〔Conurbation Haven〕
〔The Arc〕
=======================================
〔Casern〕
〔2/6/2306 21:42〕
"Kid, that was your first mission," JP congratulated Dawn on returning to the quarters.
At the same time, Zero was still busy with his visor and surveilling the city.
"I hope I wasn't too useless" Dawn sad. "You are so well-rehearsed and perfectly prepared. Why did they put me in your unit in the first place, you are also really good off without me."
"There will be far more difficult enemies to deal with and your skills will make the difference. Even today your Jugem Blades did almost beat that thing without us doing much. Most of us were new to the ATC at some point" Erik motivated him. "At first, it was just JP and me, when Arthur created this unit. Like two bad-ass cops from those old flickers. "
"And what happened then?"
"We adopted a child. After that, we got Jo onto us" Erik explained playfully.
"Are you just gonna stand there and chat?" Jo interrupted them who had wet hair and smelled like fruit shampoo. Obviously, she took a shower after the operation. "I'm starving."
"JP, dinner is your responsibility today," Erik gave him the order.
"With pleasure," JP said and put on his giant apron.
"Hey, why doesn't the new guy have to cook this time?" Zero wondered.
Dawn gave in to his fate as a freshman, "I'll give JP a hand."
JP brought out the tiny looking cookware with his huge hands.
"Why do you do the cooking yourself and don't use the food printer over there," Dawn asked in surprise.
"Because then the most important ingredient would be missing," JP explained "Passion. We used to do without Lebigot's food printer."
"Because there wasn't one yet?"
"That's not the reason." JP pulled out a fresh bread dough from a pantry. "A transgenic soldier in the middle of a nano war just didn't have the luxury. We are going to prepare my famous baguette today."
"Sounds like a good choice" Dawn answered, "Some of you are war veterans, right? You also mentioned it ago. What kind of war was it?"
"The nano war was like not any other war before or after. It changed everything forever. There was a time when things were good. But then everything fell apart" He took a holo map from his quarters and showed Dawn a globe which was a complete mainly blue sphere. "This is the Earth before the blast." Then the continents splintered on one side into a sea of stones leaving a dented deformed figure. "And this is it after."
"Did you live during the old days?"
"No, I was born in war. Or rather, for war."
Dawn chopped up some vegetables that JP had laid out for him. "Were there once more like you?"
"Yes, dozens. But now I'm the last."
"What happened to the others?"
JP paused briefly and put his cooking utensils aside. "I don't remember exactly when we were born but I think it was about 150 years before the blast. My brothers and I were to be transported by ship to a mission just before the blast. We grew up faster because of our genes. Accelerated aging they called it and they didn't know if it would go on our whole life, so we spent most of the time in cryo capsules. In the middle of the ocean, I woke up due to a defect in my capsule and I had tried to repair it. While I was busy doing it, the Blast happened."
Dawn didn't quite understand "The Blast?"
"Our enemy, the misanthrope, had ended the war and almost everything else in the process. The blast was the most horrible weapons-strike ever. The destruction of the atmosphere created a huge undertow in the ocean that propelled our ship to the edge of the world in seconds."
"Vacuum pressure," Dawn said as he placed the chopped vegetables on the baguette.
"All I could do was stabilize their capsules. It didn't help, the ship cracked open and they all just floated in the sea. They didn't even notice their own end. I have lost them all, but the worst thing is that I could not fulfill my purpose. I should have fought to stop the blast. But I was too late."
JP let his shoulders sag and looked sorrowfully at the kitchen floor.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know your story was so tragic."
"Neither of us has a happy story, but they're almost all death and suffering. You are lucky to have forgotten your own."
"Nevertheless, it makes you the person you are. And without a history I am nobody."
"It is better to be nobody than to be a broken man."
In silence, they finished the baguette. JP lovingly added various slices of spice and Dawn stuck it in the oven. Jo pushed them until the meal was eventually ready. The baguette smelled appetizing and everyone enjoyed it as they praised JP for his cooking skills.
After dinner Dawn drew back to meditate again. He locked the door of his room just to be undisturbed.
Dawn had a hard time finding his inner peace because there was too much that was still bothering him. In the dark room, he wanted to get the cassettes from insomnia, which showed him as a human.
*** If I had a sad life like the others? If I did, then at least I don't want to find out today, this day was already weird enough. JP has been through a lot, I wonder what the others had experienced. But here they are all doing well, so why shouldn't I just be satisfied with the way it is right now? My old life was probably insignificant anyway. ***
Dawn's thoughts were interrupted by loud laughter from outside. He smiled and closed his eyes and put the tapes away.
***Not today.***
He sat cross-legged and concentrated on his breathing. Nevertheless, his subconscious thoughts were still in full swing.
*** Was that okay, what we did on Operation Vermintide? Staging the prisoners as terrorists to fake an attack? I guess it was okay, after all the Moonfall Legion tried to kill me yesterday. Why did the monster have my form, it could have taken anyone's form? I'll probably never find out. And the two people at the factory, could we have saved them if we'd acted sooner? 49 and 755 might still be alive now. I don't know the full story, and still, I am supposed to find out who is good and who is evil, if such things still exist...***