by Jaguaxr
Captain Evelyn Ilie has survived everything the world could throw at her, abuse, training, combat and the kind of trauma that breaks lesser operators. As a Navy Spec Ops Senior Medical Officer attached to a CIA Special Operations Group, Eve has spent years in the shadows, patching wounds under fire, keeping her team alive when everything goes to hell. But after a mission completely fails, ending in her death only to awaken in Balboa Naval Hospital, something changes. At first, it’s small, flickers at the edge of her vision, moments where reality doesn’t quite line up. The Navy calls it PTSD and doctors dissociation. Evelyn knows better, because what she’s seeing isn’t random. It is structured and logical. When a violent emotional experience triggers a system like overlay with what looks like video game icons Evelyn is forced to confront a terrifying possibility: What if reality isn’t breaking? What if it’s being revealed? In a proactive moment she joins a cutting edge study where doctors are using Ibogain, a psychoactive alkaloid and 5-MeO-DMT derived from the Colorado River toad to help operators break into the base PTSD she gains the insight that she is the reality of our world is not only being revealed, she is being placed ‘in the game’ so to speak. As the line between soldier and pawn begins to blur, Evelyn must navigate a world that may not be what it seems, where every decision is observed, every action recorded, and every life part of something far larger than she ever imagined. Because if this is a game… She’s just become aware of it.
