Author's notes/Disclaimer: Yay! I got this finished at last. I'm really hoping that it will be enjoyable to those who read it. I'm also looking forward to the Valkyria Chronicles anime coming up in April too, it's off topic… but still.

To Hurricane's Quill: Thanks! I'll keep on going (till June 1st at most… maybe sooner).

To Ominae: I'm trying to catch Peewee's, a character that resides in "Fallen Angels", normal way of communicating. After doing some comparing, I think I'm doing an okay job for an amateur.

To: DragonLord WolfKnight Coker: It's only thanks to the many books I read that deals with warfare ("Fallen Angels", "Soldier Boys", "House to House", "Survival in the Ashes") that I could describe in the way I did. I'm also looking forward to getting a civil war novel by the name of "The Red Badge of Courage".

Now for the disclaimers: I do not own Sega's "Valkyria Chronicles", nor do I own Walter Dean Myers's "Fallen Angels".


War Stories: Gallia

Chapter 4

Comparing the Militia to the Marines

Peewee, having taken a five hour nap after things in Vassel started to wind down, woke with a headache. The fact that the windows were non existent and there are countless holes, big and small, on the walls can be blamed.

He snorted in mucus as he tried to clear his nose.

"Damn… a cold…" he checked his soundings, the men and women that survived last night, except the one that that had to be medievaced and the others that had to return to their units, were still here. Along with them there were others from other companies using this building as a refuge.

The morning looks cloudless, with the sun just rising above the horizon.

Well… it's helluva lot better than Nam.

Peewee sneezed, "… can someone gimme a sitrep?"

"Oh, Sergeant Gates; you're awake," said the sniper he saw last night, the one who rescued the sniper under his care, he recognized her dark red hair and sort of British accent… the lead sniper, "You slept well?"

"I'm used to warmer mornings but…" he thought about Nam, it's hot, muggy one-hundred plus degree mornings, "Anyways, about them sitrep…"

"Well, it's that… not them Sergeant-" the lead sniper.

"Keep it Peewee, Mrs.…"

"Oh! Where are my manners," she smiled, "I forgot to introduce myself, Catherine O'Hara if you will."

"Catherine… aren't you with Perry's team?"

"I broke away as soon as I made sure everyone was accounted for in Alpha," she explained, "It's sniper dogma over here in Gallia, it wasn't long before I ran into you at the convoy."

"You were with us?" Peewee.

"Yes, but you and your men disappeared in the fighting. So I helped the tank column for a bit before taking position in this restaurant, you know the story from there," Catherine.

"Yeah, bout that," he looked were Emile and the other 7's, Nadine, Herbert, and Ted, are sitting around, talking to each other like friends would, "I should be sorry for almost getting him killed, your student and all."

Catherine looked in their direction, both could see Ted's smiling face as he cracked a joke and both Emile and Nadine's laughter. By the look of Herbert's face he didn't understand it.

"Emile knew the risks when he became a sniper, what's to be sorry about…?" There was a hint of sadness in her voice, then it disappeared as she explained professionally, "Anyways, both American and Gallian forces have secured Vassel for the moment and 2nd Lt. Welkin ordered all teams to rendezvous at the docks, Pier 5 if I'm not mistaken."

"Aight," Peewee, he gathered everyone that was with him, all of them Sevens, "Alright, gather all your things, were rendezvousing with the L.T. at them docks."

Then he turned to Catherine, "You know where it is right? Cuz I don't."

"Well… I did go over the town maps with the other snipers before embarking on the trucks, but everything's so utterly destroyed and the Imps knocked over most of the signs so…," she smiled apologetically.


"You guys know where Charlie Company is?" a nineteen year-old medic ran up to them as they walked to the Pier. He seemed more focused on Susie at the moment though, handing her a piece of paper.

"I-I don't know, sorry," Susie, her light brown hair swaying with the wind.

"Where's Dog Company?" A black well built sergeant asked Lobel.

"I saw them awhile back at the bridgehead," Lobel, the only olive drab BDU wearing American among the blue uniformed Gallian unit.

"Thanks!" he ran off.

"Hey, where's the Royal Heights Inn?" a white seventeen years old Gallian Regular asked Caird, the regulars have a lot more metal plated armor than the militia.

Caird, the bald aging Gallian Veteran, "That's two blocks down, take a right, then a left," he gave him the wrong directions due to age.

It's like this as they headed for the docks, there were Gallian and American soldiers walking about, some lost and some with direction. There were many sitting around and socializing, some standing guard, some just bored.

There were others clearing the place of wreckage, supplies, injured, and the dead.

Among them are civilians in ponchos, that the government supplied, they just mostly sat around homeless while the military occupied their homes or found them destroyed by the fighting. There were others who lucked out, but not so much.

"Have you seen my daughter!? She's fifteen, black hair and a white-" a father asked the anti-social sniper Marina.

Marina, her dark hair covering her left brown eye which the guy would have otherwise seen, "I'm sorry…"

The father ran off to other soldiers and asked them.

"Food! Anything, please!" a seven year-old kid in rags begged Edy.

"S-sure hold on!" she rummaged through one of her pockets; she found a little bag of cookies that she's saving for herself. She scowled, but put on a generous face when she handed them over, "Here ya go."

"Thank you Ma'am!" he ran off.

The streets they walk are crawling with people, soldier and normal persons, and the wrecked and working assortment of vehicles, military and domestic, didn't help things.

"Jesus, looks like Bastogne… what the fuck were they doing last night!? Sleeping!?" Lobel asked out loud as he surveyed the ruins as he passed them.

"I was wondering the same thing myself," Salinas, a red headed pretty boy, in Lobel's terms, answered.

"… I thought that having our allies along would give us an advantage… but this," Kevin, a pudgy Asian looking kid.

Homer, the blonde frail looking engineer added, "It looks like they were caught completely off guard-."

"Shut up and keep walking!" Caird ordered.


"Hey, Sergeant Perry," Juno Coren, a blonde short haired ex-college student turned team lead, woke up Perry.

Still tired from last night's mayhem, his body and head ached, "Ah, Juno… what's up?"

"I just wanted to say that you did pretty well last night, if I'd didn't know any better I'd think you have city fighting down," she smiled as she pushed up her oval glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Jesus, why is she here… fighting in war, as a Sergeant of all things! Perry thought to himself, and then concluded that nothing ever does make sense in war, whether here or Nam, "Thank you, that means a lot."

The night before, on the transports, he admitted that he and the other advisors, Gearhart included, did not have much experience when it came to urban warfare.

Hut by hut fighting meant little compared to fighting building by building.

This, of course, scared the boys and girls he was left to advise (except for Theold and Rosie; they held him and the other advisors with contempt); Juno Coren (who's just as much as a cherry as he was, meaning she had no experience in actual fighting whatsoever) and Catherine O'Hara, a middle-aged women and the lead sniper of Squad 7, just told him to leave it to them for now.

Regardless, Perry felt petrified along the way there. The questions and conversations by Catherine and the others friendly toward him, guys by the name of Hermes and Melville among them, did little but help him to cover those feelings up.

He though that the training they gave him, in squad tactics, leadership skills, how to operate communications, how to give commands vocal and silent (hand signals), would do him as much as the tactics taught to him at boot camp did him when he fought the Cong.

He, and basically all infantrymen in general he thought, was ill-trained to fight them… and even when he had spent some time on the field, he's still unsure if what they were doing was right or wrong, much less if it was any help in the war effort.

When the artillery came and blasted the convoy to smithereens, he and his team escaped unscathed then helped escort the LT's mean looking tank, the Edelweiss, into the city along with the surviving tank column. It wasn't long till Catherine, who had been taking shots at unsuspecting high priority targets, split from us.

Surprisingly, he found himself leading them well (with the help of Juno) using fire superiority tactics they taught him. Through the chaos, the deaths of the person next to you, the screams of the dying and hurt… he survived it and even rose among it.

Perry looked around the warehouse where Squad 7 has been assigned, everyone in Alpha team got through unscathed, most of Echo team made it through alright minus Peewee and Nadine (Wavy, the sergeant of Echo, paced the warehouse worrying about the other two… Perry felt the same about Peewee).

Bravo team has yet to show up, but Welkin told him that he and Largo made it through all right and on their way. They're missing a Herbert and Ted (the goof ball that he met at the R&D facility) though. Charlie team is okay too, Alpha and Charlie being the only teams that hadn't split up after the shells hit. Delta, after an all night search for their members, finally regrouped and is heading to the rendezvous point.

So everyone is accounted for and living save Peewee, Ted, Herbert, Nadine, and Catherine.

… And maybe the LT too, Perry doesn't see him anywhere.

"Ummm, Juno?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Juno, looking at a folded looking black and white photo while sitting on a crate.

"Have you seen the LT anywhere," Perry asked.

"I think he went to a strategy meeting to discuss the next course of action, all Squad COs in the Militia do that," she said as a matter of fact.

"Okay, thanks."

"No problem," she smiled. She then turned her attention to the palm sized photo, from what Perry could see it had a picture of her in a dress with two other guys. He didn't look for long, not wanting to be rude, and got up to look for the Platoon Sergeant to see how things are going.

The Platoon Sergeant, a friendly (almost ditzy) country girl Alicia Melchoitt almost his age, was talking to two members of the tank crew that manned the Edelweiss tank.

"Sergeant Melchoitt, do you know if the other five were found yet?"

She turned to him, as Dallas, the dark fuzzy haired girl that Peewee tried to flirt with twice (and failed), gave him a distrustful look, "Actually I got into contact with Catherine awhile, she found them and they're on their-."

"Alicia!" Isara, the cute shorthaired sister of the LT, popped up from the tank hatch, "It's Staff Sergeant Gates on the line!"

Peewee?

She received the headset that Tank commanders used to radio others (though it seemed to Perry that everyone manning a tank used them over here) and put them on, "This is 1st Class Sergeant Melchoitt here… okay, can you tell me were you're at… there's no signs up, try asking someone around…."

"Here you go Miss Alicia," Dallas cheerfully handed her a map; this struck Perry odd for a moment.

"Thanks Dallas… East Side Street? Alright, give me a second… okay, just go straight 'till you-."

Geez, they're fucking lost! Perry thought about it more, then again, the others are having trouble finding us too…

"Um, Staff Sergeant Perry," Alicia handed him the head set, "Gates wants to talk to you."

He took it and put it on, "It's me Peewee."

"Yo man, is everyone there yet?" Peewee.

"Not yet, though everyone's accounted for except you guy's," Perry, "but the other teams haven't showed up yet, save the mortar team."

"Damn, poor bastard must've been worried about his daughter all night."

"Who's daughter?" Perry asked.

"Wavy's daughter Nadine, you know man… the engineer girl we met back-."

Perry heard other voices, thinking it's Nadine's and Catherine's, one's asking Peewee to check on her father, the other (in a British accent… maybe Irish) suggesting that they head for the rendezvous, "You know what man, we'll just meet up with ya! Peewee out!"


Staff Sergeant Monaco was leading the line, just marching through the crowd of people near the entrance of the so-called Great Vassel Bridge.

They were asked many questions, mostly about directions to a certain unit or place, and some questions about missing peoples (mostly by civvies, and a few Gallian and American soldiers too), which Yoko Martins, a thirty-seven year old ex-chef and team lead of Delta Team.

Monaco guessed she used to frequent this city for her to know it so well, Aisha, the twelve year old shock trooper girl, asked for him, "How do you know this place so well Miss Yoko?"

"Well… long story short, I used to live here a while back," she answered.

"Did you used to have an eatery here?" Lynn, a twenty year old Darcsen shock trooper.

"No actually… that was something I did after the first war," Yoko said, somewhat sadly.

No more questions were asked about Yoko.

It seemed like the enemy deliberately knocked over and destroyed every street sign in and about the city. This made it nearly impossible to know where they were, much less where to go. Luckily they had Yoko as a Sergeant.

"Hey Sergeant!" the gung-ho, monocle/eye patch wearing Vyse ask, "You know how those flying machines up in the sky work?"

"Not really, all I know is those rotors on top of the chopper keep it in the sky," Monaco explained, "other than that, I know shit about them."

Mica Hawkins, a glasses wearing, depressed looking shock trooper, "You'd think that we'll be able have some of those?"

"That's what I was about to ask," Vyse, "I wouldn't mind flying around in those babies!"

"First off, we sorta gave the ARVN some choppers so expect some to come your guy's way," Monaco.

"ARVN?" Mica.

"The guy's we were helping before coming here," Monaco explained, "hell if I know what it stands for… and you'll need them too, especially after last night's performance."

"I have to admit, they'd did a number on us… wonder what happened to Emile," Vyse.

"Emile… I forget, who is he?" Monaco.

"You're a team leader and you don't know your own guy's name? He's our only sniper too!" Mica, more like a condemnation than a question.

"First off, it's my first day and I can't get anyone's name in one day," Monaco, looking rather annoyed, "Second, I'm an advisor, not a team lead like Yoko."

"Geez calm down, I didn't mean it like that," Mica.

The city street already behind them, the team's walking along the Vassel canal, the morning light reflecting off its blue waters, the ruins of the other half of the city clearly seen across the waters. Even here, there were people running to and fro, oblivious to the presence of snipers on both sides of the canal.

"You sounded like it ass-hole," Monaco

"Hey Mr. Advisor guy," Cherry, the blonde valley girl, "like, calm down or you'll blow a vein or something."

"Alright," Monaco thought she's annoying, thanks to the way she talked, "calming down man… you guys don't have to make me look like a jackass here."

Nancy Dufour, a young beret wearing girl with giant red glasses, "Ummm, I don't think that was the case here Sergeant."

"Look, let's just talk about something else," Monaco suggested (looking rather annoyed), he looked to the rear, pass Cherry and Nancy, to Ramsey Clement.

She's, a young girl about the same age as Nancy with dark brown hair the same color as her eyes, looking across the canal almost in a daze.

"Hey, engineer girl! You awake?" Monaco called out.

Not bursting awake as he thought she would, she just lazily said, "Uhhh, right… gacha…"

Is she high or something?

Monaco didn't have time to dwell on that thought; he heard something hit the brick wall beside him, making a small hole through it. It was a bullet, it almost hit him… almost killed him. It was a little longer till the report of the rifle was heard.

"HIT THE DIRT!!!!" he screamed, everyone dove for the ground.

"Sniper! Take cover!"

"Hit the deck!"

"Someone throw a smoke!"

Others around them did the same, civilian or soldier, wither that or sought after cover. It wasn't long before a rifle report could be heard from their side of the canal.

A moment longer…, "I bagged one! My first kill!" it came from the top of the building, Monaco thought from the attic.

"Shut up or you'll get hit from another one!" Monaco though it was his spotter.

"Alright, everyone behind the buildings. We're almost there anyhow," Yoko ordered.


"I wonder if Ted and that engineer got out alright," Montley asked, a guy of fifteen with a band aid on his nose.

"Who knows, its best not to think about those things kid," Johnson, trying to carry the Heavy MG on his back with belts of MG ammo crisscrossing his back and chest.

"Come on Johnson, you have to be more positive than that," Freesia said, her cute Indian looking face smiling, "Didn't they teach you that at Basic?"

Johnson tried to keep a straight face, "Just trying to be realistic here."

"You have a lot to learn then," Largo, a big guy that heaved that monster lancer that his type, Lancers, used to destroy tanks, "You can't just keep acting down all the time."

"… Got it," Johnson.

Making their way through the crowd, Largo was on point, Johnson, Ted, and Freesia right behind him.

Jane Turner, her hair dark and skin pale, was right behind him talking about last night's mayhem with Hannes Salinger, a big, tough but dumb looking shock trooper.

"Those bloody Imps ran before we could get a bead on them," Jane Turner, she looked emotionless, a far cry from what she looked like last night.

"If I were a Imp… I would run from MG too," Hannes, he reminded Johnson of a Looney Tunes type of character, one that seems to always lose out to Bugs Bunny types because of their stupidity.

Johnson leaned over to Freesia, "What's the deal with her? She's all quiet then once shit happens she just goes insane," Johnson recalled how she fought, and how tough it was just to restrain her and get her to obey orders. In the end, they had to get big Hannes to do it.

"From what she told me she lost her flower shop when they declared war," Freesia said as a matter of fact.

"When'd you hear that? You two were actually talking?" Montley asked, looking surprised. When he and Ted tried talking to her, she looked apathetic and disinterested, just answering questions and that's it.

"Well, yeah. It's just questions and answers though," Freesia said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, she's the crazy type that get's people killed," Johnson concluded, "We'll have to keep a close eye on her."

Behind them, Oscar, a fifteen year old sniper with a cross shaped scar on his head, is talking to a shy looking shock trooper, Dorothy Howard.

There was a worried look on Oscar's face.

Behind them is Nils, a lancer guy with a strong build and keeps to himself most of the time, taking the rear position. He looked deep in thought, but alert at the same time.

"I-I think he's alright, he's a sniper so… they wouldn't put him in front or anything," Dorothy, trying to act assuring.

Oscar looked at her and smiled, "I sure hope you're right."


The rendezvous point, another warehouse, is in shambles. There were holes on the roof where light filtered in, the wooden floors are rotting as are the walls, all the windows are shattered with none boarded up, and you couldn't walk anywhere without almost stepping on a rodent or bug (the younger females in the squad constantly yelped).

It's like this for all the militia units stationed there.

"So man, how'd you do last night?" Peewee, all the advisors, save Gearhart, got into a little group.

All teams made it and everyone is accounted for, no injured or dead. Perry wondered how long till that luck ran out. Everyone split off into their own little cliques, which included the team leads and the advisors.

Well… except for a few like Marina and Nils, they spent their time alone checking their weapons. Largo split from his unit upon arrival to talk to on of his friends, a LT from a different unit.

Perry explained that his team mostly hid behind Welkin's tank and sprayed anything that looked remotely like anything that could hurt a tank. They cleared a few buildings in the process, with the help of the tank obliterating anything that could hurt them with its 88mm gun. He also mentioned that Wendy, a beanie wearing shock trooper with dark face camo, seemed to hurl an endless supply of grenades at the Imps.

Somewhere in the background, Emile and Oscar are arguing with one another about something that happened last night. The advisors didn't pay them any attention though.

"I honestly have no clue were she's hiding all of them," Perry.

"She probable has one under her hat too, she does look cute though," Monaco.

"She's sounds like she's on the crazy side though, plus she's twenty-five man," Perry.

"What'd you mean by crazy?" Peewee.

"Well… she likes talking about explosives when someone actually talks to her, and that the other shock troopers in his unit are wary of her," Perry.

"So, she doesn't sound too bad," Johnson.

Johnson's team was ordered into a sandbagged house that the Imps took over and used, dodging MG fire by some miracle, they made it to the house and fragged the first floor. It just went to hell from there.

"- and get this, this crazy bitch just ran up the stairs, all by herself, and cleared it with no injury to herself," Johnson, careful to keep his voice low so she wouldn't overhear, "before we could step in the second she was already on the top floor, fucking shooting they asses and laughing maniacally at the same time."

"Damn… I wish she was in my squad," Monaco.

"I wish she was in Nam with us," Lobel, "we could've used her."

Johnson, frowning, "Hell no, if she did that over here, imagine her in a ambush all firing before you give the order."

With Johnson's point made, everyone was thankful that Jane was in Johnson's team, and not theirs.

"Sucks to be you Johnson," Monaco.

"It is sucking pretty badly man," Johnson, he then finished his story, saying that he set up a machine gun nest, only to find out that the enemy a couple of streets ahead cleared out, so he wasn't able to shoot at anything.

Monaco then explained his and his unit's role in the fight, saying that they were fighting it out with a never ending attack of Imps. They were able to push them back into a building; Yoko used her lance to blow a hole into it and caught a lot of them off guard. When she ordered Nancy, one of the scouts in his unit, to throw in a grenade…

"She fucking dropped it, dropped a live grenade… their grenades make ours look like fire crackers by the way," Monaco, looking rather amused.

"What'd you mean?" Peewee.

"Their grenades our able to take whole rooms out, ours just throws little pieces of shrapnel around in hopes of actually hitting somebody," Monaco explained, "Anyways, she tried picking it up but she fumbled with it. Unsure of what to do she just yelled 'Grenade!' and dove to the ground."

"Wow, that's some screw up you have there," Lobel, laughing.

"I'm not done, after the grenade blew… which knocked the senses out of all of us, the bastards ran up the stairs. So we blew another hole outside the house on the second floor then we all started passing live grenades to that monocle pirate as he threw them in, the guy has a good arm," Monaco.

"Monocle pirate… you mean that Vyse guy?" Lobel.

Monaco, "Yeah, doesn't he look like a pirate?"

"How's that twelve year old do?" Perry, changing the subject.

"She was scared shitless like you expect, but she did alright," Monaco.

Lobel asked something on his mind, "… what about those lances, I don't know about you guys but I think they're stronger than what we-," he wasn't able to finish due to the ruckus that erupted.

Apparently the advisors were so focused on their conversation that they failed to notice an argument near the tank that grew into a one-sided shoving match, Isara on the losing side.

Before the advisors could get up and stop the fight, Juno and Alicia jumped in with the latter tending to her.

"What an exaggeration!" taunted Brigitte Stark, or Rosie, "I only gave your shoulder a little push, some use you'll be to us," there was contempt in her voice.

Alicia, sullen but loud in her order, "Corporal Brigitte Stark! You should not fight with your comrades!"

For a Platoon Sergeant she doesn't sound all that convincing, Perry thought.

Rosie thought the same thing, "Hey, I'm just telling her how useful this sickly Darcsen brat is," smiling, enjoying them moment, "she and her kind will just be a burden on the battlefield."

"What the hell's up with you and Darcsens lady!?" Peewee, jumped up. All his friends with him stood up, ready to pull him back if he tried anything.

"That's right; you don't know anything about these Darcsens since you're all foreigners," she said, as she knew what she was talking about.

"Alright that's enough Brigi-," Juno's order's ignored, Perry thought she sounded more forceful than Alicia but…

"Since the old days these guys have been good for nothing but trouble and bad luck… like last night."

She turned her attention to Peewee, "You honestly think we can fight next to unlucky people like that!"

"Saying that Darcsens cause bad luck for this unit is like saying that you're all missing stuff cause us black people keep stealing shit!" Peewee answered with anger.

He didn't notice the two scowling faces narrowing their eyes on him, both black.

"You think you could've had another example?" Perry whispered to Peewee, he could hear Lobel and Monaco's chuckling in the background somewhere, though the others in Squad 7 shared confused looks and some with skeptical looks (Peewee just gave them another reason not to trust them).

The Darcsen group, situated near the LT's Edelweiss tank, held back one of their own, a sergeant and father to Nadine named Wavy, while the argument went on. Aika, though not a Darcsen herself, held back Vyse too. None of them had to use as much force as the advisors to hold someone back.

"Certainly-," Isara, brushing her hair away from her face and getting on her two feet, "Certainly we are Darcsens, across Europa we are persecuted for the blood of our ancestors," her voice, with each passing word, gained more strength, "but… we are humans just like you!"

"What did you say!?" Rosie, outraged that Isara would compare Darcsens to the rest of humanity, "Darcsens are nothing like us!"

"Ummm… maybe you guys should stop…" Aisha suggested, not very audible over the argument, Monaco and a few others heard her though. She's with a few friends, Claudia, Dallas, and Hanes (Dallas looked like she wanted to beat Rosie to a bloody pulp).

"Or you'll do what," an irritated voice asked out, the guy who said it was a well built guy with blonde hair in a straight short hair style… it reminded Monaco of Elvis Presley, "Hey kid, you some kind of Darcsen lover?"

"Darcsen lover…?" the kid obviously didn't know what the term meant (Monaco deduced it to be a term for people who like Darcsens), Monaco started toward the two but someone else got in their before he did.

"Hey lay off partner!" It was Vyse, Monaco's "monocle pirate", "she's just a kid."

The blonde lancer, Monaco thought he's in Perry's unit, looked Vyse up and down as if sizing him up, "hmph… whatever," and then paid him no other attention.

"-even with the Americans helping us it won't be a cake walk!" Rosie, the argument went unabated, "The less trouble if you ask me, no matter what you say Darcsens are-."

"Will you all just drop it!?" Welkin in his blue officer uniform, Gearhart in the usual olive drab behind him, interrupted things, "What the hell's going on here!?"

"You're our LT right?" Rosie asked, "Even if I don't say it you should understand right! This brat, she's a Darcsen!"

"We can't fight alongside no Darcsen," Largo, the big lance wielding team lead of Bravo, spoke almost out of nowhere, Johnson thought he was still talking to his friend till now, "especially since what happened last night."

"Largo! What are you-!?" Juno, once again cut off.

"Lieutenant Welkin, incompetent leaders get more of our buddies killed than the enemy, you know?" Largo, puffing on his cigarette before speaking more, "no one is going to listen to a guy like that, no one wants to die."

Welkin stayed quiet, as did everyone else including the advisors, all attention is on Largo. Welkin, however, remained undeterred.

"Keep that in mind and we'll get through the next assignment well enough," though imposing, he spoke like he would to a son, "no one is going to except excuses no matter how many times they're said."

"Assignment…?" Alicia asked.

"Hey Largo!? What're you talking about!?" Ted asked from somewhere in the warehouse.

Largo explained, looking kind of sad yet stern, "I got old friends in the Regular Army… the entire 3rd Militia Regiment is to retake Vassel Bridge…" what he added next sent a chill down the spine of every Gallian Seven, "to retake the Imp command post on the other side of the canal with no support from the main army but a few American platoons."

Even the loners in Squad 7 winced at the demand; Catherine O'Hara, who was checking her scope and rifle rather than listen to the exchange, shuddered for she knew how badly misused the Militia was, a military organization meant to protect the flanks and rear of the Main Army as they advance, in the last war fifteen years ago… being a young veteran.

She feels that history is repeating itself.

"Just how do they mean for us to accomplish that!" Melville, a Mohawk sporting scout of Alpha (Perry thought he was some sort of hippie when he talked with him).

"No matter how much training we do that's impossible!" Nina Streiss, a dark short haired shock trooper in Delta, yelled out.

"Most of our soldiers haven't been soldiers long! Why…" Juno Coren, sounding distressed.

"Man, doesn't the Main Army have guys specially trained for this!" yelled out Perry, "I mean, I talked to a few of them before we were shipped for Vassel!"

He did, the guy's he was referring to were better armed than even most Americans were, they had a lot of ammo clips, grenades, and a lot of gear strapped onto them and their backs. One of the lancers even claimed that he had on him twelve rockets a peace (though his lancer weapon looked more like a RPG).

In a way, they reminded him of marines that had yet to see actual combat and how they were often the first to be sent in.

The assignment they were being ordered to do, is something that the much tougher Marines did.

"Apparently… high command thought they were too expensive to waste," Largo grimly admitted.

"Welkin… is that true?" Alicia asked him.

"It's a mistake to say the General Army won't be giving us any support, the Americans will be giving us plenty of support anyways…," Welkin corrected, not backing down, "But instead they will begin their advance after the Militia forces a bridgehead."

"That can't be right!" Cherry, who just dropped her fashion magazine at Largo's news. She and a few other girls in her group, Audrey (a brunette lancer) and Ramona (an ex-model turned Scout), and also Edy shared the same look.

"Are they telling us to die!?" Claudia yelled, just as outraged as her Darcsen friends.

"Can they live peacefully having stepped onto the corpses of the militia?" Mica said to Dorothy Howard, disgusted with the Main Army's decision, "It's not like the Americans would be any help."

"This has to be a lie," Dorothy said in response.

"Hey! Us Americans could kick more ass than you people ever will!" Peewee, after overhearing "comments" about the U.S.'s role last night.

"Don't make me laugh!" Rosie, "they're the ones who almost lost the city in the first place! Some soldiers you guys turned out to be!"

"You wanna say that to my-!" Peewee, jumping to his feet.

"Peewee goddamn it!" Lobel, he and Johnson held him from doing anything stupid.

Rosie continued, "It turns out the U.S. and Main Army are no help for the unlucky Darcsens!" she held up a hand as to point out her so-called truth, "So that's how it is huh? You can't be upfront with the operation!"

She accused him more, "If this fails do you plan to just say sorry!?"

Perry wondered why Gearhart wasn't intervening, but Welkin's answer to Rosie made him drop that question, "I have no intention of apologizing."

He continued, with more power to his voice than before, "I will not use my men as sacrificial lambs…" he turned to Largo, "Using Squad 7, I will retake Vassel Bridge within 48 hours."

Everyone gawked at that challenge, advisors too.

"Welkin… do you know what you're-?" Gearhart, who was calm before just looked as shocked as everyone else.

He continued, "Sergeant Potter, let's make a wager," Largo, who let his cigarette fall out of his mouth after hearing Welkin's declaration, is silent, "If my plans work, you'll follow my commands. If I fail, I'll resign as a CO."

"Welkin!" Alicia, distressed at what she was hearing. Juno looked equally distressed.

"Interesting," Largo, now smiling, "You won't forget your words, right?"

Lobel leaned in to Perry, "Our LT's insane I think… how the fuck is he gonna do it under forty-eight hours."

Perry didn't have a clue to what he's planning but guessed anyways, "… maybe we could cross the river or something, I don't know."


More Authors' Notes: There's a reference to Battlefield Bad Company in here somewhere, but I leave you guys to find it.

Anyways, please leave a few comments after reading to help me write better. As always, please tell me which recruit character from the game you want to see more of (also, if there are a few recruit characters really off from what they're really like, please tell me!).

As for the anime that's coming out: If they follow the "Band of Brothers" and/or "Saving Private Ryan" format… then it'll be one helluva show, just my opinion.