The Journeys of Luz Noceda
Act IV, Part VIII - Liberation is Coming
Written by SumthnUnreal
Earlier in her life, Luz had published a book on glyphs. It detailed how glyphs worked and how to create them. She included the basic elements as well as the more complex combinations. Three in particular became controversial due to their mind-altering effects, known as the hypnosis glyph, the hallucination glyph, and the psychosis glyph. The hypnosis glyph was the weakest of the three, only being able to inhibit decision making skills. The hallucination glyph was much stronger, having the effects of an LSD or magic mushroom trip. The psychosis glyph was the worst, as its effects were comparable to late stage schizophrenia or dementia. It's easy to understand why these were controversial.
Now, one would wonder why all that was included. Well, it all has to do with that last one. The psychosis glyph also warped the affected person's perception of time, making the experience much worse than it already was. This simple fact made it a favorite of the CIA as an 'enhanced interrogation technique.' And wouldn't you know it, but something serious had just happened in the Boiling Isles and they needed to use some 'enhanced interrogation techniques' to get necessary information out of the leaders.
Hunter was strapped to a table and fed a nutrient rich shlop to keep him alive. The 'interrogators' continually asked for him to spill, but he kept refusing, so they had to go harder. They subjected him to sensory deprivation, solitary confinement, white torture, the psychosis glyphs, and sleep deprivation. They also engaged in physical torture, but that's just a little too much for this story. It's important to note that the purpose of torture is to break the mind, not the body. The uncertainty in the mind is what makes a person fall. The acts of physical torture went on for a few hours each, while the acts of mental torture often lasted for days, even weeks on end. And now back to your regularly scheduled program.
Eventually, Hunter broke and explained everything, and he started at the very beginning. During the Second World War, millions of people were dying in such short amounts of time that the Infernal Counsel was overclocked with new denizens, so they cut corners in their decisions. Normally, people killed in war would be split up to avoid organization between units, but now they were failing to do so. Soldiers of the Third Reich began working together to overthrow Satan. At first, they were broken up, but as 1943 and 1944 dragged on, more and more Nazis flooded in and they stirred even further. Then in 1945, Adolf Hitler himself was accidentally placed next to Erich von Manstein and Herman Goering, which would be a catastrophic failure of security. They rallied other high-ranking Nazis and fascist sympathizers, overthrew the centaurs in the seventh circle and rallied others as they fled to the surface. The demons tried to resist, but there wasn't much to be done against more than two million trained soldiers plus millions more German citizens. As it turns out, once a spirit leaves hell, they don't adhere to the normal rules. They escaped and built rickety barges to flee. They sailed for months before reaching a lush, unpopulated continent. They declared it to be Germania and built a new civilization for the Aryan race. They built heavy industries and cities and developed the wonder weapons they always wanted. Seventy nine years later, the Belosians were expelled from the Boiling Isles, and many sympathizers would run away with them. They landed off the coast of Germania and were granted a small island and modernized infrastructure after pledging their allegiance to the regime. They remained until they were accidentally discovered by the New Corps of Discovery.
It wasn't exactly what they wanted, but it was useful. The nazis were in possession of heavy industry, and thus a presumably large army. Within weeks, Project Stargate was successful in its goals. How it worked exactly was a closely guarded secret, so here's a simplified version. There were three vital components: one portal gun and two containment guns, and the names are pretty self-explanatory. Through some sort of magical fuckus and a carefully calculated amount of titan's blood, a portal could be opened above the ship that housed the components. An unnamed fighter jet was sent through the portal which successfully went through. It then circled around and went back to Earth, which also went perfectly.
By June, several large ships had been sent to the demon realm, mostly destroyers and transports. A handful of air bases were under construction, and with help from magical processes, they would be ready in a short amount of time. By September, a few hundred aircraft and many destroyers were ready for use. War came on October 14th, 2028 as dozens of bombers flattened three different cities. This would be a massive affair, and Luz would take no part in it. In fact, she left on a long expedition to the far south two month before it began and she would return a few weeks after it was all over. It's a disappointment for sure, but maybe it's for the better that a brown woman doesn't get herself captured by actual nazis.
So how does the war end, eh? Well I'm getting there. The initial strike forced the nazis to take charge. They had a massive and powerful army, while the Americans had the superior air force. Flak guns and submarines warded away the Americans, and with comparable economic output and eligible military populations, it was anyone's game. The American plan required that they first destroy the submarine fleet, as to not lose their most valuable ships. Virginia-class and Ohio-class submarines were sent in, numbering about thirty, which faced off against the U-boats, however it wasn't much of a fight. Without radar or any consideration for stealth technologies, the U-boats were easy pickings for the Virginias, which were practically invisible to them. The entire fleet of U-boats, which numbered around six hundred, was wiped out in just nine weeks.
Unfortunately, the nazis were not going to give in so easily. In those intervening seventy-nine years, they'd built various wonder weapons, and now the high command was itching to use them. In a very un-nazi like move, they decided to start small by using a four hundred foot wide flying wing bomber to attack the Boiling Isles directly. It flew very high and managed to successfully bomb Bonesborough, although a fair amount of bombs landed in the woods and the water. The Americans responded by flattening several cities with their B-52s. Sure, it seems like disproportionate retribution, but the citizens were pretty thoroughly indoctrinated, so the killing was easy to justify.
By November, the Kreigsmarine was thoroughly decimated, and the USS Harry S. Truman was brought in to clean up the nazis, along with a few more destroyers. The battle for the sea, however, would be the easiest part. Now they had to fight the nazis on land, and land battles were their bread and butter. The smaller island to the north that held the imperial remnant was their first step. With their control of the sea, it seemed easy, as they could cut their supply lines. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as they hoped. The soldiers were supplied by air and the nazis pulled another card from their deck of wonder weapons. They had built laser rifles. Admittedly, they weren't as good as regular ballistics, but they scared the Americans pretty well.
Near the city of New Dusseldorf, documents were confiscated from an army base. One of these documents was titled 'Giftgas Flugzeug' which was utterly hilarious to the soldiers that captured them. They weren't so amused when it was deployed, because it was a special plane that was made to drop Sarin gas on the enemies of the reich. At this point, the US Army was seriously considering using nuclear arms, but due to the uncertainty of what the nazis had to throw at them, they had to hold off for the time being. It was also around this time that the nazis began deploying war robots. Wonder weapons are more about intimidation than practicality, but if it scares the enemy, it's an alright weapon.
By March of 2029, American forces landed on the mainland, and it was hell. The nazis had very good road and rail networks, which allowed them to bring not only large numbers of troops and tanks, but even more wonder weapons, like a massive railway cannon that shot nuclear bombs or a tank that was over one hundred thirty feet tall. Now the Americans were seriously considering using nuclear weapons, but there were two problems. The first was that they lacked the means to do so, as all nuclear weapons were still on Earth and the ones they did have on submarines didn't function in the demon realm, with the cause being a complete mystery. The second was that they were still terrified of what the nazis would unleash if they survived a nuclear bombing campaign, not to mention the fallout and dust created by such an attack. The Americans withdrew from the mainland, instead preferring to go on a campaign of raiding and pillaging along the coast.
In June, twelve B83 thermonuclear bombs were shipped into the Boiling Isles under the pretence of 'just in case.' Meanwhile, public support was turning against the war, as it was dragging on without a clear victory. Fortunately, that was swiftly changing. Aerial attacks had destroyed several railway junctions, nuclear plants, and the titan blood research facility. This crippled the nazis' ability to produce and deploy their wonder weapons, so they decided for another great strike on the Boiling Isles with a giant high-altitude supersonic bomber. Thankfully, the bomber moved so fast that the first nuclear bomb missed the isles by several miles and the bomber was swifty shot down by a surface to air missile.
With this attack, the order was given. All twelve B83 bombs were dropped onto nazi cities, including the grand capital. Each bomb detonated with the force of twelve hundred kilotons of TNT, so they were pretty damn destructive. Even though twelve major cities were decimated, along with a large amount of their industrial base, the nazis fought on, deploying more war robots as well as walking tanks. It was getting pretty ridiculous by this point, so more B83s were shipped in and the Americans braced themselves for a second strike. The nazis launched their V3 missiles, proper intercontientals that could hit the Boiling Isles in just two hours, or more likely, the American bases in less than an hour.
At the beginning of July, the next wave was sent, as fifteen B83s rained down. This had two major effects, neither of which were positive. The continent was now pretty thoroughly destroyed and on fire. Any further conquest would not see much of a net gain compared to the beginning of the war. The second was that nuclear fallout was being carried along air currents around the globe, with some traveling so far east that it circled back around to the warzone. Dust and ash was recorded falling over the Divine Sea and the Boiling Isles. While the fallout wasn't very radioactive, it caused temperatures in affected regions to decline noticeably. Thus, no more nuclear attacks were authorized. Not only that, but the attacks didn't have the intended effects on enemy morale, as the nazis just kept fighting on.
By this point, the Americans were at their wits' end. They had tried everything and nothing worked. Naval combat, strategic bombing, attritional war, and nuclear strikes were all in vain. Really, no one is sure how they expected to win against literal nazis with literal magic. Eventually, they chose the only option that would minimize American lives lost: bomb the hell out of the continent until either they surrender or are completely destroyed. This was going to be slow and expensive, but it was cheaper than all other alternatives. The word 'cheap' being relative in the situation, as the Department of Defense had to construct around fifty B52 Stratofortresses for the first time since 1963, which came at a price tag of over thirty two billion dollars, and that's just for the planes themselves. It was extraordinarily expensive and very drawn out.
By mid-April, after nearly a year of constant hammering, the nazis stopped shooting down bombers. The bombing continued for another three weeks before troops were sent in. The continent was almost dead of life. Cities were completely annihilated. If it weren't for the massive craters at the convergence points of shattered roads, it was hard to tell if anyone had ever lived there. The war was deemed to be over on May 25th, 2030. The total financial cost of the war was estimated to be over six hundred billion dollars, however this is considered to be an underestimate, not to mention that you can't put a price on a human life. It was found that there were still people alive on the continent, and these survivors had to undergo reeducation, as they were still dedicated nazis. They numbered only a few hundred out of an initial estimated population of a few hundred million.
The public was rather shocked by the true extent of the war and the deaths. It had cost several hundred billion to fight, although that's pretty insignificant compared to the War on Terror's multiple trillions. Despite this, Germania was certainly worse for wear. All industrial and mining infrastructure was annihilated, and every city was either irradiated or completely littered with unexploded ordnance. Arable land was also thoroughly destroyed, as most farms had been poisoned with chemical weapons or dangerous elements of explosives or fuel. Germania was useless for any sort of economic activities or settlements, so the war was ultimately kinda pointless. Oh well.