Chapter 1

Warm Welcome

Ice sighed in exasperation for the hundredth time in the last hour. "Yes, Yas, they don't seem to be of American or European descent, nor do they seem to be wearing clothing with any semblance of warmth fit for the wastes. We can all see that." He drawled out, both from his emotions and his accent, rubbing his now sore temples with barely contained frustration.

"But how are they still alive though?!" Yas shouted at the top of his lungs. Ice promptly socked him in the gut, finally making the infuriating man shut up.

"Probably because they came through the structure you incompetent Neanderthal!" Ice yelled back, as he punched Yas in the gut a second time, who fell to the deck of the ship, groaning. "If you'd shut up for five seconds, you might've heard me say that to the rest of the crew!" The rest of the scouts winced, they knew Ice had a mean streak a mile wide from the other crews that had worked with him, but it seemed the mounting frustration was getting to him.

Ice breathed a long, deep breath, as he turned to the helmsman, simply pointing at what was clearly a recon company in the distance, pointed at himself with his thumb, and finished by gesturing to the anchor's rope lying against the side of the ship – since he had thick mittens on, he couldn't point properly. There was no way that they hadn't noticed the airship/hot-air balloon approaching them, or they were even more incompetent than the moron still picking himself up off the deck. The helmsman nodded reluctantly, adjusting their coarse so it would miss the party by mere meters, the propellers of the vehicle spinning in perfect tandem as they approached. He could only cross his fingers that the unknown men didn't misinterpret their approach, and/or decide to attack them.

"Hey, Yukio, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" A man in the usual green camouflage of the JSDF asked, dumbfounded. The sight before them had almost made them forget how cold this god-forsaken wasteland was.

"That depends." Yukio responded. "Are you seeing a small airship flying towards us at around eighty kilometers-per-hour?"

"I was going to guess seventy, but yeah."

Yukio sighed, he just knew this was going to be a long day, but he hadn't expected anything quite like this.

As the ship was about to pass them, its engines suddenly stopped, and reversed, bringing it to a stop; followed by a steel anchor embedding itself in the snow. A man then climbed down the rope attached to the anchor, clad in heavy winter clothing. He was roughly two-hundred centimeters tall, and wore thick hide pants, snow shoes – on the soles of his leather boots, and a thick coat that reminded him of the Alaskan tribes he remembered seeing a documentary of once. He also wore a thick cap atop his head over a balaclava; a thick scarf, large ski goggles, thick mittens, and a small, rounded device hanging on one side of his coat.

The man simply waved at them as he approached, keeping his other hand out to the side, palm facing them. Yukio decided to wave back, noting the biting cold would likely lead to a few of his men getting frostbite in the near future. "Hey there stranger, now what's all this about?" He shouted as he got closer, gesturing to the small campsite slowly being constructed.

Yukio was briefly surprised by the fact he spoke flawless English, but decided that it didn't really matter for the moment. He waited until he got close enough that he didn't have to shout before answering him. "Our government decided it wanted to set up an outpost on this side of the Gate."

"Government?" The man seemed genuinely confused, but shook his head to dispel the thought. "Look, I don't know where you came from, but you don't look the least bit prepared for life in the wastes."

"The wastes?" Yukio asked.

"The frozen wastes." The man nodded in affirmation, gesturing to the frozen wasteland around them. "It's all that makes up this here sorry planet."

"You mean this," Yukio gestured to the snow and Ice that covered the ground. "is all there is?"

"Well there's a few cities dotting the wastes here and there; but pretty much, yeah."

Yukio let his jaw drop for a moment, then felt the cold air trying to freeze his saliva, and promptly closed it. "Where are these cities located?" He asked after a moment to gather his thoughts.

"The nearest city is just a few kilometers north of here, situated in a canyon, but most are in artificial craters dug in the ice."

"Why is that?"

The man was quiet for a long moment, before speaking up. "Because of the storms." He said, voice grave.

"Storms?" Yukio asked, lips quirking. "What, you afraid of a little lightning?" He could swear he felt the man's glare.

"A short storm lasts a day." He started, still snarling at Yukio. "A weak storm drops the temperature twenty degrees, and god save you if you get caught in the bi-annual." He said.

Yukio felt his smile drop. "I find that hard to believe." He said, finally.

"Then watch you and the men with you freeze in the coming weeks." He responded. "Regardless of what we wish to believe, are you the man in charge of this group?" He asked.

"This platoon is under my command, yes."

"Then my name is Ice Snow." He held his hand out to shake, which Yukio reciprocated. "I'm the acting commander of the Demetria over there." He gestured to the airship floating silently over the group, having shut down its engines. Yukio's lips twitched upwards again, and Ice rolled his head in an exaggeration of rolling his eyes. "Yes I know my parents had the imagination of a penguin."

"Second Lieutenant Yukio of the Japanese Self Defense Force, Japan."

"Um… I guess I would be a… Sargent, maybe – I don't know – of the Solacian Scout Force, Canyon of Solace."

Yukio blinked in response, confused. "Canyon of Solace?" He asked.

Ice sighed, this was going to take a while.

"Your Majesty," A bald man, seeming to be past his prime, kneeled before the imperial throne, looking up at Emperor Molto Sol Augustus, who looked down on him impassively. "Including the dead and missing, we estimate the losses our allied nations have suffered to approach one-hundred-thousand. The remnants, bereft of leadership, appear to have scattered and dispersed."

The Emperor scoffed lightly, a small, lazy smile on his face. "Just as expected."

"However your majesty, the movements of the enemy from the Gate are worrying; and the Legion sent through the second Gate has yet to show any sign of survival."

"Even considering you seem overtly anxious, Internal Minister Marcus?"

"Yes… it's been an issue since birth."

"Very well." Molto said, sitting up straight. "Then I'll leave these issues to my right hand." He tilted his head down just enough that his own shadow covered the center of his face ominously. A motion he had practiced for years, no doubt. "More importantly, burn down all streets and villages leading to the Imperial Capital, seed poison into all the wells, and remove livestock by any means necessary. That will make whatever army they have come to a standstill, which we will take advantage of."

"A scorched Earth policy then? I fear our tax revenue will plummet in response."

"Well, it can't be helped, I suppose." He lifted his head, putting a hand to his chin, seeming totally nonchalant. "Now when should we have the garden party, I wonder… and the construction of the villa may need to be postponed."

"This is the Canyon of Solace?" Yukio asked, looking down at the 'city' below him. When Ice said the place was a city, he expected something more along the lines of hundreds of buildings nestled neatly in the bottom of the canyon, all a minimum of four stories in height, and tens of thousands of civilians going to and from work. This… was less than that. There were dozens of buildings, sure, but not hundreds. They were nestled in the canyon, but they all hugged the 'generator' like it was the only thing that allowed them to survive, none more than four stories tall. And he could only guess how many people were there, but thousands was far from being the correct estimate; he guessed there were only a couple thousand at most.

"Indeed. This here is the frontier city in the region. It's not the largest city on the planet, but it's nowhere near being the smallest." He seemed rather proud while talking about the city, Yukio noted. "It's got a fairly generous population at one-thousand seven-hundred, and is just over four generations old."

"But it's so… small." Yukio looked down, his eyes tracking an automaton as it finished heating itself once more, before heading back to the coal thumper it was assigned. "When you said city, I expected… more."

"Then head to Yellow Stone, next chance you get; it's the largest city in the known world."

"How many live there?"

"Err… Last I heard, a little over a hundred and thirty-thousand, why?"

"That's it?" Yukio breathed; he looked distraught, staring down at the people who didn't seem like they could be happier. It confused Ice. Sure, there were some hard times behind them, and doubtlessly many more ahead, but it had always been this way. The struggle to survive was as natural as eating and sleeping for them. What was the issue?

"That's a lot of people in one place. Neither the neighboorhood watch nor the church are able to totally keep the peace in the area, so it's got the highest crime rate in the world at present. It's a cesspool of violence and discrimination. Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed in on itself."

Yukio shook his head, honestly baffled by the Idea. He started walking down the stairs, his borrowed coat lightly flapping in the wind. "Let's just go see this Captain of yours. Maybe they can clear things up for me better." Two men from his platoon followed behind them, seeming just as depressed by the news as Yukio was.

"Yep, everything's built in such a way that it can be torn down and rebuilt twice in one day… Except the automatons. The engineers build those so they can't be taken apart easily. Wouldn't want a leg falling off for no reason." The elderly man chuckled heartily, and Ranna couldn't help but smile in bemusement. As amusing as it would be to watch one of those giant mechanical creatures attempt to walk on one less leg, it probably wouldn't help the efficiency of the city if they started having to stumble their way to the steam outlets across the city, likely destroying buildings in the process.

"That would be an amusing sight." She admitted to the man, a half-smile plainly visible on her face. "A three legged automaton stumbling its way through the streets, drunkenly leaning on a building every now and then." The man laughed a deep, hearty laugh, and Ranna felt her smile widen.

"We could call it the Penguin's Apprentice!" He got out between boisterous chuckles, as he calmed down. "Getting back on subject though, I'm just a simple engineer; I help build buildings when I'm needed, but usually I just sit in the workshop trying to make new things with the rest of the crew. Nothing all that special." He concluded, taking a long swig from his mug of ale.

"So how does your currency work, then?" She asked, idly scratching one of her long ears as she took a sip from her own mug.

"Currency?" He looked confused for a moment, before perking up. "Ah, you mean like money and the like. Yeah, no, we don't have any." He seemed to mull over the thought for a moment, and amended his statement. "Not in Solace, we don't." Ranna simply blinked in surprise, and seeing her face, he decided to expand his statement. "Here in the Canyon of Solace, all the materials we can get our grubby little hands on are studied, and turned into different parts for the city. Any material we don't recognize is sent to us researchers, and we study its properties, to decide what to use it for, and sometimes make new stuff with it."

"Silver, copper, and gold too?" She asked, incredulously.

"Yep, all melted down into parts. They all have pretty important uses in the machinery and electronics, so we don't spare a single ounce unless us researchers are on to something. Radios being a prime example. We didn't have any until… two, three months ago, and they're already revolutionizing everything we do." He jostled the handheld radio hooked onto the front of one of his outer pockets, on the opposite side of his personal heater. "The only problem we've found with them so far is the range is utterly garbage unless there's a relay up high, so we're going to put one such relay on the beacon during the storm in the coming weeks."

"What do they do?" She asked, intrigued by the prospect of something so small 'revolutionizing' the way they did things.

The man just grinned widely. "Me and my buddy were looking into the lower wavelengths of light and..." He noticed he had immediately lost her, and rolled his eyes in response, a more bemused smile slipping onto his face. "Think of it as a… letter, if you will; only you hear it, and it's damn near instantaneous."

"So you just… talk, and others can hear you from far away?"

"Kind-of… you need one of these," He jostled the handheld again. "to speak into and hear from; and you need to flip a switch on the side to speak, so you're not constantly broadcasting; but in essence, yes."

"Okay, I think I get it. That's rather useful." She responded, seeming rather impressed. Then again, everything in this frozen world was fascinating, and so she must've seemed easily impressed by the locals. She'd only been here a couple days, and so far, she could easily see herself integrating with their society, even if the people in purple robes frowned at her for not wanting to convert.

Yukio stared at the rather good-looking young woman in front of him for a solid minute, before realizing that he was, in fact, staring. She was a pale woman, pale enough to pass as an albino, and had rather sharp features, though she had the air of a European, possibly American, descent. He idly noted that Ice was the same way, once he took his balaclava off; only Ice seemed definitively American, if his accent was anything to go by. He would've considered the woman… pretty, if she didn't have the face of someone who had seen and done far too much in their time; and that was saying something, given that everyone here seemed to have a similar air about them, if not to the same extent as this woman did.

He shook his head to dispel any lingering thoughts, and quickly saluted her. "Second Lieutenant-" He started, getting cut off by the raising of a hand from the almost-white-haired woman.

"Ice has already explained what's going on, and who you are, mister Yukio." She stated, remaining totally apathetic, despite the circumstances. Half-lidded eyes stared him down impassively, as she kept her posture like that of a general. "I am Captain Frost Snow. Now, I expect questions from you, and in turn, I am willing to give you answers to as many of them as I reasonably can."

Yukio looked like he was slightly constipated as he thought of the best questions to ask for the moment. "Why are there so few people here?"

Frost blinked slowly, a gesture that Ice silently equated to the raising of a brow for anyone else. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand the question." She said, ignoring the tiny smirk that Ice was unable to suppress.

"According to Ice, the population of your 'city' is a little over two thousand, and the largest known city has a population of just over a hundred-thousand. The cities I'm used to thinking of have a minimum population of around five thousand, and when I think city, I usually think of a population in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions."

"I'm sorry, sir, but the total known human population… here, at least, is a little over one-million." She responded diplomatically. If it wasn't obvious already, it was clear now that the man before her was from wherever the unknown structure lead.

Yukio openly gaped at the declaration, utterly shocked. "How?" He breathed, his men behind him just as breathless. He idly regretted bringing the only soldiers in his platoon that spoke English with him on this trip.

"A number of things, really." She responded, bringing a folder filled with files up onto the desk, and beginning to flip through them carelessly. "Two major volcanic eruptions, a meteor strike, the dimming of the sun, the magnetosphere receiving a sudden boost to its strength, and probably more we don't have the equipment to measure, all unexplained as of yet, of course. If that didn't tip you off; an Ice-Age killed humanity, and this city is one of its only known remnants. Of course, there are probably more survivors somewhere south of us, but we have no means to contact any settlements that may have developed."

Yukio decided he'd had enough gaping, and steeled himself for the following conversation, grimacing despite himself. "I… see. Regardless, I'll need to take up a substantial portion of your time, starting as soon as you're free." Frost simply pushed the paperwork on her desk into two neat piles, and gestured to the seat in front of her desk.

Author's Note:

Thank you to everyone who read the prologue. This is quickly becoming my favorite story to write of my several dozen projects, and seeing the overall positive response makes me happy. I must thank those of you who reviewed, and a certain someone who actively interacted with me to correct some misconceptions I had (even if it was a good unintentional consequence), and fine tune what I already had. You know who you are.

With that being said, I am happy to announce a new side project which was inspired by the aforementioned conversation, which will be a series that follow the would-have-been regarding the Gate. That is, what would have been if the only Gate opened between Falmart and the Frozen wastes. Without the intervention of the JSDF. Keep in mind it will be a side project only.

Thank you for reading. If you have any ideas/concerns or generally anything you think needs to have attention drawn to it regarding the story, don't hesitate to contact me.