The bolt slid back and a small amount of black grease was revealed. Gritty, grainy grease smeared over the bolt as it came out of its customary place in the rifle. The white cloth quickly came down and whipped it off as the rifle’s owner frowned slightly. Isamu was in a slight bit of a hurry truth be told. Inspection was in a couple hours and everything had to be perfect for General Hata. Hell, if the inspections went off without a hitch the next rotation of men would be allowed north to Taipei for the weekend, a rotation Isamu happened to be in. This time of year Taipei was not at its best, but anything was better than these semi-permanent barracks if only for two days.
As a private in the 2. Company, 3. Regiment, 16. Hoheishidan 14. Hendan, Isamu was one of the 24,000 men tasked with the continued security of central Formosa from threats both inside and out. The reels showed the unit crushing insidious anarchists and Chinese nationalists or defending the 2. Combat Engineers attached to the 16. Hoheishidan. Quite impressive reels honestly, they would make any young man want to join the unit to find that sort of glory in service of his Emperor. As is often the case though, Isamu found reality to be quite different than the reels. Sometimes they would have a brief skirmish with a few disgruntled farmers and others a patrol or two would be tasked to protect the engineers, though that patrol would generally be used for menial labor instead.
The sun was setting as the men stood at attention in immaculate dress gear. It was a rather odd scene, 24,000 men in perfect uniforms standing in a large mostly muddy clearing in the middle of a make shift base. The officers slowly worked their way through the lines of men looking for anything that could possibly be wrong with them. If a certain number of infractions were found the officers would be given quadruple sake rations for that weekend, if the number wasn’t found a rotation of men would be allowed to go to Taipei. It was things like this that made General Hata most effective, or so Isamu thought to himself. Pit the officers and soldiers against each other for inspections and you will end up with the best looking and best disciplined unit in the Imperial Army.
Major Fukui Naoki paced along the runway. When the war with the Germans and the Chinese started his wing would be one of the first ones up. As the commanding officer of one of the wings in the 2 Keibakugekiki no Hikodan his bombers would be among the first over enemy skies. He knew it was coming, one could not be so close to the border and not see it. It was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when. When would Tokyo feel it could take on the Germans? When would the Germans show that small flash of weakness that the brass would jump at?
For a few moments his thoughts were drown out by the roar of engines as one of the wings completed a training run over the base. That was another reason one could know without a doubt that something was going to happen, the training missions were nonstop. Most of the missions were against mocks of army units, primarily infantry, but some were against air bases and other installations. Naoki was not sure why though, their bombers were medium size and not really equipped for the larger targets. They were designed to do as close to continuous sorties as they could against ground forces to aid the soldiers below.
As a private in the 2. Company, 3. Regiment, 16. Hoheishidan 14. Hendan, Isamu was one of the 24,000 men tasked with the continued security of central Formosa from threats both inside and out. The reels showed the unit crushing insidious anarchists and Chinese nationalists or defending the 2. Combat Engineers attached to the 16. Hoheishidan. Quite impressive reels honestly, they would make any young man want to join the unit to find that sort of glory in service of his Emperor. As is often the case though, Isamu found reality to be quite different than the reels. Sometimes they would have a brief skirmish with a few disgruntled farmers and others a patrol or two would be tasked to protect the engineers, though that patrol would generally be used for menial labor instead.
The sun was setting as the men stood at attention in immaculate dress gear. It was a rather odd scene, 24,000 men in perfect uniforms standing in a large mostly muddy clearing in the middle of a make shift base. The officers slowly worked their way through the lines of men looking for anything that could possibly be wrong with them. If a certain number of infractions were found the officers would be given quadruple sake rations for that weekend, if the number wasn’t found a rotation of men would be allowed to go to Taipei. It was things like this that made General Hata most effective, or so Isamu thought to himself. Pit the officers and soldiers against each other for inspections and you will end up with the best looking and best disciplined unit in the Imperial Army.
*****
Major Fukui Naoki paced along the runway. When the war with the Germans and the Chinese started his wing would be one of the first ones up. As the commanding officer of one of the wings in the 2 Keibakugekiki no Hikodan his bombers would be among the first over enemy skies. He knew it was coming, one could not be so close to the border and not see it. It was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when. When would Tokyo feel it could take on the Germans? When would the Germans show that small flash of weakness that the brass would jump at?
For a few moments his thoughts were drown out by the roar of engines as one of the wings completed a training run over the base. That was another reason one could know without a doubt that something was going to happen, the training missions were nonstop. Most of the missions were against mocks of army units, primarily infantry, but some were against air bases and other installations. Naoki was not sure why though, their bombers were medium size and not really equipped for the larger targets. They were designed to do as close to continuous sorties as they could against ground forces to aid the soldiers below.
