The shining beacon of the Coalition on the Sunrise Isles, Bargetown, has a glaring, almost irredeemable flaw; it cannot produce its own food. The issue of food security has been a pressing concern in the minds of the town's government since its founding, as the barge is unable to sustain any kind of agriculture beyond small gardens and greenhouses. At the same time, however, a growing population of both residents and refugees fleeing from famine on the sister islands have forced Bargetown to take drastic measures to keep its people fed. Nowhere exemplifies Bargetown's struggle with food security more than the Gold Leaf Army, which faces chronic ration shortages and, on occasion, starvation for the lowest of soldiers. Not all is lost, however, as the government has begun experimenting with new food sources for the army's servicemen.

Before the outbreak of the Coalition Civil War in the autumn of 2164, Bargetown sourced its military rations from the Summerview-based Kramer Canning Factory, an infamous fish cannery known for its workplace accidents and low-quality products. Following the secession of the Midwestern Union from the Coalition, Summerview became a frontline city and the Kramer Factory ceased its production of rations after becoming a target of NMA shelling in the opening days of the siege for the city. Stockpiles of Kramer "No. 4" fish rations are in dwindling supply, with their complete disappearance from the Gold Leaf Army's ration supply expected to occur in the coming months.

With their staple rations cut off, the soldiers of the Gold Leaf Army have turned toward unconventional means of sourcing their food. A delicacy known simply as Bargetack has emerged in the past months; a horrid combination of wood shavings, stale flour, water, and— unintentionally—insect larvae. The result is an almost unmalleably dense block that can take minutes to gnaw and chew on before becoming soft enough to swallow. Bargetack has begun to be issued to soldiers in areas with little logistical support, particularly the frontlines in the Sunrise Isles. GLA soldiers unanimously find Bargetack rations to be extremely unappealing, but just filling enough to stave off starvation in the absence of better food.

Recent negotiations with the Northeastern Union have resulted in limited trade contracts between Bargetown and Northeasern frontier settlements, and as such, the presence of foodstuffs made in the Union in the hands of GLA soldiers is becoming increasingly common. In particular, Meal Ready-to-Eat packages from the Union-based VSG Packaging Company have begun to see use by soldiers who interact with the American frontiersmen. While Union-produced food represents a small minority of the total rations distributed by the Gold Leaf Army, the adoption of imported MREs highlights Bargetown's continuous struggle with maintaining food security for its population.

In conclusion, the Gold Leaf Army is primarily fed by a dwindling supply of pre-blockade fish rations, Bargetack, and foodstuffs imported from Northeastern frontier towns, providing an unappealing but meagerly filling meal for soldiers on deployment on the islands.

It is a known fact that Bargetown and her army's ranks are filled with plenty of French-speaking soldiers—either directly from the Great White North as refugees seeking a better life, or descendants of those who already braved such a treacherous journey to the Isles.

Albeit, these proud Servicemen often face discrimination and scrutiny for their native tongue and background with many Bargetown-native troopers having an innate distrust for those who hold a cultural tie to Levac's crew among other pirate gangs. Nonetheless, these French troopers often display a deep hatred for the Voyageurs and to any of their plundering kin, indicated by their disposition on these supposed 'freedom fighting' partisans and thieves who they seldom show mercy—often seen engaging in horrific acts of violence against their anarchist countrymen and their sympathisers, they show complete willingness to fight Levac's dogs.

The vast majority of Québécois recruits are either Bargetown-born descendants of assimilated wastelanders or, as of recently, French-speaking refugees from the Northeastern Union's frontier settlements on Sunrise who are much more hard-pressed than their local counterparts. Other notable sources of manpower are drawn from privateers from the St. Lawrence who seek to exact revenge on any crew of buccaneers for their crimes in Québec, among the many frontier militiamen who have known nothing but loss at the hands of pirating marauders. There is also a minority of Québécois clansmen hailing from the peripheral regions of the Québec-Ontarian border who have fled South to the Isles due to the invasion of Canada and now seek wealth or glory in fighting in the Barge's countless battalions.

Known for being experts in stringing together ambushes, Québécois troopers often work together in self-organised 'chasses'—also known as hunts—to achieve this goal. These fearsome troopers will often lay silently in wait before springing forth into battle with fearsome shouts and cries condemning their enemies to a swift end. Due to a general lack of translators or simply French-speaking NCOs (save for the few Frenchmen who reach such a rank are forced to gain proficiency in speaking and understanding English), however, communication and transparency are often issues that arise between servicemen and their Québecois counterparts who they ironically dub as 'frogs' or 'frogmen'.

Under the ire of countless Registrars and Sergeants, the Quebeckers fighting in the name of the Leaf often find themselves under hateful yet observant gazes. They are subject to harsh discipline and are constantly pressured to assimilate into the overwhelmingly Anglo-American societal norms that the Barge upholds, yet they still fight on, for they are no ordinary soldiers. They are saints, rogues, and bandits, all under arms and fighting indivisibly for the Gold Leaf.

THE ORANGE TIMES

An alternative newspaper for those more critical of Bargetown's government, the Orange Times is the other official source of information. Its contents is more journalistic and precise rather than focused around entertainment, often featuring opinions from a variety of guests. Nonetheless, the Orange Times are still known to spread lies, propaganda and misinformation in favor of the Coalition's aristocracy...