//------------------------------//
// Downfall 
// Story: Lost 
// by Subject 19 
//------------------------------//

“Marks, do you have the files?” Shepard asked, sitting in his office inside the Pentagon.
“You know, I feel insulted,” Razka laughed. “Either you actually believed I would give you the data or you thought two goons and the DCIA would be enough to kill me.”
“Razka, what the fuck did you do?” Shepard demanded.
“You have no idea what I have planned, Shepard. Come and get me.” Razka ended the call and tossed Marks’ phone. “Luna, it’s all clear!” he shouted. 
Luna cautiously trotted down the stairs and entered the dining room but froze upon seeing the three dead bodies lying on the ground, creating pools of blood. In all of Luna’s years, she had never seen such a disgusting sight. There were sizable holes in all three of the heads and a few chunks of flesh and brain were scattered on the counter.
“Christopher… w-what have you done?” Luna questioned, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Her eyes never deviated from the horrific sight.
“We need to get downstairs to the portal and pray that it’s online now,” Razka said, ignoring the princess’s question. When he noticed Luna wasn’t going anywhere, he sighed. “I told you I wouldn’t let anything or anyone stop me. Shepard’s going to be sending in a lot of soldiers to take me down, so we need to move now.”
Razka heard knocking at the door and approached it cautiously, gripping his pistol tightly. “Wait here,” he quietly hissed at Luna. Looking through the peep hole, he breathed a sigh of relief seeing that it was the members of Task Force 516. Numerous helicopters circled around the house and most of the ground soldiers were setting up to defend their leader.
“That’s one hell of a response time,” Razka complimented as he opened the door.
“We’re at your disposal sir,” the leader of the task force, Captain Allen, said. They were clad in jet black military grade armor, each with the insignia of CHECKMATE Arms on their chest and their last name below it. “We’ll protect you and the HVI for as long as we can.”
“Knowing Shepard, special forces should be here inside half an hour.” Razka motioned for the captain to follow him into the dining room.
“Quite the mess you made,” Allen chuckled, looking at the three dead bodies, but stopping when he saw the DCIA. “Is that the Director of the CIA?”
“Shepard tasked him with retrieving my data.” Razka looked around the room and noticed that Luna was missing. “Luna, get back in here!”
Luna cautiously complied, eyeing Allen as she walked next to the chairman. “Who is this, Christopher?”
“Captain Allen of Task Force 516,” Razka answered, quickly turning his attention back to Allen. “The fate of CHECKMATE is at stake here, captain. Remember your orders. They do not get into the lab and once Luna is through, the portal is destroyed; no exceptions. We can’t afford to let anyone acquire this kind of technology.”
“Yes sir,” Allen saluted after handing him a headset. The captain then jogged outside to get the soldiers in position to defend the house.
Razka led Luna down to the lab, where the scientists were still working vigorously to get the portal online. A week earlier, Razka moved all the weapons apart of the Striker Project to his makeshift lab. Opening one of the crates up, Razka pulled out one of the new CHK-75 prototypes. Its design was similar to that of an AR-15, but lighter and sleeker. On the upper rails was a thermal imaging scope. Loaded in the thirty round magazines were .50 caliber hollow points.
“Sir,” one of the scientists said as he ran up to the chairman. “The portal is almost ready. We’ve found a signal on the planet we believe is Equis. Give us fifteen more minutes and we should have it online.”
Razka gave a heavy sigh of relief. “Attention all units, the portal will be online in fifteen mikes. Keep the hostiles at bay until the HVI is through.”



“Chairman, I see US V-22’s inbound,” Captain Allen informed. “Launching SAM’s now!”
The SAM’s, mounted on trucks set up around Razka’s house, fired numerous missiles at least a dozen V-22’s flying towards the house. The V-22’s launched their countermeasures, but not all of them misdirected the missiles. Several of the VTOL’s burst into flames and crashed into the ground. The remaining Ospreys opened their cargo doors and countless troops filled the sky.
Within a minute it was an all-out warzone around Razka’s house. Task Force 516 did their best to prevent the American spec ops soldiers from breaching the perimeter, but the Americans were not fucking around. From Razka’s point of view, any defensive battle was doomed to failure eventually. But Razka didn’t need to win this battle, he just needed to hold them off long enough to get Luna through the portal. 
“Sir, multiple hostiles have breached the house!” Allen shouted over the chaos outside. “I’m sending in a squad to try and stop them before they reach you.”
“Understood, Allen. I’ll be waiting for the fuckers.”
Razka had set up barricades throughout the hangar sized lab with metal supply crates for cover. He kept his CHK-75 aimed straight at the only entrance to the lab. “Luna, we’ve got hostiles coming for us. Just do what I say and you’ll be fine.”
Luna nodded and crouched behind the chairman. Under Razka’s explicit orders, the scientists were franticly trying to get the portal online. By nothing short of a miracle and a little bit of luck, the portal roared to life. A deep blue liquid-like sheet covered the circular doorway to another world.
“Chairman Razka, we’ve done it!” one of the scientists exclaimed.
As Razka turned his head around the main door to the lab flew off its hinges from a planted explosive. At least a dozen soldiers charged into the hangar sized laboratory, opening fire on anything that moved. In only a few seconds most of the scientists were shot dead, pools of blood forming around their lifeless bodies.
Razka leaned to the side of his cover and began shooting at the intruders. As soon as he did though, the soldiers unleashed a relentless volley at him. “Allen where the fuck is that backup?”
“We can’t get to you sir!” Allen yelled. “I’m sorry sir, but the squad I sent was just obliterated by an RPG!”
“Fuck!” Razka pulled the pin on a grenade and hurled it at his attackers. The exchange of gunfire continued and Razka had only managed to kill half of the American forces.
“Christopher there’s too many of them, if you stay here you’ll die!” Luna shouted over the gunfire.
“Luna, get in the portal right fucking now!” Razka angrily roared as he continued to fight off the enemy soldiers. As he got up to take another shot, a bullet hit Razka in his right shoulder. In just another second, a grenade was tossed right behind where the two were taking cover. “Grenade!” Razka pushed Luna away but was only able to get a few steps away before it went off. The chairman was jolted forward and crumbled to the ground, still managing to hold onto his gun. Having taken the brunt of the blast and shrapnel, Razka was dazed and on the verge of passing out.
Luna quickly used her magic to create a shield in front of them and used her hooves to drag Christopher to the portal. As a seemingly endless stream of bullets impacted the shield, Luna could see two of the soldiers attempting to flank them. They were almost there, just a few more feet. “Come on, come on!”
The last thing Razka remembered before passing out was pulling the pin on a grenade at letting it roll out of his hand just before passing through the portal.



Razka slowly opened his eyes only to be blinded by light. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any pain, even though he distinctly remembered being shot and having taking a beating from a grenade. Once his eyes adjusted to the light he found himself lying on a midnight blue bed. Looking around the room he saw a closet, nightstand and a glass door leading out to a balcony. He was relieved to see the CHK-75 resting against the nightstand. He noticed his suit and shirt were hanging on a nearby chair. Razka was puzzled by the medieval look the room had, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted when he saw one Princess of the Night enter.
“Luna?” Christopher groaned.
Luna galloped to the side of her bed. “Christopher, I’m so glad you’re finally awake,” she said with a genuine smile.
“Where am I?” he asked, hoping to God that he wasn’t where he thought he was.
“You’re in Equestria, my world. You passed out when we went through the portal. Luckily, the doctors were able to fix up most of your wounds.”
Razka stopped listening the moment he heard “Equestria.” He felt his blood begin to boil and his hands start to shake.
Noticing his shaking, Luna leaned in closer to Razka. “Christopher, are you all right?”
The chairman leaped forward and wrapped his hands around Luna’s neck. “WHAT! HAVE! YOU! DONE!?” he shouted in pure rage as he strangled the princess.
Two guards clad in gold armor rushed in after having heard Razka shout. The stallions used their magic to rip Razka away from the princess. Razka tried to struggle, but was unable to break free their magical grip.
“This is not over,” Razka hissed, glaring daggers at Luna.
Luna’s horn lit up and she cast a spell putting Christopher to sleep. “You can leave now,” she said to the guards. After looking over the human for a moment, Luna turned to leave. As Luna quietly shut the door behind her, Celestia was waiting for her.
“I take it from the yelling he didn’t take it well,” the older sister said.
“We just need to give him time,” Luna replied softly. “He’ll come around eventually. Though he would never admit it to anyone, there is goodness in his heart. I think he might even like it here.”
“I hope so, it would be nice if we could keep in touch with an alien race on a frequent basis.”
“We can learn a lot from each other. Perhaps one day he’ll even learn of the magic of friendship.”
“With your help, Luna, I’m sure he will.”