The Unseen Front

Diechtrin walked through the corridors of Der Riese, the top-secret Nazi scientific Facility, with a brisque pace, intent on investigating this discovery. He was gleeful at the prospect of making progress when he had been in command for less than a month. His predecessor, a Lt. Colonel, had gone mad. The exact cause had yet to be determined, but he was not the only one. Many scientists and soldiers had gone insane; these were usually the ones who had had most contact or spent too much time around Die Glocke when it was active. These mistakes were soon rectified however to minimize potential risk. The more men they lost, the more money they required to train and place them in the facility.

Diechtrin arrived at the facility's laboratory entrance. He pressed the comm button to get himself inside.

"Colonel Johaan Diechtrin, universal serial number 9-1-9-1-9-9-4." The door promptly slid open, and the Colonel walked inside. He approached the control panel where his lead scientist, Dr. Heinrich der Shück, was seated, excitedly tapped at the controls. He looked up when his superior entered the room, and gave him a gleeful smile. He stood up and approached his Colonel, throwing formality the wind.

"Johaan, great news! We've isolated a mathematical algorithm which has led us to a special frequency that we believe will allow extended power usage while at the same time letting us-"

"In German, please." Heinrich was annoyed at his friend and superior, but complied anyway.

"We may have found the frequency that will allow us to open the gate for extended periods of time, while at the same time using greater power to make the portal more potent, should it indeed work." Diechtrin showed a rare smile.

"Good. Power it up and let us see what it will do."

"Yes, sir!" Heinrich walked over to the control panel and began tapping at the controls. He donned his goggles, Diechtrin doing the same, and prepared to activate Die Glocke. Diechtrin approached the ultra-dense superglass window and marveled at the Nazi's greatest creation: Die Glocke. It was at least 7 feet tall, it had bell-shaped shell with gauges all over it, electrical wires an inch thick going in and out near the bottom and into the floor. The chamber it was in was about ten feet high, and fifteen feet across in diameter. It was lined with rubber mats all over the floor and ceiling, except for the lead door to the left of the window, the only entrance. The lights on Die Glocke lit up, and there was a slight vibration echoing throughout the compound. Were someone whistling, talking, or even shuffling papers they would not hear it. Just before Heinrich had turned it on, the door had opened, and a destitute-looking man was thrust in. He was a Jew from the nearest concentration camp, some hundred miles away. About half of them were shipped here for the purpose of testing and cleaning the room in which Die Glocke was held. The poor man banged and scratched on the door, begging to be let out. His cries, however, went unheeded. Within thirty seconds, Die Glocke had finished warming up, and began whirring even louder. Every person who was inside Der Riese and near the laboratory would be able to clearly hear the active machine. A small glow began to emerge from the top of it, bathing the room in ultraviolet, and visible, light. The man in the room was quickly blinded, and consequently stumbled in the chamber, finding his way to Die Glocke, and mistakenly using it for support. He screamed in agony, and pull his hands away. He could not see them, but Diechtrin could. They were putrefied, as though someone had performed a hand transplantation, and the donor had died many years earlier. Slowly the mans entire body began to putrefy, his skin turning purplish-gray and sliding off his skin like a viscous soup. He fell to the ground after a minute of this torture, dead, decomposing.

Heinrich slowly pushed the handle controlling the voltage upward, even after the man died. After a minute of careful pushing and observation, he reached 90%. Die Glocke would require a surge of energy before the reaction would be attained, and so Heinrich paused at 90%, observing the effects, then quickly amped it up to 100% voltage. The glow became a shine, almost too bright to look at. The top began to emit electrical energy which arced to the exposed door, making several sustained connections which caused the door to grow white hot in a matter of moments. With a sudden intensity, the light brightened then faded as a tear breached the lead door. Diechtrin looked on in awe, staring at the lead door, which now had what looked like a rough tear in it. However, on the other side of the tear, he saw not concrete, nor metal, nor screaming guard. What he saw was a forest. Heinrich saw it too, and began shouting in joy. The Colonel began laughing, his scientist friend laughing with him. Their laughter was interrupted by a siren and flashing red lights. Heinrich looked at his controls, and quickly manipulated them. Instantly, the arcs and the portal disappeared, and Die Glocke began to slow it's whirring. Diechtrin was rather surprised.

"Heinrich, why did you stop, what happened?"

"Sir, the temperature was melting the lead, and the radiation was just starting to pour through. Nothing dangerous, very tiny amounts. If we want to do this, we'll need a stronger material. Apparently it latches to anything that will conduct. Lead however has too low of a melting point to sustain the portal."

"I see, and would it be possible to enter this chamber without, well..." He gestured to the pile of now-black goop puddling in the room.

"I think so, but it would be dangerous. We must test it first."

"Of course. Have the rats come in and clean the chamber, take a break, and we shall continue the experiments later. You have done well, Heinrich, the Führer will be pleased."

"I live only to please him. HEIL HITLER!" He flashed a crisp salute to the officer.

"Heil Hitler!" he responded. The concluded their salutes, and Diechtrin left for his quarters to file the report. Heinrich gave the order, and the guard outside the room for Die Glocke opened the door. Five Jews came in, one with a ladder, and they began to tear down the mats to take them to the incinerator. After removing the mats, they then scrubbed everything down with a lime solution before placing new mats over everything. Despite their pleas, the guard made them all clean the black mess that was once one of them.

It was surreal. There was only ringing, everything was blurred. He could feel a weight on his leg. He kicked off the debris, and got up, coughing at the sudden intake of dust. He looked around at his command room, destroyed and in pieces. Smith was dead, underneath half a ton or more of rock. Tim was lying on the ground next to a wall, a bit of blood coming from his head. Jonesig ran over and knelt next to his friend, checking his vitals. Two more rounds struck the areas in front of the hillside bunker, taking out most of their infantry. Tim was alive, just unconscious. The colonel left the bunker, getting up on top. He looked at the horizon, and he could see the German fighters closing in on their position. He looked over to where the AA gun was. Keyword: was.

"DAMMIT!" He ran back into the command room. The radio was knocked over, but didn't seem to have sustained any significant damage. He picked it up and began barking into it. "HELLO!? Foxtrot Uniform Bravo, this is base Alpha Romeo, we have been hit, do you copy?" He listened intently for several seconds. To his relief, a cool voice responded to him.

"Alpha Romeo, this is Foxtrot Uniform Bravo, we copy. What do you need?" The Colonel looked outside, and saw the fighters picking off his men dutifully, maybe ten of them. Some were flying overhead, undoubtedly getting ready to attack anyone who tried to leave the base. "We got enemy birds taking our our men and no Alpha Alpha to defend ourselves with! We need air support and medical transport NOW! Copy?"

"Copy, we are mobilizing now. ETA two minutes." Two minutes. I hope we last that long... Seeing as there was nothing else he could do, the Colonel picked up the tags from Smith's exposed upper torso, pocketed them, and then moved Tim to a safer area. During that time, he looked out again. His men were now locked into a firefight with an outrageous number of German troops. Sucking up the inevitable death he was about to face, he exited the command room and went up the steps, took the immediate right, and manned the still-functional M2 machine gun, He chambered a round, and took his aim at the thickest bunch he could find. He said a short prayer, then opened fire.

Pinkie opened the door and trudged into her favorite bakery ever. She was still really stressed, not knowing what was going to happen, and then nopony would listen to her. She went up to the counter, took a seat on the stool, sighing in her confusion.

"Barkeep, I need an ultra-fudge float, stat. Double the whipped cream," she said, putting five bits on the counter. Mr. Cake approached her with her order.

"Pinkie, you work here, and you know me."

"Yeah, you're right Larry, but formalities just don't cut it right now."

"My first name's Carrot."

"Does it really matter? Nothing really matter's when your friends never listen." She immediately gulped down the entire mug in one swig, slammed it down, wiped her mouth off and ordered another.

"What's got you down, Pinkie?" She sighed.

"Well, I really need somepony to listen to me right now, but no one will. I have a bad feeling that something BIG is coming, but every time I try to tell somepony, they're busy, and I-" she looked up and realized that Mr. Cake had gone off to the register to help a customer. She sighed deeply, hair deflating, and gulped down the rest of her drink before walking out the door into Ponyville.

A/N

I'd like to take a moment to let you all know that I am basing this off of actual events and places and experiments. There WAS a Die Glocke which WAS in a compound known as Der Riese, it DID cause putrefaction, not to the degree which I described, but it did leave animals and plants as goop. They also DID use Jews as the maids for Die Glocke. With that said, you can decide for yourselves what parts actually happened, or if you're curious, just Google it.