My First Military Operation
Bashing Nazis with CAIN and the ERN
Written by Pichtonia
Countless times our President, back then as Grand Admiral, asked me to join the Republican Navy. I always turned him down.
Maybe Writingegend can confirm how stubbornly ignorant I was to the idea of joining the ERN. In fact, I feel a litte sorry for it nowadays. However, for me it was simply something I had no interest in - or knowledge of. Surely many citizens join the Navy and think it's fun. I always thought it's good they do, especially because that meant I coud sit back, relax and write an occassionall "Huzzah" below victory announcements. I could serve the region differently, I thought, and quite frankly I still believe that it's legitimate not to join the Navy for whatever reason. After all, this is only a game, and you're mostly free to do whatever you favour in it.
Nevertheless, as I heard about the anti-Nazi offensive tonight, I reacted differently. Why? Was it Brunhilde that convinced me? Anyone who ever heard my girlish screams of excitement when Brun joins a discord channel will be able to assume that I think very highly of her. She's a friend of Seymour, gay, German - basically female me, but as a cool and skilled version. Over the course of CAIN, we worked together closely sometimes. So maybe I would have done it either way. There was more to it, though: Nazism.
I'm honestly not a very hateful individual, but this ideology and its supporters just cross too many lines. Whether it's their ignorance to facts, their mockery of the countless victims of the Third Reich and the 2nd World War, their disgraceful views or their shameless revisionism of history. I just can't take their bullsh*t. Not because my family was more affected by them than others during those dark times in German history, I don't think that's the case, but simply because nazis are opposed to every aspect of basic human decency.
Anyways: I didn't wonder whether I would want to join this operation. I simply wondered how I could do it. Brunhilde told me a lot, got me involved and eventually I found myself in a crowded voice chat in our CAIN channel.
Since Europeia uses discord, I have been in some rather weird voice chats already. And still the one in CAIN was an overkill. Dozens of people, old and young and loud and sometimes less so. People singing, joking around, laughing. Is that part of why military gameplay is so much fun for people? I mean, I've heard of our ominous ERN chats before and how legendary they can be. To see and hear something like that myself was a wholly different experience. Already then I assumed that this operation would be huge.
And I wasn't disappointed.
To start myself, I needed a new puppet, which took me far longer than it should have. After thinking about a name for at least five minutes, Brun got me the idea to simply replace my "i" with a "y". The Principality of Pychto, a psychotic dictatorship, was created - and I was one of the first ten participants to actually join the jumping point. I can't accurately tell you what a jumping point really does. If I'm not mistaken, it's a region where you go to endorse fellow participants before your final order tells you to attack. Pretty easy.
More difficult, and everyone who endotarts will be able to sympathize, was the whole crossendorsing. I began with our designated WA Delegate for the target and then continued with those who had already endorsed him. Easy: I was done within less than a minute. But then the other participants came rushing into the region. One after another I had to check for whether I already endorsed them - often several times, because I'm bad with names. With 84 nations, you might be able to imagine that it took me a while. I probably still didn't endorse everyone, which isn't very dramatic, however.
If I understood correctly, this crossendorsing is mostly done to allow for fall back options. So if your designated WA Delegate was banned before victory was ours, there would have been others to take on the duty. All in all very reasonable as well.
Having done that, I waited for orders. Basically another hour or at least many minutes of chatting and endorsing. It's fascinating, really, that CAIN united all these regions and individuals to peacefully chat and discuss. Raiders and defenders, communists and monarchies. To fight a common enemy, we were able to bridge our differences.
Quickly before the move to our target commenced, I began to worry. What if I did anything wrong and ruined the whole thing? After all, my intention was to aid the coalition, not to stand in its way. My fear wasn't legitimate. We rushed into the region and within few seconds, we knew that we had won. A force of 84 nations, six of them from our region, took the WA Delegacy successfully. It certainly was fun, even exciting. But the best thing about this was the message we sent: If you are a nazi, do not think you can get away with spreading hate unopposed, because we will be watching. The ERN officially announced the victory shortly before 2 AM EDT.
On its list of participants are Grand Admiral Kraketopia, Commodore Cpt.Carrot, Mate LeSageStupide and Midshipman Cat - they all gave lots of energy and time to join this operation for our region tonight. Volunteer Midshipman Rhino VanKnorre is on it, who reinforced our sailors almost immediately. And at the end of the list: Brun and me.
"This ideology, this disease of thought, will no longer go unopposed by our community. We will no longer let our fellow regions work alone and in pairs to oppose something we all should stand united against. With this, we make our stand now and into the future", our Minister of Foreign Affairs Brunhilde said in her address to announce the final draft of the CAIN Treaty.
I'm sure this was not the last time our ERN fought and won over nazis. It shall not be my last time either.
If you want to help our military out, click here to apply to join the ERN yourself! Every sailor can make a difference.
