Date: 1/9/16...

Time: 5:59 am… CORRECTION… 6:00 am...

Location: Loading… Loading… Loading… CLASSIFIED...

“A Bright Writer once said...

A world with no limits cannot see itself fall, a world with limits, can watch itself fall.”

Sitting at my desk in the office, my finger taps upon the keyboard on a empty e-mail screen. I was waiting for a e-mail for my orders on what to do next about a certain project that must be nameless for the time being. The blinds of the room were closed keeping the sunlight from coming in, but the rest of the room was dark but somewhat lit with the help of my computer screen. My eyes were heavy with fatigue as I was closing in on my 20 hour awake waiting for my screen to flash with the news from the test chamber. My head rested upon my hand that was balled in a fist with my elbow resting on the computer table.

All though it wasn't a pillow, it was still comfy, so I soon find myself falling asleep. But, of course I couldn’t, for a knocking came at my office door. Lifting my head up putting down my hand, I shake myself awake and try to look at attention. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and look to the door on the other end of my room.

“Who is it?” I said trying to sound like I normally do, not sleepy.

“Lieutenant Colonel John Silversmith sir, may I come in sir, I have word on the E.L.P.” Came the voice on the other end of the wall. Hearing his voice, I turned on my desk lamp and stood up out of my seat and rested my hand on the desk in front of me.

“Okay, come on in.” The door knob turns and slowly opens revealing a man dressed in his Army BDU with a Lt. Col. Badge on his chest that shines off the light of the hallway. He’s holding a light brown folder that seems to be bursting at the edges with papers and paper clips. On the front of the folder said, “TOP SECRET” in big red bold letters.

“Thank you sir, can’t really talk to you outside now can I?”

“No, I don’t believe you can, you know you could have just sent me an email, I have been up for, what feels like an eternity.” Saying this I flop back into my office chair and rub my brows trying to stay awake, and a little bit in annoyance.

“Oh, sorry sir, I just thought a, more formal discussion should take place, you know, man to man.” I really wasn't in the mood but, I guess I would let him talk. I motion for him to come inside while I yawn for maybe the fifth time in under five minutes.  

“How are you holding up sir, well, minus the budget cuts to your division, and this news about your unit getting picked for this, off world relocation, and, a shit ton of other things, but, other than those, how are you feeling?” He walks in front of my desk and pulls up a chair.

“I’m tired, I look like shit, feel like shit, and probably smell like it too, what else is new?” I look up just in time to see him shrug his shoulders.

He sits in a chair, one of those green leather wooden arm rest chairs you might see a dentist office, you know the ones, coffee table next to them, magazines resting on top in a orderly fashion, yeah, those.

“So, that folder for me?” I ask pointing to the folder that he now has tucked under his left arm. He looks down and puts on a face like he forgot it was there,

“Oh, yes, sorry sir,” He takes it out of his armpit and rests it on the table behind my screen and slowly pushes it forward until it hits the stand. I put my hand under the screen and pick up the folder with my left hand. Course when I lift it up to read it, the text isn't there, so I assume that it’s upside down.

Seeing that, I flip it over, and fair enough, I was meet with the blood red text of the folder.

I smirk out of annoyance, ‘This was the last thing I need to be doing right now, I’m too tired for this.’ I think to myself.

“All of the info about project, is in this folder.” finally taking in the whole thing, the folder felt a lot heavier than I thought it would, witch, added to my stress. Ignoring his previous statement, I tore into the folder flipping it open and immediately began scanning over the pictures and documents of the E.L.P. Project.

It began to tell the story from the beginning...

It’s was 1988, a Wednesday in September. It was one of those, stereotypical, perfect type of days, no clouds, it was about 68 degrees out and the winds were blowing just right, to the point where, it wasn't too, strong, or too weak. The time was around four past nine o'clock in the morning when down at the N.A.S.A space station alarms were going off left and right like they didn’t care who heard them.

Apparently there was asteroid hurtling toward earth at an alarming rate. So, fast that it took nearly five hours to pinpoint the exact location where this rock was going to touch down. It was going to smash in a field in New Mexico. Luckily it wasn't in a crowded area, so it was going to be easy to extract once it hits. The problem was that it was going hit in about a week or so, and the area of touchdown wasn't near any bases as a matter of fact, the only base near it was a top secret research facility.

So seeing this, the government recruited a few scientists and asked for them to wait for the Asteroid to hit. The week went by faster than they intended and the rock finally hit.

They quickly went to work on the rock, cooling it, recording it, and extracting it.

    The rock was taken to the base and was held there until a discovery was made, more like accidentally made.

Upon dropping the asteroid off at the base. The truck that was moving it, made a rather quickly right turn to avoid hitting a low bearing beam and the straps holding the rock snapped and it tumbled of the bed and crashed down on the ground, breaking it in half. Luckily no one was hurt, but the discovery that was made was astounding. Inside the asteroid was an unknown crystal with a glowing property. It glowed blaze orange and it gave off a new kind of radiation wave that actually wasn't a hazard to human life.

It was called, “X-wave.”

After the rock was moved to a lab deep under ground within the facility did the real test  actually begin. And with the new Discovery of this, X-wave, scientists went to quick work producing equipment to monitor the crystals.

Upon doing so, the scientists began to see a pattern in the waves current, yes I said current. When the X-waves were emitted from the rock, they expanded for about about five feet, until, it turned upward and kept going until it expanded into space. This current was being monitored into space for ten years until 1998 when the wave stopped expanding and began focusing on a certain spot.

A planet.

Now everyone was excited, they have discovered a new planet, and the government wanted pictures. But, there was one problem, we couldn’t see it…

The planet couldn’t been seen by any of our telescopes. This was a problem because, if they couldn’t see it then, it might as well not be there, so, they did the next best option.

Send up a communications satellite. And that was exactly what they did, they instantly began constructing a satellite that could withstand the test of time. And two years later in 2000 it was finished and launched.

Then, silence. No one heard about the project for about 14 years. Not a sound was heard, the satellite stayed the course and was still in command. But, since the launch and some time after it, everything went quiet.

Until, the satellite changed course for the first time and began a orbit. A orbit around the Planet. Instantly scientists were called back to the labs and began running checks on the satellite.

And soon after that, after the satellite checked out okay, pictures of the planet came in. But, nobody could believe what they were seeing. The planet was an exact representation of earth, blue skies, white clouds, mountains, plains, deserts, forests, jungles, and sentient life.

These almost exact copies of our horses. except that they are a little smaller and a lot softer looking. And they, are, very, colorful...

Now these pictures were the only way they could classify this planet, as an Earth type planet.

So, the government took all this in and tried to formulate a plan. What were they going to do now? How are we going to get to that planet without prolonged interaction with space? How are we going to communicate with these new beings? They couldn’t reach an answer, and now even the public was becoming suspicious. They didn’t know about the project.  

This info was not available to the public eye, this whole project was shielded from viewing so no one could raise any questions, and it was very hard to do so because the scientists who work at the base, were going in and out, and what if something were to slip.

So, now the scientists live in the complex in a barracks type of living quarters that was thrown together by the military engineers.

Back to the problem, the government was out of answers, until they remembered the X-waves. They remembered how they rode the waves strait to the planet. So they got an idea.

By taking the crystals out of the asteroid and placing them in a ring that was suspended in air by cables and wires that held an electrical circuit. If it were applied with the right amount of electricity, it could amplify the amount of X-ways that were given off. If all went well, (Which it did,) the crystals would make a ring with their energy and the orange like outlining of the crystals disappear, and would give off a much brighter and stronger rainbow effect that, threw the blinding light would make a portal that could open and close in the duration of about five seconds.

With this new technology in their hands, they began construction on the real portal, as new soldiers from the United States Army began their training for the open world they were going to be crossing over to…

“And, here we are, finishing up the last stage of this portal,” I said looking up from the pictures and papers of the folder and backup to the officer who sit twiddling his thumbs, quietly humming, “Lieutenant?” I said as I watched him snap out of his waiting and look over to me.

“Yes sir?” He said standing up as I did as well. I handed him the folder, which he, again, stuffed under his arm.

“I know why you're here,” I said as I lowered down to a sticky note posted under my computer monitor, “Here ya go.”

“Uh, is this the, unit list sir?” He said taking it from my hand as the stickiness of the yellow slip of paper tugged off my finger. On the, “Unit List,” was a few bullets with info about what units that were going over to the other side.

It read,

Headquarters & Headquarters Company from 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

battalion commander, lieutenant colonel, James, T, Gullon

battalion executive officer, major, Thomas, K, Thenail  

personnel officer (S1), captain, David, J, Clomb

intelligence officer (S2), captain, Damian, H, Carter  

operations officer (S3), major, Sharlet, J, Barzara

logistics officer (S4), captain, Roger, D, Zedler

plans officer (S5), major, James, H, York

communications officer (S6), captain Jonny, T, Whitney

(Call em up, some my be on vacation.)

2nd Brigade Combat Team (Stryker) "Warriors"

1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment

1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment

1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment

225th Brigade Support Battalion

66th Engineer Company

556th Signal Company

TOTAL AMOUNT OF PERSONNEL: 4960 Soldiers ( Minus the HQ.)

It was a rather larger type of sticky note than many others.  He looked it over and after maybe and minute or so of reading, he stuck it to the folder and it jutted out like a feather on a fedora.

“Thank you sir, i'll have this page delivered to the deployment office ASAP, I won't forget it, I guess i’ll make it my top priority.” Saying this he turned around and began to walk for the door, but stopped half way and turned back around snapping his fingers,

“Oh, one more thing, stage three was pushed from next week, to today. A few more scientist have come in and slammed the production level into overdrive and finished preparing the portal. Head down to the test chamber whenever you suit up from now until, uhhhh, hold on,” Saying this he turned toward the mounted clock above my chair that I had on the right side of my office.

“12:00 this evening, alrighty?”

“Okay, thanks for letting me know, now get going, and I’ll see you around.” He turned around and opened the door of my office lighting up his badge again,

“Sir,” He said giving a salute, “Good luck.” I returned his salute,

“Thanks.” He shut the door as the room became dim again.

‘Okay, time to get serious.’ I thought. I moved over to a dresser on the far left side of my room.

I opened it revealing a brand new, Woodland Original army BDU, complete with Kevlar helmet, bullet proof vest, gloves with the fingertips cut off and the knuckles exposed, black boots, and belt with holster. The suit hung there like some sort of ghost as the steel hanger held the shirt and vest and the helmet rested on a shelf above it and everything else lay below it.

“Okay, lets do this.” I said to myself under my breath.

Upon suiting up and finishing off with my boots and belt I closed my dresser revealing a man sized mirror that was hammered into the left door. My suit fit like a glove, especially the  gloves. I turn to the side, sizing myself up checking for any imperfections, seeing none I returned to the front staring myself in the eyes. I quickly got into a resting position with my legs spread apart and hand behind my back. Then quickly I snapped my hand from my back and to my sides and re-positioned my left foot about a second later so that both feet were next to each other in a perfect stance of attention.

“Still got it in me.” I said laughing a bit. ‘I may be a old man compared to these soldiers, but I won’t go ahead and show it.” I moved away from the mirror and over to my desk. I opened up one the compartments and looked down to a shining silver beast.

A Colt M1911 custom made semi automatic pistol. It had a silver casing around it and the grip was black with a star where the screws held it in. I smiled as I picked it up. It felt empty, I slid the top back and pressed the release button, ‘Nothing,’ I thought. I reached down into the blackness of the compartment and came out with with three mags of 45. caliber rounds. I slid one into place and cocked the gun back as it loaded the first round into the barrel.

The sound of the click was the loudest thing I had heard in a while.

I slid the gun into the holster and placed the other two mags into a few cases behind the gun on my belt. I walked out of my office and locked the door and began the longest trip of all, the trip to the test chamber. I walked down the cold and unforgiving concrete corridor following a red line that read, “TEST CHAMBER” in big bold letters. It was a rather long journey to the chamber, I had to walk by so much stuff, Lab Areas, Housing, Military Testing, Coolant Systems, food courts (Which I got coffee from), and the main control facility.

But eventually I got to the main elevator that led down to the bottom floor, where the chamber was. I pushed the button on the control panel and saw that the elevator was on sub level -4 and was now on its way. So I waited. Some time went by as I found myself waiting with someone else. A security guard, who, after some conversation was also on his way to the chamber to switch out for a on guard officer.

His name was Barney, seemed like a nice guy. He said he found this place when he finished a tour over in Iraq and decided to keep his title of a protector and got this job.  

“Yeah, what can I say, when you do something for so long, it’s hard to break that urge to do the thing that you love.” He said looking at me.

“Then why didn’t you become a Police Officer?” I asked. He rolled his eyes at me and gave off a half snicker.

‘Please, give me a break, I want to protect something that's important, not just civilians. I mean look at this place, a secret base, now devoted to working on portals! Now that's pretty damn cool.” I had to admit he was right.

“So, you got any friends here?” I asked trying to some what change the subject for no reason.

“Well, yeah I got tons of friends back in the research department. As a matter of fact my buddies Gor-”

He was cut off by the elevators ping as the door opened revealing a red carpeted, wooden walled elevator. I saw my chance and walked in as did Barney. I pushed the bottom button, but hold my finger in as I remembered how this thing worked.

If you held your finger there, the button would scan your print and would see if you could actually go to this floor. Luckily It dinged green and the doors shut. The elevator started up and began it’s way down into the depths of the Earth. Besides the music coming from an overhead speaker, things got quiet between me and Barney.

“So, uh you were saying?” I asked after maybe five minutes just standing there listening to the most annoying music in the world. When Barney didn’t say anything I turned to where I thought he was standing. But when I didn’t see him I frantically began looking around the elevator car. But, there was no more Barney.

“Uh-huh… wait, what?” I was just trying to formulate an explanation of what just happened. But, before I could the elevator began slowing down to a stop. I tried to ignore the disappearance of the guard as I faced forward waiting for the doors to open up. When they did I was meet with a nearly dark concrete corridor with the same red line as before. Not knowing why half the lights in the corridor were off, I made my way down to the double doors at the end.

Upon opening them, my eyes were meet with the blinding light of a much brighter whiter room with over head ceiling lamps and white floor panels. A wall over to the right of me was mostly framed glass, bellow was about five mega computers that seemed to be hooked up to the wall, all with flashing buttons, levers, screens, and vents. To the left of me was a wall with dozens of complicated switches on them, along with more flashing buttons and screens, that I knew nothing about.

I walked forward as the doors behind me auto closed with a clicking sound. I kept walking forward until I saw something, or rather, someone. A scientist with a lab coat, black and red striped tie, tan khakis, brown dress shoes, and a blue undershirt. He had a clean shaved face that sported a pair of glasses. His plastic name card glinted the already bright lights of the room into a beam that nearly blinded me.

“Hey! Excuse me!” I said rather loudly, but not too loudly. The scientist looked up from what he was doing and looked over to me, his glasses lens were white as snow and nearly glowed.

“Oh! Is that you General?” Came the man, his voice sounded younger than mine, but not to old, maybe 21 or 29 around that age.

“Yes! It’s me, what with the lights?” I asked. Suddenly I heard a loud snapping sound  as the lights of the room died down to a normal setting as the lights that were off in the hallway came back on.

“Sorry General… the crystals were acting up and they screwed with the damn lighting systems. But I fixed it now.” I finally got a good look at him, now that his glasses weren't reflecting all the light in the room back at me. He had a green brownish eye color, bags had formed under his eyelids. I could tell he was tired, but he still was holding himself together so I guess he was going to be okay.

“It’s fine,” I said rubbing my eyes. “I didn’t go blind, yet.” I said moving closer to him.

He was knelt down next to a open control panel that had tons of dials and meters with red and blue wire that protruded out almost like veins. He got up, and closed the panel after stuffing the wires back in and locked it with a key.

“So, I assume the Lieutenant gave you the news? Isn’t it great? We can do the final project today, I mean, wow, this is really the first break in the project we’ve ever had in this project. And you know what the best part is? The government gave us the go ahead two hours ago.” He said walking over to the wall with the windows and computers, I followed. He grabbed the console of the center one and threw a huge red switch. On the other side of the wall of glass came dozens of clicking sound as overhead lights in the next room snapped to life as  they shone down upon the jewel of the operation.

The lights lit up the top arch of the portal, and as more lights came on, it shown more and more of the large room just on the other side of the windows. It was a very big concrete and metal framed room with ceiling vents that, when activated, would pump any and all fums in the chamber out to the surface.

On the right side was a huge metal garage door that on the other side was a elevator that connected to the military parking lot where all the military trucks stay ready to roll out. Under us, where we were standing was the lift that connected the lab to the chamber, I couldn't see it though, it was part of the wall that was connected to the windows where I stand now.

“Isn’t she magnificent?” The scientist says, marveling at the now fully lit room. I had to admit, this whole chamber, this project, even me staying here in the facility was magnificent. I’m not exaggerating when I say, this could be the most exciting thing I have ever done in my Military Career. Of course I don’t say that, I just say,

“Yes, it very much is, magnificent.” It was the least I could say.

After a little while of watching him round back and forth along the wall with computers, the doors on the far side of the lab opened up, revealing a group of scientists. All of them wore the same exact uniforms, except some hand hyper-microscope goggles that could strap onto their head and slide down over there eyes.

They walked forward and join the scientist at the computers that I, before now, found that his name is Jerry, I saw his name tag. They begin fiddling with switches, and levers, and buttons as they flash on and off, make beeping sounds, and typical other science crap.

“So,” Came another Scientist, “I assume, the troops are being contacted as we speak, if I am safe to say that?” I look over to him and began laying down what is going to be moving over to the other side so that they can prepare for the future, and not have it be a surprise. After I laid down the units, they began making adjustments to the portals mainframe.

“Thank you sir… I have just finished the final tweaks.” Came Jerry, his voice was slightly muffled for he was pressed up against the console typing.

“If you would like sir, you may relax for now, seeing how no units have arrived, and we haven’t opened the portal.” Came a much older looking scientist, maybe even older than me.

“Hey, thanks, ill be over here in this chair, if you need a extra hand with anything, I’m your man.” Saying this I turn around and roll over a wheeled office chair to a desk with a PC on top, that actually wasn't connect to the grid that ran to the portal. It was a stand alone computer.

So in the next ten minutes, I soon find myself playing solitaire going on my fifth game as I half watched the scientists and half played the game.

Time: 8:30 am…

“general… general…” I had nodded off for maybe an hour or so due to my exhaustion and the coffee earlier didn't help worth crap. I was asleep at the computer I had played solitaire at and someone was trying to wake me up. Lets just say they did…

“GENERAL!!!!!!!!” My eyes instantly shot open to the muffled light of the lab pressed under my forehead. I lifted up and found a man standing in front of me. A man in a Woodland Army BDU… with a Lieutenant Colonel badge presses on him chest, Silversmith…

“Ah, morning sir, glad to see you got some sleep…” He said with a smug face. I rubbed my eyes so that things could become clear again.

“Silversmith? Why are you here?” I ask…

“Didn't they tell you, I’m leading the troops over on the other side! Apparently they wanted to keep you here, since you're a much higher target and sent me in instead.”

“Who’s idea was that?” I said with a very obvious annoyed tone in my voice.

“The governments, sir.” He said now lowering his tone to a more serious tone.

“Uh-huh… figures.”

Next Chapter: Chapter #2 Estimated time remaining: 18 Minutes