Locker room

Aradi opened her locker, an interface rested on top, a voice emitted from the interface,
"Greetings, Loyal Citizen of the Council, please login....
Welcome, Lieutenant, Aradi. You have 1 urgent notification"

Her head tilted somewhat. When one is assigned to the S.F.O sector, only promotional offers are given, otherwise a request for a change in position. Aradi however, just like every other year, had already declined the offer this year. Aradi spoke as she began changing,
"SIM, what does it say?"

"Greetings Lieutenant. Aradi. We are delighted to inform you that your transfer from Stand Alone Field Operator to Field Operations Trainer has been approved. Your new commitment to the Council will secure many generations. Thank you for your service"
Aradi's expression was quite a confused one, she smiled widely, eyes closed, asking the message to repeat itself. Before the message could fully repeat itself, she darted out, shouting out loud as she ran to the door,
"This is such a violation of protocol! I can't believe the Chief would do this! This has to be a glitch - aghhhh!!!"

It was unfortunate in Aradi's eyes, fitting in with the Council's societal norms had been a long goal of hers ever since she got inaugurated into their system. But on some personal levels, she could never commit, even when she told herself to, what felt like another worldly force held her back. System glitches, unfortunate events, all transpiring from her incompatibility with the Council's goals. That constricting feeling in her head began to take hold, she shook it off and focused on the now. What had just happened was against protocol, and she wasn't having any of it.

2 minutes later

"This is not a glitch or violation of protocol" a voice uttered, and not just any voice, it was the Supreme Officer of the Galactic Protectorate: Vogun Gorduna, and he wasn't alone. Peatra Ostinalk, head of the Transfer Management Sector, and Unit Officer Toh-Rin. Gorduna continued,
"Since you're so well versed with the Galactic Protectorate Protocol, tell us what protocol 15 means, lieutenant"

Aradi stood with a straight face, but deep down, she was taken aback by the fact that such high profile servants of the Council had attended this meeting, she spoke when commanded too, obviously,
"Sey, Protocol 14 is as follows: any personnel making requests for transfers must fill out a transfer form and send it to the Transfer Management Sector. All transfers are processed / maintained by the T.M.S and not the unit itself, evaluation of officers from T.M.S will conduct a thorough analysis of the form and evaluate the requesting personnel. In order to process an immediate transfer, personnel must attend an on-call eval to determine if a transfer to another unit or position may be needed. This order can be given at any time during the work year and should be prioritized upon being notified in an immediate manner"

"It seems exposition is your strong suit. Now. Protocol 15" "Protocol 15 grants the authority of unit chief or above to transfer personnel to another unit or another unit position in order to maintain a standard morale"

The room was silent for a moment, Aradi stood, waiting, almost impatiently. Peatra spoke,
"It seems the lieutenant was rather adamant about answering her own inquiry"
Gorduna sighed as he looked at her data sheet on a tablet in front of him,
"We'll just cut to the chase, Lieutenant"
He looked up to the Elven woman, and spoke firmly,
"Your performance hasn't seen as low as a thought of decline, your grades have continuously outperformed the entire protectorate for more than 250 years. That's over 3 generations of some citizens. We notice you also opt out of promotions and prefer to stay as a stand alone field operator. I'd like to hear it from you personally, why do you continue to opt out?"

Aradi's eyes lowered, it was not often she was forced to answer things about herself. She knew the longer she forbade her answer, the likelihood her answer would falter to reason with her superiors. A voice echoed in her head, her own, from many years ago,
"Don't worry! I won't take long"
The words of a child, unknowing of tomorrow, unknowing of the word known as terror, that would usurp the definition she thought she knew. Her mind spoke in stead of her lips,
The first time I tried to help someone...

"Sey, I believe there is no greater joy than sharing my story with citizens to inspire them to live by the truest way of abiding by our beloved council"

Peatra smirked, "the Lieutenant's commitment to being a good Citizen is rather admirable"
Gorduna sighed as he looked down at the data sheet once more,
"That may be, however..."

The eyes of the room focused on the Supreme Officer,
"These are the things we wish to be when we need be otherwise, and otherwise is what you will be"
Aradi's posture stiffened somewhat, but her hands subtly shook.
"The classes start tomorrow, you can have the rest of the day off"

Aradi looked down, but as her eyes veered up to greet Gorduna, she couldn't help but stare at a camera installed in the room. Its sole purpose was to collect data from employees of the Protectorate in order to assess whether or not complaints fill the requirement of being validated in the general overview of Citizen Resources ... .but that's not what this camera was doing....

An unknown location

Voices muttered in the darkness, voices holding disdain, jealousy, hatred, fear, all one would feel disgust to have, colluded in an ill harmony with one another.....

"How much longer must we wait? The project has been on stand by longer than expected"

"A causation by lack of positive feedback, besides, we haven't found a viable candidate since the other escaped. Also keep in mind, the first results of project Starfire were a complete failure. This one is our last chance. I need I remind you all that our opposition is reported to be more active recently"
"Then Project Stargate can resume operation"

3 silhouetted figures sat in a darkened room, discussing things not meant for the common ear....
"Our records theorize that her race doesn't meet any form of maturity for the first 100 years of their life. Evidence correlated with the first test subject, whom we interrogated for nearly 3 centuries before getting any meaningful answers" one said, another, holding a tablet. Upon that tablet, a data sheet of Aradi was shown, with information pertaining to her entire life.
"This is the first I heard of caring for a subject that belongs to a pivotal mission of our Council, Chairmember" the reader said. Suddenly, their white eyes widened, shock across their face,
"What's this!? She!!?....."
A voice interrupted them,
"Correct, unlike other citizens, she has all her reproductive parts, not only that, but we take extra care to ensure that she does not come into too much contact with other citizens, keeping her as pure as possible is one of the top priorities. Taking this level of care is more than necessary, the other subject broke, and became useless to us in terms of what could be delivered, not to say that there wasn't anything viable, it became erratic, violent, and as you'll read in full detail, it escaped. The race is extremely powerful, we had the previous subject under excruciating and constant sedation, and it still cognitively functioned with genius levels of tactical awareness and discernment. This subject in particular, does not just resist foreign substances, but her body is able to convert chemicals into a form of replenishment, when the other simply felt fatigue, and slept for days. We intentionally fed her water supply with enough pharmaceuticals to kill a class of adult citizens, but she simply became somewhat deranged, talking to herself, laughing at nonsensical things, and becoming quite hungry. We're not sure how involved she is in the process, brainwave activity is inconclusive. But if the body itself is operating on its own outside of her natural state, it might explain the behavior, it could be muscle memory driving her body to continue her daily routines. Either that or it's all on a subconscious level"

"I don't understand, I thought we weren't doing tests "

"Must I spell it out for you, Chairmember. The data we gathered from the other subject gave us an idea of how far we can go. We went just below the threshold, but the results yielded what I mentioned. On another note, she's nearly lost one limb before. During a skirmish with Marauders, details don't matter, we don't know the long term damage if a body part was removed entirely, for all we know there could be limits to her regeneration like many others who can regen body parts. I'd like to tell you more, but it seems her body is also able to fend off x-ray scans and medical examinations to a degree. Now moving on, let's discuss the primary mission of the council when concerning this variant of the Ancient Races..."

"Now that the project is resuming...I'd like to discuss the subject more thoroughly. The file would take hours. You've already given me the...anatomical details, but what else should I know?"

"The subject: Aradi. Is possibly the second to last of her kind, the one before her escaped our facilities on Zerthun. We know not where he is, in fact we assume he is dead given the state he left in. So technically by all means we may refer to her as the last. Aradi is of the ancient class, we obtained her completely by accident, 300 years ago on the slave planet: Zio. She was around 14 years, living on the outskirts during the invasion"

Many, many years ago...

Stars were sprinkled across a night sky, illuminating a snowy region of rock and mountains as far as the eye could see, life need not live yet it did so, basking near a makeshift fireplace. A slit eye gazed upon the crackling flame, a conversation took place, yet words could not be traced to their origins,
"Aradi has been gone a long time, do you think she's coming back soon?"
"I don't know"
"Why does it always have to be cold here..."
"Do you ever think we'll get off this planet?"
"What's the point in living if we can't?"

While the words of children continued to speak of the wonders of life. Above the sky, an almost quiet metallic object flew, the light buzzing from the machine underhanded the silent atmosphere, the black ocular gave sight to a large observation tower in the middle of a village. Those viewing the world through the lens of the metallic object would now reveal themselves...

In a dark lit room, a monitor shined a red hue, relaying a video feed of a snow ridden region, the UI focused on a tower, the individual staring at the monitor spoke,
"Ready to engage"
"Fire 7, operation is now, engage, engage"

Another angle of the tower from a far distance, showed 2 objects speeding towards the metal obelisk. A massive explosion, the tower crumbled into pieces, the sound of an explosion echoed shortly after. An invasion. Huge ships above the planet, igniting the planet below with their thunderous tools of war.

Screams echoed through the flashes in the night, foundations erupted, craters formed, faces that were once known, distorted by war. The voices of children shouting:
"Aradi is still in the depot! We can't just leave her!"
"She knows where the safe spot is, we'll see her there!"

They did not see Aradi there. But she did indeed see them, there.

Present Day

A cup of coffee sat next to a tablet, the tablet displayed the home page of Galactic News, a headline stating that Soltin has been in a strange warfare-like state against the native populations for more than 300 years, which is quite a while, but generally, it was agreed upon that the reasoning was due to the rules of engagement against low technology based natives of any planetary member. Essentially, advanced weaponry is not permitted to be used on the populaces in fear of accidentally wiping them clear off the map, and causing environmental damage.

Aradi sighed out frustration, her eyes were barely open, she wore a simple t-shirt and shorts, the aroma of the coffee was excellent, but she was quite unenthusiastic about exploring its taste, she thought to herself,
I usually look forward to not working, being lazy, wearing nothing, but to be ordered to have a day off like this, it's too unexpected, especially since....

The Elf looked at her clock, there were medals from her past winnings set up around it, but the time show did not reflect a "winning moment" so to speak,
7:34am

She slouched onto the dining table in defeat,
I drank 4 cups of coffee and my favorite show doesn't start for 3 hours....

But just as she was wallowing in her defeat, her phone suddenly started going off, she stared over to the coffee table that rested in front of her couch. The transparent glass was being shaken up by the vibrating GCID, a notification on screen simply read as "important". As she unlocked her phone, she opened her inbox, there was a message from the Endangered Citizens Board,
Great, the endangered citizen relations board. All they do is remind me that I'm alone. I won't say it out loud, but it's times like these where I really wish I was never created. Why does it have to be me? I'm a citizen like everyone else, I'm not endangered....

The email read as follows:
"This is an urgent notification regarding your status as an Endangered Citizen. A new artifact pertaining to the category:
Ancient, Class 0
TAG: Bipedal
Has been located and is currently going through shipment from
PLANET: Zerthun. Further details below.

Message:

"To Aradi of Gantun, We are pleased to inform you that an artifact relating within the origins of your Ancestors has been located, before shipping, historians and scientists have tested the artifact to verify its authenticity before shipping it to the planet: GANTUN. Where it will be housed for viewing in your exclusive viewing room upon making an appointment. The object is quite small, a stone with an engraving matching historical records. We look forward to your visit. Thank you"

-the offices of the Endangered Citizens Act.

Aradi stood there, simply, looking at her phone, her body slightly swayed, it took more strength than usual to keep herself afloat. The constant showering of phrases "special" "you're special" "unique" flooded her brain. She closed her eyes tightly, throwing them out.
I guess I can stretch my legs a bit

The Elf made a request for an appointment, her phone quickly beeped with a response reading:
"Hello, Aradi. This is the Endangered Citizen Department. Your appointment has been approved. An open slot is available for you at 10:00 am. Your tour guide will be a human named Shaki. Thank you for calling the Galactic Museum of History"

Her eyes widened,
A human?