"Because we do not beg for freedom, we fight for it."
PROLOGUE
(Aka, a bad explanation on events you already know about)
This isnt the normal shill Aldnoah romance. This story follows a group of UE Army dirt eaters. Due to the lack of timelines for the series some events are made up. I have only, and will only create more of this story when drinking heavily, expect the story to reflect that. No really, the lack of timeline events means I have to constantly rewatch the anime guys, it gets old after the 8th time in.
Every single human soul alive today remembers the events of 1999. The beginning of the first and only Interplanetary war in known human history, though be it very one sided. Heavens Fall, as it has been dubbed, was the outcome and catastrophic consequence of heavy fighting on Earth's Moon, leading to the destruction of the Hyper Gate and subsequently cracking a very large portion of Earth's only satellite. At that same time the Invasion forces of the Vers Empire touched down on Earth, completely obliterating any UE retaliation force with their superior technology. Though the Empire by all rights should have won, the fact their main base of operations had been destroyed along with their only way back home, forced them to retreat back into orbit, where they stay today in a coldish war. Earth declared it's survival a victory, despite the fact fragments of the moon continued to rain down, both the invasion and constant bombardment on moon pieces totaling a death count of nearly half of all Humans on Earth.
But all of this his common knowledge, obviously, you don't have your home planet basically destroyed just too brush the thought off. The years after Heavens Fall saw humanity attempting to rebuild and prepare for the next attack as best as possible. With the creation of Kataphrakts, the UE believed it had a card it would be able to play in the next attack, whenever it came.
The military rebuilt itself, trying hard to study off and reverse engineer anything left behind. A large portion of Humans that lived through the events of 1999 joined various branches of the UE's military. Even though all the governments of Earth had been "United", each Nation kept their own fighting force first, before giving the "extra bodies" over to total UE deployment and control.
Ch.1
"Das Armageddon Kommt"
US, Arizona Coast line, near Phoenix, July 3rd 2014
"Despite current tensions between the Ver's Empire and the United Earth Government, UE Leaders have successfully negotiated peace talks,Vers princess, Asseylum Vers Allusia, is due to land in Japan later tomorrow. In other news, it's a oddly warm day out on the new Pacific Coast, current temperature sitting at sunny 110 degrees with light wind…" The sounds from the radio trailed off as James started to fall asleep. The waves crashing against the shore, the heat, the shade, the slight breeze, it was an all too perfect time to catch some Z's that he desperately needed. But even in this day and age, peace can be hard to come by, even when your suppose to be on leave.
"Ain't no rest for the weary bitch!" a male voice yelled from a distance as a object slammed into James face, causing him to fall off his beach chair. "God fucking dammit who did that!" He yelled as he stood up, wincing as the sun blinded him, "Luke if that's you i'm gonna kick your-" he was cut off suddenly as someone tackled him from behind. James fell down as the figure that tackled him wrapped their arms around his chest tightly. As soon as he hit the ground James went into kill mode, quickly turning around and using his strength to post up and flip his attacker over onto their back, "As shit I give sir don't hit my face! It's all I got!" James blinked a couple of times, sand falling off his face, the would be attacker was one of his Squaddies, Sgt. Monika Stay.
"What the fuck! Leave me alone guys! Don't make me make that a fucking order!" James yelled as he pushed off the ground to stand, putting his hand out to help Monika up. She grabbed his hand and pulled herself off the ground, attempting to wipe the sand off her fatigues. Monika was 22, she was the same height as James but constantly told him she was taller. She joined the military when she turned 18, like nearly every NCO in his platoon. Even though she was a year younger than James she insisted she was his "Big Sister" and he had to listen to her, despite the fact he was a Lieutenant and she was a Sgt, but James enjoyed keeping everything family oriented in command.
"Hey LT! Real talk sir, know your on leave and all but we got some orders from the Captain."
James looked up and over to see black hercules, Sgt. Luke Smith. "Shit, what do they need from us Luke? And did you throw that fucking football at me?!" He pointed to a football laying in the sand next to the chair he had been sitting in. Luke got closer and grabbed James hand, initiating the traditional handshake he had trademarked for the squad. "Fuck man that thing fell out of the sky or some shit," he laughed, "But really though, Captain wants us combat ready by 1630, that's all we got from Martinez, whenever you aint in your skivvies go talk to the Captain." Luke was a hulk of a man, standing at 6'2ft and weighing in around 210lbs, Luke was without a doubt the biggest man in James Platoon. Despite his looks though, Luke was extremely kind and humble, but at that same time, not an idiot.
James sighed and rubbed his chest, "Why are mobilizing? What stupid shit do they have for us now." He moaned, "Alrighty then, Monika, Luke, go get everyone ready, fucking bag drag just to make sure they have their shit, then go to the armory at 1600 and arm up without me, God knows I won't be there on time." The two gave a sarcastic salute in response then jogged off the dunes back towards main base. James checked his watch, 1510, 'fucking hell' he thought to himself as he packed up his belongings. The walk back to his room was longer than it should have been due to the heat, it was nice and cool next to the ocean but once you got over the dunes that Arizona heat really burned the skin, didn't help that he was fairly pale. James badged into his room, tossing his beach going material off to the side. He took off the short-shorts and tank top he had been wearing and started to get dressed in his uniform, searching for a sand-tee in one of his cabinets. James made his way over to his bathroom to shave, afterwards looking himself over in the mirror, his multi-cam patterned uniform slightly faded from overuse. Once he was content with his appearance, James grabbed his equipment and made his way outside and into his car, starting his drive over to headquarters.
The Headquarters at Luke AFB still showed signs of Martian Invasion of 1999, while the rest of the base had been rebuilt, each commander since 1999 never ordered for the Headquarters to be rebuilt, as a remembrance to the lives lost that day. All that being said, that only had to do with the outside, the inside had been completely rebuilt and modernized. James had spent his fair share of time inside this building, having far too many meetings about general bullshit or the occasional "Why the fuck was your troop caught shitting in a chimney in housing." Either way James really didn't enjoy coming here, never boded well, and that feeling multiplied as he knocked on the Captain's door. "Come in," could be heard on the other side, James opened the door and quickly marched his way over to the Captain's desk, going to attention and saluting. "Sir, Lieutenant Stone reports as ordered." The Captain gave a quick salute back, "At-ease Stone, don't worry no one's in trouble today, got any guess to why you're here?" James went to parade rest and looked at the Captain, "Uh, not sure sir, by the order I'm gonna say unannounced field exercise?" The Captain shook his head, "Take a gander" he said as he pointed on a monitor near him.
The lights in the room dimmed as the monitor came on, the words 'U.E.A.F MAJCOM' appeared and disappeared as the Captain logged into his computer. "The plans i'm about to show you are classified, only specific units are being shown this shit just incase…" He paused for a second, staring blankly at his computer screen, "Incase we get attacked again." James face soured at the Captain's words, "Sir are we expecting another invasion?" There was a period of silence between the two men, "Sir?" James spoke up, "Whats going on?" The Captain waved the question off, literally, "Just look and listen dammit." The monitor became active again as the Captain clicked on emails and folders, typing in passwords to sensitive documents. Suddenly a program went active, pictures and videos started popping up, all titled different things. 'Projected civilian casualty estimate,' 'Possible tactical nuke locations,' 'Estimated number of SSBN's and their survival rating' just to name a few. "Listen up Lieutenant, MAJCOM doesn't like the fact this 'princess," he air quoted, "is touching down so soon, boys up top think a invasion force will follow right as she lands, something along the lines of her planting a flag on our dead bodies or some shit." The briefing lasted another hour or so, the Captain giving James his orders and dismissing him.
James tightened the straps on his plate carrier as he waited for the armorer to give him his weapons, then checking over the items he had already been issued, making sure his radio had full battery, double checking his magazines by pressing down on the rounds. "Here ya go sir, safe clear?" The female armor held his M4 in the window, "Safe clear" he responded as he grabbed it and clipped it onto his sling, the process repeating itself for his P226. James left the arm up area and headed over to where his platoon was, checking his watch as he walked over to them, '1623, they shouldn't be to angry' he thought to himself as he heard his Platoon Sergeant call every to attention. "Staff Sergeant Martinez! Is everyone ready to go out for a absolutely wonderful night under the beautiful Arizona sky!" James yelled out as he returned the salute to his friend. "God has surely graced our ugly asses tonight sir, but i'm sure everyone would have enjoyed dinner before this fucking." Martinez replied, he was met with scattered laughter from the Platoon. "Everyone is suited up and ready to go sir, but the real question is why are we loaded for full combat? We even had some KG-7's moving out with a whole damn armored division, and they looked loaded for bear."
With a sigh James patted Martinez on the shoulder and looked at his Platoon, "Listen up guys!" he yelled, "For those of you who are less informed in the current ongoing political shit fest that is the UE Government, that Martian Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia should be landing in Japan in uh," he checked his watch again, "In around a hour or so! Everyone and their mother in the UEG is really banking on the opening of full peace talks here soon, but MAJCOM doesn't like the idea of Martian Royalty being ground side. So, in the case she is the lead in the next invasion, we and a small number of UEAF units throughout the world are mobilizing in a quote NORMAL EXERCISE unquote manner as to not arouse suspicion! So all of us meat sticks in 2nd Battalion are ready, and the big boys of the 1st Cav 2nd Brigade Combat Team have loaned us 2 Tanker platoons with one Kataphrakt platoon."
Expressions, from every single member of his platoon, all a mixture of fear and anger. After a long tense period of silence, spoke up, "We getting ready to bring the hate sir?" James shrugged, "Always expect the worst sergeant, but just in case," he nodded towards Martinez, "Got any scripture for us today?" Without a sound, the Sergeant stepped out of formation and walked up next to James facing the platoon who had now formed a horseshoe around the two men. "Bow your head's" everyone did as they were told, even the non-religious, "Lord be with us tonight and the following days, for we faithful remember your charge, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. John 10:17-18, Amen" the platoon repeated the Amen, "With that, everyone start loading up, Squad leaders take last minute accountability, we're obviously taking the MATV's you've already prepped."
The Squads did as they were told, James took his position in the 2nd MATV, his 'special' command vehicle. Unfortunately, the 13th saw fit to never issue 2nd battalion CROW's systems, so each MATV had a 50' on top, the exception being 4th squads, having a mk.19 with a paper plate with a smiley face on it's muzzle. The MATV's grumbled alive, some radio chatter started and ended, followed by a roll call/radio check from all vehicles, then his squad leaders talking about the directions. Sergeant Martinez was in the seat to his left, he talked back and forth with the other sl's for a while before turning to James and giving him a thumbs up. "One actual to all squads, the beatings will continue until morale improves." James unkeyed his mic, the convoy started to move out.