Chapter 301: Down to Earth
Vienna, Germania - 1 January 1936, early morning
Medics carried away the lifeless body of Owen Niederung on a stretcher. Some tried to revive him, but Inquisitor Engelbert Dolfuss knew it was no use. Niederung was already too far gone to be saved. Engelbert had not served under any other Head Inquisitor in his entire career. Niederung had been the Head Inquisitor of the Vienna division for the last five decades, after the death of one of his favorite students on a mission. He was the last of his generation of Inquisitors, a generation which had been romanticized into monster-hunters and demon-killing heroes only to be forced into obscurity by the rise of the secular Athanatoi. And Engelbert had accidentally killed him.
It it hadn't been for that meddling archangel Gabriel none of this would have happened. If Niederung had rejected Wilhelm's and Raphael's proposals to send a team of Inquisitors to apprehend Gabriel in Heaven none of this would have happened. If he hadn't tried to shoot Gabriel right before he was sent back to earth Niederung wouldn't be dead. It was all his fault that Niederung was dead and the Inquisition was facing the worst disaster since the almost-Apocalypse three hundred years ago. He looked at his bloodstained hands and wondered what it would take to really clean all of the blood off his face. He felt like Malcolm Bethune killing Kaiser Martin back in the Anarchy of 1595.
Alarms continued to blare throughout the complex, and buttons flickered on the walls and tables of Niederung's former office. Spots dotted the map on the wall, marking places where angels had fallen. Inquisitors ran down the hallway, barking orders and handing files to each other. Phones rang constantly; there weren't enough Inquisitors to answer all of the calls. His fellow Inquisitors had heard rumors that Niederung's death had caused chaos within the leadership of the Vienna branch over who would succeed the old professor as Head Inquisitor.
The next few hours were a blur for Engelbert. Suddenly he realized that the sun was up, and yet the Inquisitors were still panicking. He was being led out of the building by some medics, allowing him to see the devastation outside.
Vienna wasn't as devastated as he thought. True, many buildings had been damaged by at least one angel falling, but whole blocks had not been leveled as the rumors said. There were a few craters in the streets and heaps of twisted metal where cars used to be parked, but people still walked around, if a little frightened.
"Extra! Extra!" shoted a paperboy, waving a copy of
Die Zeiten. "Freak meteor shower baffles scientists! Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"
It appeared that the Berlin division had taken the initiative and provided a reasonable cover story. And here the Vienna division was, running around like headless chickens, he thought.
They led him into an ambulance and took him to the nearby hospital, where some doctors checked up on him. He suffered no injuries at all, but they still recommended he see a psychologist.
Engelbert was discharged from the hospital around noontime. He decided to go home and called for a taxi.
Sarajevo, Illyria
Wilhelm ran through the streets of downtown Sarajevo. His heart beat rapidly. His breathing was frantic and rapid, and his trenchcoat flapped behind him. He frequently looked behind him.
He pushed aside other pedestrians, knocking some of them over as he tried to get away. But as he continued running, he felt even more scared. His legs screaming, he was forced to slow down a bit.
Wilhelm turned a corner and ran down another street, Franz Joseph Strasse, which led him to a small river. He hadn't been in this part of Sarajevo, but he found the place oddly familiar. He passed by a food shop with the name Schiller's Cafe. He had never seen the cafe before, but it felt familiar to him. Ahead of him lay a bridge crossing the river. There was nobody on the bridge, but he stopped cold, and as much as he tried to move, he couldn't budge from the spot.
He noticed a car in front of Schiller's, an old 1911 Gräf & Stift 28/32 PS
Double Phaeton. There were three people inside: one driver and a couple dressed like nobles. There was a man approaching them, gun in hand. The man raised his gun and opened fire twice at point-blank range. The driver sped off before the man could get off another shot.
The assassin turned towards Wilhelm, and he realized it was himself, or rather, the man whose body he had possessed.
"Hello, Wilhelm," said Gavrilo Princip.
The sky suddenly darkened and filled with thousands of falling stars. The falling stars crashed into the ground, and Wilhelm watched as the city around him was devastated by the meteor shower. Then one of them fell right on top of him.
Wilhelm woke up, sweat all over his body. He realized it was morning. Light filtered in through the window, and birds chirped as if it was a normal day.
He got up and looked out the window. There were a few craters and damaged houses dotting the countryside, but the devastation was thankfully limited.
He went downstairs, where Nat had already finished cooking breakfast.
"Oh, you're up, Gav--I mean, Wilhelm," said Nat.
"I couldn't really sleep," said Wilhelm.
"We humans do that a lot of the time," said Nat, "It'll take time to get used to it."
"I suppose I'll have to eat as well?" grumbled Wilhelm.
Nat simply handed him a bowl of oatmeal. "Don't make a face like that!"
Wilhelm sighed and sat down at the table. "Looks like I'm going to be like this for a while..."
Berlin, Germania
Kaiser Otto paced across his office. He was obviously angry. The Inquisitors assembled before him, the leaders of the entire Inquisition, were sweating in their seats. These Inquisitors had faced down vampires, werewolves, ghosts, even a few rogue angels and demons, all without breaking a sweat for decades. What really scared them was the wrath of the Kaiser.
"Let me get this straight," said Otto, "Somebody in Vienna ordered an assault on Heaven itself?!"
"Uh...um...yes, sir," said one Inquisitor.
"And in response, this archangel expelled every angel to Earth?!"
"Yes, sir," said the Inquisitor.
Otto stopped pacing. "And now we have to deal with several million angels running around causing mayhem."
"Yes, sir."
The Kaiser glared at the Inquisitor. "DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO DEAL WITH JUST ONE ANGEL?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY COULD DO TO US?!"
"But sir--"
"DON'T BUT ME!" screamed Otto.
He sat down and sighed. "I suppose I could fire the Inquisitor responsible for giving that order..."
"But he's dead," said the Inquisitor.
Otto glared at the Inquisitor. "Dismissed. All of you."
The Inquisitors hurried out of the room.
The Kaiser sighed as he realized that he had a lot of paperwork to handle. How was he going to discuss this in his speech to the Diet?
Delhi, India
There was a knock on the office door.
"Come in," said Mohandas Gandhi, adjusting his glasses.
A young Indian man in his 30's or 40's walked in. Gandhi recognized him as Subhas Chandra Bose, the general who had ruled India before him. Bose was still a leading figure in the Indian army, despite his "retirement" from politics.
Bose raised his right arm in a salute. "Jai Gandhi!"
"There's no need to do that, my friend," said Gandhi, "Anyways, do you have the report I requested?"
"It's right here, my neta," said Bose, handing Gandhi a file, "Everything the government has compiled on the
Nagastra incident last night."
Gandhi took the file and flipped through it. "Why are the Ministry of Religion and the Brahmin priesthood involved in the investigation? And what's this about angels?"
"Well, my neta, it is a long story," said Bose, "But a number of individuals affected by the incident have come forward, saying they are willing to help us out..."
Kiev, Russia
Soviet Premier Vyacheslav Molotov looked over the files he had been given. He couldn't believe what he was reading.
"So," said former Chairman Leon Trotsky, "What do you think?"
"No," said Molotov, "Religion is counterrevolutionay."
"Comrade, who said that the existence of angels meant the existence of the gods?" said Trotsky, "If anything these are just incredibly powerful beings made up of pure energy."
"Then we must learn more about these beings," said Molotov, "You saw what they did to the villages outside Kiev. They are a threat to the proletariat of Russia!"
"Patience, comrade," said Trotsky, "While I did write the book on how to deal with capitalists, it is clear that we should be more...welcoming to our guests."
"But they--" Molotov began.
"Molotov," said Trotsky, "Don't forget that while I am no longer Chairman, the Politburo still answers to me. You still answer to me. Understood?"
"Yes, Trotsky," said Molotov.
"Good," said Trotsky, "Inform the NKVD and the Ministry of Science at once of the plans outlined in those files."
"I shall do just that," said Molotov.
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So that took a while to write. I should point out that I will try to make most of the HOI3 updates character based, like this one. There will be screenshots of the world in the next update.
