Darkness reigned with the same silence beyond both worlds. This alternate dimension, dubbed " Paradise", had a gloomy and hostile atmosphere contrary to its name. The gray sky was illuminated by lightning that never ceased, and the orange smoke rising from the cracks in the ground betrayed a hellish energy beneath the earth.
The Turkish commandos had been advancing non-stop since they stepped through the dimension pass into this land. Their mission was simple, yet dangerous: infiltrate enemy positions, sabotage the energy source and, if possible, survive. Two kilometers from the dimensional gate, as they made their way through the cave-in, they felt that the laws of physics they had become accustomed to in the previous world had become even more dangerous here. Gravity shifted with every step, creating shifts that could turn deadly with a momentary imbalance.
The leader of the advance team, Petty Officer Second Class Ali, scanned the horizon with his thermal binoculars. "The hills are not safe," he said in a low voice. "It will be harder for them to see us because of the strange energy around us. We will advance in a circle formation."
Despite their heavy loads, the group began to move rapidly down the slope. They were only 800 meters from their destination. But the silence was shattered by a sudden burst of energy. The rock block two meters away was shattered by a ball of energy and Specialist Sergeant Yılmaz, in the middle of the group, was thrown to the ground. A moment of silence followed by a scream drew the team's attention to him.
"Yilmaz has been hit!" shouted the private at the back.
Ali immediately sprang into action. "Get ready to carry the wounded. We need to control the area!"
The dark red blood flowing down Yilmaz's leg glowed with an alien energy. The wound on his leg looked much worse than an ordinary shrapnel wound. As soon as he touched it, sparks flew from the wound edges.
"Even getting hurt on this fucking dimension is a pain in the ass," Ali grumbled as he quickly pulled the first aid kit out of his backpack.
Yilmaz gritted his teeth and tried to speak. "Commander... Let me go. The mission is important."
Ali responded in a calm but firm voice. "Your life is as important as the mission. We are not leaving anyone here."
Meanwhile, a soldier from the team, while observing the surroundings, gave a report over the radio: " Commander, enemy troops are approaching from the northeast. They can sweep here in half an hour."
Ali kept his composure and listed his orders. "I'm assigning two men to carry Yilmaz. The rest of us will set up a temporary defense line. We don't have time to stay here."
Yilmaz, despite the pain, did not put down his gun. "Commander, leave me here if necessary."
Ali fixed his eyes on his eyes. "We will all get out of here. Shut up and conserve energy. Those energy pulses can cause a catastrophe in your veins."
The team kept moving quickly. Eyes on the horizon, hands on the trigger. Aside from the difficulties of the mission, every second in enemy territory increased the chances of death. But Ali had one principle engraved in his mind: Turkish commandos would accomplish their mission at all costs.
A few months had passed since the twenty-second year of the struggle against the Arkar Race. With the opening of the Akdoğan Gate in the skies over Ankara, Turkey was forced to give this war its full focus. The Icebreaker Platoon was a legendary team of bioengineered soldiers armed with high-tech weaponry.
But the Arkar Race possessed powers unimaginable to the human race. Ali realized this when he was two kilometers away from the Akdoğan Gate. Unfortunately, they were Akdoğan Gate's only hope. If they could destroy the energy source of the Arkar Army attacking Akdoğan Gate, they would give the United Nations army enough time to attack and cut the lifeblood of the Arkar Army.
Ali gritted his teeth and looked at the dark hills in front of him. Above the hills stood Arkar Castle, rising into the sky like a fortress. The cannons mounted on the fortress walls were pointed in their direction. There was no doubt that they would soon bombard this place.
Their only advantage was that the eight hundred meters in front of them were covered with dense trees, but it was impossible to remain unnoticed for eight hundred meters. Especially with a wounded man with them... Ali turned his head and looked at his comrades who were tending to Yilmaz. He looked at Commando Private Hüseyin, the younger of the group.
"Hüseyin, give me the explosive," he said quietly.
Hüseyin did not question the order. He took out a few small boxes with a veined structure from his bag. After Ali took the boxes and placed them in his own bag, he looked at Petty Officer Serhat standing behind Hüseyin. Serhat shook his head and turned to team.
"Who's going?"
Everyone's hands went up at once.
"I'll go, Commander!"
The voice of one of the privates overpowered the others.
Ali looked at the young man and said in a hoarse voice, "You're coming with me Osman. Take the resonance device."
Osman looked at his friends with a triumphant smile. They all had tears in their eyes, the hopelessness of the situation made clear to them when they saw the tall, imposing creature waiting above Arkar Castle. If they moved tog Aether they would be torn to pieces before they reached the forest. So they had to split into two teams, one team distracted while the other had to reach the mine at all costs. The two who went to the fortress had no way of returning.
Ali slowly lowered the binoculars, squinted slightly and took one last look at the castle rising on the horizon. Towering into the sky, it represented the technological superiority and overwhelming power of the Arkar Race. The massive war machines standing guard around the perimeter screamed that it was almost impossible to breach the fortress walls.
"Take one last look," Ali said as he handed the binoculars to Serhat. "We will never get another chance to look at this castle."
As Serhat took the binoculars and started to examine the castle, he spoke. "You are right. But the history that will be written here tonight will not be about how strong those stone walls are, but about how determined we are."
Ali smiled slightly at his friend, then turned his eyes to the defense line. Serhat had already finished setting up the weapons. Mortars, rocket launchers and sniper rifles had been carefully placed. In a few minutes, the area had turned into a war machine.
Yilmaz quietly crawled to his rifle despite his wounded leg. Although the bleeding had stopped, the pain was written all over his face. As he gripped the rifle, Ali saw the determination in his eyes. It was madness for a wounded man to be here, but Yilmaz knew there was no turning back.
"We're ready," Hussein said as he made the final checks on the rocket launchers. "Satan's dogs will be surprised."
Ali took a deep breath and put his hand on his shoulder. "When we're done here, we'll open those gates for them."
Ali and Osman put down their ration bags and took only their weapons with them. Turning to their companions, they said goodbye to each of them one by one. There was no need for words.
"You know we won't meet again," Ali said, a hard determination in his voice. "But we are neither the first nor the last. We will open a new path for humanity."
Serhat squeezed his hand hard. "You will be the ones to light our way."
After a final shoulder touch, Ali and Osman rushed forward. There were no obstacles until they met the forest. Only the rustling of bushes and the crunch of branches breaking off the ground followed them. They crossed two hundred meters in seconds and plunged into the forest. As the shadows of the trees enveloped them, they thought of their friends watching the castle behind them.
The Arkar Race... They were a nightmare for the people, a gigantic society that made subjugation an art form. These creatures, each averaging two meters in height, resembled mythological gods. Equipped not only with brawn, but also with magic and technology, they were invincible. During the Great Invasion, humanity's defenses were destroyed within a week. Cities that had resisted were destroyed by their war machines and devastating energy weapons.
Ali and Osman struggled to control their breathing as they made their way through the forest. Their aim was clear: To follow the map their informant had made for them and destroy the Aether mine, the lifeblood of the castle. The friends they had left on the hill would be a distraction.
Ali looked behind him and signaled Osman. They both crouched down and listened in silence. The roar of the Arkars on guard nearby was getting closer. Osman unsheathed the knife and threw it at Ali. Ali caught it and slowly crept forward.
At the top of the slope leading to the mine, a lone Arkar sentry stood watch. Over two meters tall, his muscular build and armor-clad body made him look like a giant. The faint blue light emanating from the tip of the spear in his hand pierced the darkness. But Arkar advanced with arrogant calm, not expecting any danger.
Ali slipped out of the bush where he had been hiding and gripped his knife tightly. His eye caught the gap in the armor around Arkar's neck. He would only have a moment's opportunity. Silently, he rose to his feet, bent slightly at the knees and stepped forward.
Arkar turned as soon as he felt a sudden movement, but it was too late. Ali moved behind Arkar with the agility of a cat, covering the giant's mouth with one hand to muffle the sounds coming from his throat. With the other, he plunged the knife into the unprotected spot on his neck, between the armor and the skin.
Arkar's muscular body stiffened for a moment, then relaxed. Ali controlled the giant's weight and slowly lowered him to the ground. He held his breath; a single noise could give away their location. The light in Arkar's eyes faded as blood dripped from where the knife had come out. Ali quietly put the giant's head down and disappeared again like a shadow in the darkness.
Osman disappeared just as quickly.
After advancing about twenty meters, they came across something troubling. An Arkar detachment guarding the mine entrance. They were standing on the slope of a shadow-shrouded hill at the edge of the mine. They were both trying to control their breathing behind the stone walls.
Ali turned his head above the ramparts. The huge figures standing on the watchtowers and at the cannons looked confident.
Just then the sky split open. The first warning came with a sharp whistle. Then there was a resounding roar, like the roar of a lion: "Shoot!" Immediately after, the platoon's bullets pierced the air and rained down on the ramparts.
The echo of the bullets rattled the stone walls of the castle like a thousand hammers. From inside the fortress, a shower of machine-gun bullets began, their sound mingling with the roar of cracking rocks and crumbling stones. The rocket launchers and commando mortars exploded one after the other, cracking the stone walls of the fortifications. Each explosion tore another piece from the castle, sending dust and rubble into the sky.
The glint of tracer bullets rose from the top of the hill, the trail of fire turning night into day, seeming to swallow the castle. The sound bounced off the rocks and back again, creating a maze of echoes, but not enough to stop the platoon.
The voices from inside the castle became chaotic: The angry shouts of Arkar warriors, the muffled voices of commanders giving orders and the screams of panicked soldiers. Down from the ramparts, as the Arkar archers and snipers began to return fire, screams came from the hilltop where the platoon was.
"Widen the line of fire!"
Ali heard Serhat's voice and aimed his rifle at the Arkar platoon in front of him. The Arkar team panicked in the noise and dust and started running towards the fort. Ali signaled Osman and the two of them crossed the hill in a matter of seconds.
The soldiers on the hill, led by Serhat, had done a great job. Not a single Arkar was left standing on the castle wall. The scouts were the first targets of the brain-bursting bullets.
"Get the device ready," Ali said.
Ali and Osman crawled through an energy channel to reach the mine. The cold, flickering light of the conduit made their faces pale. Osman noticed Arkar units moving at the end of the channel.
"Patrol change," Ali said. "About time."
When the duo reached the end of the channel, they looked into the gleaming heart of the massive mine. Aether crystals glowed like veins stretching from the ground to the sky. This source of hell for humanity was a thing of stunning beauty.
Osman placed the device where the Aether veins were thickest. As the device began to work, a low hum turned into a rising vibration.
"The ripple effect has started," Osman said, looking at the device's readouts. "In five minutes the Aether will destabilize."
"I'm setting the explosives," Ali said. He fixed high-density explosives at strategic points in the mine.
By this time the noise outside had ceased. The shouts of bombs and bullets had stopped. Ali sighed in distress, his comrades on the hill had done their duty. The price had been their lives.
"Thanks to the homeland."
As they finished setting the explosives, heavy footsteps echoing from the other end of the tunnel drew their attention. When Ali heard this sound, breaking the momentary silence, he saw a huge shadow approaching from the dark corner of the tunnel.
"The Arkars have spotted us!" shouted Osman.
The patrols had moved to defend the Aether mine. The energy blasts from their weapons echoed off the walls of the tunnel, putting deadly pressure on the duo. Ali grabbed his rifle to neutralize a few guards before they were forced to retreat.
"We must hold out until time runs out," Ali said.
The speed of the Arkar patrols looming at the other end of the tunnel was impossible to match. Ali gritted his teeth and squeezed the trigger of his rifle.
"That bought us some time."
Although their bullets were not lethal, they were aimed at the gaps in the armor. So the Arkar patrols couldn't move as they wanted. This gave them the time they needed.
"This mine is doomed."
And at that moment, the first explosion occurred. A tremor from deep inside the tunnel shook the ground. A chain of explosions followed. Veins of Aether ruptured, crystals cracked and bursts of energy enveloped the entire mine.
The echoes of the explosion traveled like a storm through the narrow tunnels inside the mine. As Ali and Osman leaned back against the wall of the room where they had started the explosion and tried to catch their breath, stones were uprooted and scattered around them. From beneath the ceiling, which had begun to collapse in places, came the creaking of huge boulders that seemed as if they would fall on them at any moment.
"We have to get out!" Osman growled, clutching his knife tightly. His voice was almost inaudible in the echoes of the explosion.
"If we try to get out now, we won't get out alive," Ali said, wiping the blood and dust from his face with the back of his hand. "We'll wait a while. Let the dust settle and then we'll find the nearest exit."
But there was no time for Ali to plan. From the depths of the mine, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed with vibrations. Each step caused the mine floor to shake slightly. Both of them stopped at once and held their breath. The sounds were like the patient steps of a hunter trying to find them.
And then they saw him...
"Shit, a Warlord."