Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 857: A Quiet Peace

In the days following his official retirement, Bruno found himself with more free time than he had ever possessed in his entire life.

For over sixty years, since the day he first reincarnated in this world, he had spent every waking hour learning, improving, advancing his skills, or doing his best to manipulate the world around him to achieve the desired outcome.

Now that he had concluded the majority of his goals in life, he really didn’t have much to do.

After an aimless morning, Bruno found himself in his office once more, for the first time since the war had come to an end, he sat in his fortress of solitude, where he had for the last thirty odd some years plotted and executed Germany’s rise to the undisputed global hegemon.

The war had seen Germany develop at a rapid rate. Arms races had a tendency to do that. But many weapons were designed with scalability in the immediate moment in mind, and access to current supply chains to support them .

Not overall technical supremacy. Jet engines had replaced turboprops in limited capacity; interceptors were outfitted specifically to catch up to and gun down allied bombers and their escorts, and fly out of the zone of conflict before ever being detected by the enemy.

Yet, the majority of aircraft in the German Luftstreitkraft were still powered by turboprop engines.

With a flick of the pen, Bruno shifted his corporation’s trajectory and made a suggestion to the German General Staff to begin immediate investment into the mass development and mass manufacture of next-generation jet-powered aircraft.

From strategic airlifts, to tankers, to fighters and bombers, Bruno wanted the German air fleet to be modern, supersonic, and economical. With exceptions for a limited number of aircraft meant to operate in specialized roles for austere landings.

For Germany, this made sense; the German Reichsheer had stood proudly at five million active soldiers during the height of the Second World War. Now, 4/5 of those would be retiring, perhaps even more.

The equipment that those divisions were currently issued would be decommissioned, sold where needed, and whatever was left over would be scrapped for spare parts.

This was not merely a reduction in size, but a deliberate abandonment of the mass-war doctrine that had defined the previous century.

The future German military would not simply be smaller; it would be fundamentally different.

It needed to be lean, professional, and specialized; structured not for continental annihilation, but for deterrence, rapid response, and precise force projection abroad when necessary.

Never again for wars of attrition or occupation, but for swift, lethal strikes designed to cripple hostile leadership, collapse command structures, and end conflicts before they could metastasize.

In addition to this, Bruno sent a proposal to his conglomerate to immediately divert investment funds where possible to their aerospace program. Shifting away from strategic and military goals and instead towards exploration.

By the end of the century, Bruno wanted Germany to have already established at least semi-permanent settlements on the moon, and Mars. With the aim of developing asteroid mining and settling Titan.

He knew he would not live to see the day, but Bruno wanted to ensure that this time humanity did not derail its own progress.

Finally, Bruno made one last suggestion. As always, Bruno’s process of technological development had been to cut out the guesswork and tell men with better minds for science and engineering than himself exactly where the end of the path led.

Until now, Germany sat at a stage of technological development that was approaching the 21st century of his past life in certain areas, and stuck in the mid cold war in others.

This wasn’t accidental, but a matter of prioritization and ease of development. It was significantly easier, once one knew the basic principles of how they were made, to develop aramid fibers and composite body armor than it was to create microprocessors and modern electronics.

On the one hand, German infantry systems were already approaching a capability comparable to the early days of the Global War on Terror during Bruno’s past life, while computers, communications, and anything else requiring advanced micro-processors were still in their infancy.

Bruno sought to remedy that by simply hinting to those electrical and software engineers that a heavy emphasis and development of microprocessors and an expansion of computer technology was an absolute necessity.

By the end of the decade, Bruno wanted personal computers in all government and corporate offices across the fatherland.

And after drafting these suggestions, rough sketches, and a list of ideal criteria as well as an expressed “developmental path to completion”, Bruno realized he had burnt away half the day.

He sat back in his seat, stretching his fingers after a hard day’s work. He looked out the windows located behind his seat and quietly contemplated as he gazed upon the setting sun.

“I’m really not cut out for retirement after all….”

It was a thought that Bruno had always known about himself. Whether it was this life, or the one before. He had always found himself working hard towards some form of betterment.

Whether for himself in his past life, or his family, nation, fatherland, and Kaiser in this life. Bruno truly could not sit still for long.

But after today, Bruno realized something: even when he was voluntarily drafting memos, crude concept sketches, and nationwide developmental policies. He was still doing far less work than he had while he was the Reichsmarschall.

Because of this, he simply smirked and took out a beer from his cabinet. Popping off the cap and pouring the bottle into a ceremonial stein, Bruno drank the frothy draught with a look of satisfaction on his aging face.

“So this is it… The peace I have been fighting so long to obtain… I think I could get used to this….”

As he set the stein down, there was a soft knock at the office door.

Bruno didn’t bother turning at first. He already knew who it was.

The door opened quietly, and Heidi stepped inside, carrying a small plate in her hands. Bread, sliced neatly. Cheese. Something warm that smelled faintly of herbs and butter.

“You forgot to eat again,” she said, not accusing, just stating a fact long proven by experience.

Bruno exhaled through his nose, a faint chuckle escaping him as he accepted the plate.

“Old habits,” he replied.

She leaned against the edge of his desk, watching him for a moment before speaking again.

“Well,” Heidi said gently, “you’re allowed to have them now.”

Bruno looked down at the food, then out toward the window once more, the last light of the sun fading beyond the horizon.

Peace, he decided, might begin with something as simple as this.