Vote closed
World On Fire: Shadow Ops [a Fantasy WWII Quest]
- Thread starter Zoosmell
- Start date
- Mature Fantasy Alt. History
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Tapping into that officer money.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Right, we have officer's paycheck. At least 150$ per month.
All Guns Blazing pt. III
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] Straight to business
Anytime you get a message sent to you via an invisible ink note in a mail-order catalogue, it's generally important. As much as you'd love to at least get something to eat at the Sherlock Holmes Arms, you conclude that you just don't really have time.
You step through the guarded doors and immediately notice something is... off. Even at this hour in the middle of the day, there are a few people milling about in the foyer, and of those who notice you, a few give you very strange looks.
Like they feel sorry for you.
You put it out of your mind and head through the labyrinthine halls of SHADOCOM HQ. Newcomers often joke that it is "bigger on the inside", only to be shocked when it really is. It has to be, to fit so much room in a city built before cars, trains, or suspension systems.
You pass a few security checks along the way, and as you pass each one the sensation that something is wrong only increases. The war in North Africa may still be a balancing act, but as far as you know SHADOCOM has been doing fairly well in its operations. Certainly your squadron has been doing very well against the Luftwaffe. New brooms, well-maintained rifles, and well-kept Spitfires cover a lot of the bases skill alone can't.
Your concern becomes visible on your face as you reach the briefing room. You reach for the door, only to turn as you hear - then see - M approaching you with an unreadable expression.
"Saitou. My office, first, then you can join the briefing."
Your eyebrows retreat further into your hairline as you follow him to his office. It's not a long walk, but it is unfamiliar. He rarely has anything to say to individual agents unless he's commending them - which he usually does in the briefing room anyway - or he has information of a fairly personal nature. You just got letters from family today, and you're sure if any personal information was coming, you would have been directed to the bank of telephones in the building instead of towards the briefing room.
M's office, much like the briefing room, has a distinct feel of British aristocracy, though the office has more of a nautical theme befitting his official position in Naval Intelligence. Much more blues and silvers than reds and golds. He offers you a seat, and you oblige, sinking slightly into the fabric cushion.
"Allow me to preface this by saying I was... against, this transfer, but your own Army Air Corps was insistent, on it. It does not help that both your Navy and Marine Corps have tried and may try again to poach you from the Air Corps. The Navy especially. And the locale is part of why I am telling you here, separately, instead of in the briefing room with the others."
"Sir?" you ask, confused.
"Your team will be heading to Calcutta. The equipment necessary to run SHADOCOM operations throughout Southeast Asia, China, and the Pacific are still being moved to India, but there should be enough already present to work with. They will be leaving on the fifth, so their next few days will be spent packing and preparing. Once there, you will primarily be conducting operations in the Southeast Asian and the Southwest Pacific Theatre, but if the Central and South Pacific Areas have need of your team, you will no doubt go. It's a very wide area, but you will be joined by Easy and George teams by the end of July."
"You, however, will be stopping first in Melbourne, to..." He pauses, his face displaying what is - for him - a surprising amount of distaste with the rest of his sentence. "...'ensure' your loyalty to the United States of America. It appears that of the generals and admirals you Yanks are operating in the Asia-Pacific Theatre, there are enough to disbelieve you have already demonstrated it to require this before they will allow you to participate in special operations in the theatre."
[ ] React (Remember - you're Japanese-American, and so far Japan has been winning the war)
Anytime you get a message sent to you via an invisible ink note in a mail-order catalogue, it's generally important. As much as you'd love to at least get something to eat at the Sherlock Holmes Arms, you conclude that you just don't really have time.
You step through the guarded doors and immediately notice something is... off. Even at this hour in the middle of the day, there are a few people milling about in the foyer, and of those who notice you, a few give you very strange looks.
Like they feel sorry for you.
You put it out of your mind and head through the labyrinthine halls of SHADOCOM HQ. Newcomers often joke that it is "bigger on the inside", only to be shocked when it really is. It has to be, to fit so much room in a city built before cars, trains, or suspension systems.
You pass a few security checks along the way, and as you pass each one the sensation that something is wrong only increases. The war in North Africa may still be a balancing act, but as far as you know SHADOCOM has been doing fairly well in its operations. Certainly your squadron has been doing very well against the Luftwaffe. New brooms, well-maintained rifles, and well-kept Spitfires cover a lot of the bases skill alone can't.
Your concern becomes visible on your face as you reach the briefing room. You reach for the door, only to turn as you hear - then see - M approaching you with an unreadable expression.
"Saitou. My office, first, then you can join the briefing."
Your eyebrows retreat further into your hairline as you follow him to his office. It's not a long walk, but it is unfamiliar. He rarely has anything to say to individual agents unless he's commending them - which he usually does in the briefing room anyway - or he has information of a fairly personal nature. You just got letters from family today, and you're sure if any personal information was coming, you would have been directed to the bank of telephones in the building instead of towards the briefing room.
M's office, much like the briefing room, has a distinct feel of British aristocracy, though the office has more of a nautical theme befitting his official position in Naval Intelligence. Much more blues and silvers than reds and golds. He offers you a seat, and you oblige, sinking slightly into the fabric cushion.
"Allow me to preface this by saying I was... against, this transfer, but your own Army Air Corps was insistent, on it. It does not help that both your Navy and Marine Corps have tried and may try again to poach you from the Air Corps. The Navy especially. And the locale is part of why I am telling you here, separately, instead of in the briefing room with the others."
"Sir?" you ask, confused.
"Your team will be heading to Calcutta. The equipment necessary to run SHADOCOM operations throughout Southeast Asia, China, and the Pacific are still being moved to India, but there should be enough already present to work with. They will be leaving on the fifth, so their next few days will be spent packing and preparing. Once there, you will primarily be conducting operations in the Southeast Asian and the Southwest Pacific Theatre, but if the Central and South Pacific Areas have need of your team, you will no doubt go. It's a very wide area, but you will be joined by Easy and George teams by the end of July."
"You, however, will be stopping first in Melbourne, to..." He pauses, his face displaying what is - for him - a surprising amount of distaste with the rest of his sentence. "...'ensure' your loyalty to the United States of America. It appears that of the generals and admirals you Yanks are operating in the Asia-Pacific Theatre, there are enough to disbelieve you have already demonstrated it to require this before they will allow you to participate in special operations in the theatre."
[ ] React (Remember - you're Japanese-American, and so far Japan has been winning the war)
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Hmm, that doesn't bode good. And it doesn't even seem the "humoristic sorry" they feel for us, like having bunch of greenhorns assigned into your team.
Oh boy, though honestly we shouldn't be that surprised.
Hmm, I can see he being indignant over this, considering everything she has done for the war effort.
- Location
- USA
Here's a random thought: If we fail the DC for the security check and get sent state-side to be sidelined at a desk job for the rest of the war, will it count as "winning" the quest? Because we'll have successfully made it through.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
So, the rub about this one is that...per her background and other materials, Shizuko didn't really start -that- loyal to the US; she's just anti-Nazi. Anti-Japanese sentiments were already weighing on her and the intro was that she wanted to leverage service in the European theater to help relocate family members out of the US and into the UK, even given the Blitz.
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
Non-standard game over, like the endings of Nier:Automata where 2B and 9S just run away. Or where 2B eats a fish and fucking dies.
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- Location
- USA
Oddly enough, that sounds like a reasonable question to me--if her loyalties are on such shaky grounds, why is the US military insisting Shizuko be sent to the Pacific theater instead of leaving her in Europe?
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
A big part of the reason is that the United States, even with as much of a population as it has, simply does not have enough witches with combat experience to go around. Or magical people of fightan age in general - this war will involve a substantial percentage of Earth's non-mundane population. And right now, the US is focusing on the Pacific.
Part of the lack is due to pure numbers, and part of it is because the US military administration, like that of the English a few years ago, has spent the past several months running around like a headless chicken figuring out how to train non-mundanes, how to classify them, what branch to put them, and how to integrate them into existing units - if at all.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
[X] You're angry that they still question your allegiances, even after all you've done for the war effort, but reign it in because in the end you're not that surprised. USA has made it very clear what it thinks of those with Japanese ancestry, and with how the war has been going in the Pacific theatre the generals and admirals must be extra paranoid.
[X] You're angry that they still question your allegiances, even after all you've done for the war effort, but reign it in because in the end you're not that surprised. USA has made it very clear what it thinks of those with Japanese ancestry, and with how the war has been going in the Pacific theatre the generals and admirals must be extra paranoid.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Why is that, though? Historically the agreed upon strategy between US & UK was that Germany was first while the US would just be holding on in the Pacific. While that didn't up being quite strictly true for awhile due to a lack of ability to really push into continental Europe, it would seem more sensible that assets already in place on the European front would instead get assigned to the North African theater in support of Operation Torch (or its equivalent here) as that starts ramping up.
Pulling assets in place that are already experienced fighting the Nazis (ie have real experience with their tactics and materiel capabilities) to move them halfway across the world is counterproductive.
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Especially when there's no question of willingness or ability to fight the Nazis...but there is for fighting the Japanese.
- Location
- Dethklok
[X] You're angry that they still question your allegiances, even after all you've done for the war effort, but reign it in because in the end you're not that surprised. USA has made it very clear what it thinks of those with Japanese ancestry, and with how the war has been going in the Pacific theatre the generals and admirals must be extra paranoid.
- Location
- Pittsburgh PA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] You're angry that they still question your allegiances, even after all you've done for the war effort, but reign it in because in the end you're not that surprised. USA has made it very clear what it thinks of those with Japanese ancestry, and with how the war has been going in the Pacific theatre the generals and admirals must be extra paranoid.
Vote closed
All Guns Blazing pt. III
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[><] React
Oh.
So that's how it is.
Your kill count, including other witches, is somewhere north of eighty you think - higher than any other American witch on the planet, and in the top five of all Allied witches in Europe, and the Brits at least have no doubts as to your loyalty to the Cause... at least in the realm of fighting the Hun.
Apparently, that's just not enough for your own countrymen.
You feel your blood begin to simmer as your thoughts drift to what your former countrymen have already done - in China, in the Philippines, in the Dutch East Indies - not that the Stars & Stripes regularly lets you forget, or that you're even willing to do so.
Your anger and indignation clearly shows on your face, not that M seems terribly surprised, but you rein it in without too much difficulty. Outwardly, anyway. You relax muscles you didn't know you were flexing and your hands stop torturing the innocent armrests of the chair you're sitting on.
"I... understand," you force out, suddenly thankful that the soundproofing in the building is of such high quality. "It's natural that the brass would be a little... paranoid, about having a Japanese-American-" you almost snarl the word in your emphasis of it "-wanting to fight for the right side of this war. They might be a little suspicious about my intentions."
Deep breath. In, out.
"But I will go where I am ordered. I suppose the British, Dutch, and Australian general officers don't have the same suspicions?"
"Some," M admits, "but none in any position to do anything about their suspicions. It should be of little concern."
"What will happen, in the unlikely event that I fail this... evaluation?"
"You will be given an honorable discharge and rendered unfit for US Service. It is likely, in that event, you will not be allowed back into our military."
Of course. And refusing would have the same result, no doubt.
"You leave two days before the rest of your team, so you should have plenty of time to do whatever the Yanks need of you. Midnight, on the third. When you arrive in Melbourne, it should be nearabouts nine thirty - I am told that at such distances, leyline transport is not quite so instant."
So midnight to morning, then. You idly wonder what Australians eat for breakfast.
"That is all I had for you personally," he says, as he gets up. You follow him to the briefing room.
You don't learn much more than you did from M in his office at the briefing. The Calcutta office doesn't have any major supernatural projects or plans in the immediate future, and most of your activities there are expected to involve training up locals and new recruits - Calcutta is planned to be a base equal in manpower and capability to Baker Street, so as to take some of the load off.
You have a little over a day to prepare for your trip to Melbourne, what do?
[ ] Train in... (It will be assumed that you've been training in this in your free time since Malta)
- [ ] Flight maneuvers
- [ ] Shooting
-- [ ] Weapon type?
-- [ ] On land
-- [ ] In air
-- [ ] Both (2 rolls, result is the average)
- [ ] Swordsmanship
- [ ] Magecraft
-- [ ] Potioneering
-- [ ] Wind magic
--- [ ] Offensive
--- [ ] Defensive
--- [ ] Utility
-- [ ] Spell shooting
[ ] Do something else (Write-in)
[ ] Skip straight to Melbourne
Training: I roll 1d20. A natural 20 adds a new perk. A natural 1 adds 1 Difficulty in that area for the rest of the chapter until you unlearn your bad training. Anything in between lowers the number needed to gain a perk in that area - for example, if you roll a 15, the next time you Train that skill, you only need a 5 to gain a perk. Anything over 10 also adds 1 Accuracy to that skill for the rest of the chapter.
Oh.
So that's how it is.
Your kill count, including other witches, is somewhere north of eighty you think - higher than any other American witch on the planet, and in the top five of all Allied witches in Europe, and the Brits at least have no doubts as to your loyalty to the Cause... at least in the realm of fighting the Hun.
Apparently, that's just not enough for your own countrymen.
You feel your blood begin to simmer as your thoughts drift to what your former countrymen have already done - in China, in the Philippines, in the Dutch East Indies - not that the Stars & Stripes regularly lets you forget, or that you're even willing to do so.
Your anger and indignation clearly shows on your face, not that M seems terribly surprised, but you rein it in without too much difficulty. Outwardly, anyway. You relax muscles you didn't know you were flexing and your hands stop torturing the innocent armrests of the chair you're sitting on.
"I... understand," you force out, suddenly thankful that the soundproofing in the building is of such high quality. "It's natural that the brass would be a little... paranoid, about having a Japanese-American-" you almost snarl the word in your emphasis of it "-wanting to fight for the right side of this war. They might be a little suspicious about my intentions."
Deep breath. In, out.
"But I will go where I am ordered. I suppose the British, Dutch, and Australian general officers don't have the same suspicions?"
"Some," M admits, "but none in any position to do anything about their suspicions. It should be of little concern."
"What will happen, in the unlikely event that I fail this... evaluation?"
"You will be given an honorable discharge and rendered unfit for US Service. It is likely, in that event, you will not be allowed back into our military."
Of course. And refusing would have the same result, no doubt.
"You leave two days before the rest of your team, so you should have plenty of time to do whatever the Yanks need of you. Midnight, on the third. When you arrive in Melbourne, it should be nearabouts nine thirty - I am told that at such distances, leyline transport is not quite so instant."
So midnight to morning, then. You idly wonder what Australians eat for breakfast.
"That is all I had for you personally," he says, as he gets up. You follow him to the briefing room.
You don't learn much more than you did from M in his office at the briefing. The Calcutta office doesn't have any major supernatural projects or plans in the immediate future, and most of your activities there are expected to involve training up locals and new recruits - Calcutta is planned to be a base equal in manpower and capability to Baker Street, so as to take some of the load off.
You have a little over a day to prepare for your trip to Melbourne, what do?
[ ] Train in... (It will be assumed that you've been training in this in your free time since Malta)
- [ ] Flight maneuvers
- [ ] Shooting
-- [ ] Weapon type?
-- [ ] On land
-- [ ] In air
-- [ ] Both (2 rolls, result is the average)
- [ ] Swordsmanship
- [ ] Magecraft
-- [ ] Potioneering
-- [ ] Wind magic
--- [ ] Offensive
--- [ ] Defensive
--- [ ] Utility
-- [ ] Spell shooting
[ ] Do something else (Write-in)
[ ] Skip straight to Melbourne
Training: I roll 1d20. A natural 20 adds a new perk. A natural 1 adds 1 Difficulty in that area for the rest of the chapter until you unlearn your bad training. Anything in between lowers the number needed to gain a perk in that area - for example, if you roll a 15, the next time you Train that skill, you only need a 5 to gain a perk. Anything over 10 also adds 1 Accuracy to that skill for the rest of the chapter.
- Location
- USA
[
] Write-in: Pack her things, say her good-byes, and distract herself from her black thoughts with one of her new books
I mean, this is what I'd vote for if this were solely about what she'd do on her last day, but the training she's been doing is obviously more important.
] Write-in: Pack her things, say her good-byes, and distract herself from her black thoughts with one of her new booksI mean, this is what I'd vote for if this were solely about what she'd do on her last day, but the training she's been doing is obviously more important.
Zoosmell
Blind Idiot Arcana
- Location
- Kansas
[
I mean, this is what I'd vote for if this were solely about what she'd do on her last day, but the training she's been doing is obviously more important.
You can, tho. The training vote just retroactively makes it so whatever you vote for is what you've been training for in the past month or so.