Now, back to the Neanderthal, a man with a distinctive complexion, rough features, a powerful physique, and almost no discernible method of communication to reason with.
The moment he woke up, he rampaged violently and tried to jump off the vehicle, but Ajax could barely keep him down long enough for Fish to inject him with three shots of anaesthetic, sending him into a deep, drug-induced slumber.
Hearing the news, Adam gave the order to convert one of the living cubicles into a jail cell and relocate it away from all bases in a secluded quarantine zone, just before the two cars arrived. The Neanderthal was taken into the cubicle, shackled and sedated, before Adam stood before the cage, all thoughts and frowns.
This was no small matter for Adam to think through alone, and so he had to call in the experts: physicians, scientists, and historians. This materialized in Sister Solana, Professor Hendrick, the head surgeon at the civilian hospital, Dr. Patrick Hill, and a history teacher named Jim Norton, who came to the base along with Ajax Wills.
Adam met with these four individuals outside the base in a tent that was set up for him in the snow, before asking each of them what they knew about the early relatives of the human race, and the answers he got weren't disappointing.
Starting with Solana, whose opinion made Adam wary. The Nun, however, took a personal interest in what she considered archaic texts and explained what she knew about the old genes and bloodlines studied by the Solarium in pursuit of mankind's betterment. However, there wasn't much she could tell, yet it offered a perspective different from most.
Professor Hendrick, seemingly uninterested, listed various early human species. Dr. Hill echoed the professor's sentiment, questioning why Adam had summoned them late at night for such an arbitrary discussion. Jim Norton, the teacher, despite his imposing stature, seemed more nervous, launching into an extensive, book-length account of early humanity, their development as tool-users, and related topics.
Adam knew from this ten-minute-long meeting that he had the best people he could have on board, and then led them to meet the newly arrived resident of the nearby cage, guarded by a squad of soldiers, as he was now wide awake, tearing at and sniffing the blankets that had been passed to him.
"Huh!" Solana was the first to approach the cage before pointing, "This looks like something very heretical."
"Sister, with you, everything is heresy." Adam replied, rolling his eyes.
"What is… oh my!" Professor Hendrick approached the cage immediately, but was pulled back the moment he got too close, the Neanderthal casting him a glance, as if he were ready to pounce on him if he got too close.
"Is this some sort of a…" Dr. Hill also became at a loss for words, looking between Adam and the strange man, "He looks so real! Did he arrive through a portal? A Rift, I mean."
Adam barely shrugged before replying:
"I am not sure what I am looking at, but those who discovered him are calling him 'the Neanderthal'. Officially, he's a strange specimen that we picked up a few hours ago. His physical strength is enough for him to subdue a Dire Wolf without the assistance of any tool or rune; his constitution makes him very resistant to our drugs, requiring three times the normal amount of anaesthetic to be sedated, and he makes Kave look sane."
"Whoa! No need to go that far." Professor Hendrick caught the joke, "So… how were your communication efforts with this… specimen?"
"When we gave him food, he became less wary of us. It took us a moment to eat some in front of him so he would realize it was food." Adam replied.
"I would love to draw blood samples if possible. Looking into his blood would tell us a lot." Dr. Hill said.
"We had our medics draw blood samples when he was sedated. I guess you can join them in their work." Adam approved this course of action, seeing Dr. Hill as the most competent member of the group so far.
"Excuse me, Justiciar Clay." Jim Norton approached Adam politely and asked an odd question: "What made you decide that this guy is a Neanderthal?"
Adam blinked twice as he looked at the large history teacher before turning to the archaic human in the cage, eating a piece of roasted wolf meat, while watching them just as intensely as they were watching him. Adam couldn't help but furrow his brows before answering:
"I don't know. The others were calling him that the moment they captured him. He looks like a Neanderthal from the images we know, so…"
Jim Norton nodded before facing Adam.
"I don't think it is right to assume so right away. I mean, the images we had were reconstructions made based on our imagination of how a dermal layer might fit a fossil. The same goes for dinosaurs, actually. So we had no idea what the outer shape looked like, except for what we speculated. That's point number one." Jim said, holding up a finger, "Point number two is that Neanderthals only existed in Europe and some parts of West Asia; no trace of them was found in the Americas. And aside from the Neanderthals, we have other species like the Denisovans from Siberia and Tibet, Homo Naledi from South Africa, and Homo Floresiensis from Indonesia—fun fact, these last ones were called the Hobbits…"
As Jim went into a long-winded lecture, Adam immediately made a 'T' sign, interrupting the man.
"What you're saying is we shouldn't call him a Neanderthal because we don't know what the hell he is." Adam concluded.
"Yes." Jim nodded before adding, "Looking for his origin is more important, if I may say so. Did he come from a time in the past, the same way the Wartopians came from the future—if that's right, I mean. Was he reanimated with some Necromancy Rune?"
"There is no Necromancy Rune…" Adam wanted to reject the idea since no major rune existed that would do such a thing, but knowing that there were newborn runes like his Puppeteer Rune, and anticipating someone with a rune like his inside them, who was supposedly looking for him, he suddenly felt it unwise to dismiss the possibility of a Necromancy Rune. "Were there any museums or exhibits showing archaic human fossils around Brighthaven?"
Adam's question made Jim's face brighten with joy.
"Yes, there were some in Harper University." Jim said with joy, "Amazing, right? A rune that may be able to resurrect complete humans from small fossils. We… we can build an army of them, teach them how to fight, and reconquer the planet once again."
Adam's skin prickled at what Jim was imagining, but he was still able to shoot him a cold stare.
"Do I have to build a crazy people asylum any time soon, Mr. Norton?" Adam asked.
"Nope… Just a little bit excited… that's all." Jim Norton immediately toned it down.
Adam listened for more opinions from the team he assembled to research this situation, having an unexplainable sense of urgency whenever he thinks too much about it, pushing him to quickly assign a fresh squad for the two H-Bug vehicles and keep on the scouting efforts. Only time would tell what sort of creature they were dealing with, and to hasten this understanding, Adam needed to be able to see further beyond the snow and blizzard.
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The development of the Neanderthal situation was at a stalemate for two days, but Adam made a lot of progress in those two days to the point where the map on the holo table was now three times as large as it had been before.
He was trying to push past the monsters in order to reach areas where he had no prior visibility, and once he managed to spread his Scanner Beacons far enough, he was able to get his troops past the Dire Wolf Rift, far to the west, toward Omen, and succeeded in deploying a scanner beacon very close to the outskirts of the city.
What happened afterwards put a huge halt on Adam's operation plan, as the moment Omen was fully revealed on the radar, he found that at its western end, there was a huge influx of red dots, which didn't look friendly at all. He had ignored scouting north and west, focusing on his most immediate target in the south—Brighthaven City, but now that the situation looked like that, he wasn't sure he had enough firepower for that many red dots on the map.
Sure enough, no survivors came from that direction, not a single one. However, Adam couldn't help but stay up day and night, watching the movement of these red dots and worried about sending any scouts in that direction, fearing they would invite the attention of either a massive monster horde or a massive Rift break.
He consulted with Captain Creed and his sergeants, and they all advised him to speed up the unit production and double the power allocated to the War Factory. War Machines would prove to be the most effective assets in an extended war if he could amass enough logistics to support them.
Since the problem once again revolved around power and resources, Adam made the bold decision to expand during winter. He had parts of Springhead that were effectively under his control, so he went east towards the ocean and laid plans for a fourth base, which would be reserved for Plasma Generators. With enough of them, he could not only sustain a greater population but also afford a higher production rate.
And since power production required a power grid for transmission, Adam was considered to have laid the groundwork for this by simply constructing Scanner Beacons. Beacons were highly versatile. While their primary function allowed them to act as radar 'eyes', their deployment in remote locations also meant they required a type of turret equipped with Blazer beam cannons. These turrets, however, weren't meant for defense, as their purpose was to both fire and receive long-range beams. This might seem unusual at first, but it was the most efficient way to transmit power and ensure the continued operation of both the scanner network and the power grid.
This was the first project Adam had to plan for during the next day's meeting with his advisors, namely Kave, Elena, Megan, and Captain Creed. After that was all set, Adam surprised them with another suggestion: to establish a kill-box around the Dire Wolves Rift.
It was very clear at this point that such a Rift was a blessing in disguise, at least for the time being. The fact that it provided the camps with wolf meat meant that they wouldn't starve during the winter, and almost everyone in camp had grown in favor of the strong, gamey aroma and texture of wolf meat.
It was a great feat to turn a Rift, a gateway of death, into a source of food and life. That was why the kill-box was needed to maximize the hunting ratio and prevent the wolves from running off to face whatever was causing their numbers to dwindle. It would also be a great way to study a Rift up close, maybe send a team inside, and study those fantastical portals.
This would require another base, but Adam needed a very careful and well-thought-out design to set this base up without disturbing the Rift or exposing its dwellers to any danger, either in or out of the kill-box.
The more pressing plan, however, was how to increase the numbers and power of the military department. The new propaganda, featuring Ajax Wills as a US Army veteran fighting within the Solarium's ranks, was already gaining popularity among the survivors. Many workers in the civilian base were discussing the prospect of becoming troopers for the increased pay and the good cause of fighting for humanity.
To further this effort, Adam intended to install large screens throughout the town and begin construction on a Propaganda Center. With Yuki Nakamura and others acting as advocates and recruiters, they would finally be able to broadcast a message of resistance to the whole world.
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