It was a sunny day in Melbourne, Victoria State. I was awoken by the alarm of my phone. Since it was my day off, I allowed myself to sleep in a little bit that day. I did my morning routine like every healthy Australian man does.

After having my breakfast, I turned on the TV, only to see 9News Channel talking about some abnormal weather conditions happening in countries around the world. Jennifer – The reporter lady mentioned that activities of such phenomenon were recorded mostly in Australia.

Before I could hear any more details, my phone rang. It was Albert, one of my old friends whom I used to serve in the Australian Defense Force with.

“Hey Jack, How are you doing?” said Albert.

“Yeah, I am good! Strange for you to call so early, mate!” – I replied.

“Just checking if you are still alive. How is your arm doing?” asked Albert

Ever since I lost my left arm in the Saudi Arabia War three years ago, everyone kept asking me that question every time they saw me. Fortunately, the rising tech giant – Walter Industries whose headquarters was located in America, had contract with the Australian Government and provided disabled veterans with prosthetics paid by the government. Therefore, I received a good prosthetic arm. The rehabilitation took me almost a year, so I had time to rest before official discharge.

“Quite good, actually! This prosthetic arm feels as if it were my real arm. Walter Industries really is a life savior for us veterans, you know”

“Glad to hear you say that.” Albert chuckled. “Have you watched the news?” He asked.

“You mean that weather phenomenon report on 9News? What about it?” I asked.

“Listen to this, mate! I just got calls last night, our boss told us to recall any veterans we can find for active duty. He said that the military needed veterans to handle the rookies for immediate response to possible national emergency.” answered Albert.

When I heard his answer over the phone, I was surprised as the military already had enough personnel for such responses.

Australia already had nearly 5,000 Australian Defense Force personnel deployed in Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan to support the United States & NATO forces, they needed to have new recruits coming in every year for national defense. Recalling veterans like me would be abnormal.

As If he could read my mind, he continued: “I know what you are thinking. Even I think it is weird to call in veterans like you and the guys, when there are already so many available personnel at home.”

“You think it has something to do with the strange weather phenomenon around the world?” I asked Albert.

“What else do you think it is? I already called Mark and Oliver. You are the only one left. So are you coming?” asked Albert.

“But what about my job? I still have to…” He cut me off before I could finish, “I already called your boss about this. He said it was fine for you to go. I was the one who recommended you this job, remember?”

“Then you already know the answer, mate. Besides, this is a perfect opportunity to see how good my arm is in times like these.” I answered.

“Of course, that is how you are” He chuckled. “See you at Victoria Base, at 1500 hours then. You know the drill, mate.”

“Got it, see you later then” I replied and he hung up.

At first, I felt hesitated about whether I should really rejoin or not. Ever since my discharge, I had always felt that something was missing in my life. Although I already had a stable job, at least for the time being, I could never shake the feeling that there was some unfinished business. No matter what I had tried, I never could figure out what it was. Perhaps, rejoining the armed forces would help me resolve this feeling or at least, figure things out to a certain extent.

Before the trip, I called my brother – Davis, who was living with our parents in the other side of the city. I told him that I would be back to the Military for some time and reminded him to take care of our parents while I was gone. I packed up, put on the uniform which I had not used in nearly three years and headed downstairs to catch the bus to Victoria Base. When I was sitting on the bus headed for the base, memories of our time of service in the A.D.F came back to me like a wave.

I arrived at Victoria Base after four hours on the bus. When I walked past the checkpoint and entered the barracks, there were quite a number of veterans who were recalled as well. Some of them I even recognized back when I was still in service.

Someone called out to me as I started looking around the base. It was Albert, and he waved me over to him. As I walked over to Albert, Mark and Oliver were already there. Mark G. Roberts, Oliver D. Hartmann, Albert J. Forge and me were former Royal Australian Regiment soldiers, the Australian version of the United States Marine Corps.

We, as well as thousands of Australian Soldiers were deployed overseas for combat support operations as part of the I.S.A.F (International Security Assistance Force) for security and infrastructure reconstruction of war-torn countries. It was not an exaggeration to say that we had gone through Hell and back together.

“Glad to see you back, mate! I almost thought you wouldn’t come.” Said Mark as he bro–hugged me. The last time I saw Mark and Oliver was at Mark’s wedding two years ago. Even though, he was already married to his beautiful wife – Rosetta, Mark always considered his brother–in–arms as part of his family.

“Still a hugger, like always, Mark!” remarked Oliver. “Time sure does fly, right Jack?” He said and gave me a fist–bump.

“It sure does. I am glad to see you guys too.” I replied.

“You are really one tough bastard, Jack!” Albert commented after I am done with the other two. “To be honest, when I called you, I almost expected you to refuse.” Albert’s expression changed as he continued. “You had an honorable discharge, so you have every right to say no. Especially after what you went through, you know.”

I know what Albert meant. He said that because he did not want me to relive the past, for my own sake. Nevertheless, I already made up my mind and it was my nature to see it through, once I had made a decision about something.

“I understand, Albert!” I remarked. “Whatever happened is already in the past. If I didn’t come here today, I would definitely regret it later.”

“You are right, mate!” said Albert as he too, gave me a hug.

The base’s speakers informed for present veterans to gather at the assembly hall. We four joined everyone else and headed for the hall, which was located at the South side of the main building. The emergency briefing was at 8:00 AM tomorrow, we went to our designated rooms for rest and preparations for tomorrow.

The barracks we stayed in were recently renovated, so the rooms were in good conditions. Only noticeable difference was each room now had its own bathroom, which was quite comfortable for soldiers like us.

“Damn! Now they gave us our own bathroom. Where the hell was it last time?” Albert sarcastically joked. All the rooms inside the barracks were double. Albert and I stay in the same room, while Mark and Oliver stay in the next. While we were having dinner, we kept talking about so many things, from old times to our present daily life. Despite how much we chatted, my mind was still perplexed about how strange it was to have so many veterans gathered for emergency responses, when there had not been any major disasters recorded.

In the morning, we all gathered at one of the main conference rooms where a high ranking officer would fill us in the situation and our operations. Inside the conference room, there were at least forty veterans, including us four.

Five minutes after we sat down, the commanding officers walked in and I almost couldn’t believe who I just saw.

One of them was Colonel Hannibal R. Lawrence, one of the most distinguished officer within the Australian Defense Force. The moment the Colonel walked in, it was clear that everyone in this room knew who this man was or had heard of him at least once during their service. Behind him was Captain Rodriguez, the Colonel’s assistant and three middle–aged men in white clothes, who looked like college professors.

“Good Morning, gentlemen!” Colonel Hannibal began. “I am Colonel Hannibal Lawrence. I understand that you are wondering why you all have been gathered here. This is the situation: At 1600 hours yesterday, an Unidentified Object has appeared above the sky of Federation Square, Melbourne city.”

The Colonel’s assistant pulled up the image projection at his mark. The images showed a pitch black spherical object floating approximately 30 meters above the park of Federation Square.

He continued: “This object is roughly 8 meters in diameter and is completely stationary in the air. According to witnesses, the object had manifested itself at that position because there were no indications of any aircraft within the area. We called this object “The Void” because of its unknown nature. “The Void” emitted some sort of energy signatures which had small effects electronic devices within its vicinity, similar to an Electro–Magnetic Pulse, every 10 minute. Though, these energy signatures are not powerful enough to shut down our equipment. Victoria Police Force has already established a perimeter surrounding “The Void” and evacuated civilians within 1 mile radius of the Square. Doctor Floyd Pearlman – an American nuclear physicist who happened to attend a Scientific Seminar in Sydney. The Australian government has asked for him and other scientists for further explanations about “The Void” as well as how we should handle it. We will now have him to elaborate on this matter.”

The Colonel turned to one of the three scientists who stood behind his assistant and said: “Doctor, would you please?” The scientist who looked to be in his fifties stepped on the pulpit with some documents in his hand. Although, he tried to hide it, he still looked strangely nervous, as if he were giving a college graduation speech.

“Good morning, everyone! I am Doctor Floyd Pearlman!” the doctor began his speech. “I was called by the Australian Public Service last night. To be honest, I was quite nervous when they said that they needed help from experts, both domestic and foreign on something of such importance.” He said.

The doctor held up some documents and began his explanations: “Last night, I had worked with Australian physicists on site to study “The Void” at a safe distance. After many examinations and tests, we detected that the energy signatures which it emitted is mostly gamma radiation, although there are some elements within these emissions which we couldn’t determine yet. The energy signature from “The Void” is getting stronger and started to increase as time passes. We were able to confirm that such emissions are harmless to human biology. Every time these energy signatures are discharged, particles similar to the Higgs Particle are also discharged. These particles act as an anchor to the molecules of the surrounding space of the Federation Square, right down to the atomic levels. According to our observations, the energy itself is like a constant stream, or rather, a solid chain from a different space–time continuum. Simply put, “The Void” is an anchor, while the energy it contains is the chain from another dimension.”

“Excuse me.” Doctor Floyd stopped to have a cup of water. Everyone, however, started to whisper and I could tell that they were curious after the doctor’s speech.

“This situation is even crazier than I thought, huh?” Albert whispered to me. As speechless as I was, I only nodded at him in response.

“This morning, however, we had a development.” Doctor Floyd continued.

“When the energy signatures increase, we started receiving an ultrasonic wavelength from “The Void” at 4:00 AM this morning. This wavelength consists of sophisticated vibrations and it repeats itself in regular interval of five minutes. Doctor Jensen – an acoustic engineer from Maryland University, had worked together with his colleagues, to verify its meaning. They were able to deduce that this ultrasonic wave worked as a message. Doctor Jensen and another scientist, a linguistic expert – Doctor Edward Tanning had roughly deciphered the message. The Message has three words which read in full sentence, “WE. ARE. COMING”. Judging from the wavelengths, we could specify that there is someone, or something who created them and deliberately sent them towards us. But we couldn’t confirm how many of them there are. So far, it is everything we have figured out about The Void.”

The air inside the room completely changed the moment Doctor Floyd finished his explanations. Everyone, including the usually tough Mark and Oliver, was so speechless that the silence was almost deafening.

But of course, who could blame them? These brave men who had gone through so much on the battlefield were now facing revelations of this magnitude. One of the veterans, who sat two seats before Albert, even started praying. I didn’t recognize him, who was probably a Catholic, since his praying posture was kind of similar.

“Thank you, Doctor. We appreciated your work!” Colonel Hannibal broke the silence and shook the Doctor’s hand before he stepped down.

Judging from the Colonel’s expression, it was apparent that he had already learnt of this information beforehand. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Colonel were not fazed by something like this. Having survived two major conflicts in the Middle East, I wondered what in the world could even disturb this old warrior anymore.

The Colonel stood on the platform and returned to his briefing: “After listening to the Doctor’s speech, I am sure you all understand the situation at hand. We have an unknown entity coming to our world from a different dimension. For some reason, “They” chose to land right in the middle of Melbourne, Australia. Whether “They” are friendly or hostile, we do not know. From the reports of the increasing energy signatures and ultrasonic wavelength transmissions, it is affirmative, that “They” are coming closer to our “Side” by the minute.

If “They” are friendly, then that is good, we will treat “Them” as State Guests. If “They” are hostile; Well, THAT is when your job begins. Many of our forces are deployed in countries half way across the world, immediate recalling is not an option. That is why most of those stationed here are rookies who have never seen combat before. As their senior officers, it is your responsibility to guide them in times like this. Each of you will be assigned to respective units both on the ground and in the air. Lord Mayor Thomas Marsfield has ordered for evacuation within 2 km radius of Federation Square, under the guise of Suspected Terrorist Attack. The R.A.N (Royal Australian Navy) has also stationed the HMAS Canberra (the Australian Sydney–class Helicopter Carrier) 5 km from Melbourne Port, on standby for rapid responses. You will work with Victoria Police Department to reinforce the barricade surrounding “The Void”. Captain Rodriguez will inform you in details of your individual unit.”

After nearly 10 minutes of individual assignment, I, Mark and Oliver were assigned with 5th Armored Regiment, whereas, Albert was assigned with the 7th Airborne Squadron. The briefing finished, we would rendezvous with our respective squads and move out in two hours.

“Just like old times, right mates?” Oliver commented as we put on ballistic armor and started loading our Steyr AUG assault rifles.

“Let’s just hope that’s all it is.” Mark said and started putting the magazines into the ammo boxes on his vest. “We are talking about a dimension–crossing entity here. Who knows what could happen?”

“Don’t be such a buzz–kill, Mark!” said Oliver. “Aren’t you excited? First Alien Contact with humanity in history, and “They” chose Australia for that? How fascinating is that!” He exclaimed.

“It is not exactly Alien, Oliver! We don’t even know what “They” are.” Albert signed as he finished his preparations.

“You two are no fun, mates! What about you, Jack? What do you think about this?” He turned to me and asked.

I thought about it for a second and then said: “It doesn’t matter whatever “They” are. It is what “They” decide to do after their arrival that matters.” I told Oliver and the other two.

“Well, I guess you’ve got a point. But then again, the most important thing is, we all come back in one piece. Right, mates?” said Oliver and he gave us a fist–bump.

We all smiled, responded to him and headed out to our units.

Inside the base, there were eight hundred soldiers stood ready for deployment. Vehicles mobilized for this operation consisted of: Twenty four LAV–27s (Light Armored Vehicle), thirty M36A2 Heavy Personnel Carrier Trucks and thirteen M3 Shepard Main Battle Tanks. Albert was assigned to the 7th Squadron, a part of 4th Aviation Regiment, consisted of 4 ARH Tiger Attack Helicopters and 10 Sikorsky S–70 Black Hawk Multi–Role Helicopter. This squadron was commanded by Major River Peyton Ackerman.

Since my rank is First Lieutenant, I was assigned to command one of the LAV–27s with a squad of eight infantrymen. I reached my unit, introduced myself as their commander and briefed the mission to them.

Twelve minutes before the mission began, Colonel Hannibal stepped on the turret of the ASLAV–28 (Australian Light Armored Vehicle), the latest model of Australian Armored Vehicles, and started addressing the entire regiment.

“My name is Colonel Hannibal R. Lawrence!” The Colonel began: “I am the field commander of this operation. We are moving out in 10 minutes, so I will keep this short. You may have already been told about what we are about to encounter by your commanding officers, but make no mistake, lads. What we are about to face is beyond human understanding! But, it doesn’t matter what it is or what it’s capable of, DO NOT forget your training. Ready yourselves! You might have to see actual combat on this mission. The moment you step on those trucks, will be the most important moment of your life. You will represent humanity to face whatever is coming. Now, I ask you all: ARE YOU READY?”

“Sir, Yes Sir.” The entire regiment shouted in unison.

“You make sure whatever comes out of that Hole stays “Friendly”. That is an order. Do I make myself clear, soldiers?”

“Sir, Yes Sir,”

“Now get on your trucks, make your country and your families proud.” The Colonel gave the order.

Everyone started boarding their vehicles. As the gates opened, the entire regiment moved out and headed for Federation Square, the heart of Melbourne city.

At the steady speed of 60 km/hour, it took our regiment roughly one hour to reach the Federation Square. Therefore, Albert’s 7th Air Support, S–70 Black Hawk Helicopter Squadron would reach the target before us to work with the Victoria Police force on site for reconnaissance on “The Void”.

When the regiment reached the city suburb, Major Ackerman reported through the radio: “Spirit Main! Spirit Main! This is Falcon 1, do you copy?”

“This is Spirit Main! Go ahead, Falcon 1.” Colonel Hannibal responded as the regiment kept moving deeper into the city.

“We have reached the target location. Sergeant William of Victoria Police reported, they had finished evacuation of 2 km radius from the Square. Police snipers have been deployed on the buildings 200 meters west of the target. However, there has been some development, Colonel.”

Major Ackerman paused for a few seconds, until the Colonel asked: “What development, Major?”

“The Void, it….it grew larger, Sir. It is over 12 meters in diameter now and its energy signatures are much stronger than this morning. If we get too close, our electronics will be seriously affected to maintain flight capability, Sir. We can only stay at high altitude for observation, Colonel.” Reported The Major.

“Understood, Major. Hold your position and do what you can from the air. Alright, you heard the Major, lads! Battle formation.” The Colonel ordered.

Fifteen minutes later, we finally reached our target location. When we exited our armored vehicles, the scenery in front of us was quite surreal. Nearly two hundred police officers with small arms and assault rifles stood behind their vehicles, spread outside the barricade. Beyond the barricade, “The Void” – A giant pitch black sphere was hovering 20 meters above the sky. The energy emissions from it, though invisible from the human eyes, we could still feel it pulsating through the air.

After the infantrymen finished disembarking their vehicles, the Colonel took command from Sergeant William – the field commanding officer of the Victoria Police force and ordered the tanks, as well as LAVs into position spreading around the barricade.

Soldiers and police officers standing side by side, with an entire column of tanks and armored vehicles spread out behind the barricade, while the helicopter squadron stayed at 100 meters altitude and maintained the perimeter of one mile radius circling “The Void”.

Over one thousands armed men have been gathered here, along with some of our nation’s most advanced military hardware. All of their weapons aimed at the giant mysterious and now pulsating sphere.

Such spectacle would have been breathtaking for a conventional live fire exercise, had it not been the foreboding feeling from “The Void”. With all this firepower, we should have felt safe and prepared for whatever it was coming. Yet, the sense of dread remained and I believed I was not the only one who felt that.

Twenty minutes passed, loud noises, like that of an explosion started coming from “The Void”.

“Here it comes!” I thought to myself as we braced ourselves behind the barricade.

Then, “The Void” itself exploded, creating a huge shockwave. The shockwave was so strong, which caused some soldiers and police officers to nearly stumble. Even the helicopters were affected by the shockwave, despite being at such high altitude and distance.

We heard a loud crashing sound as if something big had plummeted into the ground, which shook the earth we stood. Everything happened within seconds. It was so fast we couldn’t even comprehend what had just happened. Our ears were still ringing due to the sudden explosion. The only thing we could see at the moment was a huge wall smoke, dust and small debris which covered entire area encircling “The Void”.

When we began to collect ourselves, a voice echoed through our radio: “Falcon 1! This is Spirit Main, do you read? Report, Falcon 1.”

After the pilots stabilized the helicopters, Major Ackerman responded: “Spirit Main, we read you. That was one hell of an explosion there, Sir. Had we been any closer, we would have crashed already.”

“Can you see anything from up there?” Colonel Hannibal asked.

“It is like a blanket of smoke from here, Sir. Switching to thermal scan.”

After a few seconds, the Major shouted: “We’ve got a reading, Colonel. There is something in the smoke, Sir. It is….it is like… A MAN.”

The colonel seemed to pause for a second, before shouted into the speaker: “Battle formation, safeties off.”

The clicking sound echoed through the air as we started to turn safeties of our weapons off and resumed our stance behind the barricade. The cocking noise of heavy machine guns on the tanks and LAVs’ turrets was almost deafening. However, it was somewhat reassuring to know that everyone was safe after such massive explosion.

When the smoke started to clear, the concrete floor where “The Void” hovered above was smashed, creating a crater like that of an explosion aftermath.

At the crater’s center, a dark figure could be seen in a crouching position. It had features which indicated humanoid in nature, albeit clearly bigger than a normal human. After nearly two minutes of intense silence passed, the “Entity” rose up and possessed visible features of a human male.

“He” stood nearly four meters in height, had silver hair and a long tail which was covered in some form of exoskeleton. A smooth obsidian–black and crimson–red armor covered The Entity’s upper body, while sporting a long black trench coat from His waist down.

When “He” lifted his head, “He” was wearing a mechanical mask which revealed only his eyes. But most frightening moment of all, was when “He” opened his eyes. Two crimson eyes which resembled a dragon’s eyes looked straight at us. It felt like Xargoth the Devourer* himself, was staring into our very souls. Such an overwhelming existence beyond our comprehension!

“Hold your fire and wait for my command.” Colonel Hannibal gave the order. For the first time, I could feel fear in his voice, even though he was talking through the radio.

“The Entity”, who towered over everything within the vicinity was now in full view. “He” looked around, at both us and the environment “He” had just landed upon.

We stood in silence, our weapons still pointed at “Him”. Some even took a deep breath and calm themselves, in order to avoid jerking the trigger, which could make “The Entity” retaliate. A scenario we were trying our best to prevent.

Five minutes, which felt like hours passed, “The Entity” spoke with an indiscernible and deep voice: “Who is your commanding officer here?”