Vikingatiden

[Kaiser Martens]

As of lately, things had been quite good in the North and the Germanic Mainland. There had been no big conflicts in the scale of the Nordland Times, economy was more stable than ever before...it continued to expand, in fact, beyond the normal borders of every country. New investments were underway in previously forgotten areas such as Svalbard, and even abroad over in South Africa. It was a time of growth, and with that, combined with the lack of nuclear holocausts, population seemed to increase far beyond what the economy, as blooming as it was, seemed to be able to support.

Furthermore, the extended peacetime had diminished the army size by approximately 30%, as the cold wars were over. All of a sudden, Germanic Union and Norsvea seemed to have a sizeable amount of unemployed people as a side effect of the partially-freed economy, which had historically been closed and also much smaller, and many of those were former warriors, some having fought in different wars.

A new time of Vikings, Varangians and Barbarian Invasions seemed to be at hand.

Across the coastal areas, especially in Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Bergen, Oslo and Hamburg, people seemed to be organizing on their own. They would find their own means of sustaining themselves, as they did not appreciate being kept alive by government aid. They were too proud for that. They begin to stockpile weaponry, they begin to stockpile explosives and armor...and they get boats. Many boats. Some of these boats in fact were used by the military before, but had been stripped of their weaponry systems and sent to the civilian market. New Longships were being created with modern materials, axes and swords would too be seen.

Although the governments had been a force for peace, it seemed that the ever-free citizens had their own plans for the world...

[Kaiser Martens]

The Government makes no comment. Ever. There is no crime, in fact, they are glad to see that the militaristic culture continues to exist in spite of the peace. They, too, were glad that they would find a new destiny elsewhere. Some of those who left were criminals that hoped to avoid justice by departing that way.

The "troops" end up looking like a modern version of the ancient Germanic Hordes in the sense that in the vast majority of the groups there is no standard equipment nor standard uniform, although some small elite units decide to follow army-like standards. All of them have at least a protective metal helmet, all of them have at least some grenades, almost always in the traditional german stick design, and all of them have some sort of suitable protection, typically a kevlar vest. Their clothing is military like, many different kinds and colors of chamo from many different eras, although some, the ones who are in command of their group, sometimes opt to use military uniforms belonging to past nations. Some choose Norwiegan uniforms, some GDR uniforms or Nordland Era uniforms, several have Dutch Uniforms but that is only to name a few. A few of the helmets are like the German Pickelhaube, in metal...it is nearly impossible to find two people with the same gear. Some are better prepared than others, some have fancy things like night vision, others have binoculars, others just have some protective ballistic plastic glass for the face and that's it. There are many men and women, of many ages and backgrounds, and each group seems to use whatever their local dialect is - they try to group up that way, almost tribally, but at the same time they know Dutch, German and Nordlandic.

Their weaponry too is like their gear. The majority have assault rifles, ranging from Sturmgewehr and other WW2 weapons made with modern materials to more modern weapons like AKs, FALs, and other Heckler and Koch creations. Others simply have surplus phased out northern-german rifles, which are among the best. Some of them are given marksman tasks using precision, sniper rifles, a few have MG3s to bring supression fire and it is not that rare to see a Panzerfaust or Bazooka-like contraption. Notably, all of them have also an old-time weapon, typically a sword or an axe.

When a group assembles, they choose a leader. Then, there is a virtual meeting through the internet called the Vikingathing, in which the different leaders communicate to bring news pertaning all of these crews. They have reasonable organization in spite of their civilian nature due to Germania's policy of training each and every citizen, often these chiefs are veterans having seen action in some war. They were typically trained for guerilla operations.

The first ships begin to sail. The usual order of battle consists of a large ship with attached armor to make it more resistant and less prone to sinking, sometimes as resistant as military ships although lacking weaponry, and attached to these is normally a large group of modern Longships, also rather armored, and of course having engines. The big ship merely serves as the mothership. However, there is one notable case, the case of Hauptmann Heinz Durr van Derp, a wealthy man that has decided to invest some of his fortune in the project, simply to seek a thrill: He has bought himself and his Varangians a proper Landing Battleship manufactured by the Germanic Union's Deutsche Werf, being able to take on any frigate, destroyer or corvette with its combination of large gun turrets and myriad of multifunctional missiles. It was said that this ship carried a small number of Armor and Aircraft as well.

When they are looking for peace and trade, they use a white flag with runic script for whatever their ship may be named. When they go in for war, they simply use a Totenkopf flag. But some also use flags from their country, from their town, or from their region as well. Others use outright the Raven Banner, or some other historical flag such as Nordland's.

They begin to scatter through the world, port hopping, trading things they got from their fatherland back and forth. But now and then, when they find a ship isolated in international waters, they sometimes aim for their communications antenna and take it out. Then, the ship gets raided without being able to ask for help...and only a wreck is left behind.