Canon Fanfict: The Brown Berets Options

[__CrUsHeR]

It is with pride that I present this fanfict for y'all, originally made by me and reviewed by the talented MARS, who gave his blessing transforming it into canon for the universe of ROTR. Thanks MARS for your help!

Feel free to comment.

The Brown Berets

In 2028 the collapse of the European Union plunged the countries in Eastern Europe into an acute crisis that led to a quick political deterioration. The more fragile governments could not resist the internal pressure and fell in front of a revolted population while the nations of Western Europe abandoned their former allies behind a concrete wall. Amidst this period of chaos and insecurity, the new Russian President Nikolai Suvorov made a security agreement with the new government of Serbia in an attempt to stabilise the Slavic brother nation during its crisis. This resulted in the creation of the Russo-Serbian Friendship Contingent, a joint military peacekeeping unit led by the Russian General Sergei Ruslanovich Yakov.

The General established his base of operations in the Serbian city of Niš and within only a few years, the unit was reformed and expanded into the 'Legion of Solidarity', also known as the 'Brown Berets' due to the umber colour of their iconic headgear. Yakov's Legion recruited thousands of unemployed and former soldiers from Serbia as well as several other countries with strong diplomatic ties to Russia such as Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Romania, and even Greece and the Baltic countries, which maintained a bitter feeling of resentment after the Western betrayal. Whilst the higher ranks where still occupied by Russian officers and the unit itself generally operated under a mandate of the Russian government, the enlisted and NCO ranks were entirely made up of foreign volunteers who received standard issue equipment and training from the Russian Army. During the following years, the Brown Berets were deployed for rapid interventions in the Caucasus, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The Legion's greatest claim to fame occured during the Ukrainian civil war in 2036, where its airborne and amphibious elements landed on the Crimea peninsula and defended the strategic city of Sevastopol until the conventional forces of General Leonid Zhukov managed to link up from the East. In the same year with the Russian economy in expansion came the need to exploit the natural resources of the African continent coveted by the ECA, China, the USA and GLA. During that time, General Yakov received orders to mount an expeditionary campaign in the border region between the pro-Russian state of South Sudan and Chinese-aligned North Sudan. During the brief conflict between Russia and the Pacific Peace Alliance in 2040, a contingent of Brown Berets hailing from Ukraine and Belarus was involved in the defence of a Russian research base near Kurmuk but much to the chagrin of General Yakov, one of his colleagues, the aspiring military scientist Nikita Aleksandr stole the laurels of victory for his own First Shock Division, leaving the Legion of Solidarity in bitter disappointment.

Ever since that day, the Brown Berets have been relegated to the sidelines of Russia's subsequent military operations in South America and Europe, providing rear guard protection to the main elements of the regular Army and Aleksandr's Shock Divisions. At the height of the Russo-European War, the Legion formed the backbone of the Russian occupation forces in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic and even though it found itself under constant pressure from the local guerillas, its distinguished service record remained clean of any atrocities or war crimes against the civilian population. In retrospect, General Sergei Ruslanovich Yakov and his Legion of Solidarity may not have had as much of an impact on the Third World War as General Aleksandr and his Shock Divisions - but they did manage to prove to the world that they were better men than the masked monster and his ravaging horde.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 3 Jul 2013, 13:50

[Anubis]

Since it doesn't say much about the overall status of the entire Balkan Area, not just the Serbian neighbors, i can't say much. It's an interesting story, but the part with no atrocities - especially from a almost male only army from a side of the world that isn't exactly known for it's tolerance among other things i wont mention - is as unrealistic as saying they were all firing lasers from their eyes

[Alexander95]

Its a great story , but like anubis said it doesnt explain much about Balkan situation

[__CrUsHeR]

Since it doesn't say much about the overall status of the entire Balkan Area, not just the Serbian neighbors, i can't say much. It's an interesting story, but the part with no atrocities - especially from a almost male only army from a side of the world that isn't exactly known for it's tolerance among other things i wont mention - is as unrealistic as saying they were all firing lasers from their eyes

See the example of the French Foreign Legion that accepts people of diverse cultures among their ranks and often with little schooling, however contrary to what seems to them not spreading terror throughout the world on behalf of France despite being professionals mercenaries.

Do not forget that this Legion is subordinated to the interests of Moscow that are not focused on ending of Europe and cause a ethnic holocaust.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 3 Jul 2013, 14:27

[__CrUsHeR]

Its a great story , but like anubis said it doesnt explain much about Balkan situation

Note that it was reported that the countries of Eastern Europe - including the Balkans - plunged into a deep crisis with the fall of the EU and most of the governments have fallen along with the economy. The Russia took advantage of his good time and through the President Suvorov approached of these countries, probably contributing in some way to the economic recovery of the region in exchange for prestige and political influence.

[MARS]

This wasn't meant to be specifically about the Balkans, because I still want to see what 'The General' cooks up before I pass any sort of judgement on that. This story however is quite compatible with canon as it is a relatively unintrusive detail in the setting. Basically, Crusher wanted to write a story about a sort of Russian Foreign Legion which I found quite interesting as an idea because Suvorov has been established as an overall benevolent leader wanting to restore Russia's old influence through cooperation and support rather than brute force and intimidation. In a way, the Brown Berets and their leader are like a mirror version of Aleksandr's Shock Divisions and the thing about no reported atrocities may seem like a bit of a whitewash, but it does support the notion that ROTR's Russia and its allies are -NOT- Stalin's USSR, which is something I wanted to establish since the beginning because ROTR's Russia has changed.

[Anubis]

This isn't about Stalin or any other moron in history. It's a known fact that even modern day armies do lot's of bad stuff in wars. American troops have been reported to do lots of 'shameless' stuff in Irak and Afganistan, and the french foreign legion is no different. Reports may say only good things, but give a male a gun and enough power and he will eventually use it badly. Ofc it's not a general rule, but then again an army is not 1 soldier.
What i'm saying is that overall atrocities may not happen, but an atrocity is not just a idiot soldier shooting an entire village. It's also 1-2 soldiers rapping a woman - and that's something people don't tend to report among other such 'small' details. So tl;dr stuff like that - lack of atrocities and full of morals soldiers - should be kept out of fantasy lore for the simple reason that it feels to propagandistic and unrealistic as hell. War creates monsters - it always did, it still does and it always will as long as the human factor is in it.

This post has been edited by Anubis: 3 Jul 2013, 16:56

[MARS]

Oh I know what you're getting at and it's a perfectly fine point: Wanton brutality between individual soldiers and civilians are a sad reality of every armed conflict ever. But I think Crusher wasn't trying to deny the possiblity of that happening in the BBs either. I think he was just trying to state that there weren't any of the shocking 'big' atrocities, i.e. systematic genocide, mass murder, commonplace sexual violence, property theft and destruction, etc. in that unit or the Russian Army in general, as opposed to the Shock Divisions which just turned more and more monstrous as the war went on, to the point where even the President has apparently lost control of them. No army, whether Western or Eastern, modern or historical, is entirely free of such incidents, but there's still a difference between isolated tragedies (which are no less inexcusable) and systematic -officially sanctioned- cruelty on the scale of, say, the Imperial Japanese Army, where a soldier was given odd looks if he -hasn't- murdered five random people that day.

[Anubis]

I guess that's a fair point. My rant ends here

[__CrUsHeR]

The MARS arrived exactly on point, no army in the world does only good things that can be proud of at the end of the war, but there are principles and idealism from behind the uniforms of the soldiers, in general The 'Legion of Solidarity' preserves the noble values ​​among their ranks and General Yakov is a military honored that never admit barbarities among his men, for this reason a system was imposed to form rigid military soldiers loyal and united for a cause.

[MARS]

I didn't think of it as a rant anyway^^

Another thing I'd like to point out is that atrocities, especially the sexual kind, are a very difficult subject for any story writer. The moment you tap into that kind of subject, your story as a whole - even the unrelated aspects - take on a very different feel and worse yet, if you write that sort of scene in a bad, unprofessional way, it may end up feeling gratuitous, tasteless and exploitative which might ruin the entire work. I'm sure everyone can think of some thriller or horror movie which suddenly throws a random rape/torture/child killing scene in your face purely for the sake of cheap shock value and as a result, the whole movie ends up feeling like a vile, disgusting exploitation flick. Even at the risk of producing something too 'tame', it is better to avoid that sort of risk if you're not absolutely certain that you can write that kind of scene in the right way, because if you fuck this up, your entire story will be ruined and tarnished beyond recovery forever. This is in no way meant to discredit your point, it's just my two cents as a writer (I guess^^).

[__CrUsHeR]

I also think it's an unnecessary risk, and our focus here is to report heroic facts about war and create an atmosphere of heroism, patriotism and action, so we must not encourage vile and purely bloodthirsty acts.

[Anubis]

I also think it's an unnecessary risk, and our focus here is to report heroic facts about war and create an atmosphere of heroism, patriotism and action, so we must not encourage vile and purely bloodthirsty acts.

There is nothing heroic in a war. War is someone invading someone else. One kills people in their own country, the other kills people to defend himself. In both cases there is absolutely nothing heroic. Calling soldiers heroes is retarded propaganda to brainwash people into looking at war as something cool. Even the brave stuff done by some soldiers cannot be considered heroic for the simple fact that they don't belong there in the first place.
Neither soldiers not their commanders are heroes. They are just mercenaries hired for economic interests. And that is the same for any army no matter under what flag they serve.

This post has been edited by Anubis: 3 Jul 2013, 17:46

[__CrUsHeR]

There is nothing heroic in a war. War is someone invading someone else. One kills people in their own country, the other kills people to defend himself. In both cases there is absolutely nothing heroic. Calling soldiers heroes is retarded propaganda to brainwash people into looking at war as something cool. Even the brave stuff done by some soldiers cannot be considered heroic for the simple fact that they don't belong there in the first place.
Neither soldiers not their commanders are heroes. They are just mercenaries hired for economic interests. And that is the same for any army no matter under what flag they serve.

You have to think about one thing: there are people who actually have pride in being military, why be so military is not going to war and kill the enemy, is to help your country and do heroic things and in peacetime is to wear a uniform that represents their homeland and placed confidence of his people. The wars will exist regardless of anything and the generals can choose one way decent to kill or other way bloody, unscrupulous about a false morality that dehumanizes the soldier.

The soldiers in this special lore are proud to be part of a troop that has the mystique of an elite unit, that satisfies your intimate and your ego, so they do not stain your uniform practicing criminal acts that go against their nature built on the rigid foundation of militarism.

This post has been edited by __CrUsHeR: 3 Jul 2013, 18:15

[Anubis]

You have to think about one thing: there are people who actually have pride in being military, why be so military is not going to war and kill the enemy, is to help your country and do heroic things

You're heroic deeds is the invading soldier killing a man in his own country, so that the soldier's country can get more for the greed machine. People take pride in being all sorts of things - that doesn't make it a noble thing to be. Lots of people take pride in being members of the Mafia or in being payed assassins. Neither of those is heroic. You help your country by killing innocent people. Pls enlighten me how that is heroic. If you think war is cool and soldiers are heroes than i advice you to use the internet into more than just gaming. Look at the real face of war. There's plenty of material about it. Then sit back and think about what was so heroic in it.

As for the proud soldiers that don't do criminal acts - dude it's a war. You kill people. War is just a way to make crime legit. If an american soldier kills an iraky soldier in war no one has a problem. If the same thing happens in peace time, it's called a crime. Like i said - it's cheap propaganda and tons of hypocrisy.

And if you want me to relate this to the story - russia is the invader here. And as it always happens in war lots of innocent people die. If russia would've stayed back there wouldn't be a need for any special elite military groups and stuff like that. The people they kill are either civilian citizens of a country defending their frekin country or soldiers of a country defending their frekin country. Either way your heroic soldiers are killing people defending their country, be it military or armed civilians.

This post has been edited by Anubis: 3 Jul 2013, 18:24

[__CrUsHeR]

You're heroic deeds is the invading soldier killing a man in his own country, so that the soldier's country can get more for the greed machine. People take pride in being all sorts of things - that doesn't make it a noble thing to be. Lots of people take pride in being members of the Mafia or in being payed assassins. Neither of those is heroic. You help your country by killing innocent people. Pls enlighten me how that is heroic. If you think war is cool and soldiers are heroes than i advice you to use the internet into more than just gaming. Look at the real face of war. There's plenty of material about it. Then sit back and think about what was so heroic in it.

As for the proud soldiers that don't do criminal acts - dude it's a war. You kill people. War is just a way to make crime legit. If an american soldier kills an iraky soldier in war no one has a problem. If the same thing happens in peace time, it's called a crime. Like i said - it's cheap propaganda and tons of hypocrisy.

And if you want me to relate this to the story - russia is the invader here. And as it always happens in war lots of innocent people die. If russia would've stayed back there wouldn't be a need for any special elite military groups and stuff like that. The people they kill are either civilian citizens of a country defending their frekin country or soldiers of a country defending their frekin country. Either way your heroic soldiers are killing people defending their country, be it military or armed civilians.

I do not think war is cool and probably most of the military of this planet do not want to have to kill anyone, although they are trained to do this if so necessary, but remember for that you have your rights their descendants have had to die for a cause at some point in the history of their nation, had to kill someone for you, then it would not be fair to crucify the military that comply orders and oaths made ​​a flag that the theory is its people and their government - so if feel proud of their military.

I do not think it's fair for example to go to war when there is this freedom or defending the rights of his people, when you are sustaining the private sector or an elite minority at this point I understand your criticism.

Talk about the morality of war is like trying to understand what came first: the chicken or the egg? It makes no sense why it is very personal, you need to be wearing a uniform to know what is to be military and what it represents, you will understand that there are crimes justifiable, and that some must lose for others to win, and this is a sad fact of human history that can be written in gray or not, either way no war should be acceptable, however some are perfectly justified in my view.

To prevent spam in this topic I suggest we continue this discussion at another appropriate location.

[Anubis]

No need to continue. War is justifiable in many people's eyes and it all changes when they are the ones being killed. Anyway, overall good story and that's what is this topic about.

This post has been edited by Anubis: 3 Jul 2013, 18:51

[__CrUsHeR]

Thank you!

[MARS]

@ Anubis:
This whole 'heroism does not exist' thing sounds kinda nihilistic, but I can definitely see where you're coming from as I used to think like that myself in the past. The primary motivations that drive people to do what they do are nowhere near as complex or deep as most of us like to pretend. At the end of the day, humans are just advanced animals and the things that make us tick the way we do are fundamentally animalistic as well. We compete over power, status, property and genetic proliferation. Everything else, like religion, ideology, politics, economic systems, philosophies etc. are just colourful window dressings and differing expressions of these primal desires.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. It is merely the result of humans being emotional creatures with self-awareness and creativity. For example, that thing we call love really is just a fancy, romanticised interpretation of bio-chemical processes and hormone reactions that are designed to bind compatible individuals together in order to foster reproduction. But being the emotional creatures that we are, we like to think of it as something more than that. We like to imagine that some people are made for each other, that there's love at first sight, eternal love and so on, simply because human beings want to think of themselves as something more intricate than just highly developed animals with superior brain capabilities and opposable thumbs.

The idea of military heroism is very similar: At the end of the day, warriors, whether ancient or modern, fight over power as represented by different political/economic ideologies, but in doing so, all cultures have created their own mythos, their own idea of combat as a character-building experience that brings out the worst, but also some of our positive attributes through the juxtaposition of cruelty and mercy, cowardice and courage. What humans refer to as 'culture' or 'civilisation' is basically the long, intertwined narrative that a distinct tribe of humans has crafted around its own experiences over time and even though the primary motivations are always fundamentally similar, this idea of a deeper meaning is part of what makes us human. We don't -want- to think of our lives as a mere series of chaotic events based on natural laws, biochemical reactions and tribal group dynamics; we want to think of our life as a story.

/random philosophical tangent

[Kalga]

I didn't think of it as a rant anyway^^

Another thing I'd like to point out is that atrocities, especially the sexual kind, are a very difficult subject for any story writer. The moment you tap into that kind of subject, your story as a whole - even the unrelated aspects - take on a very different feel and worse yet, if you write that sort of scene in a bad, unprofessional way, it may end up feeling gratuitous, tasteless and exploitative which might ruin the entire work. I'm sure everyone can think of some thriller or horror movie which suddenly throws a random rape/torture/child killing scene in your face purely for the sake of cheap shock value and as a result, the whole movie ends up feeling like a vile, disgusting exploitation flick. Even at the risk of producing something too 'tame', it is better to avoid that sort of risk if you're not absolutely certain that you can write that kind of scene in the right way, because if you fuck this up, your entire story will be ruined and tarnished beyond recovery forever. This is in no way meant to discredit your point, it's just my two cents as a writer (I guess^^).

Thanks for the general lore writing advice there, I'll keep that in mind over at the Reichsmarsch universe...

[Svea Rike]

Is it necessary to debate morals and war crimes? I could throw in my standpoint on the subject, but I chose not to, and instead I compliment Crusher for this nice new piece of fan-fic I hope will be deemed canon.

EDIT: I see it has already been made canon. Congratulations, Crusher!

This post has been edited by swedishplayer-97: 3 Jul 2013, 22:14

[Anubis]

@ Anubis:
This whole 'heroism does not exist' thing sounds kinda nihilistic, but I can definitely see where you're coming from as I used to think like that myself in the past. The primary motivations that drive people to do what they do are nowhere near as complex or deep as most of us like to pretend. At the end of the day, humans are just advanced animals and the things that make us tick the way we do are fundamentally animalistic as well. We compete over power, status, property and genetic proliferation. Everything else, like religion, ideology, politics, economic systems, philosophies etc. are just colourful window dressings and differing expressions of these primal desires.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. It is merely the result of humans being emotional creatures with self-awareness and creativity. For example, that thing we call love really is just a fancy, romanticised interpretation of bio-chemical processes and hormone reactions that are designed to bind compatible individuals together in order to foster reproduction. But being the emotional creatures that we are, we like to think of it as something more than that. We like to imagine that some people are made for each other, that there's love at first sight, eternal love and so on, simply because human beings want to think of themselves as something more intricate than just highly developed animals with superior brain capabilities and opposable thumbs.

The idea of military heroism is very similar: At the end of the day, warriors, whether ancient or modern, fight over power as represented by different political/economic ideologies, but in doing so, all cultures have created their own mythos, their own idea of combat as a character-building experience that brings out the worst, but also some of our positive attributes through the juxtaposition of cruelty and mercy, cowardice and courage. What humans refer to as 'culture' or 'civilisation' is basically the long, intertwined narrative that a distinct tribe of humans has crafted around its own experiences over time and even though the primary motivations are always fundamentally similar, this idea of a deeper meaning is part of what makes us human. We don't -want- to think of our lives as a mere series of chaotic events based on natural laws, biochemical reactions and tribal group dynamics; we want to think of our life as a story.

/random philosophical tangent

Pretty much everything you said here is what i think as well. So i can't say i disagree with something. However making a fantasy story out of everything is pretty much a hypocritical thing, which along with ignorance are the 2 most common and basic attributes of the majority. In short, the fact that deep down we are just animals doing animal things, but giving it a romantic aura, while at the same time calling other humans animals for doing the same things is exactly that - hypocrisy. So, while humans like to give their violent and primitive nature a Twilight vampires feeling, it doesn't make it heroic in any way. It just makes it denial of what we are, and being hypocritical about it, by covering it in gold colored shit

[Alias]

[__CrUsHeR]

Is it necessary to debate morals and war crimes? I could throw in my standpoint on the subject, but I chose not to, and instead I compliment Crusher for this nice new piece of fan-fic I hope will be deemed canon.

EDIT: I see it has already been made canon. Congratulations, Crusher!

Thanks man, I hope to see more cool stuff made ​​by you like 'Space Today'.

[The General]

A very interasting story.
It doesn't conflict my story at all, but i think that the "color" of the Berets should be red or blue.
Anyway, in my story i also mention the base in Nis among other bases.