Operation D.A.R.K.

Direct Assault Recon of Kron's

Part 1: Drafted

By: Elijah M. Marti

My name is Andrew Exafer Martinez. I wish I could tell you more about me, but I cannot. Questions along with pain and suffering cloud my mind of any other though. I don't even know why I'm here actually. Alone, dark and staring at my own fate. I still do nothing but think of questions to ask myself. Why am I here? What is this place? Did any of the others make it? Will I ever see my friends again? Will I ever see pretty much anything again? Is there really any hope for survival? Even with all these questions clouding my mind, I just stand and stare. Stare at the darkest creatures imaginable. Stare at the army of shadow. Stare straight into my death. My cloud of questions turns into a cloud of memories. The reason why I first joined the D.A.R.K. squad.

It was December 19, 2012. I had just retired from the military after many years of taking part in seemingly useless wars just about 6 months ago. I was tired from all the fighting and just wanted a nice remainder of my life to myself. I of course knew that wasn't going to happen one way or another. What I didn't know was the way it was going to happen. It was a quarter to 1 PM and I was eating my breakfast of eggs and bacon when I heard banging on the door. I asked who it was but no answer responded, just more unnecessarily loud banging. I proceeded with caution as I grabbed my Magnum from the closet, the Magnum I first used when I went into Iraq. I looked through the peep hole and to my misfortune saw Marines lined up in front of my apartment door, with my former general lined in front of them all. I through my Magnum on the broken down couch, sighed and opened the door.

"General Thomson." I said with a surprised tone of voice. General Layne Thomson was in my former battalion when we were in Iraq.

"Sergeant Martinez." He responded. "How've ya been?"

"I've had better times but for the most part just fine."

"Well that's just great. How have the wife and kids been?"

"I'm divorced and my wife took the kids."

"Oh well that's a shame." There was a long pause after that unnecessary comment.

"Ok general let's get down to business. Why are you here?" The general sighed and chuckled at my usual attempt to get straight to the point in any conversation.

"I don't think that it's really a smart idea to be speaking of this all out in the open. Come with me so we can get some more privacy."

"How about you tell me before I just say no?" immediately the soldiers that were lined up behind the General armed their M4 Carbine Assault Rifles at me in nearly perfect unison.

"How about I say you don't have much of a choice?" There was a long pause as me and just about 20 soldiers stared at each other. I figured that there was no point in fighting over it. It looked at my feet, sighed and told the general to let me get ready. After I got properly dressed, I headed back to the hallway where the general and his men escorted me to the Hum-Vee Military assault vehicles. As I was about to enter the vehicle, the soldier behind me grabbed both of my arms and put hand cuffs on me. I glared and him and he said that it was just to see if I would cooperate. I got in the Hum-Vee and we drove off, with many other Hum-Vees Escorting ours to our rightful destination. Just about 20 hours later we reached our destination, the military headquarters in the outer desert of California.

The soldiers escorted me outside to the Generals private quarters. The General ordered his men to stand guard outside the door. In nearly perfect unison formed two and held their M4 Carbines in their hands.

"You do know that I can break these hand cuffs as easily as your neck right?" I questioned.

"It was just to see if you would cooperate with orders." He replied

"Just tell me what you want?" The general goes to his desk and pulls out a folder with the words TOP SECRET stamped across it.

"Same old Andrew eh? Ok I'll level. You see Andrew I'm sort of having some problems here. Due to the nuclear warfare and all the new thermal nuclear weapons we have been using, well it's obvious that it isn't gunna have a good effect on the environment right?"

"Aside from the obvious."

"Well the earth is falling apart in front of our eyes. The rain forests are almost gone, the green lands are turning into deserts and the oceans are flooding cities. The earth is dying Andrew!" There was a long pause between the two of us.

"And your point is?"

"Well this is gunna sound weird but…I need to ask you a question."

"Well I'm already here so go ahead."

"Do you believe in alternate dimensions?"

"Alternate what?"

"An alternate dimension. For quite some time now scientists believe that there are more dimensions than ours." He pulls out a cigarette and a light. He lights the end of the cigarette, inhales deeply and blows a cloud of smoke into the air around us. He continues to talk as he says, "These…dimensions are believed to have different realities than ours. That means that anything from their dimension can be alternate from ours, meaning that nothing that can exist in our dimension is possible to not exist in theirs.

"What kind of drugs have you been using?"

"No drugs, just proof. A few weeks ago scientists have found a way to travel to these alternate dimensions through some sort of machine. Unfortunately there is nothing but pure darkness in the dimension. We have been exploring it for days until we found a dark, glooming cave. It had some weird symbol on it and it was glowing in a weird reddish neon light. We sent a team of expert Marine troops and geologist in there to check out what's in there…But none of them were seen again."

"So why does this concern me exactly?"

"I had been wishing that you would like to assist us in exploring this new dimension."

"I'm no damn archeologist and plus I'm retired. Stop wasting my time."

"I don't think you've got much of a choice now. We may find something that can help our planet and you are the only one who can save this god forsaken planet!" There was a pause. I had said nothing in return to his unnecessary outcry, because I knew he was right. I sighed and agreed to his request.

"Am I going in alone?"

"No. We have assembled your former squad. Blaze, Popshot, and Ghost are all waiting for you on the helicopter pad." I said no more as I broke the handcuffs that were chaining my hands together, threw it on the General's desk and left without another sound.

Part two of the series coming soon