Fallen Empire
Waking up at three in the morning is never good for anyone who wants to be healthy. Going to bed at midnight gave me three hours to sleep and this combined with the amount of stress and pressure I was under right now made me feel like complete crap.
I yawned rather loudly and sat up and dusted myself down before moving to the bathroom, carefully stepping over paper and files to have a quick shower before my day of intense shouting at people and trying very hard to organize one hundred thousand workers of a highly scientific and advanced project devoted to saving my race.
I swiped my card on the door to the High Overseer's office and entered quietly through the door. The High Overseer was a tall old grey Alicorn with a whitening grey mane, powerful having served half his life in the military and pretty much the rest in politics he was the sole funder of this project and probably the only Alicorn other than me who probably hadn't slept well in months.
He was talking with two other Alicorn, by the looks of them newbies fresh from the recruitment offices. They both looked to be scientists and were quite obviously nervous and were not ashamed to hide it probably meaning that they were scientists. The way they held themselves also, their composure not tense but firm and focused also their eyes looked like that of a really smart Alicorn but one of them who wore glasses tried to look trendy by wearing some small loose fitting ones but it didn't really hide it.
"Ah, this is the very Alicorn I was just talking about the good Doctor Hearthfire, the very Alicorn who has kept the project on track so long and enabled us to build so fast with his… interesting ways of managing our workforce and inspiring our scientists much like yourself to work faster" said the High Overseer with a twinkle in his eye as he looked at me as a Father would a son.
Some may have blushed but I was too tired to actually show any emotional response except a small smile. That and also the fact that he'd said the exact same thing to every newbie to the project when I came through the door every day at exactly three fifteen.
"I wouldn't say I'm the only one High Overseer but I suppose I help a lot in the organization of the project" I said as I strolled over to his personal coffee machine and made myself a cup whilst the High Overseer went over the normal briefing that he went over with every new Alicorn which came into the projects folds.
"As you may or may not be aware from the speculation above ground our little bunker here is going to be the future of the Alicorn race and you two are going to be a part of it" began the High Overseer as my coffee finally finished and I took a sip. "Although many believe that we are crazy and that the plague above ground will simply blow off and everything will go back to normal as the government says I beg to differ as do the thousands of workers and scientists stationed here to solve our problem" said the High Overseer with such certainty in his voice that he would have made a believer out any normal Alicorn on the street.
"Sorry sir but although we have heard rumours about you planning towards the case that the virus kills everything topside we don't actually know what it is you are building and why you need us" asked the scientist with the glasses.
The High Overseer was about to answer but I cut in this time saying "Since this virus is smarter than anything we've dealt with before it cannot simply be cured it just mutates and goes on killing, since we all know that it targets the brain cells, slowly killing off cells until the Alicorn is left a vegetable who needs help to breathing then it's been pretty easy to detect since usually memory is the first to fail, then creativity, speech and so on until not even basic instinct remains".
"Precisely why we are working on a better solution to the problem which is to completely wipe out the virus using the most efficient killer to ever walk the Earth" said the High Overseer, taking back the conversation and the attention of the two young scientists. "Time… this baby sure can do a fine job of killing every living thing which is why we are going to outlive the virus so that it dies with time and then we remerge into the world and rebuild".
They both looked quite surprised by his answer and the other now asked in a ludicrous tone "how do you possibly hope to outlive a virus that could last for thousands of years"? "That my dear friends are easy, all we need to do is sleep through it and then we will wake up to a brighter tomorrow" replied the High Overseer.
The scientists looked at each other with confused expressions written on their faces and I explained "basically we're all working on building sleeper pods so that we all just go into them stay in stasis for a thousand years or so before above sensors detect that no virus is present and we restart the world".
"Not only that but this time we do it all right, no wars or cruelty, crime everything we have done over the past thousand years we erase and restart" "in a way this is a blessing from the highest authority" said the High Overseer.
"Which is why we need you two working on our advanced fuel cells wing, powering life pods to sustain thousands of Alicorn is going to drain fuel quickly so my PA will soon arrive and take you to your wing where your supervisor will further brief you and assign a task for you so until then are there any other questions you need" asked the High Overseer.
They of course near on fell off their chairs with questions involving everything from what shampoo the High Overseer used to the exact layout of the base.
After what seemed like an eternity and another five cups of coffee seeming to simply disappear as I waited the Scientists finally left with their clipboards tucked under their wings and discussing something about lighting problems.
"I thought they'd never want to leave" the High Overseer said, sighing and collapsing into his chair. I sat down in the recently vacated seat facing him and pulled a report file from my saddle bag and handed it to him.
It was general stuff like how the project was doing and recent small taxing problems but I didn't expect the reaction to be one of concern.
"What's wrong sir, did I miss something in the report" I asked him, leaning over the desk to get a better look at my file. "No it's not that Hearthfire it's just time…" sighed the High Overseer, throwing the report onto a pile on his desk the size of a mountain. "No it's not that my friend as always your reports are lawless and informative on our Project it's just that no matter how fast we try to work every day I'm hearing word of an infected worker or a scientist found drooling in his room from the Virus it makes me somewhat depressed…".
I frowned and looked up at the High Overseer "but you told everyone that we are making terrific progress". "Yes but it's not fast enough, it'll be a further two years until this base is fully operational with the resources and power to keep one hundred thousand Alicorn breathing for a few centuries and quite frankly I don't know if I will live to see next week".
I sat up in my chair and held my hoof out to The High Overseer all the time thinking why he would so suddenly be worried about death. "You're not that old sir and the small outbreaks have been successfully contained and controlled, work is going well and hopefully I can bring the numbers down to about a year and a half but you should take it easy for a few weeks while I handle your affairs for you" I offered.
"Heck son I didn't ask for you to go relieving my load I just think I might have too many miles on my clock to count" he said, picking up some reports with his magic and filing them to one side. He next opened his desk and took out his gun; quite a marvellous piece of engineering which he once told me was given to him upon his leaving of the Military after seventy years of service.
He proceeded to strip and clean his weapon while explaining to me "son, this gun has 9mm bullets and seventeen shots, it was fired once in my life and it was at my cheating wife's lover who was lucky enough my eye sight has deteriorated over the years and I caught him in the leg but if anything ever goes wrong and you need to kill someone, or yourself then just come on in".
"Don't worry sir, life is far too sweet for me to kill myself, besides I scored 70% on my marksmanship exam so I won't be killing anyone anytime soon" I told him as I used my magic to check my PDA and see what great tasks I had to do today besides helping create the only hope for us all to not become drooling, mindless beasts.
"Well son, alternatively there is a bottle of scotch in the fridge so you ever feel like drinking any problems away knock yourself out" said the High Overseer as he pulled a flask out of nowhere and took a sharp drink before returning to his gun.
I stood up and respectfully bowed my head to him before I walked out of his office and down the hallway to my office which was similar in size and also stacked full of papers for various things.
Just as I reached the door Dr Fahrenheit who worked in the office adjacent to mine was leaving. He was a very sly looking Alicorn with completely black eyes and a mane the colour of a very pale moon which just added to his aura of creepiness.
Fahrenheit never had really liked me because of my position and since I was the best Magician on site and one of the leading Doctor's in the world of Magical Sciences. "I see you've been talking with the High Overseer again" he mentioned as he input his locking code for his office.
I sighed as I put my code in and replied "Yes Fahrenheit I have just like every single day for the past two years I have and for the past two years you've said the exact same thing"!
He sniffed and held his head up looking at me for a few brief moments before strolling coolly away from me and more than likely going to find a place where he could complain or shout at someone.
I shook my head as I entered my office and threw my saddle bag onto the floor beside a dozen stacked up filing cabinets. I went over to my desk and brought up my holographic imager. It was an incredible invention derived originally from an ancient Alicorn device called a computer and it used a combination of magic and electricity to focus lights particles into structured shapes which the user could create.
Currently it had a long line of Algorithms and equations for a piece of magic which I was attempting to create. It was a small side project of mine which I did to unwind from it all when things got really tense.
Normally writing magic could be done easily enough but this piece of magic was probably one of the most complex spells ever to be created. I moved a couple of things around whilst I deleted other before flicking out of everything and closing the holographic imager and reaching across my desk to start signing off a few hundred supply orders and transfer requests.
My office wasn't dark but it was very cramped due to all the paper in it and smelled strongly of glue and mouldy cardboard which made it unpleasant to work in. However it was truly the only place I felt relaxed besides my bedroom.
Time passed quickly as I signed papers and faxed them away to another department and so on until it became nine o'clock in the morning and the morning workers finally changed shifts with the now tired night workers and brought with them new energy and more problems.
I got up and levitated over a few more files to add to some random pile before I exited my office and went for my check around the facility for problems and hopefully solutions to already on-going problems (not that I figured there'd be any).
Walking along the blank and dull white walled corridors of the Facility (it's actual name since no one actually had any idea what to name it) I realized that this was probably the worst day of my life so far.
Not that anything terrible had happened besides the reported deaths of about two more workers but the complete repetition and boringness of everything was really beginning to take effect on my psyche and I wasn't liking it one bit.
I couldn't actually remember the last time I'd laughed of my own accord and not because the conversation required a polite laugh or the last time when I'd sat down with a bottle of wine and got so drunk that I couldn't remember the primary laughs of Magic when I woke up the next morning.
I didn't work out much and this made my wings very weak since I didn't have space to use them indoors and although I wasn't fat (probably due to my work keeping me preoccupied) I was out of shape from my younger self who could probably turn back time twenty years whilst balancing a large cake on his head while doing a hoof stand.
I made space as two security guards clad in Black Protective Armour with their riot masks on went past me. I didn't think this was funny until I realised we weren't actually having a riot and spun round to see the barrel of a gun being levitated and pointing straight into my eyeball.
"Ok you are going to follow exactly what we tell you or you are going to have a very short life-span are we clear?" asked the unidentifiable obviously male Alicorn.
I looked at them bot through their tinted black helmets and then at the pistol pointing at my head and nodded solemnly, too afraid to actually talk or do anything.
They pushed the gun into my right side, keeping it to the rights side of the wall as we walked down the corridor back the way I'd came passing a few other Alicorn on our way there but I could never signal to them that something was ahoof.
Damn it this shit is not what I need right now, I told myself as I was escorted to spirits knows where by these two goons who I guessed must have been some kind of Freedom Fighters or Terrorists from the topside world. The Project had many of these haters who were either jealous or believed that the Spirits would save us all and so tried either peacefully or in this case violently to stop us or delay our research.
"Listen I don't know what it is you're after here but I would strongly suggest that you drop your weapons and come quietly and I promise you won't go before a firing squad" I said but for my efforts all I got was the butt of the pistol slammed into my head.
"Shut up, you're little project will fail all we're trying to do is make sure it fails faster so that everyone can follow the Spirits plans and accept that death is what is being given to us, we should have known that all the death and killing in the world would eventually lead to the Spirits taking vengeance on everyone!" said the imposter behind the guard who had his gun against me.
I'd have liked to have pointed out that they threatened to kill me but held my tongue since the situation was very delicate and I really preferred my lab coat to not get covered in my own blood.
After about ten minutes of walking through corridors we came to the Power house where a guard was standing to attention and looking suspiciously towards us.
"Dr Hearthfire is there something you require?" asked the guard. "Yes soldier, I require you to take a long break, go have some coffee, heck take the whole day off these men will cover for you" I ordered trying to get him out of the way before the two terrorists did something rash.
My efforts seemed fruitless however because as he began to stroll away the terrorist behind grabbed the guards neck and promptly snapped it before he could do anything. "What the buck did you do that for, he was leaving!" I yelled angrily at them both.
"He was a traitor to the Alicorn race and didn't deserve to live" said the terrorist who'd just killed the guard casually said.
I could only stare as I prayed that someone had recognised something was up from the hallways and alerted the nearest security patrol. My prayers were interrupted however when I was jerked forward towards the Power House doors where I was told viciously "Open the door"!
"Listen you two idiotic assholes, maybe you have the brains to sneak into the building but that's as far as it goes I'm not going to open this damn door no matter what you do to me so you'd best start formulating a new plan.
"Oh don't worry we don't have to tell you to open the door just ask" said the terrorist to my right. "What do you…" but I was cut-off mid-sentence when other guy grabbed me and held my mouth open whilst the other threw some pills down my throat. I tried to spit them out but it was too late and suddenly my sense of perspective began to get very fuzzy.
"Dr Hearthfire, please open the door to the Power House with your code please?" asked someone I didn't really know who ever so kindly. Dumbly I stepped woozily forward and fumbled as I opened the Power House. "Thank you Doctor" said the really polite voice.
Suddenly I was being pushed forwards really slowly, as if everything was in slow motion until I was at another control panel except a more complicated looking one. "Now please open the nuclear reactor doors Dr If you would be so kind?" came the voice again and once again I complied putting in the code.
"Thanks a bunch doc" said another voice, this one sounded very annoying and I didn't like it as much as the kind voice. I felt a little sick suddenly as reality came rushing back to me and suddenly I saw the two Terrorists in the main reactor which was below me.
I looked around and realised I was in a glass control room and saw desks where dead Alicorn littered the floor and a blinking Red light as well as some blast locked doors. I looked down at the two again and saw wires and cables all around them. They were setting bombs by the looks of it and by the look of it there bodies were dying quite quickly as their cells were destroyed by waves of radiation.
I realized this by the time my full sense of reality came back and suddenly I could hear the sirens and the radio on one of the control panels bleeping. I quickly ran over to it and pushing a dead body off it I opened up a com link and listened in. "…Base please evacuate the base all security teams are to evacuate the base there is a possibility of a nuclear explosion imminent which will destroy the entire facility" came the High Overseer's voice from the com channel.
I picked up a nearby mike and shouted "High Overseer it's me, do you know what happened"? "Damned if I know, I tried calling your PDA but you didn't answer, Security Team 5 found a dead guard to the Power House and the Control room doors blast door shut so we assume that some unknown force is trying to blow the reactors" he said hurriedly.
"I'm sorry sir it's all my fault, I was passing on my routine check-up and two unknown Personnel took me hostage and drugged me to open the security doors now I can see them from the control room, they're trying to blow the reactor like you said and it looks like they're getting close".
"Damn it, ok this is what you need to do, from the control room you can activate Jettison Protocol and jettison all the Uranium rods into a stored led container that will make sure the base isn't destroyed at least" said the High Overseer grimness evident in his voice.
"But sir the Project will fail without necessary power, we don't have the resources to retrieve the rods or get any more from topside" I said panicking as I didn't know what to do. "Damn it Hearthfire just do it or you and the rest of this facility will die, we'll find another way to power the pods!" he shouted before he hung up.
"Crap!" I shouted, flinging the microphone across the room. I felt terrible from the drugs affect but the combined stress made it viable for me to burst a pulsating vein on my head. I sighed and tried to calm down but I couldn't I'd worked so hard on this project and now two guys thought they could tear it all down.
"Fine" I said to myself "but you won't take everyone with the project". I got over to the Power House Commander's desk and brought up his holographic imager. I logged into it and began tapping random things across the light screen until the Protocol which I really didn't want to use was staring right in front of me.
"Ok" was all I said as I pressed the button and listened as the entire control panel was silent for a moment, then the Fuel rods all at once were jettisoned deep down into a lead holding dump where they would be contained for millions of years, probably polluting the soils as the gamma rays leaked out over time.
I ran back to the main control room and looked down at the two terrorists who watched as the lights began to dim and flicker and suddenly a robotic female voice sounded throughout the facility "Main Power has been disabled, emergency power activated".
The two looked at each other and then looked up at the control tower and me, rage seemed to be etched all over their posture since I couldn't see their faces and they despite being unable to blow up the entire facility clicked the button on their chests and brain registered that they probably wanted to blow me up before a gigantic explosion ripped apart the once inhabited Nuclear Reactor and came towards me.
I had ample time to dive behind cover, possibly this would have increased my chances of survival but I didn't want to, they had won in the end, the project was over they had destroyed the hopes and the dreams of many thousands and I didn't want to be held responsible for my part which I so stupidly played in it.
I with all my degrees in science and magic, with all my power couldn't stop two suicidal musclemen when they pointed a gun at me. Frankly as the explosion hurtled towards me I was a bit relieved, at least before the glass exploded and sent me flying back against the wall…
I didn't know if I was still alive but since I couldn't feel anything I assumed not and wondered if I was right and that the Spirits didn't exist and that only darkness came after death. However my brain (at least I thought It was) began to argue with itself as my vision began to turn red and I was convinced this was definitely the underworld.
I was further convinced when a burly figure began to materialise, probably a demon sent to torture me. However the demon soon materialised into the High Overseer and the red began flickering and I realised that I was being carried on a stretcher by two guards whilst sirens and other warning systems blared throughout the facility.
The High Overseer was irate and looked really worried, it tried to move or speak but pain exploded every time I tried, breathing even hurt so I simply kept one eye cracked slightly open.
The High Overseer noticed I had reached some form of consciousness and spoke quickly "listen Hearthfire, for one so young you are old and wise in mentality and I liked that the first time you came to the project when it was in early days". "I never really talk of my past but I had a son once, before the plague took him and you remind me of him his strong moral sense and his ability to sum people up at a glance however peculiar you may be, so please don't think of this as the foolishness of an old man when you wake up" he said.
I couldn't quite understand what he was talking about but suddenly I was being lifted out of the stretcher by unknown arms and carried painfully into a really soft place, like a bed but more only mattress.
Suddenly I felt wires begin to hook up to my body and then an injection being given to me. I thought they were trying to fix me up but suddenly everything began to move and the last thing I saw was the High Overseer's face before a piece of black metal covered my view and I realised this was a sleeper pod.
I tried to think what the hell I was doing in one but then the world turned to blue as my body was frozen in time.
I began to remember something then and there I was….
I was ten and all the smartass who would outwit the school bullies and lead the fake conquests to fabled lands of old with my gang of friends at my back and an arrogant swagger to propel myself forward. I had a bright Red mane and an equally bright red coat which lacked the sheen I was told my mane could carry but my eyes were a deep brown I was told, like my Father's.
It was a normal Monday and it was lunch so our imaginations went with and we did a bunch of stuff like air tag or who can lift the biggest rock with their magic. However we were playing hide and seek and I was seeking and as usual everyone had opted to most likely hide in a cloud so I decided it would be funny to leave them up there and teach them a lesson.
So instead I went for a walk around the school yard, checking out the other groups of Alicorn and everyone who went by until I was on a fly ball court all alone and really bored and decided that I should go find my friends.
However I suddenly heard shouts of protest and opted instead to check out what was happening at the end of the court. I flew over to the origin of the shouts and that's when I saw a green filly with a light green mane about the same age as me irate and flying to and fro as three bulky Alicorn threw her bag around and taunted her.
"Look at the little filly, she wants her bag" said a fat orange one. "Well she doesn't want it that badly I mean she's barely trying" said a thin and sick looking thin one. She's just a pathetic little girl who can't do anything right said a powerful black colt who showed off his dazzling white smile as he flew circles around her.
I thought briefly if I should just turn away and ignore them but a sense of moral code which I even possessed then told me that I should really do something so I stepped up.
"Hi there guys, looks like you're having a fun game of catch there" I said revealing myself for the first time and making them all look round in surprise. "What, where the heck did you come from" said the fat one. "Oh nowhere in particular I just came this way to warn any unsuspecting bullies that some teachers are heading this way" I said brushing some dirt off my shoulder coolly.
"T-Teachers?" questioned the skinny one in a panicked tone. "Yes about five I'd say so how about we give the girl her bag back and get out of here before we all get caught" I said pretending to be on their side.
Fat guy and skinny looked like they would comply but the strong looking black colt was too sly, "Oh I know you, you're that smartass who got moved up a class cause he's better than his age group" he said taking a step towards me and dropping the filly's bag.
"Oh and your that guy who got sent back a few years with your pals because you couldn't spell Cat properly without copying from the guy next to you" I said giving a reasonably good comeback. "Hey cat is a hard word to spell" said the fat colt stupidly before his sickly friend punched him in the gut.
"That's it, guys let's get this punk" said the leader and so they charged…