A/N 21/12/2019: Some minor tweaks and spelling and grammar fixes are now done.
Chapter 7 Ongoing operations: Propaganda and Promises
40 years after the Great War
Londinium
As previously stated on this program, the Empire often used children in its propaganda in place of actual soldiers. They did this for such figures as the Devil of the Rhine and the Saint of Letzenbourg. It is believed the that this was to protect the true identities of the soldiers, leading many experts to believe these Aces were not, in fact, one individual soldier but a group, or a title passed down. Pictured here is a rare photo claiming to have the Saint and the Silver Wings, the Saint, as usual, seems to be played by Prince Wilhelm von Hozollern, it is believed the Silver Wings is the daughter of one of the local officers. - Andrew WTN Special correspondent
March 6th Unified Year 1925
Western Command
In the 3 days that had passed since the rescue mission, Tanya had seen very little of her 'new pawn'. The day that the battalion arrived at his obscenely large stately home, he had played the part of gracious host, guiding the group around and suggesting rooms that could be used as barracks, coms rooms and an office for Tanya. He'd also shown them a large converted stable in the mansion's gardens, within it was a plethora of equipment used for the maintenance of flight gear and an impressive number of customised variations mage equipment from several countries. After he had shown her to her own luxurious suite he disappeared, presumably to start work honouring his promises.
She'd spent some time admiring the view out her new bedroom window, the gardens were beautiful and pristine, beyond them were fields of grapes that stretched off into the hills. Apparently, they were used to create a particularly fine brand of wine, not that she'd get to find out herself. If not for the faint sound of distant artillery fire, you could be forgiven for forgetting they were only a few kilometres from the worst warzone this world had ever seen. It seemed she'd be comfortable here in her downtime from the front.
The war hadn't stopped, however, and she had set up a system where one company was always in the air supporting the front while the rest were on standby in case of a major assault, rotating a fresh company in every few hours to give their comrades time to rest. Unfortunately, they had been kept busy, which meant the war probably wasn't going especially well.
Tanya hadn't put her 'host' in the rotation however, she had barred Wilhelm from combat until his wounds were completely healed. She wouldn't have a wounded soldier dragging her unit down, besides, he would be busy this week.
The General had said the little colonel would be allowed a small staff, so she had permitted him to bring 3 subordinates, to make up a small platoon. She was unsurprised that he had chosen Captain Hausmann, he seemed reliable enough and Tanya had already seen enough of his work in the field that she was confident he wouldn't cause her problems. His next two picks had confused her, he had chosen the two sisters she had met on the train, the liaison officer, Captain Sophia Zerbst and more bizarrely his governess Christina Zerbst. She had wondered on the wisdom of bringing a civilian and a desk officer along, but as it turned out they were both proficient mages, and Tanya couldn't help wondering where the colonel had found so many people with magical talent. She did, however, make a mental note to see what she could find out about the pair, surely, he wouldn't risk embarrassment by bringing his 'nanny' along without a reason.
Tanya now strode confidently through the corridors of western command towards General von Hans's office. She was well prepared, she had plenty of opinions on the state of the Rhine front, and despite not seeing much of her new 'observer', he'd sent advice about key things the General would be worried about and what the thorny subjects she should avoid or approach more carefully. She'd also had time to rehearse her presentation, she'd known the night before she would be summoned.
The previous evening, her adjutant Lt Serebryakov had delivered a wax-sealed letter from the little colonel. It looked like it would contain a formal invitation, probably to disguise it she realised. Unusually she had needed to dismiss the lieutenant so that she could read it, as her adjutant, Serebryakov would usually get to read almost all her correspondence at some point, and for some reason, the lieutenant seemed oddly intrigued about this letter's contents. Once she was safely out the way, Tanya broke the seal and studied the intricate calligraphy of the little colonel's handwriting.
My Dear friend Major Tanya von Degurechaff,
I hope this find's you well,
I apologise I have been so absent recently, hopefully this situation will be rectified soon, and we will be able to spend more time together.
I hear you have a meeting with General von Hans tomorrow, please send him my regards and tell him I'm sorry to hear about all his bad luck with his new helpers.
I remain
HRH Prince Wilhelm Viktor von Hozollern, Col
Even in letters, he was being cagey it seemed, Tanya considered that wise however, it wasn't impossible that their letters would be intercepted, and it paid to be cautious. The letter had told her two things however, the General would see her tomorrow, and Wilhelm had dealt with her competition. He'd worked quickly it seemed.
She nodded to the guard at the General's door and waited to be admitted, and after a few seconds, she heard him beckon her in.
"Ah Major, good to see you, his highness, the prince, tells me you have some suggestions for me," he said rising from his chair to greet her. "Normally I'd be reluctant to take proposals from an officer that had been redeployed so recently, but it seems this theatre has been plagued by misfortunes" he continued moving to meet her as she saluted.
It was true, although many officers liked a fresh perspective, more often than not the lack of local knowledge on the ground meant their opinions were not practical. Tanya had been away from the Rhine for some time, although she had experience, too much had changed in the brutal war front. Because of this, her opinions would usually be more likely to be dismissed, but her trump card had made it the situation unusual enough that the General was now all ears.
"Misfortunes sir?" She questioned innocently, intrigued by how the little colonel had dealt with her competitors.
"I'm assuming, the prince has told you about the job he's recommended you for?" the general began and Tanya nodded in acknowledgement. "We had so many promising candidates for my advisor, but suddenly everyone seems to be getting transferred! And worse still, central command's recommendation, Lt Colonel von Heinz, turned out to be unreliable."
"Really sir?" she questioned, "I heard he was a resourceful and dutiful officer."
From what she had heard he was an intelligent and hardworking man, known to be insightful and pragmatic. He'd been second in his class at the academy, which should have put him a league apart from her as she was only 11th place when she graduated. He was also a career officer who had several years more experience than herself and had served on the Rhine since the war began, on paper he was clearly more qualified than herself. The general looked at her for a moment as if considering what to say.
"It seems he had a weakness for the ladies" he began, "he visited a 'certain establishment' to…" he stopped for a moment considering the major. Tanya knew the look, the conversation was going to become 'adult' and due to her age, he didn't know what to say. Putting me in front of a machine gun is so much easier than talking about adultery, she thought to herself sardonically, keeping the annoyance from her face.
"…. Well he saw certain ladies and took certain information into places he shouldn't have." He finished with a polite cough.
She'd heard the rumour that morning, apparently, her rival had gotten drunk in a brothel and been foolish enough to take military files with him. The brass would be more than a little embarrassed that one of their rising stars had been found leaving military secrets with the Rhineland working girls. What made it so shocking however, was that it was completely out of character for the man, people were putting it down to a breakdown due to overwork, but Tanya was suspicious, she could sense the shadow of the Letzenbourg royal hanging over the incident.
"Let's take a walk major, my daughter is visiting, I'd like to go check on her, you can tell me your ideas on the way" the general suggested with a friendly smile, Tanya nodded and they headed out of the office.
"Forgive me Sir, but is it wise for you to have your daughter so close to the front lines?" she asked, the General was known as a family man and although they were well out of reach of the enemy out here, it was still uncomfortably close for a civilian.
"Believe me it wasn't by choice, Greta is a little wilful. She snuck out and made her way here from Burlun," he sighed frowning. He went on to explain that she enjoyed reading the propaganda papers that were sent across the empire, Tanya knew the one he meant. Volksgemeinschaft contained exaggerated heroic exploits of the empire's fighting men and women, as well as grizzly tails of the vile atrocities committed by their misguided enemies. Of course, most of it was pure fiction, Tanya herself had been mentioned in it a few times under her monikers 'White silver' and 'Argent', more recently they'd had been printing about the so-called 'Saint of Letzenbourg.'
This in itself made Tanya wonder about the girl's sanity, the stuff was utter drivel, and in her opinion, it could be put to better use as toilet paper. Upon hearing from her father that both her favourite heroes were present in the area, she had decided to make her way here in the hopes of meeting them. The General had been sick with worry for his daughter and had barely had time to consider the new advisor position.
"Fortunately, the prince has been kind enough to entertain her for the next few days while I arrange her safe transport back home," the General explained.
This was far too convenient, all her competition had transferred or been deemed incompetent, on top of that the general's daughter had managed to travel halfway across the empire just in time to distract him from finding other candidates. It seemed little Wilhelm had been very busy indeed, she wondered exactly what he had done to accomplish it all.
While they strolled through the mansion, presumably to wherever his daughter was, she took the opportunity to rattle off her suggestions for the battlefront. The general seemed impressed and often interjected to question some detail within her plans. She passed him several papers and maps that she had annotated and made a proposal for more efficient troop rotation and deployment on the front lines and he smiled with approval. Eventually, they reached the large double doors of the Mansion library and a guard nodded to them both and opened the door to let them through.
She stopped for a moment surprised and found herself suppressing a smile. Inside was a girl around the age of 10 with long chestnut hair. The general's daughter she guessed, she was wielding a large camera while giving directions to a familiar figure.
The little colonel was dressed in a white and black sailor suit, complete with hat and gloves. He also sported a pair of shorts, the sort that parents would usually force young boys to wear to avoid wearing out the knees on their trousers, with socks pulled up high and tiny buckled shoes to complete the ensemble, the only thing that spoiled it was that once again he would not be parted from his sword. He looked like an infant, Tanya could barely keep a straight face. Maybe I'll start calling him skipper she smiled inwardly.
So, this is the unpleasant task Tanya thought. She had assumed the sabotage of Colonel Heinz's career was the distasteful job Wilhelm had mentioned in their negotiations, but now she thought about it, the manipulator would have few qualms about such things.
She saw a brief spasm of shock and embarrassment cross his face before he managed to recompose himself.
"It's good to see you Major, this is Greta von Hans" he began with his innocent persona, as the girl turned and curtsied with saucer-like eyes. "As you can see, I'm helping her with a little photography project" he finished with a bright smile before surreptitiously giving her a quick look questioning why they were here.
"Colonel, I think this is the first time I've seen you out of uniform" she greeted with a smile and a salute, somewhat gratified to see a look of annoyance from him.
"Apologies Prince Wilhelm, I wanted to check on my daughter" explained the general as he looked between the two expectantly. Tanya suspected the general was hoping the two would hit it off, the General must fancy himself a matchmaker she thought.
"I can't believe I get to meet you too white silver!" the General's daughter exclaimed, "you're even prettier than in the papers!"
Tanya had never been good at taking compliments about her looks, she much preferred comments on her intelligence or skills. As she had been a man in her old life, being called cute or pretty had only ever happened when being mocked. As all his memories had carried over into her new life, these feelings had too. It was only the rational personality she possessed that allowed her to accept that she was now a young girl, being treated as one however still irked her and she found herself unsure as to how to react to the young girl's compliment.
Fortunately, she didn't have to find a polite response, as a knock at the door interrupted them, summoning the General for a phone call. He apologised and asked her to wait before quickly disappearing.
Unexpectedly she had found herself alone with the pair, and quite unsure what to do with herself. She shared a quick glance with Wilhelm, this obviously wasn't part of the plan, and they couldn't talk freely in front of the general's daughter. Greta was staring at the two with wide eyes, obviously, the General had not been exaggerating the girl's hero-worshipping complex.
"Greta why not tell Lady Degurechaff about your project?" The colonel said with a reassuring smile, breaking the silence.
"Oh of course! I want to help papa cheer up the troops" she explained cheerfully, "I want to take pictures for the magazines, the ones they take of Will are awful! Nothing like that cute one they took of you." She finished holding up a careworn picture of her silver wings propaganda.
Tanya couldn't help but smirk a little, that explained the sailor suit, the propaganda papers seemed to think that people wanted to see soldiers in the most ridiculous outfits, perhaps this girl was their target audience. She was less enthusiastic that the girl had managed to get a hold of one of the silver wings pictures however, but she was painfully aware she couldn't do anything about it.
"A fine idea Miss von Hans" she smiled ruefully, "I'm sure the colonel is more than happy to oblige," she said glancing at her co-conspirator hoping for a reaction.
To her surprise, the reaction was a genuine grin with the slightest glint of mischief in his eyes. Had she missed something?
"You really think it's a good idea lady Degurechaff? I thought it'd be even better to get one of you both together" the girl continued excitedly. Tanya felt her blood run cold, flashbacks of the utter humiliation she had felt during the silver wings propaganda flowed into her mind. She looked to Wilhelm for support, but he had found an interesting book to snigger behind, he'd seen this coming and had let her walk straight into the trap.
"I'm sorry but I'm afraid I only have my uniform" Tanya replied hurriedly, hopefully, she could avoid it completely but if not, a tasteful picture in uniform wouldn't be so bad.
"Oh, don't worry! You're around my size and I have just the thing!" she exclaimed before running out the room, a guard following quickly after her. Once gone she turned on the young noble, who was now having a fit of giggling.
"You knew, didn't you? Why didn't you say something?" She snarled at him, being careful not to be overheard by any officers outside.
"She's been asking after you for hours" the aristocrat chuckled mockingly, "the second you walked in here, this was inevitable." Tanya glared at him with contempt.
"What happened to not undermining me? I can't refuse the general's daughter" she snapped at him.
"I've done nothing to undermine you" he retorted, annoyed at Tanya's accusation. "Besides a few pictures won't hurt, it's not like the propaganda papers take fan submissions. We'll sign them, and they'll just sit in her photo album" he reassured her.
"At least you don't have to spend the next day and a half with her" he finished bitterly, he obviously wasn't enjoying their time together.
He was right of course, the dread of a repeat of the silver wings propaganda had made her momentarily lose her cool. As irritating as taking these pictures would be it was well worth the goodwill of the general, it's all part of the job she intoned in her head. Annoyingly losing her cool seemed to happen all too often while the little colonel was around. Despite having him under her thumb something about him still unnerved her.
Soon the girl returned with a soldier who had evidently been persuaded into dragging her suitcase back with them. She instructed him to put the case down and she swung it open and hurriedly tore through its contents.
"This will be perfect!" she squealed holding up a garment.
Tanya heard Wilhelm stifle a snigger as the blood drained from her face. It's all part of the job
xxxxxx
March 8th Unified Year 1925
203rd Temporary Command Centre
After the photography incident, the General had returned and had been so thankful for indulging his beloved daughter, that he had given her several more hours to make her proposals. With no real competition, he had hinted the job was hers pending approval from Burlun.
Tanya had received notification of her this new advisory position early that morning along with a host of additional files from the General's command centre. It seemed Wilhelm had made good on his promise of getting her the position, and in record time too. He'd also kept to the stipulation that it wasn't to look like he arranged it and she got there by her own merits. She did have reservations about all the sudden transfers, it may seem suspicious to some, but she had demanded results quickly, so it probably couldn't be helped. The one thing he hadn't yet delivered was the proof she could use to control him if he got out of line.
The little colonel hadn't returned until that afternoon, apparently, it had taken that long for the General's daughter to be shipped back home. He kept up his cheerful and childlike demeanour around others, even going so far as to stop and show an interest in the comfort and wellbeing of every soldier he met, the second they were alone however, he was irritable and demanded front line duty.
He felt it was time for her to honour her side of the bargain, his injuries were as good as healed and the past few days with Greta had left him bad-tempered, at least around her. He seemed to want vent that frustration on the enemy.
"Not until you deliver evidence" she replied impassively. He had given her a look filled with such loathing she feared she may have pushed him too far. His was not an entirely stable mind she remembered, he needed to be treated carefully if she were to continue to use him.
Suddenly his polite persona re-emerged, and he invited her for a celebratory dinner in his private rooms that evening, before disappearing for the rest of the day.
That is how she had ended up at large table staring at a gloomy Wilhelm von Hozollern, as he moved food around his plate sulkily. She didn't think he'd eaten anything, although she couldn't say she blamed him. They had the same rations as the rest of the front at the moment, she considered asking him if he could arrange for anything tastier but judging his current mood, she thought better of it.
They ate in silence, or rather she ate while he played with his food in silence. She was becoming annoyed, other than polite greetings while his maid like governess had served their food, he had made a point of ignoring her. She was about to interrogate him on what the point of this charade, but a knock came at the door interrupting her.
Sophia the female Letzenbourg captain, entered carrying a dirty looking metal lockbox, and the little colonel ordered her to place it down on the table between them. Unusually he didn't adopt his innocent persona but stayed sullen and grumpy. The captain looked to her prince, noting the full plate with a disapproving expression.
"Prince Wilhelm, they may not be the best but I'm sure Imperial rations are perfectly ok to eat" she chided him.
"Rations…" he muttered thoughtfully before reluctantly taking a mouthful, frowning at the taste. Seeming somewhat satisfied he cautiously began eating more, before eventually turning to Sophia.
"I heard a worrying rumour, Sophia," he said with a hint of concern in his voice. "Apparently someone said they saw you go somewhere seedy with Lt Colonel von Heinz" he finished looking up at her with an unreadable expression. It seemed at least this sister was aware of his duplicitous nature.
"Now now your majesty, you know not to listen to rumours" she replied happily, "why would I go to a place like that?"
"That's what I said right Tanya? I hate when people make up stories" said the little schemer readopting the childlike persona, fixing Tanya with a stare.
This was for her benefit, Tanya realised. Sophia had been the one to set up her rival for the advisor position and it seemed that the boy wanted her to know that. He was trying to show he could still be a threat, as she suspected there was more to the sisters than met the eye, even with the evidence she would need to be careful.
The captain dismissed herself and little colonel put a hand on the dirt-covered box.
"I expect to be in the fight tomorrow" he growled at her. She thought about arguing the point for the moment but couldn't see any gain in antagonising him further. Even if this evidence could ruin him, he could still cause her a lot of grief on his fall from grace, it'd be better to keep him compliant.
She nodded and reluctantly he slid the box across the table towards Tanya, knocking cutlery aside in its wake and spilling food across her uniform. She gave him a glare in rebuke, but he just stared off into the distance sulkily.
Slowly she took the key from around her neck and carefully placed it in the slightly rusted lock, careful not to damage the battered mechanism. It opened to reveal an old file, a finely written letter written in code and a cypher for decrypting it.
Her dinner companion stayed silent as Tanya decoded the messages. Both documents were just under 10 years old, the report detailed a plot for Letzenbourg's assimilation into the Empire. This in itself was not surprising, the empire had long wanted direct rule over the little duchy but had been reluctant while the François republic threatened the border. Now the two powers were at war, the voices calling for unification grew louder.
The plot entailed removing the current duke and his first son, in favour of princess Herminie's new son. It was to wait till he was a little older, then a coup would be staged, and the Empire would step in to restore peace and provide 'administrative help' for the new government headed by the new prince.
What made the file more interesting was that this file was marked as a black file, meaning only the Intelligence head and its field operative were to know of the operation. It seemed to be authentic and was signed by the then Intelligence chief Gustav Stresemann. There were concerns however about both the boy and his mother's health, as both had deteriorated in the week since the birth and that they should consider the 'another option.'
The letter was dated two weeks later contained just two sentences.
Princess Hermione has passed away and the health of the prince is uncertain.
Operation Doppelganger is authorised, destroy all evidence.
G
The implication of this was clear, the boy in front of her was not the real Prince Wilhelm Viktor von Hozollern.
Authors note
Hi all, and thanks for reading.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure how happy I am with this chapter. I had the idea to force Tanya and the 'Prince' into a propaganda shoot from the beginning, but as the story progressed and the balance of power between the two changed I was worried it didn't make a lot of sense anymore so considered cutting it completely.
I did, however, want to try and write something a bit more light-hearted to counter the reveal about Wilhelm at the end. So, after several rewrites, and introducing the general's daughter I sort of got there. So sorry if you don't like it.
You may have noticed that since the prince whispered his secret to Tanya in the last chapter, she hasn't called him prince (unless I missed any). This was deliberate, I thought it would be a clever little hint at what the prince's secret was. That being said, it made it so much harder to write! Apparently, I only ever wrote her thinking of him as; the prince or the little colonel. So I feel like I made life much harder for myself on that so I'm not sure I'll continue that.
So, although I'm a bit uncertain about this chapter, I still wanted to post it. I do feel it needs some adjusting (as does the rest) but also I really wanted to get past this bit, I've got some exciting ideas for the next 2 chapters and I'm really excited to get to the Arene massacre.
Thanks again for reading
Xanen