BOOK I - UNION
Chapter 2: Welcome to Republic City
"Corporal are you sure you didn't eat any kind of mushrooms?"
"I assure you sir, I even have video and pictures to back me up."
The general went silent for several moments. "Fine get back to base now and that platypus bear thing that you killed, try putting it somewhere hunters or other animals won't eat up so when we return it'll still be there."
"Yes sir. What about the equipments? Should I return them first?"
"No no, just bring it back to base and I'll get someone else to return it."
"Yes sir."
"Good, I'll be waiting for you in my office."
He hung up and I sighed. Inside the cave would be a great place to hide the bear. I then proceeded to pack up all the equipment, slowly drag the bear into the cave, and then place several sticks and leaves on it to look less suspicious to someone looking from the outside. Time to go back then.
When I arrived it took me just over an hour to get to the cave on foot but since its in the middle of the night it took me over two hours to get back to the car. I was constantly tripping over vines on the forest floor and adding to the difficulty was the flashlight which I duct taped once more to my helmet getting low on battery.
Upon arriving on the parked car I immediately placed the equipments and my pack to the back of the car, got on it and drove off. It was deathly quiet and I only saw a couple of dozen cars on the autobahn on the way back to base.
It was already five in the morning when I finally arrived on the gate of the base, the MPs on the gate was different from when I exited which means that they've changed shifts already. I drove up towards the small guard house and waved at them.
"Hey sarge! How's it going?"
"Corporal what the hell happened to you?" He looked at me suspiciously
"I got attacked by a bear, anyways had General Braun told you that I'm coming?"
"Name?"
"Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky."
He looked at his clipboard before signaling to the guy in the guard house to phone the general. There was a short conversation on the phone before he hung up and made a thumbs up to the sergeant.
"Okay corporal you're good to go." The sergeant said
"Alright, thank you sir."
The barrier was raised and I drove in towards the HQ building. I parked the car at the small parking spot to the side, got out of the car and immediately proceeded towards the front door not even bothered to try and change my blood soaked fatigues. Entering the building the receptionist looked shook too see me in the state I was in.
"Corporal, are you alright?" He looked worried.
"Me? Oh the blood, nah I'm cool just a bear's blood that's all. Anyways is the general here yet?"
"Umm yeah he is, he had been waiting for you for around half an hour now."
"Oh wow, ok then thanks."
I saluted him before proceeding to the general's office. I knocked on the door entered and saluted him. "Corporal Tchaikovsky reporting sir."
"Ah corporal... Damn that's a lot of blood for a bear huh. At ease boy."
I loosened my stance. "Well sir it did charge at me and I stabbed it..."
He nodded. "Anyways take a seat corporal and yeah, show me your videos."
I took a seat in front of his desk, took out my phone and loaded the video before showing it to him.
'So I found this... thing, it tried to attack me.' Ah here we go. The general's eyebrows creased as soon as he saw the creature. 'It came from that place and charged at me, the roar sounded like a bear but not really... I don't know.' A minute later I heard my scream. 'What the?! Ahhhhhhh! You fucking...' I still cringe upon hearing my screams yet he looked a bit amused.
"That scream though." He let out a small laugh. Sigh*
After finishing the first video I showed him the second one, about the city. He genuinely looked impressed at what I've captured.
"So you said that you've encountered a 'monk' after taking the video?"
"Yes sir."
"What does she look like?"
"Well she's a girl, definitely about fourteen or fifteen years old and have short hair. Got a blue arrow tattooed on her forehead and her clothes look just like that of the Dalai Lama. She also got a staff that have wings that pop out when she pressed a button turning it into a glider."
"Are you really sure you didn't eat any wild mushrooms in the forest?"
"Absolutely sir."
"Hmm alright." He gave me my phone back. "Go clean yourself up, I'll think about this... about how we'll tackle this 'portal'."
"Yes sir, thank you sir."
"Take the equipment out of the car and give it to the receptionist for now and then return the car to the depot."
"Yes sir."
"Fine, go on, you're dismissed corporal. I'll just call for you if I need anything else."
I stood up and saluted him before getting out of the building, gave the equipment to the receptionist, and drove the car back to the depot. Upon arriving at the depot I was greeted by the same technician.
"Damn Geraldt, what the hell happened to you?"
"Bah its nothing dude, just went into a fight with a... bear." I got out of the car and handed him the keys.
"Getting into a fight with a bear is nothing to you?! Damn you the man dude!" He playfully punched me in the arms. "Come on and sign the paper and then you should go take a bath or something."
"Fine." I signed the paper. "Thanks."
"Don't sweat it."
I waved a goodbye before walking to my barrack with the guys I meet on the way staring at me possibly thinking who I've murdered.
Finally I'm back in the barrack! First thing I did was to get to get back to my room and carefully take new clothes to not disturb my 'roommate' then proceed to the shower while everyone's still sleeping in. I took a quick shower then went to the laundry to scrub my fatigue clean. Afterwards I returned to my room and checked the time. Oh wow six already, thankfully today's a sunday so no training today! I could already see the light of the sun over the horizon but the sun itself remains hidden. With that I decided to reward myself with sleeping after all that I've gone through in the last twelve hours or so.
March 15 (D+2)
It had been two days since I discovered this 'portal'. The general had yet to say anything to the press and life was normal in the base. I got called to the general's office around noon and when I got to the office there were about five more guys inside.
"Ah corporal I see you've joined us. I'm going to mount a small 'expedition' to the other side of the portal and these men will be under your command."
"Sir? Wouldn't it be better to have a sergeant take charge?" I replied.
"No, because you're the only one who had got over there and since you're the only Chinese speaker in this unit I want to place you in charge. I've read through your records and it looked like you did well in Afghanistan and it seemed like you actually took over command during the ambush." He sighed. "Not sure why Gottlieb was the one promoted and not you... anyways the guys had already been briefed so I'll be doing this quickly for you. You objective is to obviously discover more about the other side and maybe establish some sort of contact there, you did say they were speaking Mandarin and the girl looked Chinese yes?"
"Yes sir."
"So if they all looked Chinese then there won't be a problem with you blending in, the problem would be with your men since... well they're white. There's nothing really more to it, I'll give you one week again and afterwards try to come back in one piece, I don't like guys getting killed in peacetime... needs a shit ton of paperworks. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Very good then, I'll be providing transportation to get you guys to the forest and its up to you afterwards, you'll be deploying around twenty one hundred hours later. Oh and by the way I'll be allowing your squad to take your phones with you to take pictures and videos of anything that you find there but they are to be classified and as such cannot be posted to the internet. Any questions?"
"Sir does the media knows about this yet?" One of the men asked.
The general shook his head. "Not yet, but I've informed the Minister of Defence about it and she said not to in order to prevent the bloodthirsty media on swarming the bloody place. Anything else?"
"No sir."
"Good, you're all dismissed. You still got half a day to get used to each other so try to be nice."
"Yes sir" We all replied and saluted before getting out of the office.
When we got out of the building one of the guys quipped. "Hey wanna get a drink in the cafeteria and get to know each other?"
We nodded in agreement and before long we were in the base's canteen having a hot meal.
"I'll start off then. I'm Private Herman Steinmeier, designated marksman. Good to see you all!" He looked very optimistic of everything. Hmm, maybe that's what I need in my life.
"Private Hans Hohenzollern, rifleman."
"Private Karl Eckstein, I'm a MG3 gunner."
"Mg3? Isn't that platoon level support?" Herman said
"Yeah, I'm puzzled too why I was assigned."
"Ah okay then, how about you?"
"Private Jonathan Wagner, rifleman."
"Jonathan? Isn't that a bit American huh?" Herman asked
"Well my parents were a bit... lets say 'Americanized' during the cold war."
"Ah the cold war I remember that, not so good times though. How about you, what your name bro?"
"I umm, well I'm Walter Ruderford, medic."
"Medic? Nice! So did you go to medical school?"
"I actually am a doctor in cardiology."
"Really?! Well why the hell are you in the army then?"
"I have my own clinic back in Berlin but business was very very slow, so yeah because of that I just decided to join the army, more fun than sitting on the ER everyday."
"So that means your like.. thirty five-ish now?"
"Yeah."
"Holy shit then we should be calling you dad now! I mean, hey corporal how old are you?"
"Twenty five?" I replied.
"See, even the corporal is younger than you Walter!"
"Heh, then I should get used to it."
"Yeah 'dad'" Steinmeier laughed. "Anyways, how about you corporal?"
"Huh?" I replied. "Ah well I'm Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky, rifleman too"
"Tchaikovsky, isn't that a bit... Russian?"
"My grand parents left China after the communists won and for some reason came to Germany and was taken in by a Russian family in the West in which they adopted their surnames... Tchaikovsky."
"Huh, Russian family in the west, that's weird isn't it?"
"Yeah... weird."
"Anyways, come on boys look lively! Hey how about we change the subject to, I don't know maybe your love life?" Oh god.
2030H
"Alright listen up!" The general was going to give us our final briefing while we were gearing up in the vehicle depot. "I'm also going to send another platoon to secure the cave on our side in order to prevent people from our side from going in there and also people from their side from coming here. I've received reports that yesterday some residents of Hürtgenwald spotted two people, an old bald man with a pointy goatee and a teen girl with short hair both of which had blue arrows tattooed on their heads, just like the one Geraldt mentioned." He paused. "These two were wearing some kind of red wingsuits, had East Asian looks, and were walking around the area before disappearing back into the forest, luckily none of the residents tried to investigate or the bloody press would've been upon us a long time ago." He signaled for something before continuing. "The officer in charge of guarding the cave would be Lieutenant Johann Gottlieb of Kandahar fame." What, that guy's here?
The lieutenant raised his hands above our heads before continuing to gear up.
"The action plan now is for Corporal Tchaikovsky's squad to move into the other side and find out more about it and if possible establish contacts with the locals. Lieutenant Gottlieb's platoon will have two men on the other side waiting and they would have laid down some telephone wires if radio communication back to our side is impossible. In case there is anything to report, Tchaikovsky's squad will report to the two men then in turn they'll report to Gottlieb. Any more questions?"
"None sir." Herman replied.
"Okay, you still have half an hour to gear up. Check and double check if all your stuffs are in place, night vision goggles, rations, ammo, two way radios, etc. I'll be back at my office if any of you need me, carry on."
We went on getting ourselves ready, checking our ammos and other survival gears in case we got lost in the other side, Steinemier came up to me holding a small can of green paint.
"Sir what do you think? Should be apply face paint, get ski masks, or just go in bare?"
"Hmm." I wondered out loud. "Ski masks makes us look like terrorists, face paint... well for someone who had never seen such things would make us look like tough warriors?"
"Well sir, what do you think?"
"Meh lets go face paint then, looks badass... makes me feel like I'm in the special forces."
"Very well sir! I have three over there sir, green, dark green, and woodland brown. It a perfect match with our flecktarn fatigues."
"Okay go tell the other guys about it, I'll be there in just a second."
"Yes sir." He saluted me before informing the other men of our camouflage.
"Oi Geraldt, long time no see eh?"
I turned around to find Johann walking towards me with his stuff all packed and ready to go. "Oh hey lieutenant! How's an officer's life treating you?"
"Same just like old times, huh never thought being a lieutenant would mean a lot of paperwork. Anyway I came to ask you how long would you and your men be on the other side?"
"The general gave us a week so yeah I'll try stretching it, we'll be able to find out more that way."
"Ah, I get you. Always the bold one eh?"
"Bold as in disobeying direct orders?"
"Hah! Come on that was over a year ago, if it weren't for you we would have been in serious trouble in that ambush."
"True, true but then you got the awards though."
"Nah its just a medal and some crappy certificate, nothing worth noting."
"Yeah. Hey I'll talk to you later, gotta go and put on some face paint."
"Oh I see you wanna go all stealthy and stuff. We're the panzergrenadiers for fuck's sake! Stealth is the last thing we do!"
"Yeah yeah, I know I know, but wouldn't it look badass for them to see us for the first time with face paint on?"
"Bah, you got point. See you later then!"
"Yeah see you too lieutenant."
We parted ways and I went to find Steinmeier and saw him and the men putting on their face paints fairly quickly.
"Hey come on sir! It'll only take a few minutes." Steinmeier called out to me
"Okay private, make it look cool."
Nine in the evening. The air was filled with excitement as most of the men have never been deployed before, Johann stood up atop one of the tables that we had put our gears on and started barking orders. "Alright guys load up!" he ordered as soon as everyone was in line. Our gears included out battle rifles, fatigues gloves, elbow and knee pads, helmets, bulletproof vests with ceramic plates, and survival items like rations and sleeping bags in our flecktarn camoflauge patterned packs.
There were two general purpose trucks assigned to us with canvas coverings in the back to prevent the public from seeing us. My squad and half of Johann's platoon is in one while the rest is riding on the other, the drivers were provided by the general and were to return to base immediately after they've dropped us off.
The general was there to wave us goodbye... which was extremely odd. "So corporal, I see you and your men have face paints on, haha."
"Yes sir."
"Well, good luck then." He saluted us as we boarded the trucks in which I saluted back.
It took us just over five minutes before everyone was in and the rear flap of the canvas closed. The inside was extremely dark as there were no lights and it would help our eyes focus more at night. The truck stopped and I heard people talking outside which I assumed was the MPs on the guardhouse, the truck started moving again after several seconds and before we know it we were already on the autobahn.
"The trip will take about three hours, right sir?" One of the men from Johann's platoon asked me.
"Yeah, so if you want to sleep go on. Wake me up when we arrive okay Steinmeier?"
"Yes sir." He replied.
"Good, goodnight then."
"Sir wake up, sir we're here." Steinmeier was nudging me lightly on the shoulder
"Huh? Hmm, fine... how long did the trip took?"
"Four hours sir, there was an accident on the way so traffic was held up for a bit."
"Hmm." I replied nonchalantly. "Have the guys got out already?"
"Yes sir, your the last one." Fuck, so much for leading by example
"Okay okay, I'm up I'm up." I got up from the seat and scurried out of the back of the truck. The sergeant from Johann's platoon saw me got out and signaled the driver that we're all out in which the driver nodded and drove off.
"So Geraldt, I'm quite excited to see this 'platypus bear' of yours." Johann quipped as I stretched.
"Yeah yeah, come on. It'll take us around an hour to get there so lets go."
"Alright." Johann then faced the men. "Night visions out boys! We wouldn't want to wake the sleeping folks in the town!"
The men took out their NV goggles and attached them to the attachment points in front of the helmets and then flipped it downward to be used. The unit then formed a column of two lines with me and Johann up front, and started walking into the forest.
"The general showed us the video you shot with the 'platypus bear'." Johann said as we slowly marched towards the cave. "I've never seen you screamed that hard before." He laughed before playfully punching me in the arms.
"Ha.. Ha. If you were in that situation you would've wet yourself already lieutenant." I replied
"True true, but I wasn't and even if I was... nevermind."
I smirked "Oh come on lieutenant maybe someday you'll not only wet yourself, but also a girl!"
"That's quite bold coming from someone who haven't fucked anyone before."
"Hey I'm being fucked by life all the time."
He laughed "True, but hey come on you should be more active in your fuck life."
"Please, don't go there."
He was now the one smirking "What now? Does the little baby not want to talk about sex?" Goddamned it
"Lieutenant please just... stop."
He thought for a moment "Okay, sorry if I pulled some unwanted strings... but seriously you never know what's on the other side, maybe a hot chick would get mesmerized by your face paints."
"Yeah yeah whatever lieutenant." Damn if that did happen
The trek to the cave went on uneventful, there were constant chatter amongst the men albeit quite silently as we didn't want to alert anyone or anything of our presence in the forest.
We finally arrived at the cave after an hour and the first thing I did was to search for the body of the platypus bear inside. As I went in I saw the leaves and twigs that I used to cover the body but the carcass was nowhere to be found. The fuck? I... I swear that it was here, how the hell did it disappear... those monks.
"Damn is this a big ass cave, two Leopard 2 MBTs could have easily fit through this side by side. So corporal, had the creature reanimated and became a zombie?" Johann said sarcastically
"No, that's impossible. I hid it here, the only possible answer was those two... those two with the arrow tattoo, maybe they carried the bear away." I knelt down beside the pile trying to see if there were any kinds of marks that would indicate the bear was moved or dragged.
"Oh come on an old guy and a teen? There's no way they could've move that big ass bear far, that is if they even moved it at all." He looked towards his men. "How's the set up going?"
"Fine sir, all that's left is to drag the wire across the cave." One replied
"Good." He then looked back at me who was still trying to solve the mystery. "Suck it up Geraldt, what's done is done. If they were the one who did it then you should try finding them when you get to the other side and if not... well we have a zombie out here to deal with."
"God... Fuck! Fine, I'll call my men and we'll start moving out then." I stood up and head out of the cave. "Hey Expedition squad, form up front and center!"
The guys formed up in front of me in one line. "Okay we'll be going to the other side now, if you have any prayers to say do it know because we'll be on the other side for around a week."
The guys nodded at me before they started saying their own prayers in silence, afterwards they stood at attention once more.
"Done?" I asked
"Yes sir" They replied.
"Okay, I'll be on point and Wagner will be on the rear. Any questions?"
"No sir"
"Move out!"
We started moving into the cave with the two guys from Johann's platoon following closely behind. Before we got out of hearing distance Johann shouted into the cave. "Oi remember, only use your weapons in self defence! You will not shoot first!"
"Yes sir!" I shouted back and before long we were too deep into the tunnel to hear anything.
The deeper we went the less light goes into the cave and after a few minutes we were forced to used our flashlight as there was total darkness and the night vision goggles were not able to work in that kind of condition.
"Hey sir, do you think our compasses will work in the other side?" Wagner asked
"I... huh never thought about it." I got my compass out and shined my flashlight at it to see better. "It says we're going east but the needle is a bit wobbly."
"Ok sir, that was good to know."
The deeper we went the worse the needle's erratic movement and by the time we were where the wall used to be it was spinning around uncontollably, as if the magnetic field is all around us. Okay... this is pretty creepy.
"Sir, you got any idea why the compass is acting like this?" Wagner said
"Nope. My guess is either its broken or we're getting closer to the bermuda triangle."
"Maybe its because of the paintings?" He lointed at the four symbols that we just passed a moment ago.
"Don't think so, the people who conducted research here before have never reported anything like this."
"Maybe the magnetic field on the other side is different?"
"Maybe."
We walked for another ten minutes we finally emerged on the other side with the city still in full view. Wow, damn it looked majestic. The farther we were from the 'great divide', which is where the wall used to be, and the closer we got to the exit the more stable the compass and when we got the cave the compass had stabilized and was pointing north towards the city.
"Holy shit sir, this is awesome!" Steinmeier quipped
"God, it really looked just like New York City except maybe that gigantic beam of light coming from the middle of the city." Ruderford added.
"So the compass, it says the city is north" I said as I was putting the compass back into my pocket.
"North? Weren't we going east?" Wagner was surprised
"I know but its what it says. You were right, this world has a different magnetic field than ours."
"Huh, never thought that could happen."
"Private we're literally on another world, anything is possible."
We stood then for a good five minutes taking in the night scenery before the two guys from Johann's platoon started setting their equipment up which consists of a two way radio and a telephone with the wire stretching back to our side. We stood around waiting for them to finish setting up before we tried calling it. I stood on the path leading down the mountain about ten meters away before starting the short test.
"This is Expedition, Outpost do you copy over?" I said through my radio
"Yep loud and clear Expedition." One of the guys replied with a thumbs up.
I got back up and said our goodbyes to both of the guys before me and my squad started descending the mountain with our night vision goggles on. The path was narrow, consisting of steps barely wide enough for a man to pass through carved into the mountain wall with no safety railings on the outside. It was quite scary as one wrong step and you could fall to your death. The path then started winding on the mountain face in which it became wide enough for two people to pass. We continued walking downwards and after several more minutes finally made it to the bottom. In front of us lay a dirt road that cut right through the small forest directly into the city and with a shallow ditch on the right around half a meter deep. Using hand signals I told the squad to observe total silence and only talk if it is of extreme importance.
We continued onwards on the trail in a single file with the brightness of the city in front of us being partially covered by the forest. As we moved cautiously we stumbled upon what seemed to be a small camp on the right side about twenty meters from the trail with about eight people around a campfire with several tents behind them. I signaled the men to take cover in the ditch, I took my pack off leaving it in the ditch and tried crawling closer towards a small bush between the ditch and the camp to eavesdrop on what they were saying.
As I got closer I took the NV goggles off as the campfire was too bright for me to see. I saw the men wearing red clothes similar to that of the traditional Chinese clothes we see in movies, they were chowing down on something and were talking to each other quite loudly.
"I told you already, no!" One of them shouted
"Oh come on boss! The triple treats are already weakened with their fights against the equalists, we could easily swoop in and take them out in one go"
"For fuck's sake Po, I will not cause the Agni Kai into war with the Triple Threats! The big boss had already talked about this."
"Fine boss but I'm telling you, this is a wasted opportunity to take them out."
"No its not. This is a foolish... wait is someone there?" The boss stood up and looked towards my direction pointing at the bush that I was in. Shit.
"Doesn't seem so boss." Another replied
"No, I saw the reflection of someone's, or something's eyes. Hey you two, go check it out." He pointed at two of his men in which they stood up and started walking towards me with their hands on a defensive posture in front of them without weapons. Hmm, martial arts masters?
I turned around and quickly crawled back to the ditch and whispered to my men. "Two guys coming, stay down and don't panic."
"Yes sir, if they discover us and charged are we to open fire?" Hohenzollern asked
"Negative, they're unarmed so if they attack us we'll just have to go head to head in melee."
"Okay sir."
"He's getting closer, shhh."
We heard the steps getting closer with a twig getting snapped every now and then, and the sound of the leaves crunching under their feet. It stopped just a couple of meters from the ditch and the whole place fell silent. I heard murmurs but was too soft to understand. After several seconds the leaves began rustling again but this time going away from us. Phew that was close.
I climbed back over the ditch and saw the two walking back to the camp shaking their heads.
"There's nothing there boss."
I was just able faintly hear their conversation so I signaled the squad to wait in the ditch again before deciding to get back to the bush to listen better.
"But I saw something... ugh forget it, come on we still need to deliver the package to Xi Hai, we should sleep now since we'll be moving on the first light of day. Zhao you're the sentry tonight." The boss said. Package? Hmm.
The men went into their tents leaving 'Zhao' and another who went to a nearby bush to relieve himself. Hmm, is it worth it to know more about them? Nah, they looked like thugs. I was about to turn around and go back to the ditch before something stepped on me. What the... Before I could react it fell down on my back with a shout.
"Oww, what the hell is this?"
"Hey Huang you alright?" I heard Zhao call out. Shit was it the guy taking a piss?
"I tripped on.. what the? Who the hell is this?" fuck!
I immediately got up knocked the man over, and grasped my rifle taking it off safety and pointed it at him, I looked at the man lying on the ground facing me with horror in his eyes.
"Hey Huang you alright?"
I looked to my left and saw Zhao was walking towards us with a ball of fire on his hands. What? how the fuck is that possible? The moment he saw me he froze in place with the fame fear on his face as the man lying on the ground. Hmm, so the facepaint was effective in scaring people.
We stood there for god knows how long just looking at each other while I was thinking how to ger out of this conundrum. I can't just kill them, fuck I don't even know it they really are thugs or not. As I was looking down onto the man he suddenly jabbed his right arm forward and flames came out from his fists. What the fuck?! The speed of the flame was not very fast but he was very close to me and I wasn't fast enough to dodge it, all I was able to do was to turn my face away and shield it from the flame with my left arm and tried turning my whole body from it. It hit me on the left of my torso and it felt exactly like how a fireball would... painful and hot.
"Fuck fuck fuck! Ahhhhh!" I shouted out as I backed away from the men.
The Zhao ran towards Huang and helped the man stand up, they then got into a fighting stance ready to pounce. Bloody hell... wait, I'm on fucking fire! What was it they teach back at school? Stop, drop, and roll. That was exactly what I did, I stopped backing away, threw my rifle aside, dropped to the ground, and started panicky rolling around. I was several revolutions in when I heard some shouting coming from the ditches.
"Corporal... fire... go..."
And another coming from the other side. "Equalist... kill... shoot..."
This is bad, really really bad. My sense of sight was gone for the moment as I was rolling around on the ground and closed my eyes to prevent debris and the heat from irritating it, all I could do to know what was happening around me was to listen.
I heard several sounds, the same ones when the man threw the fire ball at me. I could hear it go over me and presumably was thrown into the ditch where my squad was. Jesus, fuck! It continued with several more fireballs streaking over me before I heard the undeniable sound of an MG3 ripping through the air, accompanied by rapid single-shot fire coming from the rifles.
The shooting lasted under a minute before it went quiet, I was still on fire, though the flame had started to somewhat die down.
"Corporal! Corporal! Goddamned it Herman give your fucking canteen already!"
I was still in a panicked state so I wasn't able to identify whose voice that was.
"Corporal stay put and face the ground! We'll be pouring water on you!"
Immediately after the command water started pouring down onto me. It was such a feeling of relief with the heat dissipating. A few moments later someone held me down to prevent me from rolling around and poured more water onto my torso.
"Sir, sir! Are you alright?"
I opened my eyes and sat up to see Walter and Steinmeier holding empty canteens. I then looked around to see four more empty canteens lying on the ground, and the medkit Walter carries with him. "I'm okay, I'm okay, just a little... fired up."
"Sir take your upper fatigue off, I need to check for burns." Walter commanded me and I did not protest as he was our medic.
I took the fatigue off and inspected the damage done. Hmm small holes here and here but nothing major. I placed it aside and removed my helmet before taking my gray t-shirt off. Well there are black spots but it hasn't burnt thoroughly.
"Turn around sir and let me check your left torso."
I did as was asked and turned around.
"Wow holy shit how the hell did the fire not burn you?"
"Hmm?" I grumbled
"Your skin, there are no signs of any kind of burns... well its a bit red but other than that nothing, and you were burning for quite sometime."
"Huh, maybe their fire isn't intense enough?"
"Sir, we got a live one here!" Jonathan was on top of one of the 'Agni Kai' and was checking his pulse. "He's murmuring something, I don't understand sir."
"Alright I'll be there." I got up, took the t-shirt with me and put it back on while walking towards Wagner with the rest of the squad crowding around him. "Hey hey, do you understand me?" I knelt down beside the man from the 'Agni Kai'.
He was panting heavily with blood coming out of his mouth and several him in his torso "You... fucking... equalist... shits..." Equalist? The hell is that?
I sat down beside him in deep thought when he suddenly jabbed his left arm towards Jonathan creating a small stream of fire. Everyone jumped out of the way and in return a hail of bullets got fired into the man.
"Cease fire! Cease fire! Stop firing for fuck's sake!" I got up from where I was seated and ran towards Jonathan. He was pouring lead into the body which was by then disfigured by the volume of bullets hitting him. "Fucking hell cease fire!" No reply.
I grabbed the barrel of his gun and forcefully pointed it towards the ground and removed the magazine.
"What the fuck are tou doing?!" Jonathan shouted.
"I said cease fire you dumb ass!"
"Didn't you see sir? He's a fucking monster, they're all fucking monsters. How can we be sure they're actually dead?"
"He' fucking dead already, the corpse doesn't even look like a human anymore."
The shooting stopped with everyone looking at each other having the same expressions in their green painted faces... fear.
"Sir, they can throw fireballs, fireballs! They don't even have some fancy flamethowing arms, all they do was punch the air and boom! Out comes fire."
"Jonathan you need to calm down." I looked at the men. "Everyone needs to calm down, remember that we're on another world, who knows if their physics is the same as ours."
Silence.
"Anyways don't eat through your ammo like a fucking hippo, there's no way we can resupply here and those ten magazines you have are all there is... of course except of our beloved mg gunner Karl in which each of us carry an extra ammo box for him... fuck, the point is conserve you bloody ammo okay?"
"Yes sir." They muttered in reply.
"Good, now we should scavenge around the camp a little and see if they got anything useful like their money and shit. Oh and try to find a package of some sort, they were going to deliver it somewhere."
"Sir should we bury the bodies?" Walter asked.
"Hmm, no. It would take too much time, just... just drag them back into the tents after you've finished looking around."
"Yes sir."
"Well go on then."
The squad dispersed throughout the camp and started looking around and taking important and wierd items. I went back to retrieve my fatigue and helmet, got my rifle, went to the ditch to get my pack, and went back to get the empty canteens and give it back to the men.
I then went to sit on a small wooden stool beside a tent to try to calm myself down from what just happened. I then got my radio to report back to outpost on our findings.
"Outpost this is Expedition, do you copy, over"
The radio crackled to life. "Expedition this is outpost, we hear you loud and clear, over"
"Outpost I'm reporting that we have engaged hostiles who appeared to be able to launch fireballs at us without any equipment at will, no casualties on our side though we killed all eight of them, over."
There was a pause "Expedition say again, over"
"We've engaged hostiles who appeared to be able to launch fireballs at us without any equipment at will, we didn't have casualties but all eight of them are dead, over."
Another pause "Expedition are you sure, over."
"Of course I'm fucking sure, I got fucking hit goddamned it."
"Alright Expedition we'll report it to the lieutenant, anything else? Over."
"That's all, Expedition out." I put the radio down and sighed.
"Sir, their money." Steinmeier walked towards me and handed me several pieces of red paper.
I took the money and inspected it more closely. They have Chinese numbers on the corners and a picture of an old man in the middle and several words above it reads 'National Bank of the United Republic of Nations.' That's pretty damn long. I flipped it around to see some having the picture a palace and the others having the picture of a man with blue tattoos on his head holding a wooden staff and clothes similar to that of the Dalai Lama. Wait, was this the guy those residents saw? The one here looks young, could it be the same guy? The numbers on the corners were one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, and five hundred.
"So sir, what do you think?"
"Hmm? Ah, right. It looked almost like the yuan... you know the Chinese currency, the only thing missing is Mao Zhe Dong's picture."
"Hmm, yeah it does sir."
"Anything more Steinmeier?"
"We found several leather canteens in the tent, a package wrapped in paper, and a few sets if clothes and shoes."
"Don't drink the water, we don't know if they have AIDs or something. As for the package can you show me where it is?"
"Yes sir, but about the water, we're out."
"We'll just buy some in the city when we get there."
"Okay sir, follow me."
I got up from the stool and followed Steinmeier to one of the tents all the while he was shouting at the rest if the squad to refrain drinking their water. We got into the tent and saw Jonathan still looking through the stuff.
"Hey Jonathan, where's the package?" Steinmeier asked.
"Here." Jonathan got up and went to one of the sacks and got a small box about six inches across wrapped in brown paper out and handed it to me. He then went back shuffling through their stuff.
The box was fairly light, I shook it around and it made a rattling noise which told me that there's something solid inside, like a necklace of some sort. I then asked Steinmeier. "Hey you think I should open it?"
"I... I don't know sir."
I stared at the package for a moment before ripping the paper off revealing a wooden box with a hinged door on top. I opened it and saw a beautiful blue necklace. The dark blue lace was attacked to a big circular, what I think is an Ivory piece with the outer rim painted the same colour as the lace, the middle ring painted light blue and the inner one painted white. Below it was three white brushy type things attached.
"Damn sir, that looks plain yet good." Steinmeier quipped.
"I know." I put it back in the box and in turn put the box into my pack. "I'll bring this back to the general, you know he has crazy friends that like these kinds of shit."
"Yes sir."
I smiled before getting out of the tent. I walked around the camp for a couple of minutes waiting for the men to finish before getting back and sitting down on the stool. I sat for another ten minutes before the men was finally done, I got the men to line up beside the campfire and report in on what they've found.
All of them gave me more bills, Walter handed me a watch which looked creepily close to those expensive rolex watches back in our world, it has a second, minute, and hour hand which pointed to numbers around the watch in Chinese, one to twelve. Huh so they also have twelve hour cycles... interesting. It says here that its... nine thirty already huh a four hour difference. I put the watch aside and went on to the next item handed to me by Karl which was a folded piece of paper. I opened it to reveal that it was a contract of some sort which read 'You are to steal the avatar's necklace and bring it to a meeting point just outside of Xi Hai, my men will be waiting for your delivery and shall give you fifty thousand yuan upon the verification of the authenticity of the necklace, present this contract to get your reward'. Below the paper was two signatures. Avatar? What or who the hell is that?
I folded it back and put it aside. "Anymore?"
"Negative sir." Karl replied.
"So that means we're done, are the bodies in the tents?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Umm so chill out for five minutes and after that we'll be moving out."
"Yes sir, should we take some pictures of the encounter sir?"
"No... god no."
"Yes sir."
I placed the things into my pack and readied myself for the journey ahead.
"Sir you said the forest was about an acre, this doesn't look like a fucking acre." Jonathan angrily whispered.
"Hey calm down Jonathan and I'm very well aware of that. I was wrong, in any case we're going to continue on to that fucking city."
We had been walking for over half an hour with the forest around us still thick, the city was definitely getting closer, though we might not be able to reach it this night.
Steinmeier was on point with the rest of us in a single file behind him. He then suddenly raised his fists into the air and signaled us to get down. We all crouched and I went up front to find out why.
"Sir there are fast moving lights up ahead, hard to see it with NV on because of the lights from the city." Steinmeier said.
I flipped my NV goggles up and was temporarily blind because of the darkness but after my pupils have dilated I was able to see that there were indeed fast moving lights going from left to right and vice versa in front of us just over a mound in the trail.
"Sir do you think they could be... cars?"
"There's only one way to find out, come on." I jogged towards the mound with the squad following suit. Upon reaching the mound I crawled up to have a smaller profile. "Holy mother of god."
In front of me lies a concrete paved single lane two way road being separated with a white line with a fair amount of vehicles going both directions, and it has street lights placed every few meters. The dirt trail directly connects to the right side of the road with the road turning to the left and towards the city.
"Jesus sir, they all look... old, like in the nineteen twenties or the Model T." Steinmeier said.
"I know. Its so... weird."
By then the rest of the squad had also crawled up beside me and was whispering to each other. They've already flipped their NVs up so they could actually see and not blined by the light.
"Sir how are we going to cross that? I don't want to become road kill." Jonathan said.
"I don't think we need to cross, look." I pointed at the road. "It leads towards the city, all we need to do is to follow it and stay on this side."
"Oh right, nice one sir."
"Come on lets move."
"Sir if we follow the road then people would be able to see us, look the road is level with the ground and they're left hand drive, they don't even need to tilt their heads to see us. It doesn't even have barriers so if some crazy driver decided that he wants to kill those green things walking on the side then he can easily do it."
"Its fine, if they see us so be it. Its not like this is a special operation where secrecy is key. Our objectives were to find more about these lands and possibly establish some sort of contact, how the hell are we going to do that if we stay hidden in the shadows?"
"Alright sir, I understand."
"Now come on, I would like to reach the city before dawn."
"What are we going to do when we get there?" Walter asked.
"No idea, maybe go to their city hall or something of the same, or just walk around and ask people about stuff."
"While we're in full battle gear that's smeared with mud?"
"Exactly."
"Sounds fun."
"It is, now come on and get off your asses."
We got down from the mound and started walking parallel to the road. We walked for almost an hour with lots of cars sowing down when they got beside us and taking a peek out their windows but sped off when we turned and looked at them in the eyes. It was quite the fun experience, scaring people.
As we got closer to the city the lights kept getting brighter and the gigantic yellow light just gets bigger and bigger. We started to see smaller building pop up and the skyscrapers getting clearer.
"Sir there's a sign up front, what does it say?"
The sign was rectangular horizontally and was mounted on a pole about three meters tall, the sign itself was made of metal painted green with white words.
"Welcome to Republic City."
