AN: This is the rewrite of "Gate: Thus the Vanu fought there", I've reviewed it and it felt terrible to read, so I'm back at it again.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
One century after the war
Four figures walked with difficulty as they ventured into the sandstorm, it was a mild one, which was certainly a relief to the patrolling men and woman. They moved forward with hands covering their faces, not that it would do anything to help since they already have their helmets. They held their weapons close to themselves, afraid of losing it to the storm. They were unfortunate enough with the storm when they heard a distant howl, which was from a local fauna.
"I swear to Vanu if that thing bites my arm off again I'm gonna quit and get my ass back to Auraxis!"
The voice of a man came over on the radio, despite the terrible storm.
"Apparently the beast likes you!" A young female replied.
"More like my flesh." The original speaker scoffed.
"Cut the crap people! Get your guns ready!" The officer said.
"Sir, with all due respect our guns did nothing before!" A novus said as they walked closer together. He then stopped completely, eyeing his surroundings as the others mirrored his movements. The storm have stopped and disappeared. The planet they were on was strange to say the least, for starters it was a barren wasteland, a desert planet to be exact. Second it had terrible sandstorms, though they were always brief and sudden. Those were still tolerable, what's was not was the beast which accompanied the storm, storm riders the colonist have begun to call them. They were never seen, only heard when the storm begins and that they were man-eaters.
Apparently human flesh was on its menu.
After the sudden storm, they've continued to return to base. Not so green fields with sand pits filled the horizon, with the occasional xeno flora and fauna passing by. The Vanu Sovereignty was attempting to terraform the planet, and they were about one third in progress. Fields of grass have begun to appear on other continents while the one they were on was still undergoing terraforming. It had only been a few years , yet they were already seeing results. This was thanks to the ridiculous amount of nanites they've dumped into the atmosphere, which would convert it to one that is breathable without helmets and nano-rebreathers, which basically allowed infinite air.
They were halfway through when they see a shimmer, a distortion to their far right, somewhere amongst the mountains. They were not amused to say the least. Sometimes bored people would turn off their IFFs and equip infiltrator suits and scare colonists. They promptly ignored the fools until they've realised something, the distortion was big, very big.
"Um..you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"Yup."
"Can't miss it."
The four man patrol team stared at the thing, as they've noticed it taking form, a large, ancient looking structure appeared before their eyes. The structure was made of stone, which was an odd building material for when they were in the third millennium. One of them was finally smart enough to radio in the anomaly.
"Command?" The leader said.
A few moments later came the lazy voice of the operator, "Yes? What's the matter?"
The leader gulpled before beginning, "Uhh… there's a strange looking structure here."
"Hey, I know you're bored, hell we all are but you have to stop making these ridiculous jokes." The operator replied, they were bored to death on this barren piece of land. It was only terraformed because miners wanted a "more comfortable " environment to work in. The project gained attention as volunteers began to build infrastructures and deploying nanites, only to find boredom again once everything was set up. The downside of being immortal.
X
Itami strolled along the streets of the settlement as he looked around like a tourists. He had been deployed here mere hours ago and they've already been given leave, not that they have anything to do. The Vanu military and society in general always granted a lot of freedom, you can do whatever you want as long as you follow moral codes, which no one dared to violate, and had no point to defile. Everything was free of charge thanks to nanotechnology, hence economy disappeared. If they want something, they just download the blueprint and let the nanoforge do its work, if it's too large for the home use forges, then one could always go to the public ones, which were capable of producing starships.
Itami walked into a nearby "store", which was owned by a local artist. He smiled when he saw what this "store" had to offer.
Anime merchandise.
"How may I help you?" The artists said while hand crafting a figure. Hand crafted items in the Sovereignty were always valued and their artists respected, this was, once again thanks to nanites. The ability to produce anything in mere seconds wiped the word "factory" off the dictionary. Everyone owned a mini nanoforge at their homes. It could produce anything, from your daily cup of coffee to a holopad. This made hand crafted items unique and valuable, and Itami happened to stumble upon a generous artists.
"Take one, I made them out of boredom anyways." The artist said without even batting an eye towards Itami.
"My thanks." Itami replied as he took one off the shelf and left after looking around a bit more.
X
The four soldiers have stared at the structure for several minutes, it was odd, very odd. It was simply impossible to have something appear like this. The operator had even told them to kill themselves and let the medic revive them, so that their insanity would be cured.
He promptly shut up when live footage came through. There it was, an ancient stone structure sitting in the middle of nowhere.
Then they heard it.
A thunderous roar came from the darkness of the structure, the four flicked safeties off and aimed at the darkness. It was a good 400m away, but they were able to see at such distance thanks to their scopes and enhanced vision through the helmets. Hundreds of green and brown coloured creatures charged through, they were yelling war cries as they swung their clubs around. They were followed by wave after wave of armoured humans clad in ancient and primitive armour.
The four were dumbfounded, Roman soldiers appearing through the structure with ogres and goblins? Creatures of fantasy and myths? Certainly their brains were damaged.
All of them gave themselves a good smack on the head, then they realised it was very much real. A fantasy army appeared, and apparently it was going for them. Despite the distance, there was nothing between them, just a large plain desert with random patches of green, so they were easily spotted.
The leader was about to radio the situation back when he remembered that command had live footage of what he was seeing, he then heard a ping, which indicated an objective update.
Two knelt in front while two stood at the back, which allowed maximum fire power. Normally they would find cover first, but seeing that they're in a desert and the enemy were using melee weapons, they have deemed the formation suitable.
They begun firing as soon as the passed the 350m mark, despite being potent weapons, plasma guns are still quite limited in range when in an atmosphere. Scores of the creatures began to drop as they fired. These monstrosities were no match for the superior weapons the Vanu used, even so for the men behind the foul creatures. Alas, they could only shoot so much before expending their ammunition, or batteries, to be precise. They've dropped a couple hundred of these primitives, before falling back, which meant redeploying, or killing themselves to rebirth at another place.
X Several minutes later, Vanu settlement
Itami was startled by the alarm and red flashing lights when he was returning to the barracks. This only meant one thing, they were under attack. But what could possibly do so on this planet? It's basically a dirt ball with minerals. And to be dangerous enough for the entire garrison in the glass dome to mobilise? None of this mattered to him as he made his way back to the barracks, he had a place, his new home to protect.
He quickly donned his armour and picked up his Pulsar VS-1 assault rifle and Beamer. Standard issue for all Vanu Auxilia personal. He then rushed to the another equipment terminal, where he would be able to equip the rebreather.
He gathered at the hangar bay with his platoon of 48, where 3 galaxies 2 liberators and 6 scythes awaited them. They've quickly boarded their vehicles and went pass the shields which keep the air in. Despite being a few kilometre always, there was clearly a lot of things going on in a distance, a large cloud of dust and sands appeared at the reported location, where thousands of supposed fantasy creatures came through a gate. Itami, despite being an Otaku, still find something like this absurd. Aliens are understandable, but this? Not so much.
He looked out through the cockpit and immediately saw the scythes racing forward, seconds later they were already unleashing their Photon rocket pods, each vaporising scores of enemy. The liberators then ascended to where they were just below the clouds, but suddenly one of the them flipped, like something rammed it.
"What the hell are those dragons?!" He heard a pilot exclaim through the comms.
He then saw a scythe pulled off a reverse manoeuvre, the aircraft swiftly went backwards while facing the enemy, which was promptly ripped apart by the Saron Laser Cannon. He heard a whistle by his side, apparently everyone onboard was watching. As they closed in, he could see the formations of the Pseudo-Romans, their shields were raised while archers behind were shooting the aircrafts with arrows, it was a pathetic attempt. The galaxy simply fired its guns and the entire row of men turned into a fine red mist.
The men soon landed and took cover behind their aircrafts, plasma rounds immediately rained down upon the primitives, waves of men fell continually. It was no battle, it was a massacre, or target practice some might say. Other than being constantly under fire and ordered to charge forward, there was also one slight problem. The troops found their movements a bit slower and sluggish than usual, and that it with more and more difficult with each step. They were also slightly dizzy. Soon men begun to fall one by one without being shot, the effects were slightly more serious for those who got in first. The commander fell off his horse after vomiting.
"Mi'Lord!" His servant yelled, and soon suffered the same fate. Minutes later, the entire desert from the structure to the Vanu was filled with corpses.
A chuckle was heard from the Vanu line, "Fools, to come here with out oxygen is simply suicide."
The men soon approached the sea of corpses, it was a spectacular sight, they could imagine the war of their ancestors in the 1910s. Where men charged blindly into superior machine gun fire, this was quite a similar experience, but it was also their first taste of combat yet nothing like the Great Auraxian War. They soon reprimanded themselves a bit, to say this massacre was a battle was an insult to the honoured veterans.
Days later
Itami and his platoon and many more were assembled at the base, where almost a thousand men lined up in formation while scores of vehicles were positioned in front. Amongst them was a medium size unit of the Legio Auraxia, Itami and his fellow soldiers were honoured, to venture into the unknown with the founding fathers of their nation would be something brag about for years.
An objective update soon appeared, they need not fancy speeches or glamorous ceremonies, though there was a sizeable crowd of citizens nearby to see their family or friends off. The men silently embarked their vehicles and ventured into the unknown.