The Project

1975 - The Vietnam War has ended with a withdrawal of US forces from the region. Many soldiers returning to the States suffer from all matter of injuries and afflictions, from mental of the physical. The Salus Corporation has risen to prominence as the best company for both veterans and civilians to better their lives by improving their health with the best treatment around. However, all is not as it seems...

Unbeknownst to the public, the Salus Corporation had a different idea of "helping" people. On the surface, they treated only certain individuals to make it seem they were doinf what they said. But for those unlucky people, something much more sinister awaits - the Salus Corporation's true intentions for those they believe they can make better or "true". Their services were free and available for anyone and everyone and although some were skeptical, many signed up as almost no one could deny free healthcare...

Leaflets, posters, radio advertisements, TV advertisements, bill boards - any and all forms of advertising were used to try and get people to go. While walking, you come across yet another one of these adverts as a scrunched up leaflet. Curious, you decide to read the leaflet to see what intrigues most...

Are you suffering from any phsycial or mental disabilities? Are you tired of how you're living your life? Wish you could do something about it?

Well, now you can! 

At the Salus Corporation, we make the well-being of you - the individual - our utmost top priority! We won't rest until whatever is afflicting you is gone and you can be the person you want to be! 

We welcome all through our doors, regardless of your gender, race or social class! At the Salus Corporation, humanity is our expertise!

Sign up today for your chance to unburdden yourself of all your problems! 

Interested at the promise of free healthcare, you head on over to the nearest Salus Corporation office. You are shown in to a waiting room where a few people remain and are sent into an office room, the only one in the building, where you sign a document with all the relevant information. Upon finishing signing, two men grab and sedate you, throwing your unconscious body into what is presumed to be a truck or van, surrounded by the bodies of others, before you pass out...

The next thing you know, you wake up, tied to a medical surgery table, being pushed to a room. Blood curdling screams can be heard from the room ahead - the exact room you are being pushed to. The closer you get the the double doors, the more the screams can be heard. Dreading the moment, you are eventually pushed into the room, the reason for the screams more evident. A surgeon of some sort was operating on an imdivodual, on his forearm, trying to carefully remove an object before finally ripping it straight off, the screams turning to silence. Another doctor approaches, holdinf a cliboard, gesturing to you, their masks obscuring their faces. "Yet another new one for the pile..."  the doctir says, letting our a sigh. "Well, you seem like you'll fit in well with the others." Although you couodn't see it, you could tell there was a sinister smile under his face. "Niw, I need either a nod or a shake of your head to confirm that you have agreed to this..." Strangely, you feel your head unable to move. "I'll take the lack of movement as a yes..." As the doctor finishes speaking, the other starts surgically cutting into the skin of your right forearm. "Don't worry, the pain soon passes..."

You are not invincible. You can only run and hide. You cannot fight but. You can block paths, throw objects or distract your enemies but you cannot fight back - you are powerless, they are powerful. Your survival depends on your choices. Your survival depends on the choices of others. Stay alone or go as a group. The choice is yours - but heed these words: the Project will break you. It eill reforge you. You may not be the same person you were at the start...

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Personality:

Skills:

Appearance:

Name: Wayne Tucker

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Personality: Curious, perceptive and caring

Skills: Quiet and cautious

Appearance: Brown hair shaved lightly both sides and at the back, combed backwarda at the top, blue eyes, average height, wearing light grey t-shirt and pants with the Salus logo on the back and right leg

Wayne suddenly woke up, sitting up immediately, looking around, scared and confused. He was in a room that was spacious, including a toilet, sink, desk, small bookshelf and a bunkbed - his being empty, but for how long? Turning his gaze to himself, he inspected his right forearm - where the surgeon started his so-called 'procedure'. Some sort of device or machine was surgically and painfully implanted into his skin. Upon further inspection in the mirror above the sink, he noticed that a few other changes had been made, not know what they all were. Scratching at them was useless - they were in there for good and there was no way of removing them... 

Stepping out of the room, Wayne entered and atrium with a few more rooms similar to his. All filled with people who were as unlucky as he was. His forst thought was to look around and meet others as it was better to know those who he'd be stuck with now than later. In the centre, lay tables where people could eat and socialise with the canteen not being far. On the floor were markers of where everything was: an infirmary, a technician (for whatever reason), a cook and a security desk behind thick glass. Deciding it would be best to get his bearings woth others, Ter walked to the centre of the atrium and sat at a table, looking around for anyone to talk to...

Name: Kate Walker

Age: 21

Gender: Trans Fem

Personality: Hesitant, Loving, Cautious

Appearance: Kate usually wears an LED mask, (somewhat similar to wrench’s from watchdogs) Her facial features are usually hidden, but the main thing to tell her apart without the mask is a long scar on the left side of her face and her short pink hair. Usually her attire consists of company issued black combat pants, Light grey sneakers and a dark grey loose fit shirt.

—

The fact they kept the ‘patients’ awake during the whole thing was a disturbing sign. Not even any anaesthetics. Just straight to the point. Was that it? Were they trying to prove something? If so, what. And to who?

At least they left her mask on the nightstand next to the bed, along with a glass of water

”Mmnh”

Kate grunted, sitting up and looking around the room. It looked like something out of the assassins creed movie. Dim LED lights shining from the corners of the bottom of the room. White bedding and black furniture. It looked too... dystopian

Kate took her mask, putting it on before going over to one of the walls. A chunk of the wall was just a mirror. Clearly they had people observing from the other side as if she were some kind of hamster

She Tested something. Taking the water and pouring a little bit of it by the mirror, before leaving the room.

”what in the goddamn…”

She muttered to herself. Not sure of what this place even was. It was spacious. Interior felt looking almost like some sort of ark building. 

Name: Ash Cruz

Age: 23

Gender: Enby AFAB (she/they)

Personality: Quiet, steadfast, loyal

Skills: MMA, car and motorcycle mechanic, Motorcycle Club Enforcer

Appearance: Here

----------

The bullets didn't kill them. But, that look on Faye's face might as well have. Her hazel eyes wet with tears as she screamed. Her lips twisted in horror. The paramedics that arrived at the aftermath of the drive-by never told Faye what hospital Ash was sent to, never said what the bill was going to be, and pushed her away when she tried to get into the ambulance. Faye knew something was wrong, horribly, horribly wrong. Ash could see it in Faye's eyes, the recognition, the fear... And then the righteous fury.

Ash wakes with a start in the minimalist whitewashed cell. The bedsheets are textureless. The air, devoid of warmth. They place their hands over where their wounds should be, panic clenching their throat. She finds nothing, and the panic turns to practical concern. Slowly, as consciousness waxes, they take stock of their surroundings. This is no hospital bed. This is no hospital room. The mirror stares back at Ash, stalwart in its perfectly spotless finish. Their MC cut is still on their shoulders, but smells of antiseptic instead of leather. Their jeans are cleaner than they've ever been. Their boots, polished to a mirror shine.

"Oh, f**k this shit," Ash mumbles to themself as their breath quickens with anxiety, and they begin to do survival calculous. This is all too f**king weird. Then, she remembers Faye's face in those final moments. "Faye," Ash breathes, as if to declare to whatever put them here that there is but one goal on Ash's mind.

Ash steps out into the atrium, under the vaulted ceilings and blinding white artificial light.

Name: Jack Davis

Age: 19

Gender: Fluid AMAB 

Personality: unstable, paranoid, harrowed, and haunted

Skills: Running and hiding

Appearance: Buzzcut hair with scars all over his very thinly framed body. Hazel dead eyes that are bloodshot from hardly ever blinking sink into a boney skull. The look of worry and panic permanently burned into this face too tired to feel any of these emotions anymore. The only thing to cover his modesty are the clothes he was put in before he woke up on that slab

Throbbing. His brain feels swollen against his cranium. The blinding florescent light dilating tired pupils as he lay there in his bed. Scratching an itch on his arm gives way to the realization of the device which he then begins to pick at. The haze of what little rest he was able to gather drums up old painful memories. He buries his head in his hands to try to forget his past, but it does nothing to soothe the mental scarring of a life filled with ghosts. 

He eventually finds the will to sit up in bed with his back against the wall in the fetal position hugging his legs. Echos in his mind assail him to no end as he knocks his head against the concrete wall behind him as he searches for something he feels he has lost, but he is unable to remember exactly what it was. It's as if his entire sense of self was thrown out and replaced with shouting and anguish, and whoever was here before was lost forever. He sifts through old memories, reliving the horrors, searching for a part of him he will likely never feel again. 

The time he's spent here in this moment is brief, but before long he is inclined to move. Rising to his feet softly, he makes his way out to the tables outside his room. He holds himself as he shuffles silently to an empty table while maintaining eye contact with the floor below him. His left hand finding itself picking back at the fresh wound on his right forearm.

Wayne looked around the room, notiicng there were a lot of people, all unfortunate to be in the same situation. At one of the tables, someone was sitting and picking at the thing on his arm, trying to take it out. At the doorways to one of the rooms, someone else was being blinded by the rather bright atrium lights. And another doorway, someone else gatgering their bearings, taking in their surroundings. There was a speaker, playing the same song over and over again, a low tune meant to calm people. Where there wasn't bedrooms or other important facilities, there was thick glass where scientists and security stood, observing and watching, either taking down notes or ensuring there were no troublemakers. One thing that was consistent on their uniforms however, was the Salus Corporation logo, indicating that Salus were the ones who kidnapped and operated on the people present. For the logo, the letter S was there in the form of 90° angles and straight lines, divided by a line horizontal across the middle, the letter C resting on top - a distingushing feature of the corporation. Who knows what other sick and twisted projects they've been working on alongside this one...

"I see we have a new batch of Reawakened. I do hope this one is more competent than the others." Spoke a mysterious man, leaning on a cane, observing the atrium. "They're getting familiar with their surroundings and then we can split them up, sending to complete their first Evaluation. We're expecting to see a high amount of them..." Before the doctor can finish, the man interupts him. "Yes, I know. The problem is they let their fear control them too much. They let their fear become a core component for their decisions. They hold onto their past, their present. They look to them for comfort or courage. That overrides their fear. However, this belief in the fact that someone is waiting for them or looking for them is what gets them killed. They become too confident in themselves and make easy and avoidable mistakes. Either that or simply the Fallen are too good at what they do." After a moment of silence, the doctor speaks up. "Sir, if I may... the Fallen. They're too sick and twisted for us to help. We can't do anything for them. Why are they still around?" The man responds, clenching his free fist in anger. "You of all people should know doctor. They are a learning error. A mistake. A chance to improve. It is a way for not only us to grow on what knowledge we have but also for the Reawakened to have a challenge on their way to the Salvation of Renewal. Without a challenge, the Evaluations are simple too easy, thus making them pointless. Bring me the file of Henry Darcy. He will make a rather interesting first subject for the Reawakened..." The conversation ends with the doctor walking away, leaving the man to watch the guinea pigs in the atrium...