Project Rain
Sort of a transformation story I suppose but I'm unsure what else to call it. This started out as a bio of my new character, Rain, but sort of morphed into a story after while.
Tell me what you think ^^
I'm fairly new to the whole writing thing, and didn't revise this in detail (It's finals week here x.x).
While her official name is "Laboratory Specimen 324-53," the researchers who designed her commonly referred to her as Rain. It was also the name they planned to train her with.
She was part of an elaborate defense project that went by the name "Project Rain." The idea was to alter the DNA of animals indigenous to regions occupied by those who were a "potential security threat." However, the project's budget was ludicrous, and all but one of the experiments failed.
Because of her being the sole survivor, she earned the name "Rain" after the project itself. She is a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) that is indigenous to North America. Originally intended to be used for protection against domestic terrorist threats, she now had to be trained to operate in areas that could potentially be far out of her species' comfort zone due to being the project's last remaining experiment.
After the failure of the other members of "Project Rain," much of the income that was fueling the operation was cut because the government no longer viewed it as being viable. The scientists were to continue on a limited budget. This did nothing but benefit Rain, who now received the complete attention of the researchers.
They had quickly decided that attempting to create more experiments would be far too risky with their limited budget, and in any case the suppliers no longer had much faith in extending a project that had proved to be so costly.
This left them with only one option. They would have to alter Rain so that she would be able to survive in any environment that was required. Though she was captured as an ordinary, young, Bald Eagle, the procedure would alter both her appearance and what she was capable of.
Rain was kept unconsious for most of the procedure as the pain may have done her in if she had been awake. Following the procedure she had grown in size by a slight margin, gained improved eyesight (For both day and night) and other sensory abilities, improved capacity for intelligence, and most notably, the ability to produce a hallucinogen within her body which could be expelled at will through the tips at the ends of her talons.
After waking up, Rain was put through a series of tests that would determine her capacity to operate in an "official" environment. She scored well above expectations in all areas except for obedience. Obviously, this was of great concern to the scientists. It wasn't that she didn't know what they wanted from her in the tests, it was that she ignored them.
But disobedience was not the only undesireable feature the procedure had had on her.
Her purpose was to land on the shoulders of a "suspected security threat" and pierce their shoulders with her talons, then eject the hallucinogen. The victim would become increasingly susceptible to orders and with the aid of a wireless communication device, they would unknowingly give up vital information. Depending on the situation, they could even be coaxed into walking into a trap. The only forseeable detriment to her ability was that the hallucinogen took time to take fully effect. Though the victim would almost immediately become notably more lax and susceptible, it would take about a minute of continuous hallucinogen exposure for the effect to become semi-permanent, meaning that the effects could never be completely removed. Though they could never be removed entirely if enough hallucinogen was applied, it would eventually wear off to a point that the victim would operate completely normally and wouldn't feel any effect of it having happened.
The problem with this was that the victim would almost definitely have to be alone in order for them to give up any information. Rain would be an easy target for snipers or nearby enemies while she was dug into their shoulder. The scientists researched possible ways to lower the amount of time needed for the hallucinogen to take effect, but no results came up.
The other issue with Rain was that she seemed to have grown fond of keeping the knowledge she had obtained from test victims. Her brain was altered only to store more information so that she could take in more data without being "overloaded." She was expected to naturally lose the knowledge gained within a couple weeks after applying the hallucinogen. This wasn't the case.
This problem was considered minor by the researchers as they viewed it as merely a sign that their brain surgery had been a success. It would only become an issue if she couldn't take in more data because of the knowledge already stored.
After several weeks of testing, it appeared as though Rain was gradually becoming more obedient, but at a fairly slow pace. Another undocumented effect of the hallucinogen was that it sort of worked in more than one way. It occasionally improved the sensory functions of the victims, they would become sharper. In addition, it occasionally worked in reverse. She was gaining hints of human emotion; the capacity to feel and reason. These would only grow more evident in time.
After only three months of testing, the CIA sent an investigator to evaluate how the project was proceeding. The scientists were not pleased with this unexpected visit, and they tried to explain that she was gradually becoming more obedient.
But it was of no use.
The investigator reported back to his superiors and within a day, the project was ordered to be shut down and all experiments terminated. "Project Rain" was viewed to be too high-risk and that the potential losses in an accident could exceed the cost of the entire project. All the data was to be erased from the system permanently.
The news came as a shock to the scientists and they pleaded with the CIA to allow them to continue the project, and that it was almost completed. This proved fruitless. They had two days to erase the data from the system and exterminate any involved experiments.
After the budget cuts early on in the project, only about fifteen scientists remained working on it. They had grown fond of her over the time they'd spent with her and had noticed drastic improvements in her behavior.
The two days passed and they had still not carried out their orders. When this was discovered by the CIA operatives, they feared that the scientists planned to continue their research with a competing nation. Agents were sent to erase any trace that there ever was a "Project Rain," including those who had worked on it.
They were successful.
At least, partially.
An hour or so before the agents arrived, Rain's handlers decided that they couldn't stand by and watch her die after all she'd been through. There was argument amongst the scientists over what to do with her. Some said she had progressed enough to live safely in the wild, others insisted that their superiors were correct and that she was too dangerous to be kept alive.
A fight broke out. Lives were shattered.
Seconds later, there was an explosion, and gas flooded the facility. None of the scientists lived for longer than thirty seconds after being exposed. Men in gas masks entered a short while later to discover that the data had been deleted, and that Rain's containment area was empty.
The door was open.