Happy New Year!
August, 2014 (1942 on Earth-2, 1880 on Earth-3, 1557 on Earth-4, and 516 CE/1269 AUC on Earth-5)
August 1: In Dsp-Fawcett City, Wis., Dr. Beautia Sivana completes a series of operations to give her half-sister Georgia a more pleasing appearance, due to her belief that 'everyone has a right to be beautiful, if they want to.' On Earth-4, the Beriev Altair from July 3, 2014, being slower than other Earth-1 spaceplanes due to errors in the upgrade process, finally arrives, landing at sea north of Mérida, Clp-Mexica.
Aug. 3: A 'wake-reducing' device (limited psychokinetic control of seawater) is developed by Axis scientists in Dsp-Königsberg - the equipment is bulky, and does not scale down well. In Dsp-UK, the RAF accept delivery of the Boulton Paul Reliant, a 'modernized' version of the company's
Defiant turreted fighter. Originally intended to be a new Mark of the Defiant, the Reliant is so different that it needed a new designation: the fighter uses a jet engine based on that of the MiG-15, a pair of forward autocannons based on the NR-23 from that aircraft (while retaining the Defiant's four-gun turret), as well as swept wings, head-up displays, low-light and infrared cameras and targeting sensors, and missile hard-points based on Inp-US and Inp-UK technology delivered by MIRV (see June 13, 2013), generally equivalent to Earth-1 1960s equipment (albeit using multiplex vacuum tubes, rather than transistors). Missiles include both air-to-air (for anti-bomber duties) and air-to-surface (primarily radar-seekers). Earth-1 observers are somewhat dubious about the use of a turret on this fighter.
Aug. 5: The Soviet Navy is observed using aircraft practically identical to the Vought F5U (see April 20, 2014).
OSS analysts determine that in order for the Soviets to have them in the numbers observed, they must have gotten examples, if not full production plans, months before the first losses at sea. Hermann Goering gives in to the pleading of
his brother and, after completing negotiations with Il Duce, sends the inmates from those concentration camps that still exist to Italy by train. He also arranges for his family to take a vacation in Switzerland, though he himself must remain in Berlin.
Aug. 7: In Dsp-USA, United States Rocket Academy opens its doors; the school fight song, 'We are the Rocketeers of the Academy,' plays well on the radio. The Red Skull assassinates Goering, assumes the position of Führer, and orders the trains carrying concentration camp prisoners to be stopped. He is mostly too late, as Goering and Mussolini made the trains run on time, such that most of them are already in Italy.
Aug. 8: Dsp-German
rat-bomb paranoia reaches its highest point, after a Wehrmacht soldier witnesses a rat enter an ammo dump in Dsp-Paris, shortly before said dump explodes (the soldier only survived because his patrol route took him behind a sturdy stone wall just after seeing the rat; he was deafened for some hours, however). It is very likely that the rat had nothing to do with the explosion, but the SOE has little interest in enlightening them. The Red Skull threatens war with Dsp-Italy if the concentration camp prisoners are not returned. Mussolini sends a coded message to the Allies: 'Alea iacta est.' Allied personnel in North Africa, Malta, and the British Isles begin loading onto troopships within a few hours of the transmission.
Aug. 9: Italy declares war on Dsp-Germany, and officially joins the Allies. On Earth 1, after a disturbing and rather painful conversation with the thoughtform of
Chloe Sullivan, Allison Mack arranges for a lawyer to contact the FBI on her behalf, on the matter of testifying against
NXIVM.
Aug. 10: The
Perisid meteor shower occurs over Earth 1; some of the meteor fragments that reach the surface continue to
glow faintly in various colours, even after cooling. Early in the morning, Allied troops begin landing in northern Dsp-Italy. Pius XII sends out an encyclical condemning the Nazis, and copies of the summary thereof are dropped as propaganda leaflets on southern Dsp-Germany.
Aug. 11: The Red Skull officially charters the Waffen-SS Psikorps, a currently regiment-sized paramilitary unit of psychics (mostly telepaths), with company or battalion-sized 'divisions,' mostly trained by the Cythereans, and a very few already-skilled native Dsp-German psykers. To aid in deceiving the Allies as to the number of active psykers in the SS, the SS-Psikorps is somewhat light on junior officers, having about as many men and women ranked at SS-Sturmbannführer (equivalent to a Major) as at SS-Untersturmführer (equivalent to a Second Lieutenant). Enlisted and NCO members of the SS-Psikorps tend to have rather weak abilities, or in some cases, no active power, but training in assisting psychics in some manner.