Antiguilla, Great Western Ocean, Brunntag, 26. Nachhexen

Areta Bane did not move despite the trickle of sweat that ran down her back and disappeared between her buttocks. She was commanding a platoon again for the occasion and everything had to be shipshape, including her bearing. Unfortunately her uniform was made for the unforgiving cold of Naggaroth and not the comparatively balmy temperatures of the semi-tropical island of Antiguilla.
The island has an good natural harbor, wide beaches and an interior with a couple of substantial hills that contained a lot of useful caves. An assortment of houses and huts that should not rate an endorsement such as Town or Harbor was at the middle of the harbor bay and its denizens were mostly geared towards taking money from the Corsairs that had made this Island their harbor. Most had decided that it was far more profitable to arrange themselves with the Auxilia, the few who saw things otherwise had wisely chosen to move elsewhere quickly.
Most mercenaries were busy building proper housing and storage these days, but today visitors were expected and so it was time to turn out the best face they could muster. Areta still felt stupid guarding not the harbor but a piece of beach close to it, but if Wolfgang Böhler said it needed to be done she would do it to the best of her abilities.

The strange droning sound was the first indicator that someone-or something was indeed coming and before long she had to call her warriors to attention to keep them from staring at the craft approaching them. At least as big as most merchant ships and of spindly shape it flew. It got closer to the ground while flying a long curve that terminated exactly over the piece of ground besides her Platoon.
Her warriors presented arms while a couple of humans exited the flying ship. Six of them were warriors, quite different for her charges. Clad in some sort of armor they wielded weapons that looked a bit like the Germans personal arms, but more black and they had no wood on them. Once these gad spread out and watched everybody through mirrored glasses two more humans left the craft. One was a tall blond man in a long black coat and peaked cap, the other a nondescript middle-sized man in beige-colored suit.
As soon as the men had departed the "airship" it went back into the Sky, keeping station a few hundred meters above.
Wolfgang Böhler stepped forward and greeted both. They passed down the platoons line before they disappeared inside the Auxilia`s headquarter. It was two hours later that she was called to a meeting of all company leaders.

Sitting on several mismatched benches the Druchii and Germans faced Wolfgang Böhler and the two men that had just arrived who sat at a table. After attention had been called and everybody was seated again the former sniper stood up to address them all.
He shocked everybody by dropping a broken stainless steel ring to the ground before the table. Everybody recognized it as the ring worn by his wife Ludenka.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to announce a number of changes that will affect us all. First off-as of now the Auxilia will no longer have slaves. It is not right, it is not good, it will weight us down. If a job needs doing then we pay for it. If you cannot take this then I cannot be your General. Anybody got any problems with that?"
Silence. More of it.
"Very well then, I did not expect loud approval, but this is how we do things in future. Secondly-we already discussed it, we will be a free mercenary company. Those of our former slaves and the specialists that work for us will form a separate brigade within the Auxilia so they get a voice.
We no longer aid the Black Company-we are the Black Company now, so will should choose a new name one of these days. This will be up to a vote.
We will take employment with whoever will hire us as long as we can be reasonably sure we will be paid. That said I have negotiated a long-term contract for us with a part of the German government. Ottokar Proktor here will explain the contract to you."

Sitting down the nondescript man stood, adjusted his glasses and somehow stopped being nondescript and nonthreatening.
"General Böhler and me go way back, we know each other well and he has worked for me before. He has convinced me that you are a capable regiment of infantry and already accustomed to modern weapons. My government has need of a unit that will take the tasks that we do not officially be bothered with. So we have decided to take you on a five year contract. We will not only pay you but also allow you to acquire machines and materials that will allow you to maintain and replace your current weapons, make ammunition and what other gear you need. The group I represent will hire the "Bärbel" and use it to supply you with a limited selection of German gear.
You will have about six months to regroup, retrain and get your things in order. After that you will deploy for Cathay where a Chaos invasion takes place that the German government does not want to be bothered with.
We will not make changes to your command structure, but we will leave a representative with you who will make sure you understand our wishes. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Kommissar Ibrahim Dürr."

An hour later Ottokar Proktor and Wolfgang Böhler shared a cigarette and a little privacy on a balcony overlooking the harbor.
"Wolfgang, I can only say never ever do this again. The Section does not like such things and I had a hard time convincing the others it is worth the effort"
"You were about to abandon Jim Knopf, Urmel. What was I to do, die for the Fatherland? Hardly so. And these guys and gals have earned their right to a second chance."
"Just as long as we understand each other."
"Oh yes, Ottorkar, we do."

Temple of Hashut, Mingol Zharr-Naggrund, Festtag 32. Nachhexen

The City of Mingol Zharr-Naggrund were an industrial hell. The sun had not shone through the polluted overcast since centuries and the air carried the tang of metal, badly burned carbohydrates and other airborne wastes. The clouds were illuminated from below by countless fires and arcane lights.
The city was ringed by manufactories, slave pens and high walls made from obsidian. The road that led from the center was bordered by the statues of great Dawi-Zharr mages. No artist had shaped these lifelike statues, the mages themselves had been turned to stone as an side effect of their dealings with the fell powers.
The small group of humans and Druchii that made their way down the road made their best attempt not to look to impressed or too exhausted by the long journey they had just completed. They were escorted on both sides by a line of Dawi-Zharr immortals who had to march fast to keep the travelers pace.
The road ended at the Ziggurat in the middle of the city and the escort mostly peeled off to let them ascend the hundreds of stairs that led to the top.
When they had arrived at the top they had to wait before a huge open door that led into a dark interior. Nobody moved until the wheezing of escaping steam and the heavy impacts of metal on stone could be heard.
Bigger than any of the newcomers due to his mechanical prosthesis Astragoth, High Priest of Hashut, supreme ruler of all Chaos Dwarves stepped outside and looked at the newcomers to his domain.
"So, you are Jasla and those are the Humans that will teach me the secrets of the Germans, right?"

Dragon Gate, Ulthuan, same date

Cales watched Ernst Hermann`s goodbyes as he went through the room and wondered at how much had changed. Six months ago everybody regarded the Germans as naked apes with an attitude, now they were regarded as ..well that seemed to depend on the person.
Cales had been put back by Germans at first. That they washed, wore clean clothes and kept other hygiene was very nice, but it was somehow wrong at the same time. Like with their manners-they had shown acceptable behavior from the start and it had only improved over time. It had irritated not afew Asur who had regarded the Germans with the same lack of comprehension as the Germans would have for a speaking dog. Yet if one worked with them for a longer time the irritation went away and Cales had learned to appreciate the Germans as persons intheir own right.

The KSK officer in particular had shown a lot of the qualities that Cales would value in an Asur-he had great integrity, courage and honesty. He had also tried his level best to learn the ways of the sword from Cales and while he would never make it to the level of a elven Sword Master, he handled himself much better these days. He was also quite likely the only German officer with a magic sword. During the Druchii assault on the defenses before the Dragon Gate he had defended himself with his old German officer`s sword which had bent severely as had to be expected.
Cales had given the sword to one of his artisans to remake it and now it would pierce anything in its way and certainly not break when it was subjected to a mere halberd.
In all Cales would miss the Germans-they made him question some beliefs that he had held for several human lifetimes. He doubted that many Asur would see things the same way, but very few Asur were Sword Masters. Korhal certainly was not one of them, but even he had come to this informal meeting. While he would never like the Germans he had come to respect them. When one of them leaves a virtual carpet of dead Druchii at your doorstep anything else is hard to do, even for a High Elf noble.

Isa of the House of Heras matched the half-bow of the German officer with precise courtesy. She would actually miss the humans who had been part of her household for so long. She would not have expected that six months ago, quite to the contrary, but she had always been good at hiding things. Her finances were in balance for the first time in a long time as the Germans had paid their rent in full even when absent in the field. She had also found that her cook had purchased spices from the Germans at a ridiculously low price and had resold them for the going one, filling her coffers even more.
The Germans had behaved much better than she had anticipated and had caused less damage to her reputation than she had feared. She would also miss Ernst Hermann who had proven to be a surprisingly inventive lover, but again, she was good at hiding things.

Ernst Hermann settled into the more-or-less comfy seats of the Airship for the 12-hour trip back to Lotheren. Some friendly soul had provided a stash of newspapers so the KSK team could play some catchup. The lack of modern communications in far-off posts was something that the Germans had to get used to in the last few years and it was not easy. They had the news that could be gained by old-fashioned long-wave radio, but these 5 minutes of news hardly contained more than an appetizer.
He had already been through the e-mails contained in a USB-stick and now went for the news. Hermann had heard something in the little news he had received and now wanted to confirm on it.
A piece in the "Spiegel" written by Jakob Augstein would hopefully provide some insight.

"The end of Liberalism as we know it"
The last elections have not been good for a couple of parties, but none got clobbered worse that the AfD and the FDP. While the Anti-Euro message of the AfD was suddenly no longer relevant after the Weltensprung and left the party hanging in the air,the demise of the FDP was the end result of a longer process.
While the old FDP of Genscher`s fame stood for civil rights, a reduction of state involvement into people`s lives,and many other things;she had been reduced to a "lower-the-taxes" party by 2009. When they could not deliver on that promise and their internal strife were practically the only headlines they could make,their approval ratings dropped like a stone. That they tried to push an "every man out for himself" message just when the Weltensprung made everybody look for safety in numbers helped to reduce their votes from nearly 15% in 2009 to 3.5% in 2521/2014.

At the same time the conservative Christian Democrats have moved far left from their old position. Abandoning their long-held support for nuclear power, abolishing conscription, even only for a short time,and embracing same-sex marriage; they managed to edge out the Social Democrats from parts of their electorate. While this gave them a comfortable majority it left many conservatives without a home as all parties to the right of the CDU are considered unelectable by most voters.
So when the AfD and the FDP both realized that they would have to bury any hopes for seats in Parliament because neither of them could get over 5% of the votes as demanded by the German constitution they found a reason to negotiate.
The FDP had been much more conservative in old West Germany and had thought about going back there several times. The AfD had tried to sell themselves as a party that was wise on economy, being founded by a professor of economy after all, long a hallmark of the year both parties decided that this was enough common ground and decided to fuse into a new party which calls itself the "Freisinnige Partei" (Liberal Party-literally Freethinking Party) now and campaigns on a platform of supporting the troops, reducing the many new rules and regulations that have appeared since the Weltensprung and a more conservative worldview. The latter includes a quota for refugees and immigrants and a stop for any more gender-equal legislation.
The new Party will be headed by a triumvirate of Gerhard Lindner, Olaf Henkel and Bernd Lucke.
The FDP of Genscher and Scheel, the party that helped reforming our constitution and laws to modern standards, that coined the word environmental protection and was a defender of civil rights is no more-it will be sorely missed.
The eyebrows of the KSK officer rose perceptibly. The German political landscape had been pretty stable since 1990, this had a potential to remake it. Whether in a good way Hermann could not say.

Peenemünde Nord, noontime, 10. Brunntag Jahrdrang

Winter in southern Denmark is usually a humid, windy and rainy affair in grey, yet today was different. A pale sunshine lit up a featureless landscape that that was mostly covered in the grass of countless meadows. Apart from other human settlements,an assortment of boxy white buildings were clustered about very wide area covered in concrete. In its middle a huge tower held a rocket. It was more than 60 meters high, and the slender central stages were flanked by two 30-meter long boosters of the same diameter as the first stage.
A lot of spectators watched the proceedings from the nearby seawall or fields that had a good view. An invited few had better places under a roof, and a little closer to the tower.
"Nathan, what is that steam coming off the top of that rocket. Did you not say it was not driven by steam?"
"The 3rd stage uses a mixture of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen so it has more power. But these two are very,very cold dear, and so a little bit of it always leaks out so the pressure does not become too much."
"And that stage makes this rocket so powerful that it could lift you into-how do you call it-orbit?"
"That is a part of it, but the much bigger part is the two cylinders that you see on the left and right. They are not the same solid fueled ones we used on the first rockets, but have the same engine and the same fuel like the first stage. They are much more powerful and improve payload a lot. But the most interesting part is the "Rune of Flying" they put on everything. If this works out then the payload will be incredible-much better than anything tried thing should lift more than much bigger rockets on old Earth."

"Why should it not work? It works fine on your Storch, does it not?"
"Oh yes, it does. But first off we do not know if it will work in space. Many magic users become weaker the farther they get away from the Chaos Gate or the Towers in Ulthuan. Rune magic normally does not do so, but we have to check. Secondly rocket engineers are a very conservative bunch and like to keep things that work and distrust anything that is not proven. These machines have so many parts that have to work right under tremendous forces that anything that can go wrong is ruthlessly eliminated. And magic is something that these guys did not know until three years ago and still see as unreliable.
But if we want to go into space in a big way we need any advantage we can get, so they built this test model. The complete payload is comparatively cheap and if this goes wrong then nothing important does for a swim in the Sea of Claws."
"So these rocket engineers try to make this thing as safe as possible?"
"Yes my love"
"I like them already."
"Why-ah you mean as I will sit on top of one of these one day? Not yet decided my dear, let us not spoil it."
"You will be selected Nathan, I am sure."

The last 10 seconds of the countdown commenced a little later. Many tons of water were pumped over parts of the tower and the pad to protect it from the intense heat and pressure that would soon wash over them.
Inside the 15 engines that were ignited highly potent fuels mixed together and ignited. They converted into superhot gas that drove a series of turbine stages to ever-higher rpm until they had a combined power of several ten thousand horsepower.
These were the fuel pumps.
They used all that power to bring many tons of the same fuels into the main combustion chambers in an incredibly short time where it reacted with primal fury. The hot gasses exited the bell-shaped exhaustsof the engines with a sound that could be heard many kilometers away and that could be felt by the onlookers on the stand with every piece of their body. Most remained speechless in the face of so much power, others stood up and screamed with approval.
At first the rocket did not seem to accelerate much, but with each passing second it went up and gathered speed. After less than a minute it was just a glowing speck in the sky that was connected to the ground by a dissipating smoke column.
Just 3 minutes into the flight the two boosters extinguished their engines and small explosions cut them off the speeding rocket. The central stage had taken part of its fuel from these boosters and burned for a minute longer before it was also cast off. The second stage took over for another 5 minutes of acceleration before shutting down, and throwingthe rest into a high arc above the Warhammer world. The remaining spacecraft coasted for a while before the last stage accelerated it into an orbit of 500 kilometers.

By that time the white-knuckled crew that manned the control center had relaxed considerably and when the 3rd stage finally burned out at the desired attitude even the best of German discipline could not keep cheers of joy from the tension-filled room. The rocket, including the magic parts, hadworked as advertised and had put a payload in orbit that rivaledthat of a Saturn 5. A great lot of plans were set into motion on that day that would influence every being on this world-and more besides.
The payload shroud had been discarded a while ago, now a framework held several smaller platforms and satellites that were ejected at various times. They used small, low powered engines to gain distance from their peers and tried to establish communications with their ground control.
Most of them were low-budget projects by the students of German universities and even some high schools that normally never would have been taken to orbit but got their place as this was a high-risk mission.
One was different. A black cylinder broke off the frame last of all. It its end a block of stainless steel started to glow cherry red and then ejected a long plume of steam. Accelerating slowly but steadily the cylinder gained a much higher velocity and changed orbit to something far higher.
Heated by a Rune of Fire this stainless steel block was the first magic-powered space drive in history. It contained a lot of channels into which water was put from the back side. Converted into superheated steam it exited a bell-shaped nozzleat high speed as long as the propellant lasted, then the block and nozzle werecast off the cylinder as well. All of that had been carefully monitored by German scientists who noted that there was an opportunity for a station-keeping drive or a transstage for satellites that needed to go into geostationary orbit.
Skori Morgrimson had been a remarkable Dawi. He had been the King of Karak Raziak, a good and just King. He also had been an stargazer, which was very unusual for a Dwarf. One of the last joys of his life had been the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope that the German ambassador to Kiev had given him as a gift.
His Runesmiths had cut the Runes of Flying for the experimental "Greif" rocket, and their mastery was second to none. They had reduced the weight of payload, rocket and fuel by 38% and had allowed a humungous payload. They would sell their services again to DASA for Gold, but this time the payment had been different.
The black Gromril cylinder was closed by neat rows of rivets, in its upper third a window of the clearest crystal allowed a view inside. The dead King Morgrimson could now gaze at the stars in a clarity that a place on the ground would never allow. His sarcophagus was at least 10000 kilometer from the Warhammer World`s surface which meant that his orbit would not decay for many thousands of years. It might be a trick of light, but the King seemed to smile. He was in good company.

Towerof Cold, Naggarond, Brunntag, 10. Jahrdrang

Elrik Straker thought that Admiral Malik a very lucky Druchii. About ten minutes ago he had to bring the news to Malekith that the Auxilia had run off to parts unknown. The Germans with them had been the Witch King`s best hope to maintain the industrialization that had been started by the Black Company and that was stagnating now due to a lack of skilled manpower.
Malekith was already running rampant these days, purging the Bloodcrests, purging everybody who had anything to do with the failed attempt to reign the Germans in, purging everybody arrested who confessed something under torture and those implicated in said torture…
Malekith rage had exceeded all bounds and the Witchfire that glowed from his sword had mirrored the mood of its Master. Going from mere illumination to crackling lightning in a moment the release of energy had scoured the throne room with violence.
Straker, who had seen the signs had managed to take cover behind a massive pillar, others were not so lucky. When the thunder subsided and the inside of his eyelids were no longer showing nearly overwhelming sensations he had taken a look. The pile of smoking flesh and glowing metal had been Admiral Mailik once. Given what the Witch King would have done to him if he had controlled his temper better the former Admiral was a very lucky Druchii. His family on the other hand...

Karond Kar, Bäckertag, 20. Jahrdrang

The Corsair went through the slave market, looking at the offerings in the pens and caves to the left and right. He seemed to have a penchant for brunettes as he checked on several which were offered by a trader specialized in Breton slaves. He haggled for a while with the traders but they could not arrive at an agreeable price and so he could be seen wandering off through another passageway. When he passed through a small arch that connected two slave pens two other Marauders suddenly stopped ogling naked humans and followed without a sound. They checked the arch before stepping through it, but once the first was inside a dagger found his neck still.
The other Marauder jumped back by an impressive distance and had his sword out before anybody could raise an eyebrow. He was still scanning for a target when a small crossbow bolt entered his right eye. None of the onlookers was in any haste to check on either of the two or look what lurked in the arch.
On the other side of it an assassin covered his underarm-held crossbow again and checked for more pursuit. This was the 3rd attempt in as many days and it was just a matter of time before one of them succeeded. Yet tonight the "Credit of Torture" would leave the harbor, carrying him as another ordinary crew member. He would jump ship at the right time.

The assassin had been born Ivil Bloodcrest before the Brides of Khaine had carried him from his home as an infant. He had survived the ordeals and tests to become one of the Temples best assassins. Normally such a calling superseded all family connections, but these days any and every member of the Bloodcrest clan were very much wanted by the Witch King. He had assumed a role as a common Corsair the last weeks, but that legend had been broken somehow. He just had to hope the captain of the hydra ship he was about to embark did not know about it yet.
There was one possible way to evade Malekith`s wrath and that lay with Wolfgang Böhler, the renegade General. He thought he had a solid lead on his position by now and he was on the way to make something out of it.

Lothern, Ulthuan, Bäckertag 2. Pflugzeit 2523

The room inside the palace was still the same, small but tasteful, enclosed to give privacy but managing to give the feeling of sufficient space.
The persons in the room were-more or less-the same again with some additions, but the dynamic between them had changed considerably. Finubar, Arielle, Tyrion, Teclis and Aurelius had been here before, Admiral Aislin and Osirion had been attached to the group. Osirion tried not to notice the Asurian ambassador to the Reiksbund, which was hard to do in such a small group and when Aurelius`role was giving a presentation to the assembled rulers.
It reflected the verbal beating he had received from Finubar when the Phoenix King had realized that Osirion had failed to report the full news about the Germans. He was attached to his position by a thread only and knew that any move against the ambassador would be fatal which did not endear the two to each other.

Aurelius had brought a couple of new German toys with his and used them to project a picture against the off-white wall opposite to the tables and chairs of his audience.

"My King and Queen, honored Princes-you have called me to advise you on what the Germans know about the new Druchii army that has decimated our forces. Also I should report on the changes that have come to the Old World and what changes, if any, we should embrace to accommodate them.
I have heard about the losses of Prince Tyrion`s Army with great pain and my House suffers from the grievous harm done to the Dragon Princes. These losses highlight that this is indeed a new time and show us that we need to make and use new things to use them in new ways or this will not be the last painful defeat that we will suffer.
I have cultivated several sources at the Reiksbund headquarters who have gained some intelligence on the new Druchii force. According to them a band of German renegades has taken up service with the Witch King. These renegades seem to have manufactured better rifles and trained the Auxilia which murdered so many of us. The Germans learned of this only recently and have asked Malekith to apprehend them, something they refused.

There is some very recent intelligence that something went wrong for these Germans as aerial recognizance has revealed widespread destruction in the settlement the renegades claimed as their own.
The German government is very unhappy about these renegades as they do not want to spread their technology and as they hate the Druchii on their own, but realistically I cannot see them going to war about this. They had to fight several campaigns and a war in the last three years and currently do not need any more."

"These careless humans cannot control their own, we pay the price and they say we just have to bear it?"
"Admiral, I have voiced this in a slightly different wording to the German Foreign Secretary, Steinmeier. He stated that Germany would take responsibility for the renegades as soon as we do the same for the Druchii."
"This is totally different."
"Yes, of course Admiral. Unfortunately I could not make the German government see it the same way. But they hinted that they are willing to sell us technology and weapons to counterbalance whatever advantages our misguided cousins have gathered."
"So they make a business out of our misery."
"Yes Prince Osirion, in parts. Yet it is my understanding that we will be offered very low prices and be offered opportunities for balancing trade deals. The Germans would also argue that their closing of the Bay of Drusilla and their No-Flight-Zone has helped us considerably in the last campaign."
"And they think that is enough?"
"If we do not think so they do not care enough to do more Prince Osirion."
"So what do the Germans offer?"
"They offer the K98 rifles they have also given to the Empire, some Dawi and their Tilean allies. These rifles shoot as far with similar effects as the rifles used by the Druchii but have a better rate of fire. There is also an offer by Heckler&Koch who want a share of the market, they offer a new repeating rifle with a bigger magazine and faster action-they call it straight-pull bolt action. We would be allowed to purchase a version of this rifle that can shoot even more precisely in limited numbers and we could receive some machine guns. The German ambassador also stated that they would not protest of we hire some German advisors. We could also purchase the necessary ammunition. One officer also hinted that barbed wire and some kinds of wireless gear are considered civilian goods and therefore open to purchase."
"Could we make similar weapons on our own. I`d hate spending so much money outside of Ulthuan."

"Prince Tyrion, these weapons are very hard to make, needing very good steels , tight tolerances and advanced chemistry to make the ammunition. We would be better off to provide services we are specialized in. But in the long run we need to be able to produce such things on our own, but this would mean large changes to the way we do things."
"I have heard you say so before, can you be more precise."
"Certainly, but I suggest that I present where we stand at present in regards to the new and shifting situation, so that we see where we have to go and why."
"Make it so."
"As directed by his majesty I have made a study of the current situation in the Old World and in what ways we can profit from them. Most of the information in this presentation is from open sources or a number of Reiksbund staffers that are sympathetic to our cause for various reasons.
First off, we have all heard that the Germans have mighty armed forces-just that so far few of us have an idea what that truly means. The Druchii Auxilia that mauled us so badly could do so because they used advanced weapons and had the appropriate tactics to use them.
By German standards these weapons are painfully primitive and the tactics outdated. Even the lowest tier of their allies receives better weapons and training. The German armed forces themselves are so much above that level that the rifle-armed Druchii that they would consider them hardly a speed bump.
As some of us might find this hard to accept I have a video of several battles that the Reiksbund has fought in the last years. I have visited the battlefields in this video and from the remains would vouch for their validity."

The onlookers did their level best to project an air of amused interest, yet any Asur would have seen a mixture of fascination and aversion at the video that was projected in front of them. Three of them had seen most of that video before, but even they were aghast at the carnage that was Skavenbight. The explosion at the end shocked everybody.
"You said the Germans can cause such devastation anywhere they choose and that it is non-magical. But this-this was magical for sure."
"Honored Osirion, this was a special case. The Germans ignited a huge bomb under the Screaming Bell, that gave them a magical explosion. But they can have a similar devastation anywhere they wish to have it within a few days."
"So they say."
"Yes-can we afford to ignore such claims in the face of such evidence?"
Silence.
"Ambassador, Sword Master Cales told me the Germans could produce 1000 of their rifles in one day. Were they jesting?"
"Prince Tyrion, let me put it that way: last year Germany produced 35 Million tons of high-grade steel, by the best estimate we made a thousand tons give or take a few hundred. Nearly eighty out of a hundred Asur are needed to feed us all. The Germans need two out of a hundred-the rest can do different things. I do not know the production capacity of Mauser precisely, but this is certainly possible."
Silence.

"Besides the industrial might we should not underestimate the German trading and communication advances. We all have seen what the few ships we chartered from the Germans can do-less than 20 ships were able to transport more than all ships that Ulthuan can put under sails. The Germans can transport faster, cheaper and much more secure than any other power in this world. Even now our traders and seafarers complain about losing contracts-and this will not get any better.
In communications the Germans are able to send information to any point on this world, with the possible exception of the poles, virtually instantly. They can print books for the price of a good meal and can sort and analyze information, once it is inside these computers, with terrible speed.
The Germans are very weak when it comes to magic, they acknowledge such and try to learn everything they can. There are two developments of note when it comes to that: First off the Germans apply something they call scientific thought to magic which allows them to differentiate better between what works and what does not. The second is that they combine their machines with magic-and that is where they make impressive strides. The fliers that demolished the cliffs in the Bay of Drusilla would not have been able to do so without a dwarven rune."
"If what you say is true than the Germans are the most powerful nation on the side of order."
"Yes my Queen, together with their Reiksbund allies they are for sure."
"How well are they tied to the side of light Ambassador?"
"They denounce Chaos, that is for sure. They are very tolerant when it comes to different opinions and religions, they do not hunt Witches in the style of the Empire, but still Chaos cults are arrested from time to time. They are very hard to judge as their style is so different from all human realms, but so far they have fought Chaos most effectively."
"Do you think that is enough?"
"I have no idea. It seems very relaxed but so far surprisingly effective. I have heard rumors I have been unable to identify that the Germans are looking at their internal communications for hints of conspiracies and cults even when their own laws do not allow such things."
" We can only hope that is enough."

"Yes. I also have to report that the Empire is engaging in something they call the "industrial revolution". They are starting to produce items, even quite complex ones, in huge amounts by using assembly line processes. The steel production of the Empire has increased tenfold with German help already and there is more to come. The new railroads and telephones will tie the Empire together like nothing ever seen before-one can now travel from one end of the realm to the other within days and a letter will reach anybody within a week. The Empires armed forces are getting thoroughly modernized by the Germans and are much more effective already.
Several Dawi clans have received even more modern weapons as part of their alliance with the Germans against the Skaven and are trading raw materials for machine tools and knowledge. They will be able to field much more effective armed forces within very few years and we can expect them to retake some of their old Karaks soon.
Two Tilean City states have allied themselves to the Germans and will become important trading centers. The balance between them and the Estelians is drastically altered.
The Bretons are unwilling to change their ways presently-and that shows. Just five years ago they fielded the strongest armed forces in the Old World after the Empire-now they are dropping back to third or fourth rank-and if they do not do anything they will become worse off with every year. If they would go to war against the Reiksbund they would go under so fast that they would probably have surrendered by the time we have news of the war at all.
We have to understand what these changes mean. An established railroad system means that the nation which has it can shift major armies around in weeks, sometimes days-and supply them in the field. Repeating rifles have more range than any bow, fire at least as fast and from cover and penetrate nearly any armor there is. Riflemen can be trained within a few months to a useful standard and to competent soldiers within two years or so.
Machine guns are even worse-those who fought the Druchii know about them. As some of us have already experienced - this drastically changes the way battles are fought. These changes mean that we need such weapons and we need to be able to make them on our own."

"Ambassador, with all due respect-I have seen human and Dawi manufactories. Do you think Asur needs these stinking monstrosities that befoul nature? Do we need to put Asur in workplaces where they never see the sun and repeat the same simple task again and again till their minds succumb? Change a way of life that has stood the test of millennia just because of some upstart nation that is here for just three years?"
"Prince Osirion-you have not been to a German factory yet-these places are vastly different. But this is not the question-the question is whether we want to matter in 50 years or not. Nobody knows for sure, but it is easily possible that the Druchii have retained the ability to make more rifles, maybe even more of their armored ships and other weapons. Do we want to rely on the Germans to protect us or do we want to be able to stand on our own feet?"
"As long as I live and have this office we will stand on our own Ambassador, history has shown us we cannot rely on anybody for our survival for long. I take it that you have some proposals that we can discuss besides the immediate purchases of weapons."
"Yes my King. First off we need to improve transportation. In Germany and the Empire that means railroads, here coastal and riverine shipping should have priority. Then there is a program for foreign students the Germans call Erasmus and….