An Unconventional Recruit

An Unconventional Recruit is a short story detailing Petra Rall's admission to the 66th Hussar Regiment. It is set during the Uneasy Peace (1855-1914), specifically in 1905, on February 18th and 19th. The story consists of a single chapter and is 3328 words long. The main characters in it are Petra and Levi, but Erwin Smith, Mike Zacharias and Mobilt Berner appear in the story, along with a pair of unnamed Hussars. There is also a reference to Keith Shadis, who had not yet resigned his position as commander of the regiment, but would do so only a week later on February 26th.

This story was the first piece of published material concerning the Last Reich, and adhered to the timeline as it was envisioned in 2017. As a result later material may make statements and references that contradict it. In this case the later material is always considered to be canon.

Plot
Petra discovered five days earlier that her brother Joseph Rall was killed in the most recent (53rd) Exterior Offensive. Petra demands to be allowed to join the Hussars, supposedly so that she can get revenge for her brother's death.

She is repeatedly denied access, but stubbornly refuses to leave. In the end she stays outside the Hussar's headquarters all night, which attracts the attention of Captain Levi. Levi tells her to clear off, and when this proves unsuccessful, decides to have her take an aptitude test, believing that since she is a woman she will fail.

To Levi's disguised surprise however, Petra proceeds to excel at both the balance and reflex tests. She also manages to pass the strength test as well, largely through will power since her body lacked any real muscular development at this point in time.

Levi does not immediately reveal to Petra that she has passed, and she initially believes she has failed. Despite her exhaustion she asks to be allowed to try again. Levi says no, on account that he doubts she could succeed in her condition, and that it would be pointless anyway: she passed with flying colours. Petra is greatly relieved and thanks Levi for not letting her keep thinking she had failed and booting her out.

Background
At this point in time no woman had ever served in the Heer in a combat capacity. Women had been able to act as nurses, caterers and in a few cases even messengers (though this was not standard practice), but had never been permitted to join the actual armed forces. This bothered very few people, as it meant that women could not be conscripted, and because it was widely believed that women did not possess the physical and mental fortitude to be an effective soldier.

After Petra's admission and success in the Hussars, people began to question whether or not women might make practical recruits after all. However, all real political moves to open up the military to female volunteers were blocked, by both the Kaiser and Bundesrat, as being immoral. However, there remains no law that actually forbids female soldiers, and indeed there has never been one. Women have always stayed away from the military of their own accord, because of social pressures, or because they assumed that such a law did exist.

Petra became something of a celebrity, despite efforts on the part of the Hussars to downplay the existence of a female soldier. Public reaction to her has been mixed, leaning mostly towards the negative. Almost all of the population-both male and female-reject the idea of enlisting women as soldiers. Many regard Petra as some kind of abnormal individual, due to her ability not only to achieve the appropriate mental state for combat, but also for being able to develop the physical strength necessary for it.

There are some parts of the population that admire her however, especially among the younger, more liberal minded, generation. Despite this there has not been any repetition of Petra's circumstances during the five years since her acceptance into the regiment.