Return of Man
Utopia
3rd person P.O.V.
The long, dark corridors and rooms that made up Utopia were eerily silent. The only sound present was the low hum of the nuclear reactors below the facility. For the past one million years, sound had been a very rare occurrence. The only time the silence was ever broken was when the entire facility underwent its automatic monthly cleansing, or when the yearly ding that sounded along with the number on the digital stopwatch increasing by one every time a year passed. Not a single glimmer of light was present in the bunker besides the faint glow emitting from the large stopwatch that appeared on a display screen in the primary control room. It had been that way for a very long time.
That was until, for the first time in one million years, a whirring sound resonated throughout the bunker, and lights that had not been turned on for an eternity buzzed to life, bathing the white walls of the facility in a bright light. This was followed by a loud hiss which originated from two thousand out of the four hundred thousand stasis chambers that were present within Utopia. Mist was discharged from the inside of the chambers as the doors slid open and moved to the sides of each individual pod in perfect synchronisation. As the doors of each chamber slid open, they gradually revealed the tall, bipedal entities that were still asleep within the chambers, just as they had been a million years ago. They were clothed in skin tight, pure white suits that hugged their skin, not in a revealing way, that clung to every part of their body up to their head. These were the suits that were designed to protect their bodies from getting frozen solid by the extreme cold.
This was followed by a monotonous female voice which emanated from all around the facility, "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act one." There was a second hiss as hot steam poured from several vents surrounding each body, which went on for about two minutes before the steam stopped. "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act two," the disembodied voice said as heat was generated by outlets around each body in the form of microwaves that lasted for about two minutes. "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act three," the voice spoke, as warm water flowed out of several outlets at the top of each pod and showered each body before being drained from an outlet at the bottom of the pods. "Resuscitation complete. Welcome back, humanity," the voice said before going completely silent.
Doctor Martin Brenner blinked his eyes as he awoke groggily. He unzipped the part of his suit at the top of his head down to his chin so that he would be able to see. He looked around the room from his position in the pod before he slowly and tiredly got out of it. He sighed as he once again confirmed that this was indeed reality and not some dream. Dr. Martin was one of the people assigned to assist in the resuscitation process of the other people who were awakened as well. He was part of the roughly two thousand individuals who were awakened before the rest of humanity so they could check if the ground was safe before they woke the others up. He shakily rose to his feet and took another look around. The chamber room was looking just as it had before he woke up. The automatic cleaning system ensured that the white walls of the chamber remained spotless for the past one million years. He then remembered the standard operation duties that he was required to carry out.
He needed to double check the clock to make sure that they had been woken up at the correct time, get the president himself coffee and check up on him, followed by performing basic maintenance checks to confirm that everything was in working order and that nothing was malfunctioning. He sighed as he made his way towards the secondary control room that was nearest to him. He walked out of the Central Cryogenics Chamber which was just one of the forty large rooms that each held ten thousand stasis chambers inside of it. All in all, the Cryogenic Chambers took up about one square kilometer of space.
He walked down the hallway which had pure white walls and was bathed in a white light coming from the bulbs that lined the roof along with the edges at the top left and right corridors of the ceiling. A blue strip of light was present as well, which lined the bottom of each wall, a few inches above the floor, which only made the place look even more futuristic. Along the walls stood blue stained windows that appeared at regular intervals, allowing him to look into the other Cryogenics Chambers. Every fifty meters, he came across a large blast proof door that was always left open and only closed in cases of emergency.
He walked for about ten minutes before he finally came upon a large metal blast proof door that read 'SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM 12' in large, bold letters. Martin placed his thumb on the fingerprint sensor and after a few seconds, the top half of the door slid into the ceiling while the bottom half slid into the floor. For anyone else, the inside (and outside) of the room would be like something straight out of a batman movie. Various screens lined the walls of the front of the room that detailed the statuses of lots of different bits and bobs. On the upper part of the wall lay over a dozen screens with cameras showing different areas of the bunker. In front of the wall of screens were two desks with two office chairs in front each of them and on top of the desks were two desktops. The fastest, most advanced computers known to man. These two appliances, which were bordering supercomputer level processing, were not necessary in the slightest, but everyone wanted only the best of everything for the new world. This was proven when they spent two hundred million dollars on the most expensive toasters in the world, worth five hundred dollars each, for every single one of the four hundred thousand houses in Utopia.
He entered through the door and made his way over to a desk, and sat down in front of one of the computers to begin his checks.
"Alright, ventilation active, reactors normal, farms ready to begin production, radiation levels still low…" he trailed off, "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Mandatory time check. And it looks like it has been… one million years," he stopped talking mid sentence and began typing frantically on his keyboard. After a few long minutes of rechecking and confirming, he got off his chair so quickly that it fell over, followed by running out of the control room in a panic.
Central Cryogenics Chamber 8 (Floor 1)
President Atticus P.O.V.
I had just made my way out of my room and into the hallway after changing into my suit and was surprised when I found no less than a hundred of Utopia's best researchers gathered in front of my door, discussing something amongst themselves. I had expected them to be in proper, presentable attire by now but almost every single one of them were still in their stasis suits. I cleared my throat and the hallway went silent, the scientists all turning towards me, but none of them saying anything.
"Well?" I asked annoyedly, "What is the meaning of this? Don't you all have maintenance to attend to, checks to run, and not to mention, clothes to put on?
"Um, Mr President Sir, the thing is… there's a problem. A very, very big one," came a female voice from one of the scientists, and because there were so many, I couldn't tell who it was.
"Well, spit it out then!" I told them.
One of the scientists stepped forward and I recognised him as Dr. Keifer, the world renowned scientist who discovered Harmonic Radiation. He brought out his iPad and began his explanation. "Well sir," he spoke in a thick German accent, "The problem is that according to the data that we all have, and please take note that we have all double, triple, and quadruple checked the data and have confirmed it to be true, there have been…" he paused and took a look at his iPad, before continuing while staring down at it, "Three hundred and seventy four dead with no discernible cause," he finished.
"What?! H- how th-" I was at a loss for words, "The chambers were supposed to be safe!" I then leaned against the wall and slumped down it until I was sitting on the floor with my knees up in front of me. "Three hundred and twenty four," I said, "How did this happen doctor? Any theories?"
"We don't know. But you can rest assured that we will find out," he told me, "For now though, Mr. President, the top priority is for us to see if the surface is habitable. We must vake everybody else up as soon as possible! There have already been three hundred and seventy four deaths due to unknown causes, and we don't know when these deaths had occurred. It could have been one years ago, it could have been five hundred thousand years ago, it could have been yesterday. The point is, every additional day our people spend in stasis, is a chance that someone, maybe everyone, will die. What are your orders sir?"
I sat there in contemplation for a few moments before responding, "Gather the other nation's leaders. Announce that a meeting is to be held immediately in the U.N. headquarters. I am sure the rest of them are well aware of the problem by now, and will attend the meeting immediately and without question," I told the doctor and walked off, before stopping and turning around, "Oh, and wake squads eleven and eighty two of Delta Force up."
Hangar Bay 12 (Floor 4)
Bellamy Blake P.O.V.
"Ay cap, any idea why the president wanted us here?" my squad mate Sheila asked me.
"No idea, but knowing him, he wouldn't have called us in together with eighty two if it wasn't something serious," I told her.
"But what could be so serious the president would wake us up for? Definitely not a policing job or to keep the peace seeing as, one, if it was he wouldn't have called us, and two, there are only two thousand others awake right now," my friend Octavia chipped in, "Oooh, might be an assassination! I really hope it's an assassination! I haven't killed anyone in a million years! Can you believe it?!"
"Or maybe, he's sending us up..." came a man's voice from behind me who I recognised as my good friend Nigel, "to the surface!"
That was when I decided to cut the conversation before the conspiracy theories began, "Well, whatever the reason is, I'm sure it's a good one if he wanted us geared up and ready to go so quickly," I told my squad mates. "So how about we wait till Atticus gets here and tells us himself? I'm sure he'll be here soon," I told them all while cleaning my rifle which had a million years of dust on it. Everyone went back to whatever it is they were doing before, and I was left in silence, which lasted about two minutes before I heard shouting and turned around only to find Borris pointing his six-shooter gun at Kelly with Murphy snickering in the background.
"Borris, what the fuck?" I asked him in an annoyed tone. "Put the gun down, dammit!" I shouted at him, "And Murphy what the hell are you doing?! Don't just stand there!"
"Kelly has done prank for last time! Now Boris is going to play Russian roulette with Kelly as good prank!" Boris said in a thick Russian accent.
"Hey, first of all, I said I was sorry. It was just water I put above your door. You literally bathe with it so why are you so made?" Kelly said in a nonchalant manner.
He then put a bullet in his six shooter gun and spun the bullet chamber one round and took aim. All the while, Kelly just stood there, not taking his threat seriously. Before I could intercept him, he pulled the trigger, and thankfully, it was a blank.
"You actually did it?!" Kelly screamed, "You had a one in six chance of shooting me asshole!"
"Firstly, Boris, what the fuck?! You could've seriously hurt her! And secondly, Kelly, do you have a death wish?!" I screamed at them both, "Boris, drop down and give me two hundred push ups, now! And Kelly, since you like being so childish, I'll treat you like a child. Go stand in that corner and face the wall until the president gets here," I said and pointed towards a corner of the room. They both tried to oppose but did as instructed when I shot them a glare, and I went back to shining my trusty rifle, "Idiots! I'm surrounded by idiots!"
About ten minutes later, the president entered the room together with the seven other world leaders of the newly formed nations. I immediately recognised them as Admiral General President Prime Minister Haffaz Aladeen of Wadiya, Prime Minister Bjorn Erling of the European Union, Supreme Leader Xi Mingzhe of Lian Meng, King Osas Uvuvuevue of the United States of Africa, Prime Minister Jack Byrnes of Oceania, President Alexi Kablishkibov of Russia, and Prime Minister Mateo Santiago of Hispanica. And following behind them was a team of about a dozen scientists, one of which I recognised as the famous German scientist, Dr. Keifer. Everyone immediately lined up and stood at attention, saluting the president of the newly formed United States of Utopia and the other world leaders. The other world leaders nodded at us while the president told us to stand at ease and we all paid attention to our leaders.
"Men," the president began. "I have called you all here today to give you all some extremely concerning news, and to ask you all to go up to the surface," he said,"When we all entered the chambers, we were supposed to be frozen safely, and for an infinite amount of time. So you can imagine my surprise when our scientists told me that there have been three hundred and seventy four deaths due to unknown causes," he paused as gasps and murmurs erupted from both squads present.
"But how did this happen?" I heard a voice that came from the far end of our line.
"That's what we're trying to figure out. And with each passing moment, there is a risk that more of our fellow Americans, our fellow humans, will die," the president stated and murmurs of concerned agreement were heard amongst the soldiers.
"But you want us to go up there? Anything could've happened in a million years. The overworld might be covered in lava for all we know!" came a voice from one of the soldiers.
"And that's precisely why I'm sending both of your squads. The twenty soldiers in this room are two of the most capable military squads humanity has to offer. That means that if the world is really 'covered in lava' as you suggest, both of your groups will have the highest chance of survival," he tried reassuring us, "I will not force this on any of you. If you wish to reject this mission, I will allow it. But your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to use this device," - the president held up a device which looked like a highly advanced geiger counter - "to measure the radiation levels in the air, and use this," - the president held up a similar looking device - "to gather details on the atmosphere. All you have to do is click on this button and all the information we need will be relayed back to our computers. You will then await your next orders. If the surface is unsafe, your orders will be to return back to the lift immediately. If the surface is deemed to be safe, you will release the ten drones that will be provided to you. These drones will be controlled remotely by us and will perform an aerial reconnaissance of the area. While the drones are surveying the area, you will be asked to collect as many samples of the surrounding area as possible. Firstly, this means the soil, the rocks, water samples, and anything you can get your hands on. Secondly, you will be required to collect any samples of plants and any insects you may find. You are also to capture any and all animals you come across. We need them alive. For this, we have provided you with both tranquilizer dart guns, and tasers, should the need for them arise," the president explained, "Now, last but not least, I would like to talk about the subject of safety. Firstly, you will not be going up wearing your current attire. You will be wearing an airtight, modified hazmat suit that will still allow you maximum mobility. Although this mobility might be restricted by the oxygen tank you will all be carrying on your backs. Despite the mission being only an hour long, your tanks will supply you with oxygen for a total of three hours in case of an emergency. Secondly, upon exiting the lift, you should find yourselves in the same extremely large cavern that the bunker's main entrance was built in one million years ago. We have no idea what could be in the cavern as of now, or if the cavern's even still there, so be extremely cautious upon exiting the lift," he told us. "Now, if any of you wish to not partake in this mission, please make yourselves known," he told us. He gave it a few seconds and when none of us rejected the mission, he finished off, "Humanity thanks you for your efforts. Prepare to depart in thirty minutes."
Central Control Center (Floor 1)
President Atticus P.O.V.
"Receiving data now," one of the scientists said while looking at his computer. A bar then appeared on the screen he was staring at which read 'Analysing data 12% complete. Estimated time: 30 seconds.' After the bar was up, it was replaced with lines of data, most of which I couldn't understand.
"So, is it survivable?" I asked expectantly.
The man looked over the data a few more times before he turned and looked at me with a glint in his eyes, "It's survivable. THE GROUND'S SURVIVABLE!" he exclaimed. Joyful cheers came from all around the room and even the cheers of the soldiers were audible through the speakers of the computer. Everyone was jumping with joy and some of them were even hugging each other. That all lasted a few moments until a man in a lab coat burst through the doors of the central control room.
"Mr. President! Dr. Keifer!" came the man before he noticed the other world leaders, "And other great leaders of Utopia! We have a very, very big problem. Remember when the death toll was three hundred and seventy four? That number's already increased by seven in the three hour time span we've been awake,"
"What?! How?! Dr. Keifer?!" I asked in a panicked voice.
"Well, it appears that the four hundred and seventy four deaths occurred very recently, and that we were very lucky to have been woken up in time," he said.
"What are our options?" British PM Jack Byrnes asked, "Surely we can't just leave them to die?"
"Doctor, can we wake them up?" PM Bjorn asked Keifer.
"Ja, we should be able to, however I highly recommend we only do so after the mission is complete. We have to concentrate on the mission for the time being, and waking everybody up will make us have to shift most of our focus to our newly arisen citizens. I know that if we do this, there is a high chance that more will die, but this mission is too important to risk it being compromised," he told us.
The other leaders and I discussed it for a few minutes before we reached our conclusion. "Fine," I said, "Although it pains me greatly to risk the lives of others, we have come to an agreement. You have one hour doctor, then you will wake our people up."
"I thank you all," he told us before shifting his attention to the intercom, "Captain Bellamy, vat do you see?"
"We're in a very big cave. We appear to be at the base of three large… mountains within the cave? Yeah, for the most part it looks exactly like how we left it, except rather than one large tower there are three smaller ones… Wait! There are stairs leading up the mountain in front of us as well. There's also something at the top of the mountain thing but I can't really see it from here," he described, which only made us more confused.
"Could you please activate the drones captain?" Keifer asked, "I think we'll be able to understand better if we see for ourselves."
"Alright, activating one of the drones now," came the voice from the intercom.
"Drone active, establishing control and visual link," a man who I guessed was piloting the drone said, "Visual link established,"
The screen of the large TV in front of us lit up and showed us what the drone saw. It was an extremely large cavern with no discernable exit, with three, roughly one hundred and fifty to two hundred meter tall black pillars made of rock. Wrapping around them was a spiral staircase that went around each tower that led all the way up to the top. From the drone's location, we could see several metal objects at the top of the mountains. There were also several moving figures in the distance, though they stayed mostly stationary with the exception of a single, extremely large creature that we couldn't identify at the current distance.
"It would appear tat there is already an intelligent species inhabiting the planet. Although from their crudely constructed staircase, I would assume that their civilization is much less advanced than ours. If they prove hostile, they should not be much of a threat, although establishing a good diplomatic relationship with them would be in our best interests as we still do not know the full extent of their capabilities, or their numbers," the doctor monologued to us and I listened intently, both excited and terrified of the prospect of meeting an alien species with unknown capabilities.
"Doctor? Your orders?" came the captain.
"Release the rest of the drones and hold your position captain," the doctor said.
The captain did as asked and soon there were several frames on the screen featuring the different cameras of the different drones with one larger frame in the center that appeared to be the main focus with nine other smaller ones surrounding so that we didn't have to divide our focus amongst ten different frames.
"Take us in," the doctor said and the pilots complied. The drones rose up until it eventually reached the top of a mountain. What I saw left me utterly baffled. There was a conglomeration of cages housing all kinds of different animals and creatures, creatures that definitely did not exist in the old world. I saw what looked like an extremely large bear with multiple fur colours and red eyes, a strange one eyed fish, a crocodile with the head of a chicken, a strange chimera-like creature with the head of a lion, a head of a goat and a tail that was a literal snake, and a lion with wings and a scorpion's tail among many others. The creatures were all in cages that lined both sides of the pathway the drones were travelling down and some even attempted to lash out and attack the drones as they flew past while others simply shrunk back in fear at the sight of them.
"Magnificent. Truly magnificent!" Keifer exclaimed. "World leaders, I would suggest collecting all these creatures and transporting them down here for study immediately! These creatures will allow us to predict the evolutionary path that the planet underwent, and how Keifer's radiation affected these creatures!" he said with a large grin and a glint in his eye which made him look like a mad scientist.
I did agree with his decision, however, I was still worried about the danger they posed, and more importantly, the ones who trapped them here. "Doctor, although I wholeheartedly agree with you, I have to ask that you conduct your research in the cavern itself. This facility was not built as a prison to house massive, carnivorous creatures and if one of them were to escape, the damage to Utopia and the casualties could be catastrophic, especially considering its enclosed nature," I told him, hoping he would agree, but knowing that he would still press for the chance at transporting them to his lab for testing.
"But sir, this is the chance of a lifetime! To conduct proper research, I require my lab! I require - " he said but was cut off by Admiral General President Prime Minister Aladeen.
"We will allow you to transport everything you require up to the surface doctor," he said in an Arabic accent, "We do not need unnecessary risks at a time like this, and although I would love the chance to study these creatures, and to somehow turn them into weapons of mass destruction to be thrown at anyone who would oppose my glorious and extremely benevolent rule, which will definitely not be a dictatorship, and allow freedom of speech, I have to agree with Atticus on this matter," he said and the other world leaders all voiced their agreement.
"I understand your concerns, but I assure you that - " he was cut off once again by one of the drones picking up a loud noise followed by the camera turning to static. One by one, the cameras all turned to static as they were destroyed by something extremely large. They picked up several explosions, probably made by the destruction of the other drones and a large, black form that was extremely fast, and it was tearing their drones to shreds before the pilots could even react.
"Drone seven, offline!" came one of the pilots.
"Drone four, offline!" came another.
"Drone two, offline!" came the next voice.
"Drone ten, offline!" another pilot exclaimed.
The pilots continued voicing their alerts until the last three drones spotted what looked like an utterly massive three headed dog. The dog in question was a three headed bulldog which was around as large as a small house. It picked up two drones in its mouths followed by smashing them together, creating an explosion as they collided. It then jumped up and grabbed another drone in its mouth, and upon landing, threw the drone at another which was also out of its reach, causing another explosion to echo out across the cavern. The last three drones locked onto their targets and their pilots prepared to fire before the doctor stopped them.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! I want it alive!" the doctor said, to which the pilots reluctantly complied. The large canine then leapt forward and grabbed all of the three remaining drones, one in each mouth, and crushed them, cutting the feed and causing it to turn to static.
"What was that thing?!" The Russian president asked.
"Yeah, what the fuck was that thing? It's right above the entrance to Utopia!" President Mateo exclaimed.
"I do not know, but whatever it was, it was magnificent! We have to capture it! For science!" Keifer exclaimed to which silence was his only answer.
"Doctor? You there?" came the voice of the captain from the intercom which thankfully broke the awkward silence, "We heard explosions, doctor. What's going on?"
"The drones picked up a massive three headed canine from the breed known as pitbulls. The canine proceeded to attack and destroy our drones," he then turned to face us, "If you allow it, I would like to take a small number of soldiers with me to subdue the creature. Since these soldiers are all the best that humanity has to offer, I believe we will be able to manage this relatively easily," he asked us.
"I shall allow it. Go, and make sure you take this beast down. Once the creature is subdued, you will continue to keep it unconscious with sedatives," I told the doctor, "Then you will head back here to assist in the resuscitation process for the others. You will be allowed to move your equipment to the surface tomorrow and begin your research."
"Thank you, Mr. President. I shall request fifty navy seals for our operation," he said, "I recommend they be equipped with both tranquiliser guns and knockout gas, along with stun spears in case the creature is unable to be subdued by use of tranquiliser darts, in which case the best way to proceed would be to continuously stun the creature until it tires out or falls unconscious."
"Very well, fifty seals will be allowed on the operation following the desired specifications. You may begin the operation once the seals are ready. Please bring along a bodycam so that we may be able to observe the activities going on," I said.
Tartarus
Cozy Glow P.O.V.
"Hey Tirek, is it just me or did you hear that explosion too?" I asked, thinking I was just imagining it.
"First of all, it's Lord Tirek. And yes, I did. It was probably just Cerberus - " he was cut off by another explosion which was louder than the others and caused him to jump.
We both looked at where the sound came from, "So I assume you see the tiny flying things as well?" I asked.
"It's probably just some escaped creatures that are trying to get past him, although they seem to be failing miserably" he said as Cerberus tore through the rest of the miniature flying objects like they were nothing.
"I don't think creatures make explosions when you swat at them though," I told him before my confused expression turned into a hopeful smile, "Think someone's come to break us out?"
"No, of course not. And even if someone did come to break us out, they're doing a terrible job at it," Tirek said.
"Oh come on Tirek, stop being so negative," I said, "No wonder you don't have any friends despite being thousands of years old!"
"Why thank you for recognizing one of my crowning achievements!" he said proudly, "It didn't even take that much effort to accomplish! I reckon I'm just a natural at being evil!"
"You know that's not a compliment, right?" I asked annoyedly, "But let's just enjoy the show. I haven't seen anything this interesting since my imprisonment a month ago!"
Cerberus swatted one of the flying objects out of the air and it somehow exploded when he made contact with it. He then smashed two of them together and they immediately burst into flames and fell to the ground, still burning. He then switched his focus to one of the objects that were out of his reach. He lowered his body in preparation then jumped straight at the object and grabbed it in his jaw. Upon landing, he noticed another one of the things flying above him and used the one in his mouth as a projectile and casually flung it at the other, causing another loud boom to erupt across the cavern. The remaining three objects seemed to switch their focus towards him. I expected them to launch some kind of attack but they just hovered there for a few moments, for some reason not seizing the opportunity to strike. I guessed they were charging up an attack though, but before they could discharge, Cerberus grabbed all three, one in each mouth, and crushed them, followed by letting them fall to the floor.
"He just killed them. Those poor creatures…" I said in horror. I looked back at Cerberus and saw him limping on three legs for a few steps before coming to a stop and sitting down. I guessed that he did actually sustain a slight amount of damage from the explosion that came from swatting one of the creatures out of the sky.
"Well, I highly doubt that they were sapient in nature. Most of the creatures here are just extremely dangerous beasts that need to be kept locked away," he managed to soothe my thoughts as I realised he was probably right, seeing as the creatures couldn't have come from outside Tartarus since the door was never opened, and what brought me even more relief was the fact that the both of us were the only sapient creatures present in Tartarus.
"But aren't the things from in here supposed to be dangerous?" I asked confused, "He just swatted those things like they were nothing more than flies!"
"I would argue that large exploding flies that swarm around you are dangerous," he said, "Well, I'm going to take a nap. I have nothing better to do anyway."
"You could always… talk to me?" I said, to which Tirek just scoffed and went silent, and after a while, he started snoring. I was about to take a nap as well before I heard footsteps. Hearing footsteps was not unusual, since most of the creatures here paced back and forth to pass the time, however, this was different. There were dozens of them, and it sounded more like they were sneaking rather than walking. I wouldn't normally have been able to hear them but the echo of the cave, coupled with my sensitive pony ears, allowed me to pick up the sounds of the dozens of footsteps from quite a far away distance.
Then the next differentiating anomaly made itself known. The footsteps were coming from the other pillar… and there was nothing that was supposed to be trapped there. There was one extremely large pillar which housed the majority of the Tartarus' prisoners, which were all unintelligent animals. Then there was the second pillar, which was a lot smaller than the first with a slightly taller base at the top. It had a small, narrow winding staircase connecting it to the main pillar, and by extension, the gates of Tartarus. This was where Tirek and I were imprisoned, probably because they wanted to separate the sentient creatures from the ones that weren't. Then there was the last pillar, the smallest one. This pillar was also connected to the main one but it did not house any prisoners, it was empty and nobody ever went there. They didn't need to since the only function it had was to house a staircase which led to the base of Tartarus, which was just a barren, rocky floor that was completely empty. And That was where I heard the footsteps coming from.
But that wouldn't have been possible. To have come from down there, they would have to have originated from down there, but there was nothing there. There wasn't anything there the last time the gates of Tartarus were opened since the princesses would definitely have seen them.
'Well, if there was nopony down there, and the only way to enter Tartarus are through the gates, that must mean that there was either another entrance, that somepony managed to break in, or that whoever is coming was living down there in secret for Celestia knows how long,' I thought, and those thoughts quickly gave way to multiple possibilities for how I could utilise the situation, 'If somepony did manage to break in, maybe they were here to free Tirek and I, and if they weren't, I could hopefully convince them to. If there was a second entrance, I guess that's useful information for if we ever escaped and needed to get past Cerberus, and if there was somepony living down there all this time, it would mean that they've literally been living under a rock, and I could easily give them some sob story and get them to release me,' I thought as I grinned, but my optimism quickly turned to negativity as I thought about the next barrier in my plans, 'that is, if they could even get past Cerberus. I would have to warn them of the mutt just in case they were unaware, although I'm pretty sure they came prepared. Everyone knows about Cerberus and I'm guessing if they were living inside it they would definitely be familiar with a large, three headed dog. And I'm pretty sure the flying creatures weren't a coincidence.'
"Hey, Tirek? Wake up, there's something coming," I said and he didn't respond. "Tirek, something's coming," I said again and he didn't stir. "Tirek!" I shouted and he jolted awake with a gasp and a light scream of surprise.
"What do you want? Did you really have to startle me in such a manner? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?!" he said in an irritated tone.
"I said something's coming. Many somethings. Don't you hear the footsteps? There are about a couple dozen of them, and they're coming from there," I said and pointed at the empty pillar.
"I don't see anything," he said, now sounding even more annoyed.
"I said hear, not see. And they're getting closer," I said as I listened intently. A few minutes ago, they were walking back and forth in roughly the same spot, but they had just begun walking towards us, "Maybe you can't pick it up because you don't have hyper sensitive ears, but there are, like, a lot of footsteps approaching."
"Maybe it's just - " he said but cut himself off as the first of the creatures were gradually revealed as it came into view over the edge of the pillar.
The creature looked extremely strange and… creepy. It was wearing a completely black attire that covered its entire body, making it impossible to see what it really looked like. It's head was not visible since it was wearing an extremely disturbing mask that was covering its face. The mask itself had what looked like straps that came out the success of it and wrapped around the back of the creature's head. It had two large eye holes that I guessed allowed the creature to see, but they were tinted completely black, much like the rest of the mask. I couldn't see clearly but it had what looked like a nose along with a weird looking, flat cylinder that came jutted out of the end of it, which probably served no purpose other than making the mask look even more disturbing.
More and more creatures were gradually revealed as they came up the staircase and in two lines, headed straight for the location of the main pillar which contained all the other prisoners… and Cerberus. They headed through the small, winding path that led towards the main pillar and stopped to regroup on the other side.
"Do you know what they are?" I asked Tirek.
"I can't see them from here, but from the masks they're wearing, they look dangerous," he told me, "Cerberus will deal with them, but if they manage to defeat him, it's best we don't get ourselves noticed."
"That's a little hard when your cell is separate from all the others," I replied, then refocused my attention on the strange, bipedal creatures, "They remind me of humans. They have similar shapes, but there's no way even a single slave could've gotten in, let alone dozens."
Upon regrouping, the creatures seemed to converse with each other before beginning to move once again. They separated into two groups, and they began to crouch down slightly, while simultaneously walking, with their backs hunched over and their knees bent, while the second group did the same but maintained a position several meters behind them. The first group carried strange hand-held objects that looked a lot like batons, but had a long, narrow, cylindrical part that extended out the end, which I assumed functioned pretty much like the sharp point of a spear, with a large hollow barrel-like cylinder under it. It had what looked like a green laser that was being emitted from the front of it, but it didn't seem to be doing any damage for some reason. All in all, they looked like a really weird cross between a night stick and a really short spear. They looked cool and dangerous, but I highly doubted they would be very effective.
The second group looked to be carrying much more practical weapons. They carried very strange looking, black and silver spears that for some reason, had a blunt tip, rather than a sharp one. The design was extremely unique, featuring what seemed to be handles, and had a very box-like structure with many edges along the handle of the spear.
"What are they doing?" I asked Tirek
"They don't seem to be heading towards the exit, so they're not looking to get out," he observed, "Seems like they're heading - "
I finished his sentence for him, "Straight towards Cerberus?" I looked ahead of their path once again, and saw that they were indeed heading straight towards Cerberus, who hadn't noticed them since he was facing the opposite direction.
"Why would they be heading towards the large dog rather than away from it?" Tirek asked, confused.
"Maybe they're trying to - " I cut myself off as I saw one of the strange batons shoot quite a large projectile from it, which hit the ground next to Cerberus with a metallic 'clink', which caused him to immediately turn around to face them, and dozens of other clinks soon followed.
The strange metallic projectiles began emitting some sort of red gas, while the masked creatures started surrounding the large canine. They pointed their strange weapons at Cerberus, and soon he was covered in green dots everywhere. The dog, meanwhile, tried to get rid of the red tinted gas by waving his arms about, unable to see its attackers properly due to his obscured vision.
The dog would swat out randomly, and occasionally slam his paw down on the ground, forcing the masked creatures to either dodge or jump out of the way entirely. None of Cerberus's attempts at swatting at the masked bipeds even came close to hitting them before they managed to dodge. It was like their reflexes were instant, like they knew what he was going to do before he did it.
Then, the strangest thing happened. I heard a muffled shout coming from one of the creatures. "Tranq him!" one of the creatures shouted before their batons started shooting what looked to be literal syringes out of the end of it. The syringes pierced into the flesh of the large canine, causing him to roar out in anger, and resume blindly striking at the ground around him, now with the strikes being faster and stronger.
But soon enough, the strikes slowed down, and became weaker. They were still powerful strikes, and Cerberus was still roaring furiously, but his strikes were becoming more sluggish and infrequent, and his roars almost took on a lazy-like tone.
"It's not enough! Taze em!" The voice called out once more, "And stop firing! We don't wanna kill this thing by overdosing it!"
The front lines with the syringe shooters stepped back a little, while the back lines stepped forward with their spears, and they began closing in on Cerberus. Cerberus retaliated by attempting to slam a paw down on one of the assailants in an effort to crush them, but he brought the tip of his spear to meet with the oncoming appendage. As soon as his paw touched the tip of the spear, he instantly recoiled it with a roar of pain. The spear produced a crackling shock the moment it made contact, leading me to believe that the strange device was using electricity to shock him. It had to have very powerful magic to generate enough power to be able to cause pain to Cerberus.
The masked creatures continued closing in on Cerberus, while thwarting all his attempts at retaliation by shocking him with their spears. They eventually closed enough distance to be within reach of his body, which they began to strike mercilessly. Cerberus's roars of agony echoed throughout the cavern, along with the never ending crackle of their electrical weapons. I stared in horror as they never allowed him even a second of rest, constantly using their weapons to prod at him. His roars gradually softened, until he was no longer able to produce anything more than pained whimpers. But still, they continued their relentless assault on the already half-dead dog.
"All together! Put em' to sleep on three!" I heard one of them call out. "One… Two… Three!" on the count of three, all of them ceased their jabbing, which was replaced by them doing something much worse. The beast's whimpers were once again replaced by a loud roar, this one sounding more agonising than all the others combined. But they still continued with the shocks, now even more brutally than before. Before that, they had been prodding at him with their weapons, shocking him then drawing their spears back and jabbing at him, each one doing the same, again and again. Now, they kept their weapons on him all at once, not even giving him that few seconds of relief that he previously got. As the shocks reverberated off the walls of the cavern, the beast began to spasm uncontrollably, still struggling about in a last ditch effort to thwart the masked creatures' onslaught. Then, with a last mighty roar, the beast slumped down to the floor unconscious, and the masked creatures finally stopped their attack.
Now with the battle over, I was once again able to focus on my surroundings, and that was when I realised something. The red gas was spreading, and it was reaching us. I looked back towards the other imprisoned creatures that the gas had reached, and deduced that it was one of two things. It was either going to render us unconscious, or kill us. And after witnessing the very violent display that the masked creatures put on, I didn't exactly like my chances.
"Hey, let us go! There's a foal in here!" I called out, and the masked creatures, in response, looked around in confusion.
"Quiet! You're going to get us noticed!" Tirek whispered from my right.
"Well, it's either that or we die," I said. Not waiting for a reply, I called out once again, louder this time, "Over here! Please, I'm just a kid!"
All eyes turned towards the general direction of Tirek and I in response, their lifeless eyes boring into our souls.
"What just spoke," came one of the creatures.
"Did that mini horse just talk?!" another said with surprise evident in its tone.
"Is that a horse with wings?!" another baffled voice came.
"Is that a focken centaur?!" another voice exclaimed in disbelief.
"Straight out of a fantasy!" Another voice called out.
"Magnificent!" called out another voice, which stood out because of its weird sounding accent, "Truly magnificent!"
"Um, Tirek, why do they seem so amazed to see a pony?" I asked, confused, "And how do they not know who you are?"
Before he could answer, he started coughing, and I noticed the gas was already upon us.
I looked towards the source of the strange voice and my eyes went wide at what I saw. There stood a human male in a lab coat, which was wearing the same mask that the rest of them were wearing. 'These are… humans..?' I thought in disbelief.
"Get them both back to Utopia," he said in his strange accent, "I would like to get to know the sentient species currently inhabiting the planet."
Before I could ponder further, I started coughing, just like Tirek did, and I looked towards him to find him already either unconscious or dead. I soon began coughing more violently, and began to feel my consciousness slipping away. I slumped to the ground, already feeling too drowsy and tired to be able to stand properly.
I looked up as I heard footsteps approaching me, and what I saw was probably the single most frightening thing I had ever seen in my life. The masked men were closing in on me, and now that they were closer, their masks looked like something straight out of a nightmare. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a masked man emerging from the red gas with its weapon.
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síguela, esta buena la historia
I do not like the images, I feel they detract from the story and are pretty jarring when they pop up.
Maybe I'm biased since they're very bright and I'm using dark mode lmao.
10906338
i.pinimg.com/originals/9e/ca/b4/9ecab443cccda3faaae53ed6872094cb.jpg
this caught me off guard and had me suppress my laughs because dad is sleeping
10906376
I didn't even mean that as a joke, but after I looked back on it, I laughed a little as well lol
10906338
It is a 'soul for a soul' situation. You get a better image but it burns your eyes.
images are good.
10906412
Naw then we would get human falmer
So is this part of the “Your Human and You” universe
10906499
No, the humans here aren't stupid animals, more like uncivilized barbarians. They are pretty much cavemen that can speak English but are unable to conform to pony society, which is pretty much like modern day society without all the technology.
For some reason, i mentally read Dr. Kiefer's lines in the tf2 medic voice.
10906523
That's what's on paper. In reality, each nation wanted to have more power than everyone else. Don't worry, we'll come to that.
And also it was mostly to combat a potentially hostile intelligent species if one were to emerge. And it was well worth it, seeing as a most likely hostile species did emerge.
FOR HUMANITY, death to the solar tiran !!!
A very interesting and unique idea, I really like the approach of this story. I hope I can read more about this in the future.
10906556
Tysm for this! I might just base one of the world leader's speeches on this.
10906559
Glad you like it. I aim to please :)
Tbh I wasn't going to go the ponies enslaving humans route at first. I was just going to do the same thing with the bunker but interacting with the standard mlp universe. But then a few days ago I read The god of anger and I immediately got the idea to go that route with this story. (Although I'm not gonna be as brutal on the humans in this story)
10906534
That is literally exactly what I imagined when I thought of him speaking.
10906549
Thanks for the positive response, glad you like it :D
10906568
The context is not the same, but as a personal suggestion, if you plan to make a speech I highly recommend you listen to this ..... one of the best speeches in videogames from my humble opinion
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6imKkM--X4M&feature=youtu.be
10906570
A very good inspiration jajajaja, I also have to comment that it will be interesting to see the participation of characters like Cozy Glow or Lord Tirek in this story. I'm curious about how human relationships will develop not only with Mane 6 but with other characters like Young Six, Starlight ....... or maybe Discord.
Nothing but premise.
I immediately recognized them as Admiral General President Prime Minister Haffaz Aladeen of Wadiya. If that is an actual title, I'm going to facepalm so hard my head will come off from the shear force of it.
10906670
I think that’s a reference to the movie “Dictator.” A comedy movie.
10906675
oh ya woops, been a while since I watched that movie
a big pet peeve though is when the words sentient and sapient are either mixed up or confused like here the both of us were the only sentient creatures present in Tartarus. The word sentient here should be sapient, animals are sentient, being aware of their surroundings. Cozy and Tirek would be sapient because of their ability to think about their existence, like why are we here in the first place. That is what makes us different from average animals.
I wonder what will happen next!
Just one little thing about the bunker annoys me though, no mention of any type of factory to produce spare parts or resource depots (iron, steel, copper, various other metals and compounds, oils, refined oils, etc,etc...) where are they gonna get the spare parts from or the resources to make those spare parts?
And I hope that they etched a lot of humanities knowledge onto thin metal plates in the case that the computers memory units failed at some point (I doubt they would last a hundred years without some form of degradation nevermind a million)
10906707
godo point, there should be an industrial level or something, the best place for it probably being the floor above the reactors.
10906329
totalmente de acuerdo
This Fic definitely belongs in the Humans are Superior group
Quick Tip, if you need to hint to the reader that the POV is shifting, try using a cutie mark or some sort of icon at the top of each scene where it shifts.
You have my attention. Not a bad start.
Regarding images:
Unless you're using an image to show something too complex to describe accurately, you should steer away from using them. I give a small amount of lee-way to stories that have commissioned or fan-art of a special scene (typically placed at the end) which looks more like a photo moment than anything. Though, the way you're using it is too much. If you have a particular imposing or important image you want to ensure gets through accurately, limit it to at most one per chapter and put it only where it makes sense. Otherwise it becomes increasingly distracting and I'll be honest and say that I was pretty distracted throughout this chapter. Especially since I use the dark-mode and all the pictures have a light focus which makes it stand out just that much more.
10906707
There is, but I'll get to that later. We've only been through a mere fraction of the contents of Utopia anyway. I might either gradually reveal Utopia's other facilities or make a separate chapter with a more detailed description of Utopia itself.
10906979
I didn't really like using that many images as well, but it was mostly to show the technological level of Utopia and to give it that 'futuristic-modern' feel.
10906665
This isn't Autodale
10906586
Might take inspiration from this as well. Thanks!
10906670
Yep. From The Dictator.
10906608
Glad you like it :)
10906702
Changed.
Ok right off the bat this is a LONG ass summary.
Oh fuck off with that. Nobody except Albert Einstein in the red alert games talk like that. If you're doing changes coulc you change so he doesn't talk like a cliche
Oh god is this going to be one of those "human governments" that's just modern America with a few token foreigners?
That doesn't exist, the Middle east region is too linguistically diverse. That'd be like saying somebody had a thick European accent. Is he a Turkish, Arabic, Persian, or Berber?
Interesting. I will be having a look here.
I like the images and my overall thoughts so far are mostly positive but the pacing was rather quick.
They went from waking up to lets leave the safety of our huge underground bunker in less than a day and it doesn't seem to mention anything about inspecting any of the equipment to check for any signs of wear from the million years which would no doubt happen although who knows maybe i'm just being nit picky. oh and yeah I would kill to get one of those super expensive toasters.
I'm interested to see where this goes. My only real peeve is that Cozy didn't recognize the gas masks. I know they're used a lot in military applications, but they're also often used in other ways, such as firefighting, mining, and other jobs that potentially deal with hazardous gasses or smoke and such. Not every pony is a unicorn and can just summon a bubble of air or whatever, so I figure they'd at least have some equivalent to it.
But maybe it's also because Cozy Glow's still very young, and might just not know what a gas mask is even if ponies do have their own versions.
10907225
They're not leaving, just checking for heritability. They would've woken up regardless.
And even though it's habitable, they're still going to stay in the bunker, at least for a couple more decades until their population grows and they need to expand.
10907167
It's basically NATO minus a few countries. Of course, Americans will make up the largest portion of USU but there will be a large number of the other countries citizens as well. Just think of it as a multiracial country, except instead of race it's nationality.
And as for his accent, think medic from tf2.
10907239
They use magic for firefighting. And they don't have the capability to mine very deep because of the lack of technology, so they don't have to worry about the hazardous gases. They haven't invented gas masks yet, nor do they have a need to invent them.
Interesting concept. I am not a fan of switching first person povs. Confusing. Imo first person is best suited for a singular perspective without shifts. This story would be better suited for third oerson.
Otherwise the story itself has a great merit of there being a mystery with multiple problems needing solving. Creating a dilemma of choice. And a question.
I think the choice of mask is great for a monstrous theme. Creating an alien appearance. I know that a full facial olastic plate is what is used now, has better visibility. So kudos on taking the alien route.
I am curious about the technologies develooed and used. I look forward to the next chapter.
This is a great concept do hope you will continue it. Really like the story so far and can’t wait to see what comes next.
Heres my bet on what happens when humanity finds out about slaves
*****
*tired and cozy glow spill the beans*
*every American in there😡*
*big military show of force*
*no more human slavery and humans are the dominant species*
*****
Probably some missing steps but I think this is a solid guess on whats going to happen.
The description is another 'humanity first wooooooohoooooooo' aggressive wank.
Of course the infallible NuClEaR WeApOnS StOcKpILE survived a million years
A joke that stops being funny when drawn out to a story's length, unfortunately.