***

--- Alnus Hill, American Defensive perimeter ---

March 2nd, 2025

When the Empire called on its allied kingdoms to arms, everyone came.

Leagues away from Alnus Hill, an assembly is currently being held. King Duran Fla Elbe of the Elbe Fiefdom is seated at the head of the table, listening to the other younger kings and generals that are inside his command tent. The mood in the tent is incredibly positive and everyone seems overconfident.

He had heard of the recent reports of how the Empire was recently defeated. Hearing that, he quickly mobilized his army and sent messengers to the other Kingdoms to get ready for war. When he got the Emperor’s message that his army was needed, he was ready. He felt great honor to be called to lead the Allied Army against these Other Worlders. He has fought many wars, but he can tell this time will be his legacy.

“Elputis,” he said, “More wine please.”

He sees his head slave move over to him and pour him more red wine. As king, he has many slaves, some to care of his chores and some for entertainment. However, Elputis has been his favorite. Elputis has always been loyal and good at his duties and in return, he gives him a good life.

He looks around the war table and sees the other Kings and Counts. He sees the main kings of Alguna, Mudwan, Toumaren, and League Principality sitting there, looking at the map.

He looks down at the table with the map of the area around Alnus Hill.

The king from Alguna stands up. He knows of him, King Dalurik Elwo Claymen. While allies under the Imperial system, they have a long history of hostility. Out of all the other vassal kingdoms, Duran hates them the most.

“Our scouts’ reports are true,” Dalurik said and points to Alnus Hill, “They have around ten, maybe fifteen thousand soldiers.”

“That doesn’t see, right,” Duran said, “How could such a small force defeat the Imperial Army?”

“Maybe the Empire did more damage than the reports stated,” his general said.

“Maybe,” he mumbles as he thinks of the situation.

Early reports had also stated that the enemy had strange war animals and constructed strange fortifications. The other kings and general saw this as an amateur enemy, everything these Other Worlders were doing were wrong in the arts of war.

While Duran agrees with their conclusion, his gut is telling him something is off. He has fought many wars to know when something is off. There is no way this enemy could have defeated the Imperial Army and then make basic mistakes like this — unless he is missing something.

“Alright, here is the plan of attack,” he said, breaking from his muse, “Mudwan will take their force from this direction. Alguna and their Hord army will attack from the east with the intent of swarming the enemy position. We all will keep them busy.”

Unlike all other Kingdoms, Alguna found a way to domesticate some of the more barbaric Dark Races like Goblins, Trolls and Ogres. Being a much smaller kingdom, they used them as a slave army to fight their enemies.

Duran plans to use that to devastate the enemy defenses while they march forward.

He then looks to the rest, “The Toumaren army will attack from the west. The League army will take the gap between yours and my army.”

“We will advance at dawn and overwhelm them with a combined force,” he states, “My Dragon Riders and Wyvern Corps will swoop into case a distraction and cover our advance.”

“What about the Imperial Army?” the king from Mudwan asks.

“The latest message said the Imperial Army will be advancing from the north,” he replied, “We will link our forces up and take the hill.”

He looks up at everyone and holds up his wine glass, “Bring honor to yourself and glory to the Empire.”

Everyone cheers, all eager for battle.

***

--- Alnus Hill, American Defensive perimeter ---

March 3th, 2025

Nearly a hundred thousand soldiers from the five allied kingdoms march to the hill. It is still as dark as the sun has yet to raise. It was decided to begin the attack before sunrise, catch the Other Worlders in their sleep. By the time the sun rose, the allied forces would have been right on top of them with overwhelming numbers washing over them like water on rocks streaming through the lines and surrounding them.

King Duran looks around the battlefield, confused by what he does not see. The enemy has yet to leave their camp and meet them in battle. He knows there is no way the enemy cannot hear their advance — there are too many soldiers. He wonders if the enemy is waiting for them to get close, but that will be suicidal.

The other issue is that he has yet to see anyone from the Imperial Army. He was told that they would be here, and they would take the hill together. Were they late or have they already been defeated?

Either way, he must advance the allied army. He pulls out his sword and points it forward.

“Advance!”

As they march closer, he sees that the ground is completely scorched as if it had already seen battle. As the sunrises and he can see more, he sees signs of the previous battle here.

He rides on his horse as his army marches towards the hill.

"Forward my men."

The armies march and everything seems to be quiet as they move towards the hill. However, his gut tells him that something does not feel right.

“Are these intruders this dumb in the art of war?” he mumbles to himself, “I expected some guards or something out there to serve as lookouts.”

They continue marching, and everyone in the army sees a flagpole in the ground waving in the small breeze. It is the flag of the Empire. Around it is two dead bodies from the Imperial army. They look like they have been here for weeks.

The sun raises further, and he sees more bodies everywhere. All of which were from the Imperial Army who had been sent to defend the Gate.

Above, he sees his Dragon Riders and Wyvern Corps swooping in as planned.

He then sees a strange glow quickly moving through the air coming from the enemy position.

The object hits one of his dragons, killing it instantly.

Then he sees another, then another, then another of these objects, all taking out his air force until there is nothing left.

Suddenly, they hear loud sounds in the distance, and then bright lights come from their left.

He looks over to the Kingdom of Mudwan’s position and sees large explosions, flares, and flying streaks of lights pelting their forces like unbelievably fast arrows.

They are clearly being slaughtered.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asks, dismayed, “Is this dark magic? No. No magic can just kill off an Army. How is this possible?”

That is when bright red lights shoot up from the hill and illuminates everything, exposing all of his men.

He watches as the strange flare slowly falls, amazed by it. At first, he thought it was magic, but he realized it was not.

“How could they create miniature suns like this?” he mumbles, trying to figure it out.

Up ahead, he starts to see more flashes. His front-line Legions are frightened from these flashes and hear these zipping sounds.

His soldiers form up, getting behind their shields, but they keep falling like their shields are worthless.

He hears large zooming sounds and then suddenly, large explosions erupt across his frontline. He sits upon his horse, gaping in awe. Most of his first wave is gone.

That is when he realizes what is happening. This unknown enemy already knew they were coming. They were far stronger than he was led to believe.

In the order from the Empire, Emperor Molt mentioned how strong this new enemy was, leading Duran to believe Molt knew this would happen from the beginning.

“Damn you Molt,” Duran mumbles to himself.

He looks forward, seeing no way to retreat. He pulls out his sword and points it towards the hill.

“Charge!” he bellows at the top of his lungs.

All of his men start charging up the hill, trying to close the distance.

Strange noises come from the sky. Then, more explosions appear all around his men. Dozens of soldiers die in the blast. Holes in the formations would befall in a matter of seconds.

The flashes and zipping sounds coming from the hill tear through the rest of the forward formations — his soldiers unable to move out of the way because of all the dead bodies and the packed formations only making them die faster.

"Keep attacking! For the Empire!" he yells, trying to keep the momentum.

As he rides up the hill, an explosion blossoms next to him, knocking him off his horse.

---

Major Sharpe weaves through the trench. Soldiers all around him engage the incoming enemy army.

Since the rest of the Army had arrived, they had established a holding position around the thing now being called the Gate. Normally, the Army is an aggressive fighting force who takes the initiative, not waiting for the enemy to attack; however, this is not Earth.

This new world is strange; they know nothing about it, so the US’s number one priority is to prevent a second attack.

Once the US feels that has been accomplished, then they can begin exploring this world and take the fight to the enemy.

He continues rushing through the trenches, bypassing the hundreds of soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division firing their weapons down the hill.

He continues to rush up to an observer post.

"How is it?" he asks the personnel within.

There are four other officers at the post looking at the incoming forces. One of the officers is Colonel William, the section leader of this defensive line. Captain Griffin, base operations officer, is here to coordinate artillery fire support. Major Bronston, the 1st Cavalry Division mechanized leader aids in the defense of this section. The last is the Ranger commander, Colonel John Yang.

He stops and turns around, feeling the tremors of the tanks moving up. An Abram drives up and then stops, right behind the trench. Both of its machine guns begin firing into the incoming horde.

Private First-Class Alicia Moore is right behind him, holding her radio. This firecracker of a woman reminds him of a close friend he had, always aggressive and a big month.

"Inform Johnson we are at the OP. Stay low,” he orders her to relay.

After saying that, the Abrams fires its main gun with a loud blast.

"Sir," Alicia complies and begins reporting to Second Lieutenant Johnson.

As she speaks, an M2 Bradley and a few other heavy vehicles roll-up. They begin unloading all their firepower, bring hell on top of the enemy.

Sharpe walks into the sandbag bunker.

"Colonel," Sharpe salutes.

Both Yang and William look at him and salute.

“Welcome to the show Major,” Yang said.

“Colonel,” he said and then looks out into the meadow. He sees massive lines of soldiers marching up with explosions happening all around them.

"Major, welcome to the fight," William said as he looks through his binoculars.

"By god. How many are there," Major Bronston asks.

Sharpe looks to where Bronston is looking. Line after line of the enemy formation falls, but with each line that falls, another just appears — at least until they get wiped out.

“When I first enlisted and if you told me I would be fighting… this... I would have thought you were on crack,” Yang said.

“Or Angel Dust,” Sharpe replied.

Back on Earth, the troops were told that the enemy would be using ancient armor and weapons. The most basic of modern weaponry seem to be able to easily punch right through the enemy’s armor.

That is when Captain Bailey of Vanguard-5 rushes in.

“Welcome Captain,” Yang said, “Good job on taking out that nest the other day.”

“Thank you sir,” Bailey said. He then looks over, “Damn. They are still marching up.”

“They are determined SOBs(1),” he replied, “See that Ogre over there?”

The Ogre then explodes from a missile strike.

“Well... What’s left of him,” Bailey said with a morbid chuckle.

“Yup,” he replied. “That ogre eats people alive. I would hate to get close to these people. If they are willing to march to their deaths, then we cannot underestimate them.”

Bailey gives him a pat on the shoulder, "With your rep, I am glad you're here buddy."

"Shut up Bailey," he said and looks at him.

"This is like a bad joke," Bailey said as he watches US forces slaughter the enemy.

Alicia walks up behind them, "Major. I just got word that we are losing our artillery support. Heavy cavalry is attacking the west flank."

Sharpe then looks at Griffin.

"I think that will be fine. Thank you, Private First-Class." Griffin said to her.

Sharpe nods to her, “Thank you Alicia.”

“You said ‘thank you’ this time. Didn’t know you knew that word.” Alicia said to Sharpe in a smartass tone.

He glares at her. She looks away smirking and then gets back on the radio.

“Are you going to discipline her Major?” Yang asked.

“No,” Sharpe responds. “She reminds me of a friend, and honestly, I like smartasses. Keeps me on my toes.”

“If you say so,” Yang said, “General Holland said I could trust you even though your record said you are a combat virgin who has had a desk job, I don’t buy it.”

“It is all true sir,” Sharpe said, “Command got fed up with me and kicked me out to you. Holland never lies.”

“We will see,” Yang said, “Still, this sight blows me away. I wonder if this was how wars were fought back then. Excluding the artillery raining down on them.”

Yang then walks up to the sandbags, standing by a Ranger on a .50 caliber. He then pulls out his binoculars and zooms in.

“Well, there are enough of them,” Bailey comments, “At this rate, we are going to end this war just by depleting their numbers.”

As Sharpe joins in to look down from the hill, he sees the thousands of Roman-like soldiers getting slaughtered by artillery, machine guns, tank cannons, and rifle fire.

"You’re right, but still. They don’t even stand a chance. Watching this reminds me of Kings and Generals(2)," he said.

"King and Generals sir?" Bailey asks.

"It was a YouTube Channel before YouTube shot themselves in the foot,” he replied. “They’re on other platforms now. They study ancient warfare. Never thought I would see any of that in my life."

“I watch that stuff,” William comments, “Good stuff.”

Sharpe looks at William and then to Yang, “Colonel. We should get all the Vanguard teams’ leadership to watch that stuff. They talk about ancient warfare and some history. If the enemy is using ancient tactics, it could help our boys fight them.”

“I agree, Major,” Yang said, “Come up with a list and have Lieutenant Sarah deliver me the recommendations.”

Major Bronston looks over, overhearing the conversation, "I saw that back in the day, too. I don’t recall them talking about invading aliens’ planets and magic."

"All this reminds me of Stargate,” William comments, “Personally, I preferred Atlantis, but both were good. Anyway, stay alert, and do not get overconfident. It doesn't matter that they are using bows and arrows. All you need is one bad day, and a unit will be slaughtered."

Sharpe understands what William is saying. There is a good chance the enemy will not follow any Human Rights laws or Geneva Convention rules. There is a good chance they will be slaughtered if ambushed, and enslaved or murdered if they were captured.

"I fully understand sir," Sharpe said.

That is when they hear Alicia warning them, "Sirs, radar is reporting we have a second airborne raid incoming. They believe that it’s dragons." She still is having a hard time believing all this is happening.

"That is something you don't hear every day," Bronston said, "No worry, we have enough SHORAD assist here to tear them apart.”

SHORAD means Short-range air defense. When dragons came through the Gate, it was decided to bring in AN/TWQ-1 Avenger HUMVEES and the new Stryker Mobile SHORAD with them. Both are armed with FIM-92 Stingers anti-air missiles — perfect for taking out dragons and Wyverns.

There is a short silence between everyone as they watch the show. Since the first battle, more troops from the United States poured through the Gate. This hill had become more fortified then Fort Knox itself.

They watch as the enemy lines break apart and start retreating. SAM missiles take out any of the airborne dragon threats that had arrived. By the time dawn arrived, the battle was pretty much over.

Sharpe stands there watching as the battle comes to an end. Most of the enemy army is dead, and he wonders what else to expect in the coming weeks. This world seems like it has all different kinds of surprises, and he hopes he can meet those challenges. He hopes he is just worthy and can-do things right.