Plague for Warpath - Part 6

This may be the longest narrative justification for a hobby idea that I've ever written. But demon worshipping cults in the warpath universe need to be explained somehow. I should also apologise for the terrible dialogue and over-use of tropes....but I'm not going to...

----------

The former director of the facility merely designated as forty two alpha sat in the bare walled room and waited intently for his interrogator to return. The downside to being head of a secret facility, he mused was that proving who you were took some time...

An hour later the security door slid open and the short fat gentlemen who had met him at the landing site returned and sat down opposite him "Start from the beginning..." he said...

----------

The head of the facility stood in front of the viewing window and watched the activity around the two large dropships with feigned disinterest as the first disgorged it's cargo of medical personnel and equipment while the second was surrounded by a contingent of corporation Enforcers guarding an innocuous unmarked black crate. A severe looking woman appeared to be in charge of the medical contingent though a large man in the armour of a Corporation Enforcer Captain was leading the military. The only indication of the importance of the crate was the nervous glances that it was the constant recipient of by the medics and the constant watch kept on it by the Enforcers themselves. Only the medics leader seemed to pay it no heed...

A pair of small sleek attack ships that had been circling above landed as soon as the preparations had been complete and the half a dozen Enforcer Striders that had arrived the day before moved from their flanking positions and returned to their patrol patterns.

"Everything we need is here then?" this from the doctor in charge as she ran her finger down the list of items she's been handed. Director Caine was unused to being spoken to like some unimportant lackey but his instructions had been clear...Doctor Mendez was to be given any and all assistance she required...

"Yes.." he bit back a sarcastic comment and continued "As a maximum security prison we have the finest and most sophisticated containment facilities in existence and as none of our prisoners 'officially' exist you have access to all the raw materials you requested...including some of the more...obscure...biological samples you specified...We also don't exist on any maps of the area or sector..." he paused briefly "I do however have a question...."

"and that is?" she said without even looking up from her notes. He thought carefully about how to phrase the question and then continued "I thought that the Lu-Fin Conglomerate was in charge of Plague research..." "Not entirely" she interrupted "They're looking at methods of prevention...we're looking into something different" "and what's that?" he enquired.

"Modification and control" was the somewhat ominous reply...

----------

Stage one had gone perfectly...

The artefact had been opened under a level of quarantine three levels above that required and all the released mutagens had been carefully gathered and the procedure monitored by every means at their disposal. Seven test subjects had then been exposed to the mutagens while properly restrained...straps had been used to hold the prisoners in place while larger reinforced restraints were in place for when the inevitable transformation occurred and the success rate was 100%. Two of the newly created Gen 1's had been immediately executed with high energy weapons and moved for dissection...the others were being used to create the next generation of Plague with subjects already prepared in a variety of ways from bionics, mutagens and chemical enhancements to experimental procedures that the doctor hoped would enable them to modify the resulting creatures into forms that could be used by the corporation...

Stage two had been far less of a success...

The conversion rate had dropped by a significant degree and the seemingly random nature of which subjects became stage 2's and which simply dropped dead, mutated uncontrollably or (in one case) violently exploded meant that many of the doctors potential modification procedures had failed to create viable subjects which subsequently meant that the number of 'volunteers' was increasing way beyond their original estimates. Several of the alien test subjects had also responded in unusual ways with the one exposed Teraton mutating into a creature as massive and powerful as any of the 1st generation subjects and had resulted in a three hour argument with the doctor in charge who wished to use their small remaining stocks of initial mutagen to create a 1st Generation Teraton and in the end it was only the lack of a large enough holding cell that finally dissuaded her...

By stage three director Caine was beginning to have severe doubts about every aspect of the project up to and including the sanity of the lead doctor...

They had all greatly underestimated the failure rate of Plague transmission in it's later stages and the facility now had entire wings of cells empty of prisoners...of course the number of mindless creatures that his staff were now calling Stage Z's after he specifically banned the use of the word 'zombie' had refilled a number of those. To compound these issues, the number of failed subjects had resulted in Dr Mendez abandoning many (in his opinion) vital safety precautions in favour of speeding up 'production' and this had already resulted in two potentially disastrous containment failures though he'd been assured that the leaks were without consequence...

...his primary mistake looking back was taking her word for it...

He was also uncertain that her self proclaimed 'successes' were anything to do her with her modifications to the subjects. There seemed (to him at least) to be no correlation between her enhancements of the initial subjects and either the success rate or the occasional mutation that she was taking as 'improvements' and all their attempts to force the stage 3's to obey basic commands inevitably resulted in them attempting to escape, murder the person giving the orders or for the most part some combination of the two.

He was also almost completely out of test subjects and they'd resorted to using subjects from the 'behavioural' wing or the 'nut-house' as his guards liked to call it in order to fulfil the doctors increasingly preposterous requests. Amongst these subjects was an individual who had taken to calling himself 'The Prophet' who had been interned in the facility for attempting to create civil unrest and for possible connections to rebel factions in the system though upon interrogation the staff had come to the conclusion that he was just insane. His claims of a 'cult of death' on the planet that he claimed leadership of who were 'preparing for the arrival of the heralds of destruction' was taken as the ramblings of a madman as who believed in underground cultists in enlightened times such as these. Though for reasons the director was at a loss to explain he had gained somewhat of a following in the prison and he had to admit considerable disappointment that this self proclaimed prophet had actually survived the infection process though he'd done so with considerable mutations when compared with the expected bench-mark....

----------

"Stop there a moment" said the interrogator "He actually used the words 'preparing for the arrival of the heralds of destruction'?" "Yes" answered the director "Is that relevant?" "Possibly.." he replied rather non-committally "Carry on..."

----------

He should really have confirmed that the containment breaches were indeed 'without consequence' he thought to himself as he ran towards the landing field faster than he'd ever moved before with the howling crowd of Plague infected mutants chasing behind him.

He gave silent thanks that the majority of them had stopped to tear apart the corporation enforcers or loot the facilities armoury rather than do a thorough sweep of the area though he'd never heard of Plague victims operating with anywhere near the efficiency and order that these seemed to be exhibiting. It occurred to him that he fact that the doctor may indeed have improved upon the already deadly infection may have been some small comfort to her if she still lived though he had justifiable doubts that she still numbered amongst the living...

Fortunately one of the small ships was sitting fuelled and ready for patrol but it appeared that the crewman had gone to help out their fellow Enforcers with the outbreak...at least he could get to the nearest city and warn his corporate superiors so they could send reinforcements to contain the potential disaster...

----------

"So your involved in a secret project, in a secret facility that's now over-run with heralds of destruction?" stated the interrogator in an amused tone. "Well yes...but..." hang on a minute "Did you call the plague 'heralds of destruction'...'' "There can't actually be a cult like that...no-one believes in secret societies and cloaked cultists hiding in basements..."

The interrogator stopped smiling "That was stupid of me" "Though I'm sure I can be forgiven given how long we've waited for the prophets prophecy to come true" He stated informatively before shooting the director neatly through the forehead.

He watched the body slump out of the chair and left the office quickly. He had a great deal of organising to do as the others needed to be informed and the prophet needed to be retrieved. His elevation to demonhood was obviously a reward for his devotion and perhaps himself and the others would be equally rewarded....

----------

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.