Conspiracy, chapter four

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"I can tell from your silence that your recognize my voice at least. Good. Now we shall discuss what I am doing to do with your organization and more importantly what I am going to do with you."



The once proud Reichsführer of the Fourth Reich glared straight ahead at the sound of the heavy, steel door opening once again. She knew exactly whose voice it was, despite the heavily electronic tone it now had. Ilsa grit her teeth together, the coppery taste of her blood still in her mouth. Skorzeny stood upright at attention and saluted the hulking, vaguely man-shaped figure that now entered the chamber. There were sounds that accompanied, like that of servo-motors and hydraulic piston-like noises. She strained forward against her bonds to get a better look at the armored man and confirm his identity, but the restraints failed to allow for it. The pain in her side from the gunshot wound also disliked her attempts and let her know with a stabbing lance of pain. Ilsa hissed under her breath and remained still.



"You are dismissed Herr Skorzeny, but do not go too far," the robotic voice issued from the massive figure bathed in shadow. When it spoke, three bright-green lights dead center on it's chest flickered and illuminated with each word, casting a ghostly pallor on the chamber like the lights of a will-o-the-wisp. The eagle and swastika were made clear for a moment below the lights, their symbols stamped onto what appeared to be black armor plating. "and turn the lighting up when I command you to."



Skorzeny nodded and strode around Ilsa and past the armored figure.



"You have constructed a new battle suit I see...Iron Chancellor." Ilsa said, her voice a growl. "Not nearly as dead as we were all led to believe."



The armored figure clapped it's hands together, the sound of steel crashing into steel echoing in the chamber for a moment.



"Do you remember my final battle with the Soviet Superwoman Ilsa*? It was towards the end of the war, at the Rjukan hydro-electric plant. That woman left my broken and shattered body lying at the bottom of the Rjukanfossen Falls. My back and vertebrae were shattered like glass, leaving me little more than a head on a stick when my agents found me and pulled me from the wreckage of my prized battle-armor. I was whisked away, into Franco's Spain as the Third Reich crumbled down around Hitler like a house of cards. Everyone naturally assumed I was dead, so there were no international searches for me as I recovered from my wounds, at least the ones I was capable of recovering from. My body was utterly useless, but my mind was still sharp and completely intact. I believe you yourself even experienced something similar when the use of your legs were briefly taken from you, yes?"



Ilsa nodded slowly, remembering how Walkiria had shattered her spine and then...tortured her**. She could still feel the sensation of having every bone in her wrist broken and then ground under the American's heel...still smell the sickly, sweet smell of her other hand as Walkiria charred it with her violet energies. A swelling of anger rose up inside her and caused her cheeks to flush red. The Iron Chancellor must have taken notice for he laughed; a cold, hollow metallic sound, harsh and tinny.



"I can see that you understand full well the feelings of rage, frustration and despair that I endured. I assure you it was all that and more. There was nothing to be done about it, indeed nothing in medical science, for all it's brilliant advances, even in your future dimension can reverse damage to the spinal column. So I watched as the world pointed guns from East to West. I watched Himmler and the remnants of Hitler's Reich create their shadow organization to spur the conflict along, in the delusional hope I suppose of one day rising from the ashes to wrest control from the broken superpowers. I watched the Soviet Superwoman continue to spread her and her master's Marxist agenda. I watched and did nothing, for I knew, just as apparently you did as well, that they would return someday. In fact, I welcomed it. I wanted it to happen. While you and the others scurried about to find a way to escape this dimension and hide like rats from a sinking ship. I knew all about your dimensional portal project. Some of the key scientists that 'assisted' you Ilsa had been all under my direct supervision and direction. I had key agents placed all over the Organization almost from inception."



The robotic voice turned smug as von Trotha took a few heavy steps away from Ilsa.




"And when they finally came out of the skies to descend upon humanity they came with their technology, their glorious technology! Technology I salvaged as the world burned and put to the singular task of giving myself a new body, a body far superior to that of anything organic! There is only so much one can do with biology. Your goal should never have been improving flesh Ilsa, but rather leaving it behind. You had your form altered and improved but once again I have improved upon you. I have transcended! The body is but a housing, true power lies within the mind. My mind! Pure consciousness, unfettered by the bonds of weak and decaying flesh allows all limitations to fall away."



"Your ego I see is still intact as ever." Ilsa chuckled with a curl of her lip.




The Iron Chancellor walked swiftly back over to the captive woman and placed a cold, metallic finger under her chin, harshly forcing her face upwards at him.



"You may turn the lights up now Herr Skorzeny."



Ilsa gasped audibly witnessing the Iron Chancellor now standing revealed in all his glory as the lighting came to life. He was clad in 8 feet of sleek, black and silver power armor, much like the original model he had supposedly been killed in but much more stream-lined and advanced technologically. Her mind raced at what sorts of offensive and defensive capabilities the suit had. The only organic portion of him that showed, or rather remained at all, was his brain. Von Trotha's brilliant mind was housed behind some sort of armored, transparent, composite-plastic and floating in a clear fluid. Wires, hoses and cables were implanted in the brain at various points and disappeared down into the bowels of the robotic battle-suit, acting as it's central nervous system. Symbols of his allegiance to the Nazi party and the Reich adorned the power-armor, giving it an almost ceremonial feel. Genocide's expression was one of complete astonishment. What kind of horrible willpower could hold such a creature together?



"As I was saying," he continued, his green lights flashing, "I gave myself form once again, but it was flawed and imperfect...not at all what you now see before you. I moved quickly from that point. I took control of the Organization, eliminating the failed chicken farmer and General Roush as well as any of the Colonels who 'objected' with the change in command. It was then that I captured Skorzeny as he skulked around and did your dirty work between dimensions like a few others. Ironically you were having him do the same task I reassigned him and the others to: transporting technology between dimensions.They brought me knowledge of computers, electronics, medical science and advanced robotics from that world's 21st century which I used complete my new physical form. To think, that a 'smartphone' from your new dimension was vastly superior to anything I had worked with in my entire lifespan! I..."



"Is there a point to this story Hermann? Even as a cyborg you still love the sound of your own voice don't you?" Ilsa interrupted quietly, boring into him with her cold, blue eyes.



Von Trotha hesitated for a long moment before releasing his finger from under her chin and curling his cybernetic hands behind his back. "There is indeed Ilsa. I am leaving this dimension. The invaders have all but won and there is nothing here but a scorched and pitted world with few pockets of resistance still able to fight. My flag will transfer to your adopted dimension where I will take command of your Fourth Reich and use it the way that it should have been commanded from the beginning: as a vehicle of power and fear."



"Then why not just kill me and get it over with?" Ilsa snarled.



Again the Iron Chancellor chuckled. "No Ilsa, I am not a fool and neither are you a complete one. You have filled your ranks with sociopathic and desperate women who are either fiercely loyal to you or that you have chemically addicted to concoctions you alone know the complete designs of. Your death and my subsequent hostile take-over would leave me battling delusional officer after officer until your Fourth Reich shivered and splintered into too many fragments to make it functional to my purposes. You will remain the Reichsführer, or whatever ridiculous rank you wish to give to yourself. I am content with ruling from the shadows, as I have done for a long time now."



Ilsa arched an eyebrow, her tone indignant. "And if I refuse?"



The green lights on the chest of the Chancellor lit up as his voice intoned again. "You won't, knowing that everything you had worked and fought so hard for would be destroyed. Knowing that I had won. If you live you will continue to plot and scheme against me, always attempting to gain the upper hand and it will burn within you and give your heart reason to go on. Your hatred for me and the fact that it was I who had beaten you will stoke the furnace of your rage and give you strength to endure. Rage that will in the end benefit the Fourth Reich and in doing so benefit us both."



Ilsa Hauppman said nothing, only continuing to stare at the mechanical monstrosity that now paced the room in front of her as he continued.



"You will first go back and put down this coup. I will provide you with the names and meeting places of all the officers involved. They know nothing about me or my designs. Herr Skorzeny and my other agents simply stirred up their own frustrations and provided them with opportunity. You will arrest them all and then have them executed publicly as traitors to the Reich. This will have the added effect of making certain that your officer corp are now unified in their loyalty to you or at the very least to afraid to ever try a coup of their own. The Reich will belong to you without any fear or internal betrayal and thusly it will belong to me without fear of betrayal. Then we shall discuss my far-reaching plans for the future Ilsa."



"And Herr Schwarz?" Genocide mouthed to him threateningly, following it up with a smirk.



"Black," the Iron Chancellor replied, "will be the one ally of yours that I must introduce myself to in person. All of my intelligence show him to be an agent of order and as such I am banking on the fact that whatever emotional situation the two of you my have, if he is capable of such things, he will see the logic in my command and the strength I can bring to bear with the Reich. As will be the case with your Red Doktor and Obersturmbannfuhrer Holt. Besides, he seems to have his own agendas, agendas I have no want to interfere in provided they do not conflict with my own."



"What is your grand agenda von Trotha?" Ilsa Hauppman asked, her nostrils flaring.



The former SS-Gruppenführer and weapons developer chuckled again.



"War, Reichsführer Genocide. War."


To be continued...

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This impressive piece of artwork was provided by the incredibly talented ! Thank you so very much, I hope my words did it justice.

Another big thanks goes to my partner in crime, , whose ideas, inspiration and support are so very important. .

Ilsa Hauppman, Iron Chancellor, Soviet Superwoman and the story are my property and creations. The much-mentioned Mr Black belongs to . Otto Skorzeny, still a real person I am fictionalizing.

*Soviet Superwoman's final battle with Iron Chancellor occurred here:
**Ilsa's brutal beating at the hands of Walkiria:

This story takes place in