Chương 7: The Year of Portals

It took a few more hours before everything was resolved. By the end of it, Malachi had stopped shaking from the adrenaline. His mind kept running over watching the blood gush from one of the squadmates he hadn't known getting sliced open. Over the fear he'd felt as the invisible lizards had attacked. He forced his mind to focus on the here and now. They still had prisoners to watch. A group of them kept in a circle around the lizards.

Sometimes they hissed in that weird language of theirs, but Nicole told them to shut up and stay still, and at least a few of the lizards seemed to understand that. Eventually, the waiting made him bored. It took some time for the prison trucks to arrive and everything to be cleared. Then came cleanup, and they finally were allowed to head back to headquarters. Two soldiers had died from the yellow portal, and another three had been injured. He'd almost been among them. William had saved his ass.

Part of him thought he should be nicer to William, but another part was focused on the man he'd watched die. It was going to happen again. Need to stay detached, he thought. The lizardfolk that surrendered were shipped off to one of the prisons, where interrogators were trying to learn their language and use that to get information out of them. Portal researchers took up the magic staves and other strange objects for study. Malachi's fingers itched as he watched the magic items get bundled up in a secure transport.

He really wanted to get a closer look at them. He knew from analysis that anything wielding magic seemed to have a limited array of spells, usually all in the same classification. There had to be something they were missing, and he wanted to help figure it out. Wouldn't mind interrogating one of the lizards, either. But that wasn't his role. Malachi and the rest of the team would be heading back to the compound for when the next portal opened up.

Most of their week was taken up with training. They watched videos of portals and talked dangers. They watched videos of responses and talked tactics. A councilor came by and had therapy chats with anyone who wanted one. Malachi didn't go, even though he sometimes woke up thinking about that fight. Comms practiced rapidly getting and conveying orders through their channels, and squads practiced maneuvering. Demolitions teams practiced controlling their robots. Recon practiced with their drones.

Infantry practiced on the firing range and with spear and shield drills. New equipment was getting trialed all the time. Malachi sent a bunch of emails to a paintball company until they caved and donated a bunch of paint grenades, then annoyed Sergeant Nguyen until she allowed them to bring them as equipment in case more invisible raiders showed up. When they weren't training as a group, Malachi trained by himself, or scoured the internet for new info. Occasionally, he chatted with FeNyx.

Mostly, they kept the conversations to portals. Sometimes, the conversation moved to other things. FeNyx wasn't doing well. But then again, who was? He sure as hell wasn't. Hadn't been, ever since his sister had been abducted, but he didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't like he was special. Almost everyone in the Portal Response teams had some reason for joining, and losing someone to a raid was a common one. Then, inevitably, they'd get another call.

The next portal involved a bunch of things everyone was calling goblins because, well, they looked like fucking goblins. They came out of a gray portal and ransacked a shopping mall. Unlike the lizards, they weren't organized, but they spread out and caused absolute havoc as they tried to pile as much shit through the portal as they could. Too many civilians were trapped in the initial chaos, so HQ-22 had to proceed with spears and shields only.

It took three more teams to finish the job and took hours to clear all the stores. The good news was they took no casualties. Goblins were interested in stuff, not people, and they'd spilled through the portal with barely any weapons. No one minded responding to a gray portal. A couple weeks after that, there was a green portal. Those were scary, but HQ-22 was one of eight teams called out due to an upgraded four-alarm response.

They arrived a full half-hour into the fighting, and by then, there was already helicopter support. The stegosaurus that had wandered through had been corralled, the rhinomaws and their riders were dead, and the elven mages had all been pushed back through or killed. Malachi's team was mostly tasked with rounding up some smaller dinosaurs that had wandered into several backyards. Actual goddamn dinosaurs was all Malachi could think when they finally got the small hadrosaurs into the back of a big truck.

Several 'Jurassic parks' had opened up across the country. Their safety record was atrocious.

"You think those dudes actually watched the movies?" William asked him as they rode back.

"They had to. They just missed the key message of the story," he said. It was easier to talk about something stupid like that. Better than talking about how many people had just died. Malachi had seen the bloody smears on the pavement, and had seen the medivac trucks as they left. It was only two days later that they found out how many. HQ-15 had been the first on the scene, prepared for dinosaurs. Then the elven mages had come through and animated several of the trees in the area.

The phalanx had been trapped as another mage unleashed a poison spell. Twenty frontliners had died, just like that, and there were twice as many casualties. HQ-15 was out of commission until its ranks could be replenished. The worst part was, when they reviewed the footage, it looked like the responders had done everything right. No one had ever seen a goddamn tree attack before. That was the only four-alarm response for a while. After that, there were plenty of two-alarm and three-alarm calls.

Command started downgrading any portal that put goblins out to an automatic one-alarm call because the goblins seemed wholly uninterested in killing unless they were cornered, and mostly just wanted to loot everything that wasn't bolted down. The lizardfolk, naga, and elves were still notorious slavers. They were by far the most common portal types. Another lingering portal opened up a few miles north of the city. This one was a brown portal, which seemed to lead to some sort of swamp.

Over the course of a month, water poured out of the portal until the area was drenched, and creepy vines with eyeballs growing out of them spread through the area. Large cypress-like trees started to grow at an anomalous rate. All attempts to bury or destroy the portal failed. That was what happened with lingering portals. By then, the Army had stopped trying to get a nuke to go off on the other side of a portal.

Something about the portals changed the uranium or plutonium isotopes, so every bomb that went through arrived dead, no matter what they did to try to shield them from the portal's effects. So command did what they'd done with the other lingering portals they were containing: set a watch. HQs 9 through 12 were reorganized for permanent containment until the overtaxed army engineers could finally deploy to the area and build a ring of fortifications around it.

All the while, Malachi couldn't help but think, we're losing this war. No one wanted to say it, so he didn't. But when he occasionally checked the wiki, the number of incursions were enormous. Globally, hundreds per day, and that was just the ones being recorded. But what could they do? Any attempt to go through the portals—even a goblin portal—led to mass casualties or worse.

The Republic of Korea had sent in an entire brigade and a science team into what they'd thought was a lingering portal, and then the portal had just shut off a day later. It's not random, was the only conclusion Malachi could draw. Someone or something was controlling them.

Malachi knew he wasn't an easy person to get along with. Still, William stuck by him, no matter how much of an asshole he was being, and Malachi had a grudging respect for someone like that. Plus, he'd saved Malachi's ass in that first fight. They could also both bond over Mason being a total moron who should have never gotten chosen for comms. Apparently he knew how to fix radios, but he sure as hell didn't know how to talk into one. Nicole was cool too.

She didn't talk much, but she was a damn good shot with any gun you put in front of her. He liked her competence, and she didn't give him any shit. Trey, on the other hand, gave him a lot of shit, but that was sort of who he was. He also was a good cook. He and Sergeant Nguyen would always argue about recipes, but as far as Malachi could tell, neither of them had made a bad meal in their lives.

On the anniversary of their first mission, Nguyen had ordered they celebrate with a barbecue, which William took charge of. Naturally, they'd just started loading up the grill when they got the call: another four alarm. Blue portal. This one belched out a bunch of water at first, flooding the street. A bunch of weird looking amphibians came with them, but they were harmless. At first, the call was for a single team to check it out.

That changed when naga burst through next, wielding magic that forced water into one of the APCs before it could unload, drowning the entire squad before they could get the door open. The rest of the responders retreated while they waited for reinforcements and tried to get civilians out of the way. Four alarm response meant the whole response district was mobilized. That was six teams plus a military helicopter. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

When they were done with that and were back in the APC, Juan, who rarely spoke, said, "Damn, that was some real shit." No one else had much to add about that. Three people from their team had died. Richard had still smelled like the barbecue sauce he'd spilled on his shirt when they'd loaded him into the ambulance. Back at headquarters, after everyone had a few days to decompress, William finally convinced Malachi to join him in the rec room.

"Come on, man, the rest of the team needs to see you being human. You're either on your phone, on those portal wikis, or in the gym actin' like if you don't run fast enough on the treadmill you blow up like Keanu Reeves in that old flick with the bus."" Speed," Malachi said without thinking.

"Nah I ain't got any, I'm clean," William said. Then, "Lighten up my man, that was a joke."

"Ha ha," Malachi said dryly.

"Fine. What are we playing?"

"You like fighting games?"

"Not really." There were a few people in the rec room. Cameron, who ran the demolitions robots, and Nicole, the machine gunner, were playing a game of pool. Trey and Mason were duking it out on Soul Calibur. Juan was laid back, watching.

"Malachi's up next," William said as they walked in.

"Then me." Five minutes later, William handed off his controller to Trey and said, "Man, I thought you didn't like fighting games."

"I don't," Malachi said.

"But I'm really good at them." Trey and Juan both laughed. Mason had already stormed out when Malachi had steamrolled him without even letting him land a single hit. They played for a bit longer, then Trey gave up. He'd been able to get Malachi to about half-health, but never more than that.

"Hell. And I thought you were just a gym rat." He tossed aside the controller.

"So where're you from, anyways?" Over by the pool table, Nicole swore as a shot went wide.

"Here," Malachi said.

"Nice. I'm from Georgia. But not Atlanta, so no one knows the town." Trey didn't have that much of a southern drawl, but you could sort of tell he was from around there.

"I got a cousin in Atlanta," William said.

"But I'm from here too." They all just sort of lounged on the couch. The game was still humming in the background, but no one felt much like playing.

"Man, my parents made me swear up and down I wouldn't join the military. Had this uncle who did, and he got brain damage from firing artillery. But when it started happening, I just couldn't stand by and watch, you know?"

"Yeah," said Trey.

"But once I've served my time, I'm out and it's someone else's turn. Gonna use the signing bonus to finally buy my momma a house," he said proudly.

"She ain't too happy with me for getting deployed out here, but she knows the score. Whole town of Leesburg had to be evacuated because of some fire-breathing thing. Ain't no one goin' back there now, and that was damn near next door to her. Fuckin' government still ain't got a place for those refugees yet, they're all living in hotels and shit."

"Damn, still? Didn't that shit happen three months back? That ain't right," William said.

"All this shit ain't right."

"Doesn't matter what's right," Nicole said from over by the pool table.

"Until we can stop them, these portal pricks are going to do whatever they want to us. That's human history.

'The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.' Isn't any different with these elf and lizard freaks."

"Ain't that an Abraham Lincoln quote?" Trey asked.

"Thucydides," Nicole said.

"Which president was that?" Cameron asked. When Nicole glared at them, they said, "I'm just messing with you."

"We need magic," Malachi said, trying to redirect the conversation away from the person stuff.

"We need our own portals. Or a way to shut theirs down. That's the only thing that turns this around."

"Maybe," Nicole said.

"There's a bunch of scientists busting their asses off trying to figure it out. There's rumors flying around, but nothing concrete. I figure I'll believe it when I see it." Malachi had heard those rumors too, but hadn't found anything yet either. Nicole was level-headed, though, so if she was saying that, maybe he needed to dig deeper. He'd have to ask some of his more reliable contacts on the forums if they knew anything about that.

"So what got you in? You still haven't told us." William asked Nicole.

"I thought the uniforms were pretty," she quipped.

"Aw, come on," William said.

"I already told you. It's still personal," she said.

"How 'bout you, Cam?"

"Same as everyone," they said. Only, Malachi saw that they shared some sort of glance with Nicole. There was more to the story, but he was getting annoyed at William for trying to get everyone to spill their guts. He stood to leave.

"You goin' already, man?"

"Yeah," Malachi said.

"Just need some time to myself. I'll join some other time." He nodded to the antique game console.

"Don't want to kick your ass too hard, you know?" William laughed.

"Nah, you just watch. Next time. Next time." When Malachi was back in his bunk, he pulled out his phone. MalFeSense: Hey FeNyx. You doing alright? FeNyx: nah. had a nice little cry tho. MalFeSense: Shit. Want to talk about it? FeNyx: not really FeNyx: well, it's not complicated. company I was working for went kaput. donezo. defunct. bankrupt. saw the writing on the wall but it still sucks. A lot of companies were struggling. The US had been geared for finance, tech, and the service economy.

It turned out, demand for a lot of those things dropped through the floor when people were more worried about food, a roof over their head, and invaders from another world. That last one was an especially big sticking point. MalFeSense: You okay for money? FeNyx: yeah. better than most. got some savings, and got the old job to fall back on FeNyx: you staying safe? MalFeSense: Had a battle with naga hydromancers. Fucking terrifying. They drowned Jackson. Just poured water down his throat. FeNyx: jesus.

That was another reason he'd left. William kept trying, but Malachi didn't want to get close to his team. If he wasn't close to them, watching them get torn apart by scyther beasts wouldn't be so bad. The problem was, that was hard. They spent every day together. Had saved each other's lives more times than he could count. He changed the subject. MalFeSense: Hey, you know anything about secret efforts to get magic to work? FeNyx: I would say 99% of what's out there is complete horseshit.

conspiracies or wishful thinking FeNyx: but maybe. you see the latest posts on the red portal forums? MalFeSense: No. Something good? FeNyx: insider gal. did some research, think she's legit. think she's in the lab of that guy who went on the talk show circuit. anyways, rumors are some raid team found something special that can tap into magic. FeNyx: let me see if I can find the link FeNyx: … FeNyx: posts are scrubbed MalFeSense: Damn. Archive site? FeNyx: also scrubbed. well now it's definitely legit.

The blare of the alarm made Malachi jolt upright. MalFeSense: Shit, alarm. Gotta go. Take care. FeNyx: u2 He scrambled down and started suiting up his armor, then dashed to the APC. He stuck his earpiece in. William came in next to him. He heard the engine start, which meant Trey was in the driver seat. Nicole took the ladder to the machine gun position. Cameron and Juan came in next. They'd just cleaned the thing, but within minutes it already started smelling of sweat and bad deodorant.

No matter how much they practiced, it always took five minutes. There was always a group of newbies who'd just come in from training who were slowing everyone down. Malachi had gotten used to it. Mason came on over his comms as soon as the back hatch closed and they started rolling out.

"Hey guys!" he said. Malachi groaned. Goddammit, Mason, use the proper signaling procedure. He never did. And he never would.

"Bit of an odd mission this time. Farther south than we're used to, but we just got a three-alarm portal upgraded to…" There was a pause, but Mason kept the broadcast on.

"Oh shit, really? Wait, really?" he was saying to the other comms guy.

"Mason, for fuck's sake," Nicole said over comms, saving Malachi from doing the same.

"What? Shit, shit, sorry. Uh, this one just got upgraded to a six-alarm. Lewis-McChord base is mobilizing to aid with the response. More info as I get it." Malachi could feel the APC pulling onto the highway. Outside, he heard the sirens of a police escort. A six-alarm response was a lot bigger than a five. A five alarm meant ten Portal teams moved in with extra helicopter support. A six meant every Portal HQ in the region and all adjacent regions scrambled units, and the military prepared a brigade to join in.

Over a thousand people from Portal Response Teams across the area would be present, tasked with holding the line while another three thousand soldiers mobilized to join. Most of the higher number alarms were contingencies. No one had actually ordered a eight or nine-alarm response. The worst incursion he'd seen had been a seven, or seven-equivalent, since it had been in France. That had led to a battle that had taken three weeks to resolve. They'd resorted to doing bombing runs on their own city.

Malachi's heart caught in his throat. Shit, he thought, as their APC headed towards the largest incursion the west coast had seen yet.