Kill The Dragons - Chapter 23

Sasha Grace opened a discussion with her researchers. The researchers peered to the new transfers.

They arrived in an empty room. The new transfers found a chair prepared for them and sat down.

“I’ve already introduced myself, but I’ll say it again. I’m Sasha Grace, and I’ll be taking care of everyone for the next five weeks. Just call me Professor Grace. This will be like the adjustment period before you were officially incorporated into first year. Before you’re officially transferred to year 2, I will make your physical bodies. After these five weeks, you will no longer have a child’s body. In five weeks, you will have the body of a 15-16 year old. In half a year, you will mature into a full adult. I’ll be here to take care of your physical and mental health.”

Grace’s voice had a calmness to it. Her voice was husky, but seemed to float about leisurely.  The expressions of the children were incredibly tense. They will be adults soon. The day had come and they couldn’t help but feel fear.

“Professor, I heard that some people die.”

Han spoke. Grace narrowed her eyes.

“My job isn’t to push your abilities to your death like the drill instructors have been doing all this time. As long as you’re alive, I will do my utmost to keep it that way. Rest comfortably while you’re here.”

Grace exited the room, leaving the youths to themselves in the empty room.

Great exhaustion was plainly visible below her eyes. The young youths would, again, be running towards death’s doorsteps. Grace had a hard time trying to cope with every new batch.

‘I’m the only one who can produce the most survivors.’

There was nobody more skilled than Grace from within the military medical department.

Only males were chosen to become psykers. Statistically, the gender ratio for psychic children was 5:1. There were far more males than females.

From time to time, genius psychics are found amongst young girls. However, only males were selected to become official psykers.

“Females are naturally more emotional and this causes a high case of emotional instability….”

This was the reason a line was drawn for the disqualifying female psykers.

In the beginning days of Ark’s institution, many females had been recruited. The females had mostly done better than the males during the first year.

However, a majority of females struggled during their second year, and suffered mental breakdowns of all sorts.

‘Females were not created to become machines of murder.’

Females had a hard time mentally coping with their new adult physical bodies. Combat stress tolerance, military tactical skills, psychic energy stability – they had proved to be unstable in all aspects.

They also menstruated, which affected their already unstable body with an attack of hormone imbalances. If they were forced to stop menstruating through surgery or drugs, there was a high risk of depression and sense of shame which could ultimately cripple them forever.

They didn’t have the luxury to spend an extended amount of time training the female soldiers and there were an endless amount of problems relating to mental health. The number of female psykers who had been able to endure through until the end were few in number.

“In the end, cost efficiency was the ultimate deciding factor.”

Grace mumbled.

One female psyker equated to about three male psykers, in monetary costs.

Excluding the few females psykers that Ark had produced in the beginning stages of Ark, every psyker produced by Ark had been male.

“The brat who asked me the question from before, ah, his name is Han Lee. It’s been a while since I saw a Korean.”

Grace quickly read over the new transfers’ profiles one by one. She frowned upon Kuro’s profile.

“Are you trying to joke around with me? Incredibly mentally weak? How did everyone agree to transfer him into second year? Aren’t they asking him to just die? Those damn b*****s.”

Grace’s mumbling gradually grew louder. After a cup of coffee, she continued to read through the profile.

“Han is Kuro’s mental support. That’s why he was allowed to move up.” Wuxiaworld for visiting.

Grace pulled out Han’s profile once again. She read through to the last few footnotes.

“Two instructors have recommended him as well? Red and Wei Chen. Wei’s naturally soft hearted, so I understand. That [Sergeant First class] Red had really put up a letter of recommendation as well?”

Sergeant Red is in reality just an instructor, but everyone refers to him as a sergeant.

During the first wave of aggression, he was one of the legendary psykers who had great contributions. He’s officially a military man, and the title of Sergeant (SFC) is only a respectful title. Grace was knowledgeable in this area.

‘How rare, a youth recommended by both Wei Chen and Red. They tend to be inclined towards the opposite types of people. It’s very hard for anyone to earn both their recommendations at the same time.’

Grace put Han Lee’s name well into her mind. She threw off her lab gown and entered the shower room, preparing to sleep early for tomorrow’s task.

On the day of surgery, the transferees received precautions from Professor Grace.

They would spend two weeks inside a human incubator. They would pass most of their days sleeping, and when they awoke they would find themselves in excruciating pain.

The pain would be controlled through pain killers as necessary, however the level of pain experienced by individuals varied greatly.

“In extreme cases, you would find yourself awake for half the day. In such cases, most cannot handle the pain and die. Once you come out of the incubators, we will have three weeks of rehabilitation training to fine tune necessary details. Most are unable to recollect memories of the first two weeks, and comment that they felt like they had woken up after a long rest. Don’t worry too much.”

Grace continued to repeat most of the information she had lectured, over and over. The smell of hospital sanitizer wafted. Han and the other youths slowly climbed into the incubators. Oxygen masks attached to their mouths, and their bodies submerged completely in water. Blinding dread filled all the youths’ minds.

“Ugh.”

Dimitri, who has great pain tolerance, also gritted his teeth in pain.

“Kids, I’ll see you guys after two weeks.”

Grace said while closing off the incubator room. The students could not hear her voice. A sleep inducing agent immediately dispersed into the incubators. The students’ eyes closed before they could realize anything, and fell asleep.

“The monitoring will be done in three shifts like usual. Press the emergency button once complications are discovered.”

Grace said to the researchers. The operation apparatus attached to the incubators began to move. A needle injector the size of a pinky all shot into the youth’s bodies.

“Ugh”

Grace frowned.

No matter how many times she witnessed this scene, her disgust did not change. This was a cold-blooded surgical procedure performed on children. They would be forced into maturity by artificially increasing their bone and muscle density.

‘Is humanity worth saving when we must go this far?’

Grace had started smoking again after joining Ark; she also began drinking. It was hard to cope without them.

She let out a heavy sigh in the break room. The cigarette smoke spread thickly into the air.