Chapter 10 THE THING AGAINST THE WIND

...

"Wake the fuck up!" A deafening scream akin more to a blaring alarm than a man's voice shook me awake. My eyelids tried to open, letting in rays of red light into my vision. "I'm giving you one last chance." The man in front of me held me by my head, forcing me to look at his eyes. My arms and my legs tried to move in instinct, but it was no use. I was tied up, sitting in a metal chair in a dark enclosed room with no other light source other than a blinding red spotlight aimed only at me.

"So, are you going to tell me?" The man, my torturer who held me captive said. "I told you everything I know." A kick was sent straight to my abdomen, sending me and the chair I sat upon flying across the room. My whole body was in pain, like lightning had run its course over each and every single one of my nerves, disintegrating them.

"You have told us nothing but absolutely useless info!" My captor bellowed. Shit, they have caught on to my strategy, Just How long have I been here? When is help coming? I don't think I have much time left, should I use my last resort? My thoughts were interrupted as the man took me by my ears, grabbing them forcefully, lifting me up a little then tossing me over again. What the fuck kinda drug did they just give me? Everything hurts a lot more than usual, probably at least thrice as much.

I tried to open my eyes again, squinting with pain, only to be met with a foot aimed at my throat. "Since you didn't want to say shit, here you go!" The man kicked me again, over and over. The pain was immense, it was unbearable. So unbearable in fact that I stopped feeling any semblance of it.

The man took me by my head again, but this time it was different? His massive rock hard hands had changed, it felt more slender, and softer? Why is he caressing me now? I couldn't see very well, was there another person in the room? Then suddenly, a female voice spoke to me.

"You're going to be okay." She said, completely different from the man from before.

what in fuck is- I tried to move again, my arms were free. Did they untie me? Why? Oh it doesn't matter. I reach out and grab the figure's hand with the strength I have left! "Huh?" She shrieked in a bit of a panic. I got you now! A gun materialized into my other arm. I smiled in happiness, I could finally leave this place! Oh good Heavens, what a joy! My trigger finger was ready, so I aimed and fired with immediate speed, and with a bang I shot her, and with a bang I woke up.

...

"Ugh, what fuck-" Snafu said out loud, groaning. He tried to open his eyes but the blinding white lights in the pristine medbay made him flinch in shock. "Jesus what the-!" He rubbed his eyes in response, squinting and adjusting his irises. The first thing he saw was the ceiling, he observed the overwhelming bright fluorescent light glaring from up above, wondering where the hell he was at after that damned awful dream.

"Where the fuck am I?"

Now that he mentioned it, Snafu felt the soft, comforting and smooth mattress behind his back, the aching pain in his injured abdomen was still hurting and a small bit of weight resting on his chest. He adjusted his neck to look down in curiosity, and what he saw almost made him recoil in shock, but his self control made him stop himself. There was someone laying in him, long flowing white hair, slender physique and a bit on the shorter side. Still being confused by everything, he tried to push the girl off his chest but immediately stopped after he recognized who this was, it was the damned Amnesiac.

The Doctor groaned, leaning her head up weakly. She turned to face Snafu, a weak yet warm smile formed on her lips. "H-Hey, you're up." She said, lifting herself up by her arms and getting up from Snafu. "I'm glad to see you awake again, Mister Snafu." The agent stared back at her, with a mix of confusion and wariness. "Why the hell were you laying ontop me?" The Doctor chuckled a bit before responding. "You did that." Snafu tilted his head. "I did what?" "I said you did that. Say, next time you wake up, don't immediately grab people and try to knock them over, okay?"

Snafu seemed to realize what he did, scratching his head in the process while he silently laughed to himself. "Aha, did my body move while on its own while I was sleeping?" The Doctor didn't say anything but instead pointed to her lower jaw, a small, barely noticeable bruise was seen. "Damn, did sleeping me try to knock you out or something? Really sorry about that, I had a real nasty dream, and an even worse reactive instinct." The Doctor leaned back with a look of both concern and curiosity on her face. "What was it?" "Ah, I already forgot, don't bother."

Snafu sighed then felt his injury with his hand, grumbling some swears inaudible to anyone but himself. Then he looked The Doctor. "So I'm at some hospital?" The Doctor nodded, getting up and sitting back on her nearby chair. Snafu looked around him, the almost pure white spotless room scattered with various medical equipment, ranging from multiple high-end monitors, computers, EKGs, sterilizers and even some equipment that Snafu had never seen before in his life. The place was not just high-tech, it would be considered top of the line even in his old world. Maybe even higher than the level of some reputable hospitals, the only places he could think of topping this grand and exquisite array of differing medical machinery and paraphernalia would be the mad scientist era type experiment labs of the Agency at its old and ancient MKUltra era. But still, it was very impressive, even to Snafu.

"Hey, where exactly am I? This is probably one of the most advanced medical bays I've been to!" Snafu asked in bewilderment. The Doctor smiled in response. "Welcome to Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals, Mister Snafu." "Rhodes Island? The state? Rhodes Island- oh!" Most of Snafu's memories were now rushing at him in an instant, from the light to the fight and him being carried away. "Right, all that shit happened." He said talking to himself, The Doctor noticed he was talking to himself, so she leaned closer.

"Hmm? What do you mean?" "N-No, I'm fine, Doctor, anyways what's your actual name? It's just weird calling you The Doctor all the time." "Unfortunately I don't know myself. But everybody here seems to be content enough on calling me The Doctor." Snafu stared blankly at the white haired woman, amnesiac. "You're not kidding?" "Mm-hmm." "..." "Is there something wrong?" "Nah, nothin, I'll call you Doc' from now then." "Fine by me."

Snafu sighed, trying to sit up with his back straight from his bed, after all besides the pain in his abdomen most of his muscles and body were at least capable enough to somehow activate while he was dreaming. But now he doesn't even know what to do now, this may be the first time in his life that he thought that the Farm's training was inadequate, there's no How to survive in another world class or training after all. He's now very positive he's not on earth and now he's stuck in some weird pharmaceutical organization with paramilitary capabilities because he coincidentally met an amnesiac stuck in a coffin the moment he got transported. Then suddenly making friends with her with the nickname of "Doc". Usually the nickname Doc would only be given to the most respected medics and corpsmen in his old jobs, but the fact that this girl is probably the reason why he's still alive made the name at the very least fitting.

""If I haven't found this amnesiac, then there was probably a good chance I would have never met this Rhodes Island and I still would be left in that burning shithole, what fucking luck."" Snafu thought, while observing Doc's thin and slender hands writing things down on what seems a notepad. ""But, what the fuck should I do now?"" He tried to get up from the bed on his own, refusing to even acknowledge the still burning pain that struck harder with each muscle movement, but Doc quickly noticed him trying to move.

"Wait! You should not be moving so much, it's still too early for that!" She said, stopping Snafu with a surprisingly stern face. The agent chose to comply, laying back down in the bed, sighing. Doc stood up from her chair, still keeping an eye at Snafu. "I'll be telling the others about your recovery, it seems most of the RI operators that you fought with back then are very thankful for your actions, with some even saying that you're the reason why they're still living. They all vouched for you to the rest of RI to take you in, especially Amiya." "Amiya? The donkey girl?" "Yes, but please don't joke around calling her a donkey, she's the CEO of Rhodes Island and she's a Cautus." "That young girl is a CEO? And a Caut-what?" Muttered a momentarily stunned Snafu.

"She'll be meeting with you again about the rewards you've agreed upon in return for helping RI, so I'll get going now to see her, do you have anymore questions?" Asked The Doctor. "No, not now, atleast." The agent said, being too busy thinking and compiling all the info in his head. "Alright then, I'll return in just a quick moment." The white haired girl said, quickly leaving the room, waving shortly at Snafu's direction before closing the white door.

"Fuck me." Was all that Snafu could say in response to everything that has happened. He reaches out for his pocket to check his things, only to realize that his clothes were changed to some hospital gown, his eyes immediately widened in horror as he slightly starts panicking. "Shit! I should've asked her where they took my stuff!" He had a lot of things in his bag that no other pair of eyes are allowed to see except for the agency, and now it seems that he might have failed on keeping those secret, he silently cursed himself, balling his fists. Unfortunately, there is nothing he can do right now, he didn't want to get up and start looking for his bag in whatever building he was in, that was an idea worse than some of the weird shit the psyop counterintelligence department came up with back in the war with the reds.

Snafu facepalmed, sighing in disappointment, particularly to himself. "Well shit, at least there's no CIA in this world to chew me out- wait!" Snafu's brain suddenly remembered that one of his comms device mysteriously rang and vibrated the moment he passed out in the burning city. "Were there others like me in here?"

...

LGD Headquarters

"Wait, could you say that again?" The dragon lady said while hastily writing highly detailed word by word paragraphs on her Investigation report. The woman across the table, a young Liberi operator, complied. "Yes ma'am, I sai-" But before she could repeat her sentence, another person sitting nearby Che'n spoke over her. "She said, that the object was flying faster than a car's top speed and was moving against the wind, was that so hard for you to understand?" Swire, the perky tigress interrupted, side-eying Che'n with a smug smile showing her toothy grid and her tail waving, almost like she was intentionally taunting her. Che'n grimaced, gripped her pen tightly with nerves showing on her shaking fist, with darkened eyes she turned to meet Swire's irritating smile.

"What? You- fine." Fortunately Che'n stopped herself, realizing she couldn't act this way in front of the liberi operator staring at them with open eyes. She took a deep breath. Suppressing her nerves and desire to pull Swire's tail as hard as she can which was still cockily swaying behind her. ""I swear I'll make this kitten pay!"" She screamed inwardly, though her attention changed in an instant the moment she noticed the liberi operator awkwardly staring at both her and Swire.

"Ahem!" She said, returning back to the original purpose of the interrogation. Flipping her paper sheet, she continued ignoring the tigress who was at her side, who was probably snickering at her expense. "Next question, was that the only photo you have captured of the unidentified flying object?" The liberi sighed. "N-No, actually I had a couple more, better quality ones before it ascended way higher up." "Then where is it?" "Uh, you see, I was panicking when the catastrophe struck, so I-I dropped them! They accidentally fell out of my pocket while I was running!" "You dropped them at Chernobog?" "Yeah? If no one picked them up then I guess?" "What did these pictures contain?" "Well, a more clearer look at the object I guess? And not just this gray blurry triangle." Che'n took something ziplocked in her pocket, holding the only picture they had of the UFO.

The tigress leaned closer to Che'n, much to her annoyance to see the picture. "Seriously this is just weird no matter how I look at it." Swire commented, "My first thought was it being a weird glider drone, but if we believe all your answers to be true-" she stared at the liberi. "Then this thing couldn't be just any drone, no drone flies that fast, that big, drop and climb that quick and not to mention the fact that it can even take to the skies at such speeds without any rotor blades." The liberi nodded in agreement, "I couldn't believe it either! I wonder who made this thing." "Who knows?" Said Swire, leaning back on her chair. "This is all so very interesting, hey Che'n what do you think?" Che'n had a troubled look on her face, she also couldn't make heads or tails on what this thing is, from how it operates and works to where it even came from. "I must admit, I also do not know what this thing is, but let me be sure, the object only appeared when the Reunion take over took place?" The liberi operator nodded, "Yes, I believe so."

Che'n was working her mental gears to try to make sense of all of this. While summarizing all she had learned so far, she arrived at a creative yet terrifying thought. "Wait, A flying artificial looking object, with unheard of capabilities only spotted at the fall of Chernobog. Do you think that this belongs to the Reunion?" Swire considered Che'n's theory carefully with her finger on her chin. "Now that I think about it, the entire Chernobog takeover is very suspicious. Like, how did The Reunion successfully invade a highly industrialized city that easily? And a city belonging to Ursus no less, but if we believe that Reunion owns such advanced tech as this, thing, then maybe that's how they did it?" Said Swire, recounting the events of the fall of Chernobog. "Though I have to say, we still aren't sure if those two things are even connected in the first place." Che'n crossed her arms, "That's true, there's no evidence yet that the Unidentified Flying Object and The Reunion are connected, it's just that, both are equally suspicious, how did The Reunion even get that powerful in the first place?"

Upon further analysis, the entire Chernobog incident felt off, really off. Usually infected protests are only that, protests, easily stoppable with a few scares and warnings. But with the recent activities of The Reunion, that was rapidly changing. Protests eventually turn to riots, and riots turn to revolution and revolutions leads to change. The strange thing was, how did Reunion invade Chernobog that easily? It was absolutely unprecedented. The military might of Ursus extends far and wide and as far as the LGD knows, no other group had publicly supported The Reunion, so where did they even get their equipment? Or even the guts to actually do it? And why did the rest of Ursus not even try to retake it?

Swire thought about Che'n's question for a bit, twirling her bright orange hair with her fingers. "Hmm, it is weird how they even succeeded. No matter how big or dedicated the members are, from what we know most of The Reunion was made up of infected civilians. Though there are many former soldiers and experienced fighters in The Reunion, for them to even take Chernobog, each member has to have intensive military training, organization, skill and most importantly intelligence, and not to mention those hired Sarkaz mercenaries need their pay." "And even if they did all that, then who sold them their weapons? Each country labeled The Reunion a terrorist organization long ago, no one would dare supply them without public consequences." Che'n added, staring at the unidentified object picture picture with furled eyebrows.

"Hey, have we ever considered that The Reunion might be getting help from under the table?" Both Swire and Che'n looked over to the liberi operator, completely forgetting that she was still in the room. "Ahem!" Che'n announced, clearing her throat again. "Operator Tiel, did I get your name right?" "Ah! Yes, that's correct." "You're all rested up now, right?" "Yes Superintendent, I feel better now." "That's good to hear. Now then, you should return to your duties." Tiel's eyes widened, "Eh??? Do I have to return to work immediately?" "Yes, you do know that the LGD needs all the help it can get right now, do you?" "Y-Yes I understand, I'll get going now! Uhh, goodbye Superintendent Che'n and Officer Swire!" The liberi operator immediately conceded in defeat as to not anger the dragoness, she quickly scurried off the interview room, closing the door behind her.

"Wow, she might have just discovered something big for us and yet you immediately put her to work without even a good job and thumbs up." Swire said, crossing her legs. "Shut it Swire, the entire department right now needs all it can get." Che'n said, trying to shut the tigress up. "I know, but still, you didn't even promise her a promotion or even a slight break. Really, working under such a bitchy boss must be hell on T-Ahh!" Swire didn't get a chance to finish her snarky remark as Che'n immediately pulled her tail with very incredible strength, causing the tigress to jump out of her seat in pain and horror and onto the floor. "H-Hey! That was uncalled for!" Swire cried, getting up from the cold concrete ground. "We will give our employees their due when Lungmen is safe." Che'n retorted, not even bothering to help Swire up.

But as soon as Swire was about to start another cat fight, the door flung open. Revealing the familiar form of the tall, green haired Oni. "What are you two up to?" Hoshiguma said, taking the chair Tiel left behind to sit on. "We were discussing what we found out." Said Che'n, reviewing her notes with a stoic expression on her face. Swire however, reluctantly sat back on her chair with her eyes closed, cheeks puffed and looking the other way.

Hoshiguma sighed and smiled weakly staring at both of them. "Alrighty then, what came up?" "If we believe Tiel's report to be accurate, then it is safe to assume that the Unidentified Flying Object is artificially made. Additionally, it also displayed capabilities which would be considered highly advanced technology or unheard of originium manipulation." "Oh? Then what do you think it is?" "Still undetermined, we are still unsure on how it could even fly, though I have some theories of its origin and why it's even there." "Theories?" "Yes, considering the fact that we only spotted the Unidentified Flying Object at the time of the Reunion's takeover, which was strange in itself. We can assume that both are related to each other, maybe that is why The Reunion easily took over Chernobog." Hoshiguma crossed her legs, "Wait a second, can we shorten the name Unidentified Flying Object? Isn't it a bit too long?" "Like what? UFO?" Che'n said plainly, tilting her head. "Ohh! UFO! Kinda like that name!" Chimed Swire, who didn't participate in the discussion up until this point. "Hmm, indeed UFO is so much more convenient." "Alright! Back on topic!" Chen said, clapping her hands, then turning to face the oni.

"Hoshiguma, did you come here to report something?" "Yes I have." Hoshiguma said, her smile changing into a slight frown. "The situation in Lungmen isn't getting any better, ever since the fall of Chernobog, tons of refugees fled to Lungmen. The problem is that there's simply too many of them for us to properly look after and worse, most of them are settling in the slums and outskirts due to lack of available shelter." Che'n's face turned sour in an instant. "Wait, the slums?" "Yes, the worst possible place."

Though Lungmen was always seen as a more progressive city, with a more open and inclusive culture, that doesn't mean the infected would still be treated equally. The existence of Lungmen's slums proves this fact, a wretched and underdeveloped place where the Infecteds of Lungmen live in unequal opportunity and wealth, and now refugees from a city destroyed by the Infected were flocking in numbers to the slums. Hoshigima pulled some documents from a small bag. She displayed them by spreading them out on the table in front of Swire and Che'n.

Swire picked one of them up. "Uhh, LGD employee profiles? Why are you showing these to us?" The oni sighed, "Five LGD guards were heavily injured trying to maintain order in the slums." "Ehh? What happened?" "The Chernobogian refugees that came to the slums had started pouring their hatred of losing their city on the local Infected population. Skirmishes, fights and brawls have started forming ever since, and it's steadily getting more and more chaotic to the point that we couldn't maintain proper order, the LGD right now is overworked." "Don't those Chernobogians know that a regular infected citizen is different from a Reunion Member?!" Swire said, raising her voice in anger. Hoshiguma sadly shook her head. "Well, from the Chernobogian refugee's point of view, all Infecteds are the same. Unreasonable, chaotic and violent, and the fact some of them probably lost their family due to The Reunion's invasion had made them very erratic. Currently, more and more enforcements are stationed on the slums to stop the fighting from happening, but the entire LGD is running out of manpower, and that's not even the worst part." "Huh? Then what's the worst par-"

"The Reunion, am I right?" Che'n cut in, answering Swire's question, Hoshiguma sighed, nodding her head. "Yup, spot on. We have no clue what the Reunion is doing in all this chaos, but we can be sure that they're orchestrating something in the shadows, after all that's their style. Always benefitting from chaos and disorder to further their plans." Che'n's face turned serious, realizing how dire the situation was. "The Reunion is the biggest problem we have right now, and it started in Chernobog. The Reunion is playing a game of chess with us, and unfortunately, we are lagging behind." "Then, what should we do, Miss Superintendent?" Hoshiguma said. The dragon lady closed her eyes in thought, then she said. "To stop The Reunion from invading Lungmen, we first need to know what even happened at Chernobog, but where do we start?"

The tigress mischievously smiled, as if a lightbulb had appeared on top of her head. "I suppose there's only one way to find out." "And what would that be, Swire?" "Hey, do we have some agents that could get us into Chernobog?" Che'n was visible confused, her tail wrapping around her leg. "Hmm? I'm not sure, I think we do-wait, what are you planning to do?" Swire smirked. "When was the last time the LGD did a Black Ops type mission?" "Swire! If you're suggesting that we should infiltrate Chernobog, then I must deny your request as I see no value in it and besides the LGD mostly only stays here at Lungmen!" Che'n said, seemingly getting a bit panicky from Swire's obviously dangerous and risky suggestion, but the tigress didn't back down.

"No value? We all know that there aren't enough Reunion members here in Lungmen to properly start an invasion. If they are planning an invasion, which is quite obvious that they are! They would need their main forces at Chernobog! Even a slight peek at that city to see if they are starting to march in formation and preparation would be valuable! Think about all the intel we could get from their numbers and equipment!" "But th-that's too risky! What if our operators fail? Get caught?" "C'mon Che'n, don't you have trust in the LGD operators? Don't worry it'll be successful if I'll go with them!" "What?! No you won't!"

The tigress crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks. "Wow, I didn't think our dragon here would be so cowardly, hey Hoshiguma, what do you think?" Hoshiguma, who was silently listening, raised her head. "Well, an operation like that would need time to properly plan out, but besides that and the extremely high risk, I could see its value, and other than the valuable intel, we could put a possible invasion to halt by sabotaging their supplies. Maybe even find the truth behind the enigmatic UFO. It's always better to be proactive than reactive." Swire smiled even harder. "Right! We could investigate the UFO if we get in there! And maybe even retrieve those extra photos if we can!"

However, Che'n was not as thrilled as Swire. "W-Wait Hoshiguma you're not agreeing with this little orange cat's stupidly dangerous idea are you?" "I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing, I'm just pointing out my observations." Hoshiguma said, answering Che'n. "And you're the Superintendent here, it's your decision." "I-I'll need to think about something like this, I think I may even need Wei Yenwu's permission."

"Hmmph!" Grunted Swire, getting up from her chair. "Well you think about it real hard then. Just remember that the entire fate of Lungmen depends on you!" Said Swire, and after speaking she took the door out. Leaving the interrogation room and leaving Che'n and Hoshiguma alone inside.

"That!- nevermind." Che'n sighed, her eyes still staring at the direction of the door Swire used to exit. "Really, that girl idolizes the LGD a bit too much, she really needs to kick off her fantasies of always reading those special ops-black ops novels." Che'n said, changing her gaze to the oni. Hoshiguma chuckled for a bit, smiling at Che'n. "And you're the Superintendent and yet you dont have faith in the LGD?" "N-No I believe in them, but Swire's idea, is it really feasible?" "Well, it is a bold idea that needs alot of planning, but it could definitely work. If we could be one step ahead of The Reunion, then we could have the chance to prevent them from even starting anything here in Lungmen's grounds." "Then, I'll think about it." The dragoness said. Then she stood up from her seat. "Hey, let's go, Hoshiguma." "Sure, there's a ton of work to do."

___

A/N Sorry for very late. I took an unannounced break, Also i would now start taking creative liberties and headcannons on Arknights lore and it's characters, but it won't be too ridiculous or too ooc or out of left field share your thoughts criticisms and recommendations in the comments as usual (Should i revert back on how i arranged dialogue or is this new one fine?)

Btw the chapter name this time is a reference to the pentagon videos