Operation: Dragonskin [Resurrected]

[Asuterisuku]

Operation Dragonskin (Reboot OoC and Registration)

---

The light above blinded Lieutenant Alexander Bridge as he stared at the sky, the smoking ruins of his vehicle around him. Though his body was in pieces around him, he felt no pain. He didn't need to. Nothing was more painful than the knowledge that he'd never see his son again, that his wife would have to raise him all on her own... "I'm sorry," he mouthed silently with his final breath...

... "He's waking up."

That can't be right, he said to himself as he tried to remember where he was, and what had happened... I was in a tank... and it exploded. His eyes snapped open, realization dawning and hitting him like a truck. I'm dead, aren't I? There was glass in front of him, through it a white walled room, with more glass windows on the far wall, showing a sunny sky outdoors. A small portion of his vision seemed to be obscured at the very bottom of his eye by a kind of... leathery mask. A woman in a lab coat stood just out of the corner of his eye. It was probably her who had spoken. Sandy tried to turn his head, but found that he was unable to; his neck simply wouldn't respond.

Was he paralyzed? That would explain why there had been no pain back on the battlefield... But if that were the case, then he shouldn't have been breathing. The woman spoke again, moving so that he could see her. She looked somehow small. "Stay calm, and don't try to move; I don't think your mind has fully adapted yet." What did she mean by that? She stepped out of his field of view for a moment. He heard the sound of buttons being pressed on the side of... whatever he was in. His body slumped forwards as the glass slid away. It was then that he got a glimpse of his... hands...

He tried to scream, but found that, again, he could not. His hands had been replaced with scaly, red, three-fingered claws. "You said he'd be fine to wake," another voice said from outside his field of view.

The woman, now joined by a man in hospital scrubs, tried to maneuver his limp body onto a stretcher than had been rolled in. "Yes, he's awake, but it's not my fault he has less muscle memory than a newborn, now is it?" She turned to him once he was lying on the stretcher - lying on his side, he noticed, rather than on his back. "Just try to relax for now. I understand this can be hard to swallow, but we'll try to explain everything in time."

That was the last he heard as he was carted from the room, and the door slid shut behind him.

[MULTIMEDIAMAN]

Ryan stood tall, showing courage in what he knew would be his last moments. He watched for a lapse in his opponent's judgment, and struck, seeing an opportunity. His blade tore into the creature's wing, spurting blood, then pain. Pain like none before, and a sudden feeling of weakness. As the dragon-like creature stepped back, Ryan noticed why he felt so weak. He had no heart.

Suddenly, Ryan's eyes opened and his lungs filled, his mind panicking. He looked around, seeing several of the monsters which had killed him, suspended in tubes. A research laboratory. Slowly, the Marine's mind calmed, though he was still curious as to how he was alive. Was he in a new body? Some kind of mechanical-human hybrid? Looking around once more, Ryan determined that, no, he was not in a mechanical body. He was in a body which would resemble those around him. The body of a Kora'ai.

He began to panic again, alerting the scientists in the room, who began mumbling and looking around, wondering if they should do something. The formerly deceased Marine tried to bang against the tube he was in, to scream and beg to know why this had been done to him, but nothing happened. His muscles refused to move, despite the fact that he was-wait, what was he doing? He was in a body he didn't, and couldn't, know as well as his own, and he was trying to free himself? Terror setting in, Ryan realized that he would have to hope these people had his best interest in mind. And so he waited, watching as several scientists took one of the bodies away from the room they were in. He was mortified, to say the least.

[Metronome]

Atrius awoke that morning, quite peacefully, in his own body. He would not have changed bodies of course. Why would he do such a thing? His own body suited him just fine. The giant reptile crawled out of his nest, warmed so comfortably to 82 degrees fehrenheit. He slunk off to his own personal bathroom to ready himself for the day. Unlike the repulsive mammals he now shared a planet with, Atrius did not start his day with a shower. Hell, he hardly ever ended it with one. He really only needed to after a particularly lively church rally.

Instead, his day began with paint. Red paint. This paint was made from the blood of those killed during battle, whether in church or on the field. They were the weak links among their society. Atrius painted on his mask with his red and black paint, then attempted to brush out his mane. He cursed his think, unruly hair. It never wanted to cooperate with him. Eventually, he just let to do it's own thing and went to get dressed. His robes signified his role in their church. He was a higher than an average priest, having the privilege of studying under the Grandfather himself. Most church members didn't even get to say a word to the massive High Priest, and those outside of it were lucky to ever even see him.

Atrius left his personal quarters to fill his stomach with some sort of protein, then head off to the chapel. His face remained as stone cold as ever as he passed those he knew and didn't know. Some nodded to him with respect, others got the fuck out of his way. He took his toasted meat pocket to go as he headed to start his day of worship. The chapel was a very large room, lacking furniture of any kind, save for that on the stage. The stage had a few strange instruments, some percussion and some woodwind, and of course, it had a pulpit. The whole room was dark, lit only by dim lights far up in the ceiling and candles, and smelled faintly of iron. It was familiar and homey to Atrius, as he had spent most of his life in such a place. On the wall behind the stage was a stone carving of Her Chaotic, her many arms spread and her large mouth of fangs open in a silent battle cry. It was such a beautiful depiction.

Atrius found himself staring up at it for a second, his face almost showing something of awe. He caught himself, however, and returned to his current task: lighting the candles all around the chapel.

[Bluemoon277]

Ace closed her eyes and thought of the open sky and wheat shining in the sun. She let out a sigh ending in a smile as a few tears left her eyes. "Ace we can still save you, don't give up Ace" She heard many pleas for her. She knew she was going to die, but that was okay. She flew on the wind even if it only seemed like a second she fly like a bird ,and had the best time of her life. Ace's plane hit hard on the island beach breaking Ace's neck ,and killing her instantly.


Ace's eyes fluttered open. Everything seemed fuzzy ,and she couldn't make out words or things in front of her. Ace felt like she was waking up from a long nap. Maybe she was ,but if she was waking from a dream why wasn't she in the barracks? Ace looked around her and noticed her skin was not it's usual color. It was the color of wheat in the sun and spotted with turquoise blue. 'My dream must not be over' She thought to herself. Her sight now recovered she looked around herself. There was a lab and Kora'ai were everywhere in something that represented glass boxes. Ace now was sure this could not be a dream. Her senses were to clear for it to be a dream.

Ace noticed other Kora'ai screaming or at least trying to. There eyes looked full of fear ,and parts of their body started to twitch as if they were trying to use them. Maybe it was Ace's generally level head before hand ,or maybe it was just luck ,but when ace started to truly grasp her situation all of her appendages worked fine. She lifted her arm and tapped at the glass pushing it slightly. She yelled "hello" but it came out as if she was a child and was just learning her words. " Where am I, what happened" She asked.

Seeing her reflection in the glass Ace let out a shriek. She looked over the image before her several times. 'How could this be me? why am I? who am I? Are those wings?' She asked herself looking shocked and perplexed.

[Shoryu]

It was a uniquely sickening sight, to watch anything, even an enemy that would rip your guts out as soon as look at you, being shredded by the turrets he was programming, it made him feel sick to his stomach, It even made him feel physical pain... Wait, that's not from what he was seeing, he couldn't move anymore and a vicious pain spiked in his spine before he suddenly couldn't feel or more 'anything' anymore. It came and went so quickly that he couldn't accurately Identify 'what' had hit him, whether a bullet, knife, or claw, there was one last thing he clung to as he faded out. He glimpsed a reflection in one of the suddenly blacked monitors of the screen, a face, or...something, it was ingrained in his memory, but he was gone before he could consider thinking about what was in it.


Nathan awoke suddenly with more of a start than the others, likely because of him being used ot being the helpless one who needs to run from danger, and tried to 'sit up' only to lightly klonk his head on a glass pane. He tried to react by moving his hand up to his fore-head, but it moved terribly slowly and ended up contacting the glass before he could actually bring it up far enough either way, but it felt different than he remembered glass feeling.

Now with the intial start out of the way he began to actually pay attention to his surroundings and fine that he was no longer within the dirty sweaty tent in the middle of a forest, but a wonderfully clean and even climate controlled laboratory. His eyes began scanning the area, though he tried more movement than that, he found his body somewhat numb and still 'waking' he surmised, and little other head movement was possible at the time. He realized that he could see 'outside', and the sunny sky, it was an oddly calming sight that he saw no smoke and heard no gunfire, he relaxed a little further and sooned managed to turn his head to glimpse the rest of the room.


Now this was a shock, he caught sight of Kora-ai and humans both, one was limp and being moved onto a stretcher, and another seemed to be barely squirming fearfully in a tank, while the third was reacting strangely calm to her predicament. The staff seemed mostly busy with the others and didn't seem to notice yet that he was awake, which was fine for him, he was patient and intended to gather as much information as he could. Given such time to observe as well he realized several things, the first, 'There are Kora'ai in tanks, there are humans helping them and nobody is trying to kill anyone, which must means....' He let himself look down then, noting the obstruction to his view, and the line of smooth plate like scales traveling the length of the tube he was in, and proceeded to supress an excited squeel. 'They must've taken advantage of that 'use me for science' option I signed up for.'

The Second was that everything seemed... small, and he noted the space within the other tanks that was taken up by the others, and noted then that his head could bump the top of his tank 'Bloody hell I must be huge... When I wished for a 'better body' I didn't image this vast of a difference, I wonder...' Slowly he willed his claw to rise again and press gently to the glass, then slowly push again it little by little, not wanting to break it but test it, and ended up smiling ever so slightly when he could hear the glass creak, then suddenly a shattering sound and bits of glass clattering in-front of the tank as he quickly with-drew his claw while the human's present spun around in surprise.


He provided a somewhat uneasy grin at the attention and squirmed slightly in the tank before speaking, though his voice was much deeper than he remembered, and it was somewhat strained and slowed as he tried to force clear words "Uh, sorry... I dont... wow, My voice... Hrm, I don't know...my own...strength... Can you...Let me out?......This tank is quite...Cramped and I'd...Like to stretch out...ya know...figure out how to....stand up and all that... just don't try to catch me...If I fall... I might hurt someone...by accident." They seemed reluctant to release the biggest one there, they weren't sure if he was just 'special' or perhaps if putting the smarter person into the larger body had made it easier for him to control it without needing to learn to speak and even twitch again, but either way he seemed to still be able to move at least.

A few moments later the tube splayed open, rising up and out of his view as he slumped down, sliding to 'sit' on the base of the container and let his body 'move' a bit and wake up prior to trying to stand. He breathed quite calmly as he looked over himself, moving something now and then, a claw, a foot, his tail... 'Interesting, I have a tail...' He tried not to look too excited by this situation though, staying conscious of the trauma that this could pose to the others, It would be terribly rude to act as if this was some sort of dream come true and make light of their terror. For the moment he stayed there, quietly testing things to get a feel for what he has the best grasp of moving already and trying to balance it out enough to functionally move.

[Ubermensch]

The American born Chan Long was the finest scout possible for the time. But her demise has ended when she engaged the enemy in CQB. She did not intend to, but she had to to hold the Drake off for her comrades in arms. She did not utter a sound when she died.

Some time later...

Chan Long awakened to see her hourglass figure has changed. She first examined her hands and lower body. She has become more lithe than she was before. She then asked, as soon as she was allowed to speak, "Mirror possible?" Her voice may become deeper or seething if Chan did try to speak.

The first things Chan Long noticed: Her hands and lower body were reptilian. There went her hourglass figure. Those two were aforementioned. She felt...dryer than before and her skin was from smooth to tough. Her mouth also felt funny. Her eyes may lack the ability to blink. She tried blinking, with her eyes feeling much more different than when she was human. She now realized that she was reborn.

Reborn to the dragons of ancient Chinese lore.

[Bluemoon277]

Wait a moment.What is a Kora'ai? The word was fresh on her mind. She knew the meaning, but she didn't know how she knew it. There were never creatures such as this when she was alive. If she thought for a moment she knew almost everything about them. Aliens not dragons,high density skin,long aerodynamic noses ,ect.. It seemed to her like she had dreamed them up. By this time Ace had gone back to her this is all a dream theory. It was truly an interesting dream ,but one she was not to found of. Ace felt like she was going crazy. First she had crashed ,and now she was an alien dragon in a laboratory. Have I caught a fever and these are all simply lucid illusions. No I am dead. I died........maybe the future...this technology looks much more advanced then when I died. Ace tried everything in her power to rationalize her situation. her brain hurt and her chest felt tight like her heart was beating to fast. When she thought she knew what happened from when she died to now. But how do I know, Was my whole life a dream, is this the real world...I don't understand... don't...I can't. There was a loud beeping noise going off somewhere beside Ace. Ace started to breath heavy and her thoughts became more and more panicked.

Who are these people? What is that beeping? Where is my body? Where is my crew? What world do I live in? Who am I? I can't......my chest....it hurts. "This one needs immediate medical attention" One of the many doctors yelled. The door to Ace's glass box started to open. "She's going into a state of shock. We need her to calm down" An older man informed the other doctor. A younger man lazily grabbed Ace's transcripts. "Her name is Ace Westbrooke, she died a while before the Kora'ais even came here. She shouldn't be so shocked though we loaded all the information into her second brain" The younger man informed the other two doctors who were now checking Ace's heart and breathing. "Are you insane man? No rational mind could cope with something like that. she's probably questioning her very existence as we speak you imbecile" The older doctor almost yelled at the younger. "Wh..Who..I...Existence....I can't" Ace tried to voice her thoughts ,and the nurse mildly understood. "Amanda, you need to calm down or your going to faint. Breath in slowly from your nose and exhale through your mouth" The nurse told Ace. She did as she was told and the tightness in her chest was gone after a minuet or so. "Ace,My name isn't Amanda...I mean it is,but people they call me Ace....at least I think it is..." Ace finally found her voice her brain starting to cope with her situation a bit better.

"It is, I apologize we needed a way to give you all the information you needed in a short amount of time. Everything you know about yourself is true. You did die in a plane crash. We brought you back as a Kora'ai. You are at a laboratory where we are going to take care of you. Do you understand?" The nurse spoke to Ace in a caring voice ,and made sure to pronunciate all of her words. "yes I...I think I understand" Ace told her still taking calming breaths.

[Shalashaska]

Major Cale was putting on a show for his mates, like always. He always smiled, chuckled, and laughed when he flew into battle; this time had been no different. He'd even cracked jokes before climbing in the cockpit, mentioning that they were finally going to blow the shit out of the elephant in the room. However, the instant his bombs had been dropped, Major Cale had sighed in relief and pulled a far sharper turn than he should have to head back home. His wingmen followed, keeping radio silence as ordered. Then, he heard it; the sound he had been warned about before leaving Langley for this mission. Thump. Thump. Thump. It wasn't the whine of another jet, nor was it the whoop of helicopter rotors; it was the steady beating of wings. Suddenly, his plane was wrenched to the right; as he glanced out his cockpit, he saw one of them attached to his wing. One of the Kora'ai. There was, suddenly, a very loud sound; for an instant afterwards, there was a very quiet silence. Aforementioned silence suddenly became very loud. Up was down, down was up, and his world was inside out, but the only thing he managed to make out before death took him was something satisfying; the corpse of a Kora'ai lying next to him.

Thomas Cale had always hated hospitals. Where he was now seemed even worse than a hospital; he saw white walls, clear windows, extreme sterility on every level. He himself was lying on a slimy metal surface- but was he, really? It suddenly occurred to him that it wasn't the surface that was slimy, but rather his back. He tried to sit up to clean his back, but found that he was strapped to the metal surface- it appeared to be an operating table, of sorts. More of a gurney, he supposed. He struggled slightly, tried to look down to see where he was tied, but realized that he couldn't even move his head.

Thomas cast his eyes down, and instantly regretted it. His body was long, far longer than it had any right to be, and pure white. These two factors weren't, necessarily, the worst parts. No, the worst part by far was that his skin seemed covered in scales. That was both strange and incorrect. He shut his eyes and tried to think through the situation. Where was I last? If I panic now, nothing will be solved. Stay calm, Tommy. Where were you? You were flying that mission, that first bombing run against the Kora'ai. Some idiot launched rockets, and now we had to bomb them, and you didn't want to but you had to because if you didn't you'd let everyone down all of them and- calm. Stay calm. What happened? You dropped the bombs, left the encampment in smoking ruins, and then one of them attacked. He dragged you to the ground and... I died. I died. Yes, Tommy, yes you did. Wait a moment. Who are you? Me? I'm you, Tommy. No, I'm me, you're someone else. All of a sudden, it became to much for him. Ex-Major Thomas Cale lunged forward, trying to rip his arms from the restraints through brute force alone.

Faintly, he heard: "Damn it, not again!" Followed by: "Shut up and hit the chemicals! He'll take it. Yes I know it's more than a human can take, does he look like a human?" Thomas vaguely got the sense that he had done this before, but he seemed to remember something different; the first time, there had been other... things, other people like him. And there hadn't been a table, there had been tubes... He couldn't keep a single thought for very long. Off came the right wrist restraint. Off came the left. He ripped off his right ankle restraint, amazed to see that he had black talons rather than fingers- and suddenly felt a cool rush of calming chemicals. It was only then that he noticed the small hole in the scales of his shoulder, the IV leading into his arm. He fell back onto the table, moaning in fear. Was it a moan? In his mind it was a moan. He heard a soothing voice just before his eyes shut for a long time- "It's going to be okay, Major. We're going to take care of you. You'll understand."

Darkness.

When he awoke, he was suspended in a tank, or a tube of some sort. Squinting, he looked around, and found that there were others like him- a few were even free to move about. But this couldn't be right- no, it couldn't be, they weren't like him- they couldn't be- they were Drakes. He wasn't... Was he? Sighing, he made a momentous decision. Rage hadn't helped. He decided to resign himself to his fate. Opening his eyes all the way, he decided to observe his surroundings. He was a Drake. The room was full of other Drakes. But he didn't feel like a Drake... Opening his mouth, he mumbled, "Erm. Oi. Out there? Hello? Can I, er... move about?" The words were garbled, but it seemed that he could get them out easily enough. After a few moments (of debate, he supposed) the tube slid into the ground, and he stumbled forward, barely managing to keep his balance. Rearing back, he realized that he had a new method of balancing- a bloody tail. Frowning- or rather, moving his face as much as he could in his new reptilian form- he tried to move his tail. It didn't work very well.

Glancing about, he saw that another Drake was free- an absolutely huge one. He mentally calculated his options; If I go over and say hello, what happens if it tries to kill me? What do I do if my captors dislike social interaction between... er... test subjects? What the hell am I doing here? Shaking his head, he stumbled over to his erstwhile companion and said, "'Lo. My name is... er, was, Thomas Cale. Major Thomas Cale of Her Majesty's Royal Air Force, at your service. And you are?"

[Bluemoon277]

Ace felt much more calm adter her little chat with the nurse. She sat up streching her arms out. This unfortunatley made the rest or her body want to stretch. Her flew out crashing into either sides of the wall. The younger male doctor had been right in front of her ,and he was pushed back against the left wall. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, sorry" Ace fumbled over her words quickly bringing the wings back in. The younger doctor rolled his eyes obviously annoyed with the entirety of everything going on in the room. Ace sighed under her breath. She pushed the thought of everything that was going on from her kind. It hurt to think about at the moment.

Ace stood up finding even standing a bit of a trouble. She took a few hesitant steps toward to other people like her. They seemed to be about to have a conversation. Ace did her best to look confident in her steps and movements. She was almost across the room to them. Her leg gave out on the next step unfortunately. She tried to catch herself with a few other quick steps. She ended up falling into another in the room. She was unaware of his name ,but he had white scales ,and previously gotten out of his tube.

"Sorry,sorry, walking is a bit new.....in this body" Ace quickly apologized and stepped back a step.

[Shalashaska]

Thomas turned, a bit miffed at being stumbled into, but quickly regained his composure. After all, it wasn't exactly a capital offence, and the other Drake had a point. At this point, he was desperate for a conversation, and he wanted to check on something. "Right, not a problem. Cheers, mate. Name's Thomas Cale, Major Thomas Cale of Her Majesty's Royal Air Force. Although you probably heard that. And you are?" He initially reached out to shake the Drake's hand, but recoiled when he remembered the talons. Frowning inwardly, he played back what he had said. Did he still have the accent? He couldn't quite tell, and his speech was still slightly rough, so perhaps it was too early to determine.

While Thomas waited for the Drake's response, he made a mental profile of the Drake's appearance. Wait, perhaps he should stop calling them Drakes. He had heard their scientific name once- Kora'ai, he believed, although his mental pronunciation may have been wrong. I am one of them, after all. May as well stop hating them. Now, Thomas, don't be such an idjit. You are not, by any means, one of them. You look like them, but you're a human. Shocked, Thomas nearly jumped. Was he going mad? Mentally snapping at himself, he focused. The Drake standing before him was gold, rather shiny, and dotted with turquoise speckles. He realized that he had never bothered to look at his own skin- er, scales- and made a note to do that later.