Search for Clues

Having regained his composure, 2LT Joseph took stock of the current situation. His platoon, as far as he could tell, was all dead. Well, except for possibly PFC Leonardo, but he was on the other river bank, with 4th Platoon. 2LT Joseph was alone.

He lost his rifle, as well as his tactical vest and helmet in the river. All he had were the clothes on his back and the M17 service pistol in its holster. He was also soaking wet. In the sub-freezing weather, he had to shed his wet clothes or he would catch hypothermia in no time. With this in mind, he decided to move.

He climbed up off the river bank and towards their objective, the research facility. He hoped other parts of A Company had made it to the facility. After traveling for a couple minutes, the tall, gray, concrete structure that housed the facility was in sight. He could see no movement or action occurring within or around the facility. The immediate area was quiet, but the sounds of warfare in the distance acted as a constant background noise.

2LT Joseph spotted a body on the road. He moved to it and attempted to identify it.

Army Special Forces. This man was a Green Beret.

He rolled the body over. A bullet hole in the center of the neck was identified the cause of death. The deceased was identified as SSG Rickenbacker. He was quite well equipped, with a Modular Body Armor Vest and a MICH TC-2002 helmet and attached PSQ-20 NVGs used by special forces. Unfortunately, this body armor did not prevent the fatal bullet from killing the SSG. His uniform was all Multicam, not much different from the OCP pattern of 2LT Joseph's ACUs. He checked for a radio, and found one, a PRC-148, but it was destroyed by a bullet, which it managed to catch. It seemed unfortunate, that SSG Rickenbacker still died after being saved by his radio.

Am I really going to do this?

2LT Joseph dragged the body of the soldier into the nearest building, and stripped him. He then stripped himself, and put the soldier's dry clothes on himself. He then put on all of the soldier's gear, replacing the soldier's patches with his own. He then neatly folded his wet ACUs, and placed them next to the soldier's body.

"He was a good man, and he did his duty to the best of his ability. He deserved better. May God have mercy on his soul."

I'll come back for him when I can.

The young lieutenant then picked up the dead man's rifle and examined it for a few moments. It was a SCAR Mk 17 Mod 0 battle rifle with a Mk 13 Mod 0 grenade launcher, PEQ-15, and EOTech 518.2 with magnifier. 2LT Joseph recalled a weapons demonstration he took part in back at Ranger School, this was one of the rifles he had the opportunity to shoot. He quickly refamiliarized himself with the weapon system, and then familiarized himself with the layout of the tactical vest.

This will work. Time to move.

He exited the building, and moved with haste from cover to cover, towards the facility. His tactical movement was unnecessary, as the streets were abandoned, lacking both enemy soldiers and civilians. He reached the facility and found the entrance doors blown off, seemingly by a breeching charge. 2LT Joseph entered to find a long hallway filled with many dead North Korean soldiers. He walked cautiously along. He peeked into the few rooms with their doors open. In one of them, he spotted a dead American.

Another Green Beret.

He entered and checked the name tape.

Sergeant O'Neally.

The operator had taken multiple rounds to both the chest and arms.

This is strange, we would never leave our soldiers bodies, not if we won.

This thought displeased the lieutenant greatly, as the possibility of the entire Special Forces unit getting wiped out seemed more and more plausible. He checked for a radio, but in the radio pouch he found nothing. He checked the sergeant's hands and found a device. It was not a radio, but something else, something much smaller. He took the small electronic device. It was white with black buttons, and had a small LCD screen with a couple of buttons underneath. It had a belt clip attached to the top of the device. Upon flipping it over, he found the back of the device featureless, not even screw holes. He also did not find a seam on the device.

This is like one of those small, cheap, gaming knick-knacks you could get at the dollar store as a kid, but this is much higher quality.

He tried the buttons, but the device did not respond. He placed it in a grenade pouch, pulling the grenade out and hanging it on a MOLLE loop by the spoon. He moved back into the hallway and proceeded to the room at the end of the hall.

Upon opening the door, he found a massive room full of a variety of electronic equipment of industrial scale. He scanned the room, but saw nobody, more accurately nobody alive. There were, however, many bodies of dead soldiers, both friendly and enemy, as well as dead scientists and technicians. Upon examination, he found that although most wounds had been caused by bullets, a large amount were claw marks and bite marks. These wounds were of large proportion, caused by animals that had to be at least bear sized.

Did the North Koreans release captive animals during the attack?

Nothing indicated that the facility housed captive animals, no cages or food bowls. But, he had not searched the entire building yet. He continued his examination. He found many Special Forces operators dead on the steps leading to the large arch shaped device at the center of the room. Almost all their wounds consisted of claw marks. Ignoring this, he searched for a radio. He found one intact and attempted to establish communication with friendly forces. He changed the radio to operational frequency and tried to raise his unit.

"All receiving, this is Alpha, Three – Six. Acknowledge. Over."

He waited, no response. He tried again.

"All receiving, this is Alpha Three – Six. Acknowledge. Over."

"Alpha Three – Six, this is Alpha Four – Six. Receiving. You are weak, but readable. Out."

2LT Joseph smiled. It was Fourth Platoon's PL.

"Alpha Four – Six. SITREP. Over."

"Alpha Three – Six. Alpha Company sustained heavy casualties. I am in command. We are combat ineffective, waiting on reinforcement. Lieutenant, what is your present status and location? Over."

"Alpha Four – Six. Third Platoon is wiped out. I am alone. I am on the objective. Grid Seven-Seven-Niner Two-Four-Two. Out."

He began to check the bodies for other things, but the radio cut in.

"Alpha Three – Six. GET OUT ASAP! CAS has been called on your position! ETA One Mike! Out!"

"FUCK!" The lieutenant quickly placed the radio into his radio pouch, picked up his rifle, and quickly ran towards the exit. He ran up the steps to the arch, as the doors he came through were on the other side. But, when he got onto the platform, his vest began to glow extremely bright. He stopped, looked down and noticed the glow was coming from a grenade pouch. He opened the pouch and took the device he had picked up earlier out. The screen was shining extremely bright, too bright to look at. He turned it upwards, and the light beam from the screen bent its way to the top of the arch, like a laser beam being bent by mirrors. The arch then began to glow, and the arch's interior began to fill with light. It formed into a spiral, and eventually filled out into an environment. The lieutenant, shocked, put the now dead device pack into his pouch and examined the arch. In front of him was what looked like a forest. He moved to a different angle, and it moved too. It was a…

A portal!

2LT Joseph was awestruck. he walked up to it, and could feel the cold winter air meet him. He leaned his head in, to find that the edge of the portal where he stood was ten feet in the air in a forest.

How the fuck is this…

The ground shook from a nearby explosion, and the lieutenant fell off the edge. He hit the ground legs first, rolling to prevent injury, but hit his head on the ground hard, knocking himself out. Another explosion occurred soon after, this one inside the building, destroying the arch and closing the portal. The lieutenant was stranded in this unknown environment.