Chapter 4: First Contact
(Jonathon's P.O.V.)
The Humvee growled as it ate small bushes and pieces of branches underneath its powerful tires. The path we were driving along was easily assessable by foot, yet by vehicle, it was proving to be a bit... hazardous. Somewhere a mile back a tree had fallen after we drove directly into it, and the low hanging branches had forced the private manning the gun back into the confines of interior so as to not get injured.
If any of the natives of this land were nearby, they would easily know where we are from the amount of cacophony coming from our trek. The loud growls to roars from the engine as it adjusted to the rough terrain were enough to cause my head to ache, then there was the ripping sounds as the tires abused any and all plants lining the path we were traversing. The few tree's that happened to get in our way lost bark depending on how close to the path they were, yet it wasn't the trees I was worried about; rather it was the durability of the Humvee. We had already lost the driver side mirror to a close brush with a tree.
"There! The trees are thinning out..."
Sanders hand was thrust between the front seats as he pointed ahead of our position, yet flanking the edge of the path was something I knew would cause a nice little speed bump to our vehicle. Reaching over and tapping the driver on the shoulder, he quickly eased off the gas. Looking away from the trees and at my driver, I asked uncertainty, "Will this Humvee be able to plow through that?"
He gave me an uneasy look as he said, "I know it can... but it won't be gentle for us inside this thing."
Letting out a breath, I nodded, before arching my neck to look at the back seat and ordered, "Buckle up tight, it's going to get rough real fast." Looking back forward, I pointed towards the end of the forested path and said, "Open up the path..."
-Random Median Outside Forest-
The loud and ominous growling I heard from coming from the forest had ceased, yet I felt an uneasy chill seep into my bones as now there was an almost ominous purr coming from within the breaks of the tree's. I didn't know what was making the noise, but as I stood to my feet, the growling noise came back, and I swore it sounded like Syndel himself cackling. I knew I shouldn't have left home today!
Just as I made my first step back, the growling turned into a tremendous roar! I stumbled as I yelled in fear, and a few moments later, I saw two trees explode outwards in a shower of splinters, and I saw something in the cloud of splinters roaring away from the forest. Getting up, I turned around and ran as fast as my legs could carry me. It's a Monster!
-Moments Prior-
(Jonathon's P.O.V.)
Holding my rifle and the latch on the door for dear life as we raced towards the trees, I felt my heart thudding against my chest as I anticipated the jolt soon to come. The Humvee shook below my feet as it hit a small bump, before a loud crack signified the Humvee impacted the rough bark of the tree. I felt myself lurch forward a bit when we collided with the second tree soon afterwards, but the metal and inertia of the light assault vehicle proved to be too much for the pair of trees as the Humvee flew out of the forest with a shower of splinters and foliage.
After the less than gentle landing- as the impact with the tree must've thrown us up into the air by a foot or so- the driver let off the gas until we were leisurely driving, before he brought it to a halt amidst a field of dandelions and grass... and a few splinters visible here and there.
"Is everyone alright?"
I heard a groan from the backseat, and I looked behind me as best as I could and saw Sanders rubbing a red welt on his forehead from where I presumed he hit his head. The gunner looked over at him and said, "Hit his head on your seat sir."
Sanders winced a bit, before he asked quietly, "Please... not so loud..."
Shaking my head with a grin, I looked back at the driver and said, "Alright, seems there are no major injuries... take us over that hill."
As the man started to drive, the radio crackled, before a voice filtered into it, "Sir, the general sent a message over. He is granting us full permission to leave our location and search for Mr. Elexion for the next three weeks... something about the portal linking our worlds collapsing around the end of that time frame."
Reaching over, I grabbed the radio's attachment and spoke into the mic, "Roger that... break down camp and proceed along the route we discussed prior to departure."
"Affirmative sir, will proceed along route previously discussed, over and out."
The radio crackled, before the link was cut, and I replaced the receiver before leaning back in my seat and letting out a sigh. Eric buddy... seems we can really search for you and see if you are still alive...
...
(Eric's P.O.V.)
Grabbing the area where Sakido's wings merged with her fur, I firmly squeezed the location until I felt pleasure flare across our physical link, and I shivered pleasantly when Sakido eased my lips apart with her own as we kissed. I felt her groan as my hands spread her feathers apart on her wings, and her arms pulled me against her even more as we both relished in the feeling of pleasure. Her clawed fingers gently ran through the fur on my back, yet I could feel it on my skin as she slowly ran her fingers sideways as her fingers went further down.
I cracked open an eye just as her fingers reached and slipped under the waist band of my jeans, yet her eyes remained closed as I sent a teasing thought over to her, before she softly growled back at me. I felt her lips curl into a smirk as she continued to kiss me while her hands began to slide towards where the front of it resided, and she sent back to me, "If you refuse to help me, I will simply shred them..."
Her reply was enough for me to chuckle, before I pulled away from her muzzle and said, "That would be unfair then, since you aren't helping me with your cloak..." Her smile widened, before her hands slid off my back and I saw her blue eyes peak out from under her eyelids slowly, before she reached to the front of her dress and gave me a wink.
I felt my cheeks flush in warmth as her eyes remained locked with my own, but I knew what she was doing as she continued to stare up into my own eyes. "When I was in hell, I never felt alive... now I always feel like I'm an angel with you in my arms."
I don't think I ever felt so alive myself my beautiful demoness... unless if you wish for me to call you my beautiful angel...
Her giggle was sweet and melodious, and she ceased her movements with her hands to instead reach up and grab the lower part of my muzzle and the back of my neck before pulling me into a kiss. My mind went blank partially from the kiss, and from the force of her thoughts overwhelming my own, "No... I love being your demoness..."
When she finished saying that, I could only smile some more as I quickly deepened the kiss for the one I love...
Never more alive...
...
(Jonathon's P.O.V.)
"Uh... sir?"
Swallowing thickly as I continued to stare out of the window, I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. The village was understandable, as we had been following a path obviously made by someone or something intelligent enough to construct a simple path. No... it was what I saw standing between the villages buildings that left me speechless.
Humans were standing there, yet from what I could see from the distance, were obviously not the humans from our end of the portal. The clothes seemed to be made from natural material, and clutched in their hands were poorly constructed tools. A flimsy metal axe was held in one man's hands, and what looked like a pick-axe was in another man's hands. Then there was the architecture. I have seen villages in third-world countries such as South America and Africa where the civilizations have less to make do with, and are better equipped to survive than even men from top militaries.
"Orders sir?"
Slowly coming back from the stupor I was in, I didn't bother looking at the others as I stepped from the Humvee, before calling into the Humvee, "Sanders, Private Jenkins, you're both with me... I'm going to break our previous protocol to learn more of these... fellow humans. Perhaps they even have a map of the land in a store or something if they even have that..."
Before we began to even depart, the driver, a Corporal if I wasn't wrong, asked, "What of me sir?"
"Man the gun and be on the lookout for anything dangerous. If you don't believe you can handle it, bring the Humvee in so that we can fight in numbers." Though I doubt there is anything of danger out there aside from those large... wolf print creatures...
Blinking a bit, I closed the door, before making my way towards the village in the most relaxed posture I could, and I didn't need to look over my shoulder to see the nervous soldier or the excited scientist to know what they were feeling.
Relax Johnny boy... think of this as another reconnaissance mission through a village of non-threatening villagers. Get in, get some information, get out. Quick, clean, and safe...
Letting out a breath to calm myself, I heard instead a rifle strap clinking against a rifle, and I knew I wasn't the only one feeling tense. Turning my head to the side as we continued to walk towards the village, I spoke softly so that there was no chance of my voice carrying too far, "Easy Jenkins... as long as we remain calm, they will remain calm. Sanders... try not to spook any of them..."
The closer we got to the village, the more and more I saw the unwary expressions over all their faces growing, and I even saw resentment in one of the gazes, though the figure soon disappeared behind the amassing crowd.
Once we were ten feet from anxious crowd of villagers, I looked at all the faces, and crude weapons they were holding. I had to swallow as I looked them over, before I called out in as steady a voice as I could muster, "Who is in charge here?"
I wasn't so much worried that they appeared to be wary –borderline hostile- as much as I was worried that this would end up being a terrible first contact scenario. It was also possible that they couldn't understand anything I had just said, as since this was another world, it would be expected that they wouldn't understand English, Russian, or any other known language. So as they muttered incoherently to each other, I leaned over to my two men and asked silently, "In the off chance that they do understand English, did we bring anything of value or interest that we can give to them if they don't want to take information?"
"On my last deployment my CO exchanged MRE's... and the villagers there loved the stuff."
Glancing back at Jenkins, I looked at him for a moment, before I said, "That's actually a good idea, especially if the only food these people get is from farms..."
Turning back towards the crowd as I heard an argument break out, I was surprised to hear a few words get thrown loudly in the other man's face, but English words... with rather harsh meanings. I hid my surprise and unease as the two men started to argue about something about us being dangerous foreigners, yet when one of them glanced over at us, his tone quickly lowered back to an incoherent volume.
After a few brief moments of silence, one of the men looked away from the other, before the other one looked towards our small group and said with hostile intent in his tone, "You and yer men aren't welcome here. I suggest you leave before we make you..."
I felt my eyes narrow as I eyed the man, taking in everything I could about him in a few brief seconds as I spoke firmly, yet kindly to not upset him further, "I beg of you to reconsider. We are searching for one of our lo-"
"YER KIND AIN'T WELCOME!"
As soon as his shout ended, his face was beet red, and spittle was hanging from his lips as he pointed the crude axe in his hands at me. My heart was pounding firmly against my chest as I leaned forward with my rifle off center from his body, my muscles tensed and almost eager for the familiar feeling of a rifle kicking against my shoulder.
Keeping my main focus solely on the man less than ten feet from my position, I kept myself at the ready as I issued an order, "Jenkins, radio in our ride."
I heard the click of a rifle being placed on safety, before I heard the sound of rustling, and soon afterwards the sound of a radio being used. The man with the axe slowly lowered it, yet he continued to glower at me as his gaze shifted from my own, to where the Humvee lay, before coming back to my own.
The roar of the Humvee starting up in the clearing caught the man's gaze once more, before he pointed his axe at me and growled out, "Iffen you think we will back down to yer metal contraption, you be sorely mistaken..."
Clicking my rifle to single fire, I kept my gaze on him as I said, "We will leave as soon as our... contraption extracts us, then you will be free to going back to whatever you do..."
...
The entire ride back had been one of silence, and it wasn't because of lack of conversation, rather it was one of weariness. The Humvee had gotten stuck between two trees on our way back into the forest, and it had taken an hour of work for us to free the vehicle. That combined with the unsuccessful first contact had left Sanders disappointed, and myself irritated; I didn't care enough to know the thoughts of the other two soldiers in the vehicle.
The gentle bumps the Humvee was currently going over as we approached the location where we were supposed to meet up with the rest of our platoon of explorers and rescuers were soothing enough to where I didn't feel the need to grimance. However, despite all that, I couldn't stop thinking about how the locals reacted. It was as if they had dealt with people who had equipment like ours…and it wasn't on friendly terms. Considering what we had seen so far, that meant that either there are natives here who have equipment like ours and is using it to either attack, or oppress other natives who aren't at their level of technology…or those people had encountered some of the rebels that were pulled into this world…
"Dammit!" I snapped when a sudden bump in the road made me hit against the roof, further adding to my annoyance and stress at the realization that our mission may have just gotten harder. It was bad enough that we're here without much backup other than our small team and a portal for us to literally communicate via messages in bottles in this foreign world, so the fact that someone had more or less given a message to the locals in the area that people with equipment like ours were not to be trusted, just made this already difficult mission even harder. Furthermore, with the implication that most, if not all, of the rebels had been pulled through, the odds of Eric being alive just became all that much smaller, cause even if Eric was one of our best, the fact remained that he would likely have been both outnumbered AND outgunned, and I could only hope that Eric hadn't encountered the rebels, and if he did, that he had been able to escape them. Even so, the reactions he got from the natives would mean that they would likely have been no help to Eric, maybe even trying to kill him in retaliation for something he didn't do. In short, worst case scenario, Eric would have been alone and surrounded by hostiles on all sides... No. I couldn't afford to think like that. I know Eric, and if there's one thing he is, it's a survivor. And until I find any hard evidence that suggests otherwise, I can only keep on believing that he survived.
...
It wasn't long before we arrived back in camp. Letting out a tired sigh, I prepared myself to give the bad news.
"How went the expedition, sir?" One of the soldiers asked whilst saluting, to which I returned to salute and told him to gather everyone.
Once everyone was gathered, I cleared my throat and began relaying the details, starting from what we found, till the locals' reaction upon seeing us. To say that they were displeased was an understatement. If anything, a lot of them probably thought that the mission had just become a lot harder than it already was, not to mention a few of them looked pissed at the idea that it was all thanks to the Rebels. They'd probably want to express their displeasure personally to the Rebels when we find them, and I think I'd be hard pressed to stop them from giving the Rebels a piece of their minds.
With that taken care of, I quickly went to writing an update of the mission, before sending it through the portal (we still couldn't establish radio contact). It wasn't long before General Hansen sent his next orders: We were to keep our contact with the locals as minimal as possible to avoid potential complications, though if need be, we WERE allowed to make contact at our own digression. Furthermore, due to the possibility of their being Rebels on this world, and the fact that they likely had a two month head start over us, we were allowed to use lethal force in subduing the Rebels.
Our orders received, we immediately began making preparations for the next expedition into this world. We were on a strict time limit and we couldn't afford to waste even a second. Not if we wanted to achieve our objective in time. Eric… I don't know where you are, or even if you're still with us, but until I find proof that says otherwise, or we run out of time and are called back, I refuse to even think that you didn't survive so hang in there, buddy.
A.N.: Im currently undergoing personal life drama, so expect updates to be sporadic or not at all until after the end of this month. If worse comes to worse, I will try to inform you all if I will be available to even write at all after the end of this month...