After the dust settled on what had been an eventful start to the 9th of Month 6, 1639, Unterfeldwebel Bertram Werner of the Kommandokompanie (KMK) wrapped up writing down the latest entries in his diary.

Cent. Calendar 08/06/1639

16:30

Alert beepers at the base go off with a simple and short message from the High Command informing us to mobilize after the negotiations to secure the release of the diplomats held by the Pagandans broke down. Apparently, the diplomats in the ministry couldn’t negotiate a ‘peaceful’ end to the hostage crisis... At least we get to do the real thing instead of dragging our asses through the same exercises over and over again now.

17:00

Citizen of the Republic The emperor went public with his speech and said, “We will not yield and submit! And we’ll make sure to punish those Pagandans for their shameful actions!” or something along that line. What a bunch of good-for-nothing clowns speaking to each other in that worthless circus of an ‘Imperial Council’ of theirs. I am starting to regret taking that eid before I signed up.

19:30

Lt. Col. Hippel called all of us in for another hour of forced listening a briefing on the upcoming ops, and as expected, the GD’s shitty supposed ‘intelligence’ on the target is so faulty that you couldn’t expect less from them. However, with only a three-hour time frame... Do they really want those diplomats back? They gave us neither the proper intelligence nor the time to gather it ourselves, and now they’re telling us to rescue them out of the blue? Bullshit.

20:30

I tried raising our complaints with Hippel before he finalized the assault plan based on that abomination the GD calls the “sketch of the building”... But Hippel being Hippel, he chuckled it off just like always and told us to pack our gear up ready to go by 2000 hours. If anything, I don’t like the way this is going, but that is just like saying I don’t trust Hippel and my fellow Kommandos who have never failed so far... especially against the GD. The koffer (Hartmann) tried to ask me for advice on how to prepare himself before the ops, so I kindly told him to PUFO (pack up and fuck off).

21:30

Arrived at the airbase in Leusich and got our chutes and equipment inspected for the jump while we waited for our ride, one of those flyboys’ big planes to arrive. Although those spoiled brats are running quite late, it’s still on schedule. We eventually boarded the transport plane and lifted off 15 minutes later at 2145 hours.

23:55

Gott (Roland) gave us a speech that worked its wonders on all of us just before the jump. The man’s just too good at these types of things, although by doing so, he wasted some time before realizing he had to do a quick check of his equipment. Couldn’t blame the old folk, though. Then, the red light flicked on as we stood up, and the door opened. We sprinted out of the aircraft as fast as we could as soon as the green light came up and threw ourselves into the void. From that point onwards, the game was on.

Cent. Calendar 09/06/1639

00:10

The jump and landing went smoothly, although I would’ve ended up on a fucking tree had I not steered away from it in time. Arriving on the ground, I immediately let loose of my chute, and picked all the ausrüstung up. Got my arse off the ground with several Kommandos to the designated bearings where I rallied Müller, Schneider, Schäfer, and Braun-the Kommandos, making up the recce team I was in charge of.

00:30

Those fucking arschgeiges in the GD couldn’t even tell the difference between a three-story building and a two-story one... I realized the moment we arrived at the compound just how truly fucked up their intelligence was, even though we’d been expecting it before this whole operation began. Shame I didn’t fucking burn the sketch when I had the chance to, but what’s done can’t be undone, so we better get moving...

01:25

From what we could gather so far, each of the compound’s wings has at least a single possible entry point with five watchtowers and at least 24 feindliche Truppen in the immediate proximity of the compound, although aside from that, the security is considerably relaxed due to all those lazy Pagandans being on vacation because of their festivals. Thanks to them, however, things couldn’t have been much more perfect than this; a fact which Hippel and the others acknowledged, so it was now or never. Oh, and don’t go telling the Pagandans we were free to plant our little mines as a surprise gift before they return.

01:45

Blowing up the mines was like single-handedly kicking up the hornet’s nest as all those 24 feinde immediately left the area with their guard wolves and headed towards the mess we caused even before they could properly tell some of their fat colleagues on the towers what was going on, leaving them panicking and exposed as easy targets to our kugeln and paving the way for the assault teams to finally approach the building. Though it wouldn’t be long until those Pagandans return.

02:10

We were left behind to cover the evacuation of the diplomats by the four assault teams, but since we knew we weren’t going to pull off the impossible with only five of us, we decided the best course of action was to give those Pagandans hell while we were at it. By 0225 hours, however, as the five of us tried to continue delaying them, the Pagandans returned the favor with something too difficult to handle: the fucking Kavallerie! At that point, we decided it was about time we get the fuck outta there... That is after making sure Schäfer left behind some more gifts in the form of mines. Auf Wiedersehen, du Arschlöcher!

02:30

Just as we continued our dash for the treelines, those Pagandans just kept on coming... I swear to god... It was almost like they were aiming for our asses at that point. Fortunately, Braun was lucky enough to stumble upon only a few unlucky Pagandans along the way, so we wasted only a few shots. Schneider wanted to take the honor to reveal our surprises for the Pagandans in the most spectacular way ever, so I duly granted him that. Needless to say, it was fortunate that we kept on running instead of turning back because I am sure none of us would want to fully witness the scale of death and destruction we left behind.

02:55

Finally made it to the LZ, right in time for those navies Hurensöhne to arrive and flex their muscles at the last possible moment, but whatever... not like I want to stay here any longer. We wasted no time getting onto the last Krauss Hubschrauber to land, with Müller being the last one to come back to his senses to rush into the damn hubschrauber. As far as I can tell, he was also the last Kommando to leave Pagandan soil at 0257 hours.

03:10

On our way to the Himmelßturz, a few Kommandos were exchanging words over the comms about the condition of the koffer. Apparently, he was shot during the withdrawal and is undergoing intensive resuscitation attempts aboard one of the Kraus. The koffer will undoubtedly make it... ja?

03:20

Got off the Krauss and immediately rushed past the crowd to see what was going on, only to see a couple of navy Krankenträger carrying a body covered in white cloth pass by and Hippel throwing his helmet to the ground. Seriously...? There just had to be a casualty every fucking time, and it always had to be the koffer... Perhaps too classic for comfort but... Bedenke, dass du sterben musst.