Gate: And So The United Republic Fought
[Planet Name Unknown]
Falmart
United Republic of States
Alnus City, Alnus Territory
Itami strolled through the streets of the newly constructed Alnus City taking in the sights. He wasn't the only one. Other off-duty soldiers were also wandering about looking for a place to unwind. Delilah's tavern was great but nothing beat a Liberty City style sports bar. Special Region natives could be seen looking around at everything in awe. MPs and Alnus City Police were patrolling around making sure no one caused any trouble though there hasn't been anything major.
The Republic was stepping up its colonization efforts. Alnus City was worked on nonstop for around a month by an entire army of workers until they finally decided progress was far enough along to start sending settlers. That was when the higher ups ran into their first major roadblock. Despite many applying for the Settlement Program it wasn't as many as they hoped for. The Special Region was still technically hostile territory and people aren't willing to take their families somewhere that wasn't safe. There's also the fact that there wasn't any reason why people would want to move to the Special Region. It was a whole new world filled with sights and species never seen before. A real world of fantasy. Unfortunately for many people those weren't good enough reasons to leave their old comfortable lives behind for a new one in a hostile land.
It seemed the Republic's plans for colonization were doomed until the Wanderer proposed a solution. The Republic would start offering citizenship to any Special Region inhabitants that wanted it. They would still have to pass a simplified version of the Republic's citizenship exam which was already notorious for being fairly easy. All you needed was a basic understanding of English, Republic laws and history. These were things that were easy to learn and the troops stationed at Fort Alnus were more than willing to teach. Hundreds had already passed Lelei, Rory, and Tuka among them. Alnus was starting to become very diverse in its range of inhabitants. Which was starting to cause its own problems…
General Harris reread the paper in front of him for fifth time finally confirming to him that yes this was actually happening right now. He turned to the girl...woman standing in front of his desk who had an expectant look.
"Ms. Mercury let make sure I read this correctly… Now that you have Republic citizenship you want to enlist."
At her confirmation Harris knew that his job just got a lot harder. 'Nope.' he thought 'I am NOT dealing with this!'
"Ms. Mercury I have seen videos and read reports on your fighting style. Though your age gives you experience surpassed only by the Great Leaders the sad truth is that you are a solo fighter and this is an army. You can't go running off to engage the enemy on your own."
At the apostle's pout a dreadfully horrible idea entered the general's mind. He smiled at the woman to which she raised an eyebrow. "But" he said "while your style of fighting is unsuited for the URGF it is perfect for the Rangers who are known to fight either alone or in small teams."
A knowing smile graced Rory's face as she figured out exactly what he was implying. "Thank you for your time general."
"Your welcome, Ms. Mercury." he said smiling back "I'll let Ranger Youji know to start training you immediately."
Once she left General Harris looked back down at his desk. Or more specifically at the small post-it note given to him by Itami that only said 'Just to let you know. Not my fault.' Well too bad for Itami. He's blaming him anyway.
That was why he was here in Alnus City. To take a break from Rory. It wasn't the teaching since she was a great student and quick learner. It was her attempts to come on to him. Rory was nice and in a normal circumstance he'd return her feelings. This was not a normal circumstance. Rory was over 900 years his senior and if that wasn't bad enough her body was the purest form of loli. Itami can't bring himself to look at her in...'that' way.
Itami reached into his pocket and removed a piece of paper. After checking the address that was written on it and his current location he saw he was in the right place. There it was. Chain-link fence and a small tree in the front yard like it was described to him. He walked up the concrete path and knocked on the front door which soon opened to reveal a familiar face.
"You're here early" said Risa ushering him inside
"Well let's just say I had a good reason to come over." Itami said sinking into a nearby couch closing his eyes in complete bliss
"Rory?" Risa asked
Itami sighed "She's been getting more possessive as of late."
"Maybe you should cut her some slack and take her out someplace nice?" Risa suggested
Itami opened an eye a sly grin on his face. "I'd thought you'd be a bit jealous, Risa?"
Risa picked up a nearby pillow and tossed it in his direction "Why would I be jealous, dummy!? We broke up on good terms and you'd have to admit we make much better friends than husband and wife."
"Point." Itami admitted removing the pillow from his face "I'm just afraid if I give her an inch and she'll take a mile. I'm glad we all slept in separate rooms back in the Wanderer's Palace or she would have jumped my bones."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"This is Rory we're talking about. The 900 year old warrior demigoddess that could be the poster child for lolis everywhere."
"I've wondered about that." said Risa "Do all of the Special Region gods choose their apostles from such a young age or is that just Emroy's thing?"
Unbeknownst to Itami and Risa, Emroy was now being laughed at by the other Falmartian gods once again for his apostle's 'youthful' appearance. The other gods who at least let their apostles reach physical maturity before turning them into demigods have made numerous comments about his 'tastes'. Truthfully he was impatient and didn't want to wait another decade for Rory to reach physical maturity which looking back was a rather petty reason since as a god he was unaffected by the passing of time. Still he hated being reminded of this mistake and planned to tell Rory to get back at this 'Risa' for him during her afternoon prayer. If asked why he'll keep quiet since Rory didn't need to know this particular piece of info.
"Who knows?" said Itami "She is my senior by centuries but if I went out with her in public I'd most likely spend some time in prison."
"Itami you're forgetting that our leader is over 6000 years old and doesn't look a day over 25. Plus everyone in the Republic saw that hearing. People know how old she is and even if they cared I doubt they'll say anything in front of her."
"You got me there. Well what about her becoming a goddess in a few decades. Am I just something for her to play with until then?"
"Itami she thinks the world of you!"
"And how can you be so sure of that?" he challenged
"Woman's intuition." She deadpanned "It's also telling me that you wouldn't have come here for relationship advice if you weren't already leaning a certain way."
Itami grunted in approval "Good intuition that is. Think about becoming a Ranger?"
"No thank you. If even half of what I heard about Ranger training is true walking into the middle of a barbarian camp would be better for my life expectancy. So what are you going to do?"
Itami sighed. "What… What's a nice place to go to around here? Nothing to fancy. Just someplace where we can hang out."
Risa smiled. Operation: Ro-tami is proceeding quite smoothly. What can she say? She's a shameless shipper and dreamed of creating a ship in real life rather than on internet forums. "There's an ice cream parlor in the town square. It's pretty nice I hear."
AN: Itami and Rory are officially a couple! Don't expect any lemons though. This is a family friendly fanfic. Well friendly-ish.
Earth
United Republic of States
Liberty City, Liberty State
United Nations Headquarters
The United Nations. It is here within this building that decisions that affect the entire world were made. Typically these decisions would be made in the General Assembly where all of the world's nations and city-states would vote on each issue. Though the city-states had the majority of the votes they tended to vote the same way the nation they were aligned with voted. This meant most of the decision making power was with the nations. The city-states didn't really mind trusting their patrons to look out for them. The nations were happy to do so provided their own interests were taken care of first…
"So this is the map of this 'Falmart'. Fairly large continent. Mostly green with a large desert to the west and frozen peaks to the north." Said Caesar looking at the map upon screen. Today was the day he'd been long awaiting. Officially it was for the Republic to inform the UN of their operations in this other world. Unofficially it was to decide which nation got what.
"This Empire controls much of the continent, right." Asked Dido
"Yes." Replied the Wanderer "The Empire is a heavily militarized medieval state that controls much of the continent and has made vassals of many of the independent kingdoms & city-states. They remind me a lot of Rome actually."
"Was that supposed to be an insult or compliment? Always hard to tell with you." Said Caesar
"Think of it as an observation. They speak a language that shares many similarities with Latin which aided heavily in our translation. Their military also shares many similarities with Roman Legions. I mean just look at their armor!"
Images of Empire soldiers from the first battle of Alnus appeared on screen. Their plate armor greatly resembled that used by Roman Legionaries before the invention of gunpowder. "Hmm. I can see your point." Said Caesar "This Empire is starting to get me nostalgic."
"This Empire is mostly human correct?" Asked Bismarck
"Yes that is correct though non-human species or Demi Humans are allowed to live in Imperial lands so long as they provide tribute. For some its resources or gold. For others its soldiers and slaves."
The leaders scowled. Slavery was something only barbarians practiced and this Empire claimed to be a civilized nation!
"I assume the United Republic is already doing something about it?" asked Catherine
"Rangers have already been covertly deployed to hit any slaver operations we know of. The slaves we freed have been taken to Alnus and sworn to secrecy. No need of anyone knowing of our involvement just yet."
"Good. Slavery is an institution we can all agree needs to be stamped out" said Catherine to which others gave firm nods. "Now you mentioned other countries not affiliated with the Empire."
"There aren't that many. The Empire conquered or made vassals of those with any real size or strength. These collection of islands here are home to the larger more powerful of these independent nations. The largest of which is a place called Tristain which is a small empire under the control of a magic using nobility who-"
"Dibs." Interrupted Catherine
"Catherine the point of this meeting is to fairly divide Falmart up once we've asserted its true value. There are no preemptive claims or at least there shouldn't be." He said while glaring at the Wanderer.
"Wanderer said the country was ruled by a magic using nobility meaning that the general population is powerless in every sense of the word. I'm calling dibs because a place like that needs Communism. BAD."
"Oh no it doesn't." said the Wanderer seriously "That's something I wanted to get across in this meeting. This world is young in not just its technology but in its ideology. I've gotten reports that natives are awed by things we consider simple like fair treatment for POWs, a ban on slavery, and public education. If we introduce too many foreign ideas too fast it might overwhelm them."
"He does have a point." Said Bismarck
"That includes religions too, Caesar!" the Wanderer snarled at the Roman Emperor
"Oh come on that was thousands of years ago and just one time. Let it go." Said Caesar
"I told you twice that we already had a religion yet you did it any way! No missionary!"
"Fine. Doggy style will suffice for now then."
The silence in the room was deafening. "D-did you just make a joke and a sex joke at that?"
"Yes and don't expect another for at least a century." Caesar replied with a wry smile "I understand your reasoning so I will instruct our missionaries to not go out converting the locals. Though I'm guessing if they come to us willingly…"
"If it's willingly then by all means. Now that we've gotten that out of the way let's get to the moment we've all been waiting for. So everyone who wants what?"
"I call Tristain and the surrounding countries. They need some communism. Willingly of course!" Catherine quickly added upon seeing the stink eyes she was getting
"The desert in the western part of the continent interests me. All it needs is a jungle and it'll be just like home!" said Dido
"The mountains to the north seem to be a worthwhile investment. Have you heard of anything interesting in the area?" Bismarck asked glancing towards the Wanderer
"There are rumors Orc and Dwarf clans live in the area, but nothing concrete." The Wanderer replied
"Even if they are uninhabited the amount of resources within those mountains will no doubt be worth taking." Said Bismarck
"So Caesar what are you taking? The rest of the Empire because I've called the Core Territories." The Wanderer asked looking at the Emperor who was deep in thought.
"I'll be taking nothing. My instincts tell me to sit on this issue." Said Caesar finally after a couple of moments.
"Are these the same instincts that made you vastly expand your military after the First World War?" Catherine asked suspicious of Caesar's motives. A sly smile was her answer.
Bismarck sighed "Why do I get the feeling that sometime in the future we're all going to receive some really bad news…"
[Planet Unknown]
Falmart
United Republic of States
Fort Alnus Joint Air Force Base, Alnus Territory
Lieutenant Yeager's Office
Yeager poured over the mountain of papers on his desk. At a glance one would assume Yeager was simply behind in his paperwork but upon closer inspection they would see more than half the papers weren't the mass produced paper used on Earth but parchment like that in a medieval society. After pouring over a certain paper Yeager would either commit it to memory or upload it on his heavily encrypted personal computer before shredding it and burning the scraps the next day. One would wonder why a simple Lieutenant would have such a high workload or why he's being so secretive with his work.
There were rumors going around base that Yeager was a plant from the Black Operations Group. Those rumors couldn't be any farther from the truth. He was a plant from the Department of Republic Intelligence which was a big difference. He hated how everyone assumed the DRI and BOG were the same. The BOG technically was an entire separate department from the DRI. He says technically since officially the BOG was the military arm of the DRI though they had separate chains of command. The main organization collected information while the BOG acted on it. He guessed it was because the BOG seemed to be more like Vinewood Spies with their capture of enemy spies and codenames. The BOG wouldn't even be able to do even a quarter of their missions without intel gathered by people like him.
In every airport, border station, and port in the United Republic at least a quarter of the employees either worked for or reported to the DRI. They were starting to automate things though having AIs scan each & every person that set foot in the Republic conducting thorough background checks and alerting the DRI of discrepancies. This spy-proof shield was being dubbed by many as the 'Great Firewall' after the Great Wall of Russia.
At least here in the Special Region there was no threat of literally being replaced with a machine. His superiors back in Republic City tasked him with building a branch of the DRI from the ground up and secretly do everything he can to bring this Empire into the Republic. When they were just starting out he had little resources. Just captured maps of the area and two recruits that were 'specially trained for this specific environment'. By that he meant they were two URGF soldiers that volunteered at their local renaissance fair…
The Dunn Brothers had him worried at first but quickly proved their worth. They learned the local language at a rapid pace and disguised themselves as travelers from a far off kingdom to hide their Liberty City accents. The recon teams told them where the various towns & settlements were and rough estimates of their populations, defenses, resources, etc. The Dunn Brothers told him more useful information like local politics and important figures in the region. It was how he knew the Formals were much bigger players in this region than the Empire was which is why he suggested the General muster that force to assist Itami at Italica.
It was the Dunn Brothers who recruited his first local agent. Axel, an orc they found wandering the road with no place to go. He was hesitant at first but promises of a place to stay and a society where he wouldn't be an outcast won him over. Turns out he served in the Imperial Military and knew much about its tactics & command structure. He found a few among the refugees that poured into Alnus once word that it was a safe haven got out. Myuute, a siren prisoner from Italica, proved to be another good find. Her position as an MP let him know what was going on in the town the refugees built outside the base and keep tabs on the various merchants coming in to trade. Now his connections had reached a point where he had a sizeable amount of assets in the Empire's Capital. He even manage to establish get a couple of agents into the Imperial Palace itself!
Delilah was his top agent however. Her tavern like any good one was a treasure trove of info that could prove useful to someone like him. Delilah herself remarked that with her ears she could hear just about everything in the bar even if whispered. Something to remember the next time he went for a drink there… While her ultimate loyalty was with the Formals & Italica it was a minor inconvenience in his mind since the Republic intended to take Italica under its wing like it had done with Hanoi, Mogadishu, and Florence. He pretended not to notice whenever she sent or received letters from Italica.
Yeager once again dug through the mound of papers on his desk. Individually the information on the papers wasn't that important but when you put them all together then you could see the big picture. One was a report that on a mining village sending a large shipment of iron to another village famous for its weapon smiths. Another was on how a large order of horses was just made by the Imperial Senate. The one that interested him the most was on how entire columns of men and demi-humans were being led to the Imperial Capital. The men varied in ages though a vast majority were either approaching 60 or were just becoming teens. He even got some rumors on how in some frontier villages and towns they would be raided in the night and have their husbands, fathers, and sons taken.
Piecing all the intel together like a puzzle it was plain to see the Empire was getting ready for war and it didn't take a genius to guess with who. This was no doubt supposed to be the Empire's last ditch effort to turn this war to their favor. Their main army was gone. The armies of their allies was gone. From what Myuute and Axel have said they've pretty much bled their Demi-Human tributes dry. This was the bottom of the barrel for the Empire.
His contacts in the Imperial Palace said this order was put forth by the Emperor's eldest son Zorzal which was reluctantly signed by the Emperor himself after some thought. His contacts described Zorzal and he's quoting here 'A bull-headed buffoon that wouldn't know his ass from his head if someone wasn't constantly kissing it'. Zorzal surrounded himself with food and 'friends' that constantly puffed up his fragile ego. He had a collection of female slaves from various races though his favorite was the former queen of the Warrior Bunny Kingdom, Tyuule. Apparently she gave herself up to Zorzal to protect her people but he conquered them anyway and convinced them Tyuule sold them out leaving her no safe haven due to her own subjects wanting her dead. He contemplated telling Delilah this but his common sense told him to keep this to himself for a while. What had his attention was how a few of Zorzal's newer slaves were from Earth. The five women assumed dead but the bodies were never found. Two of them Republic City locals, one from Liberty City, one from Hanoi, and one a Russian tourist, had been snatched up by the Imperials when they first came through the Gate. They'd already been… used multiple times by the prince.
Normally he'd inform the General and have a team of Rangers sent in to rescue the girls but this time however… He wasn't cruel but ever since he joined the DRI he was told there would be times where he'd have to put the mission ahead of his morality. His ultimate mission was to ensure that the Empire was absorbed into the Republic given to him by the DRI Director herself. There were rumors that the Wanderer himself was planning a state visit to the Special Region. Officially it was to see the new territory and shake hands with the troops. Unofficially he was going to see if he could talk some sense into the Emperor. When that happened and the Wanderer found out the Emperor's son is keeping Republic citizens as sex slaves this war would be over. Every citizen of the Republic learned in school of how the first time the barbarians made slaves of Republic citizens. They say that in a rage the Wanderer slaughtered almost the entire camp himself. He cut down anyone that put up a fight. His own soldiers had to pull him off the barbarian chief as he tried to strangle the man. Once the Wanderer saw Zorzal's slaves he was most certainly going to freak and overreact.
Sighing Yeager got up from bed and had a drink from a flask he kept hidden in his desk. He was raised protestant like most republicans but through most of his life he never really acknowledged his faith except on surveys or government papers. He struggled to remember his prayers as he said a quick one for himself. He was most likely going to hell for the one he was no doubt sentencing those girls too. The things he did for his country…
AN: Now you all know the burden Yeager is carrying on his shoulders. Condemning five women to suffer at Zorzal's whims for who knows how long to save the lives of the few Republic and tens of thousands of Imperial Soldiers that will surely perish if the sides were to do battle again. I'm not going to say what is right or wrong because it's honestly not my place but you must feel some sympathy for the man.
Rome is not going to get any territory in Falmart. This will put them in a disadvantage for now but a couple years down the line… Won't spoil to much but this will put them in the position to take a much larger portion the next time they have pie. 8D
Tristain and the surrounding nations from Familiar of Zero are a collection of islands of the eastern coast of Falmart. Close enough to be conisdered apart of Falmart but far enough that the two societies don't have much contact with each other besides the occasional trader. Honestly I didn't really like FoZ that much. I lost interest a few episodes in. As punishment for not being entertaining enough for me I sentence the (Jerk) nobles of Tristain to death… BY COMMUNISM!
Expect a snippet or two of that in the future. Wanderer Out.