Look! It's a bird! A plane! It's the ADVANCE OF THE PROLETARIAT!!!Or...FROM THE SKIES!
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Chapter 307: The Kaiserin of the Sky
Over the Pacific Ocean - 2 July 1937, early morning
It was just another day in the middle of nowhere. Below, the deep blue sea stretched in all directions. The waters of the Pacific undulated aimlessly, continuously in motion. If an alien who had not seen Earth before took its first look at the planet here, it would have come to the logical conclusion that the planet's surface was covered completely in water. Above, the bright blue sky complimented the wine-dark sea. Puffy clouds flew through the air, blissfully unaware of everything around them. This was the lifeblood on which millions of lives in Asia, Oceania, and the Eimericas depended, the ocean which the Polynesians, the Chinese, the Tawantinsuyuans, and the Romans had mastered over the centuries. And yet here it was completely devoid of life. Except for one small detail.
A low humming noise was heard in the distance, slowly growing louder. A small dot appeared over the horizon and approached, becoming an airplane.
Inside the airplane were two people, a pilot and her navigator. They had been flying for several hours now and hadn't stopped since they had refueled at Lae, in Chinese Papua. The pilot certainly didn't want to stop now, not when she was about to make history.
After several minutes, nothing appeared on the horizon. She should have seen Howland Island or heard from the SMS Ithaca by now. But the radio had been silent for the last few hours.
"We must be on you, but cannot see you," she radioed, "Gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 305 meters."
There was no response.
About fifteen minutes later, she sent another message. "I can't hear the Ithaca. Requesting voice signals so I can try to take a radio bearing."
After a few more minutes, the Ithaca sent a response. It wasn't a voice signal, but rather Morse code.
"Acknowledged message received," she radioed back, "But I am unable to determine our direction. Requesting more signals to determine bearing."
After that, however, there were no more transmissions from the Ithaca for another hour. She knew she was near the island, but with no way of knowing where it was relative to her plane she risked flying away from it and to certain doom.
At 8:43 AM, she broadcasted another message to the Ithaca. ""We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait...we are running on line north and south."
There was no response.
Her plane's engines started sputtering, causing her navigator to curse and head over to the back of the plane. She estimated that she had about an hour left to find that island, or else the plane would crash. But without any transmissions from the island or the Ithaca, it was likely she was just flying in circles. Just when she was about to lose hope, she got a transmission. Only it wasn't really a transmission she had expected.
Her radio screamed out high-pitched rings, and the tuner shot off the range of supported frequencies.
"What the--" said the navigator. "Shut that off!"
"I'm trying!" shouted the pilot, hitting the transmitter several times.
The ringing continued despite her attempts to shut it off. The only thing louder than the ringing was the sound of the engines, which was getting softer. She looked out her window and saw that the propellers were slowing down, as if they had ran out of fuel. But she still had enough fuel to last an hour, and she hadn't turned off the engine.
The navigator pulled out a backup transmitter and switched it on. When it didn't emit the same noise as the main transmitter, the pilot started recording a message.
"This is KHAQQ broadcasting on all emergency frequencies," said the pilot, "Mayday, mayday, we are going down on line 157 337, repeat, we are going down on line 157 337--"
A bright light, brighter than the sun itself, blinded both of them. The pilot screamed out as the plane suddenly lurched to a halt in the middle of the air. The ringing grew even louder, almost like it was merging with the light.
The last thing she remembered before everything went black was the plane slowly moving backwards.
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Stellaris easter egg. Totally not foreshadowing for an AAR that might not happen.
ANGELS ANGELS YAY ANGELS ANGLES YAY, ANGELS ANGELS ANGELS YAY
I wonder if this will cause a diplomatic incident, since I can only assume the Chinese dominate the Pacific with their control of the coastline along the entire North Pacific.
That would risk war with China, and as the Reich is in no shape to fight a war in Asia the Reich most likely won't try to press the matter beyond getting their support in rescue missions.
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Wow, angels are in full force lately. I'm not shocked they're mostly interfering with the Reich either.
Well they were trying to interfere with the Communists...that did not end well. In fact, it seems angels in general are not doing to great lately.
Angels Gita learn that they really should stop it. Humans don't tend to fuck around.
Chapter 308: Recovery
Sarajevo, September 1937
The bell rang, signaling the end of the workday. Wilhelm looked up from the report he was working on and checked his watch. It was already five o'clock. One by one, his coworkers lined up to punch their time cards, get their coats, and head home. But not everybody signed off and went home at five. Since May it appeared that productivity at this Tesla Dynamic factory had shot up dramatically. He didn't know why--economists attributed it to a brilliant economic policy that the Kaiser had decreed before Angelos could block it--but it had benefited all of them. He--or rather, Gavrilo--had been promoted to the manager of all of Tesla Dynamic's operations in the city, namely this factory. His salary had gone up accordingly, giving him enough money to live comfortably...and get ingredients for spells. At least they didn't have to rely solely on Nat's meager psychologist salary anymore. Gavrilo had been doing fine before he agreed to being Wilhelm's vessel, but it was time that Wilhelm returned the favor. He had rebuilt the house (and renovated it the way Gavrilo always wanted) and could now focus on actually dealing with getting back his grace and dealing with Gabriel. He didn't know how long this economic boost would last, so he intended to make good use of the time.
He hadn't heard from Mihailo since he went off to Constantinople to study at the Pandidakterion. Gavrilo was a bit worried, though Wilhelm reassured the man's consciousness that Mihailo would be fine. While both of them obviously missed the boy, Wilhelm was relieved he was gone, as he could save up more money to buy spell ingredients.
The phone rang, startling Wilhelm and interrupting his thoughts. Despite being on earth for a whole year he still hadn't gotten used to phones. It seemed like his mind was still stuck in the days of Friedrich the Great.
He reached over and picked up the phone. "Tesla Dynamic, Sarajevo division," he said.
"Gav--Wil--whatever you prefer to go by," said Nat, "I thought we had a date later today?"
"Oh, how could I forget?" exclaimed Wilhelm. "Yeah, don't worry, I'll be out of work by then."
"Meet you at Schiller's in half an hour." Nat hung up.
Good thing they hadn't invented texting yet, Wilhelm thought.
He prepared to file away his report, only to find that all of the letters had switched to Cyrillic script and the language had changed. While he easily translated the language in his head, that only made things more confusing. The language of the report was now Serbian, a language that was now only used by a few Illyrian farmers and local bishops in church ceremonies.
He blinked, and the report changed back to its regular German and its description of the week's proceedings.
It must be his tired mind, he thought. The last time he had a hallucination like this was over a year ago. It must have been brought on by his stress.
He put away the report and left the factory before anything got worse. Wilhelm hailed a cab and told the driver to go to Schiller's Cafe. Before the cab departed, another passenger got in.
Wilhelm recognized him immediately. "Raphael," he said.
"Yep, it's me," said Raphael.
The archangel handed the driver some money. "I'm also heading to Schiller's."
The cab drove off down the street.
"How do you know where I'm headed?" said Wilhelm.
"I would normally say that as an angel I can read your mind, but it's quite obvious you're meeting your vessel's spouse at the usual place," said Raphael, "I just thought I would tag along."
"What brings you here to this corner of the Reich?" asked Wilhelm. "Isn't the Inquisition busy tasking you with...Inquisition things?"
"Well, the Vienna branch is off having a succession crisis and an Inquisition of its own, so they've let me do almost anything I want," said Raphael, "Heard they're thinking of choosing the local cardinal of Vienna, this guy named Innitzer. But that's not why I'm here. It concerns recent events carried out by angels."
"You mean the disappearance of Amalie Earhardt?" said Wilhelm.
"That wasn't any of us," said Raphael, "Nobody claimed responsibility for that incident, so as crazy as it seems the humans might be responsible for pulling that one off. Or maybe it's one of those nice folks from--"
"Get to the point," said Wilhelm.
"No, I'm not hear to discuss Earhardt," said Raphael, "But rather the Hindenburg, the Soviet involvement, and the reason it was destroyed."
"Of course," said Wilhelm.
"My few contacts in the Soviet Commune tell me that four NKVD agents intercepted one of my men on the Hindenburg as it arrived in New Berlin a few months ago, hence that fireball. I blame the humans for filling that flying bomb with hydrogen--"
"Your point?"
"Miraculously the civil war didn't start up again, despite whatever Gabriel is doing to inflame tensions both in our ranks and the humans'. Instead, factions are developing and trying to recruit as many angels as possible to eliminate the other factions. My faction was trying to form an alliance with the Neurhomanian angels when the NKVD rudely interrupted us."
"And?"
"The Soviets were a greater threat than we expected. No other timeline's Soviets has so actively tried to hunt us down. The largest factions in Russia and former Yavdi have already been eliminated in that purge in January. Now they're out to get the rest of us."
"And why does this concern me?"
"We need you to join us," said Raphael.
"I'm mortal," said Wilhelm, "Your recruitment offer doesn't entice me, and I would just be a liability."
"But you've got experience dealing with Gabriel! You know how he did that spell! Surely you can help us undo it."
"Thanks, but I'd rather stay low."
"Think about it. You helped cast Lucifer out of Heaven. You toppled the Tower of Babel. You laid waste to Sodom and Gomorrah and brought the ten plagues down upon old Egypt. You helped forge Friedrich the Great's empire, the one that became the Reich. You stared down Lucifer again. You won several dozen previous civil wars, both angel and human. You foiled many of my attempts to mess around with the humans, I'll give you that. And you managed to gain Gabriel's trust, for a few decades. You would boost the morale of my faction, to say the least. At the most we can unify angelkind and take down Gabriel."
"You know I have no interest in getting myself involved in angel politics again. The last time I got involved, Bethune overthrew the Hohenzollerns and plunged the Reich into civil war, which led to the Iconoclast heresy and the Fifty Years' War, which then led to the Apocalypse. So no, I won't get involved."
Raphael sighed. "Your loss."
He motioned to the driver to stop.
"Oh, one more word," he said, "I bet you've seen the warning signs already. The world is headed towards another war, Wilhelm. If us angels don't start it, I guarantee that the humans will start it anyways. You read the latest Die Zeiten? It's got the full text of one of Angelos's 'Imperial Recovery Amendments'. It gives him even more power and takes away more rights for non-Germans, non-Christians, and women. I heard you can now legally proselytize and follow any Christian heresy in public and that non-Christians and women can't serve in the civil service anymore. And yet your precious Hohenzollerns are powerless to stop these changes. He's not hosting any angel, but his ambition far outstrips any of our own. There's only one other timeline with a similar figure, and last I checked that timeline's Reich wasn't doing too well. If I didn't know otherwise I'd think he was trying to bring this timeline's values in line with the values of the majority of other timelines."
"I thought you were getting out?" said Wilhelm.
"Oh, right." Raphael opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. "I'll see you again...soon."
The cab sped away.
"Quite a chatterbox of a friend you got there," said the driver, "And he's got quite an imagination."
"Tell me about it," replied Wilhelm, rolling his eyes, "I've had to put up with him for a long time."
"Oh, I understand," said the driver, "Anyways, we've arrived at Schiller's."
"Thank you." Wilhelm handed the driver several reichsmarks and got out.
He found Nat already sitting at a table outside the cafe, waiting for him with a smile. Two sandwiches sat in the middle of the table.
"You're here," she said, "I thought you'd never show. I've ordered for both of us already."
"It takes some time to get used to human transportation," said Wilhelm, sitting down and picking up a sandwich, "And sandwiches? How did you know I really like--"
He heard tires screech across the street, followed by the sound of an engine sputtering out. He spun around, seeing an old car stopped in the middle of the street, with three people inside: a driver and two elegantly dressed passengers.
He dropped his sandwich onto his plate, got out of his seat, and rushed over to the car.
"Are you alright?" he asked the couple. "Can I help out in any way?"
Before the man could open his mouth, two gunshots rang out, and both the man and the woman slumped over in their seats, blood staining their clothes.
He looked down and found a pistol in his hand.
The driver turned towards Wilhelm, revealing Gavrilo Princip's face.
"I did this," said Gavrilo, "You did this."
"Gav?" Nat tapped Wilhelm on the shoulder.
Wilhelm blinked, and the car and its occupants were gone. There was no pistol in his hand. He was standing awkwardly in the middle of the street. Some passersby had started looking over at him.
"I...I think I need some rest," said Wilhelm, "It's been a long day."
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I never actually intended that incident to be caused by angels, just saying. I hope this update cleared things up.
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Wilhelm/Gavrilo is having an awkward time balancing two minds for so long, it seems. Also, I find it hilarious even angels think Angelos thinks a little too highly of himself.
Well, Angelos's name does literally mean "angel."
Sadly it'll be about seventy years before they start pumping out electric cars, solar panels, and self-landing rockets. But at least they have Tesla coils.
If He wasn't so lazy, he would have smote you right at your desk by now. I like to think that God's on a really overextended vacation...preferably playing Paradox games.
It seems having two consciousnesses in one body is starting to take its toll. Hopefully Wilhelm can find a solution before he and his host go insane.
In america, god smotes you.If He wasn't so lazy, he would have smote you right at your desk by now. I like to think that God's on a really overextended vacation...preferably playing Paradox games.
But this is not america. This is Soviet Russia.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, I SMOTE GOD
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