AN: I don't own either the GATE franchise, historical or cultural figures that may be presented in the story, but I do own my OCs. I have to say that this story is a work of fiction, and any and all OC character names are coincidental.
Achtung! This story contains graphic descriptions of the worst that humanity can offer.
GATE: Operation Schwert der Rache
Chapter 1
Berlin, the capital city of the German Empire.
A city of the Imperial German Family, entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers.
A city of the Brandenburg Gate, the Unter den Liden and the Berlin Palace.
A city of millions of people of all ethnicities and nationalities.
A city that offers boundless opportunities for all people, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or gender, in the great epicentre of European culture, politics, economics and science.
May the 6th, 1955 (the 67th year of German Kaiser Henry I,) seems to be going to be an ordinary day, in an ordinary month, in an ordinary year, as the world continues the graceful path, as it always had. Where Berliner and Berlinerin can laugh together, cry together and fall in love together, in the city of Frederick the Great.
But it was to be, no ordinary day…
May 6th, 1955.
Near the Brandenburg Gate, along the Unter den Liden street.
German civilians gathered around in wonderment of the sudden appearance of a strange Romanesque structure of marble, gold and precious stones. People called the Imperial German Police about the structure. Initially, the police dismissed the calls about the structure, as the imaginative ramblings of half-crazed drunkards. But as more and more people called the police about the structure, police were deployed to investigate this structure.
Minutes later, the deployed policemen and gathered civilians, bare witness to people walking out of the structure, with men in armour marching in formation, reminiscing legionaries of the Roman Empire, followed by inhuman mercenaries of various shapes, sizes and features, straight from Grimm Brothers and J.R.R Tolkien's books.
Two men in armour inlaid with gold and silver furnishings appeared on horseback, assumed to be the leaders of the Roman legionaries and mercenaries. One looked into the crowd with impartiality, while the other looked in disgust. The latter shouted in a language that the Germans cannot fully understand.
"Legionaries of the Saderan Empire! This city will be the first to fall! Go forth and slay every savage you see! Go forth and claim this savage land, in the name of the Emperor and the Empire!"
But with the Roman Cornicen letting off the Cornu, the Roman army of men and beasts, charge upon the suddenly alarmed crowd of civilians and policemen with sword, spear and shield in their hands, and rapacious depravity in their hearts. The police presence opens fire on the suddenly hostile Romans, inflicting several casualties and buying civilians some time to escape before they were cut down by charging Roman legionaries.
Civilians flee at the sign of danger, only to be shot by Roman archers, or cut down by charging Roman cavalrymen and dragons. Men. Women. Children. Many were mercilessly slaughtered, with the Roman legionaries and inhuman mercenaries, blatantly committing degenerate acts of rape and paedophilia, against the women and girls who were not immediately put to the Roman sword and spear.
The Roman invaders arrogantly believed that they were invading a weak and uncivilised nation, and thus no danger, that apart from a simple command and control tent, the invaders didn't felt compelled to build further fortifications, much to one of the leader's annoyance. They truly believed that they were invading a weak and uncivilised nation. But they were not invading a weak and uncivilised nation. No. They were invading an Imperial superpower.
'Their relentless and cruel drive into the beating heart of the Fatherland, rob the lives of many men, women, and children alike. The disdainful arrogance of their leaders is only matched by the abominable brutality of their soldiers…'
Near the Berlin Palace, along the Unter den Liden street.
POV of Imperial German Army Leutenant Markus Spigelmann of the Panzergrenaider-Division Großdeutschland.
One minute, I was enjoying a weekend leave in a nouvelle Berlin café with my fresh-faced step-brother, the next moment, like as if the gates of Hell had opened into Berlin, figures from history and fantasy, indiscriminatingly attacking innocent German civilians and committing acts that are unjustifiable and unforgivable.
Ordering Markus to alert the German military, I work with polizei to perform a fighting retreat, buying German civilians time to evacuate to safety, German soldiers time to reinforce them, and extract a heavy toll on the invaders.
Eventually, we all cross the Schlossbrücke, whereby the Kaiser's personal orders, the Berlin Palace became a refuge for hundreds of civilians, with present staff attempting to treat the wounded. The problem was, that the invaders are deliberately targeting the Berlin Palace, most likely believing it to be a fortification.
I was, at the time, the highest-ranking military officer present, and was bluntly ordered (by the Kaiser himself,) to organize a patchwork defence of Schlossbrücke with Polizei, Feldgendarmerie, German soldiers (from the Berlin Palace) and armed civilians, with an assortment of pistols, sub-machine guns, shotguns, rifles, and machine guns.
Because if we failed in defending the bridge and the invaders manage to enter the Berlin Palace, it will be a massacre of unprecedented proportion.
So until Markus and military reinforcements arrive, I and others, are defending against an army appearing as Roman legionaries, orcs, elves, dragons and God knows what else. Until then, a makeshift barricade along the Schlossbrücke will be the line of defence; a hodgepodge of wooden crates and furniture, barbed wire and sandbags, will have to be sufficient.
Imperial Saderan Army Camp
For the Saderan Army, the conquest of this savage land was going smoothly, with the barbarians, upon show the might of the Saderan Army, retreat on mass. Some barbarians attempted to resist, only to be swift cut down. To the Saderans, the savages are retreating towards a large fortification, with the only way to get the fortification is through a bridge. Tiberius orders his most elite and most loyal centurions and legionnaires, to attack and capture the fortification, and kill all that were in the fortification.
With lust-filled legionaries, enjoying the women of this savage land, tearing their clothes off in broad daylight. Some attempted to resisted such copulation, only for their limbs to be separated from their bodies, becoming defenceless against their maltreatment.
However, for the captured women that are considered to be of great beauty, they are to be sold as slaves for Sadera's richest noble families. Colt Formal, commander of the entire invasion, can only silently cringe in disgust, as he witnesses Tiberius inspecting another captured woman, with the poor women being dragged by her hair.
Colt, cannot stop the Saderans from despoiling these people and he cannot stop the Saderans from abducting these people. Because cannot counteract the orders of his supposed subordinate. In fact, Tiberius most of the time, ignored him, because Emperor Molt, and everyone in Saderan Senate and Saderan Army, knows why he's appointed head of the invasion force; so that he's nothing more than a figurehead leader, a convenient scapegoat if the invasion fails, just like his father before him.
Colt… was unsure of the entire invasion plan. These barbarians that Tiberius insist calling, have created monuments and building that equals, or exceeds the buildings in Sadera.
"Find a suitable sacrifice for Hardy," Tiberius ordered a youthful Saderan legionnaire, who promptly went to find this suitable sacrifice.
A few moments later, the same legionnaire returns with a young male infant, with Colt being silently, yet completely horrified at what the legionnaire suggestion of a suitable sacrifice for Hardy. Tiberius, not batting an eyelid, takes the infant at the centre of the camp, onto a temporary wooden sacrificial altar. He pulls out his decorated dagger.
"To honour Hardy, Goddess of the Underworld, for our the safe passage to the Otherworld, I offer this infant as a sacrifice." Tiberius said.
He plunges the dagger straight into the crying child. And the child cried no more. Tiberius drags the knife along the infant's centre, opening it and plucking out its warm innards akin to a chicken, with Colt was both shocked and repulsed at what he had witnessed. It was something for Tiberius to have his soldiers engage in acts that encourage dereliction and misconduct, but to personally murder a defenceless infant! And call that religion!
Colt and many of his Italican soldiers, also didn't want to fight and die for an Emperor and an Empire that's so willing, to use them as dragon bait.
Because, the night before they march through the GATE, Colt had dreams that could be seen as foreboding and were troubling him since the moment he has awoken. In the first dream, he sees the symbol of the Saderan Empire, a red Falmartian dragon viciously came upon a suspecting black eagle, only for the eagle to immediately retaliate and overwhelm the dragon, mercilessly tearing it into bloody pieces of flesh.
In the second dream, he sees soldiers wearing unfamiliar uniforms that look like foliage and armour that wasn't metal, horseless metal carriages and wingless metal birds advancing towards the capital city of Sadera. They carry strange staffs that discharge fire and instantly kill men. Entire Saderan legions move against them, only to be annihilated to the man.
Suddenly overhead he hears foreign noise, saw large flying swords who dropped metallic objects upon Sadera with relentless impunity, with the objects producing an ear-deafening screech, like the monstrous harpies of ancient myth. The objects blast apart stone and metal and set fire to the wood, creating great fires that the heavenly skies above, with Colt, can only look upon the destruction with sheer aghast.
After the swords left, he walked into Sadera and he saw the great city of the Saderan Empire, becomes nothing; but charred corpses, burnt wood and scorched stones. Colt realized that if these soldiers can destroy Sadera with relative ease... then, then Italica stands no chance against them. With his family, his people and his city, suffering for the Saderan Empire's lust for more grandeur, almost insane dreams of gaining more wealth, more power and more slaves.
Just as he concluded his findings, the black eagle from the first dream appears to him. Its eyes made look as if it can simply pierce him with just the looks of its eyes.
"Colt Formal of the Formal tribe, Duke of Italica. I bear a warning for you and your people, for both are at a crossroad with the roads leading either to life or death. Therefore, I beseech to you to choose wisely, for the lives of your family and your people are at stake." the eagle said with a voice of deep authority.
The eagle took flight and vanished. Was the eagle the spirits of his ancestors? Colt thought. Warning him of who the Saderan Empire has invaded? He feared that the Saderans have not angered an uncivilised land of barbarians, but a nation whose power they cannot comprehend and whose retribution they cannot repel.
But he doesn't want to suffer the same fate as many other had before, who dared to defy the emperor and leave his daughter as an orphan. Or worse. He can only silently pray to Deldort, the god of covenants, that he's hoping that he will live to see his beloved city and daughter again.
POV of Leutenant Hans Spigelmann
The invaders have conducted several attacks on our defences, but we managed to hold them off. I've managed to acquire a sturmgewehr from an Imperial Palace Guard.
Quickly checking my rifle's magazine and making sure it was loaded, I pulled back my newly acquired rifle's up-swept charging handle and cradle it upon the barricade. More civilians have evacuated to the Berlin Palace.
"Enemy infantry!" One of the armed civilians shouted, alerting every defender.
I looked towards the bridge and see the invaders, marching across the bridge, in formation towards us. Everyone was placed on high alert, going upon the barricade and aiming their weapons at the oncoming invaders.
"Ready yourselves!" I shouted as the invaders continue to march towards us.
"Steady! Steady!" a unteroffizier shouted as the defenders readied their weapons, as I aimed my rifle right at the invaders' centurion.
Some of the defenders quietly send their prayers to a power higher than them. I can only shake my head at the idea that god or gods are with us. For in war, there's no god or gods. There's the only hell; created and perfected by man.
"NOW!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, firing my rifle and killing the Roman centurion leading the invaders.
With the death of their leader, the invaders momentarily hesitate, before surging across the bridge towards the barricade.
All weapons quickly open fire, whether it be pistol, rifle or shotgun, and many charging legionnaires and mercenaries being outright cut down or being wounded and subsequently crushed by consecutive ranks of their fellow comrades. The machine guns began to contribute, with 7.92mm Mauser rounds tearing through the charging ranks of oncoming Roman invaders and inhuman mercenaries with devastating effect; like a sharpened knife through a wet tissue paper.
There were so many invaders at point-blank range, that we didn't need to aim; we just fire at the general direction and mass of the invaders. Accuracy isn't a problem, but ammunition is a problem, with young ammunition runners from the Berlin Palace frantically carrying fresh belts of 7.92mm Mauser and magazines of 7mm Mauser rounds to us.
"Here! A gift from the Fatherland!" a German soldier cried out, throwing a hand grenade at the feet of the invaders.
The oblivious invaders, having never seen such a device, pick up the grenade, only for the grenade to explode causing death and injury to the unfortunate bastards who decided to invade the Fatherland.
Somehow, we managed to acquire an old Feldkanone of the First Weltkrieg, firing rounds of HE at point-blank range at the invaders with devastating effect, blowing whole groups of legionnaires and mercenaries apart.
The bridge smell of combat; bullet propellant, mixed with sweat, shit and blood. Despite devastating causalities that would destroy any normal military formation, the legionnaires seem to their assault attempt; its like the fucking Ostfront all over again…
The overwhelming firepower of our defences forced the invaders tried a different tactic; use archers, in an attempt to dislodge us. They unleash barrage after barrage of arrows, with the superlatively obsolete tactic resulting in light causalities for us, and heavy causalities for the invaders, losing the entirety of their archers.
Then, came these men, dressed in mostly white clothes and carrying wooden staffs. They appeared to be mages, as they conjure some magical shields. We prioritize them and aimed our rifles at them and fired, only for the bullets to bounce off the shields.
"What the?" One of the Imperial German Guards said upon seeing the bullets having no effect.
Even our machine guns, cannot penetrate the shields, much to invaders' happiness. Regaining their momentum, the invaders began to march behind the mages, protected by the magical shields. I ordered the Feldkanone to aim at the mages, as the artillery crew push and pull the weapon into the new firing position.
"Fire!" a veteran artillery leader shouted.
An old gunner pulls the Feldkanone's lanyard and the Feldkanone rocks back from the recoil of the HE shell, as it sends the package straight at the mages, only that apart from moderate cracks in the shields (that were quickly repaired) observed no significant damage was caused to the mages' shields.
"Fuck! Reload!" the artillery leader shouted aloud, as the artillery loaders frantically load another HE shell.
Still fired, still the same result. Thinking that we don't have the means to stop the mages' shields, the invaders were regaining their false sense of confidence. We were forced to reduced to picking off the invaders who weren't fully protected by the shields.
As they were nearing the barricade and just as I thought that they were going to overwhelm us... Markus and the reinforcements have arrived. Soldiers from the 1st Grenadier Guards, along with infantry fighting vehicles of the Großdeutschland arrived a moment not too soon, with the Marder infantry fighting vehicles making short work of the mages with their dual 23mm autocannon, violently shattering the shields and blowing the mages to bloody pieces.
With their mages brutally slaughtered right in front of them and with no magical protection shields, the invaders began to sloppily retreat, being shot down by us. With Markus and members of Grenadier Guards, along with the bridge's defenders, I ordered them to advance against the invaders.
As we advance against the invaders, overhead we hear the familiar sound of multi-role jet fighters and tiltwings flying overhead at building level, shooting down dragons from the sky, with the corpse of dragons falling into the streets.
And the invaders' attempt to block our armoured fighting vehicles with the tortoise formations, was figuratively and quite literally crushed, for the last image they'll ever see, will be metal beasts surging towards them with vengeance, as they were crushed like grapes in a wine press, with the tracks of the Marders dripping with blood and flesh.
Some of the invaders, in total fear of our vehicles, ran and jumped off the bridge in order to save themselves, only for the weight of their heavy armour and weapons to drag them into a watery grave…
Imperial Saderan Army Camp
Colt remembers what a wise man once told him, 'Fortune is a fickle mistress.' the saying might as well have applied to their current situation. The attack on the fortification had failed miserably, costing the Saderan Army their most experienced legionnaires, and all of their archers and mages.
Colt's lieutenants reported to him of metal animals able to kill many of the Saderan legionnaires, mercenaries and dragons.
"They have beasts that can control the land and the sky and that every soldier in their army is a mage, and they'd destroyed most of our force, how we can fight back against them with no fortifications and a few dozen soldiers who prefer to engage in pleasures of the flesh!" Colt angrily snapped at the man that's totally responsible for this military disaster.
Tiberius was slightly taken aback by the angry remarks of his 'commanding officer.' A wounded centurion enters the command tent.
"Generals, the barbarians are nearly at the camp! Save yourselves!" the centurion said.
"The only course of action we can take is that we need to save our best Saderan legionaries from being killed or being prisoners of war. Send your Italican infantry against the barbarians as a rearguard, it will buy the Saderan legions' time to escape." Tiberius ordered Colt.
'What?!' Colt thought in outrage.
Being ordered around by his supposed subordinate, to perform a rearguard for those people?! He has seen the treachery of the Saderan Empire against people like him first hand, with the Empire blaming people like him for their failures. This was the final straw for Colt.
He ordered something unprecedented in the history of the Saderan Empire. He gave back his men their lives, for they never wanted to fight and die for an ungrateful Emperor and for an incompetent General. Tiberius the Elder sees the Italican formation retreat through the GATE.
"What is this treachery is this?" Tiberius fumed in great fury.
"I'm not going to send my soldiers to their deaths because of your incompetence." Colt simply answered.
"You are a coward! Just like your traitorous father before you-" Tiberius shouted before an outside explosion knocks them both to the ground.
The tent was filled with fire, as the wounded centurion scream as his body exploded in front of them, spilling visage and blood everywhere.
The tent was thrown away, and Tiberius and Colt for the first time see metal beasts in person, with the barbarians having overwhelmed their position.
"We surrender!" Tiberius heard some of his own Imperial soldiers shouting to the savages.
He even saw the cowardly Colt with the defeatist attitude, begging on his knees for mercy. Unbelievable! Cowards! No sense of Imperial pride or bravery! Tiberius thought, as he witness Colt surrender with no sign of resistance.
Seeing the power of these barbarians, the general saw that the best option is to demand.
"I'm General Tiberius of the Imperial Saderan Army! I demand that-" Tiberius shouted to the barbarian soldiers, only to be rewarded with the butt end of their staffs to his mouth, making him fall to the ground, wetting the ground with his blood and knocking loose some teeth.
Tiberius tried to stand up, only to be kicked down by the barbarians again. Merely looking up, he sees a barbarian soldier pointing his staff in his face.
"Don't try again." The barbarian soldier coldly said, in a language, he can't comprehend.
Even though Tiberius doesn't speak their language, he understands that for the first time in the history of the Saderan Empire, in a single day, the Imperial Army was utterly defeated by a superior military. Now, they are at the mercy of those who they'd wronged. And this defeat was his fault.
POV of Gefreiter Markus Spigelmann of the Panzergrenaider-Division Großdeutschland.
"If attempts to attack you or anyone else, you have permission to use force to take them down and take them out," Hans said to the soldiers, nodding in response.
If Hans was ever one quality that Markus look up to, was that Hans was a natural leader. From school to sports to the Army, Hans has always been the leader that soldiers can depend on, whether it be on parading grounds, training grounds, or the battlegrounds.
He one of the reasons why I joined the Army, fed with heroic wartime stories of patriotic German youths forming Freikorp units, defending the Fatherland against the French and the Soviets. And seeing your own step-brother return home to grand homecoming ceremony, wearing his pristine Waffenfrock and polished war medals.
That's why I joined the Imperial Germany Army. To gain prestige, honour and glory. And to defend the Fatherland from its enemies. Hans responses were always pessimistic, calling me both ignorant and naive to what war is like.
For two years, I ignored it. But my eyes were truly opened in Berlin, for what we saw in the Pariser Platz, was horrific beyond description.
"Mein Gott…" a young soldier expressing for everyone.
It... it was a scene. Painted with the mutilated corpses of men, women and children, with their heads and limbs sliced or torn off. Women and girls, lie naked, with their bosoms and vulvas exposed, with strips of cloth being the remains of their ripped clothes. At the centre of the scene, was the baby upon a wooden altar, with its centre opened and with its organs missing. And Berlin's Unter den Liden are stained with the blood of the innocent.
My god... it was a heinous and grisly scenery of utter barbarity, easily churning that stomachs of the German soldiers, recruit and veteran alike. Myself included. I looked around and see a mixture of emotion paints every fellow Germans' face. Revulsion. Anguish. Rage.
"What are you staring at soldiers?" Hans barked, with everyone moving to secure the area.
"Hände hoch!" A German soldier shouted to a group of invaders, who were begging for them to spare their lives.
But looking around, seeing the violated corpses of women and girls, why do we spare such animals I wondered? Better put them against the wall.
Imperial German policemen and soldiers were aggressively apprehending the invaders who surrendered but were quick to apply their weapons to the invaders who were committing acts of violence against German civilians or showed any signs of attempted resistance.
Medical personnel, both military and civilian, were treating the survivors of their injuries. Some of the survivors died shortly after, succumbing to their wounds, with Catholic and Lutheran priests performing the last rites.
Enraged German civilians, attempted to enact acts of Magdeburg justice against the invaders who attempted to surrender, especially those caught violating German women and girls, forcing us to protect the prisoners from the wrath of German civilians and prevent needless deaths.
The captured invaders were best described as they looked ashamed that they were captured, probably knowing the fate that awaits them as prisoners of war.
I was looking around like some lost puppy who searching for it mother. And I... I, as a German Army soldier who never saw the horrors of war before, witnesses something that will haunt me till his dying days.
It was the body of a little girl, brown hair and blue eyes, no more than three years old and wearing a petite pink dress. The dress was stained by her own blood, with her cold, dead eyes were staring straight back at me in shocked horror.
"I'm… I'm so sorry. You never deserved this…" I can barely say, moved to nearly to tears and closing the little girl's eyes with my hands.
I closed her eyes, looking like as if in a deep, peaceful sleep that she will never wake from, amidst the bloody carnage that surrounds her.
I, I… I rarely get emotional, for it was the first time in a long time; I wept. I wept for the family, who was robbed of their daughter and sister.
I wept for the Fatherland, for it has lost another civilian to war.
And I wept for himself, for I now understands the wisdom of my step-brother's words. There's no glory nor honour in war, only death and destruction.
Walking amid the aftermath of such awful carnage, a photographer by the name of Alfred Eisenstaedt took a photo of a young, crying soldier whose closing the eyes of a young girl. Eisenstaedt will later sell the photo to newspapers around the world, using the earnings to help victims of the GATE incident, making it one of the most powerful images of the 20th century. A young, innocent girl whose life, was taken by barbaric cruelty.
As I wept, I felt the warmth of a hand that comfort me. I looked up to see that it was Hans. In that moment, he could have said "I told you so," or something along those lines, but he didn't. What he said instead, was something that will affect me forever.
"Things will change. I promise you that, Markus. Soon, we'll take the war to their homeland. The war to their people. The war to their blood. And together, we… we'll avenge this massacre." Hans quietly promised to me, gesturing towards the structure.
"I hope so. I hope so." I shakily said.
AN: And cut! That was over 4,600 words of the first chapter of GATE: Operation Schwert der Rache. (If you don't speak Deutsch, its Sword of Vengeance.)
I will be alternating between my stories when it comes to posting new chapters, and thus, the Transformers story in They Came, They Saw and They Conquered! Will be finished soon.
All reviews that contain criticism is welcomed. I would like to thank Corporal Tommy for beta reading this chapter.
Also, this German Empire is alternate German Empire, so the timeline will be uploaded soon... ish.
