Day 0 - Spring - New Fort Bragg - Tarren

Sergeant Maxim

Maxim hurried outside with the private after he had strapped on his clothes and vest and hustled down the stairs towards the main entrance.

He strapped his ballistic helmet on and pushed the front door of his barracks open, letting the bright sunlight blind him for a moment before looking at what was going on.

VROOOOM!

“Holy-”

Maxim had just exited his barracks before immediately falling backwards, narrowly avoiding being hit by a Humvee that was being driven past him.

The vehicle didn't even pause for a moment, the sandy color of the car and the hum of the engine entering Maxim's sights for a moment before speeding off down the main road.

Getting his bearings again, he surveyed the situation. Soldiers were running around left and right like chickens with their heads cut off. They all had their standard M4 rifles in their hands as they panicked, which was understandable in their situation. All of them were in full body armor and looked like they had raided the armory to grab their weapons.

Unless in training, weapons generally weren't allowed on site. After the incident of 20'000 bullets of 5.56 ammo going missing the security around the armoury was increased immensly.

The humvee that had almost hit him joined the multiple other vehicles that were at the main entrance.The soldiers had started blockading the front entrance of the newly formed Fort Bragg using the Humvees and LAV’s-25’s.

Jesus christ….

Maxim breathed in

“EVERYBODY FUCKING STOP!”

Maxim wasn’t a drill sergeant, but he definitely could raise his voice if he felt like it. His voice shocked the soldiers into stopping the crazed push of a possible enemy attack, something that many of them had not experienced yet.

Maxim looked left and right, observing the chaos that everything was in. Soldiers that weren’t out already were slowly making their way out of the barracks, not realizing the situation that everybody was in.

“Alright, are any higher ranking officers here!? What the hell is going on?”

A murmer of confusion and anxiety rang out in the group of soldiers. They were certain that one of the generals would have been here but they hadn't heard anything.

Two men stepped forward, both looking quite disheveled just like the other soldiers.

“Corporal James sir !”

“Specialist Simon sir !”

Maxim looked between the two incredulously, both of them having a lower rank than him.

“Are you guys the only higher ranks here?”

James looked towards Simon, then Maxim

“Yes sir, everyone else is either a private or a private first class. Some of them have gone on tour and have seen combat but haven’t had their ranks raised. There are some other corporals but they aren’t here right now, they’re really passed out from drinking. This is it as far as we know”

This is much worse than I thought, they just threw a bunch of guys who are barely adults into a place with a shit ton of guns.

Both James and Simon knew the situation was bad, even though they weren’t completely sure of what was happening they knew that something was going to happen.

Maxim looked away from the two and towards the mess of privates. They were most prominently part of the 82nd airborne and 101st airborne, some members of the 535th airlift squadron were there as well.

They were there because of the joint-exercise that needed the C-17 Globemaster III’s for parachuting exercises, and thus had deviated from their original base of Pearl Harbour-Hickam, Hawaii.

Actually, now that I think about it I've only seen lightly armored vehicles driven out... probably should get someone to check on that

“Alright, so does anyone have an explanation for this or are we just gonna stay here until we’re dead?”

The many soldiers looked at each other, still shocked at the fact that they were witnessing something very much impossible happening right before their eyes.

One by one they started to list what they thought had happened.

“Alien abduction?”

“Nah, it’s gotta be the North Koreans, there’s just no way!”

“Are we all dreaming, someone slap me!”

Maxim sighed, they had all heard what the voice had said but it hadn’t elaborated further. And he wasn’t about to listen to some random voice that could be leading their whole base to its death. If it was telling the truth, the girl had done this before as well and the ones before them had all died.

That’s reaallll encouraging. We’d all have a better chance back in Iraq at this point.

Maxim saw one of the privates from the 82nd jump up with his hand raised up like he was in a college lecture.

“The kid jumping, you got an idea?”

Unlike the others this kid, who looked like he was barely 18, was jumping around in excitement at their situation.

“Sir, I think we got our asses Isekai’d!”

“................”

Maxim looked towards the others

“Anybody got an idea what this kid's talking about"

Another hand went up, from a different group.

One of the soldiers from the 101st replied

“As in the Japanese trope of getting transported to another world entirely, which at this point kind of makes sense”

Maxim didn’t watch anime or manga at all, his girlfriend did but he never really paid any attention.

I knew I should have spent more time with her, no, I’ll definitely do that once we get back…….if we get back.

“Well, how do we get back then?”

The first soldier shrugged, “The problem is that they usually don’t go back. They just stay here, forever.”

"......"

This caused a huge silence among the soldiers, while they nervously looked between themselves. In a way this was worse than getting stuck in a middle eastern country in the middle of a war, because if they survived they would be able to go home.

But they were stuck now.

It was possible that they were just going to stay here until they died, their friends and families questioning where they were and hoped they would come back even until the end.

“...AHEM, Simon can you go check on the storages? We need to see what we’ve got to work with. We don’t know what got transported with us besides the small arms armory. James, get some guys together and go do a headcount.”

Maxim looked at the dozen or so Humvee and LAV’s still parked in the middle of the road. The soldiers had abandoned them after he had called out to them to speak to them.

At least we have our transports

“Guys, back the vehicles up. We can’t get out like this.”

Simon jogged off towards the armory and vehicle bay while James went towards the barracks with a mob of soldiers following him.

Many soldiers were still standing around, looking at Maxim for further orders. Many of them had confused and worried looks, all having family to go back to. Maxim breathed heavily, being the highest ranking in this situation was not a good thing. He had only needed to command small groups of soldiers at a time, not a few hundred, maybe even a thousand or two.

“You guys go check through all of the other buildings, but I need some volunteers to come with me. I’m going outside to scout the area. Also, the kid at the start needs to come along, obviously you know more than us.”

The kid backed up a bit, laughing nervously, before some of the soldiers grabbed him from under the elbows to stop him from running for it.

“We don’t know our fuel stash, so for now we should only take one of the LAV’s and two or three Hummers.”

Maxim looked over at some of the leaving soldiers, before shouting after them

“TELL THEM IF I DON’T COME BACK JAMES IS IN CHARGE!”

Maxim then turned back towards the leftover troops, around about 14 soldiers from the 82nd and 101st.

“What? We’ve gotta take precautions, we don’t know if there could be enemies that have RPG’s or something. A LAV’s not gonna stop one of those. Alright kid, you’re in the middle humvee with me let’s go. MOVE IT!”

Day 0 - Spring - New Fort Bragg - Tarren

And that’s how the private (Maxim later found out his name was Ben while they were backing up) looked out of the back window of the Humvee as the driver and sergeant sat in the front seats.

They were driving on the grassy planes that they had seen, right to the North of their base according to their compass. The natural environment breathtakingly beautiful, moreso than anything the soldiers had ever seen in their lives.

The unpaved roads made the ride quite bumpy, with the occasional bump coming from partially submerged rocks protruding from the dirt.

“So Ben, what else can you warn me about? Possibly something that could help us not die would be very appreciated”

Ben looked at Maxim before thinking thoughtfully

“Hmmm, well Sarge I don’t know how well our weapons will work against people in this world. Or maybe even monsters, but they generally don’t change...I think”

“Monsters? Like what?”

Ben looked up, the sky was clearer than he had ever seen in his life. Probably because there was very little pollution here.

“I don’t know. Trolls, Dragons, Demons. Stuff like that”

Maxim turned his head back towards the front as they started making their way up one of the small hills.

“Can we kill them with bullets?”

Ben shrugged again

“Your guess is as good as mine sir, we’ll have to see for ourselves. I think our first mission should probably be to find other civilizations so we can understand what’s going on from something other than a voice in our dreams.

Maxim nodded “good ide-”

“Helppp!”

He was cut off by a distant shriek, a blood-curdling feminine voice could be faintly heard screaming.

“Kid, you hear that too right?”

“Yes sergeant”

Maxim knew he had a small force, if something really dangerous were to come up they really didn’t have the firepower to deal with it, bulletproof or not.

The .50 BMG on the Humvees and 25mm chain guns were at most enough to deal with lightly armored vehicles and infantry. If the things they were fighting were like tanks then Maxim’s squad was screwed.

Maxim sighed, before pressing the button on the walkie talkie on his chest

“All units move North-West towards the sounds. Assume that there will be enemies that are armed and dangerous.”

The Humvee’s and LAV swerved left towards the sound of the screaming, moving closer and closer towards the forests that they had seen previously.

Maxim turned around to face Ben again

“Kid, turn your safety off”

“Hm? Ah yes sir!”

Maxim and the rest of the people in the Humvee checked their weapons and equipment as Ben turned his safety off on his gun.

The sounds of screaming were getting closer, and they also started to hear the screaming of children too.

The roaring engines of the vehicles stopped when they finally turned towards the source of the noise. Maxim swore that all the soldiers had held their breath and stopped to take in the sight that they were seeing.

Numerous huts made out of wood and straw were scattered around the area, many which were now set ablaze by a fire that had been let loose. The tilled fields of farmland were trampled upon, crops destroyed by dozens of creatures stamping on them.

These things, however, weren't the thing that Maxim was focused on. He was focused on the dozens of tiny green creatures holding knives and clubs fighting what seemed to be other people. Injured people that were dressed in rags were lying behind the creatures.

The people that were fighting were a small group of five, two of them wearing shimmering steel armor, and all wielding swords of various lengths and sizes. They were desperately stabbing and slashing at the horde of monsters that were advancing on them, behind them were many injured women, men, and children.

Maxim heard one of the knights (at least he assumed they were) yell out to the other one.

“Gawain, where's our reinforcements!? We’re gonna get overrun here!”

The taller one, who he assumed as Gawain, spoke back

“You know that the other knights and soldiers are either helping other villages or surrounded by enemies in the front lines! I’m sure the king will send soldiers the moment they are free, we just need to hold out until then.”

As he said that, a lucky slash from the creatures hit him in the knee since they were so much shorter, making him crumple to the ground.

“Gawain!”

A light shake from Ben got Maxim to look back as the fighting raged on.

“Sir, can you understand what they were saying?”

“Huh?”

“Well it looked like you were listening to what they were saying, just so you know we can’t understand them at all”

Maxim looked back at them desperately holding the horde back. The vehicles were hidden in the forests and none of the headlights were turned on, so none of them knew they were there.

“Kid, what’re those things?”

Ben squinted towards the small figures

“My best guess? Goblins. Terrible critters that plunder settlements and kill the men and rape the women.”

That’s everything that Maxim needed to hear as he opened the car doors and stepped out.

“All units, eliminate the goblins. LAV and Humvee’s drivers and gunners stay in, everyone else get your ass out.”

He cocked his M4 as they moved towards them, 8 of the soldiers getting out. The remaining soldiers stayed in their vehicles while the gunners trained their turrets on the goblins.

They started closing in, their camouflage blending in with the dark forest environment as they neared the open plains.

Once they were around 200 metres from the fighting, some of the injured humans started to notice them, but didn’t have the energy to do anything. All of them were severely wounded.

Ben started to head towards them to help them but Maxim put his hand on his shoulder

“Kid, keep your head in the game. We can help them after we kill those fuckers”

They all got down low as they had a clear shot, but there were civilians and friendlies mixed in with the Goblins, it was way too risky.

Many of the Goblins were focused on looting, and were in a lump behind the frontal group that was still attacking the few defenders.

Maxim was sure that the LAV could take those ones out

“LAV team, make some noise and take out the ones away from the humans. We’ll take the ones in front”

“Roger, firing now”

TAKATAKATAKA

The LAV’s chain guns let out loud, continuous shots towards the group in the back.

“KREEE!”

“KUH!”

“AEEE”

The goblins in the back barely got to register what was happening before getting torn to shreds. The bullets tore through their bodies and, with their small stature, body parts disconnected and separated. The bullets that missed tore the ground up with smoke and debris.

This caused the fighting in the front to pause as both the humans and goblins blocked their ears with their hands at the sudden loud noise, giving Maxim’s squad a chance to rush forwards.

“Take them out and check your fire!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Maxim rushed forwards shooting three Goblins square in the chest. They all instantly died from the bullets. His squadmates were also closing in and decimating all of the Goblins in the front, using tap firing to avoid hitting the villagers. The numbers of the Goblins were rapidly dwindling. What seemed to be three dozen had been brought down to four goblins.

The knight that was still up was shouting to themselves, as they had recoiled from their standing position to curling up on the ground.

“What in the world is going on!”

“KREEEE”

BANG!

Another goblin fell after the 5.56 round pierced through it, leaving just one remaining.

The single Goblin realised the danger it was in, and had enough intelligence to grab one of the children that was injured on the ground and held a knife to their throat.

“AHHH, p-please don’t kill me”

The girl it was holding started struggling while screaming

Maxim winced

“Shit, cease fire it has a hostage”

The soldiers surrounded it as it slowly backed away, laughing

“Ke ke ke-”

BANG!

SPLAT!

The laughter was cut short when the Goblins head disintegrated in front of the soldiers eyes as a bullet splattered it all over the place. The headless body wavered for a moment, then crashed down onto the grassy floor.

Maxim sighed in relief as he pushed down his walkie talkie

“Targets neutralised, drivers get your asses over here and take out the supplies. We’ve got a shit ton of wounded here.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were only two soldiers with medic training, but many of the villagers were either only cut lightly or already dead.

The ones that were cut lightly wouldn’t need stitches, but needed their wounds cleaned.

“Get away from my son, what do you think you’re doing!”

One of the women grabbed her son away from the soldier that was cleaning his wounds and attempting to put a sterile pad on the cut.

“Maam calm down! If we don’t do this the cut’s going to get infected!”

Some of the villagers didn’t need to know what the soldiers were saying as they poured the injured water from their canteen. However, since the villagers didn’t know how injuries worked they assumed they were trying to hurt them, and they weren’t speaking the same language so they couldn’t understand one another.

Maxim stepped in front of the mother that was clutching on to her child, who was clearly in pain.

“Maam, if you don’t let him help you, your son is going to die. He’s just trying to save him”

Another voice cut in

“Let them do it, they clearly are just trying to help”

The mother reluctantly let go of her son as the soldier applied the pad onto his arm.

“He’ll be fine in a week, just make sure to clean in once in a while with water”

The medic moved on to other wounded as Maxim turned towards the voice, seeing the knight looking straight at him.

The knight took off their helmet as long, golden hair started to flow out and a delicate face popped out from under the helmet.

“Who are you people!? I have never seen those weapons before”

“I’m a sergeant from the 82nd airborne. My name is Maxim”

The female knight stared

“Sergeant? So you’re from a military?”

“Army of the United States of America maam”

The knight scratched her head, clearly confused

“United States of America? I haven’t heard of that country before.”

“It’s a long story, we came to help because we heard screaming from this area.”

The women nodded as she looked down at her fallen comrade

“...the goblin attacks have gotten out of hand. If you weren’t here I would be laying on the ground next to him. I thank you as the princess of the Lunama kingdom”

Maxim just stared at her, processing that he was talking to a literal princess before looking down at the body.

The cut on his leg looked like it had bled him out, but just to make sure Maxim reached down and checked his pulse.

“What’re yo-”

“Shhhhh”

.

.

.

Ba bump

“He’s still alive!”

“What!??”

Maxim looked around frantically

“Medic!”

The medic that had left rushed over, as Maxim pointed at Gawain. He cut the straps of the armor off with a knife to see how bad the cut was.

The cut wasn’t that deep, but he had fainted from shock and exhaustion. The cut did need stitches, and he still lost quite a bit of blood.

“We need to get him back to the base, he’ll live but only if we stitch him up. OI! We need a stretcher over here!”

With their low numbers, the soldiers had managed to fit a stretcher in one of the humvees. Two soldiers rushed towards them and lifted Gawain onto the stretcher before hustling towards the Humvee.

Maxim ran towards the Humvee and got in the front seat, while Gawain was placed on the floor of the Humvee and the driver started the engine.

As the engine hummed to life, the princess rushed towards them and right up to the door

“Let me go too! That’s my brother!”

Maxim looked at the medic who sighed, clearly tired from the immense amount of injured he had to handle.

“She wants to come with us, but is it really a good idea?”

“Sir, we have to let others in at some point if we want relations with other kingdoms. Letting a princess in is a good start.”

Maxim sighed before getting out and opening the door for her

“Get in quickly, the more time we waste the more likely he’s going to die”

The princess hesitantly stepped in the unknown metal chariot and Maxim shut the door before the driver sped off.

The Humvee sped back towards New Fort Bragg as fast as it could while the medic was in the back cleaning the wounds with pads and alcohol.

“Sorry princess, this ride is going to be quite bumpy”

“Wha-what is this speed!? This is faster than any chariot I’ve ever been on, even magical ones!

The driver tapped Maxim on the shoulder

“Sir, I think you should know something about the last goblin.”

“What about it? One of our guys shot it from afar right?

The driver shook his head as he did a gradual turn.

“That was a .50 BMG round sir, half of the goblin body disintegrated”

Maxim was confused at what he was hinting at.

“Was it one of the Humvee gunners? Maybe they had a really good shot?”

“That was 500 meters away, they couldn’t hit it in the head.”

“So what are you trying to say?”

The driver stepped even harder on the gas at this

“Sir, that shot was from a .50 cal sniper rifle. And nobody in the 82nd and 101st are snipers. We haven’t even found a sniper in our armory yet”

“We didn’t fire it”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere in the forest near the village

Unknown

“Hit! Dead on as always captain! But the Americans looked like they were doing fine, did we have to help?”

The captain lowered his sniper and stretched

“I wasn’t going to let a hostage crisis happen if I could stop it, I also didn’t want to see a kids throat slit”

The other soldier nodded

“Let’s head back to base”

“Roger that Captain”