To make a stand
Australia is an island nation, being the largest island nation with more than 2 cities scoring the top ten most liveable cities in the world, it all changed when a portal that open’s once in a blue moon opened in front of Parliament house. The portal itself was a swirl of colours, Colours mixed and created other colours and those created more colours, but the portal itself wasn’t the problem. It was what was on the other side, the other side of the portal contained a world enraptured in a civil war unseen by humans ever until after an advanced reconnaissance unit entered the portal.
Their tales upon their return caused panic in the government. This panic caused ripples throughout the Australian society, Conscription was introduced again but the people couldn’t understand why, factories started pumping out weapons of war and scientists were put to the test to develop a next-gen body armour. After a riot broke out after a conscription letter arrived at a well-known family’s doorstep, the government told the truth, Humanity had made contact with another race of sentient creatures. This statement alone caused much panic.
Footage from UAV’s and Head cams confirmed this and the Australian army swelled with recruits changing from a specialised army to a Next gen military. Thanks to advances In research Exo suits were created allowing troops to mount heavy weapons on shoulder hard points, Combustion based rifles gave way to Magnetic accelerator Rifles, advances in bio science allowed the use of muscle augments and intelligence enhancements. Large Piloted mech based weapon platforms replaced tank warfare and VTOL’s replaced standard fighters.
Australia’s change in military garnered attention from multiple nations including America and china. The attention wasn’t the good kind as both countries pressured Australia to release the technology gathered from their weapons research to the other nations. Australia under the stress of potential invasion by the portal and other nations declared an isolationist policy and cut ties with the rest of the world.
The other side of the portal was a different matter, time was distorted there, it flowed much slower in the other side. The country side was nothing but ash, forests were grey and dead, the clouds choked with poison and strange creatures roamed the place. The Australian recon team had been attacked by a group of the aliens, the aliens being humanoid in appearance with a layer of fur that varied in colour, equine shaped heads and equine legs that ended in hooves. What the Australian team didn’t know was that they were attacked by the xenophobic Solar empire, a nation dedicated to the eradication of non-equine life. You see the other world was called equestrian, home to anthropomorphic ponies that varied in races from pegasi to unicorns, these ponies were split between the xenophobic nation of the Solar empire and the accepting nation of the New Luna Republic. These two factions had been clashing for decades between a territory known as no-ponies land.
5 years later
James camers was an average teen of about 17, he had his dad who served in the army, his mother who was a barmaid and a younger brother of 3. He had brown hair of a short length with deep hazel eyes, a pointed chin and long eye lashes that people thought he was a girl at times if he tried. He was rather tall and lanky for his size and didn’t have much in the way of muscle, mostly just relying on his brains and small group of friends to avoid trouble with people. His life was simple, ok casual job, nice friends and a good girlfriend who was currently trying to. Cheer him up. The reason he’s sad? Because he turns 18 in a week, but I know what your asking, why would he be sad for his birthday. Well I’m tell you, the conscription that the army issued was given to those of the age 18 without a full time job or scholarship. Most people his age just volunteered for service to receive the volunteers bonus of about an extra 2 dollars an hour on top of their standard pay. Now he loved the army, he would go and watch their parades, their public weapon exhibitions and even do his work experience at the local barracks. But he didn’t want to join as an infantryman, he wanted to be a mechanic, he had studied and gotten the grades but the closest base that train mechanics is over 2 kilometres away.
1 Week Later (I know another time skip but I want to release a chapter and stuff.
James P.O.V
I stared at the green letter in my hand, the text all neat and tidy. Across the envelope I received this was a stamp saying ‘Important Notice’. I read and reread the letter but my eyes kept drifting to a single line: conscription notice. I stumbled numbly into the lounge room receiving a look of curiosity from my mum.
“What’s that?” she asked as she eyes the green paper, a hint of worry in her eye, “is it what I think it is?” my reply was a short grunt as I continued to an empty chair, I only had 2 hours before the conscription bus came to the house and picked me up.
I immediately stood up and rushed to my room so I could pack my things. Quickly grabbing a bag I shoved shirts and pants, socks and jocks and put my shoes on my feet, grabbed my red cap and walked down the hallway to the front porch where I sat for the next few hours, worrying about what the future would hold. I heard footsteps and looked down the path to see my girlfriend Jean walking up to me with tears in her eyes. I caught her eyes and nodded minutely as before she collapsed into my arms, holding me as I were a life ring at sea. I awkwardly rubbed her back as she sobbed into my shoulder. I just let cry, to be honest, I felt like crying too.
(This is before the mass military upgrade)
Delta 2-2's POV
The portal swirled behind me as I walked forward, my F88 raised and scanning the area in front of me. As I scanned the area I took notice of the surroundings. Large burnt out tree's loomed to the left while in front of me was clear ground, the grass a charred grey, and to the right was a small burnt out settlement with tattered banners looming over a smoking husk of a wall. As I finished scanning my earpiece chattered to life as orders were given.
"Delta 2-2 this is Portal command, radio check over," my radio chattered.
Quickly clicking the mic I replied, "Portal command this is Delta 2-2, I read you loud and clear, over." My reply was quick and smooth, born over practice from my tours in afghanistan and the middle east.
"Delta 2-2, your orders are to investigate your immediate surroundings, your helm cam will be streaming footage back to us, the footage isn't the best quality but its manageable given the circumstances, how copy over."
"I copy Portal command, I see a settlement of some sort a short distance from here, I'm gonna head over and scout it out. whats the rules of engagement if I make contact with the natives?"
"Standard ROE apply, only shoot when necessary and try to avoid detection, who knows whats on this side, over."
"Copy that, will be maintaining radio silence until needed, over."
I quickly clicked off my com before I set off at an easy jog towards the ruins, my rifle lowered and safety on so i didn't shoot my foot. As I jogged I noticed the sky, it was the color of mud, as if some deity had grabbed a handful of mud and just lathered the sky in it. My attention wavered when my booth crunched on something, quickly looking down I saw what looked like a skull of an equine, I quickly grabbed it and shoved it in a specially prepped ziplock bag to bring back through the portal. The rest of my jog was uneventful, as I pulled to a stop at a hole in the wall I raised my rifle and slowly stepped through, my sight flicking from spot to spot as I stepped into the settlements outskirts. Another crunch underfoot caught my attention as I looked down, yet another equine skull. Looking around I noticed lots of skulls and other bones. many were lined up, but others were clutching smaller skeletons , others were impaled on spikes. 'With the way those skeletons are lined up it look's like they were executed,' I thought as I walked through the town. I quickly shoved the bones to the back of my mined as I explored the ruins, signs hung half way from buildings, houses were collapsed and what looks like a several craters were littering what looked like several trenches and barricades hallway into the town. As I was about to enter a building that looked like a town hall several voices caught my attention. I quickly flattened myself against a wall as I edged towards the voices, my F88 raised. I quickly flicked the safety off before I reached a burnt out door way, I didn't want to risk being seen by whatever was around the corner so I opened a pouch on my Tac Webbing that contained a Mirror used for peeking around corners. What I saw almost made me rub my eyes in shock, several humanoid creatures were sitting around a fire chatting. The things were humanoid in shape but with equine heads and legs like a horse that ended in hooves, they were also covered in white fur. They had uniforms on so I considered the thought of military but quickly got rid of that thought, no military would hide in a burnt out city, so I concluded these things must be either on the run or rouge military. As I shifted to get a better look my foot crunched on top of something, the noise alerting the things as they immediately shut up and got up slowly, some pulling what looked like a gladius out of scabbards while others picked up what looks like muskets.
I edged back a bit before a beam of energy punched through the wall just in front of my face. I quickly scrambled back and raised my weapon at the doorway and waited for them to appear through it. I didn't have to wait more than 3 seconds as two ran out at me, swords raised. I reacted quickly and snapped off 4 shots at them, one bullet hit one's knee and another bullet hit its face, my other 2 rounds buried themselves in the second ones chest, crimson blossoming in its body. The cracks of my rifle were loud but not as loud as the following cracks from the enemy, several holes appeared in the wall as bullets ripped through the Ashen timber easily. I quickly flicked my fire setting to Burst fire and sent several bullets back in the direction the holes had come from, the cracks of my rifle were accompanied by a couple of meaty thumps and cries of pain. I quickly charged the wall and broke through it surprising the Equines, shards of wood showered them as I raised my gun and started to pull the trigger. As my weapon kicked into my arm one of my foes dropped to the ground, I quickly snapped to another target ad let of a burst, clipping its shoulder and scoring a hit in its throat. A single rang out that wasn't me and pain erupted in my chest, staggering me back out the hole I made.
I groaned in pain as I felt up where I was hit, feeling a metal ball lodged in my kevlar I quickly jumped up, my rifle raised to fire but the Equine had vanished. Muttering a few choice curse words I pulled back out of the town and keyed my coms.
"portal command, this is Delta 2-2, do you read over,"
"We read you loud and clear Delta 2-2, we saw everything, listen, we need you to get out of there, head back to the portal and come on home for a debriefing, over,"
A large snap broke my attention as I bolted to the portal, a gunshot rang out and impacted with a meaty thump on my arm, bowling me over for a second. I looked towards the portal and dived through just as a beam of yellow energy hit me...