An Unwinnable War

Episode 4 - Born in Remnant!

March 14 - March 18, 1977

2 Years after the Vietnam War

"I ain't no Mistrali, but life sure does feel like tentacle hentai."

- Unknown U.S. Army CIDG Volunteer, 1978

Memoirs of 1st Lt. Jay 'Raptor' Ruben;

"When we finally got the civilians back, we were introduced to their world through questions and answers as soon as we docked the tank. We had medics tending to their wounded. I think that one Medic, uh, Eisenhauer, cried his eyes out of joy when they finally got the wounded treated. And just barely averting Necrosis. The rest of the guys were being given C-Rations, Water, and Cigs to take their minds off the fact that their shitshow of an evacuation narrowly avoided turning into a massacre. When the shock wore off, we were pretty amazed at the new arrivals."

"The Faunus took our curiosity and amazement as a shock. Let it be known that the 86th Armored Reconnaissance Brigade - at least, it was called that after Johnsbury - did not have anyone who wasn't amazed and curious at the Faunus' parts. We all asked questions about how it felt to be half-tiger, half-human, hell, we even asked the Bat Faunus if he could locate his food when it was dark. They took our questions pretty well for most of it and were just surprised to feel welcomed to an alien world. Because yeah, nobody's exactly from Johnsbury. I'm from Missouri, just like Truman."

"When the 26th Infantry Division arrived to Johnsbury just thirteen days after the first contact incident, we were told that this incident got sent back to the guys up top, POTUS included, and that they were sending forces to scout out and establish a perimeter on what we'd now come to know as Remnant. Of course, the guy in charge of the first iteration of MAC-NE - or Military Assistance Command New England -, Colonel de Zwart, decided to punish us for our recklessness by sending us and re-flagging the 86th Armored Brigade as an armored recon brigade. Yeah. M48 Pattons doing recon. I dreaded the results."

"Our first MAC-NE foray into Remnant was comprised of the following units: 86th Armored Recon, with the 42nd Infantry Division, the 16th Engineer Brigade, the 43rd Military Police Brigade, alongside the 26th Infantry Division, and, our first Remnant info specialists, CIDG. Those CIDG guys were the ones who guided us to the location that would become our FOB. But, looking back, CIDG didn't expect our location to be jumped. God, the 26th were so mad."

"I also got chewed out for my immaturity. Honestly, looking back at it, I probably deserved it. But, as much as I swear, I do have valid reasons. Even if they're flimsy."

"Also, to anyone who reads this: Whiskey Foxtrot."

Jay Ruben - St. Johnsbury/FOB 'Fort Noon' - March 14, 1977 - 11:23 AM

"Fire!" Sergeant Taylor shouted to the ad-hoc auxiliary units in the shooting range as the evacuees from the Schnee Corporation, guard, logistics, and dust miner alike, all took their time to qualify on the shooting range. The 86th, not knowing what to do with the evacuees, decided to 'conscript' them into the brigade, and some were more than welcome to assist as thanks for getting out alive.

The SDC workers were training with rifles, pistols, and shotguns such as the M16, the Model 10, and the Ithaca 37 that were obtained from storage as the 86th tried to cram up to 12 weeks of training into 13 days, with each day being a routine of marching, PT, shooting range, then resting. Repeat that for thirteen days and you have what the SDC workers dealt with.

The range was a cacophony of gunfire as the evacuees proved their worth on the range. And when the shooting ceased, Jay took one good look at the results by examining them with binoculars.

"Not bad! If you keep doing this, you'll be National Guard material." Jay spoke as the SDC workers all smiled at being praised. The Faunus workers hadn't heard a human genuinely compliment them in a way that wasn't thinly-veiled racism or paternalism, and that alone was enough to give them some resolve.

"Yes, sir!" One of the SDC Workers responded before reloading their weapons.

Jay smiled. These men had a lot to learn, and he hoped that their ad-hoc unit, a literal tank brigade, was knowledgeable enough to give them a decent lesson on how to shoot and defend themselves.

"Man, to think that we'd be bringing animal people back home..." Corporal Lars - also known as Toast - spoke as he appeared beside Lt. Jay, a small smile on his face. "I mean, you think MLK'd be smiling at his dream?" He looked to Jay, and in response to the question, Jay nodded. "With all due respect, Toast, I think that MLK would be calling us the hallmarks of progress."

"Although, seriously, why the hell are these guys picked on, like, back there?" Jay winced as he remembered the stories of discrimination and segregation that they experienced. They reminded him too much of Jim Crow. Way too much. "You think Strom Thurmond would've approved?" Lars asked. Jay, in his eternal wisdom, responded with a forlorn sigh. "Way too much. If information about these guys gets out of Vermont, we're fucked."

Turning to his back, he spotted another group of SDC workers training with Cletus. He made for a decent DI. With him using his exaggerated Southern stereotypes to make the recruits irritated enough at him to throw away all distaste for each other's race, it made for very tasteless food for thought when people asked how the hell Cletus' PT recruits lost all enmity towards each other.

"I could run to New York, like this!" Cletus opened, carrying a magazine-less M16A1 as he marched the SDC recruits across the empty space of Johnsbury that was FOB Fort Noon.

Yeah, Johnsbury had a thousand survivors. All of whom practically didn't resist when the 86th told them that they'd be turning the town into one big FOB. Jesus Christ, we're taking advantage of a traumatized town just to turn it into a FOB. I know that we do have a bit of a reputation for being baby-killers out in the jungles, but... Man.

Jay slowly let himself down and sat on the grass. "The town of Johnsbury, Vermont. Home to seven thousand people. Now... well, take a gander." He all but groaned in frustration. Well, it's too late now. Still, the survivors have tried to cope and return to a normal life. I haven't spoken to any civvie, but I did see them. I've never seen such a dead expression in their eyes before.

He sighed. Since when did we take advantage of towns... He stopped himself there. No need to be a myopic asswipe stuck mumbling about the mistakes in Vietnam. The deeds were done, and we pulled out just four years ago. Johnsbury was militarized, but with reinforcements approaching, they didn't have much to worry about anymore. At least, until the fact that Johnsbury would be forced to cover up its attack until Carter could come up with an excuse.

"I could run to New York, like this!" The SDC workers parroted, not entirely knowing that they were singing. Cletus did inform them that they were going to sing songs that wouldn't be understood just for training. But hey, Jay once listened to Surfin' Bird, which means that he was experienced.

"And when I get to New York, they're gonna say;" Cletus shouted.

"And when I get to New York, they're gonna say;" The workers followed suit, still carrying the M16A1s.

"How'd you get to New York in just one day?" Cletus sang, continuing to march the SDC workers as they repeated his statements. To them, the Cadences were pretty alien. And so was PT, funny enough. He was going to ask why, but he was busy preparing himself for the paperwork that came with being a lieutenant by preparing emergency coffee rations. They don't even taste that great...

As entertaining as PT was, Jay did have a tight ship to run, so he got up from where he sat on the grass and turned to Lars. "Hey, To-Nah, Lars, you think you can watch over the SDC over at the range while I'm away? I've got to go wait for reinforcements" Lars took a minute to contemplate, then nodded in approval. "Alright. Take care, man." He gave a wave as Jay walked away.

"You too, bud." He replied, before continuing away from the firing range. Jay's first instinct after getting up was to walk around the FOB, which was still built inside the ruined city of Johnsbury. The blood dried up and was permanently engraved into the roads of Johnsbury, as a reminder of what dragged them to that peculiar place.

To his left, he saw the tanks being worked on by maintenance crews, with some cleaning out the tank gun, some cleaning the commander's machine gun, and some checking the engine of the Patton for damage to repair. To his right, he saw soldiers lounging about next to a tent, with the radio blaring music, and the soldiers drinking out of their canteens and eating C-Rations at a repurposed dinner table.

The anomalous area around Johnsbury was measured as a 10-mile exclusion radius that included Johnsbury. Testing with Pattons and routine walks indicated that the forests near Johnsbury were the areas where objects from Earth were transported into 'Remnant' as they called their home. The only reason they had these measurements was due to the rest of the FOB's crew taking their time to conduct genuine scientific experiments.

Another fun thing to note was that the airspace of the forests was also anomalous, as someone threw a rock and it went from Earth to Remnant. Jay had written that bit of information down since it was useful if they were ever going to get any reinforcements.

At least, to the best of their ability. Jay knew that if he wanted actual results, he'd have to go find the CIA to go do the measurement work.

But, for what it was worth, it was perfect.

Though, Jay wondered how FOB Fort Night 2 was doing considering that it was left with a skeleton crew of about ten people to keep it running. Well, I mean, hey. Those guys can handle most things we've given them. At least, that was what he hoped. He desperately wished that his hopes were not an 'in paper only' thing.

Jay took a minute to walk around the road to Johnsbury and the welcome sign before noting a noise in the distance that didn't sound like bushes moving nor wolves growling, but more like a rapid chopping sound in the air. Knowing what was to expect of him, he pulled out a smoke grenade. Two days ago, he was informed that reinforcements would arrive and that they would need to be guided by purple smoke.

Well, Jay did have purple smoke, and he pulled the pin, releasing the lever, before gently placing it in the ground and stomping it into the ground so that it wouldn't move as it billowed out smoke to alert the helicopters that they were to land there. The chopping sands grew louder as Jay covered the top of his eyes with his hand, shielding his eyes from brightness as he turned to stare at the sun.

At that point, several Hueys pulled near the smoke signal and began to descend. The sight that greeted Jay was the image of Hueys loaded with soldiers from the 26th Infantry Division touching down and rapidly descending, with the passengers of the Hueys immediately hopping as soon as it was safe, and them scrambling to get their rifles and bearings, scrambling like flies in the process.

And among them all, one of them stood out the most.

The guy had a Hot Weather Cap and wore aviator shades, with a black scrim scarf wrapping around his neck. The face that was underneath that hat and sunglasses was that of a middle-aged man who really could not give any further shits. The insignia on his uniform indicated that he was a Colonel. And the radio mentioned that there would be a high-ranking officer joining the reinforcement of the units. Shiiiiiiii-

Jay already felt like he was going to be shat upon for his behavior. And he hoped for that, considering that - looking back on it - he acted like a reckless immature ass. The Colonel's left tag identified him as "J. B. de Zwart" and the tag on his right identified him as 'US Army' which led Jay to sigh in defeat. Yep. This is where he gets yelled at for being an absolute ass.

Approaching the officer, Jay gave him a salute. Colonel de Zwart did not respond verbally first and instead responded by squinting his eyes and examining Jay.

"First Lieutenant Jay Ruben?" He asked, crossing his arms. Jay could feel his disappointment through the stare of his aviators. However, he swallowed his breath and complied.

"That same First Lieutenant, sir." Jay responded, keeping the salute. Zwart's response was to shake his head and sigh but didn't put up an angry or disappointed expression.

"Right, right. Lieutenant Jay Ruben, could you please tell us where this 'inter-locational anomaly' is?" Zwart's voice was icy, but not venomous. Jay was pretty sure that Zwart just didn't want to get bullshitted. Jay nodded and turned around to face the anomalous forest of Johnsbury.

"Follow me, sir." Jay said, walking towards a forest with Colonel Zwart and two other soldiers from the 26th ID behind them. While walking, Colonel Zwart looked at the surroundings and immediately commented.

"Lieutenant. Did you perform unauthorized recruitment of civilian forces into the military?" He spoke, eying the SDC workers in PT while walking to follow Jay.

Jay reluctantly responded. "Yes, sir," Jay grit his teeth as Zwart's reaction was to frown slightly. "We brought them back during an evacuation and had no time to relay it to other Guard Units in the area, leaving just my platoon to take care of them, and we lacked manpower." He explained, with all honesty. "I won't sugarcoat it. We had no time to inform anyone else nor did we have the routes to communicate. We had made a decision not to leave them. I am aware of the consequences, but I didn't feel like risking civilian lives. Especially not two years after Saigon."

Zwart nodded without changing his stony expression. Ruben was being honest. And, while it was not known to Jay, Zwart preferred Ruben's honesty over other commissioned officers coming up with excuses to cover up their own recklessness by pinning it on the unit. Zwart pressed on with more questions as he walked with Ruben towards the forest.

"You are aware that your actions were rash and unauthorized, and thus liable to punishment. Is that correct?" Zwart asked.

"Yes. I'm going to be real, I was acting purely on anger after I had just fought off animals with a tank," He commented. "I was acting based on retaliatory attacks due to the circumstances we found ourselves in."

"And you felt that it was appropriate to use your tank platoon to stage an offensive in alien territory, potentially held by other sovereign nations?"

"We were pursuing our alien attackers, and were supposed to finish them off."

"And that lead you to initiate an unauthorized evacuation of an alien structure that housed human-like beings?"

"As I said, sir. We were not willing to risk civilian lives being abandoned by wildlife. I am aware that it was not cleared up top, and these people are my responsibility. If you want to do something with them, I'll be the first one to step up."

Zwart nodded, clearly impressed by Jay's honesty. The man was thankful to have someone be honest about their mistakes, unlike some people who complained. Heavily.

"And what about the alien attackers themselves?"

"They were black, alien, bony creatures that had red eyes and looked like enlarged versions of wolves. They attacked Johnsbury just thirteen days ago, and killed a thousand people."

"The coverup is going to be a mess."

"That's not all, sir," Zwart's eyes widened. There were more? was on Zwart's mind. "When we were evacuating back from the anomalous area's pocket space, we had come across creatures that at least had the base form of birds-of-prey and a giant gorilla. Both were taken down by tank fire, however it is uncertain whether or not infantry weapons, MANPADS or not, will be useful enough."

"I see." Zwart responded.

Zwart didn't ask any more questions towards Jay as they continued to walk towards the location of the anomalous area.

"Here we are." Jay stated, crossing his arms.

Zwart removed his sunglasses and squinted. "I assume the anomaly is further inwards, yes?"

"It'd seem so."

"Right, right. Let's go see if it's active. You two," He motioned towards the two soldiers who followed him. "Step inside, and come back out." He spoke. The two soldiers nodded, and marched towards the forest, only to disappear as soon as they passed by a few trees.

Zwart rubbed his eyes as he wanted to make sure he didn't forget something.

Jay didn't. He already knew that visually, it'd be as if he walked past a tree and was never seen again. However, he knew better. The two soldiers went to Remnant.

A few minutes later, the two soldiers returned, with expressions of surprise on their face.

"Hey, I brought a rock back. It don't feel weird, so I dun' think it's that threatening." One of the soldiers said, holding up a rock and moving it around.

Zwart nodded. "Alright, that's enough. You two, dismissed." He motioned for the two soldiers to leave, and put his sunglasses back on. The two soldiers left and proceeded to talk about the rock they recovered as if it was truly alien.

Looking towards Jay, who noticed immediately, Zwart broke the news. "President Carter's contemplated organizing an expeditionary force into the pocket anomaly. Calls it Military Assistance Command New England. It'll be sent into there under the guise of a military exercise within the mainland U.S."

"And... well, what about that proposal?" Jay asked.

"The plans were approved, but would only be put in practice if it could be determined the anomaly was real." After finishing that, Zwart sighed.

"Let me guess..."

"Yes, with this, it's effectively real." Zwart crossed his arms, and his expression turned into that of irritation. "The paperwork..." He groaned.

"...But, uh. Sir. How the hell do we cover up a large military movement and the massacre of Johnsbury?" Jay asked, scratching the top of his helmet.

"...I don't know. But I'll just pray to God that the people are too busy to care."

"With all due respect, sir, they are."

"I know."

The Colonel groaned on while Jay stifled a laugh. Damn paperwork was already killing the Army, but this was just going to make it worse.

Zwart looked at Jay, and let out a grunt. "Oi. Don't think you're out of this yet."

"Huh?"

"I was arranged as the commander of a hypothetical MAC until the organization expands. And don't expect yourself to be out of trouble yet." Zwart told Jay. "You are more honest and straightforward compared to other Lieutenants I have worked with in the past, and thus, you have earned my respect. However," He pointed two of his fingers up. "We still have two more things to deal with."

"...Go on, sir." Jay nodded.

"For one, your immaturity on the field." Zwart let one of his fingers go down. "I've received corroborating reports that you repeatedly swore during operations. I can chalk it up to stress and I forgive you for that, HOWEVER, that still does not mean you're completely off the hook."

Without anything to say as he expected to get chewed out anyway, Jay nodded and let Colonel Zwart finish.

"Your swearing needs to be toned down. I'm going to say this first and I'll do it bluntly. With that big mouth of yours, you might just get us killed. Loose lips sink ships, Lieutenant. I can forgive you for swearing so much, but, please, act like you belong in the army." Zwart emphasized 'act like you belong in the army' to make sure that Jay had it to his head.

"Got it, sir."

"Now, onto the other issue in the room." Zwart brought up one more finger. "Your recklessness." He let that finger go down, and continued the ass-chewing of Jay in more polite terms seeing as the Colonel legitimately saw Jay as a better Lt. than the rest of the National Guard.

"Your discipline is well otherwise. I can give you that. However, there is the issue with you most of the time is that you're just too reckless."

"Hmm?" Jay perked up, hearing a comment about his - accurate - diagnosis for recklessness.

"You rely on the tactic of charging with tanks too much," He spoke, and motioned towards the forest. "And from what I've seen, you went to chase the creatures into the forest just to get back at them." He deadpanned. "While I get that you had no way to receive orders, and you had no infantry support, you still went in and risked your lives. You keep this up, and that glory-hounding combined and lack of foresight will kill you." He hissed the last part out.

Jay nodded. He needed to work that out. But, at the same time, he felt an obligation to try and at least help. Still, at least the Colonel was being absolutely honest.

"I'll try, but don't expect complete elimination of recklessness."

"Oh, no, I expect that. I just want you to know that you can charge in with support, and not just by yourself."

"Right. Thanks, sir."

"No problem."

Though, for Zwart, the problem that did manifest itself was being in command of MAC-NE.

But, hey, in the long run, it worked out.

...In years.

Jay Ruben - St. Johnsbury/ FOB 'Fort Noon' - March 18, 1977 - 1:30 AM

Several days passed since the Colonel broke the news of Carter's proposal. And come a day later, and there's Executive Order 11977, which established MAC-NE publicly as the first step to the reformation of Army command under Military Assistance Commands per region within the United States. Of course, to Jay, this was all bullshit. This was just an excuse for Carter to re-assign several military units as expeditionary forces to Vermont. MAC-NE was given a blank check on how to handle things, which meant it had effective free reign unless someone blew a whistle.

In the following four days when the orders came in rapidly, the newly founded Military Assistance Command - New England found itself reinforced by several units that came in.

The 42nd Infantry Division.

The 43rd Military Police.

The 16th Engineer Brigade.

The 26th Infantry Division.

And us, the 86th Armored Brigade.

We got settled in and gathered the units around. Speaking of the units, the 1/101st Infantry was detached from the 26th ID and handed to the 86th Armored Brigade. In a round-about formation, the 1/101st Infantry (Mechanized) would be detached and assigned to the 86th during wartime. And considering the United States is technically in a state of war, it left no wonder why the 86th had a unit attached to them.

The SDC Workers that accompanied the unit were also incorporated into the units, as the 1st Civilian Indigenous Defense Group Rangers, or 1st CIDG Rangers. They weren't exactly special forces, but they were our guides to Remnant, and their special abilities made the Faunus valuable assets to recruit, which led to Colonel Zwart giving them the task of leading the way towards suitable locations for the 16th to build a FOB on.

And on a particularly cold morning, Jay was awoken to a gathering at Fort Noon that was mandatory to attend for a select group of people.

He'd have told the guys gathering it to fuck off if it wasn't for the fact that it was about their orders to finally go into Remnant. And so, in a blind panic, Jay managed to get himself ready alongside the rest of his unit, crew included, and gathered at the center of FOB Fort Noon, where a podium with a microphone stood on top of a platform elevating the speaker higher than the unit.

And that speaker was Colonel Zwart. Flanked by the same two guys from yesterday, he walked up to the podium and turned on the microphone, coughing into it to confirm its use before speaking.

"I'll keep this short. You all have been summoned as part of MAC-NE for an 'exercise'. However, we all know that is false." Zwart stated, eying most of the confused National Guard soldiers. "No, rather, we have been summoned today as part of the first reconnaissance group with the objective of scouting out a potential FOB location... in a pocket dimensional area." He smiled as he spoke, and then let the Guardsmen gathering below speak.

"Sweet, do I get to kill something?"

"Can I finally get laid?"

"Do we have to keep wearing these chickenshit fatigues?"

"Is this for real?"

Colonel Zwart coughed into the microphone, interrupting the rest. "Now, I assure you, despite all the questions you have, this operation is a real operation. We have discovered an unsurveyed location within United States soil, and we are to search, build, and hold our presence within the area. The operation begins today."

The following units will go in as the first recon team;" Zwart began to list off, looking at the Guardsmen gathered below him.

"The 1/101st Infantry, Mechanized of the 26th Infantry Division." Okay, they were to be attached to the 86th Brigade as part of a round-about formation, so he expected that.

"The 1/126th and the 3/126th Aviation of the 26th Infantry Division." Sweet, helicopter support. They desperately needed that. They really needed it. And considering that the airspace is affected, they wouldn't need to transport the helicopters by truck, and just had them fly over. It was convenient.

"The 1192nd Engineer Company from the 16th Engineer Brigade." Okay, the FOB guys. Brilliant. They just had to tell them what to build after getting a location.

"The 169th Military Police Company from the 43rd MP." Those guys were to guard the troops and make sure nothing stupid among them happens, right? Well, they were a strange addition, but are welcome nonetheless.

"The 1/101st Armored Cavalry of the 42nd Infantry Division, reassigned as a Pathfinder Unit." Hang on a minute. Weren't the 1/101st Cav made up of APCs and Jeeps?! There was NO WAY they were going to secure an LZ silently at all! What the hell was Command thinking?! How the hell could Command give the job of pathfinding and securing LZs to a unit comprised of loud vehicles?

"And the unit to lead then is the 86th Armored Brigade. Or, I should say, the 86th Armored Recon Brigade." He stretched out.

Oh. That was why Command would do that.

Punishment.

They were punishing the more unreliable units by giving them shit jobs.

And since I was the first one to charge head-on into Remnant, they decided to make my units the Recon men purely as a punishment for being so reckless. Which means we have to charge in and explore first.

Fuck.

"You all have five hours to prepare your equipment if any of you are from these units." After stating that, Zwart turned away, his back facing the Guardsmen.

"Dismissed."

And after Zwart leaved, Jay saw the gathered guardsmen devolve into questions. Except, however, the ones from the 86th Brigade. They already knew. But they groaned upon finding out they were supposed to be recon, AKA the guys who go in head-first.

But what did this mean for Jay?

A boatload of problems related to M48 Pattons, that's what.

"Aaaaaarghhhhh..." He groaned.

Well, at least he had five hours.

Better be prepared.

Author's Notes:

Here comes their first foray into Remnant! Oh boy, Carter is going to have so much on his resume now that he's leading the invasion of an entire planet, rather than a sovereign nation. Oh Carter you poor summer child.

I'm back from my roadtrips, but man, I have school catching up with me, so that's from just outright delayingly painful to getting bogged down by school. Oh boy, here comes a lifetime of pain and misery for me. I'm pretty sure all IRL students make enough negativity for the Grimm to come in and shit on everybody.

Time for me to contribute to that.

Sorry if this felt rushed. I still have a lot on my bag and I just recovered from a painful set of road trips across the continental US that left me with little time to write more of the chapters. Sorry, I was just too busy.

Also, did you know that An Unwinnable War has a Discord server now? Yeah, I set it up for fun and so that I could convey information towards readers if they wanted questions about more miscellaneous stuff. It's very barren and barebones, but hey, I tried to set up something.

I'll see y'all next chapter. Hopefully before school starts and such. It's going to be an absolute nightmare for me afterwards. Hooray!

Discord server invite: 4m8QfQUE4n