From the reports he had read, the Gap was not very high with its highest point at over four meters, and this showed from the air. The giant trees of the valley forest were taller and covered it from view.

However, a Gap is a tear in time and space and anything it touched was thrown into the other dimension. So, Victor saw a long bright line snaking through the forest floor like a shining poisonous viper. Reports had the Gap at around four kilometers long but seeing it for the first time, Victor thought it could be longer. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean the Gap was growing.

He was also hoping this was a viper that would be dead in a few days.

Victor looked on as the aircraft got closer to the Gap and finally saw his destination. A small clearing just before the Gap and in the middle of the clearing, a triangular-shaped base. He knew it will not be long now. Victor tore himself from the window, sat back in his seat, and waited.

The aircraft slowed, and Victor heard gears turning. He looked out the window again and saw the wings of the aircraft changing angles once more. The aircraft begun to descent like a helicopter, and Victor stood up and walk to the rear ramp of the aircraft. With his hand above his head to hold onto an overhead bar, he turned to face his men. Some were nervous, others were excited. Victor stood impressively in front of them, trying to project an air of confidence and power.

The pilot was good, Victor hardly felt the impact when the plane touched down. The ramp at the back of the plane was lowered, and Victor was one of the first to alight the aircraft. His men were right behind him. Victor looked around. The aircraft had landed in the middle of a dirt airstrip and to his left, he could see a few tents set up near the middle of the clearing.

“Everyone to their stations!”

Victor turned at the shout and saw a man standing on a small stage shouting at the men coming off the aircrafts. He was wearing a bright costume that made Victor think he was a hero, and the man must have some sort of voice or sonic power because Victor could hear him clearly despite the distance between them and the noise of the rotors.

“Red Team to the Gap line. Blue and Black Team to the forest line. White Team will be in reserve. All captains to the command tent!”

His men all looked at Victor with questions on their face. Some of them wanted to know if they should ignore the instructions, while others wanted to know if Victor would be angry if they follow instructions of someone other than him. That was the downside of your men fearing you.

Victor decided to help the hero out.

“Move! Move! Move!”

His men moved out at his shout and Victor went looking for the command tent. As he looked around, the aircraft that had ferried them took off and Victor had to privately admit that he was wrong.

The accepted rule of thumb for Gaps is that the nearer you are to it, the more you can affect it. For an Invasion Gap, you wanted to be as near to the Gap as you can and in the past, the heroes and villains would have just fought their way to the Gaps the moment it was reported.

That was not the current strategy.

Central Command now used satellites and fliers to map out the Gap and calculate the most effective places where they could affect the Gap. Only then would action be taken.

Under the plan introduced by Moon Protector, the Firepower Detail would fly over several designated areas and used their firepower to clear four areas near the Gap. The clearings were basically four large squares in the forest, big enough for several aircraft to land and disembark their payload before flying off again. These four clearings would be the locations of their forward bases and once the clearings was made, the Engineering Detail would take over.

Someone with Earth manipulation powers would be needed to flatten the ground and create low walls that were to surround the base. Other members of the Engineering Detail would set up generators and the workshops the magic-users and scientists needed for their work.

With bases of operation near the Gap, protection, and equipment availability, everything was designed to let the magic-users and scientists have an easier time to knock the dimensions out of sync.

As Victor walked towards the tents, he couldn’t help but marveled at how well made the forward base was. The Firepower and Engineering Details had done their job well and the fact that they managed to do all these in only a few hours was nothing short of amazing.

It could not have been easy, and that’s not even the end of it. Central Command have additional forces and three Tier S supers in reserve in case reinforcements were needed in any of the four forward bases.

The beauty and effectiveness of the current plan was beyond anything Victor had in the past.

When he took part in his first Emergency, everyone was on their own. Back then, everyone would be in their own groups waiting for orders to come down. Villains only had an area where they were expected to gather. Once they got the word to move, they gathered, get pointed at a target, and they fought.

That was it.

Now, everything was professionally planned and executed. His group even had their own designated area within the operation base, and they were expected to stay within.

Things were truly different now, and Victor was man enough to admit some things had changed for the better.

Victor walked to the tents and quickly found the command tent. Not only was it the biggest tent there, some joker had also painted a big, colourful, and highly stylized sign that said, ‘Command Tent’, and planted it near the…well, command tent. Victor appreciates that.

It was always important to have someone with a sense of humour during a Gap Emergency.