I'm not one hundred per cent sure on how it would be dealt with in the Twilight war, but it's a matter close to my heart given the circumstances of my family in the Second World War in this case my Great Uncles, Bobby and Robby (they were brothers and the similarity of the names came from the fact that my Great-great Grandmother was deaf and dumb but she could make the sounds of those two names).
Bobby joined the Army in 1935 and deserted in early 1936. He had been accused of murdering two girls whilst on leave and did a runner (later it was found that he hadn't done the crime but at the time the evidence was pretty strong). He ran to the chaos of Spain and served for a while in the Civil War there before heading to China to run guns. When the war started he had been cleared of murder and headed to Hong Kong to rejoin the army. He was treated as a deserter and shipped to a military prison in Australia.
After serving three years in prison he was discharged despite his experience and a lack of personnel in the army.
My Uncle Robby joined up at the start of the war and became what he called a professional retreater. He started off in Dunkirk and then Greece before heading back and forth in Africa for a few years. He was separated from his unit seven times and ended up hopping from the Engineers to the Artillery to several Infantry units. At the end of his service in 1947 in Palestine he was told by his unit commander that an application for a medal he had sent in had been rejected because of the black marks against him for straggling so many times.
Either of these could happen in the Twilight war but suggest that stragglers wouldn't be welcomed with open arms by the brass. Individual groups however could be more accepting of stragglers.
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