October 12th, 1937. Huế, Deutsch Ost-Asien

▪────"In Honolulu, Im Lande

der Azoren, Und auf

Samoa Ist das so Brauch."────▪

The year is 1937, and the Indochinese Revolution is in full swing. Governor Helga von Mücke has promised Kaiserin Wilhemine II that she will completely crush the uprising. The war has raged for six months now, and it has become clear that German East Asia's efforts to combat the insurrection are stretching its resources to the limit. Therefore, Governor Mücke has ordered for three divisions to be raised by means of conscription from the Vietnamese, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and European populations found in the territories of Tsingtau and Singapore, as well as units raised from the Vietnamese population itself, to alleviate the frontline situation. With an arms shipment on its way from the Vaterland, these units have been armed and trained for deployment, only recently arriving at the front for the first time, many of these soldiers share one of the following traits: Either they do not want to be there, are deeply resentful of command structure, are underpaid, or have volunteered in search of a better life.

The Singapurisch Schützendivision, one of the few native units of the East Asian army, is made up of locals and a small minority of Germans and has a small number of native officers who have been promoted begrudgingly by the authorities in order to solve language barrier-related issues which plagued the unit since its inception.

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Born Liselotte "Li" Schmidt on March 23rd, 1917, to a German father and a Chinese-Vietnamese mother, Leutnant Schmidt joined the Schutztruppe in 1936, aged nineteen, in hopes of using her pension to afford herself a college education, or to live better off than her family has. Raised in a middle-lower class household, Li was able to receive an education thanks to both her parents' efforts and to their small shop's revenue. Li is very knowledgeable on many subjects owing to her father urging her to study hard and instilling her with a passion for reading.

A Lieutenant in the Singapurisch Schützendivision, Li was promoted thanks to her father being German and her ability to speak German and Chinese fluently, as well as to having received a thorough education up to her final year in high school, which immediately made her appealing to her superiors, who at the time were actively trying to promote individuals like herself to noncomissioned officer positions in order to abate the severe language issues that the Schutztruppe suffers from. Ever since being promoted, Li has focused on making sure every detail from the way in which her platoon takes inventory, to the amount of time it takes her platoon to disassemble its tents, is carried out as efficiently as humanly possible, garnering her a reputation for being strict, efficient, and relentless.