9th of May 1990 USA, 06:12 Washington Mountains.

"Open fire!" Someone shouted from the snow-covered defensive perimeter.

The response was quick, rifle and light machine guns fired upon the intruders entering from the other side of the archway. Its effects were evident to the spectators.

The first pair of black creatures to make it through received a mix of rifle and machine gun fire, shredding them to pieces within seconds. It quickly picked up after that with at least a dozen of the same creatures running out of the archway but as before, was meant with a storm of bullets. This time heavy machine guns of APCs were unleashed onto them; the 50 caliber bullets easily penetrated the skin of the creatures blowing off chunks of body parts and in some cases the round continued flying into another creature.

Parker having been up and about, saw this in all its glory. At least a company's worth of men and APC's and what appeared to be a few emplacements of ATGMs, which the ATGMs were holding fire for now, unleashing its firepower upon those unfortunate bastards trying to make their way through. It looked like the wolf like creatures could tank a few rifle rounds, but the 50s did absolute ham on them. Some even getting put down instantly with a well place round to the head.

It was quite the site, even amusing because the men shooting them were just enjoying it as much as the spectators. Which was obvious with the commander manning the 50 on the M113 closest to him yelling, "Get some! Get some Motherfuckers! Hahaha!" as he fired away. With a clear sadistic smile on his face.

But things got more interesting when something other than the wolves came from the entrance, this time it was a bear like creatures. They also came running, three slightly larger than average bears but nothing the 50s couldn't handle. But the fourth one on the other hand, was definitely larger than the rest, having it being twice the size of the other three and even more interestingly had more bone like armor all over its black body which could pose a problem.

As the wolves were still being finished off, the bears creatures received little to no fire. Well except for the jolly commander as he noticed the new beefy targets threatening to break the perimeter.

"Oh, you want some of this too you bastards!" The commander yelled out as he swiveled the 50 towards the new targets to let them have it.

The commander let out a few bursts getting the range right before fully unleashing American led. The first burst was a bit short but the second was right on, hitting the lead bear in shoulder making it stumble a bit into the snowy ground, but it continued on. But this was all the gunner needed and he unloaded all he had into the four of them. The leading bear received a couple rounds to the head, blowing it to pieces and having its body fall to the ground, sliding to a halt. The next in line received a similar fate, having its shoulder shredded off causing it to trip onto its head presumably killing it. The third before the big one was lined in the gunner's sights, and he fired. He only got out three rounds before the 50 jammed, the three rounds having some effect on the bear. Evident by having its eye torn from its head by a round, but its continued running.

"God damn it you son of a bitch!" The commander yelled at his machine gun as he pulled the bolt handle back trying to un-jam the thing.

The two remaining bears kept running at top speed towards the perimeter, only receiving periodic rifle hits to which they absorbed like sponges as they got closer. Parker and a few other spectators were getting nervous at this. Parker himself getting his weapon ready to be used just in case.

Meanwhile the commander was making little progress on the machine gun, so he turned to the side of the APC and yelled at a infantry men, "Hinks!" He got the man named Hinks attention, despite the cracks of rifle fire around them, and he looked to the commander, "Hit that motherfucker with a GL!"

The Infantry man known as Hinks heard him and stood up from his sandbag emplacement and pulled up his grenade sight on his m16 and loaded a round into his grenade launcher. He then got into a firing stance, lined up his sights with the lead bear and fired. The High-explosive grenade did its job as the bear it contacted with had its entire head blown to pieces resulting in the body, with its momentum still going forward doing a flip onto its back, dead as bricks.

Then there was the final bear. It was now receiving most of the fire now with, most of the wolves being killed which resulted in the men switching targets to it. But unfortunately, the 5.56mm rounds were having little effect on the thing. The rounds either bounced off of the bone looking armor or scored a hit into the flesh of the beast only slowing it down or the shots missed their marks entirely missing the beast.

The beast itself, looking more pissed then wounded, was now only a few dozen meters from the perimeter. Having rifle and machine gun rounds hitting it from three directions tearing off flesh and armor, slowing it down more and more. Parker himself raising his own weapon prepared to fire. The Infantry men Hinks, was reloading his grenade launcher but was fumbling in the process due to the beast getting closer, heading right for him making him panic which was evident with his fast breathing being visible by the cold mountain air. The commander decided to abandon the 50 and pulled out his 1911 and started taking pot shots at the beast to give Hinks more time to reload, that itself having little effect.

"Fire that TOW damnit!" Colonel Sawyer yelled out to a ATGM emplacement.

The crew waiting for such an order, "Missile away!" a man yelled out and the missile was off.

The missile scored a direct hit into the beast chest right under its neck and exploded, the blast itself ripping the head from its body sending it flying a other direction. While the main body itself imploded from the HEAT warhead sending the blast into the body, killing it instantly within only a few meters from breaching the perimeter barbwire surrounding the archway.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Sergeants yelled out from the perimeter trying to save ammunition from being wasted as men continued to fire into the Archway. They did as they were told and the fire slowly died down then to silence after a few moments, leaving the nothing but snow and dust in the air between them and the archway.

Sawyer who had been observing the skirmish just like Parker turned around to face the group of his officers, "That gentleman, is who we'll be fighting for the foreseeable future." He started, "And we'll be fighting in a more professional and efficient manner!" He yelled out as he looked at the commander that Parker had been amused by. The commander who had heard the Colonel looked behind him, pistol still in hand, and both made eye contact.

If Parker was a betting man, he would've bet Sawyer was giving him the classic pissed off Sawyer face. And the commander was quite possibly shitting himself, but Parker wasn't sure for the lower half of his body was still in the APC.

Sawyer started walking to the commanders APC, presumably to talk with the poor bastard. So that left the group of officers to discuss what they just witnessed.

Some officers decided to comment on the display, "Damn." and "Going to need some extra ammunition." and other similar comments.

"Parker, you think that shotgun of yours would've done much against those things?" Webb asked beside Parker with a hint of humor in his voice.

Parker, who took offensive to his weapon being questioned, "You think that little pistol of 9mm would've done better?" Parker said as he noticed Webbs pistol out of its holster.

Webb, who had a slight smile on his face for making fun of Parkers shotgun put on a blank face as he looked down to his pistol, "Okay yeah, fair point."

Parker, quite proud of his decision to ask the quartermaster for a shotgun and some slugs, patted his shotgun.

"Well, will it do better than a m16?" Webb asked as he holstered his pistol.

Will it? Parker thought, sure a 12-gauge slug could do a lot of damage but so could a rifle round and it seemed not totally effective against those things. But on the other hand, he was a Major now.

"If I have to use my weapon on those things, I think I have bigger things to worry about." Parker responded.

"True." Webb got out before Sawyer marched back up to the group of officers. Will a clear demoralized commander outside his APC, which seemed to get worst as his platoon commander made his way to him after witnessing the colonel lecture the poor man.

"Cut the chatter and let's get a move on." He stated and the group treaded their way to the command tent to get a briefing on strategy.

The group was a assortment of other Battalion officers and support Battalion officers like Parker and Webb. Sawyer had originally woken them up early to get a head start on planning and organizing, which Parker and probably others didn't appreciate but made the correct decision not say anything and did as told. But right as the officers were together, a soldier intercepted the colonel to tell him a incursion was about to happen. So, the Colonel took the opportunity to show the officers what they were up against and the group witnessed the whole thing.

Parker had been given a file mid-way to their designation in the mountains about the assignment. But as with combat, paper and the real deal don't always translate well. The creatures were lot more ferocious than what he expected and a lot more tough surprisingly, taking 50s like champs. But to be fair the file was more about what the objectives were and what units were involved, which the unit's parker was told was still being decided on and the solid objectives was securing the other side and recon. So what Parker got out of the file was, we are going to a other world to fight monsters. Good luck.

Parker was not to thrilled about the assignment, considering the Chinese just entered the war and were probably fighting US allies in the Asia. And thought it be better to be fighting literally anywhere else rather than here, but he supposed it's a good change of pace from desperate fighting so maybe it wasn't to bad. And technically it was closer to home so that was a plus.

Parker was broken from his thoughts by the Colonel who walked up beside him, "So, Parker, Webb, feeling confident?" Sawyer asked the two.

Webb responded first, "Well Colonel, I think we can do it. Just will be difficult without adequate support."

The Colonel was quick to respond, "Don't worry Webb, I've been given total command of this operation. Which leaves me to choose how things are." The Colonel put on a smile, "I requested and been granted a few squadrons of support Aircraft from the air force and a few Helicopters battalions to also support us. They'll probably be old but we're not up against Ivan."

Webb seemed to be content with the answer, so Sawyer turned to Parker, "Parker, any worries?"

"What about ground support?" Parker asked.

"Well Parker, due to the nature of the operation I plan on giving each battalion the capitally to operate on its own so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll give more detail in the briefing." The Colonel said.

It's looking good so far, shouldn't be too bad with the Colonel in command Parker thought. But needed to know one more thing, "Sir, what will be the quality of the brigade as a whole?"

The colonel seemed less happy about that question but still responded, "Unfortunately due to most of the brigade being fresh we are going have to distribute some of the experienced units between the fresh battalions, so expect half of your units to be green. And the equipment to be... less then new."

Parker wasn't entirely surprised about that, it's not like they need the newer stuff or hardened men to fight animals anyway. Those would be better suited to stopping the commies.

But the group of officers continued to walk through the brigade staging area and was just outside of the command tent to enter before a soldier came up to the Colonel and gave him a salute and received one back, "Colonel, the finial battalion has just arrived." The soldier stated.

"Good." He turned to the group, "Make yourselves comfortable. I'll be greeting the last battalion and bring whoever is leading it back and begin the briefing, with him here we just might be entering the Archway in a day or so."

"Yes sir." The group responded and watched as the Colonel got into a Humvee and drove off to meet the newly arrived battalion.

Webb turned to Parker as the other officers were already in the command tent, "You think this is enough Parker? We might be a overstrength Brigade but that's a entirely different world, we might be in over our heads." He voiced his concerns.

Parke looked to Webb and back to the direction of the Archway, due to its size he could still see most of it.

"Webb... As long as we remain organized and work well, we can probably overcome anything over there. We did fight off the invasion after all. That's got to mean something." Parker responded.

Webb seemed to accept the response and started to turn away to go into the command tent.

"If it does get bad, the Colonel wouldn't make us stay there, he'll most likely take us back. And that's what makes me assured we'll be fine." Parker added on.

Webb gave what Parker said moment of thought and smiled, "That you are right on, Parker. Come on inside its cold and they might have some coffee in here somewhere."

"Oh, thank god I haven't had any this morning. Colonel dragged me away before I could get any." Parker said as he made his way for the tent.

Webb chuckled and pulled the tent entrance strap away and let Parker in to get some warmth and some good old US army coffee.

Outer area of Brigade staging area.

The Colonel drove up to the vanguard of the new battalion and stopped the Humvee. He noticed the few tanks at the front were M60s so that was a good sign and got out of his vehicle and made his way to the first tank to speak to its commander.

The commander was out of his hatch and speaking down to a officer to get direction on where to go before Sawyer walked up, "Are you part of the new battalion?" Sawyer asked.

The commander heard this and gave the Colonel a salute, to which he returned and waited for a response.

"Uh yes sir, we are. I'm part of-." He started but was cut off by the Colonel.

"Good, where is your battalion commander? I need to see him."

"Major Bannon? I believe he left to go find you, Sir."

Wait did he say Bannon? Sawyer thought and needed confirmation, "Would this Major be Mark Bannon?"

"Yes sir, just got out of medical leave I heard." The commander then looked to have remembered something, "Wait he served under you, didn't he? At Cascade falls?"

The commander wouldn't get a response for Sawyer was already making his way towards his Humvee.

Brigade command tent.

Parker and Webb were observing the map, which was hardly a map for the lack of information, and what it did show was the other side of the archway. They, with a cup of coffee in hand, were guessing what the strategy would be.

"Knowing the Colonel, we'll probably be going to go through by battalions and advance in a direction right away." Webb guessed.

Parker gave his guess, "Really? The colonel is aggressive, but I don't think he'll just send the battalion out piecemeal. He'll probably hold them back until all are deployed and then send us out. Maybe wait for a camp to be established, maybe." Parker didn't have to much hope on the last part.

"Hm, you think he'll wait for a runway to be made?" Webb asked.

"Nope."

"Yeah, your right."

Both smiled, they knew the Colonel wouldn't be held up by construction. Even if it allowed air support.

Parker was about to ask about the Artillery situation but stopped when he heard a voice behind them, "I'm Major Bannon of the battalion that just arrived. Is the person in charge present?"

That voice. It can't be.

It couldn't be Bannon. Parker thought and turned around, with Webb doing the same to look at the new voice. They both stared at the figure at the entrance of the command tent. Oh yes, it looked like Bannon.

The figure, which Parker and Webb were still trying to make sure was Bannon, noticed the two, "Parker? Webb? Is that you?" He asked and made his way to them.

The rest of the officers stopped their conversations to see the reunion. And Bannon was now in front of the two and grabbed Parker's hand, which was still at its side, and shook it then did the same with Webbs with a bright smile on his face, "Man I would say it's good to see you guys but I'm not sure it is. Trouble follows us wherever we go, wouldn't you say Parker?" He said jokingly.

Oh yes, it was Bannon alright.

He then noticed the two's new rank, "Oh, and I see promoted. Well, thank God I got promoted, wouldn't want you outranking me. Imagen taking orders from Parker, a former subordinate." He continued to be lighthearted, completely ignoring the two's faces of disbelief.

"You're alive." Webb finally managed to get out.

"Ha! You bet I am. You think a Nuke could stop me before I saw the American flag hanging from the space needle? Nope, still kicking. Maybe if our bomber boys knew how to aim, I would be less then alive, and maybe we would be winning the war right about now aye." He responded, still not getting that they thought he was dead.

"Bannon... we thought you died." Parker finally spoke up.

Bannon dropped his smile and looked confused, "Wait, you really thought I died?"

"Uhhh yeah, we did. Kind of what happens when you get nuked and don't hear from for a while." Webb responded.

Bannon looked more understanding, "Oh, well me and my crew were in medical quarantine for a while. You know, for being close to the blast. But I don't know how you didn't know I was alive. Guess the Army fucked up again, no surprise there."

Parker and Webb could actually believe that. Sawyer probably did label him as KIA after the battle and no one bothered to change it. Typical Army.

"I can tell you about the nuke and afterword's later but I need to find the commanding office here, you know where he is?" Bannon said.

Webb beat Parker to it, "The Colonel actually went to find you."

Bannon looked to Webb and was about to say something but stopped when something struck him, "Wait..." He looked to Parker, "The Colonel, not as in Colonel Sawyer?"

Parker was about to break the news to him but didn't get too for he saw the Colonel come through the flaps of the entrance.

Guess he'll find out the hard way, Parker thought.

Bannon noticed Parker look behind him and turned around to see what he was looking at.

There was dead silence for a few moments as both observed each other.

The Colonel spoke first, "Bannon seems I really can't get rid of you."

All Bannon got out was, "Ah hell." under his breath.

Well at least the gangs back together, Paker mused.

12th of May 1990, USSR 11:58 Ural Military District.

"Ah Romanov, you arrived. Take your seat then we can begin." Colonel Orlovsky, in front of the gathered officers told Romanov as he entered the Command tent for the briefing.

Some of the officers bothered to look to see who the Colonel was talking too, and others didn't bother at all for they were too busy going over papers of their own units. But one thing Romanov did notice as he scanned of the tent of officers, he was once again, last.

You've got to be kidding me. He moaned internally as he located a vacant seat on the first row of assorted seats, it was one of many, all pointed to where the Colonel was standing. He made his way to it and sat down, still pissed that he was once again last. Like how? The briefing wasn't even supposed to start until 1200. And yet he was early, and he was still dead last. Did he forget the class in officers' school that when someone gives you a time, you're supposed to be there 30 minutes before the designated time? Like a good portion of the officers in here are giving him the, "Nice of you to join us." face. Well, all he could think of in response to those faces was, look at your damn watches I'm early, at worst on time. Bastards just want to suck up the Colonel.

He looked to the Colonel. Maybe they are just scared of pissing off the Colonel, he does look intimidating with his eye patch.

He was then brought out of his frustrations by the Colonel, "Now that all are present, we can begin." He started as he took in a full view of the room of officers, all having their complete attention on him.

"As you may all know, you are here to participate in the first of its kind in history. A expedition into a other world." The Colonel paused to let it sink in, "The goal of this expedition is to Explore this new land and find the reason why this opportunity was presented to us in the first place. And quite possibly find any type of civilization."

The room of officers were fully absorbed into the briefing, Romanov on the other hand was fully aware this part of it was unnecessary and was half listening. For him he already knew most of the basics, mostly because he already got a file on the assignment through the Colonel and the rest was to appease any Party hardliners and give inspiration and excitement for the mission. The Colonel probably didn't like it as much as he did either seeing how he has to give it, but better to give it then be questioned on loyalties.

It took a moment before the Colonel actually got to where it really mattered, and he focused back his attention to the Colonel as he uncovered a board behind him which showed a map of what he presumed was the other side of this archway.

The Colonel looked back to the officers, "As you can see by the quality of the map our scouts only ventured about a kilometer before returning back. But that's what we will be doing, large scale recon of the surrounding area. We'll cross into this world establish a base of operations, then expand the perimeter of the brigade."

Some officers were taking some notes but the only thing you really needed to take notes on would be your own assignment, Romanov observed.

The Colonel continued, "The terrain on the other side is mostly semi-dense forest with some snow cover, so we'll be switching to winter coating. But don't worry, it seems too not be too cold." He looked back to the map and used a swagger stick to point to areas on the map, "We will have a total of seven frontline battalions, five Infantry battalions one Airborne battalion and the seventh battalion will be a Armored one. Four of the Infantry will be going four directions, North, East, South, West, once the base is established. The Airborne battalion will remain at the base as protection and to be used as needed, while the last two will act as reserves following close to the advancing battalions."

Seems like a sound plan, Romanov thought as the Colonel turned back around.

"The Infantry battalions with be reinforced with more support units and extra fire support and expect your units to be larger than regulated." The Colonel stated.

"Are you allowed to do that sir?" One of the officers spoke out.

The Colonel focused his gaze onto the spoken officer, "Matter of fact I can, I've been granted authority to organize as I see fit." He quickly moved on from the question and continued the briefing, "Lieutenant Colonel Alksnis, will be in command of the air assets once we are over there." He said as he pointed to the side of the room where the man he mentioned stood.

"I look forward to working with you all." Alksnis said to the group of officers.

"Thank you Alksnis. We have a few squadrons of aircraft to support us, but as we are at war with the West so most of it is from the reserves." The Colonel noted but continued, "But we have been lucky enough to receive a squadron Mi-24 helicopters as support, along with some transport helicopters as well."

We can live with old aircraft seeing as we are only going be fighting animals, but the ground situation will probably be depressing seeing how we weren't allowed to take the T-80 tanks with us here. Romanov noted depressingly but decided to take the initiative and ask how bad it really was, "What will be the equipment on the ground be like, Colonel?" He asked.

Orlovsky looked to Romanov and then to the whole room, with a displeased look, "Unfortunately most of the units with us are from C class Divisions. I picked the more motivated of the units from those, but the equipment may be a bit... not what we are used to. So no self-propelled artillery, except for the battery of 2S7 Pions me and Romanov brought from the east, only towed artillery, rocket artillery and only a battalion of T-72 tanks which I also brought with us. Which the T-72s will be concentrated into the Armored Battalion, the rest of the armored units will most likely be T-55s. But it seems APC's will be a bit more modern and the IFVs are not in large numbers but will be able to distribute them between the battalions."

T-55s? Not even the T-62s will be with us. I guess those are being allocated to minor fronts or allies. Romanov guessed. At least we have the Pions and the T-72s, so not totally the worse.

"But gentleman do not be disheartened by the equipment, we have men and equipment from the American theater that will help us with this mission. That is why I will be splitting them between the battalions to better assist us in our goals." The Colonel assured them.

Grrrreeaatt going have to deal with fresh troops. That's probably the worse news yet. Romanov moaned internally. But maybe the Artillery support will be good.

"Colonel, exactly how much Artillery will we have available to us?" He asked the Colonel.

"We will have a Regiments worth of it for support and a battery with be attached to each Infantry battalion. That should be suitable for this mission." The colonel answered.

Hm, decent gun to men ratio. He noted.

"Colonel." Another officer spoke.

"Yes?"

"Will there only be the monsters mentioned in the file over there?" The officer asked.

He seemed to appreciate the question, "It's likely there will be, so assume and prepare for that. And for those of you that don't know there's been reported of at least 3, possibly more types of these creatures, a Wolf type, a Bear type, and a unknown bird type. They seem to at least get along with one another so we can assume there's a correlation with these creatures." The officer that asked the question seemed to have gotten his answer.

"Is there any more questions? The Colonel asked the room and waited a moment. No one spoke up.

"Very well, we'll be deploying soon so get familiar with your units and prepare them. Dismissed." He told the room, and all got up from their seats to leave.

Well, it doesn't seem doomed. Romanov reasoned as he got up from his seat to find his battalion.