THERE WERE MASTERS AND SERVANTS,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Prepare for the historic Battle of Valmy.
WHEN? Mid September 1792, France.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

IT'LL BE FINE;

between sainte-menehould and valmy,
1792: revolutionary france.

read the valmy setting infopage

DEPARTING JERUSALEM

The clean up of the battle is slog. A full day of piling together corpses. Noting down famous men and women. In the heat, the bodies bloat and become fetid, and the smell builds until it cannot be ignored. Insects swarm, and vultures blot out the sun, swooping down and taking back what's been left for nature. Stragglers and the poor pick through the field for scattered weapons and valuables to collect. The bodies of important men and women are taken for burial; the rest are left for scavengers, animal or human.

It's in this gruesome scene that the order comes:

PACK UP, GET READY TO MOVE OUT. THE TARGETS HAVE BEEN NEAUTRALIZED. WE MAKE OUR DEPARTURE LOCAL TIME, DAWN.

DEPLOYMENT: VALMY, FRANCE. IT'S GOING TO BE A WET ONE. WE ARE EXPECTING MORE TRANSFERS ON ARRIVAL.

The present COST soldiers that have been in strict cover begin finishing their work, if they've decided to help the army move out, tend to the wounded, or clean up after the dead. There is no sign of the Commander yet, but maybe you recognise some of your fellow operatives. They seem be taking advantage of a particular event that maybe you stopped to see, maybe you didn't.

Saladin beheads Reynald de Chattilion and his words fill the camp as much as the news of their next move.

A king does not kill a king, Saladin says to King Guy, and the orders run like wildfire through the camp: next they take Jerusalem, and it's in this march, that when the rest of the army moves on that COST slips away. A order to fall back in steady increments; when the time comes, Saladin's army is out of sight, marching toward Jerusalem.

In the midst of all of this, COST operatives begin to disappear, here one moment and gone in another. Such a strange sight, more than one native soldier muses, must be the fault of heat exhaustion.

The Time-Step

The transfer begins, and it starts like a vibrating heat on the collar bone, not painful, not to start with. Just a hum of sensation. But the vibration spreads. Veteran COST soldiers often refer to this phenomena as 'the buzz'. The sensation builds, feeling not unlike standing near a great engine, or the wind rattling the branches of a great tree. There is long a moment of motion sickness, and one cannot always be sure if it is you that is shaking from the inside out, or the world that is shaking you from the outside in. It may just be better to close your eyes against the growing nausea as the world blurs out of focus. A star shines in the distance. You may hear the faint rustling of leaves. Some swear they hear voices in this moment, indistinct words echoing off nothingness. Some swear they feel a touch of the divine. One thing is for sure: One moment you are here, and the next, you are not.

The soldier next to you might not have been so clever, when it stops and you find yourself standing in the green fields of France, September 1792. She or he throws up as the vibration fades. Everyone seems to stumble sideways for a second. The world turns, and then rights itself. The heat is gone, replaced with cold and wet.



ARRIVAL FOR TRANSFERS FROM JERUSALEM

It's raining.

You're inside of a tent, (another one), and it already seems to be bustling with movements, they call to you in French, which you understand if you did not already: hurry now, they say, you need out of that cuircass before they're spotted. The rest of the army will be following, and the Prussian army to meet it. There isn't much time to loiter around getting sick in this weather. You have a kit to pick up, and perhaps training to do.

ARRIVAL FOR NEW RECRUITS

The first thing you'll notice is the sound of rain. You awake in a tent that seems to be sheltering against the ruins of a farm house, and everything feels damp. It's a wet September morning in 1792, and when the woman across from you in the tent speaks, you understand it to be French. If you didn't understand French already, you sure do now.

If you ask, she'll explain: you are fighting for France, as the Prussian army intends to invade and sack Paris. You may be a citizen, you may be a soldier; you have risen up in defense of France all the same.

She asks you what role you wish to play in the coming battle, and provides you with clothes and supplies to suit. She won't let you leave until you can pass for a native of France, setting up camp in the rain pouring down between Sainte-Menehould and Valmy.

MISSION OBJECTIVE

The forces of COST have gotten word that Regency operatives have gone to Revolutionary France, intending to turn the tides in one of the most historically important battles in European history. The Battle of Valmy, which decided the entirety of the French Revolution and all that follows it, must be won by the French army, as it was in history.

Unlike the incident in Jerusalem-- you may remember it, you may not-- COST has managed to get here before the day of the battle. Make no mistake; it's coming soon. But this time, you and your fellow travelers have time to prepare.

The French Army has managed to get ahead as well; they've maneuvered around the Prussians, cutting off their supply lines. You and your fellow soldiers are now chasing the invaders as they head for Paris. This is time to prepare and ready your forces. The fight is coming soon.



STAY DRY, STAY SECURE

A few things are strongly remembered about the Battle of Valmy; one of them is the rain. It's really pouring out here, and you're in the thick of it. Rain is a dangerous thing for an army such as this; during this era of warfare, gunpowder was an essential commodity, and wet gunpowder is useless gunpowder. Secure the supplies, rescue supply carriages from muddy sinkholes, steer the horses, check supplies, and try to keep the essential materials for victory dry.

TRAIN UP

General Kellerman and Dumouriez are training peasants in basic military tactics. While veterans make up the core of this army, there are a substantial amount of peasants, and most here have never seen battle in their lives, or ever held a gun. Many are equipped with only rudimentary farming equipment. Help train or be trained so you're ready when the Prussian army arrives.

MEDICAL

Plenty of people need medical attention, not from battle wounds so much as malnutrition and overwork. These are mostly peasant laborers, and they're not entirely fit for battle. Help people get as rested and ready as possible.

ESPIONAGE

We have reason to believe some of the 'peasants' are actually Regency spies. Root them out by seeing keeping an ear to the ground for suspicious activity. They don't know all the words to La Marseillaise? Off with their head! Be careful not to attack time travellers on your side, though!

MORALE

Keep spirits high! Sing, dance, and generally try to keep people from succumbing to fear. Despite the rain and the mud, despite the seemingly impossible odds, the average soldier is full of excitement for battle, ready to fight to the death to defend their freedom.

SUPPLY AND SEEK

Since the French army is behind the invading force, they've cut off the enemy's supply lines. This means that, should the Prussians become encamped here for any amount of time, they won't be able to send for food and munitions from their home country. It's your job to make sure it stays that way. You may see someone riding on a swift horse in a Prussian uniform, attempting to sneak through French lines and try to get word back to mother Prussia. Chase them down, and make sure they can't get their reports back home so a second force isn't sent-- or worse.

BE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

This battle is one that's widely known for its popular support-- for the most part, France unites against this invading force with alarming cohesion. Someone gifted with a clever mind, or perhaps a clever tongue, may be able to use that. The French army passes farms and peasant villages along the way-- make rousing speeches, and try to recruit more to the cause, secure donations of food and weaponry, anything you can get.

read the valmy setting infopage

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

[heilt]

( medical )

( after jerusalem angela is glad that they're here before everything begins. getting stock of the supplies, taking checks of those that are to be fighting, and even trying to rope in a helping hand is far easier before things actually begin happening.

for anyone non-native it's a good job that things become translated as whilst angela checks and questions she's speaking more in french than anything else, calm and patient as she soothes egos that she tries to persuade for help, and calm those feeling a little worse off.

trying to get food and some water to the tents seems to be her biggest trouble so far, and has earned a few of those that she's spoken with some of her irritation. she's not looking forward to the battle to come, and she finds it hard to just sit knowing what will come )

( training )

( she's not training herself, though angela has received a few offers of it. as polite as they've been about it she's refused, having no interest in that side of the battle.

still, she watches, taking stock of the new 'recruits' that had come through with them, and any that she'd seen in jerusalem. she knows there'll be casualties either way, but seeing how well their own can fight, knowing if they have some hope... in a way it's a check of how busy she may be later, but also at how hopeful to be for their situation.

there's a gentle sigh as angela watches the latest trainee, and she winces as one, a former farmer, she believes, takes a heavy fall from attempting to dodge a strike )

They shouldn't be here.

( she doesn't like war no matter who's involved, but sending untrained people seems even worse )

Training

[putorius]

Unlike her, he was supposed to be training. Technically. It's where he was sent upon admitting he didn't know how to fight with physical weapons. He left out the part where he didn't need physical weapons so long as he had his wand, but he wasn't going to explain that to a bunch of muggles. But if it meant getting out of that tent, he'd at least go to the vague area where training was happening. Maybe it would be a good show of the oafish peasants trying to fight with sticks.

A wicked sneer spread over his face as the farmer fell. He was about to laugh and call the guy an idiot, when the woman spoke up. He lifted his head, looking her over briefly, before turning his attention back to the training.

"None of them should be. Look how useless they all are."

[heilt]

"They're untrained but trying to help." It was a strong distinction. No one was useless, not in Angela's eyes -- she'd seen incredible things happen from the simplest belief, and it was clear in her tone that she didn't appreciate the implication from this boy.

"They wish to save their home. It's an admirable wish, even if they should not be the ones doing the job."

training

[rappels]

[ Aloy has been watching the training going on, and it's been with a definite sense that this probably wasn't going to go well. She's trained with people when they ask her, but as she's quickly found out, it's because some of these people underestimate her. Typical. Just because she's a woman, they think they can best her and regain some of their pride, but it's not quite the first time that's happened. Honestly, it's tempting to break an arm to show that this isn't a game of ego, but... She refrains. Considering they're on the same side, it's probably not a great idea if they want to win.

So for her, this is almost tactical. She's watching to see just how trained these people are for the fight ahead and therefore how hard she'll have to work. She's getting a bit more cynical about that prospect the more she watches, and she's so engrossed in trying to think of how she might be able to herd these people on a battlefield to keep them from getting themselves killed that she misses the fact that someone else is here until Angela speaks up. She looks towards her, then smiles slightly as she realizes that expression is a wince. ]

No kidding.

[ Her comment is neutral, but Aloy shakes her head. ]

I guess no one told them that training to fight isn't something you can learn in a day.

[heilt]

It isn't.

( she's overseen training before, watching for injury, or assessing those that had just come back from a recovery period. soldiers always pushed themselves hard, and these people were no different. they wanted to prove that they could do it, perhaps some even had a more grandiose view of their skills than what was accurate. either way, she would be seeing a lot of these people in her tent later... if they made it that far )

Though even if they were told they may not have listened. Someone with something to prove rarely does.