The Portal, Albion Angertag 4. Kaldezeit

While nothing changed in the old temple and the installation left by the old ones when watched from outside the perimeter inside they were a hive of activity. All Warriors and Chaos Knights that were currently not manning the walls were busy erecting barriers across all tunnels that led into the inner sanctum. Deeper in the same tunnels slaves blocked the very tunnels they had cleared so few days ago. None of them had the capacity to think about such things, but Gerhard the Enchanted hoped that they would have the few hours needed to complete their task.
The Chaos Knight towered above him by a head and a half, outweighed him at least three times without counting the armor that had fused to his flesh long ago and wielded an ax that screamed whenever it was coming close to living flesh. Yet none of the two held any doubts who held the reigns in his hands.

"Wiffa, take command of the guard and the slaves now, I will retreat into the sanctum. I need a couple of hours to do our Masters work. Can you do that?"
"We will give them a glorious slaughter in the tunnels. There is not much space in them, let us see if they like the cold steel. I will bathe in their blood and count their skulls."
"Do that Wiffa and you will be counted among the Greats when out Master assumes his rightful position."
"Nobody will keep me from it."
"Well then, be about it."

While Gerald hastened down the tunnels to the deep levels as fast as his mismatched legs allowed he heard the bloodthirsty howls of the Chaos Knights who had been forced to garrison this place for too long.
Neither he nor Wiffa saw the ugly black spider that crouched in the shadows. It would have fazed neither of them even of it was a rather big one. And while it was inimical to their cause it was not perceived by their master who was watching attentively. While the "spider" moved, observed and reported it had no soul.

Close to the portal same time

Thorgim Steinier, Tikato the Skink who was Mazdamundi when needed, Lieutenant Wallace and Ailish huddled under a tarp to hide the light from the pad that displayed the Spider Drone`s pictures. The Dwarf was the first to comment.

"Something tipped the assholes off, that is for sure."
"Iss worried, need to move fast."
"Ah don`t lik' it, bit we shuid gang noo"
"What did you say lieutenant?"
"Sorry Lieutenant Steinier, I said I do not like it, but we should attack now."
"I agree. I will try to get our support earlier."

They met soon after and watched the pictures that Torgim displayed on his pad. There was a very rough sketch of the portals perimeter on it.
"We get air support at 02:45. The airdales will attack the walls here and here. Lt. Wallace, you need top lase this part of the perimeter on command. When the walls are breached and the attack runs are through the Cave Raiders and the Lustrians assault this breach and secure the two entrances. Lieutenant Wallace you and the Clan go through this breach, clear the trench here and close this tunnel. We assemble at the entrances and take it from there. If things go wrong rally point is here, supply is what we have with us. Everybody with me?"
"Yesss."
"Can do Sir."
"Aye."

An hour and a half later found Bran Walters on his belly in cold smelly mud with a blackened face and a queasy stomach. He was about to consult his watch another time when he heard the faint "Whup whup whup" of helicopter blades. His NVG showed him that he was not the only one who heard it as the defenders became more agitated than before. Flashes lit the landscape behind him and he tried to get even lower into the ground when huge explosions ripped the night apart. Smaller detonations sounded like firecrackers on steroids and the jackhammer concussions of cannon lasted the longest. By that time he had his head up again to look at a landscape that had changed in seconds. In two places the palisades and the earthen wall that supported them were gone and replaced by crater and splinters, well mixed with body parts. The towers that had buttressed the perimeters were gone or burning merrily and lots of small fires indicated where the attack had found additional flammable materials. The enemy was probably shocked for the moment and this was something the Corporal wanted to use. All along the line shrill whistles, catcalls and a dissonant horn called for the attack and Bran lurched to his feet.

Running forward at a crouch shouting "Cruachan" at the top of his lungs and looking for any threat that might present itself Bran ran forward. Behind him machine guns hammered and the angry hornet sounds of passing bullets reminded him of the covering fire that was supposed to keep the defenders on the remains of the walls down. He was one of the first into the breach, stumbled over the remains of the palisade and turned right. There were not too many but a few warriors had managed to keep their place on the walkways behind the palisades. No longer protected by the battlements and keeping low as to avoid the machine guns they were now exposed to the attackers. He fired a short burst into a group of them and fired single shots at the loners. He got a couple of them and the last one who charged him suddenly had a spear sticking from his chest.

"Git to the bloody trench" got his team focused on target again and he approached it as part of a line. Twice heads appeared above the rim, and once an arrow zipped past the Corporal who returned fire. He never learned if he had hit anything and went to the ground when the Lt. blew the whistle again. He signaled Ailish again to keep back, approached a few more meters on his belly before pulling the "pig-sticker" from it sheath and fixing it to his Mauser. A German soldier might have scoffed at that, yet Bran came from a different school.
"Grenadiers-on my mark into the trench-mark mark mark"
Bran did not see the weapons that were thrown into the trench before him, but the explosions were noticeable through the ground below him. He waited for a second before getting to his legs and charging while screaming at the top of his lungs. Dropping inside the trench he landed lightly-too lightly and stumbled when the lifeless limbs below him shifted. Dropping a shoulder against a wall for stabilization he managed to make his way forward through the abattoir that had been full of warriors only seconds before. He rammed his bayonet into anything that moved and fired his rifle twice when something emerged from the heap of bodies before him.

If this would have been like the trenches he had trained in he would have to pause before numerous curves and throw more grenades, yet here the enemy had not heard of that. In the end he found himself before a small strongpoint that terminated the fortification, gave it a grenade and a burst before finding it empty and returned on legs that were like rubber once the first round of combat was over.

Inside the Portal

Wiffa hated waiting, it was not in his nature. Waiting when glorious combat was to be had was even worse, but failure was not allowed and so he waited some more. Being a soldier should have taught Wiffa waiting yet it had not. What he had learned was to use the accumulated hate as a fuel for his rage, to increase the power of his arm and to propel the charge when it came. His mailed fists clutched and declutched around his ax`s handle again and again and the weapon`s voice that was so clear in his head just added to the fuel of hate.
Above him he heard the sounds of combat that should have been so familiar to him and were not. Yes, the scream, the shouted orders, the clash of blades was there as it should be, but there were also lots of explosions, the rattle of what had to be rifles and the smell of things he could not identify. The sounds were getting closer and the need to release his hate ever clearer. He watched the small antechamber before him for the enemy. He would allow the first ones to come in before he would storm through his much bigger entrance and overwhelm him.
The new humans seemed to be very good at fighting from a distance, yet here he would not give them the chance.

There was a lull in the fighting above and the tension mounted to an even higher level than before. And then something finally happened, yet instead of warriors who stormed the antechamber a couple of small projectiles dropped inside. Instinct made him flinch back so his head was back behind the pillar when the explosion hammered at his body and an evil whine told of the passage of lethal fragments. His ears rang, his chest burned and he was slightly whoozy which just made him charge harder. This time there was a target for his hate but it was not what he had expected. Instead of a puny human it was some sort of huge reptile towering even over him. Protected by bronze and scale where he had iron plate and armed with a cudgel tipped with black stones it came for him as readily as he approached the attacker.
The cudgel was just wood and stone, not steel forged in unholy fire and home to a denizen of the warp. It should have broken into tiny splinters when Wiffa put all his hate and frustration into an overhead strike that pushed the weapon against the reptile`s helmet, yet failed to do damage. Ripping his weapon up again to put it past the attackers defenses he had to move fast to avoid a return strike. He expected the stones to splinter when they hit his armor, instead they took hold and ripped his arm forward. Missing with his strike he had to fend off claws that went for his eye slit and an impressive set of fangs that went for his helmet.

He kicked the reptile back half a meters and managed to see the humans that had passed the battle like mice that tried not to be notices by their betters. He could not do something about it before the reptile resumed his attack and was surprised by the hammer blows of sound that assaulted his ears. The humans had taken the opportunity to fire at his Knights and whatever weapons they used they penetrated the armor easily. He had been distracted for less than a second and that was already too much. The cudgel came back, in a powerful horizontal strike this time. Being defected by his shoulder armor into his neck obsidian ten times as sharp as steel bit into the mail presented to it and parted mail and flesh with equal ease. Wiffa`s last view of this world was one of a disorienting tumble.

Thorgim Steinier examined the blocked tunnel with disgust.
"That will take an hour at the very least I`d say."
"Thiss be too long."
"I am aware of that Tikato, but I cannot magic this away. We need to clear it."
The stone around the small group began to shiver and a deep groan went through very rock.
"We will hurry though."

Inside the sanctum

Gerard had to keep up an inhuman amount of concentration to project an alternate reality into the mind of the Truthsayer that tried to keep up the paths of the Old Ones. He would have preferred to convert the mage to Chaos yet the time was simply not there. Instead he made the mage see and feel things that were not there so he would react according to his calling and still do the things that Gerard and the Master required. The shivers and groans were his first proof that this was working and if his mutated mouth would have allowed for it he would have allowed himself a smile.
His Master knew too well to distract him yet he could feel his joy when the first trickles of redirected energy was ready to be consumed by Be`lakor.
He had been attacked by superior forces, he had far less time than he had been promised and still he was about to fulfill his task. All the lore he had ever craved was in his grasp.

He could not see much past the circle of warding he had erected around him, yet the light coming from the portals between the pillars was hard to miss. He was still wondering whether this was a side effect of him manipulating the energies of the Old Ones or something else when a slender Elven sword pierced his chest from behind.
It took the allies nearly an hour to reach the chamber that held Gerard`s body and the small team of Asurian Sword Masters lead by Teclis.
"So you are Steinier I presume."
"Na, a'm corporal Bran Walters of the Highlanders at yer service sur. Ye mist be Teclis, right?"
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I am Corporal Bran Walters of the Highlander Sir. Are you Teclis?"
"That I am Corporal Bran Walters and it is a good thing that we took care of this problem. Otherwise all of Ulthuan would be taking a bath by now and your Germany would experience the shakes."

Inside the sanctum Sigmatstag 6. Kaldezeit

The German civilian that carried the case was surrounded by a squad of cave raiders when he entered the sanctum and around them a group of Sauron warriors did their best to protect their oracle. Stefan Strich was more than a little intimidated, yet he placed the case on the command console in the middle of the room. Pulling a thin wire from the case he put it into a socket that he found after a bit of prompting. The light on top of Nathan`s case started to blink rapidly for a moment before returning to its normal steady glow.
"That is it Professor Stefan Strich, you may take me back now. I was able to download the necessary data."
"That fast?"
"That was just a couple of Terabytes, how long would you think this needs?"
"Never mind Nathan."

Bundeskanzleramt Berlin Markttag 8. Kaldezeit

The security council watched the cartoonish picture of the wise old man projected on a wall with rapt attention. Any of them who caught a glimpse of their peer`s faces saw a mirror of their own feelings that ran from "Oh God, not again" to "what the fu…".

The Zero-time Personal Transport System or the Portals of the Old Ones as they are known locally were an abomination by Weyland-Yutani and the reason my Master was about to leave for Center to report. The company had promised their backers a system of instant transport on a planetary surface and had to build a proof-of-concept system soon. As the vagaries of the warp escaped their best computers they enticed 20 Slann to work inside the system, never telling them that this would be an irrevocable step. The 19 Slann that mostly keep up the system are conscious of their surroundings and are in their position for nearly 23000 years. If this would have been made known to the authorities Weyland-Yutani would have been shut down.
Still I see no choice but to leave them where they are for the time being as the energies handled by the system have to be managed carefully lest they escape from the empyrean with devastating results. We have to find a replacement for the 20th member of that team as he was killed by Chaos Raiders some 20 years ago and the Truthsayer that took his place will not last very long as a result of the attack he had to endure."

"You speak of "devastating results" if the system fails Nathan. Could you be a bit more explicit?"
"Chancellor Thomas de Maiziere, if this system fails then it is likely that Ulthuan will indeed sink. This would result in a violent reshuffling of tectonic plates worldwide, resulting in frequent earthquakes of a magnitude exceeding Richter 9. Ulthuan itself might be replaced by something akin to the Deccan traps, changing the climate and the seas of this world for the foreseeable future. I do not believe that Germany will survive such events as a technical civilization."
"How likely is that to happen?"

"I was able to download the complete maintenance records and the results of the system self-tests during my stay. We have to replace the Truthsayer within months and there is a great lot of subsystems that are on the verge of breaking down due to their recent abuse. These have to be replaced during the next five years. If we fail in these tasks then the chance for failure is 90% within the first five years and approaches unity for the decade thereafter."
"Can we produce the replacements with your guidance?"
"This is as likely as that the Nuln Metal Works can produce complete Panzerhaubitzen 2000 during the next six months. You do not have the tools to make the tools and all that."
"So we should prepare for failure?"
"That would be wise. You should also attempt to capture the Citadel of Lead, intact and as fast as possible, before the enemy or our your own attacks damage the production systems there past the point of being unusable."
"I am told that will be very difficult and dangerous."
"Yes Chancellor Thomas de Maiziere. Yet failure seems not an option, don`t you think?"

Barack Varr, Bezahltag 10. Kaldezeit

Fred van Beers had never been to Barack Varr before, yet the order that was currently floated warranted a trip by the yard`s CEO. The Karak was very impressive even for somebody born on Earth and used to large-scale construction. Builtinto the sides of the cliffs that bordered the Black Gulf,the harbor was indeed a huge grotto supported by immense pillars. The stonework of this harbor and the Karak itself was peerless and van Beers could have spent many hours just gazing at things. It was not to be, and so he was seated in a room with a grand view of the harbor on a chair that was too low and a tankard before him that was too big.
On the other side several Dawi displayed their usual beards, their caps and garments denoting their position within the Sea Engineer`s guilds or the Fleet. The pride of place was given to King Grundisson who`s considerable age was probably classified.
The Dawi on the other side of the table were remarkably genial for their race, van Beers`briefing had reported this was because of the huge amount of foreign trade handled by the only Dawi harbor city. There was a decent amount of small talk exchanged before the meat of the meeting came to the table.
King Grundisson pulled up a leather roll which held some papers but refrained from showing them yet.

"Herr van Beers, you will have heard that we have need to replace the Dreadnaught "Varrvarag`s Pride". Sadly it did not fall in valiant fight with an enemy but was taken by a storm."
"Yes, I have heard so, please accept my condolences for the death of your nephew."
"Accepted Herr van Beers in the spirit it is given. Dreadnaughts are the main weapon of the Dawi fleet and the loss of this ship leaves an unacceptable gap in Barak Varr`s fleet. We have of course the capability to construct a replacement and with the new tools and steels we received from Germany we could build a worthy replacement of the "Pride". Alas this would be a task that would take many years and I doubt a new ship could be launched before 2560. This is simply too long, neither the Bei of Maharek, nor the Druchii would be content to wait till we have our fleet back to strength.
The yard representative could see the bristling of several engineers already and he had the feeling that this was about to get worse. Well, it was the King calling the shots.

"Now there is something that I have to trust your discretion about Herr van Beers, can I rely on it?"
"Customer confidence is very dear to Blohm&Voss King Grundisson." The stares he received from all Dawi reminded him of the briefing he had received in advance.
"I am sorry my King, I misspoke. My word is my bond and that of my company. We will never betray your secrets to anybody outside of this room unless you agree." Even the lustrous beards of all Dawi could not hide the softening of features.
"I accept your word then Herr van Beers and know that there are many who speak highly of the works of your company. Remember your oath then about what I am to tell you." The engineers on both sides of the King stiffened but managed not to voice their protests.
"The Varrvarag`s pride foundered in the storm for two reasons: My nephew wanted to bring the ship into harbor before the storm and ran the engines at flank speed for too long. From the survivors we know that a connecting rod broke, which also damaged the shaft to the port paddle wheel. With no propulsion the ship was turned by the seas and foundered."
"That is sad to hear my King."
"That is indeed sad and I do not want to receive such news in future. Now Herr van Beers I hear that you use more reliable means of propulsion to drive your ships?"

"We use screws or waterjets depending on the requirements for speed and draft. To power them we suggest a mixture of Diesel and Gas Turbine engines, both are very reliable and in a ship with several engines all can drive the screws even when one or several fail. A total loss of propulsion is very rare."
The engineer to the right side of Grundisson was visibly unhappy. "And where do you suppose we get the fuel for such engines?"
"Several Dawi clans already extract and refine oil honorable Sea Engineer, and neither the turbines nor the diesels are too particular about the exact quality. We can provide for a refinery and you will find a growing system of fueling stations worldwide. Compared to coal-fired steam engines you need far less fuel and crew, resulting in big savings."
"That sounds acceptable Herr van Beers. I am also told that you can build ships very quickly."
"If it is an established design we can build warships within two years your Highness, a new design would take longer by a year or so."
"And you vouch for the quality of ships build so quickly?"

"No we do not. Warships are inspected by the German government for foreign customers as well as for their own ships. They vouch for the quality, but we will repair or reimburse anything which is not up to the agreed specifications. We will also accept your engineers and the future crew at our yard so they can inspect for flaws and learn about the ships and our ways of shipbuilding."
"You would allow that?" The same engineer was not hostile now but totally incredulous.
"Would you give an oath of that?"
The yard CEO could see a crucial moment in a negotiation when it was before him, even when it was unusually early. He would not be CEO if he were unable to see and use them.
"My word is my bond, you may send an acceptable number of engineers and up to one half of the crew of a ship to our yard and workshop from the moment the first module is welded together till the ship is officially taken over by your government for all ships that you order from Blohm&Voss"
"Herr van Beers are you aware how oath-breakers are regarded by the Dawi."
"Very much so Highness and I will not give an oath I cannot uphold."

"Then I, King Grundisson of Barak Varr accept this oath Herr van Beers. This was unforeseen but will be interesting."
The CEO mused about the face of the engineers when he quoted the price for a laser cutter suitable to cut through shipbuilding steel and how much money might be made from selling yard equipment and consulting to the Dawi while the King unfolded the paper in the roll.
"We want you to build this."

That is when van Beers` face froze.
The photo was black and white and a bit grainy because it had been enlarged a bit too much. It showed a huge ship that combined a long elegant hull with a convoluted deck that brimmed with guns. It extruded a menace even in the picture and the name "Bismarck" could be read at the bows.
"That is not what I expected."
"Why not, this was the most powerful dreadnaught ever used by you Germans and your yard built it. 30 knots, strong armor and eight 15 inch guns that send 800 kilogram shells more than 30 kilometers away, 15 cm gun as secondaries and more small guns than I want to count. Who would not want that?"
"Your people among others your Highness. It would be very difficult to build, you would not want to pay for it and you do not need it."

"You can`t build it or you are not allowed?"
"First off, I am pretty sure we would be allowed to sell it to you, your Karak is a member of the Reiksbund after all. As for if we could build it lets see.
We no longer build high-pressure, high temperature steam plants for marine use , but we can produce 150.000hp from a couple of diesel and gas turbine combinations, no problem. We can buy off the shelf 15.5 cm and 10.5 cm guns as secondaries and give you any combination of 0.5" and 20 mm light guns.
Nobody is making 37mm at the moment and the Millennium guns are upon the list of things we sell to nobody. You really would not want to pay for them and you lack targets that need them.

The recon planes are no longer made that way and I am pretty sure you would be better off with a helicopter or two-they should be placed in a hangar aft.
The electronics are no problem at all, a revenue cutter carries better than old Bismarck. Face-hardened armor is something we do not produce presently, but a number of steel makers could and would make it if we order such amounts.
The real problem in making it are the 38 cm guns. Nobody is producing them at present, so we would have to open a new workshop just for them and from memory these workshops are huge and expensive. We would have to make prototypes, test them and then build a dozen or so, so you have a couple of spares. Munition would be extra of course.
I`d say the workshop for the guns would come at around a 100 million Mark, the guns and ammo come extra."
The faces on the other side of the able froze.

"Yet: What are the targets? You could attack even the ships of the Bundesmarine, our navy, just with the secondaries if you come into range and I can offhand not think of any mission that would require them. Such a battleship would be extremely hard to put into this harbor, would eat all the space you have allotted to your combat ships and require that you purchase a small fleet of tug boats just to dock and undock her. There are very,very few harbors in this world which you could use. Our only combat ship of similar size requires a couple of lighters and replenishment ships to keep supplied, they will just add to an already high bill. And while I believe you could pay for such a ship it would only be one, leaving you naked in front of the enemy when it is in dock or employed elsewhere. In short-I would be making a nice profit for making the ship but you do not need it."

"So what would you suggest-an Escort like this "Altdorf" that the Empire bought? She visited this very harbor last month and it was an impressive ship-for an escort. We want to be able to smite our enemies be they on sea or in a fortress at land. We want something that fills the hearts of our sailors with pride and fear into the minds of our enemies. We need a proud ship to show our flag. And you tell me we cannot have what we need."
"I do not tell you that you cannot have it, but it would take ten years at the least and would cost about two to three billion Marks."
"That is not so bad."
"Highness are you sure? I said billions not millions."
"You surely speak in jest manling."
"No, I do not. I am willing to open our books to you and work for a fixed profit and would be very surprised if we can do it for less-or anybody else."
"That is very hard to accept."
"I understand that, yet maybe the King is willing to listen to our proposal?"

"What do you suggest then?"
"Well, we have thought about something you might find more useful."
This time a tablet displayed a colorful but artificial drawing of a ship that had had a similar hull to the mighty battleship but smaller, sporting two huge turrets and two superfiring smaller ones at each end.
"Both the Navy and the Army find that some fortifications on this world are a bit hard to kill with 15.5 cm cannon, so there a new 20.3 cm cannon is under development. Here you could receive the right to purchase them by assuming some of the development costs as the Navy is in a bit of a bind due to cost overruns. These gun have rounds that weight 125 kilogram and a range of 30 kilometers. They can kill anything but the largest Black Arcs and will blow off all offensive capabilities of those. The autoloaders will be hard to support, but with decent power rammers you should be able to get about 8 rounds per minute and gun.

With two triple turrets that means you will be able to drop about five tons of ammo on a given target a minute. And with our rangefinders and fire control equipment you can be sure of hits and lots of them.
We suggest 12 10.5 cm secondaries in dual turrets which can do double duty as anti-surface and anti-air gun weapons and back them up with quad-0.50"s."
"Given the nature of the opposition we suggest a very expensive armor scheme-not in monetary terms but protecting a great lot of the ship with a thickness of 40-80 mm. Remember this is Rolled Homogenous Armor-about 3 times as effective as the wrought iron you are presently using. We would provide a set of medium-speed diesel engines for 60000 horsepower, that is enough for 27 knots. The ship would be 183 meters long and about 12500 tons. This we can build for a much more reasonable price-and it will give you what you want."
"This is impressive, very much so Herr van Beers. So how much do you think…"

Van Beers had to empty that tankard three times on that day and had no real memory of signing the contract that he found besides his bed the next noon. As soon as his aspirin took hold he was able to smile at the price he had achieved. He was used to contracts that ran to several volumes for a given ship, this one ran to three pages with 20 paragraphs. Yet he also remembered standing with one leg on a beer barrel, tankard in hand and giving his oath that he would build the finest dreadnaught ever to ply the seas of the Warhammer World in four years.
That was when the smile faded.

A400M, 400 kilometers from Citadel of Lead Sigmarstag 14. Kaldezeit

The mighty transport held the complete Reiksbund Paladins inside, all 127 of them. Even in their power armor the soldiers were a light load for the plane but it was a good thing that hopes and expectations do not have physical weight, otherwise the Airbus would have never left the ground. The Citadel of Lead had to be taken, without delay so that maybe they would capture the replacement parts or the means to make them for a Portal called an abomination by anAI which should be bereft of emotions. Failing to do so would result in lots of things, none of them good.

The men in the suits were probably the finest soldiers that two of the best armies in this world had and certainly were the best equipped, assaulting an enemy wielding axes, swords and spears. Unfortunately the wielders of these weapons were huddled in a high-tech fortress so advanced that the Paladins` advanced weaponry looked little better than the axes used by the enemy in comparison.
Protected by a set of powerful lasers that could kill artillery shells in flight by the dozen, a shield that made air molecules stick together better than steel,and walls that could be turned into something harder than diamond,the Reiksbund assault looked like a forlorn hope.

Joakim Vos thought he had found a way around these defenses and had proposed it as a fallback plan to his superiors. He had never expected anybody to take it up, it was called "Plan E" for more than one reason. Joakim shivered whenever he remembered how many of his comrades lives, how much his own life,and countless beings around the world depended on his idea.

By the measure military operations were rated it was a bad plan, being rather complicated, depending on literally split-second coordination between several forces and had been developed without much of the intelligence about the enemy. It should have been throttled at birth and now the lives of good men were risked to make it happen. Joakim had to fight the shivers that ran through his limbs again when Valten released his belts and strode into the middle of the loading bay. His helmet was clamped to his shoulder and he held his hammer in both hands at the ready. The combat link in the helmets of all Paladins went active and their commander`s voice was easily audible.

"We are about to jump from a great height into combat against an enemy in an impregnable fortress. I do not know about you, but this makes me slightly nervous."
There were a few chuckles.

"I thought about things I could put into a speech to make you and me feel better. I could tell you about 82 brave men who landed on top of a well-builtfortress manned by nearly a thousand men armed at least as well as they were and took it within an hour, but I won't as they fought for a government of murderers and madmen.
I could tell you that very rarely in history have so many people depended on so few to do the right thing, but that might make you more nervous. I should tell you that you fight for your comrades, for flag and country, for your loved ones, your parents and your children, but I will not as you know that already.
You are professionals and nothing I can tell you will be news to you."
By that time the hammer`s head had begun to glow in an orange light

"Actually this fight is pretty damn frightening to me and I know it is for you also. It is not because we have to glide and parachute in, we have practiced this many times. It is not because we will meet the enemy and will fight them as best as we can because we have all been there and done it before. We are good, we have the best equipment Man and Dawi can make and we can and will do it. We are frightened because we jump into the face of a laser system that will kill some of us. It may kill a few if things work out as we planned or it might kill a lot, yet no matter what happens at the end of this jump; nothing thatwe can do will change this fact and not having any control, not even the illusion of control is frightening.
You know all that, you knew before you volunteered,still you are here. You are no inexperienced youngsters, you have no illusions about glory in battle you know that you could die, you know how important that is,and still you are here. I am damn proud to be with you today, I am proud that you accept me as your commander and proud to have your trust."
By now the hammer`s head was glowing brightly, yet whether this was noticed by anybody was an open question.

"So this is what I want to tell you: that I am proud to be your brother my Paladins and I will gladly jump into danger from this plane as I will be with my brothers. I can think of nobody who I would prefer to you with me when I go into combat today."

The hammer`s haft hit the plane`s floor. It weighted less than 15 kilograms and even when driven by a powerful arm it should not have made an impact, yet the huge plane shook briefly while it sped towards its target. Something radiated from the point of impact and shone on all who listened to the speech. It rippled through them and left everybody unhurt. And when the ripples were gone, so was the fear in all.
"To battle my brothers, let us do this together."
Four turbines of more than 10,000 horsepower each turned huge propellers which made the inside of the plane loud beyond words. The Paladins'cheer managed to overpower even that. The fear was gone from 126 men and it was lessened in the last one remaining. 126 men had a mission, the last one had two, and it had been given to him by the Emperor himself not too long ago.

"Keep him alive Sir Joakim, whatever you do." And given where they were and given what they were about to do Joakim Vos had no idea how he was to accomplish that, just that it was very,very important.