Time Lapse

Prologue

It was the final stretch, the resistance threw everything they had at this operation. Millions of fighters and thousands of tanks and aircraft all to take or at least get this one Lieutenant to the station. Lieutenant Matthew Wicker of the 3rd resistance army, he was the one that volunteered to attempt this suicide mission. Operation Time Lapse. The goal of the mission was to infiltrate the New World Soviet Union's experimental labs in order to use the prototype time machine that the Soviets had created in order to go back and ensure the rebellion victory in this blood curdling, never-ending war.

It's the final dash. All of his training lead to this moment. Wicker's Otokar Cobra will blow through the wall of the research facility and the first phase of his mission will be complete. Suddenly a blinding flash and the Union troops blew the wall out themselves. They destroyed the incoming Cobra and began firing on the lieutenant's platoon killing or wounding half them. Wicker then takes the survivors to the wreck.

"This is it, men! The final push! Stay here, and lay down cover fire, Sergeant Janco! As soon as I get to the target building call a full retreat!" he yelled.

Wicker rose from the wrecked tank as a volley of gunshots were fired from his fellow comrades as if it were fire from the heavens. Using the last of his ammunition to get inside the research center, he jumps through the massive hole and gets cover under a pile of rubble.

The sounds of gunfire are muffled as Union soldiers sprinted past him. He heard the call for retreat and the gunfire moving farther and farther away. The Union soldiers continue to sprint past Wicker towards the rebels as he waits in silence. He continues through the facility knowing he is now on his own and the fate of the world rest on his shoulders. He knew it wouldn't take long for the union to find the last resistance strongholds with the ungodly amount of airships and land cruisers scrambling back to allied forces. However, this mission is more than any sabotage or camp liberation he's ever done. This specific operation is very personal.

The commotion had stopped. The Union forces were either all outside or starting to settle down and celebrate their victory. Wicker grabbed a blue canister at the side of his pistol belt, pulled the pin, and rolled out the can slowly to the middle of the room as he slid his gas mask on over his helmet.

The unsuspecting soldiers didn't notice the canister until it was too late. Some were more resilient than others, but everyone else fell to the floor within a few seconds. He got up from his position and slit the throats of each of the Union soldiers.

"From here it should be a cakewalk", Wicker said, as he walked through the doorway.

The walls were starch white and brightly lit along the hallway to the center chamber. The few guards that were left roaming the halls, were easy enough to pick off with the silenced Kalashnikov he had picked up from a fallen enemy.

As he advanced to the center chamber where the alleged time machine was kept, there were fewer soldiers and more doctors and scientists that emerged from the rubble and smoke of the caved in ceiling. The lieutenant grabbed one of the scientists by the coat and held the silencer up to his jawbone.

"Make a single noise and I will paint your brains onto the walls." 

Without a word, the scientist rattled his head and whimpered in response.

"Now show me where the machine is or else you and all of your buddies here are going to look like a big bloody accident."

Wicker shoved the scrawny scientist forward and pressed the rifle into the back of his neck as the man walked forward into the maze of a laboratory. As he walked past other scientists, they began to cower back into small hiding holes. The glass walls, marble floor, and rubble were covered in more and more blood the farther they went into the laboratory.

Finally, the two had reached a massive steel door with protective sensor arrays and massive heavy duty walls and an extremely high tech retina scanner installed directly next to the door. Wicker shoved the scientist's face into the scanner and forced him to say the code phrase.

"Все приветствуют своего лидера."

The giant steel door opened up with a loud click and Wicker walked into the room in awe. The scientist bolted for the exit and without a moment of hesitation, Wicker wheeled around and placed a 7.62 round directly in the base of the scientist's skull, splattering his brains onto the wall next to him. Just as promised.

Wicker pulled a red canister from his pistol belt, pulled the pin, and threw it down the hall far from him as he closed the door. The gas in the canister would spread throughout the entire facility and a few miles in each direction wiping the memory of everyone it touched of the past 48 hours.

Wicker turned around and behind a massive glass wall, there was a massive steel egg-shaped chamber with tubes and wires sticking out of it everywhere. The machine of legends. The time machine itself was a lot less exciting than everyone let on to be, but it was a time machine nonetheless. This time machine, according to rebel intelligence is up and functional, it is still only a prototype.

As Wicker approached the machine, his heart began to beat harder and faster as if it were emitting an extremely strong electric pulse.  The machine's control panels have a green antique glow from underneath its keys and buttons and the screens have lines of confusing code scrolling through them. Luckily, right next to the door, there was a small panel that Wicker could easily understand. The control panel had a dial that could scroll through minutes, hours, days, months, and years. He scrolled the dial back until a critical year of the war where the rebellion had almost won. August 1st, 2059. The rebellion was at it's strongest point and the Union was at a critical level. We had just invaded their capital and had almost killed their leader, but there was a leak in the operation and the target was a decoy.
Wicker stepped into the machine and closed the door. After pressing "enter" on the keyboard inside the machine, there was a loud whirring noise and a flash of bright light on the inside of the machine. Next thing he knew Wicker had passed out in the machine and hit the ground with a thud...