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Mémoires of Jenet Phillip.

Leader of team Nova.

23rd March. 2022
It has been three weeks since our race's Coup-de-tat. The dead have been buried with a torrent of tears. The injured healed and returned to their lives before the attacks. And the dying, well, They were subject to either fate...

Throughout the last three weeks our story was told throughout the country and her colony's by the royals. Despite this, the common folk of this land upon which we stand still hold a negative opinion of us. One of hatred and disgust. We tried to assist the locals in rebuilding our wake of destruction, but they turned us back with glares and cold shoulders. One team of Australian Engineers were even chased off by the locals they approached with farming tools. Understandably, after this event. We ceased contact with the locals, and distanced ourselves with the various races wanting to make contact with us. We packed up and moved our camp deeper into the forest after groups of civilians started to show up and harass us.

31st march. 2022
The castle we'd settled down into and started repairing deep inside the forest has been a good home these past days. But we found ourselves once again having to uproot our tents and move. Our morning plans were shattered when we awoke to find our camp surrounded by upwards of one hundred thousand guards. An uptight captain by the moniker of 'Shining Armour' demanded the still recovering Jamargy sisters to take his pompous white ass to Johnna, even though one was still wheelchair bound, one had an arm and leg in a cast and was struggling on crutches, and the last sister was wheeling her wheelchair bound sibling whilst in a leg-cast herself. To be honest the sisters shouldn't have been out of their room, but you know Australians. Stubborn as ever. And heads made of granite.

Karey saved the situation, having just been returning from the ladies room. She took shining to her boss, and from the moment the door closed behind shining, i'm sure the whole castle/ Scratch that,The whole continent could hear Johnna yelling. This went on for several hours before the door slammed open, Causing several bricks to be be dislodged and fall from the ceiling whilst Johnna yelled our his obscenities behind the white unicorn.

Karey ran out of the office with a pile of paper work. and several hours later we were ordered be up-tent and were once again on the move.

On the bright side, We all managed to convince everyone on our respective teams to agree to the plan of joining together into one faction under a single banner. A vote shall be made in several days on what our flag should be.

20th April. 2022
I haven't found a chance to fill in my diary until now. we've been run ragged by not only my fellow leadership, but the Equestrians for the last few weeks. Every time we stop and pitch our tents, the next morning we find ourselves surrounded by guards ordering us to move.

This has begun to unnerve my fellow teammates. Several have had their weapons confiscated as shots were fired at the guards. The fighting was immediately smothered by the people around those whom acted out. And shining prevented his guards from continuing past drawing their swords.

As of my last entry. We've covered over nine hundred kilometers. The heavier vehicles such as our construction dozers and heavy tanks are consuming alarming amounts of fuel, despite the packed earth roads, the terrains many hills and uneven nature is taking its toll on our vehicles attrition rates. Whenever a vehicle broke down, we just left it behind with a small mechanic team and they'd catch up with us once we stopped for the night. We stopped and setup camp prematurely today when we had fifteen vehicles break down all within ten minutes of each-other. All of our mechanics have been working throughout the day replacing and repairing worn or damaged parts.

The vote for the flag came to its conclusion tonight. The flag with the most votes was quite interesting. The flag was a black base, with two white crossed swords in the center, a dove flies through the crossed tips and a vertical white olive branch grows under the crossed swords.

(Image of the Humans Flag. Forgive me. I made it in paint.net then tried uploading it to half a dozen sights before giving up and using world anvil...)
https://www.worldanvil.com/i/237374

Quite a bold statement.

The swords are 'Messer's', These swords were produced my crafty blacksmiths whom needed to supply their civilian customers with swords for self defence. But at the time the German government had banned civilians from owning swords, so the cheeky smiths shortened the blade length, gave the weapon a slight recurve close to the point, as well as increasing the thickness and thus weight of the point, the result. A two hand or 'hand and a half' sword, that was as happy to cut through wood and bone as it was to pierce through armour. The new weapon gained such a positive reputation that the German army even wanted it, and commissioned an elongated version dubbed, 'The Kriegs Messer' or 'War knife'. This sword, was chosen as a symbol of people coming together to protect themselves.

The olive branch was added, because it is a symbol of reconciliation, and/or a symbol of making one view/belief compatible with another.

The dove was chosen because of its symbolism of peace and nurturing care. But it's also a symbol for sacrifice. And its presence in the flag was so that all whom live under it, and all whom look upon it, shall never forget those whom sacrificed their lives for the well being of the people.

All symbols considered, this flag is a powerful statement about the humans, and those whom they ally and protect.

We move out once more tomorrow. I suspect that the Equestrians are herding us somewhere... Beit a place for us to settle down permanently or to their borders so that they can be rid of us.

21st April. 2022
We had to defuse a situation at 11AM today, due to the mechanics working overnight, and they're requisitioning of nearly one hundred additional sets of hands from our ranks to get worst of the maintenance nightmares of our vehicles back in peak operational condition. Johnna, as well as the rest of the leaders all agreed to up-tent later in the day to allow those whom stayed awake all night working to catch-up on lost sleep. Johnna told shining the plan, and he agreed.

Not even half an hour later Equestrian solar guards began collapsing our tents, many of which with drowsy tired people still inside them.

Johnna found Shining, And dubbed him 'Shining spoon' 'The captain with a silver spoon lodged up his pompous ass'. As shining opened his mouth to counter Johnna's outburst the Australian shoved an apple in the captains open mouth, before turning him around and planting a boot under his tail.

As Johnna turned to leave Shinings personal guards drew their weapons. But quickly stood at attention when they noticed over two hundred rifles and sub-machine guns aimed at them. Shining and his guards have been hanging really far back since then. But their pegasai scouts are still trying to stealthily dogg us, The Wallaroo's Radar halftrack frequently picks up small signatures above us, and their SPAA halftracks fire a short burst up past the clouds the scouts hide in, so that they know we're watching them as much as they are us.

1st March. 2022
I Caught a group of three Australians Jerry-rigging together a flame thrower today! They insisted that it was for burning the many fallen trees that are constantly blocking the road. A likely story, i had it confiscated anyway. Shining continues to be a 'Royal Dickhead' in the words of Johnna. I'm afraid it wont be too long before Johnna does something either insanely smart, or Rash...

We've been taking twice as long to move as usual, as we've been reduced to traveling single file along poorly maintained mountain roads. In places our engineers had to extend the road to allow our heavier vehicles enough space to cross. This delayed us further, and i could swear shining was changing several shades of red... We sleep in and on our vehicles tonight, theres not enough space to set up the tents, Hell, theres barley enough space to walk around the vehicles...I hope no one trips...

3rd March. 2022
It happened today... Shining armour made the idiotic move of trying to confiscate our weapons. The moment his guards ripped the rifles out of the hands of our wounded. A Mist cougar tank crew became so irate that the Equine guards following Shining's order found themselves staring down the muzzle of a Jagd-Tiger

(this image is conveniently taken at pony height compared to the tank.)

Suffice to say. They shat themselves. And ceased performing this order. Much to Shining's utter rage.

Johnna's just lost his last straw. He's ordered us to sleep in shifts. We are to only stop to refuel, or refill our water tankers. fuel is low, both types of ammunition is in abundance. Nerves are frayed and emotions are boiling over. Johnna is trying to shake our chaperone, for their own sake.

12 March. 2022
It appears that the shoe is on our foot now. It took a while but now theres not a single pony to be seen. To say that we all weren't overjoyed at finally having some breathing room would be an evident falsehood. Johnna has ordered that we continue through the next few days, then he promises that we'll stop and relax for a few days.

Johnna's general plan is to open up such a gap between us and Shining that we can loose their scouts, hopefully for long enough to have free reign over possible settlement locations. Once he plants his rear to the ground we're staying and not moving!

17th March. 2022
After just under a week of a constant brisk 7kph march we've left shining in the dust, and we've also lost the scouts when we continued to march through a torrential downpour. A few sniffles from everyone is a small price to pay for personal freedom. The Tan-Tabbies are currently away on a recon mission to scout out possible locations within a hundred km forwards of our current location.

18th March. 2022
How did they catch up to us so fast?! How did they find us?!

We all awoke to having solar guards posted INSIDE our camp this morning! It goes without saying, this pushed johnna over the edge. I've never seen the man so pissed off he visibly twitches... Its rather concerning seeing the usually lively chilled out, even 'childish' would describe his usually mood, always pranking his fellow officers or making random jokes be-they actually funny, cringe worthy dad jokes, or just outright racist joke traps that lure you into the center of the jokes before slapping you in the face with their meaning.

But this morning the man was pissed off. and remained that way throughout the day until we returned to our forced march by the solar guard. We returned to our brisk 7kph march. once we gained enough distance from the solar guard to be out of the equines earshot, Johnna ordered everyone to mount up. The confusion was cleared pretty quickly when he yelled at everyone to climb either into or onto a vehicle and stay there.

Everyone removed their kit and tied everything to their backpacks, before they slid their backpacks either onto the 'Kit hooks' welded to the sides of the halftracks, or onto the cannon barrel of the tanks. I must say, that i never would of thought to use the tank guns as 'kit hangers'... In fact, that explains alot about how his troops are able to advance so quickly around the battle theater.

With Everyone loaded up into or onto vehicles and not a single pair of boots on the ground Johnna did something that i honestly wasnt expecting. And i get the feeling that only his troops were expecting him to do this.

He ordered the combat and field engineers to cut down and collapse trees and the boulders in the hillside of the mountain road we were traveling on over the road itself. After about five minutes the road was blocked completely with a six foot high wall of debris. Johnna even went a full step further and a step to far in the same stride. After the Coup, several hundred meters of improvised barb wire was confiscated. The 'devils rope' was made from two strands of braided steel cable that sandwiched sharpened bolts that were cut in half vertically, it was fairly effective. Several of our engineers drew their blood on our own crude barrier. Johnna made sure to place the wire in obviously evident locations on the pile, his goal was to not harm the ponies pursuing us, but to slow them down.

Once the engineers finished the wire, they returned to the group with devious smirks on their faces. They soon returned to the barricade in groups of two, each carrying a box. It turned out that they took the liberty of laying several dozen boxes of 'paint bettie's'. The 'paint betty' is a type of mine directed at infantry. Its modeled off the 'Bouncing betty', which was a grenade/mine used in WW2 by the various branches of the Wehrmacht. The grenade is traditionally placed either side of a doorway or narrow enclosed passage with a piano wire 'tripwire' strung across the space. Set off the trip wire, and the grenade bounces up to waist or chest height, then explodes. The paint version still bounces, but it explodes into a hailstorm of two hundred and thirty conventional paint pellets.

And the devious lot just rigged together about seventy two of them into a minefield about twenty meters after the barrier.

Wish i could see those fireworks. And the looks on those bastards faces when they set them off. Johnna assures me that they placed the tripwire at the end of the minefield opposite the barrier, so as 'To ensure maximum coverage' after all 'It would be a Shame if their nice white coats were to become stained now would it?' and 'Gold armour is fairly hard to keep clean these days. It scratches to easily under wire-brush after all, and our paint is so clingy'.

With all the engineers mounted up, we set off once more, With the mountain roads finally behind us, and no boots on the ground, the vehicles were finally allowed to open up the throttle. The convoy advanced further forward at 30kph. Lets see those solar guard keep up with their gold armour now!

20th March. 2022
Its safe to say that we've lost the solar guard. We've seen neither hair nor hide of any guards pony since our stunt with the barrier. We've seen the rare merchant or explorer. Heck, we got directions from a harpy when we got lost.

The Tan-tabbies returned from the recon. And they reported that theres a huge lake and waterfall, based off their report of the land and its features. and adding the fact that its been getting steadily cooler. I'd wager that we're almost at Niagara falls!

Johnna has declared that, thats our final destination! and we're not moving a step further. After setting up camp, Robert suggested that they should hold a friendly race between their vehicle crews. The first vehicle to the falls and all the infantry on it get the title 'First in (whatever we choose to name the settlement later)'. I immediately stated how we're not naming our first settlement after Bastogne. After a few seconds everyone caught onto what Robert was referencing. The expressions of sudden realization from the other leaders, caused both Robert and i to break into hysterical laughter. They looked like comical anime expressions.

21st March. 2022
Whilst the convoy continued at its brisk 30kph advance forwards, our end goal was in sight, and emotions were positive and running high. The sudden boost in morale was incredible. And everyone was thrilled to finally have a place that they could slap the label of 'Home' onto.

The race started, And several dozen APC's, AFV's, Armoured cars, Scout cars, and Light tanks sped off into the distance, leaving us all choking on a small sandstorm from their speed down the dirt road.

The highlight of my day was when about three minutes later the convoy started parting behind me. And an APC that was late for the races start sped past at 'Mach 1' with almost a dozen people riding it carrying a German flag, The loud speaker mounted to the side of the vehicles turret was blasting 'Primo Victoria' A song from the band Sabaton. Everyone they went past had a smile on their face and/or were laughing. Its good to see everyone just like they were before this Apocalypse!

Heres the video i recorded of the event!

We'll find out the winners once we arrive.

23rd March. 2022
I Can't believe it! The APC that sped past me blasting Sabaton won! When we arrived the crew has already stenciled 'FIRST IN' into the sides of their vehicle with white chalk in a rather fancy font, their vehicle mascot was painted to the right of the text. A cartoon falcon carrying a soldier under each wing and a soldier hanging from his underwear elastic from its beak, only this time, they added our new flag being waved by the soldier hanging from its beak.

We've set up camp and tomorrow we start building.