Vortex of Steel: Worlds at War (test drive)
Hey, so I'm posting this as a sort of testing the water for a massive crossover story involving the following fandoms; Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Emblem Fates, Valkyria Chronicles, Iron Harvest 1920+, Genshin Impact and the Marcher: Empires at War tabletop strategy game. I have written a prologue that introduces the Marcher Universe, as well as setting up for the crossover. I want to hear your thoughts about whether or not I should continue this, and posting it on Ao3. Thank you, and enjoy.
Prologue: Screaming Steel
It is 1938, and the world is on the brink of war. But it is not our world, though it mirrors it perhaps in similar, yet alien ways.
It is a world in which science and technology has surpassed our own in certain ways.
Colonies exist in space, accessed through jump gates.
Power armor, and shield generators find a role on battlefields.
The energy rifle and plasma weaponry takes on a battlefield role.
Gravitic Field Manipulators are used for flight, engineering, mining, and industry.
It is also a world that is stuck in the past.
‘Noble’ empires dominate the map, as well as the repression that accompanied those colonial holdings.
Many nations still cling to Monarchies, whether they be of a more divine nature or not.
And as there are colonies in space, colonies remain on the surface of the earth.
In 1938, the machinations of war began in motion, dragging in three massive super alliances.
The first is that of the North Atlantic Alliance Organization.
A belligerent New French Republic has been thrusted into a throw of passion, as Bonapartists and Communists struggle and vy for who calls the shots of this republic. Her oversea colonies are in no better shape, as fighting between Bonapartists, Communists and the Japanese occurs in Indochina, while the North African bloc of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia throw the lot in with the Communist international.
For the communists within France, they find a natural ally with the Socialist Italians.
By their side, the United States of America and the Republic of Argentina provide economic and logistical aid, while the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and Nordic Union prepare themselves to fight more localised conflicts, even if they fear such prospects.
Opposing them is the League of Five Emperors, a coalition of five empires across the globe.
The Holy Roman Empire remains a steadfast power, and a proud block of traditional conservatism.
The Russian Empire, meanwhile, is in a state of flux. With no clear legitimate heir in the aftermath of a Civil War due to both terrorism and a perceived tainting from Habsburg assistance, the lands of Russia are dominated by Boyars and various corporate conglomerates.
The Empire of Brazil and the Ethiopian Empire both find common cause with the Russians and Habsburg. Although Brazil and Ethiopia are both distant, there exists conditions within the league that calls for them to send Expeditionary forces should the need arise. It is yet to be seen whether or not these forces are deployed. .
The final of the five empires is the Joseon Empire. The Koreans, for their part, have long since been fighting the Japanese, fighting for the rights to claim the inheritance of the dead Qing dynasty in what was once China.
This in turn, draws attention to the third of the major alliances, that of the Anglo-Japanese Pact.
The pact, originally focusing on cooperation between the British Empire and the Japanese Empire, has since grown with those disillusioned by both the old world the League represents, and the new one that the Alliance represents.
The Imperial Protectorate of Great Britain, isolated from the continent, beset by Irish rebels from within, and destabilized from the deaths of multiple monarchs and famines has become the quintessential surveillance state, with an Aetherfleet able to deploy anywhere that needs stabilization, whether that be the vast savannahs of the African Commonwealth, the verdant floodplains of the British Raj, or the dense jungles of British Oceania.
The Empire of Japan, for their part, has left isolation, and has begun seeking to carve its place and name both on Earth and in the stars. For that, the claiming of the cultural, territorial, and political inheritance of the Qing remains a top priority, one that has led to many Korean, Japanese, and Chinese deaths in the trenches of Wuhan and Shanghai.
Monarchical Spain meanwhile throws the gauntlet towards France, a desire to reclaim the lands lost to the French burning with intensity of the forges that once melted Aztec gold.
Maverick Neo Byzantium, in rage, aims for the lands of the Turkish Republic and Safavid Dynasty of Iran, but moreso, eyes the French territories on the shores of North Africa, specifically Tunisia, with a hunger.
The Sultanate of Egypt, seeing equal opportunity to expand into the French North African sands of Tripoli, have aligned with the Brits and the Japanese.
And then there is Gran Colombia, who, simply put, by all accounts, no one knows what the fuck they are doing, as it is usually assumed that they are the British lap dogs, merely acting as the buffer between the southern borders of the United States, and the Brazillians.
As it currently stands, the world is drawing nearer to war. Lines have been drawn, yet no shots fired. Aetherships have lifted off, yet they are not yet found to be clashing in the sky. Tanks and walkers rumble onwards, yet the boom of their guns has yet to be commonplace, except among the testing grounds.
However, as a new year comes into existence, a certain change occurs, ensuring the flames grow brighter than ever before.
For some, this would be a miracle, the advancement of society.
For some, a disaster, wreaking havoc on all that they know.
And for many, an opportunity for allies, resources, and new forms of warfare.
As for those connected, they soon found themselves, in a terrifying, new world…
Yakutsk, Siberia, The Russian Empire
It was cold. That part should be obvious. After all, no one expects a city that is 450 kilometers away from the Arctic Circle to be super hot. That said, Yakutsk was a bustling city nonetheless.
The reason becomes obvious when one looks at a certain spot.
Here in Yakutsk, lies one of the 5 Jump gates in existence, the Nikolovsk Gate. Both the gate and the city were created by the Okhotsk Techno Union. The gate connects the lands of the Russian empire with the Nikolovsk System, where the dual colonies of Ledyanoy Shar and the Bolshoi Aetherplex exist.
Ledyanoy Shar remains to be a gold mine of minerals, admittedly while also being a frozen barren hellscape. The Bolshoi Aetherplex meanwhile is a ship that floats in the aether, providing a pleasure palace of sorts to both nobles, technocrats and miners alike.
That said, today would be… distinct.
In one of the control rooms, one of the workers noticed something unusual. He reported it to his floor manager who examined it, and who then reported it to the shift manager, and slowly, it trickled all the way up to the CEO of the Okhotsk Techno Union.
He then, in turn, reported it to the Russian regency council, as well as the other many corporations and oligarchs that now dominate the Russian empire.
Ordinarily, trade secrets that one stumbles on should remain a secret, an inside tool used to screw over a business rival.
That’s a hell of a lot harder when you discover that your Jump Gate now connects to a second system.
The news was leaked however.
And with that, the trail of gunpowder leading to a world war, became the path to becoming a worlds war.
Rockford, Illinois, The United States of America
A short time later, the inconspicuous town of Rockford had their own shock. The town was a small town. I say ‘was’, because here in Rockford, was the world’s first ever Jump Gate, the Concord gate, which ordinarily led to the Concord system.
I say ‘ordinarily’, as a similar thing that occurred at the Nikolovsk gate occurred here.
This was also where the rules were broken.
When a ship was sent through this second lane, they found a lush planet.
They also found a Russian ship.
You see, early on during the proliferation of Jump Gates, three common courtesy rules were held via conference in 1880.
One: gate technology cannot be patented, nor can it be privately owned.
Two: Once a gate has been opened for a specific jump lane, no other nation may open another gate on that lane.
Three: Gates may collect taxes and tariffs on passage through the gate, but cannot restrict travel to any nationality except during an emergency.
However, when the conference was held, no one had exactly taken into account the idea that a Jump Gate could open multiple lanes, let alone for two gates that weren’t connected, to both develop a second lane to the same location.
To prevent an armed conflict, the Russian and American ship commanders decided to jointly probe the planet.
Another crack was made, as they found not only life, but sentient ones, and they were frighteningly human. They were quick to learn that they spoke a language that could be understood by the humans of Earth. And there, they learnt the name of the planet.
After this, a cavalcade of similar events occurred, as preexisting Jump gates now connected to new worlds.
The Prince Albert Gate located in Great Britain found a path to a world wherein a continent named ‘Fodlan’ was split between three nations.
Japan’s Shin-Tokaido-Mon Gate, hailed by many in the west as cementing Japan as a major, modern political player found its way to a world in which half the world is covered in sunlight, and the other half in darkness, wherein lies two major powers, dubbed ‘Hoshido’ and ‘Nohr’.
The French Germinal Gate meanwhile found its way to a world that echoes their own, but in which steam and electricity moves forward clockwork mechs.
This also spawned other nations to begin building their own Jump gates.
The Holy Roman Empire’s Ostend Company quickly built a gate in the city of Pécs, dubbing it the Árpád Gate, and found it connected to another world, in which nations exist, powering their lives with ragnite, a form of mineral.
Unfortunately, this is also where the issue of multiple gates ending up on the same space lane resurge.
With aid from Russia and the Holy Roman Empire, Joseon made a gate entitled the Heavenly Gate, connecting them to the land of Fodlan as well. Ethiopia also made the great Solomon Gate, connecting them in turn to the world of Hoshido and Nohr.
Soon, those who already had gates built additional ones as well.
Australia managed to lobby the British parliament to open a second gate in Australia, and it too, led to the world that contained Ragnite.
Russia built a second gate as well in the lands of Kazakhstan, and they found themselves in a world of clockwork mechs as well.
Finally, the US built a second gate in Logan, Utah, which formed a third lane to Fodlan.
As this explosion of Jump Gate proliferation occurred, slowly but surely, an entangling effect has occurred. And as the fires of war stir, one thing remains certain.
The war will expand, and those who are now exposed to this alien world, will soon find themselves hopelessly at the mercy of a new world.
Thoughts? Would you all be interested in seeing more of this? Critiques will be accepted
