Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 94: War (1)

Eric sat with Mia on the hood of their Humvee. They were in charge of holding a clearing that lead directly to Hood Hill. As he was eating an energy bar, he turned to her. "Should be any day now."

Over the last few weeks, 6-8 and 4-1 had been using their borrowed time to set up a defense in depth spreading out from coast to coast. Nearly five miles of land was being covered from the shorelines to Esponia. Each company was spread out in so that the formation as a whole created a semi circle around the Esponia mountains.

Trenches had been dug, tanks hid in ridge lines, and mines had been set up all along the southern face of the Esponia mountains.

Mia sighed as she leaned against the front window. She stretched and grabbed Eric’s hand. "I can’t wait for an actual shower."

With the war looming, their fighting positions had become their homes. Soldiers used field wipes and rotated uniforms. Eric had been wearing the same shirt for three days, and he grinned. "You know, back on earth it was common to wear the same uniform for nearly ten to fifteen days in the field. You get used to it. At least it isn’t sandy here."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah. You sound like those old geezer from Kamer’s time: ’back in my day we had to walk everywhere on foot. You kids have it easy these days.’"

They laughed together as they switched off with Hammond. He would go rest while they took over command of the watch.

Eric went around to each soldier. He checked ammo count and accountability. Mia went to go check on the dragons. Each young dragon shifted nervously in their foxholes. Their hands grabbed their weapons at every small sound, analyzing the tree line as if the Empire would pop out and say "peekaboo."

Jessica stood by Liam and Felicity. The three young adults were discussing vectors of fire when Mia approached. Jessica smiled as she saw Mia. "Mom. How is everything on your end?"

Mia chuckled, hugging the redhead. "It is fine. Nothing for now. Listen, we have recieved confirmation from the drones that Cartharic forces are staging about three days out. Remember your training, and lean on each other. No one here is a hero. If you need to fall back, call it out. We prepared for weeks for this. Liam. You especially. None of that charging bullshit. I want to see you and Jessica getting married. That can’t happen if you act like an idiot."

Felicity chuckled as Jessica smiled warily. "Ill make sure he doesn’t, Mom."

Mia nodded.

"Good luck. Remember: rely on each other."

After her final words, she ran back to where Eric was. He was doing some radio checks with other units, his eyes scanning the horizon.

"The bastards are just sitting there on the other side of Esponia." He grumbled as he called into Bravo company, 6-8.

"Hey Bravo, any sign of them?"

"Negative, Master Sergeant. ISR still shows staging movements on the North side of Esponia."

Eric frowned. "What could they possibly be waiting for?"

Mia held his hand, and they stood in silence as they watched the treeline.

"When is next radio check?"

Eric looked at his watch. "Should be in the next thirty or so minutes."

Josh and Justin stood at the top of the Esponia plateau, looking down at the valley below. They had a map, cross referencing it with what they could see in front of them.

"Yeah, I think they likely set a defense in depth around here. They are probably using the treelines as cover, and are more than likely using-"

His words cut off as he looked to the right. "Hey Josh?"

The other hero looked up, his eyebrows arched. "Whats up?"

"Is that a nuclear facility?" Justin pointed off in the distance. Large cylinder shaped structures stood against the skyline, causing Josh to drop his jaw. "Alright. We need to tell Mithrael that under no circumstance is he to touch that."

The two assistants stood behind the heroes, their own faces mirroring the confusion. "What is that structure? Erica said as she looked down the valley. The concrete cylinder spewed steam into the atmosphere, causing the woman to shudder at it’s massive size. She analyzed it with mana, her eyes widening. "Is that thing like the Brios?" She nearly shouted. Real panic on her face for the first time.

Josh shrugged. "More or less. Let’s just saw that if that thing is touched by even a small portion of an explosion from the Brios, this entire valley will become a wasteland for thousands of years.

The assistants gasped at Josh’s words. "I will report back to his majesty. He must know about this at once."

The heroes nodded before heading back to the Generals that were waiting in the command tent. They passed by massive tank like machines, their engines humming as their cannons aimed forward. "I never thought I’d see fantasy tanks." Justin remarked as the heroes continued walking through the tank.

Josh paused, stopping mid step as he overheard a conversation snippet.

"Yeah man. I miss when they had those slave brothels. Those Elven screams were music."

Another soldier hissed at the original voice. "Quiet you moron! The heroes are here in camp. They must not overhear such talk."

Justin turned back around, scanning for Josh. "Yo! Where you at?"

Josh ran up, shaking his head. He looked back to the tent those soldiers he had overheard were located.

There is something the Empire is hiding.

Once back with the generals, Justin and Josh sat down. "We must avoid attacking the west shoreline as much as possible." Josh said as he circled where the nuclear facility was on the map.

General Hoaz groaned as he looked up. "That decreases our chances of flanking the enemy. May I ask why?"

Justin was the one to explain. "There is a facility there that processes raw material the likes of which this world has likely never been exposed to. If it is affected in any way, it will poison the land for thousands of years. And in a worst case scenario, it could blow a crater that makes a brios cannon look like a firecracker."

The generals sat there, stunned. They looked at the map and Heque spoke up. "We avoid the west then. Our scouts report they only have a small team there. We can overwhelm them later if need be."

Josh tapped his finger against the desk. He looked at the map and thought of the doctrine 6-8 would likely use. "Hmm... okay. Here is what we will do."

After another day, Eric could tell that his soldiers were growing weary of waiting. Each day they sat and stood here, the soldiers grew more complacent. Cell phone signal was now at essentially full bars, so he had to Crack down on soldiers live streaming and sending pictures back to Earth. He groaned as he collected another cellphone, throwing it into a bin at his truck.

"This is almost worse than when Ukraine fought Russia." He growled as he locked the box. "For months all that was on Tik Tok was images of battles."

As he was complaining, Eric heard the sound of a whistle screaming through the air. He jolted forward, grabbing Mia and tackling her to the trench. "BRACE!"

A few seconds later, the ground exploded. Screams of pain echoed into the night as more whistles filled the air. Eric held onto Mia as he grabbed a radio. "The enemy has targeting capabilities. I repeat, the enemy has targeting capabilities!"

Each whistle accompanied a world shattering roar, clumps of dirt were thrown into the air as Eric looked around. "Retreat! Fall back to Phase Line November. Leave the vehicles."

Mia grabbed her gun and they bounded back five hundred yards. Each step felt like death was right in the corner, Eric’s breath caught in his throat as he waited for the final whistle. As he grabbed Mia and ducked into the next trench behind him, he looked up, seeing a soldier get torn apart by a missile landing right on the man.

Eric called Milano. "Sir, they have missiles."

As the missile attack died down, Eric hopped up from the trench. He low crawled to the soldier he saw get hit by a missile. He shook his head as he looked at the corpse.

"Max effective range is estimated at twelve to fifteen miles."

Milano sighed on the other end of the line. He looked at the map and tapped his finger on Esponia. "Get accountability and report back to me. Have whatever is left of the Frontline vehicles moved to Phase line Mike. Priority assets will be .50 cal and tank targeting systems."

Eric nodded as he turned back to Mia.

"Go check on Jessica. I don’t know if they got hit too."

She nodded, saying nothing more as she sprinted off to the west.