literature

Project 96

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Literature Text

Crumbling detritus littered the area around the slums. Decay and rust were the common flora and fauna; shades of brown and green decorated the landscape, as if painted by an artist that never knew the proper hues associated with life. Such was existence outside the dome.

Steadying a shaking hand, Vincent Law clutched the document in his fist carefully. His clan was relying on him. There could be no true victory in avenging what Romdeau had perpetrated on them, but sometimes revenge was just as sweet. The pale vixen, prized daughter and symbol of depravity, would know the justice that was denied the people exiled from the dome. 

Vincent shivered. His tattered cloak offered scant protection against the harsh climate of the barren and wasted surface. Further compounding this was his latent weakness, a side-effect from the barbaric human experiments conducted on his people. Vincent wasn’t quite sure whether he was totally human anymore; there was a beast inside him now, a terrible monster without compunction or mercy. He had learned to control it to a degree… Others were not so lucky. Most had died undergoing the treatment. Like his family.

“Remember, Vincent Law,” the old crone nattered on, “remember! Project 96 has destroyed us. There is no reversing the wheel of fate. Find her. The one they prize most. You must take that which is dearest from them, as they have done to us! Only then will we truly know peace.” She starting hacking, stumbling over to the fire-pit. Vincent made no effort to help; the old woman was terribly bossy and incalculably bitter. Though I suppose I am no better, at this point, he mused.

He started toward the ridge approaching the dome’s entry level. It was highly guarded and very dangerous to approach the last refuge for humanity; any human approaching on foot would be annihilated by the attack drones or vaporized by the seeking beams. Weak though he was in human form, Vincent knew he would have no difficulty infiltrating Romdeau. 

“Remember!” the crone reiterated, spittle flying from her toothless mouth, “Find the white bitch, and kill her! Make them know the same loss as us.”

Vincent did his best to ignore her prattling. His body finally steady, he flipped his counterfeit immigration passport over to examine it more closely. The workmanship was not superlative, but ultimately he deemed it sufficient to fool the idiots in the Immigration office. Good thing they’ll never recognize me after the treatment… my face looks like it belongs to someone else entirely! Dear sister, mother, brother… I will avenge you all.

He shuffled through his holo-AI, pulling up a projection of his target.
Re-L Mayer. Age 19. Intelligence Bureau Inspector. Grand-daughter of the Lord Regent of Romdeau, Donov Mayer. She had a pale complexion and appeared in nearly uniform black, from her outfit to her sable hair. Completing her profile was some liberally applied blue make up around her eyes. All said, Vincent found her quite beautiful. Beautiful enough that he knew he had to harden himself to the task, or he’d find it difficult to kill her.

His soft boots kicked the dusty path leading from the village of the forgotten to the city of the damned. Vincent knew he should feel something at this moment, but his mind was scraped bare and left without the faintest hint of emotion; the beast within him contained all his passion… all his fury, love and hate.
A beast to slay the grand-daughter of a beast. 

Vincent passed over the ridge, never looking back.

This little story is based on the characters and setting in Manglobe's 2006 anime series, Ergo Proxy. I created this to serve as a complement to an AMV for a competition I was taking part in, but I dropped out due to lack of time. The AMV never saw fruition, so this piece is a rather unfortunate orphan.

The song I'd selected for the video was "Never Say Die" by Sleigh Bells, from their 2012 album "Reign of Terror." I'd recommend listening to it while reading this!
© 2014 - 2024 irriadin
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bluewhyt's avatar
So glad i randomly stumbled upon this
i found it very entertaining
usually i dislike reading sci fi stuff but the writing style is so captivating i just couldn't resist