No Gods, Nor Masters

Diggy Diggy Hole

Bundeswehr Armored Advance

Northern Sector

A platoon of Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicles rolled across the border between the sandy dunes of a weirdly placed Northern Desert and the grassy hills and dirt roads of Central Falmart. Supported by a platoon of Leopard 2A7V Main Battle Tanks, the Marder crews and their two Puma IFV escorts rolled on, fully expecting a meeting with IFVs captured by the Insurrection forces.

Talks in the Bundeswehr's Government had always seen deployments to remote areas of the world as pointless, with many thinking the already-downsized Bundeswehr would have done much better in service of defending their country. Obviously, as a part of NATO and the UN's Mission to Falmart, the Germans of Panzerbrigade 21 cared little for internal politics.

The Bundeswehr hadn't been the same since the end of the Cold War. With a repeatedly downsized military barely able to achieve interoperability with her allies and a lacking industrial base never truly focused on arming them, but rather delivering equipment to foreign buyers, the men of the 21st saw themselves as lucky to still be able to work.

The commander of the leading Marder utilized the vehicle's optical sights to scan for targets as they rolled. They were providing security for an incursion into the Desert itself, with American 1st Armored and 75th Ranger Regiment units already in the AO, trying to understand where the enemy was and what they were doing.

Trailing units and scouts had spotted most of the Imps' activity in this general area. They were actively operating here because it was such a broad, nightmarishly large area to cover that it made even the forests around the capital of Sadera look like playgrounds where the Scout troops trained. The sea of sand that stretched as far North as the German officer in charge of the rightmost vehicle could see was a perfect hiding spot.

"Cobalt 2-2, your patrol route has been altered. Turn to zero degrees north and continue to provide flank security for Hammer and Anvil squadrons," The JOC officer in charge of their unit spoke over the radio in English, though he had a heavy Prussian accent.

The Commander replied, "Acknowledged. An alle Tanks, Kompasskurs Null. Keilformation beibehalten," and the vehicle's right track slowed and almost seemed to stop as it turned to reform. Their little datalink system picked up their comrades' advance on their far, far right, maybe one or two kilometers away.

Aboard the Marders, there were three platoons of Panzergrenadiers, the German Army's premier mechanized infantry forces. Each cradled their assigned armament closely as they held onto the vehicle's seats, looking at each-other in the dim red light of the vehicle's rear hatch. They kept on keeping on, as the British would say.

A EuroCopter Tiger flew overhead, its gunner reporting "Check your pathing, Cobalt... Possible movement on the dunes ahead," which caused most of the crews of the vehicles to tense up. The vehicles switched positions in the two-tiered wedge almost immediately, with the Leopards taking lead of the formation while the Marders loaded High-Explosive rounds.

The gunner of the lead Marder was now grinning as she cycled the ammo in the belt, spinning the stabilized turret and keeping an eye on the thermals. She whispered, "I wonder how long 'till the UNSC gives us all some nice new thermal sights," as she scanned the area ahead as best she could. This was, however, a desert. It was hot no matter what color she picked for display.

She noticed them, though, faint silhouettes that were only a little cooler than the ground, faintly visible behind the berm of a sand dune, then reported, "Cobalt 2-3 to Cobalt 2-1-Actual, sight on enemy troops dead in front of us... Be ware of IEDs," as she swiveled the gun forward. The commander of the tank showed her to wait.