Chapter 1
It wasn't long ago when the Philippines reversed its decision and strategy to overtly oppose the United States since the previous administration. Recently, the Philippines and the United States reaffirmed their position for a more 'ironclad' special relationship. It wasn't long until something appeared on their radar during these exercises…
- National Defense Secretary of the Philippines
1100, April 2025
Crow Valley Gunnery Range, Colonel Ernesto Rabina Air Base, Tarlac
US troops from the 25th Infantry Division's 3rd Squadron, 4th Cav along with the Philippine Army's 11th Infantry Division's 34th Infantry Battalion of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team were conducting a combined arms exercise, the magnum opus of this year's drills, supported by some helicopters from the JGSDF and the US Army. Everything seemed going as normal as the previous exercises, gladly for them, the exercises expanded and finally extended the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement for 20 years as opposed to the 10-year one and expanded the EDCA to become a treaty approved by both Filipino and American congresses.
"Fuck… its so damn hot…" Said one of the American soldiers drinking again from his hydration pack. The Yanks were jogging alongside their Filipino counterparts who seem somewhat comfortable in the April heat, they were tasked to capture a mock enemy encampment fifty meters away from their current route.
They were close and later engaged against the designated OPFOR or opposing forces from a thick treeline off the path they were jogging for. Minutes after, the Filipino soldiers, although their skills were worthy of note from their Japanese and American counterparts, they were no match for the OPFOR from 11th Airborne of the US Army, yes, although they were America's Arctic troops, a company was sent to the Philippines to conduct exercises as the OPFOR along with their host nation counterparts.
An American soldier with the rank of a grunt O-3 looked at his Filipino counterpart and commented while sweating his balls under the killing Filipino sun, "Holy fuck, Romualdez…didn't know y'all can shoot for shit…" The Filipino captain puffed and chuckled, although it wouldn't be acceptable in a general Filipino setting, he understood he was fucking with him. "Rodgers, we've been fighting in a war for years, of course, we know how to fucking shoot, ha!" Romualdez was a veteran of deployments to Sulu and Maguindanao, repelling attacks from ISIS-affiliated groups like Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyyah and communist terrorist groups, also collectively known as the NPA-NDF-CPP or just simply NPA.
Minutes after the OPFOR had their MILES gear ringing for minutes, meaning they were shot 'dead' by Romualdez and Rodgers' platoons and had their medics treat the OPFOR troops and later left the scene being extracted by helicopters from the Filipino army aviation before they arrived back in Clark Air Base.
1258
Clark Air Base, Pampanga
After arriving in Clark AB, activity was bustling and ground crews were busy handling their planes and the planes were busy handling offloading and onloading logistics and personnel while the helicopters landed nearby, offloading the troops that conducted a combined arms exercise with rotary-wing assets from the PAF's 5th Strike Wing flew and conducted ISR and close air support using MD500Fs from American and South Korean excess defence articles on mock enemy positions before the joint Filipino-American force went to clear out the remaining OPFOR while sustaining minimal casualties. Never has it been so busier these months with the now most significant and most prominent Balikatan and Salaknib exercises this year and Captain Alvin Romualdez gazed up and saw a flyby of two F-16Cs recently acquired by the Philippines, despite all of the AFP's toxic and turbulent cycle of procurement problems, they finally received at least sixteen Block 50/52s from the US via excess defense articles and they were going to participate in the second Cope Thunder exercises this month.
"Yo! Alvin! Don't stand there and gaze on the flyboys, come over here, man!" Captain Alex Rodgers was sitting under a patio umbrella off one of the small open environment PX stores within Clark, he was eating a bowl of pork sisig rice along with his NCOs and some other Filipinos from Romualdez's platoon. Alvin came and sat down with them, almost distracted from the sky if not for the weather killing them, and immediately opened a water bottle after one of Rodgers' NCOs gave it to him non-verbally like he was family, nevertheless, he drank it while seeing the news with mostly everyone deadset focused on the TV display with the civilian PX employees also watching.
"Holy fuck...didn't know we're deploying…" one of the NCOs of Rodgers, named Compton, an E-4B corporal commented, seeing the Mutual Defense Treaty had been activated for the first time since its ratification in 1951. "Putanginaaa…is it China?" Romualdez looked to his right and saw one of his young PFCs, Correledza, focused on the TV seeing their brass and their commander-in-chief doing a speech and all of them at the table were left confused saying they were going to on another world. "So, it's not China, but rather monsters…huh…never thought we'd go on an interdimensional tour, hah!" Romualdez nonchalantly said while drinking another bottle of water and eating some nachos the Yanks ordered from one of the stores nearby. Rodgers looked at him and shook his head knowing they'd be sent again to war…mere years after Afghanistan.
"Fuuucckkk…so we're off to war again…so much for that China friendship…" One of Rodgers' E-5 sergeants said while, they all knew why this was the largest and biggest Balikatan exercise to date, with China's threats over the peace in the Indo-Pacific region and constant threats to Taiwan plus the upcoming elections stateside and over in Taiwan, everybody expected to fight the Chinese that soon. "Well, at least it ain't Afghanistan or even Syria…I hope…" Rodgers said, the American army captain had little exposure to combat, and so did many of his troops, except some of his NCOs, like Sergeants Neuman and Brixley, who saw combat in A-stan before the withdrawal, their reactions were just them shrugging and saying 'meh..' like the dudes who treated it like another day at the office unlike the E-4s below who were either enthusiastic or less motivated because they joined the military to pay off their dues and debts or did it for college.
"Sarn't, what are the chances we get bogged down with some ladies in the deployment?" Compton asked Sergeant Neuman who was on his right drinking a Coca-Cola soda with a straw. "Shut your trap, Comp. You ain't getting 'nun." He said while adjusting his eyeglasses while the E-4 specialist next to Neuman with the nametape, Kendall, almost spilled his drink "Holy shit, sarn't..didn't know you could say shit like that around the captain…" Neuman stoically just continued eating and Compton lost a bit of his pride after hearing his Sergeant saying those words, while most of them were just trying to absorb what was to come for the next few weeks.
1450
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig
"Do we have any eyes in the new portal?" A Filipino man with grayish hair in his army dress uniform began to look at his American counterpart while being in a temporary command and control center jointly operated by both the AFP's 7th Infantry Division and the US 25th Infantry Division. "Not really…at least for now…we don't have eyes yet from our UGV." The Yank crossed his arms and sighed before the UGV went online on the computer screen.
"Sir, you may want to see this…" one of the operators, a US Army E-4B corporal, who was operating one of the computers had seen the UGV online, perfectly well and the operator was moving his HOTAS stick for the camera.
"Isolate that screen and zoom in on it for us, will ya?"
The Filipino operator nodded as he put them on the big screen in the command center and all of their attention went to the live footage seeing a clearing surrounded by jungle trees yet unsure if this led to a place within the Asia-Pacific Region, yet thoughts were squashed due to the sudden invocation of the Article IV of the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty earlier due to unknown creatures appearing in the province of Bulacan.
"Yeah…looks like somewhere within Southeast Asia, but it isn't." The American general quietly muttered as he assessed the situation but was heard by his Filipino counterpart. "Contact Washington and Malacañang"
"Yes, sir," silently said the Philippine aide who was a Major to the AFP general. The two-star general from 25th ID sighed deeply. "Weeellll…. shit…"
The following week, April 2025
New Clark City, Pampanga
It had been a week since a lockdown had been issued in the unfinished metropolis due to the appearance of a gate, press was not allowed and certain people like Philippine and American and even Australian and Japanese troops and civil servants were allowed entrance into the city by a case-by-case basis due to the evolving situation with the portal. Soldiers and marines from the Philippines and its partners killed several unknowns, and they looked like ghastly monsters with skull masks social media leaks allowed the world to see and ponder how would these monsters dissolve without a trace to wreak havoc on civilians, luckily there weren't many civilians all over the place with an approximate number of 10 killed and 40 injured, one could wonder if it opened up on the bustling streets and boulevards of Manila or Quezon City.
Yet today stands with the contrast of days before the lockdown with some troops from the 11th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army supplemented by the 25th Infantry Division with some Stryker units from the 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army. It was not long till the first Filipino and American soldiers crossed over the gate with the expectation of fighting dragons like that one USMC commercial or that one Japanese anime.
"Well boys, we got the call to advance, let's move out!" Romualdez said on the radio net whilst being in his Humvee driven by a CPL Perez of the same unit as the Filipino LT and they advanced into the pitch-black tunnel with little to no expectations on the other side.
A/N: This is my first fanfiction, please take it lightly as I am not accustomed to writing long narrative stories, except if it was a school project or writing for fun like this one. I am bored of seeing the lack of more Earth/RWBY content, so I made something for myself that is consistent with semi-realistic big army policies and strategies from IRL applied to this setting, and yes I took inspiration from GATE and other stories. This is just an experiment for me as I kept this for a few months as I got inspired by the recent Balikatan 23 exercises and no, compared to other stories, I will not consistently upload as I have real-life commitments.
Thoughts?