*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
The rhythmic sound of beeping woke Jack from his sleep. This wasn't the usual sound of his alarm, but it was familiar. It's a heart monitor Jack realized. Still in his half-asleep state, Jack lifted his heavy head in confusion. 'What's going on? Is this… a hospital?'
Jack looked around the room trying to find the answers to his questions. He was in a hospital alright. The only difference was that this hospital was much fancier than any hospital he'd ever been in before. If Jack had been more paranoid, he'd think he was in some lab.
The room was spotless. Large rolling monitors were set up on the far side of the room with text and numbers flowing across the screen. The room itself was entirely white aside from the large windows that Jack assumed led to the hallway just outside his room. Stainless steel rolling tables with an assortment of complex gadgets sat just a few feet from his bed.
'Was I in an accident?' Jack couldn't remember what had led to his current situation. Looking at his covered form, suddenly a horrible thought came to him. Ripping the sheets free from his body, Jack could see his legs, still intact. 'Thank god' He thought.
It was a dumb thought, but Jack was in a bizarre situation, so his reason for being here could be just as bizarre. Swinging his legs off the right side of the bed, Jack stood up and made his way to the door. Well, he tried to. On his first step a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, and he immediately collapsed to the ground whilst trying to hold back the rising bile in his throat.
In his tumble to the ground the wires and IV were torn from his body causing the heart monitor to emit a solid beep. At the same time a red blinking light lit up right outside his room.
Jack felt weak. Extremely weak. With arms shaking from the effort, he managed to push himself to his hands and knees.
At this moment the door to his room burst open and a nurse came rushing to his side. Kneeling, she supported him.
"Hey, are you with me?"
With a moment of hesitation Jack answered with a shallow nod. Seeing Jack's response, she helped him up. "Come on, let's get you back on the bed." With help from the nurse, Jack made it back to the bed without much difficulty. In the back of his mind he noted that she was stronger than she looked.
Glancing at the nurse's nametag, Jack addressed her. "Nancy?" Nancy looked to Jack with a gentle smile on her face. "Yes?".
"Where am I? and why am I here?"
"Oh!" The nurse had a look of realization. "I was instructed to show you this video the moment you were awake and clear headed. Would you like to watch it now or would you like me to give you a moment to gather your bearings? It should be able to answer all your questions."
Jack didn't feel the best, but his desire to learn what was happening made him nod in confirmation. "I'll watch it" And with that, the nurse rolled one of the empty monitors over and positioned it so Jack could see. The screen flashed to life with the video already up and ready to be played. The nurse tapped the screen, and the video started playing.
On the monitor the form of a middle-aged man with graying hair and piercing blue eyes appeared. He was wearing some kind of military outfit with an assortment of patches sewn on the shoulders and chest. Jack assumed this meant the man was high ranking, but he couldn't be sure. Jack didn't have any more time to make assumptions as the man began to speak.
"Hello. I'll get to the point as neither you nor I have the time for this."
"I'm general Simon Hill and you are currently on a terraformed planet similar to Earth called Eidolon56a. You have been conscripted into a program called the Darwin project. This project has been in the making for the last 158 years as the result of a conflict with an extraterrestrial civilization. This race of intelligent life currently has no official name as we haven't been able to converse with them. We call them the Sosie which means doppelganger."
The screen changed and a picture of a man with pale, nearly bluish skin and blonde hair appeared next to the image of the general.
"The Sosie look very similar to humans, but that is where the similarity ends. Their DNA is made up of an entirely different genetic code. It's nothing but gibberish to our current scientists. Unlike us, they don't need a space suit or even a ship to traverse the universe. They can do it with their bodies alone. The Sosie don't know where we are yet, but when they do, we won't stand a chance."
The whole screen changed as a clip of a blue tinged man with blonde hair flew through space towards an airplane sized spaceship. Stopping in front of the ship's window, he grinned and darted off to the side. Grabbing hold of the base of the ship's left wing, the man strained, silver-tinged veins popping out on the visible surface of his body. With a final pull, the man ripped the wing from the ship with nothing but his bare hands.
Escape pods launched the inhabitants of the ship away from the damaged vessel, and with that, gunfire ensued.
A rain of bullets fell on the man. Slowly he was being pushed back, but the man seemed to see them as nothing but an annoyance. Darting forward, the man easily decimated the remaining few ships, tearing pieces off and occasionally flinging himself into them like a bullet. Only ten seconds later, the screen went black.
Jack was stunned. This seemed like a joke. It had to be a joke. Aliens? Are you serious?
The screen flickered back to the general once more. "As you can see, our current technology isn't adequate to deal with this new threat. The Darwin project was never intended to be used in this way, but the world is desperate. We need something new, something radical, something powerful. The Darwin project is an artificial way to simulate human evolution. You along with around 500 million people will be the hope of humanity. You will either evolve to ensure our survival, or we will die. All of us."