Drop off Point
Ilthies was sad as he could see that he would not be able to do his duty as he saw it. The magical attacks on him were getting stronger and stronger and he could see no end to them. He was still fending them off but what it took out of him would be fatal soon.
The bleed off from the energies he channeled through his mind were heating up his body in a far greater degree than normal. His body temp had left it`s normal bounds some time ago and now the heat started to decompose vital proteins in his body.
If this were not to stop soon he would end as a rubbery mass with his proteins coagulated to a solid mass like the fluids of a boiled egg. The artificial fever was also starting to effect his thinking, making it more and more difficult to keep the concentration he need to keep up the spells. He would also need to replace the spirits distracting his enemy soon and he doubted that he could still do so.

Mountaintop

"Hab ich dich, Mädel!"(I have you now girl) Helmut Bär was of course not talking loud to himself, this habit having been removed by his instructors long ago. He had scanned the coordinates that Command had given his group for a while now, and now he was seeing the shape of a Dark Elf at approximately that point. She was surrounded by strange glowing shapes which seemed to attack her but were becoming less and less numberous each second.
He was about to signal his spotter when he suddenly saw her illuminated with a strange halo which showed up in his starlight scope. Approvingly he waited for the results.
Suddenly the Elf started to run, but the halo did not leave her for a even a moment. The explosion that blotted out the sight came as no surprise, they had illuminated the target long enough.
He gave the coordinates to command, but doubted that anybody would find anything useful there. 3 kilogram of explosives may be a small amount for a 155 mm shell, but they still tend to ruin your day on a direct hit, mage or no.

Gate to slave pens

Helga Meier was making history, even if she did not know it yet.
She had asked her cameraman to film the High Elf mage when he became agitated and started a discussion with an officer. Than it had become all too obvious that they were filming something much more important and dangerous than a troblesome Elf.
The sight of the Elven mage who had so obviously and ably defended them all had been captured on her camera in all it`s horrid glory. She would have nightmares about his eyes which slowly

over and turned white during the fight.
The sight of his aide who tried his best not to show his despair while guarding his masters remains was just adding to the impact.

The relationship between High Elves and Germans would never be easy and would know ups and downs in future, but the picture of the old Mage who, arrogant ass that he might have been, defended them all to his death would be something to influence them for a long time to come.

Ilthies had seen this when he saw the Cameraman a while ago and had grudingly accepted his fate.

"Sachsen" one hour later
"Jesus Christ, this looks bad!" The boatswain who looked into the endoscope he had expertly inserted into the gun tube in front of him could of course swear much more inventively but was too busy trying to get all information from the picture in front of him.
Taking the handle of his intercom he contacted the bridge. "I checked the barrel as instructed. Please tell the skipper that we can shoot MAYBE another 50 grenades or so before we have to pull the barrel, it looks that bad. Yes, I know that it is supposed to last longer, but we fired so many shells in the last mission that the barrel heated up way past specs. Sorry sir, that`s the way it is.

Gate to slave Pens, 20 minutes after that

Uli Stoiber was slowly backing his "Wiesel" back up in the direction of the last two helicopters on the Quay. One was boarding the sappers who had mined the pens now. The smoke which still came from the way into the underground pens showed the destruction they had wrought.
When that helicopter took off he checked his surroundings again. He doubted the Spitzohren would get the blazing fires, which had begun to haze the infrared sights in the last few minutes, under control soon. While Uli had not seen that much of the city, he estimated that the Elves would loose a third of Hag Graef for sure. Seeing nobody he drove into his waiting CH53 backwards, still looking for the enemy. Escorted by two Tigers the last Germans left Hag Graef. Ulrich Stoiber was so exhausted that he was sleeping before the Helicopter was back on Seeadler.

"Seeadler, at Dawn

" Yes Father, I think so too, please make it so." Admiral Lerbs replaced the handle of the intercom back at the holder and sat back. He felt drained of all energy now that the operation was over. That the last shot had been fire unfortunately did not mean that his work or those of his staff and the crews were over.
The slaves had to be properly distributed to the troop ships, the fleet had to resupply at sea soonest as so many munitions and other consumables had been used up. Lists of the losses had to be compiled. He caught himself dreading the writing of the letters to the relatives and tried to cheer himself up by checking the objectives for the raid and if they were met.
The Elves fleet was burned beyond recognition or buried in a mountain cave. The warehouses and pens which made the slave trade possible were smashed and the Dark Elves troops probably much worse than just decimated.
Several thousand slaves had been liberated from a fate quite literally worse than simple death and all of this with very low losses on the German side. Still, every loss was one too many and even the few slaves his orders had killed weighted heavily on his soul.
He listed with half his ear to the short service of thanks transmitted by the PA through Seeadler and the other ships of the fleet. The priest was doing all right but in his weary state it simply did not affect him right.
He started to look at the reports again when the singing started.

Nun danket alle Gott
mit Herzen, Mund und Händen.
Der große Dinge tut
an uns und allen Enden,
Der uns von Mutterleib
und Kindesbeinen an
Unzählig viel zu gut
bis hierher hat getan.
Der ewig reiche Gott
woll uns in unserm Leben
Ein immer fröhlich Herz
und edlen Frieden geben
Und uns in seiner Gnad
erhalten fort und fort
Und uns aus aller Not
erlösen hier und dort.
Lob, Ehr und Preis sei Gott,
dem Vater und dem Sohne
Und Gott, dem Heilgen Geist
im höchsten Himmelsthrone,
ihm, dem dreieinen Gott,
wie es im Anfang war
Und ist und bleiben wird
so jetzt und immerdar.

(Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.)

He never realised when he started to join the old song or that most of the staff in the room joined. It was an old song and a traditional one for German troops who had achieved something worthwhile.
What he did realize was that when the service ended the weight of his duties felt a little less and the feeling of accomplishment was making itself felt much more.

Chancellory, Berlin, Germany

Angela Merkel, considering what had happened to Germany, was thankful for small favours. After about a year on this new world, diplomacy had fully returned to the german capital. In the first months, diplomatic delegations were from the Empire, the Nipponese splinter and the Dwarfs only, but that had finally changed.
While it was far too late for the german-bretonnian relations after the regrettable, but needed actions soon after the arrival, a Bretonnian embassy had opened only a few days earlier. Now a "grand" total of 4 embassies and 21 permanent envoys, mainly from the various Border principalities and Tilean city-states, constituted the diplomatic quarter of Berlin. Rather pathetic compared to the situation back on Earth, but a beginning.
This world was full of surprises, something the Chancellor and the rest of Germany were reminded of every few days. In Angela Merkel´s and the government´s case, one such area was the who, how and what behaviour showed up from the various delegations reaching Berlin over time.
For instance, Magritta´s envoy, from the famous city in Estalia, despite knowing about Germany rather early and good to reach by ship, arrived far later than High Khan Kublay from the Hung nomads of the Far East made something resembling a state visit!
Downright shocking, positive and negative, could be the displayed behaviour and general competence, because in some cases the non-humans were better to work with than the humans.

The preliminary height of that development sat before her. Two beings, which should exist only in the pages of a novel. But here on this world it was real. One of the two looked like a noble of old, tall, good-looking, self-assured, clothed in obvious finery, even if the style looked like a cos-player or re-enactor to german eyes.
The other man could barely be called that, looking like a real monster. But beyond that hideous visage one of the most brilliant minds on the Warhammer world resided. Not that the other guest of the Chancellor lacked in the brains department, far from it.
The negotiations had been fluid, but hardfought and at times enlightening for both the german chancellor and the two vampires. For all his might and intelligence, it had obviously rocked something within Mannfred von Carstein when Merkel told him: It is not only the Liber Noctis in Altdorf which hinders you, Count, but your deeds far more. Fighting against your compatriots to rule over them, will never gain you what you want. If you want the respect of your peers, living or not, you have to show them what you can do FOR the Empire, not what you can do AGAINST it. There are many dangers lurking in the dark for the Empire and Germany or other nations here. You add youself to them far above the needs of your "condition", instead of fighting these things within or outside the Empire.

It was clear, that this was a whole new point of view on his situation and Mannfred reminded himself to ponder this in all quiet later.
For now he closed a treaty with Germany about excavating the rich oil deposits found in the eastern ranges of Sylvania. Among the stipulations was one that meant that Germany and the Empire would build a railway to Sylvania earlier than some other regions. What a sweet victory for Sylvania, even if it was mostly because Germany needed the oil fast and in large quantities.

After signing, the next part of the negotiations began and Mannfred was curious what else he and the Necrach had in common and the Germans wanted to have.

Seeadler, several decks deeper

Coming back to the Seeadler was an anticlimax to the medic. The high pressure of combat had left Ralf exhausted on the flight back to the ship already. He had somehow found the energy to replenish his backpack and the consumables in his deep pockets while wolfing down a couple of bread rolls the mess staff made for anyone who needed food on the hoof.
The Paratroopers he was temporarily attached to thought about a "We survived it" party which promised to be wild until their Captain intervened. He seemed to be really sorry about that, but pointed out they were still in enemy waters and therefore had to stay available. He hinted that he would be willing to sponsor the party himself a couple of days later.
As the noncoms were willing to support this everybody found how tired they were and went to their bunks.
Ralf was feeling that somebody had hit him with a hammer and so even did not remove more clothing than his coat and boots before crashing into a deep and dreamless sleep.
This was a good thing as the PA system was going off seemingly right after getting to sleep, even if it really was a couple of hours later, so even in his befuddled state he was ready pretty quick.

Hag Graef, City terminus of harbour causeway

The group of slaves was busily searching through the rubble of shelled houses for survivors. Their hopes of finding any were getting less and less as they had to dig deeper and only found smashed remains.
Not that they would have minded if all Dark Elves in Hag Graef would die suddenly and painfully but they had learned to mask such feelings carefully. Even the soldiers overseeing their work found more interesting places to be and trusted their Overseer enough to be elsewhere.
When they lifted a particularly heavy piece of masonry they uncovered a Druchii noble in especially elaborate combat gear. The flattened Torso and the way his head set showed them that they had found another victim of the German guns. The slaves gathered around the body to remove him from his grave the "corpse" stabbed his right hand directly through the chest of the slave closest to him. Moving so quickly that he seemed like a blur to normal eyes he killed the complete group by hand within seconds.
It would not do to show everybody that he could survive injuries that would have killed any other Druchii. If the population of Hag Graef would know of his demon his life would be short indeed.

While his body slowly resumed a more normal shape he tried to look for a better place to be "rescued" from he took stock of his surroundings. He spotted another of the hellish flying machines that the Germans employed and was already starting to move to cover when he realized that the contraption was already headed back out to see.
In it`s wake it left a rain of something. While he was suspicious about them deploying a new weapon the "rain" drifted down slowly and seemed to consist of pieces of parchment. Feeling confident that his demon was able to avert enemies spells which might be fixed to the parchments he gathered one before it hit the ground.
It was amazingly white and even, with a very smooth surface. The letters were very much the same, and while a little simple showed clearly readable Druchii script:

Nobles and Citizens of Hag Graef

One year ago you saw fit to raid our country. Your Corsairs murdered and tortured our countrymen who had done nothing to earn them such a fate.
Tonight we made sure you cannot do this again anytime soon.
For the future,
Do not raid Germany again.
Do not attack German citizens.
Do not take Germans as slaves.
Or we will be back.
And then we will show you what Germans do when they are really angry

The scream Malus Darkblade issued reverberated all around the City, making being found in an inauspicious way much harder.

Seeadler, CIC, several hours later

Admiral Lerbs was groggy as hell from lack of sleep and the aftereffects of too much adrenaline that had no place to go. He still pulled himself together for the emergency that had been laid into his lap.
His S-1 described the new situation:
A Kondor flight spotted 2 fleets which try to intercept our way back to Germany. We send a Sea Lynx to have a closer look and found that we avoid one fleet or the other, but not both of them. So we have to fight our way out.
Position of the first fleet is here, it`s course is 124 degree and the average speed is 9 knots. The second one is here course 110 at 10 knots.
Both consist of upwards of 40 ships each with an even mixture of Skiffs and hydra ships. Unfortunately both fleets contain 4 Galleys each.
"Scheiße" Nobody looked too hard on who had made this statement as it was unprofessional but summed up their feelings nicely.

The S-1 changed places with the S-3 who handled operations. We have to fight one of the two fleets obviously. We have enough munitions on board to sink all ships if we have to, so that is not a problem.
We prefer to go though second fleet as we have to cross uncharted waters close to some islands if we want to sidestep it.
The problem is what to do about those galleys. We can stop them without sinking them, but we have to decide if we take the slaves on board. First off it is possible that parts of the first fleet reach us before we did so-that we are able to handle. The question is if we can take care of the slaves or if we have to leave them to the bleeding "Spitzohren"
Admiral Lerbs looked at the S-4, who winced. " Presently we have 3720 ex-slaves on board of "Papenburg" and Regensburg". This is 10% more already than anticipated in the planning already and I am not sure if the medical staff can handle….
He was interrupted by the Admiral: "Gentlemen, from tonight you and me will sleep in the wardroom. We have to look on how many sailors and troops must be made to hotbunk.
Detail some Paratroopers to look after the better off slaves and exchange some more of them for medics from the transports.
"Yes, sir"

Seeadler, Hangar

Paul Müller had seen the hangar many times now and still marveled how big it was. Normally the hangar deck of any carrier is quite cramped, but as the Seeadler current Helicopter complement was low it had lots of space.
He was wondering if he got soft in his old age of 29 as he had volunteered for something-his years as a professional soldier should have beaten that out of him.
While the assault on the Galleys was done by the Marine Infantry the medics needed for getting all the slaves out had to come from the Paratroop department again. And as you could not send the hapless medics into enemy ships unguarded they started looking for volunteers.
Maybe he could say that he was still asleep when he got asked?
He found a group of medics at the spot he had been told to look, they were just checking the gear they wanted to take with them.
One of the medics stood out, obviously older than the others and for whatever reason carrying an old-fashioned G3 on his back. He also looked vaguely familiar.
"Are you the medics detailed for "Moewe 23?"
"Yes, we are. We`ll be ready in 5 minutes or so, then we wait again."

"Ok, I will get my guys then. BTW, I am not sure if we met before."
"Have you been at the Battle of Papenburg?"
"Yes, why…oh my God, were you one of these totally crazy Landwehr guys?"
"Yep, I was the medic who told you to get that bloody nose seen to. And we drank quite a lot of Jever together at the Party after the service."
" If you can remember that Party, you did not do it right."
" Ha, you tell me. BTW, do you have a little more info on that mission we are on?"

"Just rappel down to the galley after the Marines are done and get the slaves out" seems a little low.
"What do you expect, number of enemy combatants, number of slaves, armament and route of retreat, something like that?"
"Yup, something like that …"
"Welcome to Operation Clusterfuck, dreamed up at a moment`s notice by REMFS who will not be on it", he laughed.

"Did they ask you to volunteer too?"
"Yes, but I was asleep…."
"Cut it. And I should not be talking."
"We must be totally crazy!"
"Yes, we are. God bless us, there are none like us!"
Shaking their heads they went back to their tasks.

Tiger UHT, close to enemy Fleet, 2 hours later

The gunner in the Tiger had, as always, a grand view of the scenery. And a grand view it was. The Druchii had approached the Germans in several groups of ships, all superbly handled and obviously planning to attack the German formation in several waves.
All of that plan was gone now, as the fleet escort ships had attacked them about 10 minutes ago. Their 76 mm guns were firing rapidly at the Elven Sailships. They were using weapons systems build to intercept low flying cruise missiles and supersonic planes to shoot at wooden ships that did 10 knots or so, twenty under good conditions. There were no misses.
While the ships did not sink quickly, that is very hard to do with wooden craft, they again showed their tendency to burn well enough. In other places Tiger helos shot at the enemy with 70 mm rockets and their guns with results that were not dissimilar, maybe just a little better in the firestarter department.
All of that was just of passing interest to him as his pilot was doing a beeline to 2 Galleys who were approaching the troop transport in line formation.

Taking out a Druchii galley was difficult as they were rowed by slaves, whom nobody wanted to kill needlessly. While the use of a fire ship was tested during the Battle of Papenburg and worked well, it was a little awkward and difficult to coordinate far from home, so something better was needed.
On both Pylons his Tiger carried two containers which looked like external fuel tanks and actually had started out like that. Immediately before overflying the Galley he triggered the release for one Tank which started to deploy an aerosol which was further distributed by the downdraft from the rotor to cover both galleys generously.
Capsicum is the stuff which makes peppers and Chilies' "hot". If it is dissolved in an oily solution and weaponised it has mostly the same results on men or Druchii then the CS-grenades used to such effects on the Dark Elf soldiers on the causeway-in spades.

CH53 Helicopter, close to Sea Battle

The Helicopter with the call sign Moewe 23 (seagull 23) was patiently waiting for the Marines to give the all clear signal. The Pilots had watched them rappel onto the craft. While the Galleys had lowered the masts for combat the decks of the flimsy craft were unlikely to withstand the weight of a helicopter.
Presently the marines were assembling on both ends of the galley and prepared for the assault. "You know what this reminds me of?", asked the slightly bored Co-Pilot.
"Nope..."
"Come on! In the hold of that ship are a few nervous soldiers, waiting for the assault from above, and in the assault group one guy at least is breathing through a mask!"
It took the Pilot less than 5 seconds to make the connection and laugh. "Yep, you are right. Just the good guy/bad guy roles are slightly reversed."
"Dunno, maybe you can ask one of the Spitzohren about that...", the twinkle was lost due to the seat positions. They spend the rest of the waiting time humming the "Imperial March" and alternately simulating Darth Vader breathing, all the while making sure that their intercoms were not connected to the wireless.
When they saw the marines storm the hold the Co-Pilot quipped "One thing is for sure, the Spitzohren will not protest that they are on a diplomatic mission."
"Do Dark Elves have diplomats?"
"Dunno, maybe after this operation they will have?"
They got the all-clear soon enough and brought their passengers to the Galley without mishap.

Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Germany

Despite not exhibiting the strange moods of the namesake, Detlev Sierck earned the nickname "Tasmanian Devil" from the workers in the biggest Theatre in Berlin. The most famous playwright in the Old World knew exactly how his plays should work and so during preparartions he tried to be at all places at once, frequently rotating between all important locations.
As a costume worker said: "We all are sure that one day the Chef will meet himself in a hallway."

The Weltensprung had cut off Germany from home, so all movies, TV series, theater plays were guarded well, to not loose the rests of one connection to Earth. But humans being human, all the stranded Earthers needed and wanted something for free time. German movie makers, playwrights and the classics lived through a new golden time, but soon the german population wanted to taste the local stories. And one could say anything, but despite being at war very often the Old World had a lot of culture to offer.
Detlev Sierck was easily on the level of Shakespeare and it showed. He and his wife Genevieve became rich giving showing rights to German theatres and at special occations the master himself travelled to Germany to direct one of his plays.