ASCENT

*Seraphim ASCENT* is the **first installment** of the main *Project SERAPHIM* series.

## Synopsis

*"The truth is, this is already Hell."*

  After waking up in the morgue of an abandoned sanitarium, Rey has only a toe tag to her name and no recollection as to how she got there.

In a country staggered by a global war called the Long Winter,
 she will also find herself in its capitol now reigned under martial law
 by a totalitarian government, which alters the personalities of some of
 its citizens with what is known as the Permutation Regimen.

As a result of this regimen, riots have stirred the city by a group of activists calling themselves the Vorpals, orchestrated by a man named David Wednesday and his friend, Enid Lyall. They are also helped by a government employee, Tejinder Wakeman, who is caught in the middle of a conspiracy that may compromise the life as he knows it.

Though her memories are fractured, Rey finds that her connection
to various people she does not seem to remember having ever met. What
more, if she has any hope to uncover her identity, she must follow a
trail that she can only venture with the help of the Vorpals.

They say that time heals, and the truth will set you free. But as
 Rey draws closer to that truth, she learns that she is linked to both
sides of a blood-spattered coin, and her role in it all will beg to
question if her answer is a skeleton she wants digging out of the closet.

## Summary

### Part I

In the year 2056, the first trial of the twin cybernetic
creations made by the Niflheim Research Facility goes up in literal flames when
*Subject FREYJA* destroys her brother, *Subject FREY*. Despaired, the mother and
father donors, Drs. *Undine Stransky*
and *Lucas Coffey,* are forced to make
a decision: Either evaluate Subject FREYJA’s psychosocial abilities, or process her
for termination. Unable to fail her daughter-creation, Undine goes forth with
the evaluation for the next year. However, when FREYJA reveals signs of
tampering and the director of the project has concluded to terminate the
subject as a failure anyway, Undine is granted aid to help FREYJA’s escape with
an out-of-state researcher, *Dr. Jonathan Quayle*.

Nine decades later, in the capitol of the Western Order
(Engelus, Nevada), the blind Archiver, *Tejinder Wakeman* breaks into the city surveillance network to find that the civil
unrest regarding the *Permutation Regimen* has
resulted in a full out riot on the streets. He is then drawn to the abandoned *Renaissance Sanitarium* when he notes
that some of the city’s patrol unit has been dispatched there. Drawn by a song
that’s playing within the sanitarium, he prepares to investigate, only to be
attacked by a *deranger,* a psychotic
failure of the permutation.

Also drawn to the song and the sanitarium are *David Wednesday* and his childhood
friend, *Enid Lyall,* when David sees
the units dispatching to the Renaissance in his apartment. Despite the city
under martial law and a strict curfew being set, he and Enid both head to the
sanitarium, where they discover blood drops and signs of a struggle.

Not long before their arrival, a woman wakes up trapped
inside a morgue, with only a toe tag to her name and no recollection of how she
got there. The tag gives her only her one clue as to who she is: *Rey.* With only that knowledge in mind,
she ascends from the morgue and is assaulted by a deranger, which is dispatched
quickly by her own skills. A brief memory flashes, and she realizes that she
must be a soldier of some kind. Upon realizing this, however, the city
officials discover and fire on her. Wounded, she ventures deeper into the
sanitarium.

Split up, David and Enid both take separate routes through
the Renaissance. Enid finds Tejinder holed up in a storage closet, while David
discovers Rey in a hospital room. Their meeting is cut short when they are
discovered by the armed unit, but not before Rey hides and David is taken away.
Enid and Tejinder arrive in time to find Rey hidden under a bed. They agree to
go to the Permutation Clinic, where Enid needs the Archiver in order to breach
and Rey tagging along with a need of unfinished business to contend with at the
clinic.

There, David is being tortured by the chancellor of the Western Order, *Gregory Tremond,* and
loses functionality in both his legs. Crippled, Enid and Tejinder find David
after Rey had gone her separate way. Tejinder aids in Enid’s rescue attempt of
her friend, having his own personal agenda in mind — because he is part of the
underground cyber-organization known as the Vorpals, just as David and Enid
are.

Meanwhile, *Orion* *Gideon*, who currently works for Tremond, just arrives in the capitol upon
orders of the chancellor himself. During their meeting, however, Rey cuts them
short and open fires while guised as one of their guards, killing the
chancellor and nearly wounding Orion. The two give chase through Engelus, where
Orion has Rey pinned but chooses not to kill or turn her in for his own
reasons.

### Part II

One week later in San Diego, California — *Aiden Winters,* a private investigator,is meeting with his informant who has
recent information regarding Orion Gideon. His recent whereabouts reveal him to
be in Engelus, Nevada. Determined to find this man, the private investigator is
Engelus-bound, but not before he discovers a photograph nearly a century old
planted in the seat of his car.

On the outskirts of Engelus, David Wednesday and Enid Lyall
have been laying low, with their organization being held responsible for the
assassination of the chancellor. Unrest becomes more rampant in the city, and
Tejinder Wakeman is under investigation after being suspended from his work at
the surveillance tower. He meets with his brother, *Tamas Wakeman,* a crippled teenager who reveals to have powered exoskeletons to help him walk and drive thanks to a researcher in the Eastside
Republic, *Theora de la Vega.*

After recovering from her fever, Rey awakens to find herself
in the care of an Irishman. For reasons unknown, she is quick to rebuke his
goodwill and the man soon leaves. She wanders the city, and is hit by a car
going 60MPH, who turns out to be Aiden Winters. Somehow, though, the woman is
able to walk away nearly unscathed, just as she did when she had jumped out of
the top of the Permutation Clinic the week prior. Despite his attempts to help
her, Aiden is shrugged off and Rey ventures into the streets again. She then
runs into a fuse jacker and her dealer, *Camilla Rose* *and Delta Selwyn*. Rey is
then drugged by Camilla, and proceeds to have a psychotic trip when she becomes
more aware of her surroundings, sensing the presence of synthetic figures under
cloaking devices within the city. She runs, and eventually bumps into Tejinder
and his little brother, before collapsing.

Knowing that the city is in danger with a Battle-Brave weapon
somewhere in it, Tejinder Wakeman is headed to the Reactor of Nuclear Applications
to try and prevent a Second Cataclysm. He and Rey enter the reactor, leaving
behind Tamas to try and exit the city while Engelus is on lockdown in the wake
of the chancellor’s assassination. This proves to be fruitless, when they
discover that the Battle-Brave isn’t in the reactor like it should be, but
already in the city. Their only option left is to run.

After meeting with an old friend and colleague at the patrol
unit building, Aiden Winters is on his way out of the city to pursue his investigation
on Orion Gideon. He is then caught in a crossfire when synthetic soldiers are
deployed within the city walls, slaughtering civilians and armed patrol
officers as well. He barely escapes with his life, and runs into Tejinder
Wakeman and Rey, the latter who Aiden recognizes from the photograph. Upon
showing Rey the image, she suffers a mental shutdown. Before the Battle-Brave
can erupt, the three of them successfully flee the city.

Back on the outskirts, Orion Gideon had been attempting to
track down the Vorpals, expecting them to lead him to someone he is looking
for. After attempting to dupe Enid Lyall, his plan backfires and she ends up
taking Orion hostage in their safehouse. Tied up, Orion is subjected to a truth
serum, where he is forced to give them most of his personal details but unable
to provide them with too much information. He appears to have a shutdown when
trying to give them too much. Drained by the serum, Enid helps Orion outside
where they are then contacted by the posthumous chancellor, Gregory Tremond,
who seems very much alive. As he goads Orion, Engelus erupts into what will
later be known as the Second Cataclysm.

## POV Characters

* Rey
* Tejinder Wakeman
* Enid Lyall
* David Wednesday
* Orion Gideon
* Aiden Winters
* Colonel Helena Lyonene
* Faye Elms