Introduction Scrawl

Imperial Coastal Defense Battery CDD-551A

The "Introduction Scrawl" will serve as a prologue to explain the setting. It will be interspersed with illustrations depicting what it's going on about. The above image will be included in this.

This has undergone a few revisions, and I'm still not entirely settled with it...it simply needs to be shorter!

Current version:

It is the Third Era.

The Holy Empire of West-Southland, gripped by imperialist notions of manifest destiny, invaded their neighbors to the north, the People's Republic of Southland, beginning the First Peninsular Conflict - a pyrrhic struggle that would take sixteen long, bloody years to resolve itself.

At the start of the war, the Imperial forces strode across the fertile landscape of the Republic, capturing whole towns and regions overnight in a massive blitz.

This campaign soon took a turn for the worse, however, at what would later be called The Battle of Mock Creek - where nearly a million Imperial and Republican soldiers clashed, died, and ground to a halt. Degenerating into trench warfare, Mock Creek devoured two years of men, materiel, and time. But while the Imperials had been spending their time, Mock Creek allowed the Republicans to buy it.

Raising a new, more modern army, the Republican forces decisively concluded the Battle of Mock Creek and turned the war around. No longer on the defensive, they began to dictate the terms of the war to the Imperials through a series of bold and staggeringly effective offensives.

The Imperials, however, were not so ready to agree. Drawing on the vast manufacturing capabilities of their nation, they turned the countryside into an armored fortress, ready to repel or resist the advancing Republicans at every turn. The standing order, from the Emperor himself, was "Stand Fast".

And so, they did. The Republicans found themselves on the winning side, but as they were discovering, victory had a price. 

One of the units willing to pay this price was the 53rd Heavy Shock Army - an elite army group unit composed of battle-hardened troops, the heaviest and nastiest equipment available to Republican forces, and only one purpose - to find the enemy, exploit the weaknesses in his line, and destroy him.

There were many Heavy Shock Army units, but as the war dragged on, the 53rd secured its special place in history - at battles with such names as Hesh Rock, Mosh Pass, the Siege of Teul, and Kut Hill.

But this story is not about those famous battles. This is about a much smaller conflict, relatively unknown by the greater public, and even to later historians…this is story about Staff Sergeant Kenneth J. Burcke, the town of Orangeview, and what happened there.

We open on a dreary morning, mere days after the 53rd has begun their assault on this former Republican township. The outer Imperial defenses have required some dismantling, and the pieces still hum with the blood of an enemy that will not be quietly conquered…

Fig. #706A

Previous incarnation:

It is the Third Era. 

For nearly two hundred years, the Holy Empire of Western-Southland and the People's Republic of Southland have coexisted in relative isolation from one another, divided by geography and ideology. 

In the year P.W.K. 193, the Empire invaded the Republic, citing a divine right to expand and fill all corners of the globe. At first, the Empire advanced. Then, it faltered. And then…it ran.

It is P.W.K. 199, and the Empire's armies are engaged in a massive strategic retreat back towards Imperial territory. After six years of devastating conflict, the Republic's war of self-defense has transformed into a dogged pursuit of a wounded, yet still powerful, enemy.

On this particular day, in the sleepy Republican town of Orangeview, the Republican 301st Heavy Shock Army has moved in to entrap the fleeing elements of the Imperial 2nd Norjt Front. More than 40,000 men and women on both sides are committed to the action.

Of these legions, there exists a particular Republican armored unit amongst the 301st: 3rd Division, 2nd Regiment, 1st Squadron, Company B. Their unit name is "Tausen's Tigers", and as part of 3rd Division, have fought in dozens of individual battles, and are considered an elite unit.

To everyone else, and especially their enemies, they are simply part and parcel of…
The 53rd(Heavy Armored Division)