Headcanon thing
Excerpt from Black Hole: Memories of the Hidden History
Lash
Now despite my past crimes and history, I am not one to pass out the word "Monster" like it is going out of fashion.
Lash, however, was a monster in every sense of the word.
A prime example of what became a staple in control by birth, she was created in vitro just a two years into the fully established Black Hole Regime. After being given access to her birth files for my research, they say that she had a fraternal twin which was aborted three months in term due to genetic defects. Her father disappeared shortly after her birth, and her mother is presumed missing after the second great war.
It is doubtful that she had much contact with family, as records show she was forcefully removed from her mother when she was five, who had, and I quote from the report, grown too attached to her own child. Her mother was forced to continue working in the minor armed weaponry department until her disappearance, but I have no doubt she heard of the exploits, both small and great of her own child. Wither she was proud, disgusted or sad is open to debate - she wrote two coded messages to her, but it is doubtful Lash ever got to read them.
The child was another story completely. After what was henceforth known as the "Cannon Incident" when she built a small, child-sized compact tank using only the materials she stole from following her mother to work and the plans lying around the building, she was moved to the science department at the age of five. Following a battery of tests, she, along with four other in vitro children displaying great skill, were selected for Project Chimera: Phase 2, where they were shown around battlefields and situations of extreme pressure, forced to complete tasks which where impossible to finish in the hopes of breaking their minds and be able to control them better.
Only Lash managed to complete all five of them without error. Not only that, but she was said to to move remarkably fast in tight spaces, which was written down in the project's notes. Sadly, the other four children are never mentioned again and I assume they were either killed later for failing or simply put in the normal soldier program. It was the Black Hole way. Still, the girl's news spread to the highest ranks of Black Hole itself, as such a success rate had never happened before. The final document of the project had the approval stamp of Sturm himself. She was given the nickname "Wunderkind" which stuck to her throughout her years of service.
With the highest approval, her rise in Black Hole's ranks was cemented. She was taken under the watchful eye of the science department's head, a man named Seth. Even his name brings back bad memories. If Black Hole was a nation without remorse, it completely paled in comparison to what this man did and could do. I only wish he was alive today to face the world for his crimes. I dread to imagine what cruelty he would have unleashed in the battlefield if he had been a Commanding Officer. It does not matter, however, as one merely has to look at Lash to see how it could have been.
He raised her like his own daughter, or in Black Hole Terms, she was his apprentice. It was an amazing thing to behold, I was told. Here, one of the cruelest men, treating this tiny child with remarkable familiarity. I can only imagine how her mother must have felt. I remember an incident where the both of them were walking in the computer labs, and Seth was explaining to Lash how the human brain worked. The tests on human cloning had begun at this point. I believe she was around eight. When Lash remarked she had never seen or studied a human brain by itself before, he calmly looked around at all of us before selecting a target that was not working properly, and shot him in the back of the neck. As two soldiers took the body away, he gave her a pat on the head and told him that they would do that tonight, before warning all of us to be more productive or face the same fate. Lash didn't cry, but I saw it in her eyes that even she had been deranged. It quickly disappeared as she nodded back to him. I believe it was said she never cried once in her life, and I am inclined to agree. They did a remarkable job of getting her to shut off some of the deemed "unnecessary" emotions. This was the first and only time I met her in person, as she, thankfully, never stepped into my department again. I can only assume what sort of cruelties he showed and taught her. What I do know is that she was used as an example for misbehavior or lack of quality work. Those that do not obey the Great Sturm's orders would become science experiments for Seth and Lash, they told us.
There were those who were jealous of her and her quick rise to power. As strange as this might seem, the fact she was not only a child, but a female child irritated a lot of the older admirals. They had been part of the old regime, the one before Sturm, and while they obeyed, some did not agree with all his decisions, especially those that involved her. When she was approved as the new head weapons department builder at the age of twelve, they were furious. There were even a few scuffles and two assassination attempts. What is more remarkable is Lash herself undid one of them, proving her loyalty to Black Hole. It helped that she was remarkable talented - some even wondered if she was human with the amount of knowledge and skills she possed. A lot of our upgraded weapons of war and machinery came straight from her mind. It did not help that thanks to Seth's help, she was also an expert in human biology.
Her lack of morals was frightening. Woe to those who were near here when she uttered the words "I'm bored." It did not help that Seth was encouraging of this behavior, not to mention she was raised in the new regime, which demanded to remove oneself from emotions as much as possible, except if you used them to trick your enemies. She was an expert at this, calling others childish names, and then attacking when their guards were down. Her laughter was frightening. When Seth was killed during the first war, Lash preformed double-duty, being head of both the science and war departments. This only lasted two months, until they realized she had strange skills, the ones she had first manifested at the age of five.
Preforming another test at age thirteen, it was realized that units of tanks under her command preformed remarkably well in mountains and forests and somehow had both defense and attack performances increased. The news was brought to Sturm himself, who selected her as one of his new Commanding Officers, stunning everyone. The next year was spent in preparation for a new attack, as Black Hole decided to strike in all four other nearby counties as once. Lash was commissioned to build new units and one only has to remember, with much dread, the five hundred foot tall Death Ray that Sturm made her built to know how efficient she could be. It did not help that anyone working for her was treated like playthings, overworked and mostly ignored by their Commanding Officer.
Even with all of this, the missions failed in the end, as we all know. Reports from Nell of Orange Star claim that Sturm was killed by Commanding Officer Hawke who had been waiting for the opportunity to overthrow him. Amazing then, that the act saved all of the Officers and Soldiers nearby. He left with what little of Black Hole remained, promising to return. Low on resources after such a terrible war, the other nations retreated as well.
All was quiet, and then a new war arose not even a year later, surprising everyone. A quick alliance was formed, as resources had barely begun to be stocked up again. Yet we of Black Hole had found ourselves with amazing new weapons, renewed at an amazing speed. To our surprise, we were told Hawke was not our leader, but Von Bolt was. As proof, even Hawke followed him. We had no choice. Those that argued were shot down. Two of Sturm's old commanding officers disappeared; Flak and Adder. Rumors currently abound that Adder changed his name and became a fashion designer, but that sounds so ridiculously far-fetched. I cannot even begin to fathom why people would think such a thing.
Lash remained, but it was easy to see she was disappointed by what had happened. The only reason she was kept alive was because of her skills. She continued to create weapons of war for the new Black Hole, up until both her and Hawke betrayed Von Bolt (or so we were told...I later found out by notes of Lash herself when talking with Hachi that Hawke had found out more about Von Bolt than he should have known and he had grabbed Lash to save herself from Ozzium). Moral shot down, especially when we learned that Lash and Hawke had joined up with Orange Star, which seemed unthinkable. Von Bolt was doomed then, I like to think. Hawke and Lash both possessed key codes and information about too many Black Hole secrets. The Bolt guard could only do so much, and the war was won. It came at the price of Hawke's death, turning the man from a war enemy to almost a hero.
Black Hole was disbanded, her people scattered, some tried for war crimes, others trying to flee capture and leaving the country. Others, like myself, were brought in for questioning and given the offer of either betraying the country we had sworn our very lives to protect - or get a single chance at freedom and tell them all we could. The answer was easy for me - I followed who I followed not because I obeyed, but by fright.
And Lash? She was kept in Orange Star. For her own safety, she was put on house arrest in the central barracks of Orange Star. There are numerous stories of attacks on her life, and those that petitioned for her to have a public execution for her war crimes. Her mind, however, was a precious commodity. A deal was stuck that if they could manage to deprogram her from Black Hole teachings, she could become an aid to Orange Star.
The records I hold tell me that it was not an easy task. She was extremely smart, but had the manners of, as the notes explain, a wild cat. Lash was not above to snarling and trying to punch and kick her way out - and it did not help that she had received extensive fighting training in Black Hole. One can only begin to imagine the genius that was both Hachi and Nell, as they showed her with human affection and praise and eventually got her to calm down enough that the guards did not fear for their lives near her. Many accuse of Hachi making the mission to deprogram her personal, as he had lost one of his nephews to the war, as rumors claimed, from Lash's actions. I think he was simply a man who knew all to much about the horrors of war, and what she might have lived through.
In either case, their bets paid off, and Lash eventually became almost normal, if not for her tenancies to enjoy explosions and her strange ways of nicknaming everyone. Orange Star came to trust her enough to let her work in the lower level labs - she was responsible for the Tank in a Can product (Don't even begin to ask me how it works - microbiological is a field I hope to never touch again). Eventually she was shipped off to a fighting school along with other members of Orange Star. A place where she could forge true relationships with people her age and learn to be human, they explained. Final Destination is considered neutral ground, so it was acceptable.
Then came the Aparoid War last year, and Lash's actions surprised everyone, even at Orange Star, or so I was told. Her mind was used not only to protect those around her, but thanks to the efforts of all the Commanding Officers present, they saved the world from what could have been an alien invasion. Orange Star seized this opportunity to show off how much she had changed. Lash was truly an Orange Star Commanding Officer in every sense of the word...
But there was a problem when it was learned that Hawke was still alive. The rumors spread quickly. Then Flak showed up, and all hell broke loose. Riots exploded around the nations as old Black Hole members promised alliance to their old leaders. They had to be calmed down, or thrown in jail.
Yet it has been a year from then and still...nothing. The poetic person in me likes to think that even they wanted to settle down. Even soldiers get tired of war, and besides, all of Black Hole's resources are gone. Lash's budget is kept on a tight leash, and Hawke does not earn enough money for him to be able to raise an army. They are stuck at the school, being common mortals. Wither this is heaven or hell for them remains to be seen.
There is one thing I do know, however. While it is all good, I fear that Lash may return to her old ways, if given the chance. She is someone who had certain morals..or rather, a lack of them drilled into her skull for nearly sixteen years of her life. The last two have been quiet so far, but what is to say of the future? A human mind is a feeble thing, especially when emotions must be still so new and fragile to her.
I can only hope they keep constant watch. Like the weapons she enjoyed so much, she is a bomb ready to go off at the wrong movement.
Lash
Now despite my past crimes and history, I am not one to pass out the word "Monster" like it is going out of fashion.
Lash, however, was a monster in every sense of the word.
A prime example of what became a staple in control by birth, she was created in vitro just a two years into the fully established Black Hole Regime. After being given access to her birth files for my research, they say that she had a fraternal twin which was aborted three months in term due to genetic defects. Her father disappeared shortly after her birth, and her mother is presumed missing after the second great war.
It is doubtful that she had much contact with family, as records show she was forcefully removed from her mother when she was five, who had, and I quote from the report, grown too attached to her own child. Her mother was forced to continue working in the minor armed weaponry department until her disappearance, but I have no doubt she heard of the exploits, both small and great of her own child. Wither she was proud, disgusted or sad is open to debate - she wrote two coded messages to her, but it is doubtful Lash ever got to read them.
The child was another story completely. After what was henceforth known as the "Cannon Incident" when she built a small, child-sized compact tank using only the materials she stole from following her mother to work and the plans lying around the building, she was moved to the science department at the age of five. Following a battery of tests, she, along with four other in vitro children displaying great skill, were selected for Project Chimera: Phase 2, where they were shown around battlefields and situations of extreme pressure, forced to complete tasks which where impossible to finish in the hopes of breaking their minds and be able to control them better.
Only Lash managed to complete all five of them without error. Not only that, but she was said to to move remarkably fast in tight spaces, which was written down in the project's notes. Sadly, the other four children are never mentioned again and I assume they were either killed later for failing or simply put in the normal soldier program. It was the Black Hole way. Still, the girl's news spread to the highest ranks of Black Hole itself, as such a success rate had never happened before. The final document of the project had the approval stamp of Sturm himself. She was given the nickname "Wunderkind" which stuck to her throughout her years of service.
With the highest approval, her rise in Black Hole's ranks was cemented. She was taken under the watchful eye of the science department's head, a man named Seth. Even his name brings back bad memories. If Black Hole was a nation without remorse, it completely paled in comparison to what this man did and could do. I only wish he was alive today to face the world for his crimes. I dread to imagine what cruelty he would have unleashed in the battlefield if he had been a Commanding Officer. It does not matter, however, as one merely has to look at Lash to see how it could have been.
He raised her like his own daughter, or in Black Hole Terms, she was his apprentice. It was an amazing thing to behold, I was told. Here, one of the cruelest men, treating this tiny child with remarkable familiarity. I can only imagine how her mother must have felt. I remember an incident where the both of them were walking in the computer labs, and Seth was explaining to Lash how the human brain worked. The tests on human cloning had begun at this point. I believe she was around eight. When Lash remarked she had never seen or studied a human brain by itself before, he calmly looked around at all of us before selecting a target that was not working properly, and shot him in the back of the neck. As two soldiers took the body away, he gave her a pat on the head and told him that they would do that tonight, before warning all of us to be more productive or face the same fate. Lash didn't cry, but I saw it in her eyes that even she had been deranged. It quickly disappeared as she nodded back to him. I believe it was said she never cried once in her life, and I am inclined to agree. They did a remarkable job of getting her to shut off some of the deemed "unnecessary" emotions. This was the first and only time I met her in person, as she, thankfully, never stepped into my department again. I can only assume what sort of cruelties he showed and taught her. What I do know is that she was used as an example for misbehavior or lack of quality work. Those that do not obey the Great Sturm's orders would become science experiments for Seth and Lash, they told us.
There were those who were jealous of her and her quick rise to power. As strange as this might seem, the fact she was not only a child, but a female child irritated a lot of the older admirals. They had been part of the old regime, the one before Sturm, and while they obeyed, some did not agree with all his decisions, especially those that involved her. When she was approved as the new head weapons department builder at the age of twelve, they were furious. There were even a few scuffles and two assassination attempts. What is more remarkable is Lash herself undid one of them, proving her loyalty to Black Hole. It helped that she was remarkable talented - some even wondered if she was human with the amount of knowledge and skills she possed. A lot of our upgraded weapons of war and machinery came straight from her mind. It did not help that thanks to Seth's help, she was also an expert in human biology.
Her lack of morals was frightening. Woe to those who were near here when she uttered the words "I'm bored." It did not help that Seth was encouraging of this behavior, not to mention she was raised in the new regime, which demanded to remove oneself from emotions as much as possible, except if you used them to trick your enemies. She was an expert at this, calling others childish names, and then attacking when their guards were down. Her laughter was frightening. When Seth was killed during the first war, Lash preformed double-duty, being head of both the science and war departments. This only lasted two months, until they realized she had strange skills, the ones she had first manifested at the age of five.
Preforming another test at age thirteen, it was realized that units of tanks under her command preformed remarkably well in mountains and forests and somehow had both defense and attack performances increased. The news was brought to Sturm himself, who selected her as one of his new Commanding Officers, stunning everyone. The next year was spent in preparation for a new attack, as Black Hole decided to strike in all four other nearby counties as once. Lash was commissioned to build new units and one only has to remember, with much dread, the five hundred foot tall Death Ray that Sturm made her built to know how efficient she could be. It did not help that anyone working for her was treated like playthings, overworked and mostly ignored by their Commanding Officer.
Even with all of this, the missions failed in the end, as we all know. Reports from Nell of Orange Star claim that Sturm was killed by Commanding Officer Hawke who had been waiting for the opportunity to overthrow him. Amazing then, that the act saved all of the Officers and Soldiers nearby. He left with what little of Black Hole remained, promising to return. Low on resources after such a terrible war, the other nations retreated as well.
All was quiet, and then a new war arose not even a year later, surprising everyone. A quick alliance was formed, as resources had barely begun to be stocked up again. Yet we of Black Hole had found ourselves with amazing new weapons, renewed at an amazing speed. To our surprise, we were told Hawke was not our leader, but Von Bolt was. As proof, even Hawke followed him. We had no choice. Those that argued were shot down. Two of Sturm's old commanding officers disappeared; Flak and Adder. Rumors currently abound that Adder changed his name and became a fashion designer, but that sounds so ridiculously far-fetched. I cannot even begin to fathom why people would think such a thing.
Lash remained, but it was easy to see she was disappointed by what had happened. The only reason she was kept alive was because of her skills. She continued to create weapons of war for the new Black Hole, up until both her and Hawke betrayed Von Bolt (or so we were told...I later found out by notes of Lash herself when talking with Hachi that Hawke had found out more about Von Bolt than he should have known and he had grabbed Lash to save herself from Ozzium). Moral shot down, especially when we learned that Lash and Hawke had joined up with Orange Star, which seemed unthinkable. Von Bolt was doomed then, I like to think. Hawke and Lash both possessed key codes and information about too many Black Hole secrets. The Bolt guard could only do so much, and the war was won. It came at the price of Hawke's death, turning the man from a war enemy to almost a hero.
Black Hole was disbanded, her people scattered, some tried for war crimes, others trying to flee capture and leaving the country. Others, like myself, were brought in for questioning and given the offer of either betraying the country we had sworn our very lives to protect - or get a single chance at freedom and tell them all we could. The answer was easy for me - I followed who I followed not because I obeyed, but by fright.
And Lash? She was kept in Orange Star. For her own safety, she was put on house arrest in the central barracks of Orange Star. There are numerous stories of attacks on her life, and those that petitioned for her to have a public execution for her war crimes. Her mind, however, was a precious commodity. A deal was stuck that if they could manage to deprogram her from Black Hole teachings, she could become an aid to Orange Star.
The records I hold tell me that it was not an easy task. She was extremely smart, but had the manners of, as the notes explain, a wild cat. Lash was not above to snarling and trying to punch and kick her way out - and it did not help that she had received extensive fighting training in Black Hole. One can only begin to imagine the genius that was both Hachi and Nell, as they showed her with human affection and praise and eventually got her to calm down enough that the guards did not fear for their lives near her. Many accuse of Hachi making the mission to deprogram her personal, as he had lost one of his nephews to the war, as rumors claimed, from Lash's actions. I think he was simply a man who knew all to much about the horrors of war, and what she might have lived through.
In either case, their bets paid off, and Lash eventually became almost normal, if not for her tenancies to enjoy explosions and her strange ways of nicknaming everyone. Orange Star came to trust her enough to let her work in the lower level labs - she was responsible for the Tank in a Can product (Don't even begin to ask me how it works - microbiological is a field I hope to never touch again). Eventually she was shipped off to a fighting school along with other members of Orange Star. A place where she could forge true relationships with people her age and learn to be human, they explained. Final Destination is considered neutral ground, so it was acceptable.
Then came the Aparoid War last year, and Lash's actions surprised everyone, even at Orange Star, or so I was told. Her mind was used not only to protect those around her, but thanks to the efforts of all the Commanding Officers present, they saved the world from what could have been an alien invasion. Orange Star seized this opportunity to show off how much she had changed. Lash was truly an Orange Star Commanding Officer in every sense of the word...
But there was a problem when it was learned that Hawke was still alive. The rumors spread quickly. Then Flak showed up, and all hell broke loose. Riots exploded around the nations as old Black Hole members promised alliance to their old leaders. They had to be calmed down, or thrown in jail.
Yet it has been a year from then and still...nothing. The poetic person in me likes to think that even they wanted to settle down. Even soldiers get tired of war, and besides, all of Black Hole's resources are gone. Lash's budget is kept on a tight leash, and Hawke does not earn enough money for him to be able to raise an army. They are stuck at the school, being common mortals. Wither this is heaven or hell for them remains to be seen.
There is one thing I do know, however. While it is all good, I fear that Lash may return to her old ways, if given the chance. She is someone who had certain morals..or rather, a lack of them drilled into her skull for nearly sixteen years of her life. The last two have been quiet so far, but what is to say of the future? A human mind is a feeble thing, especially when emotions must be still so new and fragile to her.
I can only hope they keep constant watch. Like the weapons she enjoyed so much, she is a bomb ready to go off at the wrong movement.