Varangian Company

The Varangian Company is an Initiative started by the Nordic
Council meant to be a force to represent them abroad aiding the UN in making
offensive advances on the BETA feeling that humanity has gotten ahold of
playing defense that now is the time to start making moves and trying once more
to begin the liberation of Earth. The Company’s directive is to win the war
against the BETA by any means that does not include laying waste to two
continents. The Company was formed so that the Nordic Council could choose
their own command structure to represent them rather than simply signing over
troops to UN Command. The Company is headed by a command unit lead by Captain
Avery Nelson, the command unit is a front line unit of skilled pilots chosen for
both raw skill and the ability to make quick decisions when the need arises.
The Company does not consist solely of pilots however it has its own logistics
divisions, armored corps, and artillery corps. While the command unit has
always been multi-national in nature originally the Company consisted primarily
of Scandinavian citizens and refugees in the region they later decided to open
to all volunteers and worked out several programs to allow volunteers from other
armies join their ranks, those with military experience go through a different
training program than those with little to no experience.

## The Varangian Program

The training program varies depending on the many statuses
of recruits or volunteers from other militaries as well as the desired position
be it pilot or tank operator. Here I will give a general over view of the
various training programs and they work both for raw recruits and more
experienced transfers from other armies. (please note members of the command
team are not usually required to graduate the program but often come as direct
transfers from other nations)

### Pilots Training For Recruits and Former Jet Pilots

The Varangian Program does not borrow the method of choosing
pilots that many other Nations have used which is to take a single aptitude
test to see how you handle G forces for the first time and still believe that
Jet Pilots have great potential as TSF pilots if special attention is paid
during training and they are still taught as new recruits based on the idea
that while they may be used to G forces it is still a whole new beast to pilot
and they need to learn everything from the ground up. As for new recruits with
weak stomachs they continue to test them until they either grow adjusted or it
is decided they simply cannot manage to get over the sickness that comes with
the shaking, rumbling and G force. Physical training as well as in depth
educational training about TSFs and their inner workings are the basics of the
program although conventional military basic training is still administered
with the exception of former military airplane pilots. Once pilots have begun
to show cohesion and understanding of controls from simulator runs they are
given 2nd Gen Vigens for training in mock battles and exercises.
Deployment comes when all pilots in a squad show they have good grasps of TSF
combat and tactics. For Non-Swedish speaking members they are put in groups
that speak the same language and given training in their native language while
also being taught Swedish.

### Pilots Training For Volunteers From Other Militaries

This training focuses on honing the pilots pre-existing
skills and ensuring they have been keeping themselves in proper physical
condition. Also this training focuses on leadership with the intention of
breeding them as officers for flights and squads of the more raw recruits,
pilots with field experience and who show aptitude for leadership are put in a
program that focuses on teaching them larger scaled tactics and breeds them to
command larger groups of TSFs.

### Artillery, Logistics, And Armored Programs

These programs are meant to create efficient operators of
artillery and tanks and train the logistics teams to move around all the weight
that the company carries. Artillery and Armor are big staple points of the current
war and the company trains them in abundance these three make up the most
numerous of the Varangian Company at the current time. The early training tests
for everybody’s aptitude in leadership, operating, and technical knowledge of
the machines and how they work and need to be maintained. Once deciphering
where everyone should be the exercises and drills begin, once graduated they
are sent to the front to reinforce the Company.

## The Old Guard

The Varangian Company takes its name from the Varangian Guard,
a group of mercenaries consisting of Scandinavians and Slavic mercenaries who
eventually became bodyguards to the Emperor. The Guard was renowned for many
things drinking, carousing, but most importantly prowess in battle, when it
came time to fight you could find the Varangians where the fighting was
thickest and that is exactly the spirit that the Company wishes to embody,
perhaps with slightly less drinking.

## Fighting Strength

The Company’s fighting strength at the time of their Eastern
European operations was roughly 100 TSFs (command unit included) 1200 tanks and
800 artillery guns equally split between cannons and rocket systems, at the
current time in the Far East a few weeks before Christmas the Company’s forces
consist of approximately 67 TSFs, 910 tanks, and their artillery corps is the
only one that has increased in size now fielding about 860 guns.

## History

### Founding

The Company was officially founded by King Karl Adolph of
Sweden and his longtime friend and ally General Torsten. Torsten along with a
young Avery Nelson began to draw up the plans for the Company from the ground
up, once everything was in place Avery was with the first batch of raw recruits
to take the training so that he could evaluate its worth from the inside out.
Once he completed the program two other graduates were chosen to form the basis
of the command team. While Torsten remains the official head of the Company all
decision making powers are given to Avery in the field and usually Captain
Nelson simply sends his reports directly to the Nordic Council.

### Operations in the European Theatre

Before being sent to the Far East the Council decided the
best way to test the training programs effectiveness was to give the Company
something of a trial by fire, first they sent them to the defensive lines that
were just on the western half of Berlin in which they participated in
operations of sweeping and clearing the ruined city looking for things such as
medicine and intelligence documents of any kind. After taking place in a few
operations of that nature they were moved down the defensive lines further
south where it was decided the true trial would take place, the assault and
infiltration of the Budapest Hive. The time spent down on the southern front
was rife with tensions, having had an important member of the Command Unit as
well as an important intelligence officer kidnapped the Company and their
Nordic Council supporters launched an assault against the kidnappers who turned
out to be cells comprised of KGB and Former Stasi operatives holed up in
underground bunkers across the front. With the help of provisionary 2nd
Lt Alexis Alscher who talked the enemy into surrender simply by reiterating and
reinforcing promises made by the King of Sweden to restore fallen nations.

As the Budapest assault drew near a curious engagement took
place in which BETA seemed to have simply appeared behind the line and were
causing havoc, Captain Avery along with a patrol including Alexis Alscher
responded to the threat, but it was deduced that the threat had human help and
upon returning to the southern front hub the base was ordered into a lockdown.
In defiance of this lockdown Alexis Alscher went to go investigate the matter
herself, seeing her unceremonious exit Torsten used the opportunity to create a
perfect opportunity for enemy forces in their ranks to make their move causing
a large blackout, while Alexis investigated the situation further a small
firefight broke out at the base in which agents later on discovered to be
Allegiance fighters.

Once the traitorous elements within the Nordic Council and
the European Union forces had been dealt with it was time to assault the hive,
using a combat doctrine that Alexis Alscher had come up with they were able to
push inside the hive and eventually make it to the generator and prime it to
explode. The mission was ultimately a success but at great cost, the Company’s
forces were almost wiped out along with a huge bulk of the allied forces that
had went into the hive with them, but despite the odds the mission ended in
success and the Company alongside the European Union showed the world, the
hives can be taken through combat doctrine and force of arms, nuclear bombs and
G bombs were not a requirement to go on the offensive against the enemy any
longer.

### East German Restoration

After the lines were pushed forward the Nordic Council held
an official hearing to hear Alexis Alscher’s plan for East-Germany’s
restoration with the considerable help of Scandinavia’s current economic and
industrial stability, satisfied with the plan she presented they gave her the
go ahead to enact her plan and allowed her to re-establish the country with her
as the de-facto head of state. While the idea may have been unpopular with more
Western Leaning politicians in the council the King of Sweden and other
important key members of the Council favored the idea so many of them sat quiet
on their objections.

### Far East Operations

After taking some down time to recover their depleted forces
the Company kicked up its recruiting and training efforts and opened its
recruitment lists to all who would join no matter where you were from or what
you were doing before, after a few months it came time to move to the Far East
to lend aid to the UN forces as promised by the Nordic Council after showing your
teams effectiveness in the field. It was decided Japan would be the first
destination of their deployment. Accompanied by the East-German expeditionary
force now headed by Alexis Alscher diplomatic and military agreements were
signed with the Imperial Diet of Japan, the Company and their allies settled on
the shores of central Niigata where already they have met a BETA incursion head
on and helped the Japanese Government put down a military coup staged by
members of the Kyoto elite Defense Garrison comprised of Japanese Nationalists
as well as participated in an improved OS for TSFs exposition held by the UN
that ended with a rather suspicious BETA attack that came seemingly from
nowhere. Now the Company and their allies stand ready to launch another united
assault against a BETA hive, daring to test fate once again as they set out to
do what not to long ago was considered an utterly impossible task