Happy new Year!
Reichstag, Berlin, Germany
"Due to the ever increasing discrepancy between our Anno Domini calendar and the Kaiserlichen Kalender (imperial calendar) of the Empire, this House decided with a 63% majority to change date counting to the imperial version. Our Earth calendar will be continued for historic reasons in archivist context.
On comming Monday at exact midnight, all calendars are to be changed to Sigmarstag, the 25th Nachhexen 2521 KK (IC). To keep an equal amount of weekend days, the method developed by Prof. Henscher, with reciprocing 2 and 3 day weekends, is to be applied.
In light of the changed circumstances on this new world and the fact that no other ratifying states have crossed over with us, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany suspends the treaties of The Hague and Geneva concerning certain weapon systems.
While the ethic guidelines will still be followed, Germany has to potentially use all weapons in her arsenal. There are genocial menaces which cannot be overcome without resorting to weapons banned on Earth."
Railway Station Nuln, Nuln, the Empire
While there were other important production centers in the Empire, Nuln was the industrial heart of Sigmar´s Realm. It could be seen in the great Forges of the City and since the arrival of the Germans in the many construction sites. One of the biggest was the Railway Station, which had been partly build into the northwestern city wall and was now being opened. The population of the city had gathered in strength for the first train to arrive and depart Nuln.
There would be a big feast after the inauguration of the station. While the single track was an improvisation until the two to the height of engineering built tracks would reach the city later, the social impact was gigantic.
Some philosophers of the local university already discussed how it could be that nobody had thought of such a transportation system before. People, Food, Goods could be transported easier and in greater numbers now. The industry of Nuln had begun to think big as well. New sites were erected, old one expanded and even some German firms began to build dependacies in the city.
The railway net of the Empire still stood at the beginning, with only Altdorf and Nuln connected to Germany and Kagoshima now, but kilometer by kilometer, day by day, it was expanded. The elector-counts were many things and extra competitive among each other, but after their visit to Germany, one had to be blind, deaf and dumb to not recognize the advantages of the railway.
In one of the few really concerted votes of the Elector-Counts, they pledged themselves to the construction of a nationspanning net of railways.
The crowd, from the lowliest beggar to the Elector-Countess herself, began to roar and celebrate when the steady puff-puff-puff of the train´s steam engine could be heard.
Imperial Palace, Altdorf, the Empire
"... and so, Your Highness, I needed to tell you this horrific prophecy. All our lives are in jeopardy", a chalk-white Grand Master of the Azyr Order told Emperor Karl-Franz his dream.
The Emperor was shaken, but able to keep it from the knowing eyes of the wizard. "I thank you in the name of the whole Empire. Not knowing the fate which could befall us, would only weaken us more, no matter how horrible the story you told me is.
I have to ask: How did your scrying effect get so good? Your farseeing was always a boon to our realm, but in the last months the men and women of the Order of the Heavens are outdoing all your former efforts in range and clarity."
"It is the German effect, your Majesty."
"The Germans? But they still are as magical as a stone, seen as a whole?"
"You are right, Sire, that even their strongest wizards are not advanced for now to exceed the basic cantrips. But they have an overflowing fundus of ideas. In some cases, we just had to finetune the winds a bit to make a leap in usability. Ironic, that our cousins are part of the reason the danger looming on the horizon has become so daunting and that we could predict it at all."
"Yes, Chaos is many things, but unfortunately not really dumb. The Chaos Gods recognize that with Germany at our side, we might someday challenge their grip on the Old World. If what you told me comes to fruition, the battles we have to prepare for, will make Sigmar´s battle at Black Fire Pass look like a skirmish.
Please, no word to anybody until I give you the confirmation. We have to prepare in silence for a time to keep a possible panic at bay. Only some trusted people can be given this information."
"I see, your Majesty. And if I may say so, it is the right call."
After the Grandmaster left the Emperor´s rooms, Karl Franz turned to a new feature of his office. A telephone, one of the few in Altdorf. Taking the horn, the ruler of the mightiest nation in the Old World thought about what he would say. Dear Angela, we have to meet as soon as possible.
My seers tell me about an unprecedented attack by Chaos forces. The ruinous Powers want to destroy and remake the Old World in their twisted image once and for all.
This attack had been in the making before you arrived, but now Chaos prepares a far more destructive and potent army than before. They see and fear your potential. A Storm of Chaos is brewing at the horizon...
A340, 12500 meters above Hag Graef
The pilots of this A340, nicknamed Kondor, were happy that the first half of this mission was over. These flights were the longest non-stop they ever took, necessitating a second crew to avoid fatigue. The take-offs were always harrowing as the plane was overloaded and would launch only after a long run up on one of Germany's longest runways, preferably into the face of a strong wind.
This had become a little better when MTU had rigged up a water injection for the engines. This made full power really spectacular now, with black smoke coming out of the normally well behaved turbines and a truly wretched sound at full power but also increased thrust.
The once nicely furnished passenger liner now was practically empty after the cockpit, the cargo area behind the deck full of additional fuel tanks and a small rest room/lounge for the crews.
For the last 10 minutes banks of Cameras were running taking pictures in several angles and wavelengths, adding to the knowledge the German armed forces had about their target. The pictures would be home in 13 hours and would be send to the fleet just in time before the assault.
Same night, coast close to Hag Graef
The commandant of U35 watched the departure of the Special Forces party through his Zeiss Periscope and whished them luck. He had brought them unseen to this point, but now they were on their own. He had met these men, the close confines of his sub made anything else impossible and he pitied any Dark Elf crossing their path-but their mission was to evade all contact and observe.
6 days later, Coast before Hag Graef
Captain Werner was aware that command of the Seeadler was a blessing and a curse at the same time. While she was the biggest ship the German navy had ever fielded and the most versatile in some respects she was also an improvisation, a maintenance nightmare and an unknown quantity. He suspected the Navy had given him the command as he proposed this abomination which made the made the undertaking possible.
During the Cold War NATO had feared that there were not enough ships to escort the convoys from North America to Europe and protect against Soviet submarines.
One proposal to rectify this was Project Aparaho: Place special Containers on a standard container ship and place some Anti-submarine helicopters on it. The project died, mostly because there were too few "surplus" helicopters around. He had used this as inspiration for a ship to carry Helicopters, supplies and men far from Germany.
As the Marco Polo was in Wilhelmshaven´s new Freight Harbour at the time of the Weltensprung she was a natural candidate for such a conversion. She was far bigger than most carriers, so space was not a problem.
Since a surprising part of military hardware was containerized or could be made so it should have been easy to stuff everything necessary into the enormous hull-and it was.
Systems integration was the real problem and had cost him and his crew as well as the contractors countless hours to work out. In the end the problems could be overcome as Blohm &Voss was the world leader in modular systems on warships and his crew had shown uncanny talent for improvisation.
Many of them were older and had been drafted into the expansion of the German Navy. They had brought the knowledge from their civilian jobs into the ship and had never quit working on her problems in "innovative" ways. No wonder that Merchandize from the old MacGyver series was found everywhere on the ship.
Currently he watched from the bridge as the walls and roof of the hangar which covered most of the available deck space telescoped in to reveal the helicopters being readied. A flight deck with elevators would have been preferable, but was not possible in such a short time, so the helicopters were moved on motorized pallets to the areas of the hangar that could be opened. He had two such hangars. The bigger one before the Deckhouse sheltered 12 CH 53 Helicopters, the smaller one to the rear 6 Tiger UHT attack helis. It was not without risk. While the Marco Polo had theoretically space for a lot more helis, the ones used for this mission were a sizeable chunk of the combat ready machines of the new Helikopter Brigade Nord at Fritzlar.
Their first task would be to ferry the troops from his transports to the Seeadler. Then they would prepare for the real thing which was to start with Nightfall.
Same day, U32 close to harbour entrance of Hag Graef
There is probably no more claustrophobic experience to be had then getting into (or out of) a submarine via the torpedo tubes. Those who do so have to move in frigid water in darkness. The space is so limited that the breathing apparatus has to be removed from the back and pushed forward into the tube. Then inside it no longer possible to move the arms backwards as there is no space to do so. The Combat Divers which just undertook this evaluation getting back into their subs were taking it in stride and were happy with a job they thought of as well done. Whether it worked would be obvious soon enough.
U32 was still not used to the fact that they could use the Radio as much as they wanted and incurred no risk conveying the updated status to the Task Force. It remembered the history buffs among the crew about the "Good Times" of the German U-Boats in WW1 and the beginning years of WW2. But despite the new circumstances, radio silence still was used as much as possible, in case Germany would somehow shifted back to Earth.
Der Tag, shortly before Midnight, Dragon above the Hag Graef harbour
For about one year the Drachau had ordered a tighter security and more patrols with only few Druchii knowing why this was advisable. Naturally the tre reasons for the failure of the Raid in Germany had not been published much and was not big news, slave raids went wrong from time to time for all sorts of reasons and this one had been very long-range.
Searching the seas for ships on a moonless night seems to be futile, but the cold waters around Hag Greaf contained so much marine life that ships were bound to leave phosphorescent trails which could be seen quite well at night, especially by an Elf.
Actually the Dragon rider saw something different on the limits of his patrol area - a glow on the water he could not place at all. Flying closer to this he suddenly saw something like a long pole spewing fire from one end rising rapidly from the glow highlighting a strange ship. That the pole started to tilt in his direction had barely registered when he instinctively changed course. To his horror the weapon (what else could it be) changed course as well and closed the distance between them in heartbeats.
The blast/Fragmentation warhead of the ESSM Missile shredded the Dragon nearly as well as the Rider. They were the first Elf deaths of this Operation, but there were so many more that their names were all but forgotten.
Frigate "Sachsen", shortly before the Harbour entrance of Hag Graef
"Tell CIC to scratch one Dragon. Unless otherwise directed we will begin the Bombardment as per Plan."
The boatswain began to contact the Admirals staff aboard "Seeadler" while Captain Schmaeling stepped forward to the Officers and Warrants of the arty station. "Gentlemen, I believe it is time. Begin fire as planned."
He walked to the bridge widows and watched as the big barrel of his main gun rose and the turret turned to the planned azimuth. The turret and gun looked strange, oversized and out of place on his ship-and they were. The former 76 mm rapid fire gun, so useful against aerial targets, had been replaced with a 155mm/L52 gun normally on top of a Panzerhaubitze 2000.
One of the best guns on Earth before the Weltensprung it had enormous range and firepower for this calibre. Of course the guns could not be switched so easily, but there was an elastic mounting that reduced recoil to manageable levels and many gun parts had been replaced by corrosive resistant ones.
Even so great care had to be taken that the interior of the Gun Turret was not too much exposed to the salt air. Inside the turret the long-promised power assisted loaders had been installed so that long arty missions were possible without undue crew fatigue.
The boatswain in the turret addressed his crew: "Ok folks: You know that infantry is the Queen of the Battlefield, right? And that Artillery is the King of the Battlefield? Well we all know what the King does for the Queen. So get to it, we have our work cut out."
Shortly thereafter the guns on Sachsen and her two sister ships opened fire. As they wanted to avoid "collateral" damage and so not to waste ammo the special capabilities of the Monarc guns were used to max: a phased radar on the front of each turret measured the flight path of the projectiles. Where the shells diverted from the projected path coded signals were send to them and the fuses in front of the shell deployed small spoilers to change the flight path accordingly. This could only influence the range, not the bearing, but this kind of fire mission it was more than enough.
Before the first shell hit the 3 guns had launched nearly a ton of steel and explosives.
The main quay of Hag Graef sported many ships of various descriptions. There was everything from sleek skiffs and hydra ships to the less elegant trade ships that were at least as necessary for the life of Hag Graef as the better known warships.
All, these ships had two things in common: They were mostly empty with the crews on Land. And they would burn very well. Made with beautiful craftsmanship from dry wood, sealed with pitch and tar and powered by cloth and rope and well ventilated they were an arsonists dream.
Said arsonist would have given much for the munitions now raining down on the unprotected ships. At the appropriate height small burster charges ruptured the shells and distributed their payload of white phosphorus. Officially only used as "marker" or to block sight lines they were able to ignite everything in their path-and so they did.
In less than 5 Minutes practically all ships currently moored in harbour were hopelessly on fire and the bombardment was shifted elsewhere.
The few crewmembers and guards left on board jumped into the frigid waters to escape the fiery death which otherwise awaited them. The ones unlucky enough to be hit by pieces of the white phosphorus found to their horror that the phosphor would ignite again as soon as the lifted the parts hit above the water, killing most of the so effected in painful ways.
Seedler, 20 Miles from Hag Graef
Admiral Lerbs looked at the big LED Screens that some useful soul had rigged up to display the data that kept flowing in via the various data links of the navy as well as via wireless from others. Just now additional pictures from helicopter drones were displayed on two screens and showed the fire which spread over the harbor. He was aware that no plan survived contact with the enemy and that Germany did not have a big tradition on naval landings. On the other hand he could use wireless communication without any restraints and was sure that the combination of rapid, reliable communications, real-time intelligence, well-motivated troops and a shitload of firepower could overcome all obstacles in front of him. Beside that, it was time to write a new chapter in Germany´s naval history.
The only wild card in the game was magic, it remained to be seen how this would play out.
Mountain close to Hag Graef
Helmut Bär had not joined the navy so he could climb mountains for a living-and here he was, having hauled a big load of equipment up a mountain that overlooked Hag Greaf from the east. He was pretty sure that he had arrived undetected-this area was extremely barren-and that most of the excitement during the next hours was to keep the various bits and pieces he and his team had schlepped so far up running.
Besides keeping a camera running for the Navy he now started to lay a marking laser so that several shells from the bombardment squadron would land exactly where intended. Too bad there was no longer a GPS system, it would have made the job easier. For him and his team it was too late, but maybe the next generation of soldiers would have GPS again.
While his team member laid the Laser he kept scanning the surroundings with his Starlight Binox. When he spotted movement in his peripheral vision he quickly focused there only to find that a large group of Helicopters approached the Harbor from the East.
CH53 Helicopter on Approach to Hag Graef
Ilthies felt numb when he looked outside the Helicopter. He had been incredulous and felt slighted when he heard that he and the human mages were mostly there to protect the Germans from Dark Elven magic.
The other Mages were more convinced of that tactic as they had witnessed something called a "firepower demonstration". Whatever they saw, it could not be any more convincing than the tableaux in front of him. The Quay and the ships lying at the roads were a sea of fire and the artillery fire had shifted to warehouses in the harbour district. Whatever was in these warehouses seemed to burn nearly as enthusiastically as the ships.
From the periphery of his vision he saw the ripple launch of several "missiles" from the German ships which arched over the Elven city to explode beyond it in the air. He thought he saw a dragon shape backlighted in one of the explosions, but that could have been a figment of his imagination.
He nearly missed two small underwater explosions close to the harbor entrances and wondered what it was when he spotted a line of bubbles across the bay-somehow the Germans managed to blow the Iron Chain which closed the entrance into the harbor proper.
A flickering light to the front was the next to catch his eye. Strangely they were under the helicopters in front of him but did not seem to harm them. Actually they looked a little like a cannon shooting in back and front at the same time-but at what were they shooting?
He was forcibly put back into his seat by an impetuous crewmember who quickly pulled his harness taught. He was about to protest this treatment when the helicopter rapidly changed altitude and the doors of the helicopters were opened to the roaring slipstream.
Seconds later the crew swung out weapons and started to fire long streams of shells at something unseen. When the side door gunner in his field of view swiveled the gun in a new direction the muzzle fire revealed the ugly shape of a harpy before several shells ripped her apart.
Then the big helicopter gave a lurch and a sickening sound was heard from the top of it-this is when he started into the litanies of protection. He had been in battle before, many times and was certainly no coward but things were happening too fast that he had no way to cope. His battles had also been quite violent but had taken hours or days to unfold. Here the destruction of the enemy happened in so far less time.
Tiger UHT
The Gunner in the front seat of the Tiger had a much better and less obstructed view than Ilthies but was also far more busy so he could only concentrate on his small part of the battle. Shooting down the swarm of Harpies that had risen from their caves to attack the strange invaders.
If he would have the time to reflect on it he would have been more than happy to have a gun under his helicopter-this was new. Before the Weltensprung the German army had rejected the GIAT 30 mm gun of the French Tigers because of excessive recoil, but the replacement had never been fitted.
Not being able to go back to the big brother across the Atlantic when things were tight focused the mind and budget - the Tigers got a 30 mm recoilless cannon of incredible firepower and accuracy for such a light helicopter. Presently he fired it in 3-round bursts at the bandits in front of him as quickly as he could aquire new targets. Together with his wingmate they cleared a path for the heavier transport helicopters to follow. Whatever they missed the CH 53 could take themselves with the door guns.
They could already see the LZ and hoped that his colleagues were as successful in clearing it as he was shooting Harpies.
Harpies are not very intelligent - while they have limited vocabulary they are not tool users and need no clothing or other amneties to spend thoughts on. Their legendary temper also limits social interaction. But even so the Harpies learned very quickly that tonight they were no predators and that something else had taken their place in the food chain. Taking more than 50% losses in 5 minutes of intense combat without anything to show for it they withdrew from combat. Flying to the hinterland they avoided their beastmasters which might have a different opinion.
Hellhole below Hag Greaf
Ulf Grimnison was still thinking it had been the right thing to spit on his warden. Unfortunately that had no resulted in him being quickly killed. The damn Elves had thrown him into a hellhole-several meters deep the drop was sure to cause injury but not to kill. Now he could see into the communal cell he and his former comrades had called home through a small hole-and his former cellmates could see and hear him die so he could perform a last service for his masters as an example what not to do.
He would have gladly borne it to get out of this miserable existence if the Druchii would not have thrown the rest of his chaingang in with him. They had refused to beat him into death. Just as well, a dwarf should die surrounded by good rock and good comrades and so he would.
What was puzzling was the sounds which were transmitted by the rock around him-something big was happening, but he doubted that it would have anything to do with him.
A small movement made the bone ends in his leg grind against each other. It did not take much not to scream-he did no longer have the power for that.
Airspace above harbour
The shell fired by the Sachsen was special-instead of spinning rapidly along its axis for stabilization it had unfolded fins shortly after firing. Counting the prescribed time from that the shell started looking for a special light spot in it`s field of view. It quickly found the spot which pulsed at the right frequency at more or less the place it was supposed to be and steered for this spot.
It was painted by a laser that was pointed at one of the towers of Hag Graef the freed slaves were reasonably sure had to do with the Druchii government. Subsequent air recon had confirmed that to a degree of certainty which had allowed the planners of the raid to designate them legitimate targets.
The shell impacted in the lower third of the tower slightly off center and penetrated the outer wall easily. It barely touched the opposite wall when the fuse finally fired and the burster charge detonated. 3 Kilogram of modern explosives can do terrible damage in confined places-and did. The blast wave ripped apart ceilings and floors, blasted Windows open and shredded doors not to speak of the inhabitants close to the explosion.
Shortly after the impact the first items began to burn, something which spread rapidly from lamp oil spill to parchment roll to wooden flooring. The heat of the flames made the air rise quickly inside the slender tower, pulling fresh cool air in through the windows and rents below. Within minutes the interior of the tower was an unspeakable hell with temperatures exceeding 1000 degree and the wind rushing through the tower and leaving the upper windows and roof making the tower sound like an organ pipe from hell. It was loud enough to drown the screams of those trapped in the upper floors unfortunate enough not to have died already – almost.
Assault Boat inside Hag Graef Harbour
The 3 Boats speeding across the inner Harbor of Hag Graef were quite unique. Constructed by the Lürssen yards who had built fast attack boats ever since there was such a thing they had been optimized to fit onto the rescue boat davids of the Troopships.
By any measure before the Weltensprung they were nothing special- speed around 25 knots and only very light armor in few areas, but there were few things on the Warhammer seas which could do them any harm.
2 were configured as gunships carrying a mix of 27mm autocannons, automatic grenade launchers and machine guns. As the harbour had been declared a free fire zone they happily blasted everything moving which was not German preparing the path for the 3rd boat whose payload was more special.
They all headed for the enormous mouth of a cave at the foot of the Cliff on one side of Hag Graef. It lead to a huge cave inside said cliffs, a combination of a natural feature, elvenkind work and the remnants of things best not speculated too much about.
In here the most important and valuable ships of the Druchii were laying up in reserve for the time when major warfare was afoot. They were utterly invulnerable from the German weapons employed on the outer harbor with such effect. Fortunately some of the slaves knew of this cavern and so a plan was passed to do something about it.
Some 100 meters inside the tunnel the two gunboats took up overwatch stations for their working sister. From the deck of this ship a hydraulic platform rose, quite similar to the ones used to repair city lights and such. 3 sappers used drills and explosive bolts to fix cylinders in a line into the ceiling. The platform descended again and the boat backed up some meters when the cylinders vanished in strangely muffled explosions. Going back up the sappers looked at the straight holes the shaped charges had blown and sprayed them with water so they would cool down sufficiently. Next they would put 50 kg Charges of PBX into the holes and seal them with quick setting cement before disengaging. The charges were guaranteed to bring down the ceiling and seal the tunnel for a long, long time. Even for Germany it would take some time to clear such debris, but for a civilization without power cranes and explosives beyond black powder….
The Boatswain in charge of this boat became aware that the boat guarding the inner part of the tunnel fired again on something he could not see. They ceased after some bursts but his wireless contained messages about getting his thumb out and natives going frisky. He basically ignored them as there is no hurrying man handling explosives as potent as the ones employed here.
Re-opened High Security Cell Block Stuttgart-Stammheim, Germany
Jasla´s brain was in some kind of overload mode. If she would have looked around, her fellow Elf prisoners were quite similar affected. On the TV they could see the destruction of their home city.
Since the Dark Elves during interrogation always stressed that Khaine had given them all people not able to defend themselves properly as playthings, this would serve as a demonstration.
While the feed from the Seeadler was edited to keep military security, the images of the burning Towers and the firestorm eating away the habour were impressive. And for all their displayed superiority the Elves were deeply affected. Jasla was among those first to fathom that maybe they had bitten more off than Naggaroth could safely chew.
Chancellory, Berlin, Germany
Hetkuning Olaf Urnulfson of the Bjornling Great Clan watched the pictures from the other side of the world in far more amiable ambiente. In a soft comfortable chair, a stein of local Doppelbock beer sitting on a nearby table.
Angela Merkel had already recognized that this Clan leader was more capable than he tried to let on. The Norse had only nipped sparingly from the Stein and the Chancellor was convinced, the order for something like good Norse Mead had been made for image reasons alone. The tall, bearded warrior was impressed by what he saw. In Norsca only the strong lived to see another day, but those intelligent as well could rise high.
Olaf internally patted his own shoulder for his decision to reach out to the soft Southerners after the Swinemünde disaster. There had been major grumbling among the more radical and chaotic members of the Clans under his leadership, but like Ylva Ormsdotter, the Skaelings leader, he had surmised there was more to these newcomers. And when he returned home, others would see it too.
Ministry of Economics and Technology, Berlin, Germany
Olaf Urnulfson had no idea that one of his greatest rivals, the one he had thought about mere minutes before, was in Berlin as well. Hetdrottning Ylva Ormsdotter had seen the attack on Hag Graef too.
But she, unlike Olaf, had lost a greater propotion of her bloodthirsty Clan members at Swinemünde and so had even earlier begun to build up relations. It had been the only way. They lost a lot of needed warriors and to survive more trade had to be done. Fortunately for her Great Clan, they had things to sell to the Germans. The newcomers had a ravenous appetite for the high-grade iron ore the Skaeling Great Clan mined. And the Germans had developed a sweet tooth for Skadi fruits and Torghjop berries. But what the Germans equally liked was hard information. They payed very well for good informations the various Dragonships brought with them from their voyages.
Due to the already established relations Ylva was far more interested in haggling with the German economics minister about the next quarter deliveries. And why Philipp Rösler looked like the people Ylva only had seen once before on the longest, farest journey she had ever made.
