Brotherhood of Misfits [READ ONLY]

28 August 1943
6:02 am
Tuesday
Marstadt barracks, Frundsberg, Illderia

By the 28th I was with my old company. They were my brothers-in-arms. We were standing in formation waiting for our company CO. He was notoriously harsh and disciplined, but still he was late.

I was assessing the strength of our squads in my head, when I heard a loud scream. "ATTENTION!" In that moment you could hear 200 men grabbing their rifles and moving into attention. The only thing you could hear was a fly buzzing in front of your nose. Finally Kommandant Austerlitz showed up and began inspecting the men. He started with 3rd Platoon, commenting on their appearance and equipment and worked his way up to us. He was the type of man who could point out the tiniest mistake and would revoke your leave. Everybody in the company respected Austerlitz, but at the same time everybody hated him. You knew that he was the biggest asshole in the battalion, but if bullets started flying, he wouldn't lose a single man.

He eventually worked his way up to me. "Rank name, designation?" he asked.

"Obersargent David Schar, Platoon headquarters, 1st Platoon" I said

"Obersargent, your rifle" said Austerlitz and followed up with a question "When did you clean your rifle?"

"Yesterday sir!" I replied confidently. "Get some glasses Feldwebel, there's dirt on the receiver" followed up Austerlitz. "You want end up home after this?"

"Yes, sir!" I said with enthusiasm.

"Well, not with this, get your shit together." said Austerlitz with disapintment and continued down the line.

You had to be as confident as you could if you were confronting Kommandant Austerlitz or his personality would just wash you away like water a sandcastle.

After another minute of inspection the major stood before the company. "Men!" he shouted "I know you are not happy that your lives have been cut short by a traitor who decided to break the silence. Some of your fellow brothers in the north-east even took up arms with him. If you don't know already, I'm talking about Nicola Furrer, a fasisct reichpe* who decided that he didn't have enough power. To our current knowledge, Viceroy Adriaan Schwarzburg has been evacuated and both Könignau and Fellburg has been stormed by rebel forces. At this time the Chancellor is presumed dead and the Mintorian garrison retreated to Amsterburg. For the next 3 month our job will be to stabilize Saafburg in case any uprisings or unrest happen. Without the province, General Goldreich's troops will be unable to move into Hadenburg safely. We're moving off tomorrow at 0800 hours, so be prepared."

He said his whole speech with one breath. By looking just a few ranks to my right not everybody was pleased to hear this may result in a major uprising or even civil war. Kommandant Austerlitz's speech was also not the typical, he somehow lost his seriousness within these 2 minutes and you felt a bit of emotion in his voice. The Sergeant-Major yelled "ATTENTION!", Austerlitz saluted, we saluted back and were dismissed. When we mounted the trucks I felt that some of my men were disturbed that this could escalate into a civil war.

By the next day we rolled out of Marstadt and reached Roston, a small town with valuable crossroads. Our orders were to dig in and don't let any rebellious forces through.

When we arrived we took the far eastern positions, so we were responsible for the right flank of the entire regiment. The whole of 2nd battalion was deployed to this thin defensive perimeter, so everyone knew that both Kaiserhall* and the dienst* had something to fear.

------------------------------------------------------------
*Kaiserhall: a metonym for the headquarters of the Kaiserschützen (Commonwealth era Illderian Armed Forces)
*dienst: short for Militärischer Aufklärungsdienst (Military Reconnaissance Service), the predecessor of the KöMI
*reichpe: slang word for the Hadenburg elite

04 September 1943
7:19 pm
Monday
Outskirts of Roston, Frundsberg, Illderia

"Weapons ready!" shouted Austerlitz, after contact was heard over company radio. I got lucky because I was near company HQ when König company encountered light resistance near 2nd platoon. I acted as runner and notified Hersh. All you could hear was the sporadic fighting on our right flank. After a good minute, they started to shell us with artillery. I was trapped at the outskirts of our positions and thankfully could made it to Korporal De Jager's foxhole. For 3 minutes strait they tried to soften up our positions and all I and the corporal could hear was HE shells exploding left an right and the occasional scream from injured soldiers. After the bombardment i jumped out of the foxhole and started screaming at the top of my lungs, "STAY IN YOUR POSITIONS!".

I managed to run to the Leutant's position near the front line. After a brief period of silence, they started to throw smoke and began assaulting from the opposite treeline. Our radio got damaged during the early shelling, so Unterkorporal Marks and I started running across foxholes, Marks between platoon and company HQ and I was trying to hold our line together.

During the first minutes of the assault, they almost cracked our morale, but thanks to Hersh's loud voice and confidence, he held the morale of the front line, and managed to pull of an impressive volley fire that almost decimated their attack. Hersh was a man that grew up in a small farm in Rothienfeld, had a voice that was distinguishable and you could hear it from a mile away and his family is rooted in the military.

As the sun went down and the weather went from chilly to cold, all you could see is tracer rounds flying over your head by both Heimwehr and friendly troops.

After a long firefight, Hersh came up and told me that battalion was about to initiate a counter attack, as tanks from the Imperial Illderian Hussars rolled through Roston.

26 August 1943
2:07 pm
Sunday
Könignau Palace, Hadenburg, Illderia

A young sergeant runs up the stairs within the palace. His face; terrified, scared, worried. He sees his commander at the end of the corridor and shouts:

"OBERST, WE CANT HOLD THEM MUCH LONGER!"

The Colonel Germann looks at the Feldwebel and peeked out of the window. His company of Viceregal guardsmen, most of them pulled from ceremonial duties, trying to hold the main gates of the palace from Furrer's dogs. The commander slams the door open leading into His Excellency's office.

"Your Excellency, it's time."

Governor-General Schwarzburg, casually stood up, put out his cigar and was escorted out by Germann along with members of the Viceregal Guard.

As the minutes passed by the crowd was getting more and more violent. More and more NSP-VF militia and party members were showing up. Once Schwarzburg was evacuated, the guard tried to end the riot. A couple of guardsmen fired warning shots in the air. This was their final mistake and prompted the hate filled soon to be rebels to storm the palace. They managed to climb into the palace gardens while the garrison was firing upon them. Furrer's zealots rushed the front gate, trapping the terrorized guardsmen inside and massacring them along the way.

On one side, fury, on the other fear. A fierce melee ensued. The professional and disciplined guardsmen with all their courage was not enough to hold back the fanatic horde of furrerists trying to incapacitate the dominion administration. One by one, the heroic soldiers of the guard fell. When the last breath of the defenders was heard, by then Governor-General Schwarzburg was escorted to a ship to be evacuated to Falkstone island.

As the palace of the dominion's greatest was evacuated, the whiteshirt militias sacked the nation's cathedral, burning glorious paintings of old heroes, looting and vandalising Illderia's executive stronghold.