Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter6 (section)

===Part 6===

A single contrail hung in the sky above the Hamburg base. It drew a straight line to the south.

Below the cloud, lights were gathered around a waterway bisecting the base. The white lights were different from the warning lights.

They revealed the waterway to be badly damaged. The concrete sides were broken and the bottom was torn apart and spewing mud, but the water itself flowed cleanly around the wreckage.

The lights from above shined on something like a bridge. That was the border with the outside of the base. The large fenced bank at the end of the waterway was half destroyed and something like a long T-shaped bridge lay there with its bottom end soaking in the water.

That was actually the wreckage of a blue and a black aerial warship.

Both were 30 yards long and they had similar designs.

The black one spanned the waterway like a bridge and was motionless.

The blue one was stabbed into the black one’s belly.

Combat engineers moved around and shouted to each other in the light.

A large silhouette joined them in the light.

The enormous green Grösse Panzer was Karl Schmitt.

A woman climbed down from his shoulder, spoke with a nearby combat engineer, and gave Karl instructions via hand signal.

Large trucks equipped with wires and suspension equipment arrived after him and lined up alongside the waterway.

They worked with Karl to first lift the black craft.

A Grösse Panzer transportation truck arrived with additional cargo space installed and drove to the center of the light.

Everyone was on the move.

Except for the one person who remained motionless.

The woman in a Geheimnis Agency uniform was Lowenzahn. There was no one in her immediate vicinity as she brushed a hand through her hair and watched the recovery of the two aerial warships.

Then someone walked up behind her.

“Hellard?”

Her eyebrows bent into a smile as she looked back to find…

“I apologize for not being who you wanted to see.”

The pencil-thin elderly man in a Geheimnis Agency uniform was Bermark Vier.

He held a hand to his chest and bowed before taking a look around. There was no one else close by.

“I sent Sir Elrich and Sir Witzmann to the old headquarters like you wanted.”

“So the usual process.” Lowenzahn breathed a sigh of relief. “They will learn the truth, but they can’t bring it back with them. They can, however, leave if they manage to survive all of the battles the Messiah fought.”

“We forced this upon them, but I imagine those eternal students appreciate a further opportunity for learning.”

“Probably so,” said Lowenzahn, turning back toward the two aerial warships. “Sending in Erlkönig may have been a mistake. I’m not cut out for this kind of work.”

“I cannot say much of anything since I did not see what happened.”

“Where is Captain Hellard? Have you seen him?”

“I did earlier. He, Sir Heiliger, and Sir Müller are preparing to evacuate Hamburg before the Allied bombers arrive. He fears a repeat of the tragedy at Cologne.”

“And the lieutenant who also witnessed Cologne is doing something else entirely.”

She pointed into the sky with her eyes still on the aerial warships.

There was a contrail there.

Bermark’s eyebrows raised slightly when he looked to the sky.

“Did he pursue the Messiah on his own?”

“Bermark, how much does your brother understand the lieutenant?” She lowered her pointing hand. “The woman named Eryngium Ilfheim said she didn’t want to run away and she was killed to protect Dog Berger, who tried to let her run away. She was 21 at the time, the same as the Messiah now. What do you make of this?”

Bermark’s answer was simple.

“I am a soulless Sein Frau, so I cannot answer that.”

“But your brother did not go with him. Your brother is superior, Bermark.”

Her words were interrupted by a loud splashing and mechanical noise.

Karl had descended into the waterway. His large silhouette moved in the lights. The combat engineers on his arms attached padded wires to Erlkönig.

Lowenzahn saw the wires supporting Erlkönig go taut.

“Bermark. Rapidly build a repair line for Erlkönig and Sylphide in Germania’s 3rd level factory district. You should be able to repair Sylphide using the parts recovered from the North Sea and the undamaged parts of this one, so do whatever it takes to have them both repaired by the 23rd.”

“Fräulein, I can understand with Erlkönig, but Sylphide might turn against us.”

“But when the Nibelung turns and Hazel Mirildorf arrives in the past, she needs more than the one-armed young man with her, doesn’t she? We must have Sylphide ready for her.” She smiled bitterly. “Hazel Mirildorf will come to Germania on the 23rd. Probably to stop the Nibelung. But I will make sure she keeps it turning. Because that is the only way to preserve this world.”

“I see. Then I will keep Sylphide deactivated and stored in the shielded isolation room on Germania’s lowest level. In that emergency isolation room that can only be reached by taking a VTOL craft down through 18 barriers.”

Karl grabbed Erlkönig’s belly and began lifting it, producing a metallic sound,

With the assistance of the wires and his colleagues, his arm slowly lifted Erlkönig. But his arm stopped shortly thereafter.

Then the people supporting Sylphide from the bottom of the waterway got to work.

The lights turned toward Sylphide. The blue craft wasn’t just bent in half – it had damage and corrosion in places. However…

“It still looks clean. Does that show how well it was cared for? This is awful, really. This is the first loop when Sylphide and the Messiah were reborn in the modern world.”

“How does it usually work?”

“In the past worlds, the Messiah disappeared somewhere along with the one-armed man. Once Sylphide’s reactor died and its self-repair function died along with it, it was buried where it rotted away. There wouldn’t have been anything to dig back up. Only some poorly-made plans left below Karlsruhe land as Ober Geheimnis.” Lowenzahn nodded and turned away from the waterway. “The world is approaching destruction. I must reveal the true meaning of the Panzerpolis Project tonight.”

“Protecting Hamburg comes first. That is always how it begins, isn’t it?”

“Yes. The bombing of Hamburg is a test for the bombing of Germania on August 23. It will also scare the military into increasing the output of the dome and further boosting the Vaterlands.”

“The only real difference from the previous loops is the Allies will be using this bombing to acquire intel on an air route to Germania they can use for their ACBS loaded with the new bomb developed on the data we gave them.”

“It will all work out if I can use my Beweisen to capture the Messiah on the 23rd and if that ACBS arrives on schedule.”

“Yes, it will all work out,” she repeated to herself before walking off.

She looked to the east where a white umbrella of light could be seen near the horizon.

“Things have changed, but tonight I will make the necessary corrections and then stop lying to everyone. Bermark, tell everyone tomorrow that the final prophecy is the 1st Section of the Moonlight. I’m sorry,” she said. “But I’m going to use you for my lies. After I enter Tristan, I imagine Captain Hellard will ask how I made my prophecies if my Ober Beweisen is used to boost Tristan.”

“What should I tell him?”

“That’s simple. Lie and tell him I can make prophecies on my own – no machines necessary.” She couldn’t look Bermark in the eye as she walked past him. “I need one other person to lie for me too. I need someone to convince the others that the destruction of the world refers to the collapse of Germany from the anxiety Tons, not to the Nibelung.”

“Would that be Sir Heiliger?”

“Yes. It would be too difficult for everyone otherwise. The more the Geheimnis Agency works to protect Germany, the harder I must work to have Tristan extract the Spacetime Tons. Meanwhile, the Allies will be sending so much anxiety our way. If we play our role, the Allies play theirs, and the Messiah plays hers, the Nibelung will continue turning. That is the natural outcome and I will respect that.” She sighed and stopped walking. “We are only trying to protect those close to us, but our presence causes the enemy to wield a great power against us. That is exactly what happened to Graham and Rose.”

She pulled a small piece of paper from her pocket. The folded paper held an ear of golden wheat.

She stroked the wheat with her finger while repeating a line from the 1st Section of the Moonlight.

“A wall separates the pair, hm?”

She looked up into the sky where a white contrail cut across the dark night sky.