April 20th 1934, Brinckman Barracks, Hadleigh, United Kingdom of Edinburgh
Valentin nodded. "Sure, go ahead." The other man grinned. "This is great. Well then Gentlemen…" he said as he turned towards the two men again. "Do you want to give your input as well?" The older of the two, Colonel Biraul if he remembered correctly, turned towards the other officer. "Lieutenant Colonel, woild you be so kind and fetch us some drinks." "Of course. Ill get the usual." Lieutenant Colonel Vismare nodded and walked off. Colonel Biraul then turned back towards the other man. "Well, if it assists you in your research, i have no issue with discussing such matters." Mr. Sanders seemed delighted. "Perfect. Very well then… Captain Martinek, would you be so kind to elaborate on what a Mountain gun is? I must admit that i have never heard this term before." Valentin then thought for a second. "To give a brief description, it is a rather lightweight gun…" "Oh, like those infantry guns that were popular in the trench warfare in the Great War?" the man then asked. "Well, not really. They are designed to be taken appart into smaller parts for easier transportation. Not into all their individual pieces of course, things like the carriage can get broken down into smaller loads to enable the gun crew to carry them around." "Oh, so like a pack-gun. I must admit that we tried something similar to make artillery pieces able to be dropped from small airships via a parachute. We dropped this idea in favour of a different, more promising method though." The man explained. He sounded rather enthusiastic, as if this was a passion project of his. "Right now we are working together with some promising students from several universities to make it possible to give the firepower of light howitzers to a single soldier. It will be.."
"Thats complete and utter nonsense!" exclaimed Colonel Biraul. "Even if you succeed with the weight reduction, you wont be able to fully replicate all the capabilities of howitzers. The future of artillery lies in a different direction. Not in some concept that might not even work. Just wait and see…" Mr. Sanders just grinned while he looked at Valentin. "Well, the Federation might not be a country in the literal sense, but you know what they say…"A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country"… anyways Captain Martinek, what is your view on this idea we are working on?" "To be honest, if it works, that might be a good thing. You cant exactly use siege artillery in mountain warfare, so if the lighter guns get replaced by essentially a "One-Man-Artillery-Piece", thats more than fine by me." "Im pretty sure the average artilleryman will be thankful as well." Justin added which caused the other man to laugh. "Well said Lieutenant Mackingam." Mr. Sanders replied before he seemed to notice someone on the other side of the room.
"Well then, it was a pleasure to meet you gentlemen, but it seems i have some business to attend to…i hope you can excuse me for the rest of the evening." The man then shook each of their hands before he headed towards a man near near the entrance. "Well, as…. pleasant as it was, i think i have to depart as well. You two probably have other things to do... Captain Martinek, Lieutenant Mackingam." the Colonel saluted, not even waiting for Valentin to follow suit before he walked off. "So...you probably wonder what that just was…" Justin began. Valentin already had an idea. "Let me guess...Ternick…" "Exactly. July 1913. His brother if i remember correctly." "In retrospective, i should have probably changed to my mothers name." Valentin said jokingly. "No shit...anyways, how about we get ourselves some snacks?" Justin then suggested. "The chef responsible for the catering makes the greatest Croquembouche in all of Europa….or so ive heard." "That sounds tempting. I never actually got around to trying them so far…" Just as they were about to go towards the buffet, Justin stopped for a second. "Oh, i almost forgot...You remember how the higher ups arranged at visit to the Conqueror?" "Uhm… yes? I mean, dont get me wrong, it was a fairly pleasant evening, but if i have to drink with 80% of a cruisers officers again, at least teach me some songs first." Valentin replied. "Noted. No, nothing like that. I was told that some of the higher ups would like to show you a training exercise of a new unit. Its basically the pride of the army and you know how the current chief of staff likes to show off…" Justin grinned while he took out a letter. "And as the current LO assigned to the military attaché, i have to attend as well, so ill get to enjoy the show too." he added before handing the letter to Valentin. "Besides, who knows, maybe i see someone from my days back in the academy. Havent seen any of them in ages… especially if its Victoria… i heard she volunteered for the Ranger Course only a month or so after entry." Valentin couldnt help but grin. From what he had heard, this Victoria-Person had been the best student of the academy during Justins time there. Perfect in every regard, even when it came to organizing her locker according to the layout they were suppossed to have. Valrntin suspected that he had a crush on her, but of course he couldnt just flat out ask Justin. "Well, maybe you will see her, maybe you wont. But i think there are more pressing matters at the moment. Didn't someone suggest that we had to the buffet?"