As the first modern war came to a close in November 1st, 1918, rows of passed juveniles laid the battlefields. In the name of some royal fat cats or some shitty national leader, cruelty and crimes were committed against the weak and the vulnerable younglings; in other words, adults were assholes. Their deaths marked a new beginning, a new beginning in a strange and magical land that was and had only been dreamt of in stories and folk tale, they had arrived in Terruta. The first ones regarded themselves as Revenants, heroes who had been able to be reborn in this world and began their adventure to explore this strange foreign land. However, “every coin have two sides like everyone have two faces”.

As they left their former life behind, the young soldiers and operators found themselves being deceived, abused and taken advantaged off again by the elders of this world. Many were abused, tortured, raped and sold to slavery, Revenants were quite sought after due to their timeless charm, strength, intellect and immortality, they were unable to be killed no matter what; many were bought and used as pets, slaves and entertainers for their masters’ entertainment. Fed up with the similar treatment and abuse by the adults of this world, many revolted and founded ICC, International Cooperative Coalition.

In the beginning, ICC was merely conducting rescue operations for captured and enslaved revenants, but later, included the liberation of serfs and enslaved demi-folk after forming deals and contracts with them. The locals were then given a choice to leave ICC’s FOBs and smaller echelons but most chose to stay and work as live-in contractors and/or agents, provided that they get enough training in hand to hand combat and/or firearms training; designated as Terran Contractors or Terran Agents.

Initially, the ICC standard armaments were bolt action rifles borrowing techs from several countries’ Great War standard armaments such as Mosins, Enfields, Springfields, etc. However, the arrival of ww2 minor soldiers and resistance fighters inspired them to create submachine pistols and autoloaders. Furthermore, the exploration of remnants from past wars boosted their technological advances both in weapons manufacturing, mechanized vehicles and airborne troop carriers. Several smaller cadres with similar aim later joined the ICC efforts, noticeably the student soldiers, child soldiers and the resistances ever since the first modern war.

Earlier today, I was on a mission to retrieve schematics for the development of next-generation body armour, the kind that I was currently wearing before being killed in action. The folks in ICC after being able to create plastic and polymer wanted to use it to create Kevlar which was extremely lighter than the standard armour currently used by their operators. The operation initially went pretty well with a pretty sound 3-days jeep ride for infiltration to the hot zone. I managed to get some shut-eye from time to time and I had managed to prepare some of Gin’s favourite delicacies that I used to make for her when she was alive. I had brought Konbu stock, Marinated Roasted Salmon and Shiso rice balls, made from ingredients that I acquired through connections that I had with the Africans, Asians and the Europeans for their foodstuffs; this was an effort of mine to create a bond with my squadmates and to try and move on from the past.

Anyhow, we arrived at an American base according to the Vietnamese Recon Helicopters and local intel that the place was a hazardous nest of Night beasts, Wolves like creatures that hunts in packs and they were extremely resilient both against swords, shields and also bullets. Thus we were given prototypes of Hollowpoint airburst rounds that would be able to penetrate Steel Humvee linings, hoping that our tests fires would see their efforts fruitfully. Though the bullets didn’t have any misfires nor cause any malfunction for my Type 89C assault rifle, their impact didn’t prove as fatal to the creatures as they had imagined. If it wasn’t for the Vietnamese, It would have been a painfully tiring tug of war with the creatures to get my body parts back.

An ARVN soldier and an NVA Youth commando, no one could have thought that they would work together so well, seeing how when initially recruited by ICC, the two factions were literally at each other’s throats (with guns drawn, more or less).

The ARVN cadets who were mostly teenagers who had faked their ages to join the army at a younger age than the enlistment requirement. They gave their lives to their country at the beginning of the war against the Communists. The crew of ARVN soldiers prior to ICC was led by Tran Thanh Giang, a calm and collected boy who managed to train the ARVN branch of the ICC to an elite Special Forces group that specialized in helicopter missions after their establishments in Terruta.

The NVA youth commandoes were mostly children, school kids or child farmers that heeded Uncle Ho’s call to arm to oust foreign colonial forces. Their experience from guerilla warfare made them a valuable asset for ICC’s recruitment of Terran personnel and contractors. The Cadre of young freedom fighters was led by Vo Van Phuong, a hot-blooded but very calculative girl, who had an unbroken fighting spirit and charisma. Her group with the support of the ARVN, managed to liberate over a thousand demi-folk serfs through ambushes and sabotages of the slave trade.

My name is Sasaki Kotegawa, my mother was a researcher and my father was a JSDF officer, I joined the JSDF unofficially to avenge the death my sister Gin. I lost my life fighting for revenge. After being rescued by the NVA and NLF from slavers, I was airlifted by the ARVN aircrew to safety, was then given a slot in ICC’s ranks.