Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

[ejpsan]

Seeing Niko and Bas team up together will show the world what happens when a Richthofen and a Schultz are in the field and thinking of ways to screw the others.
Nancy is an interesting story in herself as we first met her as a teenager from a working class family and by some sort of luck and something else she becomes the pen pal of a special warfare soldier who turns out to be "The Most Dangerous Woman in the World".
From there Nancy is inspired to make something more of herself to where she is now the Chief Spokesperson for the German Imperial Family and is also married to the "Marine's Marine".
I would like to think that if she ever went back to the State of Washington that not only would she not recognize the young girl she was but also no one else who knew her back then would recognize the woman she is now.

 

[Salamander]

I wonder what Nancy's brother is up to these days? Does anyone remember if her mother is still alive?

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Chapter Two Thousand One Hundred Fifty-Two



10th July 1972

Potsdam

It was obvious to Sigi that Jay was aghast at the situation that had greeted them when they arrived in Potsdam. The house was a total wreck having been deemed uninhabitable and her mother was in the hospital. That was before he learned of the terms of her grandfather’s will. It basically spelled out how Sigi’s mother and her “illegitimate issue” were supposed to live in rather strict terms. He had also made certain that Sigi’s mother never had control of the family’s money beyond a set allowance. It had been just enough for his daughter and granddaughter to survive on after paying the remaining household staff who had stayed on after his death. Doing necessary upkeep and repairs on the house had been out of the question.

It had only taken Jay five minutes to discover that the executors of the estate had had however maintained the insurance on the house, because it was felt that Sigi’s mother would eventually destroy place somehow and had compensated themselves quite generously over the last two and a half decades. That had been when they had asked about Jay and Sigi’s marital status. It was obvious that with Sigi’s mother having serious medical issues they were just itching for an excuse to totally dispossess her and had asked one question too many. That had prompted Sigi to make a phone call that she had never wanted to make to her half-brother.

The next day, the executors had changed their tune after they apparently discovered that while Sigi’s father had never acknowledged her existence, his family was a different story. Finding themselves answering to the Emperor Emeritus was not what they had bargained for. Everyone knew that the Hohenzollern family took a very dim view upon those who abused positions of trust after what had happened years earlier. At the same time, Louis and Charlotte had several questions of their own even if they were not so rude about it. They basically said that after Louis had gotten involved it was inevitable that the truth about Sigi’s paternity were about to become common knowledge and that she and Jay desperately needed to make the decisions they had been putting off for the last few years.

There was finally Sigi’s mother whose problems were not getting better. The Doctors had told Sigi that decades of drinking had done severe damage to her mother’s liver and kidneys. They were having to drain fluid from her abdomen. Worse of all, even after landing in the hospital her mother still contrived to find a way to get more of the wine and spirts that had caused her problems. As Astrid von Grimmelshausen’s next of kin, it was up to Sigi to take care of her mother’s arrangements when she would give anything to be back in Spain where she had been with Jay just a couple weeks earlier. They had been happy then.



Mitte, Berlin

There were good and bad things that were happening as the Summer progressed.

Nancy had found out that Sabastian’s school had decided that the last few weeks of the Spring Term would best be used to help clean up a dilapidated barracks that the Heer wanted to put back into use as well as doing what was being described as conservation work. While Nancy might have quibbled a bit over any potential schoolwork that Sabastian was missing, she remembered that this was her son who was the topic of discussion. He had never been a particularly great student, so having him dig holes and then filling them in would probably far more informative than sitting in a classroom in the last days before Summer Holiday ever would be. She had asked about the term’s final exams and had been told that the trip to Württemberg had been offered as a reward if the students collectively raised their test scores as a class and that had included Sabastian. Nancy wondered if they would ever figure out that they had been tricked a few different ways?

Then there were the photographs from Kiel of Kristina and surprisingly Benjamin as they worked to aid the medical effort during a fire aboard a ship in Kieler Förde. Apparently, with no one asking him to Ben had gotten involved with the search and rescue effort, helping carry the stretchers of more than a dozen injured crewmen off the ship. There was even word that the Navy and the Medical Service wanted to put him up for a medal along with the rest of men who were there with him. Ben had joked that if his friends in the Luftwaffe ever learned that he had gotten a medal from the Navy then there was no way he could live it down.

Most of the pictures of Kristina were not exactly great for public consumption. Men who looked like they had been cooked as she tried to stabilize them so that they could be transported to a waiting hospital where far more could be done. She had been able to save several lives that night and had gotten swift treatment to those with non-life-threatening injuries. It was Nancy’s hope that Kristina would accept whatever plaudits she received this time. Kristina had a terrible habit of weighing losses far more than wins. Regardless, it was this sort of thing that her job extremely easy at times. If anyone questioned the reason for continuing to have a Royal Family, all Nancy had to do was point to Kristina saving lives as a Doctor or any other examples of public service that this generation of the family had engaged in.

Today, Louis Ferdinand had surprised Nancy by telling her that the half-sister he had told her about years earlier would probably need a great deal of help in the near future. Both he and Charlotte felt that Sieglinde would need Nancy’s expertise to help protect her from the piranhas in the tabloid press.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

A recent picture taken near where Niko and Bas ended up. Needless to say, they didn't get put in the best accommodation available.

 

[Aconitum]

In my experience, really old buildings in military barracks in Germany are half-timbered houses (wooden beams and mud / straw filling in the intermediate rooms).
I had almost never seen brick houses like in the pictures before? Are these pictures of real barracks buildings in Germany or just examples?

It can of course be that these are just my experience

 

[jlckansas]

I have the idea of the executors meeting up with the "Law Firm" representing the Kaiser Emeritus. Didn't they have as their original client the Fursten of Berlin? Imagine their process servers and other misc. people who work there for them. Would any of them want the books audited and have the Fursten herself interested in what they might find?

 

[Lord Okkirke]

In my experience, really old buildings in military barracks in Germany are half-timbered houses (wooden beams and mud / straw filling in the intermediate rooms).
I had almost never seen brick houses like in the pictures before? Are these pictures of real barracks buildings in Germany or just examples?

It can of course be that these are just my experience

It for the most part depends on where (which region) exactly and when they were built. Those built after the turn of the 19th to 20th Century are more commonly built with bricks and timber (due to the Prussian tradition of building primarily with bricks being exported to the rest of Germany).

 

[Aconitum]

Hmm yes, i was mostly in the south.
Stetten am kalten arsch (near Sigmaringen) had a lot of the old 18xx buildings in the olds parts of the barracks.
Mostly old buildings for cavalry units, if I remember it right.

 

[Tengo]

I wonder what the next war will be, maybe Africa?

 

[dxe131]

...Kristina would except...

Minor edit, I think the word you wanted here is "accept."

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

Minor edit, I think the word you wanted here is "accept."

He does this alot.

ANd I don't mean that badly or as a criticism, but you will find a lot of "except" and "accepts" dotted throughout all three threads.

THe does not destroy the quality of the story though, but you may have to blink and reread the sentence again.

 

[Salamander]

A lot of people mix except and accept up, along with affect and effect. There are several reasons; they sound alike, they have almost identical spellings, dyslexia, etc., but mostly because it's... well... English.

Sometimes spellcheck can catch them, but not very often because they also tend to work in the sentences in which they have been used. Even proofreaders can miss them.

Grammatical quibbles aside, thank you for yet another brilliant update to your most excellent epic, P-M. I honestly don't know how you do it.

 

[Rinasoir]

Also spellcheckers usually only care so long as the word is spelled correctly.

Another favorite for word confusion is through and throw.

 

[Salamander]

Also spellcheckers usually only care so long as the word is spelled correctly.

Another favorite for word confusion is through and throw.

Oh God. The linguistic nightmare that is the "ough" phoneme.

 

[Rinasoir]

Oh God. The linguistic nightmare that is the "ough" phoneme.

I ought to have sought and bought a thoughtful book on the matter, but alas I have fought myself and ultimately it came to nought.

 

[ferdi254]

One Dollar for every case someone uses efficiency and effectiveness wrong would make me a rich person.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

Something different I cooked up relating to the next post, whenever I get around to finishing it. A bit of television from TTL.


The Twilight Zone, Season 2, Episode 5

Title: Finis belli (The End of the War)

Originally aired on Nov. 4, 1961, on CBS.


Opening narration:

Let me introduce you to Captain Able Winter, a man who has dedicated his life to his Nation and pledged to achieve victory in a war where that has proven elusive. He does his duty where lesser men would falter, confident that the next mission he flies will prove decisive. Tonight though, the course he sets will be into the Twilight Zone…


Plot:

In a distant future, a fortress bunker sits on the edge of a vast no-man’s-land as a nuclear-powered Bomber piloted by Captain Winter returns from the latest mission. During debrief, he learns that that Reconnaissance has informed Command that the report regarding damage to the factory complex that was the target was inconclusive. Angered by this, Winter requests that he be allowed to attack the heavily defended enemy capital directly, much to the horror of his aircrew. Command says that they will consider Winter’s request.

As the Bomber is being prepared for the next mission, Winter’s Co-Pilot accuses him of seeking glory at the expense of the safety of the crew. Something which he vehemently denies. Not wanting to be questioned further, Winter goes to personally oversee final preparations for the mission. That is when the Chaplain finds him, and they strike up a brief conversation about the war and how he is trying to win the peace. The Chaplain wonders if it is not peace of the Roman variety, to build a desert and call it peace. Winter explains that the Romans knew what it meant to take the fight to the enemy, to sow the fields with salt so that they couldn’t rise up again. He says that nothing is standing in his way this time, he will get his final victory. Winter grimly smiles as the Chaplain retreats from the conversation. A short while later, word comes that Command has approved the mission and the Bomber is being loaded with hydrogen bombs to carry out what will hopefully be the final mission.

As the bomber takes off on the mission, Winter and his Co-Pilot are seen behind the controls before the view shifts to the no-man’s-land ahead. The light shifts and as the camera pans back. The previously pristine bomber is revealed to be a badly corroded wreck. The members of the crew are revealed to still be strapped into their positions, motionless in their pressure suits, helmets closed. The skeletal remains of Winter himself sit motionless in the cockpit as the Bomber climbs away.

The outcome of the mission is never revealed.


Closing narration:

I give you Captain Able Winter, a driven and dedicated man, the Alpha and Omega of a different kind of doomsday. Only continuing to exist in a simulation as computers built to continue the war in which Captain Winter was a casualty along with the vast bulk of humanity, seek the elusive victory by bombing the dead cities of the enemy. For Able Winter, extinction was the cost of admission to the Twilight Zone.

 

[Rinasoir]

An interesting write up. However my knowledge of the Twilight Zone is nebulous at best, and outside of wondering if Cpt Winter is played by everyone's favourite egotistical asshole Captain from Canada, I got nothing else.

 

[Peabody-Martini]

An interesting write up. However my knowledge of the Twilight Zone is nebulous at best, and outside of wondering if Cpt Winter is played by everyone's favourite egotistical asshole Captain from Canada, I got nothing else.

Bill Shatner was in several different episodes of the Twilight Zone and he would be perfect for the role...

 

[EWilanO]

Isn't there video on YouTube with a similar plot. I could've sworn that I have seen a video whose plot involved a bomber loaded with WMDs launched by a AI program. At closer inspection it becomes apparent that the bomber shows combat damage and that the crew has long since passed away and is only skeletons.

Edit: found it. The title is "The Last Day of War."