Berlin, roughly the same time
Sierck read the news papers again and a again, marvelling at the gun camera footage from these flying Warthogs, but with the footage of the combat, came the footage of the aftermath. While the captions clearly stated that the most distressing scenes had been removed, the sheer scope of the destruction shocked a part of him. Even seeing that almost all the dead were abhuman chaos scum, seeing dead horses, the dead Empire and German soldiers, combat vehicles cleaved in half, a chill ran through him. "This is war" he thought, "Even with their technical wizardry, war boils down to this".
Detlef brewed a fresh pot of tea, reached for his laptop, (Danke Herr Bloch he thought quietly), and began writing.
Elsewhere in Berlin - Same time.
"I'm not so keen Christian, when it was just the one battle, in that scale there was something, something almost heroic about it that suited us as a group. This", Oliver pointed at the Television screen, "This is is not what we do, this is, Wagnarian".
Flake looked up, "I think, actually, this is just the thing for us, and Wagnarian may be perfect. I have been speaking with Detlef for a while now about the video, throwing some ideas back and forth as you do. He only really thinks in an epic scale, this, as you say Oli, is Wagnarian, epic. Let us see what Detlef comes to us with, I'm sure he will, if he comes glorifying it as some hacks will, we walk, if not..."
"If not"? Christian looked over, "if not and he comes back with something as bleak and dystopic as this, what do we do, write as bleakly as this"?
"Yes, as only we can. Bloch will have kittens, but we are who we are, we cannot be anything but that" Reidel looked at Lorenz while speaking, "You think our playwrite will see things similarly"?
"I believe he will" Flake replied confidently.
Late that evening.
The assistant Bloch had hired for Detlef replaced the cold, untouched mug of tea with a fresh hot mug of tea and removed the half eaten sandwich. four and a half hours ago, Sierck had begun writing, he showed no signs of stopping. Every now and then, a muted curse would be heard and a portion of text was deleted and re-written.
"Alex" Detlef called for his assistant, "do you know how to search this internet well", a nod affirmed this, "I want to see what war looked like for Germany before you came here, the good and the bad, all of it"
"No problem, I warn you now, there are things we have done in the past that are not who we are now, not who we were before we moved to this world, but if you want the bad, you will see it" Alex replied.
A little later, Detlef had viewed the footage and the pictures. It was clear that they had suffered much, on a scale that the empire had never seen, they were capable of the highest of moral highs, and the deepest depths of evil. After much deep conversation with Alex, learning much of Germany's history before their appearence, he wondered, what had been unleashed on this world, but this did not sit with what he had seen of it's people, they were, well, normal underneath it all.
Above all, he decided, if Germans knew what suffering war brings and it had made them who they are now, then so should the Empire. While allowing that hell that the Germans had suffered to be placed on the Empire was unthinkable, it would need someone to show them the message.
After Alex finished for the evening, Detlef settled back at the laptop.
The next morning, After making coffee, Alex found himself deleting 324 pages of iklkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk where Sierk had fallen asleep on the keyboard.
Reiksbund Headquarters, Altdorf, 2 days later
Aurelius was feeling uneasy. He had so far lived a long life and was pretty sure to have seen it all and that just slight variations were to come now. Now he was adrift in a situation where at least partially he had no experience. And that started with the rooms he was in.
They had been refurbished by the Germans or so he was told. They were as alien to him as the back side of the Moon Mannslieb. The light came from unwavering sources that he could mostly not see, some doors opened automatically and there was a slight wind where there were no windows or doors.
He even had to ask his aide how to use the bloody toilet. At least there the aide was useful to something. Why he had been saddled with this Aide was beyond him. On the surface Aeolus had more interaction with the Germans than nearly any other Elf and seemed to be highly popular with them. On the other hand he had the bad taste to survive the heroic death of his Master Ilthies, so he was politely ignored in Ulthuan and somebody found it fitting to saddle him with the young Elf.
The meeting room used for the meeting he was to attend was as strange as the rest of the headquarters: The floor rose slightly like in a theater and the tables were arranged in semicircles that gave precedence for nobody. As an added riddle where you usually expected a flag or statue had price of place behind the speakers emporium a very white very smooth cloth had the pride of place.
Besides a gaggle of Germans and Imperials several lesser powers had seen fit to send their ambassadors to a meeting to which the "Reiksbund" had invited. Marshall Hellborg had hinted that this was the place where the armies coordinated, so Aurelius had chosen to attend. He would have highly preferred to have initiated a meeting of his own but as one was already in place it seemed better to use this one for the aims of Ulthuan. Also undoing the hash the humans were bound to make of an unsupervised agreement about the unending fight against Chaos.
The meeting opened by Hans-Werner Fritz said to be a General of something of the German army.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Reiksbund is barely more than 3 Months old and it already has proven itself in a most convincing manner. Imperials and Germans have fought together for a common goal and defeated an enemy whom none of us would have been able to stop separately. The victories that have been hard-fought are great and they will help us usher in a period of peace and prosperity. Yet, we all know that this battle is not over: There are still Chaos forces in Sylvania and there are still large warbands of Greenskins in the World Edge Mountains. And we all know that sooner or later the Chaos desert will birth another Warlord who bands the factions together and launches another campaign against us. Alone we will suffer defeat, together we will hand them their heads. From the beginning the Reiksbund has been open to other nations. Now that this news and some news about the recent fighting has made the rounds it becomes necessary that we show what the Reiksbund is about and what it did recently to clear up the rumors and give you more facts for a discussion whether to join.
To this end we have prepared a short movie which I ask you to watch, here goes"
The riddle about the white area on the wall was solved when the moving pictures appeared on them. They still puzzled him-the pictures were moving and of great clarity and even with his fine elven senses he could not feel the magic behind them.
The pictures were accompanied by a deep sonorous voice whose speaker remained hidden and addressed the audience in the Reiksspiel as this was the language spoken by all.
"The Reiksbund is a defensive and treaty open to all nations not affiliated with Chaos. It offers common security, improvement of transport and communications and exchange of knowledge." The words were accompanied by a series of still pictures and moving sequences showing Imperials using slender repeating rifles, of steam-powered trains running on steel tracks and of motor-powered freight barges traversing the endless Reik. Other pictures showed the phone booths in Altdorf and pictures from a classroom where an imperial mage trained a class of hopefuls.
"The Reiksbund may be young but it has passed its first test with flying colors. During the last months the Alliance has been attacked in several places by Chaos armies and warherds of Beastmen. These attackers have been defeated decisively." This narrative was accompanied by pictures of a siege of a single small castle by a huge Chaos Army and by the poor remains in the same army, of a huge armored train which bore itself into a humungous mass of beastmen."
"Among the threats to the Empire was a magical storm of unprecedented size which may have well developed into a much worse danger if we would have left it alone. Only by attacking this full force and with heavy losses were we able to put an end to this. This time the pictures were even more disquieting-a huge horde of beast-men was massacred by a group of tanks like the ones he had seen in the parade, other Children of Chaos were shown only in their dead state killed by something which looked like thousands of small explosions. A group of humans and dwarfs fought their way through caves, protected by several imperial mages who were obviously taxed heavily.
"The final test for the alliance has passed just a fortnight ago when forces of the Empire and from Germany working hand-in-hand used disinformation to draw a large Chaos Force into a Battlefield of the Reiksbund. There they wore nearly annihilated by a combination of stand-fast defense, artillery and aerial bombardment." The presentation had, so far, already caused a lot of whispered discussions and muted comments. The sight revealed now stopped all of that immediately. Shot from the walls of a fortress that the script below showed to be Middenheim, it showed a Chaos Host as none living had ever seen and as no history had reported. A multitude of Chaos warriors of all stripes, of monsters above all description under a sky full of flying beasts covered the valley floor as far as the camera could see. Warmachines without number swayed to and fro showing their demonic possession and multicolored lights indicated where magicians plied their trade. All of this paled by comparison to the scores of Bloodthirsters who towered above this army like adults might dominate crawling Children. Lesser creatures of Khorne still added to the immense threat to any mortal being that was assembled on this battlefield. Aurelius had taken part in many battles and experienced the capabilities of Ulthuan as few others. He knew bone-deep that the armed might of Ulthuan would not have been able to stop this host, let alone defeat it soundly.
And then the ongoing presentation showed what the narrator had meant by "annihilated": Flying beasts were roughly cast from their chosen domain by flying machines like the ones he had seen two days before. Explosions caused by unseen sources ripped through the ranks of the army and the Bloodletters were killed one by one by the combat cars and by flying machines who seemed to possess a rapid-firing cannon.
Next came the bigger flying machine, the one that had been paraded above Altdorf last yesterday and where it went the fire sprung up. An unearthly magical fire-for whatever else could it be-that spanned the battlefield and burned all in its path.
Where before a powerful army threatened all before it now flames consumed all in their way. There were more moving pictures, showing the final defeat of the demons, the massacre of the Chaos armies pitiful remnants and the death of their warlord. But earthshaking news that these were they could not eclipse the picture of an army`s destruction in flames. What kind of power did these Germans command-and how could these hairless apes believe that they control such powers in any way?
When the pictures ended the lights became brighter again in the room and the German General again climbed to the podium.
"What you could see here is what we achieved by good-will, teamwork and the willingness to combine the strengths of all allies-and we have already achieved marvelous things. The Great Forest will know peace for the first time in millennia. Middenland will be rebuild with minimal pain as most of the civilians were evacuated before the Chaos Forces closed with them. Due to the enemies forced march the destruction and defilement of the Country was kept to a minimum. Even now railroads connect important cities and regions and river-bound trade is doubling every quarter. The living conditions of many imperial citizens are improving and Germany`s raw material supply is stabilizing. This is what we can do if just a few nations join forces. Now we invite you to speak to your governments about the opportunities that await all of us.
Thanks for your time Ladies and Gentlemen."
The elven noble sat dumbstruck at his seat and stared at the screen which showed only white again and watched his thoughts that chased through his head like rabbits which had just spotted a fox. How was it possible that the fates had given these humans such a power? What had they done to deserve such-did they not see that this kind of might would be the downfall of everything in their hands? No they could not see-they were barely above the Greenskins in introspection and rational thoughts. Until now Elvenkind could ignore the humans up to a point-they were far away and their doings rarely touched the matters of true elvenkind. But now? The next mad emperor might decide to take his petty grievances out on Ulthuan-and what could they do about it.
The thought of a human ruler like Lutvik or Dieter IV in command of this Bomber or the Tanks he had seen in action gave him the shivers. Sunk deep in his thoughts he barely registered the short speeches by the various human ambassadors and the two dawi who had attended the meeting. He was still aware that his turn would be up next but for his life could not bring up enough wits to do the diplomatic thing and give some lying platitudes. In fact he was so shaken that he did something not done by diplomats or Elves: speak his mind.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, let me congratulate you to your great victory over the fell powers which seems to be hard fought and complete. It is even more surprising as it was one won mostly by humans without much assistance from the older races. The notion of a common defensive treaty is a noble one and it is good to see that you finally see fit to fulfill the prophesies given by the grand Eleven mages.
The Asur have fought Chaos when the humans were still clothed in furs and living in caves and likely we will fight them when you are there back again. Your short lives keep your attention in the eternal now and satisfying the needs of the moment is uppermost in your immature minds. The forces that you used in this war will have great consequences by far exceeding the immediate effects on the enemy-you have not given these effects any thoughts and did as you thought you needed to do without restraint. We have the long view provided by the immense lore accumulated over the eons, the wisdom that comes with minds sharpened by centuries and use, the discipline granted by the insight into the necessities and the restraint that comes from knowing the great prophesies.
Left to your own devices you will be swallowed whole by your own creations and might even strengthen the Great Enemy in the long run. I see that it is time that Asur in its generosity grants its greatest gift to you and provides you with the wise leadership that you so sorely need. Under our guidance we can show you how to keep yourself safe without endangering us all. Your new-found powers make it necessary for you to accept such tutelage. Before your doings did not have the power to undo all your betters have wrought but now...
Even the most self-assured elf will sooner or later realize that everybody of the beings around him watches him with a mixture of hatred and loathing but they were used to such from the feeble minded. What cut through the haze clouding Aurelius minds like a knife was the expression on the faces of several Germans and even some Imperials-not hate, fear, incredulity or aversion but pure unadulterated pity. The pity reserved for a small child reciting a poem wrong with vigor, for rambling old man recounting their shaky memories and for fools. And they were right-he was a fool for speaking the truth that was clear and undeniable for those with the wisdom to see what was real-but he was not surrounded by such beings.
It was the German General who first broke the silence that sat over the assembly like blanket.
"Thank you Sir Aurelius for speaking you mind so clearly and straightforwardly, I am sure we all gained appreciation of your position. Providing leadership for the Reiksbund by the Asur is surely seen by you as a generous and bold proposal. And yet your proposal needs some detailing to and it is possible that by your late arrival you may lack some information.
There is your assertion that we have no idea about the ways and means that we use to defeat the enemy and provide aid to our allies. Contrary to your first impression we know these powers very well. We have designed them from the ground up, we know how and why they work in excruciating detail and have witnessed their effects many times, if not in this world then in the one we were before.
If you get around reading the provisions of the Reiksbund treaty-the organization that you so graciously offered to lead-then you will find that to gain membership you have to have a declaration of the government of your respective nation. From the best of my knowledge for the Asur this can only be done by the Phoenix King-which you are not.
For those nations who are members of the Reiksbund the leadership of a given mission is established by the area in which a given operation takes place and the size and capabilities of the forces provided by a member of the alliance. Currently the High Elves are not a member of the Alliance, we are not on Ulthuan and from where I stand the contribution you could currently offer is your esteemed leadership, a unit of Silver Helmets and 2 Mages.
The leadership position that the Reiksbund treaty can offer you is that of an observer by an associated nation, a place where you can grant us your wisdom best. I am sure that we can work out the details after this meeting."
It was during this speech that Aurelius had an insight into the truth-the truth that he was exactly at the place and the position where his fellow elven nobles wanted him-and it was a humbling thought that showed him the depth of his self-deception for the first time in very long time. Bereft of all power and pride he could but give the only fitting answer.
"That would be an honor Sir."
Howaltswerke, Kiel, next morning
Daniel Rakewitz looked at the scaffolding which partially hid a mass of pressure hulls, tubes structural supports, actuator lines and so much more.
"Doesn´t look like much, doesn't it?" quipped the representative of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems who had joined the Commander on the Gallery nearly on top of the closed building dock.
"Actually it looks like quite too much-much more complicated than the subs I am used to"
"That is why they send you and your team early. When you and the other crewmembers have taken part in building this you will know it like the back of your hand by the time she will go to the trials. We can also work with your input on small changes."
"Yes, I know and actually think that is a very good idea. What I do not understand is why this sub must be so complicated. More displacement I could understand, but 3 pressure hulls, double hull, twin screws-what gives?"
"Don`t be the next one to accuse us of German engineering please-why one part when 25 moving ones will do. But I assure you that we did not complicate things needlessly. When the Navy approached us in the months after the Weltensprung about much bigger submarines, especially ones where a basic submarine design might be modified for several different missions we went through several proposals.
The size of this world and the fact the navy now needs to go where it is needed and cannot ask somebody else to do it means we need much bigger submarines then before. Actually a displacement of nearly 5000 tons came up pretty early. Most of the proposals we checked out were more conventional than this one: Single hulled with a torpedo shape. But there were several factors which killed these.
While the requirement to transfer dived through the Kadet Trench is gone but the navy still thinks that the draft should not exceed 17 meters by too much as a lot of the work for subs these days will be in littoral waters.
The next reason was financial: This design uses most of the molds, tools and support systems that we have already for the U212 class. Using many of these systems also eases your training and we gain redundancy as most important systems are there twice or more.
To cover all the requirements the sub you see here is basically build from two side-by-side pressure hulls from the U212 class but lengthened and covered by a second non pressurized hull. We have added a smaller 3rd pressure hull for CIC and as basis for the sail.
The sail is more to the back than what you are used to from U32, so we can keep the back ends of the sub mostly as you know it. Each pressure hull has one Diesel, 2 Sterling AIP generators good for 400 KW of power, one set of Batteries and one electric drive with slew-back screw. You can cruise at 9 knots on the AIP`s and have enough power for the Hotel load, snorkel at 12 and when you engage the batteries you can go up to 22 knots. We have used the space by the secondary hull has been used to give you a system of high-pressure pipes and water jets at various points of the sub so you can turn on a dime.
There are 4 stainless steel cores with runes as heat sources for the Sterlings between the pressure hulls inside the secondary hull, all are cross connected. The Steel cores can be dropped individually or en masse in case they give problems or as emergency ballast."
"What, no caterpillar drive?"
"Only if you promise to paint the submarine red and we have the launching ceremony in October."
Both men sniggered a bit before continuing.
"Between the drive end and the front we have the mission module. For your sub it is accommodation for a 24-men Special Forces detachment and some of their gear. Inside the top of the secondary hull are several pressure-proof containers which house more of it, including two RIB-Boats and a diver's vehicle.
In the sister class we will build 24 tubes for modified Taurus cruise missiles.
The front end contains 8 torpedo tubes, all swimout models. Expect one of them to contain a module for 8 Iris missiles and one or two be used for remote sensor platforms.
The hull is big enough that we could tuck a sonar dome under the torpedo tubes and there is a side array. There is a provision for a towed array but you will not be fitted with it on the first time. There is a high-definition active ultrasound sonar of high definition which can reach all around your submarine. The bow mounted sonar has been upgraded with an active pulse capability which you can sharpen down to 2 degree and the power for the pulses comes from a series of ultracaps. Suffice it to say that whatever beasty is in the beam will stop bothering you. Just make sure there is no crew member inside the beam, he would be toast.
You`ll get the usual radar and infrared sensors, but the Sail has two new masts. One is completely from one of the hardest woods we ever had the misfortune to work with and contains a magic indicator. The other one has a 30 mm RMK recoil-less cannon you can erect and use while submerged.
Don`t look at me like that-I know that back home this would be a specialty item at best and an invitation for an attack at worst-but here there are different rules and you might want to support you landed teams."
"Very impressive-thanks. But as I said also impressively complicated, so I best start to learn my way around."
"Follow me then"
The Palace, Altdorf, same time
Breakfast had always been a special time for Emperor Karl-Franz, as he usually had this time for himself and his family. He also liked a healthy breakfast as all too often the next decent meal was dinner. Not to forget that he usually shared dinner with 80 people on average which tended to take some joy out of things.
But since the last year or so Breakfast became even better, and that was due to the Germans –again. First off the doctor at the German embassy had taken care of his worst dental problems, so that eating sweets was no longer something paid for with bad pains.
Then came the fridge-by now he could have butter even in summer when before stifling heat sometimes had spoiled it before he could eat it. Also some of his preferred spreads kept much better when reliably cooled. Not to mention that he had discovered some new ones. He still had a lifetime supply of Nutella for agreeing to a couple of pictures of him eating it on a bread roll-strange.
The bread was also better-a lot. The bread always had some ground stone in it that did not improve taste and did abrade his teeth. The mills were now all buying filters that took out the stone and improved the bread markedly.
Just that today the breakfast was not just food and solitary time-it was business. Here the solitude was needed so that both parties would not have to protect their "Face" in front of their allies and advisors and frank words could be exchanged more easily.
On the opposite side of the breakfast table sat Angela Merkel who was just gingerly eating a bread roll with Skadi Fruit jam, still something of a novelty in Germany.
"Another Coffee dear?"
"Yes certainly, that would close things up nicely, thanks:"
While the Emperor refilled her cup-even servants could be a problem-he sensed that now was the time for the meat of the meeting. The Germans had pulled the Empires ass out of the fire big time, there was no way in Hell the Empire could have stopped the demon-reinforced Chaos Host before Middenheim. Now it was probably time to pay up and he really doubted that a cup of coffee would suffice.
"Karl-Franz, we need to talk."
"Yes Angela?"
"There is a problem we need you to take care of or it will influence our relationship with the Empire the wrong way-the very wrong way."
"Name it and I will see to it"
"Serfs and Slaves, Karl-Franz. We need the Empire to get rid of that and quickly. There are already rumors in some newspapers and blogs why we support Slaveholders."
That hit the Emperor like a punch out of nowhere-he certainly had not seen that coming.
"Uff, Angela I do not know where the problems are. The Empire has traditionally nearly no Slaves to speak of and they have never been a big factor. And our nobles treat their serfs 10 x better than any Breton I know of-this is not the same thing."
"I know that, you know that but the press does not or it does not care. And quite frankly, the fact that there are Slaves within the Empire, no matter how few there are sticks in my craw. The same thing about the serfs-yes your nobles do not have a "right of the first night" and they have to leave the Serfs enough to eat no matter what their cut is, but still it is not clever.
And you should not forget-it makes no sense any more. The new methods of farming, especially with the new machines make much more sense when they are used by free farmers, not by serfs. The farmers work the hardest they can as it is their own livelihood if they do not get things done, a slave or serf only works when somebody is looking.
Germany released its serfs among other things as a money saving measure-and it worked."
"Granted, I can see what you mean. But what about criminals?"
"Labor in jail or a similar institution will not be regarded as a problem in Germany-as long as this is not abused. But slavery and serfdom must go if we want to keep the high level of cooperation between our nations-or even increase it."
"Ok, I understand. I think it will not be easy. The nobles will not be happy about no longer being able to command their serfs as they like and the serfs need to be able to handle things themselves."
"That is a given. If you can take care of the poor nobles pampered feelings we could agree to a aid program that teaches the farmers, establishes a Raiffeisen Credit Union where needed and loan some money to the nobles so they can pay the former serfs a wage. That way nobody loses too badly. For the slaves there needs to be a retraining program."
"If you put it like that, I think I can make it happen. But be prepared for a lot of grumbling. The serfs freedom is to be comparatively easy, these days everybody wants German equipment and if this allows for access it will be fine with most. The Slaves are another matter, in most cases they are the "pets" of some pervert, that will cause quite an uproar"
"Believe me, I can take it. But there might be something else as well."
"What else can ruin my relations to the nobles"
"Universal Schooling"
"What is that for Sigmar`s sake?"
"Oh dear. Well, that means all children from say the age of 5 to the age of 15 have to attend school and….
DLR Aircraft Test center, Oberpfaffenhofen, 4 days later
The DLR engineer watched both the plane and the scale on which it stood incredulously. "I don`t fucking believe it. This crate should have an empty mass of 1200 Kilogram and the bleeding scale just shows 892. I checked the scale 3 times-she shows all other weights correctly, just not this one. And now I have pumped 100 liters of Diesel into her and the scale just adds 56 kilo-I do not get it at all."
He was watched by a German pilot, an airman and a dwarf.
"Told you so manling, I put the rune of flying on it-that makes the plane and all it needs to fly lighter. It is a good rune even if I say so myself. I do not know many who can do better."
"Uh, magic then. Not what I am really familiar with, but it seems that I have to do so now. Who would have thought it? Well, how did she fly?"
"Strange. The plane is lighter-I flew it so overloaded that it should never have left the ground. But the mass is still there and that makes for a very different flight envelope. But one can get used to it quite well, you just have to know about it." Nathan Alpers had flown his "Storch" to Oberpfaffenhofen with several stops on the way. Some were not technically necessary like the one in Altdorf or at the Castle Wolfenfels but nobody complained.
"Does it wear off"
"Not that I noticed during flying. But Björn can tell you more about it"
"Most of our flying machines don`t last very long, so there is no way to tell directly. But we have a very similar rune for weapons and these last as long as the weapon."
"I would not believe it if I did not see it myself. And if we were still on earth even then I would not believe it, but here…. Well, we had an ear on the ground even before you came and now that we see that there is no Humbug I can make some phone calls if you want me to, I think you are detached to us here for the next weeks, so I can arrange some meetings with interested parties.
I would like to load a few instruments into the plane and have you fly it with me in the co-pilots seat tomorrow-can we do that?"
"No problem at all"
"And now I have to find a way to measure the inertia of this Storch-how very wonderfull"
"Sir , if a may?"
"Yes airman"
"There is a hitching point at the tail wheel which is rated the planes load. You could tow the Storch from it and measure the force you need for acceleration-that should give you some data."
"Clever idea airman-maybe I can enlist your help there."
Kempinski Hotel, Munic, one Week later
The meeting room in the Kempinski was understatedly elegant and very well made, like everything here. This was a place where you did not have to ask for the price of anything, as if you`d have to you could not afford it anyway.
The quality of the service could be seen in that the staff had prepared a seat for a dwarf without anybody asking them to. The beings taking advantage of this offer were a mixed bunch. On the one side of the table sat four middle-aged human men, well groomed and in tailored suits.
On the other side sat a dwarf in a very robust clothing style, a Bundeswehr pilot and an airman in dress Uniform tried to look as if they were used to such surroundings.
"Well Gentlemen, we have seen the preliminary presentation from the DLR about your rune of flying and the findings look very impressive. I do not want to get ahead of the DLR`s usually comprehensive testing, but from what we already know the potential for this new technique are staggering. So we can say that DASA is interested in what you have to offer.
We could increase the payload and range of existing airframes considerably and new designs could take advantage right from the start and reap even more benefits. All of this needs more research of course but the basics seem clear enough. So we have a couple of offers to make:
Nathan Alpers, you are a serving member of the Army Air Force, so there is not much we can do for you-presently. But if you ever look for a career after the Armed Forces I am very sure we can arrange something. We always need good pilots for example.
Hermann Rolf, for you we have the same thing to say. Yet we all know that your tour is up next year and then you have a job offer with us. You can then choose to enter our Study-while-work dual training program and end up as an engineer or start right away making runes-your choice.
Björn Steinier: This is where it gets interesting right away. We offer you a position as an engineer. It rates an annual salary of 120.000 Euro with the usual benefits plus 0.5% of the price of any plane we sell with your rune when you make them and 0.1% if somebody else does.
We offer you training in aerodynamics, structural engineering and anything else you need to know to design you own plane, together with the materials and the workshop time needed to make it. We will clear the way with the German bureaucracy so it gets certified. We will teach you how to fly and will help in getting a pilot`s license. Finkenwerder has an active community of Airbus employees that build their own Ultralight planes.
I think in about two years you can sit in an aircraft of your own devising and fly it. So, what do you say?"
Dwarfs always haggle, no matter what the offer. It is in their nature. Today was another day as a slack-jawed dwarf barely managed to clear his throat for a "That is acceptable Sir."
