(An information by the authors: After all this time, updates will from now on no longer be weekly, since we have nearly caught up with what we have written. Unlike a few years ago, Wolf and I have substantially risen family, work and health related obligations and R+R needs, so we cannot guarantee weekly updates after we post the last finished stuff. We still work diligently for our story and the updates will continue to be on Saturdays, just not weekly. We have two main arcs to finish in the works and a substantial epilogue. Thank you all for reading our story and staying with us through the years!)
Neustadt, Naggaroth, at night
Torsten Breitkop smiled when Anja put her head on his shoulder. This had been a good day and a rather memorable evening. Both he and Anja had enjoyed the gift he had received. The German was rather mellow and about to fall asleep when Anja managed to get his attention.
"You know that girl is dangerous Torsten, right?"
"Oh Anja, I love you and you know that."
"It is not that you oaf. She is Slaaneshe through and through."
"She is talented, but Slaaeshe? She is a gift from Morathi after all."
"Yes, interesting, isn't it?"
Office Berlin
The soft drink missed the monitor by a few centimeters and bubbled on the desk. The desk's owner needed a few moments to get his laughter under control before he used some paper towels to get rid of the mess.
Donald Trevayne knew more than most about the Warhammer World, that was his stock in trade. He thought he had seen it all, but the report from Lustria managed to surprise him just when he was about to raise his caffeine level with something cold and bubbly. No, he had not expected a fully flooded submarine driven by a screw powered by pedaling undead. Supposedly it would be armed with a spar torpedo.
Now that he thought about it this might not be as ludicrous as it seemed at first glance. If this was used in a bottleneck, somewhere where ships had to slow down it might manage to cause damage. What to do about that? Pedal-powered subs aside there were the DawiZharr who might build submarines. There were also an impressive array of sea monsters. Maybe he should dust off that suggestion for a SOSUS-light system or would that project based on USN Tagos make more sense? The SOSUS system would place long lines of glass fiber cable spliced with hydrophones on the seafloor in areas of interest. The trawler-based ship would tow a long towed array and would be more flexible, but might not be available when the need arose…
Shenlong, Halland district, Sweden
Fickle Fate saw to it that Mats Lindström was the longest serving official around the information sharing committee via the Versailles-link with Germany. As such, he saw the triumphs and the failures of communication attempts with Germany.
The Earth-side of the link had become aware of the growing difficulties with keeping contact, too. The Germans had shared some of their findings concerning space and time of the two planets. Like his German counterparts Mats was convinced that contact could be held, but with growing problems and longer gaps as time went on. A complete drifting apart was highly unlikely as long both planets shared parts of each other. That was a connection which could not be broken unless a reversal of the events who led to this state happened.
Mats had vacation time like anybody else and this year he chose to visit Sweden´s special addition, the (ex-)Cathayan city of Shenlong. Sweden had been one of the „lucky" nations when the Weltensprung happened. Sweden was a comparatively large nation but with few inhabitants, so most of the changes wreaking havoc did so in the wilderness. For instance, that the Kebnekaise mountain now was 400 meters higher did only impact the mountain climbers, Sweden as a whole was less „hit" by this. Quite a contrast to other nations fate that day,in the US for example whole states had been cut off from for a while or in China where most of Shenzhen had been flooded flooded.
Sweden´s biggest change from the Weltensrung was the arrival of Shenlong, a city from Warhammer's Cathay. That event and the Chinese reaction had led to a series of complicated diplomatic visitations and negotiations. In the end, a majority of the Shenlongians left for China, but Shenlong lived on. It had been one of the larger cities of Cathay and the remaining 140,000 citizens still made it Sweden´s third-largest West Coast city after Gothenburg and Malmö.
Pundits often called Shenlong Sweden´s biggest open air museum. But the city was more than that. Yes, after losing 2/3 of it´s population, whole city quarters were uninhabited, but the core was still pulsing.
Today Shenlong had 148,000 citizens and unsurprisingly a very „un swedish" look. It was a still ongoing expensive pain to bring this Middle Ages/ early New Ages city to Swedish standards of living quality. Sweden had a bit over 10 million citizens, so upgrading a major city was nothing done out of the pocket, especially after what happened to the world economy following „the världhoppet".
Mats and his family were greeted by Shenglong's very specific flair as all tourists were. A mixture of ongoing construction, modern stuff already made and a truckload of exotic buildings and landmarks.
Many things were interesting, the Mian Market with it´s dizzing array of stalls, the Emperor Xu Tin Ho school, more than 40 temples, the Building for the Heavenly Mandate (City Hall) and the Weizhang Road with it´s architectural ensemble.
But the years on Earth left their mark as well. Construction of the modern sewer sytem made it necessary to break down the Rutangno Street and rebuild it. Which was done in pure Swedish town house style which would be quite at home in old Stockholm or Sundsvall.
Shenlong´s harbour was now busy with literally thousands of boats. Going out onto the Baltic Sea with their own boat was a favorite pastime of many Swedes and as a help for Shenlong the harbor fees were substantially lower than in other places, so it was full. Even a sizable number of boats and ships from neighboring Denmark had berths in Shenlong.
For the remaining Cathayans living in Sweden was problematic. Not that the Swedes were lacking hosts, quite the contrary. But not only had the Cathayans take a harsh crash course about a society centuries ahead, the weather changes were hard on them too.
Shenlong on Warhammer was situated in a not quite sub-tropical, but warm zone of Cathay.
Sweden´s West Coast instead shared winter weather with Denmark or northern Germany. It was not really cold, snowfall which did not melt fast rare, but wet and often very windy.
Heating was something Shenlong had needed fast. Cooking was something Shenlong soon got a reputation for. It had taken years to fully enforce Swedish standards for cleanliness in kitchens, but after a shaky start with many upset stomachs on both sides, the new Swedes were experimenting enthusiastically.
After one and a half decades on Earth Shenlong was now visited by people wanting to try out the strange mix of „Asian"-Cathayan, Swedish and European food. Mats and his family had looked forward to testing some of it themselves.
Path of the Old Ones, Albion
The energies that were held by the Paths of the Old Ones, also known as Zero Time Personal Transport system were gigantic. Present both in what the mortals perceived as real as well as the Empyrean it could move worlds if employed properly. The system was controlled by a rather powerful computer system which was not an AI and 20 minds that had been alive a long time ago.
The computer installed by the Old Ones was not an AI as msot AIs that were coupled to the system had malfunctioned after a very short time. The few exceptions had gone as mad as any mind not founded in an organic brain could do. None of them could stand observing the Warp in the raw. The company called Weyland Yutani by Nathan the AI had a real problem back then as they had promised their investors a huge return on the money, so something had to happen. In the end they faked it and enticed 20 Slann to control the system together with a simple-minded number cruncher. Needless to say that they had neglected to tell the Slann that being integrated into the system was forever.
19 of them had endured the many millennia, one had been murdered by Chaos Raiders a few decades ago. He had been replaced by a Truthsayer at first and then by Lord Kroak when the Truthsayer had nearly been the victim of a Chaos Mage.
Lord Kroak was the only mind who was still aware of himself, still perceived the world outside and who had plans with it. Such plans they were, intricate, far-reaching and bold. But now something was nagging at him, taking his attention in unfortunate ways. The Slann took his time discovery what it was and when he found it he would have snorted with derision if he were still capable of such a thing.
Whatever this Necromancer had done with the old submarine, it was a hideous piece of work. It pulled in the worst denizens of the Warhammer Sea together with those who resided in the Warp. Sooner or later one of them would claim it as its own and the consequences would be dire. So what to do?
In the end it was easy, Minerve was not too anchored on the Warhammer World anyway and it was not that he lacked the energy.
Pushing at the fabric of reality it self he opened a portal to the other world he had seen so often and pushed a tiny bit. More was not necessary, the old sub slipped through. It traveled so far through the Empyrean and so few meters in the real. Minerve's remains settled on the Mediterranean Sea's floor as if it had never been away. It still managed to produce some noise when it settled, registering in S-603 Casablanca's sonar. The French navy knew about the final resting place of Minerve and her crew a week later.
repose en paix matelots
