A dissertation, for the undergraduate history major at least, has never been about the...
Adventure in Academia - Art Quest
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Pt1
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
A dissertation, for the undergraduate history major at least, has never been about the expression of the students own ideas or research. Its purpose instead is to demonstrate that the student understands how to write a well researched document, to prepare them for a future in academia.
Of course that has never been good enough for you. For you, history has always been an excuse to bury yourself in a pile of original documents. When you were told that you shouldn't be producing primary research you were more than a little disappointed. But then, what is a conclusion for, but for making wild claims with only your own analysis to back them up.
And thus there you are, buried in the depths of a massive campus library, nose firmly pressed between the pages of a very, very unrelated book.
Who are you?
[ ] Artie MacArthur, Albian Naval History student
[ ] Sasha Medyedev, Caspian Cavalry (armoured) student
[ ] Chihiro Itsuke, Akitsukini Air theory student
[ ] Bailey James, New Alleghanian History of War student
What pronouns do you use?
[ ] He/him
[ ] She/her
[ ] They/them
[ ] Write-in - Be extremely careful with this option, I will not be entertained by jokes
This is going to be an odd little quest. There will be some plot, yes. There will be some adventuring. But mostly, this is going to be me writing a series of in-universe sources of an alternate Gayan history accompanied with some pretty pictures of tanks and planes and botes and such.
Enjoy!
Of course that has never been good enough for you. For you, history has always been an excuse to bury yourself in a pile of original documents. When you were told that you shouldn't be producing primary research you were more than a little disappointed. But then, what is a conclusion for, but for making wild claims with only your own analysis to back them up.
And thus there you are, buried in the depths of a massive campus library, nose firmly pressed between the pages of a very, very unrelated book.
Who are you?
[ ] Artie MacArthur, Albian Naval History student
[ ] Sasha Medyedev, Caspian Cavalry (armoured) student
[ ] Chihiro Itsuke, Akitsukini Air theory student
[ ] Bailey James, New Alleghanian History of War student
What pronouns do you use?
[ ] He/him
[ ] She/her
[ ] They/them
[ ] Write-in - Be extremely careful with this option, I will not be entertained by jokes
This is going to be an odd little quest. There will be some plot, yes. There will be some adventuring. But mostly, this is going to be me writing a series of in-universe sources of an alternate Gayan history accompanied with some pretty pictures of tanks and planes and botes and such.
Enjoy!
Pt 2
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Bailey James. That was the name you wanted to see stacked on these shelves, amongst the greats of Mitchell, Arasuka and Grove. It hadn't been easy getting here, between applying for just about every scholarship that was going and convincing your parents that a history degree was actually going to come useful instead of something a little more applicable to everyday life.
Plus there was the whole non-binary thing. Maybe it had been acceptable for centuries in Akitsukini, but here in New Alleghany it was the new thing that all the kids were doing. You frowned into your research papers and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. Your parents weren't unsupportive, not exactly. But they didn't exactly jump for joy when you came out.
But hey; at least it got you the scholarship. Some Alleghanian queer from the 50's who got rich in aircraft decided they wanted more queer kids to go to college and now, forty years later, here you are. Times they are a-changing, or so they say. Maybe they're right. You're not really bothered. You just want a quiet life pouring over reams and reams of information from nigh on a century ago. And that's just what you're getting now that you're at college.
Of course, the ever present threat of your dissertation deadline was hanging over your head, but that's just the price you pay, no?
Where are you at college?
[ ] An urban, Northern local college
[ ] A wealthy Southern prestige college
[ ] A military college with a view to a commission
[ ] Write-in
What is the focus of your dissertation anyway? (This is where you decide what is gonna get described and drawn in Chapter 1)
[ ] The birth of armoured warfare
[ ] The death of the battleship
[ ] The battle for air supremacy, 1920-1930
[ ] Write-in
Plus there was the whole non-binary thing. Maybe it had been acceptable for centuries in Akitsukini, but here in New Alleghany it was the new thing that all the kids were doing. You frowned into your research papers and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. Your parents weren't unsupportive, not exactly. But they didn't exactly jump for joy when you came out.
But hey; at least it got you the scholarship. Some Alleghanian queer from the 50's who got rich in aircraft decided they wanted more queer kids to go to college and now, forty years later, here you are. Times they are a-changing, or so they say. Maybe they're right. You're not really bothered. You just want a quiet life pouring over reams and reams of information from nigh on a century ago. And that's just what you're getting now that you're at college.
Of course, the ever present threat of your dissertation deadline was hanging over your head, but that's just the price you pay, no?
Where are you at college?
[ ] An urban, Northern local college
[ ] A wealthy Southern prestige college
[ ] A military college with a view to a commission
[ ] Write-in
What is the focus of your dissertation anyway? (This is where you decide what is gonna get described and drawn in Chapter 1)
[ ] The birth of armoured warfare
[ ] The death of the battleship
[ ] The battle for air supremacy, 1920-1930
[ ] Write-in
Pt3
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
New Kent Community College had been your surprising first choice, shocking your parents and leaving a bemused scholarship panel in your wake as you swanned off to the Northern state and the big, big NKC. But you knew something that none of them did, and that was the proximity of the College to Fort Hamilton, the NK Navy Yards and La Roche field. You have the potential to access some of the biggest military archives from all three major services in a very small area and that's basically unheard of in the rest of the nation. Sure, you could have gone to a military college in the West, but you really didn't feel the urge to get tied into service that strongly.
You consider your dissertation question. It's an excuse really, just like a lot of this has been, to look at all those strange early designs that never really went anywhere. There was a reason all the modern tanks today, all the Chaffee's and the Panthers and the Chariots, were near identical. And in your mind, you had to go right back to those early days to find out what they were.
After all, back then everything was still to be discovered. Everything was still to be learned. And that made for some fascinating reading.
Where do you start your argument?
[ ] Akitsukini responses to the appearance of Caspian armour.
[ ] Europan armour experiments in the 1910's.
[ ] New Alleghanian lessons from The Great War.
[ ] Write-in
"What impact did early developments in armoured warfare and tank design have on the major theorists of the early 20th Century?"
You consider your dissertation question. It's an excuse really, just like a lot of this has been, to look at all those strange early designs that never really went anywhere. There was a reason all the modern tanks today, all the Chaffee's and the Panthers and the Chariots, were near identical. And in your mind, you had to go right back to those early days to find out what they were.
After all, back then everything was still to be discovered. Everything was still to be learned. And that made for some fascinating reading.
Where do you start your argument?
[ ] Akitsukini responses to the appearance of Caspian armour.
[ ] Europan armour experiments in the 1910's.
[ ] New Alleghanian lessons from The Great War.
[ ] Write-in
Pt 4 - Ito Asahi's War Diaries
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Of course the best place to go was right to the source: A diary, written during the first modern war between Akitsukini and Caspia. Planes, machine-guns, trenches, logistics and fleets - all of these clashed in a war that took tens of thousands of lives and almost caused the ruination of two nations. It also exposed the racism of the Western world in stark relief for the first time, as the shock of an Akitsukini victory - if you could call it that - swept around the world. Of course, you'd read enough revisionist retellings of the war to know that not every historian considered it an Akitsukini victory, not in the long run, but for your purposes that was neither here nor there.
What was important was the reprinted document in front of you. A translated copy of Ito Asahi's war diaries. He had been an infantry commander who witnessed the first deployments of the Caspian warmachines and the Akitsukini responses to it. You settle down to read with a pen nearby to take notes.
When the Capian landships first appeared, with massive wheels and heavy guns, we were stunned. They came on so slowly that we thought they weren't moving at first, but they crept closer and closer on those wheels. When they opened fire it was as if a demon was speaking, small guns but accurate and able to pick out our gun posts from their elevated position. We responded with machine guns, but couldn't get through their thick armour. It was as if we faced battleships on land.
We turned them away, but it cost us more than a little. It took artillery, guns, everything we could throw and still it was only with a noble sacrifice that we carried the day. One died. The others retreated. Already I knew that battle had changed with their appearance, and as far as I knew we had nothing to respond to them with. Certainly nothing of the same calibre or capability. They crossed the crater filled landscape between our trenches as if it was nothing. I dreaded the next time I would face them.
Had I known what would happen the next time we faced them, I wouldn't have been so afraid. My company redeployed to the line several months after that first encounter, and almost immediately we faced those damned machines again. But this time, as they rolled towards us and our machine guns did nothing but make a most horrifying sound as their rounds screamed off their armour. But the commotion at the rear almost had me more distracted than the encroaching enemy.
Six auto's pulled up behind our lines on the wood-lined road that was used for supply haulers and mules. They turned oh so slowly on narrow wheels to present their rears and what I saw their stunned me. Each carried a light gun in an armoured compartment that after a few moments began to rotate towards the nearest Caspian machine. When they fired it barely compared to the heaviest bombardments I'd endured, but this was different. This was accurate, precise firepower.
The six were joined by three others with ungainly looking machine-gun apparatus. A Caspian war machine was brought low by gunfire, then another. The machine-gun carriers repelled the infantry wave that was accompanying them in moments, sweeping back and forth across the Caspian lines. Then the whistles blew and we were up and out of the trench and advancing. I couldn't help but slow alongside one of the Caspian hulks, now burning and slumped over. I risked a bullet to consider it but I knew I had to get a closer look. I wondered when we would get the same. I wondered, immediately, if we could arm our tractors and have a similar weapon to win this war.
It was a fascinating insight into the very first days of armoured warfare. While neither the Caspian wheeled landship nor the Akitsukini armoured car could be called a tank, there was a limpse of what was to come in that battle. Ito saw the future too in his suggestions of arming the tractors. He truly seemed a genius. If only he had survived the war.
What is your first argument?
[ ] Racism lead to Western forces ignoring the early lessons of the Caspian-Akitsukini War
[ ] The efficacy of the wheeled tank was largely overstated in future designs as the Caspian mammoth, the Kobayashi AC and the pedirail overwhelmed.
[ ] The normalisation of the tank as an infantry support vehicle, rather than a breakthrough vehicle, was pushed by the Caspian Akitsukini war.
[ ] Write-in
What was important was the reprinted document in front of you. A translated copy of Ito Asahi's war diaries. He had been an infantry commander who witnessed the first deployments of the Caspian warmachines and the Akitsukini responses to it. You settle down to read with a pen nearby to take notes.
When the Capian landships first appeared, with massive wheels and heavy guns, we were stunned. They came on so slowly that we thought they weren't moving at first, but they crept closer and closer on those wheels. When they opened fire it was as if a demon was speaking, small guns but accurate and able to pick out our gun posts from their elevated position. We responded with machine guns, but couldn't get through their thick armour. It was as if we faced battleships on land.
We turned them away, but it cost us more than a little. It took artillery, guns, everything we could throw and still it was only with a noble sacrifice that we carried the day. One died. The others retreated. Already I knew that battle had changed with their appearance, and as far as I knew we had nothing to respond to them with. Certainly nothing of the same calibre or capability. They crossed the crater filled landscape between our trenches as if it was nothing. I dreaded the next time I would face them.
Had I known what would happen the next time we faced them, I wouldn't have been so afraid. My company redeployed to the line several months after that first encounter, and almost immediately we faced those damned machines again. But this time, as they rolled towards us and our machine guns did nothing but make a most horrifying sound as their rounds screamed off their armour. But the commotion at the rear almost had me more distracted than the encroaching enemy.
Six auto's pulled up behind our lines on the wood-lined road that was used for supply haulers and mules. They turned oh so slowly on narrow wheels to present their rears and what I saw their stunned me. Each carried a light gun in an armoured compartment that after a few moments began to rotate towards the nearest Caspian machine. When they fired it barely compared to the heaviest bombardments I'd endured, but this was different. This was accurate, precise firepower.
The six were joined by three others with ungainly looking machine-gun apparatus. A Caspian war machine was brought low by gunfire, then another. The machine-gun carriers repelled the infantry wave that was accompanying them in moments, sweeping back and forth across the Caspian lines. Then the whistles blew and we were up and out of the trench and advancing. I couldn't help but slow alongside one of the Caspian hulks, now burning and slumped over. I risked a bullet to consider it but I knew I had to get a closer look. I wondered when we would get the same. I wondered, immediately, if we could arm our tractors and have a similar weapon to win this war.
It was a fascinating insight into the very first days of armoured warfare. While neither the Caspian wheeled landship nor the Akitsukini armoured car could be called a tank, there was a limpse of what was to come in that battle. Ito saw the future too in his suggestions of arming the tractors. He truly seemed a genius. If only he had survived the war.
What is your first argument?
[ ] Racism lead to Western forces ignoring the early lessons of the Caspian-Akitsukini War
[ ] The efficacy of the wheeled tank was largely overstated in future designs as the Caspian mammoth, the Kobayashi AC and the pedirail overwhelmed.
[ ] The normalisation of the tank as an infantry support vehicle, rather than a breakthrough vehicle, was pushed by the Caspian Akitsukini war.
[ ] Write-in
Pt 5 - R.J.Miller 1
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
His experiences, and those of many others who wrote on those first days of armoured warfare, skewed the next ten years massively. It was honestly incredible how dramatic the shift was over that decade, wherein everybody assumed that the wheel was the way to go. Tractors had been a thing before that, both agricultural and artillery, but for some reason nobody thought to put tracks on a tank. Those Caspian rollers and the Akitsukini armoured cars had kind of screwed everyone's thinking.
Nowhere was that more obvious than in the writings of R.J. Miller, a New Alleghanian war theorist who wrote both in the lead-up to and after the Great War. You could base your primary argument around his work as he was firmly, firmly committed to the pedirail and the later inventions in that line.
He was one hell of an effusive writer. He was also entirely wrong, of course, but he couldn't have known that in 1916, could he. Still, he demonstrated your argument well enough. But was that enough?
What is the next stage?
[ ] Countering Miller - New Alleghanian reports on tracked vehicles from the era.
[ ] In Support of Miller - Demonstrate armour as cavalry in the Great War.
[ ] Extend the argument - The infantry tank in the Great War.
[ ] Chop the argument - Skip to another aspect of early armoured warfare (Choose one: Multiple turrets, Male/Female designs, the super-heavy tank, write-in)
Nowhere was that more obvious than in the writings of R.J. Miller, a New Alleghanian war theorist who wrote both in the lead-up to and after the Great War. You could base your primary argument around his work as he was firmly, firmly committed to the pedirail and the later inventions in that line.
War is no longer the domain of men, such is the power of the Pedirail. Now a demi-platoon of men, tucked inside the armoured shell of their so-called 'Char Lourd', can advance across the blasted field between themselves and their enemy and deliver upon them the wrath of light Artillery and Machine Gun without ever exposing themselves. And then, these genii of motors, Walker and Michaels, they brought upon the world their All-Terrain Wheel.
The Europans committed to the concept and, in clear divergence from the systemic idiocy of the Alleghanian forces and their 'tracks' they showed their superiority in the Great War. Much like that far eastern Caspian conflict, the war quickly descended into the worst excesses of the trenches, and the breaking of those fortifications came with the use of the Pedirail. The Great War, while just as immobile and hard fought as the Caspian scuffle, showed the future.
That future comes with the wheel, as so much of humanities past has. The Alleghanian commitment to the slow, ponderous 'track' is foolish. The wheel allows for speed, for mobility and that is the key. The ability to break through the enemies lines, to drive beyond them and harass the rear, that has been the job of cavalry since the Sycthians. What are these Heavy Cars but a modern Cavalry? It is a fool who believes them to be an extension of artillery and not the new metal horse.
-- R.J. Miller, Armoured Warfare in the 20th Century, 1916
The Europans committed to the concept and, in clear divergence from the systemic idiocy of the Alleghanian forces and their 'tracks' they showed their superiority in the Great War. Much like that far eastern Caspian conflict, the war quickly descended into the worst excesses of the trenches, and the breaking of those fortifications came with the use of the Pedirail. The Great War, while just as immobile and hard fought as the Caspian scuffle, showed the future.
That future comes with the wheel, as so much of humanities past has. The Alleghanian commitment to the slow, ponderous 'track' is foolish. The wheel allows for speed, for mobility and that is the key. The ability to break through the enemies lines, to drive beyond them and harass the rear, that has been the job of cavalry since the Sycthians. What are these Heavy Cars but a modern Cavalry? It is a fool who believes them to be an extension of artillery and not the new metal horse.
-- R.J. Miller, Armoured Warfare in the 20th Century, 1916
He was one hell of an effusive writer. He was also entirely wrong, of course, but he couldn't have known that in 1916, could he. Still, he demonstrated your argument well enough. But was that enough?
What is the next stage?
[ ] Countering Miller - New Alleghanian reports on tracked vehicles from the era.
[ ] In Support of Miller - Demonstrate armour as cavalry in the Great War.
[ ] Extend the argument - The infantry tank in the Great War.
[ ] Chop the argument - Skip to another aspect of early armoured warfare (Choose one: Multiple turrets, Male/Female designs, the super-heavy tank, write-in)
Pt 6 - Sykes on the Front
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Of course it wasn't. Another day found you back buried in archives, digging around for sources on some of the first New Alleghanian designs to see production. You were in the best place for it, of course, surrounded as you were by budget estimates, proving ground reports and dispatches from the Great War. Why so much of it had ended up in New Kent you hadn't the slightest idea but at no point were you going to complain about easy access to primary sources on armoured warfare in the first real big one.
You'd found some papers - a veritable stack of them to be honest - from 1914 and the front. They were from a young Alleghanian man from the West coast, an artillery observer called Marshal Sykes. He'd not seen action, not officially - he was purely over there to see the new tanks fight. Of course it was a little more complicated than that;
It was a fascinating insight into the birth of the 'Liberty' tank, a vehicle designed to be sold to friends and allies, rather than deployed with Alleghanian forces. And, it seemed, this Sykes was a proponent of the infantry support vehicle in a really visible way, as opposed to Millers love of the cavalry concept.
You wonder, idly, if he wrote anything after the war. Anything at all, not just war theory.
Make your second argument:
[ ] While the track did not catch on in the 1910's, the demonstration of mobile guns swayed theorists towards the infantry tank.
[ ] Division of experience lead to division in theory, changing the landscape of post-war development.
[ ] The heavy gun was shown ineffective, and skewed theory towards small, rapid firing guns and MG's instead.
[ ] Write-in
Should you go searching for Sykes' writing?
[ ] No, there will be no distractions
[ ] Yes, he has a style to his writing
You'd found some papers - a veritable stack of them to be honest - from 1914 and the front. They were from a young Alleghanian man from the West coast, an artillery observer called Marshal Sykes. He'd not seen action, not officially - he was purely over there to see the new tanks fight. Of course it was a little more complicated than that;
In July, the Gallians across from the Dyske boys turned up a new sort of toy - same old hull as their wheeled car monster, but with a much bigger gun. If it was smaller than a Navy five incher I'll eat my helmet and it came on with the same speed too. Not exactly a demon, but enough to keep up with their leg infantry and that was the rub. Suddenly we were facing down not just the MG's and the rifles and the shrapnel, but accurate, direct fire from heavy guns wrapped up in what must have been an inch of armour plate. It was brutal business.
Luckily, one of the Dyske mortar teams managed to drop a shell right into the fighting compartment of one of the new chars and that turned a whole section of their attack. Risky business it turns out, not having a roof over your heads. Got a good look and I think I figured out the innards even after three of those big rounds cooked off. I've included drawings, as per.
Re: July attack, glad to see changes made to the Mark IV designs. Locals are absolutely loving them, and conversion training proceeding rapidly. Special interest being shown in the Short 9 Siege by the new platoons being raised for Vosges. Understand Gallians there have been building bunkers on the line and we're all very excited to see what we can do with one of these.
Concerns raised over lack of MG's on the MKIV and can't say I don't share them. All well and good relying on infantry support but infantry aren't wearing steel jackets. Thought this was supposed to be the infantry support, not vice versa? Nonetheless, will report on engagements.
Luckily, one of the Dyske mortar teams managed to drop a shell right into the fighting compartment of one of the new chars and that turned a whole section of their attack. Risky business it turns out, not having a roof over your heads. Got a good look and I think I figured out the innards even after three of those big rounds cooked off. I've included drawings, as per.
Re: July attack, glad to see changes made to the Mark IV designs. Locals are absolutely loving them, and conversion training proceeding rapidly. Special interest being shown in the Short 9 Siege by the new platoons being raised for Vosges. Understand Gallians there have been building bunkers on the line and we're all very excited to see what we can do with one of these.
Concerns raised over lack of MG's on the MKIV and can't say I don't share them. All well and good relying on infantry support but infantry aren't wearing steel jackets. Thought this was supposed to be the infantry support, not vice versa? Nonetheless, will report on engagements.
It was a fascinating insight into the birth of the 'Liberty' tank, a vehicle designed to be sold to friends and allies, rather than deployed with Alleghanian forces. And, it seemed, this Sykes was a proponent of the infantry support vehicle in a really visible way, as opposed to Millers love of the cavalry concept.
You wonder, idly, if he wrote anything after the war. Anything at all, not just war theory.
Make your second argument:
[ ] While the track did not catch on in the 1910's, the demonstration of mobile guns swayed theorists towards the infantry tank.
[ ] Division of experience lead to division in theory, changing the landscape of post-war development.
[ ] The heavy gun was shown ineffective, and skewed theory towards small, rapid firing guns and MG's instead.
[ ] Write-in
Should you go searching for Sykes' writing?
[ ] No, there will be no distractions
[ ] Yes, he has a style to his writing
Pt 7 - Armoured Warfare in the Great War
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
There's a book that is ideal for the argument that you're making. A history of armoured theory in the Great War and fortunately, you happen to have a copy. Diving into it, you think that the development of warmachines could have been so different, if only for a few different choices at a few choice moments.
Walking home from the archives at Fort Hamilton, you pass a bookstore and decide that, hey, what is there to lose from having a look. If Sykes wrote anything else you'll be able to hunt it down amongst musty bookshelves, right? You wander in, bag slung over your shoulder, and drift into the section reserved for the weighty tomes of academia.
A brief glance tells you that there isn't a single Sykes amongst the history books, though while you'd hoped for some war theory the stores selection seemed awfully lacking. Maybe he'd just been missed out. Unperturbed, you wander the shelves with eyes tracking names and titles like any well-trained archivist and historian could. Three years of hunting down badly shelved books had given you a very special set of skills that were utterly useless for anything but finding texts amongst many, many, many others.
There were a few Sykes' amongst the non-fiction. It wasn't the most uncommon of names, after all. But none of them were your Sykes and thus they were, ultimately, useless. This was getting awfully frustrating.
"Hi!" A perky, sudden and all together far too close-by voice squeaks almost in your ear, "You looking for anything in particular?"
A shop assistant is leaning against a shelf casually, hands in her pockets, grinning from ear to ear. Her hair is cropped short and dyed electric blue, the stud in her eyebrow well healed, her eyes almost golden-brown.
"A, uh…" You're suddenly a little tongue tied, "Book?" What an incredibly lame answer.
"Well yeah, I figured that, sugar." She laughs, "You a student?"
"Yeah, uh. New Kent Community? History." Good. Facts. You can do those, those are easy. They're not a squirrely feeling in your belly because she's still looking at you.
"You're in the wrong section for history. That's on the other side of the store. Want some help finding it?"
Her eyes are saying something a little more direct than an offer of help, and you can feel a redness rising in your cheeks.
"I've looked there. Sorry, um. I'm looking for a writer, actually, a specific one?" You finally settle into a sentence and decide that telling her about Sykes will be a lot easier than trying to find a way out of your sudden butterflies. "Marshal Sykes. He was a soldier in the Great War-"
"Shit, wait, you know Sykes?" Her expression changes from a lecherous leer to a surprised… was it admiration? No, couldn't be. "Yeah, he served in Europa right?"
"Right."
"I love his poetry. Dans Coeur Blinde is literally one of my favourite pieces, it's stunning. Wait here." She disappears before you can say a word, vanishing amongst the stacks without a backward glance. You fidget nervously, unsure of what you're supposed to do but stand as still as you can. This isn't what you had expected at all. You figured you'd maybe find a memoir or a theoretical text. You certainly hadn't expected to find a fan of his poetry.
The woman bounces back around a different corner, making you jump for the second time in about three minutes.
"The store hasn't got a copy, but, uh, my boss has a private stash of rare stuff in the back. I can't sell it to you. Hell, if you're at NKC, I doubt you could afford it. But if you promise you'll look after it, I could do you a loaner for a little bit." She proffers a battered little hardback with gilt lettering on the crimson red spine.
"Why would you do that?" You ask. She doesn't know you, beyond thirty seconds of observation and a half-stammered conversation. If that book was as valuable as she said, it wouldn't be worth your life to let it out of your sight, if you were in her position.
"You know, I'm fairly sure it's because you're so damn cute, sugar." She winks. She actually punctuates the sentence with a wink. The blush roars back into your cheeks like wildfire. "Course, I could skip that, give you my address and you could come read the copy I have at home. It isn't half as nicely bound as this one, but it's all the same poems, y'know."
She is absolutely not just offering to read you some poetry, that much is so clear is even gets through to you.
What are you going to do?
[ ] Take the book (Regular dice roll to succeed)
[ ] Take her address (Hard dice roll to succeed)
[ ] Flee
By the end of the Great War, the armoured fighting vehicle was well proven by four years of vicious fighting across Europa, Lydia and further afield. Most nations had either developed their own idea of what tanks could do and their own industry to demonstrate it, or were buying them from the nations they agreed with. However, while certain elements were constant in these developments, such as the ability to cross rough terrain or some level or armour plate, others showed radical disagreements in theory.
In Albia, Otrusia, and Dyskelande, the theory was for light, fast 'cavalry' vehicles which could capitalise on successful attacks, function as raiders or respond to the enemy with swiftness.
Meanwhile, in Gallia and elsewhere, the tank became synonymous with heavy guns and pinpoint, surgical destruction in support of infantry attacks. Slow and ponderous, this school of thought was epitomised by the Alleghanian 'siege' series the largest of which carried a twelve inch howitzer on a mobile, armoured (albeit open-top) chassis.
Elsewhere, concepts were stranger still. Unarmoured high-velocity gun carriers appeared on several fronts, designed purely with the intent of killing other tanks whilst most theorists saw tank-destruction as a purely peripheral requirement. Tankettes, light vehicles and MG carriers were produced cheaply and to great effect, roaring across shell-riddled fields in tests. In Varnmark, the invention of the armoured personnel carrier allowed for the delivery of troops directly into the heart of the enemy, creating the ultimate infantry tank (for further details, see 'Sturm and Drang: Armoured Trench Raiders on the Northern Front').
The Great War taught many nations many lessons. But which ones would be considered truth would only become clear in years to come.
- Armoured Warfare in the Great War, Corpus and Duggan, 1973
In Albia, Otrusia, and Dyskelande, the theory was for light, fast 'cavalry' vehicles which could capitalise on successful attacks, function as raiders or respond to the enemy with swiftness.
Meanwhile, in Gallia and elsewhere, the tank became synonymous with heavy guns and pinpoint, surgical destruction in support of infantry attacks. Slow and ponderous, this school of thought was epitomised by the Alleghanian 'siege' series the largest of which carried a twelve inch howitzer on a mobile, armoured (albeit open-top) chassis.
Elsewhere, concepts were stranger still. Unarmoured high-velocity gun carriers appeared on several fronts, designed purely with the intent of killing other tanks whilst most theorists saw tank-destruction as a purely peripheral requirement. Tankettes, light vehicles and MG carriers were produced cheaply and to great effect, roaring across shell-riddled fields in tests. In Varnmark, the invention of the armoured personnel carrier allowed for the delivery of troops directly into the heart of the enemy, creating the ultimate infantry tank (for further details, see 'Sturm and Drang: Armoured Trench Raiders on the Northern Front').
The Great War taught many nations many lessons. But which ones would be considered truth would only become clear in years to come.
- Armoured Warfare in the Great War, Corpus and Duggan, 1973
Walking home from the archives at Fort Hamilton, you pass a bookstore and decide that, hey, what is there to lose from having a look. If Sykes wrote anything else you'll be able to hunt it down amongst musty bookshelves, right? You wander in, bag slung over your shoulder, and drift into the section reserved for the weighty tomes of academia.
A brief glance tells you that there isn't a single Sykes amongst the history books, though while you'd hoped for some war theory the stores selection seemed awfully lacking. Maybe he'd just been missed out. Unperturbed, you wander the shelves with eyes tracking names and titles like any well-trained archivist and historian could. Three years of hunting down badly shelved books had given you a very special set of skills that were utterly useless for anything but finding texts amongst many, many, many others.
There were a few Sykes' amongst the non-fiction. It wasn't the most uncommon of names, after all. But none of them were your Sykes and thus they were, ultimately, useless. This was getting awfully frustrating.
"Hi!" A perky, sudden and all together far too close-by voice squeaks almost in your ear, "You looking for anything in particular?"
A shop assistant is leaning against a shelf casually, hands in her pockets, grinning from ear to ear. Her hair is cropped short and dyed electric blue, the stud in her eyebrow well healed, her eyes almost golden-brown.
"A, uh…" You're suddenly a little tongue tied, "Book?" What an incredibly lame answer.
"Well yeah, I figured that, sugar." She laughs, "You a student?"
"Yeah, uh. New Kent Community? History." Good. Facts. You can do those, those are easy. They're not a squirrely feeling in your belly because she's still looking at you.
"You're in the wrong section for history. That's on the other side of the store. Want some help finding it?"
Her eyes are saying something a little more direct than an offer of help, and you can feel a redness rising in your cheeks.
"I've looked there. Sorry, um. I'm looking for a writer, actually, a specific one?" You finally settle into a sentence and decide that telling her about Sykes will be a lot easier than trying to find a way out of your sudden butterflies. "Marshal Sykes. He was a soldier in the Great War-"
"Shit, wait, you know Sykes?" Her expression changes from a lecherous leer to a surprised… was it admiration? No, couldn't be. "Yeah, he served in Europa right?"
"Right."
"I love his poetry. Dans Coeur Blinde is literally one of my favourite pieces, it's stunning. Wait here." She disappears before you can say a word, vanishing amongst the stacks without a backward glance. You fidget nervously, unsure of what you're supposed to do but stand as still as you can. This isn't what you had expected at all. You figured you'd maybe find a memoir or a theoretical text. You certainly hadn't expected to find a fan of his poetry.
The woman bounces back around a different corner, making you jump for the second time in about three minutes.
"The store hasn't got a copy, but, uh, my boss has a private stash of rare stuff in the back. I can't sell it to you. Hell, if you're at NKC, I doubt you could afford it. But if you promise you'll look after it, I could do you a loaner for a little bit." She proffers a battered little hardback with gilt lettering on the crimson red spine.
"Why would you do that?" You ask. She doesn't know you, beyond thirty seconds of observation and a half-stammered conversation. If that book was as valuable as she said, it wouldn't be worth your life to let it out of your sight, if you were in her position.
"You know, I'm fairly sure it's because you're so damn cute, sugar." She winks. She actually punctuates the sentence with a wink. The blush roars back into your cheeks like wildfire. "Course, I could skip that, give you my address and you could come read the copy I have at home. It isn't half as nicely bound as this one, but it's all the same poems, y'know."
She is absolutely not just offering to read you some poetry, that much is so clear is even gets through to you.
What are you going to do?
[ ] Take the book (Regular dice roll to succeed)
[ ] Take her address (Hard dice roll to succeed)
[ ] Flee
Pt 8 - Oops
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
This isn't right though, right? This is a piss-take or a set-up or not what it seems. She's nice and all but this doesn't happen right?
Your heart is hammering in your chest and the blood is rushing in your ears. Her smile is so nice you wish there was any sort of way you could trust it but you couldn't focus on any sort of response at all. She was a dyke anyway right? Girl for girl and all that. Not girl for what-is-gender-anyway non-binary nerds with a head full of bookshelves and technical drawings. Yeah that's it. She's made a mistake.
"-Not a girl." Is what actually comes spilling out of your mouth, a half formed sentence thrown into almost stammer by the nerves shaking through you.
"Huh?" she takes a step towards you, a hand reaching out to comfort? To grab? Who knows. You step back, eyes fixed firmly on the floor, suddenly on the edge of panic.
"I'm non-binary."
"No worries sugar, I'm still asking." She holds the book out again, slipping back into an easy smile, "No expectations from me. Can't blame a girl for trying her luck."
"I can't." You step back again. This time she doesn't close the gap.
"Hey, it's okay-"
"Sorry." You half shout as you bolt for the door, not waiting to hear the rest of the sentence. You're halfway down the block before you dare to slow down, not turning around, keeping walking, desperately trying to get your breathing under control. Barely five minutes pass and you start berating yourself. What the hell was that? You couldn't hack it, fine, but you didn't have to run away screaming. Making a fool of yourself. Ridiculous.
You climb the fourteen flights of your walk-up, a cheap apartment made even cheaper by the NKC approach to student accommodation. Least it's yours though, your room at least. The apartment might be shared but you don't even have a roommate like a lot of people you know.
Darting between front door and room door is always a risky moment, the ever-present threat of being collared by another resident for conversation, but this time there's no problem. You make it to your room and collapse onto your bed without even bothering to take off your shoes. Today has already been too much, and you spent the vast majority of it in your favourite place.
Water. Music. Reading. That's what you need. You look at the stack of books by your bed and smile. You do know yourself very well.
What will you read?
[ ] Something related to your dissertation, Great War armour.
[ ] Something related to your period, Great War theory.
[ ] Something related to history (write-in, this is a brief interlude).
[ ] Something unrelated entirely (write-in)
Your heart is hammering in your chest and the blood is rushing in your ears. Her smile is so nice you wish there was any sort of way you could trust it but you couldn't focus on any sort of response at all. She was a dyke anyway right? Girl for girl and all that. Not girl for what-is-gender-anyway non-binary nerds with a head full of bookshelves and technical drawings. Yeah that's it. She's made a mistake.
"-Not a girl." Is what actually comes spilling out of your mouth, a half formed sentence thrown into almost stammer by the nerves shaking through you.
"Huh?" she takes a step towards you, a hand reaching out to comfort? To grab? Who knows. You step back, eyes fixed firmly on the floor, suddenly on the edge of panic.
"I'm non-binary."
"No worries sugar, I'm still asking." She holds the book out again, slipping back into an easy smile, "No expectations from me. Can't blame a girl for trying her luck."
"I can't." You step back again. This time she doesn't close the gap.
"Hey, it's okay-"
"Sorry." You half shout as you bolt for the door, not waiting to hear the rest of the sentence. You're halfway down the block before you dare to slow down, not turning around, keeping walking, desperately trying to get your breathing under control. Barely five minutes pass and you start berating yourself. What the hell was that? You couldn't hack it, fine, but you didn't have to run away screaming. Making a fool of yourself. Ridiculous.
You climb the fourteen flights of your walk-up, a cheap apartment made even cheaper by the NKC approach to student accommodation. Least it's yours though, your room at least. The apartment might be shared but you don't even have a roommate like a lot of people you know.
Darting between front door and room door is always a risky moment, the ever-present threat of being collared by another resident for conversation, but this time there's no problem. You make it to your room and collapse onto your bed without even bothering to take off your shoes. Today has already been too much, and you spent the vast majority of it in your favourite place.
Water. Music. Reading. That's what you need. You look at the stack of books by your bed and smile. You do know yourself very well.
What will you read?
[ ] Something related to your dissertation, Great War armour.
[ ] Something related to your period, Great War theory.
[ ] Something related to history (write-in, this is a brief interlude).
[ ] Something unrelated entirely (write-in)
Pt 9 - The Star Wars
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
You stare at the pile of history books and find yourself in one of those rare moods where you can't think of anything less exciting that digging through a dense tome. So, instead, you reach for another book in the pile, a discreet pleasure that you don't even share with the few friends you do have.
The front cover reads 'The Star Wars' in bold gold type, a picture of a starfighter flashing across a jungle backdrop behind it.You couldn't afford a VCR at home, let alone at college, so this was the only way you could get a taste of your favourite film of all time as often as you wanted. You flipped the volume over and skimmed the blurb you'd already read a thousand times before;
You grin to yourself. It sounds exceptionally trashy, but the film is incredible and the book does a fair job of capturing the tone and excitement of the big screen science fiction.
There was another reason you loved it, other than the flashing laser swords, the blistering space battles and the tense and scintillating romantic subplot: the film had the very first non-binary character you'd ever seen on screen. Up there, on the big screen, had been someone just like you and that had meant so much it couldn't be expressed. You couldn't count the number of times you'd thanked your parents gods that Lucas had really gone in for Kurosawan homage up to and including the Akitsukini gender politics that drove so much of those films.
When you were seven, you'd seen a non-binary person for the first time, fighting for the rebellion, staring down the emperor with a blaster pistol in their hand. It had certainly been more than a little eye-opening.
You settled down to read, and soon found yourself engrossed once more in the adventures of Kade Starkiller.
The next day, somewhat tired from a late night of reading, you find yourself charting out your dissertation once more. But this time you're racing rapidly towards the end of your work, and that's more than a little terrifying.
You have developed your sources and shown armoured development from 1912-1918. What is your primary argument?
[ ] Early armour's effectiveness was far overstated by post-war theorists.
[ ] The diversity of early armour meant theorists were too divided to have a significant impact beyond their own nation.
[ ] Despite the divisions, armour was understood to be key to warfare post-war and thus plenty of resources were provided thanks to war theorists.
[ ] Write in.
The front cover reads 'The Star Wars' in bold gold type, a picture of a starfighter flashing across a jungle backdrop behind it.You couldn't afford a VCR at home, let alone at college, so this was the only way you could get a taste of your favourite film of all time as often as you wanted. You flipped the volume over and skimmed the blurb you'd already read a thousand times before;
In a Galaxy far, far away, a planet is in danger. The evil EMPIRE threatens peaceful ALDERAAN with destruction if they do not bow to the EMPEROR and break their traditions of neutrality.
LEIA ORGANA, queen of Alderaan, reaches out to an old ally, KADE STARKILLER, a JEDI KNIGHT who once protected the Galaxy from evil alongside her father. Kade must call upon ancient pact and reform the REBELLION, gather the six generals to his side and fight to thwart the Emperor's evil plot.
But both sides have their secrets, and some will threaten the safety of everyone involved. Will Kade, Leia and the Rebellio be able to defeat the Empire?
LEIA ORGANA, queen of Alderaan, reaches out to an old ally, KADE STARKILLER, a JEDI KNIGHT who once protected the Galaxy from evil alongside her father. Kade must call upon ancient pact and reform the REBELLION, gather the six generals to his side and fight to thwart the Emperor's evil plot.
But both sides have their secrets, and some will threaten the safety of everyone involved. Will Kade, Leia and the Rebellio be able to defeat the Empire?
You grin to yourself. It sounds exceptionally trashy, but the film is incredible and the book does a fair job of capturing the tone and excitement of the big screen science fiction.
There was another reason you loved it, other than the flashing laser swords, the blistering space battles and the tense and scintillating romantic subplot: the film had the very first non-binary character you'd ever seen on screen. Up there, on the big screen, had been someone just like you and that had meant so much it couldn't be expressed. You couldn't count the number of times you'd thanked your parents gods that Lucas had really gone in for Kurosawan homage up to and including the Akitsukini gender politics that drove so much of those films.
When you were seven, you'd seen a non-binary person for the first time, fighting for the rebellion, staring down the emperor with a blaster pistol in their hand. It had certainly been more than a little eye-opening.
You settled down to read, and soon found yourself engrossed once more in the adventures of Kade Starkiller.
The next day, somewhat tired from a late night of reading, you find yourself charting out your dissertation once more. But this time you're racing rapidly towards the end of your work, and that's more than a little terrifying.
You have developed your sources and shown armoured development from 1912-1918. What is your primary argument?
[ ] Early armour's effectiveness was far overstated by post-war theorists.
[ ] The diversity of early armour meant theorists were too divided to have a significant impact beyond their own nation.
[ ] Despite the divisions, armour was understood to be key to warfare post-war and thus plenty of resources were provided thanks to war theorists.
[ ] Write in.
Pt 10 - Conclusion
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Sitting down to write your conclusion was something that always had to come, and you certainly had plenty of time to do it in. Excited as you were by your subject, it meant that you had yet to miss a single deadline and had even submitted some early. The same was true for your dissertation of course - who wouldn't be over the moon to get to write twelve thousand words about armoured warfare - and you still had a couple of weeks to go before your deadline.
With paper and pen, you go to work.
One the battlefields of the Great War, armoured warfare became a reality for the first time on a grand scale. While the world had seen steam tanks, war-trains and wooden siege engines before it had never shaken to the rumble of track, screw and foot on quite the same level.
In this piece, it has been demonstrated that the developments of the design and strategy of the armoured fighting vehicle were diverse and that success was garnered through a variety of manners and means without any such being seen as the 'correct' way to develop a tank.
Thus in the post war period, the major proponents of armoured theory such as Miller and Fouchet, Manton and Spitz, had no singular guiding principle with which they pressured both their militaries and the engineers who designed the inter-war armoured vehicles. Instead we see diversity such as the Albian turreted vehicles, the Gallian siege engines, the light Otrusian and Dyske tanks and the sheer wealth of Alleghanian designs intended for both export and home use.
This variation impacted not just the theorists, but also the ways in which war would be fought after the Great War, and thus it cannot be argued that the developments of the 1913-1918 period were anything but dramatic in their impact on the future.
There. It was good, a solid argument to fit your title. But was it good enough?
Are you happy with your conclusion?
[ ] Yes, it's perfectly good.
[ ] No, it needs something else
- [ ] Write in
With paper and pen, you go to work.
One the battlefields of the Great War, armoured warfare became a reality for the first time on a grand scale. While the world had seen steam tanks, war-trains and wooden siege engines before it had never shaken to the rumble of track, screw and foot on quite the same level.
In this piece, it has been demonstrated that the developments of the design and strategy of the armoured fighting vehicle were diverse and that success was garnered through a variety of manners and means without any such being seen as the 'correct' way to develop a tank.
Thus in the post war period, the major proponents of armoured theory such as Miller and Fouchet, Manton and Spitz, had no singular guiding principle with which they pressured both their militaries and the engineers who designed the inter-war armoured vehicles. Instead we see diversity such as the Albian turreted vehicles, the Gallian siege engines, the light Otrusian and Dyske tanks and the sheer wealth of Alleghanian designs intended for both export and home use.
This variation impacted not just the theorists, but also the ways in which war would be fought after the Great War, and thus it cannot be argued that the developments of the 1913-1918 period were anything but dramatic in their impact on the future.
There. It was good, a solid argument to fit your title. But was it good enough?
Are you happy with your conclusion?
[ ] Yes, it's perfectly good.
[ ] No, it needs something else
- [ ] Write in