The Rising Dawn, # 9— "The Dusk Persists"
- David Parker
- Oct 2, 2023
- 4 min read
[Short stories. Images generated by hotpot.ai]
The martial enemy of the Rising Dawn Society was a man named Derrick Wulfgang, simply called “the General” or “the Wulf.” He was a member of the Unofficial Government— they had their own badges, but had no need for any documentation or other prerequisites to do what they pleased. While much of the lands controlled by these insidious forces languished in poverty, when The Shop needed money, it was printed and funneled to them with limitless liberality. Though the Gifted that dwelt among the world populace had a wondrous breadth of extraordinary abilities, the Shop had the most powerful ability of all: to reach into their pockets and take out as much money as they ever needed or wanted, while the present generation was pressed into an endless climb out of their increasing debts.
One of the chief two-pronged agenda of the Shop was to isolate the inexplicable abilities of the Outliers (the Gifted) and establish them as perfectly rational phenomena, often killing people or causing irreparable harm in the process. The second prong was harvesting whatever it was that made humans Gifted and transfuse it into humans that the Shop deemed fit to have Gifts. This agenda also killed people and caused irreparable damage.
The Wulf, unlike most of the world, had access to a command terminal, likened even to the Starship Enterprise. From here, he was able to track and oversee the ongoing process of finding the Outliers and bringing them into the fold.
One of their achievements in their ruthless experimentations was that, after weeks of harvesting blood from the Outliers, they were able to break down its components and mix it with a formula that created a universal drug that enhanced normal human bodies and converted them into super-soldiers.
To the chagrin of the numerous scientists of The Shop, they were unable to stop the drug from having side-effects that expressed themselves in ways they didn’t intend to their elite soldiers, called Mobile Guns, New Marines, or just Guns. The intended effects were all combat-oriented, but even when mixing the blood of Outliers into a single formula, the Guns sometimes lost control and might fry random victims or explode with unbridled ‘psionic force’, which they believed was the accurate term.
“We’ve found two new suspected Outliers located in a housing project in Rook City,” said a Shopkeeper, “One is a psyker, with almost 95% certainty. The next has an undocumented Abnormality.”
“No more risks,” said The Wulf, “I want that Abnormality ascertained.”
“That might take weeks.”
“Send the Lows to case him, and make sure it’s quiet, this time.”
They kept a psyker in their custody, an Outlier, called The Case, who they re-purposed to find other Outliers. Enhanced with their instruments, she seemingly randomly was able to zero in on the locations of other Abnormal humans, sometimes inaccurately.
His Top Gun, called The Track, was nigh unstoppable in the field, and was as gifted at galvanizing Mobile Guns to track Outliers as he was at neutralizing them himself.
He considered it a slight if you said ‘Track’ instead of The Track. His real name was Baron Marks. Only The Wulf was respected enough to call him ‘Track’ without resentment.
“General,” said The Track, “The Dawns shut us down in Whitehall.”
“How hard?”
“Their Mech’s Abnormality shit-canned our automated security. The Gallant was enough to tap the Guns, and the Regs got beaten by his flunks.”
Wulf was perspiring visibly. “Where’s that AC?”
The facility was equipped with every comfort, and within twenty-three seconds he enjoyed a blast of cold air.
The Wulf spoke with outraged resolve, “I want every New assembled at this facility within 150 clicks.”
“That many?” said The Track.
“Gallant crossed the line,” said The Wulf, “Their Tower is at a junction between Whitehall and Rook. We’re gonna case them until the opportunity arises.”
“We’re gonna face that many Outliers?”
“The News are made for combat. One of the Dawn’s strongest assets is an Aspie in pajamas, along with a man armed with nothing but dogs.”
“Gallant is with them,” said The Track.
“How many Guns can he face!?” said The Wulf, then added, “We’ll take our time. Are the Whacks ready?”
He was referring to a new line of guns charged with ether, but they called it Blue energy, unwilling to concede that ether existed. If the settings were high enough, it would kill normal humans.
But Wulf wanted to target as many Outliers as possible.
And he wanted them alive.
*-------------------------------------------*
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