First Encounter

After months of preparation, the first ever country to enter the gate is the Soviet.

Because of the current matters in United States, Soviet use this situation as a green sign in order to compete with the rival country.

While Maharlika, a new profound country, was preparing to enter the gate and be the second country to ever done it.

Julio, commander of BRP Jose Rizal, which was given by the japanese ally, was tasked to guard the gate near the Maharlikan Trench and to enter upon notice.

He command the former IJP Yamato who had the history of destroying US warships before its service ended. The Japanese Empire gave the battleship instead of surrendering it as they deemed them worthy of succession.

"4 kilometers east coast, civilian spotted! I won again, HAHA!"

Julio observe the two watchers as they play their game. Similar to his crew, he was also bored as the last order they received was two weeks ago. Even though they were tasked to guard the gate, nothing seems suspicious enough to report so they're stuck near the Philippine Trench.

"Coffee, captain,"

"Thank you,"

Julio grabbed the coffee his crew offered and took a sip while watching the location in which the trench was located. After the opening gate, it was said that multiple entrances were opened but as Julio saw it. It was nothing but an island similar to any other surrounding ones.

Although it was called an island. It was even smaller that a single building wouldn't be enough to be built on it. Though the gate is invisible, they only look at the unusually small island as their target.

"Watchkeeper, status report,"

"Nothing unusual, captain. Just a distorted space. It seems despite the size of the island, it was large enough for an entire fleet to enter it with ease,"

"Hmm, yes, thank you. Reyes, any news from the higher ups?" After replying the satisfying answer. Julio turn his head onto one of his subordinate

"The last check was this morning, captain. Should I check again?"

"Please do,"

"Excuse me," Reyes excuse himself and proceed to do his job.

After a while of waiting, Reyes came back with a sullen face. Still no news is what the captain thought as he stared to his crew.

"Well, it's fine. Keep the radio check. They might give a message sooner or later."

"Roger that,"

The two then came back to their usual routine.

--

Three weeks had passed since the departure. Julio had now received the news he was waiting for. Upon listening to the voice, he felt delighted as they were now given a permission to move. All of his crew inside the bridge also felt excited as they can now see the other side and hungry for actions.

"Alright, All ships! Prepare to enter the gate! We will move at exactly 5 o'clock!"

Julio called out every active ships in his fleet. Consisting of six Japanese cruisers, two destroyer and one battleship which he currently boarded.

Afterward, all ships changed their direction and proceed to move towards the gate. Since the battleship is somewhat related to a support class. She was placed in the middle of the fleet and therefore completely guarded on foreign attack if things go wrong.

When they passed the gate. Nothing unusual happen though they still proceed with extreme vigilant. Only bodies of water can be seen until the horizon as they sail across the gate and the foreign ocean.

All watchkeepers focused on their objectives and every commanders in any certain ships report every possible threat.

After hours of sailing, they have now discovered an island much larger that the one they guarded. It has a bulky surface in it and had a small hill in the center covered with greenery.

Though it was a land, no life can be seen crawling around it so Julio ordered his men to keep searching until they docked.

Unfortunately, until they docked. They haven't discovered any sign of crawling animals. Though they saw few aquatic creatures, they didn't find it appealing as they only saw it vaguely because of the water.

The cruisers were the only ones capable of landing the crew, so Julio were first transferred from his ship onto to the cruisers and thus waste a lot of time by just docking.

It was now dark when all assigned personnel including Julio landed on their first ever foreign soil. Despite that, Julio remain his calm expression as he order every personnel to their assigned positions and set up tents for temporary barracks.

Some of them hunt which seems like a catfish, some find a necessary materials while some do the cooking. It was like a perfect feast on a foreign island without worrying for anything.

Although some of them stayed in their respective ships and was tasked to watch over the land units.

After finishing every preparations, they all started eating and delivering food to the ships. It was truly a feast of an islanders.

--

An eventful night passed as the sun, or whatever they call it, starts to rise and give light to the surroundings. It was also the sign for them to move and return to their assigned duties.

Since Julio was a former militant and not a properly educated naval commander. He partake the search mission and so does most of his crew who also partake the war of independence and world war two.

-----

[Julio's POV]

It's been a day since we've entered the gate. Uneventful night also have passed and now, we're currently on a search mission that was tasked to us by the higher ups. They want us to search for life and if possible, an intelligent creature.

Though they said, we never encounter a land creature ever since we entered. The radio is also out the moment we passed the gate and so, we can only use Morse code to send message to the ships, and deliver letters to the main unit.

Now, 16 men including me are heading towards the other side of the island to look for more lands to travel. And with our luck, we have found a mass landscape. It has mountains on it not larger that the ones in Albay where we passed.

Three of them stand tall full of dignity as they block most of the sunlight coming from the sky. So that's why it looks pretty dark even though it's already pass 7.

"Sir, unidentified moving object spotted northeast from our position! It's moving fast, expected to lose sight at 20 seconds!"

One of my men reports and make me look at the direction he pointed out. It is quite far from our place so I didn't notice it, because of that I reach for my binoculars resting on my waist and take a better look to the moving object.

The moving object is... A bit big, bigger that a bear but faster that a running tiger. It has a brown texture which seems to be the fur or skin and it run like a monkey?...

It is a weird creature combining different animals existing in our world. I see the reason why they called this the foreign world.

The creature soon lost from our sight after carefully observing it. Because of that, we have now successfully discovered a land creatures. It will be soon enough to discover even more, and I hope we do but when I turn my head towards my men. They have a perplexed expression while some of they had a terrified one.

"What's wrong?" So I ask them.

"Sir, about that creature. Have you not seen its face?" one of my men answer my question as if I am a fool.

"If it's fine to you, I think we should take extra precaution to our surrounding, sir. That thing, the creature that we just saw. It's looking at us full of bloodlust,"

"Do you mean it saw us?" I now am confuse as Reyes look pale from head to toes.

"Not quite the correct word to describe it, sir. I think it's been observing us even before we notice it," Reyes said.