Lancelot's Journals
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
Lancelot's Journals is a recruitment newspaper for the UK Military Regiment Camelot. It is written by company leader and soldier Iain Keers. Soon it will move onto regular journal entries from Iain Keers and other members of the troop from far flung locations around around the world.
It has 11 Subscribers, but hopefully this will rise quickly once the fanfic style articles start appearing from 26th onwards.
Contents
The eJournals of Iain Keers
23rd April
I was riding home from Parliament to my home town of Hull alone. Sambo didn't turn up to vote and Jaden was on holiday with his multi's in Jamaica, so I was the only Y&H representative. As the day drew to a close and the darkness started to draw in a great mist descended all around us. The road was almost invisible, and my face was dripping with condensation. I drew my coat around me and moved further into the darkness. At some point I noticed that the road was becoming more rough and I realised I must have missed a turnoff. Dismounting from my horse, I raised my lamp to see the map I carry everywhere with me folded into my diary. This only confused me more, as there were no other roads in this region. With regret I folded my map away, and moved off the road to set up camp for the night. The ground was flat and level, fielded country somewhere in the midlands. Finding a slight hill, I erected my small one man tent and lit a fire with some tinder I found by the roadside. Finally I picketed my horse and went to bed.
24th April
When I woke it was unbearably warm. I emerged from the tent to find myself in a sea of flowers, in a deep and wide valley. In the distance was a large hill, covered in small trees. At the top was a large and squat looking fortification whose walls were a deep red. I mounted my horse and headed in the direction of the castle to see if they could help me find my way
...
The castle is huge. All around it are apple orchards, each tree heaving with apples. At the door of the castle two huge men in armour stood without acknowledging me. Entering the castle I was greeted by a bearded man who directed me to the library
...
The King was a large bear of a man. He didn't wear gowns of state but rather the leather and chain of a soldier of olden times. He spoke to me of the many battles he had fought in, and of the mission of the men he called Camelot.
25th April
With the congress elections I have been forced to leave Camelot, but I have taken with me the words of the King. The cost of freedom for the many is the sacrafice of the few. I have been asked to give up my congress seat to bring together twenty men and women and found a new Camelot. The new Camelot will be based on the new frontier of civilisation: not on the bountiful fields of England but in the black earth fields of Podolia, in the Ukraine.
8th May
After stepping down as Minister of Finance, I handed over the keys to Number 11 and went home to Yorkshire and put the kettle on. As the news came in on my television about the new corps being set up I had to laugh. “What do you know? They actually did it,” thought I. Pulling out my mobile phone I gave former Prime Minister JerryGFL a quick ring.
“Jerry, they've done it.”
“...really? That's good news,” said Jerry.
“How is the situation in Romania? Are the Indo's still advancing?” I asked. There was a brief silence as Jerry presumably checked the battlefield reports.
“Still coming Iain. When are we going to be able to deploy?”
“Two weeks... maybe a little longer,” I hedged.
“It's too long. We need more soldiers. We need another weapons company.”
“We don't have the cash,” I said quietly, checking my bank balance. “We've already put all my personal assets into this, 90 GOLD isn't something I have lying around.”
“We'll get funding, I'm sure of it,” Jerry said. “We're going to be out here fighting for the UK. I've got to go now- the front line is edging ever closer though. Don't take too long.”
After putting the phone down I reflected on the situation. Jerry was already in Romania, working in the iron company and producing supplies for the war effort. I had recently stocked up on some Q1 weapons to make the first push when we land. Our recruitment queue was packed full and new requests were still coming in. There was only one solution: we needed another arms company and to do that we needed 20 gold to start it up. We would then have to find 70 more gold from somewhere to level it up to Q3. After ringing around I secured 15 GOLD in gifts from squad members, putting the last 5 in myself. The gold has been forwarded to the Citadel to set up the new arms manufacturing plant on Sunday.
My cup of tea had gone cold, and the TV was blazing static. I looked around the room, probably for the last time in a while. Leaning against the door was my battle armour, a Roman Numeral I stylised on the helmet. My weaponry lay almost unused in its racks. Slowly I put on my army, feeling the weight for the first time. Shouldering my supply pack I left the house for Camelot.
11th May
Three days after leaving Hull I arrived in Camelot's staging camp near Dover. We are massing there before those of us currently in the UK move to Romania. Several soldiers were already there, but the congress people amongst us were tied down to the UK. I met up there with Mailak Kalan, Indiekid, Luke and a couple of other troopers. They had all made the trip there on their own, and went out to Dover to have fun.
Since I was in the region, I called in on our regional congressmen to say hello. Stefan was there, but the other two were in London on parliamentary business. Whilst we were there we beat the drum to see if there was anyone around who wanted a life of adventure with Camelot, but most of our troops were still in Romania fighting there. In the evening, Indiekid came into our command tent and we planned our course of action.
"I think we should advertise directly in Romania," I said, unfurling our map.
"Good idea," he responded. "We can send the message with the Paras too post around the major towns over there. There are so many Brits out there we are sure to sign up a few if they see the notices."
Putting my ever-present mug of tea on one end of the map to hold it down, I looked at the mixed political landscape of Europe. France, Italy and Hungary were marked in red. No go areas. "I think we should land here," I said, pointing to the Polish coastline. "It means a longer journey by sea, but we avoid Peace occupied Belgium, and any potential conflicts in Northern Germany."
"It could be best to travel South through Poland and then through Ukraine to Podolia," Indie said. "Although it would be best to avoid conflict before we meet our comrades we're going to have to cross PEACE territory at some point."
"Agreed," I said, rolling up the map. "Prepare the men, we're going to move South and secure transport, ready for the journey." Indiekid turned and left, closing the tent flap behind him. I looked across at my war gear. Camelot was ever closer to being a reality, but we still needed men.
18th May
I looked on in horror at the television in our Dover headquarters at the scenes on the news, replayed now for almost a week since the Battle of 541. Swarms of Indonesians, many of them missing limbs, fought their way over the titanic walls of the West Siberian Region. Many Romanians stood and fought hand-to-hand, their brothers from Atlantis beside them, to the end. In Podolia similar scenes were occurring. The Camelot Citadel had already been left behind enemy lines, and those of our members who had got out had mostly retreated to the Romanian capital.
A message flashed onto the screen.
"Romania will fight no longer until the cheats are banned".
A surrender message. I was horrified.
Hours later there was a banging on the door. Opening it, I saw Jerry there, leaning on the frame and breathing hard. Ushering him in, I noticed his head and one arm were heavily bandaged, and his body armour was in tatters.
"They came in huge numbers Iain," Jerry told me, "and every time we knocked them down there was a flash of gold and their soldiers returned from the dead. There were just too many."
I made Jerry a cup of tea and took him to the library to rest in front of the fire. When the rest of the soldiers had retreated Jerry had stayed and fought. The lines of Hungarians had washed around him. Using his last reserves, he'd pushed through their lines and marched across Hungarian occupied Podolia and into Galacia region of the Ukraine. From there he move North into Poland and made passage on a Polish trading vessel for London. It was a super-human effort, and it cost him dearly. Although the strongest of men, his hands were still shaking slightly from combat duty when I passed him his tea.
On one wall of the library was a large map. On it were lines marking PEACE advance attacks, and a small red flag marking lost Podolia. The loss of the high-iron region was a heavy blow to Atlantis. We'll have to see how it recovers.
Lighting a cigar, I wandered out of the library, through the hallway and into the kitchen. Some of our soldiers were there, eating broth from small wooden bowls. I gestured towards Stuart Nash to come with me to and left again. Stuart was a big man, and he drank his broth in one go before following.
"I got a message today, from high command," I said, passing him the scrap of paper. "They're putting us on high alert."
"Hungary?" He asked, glancing at the paper briefly before handing it back.
"Sweden," I said flatly, grimacing at the word. "It appears our oldest allies prefer to pursue their interests outside of our alliance."
Stuart looked at me in surprise, but nodded briefly. "I'll tell the boys. Never thought we'd be fighting Swedes, it seems like the old adage is true. Anything can happen in wartime."
"Well nothing is guaranteed yet," I reminded him. "We're merely supporting Germany not attacking Sweden. Our MPP is there as a protection not an aggresive act. If we have to fight we'll go as far as the MoD wants and no further."
"Of course. I just hope the high-ups get this sorted," he muttered. "Shooting at your friends is never fun. I'll go talk to the lads."
As he left I looked again to the flickering lights of the library where Jerry rested from his war with the Peace hordes. "So do I," I whispered.
