(Excerpt from AAR debriefing for Operation Reclamation, audio recorded testimony of Martin Walker, Captain, U.S. Army, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta, timestamp: 12/20/2012, 0214 hours local time)

"When we uncovered the source of the transmission, that was our first clue that some bad shit had gone down. But when I saw the corpse of that soldier, impaled on a spike in front of the HUMVEE, that was when the ol' spidey-senses were really tingling. My instincts were screaming at me to get the fuck outta there, an' I'm sure Sgt. Lugo and Lt. Adams felt the same way. I dunno why, but for some reason seeing physical evidence that the 33rd had casualties in this world and that their dead were being so blatantly desecrated, it triggered some bad memories and shit...

*Debriefer speaks: "You're referring to the Kabul Death Squads back in '05?"

*Walker chuckles and nods*

"Yeah, among other things. But when we saw the explosion in the distance, and saw that Third recon was under attack, that was the real can of worms. We should have sent our Japanese allies packin' as soon as we set out to investigate the signal, protocol be damned. But Lt. Itami, understandably he wanted to intervene and have us provide support to Third Recon. I mean, they were our ride back through the Gate so it only seemed natural.

It turned out to be a mistake...just one in a long series of mistakes that we made on that mission...

"But, that's where Lt. Itami's lack of combat experience came back and almost bit us in the ass. We came within a cunt-hair of fucking up the mission completely because of him."

*Here Walker pauses, asking for another cigarette*

"Still's a shame what happened..."

"Captain Walker, sir!"

The leader of Delta Squad was in an almost full sprint through the trees, barely acknowledging his sniper. In the distance the sound of sporadic automatic gunfire could be heard, along with smaller, secondary explosions.

He heard on his radio Sergeant Major Kuwahara speak up in English.

"Walker, this is Third Recon Actual, indigenous hostiles are flanking us..."

There was a pause and through the static Walker could hear someone scream in pain.

"Chikushou! Mouri and Sato are down! Please hurry!"

Walker keyed the mic on his radio.

"Hang in there, sergeant! We're on our way! ETA 5 mikes!"

He stopped at an oversized tree stump, waiting for the rest of his squad to catch up. Lugo was the first to arrive, almost out of breathe.

"What is it, Lugo?!"

"Sir, we're rushing into an unknown sitch...our orders..."

Walker checked ahead with his M4 rifle. Even through the trees he could see men wearing mail and plate armor in the distance, firing crossbows and what looked like crude flintlock muskets at Third Recon's position. He turned back to Lugo.

"Third Recon's our ticket outta here, an' they're under attack. Orders aren't worth following when lives are at stake, Lugo."

He heard Lugo speak up again.

"But what if it's a misunderstanding, sir?"

The leader of Delta Squad stood up.

"Then I'll make it easy on them. If they fire on us, they're hostile. If they don't, they're friendly."

With that, Lugo and Adams fell in behind their CO, followed by Lt. Itami. As they got closer to the enemy position Adams spoke up.

"We ain't been spotted yet, we should use the element of surprise..."

Walker nodded and pulled a long, narrow silence out of his vest and screwed it onto the barrel of his M4.

"Good call, everyone go silent, let's take these fuckers out!"

He slowly stalked forward and aimed for a main wearing stained leather armor and chain mail. He squeezed the trigger and with a jerk of motion the man fell to the ground. The enemy footman's two companions dropped before they had a chance to react. Walker motioned his squad to follow.

"Nice work, keep moving...but keep a low profile. Let's get to Third Recon!"

(BGM: SO:TL OST 'The Downed Plane')

Walker vaulted out of cover and continued to stalk forward. There were about six enemy footmen and crossbowmen firing on Third Recon, but Delta Squad and their JSDF guest made short work of them, with the high ground and element of surprise. By Walker's estimate there was at least a dozen enemy fighters still between them and the Gate, but now they knew were Delta Squad was. As Walker took cover from a musket volley he heard Adams shout over to Lugo.

"These must've been same people that were been ghostin' us..."

"Yeah, and they were waitin', I knew this was a trap!"

Captain Walker leaned out of cover and fired a burst that took out the enemy captain.

"Less talking and more shooting!"

In the distance he could see the entrance to the Gate, along with the three Komatsu LAV's lined up as an improvised fortification. The Delta Force captain noted grimly that two of the three LAV's were on fire, hence the explosion they had heard earlier. He could also see some fire being exchanged by someone behind the trucks, but he couldn't be sure. As Walker got closer he saw that there was a JSDF rifleman, whose name he didn't recall, crouched by a cluster of trees closest to Delta Squad. He caught the Japanese soldier's attention and the man immediately perked up. Over the din of the battle Walker called out to him.

"Hey! Over here!"

The Delta Force captain called out an order on his radio.

"Friendly at twelve o'clock! Covering fire!"

As a response both Adams and Lugo poured fire onto the enemy footmen's positions, allowing the JSDF soldier to break from cover and make a run for it. Walker's elation gave way to horror as he watched the Japanese soldier fall forward, revealing three arrow shafts embedded in the back of his flack jacket. Walker cursed.

"Goddammit! Open fire, take `em the fuck out!"

The incoming hail of lead made short work of the concealed crossbowmen, which allowed Walker and his team to advance closer to the entrance of the Gate. When they were out in the open the Delta Squad leader saw that there were only three enemy soldiers left, holding a single surviving JSDF soldier at swordpoint. Walker realized it was Sergeant Major Kuwahara. The older NCO looked to be wounded, as he held a bloodied hand to his midsection as he sat on the ground. At this time the Delta Force team got a good look at their enemy.

They were wearing medieval armor, which tied in with the HUMINT debriefings from the Ginza Incident. The crossbowman was wearing loose-fitting leather armor with a conical steel helm covering his head. The man had dropped his shield to the ground beside him, which looked odd to Walker, and had a pattern painted on it to resembled a red X. The other two enemy soldiers were similarly garbed, but were holding swords to Kuwahara's neck. The leader shouted at Walker and his team.

"Not another step, Outworlder! Or your companion dies!"

The Delta Force captain didn't deign to respond, or even need to issue the command. Both Lugo and Adams opened fire, killing both the enemies threatening Kuwahara. The last enemy Walker personally knocked to the ground with the butt of his rifle and stomped the man's exposed head, breaking his neck. A terrible memory, long ago buried, bubbled unwanted to the surface in Walker's mind.

"...Thought we were supposed to be helpin' people..."

"Walker! It's Kuwahara, he's still alive!"

That snapped Walker out of his fugue, and he rushed to Lugo's side. Sergeant Major Kuwahara was indeed still alive, but struggling to breathe. Sgt. Lugo had already pulled his medpack off his thigh rig and was pulling out bandages and other medical supplies.

"How is he, Lugo?"

"Kuwahara's still breathin' but I need to stabilize him ASAP. He's got a gut wound and a couple of broken ribs as well."

The old JSDF NCO opened his eyes, and stared at Walker. His gaze softened and he gave a small, sad smile as he spoke in English.

"I hate being right..."

Walker heard Itami speaking rapidly in Japanese. Lugo translated on the fly as he treated Kuwahara's wounds.

"The loot's askin' where the girls and Tomita are..."

Kuwahara winced in pain and shook his head.

"Tomita is dead...the barbarians cut him down, then cut him in two..."

The Delta Force captain shuddered.

"And what about Kuribayashi, or Kurokawa?"

The old Japanese soldier wept, in spite of his pain.

"Taken...taken by those barbarians. Taken alive."

That response shook Walker to his core. Even Lugo paused in dressing Kuwahara's wounds, staring up at his CO. Itami stared in shock. The old JSDF NCO took Walker's arm, shaking him out of his shock.

"Forget out about me, Captain Walker! Go, get out of here and leave this place! It is cursed!"

Walker looked up and saw that Lt. Itami was starting to go into shock. He barked an order to his second in command.

"Adams, take Itami and search for other survivors!"

Lt. Adams nodded grimly and pulled a protesting Itami away from Kuwahara. Walker turned to Lugo.

"Options, Lugo."

"Sir, I've stabilized Sergeant Major Kuwahara, but he needs serious medical attention like now. I recommend we call in to TAC and call in the cavalry, an' get our wounded back to Japan. This is much bigger than we thought."

The Delta Force sniper smiled grimly as he stood up to join Walker.

"Like it or not, we've completed our mission."

He heard the wounded sergeant speak up again in English.

"No! Don't send any more soldiers! Leave me, and get out of here while you still can!"

Walker was trying to process this when he heard Adam's voice on the radio.

"Walker! It's Adams, I've finished our sweep. No sign of any other survivors."

There was a pause.

"An' Itami really wants to talk to you...I dunno what about, since he's speakin' in Japanese, but I got an idea."

The Delta Force captain sighed and motioned for Sgt. Lugo to follow. They reconvened with Adams and Lt. Itami at the burned ruins of Kame 2, and the young JSDF officer was still agitated and babbling in Japanese. Lugo translated.

"It's no surprise, but Itami wants us to go and help him find the missing JSDF women. He's afraid of what might happen to them."

Walker nodded and turned to Adams.

"What's your assessment, lieutenant?"

Adams checked his M249 SAW and shrugged.

"Sir, I think this mission has turned into a clusterfuck. I think we should cut our losses and fall back through the Gate with Kuwahara and call in the big guns. This shit's gotten too big for us."

The Heavy Gunner paused.

"An' I hate to be the cold-blooded asshole here an' I told you so, but let the record show that I fuckin' told you so..."

Lugo piped up.

"Normally I'd agree with Lt. Adams, sir, but I think we should pursue the girl's kidnappers. They couldn't have gotten far, an' we can still radio into TAC, have one of us stay behind with Sergeant Kuwahara until the cavalry shows up and gets him to safety."

He adjusted his baseball cap.

"As for what I think...well let's just say I second what Lt. Adams said."

Walker turned to ask Lt. Itami his input when there was a loud Bang! It wasn't the crack of a rifle shot, but it still was a discharge of a firearm. The team rushed back to the origin of the sound. There was Sergeant Major Kuwahara, his lifeless body slumped against Kame 3. There was a massive dark red splatter staining the ruined military truck's bodywork, the wound on his temple and a still-smoking M9 pistol clutched in the NCO's hand. In the snow next to Kuwahara was scrawled a kanji word ごめん.

"Gomen."

Walker turned around and saw Lugo standing beside him.

"It means 'sorry' in Japanese. Apparently he thought he was going to be a burden and really wanted us to get outta here..."

Everyone was still in shock, trying to process what just happened, when a voice boomed out of nowhere.

"Beep Beep Beep Beep! This just in…an unwarranted assault on the 33rd and her allies means…hehe…you guessed it! An end to the ceasefire!"

Walker looked up and for the first time saw that the disembodied voice was coming from some speakers that were attached to the higher branches of the trees. They were so well concealed that he and his team hadn't noticed on their first sweep. The voice continued.

"...With all the shit that's happened, you'd think some people would learn, but nooooo! Some primitive screwheads just gotta iceskate uphill! All enemy combatants wishing to surrender, please report to your nearest outpost for processing, Haha! We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast…here we go!"

As soon as the mysterious voice finished speaking, then music started playing out of the speakers. Music that everyone in Delta Squad, and even Lt. Itami, recognized.

(BGM: Hush by Deep Purple)

"...She's got loving like quicksand

Only took one touch of my hand
Blow my mind and I'm in so deep
Can't eat, I can't sleep, yeah
I can't sleep, yeah..."

Walker was still trying to process the new voice and the music playing when he heard Lugo speak up.

"Let me go on record and say that shit just got weird."

Adams shook his head.

"Fuck weird, this shit's outta control!"

"Not only does the 33rd have a presence here, but they got a fuckin' DJ…We gotta radio Command ASAP!"

Walker turned and saw Lugo gesturing to the Gate entrance. He shook his head.

"Negative. With Kuwahara dead, we owe it to him to try an' find the girls and the Damned 33rd…once we know they're safe, we'll radio for evac…"

He turned to his Delta sniper.

"Lugo, I want you to find the tracks that lead away and get me a heads. The rest of you..."

He gestured to the lifeless bodies of the JSDF.

"...grab ammo, weapons and anything that goes boom, then move out. We're going into an unknown sitch an' I don't want to end this mission having to learn how to fight with sticks or sharp pointy things..."

(AN: And this is starting to unfold just like the video game. I do feel bad for Sergeant Kuwahara, of all the JSDF characters in the Gate he was the only one I felt that had any real depth to him. But, he was to be the sacrificial lion, just like the luckless 33rd soldiers in the plane wreck at the beginning of the SO:TL game. I know I said that there would be a big plot twist at the end of this chapter, but it got too big and I had to re-arrange some scenes. The next chapter will have a nice plot twist for all concerned. So stay tuned! My hope is to get another chapter out before the end of March or at least in early April, so we are updating about once a month. Stay tuned and feel free to comment, follow and fav!)