So do in part because of miscommunications and our own fumes coming to a grinding halt for our Roleplay, we have scrapped it. There is a continuation effort being led by stuka529. You can find his work under the forum label of the "Thus, the UN fought there."
We have also scraped our source material, and as such seven thousand posts have been deleted and this fanfiction is without fuel to continue. I want to thank all of you who have helped and supported this novelization this far through and it has finally found its ending. Sure, just as it started to burn but it did its magic and it had its place.
There are now multiple Roleplays taking place in the place of Our Crusade. Our time is at an end. Thank you to all our participants and thank you especially to Faust1812 for giving this story the chance to thrive for the time that it did. This has been an emotional roller coaster with plenty of ups and downs.
This last chapter is taken from what little I could salvage from the Second Chapter of the Roleplay, The Coming Storm. Also the namesake for the would-be Chapter Four.
If you want to see further work from me in the Gate Fandom, take a look at my other fanfiction – Homestead, a tie-in with BlueWay's Manifest Destiny. It has had a slow and shaky reveal but it really does need some love.
Thanks again for all your support, from both the participants and our readers. Please do read and review, leave your thoughts. For the currently active Roleplays, consider joining in. They really are a blast.
I also want to make a final thanks to SOCOM 1-1 and Karaya 2 for helping out in the final moments of this novelization. SOCOM came up with the name for our Marine General in the finale scene and both he and Karaya 2 gave me feedback for this chapter and several scenes beforehand during this fanfictions development. Good work guys, you all deserve a pat on the back.
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["Reagan's Arrival"]
[Autumn 2016]
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"Some people wonder all their lives if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." – President Ronald Reagan, Motivation Unknown, Author Unknown
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The day was toward sunset, the glaring star in the sky was approaching the horizon and the deep blue sphere had been transformed into a mix of golden and orange shrouds.
The water below this reddish sky was painted a pale maroon and the land of mainland Japan could be made out toward the West. Out here in Tokyo Harbor, dozens of boats – commercial and public chocked up the waterways, from tug boats to sizable fishing boats carrying thousands of pounds of fish and whale guts.
This was all a regular occurrence on the rolling plane of the sea but there was the rare occurrence of a black, jagged shape that blot out the sunlight. A large monstrosity that could only match the creation of a God. It was shaped like a ship and yet it was so much more, it created a wake that could be seen for miles. It was a floating city of thousands of warfighters prepping for a grandiose expedition that had never been attempted before because the potential never existed, till now.
This giant monster atop of the Pacific was the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a supercarrier and the king of the American Sixth Fleet, based in the Atlantic and Europe – this dreadnought was a long way from home. A second shadow slid quietly behind the Eisenhower, the king in these waters – the USS Ronald Reagan, another supercarrier, and the flag vessel of the American Seventh Fleet, permanently stationed in Japan at Yokosuka. After three months of international reaction to a major attack on Ginza, it had come home.
This was a homecoming for some, and for others, it was an arrival in a new land – in a matter of hours, however, the occupants of these two supercarriers would be deploying to another world to pave the road for the Future of Mankind. The first incursion by any large force, a crusade, into another universe, a totally new world that no one had ever publically entered. Hell, no one could have imagined these events actually occurring; not until it actually happened.
The streaks of nearby clouds created a surreal scene that validated the old, traditional art style of the Age of Samurai. To some, it was an ominous image and to others, it was romantic. It was awe inspiring to those that watched tonight – it was the promise of good times and maybe the end of familiarity and the entrance into a deep darkness. A metaphor for the beginning into the unknown.
The Eisenhower slowly came to sit alongside the Reagan, two behemoths in an ocean that spanned the horizon. From within its majestic cousin, the Reagan as it was known to its sailors, CVN-76, a large gathering of dysfunctional men and women loitered through the underbelly of the large aircraft carrier like cluttered schools of fish.
A large doorway, the elevator door entrance, revealed the open ocean and the Eisenhower sailing next to the Reagan. The aircraft elevator had been lifted to allow a clear vision of the open ocean.
The cold steel underbelly of the Reagan had been slaughtered of aircraft and cleared for the accommodation of thousands of troops and their gear. Cots lined the walls and military vehicles neatly sat in order.
There were hundreds of American troops aboard this vessel, it was a gathering of force. It was a gathering for war. There were sailors in their blue Tactical Work Uniforms working around the trucks, bombs, and aircraft. The Marines laid about in their own bored but astute manner. Televisions, coffee tables, and electrical breakers had been sprinkled through the huge hangar. Since the events of the War on Terror, this was by far the most sudden and largest movement of American troops to anywhere outside their own nation.
The majority had been pulled from either from operations in the Middle East or were taken from the allied war games event, RIMPAC 2016.
At the center of the hangar, there was a wooden platform with a podium decorated with red and black carpeting established somewhat close to the Marines encampment where the ground was by far a bit more comfortable than the sleeping area for the Air Force guys. It helps to be aggressive when claiming territory.
The Army and Air Force guys were staring and walking about aimlessly – they looked like they were birds without wings, without purpose. In some ways, they got stuck with the short end of the stick being shoved onto a Navy ship. They were aliens to this side of the Armed Forces. In another situation, they might have come in peace and prestige on a public airline like Southwest or something.
A group of sharp-dressed men marched their way to the podium, they wore their gleaming white ceremony uniforms with all the medals, ribbons and everything in between. They were astute and they gave off a sleepless aura, though it was clearly faked and practiced, they stopped at formation as a senior officer from the military brass stepped up to the central podium. The group of senior navy officers brought a heavy, cautious weight on the shoulders of all the American troops in the room. It put everyone on edge.
"Attention! Admiral on deck!"
The chatter in the room slowly became quiet but the chaos abruptly stopped as everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and fell in line at the sight of the high-ranking naval officer. There was some scrambling as some of the closer sailors and airmen attempted to form loose lines in front of the platform. By the time there was full silence, the only sound was the roaring waves outside and the sounds of mechanics still busy making final adjustments to their vehicles and equipment and continuing their work in measured silence.
"Testing…Alright, at ease! At ease!" The Admiral called as he checked the microphone.
The lines broke down in response to his call for ease in the ranks, along the breast of the officer speaking before the hundred or thousand-odd military crowd before him, the name, Admiral Nathaniel Lincoln, had taken the central spotlight and had brought the attention of the entire room upon him alone.
"Go ahead and have a seat, all of you, get comfortable. You know, I like to think of you all as my grandkids. When I want your attention you listen, but when I let you go, you all start acting like unruly children. Somehow in there – there is the strength and will to be the greatest fighting force on Earth." Lincoln looked at all the troops as he spoke from the point of view of a grandfather, his shaved but speckled chin seemed to glow under the red sky above.
There were soft chuckles, mostly from the Marines, as a calm filled the room. Lincoln was a father to his men, a personality to reflect his grizzled age.
"Life has been good for all of us, maybe to some degree, not so much, but we're all still living and we can say we were fairly at peace until a few weeks ago. Some of you might have been on leave – spending time with friends and family at home. Others among you were at the recent war games or at your regular training simulations. Others were busy living their day-to-day lives, we all were doing something within the constant normalcy we found ourselves. Then someone shattered the peace. We are here, obviously, to support our friends from Japan. On a nice summer day, not unlike this – it was shattered when a portal appeared at the center of Ginza District and spit out thousands of barbarians from who fucking knows where?"
The Admiral paused to take a breath. His face crunched at remembering the cleanup operations following the enemy invasion.
"They killed thousands, even some of our own citizens and even some of our friends from the Armed Forces. That enemy army gave no sign of coming in peace, they killed in cold blood and without remorse – they showed no Humanity. They were less than human and for that, we must find justice for those that have fallen, we will find those responsible and we will receive justice."
Lincoln paused again.
"For years, we have sought to promote peace and security around the world. It has been in our interest to protect all that seek and enjoy peace, prosperity, freedom, and certain unalienable rights. Those people that died, did not ask to die that day, it was a tragedy and a massacre on a grandiose scale. It will depend on all of us to correct this terrible wrong that has been committed. We will march through that hole in space and we will show them how real men fight – we will find justice for these crimes against Humanity. A United Nations task force has been established, as I'm sure, you are all aware. We will show these barbarians what happens when they mess with our allies when they mess with the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. We are taking the fight to them. Good hunting."
Lincoln revealed his phone for a second, the tool he used to write the speech, and placed it back in his back pocket. He stepped away from the microphone to address another officer, but, even without the mike – his voice was no less booming.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I want to wish you all luck and tell you – give them hell. Now, General Elliot Cogburn will address you all – he will, from this point onward, be your commanding officer and the supreme commander of American operations beyond the place we know as the Gate. Trust him, follow him. Show our allies and enemies why Americans are the greatest fighting force in the world."
The Admiral in his dress whites let the aged man in MARPAT camouflage step up to the speaker.
"Where are my Marines?" The General called out.
"Oorah!"
"Where are my sailors?" The General called out again, this time with a slightly louder tone.
"Oorah!"
"Where are the rest of my peeps? My Airmen?"
"Hoorah!"
"And where are my soldiers? Where's my Soldiers?"
"Hooah!"
"So let me ask a question. What in the actual fuck?" Cogburn's voice boomed through the entire hangar bay. There was a sudden silence as even the waves outside the ship calmed at his question. He had broken a spell or something as the entire world was on him.
"We were attacked. Innocents were slaughtered. We all heard the news, some of us were there and we're still unsure what actually happened. What the actual fuck?" He looked across the crowd of warfighters intently watching, their eyes and ears, their souls bearing down on this Marine General in curiosity and intensity.
"The mess we're about to get into is something we've not seen before. An entirely new world, we don't know what's on the other side. We only know that we were attack – Japan was attacked. It is by the will of a barbaric and inhumane enemy with no virtues of respect for the innocent and the peaceful that we must stick our neck out at show them the might of our Armed Forces. Japan was attacked and we will support them, as we have always done. This is a mission for us to find justice for the fallen and the innocent blood that was spent in Ginza a month ago. Some of those lost were our friends, our family; some were neighbors and coworkers. Others were simply our allies, but this massacre, this crime against Mankind was a new low and it has crossed national boundaries and made us brothers and sisters in arms. We will not falter and we will march into the Unknown. This is our campaign for retribution. This will be our Crusade. And they will know our weapons and the roars for the retribution of innocence lost – they will come to fear us. Oorah?"
"Oorah!" The crowd of Americans raged into the heavens.
"Good work. Now, we're pulling up to Yokosuka now. We will soon be on Japanese soil. We will enter into the remnants of what recently was, the Battle of Ginza. Tread with respect but know what you are here for. We are here to fight an enemy that killed innocents. Let's go get them."
The room roared in affirmation. The time for America to fight back was today. They knew what they were getting into, the Unknown. Both ways, they would win and they would bring justice to the dead. Just like Nine-Eleven and just like Pearl Harbor. They would defeat the evil beyond their own borders as they always had. This time, they would not be alone. They would defeat the enemy that had marched on Ginza. Into the unknown. Through the Gate.
The Reagan would pass into the shadow of the night and land at Yokosuka Naval Base, bringing its army of Americans and the harbinger of their allies to bear on what they liked to call "Romans."
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"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…" – King Henry V, Exaggeration by Playwright William Shakespeare, Supposedly 1599
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For those that had been assigned this mission. They had no idea what waited for them…beyond that Gateway. The Battle of Ginza ended in a slaughter but it left much of society in duress as the world around and in Japan was left flabbergasted by the portal that sat within Tokyo.
The United Nations sent a task force, more of an International Combat Coalition, but we digress. The Special Region Taskforce was established.
On that day in August, the United Nations, in all sense of the term, declared war on what would become known as the Saderan Empire.
Thus, the United Nations fought there.
Fin. To be continued in another format.
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[Participants]
"RiptideZ"
[Legacy Participants]
"Faust1812, James Koach, BlueWay, RiptideZ, Empty Promise, Steryx R4, Kilo 6, TalRavis, Karaya 2, ChaoticCrazy, Lt. James lugnerische, stuka529, TrueForgiveness, LONGWING, coyote16abel, SOCOM 1-1, Oscar II, Demon's Dance, Mike303, Cynder fan, EasyCompany506, Quartermaster Taney-Chan, Goodalwins98, Survivalguy21, Chen ZiXin, & unmentioned others (I don't remember all the names!)"
*Thank you all for your support. Give this fanfic some feedback before you go!
