Part 146, Chapter 2650
Chapter Two Thousand Six Hundred Fifty
17th December 1977
Mitte, Berlin
The Alexanderplatz Marketplace was brightly lit as it was every year during the annual Christmas Market. Ben fought his way through the crowds while making sure that Nina kept ahold of his hand long after he had given up trying to keep track of his wife’s younger sisters and their friends, Sophie, Ziska, and Gabi. Nella and Nan were legally adults, even if they didn’t act like it most of the time, so Ben figured that they could take care of themselves even if they didn’t have two men from the First Foot as well as an unknown number of Katherine von Mischner’s people guarding them. That thought was a reminder to Ben that this was one of “Aunt Kat’s” places within the City of Berlin and only the most foolhardy or insane would cause too much trouble here. Still though, it was crowded and anytime there were this many people there were always going to be issues.
For Nina it was different. She was pulling on Ben’s arm, always wanting to see what waiting around the next turn and there was so much to see. According to Kiki, products from all across Europe were sold here and Artisans came here to do a bit more than just sell things. They came here to show off as well with displays of products being made. Most days the market was dizzying in its scale, but during the Christmas season it was like a fever dream with the addition of colored lights and music.
Though she had wanted to come with them, Kiki had been forced to sit out the trip to the Marketplace out this year. Like always, Kiki had a habit of neglecting her personal health. Which was why Ben was happy to have Ermintrude Aue and Nora Berg back in the picture. They had more success then most in getting her to listen, far more than he did. So when Kiki had woken up this morning with a Low-Grade Fever, she had those two along with her stepmother Charlotte making sure that she remained in bed with the threat of taking her to the hospital if she wasn’t prepared to take their suggestions seriously. Ben had asked why they were keeping such a close on her this time. Hadn’t she had walked halfway across when South America when she was pregnant with Nina? He had been told that it was because Kiki was thirty-six and the risks tended to increase with age. When she had been pregnant with Louis Bernhard there had been problems with high blood pressure.
Stopping to watch as a man he was running a printing press that looked like something out of the Renaissance with a hand-cranked screw, Ben saw that Nina had a smile on her face. The Printer was explaining what he was doing as he used a brush to spread ink on the type that he had set up in a metal frame. Frau Aue had made a point of including Nina in everything involved with Kiki, when asked why she had told Ben that she was old enough to start to learn about these things. He had pointed out that she was six years old, and Frau Aue had given him a toothless grin and told him that if they waited until she absolutely had to know then it may already be too late.
That was a delightful thought, Ben thought sourly.
He liked to think that he was open minded, but the instant the things that might happen when Nina got older got mentioned, it turned him into every stereotype of the protective father. Frau Aue had just patted him on the cheek and told him that complications come with all children. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that according to Specialist who had been conducting the last scan he and Kiki likely had another daughter coming.
Camp Angell, Yachats, Oregon
After completing Ranger School, Mario had been expecting to get sent back to Alaska. Then he had gotten orders it had been to travel to a remote location on the Oregon Coast for further training instead. Unlike Alaska there wasn’t months of darkness and thirty bellow temperatures to look forward to. Admittedly it was a beautiful place. However, there was rain. Lots and lots of rain. It was also just across the 101 from the beach. It sort of blew Mario’s mind that the two-lane road that he could just walk across was the same Highway 101 that ran through the San Fernando Valley not far from where he had grown up.
When Mario had first arrived at Camp Angell he had asked some of the other what the surfing was like in the area, and they had looked at him like if he was nuts. The one time he had gone down to the beach there had been drizzly rain and the weather report had said that there was a chance of snow, the ocean though… There was a big North Pacific storm coming in and the waves were incredible. Mario didn’t have his board or wetsuit with him, and hypothermia had limited appeal, so he gave it a raincheck.
The days since had been filled with lessons in fieldcraft and walks in the Oregon Coast Range. Basically, it was about learning to do small team tactics. What he had heard referred to as “Partisan training.” Somewhere along the line, Mario had lost track of the days with there not really being anything to reference what day of the week it was. Then today, after given a chance to sleep in that morning, Mario had been told that it was Saturday and there was going to be a movie that night. After such frenetic activity for so long, a day with nothing to do had left him at totally loose ends. Mario had just ended up hanging around the barracks until dinner had been served.
The movie had turned out to be one of the “Know your enemy” sort of presentations that Ritchie had warned him about. First came the mandatory anti-drunk driving, VD warning clips, and news that Army insisted that everyone watch, then came the feature film. There was a bit of added spice in that this was one had been banned from general theatrical release in the United States. Film itself was a paint by numbers Sci-Fi/War picture with the green Lieutenant leading a veteran Platoon of Dragoons in the Panzer Corps with a grizzled tough as iron Noncom keeping him out of trouble. There were parts where the men were saying things that seemed like they were jokes or wisecracks, but the context was lacking. The movie really started rolling once the aliens had landed. They found themselves in a situation where they were the only thing between a large civilian population that needed them to buy time to evacuate and hostile forces that saw people as little more than convenient sources of protein. Mario saw that there was a staggering amount of firepower being dished out on the screen. He was reminded of something that his brother had once told him about why Special Forces teams avoided Armored Infantry units. The weight of fire they could throw at you was absolutely insane. Following the film, there was a lecture by one of the Intelligence Officers about what they had just seen, but Mario tuned that out.
17th December 1977
Mitte, Berlin
The Alexanderplatz Marketplace was brightly lit as it was every year during the annual Christmas Market. Ben fought his way through the crowds while making sure that Nina kept ahold of his hand long after he had given up trying to keep track of his wife’s younger sisters and their friends, Sophie, Ziska, and Gabi. Nella and Nan were legally adults, even if they didn’t act like it most of the time, so Ben figured that they could take care of themselves even if they didn’t have two men from the First Foot as well as an unknown number of Katherine von Mischner’s people guarding them. That thought was a reminder to Ben that this was one of “Aunt Kat’s” places within the City of Berlin and only the most foolhardy or insane would cause too much trouble here. Still though, it was crowded and anytime there were this many people there were always going to be issues.
For Nina it was different. She was pulling on Ben’s arm, always wanting to see what waiting around the next turn and there was so much to see. According to Kiki, products from all across Europe were sold here and Artisans came here to do a bit more than just sell things. They came here to show off as well with displays of products being made. Most days the market was dizzying in its scale, but during the Christmas season it was like a fever dream with the addition of colored lights and music.
Though she had wanted to come with them, Kiki had been forced to sit out the trip to the Marketplace out this year. Like always, Kiki had a habit of neglecting her personal health. Which was why Ben was happy to have Ermintrude Aue and Nora Berg back in the picture. They had more success then most in getting her to listen, far more than he did. So when Kiki had woken up this morning with a Low-Grade Fever, she had those two along with her stepmother Charlotte making sure that she remained in bed with the threat of taking her to the hospital if she wasn’t prepared to take their suggestions seriously. Ben had asked why they were keeping such a close on her this time. Hadn’t she had walked halfway across when South America when she was pregnant with Nina? He had been told that it was because Kiki was thirty-six and the risks tended to increase with age. When she had been pregnant with Louis Bernhard there had been problems with high blood pressure.
Stopping to watch as a man he was running a printing press that looked like something out of the Renaissance with a hand-cranked screw, Ben saw that Nina had a smile on her face. The Printer was explaining what he was doing as he used a brush to spread ink on the type that he had set up in a metal frame. Frau Aue had made a point of including Nina in everything involved with Kiki, when asked why she had told Ben that she was old enough to start to learn about these things. He had pointed out that she was six years old, and Frau Aue had given him a toothless grin and told him that if they waited until she absolutely had to know then it may already be too late.
That was a delightful thought, Ben thought sourly.
He liked to think that he was open minded, but the instant the things that might happen when Nina got older got mentioned, it turned him into every stereotype of the protective father. Frau Aue had just patted him on the cheek and told him that complications come with all children. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that according to Specialist who had been conducting the last scan he and Kiki likely had another daughter coming.
Camp Angell, Yachats, Oregon
After completing Ranger School, Mario had been expecting to get sent back to Alaska. Then he had gotten orders it had been to travel to a remote location on the Oregon Coast for further training instead. Unlike Alaska there wasn’t months of darkness and thirty bellow temperatures to look forward to. Admittedly it was a beautiful place. However, there was rain. Lots and lots of rain. It was also just across the 101 from the beach. It sort of blew Mario’s mind that the two-lane road that he could just walk across was the same Highway 101 that ran through the San Fernando Valley not far from where he had grown up.
When Mario had first arrived at Camp Angell he had asked some of the other what the surfing was like in the area, and they had looked at him like if he was nuts. The one time he had gone down to the beach there had been drizzly rain and the weather report had said that there was a chance of snow, the ocean though… There was a big North Pacific storm coming in and the waves were incredible. Mario didn’t have his board or wetsuit with him, and hypothermia had limited appeal, so he gave it a raincheck.
The days since had been filled with lessons in fieldcraft and walks in the Oregon Coast Range. Basically, it was about learning to do small team tactics. What he had heard referred to as “Partisan training.” Somewhere along the line, Mario had lost track of the days with there not really being anything to reference what day of the week it was. Then today, after given a chance to sleep in that morning, Mario had been told that it was Saturday and there was going to be a movie that night. After such frenetic activity for so long, a day with nothing to do had left him at totally loose ends. Mario had just ended up hanging around the barracks until dinner had been served.
The movie had turned out to be one of the “Know your enemy” sort of presentations that Ritchie had warned him about. First came the mandatory anti-drunk driving, VD warning clips, and news that Army insisted that everyone watch, then came the feature film. There was a bit of added spice in that this was one had been banned from general theatrical release in the United States. Film itself was a paint by numbers Sci-Fi/War picture with the green Lieutenant leading a veteran Platoon of Dragoons in the Panzer Corps with a grizzled tough as iron Noncom keeping him out of trouble. There were parts where the men were saying things that seemed like they were jokes or wisecracks, but the context was lacking. The movie really started rolling once the aliens had landed. They found themselves in a situation where they were the only thing between a large civilian population that needed them to buy time to evacuate and hostile forces that saw people as little more than convenient sources of protein. Mario saw that there was a staggering amount of firepower being dished out on the screen. He was reminded of something that his brother had once told him about why Special Forces teams avoided Armored Infantry units. The weight of fire they could throw at you was absolutely insane. Following the film, there was a lecture by one of the Intelligence Officers about what they had just seen, but Mario tuned that out.
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