Armed Enlightenment Book 1 (Practice Story [My other stories are better])

Contemplation

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."
                          -G. Michael Hopf

Y/N POV

It's been said that the Federation got the best of the war. We also got the worst. On the liberated cities of Weissenheer, the men loyal to the Reichfalke cause dug their woolen heels into the muck of the cities' hellhole and dared the Entente to come in after them. So we did, only to be met with month after month of Iraq-Afghan style insurgencies, suicide attacks, and other forms of terrorism that haunt the lives of the people of the old world to this day. Dealing it like NATO and for all we knew abandoned by the citizens after the Kaiser's magnificent display of being delusional in preparation of our first maneuvers, our only hope was Erika, my soon to be fiancée... Without her iron will and her influence and identity as a pure jewel to the people Kaiserreich, none of my people would have come out of that mess with the rise of an influential terrorist organization, or their lives.

In our bones, we knew the civil war was almost over. The Valence Continent and Jomon Peninsula held its breath, waiting to see which side would make the final daring move. As always, the Entente moved first. With black bag operations in collaboration with local and unnecessarily divided resistance cells within the capital, we were able to track the whereabouts of the Reichfalke leadership dugged inside the High Castle until their leader presented himself to us on a silver platter, the Intelligence Agency gathered a covert strike team composed with the most shadowy figures able to divide and ruin a country from the inside. When my approval reached high command, their morale soared. For better or worse, this would only be the end of the beginning.

With the capture of Anton Neumann at the hands of the finest men and women of the Special Activities Division, the operation had broken the back of the Reichfalke without them noticing. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a time for a secret celebration. In which, the Kaiser and his closest allies did while I declined. I was acting as the supreme commander of the Federation protection force and the Entente and I'm glad I didn't because what happened next put pain to their thoughts.

What I remember after the first chemical attack is... is how quiet it was. During the waning hours of the civil war, the rest of the Entente nation armies were pulled out and the patients transferred back to the Federation for treatment. It was the least we could do. It was a silent trip. They all knew the horrors of war and what was about to happen, what we were about to do. Nobody could have expected mustard gas. I looked into each of their eyes from the safety of my monitor and elite guards stationed all around me. Did they have any grievances? Any private, slanderous thoughts? Perhaps, but no one said a word. Not on the trip to the Federation, not when the sulfur came down, and not when the men who wore the patch of the staff of Hermes beside the Terran flag on their shoulders marched into the dark zone. Not a word. Was it because of our power? The shock of this new era of warfare? The more I wonder... SOP is probably finished after spending ten hours inside an interrogation chamber with the spy.

With the last remaining batch of the coalition soldiers starting to board their respective ships and return home, I was on my seat at a round table involving the Kaiser, Erich, and the representative of the Jomon peninsula Major Seitouchafu for some reason despite another girl who was always beside her with a rank of General in the imperial court named Kuro but I digress. Minutes passed by which felt like an eternity and before I realized, I was the only one left inside the room as the meeting has ended not so long. It was decided that a peacekeeping force was to be stationed in the country to ensure the security and reconstruction of the damaged country.

What they didn't know however was that our forces of the peacekeeping forces were really after the ones responsible for his attack and destroy every stockpile they have. Keeping the Continent in the dark won't easy; the surrounding kingdoms and nations had become increasingly wary of our recent movements, and was on the lookout for the slightest hint of imperialistic agenda and maybe send a couple of assassins after me. Just like the rest of them though, Estfalia, Aeveskir, and the Reichfalke, an act of war is still an act of war. We were always on the defensive side in those short conflicts and won due to their ignorance.