Kyle continued his questioning of the mage. “It would be a huge gateway set up wherever you would like. It has to be out of the public eye; some factions in the Senate and the wider empire don’t want this to go ahead. Near infrastructure would be nice as well.”

  “This all sounds rather doable, assuming you’ll handle the gate itself. What can we expect on the other side of the portal?” Centrous gave him a conspiratorial sideye before continuing. “This is technically classified information, what I’m about to tell you, but a level of trust must be reached; in my opinion at least. My superiors might not agree. Somehow, the Demon Lord, Dahubu the Blooded, has returned. He’s reorganized the fractured imperium that shares his name and is retaking land at an alarming rate. We want you and a hit squad to not only kill him, but reinstate the puppet regime.”

  “I… don’t see why not, assuming I’ll receive whatever resources I see valuable from the gate.” “Ha! Yes, yes, it’ll be 60 to 40 you to us. We just want priority is all.”

  Kyle leaned back in his self-designed reclining office chair. “I have one other condition. Know any nobles with population surpluses or slums they want to empty?”

  “So you can kill them and harvest their lifeforce and/or organs? I didn’t take you for one of those “let nothing go to waste” types, ya know. But if that’s what you-” Kyle chuckled. “No, I need immigrants.” “Ah. I was just joking, you know.”

  ————

  Month 17 of the Two Year Plan

  The goal wasn’t a full on invasion, rather a simple resource gathering incursion. Two objectives-set up a permanent fortress and extract the myriad resources of the Kanaduran, which was the actual name of Hell. It wasn’t a fiery hellscape per se, but there were certainly regions of it that matched the stereotype. There were equally as many picturesque and habitable areas of the world.

  It was an entire world, separated from the actual planet of Lindus. Something physics-breaking was going on here, but since Kyle had arrived and started building an industrial state, he had learned to ignore magical bullshit.

  The entire world consisted of some 5 continents separated by either lava seas or endless chasms. The central one, which was the second largest, was controlled by the Dahubu Imperium. An autocratic state ruled by the Demon Lord.

  To the Northwest, the smallest continent lay. It used to be under the Imperiums control, but republican rebels hoping to set up a more liberal state had taken advantage of the Demon Lords absence for centuries.

  To the south lay the largest continent, controlled nominally by The imperium, although many regions were under the sway of local warlords. Two smaller continents lay to the east, one contested between Veskaya and the Imperium, and the other controlled by some far northern state called Lamarc.

  By opening the portal in Kyle’s land, the Magocracy could gain a foothold of their own that wasn’t beholden to Emperor Annasar XIX, or the Oligarchs and Senators that held the real power in the empire. While the Veskayan empire presented a united front to the world, their vassals were very independent in the end.

  Kyle’s army as well as an expeditionary force of mages had spent two months mustering and training. In the end their forces consisted of a core of 2,500 of Kyle’s best riflemen, 200 mortar teams, 50 MGs, and 4 tanks, now equipped with a rotating machine gun on top. A team of some 300 mages would also be going across-all were combat trained and equipped, but their focus would be smoothing out an area and constructing a forward operating base.

  Kyle himself stood at the head of the large army, while the mages inserted the final ceramic runic plates into the huge gate structure and pumped mana into it. He still wasn’t one for speeches, but the moment definitely needed something from him.

  Quickly strolling to the grassy space in between the lines of men in their brown uniforms and the unfinished ceramic gate behind him, he raised his hands and spoke.

  “Alright. You all have your orders, no? I don’t want to see any heroics; we’re all professionals here. Got that?” The men made general noises of assent. “Alright. I trust you all, so I want you all to trust me.”

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  ———-

  Almin was a simple man. Before the new lord had come and partnered with the old Caltagar lord, he’d farmed for a living. His whole family had, growing grains for the cities to the south in Maduwan. Then, the lord brought so many innovations, he hadn’t been needed anymore. New plows, magic mulch called fertilizer that made the plants grow more and faster than ever, and revolutionary techniques like crop rotation and firebreaks.

  Almin had felt useless at his home. He couldn’t even get water from the well to help out-the new hand pump could pull water with a tiny fraction of the effort it took to haul a bucket up a well. So, he left his family farm and headed to the big city for work.

  And work there was aplenty: in the steel mills, on the transport trains, at the munition plants, even at the mines. However, the steam and industry were never his forte. He hated every job he took. The final straw was when an experimental industrial mass-printer almost crushed him between its rollers.

  In the end, he signed up for the growing Provincial Guard. Perhaps soldiering would do him better than working in the cities. His father had served in the militia years ago, and told him what to expect. Uncaring officers and cruel nobles, and most likely a fate as frontline fodder.

  But it was nothing like his father or anyone else told him. He was given a real uniform, one of the famous guns used by the guard, and amazing accommodations and rations. The officers were also of common birth, and treated him with a modicum of respect.

  The most shocking thing was the actual training itself. Running laps around the base, pushups, pullups, and other workouts he’d never heard about that the lord had personally introduced.

  Shooting his rifle too was an amazing experience, and it turned out that he was something of a natural talent with it. After his scores were consistently above average, he was pulled out of standard training and given a bigger gun called an anti-personnel rifle.

  He was grateful for the increased pay. Almin had always been a simple man who followed orders well, and that nature followed him into the military.

  ————

  Almin sat in one of the large warehouses on the portal base with his squad. They were considered “elite”, and were the first experimental combat recon team that the PG (provincial guard) had deployed. He had even got to meet the lord, who had performed some magic on them. He didn’t understand it much, but the lord promised that it would improve his shooting skill overall. All he knew was that he could suddenly see better than ever.

  His squad was three teams of two, minus one non-gunner. One gunner and one loader, who could swap if needed. Their guns were 1.1 meter long monsters that could punch through about a centimeter of mithril and 4 centimeters of steel at most effective distances.

  Lifting his pipe to his mouth, he pulled on it quietly. Smokeleaf-a crop the lord had imported and made growing a priority for a reason he hadn’t understood until he tried it.

  Sadly, the lord kept the stuff far from the public and he was only able to steal some from his farmer friends.

  Almin himself was a boring you man with straight and short brown hair. He was told his jawline was really strong, but he didn’t see it personally. Compared to his teammates, he looked positively boring. Every single one of them was a former adventurer, some weren’t even human! Matthias had never actually seen a nonhuman in his entire lifetime, and had only met them in passing once he came to the city.

  The other two humans were grizzled veterans. Matthias, an old ranger with salt and pepper hair, a sign of his age. The other was a woman.

  She was a younger girl named Thea, a kind soul who had wanted to be an adventurer to do good rather than striking it rich like most. When the lord had banned the guild from his lands, she’d naturally transitioned to the military. Women were allowed to serve if they really wanted to, but only a few did, and most were former adventurers.

  The other two were nonhumans. A dwarf and a rabbitfolk. The dwarf was a young-ish man named Birgen, with the characteristic immense musculature and beard of the dwarven race. He could easily lift any other member of the team with one hand. He’d been an adventurer for some decades, and found a fascination in guns after he saw them in action.

  He turned out to be a natural shot, and was quickly scooped up for the team. The final member was the rabbitfolk, going by the name of Pilka. She too was a natural shot, but not to the degree of all the other members. She’d also been a longtime adventurer, but the pay as an administrator first for the guild and then for the state had been better.

  No one knew why she needed so much money, as she was quite cagey around her past. But she still remained outgoing, and it was hard not to get along with her. All in all, a moderately effective team, as long as no one turned out to be a secret racist. Personally, Almin's money was on Matthias, but that was just a guess. Everyone seemed nice enough so far.

  Almin, Thea, and Birgen would be operating as a team of two shooters and one who could swap out. All three had their main armament of a bolt action high-power rifle, modified however they liked. Thea and himself just took standard issue break-action quad barrel hunter pistols firing 9mm rounds, while Birgen took a double-barrel shotgun, also break-action.