Beginnings


"Nice work on that mission, Herr Eckhart. Oberfahnrich March was quite complimentary in his report. Those pistols will go a long way in arming the guards and officers of The Final Order. Ridding us of several hostile Panzerbots so close to the border earns you my gratitude as well. Those things are a serious menace," Director Jaeger said. He tapped a wood case on his desk. "Your pay, minus the bonus for Oberfahnrich March."

Hans collected the case and handed it to Walter. "What happens now?"

"Now, you must decide your future. There is much more work to do, and I'd like talented people such as you and your team to be a part of it. Every day our Fieldmen and Einsatzgruppen pacify more of Hamburg, ridding it of the abominations and undesirables that plague it, and recruiting those who are willing to be a part of our mission. We have a few special missions in the works that I think you'll be well-suited for" Director Jaeger said.

Hans shared a look with Walter and Klara. "Let's discuss Hilda first. How is she?" Hans asked.

"Hmm? Oh, Fraulein Muller. Yes..." Otto trailed off, sifting through the papers on his desk. "Ah, here we are. You'll be pleased to know that Fraulein Muller's condition has improved. She's on the mend from her infection, though being in such close proximity to a ghoul gave her a mild case of radiation poisoning. The doctor asserts she'll be well in a day or two, but she should be well enough now to talk with if you'd like to discuss the matter with her first."

Hans nodded. "I want to see Hilda anyway. Before we do, though, tell me about those special missions you mentioned."

"Mmm. Undoubtedly you noticed the pre-War vertibirds we operate. Very fast and reliable machines, but the courtyard is hardly a permanent place to house them all. There is little space to work on them, they are not shielded from the elements, and frankly, they're an eyesore. Part of the Order's aim to expand has us eyeballing the Hamburg Airport, to the north. Our scouts report the place is something of a bandit kingdom, heavily fortified and occupied by an unknown number of nasty people. A location like that would serve the Order well, if it can be taken. I have little doubt it can be, but the operation's still being planned. In the meantime, we're trying to establish a foothold in the area to stage the assault from. Oberstgruppenfuhrer Bram, the city's military commander, tells me the Stadtpark near the airport would suffice. It, too, will need to be taken from its current inhabitants: Sturmutants."

"Sturmutants? The fuck are those?" Walter asked.

"If you have to ask then I recommend waiting until Fraulein Muller recovers. You'll need your team at full strength. Our best guess is that they were human, once, but have been exposed to some kind of biological agent. They're strong, aggressive, and intelligent. Not unlike bandits in their behavior, but very much unlike bandits in their organizational skills. They will be a challenge" Jaeger said.

"Do you know how many are in the park?" Hans asked.

"Somewhere around twenty or thirty. They're concentrated around the planetarium. If you and your team can clear the park of these abominations, we'll have the perfect staging area to mount our assault on the airport."

Hans mulled it over for a few moments before deciding. "Hilda first, discussions second. The three of us can probably take the place on by ourselves, if we get some kind of backup. We can discuss that later, though."

"Of course, of course. I have nothing more to discuss, so you're free to see your friend. She's in the clinic across the street. Just head out the front door and turn right, you won't miss it."

Hans and the others nodded and left, making their way through the halls of the Rathaus and down the stairs to the front door. They'd spent most of the morning and afternoon at Happy Liberty Imports, but there was still plenty of daylight left. The gray clouds still hung overhead, promising rain but never delivering, which Hans was grateful for.

"We're really going to join on with these people, aren't we?" Walter asked. Hans shrugged.

"Don't see why not. This is the safest place I've seen in ten years, and if they're aiming to reclaim all of Germany then might as well sign on as early as possible, right?" Hans said. They crossed the street to the clinic, clearly marked, and stepped inside. A man sitting behind a desk in a lab coat looked up as they entered.

"You three look well. No visible wounds, no signs of addiction or radiation poisoning. STD's, I'm guessing. They're sadly quite common. If it's HIV then you might as well kill yourselves now. If not, we've got plenty of antibiotics, and a decent amount of penicillin, around here somewhere."

"Oh, what the Hell?! What kind of doctor are you?" Klara demanded, clearly unamused. The man in the lab coat leaned forward and put a hand on his knee.

"The busy kind. If you're not ill, then don't waste my time please."

Hans put up a hand. "We're just here to see a friend. Hilda Muller. Suffered a ghoul bite on her right shoulder."

The man glanced at a clipboard and jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Room B."

Hans and the others stepped past the reception desk and into a hallway, the plush carpet mostly intact. There were four doors before the hall turned left, each door marked by a sign. Examination room, holding room A, holding room B, records room. They pushed open the door to room B and stepped in, Hilda sitting upright in a bed.

"Hey there, little one. How are you feeling?" Walter asked. Hilda smiled weakly and looked at them, her hands in her lap. She definitely looked better, her shoulder tightly bandaged and a few empty packets of Rad-Away on the table next to her. There was a decent view out the window of the Rathaus and the plaza in front of it.

"Better. Doctor says I'll be out of here tomorrow, which I can't wait for. It's boring as Hell in here. Doc tried to give me some magazines to read, but you can guess how that went..." Hilda trailed off.

"We met the mayor of this city, Director Otto Jaeger. He sent us to a nearby building to do a job for him, and he's got more work lined up for us, if we're willing to join the Final Order. I'm not going to say yes until I know we're all in" Hans said, and Hilda nodded. "If we do some work for them, maybe they can send you to a school or something. At least to teach you how to read and write."

"Sounds good to me. Now that the U-Bahnen are all gone the Order's our best option. I'm in" Hilda said.

Hans nodded.

"Joining up with you has proven to be a bad choice, but Hilda has a point. It's either stay with you or go back to Pariser Platz and live alone, so I'm on board for now. I wouldn't mind finding a safer job, though" Klara said.

"Ah Hell, I'm not about to fuck off and do Heaven knows what else. I should warn you though, little one, that in just one day without you Hans managed to get Klara and I separated from him and nearly killed by Communist Panzerbots. You shoulda been there, come to think of it" Walter said.

Hilda laughed. "After Fernsehturm I've had enough of those people, let alone their robots. Now I'm feeling like I should stay here, honestly, if killer robots are what I've been missing. Still, I miss my Erma. I hope you're taking good care of it, Klara."

Klara smiled and lifted the SMG. "Sure am."

"Good. OK, so what's the next job? Are you all gonna wait until I get out of here to take it?" Hilda asked.

Hans told her what Jaeger had told them, about the airport and Stadtpark and the Sturmmutants, and the stakes involved. Even if Hilda wasn't going to be ready in time for the assault on the Stadtpark then she'd definitely be well by the time the Order mounted the assault on the Hamburg airport.

"OK," Hilda said once Hans was done. "Take the job tomorrow. If the doc says I can get out of here I'll join you. If not, then go ahead without me but make sure to get some backup! If you're still at the Stadtpark when I do get out then I'll join up with you all there. Don't die, got it? I don't want to be alone in this place without friends."

"I wouldn't dream of it" Hans said.


The next day, after a short discussion with Director Jaeger, and an even shorter drive on a Hanomag half-track, Hans and the rest of the team (minus Hilda) found themselves outside the remains of a car dealership. Across the river was the Stadtpark, hundreds of dead trees stretching across the gentle hills and yards. In the distance the park's Planetarium could be seen, partially demolished.

Hovering nearby was a veritbird, overlooking the park. Right next to the car dealership was a bridge that led towards the park, partially collapsed and sagging, but so long as they didn't drive over it they'd be fine. The driver of the Hanomag crawled back into the troop compartment, radio in hand. "Take this," he said, and handed it to Hans. "You can talk with the vertibird with it, tell them if you need support or evac."

Hans looked up as two more vertibirds showed up, moving into position. The plan was for four ground teams to assault the occupied Planetarium and eliminate anything that could pose a threat to the vertibirds, at which point the helicopters would move in and deposit a second wave of assault troops to secure the northern section of the park. With the park secure the Final Order would have their staging ground for the assault on the Hamburg Airport.

"This park is fucking huge. Sure walking's a good idea?" Walter asked, and the driver looked at him.

"We're not walking. Behind the dealership is a railyard. We're going to follow the railroad across the river to a boulevard that leads into the park. This is just the staging area. Get on the radio and let the birds know we're in position."

Hans nodded. "Works for me." He keyed the radio and held it up to his mouth. "Pariser team in position. Over."

Two jabs of static came back, he clipped the radio onto his belt, and the driver got back behind the wheel of the halftrack. "Now we wait."

Klara lifted herself off her seat and looked up. The top of the halftrack's troop compartment had a sloped metal sheet over it, to protect from grenades, suspended a few inches over the top rim of the compartment to allow the passengers inside to peek outside. The building that had been the car dealership had completely collapsed, a pile of concrete and glass. The barren husks of a few sports cars were left outside, stripped of everything but the paint, which had been replaced with rust. She sat back down and looked at Walter. "Can you tell me more about what life was like before the Bomb?"

Walter grunted. "When the European Commonwealth collapsed, it was curtains for Germany. No one could find a job, inflation spiraled out of control, and society collapsed." He gestured at the car dealership. "When fusion cars came to the continent, only the wealthy could afford them, though very few people left in Germany could count themselves as wealthy. The fact that fusion sports cars were made at all is a testament to the selfishness and greed that destroyed our country in the first place. Civilization dying all around them and yet people still held onto money and symbols of power and prestige."

"A complete waste of time," Hans said. "Pathetic. And now we're stuck with their mess."

A vertibird roared overhead, passing across the park and turning. The radio crackled to life and the driver was already reaching for the shifter. "All teams, proceed with the operation."

The Hanomag roared to life, the clatter and squeal of the track's wheels audible even over the engine. The driver turned the halftrack into the dealership's parking lot, around the rubble of the main building and onto the railroad behind it. He turned left and rode the gas harder, the halftrack bumpily grinding across the tracks towards the Stadtpark. Gunfire erupted in the distance and Hans began rapidly bouncing a leg, his hands wrapped around his G41. The halftrack thundered across a rail bridge and he caught sight of a vertibird tearing across the sky toward the Planetarium.

"Jaeger Team has reached Otto-Wels Strasse, under moderate fire from occupants of Planetarium, maneuvering around to come to bear on targets. Mutant combatants engaging with mixture of rifle and machine gun fire, expecting heavier resistance nearer to objective. Over."

The halftrack reached the boulevard and they turned right, picking up more speed now that they were on asphalt, and they proceeded into the park proper. They passed by the ruins of a clubhouse, the building covered in soot from an ancient fire, and raced down the curving road of Otto-Wels Strasse. A vertibird screamed overhead, low enough to shake the trees and rattle the halftrack, before banking off and disappearing from sight.

Hans keyed the radio. "Pariser Team is on Otto-Wels Strasse, proceeding to objective. No sign of the enemy yet. Over" he said, and stood. Through the narrow gap between the top of the troop compartment and the cover he could see the whole park all around them. The halftrack slowed as they neared a boulevard walkway heading straight to the Planetarium. From the right came another halftrack, emerging from a wide open field and crossing the street onto the approach to the Planetarium.

They turned onto the boulevard and accelerated, the Planetarium straight ahead. The Sturmutants had turned it into something of a fortress, the area around the base lined with sandbag walls and barbed wire. The clatter of gunfire rose up all around the Planetarium, the mutants moving from position to position. The pool in front of the building was long dry, the basin filled with dirt and planks of wood running across it. As they neared the Planetarium Walter climbed up to man the MG-34 mounted at the head of the compartment and opened fire.

Few of the park's trees remained standing, leaving the area around the Planetarium wide open for the halftracks to continuously circle around, pouring MG fire onto the Sturmutants. Hans stood, his hand on the rim of the troop compartment, and looked out. The mutants weren't much taller than a man, but were denser. Most of them had gray skin, hair on the arms, and were armed with a hodge-podge of weapons. MG-34's, STG's, even a few FG-42's.

Small arms fire was hardly a match for the halftracks, but the same couldn't be said for the crude armor the Sturmutants used. Their numbers steadily fell as the Hanomags circled about, and Hans was convinced the fight would be over soon when a fresh wave of the creatures came storming out of the Planetarium building, bettor armored but similarly armed. The only exception was a red-skinned Sturmutant, carrying an FG-42 in one hand and a Panzerschreck in the other.

"Oh fuck, fucking Hell" Hans said. The mutant turned away from them, dropped his rifle, and shouldered the rocket launcher. The mutant disappeared in a cloud of smoke as he fired the launcher, the scream of the rocket drowned out by the tremendous explosion as it hit one of the halftracks and obliterated it. What remained of the burning vehicle hit one of the park's trees and began to bleed black smoke into the sky.

The Hanomag came to a stop beside the building and out Hans and Klara went, weapons in hand. The other halftracks still in play stopped and Fieldmen deployed, the halftrack gunners providing them cover. With the troops out the halftracks got moving again, and Hans world melted away. Everything beyond the perimeter of the mutant camp disappeared in a haze and he took cover by the building's cover, rifle at the ready. With their numbers thinned the Sturmutants were forced to change positions to handle the infantry threat.

Hans' rifle kicked his shoulder as he opened fire, his third round finding its mark in a Sturmutant. The creature barked and dropped into a foxhole, and Hans shifted left. Final Order Fieldmen rushed in to occupy the positions left empty by dead mutants, keeping up the pressure. From his position Hans could see that the mutants had some kind of bunker where the pool used to be, buried under all the earth and soil they'd filled it with. He kept his rifle trained on the entrance to this bunker and dropped mutant after mutant as they came out.

He pulled back to reload and saw Klara covering his back, Erma at the ready. There was a dead mutant on the ground by the wall, fresh blood beneath it. With the G41 back up Hans took aim again, covering Fieldmen as they pressed towards him. A grenade went off by the far side of the plaza, an Order soldier falling. The roar of gunfire and explosions drowned out everything else, even as Hans saw an Order soldier screaming into a radio.

Some of the Fieldmen began to pull back and Hans watched one of the vertibirds circling nearby turn towards them. The aircraft pitched forward and swooped in, little sparks pinging off it from mutant gunfire. The helicopter levelled off, slightly drifting, and Hans watched as a cannon mounted in a sponson mount on the side of the vehicle rotated towards the other side of the building. He scurried back from the corner, covered his head, and the cannon fired. A tremendous explosion filled the park, the sound slamming him like a ton of steel. All around the plaza stone and bricks and dirt fell to the ground, and the vertibird pushed off.

The Final Order Fieldmen wasted no time in storming forth, firing and maneuvering up the steps of the Planetarium. Hans turned around, tapped Klara's shoulder, and she nodded. Together they moved around to the back of the building, keeping close to the wall. They reached the back entrance and saw a squad of Fieldmen already in position. They nodded at the two of them and they all stormed into the building.

The Stadtpark Planetarium was relatively small, the high domed ceiling the perfect canvas for the projector in the center of the floor to beam images of the cosmos up for tourists to marvel at. Today it was a maelstrom, the hammering sound of combat amplified in the cavernous building and deafening everyone inside. No individual sound could be heard, just the vibrations as the chaos reverberated off the walls. The left side of the room had suffered from the cannon impact, the wall caved in and bricks strewn about. Squads of Sturmutants returned fire with the Fieldmen, the two sides losing numbers equally. Hans and Klara opened fire on an enemy position completely exposed to them, killing the mutants there.

The two of them pushed into the room and scrambled behind a sandbag wall. The whole building shook as another explosion outside hit it, pieces of stone and plaster falling from the ceiling. One of the chunks hit a mutant on his helmet and he dropped to the floor, his back subsequently stitched up with bullets. Hans peeked over the sandbag wall, the open doors shrouded in that gray haze. It was like this in every fight for him; the world beyond gone, shrouded in darkness. All he could see was what was around him. The enemy, his allies, his ears filled with nothing but ringing and thumping.

The red-skinned Sturmutant from before emerged from the gift shop, FG-42 in his right hand a Zweihander in the other, which he effortlessly swung like it was a plastic bat. The blade struck a Fieldman in his helmet and sheared right through it, giving him a rather unique haircut but leaving him otherwise unharmed. He jumped to the floor and quickly vanished from sight. Hans shifted left to open fire and his rounds struck the mutant square in his armor. The creature ducked into cover just as Hans fired his last round, a swear on his lips. Klara had disappeared, leaving him with just Fieldmen for back up. They were no slouches, moving and fighting effectively. The mutants with their rudimentary coordination were hardly a match, even if they were inflicting casualties.

The red mutant returned, sword strapped to his back. He took aim on a group of Fieldmen in cover and opened fire, catching one in the throat and forcing the others to hunker down. Hans took aim again, his whole body gently trembling. The G41 thundered harshly in the domed room, the rounds hitting the mutant in his side. He took cover again and Hans moved further into the room.

Another wrenching boom slammed the Planetarium, and the massive projector in the center of the floor kicked to life. Narrow lights were beamed up to the black dome, appearing as stars in the cosmos. Hans reloaded and resumed firing, killing another two Sturmutants. Final Order Fieldmen continued to do the same, dropping the creatures everywhere they stood. As their numbers dwindled it became a slaughter, a bloodletting massacre as the Fieldmen killed mutant after mutant. Hans watched as the red mutant reappeared, sword in hand. He speared a Fieldman from behind, burying the blade up to the hilt in his body and leaving it there.

Hans let out a steadying breath and fired on the towering creature, the round glancing off his armor and nicking his neck. He tucked the stock of the FG-42 under his shoulder and let it sing, sweeping the entire room with bullets. Hans ducked in time to see the sandbag right above his head get hit with a bullet, the round boring all the way through the bag and dropping to the floor right next to him. He started at it for a few seconds before he peeked back up, shouldering his rifle. The Sturmutant was laughing and smiling, not that anyone could hear it, as he reloaded his gun. Hans was lining up his shot, trying to get a good one in, when he saw Walter come in through the door across the room, right behind the creature. He took one look at the Sturmutant before he lifted his Madsen and emptied half a mag into its back. It fell to the floor, dead.

The fight had ended, the frenetic maelstrom of bullets and fire faded away, and Hans stood. The tunnel vision faded as well, the mist vanishing and sound returning to him. The smell of the fight's aftermath hit him and he held his breath for a few seconds to adjust. Sulfur and blood, the only odors in the room. There were no wounded, or if there were they were unconscious, leaving the only sounds in the room that of Fieldmen searching bodies, brass cases rolling around, and the recorded speech of the Planetarium. He looked up at the ceiling again, admiring the way the projector painted a faux picture of the night sky on the domed ceiling.

"The glory of the cosmos! Join us in the Hamburg Interstellar Society as we marvel at the magnificence of space, and discuss man's inevitable journey to conquer the stars!"

Hans looked back down at the blood-soaked room around him.