The construction of the first gate fortifications proceeded without any problems and the only difficulties arose from the battlefield previously destroyed by the enemy and the number of dead enemy mages already rotting away. Surprisingly, the Empire's legionnaires found far fewer bodies than they expected. Mountains of dead warriors and knights still in their armor, they had expected.
The ogres and trolls were used to fill the craters with the surrounding earth and the corpses of enemy mages. The Human Legionnaires took over all other duties. A third of the 1st Legion patrol around the camp to repel a possible enemy attack on their camp. Another third of the legion oversaw the Non-Human troops at work and began erecting the first tents and stables for the horses. The last third was stationed right by the gate to help the remaining arriving legions navigate through the still chaotic camp and to assist the support troops in unloading and stowing away the food supplies.
When the 6th and thus last legion left the gate, the supposed calm ended. At first only a thunder like sound could be heard. The troops patrolling the camp scanned the sky for storm clouds, but they found something else entirely. Tiny black clouds suddenly appeared at a far point in the sky and they were all close together. Had they only been closer, they could have seen their own Dragon Riders fly among the Black Clouds and watch them one by one fall from the sky like dead flies. Only an hour later, a sound unknown to the legionnaires was heard.
"What's that sound? Some kind of insect?" one of the patrolling legionnaires asked himself, to which another replied: "Whatever it is, they won't be able to stand against the Empire!".
Shrugging, the first said again, "You're right, a battered army won't worry us- w what's that? Something is flying towards us and this noise has also become louder.".
The other legionnaire looked in the direction the first was pointing and saw something flying straight at them with unmoving wings and very quickly getting closer and soon they could see that several of these unknown creatures were flying towards them.
"Does the enemy also have dragon riders?! No it must be some kind of giant insect they are using instead of dragons. Where are our dragon riders?! They were sent along with us to guard the camp!"
Because of the immovable wings and the strange sound emitted by the Unknown Flying Beasts, the legionnaires were sure that they were Giant Insects. They conjectured that the immobile wings are in fact the open carapaces and the real wings, like those of the insects they know, move so fast that they are not visible.
One of the legionnaires mounted on the patrol broke out of formation and urged his horse to canter back towards the camp as quickly as possible.
The sudden appearance of a startled horseman right next to the camp put the human troops on alert. The legions of the Empire that came through the gate were in the process of setting up their Empire's very first military camp in this new world and were thus right at the front lines, a scout riding at top speed into the camp could only mean one thing : The enemy troops were marching towards their camp.
The legions reacted immediately and retreated towards the gate around which their camp was currently being built.
"So the enemy still has troops left for another attack...but I'm amazed they were able to rally so quickly for this maneuver." said the general's officer.
"I'm not at all surprised. A month ago, a heated battle raged on this ground until the arrival of our conquering armies. The end of this fight doesn't have to mean the end of the whole war. With our arrival, we started a new war before the one of the barbarians ended. They must be the last reserves these barbarians can send into battle." the general turned to his officer with a serious face and said to him: "But it won't save them. Pass on my order. All troops should gather directly around the gate's camp and take up battle formations. The Auxiliary Troops should line up at the front in the direction from which the Enemy Troops were spotted. When the Wyvern Cor is within signal range, they shall receive orders to assist us in defending the gate camp."
"It will be done, General."
"You almost feel sorry for them and we haven't even started yet." Said the young pilot of a German fighter plane. It was only recently that mankind discovered powered flight and it was only in this war that the concept of aerial combat was applied not only in theory but also in practice. The pilots saw themselves as something special. Air Combat Pioneers, Knights of the Sky and many others were titles they used to describe themselves. Even if a pilot was shot down over enemy territory, he was still buried with all honors by the enemy aviators as a member of the air pioneers, even if he had recently fought against them.
One of the pilots flying towards the enemy's primitive camp was particularly obsessed with honor and heroic chivalry. His aim was to gain a title of nobility through his actions as a fighter pilot in this war and thereby end his ordinary life as a member of the insignificant infantry. Like the other planes, he approached the enemy camp and dropped his deadly charge where there were a particularly large number of troops and were not yet surrounded by the yellow gas cloud.
Suddenly something rose into the air from outside the camp and flew towards the attacking German biplanes. Not entirely satisfied with simply dropping gas grenades, the young pilot saw this as his chance to finally do something really exciting. Something you would still be telling stories about years later and would sing of his courage! Putting his fighter plane on an intercept course, he accelerated his biplane to the limit of its engine and checked the machine gun that was to be the aircraft's main armament one last time.
The fighter plane and the dragon rider came closer and closer. Only when the two were almost close enough that the biplane was almost within range of the dragon's fire breath did the pilot of the fighter plane open fire. He wanted to be as close as possible to the dragon he was heroically slaying today. The rider sitting on the dragon died instantly when machine gun fire pierced him. The dragon was unharmed and opened its mouth to burn the enemy plane with a burst of fire, but the dragon, like its rider, underestimated the speed of the biplane and just managed to open its mouth when it collided with the plane. The plane's wooden rotor blades broke immediately upon impact. The underside of the dragon was now partly lying on the biplane and thus the soft belly of the beast was exposed and directly in front of the barrel of the machine gun. Seizing the opportunity, the pilot pulled the machine gun's trigger with full force, dumping all remaining ammunition into the dragon's body.
The innards shredded by the shelling, the dragon was already dead and could no longer keep itself in the air, which is why its dead body lay on the biplane and pulled it down forward. With the plane's rotor destroyed, the engine was no longer producing thrust and the pilot had no hope of surviving the crash.
Hell, there was no other way to call what was going on. They came quickly, too quickly, bringing death and desolation. A swarm of giant insects with enemy soldiers riding on their backs pounced on them. Not even their archers were fast enough to fight the flying enemy. As these beasts were directly overhead, they dropped something the size of bricks on them. At first, the Empire's troops were not impressed. Some even started laughing. The enemy seemed to have lost their minds that they were going to try to smack them down with a few small rocks from above. They stopped laughing very quickly when yellow clouds with an acrid stench came out of the stones. Everyone who was in or near these yellow clouds began to throw themselves on the ground in pain and squirm like worms until they lay completely motionless. It didn't take the Imperial troops long to realize that those on the ground were already dead.
"These cowards use poison... but I don't know of any poison that kills so quickly and is used through the air..." the general said to his officer, looking at his poison-killed soldiers. As his eyes fell on the gas grenades, he took a closer look at them from a distance when he suddenly understood how the falling stones and the poisoned air were connected.
"These insects drop eggs of some kind on us that poison the air we breathe! Fast! All troops take up wide formations and position themselves outside the camp! The enemy will try to attack us in our own camp with poisoned air! We must not give them an easy target!" The general gave the order to his troops, who were about to move when the sound of more "giant insects" made them increase their efforts.
Less than a minute later, the enemy "Insect Riders" were overhead again, dropping their poisonous payload on Sadera's troops. Unlike before, the air raid lasted longer than the first. One after another, "insect riders" flew past overhead, each time flying over another group of legionnaires.
"They only attack where there aren't clouds of poison on the ground yet...they want to kill as many of us as possible with this poison, these barbarians are much smarter than I thought!"
"General, our troops are fleeing, what should we do?!" the officer asked the general.
"Damned! Mount your horses and follow our troops! Get them to regroup! Shieldwall outwards, the enemy will attack us at any time!"
The officers who were still alive after the first gas attack immediately mounted their horses and set about regaining control of their troops.
Since the poison gas attack was aimed squarely at the center of the gate camp, the terrified troops fled in the opposite direction from where the gate was, away from the foul-smelling Yellow Clouds.