Tattered Journal - Entry 4


Fools, to think they would try going through the Menos Forest to attempt to reach Las Noches. The efforts of Captain Soifon and Lieutenant Akon were vital in getting us the intel that the Wandenreich were going to try to establish a base down there. Just like them to arrogantly think they can simply tame the forest.

This is not their first attempt, they've tried using the forest as a staging area in the past, but never in these numbers. Intel states that it looks like about two Company's worth of soldat, being led by a survivor of the Jagdarmee, Kommodore Heinrich Schreise. Thought most of those fuckers were in the ground by now, but every now and then another pops up like a cockroach.

Typically the Wandenreich only sends recon squads through the Forest, because it lets them get close to Las Noches without needing to bypass the more heavily defended parts of our lines. It isn't feasible to set up a full base down there unless you want to put a lot of lives at risk. Leave it to a Jagdarmee commander to do just that.

Luckily the Gotei has me and my squad. Because of my unique background, I was given permission directly from the Head Captain to form a Special Forces Platoon in the 11th Division that had the sole mission of operating in and around the Menos Forest.

The formation of the unit was unconventional, I was allowed to openly enlist shinigami from any division, they just needed to apply. Officially the unit was given the designation "Gotei Joint Division Menos Commandos", and I was given the rank of Commander. It took a bit of getting used to; being placed in an official role, after being alone for so long, I wasn't sure if I was ready to work with a team again, much less lead one. But once we started training and going out on ops, I settled in nicely.

We were platoon size, so about 40 men and women, most came from the 11th and the 2nd. I made sure to recruit heavily from the 2nd because most ops in the Forest would be guerilla. From there it was a couple week long crash course on tactics and skills needed to navigate and use the terrain of the Forest to their advantage.

Once that was done, we started going on ops. R&D detection and monitoring equipment setup in the Forest, and we made regular patrols. It didn't take long to start seeing Quincy scouts moving around like ants down there, so all we had to do was start stepping on them. Booby traps, ambush tactics, and using the hollows in the Forest against them, were just some of the tactics we employ. It didn't take long for those Quincy scouting missions to start being less and less frequent.

According to some captured Quincy some of their soldiers started to refer to us as the Ghosts of the Menos Forest. Kind of a stupid and redundant nickname if I'm being honest, but not like I care.

Once we confirm that a squad of them has gone into the Forest it's pretty easy to track them down, just follow the disappearing hollows. You think they'd learn, but they're nothing if not arrogant.

Ah, Captain Soifon just arrived, she'll be joining us to bury this new Wandenreich base.

Time to head out.

.

CDR Ashido Kanō

GJDMC, 11th Division

July 19, 2004


Author's Notes:

A short chapter, but Ashido's not a man of many words.

I'm having trouble falling asleep because everytime I lay down, a new idea appears and I have to jot it down. Right now I'm sitting on 21 ideas for chapters and they won't stop. So we'll keep going, I should have a really unique one out later today. ;)