Within the Unknown (All techs, Open)

[EmeriKa]

"...We have secured a perimiter around our compound, Sire," stated the soldier in ornate, gilded power armor to who was obviously the officer in charge, who wore a black uniform with small, gilded chains flowing across it and the Sun emblem of the Marignonian Theocracy, as they stood just outside the temporary command tent, observing the hastily erected electric fence which surrounded the area claimed by their forces, "Scouts report strange beasts lurking in the nearby forests, but our defensive forces haven't seen anything as of yet. As such, our operations are continuing on schedule."

"Good," responded the officer with no sign of emotion on his face, "Tell the men that the specialists will arrive sometime in the morning. They will have precious little time to prepare then to escort those people to the surrounding lands, so they should keep that in mind."

"Very well, Sire," said the soldier as he nodded, "Is there anything else?"

The officer shook his head.

"No, that is all for now," he said, "I trust that what you said is true, and we are as prepared as we can be for the coming night."

The officer turned towards the soldier.

"Dismissed!"

The soldier nodded again, and left.

As the soldier left, the officer took a hard look around him, especially watching what he could see beyond the perimeter. While the forests surrounding them seemed normal enough on first glance, there was... Something unsettling about them. As though some kind of raw power was coursing through them. He had heard stories of such places as a child, but he had always thought that they were just that. Stories. Myths.

The skies... He had never seen anything quite like it before. The place, the... Planet, if it even was a planet, like the one Marignonites had lived and died on for generations, was located somewhere in between. It wasn't in, as they say, "real" space. Only way they had found into it was through portals, and even though they had found how to make artificial ones, the very first ones had been "natural". And it was through that accidental finding that this opportunity had presented itself.

But who knew what effects using such portals had...

((OOC: Basically, this is an RP taking place on a supposed planet rife with magic and magical creatures. As the only method of passage to the place is through portals, there will be no massive overbearing space fleets, no grand armies, no bigger than the American water navies. The less equipment-heavy your forces are (this also includes sophistication, not only sheer weight), the more people you can "bring in". The more sophisticated or the heavier your forces are, the smaller the force will be in numbers.

Note that the most likely way of finding a way to the place is through some cosmic accident, a portal that could suddenly appear anywhere, suck your people in, and throw you somewhere on it. The only people known to be capable of coming in and going out at will are the Marignonites, and I will hold to that for now at least. You could find a stable enough portal so you could at least prepare for the journey, but remember, there are limits to what can travel through it, and how much also.))

[EmeriKa]

As with any operation of this magnitude, they never stayed secret, as spies from the other nations within the world the Marignonites came from were always vigilant, always on the lookout for things other members of the Council of Nations might attempt to use to gain strength over the others. After all, although the Council was quite robust and had kept the various nations from open war for several generations, it had not lead to a situation where national pride would have died down. No, instead it was just slightly less obvious.

Unbeknownst to the expedition from Marignon, the Kingdom of Man had found its way into these strange lands as well. They, too, had the ability to create stable magical portals into the realm, only the ones they made were smaller and more short lived. It worked well with the kingdom's propensity for stealth, as such portals would be far more difficult to detect. Their outpost was also smaller and size and hidden from plain sight, within a small forested area many kilometers away from the Marignonite compound.

Man had similar interests when it came to this place as Marignon did; they desired its magical as well as mineral wealth. However, their ethics were different: Whilst the Marignonites were religious zealots with a firm belief in the superiority of humanity and they would stop at nothing to achieve their goals, even extermination of possible local populations of sapient beings, if need be, the people of Man had no such intent. If such beings were to be found, they had concluded, they would rather attempt to cooperate with those beings, to learn from them, than to murder them in cold blood. Indeed, they would rather trade than take by force.

Their only defense against the Theocracy, however, was secrecy, at which they were indeed the betters of the Marignonites. In these distant, alien lands, it was likely that no one would hold the pacts of the homeland very dear.

[Trecdom2]

If I were to join with a tech level similar to that in Star Trek Enterprise what size group could I have?

[Illinion]

How many could I bring for PT, say WWI or so?

[EmeriKa]

((OOC: Well, um. WWI, I would guess you could bring quite a bit of people, equipment and whatnot if you felt like it, just don't bring lots of chemical weapons. Still, I'd rather you didn't bring the equivalent of the German army to the place, since smaller forces are preferred (you will be finding your way here by accident after all). Note that if you intend to bring tanks and the sorts, without the ability to make portals at will, you will run into supply problems sooner or later. Running out of gas, that sort of thing. Food won't be such a large problem since the place is quite pristine, and can feed quite a lot of people even in its current state.

Star Trek Enterprise... I can't say I've seen a whole lot of that. But I'm going by the assumption that the technology level is lower than that of the earlier Star Treks. But still, depends on what kind of equipment your people are hauling. If it's heavy armor, heavy weapons, a few squads, if it's light armor and light weapons, dozens of them. Smaller groups are preferred.

This isn't a land-grab thread by the way, but rather an exploration one. Not going to be peaceful, so I wouldn't send my most important characters to the place!))

[Illinion]

"All right, this is just bloody ridiculous", murmured Captain Hastings, he said looking at the large oval shape in front of him, tacking up the whole track.He was standing in front of the engine of a fifteen car train heading for the Front, twenty miles north of where their train was stopped."Well, Hanford, Kriklund, any idea what the hell this is, and how we can move it?", Hastings asked the two engineers standing next to him, which were the only one's besides him present, for he ordered the soldiers to remain in the cars.

"Not a clue, Captain. Me and John agree, and we never have heard or seen anything like this", the engineer said, combing his beard."But if we want-", the screaming of a shell crashed into the ground fifteen feet behind the last car, taking out the track.That shell was followed by three more, landing around the stopped train.

Hastings slammed himself down before the first shell had landed, grabbing the two engineers as well."We needed to get this bloody train moving now!Any where's better than here!", he yelled over the crashing sounds of the shells.The engineers nodded and sprang up running for the cab, hopping into the armored compartment.Hasting was on there heel's, but jumped onto the flat bed behind the coal car, which held four 150mm field artillery. He crawled to the nearest field piece and went under it. The train was already beginning to inch forward while he had been crawling, and was going at least 10mphs and heading strait for the large oval.

[Trecdom2]

It's Star Trek they're not into heavy armor. We'll have some ground transports and one or two shuttlecraft. I'll go with around 200 personnel.