Convergence

Alex and James were quickly ushered through the base by a team of marines.  The squad suddenly stopped in front of a doorway.  James read the placard on the door:

GEN. BENJAMEN ANDERSON

BASE COMMANDER

Alex gulped nervously.  The marine captain pounded on the door.

“General, we have Captain Thalin and Lieutenant Williams with us, as ordered.”

A gruff voice replied, slightly muffled by the door.

“Good, send them in.”

The marine swung the door open, and then motioned for Alex and James to step inside.  Alex stepped forward, followed by James.  As soon as they had cleared the doorway, the marine slammed it close.  Behind a desk in the center of the room, the General, a well built, six-two man in his late forties stared at the two airmen.  Slowly, he began browsing through a report, beginning to speak.

“Do you know just how much trouble the two of you have been causing me for the last eighteen hours?”

Alex and James both stayed silent, sensing a rhetorical question.  They were validated in their assumption a second later.

“More freaking trouble than the rest of my career combined!  Yesterday, I get a report that one of my Eagles has gone missing in the God forsaken test range, and by the end of the day, half the army and the freaking President himself shows up at my base!”

The General ran a hand through his graying hair.

“Then, some scientific crew gets dropped here in a C-130 from I don’t even want to know where, and starts telling me that my little weapons test managed to uncover a portal to a parallel universe!”

The General dropped the papers he had been perusing back onto his desk, once more turning his gaze on the flight crew.

“Even more interesting than that is, the President seems to be the one responsible for all the troop movements to this place, and has a lid on the whole situation.  Absolutely no communications without the outside world.  As far as I know, Congress doesn’t even know about this mess, not that they seem to know anything these days.  So, it seems to me, that you two, as funny as this is going to sound, are the only two people in the world that can tell me what the freaking heck is going on here!”

The General glared at them, before leaning back in his chair, and kicking his feet up on the desk.

“So please, enlighten me.  What exactly did you see while you were on your little joy ride through the desert floor, and how did you manage to return, when there is no possible way that your Jet had enough fuel to remain in the air for a full eighteen hours?  Feel free to sit down; I get the feeling that this is going to take a while.”

Alex and James carefully eased themselves into the chairs across from the General.  The General kept a close eye on the pair.

“Allow me to start the Q and A session with this; what EXACTLY did you see when you were in, wherever the heck that place was.”

Alex slowly opened his mouth to speak, trying to come up with the proper words.

“Sir, what occurred over the last several hours… is something that sounds completely ridiculous.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you sent us to get checked for brain damage by the time we’re done.”

The General folded his hands on the desk.

“With all the crazy stuff that has been going on around here lately, I’m not sure if anything can throw me.  Start at the beginning, and don’t leave out the details.”

Alex looked at James, who simply shrugged.

“Sir, shortly after the impact of the bunker buster, our jet stopped functioning.  We even tried bailing out, but we couldn’t get anything to work.  Then, by some fluke or act of God, we dropped directly into the impact crater.  We were expecting the um, end, so we ended up having our eyes closed.  Then suddenly we heard all the systems rebooting, and the engines kicked back on.  When we opened our eyes, we were flying at approximately four hundred feet, and the desert had changed to large grassland.  At that point, we were still in shock over what had happened.”

Alex took a deep breath, and then let it out.

“The first indication I got that something was up, well, at least more than it already was, was when we passed through a cloud bank.  I glanced over, and for a second, it almost looked like there were structures in the clouds.  A few seconds later, a large cloud obstructed my view, but still, I thought I was going crazy.  It was only a few minutes later that we spotted a large city, built next to a mountain.  Seeing that we had no other options, we made a… interesting landing on the main street.  It was then that we got our first introduction to the natives.”

The General was staring at Alex, clearly interested.

“Just who, or what, did these natives happen to be?”

James chuckled slightly, and Alex sighed.

“Well… that’s the thing sir.  The natives… well, their talking ponies.”

<(^)>

President Nickelson sat in the conference room on Air Force One.  Across from him were three officers, a general, and two colonels.

“How many troops have been assembled?”

A colonel slid forward a report, never taking his eyes off the President.

“As of right now, eight hundred men are ready at the portal, as well as seventy-three ground vehicles of various types.”

“Good,” Nickelson turned his gaze to the other colonel, “and our air forces?”

“Eight Apaches, twenty various transport rotor wings, four F-22s, twelve F-35s, twelve F-15Es, and thirty six F-16s.  We

also have a group of various large aircraft, but they are too large to safely fly through the portal, and we currently have no way to taxi into the hole either.”

The general then spoke, “of course, we have more forces in route, and we can always get more.  We just know that you want to keep this relatively stealthy.”

The President nodded,

“Stealth is the key; if anything about this gets out… we’re done for.”

<(^)>

“So you see sir, they don’t intend to threaten us, and they couldn’t, even if they wanted to.” Alex finished.

“Will you please advise the President to at least reduce the number of troops around the portal?  Its making them feel uneasy, and they have no intention of invading us.”

The General tapped his desk, and then sighed.  He looked up at the two airmen.  For a second, Alex saw what looked like a hint of sadness in Anderson’s eye.  Then the General spoke.

“I’m afraid that that is the problem.  The President is not bent on defending against an invasion; he is bent on launching one.”

James and Alex both stared at the general, stunned.

“But… but why?”

“I don’t know, though I can give a few guesses.  What I do know, is that the President wants to see you, and I brought you here to make sure I got to you first.”

The airmen were stunned at this news.

“He wants to see you in ten minutes, so I would advise you get moving.”

Alex leapt up.

“Sir!  Can’t we do anything?  Can you try and dissuade the president?”

“As for dissuading him, I’ve got a feeling that you two are about to have an opportunity to that.  As for doing something, I

already have.  I changed the strike schedule around a little bit.  You two will be flying number three in the first strike against this new world.”

This time James spoke.

“I’m not sure how that helps.”

The General examined the two.

“You will have to decide how that helps.  Oh, and I have to warn you, I.F.F. has been rather iffy lately.  Make sure your shooting at the right stuff.”

With that, the General dismissed them from the room.  Upon exiting, they found an officer waiting for them.

“The president wants to see you.”

James and Alex looked at each other.

“Alright.”

“Follow me.”

<(^)>

“Mr. President, it is an honor to meet you.”

James and Alex took turns shaking their supreme commander’s hand.  The President smiled at them.

“Captain Thalin, lieutenant Williams, a pleasure to meet you.  We have been talking about you quite a bit lately.”

James laughed nervously.  Alex merely nodded.

“Sir, may I ask you a question?”

“Well, I don’t see why not, go ahead, shoot.”

“Sir… is it true that you intend to invade Equestria?”

The President frowned,

“Equestria?”

Alex hastily corrected himself.

“The new world.”

“Oh,” the President smiled again, “yes, I believe that that’s the idea.”

Alex exhaled slowly.

“Sir, I don’t mean to complain, but I don’t think that an invasion is necessary.  They mean us no harm.”

“You slightly confuse the issue, Lieutenant.  The reason for the invasion is to collect the resources of that world, not to

commit a preemptive strike.  This world has practically been given to us, it’s a miracle.  We now have a way to dig ourselves out of the proverbial hole, without making the public mad that they aren’t getting their benefits packages.”

The airmen remained quite throughout the rest of the visit.

<(^)>

Alex and James hopped out of the Humvee, looking at the line of jets.  A man ran up to them, flagging them down.

“Jonathan!” Alex smiled at the rear-seater of Striker one two.

“Where’s Jim?”

Jonathan paused.

“He was involved in a bit of an incident involving two motorized vehicles and a chicken.  As a result, he has a broken arm.

I’m going to be flying with one of the pilots that just got here.”

Alex was confused.

“Why doesn’t he just fly with his RIO?”

“He was… also involved with said incident.  Enough about that anyway!  I’m glad to see you two!”

<(^)>

As the members of Striker team were busy greeting each other, Captain Zachary Newt strode towards his own Strike Eagle.  He would be leading the first strike on the enemy.  A voice called to him from behind.

“Captain Newt, please come here.”

The captain glanced back.  A limo idled about twenty feet away, its window slightly rolled down.  He strode up to it.  The window rolled down.  Captain Zachary snapped to attention.

“Mr. President.”

“Captain, there is not much time for formalities here, agreed?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good, now I need you to do something for me.  You know what happened to the crew of Striker one one the other day,

correct?”

“Yes sir, at least, somewhat sir.”

“Good.  I’m afraid that as a result of that incident the crew may be a little… unsure of their loyalty.  I want you to order them

to make the first pass.  If they refuse… use your imagination.”

The Captain swallowed.

“Yes sir.”

“Good, now off with you.”

The captain turned and started jogging towards his aircraft.