CHAPTER 1 LET THERE BE LIGHT

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“How does it feel to be back home Snafu?” "Juno" Oswald's distinct voice Echoed through the empty plane hanger. “Was havin’ a great party, then you came and fetched me back home, man what's your problem?” A man with short dark hair, a clean shaven face, bristly eyebrows and striking eyes replied with a sarcastically annoying tone of voice.

“C’mon Merriel, I'm sure you were tired of drinking green tea and eating dogs in Beijing.” “Beijing? I was stationed in Hong Kong! And what's up with those dumb stereotypes, was too busy starvin’ to eat anything!” Oswald laughed as he patted his friend's shoulder. “Anyhow, Glad to see you still in one piece Merriel.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, ain't no Chinese KGB getting my ass just yet, those fuckers could go fuck themselves for all I care, KGB knock-offs.”

“Calm down Merriel, we beat the KGB years ago.” “I think their own economy beat them back at 09, not your sorry ass, also it's been a long time since someone called me by my actual name, is my cryptonym getting changed or some shit?” “Nah, just thought it'll be funny, thought your goldfish memory would forget your own damn birthname.” “Says the guy who doesn't even know where I was stationed.” “Hey! I was kidding back there!”

Snafu and Oswald walked out the hanger, talking and joking while at it. The two old pals reach a car just parked outside the hangar. Oswald goes in the driver seat and Snafu in the back. “Wow, nice car huh? How much taxpayer money did you steal to buy this bitch?” “I stole and used your entire paycheck for the year, of course.” “Mother Fucker.”

The two pass a tall barbed wire fence, after notifying a guard, the gate opens and they pass through it. “Alright, I'll give you some time to wind down. Booked a hotel for you nearby, it's quite expensive too.” “Well, where's your ass going?” “Me? Going straight back to Genesis right after dropping you off.” Snafu raised his brow.

“Genesis?” “Ah, some folks started calling 555 Genesis, the name stuck as an unofficial nickname.” “Oswald, I've been sweating my ass off in Hong Kong, keepin' eyes on those MFs, for what? About 4-5 years now?”

Oswald nods his head. “Last I came by 555, it was full of yellow hats and concrete bags, what came of it?” “The state was looking for a space to build their damn portal. What better place to put it other than the largest CIA base in the states that already has the appropriate infrastructure due to it developing top secret tech for us in the cold war?” “Fuck man, I forgot that damn area was more of a mad scientist’s lab rather than a CIA facility.” “See? Goldfish brain.” “But why Genesis? They made the space rock portal work? Didn't the last time they tried it, the prototype sucked in a poor guy's laptop?” “I remember that, it also took his glasses, didn't it? It's been so long but we still haven't even got a clue on where they are.” “Tell me, what's really going on in there?” Oswald merely chuckles. “Just wait and you'll see.”

The two reached the hotel in a small town near the area. “Right then, off you go Snafu.” “Fucking CIA man, served the US of fucking A for years and the best they got is a 1 day break in a shitty hotel in a small town.” “Wooah! Didn't I tell you the hotel was quite expensive? Don't worry, I saw from their ads that they have a pool, a pretty big one as well.” “An agent of the state getting info from an advertisement, they should've kicked your ass from the agency years ago.” Oswald laughs, as Snafu opens the door out of the car. “Ok, I got somewhere I need to be, everything that you need to know is already in your room, just give them this.” Oswald hands Snafu a piece of paper and car keys as he leaves the vehicle. “See you at Genesis tomorrow at six, right, Snafu? Oh and before I forget there's a car for you at the parking lot in the morning.” “Yeah yeah, I get it, see you tomorrow.” Both waved their goodbyes before Oswald drove off in his car. Leaving Snafu at the hotel’s entrance.

“What's your name sir?” was a question Snafu didn't expect to be so hard to answer, considering his multiple different identities he had built up over his years at the agency. “Uh, it's Merriel, Merriel Bjourne.” “Mister Bjourne your room number is 23, second floor, first room next to the big balcony, the stairs are that way.”

Snafu quietly followed the receptionist's instructions, this was the first time in years he had said his birth name to another person that wasn't a Fed. Walking up the stairs and entering his room he quickly checks if it was bugged, after confirming it's normalcy he went over the documents Oswald gave to him, he was called back to the USA to witness the first testing of the Project StarGate portal as well as learning and picking up new technologies the CIA had developed.

“Project fucking StarGate huh.” He said to himself while reading the documents about it. He was both excited and doubtful, excited because as far as they know, only the US has access to this technology and information, they can count on the stars for giving them the luck for this one in a kind crystal dropping straight to their turf. Doubtful because once again, humanity is trying to play God and historically that doesn't turn out well.

“Well, if God is against America, then we'd just have to ‘unperson’ him.” He joked to himself to calm his nerves.

He places his bag at the table, locks and leaves his room to relax at the hotel's pool, he was back at home after all, not because he was now at home he can now be careless, vigilance and caution still hasn't left him, but home was like heaven in comparison to the last place he was sent to infiltrate, and it was a break day after all, something rare for his job even if it was just a day, it was relaxing, serene and peaceful, free of tension and free of the constant anxiety of getting caught or ratted out. Snafu thought about his life as he was in the pool, after all, it was his first actual break in a very, very long time.

He tried to think about his past, before he was an agent, he was a marine that fought in the cold war in the early 2000s and before he was a marine he was nothing, an orphan. The state recruited him after he volunteered when he was just sixteen, lying about his age, not that the recruiter’s office cared, after all the country needed its hands on anyone it could get, and someone like him was perfect for the job. No family, no connections, no past, nothing to hold him down. The only family he ever got was his friends in the military, which he lost a lot of, and his friends in the agency, which he barely meets in person, not to mention the very real risk of some of them betraying him, after all in the world of espionage and shadows, trust is as fragile as glass.

His home was wherever duty calls him, his family? Whoever he meets on the field. Needless to say the state gave him everything, and in turn he would give his service, to him it doesn't matter how dirty it gets.

He continued to relax in the pool, using his brief moment of respite to the fullest. He didn't know exactly why, maybe it's just his spy sense that had been built up over the years, but he felt that this would be his only day of rest for a long time.

…

Snafu wakes up, checking the time to be early in the morning, quickly eating his breakfast in his room, he opens his bag containing two guns and ammunition, which was given to him when he acted as a bodyguard for a ambassador, after doing quick maintenance and arranging his files, he wears a slim but high-quality body vest over his shirt before hiding it with a dress shirt and his suit. He wears his black gloves and fixes his tie and exits his room after clearing it. His bag was filled with two unmarked guns and ammo, and two specially built explosives that he didn't get a chance to use at his last operation and to top it all off he wears dark red shades, a classic secret agent spy look.

He leaves the hotel after checking out, going to a parked dark SUV at the parking lot, he gets inside and notices a folded letter. He opened it and it was some sort of ID card. “I bet it's for identification at the 555, still isn't this a fucking security risk?” Snafu sighs. “Well, at least the card is just my current cryptonym, CIA logo with no words and a barcode, nothing else.” He shrugs it off and drives to Area 555, Genesis.

Snafu was driving for about a hour and now he finally notices the first checkpoint, showing the card, he was let in, this happened one more time before he finally sees the walls of the secret fortress hidden in plain sight, Area 555, the Numerous lights covered the field even when it was early in the morning. He wondered how this massive complex stayed under the public eye for so long, did they develop an Amnesia pill or something?

Then suddenly, out of nowhere a bright light with the power of a thousand stars engulfed the entire area. “What the fuck?, he stops his car in shock. “High powered floodlights? Wait no! This has to be something else!” After that sentence, his car fell into the ground.

…

Terra Lungmen Guard Department HQ

A few days ago.

It had been 10 days yet Che’n still could not make heads or tails of what happened that morning. 10 days ago, a mysterious Laptop and glasses were on her office desk. Seemingly coming from nowhere, no explanation and no traces of the culprit. Security footage shows nothing, the one in her office conveniently suffered an error that made it unable to record that morning. No one knows what time the object appeared, only that she discovered it early in the morning when going to work.

“Che'n! It's me, Swire!” An annoyingly familiar voice echoed from behind the door. “Come in.” A short woman, with a beret on top of her flowing orange hair entered. She had animal ears and a tail similar to that of tigers. She was holding the laptop that appeared ten days ago with a weird looking USB attached to it.

“I've got it figured out! Of course some others from the technology department helped me, but I've cracked it's first layer of security!” She said with a hint of pride in her voice. However Che’n was more annoyed than impressed. “First layer of security? Does that mean we actually still haven't unlocked it?” “Well, yeah, to be honest I was shocked too!” “Then get back to work and report back to me once you actually crack it.” Che’n bluntly said.

“Hah! Throwing all my efforts like trash huh? Then I won't show you the one piece of progress I found.” Swire retorted back. “Wait! What progress?” “I won't show you until I get an apology~” Swire teased.

Che’n was desperate for progress in this case, so she played along, “Fine then, I apologize for my actions and behavior, it was very inappropriate.” She said with a clearly insincere tone of voice, as if mocking Swire. “I want one better!” Swire protested. “I could charge you for withholding information from your senior officer.” “Hah? fine, you dragon bitch, you better be thankful I'm here helping you!” “What did you just call me?”

The two quarreled for an infinite amount of time until a tall, green haired woman with one long horn outstretched from the right top of her head, came through the door. “You two! Shut it will you!? The other workers are getting distracted!” Swire and Che’n immediately ceased their banter.

“What's gotten you both so worked up anyway?” The horned green haired woman asked. “Umm, H-Hoshiguma, I've managed to uncover some information about the laptop.” Swire spoke first. The green haired woman, now identified as Hoshiguma, also an oni with a single horn, raised her brow. “Really? Then let's see it.”

Swire set the laptop down at Che’n's desk, turning it on, it shows the original state and first screen it showed days ago when it was first investigated, a black screen with nothing but a passcode bar. Swire then installed some sort of USB device to the laptop. “This laptop is probably the most special laptop in the whole of Terra, I've tested it and you wouldn't believe me, but its energy does not come from originium!” Swire said with visible excitement.

Both the dragon and the oni were shocked, their expressions showing great interest and intrigue, Che'n placed her hand on the device. “T-That's impossible! If so how does it work?” Che’n asked. “I'm not so sure either, I thought of breaking it apart to see the insides, but since this thing is one of a kind and is basically unknown technology holding possibly sensitive information, I have decided against it, might accidentally break it y’know?”

Both the two spectators nodded at Swire’s reasoning. “As for how I got in, the letters on the keyboard are old Victorian so I took some old codebreakers and modified it to fit on the laptop’s ports, I ran it for a full 32 hours until it finally brute-forced the password, we're lucky the password was not all that complicated or it would've taken maybe years.” Swire continued.

“And what is the password?” “AREA55520” Swire answered Hoshiguma. “Weird, you think it means anything?” “I don't know, let's move on, here, let the dragon bitch try inputting it.” “Tch”

Chen took the laptop and typed in the weird Victorian Password, the laptop changed screens into pure black, until a few moments later it changed into another screen. A never seen before logo was shown and below it was the text :

Property of the Central Intelligence Agency Unauthorized Access This device is being tracked

In red colored font. “Spooky huh?” Swire spoke first again, after the sudden silence. “What's the Central Intelligence agency?” Che'n questioned with a tone of seriousness in her voice. “Who knows.” “How about you, Hoshiguma?” “Nah, never heard anything about it.”

Che'n took a closer look at the logo. An eagle behind a shield, and a weird red compass in a red sun? The text in the top read, Central Intelligence Agency, but what most took her attention was the text at the bottom of the logo, it read out the United States of America. “United States of America, Interesting huh?” Hoshiguma stated.

Che'n for a brief moment thought about all this, and on what to do, before finally deciding. “Swire! Hoshiguma! Get some trusted agents to research and investigate the names ‘Central Intelligence Agency’, ‘United States of America’ and even the logo and password, and Swire, after picking your agents, continue to try to get more info from the laptop, remember I said trusted agents, I'm planning to make this operation secret, be absolutely sure there won't be any leaks!”

“Yes, Superintendent Che'n!” Both the oni and tigress answered.

___ (Arknights is not owned by me) A/N First chapter and yes, area 555 is a work of fiction, or is it?