A full week passed before the time suddenly came.
The 1st Phasewalker Battalion was set on a path to achieve what it was created for. Cross the Portal. Explore the alternate world and, if necessary, die in the process.
Simple as that.
30 combat vehicles formed two columns in front of the black Portal. 5 M1A2 main battle tanks of the 1st Armored Company. 10 Lav-25 armored reconnaissance vehicles for the 4th and 5th Motor Company. The other 15 vehicles were all M109 Howitzer self-propelled guns of the 3rd Artillery Company.
Finally, 10 transporting vehicles trailed along. Each one of them carried an AH-1W Super Cobra attack chopper. The idea of sending a bunch of pilots who have only started their training a few weeks ago to bring expensive attack helicopters over a door mere several meters tall was simply absurd. Section X decided to use vehicle transports to take the choppers to the other side before having them take off.
Plus, there was no evidence that the choppers would be needed upon arrival.
300 men and women of the 5 companies were scattered across the entire convoy.
Caity stood in front of the battalion. Eric and Ryan stood beside her. The head commissar was looking extra dedicated. Aside from the sniper rifle strapped onto his back and the SMG and handgun holstered in his belt, he wore a bright red armband. That was the identifying feature for all the Commissars. The bloody red color was designed to make them stand out among the green uniforms.
As they stood there, Eric looked at Ryan mockingly, but if Ryan saw it, he didn't show it. Faced with no response from Ryan, Eric leaned forward and handed Caity a bottle of water. “Here,”
Caity smiled before taking the bottle over and emptying half of that into her mouth. Yesterday, she had to give a speech to 500 new Phasewalker recruits. As the 1st Battalion crosses, these new recruits would be put through extensive training. If the expedition forces established a foothold, then these recruits would soon join them.
If the expedition forces got wiped out, then these Generation II Phasewalkers would pick up the mantle of the fallen.
The speech did quite the work. Caity couldn’t say she enjoyed it all too much, but she had to admit she was fine with walking onto the stage in a uniform and encouraging people to join a noble cause. Unfortunately, the speech hurt her throat enough that even now, she still could feel it itching.
Just as she finished, General Kennedy and a number of high ranking Section X officials walked up to her. Caity quickly passed the water bottle back to Eric.
“Colonel Hunter,” General Kennedy’s words were brief. All that needed to be said, all the battle tactics and expectations, were said already. “good luck.”
Caity returned with a silent salute before walking back into one of the armored vehicles. Eric followed her tightly. Kennedy gave Ryan one last meaningful nod as the man turned around as well. When all was ready, Caity finally gave the order.
“Move out!”
Last time, it was Captain Hemley that gave the order. Now, it was her. The Phasewalkers were different, yet the message remained one and the same.
The engines immediately started roaring. Most of the Phasewalkers found a ride. 1st Company sat on tanks. 2nd Company on transport vehicles. 3rd on Howitzers. 4th and 5th on their reconnaissance vehicles. This ensured they could jump into combat if the situation called for with full energy.
As the Phasewalker convoy moved into the Portal, they were hardly alone. Around them, a full armored division of the U.S. Army was deployed across the Portal. From what the vanguard retrieved, there were enough hostiles across the Portal that have already laid waste to one world. If they found and could somehow cross the Portal, then the destruction of the expedition forces would be trivial compared to the destructions these mutated creatures could unleash upon Earth. Even as the Phasewalkers made their way across, there were countless tanks and artilleries and guns trained on the Portal.
Finally, General Kennedy watched as the last armored reconnaissance vehicle disappeared in the pitch-black barrier.
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“You all know the plan! Get moving now!”
As soon as Phasewalkers entered the other world, many of them froze in awe. One moment, they were in the middle of a highly defended military base. The next second, they were in the middle of nowhere with not a single structure within their sight.
But Caity’s voice through the radio rushed them into action. Quickly, the 3rd Artillery Company set up their Howitzers, ready to rain down death and destruction on any foe that ventured too close. All 10 attack choppers lifted up into the air. Their Phasewalker pilots guided them into patrolling across a certain perimeter.
Out of their cover, the other three companies and all the free personnel from those two companies went into action. Some of them ran back to Earth and directed truckload upon truckload of building materials across. Cement. Alloys. Because only the Phasewalkers could cross, a number of the Phasewalkers served as drivers and brought countless cars over the Portal before crossing back over again in a seemingly endless cycle.
Indeed, the first mission of the 1st Battalion wasn’t necessarily to fight anything or kill anyone. It was to establish a foothold. A fortress. With a fortress in place around the Portal, the Phasewalkers would have a greater advantage on their side than if they were facing hordes of mutants on an open field.
Slowly, after hours of hard work, the fortress started to take form. A brainchild of numerous Section X combat architects, this fortress was designed to minimize the advantage of the melee mutants.
On the outer ring, over 500 meters away from the Portal, a ring of trenches was constructed. These trenches were 8 meters wide, a width carefully chosen given that from the camera helmet footages, the Mutated Wolves could leap across 3 to 4 meters with ease. The trenches were so deep that if the Wolves wanted to fill it with sheer bodies, well, they better have at least thousands of units to throw away.
The only way through the trenches was by a metal bridge. It was strong enough to allow tanks and vehicles to pass, but if the Mutants hoped on storming the position via that, then the Phasewalker batteries and artilleries would teach them the true meaning of pain.
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Behind the trenches were the bunkers. These were parts of the ground that were lifted up by a concrete floor, giving the men inside a better line of sight to unload on the enemies. These damage dealers would be covered by alloy plates capable of fending off machine gun carriages for a sufficient period of time. Even better, a M2 Browning mounted machine gun was attached to each bunker. If the situation called for it, any Phasewalker infantry could throw aside his or her petty M4A1 and become a machine gunner.
Over 50 of these bunkers were built across the 2 kilometers of the perimeter. They were the pinnacles of the defenses.
10 watchtowers reached into the sky. They allowed sentries to oversee the entire position. Due to their height, positioning machine guns on top of these towers would be a terrible idea because of the inaccuracy of the bullets, but that didn't mean when the time came, a few snipers couldn’t stand up there and pick away at the encroaching enemies, alien or not, unrestricted.
This fortress needed at least 500 defenders to fully utilize its capabilities. Another 500 couldn’t hurt. If the Phasewalkers exceeded that amount, then things would get pretty piled up, but the architects thought of that as well. When the time came, the Phasewalkers could just expand outward, constructing another layer of defenses while using the inner layer as a second line of defense.
The Portal itself was hidden from the outside world by a layer of metal. The Phasewalkers had no intention of letting their greatest secret be exposed in broad daylight. The metal would at least serve as a sight-blocker to wondering eyes.
It was quite the workload. Despite having peak modern technology to help, the Phasewalkers still had their numbers limited. It took them two full days to finish constructing the foothold.
Once it was finished, the fortress proved to be worth every ton of material and every moment of time devoted to it. Whereas previously, the 1st Phasewalker Battalion could suffer heavy losses and would even be wiped out by a pack of Mutated Animals, now, the Phasewalkers could effectively stand their ground. With the full backing of ammunitions and resources from Earth, they could put up a great fight against any foe.
Since this was the fortress protecting the Portal on the World Alpha end, it was assigned a simple name: Fortress Alpha.
One afternoon, as the Phasewalkers have finished building the fortress and were further reinforcing their positions, they were observed. Two figures cowered behind a few bushes. A man and a woman. Their clothes were casual, but the handguns strapped to their belts showed they weren’t just anyone.
They were looking at the Phasewalker construction site.
“Where the hell did these people come from?” The man asked.
“Are those tanks?” His partner's eyes landed on the main battle tank parked behind the trenches.
The pair of locals were surprised, and they had reasons to be. How did hundreds of people with transport trucks and tanks, tanks!, come here without anyone noticing them? Why would they want to build a fortress in the middle of absolutely nowhere? This was literally nowhere. Normally, even as scouts, the pair had no reason to deviate this far from the main road. The only reason they were here was that they heard engine and construction noises.
They had a million questions and no answer whatsoever.
“We have to get back to our settlement and warn Lord Apollo!” The man decided. “We need to be ready. If these people mean us ill…”
Suddenly, the woman frowned and raised a single finger. As the pair went quiet, they started hearing a strange sound. It was a few seconds later that the woman suddenly looked up. Her eyes widening in shock.
Above them, three attack helicopters closed in with rapid speed.
“Two targets confirmed. Try to take them alive!” A pilot reported. He belonged to the 2nd Airborne Company. He was on patrol when the heat scanners mounted on his chopper picked up two figures. Instead of dashing in, he summoned two other choppers and asked for permission to engage from the captain of the Company. Only when Captain Davis gave the order did the pilots commence the attack.
“Move! Split up and report back!” The man yelled before turning and rushing into another bush. That was where he hid his motorcycle. He didn't need to have too much experience in the field to know he couldn’t outrun helicopters with just his feet. He needed a ride.
The woman got onto a motorcycle and went for the other direction.
“I’ll go after the one on the left. You two take the one on the right!” The Phasewalker pilot spoke through the radio before pressing a button on the control panel to turn on the speaker. “Unidentified intruders! Stay where you are and put your hands over your head! Do not attempt to escape! Do not resist! We will apply deadly force if we have to!”
The voice was broadcasted across the air, but the local man didn't listen. He got onto his ride and immediately tried to make a run for it, but the helicopter was quicker. By the time he was about to accelerate, the helicopter has already descended in front of him horizontally. Five Phasewalkers armed with automatic rifles jumped out and quickly circled the man.
The man was decisive, an important characteristic if one wanted to survive in this world. As soon as he realized fleeing was no longer an option, he stopped in his tracks and pulled out his sidearms.
He was fortunate. If he encountered the vanguards that Caity and Ryan were in, they would’ve opened fire already and he would be in a hundred pieces. But these Phasewalkers were ordered to take these intruders in alive, if possible. All they did was spread out more and keep their weapons trained on the man, but one look at their tensing trigger fingers suggested they were fully prepared to open fire.
If their lives were at risk, then they would have no choice but to return fire and risk killing the man. From that perspective, the Phasewalkers weren’t as disciplined as the Stormtroopers of the Galactic Empire.
The man stood there, frozen. It was obvious one gun wasn’t going to beat five, not in this situation, and that was not including the helicopter. If he really fought, most likely, he would at most take two of these men down with him.
A truly loyal soldier would’ve fought to the death, but the man was hardly that loyal. He served his settlement, but he wasn't willing to die for it. With a quick decision, he tossed his sidearm to the side and raised his hands over his head.
At the same time, on the other side, the two other helicopters cornered the woman. The woman had a little more head start, but the two choppers were still able to corner her and seize her. She actually put up more of a fight than the man did, but nonetheless, the result was the same.
Eventually, the news got up to the Colonel herself.
“Intruders? Already?” Caity frowned when she heard the news.
She knew that, sooner or later, the Phasewalkers would be confronted by the locals, but she didn't expect it to be this quickly. To be honest, she was a little anxious.
“Correct. My men have them captured. A man and a woman.”
Captain Davis replied. A serious man with a stern look and a no-nonsense attitude, he was one of the best soldiers in Ryan’s eyes. He wasn’t part of the vanguard, but he barely didn't make the cut.
“If we intend on concealing our presence, then we shouldn’t allow them to leave our base alive. We don’t have to have them killed on the spot, but we should detain them and interrogate them for information on where they came from or who they are.”
Ryan nodded at Davis supportively before adding in something of his own.
“And we can also try to bring them back to Earth. No one has tried to bring a local across the Portal before. We don’t know if they have the same restrictions that we do, but if we do attempt that, whatever the result, we should silence them. Our true origin must remain a secret.”
On the side, Eric nodded in agreement. Caity glanced at the two before making a decision.
“I need to talk to them before I make my call. Find out who they are and what they know.”
Ryan and Davis exchanged a glance before nodding in agreement.