115: a Soviet story

[anonymous]

30 June 1908, an extraterrestrial rock was pulled by gravity with an immense velocity though Earth's atmosphere. It came down in the middle of the frozen wastelands of Siberia, near the river Tunguska, in the Russian Empire. From any investigation to this mysterious meteorite before the Russian Revolution is nothing known. Once the Russian Empire became the communistic USSR, or shortly Sovjet Union, expeditions to the impact were funded, in believe that loads of meteoric iron could be salvaged to aid the Sovjet industry. In 1921, the Sovjet mineralogist Leonid Kulik undertook the first expedition to the Tunguska area. With help of the local Evenki hunters, Kulik and his group achieved to reach an area just South of the impact site. When arriving there, the Evenki hunters would go no farther, fearing for something what they called the "Valleymen". Kulik had to return to the nearby village, and his group was delayed for several days while they sought new guides.

The following years various expeditions were set up to Tunguska. The minerals silicate and magnetite were found in the soil around the area, along with a strange metalic element, that had never been found yet. Moreover, the element did not used to be in our dimension. It gained the name Ununpentium, the 115th element of the periodic table. Large amounts of this element were brought to a secret location in the remote desert of Baikonur, located in the south of the Kazakh Sovjet Socialist Republic, for research. This relative small station in the middle of nowhere changed drastically after the Second World War.

 

With the liberation of Eastern Europe and the conquering of East-Germany, the Red Army discovered a Group 935 facility near the Polish city of Wroclaw. This so-called "Project Riese" was built on another meteorite impact site including Ununpentium. Group 935 had used the element for matter displacement, weapons and many other scientific inventions. The Sovjets were inspired by Group 935's work with the element. Now the war with the axis had end, the Sovjets were in "cold war"  with the United States of America. With the knowledge of the Germans, the research to Element 115 became an important yet secret task for the Russian scientists. In 1948, a top-secret bioweapons laboratory was established on Vozrozhdeniya island, a.k.a. Rebirth Island, in the Kazakh Sovjet Socialist Republic, far from any populated areas, but not that far from the already existing secret station near Baikonur experimenting with Ununpentium. In 1954, Rebirth Island was expanded and named Aralsk-7, one of the main laboratories and testing sites for the Soviet Union's Microbiological Warfare Group tasked with inventing and testing the effects of multiple fatal diseases.

However there has been experimented with Ununpentium on Rebirth Island, the site was focused more on biological weapons and diseases. The Baikonur laboratory was specialized on 115, and therefore, this site had to stay as secret as possible. An enormous, still existing cosmodome was built in 1955 near the laboratory as a cover. The convoys of trucks, transporting people, food, building material and scientific devices, driving through the unpopulated desert of Baikonur weren't suspicious anymore. The restricted area of the cosmodome covered 90 by 90 kilometers, and even most of the workers in Baikonur didn’t know of the secret laboratory within the area.

In 1950, the scientists Igor Tamm and Andrej Sacharov managed it to create the Tokamak, a device that uses a powerful magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus, based to Germany's Die Glocke design. In reality, the real mastermind behind this device had to remain secret, for security reasons. It was dr. Gersch who was the brain behind the Tokamak, a brilliant scientist from Stalingrad, the city of birth of Nikolai Berlinski and  Nikita Drakivich.

Around 1960, Gersch's team was working on at least three different projects. They managed it to form a weapon, that concentrated 115 into one single pure beam: Project Thunder. They were also working on two different continuations of the Tokamak: Project Mercury (a.k.a the Gersch device) and a device known as the Casimir mechanism.

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Dr. Gersh: I give you my sincere gratitude for that... but, down to business, I am pleased to report all projects are running smoothly again after these recent personnel changes. As I had previously mentioned, Yuri Zavoyski is a brilliant scientist, but he has been so far incapable of handling "Project Mercury" - or as you call it, "the Gersh Device", and so due to numerous setbacks and delays I am forced to transfer Yuri to AK64-A experiments. I have decided that your nephew should take his place. I look forward to working with him directly. The recent incident with the Casimir Mechanism leaves no doubt in my mind that this is the right decision. The explosion caused the Mechanism significant damage, it will take time to re-manufacture all of the parts, unless some of them can be salvaged.

 

Doctor Gersch had transferred a member of his team, doctor Yuri Zazoyski, from Project Mercury to the project of the AK64-A rocket, in order to place a nephew of Gersch's boss in Yuri's former position. Yuri, however, did not simply accepted his degradation.

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Dr. Yuri Zavoyski: Rockets! He transfers me to work on rockets! These experiments require no finesse, no imagination! My intellect is ill served blasting a bunch of monkeys into the atmosphere! But I can’t fight Gersh on this. I was able to hold onto my keys, *static* as well as my research. No one else really understands what "Project Mercury" is capable of. Until then, this lab will have to do. Wait, is that a matryoshka doll? Did someone let a child in-?

 

While Yuri was experimenting with 115-infected monkeys sending to space, he discovered toys. The toys of a certain girl….

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Dr. Yuri Zavoyski: I found a box today. Some lebanke left his teddy bear in it, a disgusting and filthy toy! Who keeps bringing their child onto this base? Thank God they did not take the diary: the things I have learned about the Element 115. I'll have to conduct this research on my own, away from the destructive hands of Gersh! His research into Project *static* has stalled, but will HE be transferred? I doubt it! As long as Project Mercury remains on track, his friends at *static*. I must think small.

 

It were the toys of Samantha, who, while she was in the Aether, was able to manipulate any matter in the proximity of element 115. While there was experimented with Ununpentium in the Baikonur desert, she displaced her toys in the laboratory. Meanwhile, dr. Yuri discovered a terrific truth behind the element: Its ability to reanimate the dead body cells of monkeys. And any other dead creature.

 

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Dr. Gersh: I can assure you that our craft will be far superior to whatever the Americans, or should I say, Canadians are developing. Finally, Project Thunder is nearing completion. My staff has assured me that the remaining limitations of the effective range and power cells will be solved within the next few months. Oh, and also, you should know that Dr. Zavoyski does not appear to be adjusting to his new position. He has been hostile towards the other scientists, at least, more than usual, and has frequently been seen muttering to himself. The transition must have been hard for him, but if he does not learn his place soon... I may require another, more competent scientist to replace him.

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Dr. Yuri Zavoyski: They're entering my head! Always my head! I can't think, I can't, OOF, I can't stop it! Keep it out! I want you to LEAVE ME ALONE!!! Calm down there! Calm down! No, no I won't! ShutTheShutTheF*ckUp! J-Just stop! Fine... Okay, okay, I will.

 

With all his experimenting with Ununpentium, dr. Yuri Zavoyski became slowly insane. Just as dr. Edward Richthofen in the past, and Sammuel Stunglinger in the future, 115 connected his mind with the Aether, and its inhabitants.

 

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Dr. Gersh: This had better be good Yuri, the fact that you're in this lab again is reason enough to have you permanently removed! If you've done anything that will ruin it-
Dr. Yuri Zavoyski: Do not worry, you will not be disappointed. In fact, I'm sure you won't forget it! But I can't take all the credit. If you will do me the honors?
*Gersh activates Gersh Device.*
Samantha Maxis: Having Fun?!
Dr. Gersh: What the-?! No! No! Yuri, you!
*Gersh screams as he is sucked into Gersh Device*
Dr. Yuri Zavoyski: *Triumphant laugh* You fat pig! Enjoy your bed! Heheheh, heh... Oh no. No! Nononono! Nonononono! What have I done?! What have I do-?

 

History repeats itself. A by his boss humiliated scientist gets via element 115 in contact with beings in the Aether and gets insane. His anger grows and he blames his hated boss for everything. At a certain point he gets a breakdown and tries to kill his boss with his own invention. Yuri opens the Gersch device and a gateway to the Dark Aether appears. Gersch is sucked in it, leaving a laughing Yuri behind. It is only then that he realizes what has happened.

The undead have overtaken the laboratory, and the area around it. The whole place is contaminated with Ununpentium, and in a period of chaos, the whole facility is killed. The events at the Baikonur laboratory are a black page in the Sovjet's history. There could be no witnesses. There could be no survivors. The few scientists who had survived the rising dead, were killed by the forces of the KGB. Except Gersch.

Gersch is stuck in the Dark Aether, in control of the demonic child that once was Samantha Maxis. Suffering in the eternal Aether, he is waiting for the One. The One that could set him free.