"Therefore, gentlemen, I implore you to follow the heroic General Ludendorff and the brave leader Hitler and aid them in whatever way and by any means you can in the upcoming battle for the soul of our nation," finished Kahr in his declaration of support. This was met with enthusiastic cheering and hails from those that had already joined the party and polite cheering from the others, who were mostly concerned with getting away from the armed men with many loaded guns.
Since the Triumvirate had thus satisfied the plot leaders, they allowed Kahr, Lossow and Seisser to leave the Löwenbräukeller beer hall. While there were several members of the 7th Wehrkreiskommando, the Reichswehr unit stationed in the city, among his supporters, both Ludendorff and Hitler knew better than to try sweet-talking the others now. Anyone with a smidgen of proper army morale would only follow their rightful commander, and they were not that. Not yet, at least. But soon the Patriotic Fighting League would grow yet more.
It was not difficult for Röhm and the SA to convince the guards outside the headquarters on Schönfeldstrasse to let them enter. It was enough to use the simple excuse that they came to prepare a greeting for Ludendorff and Lossow. The later man came directly from the beer hall soon after being released. "Do not bother with any parades on my behalf. General Ludendorff deserves them much more," he told the soldiers with an air of Stoic detachment befitting a high-ranking army commander.
Röhm came to greet him with a bald man, whom Lossow recognised from when Kahr had been Minister-President of Bavaria. Ernst Pöhner was considered over the top even among the anti-Semites, and it was not hard to see, why he had been chosen as the Minister-President after the coup succeeded. He had once publically bemoaned that there were not enough right wing assassins in Bavaria to kill all his political opponents. He fit right in with this lot. He may have officially been in the German National People's Party, but that was surely a formality at this point.
Lossow saluted to him. "Greetings, your Excellency. Soon the soldiers will be informed of your ascension to the Ministerial Presidency and happily accept your leadership." The man gave him a disturbing smile. "Thank you, Commander. I am most happy today. You may tell the soldiers their support will be most generously rewarded." Lossow forcefully suppressed an eye roll and gave an entirely fake smile. "I am sure they will be pleased." He turned to the other man.
"How are the preparations for the strategic meeting, Mr. Röhm? " The man gave his own smile. "They are going very well. Your subordinates have made themselves available and are cooperating with my men in full. It brings me joy to see this, and I am certain this foretells that our joint work in the coming days shall be most fruitful." The commander nodded, despite knowing what sort of work the coming days would really bring.
"Very well. Now excuse me gentlemen, but I must prepare myself for the meeting and I need to send all the important commands to my men to get themselves ready for our march against Berlin." Without waiting for a reply, he made his way to his own office. He sat down in his chair and finally let go of his stoic face mask and took out a cigar to get the edge off. "Stupid brats, you think pointing a gun at me will earn you my favour," he muttered to the empty room.
"I joined the army, while you still sucked your moms' breasts. I lead men against Cao Futian's rebels, while you still learned how to read. You pricks think an Iron Cross make you big shots, I'll show you what it means to be a commander," he continued and slowly increased in volume as he got more incensed. These assholes think they can blackmail him. Maybe Kahr and Seisser don't have the guts to stand up to you, but the Boxers were more intimidating than these wannabe messiahs.
When he finished the cigar, he put in his ashtray and immediately left to visit the telegraphy section. He could not trust his subordinates to be absolutely loyal, so he would not yet act openly against the putsch. It would however be useful to get trustworthy support as soon as possible. The operator greeted him with a salute, but he immediately barker an order. "I need a confidential message sent to the other Reichswehr units."
"As you wish, sir," said the operator and turned to his telegraph. "You may start your dictation," he added. The dictation was hushed, since the Commander did not want anyone else to hear it. "The 7th Wehrkreiskommando hereby calls for aid. A group attempting to overthrow the legitimate government is operating in the city." The telegraph operator was stunned for a moment, before continuing to dutifully type.
"Say nothing of this," Lossow said with emphasis directed at the man, and then continued in a more neutral tone. "Infiltration of our unit is highly likely. Bavarian government representatives are held hostage and cannot be trusted with issuing commands due to threat to life. I will send a list of people that can be relied on." Once he was finished, he changed from the almost neutral tone to a commanding one.
"You will accompany me, private. Don't say anything about this to anyone without my explicit order." The operator gave a salute and left with room with his commander. "We will entertain these putsch leaders as if we intend to join them. They must not know anything until it is too late for them to react. I will sooner take a bullet to the head than let myself be blackmailed by a bunch of arrogant civilians," said commander whispered.
"What are we going to do about Alfons," Noah asked as they waited for Edward's brother to come back downstairs. Normally reporting a murder would be an obvious first thing to do, but when the police force was infiltrated with Thule Society associates, this was perhaps not the best idea. "As much as I would love to report this as a murder by Hess, I do not trust the police to actually trust me. Especially because you still have a blood soaked skirt," he pointed out.
"I have been told enough about "the danger of associating with gypsies" to absolutely expect, that they would try and pin this on you. I think the best idea for now is that you head back to the flat." He took out his key and handed it to Noah. "I'll take Alfons'. Lock the door behind you. Then go hide the skirt somewhere or wash it clean, if you want. We are probably going to be triggering an explosion in here, and we can probably make it look like the perpetrators were caught by Alfons, and he was then shot to avoid raising the alarm."
"How would you do that? Besides, there were people around, who saw what happened," the girl protested. "And further, haven't you done enough for my neck? Surely, it would better to not avoid the police on my behalf? I can just go into hiding for a time. There is no need to get in trouble with them as well." Edward gave her a withering look. "My good will is not something you have to pay for. I am fine with this. Now, please go and rest, if you want to. We will close the gate, and then we will never have think about any of this again."
She let out something between a breath and a sigh and started to walk to the entrance. "Thank you, Edward." "You can just us "Ed," you know," he said as he turned back around, before turning back to add something. "Also, take the back entrance just in case. It would be better if nobody saw you now. Go north along the Schwabinger Bach until you meet the main road. That will bring you out by the Leopoldpark directly, so you can take a quick route to the house."
"I know how to make myself invisible, Ed," she replied quietly. "But thank you for all that consideration." "The fact you feel the need to thank for everything is actually heartbreaking," he muttered to himself. "How shitty has your life been that you fell like basic kindness is some great sacrifice on the part of the giver?" He looked up and noticed Alphonse was coming back downstairs with a mildly annoyed look. "Let me guess, there is nothing we can use?" Al gave a nod. "Yep. The windows are below it and there is nothing above that, but solid wall."
"Okay, so we will need to actually make a bomb with alchemy. Fortunately, they have got a bunch of rocket fuel all over the place and tons of, almost certain illegal, army munitions. The more difficult question is how we will insure we can get out of dodge. Do you have any idea?" His brother gave him an unhelpful shrug. "Either, we could make a trail of flammable liquid like a fuse, or maybe we could shoot it from a distance with a gun."
"Given I have no idea, how quickly rocket fuel burns in open air, I would prefer the second option. There is also a question of what to do with him," he pointed to his friend's body. "The local police are not exactly paragons of justice. I told Noah we would make it look like the real culprits ran into him and killed him to avoid being discovered. The actual killer has allies among the witnesses, and Noah's people are basically treated like the Ishbalans here, so we need to force the police to look anywhere else."
"You know, brother, I was confused how you two met. But now I get it. It's good to see that those two years in another world have done nothing to your inability to stay out of other people's business," said Alphonse with laughter at the end of that last sentence. Edward huffed. "Pot, meet kettle." Al laughed louder, while his brother walked towards a pile of boxes. "Oh, I am not criticising you. I know I would probably get myself wound up in this, if the roles were flipped." "Probably, he says." Al giggled again.
Ed removed the canvas from the top of the little armoury, that had been left behind by the failed invasion. "Let's have a look at what they didn't take away." He first noticed a bunch of rifles and pistols from the Mauser Company. "Well, we have enough guns to use as a trigger. I noticed the roof is slightly unequal and there is a wall slightly taller than my knee at the point they touch. We can hide behind that," Alphonse said. Edward nodded and kept looking for a bit before getting to the stacked boxes.
Inside those that could be opened, without having to remove the other heavy ones on top of them, there were three large rounds marked with the words "15 cm Ring." "Well, they did not leave much to choose from. Looks like they took all the aeroplane bombs," he noted. "Let's try to lift this one," he added and pointed at one of them. They grabbed it from either side and started to raise it up. "Oh, wow, that is heavier than I thought," said Alphonse. These little shells, though only 15 centimetres, weighed forty kilograms after all. (That is a half a foot and 88 lbs imperial.)
"Please tell me this place has an elevator," he continued in a strained whisper as he looked at the series of stairs. "Nah, that would be too easy," said Edward. "Now, let's get going. At least this way, we split up the strain between ourselves. Besides, we have to only do this once." Alphonse audibly sighed and slightly shifted his hands, trying to get a better grip. By the time they moved the shell all the way upstairs, they were both heavily tempted to kick it out of annoyance.
They then came back down and moved the body of Alfons Heiderich to the other side of the building. Edward put him on the ground and tried to arrange him in a way as would indicate someone shot from the front. He then took the key to the flat from his pocket and put on a large rubber shoe, which was lying on the pile, of what was once Eckhart's little army. "Now we set up a little fake clue trail," he said, and went out to walk in the shoe through a muddy puddle outside the entrance. "What are you doing," his brother asked.
He walked back inside and just before the moved corpse suddenly made a step back and started running towards the hall. Now Alphonse noticed the muddy prints. "You think that will be enough to get them off of Noah?" "Of course. If I make a reasonable explanation readily apparent, then they will try to find evidence in favour of it," he said as he put the shoe right under the cupola with the intent of having it be burned in the subsequent fire.
"Ah, confirmation bias is an annoying beast," Al noted. "It will feel nice to be on the other side of it for once, won't it?" Edward hummed and started to look through the various guns for one that seemed to have a good range. They then returned to the roof. Indeed, the roof wall was about the right height to hide behind. Alphonse hid fully and Edward tried to see, where to point. He put one of the bullets, from a cartridge he had also retrieved, into the weapon.
"I am going to shoot the fuse tip, but I heard that these shells are notorious for delays. When the blast wave passes, we will need to run like hell." He then aimed the shotgun across the raised wall and slowly pointed it the right way according to the crosshair. "Like always, Ed, I know." Ed decides to think about the depressing implications of that sentence later and takes a calming breath. "Get ready. Three. Two. One."
He took the shot and immediately crouched behind the raised wall and next to Alphonse. The loud shot seemed to echo across nearby roofs, and the spent cartridges fell to the ground. Nothing happens for several seconds, and both teens keep holding their breath. After about half a minute, Ed mutters a curse. "Damn it, now I don't know if it's a delay, or I didn't trigger it." He slowly raises his head above the wall and notices an impact hole about an inch from the shell in the cupola surface.
"Didn't even hit it," he mutters. Al snickers, and the gun is reloaded with another bullet. "Okay, this time it better work." He took a calming breath and pointed the crosshair slightly right compared to his earlier attempt. "Three. Two. One." Another shot rang out in the quiet of the night, and he ducked back. This time, he heard no echoes from the other nearby roofs. A light flashes behind the wall, and then the sound wave comes.
Every window in the building promptly disintegrates into shards, and the cupola starts collapsing. Neither brother cares about that as they run towards the edge of the roof and start climbing down the roof access ladder, which Edward had pointed out earlier, as quickly as possible. "Run behind me, I know the best way to get back to the flat," Edward yells as further explosions rock the building. The armoury downstairs has probably blown up or is in the process of doing so.
The sky briefly lights up golden as the gate rebounds from the destruction of its alchemical circle. Then the light vanishes as its attachment fully disintegrates and everything crashes down into the underground production facility. Alphonse drops from the last ladder step, but before Edward can follow, a crate of aeroplane bombs, that had been well hidden, explodes and causes the bottom of the wall to be pushed outward.
"Shit," Edward screams in German and crashes on the ruins. "Brother!" Alphonse pulls him by the legs, and he tries to stand up and run. "We need to go to the stream! Go!" On the other side of the building, people are already streaming outside. The bangs got the attention of everyone within half a kilometre. Several people have already called the fire services. A blessing, which the Elric brothers know nothing about, yet, is that most people assume this is some sort of accident with the rocket tests and not an intentional bombing.
Eckhart's latest records, about both alchemy and opening a gate to "Shamballa," are all burnt to ashes in the fierce blaze. Her body and the others are buried in rubble as the marble arches and pillars collapse on top of them. Edward ducks into a bush by the Schwabinger Bach stream on the edge of the English Garden, and Alphonse follows after him. The fire is now mostly inside the building and a thick column of dark smoke is rising. The rocket fuel is starting to burn.
"Truly, never a dull moment with you, brother."
Franz Matt left the New Town Hall in a great hurry. "Where do you wish to go," asked his driver as the man got in the back seat of the open-top Mercedes Simplex car. Before he could answer, a siren slowly getting louder became audible from the other end of the Marienplatz. "Oh, what now?!" Two fire engines roared out of Rosenstrasse on the other side of the square. It was München's fire department that had its headquarters in the Angerviertel district, just south of the oldest part of the town.
"Great, there is a fire too. This better not be related." Matt watched them pass in front of their car and continue down Weinstrasse. He finally turned back to his driver. "I want to go to the Löwenbräukeller. Go straight through Kaufringerstrasse and then turn at railway station; I need to be there as soon as possible." "As you wish," the driver replied, and they drive off. Meanwhile, von Kahr was getting in his own vehicle and going to the other way.
Fortunately, Matt notices the other car just as both approach the crossing of Seidlstrasse and Arnulfstrasse, which is just outside the city's main train station. "Stop," Matt ordered immediately and rose in his seat to try and hail the other car. It does come to a stop and von Kahr emerges from his own closed roof car. "Matt, just the man I wanted to meet. We need to call on our supporters to gather. It is time to deal with the treasonous element in this land."
"State Commissioner, one of your aids came back to the town hall. They said you, Lossow and Seisser had been taken hostage by the National Socialists. What, in God's name, is going on?!" The other man makes a calming gesture with both his hands. "All is going well. There is no need to yell. However, we must get ready to take on the corrupt government in Berlin and these men have shown dedication to the cause, which fills me with certainty of our success."
The vice minister-president recoiled. "Excuse me, State Commissioner. What are you talking about? Are you actually planning to join with the National Socialists and have us march with them against Berlin?! Are you out of your mind?!" The other man looked offended at such insinuations. "I reiterate that I have never seen greater dedication to a righteous cause than this. They have my word of honour that we will join them." Matt sputtered.
"You gave blackmailers, who demanded your agreement at gun point, your word of honour?!" Kahr paused for a moment trying to word the counterargument, but Matt continued. "I will have none of this foolishness. Absolutely none! If you want to destroy yourselves, than fine, but do not pull the land under with you!" Kahr now looked highly offended. "I gave General Ludendorff and his ally Hitler my word. After all, we all want the same thing: to remove the traitors from power.
I will not besmirch my honour, when this can help us achieve the goals we have so long only spoken of. They have already sent their followers to round up the reticent and cowardly men, so they will not get in our way. Do not convince them, that you need to join that group." Matt took a deep breath. "Go and talk to Faulhaber and the Prince. The cardinal is waiting for me to return in my office. Tell him I will not be returning. If as you said, they have taken hostages, I am now also duty bound.
Think carefully about what you're going to do. We have been allies in so many dealings; it would be foolish to throw it away for some charismatic idiot's farfetched promises." After he finished, Matt returned to his car and slammed the door shut behind him. He ordered his drive to go to his house. If these men had any intelligence and sanity left, they would join him in his plan to form a backup government in Regensburg.
Just in case he would have to work alone, he would start preparing already. "Turn around and head to Mrs. Ammann's house," he told his driver, and they sped away. He arrived at the house of Ellen Ammann, a fellow party member, though also an emigrant from Sweden, about fifteen minutes later. She was already in a nightgown and was forcefully trying to stay awake as she went to open the door. "Mrs. Ammann, I apologise for calling your judgement premature." She looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and confusion.
"You were right about the Nazis; they are trying to launch a coup." That woke her up rather swiftly. "That idiot, von Kahr, is actually inclined to helping them, so I would like to ask you for help in ensuring sanity will prevail." Without another word, she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside. She then went to her phone and started making calls. "Anita, come to my house immediately. Get Lida too and make sure to not attract unnecessary attention, there is a potential revolution brewing in the city." Finally, she turned back to Franz.
"What are planning to do?" "I would like to make some calls of my own. They have sent their paramilitary thugs supposedly to arrest von Knilling and some of the ministers, but I think we can get there before them and form a working cabinet to oppose them." She nodded and gave the phone to him. "Do what you can. We will issue you with absolute support. I do not want them ruling a city, much less the country. Augspurg and Heymann will agree, of that I am sure."
"Thank you, all. I am certain you understand how bad things are going, if I am forced to ask even them for aid." She nodded and went to get a change of clothing. Matt was a conservative and politically active Roman Catholic, who would really have to be concerned to try and get the help of the Socialists, feminists and pacifists crowd that Ammann interacted with. Given that apparently the Triumvirate was on board with this insanity, it made sense on a political level, if not ideological.
Lossow and the telegraph operator were back in his room, and he looked north from his window to a column of smoke rising about a kilometre away with concern. Outside, he had heard a slight commotion as small detachments of both his armed forces and Röhm's thugs split off to check what was going on. He was certain he heard an explosion similar to a cannon shell going off in the distance. He took a hard puff of another cigar he had lit in the meantime. "What the hell is going on now? This is becoming more a headache each passing moment."
Somebody loudly knocked at the door, and then it was opened by a low ranking soldier. "Commander, General Ludendorff and company, are here to see you!" Lossow quickly put back his stoic face mask and without turning from the window answered. "Bring them in at once. Tell the staff to make themselves available to them in any way they wish." He added the latter part mostly to maintain the facade of support. In reality, he would like nothing more, than to gut them like fish.
Ludendorff and Hitler entered first, and each carried themselves like smug snakes. Lossow had a tough time deciding, which one deserved to get gutted first. They were followed by Röhm and Pöhner, as expected. But oddly, they were also joined by Hermann Kriebel, who had represented Bavaria at the Armistice of Compiègne and the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles.
Then again, the man had echoed the French Marshall Foch and at Versailles told the other diplomats that they would "see each other in twenty years," so maybe he was not as unexpected. The last man to join them was Friedrich Weber, who was introduced as the leader of the SA allied paramilitary commando called Oberland. "Gentlemen, I would like to welcome you all," said Lossow, covering his deep disdain, where none could see.
The speed of the voluntary fire fighting unit, known as Freiwillige Feuerwehr München, was truly admirable. They had made it to the fire within minutes of receiving the first call. The Elric brothers moved through the dark shadows of the bushes and trees on the edge of the English to get a better look. The group wore immaculately maintained black uniform with large button and metallic helmets on their heads.
One of the men immediately took charge of everything and started sounding orders, which even Edward could barely understand over the road of the fire. The man was a magistrate named Adolf Ecker, who had served as the group's commanders for the last four years. The brothers watched him order the men around as they lay down the houses and prepared a ladder to access the roof and spray water from above.
After some time, others groups started arriving. Edward identified them for his brother's sake as the police and the Reichswehr, but he did not immediately recognise the Brownshirt of Röhm. He had not really cared about keeping track of the paramilitary groups from around Germany. "So far, so good," he noted as the water started flowing. About ten minutes after the first two cars, two more came to join them and started to fight the fire from the other side.
Finally, someone found the body of Alfons Heiderich, since Edward saw a pair of firefighters carry it outside. The police immediately got involved, while the soldiers seemed to be holding back, while the fire was brought under control. "Do we not to stay any more," asked Alphonse. "Probably not," answered Ed. "Come on; I'll show the flat I've been living in for a year. I think we have done enough for one day and quite frankly I am so tired, I might sleep in the afternoon."
They walked relatively slowly, given that a fire they caused was still blazing behind them and occasionally casting strong shadows on the ground and reflected from the stream water like flashes one would usually expect on a sunny day. "I wonder what will happen now," Ed started. "Heiderich got the flat from the Ludwig Maximilian University after Doctor Oberth interceded for him, and I was mostly a freeloader. I could probably get a job, but given I just pissed off a bunch of people willing to kill..."
"Can't you just join the school yourself? I am pretty sure both of us would do well in chemistry," offered Alphonse. Edward weakly raised his right hand and made a so-so gesture. "Honestly, I would probably prefer to go into physics. Do you remember that uranium bomb Huskisson made on his creepy sea platform?" His brother nods. "Very well, the psychopathic types always leave an impression, and the emaciated corpse in his mine only made the memory firm. But what does that have to do with any of this?"
"That glorified after-school club found it. Thankfully it was broken, but I think it was the reason they tried to make their way to Amestris. They already have the best weapons here and want to take some of ours. It's a good thing our alchemy does not really work here, because them getting their hands on stuff like Mustang's fire alchemy, is the stuff nightmares are made of." The problem was that Huskisson's bomb was not dependent on alchemy, and this world had already made some discoveries in a similar vein.
"I found out that some sort of research was done with Huskisson's mine after he vanished," Al said. "They found out that the uranium ore causes health defects after long exposure. Apparently, the atoms are so heavy..." "That helium atoms split off," Edward suggested. "Yeah. Do they know about that here, too?" Ed nodded. "A guy named Ernest Rutherford found that out almost two decades ago.
The man's various experiments actually led to a new model of the atom in this world's science. They determined that atoms have a positive mass at the centre and negative particles that seem to orbit in specific distances from the centre. I'll lend you some of the books and articles. They're fortunately in this world's counterpart of our language, so you'll be able to read it." "Good, I'm getting tired of second guessing what everyone is talking about," his brother added as they approached a street crossing along a path of stomped down grass.