300 Kilometers North of Middenheim, same time
Erk, the marauder was running like hell, and he had good reason to. He had spotted the red-headed gal and she had the gall to shoot at him and his lads with a hunting bow. Ulf would probably get over it, but currently he was hobbling behind the group favoring his good leg and cursing a blue streak.
The girl they were chasing was running well-but he knew how to handle this. As long as he kept her in sight she would lose her wind soon enough and then she would have few fight left in her. That suited Erk just fine-he would love to capture such a fine piece of meat undamaged-this was something else than a fat farmers wife.
The exertions of the run meant that he heard the ruble of the horses late, so when he finally turned his head he nearly froze and fell-where had these Reiksguard bastards come from. No matter why or how they had hidden in the small copse of trees that lay by their way-this was bad. If he or his lads wanted any chance at survival he had to go where the mounted knights could not.
"Run to the forest you Idiots" he screamed at the top of his lungs and without checking if anybody followed his example he ran as fast as he could towards the treeline in front of him that offered salvation. He could just watch the nice backside of the girl they had chased disappear the brushes. No matter survival first.
He did not dare to look backwards, he heard that the riders were gaining ground on him and heard the screams when they caught up with another of his comrades. Trying to coax even more speed out of his body the treeline suddenly showed strange blinking lights and a sound like fireworks. His brain was till still trying to make sense of this when something which felt like a glowing hammer hit his chest and he dropped forward.
He never saw or heard the Germans coming out of the Forest or heard the Warden talk excitedly to their leader. "I told you Lt. Hermann that this would be easier than chasing these bastards all over the countryside. And Dirk would have made sure that nothing could have happened to Ulrika, wouldn`t you, Dirk?"
Elsewhere, 2 days later
The Dwarf started to see-but what did he see and feel? His surroundings where white illuminated by a colorless light coming from everywhere but it showed to clear source. It had no flicker, no color-he had never seen such-or had he?
The air around him had a strange quality-it seemed much more refreshing that ordinary air should be, but it was also bone-dry and smelled of things he could not place. When he lifted his hands in front of his face they showed no marks, no scars, no callus, no tan-they were like the hands of a newborn. There were even no real fingernails. Looking at his chest and stomach gave a similar sight-no tattoos, no scars-nothing.
His face felt naked-his hands-his overly sensitive hands-to his horror showed no Mohawk and no beard. He felt like a newborn babe. What…. He wanted to get up from his white soft resting place-and found he was secured with straps across his ample chest. Before he could get too upset the transparent curtain showed a picture of a huge figure he could not make out clearly showing a beard who parted the curtain.
"Welcome to the Charite` Herr Gurnisson. I am Ralf Winkler, one of the healers that tried to mend you-seems like we did a good job."
The scream that followed could be heard through most of the Berlin hospital. It took the Slayer a while before he could speak somewhat coherently again.
"I had found a good Doom manling, the best. I have fought well and I should have died a honorable death cleansing me of my shame. Why did you weak ignorant manlings pull me back to…to."
"Herr Gurnisson-from all I have heard you have died on the battlefield. One of the best doctors I know pronounced you dead. During the transport back Herr Jaeger found it fitting to place your axe on your chest-that was when you got back to life. You have made a remarkable –or more precisely miraculous-recovery since then and we aided that as good as we could by transplanting you skin and regenerating lost nerves-this is what I do these days. So-you have died and there you are again. I am no expert on Slayers Herr Gurnisson-but maybe one of these days you should think about forgiveness."
In living memory nobody ever had seen Gotrek lost for words-the former medic was the first.
"If it is all the same to you, I will get Herr Jaeger-he is fast asleep after keeping watch all night"
Quarry, same date
Uli Stoiber was sweating like a hog-and that was definitely not from the low-to-middling temperatures-he was pulling maintenance on his "Bock", the Leo2 tanks he had driven into battle. And except for very few routines maintenance on the 65+ ton vehicle was hard labor. As his tank had driven around 50 kilometers through hard terrain there was more than a little to do before he could declare his tank mission-ready again.
He had not minded too much that his company was left behind at the Quarry to guard it-but the orders he had received now reeked of desperation. Still it was his duty to make his best go at them and that meant as much preventive work as could be done. Additional to the overhaul some "gifted" welder had added brackets for 159 Liter drums to the back of his tank.
Dearly needing a breather the tank commander stepped around his "Iron Pig" and opened a a bottle of Skandi-fruit juice while having a look at the vehicle park that was brought by train to the Quarry and waited for the Road to Middenheim to improve. Ever since the Weltensprung a lot of German words were used for something new or substantially changed, some were also resurrected.
In the old times using the Word "Kampfgruppe" for a Brigade sized unit of troops just cobbled together for a single operation would have raised eyebrows with allies and would have been proof that the bad old Germans were back with the enemies. Now it was just taken for what it was-a combat group.
"Kampfgruppe Loy" was assembling on the Quarry`s floor. Uli could see "Fuchs" personal transports by the dozen, some "Dingo" and "Fennek" vehicles and a lot of the Wolf 4x4 cars.
One corner held the specials-one offs, pre-series productions and prototypes that still needed a little bit of extra pampering. There were a few interesting ones. The biggest firepower was offered by 4 MAN 15-ton GL trucks who`s former flatbed were now occupied by an Artillery Gun Module-in essence a Panzerhaubitze 2000 turret with less armor.
The other heavy hitters were 8 Boxer MRAV which had been fitted with "Puma" turrets and two of them with a 35 mm AA gun. Not yet arrived but rumored about were some boxers with 120 mm Mortars.
For every wheeled combat vehicle there seemed to be 3 trucks of every size and description, from lowly Unimogs to the mighty 8x8 trucks-the logistics to support the Combat Group would be a nightmare without them.
To a life-long tanker like Uli these vehicles lacked all-terrain mobility, armor and sheer direct firepower-but they used far less fuel and were much less likely to break down on the 500+ kilometer drive to Middenheim. This kind of thing just wasn`t done with tanks. Their high fuel consumption and their tendency to break down after a surprisingly short time due to vibrations and overheating was dead against it.
The road to Middenheim could not bear the Elefant flatbed transport and the railroad was not finished. He still was ordered to try, but only after the rest of Kampfgruppe Loy was on its way. He was sure to arrive-probably at the same time the railroad was finished, but orders were orders. And his tank was going to break down even earlier if not properly maintained-so his break had to end.
Altdorf, close to Addidas Factory, same evening
3x3=9
4x3=12
5x3=14 15
Emma, the textile worker was sitting at evening school. Her company and a couple of others had joined forces to create an evening-and-Sunday school for those workers who wanted to learn some reading and writing. There were also some classes about their jobs-how fabric was made, what properties different fabrics had and a lot of other stuff she had to pry into her tired brain.
When the offer of night school was first announced at the factory during lunchtime Emma did not know what to make of it. Why should she go to a school after hours when she was exhausted and longed to spend time with her child when she did not need it for her job-or her private life.
Still, the Germans rarely did anything without some reason, even if it was sometimes hard to see it. Finally she had one of the Germans from accounting-a shy, lanky blonde with prematurely thinning hair and asked him about it.
"Sooner or later we want to have supervisors from the Empire on the workshop floor-and for that we need workers who can read and write. And in the long run it will be far easier to work with employees that can read instructions."
"You mean if I learn to read and write I could be a supervisor?" The supervisors were the little gods of the workflow, running around with their clipboards and writing down something and telling everybody what to do. They seemed not to work very hard, but they earned good money-they were Germans.
"Well, you would have to learn some other stuff as well, like calculus, but basically-yes."
Ever since then she was gladly paying another worker a little extra to look after her child and drank bad coffee so she could sit with 30 others in a class and learn. Learning was hard but had his rewards. Not only did it give her hope of a better future-but she saw things that she had never seen before. All the time she had run by the green sign plastered on the doors she passed on the way to the cafeteria. Yesterday was the day when something "clicked" and she could make out "Emergency exit-so not block"-how very strange and marvelous. There was a new world for her to discover. She had a really hard time explaining why she was still wearing that stupid grin during lunch.
Altdorf, College of the Celestial Order, same time
Orbit=Umlaufbahn
Apogäum=Apogee
Star=Stern
Nadir=…..
After Master Keppel could not remember the word he looked for at the 3rd time he turned the card in frustration- Fusspunkt, of course.
German was the new language of science and trade and it was getting more and more important to be good at it. So many things could be said only in German as Reiksspiel had no word for it at all. "Nanometer, double-entry bookkeeping, injector pump, Laptop" how could you say this in Reikspiel? And then there was the capability of the German language to put words together into much longer, newer words-very good. He did not approve of the newfangled fashion among traders and younger nobles to drop German words here and there in conversation just to show how modern and up-to-date they were-if there was a good word in Reiksspiel, why not use it? But in Science as in Magic, at least how he pratised it, it was important to be precise and have clear definitions and there the German language shined.
Looking up he again saw the letter he had pinned above his desk-an invitation to Peenemünde Nord in 3 Months hence-a date he would hardly miss. And then he was going to have much improved German, he had sworn it to himself. He wanted a place at the Bonn-Cologne University-there was so much new to learn and that was THE place to be. If he could secure DASA backing it would surely help.
Bremen, Hospital Klinikum Bremen Mitte, next morning
The sight of the bank robber was horrifying for anybody not well versed with heavy trauma. During the fight with the MEK a bullet had destroyed his lower yaw and another one had claimed the left eye and a part of the skull. The injuries were so great that the surgeons had to remove a part of the skull and the complete lower jaw, giving the face a decidedly nonhuman look.
He was still unable to speak; his mental capabilities had not been improved by the injuries and he was clearly afraid-but he also the only survivor of the botched bank robbery, so Ibrahim Dürr had to talk to him. The leads he could follow were wearing thin-there was not so much CSI could tell him. Both the witnesses at the highway assault site and CSI agreed that there were 7 perpetrators. Two of them had been found in the Couronne Wilderness and the weapons tied the 4 would-be highwaymen with the crime-but where was the 7th man-and Jasla of course?
So, even if this useless piece of meat in front of him was only a poor source of information he was his best hope for leads at present.
"You understand that one blink with your eye is yes, two blinks is no?"
Blink
"We can link you to the Jasla prisoner transport break by DNA and by the weapons you used in the attempted robbery-you have been there right?"
Blink
"Not so clever. We know there were 7 people in the assault. The 4 of you were all in the prison break?"
Blink
"Do you know what happened to the other 3?"
Blink Blink
"From what we can see they stopped in the Couronne Wilderness. It seems Jasla got loose and killed Manfred and Jaime. But we do not know what happened to the third guy, he is missing. You would help if you could give us the name"
Blink Blink
"Don´t be a fool. You have banded together to free that bi…Witch, you put together a good plan, executed it beautifully and then she cheats on you and kills her saviors. Do you want everybody to believe that you can treat the Autonmomes that way and get away with it?"
Blink Blink
"See-and you are hardly in any shape to do anything about it-leave that to us. Come on-tell us what you know about the escape and the missing guy, then we can do something"
…
Blink
"Ok, I knew you would do the right thing. I´ll give you and alphabet card, you can show the letters for what you want to tell us. So first thing: What do you know about the escape plan"
WE SPLIT, GO TO AGREED MEETING POINT, NOBODY THERE, WAIT FOT HOURS, NOBODY COME,WE GO
"And if the others would have come what would you have done then?"
CLAUS HAD ARRANGED HIDING PLACE
"Is that Claus the missing guy?"
Blink
"You have more on that Claus, last name, contact anything"
Blink Blink
"Anything else on that guy-met him before"
Blink Blink
"Can you work together with a Police Artist to make a drawing of him?"
Blink
"Thanks for you cooperation"
Ibrahim Dürr left the Hospital deep in thought-this was not good, his leads to Jasla were all coming up empty. He had encountered the Name Claus the first time today, but it would be really difficult to dig after him with only a name and a drawing of his face.
Galley "Sultan Salagud", on the Great Sea
For Hamid most of the last 1 1/2 years had been a nightmare. After a short time being successful preachers for Allah in Araby, his group of Jihadists had been captured. He never saw his friends again. Hamid was sent to the oars, but with a twist. A magical tattoo forced him to make sexual advances to the guards after he spoke his intent. Gangrapes, assaults by guards and other slaves for more than a year had broken something in him, but that was not the worst.
After a lost battle against Germany, where his galley was severly damaged, Hamid was sent to the "Sultan Salagud", the ship of Dark Elf captain Irglier. The elf was delighted to get a German into his hands. A German, who would not be missed by many in Germany!
Irglier used Hamid to learn more about the land which handed him his worst defeat and as a special slave. Irglier practised old and new methods of Torture on Hamid to prepare for his final meeting with his nemesis in Hag Graef. When Hamid tried to die, Irglier played a horrible trump card. He forced Hamid into services which would sent the Jihadist to the Chaos Gods. It had cost the Dark Elf a lot of IOUs to the Grand Vizier in Istrabul for the needed very seldom rituals, but in Irglier´s opinion it had paid out. Hamid´s life was transformed into hell. Dying was now no option anymore for him. Neither life nor death would give him peace.
Papenburg, Meyer Shipyard
Major Martensen saw the Landwehrmen assembling in the same meeting room that one year ago had been the starting point for the "Battle of Papenburg" for him and was more than happy to see so many of the old faces still there-and lots of new ones.
One should have thought that after the corncobbing the 31st had received, especially the first platoon, that it would be hard to to find replacements. Instead he now had the problem that his company was so overstrengh that there was talk of splitting them.
Even after one year the Landwehr was the the flavor of the month-none of his soldiers had to explain why he spend his spare time with "playing soldier" and there were volunteers enough. That the 31st did not forget the civil defense part of their legacy and that their famous Unimog could be seen at many a riding tournament and other big events providing medics did not hurt at all.
"Good evening Major" turning around Major Martensen found that his musings had masked the approach of a officer he was especially glad to see again.
"Good evening Lieutenant Frediksen-Jesus you look good. Maybe I should call Winkler as well, I could do some sprucing up."
"You do not look so bad-but so you know where our Sani is-I know he wanted to attend and now his mobile is offline and I cannot reach him by mail."
"His Wife reached me-he sends his regrets, he was flown to Middenheim on short notice. She was rather distraught."
"Small wonder-the news say there was an outbreak of the red smallpox, that sounded bad."
"Bad doesn't cover it-the last outbreak killed half of the empires population. I have no idea what our "Sani" could do there."
"It is possible somebody needs the Sisterhood of Shallya to play ball-and Ralf would be in a very good position to make them. Looks like he still has not learned not to volunteer"
"That sounds fascinating. Tell me after the official part, will ya."
"Can do"
A few minutes later Major Martensen climbed the lectern and had a look at the assembly. Men-and women by now-who showed the calm self-assurance that only a well drilled unit with a victory or two under its belt could project. It was his task to lead them-and his biggest hope was that he would be worthy of them.
"Ok folks, this opens monthly company meeting of the 31st Landwehr. This time is a special one as it is exactly a year since the time we were called to battle. It is time to remember those who cannot join and celebrate those who fought so bravely and survived.
It is time to remember why we joined this outfit and remind us why we continue.
I more than happy to announce that we are not the only ones that remember our fight: After this meeting we will have the party you are all looking for.
To give us one more reason to celebrate the employer whom most of us work for, the Shipyard, has seen fit to give us a little gift. In the words of Jan Meyer, our CEO, "I hate to train new workers every time you guys have a little battle."
So because of this and a general soft spot of his heart we will receive 150 sets of Spidersilk armor, the very best Germany can make at the moment. Next time it will take more than a few Spitzohren to make us sweat."
The roaring laughter was a good way to start the meeting.
Neustadt, 120 west of Naggarond, same day
Mathias Hartig was looking at the latest lead chamber they had been able to erect. It was a primitive process to obtain sulfuric acid, but so far he had been unable to secure Vanadium as a catalyst. Making sulfuric acid allowed him to make nitric acid as well with acceptable effort, and the two of them together would allow the making of explosives and other useful chemicals.
He turned to the slave's overseer, a Druchii that had been provided by Lord Silverhawk. "Looks like they did it right this time. You can reintroduce full rations again. Also make sure they wear the filter masks, otherwise we have to train new ones too fast."
"Yes Doctor, will do. You treat them very well."
"As long as they do the job-why not."
This left the overseer with something to think about while Manfred hustled along to his meeting.
Neustadt, as the Germans had unispiredly called their settlement, was a wild mixture of styles. Some of the beautifully menacing Dark Elf abodes that had been emptied by the Hung were mixed up with Log Houses and A-frames. Several long wooden shacks showed that the Germans had managed to get a circular power saw going and now had boards in abundance. Manfred passed the sawmill and woodchip treatment facility which made the cellulose that he needed as well as for making paper. The latter was sold to the Spitzohren at a very good price.
He walked quickly as the meeting was soon to start-and Germans need to be punctual no matter where they were-maybe it was even more important here where they had to make it by themselves or fail bloodily.
He managed to arrive in the Druchii building in time and went to the meeting room where everybody was already shuffling through papers or tablet computer file according to capabilities and needs. The room showed an incongruous picture. A high ceilinged room with arched windows showing in beautiful stained glass artwork massacres and tortures contained some dark elven furniture which totally outshone the German camping accessories and makeshift workarounds which adapted the room to the mercenaries needs.
The center of it was a long table with high-backed chairs that housed the meeting of all department heads of the "Schwarze Schaar".
Claus Tolles opened the meeting and after the usual pleasantries:
"Ok, we all know that major combat operations are out for a while-we settle now down for the long winter they have here and build up. That means that we secure accommodation, income, production capacity and our auxiliaries. So let's hear it where we are on things. Thorsten, you go first."
"Alright, where are we. Accommodation-we are getting there. By now everybody should have a house he can survive the winter in-most of us quite nicely. We have by now set up a small production line for Stoves, and once we are finished with our needs I have the feeling that we will do nice business with them. We have mostly build the barracks for the auxiliaries and will finish them faster than the last ones will arrive.
Sanitary and water is as good as we can make it now-we will improve next year. Till then anybody who drinks uncooked water is getting the runs he rightly deserves.
We have set up several production lines for our needs and have already started to offer our wares to the customers here. From what I can see general ironmongery and paper will bring in good income. Also we start getting visitors who want to look at the assembly-line production we have set up. Seems like nobody thought about that before and it is the best way to use slaves in production as they only have to learn small pieces of the job. We should write that up into a manual and license it.
As for our auxiliaries, let me present you what I and Wolfgang cooked up." Opening a long, slim box he took out a black slender rifle. The buttstock and front end showed wood, the middle was a solid looking metal box.
"So this is the Mark 1a – the first one that works properly, got Wolfgang`s ok and can be produced without too much difficulty. At the front end there is an adapter for a long bayonet, not only because here it is actually useful, but because the rifle would not be accepted by the Elves if it did not have something pointy. It can fire a 7,92 mm round at better than 700 meters/second, has a bolt action and is single shot. It does NOT use the same ammo than our STG44, but something very much like a shotgun shell with a bronze base holding the primer and a treated paper hull for powder and bullet. It uses guncotton as propellant. The bullet was a problem-at this velocity a lead bullet would just ignore the rifling and copper plating is out as it takes too much labor and machinery. So we went the way off France and "Balle D" and use a solid bronze bullet. We can use bullets of similar construction to reload our ammo as well, this is one reason why I picked 7,92 mm as the bullet diameter, less molds to make.
The wooden furniture is in two pieces-butt stock and fore stock-because it is not so easy to get really to wood in this area, so having smaller pieces is preferable.
This construction is not perfect-it will withstand rain but you cannot submerge the ammunition in water for any length of time. It also makes a repeating mechanism more difficult. The reason we still went this way is that we have not secured enough zinc yet to make brass – and what brass I can secure I need to make more ammo for our own weapons. If we choose this weapon I can pretty much guarantee that we can produce enough rifles for the auxiliary in time."
"Seems like very good work. Wolfgang what do you say."
"I took it out to the range-handled well it does not jam and it is easy enough to shoot and maintain. It takes dirt moderately well but you have to look after the ammo. If you really soak it the rounds will not load and or extract well. I could hit man-sized targets out to 500 meters repeatedly and would say that you can volley fire at unit sized targets to twice that.
Overall I think Torsten did the best job that could be done with the materials and personal at hand. I say we go forward and produce it."
"Then thank you two guys-and actually I think you should get a bonus. Anybody who does not think so raises his hand-see that's it. Wolfgang, while you are at it-how is the situation with your side?"
"Good news is 1st Platoon is coming along nicely. Give them 6 more months and they are competent light infantry with a kickass heavy weapons platoon. I can turn them over to Alex as soon as things get more fixed with the Spitzohren.
The bad news is-the Spitzohren. I have been going through the recruits we get together with Doctor Corzilius and we find we are getting the 4-F`s, the losers and rejects."
"What, I was promised by…."
"Boss, before you go off on a tangent, let me qualify a little bit. First off the reason for many of the recruits to be considered failures are that they have acquired myopia. They were attached to crossbow units and are now useless to them. We are setting up a factory for glasses anyway, so we can get these guys back into the fight. Second you have to remember how competitive the Spitzohren are. If you are not properly networked in your unit then it will kill you-probably literally. Many of these recruits seem to be strong, fast and not too stupid, but their social intelligence is too low to get usefully linked or they come from the wrong family. This should be no problem as we need to train these guys and gals to a different culture and standard anyway.
There are probably also total klutzes among them, but we can weed out about 20% and still have a full TO&E. And if we can reform these cuties I think they will be more loyal to us than…"
"Think you can swing that?"
"If I can keep Bob Swaggert than yes"
"Do it."
"Consider it done"
"Very good. Mathias, how about your egghead commandos?"
"Ah, we are getting there. As you may have heard we now produce enough nitric and sulfuric acid to make guncotton, nitroglycerine and nitric mercury for the primers. We currently experiment with gelling the guncotton with nitroglycerine and they press this into smokeless powder-then we can make everything to reload ammo.
We have set up a bastard petroleum cracking plant. Presently it is below primitive level, but gives off something that will work in the kerosene lamps, the older Diesel Generators and the Unimogs. I will admit anything better will need a lot more work.
I have identified a plant which gives off something like caoutchouc. If we can treat that right it would be useful in a million applications."
"Thanks, keep up the good work. Next there is….."
An hour later Manfred was heading home, hurrying again as he had his next appointment. Pulling a black sports bag out of a beautiful wooden chest he went out again. His path terminated at another Druchii building, much smaller this time.
He was greeted by a human slave who`s leg was shackled by a chain to the doorframe.
"Ah, Master Hartwig, Lady Jasla awaits you."
Leaving his overcoat with the slave he was brought to the living room of the mercenaries' resident witch, Jasla. Like the rest of her house it was furnished by Dark Elves' furniture. The rest of the Neustadt inhabitants had mostly given theirs to Jasla as they had no use for it. The furniture was very slender , made for the slightly different sizes of the Druchii and their aesthetics were so removed from human custom as to be disturbing. Jasla had clad herself in only few nice looking silken parts, showing that she was here for play not business. Kneeling besides her chair was Petra, her German slave. She wore only her collar and had crossed her hands behind her back, by now Manfred presumed it came natural to her.
Normally the beautiful woman and the surroundings would have been quite distracting but today the chemist had other things on his mind.
"Hello Manfred, so nice of you to come."
"Good evening Jasla. Given your invitation I could hardly refuse. You told me you have something special for me in exchange for the little toy you liked so much."
"Oh yes, I have something nice and I do not think you know what it is."
"Oh by your words I thought it might be a new slave?"
"You are so clever-but she is more special then you think. Come with me and judge if she is worthy of our little exchange."
Jasla brought Manfred into another room, this one the "amusement suite" of the Druchii house. Of course it was not as refined as the one in Hag Graef, but Manfred had only human equivalents for comparison, so he was still quite impressed.
Currently he had no eyes for anything in the room but of the creature that unwillingly occupied the St. Andrew`s Cross on the far wall of the room.
Her slim figure was even enhanced by her bondage, showing off the small firm breasts and long legs. She was naked but for a gag and a small blindfold, so nothing hid her pointed ears or the longish hands and legs. Her limbs, while slender, showed well defined muscles and hinted at considerable strength. Anxiously she turned her head to pinpoint her sounds which only underlined her helplessness. Even that could not deny the impression of a young predator artfully fettered. She was undeniably a Druchii in all her lethal beauty.
"Wow, how did you swing that?"
"Oh little Yerna is a very bad girl. She defied her dad too many times and made him very very angry at her, and Daddy wanted something from me. So he was more than happy to pay his debts with his wayward daughter who obviously needs a firm hand in her education. Do you think you can do that?"
Manfred throat felt nearly too tight for a coherent answer but still managed a hoarse "I do like to try, I really do."
"And you think it would be worth your little toy."
"Yes, yes I think it will be."
"Then we have a deal. Did you bring it, we can try it out at your new "project" or we can use Petra…."
"Oh let`s take your Pet, she know it already and will be sooo happy to see it again. I want to make my first time with Yerna special"
"Good choice I think. So?"
"Well, here it is. I have only two, and at present they are the only ones in all of Naggaroth. So here you have it, a SEL Field Telephone. I have already soldered crocodile clips to the wires, so you can apply the electricity without problems. It allows you to inflict practically limitless pain without much risk of injury or death, the perfect choice if you really want to bring the message home"
"Splendid. Let`s fix my little slave and then we have a blast."
"Yes we will. I have also something else to entice you, it is called a magic wand, but not your kind."
"Do tell"
Wilhelmshaven, Naval Headquarters, same time
Admiral Lerbs was amazed at the mass of reporters that attended the press conference. Defense related topics had become much more popular these days, so it was to be expected, but still…
Well, no sense to delay the inevitable.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for showing up in such amounts. The interest of the press for our refurbishment of Seeadler is overwhelming and I hope that I can give you something worthy of you attention.
As you have already heard, the Seeadler will go into the dock "Elbe 17" again for a major overhaul. While the ship has performed admirably during the Hag Graef Raid we had to note a number of deficiencies. Primary among them were the lack of ventilation to some compartments, the less-than-efficient-use of space and the sub-par firefighting are chief among them.
Such was to be expected from a ship that we hastily converted to undertake a vital mission. We were prepared to rectify these mistakes after the mission. Careful analysis now shows that it will be far more cost effective to do a more extensive rebuild of the ship as for a comparatively low additional expense we get much better capabilities.
As you can see in the two diagrams behind me, we will remove the current telescopic hangar and two layers of Containers and will replace them with a purpose build hangar and landing deck. The two deck houses will be replaced by two Islands, one for Navigation, the other for flight ops. On the other side we have several side lifts for the helicopters.
The self-defense suite will be upgraded to include RAM and Iris-T missiles and it has been decided that there will be weight and space provided for a "Taurus" launcher. All in the ship should be in the hands of "Blohm&Voss for 8 months. This seems short but many of the modifications are already prebuild. When Seeadler will come back from the dock she will be a much more capable ship and can aid Germany`s aims in many way. Now for your questions."
"No we will not have planes on board-at first. But we believe Seeadler will be around for quite some time and therefore we decided to include a Skiramp."
"Actually the costs will be well below the costs for another "Sachsen" Frigate and far below the costs for a complete new build-and we need the capabilities. We no longer can ask other to provide."
"Yes, Captain Werner will retain command of this vessel."
"The roll in the display case behind me is a short letter of thanks for Seeadler and her crew. It was signed by 4723 former slaves."
Bremen, Club Aladin, same Night
Ulf Grimnison`s hand were shaking. This was ridiculous-he was an accomplished stonebreaker, an apprentice to the famous Daimler-Benz company and he had survived the hospitality of the Spitzohren for several years. Nothing should get him this nervous any more.
But there it was: the unmistakable proof that he was. He was sweating more than he should, his hands were trembling and he really did not know how could go through it.
What got him was the reason for his problem: He could not bear the thought to let his comrades down. But by the same token, that meant he had their support-and they were good comrades. They all had met during the training at Daimler and found they shared an interest. It was remarkable that humans and Dwarves could work so well together, even at this. Now it was time to see if their efforts were worth anything. "Ok Stonies, lets do this-here goes nothing". Putting his ample shoulders back and erecting himself to his not-so-considerable height he led his band through the curtain.
Right on clue, the announcer worked on the crowd in front of the stage with: "And now folks, give a cheer for Bremen`s most hopeful newcomer band in the Category Dwarf Metal. Let`s all greet Grungier`s Slammers"
