He drowned in his own blood
Spamakat mìreypay sneyä poti
•—————•—————•—————•—————•

The Biolab's doors hissed open, stopping smoothly as the noise from within echoed out. It was strangely inviting. She took a deep breath and walked in. She walked past the consoles into the room with her avatar. A machine and a few people were taking the plastics shell off of the glass amnio tank.

"Hey, welcome to Pandora." A shorter man with curly dark hair and glasses greeted with a jovial smile, "I'm Dr. Max Patel." He offered his hand. Aria accepted the hand shake with a smile.

"Thanks, Aria Quaritch." She released his hand as he turned to the tank, reading the info-pad attached to it.

"Ah, right. This one's yours." He directed as two other guys entered the room. He went to greet them.

Aria inched closer to the glass, gazing in at her new body. She looked so... different and yet the same. Not only this, her avatar looked different from the lighter colored standard avatars. She looked over at the chart. Two unknown traits picked up from the sample used. A mutation?

She was missing fingers and toes. Four to be specific. So that left her with 16 digits in total. Her legs were strong and her hips wide. Her tail had a wide and thin growth, like an oar or a fin. Her markings were like tears falling up instead of down. She was dark and twinged with a color reminiscent of green, but it's hard to tell. The backs of her ears have tiger spots.

She was pulled away by one of the men rolling up to her tank.

"Damn, they fucked yours up." He chuckled. Aria glanced down at him. He looked like Tom. Norm soon joined them. He furrowed his brows and looked at her chart.

"Swimmer's build." He murmured, "some sort of desert gene... looks like you got an interesting one." Norm offered his hand for a handshake, "nice to meet you, Aria." Aria accepted the handshake with a smile. Not so alone anymore.

"You too. And you must be Jake, right? I got the memo about you joining us. We're lucky to have you." Aria offered a hand to him. He gave a small smile and a hand shake.

"I'm Lieutenant Aria Quaritch, what branch you from?" She asked.

The memo detailed a little bit about his background and his specialties. He was a Corporal, thirteen ranks below her, technically three if you aren't counting the subsections.

"Semper fi, you?"

"Semper fortis. Navy, more specifically the newer division." This gave Jake a smile, finally someone he had something in common with.

"SecOps?" He asked.

"Something like that. I'm retired now." She motioned to her dog tags, lined with a hard silicone meant to keep them from moving or making much sound.

"Obviously." He just stopped mid sentence and motioned to his legs, "same."

"Hopefully with the money we make here, you can get back into the field." She patted his shoulder before Norm led the way to the office section near the link room.

"Let's start with video logs, just summarize your life as quick as you can." Patel said from behind the group.

"Yeah."

•—————•—————•—————•—————•

"Well, I'm Asian American mixed with Hawaiian and White genes. It's a mess. Dad got custody and I went to the military as fast as I could haul ass." She replayed her earliest memories and into the military.

"Cold cold nights in Russia. I was lucky to have my team. They were a bunch of sergeants who were good with guns. I was discharged after one of my boys took a bullet for me. He drowned in his own blood. For a long time I thought that it should've been me, but that disgraced his sacrifice." Aria paused, the memory replayed in her head. She had a sniping position, Alyosha was pinned by her boy, codenamed: Specter. He was stern but gentle with her. He was technically second lieutenant. They both ran the group.

"Take the shot! Take the fuckin' shot!" He rasped and shouted into his com. He had his empty rifle pressed against Alyosha's throat. Holding the smaller man firmly against his armored body. The black winter gear was heavy and he couldn't hold him forever.

Her breath shuddered and shook. The power of this rifle would puncture cleanly through both of their bodies.

"I can't!" She hissed, "it'll kill you too."

"Take. The. Shot." He said sternly into the com.

She focused her breath, watching the two writhe, Alyosha was desperate to move, the man was shouting and screaming. Specter was grounded, staring directly down her sights. She found her target, and squeezed the trigger. The explosion near her head, the bullet launching itself, it shocked her. She blinked for a moment. Refocusing down the sights, both of them had disappeared from the window's frame.

She slid down the hill-side, the snow slowed her descent. She ripped the door open, mentally preparing for the sight she would witness.

Specter was on the ground, his helmet came undone and fell a little ways away. Alyosha was trying to crawl away, he was bleeding out on the ground.

"Soren!" She lurched forward towards him, dropping to her knees, pulling her gloves off and working the vest off. She pried his jacket away from the wound. It was a fiery burning hole through his chest and it had a large exit wound. His blood began pooling in his mouth as he coughed and choked.

"Don't say my- name... in the field." His Liverpool accent was twinging around the words, sounds familiar and yet foreign.

"Fuck it. You're bleeding and I need to get you out." She pulled out whatever first aid she had, stuffing either wound with gauze.

"Specter's down, we need evac." She lifted the mic to her mouth, on the frequency with their captain.

"Copy. Evac will be south east of your position. Five minutes."

"Soren, I need you to stay awake. We have five minutes, you can stay awake five minutes." She clasped his face, shaking him slightly, keeping him awake.

"Not your fault." He coughed up more blood.

"I told you to wait for me to take the shot, he wasn't going anywhere." Aria kept pressure on his chest.

"Love... you." He sputtered out.

"Now isn't the time, Soren." She sobbed. His gloved hand raised to stroke her cheek affectionately.

"Say it. Please." He sounded so faint and soft.

"I love you, Soren." She grabbed his hand and pressed it to his wound, "did you hear me?"

"I remember giving the news to his mom. She moved to Glasgow. Needless to say, I couldn't go back after that. I couldn't face my boys with a straight face." She whispered to the camera.

"I guess I just started doing other work from there. Anything to keep me going even though the money was good and the government kept shoveling money into my account to get me to keep quiet about my job. And I followed my dad here. I guess that's pretty much it." She scrunched her nose and clicked off the camera.

"Jesus, Aria." Norm was staring directly at her, "you need therapy, not a new job." He stated.

"I know, this is a new start for me though. Going in with fresh new eyes."