Chapter 975: The Hunger of the Sea

If there had been two sins that Bruno had not been able to firmly root out and destroy in this world that were the result of an increasing globalized world, it was narco trafficking and terrorism.

Stiff penalties were imposed on drug traffickers and terrorists. The penalty for bringing drugs into the German Reich, or attempting to incite violence or insurrection was death.

The law made no difference between possession and distribution, likewise it did not distinguish between violent rhetoric and active plots for terror.

If one tried to disrupt the German Reich’s law and order through either poison or chaos, the penalty was certain.

Upon conviction, the guilty were given one appeal attempt, and after it was confirmed they were taken out to the gallows and hanged.

There was no mercy for those who wished to overturn civilization, and the law was absolute in this regard. Strict minimum penalties for all crimes, and no maximum penalties. No plea bargains, no judges discretion, no district attorney considering whether to bring forward a case based on personal affiliation.

The law was absolute. And to enforce this law with certain German law enforcement organizations were funded exceptionally well, benefits were spectacular, and internal affairs cracked down on any form of corruption like a surgeon.

The penalty for corruption was considered the same as high treason. Naturally, this kept the streets safe, and public or untainted.

But one could not exorcise crime by simply being reactive and isolated. And this was where the New Hanseatic League came into prominence.

The younger sister of the Werewolf Group, the New Hanseatic League had initially been designed as a force of privateers protecting German trade routes abroad as the Kaiserliche Marine scaled down and decommissioned old warships.

Now they were tasked by fatherland and Kaiser with the interdiction of narco shipping and human trafficking rings. ℯ

As technology advanced so too did tactics, and today, several young men clad in gas masks beneath aramid fiber helmets and wearing blackened camouflage rode atop a rigid hull inflatable boat, travelling at 50 knots sped through the Mediterranean, a 13.2x118mm heavy machine gun located on its bow.

One man stood behind the heavy machine gun operator and hoisted a recoilless rifle known formally in the League’s armories as the Panzerfaust Modell 54, it was a rugged masterpiece of intermediate ordnance.

It completely discarded the wasteful, single-shot disposable tubes favored by less sophisticated militaries of Bruno’s past life, opting instead for a reusable system that blended flawless German machining tolerances with a brutal, strip-it-down-in-the-mud simplicity.

Running along the top of the main barrel was a rigid, permanently parallel steel spine housing the 9x41mm spotting rifles; bored from the same block of metal so it could never lose its zero on a bouncing boat.

The operator squeezed the forward trigger. Thud.

A 9x41mm tracer cut through the sea spray, tracking across the target vessel. The second shot confirmed it, erupting in a bright, unmistakable spark against the Liberty ship’s corroded waterline.

He held the crosshairs dead on the impact point, his finger sliding effortlessly back to the main rocket trigger.

Because the launcher utilized a specialized internal counter-mass cartridge locked behind a heavy, horizontal sliding-block breech, he didn’t have to worry about a violent backblast popping the RHIB’s rubber pontoons or incinerating his team.

The 75mm rocket flew through the air and struck the brittle mass-produced steel of the old liberty ship, punching way above its weight class. A massive hole fractured across the waterline, plunging the interior of the ship into the sea’s mass.

It was too large a ship for this attack to sink it, but it certainly was enough to stop the vessel dead in its tracks.

The RHIB closed the distance swiftly and aligned itself with the edge of the massive cargo vessel. The man on the heavy machine gun, and the driver standing by, as the boarding team secured their 6.8x41mm carbines and ensured their steel-reinforced polymer magazines were properly inserted ,with a round in the chamber.

After the weapons were checked, the lights were on, and the men were ready, the team lead pulled out a pneumatic grappling hook launcher. Firing the device up and into the air, it caught on the edge of the Liberty Ship’s railing.

He pulled the line taught to ensure it was secured, before letting his carbine rest slung against his chest. After which, he reached towards the deck and pulled out a multi-grenade launcher.

He fired all six 40mm gas grenades onto the deck of the vessel. He looked over at his men and made a chilling statement.

"Remember, no survivors...." He then hooked his combat belt to the rope. Using it to secure himself, as he began to scale the hull of the ship, gun in hand, ready to fire up at potential attackers as he boarded the uncompliant vessel.

The men of his fireteam each followed behind him until they were all on the ship above. They swiftly stashed their sidearms and returned to their primary weapons, where they found the crew coughing up a fit from the tear gas launched onto the deck of their ship.

The maritime operators did not hesitate, they aimed down their sights and fired a burst of rounds ruthlessly into the vitals of each man they saw heaving over a drawn weapon.

They then moved swiftly through the ship, eliminating every single living soul aboard its deck. They found the narcotics stashed by the ton in cargo hold, where they would leave them.

Rigging the ship to blow, they left the relic of a forgotten past to sink beneath the Mediterranean, its illicit cargo drowning with its slain crew.

Once the men returned to the RHIB, they pulled the evidence onto its side. Dossiers, ledgers, official communications, and of course the flag of the nation which sponsored the Narcos.

Photographs were documented and secured before the evidence was torched, its ashes tossed into the Mediterranean.

Officially, the actions of the New Hanseatic League never occurred. The Latin American ship went missing in the sea, along with its cargo and crew.

But the intelligence gathered ended up in Berlin, and another nation was added to a registry, one that no country on earth wanted to be a part of.