For all mankind

Prologue

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Dynamics change, technology improves, and boundaries shift. There is nothing stopping the progression of the Human race except the Human race itself.

The last several thousand years of human territorial expansion have led to conquering towns, cities, nations, continents, and even worlds once thought beyond our grasp.

So, we exist, a conquered solar system all of our own. Factions were born and died, wars were fought, and billions were lost to the ever-growing maul of a thirsting void.

Yet as history proves, remnants of its past resurface, and the slow lurch of life is paused just for a moment. A single second of existence is devoted to a focal point.

The dynamic changes, the technology improves, and boundaries shift yet again.

The cycle continues.

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Europa / Utah Independent Science Station

August 28th 2169 / 1410ZULU

A radio crackled to life, "Uhhh, Utah Station this is the ACS Algorithm, how copy?"

Drew Burner rubbed his eye and leaned forward in his chair. He was about to go take a nap when the sudden interruption of his station's comm brought him back from drifting away, not like there was much else to do at a research outpost on the ass end of Europa. With a sigh and grunt, Drew grabbed his headset from the ceiling and keyed it.

"USS Algorithm this is Utah, I hear you, something you need?"

Drew never cared for the regulation style of proper radio etiquette. It was something established by the military anyways, which was something he cared for even less.

"Utah, be advised we are detecting multiple radiological pings ninety miles North-North East your location uh, estimated six miles deep, are you getting anything down there?"

Well, that that's concerning

Drew snapped his head around to look over at one of his crew members, a corporate science officer named Lillian Yokate.

"Hey Lil, you hear that?" He asked.

Lillian turned her head around and raised an eyebrow, "Hear what?"

Drew jingled his microphone, "Ship in Orbit, that AC science vessel, just said they..."He was cut off by the radio.

"Utah, Algorithm, we may have a problem, possible sub-surface nuclear detenati-"

The radio fizzled out, "What the fuck?" Drew exclaimed, a hint of worry showing on his face as he slapped the communications table, "Lil do you have anything?"

Lillian, at this point, had already been scanning through data the second she heard the Algorithm's message. Nothing made any sense, the only thing in that area that deep was an old ice excavation site. She turned to say something to Drew but was stopped by a blinding light. The two members jumped and screamed at the burning heat that had just struck them both. Then they were immediately silenced by a shockwave that broke through the protective glass window, exposing them both to the uninhabitable climate and atmosphere of Europa.

High in orbit over the moon, the ACS Algorithm and her crew watched the destruction unfold. The Algorithm was a military science vessel in service to the American Coalition. She was the most advanced in her class and held a sophisticated array of sensors.

"Captain estimated blast package of one hundred thirty-five megatons, could have been more but it's fried our optical sensors, checking backups…"

"Sir radar and lidar show incoming contacts from Europa, looks like parts of the moon are..."

"Captain mayday hail from the ECBN Berlin..."

Captain Julius Montgomery stood unmoving, his hands were behind his back as he stared blankly at the tactical hologram in the center of his CIC. His ship was struggling, but still accurately projected Europa and the several hundred pieces of the moon now hurtling towards empty space. Several other vessels had been in orbit, one being the European Corporate Block Naval vessel Berlin. She had been struck seconds after the detonation by a chunk of rock or ice. The ship was shattered, and Julius knew there was no point in setting up a rescue team for survivors.

"Comm" Captain Julius spoke up finally, "Send an alert message to STRATCOM with all data we currently have in the situation, go ahead and request the Dependable and Resolute to come on station.

"Aye, sir!"

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One Year Later

Europa Exclusion Zone

FireBase Utah 3 Miles from "Gate"

August 1st 2170 / 0034ZULU

"Do they have any idea what's on the other side?" A young Corporal spoke up.

"Shut up and listen up." Was the response of one of the nameless Captains that moved in and out of the briefing area.

Staff Sergeant Samuel Winters relaxed in his chair. The room was packed full of different types of SOF Team members. The Marines, Navy, Army, and even a couple of Air Force cats were around. Teams had been compiled of veterans from the recent short but deadly June War. Russians, Americans, and the Europeans fought over the once free country of Greenland for an entire month for what could only be described as "no reason." The reality behind it was a territorial move on all three sides that mothballed into a hot conflict, which then led to the first full-fledged public ground war on Earth in the last seventy years.

Of course, it wasn't the first war in that period of time, every faction on Earth had been in a constant state of cold war for the last hundred or so years. After the outcome of World War Three, the world was divided into its own sects and factions. The American Coalition consisted of the old United States, Canada, and Mexico. The South American Conclave held the only powers left in that area, which were Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The European Corporate Bloc was a reformed version of the EU which was Germany, France, Italy, and Poland. The Russian Federation took all their old Soviet-bloc countries back, at least those that hadn't become absolute wastelands.

The Chinese Triad was an outcome of the war. China, Mongolia, North Korea, and all the SE Asian countries combined into a new authoritarian style government with a "Holy Emperor." Why it was still called the Triad was anyone's guess.

The Unified African Continent was a hodgepodge of all the African states trying to unify, they did well with what they could but have always been influenced by outside powers.

The Pacific Free States weren't really free states. Japan, South Korea, and Australia took over everything in the Pacific that they could and formed a working parliament. Then the British decided to make a comeback and formed the British Empire, taking over Spain, Portugal, half of France, and all the Nordic countries. Rather they invaded or invoked some sort of "by blood" family history is up for debate.

The entire Middle East had been glassed three times over, including India.

Time progressed after the last World War, Treaties were put in place, and Space became the new thing. No nuclear weapons could be used on any human biospheres, no space-borne combat shall be engaged in over Earth, Mars, or the Moon. A lot of other things were added in and pretty much followed through, just so we couldn't absolutely destroy ourselves, for now at least. Nearly all of the Solar System had been colonized by the factions of Earth. Ships of War and Civilian vessels alike sailed throughout the system in fairly relative safety, of course, the threat of Pirates always existed.

Europa though was once a multi-national held moon. That was until the incident happened a year ago, after which the American Coalition pushed in and claimed title 20-102. Stating that now the moon was uninhabited, which it was after it got cracked, it was now free to claim. This caused some issues as you can imagine, but the Force Projection of the AC Fleet wasn't anything to laugh at, and it didn't help that both the flagships of the AC were just a phone call away when the incident happened.

Snapping out of a trance, Samuel looked around the briefing room, everything had gone quiet.

General Ronald Long, Theater Commander for anything Jupiter-related, had taken center stage and was looking at everyone silently. There was a moment of uneasy quietness, only the A/C and hum of a nuclear reactor could be heard as he looked down at everyone.

"Gentlemen." He said, breaking the silence, "We have spent the last year fortifying Europa and prosecuting the object that caused the incident, which we will now refer to as the 'Gate', and that name is literal, we are looking at a Roman-style marble fucking arch on a moon three hundred and ninety million miles from Earth. That raises some fucking concern with just about everyone."

A cacophony of voices spoke up in concern, disbelief, and amazement. Word had been going around that SOMETHING was at the center of all this, but never confirmed, AC EWAR did an amazing job at hiding whatever was down there.

"Quiet!" The General yelled, and immediately the whole room ceased its bickering. "We have confirmed that this gate leads somewhere, as in you go through it, and end up somewhere else, that somewhere else appears to be a habitable planet, the location of which is unknown at this time."

No loud voices this go around, just wide eyes baked in disbelief.

"Not only does this place look like some picturesque pre-industrial world, but it also has inhabitants, HUMAN inhabitants."

There was a pause as the General gauged his audience. The men before him had spent their entire adult lives fighting wars Planetside and in the Void. They had seen countless horrors and committed terrible acts of violence so their families and country could continue to exist, yet this was new to them, it was new to everyone.

"Drones, with the help of other devices, have established landmarks, societies, cities, villages, blah blah blah it doesn't matter." He tapped on a hand-held tablet, pictures on the screen behind him started to play and showed the vast environment on the other side of the gate.

"You'll get some science mumbo-jumbo brief from someone else, I'm here to task you with the job of establishing a FOB right on the other side of this gate. From there we will push into the surrounding area and seek local control to form a future area of responsibility. After basic security has been established, we will send in forward components to build the base from bare-bones status."

Samuel listened to the rest of the briefing intently, an air of unbelief and amazement surrounded and engulfed him. They would be doing something that no other humans had ever done before, probably? Not really though, since other humans were already living there.

But were they really humans?

A plethora of questions flew through his head. None of them would be answered for quite some time though. Samuel was going to be part of a five-man forward observation team that he would lead. It wouldn't be his first time doing forward observer things, but it would be the first time he led men in that position, though it wasn't anything he was nervous about at this point in his life. There was going to be one thousand men sent in all together, no more or less until the FOB and AOR had been established. Weapons, Armor, and other supplies would go in with them with a very small team of military scientists. They had two days to prepare, and Samuel would spend it getting to know his team and plan out their mission with his superiors and teammates.

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Two Days Later -

Europa Exclusion Zone

Two Miles from Utah Base, Outside "Gate"

August 3rd 2170 / 1024ZULU

Staff Sergeant Samuel Winters, Sergeant Shepperd Hernandez, Corporal Greg Kelly, Corporal Wilson Keenan, and Corporal Spencer Johnson made up "Team 15" of the thousand-man force being sent into through the Gate. Though the other side was confirmed to hold an Earth-like bio and atmosphere, no one was taking any chance for the foreseeable future. All American Coalition members were in fully modified CRBN kit, which meant extra oxygen, and less movement. In reality, it was just a bulkier variant of the normal power armor the special forces community was given. It served its purpose well though, with some more sensor suites and 'well-being' equipment like a waste and water recycler. Yes, the future allowed you to drink your own piss and not have to pull off all the armor to shit, amazing right?

A VSAV, or Vacuum Sealed Armored Vehicle, transported the men across the moon's shattered surface, and would be their ride through the Gate. Other atmospheric combat vehicles were behind them in their appropriate containers and would be the prime objects for any force projection the "1st Gate Combat Action Detachment," or G-CAD, would be using.

"Yo, Winters." Shepperd Hernandez came over the direct comms line, no one else could hear them.

"Heard you took part in the Calico Incident, that true boss?"

His mind flashed back to the failed void-borne hostage situation that occurred two years prior. He shrugged, not one to dwell on the memory, or get upset about the conversation.

"Yeah, was a pretty shitty situation, stuff happens though you know?"

Shepperd nodded in response, his deep grey helmet bobbing up and down.

"Hope that wasn't rude to ask of, my little brother was on the Gram, that Destroyer that responded first to the whole thing."

"Good NCOs don't keep secrets from their subordinates' boss!"

A voice called up over the inter-squad comms, it was Spencer Johnson, a close friend if you could call him that, of Winters. The two had fought in the June Wars side by side on day 23.

"Good friends don't but into private conversations, Johnson…" the ever quite Wilson Keenan added, as politely as his Canadian heritage would allow.

"Johnson just because your ex-wife kept all those secrets from you doesn't mean you have to project onto us man." Greg Kelly added on, causing every man in the back of the VSAV to look at him, then Spencer, suddenly the comms was filled with laughter.

"Eat shit Greg, at least that bitch didn't take my fucking Dog, I would've killed myself so fucking fast man Jesus." Spencer shook his head at the end of his response, adding on to more laughter. The harsh, dark true humor of things that had and would happen allowed these men an outlet.

"ALCON this is Gate Actual, beginning lead unit transition in three…two…one…"

The Command level notification quieted the small team immediately, none of the men would dare to admit they were nervous, and in a matter of seconds, they would be doing something no form of science could explain.

"Non Terrae plus ultra…" Shepperd said to no one in particular.

"The hell does that mean Shep?" Samuel asked.

Greg replied first, "No land further beyond, if I remember correctly."

Shepperd pointed at him and nodded.

"Well, let's hope not." Samuel said as he adjusted himself in his seat, the time inching ever closer. Several silent and nerve-racking seconds passed as the VSAV entered and passed through the Gate, a sense of great unease passed over all the men, and the increased heart rates and blood pressure could be seen popping up team-wide on Samuels's HUD. It passed once they reached the other side, a small LED screen inside the vehicle turned on and let the team view the outside world for the first time.

"Well ill be damned" Greg spoke up, the first of the men to speak, "Shits green as hell." He was met with a couple of chuckles.

"Put that in the history books, man's first quote on this strange foreign land."