Volume 1 (RE) Chapter 6: First Contact

AU: Getting overloaded. I will have another chapter out by at least Sunday. I got more APs next week.

Wilhelm was sitting in another conference room inside of the Palace at Versailles. This one was a straight hall with chairs facing a frontal elevated space. Glamorous walls and chandeliers dotted the room as lavish amounts of gold and silver decorated the walls. Since his army of bureaucrats were taking care of the empire for him his work was minimal.

Over the last few days heavy rains have plagued empire but were welcome from the harsh heat of the pervious day.

Currently Hugo Sperrle was trying to push for a change to the vision of the Me 262. He was trying to convince the military top brass to make the jet fighter an interceptor rather than a fighter-bomber.

He argued that the top speeds of the new plane which had not entered service yet would make it a perfect interceptor to take down enemy air superiority units and potential high altitude bombers. This in his vision would make cheaper biplanes and single engine planes free to strafe the ground.

Wilhelm understood why he wanted this change. The Me 262 was unreliable in combat even if its specs were tremendous for this time. Poor planning and resources made many fail to run and they burned a lot of precious fuel. They have not located an oil source yet.

"Luftwaffe leader Sperrle, why do you think that an interceptor role is better than a fighter-bomber? The plane could hold several bombs and outmaneuver British and American planes we have in storage."

"Yes mein Kaiser but we do now have the fuel reserves to rely on this fighter. Our airfields are not optimal for these planes as the jet engines require a clear runway or debris will enter the engine."

"Hm, I see that you are right. I approve for the role of the Me 262s to be interceptors. Run trials on ejectable fuel tanks and see how this can improve our range."

"Yes mein Kaiser."

"Any objections?"

No one spoke. Fuel was a hindrance to all sectors of the wehrmacht and they knew that this project might deplete their reserves at dangerous speeds.

"Thank you Sperrle. Now Albert Speer take the podium."

A thin man in a grey suit walked to the podium with handcuffs on. His black hair was sharply slick to his left side. Two KST guards escorted him to the podium, StG 41s in their hands.

Albert paused at the podium and kept glancing at the new gun.

"Innovative yeah?"

His voice echoed around the room.

"Say your part and don't wander off, Speer."

Generalfeldmarshal Kluge stood up and barked at the ex-minister of armaments.

He paled and quickly started.

"Um, well as my orders say I have made plans for 40 new water treatment plants which are to be strategically spread around our nation. I have taken priority of agricultural and industrial areas for water availability rather than areas where we have less of these. Of course I plan on giving all Germans clean and fresh water. Will you really release me if I finish these plants?"

Wilhelm sat up in his chair which was at the front of the room.

"Yes we will honor our promise. You are to be expected to sever all ties with your colleagues who still remain after the 'Vanishing'. However if you wish you may rejoin the new government."

There was a collective gasp.

Kluge leaned over.

"Are you sure about this mein Kaiser?"

"Wait a moment."

Wilhelm turned back to Speer.

"You could take a new leaf. Germany is no longer the debt-crippled nation you once knew. The Soviets and other nations which were hostile to us no longer exist. The dictatorship of old too is dead. The new government will continue to lead Germany and safeguard it from other external threats. Will you let your past define you or are you willing to let fascism to be a remnant of the past, never to be seen again?"

He blinked twice. In our timeline his actions in 1944 were the reason for his conviction. His current only crime was collaborating with the Nazis.

"I accept. I will do my best to make life better for our people."

"Good, now keep presenting."

"Certainly."

Speer kept elaborating about his water treatment plans. He even wanted to go as far as to filter seawater using multi-layered filtration systems but that was met with a lot of criticism from the high command.

After he was done the guards escorted him out of the room. He was trying to hold the StG but was shoved by the guards.

"That man's curiosity is astounding. No wonder he was the minister of armaments."

Kluge wiped sweat from his large forehead.

"Mein Kaiser, do not trust Speer completely. He was indoctrinated during the reign of the 3rd Reich, he may try and do something later."

Wilhelm paused. That would be a problem.

"Make sure the KST bug all of his belongings. Keep a 24/7 watch on him and rotate agents."

"Jawohl."

Then as Wilhelm tried to leave the room a messenger stopped him.

"Sir! From the west frontlines. A person was apprehended from across the Atlantik Wall and General Beck is requesting orders."

Wilhelm started to get excited. This was the first official contact with the natives of this new world they found themselves in after the 'Vanishing'.

"Tell him to restrain him and do basic questioning. I will personally go and visit."

"Jawohl, I will send this to General Beck!"

The messenger saluted and then ran off to send the orders. Wilhelm motioned to his guards who waited from him outside the Palace.

"We go to the Paris airfield. Our destination is Nantes."

They scrambled into the convoy of staff cars escorted by motorcycle bikes.

The convoy then traveled to Paris where a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor awaited him. The huge 4 engined propeller long distance passenger plane was well suited for the cross-country flight.

The plane was to boarded by two personal assistants of WIlhelm's without the guards. The pilots and necessary crew were already on board as they were notified while the convoy was still traveling to Paris.

As the convoy entered the airfield, the large plane and escort fighters were already idling on the runway.

The motorcycles broke off at the gates and the three cars stopped next to lowered staircase.

Wilhelm got out and saluted his guard attachment who would stay behind and return to the Palais-Royal.

Two new guards accompanied Wilhelm as he walked up the stairs.

After he boarded and entered the luxury cabin, the ground crew worked to prepare the runway and remove the staircase.

Wilhelm sat comfortably in his chair in the cabin while the flight attendants walked around and braced for the liftoff. The guards were sitting in chairs towards the front and stared out of the window.

The pilot's voice came on the intercom.

"Ahem, um this is the flight from Paris to Nantes in the callsign Iron Wolf. This flight will be about six hours and we will start flying in a few minutes. Please buckle your seatbelts before the takeoff thank you."

After the brief message from the pilot the plane started moving and taxied onto the neatly paved runway of the airfield. The two escort bf-109s started moving ahead of the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 and roared down the runway.

The larger passenger plane raced after them, large propellors generating speed.

The group of fighters and passenger plane then took off and soared into the air.

The plane kept climbing until it reached a comfortable ceiling of 4000m which was the good altitude of the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 and half of the operating ceiling of the bf-109 which gave it large amounts of maneuvering room.

Inside the main cabin Wilhelm was sitting in his chair and looking out of the window. Paris and the surrounding countryside were small dots on the vast green landscape. It was unbelievable that the French hundreds of years ago just left this great land. Understandably he understood why the Germans were so keen on occupying this land despite outrage from British, Italian and Russian diplomats.

Now that Germany was no longer in the same world as these hostile nations they could reap the benefits of the newly settled land without buzzing from other powers.

This is what made the first official contact with natives to be so important. It would help Wilhelm understand the danger the outside poses to this world.

"A drink sir?"

A young flight attendant was next to Wilhelm and offered a glass of white wine.

"Thank you."

She placed a glass and poured it, blushing while doing it.

She then bowed politely and raced to the back of the plane towards the rear where the kitchen was.

Wilhelm could see her join a few of her female coworkers and giggled amongst themselves.

Wilhelm sighed and turned back to the window.

The flight was only six hours so it was fairly quick, even in modern standards. The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor had a speed of about 200 mph while a modern passenger jet could make the same journey in two hours while maintaining 600 or so mph.

Since there was no television or even radio on board of the plane, a stack of newspapers lay on a mesh stand.

Wilhelm flipped through them and tried to find the latest issue. He found it and pulled out last week's weekly from the Berlin Press.

"State Releases Information of 'Monster' Attacks on Eastern Border!"

Wilhelm was only recently notified about this pieces of information since the eastern command was in chaos. The civilian sector was quick to piece together what had happened before even the central government knew of the attack. This reminded Wilhelm of the technological restrictions of this world compared to his old one.

He continued to read the article which was surprisingly accurate even with discrepancies. They had guessed that since the 'Vanishing' had occurred, it was not a far cry that monsters exist in this world.

Back several weeks ago when the government announced officially that they had 'Vanished', they had expected a lot of public chaos.

Because of this the reserves were called up in case of mass hysteria and rioting.

However apart from some minor incidents there was not really a large public reaction to the relief of the minister of internal affairs.

He later submitted a report which hypothesized that since the 'Vanishing' was a well known fact in their old world, it would not be far to guessed that the cursed land would do the same for them.

Actually the minister went even further to make predictions about German newfound expansion due to new lands and even suggested that the people would demand it.

The last part was a nationalistic filled rant but the beginning hypothesis was collectively regarded as truth.

Wilhelm put down the weekly issue and picked up older issues to learn more about the time before his reincarnation.

"What? How?"

However WIlhelm could not find any articles from before three weeks ago. Several newspapers were completely blank.

Wilhelm sat in his chair and thought about what was happening.

""Why is no prior information given?""

Then Wilhelm got an idea.

"You there."

Wilhelm pointed to one of the guards.

He snapped to attention and jumped to his feet.

"Jawohl!"

"Come here."

He obediently complied and walked over to Wilhelm.

"Here, can you read this?"

The guard paused and looked at the blank newspaper and took it from Wilhelm's hands.

"Okay W…"

The last consonant of his sentence started to stretch and sounded robotic. Like a sound glitch.

"What the fuck?"

Wilhelm watched with horror as the guard started glitching in front of him.

"Now."

The guard returned to normal and finished speaking.

Wilhelm was paling in the face, a look of horror was etched across his face.

The guard turned side to side and then nervously asked.

"Sir, what is the problem?"

He was sweating. The Kaiser usually had a plain or light smile. This was the first time he has seen horror on his face.

Wilhelm coughed and fixed his complexion.

"Pay me no attention. I just thought that… yeah… there was a mosquito on your face. Yes, yes a mosquito."

The guard then felt his face for a bump where a bite may have occurred. There was a slight blemish on his forehead and he felt it.

"Ah, thank you for telling me."

"No problem."

The guard continued to feel his forehead as he returned to his seat and Wilhelm sighed.

He dodged a bullet, he needed to keep composure.

""But what was that, glitch?""

Wilhelm looked around and found a knife on a plate with fruits.

He took it and sat back down.

Wilhelm was starting to question the world he was in. It felt real but he couldn't het over what he just witnessed. An error.

It was like someone was trying to prevent him from seeing the full picture, events from the past even if he got the general idea of what happened.

Now that he thought of it, he never saw any information that was not related to his game or occurring in real time. The full past was unknown to him, but not the people around him. If they were people at all.

"There is only one way really find out if this is real or not."

He raised the knife to cut his finger.

A flight attendant was walking pass as Wilhelm raised the knife.

"Wait… Stop!"

The guards were alerted to the shouts of the flight attendant and jumped to their feet.

They were too late as Wilhelm swung the knife down.

Thunk

The hand which was placed on a table which Wilhelm lay his hand on shuddered .

The flight attendant screamed and the guards tackled Wilhelm to wrestle the knife from his hands.

"Quick! Get the doctor!"

The guard from earlier motioned to the other flight attendants which huddled in the rear passageway.

"Wait… wait. I am fine."

Wilhelm pushed the other guard off of him.

He raised his index finger which he tried to cut. Not a blemish.

"What…? How?"

A collective murmur started amongst the crew who witnessed something extraordinary.

"I was right something is interfering."

Wilhelm clearly stabbed his finger. He didn't miss.

He then lifted the knife which looked fine but a small round chip was missing in the blade.

Wilhelm could not understand why he was not affected by the knife. It clearly made contact. To be honest, Wilhelm could not remember when it was the last time he saw a pimple or cut on his body in the past three weeks.

"Ah, I don't want to think about this now."

He shooed away his attendants and returned to his chair. The remainder of the flight was uneventful.

They landed in Nantes in the military airport. Originally part of the Atlantik Wall defence and hosted long range naval bombers used to bomb Allied shipping.

The escorts landed and taxied to be refueled and stored in hangars.

The Condor plane landed and taxied to another convoy which waited next to a movable staircase.

The plane's door opened and Wilhelm left the plane with his guards.

A small welcoming party of twelve KST soldiers saluted as Wilhelm descended down the stairs.

Wilhelm put his right arm in a bend to his forehead, a standard salute. He walked past the two columns of solders whose heads turned to follow him (AU: look up Chinese 2019 military parade. Its like how the soldiers rotated their heads when Xi Jingping drove past them).

After he got into his middle staff car the soldiers gathered into the other cars and two motorcycles with sidecars.

The convoy set off as the Condor moved away to be put into storage.

They left the airfield whose guards saluted as they passed by.

A forest which bordered the airfield raced by as they traveled down a well maintained road with little traffic.

Within half an hour they reached the Château des ducs de Bretagne which was a 13th century castle which lay in the borders of Brittainy (AU: this is before the split which left it in the province of Lorie-Atlantique instead of Brittainy). Inside the grand castle was a large main courtyard in which many military vehicles idled and tents were set up as a temporary field command center.

Wilhelm's convoys went past the tents which their personnel saluted before resuming their tasks.

Wilhelm returned the salute with an officer's salute (which was just a American standard salute).

They stopped in front of the Le Petit Gouvernement which was used for when the old King of France would visit the city.

Wilhelm and his guard attache got out of their cars and entered the building. It was modernized to host modern equipment like a large radio systems and operational equipment.

General Ludwig Beck awaited him inside the main room which was converted into his personal quarters. Wilhelm would stay in the le Grande Gouvernement which was the duke's quarters.

Inside the room on two sets of couches were a large man of good build. His grey hair and beard along with his slightly tanner skin made him stand out.

"Mein Kaiser. I couldn't really communicate with this man. He keeps waving towards the west beyond our borders. We can assume that he is a native. I don't understand what he is saying though."

Wilhelm studied the built man who sat on the couch. He was also studying Wilhelm.

The fact that all of these decorated men were standing before another man meant to the man sitting that this was the boss.

He took the opportunity to speak.

"Hello. I am Erik Steinbeck, Master Marshal of the Kingdom of Epruilon. May I ask who you are?"

The other white men in grey uniforms stared blankly at him but Wilhelm perked up when he spoke.

"Oh, you speak English?"

The guards, General Beck and Marshal all looked confused.

"Ah, I am sorry mein Kaiser but we are speaking German right now."

"You speak my tongue?"

The marshal looked equally as confused.

""Wait. I thought I was speaking English? Why is everyone hearing me in different languages?""

"Ah. What."

Wilhelm decided to feign ignorance and brush off the topic for now.

"That is not important, we can speak yes?"

He turned to the marshal who stiffened when Wilhelm turned to him.

"Ah, yes. How should I address you sir?"

"I am Kaiser Wilhelm X of the Empire of Germany."

"I am sorry to interject but do you mean the Empire of Kursk?"

Wilhelm blinked. Kursk is an important city in the Soviet Union but as a name for a whole empire?

"No, no. We are the Germany Empire."

The marshal blinked twice. This was the first time he knew of this empire.

He reasoned that since the Kingdom never took the south seriously that its not far fetched that an entire empire would sit on their backyard.

But that wouldn't make sense. This new land blocks the Abysmal Bay's mouth so it should not exist!

"Perhaps may this German Empire be a transferred land?"

It was very, very rare but occasionally a landmass would be transferred from another dimension. The latest example was the all mysterious empire to the far north which appeared one and a half thousand years ago.

"Sir, this phenomenon has not occurred for over a thousand years. If this is true then I must beg you for help."

With this the marshal fell to his knees.

Wilhelm watched the native beg him to help but he didn't understand what and why.

"Get up. Sit on the couch. Tell me everything, do not hide anything. I need the full picture if I were to help you."

"Certainly. I will not withhold anything from you."

From the marshal's perspective they had nothing to lose. The main priority was asylum for the princess and prince. It doesn't matter if he has to give in to lopsided demands, he needs to protect them.

Also if some state secrets get revealed, it doesn't matter. Their nation does not exist anymore. The Junta is the one which would suffer the most from leaks.

The marshal sat opposite of Wilhelm on the parallel couches. General Beck was standing on the left side of Wilhelm.

The marshal then revealed all that he could. From their situation to the attack, everything.

He watched the facial expression of the German Emperor remain emotionless for the entirety of the duration of his recollection of events.

After he finally finished the emperor smiled.

"How awful. Please, allow us to help you. We can discuss the other small things after we give you aid."

From Wilhelm's perspective this was the jackpot. Gaining the trust and physical bodies of two royalties from across the border was priceless. He could learn about the politics, warfare and have two, no three, VIPs in his hands.

He was gaining much from this encounter. Wilhelm understood that they were desperate. For someone as high rank as a 'Master Marshal' he was shabbily dress. Rather his once neat clothes were torn and cut from the elements and the attack from the Junta's elites mentioned earlier.

"General Beck, send the scouts out with half tracks to fetch the survivors. You can have the KST document and search them at the border."

"Jawohl mein Kaiser."

The general and the marshal both walked to the door. The general left promptly to call the scouts while the marshal bowed before leaving.

"Ahahahha. First my sudden invulnerability to knives and now I gain three great pieces."

Wilhelm could hear the sound of car engines starting up and a halftrack escorted by armored cars roared out of the courtyard and towards the border.