Author's Note: I never had a real plan for the story, so I took a bit longer for this one but I know the next couple of chapters will be longer. Sorry for those still wanting some hot smoking sex, good things come to those who wait.
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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 17th 06:12
Corporal Brennan Edward stood staring in the mirror in front of him, razor in hand and his body still wet from the shower. Turning his head he saw the scar that followed him since he joined the army. The scar started from behind his ear and followed his neck to the bottom of his jaw. He remembered the woman clutching the dead-man trigger, the look in her eyes.
They were filled with anger and rage, it was his first active duty mission in the Helmand province. He and his squadmates were clearing the city, street by street. They were then attacked and bullets darted all around them. Edward's instinct kicked in and he jumped into a nearby house to take cover.
Inside a woman was standing with a suicide vest clearly visible, but before he had a chance to take the rest of the scene in, she blew herself up. It was clearly amateur's work for the explosion was minimal. But for Edwards who was right in front of the woman, it was enough to knock him off his feet. His eardrums blew, his eyes wouldn't open, and the trauma to his body knocked him out.
Edward shuddered at his past memories but brushed them off. He was recently asked to stay with General O'Sullivan. His last mission from Washington was to just deliver a Halibut suitcase to Dr. Patrick but now he was asked to stay and await further orders. Looking back up he started to shave away his facial hair, up and down his jaw, with every new swipe revealed a handsome man, with the exception of the scar.
Edward could easily get facial reconstruction to cover his battle wounds. The army was even offering to pay but Edward always wanted a reminder of his past, even if he didn't want to recall the trauma he wanted signs to know where he has been.
Every now and again his world will freeze and his ears will ring, his breath slowed down and his tongue became dry. But those weren't problems they were just symptoms, Edwards had Tinnitus. The explosion he sustained left permanent internal scarring. There were not much modern day medicine to help victims of Tinnitus, Cognitive behavioral therapy helped Edwards cope with his problems, no one knew besides him. Any onlooker couldn't even tell Edwards had auditory problems.
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Earth - District of Persia - Mid-day
Clara maintained minimum exposure to the sun, breathing through her nose to ensure her mouth remained close, she had experience traversing deserts, at least in simulations. On Cal-Nev-Ari she participated in a 100 man combined simulation. 100 of her fellow students all hooked up in the same simulation. This time she was part of the Mesopotamian campaign traversing the desert while in combat, she fought as part of the British 13th Infantry Division. Even in the simulation, she was forced to march for long days in the desert. Her feet bearing blisters and bruises could be felt even if in a simulation.
But that didn't bother her, what bothered her was her current whereabouts. She's been riding on her camel for a day now and still no sign of anything but desert in sight, something must not be right.
Remembering the stars from last night, they were different than her first night. Her first night the stars show Earth Minor due east but recalling last night she couldn't even see Earth Minor. She blamed the lack of a constellation due to miss guided orientation.
"Wait-" she thought. "If Earth Minor was above me it must be Winter and the nights would be colder, but Earth Minor is not above me, so it must be summer." She thought about her predicament long and hard. How could it be that stars are not meant to be where they are in the sky...
"Titan-" It all made sense to her now, she came from the future in January expecting to be thrown into the past in January, a residual wormhole must have stayed to show the stars of the future.
"I AM AN IDIOT!" She was frustrated at herself, taking deep breaths she tried to control her rage and lower her heart rate. She can't afford burning more energy than is required, and now that she was going in the wrong direction conserving anything she had left was crucial. With that, she took her camel and turned South-West keeping the sun at an angle.
"This must be the dehydration kicking in.". Clara tried to come up with excuses to justify her lack of foresight, but know she couldn't blame anyone but herself.
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Earth, Undisclosed Location - 2012 April 18th 16:45
General O'Sullivan was looking down at his desk alongside his senior officers, he managed to sneak out of OPS, with coordinates of where the wormhole anomaly appeared. He knew the coordinates were familiar to him but he couldn't put a finger on it. Looking at his own intel he knew why it was familiar to him, he recently had reports of rebel movements in said region.
The region has recently been hiking with large reports of rebel movements, that's bad enough but now wormholes are appearing nearby? It can't be a coincidence, they must have been involved in some way. Directly southwest of the anomaly site about 70 miles away there had been numerous reports of a large rebel hideout.
"Sir I can have boots on the ground checking the anomaly site for you" Corporal Edwards piped up.
"Thank You, the first answer I wanted to hear, screw the lab coats coming in and taking over" The General seemed to almost have a big relief lifted off his shoulder, he needed a reminder that this was still a military installation in an active combat zone.
"Edwards, what do you think? "
"Sir, I would like to assemble the troops. Also, could I make preparations for extra water rations and night vision kit to be brought along."
