Prologue
“No we can’t do this!”
“Yes we can, it’s our only chance for humanity’s survival!”
“There has to be another way. Please I do not wish to do this!”
“Oh my… it’s my entire fault! *sobbing* I did all this!”
“What are you doing to him?!”
“Hibernation time clock has ended. Deactivating hibernation chamber. Reawakening subject.” The female computerized announced in the empty hibernation chamber facility; pretty pointless though as there wasn’t a living soul in sight.
The room was full of cylinder shaped hibernation chambers; designed to keep a living soul preserved in a state of suspended animation. They were aligned together in a circle over a large metal rod at the center of the lab with wires and life preservation equipment linked to them. However, out of the twelve cylinders that were there, only one was occupied. It suddenly lit up with a greenish light as a mechanical mechanism tilted it upwards. A computer made a bunch of beeping sounds as it scanned the occupant’s vital signs.
“Brain waves….functional.” a male computerized voice beeped.
“Heart rate and pulse….normal.”
“Blood pressure….normal.”
“Preparing for reawakening.”
And with that, the machine lit up and revealed its occupant. Floating in the tube was a tall and well toned human being. He was a young man and had brown hair which was flowing and tuning in the nitrogen based hibernation chemical ice. His eyes were sealed shut however they were twitching a little despite him being frozen in ice. A distinctive scuba sound was coming from the breathing apparatus attached to his face. Apart from the breathing apparatus and a few wires and patches attached to his chest, he was completely naked and unconscious.
The machine soon began to give a very loud hum while the chamber made a “whoosh whoosh” sound and the chemical ice began to melt rapidly while a suction vacuum drained the liquid. The sleeping human’s hands and eyes moved and twitched rapidly as the fluid was being slowly drain the container.
Eventually the cylinder was emptied of its contents except for the human.
“Cynlinder 3 drained” the same male computerized voice called. “Subject being released.”
The cylinder made a very loud “Shzzzzshhh!” sound as a puff of steam came from it as the front glass lid opened up exposing the human male to the world. The breathing apparatus automatically detached itself and the human slowly fell out of the chamber and hit the floor with a loud thud. Fortunately, he was uninjured.
“Huh….where…am…I?” the human coughed while shivering very uncontrollably. His skin was still soaking wet with the melted ice and he was freezing cold. He put his arms on his chest in desperation to stay warm.
He tried to open his eyes but that task was difficult as his bright green eyes were very sensitive. He wiped them with his hands and tried to get a look at his surroundings. He was in a very large white laboratory which was surprisingly very well lit as the white panels greatly reflected any light in the area. Eventually his eyes readjusted although, he was still forced to squint.
Besides the hibernation cylinder chambers, the lab also had rows of tables decorated with empty chemical bottles. The floor was just as white as the walls and ceiling and coated with white square tiles.
The human, still shaking, tried to get up, supporting himself on a table although this was extremely difficult as his legs were stiff and numb like he had really bad shin splints.
“Where…am I?” the human stuttered as he tried to remember. But the weird thing was, he couldn’t remember anything!
Yeah, he had general knowledge of his surrounding, but memories of himself, his identity, his past, it was all blank. He kneeled down and clutched his head in pain. His head was pounding like the absolute worst migraine ever.
“Why…can’t I remember anything?” the human gasped and struggled to himself. He tried with very effort to remember, anything. But there was nothing. Not even his own name; just a dark void.
A loud beeping static came from the intercoms in the room that the human didn’t notice. This caused him to jump with surprise and he slipped and fell down again.
“Ah! Dammit!” the human shouted rubbing his legs in pain.
“Well good morning sunshine! Hope ya slept well!” a voice suddenly came from the intercom. “
The human raised is head trying to find out where the voice was coming from.
“And before you ask, no, I’m not really here, this is just a pre recorded message so don’t think you just made a new friend.” The voice had a very suave tone and accent and talked in a very upbeat mood. “If you receive this message, it means the computer did its job and woke you up just in time.”
“Who, who are you?” the human questioned as he tilted his head and coughed. Strange, that voice, it sounded so familiar…
“Right now, you’re probably wandering around the lab asking yourself: ‘who am I?’ or ‘how did I get here?’ Hell you probably don’t even remember your own name. Well that’s one of the unfortunate side effects of being asleep in a state of suspended animation for around seven years. Amnesia. The good news is, you don’t age at all while you’re in there. Bad news is you won’t remember anything to enjoy it. Hehehaha”
The human gasped at this. Seven years!
“Seven years?” he said to himself. How long have I been in that chamber?
“But all joking aside, it’s glad you will finally be awake. Now right now, besides experiencing short term memory loss; you feel extremely weak. Like your muscles are made of plastic and your bones feel like peanut brittle.”
The human grunted as he tried to support himself on the table. Well the voice got him there.
“I believe near the edge of the lab close to the exit, you should find a couple of storage units there. In one of them, I think it’s drawer 3, should contain a small purple vial.”
The human male followed the messengers advice and staggered towards the exist, sure enough, right next to the door were rows of small storage containment units which were sealed shut and had large steering wheel shaped openers.
“Drawer 3,” the human murmured to himself as he gazed the drawer numbers.
“Ah!” he exclaimed when he came across drawer 3.
He turned the handle to the drawer which took quite some effort as he was cold and weak. The drawer made a loud hissing sound as liquid nitrogen steam leaked from its edges. And sure enough, the messenger’s voice was correct, inside, surrounded in a small stainless steel compartment was a small syringe filled with a purple liquid. The needle was covered with a plastic protection cap and the syringe was kept in some sort of container.
He found some protective gloves nearby and took the container and opened it; unwrapping the purple syringe. The voice on the intercom continued:
“Don’t worry, it ain’t poisonous. And it’s safe. It’s been kept preserved so it should still be good. In case you’re asking what it is; it’s a special enzyme protein metabolism, whatever the hell that is, serum. Once you unwrap it, just inject that little sucker into one of your wrists, it don’t matter which one. Now I’m no scientist and all, but it should restore your health and energy. Consider it kinda like your morning coffee. Hell it will even satisfy your hunger and thirst for the next thirty six hours so I don’t have to make you bacon and eggs! Hehehe! But in all seriousness, once you get your strength back, exit the lab and head to the recreational area; you should be able to find it. I believe we have some clothes for you stored there."
"Now my recorder is running low so I’ll let you go on your own now. Once you get out of that facility, I hope we can meet in person. If I’m still alive by then. But in all seriousness, I’m looking forward to seeing you again old buddy. We’ll do lunch! TTFN!”
And with that, the voice on the intercom ceased. The human looked at his hand and the syringe. He almost could have sworn he heard that voice from somewhere. But he couldn’t remember who it was!
“Oh well,” the human nervously spoke as he carefully removed the protection cap from the needle and carefully pressed the tip to his left wrist. “Here goes nothing.”
With a deep breath, he pierced his left wrist’s skin, leaking blood with a stabbing pain and injected the fluids into his veins. Almost immediately, his body began to jerk and twitch violently as the metabolism or whatever it was coursed through his blood.
“Ahhhh shit!!!!” he screamed. His body was twitching and felt as if thousands of volts of electricity were surging through his body. He once again fell to the floor and tried his hardest. His heart was racing and the room felt like it was spinning out of control. The messenger said this serum was supposed to help him! He visions soon began to tunnel and his mouth gaped open and everything went silent as he blacked out.
“C’mon man where are you taking me!” The human shouted and screamed as he struggled to get out of the cuffs which held his arms behind his back. He was wearing a ripped up and dirty prison uniform. But his protests were met with a rifle butt to the back of his head. He fell hard to the floor making a rarely ugly cracking sound. A dark shadowy figure carrying an assault rifle and wearing a black gas mask came up and grabbed him by the neck and forcing him up.
“Get up!” he ordered “We’re not done with you yet!”
The prisoner’s shaved head had gashes and bruises on it and he appeared to have been roughed up badly.
“What are you doing with me! Where’s my wife!” he ordered. Another masked soldier came forward and whacked him hard in his leg.
“Shut up!” he growled as they dragged him to a cell block and tossed him onto the wet concrete floor.
The prisoner groaned in pain as he struggled to get up. The soldiers slammed the door shut leaving him in complete darkness!
“No! Where’s my wife! Let me go!” he sobbed with tears all alone in the empty darkness.
The human gasped as he woke up from his horrendous nightmare; panting and breathing hard. He sat up and clutched his head.
“Dammit all!” he cussed. Whatever that serum was, it sure had one hell of a kick.
As he got up to regain his balance he was shocked to discover, he no longer felt cold or weak! Quite the opposite, he felt like he could run a twenty mile marathon!
“Holy shit!” the human exclaimed with a rather bright smile as he looked at his arms and walked around a bit!
“Well, might as well head to that rec room he was talking about.” He said as he headed out the exit.
The rec room was actually just a large locker room surrounded by electronic lockers with air tight panels holding storage.
“He said there might be some clothes for me here.” The human remembered. Where ever he was going, he couldn’t do it naked.
He looked everywhere but the lockers were dark and appeared to be either empty or not having anything of use.
“C’mon! There’s got to be something here I can wear!” he demanded as he kept searching.
Thankfully, at the end of the rec room was a locker with its panel lock lit up. Inside the clear glass storage container appeared to be clothes consisting of a black bomber jacket, a backpack, camouflage hunting and winter pants, socks and thick hiking boots, tactical combat gloves, what appeared to be a two guns and a knife with holsters and a combat belt for them both, and an old cowboy hat.
He approached the locker and thank god it was unlocked. He pressed the “Open” button and with a chinging sound, the locker opened its panel.
Once he was dried off, he gathered the clothes and put them on, strapping them to his cold body. Having clothing on him actually felt really good. There was even a mirror for him to get a good look at himself. He went back to the locker and strapped on the tactical vest. He then took a look at the weapons.
The knife was made of chrome colored stainless steel and was in excellent condition as its blade was very sharp. The top had serrated teeth for cutting through bushes and barbed wire. The handle was black and the blade felt like it had a good handle. The words “Cold Steel Delta Custom” were written on the side of the blade. The knife might come in handy so he put the knife in the sheath and then inspected the gun.
Despite being in a locker for seven years, the gun was in excellent condition. It was a black furnished FN Herstal FNS pistol chambered with at least eighteen rounds of the accurate and deadly nine millimeter parabellum rounds. The barrel was in excellent condition, the bullets were clean and ready to use, and there was even a gun cleaning and repair kit in the duffle bag.
He took the pistol and carefully held it in his hand keeping his fingers as far away from the trigger as possible. The pistol was light and had a good handling. To his amazement, he disassembled and reassembled the pistol inspecting it almost like a professional soldier and was amazed by its simplicity yet reliability. No wonder it was the standard issue pistol of the United Terran Federation military.
There was another gun too, this one a military grade assault rifle. He recognized it as a MK4A2 assault rifle based on the Vltor TS3 rifle. It was an M16 patterned carbine with a thirty round polymer magazine front and rear sights. However, it came with a Comp M4 red dot sight. The rifle was lightweight, accurate, and reliable. Perfect standard weapon for the United Terran Federation army. This gun too was an excellent condition.
Wait a minute! How do I know these weapons! He suddenly thought to himself. He didn’t recall ever seeing this pistol yet he knew its make and model! He knew what country used it. What’s going on here!?
He holstered the gun and returned to the locker for one final article of clothing. Left in the locker was a brown cowboy hat which appeared to have a circular chip in the front. For some very bizarre reason, the hat was very very familiar!
He picked it up and examined it.
“Whose hat is this?” he said to himself. He then noticed that beneath the hat in the locker were two objects. A dog tag and a piece of paper with something written on it.
He picked up the silver military dog tags and read it.
Name: Reynard Reynolds
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Branch: United Terran Federation Army
Height: 6’3”
Rank: E-7 SFC
Serial Number: JS46-1138
“Reynard Reynolds?” the man asked to himself. “Is that my name?”
Well he didn’t have too much to go on. He put the dog tags in his coat pocket. From now on, he was to be named Reynard Reynolds. Well he had some pieces of his identity. His name was Reynard Reynolds and he was apparently in the army. Not a lot of info, but it was a start.
Reynard then grabbed the loose piece of paper. Some words appeared to be scribbled on it.
To my dearest love. You will always be in my heart!
Reynard noticed that all of the dots in the I’s were little heart shaped. He turned the paper around and noticed there was another word on it.
Cerberus
“Cerberus?” Reynard questioned as he raised his eyebrows. “What the hell is Cerberus supposed to be?”
He put the note in his pocket and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, Reynard leaned forward as he felt a dull but intense pain in his head.
“Eh! Wha…what’s happening!” he shouted as he winced his eyes shut again and his head throbbing. Soon, his vision went black.
Two humans were in what appeared to be an office. One was sitting at a desk while the other was on a chair.
“No I cannot go through with this! I just can’t!” he said with plea. “We can’t do this! This wasn’t part of the plan!”
“Yes we can.” the one in the desk replied with a rather cold and emotionless voice. “We are at war you know. It’s our only chance for humanity’s survival.”
“Grgghhh, ah!” Reynard grunted as his headache finally went away and vision returned to normal.
“Whew, what was that?” he questioned at the horrible hallucination. It must have been some sort of side effect of the serum he had taken awhile ago. He just shrugged it off as just that and with his clothes, weapons and backpack and rifle shouldered in tow, he headed out the rec room. He fluffed out the cowboy hat and placed it on his head. Why not?
As he entered the hallway, he saw a service elevator which appeared to be in operating service. He walked over and pushed the call button. While he had to wait a while, the elevator soon came down and opened its doors with a “ding”. He entered the elevator and looked at the controls. According to the panel, he was in the basement so he pressed the “1” button and the elevator closed its door.
The elevator took around 30 seconds to reach the surface area, but when it did, Reynard was shocked at what he saw.
The ground level appeared to be a lobby of what used to be some sort of university or college but it was in complete ruins!
The roof appeared to be on the verge of collapsing and was cracking and leaking while the staircases had completely collapsed. The floor was crumbling and in a complete state of disrepair with tiles cracked and chipped.
Reynard carefully walked across the floor, he footsteps making a crackling sound as his boots stepped on the glass and dust on the floor. There was a large decayed banner on the ground which had worn out writing which while barely readable spelled out: Equestrian Royal University for Gifted Ponies
“So I'm in Equestria.” he said in shock and awe "But what happened here?"
This place looked like it had been through a warzone.
He decided to take action and be cautious as he approached the entrance door. Because his rifle only had a single magazine of ammo, he decided to make his pistol his main weapon while the rifle would serve as a last ditch.
When he exited the university, the site he saw was even worse! The once beautiful fields of Equestria were now covered in ashes and dust!
The entire land was a war zone with grey clouds covering the sky almost like a thunderstorm! There was little to no vegetation for miles to see other than a few tumbleweeds and dead tree stumps. However, Reynard did see what appeared to be craters and ruins of horse carriages, cars, and what appeared to be a fighter jet.
The whole place was a desert covered with dust and dirt. Except a desert had far more life than this place did. It looked as if a nuclear war occurred. Everything was completely quiet with the exception of the howling and very dry wind. Reynard couldn’t help but notice it was rather chilly too.
What happened here? What tragedy occurred while he was asleep?
In the distance, Reynard noticed a small city which appeared to have been in ruins. While he couldn’t make out the distance, it appeared to be quite a walk away. But Reynard had no choice. He wanted answers to what happened and who he was. Who knows, there might be survivors where he was going. With his newly acquired cowboy hat placed on his head and his pistol ready and his rifle shouldered, Reynard headed down the one decrepit road towards the city.
Hopefully, whatever answers he was looking for, he might find there.
Headed past a post sign which read:
Ponyville up ahead
