Author's Note

Um...not entirely sure if some people read this story, but same goes with the first chapter. If you find a mistake comment down and have the sentence with it so I know where to look for.

Character Arien and Rios being drawn after art cover are done.

Chapter 1: Out of bed into the Unknown (Unedited)

Chapter 1: Out of bed into the Unknown

My body jerks forwards nearly slamming against the glass if it weren’t for straps binding me in the tube I’m stuck in. I didn’t know where I was or how I ended up in this tube from a war between people and that blue horse in the trenches with me to a tube with my body freezing and only piece of clothing was my boxer briefs. The glass was foggy but I could make out what was behind it. On the other side of the glass was a room with machines on both sides of the room with wires leading to my direction, on the far end was a door of some kind that was close with blaring red light flashing across the room, but there was no sound. I struggle against my binding trying to get my arms out from under the straps but it no use as each time I try pulling them out the strap would scratch my skin slowly cutting me.

Questions began to pop up of how I ended up here from being in the middle of a battle and passing out from stress or something to here in some type of tube being strapped down against my own will with red blaring lights flashing by outside. Did that horse I saw in the trench do this to me when I started heading in its direction? I leaned my head back and took a deep breath before breathing it out. Stuck in here with no way out I looked down at my body and noticed a small switch a few centimeters away from my right hand. Would this switch do something about the straps if so then it wouldn’t hurt to try and flip it?

Stretching my fingers out at the switch the tip of my middle finger skid on the round surface of the metal. My hand felt like it was hovering a candle’s flame burning from straining my muscles to their limits. When the same finger skid the tip of the switch again I went over my limit of reach causing my wrist to pop as well flipping the switch. The straps binding me unlocked themselves and slid back to wherever they came from giving me the freedom to move around a bit.

“I see you’re awake” I screamed and slammed the back of my head against something hard on instinct I clutch the spot with both my hands before rubbing the spot. “Still memoryless, I should have approached with caution but...NOW IS NOT THE TIME!” A pair of hand wiped away the foggy glass showing the owner of the hands being some glowing bipedal fox wearing a lab coat and pants, his expression was one of anger as he didn’t seem to be in a good mood. “You see the lever above you?” I lowered my arms and looked up to see the lever between the glass and metal. I nodded to him confirming that I see it. “Pull it!”

Grasping the lever with my right I gave it with all the strength I had in my body but it wouldn’t budge a bit. Was it stuck? I grasped the lever with my left and found it easier pull it. The tube I was in let out a hiss causing me to jump a bit at the sound. No later than a second the glass lifted up allowing me to see everything perfectly than looking through the foggy glass.

“Who are you?” I asked. I grasped the edges and pulled myself out of the tube with my eyes glued to the fox.

“Someone you should listen for your survival,” He said sounding a bit intimidating. Survival, what does he mean by that am I in danger or is he going to give me some advice? The fox pointed to my right and spoke again. “There’s an X16 tri-burst assault rifle on your right, pick it up and talk to me again, I’ll tell you your own name and explain the situation you are in.”

With that, the fox walks off to one of the machines by the walls. I looked over to my right to see the X16 tri-burst assault rifle he told me about, I walked over to the weapon and picked it up. The weapon felt like as if the whole material the gun was made out of didn’t weigh more than five pounds this whole rifle looked different than the one I used in the trenches when I shot...him. My grip on the gun tighten as the memory of killing that one German soldier in the battlefield, I still didn’t know what came over me when I shot him to stop him from screaming anymore. Shaking the memory out of my head I adjusted the rifle similar to mine in the battlefield the stock resting below my armpit as well my left hand on the forestock for better a grip. I don’t know what a tri-burst mean but if it’s better than the bolt rifle I had in the battlefield then that’s good.

Looking down at my appearance I just remember that I wasn’t wearing anything other than my boxer briefs. I felt embarrassed about having someone, I don’t know of, seeing me like. I used the side of the gun to cover my crotch which caught the fox’s attention to me.

*Sighs* “You don’t have to be embarrassed in front of an AI, we don’t care if you run around naked screaming, “I’m gay and I love it,” The fox mocked. I couldn’t help but growl at him for that, but someone was not right my growl sounded like a wolf than what an ordinary man could make. What is happening to me? “Now you got something to defend yourself with, I can begin. Your name is Arien, that’s all you need to know, for now, the situation you are in is one of life and death. I already know you shot a gun and familiar how one works, but the one you are holding is completely different is that it holds more than ten .303 rounds it has around thirty-two 5.56mm rounds in the cartridge, a target tracker if you had an aim assist visor but seeing you don’t have one I won’t go into deta-”

“Life forms detected in the ship’s core, requiring personnel to deal with the problem.” A woman’s voice said causing the fox to scowl and look up over his shoulder. I saw his mouth move but I didn’t hear him say anything.

“Forget everything,” The fox said and turned his attention to me, he now had a serious expression. “Arien, you go down into the ship’s core and deal with the problem, if whatever it is down there damages the core this ship will cause a massive explosion in 21 by 21 kilometer.” He turned around and tapped on the machine causing it to let out a soft hum before something above me opened. I looked up to see a smaller machine floating down from the opening by my side, the machine was a shape of a sphere before the top opened up with the head leaned forward, four blue of it’s eyes glowed blue, two pieces of the sphere moved up by the sides of the eyes, two arms protruded from the missing sides of the sphere looking like two twelve inch pipes together on each side with three square fingers, underneath the sphere bend in the machine with blue mist coming out of it.

“This is Jack, he is the only engineer drone that will help you repair any damage done within the ship and also unlock any doors for you.” The fox smiled as the drone beeped. What is actually going on here, was I in the same year fighting against the Germans or was it all a dream? I turned my attention back to the two. “Now begone, I’ll have Ceria activate certain cameras in the ship but the rest of the ship except the Core room and this room will have power.”

“Can I have at least some clothes?”

“No, you got a job to do.” I groan in disappointment and walked to the door, having to fight in nothing than my boxer briefs. Jack, the drone, flies by me and unlocks the door for me before we exited out of the room. After we entered the room the door behind us close leaving Jack and me in the hall with barely any lights.

One of Jack’s eyes brighten up and shined through the hall like a flashlight. He let out a few beeps before flying past me to another door at the other end of the hall but when he made it to the other side he lowered himself closer to the floor and pulled up a panel. I jogged to the drone and saw that the panel he opened had a ladder going down. This drone must have known this place like the back of his hand...actually does he have hands other than three fingers? I held my gun with my left as I began to climb down the ladder to where it leads to.

The metallic sound echoed through the small space as I climbed down the ladder, but while I was climbing Jack kept his light shining down at me as I climb. When I reached the end of the ladder I settled my rifle back with my finger on the trigger before Jack came down shining the light in a narrow passageway with red lights behind pipes. This would be a great advantage for standing your ground when something is charging after you.

Jack shined the light over my shoulder as we began to walk through the narrow passageway. The sound of my footsteps against the metal surface echoed throughout the narrow passage before I came to a halt. In front of me was a loose panel that lead to another room or to another narrow passageway, I held my rifle by the hand with my right hand as I rested the rifle against my shoulder and pushed the panel with my other hand causing the flat metal to fall forward making a loud thud with an echo. If this wasn’t creepy enough then the sparks from the wires hanging around wouldn’t have been needed.

“Arien.”

“AHHHH!” I jumped and looked up at the red light near the ceiling in the other room. I swear this would be the death of me if there was something around us.

*Sigh* “You’re near the ship’s core and I managed to activate the camera in the room, to tell you the truth there are four unknown predator species. Take them out and protect Jack while he commences repairs.” Where was his voice coming from? It couldn’t be from that red light near the ceiling the other room, right?

I felt Jack give me a nudge on the back before we entered in a bigger room. Everything in here was dark if it weren’t for the wires hanging from the torn panels above creating sparks then I would have relied on Jack’s light more often. My feet were burning from how cold the metal floor was and the cold breeze coming from somewhere didn’t help either. This time I followed Jack’s lead to a closed door, he let out a few beeps before he ripped out something by the door and began to mess with the wires sticking out.

As Jack continues to mess with the wires I started to think to myself. What is happening!? Why am I here and how can I know this is all real!? Also what is making Jack fly, does he have something holding him up? Jack a machine that Rios calls a drone, what is this little guy’s purpose? After two thoughts the door opened up with Jack making a happy beep. I readied my rifle and took a step in the room.

The whole room was freezing as if we were in the frigid cold when it snows. Something wasn’t right a room like this can’t really get too cold, can it? Something in the room ran behind us causing Jack and me to turn around to see nothing but when I turned back something pounced me, the rifle in my hand was sent flying out of my grip away from my reach. I looked at the thing on top of me and held my left arm over my face just in time when the thing’s jaws clamped down on my arm, but I didn’t feel pain. I screamed as the thing having my arm in its mouth was an icy blue wolf that looks as if it were actually made out of cold ice with mist radiating off of it. The wolf shook its head trying to rip my arm from the socket, I punched the thing off of me causing it to tumble over to a railing giving me enough time to crawl back to my rifle and picked it up just in time to see the wolf stand back up.

I aimed down the sights and fired once killing the wolf and also shattering it into chunks of ice, but I didn’t expect the recoil of the gun to send the stock slamming into my shoulder. After the wolf was dead I lowered my weapon and rubbed the spot where the stock had slammed into my shoulder. Rio didn’t say anything about the recoil this weapon had hell the Lee-Enfield didn’t have much recoil! My skin crawled as a loud static sounded above me.

“You got company! Two small, one big seems to be the alpha of this pack!” Three wolves rounded a corner ahead of us, two were the same size as the first I had killed but the bigger one had darker blue symbols up its legs and stopped just below a dog’s shoulder. I glanced at my gun and looked back up at the wolves before firing a hail of bullets.

/Rios’ POV\

Power had been restored to the whole ship, Ceria was able to find a way how the wolves managed to enter the ship. Turns out there was a breach in the ship’s cargo hold one of the walls managed to burst open letting in cold air and snow inside the ship luckily Jack would be able to repair the breach. Arien did well despite not remembering how to hold that X16 and reloading the rifle at least he managed to deal with the wolves without having to panic much and being confident on the thought of killing animals than intelligent life. I just wish he didn’t pay attention to his left arm he’s not ready to face the fact of his left arm. He needs to be more ready for the truth and the simulations would help him if he follows through. The basic of killing is in world war I when Earth in the milky way part of the galaxy had the Germans invaded lands and caused France and Britain to create the trench war between them. I prefer not to go into detail of small things that don't matter to us.

The wolves Arien had encounter weren’t so different than the apocalypse wolves back on Mercy where man had rebirth the Direwolf species and experiment them with different types of natural elements that in the old era they would call the elements fire, ice, wind, earth, and other things that people made in cartoon where the protagonist can bend elements. I truly do remember that Arien had faced one of these beasts but didn’t show any hesitation on fighting back only a bit of shock after seeing his first apocalypse animal. Mercy the one planet where Arien and I were created but now nothing more than a place of destruction and distrust as a man, furvors, scales, machine, infected, and apocalyptics; pretty much a planet always under fighting with barely any rest. I was amazed how Arien was able to handle such quick change of exiting out of a lab to surviving on the surface of Mercy doing jobs by being what they all call him, “Crysis” a name I have to say that barely fits him but didn’t bother him at all.

“Ceria, does the ship has enough fuel to launch off into space?” I asked as I checked the security camera. Arien and Jack were in the cargo hold repairing the breached, well Jack actually Arien was just exploring around keeping distance close to the drone. Jack used to be a scrap drone from one of the machine’s army but after being repaired and a hard drive installed he’s now our engineer for us.

“Negative, ship’s fuel has depleted after using the main thruster to prevent more critical damage to the ship as it already is,” Ceria said. This was troubling and the situation we were in didn’t help either. I don’t know if this planet has any Element Zero in the crust or in any of the meteors floating in this solar system; rare full that could last a ship a decade in flight.

“Then I have no choice but to send Arien outside to find at least two gallons of Element Zero just to get enough fuel for the ship to wander around the solar system for any more of that priceless element gas, but if he cannot find any then this ship will have to become a bunker.” Why a bunker is because we can’t let out technology fall into primitive hands as they would fall into the wrong hands and that Arien could at least a place to live and to continue with his simulation. I traveled through the ship’s circuits to one of the hologram projectors in the cargo hold to have a word with Arien.

/Third POV\
\Somewhere else/

“Luna, we do not have time to thither to this “Private’s” race as it would be a waste of time from whence this “Private” is at!” Celestia made it clear to Luna that she does not what to go on a wild goose chase on finding this new race near the border of the three tribes, but Luna persisted that they must at least investigate it just in case. How both sisters under the statue of their mother are arguing about the idea. Luna wanted to make sure that their subjects were not in danger of a new neighboring race near the border of the land, but again her sister declines that thought and threw it out the window.

“Fine, thou sister has won at this but if this being is dangerous to our subject then we were right to be wary of this creature’s present!” With that Luna exited out of the room on her own. The princess of the day just shook her head at how childish her younger sister has become as she must have seen somepony’s nightmare of a new race taking over. Luna was young and she hadn’t reached a thousand years she’s only 659 years old and that Luna is still mastering her alicorn powers as well getting into the habit of entering a pony’s dream without being seen by them as it is still not their time yet to unite the ponies, their mother had said. If they were to be united under a single flag and a ruler then they must do it their own and learn something they don’t even know yet.

“Mother, whatever you have planned for the ponies to unite with each other and forget all the difference between their race please make sure Luna learns more of her gifts when years go by, she is young but still acts like a child when nothing dangerous is happening,” Celestia prayed in her mother’s name as she resumes her training of high concentration magic that High Mages would consider nearly impossible to master. While she trained alone her sister in another room was staring out at the land they would soon be rulers of.

The young alicorn had only been able to see in other dreams and nightmares for the first hundred years after turning five hundred, but even with so many years of living as a young mare she still is trying to handle magic that she does not know of and how to handle the magic she is gifted. She only saw her mother for the first three hundred years of her life before their mother had disappeared mysteriously only leaving them in the care of a few trusted ponies who would put their differences away. These few ponies had abandoned their tribes to these two young goddesses, but the number of ponies was around a hundred enough to have guards, mages, soldiers, and few citizens.

‘Why does Tia not believe in me that the creatures we saw in “Private’s” dream were a real threat to not avoid!” Luna mentally screamed as she fell face first in her pillows with her flank in the air. She woke in the early morning when her sister usually wakes but not her, she would awaken near noon when the sun was high in the sky. Three tries she did just to convince her sister that there was a threat that cannot be ignored all three failed to make her sister see. Maybe she could do something herself, she could possibly try to find the “Private’s” dream and find out where near the borders of the three tribes they were at, but she would have to lie that she was going around the tribes’ border to see if anything different happened.

Letting her side fall on the bed Luna’s royal blue strands of hair covered her right eye as she stared off into space before falling asleep.

/Arien’s POV\
\Location: Fallen ship; Uriel/

The drone repairing the hole in the metal let out beeps either high pitch sound like a whistle or a low monotone beep. I can’t really understand a single thing Jack was saying has I don’t have the knowledge of what his beeps mean. What’s worse is that I’m starting to freeze and being nearly naked didn’t help a single bit as my toes felt numb and my breathing could be seen every time I let out a breath of hot air. We weren’t something warm since that was obvious but I can’t help but wonder why to send me out in a cold ship that I have a higher chance of losing my feet from frostbite.

“I see that the hole is fixed.” I snapped my head in the direction of Rios’ voice to see him walking over to Jack, who happily beeped. “Arien,” He called out turning his head a bit. “It’s time we get you some clothes you have a mission to do and it truly depends on you to succeed.”

“Finally!” I smiled knowing that I’ll have clothes to cover me up and keep me warm than freezing, but my smile turned to a frown. “Mission?”

Rios gestured me to follow as he walked with Jack back to the halls; of course, I followed him. We walked through the halls to one door particular different with big words on a black box saying, “ARMORY” with big letters. The opened revealing a regular square room with three different decorations at the other side of the room making look as if this room wasn’t an armory but a trap for fooling the enemy.

What kind of room would be considered an armory if there weren’t any guns or military uniform? I guess Rios had something in mind when he entered the room gesturing to the three decorations.

“These two on either side of the armory are workbenches, one for weapons as the other for armor, clothes, and even cloth decorations…” Rios gestured to the two workbenches, the first one looked like a black rectangle box sitting on a stand that looks like it could be open by the middle as the other looked like three flat black panels with a rectangle object that with the same cut line int middle and sides as the workbench. “...The one in the middle where all your equipment will be stored and can easily equip full body armor onto you and take them off at your command…” I don’t really under what he fully means but if it has to do with me crafting my own equipment then that’s a problem. “...Sadly the damn thing doesn’t have any armor and weapons in it, only the X16 you carry now is the only weapon you have, but you’re gonna have to leave that behind.”

“WHAT?” I glared at Rios for that thought of taking the only weapon I have to defend myself.

“BEFORE you try yelling, the weapon workbench has a blueprint in it, “ Rios said as he turned around, but before he left the room he spoke once more. “ After that go to the forge, it’ll make the clothing and armor for you. Once you are done come to the ship’s pilot’s cockpit.”

He finally walked away with no sound of his footsteps echoing in the halls like an actual human...I almost forgot he isn’t human or has a physical body. Taking his word I went over to the “Weapon Workbench” and looked over it. Like I saw when it was introduced it had a line cutting down the middle and goes down the side then stops it vertical line to a horizontal line all the way to the corner before coming to an end. Not sure how to operate this thing I did what most would have done if they were clueless how to operate this bench.

Touching the smooth surface of metal my hands slide along the metal until I felt a bump. The bump I felt was a button that would be near impossible to see with the naked eye since how well it blends in with the color and surface but hey doesn’t hurt to push a button. Just like that, I pressed my thumb on the mechanism to jump back in surprise of it opening up revealing multiple lights in it and some mechanical parts in it that I can’t really name. Suddenly green light emitted from the machine showing the Lee-Enfield with other lines coming from the gun like a diagram of the weapon. On one of the panels showed a text saying, “10 iron ingots, 5 wood, 2 oil, and 2 steel ingots.” The ammo for it required 1 gunpowder, 1 brass, 1 copper.

“So, do I say yes?” I didn’t have the knowledge of how to operate this machine, but seeing the word “craft” below the Lee-Enfield was pretty obvious of what to do. “Craft?” No luck, even when said the weapon workbench didn’t work. How does one operate the machine if they no experience with this type of machinery!

I touch the word craft with the distal phalanx of my index and middle finger causing the workbench to hum as lights inside the machine emitted out on the rifle, but as soon the light traveled down wood began to appear making the stock and other parts of the Lee-Enfield. Astonished at how this thing managed to make wood out of light I looked closer to see small squares, barely visible to the naked eye, going up and turning into wood. What a marvelous thing that light can create a weapon with small glass like cubes to materials that are needed to make the actual rifle.

‘Does the forger do that too?’ I thought and jogged over to the machine and felt around the surface until I find the same button on it. Finding the button and turning it on the machine came to life with the lid opening apart and lowering down to the sides. Something inside it rose up with a three-row of shelf racks and moved to the side of the Forger. The middle panel brighten up with cyan glow and showed a naked faceless man, well not fully naked he had his underwear, with six lines coming off of him with a blank line, the others on the side did the same thing but show something different both saying, “Soviet Union Military Winter Uniform.” Of course, being the one who just has small amount experience with this thing I tap both my index and middle finger on it causing the Forger to show winter clothes with a hammer and cycle on the right breast of the coat.

Materials required; 22 cloth, 25 wool, 6 hide, 1 red dye and 1 yellow dye

Do you wish to craft

Pushing craft the Forger went to work doing the same thing as the Weapon workbench. When the sound of a ding came from the workbench I stride over to the machine to see the Lee-Enfield resting against the light surface of the workbench. Didn’t take long for the rifle to be crafted and seeing that the machine no longer shined on it meant it was done creating my rifle. Grasping the forestock with my left I lift it close to me and pulled the bolt back. The rifle was empty having not a single .303 bullet, the workbench did show me the option of crafting ammunition for the gun meaning that I might have the right amount resources to craft around hopefully sixty rounds.

“How the hell am I supposed to hide sixty magazines in this coat if it can only hold fifteen in each pocket!?” I struggled to find a way to put the other thirty magazines fill with .303 cartridges, I didn’t expect the workbench to craft a whole magazine full of bullets if I did then I would have craft thirty instead of sixty! The coat only has three pockets in it and the gloves barely do shit to get a hold on the buttons on this damn clothing, but hey, at least I’m warm and armed with a gun I’m familiar with. Thankfully the coat came with a rifle holster making it easy to carry the Lee-Enfield, but not the X16.

Speaking of the X16 I put it in storage where Rios had pointed at that middle machine, turns out if you enter in it the thing closes behind you trapping you in a metal cylinder with four different panels. I pressed a random word on one of the panels and a pair of metal limbs took the X16 and carried it into the ceiling of the cylinder before it opened up. When I came out of the thing one of the walls turned transparent showing me the X16 and the description of the rifle; of course, being of the gun’s background I read it and thought of making a small journal of the guns I crafted or armor forged...if I knew how to write that is.

I’m still in trouble of trying to place the thirty extra magazines as the storage only stores equipment, not bullets and magazines. Being so desperate I placed them on the side of the workbench and rushed out of the room to where Rios was in the pilot’s cockpit.

This whole place is like a miniature maze getting lost in random halls of metal until Jack found me wandering the halls clueless. The drone was kindness, not sure if it was built in his machine brain, and led to where Rios was at.

“Took you long enough,” The fox bastard said sounding like a smart ass. How was I suppose to navigate through this ship he calls to find this fucking room, even if I had a map of this place!

“Fuck off, you didn’t tell me how to get here!” I retorted back, but I seemed to make Rios smirk. Not saying that a fox is a clever bastard but they are fucking devious ones at that from how he’s acting so calmly and making me blow off my steam. “Could you at least give me a map so that I can find out where you’re at?”

“Hmm, why a map when you got Jack...” Ooh, now I want to smack upside the head. “...but enough small talk…” Rios turned his back against me and fiddled with whatever he’s touch in front of him causing the windows behind him to brighten up showing a snowstorm and snowy lands that goes on for miles. “...Ceria detected some Element Zero, I want you to take Jack around since he has a built-in detector of finding unusual radiation from different types of elements that gives of any type of radiation whether it be harmless or deadly. Out in the snowstorm is some Element Zero around the ship, you dig for the element with your hands and once you see a blue glow back away and let Jack do his work. “

I nod my head and turned around, but before I could Rios spoke one more time that caused me to stop.

“I’m surprised you’re not asking questions.”

“...” I stayed silent realizing that all this time other than waking up I hadn’t asked him a single question of who I am and how I ended up here. I turned back and faced Rios. There was an urge in the back of my head demanding not to say anything but I ignored that urge. “Who am I fully?”

Rios just sighed and turned the seat to him before sitting down. He crossed his right leg over his left and folded his hand making him look like a professional with the lab coat he has on.

“Your full name is Arien, as for the last name that’s for you to decide. You are around twenty-four years old just the right age to marry someone, created for the purpose of war if one ever broke out which it did two hundred years ago. German, brown eyes, dark brown hair that needs to be cut again, lost some muscles from a four pack to just a skinny body with only barely any pecs, six foot three inches, healthy, immune to multiple viruses but still able to catch some disease until your body itself gets rid of it, and not a human.” Rios leaned back against his seat and stared down at me with those silver eyes. Not human. Was the battle in the trenches fake or a memory? What am I then, a creature that Rios doesn’t know or something worse!? “For what you are. You’re a homunculus, a created genetic being that has microscopic nanites able to heal most of your wounds from third-degree burns to a slit throat, three rebirth gem shards, and last but not least amnesia.”

“Say what?”

“You have amnesia.” Soaking up all the information of who and what I am, but the last part least me wondering what caused my amnesia? Did something with enough force to hit me on the side of the head caused the amnesia or was there something else that caused it? The question began to pop more than what knowing who and what I am, but the good news is at least I know some about myself.

“I’m gonna go and collect the Element Zero.” I walked out of the room with Jack following close behind.