Chapter 1 The Fall

6 June 1941

Koisdorf, Gotha

1st Tank Destroyer Brigade HQ

Of course an entire Tank Destroyer Brigade wouldn't be deployed entirely within a small neighborhood in central Gotha. Only the Headquarters and Brigade staff would be situated within the abandoned town which due to it's devoid nature made house procurement all the more easier.

A young Lieutenant sauntered out of the largest and most central building in the small town, which due to the large Usonian flag strung outside it's door indicated it as the Headquarters. He inquisitively had a look over on most personnel and vehicles he passed.

The Usonian soldiers all had olive drab uniforms with bowl-shaped steel helmets with a star or stripe plastered upon it to indicate rank clearer than the patches or bars on the military uniform would. The Lieutenant had a single bronze star on his helmet and like many of the Usonians new to this war was eager for a fight.

"Morning, Lieutenant....", saluted a fellow soldier manning the skyward twin .50 Caliber mount of a M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage. "....Pool."

"At ease, soldier. Say any enemy aerial activity?", figured the officer he'd ask the anti-aircraft gunner.

"Nothin' yet, sir. Mostly Venmor scout fliers hugging our air. No actual incursions yet."

"Good work, soldier.", nodded the Lieutenant as he continued on his way.

He's destination was the outskirts of Koisdorf which - much like the majority of the continent for that matter - was expansive fields of greenery and treelines with rolling hills as far as the eye could see. As the HQ was inside the neighborhood, it's smaller composits stationed themselves on it's outskirts which made orders a pain to send out and Willys MBs darted around from into the town and out and frankly all around even where there wasn't road.

Rounding a warehouse surrounded by GMC CCKW trucks brought the Lieutenant within sight of the field of iron, the greenery broken up by the neat lines of tank destroyers and scout vehicles. Personnel of various rank conducted menial tasks such as engine maintenance with soot colored hands and ammunition loading with red coloured faces. The Lieutenant passed them all, only those noticing him saluting him or ignoring him entirely if their rank was equal or higher.

He reached his particular destination, a makeshift tent which was strung up beside the M3 Gun Motor Carriage belonging to the Platoon the Lieutenant was assigned to command. Said tent was completely open at present, an effort to combat the radiant heat of the Gothic summer, but all it's occupants were huddled around a table decked with cards and Schnapps alcohol seeing as they were in Gotha.

"Sir. Anything from HQ?", asked the Sargeant standing up to salute, followed by the rest of the four men around him.

"Yes, at ease gentlemen.", said the Lieutenant, cleanly shaved, as he prepared for the breifing executed primarily from his memory. "601st, 2nd and 3rd Self-propelled Battalions as well as 820th and 824th towed Battalions are to move their combat elements forward of Koisdorf and entrench outside of Sinzig on the Rhine river awaiting further combat orders."

"The Rhine is the frontline between us and the Venmor forces so this is an offensive operation."

"We're really going into the fight?"

"Looks like we might finally see some damn action."

"About damn time, I thought we were only sent thousands of miles from home to kust enjoy some Gothic booze and grub."

"Indeed, we're finally moving out in a few days so I expect all of you to be in the best and finest combat shape.", said the Lieutenant. He noticed an unfinished glass of Schnapps on the table, which he promptly scooped, swallowing it's brown liquid contents in one gulp before laughing with his men. "Pass the word around the Platoon. We're gonna show those Venmor monsters a real fight."

The men grinned at the proposition of slaying Venmors, but it wasn't like that of a murderous gaze which would normally be donned by those who fought monsters for years. No these Usonians, the Far Occidental cowboys, were green and fresh to the fight.

- .- -. -.- / -.. . ... - .-. --- -.-- . .-. / -... .- - - .- .-.. .. --- -. ... / .- .-. . / - --- / .--. .-. --- ...- .. -.. . / .. -- -- . -.. .. .- - . / .- -. - .. / .- .-. -- --- ..- .-. / ... ..- .--. .--. --- .-. - / .- -. -.. / .--. .-.. ..- --. / .... --- .-.. . ... / - --- / -.-. --- ..- -. - . .-. / . -. . -- -.-- / -... .-. . .- -.- - .... .-. --- ..- --. .... ... / .- -. -.. / -- .- ... ... . -.. / --- ..-. ..-. . -. ... .. ...- . / .--. ..- ... .... . ... .-.-.- / .. - / .. ... / .- / ..-. .-.. .- .-- . -.. / ... - .-. .- - . --. -.-- .-.-.-

"Alright, soldiers I want these Tank Destroyers so nice and concealed not even an eagle could see 'em from 10 yards away.", ordered Lieutenant Pool as he stood atop his M3 GMC.

Thousands of Usonian soldiers were scattered across the new gun line camouflaging their GMCs and 3-inch M5 anti-tank guns. In particular Pool's crew had elected to stick up a few thick branches on the hood and gun shield of their M3. Combining the greenery and disruptive colours of the leaves to the olive drab steel as well as the shadows cast by the overhead canopy of trees produced excellent camouflage.

"We're to dig in on this side of the river bank outside Sinzig. We expect the Venmor forces to attack us over and all across the Rhine."

"Funny isn't it?", said the M3 Gunner, checking his sight to ensure it's been properly ranged.

"What is?", replied the Loader, handing a 9 kilogram (20 pound) projectile to the second loader, who promptly loaded it into the ammunition locker which the was the bunk the crew sat on.

"We're here, thousands of miles away from home fighting once again on Gothic soil just like our grandfathers before us."

"Usonian military hadn't seen combat in Gotha since the Great War. It's a good thing we're fighting with the Goths now instead of against them."

"Yeah our previous generations all thought they were monsters. Little did they realize that these things exist."

"It's just so damn unbelievable, these things aren't animals or machines but act like the both of 'em."

"Some say the Venmor came from the stars."

"Bullshit!", said each and every crewman unanimously.

"Besides that it's not just us that's gonna fight, even if the First Tank Destroyer Brigade was all Usonia can quickly muster into the Gothic frontlines.", cut in Pool. "We've got friends from all over the Occident."

The Tank Destroyer crew now huddled around Pool as the Lieutenant unfolded a map he retrieved from a satchel hung around his right shoulder, with his left shoulder being occupid by a holstered Model 1909 revolver.

"Bridges all over the Rhine were destroyed after the mass evacuation of Gotha from the west bank to the east bank. This seems to have halted the Venmor for a few months during which time they must've planned these movements. However, a few key areas had temporary bridges rebuilt to allow for armed reconnaissance into Venmor held territory.", Pool now tapped on several cities and towns all on the east bank of the Rhine. "Remagen, Cologne and Bonn all have these bridges which will blow any second now. Duesseldorf is the only beachhead our forces currently have."

"But the Venmor forces don't completely own the west of the Rhine right? That would spread their forces too thin."

"Yeah, HQ believes the Venmor has concentrated their forces on these few point so they've deployed Brigades and Groups to these objectives to repulse an enemy attack."

"From Wilhelmshaven all the way down south to Bonn is defended by the Gothic Wehrmacht as strongpoint 'Anton'.", the position of the Gothic lines were marked with a black Iron Cross.

"From there to Koblenz is the responsibility of our mighty Usonian Army Corps as strongpoint 'Betty'.", naturally the Usonians adopted a Star as their motif which marked 'Betty'.

"Frankfurt and Nuremberg are occupied as the strongpoints 'Charles' of the Bouvetian troops and 'Duca' for the Dunatio military respectively."

The Bouvetian flag was halved with blue dominating it's left field and white it's right field. A red Cross of Lorraine was superimposed upon the white field. The Dunatio flag was similar to the Bouvetian flag albeit the blue field was emerald green and the white field had a golden crown emblazoned on it instead.

"And the Albionians? Won't they be joining the fight?"

"Their Expeditionary Force has taken heavy losses in armour so they're regrouping in Aachen.", indeed a white flag with a red cross was now occupied in the city situated on Gotha's geographical border.

"I'm guessing the Ruthenians has got the whole of the Eastern Gothic border as a strong point after annexing the Kieva Union. They have the obscene manpower after all.", the flag wasn't added, but a crimson band had been coloured on the entirety of the east of the map, a sarcastic gesture.

"The Zipangese have also decided to join the fight soon. Cowards wanna see how the war's gonna turn out in the Occident first."

"Well with the whole of Tianxian and Huaxian just coming out of a pointless civil war in the Orient, you can't blame the Z's for being a bit cautious about their neighbors."

"Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if from those greedy Orientals."

"Reconnaissance planes.", alerted the loader with the rest of the crew looking up.

Indeed the sound of droning radial engines was of such relief many a soldier felt as if they were under a safe haven when they heard it. Venmor fliers usually had a howl to their propulsion units, whatever those were since no one knew much about the monsters.

"Those are photo reconnaissance Spifires.", said Lieutenant Pool.

The flight of three Albionian warplanes passed over the frontline at Sinzig at a low enough altitude that their distinctive Merlin engines hummed on the skin of the observers on the ground.

"Yeah, the pink color scheme makes 'em look like quite the circus."

"Helps with camouflaging against the setting sun and low light conditions they usually operate in when photographing."

"And there's our boys.", said the gunner now turned around as a dispersed flight of OA-10 Catalina aircraft now droned over the frontline flying in a scissors pattern kilometers apart.

"All platoon COs, I repeat. All platoon COs!", came a message over the radio to which the operator caught the Lieutenant's attention. "Venmor forces sighted advancing on the Rhine at haste. Prepare for battle!"