DawiZharr cruiser Thunderchild's bridge, 3700 meters from Eternal Torment

Ernutan Doomshackler might command a regiment of ZharrNaggrund finest, he might be praised by Lord Mordred himself, on board of Thunderchild he was just a guest. That he was allowed on the bridge at all was both due to his status and the fact that the cruiser's captain thought the company that was currently embarked might be useful. An Ensign had been detailed with riding herd on him and he appreciated not being below deck. No DawiZharr worthy of that name would ever mind dark, closed surroundings. Yet being on the bridge gave him the illusion of control instead of meekly awaiting his fate like a slave in his pen.
Said fate came in the name of three giants that were easily visible by now. Emerging from the dawn's gloom it looked like three mountains coming to roll over Ernutan and all true dwarfs in their path.

"Big buggers, aren't they Ensign?"
"That they are. The questions is, why do they come out to play now and what they bring to the game."
"Why?"
"There are more of these and the dandelion eaters have them holed up at Naggarond. The way they used to be they would be no challenge at all, bolt throwers cannot harm us and the ships they could take in their caves would be so much kindling. But the Druchii have learned new tricks too, so they will have modified them. And they certainly have a lot of space for that. So, it will be interesting to see what new toys they have. And there is only one way to find out."
"Worried much?"
"No, Thunderchild has up 600 mm of composite armor on her sides. Lord Mordred himself told us even the Germans would find it hard to pierce that."
"Ah that..."

The Arks had looked like miniature mountain ranges so far, now they resembled volcanoes. Something lit up their tops briefly, hinting at great powers hidden inside. For a moment nothing seem to happen, then a series of deep, rumbling booms could be heard. Before Ernutan could ask any questions six waterspouts rose all over the true dwarven fleet, much higher than Thunderchild's mast.

"How thick is our deck armor Ensign?"

Gun Pit, Black Ark Eternal Torment, Sea of Malice

The twin tubes were winched up minutely until they cleared their mountings, then tipped forward till the breeches were horizontal. In this position they were level with a galleria running all around the gun pit at roughly half height. Sweating slaves and swearing Druchii pushed carts to the point where open breeches waited. Rails from the carts met the waiting mouths and huge projectiles were pushed in. They were streamlined bombs with fins for stabilization. Their propellant was held in several disks that wrapped around the tail that held the fins. The bombs and their propellant weighted 150 kilograms each. The tubes were brought back to their baseplates and adjusted minutely in elevation and bearing. Druchii and slave alike cowered for a second and tried to protect their ears as much as possible. The blasts of two 240 mm mortars were overwhelming, pummeling the gun crews mercilessly. Their only consolations was that it was probably worse at the other side.

DawiZharr cruiser Thunderchild's bridge, 3700 meters from Eternal Torment

"Helm, hard right rudder, come to course 000. Weapons, open fire at your convenience."

Ernutan Doomshackler heard the orders and felt the ship turn under his feet. From his place he could barely see the huge turret turn its single gun towards the enemy. There were sounds below him that were probably the sponson gun doing the same and he would be disappointed if the turret in the back did not do the same.

"Sounds stupid, but this way we are less of target, the dandelion eaters must use mortars. They will miss Thunderchild easier if we are broadside. And we really do not want to fire the guns all forwards."
"Why is that Ensign?"
"These beauties have a muzzle blast and a half. When we fired them together the first time, we had to replace every window on the bridge. We replaced them with stronger ones, made no difference at all. Best to fire broadsides."
"Hard to miss those things."
"You'd be surprised. And now open your mouth and protect your ears."

A few second after the warning the three guns the DawiZharr armored cruiser could bring to bear fired as one and Ernutan Doomshackler was more than glad about the warning he had received.

He did not hear the three big guns, he felt them all over his body like a punch that hit every part of him at the same time. His face lit up for a second as if he had looked at a furnace for a second. For a few seconds there was nothing, then three giant water sprouts rose before the Black Ark.

"Short this time. We'll do better with the next salvo."

A deep rumble tried to pass the ringing in Ernutan's ears, before he could decide if he had really heard it more water sprouts rose, this time much closer to the DawiZharr.

"The dandelion eaters reload faster than us, that is for sure. Doesn't matter as long as they do not hit anything."
"Why shouldn't they?"
"They are using high-angle guns. They have to hit the very spot that we are at, otherwise it is just smoke and fury. Should be easy to do on land where neither the gun nor the target moves. Here it is a different matter."
"From your mouth to Lord Mordred's ears."

Black Ark Eternal Torment, Sea of Malice

Gareth Fellheart felt the light spray of droplets against his skin. The last salvo by the DawiZharr had impacted so close that the wind pushed the tiniest bit of the water column into his face. As long as the enemy missed by that much there was no reason for concern. The problem was that his mortars had not done so much better yet. When the DawiZharr had changed course he had expected misses, and the fountains that rose up around the accursed armored ships were most impressive. He had hoped for hits now that the enemy had settled for the new course, but so far that had eluded his gunners.

He just had spotted something that would help with that. He was about to turn to the Ensign that should take care of it when he saw the blinking light above and heard the clipped commands.

"Red splashes short 20, green long 10, left 5"

Supposedly an airborne spotter would improve the gun-laying that seemed to elude his worthless underlings, probably even better than the threats of retribution would. Given that he had only so many true elves trained in the use of such arcane devices as range finder, pocket calculator and screw elevator he was severely constrained in what he could so to motivate his crew. Instead he was reduced to watch an observer riding a dragon sending improvements to his artillery. His beautiful Ark reduced to a platform carrying artillery and a dragon's most important task to carry an observer aloft, watching the fall of weapons that their maker called crude and improvised. The cursed Germans had so much to answer for.

Another set of twin muzzle blasts ruffled Gareth's robes. His hand dropped to his sword's handle until he snatched it away. An ancient sword, elegant and deadly. And less useful than a pen or a derringer these days. Garth's teeth gnashed in frustration and kept doing it when the next projectiles dropped behind its target.

DawiZharr cruiser Thunderchild's bridge, 3700 meters from Eternal Torment

The latest set of waterspouts settled back in the Sea of Malice, leaving rough colored circles that quickly dissipated while the combat passed them by.

"What is up with the enemy, do they like bright colors?"
"Don't think so as we do the same. We have shells with dye in them so that we can see which ships make which impacts and correct accordingly."
"My arty guys can do without."
"Yes, but they are not on a moving platform that is rocked by the waves and shoot another moving target that tries to evade you, not that these things over there might manage that very well. Still, this is not easy, close does not count and we can fire one round every two minutes or so."
"That sounds like a bit of a challenge indeed. But only two rounds a minute?"
"The shells weight 180 kilograms, the charges 30. And we have to scrub the propellant chamber every time after a shot, otherwise glowing embers might ignite the charge when the breech is still open. The turret is a bit cramped too. The next ones will be much better, or so I hear."

"Lord Mordred will provide."
"Lord Mordred will provide."

Whang

Something made an almighty sound, but nothing moved under Ernutan Doomshackler's feet. Instead a deep rumble assaulted his ears and a strong flickering light painted shadows all over the bridge.

A look to the ship to Thunderchild's front provided answers to the ground pounder's questions. The proud DawiZharr ship in the line of battle before Ernutan sported a huge tower of flame where its aft turret used to be. Neither turret nor gun were to be seen and before Ernutan could look for them the ship disappeared in a huge fireball that consumed its aft end.

"Oh Mordred, not Hashut's Glory"

Charite` Berlin, roughly the same time

Ralf Winkler had more practice than most in writing on a clipboard balanced on his knees, given that he was responsible for obtaining the informed consent of those patients the Five of Shallya would perform their rituals on. Even so he frowned at the questionnaire before him. He used to donate blood when his schedule allowed and every time the questionnaire seemed longer than before, running to four pages presently.

· Did you have any contact with followers of the following Gods during the last six months:

· - Khorne

· - Tzeentch

· - Slaneesh

· - Nurgle

· - Khaine

Winkler ticked off "no" to all

· Did you have intercourse with anybody using Slaneshee rituals during the last six months?

The medic looked for an option "unfortunately no", found none and marked "no" again.

· Did you take part in any ritual outside of the approved sects and religions?

The medic cringed when he read this, this had been a change of the German Grundgesetz, the constitution he was not really comfortable with. No again.

· Can your blood be used to nourish the Undead?

Hell no, Shallya was very much against that. This von Carstein guy seemed nice enough on TV, still something about that idea made the former medic cringe.

The former medic munched himself through small pieces of light bread, nicely topped with cold cuts and salads by Red Cross volunteers. Fortunately, some things did not change, even the Weltensprung was not enough to effect that.

DawiZharr cruiser Thunderchild's bridge, 3500 meters from Eternal Torment

Boom

"Finally, a hit."
"Lord Mordred be praised. Do you see anything?"
"Not really, a bit of smoke, and that is already blown away."
"How can that be?"
"We just punched an armor piercing round into their foundation. Those things are mostly steel, not so much space for explosives in there. We need to hit something like their magazines to have something more spectacular."
"Fuck."

Splash Splash WHANG

This time Thunderchild rocked under the hit, this time there were cries of alarm and commands to set things right.

"Not so bad, this was the chain locker. Aim better, dandelion eaters."

Black Ark Eternal Torment, Sea of Malice

The Black Dragon was close enough that Gareth Fellheart could see it without the need for German binoculars. It was an impressive beast, old even for its kind and of elegant majesty. Every muscle in its body was strained and the skin covering the great wings was under enormous tension as the dragon tried to coax every bit of speed from its body that it was capable of. The reason for that was easily seen as well, the DawiZharr had unleashed two of their flying disks and they could kill even the mightiest dragon in the time needed to talk about it.

And even when the magnificent beast exerted itself it would not be able to outrun its would-be killers, but for a miracle. A miracle the Eternal Torment was glad to provide and the first salvos from its AA-guns reached out to the flying disks that were flying low in a straight line. Two streams of tracer converged on the first one, two heavier shots went right after them when they connected. The well-armored construct shuddered when the first round hit and exploded when the second pierced it.

This was a good day to watch the enemy die.

Infirmary, Site Alpha, Kislev

"Fuck you Herr General, why did you bring me here? That little Vodka was nothing to a true...to a true..Kislevite."
"Frau Morosov, I am not sure what alcohol means to a Kislevite, true or otherwise. But an alcohol content of 3.1 is past the point where many people simply stop breathing. For you it just meant that you were passed out so badly that you lay in a pool of what used to be your last lunch. If we would not have pulled you out of that you would have chocked on your own vomit or aspirated so much stomach acid that you would die of pneumonia the next weeks. Not the kind of death you want to write home about I'd say."
"Would still be better than, ah…di trakhni loshad"
"Er...Doctor, could you give us a few moments."
"Very well Herr General, I do not believe the patient is in danger."
"Thank you."

"Here take this."
"What is that, do you want to get rid of me?"
"No, it is a bit of starter to get through your thick head, something from my personal stash, not the rotgut you are killing yourself with."
"And what makes you give that to me? I don't think that the good doctor approves."
"Why should I care about your health when you don't Frau Morosov? At the moment I care far more for an explanation."
"You care for your precious project."
"Yes, I promised to do my very best to see it through, as did you. We bother gave our word and I see one of us not going through with that. So?"

….

….

….

"Warhammer World to Morosov, please come in…."

Jacub General watched some tension leave the Ice Mage's body. He was about to check when a very tired, hoarse voice emerged from a throat that had known only aggression before.

"Have you seen a Kraken before Herr General?"
"Pictures and videos of them, yes. What of it?"
"Pictures and videos he says. Yes, you hear that the Kraken is a big and dangerous monster, that it will bite through a small boat in one go and that its eyes are bigger than your head. You hear all of these things and you think you know. And then you finally see a Kraken for real and then you know what big and dangerous really, really is. It changes you, it shows you how small you really are and that there are real powers in the world. And you learn that these powers are not you."

"Touching really. Does this story have a point?"
"This thing, this Habbakuck, this monster is my Kraken. It is simply too big, there is no way in the Nine Hells that I can freeze so much water in one go."
"And you learn of this...now?"
"A few weeks ago. When I arrived here I knew it."
"Why did you not say so?"
"Because I am weak, because I promised and as I really, really need that money. And now I need to die."
"Oh joy. Thanks for coming clean I think. I need to inform our principals, you try to get better."

30 minutes later saw Jacub General punch the table in front of him in frustration. He finally got the hang of this, he started making real progress and now this stupid witch spoiled it all. Scheiße.
Well, he had some time before his chat window with his principal came up, he could very well fill it with some useless surfing on his employers dime.