Alexander
Erich von Rerugen gasped at the sight of the blond girl. She was wearing an old Imperial Uniform which was not properly ironed or cleaned for some time. Her long blond hair was tied up in a ponytail. The figure carried a rifle and bayonet. While she had a childish appearance, he knew it was an adolescent who was developing rather slowly.
"Hi Rerugen~ I'm sorry that your promotion was only confirmed after Vienna lost Oldenburg and in effect no longer had any authority to confirm it. I see you are having some trouble with a few burglars. Good thing I showed up" said the girl with a smile.
"Lieutenant General Tanya von Degurechaff" said Rerugen. It was almost the last person he wanted to see. If the looters hadn't shown up and threatened him, it would be the last person. This monster in the form of a little girl was the perfect one for their strike forces and why the Empire had any chance once the Allied Kingdom declared war in support of Republic remnants. But now there were no longer any valid targets for her.
As much as he pitied Tanya for the show trial, he feared her more than he pitied her.
Tanya stepped forward with a smile. "You look anxious" said Tanya.
"What are you doing?" said Rerugen while gesturing.
"Me? I'm here to ask questions. I need someone in the personnel department. Or are you talking about the corpses? Don't worry, the Empire has no need for criminals" said Tanya.
Rerugen sighed. "Let's wait until the morning" said Rerugen.
That morning a worker prepared meals for the party. "I see you brought two others" said Rerugen.
"Captain Weiss reporting" said Weiss.
"Major Serebryakov present" said Viktoriya Serebryakov.
"I don't recognize Weiss" said Rerugen.
"He was sick for a lot of the war. A lot of the survivors were affected by the plagues" said Tanya.
"What do you want?" said Rerugen.
"I need the addresses of various members of the old intelligence department" said Tanya.
"We no longer have formal connections" said Rerugen.
"But you could contact them if you wanted to can't you?" said Weiss.
"What would you do with this?" said Rerugen.
"I plan to go around and start going through archives and asking people" said Tanya.
"What information?" said Rerugen.
"I'll be honest old friend. I plan to make assassinations" said Tanya.
"Who needs to die?" said Rerugen.
"Did you watch my trial? I plan to get all of them, if doing so is feasible without getting caught or harmed" said Tanya.
"This includes the prime minster of the Republic, George Valois. An assassination of a head of state is grounds for war. I can't sanction anything that could have blowback to the Empire" said Rerugen.
"You mean Oldenburg? We were dismantled. Also, he's only the prime minister, not head of state. Legally he can be replaced by anyone in his party that is also an MP" chuckled Tanya.
"Anyways, there is no blowback if I can't be traced back to the Empire. International observers are looking in the successor state governments so they should be able to determine it was not say Austria which authorized an assassination. With an uncaught assassin who is not even seen on one hand and the Austrian government being monitored enough to know it's not them, whose going to put the blame on the defunct Empire?" said Tanya.
"So taking this into consideration, do you believe they have a right to be spared? Can you make up rules for war during a war and hold the other side to it? How about accusing a girl of sexual assault as a war crime? In fact the general rule is that physical and direct mental damage (as in brain damage or magically altering their minds) to people or property can be considered war crimes depending on the treaties, but causing psychological damage can only be considered a national crime, although they chose to change it just for me. Did they do anything for the Empire? Did they make life for the commoners any easier? Can you even say their own people are better off independent with much of the population dead compared to annexation by the Empire, but a restoration of infrastructure which might have stopped the plagues?" finished Tanya.
"These people are hypocrites. It's one thing if they simply declared as the winners they could do such a thing, but they just pulled their justices out of their asses. Furthermore, there is the whole war guilt thing by the logic that it's an undeniable fact that the first 3,000 casualties ignoring the Entente Empire conflict were Republicans, never mind that they were on our side of the boarder" said Visha.
"By your logic, their lives are expendable. And more disturbingly, a lot of the Empire slowly took in your thinking, even the Kaiser to a lesser extent. But every time we tried to show mercy, it backfired. We offered the Entente pre-war boarders and only token payment when Dakia attacked, but they turned us down. Early in the war we paroled a lot of captured Republic soldiers who were told they were free to go home as long as they didn't work in manufacturing or bear arms for the rest of the war. 7/8 of them joined the Republic remnants in Africa. The Empire has been pitted against the world for defending its rightful territory. And the scary thing… I think if you talk with me for a week, you might be able to convince me their lives are expendable" said Rerugen. The plagues that took place in an uncontrolled environment in the war killed three of his high school friends and his litter sister. It left Rerugen a bitter man and Tanya kept being proven right both on tactical decisions and the attitudes of the wider world. The idea that killing was right outside of a war, self-defense, or crime punishment repulsed the old Rerugen and mildly disturbed the current him.
"I'm not here to win a debate. But safe to say, none of us are going to miss my targets. Furthermore, if I am good at keeping my tracks covered, then there will not be any backlash to the Empire's successor states, right?" said Tanya.
"This is true, but your best attacks attract a lot of attention" said Rerugen.
"I have help. And I've gotten good at field craft" said Tanya.
Rerugen considered. "All you want is addresses right?" said Rerugen. Tanya nodded. Rerugen took out a scrap of paper.