[center] [img]http://i.imgur.com/p6PPXJq.jpg[/img] [u][b]The Dragon Imperium of Hiron[/b][/u][/center] [b][u]April 2nd, 1900, Yufutsu, Hiron[/u][/b] Foreign Minister Miyagawa Tashiaki sat in front of a small table with two diplomats flanking him, taking a sip of his sake and discussing two matters which were particularly important to the Imperium. Looking to the one at his right, he explained, "Dzutsu, you are to set sail with a number of merchant ships to travel to the Tsardom of Radena. Offer them $2,000,000 for 200,000 of their rifles." Diplomat Dzutsu seemed to cringe at that offer for a moment, drinking his own sake before complaining, "But sir, their rifles are even worse than ours." Miyagawa waved him off, "That is true, but there are reports that the Imperium may be in need of the rifles before the new designs are available and in production. In addition to this, I want you to approach their Tsar himself or his representative and offer the new 700 ton destroyer schematics as a sign of good faith and relations between the Imperium and the Tsardom. You're going to sail with an escort of five destroyers, [i]Tsuki, Takinaki, Reiryo, Megumi,[/i] and [i]Goufuu[/i]. I'll be giving them very specific orders to avoid conflicts along the way." Dzutsu simply nodded at this, before considering all the beautiful Radenan woman he could probably womanize while in the Tsardom, smiling to himself. It had been some time since he'd been there to broker the trade deal between the Imperium and the Tsardom. The Radenans had some hard alcohol too. The Foreign Minister shortly turned his attention to the other diplomat sitting on his left, Jugo, "Jugo, you're to go to Kalpia and offer them $3,000,000 to station Army Advisors here in the Imperium for two years. Your escort shall be the destroyers [i]Deishun, Dzutsun,[/i] and [i]Abiotsu[/i]. They'll have similar orders as Dzutsu's escort. In your case though, a single ship besides the escorts shall be taken to Kalpia, and you should return with the advisors. Both of you must return with something, understood? Even if you have to offer somewhat more money." Jugo nodded, taking a draught of water instead of sake, "So we're looking to pump up the Army then. I'll make sure to take care of it, as I'm sure Dzutsu will as well. We'll see who gets the better deal too." Laughing harshly, Dzutsu playfully slammed the table with his fist, declaring, "You're on, Jugo!" [b][u]April 4th, 1900, Yufutsu, Hiron[/u][/b] The Diplomat Dzutsu is the first to leave port with his retinue of ships and escort, standing at the back of the boat and looking smugly at Jugo who watches him leave from the port. Foreign Minister Miyagawa is nowhere to be seen, having returned to Senryu for various issues. He looks forward to partying hard with the Tsardom's representatives and furthering relations between the two nations, as well as returning with enough rifles to arm the entire Imperial Army. [b][u]April 5th, 1900, Yufutsu, Hiron[/u][/b] Diplomat Jugo sets out as well with his escort of destroyers, signficantly more subdued in his behavior considering the rigidity of the Kalpians. His goals are, first and foremost, to acquire the advisors for as long a period of time and for as cheap as possible. [b][u]April 17th, 1900, Outskirts of Furuu, Hiron[/u][/b] The sounds of cicadas, chirping birds, rustling grass, and grumbling men woke General Saidzu in the early morning. Light from the Sun illuminated his tent, causing him to rub his eyes before getting out of the small futon lying on the ground and approach his water basin. Splashing some water on his face, the rather young man of 26 years found it easy enough to wake in the morning as he threw on his uniform and exited the tent. Walking over to General Meishii's tent, Saidzu yelled, "Wake up you old bag!" An incredibly angry looking man with a permanent scowl of 42 years came storming out of it, still looking somewhat disheveled, "I am up, you insolent young fuck! Why do you need to harass me constantly?!" Saidzu shrugged and adjusted one of the medals on Meishii's uniform, "Because it's easy. And because that's my job. I have to keep you feeling young somehow." The older man slapped Saidzu's hand away and adjusted his medals himself, before walking away in anger. Behind him, Saidzu called out simply, "See you on the battlefield!" Half an hour later, the two Generals stood on platforms in front of their respective forces, spread out among the fields outside Furuu, Saidzu having received control of the 1st through 6th Divisions, Meishii the remaining 7th through 13th Divisions. General Saidzu was perhaps the most unconventional man in the Imperial Army, though that likely wasn't saying much considering the general incompetence of officers in the Hironese ground forces. A man prone to unusual maneuvers and trying new tactics, he had risen through the ranks mostly by just being competent in comparison to his peers, and his young age tended to infuriate those around him, particularly General Meishii, who was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative whose tactics were similar. That was a fact Saidzu had every intention of taking advantage of as he yelled to his men, many of whom were hardly standing at attention, "Today, I stand before you sorry fucking excuses for an Army," leaders of each individual unit repeating his words in order to spread them throughout all approximately 130,000 men, "Many of whom cannot even remain properly at attention for more than a few minutes, who could probably not withstand a single charge by the Meung, whom would likely dishonor the Emperor, and declare that today, your life of ease ends!" He thrust his hand out at the assembled men, scanning across them, "It ends, understood?! Today marks the beginning of the future of the Imperial Army as one of the premier forces present upon the surface of this world, one which will one day rival the Kalpians themselves in ruthless, murderous efficiency! When we enter a battlefield, the enemy will recoil in horror and scream, 'God save us from these crazy mother fuckers!' Why? Because we will be the baddest mother fuckers to ever live! We will drink blood and shit lead from how much killing we do!" The men who at first seemed horrified at the thought of losing their comfortable nights suddenly began to find themselves invigorated as Saidzu continued onward, "Today marks the beginning of some of the hardest months of your lives, but after it, many of you will be far better! Let's begin! 1st through 6th Divisions, you're with me, the rest of you are with General Meishii!" What followed was the establishment of a straightforward chain of command; [list] [*]General Saidzu [list] [*]Major General Jurun of 1st Active Division [*]Major General Haigo of 2nd Active Division [*]Major General Asano of 3rd Active Division [*]Major General Hitagi of 4th Active Division [*]Major General Ubenito of 5th Active Division [*]Major General Senri of 6th Active Division [/list] [*]General Meishii [list] [*]Major General Irito of 7th Active Division [*]Major General Menki of 8th Active Division [*]Major General Nobun of 9th Active Division [*]Major General Futsuru of 10th Active Division [*]Major General Eigoki of 11th Active Division [*]Major General Ijino of 12th Active Division [*]Major General Uubuttsu of 13th Active Division [/list] [/list] A simple private in the 1st Active Division, Ichiro Takagami, suddenly found himself thrown in practicing marching maneuvers, listening carefully to the element leader's orders. Anyone who slipped up got themselves and their entire element a series of exercises as punishment, with the regiment leader stepping on the back of the element leader as he exercised for failure to lead. Sweat beaded down the young man's forehead as he did his best to recall all his previous training, worrying intensely about fucking up. It was worse for the element leaders to be honest, but there would undoubtedly be hell to pay for the original offender. Of course, the punishment often didn't stop there, as often entire Divisions were forced to the ground as a pissed off General screamed in the ear of the Major General beneath him. It wasn't a fun day. The march following it wasn't fun either. None of it was fun. [u][b]April 20th, 1900, Furuu, Hiron[/b][/u] Ichiro finally managed to catch a bit of breath after being forced to march almost endlessly for two days as the two Armies separate along the coasts of Hiron. The 1st Army as it had come to be known had been ordered to entrench in the cliffs and shores of their homelands in preparation for the fake "landing" of 2nd Army, a fact which had Ichiro digging a machine-gun nest in the side of a fairly high cliff. It was strenuous work, breaking the dirt and rocks with a shovel and sometimes even a pickaxe. But at least it was safer than what some of the men of the 2nd Army below him were doing: learning how to mountain climb with full gear including climbing ropes and hammers. The private looked down at the group, frowned, sighed, and got back to work as the men around him yelled at the private to pay attention and dig, lest the element leader come get on their ass. Squad leader Gukiro wasn't going to be doing any more pushups apparently. [u][b]April 21st, 1900, Furuu, Hiron[/b][/u] A whistle blew, quickly shaking Ichiro to his senses from sleep in the nest, "Holy shit, are we under attack already?! It's not even dawn!" Gukiro yelled an affirmative and told the men to man to machinegun and open fire on the beach. It was kind of absurd, shooting blanks at their 'enemy', but the Generals were intent on making the war games as realistic as possible. There were even referees hovering nearby shouting at people, "[b][u]You're dead![/u][/b]" whenever it was appropriate. The M1899 Prager was a thing of deadly beauty as it 'lit' up the beach, spitting rounds at around 550 per minute. That was almost ten rounds [i]per second[/i]. Though of course, if the machinegunner attempted to fire that much, they would be shortly smacked on the back of the head and told to fire a short burst at a time. Ichiro's job of course, was to reload the beast. Of course, carrying the ammunition was a bitch, even blanks. The assault went on all day and ended with a congratulations to General Saidzu on a good defense. [u][b]April 21th, 1900, Furuu, Hiron[/b][/u] The men of 1st Army found themselves forced to march in the middle of the night onto the beaches, Ichiro carrying multiple boxes of ammunition whilst his allies carried either real rifles or wooden fakes, another absurd requirement of the Army for realism. It was a stunning sight though, thousands upon thousands of men spread out another beach. And in front of them, various traps and trenches awaited. The whistle sounded almost immediately as the men of 1st Army rushed forward, trying to capitalize on their initial advantage. But soon enough, the machineguns of 2nd Army opened up on the beaches as well as a number of actual rifles and fakes. A referee came along and pointed at most of Ichiro's squad, yelling they were all dead, meaning they got to fall to the ground. Lucky bastards in Ichiro's mind. Unfortunately Ichiro decided to also fall to the ground, ripping the Prager from his 'dead' buddy's hands and setting it up quickly, gettings the rounds in position and then chambering the first one. He looked down the sights at the nests ahead of him and began firing. It was going to be a long ass day, especially now that he had to lug this damn gun around as well as ammunition for it... [u][b]April 27th, 1900, Near Tomamae, Hiron[/b][/u] Many of the men of 1st and 2nd Army had transferred over to the island that held the city of Tomamae in order to practice jungle warfare as Ichiro sat next to his machinegunner buddy, slapping a bug that has landed on his face, "Fuck man, this really sucks. How can the climate here be so much worse than the mainland." His friend shrugged, "Must be the whole surrounded by water thing. It rains on this particular island quite a bit." Their talking was interrupted by the order from Gukiro to stand and march onward. It was tough work, trying to make one's way through that foliage. They continued on like that for a few hours until ordered to set up ambush along a more traversed path, figuring that General Meishii's men would take the easier path. They did so not long after, getting metaphorically ripped to shreds by waiting machineguns and riflemen. [b]May 7th, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/b] Whilst much of the infantry concerned themselves primarily with maneuvers, discipline, and other matters, the field gun artillery of both the 1st and 2nd Armies had been spending much of their time perfecting an interesting art that General Saidzu said would work to catastrophic effect on the enemy. A number of targets were placed in an unoccupied field some distance away, sometimes in trenches, which could not be seen by the artillerymen due to either hills or raw range. A volley was fired. A series of observers, or sometimes one, would then use morse code using bright light boxes to adjust the artillery's fire. In this way, they could more accurately bombard and shred everything in the field using less ammunition. It was Saidzu's belief that this method of fire correction would result in horrible casualties for anyone foolish enough to dig in against the Imperial Army. The whole process also helped train the artillerymen. [u][b]May 8th, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/b][/u] The infantry were once more digging trenches, this time two lines designed to have one trench overlooking another with firing positions into the one closer to the enemy lines in case that trench fell. Various other complex earthworks were involved as well, including barbed wire and fake mines. After they finished digging the trenches, the Armies took turns assaulting, and at night, explosives were even wired in safe places and detonated to simulate unending barrage by the enemy to condition the Imperial Army to such terrible conditions. [b][u]May 20th, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/u][/b] Ichiro and Gukiro circled one another, clutching wooden stand-ins for rifles, the squad leader taunting the younger man, "Come on boy, come at you. You know you can kick my old ass." The young private knew the sergeant was just fucking with him, but the conditioned muscles that had begun developing in his body twitched and he leapt forward, striking with the butt of the 'rifle' in an upwards arc before trying to bring what would've been a bayonet down onto the sergeant's neck. Gukiro blocked the butt strike with his own rifle and then grabbed Ichiro's staff with his own hand, ripping it from the private and engaging Ichiro in a grappling fight that immediately went to the dirt. All around them, the squad cheered or jeered at the two, having begun to feel like an actual unit. Ichiro found himself very quickly beginning to lose the fight as Gukiro almost had him an arm lock that the infantry had learned not long ago, but he fought back as best he could, pushing off the older man's legs and wrapping his body around the man's neck. The squad leader quickly had no choice but to submit and congratulate Ichiro in between gasps for air. [b][u]June 1st, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/u][/b] It had been an incredibly tough two months, and if Ichiro was to be honest, it still wasn't going to end for a while. Yet already he could feel himself becoming remarkably tougher and learning to work with his unit significantly better. Already, they moved together much more like a cohesive organism, Ichiro and his team providing suppressive machinegun fire as the rest of the unit charged a hill or trench. To be honest, he was starting to enjoy being in the military. [b][u]June 15th, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/u][/b] Finally though, things were beginning to die down as the men focused on squad-level maneuvers or hand-to-hand combat. Ichiro, however, had his turn with a real rifle, lying prone on the ground, looking down range at a series of human-shaped targets. The marksmanship instructors knelt next to him, "Now what I want you to do is not think too much about bullet drop. The targets are somewhere in the range of 50 to 200m, and at those ranges, there won't be too much drop, but if you miss low, you should adjust slightly upwards. What I want you to focus on is just aligning the sights of the weapon on the target, and pulling the trigger gently without jerking the weapon, understood? Don't anticipate the recoil." "Hmm, okay..." muttered Ichiro. On his first shot, he missed wildly. On the second though, it landed close to the target as he got used to the sights and further instruction. Finally, on the third shot, it went clean through the center of mass. Ichiro smiled to himself, realizing it was actually enjoyable to fire this damn thing, and kind of thrilling to reach out and touch something at a distance. Marksmanship practice continued on for the rest of the day for Ichiro, with the latter part being firing under pressure from the instructors yelling at them, before they all rotated out for the next soldiers. [b][u]June 30th, 1900, Near Furuu, Hiron[/u][/b] After three months of nearly non-stop training, tearing up much of the countryside and sometimes the beaches as well, the men of the Imperial Army stood once more at attention. They were beaten, bruised, and in some cases, pushed to their limit, but they felt a solidarity with one another that hadn't been present before. General Saidzu stood smugly looking at General Meishii after having mostly beaten the old man as the pair surveyed the Imperial Army which gone from completely shit to probably something at least serviceable. Still, there was more work to do...