The Boudica Wetlands, Camp Farragut

Military operations in the Boudica Wetlands have ended for the most part. NATO got what it wanted and now they could care less about whatever else happened. Well...for the most part.

NATO bombing runs in the forest were frequent. Both hostile military encampments and civilian centers were targeted. Civilians died in the reckless destruction of native life, and anti-NATO-Sentiment ran ever higher. The BFM was gaining power outside of NATO occupied zones and attacks on NATO strongholds were becoming more frequent and more intense.

President Carter, Prime Minister Madison, and other heads of NATO high command decided that NATO's main goal was to avert a war on Earth at all costs. By doing this they adopted a policy that life in the Special-Region was of less value than Human life on Earth. This meant that the Geneva Convention and all UN Human Rights articles were voided any time a 'war crime' was committed against a Demi-Human or something of the like.

A small village in the jungle containing no less than one hundred people was bombed by a NATO airstrike. A suspected BFM leader was hiding out in one of the homes of the village, so a smart bomb was dropped on the building. The bomb also blew away homes that were directly next door killing in total around twelve people. NATO later confirmed that the leader wasn't even hiding inside of that building rather he was hiding in another village.

Oh well. After all, there wasn't anything the natives could do about it. If they joined the BFM they were siding with the enemy and were terrorists who surely deserved to die! Or, at least that's what NATO's mindset was. Accept our rule and dominance, or else. Allow us to do whatever pleases us, resist and you are the enemy. It was no surprise that BFM resistance was growing by the second.

Colonel Jeb had been called back to Fort Ithaca to have a little 'meeting' with Queen Nora. In his stead, Captain Lucan and Lieutenant Sebastian had been left in command. Lucan and Sebastian were less sympathetic to the Special Region natives than Jeb was. Especially since Kovic was one of their main advisors. Colonel Jeb would've been disgusted at the very thought of having innocent civilians killed in an airstrike, but neither Lucan nor Sebastian thought anything of it. The civilians were placed in a rather awkward position because of this.

This isn't to say that Lucan and Sebastian delighted in killing civilians. This was further from the truth if anything. But they just were very relaxed about using powerful bombs in civilian centers. And when reports of non-combatant casualties came up in the spreadsheets, they just brushed it off. They adopted the idea: You are either with us, against us, or get out of our way. The civilians were in the way, and if they didn't move, they would get the business end of a drone strike. NATO High Command didn't reprimand them for it, because for the most part, they agreed.

But it all fueled anger against NATO, and Earth in the Boudica Jungle. Which was funny. In the heartlands of the continent, NATO was seen as liberators and saviors of the poor and oppressed Iscariots. But in this region that had little ties with the Iscariots and needed no liberation, they were murderers and a destructive entity. The two clashing ideals of NATO and America on the same continent. The Heartlands saw America and its allies as a positive light. The Western jungles saw them as a destructive evil. These two ideologies would fuel tensions on the continent for ages.

But for now, things happened once at a time. The BFM kept buying weapons from the black market or stole weapons themselves. They were planning for a counterattack to defend their homes from the evil conquistadors. They had to destroy NATO, China, and Russia at all costs. They were truly non-aligned and only concerned with the defense of the innocent woodland creatures. They had no positive opinions of either three countries. Even countries like Ithaca and the ICCR were evil puppets that were just as evil as their masters for willingly submitting to their rule.

Meet Krakow. One of the most influential leaders of the Boudica Free Militia. A female graduate from one of the top universities in the Iscariot Empire (Back in its heyday). She was an Avian priest and already a very big figure in the Boudica Wetlands, which was her home. She had fought vigorously against Iscariot attempts to expand into the Forests by getting all the fractured tribes and states inside of the region to unify and resist Iscariot expansion which they did successfully. But now NATO, China, and Russia were all making attempts to gain dominance in the region. And once again the people looked to her to protect the Riverland's. But this time things would be different. She would have to adapt to the technological power that the Earth brought with its imperial armies.

Krakow was violently anti-Earth. She saw them as no different than the Iscariots whom she despised greatly. She referenced the Earth as the new Empire. A combination of different nations all bent on the destruction of the natives. She wanted nothing more than to see the destruction of Ithaca and the retreat of the humans back to Earth but knew that those fantasies were at best highly unlikely. Realistically, impossible. She was content if NATO, Russia, and China just left the Woodland creatures alone to their own devices but knew that NATO would not listen to her or the rest of her people. Avians, Demi-Humans, reptilians, insectoids, fairies, gnomes, elves, all the creatures that called the forests and wetlands of Boudica home.

Earth had no knowledge of her existence, or of her followers. They figured the BFM was just a semi-organized militia made up of a bunch of 'terrorists' who just happened to resist Earth's expansion into the Special Region. They figured that it was much like ISIS in its current state. Loose, barely functioning, and without a central chain of power. But the BFM was far larger and lasted far longer than NATO and the rest of the humans had feared. Earth didn't do much research into Special Region history (Because that would require actually solving a problem!). It assumed that everyone recognized the Iscariots as the cliché 'evil empire' and that the Special Region natives would love NATO for fighting and toppling their regime. Just like the Special Region citizens on the Saderan continent did with the JSDF. But unlike the Saderan continent, the Iscariot continent had a much longer and more troublesome history than anyone from Earth could ever know without intensive study into Iscariot history from multiple sources and viewpoints.

Krakow hid in the shadows, under the radar. Fighting from behind the front lines of battle. For her people.

"Captain Lucan, I think it would be in your best interests if you reconsidered the way that we fight against the BFM."

Lucan looked at her from the other side of his desk, "What do you mean?"

"The BFM fights for reasons NATO is too ignorant to understand. It would be best if we tried to convince them diplomatically to our point of view, or at best leave them alone," said the Snow Queen to Lucan.

The office was small. Built in the middle of Camp Farragut. Little more than a tent with a few chairs, a table, and a radio.

"Perhaps...But you must understand that the BFM is in the way of our true objective. And anyone that is in our way will be cleared out, one way or another."

"And is that true for the civilians of this land?" Lucan looked up at her. The pure white slanted iris and the black surrounding it of the Lizard's eyes gazed off into the distance. It was a bit eerie. But mystical all at the same time. Lucan had barely registered the question in his mind he was so disrated by the look.

"The civilians? They are fine."

"That's not what I heard from them."

"Well, you've heard wrong. We treat civilians with the utmost respect in this alliance. Non-combatants are just as severe of casualties as our own allied forces."

The Queen looked at Lucan, straight in the eye. It sent a shiver down his spine, "Really? Care to explain how a crater was found where three homes used to be? And in them the shredded corpses of a family?"

"Must've been the Russians-"

"A church destroyed by an aircraft that carried NATO markings?"

Lucan stopped talking and looked at her a bit pale-faced, "Or how about a school in the forest, destroyed because NATO claimed it was a center that taught domestic terrorism? But upon closer inspection by myself and the rest of my dragon riders, apparently was just filled with children and their schoolteachers. Learning their ABC's-"

"You are very observant-"

"I must be. The survival of my race depends upon it. That's how we have survived for nearly four hundred years. And that's how i plan on keeping them alive for four hundred more. The real question, is what in heaven's name are you thinking? Surely killing children in a fiery airstrike is going to spawn rebellion against your own regime!"

Lucan could say nothing.

"I mean, you claim to have the moral high ground above the Russians, and Chinese, and Iscariots. The only difference I'm seeing here in this campaign is that you don't mistreat your own people. But everyone else is just free game?"

"Are you going to keep bashing me about morals and ethics? While a war is being fought? It's a war. People die. Big deal."

"But they don't have to. There are other ways to resolve your problems. I thought that the NATO alliance was an actual decent nation. A nation that valued life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people."

"So, you have been reading our books."

"I do what I must. All I am saying is that you had better start to enforce the things you say about yourself. I don't like people who murder others. But if there is one thing, I hate more than that, it's hypocrites. Do the right thing before you lose everything you have worked to gain."

"I don't need to take advice from...from...what are you a lizard? A dragon? What is this, fucking Enders Game? I don't need a moral lesson from you."

The Queen shrugged her shoulders, "Perhaps not. But then again, perhaps you aren't the right person for the job. Perhaps I have NATO wrong and they truly are trying to fulfill their goals of peace. But they just have the wrong people in charge of leading the fight. When Colonel Jeb was here, there were no innocent civilians being killed indiscriminately. Or if there was it was truly an accident on NATO's part."

"Colonel Jebediah Whitaker is away to do something very important. They left me in charge because they know that I get the job done. There hasn't been a major BFM attack since the Battle for Hellfire Junction. I'm doing something right." Lucan said reviling in his own madness.

"Then you are a bigger idiot than I thought. The BFM hasn't attacked in so long because they are weak, they haven't attacked because they are preparing."

Lucan stood up and put on a serious face, "Preparing for...what exactly?"

The Queen continued to look into his eyes, "Preparing for your end. They haven't been losing power. They've been gaining strength. Every village you bomb is another village that believes the BFM is right. For every civilian you kill, one hundred more defects to the BFM. They love violence. They make order out of chaos. And now the entire forest sees you, and the rest of Earth as an evil empire bent on their destruction."

"How do you know this," Lucan asked.

"I have my soldiers go out into the jungle to actually talk to the natives. They report back to me. Someone needs to end this madness, and if it isn't you then it should be Jeb. Or Cathy. Or Hezekiah. Or someone who actually cares about the lives of those outside of NATO," The Snow Queen stood up, but she held her stare into Lucan's eyes.

"Heed my words, Lucan. I wish the best of luck to you and your nation. But trust me when I say that violence won't get you anywhere if your enemy is children in schoolhouses." With that she walked out leaving an empty presence in the room. Lucan just sat there.

He picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, is this Colonel Jebediah Whitaker?"

"Who's asking?"

"Captain Lucan sir. I'm sorry to interrupt you but we need you back here in Camp Farragut."

"..."

"Hello?"

"I'm still on. Tell SOCC that I'll be coming, they will get someone else to talk to Nora."

"Yes, sir."