Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter3 (section)

===Part 6===

The wind blew across the Alfheim Meteorite Pit in the Black Forest of South Germany.

It also swept across the Geheimnis Agency Base #8 located to the east of that 400-yard-wide hole.

The large development base had a mile-long runway and an underground shipyard and it did not sleep at night.

There were five clusters of lights in the base.

The first was the runway lights to the east. The second was the large hangars covering the central eastern side of the base to the west of the runway. The third was the central command building west of the hangars.

The fourth was the underground shipyard located on the central western side of the base to the left of the command building. The top of the 4.5-mile shipyard had been opened up to reveal a giant warship within. The enormous aerial warship had the streamlined exterior of a glide bomb.

Several giant fuel pipes connected the sides of the ship with the walls to fill it with fuel, but a few were not connected to the ship and not yet in use.

The final cluster of lights was the Vaterland located on the far west end of the base. It gave off a deep, quiet rumble as it supplied the shipyard’s warship with fuel.

A new sound joined that rumble.

The powerful roar of wind emerged from a large hangar on the east end of the base.

The hangar was about 100 yards in each direction and it stood 15 yards tall. The large trailer stopped at the main entrance said it was a Panzer hangar.

A single figure stood at the hangar’s exterior.

The figure emerged from the hangar wearing only the black shirt, vest, and pants of the Geheimnis Agency. He held a plain white-bladed Werkzeug sword.

He was Alfred Maldrick. He walked to the center of the hangar light cast on the base’s road and raised both hands skyward. He yawned – loudly – with the somewhat scratchy voice of his artificial vocal cords.

“Yawwwwn!!”

He swung his hands back down and cracked his neck just before a loud voice spoke behind him.

“Enjoying yourself, I see, Sir Alfred.”

“You seem cheerful too, Nein.”

Alfred did not look back, but he did hear a loud metallic sound from behind him. The steel footsteps continued with a set tempo.

Those were the footsteps of two Grösse Panzers.

The air shook as the two long shadows extended to either side of Alfred.

The steel footsteps and rustling of Panzer Kleids approached him, but their shadows did not fall on him.

They came to a stop at his sides.

The blue one on the right and the red one on the left produced the distinctive motor noises of Grösse Panzers.

“Can you feel the wind, Nein? You, a product of the Eisen Ritter Project that joined just your brain and spine with the Panzer?”

“I can. Because the machine is my body now,” replied the blue one.

Alfred smiled at the scratchy voice coming from its speakers and he brushed back his hair.

“I only had a three hour test run after arriving, but that taught me something crucial.”

“What might that be?”

“That Eingeweide Grösse Panzer is special made for me. It was based on my Schwarz Löwe, but neither that nor Sir Graham’s Silber Löwe can hope to match it. Marsch said the combination of inertial control and rocket thrusters were crucial to giving it its high mobility.” He sighed. “I feel like I can only pilot this one because Schwarz Löwe’s Ober Emblem was entirely aerial based and because I had an Eingeweide training system installed in Schwarz Löwe. This Grösse Panzer can enter autopilot and boost its power with the Beweisen and it can handle anti-air combat without its Ober Emblem.”

“That is not due to the training system. That is because it uses a part of your body – your voice. In a way, it really is special made for you.” This time, it was the red and not the blue that spoke. “But are you sure you should ignore that previous summons?”

“You mean from Sir Graham? He asked me if I was free tomorrow and I said I was busy fine-tuning my new Grösse Panzer, that’s all. I would have gladly obeyed if he had made it an order.” Alfred did not even look back and he skillfully crossed his arms while still holding the sword. “But I do feel bad doing this to Lady Rose since she only wakes up this one day a year.”

He heard the blue one produce a metallic noise he knew was a nod.

He shut his eyes.

“But this gathering isn’t about testing the new Panzers, meeting Lady Rose, or the commissioning of the Gard-class Eingeweide aerial warship. This has to be about something else. Nein, have you heard anything?”

“I have not,” replied the blue one. “I was given the surname Nein because of the structural faults discovered in early development, so I have no interaction with our leader’s Naylor family or the second-in-command’s Karlsruhe family.”

“Do you think your younger brothers like Vier would know?”

“Unfortunately, my brothers have such inflexible personalities that I doubt they would tell us if they did.”

“If ''you’re'' calling them inflexible, then I know it’s bad. I’m sure Schweitzer is wondering what all this is about too.”

He opened his eyes and saw the stars of the night sky. The bottom part of the eastern sky was starting to turn purple, so dawn was approaching.

The red one spoke from behind him.

“Are you absolutely certain you will not be visiting Lady Rose with Sir Graham? You went with him the past three years.”

“I would love to, but this gathering appears to have a different purpose and Lieutenant General Heiliger arrived a lot earlier than past years. If I accompanied them, my personality would cause problems.”

The red one fell silent.

Only then did Alfred look back. He looked fearlessly up at the crimson Grösse Panzer that stood more than 9 yards tall.

“How about a kind word when your master gets self-deprecating?”

“That did not occur to me.”

“Unlike when I was using Schwarz Löwe, you didn’t bring it to a draw in the sparring match earlier. Getting old?”

“I have not counted my age past 100,” said the blue one. “That aside, why do you so dislike Lieutenant General Heiliger? He is the sole link between the military and the Geheimnis Agency and he is the brother of your teacher Sir Graham and of Lady Rose.”

“This has nothing to do with his job or family. I just don’t like him.” Alfred faced forward again and tapped his heel on the road. “Schweitzer’s dad defended Munich’s central hospital during the Imperial Exile Incident in ’19, but what do you think that man, his superior officer, was doing? The entire country was shaken by the emperor’s exile, but he was out buttering up those pompous politicians. And once the Geheimnis Agency was established, he was so scared of the rumors that he hid in the military and used his family name to gain social status.”

“…”

“Why do that? For himself. Those aren’t the actions of a Neue Kavalier.” He smiled bitterly. “Maybe what happened 2 years ago was his punishment for that. Having to hand over his own family to the military’s 2nd Heidengeist Crackdown, I mean. As an example to the people serving this country, he threw out his own wife and daughter.”

Alfred took a step forward and raised Rein König before his eyes.

“Four years ago, I fought a guy much like that and lost someone. I promised her I would…”

He hesitated a few moments before saying it in a self-deprecating way.

“…become the strongest.”

He opened his left hand.

He wore a woman’s ring on the middle finger. A red gem sparkled there.

“I must defeat everyone I come across. That is why I reached for this Rein König and why I had Marsch turn my voice into an Eingeweide component.”

“It is a shame what Sir Marsch did.”

“It sure is. Do you get it, Nein? I’ve waited two years – ''two years'' – after losing Marsch.” He took a breath and clenched his left hand. “All so I can defeat destiny.”