Soreil, Bretonia
Bolt of iron, rail from steel,
Diesel from train and screws from nil,
Guns from wreck and hull from the deep,
Crew from peasants and shutters to peep,
For a charm of powerful trouble
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Pierre Laval liked Shakespeare when he had the time, which was not very much these days. He muttered his mutilated version of Macbeth while he made some more adjustments on the drawing board, it seemed appropriate.
20 Kilometers from Castle Artois, Bretonia
Jules over there, he had been a serf-catcher. He was quite good if you needed to make an example of some serfs, he would do practically everything. He could lay some blame on him if needed and he could hold his own in a fight. Jules was also good at reading spoor. On the debit side of the ledger he moved a bit too noisily and still thought himself as a contractor rather than a simple subordinate.
Hugo had been one of Baron Artois` wardens, he moved far more quietly, came with two hounds and was acceptable with a bow. Melee was not his forte though and he flinched when one had to convince a serf to answer Robert`s question. He was probably the main source of information about Robert`s activities that reached the baron`s ears despite the Grail Knights approval. He was still useful but not overly so.
Maxime had been a butcher`s assistant before he had scoped him up and that made him well suited to some tasks the others would not touch.
Robert de Grail ranked the members of his little team according to their usefulness to him and nothing else. Robert de Dubois would not have liked to associate with them at all, they would reduce his standing in the eye`s of his peers. He would still be moved if something happened to them under his command, still resent it when they talked behind his back and valued their acclaim. Now they were figures on a chessboard, moved and manipulated at need and discarded when no longer of use.
His little group was making its way back to Castle Artois and Robert had a lot on his mind. The "fortified village" had lost more than a few serfs due to influenza and diarrhea already, things would become worse before they had a chance to become better. While the weather had much improved the serfs needed to sow and tend their fields on meager rations. Robert thought that as soon as the first harvest came in fresh produce would receive the toll would reduce itself a bit. Also the unproductive older serfs would have finally shuffled of the mortal coil so there would be that, All in Robert estimated that the serfs would produce about one half or a bit better than in the pre-Rebellion years, which was much more than the nothing they had done before.
A small group of villagers had contacted diarrhea two weeks before and looked like they were goners before making a miraculous recovery. While their stomachs were still distended and their legs showed that they could not control their runs at times they went back to work. When Robert had heard of it he had made his way there with Dame Poignard. The idiotic overseers had of course not seen that Nurgle had reached into their midst and paid accordingly. Robert had been able to take down most of the afflicted. The last week had been spent hunting down those who had escaped. The last one had put up a surprisingly hard fight and Robert had to take him down personally. He would have to undergo a purification rite and soon. The same went for his men, they were currently to useful to kill them just to be safe.
Other men would think about a change of clothes when they arrived, about decent food, cold drinks and a hot wench. His were in the here and now. Other men would have missed the broken twig, he had been blessed by the Grail.
10 Kilometers from Castle Artois, next morning
Leon Curvier pulled himself up with one hand, making very sure that no twig moved more than the wind allowed. He had climbed the oak before sunrise and had stayed deep within the foliage ever since. Now that the squeaking of hinges had announced the opening of gates and the general chatter indicated the village was coming alive. He had chosen the branch well, it did not give much when he crawled out along its length. He found a place where he could see without being seen and settled down there. He extracted the camera from its case, checked again that it was set for silent operation and switched it on. The lens focused on the first serfs that emerged from the gates and picture after picture was committed to silicon memory. The opened gates allowed him a clear view of the pillory, filled with two serfs. The zoom allowed to show the ravages of malnutrition in limbs that were too thin, faces too haggard and bellies to big. The shuffling pace of the peasant would only come out in a video which the camera dutifully recorded.
None of the pictures the camera took were what could be considered good. They lacked any aesthetics, the subject was ugly and it was a study in malnutrition, abuse and suffering. They were exactly what Leon was looking for.
Leon had lost most of his former life when he made the Weltensprung together with Germany. He had lost nearly all of his family, his house, his job, his friends and his country. The only thing that kept him from wholesale depression was that his wife was with him. They had clung to each other with near-maniac intensity while they went through the process of rebuilding their lives as best as they could. There were opening enough for civil engineers, doubly so for those who were able and willing to rough it a bit. He had helped build facilities in the Empire and Tilea before going back to Germany. He had found the time to renovate the house he and Colette had bought and when they were done with that the Breton refugees started to arrive in Germany wholesale.
His wife had been a volunteer in helping them from the get-go and it had not taken long for her to ask him to take in an orphan. He had not been too sure about that, he enjoyed his home and the privacy it brought. He dreaded the problems of putting somebody from a medieval society into a 21st century home. We feared that his wife would spend time and affection on the girl, taking both from their time together. In the end, he loved Colette too much to deny her and it seemed like the thing to do.
In the first weeks he had to bite his tongue several times to avoid blurting "I told you so" which would hardly be helping the situation. The problems with things like flushing toilets, eating with knife and fork, applying feminine "hygiene products" and simple cleanliness seemed unending. The invoice he got from the dentist even after the health insurance paid its part delayed replacing their old clunker of a car by a year at least. Still Sarah was a sweet child, willing to learn and trying to please. She did fill a hole in Leon`s life he had nearly forgotten was there and when she smiled she made up for nearly every problem she caused. She had a brittle edge to her and had a tendency for small accidents that left cuts on her arms and legs when nobody was looking. Both Leon and Colette were understanding, she had lost her family and her way of life to a stupid war after all.
A few months ago, Leon had woken up in the middle of the night, at his age his bladder would allow him undisturbed sleep every other night. He did not switch on the corridor lights and moved quietly so not to disturb the two sleeping females of his household. He had finished his business and was on the way back when he heard the sound. He could not identify it and got louder only when he neared the kitchen. He pushed the door open and froze at the doorstep. Sarah sat on a chair, with her legs up and her arms wrapped around them. She had pulled herself into the tightest ball she could manage and the pitiful sounds were from her mouth. A small knife was on the table and two lines crossed her forearms, bleeding moderately. Things became much clearer in Leon`s head, but this realization came with the feeling of helplessness. He did the only thing he could think of and wrapped his arms around her.
He would never know how long he had embraced her when she stopped sobbing and started talking. It did not take long for Leon to make something of it and when he did he was filled by depression, sadness and hate. He had listened for hours and when Sarah was finally in bed he laid awake for many hours afterwards. He had contacted people, he had written to newspapers and blogs. Some printed something, others did nothing. The horrors that had seared Sarah`s souls were too common, too far away. People listened politely and they nodded in sympathy. They did nothing. He became moderately depressed by this when he heard the Lady`s call. He had come to Soreil, he drunk from the Grail and he would fight to end what Bretonia`s nobles deemed their rights. He was a bit old to fight in the front lines and the gift he received from the Grail did not run in this direction anyway. And while the Rebels had many places for engineers they understood his desire to show, not tell. A small team of former poachers was formed to aid him and he had infiltrated Royal territory a few days before. He would get the picture and videos to rouse the languid Germans and hoped that this would soothe the wounds his own soul had received when he had a Breton orphan in his arms.
His plan was to infiltrate quietly, to be in and out without the Royals ever being the wiser. And if that could not be achieved he would gladly show them what he had learned during his stint with the French army.
Airfield close to Munich, Germany
A bright morning sun shone on the Oberpfaffenhofen airfield. The morning was really nice, warm without being hot and a tad of wind. A small group of people went straight for one of the hangar doors and an aircraft was pushed into the open.
The plane before Nathan Alpers seemed to suffer from obesity. The wings were much thicker than anything he had seen or flown before, the fuselage was short and broad and there were canards which were so thick they were nearly circles in profile. Things got even more weird when the back part of the wings bent backwards on a hinge and exposed a dozen ducted fans and more of them were visible on the canard. When the engines started, there was a muted howl that reminded the astronaut of a couple of hovers on steroids.
They wound down soon enough and he was asked nicely if would take the co-pilot`s seat. That was familiar enough, even if the board before him only held TFT`s and there was more than enough space. His old Storch seemed primitive and cramped in comparison.
He put a set of headphones on his head and heard while the pilot went through a checklist that was displayed on the monitor before him. And when all was said and done the howl increased again, the plane shuddered a bit and then lifted off vertically with no drama at all. He watched as the hinged part of the wings and the canards rotated forward and the plane accelerated moderately fast. It did not take very long for it to reach 180 kilometers per hour and an altitude of more than 2000 meters. The pilot sent the craft through a series of course changes before activating the autopilot.
"So far so impressive Herr Wiegant. I would not have believed I`d see an electric VTOL plane in this life and here I sit in one."
"We were already working on this when the Weltensprung happened. The project was on ice for a couple of years after that and now we were able to resurrect it with much better means. The new gigacaps have more than doubled range. We get away with a mixed-materials fuselage that way, much cheaper. If one really needs more range we can arrange for a Rune of Flying, then we can put a gigacap inside that will get you from Munic to Hamburg in three hours with no recharge. And you can still land vertically when you get there."
"Nice, very nice. I knew what the new gigacaps can do when I flew that Elektrostorch last year but this is a different league. But tell me-18 engines? Really now, wouldn`t less of them and more powerful do?"
"Yes and no. Yes, but then they would not fit the wings anymore and that is our trick. We can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane. Much more energy efficient than a helicopter, much easier to fly. And the engines and their props are really simple, one one moving part. They are ducted, so quieter and safer all around. You can still perform VTOL operations when four are out and fly when 60% as the gigacaps are now made in such amounts for cars they have become comparatively cheap. We believe that we can offer a base plane like this for 120.000 Marks."
"That is not bad at all. I might be tempted when you ever get to series production."
"Yes, that is why you are here."
"Hmm."
"We will receive certification within the month. We are too small, we need to partner up with somebody to build this in real amounts. And to do that we need a bit of attention. We believe that if we can say "Germany`s leading astronaut flies this" it will help so we would cut you a discount. A big one."
"I am not sure if my connections to EADS are that good. And while I believe this is a marvelous plane it would also hurt some of their current models. They are also developing some electric rotorcraft of their own."
"Actually we do not plan on EADS."
"Who then? Nuln Aircraft Works are out, that is for sure. Grob is too tied to EADS so.."
"No, I thought about Volkswagen or BMW."
"What?"
"Herr Alpers, we received a prototype of an autopilot system for this plane. From some team we never heard about. We have tested it quite a few times by now and it works close to perfection."
"I heard that."
"Ups, sorry Otto."
"All is forgiven Daniel, I am still learning. It will take me a further 89.2 flying hours and two more updates to reach perfection."
"Who was that?"
"The autopilot."
"Now that is impressive."
"No better than the current implementation of Siri in that regard if the Versailles link is to be believed."
"Aehem."
"Ok, Siri does not fly Otto. Now get us back to airport please."
"Back to airport Daniel, aye."
"Now where was I? Ah yes, the sales: You will see that Otto will fly us back to the airport with no hassle at all. Even if his higher functions were disabled flying this is super easy, everybody can do it. You can land in your garden and park this in front of your house."
"So you do want to tell me…"
"That the flying car is there? Yes, it is and it is electric."
Palace, Altdorf
It should have rained to today; the weather forecast had clearly said so. The Emperor would not have it, not here and not now, and so mages made sure that the rain fell elsewhere. They could not bring unblemished sunshine and their doings had roused the wind which pushed the scattered clouds in the sky here and there. Light and shadows raced over the palace`s inner court and it shone on an august assembly. Three sides were taken by the Empire`s nobles, by members of two armies and by diplomats. They stood around the Reiksbund Paladins in their armor minus the helmets who stood in three rows.
All of them watched the lectern which stood on a small platform. Reiksmarshall Kurt Hellborg currently climbed the few stairs and favored his left leg a bit. He had brought some notes with him and took a few seconds to get ready. For the first time ever he used a microphone. The left corner of his mouth would not follow his commands well enough, if he tried to speak as he used to he would slurr the speech and that really would not do. In some ways this was the most important speech in his life and he would not botch that.
There was another voice, one loud and clear, who proceeded him.
"Paladins, attention"
Valten of Altdorf certainly had no need for a microphone.
"At ease"
That came through the microphone. The power armor worn by the Paladins made the change in posture hard to detect, it was obvious enough to Hellborg`s experienced eyes.
"Good morning everybody. Today we have assembled here for something very normal and so I am a bit surprised so many of you turned up."
That got some laughter.
"Every unit in every army will see a change of command from time to time. This is normal and necessary. New commanding officers bring new ideas and by Sigmar, we had more than the usual crop of them during the last years. Even our Reiksbund allies could not tell us much about a company of power armored soldiers as no such thing existed before. The first of your kind fought the Skaven seven years ago and ever since you have protected us in exemplary fashion. We learned a great in these years and will continue to do so for a long time.
So an officer who learned his trade with you is a valuable commodity, one that is needed elsewhere more than he is needed here. The ravages of time spare no one and these days ask for a healthy Reiksmarshall who has an idea what all these new weapons and systems are about. The armed forces of the Empire have changed more during the last ten years than ever before and they will continue to become better. They need a Reiksmarshall who can guide that process and not one who still secretly looks where the small guys hide in his loudspeaker."
That got a bit more laughter.
"So, without further ado, it is time to announce the new Reiksmarshall. Valten of Altdorf, step forward."
There was applause and cheers and it took a while till Hellborg could continue.
"Valten of Altdorf, you will take command of the Empire`s armies. Lead them well or fail at your peril."
"Reiksmarshall Hellborg, I take command."
And with that the two men changed their positions on the lectern.
"No man has ever taken the post of Reiksmarshall who faced such challenges such as Hellborg. And no man has ever discharged his duty better. He fought the Empire`s enemies with skill and determination when he had nothing better than our army`s courage and our swords at his disposal. And when the Weltensprung happened he adapted to the changes with as much grace as can be expected. No foe could best the Reiksmarshall, only his own body could do that. I am honored to take his post and know that filling his shoes is a daunting task.
I will not do it alone, I know there are many who will aid me and we have our work cut out for sure. Of all the tasks before me one of the most pleasant will be naming my successor.
"Sir Joakim Vos, step forward. You will take command of the Reiksbund Paladins. Lead them well or fail at your peril."
"I take command."
"Very well then. There is just a small problem Sir Joakim. The commanding officer of the Paladins has always had a magical weapon, one that might slay those enemies who do neither feel hot lead nor cold steel. The office of Reiksmarschall comes with such a weapon, but I have one of my own."
The only thought in Joakim Vos` head was "Don`t do that."
"Sir Joakim Vos, this used to be the Rune Sword given to the rulers of Solland. This is Grudge Settler, the sword usually wielded by the Reiksmarschall. You have many important tasks now Sir Joakim, learning how to fight this will be one of the most important.
Joakim went down on a knee when the sword was presented to him, blade and handle were put in one hand each. He was at a loss about what to do for a moment. That moment ended when his hand closed about the grip and he started to hear the whisper in his mind.
Nobody on this planet had spent more time in power armor than he, but even for him the movement with which he rose and lifted Grudge Settler to the heavens was fluid and light.
Cheers filled the courtyard, echoing from ancient walls and carried far away by digital communications.
It was three days later that he and Valten were back in the office that once had belonged to Valten and that was now his. Both men had worked themselves through the minutes of the change of command. Given that Joakim had been Valten`s Executive Officer this had not been a long process and now both had a glass of amber fluid before them.
"So why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Don`t play coy Valten. Give me the sword of course. You know that I do not have a clue how to use one and certainly not this one. And tell me why and how it speaks to me."
"Oh does it? As far as I know it doesn`t do that to everybody. Well, this is one of the twelve Rune Swords made by Alaric the Mad for the twelve rulers of the tribes that united into the Empire. He took a hundred years to finish them and they were far more than normal Rune Swords back then. Ever since then they have been important symbols as much as weapons and countless generations have put their faith in them as well as in those who wielded them. We are on the Warhammer World Joakim, this had to have consequences."
"So I have now what?"
"So now you have a weapon that will pierce any armor and slay any enemy, be he mundane or a denizen of the warp. Now you have access to the wisdom of more than 2500 years of war."
"And that all the reason is why you gave it to me?"
"Of course not, even if it would be a damn good one. It also lends you status among the officers and generals of the Empire. There are ten Elector Counts in the Empire, they have one and the Emperor has one at his disposal. Now you have one and that tells everybody who you are. Believe me, this sword cuts bullshit like no other."
"Aha."
"Aha?"
"So I am to believe that is all?"
"If I did not know already I do now, I made the right choice for my successor. No, of course that is not all. There is also a large element of politics involved. Can you guess what that might be?"
"Power politics I`d say. The division of power between the Emperor and the Elector Counts."
"Yes, that`s it. I have taken command of the Empire`s armies, not of the Empire`s army. Each Elector Count has its own troops to command as he sees fit. Now the Germans have sent their aid mostly to the Emperor and it is the Reiksguard, the 1st Landwehr and Dragoons who have received it. That is not to say that the likes of Boris Todbringer does have to do with hammer and sword, but their forces are more basic. This could never have worked in the old days when sending an army through the Empire could have taken a year, but now we have the Railroad. And it is not only that, it is all the other stuff like the same money and the same measurements and the same laws that are now used everywhere.
All of that makes the Counts nervous and we need to send a message. And giving you the sword sends that message, the message that the Reiksbund Paladins are to be reckoned with and that the old ways are not totally forgotten. Just politics Joakim, and that is one of the responsibilities you`ll have to handle from now on."
"Oh joy."
"Oh come on Joakim, cheer up. You got rid of being my nursemaid and no longer have to protect me when I got it in my thick head to apply my hammer to something dangerous. I know that this ate at you."
"You knew of that?"
"Not that anybody told me, but it was pretty obvious. You did a good job at it, so now you can relax."
"Now I do not have to look after one life, now it is 128 of them."
"I knew I picked right. Cheers Joakim."
The rims of two glasses made a fine sound when they met, nothing needed to be said for quite a while.
