All-weather combat for the Atomic Age

⚠️ This article is archived, and should be considered non-canon.

The single most important function of today’s global powers is not in the numbers of men at a state’s command, or the prosperity of their domestic markets, but the ability to project power across the world entire.

We have seen this manifest in many ways; ICBMs are just one example. Warfare in a modern context has become a highly intelligent and specialised force that has simultaneously limited the brutality of warmongering while amplifying the ruthlessness and political function of state-sponsored murder.

In Vekllei, there is no real distinction between the intelligence services and the military, although the latter is almost always subservient to the former. Just as agents are armed as terrorists, soldiers are equipped as spies.

This all-female sniper company is world-renowned, thanks to the film Beyond These Shores. Like agents of espionage, every woman of this company will spend her entire military age in the cauldron of war, in a cycle of training and international operations that keep their bayonets sharp. They are not coloured by romanticism — on one hand, they can function as a noble skilled partisan in defense of the Vekllei home country. On the other, they are also employed with the secret services to commit acts of terrorism and fratricide. They wear tattered red armbands in camaraderie with their ancestors before them. In parade dress they wear a peaked cap or slouch hat, depending on the festival month.

Almost all of what they do is secret, as much of Vekllei’s military-industrial underbelly is, and no one person directs the employment of these types of people. You can, however, find traces easily enough, even if the women themselves remain unnamed — last week, in war-torn Burundi, a public hanging was interrupted by mass gunfire and casualty. This destabilising effect on another impoverished sub-Saharan country is trademark Vekllei foreign policy — as is the remarkable accuracy of the shots heaped into the executioners.

If you have any questions, just ask!