Records: the SA in French Operations

## **Paving the Way**

In technical terms, France was a porous operational area. There was little in the way of border of control and the English had been operating there in war-rides on and off for five decades. It was a kind of infrastructure-economic total war that degraded France's ability to collect taxes and conduct basic governing. It was the strategy Edward III had used to force France to negotiations. When they let up, Charles V recovered enough to sustain war.

One thing was certain: *England knew France pretty well*. The downside was that the chevauchées did little to endear France to England or English leaders. Nor did John of Gaunt know the finer points of creating pressure: rather he was blunt instrument and a recruiting tool for France, hence his own two-year war ride faring so poorly.

### **Continued Intelligence**

What the Plantagenets needed was continued intelligence, the boots on the ground, with the ability to conduct surgical operations when needed. In short, they needed *Vanguard Sergeants-at-Arms* sprinkled through France.

Now equipped with "enhanced indoctrination and training" tools (magical and comparatively instant), operatives could recruit agents and locally-based SA, and give them a decade's worth of training in about two minutes. The physical conditioning and enhancement cured diseases in minutes and the rest took a few hours to manifest, giving them exceptional physical capacity.

### **Reporting Structure**

The SA, in this case, weren't necessarily loyal to the English Crown: they were loyal to the Plantagenet chain-of-command, how ever that manifest locally. While the decisions "at the top" may or may not have been Edward IV, bearer of Excalibur, King of Blood and Thunder, it may also swing toward Prince Richard of Aquitaine – and there was knowledge that the Prince was more likely the recipient of their intelligence – and the source of their orders.

It also meant there were even greater dangers. The SA were *deep undercover:* if another English army rolled through, they'd have no idea that there were SA assets in the area. They were forbidden from killing English soldiers – *unless they were committing an atrocity*. Just as the SA had a far higher capacity, the SA were held to a far higher standard.

## **Operational Areas**

There were 10 areas identified where the SA recruited. These men – *and women* – would continue to operate in their region. In some cases, they would continue in situ. In some cases, they experienced a personal resurgence. In some cases, they moved to fill in an area of need.

While most remained individual assets during most of the time, they regularly coordinated, trained and operated as a team. Often, they would quietly create a cover group to shield their activities.

These operators could overthrow local regimes themselves if asked to do so, but that wasn't the point. They were looking to have a picture so complete, with answers and context that weren't obvious, that when things happened, they could happen smoothly and bloodlessly – for they were all French and that was the way it was meant to be.

* Calais
* Île-de-France (Paris)
* Orléanais
* Normandy
* Anjou
	+ This was a near-fanatical all-Plantagenet crew themselves – and they were preparing for the return of the Plantagenets to Angers.
* Breton
* Bordeaux
* Languedoc
* Burgundy
* Champagne

For every SA recruited, there was one auxiliary and two agents – not SA, per se, but contacts that could be relied on for information or influence.