FSE

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Phase 1, Chapter 1.

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Velvet ears twitched lightly against the wires which brushed awkwardly against their tips, coils of copper dangling from various series of apparatus which attached themselves to a lithe bodied male. The room was dark, illuminated only by the dull glows of various display monitors as they regulated the equipment, leaving the vigilant emerald eyes of their resident to relax for the time being. It was a small room, centered around a single cylindrical core... A hollow object, slanted at a comfortable angle for one to lay at and padded with what appeared to be a layer of adaptive foam, the sort which would alter to suit the contours of an occupants body. Already the synthetic material had nestled around the fur of their user, a sleek black wolf with no real accentuations of colour to define him. There was nothing about the man in the case which seemed to make him remarkable at all... Which was precisely why he was perfect for the work he did.

A sudden alteration in the electrical currents dancing in his veins alerted the wolven soldier to the incoming analog even before the dull, mechanical tones of the voice-over programs used to conceal vocalization of commanding officers began to reverberate in his head. Stilling his breathing, the male closed his eyes and listened for the transmission.

"Tac-com to Zulu-three. Zulu-three, we are turning you over to your assigned Overseer. Copy?"

" Zulu-three to tactical command. Understood, ready to proceed. Over."

The soldier designated as Zulu-Three spoke in a calm and confident tone, lightly raising a paw to ajust the interface which hovered above him for optimal reception. The wires running into his veins and muscle groups made the motion slightly painful, but it was something that he had grown accustomed to long ago. Unlike the concealed voices of his superiors, the wolf within the cylinder was left to his natural state of being. Each inflection lilting almost playfully against the open air, silk-like but firm in their conviction. Gentle, but dangerous. It was only a matter of moments until a response came through the opened channels connecting the unit's tactical command directly to Zulu-Three's mind.

"Roger that. Happy hunting."

There was a reflexive nod of the head from Zulu-Three in response to the ending words, despite the fact that not a soul would see it. Still, there was just certain motions which muscle memory demanded at times. Carefully, the wolf took a few moments to adjust himself against the form fitting synthetics which surrounded his short, sleek fur. He knew that whoever his assigned Overseer was, that he would be a while before picking up the transmission channel. He knew this because the Overseers were all civilian contractors, scientists in specific, who had designed this program for military application. It was the one part of this contract which Zulu-Three had found questionable, the concept of working with civilian personell, but it had been remedied in a round about way when the wolf was informed that he could select his own Overseer. Sighing, the soldier's veridian eyes fluttered open to glance downwards at his own bare chest, tracing the dull outline of his dogtags where they rested against his muscled abdomen.

Savantes, Kalevar J. Male, A- 882nd Combat Control "Glory is Eternal"

_ "Are you awake, Sir??"_

A new voice drew the soldier's attention sharply upwards, and another low sigh pressed past his lips. Laying his head back against the foam, Kalevar again shut his eyes. Already, he knew something was incorrect. He had met his Overseer only for a short time, but that was all he required to tell this was not the voice he had selected. Something must have gone wrong, and he knew better than to assume that the higher-ups even cared. He should have forseen this contingency from the beginning. Hell, the program logistics probably only created the facade of Overseer selection merely to shut fighters like him up. Now, one might ask how he could know so immediately, especially condsidering the masking programs which were so readily available to his organization... Well, the answer to that would be that he had chosen a Male.... This voice, was undoubtedly female. The image feed on his HUD lit abruptly, revealing his assumptions to be correct as a young feline appeared on the screen, her head tilted lightly as she tapped at the lense of her webcam.

"Kalevar, Sir?"

"I'm listening."

"O-oh!! Sorry, sir.. I didn't know if my.. Anyways.. Are you ready to begin your assignment? Have you been briefed?"

"I have. But something tells me I'm about to be briefed again, considering you certainly aren't who I was told to expect."

"......."

_ _

Well, there was strike one already. Contemplative green eyes watched with near indifference as the young girl reached the verge of tears. This was bad. The fact that she had nearly fallen out of her chair after being startled by him had said enough about her persona to fill a majority of the blanks Kalevar might have had, but this? She would never survive his dry, sarcastic humor. Fortunately, as a psychological operative, the wolf understood how to play his cards.

"Ease up, Kitten. I'm sure it wasn't your fault, likely something to do with the logistics. Lets start over with this."

"Al..alright.. I'm so sorry.. They told me you wouldn't mind..."

_ "It's fine. Now, as i'm sure you already know from your files, my name is Kalevar Jeremiah Savantes. I am twenty eight years old, stand at six foot one, and weigh 224 lbs. Wolven male, green eyes, black fur, no discernable patterning. I am a soldier in the 882nd Combat Control Wing. My time spent in deployment is effectively seven years, with a thiry-seven percentile of that time spent in direct combat. I was activated to serve in the Overseer program two weeks ago, roughly. My hobbies include archery, dance, and cooking." _

"...W-what?"

"That last part wasn't in the files."

It had been a longshot, but from the way that the female tenatively began to giggle, Kale knew his ploy had worked. There was nothing like catching someone off guard to make them forget what they were doing or feeling, be it in combat or everyday interaction. Surprise was a powerful tool in the warfighter's aresenal. The feline seemed to have been put at ease by the little joke, gingerly twirling a bit of her reddish hair between her fingertips and rocking against the back of her chair with a small smile. Nodding towards the camera, she tapped a few keys in order to display several dozen pages of information across the length of Kalevar's HUD.

"My name is Fayah.. I am a scientist under contract with Overseer, and was assigned to your operation when Dr. Bastov was moved back to the research department.. I, uhm.. I'm twenty two, five foot eight... You.. Can sorta see the rest. Feline, female, pink.. Green eyes.."

"Yes, fair enough. You don't have to give me the rundown. Lets move on to business, I have these wires in me for a reason, and it certainly isn't pleasure."

"Right! Uhm.. The briefing is on your screen. However, most of it is liability and waiver documentation, as this program is largely.. experimental..."

"You don't have to look so ashamed. I knew what I was signing up for."

"Okay. Well, beyond all these parts about your potential death, i'll highlight a few segments that are critically relevant."

"Understood. Awfully cheery, aren't you."

As the feline blushed, Kalevar took a few moments to search the entire documentation, his psionically enhanced mental functions mapping and storing the information permanently somewhere in his consciousness. The illuminated portions of text were basically a rewrite of the brochure he had been given upon his initial enlistment with the Overseer program. They described how the nature of the program was dimensional assassination, using the apparatus he was currently attached to as a projector which would emit his very existence across the gaps formed amidst time and creation. In this manner, he would be used to police events which had yet to occur, effectively stopping disaster in its earliest stages. As a Psionic, he had been one of a small handful suited for the intense mental conditioning required to run the machine.. But even as strong as he was, Kale could not escape the one facet of the ordeal which was the most taxing. The reason an Overseer was required. Dimensional travel would completely erase his memory between worlds, times, places. How or why it worked, Kalevar had no idea. All he knew was that when he woke up, the only piece of himself he would have would be Fayah's voice inside his head to guide the way.

"Everything seems to be as I remember it."

"Yes.. Are you prepared, sir?"

"You aren't going to brief me on my assignment?"

"You will only forget it, sir... I will brief you when you awaken on the other side."

"...What if I don't forget?"

"Well, then you'll have an easier time understanding the briefing when I give it to you, sir."

"Mhm.."

"Your vitals are all confirmed to be within deployable parameters, Kalevar.. I'm going to send you through."

"It's going to hurt like a bitch, isn't it."

"See you soon."

"That's what I thought."

The wolf's final snide remark was lost to the world of his birth as a sudden surge of energies exploded through his frame. The cables which embedded into his spine threw him into spiraling unconsciousness as his brainwaves were robbed from his body and fed into the machine instead. The journey took a matter of seconds, but to Kalevar he was lost for hours. The nightmares which plagued his sleep raged graphically in his eyes, but this time he could not wake up and leave them behind.. Men were being torn to shreds amidst volleys of automatic weapons fire, dropping in bursts of crimson and fur. He was running, running as fast as he could, but not away from the enemy. No, on the contrary, he was sprinting for all he was worth towards them, and knowing he would not arrive soon enough to stop what was happening. Lack of oxygen caused his lungs to burn with every labored pant, his arms trembling with fatigue as he shouldered his weapon to fire.

"Kalevar... Kalevar..!!"

Radio static echoed in his comm-piece as he hurdled over a partially broken down wall of brick and mortar, cutting sharply on his heels to gun down an entire row of troops who were manning a forward gun station. Their expressions of shock and horror gave him sick satisfaction as their blood exploded outwards from their bodies, revenge for those of his own who had fallen.

"Kalevar! Do you read me, Kalevar?!"

The voice became louder, and it gave the soldier momentary pause. For a split second, he nearly raised a paw to speak into his mic, but was thrown into action once again as a hail of gunfire tore down the deserted streets towards his position. Diving behind the destroyed remnants of a civilian vehicle, Kalevar tucked in against the twisted steel and dropped the magazine from his rifle. Slapping a new one into the well, he tenatively raised his head to peer around the edge of his cover. There was no movement... Returning to his resting position against the vehicle's tattered shell, the wolf took several tactical breaths in an attempt to lower his pulse. An effort made entirely in vain, as the tink-tinkling of a metal bouncing against stone met his ears and a grenade rolled into view. Depserately, he dove for the antipersonell device, praying to whatever Gods there were that it had not been cooked.

_"KALEVAR!!!" _

A sudden female voice pulled everything into perspective. Everything was gone, everything. Inwardly, the male understood that he was a soldier. A fighter. A killer. But what... Was he? Who was he? And what was that voice in his head? Groaning, a furred feline head rose from the floor, a small puddle of drool left behind to mark the spot where his head had hit the ground. Shakily, the male rose to his two catlike paws, entirely unaware that he was not himself. Unsure of what 'himself' even meant, at this rate. Emerald eyes searched the enviornment, finding themselves in what appeared to be some sort of abandoned warehouse, the elevated windows filled with shattered remnants of glass, the remainder of the shards resting upon the plain concrete floors. Rusted metalwork from what could have once been many shelves stood in skeletal structures acrost the expanse, leaving very little room to manuever. What the hell was going on here? Where was here, in the first place? And if no one was here, what on earth was that voice he kept hearing?

"Kalevar. I need you to stay calm, and listen to me. We have a job to do."

--End-- To be Cont...