Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Sixty-One
25th July 1968
Silesian-Polish Frontier
It was pouring down rain and the canvas cover had been put on the Iltis, making the interior stifling hot and humid. They were stuck in traffic, so Maus kept honking the horn and cussing at the lorry towing a field howitzer in front of them. The fact that they were able to pick up the University stations back in Berlin on the civilian radio that was held to the top of dashboard with tie wire showed just how whacked this entire operation was. At least there was music to listen to though, that is if Maus would cut it out.
“You hit that horn one more time, I’m ripping it out and shoving it up your ass!” Christian yelled at Maus.
“This guy drives like my fucking grandmother!” Maus yelled back.
“And if in a few days, we need fire support because we have half the Polish Army about to overrun us. It would be just our luck that his outfit is the one who gets the call” Christian said, “Then they lose the message and have a good laugh because you are being an asshole.”
“Whatever” Maus muttered under his breath, as he paused from honking the horn for at least a few minutes.
Einar was just staring at raindrops running down the clear plastic that made up the window, ignoring everyone else. Ralf was doing his job, in theory. He had his headphones on and was monitoring the two radios in the back in case something came through from either Command or tactical networks. It was impossible to tell if he was even awake.
They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes. Then Einar farted loudly. Christian’s eyes were watering as he unzipped the window to let some air in, even diesel exhaust would have to smell better.
“What weird Viking shit have you been eating” Maus demanded as he waved his hand in front of his nose.
“I’m no more a Viking than you are, Maus” Einar replied tersely, “Vikings are from Norway, I’m Estonian.”
The thing was that Einar did look the part of a Viking raider from a thousand years earlier. It was just one more way in which he was the odd man out in this crew. Christian, Maus, and Ralf were from the Brandenburg suburbs outside of Berlin. Einar said he was from a place called Kuressaare in Estonia, which Christian had been unable to find on a map.
They sat in silence for a while more as the traffic inched ahead. Then the music cut out mid-song as it was preempted by special bulletin. Ralf, suddenly awake, said that the same transmission was coming over the Command network too.
“Today I speak to you not just as your Emperor…” Christian heard a voice that had been familiar to him since early childhood.
“It’s old Lutz” Maus said, though he didn’t need to.
“Shut up Maus” Einar said, saving Christian the trouble.
“…fellow citizen of a Federation that I have worked to make more inclusive. Because unlike what narrow minded chauvinists might tell you, time has proven that we are strong due to our differences, not despite them.” Louis said, “So it is with a heavy heart that I am forced to once again send our sons and daughters unto the breach to defend our values by committing to this police action in the Kingdom of Poland. It is something that I had sought to avoid, and to my eternal regret, the world recently stood by and watched as nations were overrun. Their populations put to the sword held by the blood-soaked hands of the nationalistic fool who thinks that is how you win the peace. We stood by, and now we pay the price by finding that it is about to happen on our very own doorstep. I say, speaking in the name of decency and humanity, no more!”
The Emperor was not exactly known for being the greatest Orator in the world, everyone knew that. From Christian’s perspective though, the old man was clearly firing on all cylinders with this radio address.
Fort Drum, New York
It had been a great relief that the Ecuadorians had not blundered into a war before Richie’s Team had rotated out. Once back in New York, he had time to focus on other things. Like the promised visit by Lucia.
Lucia had never been on an airplane before she had gotten on one that took her from LA to Idlewild. She had watched with amazement as Upstate New York rolled by on their way to Fort Drum where Ritchie had arranged accommodations for her. He had given her the grand tour of the base before the moment that held the greatest amount of trepidation for him, introducing her to the Team.
That occurred on a hot afternoon after they had packed it in early for the day. The Team along with girlfriends and other assorted guests were having pot-luck barbecue on the bank of the Black River which made up one of the Fort’s boundaries. As soon as Lucia got out of the car, Ritchie could see that all eyes were on her, mostly out of curiosity as he introduced her.
“I’ve heard a lot about all of you” Lucia said with a smile. “Nice to have faces to go with the names.”
“And the Runt has been talking about you all the time” Mullins said in reply.
“Runt?” Lucia asked, amused by the nickname that Casey and Parker had stuck him with years earlier.
“It’s an old joke Miss Cruz” Kravitz said as he handed her a can of coke.
Huck was fiddling with a backpack radio, ignoring everyone else. Then strange voices started coming from the speaker, in German. Ritchie, along with all the other men paused.
“What is that?” Lucia asked.
“The German tactical radio network” Ritchie replied, “We can pick it up on shortwave because those signals are typically unencrypted.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a battle yet, just the Army and Marines seem to be on the move” Huck said.