Chapter 24
Scepter of Darkness
Summary: Part II: Time has been traversed, the aversion to the damage of the future has changed history. The Empire has risen under the Dragon's wings. The Alliance has been formed riding on Eagle's watchful gaze. The Union is strengthening with the Bear holding vigil.
Helltanz's notes: New summary, doesn't really mater to you older readers.
Rosen Thule Society Air Warship (Rose)
Sturm First Germanicus class of Air Warship (Storm)
Orgel First SS Air Warship (Organ)
Uhyre Scandinavia's first Air warship (Monster)
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Chapter Begin
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Axis Empire, Europe, Federal States of Dracaena, Ukraine, Imperial Duchy of Kiev
The Drachenorden had established three sets of extra planetary colonies. Spheres labeled two and three were settled via the Stargate or rather had originally been settled by the gate builders, thus those worlds were a part of the original network.
Sphere Two colonies were primarily for research into alien civilizations, technology mainly and specifically research into the Alterans.
Sphere Three Colonies were on the farther reaches and mainly were worlds with resources to be gathered. These resources were not explicitly limited to exotic materials either.
The Final Sphere were all set up via faster than light capable ships and were not originally apart of the gate network they were all permanent type colonies.
The issue was that with out revealing the stargate and without explaining how it was they had faster than light, well going public like Hitler had wanted once everything was set up with the space colonies was going to be a bother.
The Axis Stargate program had started moving and setting up on worlds in a similar policy though with out FTL capable ships they had to set up permanent colonies on worlds, which were already in the possession of an existing stargate.
Asran knew that the portion of the Senate were eager to reveal the fruits of their labors as it were. Of course said fruits weren't fully ripe yet, it would be a few more years until the first, other Axis developed, colonies would be complete.
The Industrial preparations for the first Sphere Colonies would take another decade till they were fully prepared, and that was the Drachenorden.
At the same time the Axis Main Colonies would be focusing on lower tech developments so they wouldn't be building space ship construction yards but the building of infrastructure would take time as well.
"The Americans Stargate had some kind of malfunction?" He inquired finally looking up from his report on the colonies.
"Yes they
were apparently using it quite a bit were not sure of the
circumstances, they are re shutting down the program and sealing the
records."
The death eyed knight nodded, the information they had
on whatever is was the Allies had been up to was limited.
However it was clear the Allies did not know how to fully operate the stargate merely they had dialed a successful address, which one the Axis did not know, and that they had begun to send people through after figuring out how to get back.
This could be a problem as the damage had not been catastrophic and the gate was fully intact. Though more than likely it meant the allies had managed to establish a base off world.
Of course it was unlikely that after a mere six months they had been able to do much in the way of setting up even with their advances in technology. Without a gate address however it did complicate matters.
The Duke of Kiev stood up, it was estimated several thousand people had gone through in the early series of trips from all nationalities of the Allies. Estimated at least enough to create a viable population.
"Contact the colonies and tell them to temporarily suspend expansion without military support for the time being," Asran ordered after a moment.
Resources needed to be conserved in any event continued expansion to more planets without building infrastructure to support them would cause a collapse and there were also other issues to consider.
Besides the population of the orbiting colonies, which was admittedly small in comparison to what it would eventually be, there was the issue of the colonies themselves amongst the key issues were the fact they were armed.
Over the last two years the population of the colonies had increased, more than that the over crowding issues in Europe by proxy had diminished so at least some goals had been dealt with.
The other issues of the days ahead was the developing 'super' nation in Africa, and in addition to the continued conflict primarily in Vietnam.
Though the later was not so much an immediate concern of Donitz's administration, the Senate disagreed they wanted, for the most part, outright supported the Annexing of the rest of South East Asia. Especially with the US's deployment of troops to Mexico recently
"Contact the industrial complexes we will begin the distribution of the materials requested by the Empire of Imperial Japan." Stated the Duke of Kiev folding his hands behind his back as he walked towards one wall.
The officers
turned, "Is that wise? The project," Pressed one of the
members.
"They intend to build an 'Air Battleship'," He
waved his hand dismissively, "Your acting like that is a bad thing,
anyway the materials wouldn't stop from trying to build one anyway.
Besides its mainly they need the materials to finish."
"The SS is not going to like this," Dietrich remarked,
The count of Donetsk smirked and gestured swinging his hands outward, "The SS who cares its not our fault the Japanese are embarrassing them, despite that by all rights their air warship should be more advanced and further along it is not." Stated the man, "Let them complain we are the order of the Dragon they have no authority over us."
It was a true enough fact the SS was having problems the Orgel while it was true the platform worked and hadn't had any catastrophic failures the warship was expensive and beyond that making them took time. Making replacement parts was also an issue as that was a bother as well.
Not that it mattered the Germanic Kingdom was getting ready to launch the Sturm class Cruisers soon so the 'strain' on deployment of the Orgel class would be lessen. There was also the Aetherium core Thule Society Air warship to consider, though the Rosen wasn't going to make to much of a difference since it was unlikely to see combat over the Reich Empire's home territory.
"The
Northern States have been working on their Uhyre it should be
entering production soon,"
Asran nodded, this was good news the
destroyer class vessel would in coordination mean the massive
improvement air intercept capability, plus the industrial development
of Scandinavia meant they could produce the needed materials with
minimal Order of the Dragon imported tech thus the Uhyre could be
built and deployed easier than originally expected.
It helped the vessel was less expensive than the larger vessels, true it lacked the shell firing guns it possessed some compensation.
"Call Hakon see if we can speed up the building,"
"They can't
shoot down ICBMs yet,"
The duke of Kiev shrugged, "Your
telling me this why, I know doesn't mean it will stay that way."
He stated, "Besides that is why the UNIT is that region, the Red
Bear would not be foolish enough to attempt to invade Scandinavia,
even with the forward bases within the Finnish SSR."
That development might take a few years, yet the Americans waste time with satellite weapons that would take forever to develop and build, easier just to coordinate with trackers and fire mach 13 velocity interceptor missiles, that or brass shaped penetrators fired at that velocity, accelerated via a kinetic energy weapon, mass driver, which would shred the nuclear devices before they could begin their during sub orbital or early descent sequence flight. If that capacity was acquired it would lesson the burden on the order of the Dragon's intercept systems.
The Second issue was a truth, the region was mainly used for shipbuilding for the Navy to supplement Saint Petersburg Super Shipyards.
"Continue the construction of the base in Boulogne-Billancourt, oh and go ahead and open the school you have my permission." He stated, the only real issue with the school was security the research lab nearby wouldn't be that difficult to defend schools from a security point of view however was a bit more worrying.
Of course it was quite unlikely that any attack would be carried out again by the now nearly extinct resistance but it still was a worry, they were at least if they followed the outline simply taking over the running of an existing school shouldn't be to much trouble besides Paris was safe enough.
Asran paused there were Arzachel's latest actions as well to contemplate. It could potentially and more than likely would indeed complicate the situation in South America in any case the operation in Argentina had been successful.
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The SS were mellowing, and this was causing a split between the branches. In nineteen thirty six the Schutzstaffel had assumed control of the law enforcement branches through out Germany. With the final establishment of the Reich the SS assumed control of most of the Police tasks in the western portions, Germanicus, Gaul, Hispania's police forces all fell under their jurisdiction. In addition foreign branches of the SS remained in action across the territories of the new Empire.
Heinrich Himmler, now at sixty eight years of age, was the head of the Radical and utterly imperialist faction of the organization, on the other hand the regular police force were not near as extreme, and this was causing some amount of discord.
This issue of differing ideological views, it was actually helping the SS to survive, the blunders while detracting did not affect the whole organization. The police had become more genial, more to the ideal that the SS propagated in public.
In the meantime the Imperialist's could continue as they pleased to a degree. In this case redeeming themselves finishing off the last bits of resistance PEAN for example was one of their remaining targets.
There were other issues on the international scale though officially allied together Germanicus and the Soviet Union were still quite wary of the other.
Of course at the same time the USSR was worrying about its neighbor to the south, the ASU state of China which had returned nearly completely to an empire unto itself, with the key piece missing; an emperor. This fact didn't stop the varying nobility from trying to claim the mandate of heaven.
Which in this raised an issue, how it was determined, of this the Duke of Kiev was unsure, and what role the drachenorden played since the endorsement of the orden apparently had a high value, perhaps it was the dragon symbology.
Of course the Soviet Union had another worry; their Black Sea Fleet and its deployment in ocean waters, more appropriately the Dracaena Federal State of Turkey, which controlled the straits.
This meant the Red Fleet could be held at leisure or so was the fear, the presence of Dracaena and the Drachenorden's own Black Sea Fleets deterred the previous tactics of heavy handedness, that and Stalin now no longer a younger man, being in his eighties, wished caused an incident between the communist superpower and their closest Imperial Ally hence why the Soviets placing more insistence on their fleet building in the Finland SSR's naval bases where they were to be moored.
The so called new Ottoman Empire, correctly the UAS, which in itself was politically incorrect was undergoing its own problems to the south. Though called the new Ottoman Empire by the west and indeed it did rule some of the former Ottoman territory. In truth Dracaena held a good portion of territory of the former Ottoman Empire and so did Carthage.
The main former Ottoman province under the control UAS that was mainly the reformed Greater Syria, in the previous timeline that land area had been divided into Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan it further held Sudan, Ethiopia Somalia, in addition to other holdings.
Those last three were the source of the problem the tension disputes between Muslim hereditary rulers and their people and native Afrikaans to the south.
The latest mess was in Khartoum and of course as was seeming normal after the paris fiasco mandated the assault by Drachenorden knights, the nano weave armor really was useful given that it allowed the troops to walk through hails of even machine gun fire with little impediment.
However at the moment they were only treating the results of the real problem the burgeoning states, since there were two now if you counted the UAS.
The fact was the southern state, not Kenya, which was held by the Empire of Great Britain, but rather the super nation was claiming a manifest destiny of Afrikaans rule of the dark continent, the Warlord controlled state had assimilated the southern portion of the continent after a decade long civil war between another warlord state in the end through liberal use of nuclear weapons.
Though concerning was not an immediate issue when it had started, after all, they did not have the resources and infrastructure of the Allies or the other powers. Another issue was the fact the nuclear weapons were low yield fifteen kilotons inferior to the United State's nuclear naval shells fired by the Montana and the Iowas, in this case sixty kilotons and twenty five kilotons respectively.
Asran turned on his heel, the death eyed knight hadn't bothered to sit down through out the briefing. "Prepare our forces we will mobilize as needed,"
"Perhaps this wouldn't be needed if the SS had cracked down sooner," Complained Arzachel leaning back.
The
collective seemed to agree. "Enough," The duke of Kiev stated,
"The SS has already begun to remedy the problem, and in any case it
isn't our concern. Arzachel you will assume command of the Orden
forces in the UAS,"
"As you wish father,"
The elder time traveler nodded, "In the mean time work will continue on the Lapis Lazuli Defense System a report will be given at our next session. We are adjourned."
The nobility of Dracaena hailed from their varying provinces, and for the most part it went back to feudalistic style. Asran's most efficient lieutenants held high ranking positions as well as a aristocratic titles, another difference was obviously the democratically elected portion of the government which did hold a large portion of the civilian administration.
Though the Reich had reinstated certain policies as whole the Dracaena Imperial court was rather different than the Ottoman Court.
Yea there were quite a number of differences, for one there was no harem… well Asran wasn't married for one, so that dealt with a number of positions. There was also the fact Asran's mother, nor Arzachel's mother were present in the court, the later the death eyed knight was extremely happy over. Religion was obviously a difference as well, Dracaena did not have a state religion though high ranking priests were allowed to raise issues directly the same as high ranking priests, they all with some frequency suggested he get married, that was considered by and large the norm.
Though it did retain a similar efficient administrative style of the states, and the highly centralized government, and in some cases people compared the Northern State to a vassal state. Or other comparisons, were made some positions had been maintained in any case the comparison of the Ottoman Empire to any state of the Reich was not likely to be an fully accurate comparison.
The large polished doors closed as the inner circle of the Drachenorden entered the inner sanctum.
"Tovares. Not meaning to nag, but we do have the upcoming diplomatic summit." Radu remarked,
The death eyed knight frowned settling into his preferred high back chair, it was certainly more comfortable to him than the throne, though he was glad the issue hadn't been brought up amongst the full collection.
The Amazons supplied the majority of the adimantium certainly was cheaper than refining it yourselves.
In any case dealing with them was proving extremely annoying to deal with them, their reintroduction to the world had caused some issues they were firmly independent not affiliating with any of the superpowers and they could protect that independence especially now that they had begun building technology.
While it was true the last few meetings had gone over well enough, it was also true there were certain ideological disagreements between factions on all sides.
Oh well the opening talks were not for a few more weeks, still time to prepare.
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Chapter conclusion
Helltanz's notes: Part II has begun the next major conflict will start shortly, of course its more several short repeated skirmishes in the same general region, but in the mean time the US will be finishing dealing with Indochina, and then there is also South America to deal with.
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