Journey to Amestris

My name is Dominic Moreau, and I am a United States marine recon sniper, and this is the story of how I, through circumstances beyond my control, ended up in world beyond my own. This is my story.

Chapter 1

March 20th, 2003 0400 hours local time, near Nasiriyah Iraq

It was a cool morning, and I had been in place for nearly 24 hours, in the ruins of Ur, one of the many ancient Mesopotamian cities that had dotted the shorelines of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. My spotter Lance Corporal Eric Rivers laid along side me, as we were supposed to be observing the troop movements of the Iraqis.

I was starting to get stiff, and having not slept, or moved for 36 hours, was becoming exhausted, and to tell you the truth these ruins were creeping me out. Something just didn't feel right about this place. It was then that my spotter tapped me.

"Dom, I think we're in some shit." Eric said.

I looked over in towards his direction, as we were literally squeezed between a collapsed wall and pillar, and crawled over him to take a look. I could see what appeared to be a small convoy of Iraqi army vehicles approaching.

"Ah fuck. This is bad. I think they are planning on using these ruins as a firebase." I replied as I looked through my night vision binoculars.

"Do you see those mortars on those trucks Dom. The army when it comes down this road is going to be in serious danger if they manage to position themselves here. They've got a perfect place to shoot from up here, it's easy to defend, and the area around the road has no cover at all. It'd be shooting fish in a barrel." Eric explained.

It was then that I knew things were going to get hairy. I immediately tried to get on the radio to contact my higher ups, and let them know the situation here, but all I could get was static. The damned Iraqis must have had one of those Russian radio jammers, assumingly to protect them from GPS guided bombs.

"Eric, we're gonna have to try to shoot it out with them. Go and set the claymores at the approaches where the Iraqi trucks can come into the ruins. We need to disable those mortars. This is will be ugly, as there is at least a platoon of Iraqis coming up here." I said.

"It's useless for us me to snipe them from here, as they'd know immediately where we were and simply blow us away with mortars. We're going to have to do this up close and dirty, hopefully before any of them are able to get out of the trucks." I continued.

Eric simply nodded, and took off running to the approach that the Iraqis were going to get to in about 5 minutes. While he was doing that, I was prepping up the rest of our gear for the assault, all the while hoping that I might be blessed with a painless death. I was frightened, but I knew what had to be done, not for my sake, but for all of my comrades who were going to be coming down that road in a matter of a few hours.

5 minutes later

The vehicles approached the Ur ruins from the north, and we set up our firing position behind what was left of an ancient citadel of crumbling mud brick wall. Ahead of us was a small plaza, and between the remnants of the walls of the ancient city ruins was the route that trucks would have to take. It was there that one of the claymores was set. The other mine was set in the plaza. I had the detonator in my hand, that would trigger the mines, but I wanted to wait until all of the trucks were in the city before using up the mines.

As the rumbling of the trucks grew louder, I took a deep breath and waited for the four vehicles to approach. The first one was in, and my heart pounded louder. Wait for it Dommo, wait for it… The second… The third… The last… They're almost in position in

5, … 4, …3, …2 …1 . KABOOOM!

The mines exploded and tore through the first and last trucks filling them hundreds of ball bearings. Eric fired his M203 grenade launcher and it blew a 3rd truck away. I could hear the screams of dying men as they were disemboweled by the flying shrapnel, and could see that at least a third of the enemy were dead or wounded. I then started systematically firing rifle, killing all who I saw. But there were too many. The firefight, which likely took perhaps 5 minutes, felt like an eternity. All the while, I could feel the concussion of Eric's M16 firing near me, and the heat of an RPG fly over my head and demolish a section of brick wall behind us. My ears were ringing, when I crouched up and signaled Eric to fall back farther into the ancient fortress.

My mind raced as we fled farther into the ruins, by this time the Iraqi's were setting up the remaining mortar that was undamaged, and started to lob shells at us as we fled. The first few were pretty far off, but as they got their aim calibrated, the shells got closer and closer, it was then that a shell landed near Eric and I, and I felt the ground go out from under me.

I then remember falling into darkness as Eric and I plunged down a hole in the ground. We must have tumbled perhaps 25 to 30 feet down the steep embankment, and as we fell, another mortar landed near by causing the remnants of nearby wall to seal us inside of what at the time appeared to be our grave.

"Eric, are you there man?" I yelled, my ears still ringing. "Eric?!" I shouted again.

I heard a soft moaning somewhere in the darkness, and I pulled out my small flashlight, and stood up, still wobbly from the affect the explosions had on my ears. I started to sweep the room with my flashlight, and saw Eric lying on his back in the middle of a large etched symbol on a smooth stone floor. He was missing his right arm at the elbow, and his legs were riddled with shrapnel, and a pool of blood started to expand around him filling up the shallow grooves of the symbol in grotesque red, as he lay there he was staring at the ceiling with glassed over look in his blue eyes.

"Eric, I'm coming man, I'm here." I said.

I stumbled over to him, gradually sizing up the room, as I made the 30 foot journey to him. The room appeared to be some sort of ceremonial chamber, as I could see a nearby altar, while I swung my flashlight around, and could see murals that looked as if they were new, so well preserved this chamber was. These strange murals all portrayed some strange opened black doorway with eyes looking back, and they definitely gave me the willies.

I stepped over the circular symbol's blood filled edge, and knelt next to Eric. He turned his head toward me, and gurgled to me "Dom, I'm dying… I don't want to die, not in this dark place." I held his unwounded hand and told him "You're not going to die my friend, I won't let it happen." I felt that the ground next to him with my free hand, and I found strange indentation, that was hand shaped, between the blood filled grooves. I placed my hand in the indentation, and felt an immediate pain, as my hand was sliced open. I looked down at the groove, and saw what appeared to be a thin blade in the palm of the hand shape, and as my blood settled in the bottom, something strange happened.

An unearthly pale red light started to shine up through the symbol that was beneath and surrounding us, and it gradually intensified illuminating the room, as the symbol took on appearance of white-hot steel. As I looked around frantically I could see the murals in more details, and the eyes in the gates started glowing, and then all of the sudden I felt the room shudder, and out of the ground on the altar, the black gate the murals portrayed arose.

I looked in horror as the doors in the black gate portrayed in the mural, swung open, and I saw those eyes again. It was then that I heard a voice that to this day still gives me nightmares.

"The price has been paid" The voice seemed to reverberate through the chamber, in a low bass that shook me to my soul.

Then with lightning speed, black tentacles, grabbed Eric and I, and as it did this, I saw Eric literally start to disintegrate as a white light appeared to deconstruct him, I was then yanked into the gate amongst the murmuring eyes. All the while, I struggled fanatically, and then everything turned to blackness and that's all I remember.

When I finally came to, I was on my back staring up at a sunny sky in the middle of a field, with mine and Eric's gear, and Eric's bloody clothes in small pile next to me. I sat up and searched around me for Eric, but he was nowhere to be found. It was at that moment that I gasped in horror, as I understood what the voice had meant when it said "The price has been paid". The price the voice mentioned must have been Eric. Oh god I just used my friend in a human sacrifice.

"WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!" I screamed, and I broke down, as I knew I had inadvertently killed my friend by accidentally calling forth that black gate.

I must have been on my knees crying in that field for the better part of an hour, and then as noon approached, I finally managed to pull myself together. I gathered all of the equipment that Eric and I had, and grabbed his bloody clothes. I walked over to a nearby oak tree at the edge of the field and dug a small hole with my trench spade, and buried his clothes there. I then took out my K-bar knife, and carved into the tree.

Here lies L. Cpl Eric Rivers

U.S. Marine, friend, and patriot

May 7, 1980-March 20, 2003

I said a prayer for him that day, and I do every year at the same time, in his memory. I then picked up the gear, strapped Eric's M16 over my right shoulder, my Sniper rifle over the other one, put my helmet on, adjusted my body armor, and started walking towards a road that was at the far end of the field.