Rothester

(ATTENTION NEW READERS: This novel is under revision or rewrite. The revised novel is renamed "Arsett Gateway" and can be found on neovel.io Read the latest chapter for more information. Everything you read from here on will eventually be replaced when revised chapters are complete, so I recommend going to neovel.io and reading "Arsett Gateway").

Prologue

In the late 1940s, something extraordinary happened. An unidentified object crashed in the deserts of New Mexico with its internal storage mostly intact. Without any evidence of life inside, it was deemed a sort of drone destined to roam aimlessly across the cosmos. The strange machinery of unknown origins fascinated and stumped the researchers tasked to uncover its secrets. After thorough investigations and research conducted over the following years, the strange technology was successfully reverse-engineered, and the machine was rebuilt by the military in hopes of uncovering its true intention.

In the never-ending quest to gain an advantage in the Cold War, the rebuilt alien machine was transported to the newly built Paradise Ranch and activated. What happened next was truly unbelievable. A wormhole was created, and the otherworldly machine revealed itself to be a portal to another world. Or, more precisely, another planet.

Try as they might, no one could figure out exactly where this planet called 'Adon' was located. Not identified anywhere within the observable universe, Adon was a planet in some faraway galaxy too far to comprehend. Its only known connection to the Milky Way was the portal in Paradise Ranch.

Kept hidden from the international stage, the United States conducted a series of operations to explore the world on the other side. What they found was astonishing. Adon was found to not only be habitable but inhabited. Microorganisms or alien wildlife wasn't the focus of their curiosity; instead, it was the intelligent lifeforms that outright defied all logic. Not only had the native people built civilizations of their own, but they were also, in fact, people that were recognized. Monsters of myth and people of fantasy, Adon hosted elves and dwarves in addition to humans, which stumped the American explorers as to why such a faraway planet was so familiar to the fairytales of home. Countless scenarios were theorized, but none could be confirmed.

Locked in an arms race with the Soviet Union, the United States could spare no resources to commit to Adon and could only send scientific units for reconnaissance and intelligence. Adon was essentially deemed a mostly useless discovery that had to remain a secret. Had the Soviets learned that the US had access to it, there was no telling what sort of political storm would follow. Even the natural resources that would otherwise be profitable and advantageous were deemed too much of a risk that could raise too much suspicion.

Everything completely changed after the Cuban Missile Crisis. With all life on Earth threatened with extinction from total nuclear annihilation, Adon was viewed with a renewed light. It was seen not as something to exploit for Earth's benefit but rather as a backup planet. A spare in case Earth became uninhabitable.

While many Continuity of Government Plans existed to survive a nuclear war, Adon was the subject of the most secretive plan, and the portal was relocated to a more blast-proof and survivable location. Assuming all other continuity protocols failed or were not possible, the absolute last resort for the US Federal Government and any surviving citizens would be immigrating to Adon.

A series of CIA-led operations were launched to prime Adon to receive the remnants of American society should it be necessary. The political spheres of the various primitive medieval-like Kingdoms that surrounded the portal were infiltrated and ultimately hijacked. With a firm hold of power throughout the lands, the undercover operatives pushed for the Kingdoms to unite and found a new nation. The Federal Republic of Entesia was created in America's image as a near-exact copy to create familiarity and ease American integration when the time came. Until then, Entesia was a puppet state in which no native citizen knew who truly pulled strings.