Orphan Annie
[MT] | [Mature]
This recording was completed at 2345 Hours; Saturday, 2nd July, 2011. Army Doctor Mitchell M. Turner, Captain presiding over this tape. For the betterment of the Adjudication and Repudiation Committee as authorized by His Eminence the Holy Ixion of the Axidonal Church, and by His Majesty the Great and Noble Achæon of the Azuran Empire. With full honors, regards, and the privileges vested in me herein, so begins this constructive analysis of the progress made by the military analysts at Imperial Army Base Fort Vania regarding the Orphan Annie Project.
As an objective reporter, I wish to clarify that the following records my experiences at the camp, inasmuch as I was able to perform for the benefit of my comrades stationed at Vania. On a personal note, I wish to implore the review panel that partakes of this audio file to keep an open mind about the events that are recounted within. I should make mention that while these methods shall sound... exotic from the comfort of your offices, know going in that I shall fully vouch for the unorthodox methodology implored by the Orphan Annie team, and will gladly make any and all arrangements necessary for you to acquire the same hands on experience that I was able to partake of—for it is of paramount importance to see as well as hear.
With this caveat in mind, I present to you a full recollection of the events as they transpired, with requisite skimming where necessary to alleviate the burden of time on the adjudication committee. Tape begins after this pause for clarity and posterity...
I arrived at the front gates of Fort Vania at 1100 Hours on 30th June. I was escorted through the control center as part of a larger convoy representing the vested interest that all service branches of the Imperial Armed Forces have in the success and continued progress of Orphan Annie. After a brief luncheon that saw the facility commander take the talking heads on a visual tour of the facilities used for the 'public' face of the project, I was quietly escorted as per your instructions by the Team Leader, Captain Montgomery Charles Scott.
As a personal aside, I'd like to take time to commend Captain Scott for his magnificent work in organizing Orphan Annie. I found his instructions, his guidance, and his set-up to be both flawless, professionally done, and magnificently efficient. High marks should be awarded to Captain Scott for his dedication to the vitality and continued success of Orphan Annie.
Once we were quietly apart from the rest of the group, I was lead down through a secured entrance way hidden behind a false wall in the Captain's secretarial area. Once through the first wall, a series of stringent security checks were implemented to insure the security of the facility below. As a precaution, we were required to check in with a security monitoring station and provide written acceptance of our refusal to hold the Imperial Army liable for any psychological damage done by the visit.
As we made our way through the security checkpoints en route to the actual Vania Military Installation housed below the public one, Captain Scott began to relay a bit of information regarding the technical layout of the facility, which I shall relay to you now. The Vania Military Installation proper has five levels, each built underground to help contain the experiments working within. The entire first level is comprised of five security checkpoints, ensuring containment policies are kept at all times. There is also a workroom, chemical showers, and a conference room for scientists to use at their leisure. The first floor, henceforth referred to as BL1, was the main administrative wing of the facility. Because of its lack of importance to the results of Orphan Annie, we shall absolve further mention of it at this time.
Using a secure elevator, we were taken under heavy guard into the second sub-level of the complex, BL2. Colloquially known as the "Psyche Ward", this level of the facility deals with psychological experiments used to ascertain the emotional limits of a human being. While multiple experiments are carried out on a daily basis, we were able to take part in three experiments while we were there.
The first experiment involved the limits of human endurance when hunger was an issue. To simulate the conditions necessary, three prisoners were given no food for two weeks, and only the bare minimum amount of water necessary to sustain life. On the day that we arrived, the experiment began in earnestness when the cadaver of a man was laid into the room, along with eating utensils. Two of the men slowly moved towards the cadaver, while the third man sat in the corner of the room, refusing to indulge in the meal provided him.
While tentative at first, the other two men eventually began to carve away at the cadaver, which had been freshly slaughtered for the occasion. Particular emphasis was placed on capturing the organs that were consumed first. In their state of ravenous hunger, the two men became more and more violent in their dissection. While chunks of meat were carved delicately with knives at first, the prisoners' hands became the primary mode of ripping meat from the carcass of the woman. The breast tissue was of particular delight to their palates, apparently. Prisoner #1 was particularly engrossed with the consumption of the small intestine. Because the cadaver had not emptied her bowels before being executed, the lower intestine contained copious amounts of fecal matter. Yet strangely, the presence of this material did nothing to quell the hunger of the famished individual. His compatriot in the meal stayed higher on the body, gorging himself on the inner lining of the left lung for a time.
When the data was recorded, two armed guards entered the room and exterminated both newly-minted cannibals. The third man, however, was taken by force from the room, gagged, and brought into a small sitting area adjacent to the previous slaughter room. I observed the frail individual as he was bound to a chair with leather holding straps. A man in a butcher's smock and a visor helmet came into the room, holding carving utensils that were still stained with blood from a previous encounter with a prisoner. Even as I watched in fascination and awe, the butcher took advantage of the restrained individual. Using his larger knife, the soldier brought the instrument down with a thwack into the outstretched arm of the starving man. The gag muffled much of the scream, though a wheezing, agonizing... guttural moan emanated from the prisoner. Blood seeped through the wound, and I would estimate that at the time, his left arm had been halfway severed below the elbow.
Once the first cut had been made, the butcher took advantage of his smaller carving knives, delicately slicing off a thick chunk of forearm about two inches long and a quarter-inch deep. It was a fairly sizable portion of meat, to be sure. Once the meat and gristle had been stripped from the arm, the butcher took the meat out of the room, allowing the prisoner to slip in and out of shock. A second soldier had entered while the first was cutting the arm, and had set up a cistern below to catch the draining blood. What I didn't know at the time was that everything was being done to prepare for the second experiment I would be privy to in the Psyche Ward.
After five or so minutes, three soldiers re-entered the room, carrying plates containing small portions of meat cooked haphazardly. As they approached, I could tell by the accentuation of the cuts that they were going to serve the man his own flesh. The three plates were placed on a small table set out in front of the man. As we began to observe the experiment unfold, it was apparent that the prisoner was somewhat inclined to presume that the flesh laid out before him was from his own arm. Granted, the prisoner's weakened physical state from starvation, blood loss, and blunt force trauma probably limited his emotional and mental capacity. However, the prisoner at first steadfastly refused to take the meat offered him. The second phase of the experiment, however, would turn the tables. I volunteered to step into the room, sitting across from the young man as he fazed in and out. Taking a piece of the meat, I put the food into my mouth, chewing with great fervor. As the man watched me eat, the sensation of hunger became too much, and he began to eat the second piece laid out before him.
At one point, a soldier approached with a swab stick, grabbing the prisoner by the hair and yanking his head back. I watched in curiosity as the soldier shoved the stick down into the man's gullet, making him wretch and gag. As the prisoner began to throw up, I noticed that the soldier had thrown the last piece of meat into the vomit. Without hesitation, the man dove in to retrieve the last piece of meat, symbolizing the uttermost limits a human being would endure to receive sustenance. I was escorted out of the room before a gunshot signified the end of the prisoner's meal.
After leaving the feeding area, I was enjoined to view one final demonstration in the Psyche Ward. A male prisoner was bound in chains to a wall, and was given only a short razor blade to hold onto. Through a looking glass mirror, I witnessed a woman and three young girls brought into a separate room. Judging by the emotional response of the prisoner, I took the women to be related to the man—perhaps his wife and daughters. A quartet of soldiers began to accost the women, in full view of the prisoner. The older woman had her clothes stripped from her body, and she was beaten with bamboo rods and leather whips before being brutally raped by multiple men. After each man had his fill, the next man in line would take his turn savagely brutalizing her fragile body. I suspect this carried on for thirty minutes, as six individuals took their turns until the blood from her sexual organs became too great to ignore. As the grown woman’s body was laid to waste in front of her apparent husband, the three young girls, none of whom was younger than ten or older than fifteen, were treated in much the same manner as the grown woman had been. However, instead of sexually violating them, the captors cut off their breast tissue, their noses and their ears with crude combat knives, before ripping open their throats in front of the captive prisoner.
It was at this point that Mr. Scott informed me of the nature of the experiment. As I had surmised, the prisoner held captive in bondage was the husband and father of the four women that were tortured in his sight. The test was designed, as were all Orphan Annie experiments, to gauge the absolute limits of the human body and condition. In this experiment, the researchers wished to gauge how much emotional torment a prisoner could handle before he killed himself to alleviate the burden. To the prisoner‘s credit, he did not once move to slit his wrists at the sight of his fallen family. To reward him, a guard put a bullet into his chest, ending his suffering.
Because of time constraints, I was not able to see any other experiments done in BL2, though we did briefly tour the physical prison that held the test subjects while they were given a brief respite from their service to the Empire. The facilities were sufficient for the duration of the prisoners’ stay in the cells, which to wit was “not long” according to Mr. Scott. Through the prison bloc, however, we boarded another secure elevator through a secondary checkpoint. This elevator brought us to BL3, colloquially known as the “Brothel” at Vania.
Captain Scott introduced me to Lieutenant Commander Jason Alamance, a reserve officer of the Imperial Air Force who was on loan from that institution to head up the original concept of Orphan Annie—the forced impregnation program. BL3 only contains female prisoners; those selected are either fertile, beautiful, or preferably both. And all individuals must be healthy, lest they be shipped to one of the two remaining levels below. BL3 was divided into two units: an impregnation center and a medical clinic. In the first center, healthy women were stripped naked and positioned on crude mattresses, where scientists (and soldiers, as I came to find out) would attempt to impregnate them through rape. Once a woman became pregnant, she was immediately moved to the medical clinic, where she would be cared for in order to bring forth a healthy child. When in labor, nurses would perform an episiotomy without sedation in order to facilitate a more rapid birth. The women that were not permanently scarred by this experience would be given two months to recuperate, before they would be strapped back to the bed and raped night and day, sometimes for hours on end until they conceived once more.
The babies delivered had varying fates. Most of the male specimens were shipped off to special camps, where they would be nurtured and grown into capable fighting machines, bred from the start for war. Some of the healthiest girls would also be raised at special camps, only to be returned when they were of child-bearing age to Vania to resume the practices of their mothers. The remainder of the boys and girls born were either taken to BL4 (where they would be used for target practice) or BL5 (where they would be used for medical experimentation).
As I toured the facilities, I was given a chance to see up close the nature of the sublevel. Some of the women used in the impregnation center had given birth upwards of ten, eleven, even fifteen times. Some, however, had been sterilized after having given birth to several children, and were retained only as comfort women to the workers of the secret facilities. I was given the opportunity to perform for my country with one of the luckier specimens—those who could still give birth. Those that had been sterilized were often beaten to the point of death, or worse, killed outright. As I went in unto her, I noticed an unpleasant aroma in the room. Her skin, though doused with perfume, had a faint smell of urine and vomit. I endured the experience, however, and did what was asked of me. It was an interesting, if unconventional experience.
Though I savored the opportunity of seeing the newer subjects in the Brothel, our time forced us down further to BL4, also known as the “Gallery”. By the time we had reached this sublevel, I was growing quite tired from the various activities I’d partaken in, and so we quite breezily sped through this level. BL4 is devoted to weapons testing entirely. Various prototypes of service rifles, submachine guns, pistols, and especially grenades were tested at varying ranges. Artillery shells were detonated in special enclosures to test their destructive power. And various bayonets and knives were tested to demonstrate their effectiveness to military researchers, who would feed the invaluable information back to their superiors.
As we approached the end of BL4, I was privy to one special demonstration of a prototype flamethrower that was being used on a group of prisoners dressed in ragged military uniforms. As I watched with great interest, the flamethrower melted away the skin from their arms and torsos, almost liquefying it in the intense heat. As their skin melted away to reveal sinewy bone and muscle, I became fascinated by the complexity of the drills. As the first batch of prisoners went down, more prisoners were herded in through a false wall to the rear of the testing room. This process repeated for almost twenty minutes, as the durability and strength of the weapon was tested in almost every manner possible.
As we came to the secure lift that would take us to the final level of the underground facility, I was enjoined to place myself in a special biohazard environmental suit in preparation of BL5. As we suited up in the elevator, I was told by Captain Scott that BL5—“The Infirmary” as it was known at Vania—was the single largest biological testing ground in the Azuran Empire. Intrigued by the possibilities, I must profess that I found the facilities at BL5 to be the most important, yet the most aesthetically boring halls of the entire compound. Simple rooms were hermetically sealed by special plastics and metal sheets, as scientists and physicians intentionally infected the unfortunate souls here with all manner of diseases: Azuran Hemorrhagic Fever, Cholera, Ebola, Lassa, Malaria, Praxa, Smallpox, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, and various other agents. Chemical agents like chlorine and mustard gas was used on prisoners in special chambers, while experimental surgeries such as vivisection, appendectomies, lobotomies, and other procedures were performed—most in unsanitary conditions or without sedation to monitor the physical effects on the human body in extreme conditions such as those presented here.
As a final note, I wish to make special mention of the most interesting room in the entire facility, at least for my money. The previously aforementioned babies that were brought down to this level were given a worse fate than the children who were used on BL4 as human clays for skeet shooting with sniper rifles. The children brought to BL5 were intentionally used as guinea pigs, providing detail on the extreme conditions which a human infant could withstand in order to provide incredible working data for pediatricians all over the Empire.
As we took the emergency lift back up to the surface, I thanked Captain Scott for the thorough examination of Orphan Annie. Vania has produced some indispensable analysis for our War Department, and it is the opinion of this reviewer that continued funding of the operation be processed at your earliest possible convenience. As it were, I shall request a permanent transfer to Vania in short order to continue the revolutionary work begun there. As this information survives as sensitive material, and should not be disclosed to the public, I have encrypted this data disk with a fail-safe key—the answer to which is on your personage tonight. Thus concludes my report on Project Orphan Annie.
Doctor Mitchell M. Turner, Captain,
The Imperial Army of the Azuran Empire