Lieutenant Fusilier in The Farthest Reaches

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Vebyast said:
That's a hell of a throw. Depending on whether I extrapolate from shotgun slugs or baseballs I get numbers suggesting an initial velocity between 200 and 400 meters per second, which'd make Dora's arm a light field piece. Theda is even scarier.
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Probably best to extrapolate from baseballs, albeit denser and less susceptible to wind resistance.

You could get out to 400-500 meters with a light projectile and ancient torsion artillery, after all.
 
First off, lol.

Looking at the rest though, we currently have number of skirmishers and various waifs-and-strays in the unit but no leader for them, correct? What if we breveted Theda as an Ensign? If we ever get back she could have some time-in-role which she could hopefully parley into a full promotion from the British Army, then get sent home to fix things.
 
Honestly that isn't a bad idea; ranks should carry over in the transfer? If Theda makes officer in the British Army, then she can skip the academy, right?
 
FrangibleCover said:
First off, lol.

Looking at the rest though, we currently have number of skirmishers and various waifs-and-strays in the unit but no leader for them, correct? What if we breveted Theda as an Ensign? If we ever get back she could have some time-in-role which she could hopefully parley into a full promotion from the British Army, then get sent home to fix things.
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I don't think you can brevet a non-com into a commissioned officer position. Also, there is this...

open_sketch said:
"Why'd it have to be us? If eighty-odd Adams and Eves ended up here by accident, they could start building things, infrastructure, cities, waterways, clean power stations. If they had an engineer they could, I don't know, start making cuddlebug machines that could understand cuddlebug problems. If we had more Jeanettes we could probably eliminate most of their major diseases in what, a couple of months? Hell, we'd be better off as Sarahs and Scotts, take over their bureaucracy, fix it from the inside."

"Anyone but soldiers." Theda concluded. "Anyone but us."

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"The Stellar Kingdom of Prussia is in a crisis that it is incapable of solving." she explained, "The Army is a cancer eating it from the inside. Those who care about other things leave for one of the members of the German Confederation in increasing numbers every year. It used to be said that Prussia was an Army with a state, but increasingly we do not even have that. We are a reenacting group pretending to be an army, pretending to be a country."
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If she wants to be able to help others and also be useful at home outside of fighting, she could try to test into the Royal Engineers! She was already trying to pass the Prussian officer exam, so I don't think it would be too complicated with some more study. In the high levels of the Prussian Corp of Engineers, she could redirect the attentions to civil engineering projects.

A question for our fearless author, is the British Board of Ordnance still a thing or have their duties been merged into the War Department? I ask because historically the Board of Ordnance was only dissolved because of the Crimean War. If it is still independent, then technically the Royal Artillery, Engineers, etc. are members of a parallel military force separate from the regular Army.
 
hessan_yongdi said:
I don't think you can brevet a non-com into a commissioned officer position. Also, there is this...


If she wants to be able to help others and also be useful at home outside of fighting, she could try to test into the Royal Engineers! She was already trying to pass the Prussian officer exam, so I don't think it would be too complicated with some more study. In the high levels of the Prussian Corp of Engineers, she could redirect the attentions to civil engineering projects.

A question for our fearless author, is the British Board of Ordnance still a thing or have their duties been merged into the War Department? I ask because historically the Board of Ordnance was only dissolved because of the Crimean War. If it is still independent, then technically the Royal Artillery, Engineers, etc. are members of a parallel military force separate from the regular Army.
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That is indeed the case, though the line is very blurry. There's a reason that Lieutenant Kennedy and her Theos and Doras wear blue! They are technically 'guests' of the 7th Foot, even though they've been 'guests' for like fifty years at this point.
 
open_sketch said:
That is indeed the case, though the line is very blurry. There's a reason that Lieutenant Kennedy and her Theos and Doras wear blue! They are technically 'guests' of the 7th Foot, even though they've been 'guests' for like fifty years at this point.
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The Artillery is like that friend who crashed on your couch one time because "it'd be easier to get to work if the weather's bad" and now sleeps in your bed and makes you breakfast but still technically lives at their own apartment.
 
Oh, wow. I did not see this coming.

Also, I loved how the Prussian army has apparently gobbled up the state. It sounds like they're most of the way to becoming a glorified mercenary company.

Theda has a great point about how nominal underlings can direct policy, but sometimes you just need to call the shots directly.


I have a sneaking suspicion that her fling with Theda is a result of her suppression of her feelings for Kennedy, which means this is yet another kind of mistake. Word will get out about this, and Kennedy will be heartbroken.

Also, this has got to be against regulations. It may even be illegal. I mean, Theda is technically her prisoner...
 
ancusohm said:
Oh, wow. I did not see this coming.

Also, I loved how the Prussian army has apparently gobbled up the state. It sounds like they're most of the way to becoming a glorified mercenary company.
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It's pretty realistic given a world where geopolitical history appears to have come to a screeching halt some time around 1830. That "an army with a state" phrase Sketch used for the chapter title is something that people used to talk about early 19th century Prussia in real life, after all. And in a world where Germany as a whole probably never united beyond a vaguely mismatch German Confederation, without Prussia's military enabling it to dominate the process...

Yeah no, I could totally see something like this happening.
 
FrangibleCover said:
First off, lol.

Looking at the rest though, we currently have number of skirmishers and various waifs-and-strays in the unit but no leader for them, correct? What if we breveted Theda as an Ensign? If we ever get back she could have some time-in-role which she could hopefully parley into a full promotion from the British Army, then get sent home to fix things.
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hessan_yongdi said:
I don't think you can brevet a non-com into a commissioned officer position. Also, there is this...
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How far did she get through the Academy? I'm sure there's a way to administer a field-expedient Lt exam and if any situation would justify it it might be this one. If Theda hadn't been arrested for insubordination just prior, at least.
 
I'm starting to think the Prussians just washed their hands of their control over Poland and didn't do any figuring out of what they wanted to be other than always being on hand for any fights humanity wanted to do.

...You know, that whole 'anything but a soldier' thing? I'm starting to think that's not new to Theda. She's been trying to deal with a problem of this sort her whole life, and this far it's been getting the better of her.

Well that's a cheery thought. I do know that I don't think she's glitched, she's just had a head filled with contradictory parameters and is trying to do the best she can with that. Garbage in, garbage out after all.

That said I'm in a place where I'm rooting for intimate, passionate... dialog, they're both right now the only people the other can properly speak with openly, but they're in a really weird place with a lot of baggage so I think it'd be a mistake. Not to say I don't think they'd make mistakes or that said mistakes wouldn't make enjoyable drama, mind.
 
Simon_Jester said:
It's pretty realistic given a world where geopolitical history appears to have come to a screeching halt some time around 1830. That "an army with a state" phrase Sketch used for the chapter title is something that people used to talk about early 19th century Prussia in real life, after all. And in a world where Germany as a whole probably never united beyond a vaguely mismatch German Confederation, without Prussia's military enabling it to dominate the process...

Yeah no, I could totally see something like this happening.
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I totally agree. Especially if the at least some reforms from the real- 1848 revolution and the Frankfurt Constitution were able to develop the German Confederation into something that could survive well without Prussian and Austrian interference. From the sound of things, the German machines might have managed that.


Vebyast said:
How far did she get through the Academy? I'm sure there's a way to administer a field-expedient Lt exam and if any situation would justify it it might be this one. If Theda hadn't been arrested for insubordination just prior, at least.
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There is no reason to do so. She is already supposed to be the second-in-command of Lt. Dora's platoon if you don't count the Ensign. The only reason why we did not see her doing her job is because she spent much of the time time being a insubordinate stick in the mud. If she wants to get a full commission in the infantry, she is going to have to wait for an empty slot somewhere and then pay for it.
 
I feel like she'd probably think about going for a commission in artillery, with her disdain of buying a commission.

Which means now I have to wonder at how Kennedy and Theda would get along. I have a feeling it might be interesting.
 
Oooh, nice!



I will never stop loving the forcefield gorget. And that waist sash is spiffy.
 
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Squishy said:
The Artillery is like that friend who crashed on your couch one time because "it'd be easier to get to work if the weather's bad" and now sleeps in your bed and makes you breakfast but still technically lives at their own apartment.
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I think blowing up your enemies is a bit better than making you breakfast. :V
 
I find it hilarious that Kennedy is holding Dora's sword's sheath and firing Miriam's pistol. Apparently sash aesthetics took priority over having pockets. :p
 
That's not a musket! That's a Lee-Enfield!
Which I assume means is Theda holding it and being all smug.
 
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