White House, Washington DC, 18.11.2016

There were a dozen people in the briefing room but only two men were of real importance. One was the man who was still president for a few more days, the other the man who would succeed him.
A week earlier Jeb Bush would have looked at Barak Obama with a little condensation, as the man whom he had wrestled the White House from, head of a government and a party he regarded at as dangerously misguided at best and close to traitors at worst. Now he was more than happy that the Veteran`s Day massacre had not happened when he was at the helm, it would have been a disastrous start into his presidency.
Susan Rice, the National security Advisor stepped up to the podium and the wall behind her lit up with the presidents coat of arms.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, seven days ago America came under an unprecedented attack by forces unknown. A group of terrorists took command of the museum ship "BB-64 "Wisconsin" which they restored under the pretense of making her a better exhibit. They managed to bring most of her weapons back on line and obtained ammunition from unknown sources.
In the early hours of 11.11. they attacked Naval Station Norfolk using the battleship`s main and secondary guns.
During this attack the Carrier H. , the cruisers Leyte Gulf and Normandy, the destroyers Mason, Ramage, Mitscher and Raboon and the oilers Kanawah and Grapple were all sunk, three more destroyers and the submarine Norfolk heavily damaged. NAS Oceania and the Little Creek Expedionary Base have been hit as well.
The losses have been considerable, with more than 2800 dead and wounded. There will be more deaths as there are many wounded which have received heavy doses of radioactivity and we discover more bodies in the ships.

The provisional cofferdam around the carrier has been completed yesterday, so the outflow of radioactive water into the harbor has been stopped. We are pouring concrete into the gaps we can reach from helicopters and have reduced direct radiation as well as a strong reduction in particle emissions. By the end of the week we should have achieved a provisional containment and can commence cleanup.
The courage of the rescue teams who have saved countless lives despite the danger of contamination cannot be overstated.
We have been very lucky insofar as the prevailing winds during this period were seawards, otherwise we would have had to evacuate cities like Norfolk, Richmond or even Washington DC.
52 terrorists who used Wisconsin for this attack survived, mostly in the bridge and the two forward turrets. Several are too badly hurt to be interrogated, but those we could give disturbing testimonies. All of them believe they were members of a regular navy crew, all of them believed that they were in "Leningrad" harbor and that they attacked Russian ships.
"You are joking, right?"
"No Mr. Bush, I am not. Observe:"

Behind Rice a video was projected on the wall. A thin, white haired man in an orange jumpsuit was manacled to the table in front of him. His face had several bruises in different stages of healing, he missed a front tooth and his eyes had a gleam of desperation and madness.
"How dare you suggest I attacked American ships you commie traitor. Why do you wear the uniform of the US Navy anyway, do you believe that this will convince me?"
The offscreen interviewer dropped several pictures in front of the raging man. They all depicted burning ships at Norfolk pier.
"Mr. van der Schroeff-if you say you did not attack US ships-what are these then?"
"Well-a Kusnetzov carrier here, two Karas there, this should be an Udaloy…"
"Captain-are you trying to pull my leg? These are American ships, you have served on some of them, how can you believe these are Russian?"
"I do not believe they are Russian of course."
"What?"
"They belong to the Soviet Navy."

The video changed to a similar room with similar contents, just that the chained man was younger and had a darker complexion.
"Mr. Weston, where were you when the Wall fell?"
"What wall do you mean?"
"The Berlin Wall of course?"
"Did it fall already-I thought the Commies would have taken Berlin by now?"
"Not to my knowledge. So what did happen in 1989 in East Germany?"
"Same as in the rest of Eastern Europe of course-the citizens protested and got gunned down. And we just watched and did nothing, us fools."

When the video cut out the National Security adviser resumed her presentation.
"All survivors who gave any kind of answers during the interrogation said the same. The first tests on lie detectors could not catch any of them. We all know they are less then reliable, but they should show that at least some of them are lying-but they don`t.
We have put two of the less coherent terrorists under an MRT scanner and I was told that the results were "strange".
We have tried to identify the background and possible backers of this attack, but so far we only find the Wisconsin association. His is quite maddening as such an attack should have serious support, probably even from a state-level actor. Yet, try as we might, we could not find any link that stands to any sort of scrutiny. And with so many people involved there should be internet or other traffic that we could find, at least in hindsight. But there is nothing.

At the moment we have to assume that the Wisconsin association managed to restore the ship and brainwashed themselves into believing this nonsense without the help of any known party.
Which leaves unknown parties and here we have a riddle clad in an enigma. When interviewed Chris Kyle, Chad Littlefield and Eddie Ray, the men who likely spared us even worse destruction by blowing the ship up, reported some very strange things. All of them insisted that they were assaulted by pipes and hoses moving on their own as well as by insects that displayed aggressive behavior.
These reports would be easy to dismiss but for these."

The screen behind her cycled several pictures. Some showed a length of rubber hose that had muscle-like strings inside. The other displayed insects that had metal tips to their legs, mouth parts that seemed to be able to chew through steel and eyes that looked more like an LED than a proper insect eye.
"We got these samples from Wisconsin`s wreck. The hoses feature artificial muscles made from drilled nylon inside that shorten when a current is fed to them. The insects seem to have been redone for work. None of this is a miracle by itself, as we have made such artificial muscles ourselves and there are remotely controlled insects in several labs right now. Yet what we have not found is any kind of controlling mechanism. There is no wireless network at play, no computers chips, nothing. Whatever purpose these things had, they once worked when clearly they should not be able to.
We have terrorists in custody that show brainwashing to an extend that was unbelievable until this week. And we neither know who did this and how or why.

We are, of course, following a lot of leads, but more and more the working hypothesis is that there are forces at play which were not here before Germany left and the Wasteland appeared. Something connected with that is not playing by the same rules than we do."
The screen displayed a French talk show, the conventionally clad hosts and the mage that clashed with them. It also showed the glass of water that levitated over one and upended itself.
"Madam Rice, do you want to tell me that our intelligence agencies believe that this carnage was caused by…magic?"
"It seems to be the cause that is left when all other possibilities are rules out Mr. Bush."
"I don´t believe it."
And he would continue not to believe it-for about three weeks.

Belgium, 04.12.2016

The old T4-Volkswagen Van was purring along the highway with all the power its elderly 72-hp diesel could provide. Marie Dupond listened to its clatter with alarm, they were far from home and there were nearly no spare parts available for the old any more. Any major repair would exceed her meager budget, yet the problem with service and spare parts for German cars had made the car cheap enough to be affordable for her.
"We just passed the Belgium border, right"
"Qui Yvette, I`d say two more hours"
"Merci."

Yvette Marchant turned in her seat so she could look at the box secured to the to the bench in the van`s back. It had taken all the strength the two former doctorantes possessed to lift it into the van, which was hardly surprising. It was lead lined for all that was worth and contained four gram of warpstone, the only sample Yvette had been able to secure before being thrown out of her lab. Together with the letter she had in her purse she hoped it would be enough to gain an interview with Marius VanderSchanz, the foremost mage in Marienburg.

It had taken a lot of E-mails and the snail variant to convince the old coot that they were no mage groupies, no new-age chicks or other variants of vapor-headed and useless. A physical description of the warpstone had been the turning point in their exchange and now the mage seemed eager to speak to the two budding scientists.
Maybe together they could convince the public that there was something dangerous in the oil extracted from the wasteland, something that might harm them all.
Neither she nor Marie noted the well-concealed and -packed mobile phone that stuck under her van and gave their position every minute.

O2 World Arena, Hamburg, Festtag, 28 Ulrichszeit

It was the last third and the Ice Hockey ame between the „Hamburg Freezers" and the "Eisbären" from Berlin was hot. 13000 fans were cheering at the top of their voices when two of the Freezers managed to gain the puck from an "Eisbär" and together stormed in the direction of the opponent`s goal, passing the puck between them.
They had just crossed the dotted middle line when an "Eisbär" tried to bodycheck the first "Freezer" just to carom off as if he had been hit by a car. A second attempt did not end any better and it was safe to say that the puck was put into the goal together with the goaltender who was made to fit.
The two players who had simply barreled their way through the enemy team lifted their sticks and ground the metal edges against each other, causing sparks to fly.
Their scream would not be heard above the cheering, but enough Freezer fans repeated it to shake the arena.
"Despart Staal"

Serge Aubin shouted it together with the rest of the fans. For him it was more than great sports, it was the vindication of a difficult decision that just paid off. The head coach had gotten the board to hire two totally untested players. Bjorne Ulkarson and Arnul Meiwardson had not even heard of Ice Hockey four years ago.
Yet as members of the Björnling clan they had more than enough experience in moving in ice and sufficient aptitude for the tussles and fights prevailing in this full contact sport. Both exceeded 230 cm and 180 kilogram in weight and both Norscan Marauders believed that normal humans had as much place in the ice hockey arena than a child on a battlefield.
Together with several victories they had brought a new motto to the freezers.
"Despart Staal" "Awake Iron"

Marienburg, 06.12.2016

Marienburg had been one of the richest and powerful independent cities in the Warhammer World. Its harbor had seen practically all trade that went through the Reik into the world and back. Marienburg manufactories had converted goods imported from all over the Old World and beyond into even more valuable commodities. Its bankers had financed many a campaign, war or wedding, sometimes at the same time to the same parties.
The traders had refused nearly no goods or cargo, the city government was corrupt but understanding to the needs of commerce.
The money earned by these and less savory activities had paved even the lesser roads with bricks and cobblestones, helped the construction of an elaborate sewer system, a famous sea wall and above all erected fabulous villas and kontors.
The traders had strutted around clad in the finest linen and silk, the women often displaying their wealth by wearing chains of gold or even pepper corns. The latter had been viewed a little gauche as the price of pepper exceeded gold by a considerable margin, but it was a tradable commodity which gave it standing in the eyes of the Marienburg merchants.
It was a beautiful and great city, a city that supported artists, philosophers and mages.
Now it was dying.

Yvette Marchant could see the cause of its misery easily enough from where she stood. The new container terminal that was erected at the mouth of the Elbe handled the traffic that had gone through Hamburg four years before with and efficiency that the Marienburg stevedores could never approach.
Marienburg had lost all trade and most of its manufactories were now fallow. When the city council had tried to ask for toll from the ships passing but a short visit by the Marine Nationale had convinced them to cease and desist.
There was some tourism, there were scientists studying anything from magic to society. Many Marienburgers had started to work in menial jobs "outside" or had taken up farming in the surrounding countryside. A little extra money could be made when they sold items free of "Value Added Tax". Marienburg simply did not care if people wanted to smoke, snort or inject substances that were forbidden elsewhere or otherwise amuse themselves as long as they paid good Euros.
None of this made up for the loss of trade and the city council could not see any way around that.

Houses that had proudly displayed colored windows and delicate glazed tiles could no longer afford even to paint the visible timbers. Merchants who had been clad according to the latest fashion wore patches as they could not pay for replacements. Fine coaches that had carried the rich and connected around were now rented for tourists of low standing or lent an exotic flair to films and the occasional wedding.
The finest restaurants and bordellos that had catered to nobility before were only too happy about busloads of tourists that wanted to have a cheap thrill.
Streets that had been expensively lit by whale oil lanterns were now dark when the sun set and the number of beggars had increased tenfold.
Marie and Yvette had tried to navigate the maze that was made up by alleys, channels, paths and streets for an hour before finally paying some cents to a barefooted child that led them to the mage`s guild. While they made their way through the crowded streets and claustrophobic passages they did their best to keep their bags from being stolen and not to lose sight of their guide. It kept their attention sufficiently so they missed the small group of men that traded places at following them.

The Mages`s Guild reflection room was not as grand as the great hall, did not bear the title on the door that signified one of the greats was holding office there and was actually not so easy to find if one did not know the way through the maze that had been left by several generations of renovations and additions.
It was also the room where the really important decisions were made, the deals struck and the alliances sundered before the results were announced the world in more impressive surroundings.
Light was provided by several windows that were filled with round, colorful bits of glass that were held by lead frames. More of it emitted from candles that were burning in several chandeliers. Oak wood, darkened by age, smoke and use paneled the walls and made up the floor where it was not covered by carpets. All around the walls were fixed seats that faced inwards, giving no precedence to any of them.
The room was filled with several groups that kept themselves separate. Marius VanderSchanz headed the most numerous and most fragmented. The colorful robes worn by human mages of various orders might be threadbare in some places, but overall the initiates were a colorful lot that ranges from for-clad to sky-blue. VanderSchanz himself was clad in the blue robes of the celestial order, the vast cloth barely able to stretch over an impressive belly. Together with his white beard this had led several humans of the new world to call him "Santa"-all but the children regretted it.
Across the room a much smaller groups was of a much more elegant mix of white and greys, worn by members of an older, more slender race. The few mages that lived in Marienburg High Elven colony had not been seen inside these rooms in living memory and even in their restraint the Asur could not hide their disdain for the humans who dabbled in the art in dangerous ways.
The smallest group comprised four mundane humans. Their clothing marked them as citizens of the new world and while several of the mages knew them their presence in this hall was barely tolerated by most of them.
Three were slightly overweight, one was slender. The hairstyles varied from long and greasy to crewcut, with a notable set of sideburns thrown in. They tried not to be noticed, which was hardest for the one with the long hair who tried to scrape something smelly of his feet.
Marius exchanged a glance with Dendayar of the House Imalayan who led the Asur and received a curt nod.
"Assembled nobles, practitioners of the art and others, thank you for coming into these halls to listen to the news we have and to give council to the discussion as we have decisions to make, important decisions.
All of us feel that the powers of the warp are on the rise in this world. Not the Winds of Magic, as here the little energy that is is not refracted into the Winds as we know them. Instead it is a wild and unformed energy that we have to learn to use.
For many of us this energy feels like it is not directly from the Warp, but it seems that it is the result of evaporating warpstone. Yet we have no idea where this warpstone were to come from and how it is distributed. We have tried to warn the governments of this new world that there is something odd and potentially dangerous going on. We all feel a arcane manipulations of the force south of us. Yet they do not listen, especially the states who have taken a part of the wasteland. Some individuals listen to us, yet none seem to be in a position of much power and actually many of them seem oddballs and often slightly touched. Those few with knowledge are shunned exactly for that it, by both sides I might add."

He had to draw breath to continue and the High Elf used this break to intercede.
"I do believe all of the assembled here know of this sorry state of affairs. To the Asur this is nothing new, you short lived humans meddle with forces beyond your understanding and upset the balance of things like children who throw their toys about in fits of tantrum. But besides bemoaning the obvious, why have you called for this meeting?"
"The humans of this world are funny in many ways. One of them is that they insist on "proof" and "samples" and "explanations." They simply do not believe you because you are so much older than they are. Fortunately the necessary samples and proofs now may be available, as well as a part of the explanation. Yvette Marchant, please step forward and present your findings."

So far the two French doctorantes had been hidden by the bulk of the human mages. Now they stepped forward and lifted a heavy case on top of a table. The blonde retreated a bit while Yvette opened the lid and extracted an equally heavy cylinder which looked like it could be made for lead. Putting it on top of the case she unscrewed it and stepped back.
She did not need to tell the assembly what she presented, all of them knew well enough what they green crystal in front of them was. Inert at first it seemed to react to the light it was exposed to-or maybe the mages around it-and started to glow in a sickly light. Even that was unassuming, but the mages felt powers inside them stir in ways they had not felt since the Weltensprung.
"Please tell the assembly where you found this Madame Marchant"
"Until recently I was employed at the University in Compigne and tasked with analyzing the crude oil we extract from the wasteland. During a coincidence I found this substance in the oil. It seems to be in all oil extracted in about .89 microgram per kilogram, but the mass is hard to measure exactly. Even more interestingly it vanishes when properly initiated, but without vaporizing into gas or giving off its equivalent in energy."
"And why do you present this here?"
"Because my superiors do not want to know about this substance. From our tests it seems highly dangerous and has strong mutagenic properties, actually in bizarre ways. Yet if this were to become common knowledge…

Marius VanderSchanz saw the window explode into shards before he heard the sound. This picture did not appear on his retina yet, it was provided by his warpsight. He saw the grenade that hung on the lead frame before he heard the swearing. He saw it again, the time the grenade fit through the frame but barely before exploding. And again it passed through the window and exploded in their midst.
He had all the time in the world to step forward when the grenade passed the window for real, when the shards hit the ground and the sound reached his ears. This time the celestial mage did not have a vision about possible futures, this time he had to choose a path. He lifted the smoking ball, barely distracted by the sight of the future where he dropped it because of the heat and threw the grenade where it had come from.
It had just passed through what was left of the window when it exploded, showering the room with fragments that thankfully passed most above the heads of the assembly into the ceiling. Two other windows also caved in, yet instead of explosives it released men into the room. Men clad in somber colors, men that wore balaclavas and submachine guns.

There were too many visions that saw him bleeding on the floor and only one where he survived under one of the benches, a place that he threw himself into. From there he watched the long salvo that killed two of his human colleagues, saw Dendayar hammer his staff into the head of an assailant and the lightning from the other celestial mage that fried the next gunman. More attackers tried to fight from the window, killed another mage before a fireball engulfed both of them. The next screamed something and vaulted inside, where two of the mundane humans shot him with pistols that they had pulled from under their coats. The one with the long hair had tried to do the same, yet the gun snagged on something and the last of the group slowed him down before an accident happened.
There was another shooter who fired through the window, hammering both ancient paneling and an elf who could not move in time. Red blood drenched the white robe while the two shot him repeatedly into his chest without killing him. Another shot nearly applied a new hairdo to the man with the sideburns and removed the top of the last gunman`s head. The man with the long hair stood with mouth agape at the destruction he had wrought.

And then it was over-at the least the combat. The guild`s guards-at least those who had not been shot by the assailants secured the room and both mundanes and mages did their best to save those who were injured during the fight.
Yvette Marchant found herself pressing a torn bit of robe against the side of an injured mage while one of the other mundanes fished a bandage from a first aid kit he had taken from his backpack. Working together they managed to stop the bleeding and together they looked at a Jade mage who went to work.
"Good …job Mrs. Marchant. You were quick…" The slightly chubby man tried his best at French, but it was rather obvious that he fought the language instead of using it.
"Might you be more comfortable with English Mr…"
"Oh sorry, Madam and yes I would be much more comfortable with English. Jeremy Vetock at your service. By the way, the guy with the sideburns over there is Phil Kelley, the other one who looks like an angry hamster is Robin Cruddace and the puking one is Matt Ward."
"What were you doing here?"
"Oh we all work for the Games Workshop. We know Magister VanderSchanz from his consulting work on the 8th edition and he thought we might be able to help to contact the right people if and when he got proof that something was rotten in the Wasteland."
"Ah-well good thing you were here then, without your aid we would have fared worse."
"Thanks. We have been mugged twice last year and the local government does not mind when you are packing, so we got ourselves some."
Both watched Marius VanderSchanz walk towards the lead container and grab for the lid to close it. That was when the crystal really began to shine and all mages in the room to go into a seizure.

Karak de Redemption, same time

Brother Pierre`s cell was as ascetic as any order might ask for. The former owners of the fortress had left many small rooms with alcoves in the walls that the Templars had filled with a matrass and some blankets. There was no heating, yet the rooms had nearly the same temperature no matter the season-too cold and clammy. Yet the Templar had learned to live with that and was by now proud of his ability to endure in Christ and the Order`s name. The last days had been long enough as more work had been given to the lowly initiates while their more experienced brethren were doing something equally urgent and secret.
Other nights the combination of long hours in front of the computer and lack of physical exercise made for dreams that reflected his daily work in bizarre ways mixed up with very strange vistas he could not explain. Tonight was different. For the first time in months he felt comfortably warm and relaxed.

He stood on a huge meadow, together with many others. He vaguely recognized some of his brothers standing beside him, despite them being clad in some sort of armor and clutched swords and shields.

Before them an apparition seemed to hover above the ground. An ethereally beautiful maiden, with red hair and a gleaming suit of armor beckoned them to her. He was not sure what task she had in mind for them, but he was convinced it was his duty and pleasure to perform it. Walking towards her he felt the acceptance he had sought all his adult life. The sun shone in his face, he was surrounded by his brothers who would stand with and for him. He was going somewhere…

While his mind was on the field his body walked down the fortress passageways where he met the others. The formed long lines that all had the same goal-the inner courtyard. The Templar`s lay brothers, the lower ranks of initiates and those who had sought healing at the order`s hospital-they all marched to the same place.
The lines merged till there was only one and a queue formed in front of the well. One by one they jumped over the low wall that surrounded it and dropped into the darkness without ever making a sound.

Deeply under the fortress Zuseranz occupied a spongy layer of loam that had accumulated a lot of warpstone. He was kept company by the two failed aspirants in their prison and at any other time would have been annoyed at their mental screams of rage and pain while they were consumed at a prodigious rate.
He had spent his time on this earth learning. It was such a different world and at first he was sure such a dull one, bereft of the warp´s blessing. Likewise he wondered what its inhabitants might teach him. It had taken him a while to get a hold of the bounty of information his people had in their mind and by extension what was available in the internet. He had tried to get to the source of this net and before he had learned there was no one source he had found CERN. At first he had just ignored their arcana till the mind of a new acolyte provided the key to it. Then he had done few things but to learn about the world as it really was. How blind he had been during all the years of his existence and how little he had thought about the material realm.

His first lesson had the strange title "There is plenty of room at the bottom" and from there he had started a journey of discovery that he felt he would never leave. Yet now it was time to act, to use his new knowledge and the energy he had been given. Today it was the day his master's real plan was to be fulfilled.
He had quite a bit to do and Tzeench`s plan would draw quite a bit of attention before it would bear fruit. As his studies had hinted at the human capabilities when it came to warfare he had concluded that he needed to secure privacy and defenses first. Luckily his studies had shown a way to obtain that even against such capabilities.
He took the vast energies that were at his proposal and applied them to a very small target-a great lot of very small targets.

The protons inside an atomic nucleus all have the same charge and therefore should repel each other violently. Yet they are subject to the strong nuclear force which binds them together so strongly that this early demise was avoided. The carrier of this nuclear force are the gluons, and Zuseranz used his powers to given them a larger radius. The atoms that made up the air above the Karak were dancing their Brown´s molecular movement dance once second-and a dome shaped segment of them bound themselves together more strongly than any steel the next.
The Karak de Redemption was now protected by a 500-meter shield that was impenetrable for anything made of ordinary matter.

Chancellory, Berlin, Germany

Doctor Reiners from the renowned Helmholtz Institute was briefing Chancellor Merkel on the new findings by the geologists and geographers. Julia Reiners was in her mid-thirties and still young at heart. While she was as sad as her compatriots about what had happened to Germany, the Warhammer world was a dream come true for several scientist groups.

Back on Earth, most big discoveries in Geography or Geology had already happened. Yes, there were still mysteries to be solved, but a new Leif Erikson or Columbus was not in the cards anymore.

Now Warhammer was of a whole different caliber for Earthers. Germany soon learned that their Warhammer books were just a rough estimate. Sometimes they were spot-on, at other times plainly wrong. In addition, some regions of the Warhammer world had been just scratched by the books in a handful of sentences, leaving Germany´s experts with true "white spots" on the map.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of scientists were busy becoming new Eriksons, Humboldts, Kochs and Darwins. Julia Reiners had been on expeditions outside Germany before and made a name for herself in the scientific community, but her new report was about things closer to home.
Heavily delayed by the Chaos of the Weltensprung, the succession of wars and crisis and the safety situation in the new territories, it had taken five years to fully scale and measure Germany anew. The Skaven War alone was proof enough that Germany needed to know what stayed the same and what had changed in Germany.

"Frau Bundeskanzlerin, the Zugspitze is still Germany´s highest mountain. But since the "new" Reik at its westernmost extantflows through the foothills of the Grey Mountains for a short distance, we gained two, as of now still unnamed, 1000+ meter high mountains. One has an elevation of 1012, the other 1004 meters.
The lowest point of Germany has changed. It is not in Ostfriesland any longer, but in a depression in Neu-Geldern with 6.2 meters below sea level.
The results of the Weltensprung made the Bodensee (Lake Constance), already our biggest lake, quite a bit larger. It nearly tripled its size.

Then Reik, Rhine and Donau are our biggest rivers. With the Rhine up to the border with the Netherlands and the Donau´s whole upper part till Passau making the the Weltensprung with us, we can only guess the changes to the water systems and weather in Europe.

In our case, the Rhine flows into the Reik now, which luckily solves a problem by itself. The Donau due to geological reasons now flows north towards the Sea of Claws after leaving 'old' Germany. Which is fortunate, since it is to a large part Donau water which keeps the Elbe and Neiße Rivers flowing at close to pre-Weltensprung levels. While Warhammer native streams feed Elbe, Neiße and Oder now too, without the changed Donau they would be much more shallow, since the number of streams adding to them is smaller than on Earth.

We can see this effect at the Mosel river. With the spring in France and most native streams in the area flowing into the Reik and other rivers, the old and new tributaries into the Mosel are only able to feed it with a loss of 26.8 centimeters of depth.
Sometimes the reverse is also true, with several smaller streams growing larger with the added water they get from Warhammer springs and streams.

In the terms of landmass, Germany has grown. While the bits and pieces making the jump with us were small in terms of space, the biggest one, returning to Germany, is 1036 square kilometers, the lands coming under our control in the last years are anything but.
The changed Baltic coastline and Neupommern in the East are 20,099 km², Nanseitochi, Neu- Geldern, Neupreußen and Neu-Schlesien in the west accumulate to 66,678 km². If we add the parts coming with us, the eastern and western aquisitions together with our nation before the Weltensprung, we come to a size of 445,648 km²."

700 kilometers above the Wasteland, a little later

The Helios satellite passed over the Wasteland on its way to more important targets in the Ukraine and the operators who watched the real-time pictures expected to see the same as always, a great big lot of nothing around some placesof activity.
Which made the precisely circular spot with the bright highlight in its middle so obvious. Several phone lines became very busy.