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Fuegó! A Mexican AAR

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robou

robou

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Fuego! A Mexican AAR

​

Introduction - Fuego!​

José eyeballed the government troops standing infront of him. He stared at them, a long hard stare, looking straight through them. He began to grit his teeth, slowly. His eyes didn't close, but just kept staring at the ten troopers assembled in front of him. He didn't care about the consequenses, but why should he? What else did he have to lose or gain from doing so?
One scruffy trooper, with a sergeants chevron loosely sewn to the arm of his baggy tunic, stepped out from the group. He walked up to José, with a face that was torn between joy and fear, and spoke to him.

'Now, bandidos, this is what you get for defying the government of Mexico!'. The sergeant pulled out some rope from his small knapsack and grabbed the shoulder of José. The man dragged José, who was putting up no fight, towards a small wooden post, about 10 feet behind where he had been standing. The sergeant slammed José's back onto the pole and placed his hands around the piece of godforsaken wood, tying them tightly to it. The sergeant stood up straight again, gave a short and resounding grimace, before turning around and walking back to the troopers.

The sergeant, when he had reached his troops, turned round on his heels and slowly unsheathed his sword from its scabbard, and held it pointing directly upwards infront of his face. When he had done this, the troops instictivly began to form a ragged line towards José.

'Preparados' shouted the sergeant. José's heart began to race. The rifles leveled towards him. He coud almost look down the barrels, if his eyes had not been full of dust.

'Á Punten!' said the sergeant. José regained control, and with his last ounce of courage, pulled a smirk across his face.

'Fuego!!!' screamed the sergeant, his sword plumeting towards the ground! The nine guns answered *BOOM* *BOOM* in an unperfect volley. The shots sliced into various parts of José. Blood splat over his face, but somehow he managed to keep the smirk on his expression. However, the smirk slowly turned into a gasp for air as the lifeblood slowly drained out of his wounds. He slumped forward, as far as the rope would let him. His eys finally shut. Rushing before his vision, he saw his life, what he had done and how he done it...........
 
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Nice start, just a few comments:

"Méjico/México", both form are accepted, but mexicans usually write with x.
"Fuego" wears no tilde.
Should "preparados" unless he was being fires by an all-women squad. ;)
 
Chapter 1 - Revolt​
José was woken up with a jolt. His brother older, Antonio, shook him so that he almost fell off his bed.

'Get up José! Get up quickly' Antonio repeated. José could hardly see with all the sleep in his eyes.

'Wh...what is it Antonio?' he said with a yawn. He slowly raised up in his bed and stretched out his arms upwards, attempting to get rid of his sleepy feelings.

'Quickly José, you must get up and follow me to the market' Antonio insisted 'you can eat when we get back'. José got up slowly, putting on some light cotton dress and a sombrero, to keep the sun from stopping his activities in the hot Mexican summer. He left his room in a tip like state and ventured outside. His brother hurried him onwards.

'Where are we going Antonio? What are we doing?' he questioned his brother.

'Nothing that mother would not let us do! We are doing it for Mexico' his brother answered in a confident manner. They were making their way throught the crowed streets of Molango, Hidalgo state, in the same direction as many were going; the plaza. They came into the large area of the Plaza, with the church facing them. There was a great mass of people in the plaza, a José felt a bit daunted, but his brother ushered him on through the crowd.

After about 3 minuites of sneaking through the crushsingly large crowd, the two brothers popped out at the front. Standing before them, on a raised platform placed infront of the church, was a well dressed officer of the Mexican army, all clad in blue and red tunic. He stood, waiting for silence, but none would come from the seething mass of people. He got one of the nearby soldiers to fire into the air. *BOOM*

The crowd fell silent and all turned in his general direction. There was still a quiet murmur in the crowd, but the officer decided it best to ignore it and get on with his task.

'People of Molango' he began in a clear voice 'i bring sadening news to you. American settlers in the region of Tejas, led by Stephen J. Austin, have risen up in revolt against the legitimate claim of the Mexican government on this region. President Santa Anna has requested that the army take in volenteers to supliment the regular forces that are already on their way to the location under General Cos. All those who wish to volenteer shoulkd report to the local church, to have you names taken down by the local commandant. Half of those name will be drafted into the regular army, and half into the Active militia, but all forces will go to Tejas' he ened and walked off into the church.

The crowd was silent. They had not thought the news to be of that level of seriousness. Suddenly, an uproar began and much of the crowd surged into the church. The small army contigent had trouble containing the people, but somehow managed to keep a steady flow into the church. José and Antonio were the first ones in.

'Are you sure mother would accept this?' asked a worried José. He had always looked up to his brother as beacon of wisdom, but for the first time he doubted it.

'I am sure, we are fighting for Mexico, and therefore a legitimate cause' replied his brother, again sounding confident. Perhaps it was Antonio's confidence that he admired so much. Whenever Antonio said something, he always sounded like he knew exactly what he was saying, and there was nothing he could not answer without being either brave or optimistic.

They stepped up to the desk where the officer was sitting. The old man looked up at them.

'Names, age and oath to Santa Anna' said the officer, his voice giving a ceratin commanding prescense.

'Antonio and José Camarado, señor. I am 20 and he is 18. We both pledge to serve Santa Anna and die for him and Mexico. Viva Mexico!' said Antonio, sounding so confident José almost hugged him. However, José controlled himself infront of an Officer of the Mexican Army.

'Bueno' said the officer 'You will both join the regulars.' José's face turned white at the word "regulars". 'Report to the barracks in 2 hours.'

'Si señor' coughed José, reponding to the situation at last. Then the brothers turned and walked out of the church. What had they just done? Offered to fight in a war a thousand miles from their home, and then continue service in the regular army if they survived that? José thought he was going mad.

'Why did we just join the regular army Antonio? What have you done?' screamed José.

'We are doing our service to Mexico, little brother.' Antonio put his hand on his brothers shoulder, but José pushed it off and shruged at his brother. 'Look, was this country created from Spain so we could have it taken from us by Americans? Well i don't intend for that to ever come true, even if mother dosen't like it!' Antonio looked hurt by his brothers actions, and José felt sorry for what he had done to his brother.

'Viva Mexico?' asked José, seeing if he could win back his brother. His brother laughed a little.

'Indeed, Viva Mexico!' finished his brother.
 
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A most excellent start . . . I look forward to seeing where your (well-written) story goes in the future! :)
 
Nice job, learn better Spanish and you'll be away!
 
Nice start! An interesting idea to put the end at the beginning, as it raises the question of what went wrong! Does this suggest that at some point the brothers become disillusioned with Santa Anna? Or rather that they stay loyal, and Mexico becomes disillusioned with Santa Anna and them? Keep it up!
 
DerKaiser said:
Nice start! An interesting idea to put the end at the beginning, as it raises the question of what went wrong! Does this suggest that at some point the brothers become disillusioned with Santa Anna? Or rather that they stay loyal, and Mexico becomes disillusioned with Santa Anna and them? Keep it up!
Click to expand...

It might have nothing to do with Santa Anna. Jose is only 18 in 1836, so the introduction could have realistically taken place as late as the 1870's, depending on how healthy our Jose is.
 
Quintillian - if its half as well written as any of yours i will be happy :D

Capibara and Hannibal Barca 2 - thanks and enjoy

Derkaiser - thanks and he might or might not die because of santa anna..... ;)

ComradeOm - thanks, Mexico is also one of my favirotes, enjoy his story

L'Afrique - yes you indeed have a point, he is 18 and could live for a quite a while in military life, so i have a wide spectrum of time periods to work from.

Thanks to all you silent readers as well :cool:

Adios!
 
Chapter 2 - Training​

José sat on his new bed wondering about what he, or his brother, had just done to his life. This was not; however, his own bed that he was sitting on, it was the armies. José had been in the barracks waiting for his uniform to arrive for two days now, and he was royally bored of waiting. Though the Sergeant Major, a short and very loud man, had taken them through a few drills, there had been little to do in the scorching heat of the summer.

His thoughts were rudely interrupted by the Sergeant. He paced into the room, took out his cane and smacked it hard against a pole several times.

‘Get up everybody! Rise and shine!’ he shouted. ‘Camarado, that means you as well! Up! Your uniforms and weapons have arrived’. On the words of weapons and uniforms, José’s face lit up with excitement. This is what he had been waiting for the past two days. He jumped up from where he was sitting and rushed out of the door, in the sunlit courtyard.

Standing in front of him were several large carts, covered with large cloths to keep the sunlight, and watchful eyes, off what lay beneath them. The sergeant ripped off the first cloth and revealed underneath, a pile of pristine uniforms, like those that José had seen in books about the Napoleonic wars, and like those which he had seen in the plaza, two days previous. The sergeant moved over to the next cart, again ripping off the cloth to find a large stock of muskets stacked beneath it. José was ecstatic. Perhaps now he might be able to get rid of the boredom and start campaigning.

The sergeant called all the troops around.

‘Men, now we can start to beat those Americans back past the Mississippi!’ he exclaimed. ‘You two’ he pointed to the two men closet to him ‘help me distribute these. Everyone form an orderly queue to receive weapons and uniform.’

Through out the rest of the morning, each soldier was given a uniform and a weapon. By the afternoon they were beginning to drill in them. José was proud to be wearing the Mexican uniform, never minding the circumstances of what his mother would have thought. He loved the vibrancy of its colours, and the majesty of its design. Then there was the musket. The Brown Bess Carbine, purchased of Britain, was the finest (and only) musket José had set eyes on.

However, within a few weeks, he would be marching off to war. What would war be like? How would he cope? He put all those thoughts aside, and covered it with the finesse of his weapon, uniform, and drill.
 
A very striking first post, and continuing well. Good tale thus far.
 
Great update, I could almost feel like I was going to war too.

Keep it this excellent way!
 
For those of you that don't know, this is the uniform José so loves:


First Sergeant, Hidalgo Infantry Regiment, circa 1832-36​

Taken from Osprey Elite - Santa Anna's Mexican Army 1821-48 by René Chartrand (Illustrated by Bill Younghusband)

Everytime we bump into a new unit of the mexican army, i will try and give some info and a picture about them.
 
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