S-647 Minerve, 40 meters below, close to Lustrian coast

"Sonar, talk to me."
"Bogie 1 reacquired at bearing 225 skipper. Reduced engine noise, no blade count, I'd say he is dead in the water. No breakup noises though."
"Very well, if he wants a second helping who are we to decline? Helm, bring us to periscope depth, turns for five knots."
"Captain, batteries are at less than 20%."
"Very well 1O, let's make the best of it."

Minerve tilted upwards a bit and Fauve watched the depth gauge carefully. It would not do to breach the surface with more than the periscope. When he had seen the warship it seemed well enough equipped with guns. He was about to ask the helmsman for slower ascent when his sonar operator winced.
Fauve waited for his report when the pebbles hit the hull again. The pesky airship had found them, again.

"Merde. Helm, down planes, take us to 80 meters, course 100."

Altdorf, engine room no. 4

The water was less than a meter from the engine room ceiling in places, it certainly reached to the boatswain's neck most of the time. The room was lit by the red emergency lights as well as bright flashlights which projected bright spots that raced around the room at dizzying pace. The room had only one available exit, if one of the pumps went out or the fothered sail gave way only very few people would make it out of here.

The damage control party's heads seemed to float above the water, giving a surreal aspect to the fight to keep the ship afloat. Hidden from the boatswain's view was the mattress that an hour ago had been on top of Hans Oels' bed. Together with more bed covers, tarps and anything else that was available the crew erected a barrier that they pushed against the huge hole in the ships side. The boatswain snorted at the thought that his people would be less able to construct the wooden wedges that would hold the plug as they were not Germans. Let those all-knowing trainers try this and do any better than them.

Altdorf, engine room no. 2

The machinist rating had been before the Captain's Mast quite a few times, and cleaning Altdorf's heads was more than familiar to him. Currently his shenanigans, known and unknown were the farthest from his mind. Instead he did his level best to cut threads into the two parts of the fuel line before him. The explosion that had nearly sunk Altdorf had spalled off a number of fragments. One of them had cut the fuel line that went from the fuel pump to the injectors, the engine controller had shut the engine down seconds thereafter. Another fragment rested in the assistant engineer's skull, pushing the responsibility for the restart to the rating. He had seen the procedure a couple of times, he had assisted twice. Now it was his task to give the ship at least some of its power back.

The fuel line was sturdy stuff, it contained a great lot of pressure. He had to be patient, no matter how urgently more power was needed. If he tried to cut the threads too fast he would ruin it. And he did have spare line for exactly one attempt.
And then he had done it, he had cut both sides three times and the threads did not look too shabby. The fittings still needed some coaxing before they allowed themselves to be screwed in place. This was not beautiful and the rating was not sure if it would hold the pressure. There was only one way to find out.

Praying to Mannan he went through the checklist that was fixed to the engine control board. When he was nearly through he found that nobody in this room could do what was necessary and swore a blue streak. The diesel engine was well-made and could keep running if it was half-submerged. It had a rather nasty design flaw though and he had to get the engine started despite it. Having checked again that the control panel was set right he waded to the left side of the engine' foundation. Fumbling around in the bad lighting and the water that covered everything he felt around till he found the switch. Praying again he pulled it towards him with all his might.

A whole lot of nothing happened. He stood there confounded and with a sinking feeling when his palm met his forehead. The rating closed the switch again and went to the pressure tank, twisting the wheel on its top. Then he went back into the water, found the switch again and pulled it open.

There was a hiss when the high-pressure air entered the system, the big diesel started turning over without firing before it did exactly that. With a mighty roar the engine went to work. It was connected to the generator a minute later and Altdorf's chances of survival improved markedly.

Altdorf, bridge

Hans Oels watched the First Officer smile for the first time since Altdorf had been torpedoed.

"Sir, I am happy to report that the leak has been plugged in both sections four and five. The pumps are making headway. The fire at the paint locker is out, we go after engine room no. 1 next."
"Very well 1O. But if the leaks are plugged and the pumps are working, why are we still sinking?"
"Sorry Sir?"
"Wilhelm, we are down another foot during the last hour and the rear is deeper still. If we do not stop this the rear will be under water in two hours tops."
"We must have undetected leaks then. I'll organize a search party right away."

"Make it so Wilhelm and...fuck me. Organize the search party, but slow down our firefighting. I do believe we are sinking the ship ourselves, with our fire pumps."
"Oh Mannan. So?"
"We'll have to take a risk then. Have the engine room hatch on no.1 one winched up and have a firefighting party stand by. We need to end that soon."
"Yes Sir."

15 minutes later a column of flame rose from the hatch, making Hans Oels fear that he had doomed the ship. Luckily the column collapsed as fast as it had risen. The fires that still existed were extinguished a few moments later by several high-speed jets of water.

S-647 Minerve, periscope depth, close to Lustrian coast

Lieutenant de Vaisseau Andre Fauve had seen some very shapely behinds when he was still alive, at least more alive than he was now. Still he had rarely been happier to see one than the one of that pesky airship. For whatever reason the little bugger was retreating towards the ship. Maybe it was short on fuel or had expended its last weapon? Whatever it was, it was at a decent distance and so Fauve could plan the attack that would finish the stricken ship off. He had spent the last hour dodging the airship, it had not been a pleasant experience. There had been another two depth charge attacks, thankfully both a bit farther from Minerve than the first. Time to finish what they had started.

The periscope had a set of vertical marks that allowed him to measure the apparent height for range finding. The ship seemed smaller this time, adding proof to the report by his sonar operator that there were screw noises. The ship was certainly not going fast, and it crabbed a bit as if only one screw was operational. However the target had done it, that ship was now at least 8000 meters away and moving away. Shooting from here would probably mean wasting a torpedo and he had depleted the batteries more than ever.

Merde, this one would escape.

Neupapenburg Spaceport

The only mortals that were closer to Phoibus than three kilometers were deep inside well-made bunkers. The spaceship was a well-built miracle, flown and tested quite often. It was also full of extremely volatile chemicals with a potential oopsie measured in kilotons.

The long checklists had been done, the time was right and a few seconds before the countdown commenced a series of valves opened. They admitted liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into several chambers where the mixture was ignited. It burned most violently and pushed a great lot of very hot gasses at high pressure through a series of turbine stages. Combined the turbines exceeded a hundred thousand horsepower easily. At the other side of the turbine shafts were the pumps, as this was the sole purpose of these fireworks: they powered the fuel pumps.

All the hydrogen and oxygen that could be pumped by that much power were ejected outside of a shallow cone that made up Phoibus bottom. They burned with an intensity that was hard to describe. When the countdown hit "0" and the engine reached peak power it used roughly 25% of the energy used in the complete Reiksbund at the same time.

With glacial slowness at first and then with ever increasing speed the spacecraft rose to the heavens.

Site Alpha, Kislev

Jacub General barely managed to reach the sink before he vomited. The bodies of Meyer's hunting party had been brought back by the local militia. The clothing and equipment identified them, the bodies could have been anybody. What had probably been the late Herr Meyer laid on the stretcher in Site Alpha's small infirmary. It had no face; one eye was hanging by the optical nerve. The teeth were exposed in an eternal smile, most of the limbs were bare of flesh and the ribcage was ripped open and mostly empty.

"Do you need help Herr General?"
"Thank you doctor, just some water. I am not used to this."
"Yes, this is a bit much to take in the first time. Sorry to ask, but we will have to contact our employer, and soon. I do know where Herr Meyer kept the passwords, but as you are the only surviving member of the engineering staff it will have to be you to answer their questions."
"I do know next to nothing."
"Then this is a data point they would like to know for sure."

Jacub saw nearly nothing of his surroundings, his mind still displayed the sight he had just seen. His face was pasty white and his steps would not have looked off for an old man. He still managed to see the slender woman with the incongruous white hair that watched him with disdain.

His journey into adventure had crash-landed before it had really begun.

Phoibus, Orbit around the Warhammer World

The load was only two-thirds of the maximum the spacecraft could push to orbit so all auxiliary tanks had stayed attached till orbit had been achieved. The tanks would not be taken down again, reentry would destroy them. Instead they would go into the furnace that orbited close to Kopernikus Station and become part of new space programs.

Phoibus itself waited for a few hours before an ungainly spacecraft approached it. Seemingly put together from girders and fuel tanks only it featured a sturdy docking adapter at its front end. Phoibus opened its front like a flower and released its cargo container which was ejected at a leisurely speed. It docked to the port and pulled away from Phoibus which closed up already. It would dock with Kopernikus soon and receive the more valuable contents of the solar smelter to bring them to the world.

The space tug oriented itself differently during that time and started a long burn with its tungsten Rune of Fire engine. It accelerated rather leisurely, but 48 minutes later its cargo was on a rather elliptical orbit that would actually take it far past Verda.

Site Alpha, Kislev

The computer before Jacub looked pretty ordinary, but some of the programs on it were a bit special. The young engineer had seen at least one encryption program he had never encountered before and one eraser that would probably leave no trace of data one wanted gone for sure.

It also had a chat program that was rather standard and some contacts that were not. The appointed time had come a few minutes before and this Urmel had indeed answered his request for contact.

Urmel: "So you are not Pumponell?"
Jacub "No I am Jacub Ge..."
Urmel "Stop. I know who you are then. You'll never know who reads this now or in future. We will use the handle of Blechle for you."
Jacub: "Yes Sir."
Urmel: "Then give me a sitrep Blechle."
Jacub: "We simply lost all of the engineering staff. We still have Dr. Walter and his nurse, I have a dozen heavy equipment operators and mechanics, plus about a thousand Kislevite workers. Before we can resume work we need replacements for Me..Pumponell and his people."
Urmel: "My condolences Blechle, this confirms what I heard before. While the loss is regrettable we face a problem here. This project is rather time constraint, the faster it is finished the better. And good engineers do not exactly grow on trees, so it would probably take a few months to hire new ones and to fill them in. And that is where you come in."

Jacub: "How so?"
Urmel: "I do believe the design has been finalized, is that so?"
Jacub: "As far as I am aware."
Urmel: "Then you just have to implement it. You have the workers, you have the equipment and the materials at hand. Just read the bloody blueprints and tell your people what to do."
Jacub: "I have no experience with this kind of project."
Urmel: "And neither does anybody else, this thing has never been built before."
Jacub: "I am not sure if I am able to make it happen."
Urmel: "Neither am I. Either you quit or you start getting things done. Your choice, but make it quick."