Of Reconstruction and Rosaries

Getting out is not exactly simple. Despite the increase in your manpower, and your own natural ability, you are massively outnumbered and outgunned. Still, you settle on a relatively simple cover and advance strategy to make it through the choke-points and halls to the exercise yard: There's no way you can punch through the defenses to the main gate.

Once in the exercise yard, you're exposed to machine gun fire from the nests on the towers, as well as the occasional sniper. This creates several tense moments. Normally you would be strong enough to serve as both artillery and shield, but at this moment, without your tools, you can only manage one. The few mages among the officers you have's shields can barely take a single properly aimed bullet, though they can deflect several poorly aimed ones. Many of the officers never learned how to angle their shields to improve deflection.


Laurence and Greta are simply too drained to take care of anyone but themselves. You lose three soldiers busting through the wall, cutting your 19 (Including Laurence and Greta) down to 16.

But you make it through the wall.

You are fortunate that the enemy seems to lack an offroad capable motor pool, nor sufficient airborne support. A few search mages perform flybys, but you see no airplanes nor balloons for more intensive scouting. It's not too much effort to disappear into the steppe, and set up a camp.

Which is when your first major complication comes up: You're not actually within the borders of the Holy Teutonic Empire. By checking the position of the stars and sun, you realize that you were being held far on the wrong side of the former front. You are nowhere near the steppes, with their maze like valleys and hills.

Instead the weather is foggy and damp, and you're surrounded by rolling green hills, and sheep. Many, many sheep. Half wild, shaggy, sheep that treat you and your people with suspicion and distrust. At least they're a potential food source.

[]Step one... figure out where the hell you are
[]Step one... set up some sort of central camp for the resistance
[]Step one... Split up. You can wreck more havoc separately, and you don't really trust the other officers
[]Step one... find a village and pretend to be civilians.

While it's not very precise, you compare the stars in the sky and the position of the sun in the day to determine your latitude, and determine that there's two possible locations you could be: You're either on Isle d'Albion to the north of the empire, an extremely large island ruled by four different countries, or you're somewhere east of the Urals in one of the Cossack states. Without a map and closer investigation of your surroundings that's the best you can do for now.

Isle d'Albion would put you tantalizingly close to home... but you would need a boat. Only one person in history has swum the channel, and while you could fly across it by yourself, it would necessitate leaving most of your men behind. Only Lawrence and Greta would be able to follow you across the channel.

Being east of the Urals would be it's own challenge. The distance from the empire would be quite great, and the languages far more alien than the pidgin 'spoken' by the residents of the foggy isle.

With that, you take stock of your resources: Bubkis and nothing. You have 16 men, enough rifles for everyone. About 8 sidearms of various quality. 5 sets of magic tools, split up so everyone has part of a set, and 400 rounds of ammo... slightly more than 20 rounds each. You've got a few medkits, and some entrenching tools stolen from the soldiers. That's about all.

For food you have... sheep. Shaggidy half wild sheep. You woke up in the morning to find one staring directly into your face, chewing the cud... aggressively at you. When it noticed you were awake, it SCREAMED in your face, then bounded away.

Your central camp is a joke. You don't have any razor wire. You make due with entrenching tools and the rich sod of the hills to build a small 'command post'. More of a sod house than anything else. It'll do.

You inspect your weary, hungry men and your makeshift camp. What now?

[]Find and raid a civilian village for supplies
[]Raid the prison for supplies
[]Walk south, towards the latitudes of home
[]Write in a plan to get useful tools and supplies with the limited information you have

The first measure you take is some quick scouting of your surroundings to find a village. Since no one is on wartime footing anymore, this is not particularly difficult. It is not long before you find a winding road leading to a town named "Trefdanybont", confirming that your location is somewhere on ilse d'Albion. The sign for the town signifies that the population is somewhere around 1.2 thousand. They've probably got a police force, but you don't see any evidence of military presence.

The town itself is a collection of brightly painted and round clay buildings. A gigantic iron reinforced stone arch bridge, likely remaining from the old empire, spans the gap from one horizon to the other, passing through the center of the town. Some of the brightly colored buildings even huddle under the enormous bridge.

Though you feel more like a group of common thieves than soldiers, your plan is simple. You will invade a small hardware store, and steal a truck, as well as tools and supplies. You also plan to hit a nearby greengrocer for food. Should you encounter the local constabulary, you will quickly put them out of commission, capturing some of them for a later interrogation. But how did you plan to deal with witnesses?

[]No witnesses. Careful and slowly attack the town. Avoid being seen, kill those who spot you.
[]Quick and fast: Get in, get out. Move fast, and don't worry much about civilian casualties.
[]Merciful: Be very careful not to kill, even though it increases your risks significantly.
[]All will know my glory!: That bridge gives you a nasty idea. You could knock it down, in the name of the Empire....

It's quickly determined that too many mages is a large risk, so you and a team of six mages creep through the brightly lit streets of Trefdanybont. Laurence is one of those six, but Greta is back at the 'base' with the others. You're not really certain if anyone sees you from the residential houses, but you're careful to avoid looking too military.

You make it to the hardware store without any issues, and break the lock with a quick spell. The truck you need is in their yard, and you quickly load it up with any supplies you need. Then you drive the stolen truck and supplies downtown to hit a grocer for food. Downtown is where you wind up having to do some killing: A trio of drunks stumble across you robbing the grocer. Your men kill them and hide their corpses in a dumpster.

After that, you start driving out of town. Frustratingly, the constabulary never responds, so you have to actually attack the police department to get someone to interrogate... that's eight more deaths you cause, a receptionist, three police officers who you were unable to capture, and the four men in the cells at the time. You suffer no loses, as the surprise is nearly complete.

You return with two police officers, about a week's worth of food, mostly canned and boxed, tools, supplies, wooden board, tents, camping equipment, and barbed wire. You also return with a few maps, so you can find your way back to the empire. Enemy deaths are 11... 13 once you get the information you need out of the officers you captured, and dispose of them. All civilians. It would weigh more heavily on your conscious if you hadn't already done this sort of thing before, back when you performed decapitation strikes against the civilian leadership of an enemy of the Empire.

Questions for the police officers (choose as many as you'd like)
[][Questions]Are there any military facilities nearby?
[][Questions]Are there any ports nearby?
[][Questions]Which country on Isle D'Albion is this?
[][Questions]How many officers does your town have?
[][Questions]Where does the bridge lead to?
[][Questions]Name, Rank and serial number?
[][Questions]write in

Plan:
[][Plan]Plan A:
Fortify your camp, set up a proper base, begin a proper terror program here in Isle d'Albion.
[][Plan]Plan B:
Move out with the stolen truck. Find a port, steal a ship, return to the Empire.
[][Plan]Plan C:
Write in something else?

Just in case anyone thinks you're playing the good guys... You're not (though you can be). Your character is a ruthless cold blooded killer. She's also a child. It's not very clear that she's a child, because right now she's not being confronted with any situations outside of her experience or ability to handle, but ultimately she is still a child.

The Emperor's Army:

Marshals: The Emperor's Army has five branches and six marshals. Four of the five marshals are loyal to the empire. One of the Marshals is personally loyal to the emperor. What that means is that four of the six marshals can legally attempt to depose the emperor if they think he's no longer fit to rule the country. In the Holy Teutonic Empire's history, this has yet to occur, but it's written into the constitution that it can. The sixth Marshal is the Emperor, or whomever the Emperor chooses to temporarily take that duty from him.

The Marshal of Air: The marshal of air is in charge of the air-force and the zeppelin fleet. (Zepplins are largely used to transport goods, and occasionally as observational platforms. They do not do well against airplanes, but large amounts of the empire are mountainous, and Zeppelins are great at ferrying supplies cheaply over mountains.)

The Marshal of Water: In charge of the fleet and military shipping.

The Marshal of Land: In charge of the army, artillery and railroads as a military resource.

The Marshal of Mages: It should be obvious that this Marshal is in charge of the mage forces.

The Marshal of Oraba: This Marshal is in charge of the Oraba, the Emperor's personal guard. You serve under this Marshal. Had you chosen the military brat background, you would have been one of his three vice-marshals.

The Oraba is an elite force, and is limited by the constitution to no more than 5% of the size of the combined military service. Around the time you were recruited the Oraba was only 2% of the combined forces. The Oraba includes service members of many backgrounds, and is relentlessly drilled in combined force techniques. Within the Oraba, artillery, planes, ships, soldiers, and mages all operate within the same chain of command and same ranks, typically in mixed force units. Towards the end of the war it was closer to 12%, partly due to a (near) doubling of the size of the Oraba, and partly due to the massive losses that the other branches had suffered.

The historic origins of the Oraba was that they were once a mix of foreign mercenaries from far off lands, and tithed soldiers from vassal countries sent to serve the emperor directly. Among other things the Oraba was responsible for, and still is responsible for, protecting the emperor's person and residence.

The Marshal of the Combined Order: This Marshal is the Emperor, or whomever the Emperor temporarily chooses to hold this position. Barbarossa the 17th is not a military man, and had permitted his much more martially minded niece to hold the position for him. In the past it was not uncommon for a civilian contractor to be granted this title, but recent Emperors have chosen military men for the position. The Emperors' Niece had been a wing-commander of air prior to her 'promotion', and would have returned to that rank when her time of service as Marshal of the Combined Order ended. The position can be granted and removed essentially instantaneously by the Emperor.