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ambrafoxtrot17
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Posts: 82
Joined: Sat 19 Jun 2021, 17:29

Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Sun 27 Jun 2021, 18:54

Not far from where Holtz left the mortar team there was the VM-90 of the scout platoon. The Lieutenant stopped to confer with Rossi and Ottonese.

“How are you doing warriors? Otto...A local is coming here with a doctor to have a look at your forearm. He brings painkillers that we don’t have to take care of you little baby. Holtz tried to sound ad funny as possible, but it didn’t seem to work. Holtz turned to more practical things. “Rossi...hand me over that Dragunov and the AK. Give me the spare magazine as well, I’m going to bring it to the local militia as a token of gratitude for their hospitality.”

Ottonese barely acknowledged the presence of his superior. Rossi instead hurried up, collecting the material the Lieutenant had asked for. Holtz gave Rossi a deep investigative look. The soldier gestured to the officer not to worry. His section leader would be alright; then he joined his superior outside of the vehicle, to hand him the weapons.

“Be sure that he is able to function again at the double, or I will have to relieve him from command. Does he know that he is not the first one to lose a brother in this fucking war?”

“I think he does Sir. It’s just that it is the first time it has happened to him. He and the Sergeant were really, really close.”

“Put him in condition to work again at full crank...Soon! If he fucks up in action you are the first one to die, you know that right?.” Holtz gave one last significant stare at Rossi, and walked away in the snow, his thermal camo making him look like a walking fatman.

In the dining room of Mrs. Berglund illuminated by some candles on the table, Major Siviglia was insisting to help her to bring to the table the meager meal based on a vegetable soup with a little bit of beef meat in it. The beverages consisted of a glass of the precious reserve of red wine that Jonna still had in the house. A young daughter of Mrs. Berglund, Louise, was talking with the Major.

The militia man introduced Holtz inside the house right in the middle of the something she was saying to Siviglia. She had the determined expression of her mother, and her same eyes. Holtz heart had a couple of misfires before retrieving the signal correctly. He was fast to recover or so he hoped; he would be so incredibly embarrassed if somebody noticed the stoppage.

Siviglia and Louise both looked at him like if he was a burglar. And with all that weaponry stacked on him, that was exactly what he looked like. He quickly put down the Dragunov against the sofa, and got rid of the AK and of his Beretta assault rifle in the same fashion, after having made sure that the entire arsenal was on safety; not exactly the routine of a gentleman entering some ladies house. To get out of the embarrassment, he militarily saluted his superior, subconsciously emphasizing the martial gesture and trying to look as passively cool as he could.

“Lieutenant, let me introduce you to Miss Louise Berglund. Madame Mayor was telling me that she is the only child out of four that she has still at home. This charming young lady was just explaining to me that if it wasn’t for the war she wouldn’t be here either.”

“And charming she is indeed for the love of God.” Thought Kurt. Even though she was wearing an old blue robe on a pair of faded jeans, had poorly dressed hair and not even a thread of makeup, she was still very beautiful. Kurt tried to picture her in his head under different circumstances.

“One of this days some divinity will have to explain to me how in the hell it is possible that this damned country doesn’t have a single ugly female walking on it,” Holtz told himself.

Kurt took off his hat and extended his hand trying to put on a warm smile. He miserably failed at looking nonchalant and he realized that too.

Louise put her blue eyes on him and shook his hand asking him his name, before Major Siviglia could finish with the introduction.

“Kurt...Kurt Holtz”

“A strange name for an Italian man” she said with a calm unconcerned voice.

He matched her look: “I am not completely Italian...my father is Austrian”

“Oh...I see!” answered Louise just before her mother entered in the dining room with the pot of soup.

“Lieutenant…!” Mrs Berglund noticed him...welcome we were just waiting for you to start.” Then she looked at the pile of weapons against the sofa. “Are you expecting an attack Lieutenant?”

“Yes...I mean….no Madam. I brought these weapons for your your city militia. We captured them from the Russians and this AK-74 also has a spare…”

“Let me interrupt you for a second Lieutenant. It is dinner time and at these latitudes we do not discuss business at dinner”...Jonna smiled maternally at him. “I will be happy to attend these matters with you and the Major may be after dinner!?”

“Yes Ma’am...of course.”

In order to complement the dinner the Italian officers each produced one of their last MREs and offered them to the two women, hoping that they would accept them as a sign of gratitude from the 8th Alpini towards the Mayor of Stopen. Holtz’s had Pasta with mushrooms, a Milanese steak and a chocolate little cake. Siviglia’s MRE consisted of Prosciutto Crudo a small slice of orange melon, Tuna-fish meat with black olives, and an instant espresso to be heated on a flame. Jonna decided that the act was to kind to be refused, but she was irremovable on the fact that the five of them had to share all the goodies. Mr. Karl Albinsson, the militiamen bodyguard of Mrs Berglund was particularly happy of the deal.

Kurt took the opportunity to explain to Louise all the subtleties of a Milanese cutlet. She seemed to enjoy the lesson.

Dinner went on with no particular hiccups despite the fact that nobody was particularly good smelling, well groomed or carefree, and that the house was full of loaded weapons. It was a little candlelight banquet anyway warmed by a crackling fireplace, with a bunch of humans from two distant cultures, sharing their humanity in the middle of a global tragedy; that particular layer of humanity that doesn’t know culture barriers.

Major Siviglia asked the women about the region and the town of Skovde before the war. Jonna remembered the days before the war and all the beautiful things. Then inevitably the conversation steered towards less pleasant subjects. Jonna told the Italians about her husband, a manager for an aerospace company in Linköping, of whom she hadn’t had any news since the day that town was hit by a nuclear warhead. She told about her two sons drafted in the army when the Soviets invaded. She didn’t know anything about them either. And the same thing was for her other daughter Karin who was caught by the war in her senior year in college in Netherlands.
Siviglia on his part summarized their experience in Sweden, pointing out that they had just seldom contacts with the civilian population up to that time and that the Regiment had practically been destroyed in two years of operations. But it seemed that the other military units, allied and enemies alike were more or less in the same conditions.

Jonna asked Major Siviglia if it was possible to speak of allied and enemies any longer. A group of American soldiers dropped in from the east the week before. Some of them were radiation sick. "They took a good part of our food reserves that the Russians didn’t previously take."

“May be they were stragglers. I doubt an organized lawful US military unit would ever do that” said Siviglia trying to comfort Jonna.

“Three months ago a unit of Russian Marines did the same thing, right while we were trying to store our harvest for the winter. Some families resisted before I could intervene. The Russians beat up many people and ended up raping three girls, one of them only sixteen.

“Holy fuck!!…..I mean…. I am sorry Ma’am” Holtz shut down like a phalanx CIWS saturated with targets, and tried to apologize for his French and most of all for his gaffe, but it was evidently too late.

“There was nothing holy about those particular ones young man” Jonna reproached Holtz involuntary bad joke and even Major Siviglia looked at him pretty sternly.

“I am sorry...I didn’t mean...I meant did those subhumans ever showed their face again. I would like to organize a nice made ambush for them If they ever do.”

“No...Mr. Holtz, they did not. I think their unit was surrounded and destroyed in a pitched battle against an American battalion or at least that is the rumor.

“Anyway” concluded Mrs. Berglund, “Those are the reasons why we met you so impolitely when you showed up today.”

“Oh you don’t worry about that Madam” Siviglia reassured her. “I can only begin to imagine what it must have been for you to go through everything since the beginning of the war.”

The discussion hanged over for some time after dinner. Then the women thanked the Italians for the wonderful dinner. Louise told Kurt that she hadn’t felt that satiated in months. Jonna told the two officer that they would have been welcome to share the living room with Karl. The fireplace would have been on all night of course. Both officers politely declined the offer adducing that they both had night duties to attend, which in case of Lieutenant Holtz was even true, since he had a scheduled watch shift with 17th company.

Jonna promised that they would discuss the next day about the weapons that Lieutenant Holtz had brought over, and that they could leave them there for the moment if they so wanted.

So the Italian Alpini left the house thanking once again Madam Mayor for the opportunity given to the Italian troops to rest in the village for the night.

“It has been a wonderful night Lieutenant Holtz...thank you very much” Louise extended his hand when Kurt was already out the door.

“Plase call me Kurt”, he took her hand in his two hands, and it was her turn to blush. “I will see you tomorrow.”
Walking towards the positions of the 17th company Major Siviglia looked sideways at his junior officer, and grinned with the hidden side of his face. His Lieutenant was flying on the snow.


Louise intent on listening about the Milanese cutlet
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Joined: Sat 19 Jun 2021, 17:29

Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Mon 28 Jun 2021, 15:45

Last day of 1998 morning shift Southern Sweden

Ottonese and Rossi woke up inside the bus station as fresh as roses after an entire night of sleep without any watch duties; first night in a long time that they didn’t sleep in their vehicle or in the open next to the campfire.
Rossi got up and put some instacoffee on his little gas stove. Looked at Ottonese who was himself just starting to function.
“Kind thought on the Lieutenant part to put us in reserve after the Kackestad action. I don’t even remember the last time I had two shift in a row to rest and sleep.
“That Modena fuck”** answered Otto acidly. “He thinks he’s a leader just because he wears brown gloves and sports his queer nobility manners.”
“The hell is wrong with you man? He is concerned about the regiment and about you in particular. I know because he talked to me. He is worried about your mental state in case we have to be in action again.”
“Action” Ottonese spat the word in disgust. “What that dandy fluff knows about action! He ever finds himself in serious shit he will evaporate like fog hit by the sun.”
“You don’t know that”
“I bet on that...the retarded brass always make us fight alone...what do you think...with the excuse that we are recon, they are going to get us all killed, like they did with Dario.”
“Listen man...you should let it go ok? We all loved the Sergeant but we are in a fucked up shooting war, have you noticed?...By the way the Major is organizing a memorial service for Sergeant Vauro. I will ask to carry his body. Do you want me to make request for to you?”
“Yes.” Ottonese went back to back his stuff.

At Mrs Berglund’s house Holtz and Siviglia went back to discuss about business like they promised the night before. Jonna met the two officers again, telling them that she would have a carpenter put together a wooden box for Vauro. “Not exactly a coffin said the lady, but something.”
“Thank you very much for your concern Madam. I hope you will accept to keep the weapons that Lieutenant Holtz brought yesterday. They could be useful for the defense of the village.” Jonna didn’t give a direct answer; instead she asked what were Siviglia’s plans for the immediate future.

“After we disengaged from Kackestad,” he answered, “my intention was to wait for new orders from the US overall command. But if like you say Alingsas has been destroyed I don’t think we’ll receive any. Yesterday I tried multiple times to get in contact with my superiors, but to no avail. Allied military units either do not respond or they can’t respond.”

Jonna went to her bedroom and came back after a minute with a map that she spread on the dining room table.
“Here is a summary of all the contacts, rumors and info that I collected in the last six months.”

The map showed a series of towns in Southeastern Sweden that had or could have been subjected to an atomic attack according to Mrs Berglund’s information. Holtz and Siviglia looked at each other, terrified. A large number of towns were marked with a big black X.

“I am certainly no expert,” said Jonna, “but using as a sample the effects that we suffered up here from the attack on Skovde, I would say that the weapons employed were not the heaviest. We are about 10 kilometers from the center of Skovde, and when it was attacked, we had the southern half of the village windows shattered. No other major damage. I remember that we observed a giant mushroom as far high as you could see and we all felt the heat of the detonation, but we only had a few cases of light burns among the people who lived in the southern outskirts. Like I told you yesterday, we had 18 fatalities surely related to radiations in the aftermath of the attack. The southern part of Stopen has been evacuated and it is deserted now. I will add,” and Jonna face assumed a particularly sad expression, “that some refugees who managed to make it all the way up here, told us that Skovde and its surroundings are completely destroyed and that it is estimated that around 30.000 people are dead or injured.”

Siviglia looked at Holtz. “It’s consistent with the reports we had all along form 2nd US Marines: IRBMs about 100 Ks each.”

“Are those big?” asked Jonna suddenly interested.

“They are Madam Mayor. Not strategic weapons, but powerful enough to vaporize an entire city. Let’s say 10 times the power of Hiroshima bomb.”

“My God” Jonna whined.

“In this map of yours, are there all the attacks that you know about?” interjected Holtz.

“Yes, there are Lieutenant. I have marked down the location every time we had a rumor or some official news about each attack. Some of them happened at the same time. I am certainly not sure of the completeness or the precision of the information, but this is all I was able to gather.”

Siviglia had another good look at the map. “Jesus in Heaven!” he said “This is way more than Overall told us about...If this is only half accurate, God help us and them too?” said the Major referring to the Swedish population.

“Also if this happened in all theaters, God help us all” Added Holtz.
“God help us all” agreed Siviglia.

“Do you happen to have a compass Ma’am?” asked the Major. Mrs Berglund walked in her room and came back a minute later with the instrument. Patiently Major Siviglia drew all the circles representing the estimated radius of a 100 kiloton event for each of the sites indicated on the map. Then added the estimated 2 megaton event over Goteborg reported months earlier by the US command. The resulting situation was pretty bleak.
Siviglia looked gravely at his Lieutenant. “Provided that Stenungsund has not been attacked, this is our only way out of here” he said while tracing a corridor among the estimated radiation influence areas resulting from all the explosions. “And this is of course just a gross estimation. Who knows what the effects of the winds, temperatures and whatever have been.”

While the group was examining the map, Karl came inside and informed Mrs. Berglund that everything was ready for the service. Siviglia ordered Holtz to go gather the men for the memorial, and to supervise the organization. The Lieutenant excused himself and departed at once escorted by Karl.

Siviglia and Jonna remained alone in the room in complete silence for a while, until Louise came down the staircase. The Major looked at her while he was doing mental calculation about the necessary fuel to get to Stenungsund. “The VM can make it, the BV cannot goddammit” thought Siviglia at the same time giving his good morning to Louise. “May be if we can cram everything in the VM and in the wagon...We might even leave the BV here as a gift for the citizenry…” he thought.

Jonna seemed to read in his mind when she addressed him again: “Are you really determined to leave at once Major?”

“Not necessarily Madam. I still have to make sure about what happened to the NATO chain of command in this theater, and only then I can make a final decision or conform to a new set of orders If they ever come.”

“I’ll tell you what” said Jonna: “since the bombs started to hit, we didn’t receive a single radio signal coming from the capital of from any other form of organized government. I really believe that at least for the winter, we are on our own. I imagine that the military chain of command was only slightly more resilient. And more important: to what civilian authority are the various military forces obeying now?”

Major Siviglia, looked at Jonna, then at the map on the table. Finally he rubbed his beard which had plenty of time to grow considerably during all the months in the field. He never really considered that aspect of the situation. “So what are you suggesting Madam Mayor.”

“I think that whoever survived this mess, civilian and military alike, is now trying to reorganize their communities or their military units independently. That makes up for a very dangerous and volatile situation indeed Alberto; especially when you consider that there are countless heavily armed veteran military forces like yours all around the place, with no central authority left to govern their actions.

Siviglia noticed that for the first time Jonna had used his first name, and he also had to admit that the woman made a lot of sense.

While he was still staring at her thinking about an answer, Lieutenant Holtz made his appearance again announcing that everything was ready for the memorial. Jonna and Louise wore their winter coats and walked out with the two officer directed to the little cemetery near the wooden area northeast of the village. The journey lasted only a few minutes and when the party arrived at the site, the men of 17th company were already perfectly aligned, assault rifles in present arms stance. They wore their winter combat uniforms since one; they didn’t have anything else to wear, and two; even if they did, the temperature was too cold to wear anything else. All personnel wore their Cappello Alpino with the characteristic black feather in lieu of the field helmet. Siviglia and Holtz, being officers had a white feather on their hats.

The men of the 202th artillery and those of the recon platoon carried the improvised coffin the carpenter had built to host Vauro’s body. They had it on their shoulders waiting for the commanding officers to appear. Luca Ottonese held the front right part of the coffin and a stone indecipherable expression. He imperceptibly moved his eyes to the right when Louise approached. She was the only bareheaded person around and a hell of a head too. She was with the authorities meaning she was a VIP.

Madam Mayor, with Siviglia on her side, stopped on the western edge of the field where several hundred people had gathered to honor the foreign fallen soldier. The entire population of Stoppen was there, or at least what was left of it: old men, women, children, boys; all of them standing there in subfreezing temperatures. Many were carrying torches to provide some light and warmth. The view really was reminiscent of the middle ages. On the opposite side of the field the VM was parked with the his high beams on to provide extra illumination. It had both the Italian and the Swedish flags flying in the frigid wind. Siviglia and Holtz looked at each other and then they turned at Mrs. Berglund; both unable to say a word. They thought they would have a minimalist regimental ceremony, and instead the entire community was there.

The Lutheran pastor, in a heavy leather coat which covered his tunic and a band around his ears and part of his head, arrived soon thereafter to celebrate the function, accompanied by two young assistants.

Jonna approached Major Siviglia.
“I am afraid our priest cannot perform the function in English Major. If it is ok he would run it in Swedish”.
“It is absolutely ok Jonna” Siviglia used her name for the first time as well. “Please go on” he added.
The ceremony went on to the end when Sergeant Vauro was buried and his grave was filled with Swedish dirt and snow. Then Lieutenant Holtz took command of the men for the conclusion. The Alpini who had transported the coffin and the honor picket aligned themselves perpendicularly to each other, and turned their heads towards Holts.
The lieutenant advanced three steps towards them, holding his Beretta 92SB sidearm.
PLOTOOOOOONE……..AT……..TENTI!!!” All the men snapped to attention at the command.
Lieutenant Hotz looked at his men and then at his commander. Then he went on with the sequence. His hoarse voice thundered across the field.
PICCHETTO D’OOOOOONORE…………..FIANCO DEST……...DEEEEEEST!!”
The shooting picket pivoted right as one man.
CARICAAAAAAAT!!
They chambered their bullets
PUNTAAAAAAAT!!
They raised their rifles towards the gray sky.
FUOCO!!
They shot and retracted back their rifles in waiting position. The weapons were automatic, there was no need and no chance to load them again.
PUNTAAAAAAAT!!
FUOCO!!
PUNTAAAAAAAT!!
FUOCO!!

Everybody dispersed to go back to their occupations.
On the way back Siviglia walked with Jonna and her daughter on his left. After a long silence, he turned towards them.
“If you want, I will keep my regiment here until the situation of my chain of command clarifies or a Swedish military units shows up. We will protect the village and help you fortify it if necessary. We will help you gather the food that we all need and we will train your men and women to the use of battle weapons, so that even when we have to leave, you’ll be able to defend yourself. As far as I know Stopen is one of the few urban area of a certain size in the area apart from the major towns. And I don’t think there’s much left of the major towns. What do you guys think?”

“The two women both smiled.”
**The Italian Army Academy is in a town called Modena
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Tue 29 Jun 2021, 08:16

Jonna, Louise and the Italian officers were still walking towards Jonna’s house when Karl came running towards them.
“Ma’am”; short breathed as he was he manged to speak. “I have an alert from a family in Binnebergsvagen about refugees trying to penetrate north from the dead zone. The family sent one of their teenagers kids to warn us. He says they are pretty desperate and potentially dangerous.

“There is not a second to lose Karl! Give me your two barrel, go home grab my pump action rifle and get onsite now. Stop them every way you can. If you have to shoot, shoot. I go get Vincent and Sven and come to help you immediately...GO!” Karl raced away like a rocket.

“Louise...you go home and stay there. I’ll let you know when the emergency is over.” Louise looked at the two Italian, which were the most surprised at how Jonna was handling of the situation. She took off as well.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Major Siviglia, kind of astonished at the transformation of Mrs. Berglund from kind stilish lady, to shoot on sight extremist.

“Are you experienced in crowd control Major?”
“We are not experience on opening fire on civilians, no” Siviglia answered in a colder tone than he meant to.
“Have you dealt before with a bunch of desperate people close to starvation or terminally sick because of radiation or other diseases who would do anything to obtain what they want?”
Siviglia didn’t have a prompt reply, but the answer would have been no.
“Well you should practice that before adventuring in any kind of judgmental evaluation.”
Jonna left Siviglia speechless.
“Let me alert my QRF. If things are as you describe, is not prudent for you to precede you men on the scene.”
Major Siviglia had a point. Jonna gave him a nod.
The Italian grabbed the horn of the man pack radio on his back that thanks God he carried with him at all times.

“Nibbio this is Mangusta do you copy over”

Static crackle. The VM had just left the memorial service as as well, and was directed to the bus deposit.

“Nibbio...this is Mangusta...came in over!”

Some more static and then finally Ottonese responded.

“Avanti Mangusta qui è Nibbio passo!”
“Nibbio change of program...turn back and fly to the main east-west road. Half way you’ll find me and the Mayor. No time to brief you when you get here. EXECUTION you are assigned to the Mayor close protection. You will be under her TACCON. Confirm over.”

Lieutenant Holtz stood there in disbelief at the idea that Major Siviglia was putting a unit under direct command of a civilian, especially when he was there and ready.

“Copied all Mangusta. We are on our way.
“Can you handle simple orders in English Nibbio?...interrogativo”
“Yes Mangusta will do over.”
“Execute over an out”.

Siviglia switched from Italian to English

“Madam Mayor, my Quick Reaction Force will be here in seconds, they are your close protection and are authorized to follow your orders. Pleas use my men wisely.”

Jonna gave him the look.

Then switching to Italian again, Siviglia turned to Holtz anticipating his objections, which the Lieutenant would have never express in front of a third party anyway.

“Kurt...she knows the situation and she has dealt with similar cases before. She just needs protection while her men reach the site and we made a commitment to protect this community anyway.”
“Yes Sir”

Immediately after, the VM-90 appeared at full speed on the Bidhuggarevagen where the party was standing. The Vehicle came to a sudden stop and Hotz pulled the passenger door open. Rossi was manning the MG upstairs, which by the way hed still to be repaired after getting a bulled in the battle of Kackestad.

Jonna quickly climbed on the VM passenger seat, while Siviglia stuck his head in the vehicle to give he last directives to the patrol chief. Moments of embarrassment ensued when the limited space made his head be “danger close” to Madam breasts.

“Go where she says, do what she tells you to do, protect her at all costs. Got it?”
“Roger that Sir...how bad?”
“We don’t know yet. Keep me posted by radio only in case of total fuck up. EXECUTE”
“Yes Sir” Ottonese jumped. He wasn’t used to hear the major cussing.

Siviglia slammed the door closed and the vehicle took off in a diesel black cloud.

Holtz and the Major remained with each other in the middle of the road.
“Why at least you didn’t go with them?” asked Holtz
Siviglia answered after some seconds of meditative silence.
“I want her to trust us. I don’t think I can do that if I don’t trust her managing the men who I assign to her protection.”

The two officers resumed their walking towards the bus deposit.

“Right here, turn right” Jonna ordered Ottonese who was driving the vehicle as fast as he could but still safely. After another couple of instructions the vehicle got at the border between the so called dead zone, which had been evacuated after the attack on Skovde, and the inhabited zone.

Surprisingly, Sven Lager, one of the Stopen militiamen was already there. His crossbow slung down his back, indicated that the situation wasn’t dangerous yet. The militiaman turned back at he sound of the approaching vehicle, not a common thing any longer in modern days Stopenhe. He was surprised too. He was expecting a couple of comrades running on foot to his help with civilians weapons and instead the Italian cavalry appeared with a heavy machinegun on top of the horse. It was even more surprised when he saw Madam Mayor coming out of the vehicle, with an Italian soldier rushing out as well to assume a precise position on her right side a couple steps back and starting to look around for possible dangers. His short military carbine at the low ready wasn’t very reassuring either. The other spaghetti eater remained at the machinegun, covering the entire area.

Approximatevely 40 meters from were Sven and three civilians were standing, there were seven people, in the middle of the road who evidently were keeping a respectful distance. Ottonese, trying to remember everything Sgt. Vauro had taught him about VIP protection, made a rapid evaluation: 3 men, 2 women and 2 female children. No fire weapons visible, but the adults were all armed with clubs and sticks. No visible sharp weapons either.

“This is a closed area folks you are trans passing into a forbidden area. Where do you come from?”
“We come from Tibro. Everything is destroyed” answered one of the two women with a thick accented Swedish, probably Yugoslavian accent or something of that sort. “We walked for weeks now. Everybody is dying down there. Please we can’t take it anymore. We went west first, but Skovde in rubble. We cut along the fields and this is the first urban area that we find intact. Please help us. I think my children are sick. We are starving. We need some clothes. We can work. Please!”
Mrs. Berglund remained unmoved. Ottonese put a glare on the Mayor. “Thick bitch” was his unconscious thought.

“I am telling you. You need to go back.” answered Jonna. “You cannot stay. We don’t even have enough for ourselves here. There is nothing we can do for you.”

Hearing those last words, and probably dissuaded by the deterrence of the military presence, the woman had all the wind blown out of herself. Covered in rags as she was, she shortly conferred with her companions and then crouched down to say something to one of the small kids. Then, slowly, the group turned around and started to walk south.

“Jesus Holy Christ” thought Ottonese. “I want to get out of this civilian shit as soon as possible. Thanks God we are supposed to leave this place at the double.” He didn’t know how outdated his information was about his commander intent. He turned around and saw two armed man of the militia running towards them.
“You are late guys” he thought. “And useless.”
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Tue 29 Jun 2021, 21:11

Last day of 1998 day shift [dusk]. Weather still fair.

Inside the Gym of the Frösve Skola, the middle school located in the north part of the town and thus possibly safe from radiations coming from the south, Siviglia and Holtz established the regimental headquarter “Mangusta.” A heavily armed Alpino of the 17th company “Istrice” was posted at the entrance. The recon platoon “Nibbio” was also stationed in the school and designated multi role regimental QRF.

The 202th Artillery battery “Iena” had found steady home at Mrs. Nylberg’s as long as Sergeant Fré and Artigliere Alpino Rogua continued to play cards with her every night and help her find some food. Them all couldn’t understand shit of what they said to each other, bit it was wonderful as it was. Mrs. Nylberg hadn’t felt so taken care of since her only son died of cancer before the war.

The bulk of the 17th company continued to be stationed at the bus deposit with the BV-206 borrowed from the HQ. In this way Siviglia had an element watching the north west approaches to the village, while the infantry company focused on the east.

The QRF was on call H24, which forced Major Siviglia to add a third man to the unit. Therefore Lieutenant Holtz was removed from his regiment staff responsibilities and temporarily reassigned to the lead the recon platoon. The last addition to Ottonese (now Holtz’s) units was a TOW launcher, with 4 missiles. The reason for this was that even if at any given moment part of the force would sortie to look for food, the QRF would still have a full spectrum of capabilities. Rossi knew how to operate a TOW so it was all well and good.

With this organization in place the 8th Alpini and the civilian authority could start thinking about the problems of the village in an organized way, and that was the reason why the first meeting of the new Stadsfullmäktige (Municipal Council) had been called in that same gym, which had been designated non only as the HQ of the Italiensk hjälpstyrka (ITH) as Mrs. Berglund had already chastised the 8th, but also as the home of the council itself, together with some other rooms of the school.

The large hall had been furnished with extra wood stoves and torches along the walls to complement the scarce electric illumination provided by a weak alcohol generator. A large wooden table had been brought in the room along with the chairs to sit everybody around the table and in the hall. The appointees for the meeting where Mrs. Berglund as the Mayor of the village, Miss Berglund her daughter as her assistant, the two representative of Stopen citizenry Mrs. Engla Forsberg and Mrs Rebecka Lind, and for the militia Mr. Karl Albisson. For the 8th Alpini, Major Siviglia and Liutenant Holtz participated to the meeting.

In the hall there was already a group of citizens interested to listen to what the officials would plan and decide for the future of the town. More citizen were still flocking in the gym as the starting time approached. In the end at least one person per family was present at the merting. Standing guard at the entrance there were both an Alpino of the 17th company and Mr. Sven Lager. Inside, the security was granted by Alpino Rossi and Specialist Ottonese. They stood in close proximity of the table, motionless, at ease position and Carbines slung down their chest with their arms crossed on top of them in case they needed quick weapon reach. For the first time in a long time, they got rid of the thermal fatigues and were wearing the ordinary Battle Dress Uniform and their inseparable feathered hat.

The first to take the floor was Mrs. Berglund. Major Siviglia just sat there leg crossed and half turned towards the speaker. He was curious to see what kind of style that particular politician had. He didn’t lose hope to find a decent politician someday.

“Dear Citizen of Stopen” the Mayor began… “You know that I am not in favor of long speeches and that I am not very good with words anyway. I just want to tell you that I reached an agreement with these honorable men” she gestured at the Italian officers… “An agreement which foresees a cooperation between us and them which is not founded only on reciprocal interest. I would say that the common interest constitutes only a minimal part of the motivation. The biggest catalyst of this agreement has been the human solidarity that our community and I personally, from the very beginning, felt for these foreign soldiers on our soil. These men, like us, have been going through an interrupted sequence of tragedies for almost two years now, with the added burden that they have been sent away from their families to fight and to give their lives for a foreign land and for foreign people. They didn’t even have the luxury to know what happened to their families and to their country, which we partially had. In the catastrophic aftermath of the atomic attacks, they have been cut off from their own commands and could have chosen to turn to a subsistence of criminal activities, like we have seen and heard other military units did, as if our own gangs and marauders were not enough already. They might have chosen to just rush for the closest port still open and try their chances for a return home; and indeed that was their initial plan. Major Siviglia and his men, after our sincere display of natural human sympathy and compassion for their fallen comrade, decided instead to temporarily remain with us, making Stopen their base of operations, and to plan with us on how to make our community safer and to help us rebuild what we can of our lives. Major Siviglia called this a Cantonment System and I agree with him one hundred per cent on this definition. Let us grow the relationship with these sons of Italy in such a way that we can tomorrow adopt them as fully entitled sons of Sweden.”

The Italians of course didn’t get a single word of what the Mayor said. But the warm reaction of the crowd, suggested that it had to be a good speech, and all the soldiers felt more relaxed about that.

Major Siviglia took the floor immediately after Mrs Berglund concluded her intervention and after having thanked her. Louise stood up to ask if there was anybody in the hall who needed her to translate from English to Swedish. Nobody raised a hand.

“Citizens of Stopen...I don’t know what your lovely Mayor just told you, but I am sure that there is nothing that I can add to what she said”...the hall erupted in a spontaneous laughter.

“To come to the matters I wanted to talk to you about, I will be very short in explaining to you what are my priorities: we live now in a world that it is incommensurately more dangerous that the one we left behind after yet another human engineered planetary tragedy. Therefore my top priority at present is your safety, the safety of my soldiers and the support of your community. In order to achieve these objectives, I have in mind a series of measures which I already discussed with the civilian authority”

“First: I will deploy my troops in key strategic points of the town so that they can control the main approaches and meet any potential threat from outside. In some cases my man have requested and received hospitality by members of the community for a better deployment of the various units and for this I thank the families who are directly involved and you all”

“Second: my soldiers in full accordance with the agreements with Madam Mayor, will patrol the town assisting the lawfully established Stopen Militia in its police duties. When I say assisting, I mean that my soldiers with not intervene directly in policing the population, but only upon request of one or more member of the Stopen Militia. My men will be authorized to intervene directly only in case of flagrant crime or in case of direct and immediate threat to the physical safety, life or property of any human being. My soldiers will be held accountable for any mistakes or abuses in the implementation of these engagement rules. In case of infringement they will be submitted to a court martial according to the Italian Military Penal Code in time of war, which I guarantee you is pretty strict”

“Third: I intend to have my soldiers impart a military instruction to whoever will voluntarily stand up for the defense of the community or will be otherwise bound to do that by a lawful Swedish executive decision.”

“Fourth: I intend to use my soldiers for any necessary tasks in support of the physical, mental and moral rebuilding of this community with all the resources that we already have at our disposal now or will mange to gather in the future.”

“Fifth and last: I intend to reinforce one aspect that in my opinion has been neglected in order to give priority to the collective safety. I am talking about the personal security of your civilian appointed officers. Therefore from now on, a close protection detail will be assigned to Madam Mayor, her daughter Miss Berglund, and to the representatives of the Council. The times when Mrs. Berglund had to get in the street with a rifle in her hands to meet foreign troops or other unknown entities approaching the town must be over, and must be over right now. I am certainly the first one to appreciate and respect the courage and the leadership of your outstanding Mayor, but frankly speaking if something happens to her, you guys will find yourselves in a considerable amount of trouble. And if it happened under my watch I could never forgive myself.”

“Let me thank you ladies and gentlemen for your attention.”

The crowd stood up and gave an applause to Major Siviglia.

Slowly the people began to take the exit to go about their business, hoping that the plans described by Siviglia would be put underway as soon as possible. He gave a message of hope and some practical means to start to turn them into reality. It was a start.

Mrs Berglund stood up and walked to her new assigned office followed by Alpino Rossi who would be her shadow from now on. Louise left her seat with Specialist Ottonese, her newly assigned guardian, in tail. She approached Lieutenant Holtz who was still speaking with Siviglia at the table and didn’t see her coming. Louise put a hand on Holt’s shoulder

“Kurt?”

Holtz turned around and froze like if he had been hit by a rifle shot. Louise read his expression even too well and smiled at him. Holtz felt a LAW shot this time.

“Kurt...I still had this old CD player of mine. If you find some batteries you could use it. She gave him the player and slipped in his other hand a CD. Holts looked at the cover: 1996 Mega Summer Mix. “The last happy wonderful summer before the tragedy.” he immediately thought.

Holtz didn’t find the force to stand up neither he wanted to. He took the stuff from Louise, and put his hand on hers still holding his shoulder. “I will find the batteries and then we will listen to it together,” he smiled back at her. Behind Louise he met Ottonese icy stare, carbine at the low ready stock folded up, who was glaring down at him from his standing position.

“I will see you later” said Louise.



I managed to peek at the cover of the CD as well, and I attach it to you readers as well. My be you can listen to it while you read for a more immersive experience while reading about those years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_q0cwTAe4
 
ambrafoxtrot17
Topic Author
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat 19 Jun 2021, 17:29

Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Wed 30 Jun 2021, 12:17

Referee notes:
Problems to solve:
Short term Food shortage in Stopen. Establish farm system. When necessary supplement with foraging/hunting/fishing.
Do something for the raped girls.
+1 in the next encounter on 01-01-99 for having repulsed the refugees.
Medium term: investigate Skara and see if possible to start any trade with that town. It looks like the only decent sized town still standing in the area. Go there and investigate status. Initiate works of static fortification around the town.
Long term: define situation of local forces pick up defense of Stopen and investigate chances of sea shipment of the unit back to Italy. Investigate port of Stenungsund
Random event. All able citizen are enrolled into a program of scheduled work according to their capabilities, and they are paid with rations.


31-12-98 evening shift [dark] chaos 3 Weather still fair.

Ottonese was walking in the dark exactly two steps from Louise right side. For sure Siviglia took the security aspect way too seriously. Ottonese looked like a walking armory on the very verge of his encumbrance capability of 8. Not only the Major had lent him his 92SB sidearm whose holster Ottonese strapped to his right leg, but he also gave him five full magazines for it, plus he ordered him to wear a flack jacket and the helmet at all times during CP service. Ottonese also carried his SPC-70 carbine and the Russsian R-392 radiotelephone he had taken from the POW in Kackestad.

He was accompanying Louise in a sweep north of Stopen to see how the farmer families were doing. Those families were responsible to keep the town from starving and Louise walked there at least twice a week to be sure that they were Ok. They were still very far from the sowing period of the year, but meanwhile the farmers could take care of their animals in order to obtain at least some food, milk and other products to keep the town alive. The distance between the farms and the guard post of the 17th company at the car dealer spot was only about a Kilometer so Louise was used to cover it on foot.

She and Ottonese walked in the dark. She was bareheaded as always, her hands wrapped around her arms to protect herself from the frigid temperatures which seemed to never give a break to the miserable humanity left to live there in almost medieval conditions. Her blond hair blew in the wind as she kept her chin down in the collar of her coat. The snow covering the road didn’t give any sign of wanting to melt yet.

“Can I ask you how many years you have?” said Ottonese out of the blue, trying not to be too self-conscious about his miserable English. He was clearly violating one of the basic rules that had learned during a brief stage at the 4th Alpini Paracadutisti, a Tier 2 battalion sized special force unit: keep communications with the principal at a minimum while performing close protection duties. For sure his current principal didn’t know about that rule, so Ottonese wasn’t afraid to look bad.

Louise turned to him, with a smile on her face. “I am nineteen, what about you?”
“20”
“Oh you are young! For how long have you been in the army?” "What do you mean I am young!? I am one year older than you." Thought Ottonese annoyed.
“Three years” he answered.
“So you have been at war this since you joined”
Ottonese only understood the at war part and missed the rest. So he simply answered yes.
“Interesting” she answered and continued to walk. Ottonese cursed his limited English skills. How could he have his warrior charm work if he had his mighty B Empathy limited by a -1 modifier. Actually if he also knew about Louise A Empathy attribute, he would feel even more depressed about his chances to put some moves on her via an opposed roll. Of course Louise stat manifested to him just as an aura that commanded respect. He couldn’t approach this lady with the same attitude he had with the girls on the beaches of Puglia.

The thought of the summers on the seaside in his native region gave him a fit of nostalgia, which terminated any desire to continue the conversation. He resumed his scanning routine within those miserable 150 meters of visibility that the moonlight night conditions allowed.

Ottonese rolled for the prescribed shift encounter while on the move, and got nothing, so the two just reached the farms area where Louise started to tour the various establishments. Of course the fields where still covered in snow, but Louise was ushered through the various houses where the animals and their products were kept. The farmers, mostly older people and women who had now to do all the work that the able men used to do before being drafted into the armed forces, looked with interest and a little bit of concern at Ottonese and at the heavy load of weaponry he carried around. They had heard about the Italian soldiers who came from the north, but they didn’t have the chance to see one yet. Visiting the farmhouses and observing their activities, Ottonese relaxed his threshold of attention, violating another cardinal rule of CP duties. But the danger level wasn’t very high in that particular instance, and Ottonese got away with it. He and Louise completed their tour. As they moved from farm to farm, each of them rolled on stamina farming specialty skill to determine if they could keep the town from starving another week. Then Ottonese and Louise walked all the way back to Stopen. He completed all the proper procedures at the 17th company guard post at the car dealer and escorted Louise home. There the two found Rossi standing guard outside and Holtz inside talking with Mrs. Berglund, while Mr. Albisson was trying to prepare a modicum of dinner.

When Holtz saw Louise, he stood up, took her hand with both of his as he was used to do, and greeted her warmly under the intrigued look of Mrs. Berglund. Ottonese almost rolled his eyes at his superior, but managed to refrain at the last moment. He simply gave him the regulation military salute making sure that it was as cold as formal as possible. He didn’t respected him as an officer, and he wanted him to know that full well. Once he got dismissed, Ottonese excused himself from Mrs. Berglund and Louise and went outside to snag a cigarette from Rossi, who snatched some packs of crappy Russian smokes from the enemy sniper that Ottonese had killed in Kackestad.

“How was you day” asked Rossi after having complained enough about Ottonese being a freeloader.
“Terribly boring; I had to babysit the doll through all her diplomatic shit around the place.” answered Ottonese forgetting that he had wagered that his shift would be quite interesting only a few hours before.
“You didn’t seem so bored when you were talking about her this morning.”
“Yeah then I saw our intrepid lieutenant putting his scope on her.”
“Are you sure it’s not the other way around?” Rossi mocked his friend
“Go fuck yourself".

Inside the conversation was more constructive: Hotlz, a certified combat medic with a counselor specialty (shrink) was pitching to Mrs Berglund a project that he intended to put in place to give psychological relief to the people who had been hit harder by the consequences of the war.

“I think that such a program should extend to the entire population of Stopen, included me” joked Mrs. Berglund. Holtz didn’t particularly appreciate the light angle taken by the Mayor on the matter, but he hid it well.

“How about we start with the girls that have been sexually abused by the Russians?” asked Lieutenant Holtz putting on a very serious expression.

“Do you think it is possible to do something about that” asked Mrs. Berglund suddenly interested.

“I think it is, it wouldn’t be the first time that I did something like that. I had a similar project down in Mogadishu in 1993. The rape business is an endemic tragedy down there. I think we managed to do a good job.”

Joanna stopped joking.
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Thu 01 Jul 2021, 19:06

01-01-99 night Shift [dark] weather shits to cloudy.

While in the Frösve skola Gym everybody was bringing the meager provision available for the celebration of the incoming 1999 new year included some alcohol, in a secluded classroom of the same building, Major Siviglia was holding a briefing with Lieutenant Holtz, Specialist Ottonese, and Alpino Rossi. Madam Berglund was also present to be informed of the operation that Major Siviglia had in mind. On the teacher desk, was deployed a large topographic map.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen” Maj Siviglia addressed everybody. “I wanted to have some planning done and over with before new year eve party, because tomorrow the recon platoon will be assigned to a reconnaissance mission in the town of Skara. According to the information that Mrs. Berglund gave us, Skara is the only medium sized town in this area that has not been pulverized by a nuclear warhead. So I want this town investigated in order to understand in what sort of situation it is in, and if it at all possible, I would like to establish some type of contact with the local leadership, provided that one exists. Lieutenant Holtz will be in command of this operation. I will live the planning to you Lieutenant. Take all the time you need, and when you guys are done, you can join the new year eve party, but don’t be too late because tomorrow you will start with execution after pre-mission briefing at zero eight zero zero. During said pre-mission you will inform me about your decisions and any further request you migth have. Any questions?”

Nobody had any.

“Madam Mayor is the purpose of this mission clear to you?”
Jonna though it over for a moment.
“I believe it is a useful idea. Like I told you before, we have had no contact with Skara since the bombs started to fall. But it is the only town around here that we didn’t hear that was attacked. Now, I don’t know if that is true or not, and I believe that seeing with our own eyes what’s going around there would be nice.”

“While the platoon is assigned to this mission, I will give you and your daughter a new detail from another unit.”
“I don’t think it will be necessary Major.”
“Madam, we have an agreement. You promised me that your family security is the only thing that would stick to my chain of command and to mine only. All kind of people can infiltrate this town. We don’t have enough men to control every angle of the situation, and the old 20th century is over one year in advance as far as I am concerned. And It seems like the 21th is going to be much more dangerous and uncertain. Please for as long as I am here, let me take care of you”
Jonna gave up in resignation.
Siviglia smiled and assumed a less dramatic attitude. “Now if you agree with me Madam, I would leave our warriors here to do their mission planning and we can may be go help with the other plans for the new year party.

A flurry of military salutes went down among the Italians, and then Holtz, Ottonese e Rossi were left by themselves in the classroom.

“Ok people, you’ve heard it” Lieutenant Holtz began. “Is there anything to clarify about the Major intent?”
“One thing” said Ottonese. “What kind of information we need to exactly retrieve from that town.”
“Our priorities are observation of the general conditions of the urban area, status of the population, identification of any military presence, individuation and evaluation of leadership if present. If it is possible, we will contact said leadership for further negotiation conducted by Mrs. Berglund.” Lieutanant Holtz paused for a while to be sure that the men digested the information. “That’s how I understood it specialist...Anybody has anything to add?”
“It’s clear enough” answered Ottonese turning to Rossi for objections.

“And...Specialist Ottonese” Lieutenant Holtz paused again and gave a piercing stare at his subordinate. “The Major gave me command of this mission, but I am a military medic and you guys are the recon dudes. I want to hear all your suggestions on and off the field that can make the mission successful. For some reasons that I didn’t understand yet you don’t like me Ottonese. I don’t have any comments, but If that ever comes between us and the mission success and I still make it out of it alive, I will have your head, and I will have it bad. Are we clear Specialist?”

Ottonese met the stare of his superior right on for several seconds as if he was trying to processing Holtz words in his brain and to size up the man.

“Yes Sir...it is clear.”

“Good...let’s start then. Do you guys think we are good on personnel?”
“No” answered Rossi immediately. “If we have to contact the locals, we need a local guy with us.”
“A civilian?” answered Holtz. “What if he slows us down or give us out. I mean, imagine that we establish an OP, what if the civilian slips up and gives up our position?”
“Well” argued Rossi, “on the first account, I don’t think there’s going to be any issue. We should be taking it easy anyway. We are looking at a 30 clicks trek and we don’t need to hurry anyway. As for the second problem, we will have to ask for somebody who has some clues about moving and living outdoor.”
“Ok that is set” said Holtz. “Tomorrow in pre-mission I will raise the point to Major Siviglia...Now what about intelligence.”
“Easy point” answered Ottonese. “We have zip”
“Ok fair enough” continued Holtz. “Execution?” The Lieutenant looked at both his subordinates.
The three men concentrated on the map.
“As far as infil is concerned, I would go on foot no doubt.” Ottonese took the lead in the planning process. “We can probably cover the 30 clicks in a couple of days by keeping it in the woods for the entire trip.”
“Is it possible to cover the entire distance traversing wooden terrain?” Holtz asked while examining the map
“Almost the entire distance” Ottonese anwered confidently. He grabbed a red pencil and led his superior through the itinerary he was thinking about.
“We run the first 9 clicks west of Stopen through the woods here, then we turn for 190° right here south of Lerdala. From there we have these next 10 kilometers to...here” he indicated a large wooden area east of Skara. “We are getting out of the woods only here...and here” he drew two circles on the map “and for a brief time window. The last leg is completely in cover up to northern outskirts.”
“Ok clear. Now the hard part.” Holtz said. “What once we have established the OP.”
“Well” intervened Rossi. “everything by the book once we are there. First thing we get the gist of the situation; we observe all movements; What characters get in and out of the premises. If the situation allows, then we send the civilian in… may be one of us as well to back him up. We stay in contact and we see if we can hook up any asset.”
“Seems reasonable to me” concluded Holtz. “RV points and exfil?”
“Besides the main OP if we ever get in the urban area...I would say...here and...here.” Ottonese indicated two points along the approach route...Exfiltration by the same route we used go in. If we find ourselves hardly compromised, I would suggest this alternative route...here north towards Märene
“Ok” summarized Holtz, “I would say this is checked...Equipment?” Rossi and Ottonese looked at each other. The second spoke. “That depends on how you want to approach the mission...If you want to infiltrate the built area, I would go in civvies, and sidearms only. We can’t go with our Berettas long weapons; that would give us up as military immediately. Civilians don’t carry exotic Italian assault weapons around here. AKs on the other hand...are a different matter. They still carry a degree of deniability.”
“We have an AK” interjected Holtz...“We might as well carrying it we us”
“I don’t see why not” agreed Ottonese.
“What about the Dragunov?”
“No...way to specialized piece of equipment...again would give us up.”
“Ok agreed, what about subsistence?”
“5 days rations and water. If we need more than that it means that we fucked up the mission and food is the last thing we have to worry about.”
Holtz cringed. “Ok” he continued. “Let’s get down to the details then”
“Clothing”
“Civvies”
“Check”
“Ammo”
“9mm 11 mags and the AK mag if we take that weapon”
“Check”
“Communications”
“the captured R-392 and one Galileo portable apparatus”
“that’s another item that can give us up” objected Ottonese.
“We have to take the risk on that one” retorted Holtz. “We need commos at least for two teams”
“Check” Ottonese agreed reluctantly.
“Weapons?”
“Only the 92s. Who doesn’t chose a 92 when it comes down to sidearms” joked Holtz. His men didn’t really feel the joke.
“Check”
“Will see about the AK
“Check”
“Medicals”
“we only have personal med kits; 7 of them...We'll ask Major Siviglia for two of them. If we need more, again we screwed up and deserve not to have them.” said Ottonese.
Holtz didn’t appreciate the sadistic angle, but checked that last item of the sequence.

“We are good?” asked Holtz
“We are good” his men answered as one.
“Ok” Lieutenant Holtz relaxed and smiled…“You guys go see at what point Siviglia and the Mayor are with the party prep. Go have some fun; just be ready tomorrow for pre-mission.” Said Holtz.
“What about you?”
“No disco for me. I’ve got my own little party.”
“Fuck me!” answered Rossi.
“You are not my type Rossi” Holtz reassured his man.
Ottonese shook his head in resignation, then put an arm around his team mate to accompany him out of the room.
“Have a good night Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Holtz looked for a few seconds at his men heading towards the main hall. Then he too turned around and took the exit. Walking towards Louise house in the freezing night, he took out of his pocket the four double A batteries that he had traded for all his remaining MREs with Sergeant Fré of the 17th, and started turning them in his hand while he walked.

The celebrations were not of the same caliber or spirit of the previous year ones, but they represented nevertheless a sign that the Stopen population had not completely lost hope in the future. The celebrations lasted long into the night. Siviglia acted as perfect gentleman date for Mrs. Berglund, and most important managed to keep her at the party untill dawn. And she had a lot of fun too. It was in fact a lot of tun for everybody except from the men who had been unlucky enough to catch the guard shift just that night.
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Fri 02 Jul 2021, 18:32

01-01-99 morning shift [dark Starlight] weather stays cloudy.

At 0445 Mrs. Berglund was accompanied back home by Major Sivilgia and Alpino Loris Scanna of the 17th company, temporarily assigned to CP duties before coming back to his mortar battery. Inside the party found Liutenant Holtz on a chair with his assault rifle between his legs, and Louise on the sofa sleeping under a couple of warm blankets.
“Where is the usual soldier that is here at night” asked Mrs. Berglund pretending to be surprised that Rossi wasnn’t there.
“He is preparing for the recon mission Madam Mayor. So Liutenant Holtz, who already completed his planning has been substituting him.
“Your daughter and I have been listening to some music together Madam” intervened Liutenant Holtz gesturing at the CD player on the coffee table.”
Mrs. Berglund looked at the CD cover.
“Uh...” she said raising an eyebrow. “She must really like you a lot Lieutenant...you don’t have an idea how much that music used to annoy her when her brother used to play it over and over. On the other hand it’s the only piece of music left in the house.” added Mrs. Berglund

“We are going to prepare the pre-mission briefing madam” said Major Siviglia...Lieutenant...whenever you are ready.”
“I’ll be there in a minute sir.

Siviglia and Scanna left, and Jonna followed Holtz outside. She sropped on the porch and placed her hands on the railing, and looked around in the air of the newborn morning.

“You know Lieutenant...Louise has suffered lately. She almost surely lost her father and she doesn’t know what happened to her brothers or to her sister. Her boyfriend lived downtown Skovde and almost certainly was vaporized in impact of the bomb that destroyed it. I would dare to say that she is very vulnerable in this moment. I am not sure that she could bear another loss. You are a member of a foreign army that sooner rather than later will be out of here. Do you understand what I mean?”

Her stare was concerned but not angry.

“Mrs. Berglund” Kurt omitted the official title. “You are right; I am...a member of a foreign army, but I also am a doctor with a PhD in psychology. Hurting people, especially people I love is not in my line of work. I too lost a lot because of this war, but I am 25 and your daughter is 19. People can’t stop living because they are scared of what could come. We can just do our best and hope...for the best. I don’t know Louise very well yet, but she is a wonderful, strong and resilient young woman. I think she can make her own decisions.”

“Oh...and Mrs. Berglund...off the record...I don’t think we will be out of here anytime soon; for a lot of reasons that O’ve not the time to talk you about right now.

Jonna put a hand on Holtz shoulder.
“I guess it is what it is Lieutenant. I think you have to go to prepare for your duty now.”
“I will see you in a few days Madam Mayor, hopefully with good news about Skara.

Jonna looked at him walking away towards the school.

“There are two things I would criticize about your planning.” Siviglia told his scout platoon in the pre-mission briefing: fist of all if any enemy military catches you in civilian clothing you might end up against a wall and shot. Secondly, if you are establishing an OP, what prevents you from taking your weapons with you? If some of you infils the town, he leaves the weapons at the OP, but in case of trouble you can still defend yourselves.

The team agreed on the weapons but would still take the risk of wearing ordinary clothes. Then Holtz came to the matter of the civilian to be attached to the platoon.

“Yeah...That would be useful” concurred the Major “But I’ve to talk to the Mayor for that, which I would have to do anyway to provide you with civilian clothes. So while you complete the logistics here, I will go talk to her.”

Fifteen minutes, later everything and everybody was ready to go. Mrs Berglund asked Sven Lager to join the party. He was the owner of a now closed hunting and fishing hardware store, and he had the skills and the knowledge for a job like that. May be he didn’t have the shape or the fitness of a 20 years old soldier, but he knew how to survive in the open, and most of all If was a terrific shot with his crossbow and he was good with small arms as well. In short, among all the members of the militia he was the best candidate for the mission.

All the man stood there backpacks on their shoulders and weapons slung down their bodies. On the outfit a compromise was reached: Holtz and Rossi wore their hooded military thermal fatigues, while Ottonese who had been selected to escort Sven in Skara if there was a chance to to that, wore civilian winter clothes and a gray wool hat. Holtz and Ottonese carried sidearms as well. Ottonese carried his “Extrema Ratio” combat knife as well, as he saud with the hope of never finding in the situation to have to resort to it.

Marching in the woods west of Stopen in dark conditions had its advantages in terms of chances to make bad encounters, or any encounters for the matter. But on the other hand it was slow and difficult for navigation. For the speed there was nothing that could be done, but under the lead of Sven who knew the region as well as the palm of his hand, navigation was barely a problem, at least in that first leg. They marched for the entire morning shift, taking the occasional break to rest, check the equipment and the weapons. At the end of the shift they were in a position directly south of the small village of Lerdala. Holtz had the entire patrol stop and lay low. He approached Sven with map and compass, put his white painted face at a few centimeters form Sven’s, and addressed him very calmly.

“Is it here that we go for 190 degrees?”

Sven didn’t even have to look at the map.
“Yes right here. We keep north of the lakes and we proceed down up to the Ekeberg park. Then we can stop for the day and set camp. There is a camping site over there. May be there is still some structures standing that we might use.”

“Very well” answered Holtz. “Ten minutes rest and then we get in motion.”

01-01-99 Day shift [dusk] cloudy weather

At the Car dealer guard post on the northern side of Stopen, Corporal Bartoli was completing his routine check around the building carefully measuring his steps in the snow, when all of a sudden he heard voices coming from the road direction north. He stopped to listen, run to the shop fence and crouched behind it. At the same time chambered a bullet in his assault rifle barrel. If they were civilians they were being extremely casual, if they were military, extremely unprofessional. When the voices got close enough to have their owners made out in the dusk, they revealed to be two Russian dismounted infantry, merrily walking on the road to Stopen and chatting among themselves. Bartoli grabbed a stone and threw it at the dealership building. Bartoli had to repeat the operation a couple of times before the Alpini Scanna e Magli rushed out of the building to see what was going on. They saw their commander behind the fenced and closed the short distance to join him.

“What’s going on corporal” asked Scanna still breathing heavily.
“I’ve got two Ivan fucks coming down the road at 12 o’clock.
“What?”
“You heard it Scanna. Take position, let’s make sure these dudes are alone.”
“Magli go grab the radio quick.”
“I’ve it here boss” answered the alpino.
“My boy!; give me the Damn the horn and get on freq. 225.”

“MANGUSTA this is ISTRICE do you copy?
“ISTRICE go for MANGUSTA
“MAGUSTA we got 2 repeat 2 Russian dismounts happily walking along the road to point Alpha, Stop then or drop them interrogativo over”

Siviglia took some seconds to think.

“ISTRICE, try to stop them. Are you sure there are only two of them?”
“MANGUSTA, there must be. They are not repeat not tactical. They’re coming about like tourists on a trip over.”
“Roget that ISTRICE. Stop them if you can, but don’t put the unit at risk. It’d be interesting to extract some intel out of them. I am coming there...stand by over and out.”

Received his orders from Major Sivigliam, Corporal Bartoli prepared the unit for the action.
“Boys. We try to stop the Russkies. If I start shooting you drop them at once. Keep your fingers away from the triggers until I do.”

“Roger that Corporal”

Siviglia grabbed the VM even though he had to cover only 400 meters from the HQ to the car dealer. You never knew when they might need some MG support. Before moving he grabbed the headset again.

“IENA, this is MANGUSTA do you copy over”
“Avanti for IENA” answered almost immediately Artigliere Alpino Rogua.
“Got some Russian on foot coming down the northern road. Don’t know yet if they are alone. Stand by for interdiction fire over.”
“Roger that MANGUSTA. Te tube is ready at your command. Standing by for coordinates over. Be aware that we have two pre plotted brackets on coordinates indicated by ISTRICE over.”

“Will investigate when I get onsite IENA. For now stand by over and out.”

Fré and Rogua flew out Mrs. Nylberg house with their radio and individual weapons, and manned the mortar in the courtyard.

Alpino Rossi in a pre-war joint exercise with the British Army
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Sat 03 Jul 2021, 12:46

The recon platoon. continued his march through the woods from the village of Lerdala to lake Flämsjön. They proceeded parallel to the road which actually connected the two locations. Holtz didn’t not feel to even come close to that road. So the group kept in the middle of the wooden area, They were at that point covering the ninth kilometer of the shift and they hadn’t encountered men or animals, at least visible animals, yet.
Ottonese, marching on point in the snow, was starting to feel tired, but he knew the first day of travel was almost over. He was already savoring the prospective of making it a day. Clearly they still have to make camp and all, but at least they could stop motoring. He suddenly detected a movement among the trees about 35 meter in front of him. Time slowed down as a huge surge of adrenaline spread all over his muscles and up to his brain.

“Conta…” Ottonese didn’t manage to finish the sentence because his voice got covered by the small arms loud noise. He dropped prone right where he was just in time and managed to hit the deck before anything hit him. SHHHTD, SHHHTD some tracers hissed very close to his head. Otto aimed his Carbine to start responding to the enemy fire. He felt strangely calm; a very dangerous state to be in a firefight. The enemy positions were totally visible. A Christmas tree of flashes. They formed a sort of arc across the front.
“Low quality troops” thought Ottonese evaluating their fire discipline. “But a lot of them.”

The he remembered that he was the point man and that he had to feed information the rest of the unit

“Contaaact dead ahead, 40 meters, in the trees!! They have AKs. You all are alright back there?” Yelled Ottonese.

Everybody screamed that they were. Rossi and Holtz were 10 meters behind him, Sven closed the column.
Ottonese quick-aimed at the closest flash in front of him and engaged with double tap disciplined fire. He mentally counted the shots. The target ceased fire. “C’mon bastards, show me what you are made of” yelled Ottonese mocking an enemy that he couldn’t see.

“Calm down man and think” he told himself. He noticed that he was developing a tendency to lose control in combat, which was an easy one way ticket to hell.
Then a freaking Dushka opened fire with terrifying effects on the trees around Luca. The HMG enormous flashes shined in the semiobscurity of the woods like the lights of of the apocalypse. Masses of thick tracers flew over his head, mauling tree trunks and pulverizing the branches. Ottonese looked back to see what his intrepid playboy Lieutenant was doing. He didn’t see Holtz, but he saw the Swedish civilian running ahead towards the contact line, indifferent to the Duska hellfire. He had dropped his backpack and he looked very determined to get himself killed.

“Sveeeeen !! Down...Down...Crazy maaan!!” yelled Ottonese in his primitive English, trying to raise his voice over the battlefield noise. But the crazy man somehow managed to get up to Ottonese position in one piece, and dropped prone near Luca’s position. He looked at him.

“We need to get on their flank” he said looking at Ottonese.
“You need mental doctor” answered the Italian.

BOOOOM! A grenade went off with no warning 20 meters to their left, flashing and spreading wood splinters and dirt all over the place.

Holtz had to decide quickly. He took some seconds to evaluate the tactical situation and he didn’t like what he was looking at. Rossi, next to him had a worried expression. The Russians or whoever those guys were, had a very spread positions in front of them. If they started to maneuver to envelope, they would soon been dead or prisoners pretty soon.

“Ottoooooo. Disengage nooow!! We are covering you” Holtz yelled to Ottonese in front of him. He aimed his AR-70 and went on overwatch. He ordered Rossi to spread on the left and do the same.

Ottonese looked at Sven.
“I move back first...if not shoot you move too...quickly!! Lieutenant cover us understand??”
The Swedish nodded.

“Cooovering fire” Ottonese yelled one second before standing up and darting back past Holtz position. The Dushka opened up again, trying to target Ottonese movement. Holtz quickly responded with a long burst of his AR aiming at the flashes, apparently silencing the weapon and incurring in the retaliatory fire of another enemy group who quickly saturated his position with inaccurate fire. Holtz pissed in his pants even though the wheezing tracers went past him at a respectable distance, but he was able to keep functioning. Anxiously he looked around to see what Rossi and Sven were doing.

Sven looked right and left as well. As soon as the heavy machinegun ceased fire, he sprinted northeast imitating Ottonese and managing to get out of enemy line of sight under the cover of the trees; he also manged to pick up his backpack on the way.
Rossi remained concentrated on his scope scanning for any enemy action. Holtz could almost hear his heavy breathing. He observed the front line, which become fairly quiet after the last shots fired in his direction. The Lieutenant decided that that was the moment to slip away. He quickly gestured at Rossi his intention, and both raised their asses and ran through Ottonese position at lightspeed backpack or not backpack. The enemy didn’t pursue.

Duration of the engagement: less than a minute.

“Fermatevi dove siete e buttate le armi!!” yelled Corporal Bartoli with all his might in order to be heard over the 50 meters of distance that separated his combat element from the intruders. Magli and Scanna both popped up as well from behind the fence, taking aim at the two men on the road. The two Russians froze. Of course they didn’t understand anything of what Bartoli said but they got the gist of it.

“The Russian maybe were not expecting to find the little village occupied by military forces, because they were totally surprised. Despite that, they tried to make a rush for the wooden area on the side of the road.
Magli and Scanna, their cheeks on the stock of their rifles, didn’t flinch; they just turned their eyeballs at their chief who surprised himself by the sudden reaction of the Russians, delayed his action just enough to have the first guy slip in the woods. After half a second of hesitation, Bartoli snapped into action. A burst from his AR-70 on the second Russian, downed him right where he was. The soviet remained motionless on the ground.
Scanna and Magli having seen Bartoli engage, opened up as well in unison. The vegetation around the area where the second Russian tried to take refuge got torn up by the 5.56 bullets and the Soviet fell down. Scanna saw him trying to get back up and then collapsing for good.

The echo of the bursts was just fading away when Bartoli barked his orders:

“Scanna...let’s go check on the Russians. Magli...cover our asses.”
“Roger that”

with extreme caution the Corporal and one of the two alpini started walking slowly along the two sides of the road, in order to leave a free line of fire to their colleague. Assault rifle on the high ready stocks glued to their cheeks, the two Italians approached the first Russian collapsed in the middle of the road. Bartoli kicked away the AK laying next to him. The guts of the Russian were opened up and spread on the pavement. Scanna put two fingers on his neck, avoiding to move him. Bartoli slowly turned his rifle towards the position where the other enemy soldier was laying. Once he was sure that wasn’t moving, he turned back to Scanna who was still crouched on the Russian.

The alpino looked at his superior and slowly shook his head.

Bartoli casually put up his camo hood to hide the tears that I wasn’t managing to control. He mentally cursed himself for his weakness. In order to get away from Scanna, he started to cautiously move towards the other Russian, but Scanna automatically followed his leader repositioning his assault weapon again at the high ready. When Bartoli reached the second Russian soldier lying in the grass, he grabbed the second AK and threw it far away, then he knelt besides him. The Russian was just a boy, like the other one. A bullet had destroyed his helmet. Bartoli removed it with care while Scanna approached, rifle covering the downed enemy. The kid was unconscious. A big bulging bruise had developed under his dirt blond hair, but he was alive.

“Magli call the command by God. Siviglia said he was on his way” Bartoli yelled at his radioman with a broken voice. Accidentally Bartoli made eye contact with Scanna. His subordinate looked at Bartoli’s face for a second, then he turned the other way.
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Sun 04 Jul 2021, 10:07

01-01-99 Evening & night shifts [dark] weather still cloudy

“Do we have to assume that Skara is occupied by militay forces?” asked Lieutenant Holtz
“For now we can only hope that we put enough distance between us and who ambushed us” answered Ottonese “We should is to continue walk to make even more distance between them and us” Immediately after having said that, Ottonese looked around at his mates and understood that the proposal was a hard call. Basically everybody was pretty exhausted, and quite unable to continue. After disengaging from combat the party had been moving north and not north east, in order to try and foul possible pursuers. Only time would tell if they had been successful.

The final decision was to stop for the day. They took a couple of hours to set up camp. Sven revealed to be the survivalist of the group, having a long story of multi day hunting enterprises before the war. In the group the only other person who had survival notions, was Recon Specialist Ottonese. The others would have some opportunities to train on the job, but that day was not the right day. Unfortunately the party did not find any suitable location to provide the camp with satisfactory concealment, even because they had obviously to light a fire.
Around the campfire gathered with all the other team members, Holtz weighted all the possible alternatives. He would talk with the other member of the team, but then he will make his decision.

“One alternative that we have is to turn north of that whatever unit that we encountered was, and try to slip between them and Nattorp here” Ottonese put a finger on the map, while chewing on the cob that he had toasted on the campfire. “Unfortunately that options includes a lot of walking in open terrain.

“It would be nice to be able to continue the mission” added Holtz. We need to avoid any further contacts though. We are not equipped for a heavy firefight against a line military unit like the one we encountered today. That gave me enough trill for one day.”

“On the other hand we could just go back home and report a probable military presence in the city of Skara, which wouldn’t be so out of lace after all. I see a Soviet infantry unit slipping trough the Mariestad Gap and occupy the Town waiting for further orders, especially if the Americans have command and control issues. It could be 1st Guard or any other unit” said Ottonese.

Sven was the only pour soul excluded from the conversation which was being conducted in Italian. At the end of it Holtz approached him.

“We go to bed now Sven. Tomorrow morning we decide what to do. Gregorio is on on watch duties for the night. You can take your rest.

“Ja”

Nothing came to disturb their night.



In the 8th regiment headquarter in the Stopen middle school, the injured Russian soldier had already spent two hours in the infirmary. He was just about waking up.
Alpino Scanna fully armed was providing security for Major Siviglia who was there to question the prisoner.
The boy slowly came back to his senses and quickly the Italians realized that he was very scared. Since the Alpini had set foot in Sweden there had been a persisting rumor that the Russian propaganda claimed that American troops would not make any prisoners.
Major Siviglia had a girl with him, Alexandra Semenova, whose father was a first generation Russian immigrant. Alexandra was born and raised in Sweden but was fluent in Russian.
The young soldier, once realized where he was, started to look around for some kind of escape routes. He was on an improvised bed and he wasn’t tied to anything, plus he was terrorized. The armed soldier on the opposite wall wasn’t a good sign and neither was the unarmed officer at the end of the bed, who was looking at him with a grave expression. He was probably planning on executing him. He noticed other details like the wooden stove going on in a corner of the room and the strange uniforms that those soldier wore. Their camo pattern wasn’t familiar, and certainly wasn’t American.
“Shvedy?” asked the soldier hesitantly
“Ital’yantsy” answered Siviglia. “Do you speak English?”
The Russian shook his head, therefore Major Siviglia gesture at Alexandra to translate for him from English to Russian.

“First of all” said Major Siviglia, you don’t have nothing to worry about. You are safe here. You are a prisoner of war under custody of the army of the Italian Republic.
That relieved the Russian but only a little.
“Please state your name Soldier” continued Siviglia.
“Igor Mihailovich Rodochenko” answered the boy.
“Unit?”
1st Motorized Guard Division.
“How did you get separated from your division private?” asked Major Siviglia particularly interested in the matter.
“Are you a colonel” asked the Russian misreading the rank on Siviglia’s chest?
“Major”
“The war is over Major” sentenced the boy.
“What do you mean?”
“My division which was the most powerful soviet unit in Sweden was going to Karlsborg. But half way there, it run out of supply and splintered in many minor groups; basically it disbanded. Some groups even started to fight each other for the few remaining supplies. The General tried to put things back together but managed to escape only with a bunch of loyal troops. I and my friend Konstantin managed to escape on our own. Some farmers told us that there was this Town called Stopen where we could find a vehicle. We wanted a vehicle to go back to the east coast and embark for Russia.”
The boy started to look around again.
“Where is Konstantin” he asked to Major Siviglia.
“I am afraid he is dead son. You had a firefight with my troops roadblock do you remember?”
The Russian paused to remember what happened and finally he stared at Major Siviglia.

“Yes, I remember...there was a patrol. We tried to run and they hit us.”
“My soldiers told me that they warned you and ordered you to stop and drop your weapons before engaging.”
“The Russian soldier didn’t add anything. He just stared in the empty space in front of him.”

Mrs. Berglund arrived in the building in that precise moment. She was about going to bed but the news that a Russian soldier had been captured after a firefight at the northern outskirt of town reached her before she could do that.
She immediately addressed Major Siviglia.

“What do you intend to do with this man Major” asked Jonna maintaining a neutral tone.
“Actually I didn’t decided yet. If the intelligence he gave us is accurate, we could be at a turning point in this war.
“Meaning what...Major?”
“The Russian military units in theater are disorganizing exactly like our. Probably the largest one are in bigger trouble than the small ones. This kid just told me that the 1st Soviet Guard Division mutinied on the road to Karlsborg. If this is true, it could mean the end of Russian organized operations in Sweden.
“Even so” Mrs. Berglund answered, “What are you going to do with this man?” Reiterated Mrs. Berglund apparently uninterested to the grand strategy of the war.
The Major looked quizzically at her for a second.
“Well...he is a prisoner of war. We are under obligation to keep him with us, and treat him according to the Geneva conventions.
Mrs Berglund hist stared at him for a couple of seconds very intensely.

“I guess I will go to bed Major” She simply turned and left. Siviglia was left there massaging his chin, observing the Mayor walking away. It was clear than she wasn’t happy at all with detaining the prisoner. It was also clear that if the 1st Guard or elements of it had news that Stopen was a safe heaven, they would quickly converge in town. The idea made him shudder.
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ambrafoxtrot17
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Re: to honor this wonderful 4th Edition

Sun 04 Jul 2021, 23:45

02-01-99 Morning Shift [Dark] Weather still cloudy

Ottonese and Holtz, fresh and rested like babies were examining the event of the previous day around the campfire, while the rest of the team prepared to break it off.

“Your call of disengaging from those hostiles yesterday” said Ottonese “Honestly...bad call Sir...we should have pushed our way trough. It seemed to me we were facing second class troops.”

Lieutnant Holtz, still sitting on the ground turned to Ottonese. His knees were bent on his chest, his hands wrapped around them. He gave the specialist a significative stare and finally shook his head in disbelief.

“Tell me specialist...where do you think you are... Do you think you are in an American TV show? Do you think you are playing Dungeons and Dragons? You see Ottonese...this is a real war. You enter a fight, you have a concrete and immediate risk to die. Do you want to die specialist? Do you really want to? Do you want to end up like your sergeant friend?” Holtz glared at the man.

For one second Ottonese just glared back at his superior. His face went from disgusted to enraged in the space of that single second.

“You don’t even mention Sgt. Vauro, you gentle well groomed fuck” Ottonese was on Lt. Holtz before having finished his sentence. He tackled him hard and both ended on the ground.

“THE FACT THAT YOU NEED TO GO BACK TO YOUR SWEETHEART IN ONE PIECE DOESN’T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO OFFEND THE MEMORY OF FALLEN HEROES YOU COWARD!!”

While down and with Ottonese on top of him, Holtz managed to finally understand what was the object the scout’s grudge and at the same time hit him with a body shot which blew the air out of Ottonese.

Rossi and Swen were on them in seconds, each one trying to grab one of the combatants. Rossi was on his teammate before he could go totally wild.
“THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!!...hitting an officer, man...do you want to be court martialed. The hell is wrong with you! You need to calm the fuck down man!!” yelled Rossi while trying to restrain his friend.

“LET ME GO, LET ME GO...I’m gonna show that fuck what war is...He wants to lecture me about real war...that spineless prick”

“I said calm down for Christ’s sake!...stop screaming...do you want to get us all killed?” Ottonese was red like a lobster, holding the side where Holtz’ blow landed.

Lieutenant Holtz freed himself from Sven, breathing heavily, pulled out his handgun and chambered in a 9mm bullet. Everybody froze. Holtz pointed the gun at Ottonese, his finger on the trigger. For a couple of seconds under a very hard stare by Holtz, everybody was convinced that he would pull the trigger; and that included Holtz himself and Ottonese who had lost almost all his macho stance. Holtz’s expression was ferocious. Than at the last moment, not without effort he disarmed the hammer of his Beretta.

“I don’t kill you right here just because we still have a mission to run, you hotheaded Rambo. I told you already once not to put your fucked up feelings between us and the mission. Do you know what the mission is Uh?? Is it to engage everything we come in contact with Uh? Or it is to avoid contact and gather intelligence? Would do you say war hero?

“Big mistake you made not pulling the trigger brother” answered Ottonese coldly. And the most worrying thing was that he had already partially calmed down when he said that.

“The mission first, Specialist. Then we’ll see what the fuck it is that you want from me.” Holtz holstered his gun. “Then I guarantee you miserable piece of shit that we can settle our problems as you wish, where and when you wish.”

Then the two “combatants” finally separated.

“The hell is wrong with your friend” asked Holtz to Rossi while they were examining the map with the assistance of Sven. Ottonese kept away like a little boy who had been grounded.

“I beg you Sir. Forget about what what happened. Otto has just been through a lot lately. He will be ok.”
“You told me that once already private. It doesn’t seem to be coming true. Anyway” concluded Holtz ; “let’s get down to business...I decided to try the sneaky approach. We’ll try to slip north of the position we encountered yesterday. But we need good eyes on point. We are going to travel mostly on open ground.”
“Roger that Sir. Our best eyes are Ottonese. He is the recon specialist.”
“Like if I didn’t know that” retorted the Lieutenant.

Holtz walked right to Ottonese and stopped a few steps from him.
“We are continuing the mission. We are not going back. We’ll try to go around whoever it was that we met yesterday. You are on point. 40 meters this time. Keep your eyes open and see if you manage not to have the enemy get the drop on you like it happened yesterday...this is the map with the itinerary. Move.”

Ottonese didn’t say a word. He just finished to collect his equipment and set off in the indicated direction. The rest of the team got on his tail at the prescribed distance.

Ottonese walked past Rossi
“J i Joe wants me 40 meters on point. Do you think he wants to put a bullet in my back?”
“I he wanted you dead you would be already...you moron.”

NIBBIO finally set off for the day.

They were not that far into their shift when the open terrain began. Ottonese stopped at the edge of the woods, crouched down. Rossi and Holtz did the same. Ottonese raised his right hand with the finger in a V which meant he wanted the commanding officer on him to talk. Holtz advanced the 35 meters which separated him from Ottonese and crouched down next to him.

“We should cross this open patch using that field right on the right. It still has enough tall tubers that might conceal us a little.

“I concur” answered Holtz...proceed” and he crawled back to his position in the team.

Ottonese was not satisfied with the cloudy night, which basically limited visibility to about 50 meters; he wanted more concealment. He started to traverse the dry rotten field with the rest of the team in tow. It took something like half an hour to cross the field East to West and at the end of it the troops were up for a nasty surprise. Ottonese emerging from the field, hit the wall of a farm; impossible to avoid it. The scout dropped on the ground. The first thing that hit Ottonese and the rest of the team when they got closer to the point man, was the stench. The patrol was downwind and got it right on their faces.

“What do we do Lieutenant...do we go in” asked Rossi?
Holtz thought about the call for some seconds, and then made his decision.

“Let’s go in...Sven you wait here.”

Ottonese Rossi and Holtz formed a stick and approached the wooden external wall. The stench become even worse and there was no doubt about what it was. The stick followed the wall up to the main door, and the men deployed on the two sides of it. Ottonese checked the door. It was opened. He looked his teammates. Being the point man, he coordinated the action according to SOP, and on his count they burst inside. The spectacle came immediately: the partially decomposed bodies of a little girl and a woman were laying in the living room. Weapons at the high ready, the team proceeded to slowly walk to the next room which appeared to be a dining room. There laid the body of a man who clearly shot himself in the face with a shotgun. Quickly the team cleared all the remaining rooms included the ones on the upper floor. They found nobody else.

The gruesome scenery gave the creeps to everybody. Everybody got a stress point, Holtz took two, even though what NIBBIO found in the farm wasn’t an uncommon occurrence in those terrible times. Family members who didn’t see any other solution other than killing their loved ones and themselves, rather than coping with the harsh reality of the world at the eve of 21th century. Harsh decision who gave Rossi the darkest thouhts when he tried to imagine the last moments of such a situation. Even Ottonese, usually impervious to almost everything, was pretty shaken by the experience.

Nobody really had the guts to comment or say anything about the situation. The men limited themselves to do what you would do in such a case: Rossi picked up the shotgun and started looking for the ammunition. He found a box still containing twelve high caliber shotgun slugs and stuck everything in his backpack. In the house the team also found a set of binoculars and credit card, which made everybody smile. Rossi found a collection of 5 music CDs, all rock stuff, a movie poster of Rocky IV (what a fucking irony) and a Bicycle pump. Holtz took the CDs, and Rossi got the binoculars. They didn’t care about the rest.

Sven tried to propose to bury the family, but Hotz made him understand that they could not stop more so much time pending the danger to be spotted by somebody and the risk to come short on the movement schedule. Again things there were good in the movies didn’t make any sense in real life, and sentimentalism during war time, in real life could get the entire party killed.

Approaching midday, darkness started to give way to the arctic winter dusk, but NIBBIO had also gotten to the final destination: the wooden area next to the northern outskirts of Skara. The men started to check for a possible good position where to set the OP. It had to be a location at the edge of the woods, and at the same time easy to defend, difficult to spot and from which it was easy to disengage.

The team stopped at the edge of the woods.
“OK” Holtz started to give his orders. “Ottonese and I will try and find a good location for the OP. Rossi, take Sven with you and establish a series of RVs that we will use in case of trouble and explain to Sven exactly what an RV is and what we use them for.

“Roger that” was the canonical answer by Rossi.

“Let’s move people. I want these tasks completed by lunch time, so that we can start with OP building in the afternoon.”
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