Day 1: 1100 Hours

War. It was all the political chatter around every fort in and around Jasper, as well as every other base in Canada. The need for cheap oil was driving the Russian's to desperate measures. Threats of invasion, ballistic missiles, and even chemical attacks were given as ultimatums unless the Canadian government would give up their oil at cheaper prices. But they refused.

The most secluded outpost in Canada, the Jasper Park Forward Command Center. Home to two battallions of troops. At best they had a small brigade of 300. It was even granted a Colonel by request of the battallion commanders. He was one of the grumpiest commanders that they had ever seen. His name, Winston.

Everything was done his way when he wanted it done. He didn't spare any of his time to smile, even when his superiors laughed at a prank he would scowl it off and punish those responsible with a month of cleaning latrines. There were rumors that he had taken a bullet through both cheeks and lost the ability to form anything other than a scowl, and others thought that he was conserving his energy to completely flip his lid.

Whenever an inspection would roll around he would personally go out of his way to find the slightest flaw in any barrack so he could flip out every wall locker, over turn every matress, and make those soldiers make it all right again. There were at least two barracks that had their things thrown around every inspection. And there was an inspection at least three times a week.

One of the worst offenders, was under the command of a young Sergeant named Humphrey. Not a single inspection had went by that they got to rest easy. Something was always wrong. To blame, were his squad members. They were the smallest, and most frowned upon squad in the brigade. Mooch, Saltey, Shakey, and Devin. The fact that they were even allowed into the military was a miracle.

They were hardly adept at shooting a rifle, were lazy, and had low marks on their PT tests. The only thing they could do, was drive. They were allowed to drive the Humvee's, and that was it. Thankfully for them, it was the one thing they were good at. they could get their vehicle out of a tight spot in a hurry, and without hitting a single thing. It seemed like the faster they drove the more control they had.

They may have recieved a lot of bad comments, but Humphrey was proud of them. He knew that if you rode with them, you were safe. Everyone else didn't want to admit it, but they knew it too. They were great drivers, but that was it. If it came down to a gun fight, they were screwed.

On the oher end of the hirachy, was Kate. She had joined the military to follow in the footsteps of her father, the colonel. It was to her great surprise when he showed up, and she was delighted to have him around, but that didn't mean he took it any easier on her. She went on to college after high school so she could join in as a lieutenant, and she didn't take that position lightly.

The only down side of her platoon, was Humphrey's squad. It wasn't that she didn't like yelling at them, in fact that was on of her favorite pass times, but she didn't like the reputation that they brought. Thankfully her platoon sergeant Candu was always keeping them busy with something. He had been in the military for 20 years, and worked his way up to master sergeant. The only people in the brigade scarrier than him were First Sergeant Hutch and the colonel.

Anyway, today was the first day that they began to recieve news about the war threats. As expected, they were all outraged. Unsurprisingly there was still no reaction from Winston, just an unsettling grunt and a shake of the head. With war inevitable and all leaders inside preparing battle tactics, it was up to the squad leaders to prepare the troops. Humphrey's squad however, was given a special assignment.

"Son of a bitch why do we have to unload the damn trucks," Saltey complained as he slid on his cap. Humphrey sighed as he tied his boots and shook his head.

"I guess their just trying to conserve fuel you know? It's getting expensive to ship it to us, and if war breaks out were going to need every drop," he replied tucking his laces into his boots.

"Come on Humphrey, you know they're just doing this to keep us from fucking something up," Mooch said harshly as they opened their barrack door and walked out.

"You know if it will make you guys feel better we get to take the 105's down the artillery range," Humphrey said trying to cheer the others up. A wide smile spread across their faces and they nodded.

"So, you guy's think it's going to come to war," asked Devin.

"Personally, I think that we're already there, the Russians just haven't sent in troops yet," Shakey said darkly but then started laughing.

"I give it a week, maybe less," Mooch said laughing at Shakey's reply.

"In any case we'll be in the same spot we are now, driving around people who are completely ungrateful for what we do," Saltey grumbled. Humphrey looked over and punched him in the shoulder jokingly.

"Come one, lighten up, you might not hear it a lot but they appreciate it. Think of it this way, if it wasn't for us, no one would be able to get anywhere," Humphrey had that uncanny habit of trying to make the best of a situation. But not only that, he had a major crush on Kate, and that, also was no secret.

If you could use the word crush, it was more like an obsession. Ever since they had been little he had loved her. He couldn't help himself from staring at her, he thought she was beautiful. He had been friends with her sister Lilly, and even dated her a couple times in high school, but he truely loved Kate. He never would have expected it from her, but Lilly had moved to America to go to college, and supposedly joined the special forces. But no one knew for sure. Kate and Winston did, but they hadn't told anyone.

As the five approached the nearest cargo truck Humphrey unlatched the bed and jumped up into the truck to start handing down cargo. Mostly ammo boxes and artilley rounds was all it was. Hundreds of boxes filled with 5.56 rounds up to .50 BMG rounds. artillery shells were primarily calibered at 105mm, but there were some 155's crammed in the back.

Humphrey started handing down cargo to Devin who passed it down the line until it reached Mooch, who sorted it into seperate piles. One down, 19 to go. They repeated the process for every cargo truck that was parked, spending around an hour to do so. Once all the trucks were unloaded, they began the even more time consuming task of carrying the supplies to their proper locations.

Small shells to the armory, artillery rounds stockpiled next to the guns, diesel and gas to the generators and fuel depot. All in all, 3 hours were spent unloading and carrying supplies. It wasn't too exhausting, just time consuming.

"Sure as hell am glad that's over with," Mooch sighed wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"So now what," asked Devin.

"Hey douchebags wait up," laughed a voice that made them all roll their eyes. Specialist Garth. In their eyes, the most irritating guy on base. Slung over his shoulder was his MacMillan Tac .50 rifle, he appropriately named, Big Mac.

"Ah jeeze what does he want," Saltey grumbled quietly.

"Hey Garth," Humphrey said politely as Garth apprached him.

"How's it going Humphrey, just thought I'd drop by and say hey before I went down to the range," Garth replied pulling Humphrey into a quick bro-hug. Humphrey returned the hug quickly and gave him a quick pat on the back.

"Hey have they told you company anything about the war talk," Shakey asked.

"Not a damn thing, you know how it goes, we'll be the last ones to find out about the attack.

"Hey does any one else hear that," asked Saltey with his ear to the sky. They all shot him a funny look but then they started to hear it to. It was, helicopter rotors. The next thing they knew the deafening scream of the warning siren blasted through the camp.

"HIND INBOUND!" Humphrey shouted as four Mi-35 Hinds burst over the tree tops. And if that wasn't bad enough, artillery started to fall.

**Authors note- I hope you guys enjoyed the story. The rest of the chapters will be a lot more exciting I promise, this was mostly just an introduction. Anyway, I hope you liked it. PLease R&R, me love you long time :D... not really haha but I do appreciate it**