Rise of the Red Seraph, A Tale of the 127th (porne)

[jondude]

"I wouldn't expect any specific orders till at least tomorrow. The whole army is still in the process of getting settled in so to speak. Us and the European Federation. But that could change at any time.", Captain Vermies says, eyes flicking away from you with interest as he watches some of your fellow mages magically float some kit into the bunker. You suppose you forget being a mage yourself, but mages are still very rare. Most ordinary people probably didn't exactly have any mage friends unless they were pretty lucky. "If you come with me I can introduce you to Colonel Tullerman, commander of the 72nd infantry. If your free that is of course.", He adds on, ending by giving you a little bow. Seeing as you pretty much are available, you tag along.

He starts to lead you through a series of trenches, allowing you to see how the third battle line was progressing as you make your way to the divisional headquarters to meet the 72nd's CO. Before you get a minute in you end up passing another large open area, dug in with a sloped grade in the back. Inside you see nine large artillery guns with their accompanying towing tractors, as well as truck where soldiers are quickly moving shells from to a covered munitions dump. "I must say miss Jeager I'm quite surprised to see the commanding officer to our 127th attache to be so young. Are you even twenty yet? You must be especially gifted. Among, uh... other things", Captain Vermies then asks you, making small talk on the way over, eyes flicking down to your obviously pregnant stomach.

[porne]

I let my eyes follow what Captain Vermies is watching before I return my attention to him and follow. "Well, the gifted part tends to accelerate... certain issues. Unfortunately, contraceptive compounds tend to disrupt magecraft, so there's little that can be done for the frequent side effects of mana lust." I tell him, staring straight ahead, clenching one hand behind my back at how I've managed to really screw the pooch on this one. "The current issue should be resolved within a few days, and it won't affect my work." I mention again, trying to rerail the train away from my habits.

"If you have preferred targets of opportunity, I can see about accelerating my condition further. Otherwise, I am happy to be of service."

[jondude]

"Um. Right.", Vermies says, not really understanding your position at all. He wasn't a mage, and he wasn't female, so your not surprised he doesn't get it. "Well not yet. We're getting some new biplanes to do some reconnaissance tomorrow though. Maybe we'll have a target for you by then. Be nice to land the first punch and maybe get them on the back foot before they can make their first push.", he adds on though, addressing your question.

From there on it becomes a bit of a quiet walk through the trenches. Made extra quiet as the soldiers bustling about notice your presence. Most of them care clad in simple dark grey uniforms, a few satchels for ammunition and other kit hanging from them. Bulky belts on top of long over coats. In fact they looked very reminiscent of German soldiers from the first world war from your own world, sans spikey hats of course. Meanwhile you highly stand out in your bright red skin tight flight suit. The material itself has a futuristic flare to it, and you didn't even design it like you had your rifle. It leaves little to the imagination, as it hugs your curve, swollen pregnant stomach included. Men halt at the sight of you passing by, and several women as well, this world ince again reminding you how the presence of magic in general has had the consequence of making this alternate earth much more sexually open even if mages are rare. A smart few even manage to get over your stunning looks to see the rifle slung on your back, a weapon decades ahead of its time really. It perplexes more then a few people as they look at the long magazine, or the apparent lack of a way to manually work the bolt. Of course you can. Hell you need to cycle the first round after all, but this wasn't no regular bolt action rifle by any means.

After about ten more minutes of sight seeing and ogling you get to the command area, a heavily fortified area full of bunkers. Pill boxes with huge field guns and machine guns pepper the area in front of it with some scattered at the flanks. It was a well fortified position that was more sure. Eventually your brought down a dug in area to another bunker much like your own, but much larger. Several long hallways leading to several others rooms of varying size, and even to some mortar pits. Eventually though your brought to a heavy steel door flanked by two guards. They both salute you and Captain Vermies before opening the door and letting you inside. Within a dusky lit room, a huge table in the middle covered in a map with the walls occupied by cabinets containing papers and maps. It smells of cigar smoke, quickly identified coming from the men around table as they talk in even but serious tones. Looking quickly it seems to be Colonel, likely Tullerman, at Lt Colonel, a handful of majors. They quickly notice your arrival.

"Colonel Tullerman sir! Captain Vermies reporting with Captain Jeager of the 127th Battlemage Division!", Vermies says smartly as he comes to attention and salute. You do much the same.

"Ah perfect!", Colonel Tullermen says, tweaking his moustache quickly. The man looks all the world like Otto Von Bismarck, though maybe not as old as most photos you remember portraying that prominent German historical figure. He's clearly in his late forties or early fifties, but he's dressed smart and very fit. A bear of a man with bulging muscles. He's bereft of any hair accept a huge bushy moustache, the hair mostly black but speckled with plenty of grey. If it wasn't for the fact it was so well cared for you might've thought there was a squirrel on the big man's face. "My goodness! So young as well! But I see a fire in your eyes Captain Jeager. And you aren't the youngest mage I've ever dealt with. Is your staging area suitable to your liking? I made sure that it was placed closed to the medical area for... mage reasons.", He says in a strong voice, eyes flicking down to your swollen stomach for that last part.

[porne]

I shrug at his hesitancy, "It comes with the territory of being a mage." I mutter to him, ignoring much of the stares as my stretched out suit and armor do absolutely nothing to hide my status as expecting, regardless of who the parent(s) is. I nod as he mentions it. "I do have a few mages with disguise spells, I can have them go up first if you like?" I offer before he leads me away. At least the inevitable pregnancies were planned for with the newer mage armor, the various armor plates sliding around the bulging abdomen and my various pockets full of ammunition and other devices suffering none the worse for wear. Still, irritating, and if I hadn't already inflicted my wrath on Fritz, I would definitely owe her some more.

I give a slight cough when I enter the command room, a bit irritated that smoking is still allowed, and pulling my mask over my face and turning on the specialized oxygen generation and purification spell in it. With that, I turn to greet Colonel Tullermen with a crisp solute and give him a nod at the forethought of putting our bunker next to the medical tent. "Thank you sir, I'm sure it will be well used, but not for the same reasons we make the enemy use theirs. Do you have a general map I can study?" I ask, wanting to get the lay of the land.

[jondude]

"Well, seems like a good idea to me. Not exactly my call though. I'll be sure to bring up your offer to the division staff though if you don't want to.", Vermies replies to your offer of early reconnaissance before leading you into the divisional HQ and introducing you to the command staff.

Inside the HQ Tullerman doesn't seem at all minded when you put on your breathing mask, usually reserved for chemical warfare or high altitude conditions. The other officers are a little nonplussed by the brazen disapproval of their actions, the Lt. Colonel specifically, A wiry and almost emaciated looking fellow. Rather tall but but not a physical dynamo like Tullerman is. He sneers a bit at your apparent disdain before taking another hearty puff of his chosen cigar. He doesn't really strike as the most fit person for the role of an infantry officer... but here we was. And he seemed to be Tullerman's second too. "Ah yes he was a few map bundles packed up for incoming units that might need them. We'll fetch you some.", Tullerman replies to you, gesturing with his hands to have one of the majors do such. "In the meantime stay with us a moment Captain. You might be a junior officer, but your still a detachment commander and senior mage officer present. We are just about to go over some basic battle planning with what we know about the force organization. Hopefully we can do so in better detail once those airforce bums get their fancy camera planes in the air already.", Tullerman explains.

Next he gestures you to table you're all loosely standing around. On it is a huge map, arrayed with little figures of various sizes representing various units of various organizational levels, the smallish which appear to be companies, and the larger of which is denoted to regiments. Blue for your side, and a classic red depiction for the enemy. The bulk of these figures is understandably infantry, but various others are there as well. Such as those for artillery or logistical units, combat engineers, air units, and some armoured units as well. Unfortunately it seems your side does not much in the way of tanks, which is quite unfortunate given the mostly open field terrain of this alternate Europe battlefield. "Fairly simple terrain. Not much going on there. No major rivers for us to worry about crossing for at least 45 kilometers of pushing. Ample infantry on both sides, though it seems we have the advantage on artillery. Unfortunately they have both tanks and fighters on there side, but no evidence of any mage activity. The Federation rather likes to bulk them up in large conflict, which worries me since if ours are so spread thin it might cause a vulnerability somewhere unknown in our line. Maybe even here, though it seems unlikely...", Tullerman explains, pointing out figures as he goes. "Both sides are fairly dig in already, and no major battles fought yet since the declaration of war, so the earthworks are only getting deeper and heavier. The first fight is no doubt to be bloody."

[porne]

I glare at the man smoking so heavily. Stuff is nasty, but I can't reveal that it's so toxic just yet. I should make a proposal to look different factors through statistics to see if I can weasel in a suggestion that tobacco is bad for their health, or better yet, something costing the crown money.

Looking over the map, I look at the various forces arrayed against us. The possibility of the enemy mages being used as a massive hammer force is unpleasant, but something we'll have no control over and we'll just have to deal with it. "Several things occur, sir. If you have an area where you think a funnel of craters would be advantageous, mark it out. I have several mages that need to exert a great deal of mana as soon as possible, myself included. This could force a terrain change, either funneling them to specific points to allow the artillery to focus them, or to create hills to reveal the underbelly of any advancing tanks. This would reveal your mages, however, and you may wish to have it be a surprise in the event of an enemy charge. Should you desire to hold us in a reserve, I would recommend mixing the bulk of the mages into the rest of the infantry as anti-tank surprises with orders to hold their mana until ready to attack. Flight mages are also excellent for harassment and logistical destruction, presuming you wish to deploy us as such, particularly against aircraft facilities such as landing strips do poorly when riddled with holes. Any more recommendations would depend on how you wish to deploy or detailed layouts of enemy positions." I tell him, giving him a rough outline of how mages can be deployed.