Peace Through Infamy [Solaren Theatre]

[Rheinbund]

Southeastern Solaren

Aldo Siciliano was interested in only one thing: His own pleasures. To him, the world was his playground and the people around him his toys. And one of the most gorgeous toys he had was now lying next to him. Aldo realised that he had been very frank to Marco about his deeds in the past and his plans for the future. He wondered why that had happened. Was it love? Really? He, Aldo Siciliano, loved somebody? How would that be possible? In any case, he wanted Marco to be with him. And he was smart enough to see that Marco would flee from him as soon as he would get the chance. Measures were needed. It was needed to make Marco dependent from Aldo. And the most certain way to do so was making Marco a heroin addict.

The doctor of the village had been killed together with the other villagers, but his equipment was still there. Among others an old-fashioned glass syringe with needle attached to it that the doctor had to use for all his injections and punctions and cook out afterwards, simply because he could not afford the disposable needles and syringes that had become the standard in more developed countries. Earlier that day, Aldo had taken it from the doctor’s house. He would cook it out and bring it back the next day. Now he was preparing the heroin shot for Marco.

Marco had already woken up a bit when he felt someone touching his arm. He woke up more when he felt that a ligature was spanned around his arm. He knew the feeling from the times blood had been taken from him for analysis, and from his appendectomy. Was he examined again? But why in the middle of the night, while he wasn’t ill? When the needle was sticked into his arm, he frightened up and pulled his arm away. It was Aldo that handled the syringe. Marco gave him an enormous push. The latter fell against a wall. The syringe fell on the floor and broke to pieces. A book fell off a shelf, exactly on Aldo’s head. The book was heavy enough to knock Aldo out.
Marco cursed. The needle had ripped the vein open over a centimeter. The wound blooded as hell. Marco cut the ligature through, and then looked for something that could function as a bandage. After he had taken care of the wound, he went back to Aldo, who was recovering at that moment. Marco hit him knock‑out. Then he saw the remnants of the syringe lying on the floor, in a puddle of water. Good, he thought, apparently I woke up on time, whatever it was that he wanted to inject.
He also realised that he couldn’t stay any more. He dressed, packed his belongings and a pocket-torch into a small backpack, put a gun between his waistband and left the house. He managed to sneak out of the camp with an off‑the‑road motorcycle. When he was far enough, he started the engine. Back in Senigallia, he had driven over the beach and the hills with an off‑the‑road motorcycle quite a lot of times. Therefore, he knew how to handle a motorcycle. He didn’t have a strict plan, but for now he had to get far away before the rest would find out.

Marco didn’t know what to think of the current situation in his land. Southeastern Solaren was currently occupied by Eiffelland, a country he had only heard of a in a negative sense. At least everyone described it in a negative sense, especially the priests. The most obvious reason was that it did not adhere to the Solaris Catholic Church. Marco didn’t mind that. He didn’t adhere to the Solaris Catholic Church any more, either.
Another reason was the country’s tolerance to homosexuality. The Solaris media described Eiffelland as a country where all the men did it with each other while neglecting the women. As a result, the Eiffellandian women seduced Danish, Polascianan and Winnemarker men to extramarital sex, and in that way morally corrupted those countries as well. That was also why the Eiffellandian men were called bastardi sodomiti. Marco had already learned that you should not always believe what the government told. Therefore, he had already realised that the stories about Eiffelland told by the priests were overexaggerated. But the government always overexaggerated into the correct direction, so that meant that Eiffelland was more or less a good country for homosexuals, so maybe also for him.
But the fact that Eiffelland had prohibited the Solaris Catholic Church was something threatening. What were they after here in Solaren? Were they here to massacre the Solaris? Were they here to force them to abandon Solaris Catholicism? Or were they here only to topple the government?

Marco didn’t know how late it was when he entered a village. The only light source was the headlight of his motorcycle. But he knew that he needed fuel. He drove to the garage. There he found out that the fuel tubes had been locked with chains. He cursed, but then saw a metal bar that fitted in the hole of a link of the chain locking the tube of the fuel kind he needed. The chain was a light one anyway. Marco managed to break it. He took the fuel tube, put it into the tank of his motorcycle, and tanked. He had also taken a bunch of Eiffelland Marks from Aldo. The man had quite a lot of foreign money, mainly Breotish Pounds and Danziger Thalers, but also Eiffelland Marks. After his economy classes at school, he knew how much the money was worth. According to the last exchange rate he knew, the 5000 Lire on the fuel pump would have been 80 or 90 Eiffelland Mark. He estimated that the chain would have cost 2000 Lire, wanted to tip a bit for the annoyance, found out that the smallest banknote he had was a 100 Eiffelland Mark note, and left two of those banknotes behind.
“Ey, che cosa fai?” he heard when he started the engine.
“Il denaro è con la pompa. Ciao,” he screamed while driving away.
The garage owner cursed into the direction where Marco had disappeared, and then walked to the pump. He took the money, looked at the pump and the broken chain, and compared the money in his hands with the price of the fuel on the pump. Well at least the thief had paid.


West of Testono

The Solaris forces did a lot to keep themselves out of sight, but did not completely manage to do so. During the night, it was quite easy with infrared binoculars to find the Solaris forces in the chaparral. And then it was also quite easy to attack them. The Eiffellandians did so several times, lost quite some people because of that, but managed to shoot quite a lot of Solaris soldiers out of the chaparral as well. The occasional hares and rabbits that were shot as collateral damage were fried the next day.
Meanwhile, the attack helicopters were not only active around Testono, but in the neighbourhood of the Eiffellandian troops as well. They managed to track down and attack quite some Solaris troops. The tanks were used against larger groups of Solaris forces.
On both sides, the losses were quite large.

The air force was also patrolling further west of Testono. Occasionally, they found one or more of the groups of Solaris soldiers that tried to encounter the Eiffellandian troops near Testono. They also found some larger forces on the background. Those forces were intensively bombed.

Under the cover of airforce fighters, a first contingent of 10,000 additional troops was dropped west of Testono.


Area between Tegeata and Testono

The armed forces managed to break through, despite severe resistance by the Solaris armed forces. They were still far from Testono though. It was estimated that they could reach the troops near Testono in 2 to 2.5 weeks.


OOC: Translations:
Ey, che cosa fai = Hey, what are you doing.
Il denaro è con la pompa = The money is near the pump.
Accidenti che denaro = what an amount of money.

OOC: One Eiffelland Mark is about one Euro. I wanted to make it easy for myself.

 

[Rheinbund]

West of Testono

A large numer of armoured infantry vehicles were delivered to the troops west of Testono. The vehicles had come from Southeastern Solaren. This was the quickest way to deliver them. Meanwhile, other armoured infantry vehicles were flown over from Eiffelland to Southeastern Solaren. Also the remaining part of the 10,000 additional troops arrived. Now a group of 15,000 soldiers were preparing themselves to take the city. Their primary purpose for this moment was still blocking the city off of the remainder of Solaren. Therefore, it was of utmost importance that the small insurgencies by Solaris troops were encountered successfully. That indeed happened, with the help of the air force, which intensively bombed all the units of the Solaris armed forces that it could find.


Testono

An enormous amount of papers was dropped over the city. It stated:

Dear citizens of Testono,

Why fighting this battle? For Solaren? Or for Pope Urban? You worship him because he is your Pope, but what did he do? Nothing but twisting Christianity and misusing his position as God’s Deputy in Solaren for his own greeds. And he is even willing to burn your country for that.

The EDF and Carentania want to bring the principles of Real Christian Justice to your country in the form of the Constitutional State. Currently the EDF is showing its intentions in Southeastern Solaren. The result is peace and stability under which your fellow-Solaris are building on a prosperous future. The EDF is even sponsoring a cancer hospital there. Furthermore, it is our intention to give your independence back as soon as Solaren can stand on its own feet again.

At a time point only known to us, we will attack Testono to conquer it. We want to spare the city from destruction and devastation, but don’t know if we can. Which choice are you going to make? Fight for a Pope that is only interested in his own desires and risking the destruction of your city? Or surrender and prepare yourself for Post‑War Solaren? Testono was bombed, but three‑quarters of its buildings are intact. That is a better basis to start your new life in Post‑War Solaren than a devastated city.

If all armed forces present in Testono, both the official and the unofficial ones, the Testono‑er police and the Testono‑er city government, surrender to us, we will spare the city, repair the damage inflicted by us and treat you the way we treat the people in Southeastern Solaren. That is our offer. There is no time limit for you to decide on it, but once we will attack.

There will be a Post‑War Solaren. It is up to you to decide how it will look like.

On behalf of Sir Edwin Wolfe, Secretary General of the EDF,

Matthias Graf von Seydewitz, Chancellor of Eiffelland

Meanwhile, the sending frequencies of the Solaris television broadcasters used in and around Testono were hacked to broadcast this message together with a documentary showing that normal life had started again in Southeastern Solaren and how the Eiffellandians helped the people there to build up the country again. The radio frequencies were hacked as well for the same purpose.


Area between Tegeata and Testono

The Eiffellandian armed forces were facing severe resistance by the Solaris armed forces. Furthermore, boobytreps became a problem more and more. People with one or both legs ripped off were transported to the field hospitals. The Eiffellandian surgeons were very good, but in those cases it was impossible to save the leg.
Despite the Solaris resistance, the Eiffellandians managed to gain terrain. They would be near Testono by Christmas. Or maybe even IN Testono.


Venetian Bay

Piracy was still a problem in these waters. The Eiffellandian Navy had a lot to do w.r.t. that. After the attempt to hi‑jack the F‑10 weeks ago, arrested pirates were cuffed on hands and feet, taken off the ship as soon as possible and trialed in Eiffelland. Most of them were sentenced to forced labour in the coal mines.
Prince Karl still served on the F‑10, but now with a medal. He had been awarded the Ehrenkreuz II. Klasse des Militärischen Albrecht‑Ordens, named after the first King of Eiffelland from the House of Dietz‑Hadamar.


Southeastern Solaren

With the help of Prof. Sauerbruch and Dr. Simiak, Dr. Camici and Dr. Petruzello had setup a cancer hospital. The first patients were already treated there. One patient was a very special case: It was the 22 year old Maurizio Luca de Perugia, the only son of the Duke of Perugia. He had a testis carcinoma that had metastasised through his complete body. When Camici and Simiak saw him, their first thought was that the boy would live for not more than a few days. A testis carcinoma is easy to heal even if the tumour has metastasised, but in this case Simiak feared that they had come too late. The treatment had been started anyway. The first cycle caused some improvement in the sense of tumor regression.

Meanwhile, Prof. Sauerbruch had found a new project. He had discovered that AIDS was quite a problem among Solaris homosexuals. Actually, it had taken the form of the epidemic like it was in Eiffelland during the 1980s. And the Solaris were as hysteric about it as the Eiffellandians were during the 1980s. But the problem was worse. During the 1980s, Eiffellandian homosexuals generally did not need to hide their homosexuality, so most of them did not have an alibi-wife while secretly doing it with men. But that was different in 2011 Solaren. Most homosexuals had to hide their homosexuality, so most homosexuals were married. If a married homosexual was HIV-positive, he had almost always passed the disease on to his wife as well. With regards to this, the Solaris were lucky that they lived in a theocracy: Sex outside marriage was so frowned upon that most Solaris didn’t cheat on their spouses. Only the homosexuals did so, for obvious reasons.
Sauerbruch’s adress booklet was helpful again. After a number telephone calls, he had arranged Dr. Weitz, a retired infectiologist specialised in HIV, to come over, lots of AIDS medication, and lots of materials for an education campaign. But this was a more difficult problem. Homosexuality was still a taboo in Southeastern Solaren. How to reach the homosexuals if they hode themselves?


Il Cancello

The battles on this island were still extremely severe. Not only the soldiers but also the inhabitants fought as if the Eiffellandians would chew on them like the devil chewed on Brutus, Cassius and Judas in the 9th Circle of Dante’s hell. With much air support, the Eiffellandians managed to gain terrain, but it went very slowly.


Southeastern Solaren

Marco Gambini had driven around on his motorcycle for a few days. He had seen a lot. The thing he was most surprised about was the fact that normal life had resumed again. Indeed, there were shortages, but less than you would expect in a former war zone. And the country was less devastated than you would expect in a former war zone. During his time with the partisans, he had already wondered about that in the villages he had to raid, but now he even wondered about that even more.
Now he was in a town that had approximately the size of Senigallia. He was in a pub, where he was eating a small meal. The television had been turned on. He saw images of a village that had been burned down, by partisans according to the news reader. Marco shivered when he saw the images. He knew that it was his group. He also knew that he had to stop them one way or the other. If those weapons Aldo had talked about would be delivered, those partisans could raid villages for yet another couple of months.
Marco wanted to notify the police, but there was one thing he hesitated about. His brother was still with the partisans, prepared to die for Pope Urban. Betraying the partisans would also mean betraying his brother. Marco felt very bad about that. Then he looked at the television again. Meanwhile, there was another news item, but Marco still remembered the images on the television. He also remembered what he had seen during the raids he had taken part in. The image of a 7 year old child looking into the barrel of the gun his brother was holding. His brother sadisticly laughing and pulling the trigger. It was terrible. Was that guy still worth Marco’s brother‑love? The longer he thought about it, the more he had to confess that his brother was not.
“Terrible how they raided that villages, isn’t it?” the bartender said to Marco while he cleaned the table. Marco had to overcome something when he started to talk.
“Indeed. And for what?” Marco asked.
“Because the villagers cooperated with the Eiffellandians,” the bartender said.
“Only because of that?” Marco asked.
“Yes,” the bartender said. “OK, cooperating with the Eiffellandians is treason, but to answer that in such a way...”
“Indeed, that is despiccable,” Marco agreed. “Could you tell me, how is life under the Eiffellandians?”
“You yourself should know,” the bartender said.
“I have been away for half a year,” Marco said. “So I don’t know what happened in the meantime.”
The bartender thought for a moment. Then he started to talk.
“We were a bit afraid in the beginning, but it appeared that the Eiffellandians are not really bad masters. They came with quite a lot of help goods. Our Church is forbidden in Eiffelland, but nothing like that here. The priests were forbidden to preach violence, but for the remainder the Church is still in working order. The priests are even allowed to condemn the Eiffellandians. But nevertheless the Eiffellandians are occupiers,” the bartender said.
“Is there an Eiffellandian garrison in this town?” Marco asked.
The bartender indicated where it was. Marco thanked for the information and drove to the garrison to turn himself in as a member of the partisans.

 

[Khemia]

Testono
As the leaflets were dropped over the city, anti-aircraft guns ripped into the sky. Brilliant streamers, shoulder-launched rockets, and other such air defenses targeted the blasphemous infidels in the sky. "Guru Gu" as he had become known could only shut his ears as the thunder of the batteries shattered the peace of the air, and watch in frustration as the leaflets littered the city. He knew that any individual caught carrying a pamphlet was suspect to blasphemy and treason, and many would be killed. He had planned this in advance, he knew that he needed to breed, here in Testono, a society of zealots. Tolerance for Western propaganda was non-existent. In defiance of the Eiffellander, a giant cross was burned into the grass of the central park with bleach, demagogues and priests denouncing Eiffelland and stirring the people into a fanatical frenzy. The weapons manufacturer, unable to produce significant quantities of tanks or artillery, was now producing large quantities of small explosives and distributing them to zealots and members of the militia, civil defense, and Army.

Testono would not be an easy victory. Gu, and the entirety of the Solaren people who were not laying dead on the ground for their unorthodoxies, had determined that Testono would become a slice of Hell on Earth for any infidel. The foreigners would begin to taste the bitterness of an occupation, the first circle of Gu's personal Hell that would only unravel like an onion the further the foreigners pushed into Solaren.

West of Testono
Truck-mounted infared missiles, autocannons of various calibres, and ground-based radar jammers, though dated in design and operational capacity, opened fire on every Eiffellander aircraft that encroached upon them. Able to stay mobile because of their light frames, they were able to reposition as consecutive Eiffellander sorties sought to strike at them. They were the last line of defense of a military that had all-but-lost its static AA defense network, but they were still far more effective than nothing. However, to the credit of the skill and technology of the Eiffellander pilots, many of the outdated tanks and vehicles of the Solaren combat force were rendered ineffective. What was worse, the supply lines were being disrupted because of the attacks, and the inexperienced Solaren commanders did not have the patience to exercise caution. An all-out attack was ordered by command, and many of the officers followed the command.

It quickly became apparent to the Eiffellander force that the Solaren reinforcements being redeployed from the Red Line with Lorraine were larger than anticipated. Of the thirty thousand troops arrayed for battle, twenty thousand commenced the attack, alongside two hundred tanks and another five hundred armored vehicles. A lack of organization, disruption of communication, and panic caused the other ten thousand to form an impromptu rearguard. There was little in the way of an overall operational plan - each commander pursued their own favored tactics and objectives, some more aggressive commanders thrusting directly into the attack while other, more conservative military minds attempted to feign and draw the Eiffellander troops into traps. The lack of coordination among the Solaren forces would doubtlessly be confusing to the Eiffellander military commanders, who would need to defend against the attack as well as keep a mind towards the forces still in Testono.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Rijeka, Carentania

"Come on in, dear, my husband should be ready any moment."

Mrs. Bizjak greeted Commander Hafner warmly, welcoming her to the apartement in Rijekas west end. It was a honest warmth and a sincere smile on the face of this friendly woman. Albeit a bit homely and unambitious at heart, she was an intelligent woman. She knew well of the competition, yes, hostility between her husband and Milena Hafner. Hafners ambitions for her husbands post in the High Command were an open secret, far beyond the confines of the military offices the like of Hafner, Bizjak and Krajnc occupied, but it bothered Mrs. Bizjak little. Never had she thought of involving herself in these struggles for influence, for all she cared, it was a competition of opinions, voiced by experts vying for influence within the Workers' Republic. Experts on a subject she herself knew too little about to ever meddle in these power games.

"Can I get you something to drink while you wait?"

Milena Hafner walked into the living room, taking off her cap as she entered. "A coffee, please, if that's not too much effort. Thanks," she nodded at Mrs. Bizjak as she carefully stepped towards the center of the room with the disciplined composure of someone who had spent her life in the army. Held under her right arm, alongside her cap, was a massive folder, sealed with a chain lock and labeled "classified" in bold red letters. This was an unpleasant visit for her, as her suspicious eyeing of the three doors to the living room would've revealed to any careful observor. Were it not for professional matters, she would have never made this visit. For all Commander Hafner cared, she wanted to be as far away as possible from Bizjak. Unlike Mrs. Bizjak, he knew that Hafners animosity towards him was not purely out of disagreement over military issues, nor just competitive spirit of an ambitious rising star. Hafner had always despised Bizjaks way of claiming the glory of the success of his subordinates, while shoving the responsibility for failure upon them. She himself had become victim of this sneaky ability in the past.

Suddenly, Hafners eyes seized hold of a little girl, curiously but shy, glancing at her from behind a doorframe. The familiarity to Mrs. Bizjak was unmistakeable and this was without doubt the Commanders daughter, the little Natasha which Hafner had heard about before. Barely eight years old, Milena Hafner could not blame her for being a little intimidated by a stranger in her house, especially someone in uniform and carrying a weapon - the pistol at her belt was quite noticeable, even for an eight year old girl. Commander Hafner smiled at the girl, causing her to shy away at first as Natasha realized she had not been as good at hiding as she thought. Then, however, she stepped back into Hafners eyesight, carefully approaching the tall woman.

"Are you a friend of my daddy?"

"A friend?" Hafner was unsure what to reply. She wasn't fond of lying to children, but she couldn't exactly tell the kid she hated her fathers guts either. "We work together. I'm Milena, nice to meet you," she offered the little girl her handshake, which Natasha, slowly gaining more confidence, returned.

"You wear the same clothes as him. Are you a general too?"

"Yes, your father is my superior. That means he can tell me what to do."

"My father often tells me what to do as well. I don't like it," Natasha said with an innocence as only a child could possess it. "Do you like doing what my father says?"

Hafner smiled. She had always liked kids, but none of her own. Too busy, she had always told herself. "If you promise not to tell your father, I'll tell you a secret," she said and little Natasha Bizjak nodded eagerly. "I don't like it either. But sometimes, we have to do it, because your father is right. So I listen to him, and you should, too."

Mrs. Bizjak returned to the room, accompanied by the Commander himself. She kissed him goodbye first, then turned to Milena Hafner. "Here is your coffee, just take it along. My husband told me you are both in a hurry to make it in time for your appointment with the Commissar."

"Thank you, Mrs. Bizjak," Milena said, taking the cup into her left hand while still holding unto the folder and her cap with the right arm. "We are indeed in a bit of a hurry, because we need to pick up Rosenberg before driving to the Commissariate. I wish you a nice day, Mrs. Bizjak." She turned to Natasha. "And you too, little lady." Natasha cautiously waved her goodbye as Hafner left the apartement together with her father.

"I can't emphasize enough how important this meeting is," Commander Bizjak began discussion of the professional matters at hand immediately. He knew well there was little in terms of smalltalk he could ever share with Commander Hafner, so he focussed on functioning. "With the All-Workers Congress at our doorstep, we need to prepare our report and coordinate our speeches in front of the Congress or we may lose political support for our campaign. The results of such a failure would be devastating. We have lost hundreds of good men and women in this war and we must make sure it was not in vain, simply because of some defeatist hippies trying to drum up support for a hasty peace."

"I can't agree more," Hafner said, uninterested. "As you can see in my reports, the war is almost won. Solaren forces are returning to the core land and we are seizing large areas in the south-west. With the main force of the Solaren force falling back at such a speed, we are quickly making gains, but securing those is proving to be troublesome still. The problem is not troop strength, forces are arriving at the ports of liberated Solaren at exactly the rate our plans have foreseen. We are lacking in infrastructure to coordinate the occupation of such large areas and will have to focus on building the necessary structures to provide for the wellbeing of the civilian population, locate Solaren loyalist elements and crack down on partisan efficiently. No major offensive operation against Testono, the southern gate to Torrence, will be launched until we can solve our problems with occupying the south. Solaren forces are quite obviously preparing for a major battle at Testono, as is Eiffelland. We could let them wear down the defenders in Testono until we have finished our own preparations, arriving just in time to finish off the defenders at Testono and proceed with Operation Kraken."

Operation Kraken was the name the Carentanians had given for their plans for the final assault on Torrence. Before it was to happen, Carentanian forces would have to break through Testono in the south and begin another amphibious operation based on Iscla in the north. Finally, highly mobile units would gather to the west of La Spina, crossing the mountains directly towards Torrence in a completely unexpected move, meaning that Torrence will be besieged from three different directions in a final battle between the Arch-Reactionary and his enemies. Before that could occur, however, the Workers' Republic would have to succesfully complete the operations it was preparing on Iscla, while not missing the narrow window of opportunity at which they could take Testono as their own.

"The war is drawing closer to an end and I think we can honestly emphasize the proximity to peace when talking to the Congress. Our landing in the north-east of Solaren will be initiated shortly before the Congress, just in time for the first success reports to come in before the delegates make their decision. I hope this is sufficient on my part."

Commander Bizjak nodded calmly. "Yes, it sounds thoroughly acceptable. Let's wait and hear what Rosenberg has to say about the operations."

 

[Rheinbund]

Southeastern Solaren
14 December 2011

“And were you yourself involved in the raids as well?” Staatsschutzkommissar Tobias Kohl asked Marco Gambini.

A village was raided. Marco manoeuvered himself away from the first lines in the hope that nobody would notice that he didn’t participate. He didn’t succeed this time. He found himself back in a school, a machine gun in his hands. He was dragged into a class‑room. The guy that had dragged him opened fire and shot the teacher and all the children. The class‑room was turned into a bloody mess of dead corpses ripped open. Marco almost fainted at the sight of it. He was dragged out of the class‑room.
“Why weren’t you firing?” the other guy asked.
Marco shaked on his legs. He didn’t feel capable of producing a word.
“Hey, I asked you something,” the other guy said.
“They were just children,” Marco muttered softly.
“They were children of traitors, prone to become traitors themselves,” the other guy said. Then he dragged Marco further.

“Marco?” Kohl asked. He had seen how Marco turned into himself. It took a minute before the latter started to talk again.
“One of the partisans just massacred a school‑class,” Marco told. “Now he drags me to the office of the schoolmaster and tells me to shoot him. I refuse, but I get a gun against my head. So I fire.” He paused some moments, and then continued. “I didn’t want to, but I fired because I was afraid to die myself. During all the previous raids, I managed to keep myself away from the shootings, but not this time.” Marco paused again, before he said: “The answer is yes. I was involved in the raids. Most of the times I managed to manoeuver myself away from the massacres, but not that time.”
“When did happen what you just told?” Kohl asked.
“About a month ago,” Marco answered.
“And what happened after that?” Kohl asked.
“Does the name Aldo Siciliano ring a bell?” Marco asked.
“Aldo Siciliano?” Kohl asked. He knew the name. And he knew that he used to be the highest police officer in Southeastern Solaren. After the Eiffellandians had conquered Southeastern Solaren, the stories about Aldo Siciliano’s deeds started to seep through. Stories the Eiffellandians were very much interested in. Stories from people who told that Siciliano and some of his subordinates had forced them to sleep with them so that the charges against them would be lifted. That was something the Eiffellandians wanted to charge him for in the name of those people. But his name was also mentioned in conjunction with drugs. There were even vague indications that he was involved in drug cases in Eiffelland. But Kohl didn’t want to show that he knew the name of Aldo Siciliano. He wanted to see how much Marco would tell about him.
“Aldo Siciliano,” Marco repeated. “He used to be a high police officer in Southeastern Solaren, until the war started. Now he is the number two of the partisans, after the priest.”
Kohl remained silent. He also wanted to know the name of the priest, but first he wanted to hear Marco out about Aldo Siciliano.
“Aldo told me that the others wanted to shoot me, because they had started to doubt about my commitment to the partisans’ case. He offered me to save his life, but then I had to sleep with him. From then onwards, I lived in his house and slept with him every night.” Marco paused for some moments. Then he continued. “When he made me that offer, he triumphantly told me how he had made a fortune by smuggling things that were forbidden here in Solaren, and how he used his position in the police to cover up his smuggling affairs. Later on, he told me that he would buy weapons for the partisans in exchange for drugs, and that he would leave the country while doing so.”
This was interesting news for Kohl. This meant that they had to be quick with trying to localise the partisans. Unfortunately, Marco wasn’t very precise about the place where they were hiding, although he had told everything he knew.
“When would that exchange take place?” Kohl asked.
Marco started to calculate. “Aldo told me about it 10 days ago. He said that the exchange would take place 2 weeks after that. That would mean this weekend. Or earlier,” he said.
“I have to pass this information through immediately, Marco,” Kohl said. “I will come back to you after I notified my bosses. There are some other things I have to ask you.”

Marco had given a lot of information up to now. Kohl was happy about it, although quite a lot needed to be checked. Furthermore, Marco did the conversation in German, and good German. Apparently he had learned it at school and now was eager to practice it. Kohl had already experienced that most Solaris only speak Italian. Only the upper class also spoke French, German and English. So that meant that Marco was a member of the upper class. But how did he land with the partisans then?
And did he realise how difficult his position was? He was and remained an ex‑partisan. This meant that he was a suspect in all the raids committed by the group he used to be a member of. Although Eiffellandian prosecutors and judges would take the fact that he spontaneously told everything he knew into account, his legal position was weak. It had been naive of him to just start talking. It would have been better for him if he would have offered the information in exchange for a chief witness status. But he didn’t. He just started talking. Why?

After he had informed his superiors, Kohl went back to the room where Marco was sitting.

“I have some more questions to you. First one out of pure interest. Before we went to Solaren, we all followed crash courses Italian, because we knew that most Solaris only speak Italian. But you speak German as one of the few Solaris here, and you speak it well. Where did you learn it?” Kohl asked.
“At school,” Marco answered.
“But not the standard school here in Solaren,” Kohl said.
“No. My parents knew some people who could arrange that I attended the Liceo in Senigallia,” Marco said.
‘So you’re not from the elite,” Kohl concluded.
“No, but my parents run an upper class hotel. Therefore, they knew the right people,” Marco said.
“Do you already know what you want to become?” Kohl asked.
“Yes. I want to become a doctor. Healing people is what I want to do,” Marco said. “I hope I can still do so after the war is over.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Kohl said. “One more question. We already heard a lot about the partisan group you were a member of. Among others that it is run by a priest. We know where he was the village priest, but we don’t know his name. Strangely enough, the people of his village don’t know his name, either. They refer to him as ‘the priest’, because that was the way he wanted to be called. Do you by accident know his name?”
“No, I can’t help you with that,” Marco said. “I don’t know if anybody else know his name, but everybody calls him ‘the priest’ as well. Even Aldo Siciliano. I doubt if even he knows the priest’s name.”
“OK. One last question. Why are you so open? Why do you tell everything you know? We came to your country as enemies, and you cooperate with us as if we were your best friend,” Kohl said.
“Actually, I didn’t know what I could expect. Our faith is still forbidden in Eiffelland, and that is ominous to me. Are you against us as Solaris, or is there a different reason for that? Are you here to massacre us, to enslave us, to convert us to your own faith, or only to topple the government?” Marco asked. “On the other hand, the Solaris partisans kill Solaris, their own people. In the worst kind of way. That has to be stopped. At this moment, you are the only ones capable to stop them, and I already found out that you are willing to stop them. And there is also another side to this story. I have been in love several times. On guys. Always classmates. But I had to keep that silent. Homosexuals died at the stake here. Why should I be loyal to a system that wants me dead? But I couldn’t say that to my brother when he dragged me into the partisan army. My first time was with Michele, the son of the mayor of Mazara. He was executed. This spring I was in love with a classmate, Gianni, who asked me to meet in the Giardino San Vicenze. That was the meeting place of Senigallia’s homosexuals. The evening I went there, the park was raided by the police. Gianni was shot while we attempted to escape. Later on, Aldo Siciliano told me that I had been followed. He had tortured my name out of Michele, so he knew that I am a homosexual, and then he had used me to find out who the homosexuals of Senigallia were and where they met.” Marco paused for some moments. Then he continued. “Destroy the system that wants to burn people because they want to live in the only way they can become happy, stop the partisans that massacre their own people, even small schoolchildren, and kill Aldo Siciliano, the man that killed the people I loved and used me to kill hundreds of people like me. That’s why I’m here.”


Testono
Present day

The anti-aircraft attacks from Testono took several helicopters out of the air. The remaining targeted all the aircraft guns they could target and fired. It was not clear to the Eiffellandians what was happening in Testono itself, but should they have known what Guru Gu was doing, the decision not to risk any Eiffellandian soldier but simply burn the city down would have been much easier.


West of Testono
Present day

Some of the Eiffellandian aircraft were shot down by the Solaris, but that did not stop the Eiffellandian air force. The attacks from the air were continued, more fiercely than ever. The reinforcement units were continuously attacked from the air.
The Solaris tanks outnumbered the Eiffellandian tanks by 4 to 1, but the Eiffellandian tanks were far more advanced than the Solaris ones. It was the same story w.r.t. armoured vehicles. Meanwhile, quite a lot had been delivered, but also the Solaris had more of those. On the plus side, the Eiffellandians had a lot of anti‑tank weapons, bazooka’s, and so on and knew how to use that equipment in such a way that they could fire at a tank and quickly run away. In general, the Eiffellandian equipment was far more advanced than the Solaris equipment. Furthermore, the Eiffellandians were strategicly much better than the Solaris. They fought in a structured way and mostly managed to stay away from the tricks of the more cunning Solaris officers. The colonel on the ground had planned it all very well. The only surprise was the number of Solaris forces. An Eiffellandian victory would not be certain, and if the Eiffellandians would win, they would not be able to attack the city any more without the reinforcements that were fighting themselves from Southeastern Solaren to Testono.
Attack helicopters assisted the Eiffellandian soldiers on the ground. Multirole fighters opened fire on the Solaris troops that were fleeing and continued to attack the supply routes of the Solaris. Also the mobile anti-aircraft units were continuously attacked. If it was impossible to precision-bomb them, a 1 km² area was set to fire to make sure that the vehicle was caught. Furthermore, the air force made sure that no-one could leave Testono.


Southeastern Solaren
Present day

They had driven for two days, but now they were at the place for the deal. Heroin and cocaine for weapons. The Solaris Catholic Church rejected drugs in sharp words, but didn’t see a problem if drugs were used to poison the heretics. Or in this case, if they were used to buy weapons. The priest had given his blessing to all the people involved in this operation before they had driven away.
Aldo Siciliano was in the first truck. He was mad because Marco had left him. It was a pity that he woke up too early, otherwise Aldo would have had him in his hands. Where was Marco now? Had he betrayed everything to the Eiffellandians? That would be bad. Not that Aldo cared for the partisans. They were only his vehicle to get out. But that could only succeed if the Eiffellandians wouldn’t meddle with his affairs.
Four large helicopters had already landed. The partisans loaded the drugs from the trucks into the helicopters. At the end, one of the partisans asked Aldo: “A small question. We would trade those drugs for weapons. Where are the weapons?”
“Indeed, Aldo, where are the weapons?” a second partisan asked. All the other partisans walked to the helicopters, of which the engines were started.
“Oh, indeed, the weapons,” Aldo said. Meanwhile, he had grabbed a submachine gun. “They will come later. But here you already have the ammunition.” He let his submachine gun rattle and shot all the partisans. Then he climbed into one of the helicopters and ordered to lift off.

“We found the partisan camp,” Staatsschutzkommissar Tobias Kohl told Marco. “And we attacked it. We managed to capture the priest and six partisans. We are currently interrogating them. The weapons delivery you talked about has never reached the camp. We found some trucks several hundreds of kilometers away from the partisan camp. Empty. The drivers had all been shot. We have to assume that it was never Aldo’s intention to deliver any weapons. He probably used the partisans to get his drugs out of the country and shot them all as soon as he didn’t need them any more.”
“I knew that the man is a monster, but I never considered him capable of that,” Marco said. “What happened further?”
“Siciliano tried to get out of the country with his drugs by helicopter but we captured him. We are currently interrogating him and the people with him. He will be trialed.”
Marco remained silent for some seconds. Then he asked: “What happened to the partisans?”
“Almost all of them fought themselves dead. I don’t know if we managed to rescue your brother,” Kohl said. “I will see that I get some pictures of the partisans we captured, but there is a high chance that your brother is dead. I’m sorry.”

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Flumincini, outside Torrence

Red, green, and baby blue bunting adorned the street lights. These Solaris sure celebrated Christmas oddly though Agent Debono. Aged 46, Debono was a former police officer. He had worked as a property crimes investigator for 15 years before being recruited by the SIO to track bootleg merchandise and the criminal syndicates. Now in the midst of war, regular crime took a back seat. Flumincini was a slightly more affluent suburb. While not home to the wealthy Bishops, Cardinals, and high level government workers; Flumincini was full of their families and retired generals. Debono sat in a car down the street the house to watch. His white station wagon was the perfect vehicle. Not too flashy but not out of place. His forged papers read that he was a real estate developer from Danzig. He filled the car with arbitrary maps of water tables and soil content. The map in front of him covered all the side streets in the area but he had them memorized. Any number he wrote could simply be a soil number of home value. If anyone checked the office number in his business card it would go to an empty office in Danzig staffed with a lowly SIO clerk who would answer 'Tylo Real Estate'. Debono's biggest worry was the local police. Solaris intelligence was in such a way that a boy scout could infiltrate a number of low security facilities.

Debono watched. People came and went from the home. Something was going on. They came and went over a period of hours. A moving truck came and people moved boxes inside but then Debono saw it. Every box that went in seemed weightless. He glanced at his watch and marked a time on the map. Something odd was definitely happening here. Debono shifted through some papers and found that the home had been owned by the same person for nearly 20 years. He shuffled through a few more before finding it. Built in 1942. 3 bedroom. Owned by a prominent family that manufactured marble tile. Debono took a drink of his now cold coffee and grimaced. He massaged his temples. There was only a handfull of homes that big on the block. It was only 3 bedrooms but it had a very large basement according to the 1987 square footage tax survey. Debono stroked his chin before checking that his little .22 automatic was at his side and exiting the vehicle. It was time to do some work.

He stepped out with his point and shoot camera and stopped in front of random homes on his way down the block. He stopped to chat with an old lady. He could not remember if she was the widow of the now late General Tomasino or was the sister of Bishop whats his name. It didn't matter. She was cheerful, speaking in broken English. He explained to her that he was contracted to do an independent valuation of the land for a firm in Jurzan. She was quite delightful and he continued. He approached the men unloading boxes and introduced himself. He could see the men exchange alarmed glances and realizing they had seen him do this, he asked if he had came at a bad time. They all nodded and he responded by giving a quick explanation of his presence and handed them his card. He could see they examined it intently- 'Henrich Schmitz- Senior Field Examiner, Tylo Real Estate. They all nodded and gave a forced 'good day'. Debono continued and took pictures of homes across the street before making back to his car. He spent particular time tracing a womans naked body on a map he spread across the hood. To the men that he knew would be watching him, it would look as if Debono was drawing out some findings. Debono sat for 15 minutes before being satisfied with himself. The car turned over and headed down the street. Tomorrow, another day of pretend.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Flumincini, outside Torrence

Debono's feet made minimal sound on the pavement. It was still a few hours before daylight and Debono took care to park the car a few blocks away. His black button down shirt read 'Tylo Real Estate' on the pocket and it matched well with his black trousers that concealed a little and fiery .22 automatic which he had in an ankle holster. Last night in the rented apartment, he had stumbled over the fact that the registered home owner had to be at least 60 and he had not seen anyone over 35.

Walking on the adjacent block, Debono did his best to watch for lights in the house but due to the other homes and the high fences, he could see nothing. Slowly he looked for any lights. The block appeared quiet. Confident that nobody was yet awake due to the holiday, he opened the gate to the home behind his target house. The large wrought iron gate creaked and Debono winced ans he shut it behind him. The grass was wet with dew. He cursed because somebody keen enough would see his tracks. There was nothing he could do. Debono moved quickly to the shared privacy wall behind the homes. 6ft. He grunted and jumped. He really was too old for this cloak and dagger crap. Slowly he lifted himself down into the backyard of the target house.

It was quiet and Debono hated the quiet. He moved slowly across the back lawn until he sidled up to a kitchen window and peered in. A soft glow from a light above the sink was the only light in the house. Slowly he moved to the door. Debono looked and gauged that if he had to he could make it over the side wall from the door in 3-4 seconds and be over in 6. If any alarm went off he would have to move. The knob turned and without any resistance and to his surprise, it gave. He looked down and frowned. His shoes were slick with the dew. He slowly slid them off and put them as close to the stoop as possible. He also drew his .22. The house felt stuffy. He moved quietly noting the polished marble floor.

Debono saw it. A light. He remembered the floor plan perfectly. He moved to the door and knew the basement lay beyond. He slowly turned the knob and the door cracked open. He listened. There was silence..........and something else.......It hit him immediately. It was the smell of death. Slowly, gun held low, Debono moved down the wooden steps. The unfinished basement was very cool and he could feel it in his feet. There, at the bottom of the stairs he saw it. A body in heavy plastic wrap. It had been here awhile he imagined. He pulled the cover back to see what he guess was what was left of the homeowner, a clean exit wound above the right eye. Grimacing he covered the body and went up the stairs. He found the house to be empty. Square one was hell and now his prints were all over this murder scene.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Iscla

Alano Morello, interim gouvernor of Iscla, was angry. The return of civilians previously evacuated from the island by the Carentanian forces was slow and obviously delayed by the Carentanians, who had stationed several division sized deployments on the small island, crowding it with socialist soldiers. One could barely tell anymore that this was anything but a military outpost of the RDTO, as the Revolutionary Army occupied the majority of buildings, had set up tent-camps elsewhere and built several additional port facilities and airstrips to handle the massive size of its operations - much larger than the Solaren deployment of Iscla ever was. He had heard accusations by the EDF that Carentania was intending to take over Iscla, but he wasn't fully prepared to believe this yet.

The man whose duty was to make sure that the former civil rights activist Morello would not buy into Federation propaganda was Ivan Slavik, the company commander who led the charge upon the island. Assigned as connection officer to the gouvernor, Slavik was relentlessy assuring Morello that the Carentanians were in fact not on the island to stay, but intended to leave for mainland Solaren soon. Then, Slavik told him, Iscla could finally return to normalcy and civilian rebuilding begin. Regardless of this, Slavik knew, many would probably not return to Iscla. To ease the pressure on the Carentanian authorities as well as its logistics, the Carentanians were actively discouring Isclan citizens from seeking return to the island by offering them favourable treatment and the prospect of quicker rebuilding in places like Capraria.

What Slavik could not tell Morello was, that Carentanian troops had already begun its operation in North-eastern Solaren. Assault runs by the Carentanian air force were preparing the area for the actual landing of Marines by destroying Solaren defensive positions, targeting the military infrastructure of the enemy and diminishing its remaining anti-air capabilities in the region. The proximity to the Lorrainese front meant that the EDF had already undertaken several missions against fixed radar positions, anti-air positions and Solaren airfields in the region. Now, Carentania delivered the final blow, relentlessly sending fighter squad after fighter squad into the area, refueling, rearming and switching pilots on Iscla before returning for their next targets.

In the middle of the night, Carentanian marines, supported by air cavalry, would land in Solaren on a broad front. Their primary objective was to establish secure beachheads for armored brigades to enter the combat zone, who would then operate in cooperation with the air cavalry in making rapid gains inlands. Again, the Carentanians intended to surprise the Solaren forces by opening an unexpected new front, keeping their own supply lines short through the undisturbed use of naval routes, while Carentanian air attacks would harass the Solaren infrastructure and disturb its supplies and communications. Behind the mobile units at the front, additional troops would then pour into the liberated territory, setting up a network of bases and standing ready to reinforce the advancing units wherever heavier resistance would be met.

Once this operation was concluded succesfully, there remained little doubt that Torrence would fall to Carentanias Operation Kraken.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Panetelleria, Capraria

The signs of battle could still be seen on the walls of what was once the "Pope Urban School" at the edge of Panetellerias southern suburb. In the past it had been an upper class boarding school where the children of the Solaren elite were taught to both fear and love their spiritual and worldly leader. Fighting had reached the school as Solaren units withdrew to the easily defendable compound, but eventually, they had been surrounded and eliminated by Carentanian paratroopers. At that time, the children at the school had mostly fled to the nearby woods, where Carentanian forces picked them up and brought them to a refugee camp in the city. Only a few unfortunate of the older students had been forced to fight alongside the Solaren soldiers. It had been months now since all this happened, but the school would probably never open again. There was little interest in a boarding school for the wealthy and affluent, while the building itself was too remote to serve as a normal school to the children of Panetelleria.

The Solaren National Congress had other plans for the buildings and their compound, as evidenced by the delegation sent by the SNC to take over the buildings and set up administrative offices there. From within the former principals and teachers offices, the SNC delegation now supervised the renovation of the central buildings and the restructuring of the school compound for new purposes. Its leader could not forego on the chance of dismantling the "Pope Urban School" sign himself and replacing it with one that evidenced the new purposes of the complex.

"Panetelleria Police Academy."

Unimpressive, unimaginative, but functional. There was little pathos in the naming, given the utter lack of true heroes within Solarens recent past. Perhaps after the war, when all the forgotten stories of resistance leaders and oppositionals who were erased from history by Pope Urbans regime would be uncovered, the Police Academy could earn itself a more befitting, a more glamerous name. But for now, all that mattered was to get this operation off the ground. The Carentanian forces viewed the undertaking with as much distrust as their government. Historic reasons had led to a severe distrust of the institution "police", which was literally unknown in Carentania and replaced with an alternative system of law enforcement and civil defense. This view was unique - and it wasn't shared by the SNC, which knew that in the following years, Urban sympathizers would do anything within their might to destabilize the new, free Solaren.

With Carentania utterly opposed to the very idea of a police force, the SNC had turned to other nations to lend them a hand in training the new police corps. Vangala was the first to answer to this call and the Vangalan trainers and teachers would be welcomed warmly by the SNC. Housing set aside for the Vangalans in Panetelleria was favourable and the Carentanians, despite their rejection of the training programme, had reluctantly agreed to let the Vangalans use facillities of the Carentanian soldiers stationed in Panetelleria, including the mess hall and Carentanian food. Anything else could have resulted in a delicate diplomatic incident, given that Vangala was now a full member of the RDTO and could expect some form of cooperation and partnership during a mission that de facto reinforces Carentanias influence in Solaren.

Together with the Vangalans, the delegation would test each recruit extensively. Since the programme offered improved housing and a number of amenities unavailable to the public at this point in the war, many Solaren men and women volunteered, the latter group eyed with some hostility by the first. But amongst them, the SNC was sure, there were many sympathizers or even supporters of Pope Urban. Others may bear hostility towards democratic values and human rights, while a large portion may simply be physically or mentally unfit for the tasks at hand. Sorting them all out would be a job, almost as hard as training the rest will be.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Southern Solaren

The calm of the christmas holidays was over and once again, the Carentanian forces across Solaren had to deal with remnants of Pope Urbans armies and partisans that sought to disturb Carentanian supply lines. It would probably take months before the mainland could be secured thoroughly as the majority of the population remained sympathetic to the cause of the Solaren army. Providing shelter, food and whatever support they could offer in the dire circumstances of a country ravaged by war, the civilian population itself became a dangerous threat to the Revolutionary Army, which reacted with a mixture of harshness and goodwill. Possession of arms was outlawed in the occupied zone under the jurisdiction of martial law and any Solaren citizen aware of a weapons storage obligated to report it to the nearest Carentanian soldier. Carrying a weapon was easily interpreted by the Carentanian checkpoints set up across the occupied areas as intention to attack the Carentanian forces. Additionally, Carentanian troops went from house to house, searching for weapons, explosives, ammunitions and seizing any they found.

Just as they did on the islands they occupied, Carentanian forces set up a network of "watchtowers" in southern Solaren - small military outposts that kept the countryside under surveillance, interrupted partisan movement and served as staging ground for surprise raids against known locations of Solaren resistance. Backed up by quick strike forces focused around the versatile "Firefly" helicopters, even more dedicated attacks by the Solaren remnants could be thwarted through superior mobility and firepower. This, however, also meant that forces from the frontline had to be held back as reserve to combat the threat from irregular forces and remnants hiding amongst the population and in the vast wilderness. As a consequences, advances into the mountaineous regions of La Spina, dependant upon the helicopters of the Air Cavalry, became less dedicated and more erratic.

Carentanian High Command had other priorities than the mountain area. South of Testono, armored and mechanized troops were assembled in preparation of an offensive. Scouting parties infiltrated territory further to the north to provide intelligence on the battle between Solaren and Eiffelländer forces, hoping to identify the precise moment were intervention by the Carentanian forces would mean that the city falls to socialist forces. With the landing in north-eastern Solaren, major offensives in the south, including the attack on Testono, had to be delayed though and it wasn't entirely certain if the preparations for the attack would be finished in time while operations in the north-east were draining ressources. Stockpiles of ammunition and fuel were set up in Mazara to keep a future offensive in supply and, wherever suitable, confiscated Solaren supplies were incorporated. Many of the seized weapons found their way into the stockpiles, serving as emergency backup should the Carentanian forces run out of ammunition to use in the Carentanian-built weapons.

While reinforcements were directed to the north-east and barely any fresh troops arrived in southern Solaren, the Revolutionary Army managed to concentrate two armored brigades, three mechanized brigades and one artillery brigade - 24.000 soldiers in total - to the south of Testono, backed up by the prospect of constant support by multirole fighters and dedicated close-air-support, entering the area from Capraria. Within the Carentanian command level it was hoped that the battle for Testono would be prolonged until the operations in the north-east reached their critical mass and could carry on without delaying the attack on Testono - which in turn would allow Carentania to dedicate additional forces for this crucial breakthrough.

 

[Rheinbund]

Il Cancello
Present day

The fightings on this island had been severe. Extremely severe. Most Solaris soldiers had fought until death. Some had been captured. They had been sent to a PoW camp in Southeastern Solaren. As far as possible, the Eiffellandians had administered the names of the deceased people so that the families could be notified.
But not only the soldiers had fought. The Eiffellandians were still amazed about the enormous number of hay and dung forks on the island. And not only the men fought against the Eiffellandians. The women had shown very clearly that a fry pan has more applications than frying. Even Oberst Böck was attacked by a Solaris woman. Luckily, his helmet was stronger than the fry pan. But the fact that civilians fought against the Eiffellandians was a problem. The Eiffellandian soldiers had been educated with the notion that they had to spare the lives of civilians as much as possible, but what if a civilian attacks you in blind rage, even if it is only with a hay fork or a fry pan? Most soldiers shot those attackers in the legs, but some were so overwhelmed that they simply shot those attackers. Because of this, the number of casualties among civilians was higher than Oberst Böck would have liked to see. He also realised that the struggle for this island would not stop after the Solaris soldiers had been defeated. Because of this, he had ordered tasers to equip his men with, so that they could use those against civilians instead of guns.
As it was the tradition, the weapons remained silent during the Christmas days. That led to a possible misunderstanding. In Eiffelland, the 26th December was also considered a Christmas day, but that was not the same throughout Europe. Was the 26th also a Christmas day in Solaren? The Eiffellandian soldiers had decided not to start shooting on the 26th and wait for the Solaris.
Before Christmas, the whole island had been occupied, except for a last bullwark, a peasant village of 100 houses, 600 inhabitants and 1000 soldiers. That had been surrounded by the Eiffellandian armed forces. Also the tanks were there. The Eiffellandians waited with the final attack until Christmas was over. The only question was: When was Christmas over according to the Solaris?
On the 26th, the weapons remained silent. The Eiffellandians concluded that apparently the 26th was a Christmas day for the Solaris as well. On Tuesday the 27th at 00:01, the Eiffellandians opened fire for the final battle of Il Cancello. The battle lasted 3 days. All the houses at the village boundary were demolished by tank and artillery fire. The village was conquered house by house. The Solaris soldiers litterally fought themselves to death, and also the adult civilians took part in the fightings. In the hactic of the battle, it could not be prevented that fighting civilians were killed as well. In the end, the majority of the adult population had been killed. Only the children and the elderly had survived, together with about 20 adults. After the battle, Oberst Böck faced a humanitarian minicatastrophe. The only thing he could do, was reporting it and hope that it was possible to learn some lessons from it. Maybe the training of Eiffellandian soldiers could be adapted. Or maybe they would have to conclude that it is impossible to train for a situation like this, in which civilians fight together with soldiers.


Villach, Eiffelland
6 months ago

The 24 year old lieutenant Matthias Weiss was lucky in his career. After he had finished his studies at the military academy, he had been sent to Villach, a city in Northern Eiffelland. He had absolved the academy with very good notes, and his career chances looked promising. He had a boyfriend, Rolf, but homosexuality was not a problem in the Eiffellandian armed forces. Therefore, he could be open about that, and in fact he was open about that. Shortly after he had moved to Villach, he got a boyfriend, who moved in after half a year. Matthias considered himself lucky in love as well.
Everything went well for Matthias, until 6 months ago. He came home after a late shift at the barracks when he caught Rolf making love to another guy. That alone was something he could forgive, but Rolf didn’t even pretend to feel sorry about it. Even worse, he made a couple of vile remarks and told proudly how many times he had done it with other guys while they had a relationship. Matthias was raging for anger. In fact, he paid the apartment, the food, clothes, everything. Rolf was jobless when they met, and still did nothing but spreading his legs for every nice guy he saw.
Matthias quickly made a firm decision. First he litterally threw Rolf’s bed partner out of the apartment. The guy was still naked when he got his clothes thrown into his face. The clasp of the belt in his trousers broke one of his teeth. Then Matthias smashed the door closed, rushed back to the bedroom, took a suitcase and threw a couple of Rolf’s clothes into it. Then he walked to Rolf’s trousers, took the wallet out of it, looked for the bank card and credit card and took them out. Then he ordered Rolf to get dressed.
“Matthias, please, I was only joking,” Rolf whined.
“I already heard about your missteps. Up to now, I didn’t believe them. I didn’t want to believe them. I also heard how you call me when I’m not around. Also that I didn’t believe. But now I do. You live from my money, you buy clothes from my money, you go out from my money, and while you’re going out from my money, you insult me and seduce other guys to make love with in our bed. Out!” Matthias yelled while he closed the suitcase. “And get dressed or I’ll dress you!”
“But you just took my bank cards. You can’t throw me on the street like that, without money,” Rolf whined.
“First of all, I pay for this apartment, so it’s mine. So now that we are breaking up, it’s up to you to leave. Furthermore, your bank cards are from my bank account. Do you really think I want to continue to pay for you? And why aren’t you getting dressed?” Matthias said sharply while walking towards his ex-boyfriend.
Rolf suddenly remembered how Matthias had thrown his bed partner out of the house. When he saw Matthias walking towards him, he started to get dressed, while he said: “Should I leave with only that suitcase? Not even all my clothes are in them.”
“90% of your clothes have been paid by me, so I don’t see the problem,” Matthias said. “But you can take your tooth brush with you.”
“But what am I supposed to live from?” Rolf whined.
“I don’t give a fuck. Do what everyone else does: Get a job,” Matthias said. He pushed Rolf to the bathroom so that the latter could take a toothbrush, some toothpaste, soap and a deostick.

After he had closed the front door behind Rolf, Matthias realised something. Rolf still had the spare key of his car! Matthias rushed out of the apartment, to the parking lot in front of the apartment building. He was just in time to drag Rolf out of his Golf GTI.
“Well, and what did you want to do with my car?” Matthias said sharply while holding Rolf by his hair. He gave Rolf a knee in his balls, so that the latter fell on the ground. Then he took the car keys out of Rolf’s hand, took Rolf’s suitcase out of the car’s trunk, dragged Rolf on his feet again and chased him off the parking lot. Then he called the barracks to send for a locksmith so that the locks of his apartment would be replaced.

After this, Matthias found out that Rolf had turned him into the clown of the Villacher gay scene. No matter how well he did at his work at the barracks, his future in Villach was over. He wanted to leave. As soon as possible. So he reported himelf voluntarily for duty in Solaren. In the months to come, he got a crash course Italian, a crash course about the Solaris culture and some additional military trainings. Then he got two weeks off, two weeks in which he visited his family and friends back in a small village near Marburg.
Matthias had one passion most other Eiffellandians had as well: Car driving. He enjoyed the 800 km drive from Villach to Marburg very much. Later on, a 130 km/h speed limit would be imposed on the Eiffellandian motorways to spare oil, but that speed limit was not in effect yet when Matthias drove to Marburg. Because of that, he was still able to legally push his Golf GTI to the limits. On a part of the route, he drove a little match with a Franconian in an FMW. He managed to drive from Villach to Marburg in only 4 hours.

Lieutenant Matthias Weiss was one of the first soldiers to be sent to Southeastern Solaren.


Southeastern Solaren
Present day

The first four months in Solaren went well for Lieutenant Matthias Weiss. The fightings had been severe, but afterwards occupying Southeastern Solaren was easy. Apart from occasional partisan attacks, the Solaris seemed to accept the occupation, probably also because the Eiffellandians sent a lot of help goods and assisted in rebuilding the country. Matthias wasn’t one of the soldiers that captured Tegeata, but later on he was one of the soldiers that marched North to assist the troops that would have to capture Testono. In the week before Christmas, he was severely wounded. In the end, he landed in a field hospital back in Southeastern Solaren, on the ward of Prof. Dr. Sauerbruch. There the doctors took the bullet out of his belly and started to treat him for a peritonitis.

And it was morning.
And I found myself mourning for a childhood,
That I thought had disappeared.
I looked out the window,
And I saw a magpie in the rainbow,

The rain had gone, I'm not alone, I turned to the mirror, I saw YOU,
The child,
That once loved,
The child before they broke his heart.
Our heart,
The heart,
That I believed was lost.

Marco Gambini had identified his brother as one of the partisans that had died. “Sorrry Marco, but believe me, the soldiers have done everything they could to capture them all alive, ” Staatsschutzkommissar Tobias Kohl said. “But they were all so stubborn that they fought themselves to death.” Marco started to cry. He didn’t know what to think. During his childhood, he and his brother had had a very good time together. He had learned a lot from his older brother, but later on they fell apart. The first crack appeared after the first time that Marco and his brother went out to chase girls together. Marco turned out to be enormously clumsy with girls. He felt disgust for them. The first time was also the last time. More cracks appeared because of that. His brother started to tease him because of his fear for women. He called him an fake man. Marco, who already got quite good notes at the Lyceo, fled into his schoolwork. Then the war broke out. Marco’s brother dragged him into the partisan movement. There his brother blossomed out as an unscrupulous sadist. Did Marco cry because of his brother? He didn’t know. But he did know that he cried for his childhood, that definitely had disappeared.

Hey you,
Surprised?
More than surprised?
To find the answers to the questions,
Were always in your own eyes.
Do you realise
That you give it on back to her?
But that would only be retraced in all the problems that you ever knew.
So untrue.
For she's got to carry on with her life.
And you've got to carry on with yours.

So I see,
It's me,
I can do anything.
And I'm still the child.
'Cos the only thing misplaced was direction.
And I found direction.
There is no childhood's end.
There is no childhood's end.
'Cos you are my childhood friend.
'Cos you are my childhood friend, lead me on.

Hey you,
You've survived.
Now you've arrived.
To be reborn in the shadow of the magpie.
Now you realise,
That you've got to get out of here.
You've found the leading light of destiny,
Burning in the ashes of your memory.
You want to change the world.
You'd resigned yourself to die a broken rebel.
But that was looking backward. Now you've found the light.

You,
The child,
That once loved.
The child before they broke his heart.
Our heart,
The heart,
That I believed was lost.

So it's me.
I see,
I can do anything.
I'm still the child.
'Cos the only thing misplaced was direction.
And I found direction.
There is no childhood's end.
There is no childhood's end.
There is no childhood's end.
I am your childhood friend.
Oh, lead me on.

Now they were driving back to the camp. Marco took the box of the CD that was currently playing in his hands. “Marillion – Misplaced childhood,” he read. Then he took the booklet out of the box and started to read the texts.
“Can you understand it?” Kohl asked in German.
“Of course. I also had English classes at school,” Marco replied in English. “The only thing misplaced was direction, but what if others decided the direction instead of you?”
Kohl remained silent.
“I already know that I am in a difficult situation,” Marco continued in German. “I was forced to kill, but I did kill. I am responsible for that, and also I will be trialed.” He paused for a moment. Then he continued. “Will I get the death penalty?”
“Not if it’s up to my government. The SNC is more or less Carentania’s puppet, and they will probably have the last say. But Carentania is against the death penalty, like Eiffelland. Carentania will probably not allow the SNC to impose the death penalty, and Eiffelland won’t deliver any people to the SNC’s tribunals if they are allowed to impose the death penalty. And to be very honest, there are many mitigating circumstances in your case. We are not going to trial you, but if the SNC does, we will do everything to keep you out.”
At that moment, Kohl’s telephone rang. The conversation was led over Kohl’s headset so that Marco wouldn’t be able to follow it.
“Kohl.”
“...”
“Marco Gambini? He’s sitting next to me in the car.”
“...”
“Poor guy. I will tell him.”
“...”
“Goodbye.” Kohl broke the connection. Then he said to Marco: “We tested Aldo Siciliano on STDs because of his history. Yet again I have bad news for you. The doctor that just called me said: ‘Name any STD you want and he’s got it.’ We have to go to the hospital to have you tested as well.”
“Does he also have the homosexuals disease?” Marco asked.
“Do you mean AIDS?” Kohl asked.
“Do you call it that way?” Marco asked.
“Does ‘SIDA’ ring a bell?” Kohl asked while using the abbreviation for AIDS that was used in French, Spanish and Italian.
“I never heard about ayds or seedah,” Marco said. “I only heard about a disease that struck homosexuals to punish them for sodomy.”
“Sorry, but I think you can better ask the doctor,” Kohl said.

With his 1.72 meters, Marco had a height that was the average of Solaris men of his age. He was already used to it that Eiffellandian women on average had the same height as him and that Eiffellandian men were on average 10 to 15 centimeters taller than him. But now he stood before a giant with enormous hands and feet, and an enormous head. The man introduced himself as Prof. Sauerbruch. Marco was a bit afraid of the giant, but later on he started to like him. Sauerbruch appeared to have been a very important doctor in Eiffelland, and now he had come to work here instead of a young doctor. He also explained why he had come here.
“But now let’s talk about you. I already know about Siciliano and why you are here, so let’s not rip that wound open, unless you want to tell about it,” Sauerbruch said while he inspected Marco’s arm. “Ooh, that’s a nasty scar. What happened there?”
“Siciliano wanted to inject something. He had already put the needle into my arm, but I was on time with dragging my arm away,” Marco said.
“That Siciliano must be quite a fellow,” Sauerbruch said while inspecting Marco’s other arm.
“Indeed, he is,” Marco said. After a few moments, he asked: “Mr. Kohl had talked about a disease called ayds. Could you tell me more about it?”
Sauerbruch explained what AIDS was while he took some tubes of blood from Marco.
“That is indeed the same disease as the priests described as the punishment for homosexuals,” Marco said.
“To be honest, I don’t think AIDS is a punishment from God. A good God would not punish people who live their lives in the only way they can become happy. That is, as long as they they don’t do any harm,” Sauerbruch said while labelling the blood tubes.
“But how can a good God allow such a disease to arise?” Marco asked.
“Maybe the universe is too big to handle for Him,” Sauerbruch said while preparing the following examinations. Then he told Marco what he was going to do and why.

“I myself have started to doubt if there is a God,” Marco said while Sauerbruch carried out an examination.
“According to me, it is impossible to prove that He exists, but it is also impossible to prove that He does not exist,” Sauerbruch said. “I presume that He exists, but I have my doubts about what Christian Faith made of him. The Bible is filled with rules about how to live, but those rules were written down thousands of years ago, for a society that is completely different from ours. Furthermore, the Bible contradicts itself several times. How can you say that that is what God wants from us? Especially if the rules of the Bible prescribe a behaviour that is contradictory with the spirit behind the Bible?”
Marco remained silent. Sauerbruch started with the next examination, and continued: “The most important thing is, don’t blame God for the distorted image that His messengers made of Him. His messengers are human beings and are chosen by human beings. We can only guess what God is. We will never actually know. And with that said, it doesn’t matter how you worship him, as long as you worship him.”
“But if that’s true, then why is the Solaris Catholic Church forbidden in Eiffelland?” Marco asked.
“Not because we consider the Solaris Catholic Church the wrong way of worshipping God. The Franconian Evangelic Church is not forbidden in Eiffelland. Neither the Calvinist Church, the Orthodox Catholic Church or whichever other religion. The only reason why we banned the Solaris Catholic Church was because we were afraid of terrorist assaults. And as a countermeasure against the kidnapping and killing of Nicosian citizens,” Sauerbruch said while continuing the examination. “And we would have left it at that, if Solaren would not have attacked Lorraine. Otherwise we would not have been here.”
Marco remained silent while Sauerbruch conducted the last examination.

“OK. Now only labelling these tubes, and I am ready,” Sauerbruch said.
“What will happen if I turn out to be HIV‑positive?” Marco asked.
“I already know that AIDS is a lethal disease here in Solaren, but actually it is possible to keep the virus under control with the correct medications. And that is what we will do if you are HIV‑positive. You will have to take medications for the rest of your life, but you can easily grow old with those medications. So don’t worry about that,” Sauerbruch said. “AIDS is quite an epidemic here in Solaren by the way, mainly because homosexuality is such a taboo. Because of that taboo, we cannot spread the easiest measure to prevent the transmission of AIDS: Condoms. And also because of that taboo, homosexuals are generally married in this country, and pass the virus on to their wives when they themselves are HIV‑positive. The key is trying to break that taboo, but that is extremely difficult. Now we are trying to inform all the doctors in Southeastern Solaren about the possibilities to cure HIV-infections and AIDS. Hopefully the doctors will cooperate.”
“One last question. I myself want to become a doctor. Would it be possible for me to work here as a kind of stage?” Marco asked.
Sauerbruch thought about that request for a couple of moments. Then he said: “Well, it should be possible. I will ask Mr. Kohl about it.”

“Well, Herr Professor, because Marco is an ex‑partisan, his destination is a PoW camp for the duration of the war. But he will have a difficult life there, because he betrayed his group. There is always the risk that he will meet members of his group there. Maybe indeed it would be better to separate him from the other PoWs. I will arrange for it, but Marco’s status will remain that of a PoW. Therefore, he won’t be allowed to leave the hospital terrain,” Kohl said.


West of Testono
Present day

The extra troops from Southeastern Solaren had fought their way to West of Testono to assist the Eiffellandian troops already there against the Solaris troops. With the arrival of an extra detachment of tanks, the fight against the additional Solaris troops became quite a lot easier. Now the tactical and technical superiority of the Eiffellandian troops over the Solaris troops was combined with a numeric superiority. In this way, the battle west of Testono would end soon.
Meanwhile, the amassing of Carentanian troops south of Testono did not go unnoticed, although the EDF‑generals were very surprised about it. How in Heaven’s name had the Carentanians done that? They had probably followed the Eiffellandian troops while they fought their way to Testono, but how further then? Right through an area where heavy fightings took place? Or did they go by boat? But how did those boats go unnoticed?
In any case, it changed the map completely. And it also opened some additonal options.


Southeastern Solaren
Present day

“Why should I cooperate with you bastardi sodomiti?” Aldo Siciliano asked.
“It is nice to hear that swear from you, Mr. Siciliano. We have information from many sources that you yourself are a bastardo sodomito. At least 40 men indicated that you raped them during your time as head of the police here in Southeastern Solaren. You demanded sex from them so that you would save them from the stake, where they would be sent to for charges of sodomy,” Staatsschutzkommissar Joachim Waldmann said.
“So what? I saved their lives. What’s wrong with that?” Siciliano asked.
“Of course we did some investigations. You yourself set up the department for the investigation of sodomy. You were even commended by the Church for that. All that has been documented. You as the man who organised the hunt for homosexuals offered the people you arrested their freedom in exchange for sex. It very much looks like a plan,” Waldmann said.
“You are bluffing,”, Siciliano said. “You can never prove that.”
“Wrong, Mr. Siciliano. Those 40 men managed to describe some details on your body very well. We can actually prove that it was you. Furthermore, we tested you on STDs. There are only two known STDs that you don’t have. Now we are tracing the DNA back to your victims,” Waldmann said.
“Does this also mean that I have AIDS?” Siciliano asked frightened.
“Yes,” Waldmann said. “Don’t worry. You will be treated. If you cooperate or not.”
“Then I don’t see the need to cooperate,” Siciliano said. “But I don’t worry anyway. I’ll easily buy myself out.”
“Wrong, Mr. Siciliano. It wasn’t a good idea of you to carry that key to a Danziger anonymous bank account with you. We emptied it, and found the information to all your other bank accounts. The disadvantage of anonymous bank accounts is that they can be emptied by everyone who has the right codes. And so we did. All your anonymous bank accounts have been emptied. We will use the money to rebuild Solaren. 32 billion Eiffelland Mark is a lot of money. Oh, indeed, you also have some bank accounts, houses, cars and so on on your own name and a couple of false names, but all those things throughout the world have been seized. You are pennyless,” Waldmann said. “Are you going to cooperate or not? Where did those drugs come from, and where would they go to? Who are your contacts in the drugs world?”
“You are bluffing Mr. Waldmann. And you are forgetting two things. One: You want to apply the principles of the constitutional state here. Two: My position in the regime was so high that my trial will probably be broadcasted on television. These two things mean that you can’t torture me, because torturing goes against the principles of the constitutional state, and I will do everything to make public that you tortured me. A dictatorship has its advantages. I had the possibility to force people to say something. You don’t. So I will keep my mouth shut,” Siciliano said.
“Very well,” Waldmann said and left the room.

“You can take him back to his cell. Thank you,” Waldmann said to the Staatsschutzmeister outside the room. Then he went to his office to make a telephone call.

“...”
“Hello Schwerdtfeger, Waldmann here.”
“...”
“No. Unfortunately not. Spread the rumours.”


OOC: Songtext: Marillion – Childhood’s end (CD Misplaced Childhood (the one with “Kayleigh”)).

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Northeastern Solaren

With the Solaren forces in the north occupied with keeping their front towards Lorraine defended in case their northern neighbour should attempt an offensive in this sector, and much of the Solaren forces caught in battles to the south, there was little they could do to thwart the landing of Carentanian forces to the east of Galara. Deploying from the two Carentanian amphibious assault ships, the Maximo and the Samobor, Carentanian marines were quick to establish a number of beachheads. Supported by air cavalry quickly pushing beyond the landing zones and trying to disrupt Solaren operations further to the west, Carentanian forces could almost undisturbedly use these beachheads to dock transport vessels and carry a great number of soldiers and armored vehicles to the combat zone. Once unloaded, the armored and mechanized units quickly regrouped into smaller, versatile and highly mobile battle groups that joined the helicopter operations further inlands. Their strategy was to deny the Solaren forces to answer to the new threat in their flank, disrupt the formation of a coherent defense and overwhelm the defenses while they were still isolated and uncoordinated. The experience the Carentanians had gained in Capraria, Isola di San Pietro, Iscla, Ustica and Mazara was utilized in this new, final amphibious landing of the war and any lessons they had learned in the past operations were applied here.

A great number of Carentanian multirole fighters were flying non-stop attacks on Solaren units in the area, supporting the strategy on the ground by striking command posts, well defended positions, communication infrastructure and military depots of the Solaren forces. Dedicated close air support was unavailable in this operation, none of the CAS-variants of the magpie fighter stationed at Iscla. Of course, wherever needed, the multirole fighters were willing to lend a hand, eliminating armored threats to the Carentanian operations once identified and marked by the ground troops, but it wasn't the focus of their mission and in most cases, the air cavalry with their firefly helicopters instead occupied this role. This had the additional advantage that, once the heavy resistance was dealt with through massive firepower, the unorganized remains of a Solaren unit could be dealt with by dropping troops into their rear while mechanized and armored units kept pressuring them from the front. At several points throughout the north-east, this worked quite well and dealt massive losses to the still unorganized troops of Pope Urban.

It was obvious that the landing itself could not be prevented and the quick advance of Carentanian troops denied the Solaren forces an unified front close to the landing zones of the socialists. Eventually, Solaren commanders came to terms with the fact that large areas to the east of Galara were lost to them and instead deployed forces along a defensive line further to the west, still well out of reach of the Carentanian advance. Here they prepared for the advance of the Workers' Republic, laid mines and set up defensive positions as well as they could given the short amount of time. Retreating Solaren soldiers from the east were caught along the frontline and given the chance to redeem themselves by once again joining the battle - usually in the most dangerous of roles, seeing as how they had already "betrayed god" and thus had to prove their worth. Anyone who the officers and inquisitors of Pope Urbans armies had any doubt about in regards to his will or ability to pursue this chance at redemption was used as an example for the rest of the troops and put to the stake. When the forward scouting parties of the Carentanian advance finally reached this line, the Revolutionary Army met heavy resistance and decided to fall back, out of reach of the Solaren defensive fire, and regroup to face this new challenge.

While fresh troops and heavy equipment kept pouring onto Solarens north-eastern shores, Carentanian commanders prepared two armored spearheads to punch through the Solaren lines. Mobile artillery was moved towards the front and began a barrage of the focal-points of the planned attack against the Solaren lines, ready to move positions once finishing their shelling to avoid possible counter-artillery fire from the Solarens. Airplanes kept flying their attack missions, but now focused on the region of the Solaren defenses. Behind the forward deployment, slower Carentanian units began occupying the rapid gains and swept up any remaining Solaren forces who were now caught in a thoroughly hostile territory. Armored units were gathered to lead the charge, while mechanized infantry was prepared to pour into any breakthroughs to expand the gains and break the neck of Solaren forces. If all went smooth, the attack would come as soon as tomorrow morning and the delay in the Carentanian offensive would be only temporary. Once the Solaren lines would collapse at even just one point, the troops that kept pouring into their rear would threaten even well-defended positions, cut off supply lines, disturb communication and command structures and thus force the Solaren units to fall back even further. A breakthrough usually resulted in the neighbouring sectors falling like dominos.

The goal of the Carentanians was to push the Solaren units into two directions, thus the two spearheads. Their breakthrough would be attempted as far as possible to the south, so that the largest contingent of the Solaren forces would be driven against the Lorrainese frontline and, caught in the crossfire between RDTO and EDF troops, annihilated. A good fraction of it would probably reach Galara though and set up defensive positions in the metropolis, anticipating a fierce battle for the city. This would prove problematic, had the Carentanians any intention of actually attacking Galara. Instead, however, the Carentanians would set up a siege once the Solarens had been driven into the city, using infantry and artillery brigades to erect a cordon around the city that could not be breached by any of the units caught in the isolated city. There, they would wait for the end of the war that would be brought about further to the south, as the second spearhead would push directly along the road to Torrence. Every unit that would become available by successes in the operations towards the north would be redeployed to guard the flanks of the southern offensive, while fresh troops would be deployed to try and reinforce the advance as quick as possible. The idea during these final days of the Urban regime was not to thoroughly pacify and secure the gains made - Carentanian High Command was certain that the Solaren abilities for counter-offensives were exhausted - instead they'd attempt to overwhelm the remaining Solaren forces in sectors where there had not been any offensive thusfar, were perhaps they had not even anticipated such.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Southern Solaren

Heading north from liberated Mazara, whose ports slowly returned to functionality only to receive Carentanian troops and supplies, the Revolutionary Army amassed a growing force of mobile troops to the south of the Bay of Testono. Keeping distance to the zone of heavy fighting further to the north, the Carentanians moved in the rear of Eiffelländer troops and took only the most necessary of moves to keep their supply lines secure from Solaren irregulars and forces caught behind the frontline. Makeshift camps would serve the Carentanian troops across several communities in the area, allowing the Revolutionary Guards some rest as the forces for the final operation of this war were prepared.

Mazara itself, for the most parts, was a smoldering ruin, wrecked by the heavy fighting that took place in the city. Mass graves at the edge of the city had the victims of the destruction dumped into deep holes. A hasty and undeserving burial, but one that was necessary to ensure the many corpses scattered across the city would not become a source of epidemics. Soldiers roamed the city in large masses, the only defense against violence as many citizens turned desperate and formed gangs to survive. Carentania made honest efforts at improving the situation through humanitarian aid, but with the ports heavily damaged and the remaining capacity needed to supply the soldiers of the Revolutionary Army in Southern Solaren, the efforts were slowed down considerably. As the reconstruction of the ports suffered from the massive destruction and would probably take months, if not years, the Carentanians attempted to establish supply lines from many of the smaller ports to the west.

Air cavalry advanced further into La Spina, seizing keypoints along the mountains. The helicopters provided heavy firepower while dropping infantry into the attack zones, the usual strategy of the Carentanian Air Cavalry, proven effective in countless combats. Their goal was to set the stage for an airborne helicopter offensive on Torrence. Attacks by the air force stationed on Ustica took out Solaren air defense in the area. Once the attack on Torrence would commence, Carentanian soldiers would cross La Spina in a surprising move in their Firefly helicopters, supporting the other two fronts by opening a third. There was still enough time left for the Revolutionary Guards to prepare and take out any obstacles to this endeavour. Troops in the north seemed to determine the speed of the entire operation.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Syracuse

Basil Orteli sat in the windowless and dark basement room of the Special Information Office. Before the war, the room was used to store janitorial supplies. Orteli had been a low level analyst for nearly 15 years. He was nearing 40 and before joining SIO, he was a defense lawyer. He thought SIO would be exciting. Instead it was quiet, paid somewhat decently, and was satisfactory. It paid for the upkeep of his small, 3 bedroom row house. His wife thought he worked as a senior mail supervisor for the Army. The small row house was next to a small hotel, a favorite of young tourists. Lately, tourism had suffered. But the hyper rich were still pumping money into the economy and still stumbling to their hotel drunk out of their minds; often drunkenly mistaking his door as the hotel.

Orteli sat back from the screen and rubbed his eyes. He sipped his tea slowly. He looked down at his torn brown sweater vest and frowned. He used to come to work in nice and modest suits but now, he was shoved into the bowels of SIO headquarters. Now that SIO had doubled during the war, they were utilizing every space available. He now came to work in professional but somewhat relaxed attire. At least he had his own office. Nicosia's intelligence agency had built an elaborate network inside Solaren. But with the theater collapsing, there was a massive flow of last minute intelligence as agents struggled to get everything possible into headquarters. Orteli's cover with the Army's mail service was not far off from the truth. Orteli tracked Solaris military mail. The SIO had 2 informants within the Solaris military's mail office. It was boring as a lot of things were now digital. He rolled his eyes at the thought. He himself was looking at a screen of endless names....endless "to" and "froms". In the last week or so, the amount of paper mail had increased. Internet access much of Solaren was hard to come by and was getting harder. But overseas, scattered diplomatic missions of Solaren still operated; primarily through its churches. Orteli spent much of his time reading their intercepted and boring correspondence. But today was Saturday and it was yet again time to review the list of sent military mail. Nicosia's informants scrawled down what they could if they saw and important letter. It rarely led to much but it did help track the occasional unit.

Orteli sniffled and scrolled down his screen of sent mail and marked each one that had come in as 'pertinent', 'not pertinent', or 'scrap'. Near the end Orteli stopped and turned his head like a dog given a command it does not understand. Picked up his glass of tea and straightened his head. With his free hand he pulled a book from the metal desk's drawer and flipped through the pages. He stopped and stared before looking back at the book. Orteli stood, throwing his tea cup to the ground as he ran out the door.

 

[Khemia]

TESTONO

The Solaren military had begun, inch by inch, losing control of the very population it had been working to whip into a fanatical fervor. On the outskirts of town, a different kind of war was beginning, something that even the Solaren military could not fight. A war between Solari. A paramilitary organization had formed, believing themselves to be the true believers of God, and believing the Solaren military to have abandoned the defense of the Kingdom of Heaven. To them, there was no other reason that the military of Solaren, which had been preparing for combat operations against its ideological rivals and neighbors for decades, could fall within a matter of months. In the outskirts of town, and along the small roads that lead into and out of town, and in the tunnels that had been in construction for weeks, dozens of fanatics like army ants began to bring in new supplies. Weapons and munitions stolen from weapons caches in enemy territory abandoned by retreating Solaris personnel were now in the hands of the terrorist organization Gu had dreamed of creating: the Army of God.

But Gu could take little credit for its foundation aside from creating the circumstances required for it. His encouragement of persecution of citizens, his policy of "military first" in regards to rations and housing, had all embittered the populace and turned them, slowly, against the military. Murders of soldiers were still uncommon, but now the citizens were kept in their place more for fear of the bullets in the rifles than the protection they offered.

Outside the city the Solaren reinforcements began to falter. They had taken a decent toll on the Eiffellander forces, delaying the attack and allowing the military to fortify itself even stronger in Testono, but they had failed to break through and had lost a large amount of tanks. A reserve force was no doubt ready to strike at the moment the Eiffellander began their assault on Testono proper, but for now the battlefield to the west of Testono was quiet save for the sporadic burst of gunfire unleashed by the surprised militiamen or the lost soldier. Dead bodies of Eiffellander and Solaren alike littered the field, meals for the disease-carrying crows above. With over two thousand dead Solaren personnel alone, it would take days to clean up the bodies and prevent an outbreak of disease - something the Eiffellander no doubt were reluctant to commit to with the battle of Testono looming overhead. But a failure to contain the disease could upset any planned offensive and occupation, a risk the Eiffellander couldn't expose themselves to.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Northeastern Solaren

Sharing some cigarettes amidst the tall grass of the Solaren landscape, a group of Guardsmen sat next to their wrecked truck. Its right front side was heavily dented and scorched, the tire that had been in this plaace completely torn off. Moving in the rear of the offensive trying to break through the Solaren lines, Carentanian infantry was taking positions inside the gap left by the offensive units as they fought their way through the Solaren defensive line. Trucks brought infantry, weapons, guns and supplies into the area to allow the Revolutionary Army to prevent the Solaren units from moving south or, worse, into the back of the advance. Heavy firepower would deny Solarens units to reatreat south, forcing them north towards Galara and beyond, into Lorraines forces.

The wrecked truck and the infantrymen around it were part of this operation, but as they drove to their destined positions hit a mine that had been laid hastily by Solaren units to stop a possible Carentanian advance. Carentanian army trucks were armored models, designed to withstand small arms fire and protect the people inside from explosions, including the hit by a mine. But being not intended for frontline usage, the truck itself was wrecked in the process, forcing the unit to dismount and await the conclusion of the operation. None of the other trucks racing past them would stop for this unit. So they set up camp next to the road, watching over the field in front of them, dismounting the towed gun from the rear of the truck and having it face north-west, just in case any Solaren unit would come this way.

Further west the defenses of the Solaren Army had collapsed at several points as armored units, supported by artillery and precision strikes from aircraft, pushed through the enemy lines. As planned, the offensive would soon head into two seperate directions, with one part of the Carentanian forces pushing northwards, driving the Solaren units in the area back, while the second group would be headed southwards along the road to Torrence. Only keypoints were seized by Carentanian units, setting up stable supply routes but otherwise caring little for partisan suppression at this point. Their focus was on making gains on the ground and pushing towards Torrence, ignoring entire towns along the way. Only the ports along the coast were deemed important to increase the possible amount of soldiers, vehicles and supplies that could be shipped into the north-east.

Carentania had far from enough troops on the ground yet, but it hoped to change this fact through a steady reinforcement of the units already fighting on the ground. Wherever the offensive would be slowed down by Solaren resistance, it would mean that additional troops could catch up with the frontline until the enemy was overwhelmed and the offensive could continue. The north-east was a long way from Torrence, but with the Solaren resistance collapsing in many areas as the country came under pressure from several directions, the Workers' Republic hoped to establish the north-east as the fastest moving front.

 

[Rheinbund]

West of Testono

The battles had been harsh. Extremely harsh. The battlefield was scattered with dead bodies and wounded soldiers. Furthermore, an enormous amount of PoWs had been made by the Eiffellandians. There were about 4,000 dead people lying around. Generalleutnant Westfeld clearly understood that it was unthinkable to push through before this mess had been cleared. Despite the fact that it was winter, the temperatures were still around 10 to 15 centigrades. Winters around the Long Sea weren’t that cold. The dead corpses would turn the place into a microbiological lovefest soon if they would not be taken care of. But this had to be done quickly. The war for Testono had to start soon, and the Solaris would regroup soon as well.
The first thing Generalleutnant Westfeld did was ordering planes to evacuate the PoWs, an enormous amount of helicopters to evacuate the wounded soldiers, an enormous amount of body bags and security suits with gasmasks, and a couple of planes to evacuate the corpses. Different colours of body bags were used for the Solaris and the Eiffellandian dead soldiers. A military cemetery had already been setup in Southeastern Solaren, because the Eiffellandians considered it important to pay the Solaris soldiers the honour they deserved as soldiers. The Solaris dead soldiers would be buried there. The Eiffellandian dead soldiers were sent to Eiffelland for burial there. It was quite a logistical operation, but everything went well.
The troops originally stationed west of Testono had been reduced, but together with the arrived reinforcements, around 25,000 soldiers equipped with tanks and armoured infantry vehicles were present to attack Testono.

Meanwhile, the air force and attack helicopters remained active around Testono. The people trying to supply the city over small land roads and even cart tracks were subject to constant fire. It was also discovered that tunnels had been dug under the battle field to supply the city. The discovered tunnels were closed immediately after the people coming out of them had been captured and prepared for sending to a PoW-camp. Generalleutnant Westfeld’s orders were to take the city with as little damage as possible, but he started to realise that “as little damage as possible” would still mean much damage. He notified his superiors that it would be close to impossible to spare the city.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

Syracuse

Basil Orteli stood quietly with the other two analysts. They were all staring at the computer screen and they had worked with Orteli for years and the three formed a little clique. "I don't see it" said Argabe, whose parents came from somewhere in Frescania. Argabe bent over and pushed back his glasses at the bridge with his chubby finger. "Look" said Orteli who moved closer to the screen and pointed. "These six letters all addressed priority 1 for a Bishop" said Orteli pointing at each. Lippeso, the third of their little triumvirate, bent over and squinted at the lit screen in the dark room. "That doesn't mean anything. So?" asked Lippeso curiously.

Orteli sighed and pointed at the map on the wall. "Find Santuaro" said Orteli crossing his arms and leaning against the wall as his compatriots lazily walked to the giant map of Solaren. In the low light it took them at least 2 full minutes. "So?" asked Lippeso who was still quite obviously agitated for being pulled away from his desk. "Look," began Orteli. "Santuaro is in the middle of nowhere. It has a dilapidated cathedral and castle and hasn't meant anything in 500 years. It took you guys awhile to even find it. A hundred residents and a tiny chair factory that has been shut down since the war began. Think about it. Why would a Bishop be getting his mail there?" asked Orteli looking at everyone. Argabe spoke this time. "Perhaps he is moving through the town and is temporarily there?"

Orteli shook his head and scrolled up on the massive list. He pointed at each highlighted entry. "It goes back weeks. Its priority one. Its going to a Bishop which, according to our information........." Orteli picked up his file on 'Solaris Church Leadership' and dropped it on the desk with a thud "........doesnt exist". The others sat quietly and stared at him.

"Well fuck, Ill say it" started Lippeso. "You think it is Urban". All three inhaled sharply. "I do" concluded Orteli. Lippeso, Orteli, and Argabe stood in silence for a long time. Orteli sat back, leaning against the wall again. "I dont even know who to tell" said Orteli breaking the silence.

 

[Socialist Commonwealth]

Western Solaren

In between the Carentanian frontline and the Lorrainese positions at Bargia, several Solaren units were caught without supplies and reinforcements. The Revolutionary Army kept pushing the advance on them, carefully and in small pitched battles, but nevertheless pushing. Mobile units supported by air cavalry overran exposed Solaren troops, others bypassed areas of tougher defense by dropping infantry behind the enemy lines with the help of their helicopters. Where possible, the Carentanians sought to draw the Solaren units into extended firefights that consumed large amounts of the enemies ammunition, but saw little danger of actually taking hits. This was not really a matter of who would win these battles anymore, but only a matter of at what cost. Carentania wanted to save as much troops as possible for the final battle for Torrence.

The north-east was determining the speed of the advance and that meant that the Revolutionary Army could still take its dear time in the west. Constant raids sought to deny the Solaren units rest, exhausting battles to deprive them of supplies and ammunition. Air raids by units from Ustica struck supply stockpiles as priority targets. Behind the frontlines, infantry units seized any liberated territory, disarmed the population and established a network of small outposts to crack down on partisan activity. Prisoners of war were shipped to mainland Carentania, where camps had been set up a long time ago to hold the POW's. As the situation of the Solaren units in the west grew more and more desperate, so did the number of atrocities committed, as Solaren officers enforce loyalty even in face of certain defeat.

Northeastern Solaren

The Solaren lines had broken and Carentanian units pushed through the gaps at full speed. Utilizing their superior mobility and firepower combined with the initiative they gained from their armored spearhead attack, they began to dismantle the Solaren defenses and pushed the Solaren units to the north wherever possible. Driving the Solaren forces with their back against the Lorrainese frontline, the idea was to push them into Galara, where to trap them in a prolonged siege as the battle for Torrence would decide the war once and for all. The North-eastern front had become the focus of Carentanias attention and their goal was to put an entire army group on the grounds as soon as possible. Units continued to arrive at the ports of the north-east, but the lack of a large port seriously hampered the efforts of the Revolutionary Army.

Its main spearhead pushed southwards, along the coastal roads towards Torrence. In fact, it was a small detour, but one that had to be taken to keep a secure supply line uninterrupted by partisan activity as the Carentanians paid little attention to securing their gains. Getting to Torrence and fighting the battle for the capital was the main goal, securing the country could come at a later point. The small towns with ports along the coast could keep the supply lines short and without having to carry the supplies through hostile territory at longer distances, which would prove a considerable advantage during the offensive. Seizing the ports also would provide faster reinforcements for losses, as replacements could be shipped directly to the frontlines, provided there was adequate coordination between the supply ships and the advance. Wherever the Carentanians seized a new port, ships could bring in new troops directly for the front. It was a risky endeavour, sure, but as Carentanian air superiority proved quite effective at denying the Solaren forces long range artillery fire or anti-ship defenses, it was a controllable risk well worth it.

 

[Khemia]

TESTONO

The gunships and aircraft engaged more sheep herders and refugees than they did insurgents, with mangled bodies of civilian and fanatic alike littering the countryside. Women and children from groups of refugees moving out of the city for fear of the coming assault were the most deadly strikes. The insurgents traveled among them, using the families and children as human shields. But these shields were broken as the airbursting 30mm autocannon shells of the helicopters detonated, the 5m radius of shrapnel killing indiscriminately. Even when the shells burst in the ground, the killzone was still 2m. Those that didn't die were often riddled with metal fragments, left to die in a countryside without any access to food or medical supplies. But even these operations could not completely stop the flow of fanatics into and out of the city. Eiffellander troops struggled to find the tunnels, with routine patrols using thermal imaging to find and track insurgents, sending in army units to investigate the area. What they found were crowds of civilians, refugees and farmers, with insurgents among them. The insurgents weren't always armed of even obvious, and they would need to be detained to determine who was guilty or innocent. Once in a while, an unfortunate patrol happened upon a tunnel jury-rigged with re-wired 105mm, 155mm, and chemical weapon shells. These homemade bombs, or IED's, killed many troops and collapsed the tunnels.

Worse yet, the Eiffellander force had not completely surrounded Testono. Many insurgents fled the city to the East, hiding among villages that dotted the coast and countryside. From there, they spread their ideas and recruited even more comrades to their fight. The civilians were complacent, and sometimes even welcoming to the Army of God. They provided a sense of security in a state that had lost any semblance of law and order.


Between Nicosia and Solaren, LONG SEA

The MV Tien Hau was a commercial shipping vessel flagged under the Yujin flag. With a displacement of nearly 70,000 DWT, the vessel was fully loaded with cargo and bound towards Syracuse. So close to its destination, the crew had no idea that soon their entire lives would be thrown into chaos. A land-based anti-shipping missile, nearly 40 years old in design, had tracked the Tien Hau by it's radio transmissions to Nicosian coastal authorities. Triangulating its position by using multiple radio receiving stations to ascertain its location, the coordinates were transferred to the Solaren crew of the missile. It was launched minutes after, and struck its target approximately 80 miles away, as she began to make the final turn to head into the Nicosian port. The strike had struck the merchant vessel in the rear, aft of the bridge. The engine compartment was devastated, and chemicals aboard the vessel reacted with oxygen and ignited, setting the vessel ablaze. Taking on water, the 27 crew members struggled to control the damage and save the ship, but quickly realized that this would be impossible. The risk of chemical explosions and fires on the deck damaging the hull integrity was too significant, and an S.O.S. was signaled. The crew quickly moved to their life boats and awaited rescue, watching as the vessel slowly slipped beneath the waves.