Author's Note and Disclaimers: Hey, this my second attempt at a big story… only that it's really a set of small stories set in a single world (trying to model after Tim O'Brian's "The Things We Carry"). With the little information I have on the recruits in the game (I don't have a PS3, just a FAQ site, a picture slash list of all the recruits in Japanese, and Wikipedia); I've managed to carve out a sort of world combining two different stories into one in an unexplained way.

Oh yeah, I don't own "Valkyria Chronicles" nor do I own "Fallen Angels", a novel by Dean Myers. They belong to their respective owners.

War Stories: Gallia

Chapter 1

From Nam to Gallia

A long column of olive drab colored tanks, trucks, jeeps, armored personnel carriers and other assorted vehicles paraded through the city of Randgriz as soldiers began setting up checkpoints and command centers on various abandoned buildings. All of them have a star insignia upon them to identify them with the U.S. military.

Helicopters, aircraft lifted by horizontal rotor blades (as far as the citizens can figure) hovered across the sky carrying men inside their cabin bays and much needed equipment trough long ropes tied to the belly of the aircraft.

The people of Randgriz, a large European like city surrounded by tall, thick castle walls that happens to be the capital of the nation named Gallia, watches the mean, tired faces and bodies of the soldiers marching in, many of them are black… a race no one in this country has seen for some time. Green fatigues, green helmets, rifles, machine guns, packs, all the gear that U.S. infantry carry can be seen among the tired men walking the sides of the convoy.

The people of Randgriz don't know, but these men have been taken directly out of one war to be placed in another war, a war that's not even on the same planet as the other.

The civilian populace, wary of there new allies, watched as the convoy passed. They looked at the things which do not exist in their world, and the things that look more… advanced… then what they had.

The civilians wore clothes reminiscent of the 1940's which surprised many of the soldiers passing through.

The bright blue skies, the sunny day, no clouds, and a cool wind, all accompany them, this army and the people of Randgriz, in the capital of Gallia, the nation already at war with a empire; but the people are still distrustful due to the fact that there nation was all neutral to outside matters, and the soldiers coming to their rescue… they had enough of hell that is Nam and want nothing to do with this war.

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"This is nothing like Nam," Richie Perry stated, a black seventeen year old who, before going to Nam, originally thought that the war would be over before he fires a gun. During basic training he also injured his leg, which should have exempted him from combat.

Thanks to a paperwork mishap, he ended up in Nam… then over here.

"I'm just glad we got out of that hell hole, even though we're in yet another war," that would be Lieutenant Gearhart, a white guy who was inexperienced when Perry first came another his command. He and the others in his squad came to like him as time went on.

"Man, these guys are shit compared to the Cong," Harold Gates, a.k.a. Peewee, said. He's black like Perry, but has freckles and reddish hair. He hides his fear and uncertainty with comical bravado, as far as he can. He and Perry are close friends.

"I wouldn't say that, the year in this world is 1935… so we'll probably be facing World War II type of fighting," Johnson shot back, another black guy within Perry's squad; a strong guy that usually wields the hefty M60 machine gun in combat and is a capable leader.

"If they want to fight that way, we'll just blow them to smithereens like we did the Nazi's," Monaco, a soldier of Italian descent, said. He's the bravest of the whole squad, always the point man.

"You're forgetting that a lot of soldiers died in that type of fighting Monaco, more than in Nam," that would be Lobel. He's tall and a little better built than he used to be when he first got to Nam; he's also Jewish and a movie lover since his uncle is in movies. He made it a point to pretend that the war in Nam was only a war movie in which he, the main character, would survive; that was then. The funny thing was, there were some suspicion that he was homosexual… not that it matters now.

When they started to ship soldiers from Nam to Gallia, they handpicked the "best" performing Companies to be the first wave.

It was thanks to Captain… Major Steward, the ex-Captain of their Company who sent his men into killer after killer mission so he can attain a higher kill rate, which meant a promotion.

He got it.

"Please don't rain on my parade," Monaco.

"Just keep thinking of it as a movie and you'll be fine," assured Lobel.

Richie, "That doesn't work for all of us," he had followed Lobel's advice plenty of times. Often, it'll feel like that he's watching someone else fight in his body while he watched from above.

Almost like a movie.

"In any case, we're going into a militia unit," Gearhart explains, "you know, like a reserve unit… so I doubt we'll be seeing frontline action anytime soon."

"That's what we thought when me and Richie first got to Nam," Peewee, "that there was this ceasefire going on… didn't happen."

They were walking through the halls of the Gallia Militia H.Q., all in their new B.D.U.'s (Battle Dress Uniform) due to the fact that their older uniforms were worn out via the Vietnam War. Their uniforms are different from what the Gallians wear, they have blue uniforms while Richie and them (thus the U.S. Army) have predominantly olive drab uniforms, their uniforms have some armor plating to the arms, hips, knees, and shoulders unlike Richie's, only metal helmets for the U.S. and maybe a heavy bullet proof vest.

Among their numbers, women walked alongside men. Many of them are in B.D.U.'s.

This caused both sides to looks upon each other, the U.S. and the Gallians, and think to themselves, ""What the hell are you thinking."

"Alright, so the Captain should be over here," Gearhart said, after leading them through countless passages in the building, obviously lost despite denying it.

"If you only asked for directions from the regulars around here," Monaco pointed to the passing Gallian soldiers, "we wouldn't be late and have every female here stay twenty feet of us."

Peewee had tried to make a pass at one passing lady soldier; she has black shaggy short hair and green eyes and a sweet young face, which prompted Peewee to call her a cutey. The end result was that she closed her eyes, made a "Humph" sound, and pretended to not hear him, much to his dismay.

Peewee also remarked how she looked like a Dink, slang for a Vietnamese person.

Then, the process repeated same about five more times with five different girls, two of which looked Asian.

"Hey, it aint my fault that none of the gals never see a black guy before!" Peewee.

Richie has yet to see a black person in this city. Maybe Black people don't exist in this world, he thought.

"Well, we're here now so…" Gearhart had his hand on the doorknob to the so-called "Command Room".

A girl Richie's age opened the door before Gearhart could. She has on the same B.D.U. as the other girls around here, except she sported more armor on the arms. She had brown eyes, a pale face, and (strangely enough) silver hair tied into two pony tails with blue ribbons.

There was a degree of surprise, and maybe a little curiosity in her look due to foreignness of them.

He also noticed that she looked Asian, like an older An Linh… a little Vietnamese girl that he and his pals once helped in a pacification mission; she lost her mother for that reason to the Cong.

"Ummmm, excuse me," she smiled, bowed, and went her way. What struck Richie was that she even sounded like and older version of An Linh.

Richie looked over at the others; save for Gearhart, all of them had some degree of surprise and shock when they laid eyes on her.

"Did I just see An?" Monaco asked.

"Come in," said the voice of a middle-aged women, probably the Captain.

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"Mam, 1st Lieutenant Gearhart reporting as ordered."

"Mam, Staff Sergeant Gates reporting as ordered."

"Mam, Staff Sergeant Johnson reporting as ordered."

"Mam, Staff Sergeant Monaco reporting as ordered."

"Mam, Staff Sergeant Lobel reporting as ordered."

"Mam, Staff Sergeant Perry reporting as ordered."

They saluted as they said their reporting statements, a custom rarely done in the field of war like Vietnam.

The Captain in front of them, Eleanor Varrot, studied them through her half rimmed oval glasses. Her dark hair is tied into a bun and she wore what liked like an officer service uniform, minus the lounge coat.

She studied them, another officer waiting beside her bookshelf, "You five must be the advisors from…" she glanced at the papers in front of her, "The U.S. 1st Infantry Division, am I correct?"

"Yes Mam," Gearhart spoke for all.

She nodded with approval, "Okay then, from now on you'll work with Squad 7 of Gallia's Volunteer Corp," it sounded like she took her job more seriously than most of their own officers.

Good, we're not being split up, Richie thought. Ever since he first landed in Chu Lai, where he was first stationed in Nam, he has stuck to this squad up until their whole Company was transferred to Gallia.

There's a bond between these men, something that Varrot can clearly see.

"That said; let me introduce you to 2nd Lieutenant Gunther, Squad 7's commanding officer," she motioned to the young man.

"Hello," the young man with brown hair stepped forward; he's in B.D.U. too with a brass bars on both his shoulders to signify that he's a 2nd Lieutenant, "I'm 2nd Lieutenant Gunther, and it's a pleasure to meet you."

He shook Gearhart's hand, then went down the line… not as formal as he expected, Richie thought.

"You can call me Welkin if you want," as far as they can see, this guy is nothing like Gearhart, or any of the other officers they had previously worked with.

"Sure thing… Welkin is it?" Gearhart.

Varrot said, "You're dismissed… oh there's a strategy briefing at 1700 hours Lieutenant Gearhart, but you have plenty of time to meet your new squad mates," she looked at their bags, "and find the barracks if you haven't found it yet."

"Well Mam about that…" the barracks was one of the first things they went to look for, after spending more than an hour looking for it they spent another hour looking for Militia H.Q. which was far easier to find.

"Just follow me and you'll get their fine," Welkin offered with a smile.

To Richie and his buddies, this naïve officer could turn out worse than Gearhart did on his first day on patrol… when he got one of his squad mates killed.

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Author's note: Well, that's the first chapter. Please leave criticism to help me write better. Any extra info on recruits or such is helpful as well as any ideas that you would want in this story.

I'm also writing a series of short stories in the Negima section, called "Negima Shorts", is you're interested.

Thanks for reading!