SIN Tech

"Curtain opens, stage left. Man with heavy eyes covered by dark shades and flame strike hair steps forward from the mundane corners of the empty stage. His emerald eyes stand rebellious under shades of mystery as he opens his mouth to begin the monologue."


Sounds like another cliche rendition of some old English novel. Kill it before it grows anymore, shall we? This isn't some sought after play of star-crossed lovers. No one will die in this.. memory of history by poison or suicide, no. This is not for any personal gain of myself or my ex-comrades nor is it for a cheap rendition of a song. This is not an autobiography or a memorial of courage, it is simply writing. I used to wish it was simply a dream.


December 22

Today I got my application letter in the mail, I have been accepted to join the other young teens and mid twenties adults on this never before adventure. Mom says that this is when I have to start being a strong man now that I am leaving her for a new place. I have to pack my things tonight because I leave tomorrow for my new home. Illiard Tarmin sounds like one cool guy if he single handily create our new home. A space station, I'll have to remember to write mom when I arrive there, I wonder if there will be zero gravity there. I saw Vincent the other day and he too got the application letter for the ROTC program that it going to happen on the station. Mom says I could learn a thing or two from Vincent since he knows guns so well...




January 4

Training began today, I do not remember the purpose of this notebook, but it is filled with writings of early life and human emotion. Also the first page says that I should write my day no matter what. No longer do I feel that Earth is my home or the ones that raised me as significance. They were only temporary to achieve my goal. After today this notebook will be thrown into space where one day when I am able to remember such pathetic memories, I will read this and read the innocent of my character dying on this particular page. Tomorrow I begin my life as it should be, a soldier of the SSS and the freedom fighter to the annihilation of earth as ordered by Inoue Mazohyst. Long live the federation of the SSS.




May 15th

It has been a while. Training has kept me focused on one good as a whole and not the good of myself collectively. The subliminal training they are forcing us into is supposed to destroy our old thought processes. I fought back, my shielded my eyes away from the screen, trying to save what last bit of sanity or human emotion that I had. Everything looked so much better on the papers they handed out, but frankly life is shit here. I never thought in all my life I would have to compress and decompress myself in certain environments, not to mention being tested for my fertility. Fuck. I'd like to say that I have a clear conscience about what my future is, but i don't think even Barbarossa knows what happens next. I've been told that I should start using the language Barbarossa has been using on us, but I doubt that if I started using it that I would be able to maintain it. I have to go notebook, my job calls me to kill now.



August 29th

Where does one begin on the day like this? I've been tortured, beaten, stabbed, punched and even kicked around a few times. Barbarossa sits on the side lines and watches as others rip open my skin and tear into previous bruises. Toy? Maybe, after the end of each session he helps me up, blood-stained and all to the nearest medic which will handle my injuries like paper cuts when I'm severely fading and dripping with blood, but nothing compares to the humiliation of getting my fertility tested every week.




"Boy, what are you doing now?" Oh shit. I scramble to hide my notebook, but he catches my collar and pulls me back.


"A book? What do you think a little book will do?" He wrenches it from my hands and starts flipping through the pages. I turn my head away to see my childhood friends beaten and battered, but looking at me with disgust... I'll never forget many days of early Mars life, that day was probably my worse day in terms of emotional secrets.


"A diary...?" He quirks his eye brows at me in minor disgust, I still have feelings of shame, regret, love, hope and all the things that are strictly forbidden here. I am to be the perfect soldier, not an emotionally weak one.


"A diary, you little wretch, isn't going to stop anything from happening. I suggest you burn it before its discovered." I looked at him in a daze, I thought he would distroy it upon finding it on my persons. Instead I am told to destroy it before anyone else finds it, or worse find me with it. Looking back now, I thought it was a dream.


~*~*~*~


It was two thirty in the day, my students are anxious, it's only twenty minutes and fifteen second until school is out. I know they do this, they always count the minutes and seconds until the class ends. They whisper to each other the exact amounts of time left, personally I think it's just to intimidate the smarter children and force them to panic in the fear of not being able to finish their test on time. I kept the story going as I remembered the day before my kidnapping.


"Hey, only ten minutes and forty-two seconds left." A kid whispered to the person next to him.


The irony to this is I used to do it to Barbarossa too. He would be trying to spot the target and I would make him jolt in surprise. He always hated when I did that, I miss his glares of disapproval. The government told me he was dead, what else could I do? I can't mourn my life away into a bottomless pit because I regret my stupidity that day. Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday.


"Quit moving boy or I'll make you still forever." He had his fingers placed strategically on the trigger, wait, did he just call me a boy?


"Who the hell are you calling 'boy'?! I'm older than you!"


"Then why don't you act like it."


I wanted to say something, I really did, but I had no idea what to call him, so I shut my mouth and let him take the shot without a sound. 'Bastard.' I thought, we had only been a team for a few months now and he was already immune to me. That bastard. Granted I hated his guts at times, but we were both teachers, only I taught grade school with the newly aged preteens. I guess that gave us something to talk about when we were on stake out missions or surveying a area for potential hideouts and such.


It was only after I met him that I found out he was teacher. The government said he would be a good mentor to me. HA! I'm two years older than this man, what the hell is he going to teach me that I already don't know? However, spending all that time with him on earth was a good teaching tool for me. I learned things about him onyx friends knew. I knew why his eyes were an amber color, I knew his philosophies, I knew him as a general person.


When we were surveying the area for a new hideout for our new assignment, we were attacked. I remember him pushing me to the ground and telling me to take a rifle and shoot it. I remember letting one round off, but after that it was a haze and I woke up on the Space Station; Barbarossa nowhere to be seen. I tried to rationalize that he could be in surgery or that they put him in another room, but it is hard to remain so optimistic when the doctors tell you that the person you spent everyday with for about three years, had passed away during surgery to save his life.


After that I just moved on. I put all the things he wrote down for me to do and certain items I stole from him into a container and stuffed it into my closet. I haven't looked at it since that day, it makes me feel a bit guilty now that I think of it. I'm sitting here in class with those memories and nothing to do.


"Mister Marko."


"Huh?" I heard a young voice, not yet matured.


"The bell rang five minutes ago, can we leave?"


"Uh.. Sure. No homework." Damnit, I hate when this happens. It's been happening everyday for a week now. I look at the children taking their tests and it reminds me of the real life one I had with Barbarossa those six long years ago. My god, I'm old.


I left the school grounds that day with a uncomfortable sense in my stomach and in my mind. It had really been six years since I saw Barbarossa. I could swear I saw him in window panes or walking down the street, but when I turn to get a second look, no one is there. Are my eyes that bad? I'm only twenty-five, could I be aging past my normal rate?


My walk to the apartment is relatively, but I decided to stop for something to eat before heading back. To pass out here on the streets without a reason to was blasphemy, I might be pronounced dead and trampled. I walked into my usual place, ordered the usual and ordered it to go. My walk back from my routine restaurant to my apartment was a long walk. I had nearly gone across town for this meal, and I hoped and knew that it would still be warm when I got home.


You know that feeling that someone is watching you, but you don't know from where exactly, only that they are watching you. I looked in the direction I felt it the most, up. I saw Barbarossa looking down at me in the window. He looked... real, not mirrors or smoke. "Barbarossa!!"


My head is hurting, my thoughts are foggy, my eyes are trying to focus under the bright light above me. 'Where am I? Am I home? Did I die? Hello? ......... Barbarossa?' I tried to sit up several times, I'm being held down by chains or threads, or maybe my own unwillingness to even think of what is happening. I remember calling out his name and then the environment around me going dark. I want to remember.


It's been hours since I knew what was going on. I still struggled against my bonds trying to free myself from death grip that each individual wire had on me. It was futile, I only caused minor cuts and bruises on my body, and it did not help the situation I was in either. I could bleed to death like this and never know what had happened to me. I could be dead, yeah, I could be dead and just trying to imagine my life. 'Goddamn Jermaine shut up.' I thought. 'How does blacking out on the streets mean you're dead?'


The mental dispute with my brain would have to be settled later, because the door opened in the far corner of the room and you could feel the chill of apprehension run down my spine. The figure was blurry but I could see glasses and that eerie glare looking down at me.


"Where am I?"


"Calm down Jermaine, all will be well soon." A blindfold was placed over my eyes from behind, shadowing my view of my suspected kidnapper.


"How do you know my name?"


"Jermaine, we remember all who worked with Barbarossa." You know that sound of latex snapping against skin? I heard it loud and clear. "We noticed you have been revisiting your past with Barbarossa as day dreams."


"How would you know that?" The voice was disguised by a synth wave of some sort, damn technology, I might know the voice if it wasn't for the synth wave.
"We have an alert chip that focuses on the thoughts you conjure on a daily basis. There are more than eight entries of your little memories in the last four days."
"It's none of your damn business what I think about and I want that chip removed!!"


"Unfortunately for you, Jermaine, it is our business what you are thinking about. We don't want Operation Hawk to be spilled to the public airways now do we? It would cause great suspicion about your credibility since we, as the government, can make it look like you were responsible for the hundreds of deaths in the 4-C dome and no one wants that do they?"


"What deaths in the 4-C dome?" I'm really confused now.


"The deaths that are going to happen in the next two hours." The man with the eerie voice snapped his fingers and I instantly felt hundreds of volts surging through my body. I screamed in agony, unable to do anything and not knowing why it had come to this torture.


"Shut up! You don't want Barbarossa to hear you now would you?"


"Barbarossa...?"


Meanwhile more than fifteen miles away from the laboratory where Jermaine was being held and electrocuted, Barbarossa was finishing his lesson for his chemistry students. It was a little past four when he decided to end the class a bit early today. Not for health reasons, just that most of the students had gone to sleep already and those that were left behind after he dismissed could be dealt with accordingly.


After handing out more than five administrative detentions for Friday night. Barbarossa tea was gone for today and his water was already warm against the sunlight reflecting from the windows. He packed his laptop and test papers away into his briefcase, along with a ancient Chinese martial art book he had bought about a week ago.


Today, unlike all the other days, Barbarossa took one of the SDE's home. Today was a long day, longer than usual, so he figured it would be faster to get home this way and he could relax sooner. The SDE was set at the coordinates it was given and he was headed toward home. He may not generally like these flying discs, but they are faster than walking and there is really no air traffic since they don't have cars. Besides, the breeze felt good tonight.


Unlike traditional users of the SDE's, Barbarossa had it stopped at the front of his apartment building. Surely he wasn't too tired to walk a few stairs to his apartment. Hopefully Vincent wasn't there to greet him. Ever since the government has been cracking down on the gun and drug sales, Vincent has been out of luck and out of work. So one day he figured he would live with, or close to live with, his most valuable customer.


Unfortunately for Barbarossa, Vincent was waiting outside his door again, like he did everyday for the last month and a half.


"Why do you do this? Don't you have a drug dealing ring or a weapon shop to look after?" He asked him, actually more annoyed with his presence.


"Like Mister Mac Lellend has anything IMPORTANT to do after his little day job." He was shuffling around looking for a drink, mostly likely of alcohol.


"I don't drink alcoho---" Barbarossa said before feeling a surging pain go through his spine and harsh cries of pain echoing though the room. He didn't know where or why, but it felt as if someone was shocking him with a broken electrical wire. The shocks became more violent as he struggled to breathe and find the source of it all. Barbarossa felt hands on his sides and the worried voice of the alcoholic known as Vincent. Vincent was trying to soothe the pain, but unable to know the direct source. His actions were panicked and his decisions were unclear.


"Help... me.." Was the only words Barbarossa could conjure with the pain he was feeling.


'Vincent tried to help me he really did. I almost felt sorry that he couldn't. No one can help such as person like me. Not a sniper, not me...' Barbarossa thought as he slipped into a dark void, only to wake on an operating table with his left eye being held open.


"Welcome back Barbarossa, how was you're sleep?" Barbarossa couldn't see the doctor, but he heard the synth voice.


"What sleep?" Barbarossa tried to move his head, but was stopped by a gloved hand.


"Don't move, we're almost done." Barbarossa probably couldn't feel it, but they were extracting liquid from his eye and it was very important that Barbarossa to stay still during the procedure. "We're taking some eye liquid from you for testing. Nothing that will be of much concern for now."


"What does 'for now' mean?" For someone not being held down and having a needle in his eye, Barbarossa was very calm and patient about it all.


"If your tests come back positive, then you'll need to worry." Granted a synth voice was creepy, especially during a procedure like this, but someone of the doctors protected their voices for privacy reasons. The needle was pulled out as easily as it was inserted and the restraints on Barbarossa's left eye lids were removed.


"Okay, we're done. I'll walk you out."


Barbarossa stopped the hand on his shoulder from pushing him off the operating table when he was able to sit up. "Wait. Where am I and how did I get here?"
"I can't answer that. I'm not responsible for that field." The man's hand moved to help Barbarossa off the table again and the hit man had no objection to the action, despite his question not being answered.


Barbarossa and the doctor passed by man windows of other people being treated for various issues and neurological waves being monitored by a computer. It looked like a normal hospital until Barbarossa passed by a room with a man being electrocuted. He stopped and looked at the treatment that was going on.


"This is for our uncooperative patients that outside their program. It teaches them to respect the treatments they were given and not to disobey it again."


Barbarossa couldn't help but feel like he recognized the man being electrocuted. Where did he know someone with such wild red flame hair? Was it school? Maybe a neighbor? Then the man being fried opened his eyes and emerald eyes looked towards the glass pane. The emerald eyed man wanted to know who was watching his torture, and those emerald eyes met amber ones that he used to question.


"... Barbarossa?"


The same feelings shot throughout out Barbarossa. There, in that room was his partner from six years ago. The same man who he teased with the 'boy' name calling.


'This can't be. The government told me Jermaine was killed by a mine. H-h-e-he's alive?'


"Jermaine... JERMAINE!!"


Barbarossa started to run to the nearest door, but many employees jumped on him and injected a sleeping toxin into his system. Jermaine watched as his partner was subdued and taken away.


~*~*~*~


There we were, Barbarossa and I, strapped to an electrocution post in a dark room with no windows, no lights and no way of escaping. Damnit. I don't remember any 'Operation Hawk' either, I would ask Barbarossa, but he's still knocked out from the toxin and I'm extra crispy.


I closed my eyes to search the many places of my mind for the old days. Me and Barbarossa, that one day where it all was halted and everything twisted to an odd situation. Six years ago in the autumn, early autumn when summer was just coming to an end. We were scouting new regions for something. Damnit, why can't I remember? 'Concentrate.'


I felt like my mind was a morbid subliminal message the I couldn't turn off. It flashed places of memories I had, but I couldn't tell you how or where they were. My mind plays images I don't know what they are of.


"GODDAMN YOU!!!!!"


"Don't you ever shut up?"


"Barbarossa?"


"Who the hell did you think you were talking to? The Easter Bunny?"


"Well.."


"You're still acting like the kid you did six years ago. I guess after even after your memory was erased you're still an idiot."


"Don't you ever speak English?" I asked him. There we were fighting like children while strapped to a post.


"That is English or didn't you lose your hearing as well?" He wasn't looking at me, and i doubt he would.


I was going to make a comeback to his question, but I heard a door open and the sounds of foot steps coming towards us. They were slow and casual, no way were they going to release us.


"Morning gentlemen. Sleep well?" Still a synthesized voice. 'Why must they torment me like this?'


"Because you're an idiot." I stared at my former partner in shock.


"Why the hell can you tell what I'm thinking?!"


Then that eerie voice spoke. "He can sense your thoughts since he, along with another person, erased your memory. However he made sure that he could tap into your thoughts as he wished to see what your thought process was. By doing that he becomes infected with some of your emotions for a brief period of time, usually lasting no longer than two or three minutes."


"Barbarossa, wh-why would you do that?" I was shocked, I really was. 'Did I bother him that much to deserve this?'


"Operation Hawk was the mission no one was ever supposed to know about. You found out what it was really for one day and you threatened to blow everyone's cover. So me and a woman named Cordelia Candescence planned an event that would scar you and give us a chance to erase your memory of the whole operation, but we couldn't erase it all. Fragments were left in your memory that we missed, so I asked Cordelia to make it to where I could tap into your brain as I pleased. Every time I did I felt your emotions and frustration of not being able to remember anything from your past. After a while, I stopped tapping in because your emotions infected me to the point of torture. It was all done to protect the rest of us. I acted like I was surprised to see you in the hallway to make you believe I really cared, when really, I don't."


I felt betrayed, confused, abandoned and useless. He told me what I thought I would never hear from him and it made my heart ache. "So this was all a plan to kill me?"


"Yes, in a way it is." He shrugged it off like nothing. That was it, I was alone.
"Jermaine Marko, identification number 3424-A3, have committed the crime of blackmail and attempted perjury." The synthesized voice began as Barbarossa was released from his binding constraints. "You will be executed by electrocution and then burned. Do you understand?"


"Eat me."


I heard fingers snap and then I felt the jolt of electrical torture run through my body. It wasn't one of those 'listen to me or else' shocks, they were really going to kill me like this and I could do nothing about. I grasped the constraints and yelled out my pain, feeling like it was my liberation of my death. A few moments later I thought I died, the electricity stopped and my body gave out underneath the pressure. I heard faint shuffling and screams of agony. I really thought I was dead, I was floating it seemed. Maybe I was floating with the angels like the pastors on Earth preached.


"Jermaine! Jermaine wake up!"


Someone or something was shaking me and calling out my name. I could think of only one response. "Am I dead?"


"No, you're in my apartment on my couch. You've been out for several hours. How are you feeling?" I tried to focus my eyes, I honestly thought they were lying to me when I saw Barbarossa sitting next to me in a chair. "What the?! What are you doing here?!"


"I live here." He replied with a smirk and I looked around in confusion as to what was going on.


"All that stuff that I said to you about not caring was all to make that idiot of a doctor to let me go so I could get you out as well."


"So it was all bullshit?"


"Well the stuff about Operation Hawk wasn't. You did try to exploit everyone involved in that operation. Cordelia is a Forensic Anthropologist and you almost set her records aflame when we tried to erase your memory the first time. The second time we had to use a mine, unfortunately. It scarred you on your hipbone and you were unconscious for days. Those days gave us enough time to erase your memory and create a new one from scratch. I'm surprised you remembered me, let alone what I look like."


"I first saw you in a nightmare. I wondered 'who was that' and it kept occurring until one night your name popped into my head." I paused looking up at him. "Barbarossa, what about dome 4-C?"


He looked like he was trying to come up with a satisfactory answer to my question without stepping some kind of boundary. "I don't know if they are true to their word about that. There will be hundreds, if not thousands of lives lost if they implode that dome."


"Why?"


He looked up at me again. "Why what?"


"Why do they have to do such a thing?"


He sighed, apparently I was missing a point he already had made or something. "They would do such a thing to get you back. You have gradually built up your memory and it puts them in an awkward situation especially if you start seeing a psychologist about your memories. They figure, if they can implode a building, they will get you and about ten other people all at once."
"Why ten other people?"


"If you would shut up, I could tell you." I stopped my questioning to let him continue. Maybe there is a memory in all this mess. "As I was saying, these ten other people include the highest and lowest ranks of the government. Each one was involved in Operation Hawk in some way or another, but them, like you, has slowly started to regain their memory from what I have been told. Now, if ten people show up to a shrink to get their memories examined, then the secret of Operation Hawk gets out and that is a heavy bounty to pay. Do you understand so far?"


I nodded and waited for him to continue. "Operation Hawk was the expansion of Mars from Earth, but instead of an economic powerhouse, Mars was supposed to be a prison for people who committed a terrible crime such as murder or rape. Then you decided to breech the system with your little fit and it ended up making some people heroes of invention and other outlaws without a care. Illiard Tarmin was assigned to be the creator of the prisons and such, but instead is now famous for the creation of the SSS, SDE and oxygen domes. His memory was partially erased, but was never given a new one. The others had the same operation, but each one had a different outcome. Bast Irishna works for the government, but not under the one she had for Operation Hawk. She's a sniper in secret and a secretarial agent for a mainstream job."


"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked, now very apprehensive about the whole idea.


"We find those other people before they are killed." Barbarossa reached under the bed and pulled out a sniper rifle and several hand guns.


"How do we know who is who?" I asked him as he handed me a loaded gun.
"I stole the list of names from the faculty we were at before I pressed the detonator switch for the explosion." He said casually as he placed the sniper rifle around his shoulders.


"Y-y-you killed those people?"


"That's what I do Jermaine. Now wipe that frightened look off your face and come on." Barbarossa picked up extra ammo on his way out, he was totally unaffected from murdering those people unlike myself. "I know where the first one is because the man sleeps here sometimes."


We entered the tavern casually, but people still turned to see the incoming people from the door. I toyed with hair in the vanity of other staring at me, but there is not a lot on my head to toy with unfortunately. Barbarossa elbowed my to pay attention as he moved through the tavern to the bar. I believe I just have met the most beautiful woman in the world. She stood calmly behind the counter and I noticed a Celtic knot around her right wrist, no to mention her eyes being two different colors.


"What can I get you boys tonight?"


"Have you seen a man around here with silver cyber goggles on his forehead?" Barbarossa asked her as if they were old friends.


"Is man the you are looking for super skinny with long black hair?"


"That would be the one."


"Come with me." She motioned for a co-worker to cover for her and she started to lead us to the kitchen. "He came in about two hours ago asking for a whole bottle of scotch. Afterwards he proceeded to the kitchen where he's been back here hitting on our refrigerator." Barbarossa rolled his eyes and shook his head in disappointment while I looked at him questioningly about this man we were getting.

"Hey baby, what's your sign?" Yep, there he was. Arm around the side, a bottle of three fourths empty scotch in the other hand and his skinny figure latched to the side. "Come on sweetie, don't be like that." I gave Barbarossa a more surprised look then one of those 'you have got to be kidding me' look. The woman had left us with the phrase "He's all yours." and she went back out to her post behind the bar.


"Now what? We can't take the fridge with us and he doesn't look like he wants to leave it either."


"Vincent." The silver goggled man looked from his beloved refrigerator to see Barbarossa holding up a full bottle of scotch. Instantly the silver goggled man detached himself from the refrigerator and started dragging himself toward the bottle. 'What an alcoholic.' I thought rolling my eyes at the drunken cyber man.
The whole 'lure the drunk out with a scotch bottle' came to a halt when gun fire was heard out in the main room of the tavern. People were screaming and trying to take cover from the stray bullets. Barbarossa pushed me and that drunk against the wall until the gunfire stopped.


"Andriane Weisner!! Come out and prepare to be escorted to the SSS!!" They waited for someone to appear but no one did. "Andriane Weisner!! Come out or we will kill everyone in here!!!" Still we heard crying of people, but no one stepping forward to claim the 'Andriane Weisner' title.


"Fuck you!"


More shots were fired from what sounded to be the bar, after all we were still hiding in the back taking cover. There was screams, groans and the sound of bodies hitting the floor and the woman that brought us to Vincent came crawling in with a gun in her hand. "What the fuck?" The words slipping out of my mouth without consent.


"Shut up or they'll come in here!" The stuffed a cloth in my mouth and pushed us down again as more gunfire rang out. The woman returned fire and was able to kill one of them, they instantly dropped to the floor, blood already spilling about. She continued to return fire until her gun ran out of ammo, I thought we were totally fucked then. Nor I or Barbarossa had pack up ammo for a 9 millimeter, but Barbarossa did have a machine gun, which he got close to the actual bar and let off several rounds, killing all remaining Government Officials.


~*~*~*~


"I am not going to be some force field of brick defense. I refuse." There was a moment of silence before another voice casted its opinion.


"It's not your choice to refuse Mr. Krieg, it is in your best interest to go with what we want you to in order for you to retain for status and clearance to this facility. I, personally, would hate to let Mazohyst to explain to you why you cooperation is important. There would be blood and I'm not sure if you would survive his lecture. After all he is very capable of killing you Mr. Krieg."


"Is that a threat?" The man's emerald eyes darkened a bit as he reached back, touching the dagger's leather handle.


"There is no need for violence Mr. Krieg, please take your hand off the handle of whatever weapon you have on you. Mazohyst's and my own hope is that this can be resolved with a peaceful agreement of both sides. Now answer my question; are you going to respectfully work the first line of the Space Station Defense Unit B or not?"


He cracked his knuckles as he stood there and thought about the offer, Mazohyst's eyes looking at him constantly without a sign of mercy or even human emotion.


"Any sort of benefits I should know about?" Being this high up in the Government ranks he should have some sort of benefit for all the years of memory erases and subliminal training.


"I can offer you a chance in the ranks to become Level C Dispatch Unit or Level D Combat Unit."


It wasn't all that good of an offer, Dispatcher unit was boring, but the pay was high. Combat unit was mostly cleaning and testing, not all that bad, but one never saw any actual combat, it was all simulations.


"Can I think about it?" The man asked, not quiet sure at the present moment. His current post was defense conditioning level four and it was a good position, especially with people gunning for his job.


"You have until tomorrow morning to answer me."


The one being subjected to a defense unit was pissed. Eight years working the combat unit that saw battle in the early stages of the SSS was now subject to a unit of non combat and computers.


'Illiard doesn't get this kind of shit, he gets his nice little window office and his little paper weights.' The man rolled his eyes at the thought of the whole idea, but he wouldn't trade a unit offering that bad for a desk and paper. The man arrived at a door, this was the dispatcher unit. They opened doors, check clearance and basically stared at a screen all day long. Reports have been filed that they eventually go insane since all they see is images even after they retreat home. Like their life was a computer program that someone could shut off at the very click of a button. Those people eventually went insane to the point of murder or suicide. The man slid his card into the door and the intercom came on.


"Good Morning Jared Krieg."


"Morning." Jared wasn't into the friendly conversion with a computer controlled person, especially with his offering for defense unit.


The doors open and it led Jared to his combat unit, SSS-A5332, they kept the defenses of the SSS strong from the inside, and sent Defense Unit B out to do repairs on the satellites. Repairs, a life as a mechanic wasn't in his resume, and he certainly had little training especially seeing as Illiard created this damned thing. Who knows what kind of steel or what kind of wiring this thing uses.
Jared took his seat at his unit number, it would be the same old routine, just like yesterday and the day before yesterday. No one would attack SSS, the most interesting event to happen today was maybe someone slipping on a puddle of coffee in the break room.


'Where did my life go?'


"Remind me why we are doing this again?" I asked them again. By now I was confused, hungry and slightly pissed off that no one would give me an answer to why we have to invade a satellite such as the Space Station.


"We are going to the Station because of a certain event that needs to happen on his God forsaken planet or you are killed for your fucking memory and we all go down as criminals." Andriane had a gun pointed between my eyes, I could feel the gun barrel against that one spot. For once I felt afraid in this world. "So shut your fucking mouth and go with it or I'll execute you here without a second thought of mercy and regret."


I saw Barbarossa looking down at me with disgust and disappointment, his eyes were cold.


"Yes ma'am."


She removed the gun from my head and took a step back. She then turned to Barbarossa who starting handing out ammo and weapons again. I was handed minimum damage hand guns and and few rounds of ammo. Andriane received some grenades, a hunting rifle and a few bomb devices. Barbarossa was probably fully strapped, I know he had a machine gun, other than that I was oblivious.
He was the first to leave our hide out, then Andriane and me at the end. He said I was good for scouting purposes for now as we walked towards the pod center. Taking the SDE was sinuous or something. The pod center is where all the pods that go to and from the SSS are located, there was another one in the dome that was destroyed, but these systems aren't used much.


"What is your business on the SSS today?"


Barbarossa flashed an identification and said that Andriane and I were new recruiters for the Dispatch unit. The man waved us to a vacant pod and prepared it to be launched.


"How do you have an ID?


"Jermaine, you have one too, you just don't remember where you put it those years ago." Barbarossa kept his eyes faced to the void of space.


"I suppose you do?"


"Well of course I do, you told me to bury it. It's in my apartment. I said I buried it so you would stop ranting about how fucked up the government was with your clearance."


"You bastard! I told you to destroy that damned thing, there were fucking with my clearance and docking my pay for bullshit reasons!!! I have every right to bury that fucking thing where no one could find it. You were so high and mighty with your ability to kill and I was stuck in the fucking waiting room every mission because I couldn't fire the weapon!!!" I was taken back by my own words, not believing the memory.


"Well it looks like someone is taking a drive down memory lane. Remember your rank yet genius?"


I looked at him puzzled. Rank, I had a rank in the system. "I thought I was just a scouter or mechanic or something."


Barbarossa started chuckling as the pod was launched towards the station. I thought all this had finally drove him mad. "Mechanic? HA!I I asked you to set the alarm once and you asked me for the instruction manual."


"You bastard!! I'm going to kill you!!" I lunged for the man that my memory was fuzzy about. My stomach met his boot then my throat met his icy fingers. I was pulled up to where I could just hear his whisper.


"It won't take much for me to to just break your neck here, end you wasted life of sketchy memories and the new life you actually called a living. Shut up, go through with these plans and after we've gotten what we came for I'll track your memory as far back as I can without making your defenseless head explode."


He threw me back against the padding of the chair we were supposed to be locked into for the duration of the ride there. I rubbed my neck where he had taken me by, it burned with flames that felt real. I never thought I would be on the receiving end of his threats like then. Time must have passed by like grass growing, but soon Andriane spoke again.


"Docking soon, prepare for the impact." We all locked in and prepared for entry. If it was anything like my entry to Mars it would be head splitting and bumpy. The pod started to rumble and shake violently, then a massive collision with pod dock hit us like a million jack hammers into concrete. We had barely any time to get over the force of the impact before the pod intercom came on.


"Welcome to the Satellite Space Station, please wait a few moments while we depress your environment to met the air pressure of the Station."


Automatic voice systems, no way it could be a dispatcher, we waited a few moments. Dispatchers worked on the inside where there was a minimal chance of them being killed or hacked.


"Thank you for waiting, you may now exit the pod and proceed about your business. Thank you for using the Satellite Space Station Transportation Pods."
We released the belts we have for depress and left the pod one at a time. The pod dock was bare for once. Usually the docks were crowded during this time of year, the government supposedly runs diagnostics on it's system, but not this time, it seems.


"What now?" I asked.


"Jared Krieg is our target. He's supposed to be the SSS's most decorated soldier, but recently he has been having rank fuck ups and clearance problems just like you. Only difference is the obvious characteristics and the fact that his memory wasn't erased like yours. He still has every single memory of his life from a young boy to the man he is now. We want him on our side, since his clearance isn't as fucked up and someone would think if you look at all his problems. Jared still has top clearance that can get us to the center of who made the SSS and why, it also gets us into the Governmental files of everyone that once had something major to do with Operation Hawk and those files are the key to all this once we get a hold of it. We begin this job, by getting through the defense line without setting off the combat unit alarms."


Just as he said that the alarms went off, and we haven't even exited the pod dock. I looked at him slightly pissed off that he might have jinxed the alarm system be saying that, in the distance I heard footsteps, running footsteps, coming our way.


"What now you fucking genius?!"


Andriane slapped me just as gunfire opened up on our surroundings. I dove into the pod for protection, but Barbarossa stayed outside. He seemed like he didn't care if the bullets hit him, Andriane, on the other hand took the crates to her left as protection.


Barbarossa stood in the gunfire, bullet reflecting off of him like opposite polar magnets. He stood there as the defense soldiers used every bit of their ammunition, then he made his move. Barbarossa pulled out two heavily armed machine guns and started firing. Every soldier that came our way died from the array of bullets they each encountered.


"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. " It's like their alarm system was malfunctioning, it kept repeating those words over and over again as we tore through each defense line. The Satellite had many barriers of defense, some zones where we were attacked Barbarossa would break their necks other times it was Andriane executing them with a single, perfect shot to the head.


We must have passed several lines of defense, it was then that we arrived at a defense line with no one there. Barbarossa advised to proceed with caution. I should have, I moved about like there was nothing wrong, that we reached a safe zone. Two jagged blades pinned me to the wall, they came out of no where it seemed, I was pinned each one plugged into my shoulders. I probably couldn't fight my way out without tearing off my arms.


A man about my height jumped down from venting systems. He looked a little older than myself, highly defined emerald eyes, and a style none of the planet's. He was wearing a black tank top, showing off his arm where you could see a crucifix placed, fingerless gloves adorned his hands where they housed several sharp knives, his pants were ripped with man zippers. Not a uniform I ever saw of a combat unit member, but my memory of course likes to play a psychological warfare with my surroundings.


He launched himself at our troupe. Diving for Andriane, the knives drawn out and gleaming in the facility's light system. She moved back a step and used his arm band to block the wielding knives. Barbarossa, you would think would be helping Andriane, but he was trying to get me unattached from the wall, the blood was seeping out of the wound, or so I thought. There was only a small pool of my own blood dripping out of my body. The knives were sealing the rest in and I hoped Barbarossa didn't have the intention of pulling them out of me.


He did anyway, he braced my shoulder against the wall and pulled on the knife, and then did the same to the other, I was now bleeding more forcefully, with the objects taken out, but my senses were on high alert. The gun Barbarossa had giving was pinching my sides, I saw out the corners of my fading eyes Barbarossa and Andriane locked into a strength war with the lime haired man.


Amidst all they're arm locking and the cuts the both were receiving from the many blade this man had, I pulled out the loaded gun and aimed. I aimed for the man's head, only to have my view blocked by Andriane or Barbarossa, I couldn't tell which.


Through blurry eyes, I pulled the trigger not once, but twice. I heard a groan and the sound of a body hitting the floor along with some more groans of agony. I didn't know if I killed him or not. Barbarossa picked me up and helped me run the the next zone. There I was given bandages and wrapped to stop the bleeding by the same woman who slapped me earlier. It turns out the second bullet I fired hit her in the arm. Barbarossa told me he didn't know where the first one hit the man, all that he knew is that when we left, there was more blood than just mine there. The thought of someone like myself killing a man was apprehensive in my mind, as far a memory would tell me, I never killed anyone before. It felt empowering..


=======================================

Reviews welcome.


Okay, let me set this up for you. About a year and a half ago I started this little project based on made-up profiles and pieced together ideas from others to the characters in this story.

Originally I had planned for this to be about 200,000 words and to have prequel and sequel. Unfortunately, life cut into my story time with the fiction formerly known as Synthetic Static or SS for short.

Overtime I began to hate the content of some of the chapters and sought to re-do the whole thing, which at the time was just a little over 20,000 words. After a while some chapters I found to be irreversible in their content and I abandoned them to my recycling bin and deleted them. Others just needed to be changed in terms of sequence and some chapters lost about 100 to 500 words per their area.

After ignoring the project for more than 6 months I was looking through my deviantART account which is: http://asphyziata.deviantart.com to see what I haven't completed or what was completed and what I could update with a newer version.

I came across the SIN Tech "Promo" post and decided to dust off the old Sci-Fi fiction and get it out there again, but this time with a more open, but odd ending with no prequel or sequel attached to it.

As you may have noticed in the story there are some names of places that are just two or more capital letters so here are the footnotes for them.

SSS - Satellite Space Station
4-C dome - City that was destroyed by the government as apart of a gag ruling.
SDE - Systematic Directional Entry [transportation]
Operation Hawk - Government founded, funded and tested operation for the perfect soldiers of the new planet.


That should be all of them. :)