New Persia 3049

  Aleph’s heart would never beat, but he was very sure if it could they would hear it they'd hate him all the more than they likely do now.

  He wasn’t one to excessively grieve or fear, even as a vampire raised amongst humans.

  Yet when it came to failure he couldn't help but lose his sanity a little, here he was on platform with the team he'd let down so many times...

  And their disappointment wasn't exactly hidden and, it had him trying to be stoic to hide the shame and falling of his countenance to come with such but it seemed that that they took this as complacency in his failures.

  Failures that truly he believed were sourced from the humans that raised him, a spiritual man and those who served him and knew him, he never got to engage in that early violence vampire children were known for 'too evil' that man, his non-biological father claimed.

  As a result when he later was put here and engaged the extreme violence of the training, damage like torn flesh, loss of limb and others causing him to freeze up, go into shock, spasm and lose control, he'd never been in so much pain...he didn't learn to just endure like they did...

  Not to say humans are incapable of tolerating pain, but even the strongest humans he remember can hardly take a ten foot pike going through the stomach and not make a sound...

  When he first endured this pain, he had half the mind to run away but it's hard to think about giving up, he saw what he could gain from not being weak, he saw strength in this he thought maybe his nature as a vampire can come out he can shirk those dirty human qualities that have him stand out, that hold him back but well...it didn't and--

  Here he was again, facing down pain a far more intangible version– Shame, isolation, the feeling of being pathetic sourced from Cold glares of the rest of his training unit,

  It didn't help this particular group, including him are extremely gifted, far ahead of the curve and yet cause of him and his failure to cover for them they're still retaking the same section of the training, his failures wearing them out .

  Aleph, was pained knowing he was the weak link to repeating this nightmare a loop of that same failure, that same wound, that same loss, holding them all back...But he may be able to do it this time, recently through a few extra beatings from his peers he feels he can ignore the pain just a bit better...

  It's what he wants to believe, as the cold steel platform they were began to steadily cut distance to the point he memorized it would stop, the entrance leading to the live-fire combat-hall of this immense facility he had been in for the last decade or more.

  “Have you done the mental exercises?” Saiyah broke silence starting then hesitating for a long while drawing Aleph’s attention.

  “Did you at least try anything?” She started again straight with some bite, annoyed when he didn't answer fast enough, his mouth agape.

  Humans often waited for replies despite being impatient naturally, vampires are impatient with replies despite being patient naturally a strong paradox maybe to even out the truth "No one from Adam back on Earth is patient".. as his father told him...speaking of that old strange planet in a galaxy far, far away.

  “The least he could do is anything other than squealing the moment he’s struck.” His leader, Asaph cut in, a glare shooting his way from the same boy, Saiyah only giving a 'sorry' shrug to Aleph

  Aleph feels his head throb at the tense he feels a pulse where he thinks veins may be, this happened once or twice, when he was seven,

  such headpains this made him cry once or twice in the academy...

  'so pathetic' Is all he can think inwardly..

  '“Aleph, even if you fail , you can get better you have to believe in yourself.” His father told him often he hated those memories now and only grew enraged, to be raised by a human of all things has held him back.

  To be raised by a human has only made this life and duty impossible to fulfill. He has half the mind to curse his long-passed father, but often on Saturdays he was made him learn many things that he took to heart much of which forewarned such a rebellion.. So he kept his anger to himself never speaking words he had learned to be filthy.

  Aleph tightly grips the handgun tightly to his chest, his fingers tapping an uneven rhythm, it's a melody hopeful song he'd had sung to him, when he still lived amongst humans...

  He can hear an ambient voice present on the ride upwards become louder and louder

  “I’ll try my best.” He forces out straightly but with waning confidence, only earning an eyeroll from his team leader

  "Not good enough, though wanting the least of what's expected of you Aleph is to not repeat your failures-." Asaph stops himself "No that's not enough, just stay out of the way idiot!" Asaph snaps at Aleph.

  Aleph tries his best to make his mind go elsewhere for now the cold words that seem to just be repeating rather than passing on.

  -“Being kind isn't a "human trait", it’s simply righteous.”- Such memory has Aleph internally rolling his eyes

  Aleph is flinching at Asaph’s words and only remembering more of the softness of his father, he makes sure to think on his father to stay angry.

  He hates how that humanity of his father rubbed off on him, the kind that has him softly greeting and saying polite a "thank you", that has him hesitating on trading blows with his betters in training.

  It made the words they spoke to him more biting, but he can't manage to make it a mark against them on his list of people who's earned his hatred, it was how they were raised, nearly from birth to treat every problem like something that can be stamped out immediately verbally or physically.

  Even if the problem was another person.

  And it was–Aleph was a problem, out of 144,000 Shock trooper candidates on New Persia currently he is the only singular participant that's caused them all to remain falling behind. If not for the distortion of time and nature of this facility they may as well all be failures because of him

  They hear the clicking noise as the brakes on the platform are engaging, something being slotted loudly as metallic sockets and joints slam together and lock.

  Albeit completely dark light seems to bounce into the rising platform

  they are almost at the top

  Saiyah seems to shoot Aleph a few glances at this “Aleph, you’re our best bet to finally get through this you're too fast for them, if you can just make it to the end without failing draw fire like we planned again and again, I’m sure you can do it. That we can do it, smallest break and we all fail..” She is soft and encouraging, she does this always to Aleph after Asaph or anyone else chews him out, less motherly and watching but protective, failing to hide her more sharpened expression, it's sort of...possessive...

  Saiyah wasn’t raised by humans, but Aleph is left thinking she was sometimes, she had mannerisms toward him, he didn't dare say clingy he didn't think it was this kind of connection between them when she wasn't hating him for failure..no he thinks it's weird odd connection something humans often have a hyper-fixation...he thinks he has it too for her.

  If she was he wonders why he isn't like her.. Maybe she was like him at first.

  hopefully I can be like her. He thinks again, every time he dwells on her.

  Asaph is looking back at the two only to shrug and sigh.

  Aleph nods his head in time with the bounce of the platform as he hears another set of impacts and locks engage as the second breaks are caught by the platform.

  “I’ll try my best, it’s just I- Aleph starts but doesn't finish, even he's heard it from myself all before.

  “I get it, Aleph, it's rough very rough, you told us and we know, but get over it!” She’s still soft but bares her teeth near the end of the “pep-talk” she thinks she is giving Aleph.

  He only frowns

  She was right it wasn't as if they couldn't all feel pain It was just Aleph that was different something very human he was struck and often aggressively targeted for many times,

  Naturally he feels more alive than most another negative, wounds that seem to be like tiny pricks for them, feels unrightfully like cosmic torture made manifest in his perception, He hates knowing how painful being stabbed truly is for humans compared to how it should be with him as a Vampire with pain tolerance comparative to theirs, he cant shrug off limb loss in this training like them.....

  He laments those encouraging words given by the only human he gave a damn about trying to make this one trait encourage him “Maybe that’s going to make you better!, smarter!” he can still hear the voice of the only human he gives a damn about– she is wrong clearly it made him highly evasive but, the condition moreso only seems to enhance his torment and spurn failure from this, he grew evasive purely because of the times he had his throat slit by another trainee and was left lying on the floor first learning how hard it was for a vampire to bleed out.

  How untrained his regeneration was compared to the rest, how painful heat and directed energy weapons could feel...

  Painful memories that has him twisting his grasp fiercely on the grip of the handgun in his hand.

  'Hopefully this time will be different. Maybe this time finally it can allll be diferent!' He thinks hopefully..... Hopefully....

  The old platform makes a screech as it nears its stop, buckles and loud clamps slam together as its caught in place after it finishes its ride to the surface, a metal gate ahead of them screeches, their attention is caught to it.

  The metal entrance screeches as it begins to split apart into two parts horizontal parts then as the rusty gate finishes opening, wisps of smoke from the gates drawn out contact with the ground coming toward them.

  They all pass the titanium threshold, going through a long hallway dimly lit, the only sound is the shuffle that came from moving in the training suits,

  purplish highlights on the spinal portion of the uniform casts on the five as they make way to a brighter arena.

  The weapon is light in Aleph’s hands as he steps out into the arena with them.

  Paved asphalt roads broken up by shelled craters ‘struck by artillery’, overturned human transportation, and broken buildings stick out to him –– likely places to take advantage of when the firefight begins.

  Aleph watches his team-leader Asaph motion twice, left and right urging them to make the split and prepare for the engagement.

  Aleph follows his command, going with one of the others to the right, moving with her by Asaph’s commands as they trail.

  What followed next was as it always was.

  He is launching ahead of the group as planned, swift enough to draw attention and avoid most of their hits for now, his aim is snapping between targets a whistle as his arm cuts through and creates a trail of wind like contrails around the bottom of his wrists.

  They are facing the HK-5000 Series training bots made to resemble the Mechra.

  He shudders to think these machines aren't even close to the danger the Mechra pose

  Aleph is very assured he can sense a pen begin to drop and the milliseconds before its impact, but he's had them sneak up on him with ease, he's seen them move even faster than him.

  The Mechra are much more dangerous.

  "Contact, don't just freeze up Aleph! Draw Fire!" Asaph starts loudly, most of his words are toward Aleph, the others are already clambering onto objects, he can see Saiyah leap from her position on the ground up to a nine-feet high pole, perch herself with the handgun.

  nanoseconds don't pass a lack of hesitation on her part as she's immediately suppressing the machines.

  Similarly with great bounds of agility the rest of the team leap and launch over wreckage and vehicles, precise mechanical aim as they repeatedly hit the weakened points of these machines, they closed distance fast. Aleph is barely able to recognizing the collision of purple training suits and towering purple mechanical machines.

  Blows are traded rapidly, ungloved fists becoming bloodied, bones exposed at each fierce hit.

  Aleph sight's a few machines, draws up his gun and fires twice, his barrel smoking as the vision of his surroundings become a blur.

  He speeds up, gaining speed fast to evade the returned fire from the armed machines, he draws fire quickly. Aleph has always been quick, he blames it due to his inability to take a hit and keep moving but his mentor often claimed he's always been that quick he's just built up what's inside of him, it's why he is pointman, always.

  He shoots his eyes left.

  Saiyah lets out a sound he's never heard before

  a haunting scream as she wails, He hasn't heard her scream like that since-... Since initiation..

  His head whips in her direction as he maintains sprint whilst noticing him drawing twice the amount of gunfire.

  Saiyah seems to be struck by a considerable projectile not in the standard loadout of these training machines, it's a spear measuring five feet in diameter that's struck her torso, he can see most of- half of her as a portion of her body splits and flops from her position.

  plummeting down in cruel fashion and quickly trampled by the culprit machine, making way for Aleph!

  Aleph can feel his cold body foreign to heat rise with it, and fall back down, as if his body came alive just for the chance to express the chilling nature of the sight his eyes relayed to it.

  In worse circumstances that could kill a Vampire, even one of their caste. Something has gone awry!..

  What, that's impossible- no this. He can see his team already out, the machines heading toward them, they are much faster this time, they barely have any signs of the fight they just had with who he calls his betters.

  Almost cursing by instinct of seeing the situation turn sour, Aleph clears over an overturned automobile wreck.

  Aleph is able to sweep around them, he launches himself over one of the overturned cars, he feels like he is in a storm as the sudden speed of him flying into the air causes it to sound like he is speeding through a tunnel.

  In a mere moment a thought comes to mind as he gazes over the approaching machines "That's twice the armor." they bear no visual difference but he can just sense it, like most machines he runs into.

  He aims from above, flanking at an angle the machines can’t hope to expect, firing from above open but swift as he flies overhead like a projectile

  Aleph is truly left alone, he can spot in peripheral the highlights of the rest of his comrade's. The training suits glow with red highlights on shoulders indicating they've been counted out, it was standard to prevent death, if you were placed into a position in which a vice versa would've surely resulted in your death you were disqualified.

  It should be activating, Aleph was outnumbered ten to one, this was a team exercise but it wasn't.

  Aleph is frantically glancing around ten- no twelve, he is unsure where the extra two came from.

  He’s struck the ground by now nearly a lifetime of analysis done in moments before the end of his leap and down with his fall, and tucks downwards rushing the primary line of the machines, the machines are all armed with rifles containing live-rounds, whilst death was a possibility it was not his concern.

  He dove toward the ground, rolling on the asphalt and evading the rounds rocketing out of those rifles – not fast enough.

  His leg is hit, and he stumbles- but they dont.,

  Such a hit taken would've never made Saiyah stumble but he did, the pain was unbearable he could feel the bullet fragment and expand throughout his leg. He tries to keep himself up, his eyes bulge and turn with his head left, seeing his team out of commission with unreadable expressions... Alien even.

  He tries to keep pace and counts the targets amidst pain one–or two–

  There is a dozen more, on top of the already engaged machines that have basically caught up to him, Aleph was faster than any of the candidates, this made him faster than the machines who had double the armor- Or so it should've been, they were overclocked he could hear the machines catch heat as they caught up to him

  Something is terribly wrong, get out of there Aleph! This is a malfunction! Evade! His mind screams but he doesn't run.. what if he can manage this, what if he can just get through this.

  He grasps the handgun gives accurate but sporadic fire to suppress and scatter them as they come from two locations in a horde despite having rifles to finally kill the last bit of the distance between them and him.

  One–then two drop from rounds to critical weak points and crumple, a crash as the machines drop down the servos and mechanical skeletons deactivating leaving the hulk of armor plating and internal systems collapsing down quickly.

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  Aleph knows hit the neck, disable visual optics bulkhead, strike the lower torso disconnect the pelvis. The Machines often will automatically shut down due to diminished capacity, chambered in his handgun is ‘.50 AE Training Rounds’.

  They aren't enough, they should shut down losing legs but they keep going, should be slowing down as he blows out all visuals but still chase toward him.

  Aleph can hear it, much like he could sense machinery that wears down he can sense something horrible, these machine's have been overclocked, more than just doubled armor. Someone upgraded them. This has to be a mistake. He can hear it in them from here, intensified heat he eyes their power cores like he can see it through plated bulkheads

  On top of hitting key points Aleph knows the rounds will cause enough damage with the creation of internal shrapnel to hit other key infrastructure, the machines have an auto-reactive threshold so they are more easily recycled again for future training usage. Something this teammate behind neglect.

  Launching himself to the side as rounds come his way, he breaks off into a sprint near a ruined simulated car, the sparks of rounds headed his way from the machines still firing his way– rifles in one hand as one motions, and they get ready to flank.

  Terrible mistake on the machine’s for now.

  Aleph can hear the thuds of another machine that sprinted over, he’s already thrusting his fist into the air like a spear guessing its location.

  His left hand ignites in agony at impact and as it travels through the entire headframe of the machine

  metal rips apart his fingers, slicing his ungloved hand as it soars through the entire headpiece of the machine.

  “That’s one.” He wrestles out aloud, speaking to keep himself conscious and actively aware of his situation, he.

  He can hear two more diving to assault him at once, he isn’t wasting the precious milliseconds to do something elaborate, he tucks himself down and rolls out the way, the machines don’t collide they recover with terrifying grace and speed up chasing him.

  He can hear three more coming toward him, a mechanical fist sailing through the air.

  He feels the bones in his arm shatter, he had thrown it up to counter the fist, he did do well but the machine threw the punch with such force the metal digits forming a fist caught fire.

  It’s own hand was broken trying to break the bone of his forearm with ease, in this moment he notices something unnatural.

  They shouldn’t be moving this fast, this calculating, and they shouldn’t be durable enough to send punches with enough speed to nearly re-prove faster than light travel

  Aleph feels pain but it’s different time, there’s a real threat here, More so than being dismembered limb from limb again, that hit would’ve absolutely killed him.

  The risk of death is always at any time in this training twenty-percent, no one’s died, but he would’ve proved the facilities calculation.

  He draws in breath hearing another machine coming in and he doesn’t hesitate.

  He kicked up dirt as he shot his knee into the pelvic plate of the machine to partially unbalance it.

  He shatters the entire plate and knocks out the synthetic mesh that allows it’s joints to rotate and still have durability compared to most composite armor. –

  He thanks the one unnatural thing he has far from being human is what they all unanimously call their Seventh sense– it is the reason he ducks another strike that would’ve cleaved his skull.

  His eyes are able to just pinpoint a machine that was swinging its hand for his neck in a chopping motion.

  He initially moves to make a smooth recovery diving back up lead by his fist gun in hand,

  The machine flies up with him and he is in a fair amount of pain as its entire head and visual receptor piece rocketed off of the chassis, it comes out with enough force to take out some more vital components.

  Disabling it.

  The synthetic fluid powering this machine coats him as he is getting violent, but less deliberate and less mindful.

  The machines work faster, they kick into gear readied

  ejecting magazine out of his handgun– he is prepared to start to reload and keep them at a range–

  But he is suddenly left unable to move as he feels pain spread out from his shoulder as a hot blade glides through the durable flesh, he can still move it, but it only hurts more.

  He is struggling against the machine now, his movements frantic as he sees it trying to drag the knife upwards as it rips through his shoulder blade, his flesh follows behind regenerating behind the blade.

  Blood is pouring out of a gruesome wound made more swiftly than his capacity for regeneration.

  as the blade is twisted up toward his neck his wound opens more, and he doesn’t dare look, now soon being assailed by other machines. He rises more to struggle but the machine only pulls him back, another blade shoots into his stomach.

  More machines than on the dossier for this training mission are here

  Humanoid machines are gathered around and fully equipped with combat knives of all great degrees.

  He screams

  Asaph unlike the others has his head raised upon hearing Aleph and looks on helplessly, they’ve had a few limbs twisted, wounds, but they see how the ones on Aleph are trying to kill him holding him still.

  Asaph wants to help, he knows to him it would be painful but he could persevere, knowing and understanding how much more pain is doubled on Aleph has him wanting to break protocol and re-enter to save him but he doesn't.

  He is too fearful of being disqualified, betraying his doubts in Aleph's..in this one moment, seeing how Aleph has not simply gone mad from the pain.

  He has hope in him for the first time.

  It looks as if they are bloodletting him

  Agony!

  Aleph feels his mind nearly reach a point of snapping.

  He can’t stop the constant screams that begin to turn his throat sore, terrified he is wailing His suit is ripped open with dozens of gashes surrounding the entry wounds of the knives as he is viciously cut open again and again, coated in red.

  "TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"

  The mangled body of Saiyah glances up She is terrified to witness Aleph wailing.

  He no longer feels like a candidate, his mind wracked with so much pain, it's as if he's brought to the realization he's just a child, about to be ripped apart due to a malfunction of simulation.

  He tries to drag his mind anywhere, to think of those outside this facility, of his teammates watching him be stripped for parts and he can't find strength in any of that, it only makes him struggle more to be more field-stripped alive by the training machines.

  The sound that fills his hears driving him mad as he hears them clicking, mechanical clicks, gurgles of synthetic fluid shooting through their own metallic chassis as they drained him of his own blood.

  He can’t pass out from the pain, nor will this kill him, for some odd reason the lights on suit won’t turn red no matter how much he’s obviously lost and been restrained…Wracked with enough pain he begins to slobber, he’s lost enough blood he thinks to kill him.

  Regrettably there’s still more, he’s nearly lost his mind and nearly begging for death. But that feeling desiring for death grows and grows until it blooms into something else.

  He should never feel it, but he does as if something courses through his veins and it hurts.

  Thump

  He is terrified to feel that organ move. He wasn’t human…it was helping something pulse into his veins

  His mid-torso is an open gaping wound as the machines continuously and viciously dig in, he can hear servos whir as they grind his ribcage and bones tearing through him and sending chunks of him into the air behind them, he can hear blood shoot out from wounds and strike the boxy metallic frames.

  He howls in agony again

  One of them twists his neck back as if to tear off his head, he feels the skin split and something sparks–

  He surged up with a roar, his arms surged up and flung wide. Tossing the machines off… His entrails hanging out from his stomach as he roared with anger his mind lost in a moment of pure survival,

  and he has what could be a bloodshot stare, signs of adrenaline had he been... human or– still alive.

  He is shaking scared at how his strength rises with the fear of death and realization these training machines are aiming to kill him; he doesn’t know where this kind of strength is coming from yet but the idea of what it might be has him trembling more than his fading vision.

  His head is pounding not with pain but with renewed fury, it was a blur when he had thrown those machines off by sheer strength and panic alone, reaching a new limit despite the sheer loss of blood.

  He can hear the grinding of his broken ribcage, excess bone falling out as new flesh, new bones begin to seal up albeit even after such losses incurred, he’s still standing, he should be much weaker after having lost so much stored up blood, but he’s always been an enigma amongst his caste for better or for worse.

  The machines charge in, whilst stunned and catching themselves almost falling off balance they shoot straightway up as their spines arc their bodies up with them and their torsos shoot straight up

  Gyroscopic stabilizers are working double time as they throw themselves back at him.

  He swings his left fist into the first one shouting in pain as the machine barrels its fists forwards into the newly regenerated stomach, Aleph is struggling to fight against a metallic fist that has burrowed itself into his stomach and exploded out the other side.

  Another machine grips his neck and digs its mechanical fingers in.

  They shouldn’t be this aggressive and eager to go for the head it’s like they’ve been programmed to kill him.

  Aleph throws himself forwards even as the metallic hand grips his spine and crushes it, disabling most of his lower torso, by sheer will still standing– although more credit because of being held by the machine aiming to behead him with its sharp fingers.

  His spine begins to regenerate in the hand of the machine holding him, he quickly brings both fists splattering into the torso of the machine shredded by shrapnel as his hands rip through a titanium frame and the layers of armor, his hands resembling mangled meat before they too regenerate.

  The pain is causing Aleph to speak incomprehensibly, more of the machine’s pummel and overwhelm him. Far more than he counted.

  Dozen–twenty he can see far more groups of them come as he is being buried in the violent mechanical hands, whilst his teammates watch on with expressions of fear for his likely death.

  hands full of knives or balled into fists begin breaking his body, tearing chunks of flesh causing him to shout and lose all sense of language.

  He throws his hands, fists sailing as they begin to strike machines until he they begin to cease, each hit splattering his hand as it impacts the frame of the machine but destroys it all the same, he can feel empty as the blood left in his body is nearly gone.

  He’ll die from blood loss if this keeps up, only if they can’t quickly decapitate him first.

  He wants to give up in a momentary lapse of hope but something speaks louder a woman's voice...

  He more quickly starts to kick, strike, and desperately pummels machine after machine until he can’t even see anymore, shivers trail down his broken body struggling to regenerate.

  His fists swing and land on nothing falling limply at his sides, the chunks of flesh exposing his skeleton, his face covered in blood with only the glow of his soul emitted through the socket of his eye.

  The bone structure of his face fully exposed, nerves and flesh reforming back over it like, washing over the greyish darkened bone like a wave.

  \Success! ~/ A robotic but sharp loudly announced, he still can’t see. His vision darkened. For the first time ever, he’s finally succeeded.

  He hasn’t held them back, but he’s not joyous. He’s–he can’t move… He nearly died, this was different the machines, it wasn’t unusual for the machines to rip you apart and to go for the neck, but he knew it was going for a quick decapitation…. he surely would’ve had little ability to survive that...

  It shook him not to know that he was on the verge of death, but his only hope was being pushed on the brink of almost being guaranteed it….

  He’s been here for decades, albeit his body and mind fifteen, the unique way this facility had built displaced him from the time of real space, it provided the safety of lengthy training and yet still emerging at most only a handful of years later.

  In all those years he’s never had such strength, able to grow it was always a possibility even as a Vampire,

  but this was different, this sensation tickling him, it wasn’t his innate vampiric resilience or strength,

  it was primal,

  he can feel time slowing as he was nearly decapitated the terror of death spurring him on a mindless rampage with precision, working in double time, yet the pain wasn’t fading.

  It was something human and that thought terrified him more than dying ever could have hoped to.

  Thirty minutes draw on, albeit it feels like hours and seconds, the strange nature of the anchor this facility was built around has space still destabilized, he’s often having to count twice how long time has passed due to the strange nature of it.

  By the time his vision returns he can hear shouting, he’s been taken out of the simulation hall, grabbed and restrained, pulled out...

  At the very least he can have comfort his team will finally be going ahead with the rest of the training sections now, but he is unsure what’s going to happen to him.

  He’s thrown somewhere strange but familiar and as his vision comes back along with most of the flesh around his eye-sockets he’s realized

  “He needs to be failed immediately.” He had recovered by now.

  It’s been approximately two months of him failing this exam, he’s finally succeeded and still he sticks out with something wrong about him it hurts but he can’t help but feel a small smile that he wont be holding anyone back

  Delara, someone who had taken up much of her time to watch over Aleph is standing straight, she towers over him but not by much, he’s well over six feet but she stands in stark contrast at a full seven, he considers she’s nearly eight feet and honestly and much older.

  She’s a vicious Shocktrooper much like him, older than him and from another time, she has no scars, but she bears them in the way she carries her voice.

  “Denied he succeeded; we asked for your assistance in training courses.” The instructor retorts, leaning his hand on his palm as he sat on his desk, smoke rising from the cigarette pursed between his lips

  “You set him up to die and by pure chance and unforeseen circumstances regarding his–.” She pauses for a long while glancing down at Aleph

  “Due to his strange Condition. he survived.” She balled up her fists and hesitated. She is formal, but her tone is shifting angry, but sharp never loud always low and sharp, deliberate as she works herself through a constant pain.

  “If I had my earlier authorities, I’d execute you and every other bit of your filthy caste.” Her hands crossed behind her back; she says with dead confidence, slow building rage dancing with her voice.

  Aleph is desperate to speak up for himself to prove to her he deserves to be in

  Aleph’s respected the woman who took him in, his senior, 33 years his Senior and the only survivor of the generation of Shocktroopers before him.

  A woman that saved his life, that brought him here and most importantly helped him after his father had been sentenced to death.

  A woman with a silver fire in her iris, a faint emissive glow to her eyes, her hair perfectly matches her eyes in color and haunting appearance, a woman pale like a ghost.

  “The machines saw a 200% spike in capability simply from a scan, we were watching the machines be scrambled like they were being hit with electronic countermeasures each time he struck one!”– Aleph is surprised to hear this.

  During the fight, he could recall the machine’s stumbling, but he blamed it entirely to the force exerted on each one, he questions how he couldn’t notice.

  “I’m not pushing him further for a clear indication of his caste being altered at birth for some unknown enhancement he may not repeat so he can die! I’ll kill you and every other instructor here first!” Sharp and strong, full of calm rage but professional.

  Aleph is always thankful for how she protects him–Not always And this was one of the few times he recognized it. She doubted him, even when he managed to succeed other times with less questioning circumstances this came out.

  Delara didn’t seem to outright hate the Vis-stasi caste, but she often made it clear she blamed them for the second generation she watched die around her.

  “They tried to kill us.” He recalls her mentioning it often, she never told him details, he’s seen vampires show fear, but her fear recalling it silently was almost human.

  “You can go now.” She’d end off any personal talk with as more of a command than suggestion, When she reminisced, leaving him before he himself can follow,

  he can almost still sense the salt of tears where she would’ve been sat back where she kept him.

  She carries an unknown hell unspoken of that she seems to be taking to the grave.

  “Sergeant Delara.” Kommandant Krul speaks with vicious monotone She’s cut off during her demands and remains silent of him to speak

  Aleph had been making moves to speak against her similarly, but he held his peace as she gave him a sharpened glare, much like a mother would.

  “This comes from the Empress herself. He will be pushed further ahead we have the info we need” He simply states blankly.

  “That doesn’t speak for itself.” Delara speaks in a low vicious mocking cadence– “Is that why the machines were tampered with? To target and decapitate him, kill him assuredly?”

  She speaks a bit higher and in bitter tone, possibly protective as she shoots Aleph an assuring look.

  “That too, she suspected Aleph is lost property modified from standard production base. And we confirmed he was, had he not been what she was searching for he would’ve died.”

  Aleph seems to shoot up at these words, I was in the eyes of the empress, of her. He’s terrified to think someone like her, wanted to find him or wanted anything from him.

  “Be more careful in your speech Vis-stasi, No one on this planet can exact judgement if I take your life.” Her voice isn’t low, but it’s a dead weight.

  The Vis-stasi seems reminded of his position, of the disparity between all castes and the shock troopers, his shoulders slump and he lean back tugging his own collar

  “Wait stop!” He can remember the voices of Vis-stasi after his father was executed, begging minutes after they took his fathers life,

  Aleph in one moment was staring down the barrel of a gun and then a mountain of purple protected him.

  Fury, she was a blur as she had nearly killed all of the Enforcers sent to exact ‘Judgement’

  “Her words.” He apologizes for tapping his hands as if he has had the same memory.

  Krul was there to exact ‘Judgement’ on word the child of a Shocktrooper raised by a human was there, he’s had a deep hatred of them ever since the ‘first rebellion.’

  “She won’t have him, I reject the circumstances of his success this round.” Delara is absolute in this.

  I need you to back-off.. he often found himself speaking of her to himself, but he feels so fearful of speaking it aloud, he’s guessed so much about her past he fears how she will react if he verbally distances himself from her

  “No arguments she’ll personally be here to oversee the rest of his and the 144,000’s training.” Krul replies with a wide smirk. Sitting up straight again, confident in what these words will elicit

  “To hell with all this! She’s coming here!?” Delara is for the first time visibly surprised, her voice breaks and she takes two strides toward the desk.

  Surprising Aleph “Delara.” He speaks up quietly but is completely ignored.

  “Right now!?” Delara is demanding this.

  Krul jolts back, but as his eyes scan slightly frantic he locks onto Aleph and smiles.

  “Delara wh-what is so wrong. About how I succeeded I beat the test.”

  “You channeled something unusual, adrenaline! Like a human! You shouldn’t even be able to!-“– She doesn’t finish snapping at him, nearly about to shout she can see his expression.

  but Aleph’s expression is already sour.

  Aleph didn’t mind when she had an outburst, he felt sort of in tune raised among humans he saw humanity in this outburst,

  but her last words in that sentence remind him the mere existence of emotion isn’t exclusive to human’s neither is letting them insult those around you.

  “Aleph–..” she hesitates pausing then saying nothing, leaving Krul watching the two with an even wider Krul smirk than he already had,

  but Aleph goes to respond in midst of her silence.. “Delara, I’ve been here for feels like lifetimes you know and I know I'm way too well, chronologically old, you’re not my mother. Especially not here..” He seems to stay low in tone toward Delara, fearful even.

  Yet she doesn't regard him it seems and turns her attention back to Krul and seems prepared to curse shouting at someone not even her rival, but less than that.

  Calm and collected is what Delara was not it was hard for him to remember she ever was, or that she hardly speaks even in private unprofessional setting, Her stance now is great betrayal of the stoic woman who had raised him, now she seemed to be someone else, like the mere mention of the Empress drove her to become well.

  Enraged...

  So much hatred and yet. Yet from scarce illegal paintings he'd seen around and grafiti art from disgruntled humans.. He often thought the Empress had to have spit Delara out of her mouth herself. A thought that often came to Aleph's daydreams, maybe it’s apart of some open secret he isn’t let in on.

  it would explain the magnitudes of courage it takes to say something bordering on treason, she spoke now and often in private with Aleph.

  “She’s a murderer and a liar.” He often recalled Delara speaking that of the Empress something that surprised him when older he realized who she was speaking of so boldly, Yet despite being in her care and influence he hardly ever believed it, everyone and everything else said otherwise

  “He will not be going ahead; She's clearly planning to-!.”

  “Choose him as, amongst all the better candidates of this facility. She's chosen him Delara and you can't resist her” Krul laughed, looking her over flicking his eyes at them both dismissively as he went to some strange document planted on his desk

  Aleph froze at the words 'chosen' yet they echo'd, and it didn't stop, once, twice in the voice of Krul but now in a new voice he hadn't heard before.....This voice twisted, so well as Delara and Krul engaged one another in verbal disagreement he couldn't hear them...he heard nothing...a faint ringing,

  It was as if his attention was now unwillingly pulled everywhere and he had a strange pulse, one he had maybe felt on occasion as a child...

  now the world around him closed in. Dark spots in each corner of this worn out room..

  Aleph can feel it, a voice pricking at his head.

  “Split from her.” An angered voice voices, splitting his mind and intruding, he feels like a worm just pierced his frontal lobe and began wriggling around a terrifying tickling sensation as it seeps in.

  It makes him pause, and what now becomes another spiteful exchange between the two becomes muted, ignored and feeling pacified he doesn’t think to speak to them, but that voice in his head.

  He turns his head, feeling it come toward one ear. The presence of a woman nestled on his shoulder.

  He's more and more starting to feel the interior of this room cloud around him, darkness an empty sensation, he recognizes what this is from the words spoken by others.

  “I have chosen you, son of the rebellious, arise amongst all you will be first ‘Aleph’, second to none.” Aleph is stunned and jolts, causing the heads of those around with him to shoot quizzical looks at him.

  He’s in fear, he’s heard it! her voice!

  She is near! Queen of all Vampires the Empress of the dead!

  your time.