Chapter 1: Freak Incident
1747 HOURS
SECRET FACILITY
NEAR THE URAL MOUNTAINS
SIBERIA
"YES!" Aleks shouted with glee. "Prototype Object-437 is finished! After all those 2 years of hard work, problem-solving and fixing, it's finally done!"
Aleks ran outside with happiness painted across his face to drive towards his hidden testing grounds in the basement of his large mansion, not even looking at his surroundings, especially the extremely slippery substance across the road, which made him slip violently and fall to the cold asphalt road real hard, head first, creating a huge bump on his forehead which made him feel drowsy. The guards held their best poker faces trying not to laugh at their new CEO as they stared blankly at the gate, not even daring to take a glance at him.
"Augh fuck! My head, at least I still managed to get my tool gun unharmed." Aleks said as he stood up and picked up the revolver-looking tool. Groaning from the throbbing pain, he gave the guards a final glance before walking towards his well armored, GAZ-TIGR.
"Now to get back to my house and test my prototype..."
Tons of electrical equipment ranging from supercomputers, huge monitors, and radios beeped and buzzed with shimmering blinking lights. A sizzling metallic smell emanated from one huge room, strong enough to burn everyone's nostrils off but Aleks didn't even budge from the stench his bunker-like basement created, for he has worked inside an advanced weapons research & development facility underneath a derelict numbers station in Siberia for 4 straight years. So the rancid burnt smell that seeped out from one of the rooms in his basement didn't even deter him.
Aleksander Nikita Ivanovich graduated as a valedictorian with a doctor's degree in engineering at 18. After the usual 12-month draft in the army, he was given a task to invent and create a new combat gear for the Russian Ground Forces in Tochmach. They were really looking forward to his creation.
After 6 months of work Aleks invented and successfully tested the "Vanguard combat gear" that is able to withstand a few anti-material rounds and a half a dozen grenades exploding at point-blank range, leaving the operator short of breath for awhile but protects him from severe injuries, not to mention that it's comfortable and light enough to do parkour with. The only downside of this gear was it's harder and slower to make and costs twice more than the old Spetsnaz gear, so it's only confined to the newly created Vanguard operators that were composed of high-ranking Spetsnaz officers stemming from FSB, VDV, MVD, & GRU. The official standard issue Vanguard combat gear was the NBC variant, but other derivatives were also made, namely the heavy EOD variant and the lighter shock variant.
His talent didn't go unnoticed by the Russian Government where he was then offered a position in the 'Advanced Weapons Research & Development Corps' located in the Siberian outskirts, in which he gladly accepted. A few days later, Aleks was relocated from 'Tochmach' with a select group of scientists to the underground facility where they were given a task of creating a new type of weapon. In the next 2 years the group of scientists finally created a working handheld Railgun capable of reaching supersonic speeds, able to pierce through tanks and shoot down aircraft but heavier than your typical GPMG and cumbersome to reload, much like the PTRD-41 that has to reload another round after firing, and also shot a devastating modified APDS round designed to disintegrate low flying aircraft and punch a hole through the sides and rear of any tank.
The Railgun did not enter mass production due to the complexity of the weapon that made it very hard to maintain and produce. Sadly, it was denied by the Russian Military. Still, Aleks has plans on the few batch of the finished products.
Weeks after the Victory parade in Red square, Moscow, showing their latest equipment & armaments in 2020, Aleks was secretly creating his own project he dubbed the 'tool gun', which he got the idea from the particle accelerator in their facility accidentally creating a huge wormhole the size of a 3-story building, prior after the EAU was shortly created. The Russian Government noticed the unique particle accelerator and hid this from the public and the rest of the world, giving only clearance to High-Ranking officials and the scientists who worked there, including him.
The newly funded "Russian Space Program" started making space expeditions using the wormhole inside a giant airlocked room, discovering new galaxies far beyond our reach and more. From there an idea somehow popped up in his head, and more like slapped him repeatedly with it. An idea if he could somehow create a portal-creating device that would make him easily go to faraway places and beyond without the needs of vehicles and the pros of cutting distance and time short with just a few walks. And so he created blueprints and scientific calculations in his bunker-like basement to be used for his project.
Aleks started modifying one unique kind of particle accelerator, the same model that was used in accidentally created the mind-blowing incident. Progress was slow as time went on, creating experimental models ranging from car-sized to carbine-sized, each with their own different output. Most of them were horribly bad except one that caught his attention. It was as small as an MP5K submachine gun but it drained too much power that it made his house's lights flicker and spazz out, and it only created football sized portal lasting 3 seconds to 5 seconds, if he is lucky enough.
Aleks then refined the experimental model, changing its appearance into a more discreet revolver and directly charging its ultra-compact multipurpose batteries which were no smaller than your generic car battery. Each of the batteries has 4 charges for the tool gun and they can last up to 1 month when plugged directly to his power-hungry house, maybe up to 9-12 months if he limits power consumption. Before Aleks went to test the prototype back to his place, he first informed the whole facility that he's going to take a helluva long vacation before coming back because he deserved it. And also that he was given clearance by the government to do research in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and the nearby forests, including the flora and fauna in it.
Hell, Aleks was so rich that he didn't even know what to do with the amount of cash he has, but he did buy his own assortment of weapons, and even had a collection of military vehicles and aircraft in his ever expanding basement, it's just really large you know? Aleks even has a part of the basement turned into a man cave, and the basement was so deep that, technically it's more of a nuclear bunker than a basement.
After Aleks was done with the papers, darkness came as he drove back to his house that was deep inside Siberia. In front of the modern-looking mansion were a highway and the frozen tundra, while at the back was the taiga and the visible Ural mountains.
The whole place was guarded by his long time 'vanguard' comrades, greeting him as he arrived and following him inside an elevator down towards the basement with their packs on their backs. Now was the time for him to test his invention. They entered an air-locked room as he opened the only light inside it and closed the metal doors behind them before walking towards a huge empty wall, pointing his 'tool gun' at it.
'Oh wait, I forgot to plug it and put in the coordinates... Pripyat, Ukraine. Goddammit.' Aleks muttered to himself as he tweaked the 'tool gun', spinning some dials and flipping tiny switches as he entered commands into it. Aleks even slapped it on his thigh a couple of times when it didn't respond.
The other six wore their NBC combat gear over their body with Him catching up. Aleks then plugged the wires from the tool gun and pointed the gun at the wall saying, "Get ready comrades, the air might be irradiated so check for tears on your suits. We don't want ourselves dying from radiation right?" They all nodded at him before they chattered amongst themselves.
"And Kulak, put the whole house on total lockdown. We don't want someone stealing our guns and stuff here while we're gone, right? Ok." The operative named 'Kulak' saluted at him and ran towards the control room near the weapons cache and put the whole place on lockdown.
Suddenly, all lights in the whole house went off, enabling the Kashtan CIWS and letting them sprout out of hidden concrete foundations outside the house. While six-wheeled armed robots with face-detecting and night vision system roamed the inside of the spacious house, following pre-determined paths.
"Everything is now on total lockdown. Now no one can break in or out of this fortress." Kulak said to Aleks as he walked beside his fellow comrades.
"Great, now we can start phase one..." Aleks said as he pointed the tool gun towards the wall. He then shot a somewhat distorted black & gray beam creating a 4 meters tall portal to the other side, overlooking a forest and by the looks of it, it's just as dim as the sky above the house. The portal somehow has a distinct deep, ominous droning sound as it was created. The small fluorescent light was the only light source in the air-locked room. It may be dimly lit, but it was enough for them to see themselves and anyone near them.
Aleks looked at his wristwatch and saw that the exact time was '1837 HOURS'.
"Mother earth must have really wanted to reclaim this place. Just look at it, the place is totally filled with overgrowth and the like."
"I don't see any structures or buildings in the way or something." Someone from the group spoke up.
"We might be looking at the wrong direction comrades, and there's nothing wrong to it." He then checked his Geiger counter to see any response, but it didn't give the usual click it created when it detected radioactive particles. Aleks was confused why there was no response and thought that the Geiger counter was broken so he didn't even bother, thinking it's still the same old Pripyat forest he's still looking at.
"Now for phase two..." Aleks continued as he disconnected it and holstered the tool gun before walking near the portal, but didn't yet stick his body through it.
"I'll go in first... then I'll tell you guys when it's clear, got it?" They nodded at Aleks command, lining up behind him and readying their gear. He walked nearer to it and looked back at them
"If anything happens to me, just lie about it. You guys are trained professional liars and everyone would never doubt that you're all lying. I, myself, can get back without any complications." They all exchanged worried glances at each other then looked back at him.
"Ready?" They all nodded.
"Okay, here goes nothing—" A high-pitched screech and an extremely bright flash of light, as bright as what you would expect to see in front of a nuclear explosion, suddenly emanated from where Aleks and the portal were before as they both dissipated into fine golden mist that glowed brighter as it slowly withered away.
As for his comrades, they all dropped to the ground as they all covered their eyes and ears from the unexpected stuff that happened in front of them.
"Augh FUCK!"
"MY EYES! IT BURNS!"
They all screamed in agony in varying degrees while they slowly recovered from the '50 seconds of agony' that made their ears and eyes, almost bleed.
"What. The. Fuck... Ugh, my head's pounding." was the only thing Kulak said with his comrades as confused as him. He then walked towards the control room, disabling the lockdown system. Slowly the Kashtans got back inside their hidden holes with the robots returning back inside their respective places as the lights turned back on.
"Holy fuck! That was worse than a dozen of flashbangs!" one of the operatives exclaimed.
"Do you think he's dead?" another unnamed operative spoke up as he sat on the cold ground near the others.
"Hell no, Aleks's as tough as fuck... he'll fuck up anyone or anything that dares stand in his way." the other chuckled as he sat with the others.
Soon, Kulak emerged from the control room and asked them, "So, everyone. we'll just have to wait until he comes back. It may be dumb, but we can't do anything besides wait for him. Orders are orders, right?" They all nodded, "Also, nobody shall speak a word after this, am I clear?"
"Understood, Major!" they all responded and unpacked their belongings, walking back towards their respective posts.
"Wait! We forgot to take off our NBC suits!" someone from them suddenly spoke as they walked towards the elevator. They all laughed and with Kulak saying, "We're all going to take off our suits once we get topside *chuckle*."
'...The fuck just happened. I doubt that Aleks would die there. Motherfucker's one tough nut to crack. Wild bear needs a full regiment before they take him down, but not out.' Kulak thought as they entered the elevator.
2109 HOURS
NEAR SOME DIRT PATH
WHITETAIL WOODS
EQUESTRIA
"Augh fuck... My head." Aleks muttered just beyond the earshot of someone beside him, but there was no one beside him.
Aleks then reached for his radio in his pack, but his heart skipped a beat when his pack wasn't on his back, nor near him. Aleks checked his surroundings, scanning for his pack, but as soon as he didn't spot his pack, he started walking aimlessly, unsure of where he was going. He walked and walked until he heard something rustling in the bushes, and then pebbles grinding on stone. Aleks cautiously walked towards the bush until he saw a bunny hopping out of it and scurrying away from his sight.
Aleks sighed as he knelt down, checking the air if there's any trace of radiation contamination everywhere in the strange forest he's on. He waited for a few minutes to accurately measure the radiation levels until the device beeped, telling him that there were no traces of radiation anywhere near him.
"Wow, that's new, 0% radiation contaminants... and weird..." He then proceeded to check his Geiger counter strapped to his side and saw no readings on it.
"Nothing? Still, I won't risk it and take off my NBC suit and mask, especially in a place like Pripyat. Well, time to look for my pack. I wonder where it is now..." He then stood up, checking his surroundings, before walking again aimlessly in the forest.
"Maybe... Ah, fuck it. I knew this would fuck up." He expected Pripyat as he turned around, but was welcomed by more trees and trees and trees, and grass and the night sky.
"Well, I'm nowhere near the Chernobyl exclusion zone, that's for sure. Time to look for my pack."
The full moon at least illuminated where he was walking but still half of it was blocked by the foliage around him. Aleks didn't know where the fuck he is going. Shortly after, he saw his pack overturned and untouched resting on a nearby tree.
"Finally, my fucking pack showed up!" He ran towards it and hastily opened it to check if any of his things were missing. One last check later, he wore the pack on his back and strolled again in the forest to look for any sign of civilization or an abandoned irradiated city on the outskirts of the forest. But one thing's for sure, he wanted to get out of the forest and find an open field to make camp on.
"Oh wait! Maybe I can go back to my basement!" Aleks hastily pulled his tool gun from its holster, connected the wires, and fired at the ground, but stopped at the last second.
"I need a flat clear surface for this." He unconnected and holstered it back before he sighed and began to look at the sky. Aleks stuck a stick upright on the ground in a bit of clearing and sat for several minutes as he leaned on a rock jutting out of the ground. He then stood up and checked the stick as soon his watch beeped.
"I might have been walking in the wrong direction. Time to go north, I guess."
Not long after he walked off, he stumbled onto a dirt path on a clearing.
"Finally, a path. But this won't do, it's too bumpy and fuck. Still. meh, I'll just follow the path to where it would take me." Aleks started to pick up the pace and followed it where it would take him. Minutes passed as sleepiness slowly started to take him down, but he stayed strong and walked down it. He looked for signs as he walked down the path, expecting to see 'Pripyat' or 'Stop' and 'Radioactive' symbols. Instead what he found was that the forest was slowly thinning out, and this made him excited to finally see the edge of the forest. Aleks ran but stopped as he saw a sign he missed and immediately backtracked back towards it.
"The fuck is this? Old King's English? Whitetail Woods? Ponyville? Am I in Belgium or Germany? Nah... I must be in America." He shrugged and got back to sprinting towards the clearing. As soon as he arrived towards it, he saw train tracks facing to the left and right. Aleks thought that he was just inside a forest near a rural town in West Russia because Russia has tons of rails everywhere in the country, he said.
"Not good enough, but I'll just try." Aleks pulled his tool-gun, connected it again, and tweaked the configurations and commands. He was surprised that the place he's in is labeled 'Unknown Location'. He was pretty sure he labeled every location on earth. Aleks changed the destination to 'Moscow, Russia' and pointed the gun at the ground. He fired but instead of a portal, he got an electronic chirp with sparks and a bad shock through his body that sent him falling down to the cold dirt ground beside the rails.
"F-F-FUCK!!!" Aleks didn't move for the whole 5 minutes as the shock temporarily paralyzed him, but soon he recovered and cleared his head before standing up and grabbing the tool gun that was now inside a small ditch a few meters away from him. As Aleks inspected it, the wires were now fried up and it didn't respond to commands anymore, only responding with an electronic chirp and sparks when he pulled the trigger again. But as he did, he went down to the ground again, but it only took him 1 minute to recover from the pain.
"Mental note, don't press the fucking trigger again..." Aleks grabbed it again from the nearby ditch it supposedly fell in earlier and instead of holstering it back, he put it inside his pack and began to follow the tracks to the east. It took him at least an hour to reach a tunnel on a rocky mountain. Exhaustion kicked in as he decided to make camp nearby the tracks on some foliage to avoid any kind of attention. And then he didn't decide to do it and stopped what he was going to do.
"Ah fuck this, I'm not camping here. Gotta find a 'friggin town so I can relax my roasted body, I think." Aleks followed the rails again, hoping it would lead him to a nearby town or city.
As Aleks got into the dark tunnel, he wore his NV goggles and grabbed the MP-443 from his vest. While inside, he heard a train whistle. By instinct, he suddenly jumped to the side and did a prone stance, trying his best to hide himself while checking the train that was coming nearer to the tunnel. He examined it as it passed away towards the east side of the tunnel, the same direction he was heading, but he was equally confused as to be curious about how peculiar the train looked.
"Too dark to see any details but that was definitely too small for a train, and it looks some old locomotive-type train." Aleks stood up, brushed off the dirt that clung and followed the rails again.
It took him exactly 15 minutes to navigate and exit the long and dark tunnel and as soon as he did, he discovered a gigantic orthodox-like white castle resting on the side of a huge mountain at a very far distance from where he was.
"Whew... Wait what?" Aleks scratched his head as he tried to process what he thought he just saw.
He set his pack down and opened it to grab the binoculars inside it so he can study the white structure more clearly.
"Hmm... Interesting structural design, probably pretty far. It looks like a white version of the St. Basil's Cathedral from here, But that thing is really, really large to be seen at such distance. How does it even stay intact? I don't know. Looks beautiful, though."
Aleks looked up the night sky and thought of something.
"I should probably go where the mountain is at. This forest isn't as thick as the last one so I think I won't be as lost as last time." He then set off towards the direction where the castle was.
The forest slowly thinned out as Aleks walked for another 30 minutes to reach another clearing. Until he suddenly stopped to rub his eyes, if he could reach his eyes through the gas mask.
"Oh what? Something's odd about this place. This is too old for a generic town, but I don't care. Too tired to even think, must sleep..." Aleks jogged towards the far dimly lit town at a brisk pace, only stopping briefly to vault a not-so-tall fence to piss on a nearby apple tree. After that was done, he quickly turned around and continued to race walk until he stopped as he passed another apple tree, hiding behind it a giant crystal tree house.
His mind didn't process what he just saw and just stood there, not even moving an inch. Aleks thought of many possible explanations to why and what, in which most of them was jossed from his mind, thinking that he was just in a dream.
"If I'm in my dream then maybe, just maybe, I could fly." Aleks chuckled at his idea and closed his eyes, expecting to float towards the sky like a mindless balloon. When that didn't work he set his pack on the ground, running back several meters away and ran forward as fast as he can before jumping as high as he could, but then he fell and broke his fall with a roll. As Aleks picked himself up, he pinched his cheek and then realization hit him.
"If I'm not dreaming then am I on drugs? Or is this the limbo world or something? Maybe I'm in the hospital and someone overdosed me with drugs?" Aleks moved his right hand under his chin and started thinking if this is real or not, thinking of explanations why he's here or if he's just having really weird hallucinations.
"...Must be some kind of really weird drugs, but i don't know. I never had personal experience in 'getting high on drugs', not to mention taking one... I should just go see what's up there." Aleks then walked towards the town, but took a u-turn around to grab and wear his pack.
He suddenly stopped as he saw movement in the sleeping town. He grabbed his binoculars and inspected some kind of animal.
"221 meters. Door just opened by itself. Weird. That's some really large head and a pair of eyes, a stocky quadrupedal body and... floating crates and stuff? Hell... I must be hallucinating and fuck." Aleks muttered to himself and began to crawl himself nearer to the town as the creature began to get inside the timber-framed house.
Aleks crouched down and snuck himself nearer to the quiet, sleeping town to put stuff near it.
As Aleks was 25 meters away, He put some audio recording and surveillance equipment and hid it carefully around the town. He then began to sneak away south towards a nearby gloomy forest to finally camp there.
"I'm not going inside that town. Something's just not quite right about that place..." He said as he began to make camp inside the strange gloomy forest.
Aleks didn't create a bonfire of some sorts to avoid detection and instead started immediately on deploying the tent. He then set up his laptop, an antenna to transmit and receive information from his surveillance equipment outside the town, and other various equipment right outside his tent. Each and every one of them were directly connected to one of his batteries. Aleks checked his laptop and saw that the surveillance equipment was in tip-top condition, showing the quiet dimly lit town. He checked the time on his laptop and saw '11:19 PM'. He shrugged when he saw the time as sleep deprivation was a norm for him.
"I should check my laptop again tomorrow to see what's happening in that town." He said as he closed his eyes, but then realization struck him.
"OH WAIT! Maybe if I sleep here, I could get back to the fucking real world. Yeah, that might work..." Aleks said again as he finally closed his eyes this time.
1423 HOURS
CNN CENTER
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
THE UNITED STATES
CNN News Anchor: "There's been strange reports about mass UFO appearances everywhere around the world that lasted for a full minute. Researchers tried to gather information about the incident but was short of time to do so. Astronomers thought that it was a meteor shower of some sorts but it was unlikely to happen. A lot of videos were already uploaded in the internet showing the sightings, and here's one that we're going to show you."
The video showed extremely bright lights of different sizes dance in the night sky, often spazzing out and disappearing in a blink of an eye. While others zigzagged in irregular directions then suddenly changed sizes or disappear instantaneously. There were even ones that appeared too close to the ground and zipped through traffic. Every time one appears, a deep ominous droning accompanied it. But once one disappears, an ear-piercing screech and a very bright light made anyone's eyes and ears bleed within 10 meters away. glass windows near the suburbs were heard breaking with the video cam ending after it's lens broke to bits.
"Many alien investigators said that this is undeniable proof that aliens exist, and many skeptics say that they're trying to communicate or even show hostility to the human race. Governments from around the world, including space agencies, tried to establish communication with the 'strange lights' and it is still ongoing as of 3 hours ago. There were also reports of 'them' showing over and under oceans. U.S. officials assured the public that they're trying their best to contact the otherworldly visitors that created the strange phenomenon. A NATO meeting is being held tonight, but details aren't shown to the public."
2332 HOURS
MODERN MANSION
NEAR THE URAL MOUNTAINS
SIBERIA
All of the operators talked and talked about any kind of 'stuff' they can think of on a balcony on the third floor of the house while they constantly looked down at the ground to check if intruders already broke inside the house. They brought Mountain dew, Doritos, and some crap they want to bring from each of their own rooms on a large circular table, While they all wore bull caps, fedoras, and shades of different varieties.
"I think I saw something in one of the 'portals' that appeared in the middle of the hall since we arrived up here." Someone from the group said as he grabbed Doritos from the bowl, then drank some of his mountain dew.
"Yeah, I think I saw something too. I think it was... YOUR MOM'S SWOLLEN ASS, Karas!" Another said as the other laughed.
"Shut up Molot, your dad didn't even have a dick!" Karas said.
"Wait! Do you hear that?" another unnamed operator exclaimed to the group.
All of them looked up and saw another one of the portals, one and a half meters on top of their heads.
"Woah, no erratic moves... We don't wanna let it explode too close to our heads." Kulak said as everyone slowly crouched down.
"It's one of them agai-" A white blast of light hit them as the ball of light disappeared and every one of them blacked out and slumped down towards the cold floor of the balcony. Everyone of them snored on different volumes, sleeping peacefully and mumbling gibberish out their drooling mouths.
2347 HOURS
FRIENDSHIP RAINBOW KINGDOM CASTLE
PONYVILLE
EQUESTRIA
After countless hours of tracking Discord's whereabouts, Twilight Sparkle, while strolling through the hallway, finally heard his distinct snore in his quarters. After several failed attempts at waking Discord up, she dragged his bed with him to the throne room. She shook the bed and turned it upside-down, only to be infuriated from him still stuck to the bed like superglue.
She shook it up and down to make him fall flat down the ground, but it proved futile when his body didn't even budge. Remembering Discord's antics and his general goofiness, she slammed the bed down on the crystal floor, shattering it to tiny bits of splinters. As expected, Discord showed up behind with streamers showering down him.
"Ta-da! You should have seen the look on your face. You were so angry that the rage inside you would be enough to melt the entire castle and leave a sizable hole on the ground!" Discord laughed a bit with a 'not-amused' Twilight staring at him, then sighed at the last minute.
"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you a couple of hours ago."
"I've had a bit of a 'vacation' on the top of a mountain, relaxing my body while watching the hours go by. Why are you actually looking for me? Perhaps, You were-"
"You told me that you sensed a magical disturbance inside Whitetail woods three hours ago." Twilight asked him while she pulled a parchment from one of the nearby bookshelves.
"Right you are." Discord, the reformed god of chaos, said.
"What did you find?"
"All I saw was trees, trees everywhere, a sleeping green creature, and an absurdly large pack that I think was left by another pony. The other two was pretty far from each other."
"What was inside the pack? And, what do you mean about the green 'creature'? That seems, odd." Twilight asked him again.
"I didn't check what's inside, because I'm pretty sure that the pony who left it there might be nearby, he or she might think that I'm stealing their stuff. About the creature, I'm not entirely sure. It had smooth green fur with black-brown-tan spots everywhere. It also had black skin on the fur-less parts on its body" Discord answered as he showed Twilight a crude picture of the 'creature' he made with his own distorted scroll. Twilight borrowed the scroll from him and began to draw the 'bear' on her own parchment.
"Did you, recently check it again? I mean, the creature?" Twilight asked him again.
"No, I haven't." Discord answered. "But I'll try to track where it is now."
"Tell me what you found tomorrow. I'm going to sleep. I'm too tired..." Twilight said before Discord clipped through the wall, going back to Whitetail woods where he found the 'creature', leaving Twilight in the throne room all by herself.
After jotting down all the information she received from him, Twilight went back to her own private quarters, thinking of visiting her newly rebuilt library back in Ponyville with the help of Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadence while she laid her tired body on her new comfy bed, closing her eyes as the time hit midnight.
