//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Aperture // by Godspeed //------------------------------// Author's Note: So this is my first story ever on fimfiction so tell me if you guys like it and if you do, I'll post part 2 soon! And please, just constructive criticism. Thanks!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, this isn't going exactly as planned. Godspeed thinks to himself. Ha, understatement of the century. Trapped. End of the line. Life giving oxygen slowly getting sucked out from the facility the government sent him to infiltrate. Why couldn't they give me an easier first assignment? How could the intel be so fricken off!? He thinks to himself as it's getting harder and harder to breathe. His training tells him that he's only got a couple more minutes left before he will pass out and then eventually asphyxiate. A lot of good my training's doing me now, huh? How did this even happen? He tries to remember back to the beginning where it all began. I guess now is a good time to reflect since I'm going to die and all that. He tries to laugh but the pain enters his head and lungs as the oxygen level is approaching critical only letting him cough. He sets his head against the wall feeling defeated, a failure. He looks up sadly and thinks, Ugh, how could it come to this?.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 years ago Seth aka 'Godspeed' as his buddies in the military had dubbed him, was a 17 year old guy but was recruited, well more like drafted, by the government at the age of 12 from an orphanage because of his "unique" skills as a tactician and his overall aptitude. "No one has ever seen this level of brain activity before!" his handler had said to him years ago as they sat on a bench in front of the building he called the "Company", trying to explain to young Seth why the government had yanked him from his orphanage in a whirlwind of men in suits and flashed badges. Seth's confused face drove the handler to explain further. "Okay, so this is how a brain works: it receives data, analyzes data, weighs the consequences of different actions and acts upon the ones deemed most logical for the given situation. The brain does this every nanosecond, bio-electrical signals course though your nervous system and tell muscles what to do and when. It really is a truly remarkable thing, but for some reason your brain seems to do this a bit faster than most people." When the young boy started getting super excited about this and started asking a million questions, his handler lifted up a finger to silence him and then said, "I don't think you get it: yes the government will feed you, clothe you and in all other aspects provide for you, but only so long as you do exactly as they say. TO THE LETTER." When Seth gave him a confused face, the handler sighed and said, "Listen, what I'm going tell you right now, you can never tell anyone okay?" The boy nodded his head slowly. *sigh* "Okay, so they can't let someone like you go because of your talents but they won't ever, EVER hesitate to kill you if you do something they disagree with. You are too much a security risk to ever live a normal civilian life." Despite the look of dismay that came across the young 12 year old's face, his handler said "Your life belongs to the military now. We are your family... but you can never leave. For your own good, don't ever cross the will of the government because.... well, you know that show that you were watching, uh what is it, My Little Pony?" Seth nodded his head even more slowly and hesitantly than last time, knowing that that this was the one thing in his life that really meant anything to him. The only way he had experienced any kind of real joy and happiness was though watching that show. Growing up in an orphanage meant that no kids got the attention they needed, especially when in this orphanage you were lucky if they remembered to feed you, much less love you. Kids were forced to fight their fellow orphans for food. Hate fueled by hunger gripped them all in a deadly vice-like grip. My Little Pony had been his escape from life. Everyday he wished for friends like Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity in the lonely orphanage, everyday he wished for a savior and everyday no one had come to take him away from this wretched place... until the government came. "It speaks of love, kindness, compassion, acceptance and crap like that right?" Seth froze, the boy staring in horror at this man that he had hoped, up until now, would take him away from his previous life of sorrow and pain. Panic gripped his heart. And as this young boy sat there, stricken in fear, his handler spoke in a quiet, dark tone and said, "Well, those dreams end today." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Present Day I've come a long way from that scared little boy, haven't I? Godspeed knew he only had a minute left now and was trying to make the most of it. He smiled and chuckled to himself thinking, Of course I would botch up my very first mission. He stopped smiling and tried to remember where he went wrong. I don't get it though, I did it all by the book. Then the memories flooded though his mind. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 days ago "Congratulations son, you're the first to graduate in your squadron!" A great cheer goes up. "Congratulations son, you're the second to graduate in your squadron!" A huge cheer goes up. "Congratulations son, you're the third to graduate in your squadron!" A loud cheer goes up. 15 minutes later "Congratulations son, you're the 19th graduate in your squadron!" *silence* "....and it seems everyone is at the party. Don't mind me, run along son." "Thank you sir!" says the private as he rushes off to join his friends. *sigh* "And then Godspeed, what the heck are you doing in the back at number 20!? I know for a fact that you got better grades and better combat marks than all of these yahoos combined!!" "Haha thank you Colonel, but I'm fine with being in the back." "I sure do appreciate some good humbleness every now and then but this is just getting ridiculous!" Godspeed smiled back at his dear and, well, only friend in the military. "Now that everyone is gone I can tell you something." "What is that Colonel?" "You know you don't have to call me Colonel when it's just you and me Godspeed." Godspeed grinned and said, "Oh I know, I just like seeing you get flustered from time to time." "Oh fine then, have it your way PRIVATE!" Godspeed started cracking up. "Hey, this is serious business I'm about to tell you! Do you want to hear it or not!?" "Of course." Godspeed said calming down now. "Okay... so apparently despite your humbleness, people higher up have really noticed your abilities and because of your, uh, 'talent' for quick thinking they have decided that instead of going with the rest of the squadron, you will be having a separate solo test, off the record." "Off the record?" "Yeah. Apparently this one is top priority too, so it will be in 3 days." "3 DAYS!?!" "Yessir, 3 days." "Do I have a briefing?" "Consider this your briefing." "Okay then.... What do you got for me?" The Colonel laughed and said, "Don't worry Godspeed, it should be a cake walk: Just get in, grab some blueprints and get out. Easy as pie." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 hour ago The whirring of the helicopter was deafening, not to mention the sound of a hundred thunderbolts being driven down towards the earth from the massive black layer of clouds covering the sky. Godspeed stood on the edge, waiting for the signal from the pilot to dive off of this crazy machine kept aloft by just some pieces of metal buzzing around in a large circle on top of the helicopter like there's no tomorrow. "Sir, you are go! The DZ directly underneath us! GO GO GO!!!" This my favorite part. Godspeed thought sarcastically. "GERONIMO!!!" And then Godspeed jumped. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 30 minutes ago Shrouded in black kevlar, Godspeed slowly made his way to the facility. The storm made everything darker except for when lightning struck but if he did this right, they wouldn't even know what hit them. Now despite being in the military, Godspeed had made one pact to himself: He would never, EVER kill another person if he had another way, anyway to achieve his mission without endangering the lives of others. That was one reason why he loved the idea of stealth missions: you're a lone gunman with only your wits as back up and you didn't actually need to kill anyone if you could think of a way and Godspeed could see a way to disable the guards without killing them: Tranquilizer rifle. Ha, I totally feel like James Bond right now with this awesome gun. He was 20 yards away from the entrance now and a guard was looking away at the exact moment he got to his position. He smiled and then said to himself quietly, "Sleep tight." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 15 minutes ago With the guard's clothes over his kevlar adding to his size, he could be mistaken for 20 instead of 17 which made it easier to slip past the security booth undetected and now that he was in the facility, it was time to get to work. Janitorial Closet.... Conference Room A..... B..... C..... Yada yada. Ah! Laboratory. Bingo. Godspeed looked inside and to his dismay, there was over 15 people in there including scientists and guards. Now the trick is to take the blueprints undetected which will be extremely tricky considering that's what they're actually building their, uh machine off of. What was it again? I wish it wasn't so classified that I, the one who's going to fricken steal it, can't even know what it is!! *sigh* Here goes nothing. Then he opened the door and walked in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 minutes ago "...and that's 17 sleeping people. And I definitely don't want to be here when you wake up with that crazy headache. Chloroform gas, even in small doses, can really mess with your head." Godspeed looked around satisfied and then took off his gas mask and kevlar. "Who would of known this laboratory had it's own supply of air? It took like 10 minutes of talking to the scientists while some how not letting the guards get a good look at me but when one of them mentioned the air containment for this project I just asked one of them where their supply of chemicals was and bam, problem solved." Looking around, Godspeed sees what he was sent her for lying on one of the many workstations arrayed around an odd circular ring. "So then, blueprints: check." He was incredibly tempted to read this small piece of paper that everyone was freaking out about in depth but the military side of him took hold. "Nope, I'm not going to read this. It's not for my eyes, but I do need to get out of he......" Just then, the lights went out and a thunderous voice over the loud speaker said, "FOREIGN CONTAMINANT IDENTIFIED, SEALING ALL DOORS." The doors all slid shut and a hissing sound was heard. Godspeed knew what that meant. The voice continued, "PLEASE GIVE IDENTIFICATION OR ATMOSPHERE WILL BE VENTED." "....ah crap." "IDENTITY NOT VALID, VENTING ATMOSPHERE." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Present day Godspeed sat there, thinking about his past life, his failures and triumphs, in his final moments. Looking down at the stupid paper he gave up so much for, gave up so much to get only to die with it in literally in his hands. The military had been his home and he owed his life to them.... or did he? They said he could never leave, that the would never be free. As he thought this, he got more and more angry. *cough, hack* "You know what?" *cough* "Screw it! I'm going to freakin read this!!" Godspeed opened up the paper and started reading. And then he started wondering how he could read it at all. Didn't the lights go out when they started venting the atmosphere? Then he started realizing that a soft purplish blue aura of light was coming from behind him and slowly and painfully got up, coughing and hacking the whole time. His breath was becoming extremely labored and getting up only made this worse. But he had to see what this thing was. And what he saw he couldn't believe he laid his eyes on. That odd circular thing that all of the workbenches were facing towards in the lab was glowing on the inside of the circle. It reminded him of thin layer of water, except luminescent as if the 'water' glowed with an other worldly glow and just on the other side of the 'water' was another place. Another.... "Dimension." Godspeed said, his mouth hanging wide open. ...but then he coughed again, reminding his of his dire need for oxygen. "Well then," he said, getting back on his kevlar, "let's see what secrets you hold." He took out his gun, checked the ammo.... With a wry smile he joked, "To boldly go where no man has gone before." ....and then he stepped through.