Author's Note (spoilers): This story takes place after the end of Season 2 when Princess Pina becomes empress of the Empire. This story works on the assumption that multiple gates appear on the world to populate the world over time with different races, the gates as we know it are completely random locations save for a few select gates.

So We Stand

Prologue: So We Stand

"Get up!" a grunt escaped from my hoarse voice as I lifted up a cowering lump from the ground, "get up and fight! We're all going to be dead if you don't!"

"But Major," murmured back the crying Japanese infantryman, "my ribs…it hurts too much."

My teeth grinded together in a building rage.

"You think I'm not in pain?! Don't you see this face? There's still acid burning across my face, my left arm has second degree burns and your friends have broken legs and arms yet they're still fighting! You don't have an excuse Private! You joined the JGSDF to serve your country, do not let the rising sun down!" I screamed, my voice like gravely sand.

The Japanese soldier continued crying.

We were amidst a large battle. Bullets zipped by my head in one direction. Arrows, fire, acid and bolts of energy screamed back towards us in their slow arcs. I commanded a small force of thirty-five soldiers. Their Captain was wounded and being treated behind our defensive line that was the entire port of a small city called Ruean. Six thousand kilometers away from both our first and second homes, we fought on a continent never before discovered and in a war we never wanted to enter with in the first place. Waves of serpentine warriors clad in medieval armor and dark elves in their leather armor threw themselves at the trenches that were dug just a dozen meters from the beaches of the port. The small decline filled with barbwire and foliage was all that stood between us and the force of five thousand or more fighters jumping off large rafts sailing in from larger boats off the shore. There was a total of three hundred and thirty of us spread across two kilometers of trenches.

"Susanowo Actual, Saber One, Alliance forces inbound from the northwest. Forty mikes out, stand by for relief. How copy?" came the burst of transmission in my left ear amongst other radio chatter.

"Solid copy Saber One! Keep me posted!" I screamed back.

My hands reached into my left thigh pouch and retrieved a small syringe.

I jabbed the syringe into the crying infantryman's shoulder, "don't you give up on me now soldier! Stand up and fight!"

I couldn't focus on one man when an entire platoon was depending on me to lead it.

"Susanowo Actual, Susanowo Three, foot mobiles crossing the second defensive line," a gruff voice, calm as ice reported.

"Radio operator!" I screamed, "call in artillery from the Ashigara! Give me Willy Pete all across the first defensive line! And Tomahawks on those new vessels!"

"Yes Major Anderson!" the spry Private First Class nodded as his hand shook the radiophone glued to his ear, "Ashigara, Ashigara, this is Katana 1-6! Requesting Willy Pete all across the trenches danger close at the first defensive line! Wind direction is to the East! Requesting Tomahawk strike on new vessels, Suzume 2-1 will uplink data from MSTAR radar via Link 16 for targeting!"

"Conserve your ammo! Double tap your weapons, once to the chest and once to the head! Focus on casters first and let the LMGs cut down the warriors!" I instructed, standing next to a machine gun crew.

"Kuso! (Shit!) Weapon jam!" the machine gunner grunted as his pulled hard on the charging handle of his Sumitomo M249.

I gently pushed the soldier away, my fingers and hand flaring with pain from activity. I held my rifle like a hammer with the buttstock pointed back. The Mark 17 SCAR-H slammed into the charging handle with its polymer and rubber butt pad with a dull thunk. The six kilogram loaded weapon impacted the small metal protrusion with visible force and on the third try the charging handle flew back smoothly. A bent link and bullet was spat out from the ejection port. There was a nod from the machine gunner as he racked the weapon three times to make sure it was feed smoothly before resuming his fire on the enemy charging us from the front. It was like a scene out of a historical movie with thousands of rafts filled with fighters, roaring and ready to go. My cheek burned with pain from the acid as my right gloved hand ran over the long beard. The entirety of my left arm was on fire with pieces of clothing stuck to my skin from a fireball launched earlier in the battle. It had cooled but that made it all the worse with pus oozing out from the singed flesh not to mention the constant throbbing in my left leg. I raised my rifle and squeezed the grenade launcher's heavy trigger.

Pop!

The forty-millimeter shell sailed into the air spinning at over three thousand and six hundred revolutions per minute before impacting the ground with the large bang. A cloud of brown dust kicked up from the slope. Hot shrapnel from the air-burst grenade sliced through infantry and mages akin to a hot knife going through butter. Dozens crumpled into the blood soaked ground while others behind trampled over them. A few slipped past the wall of lead and gunfire but sergeants equipped with Howa Type 89 affixed with bayonets dealt with them swiftly. Blood flowed freely on the blood soaked beaches. Why were we even here? How could a diplomatic meeting go so sideways? We were never meant to be in this world, one far behind that of ours by at least a couple hundred years. And here we are, soldiers from Japan touting peace and morals to a world still in its infancy. Would they abandon their slavery once they had developed far enough to our level of technological advancements? We're here now and whatever would happen would happen. Fate would decide what happens from here on out.

"Ryu!" a female voice called out behind me, "the Red Dragons have evacuated the civilians in the town and are joining us in battle…your arm it's burnt."

"I'm okay Panache," I gave her a small smile, "otsukaresama (thanks for your hard work.) Now it's my turn."

"Arrowpoint has been overrun Major!" reported a soldier.

Three hundred meters away and at the center of the trench line was The Colonel responsible for coordinating my team. Arrowpoint was the position he manned with another thirty-five men. Despite his high rank, he was adamant to be at the tip of the spear. It was like him since he was a former Marine Raider.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, "Panache, I'll leaving this platoon up to you. I'm going to the Colonel."

"Eh? Me?" she said flustered.

"You're trained to do this. Don't make my four months of hard work go to waste okay?" I replied and patted her on the combat helmet.

Her emerald eyes burned with confidence as she shook her head.

"Don't get yourself hurt! You have to come back to me alive!" she yelled after me, raising her own rifle to fire.

"This is Raider, my team's moving backwards to the third defense line! We're sustaining heavy fire at Arrowpoint! I'll stay here and hold them off as long as possible!" the loud and rapid bangs in the background.

"Susanowo Actual, Raider I'm coming to you now! Just hold on!" I screamed into the radio.

"You don't have to kiddo! Argh!" a yelp of anger shot into my ears followed by an inhuman hiss.

I jumped out of the trench with a laborious grunt. It was not easy getting my weapon, my equipment and pack over the chest high wall while having a burnt arm and acid slowly eating away my face. Every muscle in my body cried for me to stop. After all we had been in contact for nearly two hours. The mass of bodies seemed to continue to rush from the large lake that separated this nation from the other. Whistling from large balls of fire, blots of ice and blobs of acid was ever close. The largely inaccurate mortar fire slammed all over the place but one or two lucky ones found its spot in the trenches. Casualties were mounting and we only had so much ammunition to continue fighting. Man-portable mortars popped from behind me, their whistling overhead as they arced high into the air. A plume of dirt brown dust, mud, dark blue and red blood shot high into the sky from the impact.

My lungs burned as I struggled to close the distance.

Three hundred meters seemed so far away in the chaos of the battlefield.

Eyes glanced over to the trenches to see the men under my command caked in their comrade's and enemy's blood, mud splattered onto their fresh faces and reddened eyes from the extended strain of battle. Soldiers wielding firearms fresh from boot camp were pitted against seasoned warriors armed to the teeth with magic and steel. It was a battle of attrition and we were on the losing side. They would never be the same again after this battle. Nevertheless, the continued to make our stand.

Whump! Whump!

Clouds of white shot out from the ground not far from Arrowpoint. Like a wall of white, the sparks and orbs of burning yellow rose from the ground and sprayed the ground with white phosphorus smoke. Voluminous clouds quickly expanded to block the entire beach, obscuring mages and casters from seeing their targets. Any warriors running through the wall of white would be quickly met with the hazardous side effects of Willy Pete. Splashed oils from grease grenades on the bodies of fallen warriors ignited with a dull bang and a bright flash of orange. Their own bombs were used against their own as I continued to jog through the mix of blood and mud. My boots were getting heavy from the muck accumulating on the soles of my feet and legs were burning with lactic acid.

"All call signs listen up!" I grunted into the radio, "this is Major Anderson Ryu from AFO Susanowo! The Alliance is thirty minutes away! We're here to capture Prince Zorzal because if we don't then this army will march and sail all the way to Falmart and the peace we brought to the continent will be all in vain! Word would have reached the rebel sleeper cells by now and a revolt is surely going to happen! We stop them here and we stop them now so that our brothers at Alnus can handle the revolt without having to worry about vampire-snakes and dark elves becoming the next empire! This is where we make our stand! The Kusanagi will make its mark in history, you hear me!"

Kusanagi or its full name Kusanagi no Tsurugi (Grass-Cutting Sword), the nickname of the unit I was now assigned to – the 1st Japanese Expeditionary Unit.

"Ryokai!" the men screamed loudly both on the radio and behind me in the trenches.

And so we made our stand.