Although its proponents point out various incidents during this period when prominent leaders on either side seemed bent on provoking a nuclear exchange, this theory remains controversial. Both governments continue to deny that their leaders were anything other than themselves at this time, while a rival theory proposes that their instability was caused by Nazi agents using some kind of mind-control weapon.
Although Walhalla was untouchable when it was first founded, the Order of the Black Sun knew that this could not last. Therefore, a high priority was given to base defenses. Initially, the KSK weapons from the Haunebu saucers were moved from the crafts’ undersides to improvised top mounts, but further development has taken place ever since.
In addition to the saucers’ KSK armament, Kammler brought a number of other weapon projects to the Moon, with the intention of developing them in parallel until a clear front-runner emerged.
The Feuerball electrostatic weapon was the first to be dropped: it was soon discovered that outside the protection of the Earth’s magnetosphere, the Solar Wind and other sources of radiation interfered catastrophically with its guidance systems, and its electrostatic output was too small to have any effect on a craft that was hardened against the levels of radiation that are common on the Moon.
The Kugelblitz fell by the wayside almost as quickly, and for the same reasons. Research focused on the three energy-beam weapon projects: Rheotron, Röntgenkanone, and the combat-tested KSK. Over time, the Rheotron and Röntgenkanone projects merged to produce a viable long-range weapon: continually developed and upgraded, the KSK has remained Walhalla’s main defensive armament.
Reconnaissance before the US attack in 1972 found that large KSK weapons — ranging from 20–80mm — had been mounted to give clear fields of fire upon every part of the base’s surroundings, with outposts on the rim of the Aristarchus crater. These emplacements remain today — doubtless with upgraded weaponry — and so far they have been the main targets of recent American MQ-14 drone strikes.
Another area of development has been in the field of laser weapons. The Eisenmänner battle robots are armed with powerful lasers, and in 1972 US troops also encountered Nazi troopers armed with rifle-sized versions.
By 1944, Germany was developing a number of guided and unguided missiles. In addition to strategic bombardment weapons like the V-1 and V-2, a number of promising surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and air-to-air weapons were being designed to help break up American bomber boxes, and so were radio-controlled antishipping missiles.
By February 6, 1945, Kammler had canceled all SAM projects, intending to divert personnel and resources to Haunebu and KSK development. However, he did take a number of Hs 117 Schmetterling and Reinmetall-Borsig Reintochter missiles to Antarctica as defenses for the stopgap Neuschwaben landbase. American aircraft did not come within range of these weapons during Operation High Jump, and they were never used. American forces who explored the base during Operation Windmill found them abandoned, apparently because their control surfaces, designed for use in Earth’s atmosphere, made them useless on the Moon.
However, Kammler did take a number of unguided rockets with him to bolster Walhalla’s defenses. The Werfer-Granate 21 was unpopular with the Luftwaffe because of the drag caused by its wide launch tube, and Kammler had little difficulty acquiring a stock of these weapons, which he mounted in modified Nebelwerfer multiple launchers. An upgraded version of the same system was encountered by US forces in 1972. The rockets created dense clouds of flak that were capable of shredding an unarmored space suit, with catastrophic consequences for the wearer.
Recent US drone missions have not encountered any flak defenses. Military analysts believe that all the base’s rockets were expended in 1972 and never replaced, either because the ingredients for their fuel and warheads are hard to find on the Moon, or because of the base’s increased reliance on KSKs and other energy-beam weapons.
To carry out the second phase of the Bifrost Protocol, Kammler needed long-range heavy weapons capable of bombarding Earth from outside its atmosphere. Von Braun had made sure that Germany’s rocket research was out of his grasp, but he had access to several other weapons, both existing and in development.
The Weaponry Division had to solve three main problems before the Mjölnir phase of the protocol could begin. First, all weapons, along with any ammunition, had to be fabricated largely from resources that were available on the Moon, and be capable of operating in lunar conditions. This meant that they could not rely on conventional propellants like cordite or gunpowder.
Second, the projectiles themselves had to be large enough to survive entry into the Earth’s atmosphere without burning up completely. This meant they had to be at least 33 feet in diameter, or about the size of a house. In all of history, no artillery piece had ever been designed with a caliber over 914mm, less than one-tenth the required diameter.
Finally, several targeting problems had to be overcome. Any Moon-to-Earth weapon would have to be mounted in a fixed emplacement because of its size, using the relative motion of the Earth and Moon to come to bear on a target. Since a projectile would take more than a day to reach the Earth, firing required complex calculations. Even then, the shot could be deflected by the atmosphere, striking off-target, burning up at high altitude, or even bouncing back out into space.
The Allies had put paid to the V-3 emplacements in France before they could become effective, but in 1945 the design represented Germany’s best hope for developing super-long-range artillery. A larger version of the gun was built between 1949 and 1950 to fire non-explosive lunar rocks of about 440 pounds. Its size was dictated by the limitations of using explosive charges in lunar conditions and the projectiles usually broke up in the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere.
However, from 1949 to 1954 a handful of them traced a line across Russia and Western Europe, although none hit a settlement of any size. The relative motion of the Earth and the Moon, and in particular the Earth’s rotation, made targeting a complex process, especially in the east — west dimension. These difficulties are evident from the fact that out of seven impacts along a corridor measuring less than 100 miles from north to south, none fell within 200 miles of a capital city or any other significant target.
Dissatisfied with the results of the first weapon, Kammler ordered a complete redesign. The new weapon, designated V-9, employed the same long-barreled, fixed design but was a rail gun, using electromagnetic energy from the Glocke to fire rocks as large as a two-story house, that were better able to survive entry into Earth’s atmosphere. At the same time targeting calculations were improved to take better account of the deflection caused by impact on the upper atmosphere.