March 6th 1935, Imperial Supply base, Ypern
"You haven't heard of them before?" "No, not really. Who are they?" Valentin asked. "Well, as i said, they are volunteers from the Kingdom of Bergvin. A couple of officers decided that they wanted to join the war and it seems like he king allowed it. Apparently they even got permission to use their equipment. But officially, the entire regiment and their commander are extremists who deserted, since the king and most of the government would prefer to stay neutral like in the first war." the man explained. Valentin wasn't sure what rank he had and decided to look up the ranks of the Strategic Aerial Transportation-Corps, as the Airship-Corps was officially known. "I see… and why were those men so excited?" "Well, you see, they fought pretty brave already. Their tanks held of half a Federation Infantry Brigade at a bridge near Braytfield for around thirty minutes and gave our troops the chance to safely withdraw from the area. Afterwards, they lured a Federation tank company into a minefield, which enabled our folks to blow up around two thirds of them. Besides, they have different uniforms, weapons and vehicles, so they are bound to stand out wherever they go and catch people's interest." "Ah. I see. That makes sense… anyways, thank you for your time." "No problem." the man said while he left the room.
Valentin made a mental note to check out their equipment at one point. Bergvin had been in no war for the past 2 centuries, yet they kept their army wellfunded from what he had heard. Despite not being tested in any major conflicts yet, their weaponry gets regarded as on par with foreign designs due to the high production standards their companies are well known for, as well as the high quality of their steel and alloys. They also try to keep up with the latest military trends, the most famous example being their tank-prototypes they experimented with only 4 months after the Empires first tanks rolled onto the battlefield. All this probably resulted in interesting equipment. Valentin then thought about approaching either the girl or the two navy-officers to talk a bit, but ultimately decided to leave and look at those bergvinian troops, since he had the opportunity. He walked past the mustached Sergeant Major, who seemed to still be on the lookout for that Lance Corporal, turned left and stepped out of the building.
Normally, finding a smaller unit like a regiment in a base as big as the southern supply base would have been a pretty difficult task. Well, normally a regiment wouldn't be surrounded by what appeared to be a quarter of the bases garrison, so it turned out to be easier than expected. Now he just had to think of a way to get past the masses of soldiers. Preferably without playing the "officer-card". Seeing a nearby watchtower, Valentin hatched an idea. There probably were binoculars up there. Not wasting any time, Valentin climbed up the ladder and walked around the platform until he noticed a chest. He opened it and rummaged through its contents until he found some binoculars. Now he just had to focus on the center….
The first things that caught his attention were the tanks. They were roughly the same size as the medium tanks used by their own forces, but a bit shorter. Right of the bat, Valentin noticed a few differences,mainly the lack of hull mortar and that the turret was larger. It still had a hull mounted machine gun, contrary to the Federations tanks. The turret probably was bit larger as the ones of its Federation and Imperial Counterparts to house the main gun, which was longer as well and it seemed like it had a coaxial heavy machine gun, judging by the size of the machine guns barrel. Valentin also noticed a lack of side skirts, which enabled him to get a good view of the running gear. It looked a lot simpler than the ones used by imperial and federation designs, only consisting of 5 large road wheels and the usual idler and drive wheels. This probably was a lot easier to work with, if it had to be repaired in the field. Right now, the tank spotted a camouflage scheme consisting of green, brown and beige. Valentin fought this was rather odd, since the Soldiers stood out among the crowd with their deep blue coats and their golden armour plates . This outfit certainly wasn't the right choice if you wanted to hide. The weapons on the other hand looked pretty nice. Much to Valentins confusion, they seemed to be armed entirely with regular rifles and sniper rifles. No lances, no machine guns… it was rather odd. Upon closer inspection he noticed some strange metal bars at the underside of some rifles, but other than that, there was nothing noteworthy. Valentin made a mental note to ask them about it at one point. After making sure there really was nothing else to be seen, he put down the binoculars, climbed down and walked back to the hes mess.
Much to his surprise, the first thing Valentin noticed was the presence of Colonel Lindtmann, as well as a couple of other officers Valentin didn't recognize. They appeared to have a conversation, so Valentin left the room and waited outside. "Quite busy in there, isn't it?" asked someone to his left. "I guess…" Valentin turned to his left and noticed, that a Master Sergeant was standing next to him. "Any idea why they changed from the conference room to the officers mess?" Valentin asked the man. "Well, if i had to guess, its because of the drinks, they serve in there." the man replied. "Well, that and that they probably already decided, which units they will send as reinforcements for the invasion." "Invasion? What Invasion?" Valentin tilted his head a bit. "Oh, you haven't heard of it? The Crown Prince is preparing an Invasion to secure the Ragnite in Gallia. They already sent him a couple of units of the Guard, a couple of tank brigades, massive infantry formations and, from what i overheard, even a superheavy tank." "Oh… so we're opening another front…." Valentin gulped. Looks like things were about to get even more interesting...