Into the Other Dimension

III Battalions of paratroopers dive through the sky, parachuting out from the backs of C-47’s flying in formation, filling the sky as they land into the cluttered and broken ground; one of those soldiers is KC.  He lands rough, falling face-first onto the rocky ground the moment his feet touch down. When he picks himself off the ground he looks all around him, utterly shocked and petrified, a complete state no one has ever seen him in as he looks at the decimated terrain and leveled buildings that was once his beloved hometown. He tries to get a grip of himself, smacking himself, hoping it’ll wake up from the nightmare that he’s in; but this is indeed his reality. The battalion he landed with cut the wires to their chute from around them in a hurry before they charged into the battle with their loaded M1 grands. KC watches as they run past him, shooting into the dark, smoke-filled distance at the unseen enemy.  No one knew who the enemy were or where they came from. Their uniforms bear an emblem that doesn’t belong to any nation or agency known to the world. The only thing that was known about them is that they call themselves the Coalition.  When the Coalition first appeared, seemingly out of thin air, their demands were simply: for the world to surrender and fall under their rule, accepting complete rule and domination. When the world refused, the Coalition made the first strike: attacking northeast Asia, leading to a war that would only last 7 days before the Asian continent would accept defeat and surrender. The rest of the world was quick to respond to the threat, determined not to fall next, the world cooperated and banned together, demanding every able-bodied man to fight the invaders, creating the first joint world military. From the moment the battles began, it was apparent to the world that their foe’s were nothing slight to deal with, doing away with the world military in just days, moving through continent after continent, finally making their presence to the Americas, where KC finds himself drafted into the horrifying battle. He looks to the fiery, smog filled sky where a fleet of friendly fast moving fighter jets soar across the battlefield, lined behind each other in bombing formation. They release their payloads in sync on top of the enemies but close to friendlies near the front line. KC and other soldiers dive out of the way, burying their heads in the dirt as the bombs go off, sending chunks of debris crashing down on top of them. KC moves his hands from over the top of his head, feels around him for any wounds, surprised he is still alive.  The squad leader who was taking cover next to him jumps quickly to his feet. He looks back at his team and with his arm he waves them forward, “Push on, lads!” He yells, blowing into his high pitched trench whistle. The soldiers follow close behind him as they charges in, sprinting past KC who still lays on the ground, shell shocked, looking on as his fellow troops get blasted and shot with steaming red lasers and other ordinance from the hands of the far more advanced enemy in the distance. KC wills himself to move and picks himself off the crumbled ground, grabbing his rifle and fills in behind the last of the charging soldiers, dodging lasers and avoiding the explosions that go off left and right. They make it up to the front lines of the battle where hundreds of his fellow soldiers are pinned down by the barrage of incoming laser fire. KC dives behind cover along with the others and blindly fires their rifles back at the enemy on the other side of the field, unsure if his rounds are even hitting.  His rifle jams and he works on it and reloads. At the same time trying to get a sense of familiarity again of his hometown, still perplexed as to how his hometown is completely unrecognizable and now just a barren, rippled wasteland. He looks down to his palm that shakes uncontrollably. KC smacks his helmet to gather himself and finishes unjamming his rifle. He looks to his left where other soldiers lay prone behind cover, shooting back and shouting into their communication radios for support. He turns right where more infantry soldiers rush in running low, followed by a squadron of battle tanks that come over a hill, shooting its main cannon into the distance before crashing back to the ground. He rapidly shoots at the enemy who he can barely see while the red laser beams fly close by his head, still firing until his rifle jams once more. He ducks behind cover, quickly trying to unjam it and get back into the fight when he suddenly freezes as a large shadow moves across the battlefield and onto his still shaky hand, casting him in complete darkness. He looks up to the sky, overwhelmed when he beholds a large, iron behemoth, the sizes of two aircraft carriers combined slowly moving over top of them. His jaw drops to the ground and his heart sinks to his stomach as he looks at the massive behemoth all over from its sleek metal coating to its hundreds of otherworldly advanced cannons and other ferocious weapons. KC stands frozen, head locked to the sky. He immediately snaps back to when a loud thundering explosion sends jolts through his body.  BOOM!  He snaps his head to the right where a team of soldiers stand near the stationary tank that fires heavy canisters at the behemoth. The shot impacts into the hull of the ship and explodes. The soldiers by the tank pump their fist, looking on at the direct hit but they don’t celebrate for much longer for after the smoke from the explosion dissipates, it revels little to no effect done to the craft. The soldiers frantically shout commands and other instructions to each other as they shoot back with their rifles, waiting for the tank to reload in the next canister.  A section in the bottom hull of the behemoth begins to part directly down the middle, revealing a radiant blue light that shines over them. KC moves his hand to his brow, shielding his eyes and squinting, trying to see past the blinding light. He can’t make out much, but what he can make out is a massive cannon protruding out that slowly pivoting over to the soldiers and the tank. The blue light inside the cannon starts to become more radiant as a sharp whining noise becomes higher and higher pitched. KC waves his arms in the air and calls out to the unaware soldiers, desperately trying to get their attention. He shouts as loud as he can, trying to warn them of imminent danger but they can’t hear his screams over the shooting, explosions, and the buzzing of the planes flying overhead.  “Get out of the way!” KC continues to shout. One of the soldiers notices KC waving his arms and pointing to the sky where he lifts his head up and looks directly down the barrel, burning his eyes from the bright light as the wide cannon uses small lasers inside to create one big massive beam that shoots down and obliterates the soldiers and the tank.