Project Cyberitter

Five minutes left. Wilhelm’s eyes left the clock and went back to surveying the waiting room to enter the Science Wing, a separate research building attached to the Munich Officer’s Academy. His foot tapped the pale carpet of the room, again and again. He had tried to lean back on the black leather couch, but each time he felt himself getting comfortable, he remembered the gravity of today’s meeting, jolting back up. Wilhelm had looked over the room enough that he knew it better than his own, but he could think of nothing else to do, currently.

Soon enough, the receptionist called his name. “Wilhelm Frei? The doctor is ready.”

The doctor?  Wilhelm nodded, jumping up and walking through the gate to the rest of the Science Wing. The receptionist led him, frequently turning her eyes backwards as they walked. Wilhelm, for his part, kept his eyes dutifully forward, deciding to focus on the hall instead of the rooms with, in all likelihood, classified experiments behind them. Instead of the normal façade of the waiting room, the walls within the wing itself were a similar metal to the one used to construct the exosuit that he piloted. Instead of the normal yellow lights in the rest of the academy, bright blue light bulbs adorned the walls, lighting up the windowless hall. In the silence, Wilhelm could swear that he heard the repetitive click and clack of gears turning.

Lulled by this melody, he hadn’t noticed the receptionist had stopped until she cleared her throat. Then, she pointed to a door on her left and walked back towards the office behind them. Not a friendly lady, huh?  Her eyes whipped back on Wilhelm, and he gulped.

With that warning, he walked through the door and saw much of the same atmosphere in the hall. There was a large, gray table in the center, and beside it laid restraints and foreign tools, at least to Wilhelm. Then, Wilhelm noticed something in the corner of the room and dropped the clipboard that the receptionist had shoved into his arms.

Hiding in the dark, an exosuit stared back at Wilhelm, one unlike any that he had seen. Devoid of any color, it shined like the brightest star in the sky. Wilhelm walked closer to inspect it and reached out slowly to the exosuit, as if it could fly away. The cold, smooth surface sent chills through him as he pulled his hand back, and as close as he was now, the exosuit seemed to Wilhelm more and more human. Its mechanical limbs, slender and jointed, felt as if they could move at any moment, were Wilhelm to disturb it any longer.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s for you, you know.” The deep voice behind Wilhelm nearly sent him flying into the exosuit, but he kept his cool and turned around.

That this was “the doctor” was easy enough for Wilhelm to realize, with the man’s long, flowing lab coat. Contrasting with the white of his coat, his dark hair melded into the dimly lit room. The doctor’s smile and narrowed eyes made Wilhelm wonder how long the man had been watching him, but he decided that it would be less embarrassing to not know.

“Uh, you’re the doctor, right? Sorry, I didn’t catch your na-”

“Doctor Wolter. Hugo Wolter. I’m the lead of Project Cyberitter, and that’s really all you need to know. Now, pick up the clipboard and fill out the forms, will you?” Then, the doctor sat down, tapping a nearby chair that Wilhelm immediately occupied. Wilhelm had looked over the forms a thousand times while he was in the lobby, so he simply handed them over to the doctor. 

Wolter looked at the forms and chuckled.

“Good, you’re quick. Tell me something, though: did you read any of these forms?”

“Of course I did,” Wilhelm said. “I had plenty of time.”

“Then what are we doing here today, right now?”

“A surgery… Right? I’ve got no issues with it, doctor.”

Doctor Wolter pushed up his glasses. “Surprising, since the rest of your cohort all had some sort of question about the procedure. The brain is a fickle thing, Frei. And tampering with it… Well, almost anyone would have some sort of resistance to the idea.”

“This… Project Cyberitter, you said? I need power, and your project’s giving it. I’ve got no reason to complain.”

“Well, as long as you know what you’re signing up to do, I won’t object. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask while my assistants begin the procedure.” From the shadows, a group of yet more lab coats manifested into being. They busied themselves with the tools that Wilhelm had noticed earlier, and various devices powered on that had formerly laid dormant.

May as well ask, I guess. “Er, Doctor Wolter, I did have… one question. Looking over all the documents, I have an idea of what’s going on, but can you explain the project’s purpose? Some of it got a little…”

“Complicated?” Doctor Wolter laughed. “Yes, I suppose the verbiage might overwhelm a trainee pilot who’s never known anything but how to fight. Tell me, how much do you know about those exosuits you pilot? What was their purpose?”

“I mean, exosuits are just armor that protects soldiers from dying easily, right?”

“I was talking more about our history, Frei. But, in the twenty-second century, I suppose most would say the same. Allow me to illuminate you. Originally, the suits had no military purpose; they were necessary. You at least know a bit about World War III, I would hope.”

Wilhelm scoffed. “Of course I do. The Soviets thought they were getting attacked, so they fired off nuclear missiles at their enemies. And those enemies fired back, causing hundreds of millions of deaths, from the bombs themselves and from radiation. That was in… 1984?”

“Close, but 1983. There’s a debate to be had on who fired first: the New Soviet Republic, of course, insists they were attacked first. Regardless, the outcome is as you said; millions upon millions of casualties, and a toxic world in their wake. Much of humanity went underground, hiding away in bunkers. But eventually, there was an appetite to see the new world above.”

Wilhelm looked back at the suit, and his eyes widened. “That’s what these were for?”

The doctor smiled. “Exactly right. With these, and oxygen tanks attached, the harmful effects of radiation could be blocked, and the survivors of the war could survey the rubble. But once the land above became habitable, their applications in warfare rose to higher prominence.”

“That’s all very interesting, doctor, but how’s it connected to Project Cyberitter?”

“Some of it isn’t. The main point I’m making is that the purpose of the suit has changed throughout time. To this day, exosuits protect their bearers, with limited applications beyond this. But now, I intend to evolve their purpose. Instead of being a mere suit of armor, these… cybersuits, we call them, will be an extension of the human self… A means to evolve humanity.”

“And that’s the point of the chip? To… connect us with the cybersuits?”

“Indeed. Instead of needing to interface with the mechanical parts of the suit, your brain will power every action that the cybersuit makes. The suits, of course, are higher quality than any you’ve ever used, but the key difference is this connection to your nervous system. This allows for near instantaneous reaction times, allowing you to operate in a way that no exosuit pilot could ever match. You’ll be much faster than any Republic pilot, at least.”

Fast enough to gain an edge on the Red Reaper, I’d bet… “Sounds good to me, doctor.. And us cadets were chosen for this jump in tech… Why, exactly?”

“Younger subjects are preferable, for something that relies on your reaction time. There is no other reason, at least on my end… Though, perhaps my backers see it differently.”

Wilhelm wondered about that but decided not to ask, since the doctor’s assistants had finished their preparations. They looked at him with equal parts eagerness and annoyance. Their leader motioned for Wilhelm to get on the table, so he did. Wilhelm closed his eyes and felt a sharp needle in his arm, then suddenly relaxed. His thoughts blurred, and as he reluctantly embraced the darkness, he heard some final words from the doctor, blurred and distorted.

“Ha! Some interesting requests for the cybersuit, Frei. I’ll see them done.”