Like a dull thunder, the leading general would describe the march of his troops as he rode at the head of the legion. Being the first to step through the gate didn't worry him. A month earlier, a small reconnaissance troop entered the alien world through a small portal and reported on what was happening in this new world. It seemed as if the place where the gate was built led straight to a battlefield. This information alone was enough to set the exact time for their conquest of the new world. If the armies of two warring empires had been fighting each other for a long time, after another month of fighting both would be weakened if not destroyed. It would be easy to conquer two barbarian empires at once. The further observations of the scouts strengthened their opinion even more. Apparently, the two armies fought each other for so long that they had already used up all of their soldiers. Not a single warrior or knight, mounted or on foot, could be seen. Only scantily clad fighters armed with strange staves were found to be fighting. This, coupled with the fact that the battlefield was burned and littered with craters, indicated that only the mages of the two realms were alive and able to fight.
A few mages won't stop the Empire!
And after all the fighting, they're all starving!
Against the legions of the Empire they will never be able to win!
Every single human soldier was confident about the coming war to conquer the new world as they were all briefed on the supposed weakness of the enemy. The general's right hand, an officer serving directly the general, rode behind his master, however, he picked up speed and after a few minutes reached his general's side.
"Soon we will have reached the other end." the officer said, to which the general replied: "Yes, and we will be able to see this strange, unknown world with our own eyes. Perhaps we will even meet familiar sights."
With a puzzled face, the officer looked at the general and asked, "Are you concerned, my general?"
"The only thing that worries me is the strangeness, and if only because it will take time for our troops to adapt to the new world. War is always the same no matter what world we find ourselves in. The enemies have lost their armies in war against each other. The few remaining enemy troops will pose no threat to our legions."
The general and his officer continued the march without further words and soon reached the end of the deep black tunnel that surrounded them. What they saw as they exited the gate was unlike anything they had seen before.
"Scorched earth and craters as far as the eye can see." said the general and continued to look at the battlefield.
"Cloth-clad mages with strange staves, just like in the reports."
The general turned to his troops and began giving the first orders of the battle: "First legion line up and secure a large enough area to secure the gate and set up a first camp, check the dead and kill all those who are still alive!"
Riding to the side of the gate, the general and his officer watched as the first troops secured the area and at the same time as the remaining troops entered the new world through the gate. Immediately after the first legion marched the auxiliary troops made up of ogres, trolls, giants and other creatures. The Non-Human troops wore no armor whatsoever. They were armed with daggers or swords. Some of the most physically strong carried huge hammers on their backs. The hammer bearers were intended for the siege of fortresses in which the gates of enemy fortresses were to be smashed open.
Everything went according to plan and even when two of the enemy mages managed to escape, the general wasn't worried. The enemy was starved and exhausted, not to mention outnumbered. They wouldn't be able to bring in reinforcements fast enough anyway, if they had any troops left to send into battle.
High above, just below the clouds, a single biplane, a Rumpler reconnaissance plane flew over no man's land. While the pilot was in control of the machine, the second crew member concentrated on observing the no man's land below them with his binoculars and capturing major changes in enemy movements with a camera. The flight had been uneventful up to this point, and both felt no reason to fear sword-wielding Roman wannabes up here in an airplane. However, that changed abruptly when several flying beasts took to the air.
The Observer decided to take a closer look at the flying beasts. He even forgot to breathe for a few seconds when he could see through his binoculars that it was some kind of dragon on whose back one of the legionnaires rode armed with a long spear. Only when he realized that the dragon rider had spotted their plane did he turn to the pilot and tell him about his discovery.
The biplane changed course and headed straight for the mounted dragon. It was a surprise to find out that this ancient army had aerial combat ability. The question now arose as to the fighting power of these "dragon riders". According to fairy tales and stories, dragons' scales were said to be harder than any ordinary sword and they were said to be able to breathe fire.
After aiming the plane's main guns at the oncoming Dragon, the pilot pulled the trigger. Since they fired at their target from a reasonably long distance, none of the first bullets hit their target, so the pilot pulled up slightly as he continued to fire. It seemed as if they had hit the dragon but it showed no reaction whatsoever that indicated wounds or at least severe pain.
By now the dragon was getting dangerously close and they changed course again to fire at the dragon from a new position. They now attacked the dragon from a shorter distance in order to be able to hit the target better and to better observe the effect their machine gun fire on the dragon would have. Their suspicions were confirmed when they saw the gun fire ricochet off the dragon. The legionnaire who rode the dragon was not so lucky.
Unlike an airplane, a dragon could fly further without its "pilot" or rather rider, the dragon only lacked someone to show the dragon who or what the target was and who was an ally. Since the biplane was the final objective given to the dragon before its rider died, and said biplane was still "alive", the dragon continued to carry out that final command.
Now the two knew that it was quite easy to kill the "pilot", but the dragon was still alive and apparently unharmed. To make matters worse, there were now more mounted dragons in the air and targeted the Rumpler reconnaissance aircraft. After a moment's thought, the pilot came up with the idea of flying in the direction of the German front line and hoping that the anti-aircraft troops would recognize the situation and open anti-aircraft fire on the dragons pursuing the biplane. The pilot steered in the direction of the German front with full throttle.
"Whatever we do, we must not damage this gate." said General Ludendorff to the assembled generals and officers.
"Destroying it could potentially halt further enemy onslaught, but that's not the best solution in the long run. We don't know how the enemy is even able to appear so suddenly. We don't know who this new enemy is, nor do we know where he's coming from. Finding an answer to all these questions is more important than exploiting a simple advantage that will only bring us a faster victory, which we are already guaranteed because of our enormous Technological Advantage."
"Then we should avoid putting the gate in the line of fire of the artillery and use gas if possible so it would not take damage even if we attacked the enemy troops directly on and around the gate." said one of Ludendorff's officers.
"The wind could cause us problems General, we should drop the gas with bombers directly over the enemy position at the gate, so it doesn't matter which way the wind blows the gas. It will serve its purpose one way or the other." said another officer to the assembled men.
As General Ludendorff was about to make his next decision regarding the attack on the gate, a radio operator came into the tent and interrupted those present.
"Excuse me General, one of our reconnaissance aircraft has been spotted fleeing enemy air forces, our ground anti-aircraft defenses have already begun directing anti-aircraft fire at the enemy."
"The enemy has planes?! No, that can't be, how should an ancient military force get such new technology!?" shouted General Ludendorff to the radio operator.
"From the observations of the ground forces who have seen it, it is definitely not an airplane but a large flying animal that is probably mounted, they suspect that it is a dragon, General." answered the radio operator.
"Now they have dragons too. Given that our plane fled, it's possible that our aircraft's standard armament is not powerful enough to fight these dragons. So we will have to fight them with anti-aircraft artillery from the ground and make sure we keep the enemy's other air forces within range of our anti-aircraft guns."
Turning to the assembled officers, General Ludendorff continued: "Alert all anti-aircraft squads. Your orders are to fight the incoming Dragon Riders and then go to the positions on the front line as quickly as possible. All other planes loaded with gas bombs are to start attacking the enemy position at the gate. Those who survived the gas and fled from the gate should be fired upon by our artillery."
Now turning to the French radio operator, he said: "Inform the French army command of our actions and discoveries. We hope for your artillery support in this offensive.