Chapter 16
Captain Kevin Hofman was slowly getting bored. The excitement over being in another world had long worn off, and was being replaced by the familiar feeling of boredom he was accustomed to during longer missions. It also did not help that he had been on babysitting duty for the last few days, and was expected to do that for at least another week.
Three days ago, the European delegation came back from the negotiations, and the Dutch minister had surprisingly managed to buy an area of more then 10.000 square kilometers at the south side of the portal for the Netherlands, while another area as large was purchased for the Germans. Strategically, this move was invaluable, as the portal was now completely surrounded by German and Dutch lands. However, on the short term, it meant a lot of work for the whole military of both nations. Suddenly, both nations had actual land borders with a nation that wasn't part of the Schengen area, meaning actual border control had to be set up. Additionally, the people who originally lived in the area now received the choice between staying here and becoming a citizen of either the Netherlands or Germany, or moving towards the Seven Kingdoms with some money as compensation.
The second issue was where Kevin's current work came in. In order to inform the locals about the change in leadership, a group of government workers and diplomats from both countries was set up. They would go to all the villages within the newly bought territory and tell them about their choices and mention the compensation they would receive. Of course, they needed a military escort to do this, which Kevin was the leader of. When Kevin first received this mission, he thought it would be a short one where they would visit all the villages, inform their leaders, give them the documents of interest and move on. Boy, what was he wrong.
The first problem became apparent when Kevin looked at a map of the area. Even though he had heard there were maybe a few tens of thousands people living within the area, there were a few hundred individual villages, way more than he would have expected from such a low population.
After the first visit, more problems became clear. In that village, there was not even a single person that could read, which forced the government employees to explain everything word by word. That was definitely not a single occurrence, as the clear majority of villages they visited had the same problem. Additionally, many villagers didn't believe that Lord Stark would sell his lands off. Even showing a copy of the original document with Lord Stark's seal didn't manage to convince all of them. Luckily, the presence of Kevin and his fellow soldiers, as well as the awe and fear the locals felt for the helicopter they travelled in were enough to dissuade the few villagers that became angry from attacking.
Right now, the group was travelling in the direction of the Fishing Village. Although the village itself was not within the new European territories, the smaller village on the other side of the river was. Kevin suspected that many of the locals in that village would simply move to the Fishing Village once they heard that the Europeans bought their land. There had already been a few villages whose inhabitants would rather move to the Seven Kingdoms than stay in European lands once they got their compensation money.
As they landed in an empty field next to the village, Kevin saw a boat move from the Fishing village to this much smaller village. Kevin was somewhat curious why anyone would want to go to this small village, but reasoned it was probably a travelling merchant or something.
When the delegation entered the small village, the routine affair began again. However, halfway during the explanation, they were interrupted by the boat docking at the small pier. On it was not a travelling merchant, but a small group of soldiers with their horses. Kevin and the other members of his corps quickly became alert and grabbed their rifles.
The men mounted their horses and ran towards them. The villagers, fearing the possible confrontation, all quickly retreated to their homes. When the man on horseback came within shouting distance of the diplomats, all the villagers were gone.
They stopped a few dozen meters from the group, just before Kevin would have ordered them to stop himself. After all, there is no way he would have let unknown man with swords come within striking distance of citizens under their protection.
"In the name of Lord Glover of Deepwood Motte, loyal vassal of Lord Stark of Winterfell, who are you and what are your intentions?"
Kevin had been informed about the local nobility, and recognized Lord Glover as the lord of some large village a few hundred kilometers to the northeast. He suspected they were here to investigate either them or the portal. Seeing as they were soldiers, and there was no high ranking diplomat or government worker with them, Kevin decided to answer himself, as highest ranking military officer.
"I am Captain Hofman. We are from the countries of Germany and the Netherlands, and we are here to inform the people on the south side of the Stony Shore about the agreement made between us and Lord Stark, and how it affects them."
The leader of the riders frowned at that. "You say that an agreement was made, but Lord Stark's letter didn't even mention that you existed. What would be the contents of your so-called agreement?"
Kevin didn't feel this was going well, but remained calm and answered the question truthfully. "Our representatives made a visit to Winterfell using our flying machines, which can fly from the portal to Winterfell in a few hours. As for the contents of the agreement, it came down to us buying the southern half of the Stony Shore in exchange for loads of money, help with making roads, and us policing the Western coast from pirates. We have a copy of the agreement if you want to see it."
The leader first became angry, but eventually began to grin, which was much more ominous in Kevin's honest opinion."
"Ha, nice bullcrap you are spouting. But there is no way Lord Stark would sell part of his land like this. Keep your forgery filthy invaders, and die quickly."
The rider then addressed his comrades: "Attack these filthy invaders before they can get back to their flying monstrosity! Make sure to leave one alive!"
Kevin swore at this. He pointed his gun upwards and fired once. The loud noise shook both horses and man. In the resulting confusion, Kevin quickly shouted: "Stop this attack now! There is no animosity between our countries! If you continue, then we will be forced to shoot you."
Unfortunately, the enemy leader was not a reasonable person: "Ignore those bloody magic sounds! Charge!"
After a bit of hesitation, the other riders followed their leader in a charge. Kevin, realizing a fight was inevitable, shouted his orders. "Shoot the horses first! If they continue attacking, avoid vital areas!"
The resulting battle proved why you shouldn't bring a horse to a gunfight. Within seconds, all the horses were shot down, resulting in the riders falling on the ground, multiple of them breaking bones. As the leader was one of them, the two riders that somehow got off their dead horse without crippling wounds immediately dropped on their knees, letting go of their swords.
Kevin was not happy with this 'victory'. He knew that when he got back to the portal, he would have a lot of explaining to do. Additionally, he now had to deal with six prisoners that would likely face charges of attempted manslaughter back home.
"Grab them up, disarm them, and move them to the helicopter!" Kevin ordered to his subordinates. The government officials just stood by and looked shocked at the pile of dead horses and screaming attackers, clearly unused to violence.
The riders without broken legs were too shocked to resist and let themselves be pulled towards the helicopter. However, both the leader and another, very young, rider had their legs crushed under their horses and were unable to move. The boy, as he didn't even seem 18 years old yet, was unconscious and was probably in danger of dying if he wasn't treated as soon as possible. The leader, unfortunately, was not unconscious and was screaming some very vulgar insults at them. The locals sure were inventive with their curses.
With much effort, Kevin and the other soldiers managed to free the two attackers from under their horses. They quickly carried the two to the helicopter to give them at least basic medical attention.
During this whole event, the villagers had continued to hide in their homes, and they remained there even as the helicopter rose and flew back to the portal. Kevin thought that within a day or two, another group would be send to set the villagers at ease and to finish the explanation, but now bringing the captives to the portal was more important. The boy definitely needed to go to a hospital as soon as possible. Kevin hated to see children fight, and hated it even more to see a child soldier wounded.
Now they were back in the air, Kevin grabbed a radio to report back to his superiors. God knows they wouldn't be happy with what happened here.
"Captain Hofman reporting in. We just had an altercation with a group of horseman from house Glover. They attacked us unprovoked, which forced us to shoot their horses after a warning shot didn't work. All six attackers are captured and are on their way to the portal. However, four are wounded and at least one of them is in even in critical condition."
After a few seconds, Kevin received an answer.
"Hello Captain Hofman, Sergeant Hoekstra speaking. We are in luck, as there is already a trauma helicopter on its way to the portal. It should be able to fit another one or two extra patients. Prioritize stabilizing the captives, as we don't want the political debacle that comes from killing them, even if they attacked unprovoked. That said, you and everyone else involved will be required to remain on base after they arrive until the situation is resolved and all the information has come to light."
Kevin groaned as soon as the transmission ended. He knew from experience that these kinds of situations took days to resolve, and he would be trapped at base that whole time. He wondered why a trauma helicopter was already on its way to the base at the portal. Maybe one of the construction workers fell from an unfinished building or something?
15 minutes later, the portal came into view. Even though he had seen it before, Kevin was still amazed at its size. It utterly dwarfed the large construction sites around it with its height of hundreds of meters. The helicopter moved towards one of these construction sites, which was going to be a temporary headquarters for the Dutch Army. However, until it was finished, Kevin and his companions had to sleep and work in the large army tents around it.
There was also a large road being built from the portal to the nearby bay, along the prospective border between the Dutch and German territories. The bay, comparable in size to the bay of the Fishing Village, was deemed to be the best spot for a harbor by both individual countries. Kevin could already predict that within a year, most of the flat land around the bay would be transformed into the largest city within a few thousand kilometers, not counting those on the other side of the portal.
As the helicopter touched down, another group of soldiers immediately walked towards them, almost certainly intent on moving the captured attackers.
As the doors opened, Kevin was proven correct. However, one of the soldiers came to him:
"Sir, the general wishes to speak with you now, please follow me to his office."
As Kevin followed the young soldier, he cursed his earlier self for complaining about the babysitting job.
AN: Thanks everyone who favourited/followed/reviewed my story. I'm sorry for the slow update. This happened because I'm writing my master's thesis (Which I got a deadline extension for thanks to corona), that leaves me less time for writing fanfiction. Unlike for my other story, I don't have a chapter reserve I can use to continue regular weekly updates. I expect to be busy writing my thesis for another month, so after that I hope to be able to write more regular updates.