Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New Capitol Building
February 2nd, 2032.
1400 Hours
Today was supposed to be an normal day for the 48th president of the United States, however, with the recent arrival of a particular event involving the US navy in the pacific, It would become clear that her time in office would be far from anything related to "normal".
President Vanner was the second president of the United States after World War III, an event which took place only 4 years prior. Considered an warhero for his crucial part in the evacuation of Taipei, he was an ex-vice admiral, who had faithfully served and seen his own fair share of war. Similarly, the continental United States had also suffered it's own fair share, having a multitude of large economic centres being hit by various missiles and nuclear weapons. New York, Washington, Kansas city and Missouri. These few cities, instead of the bustling places they used to be, were merely reduced to self illuminating charred husks of their former glory. The only reason the world hadn't ended by then, was that both sides had exhausted their conventional militaries and manpower within a few months of the war, and had seen it not fit to continue. By then, most of eastern europe had been glassed, along with major parts of Western Russia and major cities in China. Governments collapsed, and new countries rose.
Under normal circumstances, a small naval dispute in the pacific wouldn't garner the attention of the president of the United States, and majority of the public. As unusual as it was, as it used to be a big thing a few years ago, It was common now. Remains of the Japanese Navy would often spar with the often poorly equipped chinese warlords in the area. Granted, they weren't as common as before ever since the US Navy had reinstated it's carrier strike groups back into the pacific. Of course, It garnered unwanted attention from other corners of the world. It was made clear to the president during his inauguration, where critics from countries he fought against came back to bite him in the ass.
However, today was majorly different. Just a few hours ago, he was sitting in the new oval office, An result of the old white house and Washington DC in general being wiped from existence by nuclear weapons, getting ready to sign a bill to provide relief to famines across California.
Now, he was in the Situation room. The current hive of activity. Constantly being briefed by advisors, and meeting with the secretary of defence; John Bendsworth, navy being; Gabriella Jones along with the chief of naval operations James Wray.
"Mr President, we have an situation in the pacific." James Informed her as they all sat down
"I know about it, I saw on it first hand. Tell me, is there anything else to it?" Vanner responded, already curious for more.
"Yes, Mr President. It's more then simply just that. More than we originally thought."
"Then don't keep me waiting, what's the situation?"
"Well, Mr President. It depends whether you'll take me seriously, or think Im crazy." James hardened his face, as if he was about to utter something that he himself could not even believe.
"A portal connecting to our world. Well, it's more of a structure." He continued on. The president looked around; curious to see whether this was a PR escapade, as vanner continued looking around, he noticed that no one here, had presented themselves with even a slight hint of lying. They were serious, completely so, while the remaining office staff and secret service agents had slight smirks which faded into stone cold gazes when they finally took notice of their surroundings.
"Alright, I'm lost. Your telling me, the ship that sunk hudner was from another, world?" In response, the secretary of the navy pulled out an remote; and clicked it once. The television screen blinked to life, displaying the remote drone feed snd recordings of yesterday's event, with most notably the fiery wreck of the USS Thomas hudner in it's display.
"Exactly. From what we recovered, most of that ship's insignia and markings came from a different world. Words are, scribbled in an unknown language that certainly isn't any of ours. However, their technology seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1920s." James continued, as he montioned his hand for something. Jones pressed an button, switching the feed to an ground feed. Immediately, the television screen corresponded with his actions. In the centre of the screen, was an absolutely gigantic roman-esque structure. A black, eerie void was stuck there, gazing back into the feed.
"As you know, elements from the US 7th fleet have already been deployed there. Carrier strike group 5, and 2 are currently cordoning off the site. Furthermore, I'd like to include the fact that even though their technology is primitive, we lost a full destroyer, with all it's crew. The anomaly, or gate is about eighty metres long, and a hundred metres wide. Our aviators speculate that an support ship went back through it, but we're not actually fully sure."
"So, your telling me a dreadnought-like battleship came through that, and fired on our men? Why, on god's green earth, are we still waiting here doing nothing?" Vanner was at a loss for words as he gestured towards the monitor.
"Im sorry sir, but there's too many variables to calculate before we can even go to war."
"Alright, then why'd they send a warship here? To gain information?"
"Aye, supposedly a scouting party. And though im not sure why a scouting party would consist of a capital ship. From this map we've recovered, the ship belongs to an nation named "The Saderan Empire." The ship itself though, apparently had recieved directives to colonise the uh, 'land of the rising sun'. Japan, basically. The training forces we directed intercepted them." James uttered out, gesturing for an secret service agent to bring him the map.
"Is that all we know so far? What about the map, what do we know about it?"
"The world beyond that gate, is entirely different from ours. From the map we recovered, there seems to be only one central continent. The nation that fired upon our boys, however, seems to be the main superpower in that world, controlling a large amount of vassal states." As soon as the agent brought out the recovered map, he rolled it open. It was clearly distinct from this era's modern maps. The paper was grainy, and slightly torn in half. "The moment we enter that gate; we'll be sent to the ocean, right again, or the 'Blue Sea' as they call it. With all due respect sir, I do not suggest we go in at all. The best way is to just seal the entire gate. Currently, the cost of sending a few hundred ships, a expeditionary force would be crippling to this country. Point is, we can't afford to go to war. Even more, recent budget cuts have our hands tied esentially. And, if you remember Mr president. You agreed to reduce our naval presence in the pacific to an absolute minimum.
"Does the press know anything yet?"
"Yes, Information got out fast. The reporters are clamoring for reasons, and the people are outraged. They want another war, but we simply just can't afford it."
"Look. I don't think we should be worrying about money at this point, Jones. We've lost exactly about three hundred and thirty men in first contact with these people. It's not about the money, it's about the fact that they killed american sailors." Vanner replied, his statement dripping with hints of venom. "On the other hand, there's something to be said about our status as superpower if we simply just cower in fear, and simply let those barbarians take disputed territory." Vanner took a sip from his coffee mug, before setting it down. He closed his eyes, the gravity of the situation beginning to weigh down on him.
Upon slowly reopening his eyes, he gave an long and tired sigh, slowly turning his gaze towards the secretaries and joint chiefs.
"Gentlemen, you know what to do. This isn't an enemy we can negotiate with at all. Activate every unit we have nearby, and have them on standby to deploy overseas. Put the rest of our forces on heightened alert, and raise DEFCON to be DEFCON 2. Do what you need to do, But I want a team on the other side. Coordinate your forces with your generals. I want briefs on my desks as soon as possible, and as soon as you can get them."
"Yes sir!" The various chiefs and secretaries sounded off as an single voice.
"Dismissed."
As they filed and moved out of the newly rebuilt oval office, Vanner turned towards his office window, peering into the busy streets beyond. It was a sight of what he was responsible for, and the large amount of responsibility given to him. He had lead his country out of the economic recession after world war 3, but this would present him with a new set of challenges.
"Someone get a statement made for me to address the press, and phone me the vice president. We've all got work to do. I'll adress the reporters and press in a few hours."
Marine Corps Base Camp Gonsalves
February 3rd, 2032.
1200 Hours
For Staff Sergeant Buck, It was supposed to be a normal day. Another normal and boring day, spent in gonsalves. However, after majority of his post-war career spent in the US, he supposed it was an good pace of change. His living quarters in the field weren't overtly remarkable either. The usual mud and insects in his tent, and the occasional rat climbing out of the field toilet were normal to him now, especially so. Nothing overly remarkable, except some other nonsense bullshit another person would pull. However, this normal boring day was cut short as alarms blared across the base. Fighters screaming overhead, wings loaded for bear was not normal at all. It was an sign of war, something all too familiar to the veterans there. Transport trucks rapidly came in and out of the field, picking up everyone and bringing them back to base. No one had known what was going on, till they had reached back to their base to be briefed.
"The fuck is going on Gunny? They've got the entire base being mobilised like it's World War 3 again!" He turned and asked Gunnery Sergeant Mathiel Dorn, who ran up to his side, looking as if he had personally saw an ghost.
"Higher ups are sayin that something happened in the pacific earlier, and they need us ready on standby, but I've heard some rumors. Apparently our navy boys suffered a big loss of some kind, don't have all the details, but it's still weird." He replied.
"Like what, Chinese warlords tried to launch another invasion of Japan? This shitstone place is already dyin!"
"No, not that, thank god. Apparently, there was a big fucken explosion and now, their not letting anyone in that area, or out of it. Then, before you know it, we're being activated! Something to do with another world, a gate and whateva bullshit. Anyways, I'll see you later, gotta head out."
"Another world? What? What the fuck are you talking about?"
The short answer left him with more questions as he finally entered the briefing room. Once inside, the mood of curiosity was cleary exuding from everyone. No one had any idea what was going on, except the two at the front, who were presenting, namely Captain Hareford, and Colonel Edwards. As he sat down in his seat, he heard an familiar voice encroaching into his ear.
"Any Idea what the hell's goin on?" The voice of his closest friend and buddy; Staff Sergeant Fletcher Burns asked. Both of them first met before, having gone through bootcamp together and served in the landings at Incheon together during World War 3. Regardless, the two had developed an extremely closely-knit friendship, saving one another from certain death before hand. An example of this, was dragging the nearly dead Burns, away from an dangerous amount of suppresive fire from North Korean Infantry.
"No Idea, only thing I know is that it's supposed to be involving the explosion we all saw last night."
"The fuck? Wasn't that some training drill? And now everything's going haywire and into lockdown?"
"Yeah, or atleast that's what he said, involving some gigantic port-" He was cut off before he could finish his sentence.
"AT EASE!" Hareford bellowed out, immediately silencing all chatter in the room, before making way for Colonel Edwards to start his speech.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen. Im assuming most of you are all unaware of why you're all called here, correct? Captain, If you would." He gestured towards Hareford.
"YES SIR!" Came the usual and curt reply from those gathered in the cramped briefing area. Immediately, the projector came to life, displaying the events of the first day onto the screen.
"I'd imagine you've all heard rumors about one of our ships sinking and also portals, or some other weird shit like that, right? Well you're god damn right. I can see the look on your faces, and no, im not kidding at all. Yesterday, Im sure some of you witnessed that explosion. That was the USS Thomas Hudner sinking as a result from enemy fire from an enemy battleship who came out that gate." The colonel gestured towards the captain again, who clicked another button on the remote. The screen turned into another photo, showing the humongous and absolutely gigantic size of the Gate.
"Believe me, when I got the orders, I thought it was some communication error. But, sadly it's not, and it's spooked out the boys at philadelphia. At approximately 2130 Hours yesterday, the navy engaged with an unknown vessel resembling a dreadnought from World War 1. Of course, the navy sunk it, at the cost of 330 men. What we found, were maps and uniforms not belonging to this world. A new, entirely different world, or an alternate one if that's what you prefer to call it, awaits us on the other side of the gate. What little Information I've just told you, culminates to one thing; we're going through to kick their asses. Captain, if you may again?"
The screen turned into another picture, now a more clear and accurate picture of the gate; an eerie, ominious slate of nothing but darkness, surrounded by roman-like architecture.
"We'll be going through that, or to be more specific, we'll be travelling through the anomaly, with carrier strike groups 5 and 2. From what little bits and crumbs of information we can gather, the nation that attacked us is simply called "The empire", and is looking to colonise new lands. We'll be heading through, ready to teach them a lesson. That's why this camp is emptying itself out, incase we get anymore unwanted visitors. Now, I dont have to tell you what they'd probably do to our citizens and the average man if they just fired on our ships without reasoning. They'd just come on through, and happily slaughter everyone. But we're not gonna let that happen, are we now marines?"
"NO SIR!" The entire room screamed as an reply.
"Good. There's an entire world, probably under the heel of those assholes. We have the means to not only help those people, but avenge the lives of the men that they took! Majority of the public support you, and hell, who doesn't? Im proud to announce to you, that you'll be the tip of the spear when we finally land on solid ground there. Now, command will be sending more info when we get it. Dismissed."
A solemn head turn from Burns, he spoke the most wisest words which had probably represented everyone there in the moment, instead of the fake bravado that was on display a few minutes ago; "Man, I shoulda joined the airforce."