A House in Germany, Nighttime

The man in dark clothes looked like an average thief. but that was not the case. When "working", he called himself "AJ Raffles" after the old novel figure. This Raffles was one of the non-German Earthers pulled away with Germany and the rest of the Earth pieces to Warhammer.

Since he had his modern equipment with him, Raffles soon made his entrance into criminal underbelly of Warhammer. Within 2 years, he build up a reputation as THE specialist for thievery and buglary on demand. Not only in Germany, but the Empire and notably Bretonnia as well. And with each following year, his reputation grew.
Museums, privateers, smaller banks, even cultist buildings, nothing was secure to him, when he took on a task. That he survived successfully even on Warhammer, was testament to his meticioulus preparation and rigid standards of what demands he accepted.

One such standard was that Raffles only accepted a "breach" on sorcerers if the object to be taken was mundane. Most sorcerers, be it Imperials or Germans, were extremly protective when it came to their supernatural art and secured them accordingly. While at the same time normal stuff was mostly of lesser importance and less protected as well. Raffles did not count how often he snuck into heavily protected houses of wizards and stole mundane stuff with an ease like taking candy from a baby, because the things he targeted were mundane. Taking for instance a magical item on the other hand would border on suicide. He saw too often how especially Earth burglars underestimated the power of magic.

Taking a job against cultists was another rigidly ruled thing. Raffles only accepted if his "employer" was ok that the master thief would go about it in his own way. Mostly Raffles lured other cultists or the police against his target and took what he wanted in the ensuing

This night, Raffles was in action against a German sorcerer and his safeguards. As always, the master thief had accepted to only steal mundane stuff, which suited his employer just fine. As far as Raffles knew and had researched himself, he was the tool in a spat between two wizards. His employer wanted to hinder his opponent from further expanding. Raffles was to steal a serious amount of money from a wall safe and leave faked photos and a movie behind as material for extortion. He was not a fan of such underhanded tactics, but leaving faked stuff behind was not against his rules. His employer could actually give him a house plan and a weekend where Günter Koch would not be home, with enough time to suceed.

The House he now worked on was obviously expanded from it´s origins. Another wing had been added, this was clear from the unusual positioning. A clear sign of a later addition. The House was dark and empty as promised. Raffles motion detector only showed a cat a bit further down the street.
The door was a good one, but with having gotten a reserve key a matter of moments. Going in, he turned the lights on and shut down the alarms. He could do this since his get-away car was of the same type and colour as the owners. The neighbours would mainly think Günter Koch arrived home early.

After depositing the faked stuff so that Günter Koch would surely find it, the last thing to do was cleaning the safe for the mundane valuables. This safe was, according to the plans, in the newer part of the house and Raffles opened the door to the floor leading into the new part. Turning on the lights, stepping into the loor, he pulled the door behind him shut. After walking not even a meter he heard a small klick. That was impossible, the plan showed no alarms in this floor.

But still he heard the door behind him lock shut and the lights went out. AJ moved his hand towards his nightsight goggles, when he saw -it. In the dark floor he saw an enormous pair of kissable women´s lips floating. Despite the darkness in the room the lips, coloured like done with a deep red lipstick, were clearly visible as if having some unseen lighting.
It could not be a total illusion, since his motion detector signaled the nearing lips. Raffles, still struggling with the turn of events recognised the playing music only when the lips began to sing.

Michael Rennie was ill, the day the Earth stood still, but he told us where we stand...

Raffles had been promised and had researched for himself that this wing of the house was not magically active, but there obviously something was not right, he needed aplan. The lips he cautiously tried to not touch lead him towards a door with their movements, all while the music was sung.

... Pal to his bride, I´m gonna give you some terrible thrills like a: Science-Fiction Double Feature,
Dr. X will build a creature, see Androids fighting Brad and Janet...

Raffles had been so concentrated on finding a move to save himself that only now he recognised what was going on. This was a magical safety measure designed like the famous opening sequence of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. His blood ran cold, such an unusual design hinted at only two things. The installer was insane or pampering his eccentric humour. In a way, Raffles hoped on madness. Madmen made mistakes, an eccentric was too sane.

Anyway, that was a thought for later. If he wanted to prohibit contact with the lips following him around, at that moment he had only the choice to open the door on his right side. AJ Raffles did so, stepped through the door and closed it behind him just before the lips would have touched him.
No idea, what terrible thing this might have done to him.

AJ turned around and wished he would not have done it. The room was lit, there were men and women or maybe illusions in attendence and he heard music again.

It´s astounding, time is fleeting...

The master thiefs hair stood up when his body moved on it´s own.

It´s just a jump to the left and then a step to the right...

And his body followed the sung words and moved into the line before him.

With your hand on your hips, bring your knees in tight, but it´s the pelvic thrust that drives you insane...

AJ danced with the illusions, until an instrumental break came and he heard a voice.

"They are not illusions, they are 'collegues' of you. As "Riff Raff" in the musical sang, it is astounding what a little bit of magic can do. Time runs on a different track in this room. Has nobody told you breaking into a necromancer´s home is a recipe for trouble? I feel that that you really did not know it. Then it is correct what I was told. Surprised I am here tonight? One of your little 'adventures' seemed to have really angered someone. I was informed that 'AJ Raffles' would come visiting me tonight.

Personally I do not have anything against you, but I do not like to be a victim of stealing, so you have to earn your freedom. Normally, after some correction time here in this room I give you buglars to the police, but your great talents come handy for me.

I have an offer for you, an offer you cannot refuse, so to speak. But since I have a nice dinner with a Lady of the night waiting for me, with an even nicer night, you will have some time alone with your new friends. Think about my offer. Oh, by the way feel free to try to escape. I won´t hold it against you, actually I hope you try it and I really like the results, they can be quite amusing."

Ministry of Defence, Berlin, Germany

Unlike the new Chancellery, the German Ministy of Defence was situated in an older building, the so-called Bendlerblock, a building complex at the Landwehrkanal. Günter Koch with his love for historical buildings prefered to enter the ministry for his appointments from the southern part with it´s Wilhelmine architecture.
Today Günter, in his position as one of the three highest-ranking German military sorcerers, had a meeting with the Defence minister, Markus Söder. The two men had become aquainted due to their respective positions and even something between comrade and friend.

"Morning, Markus!"
"Morning, Günter! How are you?"
"Thanks, complaining at very high level - and you?"
Markus Söder laughed at their good natured banter. "Quite the same, quite the same."

"Joking aside, I cannot complain, Markus. Especially since I made a great catch at the new selling off of the stuff left behind here in Germany by the people who stayed on Earth. I live in a region where many Americans were stationed, so US DVDs, canned food and such were rather plentiful. I was able to get me several seasons of Rauchende Colts (smoking Colts, German title of the TV series Gunsmoke), which we do not have in Germany. When the Weltensprung happened, there was just a single season available in German. The DVDs have no German language channel, but my English is good enough to watch without problems. English might not be a language future generations will need much considering the closed nature of Albion´s society, but we 'oldies' needed to learn English.

In a way, this is sad to see English go, in another way it is great, since I recognised a significant fall in hearing and seeing these horrible Denglisch words, that pseudo-international manure, in the last years.

But say, how long will you stay on post commisarily? It is a damn political fuck-up to see you leave office, you made a great job under the circumstances. We soldiers, even part-timers like me, are sad to see you go Markus, and we told the new government in an open letter what the Army thinks about being commanded by jokes like Beck or Kraft or the other names thrown around by the Ampel coalition. That would have been possible on Earth, but here we need politicians on such a crucial post who know what to do."

Markus Söder´s friendly smile got brighter. "I see that the secret held if even you do not know it yet-"
"Do not know what? You have me at a disadvantage."
"Scholz never showed me the letter you boys and girls wrote, but you must have seriously impressed or scared him. But I do know that you were among the many command officers who signed it, so I have to deeply thank you, old friend, for keeping me in office.

You told me that you are interested in politics, so it won´t be news to you that the opposition of Union parties, Kaiserlichen and Linke has nearly as many seats as the Ampel. Olaf Scholz is admittedly one of the few good choices the Ampel has for chancellor, but because of this he knows quite well how thin his layer of talented people to choose ministers from is.

Passive resistance by the Armed Forces, in special in the light of needed budget reductions, is something that could topple his government soon. On Earth this would not have been a big problem for Scholz to solve somehow, but here on Warhammer with its multiple dangers the mood of the Army has to be at least taken somewhat into account.

Olaf will make a big fuss officially about how Germany needs a unity government across party lines in our situation, which is why 'he kept me in office'. I would really like to see how he got the Freisinningen and more specifically the Greens to accept it.

Anyway, Olaf is no dummy. Keeping me means also he can shift flak for military budget reductions on little old me. Personally, I even agree with him that we have to reduce military spending somewhat. At times, the space program and the military were a third of the national budget. And just take the Navy wish for 120 upgraded "Altdorfs". Militarily that might be sound thinking, but politically and financially it is not in the cards at the moment.

So I have a difficult task ahead of me and that is one reason I need your input. I already ordered several task groups and thinktanks for all thing military to gather ideas. Gather ideas, work out proposals how to strengthen our military power while at the same time reducing spending. You will be the boss of the task group for magical questions. I´ll give you the numbers for the other groups so you can brainstorm over every angle. I do not care how absurd an idea might sound as long as it gives us what we need."

Autobahnrestaurant (Highway Restaurant) at the A 24

The clothes were nothing special, Budapester shoes, chino pants, a pastel shirt and a leather jacket that would have fit James Dean. They were of good quality and fitted the Asur inside them well. While the clothes were nothing special to any German but an expression of understated taste they were quite a statement by the High Elf for those who could see the signs. They meant that the Elf no longer considered himself to be part of the Asur. While many of the Elves who worked or studied in Germany eschewed their complete traditional garb they made a point to keep at least some of their native style. If an elf chooses to forego them completely it meant he was no longer a part of the true elves.

Sitting on a chair with his back to the wall Ottokar Proktor watched Aeolus when he entered the restaurant, mentally nodded in approval when the elf gave no sign of recognizing him and instead went to the self-service counter. He approached his table with a full tray a few minutes later.

"This seat already occupied?"
"Not by me, please sit down."
"Normally I would say well met Ottokar Proktor but today I will make an exception. I am not sure yet whether I will kill you or not."
"If you would really consider this you would not tell me, you`d have waited somewhere outside with that Walter of yours. You know that I know that so let us cut to the case shall we?"
"Maybe I want some answers before I decide?"
"Fire away then, your questions are less dangerous than your bullets."
"How did you know I would do it?"
"Do what, kill the princes? It was the logical thing to do, that saved the most Asur and you actually care about them."

"Don´t play coy Ottokar, not now and not with me. How did you know I would win the competition, how did you know I would win that rifle and how did you know I would do it."
"Oh, you won straight and fair but Dirk had orders in case it would not have happened that way."
"Ottokar, that is hardly an answer. What calculation made you think that there would be a civil war when I was there, what intelligence allowed you to push me into this role, what aerial recon indicated the approaching war"
"Ever heard of celestial mages?"
"You are joking right?"

"Nope. Really now, why would I forego such a useful source of information. They may be a bit vague, but they give you such nice starting points. And they are so cheap, a nice telescope, a studentship at the Köln-Bonn university and they will gladly tell you anything you want to know. And on that day I wanted to know how to cut that civil-war-to-be to size. We cannot allow one of the forces of order to mutilate themselves too badly."
"You want to tell me that the BND uses mages as source of information."
"As sources about mages for sure. Use celestials, well some yes some no. Some of us are a bit more creative than the rest.. "
"You are…"
"Arrogant, a bastard, uncaring, efficient or all of the above? Aeolus, I helped you to save what, 25000 Asur or so?. And I know you care about that, very much so."
"You could have asked."
"Would not work, telling about it would have blown any foreknowledge. And I should not tell you that, you are supposed to be that much better at magic than us stupid Germans are."
"Isha forgive me but you`ll live."
Ottokar pushed something away under the table.

"Isha would have to forgive one of us anyway. Now that this unpleasantness out of the way can we maybe engage in sensible conversation?"
"About what?"
"About what you are doing presently for example. How is your standing with the Asur, what is your relationship with Aurelius, where are you hanging out, such things?"
"As you would very well know the Asur no longer recognize me as one of their own. Officially Aurelius had to sack me and evicted me from the Embassy. The same evening, we consumed most alcohol in one of Berlin`s more classy bars on his tab and he made me the broker for his elven horse sperm scheme.
I live in the Grunewald with Silva for now, that works out surprisingly well."
"The Asur won`t pester the Asrai about that?"

"Ottokar, sometimes I despair of you. You move in this world as if it is your oyster and sometimes you know so little about it. Before you Germans stumbled into this world there were a very few beings who could make the fell gods blink. Alarielle, the Everqueen, yes the same one you pestered into giving you the permission to assassinate Moravel, is one of them and maybe the most powerful. And she is known to walk lightly around Ariel, yes the one you blackmailed with her husband`s remains, as she thinks she and her people become something so feral they will become a danger to this world. So no, the Asrai do not give a flying fart about what the Asur think of me being Silva`s lover."
Aeolus stopped his quiet rant when he saw the ghost of a smile on Ottokar`s face and realized he had been led by the nose again. Oh yes, Ottokar had known fully whom he had confronted.

"So why did you ask to see me Ottokar."
"Oh why would I? Maybe because I see somebody who is a bloody good sniper. I see a man who is not afraid to acknowledge what he sees and acts on it no matter the consequences for himself. And maybe, just maybe I have use for such a man Aeolus."
"Herr Proktor, you put me in a position where I am evicted from my people and now you ask for my services."
"Exactly."

Cold Harbor, close to the River Ruin, Dark Lands

The place had a name that the former Germans found very hard to pronounce, they called it "Cold Harbor" and were not too surprised that their hosts used the same as a nickname for this particular hellhole. Cold Harbor resembled an iceberg in so far that only 10% of its facilities were above ground while the rest were below. Their hosts were not forthcoming with information who had dug the huge caverns or the underground canal that connected the River Ruin with the Chaos Sea. The construction did not fit their style well. While the DawiZharr went for angular designs, used huge and well-defined blocks in their structures their surroundings were full of curves, seamless and gave an organic feel. The Chaos Dwarfs 'structures inside clashed badly with the older structures. These also gave off a vibe of being really old despite looking intact in all respects. Manfred Hartig had taken samples of the walls and was still trying to replicate what he had found but Johann Prossy could care less.

Currently he was overseeing the culmination of a project at least two years in the making and failure was not an option. Mordred had addressed him in the friendliest terms, praising Prossy`s work on his earlier projects and stating his confidence in completing this one on time. It would have been much more relaxing if Mordred would not have skinned that slave alive at the same time. He had apologized for the mess, that was something, wasn`t it? So he nervously watched the approach of the special railroad cars. They were cooled by a water jacket that gave off lots of steam and open topped. The air above them wavered with heat and the DawiZharr and humans tending to them were nearly naked. The cars were driven over a bridge and the first one stopped exactly where it was supposed to be.

The tipping wagon turned over and a mass of glowing lava dropped into the hole below. Prossy watched the flow meter before him anxiously and drew breath again when the water continued to pass it and the pressure did not drop. He gave the sign for the next load to be dropped and the one after that. The pipes were now protected by the lava that had gone in before so he became less and less nervous. He relaxed considerably when the crane deposited the lid on the "reactor" below and copious amounts of steam emerged from a so-far closed valve.

Which just meant that he jumped that much higher when the oh-so-well modulated voice behind him surprised him.
"I take it that all went well Herr Prossy?"
"Oh..sorry Mordred I did not see you coming, no disrespect was meant…"
"I would be sorely disappointed in myself if you had seen me Johann. So would you deign to tell me what I see here?"

"Yes, Mordred, of course. This is the prototype of the new ships engine you ordered me to build. The wagons brought lava blessed by Hashut and dropped them into a vessel I call reactor. This lava will never cool as far as the priests of Hashut know, at least as long as we perform the necessary sacrifices. The reactor contains many pipes through which we pump water which heats up till it becomes steam. Then we pipe the steam through the reactor again to superheat it and then feed it into a triple expansion steam engine. The steam is then feed into a condenser where it becomes water again and the cycle begins anew. This engine does not need air, exhausts neither steam nor fire and should be ideal for use in this Underground Sea you have told me about."

"Marvelous, simply marvelous if this is indeed so. And how much power has this splendid creation of yours?"
"This one about 2000 horsepower Mylord. This is enough for the first ships we will build and we can use the experience from that to build bigger, stronger ones."
"Do that and your rewards will be immeasurable."
"I will do my very best Mordred."
"I am sure you will. I very much hope it will be enough, for us both."

Close to Weijin

The world had regained some of its color and the idea of getting up and doing what needed to be done had lost some of its threat. She could do it, no problem at all and if she did that she could go to her wardrobe where one of the boards held her stash and take a tiny bit, just a little tiny bite of Bertwort. She knew that stuff was bad, she knew she could not go on like this, but really nobody could expect her to quit in one go couldn`t they? Her hand took hold of her cover to pull it aside just to find she could hardly move the limb before she was stopped cold by a shackle. That was when her senses returned fully. She was manacled to her own bed so she really would not be able to get up and get herself anything. There was some water on the table besides her and some fingerfood but certainly nothing with which to release herself.

Her memory returned in bits and pieces. She had collapsed after the bombing of Nanjiang and Breda had immediately known what had happened. Bertwort had always been Areta`s vice and the last campaign demanded so much of her that she had crossed the threshold into outright dependency. She had enlisted the aid of the old training platoon and had smuggled Areta past the medics. They and the doctors would have helped for sure but they would have ended Areta`s career with the Wild Geese at the same time. Their friend deserved a chance and so they had bound her to her cot, provided food and generally looked after her. Areta had thanked them, cursed them, begged them and offered herself and they had closed their ears and continued to feed and clean her. In her moment of clarity Areta wept knowing she had such friends before the next wave of craving set and she clawed at her bonds like an enraged animal.

Article in the "Spiegel" (German weekly news magazine)

The Federal Joint Committee of public health agencies has finally published the guidelines and standards for magical healing. These guidelines state which therapies have proven to be effective and without crippling adverse effects, they also list which rituals are allowed. They also listed the third parties which certify mages who want to enter the contract for compensation with the health insurance companies. The Sisterhood of Shallya has worked under the preliminary guidelines for the last two years already and the results of this have influenced the regulation that has just been passed. Berhard Van Treek, the Chairman of the Joint Committee and Cyrston Van Danling, Patriarch of the Jade Order expressed great hope that this will lead to great things….

Bunker, Eifel

A very long time ago the bunkers had been dug into the Eifel mountains to shelter the West German government in case of war. The development of accurate high-yield warheads converted its purpose from protected retreat to high-tech tomb and at the end of the Cold War they were decommissioned. It took the Weltensprung to reopen them and now their content was arguable far more important. It housed both Hypathia, the second AI working with the Germans and the first nanite tank outside of the Citadel of Lead. The Germans thought that putting all eggs in one basket was folly in any world and especially in this one.

The Nanites in the tank mostly replicated themselves but for a small number under the AI`s control. Hypathia had started modifying some of them so that she could work on DNA and was currently working on a project both special and urgent. As it concerned the Warp, a realm that was unavailable for her she had asked for and received help.

A small group of people sat in the room that held her terminal, most of them draped on very comfy chairs while the only male in their number was hammering away at the keyboard.

"Specialist Winkler, why shall I address you as Gestalt?"
"I am Gestalt because we are five."
"Are you a hive mind?"
"No, I am what emerges when the five bearers of the amulets join forces. I am more than the sum of my parts."

"So you are not human?"
"Very definitively not. A human could never do what I do."
"What do you do they cannot."
"I manipulate things at a very low level-molecular switches, promoting stem cell differentiation, the likes. Each step is small and easy but it has to be applied to a hundred million cells quickly. They would fail."
"I can do that."
"You could supervise that but your mind is closed to the Empyrean. Let`s get going I suggest. Did you arrange for the samples?"
"Right behind you."
Ralf Winkler`s head turned but the Gestalt looked at the thousands of test tubes that were arranged at the rear wall.
"They are from Cathay?"
"From all over this world and a lot of them are very normal variants, some even from pre-Weltensprung stocks."
"Understood. I will identify the active ones."

The former medic`s body walked past the long shelves, putting sticks on some tubes, leaving out others.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Very much so."
"So these are formed by what you call magic?"
"Influenced by that yes, but only a special kind of magic. These have been touched by Nurgle."
"How do you know?"
"Easy enough to see if you are me. He is the enemy of my patron deity and she knows his works for sure."
"If you say so. Let me check a bit."

The level of fluid in the marked tubes dropped markedly as they were sucked elsewhere and the former medic sat down in front of the keyboard again. His eyes were as unfocussed as were the ones of the other four, their view was not on this world. It took a while before a strange croaking sound got their attention.

"Sorry Hypathia, what was that."
"A call to get up, a recording of those you call the Old Ones Specialist Gestalt."
"Interesting. So did your research bear fruit."
"Indeed it did. I found several prions and RNA chains as well as a special DNA sequence that are exclusive to the viri and bacteria that you have tagged as changed by this Nurgle. I am just editing some bacteriophages and virophages to go after them, that should make the cleanup in Cathay possible."

"When do you think we are finished?"
"Give the tank two hours, then we have enough to breed by themselves with sufficient speed."
"That's fast."
"It is not, but I have to operate with the equivalent of a swiss knife here instead of decent gear. It can be dome but it is messy and the results could be better. Specioalist Gestalt, can I ask a couple of questions."
"Yes, of course but you should not take too long. If I hold the connection longer than 30 more minutes or so the brains of my bodies will be damaged."
"Meatbags, so frail."
"Meatbags, so inconsiderate."

There was an amicable silence for a moment.
"So this warp you use and which was the object of so much research when the Old Ones were still at work, what is it?"
"Very difficult to describe. It does not interact with normal matter, it reacts to observation, to intent, thought and emotion. It allows for information to be sent at faster than light speed, but we have no proof that the information can be recoded in time to beat light speed in the materium. It is populated by its own ecosystem of beings that are adapted to it and that often reflect the events in this world and the other way around."
"One of these days and when you have more time we should compare notes on something the Old Ones called the Quantum Sea."

500 meters AGL, 200 kilometers from Nanjiang

„Von Schiller" was back in Shenxi province, it was attacking Nurgle`s forces again and it did so by dropping fluids but this time the attack was arguably more devastating to the Prince of Plagues. The landscape below the airship had changed ever since it had crossed Hashan pass. When they had taken off the country below them showed the millennia of human work on it. The rivers were dammed in in most parts and irrigation channels branched from them. Miles upon miles were divided in the unending fields that produced rice for everybody. There were villages by the dozen as rice farming is labour-intensive and copses of bamboo and other trees indicated where hills made this type of farming impossible.

When they had crossed the pass the area where Nurgle`s army had marched looked very similar until one looked closer. Dams had broken and irrigation channels had silted up in record time, leaving many stagnant pools which had any color but blue. The rice paddies were often flooded out of season and when they bore any fruit it had the wrong color and height. The stands of bamboo were crooked and bent and many leaved looked like tentacles that wanted to grip anything that closed. Most villages were in various stages of disrepair and the wood used in their construction displayed signs of aging which should have been impossible. The worst was how few things were alive and moving under their own power unless you counted the few things that actually moved.

Maxi Jensen had her crew back but she could hardly recognize them from the masks all wore as a precaution. Her ears were fine-tuned to the many sounds her airship made and one was out of place. A deep thrumming behind and above her denoted where several high-pressure pumps plied their trade and a hissing sound made her sick in the stomach despite knowing what it meant. Hastily rigged masts struck out from the sides of the airship and a steady stream of fluid emerged from many nozzles at high speed. The propwash from six engines mixed the fluid with air and a very fine mist dropped to the landscape below.

Each droplet that slowly descended had thousands upon thousands of bacteriophages and virophages and when they settled they started working. The landscape held an abundance of single-celled life forms, most of them harmless or even necessary for higher-order life to exist. More than a few had been changed by Nurgle though and that had taken them from the balance that usually existed between their kind and the rest of life. They did not just consume and multiply, they remade whatever they touched to Nurgle`s liking, inflicted pain where none was needed and killed what should have lived. All of them had the mark of Chaos, not in the way an Imperial priest would have understood, but in the shape of molecules that were arranged in special ways. Some of them were quite distinctive and these attracted the bacteriophages like a well-stocked buffet.

Looking a bit like a lunar lander the bacteriophages attached themselves into those bacteria who had certain proteins in their outer sheath. The injected DNA and more into it which quickly subsumed the original plans that had regulated replication and changed them so that more bacteriophages were made. They were a voracious stuff, acting faster than their normal counterparts as Hypathia had changed them. Like a tuned car they were able to reproduce faster and in greater amounts but they were also more fragile. This was a good thing. They were consuming stuff touched by the Prince of Plagues himself and in many cases the cells they attacked fought back. Their DNA was cut into pieces and either absorbed or reassembled wrong. Normally that would have led to a million mutations but the delicate way these were put together meant that nearly any significant mutation led only to a non-functioning phage. They also had inherited something from their human sponsors, telomeres. Usually such viri were simply immortal but these would reproduce a hundred times or so before they would simply perish. By that time well-protected teams would take countless samples and new generations of bacteriophages would be released. At the same time virophages waited their turn to invade cells at the same time than Nurgle`s brew, editing their DNA so that more virophages were produced. For the first time since about ever Nurgle found himself outmatched in his own field.

It was not only the many pestilences that were attacked by the redesigned organisms, Nurgle`s children were kept up by them too. When the many bacteria they lived in symbiosis with died so did the organisms that harboured them. The film of biological agents that rained down on the landscape below left a carpet of death behind it.

Shenxi province would take nearly a decade to be considered safe for human habitation and by the end of the decade it was nearly empty of Cathayans. The Celestial Dragon would not allow one of his provinces to lay fallow for long and needed incentives to get people to settle there. He once again heeded the advice of German consultants and declared a special economic zone in the province. Free from the high taxes and a lot of the bureaucracy that ruled the rest of Cathay the zone received a lot of investment from Germany, Nippon and the Empire. Not too far from the blackened ruins that had been Nanjiang a new town grew faster than anything the Cathayans had ever seen before. Shenzhen would be much more of an economic powerhouse than Najiang had ever been but its fast construction would make it unredeemably ugly for all time.