For those fighting her she is Ades, a goddess of death ready to cast them all to hell. To the ones lucky enough to have her by their side, she is the Ammo Drop Angel, who descends from the skies bearing gifts of ammunition and overwhelming firepower. Adelaide Battaglia is all those things, but above all she is a master of defeating the odds and coming out on top.
ORIGINS
Adelaide is the last heir to a long line of soldiers. Her grandfather, Carlo Giuseppe Battaglia, was a hero of the Italian Independence War, and a spy during the colonial conquest of Eritrea and Somalia. Both of Carlo’s sons, born from the marriage with a Spanish noblewoman, participated in the Great War. Adelaide’s uncle, Gian Achille, was one of the first Arditi and earned a reputation as a fierce and invincible warrior, even surviving the battle of Caporetto. Ades’ father, Giovanni Ernesto, enlisted in the navy in 1918, becoming a member of the MAS flotilla. Aboard Luigi Rizzo’s MAS 96, the young Giovanni took part in the Bakar mockery, meeting Gabriele D’Annunzio and Costanzo Ciano. After the war, Gian Achille deserted the army to join D’Annunzio in the Fiume Endeavor. Following its failure, in 1921, a frustrated Gian Achille joined his father in Argentina, where the Battaglia family owned large possessions thanks to Everardo’s wife. Giovanni, on the other hand, entered the Italian secret police (DAGR) and, in 1921, was sent to the Washington Naval Conference. While he was officially there as a member of the Italian Navy, his actual role was that of a special agent tasked with security and counterespionage. When a folder with confidential information was lost and then found again in less than five minutes, an incident dismissed as mere carelessness, his instinct compelled him into investigating further. That’s how he discovered that one of the maids employed during the conference was actually a German secret agent by the name of [XXXXX]. Then the unforeseeable happened: the two fell in love, and Giovanni decided not to expose her. When the Conference ended, in February 1922, Giovanni and [XXXXX] returned to Italy to start a new chapter of their lives. At that time [XXXXX] was already pregnant. September the 13th, the two finally became parents with the birth of Adelaide. The couple lived a few blissful months, but their happiness wasn’t fated to last: in 1923 Giovanni was chosen to be an aide to General Enrico Tellini at the Conference of Ambassadors. August the 27th of the same year, Tellini, Giovanni and the rest of the retinue, were ambushed and killed by unknown assailants at Kakavia border crossing, near the town of Ioannina. The episode will later be remembered as the Ioannina slaughter. In September of the same year [XXXXX] vanished, leaving no trace behind her. Her current status and location are unknown. The Battaglia family employed several private eyes to uncover the truth, but with no results. After one of the investigators died in mysterious circumstances, there were no further attempts. With both her parents gone, young Adelaide was adopted by her uncle Gian Achille, who brought her back to Argentina. Gian Achille was a big bear of a man that for all his adult life knew only war and soldiering, but he quickly grew fond of the small girl. He never had kids of his own though, and with no clue about how to raise a young girl, he opted for the only thing he could think of. He turned military training into a game, and while the other girls were playing with dolls or learning how to sew and cook, Adelaide handled all sorts of guns and learned all there was to know about fighting. She didn’t know this was highly unconventional, she thought her uncle’s games were a lot of fun, and grew up happy and loved. She couldn’t imagine that, by the age of 18, she was already more trained than any special forces member in the world. With the start of World War II, the fiery blood of the Battaglia family woke up inside of Ades. She kissed goodbye to the uncle she loved as a father and left to carve her destiny with her own two hands. Lucky for her, there was no shortage of mercenary bands looking for strapping young boys and girls, and Adelaide joined one of them the first chance she got. Among the freelance fighters, she was quickly noticed for her superior skills and bravery. One battle after the other, her fame grew to legendary levels. Parachuting with her team in the thick of battle, Adelaide charges from the heavens as a redheaded war goddess of old, ready to ravage the enemy with a hail of lead. Her automatic shotgun, customized by Adelaide herself to suit her needs, roars like thunder while belching a devastating buckshot storm, a weapon suited for a modern day Valkyrie. But Adelaide knows full well that the best way to survive on the field that bears her name, the campo di Battaglia, as Italians call the battlefield, is to have steadfast allies by her side. With her innate charisma she can motivate even the most frightened of soldiers back into the fray, lifting their spirits or, possibly, scaring them more than the enemy. For good measure, she always brings with herself enough spare ammunition to resupply an entire regiment. After all, an ally with ammo fights much better than one without.
Adelaide is the third generation of the Battaglia lineage to delve into the fires of war and is determined in proving to be the best one.
We thank the collaboration of Roberto Cavicchi for having written and edited the presentation of ADES.
Playable Platoons in Dust 1947
Here are the new ADES platoons for you! These platoons were approved by Dust Studio and the creators of the game Dust 1947 more than a year ago, it was in anticipation of being able to put it in a campaign book, but this as you know is not possible. We have received permission to post it and share it with you. Have fun!
