Program HEL
Classified military document
Intended to the eyes of the Marshal Ludwig Von Branstein, general staff of Military Science
Demanding approval of fund liberation for Program HEL
Program HEL has been approved by the scientific committee of the Military R&D.
Its purpose is to further the compatibility of the human brain along with that of the machine.
The lead scientist of this program has been assigned to Dr E. Marcellus.
The program will be separated in multiple phases.
1.1 Research and examination of a suitable subject.
1.2 Cerebral purging of subject, in order to conform with required pattern for program objective.
1.3 Calibration of experimental material with subject brain.
1.4 Calibration of material to total neural compatibility.
2.1 Study of subject after full calibration, physical condition.
2.2 Study of subject after full calibration, mental condition.
2.3 Aptitude tests on response time, docility and confirmation of purging.
2.4 Final check on all bodily function for further anomaly.
3.1 Beginning primary experimentation with live cybernetic material.
3.2 Coordination with the HEL interface.
3.3 First test with HEL interface, live.
3.4 Second test with HEL interface, live, anomaly check.
3.5 Further live HEL interface tests to determine maximal capacity of human brain to HEL interface.
4.1 Preparation of weapon systems.
4.2 Final installation of the HEL interface with weapon.
4.3 Final tests of subject with HEL interface, and vice-versa with weapon.
The benefits of such a program are numerous, but due to the sensitive nature of the program, the committee has required HEL to be done in the utmost secrecy. Any leak could be fatal to the very existence of the bureau of Military Science, as such, funding and preparation have to be prepared without the official seal of approval of the RMHQ.
We expect the program to be fully running within the next year. As to the full potential of the project, the R&D committee has ordered another examination at the term of first phase.
Sincerely,
Dr. Eugen Marcellus
RMSHQ, division 17.
"What in all Fatherland, is this?..."
The ship looked vaguely like a Rheinland cruiser. Sparkles rained down on its massive structure as crew in spacesuit worked on its hull, mere ants floating in space suits, preparing a colossal warship. Its markings, the Reich's war cross on its bridge, made it a relic from the era of the imperial Kaiserlichemarine, and yet, its hull was nearly intact, no rust, no major damage aside of some small asteroid impacts over the centuries...
True Rheinland craftsmanship, made of true Rheinland steel. Colonel Torsten, the lead supervisor of Shipyard 14, could appreciate such a beautiful machine, but had no idea of the modifications he was ordered to do upon it. Among other disturbing modification, all viewports, save a single one, the bridge port, were removed. Crew space were sealed - or rather, filled with material he never seen before, vaguely ressembling AI electronic components, but on a colossal size, and lacking... an AI core. Torsten was curious, very curious, just like all his crew working on this monster. Some were suspicious, others were even fearful of what they were doing - after all, the life of a sailor in space, much like those of sailors at sea back in the Old World, were filled with myths and curses one had to respect if they wanted to keep the good luck on their side.
Building what looked like more and more like a ghost ship, literally, with no space for any crew, was defintively not respectful of naval traditions...
But Torsten was a good soldier, aside of being curious. He knew better than ask questions to his superiors.
Marcellus wasn't quite young anymore. In his late 60s, he felt the weight of age on his shoulders, and yet, he took a habit of never taking any undeserved rest until he reached some sort of result. HEL, was so far one of his most exhausting and yet easily the most fruitful of his projects. Despite literally making his life a "hell", bringing him all around Rheinland to evade the public attention in order to stay "dark", unable to communicate with his family or even leave notes, he never lead a scientific team that produced so much results in so little time. His earlier prediction to marshal Branstein were extremely enthusiastic, he had to admit, but for once, it seems he was going to be within schedule.
He stretched a bit, took a little walk to bring himself some coffee - the true beverage of the working man, and allowed his eyes to wander off his computer screen to the large window of the station. There it was, the final step of all his hard work, sitting in the berth of one the most secretive shipyards of Rheinland. The 818...
All it lacked, was the final components of HEL that would made 818 compatible with its human guest. And then, Rheinland would have in its hand, one truly formidable weapon.
Vierlande was a bit like the lair of the bad dragon in the fairy tales. Very few have actually seen it up close, and fewer even had visited it. Some pretend it doesn't exist, others invent conspiracy to cover up their lack of knowledge, and many simply don't even know it is a real place. But Vierlande does exist, for the better or the worse, far away in the Hamburg system, orbiting the dark side of an unintersting planet, receiving the lowest amount of visitors of any penitenciary facility in the world. The guards here were strict, the most brutal, selected for their agressivity. The inmates were here, often for life. Many were Red Hessians, others were Unioners, some were crooks that stole too much, and some others simply comitted an insanely unimaginable crime because, well, they were insane.
All this to say, Vierlande was the place where the State of Rheinland kept those he deemed, had no right to live, but couldn't be legally executed, for whatever reason it might be. The rest were simply serving their time before being thrown into the planet they orbitted in a most unceremonial way, along with the facility's waste. Such was the harsh punishment awaiting just about anyone becoming an inmate there.
Marcellus didn't want to go there himself, but as leader of the group, he had to be there at the selection of a specimen - it was easier to do what they had to do, when you dehumanized a bit the subject, refering to it as specimen. In his time, Marcellus did many things the public would find simply monstruous, and would often refer to him as a cold hearted man of science with no moral. Yet, his critics couldn't explain how he managed to live a normal happy life with a wife and even two sons, both of which were now finishing their final years at the New Berlin Academy. Marcellus was human, and he worked, always, for the greater good. Without sacrifice, progress would come to a halt, and humanity would stagnate, such was the grim truth many men of science came to realize when working for the Rheinland Military.
The girl - or, specimen, for he was not allowed to know her name for reasons of security, was a wild little rebel, no proper education, no manner, and still untamed despite the unsavory treatment they offered at Vierlande. She had been in prison for a year already, and still fought, spat, cursed, probably her only way to fight the dull and killing atmosphere of the station, the only way for her to retain her sanity. Marcellus didn't knew exactly why they chose her; he himself was there mostly for formalities with the authority. The answer would have been quite easy though, strong will, a body that was trimmed and left no fat, only muscle. She was a criminal, living a life of survival where only the strongest mind and body could live, a merciless life. All in all, the healthiest, strongest possible subject available. Why a girl? It wasn't quite official, but it was a general assumption that if a treatment worked on a female body, then the male body would react equally if not better. Simple stroke of luck, as some would say.
It was still a shame. Behind all the beating, the ugly tattoos and scars this young woman accumulated in the underground world and in prison, she was pretty - Marcellus distinguished a proud, elegant bone structure, a skin that used to be smooth, once upon a time.
Well, it was no time to ponder on what was. Science was all about the future after all. He had to focus, forget what she was, what she used to be. What they were about to do to her...
He shivered.
The greater good, he had to remember, the greater good...
Dr Marcellus took the time to visit the facility as his team prepared the young wo- the specimen, that is. Vierlande was nearly legendary, and him being in the good names of the Federal Government (an honor rarely extended to civilian employees), he could ask for just about anything and get it.
Vierlande was, seemingly, built to kill its inmates without even the guards being present. The entire building was painted in one set of color - an uniform gunmetal grey that gave the entire prison a look of invincibility, indestructible cage that none could escape. No viewports, the cell doors weren't the bars that some imagined, but instead a solid plate of metal that slid on well oiled rails - everything was pristine, perfect, no components made any noise. Every aisle were built the same way, making Marcellus lose the sense of time and space as he and his escort wandered the infinite maze of corridors...
And the only noise they heard were their footsteps, and the screams from interogation department, in the middle of the facility.
Well, if anything, they were about to save this young woman a lifetime a trouble...
Not that what she was going through soon enough is enviable in any way.
First, they unclothed her. Defiantly, she tood, arms crossed as her inmate jumpsuit was torn away from her body, since she refused to comply. She had a firm, generous chest, a solid, muscular abdomen, and hips that any men would dream to caress... They then attached her to a suspended rack, all limbs spread, and proceeded to shave her entire body of any possible hair. They then proceeded to destroy the folicle on every part of her body, save the head. Water was then sprayed on full force on her body, forcing away any impurity, destroying any germs, and other undesired elements that could compromise the experiment. Her tattoos had been removed earlier, and her scars were now half erased using advanced medical equipement brought along. At that point, Marcellus' team and the security guards they were attached to put on their sterile suits.
The girl struggled to break free from the rack - but as strong as she was, as her biceps showed, no man could even dream to bend the steel bindings that was restraining her. A guard injected a small dose of chemical, rendering her instantly unconscious. She was freed, and let to rest on an operating table. The real work was to begin now.
Once in control of his equipment, Marcellus felt much more at ease, and sighed in relief. It would have been otherwise very hard to concentrate with such a beautiful, fertile young woman lying nude in front of him. It was something natural that nobody could repress. But only because he was a doctor of experience, he could forget about these primal needs, and focus on what was at hand.
Destroying various parts of her static memory. Memories that were literally impossible to forget, even with the help of strong chemical. Things that were carved within the soul of a being, that could only be removed forcefully. By the past, it was done by surgery, a very crude method mostly to keep dangerous insane patients at asylums under control. It left a vegetative patient, with a highly damaged brain, mentally retarded.
What they were doing, using electronic pulses emitted through nanomachines, was much more sophisticated, but all the more dangerous. It required a delicate touch to handle so miniature machines, in such a fragile environment as the human brain.
The memory purging. It was yet another procedure he invented. Originally conceived to help soldiers experiencing traumatic experiences to recover by purging the memories causing the traumatic event. It worked rather well, too, but the committee on ethic refused the method be made public, and reserved the use only for classified military demands, such as recycling a special service agent, or, a program like the one he was leading.
Using nanomachines, Marcellus was able to target certain memories - read using electronic frequencies, and erase them by emitting a concentrated but highly focused energy beam on certain area of the human brain.
It was a lot more elegant than slicing a brain open.
But still quite disturbing. For the greater good though, such procedures had to be invented...
It took them 5 days, all in all, of exhausting, stressful intervention, the longest in Marcellus' memory, to purge the woman's head of all her "irrevelant" souvenirs; childhood, parents, education, family, lovers, child, friends, work, entertainment, everything that made of her a person, gave her an identity was erased. All that were kept were her most basic skills for one to live - she still knew how to breath, eat, drink, sleep, all the innate functions were kept, and so were those for communication.
At that point, the hard part of the first stage was finally over at the relief of everyone. The hardened guards, as cruel they were toward inmates, were humane enough to see a good effort that deserved some rewards, and served the scientists some refreshments.
Now, they wait.
And hope everything went as they predicted. With the human brain, it was one very big, and hard bet to place. One simply couldn't mess with the human body, and if they screwed up, anywhere, they would know only now...
She simply woke up, openned up her eyes, and that was it. Some of the men watching her barely even realized what hapenned, so casual it was. And so immobile she remained afterward. Like a machine, awaiting further instruction.
It was sign, they did it.
Relieved smiles and sighs were exchanged, as the team entered the containment chamber to examine their prized experiment. The girl didn't even react to the presence of these scientists, watching over her nude and shaved body with a purely scientific gaze, no lust lost on her breasts, her womanhood, nothing but the glee of success.
Marcellus received the honor of giving the first command. If all went well, his verbal command, recognized by the chip they implanted in her head through the nanomachines, would give a stimulation to her brain, making it interpret the command as a priority to her body.
"Sit."
And she sat up in a simple motion, neither too fast, nor too slow. There was no enthusiasm, nor reluctance. She obeyed. The calibration of the chip with her brain, was perfect it seems. It would require some more adjusting, so she would obey with more haste, put more emphasis on her actions, but they were on the right "frequency" with her brain. She obeyed, because it felt to her like it was something important to do, and because nothing in her brain was arguing for her "why, why not, what for?"
Marshal Branstein would approve. They just created the perfect soldier. One that would do everything asked with no hesitation, no question. Because she had nothing to hesitate about and nothing to question about. She wasn't even aware she was living.
Marcellus sat down that night on his bed, reflecting on those thoughts.
Indeed, they just killed that woman, in the most terrible way possible.
By erasing her very identity.
![[Image: PrincessSignaturecopy.png]](http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad144/Korolia/Gallia/PrincessSignaturecopy.png)