Lieutenant General Schreise : "Can't you deploy the Wunderwaffe that destroyed the Dacian army on the frontline and finish this immediately ?"

Major Degurechaff : "Absolutely not. We were very lucky that weapon worked as well as it did when we deployed it there, and even luckier there weren't Imperial soldiers nearby. This weapon isn't a precise one, and I won't risk it hurting loyal Imperial forces by using it in the trenches."

Colonel General Wragell : "Why not ?"

Major Degurechaff : "I am afraid that is classified. You'll have to trust that I know what I'm talking about, and that deploying the weapon on this front would do far more harm than good to the Empire. But do not despair, gentlemen. Fortunately, Division Y has more than one string to its bow. Projekt K might be useless here, but I believe we can help you achieve our objectives with a different approach."

Lieutenant General Schreise : "We've only heard rumors about you and your Division's work. Just how many of these Projekte are there, Major ?"

Major Degurechaff : "I am afraid that is classified as well, Lieutenant General."

Brigadier General Rudersdorf : "And for good reason. As recent times have made clear, the Empire is surrounded by enemies, and keeping our trump cards secret is of paramount importance. Now, I have spoken with the Major about the capabilities of some of these Wunderwaffen that have yet to be revealed to the world, and we have come up with the rough outlines of a plan – one that will involve all of our forces working together to turn the tides of this war. However, we'll rely on you all to help iron out the details."

Major Degurechaff : "The first step of that plan will be the elimination of the Entente forces present in the region of Norden. To assist in that goal, I've brought with me reinforcements for the mage corps."

Lieutenant General Schreise : "What kind of reinforcements ? You brought less than fifty people with you in total. Even if they're all veterans …"

Major Degurechaff : "I assure you, they'll be more than adequate to our needs."

Excerpt from the minutes taken by Adjutant Hektor Braum of the meeting of Northern Imperial Headquarters, October 20th, 1924.

From : Major Tanya Degurechaff

To : Brigadier General Hans von Zettour

Subject : The Northern Front

Date : November 16th, 1924

Brigadier General,

Now that the region of Norden is once more firmly under Imperial control, we are ready to move on with the next phase of the plan Brigadier General Rudersdorf designed with the help of the Northern Army's staff and my own humble assistance.

While Projekt U will be involved in this plan as it has been in the reclamation of Norden, it won't be enough by itself. I therefore formally request permission to deploy Projekt N in coordination with the instances of Projekt U as well as the Imperial forces already present on the front under the command of Brigadier General Rudersdorf.

For the Fatherland.

From : Brigadier General Hans von Zettour

To : Major Tanya Degurechaff

Subject : Northern Front Authorization

Date : November 17th, 1924

Major,

Congratulations for your exemplary work in Norden thus far. Give my regards to Rudersdorf.

Permission granted. You may proceed as you see fit.

For the Fatherland.

"Located on the southern coast of the Legadonian Entente, the city of Os serves as a logistical hub for the entire country. Its railway network connects to all corners of the Entente, allowing for swift transportation of supplies and troops.

This city, vital to the Entente's war effort, is protected by the Osfjord : a collection of coastal forts taking advantage of the local geography and equipped with anti-air batteries as well as artillery and torpedo bunkers. At least one mage company is stationed there at all time, and the facilities are suited for several hundreds soldiers.

Furthermore, the waters around the Osfjord are protected by aquatic mines, and a squadron of the Entente's Navy patrols them at all time. There are also barracks on the outskirts of Os itself, which the Entente uses to house its troops on their way to the front and back.

At the present time, an assault on the Osfjord is considered impractical."

Excerpt from the Imperial report on the status of the Legadonian Entente's defenses in the Osfjord, last updated on September 19th, 1924.

November 29th, 1924 – The Osfjord

During the first days of the war, when the previous Legadonian government had launched an invasion of the contested region of Norden, Anson had been on the frontline as the leader of a flying mage squad. Though the invasion had immediately turned into an ungodly mess due to the utter lack of preparations of the Entente (which was the reason why it was now referred to as the previous government), Anson had distinguished himself well, managing to keep his men alive even as he provided cover for the withdrawal by destroying an Imperial artillery battery.

That had earned him a medal, a promotion to his current rank of Colonel, and the dubious honor of being sent right back to the frontline, where he'd fought until his unit had been recalled to help garrison the Osfjord while integrating the replacements for the men he'd lost to Imperial iron. They had been here for a month now, and Anson would have expected reassignment to the front line any day now – except, the situation had evolved at a breakneck speed.

In these last few months, the higher-ups had done their best to prevent panic, but rumors about what had happened to the Dacian Army still circulated among the troops. No one really believed the stories that tens of thousands of men had died in mere moments, of course, and the claims of Imperial super-weapons were similarly scoffed at. The prevailing theory was that the Dacians had been idiots, and had gone in without air cover, which had let the Empire crush them with a small force of elite aerial mages by killing their commanders and leaving the rest of them easy prey for magical aerial bombardment.

Personally, Anson had thought that theory made sense, but he couldn't help but think there was more to it than that. If the Dacian Army had indeed been defeated like this, why had the Empire claimed that it was the work of their so-called Wunderwaffen instead of honoring the heroic mages who had pushed back the invaders ? His second-in-command had told him that they were hoping to intimidate the other nations, and that the threat of super-weapons were more effective than that of powerful aerial mages for that. But Anson wasn't convinced. He had heard things at headquarters : the command staff had seemed a bit too worried, even considering they were fighting a war they had no hope of winning and shouldn't have been fighting in the first place.

And then, just after his unit's withdrawal from the front, the Empire had begun to utterly trounce the Entente forces. Entire outposts had been wiped out in the middle of the night, with only a few terrified screams on the radio before comms fell ominously silent. Supply depots had been destroyed and key personnel had been killed, and whole mage companies had disappeared, all without a single enemy mana signature being detected by the top-of-the-line magical radars Legadonia's allies had provided. The situation of the Entente army, already precarious, had become outright disastrous.

In a handful of weeks, the contested region of Norden had been completely under the Empire's control, and the Imperials had pushed on onto Legadonia itself. The Entente had scrambled to salvage a cohesive defense from its reserves and the few units who had made it out of Norden alive, but everyone knew it was going to be tough just to hold on until winter conditions forced the Empire to halt its advance. And even that would only be delaying the seemingly inevitable defeat to spring.

Between this and the still circulating rumors about Dacia, tensions had been high. One of the new recruits had even half-joked that the Empire must have made a deal with the Devil in order to recapture the ground the Entente and the 'volunteer groups' sent by its foreign allies had fought so bitterly to hold onto. Anson had laughed at the suggestion, of course.

But now, the Colonel was seriously reconsidering his position on the matter of infernal pacts being the source of the Empire's sudden victories. Not an hour ago, the night had been clear, with the stars and moon providing enough illumination for an aerial mage to recognize the landmarks beneath him. But now, a bank of thick fog covered the entire coastal stronghold, having come out of nowhere and reducing visibility to arm's length. If not for the mana signatures the rest of his unit were giving off, he would have thought he was utterly alone.

This was no natural weather phenomenon : he could sense the magical energy in it. It even messed with radio communication, making anything other than short-range useless. He and his men had taken off as soon as the mist had cut off communication, but the fog even messed with their compasses, resulting in them being hopelessly lost, unable even to return to their base. His command had been split into two groups, but they hadn't been able to contact the rest of their unit within moments of entering the fog, and Anson had been reduced to shouting orders for his comrades to stay dangerously close to him, just so that they could still detect one another's mana presence and communicate.

They went up, gaining altitude until they finally broke through the fog. They were high up, but not so high that they couldn't stay there with their equipment's assistance. Underneath them, the fog spread like a roiling sea, completely blanketing the land and sea. They tried to contact the rest of the Entente forces again, but all channels were still blocked.

Several moments later, the fog began to dissipate, again far too quickly for it to be natural. The sight revealed to Anson and his men left them slaw-jacked and horrified. The Osfjord coastal batteries, which were the key to the city's defenses, were burning, and thick pillars of black smoke rose from the detonated magazines of the destroyed guns. Tiny silhouettes moved against the flames, trying to escape the roaring infernos.

"What the hell ?" muttered one of Anson's men, shocked.

They watched in horror, Anson knowing that he was witnessing the fall of his beloved country. His mind was reeling, knowing that he had to order a retreat, but unable to tear his eyes from the sight. Then something at the corner of his vision drew his attention, and he turned – only to see yet another impossible sight. There, amidst the smoke-filled night sky, a figure was floating, holding position around two hundred meters from them as it faced them.

The figure was completely clad in a thick black leather cloak, with not an inch of skin exposed. The slight bulge on the chest was the only sign that it was a woman : her face was covered by a gas mask with tinted lenses that didn't let anything show through. She wore metal gloves that were still dripping with blood, making it clear that she'd been in brutal combat mere moments ago. A standard issue Imperial mage rifle with affixed bayonet hung on her back – she hadn't even drawn her weapon. Her arms were crossed on her chest as she stared at Anson and his men, utterly unworried.

Then Anson saw another cloaked figure, and another, and another. They were completely surrounded, and his company of twelve was outnumbered two to one. The only reason they were still alive was that the Imperials hadn't used the advantage of surprise to slaughter them before they could react.

How the hell had they gotten so close ?! He hadn't felt any mana signature approach them …

Anson felt his heart sink in his chest as the realization hit him. The Empire had developed traceless mage flight. This was how they had captured Norden so quickly, and how, combined with the mist, they had destroyed the Osfjord's fortifications. Aerial mages relied on their ability to detect each other's power, even if it was greatly inferior to that of specialized devices, to keep track of both their allies and their opponents : given the speed and distances involved, mere human sight couldn't be relied upon.

Without that, all that was left was the standard radars, and those were calibrated for planes, not human-sized flying objects. Anson had spent his entire adult life in the military as an aerial mage, and he'd never even heard of the possibility of such stealth flying. It wasn't as flashy as whatever had left the Dacian army in tatters, but even a moment's consideration was enough for Anson to realize how much this deceptively simple innovation would change … no, had already changed the course of the war.

"Colonel, what do we do ?!" called out one of his subordinates, panicked, as they too noticed their situation.

"Don't open fire," he ordered reluctantly. "Let's see what they want."

"Colonel ! Mana signature approaching !"

For a moment, Anson thought another Entente mage had survived, but the sight of the approaching mage soon put that delusion to rest. This one wore the more familiar uniform of the Imperial aerial mages, but much smaller than Anson had ever encountered. To his shock, he saw that this was a child, younger than his own daughter. What was the Empire doing, sending girls like this to the frontline ?!

Wait, she was flying under her own power, and in the middle of a military operation. She must be a rare magical talent, though Anson still found it difficult to believe even the Empire would go that far.

She had a gas mask hanging from her neck, which, like the rest of her uniform, had to have been specifically manufactured for her size – or so Anson hoped, because he really didn't want to think of the implications of the Empire having storehouses of child-sized military equipment. On her uniform was the insignia of a Major, adding to the surreal nature of the scene.

"Good evening, mages of the Legadonian Entente," she declared after stopping ten meters or so from Anson and his men. She gestured to the sea behind them. "Please take a look over there. Do you see the lights approaching us ?"

They did, and Anson knew what that signified. The lights were those of Imperial ships approaching the fjord. The Imperial North Fleet was advancing onto Os, and the panicked, disorganized troops left to block their way had no hope of success.

"If you do not surrender, Colonel, then you will die for nothing," she told him bluntly. "And so will the men under your command. This battle is lost, and with it, the Entente's part in this war it started will soon be over. Within weeks at the very latest, Imperial troops will march through your capital."

She was not boasting or gloating, Anson knew even as part of him wanted to deny her words. She was simply stating the facts as clearly as she could.

"If you can kill us that easily, then why offer us the chance to surrender at all ?" he asked hoarsely. "There is no one to watch us but God, and we all saw what you did. Isn't keeping your Army's capabilities secret more important than the lives of enemy soldiers ?"

She smiled, and despite everything, it was still the scariest thing Anson had seen tonight.

"First, Colonel, you do not know our full capabilities. There is no one in the entire world who does. Secondly, and more importantly, I do not enjoy killing people. This entire war is a terrible waste of human potential, one started by your country because it needed a scapegoat to take the public's attention off your government's internal failings. Hundreds of your compatriots have already died tonight, and I expect more will perish before sunrise. But if you surrender, I can promise that not only will you and yours be treated well, I'll reach out to the troops below us to make the same offer. In victory, one must be gracious, after all, lest one be broken when the tide turns again."

So this was the famed Imperial logic and pragmatism in action … ?

Anson thought of the young men under his command, of the promise he'd made to lead them to the best of his abilities. He thought of the oaths he'd sworn to his country, of the sacred duty of all men to fight for their fatherland.

He thought of the women and children he had seen on the mustering fields, holding back tears as they waved farewell to their husbands and fathers headed for the grinder of war. He thought of their desperate prayers for someone, anyone, to end this horrible war that had been started by men who had known it wouldn't be them paying the price for it.

He thought of his wife and daughter, waiting for him at home, and he made his choice.

"Men," he called out to his troops, "we have lost. Don't throw away your lives pointlessly, I beg you. Our country, our families, will need us in the days to come."

Mercifully, none of them protested. They were as spooked as he was by this whole situation. He looked back at the small child, who looked back at him with eyes entirely too old to belong in her youthful face. He turned his rifle in his hands and presented it to her handle first.

"I, Colonel Anson Sue of the Legadonian Army, formally surrender myself and my men under your care, Major," he said, forcing his voice to stay firm despite the shame of the words.

"And I, Major Tanya Degurechaff of the Imperial Army, recognizes and accepts your surrender," she replied, flying over to him and taking the rifle, which looked comically oversized in her hands. "Thank you for being reasonable, Colonel. I really didn't want to have to kill you."

Strangely, Anson believed her.

December 6th, 1924 – Occupied city of Os

As I drank a cup of Visha's coffee (where she had found the beans to make her usual brew I had no idea, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth) in our temporary housing on the city's outskirts, I couldn't help but think that I had come far too close to death this time. When Colonel Sue had proven to be a reasonable man and announced his surrender, I had barely managed to hide my relief. Sure, if it had come to a fight I was confident Visha and the rest would have torn the enemy mages to shreds, but I was only human myself. If the Legadonian aerial mages had put their mind to it, it would have been all too possible for them to take me down before their own inevitable deaths.

Revealing myself to them had been a necessary risk. I needed my reputation to be about more than the sheer efficiency with which I destroyed the enemies of the Empire using the mysterious Wunderwaffen developed by Division Y. If I wanted to avoid being prosecuted for war crimes after the war was over, I needed to build up my image as a reasonable person, willing to take prisoners and treat them well. And since the Untoten hadn't taken any, that meant Colonel Sue and his band of merry men.

After he'd accepted to surrender, I'd gone down to make the same offer to the scattered Legadonian units rushing desperately to try and prepare to fight back the Imperial forces they had no hope of defeating, even without our intervention. The sight of the Untoten descending from the sky, illuminated by the burning coastal guns and with their own aerial mages captured, had been enough to break what was left of their morale, and they had surrendered in droves, much to the bemusement of the Imperial soldiers who had arrived minutes later.

Of course, I hadn't gambled with my life blindly. I had watched the Legadonians from a distance, and realized that at least half of them were new recruits, which meant that the more veteran-looking Colonel had seen many of his men die in the war his government had started. I had bet that he wasn't a fanatical patriot and wouldn't want to see more of them die pointlessly, and that had paid off well.

Really, 'a calculated bet that had paid off' was a pretty good description for how the entire operation had gone down, despite my misgivings when General Rudersdorf had asked me to figure out a way to use the fruits of Division Y's work to break the deadlock of the Northern front before the arrival of winter.

We had deployed deep behind enemy lines in the middle of the night thanks to the Untoten, who had carried me and the occultists of Division Y who had accompanied me to the Northern front.

These so-called occultists were researchers of Division Y with a talent for magic that wasn't strong enough to get them drafted as aerial mages, but was enough for them to take part in the rituals designed by the Denkmaschine. I didn't like the term myself, finding it had far too many cult-like connotations for my liking, but that was my modern prejudices at work. In this world, prior to the revolution of the mage orb, occultists had been middling mages, often from wealthy families, who sought to delve into the mysteries of magic. For many of them, working in Division Y was the first honest job they had ever had in their lives, which went a long way to explain the Division's lamentable state when I had first been assigned to it.

Technically speaking, my presence hadn't been needed. But I wasn't going to let this happen without me being present to take action if something went wrong with the ritual, nor did I want to let the Untoten get any further from my sight than absolutely necessary. And besides, I would one-hundred-per-cent get the blame if things went badly, so I might as well be in a position to make sure I got as much of the credit as possible if they went right.

And gone right they had. Projekt N, Nebel, had only been tested on a much smaller scale before today, but it had outdone my wildest expectations. The fog had completely blocked the Entente's sight and comms, allowing the Untoten to infiltrate their naval bases and wreak havoc on their guns and personnel. I could imagine the terror of the men trapped inside the bunkers with vampires on the hunt, though at least the gas masks had kept the Untoten from feeding (I didn't want to leave corpses drained of blood behind, nor give Visha and the others a taste for blood taken by force).

The Untoten's ability to detect life had less range than a mage's mana detection, but it operated on an entirely different system and wasn't impaired by Projekt N or by magical decoys, which had been one of the key factors behind the Osfjord attack's success. Combine that with their undetectable flight, superhuman speed, strength and durability, and when fuelled by increased rations of mage blood, the Untoten were less Dracula-style vampires and more knock-off undead Supermen when it came to battle. And even a knock-off Kryptonian was still a terrific mage hunter, as this operation had proved many times over.

We had burned through nearly our entire stock in pushing the Entente out of Norden, though, and most of the remainder in the days since. While I had made sure we had enough left to satisfy their basic requirements, I wouldn't be able to let them loose again to this degree anytime soon. Which was going to be a headache and a half, since the rest of the Imperial Army would doubtless be very enthusiastic about using them in the future, and I couldn't exactly explain why that wasn't possible. Hopefully I could shout 'classified' at them until they gave up.

I was pretty sure whatever passed for their metabolism was far better at processing mana than even the most elite of human mage, since there was no way the blood they ingested contained enough power to fuel them that long at that level of activity. That, or the Untoten broke the law of conservation of energy somehow, which was unfortunately equally likely now that I thought about it.

The entire Legadonian defense of Osfjord had been gutted in less than an hour. Less than twenty Untoten had killed hundreds of enemy soldiers and command personnel before sabotaging the big guns, leaving the area ripe for the Navy and Army to capture once we were done dispelling the supernatural mist. I had been very firm in my instructions that the rest of the Imperial forces were to wait for my signal before advancing, and to my deep relief they had followed the plan instead of charging in the moment the fog started to thin.

That was good because, despite its innocuous name, Projekt N was, if my understanding of the eldritch spell's structure was correct, the breath of some manner of cosmic entity summoned into our world (hopefully without it noticing). We had tested its effects on farm animals in Castle Schwartzstein, and found that any exposure of less than two hours had no long-term negative effects on pigs, which were the closest we could get to human testing without dipping into our limited pool of death row convicts. Even a short exposure could cause panic and a wide array of temporary issues, however, none of which I wanted to inflict on the Imperial troops of the Northern front.

The fog was more dangerous the closer to the source, which was why I and the occultists all wore gas masks (the Untoten did as part of their standard sunproof uniforms, and just to be safe I had told them to dispense with the act of breathing as much as possible during the operation). Sue hadn't seemed to be affected by the mist when we had talked, but since he was an aerial mage, he had probably been using a breathing spell as soon as we had begun the operation. As the first mages to be exposed to Projekt N, I had no doubt the Colonel and his men were going to be subjected to all manner of medical tests by curious researchers of Division Y, but I was sure I could disguise those as part of the standard treatment afforded all prisoners of war in civilized countries.

… As long as I kept the more demented of my researchers from cutting them up. That would be something to keep an eye on. None of Division Y's personnel were that far gone yet (or if they were, they were worryingly good at keeping it secret), but considering what we were working on, I was certain it was only a matter of time.

After the battle of the Osfjord was over and the city Os had been secured, the Entente had started to fold like a house of cards. Given that we had their main force surrounded and had essentially ripped out their logistical heart, they could hardly be blamed for that. The frontline had completely collapsed, as soldiers were cut off from supplies and forced to choose between surrender or death by starvation and exposure.

I had sent Visha and the others to assist in the clean-up operations, following the same procedures that had served us so well during the conquest of Norden. Moving in standard four-men platoons, the Untoten had hunted down the remaining Legadonian mages who hadn't surrendered, doing their best to capture them alive if possible so that they could be shipped off to the same prison camp where Colonel Sue and his men were held. Enough had still died that, if Division Y had been a more public part of the Imperial Army, several of the Untoten would now qualify as Aces. Of course, given that a suspicious number of these suicidally brave 'Legadonian mages' had clearly been foreigners sent by the other powers as part of their efforts to support the Entente, we couldn't have claimed them as kills even if the Untoten had been regular aerial mages.

Well, excessive glory brought more problems than it solved, in the end. Despite my best efforts at information control, there were already rumors circulating of the masked, elite aerial mages who struck without warning and left only death and destruction in their wake.

The Untoten had also launched night raids on holdout Legadonian positions, though such assaults had seen a much lower ratio of enemy survivors. Non-mage soldiers were, according to a disturbingly smiling Visha, 'too squishy' for the Untoten to leave alive during combat : the Untoten had to make a deliberate effort to kill a mage who knew they were there, while simple soldiers were too easy to kill when the vampires were in combat and exerting the full potential of their transformed bodies, boosting their physical abilities in exchange for an increased consumption of their blood reserves.

In the end, Projekt U hadn't sustained a single casualty, and the injuries they had taken had been easily healed with increased blood rations and rest. I was pleased to see that the extensive flight and combat training I had put the Untoten through had been worth the effort. Of course, such brilliant results were partially due to the total advantage of surprise they had enjoyed : sooner or later the other countries would adapt to the unique abilities possessed by our small corps of flying vampire soldiers.

Still, I wouldn't have wanted to be the poor schmuck tasked with figuring out a way to counter them. I had designed a handful of possibilities myself, if only to know what to expect once the enemy started to adapt (and also in case of mutiny, but so far that possibility seemed very remote), but none of them were especially easy to implement, and I'd had the advantage of knowing exactly what the Untoten were capable of.

We hadn't deployed Projekt N again after the fall of Osfjord : not only had there been no need for it, I was wary of using it on such a large scale again so soon. The planet was still here and in one piece, so clearly we hadn't woken up the eldritch horror responsible for creating the fog, but that wasn't the kind of dice I wanted to roll if I could at all help it. The occultists might be confident that there was absolutely no risk of that, but I was more than happy to be overly paranoid and cautious on that subject.

Someone needed to be, after all, and even if my worst nightmare couldn't become true, I was also wary of the effects of repeated rituals on the occultists themselves. Back in my old world, it was pretty much established lore that dealing with the Mythos took a toll on sanity that got worse every time, and I really didn't need to deal with that on top of everything else.

Still, all in all, this little jaunt had gone remarkably well, and it was time for us to return to Castle Schwartzstein. I had already been gone far too long : who knew what the rest of Division Y had gotten up to in my absence. And hopefully, the higher-ups would leave us alone this time … ah, who was I kidding. It was two miracles we had done for them now. I should probably expect to find our next assignment waiting for me when I arrived.

Curse you, Being X !

LEGADONIAN ENTENTE DEFEATED !

Yesterday, after more than a year of bitter warfare following the unprovoked attack by the Legadonian Entente on our beloved Empire, the nation responsible for starting the Great War has formally capitulated. The representatives of the Council of Ten, Legadonia's ruling body, have met with the Brigadier General Kurt von Rudersdorf, acting commander of the Northern Army, and signed their surrender (see photograph above).

The terms of the surrender include a formal recognition of the Entente's responsibility in starting the Great War and plunging the world into chaos, and a promise of paying reparations as well as handing over those politicians who made the callous and absurd decision to invade the Imperial Norden region. All Legadonian military personnel is to disarm, and the nation's military facilities will be occupied by the Empire until the end of the war, while all stocks of war resources will also be claimed. Apart from these most reasonable demands, however, the Empire is gracious in its victory : the Kaiser himself, in an announcement made earlier today, voiced his hopes that this will be the first step toward the reconciliation between our two nations.

This great victory was made possible by the fall of the city of Os ten days ago, accomplished in a daring manoeuvre by our brave soldiers. Using stealth technology developed in the most secret laboratories of our glorious empire, elite commandos were able to infiltrate the Entente strongholds and disable their mighty guns, leaving the way open for our Navy to claim Os. This left the Entente army trapped between our forces pushing north from Norden and the troops having disembarked at Os, leaving them no choice but to lay down their arms to avoid annihilation.

Once again, the Fatherland's glorious sons have proved that there is no army in the world that can match their prowess and ingenuity !

Excerpt from the front-page of the Berun Post, December 10th, 1924.

"Mrs Sue,

It is my duty to inform you that your husband, Colonel Anson Sue, was captured and is presently in the custody of the Imperial Army.

Per the provisions of the Worms Convention regulating the treatment of prisoners during war, you might petition for the chance to visit him. Attached to this letter are the procedures you need to follow to make the visiting request, as well as the security measures you'll need to follow once your request is granted.

Be assured that your husband is being treated humanly, and is in excellent health. He fought with bravery and honor, and surrendered when he realized that the only thing continuing to fight would achieve would be to throw away his life and, more importantly to him, those of the brave Legadonian soldiers under his command.

If you have any further question or are in need of assistance filling the forms, you can ask for help at the nearest Imperial occupation office, the address of which should have been posted on your local news bulletin or be available at your city hall or equivalent."

Letter from the Imperial Occupation Office to the house of Colonel Anson Sue, December 12th, 1924.

"I still consider myself the same person as I was before my death and resurrection. I have all my memories, all my skills, and all my emotions. When I think of my parents, I still feel the same sorrow for their deaths in Rus. When I think of my aunt and uncle who took me in, it is with a surge of gratitude that they don't have to live with the grief of my death, even if I can only exchange censored letters with them for now.

The same is true for the rest of my peers. We have changed, that much is undeniable. Killing holds little terror for us now, regardless of how used to it we were before, and our desire for blood has replaced that for all other food. But aren't all soldiers changed by their experiences in war ? Would anyone dare to say that the veteran returning from the trenches of the Rhine isn't the same person who went in, except as a metaphor for how deeply they've been affected by what they witnessed ? It is the same for us.

Yes, our hunger for blood has the potential to drive us to bestial madness, even if the Major has forbidden any attempt to test that. But isn't that the case of all people ? In my lost homeland of Rus, starvation and despair brought about by the Tzar's incompetence were enough to drive the peasants and workers to revolt against their masters, despite the terrible odds they faced. Even if their Revolution ended up successful, surely those who raised the first pitchfork must've known their chances of survival were slim – but hunger pushed them to make the attempt regardless.

The same is true in the Empire, I think. Even the most loyal Imperial soldier will revolt if her superior wilfully deny her the food she needs to live. But I know the Major will never do such a thing. She is far too wise, and far too kind, even if she doesn't really show it.

We are no longer human, but we are still people. And whatever our origins, we were all reborn here, in Castle Schwartzstein. Through this rebirth, the Empire is our one true homeland, and we will fight to defend it under Major Degurechaff, no matter what the world throws against us."

Excerpt from the writings of Viktoriya Serebryakov, archived as part of the ongoing evaluation of the Untoten's mental state by Division Y.

"Concerning what happened at the Osfjord, the damage inflicted on the defenders under the cover of a mysterious fog resembles that inflicted by full-enhanced combat mages going against normal soldiers. Yet the Entente possessed its own mages, and while a significant portion of them were unable to react in time and ended up surrendering (efforts to contact them in captivity in order to learn more are ongoing), there were still a not insignificant number left in the areas that were wiped out prior to the advance of the conventional Imperial forces.

We found no evidence of Imperial casualties during that vanguard assault, so if there were losses, their bodies were removed prior to the arrival of our operatives. How the Imperials were able to deploy a strike force of such potency ahead of their main army without being detected eludes us for now : our intelligence indicates that the mist began to form well behind the front line, blocking radio transmissions and making mana detection far less reliable. This indicates that the Imperials managed to infiltrate the Entente's territory prior to the mist's deployment. Our best theory is that they used some kind of high-altitude insertion, dropping a handful of mages from aircraft before deploying the mist and disabling the Osfjord's defenses.

Despite the differences in execution, it is our belief that the same Imperial organization was involved in the sudden collapse of the Legadonian Entente as was responsible for the inhumane massacre of the Dacian Army. Obviously, the weapon that killed thousands of Dacians wasn't the same one as was deployed at Osfjord, but it seems likely the two came from the same Imperial research branch. We have found traces of messages being exchanged between Central Headquarters and a group called Division Y, asking for their assistance on the Northern Front, mere weeks before the disaster at the Osfjord. Further investigation has revealed that Division Y was also responsible for the destruction of the Dacian Army, although it appears that the scale of that victory took even the Imperials by surprise : whether this was due to the efficiency of Division Y's Wunderwaffen or the incompetence of the Dacians remains unclear at the moment.

If the results of our investigation are correct, Division Y operates under the sole authority of the Empire's Central Headquarters, but is based in a single secret location we have yet to discover. We will continue our efforts to locate this research facility, but as would be expected, the Empire is keeping a very tight hold on such critical information."

Excerpt from the report of Agent 404, Albion Secret Service, December 20th, 1924.

December 21st, 1924 – Londinium

In a room whose luxurious decor belied the seriousness of the matter at hand, several of the Allied Kingdom's most powerful men were gathered. Glasses of expensive alcohol were left forgotten on the table around which they sat, and their expressions were grim as they finished reading the compilation of their latest intel on the state of the Great War. They weren't all the members of this group, but they were the ones with the most involvement in the current situation, and the ones who had been available when the report had come in.

One of the men was an old soldier who had survived long enough to rise to the very top of the Kingdom's military hierarchy. In this group, he went by the title of Kay. Another was a spymaster whose agents were spread across the world, playing the Great Game for the good of the Allied Kingdom : his seat was that of Agravain. A third was the Royal Wizard, personal advisor to the King and his representatives in all magical matters, who was, obviously, called Merlin. The fourth occupied a position within the government it would take many hours to explain to someone uninitiated to the complex inner workings of the Allied Kingdom, but which carried considerable influence on its foreign policy. He was called, in what was almost certainly a joke from their ancestors that had turned into tradition, Mordred.

They were all very different people, united by their dedication to their country and the fact that they were all descended from some of the Kingdom's oldest noble lineages. In one way or another, their families had worked together in the shadows to serve crown and country for generations, yet never in all that time had they encountered a conundrum such as they one they faced now.

"Well," said the old soldier as he finally put down the rapport, "this is a fine mess. Merlin, what do you make of it ?"

"I will need to check against the archives of my office, but off the top of my head ? Just like with what happened to the Dacian Army, Albion has never encountered anything like this fog. The magic described in there just … don't make sense, according to any magical school I can think of."

"So the Imperials really have discovered some cache of pre-Inquisition magical knowledge ?" asked Agravain. Merlin shook his head.

"They might have, but that alone wouldn't explain what we've seen so far. I believe what we are seeing now is the result of the same Imperial ingenuity used in the rest of their warmachine having been applied to magical research. We are talking about the nation that invented the computation orb, after all : it makes sense that they wouldn't rest on their laurels after such a feat."

"So all this time, while the rest of us struggled to catch up to their orbs, they were also performing research for military application of wide-scale magic beyond the basics of magical artillery, flight and reinforcements ?"

"It seems likely. Surely these 'Wunderwaffen' we are seeing now must be the result of years of careful research and development, decades even."

"And I didn't catch a sniff of it until the bullets were already flying," muttered Agravain, crestfallen.

"At least we have a name for them now," Mordred tried to reassure his peer. "Division Y, wasn't it ?"

"Yes." Agravain suddenly seemed a lot more animated. "I'll have my people do all they can to learn more. Knowing that the organization exists should help us in that regard. As long as there was peace and no need for them to involve themselves with the rest of the world, there was little opportunity for us to learn about them, but the cat's out of the bag now."

"That's all well and good," cut in Kay, "but that still leaves us in a very bad position. The Francois Republic is the only contestant left in the war, but they can't face the full might of the Empire alone. They will give the Imperials a fight, make no mistake, but they will lose, even if there are no more Wunderwaffen waiting in the wings. And then the Empire will become the continent's unchallenged hegemon, precisely what we've been trying to avoid for decades."

"They have received the remaining Entente troops, right ?" asked Merlin.

"They did," confirmed Kay, "for all the good that will do. The ships of the leftover Entente fleet that managed to slip the noose of the Imperial North Fleet are a welcome addition to the Republic's own naval assets, but they aren't going to be of much use in the Rhine, and the soldiers aboard are barely worth a single division, and escaped with little heavy equipment. Mages would've been useful, but the Imperials hunted them down relentlessly, and only a handful made it out."

"What about the situation in Legadonia itself ?" asked Mordred. "We have their lawful government under our protection. Can we use that to take some pressure off the Republic ?"

It had been the single silver lining in the whole disaster that was the collapse of the Entente, beyond the salvage of a handful of Legadonian units by the Francois Republic. The evacuation of the Legadonian Foreign Affairs Councilor Abensoll ahead of the Imperial advance had gone off without a hitch, and the man was now safe in Londinium, having just finished announcing his presence in a press conference to the international news organizations. Given how much time and effort had gone into ensuring his safe escape, Mordred certainly had good reasons to hope for a suitable return on investment.

"Well, it's certainly better to have the man here than not, but he isn't going to be of much use in that regard, I'm afraid," sighed Agravain. "The Entente's population is well aware that their last government started the war, and then their current one lost it and either ran away or started collaborating with the Empire."

According to Abensoll, whom Agravain had met in person soon after the man's arrival, that had been a deliberate decision by the Council of Ten. While keeping the flame of resistance lit was important, ensuring that the Empire treated the people of Legadonia well was equally important to the unfortunates who had inherited the previous government's mess. He understood their motives, truly he did, but it would still have made his job and that of the Allied Kingdom easier if the Entente had chosen to fight to the death.

"As a result," he continued, "trust in their political institutions, which already wasn't that high, is at an all-time low. Hell, some of them are clamoring to become part of the Empire and I'm not even sure they are Imperial plants. We can use him for legal purposes, but I don't see any fiery radio speeches inflaming the flame of Legadonian resistance in the future. The Imperials are also too smart to commit any atrocity we can use to rally the population against the occupation."

"They are just going to roll over and submit ?" asked Kay, appalled. "After everything ? We supported them for months, sent several dozens of our most promising young mages to help them, and they are just going to give up like that ?"

The loss of these young mages had hit the Kingdom hard, and Kay especially so. They had been sent as 'volunteer corps', clad in the flimsy fiction that they were acting on their own to avoid dragging the Kingdom into the war before it chose. The goal had been to help the Entente, but also to learn more about the Empire's methods and to let them gain experience in this new, terrible kind of war. Instead, they had disappeared during the lightning-quick Imperial capture of Norden, just like almost every aerial mage that had been deployed there, and whatever intelligence they'd gathered had been lost.

"I didn't say that," assured Agravain. "The previous government spent years papering over the country's bad economic state by stoking the flames of patriotism, after all. I am certain there will be acts of resistance against the Imperials, and we should definitely look into supporting and arming them to take some pressure off the Republic. But I very much doubt they'll amount to much in the grand scheme of things."

"And the shock of Dacia's sudden defeat has left them stunned and unwilling to fight back and risk a repeat," continued Kay, still frowning. "Unless the Francois can pull off a miracle, we are going to have to join the war ourselves, gentlemen." Left unsaid was that, so far, it was the Empire that was pulling miracles out of thin air – or rather, out of the mysterious Division Y's arsenal. "We might be able to pull in someone else, but I don't think anyone will join in unless we do it first. I am going to make sure our troops will be ready when it comes to that."

"I will send feelers to the ambassadors we have here," declared Mordred. "See who is ready to join in before the Empire becomes the dominant power of the century. The Unified States don't have much skin in the game yet, but the Russy Federation should be willing to help if we make the right promises."

"And I will continue searching the archives for either an explanation or a counter to the Empire's magical arsenal," said Merlin. "Any additional intelligence you can provide would help immensely in that regard, Agravain."

"Understood. As for me, well, I am going to keep my people very busy. I probably should look into doing something nice for them all too."

There were a few more exchanges, then, after a round of goodbyes and finally draining their glasses (it was just too fine of a vintage to waste), the four members of the Allied Kingdom's unofficial Round Table left to attend to their respective duties.

"You are alive. You're really … I am so glad. When I received that letter, I was so scared that you had … that you …"

"Hush, darling. It's okay. I'm fine, see ? Perfectly healthy ?"

"Really ? Then what's that bandage on your arm ?"

"Oh, that ? Haha, nothing to worry about. The military doctors here took some blood from everyone this morning, to check that we didn't catch anything on the front. They don't want us to fall sick and be accused of poisoning us or something, after all."

"If you gave blood, then you will enjoy this : I brought you some food. It has your favourite in it. Me and Mary made it together after the officer I contacted told me care packages were allowed. Think of it as an early Christmas present."

"Oh, nice ! The food here is, well, it's filling, but it's not that I would call great great. I can't complain, though : apparently it's the exact same stuff they give to their own soldiers. I guess the old joke about an army being stronger the worse its food is was more true than I thought."

"I made enough for you to share with your men. I have been in touch with their families : we are thinking of doing a rotation to bring you food regularly."

"That … that would be great. We are getting regular exercise and we can ask for books from the local library, but we will all welcome the diversion. How is Mary doing ?"

"Better now that she knows you are fine and the war is over. She, well, she's too young to really care about the country. She just wanted you to come home safe."

"I'm not home yet. But … here. I wrote her a letter. Course, our friends from the Empire read it to make sure I didn't give out any military secrets. I wouldn't want Mary to get dragged into this mess anyway."

"I'll give it to her. She wanted to come, but this isn't a place for someone so young … What's wrong ?"

"Nothing, sorry. Just a weird thought."

"If you say so. Anyway, Mary told me to remind you to shave so that she can kiss you when you come home. Do you … do you know when you'll be released ?"

"No. It's complicated : the Entente is out of the war, but with the government-in-exile calling for everyone to resist the occupation, the Empire can't exactly release aerial mages into the wild. If the occupation goes badly, I've been told we might even be shipped off to a prison camp in the Empire's homeland, just to be safe."

"… Oh. Those damn cowards. It's not enough that they ran away and abandoned the country, they have the audacity to tell others to risk their lives ?"

"They want Legadonia to keep its dignity and regain its independence, and they think the Empire's defeat is the best way to achieve that. Making the occupation as painful as possible helps their position, since it makes a liberation push more tempting. I told Mary in my letter that I don't want her to even think about joining some half-baked resistance – our country declared war without being prepared for it for a stupid reason, we lost, and the Empire is frankly treating us better than we've any right to expect. I refuse to believe jeopardizing our people's lives just to help the bureaucrats and politicians score points is the right thing to do."

"I don't think Mary would do anything so dangerous, Anson. If you had gotten hurt, or worse, then maybe … But she's a sweet girl."

"I know, but she's still young. If she falls in with a bad crowd … Just, please make sure she stays safe, okay ? I trust my men wouldn't do anything stupid, but the temptation would be too much for many people. "

"Alright, I will make sure she understands."

"Thanks. In any case, that's why I probably won't be able to come home until the rest of the war is over."

"… At least you are alive. I will pray that the Francois Republic sees reason quickly and starts negotiating peace so that you can come home."

"As will I, darling. As will I."

Excerpt from the exchange between Anson Sue and his visiting wife, overseen and recorded as per standard Imperial protocol for prisoners of war in possession of dangerous intelligence, December 23rd, 1924.

AN : Well, I ended up writing this much faster than I thought I would.

Due to the overwhelming positive reaction to this story's first chapter (especially on SpaceBattles), my plans for this fic have undergone some revisions. Specifically, it isn't going to be limited to just six chapters anymore. The many suggestions and comments have kicked my muse into overdrive for this fic, and I have a lot of pages of notes to develop and source material to read.

Also, after realizing that my recollection of this chapter's canon equivalent was very oversimplified, I had to overhaul a bunch of stuff. Part of it was the acceleration of the Entente's defeat and surrender compared to canon. Mostly this is to simplify things in the story, but the in-universe reason is that the Entente took heavier losses when they were pushed out of Norden due to the Untoten hunting at night, and the capture of Os completely collapsed the defensive screen they had just barely managed to put together. Between that, the Untoten continuing to operate in the Entente afterwards, and the impact on morale of Imperial propaganda playing up the Wunderwaffen, the Entente collapsed much faster than in canon, forcing the Councilors who stayed behind to surrender.

(Yes, I shouldn't explain this in the AN, but you try to put a discussion of the differences between two different timelines in the main story.)

As for Mary Sue's destiny as Tanya's nemesis being derailed, don't worry, there will be other antagonists for Tanya to deal with once the rest of the world is given some time to react to Division Y's actions so far. Keep in mind that in-universe, it's barely been a month since the slaughter of the Dacian Army (which, by the way, was indeed based on a scene from the Overlord series, as several of you suggested : I'm pretty sure these particular eldritch abominations are smaller in the original material). Even the pseudo-Round Table is only now starting to get actionable intel. By the way, if you have names to suggest for its members (beyond their nicknames), I very much welcome them. Finding names for characters is always a chore for me.

The suggestions for more Projekte are welcome too, and don't limit yourselves solely to existing elements of the Mythos. Projekt Nebel wasn't inspired by anything in particular as far as I am aware (it's always possible my subconscious pulled a fast one on me again), after all. The next chapter, however, will include something that should be more familiar to fans of the Mythos ... or at least a specific spin-off TTRPG.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts on this chapter. Oh, and happy New Year, everybody.

Zahariel out.