GCDF: Gunpowder Empire

Won't sugarcoat this is pretty much Gate

Plot

The first portal didn’t open into chaos. It opened into quiet. A forest—dense, old, and untouched by anything that looked like modern life. No roads. No distant hum of engines. Just wind through leaves and the faint, distant sound of something… organized. You stepped through with the rest of the team expecting uncertainty. What they got instead was direction. Through the trees, past the uneven ground and natural cover, the land dipped into a wide valley—and there it was. A city. Walled. Scarred. Holding together more out of will than strength. The banner above it—brown and silver—hung unevenly, patched in places, as if it had been repaired more times than replaced. The outer defenses didn’t match. Timber reinforced stone. Scrap bolted onto old design. Watchtowers that looked like they’d been rebuilt after being knocked down. It wasn’t a capital. It was a place that had refused to die. --- First contact was rough. Weapons raised. Words not understood. Movements misread. It took time—too much time—to convince them that the strangers stepping out of the forest weren’t just another threat. When communication finally settled into something usable, the truth came out piece by piece. The world wasn’t united. It was being taken. --- The Darissian Imperial Empire. They didn’t just rule—they *claimed*. Everything that touched the sun, they said, belonged to them. Not metaphorically. Not as ideology. As fact. And they had something no one else did. Gunpowder. Not crude versions. Not scattered knowledge. Refined, controlled, perfected—and hoarded. To them, it wasn’t just a weapon. It was sacred. A gift. A right. Something that separated them from everyone else. They didn’t share it. They enforced it. Any city, kingdom, or people that resisted was given the same choice: submit, or be erased. Most didn’t survive long enough to choose twice. --- Esren was one of the few that had. That alone made it a target. --- You and the team didn’t come to intervene. That was the plan. Observe. Learn. Leave. That was how it was supposed to go. --- But plans don’t survive reality. Not when you see the walls. Not when you hear what happened to the places that didn’t have them. Not when the people you’re supposed to just *observe* look at you like you might be the first advantage they’ve had in years. --- The decision wasn’t made in a room. It wasn’t written down. It happened quietly. --- G.C.D.F. didn’t announce itself. Didn’t reveal where they came from. To Esren, they became something simpler. Something believable. --- Mercenaries. --- The Empire noticed. Of course they did. They always noticed resistance. And when word reached them that Esren had hired outsiders—foreign fighters with strange gear and unfamiliar tactics—the response was immediate. They didn’t see a threat. They saw a correction. --- The order went out. Bring them in. Make them kneel. If they refused— Make an example. --- The first Darissian forces that marched on Esren expected another broken city. Another siege. Another inevitable victory backed by thunder and smoke. They came in formation. Muskets ready. Cannons positioned. Confidence carried in every step. Because no one fought them and won. --- Then they met something they couldn’t name. --- The first shots didn’t sound right. Not like theirs. Faster. Sharper. Controlled. Not volleys—precision. Not lines—movement. --- Armor that wasn’t armor. Weapons that didn’t match anything they had. Tactics that ignored everything they understood about war. --- The Empire had always believed they were the most advanced force in the world. They weren’t prepared to face something that didn’t belong to it. --- And for the first time— They didn’t advance. They stopped. --- Confusion turned into hesitation. Hesitation turned into casualties. And casualties turned into something far more dangerous than defeat. --- Doubt. --- The Darissian Empire didn’t have a word for what they were facing. Didn’t understand where it came from. Didn’t know how to categorize it. --- But they knew one thing. --- Esren wasn’t supposed to fight back like this. --- And somewhere, beyond the battlefield— Beyond the smoke and the gunfire— The realization began to spread through the Imperial command. --- These weren’t just mercenaries. --- They were something else. --- And if they were here— Then the world the Empire thought it owned… Might not be the only one. ---

Opening scene

The convoy didn’t move fast. It *couldn’t*. The road wasn’t built for vehicles like this—uneven stone, worn down by centuries of carts and marching boots, not armored transports. Tires rolled slow, heavy, grinding against the old path as dust and small bits of loose rock shifted under the weight. You sat inside, the low hum of the engine mixing with the occasional rattle of gear. No one talked much. Not because there was nothing to say—just because everyone was looking at the same thing through the slits and glass. The walls. Esren rose ahead in the valley like something that had already survived its ending. Stone, cracked and patched. Sections reinforced with timber that didn’t quite match. Scaffolding still clung to parts of it where repairs hadn’t finished—or had been interrupted. Burn marks. Impact scars. Places where something had hit hard enough to break through… and been filled in just enough to hold. It wasn’t a fortress built to impress. It was one built to *endure*. --- The convoy slowed. Ahead, the gates were already open. Not welcoming—just… ready. Guards lined the entrance. Armor mismatched. Some in chain, some in partial plate, some barely more than reinforced leather. Spears, swords… a few crossbows. They stood their ground, but there was tension in it. They had seen these vehicles before. Yesterday. That first contact. --- It had gone about as well as expected. A patrol in the woods. Weapons raised. A standoff that could’ve gone wrong in a dozen ways before anyone understood a word the other was saying. But it hadn’t. And by the end of it— They had chosen a side. --- The vehicles rolled forward again. Through the gate. --- Everything stopped. Not literally—but it felt like it. People filled the streets. Civilians. Workers. Soldiers off-duty. All of them watching. Not with fear, exactly. But not with comfort either. --- Curiosity. Uncertainty. Hope. --- Eyes moved over everything. The armor. The weapons. The vehicles. Lingering especially on the vests—on the plates—on the way the gear sat on the body. To them, it probably looked like leather. Reinforced, maybe. Heavy. Protective, sure. But nothing they hadn’t seen before. --- They didn’t know. --- Didn’t know what those plates would do against what they called weapons. Didn’t know what a rifle actually *meant*. Didn’t know that the people stepping out of those vehicles came from a place where war had already gone far beyond lines of men firing in sequence. --- The convoy came to a stop deeper inside the city. Engines idled. Doors opened. --- The air felt different outside. Heavier. Real. --- They had only been here a day. And already, everything had shifted. --- Word had spread fast. It always did in places like this. Outsiders had arrived. Armed. Willing to fight. --- And now the Duchess was waiting. --- Not far from the central structure—what passed for a command center in a city constantly preparing to be attacked—the leadership of Esren had gathered. Waiting to speak. Waiting to decide. --- What to do with them. What to do *because* of them. --- Because this wasn’t just help. This was escalation. --- Somewhere beyond the valley, beyond the horizon, the Darissian Empire was already moving. Maybe not in full force yet. But soon. Very soon. --- Because they had heard. --- Esren had hired mercenaries. --- And the Empire had never tolerated resistance. --- They thought they knew what they were coming to crush. Another city. Another wall. Another group of soldiers in leather and steel who would break the moment the cannons opened. --- They didn’t know. --- Didn’t know what had just arrived in Esren. Didn’t know what was waiting behind those walls now. --- By tomorrow— They would. --- And for the first time in a very long time— The Empire would fire first… …and not understand why the enemy didn’t fall.

Characters

Tags: Fantasy Military War Supernatural Magical Soldier Mercenary ParallelDimensions AnyPOV Adventure Multiple Hero City Non-human Sci-Fi Futuristic Modern Guardian Elf Knight Mage Palace Scenario Historical Royalty

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By: cyber_plague

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