The room was dimly lit, two figures sitting on either side of a table. One was clad in a dark steel grey armor, a helmet sitting on the table beside him. In front of him, his hands were bound together by a pair of hand cuffs. On the other side, a fairly young man sat with a lit cigarette clamped between his lips. His eyes were still visible in the dim light, a dark brown color to them, and his intense gaze focused on the cuffed man's face. A hand rose from his side, removing the cigarette from his lips as he exhaled slowly, a stream of smoke blowing across the table and into the other man's face, whom turned his head away at the sensation.
"What's the matter, tough guy? Don't tell me this big bad merc Is afraid of a little smoke?"
With a stern glance, the man turned to face him, his lips turned in an irritated scowl.
"Alright, tough guy. Look here. My name is Caleb Wilson, and I am an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And you? Well, you're a mystery. See, we ran your fingerprints, used facial recognition software to search an international database for someone of your appearance, even resorted to piling through old school documents, trying to find any matches. And you'll never guess what we found..."
Agent Wilson spoke slowly and clearly, his voice stoic and controlled. He jabbed his fingers toward the man, the cigarette still smoking from the blazing tip of the cylinder. An intrigued smile crossed his face before he continued.
"...you don't exist."
The agent shook his head, taking another drag on his cigarette before looking at the mystery man again.
"I have to say, it's impressive. You know, we have records on virtually every criminal who's even robbed an old lady on a street corner over the past thirty years. But, you, we have nothing. No information at all. Now, judging by the armor and weapons we've confiscated from you, you're someone of means, and more so, the kind of guy that gets into all kinds of trouble. So, tell me, how is it that we have absolutely no info on you?"
The man looked at the agent, then glanced at his cuffs, adjusting his hands slightly by twisting them, appearing to be testing their tightness. He winced slightly before letting them rest on the table again. With a slow exhale, he looked at him again, sighing briefly.
"Maybe you're all just incompetent."
The reply was dry, his voice quiet and surprisingly non-chalant. It was evident that the man was accustomed to this sort of thing. The smooth sound to his voice was almost surprising due to his more gruff appearance and attitude. Still, it prompted a quick chuckle from the agent.
"Yeah, maybe. Well, at least tell me a bit about yourself. I mean, you're obviously not getting out of here any time soon, so, you may as well just go ahead and cooperate."
The man looked wearily at the agent before sighing briefly. With a slight shrug, he started to reply;
"Yeah. Alright, then. My name is Clyde Oppenheimer, and I used to work for the United States Government as a scientist studying extraterrestrial signals and, well, anything of the sort."
The agent appeared truly intrigued, raising a brow before taking another quick drag on his cigarette. He finally took a final puff on the cylinder before putting it out in the ashtray beside him.
"Alright, I'll bite. Tell me, Mr. Oppenheimer, what makes a man of science become a mercenary for hire?"
"Clyde" shook his head for a few seconds before looking back to him.
"I see no reason not to share information that was supposed to be classified, since they burned me anyway. I discovered a signal, and began communicating with its origin, a single entity that had been stranded in deep space. The signal turned out to be a distress beacon for a vessel, which, as it turned out, had enough fuel to make it here. I neglected to tell my superiors of my decision to help her..."
Agent Wilson suddenly spoke up; "Wait, her?"
The cuffed man simply glared at him for a moment before continuing.
"...when the ship crashed, I found her. She was wounded during the crash. Thanks to the information she had already given me, I was able to retrieve her and nurse her back to health. I also managed to hide the ship. Of course, they found the site, and from there, they started hunting me..."
