Our heroes were flattened up against the tunnel wall, hidden from the pillbox by the shallow bend of the tunnel. At the base of the 50' ladder lay the crumpled and dead body of the Nazi soldier that Vallnam beguiled into a panic. The poor doomed fellow had fled the pillbox, his mind entirely clouded by the force of Vallnam's Mental Imperative, having scrambled halfway down the ladder. But that was the end for him - he was shot through the helmet by his commanding officer, Captain Helmund, who remained in the pillbox, cold, stoic and deadly. The explosive decompression boiled the young officer's blood, crushed his his lungs flat, and froze his head solid. The pool of blood that formed around his helmet as he lay on the tunnel floor quickly boiled off its oxygen and froze in place. Scowling fiercely, Captain Helmund had slammed the hatch shut and disappeared from view. Only the red glow of the viewports revealed the pillbox's presence high up in the shadows of the trestlework at the tunnel's ceiling.
Our heroes had three tasks at hand. Ling needed to find a room designed C3-DZ-A1. That room contained the controls of the Nuclear Missile Robot Fleet. She had a code that would cause the fleet to Self-Destruct, but it had to be entered into the computer at the C3-DZ-A1 console. She didn't know where the room was exactly other than that it would be found on Level C3 somewhere (though by this time she had completely forgotten how she had become privy to this information). A second task was to gain access to Hanger B so that the technicians could commandeer a Nazi UFO, effect repairs however possible, and escape Eisenhelm before its final and immanent destruction. Lastly, they needed to obtain four more space suits in order to rescue the remaining technicians who were still holed up in the workshop three stories beneath Hanger A at the western end of Tunnel C3-A. The ground shuddered beneath their feet again as rocks and dust dislodged from the ceiling in slow-motion cascading sheets. Somewhere behind them a disturbing red glow reflected off the far tunnel walls.
Vallnam took a quick peek eastward down the tunnel. The pillbox was 50' up the side of the tunnel wall, and only accessible by a long metal ladder. Beyond the pillbox the tunnel continued due east and vanished from view into hazy darkness at about six hundred feet or so. In that direction lay Hanger B wherein the technicians reported were a number of derelict UFOs that, with some work, might be made operational. In front of the pillbox was another tunnel that forked northward. According to the map the Technicians pulled up on their infotablet, the north corridor led to a Staff Operations Center wherein there extra space suits were stored. It would be guarded by Staff Officers, and whatever guards might be on duty. And of course, there was a pillbox to deal with.
"Do you guys have any idea who is up in that pillbox?" asked Vallnam of the lead technician.
"Ja, let me check the schedule," said Hans as he pulled his infotablet up and began searching through the data. The device was mechanical, and worked somewhat like an abacus with gears, and thin metal plates that stored and recorded data. It was, in fact, quite a smart piece of craftmanship, though it did not have any of the conveniences of Earth computers in terms of wireless networkability. They utilized a central computing system, which delivered the data plates on a carefully timed basis according to Eisenhelm's extremely precise and well-worn schedule system. And in Eisenhelm, that was actually all that was ever required. For their purposes the infotablets had worked perfectly well for the 90 years they had been in service. If nothing else, the devices, being mechanical and expertly maintained, were both durable and reliable.
"Ja, that man on the ground there is Lieutenant Klaus Fritzinger. Up in the box is Captain Helmund Schmitt! He's a tough knucklehead, that one."
"Ha, but he's a good soldier," said the technician behind Hans. "He's not stupid like the others. He knows what to do, and he does it. Hard."
"Ja," replied Hans, "that's true. He's both intelligent and ruthless. A real leader! He's the kind who's happy to 'die for the cause'."
Vallnam thought about what powers he might be able to employ against Helmund. He had already used up a good portion of his mystic energy, and wasn't keen on attempting any more unless absolutely necessary. And besides, Helmund had already proven his resistance to mental tricks and was not the kind to be easily dominated.
"Ah," said Hans. "I found another map! This one has a higher security clearance, but I managed to guess the code. The commanders tend to repeat them on a set cycle, I discovered, and their combinations are easy to guess after all. They can't imagine any of us would ever guess it. Hah. Here it is."
He showed the map to Jacob. This map showed more information on Level C3 than the original one. Jacob noticed that the pillbox was designated C3-A1. He asked Ling what the name of the room she had to find was, and its name was C3-DZ-A1.
"You know, I wonder if that C3-A1 is connected to C3-DZ-A1," said Jacob to no one in particular. That seemed to him to be a reasonable guess and probably not unlikely. He asked Hans what he thought.
"We wouldn't know," replied Hans. "We're technicians, not architects. We didn't build this facility, we only work here. Frankly, we have no idea what is hidden behind doors we're not authorized to enter, or if there's even entire areas of Eisenhelm we've never seen or heard of before. It's entirely possible. I've heard rumors. Of course, they'd likely not have a need for technicians in those areas, or if they do then they have other Technician Teams who operate on those sectors we're not privy to. Ja, that would not be surprising to me. Every faction has its own teams, and plenty of secrets. Eisenhelm is a Fortress of Secrets after all, you know."
Jacob wanted to use the radio to communicate with Helmond. The pillbox was on frequency 302.382.929. Hans informed him that the base has specific pass-codes that are required in order to give and receive information by radio in accordance with official protocols. They sent the pass-code which was a sequence of beeps. Helmond responded with a response-code, another sequence of beeps. Hans was a bit surprised that Jacob didn't seem to know about the protocols. But he'd already accepted the notion that the purple suited strangers were from a secret Eisenhelm faction that he'd never heard of, and had only emerged due to the state of emergency, and this faction had little knowledge of the normal operations of the base. This made sense to him. Given that Hans genuinely liked Jacob, who was the first person, other than his only real friend, Franz, to treat him like a human being in decades, and that Jacob had genuinely expressed remorse at the death of Franz, he accepted the peculiarities of Jacob's manner, his unfamiliar accent, and his seeming unfamiliarity with base protocols and design as simply "oddities" to be ignored. Jacob's compassion had, in Franz's eyes, covered a multitude of sins.
Had Hans known, however, the secret communications among the Nazi Commanding Elite, he would have also known that one of the remaining serviceable UFOs had been commandeered from Hanger A by mysterious hijackers who subsequently fled the moon and were being chased by their top pilots in four other UFOs, and that the hijacked ship had subsequently returned half a day later, and had somehow ignited the Civil War among the top leadership of Eisenhelm. Had Hans known these things, his view of Jacob and his purple team might have been quite different. But the Nazis' Command Elite were secretive to the point of extreme paranoia, and given that Eisenhelm was a hive of Machiavellian intrigue under the best of circumstances, it should not surprise us that this information had not been shared with the rank and file. Hence, Hans was indeed blissfully ignorant of these facts, and so treated Jacob and Team Purple as trusted members of the Elite Staff.
Hans explained to Jacob that the protocols were such that each transmission had to pass the pass-code test.
"Who is this?!" demanded Helmund harshly, once the connection had been made.
"This is Special Agent Grantmund!" responded Jacob with a terse diplomatic intonation. The fact that Helmund had never heard of Special Agents was overridden by the fact of the circumstances of the base, which for all intents and purposes was both being destroyed by suicidal Delta-Z Nuclear Missile Robots, and being riven apart by a Civil War among the three factions of Nazis that had long been adversaries in Eisenhelm. The Military, the Staff Officers and the Scientists had all long vied for supreme command, and now, at the end, they tore at each other's throats to quench their lust for power and give full vent to their sheer hatred of one another.
"Fritz went mad. I shot him. The traitor is dead!", announced Helmund proudly.
"A shame," responded Jacob, taken aback by Helmund's remorseless attitude. "More and more people are losing the faith. We are losing too many men."
"Hardly! He was a FOOL!" exclaimed Helmund into the microphone passionately.
"Yes, he was," agreed Jacob realizing that arguing his humanitarian point was not going to result in anything useful. "Well, at least it is good to know that a few good men like you are still around!" he said reassuringly. He heard Helmund snap his boot heels and understood that he's just received a big old Nazi salute. Jacob cringed at this thought.
"I hear your honor, sir," said Jacob at that. "Now pay attention. We are bringing up a team of technicians who have to begin preparing for the final protocols. But we need to know you have our backs."
"Yes SIR!" shouted Captain Helmund. Given that his own chain of command had presumably already been killed (since they were no longer responding to his radio transmissions and had been under deadly fire a few minutes earlier), Helmund readily accepted that under the conditions of chaos he should attach himself to any superior military officer that happened along. He mistook Jacob for one, and the rest was history, as they say.
"I'm going to come around the corner with my men in a few moments," said Jacob. He stepped out from the shallow of the tunnel wall and came into view. He looked up at the distant pillbox, a few hundred feet to the east. In the dim red light of the slit window he saw the silhouette of Helmund who gave him a salute. He returned the salute in kind and said, "We will maintain contact as we proceed. Keep us apprised of any changes. Over and out," he said as he cut the contact.
"Ja volt!" said Helmund as he strapped himself into the machine gunner's chair and began flicking switches to turn on various sensors and radar units. Helmund had never liked his commander at any rate, and for some reason, Jacob struck him as decisive, and yet... in some strange way he could not consciously identify... human. In other words, the human being that was buried deep inside Helmund liked Jacob.
Jacob, Vallnam and Ling looked at each other.
"What now?" asked Ling.
"I wonder if the control room you're looking for, C3-DZ-A1, is somehow connected to the pillbox C3-A1," Jacob said, gesturing towards the ladder. Ling gave him a wink and started heading in that direction. Jacob had Hans open a channel to Helmund, and he apprised the Captain that he was sending another Special Agent up to the pillbox in order to relief Fritz. This was taken without demur as Helmund prepared to receive the new officer.
Meanwhile, Jacob would take Hans and another technician to Sector 4, at which they expected to find the Staff Operations Center. Meanwhile, Vallnam would take the rest of the technicians east to Hanger B, and begin working on repairing any of the UFOs that might be serviceable there. And so, having successfully split the party down to its most atomic units, they executed their plan.
As he strode off with the technicians, Jacob made a point of kicking Fritz's helmet, sending glass shards lofting through the darkness, and hailed a snappy Nazi Salute up to Helmund. He could practically hear the Nazi Captain crack his helmet against the ceiling dashboard with his own responding salute.
And so off he went with two technicians into the dark tunnel to the north. Vallnam was a bit surprised. He didn't expect Jacob to actually follow through with trying to save the Nazi technicians they'd left in the workshop. After all, it was at considerable risk given the timing and chaos of the situation. But Jacob seemed genuinely resolute on that point, and off they went. Vallnam reasoned to himself that it probably made some sense to save them as the technicians might serve a useful purpose as minions, possibly. He shrugged and took his men east. "Saving Nazis on the moon. Heh. You don't see that every day," thought Vallnam to himself as he walked into the darkness.
Ling had climbed the ladder up to the pillbox. She received a pass-code from Hans by radio, and secured access to the interior. There she met Helmund face to face, her Lewiston in her right hand. He was waiting for her with his pistol drawn and pointing at her face as she entered. He smiled.
"Welcome to pillbox C3-A1," he said, his steely eyes unflinching.
He was a rather large brute with frosty blue eyes and a waft of blond hair. She entered the cramped interior, crowded with panels of radar and television screens (a third of which appeared to be out of service), blinking lights, switches, knobs and other artifacts of the weird retro-tech world of Eisenhelm. To the rear was a dark area that appeared to be a short corridor ending in a flat dark gray wall.
Given that Helmund was a pretty smart monkey, Ling found no opportunity to take control of him with her Lewiston. As long as she held her pistol he pointed his at her. He said nothing about this, but his intent was clear as day. He had the drop on her, and so her initial plan was not going to work. She had no choice but to play along. He offered her a seat to take the place of Fritz in the machine gun nest. She tried a bit of diplomacy, but her skill at it was deficient, and Helmund's willpower quite strong. He was not about to be pushed around by a female officer, no matter how beautiful, or rank. He was a sexist pig, after all. He insisted she take the seat by way of waving his pistol to indicate she should move to the machine gunner's chair. She took a seat. He was above and behind her. This had not worked out at all as she had imagined while climbing the ladder. She bit her lip as she settled in to the machine gunner's chair.
Ling used a bit of mysticism at this point to open a telepathic channel to Jacob and Vallnam and apprised them of her situation. Not so great. As she watched the radar scope, and targeting system, on which Jacob and Vallnam's teams were clearly visible, she thought hard about how to weasel information out of Helmund. She wanted to know if Pillbox C3-A1 happened to have another exit... one that might lead to C3-DZ-A1, perhaps? But how to phrase it so that his suspicions weren't aroused? That was the question.
* * *
As Jacob and his team walked down the dark tunnel northward, they got to within six hundred feet of the pillbox at the Sector 4 intersection. Jacob knew from his prior military experience that at about that distance he was between the optimal ranges of the pillbox behind them, and the pillbox ahead of them. Vulnerable to both, but not optimal to either. The marched forward. The darkness was only broken by the lights coming from the Staff Operations Center far ahead of them. Embedded in the wall was a camera station. The camera trained on the three men, it's red light flashing.
From the speaker in his helmet radio he heard a word, in German, "Halt!"
He halted. Hans gave him the passcode, 3-1-9.
"What are you doing here?" barked a voice through the radio.
"I'm an adjunct of the Lieutenant General. We are here to effect repairs."
"What? Lieutenant General who?? What are you talking about?"
This bullshit story was not believed. The technicians were working the infotablet as fast as their little fingers could work them. "Rudolf," whispered Hans into his mic.
"Lieutenant General Rudolf", said Jacob. "I'm sure you're a little busy down here, but we need some space suits. Repairs."
"What's your name?" barked the voice over the speaker.
"Ron," said Jacob unconvincingly. "Look we need your help. Time is of the essence. Preparations are being made for the Final Protocols. We are all going to get out of this alive, but we need your cooperation."
This statement caught the attention of the solider who was at the front gate speaking into the mic. Every Nazi in Eisenhelm at that point was entirely convinced that survival was not an option. Everyone had steeled themselves to the idea of dying for the cause, though almost none of the Nazis had any joy in this prospect whatsoever. So the idea of actually being able to escape made the soldier reconsider everything he had previously been thinking. In fact his finger slipped off the trigger of his machine gun, and he thought he might just let some of the oddities of the situation slide, under the circumstances. After all... General Rudolf was an important man. Maybe repairs were necessary.
"We need to get to Hanger B," said Jacob. "But we require the use of extra space suits for some of the technicians. We will need you to head to Hanger A, by the northern route. We will meet you there in two hours. Ok?"
* * *
As this was happening, Vallnam was on his way to Hanger B with his troop of technicians.
"What can we expect in Hanger B?" asked Vallnam of one of the technicians in his group.
"There's flying saucers in the Hanger. They have been slated for repairs, but frankly, for the past few years repairs have been sidelined due to 'scheduling conflicts'. So we are going to find a lot of derelict space ships."
"So you think we can find enough working equipment there to effect repairs and come up with one good ship?" asked Vallnam pensively.
"That remains to be seen," relied the technician in a matter of fact tone that suggested nothing could be further from the truth. "Also, you should know, Sector 8 also contains a Science Center and an abandoned Military Command Office. The Command was abandoned years ago, but that doesn't mean there's no dangers there. We avoid it."
Since the corridor was dark, and since the overhead lights had not responded to the motion sensors, the technicians surmised that the recent moonquakes had dislodged their power cables. This meant that the heavy steel doors that sealed off Sector 8 from the tunnel were not going to open by the normal keypad method. The technician, however, explained that there was a manual override, but would require a considerable amount of brute strength.
As they arrived at the huge steel door Vallnam decided he would employ a bit more mystical energy into a Telekenetic Unlock, which could help to open the enormous door. He give it a hurl, and with a heave of the manual override wheel the great doorway began to slowly slide open. They soon had enough space to gain entrance. They slid through the opening. Inside was a gigantic black space of unknown dimensions (other than was was shown on the map). Across the space, far to the north east, they saw lights coming through windows of a tall narrow building.
"What's that?" asked Vallnam.
"That's the Science Center," said a technician with a shudder.
"Well, we should rescue them, too, I guess," said Vallnam.
"Oh, no, no, no," uttered the technicians in unison.
"No? We should not rescue the scientists?" queried Vallnam to be sure of their meaning. In fact they meant no, they should not rescue the scientists. After a brief conversation, Vallnam got the impression that the scientists were feared and hated. The technicians changed the subject. They began discussing how to re-route the power cables from the Science Center into the Hanger B Power Supply Station which was housed in a small building just south of the Science Center. This could be done by disconnecting the power couplings, and within thirty seconds they'd worked out exactly how to do so, what equipment they required, where to procure the appropriate tools, and how long it would take. They would need about 15 minutes. As they made their plan, the group maneuvered stealthily as possible the long way around to the far side of a set of buildings cluttered by crates and refuse that they could hide behind. The tools they needed would be on shelves inside the building they'd just come to.
"This, of course, would plunge the Science Center into complete darkness," said one of the technicians with a slight hint of triumphalism.
"Ja, Gunter, but you know... that's something that could cause serious problems," said one of the technicians.
"Well, ja, it will. But look at it this way, Kurt... the scientists will have to deal with those problems first... ja?"
"Ahh. Hah. You are right, Gunter. That's quite amusing, really." There was a bit of smirking among the technicians.
"I have a 2600 Lumen flashlight", said Vallanm.
"No, no, no!" snapped Gunter. "Don't use it. If you do they will see us immediately and we'll be done for. Better to crawl than expose ourselves at this point."
They had night vision scopes. They handed one to Vallnam. With it he saw that the Power Supply Station had two guards who were equipped with night vision googles on their space suit helmets. The guards appeared to be arguing with one another and didn't notice the team had slid into the cavernous Sector 8 and made their way to the supply depot. Vallnam used the scope to look around. The cavern itself was enormous. It could have covered ten square blocks of Manhattan. The scope was sensitive enough to give him a view of the entire chamber by the light coming from the Science Center windows. To the south he could see the abandoned military base. The doors were ajar and all the windows were broken.
"What's in there?" he asked, gesturing to the abandoned base.
"Not much anymore. If you want to scrounge for armor or weapons, there might be some there, though my guess is that whatever's there is likely broken, empty, or useless. Still though, after the Battle of Wolf-Brigade, no one has dared to venture there due to boobytraps. I heard a rumor a while ago that a team went in, but never came out. I'm not sure it's worth the risk, really," explained Gunter.
Meanwhile Vallnam had continued his scan of Sector 8. There was an enormously long flat wall due east in which was a huge vault-like door. There was a small cluster of buildings along the wall to the south, adjacent from the Military Command Center, but they also had broken windows, and seemed abandoned.
Vallnam changed the angle of his view and peered at the Science Center. It was a tall narrow building that appeared to have a a large circular disk two stories high as its base. There were no windows on the base at all. It seemed there was a single elevator that could be used to ascend into the building proper from within the disk. Looking a little more carefully he spotted the front portal. It was lined with a ribbon of dark material, perhaps iron, but he wasn't sure. It formed an archway that framed a pair of double doors. Outside the doors he could barely make out two soldiers standing at attention in the darkness, their machine guns in their hands. They were quite far away, so he had no fear that they would spot his group. It was the two other guards near the Power Supply Station that were the problem. Though arguing with each other, they could potentially see the team as they approached if they were not careful.
Vallnam studied the topography of the cavernous chamber. The walls were smooth and rippled, but there were no stalactites or stalagmites, since, he reasoned, there was no water on the moon to cause them to be formed. He surmised that the chambers and tunnels had been formed as lava tubes a billion years ago. And so, there was nothing from above that he could see to rain down on his foes guarding the Power Station. Too bad. Vallnam felt tremors in the ground again and watched as a hail of dust and small rocks poured down in long sheets from the ceiling. This was the most violent rumble thus far. He wondered how Jacob was faring, and began to plot out his next move.
* * *
While Vallnam was considering his options, Jacob and company had continued walking down the tunnel northward. They came to the intersection of Sector 4, above which, to the right, was another Pillbox. However, there were no lights in the box, and Jacob surmised that it was unoccupied. They entered the tunnel that lead into Sector 4 proper. It was also a cavernous chamber, much like Sector 8, carved out by lava countless ages ago. This chamber had lights on the ceiling, though they were noticeably flickering. There was a tower in the middle with an octangular shape. There they could see a three-story building, hoisted up on giant steel struts such that the lowest level was some thirty feet above the tunnel floor. There was at the base an airlock and a shaft that ascended the thirty feet to the base of the building. Other than that he could see nothing of the interior. He would have to rely on Hans to guide them to the storage room that had extra space suits once they got inside.
As they approached Jacob took note of the two guards in green armored space suits standing on either side of the doorway that led into the airlock at the base of the shaft. One looked like a brawler, big and hulking, and the other far less so, who appeared to be fidgeting with his gun belt in a way that suggested this was a soldier new to the profession, perhaps, and not particularly capable. He looked decidedly nervous. As another wave of rumbling passed through the chamber the young Nazi guard looked around with a panic stricken expression.
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