Chapter 164: The Other Side of the Gate

Chapter 164: The Other Side of the Gate

Noah’s departure authorization arrived less than twenty minutes after he accepted the Khelron mission.

A new symbol appeared beside his temporary identification and directed him toward the military transfer facility on the western side of the training complex.

He left the briefing hall with only the equipment issued for off-world assignments. Daniel, Claire, and Ethan remained behind with the mission board still open before them, but Daniel noticed Noah moving toward the exit and turned in his seat.

"You’re leaving now?"

"The transfer is ready."

Daniel looked toward Noah’s terminal before its screen went dark. "You haven’t even had time to prepare your army."

"I can’t bring them yet."

Claire understood first. "You need to be on Khelron before you can establish the connection."

Noah nodded before explaining further. His portal ability connected directly to Eldrath, but creating a stable opening on a distant world required more than knowing the world’s name or approximate position.

His current power was insufficient to fix a reliable destination across such a distance while he remained somewhere else.

Noah had not reached the First Ring, so for now the simplest solution was for him to become the destination anchor personally.

Once he stood on Khelron, only one end of the connection would need to reach across the distance. The other would already exist wherever Noah himself was standing.

Ethan looked up from his own terminal. "Once you establish it, how quickly can your forces move?"

Noah paused near the end of their row. "I’ll find out."

That answer earned a brief smile from Ethan. Noah left the hall before any of them could ask for numbers he had no intention of providing.

Major Rowan was waiting inside the departure facility. The building differed from the training halls the candidates normally used, with armed personnel controlling each entrance and reinforced doors marked with destination codes rather than classroom numbers.

Rowan held a tablet containing Noah’s mission file. He walked beside Noah instead of stopping him for another formal briefing.

"Khelron’s command has been notified that you’re coming," Rowan said. "Their liaison officer will meet you at the receiving station."

"How much preparation have they completed?"

"You can ask them."

Noah glanced toward Rowan, and the instructor continued without changing expression. "You’re past the stage where we’re supposed to answer everything before you encounter it. Their reports are in your file, but reports and reality are rarely identical."

Noah kept walking until they reached a wide chamber guarded by two Imperial officers.

A circular marking covered most of the floor, while the far end of the room contained a black metal frame large enough for several people to walk through side by side. Rowan stopped before the entrance and turned toward Noah.

"One thing before you go."

Noah waited.

"Do not confuse having time to prepare with having control of the situation. An enemy that knows Khelron is being reinforced may change its plans."

"I know."

Rowan stepped aside as the Imperial transfer system activated. Energy gathered inside the black frame until the empty opening became opaque, then the surface rippled once before clearing enough for Noah to see another military chamber beyond it.

This transportation system belonged to the Empire, not Noah. It could carry authorized personnel between established Imperial locations, but it had nothing to do with the portal Noah would use to deploy Eldrath.

The distinction mattered because Noah could arrive on Khelron through Imperial infrastructure while his civilization remained unable to follow him. His soldiers would still depend entirely on the gateway he personally created afterward.

Noah stepped through and immediately felt the difference in the air. The training world’s controlled temperature disappeared, replaced by dry cold carrying the smell of metal, fuel, and fine mineral dust.

He emerged into a concrete receiving structure where soldiers in gray uniforms stood beside cargo scanners and stacked military containers.

No ceremonial delegation waited for him, and only a single officer stood near the exit.

The man approached as soon as Noah cleared the transfer frame. He was broad-shouldered, perhaps in his late forties, with close-cropped dark hair and a narrow scar beside his left eyebrow.

"Planetary Lord Noah?"

"Yes."

"Colonel Adrian Voss. I’ve been assigned as your liaison with Khelron Planetary Defense Command."

His tone was professional, though his eyes lingered on Noah’s age for a fraction longer than necessary. Voss quickly moved on and gestured toward the exit.

"Your deployment site is ready. Command wants the connection established before nightfall if possible."

"Is there a reason for the deadline?"

"Movement reports."

Noah followed him outside while considering the answer. Khelron’s gray sky stretched above a landscape dominated by industry, and the receiving facility stood on elevated ground overlooking a basin filled with rail lines, processing buildings, maintenance yards, and enormous machines whose purpose Noah could not identify from a distance.

Voss led him toward a military vehicle waiting beside the road. "The enemy hasn’t begun the invasion, but activity increased again six hours ago."

"What kind?"

"Freight movement on their side. Fuel concentrations. Aircraft repositioning. Several communication networks went quiet afterward."

Noah understood the implication without needing Voss to explain it. Armies often became quieter before they moved, especially once preparation shifted from planning to execution.

The vehicle left the transfer compound and descended toward the industrial basin. Noah did not need another explanation of Khelron’s economy, so he spent the journey studying how the planet behaved under the expectation of attack.

Workers were still on shift while freight trains continued moving through the industrial districts. At the same time, soldiers occupied newly dug positions beside major roads, covered ammunition trucks waited inside converted maintenance yards, and crews installed anti-aircraft weapons on reinforced platforms overlooking the surrounding factories.

Noah noticed another change farther along the route. Civilians were being moved away from some of the most exposed districts while workers continued traveling toward factories in the opposite direction.

Families boarded trains under military supervision while industrial crews reported for duty. Khelron was reducing the number of civilians likely to become trapped without abandoning the production centers it still needed.

"How many have you evacuated?" Noah asked.

"About seventy thousand from the most exposed districts."

"Only seventy thousand?"

"We can’t empty every settlement near a strategic site."

Voss looked through the side window before continuing. "If everyone leaves, production collapses before the enemy fires a shot."

Noah said nothing because the sight outside made the problem clearer than the mission file ever could. Protecting Khelron meant keeping people alive without emptying the industries those same people operated.

Their vehicle continued for another twenty minutes before Voss spoke again. His next question was more practical than anything Noah had heard since arriving.

"I need to know roughly what you’re bringing."

"Why?"

"Because I have to logistics, rail capacity, fuel access, ammunition storage, sleeping areas, and medical facilities. If you’re bringing ten thousand soldiers, I prepare differently than if you’re bringing fifty thousand."

Noah considered the question instead of avoiding it entirely. He had not yet allowed Eldrath to determine the final expeditionary force because he wanted the Defense Command to work from the mission requirements once the connection existed, but Voss still needed enough information to prepare.

"Prepare for at least several divisions initially."

Voss turned toward him. "Initially?"

"Yes."

That answer clearly created more questions, but Voss restrained himself. "I’ll tell logistics to keep the western yards empty."

"Keep the rail loading platforms clear too."

"They already are."

"Good."

The vehicle eventually left the denser industrial districts and entered a broad military-controlled zone. Industrial Defense Zone Seven did not resemble a fort, which Noah considered one of its strengths.

The site was an enormous logistics yard positioned between several transportation routes. Wide paved surfaces, warehouse blocks, rail sidings, repair buildings, and large open areas gave incoming units enough room to separate before moving toward their assignments.

Khelron’s soldiers had already cleared the central yard. Temporary fencing surrounded a rectangular area several hundred meters across, while military police controlled each nearby road and engineers waited beside heavy equipment outside the restricted perimeter.

Noah stepped out of the vehicle with Voss following a few steps behind. The colonel pointed toward the center of the staging ground.

"This is where command wants the connection."

Noah walked forward and examined the area instead of simply accepting the location. Three major roads connected the yard to different parts of the district, while the railway siding offered two loading platforms and enough open space for temporary ramps.

A row of warehouses stood close enough for immediate storage but far enough from the intended portal location that congestion would not trap newly arrived troops.

Noah pointed toward the southern end of the yard after studying the surrounding buildings.

"What’s beyond those buildings?"

"Vehicle workshops."

"And behind them?"

"Open storage ground."

"Clear half of it."

Voss frowned. "For what?"

"Incoming vehicles need somewhere to wait without blocking the roads."

Voss looked toward the workshops and nodded. "I’ll have it done."

Noah continued walking until he noticed the field hospital northeast of the staging yard. It was larger than the preliminary mission file had indicated and surrounded by newly erected temporary structures.

"Was that expanded today?"

"Started yesterday."

"Before I accepted the mission?"

Voss looked toward him. "Khelron wasn’t waiting for a trainee to save it."

Noah approved of the answer. He preferred a planet preparing for its own survival rather than one expecting an outside force to solve every problem.

He reached the center of the cleared zone and stopped. This would become the point where Eldrath entered another world for the first time as a unified civilization.

Noah could issue an order and begin bringing soldiers through almost immediately once the portal opened. Doing that without organization, however, would waste the transportation network Khelron had already prepared.

He closed his eyes for several seconds and turned his attention toward Eldrath. The planet answered instantly through the divine connection that had remained constant since his awakening.

Noah could sense the civilization continuing despite the distance separating them. Trains moved through cities he could not physically see, factories remained active, military commands communicated, and hundreds of millions of lives continued without waiting for their god to observe every decision.

He sent a mandate to the government and Planetary Defense Command. The order was simple in purpose but broad enough that Eldrath’s institutions would need to determine how to carry it out.

Prepare the first off-world expeditionary force.

The directive carried the essential requirements of the mission. The expedition needed engineers, logistical units, artillery, infantry, air-defense formations, transport vehicles, field hospitals, repair units, communications personnel, and enough supplies to operate without immediately draining Khelron.

Noah did not specify which former regional armies should provide which units. Eldrath was one state now, and its institutions needed to prove that the unification existed beyond political declarations.

The response began within minutes. Noah felt military orders spreading through the Defense Command while transport schedules changed, depots received new instructions, and railway authorities began clearing routes toward the home-side staging area.

Something else pleased him more than the speed. No separate regional mobilizations appeared as Varkesh formations, Skargrim units, Viridian logistical commands, and Luminous specialists were drawn into one expeditionary structure according to capability rather than former national allegiance.

The political unification had happened years earlier, but its military consequences were only now being tested beyond Eldrath. Noah allowed the process to continue while he examined the yard again.

Voss watched from several meters away. "Are they preparing?"

"Yes."

"Can you communicate with them from here?"

"Not like you’re imagining."

Voss appeared dissatisfied with that answer but did not press further. Noah instead walked around the intended portal area and studied how the opening should face.

He wanted the gateway aligned with the western road rather than pointed directly toward the railway platforms. Trucks and infantry could move straight forward after crossing, while artillery and heavy equipment could peel toward the rail side without cutting across every other formation.

Once satisfied, Noah stopped again and turned toward Voss. "Colonel, move everyone behind the outer barrier."

"How far?"

"As far as the yard allows."

Voss gave the order immediately. Soldiers withdrew, engineers moved their vehicles back, and military police shut the nearest road entirely until Noah stood alone inside the cleared section.

Only then did Noah begin forming the portal. His connection to Eldrath was effortless, but turning that connection into a physical passage large enough for a military expedition required far more power.

Noah concentrated on the staging area being prepared on Eldrath and used his own presence on Khelron as the second anchor. The relationship between the two locations became clearer than it would have been if he were trying to reach Khelron remotely, but the distance still resisted him.

His divine power pressed against that resistance while space in front of him began to distort. The first attempt produced only a faint ripple before collapsing, so Noah stopped rather than wasting power by forcing an unstable connection.

He adjusted the point of connection and tried again. The problem was not Eldrath itself but the scale of the gateway he needed to create.

A narrow opening for individuals required far less stability than a military portal intended for vehicles and heavy weapons. Noah therefore widened the connection slowly rather than trying to force the full gateway into existence at once.

A thin line of pale distortion appeared vertically in front of him. Noah fed power into it until the line became a narrow opening whose edges trembled against the surrounding space.

He continued until the opening reached several meters in height. Pressure built behind his eyes and his breathing grew heavier as the connection demanded more power.

The effort made his current limitations impossible to ignore. A stronger planetary lord might have anchored the connection from somewhere else, while Noah could barely maintain it despite standing directly at the destination.

That fact did not discourage him because it gave him another concrete reason to reach the First Ring. For now, he focused only on completing the gateway with the power he actually possessed.

The portal widened until infantry could pass through comfortably. Noah kept expanding it because Eldrath needed enough room for trucks, artillery, armored vehicles, and large supply convoys.

Another surge of instability ran through the upper edge and warped the entire opening sideways. Noah held the connection steady until the distortion gradually settled instead of allowing the gateway to collapse.

The surface inside the portal remained blurred at first. Shifting shapes slowly became visible while Noah continued stabilizing the edges.

The first clear object was a road. Rail lines appeared beside it a few seconds later, followed by rows of military trucks positioned behind painted assembly markers.

Artillery pieces waited farther back with crews standing beside them. Engineers moved between equipment columns while ranks of goblin soldiers extended beyond Noah’s limited field of view through the opening.

Eldrath had prepared quickly, but Noah did not let that distract him. The portal was still unstable enough that opening the deployment immediately could turn the staging area into chaos.

Voss said something from behind the barrier, but Noah could not spare attention to listen. He concentrated on the gateway until the constant trembling along its edges began to weaken.

The image of Eldrath sharpened further. Goblin officers were already watching from the opposite side, but nobody stepped forward because they understood that seeing Khelron did not mean the connection was ready.

Noah pushed once more and fed the remaining power needed into the boundary. The distortion flattened gradually until the edges stopped shifting and the gateway locked into a stable shape.

For the first time, nothing flickered along its perimeter. Noah maintained the connection for several more seconds to ensure that the stability was genuine rather than temporary.

Across the opening, thousands of goblins waited beneath the banners of the Eldrath Planetary Defense Command. Behind Noah, Khelron’s soldiers stared through the gateway at a civilization they had never seen before.

Noah finally released the excess pressure without breaking the connection. The portal remained open and stable, ready for Eldrath’s first off-world deployment.