U-40, Underground Sea, Naggaroth

Friedel Bauer's cabin was a small affair. If he wanted to sleep or work on his desk properly he had to rearrange furniture to do so. Every centimeter of space was used, probably for two different purposes. Even so it was the biggest personal space to be had on board. As a captain he was not standing any watches, which did not mean he could slack off. He had finished as much paperwork as he was capable of before he realized that he had to correct the simplest of words. He had been in his bunk ten minutes later.
He thought he had just closed his eyes when they opened again with the speed of a rat trap. He sat upright before his mind had identified any reason for this and swung his legs out when the intercom chimed for the third time.

"Captain here."
"Captain, this is the bridge. We have some contacts that you should be aware about."
"I am up in two."

He took the time to splash a bit of water in his face and dry-swallowed a caffeine based wake-up before making his way to the bridge.

"Captain on deck."
"As you were. What is up 1O?"
"We have picked up something both on our own sonar and on Dori's."
"More Hydra ships or a Black Arc?"
"No Sir. We have definitive screw noises and what might be a piston steam engine. Actually a few of them."
"Interesting. 1O, I have the ship."
"You have the ship."

"Sonar what do you have for me?"
"We have multiple screws down the main channel sir. They turn pretty slowly, but we have no idea of speed yet."
"How about the drones?"
"We are sending Dori closer to the source, then we can triangulate position and get a closer look."
"Sounds good, do it."

Submariners are a patient bunch, their business demands no less. Friedel Bauer had finished two sandwiches and another coffee when they had a clearer picture of what was using the main channel. The drone had maneuvered close enough to discern a dozen different contacts that made about five knots.

"What do you think they are 1O?"
"The Spitzohren are modernizing, might their new toys."
"The only motorized ships we ever encountered from them were diesel-powered, however they acquired the engines. Why should they change to steam?"
"No idea. Sir, if I may, we could put the drone against this shore and then bring her to mast depth. If we slow it to station keeping we should not have a feather and the mast would not show up against the dark wall."
"Good one, make it so."

It took another coffee to get the drone into place and the hot beverage nearly spilled on the bridge's floor when the picture arrived via fiber optics.
The ships before them were bizarre, with tumble-home hulls, gun barrels that struck out in all directions and thick armor plating. Those in front bore more guns, those in the back seemed to crawl with beings of some kind.

"What the bleeding fuck is that?"

The video camera on top of the mast was good enough to give finer details when asked for a zoom. It revealed the ship's crews up close. They were short and stocky, even when high hats tried to add. Coarse features were hidden by thick curly beards and stubby fingers clutched equipment. On the first ship something that looked like a centaur paced the bridge. If centaurs were made up from a bull and a dwarf that is.

"Now that is not what I expected."
"No Sir. This is an invasion right? By the Chaos Dwarfs."
"Cannot be anything else. This is too big just for reconnaissance and these guys are not given to showing the flag or so I hear. Fuck, this needs to go out and soon. Nav, I need a course for the next exit so we can get a sat uplink."
"Yes Sir. We can backtrack Sir, but this will take a week at least. We could use some of the side tunnels here and use the channel when they are past. Then we will be out on the other side at least two days faster."
"Plot a course for that then."
"So what do you think command wants to do about this?"
"The most advanced assholes on this world not allied to us want to have a go at each other? If the admiralty is smart they get out the popcorn and watch."

U 40 was inside the side tunnel when the magic detector started to work overtime.

The Warp

The being still had a body inside the mundane levels of the multiverse. It was a useful anchor and a bit of a keepsake reminding it of older days. Not better days, just long ago. If that body would still have the capability to do so it would clutch his hands and breathe deeper to still a racing heart. Plans that were hatched long ago were on the point of fruition, careful manipulations made over time would now either work or fail disastrously. It was now out of his hands but for one more thing. His part he was sure about, but if the others would play their parts of the game they were unwitting participants of he could but hope.

Close to Teotihuacan

The command trailer was cool, the chairs moderately comfy and Mathias Lambert had been fighting a lot during the last days. He was not as far gone as Gotrek whose head hit his chest at intervals, causing the dwarf to wake up for short periods of time. Still sleep was only a step away, he just had to let himself go. It would set a bad example and so he expended considerable amounts of willpower to stay awake.
The former Slayer had made great strides in his scientific education since he had been stranded on Earth. Still the presentation given to Xenon Communication's command group was barely comprehensible to the former French officer, it might as well have been Cathayan for Gotrek. Even worse, Mathis' tired mind tried to find a single useful morsel of information in the presentation which was given in a deadly monotone.

Pictures of Naga organs traded places with others depicting opened bodies which gave way to slides presenting the gist of the scientists' findings. So far so good and detailed, but what use was the fact that Naga DNA contained Uracil, something that terrestrial creatures practically never did except for some bacteriophages. In what way would Mathis profit from the realization that the Naga had tricameral hearts and that they could actually sweat?
What good did it to know that there were nearly no duplicated gene sequences and that the Naga had no organs for reproduction….
That was when Mathis Lambert sat up straight in a hurry.

"Un moment doc. Does this mean what I think it means? That the DNA contains no perceptible junk means that it is tailor made and not the result of evolution, right?"
"That is one possible explanation, actually the best one given the lack of reproductive organs. In fact, we found that all Nagas we checked so far fall into four distinct genetic patterns."
"In plain English?"
"All Nagas seem to be clones, tailor-made for a purpose that is currently obscure. All specimen we examined so far are clones from four different sources."
"Who would and who could do such a thing?"
"We have no idea, but certainly nobody on this world. The DNA is so well ordered and has so few non-functional groups that we have to conclude it is not modified from an existing creature but made from a clean sheet. We are still quite a way away from that. And given that the pictures we got of the final cave's wall would turn ole Giger's stomach I'd say whoever did this is not from this world, probably even not from this universe."
"Merde."

Close to U40, Underground Sea

The drone trundled down over something that was a street of some sort, made from an impossibly smooth material of the purest blackness. The small wheels were big enough to overcome the bones and other remains that blocked the way at times and drove around the bigger remains when necessary. A number of cameras transmitted a 360-degree video in all wavelengths from deep infrared till near-invisible ultraviolet. Sensitive microphones would have recorded all sounds, but managed to pick up just the mechanical squeaks and hums the drone emitted itself. A pair of small wheels were pressed to the ground in sequence and then presented whatever stuck to them to a spectral analyzer. The drone was one of a small swarm that made its way through the complex, all obtaining mountains of data and all adding to the confusion.

Andrea Hermanns was younger than most scientists on board U40, tough and in good shape. Currently her skin had a waxen hue, her hair was a mess and what could be seen of her eyes was too red. She tried to make sense of the glut of data provided by the drones and it eluded her no matter how hard she worked.

Friedel Bauer was next to god on this vessel, but even he knew that a careful approach would produce better results.

"Dr. Hermanns?"
"No."
"No what?"
"I have no better idea yet what I see here. We find the remains of life here, both single-celled as well as more complex organisms. So far, I have identified at least eight layers, but I suspect there will be many more. What I can tell you from the data I have is that life creeps into these caves from several sources and then something kills them off in one go. And in one go I do not mean in a couple of weeks or even days. Something kills them instantly. We have found remains of animals in the act of procreation, others in mid-meal and in fight. And their decomposition is off too. Whatever killed them killed the microorganisms in them at the same time. But I have no bloody idea what killed them because we have no radiation, no poison and no pathogen that could have caused that.
Best guess and the only thing that would fit all data points: magic. Not my strong suit I have to admit."

"So, what does Master Cervantes have to say about it?"
"Roughly the same as me: He does not know. He says that "something changes the fabric of reality" here at times, but he is at a loss of what that may be. The results are akin to magic, but he swears it must be something else. The only thing he will admit to is that the sterilization is something that is not the intended effect, but a byproduct. He should be fast asleep by now, he had an industrial sized headache from what he can glimpse. The doc fixed him with something potent, so he is out for now."
"Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?"
"Maybe that or something so far from our understanding that we have no access to the concepts at all. So, the conclusion is that something here kills all living things every dozen years or so, we have no idea of what it is. Last round is three to five years ago judging from the remains. Should be safe enough to have a look or ten before we go."

"So, you scientists think that we should have a look?"
"Captain, this is possibly the thing that makes the Underground Sea tick. This facility contains functional remains of a race older than the Old Ones. What do you think? Of course, we need to have a look. And if you do not think so, then imagine what were to happen if the Chaos Dwarfs have it and find something potent."
"Oh joy."

The Warp

The being was old, both in the mundane world as well as in the Empyrean where time was a rather malleable concept. It had seen so much, done so much and yet what it attempted now pushed the borders of its abilities close to the breaking point.

A rather short time ago even attempting this would have been a folly, a fantasy for the feeble minded. Now that he had been granted so much energy, such different conduits into the Warp it was at least within the realm of the possible. He pushed beings into actions on two worlds at the same time, hoping that in the end the actors would be at the right time in the right place. It was just that the figures he moved all over the board had minds of their own and he barely understood the tools he had commandeered to make it happen.

In times long past the being would have prayed, for guidance and to soothe his mind. Now his lips would no longer move and the simple act of calling for divine insight might attract the very wrong parties.

Teotihuacan

Xenon Communications team members all called it the cave. There were many caves below the old temple town, small and big. Some were entirely natural, some were enlarged and some contained artifacts older than human writing. Still there was only one cavern at the lowest level, only one that that offered any chance at deciphering the riddles about the Nagas and only one that would give even the hard-bitten mercenaries the creeps.
It was huge, a perfectly shaped half-sphere more than a hundred meters below the surface. Miraculously it was not flooded, there were no cracks and no blemishes on the walls. The walls were covered with reliefs showing things no human had ever seen, or had they? Some of the artwork looked a bit like a more elaborate version of those found on the temples above. Had the humans building the temple indeed seen the feathered snakes that had given Xenon Communications such headaches or had some of them seen the oh-so detailed reliefs that went up the walls in a spiral that terminated at the top.

It was neither the huge chamber that gave the humans the willies, nor the drawings that showed things with too many claws, teeth and tentacles. It was the floor of obsidian blackness that stretched seamlessly from one wall to another. The center of this floor contained a dark green disk which held patterns of green hues that seemed solid enough until one compared pictures taken hours ago with the current state. That there was no visible shift between these states was not what made everybody uneasy. It was that everybody and anything who stepped on it weighted 7.5% more than usual for as long as he stood there.

Close to U40, Underground Sea

Wilhelm Schumann thought he had it tough before. He had been at two sites which were treasure troves that his colleagues would have given their right arm to excavate correctly. A team of professional archeologists combined with an army of assistants could have done an acceptable job within two years or so.
Instead he was the only archeologist on this submarine and could ask for the help of a few scientists who were of rather different fields and had 48 hours per site. It was enough to make a grown man cry.

Or so he had thought. Now he stood before something that might easily be the most important archeological discovery of all times and had the same resources at hand. It was rather unlikely that German scientists would visit this place anytime soon, given that it was deep in enemy territory. He should have despaired, should have appealed for more time, better resources, anything. Wilhelm Schumann was far too busy for any of that.

The magical detectors had brought the submarine to a set of caverns only accessible when one could submerge for a couple of kilometers. When U40 had resurfaced it had been before something that might have well once served as a quay and was now serving that purpose to the German submarine.
The first days had been given to the drones, nobody but Schumann wanted to risk humans in an environment as alien as the back side of Morslieb before a bit more intel had been secured. The caverns were filled by huge edifices that might have been buildings, but nobody could fathom their former use. As far as the drones could reach they had found no living beings, no remains of anything that looked like they could be the site's former owners and very few things but for stone in many shapes and forms. Which did not explain the greenish glow that could be seen on more than a few surfaces, nor the glowing glyphs that could be seen here and there.

Despite the utter lack of anything resembling a threat the humans made their way through the site with the subdued tones usually found in churches. They looked around every so often when something had nearly showed up in the corner of their eyes and many swore they heard something that was just a bit too quiet to be understood.
Wilhelm Schumann had no time for such frivolities. U40's marines had finally declared one of the edifices safe and he tried to gather as much data as he could during that time. The inner walls of the building were covered in reliefs and he engaged the help of his fellow scientists to photograph them all. Something about them made him uneasy while he took picture after picture. It was when he downloaded the latest catch into his laptop when it hit him like a hammer.

"Andrea, could you come over here for a moment."
"Yes Wilhelm, what is it?"
"Look here, at these. Could these depict the creatures that we found in those two caves?"
"Hard to say for sure, we had only the bones, but wait…yes I think you are right. They show up in all the reliefs, don't they?"
"Oh yes they do. And they always seem to fight. It is just their opponents that change."
"Yes. Have a look at this one then."

The opponents of the snakelike beings were obviously humans. They fought with spear, shield and sword. They seemed well armored with segmented armor and their helmets featured plumes. One figure was rather central, a bit bigger than the rest and obviously in charge. His plume was strange, arranged across the helmet instead of front-to-back as all the others.
Behind him another figure held a staff crowned by the likeness of a bird.

"Wilhelm, are these …the Romans?"
"Seems so. My colleagues back home would laugh at me jumping to conclusions, but this is the most likely explanation. And if I am not wrong I have identified one Tercio , one Swiss Gewalthaufen and something that might well be a unit from the Crimean War or a similar conflict. Some others I cannot place, but I do not think they are human at all."
"So these were all brought here, to fight the Naga and die here, far from home?"
"Your guess is as good as mine Andrea, but this is my hypothesis yes."

The relief depicting the fight between the snakes and the Romans was a nice size, roughly 1.5 by 6 meters. It was part of a wall at least a hundred meters long and a dozen high, completely covered with such friezes.

"Oh my god. Who would do..this? And why?"
"Let's try to find out Andrea, shall we?"