First I want to apologize for my English and my writing skills, it is not my first language and I am not a best seller writer either.
Still, I didn't expect to have a good reception for this fanfic, and I'm very happy for those who appreciate my idea.
I will try to improve every day because really, I feel very motivated with this fanfic.
Chapter 1 : Voyage on the open sea
1905, It had been four years since the event of 1901, and throughout the world it had been called by many names.
The great tribulation, limbo, or the purification were some of them, yet only one thing was clear, the world balance was changing drastically.
Many nations changed their role in the world balance, new ones were born and others perished, the lack of influence of the great western powers was noticeable and it seemed that with the passing of the news, the world map was taking a new order.
In the case of East Asia, things had remained relatively similar to what had happened before the event, the Qings had constant rebellions, the Nguyen dynasty had managed to end the French government returning the emperor to power and at the same time the kingdom of Siam was doing the same, the Tagalog Republic in the Philippines and the Kingdom of Hawaii was looking for the same path but with the American occupation.
The remnants of the Russian empire were crumbling, trying to maintain unity but it was not as strong as it had been in the past, being forced to negotiate with the Japanese empire to avoid conflicts with a high probability of defeat.
Observing the world scenario and the Japanese Empire's desire to expand, the occupation of Korea was only a matter of time, with no one to stand up to Japan, it was a matter of time to be one of the new claimants of the new era.
The occupation of the peninsula did not take long, and soon the region would become a Japanese protectorate, no one protested, everyone was busy with their own problems.
One of the combatants in Korea, Admiral Tetsuya Nagasawa looked out over the city of Busan from the harbor for the last time before heading back to sea.
Navigation since the "Fire in the Sky" had never been the same again, sailing the high seas had largely been abandoned and coastal navigation had returned.
Reports of sea monsters plying the waters of the world's oceans echoed throughout the nations, the legends of yesteryear seemed to have become real, making navigation a life and death struggle once again.
Nagasawa in the past would have been incredulous at these stories but it was already 4 years of constant losses of merchant ships, fishing boats and even warships with serious damage or sinking.
But the Emperor had assigned him a mission, a mission he could not avoid fulfilling.
As he reviewed the report detailing his mission, he looked with a mixture of interest and anguish at the details of it.
The Emperor had ordered to go to what was known as the unknown land to the north, establish formal contact with the new land and its inhabitants and establish a presence as early as possible.
After the conquest of Korea, the country needed resources to continue expanding throughout the continent, Japan had industrialized at the end of the last century and did not suffer from the lack of manufacturing like other countries, but it was suffering from the lack of resources necessary for Japanese industries.
Nagasawa sighed, he would not question the orders of the God Emperor, at the end of the day a fleet led by him would travel to Terra Borealis, the new ships just out of the Japanese shipyards would be his companions.
With the roar of the Asashi battleship's smokestacks, Nagasawa's fleet began its journey to Terra Borealis, very optimistic but also fearful of what would happen.
6 battleships, 9 cruisers and 10 destroyers set sail to the northeast that morning, those were the Emperor's exploration fleet, the one that would face the monsters of the sea and would get to make the first formal contact with the new lands.
In times of stress it was best to distract the mind with anything else until falling asleep, the last thing he really wanted was some storm or monster to torment his sanity.
The first day passed, the second, the third and then the fourth...there was peace, nothing was disturbing the peace of the crew and everything seemed to be going well.
The fifth day arrived, a great rainstorm raged against the fleet, remembering the legends the crew looked fearful but soon the storm was overcome, it was not strong enough to cause significant damage.
Nagasawa sighed, from the Asashi he watched the dawn of the sixth day, he went out on deck and observed seagulls in the sky, a sign of dry land.
His crew smiled, he smiled, they had passed the test apparently so he approached his office and proceeded to pour himself a cup of coffee for a job well done.
"My lord, the Izumi cruiser suffered a malfunction," interrupted a sailor, "Her propellers stopped working, they say they took a heavy hit before that happened."
Nagasawa quickly put down his coffee and went out on deck, "Ask about the situation of the other ships, ask if they have felt anything similar" he said quickly while observing the sailing waters in search of an answer.
"My lord, apparently..."
A loud bang shook the Asashi causing several of the sailors including Nagasawa to fall to the ground, the veteran admiral quickly stood up ordering them to prepare for combat.
Quickly the 25 ships prepared for combat, as they looked fearfully at the water, there seemed to be nothing, the water was calm.
Suddenly near the Izumi, a silhouette began to emerge from under the water, first protruding what appeared to be horns, they seemed to be one or two meters long.
Then a dorsal fin emerged, which unlike a fish appeared to be covered by an exoskeleton, the beast quickly began to pick up speed and headed to ram the cruiser at a speed slightly less than that of a steamship.
Quickly the sailors of all the ships were quick to point the water at the sea beast, which just before hitting the Izumi, it burst into its full form.
It was like a whale, with horns and covered with a scaly exoskeleton, the rifle shots of the Izumi's sailors did not seem to hurt it.
The roar of the cannons of the Japanese ships hit the beast, piercing its scales and hurting it, the beast slowed down so that the impact against the Japanese cruiser was not so serious, even so the armored whale did not seem to want to give up without taking anyone with it.
The sailors kept firing while the whale tried to devour some of the poor unwary people, Nagasawa remembered the stories as he watched this.
In front of him was one of the beasts that had caused the shipwrecks, never in his military career as an admiral did he think that such a moment would come, he carefully observed the animal which ended up giving up.
The beast of about 50 meters long, seeing his inability to get a dinner, tried to retreat but a new volley of cannons hit it, seriously wounding it.
The armored whale quickly submerged in the sea and when the minutes passed and no trace of it was seen again, it was considered dead.
Even so, Nagasawa had his doubts, without seeing a corpse he would not trust that it was dead, but he also knew that surely, this was not the only one of these creatures that he would see.
With the whale chased away, they had to continue their mission, the next hours would be dedicated to tow the Izumi to the mainland.
For their part and with the experience already lived, the sailors would constantly observe the sea in search of more armored whales, although the damages of this occasion were material and some non-lethal injuries, they wanted to avoid the situation to escalate in loss of human lives.
Nagasawa could not sleep that night, thinking about what happened, every time he tried to sleep the slightest shock woke him up, he looked outside and watched the sea, even if it was night he tried to visualize anything suspicious.
That night, the veteran admiral did not sleep, but his storm would not last forever.
At dawn, land came into sight.
They had arrived, they had reached the Terra Borealis Ignota.
With the whale chased away, they had to continue their mission, the next hours would be dedicated to tow the Izumi to the mainland.
For their part and with the experience already lived, the sailors would constantly observe the sea in search of more armored whales, although the damages of this occasion were material and some non-lethal injuries, they wanted to avoid the situation to escalate in loss of human lives.
Nagasawa could not sleep that night, thinking about what happened, every time he tried to sleep the slightest shock woke him up, he looked outside and watched the sea, even if it was night he tried to visualize anything suspicious.
That night, the veteran admiral did not sleep, but his storm would not last forever.
At dawn, land came into sight.
They had arrived, they had reached the Terra Borealis Ignota.
I really want this fanfic to be something more global, something that would serve to expand the universe of gate and also my own ideas about it, besides I felt reluctant to select a single nation and base the whole plot on that nation vs the empire.
I want it to be something that focuses more on the big picture and not on a single group of characters.
I think it's obvious that I prefer narrative to dialogue, but I'll still accept suggestions to help me improve it.
There is a lot of material from light novels and manga that I would like to add, to vary from the typical fantasy tropes.
Best regards, take care and have a good rest.