This is introducing a new character who will be a recurring yet important member in the A.T.X.D. Universe. Her name is Captain Jordana "Jordan" Ceva-Ankers, and she is introduced as the effective Warden of a top-secret extraterrestrial prison on Earth, and we will later find out (but not in this scene) that she is one of the closest friends to one of the series' main characters - Ashley Miller. This is the scene where we get kind of an outside-in look at the character as she comes off patrol duty.
CONTENT ADVISORY: The prison in-question which Jordan is in charge of guarding is named after a facility from extraterrestrial conspiracy lore called "Dulce Base." I discovered this during a search on Google for setting research in my stories, not a conspiracy website. I purposefully did very little research on the actual conspiracy theory for obvious reasons (the most I did was look up the theory on Wikipedia, and that's it). Everything about the setting, why it exists, etc. was made up wholly by me and is not based in any way, shape, form on the actual conspiracy theory.
>>>>>>>DULCE BASE<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>LOCATION: UNAVAILABLE<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>9:01 PM MDT<<<<<<<
The chief of prison security walked firmly between the cinder block walls of a secure servicing corridor bound for the Warden’s Office without having to pass nearly as many inmates. The lighting was old and the bulbs had dimmed from their original bright white to a flickering greenish-white, exemplifying the age of the facility’s surface architecture which was rarely updated except when it came to the security measures. Maybe, on the one hand, it was to disappoint trespassers before the appropriate measures were taken to suppress or neutralize their threat to the installation. Or maybe it was because there was a greater investment made to the security measures down below, where few people were allowed and, prior to stricter protocols being introduced, even fewer returned.
From head to toe, Captain Jordana “Jordan” Ceva-Ankers, strictly referred to as Dulce Leader, was the living personification of authority in the base. Jordan was a tall woman with a slender-yet-firm build, walked with a uniform twist of the shoulders in line with the legs, and the treads of her Magnum Stealth Force boots still had traces of terrestrial roach gore stuck to them from her current patrol duties. But despite the imposing toughness of her character, Jordan was a beautiful, lean and handsome young woman in her early thirties; born to a Brazilian-American mom and a Mexican father. She had sharp and reflective eyes that could stun a friend or a foe with the right twinkle or blink, a gentle voice that could easily change to a firm cold timbre if required, and kept her charcoal-black hair tied back in a Military-style cluster. Given these sharp and dauntless features, plus her added hand-to-hand set in Hapkido, Jiu-Jitsu, and Taekwondo, it was no wonder that Jordan had chosen the call sign “Gazelle” prior to her assignment to Dulce Base: chiefly because the animal’s small and nimble appearance contrasting with its sharp and pointy horns felt synonymous to the Captain’s capacity to exhibit both charm and aggression. Unless in her barrack or a weapon-restricted area, the chief of security in the most heavily classified place on Earth always kept an XT-5 under one arm and let her Stinger Wand gently sway by her hip: both served as a visual warning that even the slightest provocation of this operative would mean excruciating pain or death to the perpetrator. It was indeed strict and would’ve been considered an inhuman degree of security in both the outside world and the extraterrestrial community.
But this was Dulce Base: a place where the most sadistic extraterrestrial war criminals spent their last years on Earth before either being deported from the planet or, if authorized by a tribunal of the U.N.’s Interstellar Relations Council, execution: either here on site or by the prisoner’s own planetary authorities depending on the judicial circumstances. And believe it, very few extraterrestrial criminals were sent here: most weren’t even deported let alone executed. To get to Dulce Base, one was so far gone from moral sanity that they viewed death and destruction as an everyday beauty, considered torture to be a game, and always carried the illusive heresy that they were invincible to the law and the forces of the universe. Ultimately, said individuals had made active attempts to commit unspeakable crimes of mass murder, experiments that went beyond the words of illegal and inhumane, or intended to attack civilian and military targets with a brutal agenda in mind. Luckily, they were stopped just in time or caught red handed by A.T.X.D., who then drastically lowered or even avoided a body count and swiftly covered up the crime. And after a particularly violent riot in Cellblock B resulted in two prisoner deaths but also life-threatening injuries to the last Dulce Leader that were too grim to recall, Jordan knew that it really was necessary to remind some prisoners that they were never to be afforded even the slightest advantage over any of the guards; least of all the boss.
Exiting through an access door back into the main hallway, which was better illuminated with cleaner white lights, Jordan dropped off her datapad at a kiosk office for review before approaching the security checkpoint to the Chief Warden’s Office. Again, as excessive as it looked, this was just another typical security measure in the interest of ensuring nobody tried to seize control of the facility and hold the leadership hostage. The Captain put her gear on a side table, held her arms out and spaced her legs apart as two guards, a four-eyed Hyserion humanoid and a brute-like Theren, looked her over. They first examined her from a distance, then got up close and repeatedly waved Detectors over her body to ensure she wasn’t someone else or serving as a host for a probe or some other implanted trap. Once satisfied, the guards silently allowed Jordan to proceed into the office while her gear was kept under supervision to be picked up afterwards.
Inside was a simple desk, a book shelf protected by a glass partition, and some filing cabinets containing data only on the Prison Section as the surface site was known. All of Dulce Base’s more sensitive data on the Harbinger organism was stored deep below in an underground research facility that served as a militarized safeguard and a scientific wing to study the mutatious lifeforce. Behind the desk was a large armored presence that was just about Jordan’s height in its currently seated position. But the being was just an empty armored shell: its controlling occupant, Chief Warden Zenifero Archeneka, was a human the height of a pencil and stood upon a book on his desk that helped him gain some added height. However, his size did not affect his firm and baritone voice, which his suit did a good job amplifying to further intimidate those around him. So Jordan respectfully waited for Zenifero to tell her, “Please Captain Ankers, take a seat,” before she advanced, pulled up a chair, and looked down at the micro-sized being on the table who was her boss.
“Cellblocks C and D here in the South Wing remain secure as usual, sir,” Jordan informed once prompted. “Zyker keeps chatting about Armageddon coming to Dulce Base and nobody being able to stop it, but as always, I just passed him by without giving a huff. I also checked Karia’s phase gauntlets and they’re in good working order, so we don’t have to worry about her growing supersize and causing a ruckus. Finally, Dulce 2-1 and 2-2 were inspected for etiquette and tactical standards, and everything checks out.”
“Good,” Zenifero acknowledged, “but now I need you to head back to the North Wing. And get suited up, Captain: you’re performing an inspection.”
“Yes sir,” Jordan replied, doing a good job hiding the anxiety in her chest. “Is something wrong down in the Harbinger Quarantine Zone?”
“Dr. Scollay in the SIO Lab called earlier: he said something about a computer error in one of the security terminals. Thought you should take a team down to investigate and see if the systems need an update or further work, since as the Tactical Supervisor you know your way around Dulce Base’s defense network.”
“Yes sir. I’ll assemble Dulce 2-4. The rotation schedule has them coming off guard duty in Cellblock A and it’s been a pretty light day for them so far.”
“Very good, Captain. Report back what you find on the security anomaly so I know if we need to file a work order to Headquarters for IT or hardware repairs. Dismissed.”