Việt Nam Shoukan

Chapter 1: Awakening

Hà Nội, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
308th Division Headquarters
June 28th, 2028; 13:00 Hà Nội Time

The sky was a clear day, and the usual Hà Nội heat in the summer made the place unbearable to the point where you could boil an egg on the cement road. In the base where the famed 308th Division were stationed, an exercise was being conducted as combat readiness training. All the soldiers knew of how their neighbor up north, the People's Republic of China, was getting more aggressive on the Vietnamese coast and the Biển Đông or East Sea as tensions remained high. A few weeks ago, another Vietnamese ship got sunk by a Chinese coast guard ship, just off of Đạ Nẵng.

"Ready!" A Senior Lieutenant looked to his men under his command, while raising a red flag in the air and sweating under the heat even with a mũ cối or pith helmet on to provide some shade to his head.

The soldiers racked the bolts of their STV-380s back, quickly checking the amount of bullets in a few milliseconds. The sweat from their hands mixed with the grease from the newer rifles made their grip more loose than usual.

"Fire!" The lieutenant raised down the flag, signaling the order to unload their weapons.

Aiming down their MARS sights, with targets down a range of 400 meters, the soldiers fired their STV-380s in the method of Điểm xạ: a Vietnamese firing method that consists of two round bursts. The theory behind this being that semi-automatic fire is accurate, but slower rate of fire, while fully-automatic fire has a higher rate of fire, but at the cost of accuracy. Firing in two round bursts would give the soldier a high volume of fire as well the accuracy needed to hit enemies. And it worked.

"Cease. Firing!" Walking up to the paper targets, he inspected the bullet holes and their markings.

"Almost all perfect shots...good job" He smiled back at the soldiers, who were giving thumbs up in acknowledgement.

Near the general vicinity, the commanding officer of the 308th, Senior Colonel Trường Văn Cường, drinking his coffee and inspecting the papers he was assigned to by the Hà Nội Capital City Command.

"Another day, another workload I have to sort through..." Colonel Cường sighed as he sipped more into his coffee.

"I don't get paid enough to do this..." He thought to himself.

The Colonel was only in his late 20s, unusually young for his age to be at such a high rank. Due to his tactical prowess, he was ushered up the ranks of the 308th, reaching the rank of Senior Colonel just last year. Although he was an intelligent person, the workload that comes along with it was more enormous than when he first stepped off as a Second Lieutenant after graduating from the military academy. Since then, he remained around the outskirts of Hà Nội, only traveling elsewhere for important business. Like what he just caught under his eye.

"A drug smuggling ring near the border? This shouldn't be in my area." He looked down at the last few sentences.

"Also smuggling around Hà Nội, and the only way is to stop a deal from happening in a few hours near the border...and the results could be a disaster if it goes ahead?" Pondering on his next move, he decided to just go so that he doesn't have his superior breathe down his neck.

Walking down the steps, another person could be seen standing down the stairs. He was waiting for his superior, Colonel Cường, to give orders by the name of Captain Lương Văn Thánh. Part of the 1st Special Forces Brigade attached under the 308th, stationed in Thanh Trì district, he was in charge of a unit doing operations relating to drug smuggling, as their primary role of counterrorism was not needed at the time being.