37 Files and Inspections

Major General Hughes sat in his office looking at the other three folders, having just put the one titled VALOR down. He had three more to go through and the other one he really knew the most about was PROJECT KINGMAKER, after all, that was his project and it will most likely see him promoted to General. It was his fondest wish to be promoted to General, he loved this country dearly. He remembered when he first joined the military thirty years ago, technically speaking he should have retired ten years ago, but he loved this job too damn much.

When he first learned of Thomas, command wanted to dissect him and figure out what makes him tick. Major General Highes along with General Eisenhower convinced President Roosevelt otherwise, that Thomas could be cured and of use. The plans they have lain were ambitious enough, but ASCENSION takes the goddamn cake. Joint project between Hughes division and the Black Ops eggheads over at the Office of Strategic Services, ASCENSION was meant to genetically boost the capability of a few handpicked soldiers.

Of course, the soldiers that were hand-picked all had the right genetic markers and technically they weren't supposed to be experimenting on humans, but if it made anyone feel better, it was all thoroughly examined from every angle and simulated.

The way it worked was very simple, or very complicated. The men with the right genetic markers would be picked to undergo a genetic therapy that would make them more than human. These genetic injectors would super charge their bodies, changing them from the genetic scale. One was designed to enhance the skeletal musculature, increasing and hardening their bone densities. Theoretically, it would take being crushed by car to crack a single bone.

Another of the genetic enhancers would increase muscle mass and flexibility, therefore the proposed effect would be an overall increase in muscular strength allowing the lifting of objects as heavy as a small car, theoretically that is.

There was a third enhancer that was supposed to enhance vision and reflexes, but they hadn't quite figured that one out. ASCENSION isn't any good without all three of the genetic enhancers, so they had to get him in on the project to make free use of his staff to help fit the pieces together. Major General Hughes wasn't all that concerned about it, it's pretty much a win-win scenario for him either way. As long as they could figure out how to get Thomas to control his own power, they would be able to make a man of two realities. A useful tool, but also unpredictable, there is no telling what kind of changes they will be accidentally cause just because Thomas couldn't control his powers yet. That's where all the problems lie, two theories gone down the drain and only a week left to solve it.

Hughes took a sip of his coffee, it was the same black sludge he always drank, no cream or sugar, he didn't like the sweet stuff much plus his life was just as bitter as his coffee. He sighed in appreciation for the good coffee, then he looked at his watch. Time to go. With that thought in mind he gathered up all the papers and stashed them in a secret locked compartment under his desk where no one would ever find them. He was after all, a simple man with dangerous secrets, that needed to be secretly kept.

He walked out of his office and locked the door behind himself, not that anyone was going to just waltz right in, he always had two guards standing duty at all times. Speaking of, he turned towards the two guards that were posted to either side of his office door.

"No one in or out, you know the drill."

"Sir! Yes, sir!" The two guards saluted him in unison before returning to their statue-like state of attention. They had expressions of stone etched on their faces, unfeeling, detached, emotionless stares of duty as they looked forward towards the wall. If you watched long enough their eyes would flit to the corners as they looked down both sides of the hallway while staring straight ahead. He crossed a few thresholds as he visited a few places to ensure the success of the current ongoing projects. He made a stop at the Experimentals Test Labs, they were currently working out the kinks to the VALOR suit, it was only partially assembled as they were testing gyros and gears, making sure they worked properly. One of the scientists even had the gauntlet on his hand and was flexing the fingers and stress testing it, of course it was also held up by the stand it sits on, after all, none of these scientists were even remotely capable of wielding the VALOR MK I, that's what ASCENSION was for. ASCENSION and VALOR are compliments of each other, you cannot have one without the other. The scientists looked up to see who entered the lab, when they saw it was the Major General they all stopped their work to pay attention to him.

"Carry on, carry on. Just here to see how it's all coming together." Hughes waved his hand casually, the scientists all resume their work. As Hughes left he took one last glance at their small workshop,it wasn't really all that large, just enough for the scientists and all their calibration machinery, in the corner he could see that Alan Tucker had given them a computer to work with, it was running simple calculations. He closed the door behind him as he left.

He walked down the corridor and turned left at an intersection, then he continued on to the Genetics Labs, they were much larger than theExperimentals Test Labs by quite a lot, if you didn't count the testing room itself. Here there were only three or four scientists working, not counting Doctors Elaine and Bernard when they were free or it was critical. Hughes had to put on some scrubs and sanitize himself before he was allowed to even enter the lab, it had to be a sterile environment of course.He checked on the scientists with their microscopes and other tools, which took up only a quarter of the fifty square foot room. Their were refrigerators and freezers for test samples and whatnot as well. He didn't understand much of the science mumbo jumbo that went on in here, but inspections were part of the job detail so, he had to listen to the lead scientist talk about nucleotides and cell recombinants as if he had a clue what they were talking about. Bottom line is they were no closer to solving the third genetic serum than they were last week. Hughes said his farewells and left the sterile lab that smelled like pure alcohol alone as he made his way to his final stop, the medical bay. He had to see how his star soldier was coming along after all. Everything was riding on Thomas. Thomas was the lynchpin of their success, if Thomas succeeds, Highes could definitely look at more than just a promotion, he was going to make history.

AUTHOR'S THOUGHTS:

Hey guys! I'm back! Miss me? Finally got this to work on my phone so I finished this chapter, expect one daily now that I write on my phone. May be more grammar mistakes, phone isn't grammar friendly hahaha! Thanks to all who kept supporting me, maybe I will do a mass release soon ;)

Oh yes, please go back and read chapter one, I finished editing the crap out of it.