Chapters --ALERT DISTURBANCE IN OUTER GETS OF FACILITY 44 PUBLIC ENTRANCE ALPHA
-REQUESTING SECURITY CREWS
-SQUAD ONE UNRESPONSIVE
-SQUAD TWO UNRESPONSIVE
-SQUAD THREE UNRESPONSIVE
-SQUAD FOUR UNRESPONSIVE
-SQUAD FIVE UNRESPONSIVE
-SQUAD SIX UNRESPONSIVE
--PROCESSING
-UPDATE: OUTER GATE BREACHED: SCANNING
BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURES DETECTED
--ESTABLISHING LOCKDOWN PROTOCOLS
-(Lockdown effectively turns the research facility into a fortress. Windows give way to steel shutters, doors are reinforced by blast shields. Blast shields are basically super thick complexes of Kelvar, Steel, and Electro-magnetic seals.
In effect, it can withstand motar fire and frigate blasters. Also, all public entrances are deadlocked whilst emergency access points reject any security pass that's not Level 4, 5, or Military Police.)
--LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS
-PROCESSING
--AWAKING HIGHEST RANK PERSONELL NOT DECEASED
-AWAITING ORDERS
--OUTER GATE PRIMARY BLAST DOOR HOLDING
-AWAITING ORDERS
June 11th.
The sun was scorching Antique Hoove's skin, of all the times to find this archealogy site, it had to be in the middle of the summer heat wave in the badlands.
But she went to it anyway, because there was something strange about this place, she could feel it, but couldn't tell what it was. Princess Celestia had agreed to give treasury funding to her digging sites due to her track record.
Two years ago, she had found an abandoned palace in a forgotten territory of the Griffin Empire several thousand years ago.
Eight months, she finished digging out an ancient Unicorn town. Making her a little bit of a celebrity. So she was sure she wasn't going to disappoint the princess on this dig.
"What the hay!?"
"What's wrong?"
There had been a team working at a gate they'd found.
"A huge metal door just rose up and blocked the gateway!"
How was that possible? All of the sites they found were of civilisations thousands of years ago?
But she shrugged it off, she had to deal with this.
"GET THE DYNAMITE DETAILED EYES!"
"What if it damages artifacts inside?"
She knew this, but she had no way of getting through the door apart from Dynamite.
Soon, a few diggers had dynamite and a pump switch. They stacked up a thick pile, and got everyone and themselves to a safe distance.
"THREE"
"TWO"
"ONE"
A deafening explosion sent a shock wave through everyone, and left the gate caked in smoke.
Everyone just stared at each other for a few minutes before Antique Hooves broke the silence.
"Well, are we going to check it out or not?"
"How can this be.. The technology they wielded should be thousands of years old!"
Antique Hooves and her team members were completely dumbfounded. 7 feet tall and 2 feet thick, that amount of dynamite could blast a hole in the wall of the Canterlot palace. Yet there it was, the gate, with just a mere few scorch marks.
She was going around with her new sea of questions, the near unbearable heat wasn't doing much good either.
She stopped, her eyes locking on to a strange dim, blue glow from the Center of a gate... was that.. A light?
Her lead archaeologist noticed it too...
"Did they.. Have electricity?"
Twilight Sparkle was rushing up the steps of the palace, it was unusual for the princess to give her such an urgent yet vague letter, but she wasn't going to refuse the princess anytime soon. She had simply been told not to tell anyone, not even spike, but to just make way for the palace as quick as possible.
She had been lost in her thoughts when she realised she had just trotted straight past the throne room.
Composing herself, she entered to find the princess in her usual royal posture, with her sister beside her.
"Twilight Sparkle, so glad you could make it here on such short notice."
"Of course princess, I would never be late for anything wha-"
"Relax, my faithful student, there are some urgent matters at hoof."
Twilight sparkle mused over the possible situation.
"Follow me Twilight."
Twilight trotted after Celestia through a hall where the walls were decorated with paintings of old kings and queens, with various artifacts and works relating to each of them. Despite being part of a brilliant flawlessly maintained palace, she couldn't shake off the old and antique atmosphere these corridors held. She also was tiring a bit from trying to keep up with Celestia's effortless pace.
Behind Twilight was Luna, she wasn't as tall as Celestia but still composed an appearance of Celestia's vast size in comparison to an average pony.
Her mentor stopped next to a painting of a King.
"This King was my great grandfather, he would've probably have loved to encounter something like this.."
"Something like what?"
"You will see my student."
They continued down the seemingly endless corridor until they entered a corner room, which had a very peaceful, cosy appearance. Twilight guessed that this was probably Celestia's private study.
"Now Twilight, what you are about to be told is now officially a royal secret. You are not to reveal this to anyone under any circumstances."
Twilight nodded, ever the more curious.
"Very well."
Luna brought over a small book which read as: ARCHAELOGICAL DIG REPORTS.
"Four days ago, an archaelogical dig in the Badlands uncovered some... Interesting artitechture."
"Where do I come into all of this?"
"Well.. it's believed that the builders of this had electricity, and their structures have been found to have far more advanced materials. Not only that, but we found the ruins of ancient villages surrounding it."
Twilight gasped.
"Gasp" :/
How could ancient buildings be superior to ours?
"Since me and my beloved sister have our duties tying us to Equestria, we are sending you to the Archaelogical dig to help get some progress... progressed?"
It must've been serious if the Sisters were sending her into the middle of the badlands. So she couldn't afford to turn them away.
"You can count on me!"
Celestia smiled.
"I know I can."
June 16th
Twilight took a gulp from her water flask, the heat becoming almost unbearable. They sure weren't kidding about the summer heat wave she thought. She had been told about the summer heat in the badlands, but she didn't expect it to be this bad.
Still, it wasn't enough to drown out the curiosity she had for the prospects of a technologically advanced ruin.
"Ms Sparkle?"
"That's me!"
The pony who asked this was none other than Antique Hooves.
"Enjoying the sun?"
Twilight rolled her eyes at the sarcastic comment.
"Anyways, I was told to expect you, head down to the central tent for some briefing on the situation."
"Okay, I will."
"It's just over there by the Water storage, you can't miss it."
With that, Pyrite left the tent. Twilight Sparkle followed after, observing the environment around her. It was the same as when she had first arrived, it'd taken a while to reach the site since the train lines didn't go any further than Appleloosa.
The hills in the distant were bare, with nothing but a few dead shrubs and rocks. However, the site was very large, with tents of all shapes and sizes, surrounding by ponies galloping with various equipment.
She continued searching the site until she saw a large wooden water tower, with an unusually large tent beside it, which she figured was the tent that Antique Hooves had mentioned.
It really was a serious situation as she noticed the Royal guards stationed at the tent.
"Halt!"
The guard next to him looked at her and said
"Wait, it's Twilight."
"Okay, sorry abut that Miss Sparkle, proceed."
Twilight then entered the tent calmly.
When inside, she saw tables and supplies all over the place, and that the tent was big enough to have multiple rooms.
Most of them just had maps and equipment, or sleeping areas, but the largest room had seating and a desk with a map of the badlands, from the site to Appleloosa.
"Hello Twilight."
She turned around to find Antique Hooves which she felt a small wave of surprise.
"So, I believe you're curious about what's going on?"
"The sisters gave me some information before I came here."
"Okay, so I guess we can crack on with this."
Antique Hooves went to her seat behind her desk and sighed slightly.
"We uncovered the whole entrance three weeks ago, but it seems impenetrable. We ordered 400kg of Dynamite and it's barely put a scratch in."
This intrigued Twilight, as she had never heard of any doors withstanding that amount without taking even the slightest amount of damage.
"You're here because you're the strongest unicorn apart from the Princesses, so you might be able to open that gate with the strength of your magic."
"So you need me to shift the door because 400kg of dynamite didn't work?"
"Precisely."
"Well.. I think I can do that!"
Twilight felt her confidence swell. "Excellent, follow me."
Twilight certainly didn't have the confidence she had five minutes ago. The door was huge, with a very distinct pattern of black scorch marks, which was probably the result of four hundred kilograms of dynamite.
There were two small flashing lights on a large, cylindrical component of the huge gate.
"Are you ready miss Sparkle?"
Twilight paused for a moment, then spoke with a determined voice.
"Yes."
Her horn began to glow, and there was a tiny screeching sound at the gate. The whole team began to step back to a distance as Twilight focused on the gate.
--ALERT, OUTER BLAST GATE LOSING CONNECTION.
The gate seemed to be rejecting a lot of her magic, as if it was a foreign matter, impervious to magic.
But Twilight's magical power rivalled that of Starswirl's.
Her eyes went pure white as she channelled every ounce of her magic into the gate.
She vanished under a huge shock wave.
This kind of shock wave blew everyone off their hooves and sent wooden tables and equipment flying off.
Amongst the chaos, a huge groaning sound came from the gate, followed by the sound of electronics powering down.
Everyone got back up, coughing from the huge amount of dust sent flowing.
Twilight was gasping on the floor, struggling to breathe due to the amount of magical exhaustion she was now suffering from.
"Miss Sparkle!"
.....
"Miss Sparkle!!"
"I'm.. I'm alright.."
Antique Hooves sighed in relief, if Twilight had been hurt in some way at her dig, she would fear the Princesses's wrath.
A few minutes later, after nobody had been hurt and Twilight just tired, the dust and sand had settled, Antique Hooves and some of her team inspected the gate.
The gate was still there, but had recieved severe damage, it was half open, with mechanical links smashed and the frame dented and bent. It also clearly could not withstand punishment like it could've before.
"Wow.. Twilight really did batter it...."
--ALERT
-POWER DEPLETION TO RECEPTION OUTER BLAST DOORS
-MAINTENANCE CREWS UNRESPONSIVE
It had been two hours since Twilight attempted to open the gate.
Despite the huge battering the gate took, it had taken hours with all the unicorns at camp, that and a royal request for a battering ram, which was only just accepted as Twilight had signed the request.
Three!
Two!
ONE!
Charge!
A multitude of grunts was followed by a crash and a screeching noise.
They had finally fully opened the gate.
Antique hooves grabbed her equipment and ran to Twilight's tent.
"Twilight, they got the gate fully open, we can explore the ruins!"
This brought a huge smile to Twilight's face, so she grabbed a notebook and pencil, and began to gallop after Antique hooves.
Together, they trekked into the entrance with a their equipment and teams...
They were about to find something extraordinary..….………..…………..……
-- SCANNING
-OUTER GATE AT 0% POWER
-EMERGENCY DOSE OFANTI-STASIS IN EFFECT
-(This simply means that anyone being woke up from deep stasis sleep gets a double dose of fluids designed to wake up the subject. This is generally avoided as subjects who had been given double doses experienced severe discomfort for a short duration after waking up.)
Jacob's eyes shot open, his consciousness returned to him after an eternity in stasis.
He felt highly strung, yet so weak and tired, an agonising aching in his arms and legs.
But he forced is arms to respond, as he explored his cramped cage where his eyes were able to see.
Soon, after his eyes restored sight fully, he realised he wasn't in a cage at all... but some sort of body bag, and it was cold, very cold.
There was some sort of gel and fabric giving some slight restraint to Jacob's legs, and the black body bag proved too strong for him to just simply rip his way out...
Suddenly, all looked hopeless for Jacob, to suddenly wake up to die in this prison.
Then, a memory flashed back to him, which reminded him that this was a Stasis Chamber. So he began searching desperately for the emergency release pad. Usually there should've been someone to get him out of stasis but he didn't care at this point. His fist hit a rectangle shape in the wall surrounding the body bag.
He shifted his body and hit and moved random bits on the shape.
First he felt warmer, then he felt cold.
Then the light restraint on his legs gave way, giving his legs a lot more freedom.
Then he heard a whirring sound, and found that there was no wall to his left, so he shifted his body again and rolled out.
He was still in this body bag, but he could see slight traces of light penetrating it.
'If I could get out of the stasis pod, then I can get out of this too.' He thought.
His hands moved around until they found a zip, which then he forced them to push the zip over to his feet.
'Agh!'
The new burst of light stung his eyes, as he attempted to get off the floor and onto his feet.
He found the wall and leaned onto it for a few moments until his eyes were able to withstand the brightness of the room compared to the stasis pod he was in. He took note of his surroundings. On the corner at the back to his right was the stasis pod, with the body bag laying next to it. On the left was a sink, and next to the stasis pod was some lockers. He was about to open them when he felt something unsettling in his stomach. He ran to the sink instinctively and vomited out the milky substance.
Groaning, he sat on the metal floor until he stopped having the urge to hurl.
Only then did he realise just how hungry and thirsty he was. So he went to the lockers to find some much needed food and water. When he opened all of them, he found a flashlight and one set of spare batteries. Then he found an orange liquid inside a container. Upon further inspection, he found a note which read NEUROLOGICAL CONNECTIONS STIMULATER- Any subject awakening after deep stasis should drink this for his/her and everyone else's convenience.
Seeing that it was the only liquid he had, he drank, it had a strange but slightly refreshing taste, with a small hint of mints.
Suddenly, he found his vision a lot clearer and his muscles sharper and stronger, and he began to be able to recall more and more memories. But he was still hungry and thirsty. He could not find anything else apart from rotted food and a few empty syringes.
He saw the door to the room and left it, and only found pitch black.
"EMERGENCY LIGHTING ON" boomed a loud yet feminine voice.
What was pitch black gave way to a dim red tinted light. But it was still dark in most areas as most lights had not turned on. So Jacob got his flashlight, and proceeded down a corridor.
There were doors leading to other stasis pods, but when he tried to awake someone, the loud feminine voice would say;
"Subject- deceased."
Which was strange as stasis, in theory, could preserve a person indefinitely, so long as the stasis pod was functional.
As he proceeded to the end of the corridor, he saw a tall object with a glass screen. He then realised it was a computer.
He pressed the screen and it came alive with a blue light.
"Genesis main database accessed, welcome Jacob Sanders.
"Computer, why is everyone I find dead?"
"After the crucible fired, there was a slight fault in the hexallion shield around this world due to rushing. As a result, many systems in the life supports were crippled. However, oxygen and Co2 filters are still active, along with several other survivors in the other facilities."
"How long in stasis was I?"
"You were put into stasis before the crucible fired in 4665, it is currently 4733, so you have been in stasis for 78 years, 134 days, 7 hours, and 9 minutes."
Eighty-odd years...
"Why was I woken up?"
"The main gate has been breached despite lockdown, there were biological signatures detected, for your reassurance, none of those were contaminated with a pathogen. You were the highest rank not deceased, you need to aid AI in preserving the facility."
"What about our defences?"
"Security crews died in stasis."
Jacob sighed, but remembered how hungry he was.
"Where is the nearest refreshment?"
"Level 3 wing C cafeteria is 422 meters away, AI will set up lights on the floor to mark your waypoints."
"It is also recommended you posses a firearm by searching the security office which will be marked in green."
"Are there any other tasks?"
"The emergence of biological signatures without pathogen proves an uncontaminated world, AI requires you to manually re-establish contact with the Genesis facilities to Earth command."
"Computer, off."
The screen's light dimmed and then disappeared with a faint buzzing sound, he also noticed a pattern of lights on the floor, which he began to follow.
It wasn't long before Jacob found green lights on one of the doors, assuming this was the security office, he walked in.
Inside, he saw a desk with screens from cameras monitoring the the facility. When he searched the room more closely, he found ballistic pistols and a pulse rifle.
-( Several high grade rifles were given to all major facilities as the plague crisis progressed in the galaxy.)
He took a Zerkov .44 anti-personal flak shot Mark II, he also grabbed a few rounds of spare ammo.
He then stopped.. Approaching a computer, he said;
"Computer, where is the nearest living stasis subject?"
"Level 3, wing B, room 42"
"Thank you"
With that, he left the room to follow the way-point to the cafeteria.
As he neared his destination, he felt slight fagitue arise from severe hunger, but if he sat down, he wasn't getting up.
Eventually he entered a large hall with Wing B cafeteria written onto one of the walls. He rushed over the serving deck and searched frantically for food. Eventually, he was lucky enough to find a store room for ingredients and basic foods.
It seemed like a golden find, as he found preserved foods amongst the rotted, like wrapped up cheese and crackers. Not only this, but there were half gallon water bottles as well. He placed one of them in his back pack along with some cheese and crackers. Jacob sighed as he drank and ate his energy back, and just laid on the floor for a few moments.
Eventually, Jacob got back up, and headed for any other survivors in the facility...
--FLASHBACK--
Jacob was in his veichle with his friend Werner and another friend called Dark. (Well that was what everyone only knew was his name.)
It was the 9th March 4628, 11:00 AM.
The slight hum of his car came to a stop as he left his veichle. In the car in front of him, there was another man who stepped out.
"Hey man, you alright?"
"Sure, do you have any idea what's the hold up?"
"Hey, I haven't the first cllue, al I know is that a couple cops say there were some big accidents and it's going to be awful slow for a wh-"
He was silenced by a explosion a few hundered meters away.
"HOLY SHI-!"
Werner got out of the car screaming: "What in Jesus was that!?"
There were a lot of police hovercopters heading towards the sight of thhe explosion. To further induce panic, the people near the explosion had started running.
One of the people ran near the three of them.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING STANDING THERE? IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE AN ARM OR NOT THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
Dark got out two, and before he could mention a single words, there was a hail of screaming in the distance followed by a multitude of gunshots. There were a lot more people running now, before they could decide what to do, a random person scrambled over the car, pinned the man from the other car down, and started biting him.
Jacob instintively slammed onto the attacked and smashed him the face. The attacker didn't even fliched, but screamed at Jacob. His face was half burnt off, with the other half consisting of blood-smeared, necrotic flesh. He then resumed biting the man until blood showed up on his neck, and then aimed for another person running.
"GUYS, LEAVE HIM, JUST FREAKING LEG IT!"
All three of them starting running in the direction that the rest of the crowd were, a runaway fire truck charged through the traffic, smashing a hole before crashing into a burning police car. Dark soon noticed he was being chased by the man who had just been attacked. Fortunately, he then turned a woman who was a lot closer to him, but it wasn't fortunate for that woman in the end.
It was chaos, there were rogue veichles going everywhere and people being attacked by crazed biting maniacs from all sides. Werner saw a pistol on the belt of a cop who had been killed by being crushed by a car, which he took and a spare round. He could now hear automatic gunfire, which was suddenly stopped after a few seconds, and was replaced by screaming.
Two of these crazed maniacs began heading for Jacobs, which Werner intervened by emptying the whole clip on them.
One of them stayed on the ground after a headshot, but the other began to crawl at a medium pace towards Jacob, despite having been shot in the Lungs, left knee, and Neck. But they were all able to outrun him.
"Damn it guys, I've only got one mag left!"
"Just keep running!"
"But where godamnit!?"
Jacob did not reply, he just going, untill he found a empty police car, with the former driver sprinting towards them. Werner put himk down with a couple of shots, and Dark grabbed the keys and another gun with ammo from his belt.
"Drive drive DRIVE DAMN IT"
Twilight was speechless, all the artitechture was so unsusual, as most ruins were primitive villages or spectacular palaces. But this was different, it was efficient and blocky, but neat and futuristic. And so well preserved, there was barelybany decay apart from a few pens or and sheets of paper broken and aged. The desks were littered with curious looking devices, all of which she hoped to understand some day, as she scribbled on her seemingly endless notebook.
She picked up random objects and placed them in small containers for study sometime later, until she came across a small glass pane in a wall, which was clearly not a window.
'How strange' she thought.
She poked it to see if there was any other purpose it served when it came alive with a blue light after being touched.
'INFORMATION BOOTH A' appeared on the screen.
There had been a foreign aura from the place of total absence of any magic whatsoever, yet there it was, a magic that she had never encountered before.
"What is that?" She asked to nobody in particular until a feminine but neutral voice came from the strange screen.
"Information booth A, how may I help you?"
She gasped, wondering how it just spoke, but the fact it said it was an information source intrigued her.
"What... What is this place?"
"Genesis facility fourty four, you are currently in reception."
All the other ponies in the room had trotted over the Twilight and the screen at this point, also intrigued by this mysterious thing.
"Ask it what this place is for?"
"What is the genesis facility for?"
"The genesis facility is a reasearching facility, it's secondary use is a storage, of technologies and works, in case Earth should ever fall?"
"Earth?"
"Earth, the homeworld of the Human race and capital of the Human empire, after it stopped taking in refuges, it numbered at some 14.6 billion."
"Human?"
"Humans, a race evolved from primates on Earth, currently the leading force and superpower in the known Galaxy."
This was incredible, an entire space empire of... primates? She needed more information!
"Who built this, humans?"
"The Genesis facility was completed seventy eight years ago in 4456, by mainly efforts of OASIS industries, a human corporation."
"Seventy eight years ago! Why has nopony ever known about this?"
"The facilities began construction several centuries ago, the completion date includes the addition of the Hexallion shielding projects. Since the facility was completed underground a century or so before primtive sapient horse species began settling and exploring their southern lands, this is first contact."
"Ask it what magic it uses!"
"How is your magic so powerful?"
"Magic is simply a myth, it was never involved in the manufacturing of any component of the genesis facility, including this toll booth and the central computers this is connected to."
"That's impossible! No civilisation could ever survive without magic, how would the suns move?"
"The suns do not move, the worlds are dragged around it via gravitattional fields, on the surface, this gives the illusion that the sun is the object moving."
Twilight composed herself, and tried to move to more important topics.
"Is there anyone else in this facility?"
"Most subjects are deceased, there are currently eight specimens of a sapient horse strain in the reception of Facility 44 public entrance alpha and twenty three live subjects scattered around facilities 12-59."
"Where are they?"
"Lockdown proceedures in effect are currently renduring your access levels to that information invalid, security advises you to take to yur nearest security station as an outer gate has been breached despite fortification measures."
"That explains the guge metal door." Said Antique hooves.
"When will lockdown proceedure.. uh... end?"
"When a subject with sufficient security cleareance terimanetes the lockdown manually."
"Why did you lock it all up?"
"Unknown sapient species attacked the facility gates without authorisation, so the computer took charge in the absence of any security personell and activated lockdown protocols. Further on, these lockdown proceedures are only activated legally when there has been an attack on the facility or for quarantine measures."
"Can we contact anyone inside?"
"You can request an audio link with Jacob Sanders when he is directed towards the nearest security office."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes."
"Then I'd like to request an audience."
"Request granted."
Twilight composed herself again, scribbling down on her notebook about everthing that had happened whilst everypony began asking questions amongst themselves. Antique hooves then turned to Twilight and said;
"I sure do hope you know what you're doing."
"I do too." She replied.
Jacob was walking down the corridor, next to him was Richard Herp (:3), a medical researcher from the stated stasis room. They had been looking for some more survivors when a voice came from the ceiling, suprising both of them.
"Jacob Sanders, please report to the neaarest security office."
"Any idea what AI wants Jacob?"
"Not a clue Richie. But it's not like the C.A's going anywhere soon."
-(The C.A is short for communications arials, a large mesh of spirals and dishes and basically everything that makes a signal better.)
It didn't take long to find the office as Jacob had a very good knowledge of the facilities, let alone the waypoints marked by AI.
He perched himself on a seat and said to the computer screen. "What did you need AI?"
"A subject at the reception wishes to open up an audio communications link with you."
A major crisis devastates life across the entire arm of the milky way, with Earth and the Genesis planet possibly being the only civilisation left in the known void, and there's tourists at the reception? It might've been the same ones who caused the 'incident' at the outer gate though..
"Open up the communication interface AI."
A large central portion of the screen went black with 'Establishing connection' glowing in the middle of it, until a moving image of something she'd never seen before appeared.
Both the creature in the screen and there rest of te team went "WOAH, what the hell is that?"
"What are you?"
"Talking.... horses?" "Now I've seen everything."
"What are you!?" Twilight spoke in a more determined voice, not to present any sign of weakness.
"Jacob, human... and you're a.. horse."
"Pony if you must know, and I'm Twilight Sparkle!"
The creature in the moving image started to laugh loudly, after hearing that her name was Twilight Sparkle, Twilight was confused as to why it was laughing.
"AHHH ha ha hah.. Twilight Sparkle!? What kind of mname is that? Oh, oh, is the dude next to you Candyman? Or he is he like Ice cream commander?" He chuckled away on every word he spoked. The Humans clearly didn't have any manners, it was all too well that Rarity was not here.
"Well Jacob isn't exactly the most usual name around here!"
"Around here. clearly but at least I'd have a normal name in the rest of the galaxy.. heh heh. Hey Richie, c'mere. Look at these talking ponies, the purple one says it's Twilight Sparkle." "She's Twilight Sparkle."
Another human came into the vew of the moving image screen, he had a more masculine face, whilst Jacob's was slimmer, and with a stubble instead of Richie's thin beard.
"Really?" 'Richie' chuckled a bit after hearing this.
"Anyway, the talking glass says that there's a locked up routine, and we need you to open it up so we can explore this place."
"One, it's a computer, and two, we don't know what you're capable of so we're going to get some more of our guys, so you guys just stay there for a few hours or so, and then we'll talk."
With that, the moving images dissapeared, to be replaced with the blue screen with the words 'Connection Severed' glowing on it.
Well, all she had to do was stick around for a while, couldn't be that hard could it? Right?
"Gentlemen, as you all know, my father was the previous chairman, who set this series of events in motion, and it is about to bear fruit."
This was spoken by a seventy year old man who had biologically aged 31 thanks to medical advances, he was addressing a dozen other businessmen around a typical corporate meeting room. On one side were a set of sliding doors, water storage a and screens with financial reports.
On the other side was a huge window that provided a fantastic view of the Berlin metropolis.
"Eleven teen hours ago, the Genesis facilities responded back to a hub in our industry, with rather interesting reports on some rather interesting developments..."
The board simultaneously raised their left eyebrows, being intrigued by their chairman's statement. One leaned forwards and asked "well, anything to telll us?"
"Some couple dozen scientists and engineers have survived the cryo stasis, and the world is teeming with uncontaminated ecological systems, it's all gone to plan!"
There were pleased looks on the shareholder's faces, they all knew perfectly well what was going to happen next.
"Helix corporation would like to report that there has been excellent success in Oasis labs to finish the Starjumper project, it'll reach across half the arm of the galaxy in a half an hour in complete stealth, it'll be quick and there won't be questions.
This brought an even bigger smile to his face while he continued to lounge in the chairman seat, knowing what fortune lay ahead for all of them. "When can be released? He asked. The shareholder replied with "immediately."
"Excellent, well, I think we know everything we need to already.." With that, he stood up and left the room.
He had always loved his Berlin hub, because of the magnificent construction effort that had been put into it, like all the elevator platforms running solely on antigravity. It always reminded him how rich he was, but now he was more focused on his limo waiting outside, because a limo waiting outside for you tends to keep your mind off other topics.
"Good evening Mr. Halden, where are we headed?" Said an averagely tall man in a white/grey suit. It sort of blended into the futuristic artitechture of the corporate district. He replied to the man positevly, "Las Vegas Hilary, Las Vegas."
Driving by the fantastic Western Cities always grabbed Derven's interest, he'd always been fascinated by. Artitechture anyway. He'd paid a hefty amount of the company funds on his Berlin building, where it was in the large corporate district yet near the Berlin Airport. It was incredibly useful for his clients and himself,'money well spent' he usually said.
The limo was fast, and antigravity modifications granted cars the ability to allow triple layer roads, with meant that traffic was a thing of the past. So it only took some ten minutes to reach the airport.
The airports were a huge sector with numerous facilities and buildings that allowed some several thousand aircraft to be stored at any one time, the delves ration and ahhniliation of all significant colonies meant that interstellar travel was still dormant. Derven's had his own private jet, so he had little need to wait hours in the public terminals. So security was a few seconds, and so was flight scheduling.
It was only too soon that the limo came to a halt near a small but luxurious building that was dwarfed by the huge public buildings. Upon their arrival, two men came up to him as he stepped out his transport. He was escorted in as Baxter drove off into the distance. The building was far more luxurious on the inside, with high tech styles and cool, modern themes blending in.
Derven's began to slowly walk to the desk, and caught the attention if an attractive blonde woman, who greeted him shortly after he reached the desk. "Good Afternoon Mr Halden, you will be flying with three businessmen today." He smiled and before walking away, he said "thanks darling." This was probably because he was slightly drink every walking moment.
Sixteen minutes later.
The advanced Aircraft had been presented, behind Derven's were two Arabs and an American. He didn't mind talking flights with several others, mainly because Pilots were not paid enough to fly a plane that big for one man. Derven stepped up to the cabin, and a fabulous sight met his eyes. The finest Leather, the smoothest wood and the highest quality goods and gadgets everywhere. He didn't mind sharing with several others when his accommodation leaves first class in the dust.
All four made themselves comfy, and minded their own business as the craft lifted into the air. It was to be a half our Journey as the craft was going to Istanbul before it continued on to the US. Space travel technology would make this take milliseconds but the slowest warp goes 700/800x the speed of light so it's just too impractical.
Derven opened the fancy compartment besides him- an found something he needed, Whisky, and a lot of it.
The elegant classic glass container was mostly emptied, but years of Alcoholism had made him extremely resistant to booze. But an Oktoberfest would still get him wasted, he was always peculiar, but he never cared when he had his alcohol.
The slight humming of craft dimmed as it reached it's final destination, Las Vegas.
The access door opened, and allowed him exit onto a step of stairs prodiuced by light beams, he'd always enjoyed the general futuristic themes brought on by the technology revolution, all Sci-Fi and such. The scenery around him was rather spectacular, the huge structures of the airport clashing with the vast metropolis in the distance.
Casinos and bars littered the central streets of the city, producing a wondrous effect of somewhere near to one giant nightclub, which probably made it the 'party' city for miles around. He was seated in the back of yet another limosine, heading towards the Sante' Maria Casino set up by a rather loony Mafia family. But it was the best you could get in this part of the city, so it was a fantastic meeting point, which made it huge. Perhaps they weren't so loony after all....
He could just see the Casino ahead, it was massive, and by that he meant Las Vegas supercasino massive. It had a glorious, decorated entrance, and it boasted some 189 floors, which allowed it to deal with thousands and thousands of gamblers and staff every day. It was shelter to half a dozen muscly men with SMGs. The collapse of the United States had reflected into a mostly lawless socity in many metropolian areas in California, which paid off for illegal operations and shady organisations.
As his limosine proceeded down the street, he could see a lot of abandned cars and a dead person in the alleyway, the loss of main law enforcements had turned out to have pretty bad effects too. It was the reason why there were two men in suits with pistols holstered, he didn't want to make any bad impressions on his clients.
The limo diverted away from the main entrance and stopped at a havily guarded gate, the driver conversed with the guard for several minutes before being let through, from there he stopped when the car was concealed from the public view. Derven stepped out of the limo, followed by his two bodyguards, he inhaled the Vegas air, it brough scents of booze and dust, classic for a mainly dystopian landscape.
He walked with moderate strides to a mostly hidden entrance, when he stopped at it's metal front, he knocked. A set of eyes appeared shortly, which gestured towards him. Derven smiled and proceeded simply by saying "Are you going to let me in, or am I going to have to make you?".
The journey towards to shadowed, poorly built back rooms was short and rather unpleaseant, but it was pushed away when derven entered a rich balcony view over floor 6 betting rooms. He was met by another man with a a set of bodyguards behind him.
"So, can i see my new toy?"
Before this story starts, I, the writer, would like to ask you to ask yourself one question. One question only; Did Mankind deserve to exist?
We are destructive and warlike, polluting entire Eco systems and exterminating species. We kill each other in droves and construct weapons of mass destruction. Yet we're so intelligent and ingenious, we surpassed all life on Earth simply by harnessing fire let alone sending men to the moon and back.
Now this relates to a future of interstellar existence by predicting the outcomes of when a species like humankind projects it's traits onto a galactic scale.
I wrote this story partly because I wanted to imagine the effects of a galactic human civilisation where her personality isn't isolated on one world floating in the middle of nowhere.
It's also to explore the consequences of war, technology, and industrialisation on a grander scale.
But yes, a good portion was because I wanted to imagine Twilight Sparkle hearing of interstellar technology without magic: IMPOSSIBRU.
Heh.
Anyway, that's a surprising amount of deep though I've encountered and written.
I think I should actually get on with the story, seeing as this is still the freaking Prologue.
This story starts as the interstellar timeline.
[PLEASE NOTE, SKIP THE TIMELINE IF YOU WANT TO, EXCEPT FOR WHERE IT SAYS IMPORTANT EVENTS, CAUSE THIS WILL REALLY RELATE TO THE STORY.]
2016 Britain wins a small Carribean skirmish against Mexico.
2018: The IEV (International Exploration Vessel) is completed by American, British, French, German, Canadian, Russian, Chinese, Indian, and Australian efforts, the IEV is a large 25 crew craft capable of regular travel between the Moon and Earth.
2019: A Chinese team lands on Mars, European and American space agencies humiliated.
2021: North Korea and US on the brink of war.
2024: North Korea surrenders after combined efforts of NATO, Japan, Australia and South Korea.
2025: War in Afghanistan finally ends.
2026: The Hubble Telescope has found more and more water worlds, alien life theory even stronger.
2028: World War 3 begins after China invades Taiwan and Russia joins China, after succumbing to a Communist dictator.
2033: World War III ends with 205 million casualties, Cold War 2 begins after Uneasy Armistice between the Russian Empire and Europe.
2034: Pre-built research structures carried by NASA placed on Mars, first structures on another world official.
2036: Capitalist reform in Russia, second Cold War ends, Poland independent.
2044: First military space raft designed by the US, basically a large shuttle with some machine guns and light armour.
2046: Space race as US and the Western European empires compete in making larger and better combat modules.
2051: World population exceeds 10 billion, Saudi Arabian crisis begins after exhaustion of Coal and severe Oil shortage.
2054: The Crusader module constructed by British/French/Russian efforts, first Dreadnaught class, stated as finest warship made by man.
2056: Timeline guy has still not shut up.
2062: S.E Asia nuclear Crisis between Facist and Democratic states.
2065: UN London building bombed at a conference.
2075: Voyager Vessel built by NATO, robotic mission to Mercury, twin vessel Newton to Pluto.
2076: More than 50% of man's rescources from Asteroid operation, Billionaire builds a private retreat on Mars.
2088: 100th man to build a mansion, colonisation ideas spring up.
2096: Robotic mission to a rock planet 8 light years away reports back to NASA hub.
2105: Spacedocks assembled to ease any shipments between Earth and Mars.
2122: Timeline still going.
2123: New Angeles port established on Mars: has 4 Spacedocks and Private retreats for 600 residents.
2144: First man to live beyond the age of 170.
2165: You know, I'm going to keep going like this so I would probably speed up ahead a little.
2170: New Angeles has 1,000th Residential owner.
2178: OASIS Industries founded, Britain and the Commonwealth planning their own Spaceport.
2198: New Mumbai port with 25 docking platforms and 2,600 residents.
2204: Russia sets up New Volga port.
2206: Great colonisation race begins.
2219: Commonwealth imperial fleet established, with 4 dread sights and 22 combat shuttles.
US sets up The United States Space Fleet and Russia sets up the Russian Space Fleet.
2230: 10,000 resident on Mars, a baby is a global celebrity for being born on Mars, the first Martian is a new spark for Martian development.
2244: Tensions rise as the three powers (Russia, Commonwealth, and the Us) continue their space armaments race.
2273: First Space war, UN conferences end it, but not until after the Skirmish of New Boston, where the entire space capacity of the powers clashed.
2302: Beginning of the population crisis, pressing urgency to make mass relocation to Martian colonies possible.
3rd child illegal in all UN nations.
2329: Goverments secretly release RP442, a chemical pathogeon which kills 4 in 5 embryos, effectively halting population growth.
2352: Despite huge efforts, Mars still lingers at 80,000 residents.
2369: New Mumbai hits 35,000 residents.
[OKAY, SKIPPING HUGE AMOUNT OF DAT TIMELINE]
2656: After the Great War of succession unifies mankind, they refocus on interstellar colonisation after perfecting Warp nexus 2 (24,000x the speed of light)
2772: On the mining world of Keplar 6667 Alpha, observation posts detect alien craft, exploration vessels scramble.
2789: First contact war between Mankind and the Jerkunt.
UNIC sends an armistice request (UNIC: United Nations Interstellar Command).
2801: After UNIC defeats the Jerkunt in a decisive space battle, they accept the Armistice.
2955: UNIV encounters the Gektica, UNIC crushes them in the second contact war.
3065: Multiple species found require an alliance.
The Interstellar Union of Empires is founded IEU, mankind holding the peacekeeper title.
3188: Serljen encountered, they are extremely powerful and lead a war between them and Mankind, Man wins after 40 years, Serljen flee in 3228.
[SKIP AHEAD:]
3777: Great War of Dominance begins, mankind systematically crushes all other species after a revolution installs a new expansionist government.
3802: Warp Nexus 6 perfected. (1,560,000x speed of light)
3902: Great War of Dominance ends, Mankind a super-super power, ruling over 3 billion worlds.
NOW FOR REAL IMPORTANT EVENTS
4226: Bio weapon hits major colonies after terrorist attack on military base.
-Basically causes Dead space apocalypse.
-The bio weapons is so advanced, mutations soon result in even Man's weapons technology unable to contain it.
[Galactic crisis.]
4221, Only 1 in 5 worlds remain, Galactic super weapons constructed and used in desperation.
4335: Genesis project begins, a world is protected by advanced shields, with records if everything mankind has achieved in it.
-It contains technology and Stasis facilities.
-It is designed as last resort, should Earth ever be lost.
4456: Earth stops taking in refuges, Hexallion shields set up around earth and the Genesis project world.
4599: Crucible fired, Crisis ends, but at a cost, only where the Hexallion shields were survived.
4665: Genesis project mostly abandoned due to desertion of staff to Earth, Genesis facilities left deep underground.
The last remnants of humanity on Earth must begins the long reconstruction of their empire....