War of the Worlds

The UNEC

WARNING! Possible manga spoilers ahead for those who don't read the manga.

Chapter 2: The United Nations Expeditionary Corps

Florida, UNEC Staging PointLibertas

One year and a half after the first giant attack

Fifteen kilometers west of Port St Lucie was the NATO administrated UNEC – short for United Nations Expeditionary Corps – base, Staging PointLibertas. A temporary FOB was established here since the defence of Florida 18 months ago. Since the United Nations decided to establish a multinational military expedition into the other world, the base quickly grew in size. It served as the gathering point for NATO, Brazilian and Mexican forces that will be part of the expedition.

It was one of the three bases of its kind, the other two being in Asia. Staging Point Tianxia– roughly translated as "under heaven" in Chinese – was near Shanghai under Russian and Chinese administration. Troops and ships from China, Russia and India were mustering there.

The third base was Staging Point Sasebo-Okinawa under Japanese and Korean administration. It surprised the world when Japan and Korea agreed to share the base, considering the historic rivalry between the two nations. But national rivalries tended to give way when man-eating giants threatened your shores. The name was given due to the fact that the land forces were gathering at Sasebo for the past months while naval forces were in port, but Okinawa was being prepared as the main base once the expedition starts.

One might ask himself how Asian nations got involved in the expedition, how they grudgingly put aside most differences to cooperate. Just a month after the crisis in the Bahamas, Florida and Cuba, giants came out of the sea on Chinese and Japanese shores from the East China Sea. With information on the enemy shared by USA and Cuba, the Chinese response to the threat was swift and brutal. Casualties were low. Japanese naval forces were able to defend Okinawa with some assistance from US Navy ships present in the theatre. This second theatre shattered Earth's feeling of safety. With the possibility of those monsters making an appearance anywhere on the globe, the United Nations Security Council took steps to defend the people.

Alas, Libertas is the largest one of the three. NATO ships were 10km from the coast while thousands of soldiers and their gear were on land. In the HQ building, in a bureau, were the two commanding officers of the NATO force: a now full Admiral Isaiah Rutledge and Major General Finley Winters of the United States Marine Corps. The two were looking over the little-mapped area on the other side of the portal.

"This place is perfect for the ground base," Winters said as he indicated a spot on the landmass' coast.

Rutledge who was studying the little topography of the sea floor shifted his attention to the landmass. The General's finger was on an elevated plateau. Very defensible with some gun emplacements since one side is facing the ocean directly. The other three sides are rocky slopes or soft ground with some unfavourable angles. It would be a challenge for any giant to climb uphill under heavy cannon fire. Especially when the plateau is the tallest natural formation on a radius of a few kilometers and you have cannons at your disposal to use.

"It's a good spot, but the coast is rough. The only feasible way to efficiently keep you supplied is if we use this beach 1 kilometer to the south. Best spot for amphibious landing. But it'll stretch defences a bit."

"We don't do any land manoeuvres with the giants stalking us. We clear the area first."

"Indeed. It's curious that there haven't been spotted any giants for months. UAVs picked up a few heat signatures characteristic to them 20 kilometers off the coast," Rutledge said. "But they... changed their behaviour in the past months. I don't know what it is, but they're flogging inland."