Mein Krieg (Youjo Senki/Tanya the Evil OC)

[General forge]

Do not worry about this point. The hellish training will remain, but with a bonus...

Guess what it will be?

Click to shrink...

I can't wait it's about to get lit

 

[RandomDwarf]

Hmmm I've been binge reading this, and I have to say wonderful ideas so far!

Also being X is a massive hippocrit and not omnipresent (all knowing). As it is, safe to say just blame X for everything due to puppetmastering everyone around the two. Also pretty much looking to see if the empire at least gets a white peace deal this time around instead of defeat...

As for Tanya's training from hell...it's gonna happen. Just with the bonus of it being a Kami and Mr PoPo skit...only the trainees have a attachment to our protagonist while they fear Tanya. Equal love and fear token balance of things.

Also headquarters are having a war with the navies shipping it seems.

Who wants to be sooner or later people will decide that those two are "truly" together...meaning the empires enemies will flip a ship over when they realize that the devil and the dragon may end up having kids...which means priority alert will be needed...and I wonder if the navy will use the surface fleet for the distraction for the wolf packs if what our little dragon said was true.

I really look forward to the chaos to come...and I'm surprised that the ruskies are having mages in their group...due to them (I think) canonically shunning all magi-tech.

Which case when the time comes I really hope those two and the empire calls out the not-French for their bullshit on getting their army to run away while the politicians stall for time.

 

[ivanacco1]

Do not worry about this point. The hellish training will remain, but with a bonus...

Guess what it will be?

Click to shrink...

Lots of love from frederick

 

[Trunko]

Chapter 80: Mages Wanted​

"Dammit!" Tanya exploded in anger once we were far enough from the walls of Strategic Headquarters that no one could hear us. "Dammit! Damn it to hell! This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"I can only agree with you on that," I replied disheartened. "To think we were this close…"

"My plan failed! This is unacceptable!" she ranted. "Why did this happen? Why?"

"You want the short version?" I said. "Evidently, we've gone too far with showing off and being perfect soldiers. The big shots at High Command the consider us the best emerging officers at their disposal, and for this reason, they decided to put us in direct command of the very unit our thesis described."

"The unit YOUR thesis suggested!" Tanya was less 'glaring daggers' at this point as much as trying to incinerate my skull with her gaze. "It was you who suggested to the General the idea of a highly mobile battalion of wizards with great firepower! It's your fault we're in this situation!"

"No, it's your fault!" It was my turn to get angry. "If you hadn't risked making us look like cowards in front of the general, I wouldn't have had to bring up the idea and none of this would have happened!"

We started to fight ferociously, for a few minutes, before we realized we were behaving, well, like children. Children who were reckless and lacking in foresight, who were not actually adults trapped in young bodies.

"Okay then..." I stopped, trying to regain my breath. "There's no point in pointing fingers and playing the blame game. It does nothing to remedy our situation; on the contrary, it makes it worse, since our only hope of survival is, once again, to put aside our common quarrels and try to work together to get out of this mess. Fighting is useless, it just wastes time and energy. So why don't we try to find a solution to this mess?"

Tanya nodded. "What are your thoughts?"

I thought for a moment about what she said before I gave her my answer.

"The way I see it, we can't possibly try to change the general's mind. He is too convinced of his idea, and if we give the impression that we are against it, it could have disastrous consequences for our hitherto built military career. The only possibility is for him to tell us to give up, so as to avoid everything without giving further negative impressions..."

Tanya grumbled, "And how could we get the general to change his mind and give up the project?"

"Only one way: by showing him objective evidence that the idea cannot work, or that we do not have the resources to put it into practice. There are many ways a project can fail before it becomes effective..."

Tanya smiled, in her usual cruel smile that I had learned to fear and respect. I knew that an evil idea was going through her head at that very moment.

"It's true! I know more than one way to get a project aborted before it sees the light! And one of them might just do the trick..."

"What is it?" I asked.

Her eyes had that evil glint again.




Tanya's idea was simple, but at the same time brilliant.

To find the soldiers needed to form the battalion, we would have to resort to a new enlistment notice. We should then have to gather volunteers and select the most suitable to be employed in the primary constitution of the battalion.

However, what would happen if no one showed up? If there were not enough men to form the battalion, Strategic Headquarters would be forced to examine the matter again. If there were not enough men available or even none at all, there was a good chance that the project would be scrapped and filed away, to be forgotten. A loss for the Empire perhaps, but a win for us: without that "voluntary" proposal from High Command, the other possibilities of redeployment, which at the moment we could not accept without exposing loose threads that would no doubt be pulled, would be at our disposal again. With them, the chance of a long, cushy life in the rear and away from the front. It was, therefore, necessary to discourage any possible volunteers who would be foolish enough to want to apply for our battalion, urging them to give up and return to their current assignments.

Nevertheless, we could not do it face to face. If Command realized that we were actively trying to push possible candidates to give up, they would take us to task, and boy, would they ever. All our actions had to be hidden under the veil of efficiency and discipline. Nothing we did could seem less than the absolute maximum of patriotism and dedication to our duty.

"Be careful, Frederick, you'll make me spill the ink" Tanya glared at me. "If you make me stain the draft, then we'll have to do it all over again."

"Can I at least see it?" I asked, annoyed. "You've been sketching for half an hour now."

Tanya grumbled, before moving the draft so I could see it without leaning out.

The poster didn't seem too different from a common military recruitment poster. At the top, two ranks of soldiers, painted black so that they were indistinguishable shadows, waved their bayonets just above the Empire's double-headed dragon. At the bottom, a long red stripe evoked rivers of blood. In the center, the text Tanya had written.

"Mages Wanted. Extremely Difficult battle, Little Pay. Spend your day in combat and unfathomable danger. If you return alive, you will receive honor and glory." I read it out loud.

"What do you think? Nobody is going to volunteer with these recruitment posters." She said proudly.

I disagreed.

"I can't believe I'm saying these words, but don't you think you went a little overboard?"

"What do you mean?" she looked at me with suspicion.

"I mean your poster's a little generic... and anonymous. Which is a good thing in a way, because most people probably will not look at it. However, it's also possible that the opposite will happen, that they'll see it and enlist without even reading it. I mean, what makes it different from an ordinary recruitment poster?"

"Explain yourself."

"Maybe I'm overthinking it, but let me remind you that we now live in a world where nationalism is rampant, and where there are no feelings of brotherhood between nations or opposition to the war. Here people enlist first and only then inform themselves. With your manifesto, we risk finding ourselves with a considerable pool of applicants anyway, enough to form the battalion."

"Oh yeah?" she asked. "And how would you advise me to change it?"

"I already have ideas. You want to see it?"

She nodded, so I took the ink, the pen and a new blank sheet of paper, and started drawing the scene I had in mind. It took me several minutes, as I was going slowly so as not to risk drooling the ink, but the result was not too terrible.

The scene showed a soldier of the Empire (a mage, as one could easily imagine from his equipment) trying to stand up to a group of enemies, much bigger than him, who looked down at him. Behind him, the ruins of what must have been a city and a torn imperial flag, along with the remains of what must have been the mage's companions.

"There. What do you think of it?"

"Your drawing is terrible. Besides, why did you decide to put on this scene?" Tanya asked.

"To gain the attention of the reader, shock him, and scare him away!" I said, more proudly than she was before "That way, no one can be persuaded to enlist for our battalion! And, to make it safe, I'd like to suggest a little modification to your text."

"Oh yeah? And what would it be?" she asked.

"Instead of telling them that they will receive honor and glory if they return alive, I would suggest ending the poster's sentence with a do not expect to come back alive. It gives no hope to the reader, makes him understand that if he enlists he will not come home alive and he will not tie us to a possible promise."

Tanya looked at the text she had written until then and nodded. "That's a great idea. That way no one will show up!"

"Yes. Even if someone wanted to enlist, we could count the volunteers on the fingers of one hand. One hand, I assure you."




After finding what, at least at first glance, represented the best chance for us to avoid redeployment on the front line in command of a rapid intervention battalion, Tanya and I took great care and attention to make sure that the general's idea would never see the light of day.

Once the poster was complete, we sent the draft with all the details to the office of the Army propaganda section, which would touch up the quality and begin distribution. The officer in charge was a confused by our choice for the poster, but Tanya made him understand, clearly and simply, that if he did not obey, Command would hear of it. Therefore, in a few days, our posters began to spread, no doubt scaring away idealistic recruits and veteran mages.

If only...

In fact, when Tanya and I went to the office reserved for us at the External Bureau of the Imperial Strategic Headquarters, we expected to find few, if any, applications. We only had to open the door to realize that our hopes were in vain.

"What is this?!" Tanya yelled, looking at the papers around us. The sheets with the enlistment offers of every single wizard were so many and numerous that they occupied almost every available table and smooth surface.

"I don't believe it!" I exclaimed, looking at the columns stacked on top of each other. "I cannot possibly believe this! Are we sure there wasn't a bloody mistake?"

Immediately, I reached out and took a piece of paper out of the pile and started reading it. Yes, there was no mistake at all. The guy who had filled out this application with such care was a mage of the Imperial Army, currently stationed in the aforementioned sector and corps, and who had seen our posters and requested to be reassigned to our fledgling battalion.

I took another one. He too was a mage of the Imperial army (a veteran, to boot), who wanted to be reassigned to our unit. And again, and again, and again...

"This is can't be real!" Tanya yelled, looking with rage at the piles of paper all around her. "We sent that recruitment poster just a week ago!"

"Evidently, the Army's Office of Propaganda knows how to do its job..." I replied, putting down the papers. "judging from what I see, many have read it and want to sign up regardless."

"But why?" she asked. "Mages are the elite, aren't they? Shouldn't they want the best jobs they can get? I thought the poster made it clear to everyone that this was a terrible idea. Bad pay; great danger; great risk of death. Then why do all these people want to volunteer for a one-way ticket to Hell?"

"Either the inhabitants of the empire are great masochists," I said as I approached the table where Tanya had sat. "or I think we did something wrong with the poster we made."

"The poster YOU made!" she almost spat out the words. "I knew you'd get us in trouble again!"

"Thanks for the words of appreciation, I really missed them," I said, looking around with a huff. "But what do we do now? Clearly, we cannot use the excuse of a few volunteers when we are overwhelmed with applications. There are two of us, and there is work here for twenty! We will never be able to keep to the schedule under these conditions!"

"Yes it's impossible, absolutely impossible," Tanya said, before starting to smirk again. "Perfect. We can use the lack of personnel to buy us time!" she said, moving toward the phone.

However, before she could even try to use it, someone knocked at the door.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Excuse us." a female voice responded. Then, the door opened, and two people entered the room.

"What are you doing here?" Tanya asked, bewildered.

"It's been a while, Captain Degurechaff..." Viktoriya responded, saluting us.

"Happy to see you are still well, Captain König!" Tragen saluted too.

 

[RandomDwarf]

I will admit, that was bloody genius for Freddy and Tanya...too bad they frogot about reverse phsycology and how spiteful little shits humanity can be at times!

This is going to be hilarious!!!

 

[Trunko]

I will admit, that was bloody genius for Freddy and Tanya...too bad they frogot about reverse phsycology and how spiteful little shits humanity can be at times!

This is going to be hilarious!!!

Click to shrink...

Thank you!

Also, what do you think of the reappearance of both Viktoriya and Tragen?

 

[RandomDwarf]

This is going to be intresting for sure, best two helpers for the two craziest people...also looks like the training might be more dangerous then in cannon if things continue the way they are.

 

[NZPIEFACE]

We started to fight ferociously, for a few minutes, before we realized we were behaving, well, like children. Children who were reckless and lacking in foresight, who were not actually adults trapped in young bodies.

Click to shrink...

At this point, I'd rather say that they're both children with knowledge of how to be massive assholes on an economic scale.

 

[Trunko]

Chapter 81: Old Friends​

"Second Lieutenant Viktoriya Serebryakov, at your service!" Viktoriya said, smiling at both of us while saluting.

"Second Lieutenant Linus Tragen, at your service too!" Tragen repeated almost verbatim. "Let me express that I am very happy to be under your command once again, Captain König."

For a few moments, I was completely silent. I did not expect to see Tragen again so soon. To be honest, I did not expect to see Tragen at all. Additionally, the fact that he had reappeared with Viktoriya was... highly irregular. It was the confusion of a moment. Then, my instinct for preservation took over and I summed up an attitude as appropriate to my position as possible.

"Thank you for your assertion of loyalty, Sergeant... I mean, Second Lieutenant. Although it has been a long time since we have seen each other, let me congratulate you both on your promotions."

"Thank you sir!" both Viktoriya and Tragen nodded.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tanya said behind me, shaking off the confusion and summing up her almost-natural way of doing things.

"We are here to help and support you in the early stages of battalion organization, Fraulein Captain. Strategic Headquarters has ordered us to put ourselves at your disposal and assist you with anything you need help with." Tragen looked at her, still saluting.

Tanya looked away with annoyance and turned to Viktoriya. "So, you are here to be my assistant?"

"Yes sir. It seems I was assigned to this post because I already knew you, and the fact that we are both women."

I nodded, looking to Tragen once again. "And what about you, Tragen? Were you assigned to this post too because, like Viktoriya, you and I know each other?"

Tragen smiled embarrassed. "That, and the fact that Viktoriya and I are… close, if I can afford to say it."

"Close?" I asked, "What do you-"

I stopped, as I noticed the look Viktoriya was returning to Tragen. I had no problem realizing what was hidden in that glaze. They were very close, and not in a friendship way.

"I... I see." I mouthed in realization, shifting my gaze from Viktoriya to Tragen and vice versa.

"Quite, sir." Viktoriya smiled embarrassedly in turn. "But if you're interested, we've only been together for little over a month."

An awkward silence fell on the room, as I realized that maybe it was my doing, which pushed our most trusted soldiers in a romantic relationship.

"Very well," Viktoriya said, walking to the nearest table covered in application papers. "I'll get to work right away then!"

Tragen came to her aid, and the two of them immediately began to go through the application sheets, filling them out calmly but steadily.

"Don't bother," Tanya said, trying to make them stop. "There are four of us, and this is a job for forty. We cannot handle this."

"Do not worry about that, sir!" Viktoriya replied. "I have already spoken with the Garrison Command. They will send us dozen or so unoccupied MPs and other personnel to help you with the paperwork!"

"And I have had a chat with a friend of mine at the officer course, now a warehouse officer," Tragen added. "He will assign us some compiler machines to speed things up. Within three days at most, we'll be in full swing."

What? my mind screamed as I realized that Tragen and Viktoriya had just destroyed and completely obliterated any chance for us to make time under the guise of understaffing.

"I must... congratulate you, I suppose."

"No need to do that, sir!" Viktoriya replied, flashing another adorable smile. "We just wanted to contribute to clearing the organization so it could work as fast as possible."

"Very well," I said. "Keep going. Captain Degurechaff and I… have something to discuss. We will be joining you in a bit."

"Very well, sirs!"

I looked at Tanya. Her face was now a true work of art, inspiring bitterness, anger, and frustration.

"This... has become a difficult situation."

"Yes, it has." she seethed. "There's no way we can claim being understaffed or underequipped to organize ourselves. This means we can't slow down the work as I'd hoped, thanks to them!" she glared at Tragen and Viktoriya, who were working very close by. "Having an overly talented assistant could be catastrophic, let alone two! We should have left them to rot and die on the Rhine front."

"Perhaps it would have been better. And yet, I find this… unsettling."

"What?" she asked. "The fact that two people we thought we had left behind have come back to cause us trouble, or the fact that, because of them, we are now in even more trouble?"

"It's more the fact that they're together now. I mean, I never thought Tragen could win a girl's heart, only enemy positions or strongholds. And yet, he now looks a lot happier than before. Maybe he really loves her, and she loves him in return."

"I seriously hope not. Love is a weakness, Frederick, something that makes you lose focus and saps your will to fight and give you obstacles to do what you need to you. Something you can live without and you are better if you live without it. I would never fall in love!"

Did you really have to jinx it?




The claims of Tragen and Viktoriya, to our misfortune, proved true. Within a few days, the staff assigned to organize our platoon grew from four to over a hundred, including myself, Tanya, and our super-efficient assistants. Worse still was when the compiler machines Tragen had requested arrived, the work began to significantly speed up so that we could almost handle the new mage assignments we were receiving every day.

This meant that Tanya and I had to find a new way to delay the operation and prevent the battalion from being formed.

"What do we do now?" I said regretfully looking at over a hundred applications for mages who had passed the first ballot. Alone, they were more than enough to form the battalion, and new requests came every day.

"We have no choice," Tanya replied, looking at the closed door of the room to make sure it was locked, and no one could hear what we were saying. "We must use an old trick I often used when I was in charge of personnel selection for our old company..."

"An old trick of the company?" I asked, dumbfounded. "And what would that be?"

"Moving the goal-spots and raising the expectations for every candidate," she said in a calm but evil tone of voice. "We must make the requirements for admission to the battalion so difficult and complicated to achieve that no mage could legitimately be accepted."

"Oh yeah, and would you expect we can do th-" but I was cut short, as I realized someone else was in the room.

I looked at him. He was a middle-aged man with light brown grayish hair and a blunt face. He was wearing a colonel's uniform. As soon as I realized the fact, I saluted him.

"Sir!" I said, looking at him with pure terror "Captain Frederick König of the Imperial Army Magical Corp. What brings you here?"

"My name is Colonel Gregorio Von Turner, head of the Mage Battalion Organization Committee." the colonel said. "I am the commander in chief in charge of the organization of the Mage Battalion."

"You are…" I stopped, not understanding what was happening.

It was real? Did Strategic Headquarters send someone to relieve both Tanya and me from the duty of organizing and leading the Battalion? On one hand, it was good, because it could mean that Tanya and I could get the back seat posting we were hoping for. On the other, it could be bad, because it could mean that Strategic Headquarters no longer had confidence in us. And that could have catastrophic consequences for us.

In addition, how did this colonel manage to enter this room unnoticed, while there was only one door and we had it closed and secured?

"Ahaha!" laughed Tanya, and it was then that I realized she had not stood up or saluted the colonel at all. "Frederick, you're such a sucker. You should have seen your face the moment you saw him!"

As she said such, she waved her hands, and the mysterious colonel suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving Tanya and me alone once more.

"Tanya!" I said, my surprise turning slowly into anger "You- you!"

"Yes. That was just an illusion, created through a common optical spell. The voice of the colonel was also magically synthesized." She chuckled. "And you fell for it!"

"Was there a reason for this? Or were you just looking to screw with me for the umpteenth time?" I asked, still angry.

"I wanted to show you. I did not expect you to be so dumb as to fall for it." She laughed some more.

"Show me." I parroted. "Why?"

"Because the fake colonel you just talked with is my idea for saving both of us from having to return to the battlefield."

"Oh yeah? And how?"

"Quite simple!" she smirked. "The imaginary colonel is designed to give orders to the soldiers who appear before him but will, in fact, send them back to their units. In this way, the candidates eliminate themselves."

"And what happens if they find out about the hologram?" I asked.

"That is the scope of the candidate. If he or she is smart enough to see through the deception, then they are smart enough to join our battalion and win a quite unpleasant one-way ticket to Hell. But don't worry" she said, coming nearer to me. "No one is going to pass!"

"And… why?"

"Because the holographic magic which gives the colonel an image of his body and his voice is based on a very common magical optical spell and a magical synthetis, as I told you. However, alongside them is a magic-concealing formula which makes it nearly impossible for anyone who is not a highly skilled mage to detect this as the humbug it actually is."

"Well, someone could still try to touch it and realize it's fake."

"Would you try to touch a superior officer, Frederick?" Tanya smirked. "Let me remind you that this could be seen as an outrage by a superior officer. The penalty for this crime is a demotion and heavy corporal punishment."

I nodded, realizing the truth in Tanya's words. And yet, there was something puzzling to my mind.

"And… are you sure this will be more than enough to ensure that the battalion will never have enough manpower, and as such, we will be free to find a comfortable place in the rear?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean what if by chance some real high-level officer comes here and asks us the reason why we keep refusing people for the battalion? Probably, they will ask you to lower the standards in order to meet the goal. If we were forced to do this, our fate would be sealed."

She nodded, no longer happy. "Your point?"

"I believe we should prepare a contingency plan, should something like this happen," I replied with nonchalance. "A way to counter any request that we bring down the standards to join the battalion to a realistic expectation, to make sure we're never deployed."

She looked at me right in the eyes with an interrogative expression. "And…what would that be?"

I smiled. "Elementary: have you ever seen the movie Full Metal Jacket?"

"I don't think so," she admitted. "Besides work, I had no time for anything else in my old life."

I almost facepalmed. "Oh, come on. It's an iconic film: the one with Sergeant Hartman, the sadistic and tough sergeant who forces his soldiers into inhuman training!"

She nodded. "Yes, I believe I heard something about it. However, what does that have to do with our position?"

"Quite simple, my ice queen: let's imagine that the generals come and want us to lower the admission requirements for our battalion. At that point, I would be able to ask them for more time to reform the recruits and bring their level up to an acceptable standard."

"Even so, we would only delay our deployment, we would not avoid it."

"Yes, but let's suppose that the training regime is too hard, and every one of our recruits decides to quit… then it will be easy to convince high command to abandon the idea."

"An impossible training regime?" she asked, dumbfounded. "You mean…" she started to smile evilly again.

"Of course." I smiled evilly in return. "As my Nardak, it is your job to supervise troop training. Besides, if the time we require to reform the men is unusually short, the general will legitimize us if we kick the recruits around a bit..."

"How much time are we talking?" she asked

"A month."

She looked back. "What? This is too little time to turn recruits into effective soldiers!"

"Is that too little time even to make all of them quit?" I said smugly.

She smiled again, understanding what I have just said to her. "Excellent. You had a very nice idea, Frederick: maybe some of my brains rubbed off on you…"

"I have just one thing I would like to ask you, in return…"

"Oh yeah?" she asked. "And what that would be?"

"I want you to take over the training of the troops in order to make them quit. I mean, I do not want to ruin my reputation if you're available to cement yours further. And, frankly, I do not like to play the part of Hartman…"

"Don't you worry about that, Frederick! My holographic colonel will take care of it. And if what you suggested were to happen…" her evil smile grew three times. "I'll make anyone stupid enough to offer themselves as a recruit regret ever being born..."

 

[RandomDwarf]

Tanya jinxed herself so bad Murphy is laughing in the warp.

Also full metal jacket?!! Dear god those poor recruits will either be in the mental hospital or the biggest and meanest mages around. Also the most creative and cruel bastards on the Rhine front, or wherever they are sent.

Telling Tanya to go full blown all out training from hell and beyond it will help in weeding out the slackers...and in turn endear the troops to our protagonist as he becomes the "beloved leader" of the group!!!

They will fear Tanya and love the protagonist...a perfect combo!

Also you can keep up the training inbetween deployments for newer tricks and strategies...as well as push them to learn, master, and teach the spells they come up with along with writing them down and sending them to headquarters!

 

[Trunko]

@RandomDwarf I love your ideas! Can I use them?

 

[RandomDwarf]

@RandomDwarf I love your ideas! Can I use them?

Click to shrink...

I don't mind, he'll go full steam ahead and build on it...I just like to help expand on ideas for writers to build on.

 

[Trunko]

I don't mind, he'll go full steam ahead and build on it...I just like to help expand on ideas for writers to build on.

Click to shrink...

Still, thank you for your help.

 

[rodon]

I have a feeling that Frederick will insist on a bit more pass / fail testing then Tanya's original plan. Afterwards send out a small grade card to those who were tested or put out a little article in the military news paper.

"How do you test for the qualities needed for joining an elite unit?"
One image shows a sketch of the testing room with the illusion up and a second sketch shows the actual room.
"To those of you who applied for the elite unit, please remember what happened when you showed up, tests can be subtle or blatant."

 

[ivanacco1]

After tanyas and frederick wonderful training hour, i imagine that the mage corps will look like the death korps of krieg but even more lethal.
Death korps of frederick,sounds good.

 

[Trunko]

Chapter 82: Preparing the Training Regimen​

"It is an illusion created by an ordinary spell formula," Tanya said as she made the fake magic wall that kept the recruiting wizard from seeing us disappear. "The voice itself is also a simulacrum." she waved her hand, and Colonel Gregorio Von Turner disappeared in turn, leaving the table and the chair in front of us empty.

I looked around, looking for possible visual reactions in the people around me. The advantage of being almost in the center allowed me to see everyone's faces without having to make too much effort, which was a good thing, as it allowed me to remain unnoticed.

To my right, Tanya looked ahead with an annoyed air, waiting for any comments from the generals. Behind her, Viktoriya seemed worried. Not even the presence of Tragen, closest to the wall, seemed to reassure her. To my left, on the other hand, the three generals remained completely devoid of expression, certainly intent on thinking what to say. They were the ones I paid the most attention to.

"I can see why you two keep failing people..." General Zettour said, looking at the empty chair. "Now that I've seen your selection process, I can see why recruitment is slow."

I gulped. Tanya's trick of delaying our deployment with her optical trick worked all too well. It had been about a month since we had started the selection of candidates, and we managed far fewer accepted members than we had anticipated. As a result, we were clearly behind schedule with Strategic Headquarters' guidelines. And of course, Strategic Headquarters wanted to send emissaries to understand why, despite the high number of mages who had applied and continued to volunteer themselves for our battalion, our unit had not yet reached its full operational capability.

"A mage should be able to see through this very easily," Tanya explained, obviously without mentioning the camouflage magic that made it very difficult for an inexperienced mage to recognize the trick. "But, out of fifty-five applicants, thirty have been completely tricked and, as such, sent back to their old units. Only twenty people have passed, until now."

It would have been much less, I thought bitterly. if, in a moment of weakness, I had not revealed the trick to Tragen. Obviously it was a mistake, but I did not expect Tragen to share that knowledge to help some cadets pass!

I turned my eyes to Tragen, who was listlessly scratching his finger. Tragen, with the help of Viktoriya, had managed the first part of the talks with the mages who wanted to be part of our unit, taking careful note of their skills and listening to their military experiences. Although this allowed us to thin out the list of candidates from the beginning, Tragen's direct exposure with the recruits led him to take this assignment very seriously, and in some cases take to heart some wizards who, according to him, were more than worthy to join our unit even though they did not meet some of Tanya's specifications. And to make sure they had a chance to prove their worth, Tragen had not hesitated to reveal the holographic trick to them, causing these recruits to pass Tanya's test with flying colors.

I knew about this, I was fully aware of it, but I did not say anything to Tanya or my superiors, nor did I intend to reveal to Tragen that I was aware of his little scam. If I had shown that I was aware of it, I would have had to act accordingly, but as long as I could pretend that I was unaware of it, I had no reason to intervene. Tragen's cheating had not hurt anyone until now, and the fact that he had dared so much, and risked being punished by Tanya for violating directives received, had won my esteem. Obviously, if the thing had risked having serious consequences for me or for our plan, I would not have hesitated to denounce it and report it, but for now, I remained silent and observed.

"For the moment, the mages we have at our disposal are barely enough to form a company and a half," Tanya concluded, looking at the general.

"I see." the general said, looking at both Tanya and I. "Still, I strongly suggest you perhaps lower your requirements somewhat. You have many competent mages who want to join your battalion: I don't think it is wise to refuse so many on a technicality."

"Yes sir," I said. "However, if that is your decision, we will still need time for retraining of the recruits and to devise an acceptable new standard. I won't hide from you that this is a very delicate operation."

"How much time do you need, exactly?" General Zettour asked.

I looked at Tanya with a gleam, before reassuming a more neutral expression to show to the general.

"A month."

Hearing those words, Viktoriya startled. Tragen stopped staring at his nails and stared at me with a frightened expression. Even Zettour's companions were surprised by that answer.

"Only a month?" one of them asked in disbelief.

"Training a new soldier requires at least two years!" the other replied.

"Of course, this is the time just for the basic training," I said. "Then, we will have to do advanced training for specific environments, high altitude combat, air-to-ground and air-to-air attack, large test maneuvers, and simulated operations. Personally, I believe that if you allow us to put in place a level of training that we deem appropriate, and to discipline our recruits as we deem necessary, we could participate in our first real military operation within about... six months, give or take."

"Six months?" one of them spoke up. "This is still…"

General Zettour made a sign with his hand, and the other officer shut up, waiting for Zettour to speak.

"Personally, I do not care about how you discipline your recruits or how much training you put them through," Zettour said, standing up. "You are free to educate them in any way you want, even if you have to get a little rough..."

"Very well sir!" I said as the general and his collaborators walked in front of me.

"Roger!" Tanya spoke up in turn.

Once the general was outside, and Tanya and I were alone with our respective assistants, I noticed something forming on Tanya's mouth. A bigger and more maleficent evil grin, so smug that it could have powered Tokyo for a month if she would have been able to turn her own smugness into energy.

I did not need to talk to her to understand what she was thinking. The general had given us free permission to use a heavy hand with the recruits, and Tanya wanted to make the most of it.

And that was exactly my intention.




Putting together sixty mages who would make up our battalion, overall, was not so difficult. We already had a number of candidates who, although previously rejected by Tanya's test, fully met the requirements, and the number of candidates who had not yet taken the test was still very large. With the help of Tragen and Viktoryia, we selected forty other mages whose backgrounds and service history made them suitable. As far as I knew, none of them would see active service after Tanya's training. I took the same care to select the best staff we had available. In this way, no one would suspect the plan to harass the recruits into giving up.

About a week or so after the actual members of the battalion were properly "chosen", Strategic Headquarters ordered a redeployment to the Imperial Army Training Grounds near Zugspitsche, which had been assigned to us as a temporary training base. The place was not bad, overall: far from the front lines and possible strategic targets of medium-high importance, it was safe from both air raids and enemy offensives. Nevertheless, the base had anti-aircraft and anti-infantry defences, operated by ground personnel who were ordered to assist us during training. Ironically, it was exactly what Tanya and I had hoped to achieve from the beginning.

This did not mean that it was all roses and flowers: the base, besides being very far from any town (which made connections with the rest of the Empire difficult), was located in a small valley surrounded by high mountains and was almost completely covered with snow. The cold outside was biting, even more so when you consider that you would have to get used to it for at least a month.

From the very beginning, as soon as we arrived, Tanya started playing the tough, inflexible, and cruel drill officer. The base was in fact equipped with only one small building, which was to serve both as a barracks and as a command building in which to install our equipment. Contrary to expectations, however, Tanya decided to forbid the recruits from lodging in the building and forced the recruits (including Tragen and Viktoriya) to sleep in small outdoor tents, exposed to the torment of the elements, first of all, the cold. Some recruits tried to protest but were quickly silenced by Tanya, who threatened to order the local garrison to fire on any soldier who tried to enter the building.

While the recruits were reluctantly setting up their tents and preparing to spend the night in the cold, Tanya and I took the opportunity to discuss plans for their training.

"So," I said, looking out the window towards our recruits' little tent city. "I hope you already have some ideas on how to convince these soldiers to give up and return to their units…"

"Of course I have!" she replied, looking coldly at some papers she had on her hands. " To be honest, ever since General Zettour came to ask us to speed up training I've been thinking about the most difficult, dangerous and exhausting regimen I could imagine. To make sure I didn't forget, I wrote them down." She pointed at her papers.

I looked at them. "So, when are you going to start? Tomorrow afternoon? Or right at sunrise?"

"No way! We start right away, in a few hours. First I want to give our recruits time to relax, and then, when they least expect it..."

I gulped. I, too, when I was at the Academy, had had my share of cruel awakenings by drill sergeants, whom I intensely hated and despised. But what Tanya was about to do was even more than she and I had endured.

"And, uh, what time do you think it's okay to wake them up?"

"It's almost midnight," Tanya said, looking at the clock in the room. "so we should get started in three hours."

"At three o'clock of the night?" I asked dumbfounded. "Isn't that a bit too much?"

"No, it isn't," she replied coolly. "If we want to convince these soldiers to give up and go home, nothing is too hard!"

I groaned. She was right: we had to be hard and relentless if we wanted to save our spots in the rear. And yet, I felt a strange sense of compassion, perhaps due to the fact that I knew what it meant to be trained by a ruthless officer.

"And… what kind of training do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Quite simple." she smiled evil once again. "Thanks to some men of our local garrison, I found out that a nearby artillery unit is currently busy conducting some training exercises. Earlier, I sent a message to the commander of the unit to propose a joint training exercise between our forces…"

"Will the recruits be able to endure it?" I asked.

"Of course they will. Physically, at least. Mentally, on the other hand…"

I gulped again. "Of course, as commander of the unit, I cannot officially endorse your sadism…"

"I never asked, my Orzak." She mocked me. "But you are not going to stop me, right? And that is good enough for me!"

"And what is your idea of training, by the way? You are going to order our troops to endure artillery bombardment in order to learn how to manage attacks by heavy cannons?" I joked sarcastically.

"Yes, that's the idea," she replied. "But with something extra..."

 

[Charlezany]

Man I love the military parts of this fic.

Feels like I'm reading Starship troopers from the Drill Seargent's perspective.

 

[RandomDwarf]

wow

this is going to be a blood-bath for the recruits, but those that come out of this training program? the best mages in the world, and utterly loyal to both tanya (Through fear), and Freddy (through love like that of a son/little-brother/father...even if he is kind of young for it!)

 

[NuclearBird]

wow

this is going to be a blood-bath for the recruits, but those that come out of this training program? the best mages in the world, and utterly loyal to both tanya (Through fear), and Freddy (through love like that of a son/little-brother/father...even if he is kind of young for it!)

Click to shrink...

It's pretty much the canon outcome, unless Fritz's (the proper diminuitive of Frederick in German) soft treatment butterflies away some of the trainees' toughness or perseverance.

 

[Trunko]

Chapter 83: Under shells and snow​

I looked at my pocket watch again. It was 2:58 a.m. In a few moments, Tanya would begin the first day of training of the troops and, hopefully, within a week at most even the most tenacious would drop out.

I put the watch away and looked down. Like Tanya, I was dressed in full military uniform and was hovering in the air about ten feet above the ground.

"Tanya, can you hear me?" I asked in my earpiece.

"Of course, Frederick," she replied sourly. "I'd have to be deaf and dumb, as well as blonde, to not hear your voice! What do you see?"

"Nothing that requires our attention. The recruits are quiet. A bit too quiet in my opinion: They haven't even put anyone on sentry duty."

"What?" she asked, amazed. "Are they imbeciles on top of being green now? Have they forgotten the front yet? Don't they remember what happens when you don't stay alert anymore?"

"I believe they do," I responded, looking at the quiet tents under us. "But maybe, because they're in a training facility away from the front, they feel they don't need to stay alert…"

"Guess I'll have to drill them the old fashioned way…" she replied.

It is time. I thought in resignation. In silence, I moved myself a little closer to Tanya's actual position and put myself on alert.

A few minutes later I saw clearly the flick of a spell, and a magic bullet flew towards the camp, striking the tent under which the soldiers had crammed some small supplies. The explosion sounded like thunder, and at the same moment, woke every recruit within earshot.

I looked through my binoculars to see the reactions Tanya's shot had caused. I saw the soldiers running at the wind, after a rude awakening, trying to understand what might have happened. Only a few, already aware of what was happening, remained impassive.

Through the binoculars, I saw Viktoriya with her eyes closed and an expression of resignation. After spending so much time with Tanya, she knew what to expect from her.

"There is your wake-up call!" Tanya shouted at full lungs, her still-smoking gun in her hands. "No need to thank me: thank your esteemed commanding officer Frederick König, who will now address you directly!"

I gulped. Time to face the music.

"Soldiers!" I shouted as loud as I could. "You-"

"Stand at attention!" shouted Tragen's voice, somewhere among the chaos. Some of the recruits, immediately, tried to follow suit.

"Soldiers!" I repeated, this time with a little more anger. "You are here today," I took a deep breath before continuing. "to face one of the deadliest training regimes ever devised. I do not expect all of you to reach the end of it. In fact, I do not expect even half of you to survive the first half! There will be no room for understanding or affection here, just as there is no room for stupid political or racial doctrines. Here you are all equally worthless, unworthy of even being called human beings! Those of you who survive training will become perfect killing machines, messengers of death! Until then, you are scum! Microbes! Spit! And if you cannot survive training, you will at least be nothing! Do you understand me?"

"Sir, yes sir!" some of them shouted in return, while the others kept quiet, looking at me and hearing my words

Very well, I almost grinned. let Tanya have her way with them!

"Very well! This is the first day of your new mage training, or as Captain Degurechaff and I like to call it, the worst day of your puny lives! Captain Nardak?"

"Captain Orzak?" she replied.

"Start your training drill! I'll keep a close watch."

"Roger!" she gave me a friendly, yet evil grin. "I got word that the artillery unit running exercise drills on this area has some old shells that they need to dispose of. So, here is my idea: why not give them a chance for some fun together with us? In addition, I am very sorry to say this, but they do not have much ammo stored for the exercise."

That was when I realized that neither Tragen nor Viktoriya was listening to what Tanya was saying anymore. They had gotten themselves shovels, and they were furiously digging a hole big enough to contain them. Smart guy, I said in my mind, and smart girl.

"They will run dry in about thirty-six hours, minimum."

As Tanya's words revealed the cruel truth to them, some soldiers were almost unable to react. They stood still, repeating the words they heard like a mantra. Too bad, they had to learn to react as quickly as possible.

"Let's begin! Time to start defensive training!" Tanya shouted and she looked at me. I knew what to do.

Immediately I raised my rifle to the sky and pulled the trigger. The special signal bullet, which I had kept in the barrel until now, flew rapidly into the sky, before exploding into a reddish light, visible for miles.

Within moments we heard the sound of artillery firing on our unfortunate recruits. Seconds later, with a sinister hiss, the old shells began to pour into the field.

Seeing the bullets falling towards them, the soldiers who had stood motionless until moments before, incredulous about what was about to happen, found their reactivity back. Frenetic hands threw themselves on the shovels in a desperate attempt to dig a shelter before the bullets could hit them. Only Viktoriya and Tragen, who already had a nice deep hole, simply hid at the bottom.

The first salvo began to hit. They were old munitions, their effectiveness had decayed, but they could still kill if they hit someone at a vital point at sufficient speed. Fortunately, our recruits could always use their magic shields...

It was then that I saw a red flame, and a bullet that was not at all old or in disuse exploded near one of the recruits, who was thrown away by the impact.

"That is strange," Tanya said, in a very ironic tone of voice. "I guess they screwed something up, cause real explosive shells are mixed here as well…"

I looked at her, unable to realize it. Was she behind this?

"Tanya!" I yelled at her. "Did you have to go this far?"

She looked at me. "Of course not. I did not have to go this far. But I wanted to…"


The bombardment continued uninterrupted, for the whole thirty-six-hour window Tanya had given. And for these thirty-six hours, the recruits were forced to remain crouching at the bottom of their foxholes to avoid the potentially lethal blows of artillery, dodging shrapnel as best they could and hoping to survive that terrible ordeal. Curiously, no recruit attempted to leave the area, or give up training. I would have been tempted to admire their tenacity... except what I wanted from them was the exact opposite: for them to drop out and give up.

Finally, after thirty-six hours were up, the artillery shots became more and more sparse, until they stopped completely. An icy wind hissed through the field, carrying the smell of gunpowder. Some soldiers began to emerge from their holes and looked around strangely, trying to figure out if the bombardment was actually over. Others, however, remained hidden in their holes, fearing that it was just a pause and that soon the cannons would start again.

The guns were out of ammunition, so the bombardment had stopped for good. But not the wickedness of Tanya.

"Those thirty-six hours just flew by, huh?" Tanya said, flying all over the battered recruits who were still trying to catch their breath. "Still, knowing you are all supposed to be warriors, you have not had enough fun, yet, right?"

A glaze of fear spread among the recruits down under. They realized it was not over yet.

"I think it is time for you to move to your next training point. You have forty-eight hours to reach it. And you cannot use either defensive spells nor flight magic: if I detect any magic, I will immediately launch a magical heavy artillery strike on you!"

She opened her bag, and took off a little piece of paper, rolled up on itself like parchment from the Middle Ages. She shook it for a moment, so the troops could see it.

"I'll give you one warning though..." she dropped the paper, which then fell right in the middle of them. "Be careful on your way!"

As the recruits desperately tried to figure out the point they were supposed to reach, as well as the path they were supposed to follow, Tanya flew away, turned away from their eyes, and reached me.

"Don't you think that's a little too cruel, even for you?" I said, as soon as she was within earshot. "They just survived a 36-hour bombardment, and now you're training them again without even giving them a short break?"

"I don't want them taking a break!" she hissed at me. "A hard, inhuman training regimen that leaves no room to sleep, eat or even understand what's going on: I doubt that even one of them will be able to survive without giving up."

"Tanya, at the rate you're pressing them, I doubt there'll be anyone who hasn't quit within a week."

"That's the point, dumbass!" she smiled smugly. "The general gave us permission to be a little rough during training. However, if none of our recruits actually manages to end our training regime with success, then the entire project will be put on hold, and we will go back to have a nice, safe place, back at the rear. Have you already forgotten why we're here?"

"I have not," I replied coldly. "However, I can't help but feel sorry for those poor recruits. I mean, the transfer march was one of the tests I hated the most when we were at the Academy. Do you remember that time you convinced us to march at night to buy time? When we arrived, I was practically sleep-walking."

"We also won the training by arriving before any other group," she replied. "Our recruits won't have to be any less if they want to hope to make it to the end."

I stopped cold, realizing that the long walk would not be the greatest danger. "Tanya, don't tell me that-"

"Let's say I took the liberty of making some modifications and additions to the planned test," she said in an almost innocent tone. "First of all, the path our recruits will have to travel is very long and arduous. They will have to go through snow, narrow passages, hostile and dangerous environments. However, they are able to get there without losing sleep... if they took the marked route. But something tells me they'll be making a lot of detours."

"Tanya did you-"

"Yes. Just as I made arrangements with the artillery unit to bombard our recruits with the old training shells, so did I arrange several other units stationed in the area to help us with our march. Further downstream, for example, there is a company of soldiers with army dogs, whom I've asked to find our recruits and capture as many as possible. Of course, any recruit that gets caught will fail immediately. Further up, near the pass, there is a team of sharpshooters whose job is to prevent recruits from crossing. Needless to say, our recruits will be forced to do very long rounds if they want to get to their destination."

"Are you telling me that the actual training you ordered our recruits to perform is to arrive at the point you told them to reach, without being detected, forced to walk all night long as well as the day to make an end with the numberless deviations you will force them to do with no shelter from the cold of food?"

"Of course not, Frederick!" she said in a tone of false reassurance. "I even added some aerial recon our recruits will need to avoid, and I will personally keep an eye on them to make sure they never have a chance to catch their breath."

"You know what? For never having seen the movie, you play a convincing Hartman. He himself would be afraid of dealing with you."

"I'll take that as a compliment..." she replied. "Now, let's move: we have to keep them under watch!"

 

[Charlezany]

The recruits need not worry, God is on their side.

 

[RandomDwarf]

The recruits need not worry, God is on their side.

Click to shrink...

"DAMN YOU BEING X!!!"

I look forward to the sheer asshole/badassery that will come from these two insane beings...plus these mages will be of such renown everyone will want to know how they did it...

when they do...

"Rule 1 of Tanya and Fredericks training: DO NOT SPEAK OF THE TRAINNING!"

"Why are you crying?"

"RULE 2 OF TANYA AND FREDERICKS TRAINNING..."

 

[NZPIEFACE]

She looked at me. "Of course not. I did not have to go this far. But I wanted to…"

Click to shrink...

At least she's more honest in this universe. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing...

 

[Trunko]

Chapter 84: Even Evil Has Standards​

There was something incredibly bleak about flying over a vast expanse of snow and forest as you watch over sixty pained men and women walking beneath you, without even being aware of your presence. Were it a real operation, I could take my rifle and cast an explosive bombardment spell before they even put up any resistance.

Of course, I could go down on them and simulate an attack, only to reproach them for the fact that, once again, they seemed not to pay attention to the sky above them, making them vulnerable to attacks by enemy planes or wizards. Alternatively, I could not attack them and simply blame them for their stupidity.

And yet...

I looked once again at the column of soldiers, with snow on half a leg, clutching themselves in an attempt to protect themselves from the cold and the ever more acute bites of hunger, swearing quietly not to be heard, with no idea of what they would find later and with only the certainty of the time they had at their disposal, which was getting shorter by every second.

Most of them had not slept that night, I knew that for sure. They could have had the time for that had they gone the normal route, but I already knew without needing to think too much, that Tanya had deployed a military police unit with war dogs and magic detectors along the road, with the explicit aim of intercepting and capturing as many recruits as possible.

This had forced these recruits to open a new road through an icy river, where the ice sheets were dangerously thin. Some of the recruits had managed to crawl through it on their bellies and stay dry, but many (especially at first) had tried to cross it standing up and ended up soaked in freezing water. No one had died of hypothermia, but it had made them lose precious time, and now they were all forced to walk day and night to get there in time.

And after they had endured, I could not be crueler by adding more difficulties. Perhaps because, under all my medals, I still had a heart, however small and shrunken, and for this reason, I still had some empathy.

Unlike Tanya.

A sudden wind warned me that something very fast was coming, a few meters above my position. I immediately turned to look.

Initially, I assumed it might be a training plane from the nearby airbase, deployed by Tanya to hunt down recruits. The planes were armed with light and mostly harmless weapons, like very noisy but also very imprecise old machine guns, mostly used to inform the recruits that their position had been discovered, and they had to hide from another simulated air attack. Little more than wreckage, now unsuitable for active combat, and usable only for training pilots or, as in this case, recruits.

However, after a few moments, I realized that the figure that was approaching was too small and petite to be a plane.

"Move, move, you maggots!" Tanya shouted, flying grazing the troops, dispersing them, and making them run for cover. "On the next flight, I will cast an explosive spell on you!"

Tanya's threat had the desired effect and the recruits ran quickly in search of a temporary hiding place from which to protect themselves from the imminent attack. Through binoculars, I saw the recruits preparing for the bombardment, which was not long in coming.

Tanya's shots were not aimed at the exact position of the troops, but they were still very close. Close enough to create a tremendous noise, which even I could hear clearly. So close that it almost knocked the teeth out of your gums. So close, it gave the impression of really being under fire from the bombardment.

"Try to recover, you filthy worms: the war doesn't stop just because you stopped to play hide and seek!" Tanya's voice erupted again, this time with greater cruelty.

Part of me was disgusted. I wanted to fly there and stop everything, let those recruits catch their breath, and give them a break, even a short one, from everything they were suffering. I wanted, and could: my Orzak rank would allow me to interfere, as well as to reprimand or punish Tanya.

Nevertheless, I did nothing. My desire to intervene was great, and it grew every time I saw those recruits forced to sleep standing up, feed on mush and stay alert for every second, but every time I stopped before I could carry out my intentions.

Tanya's training regimen was tough, tougher than any other training regimen I had seen or felt on my own skin, but it was for a reason. It was so rigid on purpose, that it was unsurpassable, so demoralizing that it drove every recruit who suffered under it to give up, and so hard that it was unmanageable.

No recruit was supposed to complete it. In this way, Tanya and I, within a month, would find ourselves without enough soldiers to form the rapid intervention battalion that the general had ordered and had entrusted us with the "honor" of command thereof. Lacking enough soldiers, the project would fail and would return to Strategic Headquarters' archives for re-evaluation. Perhaps it would see the light again, within two or three years, but by then, Tanya and I would be far away, safe and far from danger in the rear. Far from danger, far from strange games of fate, far from what fate Being X had promised us.

Swallowing bitterly, I tried to suppress my charitable instincts once again, and looked the other way, in the direction of the path our recruits were supposed to take.

A difficult and insidious path, passing through a mountainous area beaten by cold winds, prone to avalanches.


"They're about to break," I said aloud.

"What?" replied Tanya, turning to me.

"The recruits," I responded, observing through the binoculars. "I can see the suffering on their faces. They have been marching for almost twenty-four hours, without sleep, food, in the cold, and constantly alert. Even our training, when we went to the Academy, wasn't this hard!"

"Is that not the point?" she gleamed evilly. "Shouldn't you be happy? Soon we won't have to worry about our place in the rear."

I saw a recruit go through the pass. Her face betrayed suffering that I had no difficulty in imagining, accentuated by the frozen tears running down her face.

"Soon we won't have to worry about our recruits either," I said sourly. "Because at this rate, they will wind up dead!"

"You think so?"

"Yes, damn it," I replied. "We have to do something to convince them to pull out before they get themselves killed!"

"Fine, fine," Tanya replied, taking her rifle in her hand and taking aim. "Personally, I didn't want to have to do this. However, if you want those recruits to surrender now, I have no choice but to obey. After all, you are my superior officer..."

"Tanya," I said, realizing that she was up to something. "Don't do anything stupid-?"

"Only what has to be done." she waved nonchalantly. "I will only traumatize them so much that all they can do is give up and drop out of training…."

"Tanya! You are not going to bombard them with a heavy artillery spell, right?"

"Of course not. At least, not directly…" she said, pointing her gun and preparing to shoot.

Before I could stop her, her finger pulled on the trigger and a magic bullet exploded out of the barrel, flying directly at-

-the top of a mountain?

A moment later I realized what was happening: the bullet that Tanya had fired was aimed at a massive accumulation of fresh snow, which had fallen too soon for it to solidify. Tons of fresh snow, on a highly unstable structure, where the slightest change in balance and structure could have devastating consequences.

And Tanya had just added a magic bullet full of explosive potential to the equation, loaded with enough kinetic energy potential to turn that massive accumulation of seemingly harmless fresh snow into a terrible avalanche of unstoppable force.

Few recruits had noticed the bullet that had flown almost a kilometer above their heads. Few even heard it, and even fewer had looked up at the right moment to recognize its silvery flick. Nevertheless, they all heard the rumbling of the mountain, when the kinetic energy of the bullet peeled several tons of snow from its side and looked up in time to see a gigantic mass as white as death hurling down upon them.

Some shouted, some cursed, and then everyone tried to take cover by issuing a now completely useless warning: retreat.

"Tanya, what the hell did you do?" I hissed, looking toward her.

"I just gave them the last drop to make their glasses overflow!" she replied calmly. "Now, we just need to come down and give them the usual drill sergeant talk in order to provoke their pride and make them rebel against us!"

I looked down once again. The avalanche had settled, but there was no sign of possible survivors. Maybe Tanya had really gone too far this time? Had her stunt just killed all the recruits?

Suddenly, one hand emerged from the snow, followed by many others. Some recruits let themselves fall into the fresh snow, unable even to think, while others, seeing some comrades in difficulty, immediately ran to help them.

In a way, it was comforting to see that despite everything they had been through and were going through, the recruits still found the strength to...

"Now you are napping during training, huh?" a female voice echoed all above the area.

With horror, I realized Tanya was no longer beside me. She was now towering over the recruits, her face once again ready to strike them with punishment and fear.

"Do you all want to face a firing squad for dereliction of duty?"

"Hang in there!" one of the recruits yelled. "Are you OK? Breathe!"

It was then that I realized that the recruit who has yelled was standing right above the motionless body of another, shaking him as hard as he could. The other was not moving or breathing.

A sudden freeze of terror ran through my spine. Was he dead? Alternatively, dying? Or… worse?

"Hey! Move, dammit! Say something!" The poor would-be rescuer yelled once more, trying to spin out some life out of his friend.

"No, it cannot be…!" Viktoriya, who was a few meters of distance from them, said.

"Is he dead?"

"We need a medic!"

"Too useless even to dodge an avalanche!" Tanya said, her face betraying no sign of empathy nor piety for the possible victim of her training. "I guess I'll have to do it myself!"

It was a moment, then Tanya threw herself at the two of them. The rescuer was thrown off and landed a few feet away.

And then, Tanya started to kick the motionless soldier, as if he was not moving of his own volition.

"Move, I said!" she yelled

"Captain that is going too far!" Tragen said, coming closer. Nevertheless, Tanya gave him no attention and continued to hit the soldier with force, with increasingly violent kicks.

As I watched the poor soul getting beat the crap out of him without even being conscious, something started to move inside me. At first, it was a feeling of repulsion, of disgust at what Tanya was doing, but then it became stronger, turning first into horror, and then into anger, and finally into fury.

Screw the training! I told myself. There's a limit to everything!

I aimed down and flew at the highest possible speed, landing a few meters away from Tanya and her unfortunate victim.

"Tanya!" I yelled at her. "That's enough!"

"No it isn't" she kept kicking him, making my fury inside boil even more.

"I said that's enough!" I repeated, this time louder.

"And I say that-"

"Captain Nardak Tanya Degurechaff!" I yelled for the third time, with a tone so loud and angry that almost scared myself. "You have three seconds to stop hitting that poor soul and distance yourself from him. This man is unconscious and needs immediate help, not discipline!"

"He needs to get up on his own feet!" she snarled, almost unbelieving of my anger. "And as Captain Nardak, I have full clearance of the training of the troops. You are not supposed to interfere!"

"Don't make me show you what to do with your clearance, captain Nardak! I said you have three seconds to distance yourself from this poor soul. Do it immediately, before I decide to charge you for excessive brutality towards the recruits and unhealthy training, as well as insubordination in face of a direct order and rebellion against your superior officer! Take one-step-back, Captain Degurechaff: That's. An. Order!"

She looked at me with rage. Was she angry because I was interfering, or because I was using my superior officer authority against her?

Either way, I did not care.

"One!" I said, as loud as I could. However, Tanya did not move.

"Two!" I shouted again. Around us, the recruits kept looking at us, without speaking.

Tanya glared, then took one little step back. Then another, and another, until she was too far from the unconscious soldier to hit him again.

As soon as I was sure Tanya would not interfere, I leaned over the motionless soldier. It did not take me long to see what had happened. He had swallowed a lot of snow, and he could barely breathe. He was still alive, but for how long?

Immediately, I placed my hand on his chest and activated a warming magic that I myself had studied and created on the Rhine front. On the Rhine, it had kept me warm when the heat of the fire was not enough to guarantee me a comfortable night, but now, perhaps, it could save a life.

In a few moments, the warmth of my magic melted the snow, turning it into the water, which took up less space than snow. Suddenly, the soldier I was holding under my arm gave a puff, spraying water from his nose.

"What the…" he said as he started to regain consciousness "Sir… what happened?"

"You were unconscious due to having ingested a large amount of raw snow. Captain Degurechaff and I tried to help you not to die, that's all."

I looked at Tanya, who was still glaring at me with a super-death-ray glare of hers. And yet, I wasn't afraid of her.

"Sir!" the soldier said, trying to put himself back on his feet. "I… thank you, sir."

"You don't need to thank me," I replied. "You are a soldier of the Imperial Army. And in the Army, an officer's job is to look after his soldiers and make sure that they can accomplish their goals. Every officer is the father of his men!"

I looked around. The recruits, who until before my arrival seemed frightened and suffering, seemed to have found a kind of peace and quiet and looked at me with a look that I could not interpret.

"That said," I continued. "training is training, regardless of what happens. At this point, you will never be able to reach the designated point before time expires. And judging from what I've seen, many of you are in no condition to continue. IF you want to quit, you are free to ask, but do it or…"

"Sir!" suddenly the soldier I had just rescued said, standing in attention and saluting me. "I will continue the training!"

What? My mind wondered. That's not according to plan...

"Me too, sir!" the soldier who was previously trying to help him said in turn, standing in attention too. "I will not quit!"

No no no no...

"Me neither!" Tragen said a strange smirk on his face. "We can still do it! We will reach our objective!"

Et Tu, Brute? I thought as the shock slowly gave way to horror.

"Leave it to me, sir!"

"And me, too!"

"I can keep going!"

"Let me do it!"

"Hurry up, men!" Tragen spoke back, this time louder, as he was inciting them. "We will finish this march!"

"Right!" The men yelled in response, setting out again and leaving Tanya and me alone with Viktoriya, who was unmoving and looking at them the same way I was doing.

"That… that was…" she said, unable to believe it.

"That was what, Second Lieutenant?" I asked, not realizing I had said that out loud.

Viktoriya froze in fear and looked at us "I… I'll go too!" she yelled, running to reach the others.

What have I done?

 

[RandomDwarf]

The worst thing you could have done...you have them hope to complete the training...or being X just interferedto screw with ya.