Wake up...

Corporal Adrian Shephard, a name that most people will forget to remember. His name has been forgotten to human history, all his battles, his victories, his friends, family, comrades, and overall defeat. Everything he did to stop an alien invasion, had been clouded up by government conspiracies, and cover up operations. It had all been in vain. His guns, once hot and throwing lead, now lay cold, and untouched by him, nor anyone else. He still sits where he once sat talking to a mysterious figure in a blue suit and black suitcase aboard an escaping osprey. But now, there was no sound, no visual, no smell, taste, or feeling. Just the vacuum of the void.

He looks into the never ending darkness watching, listening for anything, but still after so long, he has finally given up hope to ever seeing Earth again. Not like he wanted to go back anyway, the way he figured, ‘a thermonuclear tactical ICBM warhead could not possibly close an interdimensional hole in time and space,’ and he was right. Two weeks after the Black Mesa incident, Earth had turned into a war zone, aliens from a planet called Zen, a boarder world that housed the fleeing race of the Vortigaunt, had begun a full scale invasion of Earth, thousands would die, maybe millions. After that, two months passed, and the Universal Union would invade, causing the Vortigaunt and the Humans to unite and attempt to ward off the attackers.

All of this was in vain, in seven hours, Earth was brought to it’s knees, and transformed into a slave planet. Only time would tell how long the Human race has to live. Adrian knew Earth's time was up, but he couldn’t help but stay loyal to his cause, his country, comrades, ideals, and cultures. Earth would always be his home, the soil he once stepped on, the blue oceans that stretched from one side to the other, the rocky mountains that pierced the clouds, the dry and expansive deserts, and the frozen and otherwise unlivable conditions of the tundras. He loved it all.

But now it only exists in memories, that are deep within his mind, resting their and keeping the marine thinking of home. Adrian had lost track of time, time didn’t apply to him anymore, nothing like that mattered to him. He just watched the darkness surround him. But he could feel, that change was coming, at some point that man in the blue suit would come back, and set him free. With his eyes closed he prayed to any god that would listen to his pleas,

“Please, if anyone or anything is listening, let me out of this hell, I’ve served my time, I want to leave this place, let me go somewhere, I don’t care where just let me live out my life, let me die.” He thought to himself.

After a while inside the void, Adrian would talk to himself about nothing. Conversations ranging from his situation, to, how much cheese could someone physically fit on a sandwich. He had grown restless, their was only so much a man could endure.

And finally after so many prayers, and pleads, he came back. Some people call him the Stalker, the Ghost, or G-man. But Adrian calls him, "Mr. Blue".

As Adrian slept, he awoke to light, after so long, he had finally seen something different, he was awe struck, almost tree months of darkness, just to be disrupted like that. He couldn’t speak, but he wanted to, he had before but now, his words just wouldn’t come out, like someone had pushed the mute button. A figure appeared from the rectangular source of light, briefcase in hand. He walked right up to Adrian and looked through the eye holes of his M40 Gasmask, and Adrian stared back.

“Good evening, Mr. Shephard. I’ve kept you here for a while, that information is obvious, but yet again, other matters have need of my attention. But this was done this deliberately, of coures. A certain friend of yours has captured the spotlight of my benefactors, the man in the orange suit.” He said with a smirk on his smug face.

“We have no need for you on Earth, the man known as Freeman will do just fine. But, for you I... we, have something special for you, a new mission. My employers have over looked your qualifications again, and they seem obligated to give you a second chance. But here’s a catch, this is an off world assignment, meaning you will not be returning to Earth, sadly.” Saying this G-Man turned around and opened his briefcase, pulled out a slip of paper, and read it over, while constantly glancing over at Shephard.

“Yes, quite, you are going to an interesting planet that has been recently given a, second glance. This, I know sounds rather, troublesome, but I assure you, it's not. Your mission details will be given to you, in due time, for you must find your mission and complete it, you'll know when you're done, ill find you.” He says putting the paper back away. He walks up to Adrian again, straightens his tie and smiles.

“This is your time to redeem yourself Mr. Shephard, do not disappoint me, or your employers, they don't take easy, to failure.” He said turning around towards the light again. Adrian wasn’t sure how to react, he didn’t know weather to punch him, or thank him. The man turned his head around to Adrian and spoke for the last time,

“Wake up Mr. Shephard. Duty is calling you." Saying this, he walked in the doorway of light and disappeared from existence once again. But the light didn’t go away, instead it engulfed Adrian and moved him into a state of unconsciousness.

When Adrian awoke, he wasn’t staring into the void, he was staring into a beautiful blue sky.

Date: July-14-2015…

Location: Unknown…

POV: Cpl. Adrian Shephard…

Time:1735 hours…

I opened my eyes to the sounds of birds chirping around me, the heat of a sun beating down on my skin, the feeling of grass on the back of my exposed arms, and a rifle in my right hand. All of these feelings I haven’t felt for a very long time, and to be experiencing it once more, it forced mw into a state of bliss. It almost felt liberating, I felt like I was just released from jail, and had a 50 dollar bill in my pocket and a phone full of contacts. I was ready to get out there and begin exploring this new world. The birds, the sun, the sky, the grass, everything felt like home, but, not like home at the same time. It was strange, I hadn't even looked around, and already, I had a fairly good sense of what the place looks like.

I pushed myself up with the aid of my arms and looked around. I appeared to be on a hill. Behind me was a extremely thick forest, to the right of the hill was a river, and to left of the hill was an open field that seemed to stretch on for a while, before meeting the forest again. In front of me was what looked like a mid sized eastern european town, that connected to the river on the right. I saw a large farm off to the left of the town that connected to vast fields, that appeared to be growing trees, possibly apples. Off to the right of the town was a gigantic crystal castle that rose to the sky, flags hung from its balconies that made it look very extravagant.

But behind the village, was a far off mountain range with a large city impossibly built into the side of the tallest peak. It looked magnificent, it had tall buildings, castle towers, and walls that seemed to be protecting it. The whole structure was painted in white, blue, and yellow. It had to be the capital of this land,the colors,the placement,everything pointed to it. And a good chance that my, “mission” was their, waiting for me. But it’s not like I was going to my mission right away, the last place I want to be was back in the void, so until I have to go their, I will never go near it.

I pushed myself up and got onto my feet, for the first time in a long time, I was finally standing on my own two feet again, it felt good. I stretched, and put myself through a few PT exercises, it was time to get my blood flowing again. 50 push ups and 70 jumping jacks later I finally felt like I was back in my own skin again. The void was special, I didn’t need to eat or drink, or age, or degenerate, I was just suspended their. It was almost impossible, but it still happened. My muscles had not degenerated, I wasn’t malnourished, or tired, It was almost as if, my body hadn't moved from that last day in Black Mesa. My ammo had been replenished, somehow, but other than that everything was the same,even my cuts and wounds, which of course didn’t hurt anymore.

After I checked my body out and made sure everything was still their, I began to set up camp, I took off my ALICE backpack and rested it down on the ground, and began unloading the supplies that command issued for extensive recon operations. This consisted of things like tents, sleeping bags, blankets, to MRE’s and first aid equipment. By the time my camp site was complete, the sun had sunk lower into the sky, which ment night would be coming soon. So I collected rocks and medium sized logs to make a campfire with, after I arranged my fire ring and built of the triangle of wood I went back to my bag, and grabbed flint and steel, and a little brush, to catch the sparks.

2130 hours…

The fire raged, and the night sky was filled with stars. All though the fire wasn’t to big, it kept my immediate area bright. I sat on a rock that was big enough for me to sit on and watched the stars glisten above me. It felt strange to be here, on this planet away from home, the place I’ve been my entire life. But I guess, this place would have to do. I go over the info about this place, the sights, the sounds, the overall feel about this place, I calculate possible outcomes.

“Someone had to build those towns, which means they have standards, sophistication, intelligent life. So, I got that going for me.” I said to myself looking out over the village. “Good thing nobody is around me, that would suck if said someone found me right now.” I said out loud, slightly louder than normal. I waited three second, then got up off my rock, and looked around my campsite with my night-vision. Finding nothing, I returned to my rock, and sighed.

“Okay good, that's out of the way.” I said taking off my helmet and mask. The smell of fresh air was so relaxing, it had been awhile since I felt the cool night air hit my face. My head felt lighter now, without five pounds of kevlar on my head, and an extra two on my face. I felt content with my current situation, but I felt like something was missing. Saying that, the something finally came out clear.

“Oh! Right…” I got up and rushed over to the bag and opened a special compartment used for transporting top secret documents. I opened it and their at the bottom it rested, its metallic shine glistening off the moon. “My Ipod!”

I pulled it out and pushed the earbuds into my ears and turned it on. Few minutes went by, but eventually, my device came on and I turned on the first song that I saw.

"Perfect..." As the music played I tapped my foot along and watched the sky flicker on.

Date: July-14-2015…

Location: Royal Palace…

POV: Princess Celestia…

Time: 2300 hours…

I dream't soundly in my bed, dreaming of visions of brighter days for the equestrian Empire. I went over today's events, and dreamed about tomorrows. I felt that even if things were going great, times could change within an afternoon. But luckily for the Empire things had been going smoothly lately. I felt, almost contempt with today's current political status. Boarders were open with friendly nations, and Twilight was becoming a better teacher every day. I walked through a rift in space through the dream world. I watched as ponies slept soundly while my sister Luna finally went to work, in aiding ponies with their nightmares.

But something wasn't right, I felt like their was something else, I felt a disturbance. I heard what sounded like voices, speaking through unknown channels, random snippets of dialogue. I didn’t let it bother me, until it began getting louder. Soon, I started seeing things, lights began changing, and I couldn’t see Luna anymore. The otherwise peaceful nature of the dream realm was getting taken over by something. Blue hues were taken over by red, and orange flames, and the way it was spreading meant that it was coming from behind me. Quickly I turned around to see a fire, flames of rage and destruction.

There weren't anymore dreams, or stars or peacefulness, just the flames of a single entity, it burned the void and turned all into ash. I was terrified, I had never seen anything like this before. A single figure stood there before me, I needed to wake up, but that thing wouldn’t let me. It began to move towards me, it walked on two legs and wielding a short staff in its arms. As it came closer I saw into its eyes, or what I thought was it’s eyes, they glowed green over the red fire. Whatever it was, it was getting close, and I couldn’t move my hoofs, I tried to use magic, but my horn wouldn’t catch

It came right up to me it’s green eyes looked into my soul, as if it was sucking the life out of me. Behind the green light was what looked like a different pair of eyes, it's real eyes. It raised its left hand and pointed at me. It didn’t say anything, but it just looked at me. For a while it just stared as if trying to kill me with it's looks.

“See you soon.” It said before everything flashed to darkness. The next thing I knew I was awake, and it was time for morning. Beads of sweat were falling off my forehead, I was shaking in fear of what I had just saw. I didn’t know what it was, but I was sure it had to be found and stopped. After I had cleaned myself up and donned my chest plate and crown I left my bedroom with haste.

“I must gather the Princesses, I must need to know if they too had the same dream.” I burst into the main hall and raced over to the chair, I quickly raised the sun as the moon went down, and levitated a paper and pen over to me.

But before I could write anything down, the sound of pounding hoofs reached my ears, peaking my eyes over the parchment, I saw my sister Luna race into the room.

“Sister, we must speak at once!” She screamed at me. Alrighty then, that was easy.