1st Recon Company, League of Nations Army (Falmart)
Main Mountain Road Tanska-Bellnahgo-Rondel, Empire Territory
"These people are feckin' eejits attacking us like that after what we did to their main army..." Cmdt. James Cooper grumbled rhetorically as he watched through his binoculars the last of the Imperial dragon riders fly off south-eastward on his limping beast before being smashed from the sky by his AA "...must have cost'em a hundred soldiers, and for what? Didn't even scratch the paint on the vehicles"
"Da Comrade Cmdt. it is unfortunate that the peasantry of these lands have yet to free themselves from the mental shackles their feudal overlords have placed upon them" the irritating Soviet political officer replied cheerfully.
Oh they hadn't shackled him with that bitch Colonel Bragina true, and suffer the attendant problems of joint command with a superior ranked allied officer, but they'd still foisted a 'diplomatic officer' upon him. Pretty as a peach, the obnoxiously patriotic, Ukrainian NKVD Captain Mariya Lysenko was yes...but the combination of cheerfulness, green as grass combat experience and sheer 'communism is best ever' attitude made him secretly want to shoot her at times. And it had only been two days into the mission as yet!
"Possibly Captain, but it'll be a nuisance if they keep it up, these mountain valley's could be problem for ambushes. And I'd like to avoid wasting ammo so early into the mission" he replied, lowering the binoculars and turning to his nominal subordinate. Around them the rest of the company rested in a loose defensive formation. Behind her he saw the other platoon heads approaching, their men starting to settle in for a quick meal and rest before they resumed their advance.
It was a pretty light version of a company really with only eighty-four soldiers including drivers, divided into three platoons and a recon squad of spec-ops troops. Topping it all off were the six local guides under the elf Meru who were helping with understanding the badly drawn Imperial maps they'd captured and with the likes of the wandering trader they'd met yesterday. Still he was glad he'd insisted on the two Russkie Siberia's [1] for AA in 2nd (Heavy) Platoon when the General had denied him tanks. They'd certainly dealt with small dragon riding problem before the poor feckers had even gotten with spitting distance while the rest of the company tore apart the two hundred or more lunatics that come charging down out of the hills. All in all the whole engagement had lasted less than five bloody minutes before the pitiful handful of raiders had fled back into the hills.
"Well folks, looks like we've driven off the last immediate enemy force in the next few miles for the moment..." he began as the platoon heads, the spec-ops East African and the slightly uncomfortable looking elf woman joined himself around the digital comp-map of the surrounding area and showing their progress for the past few hours. Overlaying the actual terrain taken by the company's two RGAV's was the Imperial maps of the terrain "...so I want to rest everyone up an hour before we continue on. I'm looking for opinions on our next stopping point?"
He glanced at the elf, Meru Haa Vaishii and after a moment's thought she pointed at mountain in the distance before speaking carefully in English "We know hill well. Is three days journey by feet...by walking to trading...pl...post in that ways on the Empire Road. Is neutrals place. Like trade. Tell things if trade" she continued pointing down the rough cobblestone road they had been following towards the west.
"It's not marked on any of the Imperial maps?" Captain Kipkemoi asked curiously tracing a hand over the comp-map to the indicated area and Meru shook her head. [2]
"Is small place. Not Imperial place. Elves and Dragon-peoples trades. Rurodo trades. Adventurers trade before and after explore old buildings" she continued looking uncertain at the map "not sure where on your magic-map but is three days walk that ways. Have trade there's before years ago"
It was easy to forget how old the young looking woman was at almost eight hundred years evidently. He'd heard the scientists back at the base were jumping up and down with excitement at wanting to discover how they had such longevity. And all without the fascist eugenic and genetic programmes of the Americans. And so her and the other guides knowledge had been supremely helpful for navigating these territories. In the end he couldn't keep the RGAV's in the air as much as he'd like and their advice helped make the usage resource efficient so far.
"It's not a bad plan Sir..." the Australian in charge of 1st (Recon) Platoon Captain Alex Brown stated "...we can reach there before dawn if we keep our current pace and include a rest period after nightfall. We have some trade goods and we ask some questions, assuming no one shoots at us at least"
Cmdt. Cooper nodded in agreement. They'd taken a massive amount of local 'loot' in the wake of the one sided battles, 'loot' that was essentially worthless to the various national militaries composing the League of Nations forces. But it was valuable to the natives and even the Soviets could grasp that money could buy knowledge from people not exactly jumping with joy at the rule of their Imperial overlords. Right now the Recon Company had enough of these denarii and other items that Meru and the others assured them were worth a small fortune even among local nobility and merchants. So far it had meet an encouraging start as the travelling 'Rurodo' merchants they'd ran across yesterday had been quite willing to trade information for goods and coin. Well that and several mugs of coffee. He couldn't see why, army coffee was vile stuff only good for keeping you awake for patrol he found. [3]
"Da Comrade Commandant, it would allow us to gain knowledge of our objective and let those fearful of the foul Empire see there are foes it cannot defeat by force of arms" the NKVD woman agreed with a cheerful smile. She was far too nice for political officer no matter what the Soviets said about reforms. Honestly he wondered if her becoming one had been along the lines of 'Collect Ten Tayto Crisp packets and become a Political Commissar!'.
"Good, so unless there's any objections well head out at..." he brought up his military issue wristwatch which said 13:09 "...1400 hours. Uisan your squad will take lead, Alex you'll be at the rear screening if any of this lot had friends. Dmitri your platoon in the centre, while I'll take 3rd Platoon in just behind the scouts, we'll rotate position later on back to column Alpha" he finished. He wanted to get the company used to working together and occasionally shifting positions as they travelled...
A buzzing on the comms distracted him for a moment as he clicked on the neck-comm "Cooper here. Report?"
"Sorry Sir but we have an inbound...dragon person...I suppose? Just the one, buts she's carrying this big fuck off type scythe in her hands. Orders?"
"Hold fire Private but track for the moment..." he switched to AA units direct line and switched to Japanese "...this is Cmdt. Cooper, bogey incoming, AA-01 track but do not fire unless proven hostile, AA-02 scan horizon for any other bogeys..." he turned back to his platoon heads "...okay we're on alert it seems just in case..." as they nodded and moved off to ready those not on patrol just in case. He glanced at pale faced Meru who was gazing at the figure through the binoculars he'd handed her "...is there a problem"
"Ughhhh...ughhhh...is Her Holiness! Giselle Apostle of Hardy! Why she heres? Oh I'm nots worthys..." she began to babble off excitedly in her own native togue too quickly for his still growing understanding too follow. It sounded suspiciously like how his own dear Grandma had spoken about when a Bishop or such was going to visit when he a young chap.
'Feckin great...' he thought as the speck in the distance started to approach '...just what I need. Flying priests, or the Lizard Pope maybe. I hate this country...world...feckin bullshit"
[1] Much like a modern Russian Tunguska AA unit or an evolved version of the ZSU. No missiles here as it's an older design but it'd be equally deadly vs infantry and light armour.
[2] My guess – ancient maps were pretty bad. I'm guessing Falmart is too and its too early in series for me to know otherwise.
[3] An odd variant of the JSDF allowing the likes of LeiLei and co. Trade dragon scales. Here the Leaguers take the loot and use it as a 'Hi were friendly...' method.
[General] Yes I know he's using feck instead of fuck. It's a character thing, he did it in previous POV and will in future ones.
