June 15th, 2865 - A dry, persistent west wind-unique to colony planet X-156 continued to blow. It was a bland, ordinary day. To the old man, Eugen Johannes Amsel, and his family, it was the epitome of an ordinary day-until the approach of a postman, shortly before breakfast. The correspondence confirmed their acceptance into the seventh group to be sent to the colony planet known as Earth.
In the evening of that same day, a son was born to Eugen's daughter, Gunda, and her husband Erwin. Eugen's first grandchild was named Conrad.
A year later, Eugen set foot on the broad landscape of Earth. He had returned to the cradle of humanity. A scant fifty years ago, this planet was shrouded in the dark mist of madness that was World War IV. The short span of fifty years, fifty years without the human race, had beautified the Earth into an unpolluted paradise.
Over the next three weeks, the members of colony group seven were lectured on colonization and survival. On the fourth week they were provided with a two year supply of foodstuffs, and a complete set of farming tools. The group was then moved, a few dozen at a time to the pre-planned colony village via helicopter and airship.
The location for the colony village had been selected for its climate, water, and soil. There was a wide prairie, a great forest, expansive heavens and clear water. There were no buildings or roads yet, and many people who would not see the next year's spring.
Six years later, the Amsel family was fruitful and powerful, with fertile lands, and many strange, Earth-born domestic animals. Conrad, now seven, was playing in the garden with Pipopurif and a stick he liked. His spirits were high-his mother told him that he would begin attending elementary school the day after tomorrow, seven kilometers away. As he threw the stick, it cut through the air with a whistle.
The Shutoral National Defense Army was returning from a campaign to suppress the civil war on K-156 when Mobile Infantryman Sergeant Werner Krupinsky was ordered to report to Division HQ. Since enlisting in the national defense army at the age of eighteen he had been in close to a hundred battles at nine battle posts.
His chest was decorated with medals and campaign pins. Battle-Victory Cross First Class, Battle-Victory Cross Ribbon Second Class, a gold War-Wound Medal, Infantry Storming Medal, Infantry Hand-to-Hand Combat Medal, Assault Landing Medal, Continuous Service Medal; on the left sleeve was affixed three campaign arm bands, and on his right, Individual Battle-Tank and Aircraft Assault Medals. His latest trophy from the battling on K-156 was a black eye patch over his right eye.
At HQ, Werner was conversing with an old acquaintance, a petty officer stationed at HQ. Staff officers, orderlies (distinguished by the red stripe on their trousers), and comms officers were all in an uproar as they gathered in the operation room.
"Achtung!"
Heels rung out as they struck the floor together. In the midst of countless salutes, the Division Chief Rear Admiral von Panterejew appeared and urged Werner to follow him into the commander's office.
"Werner, what happened to that eye?"
"Your excellency, I was caught up in the explosion of an enemy tank on K-156. When I fired the NeuPanzerfaust, it was too close. It's in exchange for this guy," Werner indicated a brand new Individual Battle Tank Assault Medal on his right sleeve, and grinned.
"You never change, do you? The fact is, I called you in here to say thanks for the that Posekuro T-8 on K-156. If... that eye was from then... I'm really very sorry. I do have good news for you, a transfer order to the newly reorganized 300th Regiment and a promotion. Congratulations, Officer Krupinsky."
The 300th Armored Mobile Infantry Regiments "Rangemark", with the latest model equipment, was scheduled to become the National Defense Army's sharpest mobile attack squadron. Excellent people were called in from veteran units to command the squadron, made up of eighteen to twenty one year old volunteers.
Werner came to be appointed the Company's adjutant. With the permission of Company Chief First Lieutenant Jochen Hotzmann, Werner chose Sergeant Pingel and Master Sergeant Mankiewicz, two comrades he had been stationed with in the 362nd Assault and Recon Company.
At the time it was organized, there were twenty six PK-40 single seat light battle and recon planes in the 362nd Assault and Recon Company's principal equipment. The pilots flew the agile craft wearing heavy bulletproof helmets and heavier bulletproof jackets.
September 1st, 2882 - As basic training was ending, the first sortie order was issued. The regiment's officers complained about not being battle ready, but it the order held, a sortie, the destination, Earth.
The 300th Armored Mobile Infantry Regiment "Rangemark" was temporarily attached to the veteran 7th Armored Mobile Infantry Division, which was assigned to spearhead the assault landing on Earth.
September 25th, 2882, the Rangemark Regiment trod the ground of Earth, following the 7th Armored Mobile Infantry Regiments. The assault landing ended up short, battle result zero, casualties to battle, zero. No enemy appeared to contest their arrival.
The Division Chief ordered a recon of the vicinity and the 362nd Assault and Recon Company began to circle the area. Among the 362nd, Sergeant Gert Mankiewicz was unaccustomed to the Australian desert, and the poor formation of three planes behind him was due to the pilots' insufficient training.
The Sergeant's sharp eyes spotted a far off sandstorm, faintly curling up into the sky. They would have to investigate its cause. After issuing orders he banked his plane and closed with the sand storm at full speed, leaving a long contrail behind. The true cause of the sand storm was a large mechanized column, a few dozen armored hover tanks, called Sand Stalkers.
Turning to approach the column from behind, Sergeant Mankiewicz was aghast at what he saw. The new recruits were tottering drunkenly through the air, as if they were being fired upon. The Sergeant's surrounding filled with tracer bullets. Weird vibrations shook the fuselage as fragments hit their target.
Anger and dread washed over him and seemed to dye the sky red. He shouted, knowing it would be lost in the noise of the explosions. His throat tightened, making him gasp like a fish out of water. He dove at the front of the column, unloading bullets, rockets, and bombs, then pulled back up.
One of the recruits, Torio, finally found some courage and flew over the enemy column, attacking with everything he had. Mankiewicz, couldn't control his irritation and anger, combined with adrenaline, he dealt verbal abuse over the wireless all the way back to base.
World War IV broke out suddenly in the year 2807 and ended with the Earth so polluted and destroyed that the few surviving remnants of humanity were forced to leave for colony planets. The great majority of higher lifeforms on Earth died out, returning the planet to a primitive state. Forty eight years after the great war an investigation team, dispatched by the Galactic Federation reported that Earth's natural environment had recovered to a state where human residence was possible. Earth's self-cleansing capacity exceeded mankind's wildest expectations.
Ten to twenty years passed since the arrival of the first colony group, and a number of small cities had been constructed on Earth. As the cities grew they attracted social dropouts from across the entire galaxy: criminals, AWOL soldiers, political refugees, terrorists, and more. Earth had no steadfast, unified government or police organization, and was at a loss of what to do.
The Galactic Federation Commitee racked its brains over the worsening of public pease, and when it finally exceeded acceptible limits, gave the Shutoral Republic, with its powerful military and police strength, the right of mandatory rule, to harmonize and restore public peace. In 2877, three Shutoral Army Foreign Legion Corps batallions arrived on Earth, along with three military police batallions.
Conrad was hiding under his bed with his little sister Pamela. Their grandfather, Eugen Johannes Amsel and father, Erwin Amsel, were firing away with semiautomatic rifles from a window of their stone house. As soon as grandmother Dora and mother Gunda stuffed 7.62mm bullets from a bore box into the banana-shaped machine gun clips, they handed the clips to their respective husbands.
Full of curiousity, Conrad wanted to look outside from the window, with a gun if possible, but could do nothing, and being scared of being beated by his father later, didn't move from under the bed. From his point of view, his father was a hundred times more frightening than the bandits outside. He had to be content just toying with the lukewarm, empty cartridge cases that danced across the floor, smelling strongly of gunpowder. Even that was easily snatched away by his little sister Pamela.
"If they'd let me shoot, I'd wipe out all those bandits right away, " Conrad murmured as he pulled his sister's pigtails, and she cried loudly. The house shook from the thunder of the continuous gun fire, keeping them from being heard by their parents. Bored with watching the shell casings, he took the opportunity to remind his sister that he was the older sibling.
Suddenly the sound of machine guns being fired became louder outside. The village's self-police group had arrived, quickly scaring off the bandits. As the silence fell, only Pamela's crying voice remained. Erwin pulled Conrad up from under the bed with a terrible swiftness.
The entire time, the youngest child Eddie, had been sleeping in the closet.
"Sheesh, he's an easy-going rascal, " said Conrad, an eye now swelling up and watering, blurring his vision. He gave his sleeping little brother a kick who flew out of the closet as his father's voice bellowed.
The Shutoral military police and Foreign Legion that landed on Earth thoroughly subjugated the bandit groups with overwhelmingly superior weapons, organizational strength and mobolity. All ruffians were arrested and suspicious slum towns were destroyed. Those who didn't have jobs and those who couldn't prove their identity were all sent to hard-labor reform camps. The Amsel family was not attacked again by the bandits, and the self-police group of the village was dispanded and all weapons confiscated.
Now, whenever they left the village they had to have a passport, and within the village proof of their identity at all times. These and other regulations were placed on the residents of the Earth. Public peace became unusually good, but at the price of freedom. The unlimited freedom that all the residents of Earth had enjoyed was being restricted under crushing rules. Terrorism against the Shutoral Army began in the year 2880, and the freedom of the general citizenry was restricted further. An unstoppable bad current had begun.
A well-built young man wearing black sunglasses argued with a Shutoral Army airport guard, "All of those guys say they're immigrants, that they're agricultural colonists, but I don't know... They're hired troops, there's no mistake." There was a definite characteristic in common among those colonists who'd come to the Earth lately.
The mercenaries who'd lost their jobs in the galaxy's peace over the past ten years began to gather, getting wind of the smell of war. They were the decendants of mercenary troops who'd been space refugees after the conclusion of Earth's fourth World War. In the First Interplanetary Dispute their fathers, and themselves in the Second Interplanetary Dispute, were the most feared as the strongest corps from each planet's army. Directly after the settlements of the each dispute, they hadbeen disbanded and scattered throughout the galaxy. These dogs of war gathered together on Earth over ten years, hearing the whistle of an old master, toward the place of their grandfathers.
First Sublieutenant Harpe Jutirainen, of the Shutoral Army's 1st Foreign Legion Corps, 4th Above-Ground Support Platoon, made a difficult face as he looked over the letter from his older brother, 'It says he's lately arrived on Earth, it says he wants to see me, what are his intentions?' It was unthinkable that his older brother had come to Earth expressly to see him-his brotherwas a former mercenary corps member.
In the year 2882 Earth at last declared its independence. The Shutoral Army, having probably predicted this in advance, responded quickly, erecting a puppet political power the day after the declaration of independence, and requesting a mobilization of the battle corps to supress a rebellion.
In response, the Independence Mercenary Army issued a declaration of war to the Shutoral Army, and on that same day attacked police stations, broadcast offices and military zones, taking soldiers prisoner and stealing their weapons. The three battalions of the Foreign Legion, having the greatest Shutoral troop strength on Earth, transferred their loyalty to the the mercenary army. Nearly all of the managing staff of the Foreign Legion were or were supported by former mercenaries who had joined the legions, who traditionally didn't enquire into an applicant's previous history.
With overwhelming numbers and the element of suprise the Mercenary Army occupied nearly all of the key locations. There were some Shutoral Army corps that continued to resist, but those whose comms and supplies were cut off wouldn't be able to hold out for long. Complete control by Earth's Mercenary Army seemed to be at hand.
September 25, 2882, the Shutoral Army's 7th Armored Mobile Infantry Division descended to the Australian continent, attempting to form a bridgehead. The next day, the Mercenary Army at once commenced a counterattack, but they were divided and defeated by the Shutoral Army, which had superior mobility. As the three day battle ended, the bridgehead had enlarged to eleven miles wide and nine miles long, with the 9th Division at its head.
First Sublieutenant Jutirainen was emaciated. His JG-53 (53rd Battle Navigation Division) had been on sortie every day, starting from the day after the Shutoral Army's landing, and was completely exhausted in the Mercenary Army's counterattack operation. There were barely five planes capable of sortieing and he had become the only veteran pilot-nearly all of his comrades had met the fate of being shot down, captured or wounded.
