TFT Submission - Lia (Dragon Bioweapon Girl)

“Spectre Team, this is Command. What’s your position, over?”

The first thing she remembered was darkness. Vast, yet suffocating, it obscured her vision before she even knew what it was like to see.

“Command this is Spectre 1. We’re en-route to your position, 32 miles northwest over.”

Next came the sounds. A loud roar hummed steadily from somewhere close, its cadence briefly interrupted by her world shaking and bouncing when it struck something below.

“Roger, Spectre 1. What’s the status on the cargo over?”

By comparison, the ‘voices’ that she barely picked up were much stranger. One came after the other, ringing in ever-changing rhythms and tones, but always in order and never both at once.

“Cargo is safe in vehicle, though we only managed to retrieve one sample. Others were aggressive over.”

It was moments that she realized that there was more to the darkness that surrounded her, when a cold chill stung at her. Almost immediately, something solid slid into place where she’d been nipped, and she learned of warmth.

“...That is regrettable, Spectre 1. What’s your casualty report over?”

Where was she? She tried to stretch to explore the dark room around her, but immediately her head snapped back as something long and rough pulled her back. It was bitter and unpleasant, she realized, as she tasted it with something flexible and slimy.

“Half of the team confirmed KIA, Spectre 5 is MIA presumed dead. One of the trucks got scrapped by one of the samples. Remains unsalvageable, whole vehicle was blown to bits over.”

She tested the things restraining her. A screeching noise pierced her ears as she dragged her limbs against the boundaries of the darkness constraining her. As their tips scraped against it, a brief shower of sparks allowed her to catch a glimpse of her black, gleaming bindings.

“Roger. Their loss will be mourned. Still, you were right in prioritizing transportation of the cargo. Ensure it arrives at all costs over.”

Surprised by her own sight, she tried to make more of the incandescent sparks. She struck again and again, sharp nails scraping and tearing dents on the material. Flashes of the room enclosing her were burned into her eyes, alongside the details of her own body.

“Roger, Spectre 1 out. ...Adam, what the hell is that noise?”

Her movements became more frantic, a bubbling heat growing from her middle driving her into action. The black material binding her limbs and face bit her painfully as she moved, and the first noise escaped her gagged mouth, a husky growl that made her burn even hotter.

“It’s coming from behind… No way, it’s the monster!? We dosed her with enough sedatives to knock out an elephant!”

As she pushed her limbs against the pull of the restraints, her body responded to her desires. The same dark scales that shielded her against the cold grew all around her, struggling against the stifling grip of the bindings for a brief moment before bursting forth with explosive power.

“Oh shit, are those the restraints? Jesus, let them hold…!”

The material locking her arms and legs to the room shattered violently, several bits of it bouncing against her grown armor. Instincts bid her to try and rise from her knees, and in a smooth motion she did so, limbs flexing as she stood on all fours.

“Shit, she’s free!” Her ears twitched as she picked up the quick shuffling movements of the voice outside the room. “Marie, Julius, cat’s out of the bag! Load lethals now, shoot her when she breaches!”

She tested her muscles, pleased at how natural and fluid it felt to move without the stifling hold of the bindings. The last annoyance clinging at her body was ripped out of her mouth by her claws, which shredded the material with ease when she could leverage her full strength.

“I’m hitting the brakes!” A shrill noise echoed as she was suddenly swept off her feet, crashing against a wall as the room violently shuddered up and down.

Anger welled up in her stomach at being thrown around, and she pulled back her now released lips to let out an irate roar, the melodious pitch of her voice distorted by the intensity of her cry.

“This time, we’re going to soften her up before we bring her in! Everyone, move out!”

She needed to find a way out where she was trapped in. The same instincts that had allowed her to move led her to direct her mouth towards one of the room’s walls, as the burning heat in her stomach surged towards her throat.

“Get away from the truck and find cover, if you don’t want to die!”

The walls of the room shattered against the force of a jet of white-blue flames, bits and pieces of molten debris raining down on the outside at deadly speeds. She stared in satisfaction at the destruction of her container, but her attention was short-lived as the first rays of sunlight soaked into her armored skin.

She leapt from the remains of the dark room, looking behind her to examine the strange black shape that had housed it. The ground outside it was different, a cracked grey substance that was very brittle to her touch. Her landing cracked it even further, lifting up plumes of grey smoke.

All around her, giant stones dominated the sky, stretching into the heavens with impunity. It was so large, yet so full compared to the tight and empty darkness of her confinement. For a moment, she basked in it, looking around in awe…

“Weapons free!”

And her world erupted in pain, as countless objects smashed into her armoured plates, striking hard before exploding and doubling the unpleasant sensation.

She whirled around, teeth bared at the creatures that had attacked her. They were odd, standing on two legs and holding an object that spewed the shells that hurt her.

Her world turned red. The urge to rend them apart came as suddenly as the fire that burned at her throat, and she gave into her urges without hesitation.

They did not survive for long.

...By the time she regained awareness of herself, she found herself limping along the endless gray ground, now stained red with blood. Her right side stung, and when she clutched it with her hand she found some of the thick scales were gone, revealing wet, raw flesh.

She whined, but forced herself to move on.

Why had this happened to her? Chained in a dark room, and attacked after she escaped it. She didn’t know anything, other than that she wanted to live. Yet, a heavy pressure in her stomach weighed her down.

Could it be that she was hungry?

Yes… That had to be it. If she had a meal, it would allow her to recover from the wounds she had suffered. All she had to do was find fresh prey…

She sniffed at the air, picking up several scents. Tail raised high, she steadily lumbered towards their source, her determination winning over the urge to lay on her side to lick her wounds.

It didn’t take long to find them. Three of those horrid bipedal creatures, conversing with each other in those strange noises. She growled, the pain by her side still vivid.

This time, she wouldn’t let them get the drop on her.

“So she told me she wouldn’t go out with someone who couldn’t collect a decent load of scrap, and I asked her if that meant she’d marry me if I got a big haul instead. You should’ve seen her face-”

She went for the chatting human first, dropping from a high stone behind him and batting him aside with her arm. She heard the satisfying sound of crunching bone, as the other two creatures shouted in alarm.

“A monster ambush!?”

One of the creatures quickly pointed at her with one of those infernal objects, and she angrily swiped at it with one of her claws. The weapon was split into bits, and the creature’s legs failed it as it fell back.

Sneering, she moved to finish her off, but the impact of a bullet against her softened right side caused her to scream in pain.

“Wait… It’s a girl…!?”

She turned towards the creature who’d shot at her, another lean biped with the smell of pure terror about it. It tried to angle its weapon for another shot, but by the time it fell into her vision it was already over.

The accursed weapon flew into the air as she pinned the creature to the wrong, her claws digging into its shoulders. She locked eyes with the creature, seeing her own reflected in its pale blue pools.

She didn’t find their smell tasty in the slightest… But nothing said that she couldn’t kill them anyways. Her mouth split into a wide grin, as heat rose within her in preparation to burn the creature alive.

However, it all changed, when the creature did something she couldn’t have expected.

“You’re… Beautiful…”

A hand caressed her cheek, freezing her in place. Rather than fear, the creature looked at her in a completely alien manner. Did it not understand what she wanted?

She growled, lips parting to end it for good-

...Right then, a drop of the creature’s blood slipped from his hand, splashing against the very tip of her tongue.

Her eyes widened.

She broke away from the creature like it had stung her, but it was too late. The blood that had touched her tongue had started a fire that spread across her body, and it quickly ignited into a blaze.

She dropped to her knees, unable to support herself in the face of the indescribable pleasure that coursed through her. Thousands of little needles stabbed into her nerves, making her mind white out. Her voice came out in strangled gasps, its huskiness turned sweet in a feverish haze.

As a ring of blue flame scorched the flesh of her neck, painting a circle of blue in otherwise ashen skin, her body churned from the inside out, transforming her. A dull throbbing struck her temple, and she clutched at her head in a vain attempt to stop it.

As her senses went into overdrive, she lost any notion of the world around her. She didn’t notice her raw flesh mending together and her black armor receding, giving way to soft and supple skin. Her deadly claws and meaty limbs she had used to fling the creatures like ragdolls turned into slender, almost dainty appendages, tipped with dark glossy nails and decorated with shiny scales.

Even her face was moulded like clay, becoming rounder and softer with not a trace of severity to be found. Her horns, jutting out her head with sharp, jagged edges slimmed down into an ebony crown around her silken hair.

As the metamorphosis finalized, her full lips puffed out sweet little moans, overwhelmed by the warmth that pervaded her body and spread from her core, below her navel. She rubbed the area in circles, but far from relief, it just intensified the heat.

When she finally came to, she took a moment to deal with the initial sluggishness of walking in a body you weren’t used to. Strangely enough, though, there was an intense focus on her mind that she couldn’t quite determine, as if it were submerged in a haze.

It took her to listen to that voice again for her to realize.

“Are… Are you alright?”

Pulled by a will beyond her own, she looked at the creature whose blood she had tasted. Only, it was no longer a creature that stood in front of her.

It was a man.

Her man.

“Are you crazy!? Didn’t you see her whip Dylan like a wrecking ball? She’s dangerous- Woah!” The creature harassing her man jumped in fright as she rose to her feet, no less intimidated despite the fact that she wobbled on two legs.

She paid it no mind. Her brain was too busy soaking in all the details she had missed on him. Her core, agonizingly hot, seeped between her legs as she cupped his face, tracing her fingers over his thin lips, his slender jaw, his smooth neck…

“You’re the weirdest monster I’ve ever seen,” He said words she couldn’t understand, but the hunger in his eyes was unmistakable. “But I mean that in the good way.”

She smiled at him, and allowed her instincts to take over as she raised her heels to bridge their gap.

Baptized in blood, consumed by the instincts of an animal, and finally sharing a deep kiss with the person she had almost burnt alive.

The first time she met Darling. In time, she’d learn everything about him, and much more. Yet, she already knew one thing for certain.

It was at that moment that her hazy life finally began to make sense.

---

After the quarantine, people didn’t really pay much heed to something like relationships. There were bigger things to worry about, and if one wanted companionship then they usually just hooked up for a night and called it there.

So if he’d been told that one day he would get hitched to a girl, he would’ve probably laughed in their face.

As things turned out, marriage was the least absurd aspect of his new relationship…

“Hey Darling, how was patrol?”

The mocking chuckles of the guards brought him back from his spell, as ‘Darling’ leveled them with a stony glare.

“I have a name, you know. How old are you guys, really?” He crossed his arms, after slinging the rifle he’d been carrying behind his back.

“What name, Darling?” The other guard manning the gate fluttered his eyes at him, eliciting a doubly loud laugh from his companion. “Don’t you like being called like that by your waifu?”

“Yeah, because she’s usually doing something else while she calls me that.” ‘Darling’ grinned. “I generally don’t swing that way, but if you two really insist you want to be like that…”

“Please, we’re out of your league.” The buzz-haired guardsman on the left shook his head, and dropped the matter with a sigh. “Anyways, we’ll pull up the gate now. Go on in, I’m sure you don’t want to keep her waiting.”

“Thanks. Good luck with your shifts.”

“Yeah, whatever man. If we get jumped by a monster, we’ll just whistle for your girl and take a lunch break.”

A brief surge of irritation found its way to Darling’s face, but he said nothing else, choosing to instead pass through the raised metal shutter of the compound’s gate.

Trying to set up farms in open areas had quickly proven to be a failed endeavor in the face of monsters tearing up all the crops at night, so those humans who still lived in the city had quickly learned that if you needed to grow something, it had to be in a greenhouse or behind walls.

As a result, the first faces that Darling would see in the compound when he returned from his shift were always those of the farmers, dutifully pulling out weeds and harvesting fruits all day long.

“Hey, if it isn’t Darling. Everything alright?” One of the farmers, an old man with a robust body and wispy grey hairs, waved a dirt-covered glove at him.

“Just peachy, Albert. There was a pack of Caines that got a bit close to the walls, but a few warning shots scared them off.” He looked at the maize fields that Albert waddled in. “Looks like the corn’s turning out just fine. Think it’ll be ready to eat tonight?”

“It’s ready enough, I’d say! This was a pretty good year, too.” He plucked off a single ear, handing it over. “Why don’t you take this one home? It’s on me.”

“Thanks, but honestly, there’s more than enough food at home as it is.” Darling turned the gift down, grimacing. “God knows there’s a lot of people that need that more than me.”

“Heh, you’re a good lad.”

“...Come to think of it.” Darling looked around, finding nothing but the odd farmer tending to their crops. “Where’s Lia? She usually comes to greet me at the end of a shift.” And maybe break a few bones with one of her tackles…

“What? Hurried to get your carrot wet after a dry spell?” Darling stared at the old man, who chortled heartily. “Ah, youth. Honestly boy, I haven’t seen her in all day, so she must be inside.”

“...Yeah, let’s hope it’s that and she didn’t go off hunting for a ‘gift’.”

He remembered when that had happened. He’d been chatting with Dylan over his latest tomfoolery, then all of a sudden Lia had shown up and dropped the corpse of a bear at his feet.

Dylan’s screams at that time had rung in his ears for hours before he’d finally finished explaining to Lia why he didn’t like being gifted the corpse of an animal that had been mauled to death.

At the very least, it got him a very nice rug at home after all was said and done with.

...After bidding farewell to Albert, Darling moved deeper into the compound, completing his shift routine. He stopped by the barracks, leaving his rifle and switching out of his work clothes, then exchanged some pleasantries with the guards stationed within.

“Hey ‘Darling’, have you been watching the news lately?” One of them said. “Looks like the new President’s saying he’ll have lifted the quarantine and dealt with all the monsters by the end of his term.”

Darling snorted. “Yeah, like the last five years have done? Unless government decides to change their policy and bomb all the infected, they’re just gonna make things worse.”

“Not that it’s a bad thing for you, right?” The soldier smiled. “I mean, if the quarantine ends, what are they gonna do when they find Lia?”

Darling shuddered, having more than just an idea. “Come on man, I’ve watched enough movies like that to give me nightmares about it. Don’t make them come back.”

“Don’t worry man, we’re with you. If the Men in Black show up at your house, we’ll help you take them on.”

“You and what army?”

They all shared a laugh at that.

...The barracks weren’t too far off from the residential area where his home was at. The compound itself was small enough as it was: couldn’t really build too big with less than a hundred people, after all. There were only forty houses or so, and all of them were close to each other.

As was usual, it was on his way to that area that he bumped into Kate and Dylan, bickering loudly.

“I’m telling you, I totally deserved that M300! I’m the one that guided the patrol to the supply drop, yet that asshole Dick took all the credit and took it right off my hands!” Dylan’s wild mop he tried to pass as hair fluttered about him as he had one of his fits.

Kate’s green eyes stared doubtfully. “Richard is the best shot we have in the compound, and has an actual military background. What the hell do you want a machinegun for, Dylan?”

“How else am I gonna go look for a waifu like Lia? I can’t just expect one to drop on my lap like-”

“What’s all this about?” Darling walked up to the two, smacking the both of them behind their heads. “Why do you guys always have to come fight at my front door? Get your own house.”

“Who’d want to live with him?” “Who’d wanna live with her!?”

They glared at each other.

“Well, excuse me for having the blessing of magically smelling like flowers and skittles, princess.”

Kate scoffed. “It’s called shampoo, dumbass. Maybe you should try it out? Honestly, though, I don’t know if anything could get through that matted hair of yours.”

“This hair’s proof of my hard work! How do you think I made these gains?” Dylan flexed his arms, biceps bulging proudly. “It’s an apocalypse, baby, I can look however I want!”

Kate covered her mouth. “Yeah, I’m sure you wouldn’t look like a total douchebag if we weren’t walled in. It’s not just you.”

“It’s amazing you’re so full of energy after Lia almost snapped you in two last year.” Darling clapped his friend on the back. “Or that you want anything to do with one, actually. What was that about a ‘waifu’?”

Kate grinned, while Dylan paled.

“W-Well, you know…” He stuttered. “She is kinda hot…”

“He’s got it into his head that there’s a monster just like her out there, waiting for a prince to sweep her off her feet…” Kate fluttered her eyes, giving a dreamy sigh. “Looks like he had enough being dumped six feet under by all the girls in the compound, he’s lost all his screws.”

“Shut up! It’s not like anyone is lining up to sleep with you either, you damn washboard!”

“What the fuck did you just say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I…”

Darling zoned them out. They were impossible when they became like this- Honestly, he just wished that Dylan got the hint and asked her out already, but his fool friends seemed eternally doomed to live out a life of failed relationships and mutual banter.

Still, as he opened the door to his house, his spirits were quickly lifted. The sweetness in the air lifted his spirits, and reminded him that long shifts outside the walls rarely went in hand with actually eating something.

A growl in his stomach compounded on that thought, and steered him towards the kitchen. It was there that Lia surprised him.

“Welcome back, Darling!” Lia’s tail swished behind her as she turned on her feet, flashing him a brilliant smile with lots of teeth. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah.” Darling wasn’t paying much attention to the food, however. “Where did you get that from, Lia?”

“That?” Lia’s bright orange eyes followed Darling’s pointing finger, to the pink apron that was draped over her shapely body. The frilly garment clung to her breasts and hid her navel from view, but the two strings tying it to her back left nothing to the imagination.

“Do you like it, Darling?” Lia shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her smile gaining a sultry edge as her man became transfixed by the swaying of her plush butt. “Kate said you would...”

“Yeah…” He stepped close, taking the monstergirl’s unspoken offer. “I love it.” His right hand slid down the small of her back, stroking the base of her tail to a sweet moan, and further down to grope at a plump cheek.

“Ah…” Lia’s ashen skin tinged blue, and she pressed against his touch. A probing finger between her thighs returned moist and warm. She was very happy to see him. “N-Not… Right now…”

Darling blinked. “No?” That was rare. Lia was very open about her desires, and it was usually him that had to stop her from giving free eye-candy to all the voyeurs out there.

His eyes narrowed. What is going on here?

“It’s important…” Lia squirmed, her voice coming in little pants as Darling slid a hand under the pink cloth concealing her chest. “I need to… cook...!”

“Hmm, I guess you were cooking, but it’s more important than me?” He teased, enjoying the cuteness of her sputtered denials. Sniffing at the air, he found that the intense sugary scent he’d picked up came from a stainless steel pot, which Lia had firmly shut with both of her hands.

“What are you making?” He whispered into her ear, nipping at a scaly ear fin. “Tell me.”

“N-No, it’s a secret!” Tears welled up at the corner of her eyes, Lia’s legs crossed with barely suppressed desire. “You have to wait!”

The forces of good and evil waged a battle in Darling’s mind. She’s trying to surprise you with something good. The little angel on his shoulder told him. As fun as it is to tease her, why would you spoil that?

Bully her! The devil cried out. Dragon girls are made for bullying! Her tears shall become diamonds on your dick!

You can always bully her later, you know?

Darling sighed mournfully. “Fiiine.” He nuzzled her neck, murmuring happily at the smell of blueberries. “I’ll wait, but this better be good.”

“Yes, I promise!” As he pulled away, Lia’s head tilted up to capture his lips with her own. Her velvet touch brushed him for a brief, exquisite moment. “I love you, Darling.”

“I love you too.” He smiled. With a smile like that, who couldn’t?

...He told her he would wait, but having gotten grabby with the sexy monstergirl right off the bat, he found that sitting at the dining table while his erection still stood strong was rather frustrating.

To calm himself down, he thought of the Caines he’d driven off that day on his shift. Mangy manes coated in dried blood, long muzzles filled with yellowed teeth, and piercing golden eyes that held nothing but hate for the living.

Honestly, he couldn’t believe his luck. With all those horrifying monsters crawling about the city, the fact he landed one of if not the only hot one was a miracle in and of itself.

Such was his focus on this matter, that he didn’t even notice Lia approach him until the plate she dropped on the table clattered noisily.

He looked up, and gasped.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Darling!” Lia clapped her hands, offering up the plate of crude, misshapen chocolates that steamed with sweetness.

“What!?” He rubbed at his eyes in disbelief. “Where did you get chocolate from, Lia? It’s crazy expensive!”

Darling knew a guy who had a hopeless sweet tooth, and that was why he could understand that this amount of chocolate was simply obscene. Luxuries were hard to come by when most of the city’s buildings were inhabited by monster nests, and supply drops were very limited in that regard.

If that guy could see the tray of dozens of chocolates set in front of him, he would have probably murdered Darling over them. It was worth a small fortune.

Lia blushed, scratching at her cheek. “I asked the Mayor where I could get them, and I went there to look. It wasn’t that hard?”

Darling’s heart skipped a beat. She went to a chocolate factory? There was no way there wasn’t a den of monsters in there. She must have had to fight them to get the chocolate back home.

He sighed. It was moments like these that reminded him that beyond her exotic looks, Lia was far beyond the realm of the ordinary. That the armored, fire-breathing monster that had almost ended his life was not gone, but simply hidden.

Lia bowed her head. “...Are you angry with me, Darling?”

Her downcast mood was swiftly shattered as Darling slipped one of the baked sweets into her mouth, making her jump. She chewed on the sweet by reflex, and her eyes widened as the chocolate melted in her mouth.

“Of course I’m angry.” He said with a faux-glare, that soon slipped away. “I’m angry you think I’d even get mad at all!”

He popped one of the chocolates into his mouth, and groaned in pleasure. “Oh my god, these are fantastic. Who taught you to make them?”

Suddenly abashed, Lia fidgeted. “Kate did… I asked her to.”

“She’s this good at cooking? Damn, I’m jealous of Dylan.” As Darling chuckled, he missed the sudden stiffening of Lia’s tail at his remark. “Maybe I should ask her to come over-”

“Darling!”

The wall protested as Lia’s hands slammed down on it, each arm flanking a side of Darling’s head. The monstergirl had climbed onto the table and pinned him, full lips pursed into an angry pout.

“I made the chocolates, not Kate.” She gazed at him as her tongue slipped out of her mouth, the long blue muscle curling around a dark sweet and pulling it up. “I made them with love…”

Darling’s breath was stolen away by the fire in her eyes. He opened his mouth, and Lia’s tongue slipped inside, smacking the sweet against his palate. It melted quickly, both from the heat of Lia’s muscle and its power as she slurped across his mouth.

She leaned into the kiss, murmuring sweet nothings as Darling reached out to hold her. When they broke away, any thoughts of Kate were long gone from Darling’s mind.

“What do you say we put away these sweets for later?” Darling exhaled. “Right now, I want to savor something else…”

Lia gazed at him with half-lidded eyes. “Yes…”

It didn’t take them long to get ready. Rather, Darling was at the end of his patience already. Why did his wife have to be so sexy?

They didn’t even move into the bedroom. Darling chose to bend her over on the table she’d already climbed over, locking his fingers around her narrow waist to hold her in place.

“Hurry, Darling…” Slipping a hand between her legs, Lia stretched open her lower lips. The light blue flesh glistened with her juices, and her pussy twitched hungrily as she brushed it with a finger. “I want it!”

Who was he to say no?

It’s good that I bought a metal table, Darling thought as he angled the head of his cock with Lia’s pulsing sex. Otherwise this thing would’ve long since broken down.

As he swung his hips and hilted himself inside of the monstergirl, he silently prayed that this time would be no different.

---

In 2022 AD, a city in the United States became the victim of an apocalyptic virus outbreak. In the course of one day, the mutagenic disease spread through the populace of the city and transformed 90% of the population into frenzied abominations that could only be described as ‘monsters’.

As a response, the government acted decisively to put the entire city under quarantine, walling the entire perimeter so no person could get in or out of the afflicted zone.

The sensational event became the target of attention worldwide, as countries all over the world demanded that the fullest extent of humanitarian aid be extended to those humans that still lived in the quarantine zone. However, even the most powerful of people inside the city were prevented from leaving.

Because even those unaffected by the virus were carrying it, if the quarantine was broken the extent of the damage it could cause might result in the global collapse of civilization. As a result, the United States committed to resolving the situation by finding a cure to the mutagenic virus.

However, there are many doubts regarding the transparency of the United States government in respect to the actions they have taken to deal with the issue. Why keep the humans in the same quarantined area as the monsters? Why the reluctance to send any reasonable number of forces into the quarantine area to perform humanitarian aid?

Due to the United States keeping information regarding the quarantined city to a minimum, many conspiracy theories were discussed in internet forums, boasting various degrees of popularity.

Perhaps among the most popular of these, yet most ridiculous, was that of the ‘Supersoldier Program’.

This outlandish theory claimed that the virus was an accidental outbreak of a mutagenic substance the US was researching to develop a race of genetically engineered supersoldiers, powerful beings who could have the destructive power of a tank or fighter jet at 1/1000th of the cost.

Furthermore, it claimed that these supersoldiers were meant to be given the instincts of a beast, and bonded to a human that would serve as their commander in battle. It was a ploy by the government to create a system where war would no longer need to be waged by men, and so wars could be waged forever regardless of public commitment.

If that was true, then the United States would have a reason to keep any non-essential personnel away from the quarantine area. If it was the region where the program was developed, then everyone under the city qualified as a national secret… One that the country would not wish to give up.

But surely, something so in the realm of the fantastic couldn’t be true…

Could it?