Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 55: Sphere

Eric watched in dismay as the Sphere lit up. There was a large black screen with code jargon on it, "initializing" read on the top of the screen before colors burst vibrantly. The surrounding area reflected the shine, and Eric had to shield his eyes.

"I forgot how bright the goddamn LED lights are."

He growled. His irritation turned to dread as the first images populated on the screen. It was the Iraq situation all over again. Instead of an attack on an overseas post, it was clips of apaches mowing down the wolves. People talked over each other in the news rooms as clips played one after the other.

Eric sighed, pulling out his can of Copenhagen and lighting a cigarette as he put a lip of chew in. "Mia’s gonna throw a ham if she finds out I’m smoking again, but fuck it." Clips played repeatedly while large red letters saying "LIVE" ran at the top of the screen. He turned to his soldiers. "Get back to work!" They had stopped working to stare at the screen.

Michael walked up to him.

"Can I have some chew?" He said, his voice shaking and eyes wide as he too looked at the screen with eyes wide. Eric patted the kid on the back and handed him his can.

"You know Ayello ain’t gonna like you doing that, right?"

Michael shook his head and slumped against the humvee.

"Master Sergeant, with all due respect, if I don’t have something right now, I might implode. We are basically broadcasting to the entire world what we have. How can you stay so calm?"

Eric laughed and walked away to help soldiers with barricades.

"Been through worse, kid."

The work to secure Vegas was going smoothly. Eric had his old platoon, current platoon, and police gather in a meeting room that one of the hotels was kind enough to lend them.

"Alright, so we have Vegas barricaded and fighting positions secure, with dug in machine gun positions and ISR overwatch running 24/7. Soon, I will have someone replace me. I trust that everyone here knows the stakes, so I will not beat a dead horse. What I will say, is that you have done well so far. Be ready for probing attacks, and do not let anything in that doesn’t have an ID from Earth."

Jessica looked out in the distance, she saw a massive ball of light. She couldn’t make it out clearly, and then the earth quake once more, the shaking rousing her from her thoughts. She headed back to her room, and sighed.

"What kind of tricks are they pulling now?" She whispered.

She was tired of these walls and people she worked with. Every time she was sent out, she had to witness horror and destruction. She was told it was "for the greater good", but what good came from destroying entire villages? She had long since given up hope of ever going home.

Suddenly, her phone began buzzing. She looked at it in confusion. When she first came here, she had asked for magicians to figure out a way to charge it, so it was kept charged, but it had stayed in its corner, silent for the last two years. Now? It was buzzing constantly. Messages and updates were blowing up her phone. She hesitated and reached for it, looking up at the sky. "Please... don’t let this be a joke."

If it was, she might just end it here. She was tired of being a pawn for people that were obviously easy. Tears streaked down her face as she checked her phone.

"What the...?"

Her body was still as she looked at the images popping on her feed. A Facebook page that had refreshed the same information for two years finally had new posts, and it was chaos.

The scenes she was watching were foreign to her, even in this new world. Helicopters were mowing down Biform wolves in the clips. A livestream that had been posted two days ago showed military vehicles moving, with large guns blowing away the wolves.

"Thats... not Earth." She whispered. A glimmer touched her long dead heart as her frozen hands started to tremble while she pulled up google. She typed in a letter:

"U..."

The top seach pulled up. "United States Army Battalion dissappearing."

"Could it be?"

She didn’t want to have hope. She couldn’t. She didn’t deserve it after what she had done, but she wanted it. The chance to live normally again. Maybe she could meet her friends again... fall in love?

She scrolled further, and thats when she saw it. A large sphere glowing against the backdrop. Teal grass and purple trees. "Its here!"

Without scrolling any further, she opened a window and jumped out. She fell three stories, and began running as fast as she could.

Her destination?

The large ball of light she could see in the distance. She turned her back to the empire, clutching her heart as she ran, the pain mixing with newfound hope. Screw the other heroes. They never treated her well because they were all older adults. Screw the empire, they always treated her like a tool. She had even overheard Prince Heith talking about getting rid of her a few months ago because she kept refusing missions.

And screw that evil God who came down in his avatar. He would always stare at her with cold, dead eyes.

Jennifer hit a bottleneck on her way to the Vegas strip. A group of Alliance soldier stopped her.

"Halt! You cannot pass through here."

Jennifer growled as she stared at the men, red mana began circling like fireballs in her hands. "And who are you to stop me?"

The men stepped back, forming a semi circle around her. Clicks were heard as safeties were turned off. The heat from her mana made them hesitate as the air became a furnace. A soldier noticed the encounter from where he stood on top of the walls blocking the entrance to the mountain. He called Eric on the radio, holding his breath as both sides stared each other down.

"Master Sergeant? There is a slight problem. We have a woman standing outside the gates of Esponia. She seems to have hostile intent. She has red balls of mana circling around her hands and body."

Eric held a sigh in as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He paused while thinking. "It could either be a defector or someone wishing to investigate the new infrastructur. Apprehend her if possible. If not, lethal force is permitted."

Rifles were brought to the ready, soldiers aiming as their fingers ever so slightly squeezed.

Jessica heard the exchange, and stopped dead in her tracks. "No.... not again. I’m done with killing wantonly." She thought as the mana disappeared around her.

"Wait!"

She yelled out

"I’m from Earth!"

She spoke in English. The guards didn’t understand her, and moved to pull their triggers before the soldier on the gate called out to them.

"STOP! She is non-hostile. Apprehend her and bring her to the holding cell."

Eric stood outside of the room the young woman was being held custody in. He was shocked to see the girl sitting with cuffs shackling her.

"She’s just a kid." He thought as he observed her. She was trembling and her eyes were red from crying.

Eric walked into the room and sat down. He pulled the girls file out and looked at the ID inside of it. "Jessica Hamlin." He stated calmly. He looked at her and verified the ID matched her face.

"Alright Jessica. You came here and almost lost your life. I want to be very clear, we do not trust you.

So why are you here?"

Jessica looked away, the familiarity of his language slightly warming her as she thought of what to say. She sighed as she let out a deep breath, her shaky nerves relaxing as her body stopped trembling.

"I’m done being a killing machine for the Empire." She mumbled, looking down at her feet.

Eric’s eyes narrowed as he watched her body language closer. There were always tells for when someone was speaking the truth or acting....

And this girl was clearly just broken.

But he had a job to do.

He watched as she took a few deep breaths, steadying herself. She looked up at him and gave a clearer answer.

"I was summoned here two years ago." She said quietly, her voice cracking and barely a whisper. I was told that I would be doing ’The Great God Mithrael’ an act of fealty if I went on missions and removed pagans. Some of it was true. Many that I took the life of were sadistic and cruel...

But some..."

She couldn’t finish, remembering the screams of terror and the buildings she had burned. Her breath became shaky again before she repeated the same process for calming herself down.

"I am done with that life, and want to choose my own path forward. If you would have me, I will gladly work for you and with you.

She hesitated as she looked at the ground, and once more Eric saw the visage of a young girl. He narrowed his eyes, and asked:

"How can we trust you?"