Beneath the Reich Chancellery, in the armored bowels of the Naval Command Bunker, a projection flickered to life.
A grainy, infrared time-lapse.
Target: HMCS Ottawa.
Timestamp: 0243 hours.
Playback: 1.25x speed.
A thermal silhouette, Canadian destroyer, C-class retrofit, static on the surface.
Then, a flash.
A pulse of overpressure light. The kind only a select few in the world even knew how to recognize.
Seconds later: the hull bloomed open like a crushed tin can.
Fragmentation spiraled upward in a mushrooming plume of seawater, white-hot shrapnel, and atomized flame.
The room remained silent.
The projector snapped off with a final pop as the lights returned.
"As you can see, Reichsmarschall," said Admiral von Stosch, voice tight with awe,"the APTT exceeded all expectations. Hull penetration, fuel dispersal, ignition, flawless."
He tapped the dossier beside him.
