2 months later...

Weisbaden, Germany

"In todays international news, massive riots have broken out in China this week, with the police and military responding to the riots, the international community has expressed concern as to how the Chinese government is handling the riots..." the TV continued in the background of Erwin Neiss' life, as he continued to cook is breakfast, when he sat down to his breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, the news had begun broadcasting the current stock prices througout Europe. Erwin grabbed the remote and changed the channel to something in Russian, he couldnt understand most of it, just bits and peices of the conversation were really getting into his head. After breakfast, Erwin grabbed his car keys and went outside so he could get his morning paper and see if the day was anygood for hunting or shooting, as it turns out, the day would be perfect for his paper, and his shooting, as it was clear, sunny, and beginning to get hot sedpite the fact that it was only 7am. After a few moments of enjoying himself outside in the sun, he went back inside, showered, and got dressed for his work, jumped in his car an sped away from his house, heading towards his job as a soldier of Germany, towards his destiny.

"Feldwebel Neiss! Wait up!" yelled Franz Juschkat, an Unteroffizer (corporal) in the same unit as Neiss and one of his best friends, as he was running toward Neiss, who was on his way to a mission planning meeting with Oberst (Colonel) Johannes Platz, "wait up man, why the hell are you in such a hurry?" panted Juschkat as he neared Neiss. "Oh, well the Oberst asked me to meet with him and the Platoon leaders for some reason," said Feldwebel (Sergeant) Neiss, smiling as he saw his friend, who tho skinny as a stick, wasnt as fit as he should be, "so, what're you doing here Juschkat, come to annoy me as you usually do?" Panting as he stopped, Juschkat replied, "No, just to give you a letter Feldwebel, it came from the states, so I cant read the damn thing," said Jushckat as he handed Neiss a letter. Neiss pocketed the letter for later, thanked his friend and told him to get the squad together and meet him in the mess hall in an hour or so. When Neiss entered the room all the men fell silent, "I apologize for being late Oberst, Juschkat had to give me a letter." said Neiss as he snapped to attention. "Sit Neiss, this is a grave matter, and we need an enlisted mans opinion on this." Oberst Platz gesetured towards a chair near the end of the table.

"Here is the situation men," continued Platz, apparently Neiss had accidentally interrupted, "the riots in China are the thing we are here for, these riots are not ordinary, soccer-game-riots, otherwise the Chinese police could handle it, the one thing that rises concern in myself and the rest of Military High Command is the fact that entire villages and small cities have been blockaded by th Chinese army, they are not allowing anything in or out of those blockaded cities, and they have asked us not to get pictures from our spy satellites, and though we have complied, we still get pictures from our allies, the US, UK, and Russia have all shown us and each other these pictures," Oberst Platz pointed to a screen in the back of the long room with a remote, the pictures, though fuzzy clearly showed tanks firing into what seemed to be disorganized mobs of civilians at point-blank range. A Luftwaffe (airforce) officer stood asked "What the hell is this? Why are the Chinese killing civvies?" Oberst Platz replied, "That is what I would like to know Oberst Anton, but we have no idea of knowing, the Chinese are keeping tight-lipped about this," Platz turned to Neiss, "Neiss, what do you think?" Neiss sat for a moment, and thought for that time, then said "Show the rest of the slides please, i would like to see more of their actions" Platz had a look of disbeleif on his face, "You want to see MORE, why is that Feldwebel?" "I would like to see the extent of these actions before I geuss as to why the Chinese are doing this, is all mein Commandant." "Very well," said Platz. The slides were essentially all the same as the first the saw, mainly tanks blasting large crowds of civilians with their cannons, some slides with infantry firing into crowds, but one caught Neiss' eye, it was a slide of a platoon of Chinese infantry being overrun by another mob of civilians, it seemed as though the civilians were proceeding to tear apart the platoon, literally limb from limb, another slide showed a tank firing in a group of civilians AND Chinese soldiers, thats when Neiss made up his mind, "Oberst, I really have no idea as to the reason why the Chinese army is attacking its own cities and citizens, but i beleive it is dire, if they are firing on their own troops as well, I beleive this would have to be serious." Platz looked at Neiss for a moment as if considering wether or not to kill Neiss on the spot, then he said quietly "Alright Neiss, your presence is no longer needed, you are dissmissed." Neiss rose and saluted the Oberst as well as the entire cadre of officers in the room and left, without a word.

In the mess hall Neiss was greeted by his fellow soldiers and friends, "So, whats going on in there Neiss? you get in trouble for your little fiasco the other night?" asked Deiter Meier, one of the men of the squads machine gun team, with a hearty smile "Oh shut up Meier, noone knows about that, but someone will if you dont shut your grinning mouth man!" said Neiss as he sat down, Meier just laughed it off, knowing that Neiss was joking around. Then Caroline Schmidt, the squads medic asked "So, whats going on then Neiss? I woke up an hour early because Juschkat came to my barracks and told me to get here because you had something to say." she said, grumpily, Schmidt and Neiss didnt get along so well, simply because Neiss turned her down when she asked him for a date three months earlier. Neiss began relating his story to the rest of his squad, telling them of how there were tanks and infantry attacking civilians, and how the army was blockading many small citys and villages thoughout China, and he told them of the slide in which he saw the Chinese platoon being ripped apart by the crowd of civilians. At the end, Hans Hess, the other man in the machine gun team for the squad piped up, "Hell, maybe its zombies or something!" he laughed. The rest of the squad thought it was funny and they all had a good laugh about it. "Ah, its prolly just some crazies running around, escaped from a mental asylum or something like that." said Neiss. They all parted ways after that and went about their business, not knowing how terribly right Hess had been.