Eric and Mia were making final preparations to depart for the princesses capital. Trucks were loaded, and a personnel count was established. The new element was a combined mix of soldiers from Earth, and Mia's soldiers from Brishan.
Eric and Mia were in the lead truck while they drove off of Hood Hill. Four other Humvees followed. Each vehicle was carrying two soldiers, and three Brishanians. As they drove down out into Brishan from the gate, Eric was looking out the window, observing his surroundings and not focusing on the absolutely pissed off cat woman next to him.
"You accepted this mission knowing that we would have to go out there!" Mia growled. "And don't get me started on the promotion! Why would you accept that?" She sighed before hugging his arm, holding it. "I just worry, Eric. This world is da-"
"Hey, uh, guys… You know the mic is on, right?" A call came through on the net. Mia looked at Eric as he shut the mic off with a chuckle. She glared at him again while he continues smirking. "You did that on purpose."
The world then went to shit. A large rumble crashed out from the atmosphere, the sound like a tank round exploding in close proximity. A yellow flash vibrated in the sky as the world shook. "Stop the vehicles, form 360 perimeter." Eric said into the mic as the vehicles stopped. They arranged the vehicles in a circle as the rumbling ceased. Eric and Mia then assessed the vehicles and their soldiers. Nothing was amiss. Eric hopped on the radio to contact headquarters, but heard something that made his skin crawl instead.
"Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Any station on the net, please assist. I don't know where we are, but we landed in the middle of purple trees, with green creatures attacking us. Please assist! Will mark location with red flare."
Eric hopped on the net to communicate with the solitary unit while motioning to his unit to hop back in their vehicles. "This is Master Sergeant Eric Dryer, please confirm status" The man on the other side of the radio called back. "Master Sergeant Dryer, I am Staff Sergeant Benitez. We have two wounded and seven fit for duty. We have one FMC vehicle. Exfil zone with red smoke."
Eric saw the red smoke immediately. "Hang in there Benitez, we will be there shortly."
As they drove towards the site of the red smoke, Eric rattled instructions off to his teams. "Arely and Skimtz, you two are our best shots. I want you on the M2's and ripping rounds the second we get close. We have no clue what we are dealing with, so suppressive fire only. Mia, myself, and Sergeant Leroy will push in. We will escort this stranded unit to our vehicles." His voice hardens as issued more commands. "The rest of you, as soon as we stop, post up behind the vehicles. If anything that isn't wearing OCP pops out of the woods, you are free to engage." Eric didn't wait for acknowledgement, they were already within sight of the friendly platoon. "Benitez, we are pushing in from your 08, about half a click out." Eric said into the radio as he looked at the red smoke. "Prepare for hot Landing Zone with friendly suppressive fire coming from the tree-line."
"Uhh Sarn't, what about the new ammunition?" one of the soldiers called out with apprehension laced into his voice. The soldiers had done a few test runs at the ranges, but had had no opportunities to live fire it at real targets. "Well, no time like the present to find out, is there?" Eric responded calmly.
As the vehicles pulled up to the red smoke, the soldiers dismounted with practiced precision. Eric and Mia followed the tree-line to the red smoke. The creatures heard the roar of the engines and tried to rush the vehicles. Shots exploded as the new bullets from Jonny were more effective than the soldiers expected. "Holy shit!" A soldier from the second vehicle yelled as one of his bullets exploded a cluster of the ugly creatures.
"Cease fire, Cease fire!" Eric yelled as he fireman carried one of the wounded soldiers. The other wounded soldier was being carried by Leroy and Mia since the man couldn't walk. A platoon of haggard men followed behind Eric and Mia, they carried rifles slung uselessly behind their backs. Each soldier from the platoon slumped over, too tired to walk. Eric began to issue out orders to his men. "Maintain security and overwatch. I want those .50 cals on a swivel. If anything gets too close, wipe them out." His orders were acknowledged as the men and women from his element rushed to follow them. He then had the platoon they rescued sit in a circle as he sat down with Benitez. "What happened man?" Eric said as he took his ACH off, trusting his soldiers to maintain security.
Benitez sighed and shrugged. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you." He said, looking around nervously. "One second, we were practicing for the upcoming FTX, and the next we were… wherever this was. There was a bright flash of light, and an earthquake, then we were here."
Eric sighed as Mia walked up behind Eric. "The men we rescued are stable for now, but we need to get them back to HQ." She said gently. "We also need to resupply lost ammo." Benitez looked at Mia with eyes wide. His shock caused him to lose military bearing before he calmed himself. Eric smiled grimly in response. "Yeah, we are in another world, Benitez. Welcome to Brishan. This is my wife, Mia."
Back at Hood Hill, Eric gave Milano a brief overview of what happened in the forest. Milano sat down as he wiped his face with his hands, sighing as a new stack of reports piled up next to him. "So now ghost units from our world are randomly showing up out of nowhere." He said while looking at the new additions to the battalion. So far, they had been briefed on the situation and given the same option the rest of the soldiers in the battalion had received. They had chosen to stay, fully complicit in following orders. "They look like they survived hell." Milano said half-jokingly.
"They did sir."