The Jurassic Reporter // Jurassic World and Netflix's A Christmas Prince trilogy

Chapter 12: Estonians On Patrol

In mid-October 2022, Peyton was now accompanying the Estonian troops from A Company Scouts Battalion. The other Estonian unit participating in the Estonian task force was Logistics Company Logistics Battalion. The Estonian contingent was know in the Coalition as Estonian Task Force 3, aka ETF-3.

For the start of the day, Peyton attended the briefing alongside the rest of A Company. As everyone stood in front of a board displaying a map of their area of operation, the company commander began the briefing.

"Alright, here's the situation. Most towns in the Green Zone have been rebuilt and the entire zone has been cleared from hazardous device. Yet, the place is still not under control, hence our patrols there. Today's mission is to patrol on road 49 up to a small town situated near the northmost beach. For our job, we will use our CV-90 IFVs and Patria Pasi APCs to do so.

As for road 49, it leads to a town where 2,000 persons live. Moreover, being in a modern country doesn't mean we can lax our focus. Stay sharp, a city is a very dangerous environment. Watch out for corners, watch out for windows, watch out for walls and watch out for windows.

Our mission is to last one day, but bring two days worth of supplies in case something goes wrong. Any question?"

Seeing no one was asking anything, the commander ended the briefing, upon which the soldiers and Peyton picked up their equipment and weapons before boarding their vehicles. A Company then left the base before driving to road 49. Upon reaching road 49, the vehicles drove at a slower speed, knowing they could hit anything and thus causing a massive traffic jam.

During the drive on road 49, Peyton asked some soldiers their opinion about cooperating with the United Nations forces.

"What do you think about the rise of UN peacekeeping forces?" Peyton asked.

"I do think they perform well, but I don't think they will change their rules of engagement. I also bet there will be more soldiers being withdrawn and going back home." a first soldier answered.

"I agree. The UN have a budget allowing them to maintain constant numbers of troops while we will be able to maintain a limited number of soldiers in-country. Moreover, NATO confirmed they would order a final wave of withdrawal scheduled for this month." a second Estonian replied.

"The withdrawal is going to be another hard blow, because they will pull all of tanks away to hand the war thing over to the local military forces. But even if the crews are well-trained, I don't think they would perform well. The UN tankers don't have the right do take any initiative, so it will leave us without any armored support." a third Estonian soldier informed.

"They're right. Back at home, nobody knows what our mission consists of. That state of mind is mirrored by the fact that several countries, like Czech Republic, Norway, Montenegro, Hungary, Romania, Canada, Poland, Bulgaria and so many others, left the Coalition to only involve troops in the UN forces. That's not the way to win a conflict." a final Estonian soldier said.

"Thanks, guys." Peyton gratefully said.

With that, Peyton stopped taking notes before looking outside the CV90 via the rear hatch of the vehicle. Peyton remarked the convoy was now approaching the town, meaning everyone was now to stay sharp. As the convoy entered the town, the vehicles slowed down, rolling at a snail's pace to avoid any nasty surprise.

Right after Peyton sat back in her CV90, two Estonian soldier, a marksman and a machine gunner, steadied their weapons on the hull of the IFV, like other marksmen and machine gunners did. After steadying their weapons on the rear hatch of their vehicles, the Estonian soldiers began scanning their sectors, seeing only the inhabitants of the town doing their business as if the vehicles didn't exist.