MERCENARY TALES - ENTRY 1 - THE RAILMEN
The best and most amazing tales from our noble army starts off with an explanation as to what exactly our boys are doing down in Nymera.Theophrastus Zorgasté, with story and input from Abraham Oflanna.
AUGUST 31 1936 - ♍︎. STORY WRITTEN AUGUST 18TH, 1936 - ♌︎| PLEROMA, PLEROMA KANTON, ENLIGHTENED KINGDOM OF HERCYNIA
SOLDIERS OF THE MILTSREJIMENKOM "PLEROMA EMBASSY" ZB. 25 IN VALEL.Image by Collegiate Expeditionary Force Press Corps (Photographer: Apollonius Zeteko). ACROSS NYMERA -
Nymera is a land of near limitless opportunity for anyone. While living standards may vary widely from region to region, there is one thing that unites the region as a whole: struggle. This struggle manifests itself in many ways, be it colonial powers versus natives, natives versus natives, or colonial powers versus other colonial powers. Many times, however, it seems to be nature versus everyone who steps foot on the continent, with most people who pass after a certain area passing from malaria. While the treatments to it are difficult to produce and very often not entirely effective on a mass scale, the Hercynian manages to perservere easily and continue on where almost nobody else from Hibernia and Cybelleum to Crocinia can go.
We have outposts in Valel, we have them in Simé, the Xaxan Confederation, Oscaunja, the lands of the Bada, and many of Auvernia and Auberon's colonies. Simply put, other people may own the land, but every Nymeran from the palest colonial, fresh off the Altish boat in Auvernia to the darkest soldier in the Yeyean ranks have all probably ran into one Hercynian or another. We are their couriers, their police, their scouts, and their baggage trains. We understand what the native and the colonial go through on a daily basis, and we watch pretty much everything that goes through the entire part of the continent that civilization has seemed to grace so far.
No truer example could be seen here than in Western Nymera, where every nation that has ever built a boat has either a trade route to here or it has the desire to. Auvernia has lucked out in having a colony, and while further away, the Aventines and Atlesians have no problem reaching it either. In nearby Oscaunja, however, is a marvelous invention put forth after the end of the War of the Grand Coalition. Oscaunja is the northern hub of the trans-Nymeran railway, a railplane system that seeks to unite the population hubs of the continent with the resource rich areas in an effort to achieve maximum efficiency for resource management, primarily by local governments and colonial powers. Currently only really located in Western Nymera, the Negus of Kefalion, Natnael XII, has made plans to expand it Eastwards, in an uncommon show of agreement with neighboring Alytay-owned Kettlai. The railway transports people and resources across the region North and South, with smaller branches going East and West. As is the case with many areas where civilization is few and far between, things such as banditry and even occasional small scale wars are not uncommon for the region. Even a few weeks ago, a religious conflict erupted in Oscaunja and resulted in the deaths of no less than 13 innocent laborers. While not uncommon for us to occasionally handle problems there, Hercynian soldiers have been placed on "high caution" when moving through the region.
When it comes to policing these areas, that is our job. Working alongside any government force we can find, we operate in and around the rail line and ensure it's safe operation. Our troops are generally posted on almost every single shipment that runs about, and through it, we have been granted privileges to almost everything imaginable when it comes to the run of the mill "tell us about your spirituality" deals.
This has proven to be great for Hercynia, and the College.
This, meanwhile, is Abraham Oflanna.
ABRAHAM OFLANNA IN AND OUT OF UNIFORM.
Image by Collegiate Expeditionary Force Press Corps (Photographer: Tsarania Vakalus).
Oflanna is a sergeant in the ZB. 25th regiment, and a bit of a botanomancer. Regardless, his skills in combat are perfectly fine. Below is a simple and rather succinct example of something that our good soldiers have been doing down there to make sure that everything has been going smoothly. As is the case, however, there seems to be a recent increase in general lawlessness and barbarity between minor religious cults and straight up banditry, something that he has quite an amount of experience with, having served around four tours in Nymera over a six or so year period.
"ON THE 14TH OF AUGUST, the 22nd of Leo, we had been dispatched to help carry a shipment of gold and a few other precious valuables from a point down in Valel up north to Oscaunja. This is a commonly travelled route, and for everyone in the regiment, it's generally considered to be the "boring" route. Safe, sound, with not a lot to worry about. It takes around five days from departure of the last station in Valel to reach the first major one in southern Oscaunja in the Adraros, and there are really only two or so areas that anyone needs to be careful about, and most of that is just from inclement weather from the occasional dust storm or flood damage. The worst detail I've ever worked, personally, even including this, was flood repair in January and February of 1934. Nothing but mud and wet sand for weeks on end.
I hesitate to elaborate and get off track...I'm certain that the editor will expunge anything that's not relevant or move it to the back of the newspaper entry if...
Please see page 25 for the remainder of this section....and the way that these security details operate is that around fifty men go, divided up into teams of three. Twenty on the ground, twenty on the rail car, and another ten are in either helicopters or slowly flying planes, though this is for the bigger shipments such as this one. Primarily, if it's a smaller shipment, only two or sometimes even one team is dispatched, typically no more than twenty five or thirty men, most of whom stay on the rail car. I, as a squad leader, was kept on the squad car with my team of ten men. As is the case with many of these dispatches, we typically spend most of it doing a small amount of exercise, or sleeping, or eating. Three times a day we have a scheduled check in with the squad below or a local outpost, or even a friendly tribe, and once a day we check with the aerial support we have. Generally, the ground team runs into the most issues, and they do this by generally attempting to damage the foundation or the rail line itself - damaging the cars aren't really worth it for them, from what we've found. They do this either by mining at them, hitting the wood and concrete or stone bases with picks and explosives, attempting to separate the metal from them and causing a dip in the rail, or by attempting to block it by making rather elaborate scaffolding to elevate wood or stone to cause damage to the railing.
Now, what happened this most recent time was special, and I attribute it largely due to a religious fervor swiping up the region that makes monetary exchanges less of a desire for the local populace, but for some reason, there was a larger crowd this time, of around 100 or so tribesmen, the majority of whom were likely cultists. Alternatively, it could be the hint at something larger threatening southern Oscaunja and parts of Auvernia and the Bada Confederation. I trust Auvernia, Valel and Simé to deal with the threat accordingly. It took us by surprise. Around 6 PM or so, the time of our aerial check in, we got word through a Kaplic code that there was a "large gathering ahead," and that we'd likely have to deal with it.
Typically, when these attacks happen, they happen mid day or during full moons. There's no point in attacking without light, as these people have no access to selin glasses, and attacking in broad daylight is essentially their only choice, and they are left to finding good natural areas to do so. The area we were upcoming to was not part of the Adraros, but rather something akin to a valley where the rail line passes between two series of hills, and later on passes over a canyon. Due to a lack of fuel, the aerial support had to continue on to the next outpost to refuel and restock. For us, as we entered, the local tribesmen began to fire at the back of the railcar, and additionally, they had constructed what appeared to be a series of long and skinny planks and ladders, that would in turn be used to block the rail car.
To avoid damage to the rail line, the conductor stopped the car and we opened the windows that weren't shattered from rifle fire. We had mounted machine guns and materiel rifles, and turned to those, and the ground team below began taking heavy fire while we attempted to cover for them while they moved to a rocky outcropping below, where they would only need to deal with fire from one side.
It was...impressive, to say the least - usually most people assume that tribespeople are nothing but savages, regardless of where one goes, but human ingenuity is something that is innate to all humans regardless of where they are from, like souls. It was crude, but they managed to get it to work, the ladders and planks hit the top of the rail car with a series of thuds, and while the first ones on were easily cut down by fire, we started taking casualties of our own whenever we attempted to return from the windows, leading to two of our machine gunners being wounded, and one rifleman felled by fire. The rest of the tribesmen were able to carry themselves over, with minimal accidents relating to falling, and then board the top of the rail car. Most rail cars have an emergency entrance and exit hatch on top of them, and they began to bash them in and attempt to enter. Seeing no other hope, we grabbed the more powerful rifles and started to shoot through, attempting to scatter them off while not hitting the delicate cables atop the middle of the cars, lest we fall and deal with that. Behind us was a shipment of gold and a few other valuables, as I have stated previously, but what seemed...off to us at the time was that they did not choose to board that car, but rather ours. Bandits would simply go ahead and take the valuables, if they were after us, then the valuables were secondary.
By now, in later August, the sun begins to set earlier than it does in the height of summer, and by the middle point of our skirmish, darkness had began to cast itself over us, with gunshots and the occasional tossed grenade being the only sources of light credible enough to us. After a few minutes of tense fire, primarily spent down on our stomachs and backs, or curled up in corners, we had managed to scatter the majority of the ones on top off, and we sought out our Lieutenant, a man named Plot, a great man by the way, rather amicable and quite intelligent on gemstones. Seeking his assurance, me and the other squad leader aboard, a local medicine man and soldier by the name of Khalil who had joined us in exchange for citizenship, formulated a brief plan with the intent to fully repel all the attackers. Khalil took part of what was left of his squad, which has hit quite hard by the opening wave of fire, and attempted to link downwards via a rope and ladder to the ground team, which by now had taken a substantial amount of casualties, the majority of them thankfully only wounded.
I, meanwhile, was the first one on top of the rail car. I felt like a soldier going atop a trench in the War, a sword in one hand and a weapon devised by engineers for close quarters fighting, commonly referred to as a "wrist snapper" or "elbow breaker." Essentially only issued to security teams and the military because of the cost - you can buy it in a catalog, but I'd advise just getting something more run of the mill like a shotgun - these things are essentially a large, think leather gauntlet and vambrace with a small, three magazine tube that can fire off a blast at incredibly short ranges by throwing a punch and pulling a trigger with the thumb. I climbed atop the car, and found myself assailed by what I can only say was either one or two, my initial reaction to the fires in the distance was seeing spots in my eyes and wildly swinging my blade around and yelling, I cannot tell if what I hit was a person or a skim against wood or metal, but I felt something. As my eyes came to, I saw another of them draw their knife upon me, whereupon I, with my wrist snapper, punched them in the stomach and pulled the trigger, firing a blast off and sending them back across the rail car before they fell below.
I put my sword leaned up against the middle cables, and helped pull a few of my companions out and we began to return fire, loosely and inaccurately, into the night before us. We saw a crack or a pop of fire from somewhere else, and we would immediately pelt at it with fire from our wands. They would repeat the same to us, and then we would return the favor again. The Lieutenant gave an order to advance, and we gave a hasty and slow half-advance on the ladders. I was the first one to reach the hill, and the first thing I did on it was reach down and grab the rifle of a fallen attacker. We regrouped, and promptly began taking fire from someone up ahead, when one of our machine gunners was hit in the chest and keeled over. We returned with shot and grenade, and the remaining attackers began to dissipate from both sides, with the frequency of fire becoming slower and slower, and eventually melting away into the night, and the next hour or so was spent with seeing a flash, hearing the whizz or whirr or crack of a bullet flying over or smacking rock or dirt or metal, followed by hearing the gunshot.
The rest of the night was spent partially on guard and partially reclaiming what weaponry we could.
And with that, the Bada, or what I believe to be them were bested, and the remainder of them quickly fell into a rout and we decided that we had better things to do for the night than to follow them. We carried on and reached the Adraros within 12 hours, and were promptly relieved and sent to local medicine men and doctors for medical assistance, and the dead were shipped back to Hercynia to be given a proper funeral, God rest their souls."
Those who have died have been commended for their sacrifice and service by the King, and their families have been given aid to help them with their loss.
As stated, these will appear once a month. Next month, September, we move from the hot deserts of the Adraros mountains to the cold, isolated southern Kingdom of Kalriki, where our boys are training the local military. Surprisingly enough, many things can happen in such a small, remote area.ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
- DOMESTIC: Preparing for the fall harvest - what can you do?
- WORLD: Is Atlesia having a refugee crisis after the Blumenwald invasion?
- OPINION: War might come to Cybelleum again. We would get invovled.
- SPORTS: Hornussen league starts soon!
- WEIRD: Pleroma man wakes to find another man sucking on his toes. Full police report included.