“Come on, come on,” I said to myself, as I rounded yet another corner. I had been inside the base for nearly a half hour, and it seemed to me that the corridor was rectangular shaped, each designed so that the fourth turn sloped downward into another floor.
Each hallway had been lined with doors, but it seemed that the power shortage rendered them useless. I would step near one, wave at it, search for a doorknob or identification slot, and nothing. However, I had managed to keep up with whatever it was inside here. It seemed to be wearing steel boots of some sort, and walked like a human. At any moment, I moving at a snail’s pace, only one or two footsteps every five seconds or so, so that I could hear a near constant clanking as the creature walked steadily away from me.
Eventually, three floors below where I entered (I think), there was a whooshing sound and the footsteps stopped. I turned the corner in front of me and saw an open doorway, with the lights on inside.
‘This has gotta be a trap,’ I thought, before swallowing and moving forward anyway. As I neared the doorway, there was complete silence, like someone was waiting for me. I took a position right outside of the doorway, as if I was going to breach it, but instead spun around the corner and flashed my tac-light around the room, looking for an assailant. I saw nothing living, but the room amazed me. It was colossal; easily the size of two football fields end on end, and had two floors- the second was mainly just metal catwalks holding various cables and barrels of something.
Below me, on the first “floor” of the room, were rows upon rows of glass tubes. I walked down a nearby staircase and stepped up to one to examine it. It was tinted glass, so I really couldn’t see what was inside, but it looked like there was a body in there. Next to the tube was a panel with various buttons and blinking lights, and a small blue button labeled “Release”.
I pressed the button and jumped back, expecting an attack. But, there was nothing.
‘Should’ve known, there’s barely any power,’ I thought before a voice scared the living shit out of me.
“Would you like me to route alternate power to the cryogenic containment facility?”
“Gyah!” I shouted, as I jumped sideways and aimed my SCAR at the voice.
There was a young woman staring at me, with straight brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing what looked like a military uniform and a white lab coat over it.
“Who’re you?” I asked, my eyes searching for an I.D card of nametag of some sort.
“Just call me AISS (pronounced Ayis, apparently),” she said. “I’m the Automated Intelligence and Security System hologram for this military/ failsafe community network.”
“So… wait, what? You’re not real?” I said. What is this freaking place?
“No, I’m a hologram,” She replied, simply. In response, I pushed the barrel of the SCAR into her stomach, where she promptly flickered and my gun went straight through her.
“And… uh, what is this place?” I asked, scanning the room once again, before focusing on the young woman
“This is the Fort Lewis military base and Civilian Failsafe Network, the world’s only joint civilian-military settlement of this caliber.”
She said it like I was supposed to know what she meant.
“And what does that mean? Why does the United States require a… civilian failsafe network?” I had lowered my SCAR by now, and was primarily focused on her explanation, ignoring just about everything else.
“The Civilian Failsafe Network was the last line of defense for any international catastrophe that would cause the destruction of the human race. It consists of three hundred underground facilities, built all across the United States of America, which began construction in the year 1989 and finished in late 2012.”
“Hey, that’s right when I was around! We didn’t have your kind of technology in 2012, how come you exist? For that matter, how the hell did nobody even realize these were being built?” I asked, before shifting my Barrett off of my back and onto the ground beside me.
“I exist because the technology was continuously updated for the next three hundred years. As for how this project remained undetected, I am unsure. In the year 2015, there was an international outbreak of the Mental Destabilization Virus, which caused victims to lose control of advanced bodily functions and revert to basic animal natures, attempting to kill and eat just about every living thing they could find. A class A quarantine was put into effect, which prompted all uninfected civilians and military personnel to evacuate into their nearest CFN location. Once as many lives were saved as possible, the network was slated to remain closed for a period of one hundred years, long enough for any infected being to die and degrade. However, if population of a specific location fell beneath thirty percent, the remaining population was instructed to enter their cryogenic preservation facility, which would cryogenically freeze inhabitants until the period of quarantine was over. You are currently standing inside the cryogenic preservation facility of Fort Lewis.”
“Oh.” I said, before taking another glance at the tubes all around me. “Did this facility go into the cryogenic mode thingy?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” said AISS. “The cryogen mode was activated almost immediately, for an unknown reason. Eighty percent of the inhabitants of this facility were placed into cryogenic sleep in the year 2016. The remaining twenty percent of the inhabitants were engineers and scientists who worked on updating and repairing the facility, until the technology was available for this facility to maintain itself. However, the cryogenic chemical mixtures were discovered to be incorrectly frozen in ninety nine point eight nine two percent of the inhabitants, so I was forced to terminate all of the mistakes. The remaining life forms I never released from cryogenic sleep, due to there never being an all clear from any of the other CFN facilities.”
‘Holy shit,’ I thought, before asking “How many people were originally placed in cryogenic sleep?”
“There were originally three thousand people housed in this facility. About two thousand and eight hundred were cryogenically frozen. Two thousand, six hundred civilians and two hundred military personnel.”
“And… how many are remaining?” I asked, getting a little excited at the possibility of there being more humans.
“Ah..” The hologram seemed to actually look a bit nervous, flashing her eyes sideways before quickly looking back at me. “Three.”
Even though it meant that two thousand, seven hundred and ninety seven people were dead all around me, I couldn’t help but get excited.
“All right! Let’s go wake em up! Who are they?” I asked, before spinning around to look for any possible sign of the living people.
AISS conjured up a virtual clip book and appeared to skim though its contents. “First, there’s Mario Aguirre, a twenty six year old Hispanic microbiologist who worked for the military in developing a cure for the virus. He knows me, since he was awakened at several points throughout the course of this facility’s existence for research purposes.”
A picture of the guy flashed in front of he. He had light brown skin, a slight mustache and goatee, and black, shoulder length surfer hair.
“All right, cool.” I said. “Who’s next?”
Another picture flashed, this time of a blonde haired girl wearing braces.
“Sixteen year old Alexandra Michelson. She hasn’t been woken up since the initial quarantine, so she may be a bit… difficult to explain the situation to, especially considering the outside world and its new civilization.”
“Ah, shit.” I had forgotten that kids were involved. It never feels like these catastrophes involve children, until the reality hits you. This girl’s entire family was probably dead, depending on the third survivor. It really made me sad, knowing that she was completely alone at sixteen. “Wait, you know about the ponies?”
“Of course I do. I have several androids currently on the outside world constantly monitoring all of the major settlements. An android named Andross was the one that was in charge of Ponyville, and the one that saved you from Matthew Barker.”
I stopped. She said it so casually, that one of her contraptions killed my friend. Like he was just an animal that needed to be put down and never thought of again. I ended up tuning out her mention of the third survivor, something about somebody’s sibling. Good for one of the other two survivors. I was too busy trying to vent my anger.
“Gray? Gray, are you still paying attention?” She said, bending over to look into my downturned face.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“I asked if you wanted me to route all remaining power to this room, so that we can wake up the survivors.”
“Oh, um… of course. How long will that take?’
“About three minutes. I’ll have Andross come in and introduce himself.” The hologram of AISS flickered and disappeared, as I heard new humming and then some heavy metal footsteps behind me.
As I turned, I had a quick flash of surprise, because the approaching figure was wearing a giant suit of armor. They were only about as tall as I was, but they had a fitted suit of heavy metal plates, covering everything except the fingertips.
The helmet was the most interesting. It was rounded, similar to a modern combat helmet, but also consisted of a facemask with a thick breathing tube which connected to a panel on the chest. The viewing visor was solid black tinted plastic, in the shape of a T, which slid aside to reveal a human face.
“Hello, sir. I’m Andross, the android lead of the peacekeeper team. Pleased to meet the first actual human aside from Mario in over forty nine thousand years.”
“Guh… What.. Is that suit you’re wearing?”
“This old thing? It’s a Mark XII Powered Exoskeleton. I just call it power armor, after that old videogame in the 2000’s.”
“I’m gonna go sit down now.” I said, before walking away and taking a seat on a barrel in the corner. Sonuva bitch, this place was freaking advanced. Holograms? Androids? Power Armor? Cryogenics? I don’t even know how to react. Not to mention how Luna was gonna react to all of this. Oh God. How was I going to explain any of it? ‘Hey, what happened to Luna anyway? All I remember is her running off and then I came in here.’
“Uh, AISS? What happened to my companions?” I asked, standing up and walking over to the door.
“Your Princess friend has been shooting at the door for about ten minutes now.” Said AISS, as she materialized next to me.
“Wh- open the door! Let her in, she poses no threat.”
“Are you sure? She isn’t a human, and the only sentient being we have ever encountered aside from humanity. She may react badly.”
I sighed. “Yes, I’ll explain everything to her. And could you have Andross and any other help you have begin to work on repairing the generators? You should’ve done that a long time ago.”
“Yes, Gray. And while I would’ve had Andross fix the generators, there was simply no need to. We are still working at full capacity, just without lights in the entire base. I will have ANDROSS working on it shortly.”
“Oh, by the way, Andross, thanks for saving me. I.. probably would not have made it out of that alive.” I ended up having to swallow my pride for that one, considering I was still pretty pissed that he ended up killing Matt.
“Statistics show that without my intervention, you had a one point six six eight chance of escaping. You’re very welcome, sir.” Andross smirked, before turning around and sauntering away.
Ignoring his smirk, I jogged up the three floors to the entrance, which promptly slid open at my approach. Standing outside was Luna, along with the five members of her batpony guard, all looking extremely flustered and irritated.
“Hey guys, how’s it goin’?” I asked, stepping out of the darkness to greet them.
“Gray! I told you to remain in your position, why didst thou enter? You had us all very worried,” Luna said, as she raised her head and smiled. “Have you discovered what is inside of this... military base?”
“Yeah,” I said, before leaning against the wall. “Turns out, we have several prime examples of Human ingenuity, and the technology that we have managed to create.”
Luna’s guards all turned their heads in question, and Luna simply stared at me. “What is this technology thou speakest of? Are there weapons inside? Social advancements?”
I chuckled and smirked. “Probably both. I only saw a couple of military and intelligence advancements. Listen, when I take you inside, I need you to not freak out. There’s going to be a woman, about my age, but she isn’t real. She’s just a mirage, designed by the facility to store knowledge and relay it to anybody who asks.”
“That is… highly advanced. There is no magic involved?”
“No, Humans were never able to use magic. It was a myth in our society. Her name is AISS, by the way. You’re also probably going to meet a man named ANDROSS, but he isn’t real either. He’s a… machine that looks like a human. Well.. Yeah, he’s a contraption that has a human looking skin on it.”
“Similar to a changleling?” Luna asked. What’s a changeling?
“Uh… sure, I guess. Point is, he’s not real, and his job is technically to support humans and defend the facility, so as long as you don’t pose a threat, he’ll be just fine.” ‘I think.’
“If… you say so. Your technology seems so… bizarre, so unreal, without the aid of magic.”
“It’s just as unreal to me, Princess, I was born about three hundred years before the technology existed.” I turned around and began to walk back into the base. Following behind me, in a single file line, was Luna and her guard, all oohing and aahing at the floor and the doors, along with the occasional blinking light. Thankfully, AISS had turned the emergency lights back on, so it wasn’t difficult getting back to the cryogenic room thing.
“Hello again, Mason. I presume this is your friend, the Princess, and her personal guard?” AISS was waiting for us inside, standing next to the glass tube which I originally tried to open.
“Yeah, this is Princess Luna-”
“I am the Princess of the Night, Raiser of the Moon, and younger sister to Princess Celestia,” finished Luna, after interrupting me. “You are AISS, correct? I would like to know the military capabilities of this base. After all, you are on Equestria’s side of the Crystal Mountains. This is our territory.”
‘Oooh, suddenly she was kinda feisty. Guess Luna is certainly Princess for a reason, eh?’ I thought, scanning for AISS’ reaction.
AISS simply stood there, looking surprised, before giving a short laugh and smirking. “We humans were here first. I’d say this area is still our territory. Besides, I’m under no inclination to tell you. Mason Gray would be the authority here, since he’s the highest ranking soldier.”
Both females turned and stared at me, one expecting me to tell her everything, the other expecting me to say nothing. ‘Jeez, I’m in a bit of a hotspot here.’
“Um… well, first, can you feel emotions, AISS?” I asked, because my answer afterward would definitely effect my standing here in this base.
“Of course, so can all of the androids. That’s thanks mostly to our late developer, Jean Andross, who died in 4077.”
“Uh huh… Well, come and tell me what our military capabilities are, and from there, I’ll decide what exactly I’ll reveal to Luna. The ponies are our allies against the infected, after all.”
“Hm... I suppose that’s fair enough. I doubt the horse will understand what most of it is anyway.”
“WHAT DIDST THOU JUST SAY?” Shouted Luna, as her guards all flared their eyes and dropped into combat stances. “How dare this.. this.. IMAGE call us a HORSE?
“Did you just call me a mere image? I am the pinnacle of human intellectual advancement! I make all of your technology look like cave tools! The weapons we have in this base could reduce your entire country to ash and ruin!”
I froze after she said that, as did Luna and her guard.
“What… weapons would those be, thou despicable whelp?”
“Uh… AISS, are there nuclear weapons in here?” I asked, panic beginning to flood into my system. Now, it was crucial not to piss AISS off, if I wanted to preserve my new friends’ home, if we managed to defeat all of the infected and whoever their leader was.
“No, Mason. However, we have twenty five InterContinental Ballistic Missiles, laden with traditional warheads.” AISS turned to me and smiled, seemingly back to her calm demeanor. “We also have twenty five hundred M39 Gauss Rifles, three hundred suits of Mark XII Powered Exoskeletons, thirty Railgun armed Quadruped Tanks, twenty Humvees left over from the early 21st century, three M6 Abrams, from the late 21st century… oh, can’t forget the explosives, of course. One hundred cases of C4 explosive, twenty-five cases of Semtex explosive putty, twenty SMAW anti-tank shoulder mounted launchers, twenty Stinger missile launchers, a heavily modified AH-64 Apache gunship, and a V-22 Osprey that is not currently operational; it’s missing one of its Jesus nuts.”
“Why the hell does this base have so many weapons? Wasn’t Fort Lewis in Washington? I highly doubt a military base in Washington would need so many armaments,” I said, taking a side glance at Luna. The confusion on her face was evident, so I didn’t need to worry about her reaction.
“Well, as preparation for any global catastrophe, the U.S government fully equipped every military base they possibly could with enough firepower to repel or retaliate against any attack, be it from a foreign nation or remnants of whatever disease brought the Human race to its knees. Thankfully, they built an assembly line in the lower areas of the facility, so I was able to convert or built most of the weapons I listed. I still can’t find an extra Jesus nut, though.” AISS flickered as she turned and walked away. “The horse already knows our capabilities, it’s just up to you to explain what it all is. I highly recommend not doing so.”
“Corporal Gray, what are all of the things she mentioned?” Luna asked, giving me a stone faced look, as her guards’ gazes shot between her and I.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure what Gauss Rifles are, but I do know that Powered Exoskeletons are like suits or highly advanced armor, the quadruped tanks and Abrams are like… heavily armored automatic chariots, the Humvees are lightly armored automatic chariots, the C4 and Semtex putty are like dynamite. You guys have dynamite, right?”
“Yes, we do. Please continue.”
“The SMAW and Stingers are weapons that shoot explosives, designed to take out tanks and helicopters.”
“I see… and what are helicopters, exactly? Would they be the Apache and Osprey that the Fake mentioned?”
“Yes they would, and they’re like automated birds, big enough to carry people and usually have explosives or guns on them to assist ground troops. Like Pegasi with bows.” I said, “Just much more powerful and much faster.”
Luna’s face remained stoic and expressionless; however I could tell that she was contemplating what to do about what I said.
“Mason, the power has successfully been transferred to this location. We can wake up the other humans now, if you’d like,” said AISS over the PA system.
“Other humans?” Luna asked, suspicion showing on her face. “Why in Celestia’s name do you need MORE humans?”
“Because right now, they’re all frozen, and one of them knows the workings of this base so much more than any of us. Besides, the weapons in this base will be instrumental in defeating the infected, and we need as much help as we can. With all due respect, Princess, your guards can’t exactly fire a gun with those hooves.”
“Hmph.” Muttered Luna, as she turned and walked away. “It is nearly noon, so I will be taking a nap. Fake, could you please show me a place where I could sleep?”
AISS blinked into existence beside Princess Luna, and gave a demented smile. “Certainly, my vegetarian friend. I’d like you to know, that in Human culture, it is customary for new guests to sleep in a small, tiled square room to demonstrate their thankfulness…”
As AISS and Luna walked away, I could only imagine which room AISS was leading Luna to. A single batpony guard had gone with her, so it left the remaining four with me. We were left with nothing to do except engage in small talk until AISS reappeared next to me, where she said “Alright, I am ready to release the survivors. Please come with me, Mason.”
I ended up walking with AISS and the other guards for about ten minutes, until we got to the opposite end of the colossal room. There, in back row up in the corner, were three tubes that had lights flickering on the control panels. AISS led me to the first one, where she promptly began pressing buttons in order, probably preparing the body to be unfrozen.
“Wait a sec, you can press buttons?” I said, staring at her fingers as they worked.
“I can interact with most control panels and switches in this facility, since there is a static charge which keeps my visual form, well, visual. The static charge, if I press a button, sends the signal to the receiver that activates the button.”
“That’s actually pretty cool. I’m starting to really like the science in this base.”
“I should hope so, I can only imagine how much you will like the power showers in the civilian barracks. Speaking of which, that horse should be coming back right… about…”
“HOW DAREST THOU! WHERE IS SHE, WHERE IS THAT WENCH!”
I looked down the rows of glass tubes, to see a blue form rapidly flying toward us. When she arrived, Luna was evidently sopping wet, her crown sat at an angle, and her feathers were all drooping downward. I saw her and couldn’t help but burst out laughing; the expression on her face combined with her appearance were just too much.
During my laughing fit, AISS leaned over and whispered in my ear “I got her to sleep in the shower, and set it to go off after ten minutes.” She continued to input various combinations into the panels of the other two tubes, all the while with Luna screaming and carrying on in the background. After a few minutes of this, the batponies finally got Luna to calm down, and AISS gave me the all clear to hit the ‘Release’ button on the first tube.
I looked at the nameplate above the tube, and it simply read ‘Mario Aguirre’. I pressed the button, and stepped back to watch as the glass fogged over and the figure inside began to wake up and move around. After about thirty seconds or so, the glass front of the tube popped outwards and slid up, to reveal a Hispanic guy in a labcoat, who was rubbing his eyes and stretching.
“Agh, man, that was a nice little nap. How’s it going AISS- oh… Uh… Hi. Who’re you?” The Hispanic guy had stopped moving completely and was staring at my pony companions and I, his eye flicking down to the SCAR I held loosely in my hands.
“I’m Corporal Mason Gray. I was sent to the future by some demon or whatever, somehow. This is Princess Luna, one of the rulers of Equestria, the land above us, and these are her personal guard.” I gestured to the ponies as I introduced them, and Luna nodded her head and the guards saluted.
“Princess Luna? Excellent, I’ve been wanting to study the indigenous peoples of the outside world since the last time I was awake! I believe it was shortly after your treaty with the Griffons. I’m Mario, by the way,” he said, as he jumped out of the tube and rushed over to shake Luna’s ha- hoof.
Luna widened her eyes in surprise after hearing Mario’s opening greeting. “Our treaty with the Griffons was over a millennia ago! How are you even alive?”
“This machine freezes us until somebody wakes us up. It’s possible for a Human to live as long as they wanted, as long as they continuously stayed in this chamber.”
“That’s amazing!” Said Luna, as she examined the capsule and Mario.
“Alright, alright, let’s wake up the next survivor.” I said, and walked over to the next cryo capsule.
This nameplate read ‘Alexandra Michelson’, and the human form inside was considerably smaller than me and Mario, who was slightly taller than I was.
Once the capsule had opened completely, it revealed a small girl wearing jeans and a bright orange T-Shirt, with her blonde hair in a long braid over her shoulder.
“Mornin’ erybody….” Said the girl as she saw me standing in front of her. “Hey, who’re you?” She asked, when she saw my uniform and the SCAR in my hands.
“I’m Corporal Mason Gray, from the United States Marine Corps. I’ve uh… got some news for ya.”
“Oh?” She said, as she climbed out of the chamber. “Whassup?” She said, looking around at the tubes. “Hey, this isn’t the cryo tube I was originally in!”
“It’s because you were probably moved. Right now, it’s… oh… about the year 51000. Unfortunately.”
“51000… Holy shit! We’re in the future?” She exclaimed, looking around excitedly. “Where’s Dad? Does he know?”
“That’s the problem… the majority of the cryo capsules were incorrectly frozen, so it caused… just about everybody insde them to be killed. Right now, it’s just you, this guy here, and a third survivor.”
‘Did that come out as too blunt?’ I thought, as I watched her facial expressions go from wonder, to shock, to horror, and finally pure sadness.
“Wh… Dad?” She said slowly. “Everyone’s… dead?”
“…Yeah.” I answered, feeling rotten.
Tears began to fall freely from her eyes, and she ran away from me, screaming “Dad!”
I watched as she ran, and contemplated going after her when she stopped about halfway across the room, and approached a distant cryo pod.
“Is that her dad?” I asked AISS, where she nodded yes, and flickered away. Guess she didn’t wanna be around for this one.
“Mason Gray, you were too forthcoming with her. It is unfair that the first thing she should have to hear after waking up is that her father is dead.” Luna tsked at me, and began to trot over to Alexandra, while I stood there with her guards and Mario.
Mario shifted awkwardly, before saying “Sorry bro, I know you didn’t intend to be like that.”
“Of course I didn’t, she’s just a kid. I don’t really know any other way to say it, though.” I sighed and looked away, trying to find something else to talk about. “So, since magic didn’t exist in our past, how come it exists now?”
“Oh, well, as it turns out, a byproduct from all of humanity’s technological advancements has been slowly altering the amoeba in the air, and with it, the majority of life on earth. These ponies have evolved drastically after several thousand years into what they are now, and their magical ability is like a conduit from their bodies to the amoeba in the air. Basically, when they’re using magic, they’re giving amoeba ‘orders’, which are then carried out. Ta da, magic.” Mario laughed looked at the batpony guards. “Although, the things that those tiny little amoeba are capable of is some really freaky shit, huh?”
“Damn straight.” I said, before turning back to the final pod. The nameplate on this one was broken off, which was weird. “Hey, Mario, why’s this nameplate broken off?”
He shrugged and said “Not sure. I don’t think it was like that the last time I was awake.”
“Do you remember their name?”
“No. I know that it was another girl, but I’m not sure of her name. I think it started with an R.”
I raised my eyebrow in question, and said “That’s it?”
“Yeah,” he said, before fishing around in his lab pockets for something.
“Oh well, here goes nothing.” I said, and pushed the blinking blue button on the panel.
The container popped open, and I waited for the person inside to step out. They didn’t, for some reason. After waiting for a few seconds, I began to fan away the steam to see who it was.
The steam slowly cleared, and a face began to appear, though not clear enough to see exactly who it was. Looked like black hair. The figure inside was moving around, very slowly coming to after nearly fifty thousand years of slumber.
After a few more curious seconds, the steam was gone and I finally got a good look at who was sitting in the canister.
My heart nearly stopped, but soon began to fill with happiness. I had to mentally scold myself for not jumping around like a ten year old girl.
Luna trotted over, and asked “Mason, art thou okay? Thou hast a strange expression.”
I turned my head to look at her, giving a huge grin before saying “Princess, meet my sister, Renee Gray.”