Dinner time filled the cafeteria with gloomy air and a curtain of despair. Seemingly, the cold air outside seemed to seep inside the cafeteria, chilling the diners. However, this was not the case. The absence of the traditional chaos was due to the upcoming attack, commencing a few hours later.
Luke held his tray filled with a bowl of soup, a slice of bread, and a glass of juice. Even holding his tray searing aches wrapped his arms, needles piercing his muscle fibers. He groaned with little effort. Kristo and Calyx as usual trained behind him on the cafeteria line. Later on, Nica joined.
Clearly, the soldiers in the camp had been rationed by the looks of their servings. Even for three meals since he arrived in 2069, he was dying for a slice of meat. If not pork, chicken, or fish would do. One of his regrets about joining the cause was the availability of food.
"How was training? Do you have sprains?" Nica said, sitting in front of him.
"You are punishing me, Nica," Luke said. "I felt sore everywhere."
After a few hours of training, every wisp of energy escaped his body. The sores came an hour before dinner when his body tasted rest and regained a considerable amount of energy. It was his first time to experience such a level of intensity and a level of embarrassment.
"This is only for you, Luke. You need to catch up. We are still having a warm-up for your combat training."
'Combat?' Luke cursed inwardly.
"Can we skip the combat part?" Luke sheepishly said. Skipping it was impossible.
"No, you can't. We don't know that you will encounter Bugmen. You can still defend even without a gun. We don't want our evolver to die helplessly, right?"
Nica was right. Luke needed to exercise physical combat and weapon skills to defend himself from a heartless enemy.
"Are you going with the attack group tomorrow?" Kristo asked.
"Yes. At dawn." Nica responded to Kristo.
"I already gave the Major twenty tubes for blood collection. For my evolution genes," Luke interjected.
"So, you don't need animals anymore?"
"I still do. Bugmen are the alternative and more accessible for the moment," Luke answered.
"How many are going to participate in this attack?" Calyx asked.
"This attack is different. It is more aggressive. I think the Major is gunning for an all-out war shortly. He will send one hundred soldiers to this attack, including me and a few officers. We are not just going to bomb their military base, we are going to kill some Bugmen, too."
"All I hope for is you come back alive, Nica. I can't afford another trainer."
"You'll wish you had another trainer. Because your upcoming training will be teeth gritting." Nica sneered.
After their meals, Luke proceeded to his quarters. His bunkmates seemed to inherit the gloomy environment from the cafeteria. Although Luke craved a silent sleep, it was deafening. He heard that four of his bunkmates would participate in the attack at dawn.
Their faces held mournful expressions as if anticipating a high risk of dying from deployment. One hundred soldiers would embark on a special mission. The soldiers were pawns. Chess pieces deployed on the front lines sometimes become sacrifices for humanity's survival.
His exhausted body immediately felt the pull of sleep after he changed his grimy and soil-bathed clothes. He outstretched his limbs along the expanse of his bed and slept.
Awakened, Luke glanced at his watch. It said 0145 H. His eyes opened to the low conversations, the hugging, and the preparation of his bunkmates disturbed everyone's sleep. But never hauled himself up to sulk depressed emotions with them. Luke wanted to say good luck to them, but instead, he pretended to sleep.
He woke up together with the other soldiers at 0500 H, despite the need for sleep. Although he acted indifferent to the deployed soldiers, he felt worried. If Nica was deployed, who would train him? Luke dressed up, ready for another day of punishment. He waited outside the quarters in the crisp morning dew, stretched his limbs, and experienced cold air flushing inside his lungs.
'Is it me or just the weather is getting colder?' He thought. Seemingly, the absence of a hundred soldiers made him anxious as the wind lashed his face. 'They should be back by now,' he thought.
Without a trainer, Luke proceeded to his laboratory. The EMD men started early in the morning too. Sweat drenched their overalls, and the chaotic rolls of large wires had found themselves in their proper places. Others had been testing and calibrating the equipment, checking the boxes of their monitoring.
"Monday, progress?" Luke said as he entered the room.
"90% done, Luke," Monday responded.
One EMD engineer sauntered toward him, grease bathed his suit, and sweat washed his face with evident smudges of machine oil. Judging from his face's condition, they already started for hours.
"You are the Evolver, right?" a middle-aged engineer extended his open palm.
"Yes, I am," Luke shook the engineer's callous hand.
"I am Mark, the EMD Team Leader. We are finishing up. Now, linking the modules, and some of my men are doing the electricals. The control panel will connect the satellite any moment now, then nutritive media will be energized. Right after, we will inject the virus into one of the canisters and we'll run some diagnostics."
Luke nodded. He had no question about the installations, seemingly all were in their respective places.
"When can I start?" Luke asked.
"After an hour or so," the TL answered, "The satellite linking will take at least an hour to initialize and connect. You can now proceed with the mutation, like the simulations you did back at Command." The Engineer said.
That's before breakfast. Various digital wide monitors were being mounted on all sides of the room. He needed those screens for his visual display of the Virus Evolution status, broadcasts that they hacked on an unsecured channel, descriptive e-manuals, and others.
Luke had nothing to do in the morning except for breakfast at 0700 H, therefore he waited. He regaled the sight of the Engineers doing software checks. They seemed to have finished the hardware, and the connections of each module. The EMD men installed wire molders to fix wires into place and the trash from the equipment packaging had been collected already. Others swept the floor and wiped dust from the equipment. Finishing touches now commencing.
Looking at the progress, Luke's appetite for breakfast escaped him.
"Luke, the lab is now 100% complete. You can now conduct trials."
The EMD had its trial virus genome, the simplest form of the virus category called the Nox virus. The genome held a different color than the Nebula. It was lighter and shinier, and green dominated the entire fury sphere.
"Luke, we are now ready to commence trials. You can do basic mutation using the system. Satlink is now online and you can try the control modules." The Engineer said. He handed two tubes of blood samples for the trial mutation. "Compliments from Command."
Equipment purred, the monitors lit up strobing colors filled the dull room.
"We are using Nox Virus as a trial?" Luke asked the Engineer. He knew upon looking at the screens. The Nox virus was the first and the simplest virus genome farmed and modified by Command. The Nox Virus floated inside the large glass canister. Luke modified the system using the control module panel. He then injected the two blood sample tubes into the slots of the evolution tanks.
The evolution tanks identified the blood samples as it purred.
"Initializing sample Virus, Nox," Monday said.
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Virus Genome: Nox Virus
Lethal level: 0
Infectivity level: 5
Severe level: 0
Stability: 100
Evolution genes: 100/100
[Mutation options] N/A
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Ok, initializing mutation for the sample virus," Luke said as he modified the Death Tab.
The Nox Virus had no mutation options as it was not genetically engineered to be flexible with intricate genome mutation. It was only manufactured for sampling purposes. However, the importance of Nox virus served as the basic genome, or the mother genome to extract portions and gave birth to other strains.
"Commencing basic mutation, unspecified type, and random genome targets." Luke said. Then he pushed the button after his modifications. The blood inside the evolution tank, comprised of evolution genes ran towards the canister that contained the Nox Virus. A warbling sound emerged.
No undesirable noise, no sudden creaks, only a smooth humming sound from the equipment. The fist-sized green ball of suspended virus increased and more pronounced greenish color as a viscous reddish metallic liquid slithered through the nutritive media, eventually fusing towards the suspended virus at the center of the canister. The mutation only ran for a minute.
"Monday, show mutation results," Luke commanded.
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Virus Genome: Nox Virus
Lethal level: 5
Infectivity level: 10
Severe level: 5
Stability: 50
Evolution genes: 0/200
[Availed Mutation] Aerosol Vector + Silent Spore
Descriptions:
[Transmission ability] Air transmission 20%, water Transmission 5%
[Shell Capability] Heat resistance 5%
[Symptoms Probability] Mild Colds 90%, Mild Cough 10%
---------------------------------------------
The Lethality, the infectivity, and the severity levels increased. Although the stability was down by 50 points, it was understandable that a virus would undergo mutation.
"That's more like it," Luke said.