Chapter one: Operation Himmel Eroberung
Aerospace base Kummersdorf, Germany 12th of May, 1940.
"Liftoff! Spacecraft Die Vorherrschaft has taken off, with the purpose of bringing our great nation's presence up to the stars!"
Twenty-seven year old Wernervon Braun watched the black and white screen anxiously, as it displayed the progress of the second generation spacecraft, Die Vorherrrschaft , as its boosters were currently in the progress of propelling it above the troposphere.
The control center was packed full with over fifty aerospace operatives, as well as a few party members, who were tensely watching the spectacle occurring on screen. The room was dead silent, except for the continuous reports from the young flight leader, Walter Thiel.
The room, and the project, had been equipped with the latest technological wonders that the Reich had managed to muster: basic digital computers and long range audio/video receivers and transmitters. The amount of funds dumped into this project would be more than enough to produce three full-fledged panzer divisions, which was why everyone in the room knew that failure was not an option. The generosity of the Führer and the OKW meant that their project had to produce results.
The project was, of course, meant to be weaponized; space fairing missiles would be able to hit targets further away than any artillery shell could ever hope to reach, without being endangered to counter artillery fire or airstrikes. To conceive a program that involved manned missions had taken a great deal of convincing of the OKW and the Führer, but the prestigious effects were something that was taken into the consideration in the approval of it.
Ten years of exhausting and determined work was coming to fruition before them. Ten years of constant research, disappointments, and ass-kissing to the party, which had finally realized the two colleagues' dream; the first manned spacecraft in the world.
"Decoupling boosters in: 3… 2… 1… Detach!" Walter reported.
The control crew monitored the boosters' successful detachment from the camera mounted reconnaissance aircraft, which was flying over the aerospace center.
A few tense minutes followed as Walter final declared:
"Die Vorherrschaft is successfully orbit around the earth, praise the Führer."
The room erupted in cheering as the men in the room celebrated by hugging one another.
"Gentlemen! I need everyone to attend to their duties at their stations, we have to remain focused, Hauptmann Schwarz will begin his transmission." Werner commanded sharply.
Hauptmann Bruno Schwarz, space vessel Die Vorherrschaft.
The shuddering and interference from the powerful V-2 rocket boosters shook Bruno wildly. From his reinforced window he could only see flames engulfing the spacecraft's front.
I sure hope these fucking Prussian engineers built something more stable than their piece of shit first generation of spacecraft Schwarz thought to himself.
The selection of Schwarz had been a long process, but both he and command agreed on one thing; he was the best guinea pig there was. Specifically a guinea pig that was competent in aviation. Managing a vehicle in space would, of course, be very different to handling the BF-109E he had used on a daily basis in the Poland Campaign. He and nine other pilots had been selected for the trials, which had spanned over two months' time in the classified training facility just a few miles from the launch site. At first they hadn't even known what they were signing up for, only that it was a new prototype aviation vehicle for the Reich. Some of the volunteers chickened out when they heard that they were going to go to space; not Bruno though. He had excelled in the excruciating G-force chamber, as well as the space navigation simulation, but above all; he was expendable. Bruno had no family connected to the aristocracy of the generals, or even any close family, something that made him perfect for a probable suicide mission.
"I have exited the atmosphere and am on orbit trajectory around earth." Bruno reported from within his constraining and uncomfortable Raumanzug I.
"Roger that Hauptmann, how are you holding up? Report any physical ailments." Command answered him.
"I'm mangled up and I think my ribs might be broken, but I am fully operational." Bruno replied grimacing as he focused his mind on his body.
"Roger that, observe and report, any adjustments to your course should be applied in the thirty minute window we have before communication blackout."
"Roger that command, commencing burn."
The Hauptmann was gently thudded back into the seat as he activated the V-5 rocket engine to full throttle, turning the ship to the obtain the optimal trajectory to enable a, hopefully, safe entry into earth, and a somewhat controlled landing in the Baltic sea.
Little did Bruno, or command for that matter, realize that the German spacecraft was under careful observation from an unknown entity.
Research Vessel Liliac orbit around Earth.
Nairia was excited. The last three months of observations of this new species had peeked the one hundred and fifteen year old's interest. It was apparent that the world below them was underdeveloped, yet the political and military developments that they had been able to monitor, was intriguing to say the least.
The bridge on the Liliac was brisling with activity as all monitoring stations were fully manned and active, as they were gathering as much data on the planet below as possible
To say that the Xeno and anthropology researcher aboard, Orana T'ria was excited as well would be an understatement; a new species that looked so similar to the asari, and was in the stage of an escalating conflict in one of its continents, well that was just something that was unprecedented.
Another person aboard the twenty man crew frigate that was intrigued, for completely different reasons, was head of security, Tonikus Victus. Assigned to the deep space explorer Liliac by the Council he and his 5 marines were assigned as a security detail to the newly approved exploration of dormant Relays. A new technological development by the Salarians had made this endeavor possible: Relay Overload. This new piece of technology made sure that unless the right IFF approval got through from the other end of the Relay, everything that came through would be vaporized by using the Relays mass effect cores as a catalyst for a priming device, mounted aboard a ship the size of a dreadnaught. It was the only one in existence, due to the astronomical costs in producing and developing it, meaning that this prototype would be the only one in existence for a long time. The production for the spacecraft had taken over three decades to simply build. It was however, very effective in calming the Council's fears of a new Rachni incident.
Victus shared none of his colleagues' interest in this new species' similarities with the Asari; instead he was closely following the progress of the military combat in one of the smaller continents located north of the equatorial line. An incredible operation had commenced where the central state of the continent began a combined arms invasion of its western neighbors. Their superiority was evident in these first two days of combat that Victus had closely observed. Despite the fact that this species had an incredibly crude and basic technology, which was something the Turians had evolved from millennia ago; he found himself impressed by the sheer creativity of how these crude machines and tools were used to wage war. Their propeller driven aircraft proved quite lethal, especially those of the centermost nation, as they destroyed ground forces as well as aircraft with apparent ease. What impressed the turian the most was that they had, from what they could tell, no guidance assist whatsoever! He guessed that targeting and aiming was done manually by using their tracer rounds and by experience.
"Have you seen the latest reports on the aggressor state?" the smooth voice of Dr. T'ria interrupted Victus' thought process.
"Yes…" He answered thoughtfully "It appears that they seem to be a militaristic state with quite the authoritarian rule, wouldn't you agree?"
"Militaristic and war mongering, if you ask me." Orana furrowed her brow, "Their people are all subjects to an apparent dictator."
"We have been able to tap into the limited broadcasts around the 'nation', if you would call it that." The asari said, "They appear to be propaganda pieces of mass gatherings, judging by the roaring of people in the background."
"Now Dr. T'ria, we cannot jump to judgement without knowing the full facts of the situation." Victus replied, "The broadcasts seems to indicate that people are being rallied, probably for the war" he added.
"We don't know the causes for this war, what has transpired before here is unknown to us" he added, "I for one can appreciate the sheer effectiveness of this nation's war machine, despite their crude technology" he said, his subharmonics indicating approval.
Before the asari could reply, a shout from one of the comm specialists turned the entire crew's attention to the source of commotion.
"Captain! We have an object exciting the planet's atmosphere!" The com specialist shouted.
"What!? They are nowhere near the technologic capabilities of firing warheads lik-." The captain answered, bewildered.
"Even so", the specialist interrupted, "they are launching a large object measuring approximately 12 meters in length and 5 meters in diameter, and it's heading into orbit!"
"That sounds too large to be an effective warhead, Captain." Victus interjected.
The bridge went silent as everyone's eyes were glued on the screens monitoring the projectile.
"I've got a clear visual on the screen captain" the com specialist reported, voice high pitched in excitement.
"Bring it up on the main screen" the captain ordered.
The screen flickered for a moment, and then showed a high resolution image of the peculiar object.
Its shape was that of a large missile, painted in black and white with an apparent liquid engine at the very back of it. It had fins on its hull, which were positioned in a symmetric fashion, obviously to provide stability and perhaps to be used to alter its trajectory. It had a large black painted symbol on its body, a symbol that the crew had seen several times on various vehicles and flags utilized by the central nation of the continent.
The most interesting thing was however found near the nose of the obvious rocket: two thick windows on opposing positions near the top.
"Goddess" Dr. T'ria gasped.
"That is a manned spacecraft." Victus added, breathlessly.
Hauptmann Bruno Schwarz, space vessel Die Vorherrschaft, orbitting Earth
"Killing main thrusters in 3... 2… 1…" Bruno reported to command.
"Roger that Schwarz, if you have performed correctly, you should be on the correct trajectory for reentry, well done"
As the main thruster was coming offline, Bruno felt a violent shuddering in the spacecraft. As he looked through one of the windows that allowed him a slight rear view of his rocket, he could see a blue light emitting from the engine. Oh shit.
"Command, I have a problem here, my main thruster appears to still be active?"
There was silence for about thirty seconds before he got his reply:
"Hauptmann, manually override the fuel flow to the engine, the launch may have weakened the integrity of the fuel switch"
Bruno was sweating heavily now, despite the cold temperature.
"Manually overriding now"
There was a terrible shuddering and Bruno was almost blinded by the flash emitting from the back and he could observe two of his fins breaking off.
"Command the fuel tank appears to be emptying itself at maximum rate!" he desperately shouted as he watched the fuel gauge go down alarmingly fast.
"I have lost rudder control, I am exiting planned trajectory! Scheisse!" Bruno screamed into his radio.
Research Vessel Liliac orbit around Earth.
The crew watched in awe as the back of the alien spacecraft displayed extreme heat emissions on their sensors.
"Captain! It appears that the vessels fuel tanks are emptying at maximum capacity!" The specialist reported.
"What?" the captain spurted "Are they attempting to exit orbit?" she added, her voice betraying her disbelief.
"No Captain, it appears uncontrolled."
"Explain." the captain demanded.
"Well, they just lost their rudders, and I am also seeing increased radio traffic between the planet and the spacecraft" the specialist answered, voice high pitched. "Would you like to listen in?"
The captain only contemplated it for a moment, after which she nodded her agreement.
The specialists operated a few commands on the Holo screen and a moment later they heard the most awful language they had ever heard exit the ships speakers.
"You pompous assholes! You are killing me, YOUR INCOMPETENCE IS KILLING ME, scheissen idioten!"
"Hauptmann, get a hold of yourself! Attempt decoupling of the fuel tank, it's your ONLY chance of survival"
"YOU COCKSUCKING PRUSSIAN SONS OF-"
"Turn it off." Captain Nairia ordered. "We can't understand them anyway."
"Doctor, what do you make of their language? You're the Xeno researcher here after all." The Captain added.
"It's impossible to tell without understanding their language." Dr. T'ria began, "But judging from their high pitched tones and the differing of volumes of their voices, we could suspect that they were expressing anger, or fright." The doctor continued. "Many known species exhibit a heightened volume in their speech when they are under stress, and if we would assume this to be a fact, then that would certainly prove the fact that this event was not planned."
"The question captain, is what we should do now." Victus interjected, subharmonics vibrating lowly.
That was the question. Captain Nairia thought to herself. What the fuck should we do about this?
Authors notes:
So after a few years of only reading, I thought it was time to publish my own story. I would like to hear what you think about it, and see if there's any interest in a story like this, but I'm mostly writing this for my own sake to practice my writing, and to finally realize this story.
This story is partly influenced by DarkDanny's Uplifted series. I think you should check them out if you are interested in WWII with a technological advantage given to the Germans. I, however, want to explore the aspect of war more than personal relationships between characters. Romance etc, might happen, but will never be the focus of this story.
I'm not a nazi sympathizer or anything along those lines, but I am incredibly tired of the US and West focused stories, games, movies etc. I want to read something different from that, which is why I decided to write this.
story! I'm still fine tuning my writing so would appreciate any feedback. When it comes to the technical aspects I am intending in fleshing them out more as the story unfolds. Right now I just want to introduce the story and see if there's any interest. Feel free to review and to follow/fav if you enjoy it.