Chapter 317: Covert Operations, Part 1
Over southern Germania - 9 June 1939
At about nine in the morning, a single bomber took off from Vienna's airport. Onboard were three Inquisitors, one pilot, one gunner, and one archangel. As soon as the plane left the ground one of the Inquisitors activated a spell by dropping some powder into a cauldron. At that very instant, the plane became all but invisible.
Engelbert Dolfuss looked out the window, down on the thousands of Imperium tagmata that had amassed outside the city. While the city center and most of the city proper were safely under the Provisional Government's effective control, the outer suburbs and towns were heavily contested by the Imperium and Reich. But most of the Imperium tagma stayed put where they were, holding their positions.
Innitzer had explained to him that Angelos had given orders to hold their positions because of the Inquisition's defensive spells. There were thousands of the defensive spells cast throughout the city and its suburbs, ranging from what were essentially landmines without explosives to spells which prevented movement or froze time in the immediate area. A few Jewish Inquisitors had even summoned some golems, for use in recon or as garrison reinforcements.
"Don't even bother trying to explain how the invisibility spell works," said Raphael suddenly, "I know you're wondering about how you can see out of the plane when the spell bent all light rays around the plane. Don't even bother. Magic doesn't like to be explained."
"That's what the Inquisition's been doing all these centuries," replied Engelbert, "Explaining magic, merging it with the latest technology for maximum effect."
"Humans," muttered Raphael, "Always trying to explain everything with science. Has it ever occurred to you that there might be things that science simply runs away from in terror?"
"Were you always this arrogant?" said Inquisitor Hans.
"Don't even bother asking," said Inquisitor Conrad, "You're asking an archangel who has killed at least four Kaisers, Kristoff Eimerich, was at least partially responsible for starting the Apocalypse--"
"And stopping it!" interrupted Raphael.
"--and causing just about every pre-industrial man-made calamity that ever happened to the Reich!" said Conrad. "And that's not even taking into account what he did in Biblical times..."
"Is that how you guys remember me?" said Raphael. "Wow, I'm so flattered to be at least remembered as a Kaiser-killer!"
"Well, killing at least four Kaisers gets you that reputation in the Inquisition," said Engelbert.
"Hey, could you keep it down?" said the gunner, Albert. "I'm trying to catch some sleep here!"
"Sorry about that." Raphael snapped his fingers, and suddenly Engelbert found he could not speak at all. Conrad and Hans apparently felt the same way, for they began wildly gesturing with their arms.
"I didn't ask you to do that!" said Albert.
"Sorry." Raphael snapped his fingers again, and Engelbert found he could talk again. The other two Inquisitors also regained their voice.
"Next time, don't do that," said Engelbert, "It's not nice."
"Who are you to tell me what's nice or not?" said Raphael.
"You can't reason with an archangel," said the pilot, Inquisitor Gerhard, "They have their own morals and standards."
"Your pilot is apparently smarter than the rest of you combined," said Raphael, "You see, we angels have been refining--"
The bomber suddenly shook as a shock wave impacted it, followed by a loud explosion.
"We're under attack!" said Gerhard. "They're shooting at us!"
Two blips appeared on the radar screen. "We've got two Me 109s approaching at eleven o'clock!" said Hans.
"I thought you said that the invisibility spell made us, well, invisible!" shouted Engelbert to Conrad.
"It did!" said Conrad. "We're still invisible! Someone must have leaked our flight path to the enemy!"
"Who?!" shouted Engelbert.
"Don't ask me, I'm trying to fight back!" Albert climbed into his machine gun turret, swiveled it towards the approaching planes, and fired off a volley.
The stream of bullets fell short of the first fighter by about two meters. The two planes rapidly closed in and opened fire, raking the hull of the bomber with their bullets.
There was a small flash of light, and the invisibility spell failed. The bomber appeared in the morning sky, visible to all.
"Oh...frak," said Engelbert, "Evasive maneuvers!"
"I'm already on it!" said Gerhard, twisting the throttle.
The plane went into a steep dive, and the two fighters, not expecting such a sudden move, overshot the bomber and had to double back, allowing Albert to position his gun just right.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" screamed Albert as he emptied cartridge after cartridge in the enemy's direction.
One of his rounds strafed a fighter and blasted its right wing clean off. The crippled plane plummeted towards the ground, smoke and debris following close behind.
"Woo!" shouted Conrad. "I find it ironic that we just removed the right wing of a plane belonging to a right wing regime. If only it were that easy to remove the right wing from the Angeloi."
"No time for jokes!" replied Engelbert. "We have to get away to safety--"
Bullet holes appeared throughout the fuselage, and the bomber's left wing started breaking up. The two engines on the wing burst into flames, their propellers rapidly disintegrating. The bomber slowly dipped downwards.
"Divert all power to the other two engines!" ordered Engelbert.
"I'm trying!" replied Gerhard. "The damage is too much! I can't keep this altitude for much longer! We're going down!"
"Send out a distress call," said Engelbert to Hans.
Hans nodded. He switched on his portable radio. "Mayday, mayday, this is Ark Angel Three, we are under attack, repeat we are under attack," he said, "Requesting immediate backup."
Another round of bullets shook the bomber again, and Hans lost the connection.
Engelbert turned back to Raphael, who had just been sitting there doing nothing while the bomber came under attack.
"Do something!" shouted Engelbert.
"Oh, you're asking me to help you out?" said Raphael. "But I thought you guys didn't need me other than to find Uriel!"
"There's no time for that!" shouted Engelbert. "Get us out of here or something!"
"You know that Gabriel's spell prevents me from teleporting," said Raphael, "But...you know what? I feel generous today."
He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the other fighter plane exploded.
"Better?" said Raphael.
"We're still falling out of the sky!" shouted Gerhard.
"I'm way ahead of you." Raphael snapped his fingers again, and the bomber suddenly lurched forwards, pushing them all back in their seats.
The clouds shot by them at unprecedented speeds. The outside winds howled through the bullet holds. The bomber began to suffer under the strain of being thrown so fast through the sky. Metal began groaning and buckling, and what remained of the left wing was sheared off; the right wing started to bend under the pressure. Cracks appeared in the windows.
"Raphael, you're destroying the plane!" gritted Engelbert through the extreme g-forces.
"What, you're not thanking me for this favor?" said Raphael without any difficulty. "Normally I would just let you guys drop like a rock, but we're almost to our destination anyways."
He snapped his fingers, and the plane gradually decelerated to safer speeds. It slowly dropped out of the sky. After it had dropped through the clouds, Engelbert looked down and saw rolling hills below him, covered in fields. Raphael was aiming for a patch of land not covered with crops, which was strange, as the archangel was known not to care much for one's property in the past.
After about a minute of descent, Raphael set down the plane on the ground. He snapped his fingers one more time, and the two still functioning engines shut off.
"Everybody okay?" said Engelbert.
"Yeah," said Conrad, "We're fine."
"The plane isn't fine," said Gerhard, "I think you just destroyed our way back to Vienna."
"Well, you can always hijack another plane," said Raphael, "That should be easy. Now, I believe we have an archangel to find?"
"Grab whatever you can and meet me outside," said Engelbert, "We don't have much time to find Uriel."
Western Britannian Channel - 10:00 PM
"Fire!" came the order.
The mighty guns of the SMS
Hindenburg boomed once more, lobbing several 17-inch shells several kilometers in the direction of the enemy. The other five battleships in the fleet followed suit, firing their own volleys of destruction at the numerically superior Imperium fleet.
Despite being vastly outnumbered, Nimitz was holding his own against the other fleet. None of his ships had been hit so far, while the
Hamburg had already sunk two cruisers, the
Ostpreussen had sunk another cruiser, and the
Bayreuth had knocked out two of the main guns on an Imperium battleship.
The Imperium fleet was surprisingly disorganized, and its commanders failed to capitalize on their numerical superiority. The result was that Nimitz had complete control over the battlefield. Battleships and cruisers scattered in all directions, spending more time trying to get out of the way of his fleet's shots than actually fighting back.
The Imperium battleship that the
Bayreuth had hit, the KMS
Lancashire, was currently listing to port. One of the shots from the latest volley had hit its engine, rendering it dead in the water just off the
Hindenburg's starboard side. It was a sitting duck for Nimitz's flagship.
"Target that ship and fire," ordered Nimitz.
"Yes, sir," said one of his officers.
A few seconds later, the
Hindenburg's guns opened fire again, all nine shots hitting their target dead on. The
Lancashire groaned as shells tore mercilessly through its hull, piercing through layer after layer of armor and deck like a knife through butter. One shell came to rest near the battleship's ammunition. The resulting explosion lit up the night as the ship tore itself apart from the inside out, within seconds being reduced to a piece of rapidly sinking twisted metal surrounded by a pool of flaming oil. Nimitz watched as sailors, some of them on fire, jumped overboard into the also flaming waters surrounding the remains of the
Lancashire, while others tried to help their fellow crewmen escape the wreckage. It was a scene of utter devastation.
"Send some boats to help pick up survivors," ordered Nimitz.
"But sir, they're Imperium sailors!" protested one officer.
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't help them," said Nimitz, "We're all Romans, and we should not forget that. Especially now."
The officer nodded and barked orders over a megaphone. Six small motorboats were lowered from the starboard side of the
Hindenburg. They quickly headed towards the struggling survivors of the
Lancashire, ready to pick up as many of them as possible.
Berlin - 9 June 1939, 11:00 PM
Fleet Admiral and Megas Droungarios Erich Raeder nervously entered Markos Angelos's office. "Sir," he stammered.
"Yes?" said the Volksfuhrer.
"Admiral Kuhne..." said Raeder. "Kuhne is dead. His fleet was routed by a Provisional Government fleet a quarter its size under Nimitz."
Angelos leaned back in his chair. "How many ships did we lose?"
"Four, sir. Three cruisers and a battleship."
Angelos sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't have approved of the orders to engage Nimitz so quickly."
"With all due respect, sir, it's my fault for letting Kuhne intercept Nimitz--"
"No," said Angelos, "The navy has disappointed me. The other admirals have disappointed me, not you. I will need to have a word with them first thing tomorrow."
"Yes, sir," said Raeder.
"And keep me updated on Nimitz's location," said Angelos, "Tell me when you'll have a fleet ready to crush them for good. And when you do that, make sure you make no mistakes."
"Yes, sir." Raeder saluted and left the room, relieved that Angelos wasn't going to fire him.
