Fic Updates 48

[Mamorien]

New Year, new Bare Squadron (Star Wars/nudism)!

Bare Squadron arrives on Sylvawen and contacts the factitious Treemen. Meanwhile Jemini Linaki narrows her search for the Emperor's least favourite nudists...

https://www.deviantart.com/travolore/art...-943344689

Also, new A Thing of Vikings (How to Train Your Dragon/history/Disney's Mulan)!

Furthermore, it bears repeating that when choosing to have a battle, one should choose a place and time in which one’s own advantages are maximized, and the opponent’s are rendered as reduced as possible. While this might seem obvious, I have seen far too many generals and other commanders of high rank who feel that having a “fair” and “honorable” fight for glory is of more importance than achieving their objectives or safeguarding the lives of the soldiers who follow them. So, for all of the glory that appears to come with two armies lined up on a field, ready to hack and chop each other to pieces and let the side who died the least say that they won the day, I believe that it is more honorable to have the other army be soundly defeated by overwhelming force if they cannot be brought to parley and negotiation. For sure, the young hotheads who feel otherwise will throw themselves into conflicts and waste their lives, but those who reserve fighting for when it will do the most good will have far fewer dead friends and allies to mourn.

And for those times when a battle is inevitable, then a wise general will do everything they can to arrange things in their favor. Allies. Supplies. Their morale and that of their enemies. Differences in culture. Surprise. Reputations. The weather. The land itself. All are ultimately tools in the hands of those who would wage war with their final goals in mind. And the more of these that the wise general can bring to bear, the more weight they remove from the arms of their own soldiers when it comes time for the clash itself.

To those that say that this is the cowardly route, all I can say is this: Which is more glorious? An army marching to its doom, shedding bodies and blood like leaves from a tree in autumn, beautiful and transient and weakened after the fight with rain and cold? Or a force that loses as few men as possible, and comes home with stories about how their foes fell like wheat before the scythe, and achieved victory?

Let me do one of my usual excessively clever synopses... No, there is too much. I'll let the author sum up:

Happy New Year! And with it, the payoff for some foreshadowing going all the way back to the Hiccstrid wedding in chapter 30! Hope you all enjoyed! ^_^

https://archiveofourown.org/works/104089.../110603016