Kremlin Building

Moscow, Russia, USSR

December 17th, 1974

A man was walking through a snow-covered street. He was accompanied by an array of tanks that belonged to the military. He was dressed in a highly decorated military uniform, he had short brown hair and glasses. As he approached the podium in front of the building, his aide went up and made the introduction.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he said in Russian "Major General Deniska Fedorov."

As Fedorov walked to the podium, a band and choir was performing the Soviet anthem and other soldiers of the Red Army lined up on his side. When the band stopped, Fedorov gave his speech in front of an immense crowd.

"Good Morning, fellow nations." he spoke in Russian "The Cold War is over. A new discovery has been made in the field of computer science by myself. Grace Hopper herself couldn't comprehend this new discovery: A universe hidden within our very own; hidden in the computer itself."

"You're crazy!" A German man shouted

"I assure you I have every reason to believe that this is based on pure fact." Fedorov stated "I come here today to propose a new project to be made by not only the Soviet Union, but the entire Warsaw Pact. The mission? Build our own virtual universe using supercomputer technology and make it habitable. Once we successfully accomplish this mission, the United States and NATO will have no choice but to admit our superiority. On this day, Project Carthage is born! Carthage Must Be Reborn!"

Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd, the German man who had called Fedorov crazy still felt a bit uneasy. He had been one of the top scientists chosen for the project. Fedorov's aides ordered the scientist that were called to be lined up and separated by country. In the East Germany line stood four scientists lined up in alphabetical order by last name; the first one approached Fedorov's aide.

"Name?" the aide stated

"Ackley, Patrick." he said

He was given a package and he walked out of the line.

"Name?" he said to the next person.

"Ackley, Thomas." he said

He was also given a package

"Name?" he said to the next person.

"Noel, Benjamin." he said

He, too, was given a package. Finally, there was one person left in East Germany line, the one who made the derogatory remark towards Major General Fedorov.

"Name?"

"Schaeffer, Waldo." he said

"Hmmm..." the aide said "It says here you were chosen to lead the East Germany division."

"That's correct, sir." Waldo said

"Then take this." he said handing him a plane ticket "You're being relocated to Switzerland where you'll have no communication with the outside world except for your fellow scientists."

"Switzerland?" Waldo said

"Neither side will suspect anything if your base of operations is in neutral territory. So far, only select members of the Soviet government is aware of this. Lenoid Brezhnev himself doesn't know this project exists."

"Okay then." Waldo said hesitantly "Anything to help my family."

Waldo and the other East Germany scientists then went inside the Kremlin Building to get their picture taken with the Soviet Union, including Deniska Fedorov, and Poland divisions, who, along with East Germany were the leading nations involved in the project. Fedorov and the other Soviet scientists were seated at the center, the Poles were to the right of the cameraman, and the East Germans were to the left. When the picture was taken, the scientists then went back to their respective countries. Project Carthage was born.

I bet you're getting tired of these "past stories", right? Well, there's only a few more, especially one revolving around Anthony Schaeffer which I'm dying to get started on. But after this chapter, like every other "past story" it'll be back to the main storyline. Thanks so much to those who have reviewed, I promise it'll get better after this next chapter.

Also to answer Solar the dragon, read Chapter 21. It's implied, but it does tell something. For those who are curious, the decision to kill off Odd wasn't a very easy decision, but when I first came up with this, I couldn't find any use for him, so I just decided to write him out altogether to make it easier for me. Besides, all famous people meet a tragic end sooner or later. I hope you all understand and I don't want to see any hate mail about how I killed off everyone's favorite character (jk).

Wow, I wrote a lot.