BOOK I - UNION
Chapter 11: Meltdown
November 21, 2015 0800H United Republic Command Military Hospital (URCMH), Guderian Base
It was a bright, hot day in the middle of the summer as an Afghan family prepared to eat lunch in their modest home. Just a few minutes ago a coalition convoy of three vehicles (two humvees and a big ugly truck which the Americans called MRAPs, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) just passed through the family's village in their regular patrol. The soldiers got out of their vehicles and socialized with the villagers, giving the children candies and other sweets, before mounting up once again and going their way.
The family had just started eating when they heard an ear-shattering explosion some distance away followed by faint but rapid gunfire. The father knew the day would come and he was prepared for it, he lead his children to safety and called on the other villagers together to see what they should do, should the Taliban succeed in their objective and come for them next... the village that wholeheartedly accepted the protection of the coalition forces.
BOOOM!
A massive explosion rocked the MRAP Corporal Geraldt was in as the lead humvee blew up and went sky-high before coming down with a ear shattering crash. Like the father, he also knew this day would come and was all too happy to be the day he was in the MRAP and not on the lead vehicle as he would normally be assigned at.
Most of the men inside including including his squad leader Master Sergeant Gottlieb was shaken but otherwise unhurt. Everything was silent for a split second as they tried to get their bearing before they heard the word that sends chills down any men's spine.
"RPG!" said the gunner who, with half his body above the vehicle shouted. He was relatively unhurt because the turret which surrounds him easily prevented any shrapnel from hitting him.
In less than a second the grenade whizzed just above the hood of the armored vehicle, narrowly missing it. The grenade came in from the hilly right side of the patrol and left a light smoke trail for the men inside the vehicle to see. It exploded a few hundred meters away in the plains to the left of the patrol harmlessly. Following the RPG was rapid small-arms fire hitting the MRAP,pinging against the vehicle sounding like pebbles hitting tin cans.
Master Sgt. Johann Gottlieb saw the wrecked humvee right in front of the MRAP in his seat beside the driver and understood that with 1st Lt. Heppenheimer dead, he's now in command of the sixteen man patrol. Escaping the ambush in their vehicles was now impossible with the burning humvee blocking the road, as well as the massive hole produced by the IED during the explosion. The sergeant who was usually the one cracking jokes and generally made the atmosphere light and fun now had a veil of concentration and seriousness in his mind as he proceeded to order everyone out of the safety of the MRAP and take cover to the left of the vehicle, opposite of the insurgents and start returning fire.
The dismounting was done excellently just like they did hundreds of times during training, with the turret gunners of the two remaining vehicles provide covering and suppressing fire. As the men started returning fire into the hills Sgt. Gottlieb told the radioman to call for support, artillery was not possible since they were too far from any fire bases, additional ground units were also not an option also because of being too far from a base, what's left is a CAS (close air support) mission. The radioman who is just eighteen and straight out of training complied and after taking his map out started talking into the radio set in the MRAP. God knows how the hell he even got assigned to a veteran squad like Geraldt's but the kid gave a reason which most of them would forget within days.
The kid started out talking in German but after a couple of sentences switched to English. He continued talking, giving them the coordinates, mission info and all that other good stuff, but as he continued talking with bullets whizzing over their heads his calm consistent demeanor started giving way to a incomprehensible and panicky rabble, shouting at the radio for support.
It didn't take long for the sergeant to notice and he yanked the radio away from the kid and started talking to whoever was on the other side of the connection while the original radioman was shaking, probably because its his fire time in action and it was an ambush that they may not get out alive.
While that was going on the rest of the patrol continued engaging the insurgents. Geraldt was ordered by Sgt. Gottlieb to organize the defense while he dealt with calling air support, as the second in command right now Geraldt quickly set the men onto their positions and to just hold out until CAS arrived.
The CAS mission was simple: bomb/strafe the insurgents that are attacking the patrol, with friendlies marked with green flares. Two American A-10 Warthogs who were loitering in the air close by was dispatched to this 'danger close' mission. Within a few minutes the two planes dropped from their cruising altitude down to just two thousand feet and screamed through the air trying to get to the ambush zone as quickly as possible. By the time they reached it a full firefight was happening down in the zone and the pilots could see the many flashes of the guns, as well as the green flare. They lined up their planes to their targets and went into a shallow ten degree divesending several unguided bombs into the insurgents, the pulled out of their shallow dive, gained altitude, and then looped around to go for another run, this time they used their big thirty millimeter GAU-8 Avenger and strafed the insurgent positions, the force of the rounds hitting the ground throwing up dust and covered the target area.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!
The patrol cheered when they heard the unmistakable sound of death and hope as the A-10s came in in a shallow dive and seeing smoke come out of its nose but not before three more of their men fell victim to the ambush. They know that with two Warthogs up in the sky there is no possibility that the insurgents can swarm and destroy them anymore. Gunfire died down quickly afterwards as the insurgents pulled back knowing that the fight is lost for them. The A-10s continued flying above the stricken patrol like a mother looking out for its children, looking out for enemies like birds of prey.
Medevac helicopters arrived later on, evacuating the wounded as well as the dead. Geraldt help them recover the body parts thrown all over the place when the lead humvee exploded, putting bloodied and severed limbs into bags to be hopefully identified later and sent back home. A bloody business that he would rather forget.
As the sun sets in Kandahar, Afghanistan the survivors of the patrol returned to their base in the two remaining vehicles, all gloomy and sick to what just happened a few hours ago. Seven of the sixteen men in the patrol were killed with two more wounded.
It was the day that Geraldt would never forget but it looked like just over a year after the incident another one, with far more consequences occurred in a place no one even knew existed during his time in Afghanistan.
"Hey, you awake?" a soft female voice startled me hen she waved her brown hands around my face as I was staring blanky into the white hospital ceiling. "this is the second time you've been sent to the hospital in as many weeks, that should be a record huh?" she chucked.
I composed myself, trying to forget whatever the hell the flashback train of thought was supposed to imply and replied. "Oh hey Korra, fancy seeing you here."
"So you ARE awake! How you feeling?"
I turned my head over to look at her, she was wearing her normal dark blue water tribe outfit and was sitting on a chair beside the bed. "Better, there isn't a big ass hole in my thigh anymore."
She gave a hearty laugh. "Yep, thanks to the healers who closed up the wound after your doctors removed the bullet. Thought I'm not sure why they're still not releasing you yet and keeping you cooped up in this room, its completely healed already!"
Yeah, I was like good to go in just a few hours.
"Old habits die hard I guess, not that the doctors don't trust the skills of the water benders."
"Sure they do" She smirked then stood up, stretching "Anyways do you know how famous... or should I say infamous you are right now?"
"Well, being in charge of a unit that almost got wiped out... I can imagine."
"Your name's almost in every newspaper in Republic City and its selling like hotcakes in winter."
"Yeah." I grimaced before closing my eyes and relaxing.
Korra sat back down and sighed. "How are you feeling?"
I opened an eye to look at her. "Better." I repeated.
"No." she said. "I mean, like in your mind."
The room fell silent for over a minute. I stared at the ceiling thinking how did I actually feel.
I shoot her a look "How would you feel if three fourths of your friends gets killed right before you?"
"Oh... sorry." She looked like she felt very very bad asking that question, holding both her hands together on her lap.
"Nah don't be" I tried laughing it off "People are instinctively curious about things they don't know, its natural to ask people questions like that. Some take it alright..." like me "while others won't be too okay, it depends on the person."
"..."
"Eh come on now, so how you been doing?"
"I'm fine too Geraldt." She looked at her watch and sighed. "I got to go, its eight ten and I have some meetings to go to."
'Meetings', that got me interested as I raised an eyebrow. "Like the shady government kind or the not so shady business one?"
She let out a laugh "Its diplomacy stuff but its not shady, well at least I think it isn't."
We both chuckled.
Korra continued "Like it or not being the Avatar meant keeping balance to the four nations which leads to me needing to do some politics. Its not pretty."
"Politics never is." I sat up from the bed, still in my hospital gown, and stretched... smirking "I'm going to take a shit, feel free to leave since its going to take a while."
"Mmm, okay. See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah" I said as I got out of the bed and head to the bathroom. "They're discharging me from the hospital tomorrow, they also gave me a two day leave."
"Okay, good bye then." She walk towards me and gave me a hug before leaving the room.
Funny thing about the whole thing with the hospital is that I got a private room while the rest of the men were in the medical ward where the soldiers were meant to be anyways. Even when the hospital was more or less operating at max capacity treating the civilians affected by the earthquake, there was still room for me to be placed there. I just wanted to be with my men to raise their morale even when they're more or less incapacitated but HQ thought otherwise. 'You're a special case' they said, 'you might get an ambush interview by the press' they said, whatever the reason it really was more comfortable to have privacy of a room being able to jack off... I mean being able to do things without other people judging.
Even if they segregated me from my men HQ did let me visit them two days after the attack, the same day they released their press report about the ambush. Eckstein got concussion which was severe enough that he will be medically discharged from the army but thankfully not bad enough that it fucked with his mind. Wagner got a shattered right collar bone which got patched up by the army doctors, full recovery of his right arm would take at least twelve weeks so he'll be out of action for that duration, possibly be given a medical discharge also. Lastly we have Ruderford who at first glance doesn't even look a little bit injured, the most injury he got was some bruises and cuts which was easily patched up by the healers like within an hour of us arriving at the hospital.
"One more day" I murmured while taking a shit. "and I'll be out there."
To be honest my injuries weren't even that bad since the bullet ( 5.56x45mm NATO) hit my meaty lower right thigh, far from the femur. I remembered that when we landed at the hospital three days ago my whole body was exhausted just from having to fight the pain in the twenty-odd minute flight, during and immediately after the battle my body was pumped with adrenaline and endorphin dulling the pain but about half way in the flight both the adrenaline and the endorphin dissipated and BOOM comes the pain. I was placed in a stretcher and rushed to the emergency room and was then knocked out with anesthesia while the army doctors sterilized the area and removed the bullet, then skilled healers closed the wound and remarkably left only a tiny brownish spot as a scar as opposed to having a big brown spot using out modern methods.
I flushed the toilet after finishing and then got back to bed not because I'm tired, but because I've got nothing to do. They didn't install wi-fi and tv in the hospital and even if they did HQ would most definitely not let me use them to prevent me 'leaking' sensitive information.
I wonder... I thought as I toil around on the bed. What's their next move?
November 22, 2015 1000H Republic City, City Hall
"Holy shit, I mean wow... I didn't think there are going to be THIS many people... Jesus Christ holy shit..."
"Ahem, care to tell me what you're mumbling about?" Korra elbowed my arm hard.
Oh shit right, I was talking to myself in German. "I was saying" I started again in Mandarin "that I didn't think there are this many people here for the rally."
"Oh yeah, I didn't think there'll be this much either." she shrugged.
The both of us were standing on the sidewalk of the main avenue that leads directly towards the building, packed with protesters and the RCPD blocking them just a few paces away from the steps of the city hall itself. The protesters had earthbent a portion of the road in the middle of the crowd into a small platform with some guy wearing a not so expensive looking suit with a bowler hat standing on top shouting something with a megaphone towards the crowd which looked like middle class citizens... yes, a modern megaphone. Kind of makes you wonder how much the locals have really integrated with modern technology.
Several buildings around the avenue were collapsed with rubble spewing onto the streets and a few more with large cracks on its walls looking as if it would collapse at any time. The protesters seemed to be distributing the rubble from the collapsed buildings throughout their earth bending ranks as if they're getting ready for a fight.
Korra tried getting my attention, pointing towards the rear of the police lines "Hey we can ask Lin, I think she's in the city hall."
"Lin Beifong the chief of police?" I asked The grumpy old woman?
"Yeah, come on." She tugged my arm, trying to force me go with her.
"I rather not get involved in whatever's happening here, we're just passing by remember?" So much for two days of leave.
She turned around and frowned, looking down to my shoes then up to my head "You're wearing an 'average Republic City civilian clothes with an inconspicuous backpack' right?"
"To blend in and not get attention or trouble!" I almost shrieked "But now you specifically want me to go towards trouble."
She grinned all of a sudden. Aww shit "You arn't here just because you're on leave arn't you?"
"Uhh, what do you mean?"
We started raising our voices as the protesters got noisier and more agitated.
"They won't be letting you roam the city for two days without getting something in return." Really? Jesus, I'm not a bloody spy, even if I wanted to they wouldn't let me... I'm not that good
"What? Oh come on, they could easily get the information they wanted even if I don't exist. Do you even know how many spies and agents they have crawling throughout the place?"
"How many?" She's smirking now.
"I don't... know. What the hell, why are we even talking about this." I started looking around to see if anyone heard, thankfully no one was close enough.
"You started it" She laughed. "Now come on lets go, don't be a pussy about it."
"Ugh, goddamned it Korra. I'm going to get fucked if HQ knew I'm involved in this." I loosened my stance and slowly let her drag me.
"Nah they won't know, I'll make sure about that." She said fiercely. Hope you can keep your promises Korra
We tried to make our way around the crowd but failed spectacularly the moment a person recognized Korra under her long overcoat and a parka-like hat, they pretty much started ganging up on us shouting and pleading for us to help them deal with the police.
"Why the hell are they even here?" I asked aloud.
Korra was in front of me when she replied looking forward. "I'm not sure, that's why we're going to Lin." Hmph, at least I'm still incognito.
We pushed our way through the crowd but it kept getting harder and harder the longer it took, it had the domino effect when a person saw us and then told the other people around that person about it, they pass it along the crowd and then in a short span of time most people knew we were there.
It took another few minutes before we shoved our way through the crowd and arrived at the police line that was severely undermanned against such a large crowd: a single line of officers with almost one and a half meter space in between each man.
"Avatar Korra!" One of the officers exclaimed, seeing us walk towards them through the crowd "We didn't know you were coming"
"Well we didn't either." she replied looking at me then walked towards the officer. "Look officer do you know where Chief Beifong is?"
"She's busy at the moment talking with President Raiko in the city hall." he said with a stoic face
"Okay, lets go." Korra tugged my arm again, heading into the police line but got stopped by the officer.
"Avatar Korra you can't just walk in like that! And who's he?" the officer pointed at me. Yes! I'm still incognito, thank god HQ didn't release a photo of me or they'll all recognize me instantly even if I look East Asian.
"He's a friend." she shot back "Now look officer, if I can talk to the chief I'll be able to help you guys deal with this."
The officer hesitantly hummed, before nodding. "Okay, but your friend can't go in with you. We're not just going to let anyone in willy-nilly" oh my god they used willy-nilly, it sounds so wrong not in English
"Hmph! Fine" She exclaimed. She then said to me "just stay here for a moment, I'll go talk to Lin."
I shrugged "Uh sure."
She pat my shoulders and said "later" then walked into the city hall awkwardly leaving me on the steps with the officer.
"Um, hi?" I said, not sure if he'll smack my head or just be irritated by the avatar's friend.
He raised an eyebrow "So you're the avatar's friend huh? Never seen you before."
"Well..." I tilted my head awkwardly "I just got acquainted to her recently"
"Ah." Was all he said.
While there was a somewhat awkward silence I scanned the area, both the police lines and the protesters. I discovered that there were more or less just over a hundred officers spread out in front of the city hall with traffic barriers in front of them to mark the extent of where the protesters are allowed to be. The officers all wore the metal bending armor so I assume they're all metal benders. There are a few other officers here and there behind the main line which looked higher ranked than the officers in the line, the doors to the city hall itself was guarded by what looks to be their version of the Secret Service wearing black suits and bow ties... Ha! They looked like they're ripping the Secret Service off, they even got sunglasses on but no fancy earphones though.
The protesters though, they don't look like a mass of poor uneducated people who came to protest because they blindly follow their favorite politician. No, they looked like middle-class people with a stable job through the way they dress and the way they have acted so far... when they ganged up on us they didn't fuck us over or anything, in fact they respected us and let us pass without making a fuss about it. The only reason we needed to shove was because there was just too many people around.
"So why are they protesting?" I pointed towards the crowd, asking the officer.
"Well" he wanted to scratch the back of his head but instead hit his helmet. "They wanted to like... get rid of those white people who came through the portal." Uh oh, this is not good.
"Have they told you why?" About the same time, the crowd started to quiet down."
"Lah Chang, the leader right over there" he pointed towards the earth platform "said that those white people angered the gods for unbalancing the four nations, that's why the earthquake happened. At the same time the white people sell their stuff pretty cheaply causing quite a lot of local businesses to go out of business."
Oh god, we really did fuck up the local economy.
"Do you know how many are out there?" I asked.
He was looking out towards the crowd and said under his breath. "We estimated them to be around two thousand? Not really sure though." He suddenly turned around looking alarmed "Are you a journalist?"
I shook my head "No."
He looked at me somewhat unconvinced but he let it slip and sighed. "Alright, I trust the avatar's choice of friends." That sounds... I don't know, wrong?
We descended into silence once again, after about five minutes or so the crowd started to become restless.
"What's happening?" I asked the officer.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look good."
We both could see that the guy Lah Chang who's still talking through the megaphone until now is in fact stirring the crowd up. Its as if he's pumping the crowd up for a confrontation.
"Officer, is this protest like legal?"
"Technically no, they didn't secure a permit from the city hall but with the police department so undermanned because of the earthquake, we don't have the manpower do disperse them. All we can do for now is to keep them out of the building." Oh god this is bad.
"Is this supposed to be a peaceful rally?"
"Uh..."
I could see the confusion, then a bit of horror in his face.
"I... we don't know, they haven't done anything wrong so far... well apart from the gathering itself and earth bending a platform." Oh god these people are clueless.
"Officer, when was the last time there were large protests in this city?" I sounded more desperate than I should be.
"It was about five years ago, it wasn't a good time when Tarrlok was around."
Tarrlok... Tarrlok... I remember that name from one of the papers I read before... ah right! The councilman who turned out to be a bad guy or something. That was right before the Equalist Revolution.
"Oh shit." the officer muttered. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit... Captain!" he shouted towards the other officer who was standing just behind us.
"Tell your men to hold their positions sergeant and get that civilian out of here. I don't care if he's the avatar's friend or not" he captain ordered. Oh god, shit's about to go down.
"Yes sir!" he replied to the captain before turning towards me. "Come on I'll get you out, we'll just inform Avatar Korra later. This is getting far too dangerous for you to be here."
I pointed towards the crowd which begun moving and had more or less surrounded the front of the city hall, creating a semi-circle in front with only a few traffic barriers separating them from the police. "Too late."
The sergeant looked mortified when he realized what's happening but thankfully didn't panic, he immediately ordered me up the steps and go as close towards the guards before he started cursing loud enough for me to hear initially, but not loud enough for the captain to hear. I've got contact Korra somehow... Fuck.
The noise... the noise is just so loud. Two thousand people shouting in unison. Two thousand enraged people. I never thought two thousand people could produce so much noise, I went to concerts with far more people and it wasn't this loud, and the concert was even indoors!
The police was in dire situation, surrounded and with no reinforcements. They hastily bent an earth wall about waist high, the captain came forward started shouting something at the protesters only to dodge a piece of rubble that came flying his way.
I reached for a two-way radio I brought with me in my bag with the intent of contacting HQ of how fucked I am. The two guards were eyeing me intently while I was shuffling through my bag trying to find the radio when I heard glass shattering something that sounded like a flamethrower flying right above me. Ah, its Korra.
She flew through the air using fire bending and landed elegantly just behind the waist hight wall in the midst of the other officers. She straightened herself up before she started saying something towards the protesters. The unimaginably loud noise began to die down as she continued talking. Wow, people really trust her huh.
Suddenly, I could hear a faint robotic voice that would have been produced by a half-broken megaphone talking and I could immediately see the shift in Korra's stance from 'okay let's talk this out' to 'you wanna fight huh punk?'.
She started to glow white and within a few seconds a thundering disembodied voice boomed throughout the avenue "GO HOME."
The crowd became quiet with only the circling winds of Korra's avatar state making noise.
"GO HOME" she boomed once more.
The crowd wavered. One by one starting from the back people turned around and walked away. Lah Chang tried to rally them but in only a matter of minutes was left with only his core supporters, about two hundred or so strong. The ones that left simply disappeared into the ruins of the city. That's... strange. They left the area so quickly and without fuss.
"We will not leave until our demands are at least heard!" Someone in the crowd shouted.
There was a lull in everything happening and during that small time Korra got out of the avatar state. "What do you want?"
"First, we want the United Republic to reimburse the businesses that were severely affected by those Germans." he said with distain. "Second, we want to..."
"Avatar Korra." the piercing voice of an old woman reverberated behind me. I was surprised to see Lin Beifong when I turned around to look and she looked pretty pissed. "Let me handle this."
Korra looked at her somewhat irritated but did not object, she walked back towards me as Lin went forward into the crowd. "Alright Lah Chang spit it out, what the hell do you want?"
"Chief Beifong" He started, fixing his suit. "Our demands are just simple, all we want is for the government to not forget about their citizens when they're dealing with those Germans."
"Noted, anything else?" Lin asked, standing face to face with the short stubby man.
"We would like to have a meeting to list our demands Chief Beifong."
Based on her body language Lin isn't very happy about what the man said. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you Chief."
"Now" Lin scanned the protesters "Please tell them to go home, we are still very much busy helping people who were affected by the earthquake."
"Very well chief, but remember what I asked you for."
"Fine."
The man bowed respectfully and then said something to the crowd in which they dispersed, with Lah Chang disappearing with them.
November 25, 2015 0900H General's office, HQ, Guderian Base
"Is that all staff sergeant?" General Braun asked after reading the report I compiled about what I saw during my leave. I wasn't supposed to do that but since I've seen so much shit in the two days I was in Republic City, I though the information would be invaluable to the army.
It had been quite a while since the last time I got to the general's office, he had furnished it quite beautifully and had several more file cabinets than I remembered. The general himself looked older and a lot thinner than before, maybe because of stress.
"Yes sir." I replied.
He placed all the papers back into the folder and placed it into one of the table's drawers.
"I would like to hear your opinion on Future Industries staff sergeant." He placed both his hands onto the table like a student ready to listen attentively.
I hesitated. "Uhh, well sir, the company's okay I guess?"
"Let me reword that, what do you think of their production? Their staff, management? That sort of things."
"Ah." I stroked my chin. Goddamned it, its already in the report "Production wise they've learned quite a lot from our car manufacturers and their output is going up. Staff and management are fairly solid with minimal corruption, Ms. Sato's doing quite a hell of a job keeping morale up. What else..." My fingers tapped against the table "Most of the workers are pretty favourable towards us, sir."
"I see. How about Avatar Korra, how's she doing?"
"She's fine sir."
"Hmm, the way she handled the protesters were quite professional don't you think?"
"She IS a professional sir."
He laughed. "I know, I know." He took deep breaths to calm himself down. "Listen, you are the closet person to her from our world. You're pretty important."
"I know sir."
He watched me closely for several seconds as if scrutinizing a painting for errors. When he was done, he said "We'll be having a meeting at thirteen hundred hours later with President Raiko at the conference room below, I'd like you to join."
"Uh sir, I think that's outside of my..."
"That's an order staff sergeant." He interrupted with a stern tone, surprising me.
"Yes sir... may I know why?"
He leaned back onto his chair, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not yet, but you'll know." Oh, okay then. He probably took my silence as a yes. "Any more questions staff sergeant?"
"No sir."
He waved me off "Very well, dismissed."
November 25, 2015 2345H Infantry barracks Block 2-B, Guderian Base.
God the meeting was hell, almost everyone used flowery diplomatic language to talk to each other and I'm still at awe of how those professional translators manage to translate not just the meaning of the sentence, but even those useless words too.
The gist of the meeting is that... surprise surprise, people hated us! Like, they hate us enough to try and incite a civil war of some sorts. President Raiko was present and a few of his ministers, as well as General Braun and his staff.
What did genuinely surprised me was that President Raiko disclosed that there were talks of rebellion within his government ever since we (the Germans) built the now small town of Deutschstadt and completed Guderian Base. They saw it as us trampling on their independence and we're making the United Republic's government kneel before us. Well if you think about it, that sounds about right.
He further disclosed that the newly formed Earth Republic actually supports the discontented senators and other government officials and have received reports that the Earth Republic might actually be funding what's left of the Equalists to destabilize the already unstable country in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
It surprised me how dire the situation the United Republic is in right now, what also surprised me was General Braun's reaction to all the things Raiko said. Its as if he already knew all the things that were happening within the United Republic and possibly even more.
So much stuff were circling inside my head that I wasn't able to sleep, I check the time on my watch and saw that its already midnight when lights out was two hours ago and that I should've been fast asleep right now. The idea that Germany might actually get dragged into a civil war on another world is quite a scary prospect and something that just won't easily get off my mind. The idea that we might need to face off with the Earth Republic is something far scarier than it sounds, they're the China of this world with almost unlimited manpower and a new government that's eager to prove that they're not to be trifled with.
It wasn't like in our world where after the second world war, Japan and Germany were occupied and have their constitutions written by victors. No, in this world after the collapse of the Earth Empire under Kuvira and the birth of the Earth Republic, they were able to keep their independence and more or less their army intact. An army that is far larger than anything the United Republic can mobilize.
Thoughts like that continuously invade my mind before I finally fell asleep quite a while later. I really really hope that this wouldn't be another world war in their world, with the previous one being the Hundred Years War. One is enough, they don't need to go through it again.
December 8, 2015 1230H Canteen 2, Guderian Base
The daily lunch in one of the canteens in the base was interrupted by a news flash on the televisions mounted on the walls. It was the Armee Nachrichten (army news), created and funded by the United Republic Command to inform the men deployed in Guderian Base on what's happening back at home and in this world. Even though its obviously biased and censored, it still gives the men quite a good picture of what's happening outside the small world that we live in.
I was eating lunch with Ruderford (he was discharged from the hospital a few days ago) and several dozen other men when the news flash came on the television. Everybody stopped dead in their tracks when the news anchors announced that the opposition party of the United Republic had just resigned from their posts in the government and announced that they're forming a new government to the south-east of the country with the city of Xi Hai (third largest in the country) as their capital.
They accused Raiko's government of letting their own interests come before that of the people and the 'fact' that they supported the Germans in unbalancing the status quo of the four nations (five technically) making the spirits angry and thus create the earthquake that devastated the regions surrounding Republic City. They also accused practically every person who supported the Germans for putting money before their own country and their fellow countrymen, explicitly naming companies like Future Industries in putting other businesses out.
I was expecting them to bash Korra also but they didn't. Instead, they actually asked Avatar Korra to resolve the issue without further bloodshed and to 'let those white people pay for their wrongdoings'. The new government calling themselves the 'Righteous Republic of the South' gave the United Republic forty eight hours to make us (Germans) go back to our world, close the portal, and make everything back to how it was before. If the United Republic were to ignore their demands, then they will declare war to overthrow the current government with support of the Earth Republic... wait what?
So it was true, the Earth Republic really wanted us gone. It wasn't really that unexpected but having it announced throughout the world was odd, as if they're using them as a threat... like America using aircraft carrier diplomacy to make weaker countries do as they want.
The news ended with the Righteous Republic announcing their president new, Lah Chang Again, not really a surprise. and other diplomatic mumbo-jumbo that I didn't really care about.
So shit's going down huh, wow is it fast. It was only a little over two weeks ago that Raiko told us that their government was pretty fractured but having gone into a full blown civil war already... jeez, even the First World War took a month or so between the assassination and the declarations of war. I wonder when the gears of war started turning and lead to this.
Staff Sergeant Geraldt Tchaikovsky, OR-6, finished his lunch and went back to the barracks with Corporal Walter Ruderford, OR-4. They separated when they arrived at Geraldt's room and after he settled down, he took out his laptop and begun writing.
He had already written quite a lot, from the first time he entered this world almost nine months ago up until the deadly ambush that wrecked havoc. He didn't have the best writing skill there are but he planned to write it as some sort of diary to be publish after he retired from the army with the burden of cleaning up his mess lying on the editors. He planned it to become some sort of memoirs from the man who discovered the portal in Hürtgenwald and who would (hopefully) survive the oncoming war. After typing down what had just transpired in the canteen he layed down on the bed and rested his eyes and tried to think of reasons that the German Parliament would have to give to the public and the international community back home for the Bundeswehr to interfere in a civil war on another world.
Something's not adding up He thought. There's no possible way that Germany could get dragged into this war, its just not possible under the constitution, unless... He jumped up from his bed with realizations hitting him like a truck. Unless they didn't tell us anything about it. Of course they didn't! There were a lot the Armee Nachrichten don't tell the soldiers, and political development that didn't go with the army's views were one of them.
He wanted to go and ask Korra what she will and could do but though otherwise, he thought Korra would be in quite a lot of shit right now... damn, hope she'll come out of this alright. Nonetheless Geraldt assume that the army would make some sort of announcement any day now regarding their participation in the war upcoming war and he hopes that no other countries back home get dragged into it, for it might create a third world war there.
Note: Dead fic, sorry