Blohm&Voss, Hamburg

The dock halls 9 and 10 were capable of building, fitting and moving ship`s segments of up to 250 and usually crazy busy as Germany`s biggest yard was doing its part in building a navy that could establish a worldwide trade net and defend it. Tonight it was full and busy, but it was not building anything. It was in fact no longer looking like a high-tech production area but a bit like a Dawi feast hall. Huge tarps had been hung to simulate a lower ceiling, photos of Dawi heroes and German welders hung from the wall, benches and tables covered the ground. A caterer provided for huge amounts of freshly baked bread, roastbeef, piglet and beer, food that was very acceptable to the Germans who had made the ship and their Dawi customers.

Fred van Beers, the yard`s CEO, watched the revelry with amusement and a lot of relief. He had promised to build the "Pocket Battleship" "Varrjag" within four years and his yard had done it, even if barely. Last week had seen its first sea trials and they had blown Barak Varr`s King Grundisson`s pants off. Literally by the way as the King had insisted to stand far too close to the forward turret when the triple 203 mm guns fired. They might be a much lower caliber than the 20 inch guns mounted on Dawi Dreadnaughts but had a much higher muzzle energy and blast due to modern propellants. Grundisson had found himself on his back with ringing ears and garments at "half-mast". He had started to laugh heartily after a few seconds though and taken an even bigger shine to the ship ever since.
Now the King was climbing a small stack of Bugmann`s casks and lifted a pitcher-sized tankard for all to see.

"Tonight we all drink together. We drink together as we have built the mightiest ship Dawi ever put to sea, a terror for all our enemies. We have built it well by your standards as well as ours. We drink as today we signed the contract for a joint-venture yard in Barak Varr, Blohm&Varr. We drink together as we all keep our oaths. Fred van Beers, you took an oath to build the finest armed ship the Dawi have ever owned and you did it. I took the oath to pay for it in full once the ship has been accepted by us and by Grimnir`s beard that we did. So drink with me tonight Fred as you will be paid now."

The CEO blanched a bit as he had not expected that and as the contract that he had signed four years ago had specified a sum but no payment method. Bugmann`s Beer will do that to you. He watched in trepidation as a dozen Dawi approached him, carrying three huge chests between them. They were placed before him and opened with huge, complicated looking keys. All were filled to the rim with coins bearing different images and the shimmer of gold. There were small bags in there he suspected to contain jewels of some kind and he very much knew that this would represent the negotiated price to a few Marks. His accountants would have a cow but my what a sight, he could get used to that.

Cathay, 550 kilometers from Nanjiang

The machine gun in Areta Bane`s hands was all that had been promised to her and more. The heavy machine gun had far better range than her old Maxim and wherever it hit the Nurglies dropped. Actually they often dropped in pieces and they very very rarely got up after that. The huge horde behind the vanguard was mostly hidden from her view by copious amounts of off-white smoke. This was not to hide anything the Wild Geese did, it was just that white phosphorous rounds were much better at killing the Plague God`s followers than HE. Whereever the 120 mm mortars dropped burning fragments dropped from the sky and there was nothing the Nurglies could do to extinguish that fire. The phosphorus emitted a thick smoke dense with particles that made breathing hard and seeing impossible. The victims stumbled on with smoke coming from limbs and mouths until they dropped. None around them slowed, none stopped, all marched till they themselves were hit.

To Areta things were going much better than the last time. She had no refugees to protect so she could disengage whenever she needed to do that and the weapons used by her combat group were much more useful against the Nurglies this time. Her spirits were lifted by the many casualties that the spoiling attack already caused, by the fact that she had gotten cleanly away the last two times she had done this and they tiny piece of Bertwort she had taken just to get her alert. If she were tired she would make bad decisions and people would die. She took a hit for the team didn`t she?

The only thing that worried her was that the horde seemed even bigger than the last one and both the smoke her mortars caused and the ever-present cloud of flies and other insects that hung over the horde made spotting details difficult. She knew that their Dragon Riders were making another pass in an hour or so and the Cathayans would probably send another raid with their dragons using fire bombs from high up, but currently she saw the kilometers in front of her and nothing more. In the end she would stay till she had burned through most of her ammunition or the enemy came too close before she would retreat to the next resupply point. She and the other combat groups were

She was enjoying her machine gun very much, given that she was killing Nurglies that simply would not lie down before with ease and at no real risk for her. Her vision was reduced to the ghost ring of her visor and she saw the killing but not her unit. It took her driver three tries to get her attention and when he did ice ran down her spine while breathing was next to impossible for a moment. From a barely visible fold in the ground a mass of small figures emerged and started to make for her line that was barely a hundred meters away. Even more worrying there was a mass of black points that emerged from the smoke and got closer by the second.

"Richter one, this is Goose actual. Pack up, we will leave immediately. Combat platoons, shift fire to these Nurglings, do it now. Elanth, fire up that ditch before they get too close and everybody get back to their trucks when the fire is up. All trucks, fire on these fliers."

She shifted her aim for one of the approaching dots and walked her tracers into the abomination. By now it was close enough to be visible as a sort of fly with a rider on it. Even her mighty machine gun needed more than one hit to get it down. She took care of it and the next one before she looked for her troops again. The horde of small Nurglings went down easily enough under the combined fore of machine guns and rifles but there were quite a few. In a few seconds the platoon would start to pull back the first squads into the trucks, halving the remaining firepower. Normally the trucks could fill the gaps with their machine guns, but they were busy going for the fliers. She could only hope that the diesel-filled ditch would slow the enemy enough.
The ditch worked mostly, there were a few Nurglings which went past the fire, rifle fire from the trucks caught them before they became a real problem.

Everybody moved back for a couple of hundred meters but things went south when they entered the trail that would lead them back to safety. The combat car that drove point bounced and rattled even more than her truck due to his weight and the commander had a hard time keeping his machine gun on target. One of the Plague Drones dropped to his right, another crashed directly into the front of the combat car. The rotting fly that was the ride crumpled to a heap of offal upon impact but the Plague Bearer who rode on its back managed to rise from the ground. The combat car had stopped and blocked the way forward to the column while there were more enemies in their back by the minute. She saw the Plague Bearer step forward and as in a nightmare could do nothing when he brought his sword down on the commander`s head. Three streams of tracer converged on the Plague Bringer who held himself up for two incredible seconds before too many bits were blow off it. She was about to unlimber so she could do something about the stalled car when the wheels of the former Unimog started to turn. The armored car went back for a few meters and then forward again when it bumped into a rock. By then most of the fly had dropped off and the car was able to drive over the carcass in a shower of gore. Areta started to cheer when she saw the course was off and still clawed for her wireless when the Unimog drove past the Cliffside never to be seen again. If the driver`s vison port were just blocked by the rests of the carcass of Nurgle`s rot had taken his eyes Areta would never know, she just knew he had saved many lives. From here the convoy went in sprints and stops which slowed them down but allowed to shoot better at the drones. Nurgle`s pests kept up for a few more kilometers before they let up. By that time the combat group had climbed the mountain behind her sufficiently that Areta could finally see the whole of the horde as it was now. She shuddered by what she saw behind the many rows of former humans. Huge Plaguebearers shuffled onwards, Unclean ones moved somehow and huge war machines were pulled by beings she could not even describe.

She would be unable to give exact numbers in her report and even the aerial recon could just show that whatever was on the way was far more than the Wild Geese or the Cathayan armies could stop.

Berlin

Olaf Scholz`s office looked as empty as it was. He would move to a new one pretty soon and his stuff was packed in preparation. As he would take over Thomas de Maiziere`s desk in the Bundeskanzleramt his own table was still here and he used the quiet after all his aides had gone home to sort his thoughts.

The Social Democrats had won enough votes in the last election and both the CDU and the Freisinnigen had lost enough that the SPD could organize the coalition that would form the next German government. It would be called the "Traffic Light" coalition from the party colors red, yellow and green. The "Freisinnigen" had lost a lot of their more popular party members towards the "Kaiserlichen" in the dispute about the gold standard and immigration rules, the ones that remained were far more amendable to a coalition with the Social Democrats. The Realo-Greens" had barely managed to pass the 5% hurdle for admission into parliament and could not be too choosy.

That there would be a coalition was already a given, but the details still needed to be hashed out. He tried to establish his negotiation strategy and the minimal gains that he needed to satisfy his electorate and tried to anticipate the goals of his coalition partners.

There were the laws of course: During the last years the government had opened nearly everybody and everything to surveillance and it was practically a given that every E-mail, every chat message and every phone call was at least potentially monitored, for the safety of people and to combat chaos of course. While that danger was real a bit of common sense was obviously needed, especially as some of the data gathered had somehow found its way to interested lawyers who used that data to serve notice to copyright violators at cost. It had not won any fans with the younger electorate.

Then there was the status of Beastmen and the like, currently anybody could kill them and it would not count as murder. Actually there were instances of organized hunts for them which was quite unacceptable.

The really interesting piece of the negotiation would be the cake and how to divide it. The cake in question was the federal budget, some 420 billion Marks. A lot of that was in titles that could hardly be changed but there was still a lot to go around for the aims of the negotiating parties, their pet projects and for their special interest groups.

The old government had to spend a great deal money for things that had not been important before the Weltensprung. Gathering resources had been the first priority for many years, closely followed by defense and surprisingly a space program. All of that important and at least the resources part now paid nice dividends into the federal coffers, but they were mighty expensive.

Given how much the economy had been depressed after the Weltensprungthere had been no way in hell to gain that money by raising taxes, so the government had taken up credit with the state-owned KFW bank which in turn had sold the bonds to the Bundesbank. The polite way to describe this was quantitative easing, a less polite way was "printing money". As always when the available money exceeded the supply there had been a lot of inflation, between five to seven percent for each given year. During the same years the wages of federal employees and public servants as well as well as pensions had been increased only marginally if at all. Given that personal expenditures and pensions were by far the largest items in the federal budget it had freed enormous sums to pay for all the programs vital after the Weltensprung. Given that mostly the prices rose but not the wages it had not lead to a wage-price spiral that would have been really devastating but had lead to other problems.

For a while that had been vital and the SPD had been part of a coalition government that had used these measures. Yet by now things had come to a point where it was vital that pensions and wages were raised, the SPD election campaign had featured posters with senior citizens going through trashcans and full-time nurses needing the services of a food-bank. This needed to change and soon, especially as the last government had been lucky to have only 6% inflation last year. Many foodstuffs were now cheaper as the supply chains had been established and secured, POL products were way down and electronics became more affordable now that parts of them were made outside Germany. Without that inflation and therefore pain would have been far worse.

Also many German companies had entered the defense market and had become used to well-paying armament contracts. The armed forces and these makers had such plans. The Navy had finally agreed to order "Altdorf" escorts with better electronics and habitability for a bit less than twice the cost ofthe original. Now they decided they would like 120 of them plus the crews and harbour facilities of course. The Luftwaffe had set its sight on replacing the aging Tornados with Tranche 4 Typhoons and the Army wanted a couple of dozen Skyshield systems now that the Chaos Dwarfs had decent mortars.

The problem was that Scholz needed to find the budget titles and programs that could take the axe without endangering Germany and the Reiksbund. Resources were less of a problem now that many harbors around the world were improved to the point of usefulness, and the locals were now really aware how much they liked German products. They were very willing to trade; and the necessary mines, wells and railroads were now well armed forces and the space program were more difficult though,and he really had to speak with his contacts before he threw something vital under the bus of coalition negotiations.

Chiang Mai Bar, Wang Chan, Southlands

Over the years Wang Chan had changed. As the only "advanced" town for more than three thousand kilometers in any direction, the small Thai city did not just become a stopping point for the displaced Earthers, but a trading center for the Warhammer natives as well.

And it did not stop at that. Since cultural similarities were there, a number of Jegukian and Mahatian adventurers and settlers moved from the Khoresh peninsular to Wang Chan. Now Wang Chan had more than twice the population it had the day of the Weltensprung.

Since trade with the Germans was possible now, the Thais had been able to exchange or repair the technology only Earth nations had. A fully functional power plant, a modern refinery instead the shoddy emergency one and important machinery were just the most visible signs. The industrial quarter flourished. It would have been cheaper to buy everything needed from the trade convoys, but since Germany was far away some local production was a must.

Beside trade, tourism became another major economic factor, both for the Germans, but also for the Natives. For the majority of nations, Germany was very far away. Leisure travelingto the Old World was prohibitively costly even for most rich Warhammerites. Since no more "Earth bits" had been found, as of now, Wang Chan was the nearest window to Earth the Ind and Khoresh peninsulars had.

Wang Chan remained a typical Southeast Asian city. Still, Farang (western people) visited Wang Chan for various reasons, if not in the numbers the natives did. Sitting in the best bar of Wang Chan was one immediately notable Farang, along with a dozen others, having completed one of the less common meetings.

Hannes Flammbach, together with other Imperial and German wizards, had met with the local shamans to exchange information and keep an eye on the situation in the Deep South. The four-day meeting was over and the Imperial mages had a few more days for holidays, while the German mages were already back on their way to the Old World.

Hannes liked the really foreign flair of Wang Chan, it was another way of life. The city was a different window to Earth than Germany was and a window to parts of his own world seldom traveled before the Weltensprung.

The Bright Order mage took a sip from his cold beer, a for him unpronounceable local one and enjoyed the coolness in the tropical heat and watched the life in- and outside the bar. The local beers were ok, but not really to his personal taste. One reason the Imperials bought local beer was the price. Dwarven, German or Imperial beers were hideously expensive in Wang Chan by Imperial standards, no surprise considering the distance it had to be transported.

Still, beer from the Old World was a status symbol for the people of Wang Chan and the Imperial delegation buying mostly local beers marked them as foreigners beyond their looks. The citizens of Wang Chan drank mainly their local brews, but when trying to show their standing and status, those who could stomach paying the prices bought Old World beers for themselves and their guests and friends.

Before leaving, the Germans had told the Imperial mages that Wang Chan was different than what they were used to and to simply observe it. Hannes could attest to the difference. When he came to Wang Chan for the first time 5 days earlier he imagined the city to be a smaller relative of Ringomori or Sumeto. In case of the industry and politeness, this was mostly true, but the rest definitely not. Different architecture, different and very spicy food, different greetings and lifestyle. Sanuk (Fun, joy) played a big role in the Land of Smiles. As one German mage told them, "Asian cultures are often like onions. Once you peel off one layer, there is a new one to understand. Well, for them we are such an onion too."

Weijin

Wolfgang Böhler`s laptop was one of the newer models now that the Wild Geese had better access to Germany again. It was perched on a beautiful desk said to be carved from red mahogany. The latter was hard to discern given that so much paper was on every piece of tabletop. He might have a computer, some officers had them as well, but the rest of the Wild Geese and their Cathayan counterparts very assuredly did not. Wolfgang might live to a healthy 200 years or so but he had his doubts whether he would ever see a paperless office in his lifetime. There was a cable passing through the window to the yard that Wolfgang`s office bordered to where it terminated in a satellite dish that clashed badly with the Cathayan aesthetics that ruled the rest of it. A few years ago Wolfgang Böhler had to communicate via a channel that used short-wave frequencies and that allowed the passage of a few characters per minute. With Germany`s space program there were satellites now which allowed at least chatting, even if one used high-end encryption programs at both ends.
Still it paid to use codenames and so Wolfgang went by "Jim Knopf" whereas Ottokar Proktor was "Urmel"

JK: "The Nurglite Army is far too big to be stopped by our means. Not only is the rank-and-file very resistant against most weapons we have, but the assholes have picked up a lot of Demons. Even if the government here gets their collective asses off the ground in time to bring a sizable army together it is even money that half of them will join the march once they have been sufficiently effective. Production of protective gear has not really taken off yet, not in the numbers needed and if anybody gets into melee combat then they will get infected very quickly. And fighting hand-to-hand in protective gear against something as hard to kill as the Nurglies is a losing business anyway."

UR: "Can you cut off their supplies? Worked well enough for the Chaos Army when they came for Middenheim."
JK: They do not need any. From what we can see there are several fungi which break down anything organic and ferment it into something that the Nurglies can use. Water is pretty much everywhere this time of the year if you don`t mind some dirt and shit in it. And they breed their own ammo, so no can do. Urmel, if the Reiksbund does not act the sick fuckers will be in Weijin and Cathay will fragment. The Mandate of Heaven rests on ruling from Weijin."
UR: I do not see intervention for a couple of months at the very least. The new government is still negotiating a coalition and even if they get it done this "traffic light" was voted in for their promise of less interventions, not more. It is not that Cathay is a member of the Reiksbund after all."
JK:" It will be so much better when Cathay falls to Nurgle of course and so much easier to push them back then."
UR: Jim Knopf, you know that and I know that, they do not."
JK: "So now what?"
UR: "So the Section has authorized Plan B"
JK: "You mean Plan 9 from Outer space. Jesus Urmel, I am not even sure why I endorsed that idea."
UR: "Because it is a slim chance instead of no chance."

Weijin

„Clack-Clack-Clack"
Wolfgang Böhler always hated the stifling robes of a Mandarin that he had to wear whenever he was visiting the Forbidden City but today was even worse than usual. That he had nobody to blame but himself for the current mess did not improve his mood any.

The Germans of the Wild Geese had thought it fitting to introduce ping-pong to the Cathayans and it had caught on like the rash. To nearly everybody`s surprise the Celestial Dragon, the Center of the Real, the Cathayan Emperor was pretty good at it. Wolfgang Böhler had good eye-hand coordination and had played table tennis on and off for many years but the Emperor was good enough that Wolfgang did not have to play at losing. And the Emperor`s robes were even more stifling than his own so he was not excused at all and neither was answering his questions while serving the fast-moving ball.
The only things that made it bearable were the scandalous looks on the faces of the eunuchs who were scandalized that Böhler was not in full kowtow before the Emperor and the Dragon sitting serenely on his throne but serving the balls enthusiastically while he held his "audience".

"Tidu Wolfgang, my advisers always complain about the Ever-Victorious Army`s expanses and I always tell them they just have to become as good as you are to receive the same. But these days they have changed their tune. They no longer claim that you spend too much money, they claim that you fritter away the money on things that have no use in warfare. They hint that you sell these things to become rich."
"Slander exalted Dragon, all slander."
"Then tell me Tidu Böhler, for what do you need such amounts of liquid soap and this powder, what do you call it…"
"Exalted Dragon, can you keep a secret?"
"Yes, of course I can."
"Well here it comes: Your court is leaking information like a sieve leaks water. Whatever I tell you now will be the talk of the court in a few hours and in the street in days. We know that some of the enemy hide themselves well, they sabotage, infect and spy. If I tell you then the chances that the operation succeeds drops dramatically."
"So I have to believe you?"
"I suggest that in one month you send a team of accountants to check on my books. You can send a few now to check we do not destroy or hide records. In one month we have won the battle or we all need to run anyway."
"Ha you need to run now Tidu, otherwise you`ll never catch that ball."

And the ball promptly missed Wolfgang`s paddle and disappeared behind him.
"Tidu Wolfgang, if I cannot trust you I have lost already. Care for another round?"

"Wheeze, yes your highness"

Cathay, 645 Kilometers from Najiang

Areta Bane had a hard time seeing very much, the dust which permeated everything rose from countless feet, hooves and tyres. Her Unimog was empty of the soldiers that it usually carried into battle, instead it had a load and so had the trailer it towed. Areta marvelled at the Unimog which towed that load through very nasty terrain as if it were empty, if maybe a bit slower. This was the third trip she made today and again she was hauling fuel barrels. The first two loads went into a couple of bunkers in the front lines from which thick pipes ran to the palisade but this one was offloaded into a long row of holes that went into the ground before the Caythayan army`s lines. There was freshly moved earth running in strips to the slopes that would hold the mercenaries so Areta was sure somebody would have a very bad day. Her little convoy went past the many layers of barbed wire that were strong before the first human defenses that would hold Cathayans only. They had to fight with spears, crossbows, sheer guts and something the Germans called Molotov`s drink or something.

There was something her German superiors called a traffic jam as there were only few trails that went up or down the slope before her. A very long time ago this had been part of a huge mountain range,but time had done what it did to all things and whittled it down to a series of lower, earth covered hills and mountains. The Cathayans were not the ones to leave things as they were and converted the slopes into a series of terraces which were normally ideal for making some of the very best tea this world had. Now the carefully tended plants gave way to layer and layer of defenses, which had to be taken meter by bloody meter all the while under the fire of the Wild Geese. Two of these mountains were on each side of the Hashan Pass through which the Nurglites had to move if they wanted to reach Weijin this year at their current speed. They would bleed, but would they bleed enough?

Areta had nodded off when her trucks reached the resupply point and only woke up when her driver switched the engine off She trusted her noncoms to arrange for resupply and started to look for Captain Schwarz for the next load and orders. When she entered the office she found a man that kept himself awake with whatever was at hand, was caked in dust and stunk like a skunk, not that she was any better.

"A Company Leader Bane, there you are, you are direly needed."
"What can my combat group do for you then?"
"Oh , sorry, you are direly needed. Is your deputy good?"
"Yes, he is."
"Good, turn over command of the group to him. He is to take the next load to the pass and then report to Major Richter. They will likely be a part of the mobile reserve. Before you send them off please offload the heavy machine guns on your trucks and take the gunners with you. You are needed here."
"Sorry Sir, but why do you take command of my group from me?"
"Because your skills are needed elsewhere. Don`t worry, you`ll get your group back after the battle, but for now we have too few people checked out for the heavy machine guns."
"Why is that so important to pull me off my command?"
"I could tell you, but if I do that too soon I have to shoot you. Get things organized and then take a rest, you will need it badly."

Cathay, 625 kilometers from Nanjiang

Nurgle`sgreat host was wherever Ku`gath`s view fell. Even from the height of his palanquin Nurgle`s children stretched to the horizon or to the point where poisonous gasses and clouds of pests would occlude even his view. In some places he could see the humans which had yet to embrace the gifts fully, who still had some of their original mind and body. There were Plaguebearers, Great Unclean ones, bodies of every description,and they had acquired quite a cloud of Drones that flew overhead. Nurglings mostly managed to keep from getting underfoot except for those who carried his palanquin of course. It wasn`t any palanquin, it contained the cauldron in which he brewed his latest pestilences, the materials needed,and the more entertaining samples of his last concoctions.

All around him the very landscape changed from one that denied Nurgle`s gifts to one that accepted them and where those who learned to adapt thrived in it. Ku`gath could not remember ever seeing a greater host of the Grandfather and somehow it seemed to grow with every step it took forward. So many of Nurgle`s children in one place, such magnificent victories and such beautiful gifts weakened the barrier between this world and the other one, allowing demons to slip through easily. And all of them wanted to be in at the killing.

Cathay, Seven Heavens, 1200 kilometers from Nanjiang

The "von Schiller" was one of Germany`s newest Zeppelins. It was simply gigantic, even when compared to the "Graf Zeppelin" of old whose commander had given the name for this one. Having easily 7 times the volume of lifting gas, 12 times the power, equipped with a very good Rune of Flying and built with the best technology Germany could make it was a marvel of the sky. It could fly above most weather, lift loads in excess of 500 tons and bring them to the ends of the world. "Von Schiller" did not even need a mooring mast any longer, several landing skids used hovercraft-like technology to allow the ship to put down at nearly any place it choose to do so.

For all the marvels that had made it possible, the zeppelin was a glorified truck, moving anything around that was needed this year to any place that needed it. Maxi Jensen commanded it for this trip and was still in awe with the leviathan. What would never pale was the view through the windows of her airship, no plane ever built would allow her such a breath-taking panorama. They went from the cockpits roof right to the floor, the control stations were built before it.

Currently she saw why Seven Heavens had been chosen for a Zeppelin landing field. The all-important river met several channels and two major roads, resulting in a sprawling city that had long made its name in long-range traffic. While every airship landing still drew a crowd,the Cathayan merchants took the new transportation in stride.

The approach was much more leisurely than during her first career as a Lufthansa pilot, the zeppelin did not have to keep up a high speed just not to drop from the sky. There were certainly no other planes in a holding pattern that would observe her every mistake and the weather was actually pretty good. The normally serene cockpit was quite loud as several pumps sucked humongous amounts of helium from the envelope above her, reducing buoyancy. Her helmsman compensated by tilting the huge propellers downwards, adding just enough lift to slowly reduce altitude . By the end of the approach "Von Schiller" settled down with hardly any bump at all.

An hour later the airship was secured. Another one brought her through what passed through immigration around here. At that point she was so tired that she even slept through the bus ride to the hotel that catered to the airship crews and the German specialists.

Her dinner was a hot beef noodle soup and she was so exhausted that she easily fell asleep despite the rock-hard mattress. Her alarm clock started to ring at about the same time that two black-clothed thugs broke through her door and surrounded her bed wielding nasty-looking knives and daggers.

"Yanguizi Yaoing, you are now the prisoner of the Fists United in Righteousness"
It took the pilot a moment to translate that. The masked men that threatened her were the Boxers.

She was bound hand and foot, a hood was placed on her head and she was half-shoved, half-carried along passages and stairs she could not see. She was thrown onto some straw and a cart rattled uncomfortably on the cobblestones that covered Seven Heaven`s roads. She felt some other bodies besides her,but when she tried to contact her crewmembers she got a painful jab for her troubles. When she was finally pulled from whatever cart that had transported her she was pushed blindly into some building. When her hood was removed she found herself in a candlelit hall. From the smell and some of the dirt it could have been some storeroom pretty recently,but now it was an assembly room of sorts. Several banners hung from the walls bearing Cathayan signs she could not read and more than 50 people wearing civilian clothing and masks.

A table had been repurposed as a platform that allowed a lone figure to speak to the masses and their hostages. The voice was dampened by the mask he wore and little pauses made the speech a bit awkward.

"Look here my brothers at the..imperialist scum that wants to change the ways we have inherited from our ancestors. Look at the ones who have forced the un..unequal treaties upon the Celestial Dragon. Look at the ones whose ways have made their homeland so that Nurgle was forced to put his attention to defenseless Cathay. Look at the ones who refuse to help the downtrodden citizens. Look at them and laugh because today we do not beg for their toys to defeat the enemy, we simply take them. All hail the Fists, all hail the mighty dragon who does not even know that we fight for him."
It went on like this for far too long.
"Which one of you is the pilot of this..this airship?

Maxi Jensen`s crew looked at each other before she made herself known.
"That would be me then."
"Take her and leave these useless wairen here until we are finished with our glorious mission."
"What are you going to do with my crew?"
"Nothing if you do as you are asked. Otherwise I cannot guarantee for their safety."
"Asshole."

The latter got her another prod with a staff that was sure to leave a bruise, re-acquaintance with the hood she had come to hate and another trip in the cart. She had no idea about the path the vehicle had taken, but she knew the sounds and especially the smell of the airship field when she arrived. Somehow nobody bothered to check the cart when she was brought inside and nobody seemed to have any issue when masked figures led a bound and blindfolded woman over the last meters into her own airship. Only when she was inside the air-conditioned Zeppelin was her hood removed and her hands cut free.
She took a minute to get used to more air and unfettered movement during which everybody else removed their masks as well. Most revealed very normal Cathayan faces except for one. While his eyes were at a slight angle they certainly lacked the epicanthic fold that most had. He also showed very high cheekbones and a slender face.

"Ottokar sends his regards if you are Ivil Bloodcrest."
"Well met Maxi Jensen and yes, I am Ivil. The "boxers" have taken the tower, the hangar and the security is currently still in a brawl with them which should take as long as it is needed. Shall I send my men to the cables?"
"Give me 30 minutes, then they should go. Please make sure they understand that they have to release on time and simultaneously. If a cable hangs or snaps then this is over before it starts."
"We know, but I will remind them."
"I`ll get to work then."

Maxi Jensen sat herself at the pilot`s station and switched on the TFTs before her. What she was about to do would usually take three people and she had to use a non-standard start-up sequence. Others might have quailed before the pressure but she was used to fast movers, not the ponderous airships that were stealing their show. When all systems told her they were paying attention,she started warming up the oil to her turbines but left them off except for the APUs that provided electrical power and hydraulic pressure.

Huge pressure cylinders started to vent helium into the lifting cells so that the airship would gain positive buoyancy. When she had landed "Von Schiller" she had pumped nearly 60,000 m³ from the lifting cells into the pressure tanks so that the airship put roughly 30 tons on the ground to stay there safely. Normally she would have restored most of that lift,but not all, and would have taken off on engine power as it was more controllable, this was out for tonight.

Instead she intensely watched the pressure sensors on all landing pads while she engaged the thousands of systems that made the huge gasbag one of the best airships ever to take to the skies. The roar above her head was making everybody nervous but Ivil who seemed not to care but calmly walked the control gondola and used his wireless at times.
Finally the TFT on Maxi`s right side showed green and nothing else while the weight of her airship was less than five tons.

"Ivil, now would be an excellent time for your men to stand ready. They know that they won`t come on board once they do that right?"
"This is understood. They will fade into the city and beyond."
"Well then, stand by for release."

Of course it did not work as well as it would have with an experienced crew. The cable on the starboard side close to the tail released a few seconds too late, making "Von Schillers" ascent with the nose high and a spectacular view from the right cockpit windows for a few moments. The German pilot used the time to fire up her turbines, something she had not dared before. While having 60,000 horsepower on tap was really nice they were definitely not quiet. Now that her Zeppelin was in the air she could care less.