0600 Hours - Edwards Air Force Base, California - 2022
"No, don't touch that!" Shrieked an older man with receding grey hair, clad in a white lab coat.
"Friendly as usual Dr Anderson." Sighed a younger man in Army Service Uniform as he looked up from behind the row of computer monitors, his high and tight auburn hair sat neatly atop his head.
"How goes the project Doctor?"
"I'm afraid that information is well above your pay-grade Captain Banks." Joked Dr Anderson.
"Cut the crap Anderson, we both know that's not true. This project was scheduled to be finished months ago. Billions of taxpayer dollars have went into this, where are the results?" Asked Captain Banks, glancing around the large aircraft hangar they were situated in.
The scene was somewhat chaotic, scientists and military personnel hurriedly moving throughout the hanger, speaking with one another in hushed voices as they made their way to their stations to operate the countless number of computers and other, less identifiable electronics.
"Come this way Captain" Dr Anderson said, as he beckoned Cpt. Banks to follow him.
They paced towards the back of the hanger, where, entombed within a thick reinforced shell lay what they had all been working on for so long. Reaching the blast doors at the shell, the Doctor keyed in a pass-code to an access panel and the huge blast doors began to open outwards, forcing them to step backwards.
Stepping inside one couldn't help but feel amazed at the engineering marvel in front of them, a short ramp led up to a colossal, towering metallic archway with huge wires jutting out from it, connecting into ever larger outlets in the walls of the containment unit.
"Doctor, I'm well aware that this part of the project has been completed, it has been for months. What I want to know, is have you got it to work yet?"
"Well Captain, if you stick around for a while, I may well have an answer for you. Wonderful isn't it, here we are standing in front of what will soon be the biggest technological achievement mankind has ever seen to date. The best part? It's my own creation!"
"Doctor, you have been trying to get this thing to work for how long now? What makes you think today is the day you will finally be able to open a hole in the universe's space time continuum or whatever the hell you want to call it. Furthermore, what if on the other side all that we can find is just empty space, or worse, end up on some godforsaken death planet full of hostile species that end up invading and subjugating Earth?"
"Well, isn't that what the military's function is? To defend this country against all threats, foreign and domestic? Nonetheless, I'm sure it won't come to that. It is calibrated to open up the portal in an alternate universe, in a habitable planet just like our own Earth.
You really think we'd have as much money thrown at us if the plan wasn't to open up a whole damned planet up for exploration, and later, colonization?"
"Hah, who would have thought that us Americans would be the ones to explore and colonize 'The new world'. " Captain Banks chuckled.
"Indeed, nonetheless all possible precautions will be taken when we do eventually get to the other side. Don't worry, you should be able to see very soon. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to work. I suggest you head up to the observation deck and wait. I'm quite sure you won't want to miss this, Captain."
"If you say so…" the Captain said as he began to follow Doctor Anderson out of the containment unit, it's blast doors closing behind them.
"Best of luck then Doctor, I'll be waiting." Captain Banks assented, and then started towards the observation deck, leaving the small army of scientists and others behind him.
Author's Note:
First off, it's pretty much my first time doing anything like this.
This has been a bit of a slow going start to it all, but I can assure you things will certainly get more interesting as we go along. I don't want to spoil anything for the time being but I do want to get a couple of things out of the way.
This chapter takes place in an alternate reality to that of Darling in the Franxx, there are no Franxx, no APE, and most certainly no Klaxosaurs. It is, (for the most part) our own world, just a couple years into the future.
Now we get to the part where I'm conflicted. Should there, or should there not be a language barrier between the inhabitants of this world, and that of Darling in the Franxx?
Obviously in the series they are all speaking Japanese, but in my own personal opinion I think that is simply because it is a series made in Japan, by Japanese people, for a Japanese audience, it wouldn't make sense to have them do otherwise.
Assuming the world came together under the flag of APE, nationalities and other languages no longer exist, wouldn't it make sense for English to be the global language of choice, especially given the fact that it basically already is in our world?
I mean, it wouldn't be a huge issue for there to be a language barrier, as it could quite easily be overcome by translators, as well as anybody else who knows Japanese. (Which could be quite a few, given how many US Military personnel get stationed in Japan.)
I'd love to hear your opinions on that, as well as anything else you might want to say, or suggest about the story thus far. ( As well as any major grammatical or spelling errors I may have missed)
Also, don't worry. Zero Two and the rest of the crew will be featuring in this story quite heavily. Although that likely won't be for another Chapter or so.
Finally, with regards to the international response to something like this if information about it were to leak. Don't worry, in due time we'll see about that.
Buckle yourselves up, this is going to be quite the ride.
Signing off,
Walther
