Two fictional Prime Ministers of the UK, created in Stable Diffusion. They are Jane Fallow and Alister Stern. Stable Diffusion with the right models is very good at making these “pseudo-photos”, especially if it’s in an undemanding format like an upper body portrait. And yes, I’ve taken advantage of this to see what characters in my writing have looked like. Also yes, you may see these names in a story…
The narrative of the Soviet-Romanian War in All Union focused largely on the northern front, where advanced mechanized units burned through the Romanian countryside in a rapid (but not bloodless) stomp. However, by far the hardest going was the southern front, a push across the Danube with Soviet and (majority) mobilized Bulgarian troops.
Shown here are several of the Romanian defenders in fortifications prior to the battle. Most of the troops in the fortified positions were mobilized Patriotic Guards , almost all from areas ineligible for the (itself stretched and mobilized) regular army: Women and men both too young and too old for “regular” service.
There was very little standardization for these desperation formations in terms of either equipment or uniforms. The blue uniforms designed for the Patriotic Guards can be seen in these [pseudo] photos and drawings of them in the fortifications prior to the war, but so can plain and camouflage uniforms.
All pictures made in Stable Diffusion.
Note: Stable Diffusion, at least the models I use most, is currently not very good at doing exact military equipment pieces well. Hands are pure genius in comparison. Hence why I don’t have them actually holding weapons. You can justify it by saying that the Securitate was afraid of mutinies or wasting ammo. -C
Delighted to say that I’ve managed to wrangle Stable Diffusion enough to make some AI pseudo-photographs of Cholpon Murad-Kyzy, the heroine of All Union. Though not exactly matching my mind (what can be?) they’re still pretty close.
One of the things I like about AI art is the ability to translate my words and mental images into pictures. This is a recent Stable Diffusion “portrait” of Amin Hayatov, president of the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics in All Union’s present. The original picture had facial hair and something in his pocket that was inpainted out, and the Sovereign Union flag lapel pin was added in externally and then smoothed out through mild AI runs.
Had too much fun making this “recon aircraft photo” of wrecked armored vehicles in a field in Stable Diffusion. I actually found it was easier to just make the field and then inpaint in the wrecks. And if it’s a high altitude, somewhat blurry photo, that makes the imprecision regarding tanks and the like less important.
A common sight in September 1998 and after. Soviet air supremacy led to fields full of destroyed and abandoned Romanian vehicles throughout the country.
Unfortunately, my work on All Union’s successor has been slowed due to two factors, one unpleasant and one very pleasant. The unpleasant reason is that it’s been getting hot and, worse, allergies are in full blast. The pleasant reason is that I just got an excellent new computer, so that’s been occupying a lot of my time.
While I still want to do Soldiers of the Void, my original planned direct successor, I’ve found my creative muse leading towards a less militarized, more political thriller that I’ve called A Period of Cheating. The driver of that plot is nuclear arms control negotiations, and I’m already having a lot of fun.
For the Soviet Romanian War in All Union, since World War III 1987 is doing aircraft losses, I figured I might as well too. (Also, enjoy the Sovereign Union’s flag in picture detail!)
After months of work and preparation, I’m delighted to say that All Union is now out in both electronic and paperback versions. It’s an alternate history novel about a world where the Soviet-ahem, Sovereign (totally not Communist or anti-Western, we swear!) Union remains a superpower and the dawn of high-tech war was in Romania and not Kuwait. It’s, as the subtitle says, a novel of love (seriously and unironically), war, and mystery, as everyone from a “Generallismus” to a New Jersey clerk to a Kyrgyz nurse makes their way through this different but similar world.
It and particularly the style in the second half is the kind of book I’ve wanted to write ever since I’ve started Fuldapocalypse. And now I’ve done it. Writing this was incredibly joyful and satisfying, and I hope reading it is as well.
All Union, my alternate history novel project, is coming along very, very nicely. The first volume (yes, it’s grown big and ambitious enough to require multiple volumes) should hopefully release sometime in the spring. I’m very excited.
I’ve long since wanted to write a book like the one I’m making now, and I’m finally doing so. And yes, I’m doing things that the snarker me would have slammed several years ago. Oh well.
The GENFORCE-Mobile organizational chart got the then-still-in-development BTR-90‘s stats wrong. It’s both too light (at 17 metric tons compared to the 21 of the real one), and more importantly has too many dismounts (ten as opposed to seven I’ve seen in every real source). The real BTR-90 was cursed by coming right as the USSR fell, but in many ways it was also just a wheeled BMP-2, so its lack of entry into service is understandable.
But I thought (both for the All Union story and for my own fun) “Well, what if you could get a vehicle with ten dismounts?” The squad would grow to USMC size (two or three in the vehicle plus ten dismounts), and it presents a very tricky puzzle: Get a vehicle that is fit for a mobile corps (so it has to be viable in direct combat, both offensively and defensively), can carry ten dismounted troops as standard, and can’t be too big or heavy. If you want heavier weapons, it basically needs a remote uncrewed turret to not tip the scales. It’s not technologically impossible by a long short, but tradeoffs will have to be made.
Finally, the big squad means I can finally introduce my “eastern fireteam” concept I rejected for the next-gen BMP. Which makes more tactical sense, since doctrinally they’ll be fighting away from their vehicle more often, especially in rough terrain or as part of a tactical heliborne operation. So they need to be (theoretically) better in terms of both equipment and skill.
As for how it works, well, I’m writing right now a chapter where such a motorized rifle unit storms a Romanian town…
Fuldapocalypse Fiction 