Nieveland, Late June in 2023
Following the Thaumantic Order's endorsement of the Csengian Patriotic Council an order of assessment went out across the Nievish Revolutionary Guard to pluck soldiers of certain criteria to be sent to Caitekurke for re-assignment. They had to have at least one year remaining in conscription or be volunteer careerists and possess no medical or personnel markers blocking them from re-enlistment. This first wave produced twelve thousand Nieves who brought their standard kits to camp outside of Caitekurke International Airport while administrators of the Revolutionary Guard scrambled to feed and prepare them for rapid relay to Ebria.
Only some days before the Tiburan Pope had been there and mementos of the happening still covered the fields where the troops now milled about hungrily and frustrated that they had been pulled away from domestic duty. No one among them wanted to be a White Helm and the stain of foreign travel scared their sensibilities as to what they would experience and be blamed for when they returned.
"My cousin was a White Helm, mind ye" one private told another, "can't catch a job nor a lass since, they're right cursed he said and I mark him! The continent changes one into untouchable."
Some order was designed to this plan and in rudimentary fashion the first to arrive in Caitekurke were the first to leave for Ebria. They carried kit and standard supplies for a weekend patrol away from garrison along with arms and ammunition for the same duration. The government adjacent airlines took most, while sputtering military craft took fewer to their destination with orders to become White Helms - though none had been given paint yet to create that illusion.
In that faraway land called Ebria they were ordered to pitch tents again in parks away from the civilian population, although not at all for secrecy. Mistakes made with the original White Helms had taught the Revolutionary Guard not to allow troops to meet host nationals with any significant interaction. Cultural derangement and defections were too common when suddenly exposed to the way these mainlanders lived and it could no longer be risked.
Major Hely of the White Helms would be their commander in these fields, now shouldering an oversized element of European Forum titled and Guard titled troops that had him pulling his hair out. He ordered them to settle in and wait for supplies from the Ebrians, primarily food so they need not touch their sealed rations, and began negotiations with those same local national authorities to develop a plan of movement towards Csengia if the event were to occur.
"No you heard me right Señor: I want to rent every ENA Ávila you got in this country and when those run out we'll take the sedans. I hope no one in Ebria wants to go on holiday this summer!" Hely told his Ebrian counterpart. Hely's harebrained plan, as it was, would be to put as many Nieves into civilian vans to shoot out towards Csengia once the Patriotic Council was ready to move.
That day might never come, and Hely was praying for that as he prepared to meet the Engwahlian President Linc Yeovil tomorrow. Yeovil was using this as proof of his leadership and decisiveness in contrast to Almskeeper Pherson's reticence and hands off approach to the situation. In this too, Hely prayed, it was ideal if this was just him posturing because the Nieves who were stacking up here in Ebria hardly had the experience or supplies to wage war for longer than a few days if it came to that.
Following the Thaumantic Order's endorsement of the Csengian Patriotic Council an order of assessment went out across the Nievish Revolutionary Guard to pluck soldiers of certain criteria to be sent to Caitekurke for re-assignment. They had to have at least one year remaining in conscription or be volunteer careerists and possess no medical or personnel markers blocking them from re-enlistment. This first wave produced twelve thousand Nieves who brought their standard kits to camp outside of Caitekurke International Airport while administrators of the Revolutionary Guard scrambled to feed and prepare them for rapid relay to Ebria.
Only some days before the Tiburan Pope had been there and mementos of the happening still covered the fields where the troops now milled about hungrily and frustrated that they had been pulled away from domestic duty. No one among them wanted to be a White Helm and the stain of foreign travel scared their sensibilities as to what they would experience and be blamed for when they returned.
"My cousin was a White Helm, mind ye" one private told another, "can't catch a job nor a lass since, they're right cursed he said and I mark him! The continent changes one into untouchable."
Some order was designed to this plan and in rudimentary fashion the first to arrive in Caitekurke were the first to leave for Ebria. They carried kit and standard supplies for a weekend patrol away from garrison along with arms and ammunition for the same duration. The government adjacent airlines took most, while sputtering military craft took fewer to their destination with orders to become White Helms - though none had been given paint yet to create that illusion.
In that faraway land called Ebria they were ordered to pitch tents again in parks away from the civilian population, although not at all for secrecy. Mistakes made with the original White Helms had taught the Revolutionary Guard not to allow troops to meet host nationals with any significant interaction. Cultural derangement and defections were too common when suddenly exposed to the way these mainlanders lived and it could no longer be risked.
Major Hely of the White Helms would be their commander in these fields, now shouldering an oversized element of European Forum titled and Guard titled troops that had him pulling his hair out. He ordered them to settle in and wait for supplies from the Ebrians, primarily food so they need not touch their sealed rations, and began negotiations with those same local national authorities to develop a plan of movement towards Csengia if the event were to occur.
"No you heard me right Señor: I want to rent every ENA Ávila you got in this country and when those run out we'll take the sedans. I hope no one in Ebria wants to go on holiday this summer!" Hely told his Ebrian counterpart. Hely's harebrained plan, as it was, would be to put as many Nieves into civilian vans to shoot out towards Csengia once the Patriotic Council was ready to move.
That day might never come, and Hely was praying for that as he prepared to meet the Engwahlian President Linc Yeovil tomorrow. Yeovil was using this as proof of his leadership and decisiveness in contrast to Almskeeper Pherson's reticence and hands off approach to the situation. In this too, Hely prayed, it was ideal if this was just him posturing because the Nieves who were stacking up here in Ebria hardly had the experience or supplies to wage war for longer than a few days if it came to that.
