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An Extended Vacation…
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Prologue- The Malfunction…
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     Deep in the massive underground portion of the Silver Creek Air Force Base, General Andrew Maxwell sat behind his desk wondering what he had gotten himself into. He was a career soldier and he looked old and tired; he had enlisted in the Army at the age of 18 and served with distinction in Vietnam. After the war, he gradually worked his way up the chain of command and quickly became involved in many of the United States military’s more, unique and unorthodox projects.

     “Project Gateway”, as it became known, had been around for more than 40 years. Its goal was to create and sustain a “portal” to another world or dimension. It had sounded like fantasy to Maxwell when he was appointed as its commanding officer a little over a year ago. This project also had a particularly nasty reputation that he was never told about until after he took the job. It was considered a “cursed” project. Every time it had been close to completion, some kind of horrible accident had occurred. There had been explosions, mysterious deaths and a massive list of other disasters throughout its 40 odd year history. The most recent of these disasters was the “McMillan incident” of two years ago when his predecessor, General McMillan, decided that it was time to send a team of soldiers and scientists through a portal to see what was on the other side.

     A team of 10 was sent through, 4 Navy Seals, 4 Army Rangers and 2 Scientists. They were sent through with two 4x4 jeeps and enough supplies to set up a small outpost. Roughly twenty-four hours later, a single five minute transmission was received from the outpost. The transmission contained 5 minutes of static, gunfire and screaming. The most terrifying part of the transmission was near the end and was the last surviving soldier talking directly into the transmitter. It had troubled Maxwell so much when the tape was played for him that he committed it to memory.

-    (static) “…God help us, it came fr.. .he forest. Its massive, no..ing works. We’ve shot everyth… .e have at it and it just keeps coming. Oh my God, it ate Sarg…t Howard. She ate him alive!! The scientists are gone, one shot Hims..f and the other ran into the forest. Shit, She’s heading this way! Dammit, where did you send us! We ..ernt prepared for this!! No, n-no, g-g-get away from me you Bitch!!!” Gunfire could then be heard, then the sound of a grenade launcher, then a scream that seemed like it was being pulled high into the air until it abruptly stopped and the transmission ended (static)    -

     General McMillan then ordered the portal device to be completely destroyed and all data about the project to be deleted to try to permanently kill the project. The portal generator was wired with C4 and destroyed, but the tape of the transmission and most of the data escaped destruction.

     After being made the commanding officer of the project, General Maxwell had the scientists rebuild the device ASAP. The project would start over, General Maxwell did not believe in monsters. The device's first activation test had been earlier today and of course something had gone wrong. The containment field had been lost during the test.
  
   According to the project's head scientist, this could ("Its all still mostly theory.")have caused several small portals to appear randomly within a 100 mile radius of the base, an area that, even though remote, still contained several small towns. The head scientist said that these portals would be, as they referred to them, “flash-point portals”. This meant that each portal would only last for a couple seconds, but would appear and disappear so violently that anything or anyone within six feet would be sucked in.
   
     Even though this was not a catastrophic malfunction like some of his predecessors had to deal with, the idea of civilians disappearing in the surrounding area did not sit well with Maxwell. God help whoever was unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, God help them all…