Gate: War Of Two Worlds

Vanguard-7 would be driving down the dirt road. It has been a few hours since they left Fort Alnus. So far on their mission has been very boring. So far, they only passed a farming house with some kids working in the fields.

While looking out the window, Sharpe looks at the trees. They have entered this forest not to long ago, seeing no way around it. As his convoy continues to drive down the street, he is looking at the trees. To his surprise the trees on this world look very familiar to the ones on Earth.

As Vanguard-7 moves along, that is when everyone hears a loud roar coming from the sky. Before anyone could even speak, a large best would fly right past them with incredible speed.

Sharpe's second in command, Second Lieutenant Charles Johnson would speak through this team radio. "Did everyone see that?"

"How the hell didn't we see that sir? It a f.u.c.k.i.n.g dragon screaming and flying around." Sergeant Matt Scott.

Sharpe will grab the radio. "Stay calm and keep an eye out. I think it went..." He will stop as he is interrupted by Andrew. "Standby."

"Sir, look to the left, smoke." Andrew will say as he points to the direction.

Both Sharpe and Alicia will look to the left and see smoke. It seems like it is only a few miles away, behind a tree line.

Sharpe will think of every possible situation he can think of on why there is smoke. Could be nothing, but it is most likely some town or village.

Stand orders for the Vanguard teams is to recon the area, find out what is around Alnus and report back. If they run into the enemy or find themselves in a dangerous situation fall back to base. There is so little we know about this world; we are literally writing the rules book on what we are doing on this planet. It is hard to be aggressive and kick the enemy a.s.s if you don't know the land.

Still, if that is a village they seem to be in trouble. And there is no way he can just pass that up.

Major Sharpe will speak into the radio again. "Alright, new orders. To our left there we see smoke. We are going to check it out. Stay sharp."

Vanguard-7 convoy then switch direction and begin heading to the smoke. There is some tension as everyone gets trigger happy. No on knows what to expect, this world seems to be more extreme then Lord of the Rings. Anything literally could happen.

As they approach the location of the smoke, wondering what the dragon was interested in.

Once they arrive, all they see is burnt buildings, smoke coming from them. The ground is all black scorched form whatever that dragon did. Burnt skeletons everywhere, both humans and animals. Everything is destroyed and the area is completely lifeless.

"Were not in Kansas anymore." Scott says over the net, more like reelecting on he is seeing then making a smart-ass joke.

"Want your language Marvin. Show some respect." Randy says to him, working on maintain order.

"My god... this is horrible." Alicia will say, shocked by the destruction.

"Are we disembarking sir?" Johnson will ask over the radio.

Before he could reply, they all hear another roar from the dragon. Based on the sound, it has to be close.

"That's your answer, we keep moving. Hope we can get to the next village in time." Sharpe says over the net.

He looks back. "Alicia, report to base and the other teams in the area. Inform them we might have a fire breathing dragon in the region."

Alicia nods her head and starts working on her radio station, relaying Sharpe message.

They move out again, heading down the path.

Sharpe looks forward, reflecting on the burnt bodies.

"Everything on sir?" Andrew asks him.

Sharpe looks to Andrew. So far, he has grown to like Andrew, shocked on how much they have in common. Nerds for life. "I am fine. Keep focus."

"Sorry sir. Just notice your hand tapping the door." Andrew says, looking forward again.

Sharpe looks to his hand and stops tapping.

It will be nearly an hour until they get to the next town. The hole trip would be quiet.

"Be advise, we see buildings up ahead. Looks like another town, this one alive." Randy says over the net.

"Thank god. Maybe we can warn them." Alicia says back.

"To all teams, we stop here unless they threaten us. Do not let them get close to our vehicles though. Help when need." Sharpe orders.

When they arrive to the town, they see all the villagers stopping whatever they are doing and watch the Rangers. In their eyes, they all are trying to figure out who these people are and what are they riding.

The JLTVs stops and everyone get out.

Sharpe gets out of his command JLTV and looks around. He sees Lieutenant Johnson and Sergeant Major getting out and ordering the team along.

"Hello there, can I see who is in charge here?" Sharpe will ask one of the townsfolk. There will be a confusion on their face, deciding if they could trust him or not. "It is important, we are friends. We mean you no harm."

After some back and forth between the villagers, the town mayor would finally arrive. He is wearing these strange brown looking farmer cloths.

"Hello there, what can I do for you folks?" The mayor will ask, sounding a little afraid. He then looking at the JLTVs. "Impressive... wagons you got there."

"Hmm, o yeah. Thank you." Sharpe will say. "I take it you're in charge here."

"Yes, now what brings you here? We do not want trouble." The Major asks, seeing the weapons the Rangers are holding. He has no idea what they are and that is only adding to the fear factor.

Sharpe will take off his helmet. "Neither do we. My name is Major Sharpe of the United States Army. We are from the other side of the Gate and we mean no one any harm unless they wish harm against us. We are here to get to know your people and establish peace terms. But first I need to ask, are dragons here common?"

Saying all that makes him think about Star Trek and Orville. First contact episodes were always cool, watching the ship crew make an interdiction to a new unknown people. All with the hope that good things come with that possible relationship. Sadly, that rarely happen in the shows.

"Wait, you people are from the other side of the Gate? So, it is true. The Empire army was defeated?" The Major asks.

"The Empire army?" Randy asks as he walks up.

"What is the Empire" Sharpe follows up.

The Mayor will look confused by the question. "What do you mean what is the Empire? They are the ones who rule these lands. They rule most of Falmart." He then looks at them. "You really defeated the Empire?" Asking that, still not fully believing that.

"Damn right!" Alicia answers, all energetic. "They came, they saw, and we kicked their bass back to kingdom come."

The Mayor looks at Alicia and then back to Sharpe. "Why is a woman speaking to us?"

Without ant hesitation, Sharpe moves his arm, blocking Alice from getting aggressive. She would get annoyed by both the Mayor and Major. She was about to say something, declaring Sharpe just another s.e.xist and the other am to, in this backwards world.

"Good sir. It is wise not to insult a member of my team. Man or women." Sharpe says, looking directly into the mayor eye. His free hand slightly moves his rifle up and down, clearly implying something bad could happen. "Do we have an understanding?"

That action from Sharpe surprised Alicia. Back on Earth when he first got transferred to the team leader, he has been an isolated d.i.c.khead. She thought he didn't care about any of us.

The mayor sees the implied threat and realized he overstepped with these people. He nods his head.

"Now, back to my question." Sharpe asks, relaxing now.

"A dragon? There has not been a dragon here for hundreds of years. The only expectation was when the Empire marched through these lands many months ago to go to the Gate. But... we did hear a wired noise. Not too long ago."

Johnson will walk up, after giving orders to everyone. "We heard that noise to. There is a town up the road that direction."

"O, that's Rolith. Are they ok?" The Mayor asks.

Both Johnson and Sharpe will look at each other and back to him.

"I am sorry but Rolith is gone. Burnt down. We think it is from a dragon, a big one." Sharpe will say.

The Mayor seems to be shocked and scared by the news. "O god... then he has returned. We need to leave while we can. Thank you for warning us, we need to evacuate."

"We can help." Sharpe says. He then looks to his men. "Johnson, divide the men. See if we can speed this up. Get Jerry to form a medical wagon. Good chance there will be some old people or sick."

"Good call, there is always something." Randy comments.

Johnson nods and then walks over to everyone else. After getting their orders, they will go their separate ways to help. "Hey Alicia, can you patch me in with command. I need to report this."

"O, yeah. I can try. We are pretty far out though." She will say. She will then go back to the JLTV and start patching into the radio net, trying to get a single back to Alnus.

She will be able to get a single through to the base however, it will be patchy. He will begin to give his report however after being in the town for twenty minutes, something will catch his eye.

***

--- Thirty-Seven Minutes Later ---

The evacuation seems to be going very well. The townsfolk be gathering whatever they could. Vanguard-7 trying to speed up the process.

Sharpe is walking along the town, making sure no one was left behind. As his role model from the Vietnam War, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore said, 'We Leave No One Behind'. A Phrase he lives by, sometimes to closely.

As he looks, he sees these three guys in what seems like military rob like cloths. Everyone else is on the east side of the village yet these people are going to opposite direction. Matter of fact they do not look like they belong here at all.

He was going to let them go, seeing that it is not worth the interaction. However, what caught his eye was that he saw this ten or eleven-year-old girl tagging along. She is barley wearing this torn apart ragged brown dirty rob. Her hands are bound and being pulled by these men wagon.

Before he could react, they would move around this building, leaving the town.

Sharpe stops and rushes after them. "HEY! STOP THERE." He says to the three men in his standard commanding fearless tone. "What are you doing with her?"

All three of them stop and turn around. Two of them are far buffer than him, each being like a mini Schwarzenegger. They will pull out their swords, chuckling at the wired looking man. "Mind your own business if you know what's good for you."

The girl turns around and looks.

Sharpe could easily gun them all down with his M4A1 however that might risk hitting the girl. He doesn't have the time to aim since he is so close to them.

Sharpe pulls out his M1911 Colt pistol." He will give him a glare, showing he is meaning business and that he isn't afraid of their size.

Not liking the continue confrontation, one of the big guys would use his sword and try attacking Sharpe. He would just dodge the sword and shot the man in the c.h.e.s.t. All of a sudden one of the others would be attacking him, swing his sword down right at him.

Sharpe moves out of the way, tripping the man as he lunged forward. As he rebalances himself, the other man rushes up and swings his sword.

The other man gets back up and joins his comrade.

Sharpe finds himself facing two opponents now. He sees their overconfident in their eyes, no big deal to him. Been trained and served with the best the United States Army had to offer.

Both men grin, thinking they have him. They just stand there, slighting moving their swords like they were about to attack but didn't.

Sharpe aims his pistol, but something seems off. Glancing down on the grown he sees this moving shadow. Realizing someone is right behind him, about to swing something heavy at him, he jumps over to his right. This massive axe just missing him.

He doesn't have to think, his muscles and reflexes are on pure automatic. Seeing that new man isn't a man but some kind of hybrid lion human. He just pushes himself forward and rams his knife right into the lion person shoulder, just missing the throat.

The knife didn't inflect any serous wounds, but Sharpe just rams him colt pistol into the lion man guy, pulling the trigger three times. The Colt has a .45 caliber bullet, it usually only takes one to kill its target.

Sharpe then uses all his strength to push the lion at the two charging men. Once the lion body lands on the ground, they just dodge the body and go after him.

Sharpe then flips his pistol around, so he is holding the barrel and the knock one of the swords to the side, deflecting it. That man sword just rammed into his teammate, distracting him.

Seeing the guy on the right is wide open, he pushes the man arm in his weak attempt to block Sharpe. Then moves closes to jam his combat knife into the guys throat.

Doing that though left Sharpe opens for the other man. He appears behind him, swing his sword at him.

Without warning, a bullet is heard. Sharpe looks behind him and sees that other man falls onto the ground, with a bullet in his head. He then looks who fired and it was Sergeant Alicia. She is standing there with her M4A1 aimed and ready.

Alicia lowers her rifle, notice Sharpe has no reaction to her shot. Killing the man that was right behind him. "Are you ok sir?"

Sharpe just ignores her. He wipes the blood on his knife on his uniform arm. Then he puts away his pistol.

As he did that, he looks to the frighten girl standing there by the wagon, her hands in bondage. Once he arrives to the wagon, he places his left knee in the mud.

When he looks at her, he notices that she has the most beautiful blue eyes he has ever seen. Her hair is dirty but it is clear that she has smooth dark brown hair. She is clearly scared to death, seeing him fight off four men, killing three of them by himself.

Sharpe takes a deep breath and forces a smile. "I mean you no harm. My name is Sharpe. I am an American." He then shows her his knife and then starts to cute the robe.

In the background they hear another roar from what they believe is the dragon.

Sharpe finally frees the girl from her bondage. Seeing how weak she is, he picks up her up and starts carrying her in his arms.

The girl is more frozen with fear when he picks her up, not knowing what is happening or why he is helping her. She doesn't struggle though, her body exhausted from traveling.

Sharpe walks down the road, holding her. Alicia rushes up to his side. "Sir?"

"When we get to the vehicles, can you find something for her to eat and wear?" Sharpe asks her.

"You are kidding, of course." Alicia says.

Sharpe doesn't respond, just heading back to the vehicles.

It only takes a few minutes for them to get back to the main road, where everyone is at. It looks like everyone is about ready.

Randy, Scott and Johnson rush up to him. "We heard shooting; Alicia went…" They all stop seeing he is carrying someone. "Who is this."

"Doesn't matter. Go do your jobs, we are leaving." Sharpe says to them.

They all turn around and walk off, to finish up the remaining work.

Sharpe heads to his command JLTV and nods for Alicia to open the back door.

He then sets the girl down in the back. Once set down inside; the girl moves away slightly. He understands why and that is fine.

Sharpe leans in. "Look, you will be ok. I have to help all these people. There is a dragon. Now this is Sergeant Alicia, she is going to help you. Can you be good with her?"

"Stop doing that sir. She is scared enough as it is." Alicia says, standing right there.

Sharpe take a deep breath and nods. He then walks away to get everyone moving.