Guest: Sophia Bush as Max Zimmer, Robin's younger sister.
In mid-December 2022, Peyton had received an email from Perry urging her to write a Christmas article. But Peyton having no inspiration for Christmas, she chose to help the Security Mentoring Force, or SecMentFor, military personel with their Christmas preparations.
Peyton indeed knew all of her friends enlisted in the US Military and served for five to seven years before asking for and earning an honorable discharge. Kelli, Dean, Rick and Lindy served as EOD technicians before turning into explosive experts for aid organizations while Liz, Liv and Mary served as sharpshooters before turning into instructors for numerous law enforcement and military forces.
For the day's briefing, Peyton and the Lithuanians of C Company were standing with soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, A Coy Mercian Regiment and Estonia's B Company Scouts Battalion. The briefing officer then began the process with a long and necessary speech.
"Okay, for the next days, we will patrol the Christmas market to ensure everything is going fine. I think you know Christmas means more patrols to pick the pickpockets. But for now, we'll only act as support patrol.
Now, up to the terrain. The foot patrol will begin at the train station, before ending at the the exit of the Christmas market. But be careful for snipers, suicide bombers and machine guns. Moreover, the area is expected to be very crowded so if you are to fire, watch where you shoot. There are civilians in the area, so apply the usual ROEs.
As for the operation itself, it will be a cordon-and-knock, meaning we politely knock the doors and search the buildings. Don't kick any doors, it's only a support operation for the police. Any question?" the officer told.
The troops and Peyton prepared their equipment and weapons before boarding their vehicles for the patrol. After the vehicles were ready, Peyton and other troops drove to the train station, where they dismounted their armored carriers, which drove back to base. Peyton patrolled alongside the Australian, New Zealand, Lithuanian, British and Estonian soldiers. Because of the cold temperatures, every soldier wore multi-layer winter uniforms while Peyton wore her South Sudan outfit, albeit with a pullover added under her coat.
After walking to the Christmas market, Peyton saw several familiar faces. But the young journalist pretended not to recognize anyone to make them a surprise. She indeed saw her father, Robin, Barry and five of her friends, namely Kelli, Rick, Dean, Liz and Lindy, enjoying some time at the Christmas market alongside persons Peyton didn't know. She ran before turning to the soldiers, whom she photographed from far enough so that nobody could recognize them before running back to them.
When Peyton and the patrolling soldiers came near the crowd, they all began to share the tasks of cordon and knock. The Estonian, New Zealand and British troops began cordoning the area while the Lithuanian and Australian troops knocked at the doors. Fortunately, the inhabitants were warm-welcoming and allowed the soldiers to search their shacks before they left. Suddenly, Peyton heard her father's voice.
"Peyton! What are you doing here?"
"Hey, Dad. I'm working. And what are you guys doing here?" Peyton replied.
"Well, we used a group coupon to buy plane tickets for the four of us. As were your friends." Robin replied.
"Yeah, makes some sense. But who's the girl next to you?" Peyton asked her father's girlfriend.
"My little sister Max. She came with me for her holiday to meet Owen." Robin told.
"Hi. I think you're the girl named Peyton. My sister and Owen told a lot about you." Max confessed.
Peyton nodded before turning to a group of Australian and Lithuanian soldiers who just found a gun in a stall. But when one of the Lithuanians inspected the gun, it turned out to be a Mattel toy gun owned by the owner's son. The soldiers and Peyton all laughed, having gotten fooled by a simple toy gun, which couldn't even fire a pellet. The soldiers therefore gave the gun back to its owner.
"What's so funny?" Lindy asked her friend.
"The confiscated gun turned out to be a fake one." Peyton explained.
This obviously caused Liz, Kelli, Rick, Dean and Lindy to laugh, finding it funny to have been fooled by a toy gun. Peyton and the soldiers continued their search-and-cordon operation, knocking every single door. Yet, despite having brought in dogs, SecMentFor soldiers didn't find anything suspicious, whether in the market or its surroundings for the patrol. Suddenly, the radios called out the New Zealand soldiers' voices.
"This is Avatar 4. Bad news guys, Red Crown called us back to base. We're going back to check out the problem, over."
"Copy that. We'll keep on, over." the Australian commander called out.
"Thanks, out." the New Zealand commander replied on the radio.
With that the New Zealand soldiers rolled back to base. Once they arrived at Miroslav Standera Airfield, the problem turned out to be the need for more men to guard newly-arrived supplies, hence LtGen Truscott calling the New Zealanders back to base. The New Zealand soldiers then provided security alongside their Georgian, Latvian, Albanian and US partners while the C-17 crews unloaded food, water, ammunitions and weapons.
Meanwhile, the radios of the patrolling soldiers called out before they heard LtGen Truscott's voice.
"All patrols, this is Red Crown, I needed more security for the planes, out. But I do know you can work it out with 800 men. Out"
With that, the Estonian, British, Lithuanian and Australian soldiers knew why their New Zealand partners went back to base. Turning to her friends, Peyton was about to speak when they hugged her one after another. After releasing her, Dean then began to want what his friends had become.
"Hey, Peyton. Where you at?" Dean asked.
"I'm now a reporter. And why are you here?" Peyton replied.
"Well, I'm now an adviser for aid workers and UN peacekeepers assigned to explosive ordnance disposal. See I'm using my military background to fight evil on Earth, just like Lindy, Dean and Kelli." he answered her.
"And why the Christmas market?" Liz asked Peyton.
"I'm on patrol now. And why you here?" Peyton replied.
"Because we had plenty of free time and we wanted to enjoy." Lindy answered.
Just then, a Lithuanian soldier tapped Peyton's helmet, meaning it was time to go. Peyton then nodded before waving goodbye at her friends as she followed the soldiers. The patrols then kept on with their operation, finding nothing and setting their staging area in a nearby park across the town square. The place was big and easy to defend but the soldiers had to heed by the briefing instead of their mood.
The next two days, Peyton and the soldiers were back patrolling after the whole day having a nap or standing guard. For the next night, Peyton and the soldiers performed patrols around the Christmas market, knocking at every single door and searching every single building and apartment, without finding anything apart from the stunned inhabitants.
For the second time in a few days, Peyton met with her friends and family, who pretty much enjoyed a Christmas without ballistic protections. Peyton and the soldiers on the other hand had to eat their rations, provided to them by the US Army logistics company of the SecMentFor.
After a while performing pointless searches, Peyton and the soldiers witnessed the lighting of the Christmas tree in the market. Although everyone enjoyed it, the soldiers and Peyton were still focused on their duty when the patrol leader signalled for a withdrawal to the staging area, where everyone finally fell back.
Peyton wrote her Christmas article before saving it, step by step, as the joint operation went on, still unsuccessful in finding any trace of criminal activities, but managing to support local law enforcement agencies and freeing up to a quarter of the total numbers of UN peacekeepers, who could deploy to the buffer zone, where there was now 75% of the UN forces patrolling to maintain the pre-existing de-escalation of forces on both sides of the border.
The soldiers then came back to their base on December 23rd 2022, after more hours spent on patrols and searching buildings room by room than on firing at armed individuals. Peyton also had time to see the soldiers patrolling the Christmas ice skating rink and the shopping mall, where they were obviously met only by civilians.
Arriving at the base, the soldiers learned from their allies there was going to be a speech from LtGen Truscott. Just after the patrols were back at the base, LtGen Truscott came standing behind a battery of microphones.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, today is a very special day. On the one hand, the UN will take control of our base. But good news are we have been allowed to use this airfield as well. It will also retain its current name.
On the other hand, you have to know that this year, you will celebrate Christmas away from your family and friends. That's why me and all of you will patrol from tonight up until New Year's day." LtGen Truscott announced.
With that said, the combat troops took their gear, rations and weapons before heading to the town square, leaving the base totally under the charge of the UN forces, who settled there and jumped on the chance to turn the whole base into a Christmas town.
In the meantime, the Security Mentoring Force was rolling to their patrol area. Peyton herself then finished her Christmas article and sent it to Perry before the convoy stopped. Peyton and all of the military personel dismounted their vehicles and began another series of pointless patrols. It now became clear there would be no Christmas meal nor Christmas songs for them.
On the day of Christmas 2022, Peyton learned thanks to Perry's text that the managers decided to give her more war correspondant assignments starting from February 2023.