47th of the Aster’s Gloom 2030 D.C.E
Tambwe Dominance — Rangda City, 8th Division Garrison HQ
As the sun rose to keep its noon-time appointments, the door to the temporary Regimental Headquarters slammed suddenly open. Logia Minardo wandered nonchalantly inside, singing a little tune to herself. Despite her visible pregnancy, she was as sprightly as a teenage girl, swinging her hips, tossing her shoulder-length hair, taking little dancing steps into the building. From her fingers swung a cloth bag that she used as a prop in her act.
Her feet thudded on the floor as she neared her desk, adding percussion to her voice.
Coming out of a quick spin, she set down her bag and snapped her fingers with a flourish.
Behind the main desk, Colonel Madiha Nakar and her pet dragon glared the Staff Sergeant’s way, both taking the same guarded posture and wearing exactly the same sour expression toward her. Neither of them seemed amused with Minardo’s antics. Kali was even growling. Fully uniformed, even wearing her officer’s cap, Madiha looked likewise unapproachable.
Minardo smiled and waved her hand at the pair. She spoke in a flighty tone of voice.
“Oh my, I don’t know if it’s pet influencing owner or owner influencing pet anymore.”
Madiha’s sour expression grew concertedly sour. Kali then mimicked her.
In the Colonel’s mind, a reservoir of good will toward Minardo was rapidly emptying.
“I am wondering why you failed to pick me up this morning, and why you are here so late in the day with that nonchalant expression on your face. Furthermore, I’m curious to see if you know the answers to those questions with regards to my assistant.” Madiha said.
Across the room, the staff sergeant quizzically panned her head around. Her gaze settled on each desk and table in the room, and it dawned on her what Madiha had known for hours now. Parinita had failed to show up for work; she hadn’t even taken a minute to tell Madiha where she was going, despite them living in the same building. It was the shock of a lonely morning and a lonely walk from her lodgings to the base, that had Madiha quite on edge.
That, and her building disdain for Minardo’s roguish sense of humor.
“Oh no! Perhaps she was kidnapped.” Minardo said, putting on a face of mock fright.
“Don’t joke about that.” Madiha said brusquely.
Minardo raised her hands defensively. “I’m sorry. I don’t think anything bad could have happened to her. She might have gone to the shops to get an outfit to wear to the festival.”
“She didn’t have any money. None of us do.” Madiha said.
“There are more ways to acquire goods than through money.” Minardo said.
She blew a little kiss at Madiha, who discovered then that what she hated more than Minardo’s roguish sense of humor was her coquettish sense of humor.
“Don’t joke about that, either!” Madiha snapped loudly, pushing herself to an irate stand, and Kali joined in with tinny growls, stretching up on the desk as if ready to pounce.
Minardo shrugged. “My, my, this is a tough crowd.” She then sighed heavily. “Anyway, I lent her some money, okay? I’m sure she is only out on the town. It is fine, Colonel.”
“And where did you get this money you lent her from? Are you suddenly a bank?”
“I just had it tucked away, and I decided to be kind. What do you want from me?”
Madiha grumbled. She irrationally bitter that Parinita had turned to Minardo for funds.
Even though she knew that she wouldn’t have been able to help at all in that arena.
“Fine. I’ll accept that. Go busy yourself for now.” Madiha ordered.
Minardo nodded her head and turned around to her desk.
Aside from Madiha and now Minardo, the room was empty. The Colonel dismissed Bhishma early; without Parinita around she had no idea what work she could even have Bhishma do. Padmaja had come fluttering in early in the morning, and took a few radio calls, and organized every desk. Then, having run out of things to do, Madiha had her go on errands.
For a few hours after, the Colonel was alone in the office.
Despite this, Minardo’s presence was not exactly welcomed.
Ever since they met, Madiha felt like her image of the Staff Sergeant was deteriorating.
She knew that she was on edge, and that her condition was heightening her low-key disdain for Minardo’s flighty but harmless antics. The Staff Sergeant was useful and could be more useful in the future; but in the present, Madiha wanted to be angry at her, and indulged that anger more openly than she had in the past. Her emotions bubbled beneath her skin.
If the Staff Sergeant sensed any danger, she hid that intuition well.
Minardo sat behind her desk, and for a moment she pretended to do some work. At a glance she seemed to busy herself, picking up papers, tapping them against the desktop, setting them down, and going over them. However, all of those papers were taken from a stack of blank requisition sheets, so there was nothing to read. And Minardo was constantly glancing over at Madiha’s desk. Despite meeting the Colonel’s disapproving gaze several times this way, Minardo did not cease her little facade until the Colonel called her out.
“What do you want, Minardo?” Madiha asked, exasperated.
“I am wondering if you have any hobbies, Colonel.”
Madiha frowned back, irritated and glum.
“I–”
Suddenly Minardo interrupted. “No military stuff!”
She felt like replying with ‘go to hell’ but restrained herself.
Madiha gave a throaway answer. “Kali.” She said.
At her side, the dragon’s eyes drew wide open and it kneaded its legs happily.
“I happen to have an affinity for puzzles.” Minardo replied.
“What’s your point? Do you want to show me a puzzle?”
Minardo smiled and stood up from her desk. “Since we have nothing better to do.”
She withdrew a box from her bag, and set it down on Madiha’s desk.
“I was thinking,” she continued, “we could take up a little challenge.”
It was a chess board from Solstice Toys & Games, updated to match the sensibilities of the time. Pawns were laborers, Knights were revolutionaries, bishops Commissars, and so on. At the very top of the hierarchy of pieces was the Premier, or Central Committee Head; in this edition the piece was a small, ivory Lena Ulyanova. It was a rather cute board all told.
“Chess?” Madiha asked. Her demeanor softened just a little.
“I prefer crossword puzzles to keep my mind sharp, but this works for two.”
Kali drew close to the chess set, sniffed the box, and recoiled, snarling.
“Does it smell like me?” Minardo asked, leaning close to the dragon.
Kali blew a puff of white smoke into Minardo’s face.
Drawing back again from the desk, Minardo sighed audibly.
“Anyway, would you like to have a match, Colonel?” Minardo asked.
Madiha knew that the excuse of ‘I have work to do’ had all dried up. She had hardly the capacity to work in this office, and other than yelling at various suppliers to hurry up with her orders, she had little administrative work to do. And what little she could do, she needed Parinita to record and organize. Doing anything without her secretary would have led to confusion later, as both wondered what parts of the work were done or not.
So in those circumstances, the idea of besting Minardo sounded palatable.
“I wanted to go over the table of organization, but fine. We can play one game.”
Nodding her head contentedly, Minardo pulled up the top of the game box, and set up the board atop Madiha’s empty desk, putting all the pieces in their places. “Black or white?”
“Black.” Madiha replied.
Minardo flipped the board, and put her hand on a pawn.
“That means I go first.” She said, winking.
Madiha acknolwedged, and watched as Minardo made a simple opening move.
Out of the front ranks, a white pawn moved.
Figuring there was no better move at the time, Madiha mirrored her opponent.
She thought she could already see a game unfolding here.
Pawns drew out, and then knights started moving. Madiha thought it would become a pitched battle, and her mind was racing to plot out the moves that she would make. She viewed the knights as tanks, able to move around obstacles. Pawns were small but vicious infantry who could hold key positions. And then there was the Queen, most powerful of all.
She viewed it as the war of mobility that had been swirling in her mind for days now.
Her imagination got the better of her.
Despite this exertion of brainpower, Minardo was soon laughing in Madiha’s face.
Though in her head many moves had been made, in reality, only pawns had set out.
Two moves worth of pawns from both sides. White, black, white, black–
Win.
A white Queen came creeping out of her phalanx for a surprise victory.
“I can’t believe this! You fell for the fool’s mate! Are you eight years old?”
Minardo continued to laugh while Madiha surveyed the board in confusion.
She could imagine all she wanted, but she had never actually played chess.
As such, her play was apparently incredibly weak.
“I feel so cruel to have won this way! But I couldn’t resist trying it.” Minardo boasted.
Madiha rubbed her chin, quietly staring at the board.
Her sour expression returned.
Kali swiped its tail at the board, scattering the pieces on the desktop.
“Hey!” Minardo said, frowning childishly. “Don’t break my set!”
Feeling rather sour, Madiha did notthing to restrain her rampant companion.
She turned her head away instead.
“You need to be a better sport than this, Colonel!” Minardo said, picking up her pieces.
Madiha grumbled.
“Were it not for the restrictions of this game I would’ve beaten you.” She said.
Minardo blinked. Now it was her turn to put on a sour face.
“It is quite ugly of you to act so petulantly!” She said. “Chess is a simulation of war, Colonel!”
Perhaps her actions had offended the Staff Sergeant, but Madiha found it hard to care at the time. She crossed her arms and averted her eyes, but continued to talk in a haughty tone, feeling somewhat empowered by her sudden ability to needle Minardo on this topic. In fact she resolved to push the issue further and see where her Staff Sergeant would snap again.
“You can gloat about your skills in a game all you want. Chess is nowhere near the reality of war. Combat does not move on grids or follow turns. Had we both been on a real battlefield I would have had you in ropes in a captive’s tent easily, Staff Sergeant.” Madiha said.
Again this attitude seemed to put her opponent quite off-balance.
“Those are loser’s words indeed!” Minardo said, raising her voice.
It was poor sport; Madiha was still disassatisfied with the game and with Minardo.
Even prodding her was not cathartic enough for the Colonel’s frustrations.
She would not dismiss or discipline Minardo. She felt that would hurt her too much.
Instead she resolved just to try to ignore her.
“Well, whatever; you’ve had your fun, now leave me be.” Madiha said.
Unfortunately her Staff Sergant never seemed to relent on any issue.
“Not so soon! I have a game you could try then, if you’re so high and mighty!”
Minardo stood up in a hurry, and withdrew a file folder from her bag.
She slapped it down onto the table.
It was a red folder with the insignia of the Solstice Officer’s School.
Madiha’s eyes darted down to the folder. It immediately captured her attention.
“Well, Colonel, if chess is too simple for you, how about a wargame? You’ve taken part in these exercises before, correct? Then, you should have no complaints in this arena.”
“What do you hope to accomplish with this?” Madiha asked.
Minardo smirked. That mischevious glint returned to her eyes.
“I am merely curious about the legend of this so-called ‘hero of the border’.”
Madiha bristled. She did not particularly like that epithet and the burden it carried when spoken. However, she also felt a building anger at how easily Minardo took the name in vain, at how conceited she was behaving. Though Madiha tried to present a friendly and approachable face, she was the Colonel, and Minardo was showing her too little respect.
Had she done such a thing to Kimani, she would have been slapped across the face.
Madiha stood up as quickly as Minardo had, a determined look on her face.
“Fine! You shall see that legend first-hand.” She said.
They sealed the challenge with a hand-shake, and cleared the desk.
Thankfully this was the compact version of the wargame, playable even in a barracks.
Atop the Colonel’s desktop they unfurled a long map, and began to deploy chits that represented various army units. It was a map of Vassaile, an area between the Frank Kingdom and the Nocht Federation, and the game was set in during the Unification War. It was a scenario that Madiha knew well; she knew every battle of these modern wars quite well, but this scenario was rather common in officer training across the world.
Played according to the rules of the Nochtish Kriegsspiel games, adapted for Ayvartan use, the scenario pitted the Frank 66th Army (Bluefor) against the Nochtish 11th Army (Redfor). In the battle of Vassaile, the 66th Army had crossed the border to Nocht in force, launching an offensive against Federation forces. Historically, the Nocht Federation retreated from Vassaile in disarray. It was the job of Bluefor to assail Nocht, and to achieve a victory better than history — the complete destruction of the 11th army. Meanwhile, Redfor had to attempt to keep the Nochtish lines straight while escaping from destruction. It was a scenario that helped prove the leadership qualities of the commanders on both sides.
Classically, it was a scenario that, when played well, had no victory for either side.
Redfor classically held on at the edges of Vassaile and prevented the Frank forces from entering too deep into Nocht; Bluefor classically took all of its objectives, but without destroying Redfor or managing to invade the Nochtish heartland past Vassaile.
“I’m calling Bluefor.” Minardo said, stamping her hand on a chit representing the 1st Chasseurs Division, light cavalry. Around her hand were dozens more Frank units. The Franks were noted for having the larger starting army, though Nocht had more reinforcements and reserves. Thus it was known Franz had an offensive advantage.
“Then I’m Redfor.” Madiha calmly replied.
It unsettled her slightly. In officer school she had played Bluefor and won the ahistorical victory, destroying the 11th Army completely through encirclement around Vassaile. She had not opted then to penetrate too deep into Nocht. Destroying the 11th Army was enough.
Likely, if Minardo brought this game here and called Bluefor, she intended to do the same.
“We’ve both played this game before, so let us settle things honorably.” Minardo said.
Madiha thought it certainly fit her roguish character to say such a thing.
She definitely intended to play Madiha’s game. That result was no secret among wargamers.
“I won’t kick up a storm; but you had best umpire it properly.” Madiha replied.
There was no use fighting it. Using good results from previous players was common.
Kali leaned over the map, flicking her tongue at the chits.
“No, settle down.” Madiha said. She wanted to see this game through.
Kali looked at her, and then curled in a corner of the table.
“This set is not my property, so let’s not ruin it.” Minardo said.
“Kali will behave.”
Madiha and Minardo shook hands over the table.
Thus the game began.
It was the 17th of the Lilac’s Bloom, and the Franks made the first move.
Minardo rattled off her orders.
“1st Division Chasseurs à cheval will move along the curve of Paix and Moltke on the Nochtish border, initiating hostilities against the 5th Grenadier Division. 5th Division Vernon Royal Hussars will ascend the Crux and Cateblanche line and attack the 10th Grenadier Division alongside the 1st Independent Scout Car battalion–”
Madiha acknowledged each move. These were standard openers. Madiha had performed all of them herself during her ahistorical winning game. 5th Grenadier and 10th Grenadier had historically arrived quite late, but early enough to be counted as standing units in the game. Unlike much of the Nochtish army at the time they lacked even minimal entrenchment along the border, and thus made prime targets for Franz’ few mobile units of the period.
As was standard, Nocht retreated both divisions, as they would be unable to stand and face the Chassuers and the Hussars in their early game condition. Even weak old horse cavalry was enough to burst these rushed Grenadier divisions. This created holes in the line that the standard Divisione D’Infanterie could then move through to attack Nocht entrenchments behind their lines. Madiha was forced into the standard early game retreat.
Beginning officers unused to the game would often muck about the border for several game periods, making for the impressive military fisticuffs that characterized the battle as it actually played out. But those with experience in the game always played it ahistorically, preserving their forces to try to game the system where they could do so later on.
Madiha began her retreat. Using a pointer, she pushed back her chits from the bulging Paix-Moltke curve at the Frank border, abandoning the Nochtish entrenchments and losing their defensive bonuses, but escaping what would have otherwise been an easy Frank trap and a sweeping early victory. This was all still standard; nobody had innovated at all yet.
She presumed that Minardo would not innovate; she waited for tell-tale signs of her own play, and soon found the first indication that Minardo was playing her old game to the letter. The 17th Royal Durst Pikers challenged the retreating Nochtish 19th Grenadier Division, an otherwise unassuming division that happened to hold Nocht’s only heavy mortars in the sector. Its destruction would greatly hamper defensive play for Redfor in the coming turns.
It was a move Madiha could not prevent, and she picked up the chit and discarded it.
All the while, Minardo laughed haughtily and grinned to herself.
“It’s interesting isn’t it?” She said, in a mock sweet voice.
Madiha could not disagree. She felt it was rather exhilirating to see this board again.
This was a bloodless battlefield where she had total control. Units could live or die only as necessary to achieve a victory. There was no complications, only pure strategy.
Madiha felt something close to elation, to entertainment, to purpose.
Her heart raced, and her skin brimmed with energy.
She felt the time had come for her first innovation.
“I will bypass the free entrenchment opportunity at the Lehner line. 11th Army will continue to retreat west. Let the umpire know I surrender the objective at Erfring.”
“Oh ho ho. So– You give up some points to me just like that?”
“Yes. You can have it.”
Minardo gleefully pushed her chits forward, and Madiha, though she kept a stony outward face was smiling inside. Someone who only read a list of Madiha’s winning moves or a summary of the scenario she played at the academy, would see this as a winning situation. In reality, it meant the entire nature of the scenario that Madiha played back then was fundamentally changed. Minardo’s memorized moves would no longer apply to the game.
Giving up the Lehner line forced Nocht dangerously close to a technical defeat.
After all, being kicked out of the battlefield almost entirely was a loss, in every sense.
Historically, Nocht had held on at the edge of Vassaile.
For Nocht to move too far past this line meant a total defeat regardless of objectives.
However, the way Madiha intended to play, this would not matter.
The 11th Army continued to retreat and finally took up its new positions in a strained, u-shaped curve straddling a forest and a large rural boom town called Schmelzdorf.
It lay behind the half-way point of a tactical map that began far on the right, near Franz.
Retreat beyond the forest would mean a loss for the 11th Army, opening Nocht to invasion.
It was the kind of bait no reckless player would let go.
Pressing her offensive advantage, Minardo launched several attacks with her 66th army.
She continued to move closer and closer on the map, bloodthirsty with victory after tactical victory. Madiha removed various chits, and shored up the line with reinforcements that had begun moving at the start of the game and only now reached the line, in time to plug it. Now Minardo was dubiously innovating. She was attacking much more than Madiha had been.
Perhaps she realized the game had changed; and this was her own original play now.
Regardless, Madiha had achieved her result, and now launched her coup.
“I’m calling for a rail movement.” She declared.
She indicated the length of the movement and the rail lines she would use.
Minardo nodded, and looked over the proposal.
Her eyes drew wide.
“You realize your rail point is behind my lines.”
Now it was Madiha’s turn to put on a fake sweet smile and a mock sweet voice.
“Did you cut the line? I did not seen any engineers moving.”
Minardo grumbled. “You’ll have to roll to move through enemy lines.”
So far, dice had not come into play, because most of the moves were easily agreeable.
Madiha picked up a pair of red arbitration dice, and cast them without looking.
Whatever the outcome did not matter to her.
She began to push chits through the rail line and behind Minardo’s group.
Then she repeated the movement, rolling the dice again.
And she repeated it again.
Finally, it dawned upon Minardo the shape that the battlefield was taking.
It was a cauldron.
Drawn into the sunken curve of the 11th Army’s long, tormented line, the 66th army fit inside the belly of the u-shape line as if it was always meant to go there. And now, 6 Divisions of Madiha’s Nochtish forces, having suffered some attrition from trying to rail through enemy lines but ultimately successful in doing so, were beginning to form a lid.
For the first time in the match, Madiha began to call her own attacks.
Attacks that hit by surprise from behind the battered, overstretched 66th Army, that had moved so quickly, so aggressively, against a constantly retreating army, that they were completely tired out. Madiha had baited them in, and now owned their strategic depth. Her “mobile” forces were cut off from supply behind the Frank lines, and their days were ultimately numbered in such a situation, but she did not care, because she was now winning.
Her play would end the game before the units engaged in deep battle ran out of supply.
Ignoring any strong units lagging behind Minardo’s advance, she struck her weak rear.
Seeing the events, Minardo started to stare at the board in the same way that Madiha had stared at the chess board before. Incredulous, rubbing her chin, twisting some of her hair around her index finger, she scanned every chit for some possibility. It was not only Madiha’s play that had stumped her. She had made some blunders too. For example, her cavalry and rudimentary early Unification War era cars were stuck in the center of the 66th Army, unable to move freely. Her front line was all Infantry, and her rear mostly artillery.
In several strokes, Madiha’s weak but cunning penetration units inflicted heavy damage. Minardo’s artillery blew up in her face. Her engineers division was slaughtered. Supply points were captured. To add insult to injury, a battered Grenadier Division parked itself on the Erfring objective, technically taking it back from the Franks. It was absolute mayhem.
Minardo picked up the folder and flipped through the rules.
“Oh good, you’ve got the manual out. If you have a second, Staff Sergeant: I don’t know the rules for capturing a Headquarters behind its own line. Please find them.” Madiha said.
Smiling as coyly as Minardo once did, Madiha brimmed with energy.
Minardo put down the folder, and sighing heavily she also put down her pointer stick.
She cast it atop the center of the map.
This was a sign of surrender.
“Alright, fine! Fine. It looks like I was wrong, Colonel. I apologize.”
Madiha stared at her, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
“I’m being genuine!” Minardo whined. “I am sorry. I got carried away.”
Madiha stretched out a hand, still smiling, high on the adrenaline of her dream war.
They shook. Minardo’s lips curled up a little.
“My, my, Colonel; you have such a beautiful smile. I’d love to see it more often.”
“I would smile more if you didn’t mortify me so much.”
“I said I was sorry! I was just trying to be friendly.”
“Trying to be friendly by bullying me?” Madiha said.
“My professional curiosity got the best of me. I told you I’m an awful gossip.”
“I’d advise you to stop gathering information on me.” Madiha replied.
“Will do!” Minardo said. “What say we let bygones be bygones?”
She withdrew her hand and saluted Madiha.
“Staff Sergeant Logia Minardo, at your service, ma’am! Pleased to serve under you!”
“You even manage to make that tick me off a bit.” Madiha said, grinning a little.
“Oh no, is your opinion of me irrevocably damaged?”
“It will need time to recover.”
Minardo’s whole body seemed to wilt, comically glum.
Ignoring her, Madiha poked the end of the map, and it rolled a little bit closed.
“Did you really memorize all of my play in this game?” She idly asked.
Minardo rubbed her index fingers together, putting on a bashful face.
“Ah, well. Once upon a time, I was shooting for an officer’s commission, and this game came up as a way. I had it in mind to impress someone; but they saw through the ruse.”
“Did you think it would work now?” Madiha asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Truth be told, I was hoping to be humiliated again.” Minardo said.
Sensing the game was over, Kali reared up to claw at the map, and knock it off.
“No!” Madiha said, raising her index finger. “Bad.”
Kali stared bitterly at Minardo and curled into a ball at the far edge of the desk.
Shaking her head, Madiha turned back to her Staff Sergeant. “Anything else?”
Minardo crossed her arms. “Just remember, we’ve only hit a draw right now. Someday soon, Colonel, I’ll make it 2-1! I’d advise you to polish up your Mancala skills!”
As quickly as it went, her wry, foxy little smile reappeared.
Madiha heaved a long sigh.