Zdislav walked with a spring in his step as he approached the mess hall for some breakfast. He looked, and felt pretty energetic for someone who had literally just gotten off a direct flight from the Czech Republic in the heart of Europe to the Aegean island of Stratis. The aircraft which had brought him there was quite literally still on the tarmac, awaiting clearance to takeoff. Thankfully for Zdislav, his equipment had been sent to Stratis ahead of him, so he did not have to waste any time getting them stowed away. He had been supposed to go with them, but an administrative error which saw him being posted to a 601st unit in Prague even though he had already informed his superiors of his application of leave and their approval of him to join the CTRG. By the time they had rectified the error and given the poor clerk responsible a stern warning, three days had passed.

Still, Zdislav could not complain. He was on Stratis, and that was the important bit. He had not heard of any significant operations on the island, so he guessed that he had not missed any action. He looked forward to working with his new team; he had never worked with many international teams. The most international thing he did was a joint exercise between Czech, Croatian and German special forces to practice and rehearse combat drills before their deployment to Nigeria. Zdislav's smile faded slightly as he wondered if his less-than-perfect command of English would get in the way, but he quickly banished that thought. Croatian and German were far more complicated languages and he had handled them just fine.

He walked up the stairs to the mess hall and immediately realized just out-of-place he must have looked. Everyone was wearing at least something in the UBACs camouflage pattern while Zdislav was still wearing his very green and very Czech vz. 95 uniform. The Czech army had issued him with an alternate pattern of his kit in the camouflage used by the CTRG, but Zdislav honestly did not understand it. The vz. 95 looked as if it would function very well in the plentiful forests and grasslands of Stratis.

Zdislav adjusted his sleeves and jockey cap as he looked around for an empty table. By chance, he spotted a familiar face. It had been years, but Zdislav still vaguely remembered how Huscarl looked. He approached the table and saw several other people sitting around it and quickly guessed that they were to be his team mate for the foreseeable future. "Sir," Zdisalv said loudly to catch Huscarl's attention as he gave a quick salute. Huscarl had outranked Zdislav in Nigeria, and the Czech guessed that he still did. "Staff Sergeant Zdislav Cermak, sir. We met briefly in Nigeria. I think I was laying detonation cord to blow out a wall of a militia building." He said. "I apologize for coming late. The Czech army believed that I had been posted to another unit."