***
--- Fort Alnus ---
April 28th, 2025
Sharpe wakes up all sweating and breathing heavily. He takes a look around and sees that he is in the passenger seat. He looks around as he tries to remember where he is at. He looks at his watch and it said 0147.
He then sees the strange glow from the Gate. It is not bright or distracting, just an alien-like glow. "Damnit."
He grabs his helmet and gets out of the JLTV. He sees his Rangers in their beds asleep. The only one who is awake because he is on guard duty.
"Morning sir," Scott said.
"Morning Scott," he replied.
"You are up early sir," Scott comments. "Is there anything you need?"
He looks at Scott and then looks away. "Stay on guard duty. If anyone needs me, I will be on the western line."
He walks through the base. While the only source of light is the half-moon and the power-generation lights everywhere it is dark. Besides that, it is pretty dark.
He passes the British and Canadian sections of the base as he heads to the refugee section. They are the first NATO allies to arrive in this world and are establishing their base of operations.
He gets to the refugee section and sees the building he wants to check on. He nearly got to the door but stops himself. "Don't get attached Sharpe."
He then walks away, heading to the western outer perimeter. Currently, the outer perimeter is made up of a trench system around the Gate. Three kilometers out in one large circle. This style of defense is only temporary until the military is ready to build a more permanent base.
He gets to this spot on the line that is being guarded by two 2nd Division soldiers.
"Good evening sir," one of the soldiers said.
"It is morning Corporal," he responds. "How is the line?"
"Boring sir," the Corporal said.
"Good," he replied. "Keep a good eye out there though. We have no idea what is out there. Now excuse me."
He starts walking down the line until he finds a spot where he is alone.
Once alone he then takes off his helmet and sits down. He looks out and only sees darkness. The only light is the moon and stars.
He can feel his hand tapping his knee as he feels stressed out. "I don't know if I can do this again."
He takes a deep breath and pulls out his M1911 Colt pistol. He holds it in his hand and looks at it.
---
Rory Mercury looks out the window of the shack. "It seems like my little soldier is awake. But he seems to be struggling."
She sensed Sharpe coming over but saw him leave which confused her. She has been curious about this man's sense of the town.
She looks over to Selina as she sleeps. While she is not one of her worshippers, she has made a vow to protect her.
She thinks back to the town. While Sharpe thought he was alone she watched him confront those four men. She thought he was crazy to fight them, especially a lion. All for a slave girl to.
She decided to watch and see what happens and she was impressed by the results. Watching him carry Selina away in his arms she thought he claimed her as his property. However, that idea did not sit well with her because she felt something was different. He ordered his team to help the people evacuate when he had no reason to.
"Time to get the truth," she mumbles.
She leaves the shack and then jumps. She lands on the roof of the next shack.
She then jumps again, passing four shacks and softly lands on another roof.
Being an Apostle, she has superhuman abilities like enhanced strength, speed, agility, and regeneration. All are needed in the name of her God Emroy.
She gets to the last building and sees a large gap between her and the line. "Now where is he."
She closes her eyes and places her hand on her chest. She then starts to feel for him. After a few moments she finally senses his soul, but she does not like what she feels. The presence of Palapon, the God of Revenge.
She rushes over to his location. She sees him sitting there looking at something, but she can tell that something is wrong.
While it has only been a few days since she met him, she has already learned a lot about him. He prioritizes other people's safety and wellbeing over himself. He is brave to the point of fault. And what she finds interesting is that he is a soldier, but he is independent. He finds ways to obey his orders but do what is right.
In all her time in this world, she has found it interesting that battle brings out the true side of a man. She sees phony people all the time just living their lives but a soldier who is putting everything on the line, she has seen their true sense of who they are.
She walks up behind Sharpe and sees the gun in his hand. She saw him pull that weapon out and fired it at the Flame Dragon. It did not affect the dragon; she is not even certain the projectile even hit the beast. But it did show her that he did not fear the dragon.
She walks up and then jumps on top of his lap without warning.
"Ouch!" Sharpe said, shocked by what just happened.
She looks at him, studying him. "Are you an agent of Palapon?"
Sharpe looks at her, confused by the question. "Who the hell is Palapon?"
"Answer the question, Major," she replied.
She looks closely into his eyes, wanting to see how his soul said.
"How can I answer the question if I don't know who Palapon is Rory?" Sharpe said.
She sees that Sharpe tries to push her off. She grabs his hand and stops him. She can see the confusion in his eyes, how a young-looking girl like her ability to overpower a well-trained adult male.
"I want to know if I can trust you," she responds.
Rory watches Sharpe now looking at her, very directly. To her surprise, he looks at her like he is in control of this situation. She wonders if he still does not understand what an Apostle is or if he doesn't care.
"You want to know if you can trust me?" Sharpe restates the question. "The answer is no."
She is surprised to hear that response. She was expecting him to say yes and give her some standard reason on why he is the good guy.
"Trust is something that needs to be earned," Sharpe continues. "People like to give out trust like throwing candies but when real issues arrive, they fly like flees. Trust needs to be earned, built from the ground up so when you are in the trench, surrounded by the enemy, the person beside you will still be there. So, you cannot trust me because we just meant just like I cannot trust you. Your question should be, should we learn to?"
She blinks, surprised by that answer. She thinks about his response. "If you don't trust us then why did you save all those people?"
"Your world attacked mine," Sharpe states. "My people want payback but that doesn't mean we have a free pass to do what we want. What is the point in coming here if we are just going to bomb everything? I want to win but I want a victory that matters. The only way to do that is to be better than our enemies."
"Better?" she asked.
"What is the point of winning the war if nothing changes?" Sharpe continues. "So, let me ask you this. You are a fine girl who can take care of herself. Why are you here? Why are you not fighting against us?"
She smiles. "Because I do not support the Empire. They have reigned over these lands for long enough."
She then let go of his hand and places it on her chest. "Long ago when I was twelve, I was chosen by my god Emroy. The gods of our world cover many responsibilities."
"You said that before," Sharpe said. "What does that mean?"
"Emroy is the god of darkness, war, violence, insanity, crime, execution, love, and death in all related in what I said," she said, arms crossed as she smiles. "I go around my world spreading the will of Emroy."
"Interesting," Sharpe said.
She then takes a breath and looks away. "Let me guess you think I am evil or something."
She thinks that because she is known as Rory the Reaper. Death follows her wherever she goes which does not bother her. However, it is a reason why she usually travels alone. Many people see her as someone who brings death to her. While she believes Emroy represents the reality of the world and she chooses to see it in a positive way, most see her in a negative way. That is why she is known as the Reaper.
"If you want to see it like that," Sharpe replied.
She glares at him. "Why don't you ever speak plainly!"
"Because it isn't Tuesday sweetheart," Sharpe replied and gives her a wink. "Most would see all that as an act of evil but those same people who rarely have to fight or put themselves on the line. Stating the obvious but I am a soldier. You must be insane to leave a warm bed and food to go fight in another country. You do what you must to protect the ones you care about."
She giggles at him, avoiding the word love. All her life she always found it strange that men avoid terms like that. She always heard that words like that were not too manly enough or dumb excuses like that. She finds it interesting that Sharpe’s world is similar.
"Do you mean to protect the ones you love?" she corrects.
"That and more," Sharpe replied. "You?"
"As I said," she replied. "I want to help people in my world. Not the powerful, not the nobles or the royals. Just the people. I think you people have the same goals as me. I think you have the same goals as me."
Rory looks at him closely, feeling the presence of Palapon fading. She can sense a conflict in him, a deep pain. While she does not know she can fully trust these people, yet she can see that she can trust his actions. Sharpe is not an agent of Palapon, not because he does not know who Palapon is but his actions. However, she does wish to know who he is an agent of.
She then hears footsteps coming and looks over.
Two soldiers walk up, both being Alicia and Scott.
"Sir," Alicia said. "Command is on the horn and needs…. What is going on here?"
"Are you two…. Doing it?" Scott asked.
She looks up at Scott finding it a strange question. She then looks at herself and then Sharpe, realizing that she is sitting on his lap. From their point of view, they look like they are getting a little too intimate.
She then smirks as she gets an idea. She places her hand on her forehead and leans back. "Oh, thank you. This man wanted to thank me in the battle, but I think there was something in the drink he gave me. I think he seduced me and the next thing I knew I was here on his lap."
"Sir?" Alicia said.
Sharpe looks to his Rangers and then at her with a smirk. "All true. I seduced her. To be honest I didn't even have to try. The easiest seduction I ever had. I even got bored, too easy."
Hearing that she slaps him across the cheek. "You prick! You were not supposed to agree with me! You were supposed to beg for forgiveness and beg me not to tell anyone!"
Sharpe places his hand on his cheek. "One. Ouch. Two. If you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I play to win."
Sharpe then winks and her and gets up and walks past his Rangers.
She stands up, unable to believe that he challenged and defeated her at her own game. "Prick. I was supposed to win. This is war!"
"What the fuck just happened?" Scott asked, confused.
"Rory" Alicia said in a concerned voice. "Do you need help? Did he assault you?"
"If he tried to assault me, I would have easily killed him," she responds, brushing off Alicia's concern. "He just won this round."
"Ah, shit there are two of you now," Alicia mumbles. "I'm going back to bed."
Reference:
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That's funny
He passes the British and Canadian sections of the base as he heads to the refugee section. They are the first NATO allies to arrive in this world and are establishing their base of operations.
Why is NATO there? The place where the Gate opened in this story was on U.S. soil. The attack was against U.S. citizens and destroyed U.S. property. By what agreement or law does NATO or the United Nations have a say in this matter, particularly since the enemy is not a member of the United Nations nor even located on Earth?
If the Gate opened in a smaller country without much in the way of a sizeable military force, such as a country in Europe, then it would be understandable for NATO to be involved. It might even be understandable if the Empire's forces just so happened to attack an embassy (or, especially, several embassies) as that would involve the citizens and property of other nations. Admittedly, this is plausible because there are about 38 different consulates in the city of Philadelphia. (I looked. However, an attack on a consulate was not mentioned, so...)
For a moment, lets talk about NATO's funding. All 30 members contribute according to an agreed cost-share formula, based on Gross National Income, which represents a small percentage of each member's defense budget. However, the majority is paid for by the United States. Indeed, for a number of years, several notable NATO members refused to honor the agreement by paying their agreed cost-share amount - at least until Trump recently got on their case about how they've been shirking their financial responsibility.
Bottom line is: NATO should not be there unless a number of citizens of NATO nations were victims or if the United States government invited them. Besides, I'm pretty sure the U.S. government believes that their military is deemed enough to deal with this threat without asking NATO for help. Anyway, I'd imagine the chain of command would get more complicated with other nations involved.
[ https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_110496.htm ] @Xpacetrue
This is why, NATO Collective Defense Article 5, where " ....an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies." The Attack is on US Soil, yes, but what baffles me is that you believe that it should only apply to smaller countries. Most who did research would recall the ONLY time IN ITS HISTORY it has been used was when the UNITED STATES got attacked on 9/11.
Doesn't matter if it only happened on US Soil, an attack on an Ally, according to Article 5, is an Attack on ALL Allies.
America leads Multi-National Tasks on a daily basis like its a normal Monday. And the US is close with its Allies [Even if they aren't now].
"If the Gate opened in a smaller country without much in the way of a sizeable military force, such as a country in Europe, then it would be understandable for NATO to be involved."
I will repeat Again, the last and ONLY time Article 5 was activated was on 9/11, when the attacks were against the United States, the USA, the most powerful country, and yet, according to your logic, Article 5 shouldn't have been activated, because there has not been more Multi-National Casualties. It still was going to be activated, since it was an attack on their soil. Just because its from another world, does not exempt them from the UN or even NATO being involved.
Even if the attacks were from Alien Countries, of goddamn course there would be an International Response. its an attack on a country from ANOTHER Planet.
Meanwhile, the United States has Defensive pacts with Non-NATO Members. Such examples being Japan, South Korea, Australia, and even the Rio Pact [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-American_Treaty_of_Reciprocal_Assistance ].
"Anyway, I'd imagine the chain of command would get more complicated with other nations involved."
You imagine wrong, the other nations would have brought their own commanders and officers into the mix so they can handle their troops. Because seriously, America can't do ALL OF THE ORDERS on its own.
TL:DR Somebody from the US's Pool of over hundreds of Allies would have responded, since its still an attack on US Soil, even though the invaders are from another Planet [ NATO and others {Rio Pact} being examples]
Meanwhile, the United States has Defensive pacts with Non-NATO Members. Such examples being Japan, South Korea, Australia, and even the Rio Pact...
This is true. However, are you so certain that the nation where an attack takes place is unable TO EVEN REFUSE the offer of military assistance from NATO or the United States?
For example, if an attack happened on Japan, are you sure that Japan could not decline assistance from the United States if it believes that it can handle they can handle it on their own?
@UUDSNGeneralAssembly Even if the attacks were from Alien Countries, of goddamn course there would be an International Response. its an attack on a country from ANOTHER Planet.
You say that, but - aside from the location - the basic premise of your story is the same as the original GATE, where Japan was alone in going through the Gate and fighting these same invaders from ANOTHER planet. In the original, it was not that Japan would refuse any help whatsoever. Rather, it was portrayed that other nations were not that interested in coming to Japan's aid (or, likely, they demanded certain conditions that Japan was not willing to agree with).
In the webnovel, going by what his advisors suggested, the President of the United States decided to only send Japan aid in the form of weapons and ammunition. In that story, several nations were critizing Japan for their militarized response and building up their military, suggesting that Japan was ignoring it's commitment to peace and falling back to their Empire's history of invading others.
(After all, Japan rather quickly defeated and captured the invaders and secured their point of entry. And they soon built a concrete dome around the Gate, preventing any further incursion. By that point, the threat was effectively neutralized. "Is doing anything more - invading this unknown territory through the Gate - absolutely necessary for self defense?" I agree that it was, but I'd imagine some pundits would ask that question.)
The U.S. reasoned that doing more than supplying them with weapons and ammo would cause a political backlash - as in being considered "an accomplice to Japan". Also, the President was reminded that the U.S. had it's hands full dealing with the situation in the Middle East, implying that it would be a bad idea to overextend their forces and resources or spend more on their military.
In other words, it was about political grandstanding and each country only looking at their own interests. Sound familiar?
Anyway, it's not exactly fair to compare a large scale invasion by highly advanced aliens arriving in ships to an invasion of primitive sword and spear-wielding barbarians that was only made possible through a single entry point. The two scenarios are entirely different, especially since one is clearly a major threat to the entire planet whereas the other was a limited threat to one location, has already been dealt with, and seems to be under control without any assistance.
Also, I would point out that there are PLENTY of other works of fiction where some sort of invaders - be it aliens, fantasy races or monsters - arrive on Earth and they are handled EXCLUSIVELY by the United States - or EXCLUSIVELY by Great Britain or whatever nation they happen to invade. That is, many works of fiction has a NATO nation deal with such things without involving NATO. For instance, for the most part, the alien threats in the Stargate franchise were dealt with exclusively by the United States.
@Xpacetrue
1). I am not PWOFalcon, I'm an Admin on his server, you mistake me for him in your reply multiple times
2). The Original was written by a Japanese Nationalist, so the other nations not lending support was just him feeding his and other's Nationalism. PWOFalcon has stated multiple times that he gains ideas from the original, and the entire story will be 95% Original Work, the 5%, idk where he used it
3). An Attack is an Attack, even if they may as well all be armed with butter knives and such, it's still an Attack and requires retaliation. Weapons are out of the equation, people died in the attack, retaliation is the only option, and I am very sure that NATO is going to rain hell on the Enemy.
@Xpacetrue
"Also, I would point out that there are PLENTY of other works of fiction where some sort of invaders - be it aliens, fantasy races or monsters - arrive on Earth and they are handled EXCLUSIVELY by the United States - or EXCLUSIVELY by Great Britain or whatever nation they happen to invade. That is, many works of fiction has a NATO nation deal with such things without involving NATO. For instance, for the most part, the alien threats in the Stargate franchise were dealt with exclusively by the United States."
What does the United States and the United Kingdom both have? The greatest Natural Border of all, Ocean, America has Oceans on both sides, while Britain enjoys the luxury of being separated by Europe thanks to the English Channel and North Sea. The nation that's exclusively handling it, are probably waiting for their allies to cross the oceans to get to them, European NATO May take a while thanks to their serious lack of Water Military Transportation, While America would have to fight against time to arrive to help their allies.
Nothing is instant man, sure, Canada is connected to America by land, but it still would take time in order to even get to the area of battle. Air Transports and Air support are the fasted and most instant options.
There is still a huge gap, distance thanks to oceans, and there's time to fight against, those Nations 'Exclusively' handling it, are probably waiting for their allies to arrive to help them. Time is the greatest obstacle of all in War.
Also, stop comparing this book to other works of Fiction
@UUDSNGeneralAssembly
1). I am not PWOFalcon, I'm an Admin on his server, you mistake me for him in your reply multiple times
Sorry, my mistake. I was tired. Moreover, your comments almost felt like replies on PWOFalcon's behalf, especially with how strongly you defended the story. Your replies seemed empassioned and used colorful metaphors (and CAPS) more than once. And now I hear that you know PWOFalcon. This doesn't excuse my mixup. But was it not almost understandable?
3). An Attack is an Attack, even if they may as well all be armed with butter knives and such, it's still an Attack and requires retaliation.
Whether commenting on the Invasion of Philadelphia or The Battle of Ginza, I never said that retaliation was not appropriate. At most, I played devil's advocate for a brief moment when I tried to explain the reaction of other nations towards Japan's planned retaliation over The Battle of Ginza.
Also, stop comparing this book to other works of Fiction
Excuse my asking, but... why? I understand that commenters must follow the site's TOS. I've been polite. Aside from making sure we stay on the subject of this story, what reasoning do you have? (Also, are you speaking on PWOFalcon's behalf?) Is polite criticism not allowed? What is wrong with making comparisons with fiction?
This story's premise - an invasion on the continental U.S. by an extraterrestrial foreign power; by a mix of humans and fantasy creatures equipped with primitive weapons and armor - is completely unprecedented. It's not like readers can cite examples of this in history books to predict how this should go down. Nor can we quote treaties or military procedure to predict exactly how this would go down.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but: Since the story premise and situation is so outside of precedent, about the only things we can turn to is our imagination and other works of fiction.
BTW: The last foreign invasion of U.S. soil was Japan's occupation of the Aleutian Islands during World War II. And if we're talking about a foreign invasion of the continental U.S., that hasn't happened since the War of 1812.
This is why, NATO Collective Defense Article 5, where " ....an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies." The Attack is on US Soil, yes, but what baffles me is that you believe that it should only apply to smaller countries. Most who did research would recall the ONLY time IN ITS HISTORY it has been used was when the UNITED STATES got attacked on 9/11.
That's an excellent rebuttal. I was not familiar with the details of NATO's treaty. However, the following is a brief excerpt from an article in The Atlantic...
President Trump did not explicitly endorse the mutual-aid clause of the North Atlantic Treaty at the NATO summit on Thursday despite previous indications that he was planning to do so, keeping in place the cloud of ambiguity hanging over the relationship between the United States and the alliance.
...But he [Trump] did not specifically commit to honor Article 5, which stipulates that other NATO allies must come to the aid of an ally under attack if it is invoked.
Also, keep in mind that Trump has been an open critic of NATO, at one point even calling it "obsolete." It sounds like the enforcement of Article 5 is not as absolute as you would lead me to believe. It seems open to some degree of interpretation by whatever politicians happen to be in power at the time. Another article:
Seventy years after the founding of NATO, it's not clear that all allies are on the same side about what collective self-defense would actually mean. President Trump has emerged as a powerful critic of the alliance, while Turkey's intervention in northeastern Syria raised concerns about just how far collective security would go.
In a recent interview with the Economist, French President Emmanuel Macron wondered whether NATO's collective security could result in his country fighting a war against Syria. "What will Article 5 mean tomorrow?" Macron wondered aloud.
The article goes on to cover recent polls over how the citizens of NATO nations feel about Article 5, pointing out that public support for Article 5 is surprisingly low. In one notable poll, only a minority of Germans said they would come to the defense of Americans if the United States were attacked.
Also, let me quote Article 5:
With the invocation of Article 5, Allies can provide any form of assistance they deem necessary to respond to a situation. This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in the particular circumstances.
The "any form of assistance they deem necessary" means that assistance can take various forms. I'm pretty sure it can take the form of things like weapons, ammo, medical supplies and logistics. And just because each Ally has a responsibility to offer assistance, is it explicitely stated ANYWHERE that an Ally is obligated by the Treaty to ACCEPT the form of assistance offered, including the presence of foreign troops?
The web page you linked listed the eight measures NATO took to support the United States after 9/11. Only a few of these measures included the OFFER of military force. Other steps were for things like "to enhance intelligence-sharing and cooperation", "to provide increased security for facilities", "to provide blanket overflight clearances for" aircraft, and "to provide access" to ports and airfields.
Even if Article 5 is enforced, I'd say there's plenty of room for debate on whether a NATO nation has the authority to turn away the presence of heavily-armed military forces of member nations on their soil. If a nation's government does not even have the power to do that (i.e., control over their own land) - even in the form of rejecting assistance in the form of the presence of large numbers of foreign military forces - then, is such a nation actually free? Are they truly in control of their own land and destiny?
It's all fine and dandy if a NATO nation is willing to accept the assistance offered by other NATO nations. The point I was trying to make was to suggest this possibility: What if - in a story much like this - the President of the United States told other NATO nations something like the following?
"Sorry, but no thanks. We got this. Not to boast, but our armed forces are among the best equipped and best trained in the world. I'm confident that they are capable of handling this on their own. If you want to send logistics or other forms of assistance, you're welcome to do so. But, in order to attack the enemy who invaded Philadelphia, you would have to go through the dimensional gate in Philadelphia, which is on our sovereign land. The United States still considers you, the members of NATO, to be our friends and allies. However, I'm afraid I can't allow you access to the Gate at this time. Though, if you have some other way to attack our common enemy, feel free to do so."
Regardless of who the U.S. President is in this fictional scenario, I'm pretty he or she could get away with saying and doing this without breaking the treaty and without serious repercussions from the rest of NATO.
You imagine wrong, the other nations would have brought their own commanders and officers into the mix so they can handle their troops.
Of course they can handle their own troops. My concern is over matters of cooperation. Who decides what their common goals and objectives should be? Who makes sure that they don't accidentally step on each other's proverbial toes? For example, who makes sure that their forces don't run into each other without knowing exactly where the other's forces are?
Remember, this is another world where they do not have GPS or satellite radio. Of course, there was plenty of cooperation between Allied Forces during WWII, before satellite technology. However, unlike in this story, they often had decent maps. Even so, there were numerous examples of friendly fire incidents in WWII.
Trivia: There have been many thousands of friendly fire incidents in recorded military history, accounting for an estimated 2% to 20% of all casualties in battle.
@Xpacetrue
Just go read the damn up to date version of this [ https://www.wattpad.com/story/180912336-gate-war-of-two-worlds-part-1 ]
I honestly give up here, this Argument is going down a path that would result in much more Aggravated Attacks from me
@Xpacetrue
Also, all facts you are saying Apply to 2020
The story is set in 2025, Facts can change
@Xpacetrue
here's a question that you should consider, Why shouldn't NATO be involved? Seriously, think about that one, I will be waiting for your response
@UUDSNGeneralAssembly @Xpacetrue holy cow i know of keyboard warriors but you guys are a few levels up.
at the very least a one man army
@rr4ever I stopped following this over a year ago. The author (and his server admin friend) and I clearly disagree about certain things and we have different views on how a story like this should go. I loved GATE and, initially, I was excited for this story. But I lost interest. Which is fine. To each their own. If everyone thought the same, that would make for a very boring world.
I will say, though, that a friend of mine informed me that, when he tried, he could not like some of my comments for this story. Apparently, certain of my comments on this story have been "locked" or "limited" in a way that prevents this. I knew authors are given certain functions, such as the ability to delete comments or ban certain users from commenting. But I wasn't even aware that an author could prevent comment likes.
Anyway, certain comments - esp. some recent comments - gave me the impression that I'm not welcome here. So it's just as well that I gave this story up.
@Xpacetrue For the record, I don't know of any locked/limited option nor I use them. If I wanted to delete the comments, I would have. Unless it is spam or hostility, I leave comments as is. Everyone is welcomed to their opinion and I know some within the Gate community do not like that I went my own path and did not follow the gate lore, which is fine. Everyone can like/feel what they want, including my adaption. The truth is I shouldn't have replied as I am the author, my voice carried more weight, positive or negative.
The issue is, it is not that you/other dislike the book (anyone is welcome to do so), its was complaints that made no sense. For example the United States is not capable of organizing and maintaining a multinational military campaign - even though we been doing that for over a hundred years, especially in the past 40 years. The idea of NATO being in the story, the US is a member of NATO, there is Article 5 which means the Empire declarer war on all of NATO. That is what happened during 9/11. This is a easy way to have other countries involved in a story so it isn't just 100% pure USA, USA, USA but that is subjective I guess. Or that the Idea that there should no fantasy species working for the Empire (even though in the manga/anime there are). The issue was Elves working for the Empire and why would they willing do so. There billions of reason why would Elves and other species work for the Empire, like money, status, power, a job, family, trade, school. Even you stated elves were at Rondel getting a education, which is a Crown Jewel city of the Empire (Gate lore). It makes zero sense for them not to as it defies all other fantasy lore and eve real life Empire lore (even the Empire in Star Wars had aliens working for them).
Not going to list everything and trying to sound mean (or a d*ck), you should re read some things you said and re thinking what you posted. Many issues you brought up could be answered in basic daily life activity and that is where the main issue came from.