PROLOGUE

Somewhere on Green Earth

Caprigrad , Capital city of

The Union of Solvokanian Republics

Field Marshal Alexander Galbatov stood outside the Caprigrad Convention centre. He was flanked by his Generals and other high ranking civilians, waiting for the arrival of Nickolas Zane, the Grand Chancellor of the Green Earth Federation of Nations or the GEFN.

Although Field Marshal Galbatov was wearing his formal military uniform ,and that his colleagues still refer to him as “ Marshal Galbatov” , he was no ordinary military officer. Over a year ago, the two superpowers of Green Earth, the Union of Solvokanian Republics and the Auralesian Union formed a secret alliance with the nations of Blue Earth, another strange alternate earth like Green Earth , residing within its reality. Nickolas Zane, however, knew the existence of the undeclared alliance. Fearing that they were aiming to remove Zane from office and takeover the GEFN, asked him to overthrow the Solvokanian government. On December of 2005, when the representatives of the alliance came to Caprigrad to hold talks with each other, Galbatov, staged a military coup, promoted himself to Field Marshal, one of the highest ranks in the Solvokanian Army, and appointed himself as the president of Solvokania.

He looked across the road, which had been closed from the public for the event ,and was filled with troops and elite soldiers looking for the signs of the motorcade coming. A few moments later, the faint sound of sirens could be heard across the distance. Galbatov looked into the left and a large convoy of black cars and police cars ,rolling along the empty road. As the convoy came closer and closer, one of the cars detached from the rest of the pack and entered the entrance lane of the convention centre and came to a stop right in front of him. The side doors flung open, the bodyguards inside the car stepped out and a middle aged man came jumping out from the car. Galbatov gave the man a salute before shaking hands with him.

“Good morning ,Mr Grand Chancellor.” He said

“Hello, Field Marshal Galbatov, it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen each other.” Zane replied

“Yeah. It’s nice to see you again, .Mr Grand Chancellor.” Galbatov answered back “ So, Mr Zane ,how’s our agenda going?”

“We’ll talk about this, later inside the building, where the news media can’t see us.” Zane replied “Anyway, Marshal Galbatov, have you discussed the proposal with your military colleagues about integrating your Solvokanian Army into the Federation of Nations Response Force?”

“ I have.” Galbatov answered “ The Central Military Council have agreed to do just that. How about the other member states of the Federation of Nations?”

“They have agreed too, including the Rontes Empire and the old Umanian Kingdom. Both of those countries aren’t member states of the Aseros Union. The Aseros Union have made itself an ally of the Auralesian Union.” Zane said

“Auralesia is the only country in Green Earth whose military firepower surpasses Solvokania. If you place my country in front of them, we would probably be defeated.”

“But if we place Auralesia in front of the Entire Federation of Nations, that would be a different story. Auralesia and its allies here in Green Earth are no longer member states of the Federation of Nations. They withdrew their membership ever since I dissolved the World Senate last year.” Zane said

“Mr Grand Chancellor, I assure you that that my colleagues and my country won’t let you down.” Galbatov said

“Good.” Zane replied. They walked into the entrance room and the guards escorted them into a large corridor. They turned left and entered a lift into the conference room , where Nick’s other agents were waiting for them.

CROSSING INTO THE UNKNOWN

15 year old Andrew Jason Potter was walking along the streets of Melbourne city. Andy was on a holiday trip to Australia with his parents and his sister and they had just been walking around the city , buying lots of items. As Andy looked up he saw the apartment building that they were staying in. As they walked into the reception room, Andy could hear what sounded like a fighter jet ripping through the night sky. He looked up but saw nothing. Andy turned his attention to the street next to the apartment building. However, to his amazement, he realised that all the buildings next to the apartment and the ones opposite weren’t there and the road was empty, apart from what looked like two Humvees rushing past him, with men armed with rifles and wearing American style Kevlar helmets and wearing armour suit. One of the soldiers shouted on his radio microphone

“We have four civilians entering the building , I repeat…”

“What are you looking at , Andy?” his sister, Ann asked.

“A glimpse of another world…” Andy whispered

“I can’t hear you.” Ann replied. Andy blinked and saw that the humvees were no longer there. He found himself standing next to a congested road, with tall city buildings standing along the road. He was back…

“Nothing…Doesn’t matter.” Andy replied. They walked past the reception , up the lift, and back to their room on the fifth floor of the apartment, where all the mess that they had left from eating dinner. Andy’s parents immediately went to their bedroom, while Andy and his sister went to theirs. As Andy lay down in bed, on the apartment building, he felt a wave of sleepiness overwhelming him. However, as he thought about the strange visions he saw at the apartment, the sleepiness was gone . He tried to close his eyes for a brief moment but it didn’t work. Andy, unable to sleep , got up from his bed , opened the door and sat on the sofa on the living room. He was staring at the blank TV set on the other side of the living room, with the remote control sitting on top of a wooden table in front of him. Without warning , the TV set turned itself on. There was static and no pictures on.

“Oh shit!” Andy exclaimed. He quickly grabbed the remote control and switched off the TV. The door from his room swung open and his sister stood next to him and said

“Andy ,if you want to watch TV, could you please turn it down?” she asked

“But I wasn’t going go watch TV.” Andy said

“Then why did you turn on the TV?” Ann asked. Andy was about to say that the TV turned itself on but knew that she wouldn’t believe him. Andy finally replied

“Never mind…”

“Do you know what time it is, Andy?” she asked. Andy looked around and saw a clock on wall above the TV set and said

“Twenty minutes past midnight.” Andy said

“Well, shouldn’t you be asleep right now?” she asked

“Ann, stop being so bossy, we’re in the middle of a holiday. I just can’t sleep.” Andy moaned

“Whatever…” Ann said. She walked back to her room and slammed the door shut. Andy sat down at the couch for a while but stood up again and stared at the window. Suddenly, he noticed something. He heard loud crackling noises and noises that sounded like gunfire. Andy became curious and quietly walked out of the room , wandering what those strange noises are. He walked across the hallway and into a dimly lit staircase . He suddenly felt that someone was following him. Andy looked around but saw nobody. He walked down the stairs and could hear the echoes of his footsteps against the seemingly chaotic noise down below…or was it the footsteps of the mysterious person stalking him behind the veil of invisibility . As he reached the fourth floor he looked around but saw nothing unusual. The faint clapping noise of the footstep kept going . Then the strange , rattling noise stopped. The footsteps kept getting louder and louder but came to a stop several seconds later. He looked back to the stairwell but still saw nobody. As he looked to the corridor, he saw a dark figure right in front of him. The face of the ghostly figure was black , had scars all over it with one of its eyes torn off. The figure resembled a burnt human corpse but was wearing an American style Kevlar helmet and body armour. His shoulder badge had a picture of the world inside a white ring with a writing on it that said FEDERATION OF NATIONS RESPONSE FORCE. The figure was carrying an MP5-N 9 mm submachine gun and the gun had a long belt attached to it, allowing the figure to carry it like a bag. The figure grabbed a long knife from his pocket and pointed it towards Andy

“Sorry mate! You are not going anywhere tonight, because you are dead!” the figure said in a cold voice. Before he could react, the figure kicked Andy and Andy fell down into the floor and moaned in agony. Andy crawled away from the figure . As he tried to stand up, the figure knocked him back to the ground .

“Tie him up! Quick! He’s going to get away!” He heard the figure screaming. The sound of footsteps followed and Andy felt his hands were being tied up

“Ahhh..” Andy moaned.

“Stand up!” the figure said again. Andy looked up and saw several other figures surrounding him. Each of them wore the same clothing as the lone figure he saw earlier. As he stood back up, the figures gabbed him ,took him downstairs and into an armoured car waiting outside…