Interstellar Age - #306 - 306 Werwolf Insurgency

Erich watched as his homeland burned in the flames of war. As much as Emrys may have tried to rally his people in the face of a “foreign aggressor” it did not matter when they were fighting against the Silber Enclave whose technology was on par with the galactic powers. 

The Enclave’s navy tore through the Germanic fleets, while the worlds were pounded by assault troops which were a mixture of Orcish warriors, enclave star marines, and LEGION series combat droids. One by one, the worlds of the Germanic Star-Empire fell. Their defenses were wholly incapable of stopping the suicidal charge of the advanced robots. 

Those soldiers who were capable of fleeing the carnage did so. As the Germanic Navy kept falling back light year by light year. And yet the Enclave’s Navy was hot in pursuit, following them every step of the way, and attacking the Germanic ships with superior weapons and engines. 

The Galaxy watched as what was essentially a quasi sub-galactic power fall back, and abandon the worlds which their soldiers bravely defended. Erich had not just sat around and done nothing while Emrys called for a ceasefire.

First, he extracted S’aleth, who was the only thing keeping Erich from outright assaulting Germania. And second, he continued to build legions upon legions of droids and ships. All at breakneck speed, thanks to the highly efficient and automated labor that the Enclave had access to. 

The war turned into a slaughter, as the Germanic Navy utterly failed to provide support to the Legion of the Damned. So much so that the Enclave’s strategy shifted from taking the worlds inch by inch, through suicidal combat droids, to outright burying the Legion of the Damned in their bunkers with overwhelming orbital bombardments. 

Emrys had made the mistake of boasting how his Legions of the Damned could stand toe to toe with the Enclave’s Iron Horde. And in response to this, Erich shifted his strategy from total warfare, to outright annihilation.

This was why he first began the war with suicidal robots. But after using an ungodly sum of resources to replace said robots. Erich ultimately decided to just bombard the entire planets into extinction.

After all, the Enclave planned to terraform these worlds into utopias anyway, so they might as well b reduce the worlds to rubble in the war. And as the weeks passed, and hundreds of Germanic worlds began to fall into Erich’s hands. The Enclave army began to press towards those worlds of the Germanic Star-Empire which were actually inhabited by civilian populations, and not just military fortifications. 

For the sake of this, Erich had to be extremely careful, as he wanted to win over his people and rule them. If he just glassed these planets like he had done to those on the frontiers, where only the Legion of the Damned occupied them. Then he would be essentially the Emperor of a giant radioactive pile of shit. 

Thus, the moment the Legions of the Damned were all but annihilated on the worlds they were supposed to defend. Erich sent out a message to the GSE and its citizens. Erich was sitting comfortably on his throne, almost as if the destruction he had waged these past few weeks meant literally nothing to him. 

His figure was depicted across the entirety of the GSE and the galaxy as a whole. Where Erich then began to speak with a confident tone in his voice. 

“The war is over… The Emrys regime can not defend you… You have all seen what my army is capable of. Do you understand now how futile resistance is? I could send my fleets to invade your worlds, your habited worlds. And we could have a long drawn out battle between robot and man. One which would inevitably result in my victory. 

Or you can all take up arms and embrace your true monarch. Believe it or not, this would be the least painful method for you all. Because I swear to the ancient deities of our ancestors, that if I am forced to invade the habited worlds of the Empire, then I will glass entire cities. And neither you nor I wish for such an outcome. So, let us end this war, in a way that appropriately welcomes your new emperor, shall we?” 

Fear was a powerful motivator, and the moment Erich threatened to do to the civilized worlds of the Germanic Star-Empire, and not just its frontier fortifications, the citizens began to panic. None of them wanted to be buried beneath the rubble of their proud civilization, and Erich did not want to have to go to such lengths to achieve victory. 

Thus, the moment Erich “encouraged” his people to rebel against Emrys. They took it as a gift from god. Those Veterans who had been illegally stockpiling weapons for years took to the streets in their makeshift power armor and began to rebel against the Emrys regime. 

Several System Overlords pledged their allegiance to Erich, and his new monarchy, rather than suffer through the fate of those tank bred beings whose sole purpose was to defend their empire. And before Emrys knew it, he was down to one world, and one world alone. Whose citizens were rioting in the streets. 

Germania stood alone, against the Silber Enclave, and their alien allies. Yet its people were not united in the slightest. Instead, they had begun to fight against those who remained loyal to Emrys and his regime. 

Emrys sat in the citadel, with his wife and children nearby. Normally they would stay at his estate, but at a dire time like this there was no safer place for them all than here in the most fortified building within the interstellar Empire. 

Emrys’s wife was huddled together with their kids, in fear of what would happen next, and was just about to question how her husband planned to fix this, when a group of armed guards approached the man. 

They were his most loyal soldiers, and they had news for their once mighty Supreme Leader. 

“Sir! The preparations have been made. Operation Werwolf is ready when you are… Though there has been some dissent in the ranks, I promised you that all traitors have been purged.”

Emrys had a glass of whiskey in one hand, which he quickly drank its contents as if it were the smoothest of soft drinks. Before finally placing his glass down on a nearby end table. With this in mind, he stood up and approached his soldiers. All of which were dressed in civilian clothes like Emrys himself. 

“It would appear that we vastly underestimated our enemy… Well played Erich…. Well played… Men, make sure my family makes it safely off the world, we still have allies across the galaxy, ones that Erich does not even know about. I would not trust that lying bitch to protect my family even if she were my last option left….

As for operation, Werwolf… It will begin when Erich and his men seize the citadel… He may have been able to defeat us in a conventional war. And much quicker than even, I am willing to admit. But if he thinks that he will simply waltz into the citadel and claim my throne for himself without any trouble, then he has another thing coming. 

Today, is the end of an era…. The empire which our ancestors have so painstakingly built to last a lifetime has come to an end. Our unique culture, and way of life, will become bastardized and integrated with the Light Elves. 

But those of us who stay true to the old order will always be found across the Germanic Star-Emprie, and whatever Erich may have thought about having a safe and prosperous realm will become nothing more than the delusions of an immature brat. 

We will fight them in every corner of our lands, and those of our new Elven overlords. And we will n not rest until Germania is back under the control of our people, and our party once more! Hail victory!” 

The various soldiers, dressed as civilians, raised their arms in salute to their Supreme Leader. Before doing as he said, and safely escorting his family out of the Empire. As for Emrys, he would disappear entirely from the public eye, undergoing a transfer of consciousness into an entirely unco recognizable body. 

What was left of his original flesh was shot and disposed of in a way that made it look like his own followers had turned on him. His consciousness was “officially” deleted from the databanks of the GSE’s network. Making it look like the man had permanently been terminated. 

But Emrys would remain hidden in the urban environment of the world he was raised upon, a world which had now entered the hands of another despot. One who wished to change the very fabric of Germanic society. And when that society began to change, and the people became discontent with the new order, Emrys would strike from the shadows and reclaim his former glory. 

Thus, the conventional phase of the Germanic Civil War had come to an end, and in roughly the same amount of time Erich had estimated. But the Werwolf Insurgency had just begun….