The convoy advanced on a dirt road under the sun of Falmart. Due to the lack of windows inside the chimeras, which were normally used for quick deployments of troops and not for recon missions, it was rather hot inside. Thankfully there was a small ventilation system that allowed the guardsmen inside to not suffocate and be rather at ease inside despite the temperature.
There was nothing too noticeable in the verdant plain, but for most guards inside the convoy, it was truly a new sight.
The squad inside the first chimera was rather silent, there was sadly no windows inside the armored transport due to the weak constitution of glass, which prohibited the soldiers from seeing the green view of a healthy and untouched planet.
"Anyone here have been to an Agriworld before?" Asked Mattius, one of the male soldier.
The answers were clear, none came from the abundant sources of food that were the planets dedicated to the agriculture.
"-Mattius: Come on, none of you come from an agriworld?"
"-Caleb: It's no use sergeant, most of those guards come from Ildras II."
"-Mattius: Ildras II? I have never heard of this world."
"-Elias: It's an Hiveworld, me, Wiloma and Kaider come from it."
"-Caleb: The three of you were dragged together if I remember your files correctly."
"-Elias: Me and Wiloma were drafted in the annual tithe of guards to replace the loses of this regiment, Kaider volunteered to stay with us."
"-Teloah: I can't tell if it's courage or stupidity."
"-Kaider: Hey!" The interested answered in a bit of annoyance.
"-Caleb: Cut it out you two." His imposing voice instantly stopped the small conflict between the two guards. "According to the vox with the conductor we are approaching a small village. The prisoners said it's a village going by the name of Coda."
"-Mattius: What are your orders sir?"
"-Caleb: Our mission is to explore this world for now, this will include investigating about the inhabitants. We are gonna try to do this nicely but if anything happens and this ends up going worse than expected, you have my authorization to shoot at will."
The captain then contacted the rest of the convoy about their arrival to the small village, ordering them to start reciting prayers to their lasguns so that the machine spirit would be awaken.
Around ten minutes later, the three vehicle have stopped in front of the wooden entrance of the village.
The roads of the villages were full, they had not fled when the convoy approached, which is something that Caleb found rather odd.
The guardsmen squad moved in position as the Leman Russ stayed alert to prevent any dangerous incident.
An elderly men, short of stature and with balding grey hair walked to meet the two squads of soldiers, followed by three men armed with pichforks, but without any menacing look.
Caleb had been drilled in learning the language of this world during the month he had been at the military base of Angel's Fall, the hive city where the Gate had appeared. That is one of the many reasons of why he was selected as a leader of an on-site mission. He signaled the squads to stop as he too advanced in direction of the elder.
He greeted the small elder, showing both of his hands to signal that he came with no ill intentions.
"-Village elder: Welcome to our village travellers, I am the chief of this village. Pardon my curiosity but are you members of the JSDF? If so your companions passed trough us yesterday and we would be happy to indicate to you where they went."
The language of this place, Falmart, sounded rather close to low Gothic, making learning this language an easy task as it was similar to a distant dialect. Sounds and syllables were often the same in both languages.
"-Caleb: Greetings, I am Captain Caleb of the Imperial Guard, I represent the Imperium of Mankind. I was instructed by my superiors to make contact with this world natives. But I see that those 'JSDF' were faster than us."
"-Village elder: It would appear so, if you have came here with no purposes of destruction, we would be more than happy to welcome you in our humble homes."
"-Caleb: It would be our pleasure, may I ask however what the JSDF were doing here?"
"-Village elder: The same thing as you, their clothes looked rather similars to yours, but now that I look at you closer I can see that you share very few similarities. and I must admit that they had a lot of difficulties to talk."
"-Caleb: Were they humans?"
"-Village elder: They were indeed, but their skin tone was pale and their eyes were longer than yours or mine. But there is no mistake that they were indeed humans."
"-Caleb: That is a relief, I would like to ask you if you could tell us more about this village, as well as this kingdom. We still lack cruelly of informations."
The man nodded as him and the captain continued to talk. The guardsmen talked mostly among themselves, but two of them had approached a group of children and had begun playing with them under the anxious look of the parents.
A few minutes later, the third recon squad of the Japanese Self Defense Force led by first lieutenant Itami came in sight of the village. Naturally, they immediatly noticed the other vehicules that none of them seemed to recognize. A man along with the village elder waited for them at the entrance of the village, backed by villagers and around twenty soldiers in a green military uniform that they could not recognize. The japaneses dismounted and went forth to meet the mixed group, Itami was getting ready to announce the grim fate of the forest where they had been this morning.
"-Village elder: Ah, welcome back Itami. This is captain Caleb, from what we have discussed, he is in a similar situation to you."
"-Caleb: I greet you Itami, could I ask you to take off your helmet? From a soldier to another?"
Itami shrugged and did as such, if this could help first contact.
"-Itami: Nice to meet you, why did I take off helmet?"
Itami asked in a somewhat broken but understandable version of the local language.
"-Caleb: I wanted to verify that you were indeed human, a simple look does confirm that so I thank you for your understanding."
"-Village elder: Mister Itami, why have you came back? I thought that you had intentions of going further north."
Itami answered that it was their original intentions, but that they had witnessed the forest to the north be burned to the ground by two flying birds that spit fire.
"-Village elder: Y-you mean flame dragons attacked the forest?!"
"-Itami: Yes, fire dragons burned forest, lots of death, we saved one girl, an elf."
Caleb shivered upon hearing this, his previously friendly face that he had took to ease the villagers tensing into seriousness, before relaxing once more as he took a deep breath.
"-Itami: Captain, are you alright?"
"-Caleb: I almost forgot that I am in a different dimension that mine. Listen, I will not apply protocol since this is our first contact, but if my men ever see that elf or another non-human, they have the order to shoot. Understood?"
Itami nodded, taken a back a little bit.
"-Itami: We rescued her because forest had burned, wanted to give her to elder."
The chief shook his head grimly.
"-Village elder: I am afraid that we cannot take her in, once a flame dragon has tasted the flesh of humans or elves, it will will continues to burn cities and villages. And if its a couple, I can only imagine the destruction that they will bring. We have to evacuate."
"-Itami: You abandon village?"
"-Village elder: What else can we do? A flame dragon is a mighty beast, it would take armies to bring such a creature to the gates of death, and if it's a couple, the other will be enraged by the first death. The only thing we can do is to flee to the cities while we still can."
"-Itami: Let the JSDF help evacuate."
"-Caleb: The Imperial Guard shall help as well."
"-Village elder: Very well, then we must begin immediately, the further away we are from those dragons, the safer we will be."
On the orders of their chief, the villagers begun to pack whatever possessions they could either carry in their arms or onto their carriages. The evacuation was however delayed by a carriage who axle had been broken after that the horse panicked.
The accident had injured a little girl as she laid down near the carriage. A teenager with blue hair named Lelei arrived at the scene as she looked at the little girl to see if she was okay, she was quickly joined by a female JSDF medic who took the little in charge, leaving Lelei near the cart.
But before she could do anything, Lelei was met with the panicked horse gaze as it prepared to crush her. As she was shielding herself with her forearms, a flash of red illuminated the air, exploding the horse's head.
Searching for the origin of the flash, Lelei found one of the soldier from the Imperial Guard with his strange crossbow pointed where the horse was. He was in all point similar to the other members, except for the white line in the middle of his helmet and the fact that he didn't look much older than her.
Silas had shot as soon as he saw the horse doing, hitting its target perfectly. Relieved, he breathed out and asked the blue haired girl if she was okay. She didn't answer, simply gazing at the young man in awe.
The scene had been seen by several members of the JSDF as well as the captain Caleb, the latter simply smirked while the former were left shocked from seeint the effect of a single shot from those soldiers of the Imperial Guard as Itami called them.
Silas offered his hand to the girl, helping her to get up as she was still in contemplation. As the girl looked at his anormal purple eyes, the boy marveled at the surprising blue color of her hair. They stayed like this for a few seconds before the boy was called by another soldier. He waved at her and left in a hurry. Lelei returned to her master wagon, telling him what happened.
After getting the wagon fixed and putting less weight on, the convoy leave the village. Six hundreds villagers escorted by twelve JSDF soldiers led by second lieutenant Itami Yōji, and twenty Imperial Guard guardsmen led by captain Caleb.
While the fleeing villagers and the soldiers from the two factions were headed to the north into Saderan territory. Caleb contacted HQ to inform them of the situation.
"-Caleb: HQ this is Recon 1-1 reporting recent events, over."
"-HQ: Recon 1-1, what is your situation, over."
"-Caleb: We have met with village Coda as expected, and begun friendly discussion. We were joined by the soldiers of the Gate at Alnus Hill, calling themselve the JSDF. According to them, a forest not too far from our position was burned to the ground by two native creatures called 'Flame Dragons'. We are helping the villagers to escape, but I fear that our Lasguns won't do much to beasts of such size, not with our current numbers. Over"
"-HQ: We hear you 1-1, you will receive reinforcements by air tomorrow. Proceed with the evacuation in the meantime. Over."
"-Caleb: Very well HQ, 1-1 out."
The sun fell and rose over Falmart, the fleeing civilians had barely stopped at all, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the couple of Flame Dragons.
Inside the leading SUV, the japanese soldiers were discussing about the elf laying down inside their vehicle.
"-Kurokawa: Her vitals functions are stable, she should be awake soon."
"-Itami: That's a relief, however she, as well as the villagers are not in safety yet."
"-Kurata: Do they at least know where to go?"
"-Itami: Apparently not."
"-Kurata: Eh? You're kidding me right?"
"-Itami: And not only that, not knowing where you flee is both terrifying and exhausting. But they won't stop before having run far enough from the Flame Dragons. I talked to Caleb, the officer of those Guardsmen, he said that they already had limited place inside of their transports and couldn't help much as they didn't had the appropriate equipment to do so. I don't blame them, but it seems that no matter where you go, refugees while always be the same."
"-Kurata: What do you think of those guys by the way? I mean, you saw what their rifles could do."
"-Itami: Yes yes, I saw what was left of that head, the entire side was gone and a good chunk of the brain with it. I guess that as long as we don't provoke them we should all be fine. But I feel like we are missing a big part of the story here."
A little later, one of the carriage of the villagers broke in the middle of the road. Refusing to let their goods behind them, the villagers hesitated to stay with it. Itami, backed up by a quick discussion with caleb, decided to burn the broken wagon, forcing them to move.
An hour later, and after explaining to his troops why he ordered this, Itami and the other Japaneses in the vehicle leading the convoy spotted a flock of ravens flying above the road in front of them. After examinating with binoculars, Itami was able to confirm the presence of a "Goth Loli!" ,as he and Kurata called her, wielding an halberd much bigger than herself.
Stopping around fifteen meters in front of her, the kids that were sitting at the back of the SUV opened the back door to go and talk with the goth girl who was walking in their direction too.
"-Goth loli: Why hello children, where do you come from?"
"-Village child: From the village of Coda!"
An elderly woman and a few wounded men approached the girl as the children whispered among themselves, calling the girl a priestess of some sort. This was confirmed when the adult kneeled before her and joined their hands.
"-Old woman: Yes, two Flame Dragons showed up and we had to flee."
The girl, who was referred to as Rory Mercury by the old woman, turned her gaze to Itami. She asked several questions to one of the young boy, mainly their intentions as well as how their strange horseless carriage worked in front of a sweating Itami.
Caleb and three other men from the Imperial Guard dismounted their chimera and arrived next to the SUV of Itami. As the guardsmen showed up, Rory turned her gaze to the captain, immediatly sensing something emanating from him.
"-Rory: Oh my my my~, you have seen quite a lot of death am I right? I can sense it, you have witnessed destruction and carnage beyond imagination haven't you?"
The girl asked, staring in his purple eyes with a pervated passion.
"-Caleb: And who might you be?"
"-Rory: My name is Rory Mercury, priestess of Emroy, the God of Death."
The captain snickered, then talked to his soldiers in Low Gothic.
"-Caleb: HQ is gonna be happy, we just learned an information that they wanted to know."
"-Mattius: Which is?"
"-Caleb: That little girl claims to be the apostle of one of the gods of this dimension. HQ briefed me on this that we needed more info related to them as the prisoners talked very little of them."
"-Elias: Huh, those heathen really don't know of the God-Emperor."
"-Caleb: Not yet at least, but I can assure you that they will learn soon enough. But it's not our job to teach them the only true faith, that's the job of the sisters and the rest of the ecclesiarchy."
The captain looked at her again, her smile still plastered on her face.
"-Caleb: Well Rory Mercury, I am captain Caleb of the Imperial Guard, the military of the Imperium of Man."
He didn't smile, nor did he proposed a hand shake. He simply introduced himself to the so called apostle, he just had to wait for them to arrive after all. He then turned around as he waved his hand at his chimera, signaling it to be ready to depart. He stared one more time at the apostle before climbing inside his transport.
Rory on her side, quickly returned to Itami as she entered the front seat of the vehicle ans sit on the first lieutenant laps, much to his embarassement and to the jealousy of his driver.
Several hours later, the convoy had hit a milestone in their journey as they were now inside Saderan territory, but nowhere near a city. They were crossing large rocky hills which were a rather sudden change of sight from the previously green plains and forests.
Caleb was sitting at the turret of the chimera, he was looking around to be sure that no ambushes could be made. Even if nothing that the savages could throw at them could pierce the chimera armor, he would prefer to avoid any civilian casualities.
And as he was doing so, he saw a dot forming in the center of the Sun, the dot got bigger and bigger until it seperated into two as they were approaching. Caleb realized in time what those dots were as he shouted "DRAGONS!" at the top his lungs, alarming everyone that was not at the far end of the convoy.
The two beasts roared as they made their descent to the convoy, blazing a part of the convoy as they did before landing seperatly. The two Flame Dragons were massive creatures, they reached an impressive 12 meters tall when standing up on their back legs.
The soldiers divided into two group, Itami and the rest of the JSDF would try to do what they could against the first dragon while Caleb and the rest of the Imperial Guard would take on the second.
A barrage of red beams barraged on the second dragon as the side lasguns of the Chimeras opened fire. Sadly, despite the destructive force of several lasguns, it proved to barely do any damage against the dragon thick scales, despite leaving dents in it.
The Leman Russ however, was able to pierce right through the scales using it's main cannon and bolters casemates, hurting the dragon as it released a mighty roar.
The guard asked their commanding officer what to do as they seemed t lack the heavy armament needed to take down the beast. But a new, powerful voice ringed inside the vox channel.
"-?: You did well captain, now let Angels of Death give this beast a challenge!"
The sky roared as vehicle appeared over the scene, a blood red thunderhawk bearing the insignia of the Blood Angels. The vehicle fired it's twin lascannons, piercing an enormous hole right trough the beast wing, nailing it to the ground definitely.
The beast released a pained screech, distracting it's mate long enough for the JSDF to be able to blow off one of it's arm using a rocket launcher.
The thunderhawk landed on the ground as it's ramp opened, releasing several giants clad in armour and wielding bolters. The space marines. And with them, a man in armour similar to them wielding a large hammer and decorated with several golden ornaments.
Then man wielding the hammer ordered to fire, and the booming sounds of the bolters echoed trough the rocky hills with ease. The few space marines each aimed at the dragon body, the sheer number of bolter shells flying in it's direction was to much for even the dragon as it fell on it's back, it's torso bloodied and cracked open like an egg.
Seeing it's fellow creature laying seemingly dead on the ground and having already lost an arm, the remaining Flame Dragon took off in the sky, fleeing from the combined force of the Imperium and JSDF.
The Chimeras stopped and the soldiers quickly went to help the surviving villagers.
Caleb and Elias, the two members with the highest ranks inside the first recon group went to the Space Marines. They knelt before the mighty soldiers in respect as Itami observed the scene from afar in a mixture of both shock and awe.
"-Caleb: My Lord, we didn't expect you to personally join us. Thank you."
"-Aradiel: Stands up captain, the moment your report arrived, I knew that those beasts would attack the civilians. It is a shame however that we had not arrived sooner, I can see that thoses beasts had the time to ravage a part of the convoy."
"-Caleb: My apologies my lord, I was unable to prevent the beasts to do less damage."
"-Aradiel: You can keep your head high Caleb. I know of your story and I can assure you that you are one of the most valuable assets in this operation. That's why I fully trusted you to take command of this group, I knew you would make the good decision."
"-Caleb: I... Thank you my Lord."
Caleb and Elias returned with the other guardsmen to help rescue and stop the fire where they could as the space marines put the severly wounded dragon out of it's misery.
Night fell and tombs were dug. The JSDF and the guardsmen held a short but polite funeral to honor the victims of the dragons wrath. Soon after, the remaining civilians bid their farewell to the otherworlders, continuing their journey to their new home, leaving behind them the orphans, the injured and the elderly, as well as Rory, the awakened elf called Tuka Luna Marceau, the apprentice sorcerer Lelei La Lalena and her master Cato El Altestan.
Having been rather occupied before, the JSDF had not been able to interact with the super soldiers that were the space marines. The occasion presented itself however as the decorated giant in crimson armour wielding a hammer apporached Itami's squad.
"-Aradiel: I hail you men from the other Gate. My name is Aradiel Noria, captain of the thirteen company of the Blood Angels, commander of the Imperium forces on this side of the Gates."
Itami and the rest of the soldiers were dwarfed by the enormous space marines, a sweat drop appearing on Itami's forehead.
"-Itami: W-well, nice meet you sir. I am Itami Yōji, lieutenant of JSDF."
Itami smiled nervously as the imposing man was at least two heads above him and speaked with an imposing but calm voice, the JSDF could hear the wisdom and peace of the space marine.
"-Aradiel: A pleasure to meet you, this day may mark the first stone set on the road of a brilliant future. May I ask what you have planned to do with the surviving refugees?"
"-Itami: We would take them to JSDF base, at Alnus Hill. Make a new camp."
"-Aradiel: Hmm I see, an intelligent decision. Please do so, but do transfer a message to your superiors. Tell them that we will soon come to visit them, and that we would like to help you."
"-Itami: Ok sir, will do."
A little beep was heard from Aradiel helmet. The giant stopped talking for a few seconds after as he seemed to be listening to something.
"-Aradiel: I am afraid that this is all of the time that we dispose today. I wish you good luck on your continuation lieutenant Itami. May the Emperor be with you."
"-Itami: Y-yes, good luck."
Was all the japanese man managed to say, still intimidated by the armored soldier despite the latter efforts to be friendly. The captain of the Blood Angels turned around and walked back to his transport where his soldier were waiting. The guardsmen had formed a line and were saluting the space marine as he entered the thunderhawk, the ramp closing behind him before lifting off the ground and returning to Helnus Hill, also known as Base Alpha.
"-Caleb: Well Itami, it was nice to meet you, but I am afraid that this is where we part ways. For now at least."
The veteran extended his hand to the other, a small smile on his face. Itami smiled back and shaked the blonde man hand.
"-Caleb: The Emperor protects."
"-Itami: Take care."
The two seperated and the other soldiers waved at each other, some of the guardsmen said goodbye to some of the refugees with who they had bonded despite the language barrier, before returning to their chimeras. The imperial vehicles then drove off in the night to return to Helnus Hill, while the JSDF returned to the Alnus Hill.