A/N: A special thank you to Guest for leaving a review. I hope you will fine the chapters following still entertaining. This one is quite rough, but I kind of want to start the prequel as soon as possible...
BGM: Fallen Army by Audiomachine
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[Colonel Sherry Mortensen was captain of the 774-Alpha Company, a regular unit with no Huntsmen, during the war. She continued serving in the army even after the government discharged the contract soldiers, and was promoted to her current position, though she is in charge of even less people than previously. Her unit was tasked with peacekeeping and assisting in the reconstruction of the rural villages. She seemed content with the idea.]
Not many of us stayed with the army after the crisis was over. It's understandable. After all, everyone wanted to go home, or rebuild it, or find a new one. Military in our kingdom is more like an extra police force in peacetime. The government only recruits soldiers to fight when absolutely necessary. This system has its merits and its drawbacks.
It's easy to be set into a certain way of thinking when you are in an organization without many, or any, other competing ideologies. I guess some of the professional soldiers still thought they were supposed to be the protectors of our kingdom, the greatest force to guard motherland from other kingdoms. Well, not anymore. Not after the Great War.
If you ask who people think are the heroes of this world, nine out of ten will answer, "Huntsmen." Many of them are local, even international celebrities. People admire their cause, their skill, and even just their fighting style. The phenomena wasn't a problem to most people. We were happy to look up to those idols and rely on them.
Out of the few who did have problems with the idea, General Harris Whitehurst was one of the most unfortunate cases. He was born in a military family, whose power and wealth had been diminishing every year after the Great War. He was one of those traditionalists who strongly opposed the contact soldier idea. Maybe he thought he could prove to the world we didn't need Huntsmen.
After the failure of the Assault of Beacon, many of the traditionalists shut up about their opinions on Huntsmen. Not Whitehurst. No. He continued putting pressure on the government. I honestly don't know how he survived in the pre-war Vale without driving himself mad, if he despised Huntsmen that much. Do you know what he did?
[Without waiting for an answer, she started again.]
Putting Huntsmen on street patrol duty. Abolishing the guilds. Taking down all mission centers. That's what. And yeah, let's not forget. Operation Patchwork.
[She spat to the ground on the side.]
Disgust. When the order came down that we are going to try taking Patch back without the Huntsmen, I felt disgusted.
The official statement was that the operation was to "test the improved weaponries so they may be deployed in future missions." What a blatant lie. Everyone knew the General was desperate to regain supports after his latest campaign against the Huntsmen failed. His allies all turned tails on him.
Maybe he thought by retaking Patch without the help of Huntsmen, he could turn the table. I don't care and I don't know. The only feeling I had about him was disgust.
And I wasn't the only one. Everyone was furious about the decision. Not just those who came from Patch and were eager to reclaim their homes. Not just the soldiers who were practically handed a death sentence. Everyone. I'm honestly surprised how the general didn't get shot dead before the mission started.
I met Lieutenant Colonel Seymour before the war. You know, the commander of Battalion 428? The one where the famous "Dragon's Fiery" served in during the war? Anyway, it wasn't until we bumped into each other in a bar and discussed our opinions on whether Huntsmen and trainees should be allowed to join the army, that we became close friends.
When the order came through, I knew I'd find him in the bar again. Probably in a bad mood. I was right.
Somehow he looked even more pissed than I was. I think he's upset for his crew's sake. The Dragon's hometown was in Patch, I remembered. But I didn't go there to share his anger. Well, not exactly.
I told him my unit was going to be shipped off for the operation.
He gave me a look. A look for someone who's surely going to die. That's exactly what I thought too. I didn't think I would make it.
["But you did."]
A fool's luck.
["I'm sorry?"]
You heard me right. I survived because I was a damn fool. [She laughed when she saw my confusion.] You read the file, right? Tell me what you know about it.
["Well." I hesitated. "It said Battalion 774 led the assault."]
And? What did it say about the weapons we carried?
["Each battalion was given four different types of weapons in addition to their regular equipment. Dust rifles, manned robots, hand grenades, and mortars. Your unit was using the manned robots?"]
Damn straight. And that's what saved my skin.
["I don't follow."]
I'll let you in on a little secret. [Her lips twisted into a bitter smile.] My unit wasn't supposed to use that.
["What?"]
[She looked away for a moment.]
The night before the operation began, I was drinking with other captains serving Battalion 774, Aylmer, Hochberg, and Lahti. The whole battalion was getting the front row seats of this shit show, meaning we were as good as dead. So, being the wuss that we were, we decided to spend our last night on Remnant drinking our miseries away.
I don't even remember how many bottles we drank when Hochberg suddenly suggested we play some poker. Well, that in itself wasn't anything noteworthy, but what's strange was what we're betting.
Not money. He suggested we use poker to decide whose unit would get which weapon.
Before you ask, no, we were not supposed to switch just like that. But we didn't care. Our commanding officer certainly wouldn't care. He was already passed out at the corner when the game commenced. The next day he didn't even bother to see who came to pick up what equipment.
Anyway, being half in the bag at that point, I agreed without questioning further. I ended up losing and got the manned robots. [She stopped and looked away again.]
["What happened during the operation?"]
…have you guessed why they wanted to play that poker game?
[I shook my head.]
Well. Here's why.
Hochberg's unit was supposed to have the manned robot suits. Somehow he discovered those units were faulty. So he came up with a plan to swap. He convinced Aylmer and Lahti to help him, and they set me up.
["But why didn't he just go and tell your commanding officer the suits didn't work and get them replaced?"]
Because even if the suits were working, they wouldn't increase their chance of survival. But do you know what will? [Her face contorted slightly.]
Something to distract the Grimm - someone who's helpless. Someone who's afraid. [Suddenly, her expression became unreadable. She whispered.]
Bait.
[I was at a loss of words, and Colonel Mortensen looked through me with empty eyes. We remained silent for several long minutes, until she started again. This time with gritted teeth.]
General Whitehurst insisted "the military had learned from the mistake of the Assault of Beacon".
Learned the mistake my ass. They learned nothing. Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Bunch of idiots, if you ask me. Seriously, who told that moron the weapons we bought from Atlas twenty years ago were enough? Who agreed to that stupid idea of not allowing Huntsmen to be on that mission?
If anyone truly believed we would be better off without the Huntsmen, maybe they deser-
[She stopped abruptly.]
…no. That wasn't fair.
Despite their idiocracy, nobody deserved to experience that hell. Nobody should have to watch their friends and families be clawed to a bloody mess. Nobody should have to suffer from being eaten alive. Not us, not them.
…not even the bastards who tried to set me up so they could run away. [She took a deep breath.] Because you know what? Most of my unit survived. Somehow, they chose to ignore us. Chose to ignore the helpless prey right in front of them.
Who knows? Maybe they thought the meat would be too difficult to get to inside the thick metals. Or maybe… maybe there was negativity stronger than our fear. Our anger.
None of the three captains, whom I used to think were my friends, survived that battle. I think they were the first ones to go, but I'm not sure. I was a bit preoccupied with saving my guys.
["Do you hate them for what they have done?"]
Do I? I ask myself that often, but I can never truly decide. I think… If anyone is to blame, I think I'm gonna blame it on the people playing the power game.
They should have never gotten involved in war affairs. While the rest of the world struggled to survive, they continued living in comfort and safety. Maybe that's why they still had the mind to continue their game of power struggle. Maybe that's why some of them didn't hesitate to send thousands of soldiers to die just to prove a point, and why the others didn't stop them, so that they could pull their opponents from their seats of power.
They said Vale is a liberal kingdom. They said we are free, strong, and advanced. They weren't wrong, but they didn't see the whole picture either.
With the freedom and power came the corruption. You'd think that at the face of a common enemy, those idiots would learn to put aside their little games and unite to deal with the crisis. No. They thought they were so untouchable that they must hold on to their agenda.
If not for them, there wouldn't be an Operation Patchwork. If not for them, maybe those three captains wouldn't pull that scheme. If not for them...
[She stopped again.]
It's such a relief that the government reformed after that disaster. I have a feeling that if they didn't, the whole kingdom would be in revolution, and then we'd have a civil war on top of a war against the Grimm.
For one thing, the reformed government abolished all the restriction on allowing Hunter - trainees or not - to volunteer for the army. They even made the special treat of making the War Contract. It promised that anyone who signed up would only have to fight the Grimm, and not worry about if any of the kingdom will start stabbing each other on the back. The enlisted are there for one purpose, and that's all they had to focus on.
It took away a lot of the concerns. For one, the Huntsmen and the trainees didn't need to worry about whether or not they would have to fight indefinitely for the kingdom they were serving. They didn't need to worry about whether the war would escalate and they would have to face their friends on the battlefield.
In a military viewpoint, Operation Patchwork was a complete failure, but I believe there were good things that came out from it. For one, our failure paved the way for the Cobblestone Assault. This time the commanding chain knew what to look out for. They based their strategies on all the things that went horribly wrong during the first try.
Another important thing was that it brought on the much needed changes. They could have come sooner, but later was still better than never.
How stupid. Even with the Grimm tearing the world apart, some people remained fixated on their personal gain.
Didn't they see? The war wouldn't prove who's right, only who's left.
