Camp Alnus, Briefing room, November 7th 2016, 1300 hours AT (Alnus time)
The command center was the very first solid building that was arisen by the men of the Génie and the other engineering corps. It was a two story prefabricated structure offering enough space to shelter the Command Center of the NSRTF. On the first story, the largest room was the briefing room. It was the largest, but still not very large, and the small dozen of people were almost touching each other. The only one that wasn't concerned by this lack of space was General LaPointe standing on the little stage that was installed in front of a big white screen where an aerial photo of the direct vicinity of the hill was projected.
« Attention, please. » he said, stopping all the discussions that soldiers were having, and dragging the attention towards him.
« This, he started while pointing the photo, is all we know about the geography of this area. The range of the small UAV that we can launch now is very limited. So until the airstrip is finished and the USAF's Global Hawks are fliable, we need recon teams to scout the area, find civilian population, engage peaceful relation and learn anything that can be useful to our operation. For now, we will send eigth Recon Teams of twelve soldiers from our four countries. Lieutenant McFarnall, you'll have command of Recon 1, Leutnant Freumann, you'll command Recon 2, Lieutenant Moreau, you are assigned to Recon 3, Recon 4 will be lead by... » he continued like that for all the Recon Teams.
When he finished giving the officers their teams, he added « Each team will have a Humvee, a VBL and a P4. They are all waiting for you at the motor pool. Rendezvous there at 1500 hours with your gear ready, I want all of you gone before 1600 hours. Understood ? »
« Sir, yes sir. » was the unanimous response.
The small room emptied in no time, everyone knowing what to do.
Camp Alnus, Motor Pool, November 7th 2016, 1453 hours AT
Anthony, all equiped with the standard french equipment, was running at a moderate pace in the middle of the engineers and their building machines that were busy transforming this peaceful hill into an element of the modern NATO war machine. His direction was the motor pool, or at least where the motor pool was supposed to be built. On the large space that was allocated to it, eight line of vehicles, all similar. A large Humvee, an armored VBL with its 7.62mm machine gun and a jeep like Peugeot P4. On each vehicles' sides was painted in white letters "NATO" just above local runes. The most logical thing to think was that it was the translation in the local language.
In front of each line, a group of soldiers was chatting, waiting for their officer to arrive. This was a melting pot of Europe Centrale, OCP, Flecktarn and MTP camos, all united by the NSRTF emblem.
The young lieutenant took the direction of the third line of vehicles, and was welcomed by a familiar voice.
« Hey Lieutenant ! »
« Marc, responded Anthony, didn't knew you were assigned to my team. Oh hi Chaumond ! »
« Lieutenant, responded the private while saluting with the usual clumsiness of young soldiers. We were waiting for you. »
Quickly, the other nine soldiers of Recon 3 saluted.
« So they're the team I must lead, huh ? »
Recon Team 3 : Soldier's file
Lieutenant Anthony Moreau
Nationality : French
Sex : Male
Age : 26
Date and place of birth : July 26th, 1990 ; Limoges, France
Height : 183 cm
Weight : 82 kg
Unit : Armée de Terre, 3e Brigade légère Blindée, 126e Régiment d'Infanterie
Position in Recon Team 3 : Commanding officer
Caporal Marc Sostat
Nationality : French
Sex : Male
Age : 29
Date and place of birth : January 17th, 1987 ; Toulouse, France
Height : 179 cm
Weight : 75 kg
Unit : Armée de Terre, 3e Brigade légère Blindée, 126e Régiment d'Infanterie
Position in Recon Team 3 : Linguistical specialist
1ere Classe Pierre Chaumond
Nationality : French
Sex : Male
Age : 22
Date and place of birth : March 15th, 1994 ; Brive-la-Gaillarde, France
Height : 185 cm
Weight : 78 kg
Unit : Armée de Terre, 3e Brigade légère Blindée, 126e Régiment d'Infanterie
Position in Recon Team 3 : Communication specialist
Sergeant Jordan Clark
Nationality : American
Sex : Male
Age : 33
Date and place of birth : August 1st, 1983 ; San Antonio, TX, United States
Height : 174 cm
Weight : 73 kg
Unit : US Army, 1st Armored Division, 1st Stryker Brigade, 1st Battalion 36th Infantry Regiment
Position in Recon Team 3 : Marksman
Lance Corporal Mary Jenkins
Nationality : American
Sex : Female
Age : 25
Date and place of birth : December 21st, 1990 ; Houston, TX, United States
Height : 177 cm
Weight : 72 kg
Unit : US Army, 1st Armored Division, 1st Stryker Brigade, 1st Battalion 36th Infantry Regiment
Position in Recon Team 3 : Machine-gunner
Private 1st Class Frederico Gomez
Nationality : American
Sex : Male
Age : 22
Date and place of birth : November 30th, 1995 ; San Juan, Puerto Rico
Height : 185 cm
Weight : 85 kg
Unit : US Army, 1st Armored Division, 1st Stryker Brigade, 1st Battalion 36th Infantry Regiment
Position in Recon Team 3 : Soldier
Staff Sergent Daniella Trevis
Nationality : British
Sex : Female
Age : 26
Date and place of birth : February 7th, 1990 ; Tidworth, United Kingdom
Height : 180 cm
Weight : 74 kg
Unit : British Army, 3rd Division, 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion
Position in Recon Team 3 : Medic
Private 1st Class John Cavendish
Nationality : British
Sex : Male
Age : 23
Date and place of birth : December 5th, 1991 ; London, United Kingdom
Height : 185 cm
Weight : 79 kg
Unit : British Army, 3rd Division, 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion
Position in Recon Team 3 : Soldier
Private Muhammad Elkader
Nationality : British/Lebanese
Sex : Male
Age : 24
Date and place of birth : March 29th, 1991 ; Beyrouth, Lebanon
Height : 184 cm
Weight : 80 kg
Unit : British Army, 3rd Division, 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Battalion
Position in Recon Team 3 : Soldier
Feldwebel Johann Moltke
Sex : Male
Age : 28
Date and place of birth : April 4th, 1988 ; Münster, Germany
Height : 180 cm
Weight : 82 kg
Unit : Deutsches Heer, 1st Panzerdivision, 9th Panzerlehrbrigade, 3rd Aufklärungslehrbataillon
Position in Recon Team 3 : Machine-gunner
Gefreiter Hans Denham
Sex : Male
Age : 22
Date and place of birth : April 4th, 1994 ; Hamburg, Germany
Height : 178 cm
Weight : 81 kg
Unit : Deutsches Heer, 1st Panzerdivision, 9th Panzerlehrbrigade, 3rd Aufklärungslehrbataillon
Position in Recon Team 3 : Marksman
Gefreiter Karl Strauss
Sex : Male
Age : 21
Date and place of birth : December 10th, 1994 ; Münster, Germany
Height : 185 cm
Weight : 81 kg
Unit : Deutsches Heer, 1st Panzerdivision, 9th Panzerlehrbrigade, 3rd Aufklärungslehrbataillon
Position in Recon Team 3 : Soldier
East of Alnus Hill (Exact position unkown), November 7th 2016, 1630 hours AT
The convoy was rolling at a moderate pace on the little dirt road. They leaved Alnus 45 minutes ago, but the most complicated thing was getting out of the forest surronding Alnus. The large path wich has been digged in forest by the army that tried to cross being made for an army of men on foot and on horse, the terrain wasn't completely flat and getting out of it was a real pain for all the Recon teams that had to pass here. Eight convoys of armored vehicles trying to pass on a terrain full of bumps and stumps of boorishly cut trees wasn't something pleasant to see, and the flattening of this way, with the construction of a few others accesses to the base, was planned, adding more work to the already busy engineering corps. After this test on all Recon Teams' nerves, everybody was happy of seeing a road, even if it was more like a wide trail than anything else.
Recon 3 headed east, following the trail at the maximum speed of 50 km/h.
For the past 15 minutes, the three NATO vehicles were rolling in the middle of a large plain, ponctuated by some groves. Behind them, the large forest surronding Alnus Hill was still visible, but it was only a dark green dot getting smaller every seconds the convoy was advancing.
Nothing was appening since the team was rolling strait on this path.
« I'm bored, started Marc through the net, weren't we supposed to be in a fantasy world ? »
« Hey that's right, responded a german voice, where are all the dragons we were promised ? »
Anthony, rolling his eyes, took the microphone of the radio and responded.
« Stay focused on the road Moltke, don't want you to crash the VBL. And Marc, you're our language specialist, and you have a brand new language to learn. »
« Me ? A language specialist ? That's a good one. Just because I had good grade in latin in High School doesn't mean in can learn a new language in a few hours. You're funny, Lieutenant. »
The radio made it's usual clicking sound, and Anthony put down the microphone. He was in the passanger seat of the Humvee. On his left, Jenkins was focused on the dirt road that was lying in front of her. At the back of the American 4x4, Elkader was junggling with a 5.56 cartridge he extracted from one of his L85 magazine while Denham was reading the little red book, a traduction guide given to all Recon Teams soldiers containing the pronunciation of each rune of the Special Region alphabet and phrases useful to basic conversations, as well as military vocabulary.
The Humvee was the head of the convoy. It was followed by the VBL, Moltke driving, Cavendish manning the 7.62, Gomez and Chaumond in the passanger seats. And, last but not least, the P4 was closing the march. In the small vehicle, the last four soldiers of Recon 3 - Strauss, Trevis, Clark and Sostat – were a little cramped, but it wasn't that bad. At least Clark managed to smuggle a small Bluetooth speaker and used it to play some music from his phone.
Playing :
Metallica – The Day That Never Comes
« Metallica ? You're serious ? » asked Marc.
« Hey, answered Clark, it's a very good metal band. »
« For me they died in '96. »
« Ok, admited the seargeant, Load, ReLoad and St Anger weren't that good, but Death Magnetic is a step in the right way. »
« Meh... »
« But you'll agree that the first four albums are excellent, right ?
« Can't deny that, but I still prefer Iron Maiden. »
« You have good taste for a frenchie, Corporal. » Trevis said.
« You insinuate something, rosebeef ? »
« Just sayin' ! » she answered, raising her shoulders as a sign of innocence.
Strauss laughed while Marc, grumbling some french insults, opened the traduction book.
For another 15 minutes, everyone was silent, observing the area, scanning for any possible threats, even though the lack of fire power on the opposition wasn't helping the soldiers to focus on their jobs.
Anthony, that was focusing on the red book, rose his head to see that the convoy was getting closer to a hill. It was small, but still high enough to have a panoramic view of the area.
He took the microphone and ordered to stop at its top.
« Ok so were about 25 km away from Alnus, and there was absolutely nothing. »
« We made only 25 km ? » asked a surprised Cavendish, still behind the VBL's machinegun.
« Welp we weren't going that fast. Oh ! Cavendish ! While you're upthere, don't you see something with your binoculars. »
The young british soldier took the little magnification device and scanned the area. After a few seconds, he stopped over a little forest that was there, surronded by little fields of what looked like cereals. From one side of this grove, small white smoke could be seen.
« You see the forest at 11 o'clock ? Look like there is village or something. Estimated distance 2 clicks. »
« You all heard that ? » added Anthony
A solid « Roger » came from the three vehicles.
The convoy started toward the first settlement and a plan was elaborated. The cars will stay in a group of bushes 1 click away, and one soldier of each country will go on foot to make contact. The selected soldiers were Anthony, being the commanding officer; Jenkins, to show that women can be soldiers; Elkader, to show the diversity of skin color; and Strauss, for his reputation of behing nice with kids.
This odd troop took the way of the village and, attracting the attention of any villagers that was able to see them, they stopped in front of a wooden arch symbolizing the entrance of the village. On the top, runes were carved into the heart of the wood.
Anthony looked for a few seconds into the red book for the signification of those symboles, and after findig it, he transmitted to the team that stayed into the vehicles. « This is RCT3 Actual, be advised, we are in front of the village. Seems that this place is called Coda. We're going to make contact. Await further instruction. How copy ? Over. »
« Copy RCT3 Actual, responded Chaumond, Awaiting further orders. RCT3-3 Out. »
Taking off his helmet, the Lieutenant turned towards the three other soldiers.
« Remember, gentlemen, hearts and minds ! »
On this words, the four NATO soldiers took the first steps towards the first contact with Special Region's civilian. But they didn't knew that in the distance, a forest was burning, houses were destroyed and a girl was thrown into a well.
Translation corner:
VBL : Véhicule Blindé Léger (French LAV)
Europe Centrale (French standard camoflage)
Caporal (Corporal)
1ere Classe (Private 1st Class)
Feldwebel (Sergent)
Gefreiter (Private)
Deutsches Heer (German ground forces)
Aufklärungslehrbataillon (Recon Bataillon)
Hey there ! Thank you for reading the second chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as you enjoyed the first one. To be honest, I really didn't expected that people would actually enjoy something that I made. But this chapter is a little shorter than the first one and I didn't had a lot of ideas for this part of the story... So I made the soldiers' files... Because I suck at describing something.
My finals being from June 15th to 22sd, I already wrote the chapter I'll publish next Sunday. It's a little longer than usual and I'll try to write a chapter on the few days between the 23rd and the 26th.
Also I put easter eggs on last chapter and it look like nobody had notice them.
Apollonir - As you can see, no Duran nor Allied Kingdoms Army. Because I always thought that the Army arrived way too fast at Alnus. In only a few days, at least if I understand the anime correctly, the Emperor gave the order to form the army, the army formed and traveled on foot/horseback to Alnus Hill ? Don't make sense to me... Maybe it'll arrive later... I don't know :P
MODERN ARMED FORCES - Well I think it make more sense in the current situation. In this story, France goes through the Gate with NATO offering support, while the UN say "I'll allow it as long as you don't fuck shit up." A little like Operation Desert Storm or Afghanistan : in both cases, the US decided to go, NATO countries came as allies and UN allow it. I don't know if I made my point clearly, but still I have plans with the UN and the Security Counsil.