Operation Tandem

[Validus]

**Exercise Valiant Eagle**

"Good," said Lt. Col. Emerson. He placed his rifle over his shoulder, "Now where's the party?"

**Exercise Valiant Guardian**

"Your troops did a good job," said General McNader, "Of course, not as good as my Marines." The General looked down at the beach, "You might want to invest on more then just landing craft. Our Marines use three types of amphibious landing vehicles." He had a grin on his face, "Had you been facing the Army, well even they could of stopped you with you using those boats."

~Thanato

[Delfos]

**Exercise Valiant Guardian**
"Oh yes, we thought about that", said the highest ranked Captain of the fleet, "But our marines practically only use this and APCs, and only for short range assault, we made a long one.
As you can see there, we had our fleet ready to fire for support, what we normally do is a joint force with the Air Force, our logistics give us targets with Early Warning aircraft and both our fleet and the Air Force will decimate everything.
Talking about that, we would like to share our codes with you for target designation, and maybe your forces would like to take a look to our new AWACS aircraft, from a joint project with the Loyan Army.
Give us a beach with enemy looking targets and we will use this systems for you, and also, we will use a short range assault. Then i would like to see your troops managing the same system for full cooperation."

**Exercise Valiant Eagle**
"Should start now, oh there comes the officers."
"Fantastic show everyone! Your valideen paratroopers really know how to handle strategy in the battlefield. We did noticed that ours get a bit lost as soon they finish what they are supposed to do...
Squad Leaders Silva and Duarte, fantastic job, I'm promoting you both.
Now let's get to that party."
On the other side of the watching platform there were several long tables with snacks, juice and booze. The 'Precs' came with their uniforms and congratulating the comrades in arms for the show.
Emerson: "Do your troops drink allot of booze?"
"As a matter of fact, my chaps do drink allot, but i try to take the bottles out of their mouths. It's a costume from generations to drink vodka in the battlefield, i guess their fathers and grandfathers got the tradition habit again from the Ice Wars. But don't worry, they aren't allowed to drink too much."

[Osamafune]

Although he made a complete fool out of himself in the process, Colaeus became much more confident after the jump. After the first jump, everything went smoothly. That is, until the final parachute simulation jump.

But it wasn't Colaeus that screwed up, it was Dramytinos. When time came for his last jump of the day, being the thrill junkie he is, he decided to do a front flip out of the tower. This made him get tangled up in his parachute when it was deployed and Dramytinos came crashing down onto the earth below. Miraculously he survived, but not without breaking his neck and back, cracking his skull, and causing internal bleeding. The docs said the only reason he survived the fall was because it had rained earlier in the day. The ground was softer and gave way some when he made contact. Nonetheless, Dramytinos will be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of his life.

The AAD was down to 399 men.

[Delfos]

**Delfian School**

"How could this happen!" said furiously Captain Ribeiro.
"I'm sorry Captain, but the soldier didn't respected the simple function of the exercise." tried to explain Sergeant of the Corps Gonçalves.
"This is unacceptable. We come to a foreign country and a guy gets paralyzed. Are their medical assistance going to do anything beyond diagnosing that?"
"I don't know sir...i guess, we could try a myrorian private hospital, although very expensive, i heard they make miracles there..."
"You stupid ass! How can you believe such thing? Miracles?! In Myroria?! The only thing they can do is lung cancer to our people with their addictive tobacco!"
"I will have to agree with you sir."
"Of course you have! Well, lets get to training the rest, we're still far and i haven't seen them falling from the skies once!"
"Alright sir, off i go."

*Cpt Ribeiro and other officers, including Gonçalves gathered outside at 6am. As usual, the Collosean Federation flag would rise up in the sound of the trumpet, and right after a short trumpet version of the delfian hymn and the rise of the delfian flag.*

Cpt Ribeiro: "Today begins the 3rd and final week, unfortunately, one of your comrades got paralyzed in the last exercise, and it looks really bad, he can stay paralyzed to the rest of his life. Paratrooping is thrilling, but it should never be fun, jumping from a perfectly good flying can and landing behind enemy lines isn't fun at all! And we, i mean your motherland, can't afford any more of this accidents, so don't try to be funny anymore, nothing stupid, alright?
This week starts the real deal, you are going to jump out of planes, starting today."

*some whispers were exchanged by the collosean mob in front of the officers.*
"So, let's start with gathering all equipment and load those trucks over there. Then you will march to the airfield fully combat equipped. So please issue the orders because we have allot to do in the airfield."

[Validus]

**Exercise Valiant Guardian**

"You want a beach with Targets eh? Well DAOD 45-7 strictly forbids the use of Live Ammunition during an amphibious exercise. However if you want to test aircraft attack we can use our Testing grounds, or we can simulate using our WES system were we can place the Army in defence of the beach." said General McNader.

**Exercise Valiant Eagle**

Lt. Col. Emerson looked back at him, and said with a smirk, "Soldier has to have fuel." He looked back at his comrade from New Delfos, "A Valideen soldier is trained to think, and think extraordinarily quickly. This is especially true with the airborne. A soldier who does not think in battle and just acts is more likely to get shot. Our soldiers are trained to locate, postulate and eliminate. Thats why we are so effective. One airborne section can take on and hold off a full company of regular infantry from a nation like Dysanni. that is manly do to their poor training and our excellent training."

Major Carlos walked up to Emerson and the superior from New Delfos, "Sir, we got the 'casualty report.'"

"Lay it on my Major,"

"Well sir, good exercise, 87 dead 143 wounded."

"And the enemy?"

"589 killed and wounded, 211 captured."

~Thanato

[Delfos]

**Exercise Valiant Eagle**

Lieutenant Justino: "Everyone, get ready, everyone up!"

Another day, another exercise. This one would take all day. It was a cooperation exercise between the valideen and delfian paratroopers. They would be dropped in different locations near forests and country-side. They had a common enemy and no support from anywhere. The valideen were to be dropped in some farm fields northwest of Kujsk, while the delfian were to be dropped in the southern forests southwest of Kujsk. Split in several groups, they had to rendez-vous in a railroad in a diagonal position of each other due West. They had a fake air-strike calling for each and were ordered to target enemy vehicles. They had a target recognition manual made just for them.
Included there was this pictures:


Second Lieutenant Afonso: "Do you know why we need this target recognition?"
Lt. Justino: "I guess we will have air support, and i heard this targets are ALL in the battlefield, and we need to spot them all. Some we can bring down ourselves, others we need to ask for air-ground support. Must be dummies...
...Alright, lets go to the airfield, prepare your all your equipment."
2nd Lt. Afonso: "And this complex looks familiar, isn't this Plorisk?"
Lt. Justino: "Now that you said it, it does look like Plorisk. We will find out anyway."

[Validus]

**Exercise Valiant Eagle**

"Ok, Major. This FTX will not require all of the two battalions, this is just rutine training for the division so I am going to give 2 battalion, and 1 battalion Echo through India companies some Rack time."

"Yes sir, I'll tell the men."

"One more thing Major, tell 1 battalion Alpha through Delta companies to get their shit and to the airfeild by 0400, that gives them 1 hour."

"Yes Sir,"

Lt. Col. Emerson looked at his colleague from New Delfos and said in a very monotone voice, "oh what fun, oh what fun."

~Thanato

[Varkour]

**Mercielle, Poitou-Charentes, Varkour**

After weeks of planning and preparation the Varkourian task force was finally ready to leave the safe waters of Varkour.   

The fleet spearheaded by Georges Leygues left the port as its crew waved to their loved ones. The BSFT (the Varkourian equivalent of the SAS) waited patiently in their cabins.
 

Georges Leygues

Their first objective was to sail to New Delfos.

[Delfos]

"Bon Jour Vakouriannes, Welcome to Delfian waters. Half of the Northern Defense Fleet will escort you close to Navirsk and Sbbasburg in the South. Please contact Commander Grulovic for more information. Stay safe."

Sir, that's some big arsenal they have there.
"Yes, we're gonna need it."

[Varkour]

"Captain, Captain...  A message from the Delfians..."

The young communications operator caught the Captain's attention.

"We will be escorted into New Delfos by one of their fleets."

"Very well." the Captain replied.

"You will need to contact Commander erm.... Grulovic" The young man said.

A few minutes later the Captain did so.

"This is Captain Ennemis of the Georges Leygues. I wish to talk to Commander Grulovic"

[Delfos]

"This is Commander Grulovic of the Delfian Defense Fleet, Captain Ennemis. I was sent to the Northern Defense Fleet to escort you south, we will be working together. What do you want from me?"