Gate: Army of the Earth Federation

AN: (March 30th 2019) I've gotten some reviews expressing confusing regarding the ability of the Iron Knight squadron fighting the Garvanian fighter squadron, and the military options of the Earth Federation. But without spending too much time on any one question specifically all I can say is, no nukes will be used, but they will be discussed. I'm aware that modern militaries focus on targeting supplies and other such points of value, but if I made such events and tactics that simple, well this wouldn't be an interesting story. Earth Federation SAMs do definitely have the range to hit the Garvanian aircraft, but however it still takes time for the missiles to reach, and with allied aircraft potentially so close, launching SAMs carries a risk. And we wouldn't get a fun to write, and read, aerial battle.

In terms of range of radars and detection, yes the Russian Su-35 and the American F-15X have the range on their AESA radars to detect up to 400km away. But what I was writing, and failed to explain in better detail. The Fighter jets were loaded for close range combat as they were expecting to tango with dragons as the worst case scenario, they weren't loaded or expecting to fight other fighter like aircraft. Even if they were anticipating the possibility of fighting other aircraft, rules of engagement in many countries is to visually identify the 'target' aircraft before engagement due to the possibility of a mix up with civilian aircraft. Not to mention the Earth Federation had not yet met the Garvanian Empire yet, so there was no precedent for hostilities. So firing long range missiles at the aircraft could have been argued as jumping to conclusions and needlessly starting a war, or at least that's a potential argument for the Earth Federation critics.

But anyway, onto the next chapter.

CHAPTER 13

Federation to Arms!

Akalu walked outside onto the tarmac as the remaining pilots of the Iron Knight squadron limped their planes onto the airbase. Four Su-35's and four F-15X's landed on the runway and pulled into their designated pits where the pilots managed to drag their tired and battle weary bodies out of their planes.

Emergency vehicles and maintenance crews scrambled to tend to their weary comrades and their planes.

Akalu however only needed to speak to the Squadron leader. Knight-1. Akalu found Knight-1 sitting down by his slightly damaged F-15X, being tended to by medical personnel to make sure he was in good health before letting him go.

"Captain" Akalu announced to the still being attended to Squadron Commander.

"Sir!" Knight-1 replied attempting to stand to show respect to his commanding officer. Only to be held back by the medics, obviously anticipating Knight-1's actions.

"No need to stand Knight-1, I just need to ask one question. Then when your given the ok from the medics, I need to see you in the tower" Akalu said.

"Yes sir" Knight-1 replied.

"Knight-1...based on what you saw, what did you think this alien fighter squadron was doing there?" Akalu asked.

Truth be told Akalu wasn't expecting a detailed explanation, but an experienced fighter pilot is trained to observe other fighter squadrons movements and from that take an educated guess on their intentions.

"We didn't get much time to observe them sir, but from what I could tell, it looked like they were mostly surveying the coast. Without watching them further I could only guess they were performing a recon mission" Knight-1 said.

"And I'm guessing there were no noticeable antenna's or other communication equipment on the enemy jets" Akalu said.

"Yes sir, much like our jets, there's no noticeable antenna or communication equipment"

"Very good, heal up, check up on your Squadron, and when your all squared away, come find me in either the tower, or on the Officers floor in the HQ" Akalu replied.

"Yes sir!" Knight-1 replied.

Akalu stood up and left the tarmac, now that he had at least a basic idea of what the alien fighters were doing there, he had a better idea of what to expect and where to post his forward units in anticipation of an enemy attack.

Meanwhile on the Continent West of Falmart

"Commander Grandorg, you called for me?" A random Garvanian Commander announced as he entered his commanders tent.

"Yes, was there any other extra information that you or your team could pick up from the radar and onboard cameras on our fighter jets that encountered those strange Fighter Jets?" Grandorg asked.

"Yes sir, these are some of the blown up pictures, of the enemy Fighter Jets" the commander handed several photos to Grandorg.

"Thank-you" Grandorg said as he turned his attention to the photos.

Grandorg spent the next couple minutes quickly looking through the photos, before turning his attention to the commander again.

"Are all of our fighter squadrons back?" Grandorg asked.

"Yes sir"

"Any new information from them?"

"Yes sir, we just finished processing the photos" the commander handed over more photos to Grandorg.

"Thanks, your dismissed" Grandorg said.

"Yes sir"

Grandorg began flipping through all the photos more slowly and began taking in all the detail. Most of the villages and towns on the Eastern Continent were indeed primitive by their standards, and showed no signs of advanced technology and life. However Grandorg soon found himself looking at pictures of the enemy fighter jets that his recon squadron encountered. They indeed seemed to be crudely designed, however both designs of the Su-35 and the F-15X seemed to hold a strange aerodynamic beauty to them that seemed to be hidden to all but those who don't look at the jets merely as pieces of equipment, but as tools built to serve a purpose.

Grandorg could feel his irritation grow as none of the pictures of the Eastern Continent aside from the fighter jets told him anything about this new enemy. It didn't matter, the Empire had supplies, equipment, and personnel to spare, their planet was teeming with citizens begging to expand to new lands that were no longer available on their home world. Much like a bottle of liquid it was constantly being filled but had no more room for volume. Their home world was ready to burst at the seams, and this gate had provided them the necessary outlet for their people. And the prospect of a war only seemed to excite the Garvanian Empire even further, as conflict and death would only serve to create room for others in the empire back home.

Truth be told Grandorg didn't like the idea of sending hundreds of thousands or millions of his people to their deaths in a meaningless way. But with a planet filled with around 88 Billion people on it, an economy and technological industry in stagnation after hundreds of years without any meaningful conflict, and every inch of available room used for living room or set aside for farming valuable food, deaths here meant less mouths to feed, and more job opportunities for those back home. Any land or resources gained on this world would only become a bonus.

But the losses of his fighter jets against an enemy nation or possibly another world, able to beat a fighter jet squadron of his roughly 3-1 only just showed him how far behind their military technology is. This nation, or world, whatever it is, is either powerful, or has gone through so much conflict that their military technology evolved much further than theirs did. Or any number of other possibilities, Grandorg couldn't even begin to guess which one was most prevalent or which group of possibilities was prevalent. Either way he had a job to do, and his job was to take as much land as possible. And if another nation or empire was going to impede that he needed to confront them as soon as possible.

Grandorg got up and exited the tent and turned to a nearby soldier.

"Bring all the battle commanders to me immediately" Grandorg ordered.

"Yes sir" the soldier replied before running off to find the battle commanders.

A short while later, Grandorg was standing in his tent with dozens of his army commanders in there with him, patiently waiting for his command.

"Commanders, I have recently been given photos of the Eastern Continent, their defences are minimal, the enemy's presence is minimal, but make no mistake, the enemy will come, and many will die, but until then, we need to secure as much land as possible. We have Araks, we have Kaks, we have our new Zinak fighter jets, which I admit, did take a beating not to long ago, but the jet is young, and it will be upgraded no doubt. But we cannot wait for the scientists to come up with new abilities for our jets, territory must be taken, and room for our people must be made. Thus I now say this. Commanders, I'm now giving the order, Launch the Invasion of the Eastern Continent!" Grandorg ordered.

"FOR THE GLORY OF THE EMPIRE!" the commanders cried in acknowledgement before leaving the tent to muster their armies.

Grandorg left his tent to watch the seemingly endless mass of soldiers pack their things, their vehicles warming up their engines, and their aircraft, both big and small loading up and getting ready to take to the sky.

While the sight was indeed glorious to behold, Grandorg could only watch with a heavy heart, while he knew very few of these Garvanians who were going to war, the fact that many of them would die still weighed heavily on his heart, but no matter how much it weighed on his heart, he couldn't loose sight of the fact that if they didn't expand the empire and their planet would never exit the stagnation it has found itself in.

Grandorg then took a deep breath, as he heard the large aircraft engines roar to life. He would save his planet, save the empire, even if it meant getting millions killed, it was the only way.

Meanwhile at Alnus Base

Akalu was sitting in a room with Eric, Ludwig, Hazama, and the new commander of the 1st Army Airforce, Lt. General Andrew Crawford. They were standing in a large meeting room, around a large metal table carrying a large digital screen displaying the map of Falnus with the general locations of all their military assets, all they were waiting for now was to be briefed on the updates of the 2nd and 3rd Armies.

"I just got off the radio with Admiral Thomas, he's taking a large army convoy and pushing West as fast as possible to hopefully gain the intended base ground for the 3rd Army. The 2nd Army as arrived at it's intended station and is setting up base as fast as possible, they'll have a basic Airbase up and running in a few days, until then I'm going to ask Andrew to push our current Airforce to provide air cover for a couple days until the 2nd Army can get aircraft into the air." Hazama said.

"Understood sir, we're going to receive new F-15Xs and new Su-35's to replace the lost aircraft in the battle with the unknown enemy not too long ago. I'll have all aircraft in the air set for heavy air-to-air combat, our pilots were previously not ready or properly loaded for such an encounter. I'll have the heavy lifters on standby with heavy munitions ready for heavy ground assault." Andrew replied.

"Excellent, Ludwig, how's our ground forces?" Hazama asked.

"Rough sir, Admiral Thomas took a lot of our Vestern equipment, but ironically left us the soldiers. I'm getting all the soldiers who are now vithout a vehicle to train on the new T-90Ms, Japanese Type 10s, and some on the T-14 Armatas." Ludwig explained.

"How many soldiers are ready to mobilize in the event we need to back up our allies?" Hazama asked.

"50 thousand ready to go right now, I'll have 100 thousand ready to move by the the end of the veek" Ludwig replied.

"So only half of our total combat forces by the end of the week, what about the other half?" Hazama asked.

"They are the ones being trained on the new equipment that they vill be using, the time it vill take to get them ready vill be at least a couple of months if you vish me to get them up to a proficient standard" Ludwig answered.

Hazama sighed. "Well, I prefer them at a proficient ability to work their equipment versus them barely able to operate them at all. Take all the time you need to get them ready".

"Yes sir" Ludwig replied dutifully.

Hazama then turned to Eric. "Eric what's the status of our Special Forces, and our...'special' forces?" Hazama asked, obviously lacking the words to describe the special regioners military designation.

"Coming along well sir, the Dark Elves are taking to the training quickly, it seems that having Eriana with them is helping motivate them to adapt to the training quicker. Volunteers from the town outside Alnus has also been abundant, but many encounter doubt part way through and aren't sure if they wish to continue" Eric explained.

"No doubt having Akalu and the EF saving their lives from a dragon helps as well, how many are fully trained or appear to be willing to go through training?" Hazama asked.

"Total number of ready and willing 'Special' forces numbers just over a thousand, with two thousand more well on the way. While they are learning the firearms well enough, getting them in vehicles is a more daunting task" Eric explained.

"Could we attach them to a mechanized unit so they can at least see what it's like to have access and support from such equipment?" Hazama asked.

"I don't know sir I'd have to inquire from company and battalion commanders to see if any are willing to take them in or train with them." Eric answered.

"I suggest having them train with the soldiers getting used to their new vehicles" Akalu suggested.

"Good idea, they can learn together, then that'll give us time to see if we can group them with another company or battalion" Hazama said.

"Understood sir" Eric, and Ludwig replied in unison.

Hazama finally turned to Akalu.

"Well Akalu, what do you suggest we do now that we've had hostile contact with a military force from the continent to the West" Hazama asked.

"We only have 50 thousand troops ready to deploy, and since we're technically the third line of defence our forces will be conducting more patrols more than anything else. Those that aren't on patrol will be set up as a rapid reaction force until the rest of our units are trained and ready to go. Our forces will focus on the territories along the mountain range, and more on the coast line." Akalu said pointing to the corresponding armies on the map.

"Why along the coast and the mountains?" Andrew asked.

"We have a number of armies here, building up their resources to occupy their designated territories to our North and East, which means we're protected from those sides so far. With the 2nd and 3rd Armies rushing West without properly securing the territory in order to hopefully secure the west coast before the large army on west continent tries to cross." Akalu explained.

"But with so much land between us and the furthest West coast of this Continent why are we on alert for their forces to press us?" Eric asked.

"With a force the size of theirs them opening a second, or third, or fourth front is very likely, if they have even a half decent commander leading their forces, then I wouldn't be surprised if they first aim for False Italy. Out in the open water, narrow land, thus easy to attack if there are no defences, and easy to defend and watch once taken." Akalu explained.

"Vhich means ve need a Navy, and fast" Ludwig added.

"Agreed which is why I called up an old friend who is the commander of a navy fleet back on Earth, and with Hazama's permission he is now the commander of our navy" Akalu said, earning some looks of confusion as there was no one else there who could be their new Naval Commander.

"Don't worry he will be along later, he's currently at the Naval ship yard we have just set up south of the Imperial Capital, once he's got everything squared away he'll come introduce himself to us" Akalu reassured his fellow commanders.

"Until then, Ludwig I'm going to give you a list of Divisions numbered 1-5. Each Division is currently 10 thousand men strong with their corresponding vehicles and supplies." Akalu began.

"Excellent, vhere vould you like me to put them?" Ludwig asked.

"Have our Armored and Mechanized Divisions. Divisions 1 and 2 wait at the edge of our territory near the nape of False Italy, if the enemy attacks there I want those Divisions ready to move in to provide assistance to the 2nd Army. I also want our Marine Divisions, Divison 3, and 4 to move to the small peninsula to our South, near the town of Tumaren, from there I want the Marines in those Divisions to move to the chain of island just off that peninsula, we need to secure all of Glass Bay to protect our Ship yard and give our ships a chance to actually launch." Akalu paused for a moment to make sure that Ludwig was keeping up with him, to which Akalu recieved a nod of understanding from Ludwig.

"Finally I need our Engineering Division, Division 5 to move to that large lake far far East of here. As far as I know that lake has no name, so we're just calling it 'Lake 5' for now. There they will set up a training ground for field exercises and training for us to use." Akalu instructed.

"Yes sir, vill do" Ludwig acknowledged, Ludwig then saluted and exited the room.

"Eric, you keep training with the units adjusting units here, I'm going to get more Special Regioner forces for us to train, while several thousand is a great starting point, we need many more if our enemy comes at us in great force." Akalu instructed.

"Yes sir!" Eric acknowledged and saluted following Ludwig's example, and then promptly left the room.

"Andrew, I need you to send several aircraft on recon missions preferably along the coast line

I need to know if those other-other worlders are attempting to open up a front much closer to us" Akalu said.

"Will do, but you know that none of our aircraft can go very far without drop tanks, and even then they can't go too far" Andrew explained.

"Which is why I got you a couple special presents" Akalu said, handing Andrew a folder.

"What's this" Andrew asked opening the folder revealing a specifications sheet and an image of a world famous aircraft. "What? You got me, a couple of SR-71 BLACKBIRDS"

"Yes, but Andrew you need to be gentle with these things, they're heavily retrofitted, and upgraded. The plane hasn't even undergone serious stress tests yet. It'll survive the stress of flying, and can fly absurdly long distances, but it may or may not survive any serious manoeuvres, which means slow ascent, and decent too. No hard landings if you can help it." Akalu warned.

"Got it sir, I understand" Andrew said happily as he couldn't wait to get these things in the air. And without missing a beat, Andrew stood up, saluted, and left.

"Well then, what should you and I do now?" Hazama asked Akalu.

"Your the commanding officer of the 1st Army and your asking me?" Akalu asked in a light mocking tone.

"I'm the commanding officer, I command armies, fight politicians, decide the path we will take as a standing army. But I'm not a strategist, and I'm standing next to the best strategist in the world, no matter what Admiral Thomas says" Hazama said both retorting, and taking Akalu's side in this weird Akalu vs. Thomas fight, that seems to be happening behind the scenes.

"Hahahahahaha. I guess Admiral Thomas had a talk with you as well?" Akalu asked.

"Yes he did, and he obviously had nothing but nice things to say about you" Hazama replied.

"Do you believe anything he said?" Akalu asked.

"Some things yes. But that's because your father made me familiar with your history, so I'm at least partly aware of what Admiral Thomas was lying about" Hazama said.

"Oh, like what?" Akalu asked.

"Like how you cheat at the war games at the annual meeting of Military Minds" Hazama said.

"Oh he's still bitter about that is he?" Akalu asked outloud. He was sure that Thomas already over that, but undoubtedly it was still eating at him a bit, which explains some of his grudge against him.

"Regardless, he end request was to have you removed as the second in command. I of course I not only refused, I called him out on his lies. Suffice to say he wasn't happy, he threatened my career by pulling strings with the American government, who in turn have connections with the Japanese Government, but I also told him he may be able to take our military equipment as he could argue that he'll be the first line of defence against the threat on the Western Continent, but no amount of 'strings' or favours he calls in will allow him to control the Earth Federation. It was one of the reasons this organization was created in the first place." Hazama explained.

"Glad to hear it, dealing with that man, despite the joy I get out of tormenting him, can leave me rather frustrated even at the best of times." Akalu sighed.

"What do you think?" Hazama asked earning a quick look of confusion from Akalu. "About these other-other-worlders?" Hazama clarified.

"I wish I knew more. The photos I have seen all point to an enemy that's not technologically advanced, or at least not in the sense that we understand. All their equipment appear to be at least simple but very effective in their design. Their jets have proven at least that much, being able to almost keep up with our jets in speed, but didn't use any close range homing missiles." Akalu began.

"How many jets do we have? Fighters I mean?" Hazama asked.

"A couple hundred. If the ratio from the last battle holds, we would take out a thousand of their fighters at most, before we lose all of ours. And with the 2nd and 3rd Armies not even having an airbase set up yet, our airbase and our aircraft are all that stand between our world and this other invading army." Akalu said. "We needed more time Hazama. And the sophistication and complexity of our military equipment has not helped"

"But China and Russia both use simple and advanced technology. Surely we can't be that far behind in production time." Hazama stated.

"It's not production we're behind on, we have enough material resources to get several more satellites into orbit. Our Naval base is now making their first Destroyers, we'll have a navy soon enough, but the only army that does, meaning that

all the coasts of Falmart are vulnerable unless our one base and handful of ships can defend it." Akalu said.

"But surely the invading army couldn't have developed a substantial Airforce, or Navy force yet for that matter?" Hazama asked.

"Their technology, and building processes are much simpler than ours. Much of our equipment relies on computer technology, which requires a lot of wires, fibre optics, cameras, sensors, programming downloads. Our WWII and early Cold War equipment had no where NEAR that much extra stuff to install and attach. A simple transportation ship for them could take a week, or a month depending on how many individuals they can get to work on it." Akalu said.

"But for an 8 million man army how many ships would they need in order to transport everyone?" Hazama asked.

"Oh thousands" Akalu answered. "Again depending on how big the ships themselves are"

"Is there anything we can do to stem the tide?" Hazama asked.

"There are tons of things we can do, but none of them are really options until the invading army makes the first move" Akalu said.

"Why's that? I mean, I can't even believe I'm saying this, but couldn't we just nuke them?" Hazama asked, earning a rather shocked look from Akalu. "I mean, 8 million men, 1 nuke, seems like a very good trade, not to mention it would be easy, they probably wouldn't even have Anti-Ballistic Missile Technology"

"Uh, first while that sounds easy, and let's not start with the moral issues of using a Nuclear Missile. Second, assuming the winds and tides don't send the nuclear fallout our way, we'll eventually have to secure the Western Continent, and their gate, which means we'll be sending men and equipment through that fallout anyway, and with how potent our nuclear weapons have become, it'll take decades for that to disappear" Akalu said.

"But what if we never go there, I-I know I'm sounding foolish, cause we would need to secure the gate for the sake of needing to make sure they don't come back through. But let me play devils advocate, what else would stop us from using a nuke?" Hazama asked.

"Aside from the moral implicatons, such as using it on the local natives who are otherwise innocent. Well there's the set up time, it would take a bit of time to set up any nuclear silos" Akalu answered.

"Not true, the Russian Sarmat would take time to get here, but it's mobile" Hazama said.

Akalu cringed a little, Hazama caught him in a tiny lie. While it would indeed take time for the Sarmat to get here, and it is mobile. Akalu was more referring to landbased missiles, but he was aware of the Russian Sarmat, but hoped that Hazama didn't think about the Sarmat.

"Ok, you got me, strategically speaking, beyond denying a large swath of land to the enemy, and at the same time us, through nuclear fallout, would be a small price to pay for the millions just one nuke could kill. But as mentioned before, that's if we're ignoring the moral problems of using such a weapon. Much like Chemical Weapons, strategically, they are invaluable, but they kill indiscriminately, doesn't matter whether if its and animal, child, or a solider, if they're in the area of use, they die. Which is why I won't condone the use of such weapons." Akalu said.

"And I don't disagree, but if push were to come to shove, and the enemy is bearing down on our final defences, would you then condone the use of such weapons?" Hazama asked.

"As a weapon of last resort, yes, but I'd have to know I've done all I could before using such a weapon" Akalu answered with a heavy sigh, despite his lack of desire to use it, not even he could say 'I'll never use such a thing'.

"But what else could we do to strengthen our position, granted we're facing enemies that have, as far as we know, equipment somewhat above our WWII selves. But is there something else we could do to better our chances?" Hazama asked, more as an overhead question, than out of desperation.

He ordered all the equipment, vehicles, aircraft, ammo, food, and fuel he could afford, and what they could store. But against a determined enemy even that may not be enough.

"There is plenty more we can do" Akalu said.

"Oh" Hazama said rather joyfully. "Such as?"

"Our biggest problem shouldn't be numbers, but how many rounds we can throw at any one time while clashing with our enemy. If they had a hundred tanks, while we have only one. If our tank can take out each of their tanks with a single shot without fail, then our tank would need to be able to fire 100 rounds before the enemy gets within distance to shoot, or before their tanks land a hit on ours." Akalu explained.

"Now fortunately, or unfortunately, warfare isn't that simple, if they have a hundred thousand tanks, while we only have a few thousand, we need to be able to destroy theirs faster than they can destroy ours, now fortunately we have time, accuracy, and mobility on our side. What we don't have on our side is room for error when it comes to losses." Akalu continued.

"But surely such advantages in technology would make such concerns secondary no?" Hazama asked.

"Don't be foolish" Akalu said in a light tone so as to not come across as offensive. "Advantages are nothing more than room for error. It means that the side with more advantages can make more mistakes, or failures before that 'side' has well and truely lost the war. We have such advantages to allow ourselves such failures, and losses. A population of 7 billion people. Industries that are advancing rapidly due to co-operation, economies that were once failing, are now flourishing from what I last heard. But no amount of advantages can change the square footage of land we have. No amount of technological advantages can change the limits of the people's grief and anger due to heavy deaths. Our power, as great as it is, still has significant limitations" Akalu said.

"Hm, so how do we mitigate such limitations?" Hazama asked rather impressed.

"First we need to obviously build greater fortifications that what we have. Pre-align artillery from certain locations to where they'd likely need to target. But above all else, we need to nurture the capabilities of the locals here" Akalu said.

"The locals? You mean like what we're doing with the Dark Elf Tribe?" Hazama asked.

"Similar, but this world has many abilities they can offer us, ones that no doubt could also be exploited by these other-other-worlders if they're smart" Akalu said.

"What things?" Hazama asked.

"Tamable dragons to start, dragons can offer advantages of scouting an area that aircraft cannot. For example, being able to fly in low, and quiet, and a few of them could carry a small team of special forces, not to mention they could fast travel specific supplies at minimal cost." Akalu began.

"I see, anything else?" Hazama asked getting rather excited at such potential.

"I'm sure your aware, but there's also magic in this world" Akalu said.

"Yeah I remember hearing something about it. But what could it possibily do to help us?" Hazama asked not knowing much about magic in general.

"Well it does depend on the capabilities of magic in general, if it's really destructive, we can put it to use on the battlefield, if it's capable of healing, then definitely apply it to the medical field, if we can use it to help construction or transportation then we can apply it there too." Akalu said.

"Sounds like magic could be of great help to us" Hazama said.

"Indeed, but I also heard that magic ability isn't very common in this world, and usage of magic can come with limitations as well, whether it's cultural, or sacrificial it too must come with limitations, otherwise just one powerful magic user could have conquered this world" Akalu said.

"I see, but I'm still fascinated about the idea of using magic in battle, or even if it can be used in our world" Hazama said.

"Good idea, I'll have to ask and see if we can test it in our world. It would certainly be interesting to see if it can be used in both worlds, or to see if maybe a limitation is something in the environment in this world allows them to use it." Akalu added.

"What else?" Hazama asked.

"Well, for military potential, that's all I have for now, but something we definitely need to expand on is mineral research, and agricultural development in this world. If there are materials here that we can use to make better and stronger materials for our equipment, then that'll only help us even further, but however that's also assuming that the laws of physics, and chemistry of our world and this world are also the same" Akalu said.

"Such as if a really strong material here would remain a strong material in our world?" Hazama asked.

"Not necessarily, if such a thing were true, and it is still possible, then our tanks could have become literally paper upon passing through the gate. What I'm more getting at is if the materials in this world are industrially compatible with the materials we already know and work with." Akalu explained.

"Oh I see, such as if we were to mix steel with another material to see if it becomes stronger or more brittle" Hazama said.

"Exactly, theoretically combining strong materials together gets a stronger material. I'm aware that that's a very simplified way of looking at it, but Steel, or Iron is a raw material in that it doesn't need much processing to become it's own material. Composites on the other hand require more processing in order to become a reality. If we can apply such processes to make better materials, great, if it has the opposite effect, then we're starting from scratch" Akalu said.

"I see, what will you do for now then?" Hazama asked.

"I'm going to head to the naval base and meet with our naval commander, and see what we can get going. But until then I have the assets that are battle ready moving out and taking positions to reinforce the 2nd and 3rd Armies should the need arise. Plus Andrew just received his new toys, we should start getting long range recon reports soon" Akalu said.

"Excellent, well, I suggest you get underway then Mr. Strategist" Hazama teased.

"Will do Mr. Commander" Akalu replied back. "And hopefully nothing will demand my return until I'm done" Hazama could only nod in agreement as Akalu left his office.

5 hours later

Akalu had taken a small convoy with Team Valkyrie to the 1st Army's Naval Base, where Akalu would meet their Naval commander. The team had only just arrived at the freshly dried and cured Concrete docks where the base hulls of the first Destroyers were being built. A large number of sealed off buildings were also erected along the docks, big enough to store several tankers if need be. But that's not what was concerning Akalu right now, what was concerning him was the man running towards his vehicle.

Akalu exited the vehicle with Itami to meet the man running towards them.

"Ah Akalu, I wasn't expecting you so soon" the man called as he approached Akalu and a somewhat confused Itami.

"I apologize for the surprise my friend, but unfortunately this couldn't wait, and I needed to check up on a couple things myself" Akalu said.

"Ah fair enough, I'll show you around then and update you on what I've got accomplished so far" the man said.

"Um, pardon me, but" Itami began earning Akalu's and the strangers attention. "Akalu, who is this?"

"Oh, pardon me. Chendu, this is 2nd Lt. Itami, Itami this is Rear Admiral Lang Chendu, the Commander of the 1st Army's Navy, from the People's Liberation Army Navy" Akalu introduced.

Itami quickly came to attention and saluted.

"Pleasure to meet you sir, I heard we finally got a Naval Commander, I just didn't realize I'd meet you here" Itami said.

"No worries, the pleasure is all mine, after all I wanted to meet the man who helped lead the defence of Ginza during the Empires invasion"

"Oh you still remember that" Itami blushed.

"Of course, I wanted to take part in the meeting to discuss the creation of the Earth Federation, but it was a close friend of mine who got the invitation not me, so I had to wait on the side lines as everything went down" Chendu explained.

'Aw man he got to sit around and watch while I had to deal with that stressful situation, and the convention got cancelled too, I'm still sore about that' Itami internally groaned fighting back tears of jealousy.

Sensing Itami's internal frustration, Akalu decided to change the subject. "Well, as much as I'm enjoying this, Chendu, could you please?" Akalu asked.

"Oh of course." Chendu said as he turned to lead the group deeper into the docks.

"Hey sir" Duncan called wanting to follow.

"Yes you guys can come if you want" Akalu said as he motioned for any members of Valkyrie squad to follow. All the members of the squad quickly ran to join Akalu and Chendu, some staying silent, others admiring the facilities on the new shipyard.

"How go the developments?" Akalu asked.

"Going well so far, the supplies are in great abundance. I was afraid that since that ass of an American Admiral administratively hijacked so much of your equipment and resources I was afraid that I wouldn't have anything to work with once I got here" Chendu said.

"That's great, did the new sources for materials live up to expectations or did any of them disappoint?" Akalu asked.

"Forgive me for interrupting but can I ask for a little more details? I know its presumptuous of me, but I'm a little confused" Duncan asked feeling left out of a lot of details.

"Oh, sure. Because Admiral Thomas hijacked so much equipment he obviously needed an abundance of resources to feed his quickly growing roster. Thus he also hijacked a lot of contracts for resources and finished materials to build our army. Including steel, computers, and other such items. But I kinda thought that might happen so I quietly put in extra contracts to offset the loss of supplies. I went to smaller manufacturing companies in a variety of countries including Canada, Vietnam, South Africa, India, and North Korea to name a few." Akalu explained.

"So because you got so many extra contracts you now have the resources and supplies to do what exactly?" Duncan asked.

"My my, curious one aren't we" Akalu teased.

"Maybe he's a secret spy from Admiral Thomas" Chendu said obviously teasing.

"Hey not cool, I'm on the receiving end of that dickwads actions as well" Duncan retorted.

"We're aware, but rather than tell you, maybe I'll show you" Akalu said turning to Chendu.

"Agreed, it's not like what we're doing here is all that secretive." Chendu agreed as he continued to lead everyone on the tour.

Chendu lead everyone to the deepest part of the dock. Everyone noted the 6 dry docks flanked by 2 ultra large storage warehouses. But in the dry docks were the hulls of 3 rather large looking ships, followed by 3 hulls of large, but noticeably smaller ships in the other 3 docks. Each of the three ships were roughly the same size but the hulls had slightly different designs.

"Three different ships of the same size? And those are some big ships too" Jack Kirkland said observing the size of the bigger hulls.

"How big are we talking?" Sgt. Ausman asked.

"Oh well over Ten Thousand Tons of displacement each, what are you guys building here? Some sort of mini Battleship?" Jake asked half joking.

"Close" Chendu replied.

"These guys are supposed to be Destroyers, but given their displacement size, Destroyer may not be the right name for them. But they're designed on existing Destroyer designs, so we're calling them Capital Destroyers." Akalu explained.

"What are these?" Ausman asked.

"Three different ships from Three different Countries. Specifically the Chinese Type 055 Destroyer, displacing roughly 16,000 Tons. Second is the American Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer, however we supersized the design from 9,800 tons to roughly 15,000, the American teams that are helping us build it are jokingly calling it the Texas Class Destroyer. And Finally the Russian Lider Class Destroyer displacing 15,000 tons." Chendu listed them off one at a time.

"Those are huge!" Jack cried. "Those are even larger than Cruisers!"

"Indeed they are, but these guys aren't even the biggest we're building, let me show you" Chendu said.

"Wait what about the other 3 hulls?" Itami asked.

"Oh yeah, We're also building a French Horizon Class Destroyer, a British Daring Class Destroyer, and a Indian Kolkata Class Destroyer" Akalu said. "We decided to be a little ambitious with the start of our navy as we needed both numbers and serious firepower with the potential war coming up with the invaders on the Western Continent"

"I'd say you guys are off to a great start" Itami sighed,

"Oh what about the bigger ships?" Soi Fong asked.

"Right this way" Chendu said leading everyone to the ultra large warehouses beside the drydocks.

Much of Valkyrie squad could barely contain their excitement at the thought of seeing something even bigger. They entered the ultra large warehouses where they were met with an amazing sight. The warehouse wasn't really a warehouse, it was in fact an enclosed ultra large drydock, and it contained a hull, a very large ship hull. The hull of an exceptionally large ship that even dwarfs the Capital Destroyer hulls they saw earlier.

"Mon Dieu, what beast are you building here?" Francis asked.

"This is one of the two things I came to check on personally, say hello to the EFS (Earth Federation Ship) Seafire. The largest Aircraft Carrier to be ever built. Displacing 150,000 tons, she'll carry 120 aircraft of various types, and carries a complementary suite of defensive systems." Chendu introduced.

"It looks like it has two launch ramps, and two landing sections" Duncan said noticing the very wide flat top platform, and the two sets of arrest cables just now being installed at the rear of the platform.

"Indeed she does, she's designed to launch and land two aircraft simultaneously, given the large number of aircraft, and the wide base we went a little overboard with the design, but given that we're the only operating naval base so far, and with conflict looming, Hazama, and Akalu personally secured the funds and resources to build these ships to help secure the seas" Chendu explained.

"How many people is this going to take to run?" Duncan asked knowing that the Nimitz class carriers can require around 5,000 personnel to operate.

"She'll need 7,000 people to operate her, with another 7,000 on land to cycle out the exhausted personnel when needed. At least until we can figure out the schedules for our sailors, and if that's enough." Chendu answered.

"Wait, Akalu, you said there were two reasons you were out here" Soboa said, earning a nod from Akalu. "Well if this is the first reason, what is the second?"

"Follow me" Chendu said seemingly ready for this.

Chendu lead them across the large warehouse, and out the other side. Where Chendu then lead them to the second ultra large warehouse. Once inside everyone noticed that much like the previous warehouse, it too was an enclosed drydock, but the hull of this ship was smaller than the Seafire, noticeably smaller. Which lead to some confusion of many members of team Valkyrie.

"Um, what's this supposed to be?" Itami asked. "A smaller Seafire?"

"No, no no no no" Chendu chuckled.

"This one is a ship of my own design, one I created many years ago, but as I wasn't the commander of a large navy, and the Russian Federation alone didn't have much funds to create large ships. I took some liberty and submitted the designs of my ship to the ship builders. Other expert shipbuilders added on some details, and some different companies recommended their equipment to furthur it's capabilities, and viola." Akalu said.

"Wow, then what is this one?" Soi Fong asked.

"Say hello to the EFS Leviathan, A Battleship displacing 70,000 Tons fully loaded. " Akalu said. "That makes her the Second Largest Battleship to ever exist, second only to the Yamato Class"

"What!?" Duncan gasped. "A Battleship!? But those were supposed to be too expensive and maintenance heavy to be viable combat ships"

"That's only half true" Akalu said earning some looks of confusion.

"Battleships are definitely costly, but this Battleship was designed to be rather easy to maintain" Chendu said.

"One big problem of many past Battleships beyond the cost of deployment, is that Battleships weren't designed with easy access to the engines, and their weaponry of 25 inch guns were quickly becoming obsolete with the introduction of guided missiles, thus it was more efficient to have 10 Guided Missile Destroyers vs having 1 Battleship" Akalu said.

"And that still holds merit even now, but the issue isn't cost, it's time" Chendu said.

"But wouldn't it be faster to build several Destroyers then and rely on just the larger destroyers to be the Capital Ships then?" Itami asked.

"These plans were set into motion before we knew of the other-other-worlders on the Western Continent. Thus we had to either tear everything down and start from scratch on new, smaller ships. Or keep building the larger ships and hopefully it'll be enough to fight off those from the Western Continent" Akalu said.

"But even before we knew of these other-other-worlders, these many large ships is a lot even for our navy, why have so many?" Itami asked.

"Originally, we were building these ships to be the Capital ships for not only our navy, but the starting Capital ship for other navies as well. The Capital Ship for the 1st Army was to be the EFS Leviathan, while the EFS Seafire went to the 2nd Army, and the 3 Capital Destroyers would go to different Armies until each one had either a Capital Ship such as the EFS Leviathan or Seafire, or a Capital Destroyers such as the Texas Class, Lider Class, or the Type 055 Class Destroyer." Chendu explained.

"But given that the other armies may not get a navy base set up, and probably won't get any ships out before a conflict breaks out, we had to decide on finishing the ships we already started, and use them as the 1st Armies navy accordingly until all the other armies get their naval ports set up, or-" Akalu continued

"-Or start over, I get it. But can we alone afford to have these many large and costly ships, I mean I get that being part of the Earth Federation, and so far the only ones with a naval base our resources are not in short supply. But still, this can't be cheap or simple" Itami said.

"Well your instincts are correct there are significant risks to having so many of such ships in our Navy. So many big ships carries a huge risk. The loss of one ship is not only the loss of a significant amount of resources, and finances, and moral, but also personnel. One of our Capital Destroyers being sunk is the loss of 3 billion dollars in resources and finances, and 500 personnel." Akalu explained.

"So our biggest risk is in the loss of the ship? I guess I can see that, when will they be done?" Duncan asked.

"Oh not for a number of months yet, I've gotten extra workers to allow for construction 24/7 on all ships, but for a project this big there's no telling how long until it's done, though to be fair, the EFS Leviathan is getting priority, so it'll be done before the EFS Seafire, or the Capital Destroyers" Chendu explained.

"Makes sense, it's obviously far from done, but I can see the bridge itself coming together" Itami said.

"What about when the Capital Destroyers, and these Capital Ships are done? Will this dock only be able to make only 8 ships at one time?" Soi Fong asked.

"No, luckily the Capital Destroyer docks can hold 1 Destroyer, and 1 Frigate at once, or 3 frigates at the same time. And these Capital Ship docks can hold either at least 2 Destroyers, or at least 4 Frigates at the same time. Once they're out we'll be able to start building more surface ships, and Submarines, though for now they'll be held back for the sake that surface ships are more needed and are more versatile than Submarines...except for stealth missions of course." Chendu explained.

"Anyways, I think that's enough small talk, and that's all to see for now, why don't the rest of you all head back to the convoy, I'll catch up in a minute" Akalu instructed.

"Yes sir" Team Valkyrie replied. Akalu and Chendu watched as Team Valkyrie left the enclosed dry dock.

"Alright Chendu, give me the real details, how's the production coming?" Akalu asked.

"Not well, I mean, it's all coming along as we anticipated, all ships are going to be finished one way or another, but these ships won't be done in just a few months, or at least none of them save, EFS Leviathan, and the smaller destroyers." Chendu said.

"Why? Akalu asked, somewhat worried.

"The Seafire is more than twice the displacement weight of the Leviathan, its going to take longer to develop, the Capital Destroyers will be done sooner than the Seafire, but the smaller Destroyers will be done sooner still with the Leviathan." Chendu said.

"So what's the problem, if not resources, or time, then what?" Akalu asked.

"The Trials" Chendu answered. "All ships have to go through Sea Trials upon completion. I have enough of the right personnel to test the 3 regular Destroyers, or the Leviathan in short-ish order. But I can't perform the trials on the Leviathan properly, and on such a short time schedule, never mind on all 4 ships at the same time." Chendu answered.

"Ok, what can I give you to help with that?" Akalu asked.

"I need at least a few thousand more observers to observe the trials and provide feedback to what needs to be fixed, if any. And that's just if I want to get the Leviathan and at least one other Destroyer out to sea in short time." Chendu replied.

"Then what's the most conservative, and the most optimistic times to get at least one ship Sea worthy?" Akalu asked.

"Most optimistic, 4 months, most conservative estimate, 8 months" Chendu said.

"8 months is too long, but I know I can't force the development faster. Chendu, I have to go now, but send me a list of anything you need and I'll see to it, it gets done." Akalu said.

"I will, and Akalu..." Chendu called.

"Yes?" Akalu asked.

"I heard of the other-other-worlders, do we know if they're trying to cross the ocean?" Chendu asked.

"I don't know, we have long range reconnaissance keeping an eye out now, but I haven't heard anything about them coming yet" Akalu answered.

"But?" Chendu asked anticipating a 'but'.

"But, if they're eager to expand, and for some payback for us beating their fighter squadron, I don't expect them to take long." Akalu said.

"I can understand why you want these ships out as soon as possible, but Akalu, if I keep rushing the development of these ships, I can't guarantee that they'll be without severe bugs or deficiencies" Chendu said.

"Then don't rush them that much" Akalu answered. "I desperately need those ships Chendu, but I'm not so desperate as to go to battle with a half built, or half ready battleship".

Chendu just nodded in acknowledgement that has just given him the green light to take all the time he needs to finish building the ships. But is more than aware of how urgent those ships need to be finished.

"Oh and when your done, do visit us at Alnus Hill, I have a bunch of commanders of the 1st Army eager to meet you" Akalu said.

"Will do" Chendu smiled as he waved bye to his friend.

2 Weeks later

"Alnus Control, this is Orbit 2 requesting connection status" An SR-71 Blackbird Operator requested over the long range radio.

The pilot of the SR-71 Blackbird looked over the vast horizon of Falnus's Western Coast, and the Ocean beyond. The ocean was not huge but the pilot could make out the vast coast of the Western continent now being called 'Galnus', replacing the F with the next letter in the alphabet which happened to be a 'G'. While un-creative in the pilots opinion, he understood why they'd simplify it, was better than naming it something stupid and hard to remember. But while taking in the scenery he was listening in on his Operator in the back seat trying to maintain communications with Alnus.

"Orbit 2, this is Alnus Control, we're reading you 5 by 5, data connection status is 5 by 5. Alnus Command Out"Alnus Command replied and ended the transmission.

"Excellent, they can hear us, and see everything we see" the Operator said to the pilot in the front seat.

"Good, I'd hate to have to go all the way back to Alnus to give them the pictures and video ourselves, like last week when all our communications malfunctioned" the pilot replied. "See anything on the instruments?"

"Nothing unusual on the coasts, I'm turning the cameras further out to sea" the operator answered.

The Operator stopped looking at the south coast line where he could make out the 3rd Army slowly making their way westward. The main army units were momentarily stopped at a nearby village, most likely to introduce themselves to the locals.

The operator moved the cameras and other sensors to aim out to sea. The operator slowly scrolled over the beautiful horizon with the camera. The operator was so taken by the breathtaking scenery that he almost missed something unusual in the ocean.

"Wait, I think I see something" the operator said.

"What? What do you see?" the pilot asked.

"I'm not sure, let me zoom in" the operator narrated as he zoomed in on the strange image in the ocean.

But as the operator kept zooming in, he quickly noticed that it wasn't just one large speck, it was several. And zooming in further revealed that whatever he was looking at was in fact not natural, and whatever they were, they were heading towards Falnus's Western Coast.

"Alnus Command, you guys seeing this?" The operator asked hoping to get a good second opinion on what he was seeing.

At Alnus Base

"I'm seeing it Orbit 2, just still trying to figure out what it is. Try zooming in further" The Radio operator asked as he watched Orbit 2's Operator zoom in further on the object.

The radio operator watched as at last the image came into some clear focus. Then he realized what he was looking at. Hundreds upon hundreds of ships.

The radio operator turned around towards the center of the Traffic Control Tower where he saw Andrew standing and talking with Hazama by the large digital map table in the centre of the tower.

"SIR!" the radio operator called out.

"What?" Andrew replied.

"You two need to see this" the radio operator egged the two officers over to him.

Andrew and Hazama rushed over to see what was going on.

"What is it?" Andrew asked.

"It looks like ships sir, hundreds of them"

"What size are those ships?" Hazama asked.

"Operator, zoom in and get a computer estimate" Andrew ordered.

"Acknowledged" The SR-71 operator replied.

Andrew and Hazama watched as the camera zoomed in and began to get a size, and thermal reading of the ships.

"Alnus, sensors indicate the ships are roughly 420 feet long, with a 100 foot beam. No way to get an accurate reading on it's depth" The SR-71 operator stated.

"How many ships?" Hazama asked.

"Tough to tell, I'm guessing at least 300 ships, could easily be more" the operator replied.

"Update the information we have on to the Table, and someone get Akalu up here." Hazama said.

"Yes Sir" The SR-71 operator replied as he added the Table to the connection.

Hazama and Andrew watched the ships locations and general direction appear on the Digital Map Table. Hazama and Andrew took a moment to observe the table, and realized that they were not just heading for the Western Coast. They were slowly spreading out to engulf the entire coast itself.

"My God" Hazama said.

Just then Akalu arrived in the tower with Eric, and Eriana.

"You asked for me?" Akalu asked. "Did something happen?"

"Yes, take a look" Andrew said gesturing to the Table.

Akalu walked over and quickly looked over everything.

"Huh, I was expecting more" Akalu said.

"What?" Andrew and Hazama said at the same time.

"A several hundred ships, and guessing from their size, their combined carrying capacity couldn't exceed 500,000 personnel, and thats assuming they're not carrying heavy equipment" Akalu said.

"But we don't know their depth, couldn't they carry more?" Andrew asked.

"it's possible, but not by much, there's no known way to build an exceptionally deep hulled ship without creating potential navigational, and stability issues. But even if I were to increase the potential capacity to 6 or 700,000 personnel it doesn't change the fact that our ratio of combat capable soldiers is 3 to 1 in their favour, right now those are manageable numbers. But the 2nd and 3rd Armies are far from fully functional, between the two of them, they have 100,000 battle ready soldiers and their corresponding equipment. We have 150,000 combat ready, but they're spread out, and not all are ready for a large scale land battle" Akalu said.

"So between our three armies we only have 250,000 soldiers ready at best, but we can't get all of them into combat, we also need to defend our coast line, we can't leave our naval base, and our coasts vulnerable to the enemy attempting to open another front on our southern coasts." Eric said.

"Which would leave us with 150,000 between our three armies at best right now, but it'll take our divisions time to get there" Akalu added.

"So what should we do, next?" Andrew asked.

"None of our planes except cargo planes, and strategic bombers can reach that far, and we don't have any long range anti-ship missiles ready" Akalu said. "We have alerted the 2nd and 3rd Armies to this right?" Akalu asked.

"Um, not yet" Andrew replied.

"Ok, that's fine, Andrew, go alert the 2nd and 3rd Armies to the incoming invasion, while your doing that, sound the alarm, and get our long range bombers to send the invaders a welcoming gift as soon as they land" Akalu said.

"But Akalu, we only have 1 Tu-160 Blackjack, and 1 B-1 Lancer, and we don't have any anti-ship missiles here to load onto those planes. I fear they won't make a huge impact, and sending them out exposed to potential fighter jets escorting the ships is irresponsible" Andrew protested.

"Did the SR-71 detect any planes in the area or coming behind them?" Akalu asked.

"No" Andrew answered.

"Then stick to the plan, if fighters do show up, then abort the bombing run, but until then stick to the plan" Akalu ordered.

"Y-yes sir" Andrew replied.

"As for me, I'll alert the other Officers to what we know, and I'll have Ludwig join me in leading the Armored and Mechanized Divisions West to reinforce the front line." Akalu said looking at all the officers there. "As of now, we are on combat alert. Gentlement. To Arms!" Akalu cried.

On Falnus's West Coast

Hundreds of transport ships remained idle not far off the coast of Falnus, thousands of smaller motor boats were shuffling back and forth bringing tens of thousands of soldiers from the ships to land.

Meanwhile Grandorg was standing on one of the transport ships main bridge over looking the operation. He watched as soldiers, vehicles, and supplies were unloaded enmasse to one of 5 different sections of the continents coast they were invading.

"Commander Grandorg, everything is going according to plan" the Captain of his ship stated.

"Excellent, how far behind are the transport planes?" Grandorg asked.

"Not far sir, maybe a couple of hours or so" the Captain said.

"Good" Grandorg said.

But Grandorg was partially troubled, this was too easy, it took this long to get this many ships ready, and there wasn't a enemy soldier in sight. He figured that the enemy would try to intercept him on the beaches, thus prepared his ships to have rockets for coastal bombardment which cut down on a lot of soldiers and equipment. But he still had 350,000 soldiers taking the continent's coast, with over 50,000 vehicles of all kinds. No jets yet, as he didn't have an airbase yet, and he needed one before he could try to take control of the skies.

But as Grandorg watched he felt himself becoming complacent with the idea that maybe the enemy was not only further back, they got scared and decided to reinforce their current positions. But his complacency was quickly put in check when he could both feel and hear a low loud rumble coming from the sky.

"What's that?" Grandorg asked as he stepped out of the enclosed area of the bridge and onto the crow's nest at the side.

Grandorg looked up to the sky and could make out two very distant objects leaving two contrail streaks behind them. Then a slow and steady whistling began to grow in the air, leaving both Grandorg and everyone who heard bombs drop in horrified anticipation.

BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

The entire beach in front of Grandorg lit up with explosions, men, vehicles, and supplies disappeared or were sent flying.

Grandorg could hear the cries of horror and pain from the thousands of soldiers watching and being hit by the bombs, as the beach was engulfed in flames and smoke.

"Well, look at me being wrong. And this enemy is very interesting indeed." Grandorg only could smile from ear to ear, he lost at most a thousand men, and some equipment and supplies. But he had millions more coming, and his enemy revealed a strategic short coming, they only had two bombers capable of reaching them at the moment. And despite the damage they can cause, it wasn't impossible to counter. And his plans can easily be changed for fast warfare, so he took the first bloody nose. But he knows what move to make next, and if his new suspicions were correct, the enemy's armies were not far off.

"This war just got interesting indeed" Grandorg smiled, with the desire of retaliation growing in his eyes.

Chapter END

As I'm writing this I'm realizing I've got too many characters to keep up with. While all the characters that have appeared up to this point, will continue to appear in the story, the main focus is going to remain on Akalu, and Eric.

I'm sorry if this is disappointing to some people, but with my final term in school coming up, and with how much work and little spare time I'm gonna have. I won't likely be putting up another chapter anytime soon.

But another chapter will come, so until then, please enjoy, and any suggestions are welcome. But for military enthusiasts, please remember that stories will often deviate from what could happen in real life as real life doesn't always make for a good story.

ENJOY! ;)