After years of fighting between the two main factions, EUFOR (European Union Force) and the NEB (New Eastern Bloc), peace reigned in the City of Fulda particularly in the towns of Neuhof and Eichenzell. A great number of troops from both factions have been killed-in-action from years of being in conflict with each other. On a mid-September morning in 2008, the NEB had ceased its invasion on the City of Fulda.
The fortified New Eastern Bloc (NEB) Headquarters in the city of Fulda seems to have been deserted by its troops. Could it be a tactical ploy to deceive their enemy?
The EUFOR deployment consisting mainly of troops from Western European countries is now being headed by a German top brass, since the armed-conflict is happening on German soil. They have succeeded in taking "temporary" control over two of the most hard-hit municipalities of Fulda (Neuhof and Eichenzell), in which for a limited time leaves EUFOR functioning as the towns' local police force. Their primary objective is to thwart any attempt by NEB guerrillas in trying to retake control of the towns.
The EUFOR base in the town of Neuhof had seen some activity despite the pullout of some of its troops amidst the absence of NEB forces in the city of Fulda.
Healing the wounded. There are 4 spawning areas in Fulda: Partisan's Cottage (C4 grid), NEB~HQ (A4 grid), Civilian Wards (C3 grid) and EUFOR base (D1 grid).
Troops in Fulda have their own story to tell; former civilians caught in the middle of the crossfire were drawn into joining the factions. Various nationalities from around the world who had visited the town (including those who stayed), have their own reasons on why they chose to remain in Fulda.
A Soldier's Profile
N71 Aeon: EUFOR Soldier (L10-K931-D499 -1.87)
Born in England and the only son of (British Intelligence) M16 parents, he joined the British SAS (Special Air Service) in the hope that the organisation may shed light on his parents' alleged (post-cold war) disappearance in Eastern Europe. His initial discoveries lead him to Melbourne, Australia in search a woman whose father was said to have been his parents' contact in the former Yugoslavia.
Taking up a master’s degree and majoring in Oriental Studies at the University of Melbourne, he had hoped that his new found knowledge and skill would help him in his quest to solve the mystery involving both his parents. All this was about to change when a note was left in his mailbox.
The note reads: "I know what happened to your parents. They are both still alive.. Go to Eichenzell, the answers are all there".
He packs his bags and takes the first trip to Fulda the next day. Instead of answers, more questions arose when he was greeted by warring factions trying to wrest control over the town. Still searching for clues, he stayed in Eichenzell looking for any proof that will lead him directly to his parents' whereabouts. As he walked around the town centre at a time when the whistling of bullets had given way to the sound of gulls hovering in the air, a woman in an Australian accent appeared in front of him: "You got my note? Come follow me". And the two disappeared into the dense woodlands of Fulda Gap.
I remember growing up listening to stories of my Great Uncle's survival against the odds during WW2. He spent years living in the jungle with the Chinese Communist guerrillas not knowing that the war had ended three and a half years earlier. My mother, who lived with her grandmother while growing up, would tell tales of not being able to play a simple game of hide and seek, for if she was found, she would certainly wind up with another gun pointed to her head.
He often reverted back to the 24 year old man he was, when he was first placed in Malaya to help stop the Japanese Army. I decided, that I would try my best, not to let that happen to another family.
With knowledge gained at university and through work experience, I was brought to Fulda Gap to help re-introduce soldiers back into civilisation after the war had ended. Not long after I entered the village of Eichenzell, I was met by a man in a EUFOR uniform who handed me a Sig 556 and told me to:
"Stay close and keep your head down." "But the war has ended" I protested. "Ha ha, that's what you think" he replied running off through the trees...
Ellynor Lisle: EUFOR Soldier
Born in the seventies and brought up in a perfect childhood, moving around with my father's job in the Royal Air Force. My father had met my German mother while serving in Germany. Aeroplane mad... unusual for a girl... my parents encouraged me and I got a private pilot's license when I was 16. After a spell in the Army, I paid for my flying through a sequence of teaching jobs throughout Europe. Took up helicopter flying, and became experienced enough to do some commercial work, and even had a try on the controls of some Army machines during the time I was still in the Army Reserves.
In Spring 2009 I finally settled in Germany near my mother's relatives and met my partner who became my fiance soon afterwards. Could not get back to UK after Canary Wharf; so decided to stick it out during 2010 and witnessed some terrible things. My partner went to fight... not seen him since... So I decided I am not going to meekly sit around and wait for the next outrage. The war in Fulda Gap is wrong and there's nothing left to do but fight, kick the invaders out, find my partner and get back to normality.
The Civil War.
With the absence of the NEB in Fulda, most of EUFOR's contingency troops have pulled out of the city (as ordered by the United Nations through the European Defense Agency). Security of the town was eventually handed over to the locals. Partisan recruits were given vigorous military training and counter-insurgency programs to defend the city in case an invasion of a revitalised NEB takes place.
The establishment of a Partisan faction was a success with most of the towns' citizens enlisting in the thousands. This led to convince the EDA to further reduce EUFOR presence in the region; from having a battalion of the European Forces during the conflict, to just under a platoon in peace time.
Berauschende Freiheit.
History will tell us that too much democracy if left unchecked will have an intoxicating effect on people. The lack of self-policing with the lax attitude of some of the towns' folk and the corruption of local officials have created an imbalance of power within the city. The infiltration of some criminal elements in the populace, as suspected to be the stealthy Russian mafia with the help of disgruntled former Eastern German military officials were able to stir internal strife amongst the towns' people.
The smuggling of contraband, from hard liquor to high end luxury items have corrupted the minds of ambitious individuals through greed and selfishness. Particularly fuel, thanks to the UN ending sanctions to the towns, have poured in Eichenzell unmonitored and undocumented.
"Too early and too soon," words from the towns' elders about the early pullout of EUFOR troops in Eichenzell amidst the burning institutional buildings.
With the possibility of a bloody civil war looming in the horizon, will the EUFOR camp regroup in time for the town's rescue? Or will the NEB feast on the cadavers and successfully take over a strife-ridden Fulda?
An attempt to smuggle in a Ferrari GTB into Fulda was intercepted by EUFOR troops at the bridge's check-point.
A tip-off by some locals that illegal super-strength Vodka was being used to bribe Partisan guards by the Russian mafia. "Arbi Barayev will not be pleased! You'll all be sorry!" shouts a disgruntled smuggler in a deep Russian accent as EUFOR troops took him away.
The car was supposedly a "gift" for a Partisan platoon commander in charge of patrolling the Fulda river.
Fuel, The Root Of All Evil?
Gang lords and warlords had successfully infiltrated the newly formed Partisan force, in an attempt to gain control of a cartel smuglling Fulda-Kraftstoff. The fuel is then to be sold to nearby German states at full price, earning the syndicates about 60% profit! A great portion of the fuel is also said to have been smuggled out of Germany to Eastern European countries via the Fulda river.
A small convoy of M1A1 Abrams Battle Tanks are always on constant guard at Eichenzell's main petrol station. Having a direct link to the Druzhba pipeline which supplies Germany, Poland and Ukraine from Russia, the station which has a fuel and oil underground complex is pivotal to the rebuilding and the survival of the city.
An underground passage known to have secret doors and tunnels will lead you directly to the complex. It is frequently being targeted by rogue Partisan forces under the employ of gang lords and the mafia. This instigated local forces battling amongst themselves, while an outnumbered EUFOR desperately trying to restore order have become targets themselves for their intervention.
"This is our war!", shouts a rogue Partisan in a stern Eastern German accent, exclaiming further : "This is civil war! Go back to your country as you are no longer needed here! Zurück eindringlinge gehen Haupt!"; shouting at EU troops as the deafening blast of an M136 AT-4 Recoilless RPG sets their nearby outpost ablaze. Despite the EU led contingency having superb training in combat, the downsized EUFOR forces suffered fatalities from these senseless attacks.
Having been strictly ordered by their commanding officer: "shoot only if you are shot at..." EUFOR commanders fear that any pre-mature retaliation might draw them into Fulda's civil war, as their new objective is now to restore peace and order in Fulda and to neutralise any form of unrest.
Some impatient EUFOR troops wonder how long one can take to stand all these hostilities. They currently rely on crucial assistance given to them by loyal Partisan forces in defending their base.
"Keep on your toes gentlemen, until reinforcements arrive." an attempt by EUFOR's German commander to uplift the morale of the outnumbered troops. The sight of seeing Partisans battle each other is indeed upsetting. N71 Aeon recalls a problem the Americans had in Mogadishu when Somalia was also being torn apart by in fighting amongst Somali warlords; fueled by greed and the ambition of having absolute power.
Black Hawk down! The European Defense Agency suffered a horrible setback when one of their Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters was shot down by RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) during troop deployment in Neuhof.
Partisans At War.
Skirmishes between Partisans is a common occurrence. Cousins fighting against cousins and former friends turned into foes. With most of the European Union forces out of Fulda, restoring order has been a daunting task as EUFOR soldiers continue to be the targets of rogue Partisan forces.
The threat of the NEB who were thought to have disbanded is still alive, as the faction's "sleeper unit guerrillas" loyal to veteran Pinky Turok have targeted EUFOR and Partisan troops through hit-and-run sniping; hoping this may stir up hostilities between the Partisans against the EUFORs. To some extent they have been successful at that, as finger pointing between the two camps on "who shot first..." have irked commanders from both camps. Most troops use 25mm XM-109 sniper's rifles, making it impossible to pinpoint exactly on who is responsible for the assassinations. It would seem that the NEB have not left Fulda after all.
NEB's ever elusive Pinky Turok, notorious for having garnered over 2,000 kills and reaching Level 14 in OCS rankings. She is said to be lurking on your shadow, and that you hear a faint laughter before you realise you are already bathing in your own pool of blood. She leads a small band of NEB guerillas sniping at EUFOR and Partisan troops, keeping the offensive alive until the main NEB entourage arrives.
Is the NEB strategically flaming up a civil war in Eichenzell? That may seem to be the case as instability and in-fighting would diminish if not exhaust all the resources and provisions of both the Partisans and EUFOR units. And if successful, taking back control of the town would not be an uphill battle for the New Eastern Bloc. As deaths within the Partisan camp are at an all time high and the targeting of EUFOR soldiers by rogue Partisans still rife, all that the NEB has to do is watch in the sidelines as the skirmishes would likely be doing the dirty job for them.
Unidentified Flying Crafts Above.
Recently there has been some strange sightings of an unknown aircraft hovering above the towns' skies. Rumour has it that they are predator drones, unmanned and remotely controlled miniature planes which has the capability of launching cruise missiles and taking aerial spy shots of strategic facilities and troop locations.
Mysterious and unexplained explosions have also been attributed to that. The NEB are the prime suspects whose unusual inactivity baffled security experts. "They are playing a Trojan horse on us", N71 Aeon, a strategic and counter offense specialist of a top secret unit within the EUFOR camp was quoted as saying.
Creating the belief that the NEB is no more had given the towns' people a false sense of security. The NEB may strike any moment when people least expect it, or as the story of the Trojan war goes: strike when the opposition is in deep slumber.
Hovering quietly above the sky, a Predator Drone circles around Eichenzell. Why it's here, no one knows for sure.
Spies Among Us.
In the reports submitted to the EDA by EUFOR's secret unit (the Union Black), there was great reason to believe that double agents have infiltrated both the EUFOR and Partisan camps, passing on valuable intelligence information to the other side. Security experts within the EUFOR camp fear that most of this information may have reached NEB hands.
Strategies on how to end the civil-strife in Fulda as well as new tactics to help defeat the NEB may have been leaked to the enemy, making them a few steps ahead of the EU forces in wrestling back control of the towns. Ironically, this information was also gathered by EUFOR's own infiltrating agent. It is a spy versus spy scenario reminiscent of the cold war between the former U.S.S.R. and the United States.
Halt! Who goes there! A very cautious informant for the EUFOR camp takes extra precautionary measures, making sure that double agents are not posing as his secret EUFOR contact.
Internal sources also revealed that the NEB have acquired advance military hardware smuggled in from the US black market to Russia. And word has it that a small unit of NEB officers may have acquired blueprints of a secret weapon currently being developed by arms manufacturers in America.
"It just came out of nowhere", exclaimed an excited witness as he continued on saying: "It was so quiet like a feather falling from the sky! The troops were caught unaware!", referring to the massacre of Partisan soldiers by a couple of invading NEB troops on a stealthy bird of steel. Looks like the once sleepy towns of Hesse will have to unite once more to fight against their common enemy, the NEB. Unite or ignite!
A Secret Delivery! N71 Aeon goes on sentry duty as the latest batch of arsenal and hardware arrives in a secret location in Fulda. Could it be the same military hardware the NEB smuggled in from Russia?
Calls made by the EUFOR top brasses in the Fulda deployment have not been ignored by the EDA. A squadron of newly procured AH-64D Apache Longbow Attack Helicopters have been deployed to the city to help thwart any attempt by the NEB to re-invade and take over the towns of Eichenzell and Neuhof. Though if suspicions by the EDA is confirmed correct, the opposition may already have been training with the same hardware which as feared by many, would make the aerospace of Fulda a battle ground and albeit a graveyard for the advance attack choppers.
Will the Apache Longbow be Fulda's ultimate killing machine? Armed with a 30 mm M230 Chain Gun under the aircraft's nose and its ability to carry AGM-114 Hellfire and Hydra 70 missiles on its stub wing pylons, it may indeed be difficult to shoot down. Though theoretically, the chopper can be destroyed by artillery from an M136 AT-4 Recoilless RPG launcher and the M1A1 Abrams battle tank. The XM-109 Sniper's Rifle is also known to cause considerable damage to the chopper, as well as rounds fired from the Sig-599 Assault Rifle will make hovering a bit more difficult for the Apache. And as told in ancient Greek mythology: No matter how strong and invincible Achilles was known to be, he still had a vulnerable heel.
The Death Of An Outlawed Partisan Sniper.
Armed with the Sig 556 Assault Rifle and the XM-109 Sniper Rifle, European Union Forces and loyal Partisan troops patrol alongside each other in securing the city of Fulda as more outlawed troops and criminal elements were being brought to justice. But the battle has still not been won as the threat of invasion by the New Eastern Bloc is still rife.
Recently, an outlawed Partisan wanted for a series of murders and bombings in the city had been killed by two (2) of EUFOR's veteran troops Ellynor Lisle and N71 Aeon. Both were on patrol duty when shots were fired atop Eichenzell's Psychiatric Hospital. The outlaw was said to be a in-patient at the asylum, suffering from PFGS (Post Fulda Gap Syndrome) and post traumatic stress from having been deployed in the war too long.
An HEDP round was fired at the direction of the EUFOR soldiers which gave the position of the crazed sniper. Heat signatures emitted from urine helped pinpoint the exact location of the wanted rogue. A series of shots were heard and the menace was finally taken down.
A dead man's view. EUFOR troops Ellynor Lisle and N71 Aeon shoots down a deranged sniper from the Psychiatric Building to the delight of the town's folk.Epilogue
Partisans getting back control of the city, continue to receive combat training from their European Union counterparts. Rogue and outlawed Partisans with links to the city's underworld went back into hiding. Their underground hideouts are known to be scattered around Neuhof and Eichenzell. Though the threat they pose to the towns' fragile democracy is still great, vigilance and the desire of its citizens to keep the peace may be the driving force to prevent Fulda from falling back into chaos.
