29.5.2014
Looking towards the future, I feel that I must channel my inner Franz Biberkopf. To become the next Berlin Alexanderplatz...well, it's not as though I'm not already.
I am writing this diary to record the events of the next few months, for my husband and I have agreed that these next few days will bring great change to our beloved nation of Germany. And by change, I mean both good and bad. Perhaps this change will be so great that it will effect the rest of the world as well, though I hope not in the way we fear.
Recounting the events that have transpired from the past year is vital, for the past sets the foundation for the path that is to follow.
Last summer, in the year of 2013, my husband and I were contacted by a highly classified American special forces group, the leader of whom wished to speak to the German Federal Chancellor. The man who spoke with us, who goes by the name of Sanford, warned us to be wary of suspicious activity from an international terrorist group known as the "Advanced Administration of the Holy War"...or something of the sort. It really sounds like a comically bad religious terrorist organization, a less public-relations-friendly version of those who have taken responsibility for the bombings we've seen in France recently, but from what we have been told, apparently these terrorists are not to be taken lightly, so I suppose we shall give them the benefit of the doubt. He then continued on to reveal details about a top-secret military project called the Moebius Four Armament Program, a combat android development program designed to condense weapons technology of the Second World War, namely naval technology in the form of warships, to the size of a human, an interesting concept indeed. And most surprising of all was that Sanford's team, known simply as Seal Team Six, had already begun concept development of the European naval personnel that they would construct. They outsourced their work to local British and German teams here in Europe, and we have since taken it from there.
By contract, we have been limited to five naval personnel, both we and the British. The British fellows are quite the history nostalgics - they have decided to bring back the dreadnoughts of the olden First World War era, while we have stuck true to the Moebius Four nature and have built warships of the olden Kriegsmarine.
My husband has given me jurisdiction of the overseeing of this secret branch of the Marine. Initially Gernot had discussed this with the heads of the Bundeswehr, as at first we weren't sure how we would categorize our new military assets courtesy of the American Seal Team Six. Gernot wanted it under our secret research and development program, which my husband and I have personally codenamed the Wunderwaffe for personal reasons. Though, I shudder to think how Dr. Richtofen would react to the thought of warships being personified as we have done. Perhaps it's better to drop the thought. But after hearing the discussions by our top ranking admirals of the Marine, he was convinced otherwise and delegated this program under the supervision of Marine technicians and specialists, provided that I, his wife, headed the entire operation. We live in the time of turbulent politics - not necessarily violent politics, but you can never quite trust anyone outside immediate family or those who have been close to you all your life. I, being the Chancellor's wife, can provide the security he needs that our valuable military project that has been generously shared with us by the Americans from Seal Team Six for no other purpose than for our own national security, with no binding contract or obligation by the American government, remains in good hands. We still call the project the Wunderwaffe anyway, just between me and Gernot...well, because of our habit, the girls also refer to their own program as the Wunderwaffe too...much to my chagrin.
Going back to the topic of program security, Gernot's resolution to have me head the Wunderwaffe was further strengthened when we had a meeting with the other nation representatives of the European Union, discussing the rise in threat of the international terrorist organization aforementioned, the AAHW. At the time, we had solid evidence to believe that AAHW-affiliated individuals were attempting to traffick nuclear warheads across the border into Hungary amidst the heating of relations between Hungary and Russia, for the alleged purpose of framing Hungary of trying to poise a nuclear threat to a more heavily armed Russia, who would be sure to wipe Hungary off the map with their more than eager nuclear arsenal. Obviously, we couldn't allow that, and Gernot ordered me to take the direction of the Wunderwaffe towards developing them not as simply "ship girls", as the Americans call them, but as black ops, highly trained specialist operatives - a level higher than even our prestigious GSG-9 counter-terrorism unit.
And so we launched the fruits of our labor with five ship girls last December, before the year was concluded. Their names are Bismarck, Z-1 Leberecht Maass, Z-3 Max Schultz, Prinz Eugen, and U-511...just like the historical counterparts that they represent. True to my husband's wishes, I had our development team, with guidance under Seal Team Six, construct our new naval personnel to double as both combatants capable of naval battle and counter-terrorism, and after their successful construction, I had them train under our good friends over at the GSG-9.
But this is not all. Earlier this year, during the first weeks of the first month, we received a call from our close and lifelong friend Marco Santini, the Italian Minister of Defense. The three of us - me, Gernot, and Marco - were all students at the University of Cologne, and we all even shared a class in intermediary political science together. While a friendly man and pleasant person normally, Marco has had several bad experiences in his political life and has adopted a questionable habit of hiring expertly trained private mercenaries or former members of the Italian special forces like the 9th Parachute Assault Regiment to create a sort of personal spy ring to gather information on everything and anything related to his safety and the safety of his country. He means well, but I suppose that this spy ring can be viewed with suspicion and can certainly get him into quite some trouble should this information be put into the public's hands. Regardless, he admitted that one of his spies had fed him intel that we had secured for ourselves quite the wondrous weapons program and asked to hear further details about it. Gernot gave him the very basic outline but refused to go into detail, for fear that this would quickly devolve into a chain of military secrets that would cause all the developed nations to gun for naval personnel like ours. Luckily, Seal Team Six was already on top of the case before we even needed to contact them, saying that they'd dealt with Marco personally. However, in exchange for him keeping his mouth shut, Seal Team Six did request that we work with a few select Italian agents to construct two Italian naval personnel for the Minister of Defense. Their names are Littorio and Roma, and because they were built under the Wunderwaffe staff's directive, they are considered part of the Wunderwaffe unit, though, and because of this, all of the girls under the Wunderwaffe program are very good friends with one another.
To finally catch ourselves up here, two weeks ago, Seal Team Six notified us of an enemy attack on one of Japan's naval bases in Okinawa. That was the base from which Japan's naval personnel fleet, called the Moebius Four Platoon, which is by far the largest fleet of naval combat androids created - well, more like the only one of its kind, we don't have enough ourselves to warrant it a label like a "fleet" - launched for missions and docked. Although only a fraction of the Moebius Four Platoon was stationed there, the fact remains that this attack has gravely injured the commander in charge of the fleet and the naval personnel stationed there. We knew that the AAHW's power was on the rise, and that they were the ones most likely responsible for the sudden appearance of these hostile naval personnel dubbed "Abyssals". Following the attack on the naval base at Okinawa, we have raised our own military bases and ports here in Germany on high alert as well, and so have the Italians and the British. We had requested Seal Team Six for permission to construct additional naval personnel, but they have denied us such permission, for fear that intel on their work would continue to spread. For now, we have frozen all assets regarding the Wunderwaffe and locked them down to minimize any chance of precious intelligence being leaked into the wrong hands.
Gernot and I returned from the Ascension Day sermons at the Berlin Cathedral Church about two hours ago. Attending national occasions to maintain our public image is important, after all.
I sometimes remember the lives Gernot and I used to have before our venture into politics. Sometimes he and I talk about how much better off our lives would be had we not entered politics. Politics ages you so quickly...well, I suppose neither Gernot nor I even expected to reach the positions we have now. We didn't enter politics knowing we would be the next Chancellor family. Things rather fell into place quite neatly. At first, I considered it a blessing from God...now, I'm not so sure about that.
The sole reason why I have second thoughts about our political careers is behind me. Our one-year-old daughter, Retia. The problem is that neither Gernot nor I had planned to have a child up until very recently - in fact, at one point we almost agreed not to have any children for the sake of dedicating our lives to the betterment of our nation. Germany has the biggest population of any nation in the European Union - we could afford to leave the responsibility of raising Germany's next bright generation to the hands of our contemporaries. But time changes people...and one of those people was my husband, who saw his fellow members of cabinet happily watching their own children grow up through grade school into university. I can only guess that he felt rather left behind, so he asked me if it still wasn't possible for us to start a family of our own before it really was too late. After quite a few months' worth of discussion, I finally yielded, but at our age, taking care of more than one child would probably burden us too greatly for us to continue our political careers. We wanted to balance our desires to be faithful lawgivers of the nation for the improvement of our country and people and to be good parents. We didn't want to compromise one or the other if we could help it, so Retia is to be our one and only precious child.
But for our positions, having a child is potentially very dangerous. Should we be targeted, either my husband for being the Chancellor of Germany or me for being the wife of the Chancellor, Retia would no longer have a parent or parents to take care of her as she grows up. She has extended family and relatives, of course, but there is always also the possibility of Retia being targeted as well. Therefore, with Gernot's permission, I have used my authority over the Wunderwaffe program to bring our girls to our mansion and station them here to not only look after our daughter whilst we are away for work or other PR-related events but also to protect her.
But now that the high seas are being threatened by a terrorist threat, the reassuring days knowing that my daughter is in the safe and protective hands of the girls of the Wunderwaffe appear to be coming to a close. I know not what the future holds...but I pray that these girls will help me and my family see it through safely.