//------------------------------// // So it begins... // Story: Forgotten Soldier; Wrong War // by rocketlvr //------------------------------// This isn't really the best chapter, but if you manage to stick through it and the second I assure it gets better. The plot picks up quite a bit after. **************************************** Technically he should have been home years ago when the war on terror supposedly ended. Well given a clusterf*ck here and a dumbass bureaucrat there and he had ended up back in Iraq no longer a part of the non existent peace keeping force but rather a "supervisor" for the Iraqi military. "Supervisor" he thought "I'm doing more now than I ever did before" The Middle Eastern sun beated down on his neck. He panted heavily as he slammed back first into the wall of a house that supposedly had "suspicious" activities going on in it. The locals claimed to have heard drills and other power tools going off in the house. "Funny" he thought "the locals actually gave you the location of a probable bomb factory"; the locals were terrified of the terrorists in this region. The US had very little influence in this area so bomb factories, gun smiths, and opium farms were quite common. "I'd rather be back at the FOB (forward operating base) then in the sandbox, the 130 degree weather didn't help his mood much either. The CO gave you the "clear it" signal and so he swing his body and kicked in the door, gun at the ready. His barrel swept the room left to right while he screamed Arabic hopefully shouting something along the lines of "hands in the air" but it probably turned out as "hands yes perhaps". He paused at the right side of the room to see a man in dirty short robes and a scraggly beard with burn marks across his wild eyed face; on his right there is a strange machine with hexagonal bars forming a peculiar hollow shape as well as a control panel made of rusted sheet metal dirty levers and switches and a liberal amount of duct tape. The rest of his 8 man squad filed in. "The f*ck is that" Carod the m240 gunner asked. "F*ck if I know" he replied curtly. His CO, Lt. Randall, shouted "where's the translator, ask him what he's doing here." "No good sir, the translators with Foxtrot on routine patrols, command didn't want him involved in this one" "Sh*t what now" "lets haul his ass back to base and see what we can-" "AY!" The man screams at the marine "What you think you be doing infidel Americans?" Randall cooly replied "sir we need you to come with us what is it your doing?" "I is getting their acceptance" "whose they?" "My brothers in so called terrorist group" Randall became visibly worried "Oh F*ck,do y'all think hes building a bomb or missile or some sh*t for them? get command on the radio Asap". Pvt. Spzond started to fiddle with his radio equipment. The man spoke up "wait" Spzond stopped right as he was lifting the microphone to his mouth "no bomb, gateway." Randall inquired "gateway? to where?" "Heaven, if I get might of Allah to smite unholy perhaps my brothers begin accepting me" Carod murmurs to you "is this guy f*ckin serious?" "shut up, do your brothers no about this?" Randall asked the man "No, but they will soon once Allah has destroyed you" At this the man jumped up and his quick tie cuffs fell apart probably cut with the small knife he was now clutching in one hand. before the marines could tackle him he lunged for the machine. A shot rang out as his head imploded but it was to late, he fell on to the machines panel and it began to spring to life. A vortex of some non existent color appeared in between the supposedly steel bars and began sucking in the things in the room. The marines trajectory caused himself to fall right at the vortex fortunately he managed to cling on to the bars but his waist and legs were already in the whirlpool of mystery. He couldn't drag himself out, it was as if he was trapped in quicksand or tar or something. He was sinking in as he tried desperately to hold on. He saw Spzond leaning against the doorway firing off a few rounds of his m16 at the panel, but all that accomplished cause the vortex to pull harder and begin to shrink.The marine in the gateway lost his grip on one hand as he thought he was going to fall in, but suddenly an arm reached out and clutched his. Randall was grasping his arm and straining placing his feet almost vertically on a bar. "Randall!" he shouted over the noise of the portal "I can't hold on!!!" "No goddamn it you hold on, don't quit! your a marine" "The portals gonna close on me then I'm gonna die!! let go NOW" the rush of wind got louder as it began to suck the marine in harder. Randall screamed over the madness "F*CK NO!" "DO IT THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN SAVE ME AFTER IT CLOSES YOU C4 THE WHOLE BUILDING! NOT A WORD OF THIS GETS TO COMMAND, YOU HEAR?, DON'T WORRY ABOUT TERRORISTS REBUILDING IT SO WE'RE SAFE, THE REBELS DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THIS GUY OR EVEN WANT HIM, TELL COMMAND IT WAS A BOMB FACTORY AND THERE WAS A SCREW UP" The portal was almost at his vest now, Randall was on the verge of tears "ok... semper fi" "oorah" he reply solemnly and as they let go. He took one last look at his world before being swallowed up into the unknown.