Chronicle:A foot patrol at Muire Street, Ballynary

"Oswald- you rat bastard!"

The young man looked up, his eyes having drifted from the battle rifle laying on his lap up to the other man wearing a flack-jacket and a side cap, he was frowning down at him, his expression showing how genuinely pissed he was, a curved frown, with his thick eyebrows almost appearing bushier than usual, Oswald's face slowly came to be a smile.

"Stop the shit flowing out of your mouth Aelfred, I have heard enough of your yapping today", he would say, slowly pulling himself out of the conveniently placed lawn chair and standing all the way up, bringing his rifle over and around his shoulder, and affixing his Beret onto his head before adding "You act like the C-S-M is watching you with a spyglass right now, sometimes its a wise idea to take a short break, lest you want me to piss in me trousers."

Aelfred took a deep breath and let out an long exhale, letting out all that was in his lungs, he would lazily sling his rifle over his right shoulder and would bring his left hand to his face, covering his eyes and stroking his temple, slowly words would fall out of his mouth "Oswald, I get that you are a Corporal now and that you have joined the N-C-O mafia but what in the name of the supreme-fucking being do you think you are, Sarge has a noose all warm and ready for the two of us if the damn Taigs don't get us first."

Oswald's smile would widen as he gave a slight chuckle, he would begin to turn down the street and would place his arm on Aelfred's shoulder as the two of them began walking side be side, he would bring out his arm and motion over the street, empty and desolate of any civilians, proudly declaring, "Aelfred, you just don't get it lad, this is a land of our people, our countrymen who have been lead astray by the lies of bourgeoise capitalism and southern debau-" Aelfred would stop him mid sentence, push Oswald's hand off of his shoulder with a slap and raise his left hand up to Oswald's face.

"Hey Oswald, if I wanted someone to preach to me I'd go to the damn Communion, not to a man who frequents the brothel down on the main because no one at one would take prince charming the misogynist here," he said pointing at him, before moving his finger to the murals on the wall, proudly declaring phrases which have become familiar to the Grenedeneish soldiers by that point, a poorly written "Tiocfadh ar la!" with a mysterious man in a balaclava with some sunglasses, and a beret with heart on it, Aelfred would carefully wait for Oswald's eyes to be drawn to the depiction, before giving him a slight slap on the cheek, continuing his last thought and saying "Here, we are there enemies, if I were you I would get used to the fact that these damn Taigs, and yes, I will call them what I right well please, are not to be friendly with us, for their masters in whatever corner of the world you imagine decided they will not be," he would pause and take a breath, before adding "Politics is what got us into this damn mess in the first place, and I am pretty fucking sure that more of it will not get us out, so don't get too preachy with me Reverend Dalhun!"

Oswald would frown for once at his companion, and would look in his direction, adopting a harsh, quieting tone "Stop with the talk man, any of the locals decide to report that and you'll be shot, Dal Eagorm isn't the kindest fellow, and being too loud with opinions like that ain't the smallest thing that he's had men like us capped for." he would look around the street with a quickly moving gaze as the men began to move around a four-way intersection, they were still trying to catch up to the patrol anyway.

The two men had made it up to the rest of their patrol, moving with haste they were finally within eyeshot, moving past a broken barricade used by some Tyrdeneish rebels to roleplay as border guards a few days prior, the minute that their Sergeant saw the two of them moving up, his face turned red and he stopped the entire squadron, raising his right hand straight up to get them to stop, who would begin to turn in the direction of the men, with one of them poking the elbow of another and making a sly comment about the two who at this point were nearly AWOL.

As soon as the men were in earshot, the Sergeant began his rant, motioning the men to turn and slowly getting them to begin walking "You actual fuckwits, you two-" he paused, and turned while continuing to move, "Have got... just have got, to be the most brain dead people to ever get past the rank of Volunteer, Dalhun, come-the-fuck on man, you took a god damn nap?!" he would shout, slowly lowering his tone as the group continued, begining to form their common staggered column, the Sergeant's face continued to be a rose tint as he went on, "Mapplewick," he said as he turned to Aelfred "Thank you for bringing some sense with you, but holy shit you and him need a bit god damn more of it, I won't scold you since you did what I asked, but I will say, you and him need to hustle next time he does some bullshit like this, I hate writing reports about this kinda stuff."'

The Sergeant would finally turn around as he began to pick up his own pace, taking front of the formation as the group begins to get closer to one of the most active night areas of Ballynary, Central Muire Street, right next to the old town park, the same place where on Sunday, around a year ago, an often repeated story happened, the place made the Guardsmen nervous, all of them didn't like going down this road, it had an awful reputation, and gained a name in jargon, "Carbombwe", as soon as the men had reached the avenue leading to the place, everyone had a tight grip on their rifles.

"Lads, I swear to the supreme-being if a fucking street is going to make us all piss ourselves we have got to be the most pussyfooted army on the entire planet. He was joking, even he was a bit sweaty as they went onto the street, seeing sketchy men walk into homes nearby just as curfew was about to begin, he braced himself, the entire group was facing outwards now, even if just a slight bit to keep an almost three-sixty degree view of everything around them, and just as they did, a mans car which was moving down the street had just began to break down, he pulled over to the side of the road, and the sergeant as well as the rest of the squad turned to the vehicle.

The man in the seat was nervous and obviously in a rush, he kept pressing on the gas but to no avail, he looked to the soldiers with a frown, and then looked down once more at his pedals, before rolling down the window and shouting "Hey! Army bai's, can you come over here!?" at which the sergeant raised his right hand, halting the squadron from any movement.

"Aye- I'll be coming over, I have some engineering skills." shouted the Sergeant as he walked over to the car, he would look at it, it was a old junky one, all of the company could see it, however, it was still moving nonetheless, the Sergeant would walk directly in front of it, and would then look at the hood, before gazing back up at the man.

"Pop it, will you?" The Sergeant would say, just as the man would follow through, popping the hood, the Sergeant would then add "You can get out if you wish, come around and tell me what you know..." he said, just as he pulled up the hood, as soon as it was popped he would look at the poor thing's insides, it was almost like a jigsaw puzzle with how disorganized the parts were, he would move from a leaning position and would turn to the man, who he would gaze at, suspicion taking over his body, he would look back down, nervous, the rest of the squad could feel the tension. Oswald took his rifle off of the safety.

"She is an auld one, I can tell you that, just got her from me nan, my first car.", the man said, grinning at the Sergeant, a slight strain on his face, the Sergeant would begin moving around the side of the vehicle, and the man's face went slightly pale, he then said "Hey sarge, the engines over here-", with a nervous giggle, as he began to take a few steps away from the car, moving towards the park entrance, Oswald would grip his rifle tight, and bring it to a low ready.

"Sarge, get the fuck out of there! All of you off of the fucking road!" Aelfred began shouting, the Sergeant however was not paying attention as he looked through the window, gazing at the gas meter, it was a singular tick away from empty, the car was still running, he looked down to the pedals again and saw a timer, his heart stopped, and under his breath, one saw him mutter.

"Oh, Lord."

Oswald would gaze at the fire, he was deafened, his heart was beating fast, for a moment he thought he was dead, however a simple look could tell him what had happened. The Car had exploded. their Sergeant was laying there on the ground, screaming, or at least, Oswald thought he was. There was an open hole in their Sergeant, you could see into his chest, his face was cut and burned, his uniform was on fire, he was blinded, Aelfred was on the floor, his knee was massively cut, and he could not move, a piece of metal was in his leg.

Oswald and the standing squad members were only able to move seconds too late after initial shock kicked in, but the first thing he heard being said wasn't a cry of anger, a cry of fear, it was the cry they all knew. "Our day has come!"

Oswald felt shock and anger, as instead of doing anything, civilians came rallying around the Sergeant, looking at him, one of them picked up a rock and threw it at the sergeant, while another began to laugh. To laugh.

He immediately raised his rifle, and fired a accurate shot at the man responsible, nailing him into the back, the man would flop to the ground and hit it hard, slamming into it headfirst and crying out as another squad member ran towards him, throwing three rounds towards his leg, only hitting one as the man attempted to limp away, walking up to the mans dying body with his rifle pointed up at the sky, the soldier was obviously ready to do something which he may not under normal circumstances, Oswald didn't even know his name but felt vitriolic hatred at the man who was then on the ground, the man who was about to be put down by a friend who's name would be lost to history, he knew that he was supposed to terrorists, however he was happy to turn the blind eye to his squad mate, who would kick the terrorists on the side of his chest and flip him over, looking at his denim shirt, still seeping with blood, before stepping onto his neck, not enough to break it but enough to hold him down, lowering his rifle, putting the end directly in between the mans eyes as he was still in shock, and firing two rounds into his head.

Only when the man who began the attack had a piece of metal in his skull did the crowds begin to run off, as the squad members raised their rifles towards the sympathizers ordering them away, before Oswald carefully reached for their Sergeants dead body, pulling away the radio on his rigging, and pressing down on the button to speak.

"This is F Squadron on Muire Street, our Sergeant is dead via car-bombing, and we have one heavily wounded, we need aid, please advise..."