We get the order to jump. A four man team consisting of Red, team leader; Blue, comms and tech; Black, demo and myself White, interrogation.
The pit boss, Johnny, starts to talk.
"Alright ladies, you're going back 3 days. The target goes by the name of Rocky The Weasel. It seems Mr Weasel takes the casino for $100 million, so we ain't having none of that".
"Your job is to find him, find the devices he used to steal the money and exterminate with prejudice. Once you do that, destroy all evidence of this mission and come back to the casino for debrief. Are we clear, ladies?"
"Yes sir", everyone responds.
We make our way to the back of the casino and enter "the machine". Just don't ask me how it works, I don't have a damn clue.
Johnny tells everyone to get in position and hands the leader, Red, some kind of handheld device.
Johnny fires off his last words before departure.
"Now, remember ladies. Once you do this, I will have no memory of what transpired. So the password for this week is 'Oracle'. Once you say that word, I will know that you have come to rectify a situation and to preserve the time line, will stay out of your way. Alright time to go"
Everybody braces and Johnny activates the machine.
We emerge from the trip. Red checks the date and proclaims that we've gone back 3 days. So far so good.
Johnny approaches us and asks us for the password.
"Oracle" Red uttered.
Suddenly Johnny's eyes glow blue. He quickly draws a weapon and shoots Red in the head, killing him.
Shocked and bewildered, Blue and Black aim their weapons at Johnny and fire. Johnny goes down, dead.
When the shooting stops, everybody looks at Johnny with amazement. Johnny was lying in a pool of BLUE blood while Red was oozing red blood.
"What the fuck" I uttered. "Blue blood?"
Suddenly we heard a commotion in the hallways. We turned the corner and from afar we could see something that shocked us.
Another security group consisting of Red, Blue, Black and White were heading towards us. Clones.
In an instant, we grabbed Johnny's security card and locked the vault to the machine. We were locked in the time machine vault with clones pounding on the door trying to get in.
"What the fuck are we gonna do" Blue exclaimed.
"We ain't gonna die like Red" Black retorted.
"Shut up and let me think" I quipped.
We all suddenly heard beeping coming from Red's body. The device that Johnny had given him started to beep and flash. I picked it up and the message read 'play me'.
"Play the fucking thing" yelled Black. I pressed play.
"If you're watching this, then someone who looks like me is dead". The voice in the message was from Johnny.
"No doubt there is a body lying in a pool of blue blood by now and at least one of you is dead. A trade-off for the wonderful technology of time travel. Clones."
"You see, when we first discovered time travel all those years ago it wasn't by accident. It was given to us by an alien race known as the droids. A highly intelligent group of androids had crashed landed in the desert and we were the ones to come to their rescue. All they wanted was resources to fix their ship and all they offered in return was this piece of marvellous technology." Johnny continued.
"We should have never have trusted them. Within the first week, people started to go missing and then miraculously appeared 3 days later, with not a single explanation as to where they've been."
"Their leader, whom we called 'Prime', killed the owner of this casino and took over. He replicated himself to look like the former owner and sits pretty in the penthouse counting the money needed to pay for the resources to leave this forsaken planet" - Johnny continued.
"Knowing that he only has a small number of clones available to him, he placed them in stragetic positions throughout the casino, mine job included. By some miracle, he has kept me alive to do some of his bidding but he made a clone of me just to be on the safe side" Johnny said with a smirk.
"As you've guessed by now, Oracle is the kill word. Say this word, and the clones go into a kill mode. It's a shame that one of you had to die but this is for the greater cause"
"Take this device and assume your positions. Enter the date of 1/1/2000 and travel to these co-ordinates when you arrive. They will land at 8:27pm. Be ready. Show no mercy. They will show you none and will kill you in an instant. " - Johnny exclaimed.
"This device is also an droid bomb. When you reach the landing site, place it at the exact co-ordinates and arm the device. When the ship crash lands, the device will detonate and obliterate EVERYTHING within a couple of hundred yards radius. Leave all your gear with the device and leave immediately after arming it. This will destroy the ship, the clones and none of this would ever happen."
"Be sure to leave the city. You can't risk running in to your other selves, it'll be catastrophic and will result in the deaths of both of you. Good luck" as Johnny sings off.
We all looked at each other and took our positions.
We arrived at 7:30pm. Once outside, Blue hotwired a vehicle and we hauled ass to the co-ordinates that Johnny had given us. 45 minutes later we arrived and then discarded our guns and equipment and armed the bomb.
The clock read 8:15pm. 12 minutes to go. Remember what Johnny said, we jumped in a car and made it to a cliff overlooking the landing site 5 miles away with 2 minutes to spare.
We sat down and waited.
"So" said Blue. "Aliens. I'll be damned"
"Nah" said Black. "Johnny said they were droids"
"Alien Droids" I interjected and we all started to laugh.
We see flashes in the sky above us and hear a roaring thunder.
"8:27pm. Right on time" Blue joyfully stated.