Demilitarized Zone between Kaminari no Kuni and The PRMC
Imperial Army Forward Observation Base Gunma
...0300 hours
It had been now a day since they had exited the gates of Kumo amist the crush of the daily business congesting the village's only entryway. The Sennin had seen to it that they were skipped to the head of the line so that their mission paperwork could be reviewed and stamped for egress, and Uchiha Sei had given Zaku a tearful kiss on the cheek on as she bid her Captain bonne chance. Marsh Country was possibly one of the most inhospitable places in the world to be a shinobi, which was a direct result of their experiences with a group of missing-nin who had started the first Bear-Marsh war in the first place. They could produce all of the cheerful propaganda they wished, but the truth of the matter was that it was a cold, fearsome place where death lurked around every corner and machine-bolter checkpoint.
Travel to the border had been initially by train, however the presence of war loomed everywhere, and it was only halfway into their journey that the train had been stopped, eveyone had been ordered off, and all of the passengers replaced with fresh-faced Imperial Army soldiers being shuttled to the numerous firebases now lining the vast demilitarized zone separating the two countries. Thus, Zaku and his two genin had to travel by foot the rest of the way, sometimes hitching rides on freight wagons if they were lucky. Tension smothered the air like a palpable miasma, and around the small cities and towns close to the border, there was a definite uptick in business as well as crime.
Nevertheless, they now found themselves at the outskirts of a little town called Gunma, which sat right on the edge of the DMZ and in the span of a month had quadrupled its population with soldiers, merchants catering to their needs, and of course more brothels than one could shake a stick at. In fact, in the small cafe where the three had chosen to take a rest from their travel, everything was bleared red by the lights of the nearby whorehouses, some of them no more than repurposed apartments. Around the trio, soldiers of the Imperial Army cavorted around, some of them rather drunk, fondling the serving girls as well as carrying on loud boasts as to how many Marsh soldiers they had killed so far (although no one had actually done so). Cheapo pop music piped over the speakers, punctuated by the clink of broken beer bottles and the occasional shouts of fistfights in the distance.
Just a few blocks down the main street was part of the massive defensive barricade that the Army had thrown up facing the DMZ ever since war had broken out between Bear and Marsh. It was a titanic, sprawling, ugly wall of sandbags, observation posts, arbalestillery emplacements, and machine-ballistae that promised to be able to wipe out charging hordes of Norks should they come streaming across the shallow, heavily-mined valley that was the DMZ in an attempt to invade Lightning. And it was also this very wall that Zaku, Haru, and Junko needed to bypass in order to carry out their mission. Simply walking up to the post commander and presenting shinobi credentials might work in the short-term, but amongst the bustling population of Gunma, there were doubtless many informers for Marsh, and doing so might compromise their cover later on. In addition, the post commander was just as likely to tell Zaku to piss off, seeing that shinobi were an irregular miltiary force and that their entry might bring the wrath of Marsh to the Army's fortifications if thy were discovered.
And even if they did manage to slip across the defensive border, there was still the DMZ itself to contend with. Up to ten kilometers wide, it was a lush, greeen valley whose natural beauty was preserved only because of the presence of hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines waiting to blow up and take an unlucky soldier's - or shinobi's - legs. In addition, the Marsh forces had doubtless set up their own defensive barricades as well, and regularly swept the valley's floor with glaring spotlights that seemed to have no real pattern to them. Intermittently, the broken remains of villages within the valley served as reminders that people had once lived there too, before mankind had decided to make the place a living hell for everyone.
Imperial Army Forward Observation Base Gunma
...0300 hours
It had been now a day since they had exited the gates of Kumo amist the crush of the daily business congesting the village's only entryway. The Sennin had seen to it that they were skipped to the head of the line so that their mission paperwork could be reviewed and stamped for egress, and Uchiha Sei had given Zaku a tearful kiss on the cheek on as she bid her Captain bonne chance. Marsh Country was possibly one of the most inhospitable places in the world to be a shinobi, which was a direct result of their experiences with a group of missing-nin who had started the first Bear-Marsh war in the first place. They could produce all of the cheerful propaganda they wished, but the truth of the matter was that it was a cold, fearsome place where death lurked around every corner and machine-bolter checkpoint.
Travel to the border had been initially by train, however the presence of war loomed everywhere, and it was only halfway into their journey that the train had been stopped, eveyone had been ordered off, and all of the passengers replaced with fresh-faced Imperial Army soldiers being shuttled to the numerous firebases now lining the vast demilitarized zone separating the two countries. Thus, Zaku and his two genin had to travel by foot the rest of the way, sometimes hitching rides on freight wagons if they were lucky. Tension smothered the air like a palpable miasma, and around the small cities and towns close to the border, there was a definite uptick in business as well as crime.
Nevertheless, they now found themselves at the outskirts of a little town called Gunma, which sat right on the edge of the DMZ and in the span of a month had quadrupled its population with soldiers, merchants catering to their needs, and of course more brothels than one could shake a stick at. In fact, in the small cafe where the three had chosen to take a rest from their travel, everything was bleared red by the lights of the nearby whorehouses, some of them no more than repurposed apartments. Around the trio, soldiers of the Imperial Army cavorted around, some of them rather drunk, fondling the serving girls as well as carrying on loud boasts as to how many Marsh soldiers they had killed so far (although no one had actually done so). Cheapo pop music piped over the speakers, punctuated by the clink of broken beer bottles and the occasional shouts of fistfights in the distance.
Just a few blocks down the main street was part of the massive defensive barricade that the Army had thrown up facing the DMZ ever since war had broken out between Bear and Marsh. It was a titanic, sprawling, ugly wall of sandbags, observation posts, arbalestillery emplacements, and machine-ballistae that promised to be able to wipe out charging hordes of Norks should they come streaming across the shallow, heavily-mined valley that was the DMZ in an attempt to invade Lightning. And it was also this very wall that Zaku, Haru, and Junko needed to bypass in order to carry out their mission. Simply walking up to the post commander and presenting shinobi credentials might work in the short-term, but amongst the bustling population of Gunma, there were doubtless many informers for Marsh, and doing so might compromise their cover later on. In addition, the post commander was just as likely to tell Zaku to piss off, seeing that shinobi were an irregular miltiary force and that their entry might bring the wrath of Marsh to the Army's fortifications if thy were discovered.
And even if they did manage to slip across the defensive border, there was still the DMZ itself to contend with. Up to ten kilometers wide, it was a lush, greeen valley whose natural beauty was preserved only because of the presence of hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines waiting to blow up and take an unlucky soldier's - or shinobi's - legs. In addition, the Marsh forces had doubtless set up their own defensive barricades as well, and regularly swept the valley's floor with glaring spotlights that seemed to have no real pattern to them. Intermittently, the broken remains of villages within the valley served as reminders that people had once lived there too, before mankind had decided to make the place a living hell for everyone.
