Cape Girardeau, MO – Capital of the United States
APM 2nd Motorized Infantry Division
March 15th, 2013 – 1330 Hours
Charles Karlson first came to the United States looking for a job after being honorably discharged from the German Bundeswehr, but instead found American stockbrokers throwing themselves out from the windows of the New York Stock Exchange after the crash of the stock market, marking the beginning of the Second Great Depression which made jobs scarce as hundreds of businesses were forced close to their doors while peoples' bank accounts dried up almost overnight including Karlson's which left him stranded in the United States doing whatever odd jobs he could to do to earn income before the outbreak of the Second American Civil War which put him on the run from Republican Military officials trying to conscript him into their forces which eventually led him to then neutral Missouri where he settled in one of the numerous refugee camps that had been set up around Cape Girardeau where Karlson believed he would be safe from the hands of his pursuers. However this sense of safety proved to be false when the Blake Emmonds' American People's Party revealed that Neutral State officials were practically selling refugees to the increasingly manpower-hungry Republican and Democratic Militaries which both angered and depressed Karlson, who immediately join the American People's Militia as soon as it was formed to protect the refugee camps from Republican and Democratic "Recruiting" agents where he was quickly promoted to Sergeant once his new superiors found out about his previous experiences in the Bundeswehr where he was attached to the APM 2nd Motorized Infantry Division that was stationed in Cape Girardeau, the new capital of the United States following the "September Revolution" when the APM and newly formed U.S Military began preparing to defend the "new" United States from the Republican and Democratic States of America and found himself in a charge of a small squad of militiamen mostly in their early twenties armed with surplus military weapons from the 1st Persian Gulf War or earlier with little to no military training. But despite this, Karlson was determined to keep his men alive at all costs as Republican forces bore down on their positions in Capaha Park, not that far from the charred ruins of the SEMO University Campus which was now in Republican hands.
"KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN!" Karlson shouted to Charlie Wensky, his squad's machine gunner who was armed with a M60 Machine Gun and had been barge worker before the war as Karlson forced him to lay down on his stomach with him in their foxhole as rounds flew over their heads while falling mortar round exploded all around as the APM and U.S Military forces defending Capaha Park threw whatever they could at the attacking Republicans
"THIS IS FUCKING CRAZY!" Charlie screamed
"WELCOME TO MY WORLD KID!" Karlson replied before he cursed in German as a mortar crashed and exploded near their foxhole, "NOW FIRE THAT DAMN MACHINE GUN BEFORE WE ALL DIE!"
"Yes sir!" Charlie shouted as he sat up and unfolded the bipod for his M60 on the edge of the foxhole and began firing at the advancing Republican soldiers, slowing them down while Karlson picked them off with his M16A4 Rifle
"THIS USED TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD BEFORE YOU SCUMBAGS BOMBED IT!" An APM Militiaman screamed at the advancing Republicans, "FOR THE UNNNNIIOOON!"
A Republican HMMWV exploded after being struck by a LAW fired from by an APM Militiaman
"BOOYAH!" The APM Militiaman shouted as the HMMWV's wreck burned as a Republican Abrams tank blasted an APM Technical with a HEAT shell
"We need something to take out that tank!" A U.S Officer shouted
"THAT TANK IS THE LEAST OF OUR WORRIES!" Karlson shouted to the Officer, "Look!"
Karlson pointed up to the sky toward the two Republican Air Force Warthogs coming toward their positions
"OH FUCK! GET DOWN!" The Officer screamed one of the A-10s opened fire with its GAU cannon and unleashed a hail of red tracers onto the APM and U.S Military positions and firing rockets, tearing anybody caught in its path to shreds while other A-10 dropped cluster bombs onto a trench line filled with APM Militiamen, killing or wounding all of them as the A-10s flew back into the skies before one of them was shot down by a U.S Military Avenger in the parking lot of the nearby Southeast Hospital before it crashed and exploded in a nearby neighborhood
"GOD DAMN MONSTERS!" An APM Militiawomen screamed at the surviving A-10 as it disappeared into the smoke-choked skies overhead
"I'm running out of ammo!" Wensky shouted to Karlson, "Where the hell is Margaret?!"
"I don't know! I sent her to get ammo almost several minutes ago!" Karlson replied
"I'm right here!" Shouted Margaret Mars, one of Karlson's squad members and the only woman in the squad as she braved incoming fire to reach Karlson's and Wensky's foxhole with ammunition for Wensky's M60
"Thank god!" Wensky said as Margaret jumped into the foxhole and began handing out ammunition to Karlson and Wensky before pulling out her M14 rifle
"So what did I miss?" She asked them
"Not much, just getting our asses torn to shreds by A-10s and tanks!" Wensky replied as a U.S Soldier fired a Javelin missile at the Abrams which flew high into the air before it came back down on the thin roof armor of the Republican tank, destroying it
"One down, who knows how many more to go!" Margaret said as an APM Technical swerved past their foxhole, it's gunner struggling to hold onto the M2HB machine gun mounted on its roof before an artillery shell exploded next to it causing the Driver to lose control and drive into a tree, throwing the gunner off to his death while the driver fell limp is his seat, his head crashing down onto the steering wheel causing the horn to go off continuously while smoke started to come out from beneath the hood
"SHIT" Karlson shouted, "We need to get that kid out of there before he burns up!"
"But Karl we don't even know if he's still alive!" Margaret shouted
"I don't care! I'm not going to sit there and watch him possibly burn to death in that truck!" Karlson replied, "Cover me!"
"Yes sir!" Wensky shouted as he fired his M60 at the Republican soldiers in front of their foxhole while Karlson followed by a reluctant Margaret dashed toward the wrecked technical before Karlson smashed out the passenger side door window and reached in to open the door so he could get to his driver
"He's still breathing!" Karlson shouted to Margaret as he pulled out his knife and cut the driver's seat belt before dragging him out of the technical as smoke started to fill the driver's cab before throwing the unconscious driver over his shoulders and rushing back to the foxhole with Margaret where set the unconscious man down
"Give me a bandage or something to cover this cut with!" Karlson shouted to Margaret, who pulled out a stolen Republican military bandage and ripped off it's packaging before handing it to Karlson, who placed the bandage over the cut that the unconscious technical driver had on his forehead while his former Technical erupted into flames while the technical driver moaned
"You're going to be okay kid!" Karlson said to the Technical Driver
"Wh-What happened? Where am I?" The Technical Driver asked
"What's your name kid?" Karlson asked him
"My name? Uhhhh….uhhh….I can't remember if I have one." He replied
"Awww shit he has amnesia!" Margaret said
"Better amnesia than dead." Karlson replied as he searched the technical driver's pockets for any ID, but found none, "He has no ID either."
"Can you worry about that later?!" Wensky shouted, "BECAUSE WE GOT BIGGER PROBLEMS!"
The last A-10 reappeared through the smoke as it came in for another attack run on the APM and U.S Military positions
"It's coming right for us!" Margaret screamed
"Keep your heads down!" Karlson shouted as he, Wensky, and Margaret ducked their heads down into the foxhole as the A-10 approached
"Man I'm going to die not even knowing my own name!" The Technical Driver shouted before there was a sudden bright flash of green light
"WHAT THE HECK?!" A APM Militiaman screamed as the sounds of warfare suddenly came to a halt and were by replaced by roars and strange cries that came from the skies as the flash dissipated
"What just happened?! Did we just get nuked?!" Wensky shouted as he, Karlson, and Margaret looked around before looking up into the skies which were now filled with hundreds of dragon-like creatures while the A-10, it's pilot blinded by the flash crashed, into the duck pond on the other side of the Park and exploded
"Are those…dragons?" The Technical Driver asked he shielded his eyes from the light of the sun
"RETREAT!" A Republican Officer screamed as the Republican forces attacking Capaha Park fell back toward the SEMO Campus
"…LETS GET THIS GUY TO THE TRIAGE CENTER BEFORE THOSE…DRAGONS SEE US!" Karlson shouted
"OKAY!" Margaret replied as she and Karlson helped the Technical Driver up onto his feet and out of the foxhole
"Wensky! Go find Xavier and Herald if they still exist!" Karlson shouted to Wensky
"Yes sir!" Wensky replied as he grabbed his M60 by the handle and climbed out of the foxhole to find the other two members of the squad while Karlson and Margaret carried the Technical Driver to the trench leading to the triage center
"Do you have any parents kid?!" Karlson asked the Technical Driver
"I can't remember anything!" The Technical Driver replied, "Have we always had dragons?!"
"No!" Margaret said
"Oh." The Technical Driver said, "I'm going to get my memory back eventually right?"
"We don't know!" Karlson replied, "Which is why we're taking you to triage!"
A two headed dragon landed near the trench in front of them
"Nice dragon…" The Technical Driver said to the dragon, whose heads looked at him as he walked past
"Well at least they seem to be friendly…" Margaret replied
"For now and it'll probably last until some redneck hunter shoots them." Karlson said to her as they reached the Triage center which was inside a dugout in the side of a hill
"What's going out there?!" An APM Medic asked them
"Hell if I know!" Karlson replied, "This guy needs some help though, he has amnesia, can't remember his name and he doesn't have any ID!"
"Well that's just great!" The APM Medic said, "Put him down on the empty over there!"
Karlson and Margaret placed the Technical Driver onto the Empty Cot that the APM Medic pointed out to them where the Medic started to looked at the Technical Driver's injuries
"He's pretty badly beat up, where'd you find him?" The APM Medic asked Karlson
"He was inside a wrecked technical, we got him out just before it erupted into flames." Karlson replied
"Well if he did any ID on him, it was probably in that technical." The APM Medic said, "So it looks we have a Mr. Nameless here."
"DO NOT SHOOT THE GOD DAMN DRAGONS!" An APM Officer shouted outside the Triage Center, "IF I SEE ANYBODY TRYING TO SHOOT A DRAGON I WILL SHOOT THEM FIRST!"
"Dragons?!" The APM Medic asked while Karlson and Margaret sighed
"Just give him a damn name so we have something to call him by until we can find his actual name!" Karlson shouted
"Fine…fine…Reaper." The APM Medic said
"REAPER?! IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN THINK OF?!" Margaret screamed at the Medic
"Hey he said he wanted him to have a name and Reaper can be a scary name." The APM Medic replied
"With him?" Margaret asked, "He looks like he hasn't killed anybody in his life!"
"Calm down Margaret, it's only temporary." Karlson replied
"Reaper…I actually kind of like that." Reaper said
"Of course you do…" Margaret said as she rolled her eyes while two APM Militiamen dragged a large bearded man wearing strange clothing into the triage center
"This guy just suddenly appeared in our trench!" One of the Militiamen shouted as they threw the man onto a cot, which bent under the man's weight
"Excuse me…but is that a Viking?!" Margaret asked
"Looks like one!" One of the Militiamen shouted, "So does this means that all these dragons came from the past?!"
"Who the hell knows?!" The Other Militiaman asked him as another APM Medic approached the unconscious Viking
"I'm not seeing any visible injuries on him and he seems to be breathing normally." The Medic said while the one tending Reaper took off the bandage that Karlson had placed over the wound on his forehead
"That's a rather nasty cut you have there, you're going to need some stitches, hold on a bit while I get my stitching kit." The APM Medic said to Reaper before he got up and left
"Stitches?" Reaper asked Karlson and Margaret
"It means he's going to seal that wound so it doesn't bleed as much anymore." Karlson replied as he picked up a clean cloth from a nearby table, "Here hold this on the wound and put pressure on it, it'll help stop the bleeding."
Reaper nodded and took the cloth from Karlson and held it on the wound on his forehead
"Okay all I remember is that we're at war with the Republican and Democratic parties and that is my hometown." Reaper said to Karlson and Margaret, "Everything else is either a blur or not there anymore."
"Well at least you remember that much and how to talk." Karlson replied as the Medic returned with his stitching kit
"Hold still kid, this will take a few minutes." The Medic said to Reaper, who removed the cloth from his forehead so the Medic could clean the blood from his forehead before he started stitching up the wound
Meanwhile across the Triage Center, Stoick regained conscious laying on a cot making the man next to him jump
"Well hey there! You're awake!" The Man said to Stoick
"Where am I?!" Stoick asked him
"Do you feel anything unusual? Light headed or anything?" The Man asked him
"What?! No!" Stoick replied, "Where am I?!"
"You're in Cape Girardeau, the quote on quote capital of the new United States or at least what's left of it." The Man said to him
"What do you mean?!" Stoick asked him
"We're were kind of in the middle of a civil war when you and your dragons all showed up." The Man replied, "But anyway I'm Doctor Yulen Long, I'm with the American People's Militia or APM for short."
"Are you from the far-east?" Stoick asked him
"The Far-east? You mean Asia? Yeah, my grandparents on my mom's side were from China and my mother married an American, my father." Yulen replied, "But that was before all this shit started or anybody knew it was going too."
"Am I the only one?" Stoick asked him
"The only one? What do you mean?" Yulen asked him
"My family, I have a wife named Valka and a son named Hiccup." Stoick said
"I have no idea and I'm not the one who found you, they did." Yulen said as he motioned over to the two men carrying the strange weapons standing behind him
"Yeah you popped up in our trench during the flash thing when all those dragons showed up." One of the APM Soldiers replied
Stoick sighed
"What's the last thing you remember?" Yulen asked him
"All I remember is being on a beach in front of my wife's dragon sanctuary as it was being attacked and sacrificing myself to save my son from being killed by his own Night Fury while it was being controlled by a Bewilderbeast that was being controlled by Drago Bludvist." Stoick replied
"Wait, wait, you were dead?!" Yulen asked him
"Night Fury?" One of the APM Soldiers replied
"I'm guessing you didn't have dragons here until this flash?" Stoick asked them
"Not outside of fiction." Yulen replied, "But since I'm guessing you came from the past, some of our history books are out of whack now."
"So who's this Drago Bludvist?!" One of the APM Soldiers asked him
"Nobody you should be concerned with, but he was a madman trying to take over the world with a dragon army." Stoick replied
"A dragon army? Well we could use one of those right now because I doubt the Republicans are going to stay away forever." The Other APM Soldier replied
"Who are they?" Stoick asked him,
"Basically our version of that Drago Bludvist guy but instead of having a dragon army, they have a whole bunch of armored vehicles and heavy weapons to kill us with." Yulen replied, "And I really hope that Drago Bludvist didn't come through with you because the last thing we need is a third enemy."
"Third Enemy?" Stoick asked him, "Who's your second enemy?"
"The Democrats, alongside with the Republicans they use to be one of the two major political parties that ran our government before they turned on each other." He replied
"Why did they turn on each other?" Stoick asked Yulen
"They decided they didn't want to share the power anymore after our economy went to shit when something we call the stock market crashed and took everything else with it causing a lot of people to lose their jobs and life savings." Yulen, "Then everything exploded when a Republican Military Officer attacked the capital, threw all the Democrats out and they fled to California to form their own government."
"So you're fighting against your former leaders because they refuse to get along?" Stoick asked him
"No, we're fighting against our former leaders before they're a bunch of assholes who firebomb people's homes and businesses." Yulen replied, "My entire family was wiped out when the Republicans firebombed our neighborhood."
"What kind of leader does that to their own people?!" Stoick asked
"Leaders who don't care about their people anymore, the Republicans and Democrats only care about their agendas and special interest groups and they're willing to destroy their own fucking country for them." Yulen replied, "And the worst part is that we voted those same people into their god damn seats, so we have to share the blame too."
"Who's your leader?!" Stoick asked him
"President Blake Emmonds, one of the few politicians left alive that still care about people like us." Yulen replied, "But nobody knows where he is, the Military forced him and his advisers to leave the city to avoid being killed or captured by the Republicans after they broke through our defensive line at SEMO."
"SEMO?" Stoick asked him
"It used to be a university, very center of this town's economy, but the Republicans firebombed it too and killed most of its students including the children of several of their own generals and politicians which was what made them finally stop the fire bombings." Yulen replied
"I'm not going to stand for this!" Stoick shouted, "Any leader's duty to protect their people not destroy them!"
"Well tell that to the Republicans and Democrats, but they'll just laugh at you because to them we're just a bunch of fucking clueless peasants." Karlson replied, "I'm Sergeant Charles Karlson, APM 22nd Motorized Infantry Division, I came over to this country just before all this shit started and got to see it all getting torn down due to a few's bickering and stubbornness."
"What can I do to help?" Stoick asked him
"Pick up a gun and I'll show you how to kill Republicans with it." Karlson replied, "But first of all, what's your name?"
"Stoick the Vast, chie-former chieftain of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe." Stoick said to him
"Well Stoick, welcome to the United States of America and the 21st Century." Karlson replied
APP Safe House; Outside of Cape Girardeau
1343 Hours
Before the war, Blake Emmonds, now the leader of the American People's Party and United States and Persian Gulf War veteran, was a Republican Congressman and considered himself a true patriot, but when the war broke out, Emmonds' loyalty to the Republican Party ended as he was disgusted by his fellow Republicans' acceptation of the coup that threw out the Democrats and resigned in protest and moved to Missouri to prevent himself from being drafted into the Republican Military where his hatred for his former party and their rivals grew with the number of refugees fleeing into the Neutral States. Due to his former position in the Republican Party, the governor of Missouri chose Emmonds to be Missouri's representative at the Cape Girardeau Peace Conferences which he chose to accept reluctantly as he hoped there was still some good inside his former party, but instead found the war had only increased their bitterness toward the Democrats, who were equally as bitter toward the Republicans as they both walked out of the Peace Conferences leaving Emmonds and many other bipartisan and moderate Republican and Democrats disenchanted with their former leaders and Emmonds later rallied those people together to form the American People's Party with Emmonds as its leader where Emmonds used the same charisma he used to win his elections before the war to win over the hearts and minds of many of the refugees living in the refugee camps across the Neutral States, building up support for the budding APP using their own hatreds for the Republican and Democratic Parties and encouraging them to take action leading up to the September Revolutions which placed him and the APP as the leaders of the Neutral States and in the crosshairs of Republican and Democratic Militaries who had long wished to take control of the Neutral States' growing strategic importance. Now determined to hold off the Republican and Democrat onslaught and to reunite the country, Emmonds and the APP would make the Republicans and Democrats pay for every inch of soil they took, but the recent appearance of dragons in the skies over the Neutral States was making this task difficult as Emmonds and his inner circle of advisers and Generals met in the basement of their safe house outside of Cape Girardeau to discuss the matter
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!" Emmonds shouted to his Inner Circle
"We don't know sir, we're receiving reports from all over the country along with from our supporters in the other states that these dragons are appearing all over the world; Russia, Europe, Africa, Asia, they're everywhere, but the highest concentration for some reason seems to be right over our heads." Luke Twones, Emmonds' Intelligence Adviser replied, "But good news is that they only appear to become aggressive when they feel threatened which is also bad because we're in a fucking warzone, but we're issuing out orders to our forces not to fire upon the dragons unless in self-defense."
"So they're not only our problem, that's good." Emmonds replied, "How are they effecting our operations?"
"We've only had a few minor disruptions, but mostly on the frontlines. But for the Republicans, it's entirely different story because their soldiers, mostly poorly trained conscripts, are shooting them mostly on sight causing the dragons to more aggressively attack their forces." Said a APM General
"Anything that's bad for the Republicans and Democrats is good for us as long as that anything bad doesn't turn on us." Emmonds replied, "Do these dragons pose a risk to our infrastructure and economy…or at least what's already left of it?"
"So far no." A U.S General replied, "But we are getting unconfirmed reports of a large dragon in Lake Wappapello."
"Wappapello?! Is it threatening the dam?!" Emmonds asked him
"We don't know sir, but that isn't the only report of something big appearing in that lake either, in fact the lake is actually larger now as well and it's not because of a dam break." He replied
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE LAKE IS LARGER?!" Emmonds asked him
"It grew from 45,000 acres to 100,000 acres and there's also a new island in it…with a village on it." He replied, "Good news is that there was no loss of life, bad news is that we don't where the land that the new 55,000 acres of Lake Wappapello replaced went.
"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" Emmonds asked him
"We don't know, but probably the people living in that village do." One of the U.S Generals replied, "We've already got a team from Poplar Bluff in route to Wappapello to assess the situation now."
"Good, I want to hear from them as soon as they arrive!" Emmonds said, "So what's going on in the Western Front, any word from General Conrad?"
"He has been forced to withdraw forces back across the Kansas River as Democrat and Republican forces are closing in on Western Kansas City, but he's promising to launch a counter-attack as soon as possible." An APM General replied
"What's his plan?" Emmonds asked him
"He hopes that by letting the Republicans and Democrats fight each that they'll exhaust each other's forces allowing him and his forces to sweep back in." The General replied
"Clever." Emmonds said to him, "Keep me posted on the situation, how is he responding to the dragons?"
"He wants to train them and turn them against the Republicans and Democrats." The General replied
"That actually sounds tempting, do we know if they can be domesticated?" Emmonds asked him
"Not yet sir, but I'm sure some dumbass will try to eventually." He replied, "But I'm more concerned about Cape Girardeau sir, the Republicans are coming very close to completely cutting it off and we're running out of options quickly and if we don't something quickly we're going to lose a lot of people and possibly our capital."
Emmonds sighed
"What are our options?" Emmonds asked him
"We need to force open more routes into the city along with keeping the ones we still have." The General replied, "But the problem is that we don't have enough forces to do both and the fact that the Republicans have almost complete air superiority doesn't make that situation any better."
"How can we get more forces without weakening our other fronts?" Emmonds asked him
"That's the problem, we can't." He replied, "So our best option is to hold on to what we still have, the biggest route being the so-called Gordonville Gap which stretches from Jackson city limits in the North to the Diversion Channel in the South and the Republicans are moving their forces into position to cut it off and I strongly doubt we'll be able to stop them unless we do something to greatly strengthen its defenses."
"Where are the Republicans gathering these forces?" Emmonds asked him
"Chaffee and behind their lines in Jackson with large amounts of armor at both ends, but it would be suicide if we launched an attack to destroy or disrupt these concentrations." An APM General replied
"Shit." Emmonds said, "You know all this is actually making Conrad's idea of domesticating the dragons sound even more like a good idea."
"I'm guessing we should've also saw this coming with all the reports of the dragons and lights that came before this." Twones replied
"We should have, but we didn't, but that's in the past and now we have to find a way to deal with them." Emmonds said to him, "If there is any people living in that village on that new island in Lake Wappapello they probably know more about these creatures than we do and I want us to know it too."
"And that's assuming if they're not hostile, speak English, or even human." An APM General replied
"I'm willing to take that chance." Emmonds said, "Get that team to Wappapello and to that island as quickly as possible."