1 Volume 1 Chapter 1: The Grey Wall
"Quickly!"
Two sets of feet crunch against the damp floor encased in leaves, one louder than the other. Tall fir-like trees stand on each side of the muddy trail as their pursuers close in. The pair keep running until the reach a short drop from the ground they were standing on. The fall is about 20 feet, enough to kill a grown adult, while the darkness obscures their vision.
Without thinking twice the boy grabs the hand of the girl and leaps off the cliff. He silently finger drew a phrase and a cushion of force propelled them backwards into the cliffside. He grabs a handhold and merges his arm into the stone surface. Once he releases his magic, his arm is fully stuck but he is not falling. The tips of his boots also are merged with the wall. The little girl was now fully embracing him as she stared down into the abyss.
"Andrew" the girl whispered.
"What?"
"Do what you did to yourself to me."
"No."
"Why?"
"Not yet."
The pursuers cautiously approach the cliff. They don't want to get ambushed and shoved into the abyss. One of them is slightly glowing a faint yellow glow. He is the commanding officer and is dressed in fancy navy blue Napoleonic era uniform with a breastplate over it and a saber at his side. All other soldiers wore basic uniforms with simple light armor with rank insignias and carried torches and short carbines (AU: like cavalry carbines, one shot. They are kinda like Portuguese arquebusiers).
"Fuck, where did they go?"
"Sir, they jumped off the cliff."
The blue officer turned to his subordinate.
"Nonsense the royalty wouldn't just kill themselves like that, their precious crown prince even sacrificed his life for them."
The officer pointed a gloved hand towards a crew of three behind him.
"You three stay here, company on me!"
The officer and the rest of his eight man squad (minus the three so a total of 12) turned left and continued along the trail.
A few hours passed and neither the company nor the runaways showed up. The three guards became restless.
"Fucking donkey of an officer. Wait here my ass. With this pouring rain we are better dead than in the abyss."
"Fuck off Smyth, that's the last thing I want."
"Hey brother (AU: not actually brothers) I'm serious stop bickering, when this war ends I'm going home. I'm done with this crap. For the people my ass, 3rd prince Joseph can suck it."
"Watch your tongue Matthias. If the officer catches you, you're going to be hanged for treason."
"What treason? We already won the war! Crown Prince Phillip is dead, his army is also gone. The Grand Duke Nina is in prison and her faction is being purged. Thanks to General Nelson betraying them we easily swept their forces."
"What about the Master Marshal? He's still at large! Not to mention we have a very important task at finding the 4th and 2nd prince and princess."
Just then the officer returned with his squad. He beckoned the one named Smyth over to him and Smyth gave him a compass. He turned around a few times, adjusted himself then turned a bit more until he was satisfied. Then the entire company left and headed back along the trail.
Mhmmmfffff (AU: my poor attempt at muffled crying)
"Shhhhh, Adriana, quiet down. This might be a feint maneuver."
Sure enough the trio circled back and did a final check.
"Nothing here."
"Clear."
"Clear."
The three then regrouped and hurried back to their company. After they faded out of sight and footsteps turned to silence, the two emerged from the cliffside.
Once they reached the top Andrew collapsed into the arms of Adriana.
"Damn, that took way too much magic power and stamina to hang like that."
"Brother, we need to keep going. They are not just going to give up here. We need to reach Wallaceburg. The Master Marshal said that he would meet us there in two days from now."
"I know I know."
Andrew swatted Adriana's fingers which were systematically poking his cheeks.
"There."
Andrew spotted a cave entrance on the stone wall adjacent to them.
"We need shelter or this rain will kill us."
"Okay."
Then the two struggled to reach the cave. Adriana used her magic to form a waterless bubble around them so that they could climb the rock wall without slipping. Once inside they collapsed dead tired next to one another and unconsciously moved closer to save heat and/or feel more secure.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Warning: not entirely historically accurate
"Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes."
Justin furiously left clicked on a tile on his screen. His tank division was about to capture a tile around Berlin. With this he would encircle the capital of his enemy.
4 Hours ago
Justin just finished his homework. He had an economics paper due that Friday but now was his play time. He logged into his Vapor account and browsed the workshop in Vapor. Then he saw a mod.
"Alt-Monarchy KaiserReich. Seems interesting. I don't like how there is an isekai tag listed here though."
After downloading the mod, Justin booted up Will of Iron II and installed the mod. This mod was set in an alternative Germany 1939. At this time the world was seriously heating up as the vanilla Germany would blitzkrieg into Poland. This would draw Britain and France into the war and explode into the World War Two we know of today.
However this mod takes history down a new path where Operation Valkyrie occurred in 1941 and was to gives rise to Wilhelm X, a made up Kaiser. By this time your nation, the German Empire or simply the Empire, has 99 infantry, 3 mountain, 2 light motorized, 4 motorized, 8 tank divisions and 89% of all German weaponry seized. Majority of the Luftwaffe (AU: German air force) and Kreigsmarine (German navy) defect to your side with their respective commanders since there are ongoing grudges with the army. A good portion of the Heer (German army) also defect. Since Hitler's regime is unpopular in occupied territories of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France, you also obtain their hidden caches of weapons and one million volunteers, broken right? Wrong. You are plagued with numerous debuffs such as:
[Disorganized Army]
All Divisions:
- 120 attack
- 80 defense
- 10 piercing
- 25 organization
[Political Instability]
- 1.5 daily political power (PP)
+ 20% consumer factory
- 20 war support
[Far-Right Protests]
- 30 stability
- 10 war support
+ 15% consumer factories
+ 30% justify wargoal time
[Allied Partisans]
+ 0.3 intelligence gathering speed
+ 5 division speed
+ 0.5 scavenge
[Successor of the 2nd Reich]
+ 10 stability
[Civil War]
- 100 trade deal
- 50 acceptance of fascist diplomacy
+ 50 acceptance of democratic diplomacy
These were some crippling national goals. Justin needed to get rid of some. The best way was to win the civil war quickly. With all of the occupied land except Slovakia since it was a German direct puppet allying with you and taking control of western Austria and Germany the borders were quite large.
"Ah shit. All of the Axis joined the war. At least Japan is staying out of it."
Justin lamented as he was forced to position divisions on the Italian and Hungarian Borders. However not all was bad since the US, UK and her colonies were lend-leasing war materials and oil to Justin's Empire. Suddenly a revolt occurred in Prague.
"What the hell."
Justin selected his tank group with motorized divisions and place them under General Erwin Rommel. He was one of the Heer officers who defected to Justin's side. On orders to assist the Czechoslovakian rebels they pushed through Austria to reach the borders of Czechoslovakia.
"Whew."
Justin took a swig of water from a cup on his desk and then resumed his game. Rommel has made it to Prague and saved two Czechian divisions who were about to be overrun. Two other Czechian divisions were wiped out. With this all of Austria and the majority of Czechia was under Imperial control. Now it was just Berlin in the way.
Justin reassigned Rommel to the West German theater with Erwin von Manstein who was in control of 24 infantry divisions. Together under supervision from field marshal Gunther von Kluge they pushed towards Berlin. Soon the tanks broke through German lines as imperial tank divisions thundered up the Autobahn.
"5 hours, 4 hours, 3 hours..."
Justin was counting the approximate time until a full encirclement of Berlin
"Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes."
Justin rapidly muttered as he spammed the left click.
"2 hours, 1 hour..."
Justin felt the urge to check the time; 6:37 AM.
"Shit."
Justin then slumped forward and passed out.
