Gate House into the Slave Pens
Ralf Winkler was assembling another base frame for stretchers when he saw "it". A Grenade had opened a chest in what used to be an office in the Gate house and now was commandeered as the drop of point for the injured of the assault and the slaves liberated.
"It" was a rather beautiful amulet showing a dove. As it was very different from what Dark Elves aesthetics he had so far seen he surmised that it was taken from one of the slaves when he entered his Pens. It seemed to draw him in and so he rationalized that it would make a great gift to his wife and that the best place for keeping it safe would be around his neck under the shirt.
He got the last of the frames assembled in time to see the first injured Paratroopers and the freed slaves arrive at the drop off point. Quickly taking his place in the team manning the receiving team he started to divide the Slaves into 40 person groups so they could be flown out, checking the groups for anybody who was too injured to be flown out without at least some first aid.
He was not so shocked about the status of many slaves as were some of his co-medics as he had seen the work of the Druchii before, but it was hard to remain untouched enough to keep working efficiently. The slaves all had lesions from their cuffs, most had ugly welts and the skin tone spoke of lack of sunlight and a bad diet.
The worst for most of the slaves was that they were quite obviously on drugs keeping them docile. The only good thing about that was that the slaves were not offering any resistance when they were herded into the Transport Helicopters as quickly as possible.
Causeway to City
The extreme cold and wind was gone as quickly as it came and allowed Paul Müller a view of the causeway again-unsurprisingly he did not like the view. Because of the spell the Germans had not been able to pour effective fire into the Druchii troops, so they had advanced until 300 meters in front of his lines.
The War Hydras had proven to be remarkably resistant to the German fire, even the 20 mm cannon fire from the Wiesel tanks did not bring them down as quickly as could be hoped. He started looking for his "Panzerfaust" team when he saw the concussion from their position. The firing of a Panzerfaust is always spectacular because of the back blast whereas the hit at the Target seemed somewhat muted. This was actually a misconception as the shaped charge vented cooper plasma at more than 8000 meters per second into the chest of the Hydras without wasting energy on fireworks. Having been constructed to disable well build Main Battle Tanks the crude armor of the Hydras did not offer appreciable resistance to the warheads.
When the "mobile cover" of the Elves was taken away they started to sprint to the German lines only to find themselves in a world of hurt. The Paratroopers had so far kept some weapons in reserve which were now employed. Automatic grenade launchers lobbed 400 grenades per minute into the approaching troops, with each Grenade killing practically everything in a 5 meters radius. Machine guns, especially from the tanks and the autocannons added to the firepower quickly decimating the Elves.
Even that did not seem enough, but there were still 80 soldiers which added their G36 assault rifles to the slaughter and that was what finally broke the back of the assault. The Dark Elves tried to get back to their lines, just to learn that they took even more losses in the retreat than in the assault.
Only then did Paul find the time to look after the mages given to his care. He found them in a bad way. Bad Migraine headache seemed to be the least of the problems, two were down unconscious and the blasted head of a Light Order Wizard showed that they had fought a battle at least as dangerous as the one he had with the Dark Elves more conventional troops.
"Papenburg" Helicopter Deck
The Pilot of the CH53 Helicopter did not switch off the engines when he put his Helicopter down on the landing deck which was where the old swimming pool used to be when "Papenburg" was still a cruise ship in order to take off quickly again.
Standing under 2 Turbines with several thousand horsepower and a slowly spinning rotor caused quite a lot of sound and heat to wash over the medics which waited for the rescued slaves to disembark.
The Paratrooper Lt. who held the "Paddles" for guiding the Helicopter had to shout to get heard. "War is hell, but the soundtrack is great"
Shaking their heads the Medics went into the bay and helped the slaves to get off. The experiences with the galley slaves rescued after the battle of Papenburg had shown that they would be unable to help themselves for quite a while, especially when confronted with such an alien high-tech surroundings as the German ships. This had made the planners for this raid assign a humungous number of medics and nurses to the ships, which in turn made it necessary to conscript quite a few of them.
While everybody thought saving the slaves was a worthwhile endeavor in and by itself it was also a way to kick the Dark Elves even more as their economy depended largely on them.
For the German government the biggest plus they could not talk about was that they could use this rescue as justification for this raid. If not for that just smashing some bits of infrastructure and killing some Elves would have played badly with some segments of the German population. But how could anybody be against saving slaves?
Be that as it may the nurses and medics certainly had their work cut out for them. They could not simply put most of the work to shore side hospitals as the trip back would take more than 2 weeks.
Many of them were not really happy to be here as they had been conscripted when it became obvious that a call for volunteers would not bring the necessary numbers forward.
When the receiving team saw the state of the slaves which the Helos brought this vanished quickly. Anything which helped these poor souls was good; anything which punished those who were responsible for this state was justifiable.
For Germans who`s normal state of affairs is often "this may be good, but…"this was an unusual state of affairs but a good one.
The proud feeling of being part of something hugely worthwhile helped the crews of the Troop ships immensely-a good thing as their work for the next weeks was hard indeed.
Mountaintop overlooking Hag Graef
Morathi tried to identify the feeling which filled her head when she looked at the burning mess that was Hag Graef. It was not hate or fear-these she could identify easily. It was at least part anger-at the Demon for giving incomplete advice, at the Germans for wrecking such havoc, at Malus Darkblade for being incompetent to prevent it-but that was only part of it.
At the end she found it to be surprise. It is very hard for someone who has lived several thousand years to see anything new and here it was. Normally she would have been happy that there was still something to surprise her, but this was unfortunately not amusing at all.
She had expected the Germans to take weeks or months to do any appreciable damage to Hag Graef, which was a pretty substantial fortress, and here they had laid waste to large parts of the city in mere hours. This meant she had to do something fast without either consulting the local ruler or gathering lots of intelligence.
It did not take her very long to decide whether she wanted to engage at all-this promised to be too much excitement to miss. Question was what to do and where. She relaxed outwardly and tuned herself to the winds of magic in order to find where the action was. There were two centers, one close to the causeway to the city and one at the slave pens.
The ships she could see quite clearly were practically dead to magic, quite strange for something which did so much damage in such a short time.
The longer she "looked" the clearer the purpose of the Germans became: It had to be a slave raid. Now that was disappointingly boring-she was interested in the new methods the Germans employed, but the raid itself was hardly new.
It seemed that the forces in the slave pens were actually not getting much attention, so she decided that this was the point to apply her "help".
Diverting two of her handmaidens towards the fleet she took a roundabout route to the slave pens. She had been there many times so she knew more ways in than the official ones. This would be the point to foil the German designs.
Hellhole
Ulf Grimnison was currently going in and out of consciousness so he was not aware when the shouting started. First there seemed to be shouting and fighting in the cells next to his hole, then his chaingang cried something and the next thing he knew was that a strange human face looked at him from the drop hole that lead into his "cell"
He had a hard time understanding what the human tried to tell them, he spoke Reikspiel with a strange accent, but it seemed to be a variation of "stay calm, there will be help". Wondering what might have conjured such a bad dream he again drifted away just to be woken up by his comrades who for whatever reason tried to keep him conscious. He also could not figure out where they had gotten the bottle they used to get some fluid into his mouth.
He could not place the taste of it either until he remembered that this might be the taste of clean water, something he did not have for many years. Presently it tasted better than any Bugman he ever tried. He was still trying to decide whether this was real or delusion when things went really strange.
Shirasagi Fields, Nanseitochi, "Nippon"
Hideki Toda, Daimyo of the now westernmost portion of all Nippon, cradled his helmet under one arm, observing the retreat of the Bretons. But his mind was somewhere else, not really the victorious battle. Not even the fact that it was the fastest victory in centuries, kept his attention.
No, his thoughts circled about his allies under the Black-Red-Gold and the Skull-Cross banners.
Mostly those under Black-Red-Gold. Their weapons and machines were things never seen before or only crude versions of local production. As a Daimyo, he had been informed much more solidly about their new neighbours than the normal Nipponese. And he couldn´t help but wonder.
According to the Germans, they had been friends with both the otherworld version of Nippon and Bretonnia. In fact, due to circumstances closer ties to Bretonnia 2 than Nippon 2.
Hideki had many solid reasons to be proud, but he was not blinded by it. Germany would gain far more if they would have sided with the Bretons in this conflict. Bretonnia was a Great Power in this part of the world, his and the other stranded Daimyos piece of Nippon rather small.
While it had taken this battle to drive it really home for him how powerful their weapons were, Hideki had no doubt, that he, his men and women would never have stopped a German advance, had that been their goal from the start.
Even without the Bretons come knocking, had the Germans wanted to take over, nobody in the nipponese splinter could have stopped them.
It would have been the logical solution for Germany to do exactly that. But here he stood, having lead a battle not from his trusted Warhorse "Ryoki", no, from the "back" of a german Panzer. The Doitsu were friends, that was definitely sure after all that happened in the last year.
Hideki Toda thought back to the fateful day, which brought them here, around 10 months later. A delegation from Kagoshima, himself being a part of, with some german observers among them, met the bretonnian leadership at the Reik beach. The bretonnian Tenno was actually a likeable fellow, a warrior for his nation. He had understood that the situation had been changed by the Winds of Magic in ways no one could have forseen. While not totally pleased, King Lionceur had been prepared to accept the compromise the Germans had championed: The Eastern side of the new Reik for Germany, the Empire and Nippon, the western side up to the border with the Empire and the rest of the Wasteland to Bretonnia. The Germans had hinted at development help for Bretonnia if they accepted something both sides could live with and it wasted no blood on both sides.
Then all broke down with the things the other Breton leaders wanted. Fueled by dislike and the visions of some Grail Knights, their demands were beyond reason. It was at this point where Daimyo Isamo made his mistake. Unused to the belittling speeches of the smug Breton Grail Knights, being treated like the lowly serfs of Bretonnia made his reaction sharp in sting.
The negotiation ended soon after. War was declared. The Germans promised aid, but the Daimyo assembly, including himself, told them not in the beginning. This is a question of honour. We may have not the possibilities or numbers of the Breton army, but for now, we must take them on. We might need your aid later, but we cannot do so from the start. Those haughty want-to-bes insulted both of us. You were guests, so it is the task of us Nipponese to eredicate the slights on Germany and Nippon.
Months of advance and retreat followed, but to save needed lifes, after the first three months of what would become called "War for the Reik", the Samurai Rikugun began to integrate more and more materials and weapons given by the Germans.
But it took time to get used to the new tech and to finally bring the Grail Knight Crusade to meet them in open, full battle. Finally accomplished, Daimyo Toda was amazed how fast the battle was over. It was a serious blow to the forces of Bretonnia, but it sealed the enmity between the nations involved. Neither Hideki Toda nor the german observers believed that Bretonnia would come around soon, more that the Bretons would become a splinter in their sides. But that were thoughts for later. A victory had to be celebrated and Hideki after letting the revue pass before his mind´s eye, decided to champion closer cooperation with the Germans.
Gate to Slave Pens
Ralf Winkler had always been a volunteer medic-doing what he understood as his duty besides what job he might have at the time. Nobody ever doubted that he possessed all the knowledge that a medic should have and he also had enough experience. Still he needed to think about things that would come as second nature to his even more experienced comrades which made him a little slower.
Tonight was different. His hands seemed to move by themselves, his fingers finding pulse and joints with alarming speed. He did not even fumble once when taking something from the deep recesses of the backpacks and put in the needle for a drip feed with a speed which made the doctor who led his team nod approvingly.
Everybody was far too busy to see that his nose bled at intervals and it was too dark to see that the air behind him sometimes seemed to ripple like in a heat wave. He also never felt the amulet he had "liberated" warm against his chest, but it still was warmer than it should have been just from body heat.
At first the wireless operator annoyed him when he tried to get his attention "Hey Winkler-that means you too. Do you have any experience with attitude rescue?"
"Yes I had that course and…"
"Fine with me, go to Müller over there, assemble what you need and then report to the Sergeant over there. Seems like the Spitzohren dropped some slaves into holes to die and you have to pull them out again.
Wondering if a course he took in 1991 and some refreshers would really count he helped to collect one of the ubiquitous backpacks, a normal and a shovel stretcher, a vacuum matrass and a couple of rescue ropes. The latter were 7 meter ropes with a diameter of slightly over 1 cm and a rated load of a ton.
A squad of Paratroopers helped them to carry some of the equipment deep into the slave pens.
Sachsen
The airspace above Sachsen was a busy one. Helicopters, artillery shells and "Biologicals" all cried for attention. Also only the German helicopters had transponders which made their affiliation clear. When the two handmaidens approached the ship they remained undetected for several reasons-they kept their Pegasi very close to the water, did not have a big RCS and were flying comparatively slow. The latter made the radar reject them as a target.
When close enough they initiated the same spell which had hit the Troops at the Causeway-a severe winter storm. The simplest spell in the Dark Elf arsenal could be used with tremendous force by the handmaidens who were high-level mages.
To their surprise "Sachsen" was not tossed about like they expected and even kept speed and course as before. That the ship ceased firing counted for something but obviously more was needed.
Inside Sachsen Fräulein Meikle was rather unhappy. The added movement of the ship increased her motion sickness and her beloved indicator would not agree to any bearing but was slowly wandering around the compass.
Only when the operator on "Hessen" got a firm bearing which was just changing slowly it dawned to everybody that the target might be quite close to "Sachsen" and actually circling her.
A look by the infrared detectors at the same bearing than her indicator have two targets which circled Sachsen. A year ago a target description of "One Pegasus with a Woman rider" might have caused problems for the Operator. It was a sign of how much things had already changed that they got the Indicators "Indianer 1" and "Indianer 2" at once and the order to take them down was quickly given.
Sachsen quickly found that it was quite difficult to fire their 27 mm autocannons in this kind of spell, so the order was given to "Hessen".
The reasons the German weapons were so superior to all the Warhammer World so far had shown was, besides a well-developed industry and systematic science, the long weapons race that had happened on Earth ever since the 19th century.
While most of the times this was great for Germany, sometimes there were problems. One of the Problems was the RAM missile system that was mounted on many German ships. Designed to stop low flying cruise missiles the seeker head of the missile had two modes: Homing on electronic emissions and infrared. As there were no cruise missiles present and any possible target had no infrared signature that would register in the missile the weapons system was deemed useless as is.
Fortunately the engineers as BGT found a solution: A software tweak to the seeker head allowed the infrared seeker to look for a laser spot. The upgrade was not so hard to implement, and therefore a weapons operator on Hessen laid his laser illuminator on one of the targets. Waiting until it had cleared the stern of "Sachsen" he fired a missile.
While the weapon wobbled somewhat in the turbulences around "Sachsen" it still managed to close sufficiently with the Handmaiden that the proximity fuse found enough signal. The explosion pushed the remains of Maiden and Pegasus under the waves.
The second maiden was still searching for what happened to her sister when a short burst from Köllns 76 mm gun found her. About 30 meters in front of her a shell detonated, releasing dozens of Tungsten darts. The kinetic energy of the darts which hit her would have been enough for a couple of elephants-she died quickly enough.
Salzenmünd Harbour, Nordland, the Empire
Adelheid Schild, Harbour master of Salzenmünd, closed the window of her office with a grimace. There was too much unusual noise out there, teasing her attention. The roar of pneumatic hammers and planier equipment, the hiss of blowtorches, ...
She had already spent at least an hour observing the german work crews turning "her" main harbour into a single big construction site. Presuming from the mass of heads bundled at the harbour entrance, it seemed half of the city was there looking.
Salzenmünd was not only one of the most important trade ports in the Empire, it was also the main anchorage of the Imperial Fleet. As such, the city was one of the first parts of the Empire chosen for an upgrade by the now available technology from Germany. The main harbour, as well as the additional harbours in the suburbs, made the city the center of shipbuilding in Karl Franz´s realm.
Meister Hellbrecht, the builder in charge of the city and port fortifications, had returned with starry eyes from his visit at Germany´s main Naval Base in Wilhelmshaven. While it was not the concentrated, fortified base of old, the mixture of trade port and naval base had given him ideas. Not that Adelheid minded, her brain sometimes felt like mush when she thought back to her visit of Hamburg and it´s port, the differences in size and all simply too much to stomach easily. But she was determined to make Salzenmünd an, if smaller, relative to those two cities.
Outside german and imperial workers were busy. New walls were erected, old moles were rebuild in stone and concrete, the list was endless. In the outer harbour massive digging was going on, preparing a zone for bigger German ships.
The Imperials were learning new techniques, in essence even the Guild Masters were apprentices again. But it was a two way learning. Germany, incapable of finding everything needed in this new world, relearned old, but proven ways. Additionally helping was the happy fact, that Imperial concrete was even better than Earth concrete. Which, beside magic, was the now found solution how some buildings like Castle Wittgenstein or the main towers of the Order of the Heavens could have been erected with local tech.
Gate to Slave Pens
Ilthies was at the command post of the Paratrooper company which held the entrance to the slave pens. He had nothing to do presently as nobody was trying to attack this position magically.
This gave him time to reflect on what he was doing here and the results put him ill at ease.
When he had seen his vision of a grand undertaking he had seen that it would involve the Druchii and the High Elves as well as the Germans. It had also shown him that he would play an important part in this and that it would be important for the High Elves-but what his vision had not shown.
Now he was not sure about anything. In most battles he had been in he had played a central role – here he did not even really understand how the battle was waged.
To bide his time he watched the wretched slaves which were led out of the underground pens by the Germans. Mostly humans with an occasional group of dwarves. There had been very few High Elves in the group and he had send Aeolus to make sure they were treated well by the Germans. But even there he felt helpless as neither he nor Aeolus could understand what the Germans were doing for help. Whatever it was it seemed to help or at least not to cause damage.
The rescue of these sad collection of beings could not be the reason for him being here couldn`t it? He then saw a group of strange Germans which seemed to watch the slaves emerging from the Gate. One of them held a strange device on his shoulder and a woman was standing in front of him and talking.
He was curious enough to enquire about them with the German soldier who was accompanying him. "That is Helga Meier of the NDR" The look Ilthies gave the soldier easily crossed the species barrier and so the soldier explained "She is a television reporter. Her team makes the running pictures that will be seen in Germany soon. She made a TV documentary last year that was partly responsible for us being here."
"Ah, thank you."
Ilthies was understanding only partly, but did not want to appear too uninformed for further questions. What he did not understand was why he suddenly had a feeling of foreboding and was pretty sure that this woman was a part of the undertaking he had seen.
He sat down in order to relax enough so he could again check the winds of magic for anything useful. What he saw there took his breath away, in fact enough that he missed the start of the screaming.
