Berlin Water Treatment Plant
They arrived back in Berlin just as the sun was beginning to rise, winding through the streets back to the Butchers' safehouse at Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus. They parked up behind the venue and disembarked, heading up to the studio apartment on the top floor that formed the safehouse for Bismarck's Butchers.
As Hans neared the last few steps to the hall leading to the safehouse he started to limp, the effects of the glancing laser shot he'd suffered coming to his attention. As the team moved into the safehouse and began to find seats he eased himself into a chair and pulled up his pant leg.
Erich pulled off his helmet and crouched next to Hans. "Looks like you got lucky," he said. Hans leaned forward to look for himself, and despite the pain he had to agree. The laser had skated along his skin, searing the flesh and cooking off every hair on his calf, but ultimately it was just a flesh wound. He reached into his gear, produced a bottle of disinfectant and some gauze, and got to work binding the wound.
"A direct hit probably would've sheared my leg in half," Hans said as he finished wrapping up the wound. "Fucking energiegewehrs... And those American Panzertroopers, too, what the fuck?! Did we even kill a single one of them?"
"No," Erich said, and stood upright. "By the way, before you ask, I had Oskar escort those prisoners from the camp to a nearby settlement. We don't have the space or a need for them here. When we free the rest of them from the park you can ask them to integrate with the U-Bahn network, if you have the space."
"One thing at a time," Hans said. He put his pant leg back down and set his feet back on the floor. "We're going to the water treatment plant next, right?"
Erich nodded. "That's right. Once it's knocked out we'll take the tunnel to the Reichstag and put an end to this. We'll leave in a couple hours, if you're good to go."
"Yeah," Hans said, and stood. With a wince. "I slept some on the ride back here, so I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I suppose. So long as everyone else is alright."
"Well, Oskar and Irmina got whooped pretty hard by that American Panzertrooper, but they'll live. Your commie friend seems to be alright too," Erich said, and Friedrich gave him a thumbs up.
"We're out of PG-60s," Irmina said. Her and Oskar were at the back of the apartment, rooting through their lockers for weapons. "Do we have anything else around?"
"Check the chests," Erich said. "You two might have to settle for a ballistic weapon." He pulled the M42 off his back and checked it, along with the three mini-nukes he'd taken from the base. "I don't think we'll need this at the treatment plant, so I'll save the bombs for the camp."
"Have you decided how we're going to actually free those prisoners?" Friedrich asked. Hans unslung his CAWS and fished out his empty magazines to refill them.
"They keep the workers in a pre-war building, on the western side. It's the only pre-war building in the park, as far as I know. During the day the workers tend to the fields," Hans said. "At night, of course, they're inside sleeping."
"I don't want to screw around," Erich said. "Once the water plant's knocked offline we'll wait for one hour, see if they send anyone out to reactivate it, and then we'll get moving." He turned to Hans. "Get out those American combat armor suits and put one on. We'll get moving once you and the commie are ready."
Hans nodded and took off the duffel bag he'd swiped from the American base. He pulled out the two complete suits he'd taken and handed the pieces to Friedrich, who looked them over. Hans removed his current armor, his bandolier, pistol belt, boots, and started strapping on the American armor. It was black, with the same white-stenciled 'E' on the chestplate, surrounded by stars. He pulled on the boots, a perfect fit, and strapped the leg guards onto his shins and thighs. Next he pulled on the chestplate and accompanying backplate, drawing the straps tight to his body. The shoulder pauldrons had two straps, one that went around his bicep and another that was fastened to the upper straps of the chestpiece. He hadn't grabbed any helmets, so he was free to keep his stahlhelm. He looked the suit over and turned to face Friedrich, who was just about done putting his suit on. "How do I look?"
Friedrich frowned. "Like a Nazi."
Hans scowled at him but said nothing. The American armor had come with a web belt, but none of his gear fit the pouches, so he opted to keep his pistol belt and bandolier. He slung the bandolier around his chest, the magazines for the CAWS inside and fully loaded. He still had the 9mm P7 that Irmina had handed him at the park, and he checked it before putting it back in the holster and strapping the belt on. He doubted a 9mm pistol would be of much use against Sturmutants, but there were a number of Rotter guards at the camp and it'd work on them just fine. The rest of his gear, his flashlight, spare mags for the P7, knife, medkit, food, zipties, iodine pills, RadAway, canteen, pouches for the CAWS' magazines, and multitool were all ready to go.
"It's time to go," he said, and Erich nodded.
The Berlin Water Treatment Plant, as expected, was on the River Spree, a short walk from the Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus. The team had taken the backstreets and alleys to the river, avoiding a few packs of feral Rotters and even a duo of adult Rovers, until they'd reached Invalidenstrasse. The road stretched over the river, the water plant to the left as they crossed the bridge.
The team had departed from Invalidenstrasse onto a service road that ran along the bank of the Spree, dispatching a Croaker along the way, and walked up to the side of the target building. It was a white-painted concrete, fading and dingy in spots. There was a utility door on the side of the building, a red light above it. Thankfully the door was unlocked, and the door proceeded into the building.
The inside of the main room seemed clear. The room was dominated mostly by these large vats of water, churned by an agitator in the center of each. A large pipe ran up to the ceiling from both, connected to a series of other pipes running across the ceiling. Next to the vats, directly in front of the team, was a bay for a boat that had sunk at some point since The Bomb came, the forecastle sticking up out of the water. Hans looked left, out the opening in the building for the boat, and could see the Spreebogenpark practically across from it, maybe a quarter of a mile away.
"So," Friedrich said, "how exactly does one shut down a water treatment plant?"
"Simple," Erich answered, his helmet back on, "C4."
The five of them were about to move to the purification vats when Hans saw a door open on an upper catwalk and a Sturmutant emerged. He shouted a warning and then opened fire, and the team scattered into cover. Two more Sturmutants emerged from ground-level doors and joined the fray, the thunder echoing violently in the high ceilings of the room.
The Panzertroopers were closest to the Sturmers, being furthest right in the large room. Hans crouched behind a diagnostics cart, Friedrich ten feet ahead of him by a cart carrying spare pipes. The Panzertroopers, practically immune to the ballistic guns of the Sturmutants, stood up in the open and returned fire. The heavy hypersonic crack of Erich's M72 Gauss Rifle momentarily drowned out all other noise, quickly replaced by the din of Oskar and Irmina's Madsen LMGs. The Sturmutant on the catwalk was blown nearly in half by Erich's M72, and the two Sturmers on the ground floor retreated back through the doors.
"Time to root them out!" Erich said, and the Panzertroopers were about to get moving when another Sturmutant, a Vengeance Trooper, appeared on the catwalk wielding a Panzerschreck. Hans took aim and fired, the buckshot harmlessly flattening on the mutant's armor. The Panzertroopers saw the threat and shot the mutant just as the abomination fired, the rocket screaming off-course in the enclosed space with an ear-rending roar. The warhead hit one of the purification vats, blowing it apart and sending bits of shrapnel and pipe across the room. Hans threw himself to the floor as water began to spread across it, bubbling up and flooding out from where the vat used to be.
"This is a Goddamned mess!" Hans screamed to himself, nearly inaudible over the sound of gunfire and roaring water. He unloaded the buckshot from the CAWS and replaced it with slugs, figuring he'd have a better chance of penetrating the armor of the mutants.
Hans peeked over the diagnostic cart, about to fire, when the Vengeance Trooper jumped down from the catwalk, plazmagewehr in hand. Hans paused, watching the Sturmutant move. She was holding the weapon at her side, like the Gatling laser the American Panzertrooper had been using. Trouble was, Hans didn't recognize the weapon. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, with four prongs jutting out from the maw of the weapon. A hose ran from the back of the gun to a pack on her back. She swung the muzzle of the weapon around, took aim at the Panzertroopers, and fired.
"What the fu-" Hans said, his voice drowned out by the sound. Instead of discharging orbs of superheated plasma or lasers, as he'd expected, the weapon vented a cloud of violet plasma gas into the air, the heat instantly flashing the water on the floor into steam and melting the control consoles the Panzertroopers had been taking cover behind.
"Jesus Christ!"
The Vengeance Trooper discharged the plazmawerfer again, the cloud of superheated gas turning the control consoles into bubbling pools of purple goo, and the Panzertroopers scattered. Oskar and Irmina opened fire with their Madsens, the 8mm Mauser rounds punching through the armor but apparently not reaching the mutant inside. The Sturmer retreated to the other, intact, purification vat.
"Butchers, put on the pressure!" Erich yelled, and the Panzertroopers moved up. He pulled an M24 stick grenade from his gear and lobbed it at the mutant. The grenade detonated, apparently without effect, and the mutant popped up and sprayed the room with the plazmawerfer again, forcing the Panzertroopers to duck.
Hans moved left, towards the end of the room, keeping low. The vats were on the other side of the dock used for the boat, a distance too far for the mutant's plasma thrower to cover. At least, he hoped so. Erich lobbed another grenade, the explosion nearly inaudible over the rushing water. Hans crouched by the wall, next to a control panel for a shutter that came down over the dock entrance, and took aim. He had a clear shot on the Sturmer, but with the shotgun's scope having been plugged up with a laser sight all he could do was aim down the backup trench on top of the carry handle. The CAWS kicked hard, bucking his shoulder. He sent three slugs downrange, punching through the mutant's side armor and hitting the side of her weapon.
The Sturmer shouted in anger and turned towards Hans, igniting the end of the plazmawerfer. Hans beat feet back the other way, towards the doors opposite the boat bay. The mutant could only turn so far before she'd be forced to stand, leaving her open to fire from the Panzertroopers. Hans slid into cover next to Friedrich, who was reloading his G3 and watching the doors. Erich tossed a third grenade, this one forcing the Sturmutant to break cover. She ignited the plazmawerfer, the Panzertroopers ducked, and she fired.
*BOOOOM!*
Hans watched in amazement as the Sturmutant's plazmawerfer exploded just as she pulled the trigger and she vanished in a cloud of violet plasma, hunks of melting metal skidding across the floor and turning the water to steam, glowing bright purple and refusing to cool.
"My God," Friedrich said, and Hans grinned.
"Nice job," Erich said as he and the other Panzertroopers stood, "but we're not done yet. Let's clear the rest of this mutant trash out and then knock this place offline."
"That one with the rocket launcher did half the job for us," Irmina cracked. Hans and Friedrich joined the Panzertroopers by the doors, watching them carefully for any sign of the Sturmutants who had retreated. There was no way up to the catwalks from where they were, so Hans figured there'd be a staircase elsewhere in the building.
"Two doors and five people," Friedrich said. "Should we split up?"
"Yes," Erich said. "Oskar, Irmina, Friedrich, take the door on the left. Hans and I will take the door on the right."
Friedrich and the Panzertroopers nodded and moved to the left side door. At once they were met with gunfire, the bullets chipping up the stonework by the doorframe. Oskar stuck his Madsen around the corner and blind-fired down the hall, then moved in. Irmina and Friedrich quickly followed and, after another short burst of gunfire, the building was silent again. Hans looked at Erich, who nodded towards their door, and he moved up. There was no gunfire to meet him, so he moved in. The hall was little more than a landing for a stairwell that ran straight up to another landing, an open door on the right side. "Wait here," Erich said. Hans watched him go up the stairs. At the top a Sturmutant opened fire and Erich quickly silenced him with a blast from the M72. "Clear!"
Hans ascended the stairs and joined Erich, the two of them emerging out on the catwalk. The walk went straight ahead, all the way to the end of the room, stopping above the control panel to the boat bay's shutter. To the right the catwalk extended halfway down the room, ending at a door. Hans and Erich moved to the door, Erich in the lead. Hans went prone, aiming between Erich's legs as the Panzertrooper yanked the door open.
The room was empty.
Getting to his feet Hans followed Erich into the room; two doors, both facing each other, and to the left as they came in a control panel. Hans looked it over, quickly realizing it was for controlling pressure levels and flow direction, as well as for monitoring the pH levels of the water. Unimportant stuff. There were other controls, for the main room's lights as well as the electronic locks to the catwalks that ran above the purification vats. There was a radio on a little table by the console, a pre-War Nuka-Cola on top of it, glowing blue. Hans had always wondered just who would be crazy enough to actually drink something like that. The radio was on, the closing notes of Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique lingering in the air, followed by a few moments of silence.
"An absolutely beautiful piece," a woman's voice said. "You're listening to BIR. That's Berlin Independent Radio, not beer, and I'm the Lightbringer. Major thanks, as always, to the people of the Bayerische Beethoven Bund for providing me these priceless records. The skies are clear and the temperature inviting. Now, for the news: east Berlin is being rocked by intense firefights involving well-armed men backed up by Panzerbots. Witnesses report the soldiers are bearing a modified version of the Austrian flag. As for why they're here and what they want, I can't say. Friends in Munich are reporting even worse things involving the Austrians. Be safe out there, everyone. Next up is some Wagner. Enjoy."
Hans turned his attention back to the control console. "Looks like we could use this to shut down the rest of the purification system," he said. "You know, in case the explosives don't work."
"I'll keep it in mind," Erich said. He popped open the other door, checked to make sure the way was clear, then closed it. "Doesn't seem like the mutants kept a sizable force here. Guess they counted on their image being enough to deter people from scavving."
"Still, doesn't hurt to come in force," Hans said. "Between you Butchers, plus Friedrich and I, taking this place was going to be easy. Easier than their main camp will be, at least."
"I'm curious, by the way," Erich said. "I haven't asked yet. Who is this Friedrich guy? Never took you to pal around with a red."
"I've known him for a long time," Hans said. "He used to be the councilor of the Deutsche Historische Museum U-Bahn station. After the Final Order went through the stations on their recruitment drives he joined up with them."
Erich turned to look at him. "Interesting. I never met him. What'd he do for the Order?"
Hans subtly chewed his lip for a moment, debating. "Administrative work, I think. He didn't agree with some of the Order's more...difficult tasks. He broke away after a while and formed his own group. A counter-group."
To his credit, Erich didn't immediately grab him and shove him up against the wall, like he'd expected. "The Bavarian Coalition..." he said, and Hans nodded. "If you knew, why isn't he dead?"
"You sound like Hilda, but like I told her... The Natursturm device worked, but it was slow. The GECK was irradiated. Both were destroyed in the battle. Killing him wouldn't have changed anything."
"It'd be a matter of principle to me," Erich said, and Hans smiled.
"Now you really sound like Hilda..." he trailed off, his smile fading.
"You mentioned a deal between you two before. What was it?"
"The stations and the German Communists have been at war for a while. Friedrich is their leader, though I didn't know. Apparently he didn't know that I was the councilor for the Pariser Platz station, either. He proposed a truce; he had a Sturmer problem, I have a Sturmer problem. We help each other solve both, then the stations and the DKs enter into a trade agreement."
Erich scoffed. "Commies don't trade, they take. And if he dies or gets deposed, then whoever takes over won't honor the truce. I've got a better offer, one that'll put an end to all our troubles. Kill the son of a bitch, and let the Butchers exterminate his party. When we're done with the mutants here the Deutsche Kommunists will be the only organized threat left in Berlin," Erich said. "The stations have the people and organizational skills necessary to reestablish civilization in Berlin. I can move the Butchers closer to the stations, to help keep them secure."
Hans rubbed his chin. "If I kill Friedrich."
"Why not? Once we're finished with Queen Ilse and her Sturmers he'll no longer be useful. The communists have nothing to offer beyond labor. They don't grow anything, they don't produce anything, they just steal from those who do. There's plenty of honest people in Berlin who'll work for the stations, so long as you offer them a fair deal. Take the commies out of the picture, and Berlin's only threats will be Rovers, Croakers, and all the other creatures that roam our streets, and they're easy to deal with."
"Have you ever realized that all our problems begin when we start killing people?" Hans asked, and Erich scoffed.
"I bet you said the same thing to Hilda," he said. Hans frowned. "If you don't do it, then I will. I'd like some revenge for Projekt Natursturm, not to mention Oskar and Irmina."
"What happened to them?"
"Irmina's girlfriend was a Panzertrooper, and Oskar's father was Commander Wolfgang. Both died at the Eagle's Nest. If that commie cocksucker was the Coalition's leader then he's long overdue for justice, especially since his death and the destruction of the DKs will benefit us and Berlin."
Hans sighed. Sometimes he wondered if he was the odd one out. He didn't have a problem with killing to defend himself or others, but when it came to just executing people he tried his best to avoid it, even if he wasn't going to intervene to prevent it. If others wanted to cut people down in cold blood then that was their business. Then again, he couldn't deny that what he was doing right now, going after Queen Ilse, was murder. He absolutely intended to execute her, to kill her in cold blood, and ideally make her suffer first. She'd taken everything from him, but even if she hadn't the Sturmutants were still a problem. Friedrich Ademar had taken Projekt Natursturm, inefficient as it was, away from him, and had killed Klara, even if it had been a long time ago. Then, when they'd met again, he'd had the gall to coerce Hans into a deal that would only benefit him and the communists.
Hans frowned. Friedrich had really gotten one over on him. Not only that, but he'd been needling him every day since then. Implying Hans was a Nazi, subtly mocking him and Hilda over Projekt Natursturm and what they did for the Order. The guy was an asshole. Worse, he was a conniving asshole.
"I'll think about it," Hans said with a sigh.
"Very well. For now, let's stay focused on the job at hand." He opened the control room's other door and Hans followed him out onto the catwalk. Once they were done at the treatment plant all that was left was killing Queen Ilse. After that, there'd be nothing left standing in their way. They'd be free to live their lives in peace, and begin rebuilding Berlin and Germany.
It was almost over.
Hans and Erich found the rest of the team in a breakroom, decaying birthday decorations strewn about the room, along with a few skeletons still wearing party hats. Hans had chortled a bit at that; morbid as it was, it was still a little funny.
"The place is clear," Irmina said. "All that's left is to blow this place wide open and then get outta here. The Tiergarten tunnel isn't far. All goes well we can be in the park by noon, done by the evening."
"Glad to hear it," Erich said. "Hans and I will head back up to the control room and shut down the purification vats. Then, we'll destroy the console control. After that, you and Oskar will use the Composition B to blow up the other vat. That'll all be enough to knock this place offline and force the Sturmutants to send out some troops to investigate. Hopefully they send out enough to weaken their defenses, but if not, then we'll use Plan B." He thumped the side of the M42, slung over his back, and the other Panzertroopers chuckled.
The team split up again, with Hans and Erich returning to the control room that overlooked the building's main room. The already broken vat was still gushing water all over the room, most of it flowing back into the river Spree. Hans watched as Erich shut down the vats, the gushing quickly coming to a stop as the valve was shut. Then he rammed his armored fist into the control console and tore out the components inside. He watched as the others armed the blocks of Comp B and dumped them into the intact vat before rushing back into the halls below. The explosives went off a moment later, tearing the vat apart and dumping the water inside all across the room. Erich pulled out one of his grenades, yanked the cord, and dropped it through the hole he'd created in the control console. The two of them rushed out of the room and the grenade went off a moment later, tearing the machinery apart.
It wasn't long before the Sturmutants at the park took notice, since it hadn't been ten minutes before Oskar spotted four of them taking a boat from the park and quickly rowed up the bay to the treatment plant. Oskar and Irmina waited until they were about to pull into the boat bay before they opened fire, their Madsen LMGs shredding the boat from stem to stern and sending the four of them to the bottom of the river with at least a dozen new holes.
Hans and Erich went downstairs and rejoined the others. "Good work," Erich said. "It'll take at least an hour before they realize something's wrong. Let's get to the tunnel." The five of them went back to the utility door they'd gone through to enter the building, took the service road back to Invalidenstrasse, and turned West, keeping close to the buildings as they proceeded along the boulevard.
Halfway down the boulevard, on the left, was another road, dipping down into the earth. The team peered over the edge of the concrete barrier erected around the rim of the road and looked down, confirming that it was the road leading into the Tiergarten Tunnel. "This is the place," Hans said.
Erich nodded and the five of them were about to go around to descend to the tunnel's entrance when Irmina spoke up. "Uh, boys, there's a problem." She was standing by the edge of the depression, leaning over the concrete barrier. Hans and the others joined her, looking South to the Tiergarten tunnel entrance. It was intact, thankfully, but what Hans saw there disturbed him.
Half the tunnel's entrance had been blocked by a stack of cars, one on top of the other, the industrial loader used to place them there still standing where it had been left. The other half of the tunnel's entrance had been blocked too, at one point, but the cars there had been knocked down and scattered across the road. Hand-painted and hand-mounted were dozens of warnings and signs around the mouth of the tunnel: painted skulls, red X's, signs that read 'Achtung! Bedrohung!', and other warnings. Hans looked closer and saw that barbed wire had been wrapped around the stack of cars, to deter whatever was inside from moving the barrier.
"Surely there's another way into the park, yes?" Friedrich asked.
"Sure," Hans said, "if you want to go back and find a U-Bahn. Or the sewers. Or just walk right up to the gate in broad daylight."
"This is the fastest route. We're going in," Erich said. Hans and Friedrich followed the Panzertroopers down the street, to where the road rose up to ground-level, and around the corner. They entered the depression and followed it all the way down to the mouth of the tunnel. As they neared the car barrier Hans stopped and inspected it, frowning when he saw dried green fluid on the barbed wire.
As far as he could tell, it wasn't paint...