Vukovar, Croatia The temperature was fair in the mid-afternoon; the young guard on his post thankfully did not need to wear his coat today. He had quite a view over the Dunav River and into the Serbian countryside on his border "guard-post", which was a seemingly abandoned building...which was a bit unusual, since he didn't expect anyone to run through the Croatian border without being seen from kilometers away and shot down. It would have been a poor place for the Serbs to attack from; the government was getting too paranoid recently over the so-called possible Serbian surprise attack. They even hired Prussian soldiers as an extra layer of defense; not that they needed help from the damn Prussians.
Hrvoje, surprisingly trigger disciplined as he was, idly held onto his service rifle – the semi-automatic AP-65 (Croatian variation of the
FN FAL; bears similarity to the Austrian variant of the StG 58 ). The soldier next to him was in a deep sleep, his face covered with a pornographic magazine, poorly covered by a translated version of a Czech classic.
Damn Andrej...trying to impress others with your intellect. Hrvoje thought, eyes looking through the iron sights of his rifle.
Meanwhile, a box radio, standing on a nearby table with a half full mug of coffee, was broadcasting, with a calm voice of a reporter speaking. "...As Serbian armed force to begin to enclose Sarajevo, the capital of our neighboring city, President Dvornik has imposed a peacetime draft in reaction to Serbia's aggression in Bosnia. The Croatian Parliament has agreed to this conscription with a vote majority of 174-80. All men from 21 to 35 will be drafted for a year's military service and will be picked through a national lottery, and the draft will be effective within the end of the month. On a related note, Prussian has recently sent its soldiers to defend our country in the case of a Serbian attack. This action has been debated by the public. Some argue due to the unnecessary intervention of other fellow countries into problems that are not of their concern; yet others deem it essential to gain military assistance to defeat the common enemy.
"There is also controversy over the intervention of Serbia's invasion. One of the members of the National Assembly of the Croatian Parliament, Albin Zupan, says that 'diplomacy must be considered – we should not attempt to start a war when we are in the midst of recovery and development.' Yet another member, Lojze Vujovic, offers a different perspective, claiming that 'Croatia lacks a public identity in the eyes of Europeans; in this case, we can't always rely on the Prussians or some other country to defend our homeland. We need to take action into our own hands if we need to get things done.' Now, onto another topic, Prince Ferdinand of Romania celebrates his eighteenth birthday in the Bucharest Royal Palace..."
"What are you doing?" a person said behind Hrvoje's back.
"Slobodan," Hrvoje muttered back. He remembered that person very well; Slobodan was a Croatian "Serb" with a relatively short stature and brown, messy hair, and an idle look on his face.
"Well, you heard what they're talking about recently? If you don't want to be the son of the bitch who started a war, keep your trigger finger away," Slobodan warned.
"Shut up," Hrvoje shot back. "You were out having your nice little tourist trip. Get back in line."
Mangrale