From Another Dimension, Ch. 1

Sunday, August 9, 1942, 7:34 a.m.

Outside of Stalingrad, Soviet Union.

Elements of the 245th Panzer Jager Battalion kneel in a balka.  A chaplain in a Wehrmacht uniform officiates mass.   He prays to God imploring that the men receive a blessing and strength in the upcoming battle.

The men bow their heads in unison to receive the blessing.  An eerie stillness descends as the priest opens his hands to complete the invocation.   Only a faint rustle of the wind though the wheat at the top of the trench can be heard. 

Overhead, and unobserved by any of the soldiers, an inter-dimensional portal materializes in an otherwise clear sky.  Golden light shimmers though a jagged opening, intensifying the effect of the sunlight on the congregants below.   Though the streaming light, a mass of prismatic tendrils materialize over the soldiers eventually enveloping a young clean cropped Unteroffizier.  Surrounded in the sensual embrace of the tendrils, the young man looks up, his smile now serene.