The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Divergence
Chapter 5
"I'm honestly ashamed of our military, considering," Hilde Schnee noted as yet another group fell for Tanya Degurechaff,'s illusions.
As a test of perceptiveness, Tanya was having recruits to her new mage unit interact with an illusion created by her Orb. It had deliberately been created with flaws, so, in theory, a capable military mage should have noticed.
So far, the majority hadn't.
"This is kind of awful," Viktoriya Serebryakov agreed glumly.
Tanya herself groaned quietly. "This is just pitiful," she agreed.
Hilde looked over at Tanya after the two soldiers were sent away by the illusion and said, "Command is going to insist we lower our standards."
'We?' Visha thought, frowning.
Tanya sighed in resignation as she answered, "Agreed. But I intend to go over this with command... a good enough mage could infiltrate our camps easily!"
'Well, it would take a mage of roughly your skill level,' Visha mused silently, 'and you'd need something like your quad core orb to do it, too. On the other hand, we can't assume the enemy couldn't have either.'
"Hmm?" Tanya looked at her questioningly.
"Just thinking," Visha waved it off.
"So what now?" Hilde asked.
"We go through the applications AGAIN," Tanya sighed. "Look for the best out of the lot... and add a remedial course on breaking illusions."
"We'll have to re-train them to our standards. Run them through boot camp again... and fix the training," Visha said, guessing where Tanya was going.
"Exactly," Tanya agreed.
Hilde was impressed by how in synch these two women were. Tanya had a thought, Visha finished it. Visha was also really good at helping Tanya get everything set up... Tanya had the idea, Visha got things organized.
"I hope you'll let me continue to help," Hilde addressed Visha quietly.
The other officer looked at her thoughtfully but nodded.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mary Sue, interestingly, took to combat training like a fish to water.
The Sargent that was overseeing the group of trainees barked, "You scum! I've seen poop bigger than you!"
"Sir!" Mary Sue ran by with the group doing laps on the exercise grounds, "Yes, sir!"
The Sargent blinked.
Mary clambered up and through the obstacle course. "Faster!" the Sargent cursed as he yelled sat them, "Faster!"
"Sir, yes Sir!" Mary obediently pushed herself.
The gun range was next, where Mary was calmly shooting bullseyes. 'Has she been trained before coming here?' he wondered disbelievingly.
"How...?" one of the cadets asked curiously.
"I used to practice with my father's rifle," Mary explained.
'Still, that's exceptional,' the Sargent thought. Still... "You're the worst cadets I've ever seen! Look at this volunteer showing you up!" he gestured to Mary.
Several cadets looked unhappy, but focused on their shooting.
He moved over to Mary, "Good shooting. But remember you'll have to shoot people eventually. Not just targets."
"Sir!" Mary nodded and put another bullet through the bullseye.
'Maybe I should have her tutor some of the less capable students,' he mused as he watched her easily get 'kills'.
The academic side was a bit tougher, as Mary had to catch up on some stuff. Her teachers gave some allowances, and it had to be said she worked hard.
In magic, well...
"Use the orb to carefully lift off," the instructor ordered.
Each student took off, some more wobbly than others. Then Mary took her turn. The glow of her orb surrounded her... then she shot straight up like a bullet.
"ACK!" several students yelped.
"MISS SUE!" the teacher used his orb to increase the volume, "Stop!"
"Ah. Sorry," Mary answered sheepishly as she descended. "Used a bit too much magic, I guess." she added.
"We are going to have to work with you on fine control..." the teacher sighed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Apparently Mary Sue is disturbing the trainers," General Hans von Zettour noted, amused, at the informal meeting.
"As much as Tanya did?" Lt Colonel Erich von Rerugen asked.
"Yes, but in a different way," Hans smiled wryly.
Erich snorted quietly. "I did review the reports. She's a prodigy... not unexpected, considering how skilled Anson is," he observed. "Her magical abilities are remarkable..."
"Just imagine... if things had gone very different we could have ended up facing her in battle," Hans mused.
Both men visibly shuddered at that thought.
"Assuming she doesn't quit, which seems unlikely... what do we do with her?" Hans wondered aloud, bringing up the reason for the meeting.
"Anson, understandably, would like us to keep her off the front lines," Erich noted calmly. They didn't HAVE to listen to him, but keeping Anson happy was a good idea.
"Hmm," Hans frowned. "Could always put her under Degurechaff," he offered.
Erich choked a bit, "That's the opposite of what Anson wants."
"You have to admit, they would make a great team," Hans noted.
"Well, yes," Erich conceded.
Both men thought about the situation silently a bit. "The Propaganda department has wanted to use Degurechaff again," Hans mused.
"Oh?" Erich sounded a bit dubious.
"There's been a increase in women enlisting. No one as good as Tanya and Mary, but capable. The Propegandists want to do a film with them and Tanya... something like 'The flowers of the Empire defend us,'" Hans elaborated.
"... With TANYA?" Erich raised his eyebrows.
"We3ll, clearly they don't know her. But I do think it's a good idea for public morale," Hans suggested. "She could do it between missions."
"Her and Mary Sue," Erich echoed. "Somehow... I have a BAD feeling about this."
"You worry too much," Hans chuckled.
"Trust me, I really don't," Erich sighed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Some weeks later, Tanya was running her new squad through basic training.
"Is she USUALLY this scary?" Hilde had to ask.
"YES," Visha sighed.
Tanya had just finished running her recruits through a grueling mountain training course. In addition to the usual stuff, she had literally had mortars fired at the squads. For nearly a DAY. It had been pure hell.
On the other hand, the unit had really bonded over mutual terror of their leader. And, admittedly, in admiration too.
As part of the training Tanya had a free for all with the top soldiers and her. She even hampered herself by using a regular computation orb. The soldiers had expected to trounce her... instead she had kicked everyone's ass.
Hilde had, surprisingly, stood up to it all too. Visha had expected her to just observe, but she had gone out to the field and survived everything the troops had. She had, grudgingly, earned some of Visha's respect.
Of course, there was a new complication.
"They're doing WHAT." Tanya blinked as they recieved the new orders from General Hans von Zettour and the top brass.
"They want you, Mary Sue and several young lady recruits to do public events. For morale," Hilde said, looking over the papers.
"Me too," Visha said, also not feeling terribly impressed.
"It's not a bad idea. The flowers of the Empire, encouraging the troops," Hilde smiled.
Tanya just gave her a LOOK. "I am NOT wearing that dress again." she said firmly.
"We could always put Visha in a bikini," Hilde teased.
Visha blushed at that idea, then blinked as she noticed TANYA blushing too...
To be continued!
Notes: NO, I am not doing Strike Witches. Though a crossover... hmm. BAD BRAIN. NO.