Playground

War raged incessantly until it had burned itself into some semblance of a tired stalemate.

Losses on both sides had been phenomenal.

Then, for a while, it seemed that hostilities had ceased.

The vast majority of the active divisions were stood down and withdrawn to holding areas.

Only two divisions were kept active.

The elite forces of Zulu Division were kept active, mostly to police the remaining active forces.

The only action required was that of sending out of reconnaissance patrols to gather information on the enemy’s state of readiness.

But nothing of the enemy, beyond corpses and whatever remained after they had been struck by artillery, was ever reported.

When the first friendly casualties were reported, they were treated with cynicism and ignored but not by everyone.

The Wild Cards reconnaissance company had an astute leader, with a more than competent sergeant, who between them noticed that all was not as it should be in the war that had not quite ended.