Chapter 4 back in time. Second life. gamma timeline

Someplace between Polash and Germania frontier just before Xmas

After becoming pregnant, the Rerugen couple took some time off; during that time, Tanya was moody and cringy. Erich did everything he could to accommodate the needs, bringing chocolates and even sharing his stack of good tea from the safe at his house; yeah, she was getting her tastes altered and having even stronger food, not even being picky.

But the sweet tongue was still there. Everyone knew what they had done on that honeymoon and sabbatical they had taken those months ago. From Tanya's side, she didn't care; they were adults, and it was a hot topic. Still, she didn't care about gossip. In a way, that new trick is now shared around the offices for whatever reasons they got from Tanya being so unashamed about it.

The type 99 defective orb from Elynium factories came modded to the Rerugen-specified Specs; they had gotten dust in storage but couldn't sell, so they decided to repurpose it.

Lergen got his wife a toy to distract her mind and eventually made a draft for a manual.

As they drove along the highway from Warsaw back to Berun, they chatted between stops to ensure the device“s communications worked adequately. Their job was to keep the conversation going.

"So, explain to me how a defective orb that gets burned and unusable without the mana from a mage over time could be useful."

"The storage was tricky, but that is not a defect. It is a feature the orb is above any civilian orb's capabilities; it's a shame it cannot sustain fly, but it's still a dual-core model. You can communicate and use illusions, and its low output makes it viable to mount in undercover and stealth missions."

"You need to be more specific; they are not so expensive as they are defective pieces and not graded as military equipment, but if we want to standardize its use, we need to be more specific on its role."

"Not all mages can fly above six thousand, and the new elites will make eight or ten thousand above the sky, not a possibility but the standard, just like the 203rd. Conversely, you will have many people with grade B and below capabilities, which means more mages available as medics, laborers, and other uses."

"That was our guess, but how a defective dual-core orb will make the massification of mages a thing."

"That's why I am fiddling with the thing just now, but I can tell spells like visual cloaking, temperature control, and the lesser physical endurance are a great combo; maybe a promising infiltrator and winter camouflaged sniper or spec ops are the things for this device."

"So, you are specifying the roles Ms. Viktoriya's friend Alya was doing during the conflict."

"Yes, this orb adapts perfectly over the ground. Imagine a lone sniper in white clothing in a winter environment taking down enemy officers and maintaining the fight for days without suffering from frostbite and camouflaging its presence."

"That is some nasty new way of warfare."

"Now imagine an infiltrator with some low output device capable of doing all a spy can do without being detected by mana sensors and being more powerful than the average person, immune to handguns and rifles, invisible, changing its appearance with magic, recording every conversation and documents its spot."

"That is where the defect of lack of mana turning the device trash could be handy, without its user. When a little time passes, the orb will burn."

"Yeah, you guessed it, now imagine MP or Police Officers being invisible doing some raiding and participating in a strike inside a building; if a mage was all mighty into the air, why not over the ground?"

"Now I'm making sense of it; we will have more mage roles out there, making the one drafted to the air wings elites and the others readily available and useful elsewhere."

"Yeah, and making this device so cheap because we want the real deal type 97 will make civilian orbs compete by lowering the prices, making even civilian mages commonplace."

"Yup, that's the cunning for what I feel in love."

"Thanks; why did you decide those names for the babies? I liked them."

"Well, it is my turn; as for Eduard and Elric, those were the names of a writer and a filmmaker with whom I was good friends when growing up."

"Not everyone can be friends with celebrities; treasuring those people, I think, is a good choice."

"I think that is normal coming from a noble family; nobles generally do our hobbies, our work."

"I hope they have Liberty to choose as they grow up; I don't want them to be mages."

"I know you never wanted to be shot by people; you volunteered because it was inevitable in the long run, but I'm going to make sure the boys, if they classify as mages, are not in active roles when their time comes keeping them in the rear even if they hate me until I die."

Erich's statement brings security to Tanya. The couple doesn't mind that the general will abuse his power over his kids. Even the people from Berun listening to the general staff agree. It is the last they can do after all the argent have fought for. Regardless, the decision will come from the kids when they grow up, not now that they will still be babies. The couple received news from Rommel over the comms.

"Good. From here, guys, the data and the transcribed manual are finished. The decrypting is working, and there is nothing off on the test. Maintain the communication channel until arriving at the base over."

"Affirmative," The couple responded in unison, but only a minute later, the car got blasted; at the same time, some concerning news came to the Berun capital.

That day, December 23, the Russi launched an attack on their communist brethren in Polash in an attempt to annexation; at the same time, various decapitation tactics were used against the German ally; one of such was over a general and his wife who was returning from a trip from Warsaw back to the capital on Berun, the photos on the news showed a destroyed Mercedes unrecognizable deformed into pieces scattered over the woods, by some miracle the wife body was protected by the husband making her coming out unharmed, and even if the body of the deceased General was presentable unknown for such crash he meets a fatal wound to his head done from a fleeing combat mage, who in a sign of pity pardoned the life of the unconscious pregnant woman.