154Sera was in ruins. It was evident to all the remaining human beings on the planet. Their home had been destroyed so utterly, from Tyrus to Pelles, there was nothing left but complete and total annihilation. The Stranded, South Islanders, Remnants of the UIR, and the COG Army all worked to rebuild what they lost. What the COG had destroyed in order to preserve mankind. Admittedly, not everyone had agreed to that method, and while animosity held, no one felt the need to bring it up anymore.
No point in digging up old ash covered skeletons when there was work to do. The Gears were helping out where they were needed, handing out food and supplies, while also scouring the ruins of Jacinto for anything useful now that the Locust and Lambent were gone. The remnants of the UIR had mostly integrated themselves with the Gears, citing mutual survival, and Colonel Hoffman established the United Seran Government, USG, to replace the COG and the UIR. Most of the cabinet members were former Gears, however several Stranded were given leadership positions, with a Gorasni taking the place of the Chief of Internal Affairs.
The remaining veteran Gears and Stranded with combat experience were brought together and used to reform the 26th Royal Tyran Infantry, the Unvanquished, and reestablished themselves as the shining and well-respected military group in the USG Army. Sergeant Marcus Fenix retired from the 26th RTI, staying for a year as a Commando Instructor before moving to the outskirts with Lieutenant Anya Stroud and starting a ranch.
Corporal Baird was promoted to Sergeant, and was put in charge of Delta-One now that it was absent of a leadership position. The members of Delta-One now consisted of Augustus Cole, Samantha Byrne, and Clayton Carmine. Members who had served with Delta-One during the Locust War were given the nickname 'The Delta Gears' and all of them had been reassigned to high priority Commando teams. Corporal Jace Stratton was put in charge of Alpha-Two, alongside fellow 'Delta Gear' Dizzy Wallin.
The 26th RTI, now reformed and standing with a multitude of battle-hardened Gears, were assigned in ensuring safety to the Stranded communities rejoining the USG, and establishing trade routes between the independent Stranded communities. Colonel Hoffman, who became the Chief of Defence, spent most of his time rebuilding the assets that the Gears lost and never properly utilised during the Locust Wars. King Ravens were still plentiful in numbers, while a new emphasize had been put into the USG Navy. In the incident that a Locust threat should emerge again, Hoffman realised that a Navy would have been supremely useful.
Sera was rebuilding, and beyond a few pirates acting up here and there, it was still working out as well as it should. In the middle of Jacinto, where the majority of the former COG citizens and Stranded communities now congregated around, there was a festival of sorts as people celebrated the one year anniversary of the end of the Locust War.
On this day, a threat that had appeared out of nowhere and began killing innocent civilians, without cause or justification, had been defeated by the overwhelming perseverance for mankind. It was a day to be remembered and cherished. A day to be loved by all.
It was ironic that this day would also be the day that it would happen again.
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
"Everybody get back!" Jace yelled, pulling the trigger of his Lancer as more of the armored soldiers continued to pile into the courtyard. Their armor was pathetically thin compared to Gear armor, but they made up for it with numbers. It was almost like the Locust Horde, but not quite. These guys were a hell of alot easier to kill, and it didn't take much more than one bullet. "Get some AA fire on those damn lizards!"
Several other Gears of the 26th RTI did as he told, not wanting to question the orders of a 'Delta Gear' and oriented as many of their heavy weapons towards the skies to shoot down the aforementioned flying lizards. "Control, this is Alpha-Two, reporting from Jacinto Plaza! We have enemy forces moving into the festival grounds with civilians heading towards the bunker zones! We have airborne targets and air requesting air support!"
"Jace, it's me Damon!" The leader of Delta-One blared out from the COMM. line. Jace frowned, hoping Baird was in one of his better moods whilst signaling for Dizzy and the rest of his eight-man team to move up on the enemy soldiers. "What the fuck is going on?! There are reports of people wearing medieval armor and using swords attacking civilians and soldiers alike! Is it the fucking locust or has some offshoot Stranded community really let themselves go!"
"I don't have a clue!" Jace replied, revving up his chainsaw and bisecting a weird, green thing that vaguely resembled a Wretch. "But they aren't that stuff! There's just too damn many! They're everywhere!"
"Sounds like an average mission for Delta," Samantha commented.
"Just like the good old days!" Cole whooped into the COMM. line.
"Yeah, yeah, daisies and Locusts up our asses every minute of every day. A real great memory, now how far have they gotten into Jacinto Plaza?" Baird asked.
Jace turned his head to see several of the, frankly speaking, centuries old infantrymen form some sort of phalanx in the Plaza. The Gears around him all opened fire, and the large slug rounds quite literally tore through the flimsy sheet of steel, puncturing the armor underneath and killing the men behind them. Frowning in contemplation, Jace tried his best to think over his words. "Uh, nowhere really. Besides their flying bird things, these guys aren't getting that far. Even those giant green things isn't lasting long unde our guns."
"Giant green things?" Baird asked. "Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not," Jace confirmed. On cuse, a King Raven flew overhead, its front gun firing down on the flying lizards. The rounds tore straight through their armor, turning the beast into swiss cheese, and the aircraft reorientated to head towards the Plaza. It hovered in the air, before members of the 26th RTI Special Tactics Group dropped down, accompanied by Delta-One and Foxtrot-Six, led by Sergeant Alexandra Brand.
"Glad you could join the party!" Jace welcomed them with a smile, feeling elated at seeing his friends again.
"Long time, no see," Dizzy greeted. Delta-One exchanged a few words between them as the Gears in the Plaza mowed down the enemy units that had appeared from a weird colosseum thing in the middle of the road, and Baird was quick to start sounding like a grumpy cat.
"Hold fire, hold fire! We need to keep some of them alive as prisoners. All Gears, aim for the legs or the arms. Get as many as you can, scrap the rest," Baird said- well, more like grumbled -into the COMM line.
'The Delta Gears' all stood idly as they watched the regular Gears handle with the surprisingly easy threat. The enemy didn't even look like they used firearms, and their armor wasn't even that thick to take regular weapons fire. Besides that flying thing and some of the odder creatures, they had absolutely zero problems so far. "Is that even a battle anymore?" Baird asked rhetorically, his voice incredulous.
"The Cole train isn't as hyped as he was when he got here," Cole replied.
"It's even more ironic that this happened today of all days," Jace said, "And we're kicking their ass like it's nothing." Everyone simple nodded their heads in agreement, staring at the battle and waiting for when they should get involved.
They never fired a single bullet after that.
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
"Reports show that only a rough dozen citizens were injured from the attack, with a half a dozen casualties. The worried rumors of this being the second coming of the Locust War is unlikely, as Gear forces have expressed very little problems in facing with their new threat. Recognising this, Chief of Defence Viktor Hoffmann, alongside current Chairwoman Aleyna Newt, have set up a conference tomorrow morning to discuss the actions that the USG would take facing this new threat..." the reporter droned on.
Marcus frowned from where he was in the kitchen, washing the dishes as Anya was dealing with the orders they'd received from several cities. Like many other ranches, The Marcus Ranch had been busy supplying food and rations to the rebuilding cities of Sera as the Locust War had ended. Now though, Marcus was unsure of whether or not that peace would last.
Anya stepped into the kitchen, her eyes tracking Marcus' movements as he listened to the radio. "They won't call you back," Anya stated, "I doubt Baird or Hoffmann would let them." Marcus sighed, knowing that she was right, but at the same time he couldn't help but worry. The Gears was like family, and knowing that another war was starting- even when he had promised himself to never take part in one again -and he was nowhere with them felt a little disconcerting.
"With how things is sounding like, I don't think it's going to be a war," Marcus said. Anya stepped up behind him and hugged him from behind. She laced her fingers across his chest and tried to comfort his raging thoughts.
"You're right, the USG isn't like the COG. We're tired of war, and we're used to death. This isn't going to faze people much, and while they'll demand for compensation, as long as the other side is willing to talk then I don't think it'd become like another Locust War. I heard most of them were humans, so they could have just been pirates or raiders."
Marcus' nose wrinkled, "Then how did they get into Jacinto, which is being protected by a regiment of Onyx Guards that I had personally trained." It tingled in the back of his mind, and Marcus knew that something really strange was going on here.
"It doesn't matter," Anya stated firmly, "It's not our business anymore. You're not Sergeant Fenix and I'm not Lieutenant Anya Stroud. Have some faith in everyone, they can get things done without you." Marcus didn't let go of his frown but nodded anyway, absentmindedly wiping the dishes.
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
Two Weeks Later
"Ladies and gentlemen," Viktor Hoffmann, Chief of Defense for the United Seran Government, stood in front of a total of 7 000 battle hardened Gears getting ready to travel through the Gate where their newest adversary, this Empire, had came out from. The men and women that would be traveling through would be none other than the 26th Royal Tyran Infantry Division, alongside the 12th Armored unit, comprised of Centaur Tanks, Assault Derricks, and Armadillos, as well as the 5th Mechanized Infantry Unit, that mostly contained Rat Bikes and APCs. Adding to this considerable firepower was the 12th and 2nd King Raven Wing, accompanied by the new Hummingbird Jet Fighters. "What you are about to embark, I must admit, is comparable to writing down your own history book."
For the 7 000 men and women that would be passing through the Gate, all of them would no doubt go down as pioneers of exploration and discovery. "An altogether different world, one that has not been ravaged by the Locust War and is teeming with life that we have never encountered. There is no doubt that the journey you will embark on, will bring about great change in the current state of things."
"However, we will not march out into war. Like the promises we made when we were the COG, and the promises we made when we were all Stranded and forgotten, we will march forward, as a Peacekeeping force. Your objective is to establish communications with the other side, acquire beneficial resources, and assess the immediate danger. Once that is done, politicians and ambassadors will be sent out to barter reparations and establish a political connection between us and them," Hoffmann said. It was clear to every Gear there that he was slightly off-put with the words coming out of his mouth, but every Gear understood the meaning of it. Nobody wanted another war, and the politics that came into play now were ever abundant.
All of them had the briefing, and the robots they sent through reported large sums of enemy soldiers on the other side, but also a lush and lavish field of grasslands. Natural resources untouched by industrial humanity, and teeming with resources. All things that had sparked the Pendulum Wars, and something the more free-willed and independent members of the USG would not tolerate unless it really was to defend the USG's way of life.
Politics, the USG was rife with it. Baird liked it that way, more politics meant less bullets being tossed his way. "Without further ado, I leave you all to your commanding officer! General Bernadette Mataki," Hoffmann nodded at her before turning around and leaving.
"Heads up Gears!" Mataki yelled, without the aid of a speaker, and her voice traveled down the row of soldiers like the roar of a Brumak. "Intelligence shows that we have hostiles on the other side of the Gate. We have been given the go ahead to use lethal force if necessary. APCs will enter the Gate first, followed closely by Armadillos. Once we reach the other side, you will immediately dig in and wait for any hostile actions before opening fire. Am I understood!"
"Yes Ma'am!" Like a chorus, all of the Gears yelled it out like an old marching band tune. It had been a long time since any Gear had been part of a formation like this, with so many others next to him at one time. It was refreshing, some might say. Bernie felt rejuvenated, knowing she would be going back to war with comrades in the Gears, and raised her hand in the air. "Operation: First One Home, is a go!"
Prototype fic I got after watching S1 of Gate. I absolutely adored the show, just because I adore crossover fics and the whole anime could be boiled down to that. I loved it to bits, and I thought about crossovering it with some other story. At first I was going to do Valkyria Chronicles, but after playing VC2 and the ensuing Civil War, I thought there was too much stuff going on for that to work out. I wanted to put down an original story of mine as a crossover piece, but since I haven't finished, I thought better of it. So, I finally came down to Gears, and it was really just coincidence. It has been a while since I've played GoW, I won't say that I'm master at the game and it's story.
I'll leave this here, and depending on the reception I'll think about updating this. I have FDA to contend to and its really fun to write. So yeah, WDO345, signing out.