Close to the Ironfrost Glacier, next morning

The mobile command of Lord Silverhawk was an elaborate affair that connected several tents into one and that boasted a couple of coal pans to keep the chill at bay. Slender but sturdy collapsible furniture allowed for a civilized life for somebody of such high station and wealth.
Currently it was filled by a host of Druchii Dread Lords and their retinues who jostled for pride of place. There was one exception-a human and his group was given some breathing space and sideway glances. The human was oblivious to it as he was fiddling with the keyboard of something he called a "Notebook" despite it having no pages.
Finally a screen lit up and started to display a jumbling picture. While it was colorful it jumped here and there from time to time, sometimes went out of focus, and when that happened it seemed to show a blurry mass of scales. Still not bad considering that it was made by a hand-held camera from the back of a Dragon. That way everybody could see the enemy for himself and not rely on the report of an overwrought Dragon Rider.
Still, the subject of the short movie did not enthuse anybody greatly as it showed the approaching Chaos Horde in all too much detail.
When the movie ended it was Lord Silverhawk who went first:

"So now we know how they took out that Watch Tower so bleeding quickly-there are rather more of them than we were first led to believe. Well, more glory to us for the taking. Still, our old strategy of relieving the Fortress Tower is gone, so we need a new one. Suggestions?"
Not even knowing the size of the gaffe he committed Wolfgang Böhler spoke up. "Your highness, if I am allowed? It looks like the enemy`s army is built around their chariot and cavalry force, their infantry is likely cannon fodder and backup. Our force has a lot more infantry, and we have a serious manpower disadvantage. It would be advantageous if we were to fight defensively from terrain which restricts the movement of such units.
From this map there is a series of hills here which together forms a crescent. It is in the way of the current path of the invaders and would cause considerable detour to the enemy if he were to avoid it. Such a terrain would make using chariots and cavalry difficult and would use the strength of our units best."
The angry murmur among the Dark Elves indicated that nobody was happy with a wisecrack merc, but it took a while until one of them voiced something substantial.

"You may be even right when you point out the obvious. But it is equally obvious that we will reach the hills only when the enemy is already there-so what was the use of your diatribe except for showing you to be clever, mercenary?"
"Actually the more mobile elements of my unit could reach these hills in time-be there a little early in fact. We can slow the enemy down so the rest of you can fortify the hills in time."
The incredulous looks that the sniper received and the snide comments hinted at a discussion going out of control, so the army commander found it necessary to step in.
"Are you sure you can indeed do this Herr Böhler?"
"Yes your highness"
"Then make it so. You should leave presently; we will follow as fast as we can."

Hamburg, later that evening

Heiner Brand was rail-thin, 40-ish, wore an unruly shock of dishwater-blonde hair and a T-Shirt that proclaimed "Nazies no Paseran". His apartment was as close to a pigsty as you could get without being bodily dangerous. The view from the Window showed part of the Reeperbahn, the famous Hamburg red-light district.
He took a glass bottle of "Astra" beer from the fridge and threw it to a huge blonde man with a crew cut that had placed a long leather coat on a chair to insulate himself from the filth. Taking a bottle for himself and lifting it up in the typical German salute "Prost Ibrahim old boy. Nice to see you again, how long has it been-5 years."
"Yes, about that long. But you played hard to catch."
"Yes, that went with the job, like all of this…" and made an expensive gesture encompassing all of the apartment.
"I cannot understand how you can stand this hole Heiner, it was never your style."
"See it as mimicry, anything else would have stood out and the indigenes would have noticed-that would not do. If you would not work so far away I would have to find another meeting place, as it is nobody knows you and I can make up a tall story if needed."
"Jeezus, I understand camouflage, but still."
"Somebody got to do the Job Ibrahim, and if I do not do it, who will? You know it as well as me. So, if you can stand the trash a little bit longer I have something for you."
"Ah, and what might that be?"
"Well you send that crayon pic of that accomplice from the Jasla jailbreak, didn`t you?"
"Come on, it was a pic by a good police artist."
"Yes, and it had about as much to do with the real thing as I am really throwing stones at policemen."
"So, what have you got?"
"Let watch a movie, shall we?"

Heiner produced a tablet computer and inserted a micro SD-card into it. Soon thereafter a two people filled the screen and talked in earnest. The sound was not too good because of a lot of background noise, but mostly understandable. One of the two speakers was obviously the late Manfred Horst, but the other one looked like the drawing Ibrahim Dürr had send to all and sundry-when one squinted the eyes in the right way. The voice of the unknown man was audible now.
"Jasla is clearly a prisoner of war. She has been part of an organized military which raided Germany as is their custom. At least now after our illegal assault on their homeland we should set the prisoners of this war free.
The pigs which call themselves our government could never show that she was directly involved in any of their so called atrocities and still they have sentenced her for life in prison-and what does that mean for a being who can live longer than a thousand years... You can also see the hidden face of our fascist state by….."

"Where did you get that Video…wait one, do you have video surveillance in the bleeding Rote Flora?"
"Of course not as we would need the a Judge`s ruling for each and any case and anything gathered this way would be inadmissible in court. Which is why this video does not exist and you are imagining things."
"I would never imagine the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has so much balls."
"I do not believe my bosses have so much balls-officially. Really Ibrahim-you have never seen this Video."
"You have any Idea who is the guy I imagined from the Video I did never see?"
"A guy names Claus Tolles-totally blank file on this one, never did anything larger than giving his income statement a week late. But ever since the jailbreak, nobody saw him."
"Fuck…"

Tavern "Donkey and Dwarf", Altdorf, early next morning

Anna was climbing down the ladder into the cellar below the Kitchen of the Tavern as she did every morning. Most guests who stayed at the Tavern overnight wanted some mush made with milk or some butter with their bread and that kept best in the cool cellar which had been here before the Tavern was erected on top of it. If the tales told among the maidservants were true it was older than the house erected before THAT one also and a lot of horror stories were exchanged about it. The only horror Anna could imagine after all the years was to be pushed into even worse sex by the taverns owners in this room than he usually had. When she was down she started to smell something unfamiliar-something like wet fur. Had a cat found its way into the cellar, or some rats? Turning around she saw many red spots reflecting the light of her lantern. She started to scream briefly when it reflected from teeth and claws also.

Army Airbase Leipheim, Germany

Newly minted Brigadier General Kurt Crüwell still had bright eyes after leavning his new Hind. The Mil-MBB MW74, as the new type designation, was simply a dream for every "combat chopper". Ottobrunn had made a total rework of the Mi 24, using upgrades already made on Earth by Mil and new things tuned for this new world.
Since the original Russian turbines and plans for them were unavailable, the German constructors worked around that problem by using their newly upgraded turbines for the Sea Stallion, which Germany had produced in licence on Earth. The Hind had always been one of the fastest helicopters, but with the even stronger turbines for a transport heli build in, the new Hind regained the title of fastest helicopter. With a rune of flying incorporated, the hind was lighter, even with new reinforced armour plating build in. A positive side effect of the weight-reduction was a better and more safe performance at slow speeds in low heights. The "Block" and avionics upgrades Mil designed themselves on Earth before the Weltensprung went into the new design as well. Fixed armaments were a 30mm cannon from the "Tiger" combat helicopter, a MG 3 and a "chin" turret. The wings had several hardpoints for bombs, missiles, gunpods and countermeasures, with ammo types ranging from solid, explosive, claymore to incendiary and flares. While the radar was upgraded, a lot of more work went into the IR, the passive array and the tele-guiding for missiles. Added in was a magic detector and a larger reservoir of flares.

Kurt Crüwell was happy that he got the first of the new helis for testing. New Hubschrauber were needed. For most airial threats on this world, the army´s helicopter force was the "go to" unit. The Luftwaffe was "only" needed for special threats, searching, transport and attack missions, especially the long range and high altitude ones, which on Warhammer was still a filling duty.
Most "normal" flying enemies could better be fought with helicopters, so Kurt Crüwell´s unit (and his counterpart´s in Fritzlar for Northern Germany) grew steadily in numbers and duties to be done.
Tigers and Hinds comprised his main attack choppers, with some milspec MBBs and a handful of Apaches added in. For transport they used Sea Stallions, the Mil 42, which was a German-Russian co-project back on Earth, some NH90 and thr rest of the functioning Blackhawks. While recon flights over Southern Germany and the border regions were the bread and butter missions, a sizeable number of these missions were done with Drones far a better coverage in Frühwarnung and counter-attack.
Another mission the helicopter units of Germany had to do was keeping watch over Griffon and Pegasi nests in Germany´s range.
With all that to do, Kurt Crüwell was a busy, but happy commander. And as an army man, the situation where so much of Germany´s crucial air forces were in the hand of the Heer, reminded him of the Luftstreitkräfte of World War 1, before the Luftwaffe became their own branch.
As an remembrance of that time, many helicopters carried not only the Iron Cross, but the Tatzenkreuz, the Luftstreitkräfte variant of the Iron Cross, as well. This was one aspect, nearly every German soldier liked the Weltensprung for. The renown and standing of the Armed Forces in the population was rising again. Funny, what an obvious threat to ones wellbeing could do for the image of the Army even by in the "peaceniks" minds.

Train Hammer, Railway Station Altdorf, one hour later

The command center of Hammer was not very big but allowed all department heads to attend and had enough space for a decent map table as well. Very old school by German standards it was easy to maintain by the Empire and the imperial soldiers could relate to this kind of information better anyway.
"Ok folks, now we know why we have been placed on alert since yesterday night, I just got a sitrep and orders from Oberst Grube. It seems like there are several instances of Skaven attacking citizens and buildings all through Altdorf and there are the first reports of an army assembling outside. The Rats are crawling out in several places all over the city, but the biggest outbreak seems to be around the Prison and the Wilhelm Edel Plaza.

We got ourselves the following missions:
- Hold the railway station so that reinforcements from Germany can arrive
- Secure the railroad back to Germany
- Stop the Skaven incursion at the Prison.
To these ends we will go as follows:
The 1.1 parts of the train with two artillery wagons and the repair cars will go down the railroad to Germany at all speed and meet up with the trains from Germany and escort them here. 1st Lieutenant Harkstom-your job.
The 1.2 and 1.3 parts of the train will remain here, secure the station and provide artillery support as needed, the 2nd Platoon of the Landwehr will remain here to hold the station. 1St. Lieutenant von Pfeilstadt-that is up to you.
The tanks and the rest of the 1St kaiserlich-deutsche Landwehr will push towards the prison at all speed. We will enter the town through the Triumph Gate and push to the Prison via the Imperial Gardens.
I will take command of this task force. Let`s get to it-any second we waste means good people die."

Kellerweingasse, Altdorf, same time

The giant rat had finally managed to overturn the cradle from which the irritating screaming noises had come and had its snout red from the tasty snack found inside when instinct and fine senses made it head swivel towards one of the windows. The bright flash from there was the last thing it saw. It never saw the door that was kicked open, the flashbang that filled the room with thunder and noise or the soldiers which stormed the room without much regard for personal safety. Some rapid shooting and some bayonet thrusts ended the lives of all Skaven found in the house, followed by an "All clear" and a repeat in the next house down the road.

This squad of soldiers was doubly eager and fought as if they had to make up for something. They were the Cave Raiders and had the distinct feeling that this Skaven assault was partly their fault. Their superiors had been quite clear that they were less than enthused by their discovery and the subsequent blasting mishap. Stopping just to replenish ammo they fought their way down the roads from the cemetery to the Sigmar`s Temple as if they would have to stop the Skaven on their own-this did not improve their chances for survival.

500 meters AGL, Storch 006, close to Altdorf

Lieutenant Jörg Meine could steer his plane straight and level without conscious thought which was a good thing as his mind was on observing the mass of dark fur that emerged from a cave entrance north of Altdorf. What seemed like a lemming rush written large converted itself into something more sinister when the masses organized themselves in blocks of armed units in quite a rush.
Meine had learned the art of bush flying and observation from Nathan "the Wise" Alpers himself and knew how important fast accurate info was. Pulling up a little bit to avoid the first bouts of green lightning that shot in his direction he contacted base.

"Altdorf base from Storch 006-mass of Skaven emerging from Caves at Coordinates….Ememy is mostly infantry and some Rat Ogres, but they also pull some war machines into the open. Light enemy units seem to go for the Drakenwald Road towards Middenheim."
He put a racetrack-like course over the enemy, making sure that his cameras got everything before he moved off-the natives were getting restless after all. And, as Nathan had told them: "You can fly wherever you want. But you cannot fly above the enemy in a straight line for more than 30 seconds. And anything more than 5 minutes at all really overstays the welcome."

Von-Ueben-Gasse, Altdorf, a little later

Skritznik the White felt great. He was surrounded by a humungous unit of stormvermin who pushed him and the Screaming Bell be was standing on through the roads, and beyond his bodyguards there were gutter runners and clan rats galore who fought their way through the streets. He had known that the humans were not prepared; he knew this was his opportunity to carve his place in Skavendom. It was unfortunate that the bulk of the Skaven army had to deploy outside of Altdorf as most of the tunnels inside were unpassable due to the flooding. But the army outside would lure the foolish humans outside and he could tear the place down.
So far his troops had not met real resistance-this part of Altdorf was on the side of the Reik that was given to wharves, fisheries and industry. The palaces and embassies, the houses of rich-all the places that called for armed guards and soldiers were on the other side of a river too far to bridge. The press of skavens and the sound of fighting showed him that this was about to change. When the Bell and its guards rounded the next corner he could see what the problem was.

A makeshift barricade of carts and furniture had been erected across the street and behind it a mass of burly men lifted melee weapons of all descriptions. Besides old swords and daggers boot hooks were in attendance-the local longshoremen were putting up a fight. Yes-Yes.
Manning a fixed line they seemed so far successful to stop his Clanrats who had problems climbing the barricade and warding of the human`s attacks at the same time. Their problems were increased when other men-and women(!) started throwing roofing tiles at his troops from the roofs. Time to end this.

"Strike the Bell-strong strong. Strike it twice-now, now"
The muscular Skaven that wielded the hammer obeyed without delay and brought his instrument down with great force. The Screaming Bell gave off a powerful sound full of dissonances and the promise of bad tidings. The waves that emanated from it did not just propagate in air but also in the medium that men`s souls resided. Circumventing all conscious thought it tripped the panic in all the humans unlucky to hear it. Some of the more strong willed did not succumb and some of the more closely tied groups did not splinter-but the vast majority dropped immediately what they were doing and ran with the Skaven close on their heels screaming for blood.

Skritznik drank deeply from the winds of magic which very most plentiful because of the Bell. Green colored lightning sprang from his claws and ripped into the humans on the rooftops. Severe burns and spasms befell the ones hit, the rest could not flee fast enough. A Rot Ogre was pushed by his packmaster into demolishing the barrier so their triumph march could continue.
Skritznik snorted another dose of warpstone and felt the power running through his veins. He was the epitome of Skavendom-nothing would stop his rise.

Ulthuan Embassy, Altdorf, same time

Aurelius Ethelorne looked out of the window and he was not pleased by what he saw. The road that led through the estates of most embassies was blocked on both sides by imperial soldiers. They were an appalling mixture of the old and the new. Their uniforms had the cut he expected of imperial footman-but they were field-grey. They bore firearms-but no longer the crude muskets that the Elves so rightly despised as the crutch of those who could not invest a couple of years into decent longbow training, but the utterly lethal K98 rifles. There was even a machine gun visible and at the same time the soldiers erected barriers from what he now recognized as barbed wire. At least the weapons were pointed outwards, not at the embassies.

"Knock Knock" "Enter"
"Master"
"Aeolus, could you find the meaning of…this?"
"Yes Master. The imperial government states that there is an attack by the Skaven."
"What-until two years ago most of them did not even accept their existence."
"Hard to do after Middenheim. Anyway, the City Guard detachment of the Reiksguard is to secure the embassies until the crisis is over."
"Thanks-I just hope this is not tested. In hate to rely on imperial footmen for protection. All commoners-a few years ago most of them were apprentices for some menial jobs or something and now they think they are soldiers. Are our troops on alert?"
"Yes Sire. The Silver Helmets are unhappy that most of their horses are not here, but everybody is under arms."
"Very well, then the only ones not so are you and me-get our armor and weapons-by the look of things we will need them."

Fields close to Altdorf, 30 minutes later

Hauptmann Heinrich Hemmler watched the Skaven Horde through his Binox-and did not like what he saw. There was a virtual carpet of fur which covered the valley below and streamed towards Altdorf. There was an imperial blocking force between them and the capital, but they looked like a very thin cloak against the chill of the grave. It was imperative to slow them down to give the defenders more time to improve their situation. Why did he always have the task to slow the enemy down? Having sufficient troops just to smite them right then and there would be a nice change of pace.
Still, slowing the Skaven down was his job-and with it came a chance to test a tactic he had thought up recently. They had tested it a couple of times-the results so far were mixed but this seemed to be the best course of action still. Judging distances again he saw things would have to happen soon.
The avant-garde of the Skaven was made up by lots of light infantry-Clanrats mostly with a leavening of gutter runners were fanning out in front of the main body.

"Ensign, give the signal "General advance"
In the old times the signal would have been horns-now it was a couple of precious, protected and valuable 2-meter wireless lets which tied the platoons together-as long they did not part more than 2 kilometers from each other that is.
This way Hemmler`s Dragoons managed to get out of the trees and into a line before too many of the Skaven realized-and had not formed any response apart from some panicky squeaks before the charge was sounded. Even in the old days this would have been devastating-light infantry should not oppose cavalry. But Heinrich Hemmler had started to read big time when the Germans had provided all the books one could wish for. One had detailed the US Cavalry before and after WW1-and Wolf`s Dragoons was based a lot on their doctrines. One of the signature tactics of this cavalry seemed adaptable-and if it worked against Pancho Villia, whoever that was, it should also work against the Skaven.

Distance to the enemy was so short that going through canter to gallop was not necessary. Now that they were in the open using the horn signal was allowed-and like every time since the first time the Hauptmann had a charge for real it was the greatest rush one could have. Vision slimmed down to a tunnel, the world reduced itself to a target and the ride became a rush. Heinrich had learned to ride at an age when other toddlers learned to walk and steering his horse with his knees only was second nature to him. He was used to this-a very few years ago he would have needed his hands for lance and shield during the charge. Now he held a different weapon-hopefully to greater effect.
The US Cavalry had made such charges firing their 1911 Colt Pistols-Wolf`s Dragoons had something more powerful. As so many Bundeswehr units were converting to something with 7,62 mm ammo a lot of G36 assault rifles were up for grabs. Heinrich Hemmler had used any contacts that he had made during the work with the KSK to grab some of them. So the Clanrats at the front of the Skaven army were confronted with charging cavalry on huge striders who were firing more than a hundred automatic rifles at them. The movement of the horses at gallop during the charge would have made hitting very unlikely-against anything but the excitable rats who clung to each other for safety.

The Skaven were mowed down without any chance to fight back as their spears nor did their swords give them any chances to do so.
If he would have charged the lead units of the Skaven the old way with lances he could be pretty sure they would have run-now there was nobody alive to run and the units not directly attacked assumed the running part.
The Hauptmann managed to rein in his Troop in time and redress them before he charged the Skaven again. By that time the avant-garde had become hopelessly tangled with the main body and any advance by the Skaven for the time being seemed unlikely. Hemmler was debating the wisdom of going in again when two of his men went down and green tracers filled the air. The rats had finally brought up a couple of ratling guns-time to go.
He knew exactly what happened to Cavalry when confronted with machine guns, even such primitive ones. He had been there when the Germans inflicted exactly that on Chaos Cavalry.

A Meadow in Reikland, The Empire

General Kurt Crüwell was passing around cups of tea, cocoa and coffee himself, while the techs were fastly refilling the helicopter tanks. Hearing about the Skaven attack on the Imperial capital, they sent a flight of attack choppers to help. Crüwell´s force were Tiger and Hind helicopters and for the first time the general was flying the fully armed new Hind they had gotten for tests. Two machine cannons and two machine guns in the bow alone and a deadly mix of gun and bomblet pods under the wings, topped off by 2 missile pairs on the outer pylons, the warning sign for phosphorous gleaming brightly. The flight was carrying some armour-piercing munitions, but the the main components were anti-personal. While the helicopters could have reached Altdorf in one go as a transfer flight, in combat-ready mode they needed a tank stop. A flight of NH90 and Sea Stallions, who would return home, had carried fuel for the attack force.
Since the refueling would take a further 20 minutes, General Crüwell walked over to the crowd from a nearby farmstead, who watched them with rapt fascination. He knew a flurry of questions awaited him, but public relations were important as well...

Altdorf, same time

The imperial gardens were an impressive display of horticulture and sculpturing. It had been refined over more than a millennia and were the gleam in the eye of many an Emperor. They were also graced by a lot of statues, mostly depicting heroic generals and Emperors or beautiful women. While some of it were a tacky in general as a whole the Gardens were beautiful and serene, much used for leisurely walks on Sigmar`s day by the populace.
Currently the beauty was slightly marred by a flood of furred abominations from a drug fueled nightmare made flesh. Rats the size of wolves, Rats that walked like hunched over men clutching rusty but serviceable weapons, bigger black furred rats that wore armor and spears protecting Warlocks that had crudely combined iron and warpstone in their very bodies.
The serenity and quiet was disturbed by the crack of autocannon salvos, the sound of tearing cloth left by machine guns, the single shots of battle rifles and the "Krump" of grenades. Caught in the open of the Gardens the Skaven had a very bad time of it. Trying to close at least with the Infantrymen of the Landwehr they had to traverse the fields of fire of so many rapid-fire guns that none of them got anywhere but dead.
The imperial Garden would not amount to much for years-Henrik Gerber doubted that the Altdorf citizens would be too unhappy about that. All rats he could kill in the open would not get the opportunity to kill said citizens in their homes.

Beyond the gardens and the plaza was the Gate to the Prison from which and unending stream of Skaven poured into the city. Smaller members of that race also used side entrances and some windows which now missed their bars to avoid the rush at the gate-sensibly so as this exit was the target of several machine guns and the autocannon of two escort tanks. By now the Skaven were slowed down by having to climb over their own dead. Major Gerber picked up
"Hammer 2, this is Hammer Actual, you and 2nd Company guard the entrance. Hammer 3 and Hammer 4, Company 1 and 3 follow me, we need to secure the buildings on the other sides of the streets."
When Gerber`s escort tank rounded the corner of the Prison the view was as close to a nightmare as possible. From windows and roofs, from small service doors and any other unlikely opening furry figure emerged as quickly as they could just to cross the streets and either enter the buildings there or enter the small lanes between them to disappear into the city.

"Gunner-we secure the Entry Teams. Hammer 2 and 3 I do not want any rats to cross that road nay more. Driver-stop."
The Major watched as the two other tanks drove a little forward into the road and opened fire with their coax machine guns and the guns handled by the tank commanders. Mounted on a steady platform and having a good ammo supply the tanks converted the road in an abattoir. At the same time a squad of soldiers climbed on to Gerber`s tank while he turned to turret towards the upper floor of the first house of the road. Taking control of the coax he fired a burst in each window that the tank passed while the soldiers that had hung to the tank threw flashbangs and CS grenades into the now empty openings.
"Driver-stop" brought the tank to a halt and the soldiers in the back used a board to enter the upper floor of the house through a window. Several more explosions and the report of rifle fire followed when the squad threw grenades down the stairs into the lower floors and then assaulted the stunned Skaven there in a room by room sweep. Half the Squad emerged a minute later, the rest remained to make sure the rats would not come back.
One house down-roughly 20 more to go.

Close to Altdorf, same time

"Blam" the report of the M82 rifle was loud enough to be heard even above the din of the running battle. Hauptmann Hemmler used his binox to watch the crewmember of another ratling gun go down and the rest of its crew flee in panic just to be cut down by a warlock engineer.
It had taken the Hauptmann some doing, including paying for a long visit to some public baths, mail-order full plates a barber and some clothing, but he had gotten Wolf`s Dragoons into accepting Warden Merkel-and him the Dragoons. The Dragoons which had enough nobles to fill a Baedeker had warmed up to the Warden when he demonstrated his shooting-the Warden was surprised that they accepted him at all.
Watching the compact mass of Skaven that pushed down the road to Altdorf the Hauptmann saw that bleeding rats had indeed adapted to their earlier charges-now they were pushing Jezzail teams and ratling guns up front. They had at least the same range than he had shooting from horseback so now things had to be handled differently. Their horses were kept by his reserve in the back and his men were now on their stomachs and waiting patiently until the enemy would deign to come into range. The Hauptmann winced when he remembered what he had to do to get these haughty knights actually to fight prone-the rejection rate at that part of the training was astronomical.

He himself was crouching behind a small tree and tried to keep an overview of the situation. Far away to his right were the outskirts of the Great Forest, to the left a lot of open terrain and some scattered copses of trees. The middle was just chock-full of Skaven as far as he could see. The Rats were by now a big mass of units as the skirmishers were now either dead or somewhere in the ranks of the van. At the same time the Skaven had to push their war machines to the front if they wanted to have any chance at pushing the Dragoons further towards Altdorf.
Hemmler had positioned two of his companies across the path of the Skaven with the third behind them being in reserve and handling the horses for all of them. That his men were nearly unseen was another thing to get used to-not standing up proudly to the enemy but hiding and ambushing went against the Cavalryman`s grain. Yet he had been exposed to Ernst Hermann for quite q while and which way worked had been rather obvious thereafter. There was also his not-so big arty train of 4 M101 guns commanded by a very grumpy dwarf. Checking his range finder function again he found the Skaven were now at 1 Kilometer-time to get things rolling.

"Wireless-my compliments to Lieutenant Grimmnir and he may open fire now at his own convenience."
It did only take some heartbeats for the deeper booms of the 105mm cannon to reach him-at about the same time when the first shells arrived at the Skaven. The instant-poplar shapes of ground impacts mixed with the sharper cracks of the airbursts. The latter were less morale-sapping to the enemy but rather more lethal. The effects of the Skaven were obvious pretty soon. The front parts of the army accelerated from marching speed to a double-time jog. He could just make out one of the "Storchs" that had reappeared over the Battlefield before he tapped his "Funkenpüster" on the shoulder again. "Wireless-contact 1St and 2nd Platoon-Open Fire at the 700 meter mark-Now"
It took the Chain of Command a few seconds to react and then fire reached out from the thin line of Dragoons. There was a crackle from the many assault rifles fired single shot and he ripping sound of the machine guns. The machine guns used tracer which seemed to fly at the Skaven at a lazy speed-till it impacted their line. There the rats stumbled and went down, just to be trampled by the ranks behind that pressed forwards-but more slowly now.
But as many Skaven the riflemen and the arty fire killed-there were always more to take their place and so the distance to the Dragoons shrunk at a nasty pace. Hemmler had to judge the moment to skedaddle right-too early and he would not slow the Skaven down enough-too late and his troops would be swamped before they could remount their rides.

Yet, he had one more card to play. "Wireless, contact Major Kerensky. Now is his time." His Binox was on one of the copses of trees that all of a sudden seemed to have gotten a case of "Timber" calls as the first row of trees dropped nearly simultaneously.
From this former treeline the tanks of the Dragoons emerged with sudden burst of acceleration and they opened fire as soon as they had a clear line of sight. While the had less shooters than Hemmler`s Dragoons they made up for it by firing from the flank. Their machine guns were ripping the right elements of the Skavens apart and their 30 mm cannon did not just drop the Skaven dead-it ripped them apart.
The Enemy`s advance into the fire that had just been so relentless in spite of all the losses was mostly halted in moments and the rats milled around searching for way out-until the tanks success became its own danger.
Having driven most Skaven close to them into headless flight or bleeding death the tanks had uncovered units that had been well hidden inside the Skaven army. The bizarre-looking weapons looked part cannon, part Dr. Frankenstein prop and all madness. Already being turned in the right direction the warp-lightning cannon opened fire as soon as they could see the tanks. Two of the shots went wide; some just grazed the armor or blew off the added panels without damaging the tank itself-and one blew off the tracks of tank no. 2.

The tanker reacted immediately-the fire of their autocannons went for the huge warp cannons and they fired a number of small canisters at the same time. White smoke rose from the cannisters. Blocking any sight from the warpcannon to the tanks which switched positions as fast as possible. The cannon fired anyway, but had no hits. On the other hand one of the cannon suddenly turned violently and fired a lightning bolt that seemed far stronger than all the others directly into its own army.
That and the added confusion and losses due to the fire of his men and the surviving tanks plus the smoke had slowed the Skaven to a standstill. Trying to make out anything about the tanks was impossible till the cleared the smoke, this time driving backwards and more or less towards him. On one of them a 3 humans seemed to hang on for dear life-the crew of the immobilized tank.

He ambled over to the tanks to get some coordination when they reached his line. The Rats had retreated a little bit and were probably psyching themselves up for the next push. Getting to the lead tank from which the rescued crew had dropped he made sure not to approach the tank too closely. The command target was easy to find, it had the picture of a black spider below the official markings. From their combined field problems he remembered that the tanks drivers did have a very limited field of view-and no ability to hear warning shouts whatsoever. He only went near when the officer looking out of the tanks replied to his waive.

Pulling off the tankers helmet the red-headed German who had accepted an imperial commission and had taken command of the Dragoon`s tanks. The name tag showed "Major Kerenski", it had taken Hemmler quite a time to understand why all the adopted Germans were calling him "Colonel". "Hello Nathan, quite a show you put up there."
"Thanks Henrik, but I think Oberst Wolf will be less than happy to hear that one of our tanks is out"
"Happens when you fight, especially this vermin."
"There is that. You think we can hold them here? Altdorf is not that far off?"
"Let see-if they push again like they did the last time-this round I do no longer have a card in my sleeve."
"Yes, but it still would be a shame if…"
"Sir, I have Bund Actual for you"
"Dragoon 6 for Bund actual-I am listening."
"Hauptmann, I hear that enemy has retreated some?"
"Yes Sir, but for how long we cannot say."
"Good enough Dragoon-you will have visitors soon, the Luftwaffe has something on the way with ETA under 5 minutes"
"Now they tell us"
"Yes, I am also happy-not. Stay safe Hemmler. Bund actual out"
It was two minutes later that the air was filled by a sound like thunder and rolling cloth combined. There was nothing to see until a couple of specs cleared the horizon at blinding speed and crossed the Skaven army at a height of barely more than 100 meters. Before anybody could react fire and smoke issued from the belly of the planes and scores of small bodies were ejected to both sides. A carpet of small explosions followed the planes.
"I think we can hold Nathan."

Harbor Quarters, Altdorf, same time

The mass of Skaven that moved down Reiklandstreet was a splinter of the main group, the shavings which did not find a place in the main thrust, the scum. They were also a furry carpet that nearly showed no individuals but an amorphous something with too many ugly heads, too many blackened teeth and serrated claws that covered the lane from wall to wall.
Nothing was in their way, but attempts to enter the houses met more resistance then the moving mob wanted to overcome at present. The Squeals filled the air and struck terror in the hearts of the citizens that did not get away in time.

The Skaven were loud enough to drown out the first shots-but not for long. From two rooftops and two entrances streams of bullets punched into the closely packed ranks of Skaven. In many cases the comparatively small bodies were not enough to stop a bullet on their own and Rats behind them fell victim to deformed tumbling bullets that ripped wounds that frightened even them.
Yet flight was not a possibility as the rear ranks did not even realize what was happening in front. They probably realized that something bad was going on up front when a number 40 mm grenades sailed clear over the heads and exploded in the middle of the Skaven. That finally brought the space the frightened survivors needed to flee. Stumbling over loose limbs and tripped by entrails they ran from the lane as fast as they could, loosing even more of the number that way till they were out of sight.

Reloading his rifle Joakim Vos stepped into the middle of the road. He was in something of a daze from the brutality of the assault and the sheer abattoir that their ambush had wrought. Like many lanes in Altdorf this one had a runnel in the middle to channel the rain water, now a small but continuous trickle of blood ran by his dusty boot inside.
He was still regaining breath and senses when the silence was broken by clapping-the applause by a single pair of hands who gave a measured applause to the slaughter. Its source was a lone man clad in a velvet burgundy suit of fine tailoring, one of the Cylinder hats that were currently all the rage on top and a bright Addidas T-Shirt under the vest.

"Well done Gentlemen, well done I say. Could not have done that better. Pulling his hat off and presenting a deep exaggerated bow "Jerremy Conelius at your service Gentlemen. May I inquire who so ably rescued us? And sorry-boys you can come out now-it is safe I would say."
The Landwehrmen were more than slightly astonished when all along the lane doors and windows opened and scores of men appeared. Mostly clad in the garb of Longshoremen they all carried some sort of melee weapons, mostly long daggers, boat hooks and billy clubs with nasty looking metal inserts.

"I am Sergeant Joakim Vos of the 1st kaiserlich–deutsche Landwehr and these are my men. Glad to be of service, but if I may ask: What the fuck are you doing here."
"I am running the "Rancid Shark" a locality providing for the hardworking longshoremen working in the harbor of this fair city. We were doing our civic duty by defending this part of.."
"Ah, I heard of you-you are the mobster who runs all the protection rackets and organizes what goes for unions around here. And your men wanted to pick up some valuables for safekeeping before the rats destroy it all."
"Herr Vos I am wounded by your accusation and deeply regret…"
"Can it-I can use you-provided you want some city and harbor to remain so you can practice your trade in future."
"We are all willing to do our civic duty-provided we are backed up by heroes such as you, aren`t we boys." Silence. "Sigh…such good men, but slow..IT IS TIME FOR THREE CHEERS FOR THE SHARK BOYS"
The howls that could be heard would have frightened the Skaven who could have heard it-were they not already so dead."

Imperial Palace, Altdorf, 15 minutes later

The Imperial Palace had always been a clash of building styles and had been expanding as much as its cramped surrounding allowed. It had always retained sturdy walls and crenellations-not in the least as sometimes the Altdorf citizens and their Emperor did not always see face to face.
Some of the greatest clashes were the most recent additions-one does not expect 0.5" heavy machine guns in twin mounts of the top of stone towers or a series of antennas close to the flag poles. It became worse inside in some rooms. One of them contained a beautiful ancient tapestry depicting the heroic deeds of Sigmar on one wall-and a series of 50" LED Sceens on the other side.

The screens showed the situation of Altdorf-both in cold symbols superimposed on maps and in gory details by pictures transmitted from low-flying planes and a helicopter. It was a grim sight with fighting in several quarters with seemingly no rhyme not reason. No clear fronts, so way to predict where the battle would be going and no way to get the civilians out of it.
The man who watched all the monitors in the middle of his advisors gripped a hammer in both hands with white knuckles and tried to rein in the need to go out and defend his subjects personally. Somebody had to make the decisions-good decisions and fast and that was him. The horror of it was that no matter how good and fast his decisions were-there would be death and injury, destruction, epidemic and famine-if he was very good and lucky.

The voice belonging to one of the faces on one of the screens tried to get his attention again. "Highness are-you sure? We can do it, no problem, the planes are already in position. But we cannot spare the men inside."
"What men inside? The thrice-damned rats have the prison since at least two hours-anybody alive inside there is dead or would be happy to be so. And at present our best troops are just trying to keep them in and cannot go out and save more of my people and more of my city. Do it General with my blessings."
"Yes Highness, we will. And you are correct, it is just not an easy decision to make."
"I am aware of it General-very much so"
Another screen showed the prison-showed the unending stream of Skaven that poured out of it and the hard fighting troops that tried to keep them contained. It did take a little time-and then the screen only showed a huge dust cloud and the camera`s picture jumped as if the camera itself was severly jolted. When the dust cleared sufficiently the walls that had enclosed the prison had fallen-very often inwards- and the burning ruins of the prison was the pyre of a the men and women who had been inside before, mixed with the bodies of their enemies.