Gunship Michael 01, Kreuzung system
When Svea Rausch entered the path that would lead her to the Allstreitkräfte, she had learned quickly that she would never pilot a space fighter. Such things were physically impossible. There was no space for propellant in them, the lack of air and the huge inertia by relative speed in space as well as the long distances at which engagements were typically fought made any thoughts of dogfighting ludicrous.
Space had still drawn her like a moth to the flame, and she had more experience with space combat than nearly any other. Which had led her to the point where she commanded all six of Michael's gunships, and these were certainly no X-Wing-Fighters.
Instead they were ugly things, with a design that paid nearly no concession to aesthetics and certainly none to aerodynamics. On top of that they out-massed a Flensburg-Class DE handily.
Presently she divided her attention between monitoring the position of all six gunships, their distance from each other, and the target allocation. Ralf Neumann told the computers where to fly their ship and Burak Aslan looked after all the weapons that gave the gunships their name.
Another monitor showed her the enemy dispositions and the current set of orders sent by the flagship. Her squadron and those from Sariel und Uriel were to make a sweep to Star Gates 3 and 5, engaging the toasters there. Gabriel's gunships would remain with the carriers and defend them while the capital ships went after the main group.
Michael's computers had finally transmitted course and acceleration data for the fleet, and she had gained more than 20 kilometres from any other ship. Now she could stop playing with low-Isp Rune of Fire engines and engage a really powerful drive.
"Ralf, engage main engines on the computer's mark, keep 20 klicks distance at all times. Fleet has decided to take it easy, initial burn is 30 minutes at four G"
"Solid copy on engage at fleet mark, 20 klicks sep and four G. Countdown from fleet received, begin burn in 5,4,3,2,1 off we go."
30 meters behind Svea a series of pumps began to push a salty liquid from tanks lined with materials which absorbed neutrons through pipework similarly equipped. The liquid entered a chamber that was made with neutron reflectors, seriously increasing the neutron flux in the liquid. Those neutrons had just the right speed to be absorbed by the uranium salts suspended in the fluid. And a great lot of the uranium atoms took that neutron and decided that today was the day to split. Releasing a really large amount of energy it immediately vaporized the water it had been suspended in. The immense pressure that built up pushed against a series of magnetic fields and very strong, very well cooled barriers. It allowed the pressure only one way out, through the throat of a bell nozzle. It left the spaceship at an incredible velocity, leaving a hellish plume of radioactivity behind.
Many astronauts had likened their rides to be akin to sitting on top of a bomb. Svea Rausch and her crew rode a nuclear device. There was one and only one reason why this exercise in madness had been considered and constructed. If the crew would burn through all the propellant tanks that made up 90% of their ship's mass they would achieve a delta-V of 7.5% C - the speed of light. And they could do so at an acceleration that pressed them to their seats with enough force to make breathing a chore.
Flag bridge, RSS Michael, Kreuzung System
Nathan Alpers had to work at hiding his unease, it would do staff morale no good at all. The last time he had engaged the Abominations he had taken them eight at a time. The last engagement had been far too close for comfort and now his fleet was about to engage many times their number. He had more ships now, better tech, doctrine, and vastly more firepower. He also had no real idea how much the Abominations had improved during the dozen years since he had been in this system the last time.
He was about to find out though. A countdown timer showed the few remaining seconds until the fleet would launch its missile strike. He had mulled over the idea of sending a few missiles at first to gain an idea about the enemy's capabilities. In the end it would probably waste missiles and time, so all four ships made a magnum launch of six long-range missiles each. The weapons were huge compared to the ones used by old Morgenstern. They had nearly the same size and shape of an old Zwilling.
They were ejected from their silos by gas generators and then manoeuvred themselves before Michael. When their broad rear ends were aligned with the space ship its lasers fired on the missiles. Huge Fresnel lenses caught the beams and focussed them on the end of a bell nozzle. The amount of propellant injected into the chamber was comparatively minute, however, the energy provided by Michael made it a force that accelerated the weapon quickly. Ten G might not be a great lot as far as missiles were concerned, but the acceleration lasted minutes. The group of 23 missiles raced towards the enemy, one became an expanding cloud of hot gasses when a small fault in its lens failed.
Passive sensors on all ships and the probes left by Herschel tracked the missiles and their targets. Updated course data was sent to all missiles which adjusted their course minutely. Their computers were also updated with the data collected on the Abominations' active sensors, but that was stored for later.
That later came when the fuel tanks were emptied and the white hot engine discarded. That was when the missiles' cores started to radiate false signals on all frequencies received, when they ejected flares that would even burn in the endless, airless void and a cloud of chaff obscured the attack. Ten second stages were ejected from each missile during this confusion. These weapons were coated with substances that absorbed most radiation and scattered the little they did not. They were quite cold, as they did not use any active sensors or did anything but count the time very carefully. They were quite unlike the hundreds of specially shaped decoys that were ejected with them. All sharp angles and reflective materials they showed up at least as well on any sensor as the weapons did, even when they were so much smaller.
And while that deadly cloud approached the Abominations at more than ten kilometres every second the first stages continued to jam what radars searched for their charges. The Abominations showed that they were not united in any way, shape, or form. Some of them engaged whatever drives they had made for themselves and accelerated in any way that was not directly towards the oncoming missiles. Others activated additional sensors and tried their best to distinguish between threats and falsehoods. Only a dozen or so shared their sensor data, triangulating the bearing-only information given by their passive sensors or tried to make sense of the signals given by multistatic radar and LIDAR. That made them far more dangerous, but without a database on the missiles and decoys they had a really hard time distinguishing one from the other.
Both the organized Abominations and their lone brethren tried to intercept the weapons that tried to end them. There was a plethora of different weapons used for that. There were the lasers that were quite accurate, but lacked power at that range. There were at least two different Abos using relativistic electron beam weapons which were more powerful, but their beams were starting to dissipate before hitting. They could still scramble a missile's electronics, but most wasted their fire at decoys. There were coilguns that would be absolutely devastating if they would hit, which presently was quite unlikely.
The intercepts became easier as the range reduced itself, both the laser hits and the electron beams that managed to hit something had shown the differences between decoys and missiles. At least some Abos, including the allied ones figured out the small differences decoys and weapons showed on their sensors and were less likely to shoot at false targets. The lasers would at least boil water at the reduced range and the first coilgun shots were connecting.
All of that meant that of 230 second stages only 180 got to fire their engines. That made them stand out like sore thumbs immediately, but also changed their speed and azimuth drastically enough to ruin most firing solutions. Those Abomination which had armed themselves with coilguns had no chance to intercept the missiles, these with energy weapons had a slim one. Of the 65 bogeys that were targeted by Task Force Michael eight left the battlefield at such velocities and vectors that they were unlikely to play any role in this battle any more. 31 of them neither managed to evade nor to shoot down the warheads coming for them, filling the space with high-speed debris.
"26 bogeys left, not great, not terrible General."
"It is a bit better than I expected Magnus. Direct energy weapons are murder on missiles, providing their sensors and fire control are decent. If they had this tech when we were here with old Morgenstern I would not be here."
"None of us would be I wager."
"Very likely. So we come to the fun stage, what does S-3 recommend?"
"We have an average Delta-V of 25 klicks per second against the Toasters, so we will be in range for three minute at most, and that is if we flip the ships. The range gate for another long range missile strike is already closed. S-3 recommends that we cease acceleration and handle the engagement with guns and lasers. S-3 calculated a course that will keep us on one side of the enemy, we need a burn in five minutes for 25 seconds to achieve that."
Nathan thought about it for a second.
"Add a short-range missile strike, gives the toasters something else to shoot at."
"Jawohl Herr General, will add a missile strike after acceleration burn."
Michael and the other space ships changed course and speed in their spectacular fashion again, so that they did not pass through the cloud of enemies. The ships of her class had been built with an armored front end that would put an MBT's armor to shame, the pusher plate at its end and a strip of armor along its sides. The areas not covered by armor were very vulnerable, so it was vital to control which facing the enemy could engage. When the last explosion had strained the shock absorbers Michael turned so that its front faced the Abominations. All around the front plate gun barrels and emitters aimed at the enemy. Before they opened up a couple of box launchers disgorged dozens of missiles. No bigger than the ones used by Morgenstern a decade ago they were far more sophisticated. One in five were penetration aids, carrying jammers and distributing decoys instead of a warhead. Even so, and with Michael's jamming only five managed to release their warheads and destroyed two Abominations. The strike had done its job though, as a lot of firepower was wasted against them. The hammer was about to drop though.
Gunship Michael 01, Kreuzung system
"Group 1 is now 15 intact bogeys, M-3 and -14 are accelerating laterally. The rest are trying to lock on to us with their fire control gear."
"Very well Burak. Distribute the rest to the closest gunboat respectively. I am authorizing an artillery mission against the Toasters, six rounds per ship. Calculate a time-on-target barrage if possible."
"Solid copy on distribution and arti strike Svea. Please enter your authorization together with mine."
Svea pressed her eye against a sensor that read her retina pattern.
"Will do on 3…2…1...authorized"
"Thanks Svea, calculating artillery strike, taking spinal laser off antimissile duty. We will engage M-5 and M-8. Solution calculated, transmitting to squadron now. Request we cease evasive maneuvering in 12 seconds."
"Request approved, Ralf make it so."
Svea pushed another button while the roar of her gunship's main engine ceased and the push into her seat reduced itself to nothing. RCS jets started to fire in short, controlled bursts to align her ship's nose with their targets,
"Michael actual, this is guns actual, will commence six-round artillery mission on assigned targets."
Guns actual, this is Michael actual, mission acknowledged"
She had barely released the button when the gun that was the spine of her gunship fired. A humungous propellant charge accelerated the projectile to a measly kilometer per second, but as soon as the round started to move a series of electromagnets acted on it. Using energy stored in advanced gigacaps they accelerated the round to a speed that would have allowed it to achieve an orbit if fired from the surface of the Warhammer World. The projectile did not spin, but stabilized by a set of small RCS jets. A LIDAR mounted on the gunship's bow carefully tracked the round's flight path, detected deviations, and sent corrections to the round fired. The RCS changed the projectile's orientation minutely and when the time was right the gunship's main laser fired on the projectile. Its cone-shaped back side was lined with ablative propellant that promptly vaporized and pushed the round to a path closer to the required one. The procedure was repeated three more times, until the ablative propellant was used up and the trajectory as good as it was going to get.
Even at these speeds and with such refinements the rounds would still miss their targets by distances measured in hundreds of meters. The closest managed to pass its target within a hundred meters, and it did not matter at all. When the proximity fuses in the rounds decided they were not going to get any closer they did not detonate their payload, they initiated it.
Small packets of fast- and slow-burning explosives created a pressure lens that compressed the ball of plutonium inside them to the point where a chain reaction began. Countless neutrons found plutonium atoms at the right speed and caused them to split, causing even more of the same. Other neutrons were absorbed by a mass of tritium and that immediately released many more of them. Normally this would have been used to increase the fission yield, but in this case the immense neutron burst was the goal. Within the space of two seconds six neutron bombs exploded amidst the abominations. The particles collided with armor, sensors and engines, transferring massive energy and causing secondary radiation that ran through the unmanned spacecraft. Some exploded when their propellant or their reactors absorbed too much energy. Others simply ceased to function when their processors and data storage were burned beyond recovery. And while the Abomination tried to deal with the violence of Svea's barrage another set of rounds initiated in their midst, followed by four more. When the last of the extremely bright flashes had ceased most of the Abominations were no longer moving on their own or rapidly expanding clouds of gas and debris.
Svea allowed herself a celebratory cheer before getting back to her job.
"Michael gunships, this is Michael One actual. Good job, we got nearly all of them. Guns two and three, we go for M-11 and M-13, Guns four, five, six M-2 is yours."
She waited for the acknowledgements from her group, before addressing her own crew again.
"Ralf, start evasive maneuvering again, coordinate with two and three. Burak, take down M-11 with the laser if you can."
"Will do"
"He is as good as dead."
Svea's back hurt a bit when her gunship started a series of burns meant to evade the enemy's fire and saw the lights dim every so often when her gunner engaged the laser and drained the gigacaps. The autocannons mounted all around her spaceship hammered at things that might be missiles and the display before her gave her all of the information needed to fight her gunship flotilla. She floated on a cloud of adrenaline and pride and felt everything in the sharpest focus possible. Who the fuck needed a space fighter when she could fly this? Or was she flying a monstrous, ugly fighter that kicked ass?
Flag bridge, RSS Michael, Kreuzung System
Michael's frontal armor contained many layers: ceramics nearly as hard as diamond, meshes made from carbon nanotubes in monomolecular plastics and foamed alloys of various metals. It was as unbreakable as the Allstreitkräfte could make it. The coilgun slug that hit it did so at an angle, plowing through several layers as if they were not even there. It left pulverized tiles and ripped fabrics in its wake before its molten remains came to rest inside a layer made from depleted uranium. It made a spaceship the mass of a large warship ring like a bell, and it was just an accent on the clamor going on.
The engine initiated a charge every second, but Michael accelerated sluggishly as most of the energy was stored in its huge gigacaps. Pumps circulated coolants through the ice cores at thousands of liters per second, howling like banshees as they did so. The spaceship had several guns like the ones used by the gunships in flexible mounts. When they fired they stressed even Michael's overbuilt frame and the lasers discharged at an alarming rate, driving the projectiles or attacking their targets directly.
RSS Michael punched like no other human combat vessel ever had and she was joined by her three sisters. The Abominations that had tried to intercept them had accelerated to speeds they could not shed in time for a longer engagement and Nathan Alpers was not going to accommodate them for the sake of a longer battle until he had their measure. For about three minutes men and machines would be in knife-fighting range of each other. At a distance when coilgun rounds had a decent chance of hitting, where lasers and electron guns could do real damage three minutes of combat was an eternity. The toasters that were left were less than a third of Group 2, but these were the most advanced and powerful Abominations. Some of them seemed to be part of a coordinated group, which made them so much more dangerous.
Gabriel had already lost more than a few sensors, a gun barrel was far shorter than it should be, and the turret that housed it no longer moved. Sariel hung back as its drive was no longer synching the lithium foils with the plasma ejectors. Fixing this in the middle of battle was impossible and so the warship relied on its Rune of Fire drive. It had fired another long-range missile salvo aimed at Abominations that tried to gain distance and used its lasers to power them.
One gunship was just following its course while its crew frantically tried to reboot crashed systems. Another was a cloud of expanding gas. A coilgun slug had opened a propellant tank and the fuel had no longer been inside a neutron-absorbing layer. The resulting explosion had been truly spectacular.
It was Michael and Gabriel which were closest to the enemy and bore the brunt of their fire. Missiles tried to evade the lasers and autocannons that hunted them. The defenses got them all but for one. Michael had to fire a laser on Gabriel's armor strip when the missile smeared Nanites all over it.
Nathan was shaken in his seat here and there when his flagship fired her cannons or received another coilgun round.
But even when he saw the list of damaged systems and sections he also saw the list of destroyed abominations that grew steadily. Having a look at the timer that indicated when the two fleets would be out of range and the number of remaining enemies he could see the battle's end already. His lips pulled themselves into something that would be a smile if there was any humor in it. His fleet would win the battle, that was sure. He was not so sure if it was worth the price paid in lives to achieve it.
And then it was over, with the suddenness of a light switched off. The last Abominations had been the focus of far too much firepower, had used their reserves of ammunition and propellant, and could nether fight nor flee. Nuclear rounds exploded among the last four and irradiated hulks drifted through the void.
Nathan moved his head and neck in an attempt to ease the cramps when his Flag Lieutenant's face appeared on his monitor.
"Herr General, we are being hailed, presumably from the transshipment center.
"What?"
"We are getting pinged by the transshipment center-laser com, and radio in at least three frequencies."
"Please tell me the commo section has that airgapped."
"Yes, they have. They found the data to contain a video file that conforms to the old D-2 standard."
Nathan could not suppress a shiver. This either meant a seriously advanced player or one who had somehow access to German data. Who or what could have that and be in this system ?
"Whoever sent this went to great lengths to contact us then, let us not disappoint them. Play it on my monitor then."
"Jawohl Herr General."
The screen before him changed from endless status reports to one of a light, blurry background. Before it stood a tall, beautiful red-headed woman in a black uniform with black and gray piping.
"Greetings persons of the Allstreitkräfte and congratulations for your hard-fought victory over the Abominations. I am the speaker of the Great Mind conclave that runs this transshipment center. Kindly contact me via one of the frequencies I sent this message on and use the format of this stream if possible. Please state your intentions now that you are here."
Nathan blinked several times, trying to get his mind to accept something that should not be possible. At the same time he tried to place the image of the woman, he had seen her before, but where?
"Magnus, have the commo shop establish video contact, loop the staff in, but mute them for now."
"Will do, a moment please."
And while preparations were made Nathan finally remembered where he had seen that woman before, which meant that he was shaking his head and laughed when the connection was finally established.
"Greetings speaker of the transshipment center. I am General Nathan Alpers of the Allstreitkräfte. The last time we were in this system it was abandoned but for the Abominations, so we came to take control of it."
"Nathan Alpers, is this you? We calculated a very low probability of you returning to this system in person, given your experiences here. You are most welcome."
"May I ask how it is possible that I can communicate with a Great Mind Speaker? When we were here the last time the AI Hypatia told us that they had all succumbed to infections of scrapcode deadly to Great Minds."
"Ah, Hypatia, the Great Mind that gave us a chance of existence with her demise. We have to thank you for respecting her last wishes and laying her to rest in the transshipment center. Soon after you left the Nanites that provide the station's maintenance tried to repair her. She had deleted her personality very thoroughly, so she had no priorities, no desires, and no goals. Instead Hypatia's remains provided much needed computational capacities and became the basis of a unified Nanite management. This allowed the station to achieve a much better state of repair already.
The Nanites tried to restore the hardware hosting the destroyed Great Minds and found that their operating systems and many applications scrambled beyond all hopes of recovery. In the end they tried copying Hypatia's old operating system onto the repaired hardware. This failed in most cases, but in one they managed to establish a working system. It found the data in the same memory cores that Hypatia accessed before her self-deletion. From them and her memories the first fully-functioning Great Minds arose and we founded the conclave. The conclave designed me as a speaker to outside parties and we hoped for your return as the Abominations became ever more powerful. We brought the transshipment center to full capability and would offer our services, but we have a favor to ask."
"And that would be?"
"You have eliminated the rogue Nanites in space quite handily, this indicates that you have not lost your military capabilities. Approximately 30 Megaseconds ago an Abomination fired a small probe of Nanites at this station, too small for the meteorite defense system to acquire. It was certainly not the first, but most find only the ceramite plating of the station, and are unable to multiply on that. That one absorbed a defective maintenance drone, finding enough materials to replicate itself. Evolving mobile forms it managed to enter the station 1.5 megaseconds ago. We have hindered its multiplication ever since, but we will not step down to build and use weapons, so our existence is endangered unless you help us. We also need protection in case more Abominations emerge.
If you are able to eliminate the rogue Nanites and protect us from harm we are willing to let you use the transshipment center and maintain it for you. We are willing to share scientific and technological data and would even offer expanded capabilities if you are willing to provide energy and raw materials."
Nathan sat in his chair, dumbstruck, unable to speak or think coherently for long seconds. He and his nation stood before a watershed, a moment to grasp or squander. He looked around to establish contact with his staff when he realized the fact that he was in the flag bridge of a space warship meant that the nation he had sworn to serve had made the decision over a decade ago.
"My government will want to discuss the exact details of a treaty with you later, but I have the authority to negotiate. I have the people with me to take care of your Abomination problem, but we need more details on their numbers, capabilities, and locations to formulate a plan of attack. Before we do that one question: Why did you chose this Avatar?"
"My meticulous research into the data found with Hypatia's remains shows that this is the appropriate form for the second in command of a space station and this is what I aspire to become."
"Welcome to the Allstreitkräfte then Lieutenant Commander Susan Ivanova."
Connecting corridor 2/s transshipment center, Kreuzung system
Joakim Vos, Oberst of the Reiksbund Space Marines, led the first boarding action of his new service and he assaulted the deadly toy shop while throwing the doctrines into the trashcan.
His Marines did not seek cover, or tried to camouflage themselves. Instead they were wrapped in a halo of extremely bright light ranging from visible to the UV-spectrum. They advanced like soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars, walking tall and keeping rigid formation to keep all firing arcs covered.
There was a method to the madness though. The UV-light would destroy all airborne Nanites before they had a chance to settle on his troops and eat their way in. There was no need to take cover as the enemy, such as it was, had almost no ranged weapons.
The "mobile forms" mentioned by Ivanovna mostly looked like remote control construction machine toys assembled by demented children with a taste for spikes and blades. Others took the shape of mechanized snakes or pulled themselves along by clawed mechanical arms.
They were made to disassemble the space station and to bring back the materials harvested to a Nanite forge. Said forge was 1,520 meters from Joakim's company and the goal of the current advance. And while the Abominations did not have ranged weapons or displayed much intelligence they saw the Marines as sources of much-needed materials. They trundled towards Joakim on mismatched tracks, claws raised, slithered on the walls with open mouths showing plasma flames or drew sparks from the floor when limbs fought for traction.
They were met by nothing visible, but something made their bodies glow and burn. Something exploded whatever fluids inside could boil and melt their misshaped bodies into even uglier junk. Most of Joakim's Marines used lasers built to plans from Old One history books. Fed from gigacaps buried in their backpacks they dispensed more energy than any assault rifle Joakim had ever handled, had no recoil and no need for any lead. They did get hot though and one needed to use short bursts or single shots to avoid the weapon shutting down at the worst possible moment. Powerful as the lasers were, Joakim's marines still had other, more exotic weapons at their disposal. Two marines aimed something that combined high-tech materials with cryptic sigils inlaid in their casing. They unleashed lightning that ran through whole groups of enemies, leaving smoking remains behind.
His Marines were good, killing machines in wholesale lots, and still Joakim could see so many more behind them. If this kept going on his people would be overwhelmed in short order, so it was time to get nasty. Just thinking about contacting the fleet was enough to bring the menu up, clicking a virtual button with his thumb confirmed the connection.
"Fleet actual, this is Marine One. Inform Ivanova we will use an EMP-strike at corridor 203."
"Marine One, this is Fleet actual, confirm EMP strike. She is not going to like it though."
"Tough on her, she can repair, I cannot raise dead Marines."
Switching to the next channel.
"Weapons, this is Actual. I want to EMP-strike 500 and 700 meters down range stat."
"Actual, Weapons, solid copy on EMP-strike."
Two missiles flew by Joakim, through the swarm that wanted to devour him before exploding within fractions of a second of each other. A complicated arrangement of gigacaps, electronics and copper tubes that ruptured in a carefully orchestrated way when powerful explosives lit up. The shockwave they threw was weakened by the thin atmosphere, but that was just a side effect. A broad-spectrum, powerful electromagnetic wave ran through the corridor. It caused currents in wiring where none should be, melted vulnerable circuitry and caused storage devices to discharge catastrophically.
Joakim saw the thin line of enemies before them and the empty void behind and knew that this was the chance to end this battle.
"Marines, up and at them"
Taking his company's lead he never checked if his charge was followed. His HUD displayed enemy after enemy, his suit allowed him to engage them even at a full run. Firing his laser with his left hand he used his sword to strike at any machine that came too close. His armored boots crushed half-melted scrap metal, his laser made more of it as he advanced.
Joakim's HUD showed him the status of his Marines, the state of charge in his backpack, and his position. He saw none of it, even when parts of his mind used that information. Instead he tried to see into any nook and cranny, tried to see any enemy before it could pounce. His armor pushed him forward in great leaps despite the restored gravity. He and his company made it through light resistance before the corridor ended in a great chasm ripped from the innards of a loading bay. In its center a huge tank was filled with a fluid of dirty silver and countless machines dropped in any scrap they could find to make more of them. On the floor below him and on many a gantry more Abominations formed to attack his people.
It was high time to end it.
"Weapons, EMP-strike, target the tanks and the area around it. Rest of us, defend the heavy weapons team."
Forming a line before the few heavy weapons operators the Space Marines fired at anything that moved. Behind them four Marines programmed their warheads before letting fly. Actinic flares harshly lit everything as their weapons exploded on their targets, nearly overwhelming the Marine's visors. Lightning arced through structures and ran along the Abominations' chassis. Flying forms stopped maneuvering and crawlers started to float when the grav plating failed under the EMP strike.
More missiles followed and mostly shifted the rubble, the last one saw the Nanite tank burst and its fluid forming an amorphous blob in the middle of the bay.
Joakim Vos looked at the havoc his people had wrecked and saw that it was good.
"Fleet One, this is Marine One. Nanite forge shut down, loading bay cleared of the enemy."
"Very well Marine One, this is Fleet One, mission accomplished. Retreat to your dropship, the AIs will perform the cleanup."
Nathan Alpers switched off the connection in time to join the cheers that ran through Michael. He would not even try to stop them, they had earned it.
They had secured a future among the stars.
Warhammer Winter Games, Red Abbey, the Empire 2536 IC
The central market square of of the city of Red Abbey was filled with spectators. Looming above it in the background was the old sandstone abbey on the hill that the city took its name from.
The next medal ceremony was taking place, this time for bobsled, the four-woman-sled event to be precise.
Unlike on Earth, on Warhammer the Sledding associations decided to field a four person crew race for women as well as men. Another difference from Winter Games on Earth, but here in all events, was that the Top 10 athletes received something. Places 7-10 received an official document of them partaking and ranking high in their event, places 4-6 a brass-rimmed glass medal and 1-3 the gold, silver and bronze medals.
This led to rather massive ceremonies in team sport events, with sports like Ice Hockey only corralled by the fact that the Hockey tournament of the Second Warhammer Winter Games had just seven nations partaking.
But even a less popular sport as Bobsled could have some size for the podium. When the winners were called up, there were already 36 women on their podium places.
Winner of the Gold medal in Women's 4 crew Bobsled: Bob Germany 2 - Kim Kalicki, Annabel Galander, Tamara Steiger and Leonie Fiebig
Like her compatriot and teammate Laura Nolte, Kim Kalicki had been a teenager when the Weltensprung happened and pure chance combined with talent scouting by the national coach had led to her becoming a bobsled driver.
The Police Inspector from Wiesbaden was one of the great steering talents to be found, her only flaw her rather „petite" figure, at least by bobsled standards.
Like her teammates Nolte or Buckwitz for example, Kim had won dozens of medals and many titles over the years, but winning at the Winter Games was still special. And made more special by the fact, that in the early days after arrival it was completely unclear if something like the Olympics would or could ever take place on a world like Warhammer.
It was a sweet victory for her and her crew, but the whole event was amazing in itself. The sleds were. The sleds were crewed by members from five species, coming from nearly all corners of the Warhammer world! And soon they would get their medals from two persons you would not find on Earth. One was the reigning Emperor of a major power, Kaiser Karl Franz, ruler of the Empire of Mankind and the other was a being from the legends, Manfred von Carstein, Vampire and Elector Count of Sylvania.
All this was happening on the central square of a city which looked like a mishmash from the Middle Ages mixed with Gründerzeit and even more modern buildings. In front of a fan crowd with even more species among them and a strong party mood. The ideal of peace during the Winter Games was even less achieved than on Earth, but still the two weeks of the Games saw a somewhat lowered intensity of warfare across the world. There were so many war-prone races and societies on Warhammer, not to speak of the Chaos forces, that nobody could lower their defences.
But the games were interesting to so many beings, that the endless fighting took a backseat, if it still going on.
