Announcement for the upcoming chapters of the Drifters fanfic.

Author's note

Hello everyone, I just want to say thank you to all those who chose to follow my story and I wish you all a Happy Chinese New Year for a prosperous new year!

So as you might know, I've recently been quite busy with my college studies and it's already the final year, wow time does flow really fast especially when I first wrote this story. Because of my circumstances, I humbly apologise for not being able to make any new updates (besides this announcement) for quite some time and because of that I'll like to make it up with a short announcement of what you might expect from the story in the future including, the background of the story's timeline and the new drifters you may expect. Well then, let's start by explaining the true motive of the story itself.

The Timeline of Story

The timeline of the fanfic itself is aligned with the original story, but it started earlier where the main character of this story, Josef Allerberger the WW2 german soldier arrived in the magic world at least 4 weeks earlier than the MC of the original story, Toyohisa Shimazu. The time starts back when there was less conflict going on between the Drifters and regional powers, albeit the Octobrists intervening whenever a Drifters arrives. There was grace period during which we see the Octobrists preparing for the upcoming war with the Ends' arrival and the scuffles between the warmongering countries and some of the Drifters trying to take over the main territories of Orte due to the weakening of the empire and the fear of the Drifters being more powerful and capable of starting revolutions and overthrowing the existing monarchies, noble families and governments that control their respective territories. This can also explain why in addition to Orte's fear of an uprising, they were afraid of the drifters and were likely looking for Josef's group who killed an entire platoon of soldiers in mysterious ways, from their perspective.

During this time, the Octobrists have multiple affiliate governments that supports them and helps them to acquire a few lands to build their strongholds and the particular fort mentioned by the Octobrist magician Freed and Olminu in this story is a separate location from the fortress in the original story from which the Grandmaster, Abe resides. This new fortress was another one of Octobrists stronghold built in the southern territory of a nation bordering Orte by the assistance of a drifter architect who arrived 10 years before the start of the story currently lives in the city built inside the fort itself. The storylines may converge after the Ends arrive and Josef's group will encounter Toyohisa's group after the Grandmaster call for a regrouping. Then everything happens at around the same time as the original plot but some new scenarios will be added at reasonable places from the perspective of the fanfic's mc.

The Fortress city

It is called the Augsberg fortress city. The city's quarters consists of a district for housing and residence, a business district for trade of goods and services, an agricultural zone for farmland near the outskirts of the city and an industrial zone and an oil refinery built under the guidance of the specific drifter. The city is granted a safe haven for drifters and refugees alike who were persecuted by Orte, thanks to negotiations by the Octobrists with the nation and under the pleas of the architect himself who lived as a diplomat during the 1930s of our timeline and opposed Hitler, supporting resistance groups in Western Europe during WW2. The fort city is considered a major economic zone of the nation close to Orte, although it is given the status of a city state residing within the host country. The city produces farm products compatible with domestic consumption and export due to the high standards of quality through farming methods revolutionary of their time and remarkable due to the output yield per hectare being greater than what is traditionally expected of the land given within a city. Then, there are consumables produced from factories which follows modern standards of manufacturing and machining processes ahead of its time and the products are manufactured using advanced chemistry and machining processes that are so revolutionary in fact, the Octobrists have located a research facility in the city zone with the sole purpose of researching and developing advanced chemistry and engineering and finding ways to innovate them to the rest of the world.

So far, the influence of the city is quite regional rather than being on the continental or world stage and many outsiders consider the city to be a place for heretics and outcasts and does not believe it should exist, especially when it led by drifters and the Octobrists who they have little respect for. This is the reason why the city is always under constant threat of invasion and the tense atmosphere surrounding the city. The architect knew this in mind, so he built a series of medieval and 20th century style defences with ironclad gates to the entrance and late 19th century rifled cannons and artillery using modern gun propellants packed in brass shell casings with explosive TNT and sighting systems. Additionally, the city has multiple defence points available for garrisoning soldiers with each equipped with arrow slits and a mount for a small handheld rocket launcher, fully enclosed with a stone roof. There are watchtowers equipped with spotlights running on electricity and magic stones and each one come equipped with a radio telephone line used to communicate with the headquarters and has the ability to link with a magic crystal device to the Octobrists' HQ. In case of a breach, the city is designed to allow ease of evacuation through an underground pass linked to major streets and has an emergency contingency plan to keep the occupiers out with a store of traps and primitive land mines hidden in secret warehouses along with other blockading tools. Though this may not be used anytime soon, they are there to ensure that the city could be kept secured.

The new Drifters

Drifters originate from all different eras. Unfortunately though, this story mainly comprises of Drifters from either the 19th or the 20th century due to lack of knowledge/interest of the author(me) of historical figures from premodern history. In other words, almost all new drifters in this story relies heavily on guns and tactics of using them and technology, rather than the impressive melee skills and brute strength used by the drifters in the original series. Eg. Toyohisa's sword arts and samurai tactics.

Therefore unlike what most readers think, they can become quickly vulnerable, changing from having the upperhand of long range to fighting disadvantaged at close quarters. Remember, most of these drifters do not know or have no experience of fighting with at close quarters, save a few exceptional ones. Eg. The US Marine and WW1 Trench Raider.

I will not give away the names of the drifters in the upcoming chapters but I will leave hints to who they are. Then again, the list may change again time to time so keep an open mind.

The Swedish diplomat who helped rescue 70,000 Hungarian Jews from Budapest

This man travelled to America and contacted the OSS then to work as their agent and diplomat for negotiating with the Nazis.

The soviet ace pilot who was died in a last ditch effort to sink a german destroyer, well known for piloting the IL-2 Sturmovik.

This USSER pilot fought during the Great Patriotic war and held a tally for destroying and sinking 53 ships(13 of which he did alone), destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft. He was awarded the medal Hero of the Soviet Union twice, Order of Lenin twice and Order of the Red Banner three times.

A famous British officer who led a rebellion against the Ottomans, well known for his brave horse cavalry tactics and famed auto biography.

You might just know him. The stories of his adventures were famous to this day.

An unnamed French soldier who fought during the Battle of Passchendale 1917

The French soldier does not originate from historical background. He is just like the U.S Army soldier from the Viet. War in the beginning of the Series 1st episode. He was a trench raider who lost his life to an unsuspecting stab wound from a German soldier during a night trench raid. Let's call him Pvt. Henri Roussel.

The Last Bushranger, gave his life for the sake of the poor. Famous for the armour he wore.

This man was considered an outlaw by the Victorian government during the British colonial era. He and a band of outlaws stole from banks owned by rich men and gave them to the poor. He is to this day considered a political revolutionary and considered one of Australia's most famous historical figures.

Afterword

I guess this is announcement for the rest of this month. I hope that the future chapters will live up to my claims but I'm sure some of it will change along the way. So I'll use this as a solid reminder of self for what everyone expects right now and what I expect. I see what I can do about the next chapter, so stay with me for a while okay? I hope to write again soon.

Spearmann66