[X] Plan: Feuer Frei
- 2 Veteran Minie Companies - 12000
- 8 Minie Companies - 32000
- 1 Veteran Breechloading Company - 12000
- 2 Light Cavalry - 9500
- 1 Repeaters - 8750
- 2 Mixed Artillery Battery - 23750
- Trait: Fast Reloaders
$2000 left in procurement budget.
[X] Yes, and you sought someone of your same class creating ties with another junker family in Prussia.
Chapter 1: Discovery and Unknowns
A meeting at the Gate
At last, your regiment arrived at the military camp near the gate. Upon arrival one of your officers said. "So it was that f**** big?" A fitting expression for such a large and strange structure. Your eyes didn't lie to you, its size was probably equal to that of a cathedral. Except that its design was far simpler. The gate was simply two large pillars and a triangular roof, the walls were made out of an ominous onyx color. From here, you would be able to spot a few strange carvings into the stone as if chiseled into the walls by an expert artisan, a warning perhaps. But so far nobody could make sense of them. Two large doors concealed the portal itself but one was semi-open, probably to make way for the scouts and personnel to come and go without too much of a fuss.
The placing of the gate was also quite surprising just outside of the main roads of the city. Meaning that there were plenty of civilians' eyes gathered around, but also plenty of hotels and other far more comfortable lodgings that would otherwise be unavailable.
You told your men to get some rest but to be ready to march again in a few hours. As you unmount your horse a messenger approaches you. It's a young soldier no older than seventeen, probably another cadet from the same academy that you attended. "Viktor von Rees?" The messenger asks.
You nod and you manage to spot a little relief on his face. He was probably looking for you for a long while. "Brigadier General Vinzenz von Acker is waiting for you at hotel "Alexander" . You remember the hotel from your times as a young officer but given the circumstances, it's better not to reminisce too much about it. You call for your second in command, your right hand in handling the regiment...he is.
Pick 1
[X] Major Wetzel Käufer: A brave albeit a bit of a reckless officer. He is well-liked by the men and quite charismatic, capable of making men follow him wherever. He was once part of one of the royal Prussian guard regiments just like you and perhaps that its the reason you chose him to be your second in command.
[X] Major Wilhelm von Kurzmann: The intellectual type great qualifications and quite the letters of recommendation from his professors in the kriegsacademy. Sharp and quick to formulate flexible plans, he does seem like a good officer or at least a diamond in the rough, however, his young age makes you think that it is his family and not his wits that got him the quick promotion.
[X] Major Manfred Dunajski: From the Prussian Polish territories. Manfred saw that he could only raise his social status through the Prussian military system and has done it quite well. He may be half a decade younger than you, but he seems well-composed and most importantly a confident officer. One whom you can trust to keep his act together even in tough situations.
However, a small problem with mismatching ledgers keeps him from following you into the meeting. You tell him that you will inform him later and then you walk in the direction of the Hotel, which is not that far from here. Thankfully, you arrive on time and but it seems that everyone is already inside. Brigadier General Vinzenz is there with his officers and the other staff. He is a man only a decade older than you, however, his perfectly erect posture tells you that he anything but an old man yet.
"Good afternoon herr Viktor. It's been a while since we met."
"Not too long, but yes. The regiment has been moved around many times since I got command." You replied as you scanned the room and greeted the other officers present with a firm handshake and nod.
"I agree, but right now I am glad to have you here. We have a sudden gate literally next to our capital and reports are certainly concerning." Vinzenz was quick to be done with the niceties which spoke of the urgency of the task at hand.
"Concerning?" You ask.
"I assume you are aware of fossils." Vinzenz says. You nod and he instantly continues his speech. "Very well, whatever creatures we had here on Earth no matter their size would be ants compared to the titanic fossils we found on the other side of the gate." Vinzenz says.
"Titanic? That must surely be wrong." You think for a moment that he must be joking, but his face replies to you that he is serious.
"Not wrong, not at all. I saw one of them myself, you can see them if you step into the gate and climb the watchtower. Thankfully regardless of the number of bones laying around, no scout has reported seeing any creature of such size alive." He says that with a tone of relief as if Armageddon had suddenly been avoided.
An officer interjects. "However, we do have a couple of missing scouts."
"Aye, And that's what worries us at the moment. Beasts of such size would make exploring and colonizing...difficult. But that's not our only problem, other humans have been sighted. Natives maybe, but also possibly spies from another nation, as far as we know the Austrians could well already be encroaching the land next to our gate."
"Which is why this is urgent right?" You say reminding yourself of the large amount of political and geopolitical issues that Prussia has to handle daily.
"Quite so, my orders are to keep the gate safe and sound. Meanwhile, you will do deep reconnaissance and try to go as far as you can without breaking lines of communication. It would be a good idea to prepare yourself for unexpected encounters too." He adds.
"Understood, but will I only have my regiment at my disposal? I don't have enough cavalry for doing large reconnaissance duties."
"Thankfully no. The war minister has ordered that the 11th Cavalry Battalion will aid you during this expedition. As of now, he is trying to scrape a few more units without weakening our borders to send them to secure the gate and its immediate surroundings."
"The War Minister is busy already? Good news at least. Anything else?"
"Nothing else that I think I must inform you of. I wish you the best of luck in this assignment and I know that you will bring great results."
And with that, the meeting was over. You were given a few hours to prepare, hours that you made use of to procure more supplies for your men and to visit a bakery to enhance your personal supplies. Including a bottle of wine and some souvenirs for when you returned home.
A few hours later.
The hours went by fast. The temperatures had also simmered down to a comfortable fresh temperature. Your regiment composed of mostly regular soldiers assembled rather quickly after you gave the order to your officers to get them ready to march out. Soon enough a column of men wearing their Prussian blue uniforms had assembled in front of the large gate. You were not the only ones as the cavalry battalion you had been promised was in the vanguard together with your own cavalry.
Major Reinhold von Alscher, a blonde man in this thirties approached you with his own cadre of officers. He greeted you formally and elegantly, an easy way to tell that he came from a noble family. He began by introducing himself. "Reinhold von Aslcher, 52th Hussar Battalion at your service."
"Nice to meet you, Major Alscher." A similar formal greet came out of your mouth.
"It is good to know that I will be working with a veteran in the field." He nods and glances at the gate. "I heard what the Brigadier General said and well, finding bigger game is a bit of a concern of mine. I may not be able to eat it all." His men laugh and you grin too, you can't help it after all those good memories of hunting with your father in his estate.
"I think we would find some space in our soldier's stomachs." You add before regaining your composure. "Anyhow, the 8th Infantry Regiment is also looking forward to collaborating with you."
Once the niceties were over. You rode to the front of the column, your eyes inevitably finding themselves drawn to the now opening doors of the gate. The two doors had to be opened by nothing less than dozens of men on each side. The gates open and an entire different lightness different to that of the sun comes from within the gate. The portal if it could be called that, is a seamless connection to Arcadia. On the other side, you manage to see the beginnings of a fort with men cutting down large trees to make space for tents and men.
You give the order to the march and the entire column begins to move. Cavalry at the helm and artillery at the back. You were told to blindfold your horses as they apparently were easily scared to pass through the gate, probably a result of the myriad of different smells that you sense once you pass through.
It takes half an hour of march to leave the gate and the fort in construction, your men probably as surprised as you to find all sorts of new fauna and plants that seem every bit as exotic as strange and dangerous. Small nimble animals watching you from above as you advance following a trail of marks that previous scouts left behind to guide themselves.
The only part of your regiment that moves slowly is your artillery and it's probably due to the lack of roads in this region. Well, there is little that can be done about this at the moment and if the reports from the scouts are correct, then there should be some grasslands only a few kilometers to the north.
You take another look at your trusty compass and clean some sweat off your brow. The temperature here in Arcadia is considerably higher than that of Berlin, probably five or more celsius. "Colonel, we have passed the last mark of the scouts, the grasslands should be here somewhere." One of your men explains and as always you send a few forward scouts to confirm this. They return a few minutes later and they nod.
"Colonel, we saw them. The skulls the scouts spoke of...they are certainly titanic, taken out from a children's fairy tale." One of them says. Their expressions say it all, their pupils are as open as they can be almost as if they had seen a ghost or a dead soldier. You nod at them and thank them for their report. It doesn't take long for you to see what they saw with your own eyes.
A single massive white skull, the size of a large house, two massive openings where you think there were once eyes and teeth so big that for your innermost part of your brain makes you recoil back upon its sight, the part of your brain that tells you that if that thing were still alive you would-be prey and probably only a snack to a creature of such massive size.
You see in your men the same expression that you saw in your scouts and decide to reassure them. "We can rest assured that if these things were still alive, we would have already seen them. Let's leave gazing at it all day long to the scientists." You tell them. Your column marches and their awe is replicated with every company that sees it.
This is as far as the scouts had gone, at least, the ones that returned and that means that you are now entering unexplored territory. Totally unknown, totally foreign to you and your experience. You find a tall hill upon which to inspect the landscape not too long after. In so far as you can see, grasslands to your north, more hills to your west, a few more kilometers of grasslands before another forest appears to the east, and forests to your south.
You tell one of your men to hand you your field glasses to inspect the terrain and once you have them. You take another more meticulous look at the terrain.
3d6 (Reconnaissance) = 6,5,4 = Two Successes
It all looks in order, nothing more than fantastic animals and more empty terrain. Until finally to your east, you find something out of place. You see what seems to be a small bush that's a little too conveniently placed if there is a word for it. Below it, the reflection of two bright eyes or it could be the reflection of a telescope too. You are not sure, but what you are sure of is that you are being watched.
You blink and manage to see a couple more of said bushes and hideouts. Where something or someone is waiting for you. You notify your officers and make your soldiers get ready for whatever may come. But it seems so far that they want you to come to them instead of the other way around. You tell one of your men to keep a close eye to the east.
It seems that whoever is waiting near the edges of the forest has been there for a long time. A long enough time for you to doubt that it was you, whom they were waiting for. Those prepared positions they have would have probably taken them longer to make. Your first thought is to send someone to know exactly who they are. But your thoughts become a secondary concern as one of your scouts notify you that someone to the West is approaching. A contingent of armored soldiers is marching fast to your Regiment's position.
Somewhere to the South West
The trees were silent as they had been more than a thousand years ago. The trees of this world were uncaring, unloving, and undeserving of the protection of the elder houses. Iñelda chuckled at her own thoughts, there were no elder houses anymore. There was only one and only one that had been sent to oversee the conquering of the new world or as the other elves put it. To enlighten it and cleanse it of unpure essences.
How long ago had that been? Probably eight hundred and twenty-five years ago, she was still so young back then. Yet, old enough to wield a sword and a bow with the dexterity of a hundred of the beings of this world. Yet, her skills were useless in what was truly important. For her going back home was but a delusion, another thought to keep her from disobeying the orders of the Marshall and the tenets of the Elder.
Two hundred years ago, she had been sent to this same exact forgotten land to see if this gate led back to the world and she had received only a burned hand and another two hundreds year of delusion. There was not going back to her homeworld, no going back to the whispers of the wind and the smells of flowers that only bloom once in a hundred years.
Yet, here only skeletons welcomed her with their wicked smiles. Skeletons of beings that had been here longer than she had been in this world or in the other. "The gate is close. They are never in exact same spot but the magic is undeniably here." She told to her men. "When are the scouts going to report?" She asks but her question is answered by a fast arrow that she perfectly catches in her hand. She opens the small message attached to it and nods.
"Humans? I thought they were already extinct. I guess the reports that the dragon had a new few pets around were true." Iñelda nods to herself not reading the whole message and gives the order for her soldiers to run forwards. They carry specially crafted bows each so similar but so different at the same time, crafted to perfection to suit their users. The perfect weapon to kill.
Back to the regiment
The armored soldiers take a position in a nearby hill which is about three hundred meters away, they carry bows from what you can see and they are not in the column but in a line formation. It doesn't take you too long to realize what's going on but it's too late. A volley of arrows lands against your regiment. Horses and men alike screaming in pain as they land against their unprotected bodies. You order your officers to organize your men.
You ride around giving orders and your army albeit shocked by the sudden attacks pulls itself through. 300 meters is quite a long distance to do an aimed shot, but your men are not doing an aimed shoot. They reply in the same language as your enemy shooting volleys of lead, smoke coming from out of their barrels as the continuous shooting creates a barrier of white that makes it hard for your men and your enemy to see. Yet, your men continue to shoot in the general direction of the enemy.
It's hard to see the effect of your bullets on the enemy but you spot some fallen amongst the enemy until they retreat behind the hill. Your casualties are at least eighty to ninety men in total, hit by an arrow most of them but only around twenty of them are dead. It takes a while for your men to stop shooting as they only realize the enemy is gone far too late but that is only typical of a regiment mostly composed of regulars.
You begin to ponder what to do now. You could pursue the enemy, they were not that many of them after all...and they were natives most likely. Capturing a few of them could yield valuable information later on but just as you plan your next move, you are informed that a man came from where you had spotted the hidden scouts and it's not exactly a man either. You tell them to let him pass and once he does, you notice that he is not alone. Rather he is followed by two human natives, and "he" is not a human. Not in the strict sense of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, he has a tail and two ears that reassemble those of the foxes you used to hunt in your father's estate.
You cannot understand the language in which he tries to speak, for a moment he pauses and seems to ask his men why you cannot understand him but they shrug. Then he points towards one of your men's rifles and then to the hill where your men had shot the enemy, then he points to himself. He finally points to the place where the rest of his men and gives them a signal which prompts them to come out from their hiding spots. There were more than you thought as you count more than two hundred humans and...two hundred more of whatever the name of his people is. They are all wearing some form of armor, mostly bronze including the ones in front of you. They are armed with bows and swords, which doesn't really surprise you.
You call for a linguist to come help you to understand him but it seems that not much is going to come out of this. At least not in the short term. In the end, you decide to...
Pick 1
[X] Communicate with them as best as you can so that they can guide you back to their village. You don't know if there are more enemies coming and it's better to seek cover in the forest than to wait for something sudden to happen. (Automatic "Do nothing for now" in military orders)
[X] Communicate with them to try and enlist their help against the other native enemy. They may or may not aid against this strange enemy but what better way than to strengthen first contact relationships than by spilled blood.
[X] Communicate with them to tell them to leave you alone. You have no time for natives when the enemy could attack at any moment.
Military Orders: You will send a messenger back to report your recent encounter as the fort is not that far away. You may receive reinforcements.
[X] Do nothing for now. You will wait for reinforcements to arrive, they make it in an hour or more though.
[X] Send the cavalry to pursue the enemy. The rest of your forces will support and your artillery now finally in position will be able to strike at the enemy from a safe distance.[700 Light Cavalry and 100 Repeaters]
[X] March the regiment against them. You will take no chances and move your entire regiment against them.
[X] Write-In
Your regiment:
2 Veteran Minie Companies
8 Minie Companies
1 Veteran Breechloading Company
2 Light Cavalry
1 Repeaters
2 Mixed Artillery Battery
Trait: Disciplined (+Morale )and Fast Reloaders (+Damage)
Info on the enemy so far: You think they are about a hundred or more of the enemy natives. There may be more behind the hills. Your companies are all ready and operational casualties spread over the various companies meaning that they are still at least more than 80% strength.
OOC: Moratorium of 24 Hours until then no voting. 
