stored on Hephaestus.
Now, previously, he was simply defrosted on Hep and then allowed to do whatever. However, it seems that with each consecutive copy, this entity becomes more mentally unstable, yet also more devious. To quote the Doc himself: "The original made duplicates. Imperfect ones. Degeneration through successive copies. Caution recommended. Becoming unstable." That said, I am honestly unsure whether his increasingly unhinged nature stems from these powers, or if he always was this insane to begin with.
So, we've now come at a crossroads of sorts. What to do with him? Do we take the risk and let him roam free again? Do we try to install safety measures to limit him? Do we try to take away his powers and revert him to his old self?
Or do we simply burn every last scrap of his being and be done with it?
This is where you come in. As part of your training, I've decided you should be the one to choose what will happen to him. That's because, in the field, you will also sometimes be faced with difficult choices that will decide the lives of ARM comrades or even innocents, and where there is no clearly labeled 'best option'. And at times like that, you will need to be able to make a decision, and stick with it. So that is why you must now make a choice, and why you will not be allowed to ask anyone for advice. You can ask Steve, the AM, or the Doc questions if you wanna know what the options are, but you cannot contact me or any other ARM trooper. Because it is important that you, and you alone, makes a decision.
So choose, Hasala. Whatever you do, that'll be how it is. Pancaek will be at your disposal. Once you have decided, give the order, and he will do whatever needs to be done.
When the message finishes playing, Hasala stayed silent for a few seconds, staring at one of Xan's frozen eyes. He thought about it for a while, mulling over different possibilities. Eventually, he raised his wristpad and sent a short, quick message:
Xan caused a fire, on the mission labelled 10. It was eclipsed by the "Ice-9" event, but do we know how many deaths and how much property damage that fire caused? Secondly, could you estimate the number of civilian casualties caused by it if the "Ice-9" event hadn't happened, for me?
You have access to biometric data. When he started that fire, do you know what his intentions were?
The answer from the massive wetware intelligence came swiftly.
>Numbers unknown. Estimated numbers in the low 50's for deaths. His emotions were consistent with attempting to take revenge and or a sudden emotional outburst.
Then he send of a second message, to the resident mad doctor this time:
Xan's powers. Is it possible to remove them? And could the mental degeneration be repaired?
What caused his two incidents?
Is it possible to prevent someone from using psychokinetic amplifiers or manipulators?
Removal possible- dangerous though- but degeneration permanent. He is what he is now.
Flesh is sub-servant to mind. Failure to control it due to lack of will. External factors acted as catalyst, but could still have been stopped.
Restriction of supply is easiest way.
Hasala read the responses, nodded to himself, and turned to Pancaek.
"He's too dangerous to keep around as he is. His abilities should be removed immediately, without waking him from stasis, if possible. If he survives the procedure, he should have no access to amplifiers or manipulators. They're too powerful, too difficult to control, and he's displayed his lack of willpower several times already. No nukes, either, I think.
That said... I like to think people can change. If he manages to pull himself together, shape up and display some willpower... maybe in the future he might be allowed to use amplifiers again. Maybe not. That one wouldn't be my call, I think.
And if he continues to be a nuisance and a threat to his fellow teammates or civilians, he should be put down. Immediately." When he finished speaking, Hasala inhaled deeply, held his breath for a second, and exhaled slowly.
Pan looked at the namite cannister in his hands, then back at Hasala.
"You're sure you don't want me to...? Nah, you know what you're doing. Well, nice work, I assume you'll notify the general yourself?" "I will, yes. Think I'll pass?" "I think so, yeah. Your solution is very reasonable. The general is a reasonable man. It isn't what I would've done, but that just means you're on the right track, I think."Hasala left the room, letting Pancaek take care of the monster. The trip back didn’t seem to last as long this time.
Emerging from the infirmary, Hasala makes his way over to the hangar, to report to Miyamoto.
"Well, I made my decision. Xan's still alive, at least for the moment. His shapeshifting ability is being removed, which isn't exactly a safe procedure, though. If he survives, I advised restricting his access to psychokinetic amplifiers, manipulators, and nuclear bombs. He can't be trusted to use them safely and without casualties, at least in his present mental state. And if he's responsible for a single ARM or civilian casualty in the future, the punishment is permadeath. He's on his last chance.
I also suggested that the armory restrictions be lifted in the future, if he behaves well enough... though I can understand why you wouldn't approve that." "I see. Well, I won't comment on the decision itself, since that was not the goal of this test, the goal was to see if you, pardon my space French, had the cojones to make the tough decisions. If you think in the future he might deserve those privileges back, I'm giving you the authority to decide that. In fact, you can consider yourself his keeper, so to speak. So if you need to take him down, or order him destroyed, you have full discretion to do so.""His keeper..." He said, and nodded.
"If you'll excuse me, General, I'd like to grab a spot on one of the missions before they're all filled. And have a look at the list of the latest prototypes available for field testing." "Sure sure, you're dismissed. Gonna be preparing for that particular party as well." 
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2535637 times)