'We are born the same, as humans, but we are raised differently from each other.'

***

12th September 2025, 2100 Hours. Libya. Africa Command Center of the Halifax Security and Defense Contractor.

Chaos. That was the word that perfectly described the command center of that private military company. Their commander, Lawrence Sharrington, was standing in the middle of that command center. He was the commander of the whole security contractor.

"Sir, the 14th cavalry has been wiped out by the US army!"

"Send the 12th Armor regiment!"

The screens on that command center were full of red lights and red blips. The commanding officers on that base were in chaos due to the sudden change of situation that was totally unexpected. Officers were running from one desk to another, commanding their troops that were in the area of operation.

Lawrence just looked at the sudden betrayal from the United States Military. He didn't expect that betrayal at all. They had been working along for six years. In short, the HSDC was caught with its pants down.

"Sir, our satellite detected a ballistic missile launch from the states!"

"Hmm, as I thought, we can't possibly win against the strongest military that has the ability to fight the whole world by itself. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it has been nice to be working with you," Lawrence saw the screen on the command center that showed that 50 ICBMs were launched at Africa.

"Sir, it's been an honor serving for you too," all of the commanding officers on that command center looked at Lawrence. They saluted at that man, all of them knew that they would die at that location. 

The screen showed that nuke was incoming, the US was really going to blow Libya to smithereens just to wipe out the upper command of the HSDC. The screen shows that the nuke would come in fifteen minutes.

The timer on the screen reduced slowly. From 15 minutes to 10 minutes, to 5 minutes and then to one minute. Everyone had taken off their officer cap from their head to pay the last respect for their commanding officer.

5

4

3

2

1...

As the timer hit 0, a blinding flash appeared in that room. The flash was so blinding that everyone couldn't see what was going on between them, but one thing for sure. They thought that they were dead. Yeah, they thought that they were dead, but they were wrong.

***

Lawrence Sharrington was the commander of the HDSC. He assumed the highest rank on that private military company in 2003. He was called a legendary mercenary thanks to his skill during the Yom-Kippur war, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Maintaining Freedom.

His most remarkable reputation was he taking a whole town under ISIL control all by himself. The only thing that he lost during that operation was his left eyes and his left hand. All of them had been replaced by a bionic version of it. Not stopping there, he had 60 confirmed kill on fighter jets. Well, he was a multipurpose mercenary after all. His last commanding officer was proud of him and promoted him to be the leader of HSDC after he passed away.

***

'My head, argh, what a strong headache,' Lawrence looked at the dark abyss. The abyss was so dark that he couldn't see anything. But after some grasp using his hand, he confirmed that he hadn't died yet. He and his commanding officers only had passed out.

Lawrence stood up and searched for a flashlight in that command center. He was sure that he was still in the command center since he could feel the warm screens on his hands.

'Find you! Damnit,' He took the flashlight from a table and pointed it on the surrounding of that command center. He looked around on that command center, nobody was there. The command center was empty.

'Where's everybody?' he looked around. His first instinct was to grab any weapon that was around, whether it was a pistol or a rifle. He found a pistol on one of the tables on that command center. He held the pistol on his right hand and the flashlight on his left hand.

'Am I alone? Or is this the start of my torture in hell?' Lawrence walked slowly to the room where there should be a supply for him. He headed for the biggest weapon storage on that command center, the armory. He walked there slowly in case he found anyone else on that dark command center. He opened the door of that armory as he aimed her pistol at that armory.

"Hello! Is anyone here?" Lawrence shouted as he entered the door of that armory. The armory was empty, it looked like everyone had their hands on their own weapon. The only equipment that was there was his. There was his ballistic vest+protectors, his weapon, and his ballistic helmet with an included headphone and quad lenses NVG.

He wore the ballistic vest that its magazine pockets had been filled with the same ammunition from seven years ago. It was expected since that was the last time that he operated in real-time.

'Is this tech going to work?' he grabbed his rifle that was placed in the armory with a tag. The tag was, "Touch this and you will be personally smoked by Sergeant Major."

It was his weapon, HK416A7 with 1-8x scope, a foregrip, a led combo, a suppressor, and a muzzle brake.

He put the new magazine on the mag well and charged the handle of the rifle. That rifle was still working. He walked out of that armory with his new equipment. He wanted to get out of that dark command center since it was empty and an empty dark building was never a good sign.

The door of that command center was opened and he ran to that door. He got out of the command center and immediately greeted by multiple fighter jets that were taking off from that base. He was confused until he saw the commanding officers were having a meeting outside of the command center. They were having a meeting on a foldable table that was placed in front of the command center.

Lawrence approached that table, "Sir, you're alive?"

"Yes, of course, I'm alive. So how's the situation?" Lawrence asked that commanding officer to not worry about him.

General Bychkov Dmitriy Vyacheslavovich answered him, "General, I believe we have been attacked by an EMP bomb."

"That will explain the sudden blackout. What happened to the other installations?" Lawrence asked

"Sir, I believe that it wasn't an EMP," Lieutenant General Sarah Beeren said.

"How so?"

"The equipment is dead, but they aren't dead per se," Sarah told him.

"What do you mean?"

"What General Sarah meant was that the electronic equipment on our base was shut down, not fried," Dimitri explained.

"I see. How about our troops? Did they survive the blast?" Lawrence asked.

"Well, that's another problem, sir. Our satellite link was repositioned, as a result, we lost contact with our troops," Sarah said.

"Repositioned? Were they hacked?"

"No sir, there's a sudden change on earth position that I personally can't understand sir, our engineers from the R&D team and Logistics are currently taking care of it," Sarah said.

"That's unexpected. Well, do you have any idea what's going on?" Lawrence asked.

"To be honest. No sir, this isn't an attack from an adversary. This is kinda supernatural, to be honest sir," Sarah said.

"How so?"

"Everything didn't make sense from our team standpoint. The sudden movement of satellites, the sudden blackout, and the fact that we survived. All of them don't make sense sir," Sarah said.

"Don't be ridiculous. Maybe your head is struck with a strong headache, just like me," Lawrence asked.

"To be honest sir, my pain is on the back of my body," Sarah said.

"Sir, I believe that our troops have reported a medical pain on their body," Sergeant Major Harrison Heart said.

"Hmm, how's the medical team explanation?" Lawrence asked the medical team leader on that base.

"Sir, I believe that our troops haven't shown any weird sign of any medical condition. We decided to prescribe them with basic painkiller," Lieutenant General Cain Anderson said.

"Is there any communication from the main base on the Pacific or Atlantic?" Lawrence asked.

"No sir, there's no communication," Sarah said.

"Well then, let's take a rest for today. General Vyacheslavovich, mind to come with me?" Lawrence dismissed all of that commanding officer and General Dimitri followed Lawrence from behind.

Dimitri and Lawrence headed to the nearest dispenser where he could get some drinks. "Dimitri, what the hell happened dude?"

Dimitri smiled at him, "EMP perhaps? We thought that you die."

"Well, I'm not. My old body is not that fragile."

"Haha, yes, definitely. Still, with that white hair, you're very old bruh," Dimitri said.

"Whatever," Dimitri gave a cup of cold water to Lawrence and he gulped it in one single stroke. It was nice since the hot air of Libya was really hot.

While they were enjoying their drinks, Dimitri suddenly swore, "Cyka, yes I will be there."

Lawrence immediately reacted, "What happened?"

"There's something that even a regular commanding officer can't understand. Let's go, Lawrence, this must be something good," Lawrence and Dimitri threw away that empty cups to the garbage can and they walked to the guard post.