Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 97: The push begins

The ground began to shake, the clamoring of trees slamming together with violent force woke Justin up as he jumped out of his cot. He grabbed his rifle as he left his tent. Once near the command tent, he could only stare at the ground in awe. The Earth was stretching as it shook, he was at first standing near the command tent, now he was standing ten feet away. The rumbling continued as he looked around. The soldiers weren’t panicking nor hurried as they stood, watching the spectacle.

"What the fuck is going on?" He growled. The soldiers were treating the event like it was a normal Tuesday as they stocked up on ammo or walked to vehicles that would take them to the front lines. Josh ran up, his disheveled appearance matching that of Justin’s. He had one boot on, and his pants weren’t buttoned as he looked around.

General Hoaz walked up to the pair of heroes. "This is your first time seeing a world merge event, is it not? Our world is merging with yours. Every time something crosses over, the world grows in order to fit what crosses the dimensional lines."

Justin stared at the rolling ground, and indeed over the next few seconds he was standing further apart than he was origninally. He covered his ears as the sound produced a roar that he thought might even surpass the decible level of a professional football stadium. "Is is always so loud?"

The general laughed, patting the young man on his back. "Yes. You get used to it after it happens a few times."

Eric and Mia sat behind his Humvee as the ground started shaking. They shared a look, and Mia got up, sprinting to the Eastern section of Phase Line November. Eric grabbed his radio as the truck began sliding along the ground. He stared at it, his arms crossed.

"It looks like a vehicle sliding down an icy ramp." Michael said as he walked up, cigarette in hand. The Earth stretched as the ground vibrated. Michael slipped, almost losing his footing. He looked up, seeing Eric’s grin. Then, Eric slipped too. "Hah!"

Eric shook his head, calling for radio checks.

A voice he didn’t know chirped up as the ground ceased shaking. "Friendly unit, this is Lieutenant Colonel Smith, 6-9 Batallion 3ABCT. Can you explain what is going on?"

Suddenly, the radio came alive with more chatter. Radio traffic intermixed with military callouts. Eric sighed as he looked up at the sky. "Just what we fucking needed."

"ISR, get those birds in the air. This fracture didn’t feel small. 6-9 Cav, this is Master Sergeant Eric Dryer from 6-8 CAV. Standbye for further guidance. Secure perimeter. General Milano will contact you shortly via encrypted channels."

Michael looked over with a smirk. "Still liking that new promotion?"

"Fuck you. Go read an upside down map."

An hour later, Milano called Eric’s cell. Eric grumbled as he took the call, he looked over at Michael, and nodded, putting the call on speaker phone. "What’s going on sir?"

Milano sighed on the other side. "It looks like a large portion of the training areas outside of Fort Hood fractured this time. And the biggest issue is that the city of Lampasas, Texas fractured over too. Everything along the US 190 corridor from the Bell tower exit to Lampasas transferred over. Kempner, Lampasas, and this new battalion all crossed over."

Eric exhaled, leaning against the truck. "Shit."

"You and Mia will continue to coordinate the East and West vectors. Hammond will assume command of the North. We will hold the rear. 6-9 will reinforce, but two of their companies will assist with the Lampasas and Kempner police forces to evacuate the civilians to hotels in Austin."

As Milano kept talking, Eric slumped further against the truck. "So now entire portions of Texas are making it over."

Justin sat at the top of the western most mountain, looking down at the valley. He was swiping between pictures he had on his phone while Josh joined him. "Well, that ain’t good." Josh said, noticing what the Justin was checking.

"Yeah... it looks like the forest grew nearly double in size. And look, see that?"

He zoomed in on a corner near where the edge of the original forest was. "That’s a road. They have modern towns now."

Josh shook his head, pointing towards the south. "They’ve been having towns, dude. Have ya ever noticed the huge skyscrapers literally RIGHT FUCKING THERE?"

Justin laughed and scratched his head as he looked to where Josh was pointing. The giant skyscrapers seemed to touch the sky as he saw the huge Texas flag. A sprawling city sat right in his peripheral as he tried to ignore it.

"Its pretty hard to notice if you aren’t looking for it."

"Bullshit."

Justin shook his head while looking up at the building that looked like a USB. His eyes narrowed as he had a thought. His voice trembled as he asked shakily. "You don’t think Mithrael will ask us to target Austin, do you?"

Josh sat down next to his friend, placing his hand on Justin’s shoulder. "He might. We have to be prepared for that."

Justin stood up and backed away from his friend. "How could you say something like that? We are soldiers, not monsters. We are not a terrorist organization that bombs innocent civilians."

Josh sighed. "Buddy. This isn’t Earth anymore. Have you not forgotten what happened to us? If not for Mithrael, we would be dead. I would target Austin with a Brios if he asked me to. That is how much I owe him." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Justin eyed Josh warily, his eyes widening. "There is no way you could do such a thing, right?"

Josh didn’t respond, taking a sip of his canteen before heading back down the mountain. "It isn’t going to happen man. Relax. Now come on, we have a siege to continue. I think we need to have our units move forward. Maybe we can push around the east side since the entire valley is now like ten miles bigger."

Justin frowned as he thought of Josh’s plan. "I will let you know right now that if you target a civilian population, I will leave. I will not tolerate barbarism like the people from middle east back on earth. It is actually sad that you would even consider taking such an act."

Josh turned around.

"You call it barbarism? I call it retribution. You saw the same thing I did. Those villages were burned to a crisp. Children corpses mixed with women. You call us targeting population centers barbarism?"

Justin walked up to Josh, his fists clenched as he looked down at the shorter soldier. "If we target population centers, we are the same as then. You cannot match evil for evil and claim altruism. And the civilians of Earth are victims. You are not a hero if you launch at them. You are a villain. I am sad to see my friend has fallen."

He walked away, not turning around as he called out. "I will help with military decision making and training on doctrine as well as tactics, but I will no longer be hanging out with you. I hope you enjoy throwing away our friendship for a man you just met last week."

Josh sneered. "He isn’t a man. He is a God."

"Same difference."

Back at the command tent, the generals stood around a map as Justin’s assistant came running in. Both heroes had retreated to their tents, and she rushed into the meeting breathlessly. "General Hoaz. We have a problem." She said, falling to her knee.

The General looked up, crossing his arms. "Speak. What is it?"

The young woman looked up. "General, the heroes have fractured. I was doing as instructed and keeping my distance when they began arguing. They were fractions of an inch from each other, and I thought they would exchange blows. But they merely went their seperate ways."

General Hoaz slumped back in his chair, rubbing his face as he looked down at the assistant. "Very well."

"Did I fail, General?"

Hoaz shook his head. "No. You have done well to this point. No one knows the effect crossing over from one world to another may have on a person. Lord Mithrael assigned you and your coworker to the young heroes with that in mind. It has unfortunately caused strain among them. Go back to Justin. Assure and assauge him to the best of your ability."

Erica nodded and left the tent.

Once the woman was out of the tent, he looked at the other Generals. "Have our fastest rider go back to Lord Mithrael and deliver the news. We are currently not in a position to address it, but I fear that if we do nothing we will lose another hero. We cannot afford that. For now, we will observe the heroes. We all took notes from their guidance earlier. Even though the land is now bigger, the operation remains the same."

He looked at the map with cold eyes. "And if the worst comes to pass, we use the Brios on their largest population center."