Idulhoff, North Dreisland
"Whirlwinds of danger are raging around us,
Overwhelming forces of darkness assail,
Still in the fight see advancing before us,
Red flag of liberty that yet shall prevail!"
As the sound of song and marching footsteps echoed through the air, a crowd of people, perhaps in the many hundreds in number, surged through the streets. Alongside, tanks, trucks, and half tracks of the Seventh Panzer Division rolled with them, with Leo poking his head out from one of the trucks, a disappointed look on his face.
"So this is how the government intends on getting popular support?" he questioned out loud, to which some of his fellow soldiers looked at him with curious eyes. "Well, I guess if it works it's okay."
"Then forward you workers, freedom awaits you,
O'er all the world on the land and the sea!
On with the fight for the cause of humanity!
March, march you toilers and the world shall be free!"
"Ah well," Leo continued, leaning back in his seat as he did so. "Let's hope Marco gets his job done…"
Mirak, North Dreisland
"Achoo!"
"Sir?"
Simo offered the sergeant next to her a rag, a clean one, thankfully, which Marco immediately used to wipe his nose. He pocketed the rag before addressing the group of people assembled before him.
Soldiers, short and tall, young and old, man and woman, human and demi/non-human, stood at attention with rifles at their sides. Firearms of various types dotted the formation, some armed with the standard Gewehr 85, others with more irregular weapons like Type 4 Self-Loading Rifles. Marco managed to renegotiate the number and types of vehicles for his Motorised Rifle Company.
The number of trucks increased from ten to twelve; armored cars meanwhile decreased from five to three, but the individual vehicles, originally Minerva Armored Cars, had been replaced by BA-27 Armored Cars. These heavier vehicles provided more armor and firepower, as well as mobility, compared to the older but lighter Minervas.
Marco, however, frowned when he noticed something to be missing.
"Is it just me or are we missing one of our field guns?" he asked. "I thought we asked for two."
"I guess the higher ups forgot?" Simo wondered, to which some of the other new key officers resisted the urge to snicker.
"I hear it is currently being set up for training," one of them said. "Perhaps it is for the best."
Content with this response, Marco returned his attention back to the newly formed Motorised Rifle Company, a sigh escaping from him in the meantime. He briefly scanned the unit, mentally noting any irregularities in drill in the process, before cracking his knuckles in an intimidating fashion.
"Right then," Marco said. "Let's get this started."
The sound of artillery echoed through the city as two M1897 75mm field guns opened fire on a set of targets downrange. Spurts of sand erupted from the areas of impact as the training shells hit the ground. An officer of the Federal Revolutionary Army observed the situation, giving instructions to the newly folded in Garrison troops in the process.
Meanwhile, Marco and the rest of the company command found themselves in the room where a certain old man used to live. Old, worn books lined the walls of the room while a table, bed, and fireplace made up the remaining furniture in the room.
Both Simo and Marco took a fairly casual look around as the other officers dug through as many books as possible for information.
Well, at least the literate officers did. The illiterate ones helped with training the new recruits while the investigation took place
Finally, one of the officers, after carefully returning the book in his hand, threw his hands up in the air.
"There's nothing in these things!" he exclaimed. "At least, nothing that we could use."
"Where did he get that info then?" another officer questioned. "It can't just be through oral tradition. There has to be some form of written record somewhere."
"Well, where is it then?"
That question ended the conversation.
Marco took a brief look around after he too got no results, before turning to face Simo, who happened to be behind him.
"Have any ideas?" he asked, to which Simo responded with silence, seemingly spacing out in the meantime.
Odd.
"Hey," Marco continued, waving a hand in front of Simo's face to get her attention as he did so. "Are you listening, Serzhant?"
Simo then finally broke from her daze before replying to Marco's question.
"Y-yes, I'm listening, Ensign Lettow," she replied. "Congratulations on your promotion, by the way."
"Thanks," Marco said. "You too… wait, don't change the subject!"
Simo giggled a bit at her superior's reaction before speaking her thoughts out loud.
"Maybe the records are in like a secret library or something," she suggested. "I wouldn't put delicate information somewhere easily accessible to the public. I would hide it."
Silence engulfed the officers as Simo's suggestion sank in.
Then Marco voiced everyone else's thoughts on the matter.
"Huh," he managed. "Why didn't I think of that…?"
The officers then went back to work, this time scouring the area for clues to a possible hidden library.
Idulhoff, North Dreisland
The clattering of a machine gun echoed through the streets as the Federal Revolutionary Army forced a large mob of conservative counter-revolutionaries to disperse. Riot control and other law-enforcement operations usually had Civil Police to do the job, but some places in the Federation lacked proper civilian law enforcement, especially one with riot control equipment and experience. This fact forced the FRA to take up these jobs, but military intervention tended to make the situation worse.
Hence the use of machine guns.
In defense of the military, however, the protesters possessed numerous weapons, including a small number of firearms. The protesters also fired first. FRA units also lacked non-lethal or less-lethal armament, which further contributed to the subsequent massacre.
The surviving protesters then surrendered or fled to the mountains, forcing the FRA into something they had a little more expertise in: counter-insurgency operations.
Leo found himself staring in disgust as more machine guns began to cut down the counter-revolutionaries. This did not feel right to him at all.
Thankfully, when the protesters finally surrendered, the machine guns stopped.
Federal forces then moved to clear the city of all remaining paramilitary organizations, including the leftist self-defense militias. The massacre forced many of the paramilitary organizations to comply with orders to surrender their arms and disperse. Those who did not comply suffered accordingly.
"Sir!" a soldier called, causing Leo to turn around and face the soldier. "All units are fully assembled and ready to go!"
Leo nodded in reply before adjusting the cap atop his head.
"Good," said he. "Everyone, board the trucks and move out! Let's put an end to this dreadful mess."
"Javel, herr Hauptman! All units, board the trucks immediately!"
"First Panzer platoon, moving out!"
"This is Second platoon, we're going next! Clear the way!"
The ground shook as soldiers, tanks, trucks, and artillery pieces gradually exited the city in an orderly fashion.
Leo looked on, unsure of the future ahead, before he too climbed aboard a truck with his men.
Mirak, North Dreisland
"Herr Ensign," an officer suddenly exclaimed. "I think I've found something."
Hearing this report, Marco immediately walked over to the officer to investigate what he had found.
"What is it?" Marco asked, cautiously peering over the shoulder of the officer as he did so. "Did you find like a code book or something?"
"Not exactly sir," the officer replied. "It's just…"
He began to flip through the pages of the book in hand, and Marco also noticed the suspicious characteristic the book possessed.
"The pages are blank…" Marco finished, gently grabbing the book as he did so. "Dang. There really is nothing in here."
"Do you think it's written in invisible ink, sir?" the officer asked. "The method to make writing invisible is not too difficult."
"Hmm…" Marco replied. "Could be…"
Then he noticed Simo peeking over his shoulder, one of her eyes glowing very slightly as she scanned the pages of the empty book.
"What is it, Simo?" Marco asked out of curiosity, to which Simo gasped and took a step away from Marco in surprise.
"N-nothing, sir," she replied. "I… just have a small hunch…"
She began to look around the room, as if searching for something in particular.
Odd.
Suddenly, like she finally found what she had been looking for, Simo cautiously walked towards one of the bookshelves, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
Simo then removed to books from the bookshelf, before peeking into the gap she created.
Realizing that all eyes found themselves staring at her, Simo sighed and said, "Let's hope my hunch is right," before reaching into the gap.
As the officers watched with anticipation, Simo winced in pain briefly before returning to her concentrated expression. Soon, something began to glow from within the bookshelf before a loud click echoed from the walls. As the glow subsided, a section of the wall suddenly recessed back into itself before slowly sliding to the side.
When Simo finally retracted her hand from the gap, the wall had revealed a hidden passageway which led directly underground.
Marco directed his gaze to Simo, raising an eyebrow in the meantime. Simo, slightly flustered at the action, simply replied with a chuckle.
"Looks like my hunch was right," said she.
As the air from the passageway dissipated into the room, one of the officers, a dark elf, widened his eyes before drawing his handgun.
"We ought to be careful, herr Ensign," said he. "Smells like goblins down there."
The officer's statement caused the others in the room to draw their weapons as well.
"Well," Marco sighed, drawing his own sidearm (which, unlike the others, happened to be a P04 Navy Luger) as he did so. "Guess we have no choice but to investigate."
He turned around to face his men.
"Any volunteers?"
Engleton, East Dreisland
Waffenfabrik Volkwerke
Mr. Paul Sauer, manager of Waffenfabrik Volkwerke in the city of Engleton, pulled a cigar out of one of the boxes atop his desk. This dwarf, and many like him, had contributed greatly to the industrialization efforts of the nation by helping to reverse engineer and reproduce manufacturing machinery. Many factories in the new Federation used these new dwarven made machines, which further manufactured more machinery for more factories.
Waffenfabrik Volkwerke remained the exception, for it used machinery made in the Empire of Japan.
Specifically, the machinery used at Volkwerke came from the cave most of the "men in brown" came from, excluding those who arrived via separate gates in South Sakhalin and the North Atlantic. While the dwarfs could have reverse engineered the machinery from blueprints alone, having the physical machinery to work with greatly sped up the process.
Sauer lit his cigar before leaning back to relax in his chair.
The previously non-existent domestic economy now prospered, his kids could now go to school and receive an education, and he now earned a fairly steady salary from the government for managing Volkwerke.
Life was good.
Suddenly, the phone rang, causing Sauer to nearly drop his cigar before picking up the phone.
"Hello?" said he. "This is Waffenfabrik Volkwerke, Manager Sauer speaking."
He paused as he heard the voice on the other side of the line.
"Ah, Prime Minister!" he exclaimed. "Good to hear from you again, sir! Another contract for rifles, I presume?"
Sauer paused once again, his eyes slowly widening at the Prime Minister's response.
"A new model of tank, sir?" Sauer managed. "But we have just reached full efficiency in the production of the Type M4…" (Type M4 was the Federation's designation for the M4A3E2)
"...Ah, you only want a small number of prototypes, sir?" Sauer continued. "Very well, Prime Minister. I think we can make that happen. What about armament, sir? I would recommend something with a caliber of between 85 and 120 millimeters. In particular, the Type 99 88mm gun with an autoloader and the D-10 100mm gun seem like good choices."
Silence followed. Then..
"Prototypes for both? Understood sir, we will have them done by the time of the troop trials. Yes, thank you. Goodbye."
Sauer then hang up the phone before stretching his stubby arms.
"Right," said he, stroking his mustache in the process. "Time to get to work."
Author's Notes:
Hey guys! It's Karl and I'm back with another chapter for my Gate fic. In this chapter, all the main cast receive promotions, the Federal Army guns down a not-so-peaceful protest, Simo does suspicious things, and a tank with firepower equivalent to the T-54/55 is planned for production. Also the Warszawianka. That also happened.
Just another average fantasy story lol.
I would also like to remind you all that despite long hiatuses, this story WILL NOT die. From my point of view it's too big to fail. I hope for y'all's continued support so that this story can actually reach a conclusion.
See you guys in the next chapter!
-SPSH Karl
