American Gate

Chapter 1: The Attack

Chapter 1: The Attack

United States, June 5th 2053

New York City, Central Park, 11:28 AM

Second Lieutenant Daniel Ramirez was jogging through Central Park, along 86th Street Transverse. He was looking forward to the first day of Comic-Con tomorrow. He almost couldn't contain his excitement when he found out that his leave would line up perfectly with Comic-Con for the first time in years. Daniel was determined to make this year count; he had an awesome costume prepared.

Daniel Ramirez grew up in New York City. After losing his parents in a car crash when he was eight, he floated around the foster care system, never having a real family. Having nowhere else to go or any ambitions to pursue, he followed in his late mother's footsteps and joined the Marine Corps right out of high school.

Daniel spent most of his time as a marine in Africa fighting persistent anti-unification terrorists. Although the overwhelming majority of people celebrated the formation of the African Federation, there were still a few extremists who kept fighting. Centuries of colonialism and exploitation doesn't just go away overnight.

Coming up on the Great Lawn, Daniel saw something strange. In the middle of the open grassy field, there was a small unexplainable purple dome; and it was growing in size. People began to gather around it and stare in awe. It almost looked like some sort of hologram, but that technology was still a long way off. Daniel stopped about 200 meters away to watch what happened next. When the dome reached about 20 meters in diameter, it suddenly sent off a burst of wind in all directions.

The people gathered around the strange dome were thrown off their feet by the unexpectedly strong gust of wind. Daniel shielded his face as the shockwave blew past the nearby trees and hit him. He almost got knocked over, but managed to stay on his feet.

When Daniel looked back at the dome, he saw it swirling with colorful shades of pink and purple. All around him, people were staring at it. No one knew what it was and people began to speculate.

"What is that thing?"

"Is this some kind of performance?"

"Maybe it's a hologram?"

Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to call the police when he heard a scream come from the crowd around the dome. He looked up to see horses running out of the dome in all directions. People ran away in terror as the horsemen trampled the crowd and attacked people with swords.

Daniel and everyone else around him ran away from the field, towards the city. As Daniel ran with the crowd, he turned back to look behind him. More people were coming through the portal; Daniel couldn't believe what he was seeing.

They were carrying gladius style swords and tall scutum style shields. They wore helmets, chest plates, and greaves overtop chain mail armor. As Daniel reached 5th Avenue, there was already a huge crowd running away from Central Park being chased by strange people who looked like they were wearing medieval cosplay armor.

To his right, Daniel saw an enemy soldier running towards a police officer with his sword raised and ready to strike. There was a small child standing behind the officer, no older than five or six years old. Daniel's marine training kicked in and he ran past the officer, straight towards the enemy soldier.

Daniel dodged the first sword strike and tackled the man to the ground, slamming his head on the concrete pavement. However, the soldier was wearing a metal helmet, so this didn't do much. Daniel pressed his knee on the man's unarmored forearm, forcing him to let go of the sword. The soldier used his shield to push Daniel off him and to the side. Daniel quickly grabbed the man's sword and pointed it at the man just as he lunged forward. The sword impaled the man through the abdomen and Daniel stood up and dropped the now bloodied sword.