章 1: Escape

- Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

It was a bright, cold day in the fifth month of year 17 after World War III had broken out. Buildings were crumbling, and greenery could be seen on tall desolate structures, where once such a vibrant city stood. No sign of life could be seen on the horizon.

Amidst all this, the underground research facility was bustling with energy and rhythmic noises of technology. People clad in pristine white coats were monitoring and noting vital signs from a monitor in a stark white room filled with sleek cocoon-like pods, each housing a human in a suspended state submerged in an emerald liquid.

"Move Test-subject XA-002 to Room 702C," blared the speaker in a white room with a robotic voice. Two soldiers entered the room with laser guns and full-black futuristic armour covering their bodies to move the pod to the designated location.

Two people observed the young man in the pod with curious eyes through the one-way observation stand outside the room. One of them asked, "Is this the famous test subject?"

A man in a white coat replied, "Yes, director, this subject is the best our lab has created so far. He has passed Simulation Test X twenty-five times with incremental difficulty."

"Ah, that's great. How is your son doing, huh? Is he doing great?" asked the director, patting the man's shoulder and congratulating his successful endeavour.

"Oh, he is doing very well in the military academy! He was recently given a mission in the Middle East to support the main army."

"Hahaha! Good to know! that he is doing great!" replied the director, letting out a hearty laugh. "Anyway, moving on to the reason I visited," the director's expression quickly turned from joy to seriousness.

"We don't have much time left. Make the subject a super soldier fast," said the director sternly, adding, "This is the order from the higher-ups. They will have our heads if we can't deliver. Understood?"

"But, director, he isn't ready for the procedure yet. He needs time," anxiously replied the man in the white coat.

"You have one month to make it happen. Use whatever means necessary to produce some good super soldiers fast. Even if he fails, you have other subjects," instructed the director strictly as he walked out of the facility.

Governments worldwide realized the value of super soldiers, also known as enhanced humans, for the war effort after the United States government used the first-ever super soldier battalion seven years ago. Due to this, they were able to gain an edge in the war.

Project Eklavya was the strategic initiative aimed at elevating the current standards of super soldiers to a much higher level, enhancing their mental processing speed and physical strength significantly.

The man in the coat served as the chief scientist of Noida Cluster 7 of the Eklavya Project. After the meeting with the director, he stormed into the researchers' room, expressing frustration at the assigned task.

"Move XA-002 to the Tri'ark Room. We are proceeding with the procedure," ordered the man to his subordinates, his face clearly displaying anger.

"Sir, XA-002 just underwent neural augmentation protocols, resulting in a significant increase in cognitive processing, surpassing conventional thresholds of brain capacity. Administering genetic optimization therapy could have severe repercussions," voiced a subordinate with concern.

"We have no choice. It's an order from higher-ups. Proceed with it. We only have a month to show results, or else..." he gestured with his thumb across his throat, indicating the consequences they would face from the government.

The room fell silent at the news, the researchers' faces displaying shock. No one dared to protest the chief's decision to administer genetic optimization to XA-002.

Meanwhile, test subject XA-002 was removed from his pod in Room 702C and shackled on both his legs and hands.

"MOVE, YOU BASTARD!" yelled the soldier clad in full-black armour, striking the test subject with his laser gun on the head.

The young man walked silently, shackled, with white hair despite his youth, a result of the torturous methods used to train him in the facility, and eyes that seemed to stare into the abyss with the icy aura of a glacier.

The Tri'ark Room served as the main facility where the super soldiers were created by administering different enhancers, and stimulants and, finally, injecting the serum necessary for their genetic modification.

It contained an observation stand for the researchers to note down the vitals during the procedure. In the smack middle of the room was a single pod used to administer the procedure. Also, a bit far from the pod was a monitor to track details when personally checking the body of the test subject.

The chief Scientist and one of his trusted subordinates were discussing the dosage methods to administer to XA-002.

"The usual dosage will kill him, Chief, and he is one of the best test subjects we have seen so far in our land," said the subordinate.

"We can't do anything about this. If he dies, we will use XA-183. We can't administer another dosage for another 2 months, so this is our only option," replied the Chief with a disdainful look.

The door opened, and a shackled youth made his way to the center of the room where a sleek pod was placed for him to administer the procedure. The shackles were removed carefully from the youth under the strict supervision of the soldiers with the chief watching from afar. After placing the subject in the pod, the soldiers left the room as the two men started the procedure.

*Administering anaesthetics to the subject... completed*

*Injecting muscle enhancers and brain enhancers completed*

*Injecting Genetic mutation serum to the test subject...*

"Now we wait. Let's hope we succeed," prayed the Chief scientist.

A few minutes passed since the procedure took off. His subordinate gazed at the chief with concern and said, "Chief, the vitals are dropping quickly. The subject is very close to death right now."

[Danger for the subject detected. Vitals dropping rapidly] blared the system speakers in a robotic voice, announcing the potential danger to the subject.

"Damn it! It failed, huh? Damn it!" said the Chief as he slammed his fist into the table.

"The vitals keep dropping and stabilizing... What's going on?"

"Move aside, let me check... What the hell is this?" The vital signs were dropping well below the required threshold and shooting up rapidly in quick succession. "Stop the procedure right now; there's some fault with the machine."

[Error! Procedure cannot be terminated]

"Soldiers, come in! We have to take out the test subject from the pod forcibly," spoke the Chief through his microphone to the soldiers who brought the test subject here.

The Chief and his subordinate, along with two soldiers, entered the room to eject the subject from the pod and check the situation. As they entered, a robotic voice announced, "Procedure has been completed... Opening Pod."

*Hiss*

The pod suddenly opened, smoke spewing out in large quantities as the afterproduct of the procedure covered the whole room, blinding everyone present.

The smoke subsided after a while, revealing the young man in a suspended state in the pod. The chief looked at the man and checked his vital signs.

"No vitals. He's dead, I guess," announced the chief, checking XA-002's pulse.

"It's showing the same on the system as well, Sir," sighed the subordinate, breaking the bad news to the Chief.

"Haa... You two can go out now. We will do a final checkup on his body and give it for disposal," ordered the soldiers to wait outside until further order.

"Go check the body for any residues and administer disposal sequence."

The chief was looking through the report made by the system for failure. 'Hmm, what could have gone wrong?' the scientist thought, skimming over the research log.

"What happened? Are you finished?"

*CRACK*

*SWISH*

Suddenly, the scientist heard a collection of sounds, all too chaotic for him to understand what it was. Turning his head in response,

"Ah," the scientist exclaimed, startled, his mind racing with all the blood and adrenaline the body could muster. A faint croak was heard, and the young man who should have been dead was standing, holding something in his hand.

He was aghast as he realized that it was his subordinate who went to check the body of the young man. He could still see the medulla spilling out of the cranium, with fluid following it. He identified it by the bent metal attached to the spine, which was the Viper Strength cyborg enhancement, and it was bent out of shape. 'How much force should it have taken for syntactic titanium to bend into such a shape?' he thought, a chill running down his back as he found it difficult to breathe.

With this realisation, the scientist's back was wet with sweat, and his eyes were getting blurry. His body went into absolute shock. He knew he had encountered an absolute monster. Unfortunately, his body had already become his cage, and he, its prisoner, with his vision getting duller by the second as it felt too humid. 'What was it?' he asked himself, only to realize, ' Oh, I'm crying.' he felt his vision growing duller by the second, overwhelmed by fear and terror.

*THUD*

The young man threw the lifeless body of his subordinate to the ground.

*Krrr*

The lights in the room started flickering violently. His gaze fell momentarily on the lights, which suddenly went pitch black, shrouding the room in abyssal darkness.

*Krrrr*

The lights flickered back to life like an ember on its last spurt of energy. The young man, who was standing very far away, suddenly appeared in front of him. Witnessing this, the scientist's pupils dilated and trembled in terror.

The scientist's head was struck by a lightning-speed strike. Unable to respond, his head split apart like a watermelon hit with a .50-caliber bullet, bursting into a million pieces. Blood and skull fragments flew all over the place, mixing with the air of the room, now covered in a sea of blood.

The young man, who appeared to have taken a dip in this very sea of blood, looked down at the scene with a cold gaze, showing no emotion.