Aaaannnd: things went to crap. A salutary lesson as to why you should listen to your underofficers. Demi-humans make mistakes, too. It shall be interesting to see how this plays out in her mind and in her army.
Category: Crusade
Crossing the river, 1/2
Against her centurions’ advice, Faustina crosses the bridge into a still-live battlefield, the PLA garrison surrender notwithstanding. I was curious how she would handle it. This is part one of the aftermath. Part two shortly.
Bang Bang
Three thousands words today! W00t! I have the morning off tomorrow, Christmas Eve, but have to work second shift. At least with now-teen daughters I don’t have to worry about them running screaming into our room at 0600 that “Santa was here!!!111!!”
Instead, I’ll work more on the Battle of Augusta. Short and confusing but more engagements are. We even catch a glimpse that our heroine is not nearly as composed as she thinks she is. Lots to do…
Luke 4:5
No, Fussy’s not the devil; but, she does have her demons. Once she catches “victory fever” after Savannah we’ll likely see more of them, I’m afraid. In the meantime, she really does care about “her boys.”
Locked out
Finished the segment I began yesterday: Faustina having a brief chat with the mayor of what’s left of Asheville. With that in the bag, I went to review some maps about their upcoming troop movements. Yeah, there are those three dams, but I’m sure the barges and escorts will fit through their locks… Those dams look a little small… let’s look them up and also check ‘street level view’!
Well, dang. Having spent a half-dozen of my formative years around the Columbia River, I took it for granted that a great waterway would have locks for barge traffic. I realized now that the Savannah River is not a “great waterway.” Important, certainly, but it is a creek compared to something such as the Columbia.
I still think I can get their artillery onto barges in Augusta. But the legions are going to have to cover the 160 miles from Asheville to there, first. Then, while the barges – under guard – move down-river, the infantry will march another 125 miles. I see that a few days of maps, calculations, and re-writes are ahead of me. Hope to have something by Wednesday.
Bed to bed
No, not Faustina; she’s too nice a girl for that… and she has more important things in her mind that dalliances with boys. “It is no small thing to make a new world.”
In the meantime, they are coming up on their first non-Knoxville population center and need to maintain operational security in what is essentially “Indian country.” I’ve actually written on a little as to what happens the next day but it was not a good fit for this little entry. Tomorrow.
First Moves
War! Well, at least the first stages of it. To engage an enemy you have to get your men there first. Faustina leads Legio One and Legio Two out of permanent camp on their way south, over the Smoky Mountains. This puts her in a challenging position: she will be away from any signal, at least until the outskirts of her target city, so will have no choice but to rely upon what the machine Ventidio trained her to do, as well as her own staff, officers, and centurions. If she’s smart, she will listen very closely to her centurions…
After Dinner
I close things out at the Hartmann Family Dinner. Henge has a random act of kindness for her new family; Faustina talks war with her father; Gary and Henge make another go or two at a sibling for Aurelia. Wrapping up lose ends, really. After this, Faustina and her legions are on the march!
Family Dinner
If there’s one thing I love to write, it’s people talking. And there’s no better place to talk than around the dinner table. This is, obviously, a calm before the storm of war. Before Faustina leads her legions over the mountains and against a professional military of the world’s last superpower.
Declarations
I realized the timing is little off for these. Instead of “two months prior” and “one month prior” it should be 2-4 weeks later in both cases as these events take place not only after Faustina’s march on Savannah, but also after Gary and Henge come to save her life. That’s fine: these very rough manuscript drafts are for that purpose: for me to see that needs to be changed, revised, expanded, cut for a commercial novel release.
Below the fold Faustina makes her first public speech. There is A LOT going on in my head about the politics of this that I simply did not want to be bothered with right now. The important thing was answering the question of “chi l’oro?” Which I think I did, in a surprising and funny way.
machciv 