Undisclosed Location in Virginia, Republic of Dixie
December 30th, 2059
"Oh Jesus Christ Anon will you pleeeeaaassee tell me what the fuck is going on!" Boris whined as he and Anon stepped out of the helicopter.
Anon had had enough of Boris's crap on the way over, although in retrospect he had woken him up at 600 hours and told him that they were flying to Dixie that morning without any prior notice, but classified is classified and the army doesn't dick around with that shit. On the plane they were ordered to turn in their Soviet uniforms, which were replaced with the nearly identical IOFR uniform, Boris however was far more aware of the change than Anon.
"This is a fucking helicopter pilot's flight suit" he grumbled "if I end up having to fly a boring ass helicopter for whatever it is we're doing I'll be pissed." Boris was a fighter pilot through and through and his squadron had bailed Anon out of more than a few sticky situations on the front. Though he was once the helicopter pilot for Anon's squad in the Air Mobile, he was born to fly a jet. That much was clear to everybody.
"Would you stop complaining" Anon snapped back to Boris "I'll explain everything to you in a few minutes and just so you aren't disappointed later you WILL be flying a helicopter. It was the only way I could get them to let you tag along"
Boris rolled his eyes "Right because I'd so much rather be here in this hick infested shithole than back home in-"
"in that Russian hick infested shithole?" Anon cut him off "I don't know what airfield you're talking about but most guys on the base aren't exactly lining up for the Moscow ballet". They grew quiet as they trudged through the camp.
"Why is there nobody here to meet us?" Boris asked.
"Just shut up and follow me" Anon mumbled back to him.
All around them the camp was buzzing with activity as diverse mass of people ran to a fro accomplishing various tasks. It seemed that there were people here from all corners of the IOFR, all bearing the flag of their country of origin on their arm. Anon looked down at his own flag, a red center, flanked by two vertical black bars and made complete by the black star in the center containing a red fist. The proud banner of [nation withheld], and Anon was proud to be wearing it as there didn’t seem to be anybody else around from his homeland. Boris on the other hand, was nothing special. There seemed to be a number of Soviets moving about with their simple scarlet background adorned by nothing more than a small, yellow crossed hammer and sickle in the top corner.
“Right then, the command center should be somewhere over here…” Anon said half to himself.
As they crested a small hill both the command trailer and the drained lake came into view, along with everything beneath what was once the shoreline. The activity along the dried bottom made the supposed hustle and bustle of the helicopter pad seem like nothing. There were workers clad in brown coveralls preforming excavations on the far side of the lake, digging a series of trenches and quarries under the supervision of IOFR officers. A ramp had been constructed leading from the lakebed to what used to be the lake’s shore and down the earthen pathway rumbled a bulldozer. It was then that Anon noticed it, far to the right of the scene. A chain-link fence, complete with razor wire had been erected around the mysterious opening in a bed of solid granite. All along the outside edge of the whole fence save the gate was a line of sandbags, at each corner becoming the nest of a .50 caliber machine gun. The gate was guarded by a black soldier, a rifle slung over his shoulder and a large, fierce looking German shepherd at his side. Inside the fence men in white coats busied themselves at laptops, recording information and attempting to make sense of the data being sent to them by men wearing hazmat suits just inside the mouth of the cave.
“Hey!” Boris yelled as he snapped his fingers in front of Anon’s eyes. “I didn’t come a few thousand kilometers without any notice to look at the scenery. If this is where we need to go then let’s get going already!” he said as he pointed to the command trailer.
“Why are you suddenly so eager to fly a chopper?” Anon sneered as they approached the trailer.
“I’m not, but it sure as hell beats just standing around, let’s get a fucking move on” Boris replied when they had reached the door.
Anon reached forwards and knocked on the front of the door. A young Quebecois lieutenant answered.
“I am sorry gentlemen” he said, doing a very good job of hiding his accent “this is a classified meeting, I am going to have to ask for your security clearance”
“For fucks sake LeBreton! Just let them in, if they didn’t have clearance then they wouldn’t approach the trailer unless asked” a voice called from inside.
The lieutenant stood aside without saying another word and allowed Anon and Boris to pass. Afterwards he closed the door and sat down near the back of the room. Anon squinted in the suddenly diminished light and as his eyes adjusted he could make out four figures sitting around a conference table and one standing in front of a SMART board. After a moment he recognized the man standing as General Parsons.
“Well gentlemen?” Parsons asked “are you going to sit down so that the briefing can begin?”
“Sorry sir” Anon replied with embarrassment, embarrassment that soon turned to puzzlement as he saw the whole room staring at him. He was confused for a moment before he realized that he had answered Parsons in Russian. “Heh, sorry about that General, it’s been a while since I had to speak English” Anon said as he sat down.
“Yes well nobody else here but me and Boris knows Russian so I’d appreciate it if you kept track of what language you were speaking” Parsons said dryly.
As Anon sat down he observed the four other men who surrounded the table. Beside him was a man who appeared to be all business. His hair was black and close cropped and his blue eyes seemed to lack any sense of humor. On his right arm was a Bavarian flag (surprise surprise, a serious Kraut). Sitting directly across from Anon was a man in his early twenties, bearing the rank markers of another Kommandant and the insignia of the IOFR Engineering Corps. The Engineer also had blue eyes, but his were full of life and luster, the shined almost as much as his bleach blonde hair. Seated nearest Parsons was a large black man, who seemed to be the only person who wasn’t irritated by this whole mess. Sitting farthest from the front of the room sat the only man not wearing an IOFR uniform. He was an elderly latino, clad in an olive green military jacket and camouflage pants. His hair was black with a few streaks of gray and hung about three quarters of the way to his shoulders. His face bore a small black moustache and on his head sat a black beret with a lone red star. Anon removed his officer’s hat as he took his seat and Boris did the same with his crimson beret.
“Gentlemen” Parsons began “thank you for coming here on such short notice, to begin I’d like to introduce each of our esteemed colleagues. This is Captain Kolba of the Bavarian Army’s 2nd Panzerbrigade.” Parsons said as he indicated the Bavarian, to which Kolba gave a respectful nod. Parson’s continued “This is our Engineer, Kommandant Eric McPhee of the 127th Australian Engineers Reserve” McPhee put on a seemingly genuine smile and showed it to everybody. “This is Kommandant Anon Mouse of the 41st Soviet Airborne” Anon simply sat there. “This is Captain Boris Baretslav of Soviet Fighter Squadron No. 172” and Boris being the clown he is, stood up and took a bow much to the amusement of everybody but Parsons. “Yes yes.” Parsons eagerly moved the introductions forward. “This is Doctor Robert Juarez of the Brazillian 204th Medical Batallion” Parsons said as he nodded towards the black man who returned his nod. “Last but not least we have Colonel Ernesto Manendez of the 16th International Partisans”. Manendez didn’t even look up.
“First off, let’s examine what we’re dealing with” Parsons said as he signaled LeBreton (who still sat quietly at the back) to dim the lights. The same image of the forest that Anon had seen in Gramov’s office appeared on the board. “All we know so far is that this cave appears to lead to someplace else. Ever since we contacted you all five days ago we have determined that the passage is about five hundred meters long an-“
“I’m sorry” McPhee interrupted in a thick Aussie accent “but, passage to where exactly?”
Parsons turned to the young man “That’s what you’re here to find out. You my friends have been chosen to partake in an expedition into the unknown. You will lead a small force of about sixty men or so into the cave, and you will find out what is on the other side”
The room was silent.
“Well, sir” Boris began “do we know anything about this place?”
“No Captain, except that the other side opens into a forest, the air is breathable and clear of harmful pathogens and it looks like it could be one hell of a vacation destination”
A small snicker was drawn from the assembly by Parson’s annotation.
“Now then, you will be leading a small force, as I said, of about sixty men. You will receive twenty infantrymen, ten engineers, ten medics plus a Prometheus, a Fury, a Babylon and a Centurion and their crews. The medics will be chosen in such a way as to also serve as a science team. Only the best.”
Doctor Juarez seemed unhappy with this suggestion “Sir, if the passage is only five hundred meters long, then why do we need to save space like this, surely we could send a proper science team in addition to the medics.”
“That won’t be possible Doctor. Whenever we send anything in there we get some strange readings emanating from it. With this amount of men and equipment moving through at once the readings are expected to spike dramatically and we don’t yet know the effects of this strange sort of radiation inside. We’ll have to wait at least a two weeks to a month before we can send anybody else or you can come home.”
Once again silence gripped the room and Parsons sat down in the nearest seat.
“I know this is unbelievable” he said.
“Damn right” Boris whispered.
“But gentlemen, this is a hell of an opportunity. We don’t even know what planet this thing leads to because it sure as hell isn’t Earth. Mouse will lead the infantry. Kolba will be in charge of the armor and Baretslav the choppers. McPhee and Juarez will be watching over the medics and engineers respectively and Manendez will lead this whole thing. Until we can reestablish contact with you I want you to make sure you treat him like he’s Marx himself. Understand?”
The General’s question was met with a unanimous and monotone “Yes comrade commander”.
Everything was set. The members of this daring penetration into a brave new world were in position in front of the cave. The Fury was hitched to the Babylon and the Prometheus to the Centurion. The footsoldiers, handpicked by the IOFR High Command, marched slowly alongside the vehicles as the made their way into the ominous cavern. The strange obsession that Anon had felt when he first saw this cave in a photograph was unsurprisingly stronger than ever. He sat atop the Centurion and as its wheels left the dry lakebed and touched upon the smooth granite of the rock’s mysterious orifice he felt a strange calm come over him. For better or worse, this was going to change his life.