"Ow, shit!" Mark bumped his head on the roof of the Stryker as it trundled over the uneven terrain of Brazil.
Ha! Seems like the guys are having fu' as the rest of my team chuckled at Mark.
A call from the driver's seat interrupts my thoughts.
"10 mikes till we are back to base."
"Hoorah, another mission complete," Fabian boasted.
"Damn right," Mark replied cockily.
"Woah, what the fuck is that" James shouted, surprised while peering over Rob's shoulder, who was driving.
I looked at what James pointed out, and a bright light obscured my view and started to engulf the Stryker. I reached for my radio to call command.
"Bravo-one to command, *static* Bravo-one to command," I said only to be met by static, shit this isn't good.
"What the fuck is happing," Mark shouted over the loud noise of the Stryker, looking through the Stryker only to see that we have been fully engulfed by this light.
I tried to hail command to no avail. Then suddenly the light was gone and the only thing I could hear was the slow throbbing of the Stryker's engine.
"Sitrep!" I called out to my team.
"All good here" Mark replied.
"Minor scratches," Fabian said.
"All good just some bruises" James reported.
"All good" Rob called out from the front.
"All right … what do our surroundings look like Rob" I inquired.
"Uhh. Sir, we're not in Brazil anymore." Rob said nervously.
"What! So where are we then," I asked seriously.
"We're in grass plains, no clue where these plains are though" Rob replied.
"Wait hang on. What?" James shouted.
"Calm down, let's take a look," I said reaching up to open the gunner's hatch. There was a slight clank as I released the lock, opening the metal hatch. Rob was right we're surrounded by grass plains; I looked around and saw a dirt road with thin ruts running parallel .
"Rob, look to our 3 o'clock you see that dirt road," I pointed out, "Let's follow it we might be able to find out where we are."
"Wilco," Rob replied, as the Stryker slowly started to trundle forward towards the dirt road.
The slow throb of the Stryker's engine filled the air only to be interrupted by a call from the front of the Stryker.
"Sir!" Rob shouted, with concern in his voice. My head snapped towards his voice.
"What is it," I shouted back with calmness resonating in my voice.
"It's our fuel it should have run out over 15 minutes ago, but we now have a full tank after it hit zero," Rob informed me, confusion spread among the team as they heard the report.
"OK! Right, this is only a hypothesis, but I think we could have been teleported somewhere," I said to my team, who gave me doubtful looks, "although it doesn't explain the fuel replenishing
"That's crazy," Mark said, "But considering we ended up in the middle of some random grass plains which is definitely not Brazil… It's a possibility."
"That doesn't explain how we lost connection to command though," I said pondering, I opened the top hatch above me and stood up, "*stchk* testing."
"*stchk* Copy," Fabian replied through the comms. 'Hang on, my gear feels heavier' I opened my plate carrier's front poach and pulled out what should have been an empty magazine. 'It's full?'
Ducking back down I closed the hatch and sat back down.
"Check your empty magazines," I ordered.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Mark Shouted staring at the full magazine, "This shouldn't be possible."
"First the fuel and now the magazines," Rob muttered while thinking.
"Hey, maybe we haven't just been teleported elsewhere in the world, what if this is a different world?" James asked.
"That would make sense as to why we lost connection to Command and lost GPS," Fabian said while looking over Rob's shoulder at the road ahead.
Mark opened a hatch and stood up looking out at the grasslands surrounding us before climbing back down.
"The topography of the grasslands seems closest to the grasslands in Germany although these are far larger," Mark stated while taking notes on the surrounding landmarks.
"We should try and find someone who can confirm our location before jumping to conclusions.
The Stryker's slow throbbing sped up as we picked up the pace in the Stryker.
"Sir!" Rob called to me "Open up the hatch look to our twelve, 500 meters".
I did as he said and opened the hatch with an audible clunk, I climbed out the top and brought out my binoculars. I looked at the road and saw a convoy of carriages surrounded by unknown creatures attacking what seemed to be medieval knights. 'I guess James was right, this is most likely a new world'. I climbed back down and grabbed my HK416 rifle.
"Ok load up everyone targets are unknown creatures that are surrounding a convoy of carriages, do not engage the knights and only fire on my order," I ordered the team "Rob get us moving."
The Stryker began to pick up speed as we raced towards the convoy.
"ETA 10 seconds" A call from the front brought everyone to alert. The sudden lurch of the Stryker braking signalled our departure, we unlocked the main hatch with an audible clunk and the thud of it hitting the ground followed by heavy footsteps as we disembarked.
I was on point with my rifle brought up to my shoulder I spotted my first target, a green-skinned short humanoid, with ugly features that made my stomach turn, which was currently engaging a knight. I pulled the trigger and felt a slight kick to my shoulder as a suppressed shot sounded. A spray of green mist filled the air as the creature fell, I noted its likeness to a goblin you would find in a videogame, the rest of my team had disembarked behind me and had killed a few creatures that had turned their attention to us.
"Ok, bravo squad, clean-up" I shouted towards my team as we started to move around the convoy and take out all the creatures with one shot to the head the knights looked at us awestruck at how quickly we had dealt with the creatures. One last suppressed shot resounded.
I radioed my team to regroup by the Stryker and we started to move back towards the Stryker a hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned to see a woman clad in silver armour that was more decorated than that of the other knights, 'maybe she is their commander?'
"Who are you!" she demanded.
I looked at her body language she seemed to be nervous. 'Ha! I guess it must be scary to see people show up out of nowhere with unknown weapons.' I decided to shrug off her hand and I regrouped with the rest of Bravo squad.
"Mark and Rob guard the Stryker, James you're on recon alert me if you see any unknowns, Fabian you're with me," I ordered them to their respective posts and walked back over towards the convoy with Fabian at my side.
I look at the knights who have cleared most of the bodies off the road and dumped them in a small ditch. Most of the carriages looked to be wooden frames with cloth or canvas covering the roof, however, I noticed one of the carriages in the middle of the convoy was black and had gold trimmings. 'Someone of importance perhaps', the knight commander from before walked back over to me and Fabian.
"Thank you," she said softly "My knights would be dead without your help."
"It's fine," I replied calmly "I'm Finn, you are."
"Oh, yes. Yes, I'm Alyx commander of the princess's royal guard" she said flustered.
"Wait, princess," I said trying to stay calm "Hooh boy."
I radioed my team "Any activity? *stchk*"
"*stchk* Nothing yet" James replied.
"*stchk*Nothing here" Rob informed.
"*stchk*Ok keep your guard up" I ordered my team; I looked back up from the radio to see Alyx looking at me very confused at where the voices were coming from. Movement behind Alyx caught my attention, the door of the black and gold carriage opened and a young lady stepped out. 'So, she must be said princess.'
"My lady, it's not safe." Someone called out from inside the carriage but gave up trying to stop her. She started to make her way towards the knight commander and me. Just as she was about to reach us a hail from my radio interrupted her advance.
"Sir! Multiple contacts converging on the convoy! Over," James informed me anxiously.
"Copy that Bravo 1-2 how far out are the contacts? Over." I inquired.
"About two mikes till contact. Over," James replied.
"Copy, Bravo 1-2 stay on overwatch, Bravo 1-3 and 1-5 mount up and ready the 50-cal, out" I ordered my team, "Fabian you with me, we're gonna flank them."
"Excuse me, what's happening," Alyx asked with worry in her voice.
"We have multiple unknowns approaching this location, we gonna give a face full of lead," Fabian replied smiling.
"Wait, multiple unknowns… it couldn't be… no… could it.," Alyx said out loud, her voice full of fear. I stopped and turned to face her.
"If you have any idea what they are please tell me." I inquired coldly.
"They could be the warring troll tribe that has been wandering these plains, they decimate all that get in their way and they… leave no… survivors," Alyx said looking at me with almost pleading eyes.
"*stchk* Bravo 1-3 you have permission to use the 50.cal confirmation of targets, uh… trolls." I informed my team "Fabian get the anti-armour ready." (M136 AT4)
"Roger," Fabian replied, he started calmly extending the barrel of the M136 AT4 and arming the round. Shots resounded around the plains as the 50.cal opened up on the trolls that were quickly approaching the carriages. I looked back at the knight commander and the princess who were covering their ears from the noise, 'They looked frightened, hmm'. I turned back to see a few trolls slowly fall around 250 meters away from our location. A glint caught my eye, I pulled out my binoculars and saw an armoured troll that seemed to be their leader.
"Fabian, shoot the one in the armour," I said with an aura of coldness.
"Roger," Fabian replied and looked behind "Backblast clear!" *pppfffeessshh*
The sound of the rocket firing scared the girls, and their screams were drowned out by the continuous gunfire from the 50.cal. A small explosion could be heard as the rocket hit its mark and the armoured troll fell. Afterwards, the other trolls looked confused, then retreated and ran away.
"Contacts leaving about 2km from our current position. Over" James informed us over the radio.
"*stchk* Copy that, leave overwatch and regroup with us, Rob park the Stryker near us" I ordered my team.
"Y-y-you killed an armoured troll," Alyx blurted out seeming hysterical. The princess seemed to be getting over the ringing in her ears.
"What was that noise, could it have been magic," The princess inquired with slight distress in her voice.
"No, no, that was just the browning 50.calibre machine gun on the Stryker," I said to the princess.
"50 … ca…li…ber machine gun?" the princess inquired further.
"Don't worry about it," I said to her. The Stryker came up the side of the road and stopped next to us the back door opened and James, Rob, and Mark came out.
"We picked up James on our way back," Rob said.
"Ok," I replied "Status?"
Suddenly a UI appeared out of nowhere in front of me, the rest of my team was stunned at the sight, Alyx and the princess looked at me in awe.
"y-y-you're a hero!" Alyx practically shouted.