Darkness. My motionless body sits alone in a caved in room, soaking in an inch of water. The rest of my squad have been cut off from me. Either that, or they've been terminated. Leaving me in solitary confinement. I take a couple of deep breaths, before turning on my suits night vision. Who knows where I could actually be. The suits breathing filter had prevented any smell from alerting me of a dead body. For all I know this room could be filled with a compelation of dead bodies, displayed on the walls like a science fair presentation. A bright flash came over the eye pieces of my mask. Thank god, the room was just a barren, concrete sewer room, with the entrance covered in debree. Still, it left me with a feeling of loneliness.

I always loathed the feeling of being alone. It's nice to be alone with my thoughts, but the feeling of being cut off from the world only made it uncomfortable for me. As long as I knew that I had the safe net of always being able to socialize and still be able to co exist with others after being alone, like going outside for a breath of fresh air, then I'd be fine. But if I were to get lost in the woods, I'd begin to feel the isolation burning inside of my heart. Unfortunately for me, the other coexistants in the area are currently ruthlessly ripping each other's tracheas out.

A series of lights began to fire across my eye pieces. My eyes were momentarily blind as a blue light covered my eyes. My HUD finally came back online. The mission was written out on the left eye piece. It stated:

• find your way through sewers
  
• infiltrate Great Monarch castle
  
• Overthrow Great Monarch

Of course, it left out the important details. My fellow adrenaline addicted suit wearers would be fooled into thinking they would be the hero who would be paraded around and celebrated as war heroes. I wouldn't be fooled this time. Not because I think myself as smarter than the other Shadow Marines or that I think peace can be achieved if we stopped fighting, but because my adrenaline injector was busted, and thinking with reason was a lot more favorable than being in blind rage at all times.

If anything, I was below standard for the average Shadow Marine. I had a mesomorph body type. Meaning I was tall, but lanky compared to my fellow soldiers. I never lifted a weight in my life, but somehow, my stupidity managed to land me in replacement Shadow Marine duty. It was my misfortune to be the exact height of someone much stronger and skilled than myself. When he bit the dust, it was my duty to don his suit and take over his responsibilities, which mainly included killing everything that wasn't on our side of the fence. I never wanted to fight, or kill, or even participate in this bloodbath. All I want is out! Out of this End War! I want to go back to my family ranch, back in America. But after today, there won't be a home to go back to. The least I can ask for is a comfortable place to crawl up and die before this war takes us all.

And here's the real kicker. My suit can't be removed without permenate spinal damage. The artificial nerve enhancer and spinal armor appears to be a metal spine replica covered in lights and wires, but when attached to a host spine, enhances every single sense in your body. Not the five senses you learned in kindergarten, but the actual thirty or so senses that were discovered in the past few years, including: quick time thinking, time perception altering, body heat gauging, memory enhancer, and strengthened immune systems and bodily repair functions along with the Emergency Stem Cell gel dispenser built into the spine. But if the spine was to be removed without the expertise of a master surgeon or the technical prowess of a Shadow Marine engineer, the nerves below my fourth spinal disc would be severed, which would leave me unable to use my lungs. I would die, fully conscious of my surroundings, in a lifeless husk of a body.

The commanding officers over seeing the Shadow Marine initiative did this on purpose. They knew that they could scare their soldiers into fighting if the other alternative was death. Heartless bastards. If only they knew how badly I needed a shave, or how much I desired to eat food again, rather than ingest nutrition supplements from the suits mouth peace. Oh well. What's the use in complaining? We're all going to die anyways.

There was nothing out there that would keep us from getting killed. No strategy, no amount of force, and no number of soldiers being thrown at the castle itself would stop our immediate deaths. We didn't have any reinforcements or any plan to extract the wounded. It's actually odd how many safety nets we were granted back home. If we were in danger, we could call the police. If we're ill or have anxiety, we go to the doctor. Even if we're a little sad, we have family and friends to keep us from doing anything stupid. It's like the Truman Show, where society wants to keep you alive as long as physically possible, just so you that you could continue doing whatever you were doing for society without question. Non of that matters now, we blew every single possible chance of maintaining society with this war.

All the safety nets had been taken from us. We were on our own. Our last stand if you will. Now, I now that dying to preserve modern society is something worth fighting for, but fighting for the preservation of humanity is a greater cause. And human instinct is telling me to do whatever possible to preserve my life.

I opened up the strategy menu built into my suits HUD, and scrolled through any sort of infiltration technique that could save the world. I had high doubts that there was anything that could save us. We were wasting resources on a battlefield that was too heavily guarded to begin with. However, the Great Monarchy has prepared their nukes for firing. Our leaders thought we could prevent this if we threw everything we got at them, truth be told theirs no way around this. In a couple of hours, over 10,000 nuclear devices will be fired at any area that isn't The Great Monarchy. Any surviving ACA soldiers will proceed to return fire with their nukes. Several Ally citizens have retreated to the mass bunkers. Each bunker, filled with its own wild life, food growing system, and society, is now absolutely overflowing with scared human beings. I have high doubts that any of them will survive. Even if the nukes do not destroy the bunkers, the radiation should remain in the air for many years to come. And they do not have enough resources to keep going for that long. I guess this means the end of all life as we know it.

I better find a nice place to die. The ACA can't do anything about deserting the battlefield if they're too busy being blown to smithereens. Who knows, this suit has decent radiation protection, maybe if I go deeper into this sewer, I'll someone live for a couple seconds longer.

My arms push on the ground as the rest of my body protests the thought of getting up. I feel light headed as I search the room for an exit. The one I came from had been caved in from a mortar round, but there was a maitinence door that lead downwards. I opened it as if I was opening the gates to hell, accepting my fate as I trouged on. I exhale a sigh, and begin my journey to find my final resting place. The walls resembled a former city, filled with life. There was graffiti on the wall, and torn propaganda poster strewn about the place. I used to be bothered by graffiti, it used to remind me of my first home. It used to represent dangerous criminals, or petty crimes. But now, it's the dead language of a dead culture. The entire town of Omsk was destroyed. Either taken by the ACA, or turned into a fortress for the Monarchy. I sighed at the graffiti, and continued through the next door.

The room I entered was much of the same story. Brick walls, graffiti, posters, a couple more doors and a cold concrete floor. There was nothing new, just a severe lack of life. This was no place to die! I don't care if this leads to the darkest sewers imaginable, it would still be an adventure. I must continue on to find a more appropriate demise. I choose the middle door, which lead to a staircase, and continued on my quest.

The stairs were twelve floors in length. I suppose it would be normal for a cities service tunnels to be this long, however every floors tunnels all lead to dead ends. The rooms are all the same, brick walls, graffiti, and doors. All leading to separate rooms on the same floor, with the only exit leading out the door on the staircase. The only floor that had any sort of sign of progress was the seventh. Which had only one hallway that led me away from the main complex. The hall itself must've been half a mile long! I had finally made it to the door, only opening it to find more rooms. There's got to be something going on. Someone's hiding something. And I think it would be nice if my final moments are of adventuring into some sort of conspiracy.

The hallways became more and more complex, adding trick doors that lead no where and doors that lead to thirty foot drops. I had to go deeper into this rabbit hole. I entered every room with extreme caution, treating it as some sort of ancient temple, filled with many different traps. With every new room, I began to notice that the setting switched from maitinence to militaristic.The filthy concrete floor had donned a metal walkway in the center. The brick walls filled with former life were replaced with concrete slabs with metal lining.

The graffiti was replaced with restricted area signs. I finally came to a large maintenance elevator at the end of a dead end. I reluctantly entered, pressing the basement level button. The elevator shook and shuttered, sparks firing off the sides. The elevator descended into darkness. I wondered if their was salvation for me. Perhaps I'd find a bunker that was just deep enough that had room for one more, I could be saved. I'd do anything to be saved.

The elevator had finally came to a furious halt, forcing me to catch my balance momentarily. The doors opened to reveal a large circular corridor that lead to an incredibly large vault door. Halfway to the vaults door, I came to the realization that anything could be beyond its circular metal latch. Monarchs, rebels, or even the superhumans! Thankfully for me, I am never under equipped. The ACA employed the idea that our Shadow Marines should never be unarmed. They brought this dea to the highest engineers and scientists in all the western hemisphere to work on a solution. The result was the Worm Hole Armory. It was a giant cube facility, over five hundred feet tall, wide, and long that we, somehow, filled with guns, ammo, medical supplies, basic supplies, and entire memory base of music for entertainment. Even after storing 89% of our weaponry in the Armory, they still had an incredible amount of room for storage. So, ACA decided that the Shadow Marines would look more fierce in the eyes of our enemies if we carried a variety of swords, axes, and other impressive melee. While I do enjoy using a sword to fight bad guys, it was impractical. There's a reason we don't use swords in modern society, and that reason in guns. The rest of the spare space in the Armory was used to build a forge to fix the weapons we broke.
After all the possible additions were successfully installed and tested, the cube itself was launched into space, then (using the wormhole technology) was transported into a parallel universe. The facility would then remain in that empty sub space, while continuing to be fully functional, for the rest of time. There were no suns or planets in the area, so there was no chance of accidently crashing into anything else. If the facility was damaged by a meteor storm or extra terrestrial life, the facility is equipped with self repair units and several defense systems. Then, from that universe, it can store each individual Shadow Marines weapons, ammo, and supplies in a safe environment. When a Shadow Marine needs a weapon, all he does is imagine the weapon. The sensors in his mind will read the brainwave patterns and notify the Armory. Then, using wormhole technology, create a black haze in the palm of your hands. All you had to do was move your hand in slightly into the portal grab the handle of whatever you spawned. Any additional items acquired can be stored in the armory, like Monarch intelligence or priceless artifacts, by placing them inside the black cloud. With an infinite supply of weapons and ammo, I decided to spawn my favorite revolver.

The vault door was slightly ajar when I arrived to it. I inspected it cautiously. It was just large enough for me to squeeze through. I stuck the revolver in first, the followed in suit through the opening in the door, only to find that this was not a bunker. It was a scientific research facility. I stepped uneasily into the the lobby of the facility.
Ffzt..."Hello? Who are you? State your business into the microphone on the south wall...err you're left..." A mysterious voice ordered in a Spanish accent.

I approached the microphone with caution. This man could be another Doctor Mendele for all I know. After all, it's defcom 1, no one will come to my aid if I get captured and tortured. But I can't give up, I will do whatever I can to continue my life. And you know what they say, "Go out with a bang, not a whimper".

"Hello? This is...Er, Anthony. Lt. Anthony Micheals. I...I guess I'm here because I don't want to die."

"Do you have a fear of space, and are you physically fit and able to survive on your own?"

"Ehh...I'm not afraid of space, and I can handle myself."

"Perfect! Come and find me. And hurry up the end of the world is in a few hours, and it won't wait for you to sight see my office!"

The door next to the microphone clicked, and opened by itself. I stepped through the door with confidence. I still don't know if he is friend or foe, but I have a feeling thing that he's going to help me. I passed through several offices and walked by many abandoned work stations before finally getting to a large set of double doors. I pressed through the them to find a decontamination room. The doors shut behind me. A series of lasers passed over my body, removing every germ from the premises. The doors ahead of me opened revealing a large chamber like room. Almost like a former nuclear silo. However, the nuke it should've been housing was missing, and replaced by a smaller , 30 foot tall rocket like pod with a spot for one person inside. The scientist approached me.

"Mr. Michaels! Dr. Steven Rodriguez, at your service." He extended his hand out.

"Eh, pleasure to meet you. What's going on here?"

"I will explain everything, come with me for a sec." He politely said.

I was lead into a room connected to a silo. It looked like some sort of high school science lab, but without sinks or those funny gas pipes. The walls were covered with White boards, each was covered in equations and different graphs. The tables were littered with notes and binders filled with more notes. Dr. Rodriguez ran to the other side of the room, digging through a drawer. It felt uncomfortable with the silence of him digging.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of notes. Who wrote all of these?"

"Myself, you get a lot of free time when everyone holding you back is dead!"

Alright, maybe it was a bad idea to make small talk, but I have a feeling he won't tell me what the plan is if I don't get him talking.
"Err...what is this place?"

"I suppose that it's not exactly top secret anymore. This was a former nuclear missile construction site. They hired me to help develope a new type of nuclear explosive."

"A new type? What do you mean by that?"

"The Great Monarchs wanted a nuclear explosion that will soak the earths soil with harmful chemicals and nuclear fallout. It would ensure that nothing will grow on the Western Hemisphere for the next five hundred years," The doctor said," The nuke was so large, that the original scientist who created the schematics for it needed it to be constructed from six different silos. They also requested that the construction of said parts were overseen by a Robotics Engineer and a Nuclear Physicist, both at the top of their respected fields."

Dr. Rodriguez proceeded to the next shelf, after snatching a small jar of a clear sludge. The jar was quickly hidden in his lab coat pocket. The Dr proceeded to a shelf under his desk. He began searching that one for only gods knows what. He looked up in my direction, and further explained,"Our construction team was assigned to assemble the fission engine. The science team was assigned to create a formula for a type of fallout that would soak into the Earths soil. We were the last phase of the project, so our parts and formula would be sent straight to Moscow, and be added to the nuke. Once that was finished, the deadly missile would be ready to fire, and end all life on the Western Hemisphere," the doctor further explained. A smirk came across his face as he mischievously said,"But, the part of the formula that I and my colleagues contributed will ensure that it does not play out like that."

"How so?"

The doctor looked up from the desk to explain with greater pride. Eyes locked, and his smug grin widening further, he explained," The Monarchs do not allow the scientists from other construction sites to communicate to one another. They knew that if we were to converse, we would join minds, we would create a weapon that would dud without risk of premature detonation. We could not join together to save billions of lives, so we followed orders." The Doctor continued to place more components into his pockets, then ran to the other side of the room to examine a chart located on a nearby table. He excitedly proclaimed," However, they were not as brilliant as myself. For my formula would delude the radiations effects, and still be subtle enough to look like a success. The most that the radiation could do is change how your eyes process light!"

"Okay, what's the plan here. Why did you want me?"

"You're a soldier, and a sane one too. You would be more likely to survive than the others."

"Dare I ask, survive what?"

"The future." He responded with excitement as he hurried himself to me. "Here relax, I'll explain everything. Take a seat," he said.
"Eh...sure" I reluctantly accepted. There was something off about this man, but he said that I could be saved. So I'll take my chances. I leaned forward and sighed heavily. Dr. Rodriguez proceeded to combine all of the ingredients together in a syringe. I assumed he was making something for himself. I felt like I needed to trust him more if I was to get results, so I didn't mind.

"Tell me, Antonio. How much do you weigh?"

"Err, with the suit, 435 pounds. But regular body weight, 195 pounds. Why?"

"Oh..." He said as a needle was injected into the medical injector port on the back of my neck. "...for this!" Damn it! Whatever he injected me with was fast acting. I felt my body go limp, I tried to move my fist but it wouldn't budge. I can't believe it never phased me that he was going to drug me. I'm such an idiot! I knew I shouldn't have trusted this man. My first response to the Doctors betrayal was a stern and manly punch to the throat. I tried to lift my fist, but my arm refused to budge. I'm using all of my strength to bring swift justice to his face, but my body was buried in very strong resistance. I feel like I'm trying to swim in concrete.

"Don't pass out on me just yet! I wouldn't want to send you off without any clue of what's going on!" He said as he plunged another needle in my neck. I tried my hardest to respond, I truly did. I focused all of my energy on my jaw, and managed to mutter out," Ffffuck....y..y-you.."

"Shh, Antonio. I understand you rage, but you would never agree to do this willingly." He moved across from me, pulling up a chair in front of me. I wanted answers, I just wanted to know if we were spending our last hours in some freaky fantasy or is he actually here to help me!

"Look, amigo, humanity is doomed. The vaults can hold the animals and plant life easily, but the people cannot survive that long together. The food resupply systems are only sufficient in a couple of bunkers. The other hundreds of bunkers will have no other choice but to go out there in the radiation to find food, which will kill them. The only sure way to be safe is to momentarily leave the planet.

The doctor rose from his seat, and slowly walked to the doorway to stare at the pod. He then spoke up,"I've spent the last couple of years on this rocket with the robotics engineer, Dr. Goodwell. We designed it as a way out, in case the world really did end. When we evacuated the city for fear of nuclear retaliation, Dr. Goodwell was murdered by one of the head engineers for a spot in our side project. That's when I decided that a brilliant mind cannot withstand the stress of what the future holds, let alone the stress of war. But a soldier is trained for stress."

The doctor turned to me and began to walk forward," That is where you come in, amigo. It has room for only one, the rest is space for the AI and the stasis systems. It will send you into orbit and slow time inside of the pod. You can then, wait for the radiation to die out, and land when life becomes hospitable on Earth again. The AI will notify you of any major changes, it has built in scanners that monitor and identify any events that you would find interesting. As for the second thing I injected you with, well...it's kind of an experiment. It will help your brain better communicate with the wormhole technology. As well as the hologram program built into your suit. Basically, your weapons will spawn quicker and holograms will form more complex creations."

My vision started to blur, I could feel myself falling asleep. My eyelids began to shut as red flashing lights began to shine on my motionless body.

"Looks like that's your cue, amigo"

I was pushed on the rolly chair I was sitting on towards the rocket. The glass pod section opened up, and revealed a faux leather sort of bed for me to lie on. With much difficulty, Dr. Rodriguez lifted me from the chair into the pod, and sealed it tight.

"Don't worry, amigo. I've lived a full life, but if you could mention me in the future, that'd be nice too."

The adrenaline in my body started to wake me up. I was going to time travel in space. Despite the improbability of it actually working, I was excited. What future can I expect? Will I be taken to a new world of wonder, or a crater of death? The rocket began to lift slightly. It was preparing to launch me. I could feel it readying its engines.

"Goodbye."

There was a prick in my neck, the pod had injected me with another serum. This one was similar to Dr. Rodriguez's muscle relaxer. This one is more date rape-y, I can feel myself lose control of my movements. Everything began to slow as the pod lifted itself off the ground. My eyesight was blurring, and breathing itself became a chore.

I closed my eyes as the sound of explosions and death lulled me to sleep....

......................................................................

My eyes began to flutter open. A voice had just come over the pod. It was the now busted A.I. Trying to inform me that I am awake. Good thing it did, I obviously wouldn't be aware.

Congratulations...you have been asleep for 3....

"Three" what exactly. I highly doubt it was only three years, but I'm still worried that I might be somewhere i don't want to be. What new wonders does this world hold for me, will I find a nuclear wasteland, filled with radioactive mutant people for me to kill? Or will I find a new Utopia, where there is no war. Or maybe the computer was wrong, and I'm about to die from nuclear fallout. Any of those options would be better than dying in a pod due to paranoia.

My hand wakes from its own slumber and reaches towards the front of the pod case, making its destination a crank that will fire the door off of the pod. My hand wrapped around itself around the lever, and began yanking. I had not fully waken up yet, so this was my first true test to see if I can survive in this world. My other hand goes to assist, but the lever would not budge. One last yank finally managed to move the lever and free me from my metal coffin.

Fwomp!!! The door fired off into the new world. I expected blinding light, but was greeted with a dark abyss. My night vision switched on, and helped me process where I was. I had landed in a forests area with a small clearing in front of me, similar to the forests you'd find in middle North America or even just in Northern Europe. But there was something off. They looked, less textured. They looked almost like they came straight out of a cartoon. My body flopped out of the pod and onto the earth. My hands ran through the grass to see if grass still worked as individual strands or if it was just a giant green blob on the ground. My fingers combed through the green abyss to make out single threads of grass. I suppose the knew that the radiation would have permanent effects, but I didn't think I would make the entire planet look like a god damn episode of Ren and Stimpy. Unlike Ren and Stimpy, it made sense. The grass had consistency, it wasn't stretchy or bouncy, it just felt like regular grass. I reached to pick up a nearby rock to see if it would have cartoonish style properties. Throwing the rock at a tree revealed no bouncing stars or silly sound effects, only the sound of stone striking wood. This must've been the work of Dr. Rodriguez's formula. I'm glad it worked, but I didn't expect the nuclear fallout to be this efficient at light perception.

My body protested as I forced myself up. The drug had not left my body quite yet, which was shown in my incredible lack of balance. I managed to stumble over to the edge of the clearing, with a high score of twelve intoxicated steps before stumpling onto another tree to catch my balance. I felt like passing out, but a thought occurred before I allowed myself to do so. If this planet is still occupied by people, then they must have civilization. And a large amount of post war civilizations can either be kind and loving or kill on sight barbarians. This armor can only keep me alive after a certain amount of punishment before I can die, so if any sort of hostile scouts were to see my pod crash down, my adventure would be cut short. I managed to muster the energy to force my body past the tree and into the bushes at the edge of the clearing. The time had finally been imputed into my HUD, it stated:

May 24, 35657. 23:17

Awesome, my clock is busted. There was no physical way that I could've been up there for over thirty thousand years. I dismissed the clock back into the HUD menu and began rest my eyes. I tried to muster the strength to hide myself better by covering myself in a branch, but it was now impossible to even try. Hopefully, nothing will notice me...
..........................................

I had awoken to the sound of voices. My eyes were a still slightly blurry, but I could now slightly comprehend what I was looking at. There appeared to be five grey blobs and three white blobs. I suppose these were men in uniform, seeing as how they were speaking to each other. The voices were muffled, but from body- err blob language and muffled yet shouted commands, I could tell that the gray ones wanted the white ones to examine my pod. At least I think that's the case. My hearing started to clear up as I could make out a specific voice.

"...not gonna ask again, Symphonian swine! You will tell us what this is or you will be responsible for the invasion of Symphonia! Do you want that? What would Equestria do with out the ability to sing? Nothing! Your countries existence is a joke!"

Odd how they were speaking English, I'd expect the new world to have a new and futuristic sci fi language, but it saves me the trouble of having to learn a new way of speaking. Plus, it will make it easier to become friends if I can understand them. I have a feeling that the grey blobs might be the bad guys here. The white blob began to struggle before muttering something.

"We...don't know! This looks like its from the future or something! Honestly!"

"You expect me to believe the lies of your kind?"

"Please! I'm telling the truth!"

"Well, looks like I get the honor of killing you here then!" They grey blob exclaimed as he drew out what appeared to be a spear. I needed to do something. I don't know if these white blobs are actually better than the grey ones, but they're a hell of a lot friendlier than them. The drugs had mostly exited my body, so I was able to lift myself, spawning a revolver in hand. It was the only weapon that had an abundance of spare rounds, so it will be the ideal weapon to scare off anyone fore the next couple of months or so. They must have notice me attempting to walk towards them as they turned around.

"What in the name of all that is dark is that thing!?" One of the grey blobs exclaimed.

"No clue, but it looks like a troll in armor, kill it!"

Before they could act upon their words, I pointed my firearm to the sky and fired. Bang! The kickback felt like a jolt of electricity shooting down my arm, straight to my spine. The sheer force knocked the right side of my body backwards. It may not have looked that manly to get knocked back by a pistol, but it looks like they don't know what it is, it must look pretty powerful to them.

They backed off for a good second before approaching again. My arm was still en-pained by the shot, but still moved forward to fire again, I aimed carefully at the center blob. My finger ached as it pulled the trigger. BANG! The bullet had traveled through the middle blobs, what I assume, head as blood splattered through the backside of him. He fell towards me, the rest backing up. I aimed towards the left blob and fired twice more. Bang! Bang!!! Two through the chest. He fell to the Earth as the other grayish black blobs escaped into the night. The white blobs appeared to be crawling towards the spear the gray blob dropped.

It took all of my strength to fight, I needed to rest again. I made sure that my revolver was stored back in my suit, before collapsing. My eyes began to blur again, but the face of the deceased combatant was now visible. I managed make out the face of my advisory, before shutting my eyes again. It was an odd face for a normal person. I'm sure it was a mask, but why would anyone make a mask of a weird bat creature. I drifted into sweet slumber as I felt my leg being lifted, and my body began to be dragged...

Author's Note

Feel free to notify me of any sort of corrections or existing potholes. My current editor is more wasted than ur mum lol.