Dominion Summons

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Starcraft, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There, or Summon Japan as they are the properties of Blizzard, Takumi Yanai, and Minoro in relation to their intellectual property.

"Talking"

Thoughts


Ch. 11


~ Altaras ~

Parpaldia's invasion had already begun.

Altaras naval fleet was on stand by as a first line of defense armed with ballistas equipped with wind type magic stones to increase it's kinetic power. But against the maneuverability and firepower of Parpaldia's ships, the best they could do was stall for time. Against insurmountable odds, they fought bravely. But in the end, all hands were lost dying in the defense of their homeland as they were laid to rest beneath the ocean's waves.

With the warning sent, all hands were preparing themselves as port defenses were ready to intercept them.

However morale was not good.

They were well aware of who they were up against. All they were doing was some pointless gesture as they refused to just roll over and let Parpaldia take everything from them. They would not delude themselves into thinking that they would somehow survive this let alone win. They had no secret weapon or incredible strategy that could change this absolute fact.

Based on their intelligence of what Parpaldia have brought to their shores, it would take a miracle to pull through this.

Getting the report as scouts updated the situation, several men were gathered around a table. On it was a large map as miniatures were used to give visuals of what the battlefield situation looked like. With the recent update, the gathered men gave a pained look as their ships were removed from the map as the enemy would be arriving to their shores soon.

King Taara strained his eyes wracking his brain trying to think of what he should do next. His military leaders and tacticians were trying to figure out what to do. However the writing was already on the wall. Putting it bluntly, they were out of options. All they could do now was drag enough of these bastards down with them as they would mount their final stand from any civilian centers to contain the damage to just themselves. At the very least as his final self-fish action he wanted to make sure his daughter was able to escape.

Or at least that was going to be the plan as he eyed their new guest.

Taara was still not sure what to think about the Dominion. But one thing was certain, they were powerful.

During the short time that they introduced themselves, they demonstrated that very power.

Appearance wise, these 'marines' were taller then the average man as they wore very bulky looking armor. Though they never seemed to show their face nor talk much. In relation to their strength, a single one of them was stronger then several men put together. Contrary to their outward appearance, they were quite fast as it was a curiosity how they could be so nimble while wearing so much metal.

Showcasing their combat ability, they conducted a few mock battles as just one of them was enough to subdue them whether it was a one on one duel or against multiple opponents.

In contrast to Parpaldia's firearms, the Dominion's weapons were far superior as it didn't take a smart person to see that the differences were like heaven and earth. Unlike their enemy which could only fire one shot before needing to reload, they could fire five hundred rounds before that was even necessary. The accuracy and destructive power was something else entirely as it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say that one soldier using this weapon could hold off an opposing army on their own for some time.

In the initial attack, they had confiscated some of Parpaldia's weapons in which the Dominion insisted they tested those weapons against them.

Taking aim with their muskets, the Dominion marines stood there fearlessly as they were shot at only for the lead pellets to bounce harmlessly off their armor.

As great as it was, Taara couldn't shake off the sense of foreboding as all he was doing was trading one bad thing for another. He had asked what the Dominion wanted in exchange for such aid as he could imagine that such a price would not be cheap.

However their diplomat only responded, "we're just here to help".

". . . . How absurd" was all he can think as that was not how the world worked. But as hard as it was to believe, he was in no position to do anything about it. Without leverage or anything to barter with, the fate of his kingdom was now in the hands of these strangers from a distant land. He just had to hope that their help was truly as benevolent as it seemed at face value.

Reaching a certain point in the discussion, the leader of these marines stepped forth as he joined them at the table. "There is not much time so I will keep this brief. For those who do not know me, I am Corporal Eruk as I have been charged with the defense of these lands. Based on the direction of the enemy forces, they will likely set up their incursion here" pointing on the map. "To prevent any unnecessary loss of life this is where we shall intercept them".

"That's suicide!" one of the tacticians exclaimed. "Based on the map and current reconnaissance, you're going to face off against full weight on their oversight army. Looking at that distance, you're well within range of their naval guns. I'd advice you to reconsider!"

"That is something we've taken into consideration. However our purpose is not to defeat them but to hold them off. Reinforcements have been approved. All we need to do is hold out until they arrive".

"Will they make it here in time?" another tactician asked skeptically. They were aware of the location of Idunn. Unless their ships were parked nearby they had no idea how they would make it here in time before things got really bad.

"It is not our ships that will come" as that caused confusion among their peers. However Eruk didn't care to explain as they didn't have time nor would they understand. "Just leave it be. If there are no further question then let us depart immediately".


~ Altaras ~

Morale was high for Parpaldia's oversight army. This was just another battle like any other as they were expected to win. Now of course this wasn't going to be some walk in the park as they will suffer casualties as that was the reality of war. But with the tech advantage over their neighboring nations, the conclusion was obvious.

Every blast of their cannons was like a chime of victory.

Every shot of their musket meant an enemy has fallen.

It was hard not to let these facts swell their ego. However there was realistically no one in the third zone who could challenge them. Compared to them, all the surrounding nations were nothing more then savage barbarians. Primitives who would all meet the same fate with their necks firmly beneath the boot of their mighty empire.

Arriving near shore, their cannons destroyed a defensive outpost as they watched with amusement as Altaras soldiers scurried away like frightened animals. With no one defending the shore, it allowed them to start moving their forces to land unchallenged. Upon arrival, soldiers performed their assigned tasks.

Look outs and sentries were posted.

Land dragons were guided along to be saddled up.

Field artillery were being lined up.

Supplies were stockpiled while encampments were made.

And any other miscellaneous tasks that needed to be done.

But to insure the area was secured, riders on their wyvern overlords were deployed to scout out the area. After flying for a bit, they saw the most peculiar sight. Apparently they were soldiers running in the direction of their army in ridiculously huge armors. Was this some sort joke? Was it a secret weapon Altaras was developing to counter them?

"Pathetic" they mockingly thought to themselves.

Putting aside cost and time, there was a reason why armors fell out of fashion. With the ever growing and changing landscape of war, soldiers needed to be fast and adaptable as wearing such a thing only slowed you down. Against the power of firearms, they might as well have been dead men walking with how much of an easy target it made them. Against a wyvern or more so a wyvern overlord, they were soon going to be wishing they were dead as they would be cooked alive turning that very wasteful use of material into an expensive coffin.

Raining down a barrage of fireballs, the platoon of soldiers were engulfed in flames. With the bonfire they created, the riders were congratulating each other while insulting their enemy. However their jeering ended rather quickly as the armored soldiers emerged from the flames seemingly unscathed and equally undeterred as they continued to run.

But having gotten their attention, the armored soldiers once more surprised the riders as they used firearms they didn't know nor understand with impossible capabilities. In one volley it tore through a wyvern overlord and it's rider as their remains rained down below.

Encountering something beyond expectation, the riders fearfully flew up to hopefully move outside the range of their weapons. Maintaining a holding pattern above them, they reported the matter of the approaching danger. "Emergency situation! Unknown enemy is approaching the encampment! We have suffered casualties to their unknown magic weapons! Respond with extreme caution!"


~ Altaras ~

Eruk and his marine corp continued to push forward as they would be encountering the main contingent soon.

But frankly speaking, the combat situation was far from ideal.

They had no defense structures.

No artillery back up.

And no air support.

All they had was what they brought along on their transport being a few crates of ammo and four widow mines. But if asked again knowing the current parameters, they would still gladly take this mission without hesitation.

During Falmart's transition, there were only a few options that monsters had. Ogres were one of the few who successfully adapted after being genetically uplifted. Gaining sentience, their kind would always be eternally grateful to the Dominion for their gift. But also a chance as they were able to build something for themselves that they could be proud of.

For those who chose to join the Dominion marine corp, everyone saw it differently.

Some saw it only as a job.

Others perhaps as a calling.

But to them, it was their honor to serve as they would gladly smite anyone who would call themselves an enemy to the Dominion. A devotion that they were about to happily demonstrate.

"Sir! What are your orders?!"

"We fight!" Eruk exclaimed.

Encountering Parpaldia's first wave, they got into shooting formation as the marines were pelted with little lead balls to no effect. Responding in kind, the opposition were sprayed down with U-238 shells. Considering what these weapons were generally used to fight against, what happened wasn't a pretty picture as limbs and viscera were all that remained.

But among those they killed were a few land dragons which sparked an idea with the ogres.

Under normal circumstance marines would have used these turtle like shells as a makeshift defense structure till the cavalry arrived. However they had something more bold in mind.

Dragging the corpses along they were soon met with a rain of bullets and cannonballs.

Against there small arms fire, they had nothing to be concerned with.

But against their heavier weapons, it did pose a slight threat to them. So as some of them worked, a few of the marines deployed their combat shields either enduring or deflecting the bigger shots.

Moving the land dragons corpses into position, they created a mound to stand on. Taking the highest spot, Eruk took out a pole from his auxiliary backpack. Extending it, it deployed into the Dominion flag as he stabbed it down proudly displaying their banner, "brothers!" he shouted. "Assemble around the standard! We hold this ground in the name of the Dominion! Victory or death!"

Cheering in unison, the marines took their position maintaining a tight formation while staying out of each others line of fire.

As much as they'd want to win this battle all on their own, there were more enemy combatants then they had bullets. Not that it would stop them from crushing them all with their bare hands if need be. However their suits weren't designed with a swim function in mind so they wouldn't be able to do much against the enemy ships.

But for the riders hovering above them, the widow mines were set for only anti-air as the ogres only needed to focus on the enemy in front of them.

Now if Parpaldia were surprised now, they haven't seen nothing yet.


~ Elysia ~ (high orbit)

The Dominion space station christened 'Guardian' had received the call as they were moving into position.

It's high powered cameras focused to the scene below as the technicians confirmed the situation as they started relaying the necessary information.

Going over their options, the station was still not fully green lit as it had only began active duty recently. Some of it's systems were still going through diagnostics before being given approval to be used on the field. As such they only had one support option that can be used for now.

Over the intercom, "orbital drop has been approved. Location has been marked. Pilots, get suited up. E.T.A., fifteen minutes".

Getting to the changing rooms, the chosen pilots were getting dressed.

"Place still has a new car smell and we're already being called in" said Seith. "Sheesh, you'd think we wouldn't be called to action so soon".

"You sound nervous" said Dillon.

"Who's nervous?!" Seith shot back.

Dillon could only softly chuckle as he fixed his helmet. "Not sure why you wanted this job if you got such a problem with heights. Being dropped from high orbit is as high as it gets".

"I'm not a kid you know! I'm just one of the few people who clocked in the most hours in piloting the new mech. So it's only natural I was one of their top options".

"Yeah well, just try not to get too scared on the way down".

"Why you!"

Racing to the launch stations, pilots got into their assigned titans as they were most ideal for the current situation. Although they didn't have any specialties there main strength was their versatility and adaptability. They could possess the firepower of a battleship while keeping the mobility and speed of a fighter craft.

The lead pilot then took point as he addressed his unit. "listen up! Our boys on the ground are keeping the enemy at bay. Our job is to clean up what they miss as it doesn't get any simpler then that. Now let's get the job done!" as the mech cockpits closed as they went to their drop pods. "Alright here we go! Stand by for titan fall!"

Fired out of the magnetic launchers as they entered the atmosphere, the outer hull of the drop pods were heating up from the friction and pressure build up. But to those inside, they only felt slight shaking at most as the pods were equipped with inertia dampeners and thermal protection properties to guarantee a relatively safe trip down.

Based on relative velocity, they will be arriving to the combat zone soon.


~ Altaras ~

"What is this madness?!" Bafram demanded as blood dripped down his face as his once pristine uniform was caked in dirt and soot.

He was the field commander in charge of the subjugation of Altaras. It was supposed to be a simple job as they would easily overwhelm the defending forces. But getting word from their scouts, he was surprised at first only to disregard it as a matter of luck in taking down a wyvern overlord.

Considering the men and firepower they brought along they should have easily been swept away. However he had then lost contact with the men he sent. Moments later, these armored men showed up dragging the corpses of the land dragons they had just slayed.

Quickly ordering his soldiers into formation, several lines were created as they shot at them while the back lines quickly took their place to keep on the pressure. Meanwhile, a few teams manned the cannons as they calculated the distance as they fired the moment the order was given.

Yet regardless of how much they laid into them the unknown enemy remained unharmed. Even the cannonballs that hit in their direction at most caused them to flinch or get knocked back only for them to retake their place.

Watching what they were doing, a tinge of fear had gripped his heart. These armored men stood upon a hill of dead land dragons as they displayed a flag he didn't recognize. Seeing the weapons in their hands, he recalled the scouts warning. "Get to cover! Now!"

But it was far too late for that. Parpaldia's military tactics were quite similar to the one's used on Earth centuries ago in relation to Terran history. A time when firearms technology was still quite primitive using an obsolete gunpowder formula with a flint lock mechanism to cause an ignition in order to fire out a single small lead ball. Hence the use of firing lines in order to maximize the use of these weapons.

However with the evolution of firearms technology, Parpaldia's current tactics made them lambs to the slaughter.

In a few passes of their automatic rifles, the entire front line was met with a gruesome end. At such a display of overwhelming power, morale among Parpaldia's soldiers was starting to free fall. Fear and chaos had taken hold as they couldn't compose themselves. After all, this was not the kind of battle they were expecting or even knew how to fight. Being taught to only fight a certain way they had no idea what to do. As a result, formations fell into disarray as they ran to anywhere they could take cover.

But it didn't help them much as the power of the enemies guns simply shot right through them.

For those who tried to fight back, it only damaged morale further. Their muskets were pretty much useless clumps of metal and wood if they weren't loaded. As they saw for themselves, it had no effect against these armored men. Forget about charging their position as that was equivalent to suicide.

The only effective weapon they had were their cannons. Even then there uses were limited with the time it took to reload and fire. If it did hit, it didn't seem to do much damage. Much to their dismay, the cannoneers were taken out shortly after as no one can operate them while being shot at.

As for their wyvern riders, they had no idea what kind of magic they were using as something they couldn't see was attacking them. The moment they got close, a flash of light would erupt from the ground as their air cavalry would be reduced into bloody chunks.

With all these factors, Bafram only had two real choices left. The first was using wave tactics to quickly deploy the full weight of their army. It shouldn't matter how powerful their weapons were. There had to be a limit to them as they would eventually run out. Secondly, the enemy was within range on their ships naval guns. Going over his options, they would be completely wiped out before they could mount a proper wave tactic assault. Thus, "requesting support fire from the fleet! Take out the enemy position!"

Receiving the request, their ships moved into position as all their side ports opened up revealing several rows of magic powered cannons. Being in fixed positions, they were only able to fire in a specific direction. So as ordered by the naval commander, all their ships sailed in a large circular motion allowing them to fire their cannons one after another in turn giving a steady stream of fire support at the enemy position.

Now under a barrage of cannonballs and unable to effectively counter, the marines could only hold position withstanding the brunt of the attack with their combat shields. But as advanced as their technology was, it could only take so much punishment before giving in.

Although it looked bad, Eruk would not abandon their position. For each marine corp, they all had their own types of training and chants with only a few things shared among them. But for the ogre division, this was their mantra. "Stand your ground! If we die, we die with vengeance on our lips!" As grim as it sounded, to them is was more for encouragement.

"Vengeance!" they cheered once more as the group was being covered in explosions, fire, dirt, and smoke.

As Parpaldia had thought they had finally managed to push these mysterious armored men back, that sense of relief was replaced by another unexpected event.

Their battlefield was covered by an eerie shadow as Parpaldia's soldiers looked in the direction of where it was coming from. Right above them, three mysterious objects were falling at incredible speed as it soon hit the ground creating a quake as several men were knocked off their feet.

Within that brief pause as Parpaldia's forces tried to understand the abnormal situation, the 'pods' soon opened as six giant 'metal golems' emerged. The moment they appeared, their chances of survival took another big dip.


~ Altaras ~

Each titan was customized in accordance to the preference of their pilot or for the needs of the mission.

Seeing what they were up against, they didn't need anything fancy.

The onboard adjutant scanned the area giving them rough numbers of what was left of the enemy forces. Coming up with the final number, two titans would remain behind to secure the beach while the other four will take out the ships.

They weren't designed for long distance flying. But it was good enough to make one very long jump. With their thrusters igniting, each titan landed on an enemy ship much to the fear and panic of the crew.

How each ship was neutralized was up to the pilots discretion.

One was armed with a modified anti-ship autocannon refitted into the form a rifle as it easily tore holes through a wooden vessel.

Another was packing a giant sword allowing it to cleave it's way through.

Knowing the ships composition, one titan was armed with a flame thrower as it proceeded to burn it all down.

Factoring in weight, velocity, and efficiency, the last pilot just flew higher letting gravity do the work as the mech's frame from that height crushed the ship all on it's own.

Before long, all enemy ships were neutralized.

Any survivors left had no choice but to get to shore and surrender. It was quite impossible to make it all the way back to the Philades continent without a proper ship or any supplies. Thus the surviving soldiers were put in a terrible situation as they were at the mercy of the very country they had tried to invade.

With the battle finished and dealing with clean up, the Dominion waited to see what Parpalida next move was going to be.

To be continued . . . .


Author's notes: From this point I'm going to be making a few significant changes to the canon story of how the Dominion will deal with Parpaldia. Hopefully I can pull it off well with the information I gathered and folks I discussed it with. Now onto some commentary.

How this part of the story was going to go should've been a forgone conclusion. Problem was trying to design it in a way that was fair to what they Dominion at this time had available to them and based on that how they would deal with the situation.

First off I do have to admit that writing this chapter was heavily influenced and inspired by the final battle in 'Warhammer 40k Space Marines 2' with the dialogue and battle scene. Hopefully the explanation and reasoning was sufficient with the ogres demeanor in how and why they fight the way they do. Of course they aren't suicidal. But they are proud, confident, and understanding of what they could do. Thus why they chose to fight like they did against the invading Parpaldia forces in such a bold and perhaps reckless manner.

Also shout out to 'Titanfall' as I just love that line of 'stand by for titan fall'. But concerning the mechs they are using, to give more clarity about their design and appearance, just imagine it being like a titan from that game franchise with also elements from the mechs of 'Armored Core'. As mentioned back in chapter one, the operating system and controls were based on the substance Arpeggio accidentally created prioritizing thought before action giving the mech an impressive response time. If you're also a fan of 'Gundam', then you can think of it like the psycho frame system. I'll go into specifics about it's capabilities in the future.

Now I'm going to need to address the demon incursion as it did happen around the time of when Parpaldia was attacking Altaras and Fenn. So the next chapter will address their response to it as Topa will come to ask for aid. Also from here is where the story will branch off for a bit in two different directions. On one hand of how the Dominion will deal with Parpaldia moving forward. And on the other with the exploration and investigation of the demon continent. Also got some fascinating suggestions to how to spice up Parpaldia story. Hope I can implement them well.

If there are any questions or concerns feel free to ask as I'll try to answer them.

So thank you for reading as I further extend my gratitude if you can review as well.