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MainTower of the Celestial Order, Altdorf, The Empire

"August, I need an audience with the Emperor. It is urgent and of high importance for our nation, so as soon as possible is a must. I had a vision about that strange occurance in the morning. The result might be needed help or an enemy we never faced before."

"As you wish, Grandmaster."

Naval Base "Tirpitzhafen", Kiel, Germany

Captain Fritz Wunderlich (loose relation to the famous Tenor) stood on the bridge wing of his minesweeper Fulda, eyes turned to land. The Fulda was the last ship of the Bundesmarine to leave the Base making for Holtenau and the entry locks of the Kiel Channel. Only a handful of Fast attack craft would remain in Kiel.

During the "Teleport", as the event was tentatively named, Germany´s Baltic coast lost it´s sea and was now landlocked. All remaining water areas, like the Kiel Fjord or the waters around Rügen were Lakes now. Germany´s North Sea coast was still lying at a, now new, Ocean. So Kiel lucked out a bit since with the Kiel Channel the city had still a connection to the High Seas. Rostock on the other hand, was hit hard. In Warnemünde now the water ended. The ships in Rostock, a flotilla of Fast Attack Craft of the Marine included, were caught there in a water area of only some few square-miles.

Frigate "Sachsen", near Wilhelmshaven, Germany

At the same time Captain Wunderlich did a silent Good-Bye to Kiel, the Commander of the Sachsen, Captain Krug let his eyes sweep over the ships in his task force. Their orders were of immense importance for Germany. Sail to Araby with expert teams to search for oil.

Chancellory, Berlin, Germany

The first three days after Germany was swept to another world had been spent in disbelief by most of the population. It was simply such an outrageous event to defy reason. How could a fictious universe really exist?

After Angela Merkel had informed her compatriots, a run on books about the Warhammer universe set it. It were the 2 highest sale days for Games Workshop ever. Unfortunately for them, they would never get all that money made.

Despite the political parties still having different opinions, a "round table" due to the emergency was made. Any idea could help in a situation where Demons could exist.

"We need to speak with the Empire and Bretonnia first. They are the only human realms strong enough to be a danger."

"Yes, we will do it, but I´ll fly to Kagoshima in the afternoon to speak with this Daimyo Isamo eye to eye. They are stranded here like us. Are the geographic teams on board of out task forces? We have to see what is now different here. The Nipponese insist that the Winds of Magic hit not only Earth, but this world as well. Quite logical, since they were in the Silent Ocean before this all happened."

"Yes, the tea-"

A worker of the Kanzleramt stormed into the meeting. "Frau Bundeskanzlerin, the Sea is returning in several regions of the Baltic ... Krallensee. The Fjords of Flensburg and Kiel, Rostock and Rügen, some Islands before Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are sea areas again. It started an hour ago like a tide. But in Ostholstein and north-western Mecklenburg the new coast line is stable. So Neustadt, Lübeck and Wismar, to name some of the important cities there, will never be true port cities again."

"Why now?"

"The specialists say that this is because of the Seas were disrupted by the event that brought us here and the changes on this world as well. Now the Sea levels out again."

"Well, then we can recall the ships to Kiel. I am glad for that, since it would have been a major negative impact on Kiel being without maritime trade and cruises."

"You are right on that, Wolfgang. Still, is it true we have 'swallowed' a piece of both Bretonnia and the Empire with our arrival? I looked at the maps myself and I fear that is correct."

"According to our geographs, this is correct, Angela. While the Territory the Empire lost is not important for them and I hope their merchants will be delighted to use our roads to reach the Old Forrest Road now, we cannot be so sure about the losses Bretonnia had.

They want to expand into the Wastelands and now most of these Wastelands are gone. I do not know how they will react once they find out we are where quite a piece of the ...where is it... ah, the Couronne Marches once lay."

"We must prepare the diplomatic team we gathered for Bretonnia for this complication. I hope to be back from 'Nippon 2' before either the Empire or Bretonnia come knocking. Maybe being thrown back into a slower moving Age works out as an advantage here in this case."

"That would be good, considering the mountain of problems we have. Have a Good Flight!"

"Stolz von Wurtbad", on the Reik, Wasteland

Pieter Schlittenholzer led his trade Barque for 3 decades. He knew the Reik River, the Sea of Claws and several routes into the South like the back of his hand. So he was, as were the well-travelled among his crew, totally baffled when the Stolz encountered a fork in the Reik where none should be.

"Those damn Chaos-spawn. What happened here?"

The route he knew went to the right, but where to led the turn left? Better be save than sorry, Schlittenholzer thought. "Hans, we stay on the correct course. This turn left reeks of a trap!"

"Aye, Käpten!"

When 2 hours later the Barque entered a Lake which had never been there before and the ship was greeted by ships and boats of unknown origin, flying a Black-Red-Gold banner, Pieter simply swore. "Oh Frak!"

Over Bayrischzell, Bavaria, Germany

It was a sight for Emperor Karl-Franz and his fellow Griffon-riders, the land below them. After braving high mountains which definitely should not be here, they looked down onto a landscape that emanated tranquility and strangeness.

Karl-Franz locked eyes with the Grandmaster of the Celestial Order, nodding. It was as it had been in the vision the Grandmaster told him about.

"Do you know...have you seen where their capital is? Or what language they speak?"

"No, my Emperor!"

Army Air Base Laupheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

"Herr Oberst, we have orders to intercept some Bandits near Bayrischzell."

"Hmm, we? That is the job of the Alarmrotte (Alert Flight) in Neuburg! Ugh, considering what will be the typical air unit speed here, we can only talk or sign to them with a Heli, right? Okay, boys and girls, let us show the Flyboys how it is done!"

Hopefully this Reikspiel language is really as close to German as assumed in that informations we got. Or it will go down south real fast, if these guys are as triggerhappy as in the books.

Bayrischzell, Bavaria, Germany

Oberst Kurt Crüwell kept his eyes pinned to the sight in front of their helicopters, as were his comrades, the commander of Flight 42 was sure. This will be a story for my Grandchildren! Real, living Griffons with their riders and we are the first to meet them!

"They outnumber us with their 32 Griffons. But I hope to get this over without a fight. Activate the external speakers!"

"What by Sigmar are these contraptions?! Ready your weapons! Patriarch Julevno, Grand Astromancer Vybor, did you foresee these abominations?"

"Not these in special Sire, but others and they are no abominations per se, your Highness, even if they seem like Chaos-Spawn." answered Caspar Vybor, one of the most talented non-Elven farseers in existence.

The Emperor was a forward-thinking man, but the flying objects coming nearer looked more like something the forces of Chaos would make than human. Caspar admitted to himself that without the visions he and the Patriarch had shared, they would have thought that as well. "Your Majesty, the humans over there in these things can be a salvation for our realm or the worst enemy we ever faced.. Every action enables a reaction. I would advice, to keep sharp, but let them make the first move."

"They seem as anxious as we are, are they not, Karl? Better to get over with it. Turn to our broadside, so I can see and motion to these Imperials. Put me on the speakers."

"Milord," said Walter von Au, one of the Emperor´s Guards, "look...their heraldry!"

Karl-Franz, the two wizards and all the others who heard him, looked at the unknown flying machine. On the side, a Cross could be seen. Not the Cross of the Empire of Mankind, but it was close in design. Close enough to maybe being related.

While not relaxing, this let some of the felt tenseness out. And more tension left, when the people in the machine began to speak in an admittedly odd accented, but still good understandable Reikspiel.

"Unknown Flight, I am Colonel Kurt Crüwell and greet you in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany in Peace. For the ease of communication, how about we land in Bayrischzell below us and talk eye to eye? I think we both have a lot to talk about."

When the Griffons one by one and in formation began to descent, the Colonel let out the breath he did not knew he had held. "So far, so good! Contact Berlin that we have made successful contact with a squadron from the Empire. We will open first communication, but they should send the diplomats fast."

EmdenHarbour, Lower Saxony, Germany

"Rations, Hamit?"

"6 Weeks, Muhar. Do you know how difficult it was to gather the fuel? Since no one knows how soon new oil fields can be found, all these infidels are sitting on the last oil like hens. Hoping for it to multiply, I guess."

Snickers could be heard on the boat. "By the way, how did you get the fuel under these circumstances?"

"There are, Him be blessed, enough true followers of Islam in this heathen land. They donated from their stockpiles."

"Allah is with us! Omar, just stay clear of the Marine vessels. Before they will know it the true faith will have a foothold among our relatives in Araby. And then, then we will spread out and eradicate the followers of the false idols, beginning here. This World will be the haven of Islam. The prophet spoke to us about this sign. Let us leave and Allah ackbar! When we return, we will put away with the heresy here."

Castle Isamo, Kagoshima, Nippon

Night was falling over the Old World. The talks between Chancellor Merkel and the Daimyos beside Tomoyuki Isamo were proceeding well. A lot of business, common help and other things had already been concluded.

After retiring for the night, Angela Merkel and her advisors talked about the coming negotiations.

"Frau Kanzlerin, I know why we try to get them on our side. Security and all that. But why do this, they are not even the Japanese we know, these are the old Ones clearly? We will grow our own future concurrent."

"The Nipponese have the potential like their relatives from Home and this is exactly why Germany should be their Meji! This does not only include making them friendly towards us, build up this land, but I and some from the security council propose to make them a part of Germany, bringing them to join us."

"J-Join us?"

"Join us. Not only for defence reasons, a new market and all that. This is good, but we should add them to our numbers because they know this world more than we do and to bring millions of supportive of the state new citizens into Germany as well.

We have reason to believe that dogmatic among the Greens see this cataclysmic event as their Chance to impose their half-brained ideas on us. Some others as well. If only one tenth of what in the books is true, we need all the help we can get. We need to screen our people for magical talent, we need people who know this world, know what we need in the face of demons, how to use magic...

This is why we need to get this lost part of Nippon into Germany and to hopefully ally with this Empire and most of her factions. And why we should try that with more realms too. Some seem to have not recognized how dangerous this world can be. We will sooner or later have to talk about enlarging the Bundespolizei and raise a Landwehr. Or building city walls again. The rules have changed and it will be a hard way to get the whole population to realise this."

"Angela, Berlin in the line. A group from the Empire did fly into Bavaria with their Griffons and after the first small get-together it is clear that their Emperor is among them. You have to return as fast as possible."

ElyseePalace, Paris, France

Presidential Advisor Jules Picard sat in his office chair, eyes pinned to the monitor before him, the Cafe au lait beside him forgotten. The messages were grim. With Germany transported to somewhere, and her return highly unlikely, the Euro was dead as a Dodo. The remaining Eurozone nations trying to save what could, the currency fell like lead and several EU nations declared a return to their pre-Euro currencies.

But that could not stop the shockwave in the World Economy. Germany was a too important part of that. The country was gone for a mere week and already more than a dozen nations from around the Globe had defaulted, with every day the danger of further defaults becoming greater.

Even the so strongly looking People´s Republic of China now wobbled on her feet.

Germanyhad not only been one of their greatest trade partners, but the producer of a lot of their machines as well.

Jules was no economist, but one had not to be one to see the writing on the wall. In the first two days after Germany had disappeared, from some nations there had be gloating and boasting how good it was that "this economic shark" was gone.

This soon changed, when even among the idiots with axes to grind, it hit home how far above her Weight class Germany was able to punch, compared to Germany´s size. The World has precious few manufacturing centres of such calibre and with the equivalent of 2-3 silenced... Germany was most likely gone forever and the damages to industry and infrastructure incurred by the "Event" in the other industrial nations on the northern Half-Sphere was estimated to be like losing Germany once or twice again. France had been lucky, most of her industry was intact, only a small mountain range popping up in the middle of la Republique, severing northern France from the South for now, had done damage. Our specialists are working on connecting the roads and railways again, which, as far as the reports go, is not too problematic. Off-Road vehicles can cross the new mountains, so the experts think in a year all is back to "normal".

Something that can not be said about others. Where America´s largest chemical factory once stood, there was a lake now, the plant gone.

If the civilian populations of Earth would know how hard our planet is hit, there would be a panic.

Picard looked on some paper reports and several on his computer.

The idea to take over the region were la Allemagne stood, is as dead for now as the explorer teams. The few survivors scarred by the events. Abominations, which by God should not exist, live there. Poland ,I know, toyed with taking over most of "eastern Germany". We wanted to take at least everything up to the Rhine, Denmark a lot of northern Germany, all neighbours wanted a piece.

Before we have cleaned out this wasteland, nothing to that effect is possible. According to these Dutch freaks we found, there should be a large metropolis in there, but no exploration team went in deep enough and for some reason the satellites cannot penetrate the clouds.

Jules Picard asked the empty room, "What shall I tell the President? That we are lucky? At least compared with others? I will tell him that France has to be ready when the general population get´s wind of the fact that a global depression which makes 1929/30 look like a Sunday walk, seems to be unstoppable.

Landstuhl Stadthalle (City Multifunction Hall), the Palatinate, Germany

Being the location of the largest US-Hospital outside the United States, the small city and her inhabitants were used to people from abroad. Seeing foreigners was normal, even if there were less Americans than before "the Weltensprung"(Jump between Worlds), as a scientist dubbed the event for the Bild newspaper. A name that would keep sticking.

The Germans could not know it where, but nearly four fifth of the US soldiers and their families were deposited by the spell back at their homes in the States. Germany´s scientists were baffled by this. Since a group of people from all over the northern hemisphere with German roots had been "sucked" away with their ancestor´s home, the leading theory was that something had resonated with the ancestry. While there were enough hints to consider that theory correct, Landstuhl was one of the places you could see the exceptions.

In case of Candace, a "medium" black teacher from an Army school, one could debate if she had some drops of German blood in her, but some of the children under her tutelage most certainly had not. Still, they had been transported away with Germany, while obvious German-descended US citizens were not.

In addition, among the before mentioned group of people who made the Weltensprung with Germany, there were a small subset of clearly non-German men and women. And from the immigrants in Germany, a part of them had been left on Earth or where ever they went to, despite having already German passports.

This led another group of scientists to posit that it was not ancestry, as the first few days of findings hinted at, but the overall number of people which had been balanced by whoever or whatever initiated the Weltensprung.

It was surely possible that at first a resonance picked Germanic people, but the randomness from where all the new people came might mean that when "time ran out" just the total numbers counted. Or all was just coincidence.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had read the various reports about the possible explanations for the Weltensprung on his trip to Landstuhl. He wanted to tell the naturally rattled "newcomers" something uplifting, but the texts made him snort. At the moment the theories boiled down to an educated guesswork, with hints for practically all major theories. And no hope for a return scenario, not that he had even remotely calculated with this to be possible.

To show the people stranded together with Germany on a World which should not exist that Berlin cared for them as well, representatives had been invited to Landstuhl. Most of the US citizens left lived in the Kaiserlautern region, which Landstuhl was part of.

The reason Landstuhl had been chosen over the 10 times larger nearby Kaiserlautern laid in the fact, that Berlin wanted to show that all of Germany was needed and the city was still large enough to house all of the representatives.

Now the minister´s group was standing in the hallway leading to the stage. The Minister finally decided to make a stand-up speech, "Sandra, you have the laptop set up and ready?"

A nod by the addressed staff member.

"Sascha, are the hand-outs and paperwork formularies in there? ... Good, then let´s get it going!" With that, Schäuble pushed his wheelchair forward.

Outside Couronne, Bretonnia

The citizens of the capital of Bretonnia were out in force to give a proper frame for the army the King had assembled. It was not the largest army Bretonnia ever committed, not even the largest in the last half-century, but bolstering the Knights of Couronne, Artois, L´Anguille and Gisoreux was a relatively massive peasant's levy.

That the Knights were from only four regions of Bretonnia was seen as unproblematic, since the defenders of the Wastelands, the Money-sacks from Marienburg had fled in great haste and according to the newest reports, did not come back. Maybe now the greedy Marienburgers would see why a true knight was superior to the mercenaries they contracted.

The target was easy and simple: Taking as much of the Wasteland on the western side of the Reik as possible.

Despite having a fitting name, the Wasteland had some worth. Not every square-metre was infertile and winning control over the Wasteland would mean winning control over the Reik and with the Reik, over a lot of Empire trade. Marienburg, the former imperial capital of the former province of Westerland, was a rich city and one of the biggest trade cities in the whole world.

The King of Bretonnia, his advisors and a group of the most influential Knights did not believe in a march on Marienburg directly. Just taking the western part of the Wasteland and testing the defences of Marienburg after bringing the surrounding land firmly into Bretonnian hands.

"Are we not a bit too cautious, Sire? In sight of the cowardice of the Marienburgers?"

"Dear Comte de Charville, if it were just a question, of killing that Dragon, from which we do not know if he is still in the region at all, we would strike trough until we reach the centre of Marienburg. But we have to be careful of a trap and this is one of the reasons why Baron de Brosioux with a detachment will investigate the strange silence of some coastal towns along Manaanspoort Sea."

"You surely mean not that the moneygrabbers could be cocky enough to... I beg your pardon, your Majesty, but that thought alone is preposterous!"

"Sire de Charville, reign in your tongue. You talk to our King!"

"No, let him speak! I would not be a true grail knight and King, if I dismiss the right of other noble warriors to speak."

"This is simply a breakdown in communications as it happens not so seldom in the Couronne Marches, there is no way the Merchants of the Wasteland would attack us, your highness."

"Possible and most likely, but not the only scenario, Comte. That is why we send out a someone to investigate, while we go on and conquer the Wasteland. Let us get forward!"

Markus Ruhdorfer´s Hotel Room, Berlin, Germany

Depending on one´s view, it was very late at night or very early in the morning, when Markus Ruhdorfer locked the door to his hotel room. He yawned heartily, making his way to the bed, for a few short hours of rest.

The last three weeks of his life had been a rollercoaster. Before the Weltensprung, the late thirties man had been one of the millions of average citizens. After the event, Markus was one of the Warhammer fans who had pledged his help for the government. Unlike many of the teenaged Warhammer crowd, he was permanently chosen for the special division of the interior and foreign ministries because Markus did not only know about the Warhammer World, but had read List, von Clausewitz, Weber among other works helpful for a person working in the government.

Helping as well was that Markus coincidently learned Japanese in one of the courses given by Michiko Furukawa, who had had the first contact with the piece of Nippon now sitting at the border. So both now worked for the German government.

The second and most of the third week after Germany´s arrival Mark had spent in the piece of Nippon transported. It had functioned rather well. The staff of Germany´s embassy in Tokyo had "travelled" to the Warhammer World like all Germans on the northern Hemisphere, so full-blooded diplomats had been available, them being reinforced by the motley crew of other departments, Japanese living in Germany and part of the Warhammer fans working for Berlin.

The Warhammer "experts" were there not only to help the German delegation with the few info available about Warhammer Nippon and collecting more, but to brief these Nipponese Newcomers to the Old World about their new Home as well.

There was a subtle difference between the Nipponese and the Japanese, but that was something to be expected on the development level discrepancy. The German delegation was actually happy with every, even minor, difference to the Japanese and Japanese-descended among their ranks.

Even if one put aside the fact for a moment, that the world they stood on should be imagination, there was something seriously creepy in the resemblance of Earth and the Warhammer World for the scientists in the team. Even a parallel evolution of two worlds would not bring about languages so closely related to each other like here was the case. And the cultural differences, while there, were mostly superficial and coming from two historical Eras, as could be said about both the Imperials and the Nipponese.

This was simply impossible. Even on Earth Humanity had developed very different in different places. While it was still untested, several biologists in the delegation and Germany proper were sure that if one took DNA samples from the locals, they would show a relation between Earth and Warhammer Humans. They postulated, that Germany now was not the first victim, that some Power or Being in former times already had kidnapped people from Earth and transplanted them onto the Warhammer World.

Some radical researchers even believed that Games Workshop was a front for that Power, a beacon in Space-time.

But that was for further research. The first long meeting with the Nipponese had begun with mistrust, quite naturally considering this World, but with time first successes with the opening of trade relations and exchange of experts.

In four days, the German delegation would return to Kagoshima for further talks. Tomorrow we have a day for recreation, then the preparations for the next 2 weeks in Nippon begin. What a schedule! were Mark Ruhdorfer' s last thoughts before succumbing to a well earned sleep.