Late autumn in western Europe was often shrouded in gloom. Cold winds blew, rain fell without end, and the soil turned wet and muddy.
And now...
Rat-tat-tat!
Boom! Boom!
Gunfire and artillery thundered across a city and its outskirts. Violent explosions hurled dirt and rubble into the air.
"Soldiers! Kill them! The alien bastards are retreating!!"
"Hahaha! We actually won?!"
"Follow our Full Metal Bitch!!"
Victory cries rang out across the battlefield.
From above, the scene came into view.
Along a main road, soldiers in black combat uniforms and exoskeletons advanced slowly westward toward the city center, aided by the visual and targeting systems in their gear.
The buildings on either side of the road were riddled with holes, and some had collapsed into rubble. Hardly an intact corpse remained on the pavement. Limbs, torsos, and even entrails torn free by brute force and sharp blades lay everywhere.
Even in victory, the losses were devastating.
Amid the wreckage stood a sign reading "Cathédrale de Verdun: 3 kilomètres (Verdun Cathedral: 3 kilometers)," revealing that this war-ravaged city was Verdun in northeastern France.
As for the retreating "enemy"...
"Screee!!"
Their shrieks were thin and piercing.
They moved swiftly and appeared to roll, but their many tentacles were actually taking turns gripping the ground. Their heads resembled fish with mouths open for food.
Orange light glowed through the gaps between their mouths, eyes, and tentacles, suggesting some kind of core organ within their bodies.
When bullets came their way, they either tried to dodge with quick movements or formed crude "bone shields" with their tentacles to withstand the attacks.
Crack! Crack!
When bullets struck their bodies or bone shields, flesh did not spray. Instead, the impact points shattered and burst apart.
Once a bullet pierced and destroyed the core organ inside one of them, it struggled violently for a moment before going rigid and dying.
Judging by those traits, they were less like creatures than living weapons.
The "enemy" fell back on every front, and the human soldiers pressed their advantage. The battle seemed all but decided.
Yet as the viewpoint rose to a thousand meters, the image grew strangely blurry. Gradually, it became clear that it was made up of neatly arranged, impossibly tiny glowing squares.
From farther away, it was visibly a display screen.
The screen continued showing the battle in Verdun. Its upper-left corner displayed "Falcon-1" and information such as "1993/06/05/17:42."
Farther back...
And farther still...
Inside a simple tent, three Atlas mercenaries sat at a console crowded with screens and military instruments. Some watched and recorded while others worked the controls.
Two hours earlier, an Advance Team equipped with fully sealed suits and breathing gear had begun exploring the world beyond the first Space Gate.
The team then established a Wired Base Station to link the two worlds and enable real-time communication.
With communications secured, the team pushed deeper.
Their investigation, together with data from a large number of drones, showed that the other side of the "gate" was also Earth. Judging by the human soldiers' equipment alone, its overall technology was well ahead of that on their "main" Earth.
The Space Gate opened into an abandoned village thirty kilometers south of Verdun.
Looking away from the screens and out of the tent, one could see that the once-empty underground space was now packed with equipment crates bearing a red "Λ" emblem.
Golden flames encircling the stone pillars seemed as though they would burn forever, but Atlas had installed complete lighting and power systems anyway. It had also erected numerous tents and air-conditioned prefabricated buildings for lodging, research, and recreation.
It seemed Atlas intended to turn the place into a permanent base.
Just then...
Now dressed in a black training uniform, Sui Yang walked toward the first Space Gate. Several fully armed Atlas mercenaries accompanied him, along with Lieutenant Jack Krauser and a group of American soldiers.
"Lieutenant Krauser," Sui Yang said as they walked, "as I told you before, everything you knew was a facade. There are no superheroes or supervillains. Most of them are just addicts injected with a drug called Compound V.
"You and your men are admirable soldiers. I happen to need capable people like you to help me, help Atlas, and even help humanity deal with threats like Vought.
"Of course, talking about ideals without offering anything concrete would be unfair. Rest assured, you'll receive better pay and benefits, and your families will benefit too. I look forward to working together."
Jack Krauser and the other American soldiers, however, still looked somewhat lost and confused.
That was understandable. Anyone who absorbed so much worldview-shattering information in so little time would begin to question everything.
For instance, the superheroes they had admired and envied turned out to be selfish bastards who enjoyed sexual assault, drugs, and torture-murder.
Then there were Space Gates leading to other universes and worlds, and their sudden change from military personnel to private mercenaries. Taken together, it was nearly more than their minds could handle.
Sui Yang valued this group of American soldiers—or rather, Jack Krauser—because his appearance, service record, and age matched those of Major Krauser from Resident Evil 4 Remake, who had ultimately become a boss after being betrayed by the American leadership.
Through his military contacts, Sui Yang had looked up the relevant information. He had then decided to recruit Krauser and bring the entire special operations platoon under his command.
Given enough incentive, the American military leadership was happy to hand them over. Atlas was one of its major partners, after all.
Sui Yang was already used to seeing characters from games, films, and television appear before him. Among the many orphans he had taken in to train as agents, spies, and Investigators, there was even a Chinese girl who liked wearing red.
His reason for recruiting Krauser and the others was simple: besides carrying out combat missions, they would help Atlas train newcomers. Perhaps one day, a blond man with parted hair would become Krauser's student.
Sui Yang also happened to know the situation beyond the Space Gate well. The so-called "enemy" was an alien species—
Mimics.
Judging by the human soldiers' equipment captured on drone footage and the victory at Verdun, the world on the other side of the gate was most likely the film version of Edge of Tomorrow.
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