GATE: and so the Iron Pact Fought (a GATE: and thus the JSDF Fought fic)

[Aaron Fox]

Ok, sorry for the god-forsaken long hiatus. Real Life was a complete and utter bitch. Subway took a lot of my energy (especially since it was doing Amazon BS), meaning that I had less time and energy for anything more than snippets. The only reason that I'm getting back into it now is because I've quit that job.

Now, this snippet can be considered a bit boring, as it deals with something that isn't that far from the game Papers Please, but it builds the world a little and deals with some of the problems of a world like Falmart interacting with our world. Like, say, new nasty strains of fucking Smallpox and its deranged bacterial cousin Depetheria.

---

Joint Remus-Alnus Customs Office; October 9th​, 2017

"Let me get this straight," I asked as my apprentices sat behind me, "due to some hacks selling poor quality potions and elixirs, you're putting every single potion and elixir into quarantine?"

The bureaucrat simply nodded yes despite the surprise of me being reasonable. "This is just a precaution, sir," the bureaucrat answered, "We take the health of everyone seriously around here." I sighed in understanding, knowing the problems of shoddy elixir and potion-making. Some of the problems faced by the Empire were because of such shoddy work in various transformation elixirs and potions. That's why the Alchemic Council and the various Alchemic Colleges were created, to ensure some level of standards and safety.

"I can understand that," I answered, "and my apprentices and I are more than willing to help you in that regard." The bureaucrat raised an eyebrow at that statement. "If you can give us the descriptions of the maladies, we can help you through the treatments. You've got my honor and my degree from the Salderan Alchemic College on that." My apprentices nodded in acceptance at that statement.

After that statement, there was a short, pregnant pause as the bureaucrat digested what I said.

"I'll have to get authorization from my superiors," the bureaucrat replied. However, you'll still need to undergo screening, just as a precautionary measure."

"That I can understand completely," I commented, "I've seen enough people suffer to live several lifetimes…"

---

"Well, at least these guys are not trying to curse me out because of those incidents…" Daniel Rodriguez thought to himself as he finished up the required paperwork on his desktop, "something different than the annoyance of the last four dozen guys." Daniel remembered the litany of curses that several groups of alchemists spewed when he told them that their regents were to be under quarantine. "… and there, the last of the paperwork is done. Just follow the yellow line, and you'll get a medical screening." With that, the small group of 'Alchemists' followed the yellow line towards the medical pavilion.

"Well, that's the third group this week," my superior stated on the CyberComm, "What we've gathered from Cato is surprisingly on the money. We'll be going to expedite their process to get them to be the local advisors in the little epidemic we've been having; the faster we get that under control, the better."

"That's good to hear," I commented, "The group in question is already heading to medical to undergo inspection. If all goes well, then they'll be putting their minds to the problem within the next 48 hours."

"It might be longer than that. We've got a variant of smallpox in the current crop of arrivals that has everyone in a tizzy," my superior replied, "While it isn't as bad as some of the crazy weaponized variants that our or the Soviet bio war programs produced, it's causing problems. Thankfully, we stopped a diphtheria outbreak yesterday, so we'll be forcing everyone to undergo immunization testing." I sighed. That sort of thing is going to push things for several days. While our computers are good, the laundry list of required immunizations still takes most of the day to complete, and given that Alnus Town or Remus Town has been drawing roughly a hundred people per day, that means legit days before everything is taken care of.

"I'll have to send word to our future advisors, then," I complained, "Why does our job get harder?"

"… from what I've heard from Wolfenstein, you don't want to know," my superior stated, "Let's just say things are going to go bad to worse right now, especially since the local players are making their move." I tried to restrain myself from beating my head against the desk in frustration. "Just continue on and make sure things go smoothly."

I sighed before I began processing the next person. It's going to be a long day indeed…

 

[Ryan Lozano]

This is not threadmark

 

[Aaron Fox]

This is not threadmark

Click to shrink...

These snippets are not the final product. I'm taking a page from @Kiyone4ever and his Gate fic (The Janus Campaign), where I post snippets of the next chapter to gauge the reactions of the snippet and get any help with anything that my spellcheck and whatnot misses.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Now, this next snippet centers around Pina, with Hamilton gone to meet with a Speculatore*, trying to make sense of the situation surrounding Italica as she and the Rose Order are forced to play wack-a-mole against bandits instead of gathering intelligence on the Men in Green.

*
Speculatore are Rome's spies. Despite the popular history that Rome wasn't good at spycraft, they're damn good at it historically.

---

Italica, Italica Province; October 10th​, 6729

Piña frowned as she surveyed the pin-studded map she brought with her to Italica, adding yet another pin -this time orange, representing banditry- upon its surface. "By the Gods, this isn't getting us anywhere," Piña muttered to herself, cursing whatever cruel twist of fate had her acting like the only sane woman in the royal family. "Ever since the Gates opened, it only brought bloodshed and migraines," Piña thought to herself, "at this rate, the southern provinces are going to collapse, leaving us weaker than before." While the collapse of the armies was problematic at best, if the southern provinces were to collapse financially, then the Empire would descend into anarchy as funding and resources for the military dried up. With the situation requiring the Rose Knights to split up to suppress this massive increase in banditry, Piña can't get intelligence on the Men in Green.

Without that intelligence, then the Empire would fall; Piña was certain of that.

"Yet another case of banditry, Princess?" Beefeater asked. She was currently taking over as Piña's assistant while Hamilton met with a Speculatore who managed to return to Imperial lines. While not as effective as Hamilton, she kept Piña's head right where it should be, that is, if she weren't worked up herself.

"Yes," Piña groaned as she put the pin on the map, "It's been months, and we've been consistently losing." Piña looked at the map. "I'll probably have to send your century southwest to eliminate another band of bandits before they get too strong."

"… at this rate, we're going to be spread too thin to do anything," Beefeater sighed, "This is far too coincidental to be simply a rise in banditry." Piña frowned, thinking the same thing. "If my century leaves, then you would only have what remains of the City Guard and your century."

"I know," Piña complained, "but it can't be helped. Italica is one of the Empire's biggest sources of tax revenue, especially since the cities bordering the Great Divide are falling at an alarming rate to the Men in Green." Piña sighed in a mixture of disbelief and dread. "If we lose Italica, the southern provinces will collapse, leaving the capital vulnerable."

Beefeater practically screamed in frustration at this situation, nearly tipping over a nearby table. "This can't be the doing of the Men in Green; everything we've seen and analyzed has the Men in Green not able to control people's minds," Beefeater complained, "and the banditry is well beyond the usual for remnants of defeated armies."

"That, you and I can agree on," Piña noted, "given the circumstances, I would say that at least some of these bandits are actually mercenaries paid to theater as bandits."

"… that means we've got a small number of possible people for such a conspiracy," Beefeater realized, "Though it might also be a part of a scorched earth policy, though given what few Speculatore that we've met said, the Men in Green are more than willing to undo that policy as they traveled across the empire."

"And that means they've got engineering capabilities to spare," Piña sighed, "It's like the Gates spat out someone that could counter our every move." That was when the door flew open.

"Piña!" Hamilton exclaimed as she panted for breath, "I've met with the Speculatore and we've got two messages." Piña turned around, nearly dumping the containers for the pins as she did so. Hamilton looked like she tried to fight off a full contuberium of legionaries.

"Hamilton!" Piña exclaimed in worry, "What happened to you?" Hamilton panted for breath as she tried to regain her bearings. "You look like you fought off a contuberium and had a pyrrhic victory."

"Sorry Piña, but I had to fight off several bands of bandits before I managed to ride back to Italica," Hamilton explained between pants, "but I've brought us a tressure trove of intelligence. The Legates sent to retake the Holy Hills had sent a recongnoscere century to act as impromptu Speculatore, and they've been doing well." Hamilton walked towards the table where the various intelligence reports were laid and then started placing stacks of scrolls onto the left end of the table. "… and everything is what we feared and more, Piña. They're far more advanced than us, Azibal came through for us with information worth more than mithril."

"Wait, Azibal was sent?" Piña questioned, "If she is acting like a good Imperial subject, then something has her spooked." Hamilton took out a package to answer Piña's growing list of questions.

"She managed to convince the Men in Green to make translated copies of a few books," Hamilton explained as she passed the books to her, "and one of them that need to get to the Council of Mages as immediately as possible." Piña opened the book in question, and already started to see the implications. While her father's side of the 'family' didn't know it, she was the only one to truly understand the intricacies of magic despite not being a mage herself. It's one of the reasons why she is so close to the current head of the Council of Colleges, Grand Magus Tiberius Nasennius Calpurnianus.

"This level of detail of the various beings of Falmart is impossible," Piña stated flatly, "… and the only reason that I know this is that the astral projection experiments were banned when it was discovered that it could cause possession." Hamilton raised an eyebrow at the latter statement. "I should know, I was there when that little problem was discovered." Hamilton knew better than to dig into that incident. "Get a wyvern rider and have this to sent to Grand Magus Tiberius and tell the rider that he is not to take no for an answer, use my name if he has to." Hamilton knew the underlying reasoning of that order and quickly took the book and prepared it to be sent out immediately.

"… something has to get you scared if you're sending it to the Grand Magus himself," Beefeater stated in a subdued manor, "What is it?"

"Either one of the worlds the Gates connected to is similar to ours, or someone has been undertaking astral projection experiments despite the ban, and I don't know which answer is worse!" Piña near-hysterically explained, "This entire invasion and the events from it hasn't made sense since the outset! The Men in Green have been ripping our forces like scythes through wheat and have been regularly outpacing our ability to respond." Beefeater frowned as she listened to her superior's rant in understanding, as she too understood that nothing about this invasion and the events that sparked from it hadn't made a lick of sense. "When one report comes in, we find out we're too late for ten others! I mean look at the map!" The map was absolutely studded with the various colors used to represent what the Men in Green accomplished alongside the reports of Great Dragons, X+ grade monsters, and banditry.

"BREATHE Piña!" Beefeater exclaimed as she hugged her superior, "BREATHE!" Beefeater knew what to do if Piña got this worked up and her specialist slave or Hamilton weren't around, though the former was due to her reading about the Gracchi Brothers, specifically the younger one. "You can't lead if you get this worked up." After a few deep breaths, she calmed down.

"Thanks Beefeater," Piña thanked as she recentered herself, "I needed that." Then she went to sit on one of couches in the room, grabbing a chalice of watered-down drinking wine. "Grey always said that you're only as good as your subordinates, and thanks for reminding me of that. Yet I can't help but have an anxiety attack with what we've been dealing with!" Beefeater understood where Piña was coming from, she too had problems when dealing with the enormity and mind-twisting nature of the invasion from the two Gate-connected worlds. She felt so small, so insignificant, so useless.

"That's why you have Hamilton and I," Beefeater soothed, "Remember when we started the Rose Order? What Grey told us about leadership?"

"… that your most trusted subordinates are the ones that carry you through even through the realms of Hardy hirself," Piña answered, "It's just so hard to remember that with what has been going on." Beefeater sat beside Piña as she comforted her.

That was when the two of them saw Hamilton standing in the doorwell.

"Did Piña have an anxiety attack again?" Hamilton asked, the only response that Hamilton got was a pair of heads nodding.

 

[RedWard99]

Damn, it's been a while. Good to have you back!

Also, poor Pina. She's doing a lot more work here than in the manga/anime in the form of putting out fires (bandits everywhere) using her knights, giving them a lot more combat experience. A better explanation for their absence compared to the splitting up thing they did in canon.

 

[Aaron Fox]

Damn, it's been a while. Good to have you back!

Also, poor Pina. She's doing a lot more work here than in the manga/anime in the form of putting out fires (bandits everywhere) using her knights, giving them a lot more combat experience. A better explanation for their absence compared to the splitting up thing they did in canon.

Click to shrink...

Well, elements of splitting up do happen here, too; it's just that they're meeting up with the Speculatore (Roman military spies) instead of splitting up to cover more ground.

You wouldn't believe how much of my real-life frustrations and anxiety pushed this snippet over the finish line. I was metaphorically screaming at what amounts to a conspiracy board when it just clicked.