Iowa County, Iowa, New American Order, February 22nd, 1962
Several large German trucks and APCs burst through the rusted gates of an old pre war military base in order to reclaim it for the Reich. Hundreds of men and several automated war machines were then dispensed from these vehicles and onto the broken concrete overrun with vegetation. Soon into their probing investigation of the state and utility of American infrastructure, a random underling taking a piss would accidentally stumble upon a secret entrance to an underground portion of the base not found on the maps. The higher authorities would be notified.
Several hours later, command was swiftly taken over by SS division. Jorg Wolfflin stepped out of his Kubelwagen and was met with a salute from his underlings as he responded in kind. Among the passengers were ten SS soldiers clad in black body armor and face concealing stalheims, each of them were armed with MP60s good for clearing out rooms in close quarters.
"When somebody somewhere finds something strange or dangerous, they call us to investigate. Command has reason to believe that the Americans were working on an experimental weapon down below, what it is, they did not say. My hypothesis, an undetonated atomic bomb that never got to strike the Fatherland, so our goal is too find it, dismantle it, and report back if we find anything, verstanden." Wolfflin brief to the SS task force.
With a swift "sir yes sir", the task force climbed down the hole and into the bunker, the first thing they reported was a storage room filled to the brim with empty boxes and barrels, marked for steel, oil, bauxite and ammunition. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, as this was the first thing the private saw as well. However off to the side was a passageway that went deeper into its facility,
The SS soldiers advanced further down the concrete corridors, having wandered into what was once a lab space. Carefully searching each room, they found nothing of value other than office supplies, lab supplies and illegible files. The only items that gave away anything were shredded scraps of paper headlined with something called, "Project Liberty". Given the times the bunker was built in, it was most certainly a weapons development project
The halls led them to a central atrium absolutely packed with complex machines, each serving an unknown purpose. At the very center was a large pod not unlike the pods super soldats are manufactured and stored, inside various slots were numerous objects that have no place in bioengineering, such as shrapnel, a captain hat, medals, and even an American flag. It was impossible to know what the Americans were trying to achieve, far all they know they could've assembled all this in the very last days of the war when Axis forces were right on top of them, and just prayed for a miracle.
The corporal of the squad shined a flashlight into the dusty window and came face to face with a comatose woman. The corporal, reported this and received instructions, pull the body out of the freezer container, if she is alive, bring her in for questioning, if she was dead, bring her in for experimentation. After fiddling with the controls one of the soldier was able to find the activate on button and took a step back, joining the rest of them in raising their MP60s in case she was hostile or uncooperative.
"It was a strange sensation having a mind but no form." Pondered Iowa. her hull was still on the bottom of the Pacific yet she still felt submerged in the deep blue ocean. It was a struggle holding on to her mind for so long, how long has it been anyway? It felt like it could be mere moments and at the same time it also felt like year. Suddenly, she felt a tug on her soul, was her spirit finally being put to rest? As the pull became stronger, Iowa slowly regained the sense of feeling, she became overwhelmed with sensations she had only heard about. This meant one thing and one thing only, her time on Earth isn't finished, she was still needed in the fight.
The strange machine released 6 loud clunks as it was slowly being unlocked, the woman inside began to stir awake. The soldiers noticed this braced even harder for what might come out. Once the process finished, the door swung open and released Iowa from her tomb, without any prior training or assistance, she fell uselessly from her standing position onto the floor. Having fully emerged fully formed, she at least had the sense and strength to start picking herself up when another one of the German soldiers shouted at her to stay down and kicked her in the face. She looked up, and saw a black, heavily armored man, as he raised his foot for a stomp, she noticed the distinct armband with the black diagonal swastika. As the boot came down, Iowa quickly grasped his shin, and squeezed hard, shattering his tibia into six pieces. The Nazi screamed as Iowa muttered "Nazi scum" every letter was filled with poison.
As she launched upward, the crippled Nazi was shoved on to the ground onto his back, she lunged forward to stop on his chest, crushing his rib-cage and several internal organs. After overcoming their shock, the other soldiers opened fire with their Machine Pistols, but to very little effect as the low caliber rounds merely bounced off her skin. She grabbed the barrel of one of their guns, pulling him forward within reach of her wild haymaker, the impact of the superhuman punch was enough to knock him out and induce brain trauma in one hit.
Once the gun was liberated from Nazi hands, she pressed the gun into the temple of a 3rd Nazi who couldn't get away in time and held down the trigger, with the average helmet's ineffectiveness at close range, his brains were splattered all over the insides in seconds. When they started firing again she lifted the dead Nazi, pulled one of his tesla grenades and threw him at his former comrades, when they set off, two of them were too stunned to get out of the way and were caught in the shock.
It was too much for their bodies as they exploded into a mess of gore. She started strafing to her left, however, SMGs were ineffective against the Nazi's heavy armor, as it took up to ten shots to puncture it, as well as another 5 to actually kill them. Iowa couldn't concentrate her fire, after ten seconds of spraying and praying the gun ran dry, forcing her to throw it at one of their heads, disorienting him. She bull-rushed the dazed Nazi, grabbed him and slammed him into the nearest wall so hard he was lodged into the concrete, shattering his spine as she punched him in the throat for good measure.
After taking his gun and reloading with a fresh magazine, she made sure to properly aim. After picking a lone one on the far right side she pulled the trigger and walked forward, unable to reach cover in time he was subsequently overwhelmed and succumbed to the fire, 15 bullets left. The rest had hidden behind the room's machinery, with no grenades on this one, she sprinted forward towards the sides of the machinery and did her best home run slide. The last 15 rounds quickly tore into their flanks and wounded one of them, leaving them to bleed. She grabbed another magazine from one of his pouches and reloaded.
This was too much for one of them two as they got up and fled down to the closest corridor. The other however, tried to poke his head from cover, only to receive a bullet in the eye for his troubles. She followed the survivor down the corridor, she wasn't planning on shooting him however, only a Nazi would shoot the helpless. She found him cowering next to a vault of some sort, she picked him up by the collar and politely but assertively asked him some questions.
"Where the fuck am I? What the fuck is going on? What the fuck am I?"
There was no response, he had become a gibbering wreck to the point of uselessness, so she casually tossed him aside, not caring for his well-being. She instead decided to go after what's inside the vault, unlike her chamber, it was unlocked. She ducked inside and attached to a steel frame were three 16 inch guns attached to a set of waldo arms on a back brace, and about 20 shells. She recognized them, these were her guns back on her old ship form. She grabbed from the straps and slung it on, as she did so she could feel all 212k horses coursing all over her body, she can hear little voices in her head telling her that all her systems were running, engines, weapons, her crew were ready to go.
She had found the exit and clambered up the ramp, and kicked down the door separating her from the fight. She was greeted by a whole battalion of Nazi forces, alongside some more sophisticated versions of the mechanical monstrosities from Europe she had only heard about. One of their commandants saw this and was quick to order her surrender. She raised her arms up into the air, luring her opponents into a false sense of security, only to lower them again and making finger guns with her hands
"Fire" was her only response.
She turned her batteries to face each of the mechanical monstrosities, three blasts rang out as 406 mm shells sailed the short distance dead center into the German robots, the massive shells over penetrated the tank grade armor detonated on the other side of the base, but the damage was critical as they ignited into a blaze of energy and shrapnel. Several Nazis caught in the blast died near instantly from the heat and shrapnel tore in to their flesh.
The Germans opened fire, but with her rigging out, she was all but invulnerable to even the heaviest weapons as hundreds of rounds ricochet off her flesh. With this in mind she sprinted into the fray, the Nazis still fired straight and true, they didn't know what kind of symbol of American might they would tangle with. She picked one hapless grunt and winded up a straight blow directly into his skull, it's enough to launch him into the air and to concave his skull, killing him instantly. Next she delivered several roundhouse kicks to several nearby Nazis, cracking their ribs, breaking their legs, and inducing brain trauma.
Once routed, Iowa pulled out looted SMG's and once again held the triggers, not worrying about ammunition since every 10 seconds her fairies would add a fresh magazine. She tried to keep professional, but she can't help but smile as a total of 4 rounds a second tore into Nazi armor and flesh. She was having fun with her new body now that she can fight up close and personal rather than from beyond the horizon.
She heard a buzzing noise from behind her, a pair of flying drones started their strafing run and fired a flurry of laser blasts, which actually provided some scorch marks on her hull. "Holy fuck that actually hurts." She thought, recognizing the threat she jumped up and knocked it out of the sky, grasping it in her hand and crushing it with the other. With her other SMG hand she quickly shot it down with burst fire.
She ducked into the behind one of the barracks and emerged behind one of the APCs, she lifted into the air and launched at one of the closer groups of Nazis. Unfortunately, most of them moved out of the way except one, who was quickly flattened by the weight of an armored vehicle. Dissatisfied, she launched a 5 inch shell into the APC, igniting the ammunition and utterly destroying the vehicle. This happened far too quick for the others to escape.
The Nazi forces were halved now, the rest of the battle was almost a blur as Iowa tore across the field, leaping from point to point, spinning to cover all fronts and throwing heavy objects to wound or disorient her foes. At one point she had ran out of ammunition for her guns, so rather than picking up more, she felt particularly brutal and elected to bash their heads in with them, and when those broke she went back to old fashioned fisticuffs. There wasn't much the Nazis could do against a bullet proof monstrosity coming down on them like a freight train hellbent on ending their lives. Soon, there was nobody left, once she was done she absorbed her rigging into... well somewhere in her body. No longer did she feel the engines, the oil, the weight or the little tiny voices in her head.
With every other Nazi dead or dying, the only one left was the commandant who had hid inside of the trunk of the Kubelwagen as soon as shells started flying. She tore it open and pulled him out onto the tarmac as he tried ineffectually to be released. She dragged him towards one of the nearby buildings, but before she can set foot in one of them she found him attempting to remove his coat so he could escape. Grabbing his throat instead of the color put an end to that plan.
She continued pulling him inside a medical clinic and slammed him onto one of the tables next to the soft beds without bothering to clear it of debris, along the way she found some old rope and tied him to the legs, Iowa didn't want the prisoner of war to escape, she wanted answers and she wanted them now.
"I'm going to ask you a few questions, you are going to answer them, and if I don't find them satisfactory I will beat the crap out of you with rusty tetanus inducing equipment, do you understand?" Iowa demanded.
"Do YOU understand who I am? I am an SS Obergruppenführer, resistance rats like you tremble at my feet. Just because an unter-" Before he could continue Iowa slammed a fist onto his knee caps, Jorg gritted his team in pain.
"Oh so there's a resistance is there, will you kindly tell me where I can the the US military?" Iowa said more kindly this time, in an attempt to unnerve him.
"What kind of stupid question is that? The United States lost, they surrendered to the might of the Aryan race." Jorg had said offhandedly. He got a broken elbow in return.
"Don't bullshit me! I have enough strength to break your clavicles with two fingers right fucking now, so tell me... Where is the US military!" Upon raising her voice she pulled him from his restraints and threw him against the nearest wall. Jorg finally broke in order to prevent any more bone breaking
"I'm telling the truth, the war ended 15 years ago when we bombed the country, America is no more." He said desperately.
Iowa at this point was really tired, angry and frustrated at what seemed to be such a bold faced lie, from her perspective she was sunk just a short while ago and even more recently got kicked in the face. So she impulsively reared back her head and head butted the Nazi, multiple times.
After taking out her frustrations, she released her prisoner and subsequently slumped against the wall. She had removed her rigging as it vanished somewhere in order to fit into the building, so she was unsure about his current health, not that she cared.
After checking to see if he was still moving she wandered around the base looking for anything useful, in the clinic she had found rusty tetanus inducing tools, expired medicine and medical records of men whose fates are unknown. However in the back of the office were the nurses offices, while she found nothing but old and dusty furniture she saw an equally old and dusty wooden trunk. She cracked it open with her bare hands to find and old yet well preserved blue dress among other items of clothing like a sunhat. She quickly slipped it on figuring she needed something less conspicuous to sneak across enemy lines.
There wasn't nothing else in the trunk that was inherently useful, but she reached deep down and found a set of mementos. Photos, old mementos, and relatively intact yet aged gifts like flowers, letters and candy. Iowa muses that the Nazis attacked before these could be shared. It felt rude to grab these things, but she didn't know if their recipients are still alive to reclaim them. She decided to just leave them there as some memorial, stolen clothing aside.
With nothing else in here that she's willing to take, she exited the clinic and deployed her radio, she tweaked a little knob on her metallic hat.
"Broadcasting all units, this is the USS Iowa, there was a minor complication in the Pacific but I'm back and ready to kick some Nazi ass." There was no immediate response, she then started again. "This is the USS Iowa, please respond, I am most likely deep behind enemy lines and need assurance in combat effectiveness." She then got into contact with an active signal, but as soon as she could hear voices, it snapped off and was replaced with a cold mechanical voice speaking German.
"Security breach in SS communications detected, scrambling units to interloper position."
Iowa quickly hung up. She roamed the rest of the base looking for any useful materials, picking up all the fallen Nazi's guns and anything she could find in the armory. She went back to the Kubelwagen and found the keys still in the ignition. As she turned the ignition, she realized she doesn't actually know how to drive. "Well I just figure it out on the way." She shrugged. After a few false starts, she was finally able to figure out the new fangled automatic transmission and peeled out of the battle site and through the exit. She reached the main road, and randomly chose to left. She didn't know where she was going, but it didn't matter, she had a war to win.