So, we all know, what the Gate is about: confrontation of modern and medieval armies. But in my case, I decided to go one step further: confrontation of medieval and future armies. But if someone already did something like that, then okay. I simply wanted to write a Gate story. And the story not aligned with Strike Witches. You have to try something new from time to time, right?

And if you come here from my story Strike Witches: War in the Stars, then no. There will be no Gertrude Barkhorn.

Anyway. Let's get this thing started.

Chapter 1

,,The worlds apart"

May 30, 2150

16:02

Terhis City, Main Plaza, Angier Prime

After the Holy Order attack on Angier System just an hour ago, panic erupted on the streets of Angier Prime capital city. Resistance Military Police tried to quickly take control over the panicked people, but they weren't doing so good, even after attack was repelled.

"Damn Humans."Nashini MP said."Can't you understand everything is over?"

"This is how we are, Sak'Nakan."Human MP said."Fear is one of our natural elements. And panic is also one of them."

The two were in squad of Crowd Control Unit. They wore standard uniforms of their armies, but also had additional armor and shields, as well as bats. If people tried to do something stupid, they would go into the action.

"Besides, after twenty years of war, such actions should be understandable."Human continued."Holy Order never hit so close to Sol."

"I think you're right, Mike."Sak'Nakan replied.

Fortunately, all around the city, police forces started to give reports about people calming down and returning to what they were doing. MP was called back to base, where they had to wait for another situation to start working.

But before the two entered their armored personnel carrier, Mike noticed something with a corner of his eye. He turned around and saw a strange construction, which literally materialized in the middle of the plaza. It looked like old ruins. Inside, it was completely dark.

"What is it, Mike?"Sak'Nakan asked, looking at the strange building.

"I don't know and I don't like it."Mike replied.

"It's some Holy Order stuff?"

"I don't think so."

Right then, the two noticed, as something starts to move in the construction. Suddenly, along shape simply flew from the inside. Two MPs watched it with both surprised and terrified looks. They looked at each other.

"What is that?"Sak'Nakan asked.

Mike looked at the creature and widened eyes.

"It's wyvern. A type of dragon from old Earth legends."Mike explained to his Nashini comrade.

"If it's from legends, then how is this real?"Sak'Nakan asked.

Then, wyvern turned around, showing it's back. As the two noticed, it was armored and had someone sitting on it's back.

"It's wyvern rider?"Mike asked."I thought that was possible only in fantasy."

"Stay focused, something more is happening."the APC gunner said in their radios.

And he was right. Soon, more and more creatures started to exit the building. There were also Humans among them.

"They're wearing old Roman armor."Mike noticed, seeing the humans accompanying creatures.

"Roman?"Nashini asked."You mean that old empire from your ancient times?"

"The same one."Mike replied."And I see here ogres, goblins and even trolls."

In that moment, one of humans, probably the leader, as he was riding a horse, pointed his sword at them and said something in unknown language. Soldiers then surrounded him and creatures with shield wall.

Soon, Mike and Sak'Nakan heard a characteristic sound of pulling the bow. Two MPs looked at each other.

"Shields!"Mike ordered and the two lifted their shields up.

Right when attacking army fired a volley of arrows. Some of arrows bounced off the shields carried by Crowd Control Unit, while others hit the group of civilians present at the scene. Arrows injured and killed numerous civilians.

"Bastards…"Mike said."Light them up!"

"Copy."APC gunner replied.

But before he could open fire, one of ogres approached the vehicles and picked it up. Next, it crashed it into the ground.

"Damn it!"Sak'Nakan exclaimed."We need to…"

He didn't ended, as suddenly, one of spearmen rushed forward and stabbed him with his spear. Blade went through the plot armor and sank deep in Nashini MP. Spearmen had a triumphant smile on his face.

Mike quickly reached his gun and fired at the spearmen. He fell on the ground, but it was too late for Sak'Nakan. Nashini started spitting blue blood and fell on the ground too, with spear still in his body.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"Mike said through tightened teeth."This is corporal Michael Hawkings! Requesting immediate support on Terhis City Main Plaza!"

"Copy that, sending teams of SWAT and Crowd Control Unit."woman on the second side replied.

"Also, call the military! It's something we can't handle alone!"Mike added.

"Understood, contacting Task Force 03."

Meanwhile…

Angier Station area

RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Gen. Juan Salazar-class Heavy Cruiser, was orbiting around the Angier Station. Station was heavily damaged by the attack from an hour ago. It's heavy ship dock was actually out of use, while several decks were breached by chippings.

Captain Alvar Eriksson, one of most experienced naval officers in Resistance Navy, watched the wrecks of ships that now marked the area. Two wrecks were from enemy, while three others were his Assault Destroyers. These three ships were destroyed by enemy Super Carrier, which jumped into the system at the end of attack.

"Captain, your coffee."Egon Sammer, Eriksson's first officer, said.

"Thanks, Egon."captain replied, taking the cup of coffee."In these areas, I can always rely on you."

"I know, sir."Sammer replied.

Captain once more looked at the wrecks of three Assault Destroyers.

"I'm getting old."he stated.

"Everyone gets old, sir."Sammer said.

"But not as old as me."Eriksson stated."Anyway. Command wants us to stay in Angier System and patrol the are in case of second wave of attacks."

"Right on it, sir."Sammer replied.

In that moment, communication officer turned on his chair to face Eriksson and Sammer. The two looked at him.

"Sir, there is incoming call from Angier Prime."comms officer said.

"Give it on the bridge PA."Eriksson ordered.

Comms officer nodded and pressed several buttons. Soon, everyone could hear female voice saying:

"Terhis City has just been attacked! Numerous casualties among civilians and local services! Requesting immediate assistance from Task Force 03!"

"Ma'am, please, calm down."Eriksson said to his microphone."How strong is Holy Order ground force?"

"It's not Holy Order!"female voice shouted.

Eriksson and Sammer looked at each other.

"Not Holy Order?"Sammer asked.

"I don't like it. Tell everyone to get ready. We're going in."Eriksson said to the PA officer.

Officer saluted and turned to his microphone:

"All units! Prepare for engagement! Tarhis City is under attack!"

Meanwhile…

Hangar Deck

"All units! Prepare for engagement! Terhis City is under attack!"PA announcer exclaimed.

White Squadron members looked at each other.

"Again? We just made work of Holy Order!"Yuko Hagamoki, squadron's hacker and sniper, yelled.

"They just can't let us rest a while?"Lena Sergeyevna, squadron's mechanic, said.

Major Ester Barkhorn, squadron's leader, looked at her teammates and nodded.

"Anyway, ladies, our job is not over. Jump to your fighters."she ordered as all twelve of them jumped into their spacecraft.

Right then, Dwight D. Eisenhower jumped towards the Angier Prime.

Back in Terhis City…

Gate Camp

General Loganus watched the beautiful job his men were doing. His soldiers were spreading across the city, bringing him more and more goods, as well as numerous slaves. He really was happy to see not only human slaves, but also other human-like creatures.

One of his soldiers then approached him.

"General Loganus!"soldier said."Reporting, that we managed to get enemy standard!"

Soldier then showed to the general a blue piece of material with white olive branches and strange shapes on it. General smiled.

"Good! Hang it alongside the others!"he ordered.

Soldiers then approached the row of numerous flags, from tricolor of vertical red-white-blue to saffron-white-green one.

"So great engineers, yet they have nothing to defend themselves with."general thought."Pathetic."

Loganus once more looked at the high towers of glass and concrete. This was the first thing what made him think of goods this new world could offer to the Empire.

"I'm gonna make Emperor Molt proud."he thought.

Terhis City airspace…

A group of wyvern riders decided to scout the city. How surprised they were, seeing how enormous the city was. It was even bigger than the Imperial Capital. What mean only one thing: more treasures and slaves to get.

Right then, they noticed something what seemed to be a seaport, with enormous ships in it. So that could've mean, that this world is bigger, that they thought!

But what surprised them, was that the ships had no sails. Why? They didn't care. Wyvern riders already thought about as an easy pray, as ship crews started hiding beneath the decks.

"Soldiers! Take these ships!"wyvern riders leader ordered.

His soldiers cheered and started flying towards the strange, enormous ships. Many soldiers already could thing about what was about to happen, once they reach the ships.

But they didn't reached them.

There was a buzzing sound and soon, two wyverns with their riders changed into a simple red mist. Buzzing sound repeated itself and another two riders disappeared.

"Got four!"a sailor on Algerian ship Algiers cheered."Sea navy might be oldschool, but we still can give you a punch!"

Although space navies were currently the dominant ones, the maritime ships were also used to defend the planets during fights on the surface. Of course, they were under jurisdiction of space navies.

Wyverns riders' leader watched in horror as more ships starts spitting fire towards him and more of his elite riders are literally torn into little pieces, not even getting close to the ships. This only made him furious.

But the worst was just about to happen.

"Sir!"one of riders exclaimed."Look!"

Leader looked in the direction his soldier was pointing and became stunned. In front of him, an enormous shape was falling from the sky, accompanied by few smaller shapes. Soon, the shapes started to even their flight and were simply hovering in front of the wyvern riders. Next, they started spitting smaller objects.

"What magic is this?"he asked.

And it was the last thing he done.

Suddenly, one of enormous shapes fired something at him. Before he orientated, he was hit by a missile, which left only single wing of his wyvern after him.

White Squadron…

"What are these things?"Arlette Blancharde, squadron's singer, asked, seeing the hive of small flying creatures.

"I don't know, but if they attack people, they are the enemy."Elizabeth Creekford, squadron's historian, said.

Ester shook her head and turned to her team:

"Okay. Me, Dora, Liz, Suvi, Arlie and Lena will help our troops on the ground. Rest, take out these things."

"On it."second half of her team said, as they flew to battle, while rest of the squadron flew towards the ground.

Fighters turned their VTOL mode on and started touching the ground. They jumped out and made their way to the group of local Algerian and Russian troops. Next, fighters activated autopilots and returned into the air.

"Fighter Infantry?"Algerian major asked."Good to have you with us."

"As always."Ester replied."Anyway, what's the situation?"

"Numerous enemy troops started flooding into the city from Main Plaza. They started plundering and taking prisoners. Diplomatic area and numerous embassies already fell."

"Bastards."Dora Hiedel, White Squadron's second-in-command and CQC specialist, said.

"Exactly."Russian lieutenant agreed."We were tasked with helping in evacuation and fighting the enemy troops."

"What are we waiting for then?"Suvi Felinainen, squadron's only Martian member, asked.

Soon, Algerian and Russian soldiers, accompanied by the Fighter Infantry, started moving forward, covered by the three BTR-120s. They turned into the nearest turn and immediately stood in place.

"Jesus Christ…"Arlette said, looking at what was in front of them.

It was a crashed bus, which hit the street lantern. Around it, Resistance soldiers could see bodies, some were missing heads, others were burned while others were simply impaled on something what resembled…spears?

"Who are we even fighting?"Lena asked.

Liz approached the dead bodies and looked at the spears.

"They look like an old, Roman javelins."she said.

"Yeah. And I heard the enemy troops wear Roman style armor."Algerian major said, looking at the bodies."They will pay for attacking African Union territory."

"And they will pay for all this destruction."Russian lieutenant said."All of this was financed with Russian money!"

White Squadron members looked at each other.

"Okay, we're gonna check the buildings."Ester said."You, wait for our signal and fight any enemy that attacks."

"On it."Algerian said.

"Let's go, girls."Ester ordered and the six quickly went to the nearest building.

Ester led them inside and they started looking around. As it turned out, it was a book store. But now, books were laying everywhere, some full, while others torn apart. Pilots also noticed a police officer body literally sliced in half.
"Damn it…"Ester said.

Suddenly, they heard some noises coming from the back of the store. Ester signalized her troops to stay quiet, as they made their way towards the door. They stood next to them, listenign to the noises.

Ester looked around and noticed part of mirror laying on the ground. She picked it up and moved it through the door, able to see what is going on on the other side. And immediately felt rage overflowing her.

Inside, she could see six men, all dressed in Roman styled armor. Four of them were watching, while two others were simply raping a young Algerian girl. She couldn't be more than 16, and these bastards were doing whatever they wanted to her.

"Six enemies."Ester whispered."One hostage. Take the bayonets."

She stated, that using live round in such a small space might also result in hostage being killed, so bayonets were safer.

All six took their knives and attached them to the riffles. Ester ordered them to wait and the shouted:

"Never get in Fighter Infantry way!"

Six soldiers inside quickly turned around, just as the six jumped in. They immediately started laughing as they knew, that women will never be brave enough to take lives.

And they were wrong.

Dora gave a enraged scream and charged at one of soldiers. His comrades in horror watched the bayonet piercing the armor and sinking in his body. Other members of White Squadron quickly joined and soon, four out of six enemies were laying dead on the floor.

Two remaining soldiers wanted to fight back, but Arlette and Ester quickly slashed their arms with bayonets, making them lose swords.

Next, Lena and Liz placed them under the wall.

"Can I kill them?"Dora asked, looking at the two with disgust.

"No. They will be judged by the local court."Ester said."We're not like them."

Dora looked at her long time friend and nodded.

"If you say so."she said.

Meanwhile, Arlette approached the girl and helped her stand up.

"You're safe now."Arlette said.

Girl looked at Arlette, but didn't say anything. French girl knew, that this what just happened, will leave it's trace on girl's psyche for the rest of her life.

"Let's get her out of here."Ester ordered."Liz, take these two."

Liz nodded and approached the two soldiers. Next, they led them out of the book store and approached the Algerians and Russians.

"Take her to safety."Ester said."And if you want, hurt these two, but not kill them."

Two soldiers looked at the soldiers in strange uniforms. They didn't knew the language, but they could feel the aura of hatred towards them.

"Sure thing."Russian lieutenant said."Mokravich! Take the civilian. Prisoners will be left for Algerians."

Soldiers nodded and did what they had to do. Meanwhile, Ester just got information from Yuko, which was still in the sky:

"Ester, we're over the main administration building. Numerous civilians gathered behind the walls, but enemy is approaching in big numbers."

"Copy that, Yuko."Ester said."Just try and make their lives as hard as possible."

"On it."Yuko replied."Oh, and Marines are already in the city. They're clearing every bit of it."

"Good to know. I need to thank colonel Richards about it."Ester replied and ended the call.

She then turned to the rest of the group.

"What are you waiting for? We need to get to the Main Plaza!"she said and soon, they were on the move again.

Meanwhile…

Terhis City main administration building

The main square of the building was filled with civilians. Some where wounded, while others not. Some were looking for missing people. Children were crying, don't knowing, what to do. All of this was guarded by the building security services, Crowd Control Unit and security from the embassies which fell to the enemy.

"This is bad."Swedish embassy guard said."Very bad."

"I know what you mean."Brazilian embassy guard said.

The two were standing on the wall, watching the enemy forces gather under the gates of the building. As they managed to count, there were around three to five thousand enemies. Too many for simple security officers and policemen.

"Where is the damn military? We need Marines!"Greek embassy guard exclaimed.

"Calm down, we need to stand our ground against them."Mexican embassy guard said.

"Easy to say, hard to do."North Korean embassy guard stated.

Right then, they heard the sound of war horn. Not long after, enemy army started forming up and began marching towards the walls.

"Okay people! Our turn!"American embassy guard ordered.

Guards quickly stood up and aimed their weapons down at the enemy. Sound of gunfire went throughout the streets, as enemy soldiers started to fall. But this didn't stopped them from marching forward.

Soon, ladders started to get set up and soldiers started climbing. Guards were firing at them, or overturning the ladders, making them fall.

But then, they heard a terrifying roar. They looked in that direction and saw a group of three, around six meters tall, ogres.

"Oh, come one!"Swedish embassy guard shouted."This is too much!"

"Hold it still, men! Fire at these ogres!"American guard ordered.

"Look out!"Chakdrik embassy guard said.

Soon, a rain of arrows flew over the wall and fell on the civilians. This only made guards more furious.

"Now you pissed us off!"Indian embassy guard exclaimed as he took the grenade and threw it into the mass of soldiers.

But this didn't stopped them from continuing their march at the gates and walls of administration building. Ogres reached the gates and started hitting them with their clubs. Enemy troops immediately started cheering.

And then, one of ogres suddenly exploded into little pieces. Soldiers and other ogres looked at this in surprise and horror. Then, two fast objects appeared and two remaining ogres were torn apart too.

Soldiers heard the enemy cheering behind the wall, when the strange, buzzing sound appeared. When they turned in it's direction, they saw a formation of three metal dragons flying over them.

Metal dragons then started hovering over them, watching with their outside cameras. Pilots inside dropships shook their heads. These poor bastards didn't knew what awaited them.

"All dropships, live rounds are allowed. Send them all to hell."dropships leader ordered.

"Understood."other pilots replied.

Chainguns attached to dropships started spinning around, before the hell storm of bullets started flying towards the now terrified enemy soldiers, which tried to run away from the powerful magic, which was tearing them all into little pieces.

But if they really wanted to get back towards the Gate, they were highly disappointed once they turned around. In front of them, they saw a squad of five metal ogres. Before they said anything, they started spitting fire, decimating everyone, which came in it's way.

Soon, all soldiers and humanoid creatures were laying dead on the ground around the administration building.

"Area secured, colonel."dropships leader said."You can take the Main Plaza back."

"Understood."colonel replied."It's our time to shine, Marines!"

Right then, Marines all around the city started advancing towards main enemy camp.

Back at the Gate Camp…

General Loganus was not satisfied. From all around the city, numerous reports of enemy counterattack started to appear. His forces started to being slaughtered by, as his soldiers were referring, 'metal dragons' and 'metal ogres'. Already some of his troops fled back through the gate, taking numerous slaves they already captured.

In that moment, one of his privates approached him.

"General! Enemy soldiers are approaching our position!"he reported.

"How many?"Loganus asked.

"Just fifty."private replied.

Loganus then laughed. How fifty enemies could break through two hundred elite Imperial Army warriors? They were lucky just until now. Here, they will be defeated.
"Incoming enemies!"another soldier shouted.

General looked down the street and saw two metal carriages without horses and soldiers following them.

But some of soldiers looked strange. Like they were fully made of metal and had a glowing circle on their heads. When arrows hit them, they just bounced from them.

One of his soldiers started charging at the metal man. Before he could hit, metal man grabbed his arm and put the soldier down. Soldier tried to grab the metal man, but he grabbed soldier's arm instead. And then, much to Loganus' horror, metal man literally wrenched the arm with bone. Soldier then tried to kick, but metal man broke his lag so hard, that the bone pierced through skin. Soldier just screamed from pain.

While this was happening, remaining enemy soldiers started attacking. Loganus was terrified by the powerful magic, which easily penetrated shields of his men and soon, of two hundred men he had as his guards, one hundred fifty were laying dead on the ground.

Remaining troops formed defensive circle around their general and looked at him, don't knowing what to do.

"Your highness, what do we do?"private asked.

Loganus looked at him and then back at enemy. They were closer and closer.

Then, general knelt, laid down his sword and put his hands behind his head. Seeing this, soldiers followed him and soon, they were all kneeling.

Resistance soldiers watched this with satisfaction.

"Well, I think they're surrendering."Nashini Marine stated.

"True is true, Kir'Arlan."colonel Jessica Richards, Task Force 03 Marines commander, said, as she approached the enemy troops, with Marines backing her up.

All around Terhis City, remains of attacking armies were quickly taken care of, while others surrendered.

Battle of Terhis was over.

Two hours later…

The area looked like a real hell, once everything ended. Numerous buildings were burned, plundered or just devastated. Everywhere, both human and aliens were laying dead. Resistance coroners quickly counted the dead and the numbers made everyone both shocked and enraged.

Over 5200 people were killed with numerous more captured. According to some what freed prisoners were saying, some of remaining enemy troops fell back through the Gate, as everyone were calling this building now, taking some of prisoners. But not only Humans.

One hundred seventy two Nashini, ninety six Shakayans and fifty two Chakdrik. This was the result of the interviews with prisoners.

White Squadron members were sitting on top of Resistance BTR-120 and watched the soldiers carrying the dead away.

"These bastards will pay for this."Dora stated.

"Agreed."Fatima Salter, squadron's Medic, said.

"But before we will be able to do any move, we better wait for the call from the Higher Ups."Ester stated.

Others just nodded.

"Hey, look."Emiko Creekford-Jukotori, Liz's stepsister, said.

Squadron members looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a column of buses leaving the area. They were all loaded with enemy soldiers taken prisoner.

"Hopefully they get on the harshest penal colony we have."Lena said, looking at the soldiers in the buses.

"You know what? I need to drink something stronger."Suvi stated.

"Me too. If I just could take my helmet off."Aquexymeva 'Aqi' Nequxorop, only alien in the squadron, said.

"Okay girls."Ester said, jumping off of the BTR."Let's go. We need to also report aboard the Ike."

Soon, squadron was on their way back to the ship.

Over Terhis City…

20:43

RNS Dwight D. Eisenhower bridge

That night, commanders of Task Force 03 met aboard captain Eriksson's ship. Except of Eriksson and Richards, there also were admiral Amanda Chesterfield, commander of the Task Force, colonel Naxar Uhike, Chakdrik Marines commander, colonel Uki'Oparla, Nashini Marines commander, colonel Gefid Magar, commander of Shakayan Marines and colonel Oksana Natchenko, commander of Task Force's pilots. They stood around the holo-table on the ship's bridge.

"We should immediately counter attack!"Cahkdrik colonel exclaimed.

"Place, calm down, Naxar."Uki'Oparla said."We don't know, what is awaiting us on the other side."

"Agreed with Nashini."Magar said."These things that attacked Terhis City might be just the fraction of creatures living there. Who knows, what else can we meet?"

"Who cares! I want them all to pay!"ant-like alien shouted.

Other commanders looked at each other. They knew, why the Chakdrik is so keen on killing the invaders. As it turned out, his wife and daughter were visiting their family living in the city. They were found among the dead.

"You will get your revenge, I promise."Chesterfield said."But first, we need to scout the area. Know, what lays beyond that Gate. We can't just go there just like that."

"Admiral is right."Oksana said."If we do it, we might meet force, which overrun our troops."

Chakdrik looked at everyone with it's ant-like eyes. He finally gave up.

"Let it be. But I want to have my five minutes there!"he demanded.

"Whatever you say."Eriksson said.

All officers then looked at Jessica.

"Colonel Richards."Eriksson said."We want you to lead the scouting operations behind the Gate. Give us any information you can gather."

Jessica saluted.

"Understood, sir. You can count on that."she said and left the bridge.

Remaining Resistance officers looked at each other.

"Ladies and gentlemen."Chesterfield started."Holy Order must wait. We have a new war on our hands."

XXX

And here is the end of first chapter. Resistance forces are preparing for crossing. What will await them beyond the Gate? What enemy will they face? And if this war will lead to the demise of Falmart? See by yourself.

Anyway, see you in the next chapter!