HELLO THERE reader, i bring second part of my initial story. I hope you will like it. If you want you can give me names of your OCs that you would like to see in story and so on.
now for feedback
ATP: Thank you (dripping with sarcasm) for your critic of my AU. But that is it the AU. And i would like to inform you that i am well aware of all intricate details of my nations history including potential "what ifs" and i would like to claim to even greater degree than you.
Guest: Thank you i treasure your insights. I hope this chapter will be easier to read. Iam planning to include almost all nations you mentioned in some way or another. If not in direct large-scale combat units then in auxilaries or spec-force. I like the yugoslavian idea :) Some of them will appear i promise. If you come up with any yugoslavian OCs please let me know, i will be happy to work with them. As for the negotiations... well all iam at liberty to say is that Empire will have rather rude awakening and that while compasionate and caring towards his friedns our major can freeze his heart colder than the void of space. I hope i answered your wish. Please voice your opinions. I have overall story in mind but it might change a little if i see idea i like.
Chapter 2 "The New Hope"
"Aaaaa" terran language
"Aaaaa"gate gibberish
Falmart, Alnus hill, night
It has been few hours since last straggler of the invasion force ran through the holy gate back from the land of so-called 'demons' who butchered 4 mighty imperial legions within a week. The first ones were treated as cowards and traitors but as they grew in numbers it became obvious to everyone present that this time the Empire made a mistake when provoking this frightening unknown power.
Pahria silently watched this entire commotion from a distance. As Cat-woman her senses were better than those of humans and had no problem overhearing frantic talk between legionaries who were supposed to create second wave and first wave survivors. She would be lying if she claimed that the news of the 'demons' didn't scare her but when she heard one of the survivors claim that they looked like humans she calmed down.
Having come to the conclusion she heard enough she turned around and cautiously made her way amidst tents back where the slaves that were supposed to haul this legion's supplies were kept. With the overall chaos and confusion, the guards were distracted and she managed to slip inside large barn. As soon as she entered she was assaulted by questions from nearby slaves who were waiting for her.
"What did you hear? Is it true? Tell us."
Crouching down she looked around and started "From what I heard it is true. Entire three legions are gone and the last one is either scattered or killed."This frightened all who heard it but she quickly continued "But I don't think it was done by demons or monsters. I heard some of those who returned speak about men and women in strange clothes fighting without any armour or swords."Last bit of news calmed the slaves somewhat. Someone called from other side of barn "I have seen few of those they brought through, they looked like humans to me."Whispering broke out between everyone present. "Who are they?" asked one "What do they want?" asked another "Are they friendly or monsters like The Empire?" wondered third.
Pahria slowly made a brave if bit foolish decision and tried to quiet everyone down. Once all residents of the barn were quiet she breathed in and said "I think this is our only chance at getting help. I want us to cross the gate and ask or even beg them for help. I know it can be done but we need to act fast, the imperials will not be disorganized for long and once they set up the guards we are lost."Her statement caused quite the commotion and large number of those who heard it questioned her mental health and few even inquired whether or not she was insane. But she saw several others nodding their heads in agreement.
Those who agreed with her that this was their chance moved closer while others slowly made their way as far as they could inside the barn from the 'crazy woman'. Those who surrounded her whispered amongst themselves and tried to find best way to cross the gate and ask those on the other side for help. After short while they came to the conclusion that Pahria and few other slaves would cross the gate as soon as possible and the rest would try to delay the guards from figuring out that they escaped.
Thanking those who would be left behind Pahria, two other cat-girs, fox-girl and Volralden(wolf-man) sneaked their way out of the barn and between the tents until they crouched behind few bushes that were growing near the gate. "I am scared."Said the fox-girl. "Me too, but nothing good is going to happen if we stay here." Answered Pahria.
The group was lying stiff as pair of the guards passed near their bush and waited when they were as far from them as possible. Then, as they agreed, all of them jumped over the bush and with speed that human guards could not match ran to the gate. Not stopping they jumped into the portal between the pillars and for the briefest of moments saw the most beautiful thing they have ever seen. Behind the pond-like surface of the portal was eternal night sky that spanned as far as eye could see. Then the stars became streaks and everything around moved faster than eye could see until one star in the centre became bigger and bigger until nothing else could be seen and filled everything with blinding light, then the runaways crossed the portal and found themselves in entirely new world.
Terra, Europe, Prague, Gate entrance
Pahria and others were thrown violently out of the portal and all of them fell to their knees. When they put themselves together and looked up they saw horde of human looking figures dressed in strange clothes on which were patterns of various shades of green and black arranged in haphazard way.
For a moment everyone was stunned and simply stared at each other. This serene moment was shattered when few guards who followed the runaways came out of gate with screaming. As the guards came to halt and stared warily on the otherworlders a large number of scraping and creaking could be heard. Runaways watched as the otherworlders pointed strange black sticks they were holding towards them and the guards. Even round tops on some of the weird boxes have turned themselves and pointed bigger black sticks at guards.
When few of the odd clothed men started slowly walking towards incomers guards started reaching for their swords. " &@₵₣" few otherworlders yelled but the guards didn't heed them and started unsheathing their swords. Suddenly few loud bangs filled the air and all guards fell to the ground lifeless.
Pahria and the other runaways turned in horror and saw that the those who were coming towards them were crouching on one knee and tips of their sticks were smoking.
One of them yelled "&@₵₣" again and indicated to put their hands above their heads. Runaways did so and Pahria stammered to say, "We mean no harm to you, please we come seeking help."Her voice was shaking and she was terrified after witnessing their otherworldly powers "Please don't hurt us." She added and closed her eyes as a hand was reaching for her.
Suddenly she heard someone shout something and hand stopped and runaways looked confused at each other. They saw one figure walking to them. When it reached them, it knelt in front of Pahria on one knee and in after few breaths said in strange accent "W-Who… you...?"and pointed at her.
Pahria gulped and slowly said "W-we were slaves and we come to you seeking help to free our people."Figure nodded and made a circular gesture with hand. Not knowing what it meant she repeated herself few times until the figure nodded and stood up. Still terrified she lifted her gaze and looked up as the figure was talking to others. Finally, it turned and looked at her while other figures seemingly relaxed and most of them stopped pointing their sticks at Pahria and her companions. Figure slowly reached to its head and removed something that looked like helmet and few strange items with lots of wires. Pahria now could see face of older man who was smiling friendly at her. The man crouched and smiled at her. His eyes radiated empathy and tenderness. He tapped his chest and slowly said "Me… f-friend… you … safe… here."And motioned towards Pahria and others. She could not believe what she was hearing and broke down sobbing and hugging the man crouching in front of her.
Pavel was cautiously watching the girl as paramedic checked her. But to say the truth no one knew what to do with her and few others who looked like cross between humans and various feline predators. Their outlook and the prevailing opinion that they looked malnourished and beaten helped alleviate tension but it also created new questions. 'They were slaves?' 'Did the invaders manage to kidnap some of our people?' First answer seemed obvious from their scant fabric that served as their clothing and their heavy metal collars and cuffs on wrists and ankles. While they were heavy it didn't take firefighters long to cut them and Pavel was holding the girl's collar in his hand examining it. The second answer proved problematic to say the least. Area still looked like battlefield, which it practically was, even though fires have been put out and bodies of both men and what remained of their steeds both flying and walking were being removed. It would take days, perhaps even weeks to confirm identity and find all residents of the neighbourhood.
Luckily string of his dark thoughts was interrupted by his friend who snuck up to his side and coughed. Pavel was startled and looked up from the collar to see his friend standing next to him.
"Sorry, I was thinking." He said.
"Yeah, me too. Hell if the situation wasn't so surreal or grave I would have picked on you whether you are cheating on your beloved or adopting stray cats." Said Petr with a smirk motioning to the girl under the care of paramedic. Pavel gave him stare that made Petr stop any further jokes. Realizing his mistake Petr put his hands up and said "Sorry, inappropriate I know."
Satisfied with the apology Pavel asked his friend for his opinion
"Please tell me I am wrong but I believe that some of those people who live here were taken beyond that thing. And I don't want to imagine what is happening to them."
Petr became serious in an instant, took second look on the girl and replied,
"I am afraid you are right."
Before the mood could get any darker he continued
"But seriously good work with that Latin. You basically broke the language barrier in an instant."
Pavel admitted "Pure luck I am afraid. Some of what she was saying seemed familiar to me but still, some of what she was saying is utter gibberish."
Petr nodded and said "Sometimes luck is all you need. Perhaps that 'gibberish' is simply some two millennia of language evolution, wouldn't that make sense?"
"I suppose it makes sense. But in the end, I am no linguist but guy who learned Latin at the University. Now what do we do with them?" Pavel wondered and pointed to the runaways.
"Now that is where I can help. Since thanks to the incident before it is apparent they are not allied to our invaders, we can treat them as neutral party. We have been ordered a short while ago to escort them to military hospital in Olomouc. That's why I was looking for you." Stated Petr, looked at his watch and added "We have been given three Hinds to get them there, so we will have to split them and us between the helicopters."
Pavel looked surprised "Olomouc? That is some 300km away. Why not the Central Military here in Prague?" Petr shook his head and explained "I asked that too. They have their hands full of injured civilians and few policemen. Quite a lot of them was injured before we got here in force. But it will take us only hour or so."
"Yeah that makes sense. Hospitals will have their hands full here. I will try to explain it to her. You figure out how to split them and us" Ordered Pavel. Lieutenant only nodded in acknowledgment and went to discuss situation with the squad on who would be accompanying whom. Pavel collected his thoughts and stashed the collar in one of the pockets on his tactical vest and put on the best smile he could muster.
As he came close he realized that the girl was watching him intently. With wave of a hand and nod he dismissed the paramedic and spoke to the girl "We… go to… healer. My… Friends... need to know… you not ill."As much as he tried he had to admit to himself that his Latin was more than rusty but it seemed like she understood and she nodded. She started pointing towards another ambulance where one of her companions sat and tried asking something. Pavel understood what she was trying to say and answered unsaid question "Yes... your… friends… come too."Upon hearing that she seemed content.
Calmness didn't last lost as soon the three awaited Mi-24s that would transport them made their arrival. The girl was terrified again as she saw three attack helicopters touching down in cleared area of the street. To give the pilots some credit, it looked like they throttled down their engines in order to make them quiet as they could.
After some coaxing they managed to get runaways into the crew compartments of Hinds. But that does not mean that former slaves were not terrified to death, they almost glued themselves to several squad members or their friends. Pavel looked at his left arm where the terrified girl clung with all her strength and apparently, she was very strong. He silently thanked the heavens that he had to take care of her and not that massive wolf-like man who took hold of his friend in next helicopter. Flight wasn't easy or very comfortable as the moment Pilots put engines to full throttle the iron grip on his arm became even tighter.
The runaways were more than eager to leave the helicopters as they one by one landed on the heliport on top of Military hospital in Olomouc. They still held tightly to several squad members when they were greeted by doctors and nurses. Fortunately, someone had the bright idea to inform hospital staff about language similarity to Latin and things went somewhat smoothly from there.
Pavel with the girl still holding onto him was the last one to leave helicopter and moment it took of he realised he was standing face to face with his wife, Catherine, who was dressed in doctor's uniform and white cloak. By the looks of it she wasn't particularly pleased with the girl who was firmly holding her husband.
"You missed the lunch." Was all she said stoically.
"Yeah, about that… Well it kind of dragged on… you know…" Pavel started
"It was good, your loss." she stopped him and shifted her attention to now calmer girl and spoke to her in Latin "Hi, I am healer. I will look if you are healthy. Please come with me."
Still nervous girl looked at Pavel who simply smiled, nodded and pushed her gently towards his wife. Reluctantly she let go and Catherine ushered her into the hospital while squad was taken to be examined if they weren't exposed to any kind of disease or illness.
When everyone was found healthy and free of diseases the now-apparent-refugees were taken by Security Information Service to be questioned with the help of few Latin-speaking university professors. The refugees were more than helpful with creating rudimentary dictionary of their language now named 'Imperialis' and happily shared any information they were asked about. This basic understanding of language allowed SIS to interrogate prisoners who were captured during initial battle. Among the prisoners was surprisingly large number of officers and even commanding officer of the entire invasion force who was captured by riot police after he panicked and during chase tripped over overturned thrash-can.
These findings about existence of barbaric and backward nation called simply The Empire along with initial scientific examination of the construct that was called by the refugees and prisoners as the holy gate served as an incentive to create international task force soon to be called 'The Gateway Army'. This 'Gateway Army's objective would be finding and rescuing any kidnapped citizens, providing security for further scientific study of the gateway, asses situation and react accordingly in order to bring peace, justice of the terran civilization to farthest reaches of the new world and bring those responsible for massacre of civilians to stand in front the court of law.
Main body of the force would be composed of mixed units of Czechoslovakian army (some 30 thousand men strong fighting force) bolstered by Russian guard units (approximately 20 thousand men strong) and supplemented by additional 20 thousand men gathered from various European countries that pledged their support. The was left possibility for additional reinforcements should the need arise or situation allow.
Thankfully logistics could be eased by the fact that with some effort area around the gateway could be turned into military base and linked into nearby railway network.
Terra, Prague-Ruzyně, Camp Kresčak, In front covering dome of the 'gateway', Month later
Pavel looked at the amassed first wave of the 'Gateway Army' and had to admit that it was impressive sight. At the front of the column stood Czechoslovak 20 T-72M4s accompanied by 10 Russian T-80Us and 4 Polish PT-91s, behind them stood 6 Russian 9K22s and 8 Flakpanzer Gepards. Then followed the infantry APCs mostly OT-64s and BVP-2s, but few Patria AMVs could also be seen. In the rear of the convoy stood Self-propelled mortars like the Finnish AMOS, ShM vz. 85s and self-propelled artillery pieces ranging from RM-70s and BM-27s to ShKH vz.77 DANAs. Soldiers were equipped with older rifles AKMs and Sa. Vz-58s because of their ruggedness and large quantities of available ammunition that would be supplied by the Russian federation and CZ-75s as sidearms. In order to simplify logistics those rifles were also distributed to soldiers of other nations who would be part of the army. Every infantry squad also received several RPG-7s for additional firepower.
After eyeing entire column Pavel briskly walked to his assigned APC, in this case the second modernisation of old OT-64 wheeled APC. Next to it stood his wife Catherine talking to Pahria who was de-facto adopted as a daughter by the pair and given crash-course in operating most of the modern equipment and amenities one could think of. She was enlisted into military as a specialist and would along with her former companions serve as native guide and advisor. Thanks to her new position she was given full combat uniform and protective gear along with rifle and sidearm to protect herself. Next to them Pavel saw Pert talking to his new friend the Wolf-man who clung to him during the first helicopter flight. It appeared that Czech was much easier to learn than the 'Imperialis' so while most of the soldiers struggled with their language classes, Parha and her companions managed learn to speak Czech relatively well.
After brief greeting they all boarded the APC and after a short while the order was given. Tanks reeved their engines and first two disappeared side-by-side into the portal, then came the turn for the SPAAs and after that the APCs. Pavel's APC jerked as it started slowly moving closer and closer to the horizon of the gateway. Pavel drew in breath and held it as they crossed the horizon.
Everyone saw the eternal night sky, then the stars became white streaks as they moved faster and faster, in the middle single star was growing larger until it blinded everyone. Then they blinked and found that their APC was on top of the hill in middle of moonless night.
And that is all for today folks. Thank you for your attention and I hope you have enjoyed it. This is second part of my initial testing and when I have free time or I feel like it I will continue the story. I promise that if it has some positive feedback then I will try to work on it periodically. For now it's just when I have mood (don't worry, that is very often)
