Courtly Chronicles 6

[Tanya Degurechaff von Goethe aka Tenya Deguchiya aka Archduchess von Goethe, circa 1926, age 12]

The war was not going well. The Russy Federation had declared war shortly after mage recordings of the evacuation of Arenne were circulated, although Tanya made sure to similarly distribute a small prepared statement by themselves to help defray any panic on the international scene. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect on the communist leadership, with them publicly denouncing it as capitalist propaganda from the bourgeois magical nobility. Given the communist party’s stance against mages, this made some amount of sense, but it still seemed a bit extreme of a reason to declare war.

But they didn’t need a good reason to declare war against the Empire, just something that the international community was willing to look the other way for. The Emperor rightly denounced Russy aggression, but given that the only part of the war that wasn’t fighting tooth and nail in guerilla combat supported by foreign powers was Dacia, there wasn’t much the Emperor could do besides prepare for the enemy invasion.

But Mary was ready. Tanya had wished they had some concrete examples of the USSR’s atrocities to give her, but while they could give detailed recounts of the strategies the Chinese Communists used to genocide the Uyghur, they were less educated on the matter of the Soviets. Something about Ukraine? Which country was that again in the European word jumble? Tanya distinctly remembered engineered famines being mentioned as part of the Communist playbook back when there were those meetings about possible interventions…

Nevertheless, Mary was prepared to support operations, attached to Colonel Weiss’s rapid response force. There was only so much Tanya could pile on the girl’s plate before Tanya’s attempts to keep the teenage wonder weapon off of the charnel pits of the battlefield would become too blatant for the Empire to overlook.

Still, as the Empire had already conscripted every single capable B and higher ranked mage over the age of ten, as much as the concept sickened Tanya, the current population of military mages was all that would be available. Even the warmongers of the General Staff balked at ordering a class of exclusively preteens into basic training, which was all that was available for conscription after the last mage draft, two years ago.

Well, there was still the option of conscripting mages already tasked with vital roles, such as orb design, development, and manufacture. That would be a move of true desperation,

But without a class, that meant that Tanya had to return to the palace. Further, Visha was re-assigned to instead assist Mary in both combat and more mundane matters. She didn’t really have any useful orbless magic to her name, just a few party tricks (Tanya chuckled to themselves at the thought), but it just wasn’t enough progress for the General Staff to deem it appropriate to maintain an A-rank mage to the task.

Now for phase… four? One was getting some kind of military support position to forestall conscription more securely, two was the magical development position to gain actual respect, three was the part where they became internationally known… Yes, phase four of the plan to remain comfortable in this life: now that Tanya had some diplomatic presence, through that recording, they can get the ears of diplomats and, with hope, the Kaiser.

To that end, Tanya’s first move upon their return to the palace was to attend a dinner without the oversight of the Court Wizard and her nominal guardian, Archduke von Goethe. As per the results of phase two, the Archduke was able to formally declare Tanya his heir to the position of Court Wizard without any pushback. Thus, there was nothing stopping Tanya from not only attending important events not only with him, but on his behalf. As Archduke von Goethe hated attending events that took him away from his research…

It was all coming together. After weeks of schmoozing and gathering respect by having actual accomplishments to their name, they finally got to take the Archduke’s place at the Kaiser’s side in a real war planning session. Perfect.

“So you see, your majesty, due to the logistical difficulties I have outlined, an invasion into the Russy Federation will be disastrous if begun any sooner than after the muddy season in the spring.” Explained the harried general in the latest wartime meeting that the Kaiser had ordered. Kaiser Wilhelm III was, in Tanya’s opinion, rather indulgent of the military, but they were now understanding that this indulgence came at the price of micromanagement.

From what Tanya could gather, the Kaiser frequently interfered with the course of the war, demanding this or that strategic decision. After some questioning of the assistants, the ones who moved the pieces on the Kaiser’s impressively large strategic map of the Empire’s conflicts, the decisions weren’t exactly bad, but changing plans always had an inherent inefficiency that the generals complained about once the Kaiser leaves.

“Just get that stuff we need, invade during the winter, and dig in for the spring!” The Kaiser replied, which was, as Tanya understood it, the conventional solution to Russian winters. Er, Russy winters. The frozen ground was quite traversable, if one had sufficient winter gear and had adequately winterized the equipment, one could conduct a war in the warmer parts of the country even during the winter. Oh, assuming one took into account the fact that the Russy armies will burn fields and otherwise ruin any sort of supplies you could use to supplement your supply lines.

As everyone looked at the general, General Wittlesbach, if Tanya heard correctly, pretended to think over the Kaiser’s ‘brilliant’ decision, Tanya adjusted their stuffy dress a bit. Screw it. One temperature control formula later, and the many layers of clothing were pleasantly cool. Tanya mentally growled once more at this weak body that Being X had saddled them with. In their old body, they could wear a parka during the summer while drinking steaming fresh coffee and be just fine; in this one, with just a few layers in the late parts of summer? Unacceptable. Worse, they couldn’t even maintain the physical regimen that Nezumi used, which they blamed on the inadequate nutritional science.

It was during these musings that Tanya noticed that people were looking at them. “Oh, my apologies, your majesty.” Tanya said. “I was… contemplating how magic might be bent to solve the issue at hand. Did you have a more specific question?”

The Kaiser hummed at Tanya’s polite ‘agreeable underling’ facade. Were they not obsequious enough? “Magic can be used to resolve freezing issues, correct?” He asked.

Tanya thought through the question. “With the current state of things, I would not recommend it, your majesty.” Tanya picked up one of the tiny models, one of the ones representing magic detector stations. “Current aerial mage doctrine” That Tanya wrote, “centers around an awareness of enemy artillery and air strike capability, and using that knowledge to allow special magical operations in places where the enemy knowing their position is irrelevant, such as urban combat and boarding operations.” It was a tactic that the enemy nations were copying, mind you, but the Empire’s mages were better at it so that worked out. It also helped that illusion spells only had a signature on the illusion, not the caster, so there were some interesting tricks there. Dual-core orbs were an incomparable advantage when it came to mixing in illusions with their operations. “Russy mage detectors are widespread in their coverage, and their artillery is plentiful. While some logistical easing could be done by assigning some mages to the task, it could not be done near the fronts, where it would be most needed, without placing a big artillery target on the vehicle in question.” One side effect of hand-held computation and having dozens of soldiers with effectively bachelor’s degrees in mathematics is fiendishly accurate artillery, on all sides of the conflict. Despite denying themselves flight mages on what Tanya assumed was paranoia, the Russy are no exception to this. They still used C class mages to operate magic detectors, after all. “Most magical offensive operations will be significantly more difficult on the eastern front.” Naturally, the fact that artillery is the favored means of dealing with enemy mages on the ground meant that defensive operations could be backed by magical might with much less ability for the enemy to do much about it.

The Kaiser seemed to accept this explanation. “Maybe supply runners? How much can a mage carry?”

Tanya immediately replied, having done this math before: “In normal conditions, our single core orbs can allow freight of approximately five hundred kilograms. Dual cores can go up to eight hundred. In Russy winter conditions, I’d estimate… a thirty percent drop. Three-fifty and five-sixty.”

The Kaiser was fortunately educated enough to wince at the numbers. “That’s not much…” It was pretty anemic compared to airdrops from planes, that much is true. It could be done, but it would tie up basically all of the mages assigned to that front to make work.

“If the orbs were updated with optimized formulas, efficiencies could be gained.” Tanya acknowledged. “But no more than an extra twenty percent, I’d think.” Wait. “If one used a mage to enable a plane to more easily send cargo, that could perhaps improve matters.” What was the cargo capacity of the Empire’s planes?

General Richtoffen, the closest thing the Empire has to the top authority on air operations with planes, raised his thick eyebrow. “We do have a few bombers that can carry multiple tons.” He admitted. “If a mage can stop the crates from going splat on the ground it should work.”

“It would be much simpler, if one wanted to simplify logistics over rough terrain, to use magic to allow the transport of cargo from a plane to the ground. As long as the deployments are far enough away from places where the Russy retain air superiority, it would be safe.” Tanya said, laying out an alternative plan. Realizing that they had drifted rather far from the Kaiser’s idea, they quickly added: “Excellent thinking, your majesty.” The specific numbers were perhaps a bit iffy, but honestly, baiting out Russy’s fighter planes and counter-ambushing them with mages could take out a few dozen of them before the Russy catch on to the ruse. It was worth trying.

That empty flattery completely deflated the Kaiser’s building annoyance. “Yes, one of you work out the specifics. Now, how much money is it going to take to equip the army with what they need to fight in Rus?”

General Wittlesbach shook his head. “It’s not a matter of money, your majesty. The Albish have made imports near impossible, and as we are without a secure trading partner with such supplies, we can only supply a single army group for winter operations.” Needless to say, that was woefully inadequate to deal with an offensive against the Russy Federation.

One of the other advisors, this one more diplomatic, snorted. “It’s galling, how they don’t even need a formal blockade to deny us critical war assets.”

That stopped Tanya short. “Wait, shipping isn’t being physically blocked?”

“No.” Replied the advisor. “As we are not formally at war with the Allied Kingdom, they are limited to less direct means of blocking commerce. Denying us usage of the Suez, impressing on other governments to not do business with us, etcetera.”

Tanya blinked. “Why don’t you just buy from the Americans, then?” They still have a military industrial complex, right? In the future, their government was a puppet to corporate interests, the only reason Tanya wouldn’t call it a literal plutocracy was because I-Island was a thing, and it fit that description much better.

“They’re too busy supplying the Francois.” The advisor replied.

“And?” Tanya asked rhetorically. “They’re just war profiteering, it couldn’t be that hard to find a few businesses willing to sell warehouses of winter clothing and antifreeze to us.” Whether such material could be sourced in time for a winter offensive was a completely separate matter. “At worst, they’ll price gouge us.”

The Kaiser looked very interested in Tanya’s suggestion. “Well, Duke Brunswick?” So that was his name. “How possible would that be?”

Brunswick looked lost at the question. “Er… Maybe? Last I checked with the treasury on this issue, we’re flush with gold still after looting Parisee’s reserves, affording such supplies is not the issue, arranging the deal would be the primary conflict point. I would defer to Sir Bernhard on how such a thing would be arranged.” Kurt von Bernhard was the head of the Empire’s intelligence branch. Spies would be the ideal way of arranging a clandestine deal for supplies, after all.

Soon enough, with enough nudges from Tanya’s corner of the table, the highest level advisors were deep into what would no doubt be a boondoggle famous enough for the history books. Well, if the invasion actually happened.

“Your majesty, I have a question.” Tanya asked, deep into the planning of the actual offensive. They had probably generated enough goodwill with their suggestions to get an honest answer. It was time.

Wilhelm III had a big goofy grin on his face as he examined the movements the aides were making on his strategy board. It reminded Tanya of Nezumi when she was playing that tabletop wargame she learned while attending UA. Perhaps they could introduce the Kaiser to the game if he survives the war? He’d probably like it. “I am listening.” He said, having gotten too comfortable to keep up the same imperial mein he did at the start of the meeting.

“What is our endgame with this offensive?” Tanya waited patiently for the question to register in the Kaiser’s head. After a moment, his smile faded and his brow furrowed. He turned to face Tanya, ignoring the movements of the aides, who slowed and stopped as they glanced worriedly at each other. Before Wilhelm III could continue, Tanya continued. “Clearly, the Russy Federation is too large of a country to conquer in its entirety, even if we had thrice our army. Conventional endgames, as I understand things, involve securing some portion of their territory, then agree to concede some of it in order to keep the rest at the end of the war, or perhaps just demand reparations for their unprovoked invasion after removing their ability to wage war against us without bothering to seize territory that we would then need to pacify and incorporate later.”

The Kaiser’s expression turned into a deliberately neutral one. Time to backpedal. “I wasn’t here when such matters were discussed previously, of course.” Tanya said, highlighting the fact that the wars have dragged on to a point where peace negotiations should likely begin. “I’m practically a layman when it comes to matters of military strategy, but I was thinking about deep strike targets for our mages and it occurred to me that I was missing that key context.”

The silence that followed Tanya’s statement stretched on far longer than anyone would be comfortable with. Having spent the last couple of months frequently seeing the forty-four year old man, Tanya was fairly confident in their assessment that despite his diplomatic ability having forestalled “The Great War” in comparison to Tanya’s original timeline, he didn’t really have an endgame for the war. He wanted total victory, which would never be possible, and as a result didn’t have a clear idea on what a realistic victory actually looked like.

Granted, it was entirely possible the other European countries were merely being unreasonable, but Tanya didn’t think so. It was more likely, in a situation where practically everyone was ganging up on one country, that the state of things was significantly influenced by the politics of the one country, rather than the others.

The Kaiser wasn’t completely bereft of political acumen, however, so he blustered a bit. “We are to engage in war until they are willing to accept surrender terms.” He decisively stated, such a vague statement already more lenient than what Tanya thought their strategy was. “We fight until victory!” There it is.

“I see. May I see the drafts of acceptable surrender terms? Who would I ask about that? Duke Brunswick?” Tanya asked. The duke in question frantically waved his hands to Tanya, insisting that they desist this line of questioning.

“No…” The Kaiser said, his face neutral. After a few moments of what Tanya bet was furious ass-covering, he pointed to one of his aides: “Where’s Ludwig?” Ah, Ludwig von Wettin. He was a distinctly unfavored advisor, having been the example of what Kaiser Wilhelm III thought of those who encouraged cowardice. What did end up happening to him?

The aide bowed. “He’s still assisting the governor of the Congo, your majesty.” It was a rare noble who actually liked being sent to Africa to oppress the locals. Wettin was not one of them.

“Right.” The Kaiser looked at his collected advisors. “Brunswick, who took over Ludwig’s office?”

“No one, your majesty.” Brunswick replied. “I’ll send for the latest drafts, your majesty.”

“Good. Do that.” The Kaiser replied. “Now, where were we?”

Well, the ball is now rolling, time to continue sucking up to the only man that can actually end this damnable war. “We were speculating on the naval assets the Rus were hiding in the Black Sea, your majesty.” Tanya added, using a laser pointer formula to point to the coastline in question on the giant strategy board.

“Excellent. Admiral, bring up the intelligence on current ship designs for the Russite Navy. Tanya, can my mages capture these vessels?”

“Perhaps, your majesty. Let’s have a look.”

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[Tanya Degurechaff von Goethe aka Tenya Deguchiya aka Archduchess von Goethe, circa 1927, age 12]

Unfortunately, the winter offensive that the Kaiser put so much effort into planning failed to materialize. The good news was that this wasn’t because of tremendous casualties, but instead a failure to secure the necessary supplies, and the Kaiser was wise enough to not insist the operation occur anyway.

What’s more, surrender terms were properly extended towards all of the hostile nations that had substantial amounts of territory occupied by the Empire. They had refused the onerous terms that the Kaiser initially sent, naturally, with the exception of Dacia (who agreed to complete annexation as an equal subordinate, no different than Pullska and Osterry) but the fact that the Kaiser had finally proceeded to figuring out how to actually win the war instead of just fighting it was a massive step forward.

But step four was not yet finished. Tanya still needed to get a communication channel open with the other nations. It would require substantial effort, and possibly some under the table deals that would be unacceptable to the Kaiser if he knows, but ending the Great War was still something Tanya thought possible.

Unfortunately, once the spring muds cleared up, the Rus invaded with a truly tremendous attack. An initial push overran a good chunk of Pullska, but deploying Weiss’s 203rd rapid response battalion halted their advance in their tracks, making sure to record plenty of propaganda footage showing the tremendous might of Mary, the Golden Angel, as she utterly devastated the small portion of the Rus’s army that she was deployed against.

Even with the knowledge that she was destroying Communists, Tanya still couldn’t see that video as anything but villain footage. The fervent praises of that damnable Being X, the self-righteousness, the mass destruction without restraint… It reminded Tanya just why they hated war so much. Worse, she was far sloppier than Tanya knew she could be, and the more private reports indicated that there was at least one serious instance of friendly fire, Mary having accidentally killed dozens of Imperial troops.

It was far from a pyrrhic victory, but to see such a thing even after her extensive education in minimizing collateral damage? It was like she forgot half of her training the instant she got into real battle. Was there some psychological effect from the higher power output that didn’t come up during training? Or was she just a bad student, like Tanya knew she was?

“Mr. Lloyd, welcome.” Tanya greeted in Engl- Albish as the ambassador entered Archduke von Goethe’s office. He was off with Schugel in Dacia, supposedly overseeing the mass magical testing of the population. Tanya wasn’t quite clear what they were actually doing, but suspected it would end in some clandestine research project that Tanya will need to inevitably dismantle… somehow.

Archibald Lloyd was the Allied Kingdom’s ambassador, a stoic man who barely acknowledged the existence of the serving staff, who were thus eager to gossip to Monika about the man. “Allow me to offer you a cup of tea. Monika?” Tanya’s personal maid slash secretary poured two cups of tea, giving one to Tanya and presenting the Albish man with the other, still steaming. If he noticed that it was his preferred brand, which he privately complained about not having at times, he didn’t say anything.

After the ambassador had a chance to sip his tea and partake of the pastries, with Tanya emulating his consumption rate, Mister Lloyd finally got to why he requested the meeting: “My superiors are very concerned, Lady von Goethe, about the troubling footage your propaganda department has been circulating.”

Tanya nodded sympathetically. “I take it that those concerns pertain to magic, then? Ask away.”

“Quite.” Mister Lloyd replied. “Now, while the yield of the explosion spells unleashed by this… Golden Angel aren’t anything remarkable individually, the speed of formation and sheer quantity… It beggars belief.”

“Understandable.” Tanya replied. “As far as I’m aware, the footage has not been doctored in any way, and the magical feats depicted are within the capabilities of Lieutenant Sue.” Seeing Mister Lloyd was unsatisfied with this response, Tanya continued. “The short version is that she has a wonder-orb. It’s not something we can deploy en masse, but it effectively doubles the firepower of our most elite mage battalion.”

Mister Lloyd raised an eyebrow. “...a ‘wonder orb’?”

Tanya nodded. “Magic in this century is a matter of orb technology. There’s only so much that can be done with singular geniuses with decades of training.” In the 1800s, there were still a few mages in military roles, but they were so rare as to be not worth mentioning in anything but history books specifically about magic. “There’s only one me, after all.” Tanya created a little silver firework illusion for emphasis. Mister Lloyd remained mostly calm, but a bead of sweat escaped his brow at the feat of magic. “It’s no secret that the Empire’s orb technology is leaps and bounds ahead of other nations, and that was before we iterated a new generation of them in the middle of the war.”

“Dual-cores.” Mister Lloyd said, cutting through Tanya’s innuendo.

“Indeed.” Tanya agreed. “I programmed them myself. Coordination between the orbs, once you get a functional architecture, is a software issue.” Noting Mister Lloyd’s silence, Tanya elaborated. “Ah, I’ve lost you. I apologize for bandying out technical terms.”

“It’s quite alright.” Mister Lloyed dithered. “Your Albish is quite good, if strangely accented. It’s not a Germanian one, who taught you?”

Tanya smiled. “Thank you. I’m sure you’ve heard of my ‘future knowledge’ somewhere? I learned it there.”

“While I’m here.” Mister Lloyd quickly seized on the topic. “My superiors also have concerns about those rumors. Concerns that may lead to events that you’ve made your opinions of quite clear.”

“You mean war.” Tanya clarified. Mister Lloyd didn’t say one way or the other. “It’s true, I have memories from a past life, one three hundred years in a future.” Tanya manifested the image of Tenya Deguchiya behind them. “This is what I looked like. This isn’t a secret, just… something I’ve not had the need to invoke for a while. I initially used it as a shortcut to be taken seriously, but I have accomplishments to this name now. Many people have forgotten that I’m physically twelve years old, and pretend I’m just short.” They were already taller than Mother’s malnourished frame, even. Tanya dismissed the illusion.

“A future?” Mister Lloyd asked, noting the word choice.

“Yeah, if you want dates or events in anything but rough parallels, you’re short of luck. What little historical knowledge I have of this time period is wildly inaccurate. The war we’re in was supposed to start before this life was born, as the foremost example.” Tanya waved vaguely. “I didn’t have much for this long ago anyway, it’s for the best.”

“You’ve been giving the Empire knowledge of future technologies.” Mister Lloyd accused, as if that was some kind of crime against time or something.

“I don’t have much they’re able to use.” Tanya retorted. “My profession dictated more useful information than any technological advance. It’s why the Empire’s mages have decades of doctrine behind their maneuvering. I taught them how to fly properly.” There was absolutely no way Tanya was going to get bogged down in minutiae. Best to leave quirks out of the discussion.

“So you assist the Empire in conquering the world.” Mister Lloyd accused.

Tanya burst out laughing at the ridiculous notion. “Don’t insult me. I am a lover of peace, Mister Lloyd. I hate this time. The food is terrible, there’s nothing good to read, and all of the lightbulbs are so dim they may as well be torches. I hate monarchy. I hate colonialism. I hate your antiquated notions of superiority over all other people. I hate your balance of power politics. I hate your protectionist trade policies. I hate your zero-sum economic theories.” Tanya slammed their hand on the desk, amplifying the sound with magic. “But most of all, I hate Communism. It is a big lie from authoritarian dictators that prosperity can be gained by removing the most fundamental motivation of incentive.”

Tanya sat back down, taking a deep breath. “But even with that hate, if I could snap my fingers and end the war with a white peace, I would. Your superiors want the Empire humbled. It is too late for that.” Letting that sink in for a moment, Tanya tapped lightly on the table to shift the tone of the conversation, the kinetic punctuation a rhetorical trick that served them well in hero meetings. “Tell your superiors to figure out a level of concessions that will be acceptable. Then, encourage the Legadonians and Francois to accept those terms. The Kaiser places a high value on honor, and pride. With enough sops to his ego, you should be able to get away with less severe material provisions.”

Mister Lloyd hummed at Tanya’s instructions. “I suppose I could convey your message. Good day, Lady von Goethe.” He emptied his tea, set it down and started to leave.

Hmm… should they? After a moment, Tanya decided to give one of the most backhanded suggestions they thought of. “From a historical perspective, Colonial holdings are more trouble than they’re worth. Concessions on that front would go a long way to appease the Kaiser!”

Mister Lloyd said nothing as he left.