Post by redsycorax on May 28, 2022 3:52:05 GMT
On Earth-515, an infant named Kal-El was placed in a refugee starship and launched from the doomed planet Krypton to Earth, where he became Superboy and then Superman. Those details, you probably know already. However, on Earth-515, everything else is different. The course of history diverged from the datum when Australia's New Guard neofascists overthrew the New South Wales state government in the thirties and seceded from the British Empire shortly after the sack of Canberra, becoming an ally of the Nazis and Japanese Axis and invading Queensland. As a consequence of the preoccupation of the United States away in the South Pacific, the New Guard rapidly annexed the other, less populous states apart from Victoria and Tasmania and opened its uranium reserves to its Nazi allies. The consequence was the Nazi use of nuclear weapons against Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad in 1946. At that point, Kal-El landed in British Columbia. This happened too late to affect the course of the Second World War, which ended when the United States invaded and then occupied Japan in 1947-48. Shortly afterward, Britain and the United States both exploded nuclear weapons in the North Atlantic and the Northwest Pacific. The world was now in a Cold War situation, with Britain and the United States pitted against a largely intact Nazi Germany...
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GUILD OF CANADIAN HEROES:
Superman cleared his throat: "I convene the latest meeting of GCH as its chair. Roll call. Nelvana?"
"Here, Superman."
"Captain Canada?"
"Eh, isn't it obvious, Supes?"
"Centrix?"
"Here."
"Equinox?"
"Here, Superman."
"Fleur de Lys?"
"Oui, Suprehomme."
"Iron Man?"
"Yes, Superman."
"Northguard?"
"Here, Superman."
"Thanks for arriving at such short notice, everyone. I'll come straight to the point. It looks like the Ratzis are close to perfecting their doomsday weapon."
"Say what?! I thought even they weren't insane enough to create a cobalt bomb." Captain Canada exclaimed.
"Uh, no, Dan. It's even worse than that, I'm afraid. Asteroid debris samples indicate high gamma radiation output, which one would associate with..."
"Blazes. Antimatter?! They're playing around with antimatter?! Wouldn't any attempt to synthesise it bankrupt them? It'd cost sixty billion dollars to produce even a microgram of that $#!*."
"I'm thinking wunderwaffe." Iron Man volunteered.
"All too true, Arthur. They appear to have located a device that produces the requisite amounts they need." Superman replied gravely.
"From where?! Even a half gram would match the nukes that the Yanks dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Edo, or the Nazis dropped on Moscow, Leningrad or Kiev."
"I'm afraid we're talking about far more than that. They appear to have enough to create a kiloton device. Which would mean gigatons."
"No. That can't be right, Karl. That amount would lay waste to Grandmother Earth. It would shatter our mantle and strip the atmosphere from her. It would obliterate all life on our world." Equinox exclaimed in horror.
Superman nodded: "Goebbels is demanding the Allied bloc's immediate surrender."
"Or he'll use it?! How could we let this happen?" Captain Canada demanded.
"I wish I knew, Dan. I mean, we all know that the Nazis are facing ecological ruin and secessionist movements across the Reich as Goebbels continues to age. And he's the only survivor of the Nazi old guard. He fears what might happen afterward. There are rumours about cancer. Unfortunately, the lead particulate matter within Reich territories makes it impossible for my telescopic, x-ray or microscopic vision to confirm whether or not their Third Fuhrer is facing his last months of life and whether impending mortality and absolute power have driven him into psychotic fury."
"Karl, not even you could withstand that sort of weapon."
Superman nodded: "That's why I'm going to be the only one to sacrifice myself."
"What?!! Karl, non!!!" Fleur de Lys said.
"No, man, don't do it! You're the last survivor of your whole people! It may bring the Reich down in ruins but they'll have succeeded in destroying the best of us." Centrix protested.
"I've always wondered if it'd come down to this. I'm sorry, my friends. I cannot ask any of you to come with me. Under the circumstances, I'm sure you'll understand this." Around the GCH, their headquarters suddenly went into lockdown. Although Fleur de Lys and Equinox used their energy and ecological abilities against their sudden imprisonment, Captain Canada ran to stop Superman from embarking on his mission, only to embrace a: "Hologram. Damn you, Karl Caldwell! Damn it, no!"
"I can't believe this is happening..." Equinox sobbed as they watched the AlliedSat monitor and the streak of blue, red and yellow as it crossed the European boundary into Reich territory, headed for Peenemunde. And although Fuhrer Goebbels tried to activate the countdown sequence to the doomsday weapon in Northern Norway, it was fruitless. In an instant, Superman had upended the device and hurtled high into the sky and in a matter of seconds, out of the Earth's atmosphere, then beyond the boundary of Nazi and Allied lunar bases, high above the elliptic and then, the device reached zero. In an eye-aching burst of heat and light, Superman, Kal-El, Karl Caldwell of British Columbia, Canada, the man of steel, the man of tomorrow, the last child of Krypton, perished as he had lived, protecting the world that he had safeguarded and kept from harm.
EPILOGUE:
And we all know the story afterward. How revolution tore apart the Nazi empire and how Fuhrer Goebbels died at the hands of a war crimes firing squad after the murderous regime in Berlin was overthrown. It took the Guild of Canadian Heroes who had survived him several decades longer to limit the climate change ravages that an engorged, rapacious Third Reich had provoked against an unwilling Earth. Ultimately, though, they succeeded. But at too high a price. Although Nazism had sought to extinguish sections of the human species, they at least destroyed the sole representative of a civilisation, a whole world. And if there is a hell, then they face eternal damnation for that monstrous crime.
THE END
++
GUILD OF CANADIAN HEROES:
Superman cleared his throat: "I convene the latest meeting of GCH as its chair. Roll call. Nelvana?"
"Here, Superman."
"Captain Canada?"
"Eh, isn't it obvious, Supes?"
"Centrix?"
"Here."
"Equinox?"
"Here, Superman."
"Fleur de Lys?"
"Oui, Suprehomme."
"Iron Man?"
"Yes, Superman."
"Northguard?"
"Here, Superman."
"Thanks for arriving at such short notice, everyone. I'll come straight to the point. It looks like the Ratzis are close to perfecting their doomsday weapon."
"Say what?! I thought even they weren't insane enough to create a cobalt bomb." Captain Canada exclaimed.
"Uh, no, Dan. It's even worse than that, I'm afraid. Asteroid debris samples indicate high gamma radiation output, which one would associate with..."
"Blazes. Antimatter?! They're playing around with antimatter?! Wouldn't any attempt to synthesise it bankrupt them? It'd cost sixty billion dollars to produce even a microgram of that $#!*."
"I'm thinking wunderwaffe." Iron Man volunteered.
"All too true, Arthur. They appear to have located a device that produces the requisite amounts they need." Superman replied gravely.
"From where?! Even a half gram would match the nukes that the Yanks dropped on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Edo, or the Nazis dropped on Moscow, Leningrad or Kiev."
"I'm afraid we're talking about far more than that. They appear to have enough to create a kiloton device. Which would mean gigatons."
"No. That can't be right, Karl. That amount would lay waste to Grandmother Earth. It would shatter our mantle and strip the atmosphere from her. It would obliterate all life on our world." Equinox exclaimed in horror.
Superman nodded: "Goebbels is demanding the Allied bloc's immediate surrender."
"Or he'll use it?! How could we let this happen?" Captain Canada demanded.
"I wish I knew, Dan. I mean, we all know that the Nazis are facing ecological ruin and secessionist movements across the Reich as Goebbels continues to age. And he's the only survivor of the Nazi old guard. He fears what might happen afterward. There are rumours about cancer. Unfortunately, the lead particulate matter within Reich territories makes it impossible for my telescopic, x-ray or microscopic vision to confirm whether or not their Third Fuhrer is facing his last months of life and whether impending mortality and absolute power have driven him into psychotic fury."
"Karl, not even you could withstand that sort of weapon."
Superman nodded: "That's why I'm going to be the only one to sacrifice myself."
"What?!! Karl, non!!!" Fleur de Lys said.
"No, man, don't do it! You're the last survivor of your whole people! It may bring the Reich down in ruins but they'll have succeeded in destroying the best of us." Centrix protested.
"I've always wondered if it'd come down to this. I'm sorry, my friends. I cannot ask any of you to come with me. Under the circumstances, I'm sure you'll understand this." Around the GCH, their headquarters suddenly went into lockdown. Although Fleur de Lys and Equinox used their energy and ecological abilities against their sudden imprisonment, Captain Canada ran to stop Superman from embarking on his mission, only to embrace a: "Hologram. Damn you, Karl Caldwell! Damn it, no!"
"I can't believe this is happening..." Equinox sobbed as they watched the AlliedSat monitor and the streak of blue, red and yellow as it crossed the European boundary into Reich territory, headed for Peenemunde. And although Fuhrer Goebbels tried to activate the countdown sequence to the doomsday weapon in Northern Norway, it was fruitless. In an instant, Superman had upended the device and hurtled high into the sky and in a matter of seconds, out of the Earth's atmosphere, then beyond the boundary of Nazi and Allied lunar bases, high above the elliptic and then, the device reached zero. In an eye-aching burst of heat and light, Superman, Kal-El, Karl Caldwell of British Columbia, Canada, the man of steel, the man of tomorrow, the last child of Krypton, perished as he had lived, protecting the world that he had safeguarded and kept from harm.
EPILOGUE:
And we all know the story afterward. How revolution tore apart the Nazi empire and how Fuhrer Goebbels died at the hands of a war crimes firing squad after the murderous regime in Berlin was overthrown. It took the Guild of Canadian Heroes who had survived him several decades longer to limit the climate change ravages that an engorged, rapacious Third Reich had provoked against an unwilling Earth. Ultimately, though, they succeeded. But at too high a price. Although Nazism had sought to extinguish sections of the human species, they at least destroyed the sole representative of a civilisation, a whole world. And if there is a hell, then they face eternal damnation for that monstrous crime.
THE END