The Wounded Knight

Prolog

I couldn't help but groan as I walked into my apartment. Caring heavy gear with me as I pushed the door open with a shoulder shove. It had been a long day of working private security alone in a guard shack with the sun beating down. Swearing these kinds of days makes me feel like I'm a pig that's being turned into a smoked ham. Especially when the company you work for keeps losing people left and right for various reasons. I honestly don't mind working overtime, but to have me stationed at one sight for an entire day was a pain in the ass. Burning; frying pan hot during the day, and then a silent night where you begin to question your own sanity. I set down my bag and armored the vest against a wall before wandering into the kitchen. Reaching into the fridge I instinctively pulled out a large bag of tereso and eggs that I had mixed with some potato's o'brien about three days ago. At this point, my body was automated to perform things without me thinking much about it. I made myself what I guess most would call breakfast since it was six in the morning and I haven't eaten yet.

After making a quick breakfast burrito I went to my room where I sat down at my desk. And began going through paperwork, honestly the twelve hour long shifts aren't what annoys me the most, it's the confusing paperwork that seems to really get me aggravated. Mostly because I keep coming across the same problems with time sheets. I've brought it up to the workers before but for some reason they still keep making the same mistakes. I mean their good guys but like with every human there's always a flaw. I had just finished the first layer of paperwork when a knock came to my door. Looking at the clock I noticed it was already seven in the morning. Though the leap in time wasn't what I focused on at the moment. What I was focusing on was the fact that I didn't have anything planned for this early today. It was my first day off in months and I wanted to rest and relax.

I pulled the spare pistol from the desk safe; and approached the door. I tried to keep myself calm as I walked up to it and looked through the peephole. What I saw on the other side wasn't all that surprising. It was a delivery guy holding a small box. Giving the delivery guy a quick look over I noticed both of his hands were busy holding what looked like a digital signing pad and the other holding the aforementioned box. I opened the door making sure to keep my pistol out of sight.

"Got a delivery here for Mr... O'Neal?" He said as he looked at me with a smile.

"I think you got the wrong address. I didn't order anything." I said as I stood in my doorway trying to be as polite as possible.

He looked down at the address on the box for a moment before reading it out loud.

"415 Olive Boulevard apartment 353?" He said, which seemed to surprise me a little.

I ended up taking the package and gave the delivery guy a thank you before going to look at it. When I opened the box I noticed it was a blank CD case with a non-titled disk inside. I honestly thought about throwing it away then and there. After all I wasn't much of a computer guy and for all I know the CD could be a virus. But... something in me just seemed curious about all this. I mean someone went to the trouble of sending me this; so it's either a scam or something else. I went and put the CD into my computer which was in my bedroom. Took me a minute to get the contents up and running. What appeared on the screen was a title card with the words 'Ages of War'. A cinematic began to play; first showing a man of middle age standing in a room that seemed to be the inside of a large machine. The man turns to look at the screen and gives a smile.

"Hello lucky little soul. You've been selected to journey beyond your world and experience that which you can't normally. My name is Mechanus, and I welcome you to my world. Please... do try to live your life as best you can." The video entry ends with the middle aged man giving a slight bow of his head.