Chapter One: Mechanizations
"Is it ready?" General Kosak asked as he looked over the bright but small control room. The question directed at one of four scientists. Each of them in crisp white lab coats as three of them looked over control consoles. The fourth stood, close by to the general. Eyes darting between the three other scientists. Occasionally looking out through the observation window that formed the wall of the half circle room.
"Well, in theory it should be.....but," The lead scientist said as he turned to face the general. The ID badge that hung from around his neck helping to identify him as Dr. Rosenberg. "The real question is if it will accept it. Objects like this, they tend tend to do things we weren't expecting," He said as he glanced back around the room. "I really must advise against this...."
Kosak sighed as he reached up and rubbed his fore head. His eyes tracing hostilely over the man in front of him. "How many men have we lost to SCP artifacts like this one?" he asked as he pushed past the nervous man to look down in the room. His eyes falling on the crate in the middle of the room. The guards in the room below occasionally looking back up at him as they seemed to mill about nervously. The large arch on one side of the large room humming. "And how much longer can we contain things like that? How much longer till a full breach and a K class incident or worse?"
Rosenberg just shrugged his shoulders as he looked down at his clip board. The fatigue heavy in his voice.. "It's still wrong. We don't even know anything about whats through that portal. For all we know there's intelligent beings down in there. They wont have a clue whats coming and when we do this it'll be a death sent--"
Kosak put his hands behind his back as he summoned the most commanding voice he could. "Dr, what is the name of this group?" He noticed that it must have worked. The sounds the others in the room had been making, though soft had stopped and the tension in the air grew thick.
Rosenberg could only give a defeated answer. "SCP sir. Secure, Contain, and Protect."
Kosak's head nodded ever so slightly "And protect is just what I plan to do. By tossing the god damn thing in there so it can never threaten life on this planet again," He turned on his heel. Eyes narrowed as he sized up the doctor. "Now I don't give a flying fuck whats on the other side of that portal. I don't care if it's as innocent as Bambi and has never seen a day of fighting in its life. It will learn to do what it has to or die just like we have. Have I made myself clear?"
Rosenberg just smiled and nodded. His head held low as his eyes softy began to glow.The smile on his face twisting as he tried to hide it from the general. "You have made yourself very clear sir. But I'm afraid I can't do that."
His nostrils flared as his face almost turned red from rage. "Like hell you can't" He yelled as he walked up, jabbing a finger at his chest. "You are not the project man-"
"Why don't you talk about her sir?" Rosenberg asked. "She told me you were proud of her. She was such a lovely woman." Rosenberg's eyes were bright as flashlights as his head flew up, cocking to the side. The smile twisted in ways a man's face couldn't.
"Oh fuck, oh shit." The other three started to yell as one of the scientists fell out of his desk and started crawling away. Kosak could hear another crying. But as Rosenberg smiled and his hand began to sear and burn, Kosak took three large steps back. His hand slamming onto a large red panic button on one of the consoles.
"She screamed your name on the sands. She screamed as she bled out." Rosenberg said as his hand began to glow, starting to form into a lump "That's what her squad leader never told you. He said she served, but he never told you about how she cried for you as she died."
"This Is general Kosak. Level 6 clearance. Enact quarantine now! We have a containment breach!" He screamed into the intercom. "Get that portal open now before it gets us all!"
"its too late for that. You know, she was also screaming your name last night. And it wasn't because she was BURNING IN HELL! IT WAS FROM JAMMING MY COCK UP HE-" The bang echoed loudly around the room. Rosenberg's head flew back as a large red stain filled with bits of brain splattered the window. The lifeless body of his head researcher slumping to the ground as Kosak let out a relieved sigh. He tore his eyes away from the mess to look at the other scientists.
"Get the hell back to your stations!" He screamed s he ran over to the one that was still desperately trying to crawl away. Grabbing him by the collar and hauling him back to his empty console. "How long till drop?" He asked as he walked up to the window and leaned against it. Looking down on the room. The soldiers all training their guns on the crate as it began to glow red and shake.
"30 Seconds till portal stabilization." Came the panicked cry of one of the scientists.
Kosak slammed his fist into the glass and turned back around. "We don't have 30 seconds. I want it opened now. Skip the damn safety protocols."
"B-but sir, if we skip those there's a chance we'll have a full reactor melt down. We'll lose half the" The scientists eyes went wide as he looked up to see the barrel of a gun pointed at him.
Kosak's grim face met his as tried to hide the fear in his face. "If you don't open it now, there wont be anything left to lose. Do it or I'll put the bullet in you myself."
He nodded. It was only a few moments but seemed like an eternity. A loud crack like thunder left their ears rining as the room felt like it had been plunged into winter. Kosak let out an elated cry as he turned and saw the purple swirl of a dimensional gate open. He reached for the microphone again but smiled. The guards had already began doing their job, grabbing and shoving the crate in.
"Sir!" The scientist on the left barked out. "We can confirm it entered. But it's destabilized the portal. We're getting readings of.....It's a quantum cascade. Full Borenghimer collapse!"
Kozak gasped as he saw what was going on. The room began shaking as he noticed two of the guards getting pulled into the portal. He pulled his gaze away to look over at the scientist who had just called out. "Come on, English for the rest of us. Is that bad?"
The scientist looked down at his control panel. His face going white as he calmly sat there and merely looked at him."We um....sir we don't have a model for it in this realm of physics. We think there will be an explosion though when it happens."
"What kind? How big?" Koasak asked in a panic. Running next to him and looking down at the panel, desperate to do more then just be another victim of fate.
The man sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his head "Best theoretical guess ummm....somewhere.....ummm...somewhere between Hiroshima and destroying ninty five percent of the north american continent. Assuming it only uses particles known to exist in our reality."
"Well god damn it, shut it off. Kill the power."
"Sir we...." The scientist bowed his head "It wont work. It's a self feeding cycle. The energy is powering the machine directly. We're all going to die..."
Kozak looked down, a glowing intensity coming from the portal as he bent over to scream in the microphone again. "Security, blow the damn thing. We're going to lose the whole east coast at this rate. Come on, deploy the high explosives."
A few moments later, the scream of rending metal reached him as he saw the explosions of grenades and satchel charges. The metal and wiring that made up the arch of that generated the portal falling to the ground in bits. The room rocked and pitched but the glow from the portal started dying down as he looked over the survivors in the room.
"We lost four more men to this thing. I needed them." He said as he stood up. Brushing himself off. He winced as he felt the pain from putting pressure on his leg as he turned to the closest person in a lab coat. The man looked shell shocked with a blank stare on his face. "I need that portal back. Please tell me you can build another one."
"We umm....Sir I think we can do it but its going to take years."
Kosak nodded at the response. Walking up to him and patting him on the back "That's fine. Moment quarantine is lifted I want you working on that immediately. We need it as soon as we can. That wasn't the only dangerous thing we can get rid of."
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Moon Glow sat up, the young light blue colored earth filly looking at the stars outside. She smiled wide as she held her teddy bear close in her bed. She loved star gazing and as she saw a bright twinkle in the sky couldn't help but look over at her telescope. She wanted to run to it and bring it over. To look up through it to get a good look at the streak of light. But she knew the noise it would make and that it would let her parents know she was awake. She did the only thing she could, she stared and smiled and wondered about it. The twinkle pulsated a second time, this time brighter then last.
"That's kinda cool." She said as she held her teddy bear up. "Think if I make a wish on it it'll come true?" With a smile she closed her eyes and thought real hard, trying to come up with a wish. "I should wish for....." She mumbled.
She remembered the sudden bright flash. As her eyes fluttered open she found she was in complete darkness. Her chest hurt with every breath she took and she could feel pain shooting from her side all the way up to the top of her head.
"Mommy? Daddy? Help?" she softly cried out as she tried to sit up. Her hoof hitting something sharp. "Mommy?! Help! I'm scared." After a few minutes of sniffling she looked around. Seeing nothing anywhere she summoned her strength and pushed up. She could feel whatever it was on top of her budge, and she smiled a bit through the pain.
With one final push she moved what sh realized was a large bit of wood off of her. She could hear something shift though, and just as the light began to stream down on to her form the moon, something fell. She cried out in pain as she felt her hoof get pinned by what felt like a large rock and a heavy warm mass landed on her.
"Mom! Dad!" She cried as she pushed it up just enough to see what it was in the light. She regretted it almost instantly. She recognized it as the colt who lived next door. A good chunk of his head missing and blood dripping on her. "C-crystal?" She asked as she shook him a bit. his lifeless body finally too much to hold up as he fell back on her.
"M-MOM!!! DAD!!! HELP" She screamed. Her world world becoming shrouded in blackness again. "HELLP! ANYPONY HELP" She screamed. She thrashed about furiously. Something grabbing her in the dark.
"Moon Glow! Moon Glow! Its not real! Wake up!"
Moon Glow let out a loud gasp as she opened her eyes. Her heart was pounding out of her chest. Her breathing slowed as she saw the smiling face of her room mate, an orange mare with a red mane, and a worried look on her face. It was Silver arrow.
"It....It was the same dream again." Moon Glow said as she sat up and put a hoof to her forehead.
"Are you going to be ok?" Silver asked as she hugged her friend. "I mean I know its been a long time since it all happened but still. These nightmares.
"I'll be ok." Moon said. "I just saw a flash in the sky the other night. It was almost exactly the same as the one from that night and I....I just keep thinking about it. about all the stuff it took from me." Her hoof gently rubbing against the scar that dominated the left side of her face. "That night, the explosion, the war, just all of it. I keep worrying its all going to happen again."