Operation Winter Shield

[Union]

   The seat of the Delfian A380 creaked as Lieutenant Wilshan shifted around in it. He wasn't use to sitting still on his butt, especially not on a ten hour flight where the only entertainment was a shitty Delfian drama playing on the main screen. The in-flight meal wasn't really appetizing either. It was a badly seasoned fish fillet that was dry and bland. The orange juice he got tasted stale and expired. He even saw a private puke in the middle of his meal when he took a sip of a more-stale-then-usual OJ. Heaven help the guy, he could be getting botulism right about now.

   On each side of Lt. Wilshan were two young privates from his unit. The one on his right was occupied with a field manual, while the one on his left was fast asleep. Lt. Wilshan checked the later for air intake, lest he died from food poisoning from his meal. He was still breathing, probably just sleeping off the horrid food.

  A flight attendant brushes pass the sleeping private, carrying a tray of what appeared to be a bottle of champagne and a few glasses. For the high officers perhaps? Lt. Wilshan bends over the sleeping private to get a better look. He watches the flight attendant walk past the first class seats, stopping only at the front end of the plane, where the door to the cockpit was.

Huh?

Panic strikes. The flight attendant opens the door to the cockpit and waltzes in with the alcoholic beverage.

Oh shit...please don't tell me that's for the pilots...

The long flight continues...         

[Aquatoria]

The modified container ships were slowly leaving the harbor at Halifax. An escort of destroyers and frigates was waiting for them to arrive. Sergeant Ross was watching as the ships slid out and out to open sea. Ross looked back at his home. He was a veteran of the Inglish Columbian Front before being transfered to Halifax to go to New Delfos. they would arrive in three days. Ross walked around the ship and was suprised. The entire Second Imperial Corps was able to take up all these ships? Wow! He took a picture out of his uniform pocket. She didn't want me to go. I glad that she was able to understand that I wasn't going to war, I was just going away for a few months. He pocketed it and looked around. The black uniformed sailers were all doing their jobs or on their time off talking to the red-uniformed soldiers. He smiled. "Hey, who wants to get a game of hockey going?" If this trip was going to be for a while, meant as well have some fun.

[Delfos]

After some time, a flight attendant walks by the bottom floor, most of the men were sleeping, but found Lt. Wilshan awake, after saying some words to fellow comrade in arms that made him leave his seat, the girl walked quietly towards Wilshan.
fa: "I was about to announce meal time for the front rows, but seems they are all sleeping, would you like to have your meal upstairs in the bar?"

[Osamafune]

Up and down, up and down, up and down... A major storm was approaching, the waters off the coast of Rabarac were extremely choppy. Soldiers were blowing chunks left and right. Minoa II and Trikoupis I were fairing well, but they still felt like shit. Not from the waves or shitty rations, but from the secrecy surrounding whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing. Ten Collosean Ivan Rogov-class transport  ships hauling a load of 6,000 total heading to Delfos on an operation dubbed "Operation Winter Shield."

This was not all however. News of the new Air Assault Division of the Collosean Air Force came to light, as well as eight transport aircraft being bought by Loyan, three of which were due to arrive in Collosea in the next few days.

Minoa II and Trikoupis I were sitting in the narrow hallway outside of their bunks. The smell from someone's puke had gotten too strong for them.

"You think this is just the tip of the ice berg, Trik?" Minoa asked Trikoupis curiously.

"Has to be, their being too secretive about why they bought those planes and everything." Trikoupis frowned. "On top of that, Monimos Lochias Konstantinos VI has taken charge of the operation. If he's leading, it must be important.  One would think it would be important enough to require more than 6,000 troops..."

"Oh yeah, he was one of the top commanders of CAF during the civil war, wasn't he? He..."

Minoa II was cut off by an scrawny officer that had just rounded the corner. "What are you two doing out here? You're supposed to be in your bunks!"

Minoa and Trikoupis took their sweet time getting up and going back into their bunks, muttering swears under their breath the entire way.

"Well look on the bright side Trik, we're almost there..."

"Thank God..."

<ooc>You're supposed to be in bed!

Anyway, got a name for the port I should be setting sail for?

And on a side note, Monimos Lochias is an army rank equivalent to some kind of general. And of course Konstantinos VI isn't taking control of Winter Shield as a whole, but my guys don't know that.</ooc>

[Cantr]

Isn't it ironic, Angel thought to herself, That none of the surviving members of Soldier X actually have Cantrian skin color?  Angel's skin was European, though a bit on the dark side for that, her eyes were blue, and her hair was very light, close to platinum blonde, and very short, despite Angel's wishes to grow it out.  Long hair was a liability in battle.  Tempest, sitting to her right by the window of the plane, was the closest to Cantrian skin complexion, but his skin was rougher, from the Cantrian Islands' Adriannic desert.  His hair was also dark and his eyes were brown.  Tempests outlook on life was always pessimistic, and since losing Ember, Soldier X didn't have anyone light-hearted enough to make up for it.  In fact, Soldier X was notably grim these days.  There was no more Ember, making jokes and complaining about fate, no more Savid, reminding Soldier X that there was more to life than the warfare they were born for, no more Prefect, whose confidence had sustained them all through the grim days of the Cantr Wars until the very end, when he'd been killed in Operation Armageddon, which had finally ended eleven years of civil war.  The only ones left were Tempest, the pessimist, Angel, tormented nightly by her nightmares of the wars, and Seth...
Seth, on the outside, was a complete stoic.  You could catch flashes of emotion, but he never seemed to really be a person so much as a cleverly disguised android to anyone but Angel, who knew that, underneath it all, he was just as human, perhaps more human, than any of them.  Seth's skin was extremely dark, his hair extremely short, and his body looked like he could rip through his clothes, kevlar body armor and all, just by twitching.  Seth never did anything halfway.  He either did it better than anyone had ever done it before, or else he didn't do it at all.
"So much for peace." Angel said as the plane took off from the strip.  She was looking out the window at Cantr City, her adopted hometown.  She had liked it there, when she wasn't capturing it or defending it or trying to enjoy her last hour there before being transferred to a different front like a prisoner trying to enjoy his last meal before the execution.
"We're not headed for a war," Tempest said, "We're just going to act as a buffer."
Angel looked at him incredulously.  Was Tempest really saying that?  "Tempest, you do not send Soldier X to go act as a buffer.  Daichi is doing something other than what he told IPO he's doing.  I don't know if he plans to take IPO in the back or if he plans to do something nasty to our allies or what, but he's planning something, and it definitely has nothing to do with keeping the peace."
"Come on, Angel," Tempest responded, "You heard Daichi speak.  You said yourself that he cared about his people.  Why would he send us to go start another war so soon after finishing the last?"
"We're not being sent to start a war, I don't think.  We're being sent to end the war." Angel said.
"In whose favor?" Tempest said.
"Whoever will benefit Cantr the most." Angel said.
"You honestly believe that Daichi would risk the lives of Soldier X fighting in some foreign war after two thirds of us already got killed in Cantr?"
"Where did Sigourney die?  Jentai Base?  Cantr City?  Ft. Shortinazy?  No, she died in Drakonat.  It wasn't even our country, and Daichi wasted Sigourney's and Chris' life on it."
"The Drakonat people are Cantrians!" Tempest protested.
"They had their own government, they were okay with it, and they were stable.  Daichi had no right to go war-mongering in there just because Kathria asked him too."
"Drakonat's system would have failed eventually."
"Kathria is just like Drakonat, except it's evil."
"Drakonat was evil.  It just wasn't obvious.  Yet."
"So we used the Devil to expel Beelzebub.  I thought we could solve this just by fighting also.  I was wrong.  I thought this would all be over when Daemon was gone."
"And I'm still kicking myself for letting you kill him before I could."  Angel fell silent.  Tempest hadn't even made a relevant point.  But Angel had spent the past four months dying a thousand deaths in her sleep.  Every night Daemon, or one of the thousand other people she'd killed, came for their revenge.  You want the nightmares, Tempest?  You can have them!  I killed Daemon, killed everyone, because I thought it would give me peace...now I'm headed to another war and it's not even in my country.
The silence dragged on a few seconds before Seth spoke.  "We can't afford to let anything slip about our mission to the soldiers.  There's too many of them to trust."

They were silent the rest of the day.

[Pachamama]

The soldiers aboard the plane were either sleeping, reading or looking out the window.
Some discussed what was going on, also the men were used of not knowing were to go.
It was all part of their training.
Usually someone would tell them before the operation started.
5 minutes at the latest.
The man at the rear of the cargo hold watched the other men in silence.


The two cargo ships were rushing trough the water.
Captain Xoyotla looked at the chart.
„We are right on course sir“ the young navigator said.
The Captain nodded and looked out of the window again.
This wasn't his first time on that route. He had run it for several years now but never with such an unusual cargo.
The deck was filled with military vehicles and soldiers were running around like ants ever busy with one thing or another.


Lieutenant Ayatl looked over the deck of the passenger ship.
„And up you GO. Don't fall asleep you lazy pigs“ a Sergeant shouted while forcing his men trough another series of push up's.
Over at the swimming pool some soldiers were getting a different kind of „pool party“.
They jumped in with full gear and and uniforms and started to Wade trough the water.
Like they had trained so many times they instinctively held their weapons over their heads to keep them from getting wet.
Also this wasn't a troop transport the men  did not get a luxury cruise either.
Their imaginative officers had found ways to use the on board facilities for training.
It was almost a week on sea and in no way would they allow their troops to slack off.
„If you drown during my training soldier I will resurrect you and kill you with my own hands“ another Sergeant over at the pool yelled as one of his men lost footing and went under.

[Delfos]

ooc: Should be the port of Sharjah, then the rest by CGV railways. Sharjah is in the North, you need to get to the South, to Sbbasburg. Nations that come from the South direct to Sbbasburg docks, We will all be in a country location east of Sbbasburg (Between Kujsk and Sbbasburg).

[Union]

ooc: Glad to see everyone's excited about this 

"Sorry, I have orders to remain near my seating area for the remainder of the flight. Now, you said there was a phone call from my wife?"

 The flight attendant led the Lieutenant to a phone station at the back of the plane. After he made sure the flight attendant was out of ear shot, he spoke into the handset.

"Carly, how the hell did you get this number?"

"I made Ali tell me, mind telling me where you are right now?"

"On a plane..."

"They said you were training in the MPA! Then Ali hinted me that your unit was dispatched to BIA airport! How come you didn't tell me?"

"I didn't have time...they called us in during the training seminar...look honey, I'll be back in a few months."

"Don't lie to me, Ali told me this was a volunteer mission. Tell me now, where are you going..."

"Sorry baby, can't say. I need to go now..."

"Fong~!"

 Lt. Wilshan hanged up the handset. The feeling of guilt began to sprout in his stomach. It was true, he did volunteer for the mission. His commander issued the optional assignment a few days back, and he signed up without a second thought. There was nothing to justify that rash decision. Perhaps it was the blood of his father, or simply a rush of an idle soldier. Whatever it was, his decision carried heavy consequences. Leaving a pregnant wife and a son at home was not a good start to his 30s...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The A380 made a rough landing on the runway, rattling both seat and passenger. Lt. Wilshan breathed a sign of relief when the aircraft slowed to a safe speed. The huge plane made its way across the taxiway, then parked itself along a array of refueling probes and luggage machinery. As he stepped off the plane, the co-pilot waves a good bye and smiles at him. Wilshan couldn't help but notice that he was a bit pink in the cheeks.

This is the last time I'm taking TAD airlines...

 

   

[Delfos]

Delfingrado International Airport was very busy in that day, allot of taxi-cars, helicopters and planes taking off and landing. Total Chaos, but in the chaos, few big trucks saying NDRA and waving the flag of New Delfos arrived near the A380 Gates.

NDRA Major Costa: "Ah Welcome to New Delfos, here's a bus to take us to the Delfingrado CGV Railway Station. Unfortunately your superiors booked a reserved CGV train for 6pm, it's 10am now, so what do you say to a guided tour trough our Capital and Lunch at the greatest restaurant?"

*In the Northern Coast of New Delfos*
The Land Support Fleet was in full force near Sharjah, one or other missiles were fired to the land, although hey had orders to seize any shootings. NDS Satre I rushed north to meet the Collosean ships and escort them to Sbbasburg docks.

[Osamafune]

The Collosean ships had landed in Sbbasburg, New Delfos and were beginning to disembark.

Monimos Lochias Konstantinos VI had went ahead to find a Delfian officer that could tell him where he and his men would need to go next. As he walked along the docks, he mused over the details of the operation, or atleast what he knew about it so far.

He was getting both good and bad vibes about Winter Shield... He knew if any fighting was to occur, the citizens back home probably wouldn't take it well. It wouldn't be Collosea's war after all... But as for Konstantinos, he was all for participating in the operation. Whether there would be fighting or not, it would be good experience for a military that has never set foot over seas before.

up ahead he saw a Delfian officer heading his way.

[Delfos]

Lieutenant Dorvic approached a Collesean officer: "Hey, are you Konstantinos? There's an old railway in the southern part of this docks, wagons are waiting to take you directly to Plorisk in the country-side."

[Union]

Oh the battlecry of the great wise man,
rally up the young boys of the land,
marching side by side in lines of five,
with gun and bayonet on our side!

Through the smoke and fire of Je'lan Plain,
our fearsome foe come like the wind,
balls of molten lead fly over our heads,
and before you know it we are all dead!

>>>

The Loyanese soldiers sang in rhythm as they marched along in straight order a Delfian country road. Now that they were out of the city, they felt a little bit more relax in the fertile countryside.

When offered to ride the famous CGV rails, the High Marshal turned down the offer and said "We'll walk instead...".

The mission had interrupted their heavy field training back in Loyan, so here was the chance to make up for lost time. Before they left, the commanders had Delfian road maps loaded into their GPS for the training march to the IPOP assembly ground. They were to march the distance of several hundred kilometres on foot. The march was mandatory for all personnel, including senior officers. None of them will be slacking off for this operation.

The standard force march training requires each personnel to carry a 20kg load, usually made up of their standard gear pack and rifle. But their stuff was still onboard the LAA's IL-76 air transports, not to arrive until next week. Instead, each soldier was given 200 delfs and told to buy up the weight in items of their choice. Anyone who's purchase did not meet up to the require weight, will receive a no bullshit dishonored discharge on the spot. Needless to say, everyone made sure to meet up or exceeded the 20 kg weight.

Training in the Loyanese Ground Forces is strenuous and thorough, regardless of your rank or role. Each man is stress to the limit of his abilities, then over it. Some say it isn't worth the initial $35,000 salary, but that's a civilian's perspective. In the Loyanese Army, you have to born a soldier. That's the shit that separates a selective service army from a volunteer army.

For Lt. Wilshan and his men, the one week march to cover 496 km was just another day on the job. 




   

[Delfos]

Two trucks on the horizon came to attention to the rear group of the Loyan march. The dirty road through the country-side was awful, and you could tell that 2 hours ago a flock of sheep had just passed. The trucks started beeping from distance, Lt. Wilshan turned his head to see if they wanted anything and distinguished the White Heart logo.

Doctor Lovinic: "Good morning Lieutenant, NDRA said it would be a good idea to watch you guys along the march. I hope there's no problem, yet. Do you all have enough water? You must drink allot, this season is sunny around here."

[Union]

Lt. Wilshan stepped out from formation.

"Sir I will not have you interrupt a LGF training march. I have to ask you to leave. And if you don't, I will report you to the Delfian authorities."

Lt. Wilshan was joined by another lieutenant.

"Gentlemen, I will need to ask you to move along. Our refreshment vehicles need a clear road ahead for us to resupply our troops with water. Please move along."

Wilshan added, "You heard the man, we already have water. Uh, now look! I have to run to back to my unit because of you. Thanks a lot dickshit!"

As Wilshan jogged off to get back in formation, he heard his fellow colleague apologize to the White Heart driver.

"What was that about Lieutenant?" a private asked.

"A couple of Dellies blocking the road, complete dick wads."

"You don't say? Haha."

"How you feeling kid? this march getting to you?"

"Don't worry about me Lieutenant, I'm young and restless....you're the one getting old and brittle..." the private replies.

"One more word, and I'll break your cheer leading baton in half..."

"Oh! Burn Miyo!" another private blurts out.

The march continues on till night fall. At the end of it, the Loyanese set up camp along the side of the road. They would had prefer a wide open field, but they doubt any sane farmer in his right mind will lease out his field in the middle of growing season.

The endless row of sleeping bags formed a line stretching 5 kilometres along the country road. Officers unloaded portable lamps from contracted trucks and set them along to outer edge of the emergency lane, to warn any passing cars that there were men sleeping on the side. If one looks off in the distance, you can see the glow of a hundred lamps form a long white dotted line across the edge of the road.

Delfian roads were well made, so the Loyanese had the joy of sleeping on dry flat tarmac that night. As the men slept, officers attempt to find lodging for their troops for the next coming days. As usual, they were the last to sleep.

 






 

[Osamafune]

Konstantinos VI began heading back to the docks. Along the way, he continued to muse over the operation. He was thinking about how the troops would position themselves. Each nation could be given zones to protect, but the forces would be distributed unevenly. Collosea had brought very few vehicles with them, so either other nations would have to lend them to us or distribute each nation's forces more evenly. But then the language and cultural barrier comes into effect, hampering communcation, and preventing the force to operate cohesively.

Thankfully, that's one of the reasons everyone is coming to Delfos. To train on how to work together and fight as one and to determine how the soldiers will be deployed. But needless to say, there were now more bad vibes than good ones.

Konstantinos came to the three regiment commanders who were waiting for him to return. "So where are we to go?" One of them asked Konstantinos.

"South to the railroad station. That will take us to Plorisk. Move everyone down there and begin boarding the train." he answered. The commanders marched off to the men. Konstantinos flagged a CUCV and rode it down to the train station.





Their breath of fresh air was a much needed one, but only if they could have gotten more of it. Immediately after disembarking the cramped transports, they were immediately packed into an even more cramped train.

"Well isn't this a load of bullshit..." Minoa II remarked. "It's about as bad in here as it was in the ship."

A deep voice came from the booth directly behind Minoa."Would you cut the shit already? It's not helping." It said.

Minoa's face turned red with anger. He recognized the voice; it was Pyrros V. Minoa and Pyros knew each other since their freshman year in high school, but they have never exactly been on good terms. "If you've got something to say to me, Pyrros, say it to my face!"

"Cool it bud," Trikoupis interjected. "Save it for the enemy."

"Do you even know who we're fighting?" asked Yannis IX, Pyrros's fire team partner. "Do you even know if we're going to be fighting anyone?"

"Yeah, they haven't told us shit..." answered Trikoupis disappointingly. "For all any of us knew, this is just an elaborate training exercise."

The train passed a barbed wire fence and began to slow down. Soon they could see a few large wooden buildings against a stark country side and the fatigues of other soldiers. "Is this some kind of military base?" Minoa asked as the train came to a halt.

"Of course it is, why else would all of these soldiers be here?" Pyrro said in a smart-assed way as if it had been obvious.

Minoa felt the heat rise in him. "Ignore him" Trikoupis whispered to him, though not really caring if anyone else heard it.

A voice came over the loud speaker. "All soldiers are to disembark the train immediately. Your platoon leader will tell you where to go after getting off. Welcome to Plorisk, men."