“ACE: Protecting the World” was a one-hour drama that ran from 1957 until 1997 which was the centennial of the founding of the organization by President McKinley in a dimension near our dimension in Washington.  This story was first aired on Friday March 20. 1981. 

July 31, 1944 – A secret underground laboratory in the heart of Germany. 

The narrator says in a rich baritone, “For the last year, renegade German scientists and engineers that formerly worked for ACE have worked with three agents from the Karngranian Empire which opposes ACE.  They left the organization and had their transporter passes removed to prevent them from returning to their lab to work on the projects they were involved with.  The only thing ACE couldn’t remove was the memory of what they had been working on.  That is why the Karngranians wanted them to work on their projects which could help Nazi Germany possibly turn around the outcome of the war in its favor.”

In the lab where the program opens, there are five scientists and engineers that are now working for the Fatherland along with the agents from the Karngranian Empire.   There are various projects on the work benches and in the test ranges ready to be tested. 

A general approaches one of the agents and asks, “You and your two assistants have been here for five months with our people and what do you have to show for your work?  I see half-completed weapons and devices that I have no idea if they will work.  The Allies have landed in France and may be here in a few months.  I demand results.”

“You will get them.  ACE revealed a lot of information to your men which my assistants are retrieving at this time which will help your cause.  The memory retrieval caps are doing their job.  ACE removed most of what they knew, but not everything.”

“Do you have anything ready to be tested?”

“As a matter of fact we do.  Come with me to the first firing range.”

The pair walk over to the firing range and the agent picks up a machine gun that is wired to a power pack. 

“This is a mag.  It is short for electromagnetic discharge weapon.  It can fire upwards to 30,000 steel projectiles a minute.  The Allies tried to develop a similar weapon for anti-aircraft batteries.  But the muzzle velocity was less than that of conventional guns.  This weapon can fire projectiles at a muzzle velocity of over 2.5 kilometers per second.  Let me demonstrate.”

The agent places the power pack on his back and inserts a clip of 300 hollow steel projectiles into the breech.  The clip weighs over 20 pounds and requires a special harness to allow the shooter to carry and fire the weapon.  He fires around 100 projectiles in a short burst that sounds like ripping fabric.  The target is an inch of armor plate which is torn to shreds.  The general is impressed. 

“Very good.  When can we start manufacturing that weapon?”

“You can have the first 1,000 in the hands of soldiers by late summer.  The larger caliber weapons can be available by fall.  They will be a good compliment to the new main gun on the next generation of Panzer tank; the Panzer VII Supreme Panther.  Come with me.”

The men walk into another room where the lights come on to reveal a huge camouflaged tank with steeply sloped armor, two machine guns on the hull of the tank, and a machine gun on the top of the turret.  The tank is about 40% longer than most tanks and has a 90 mm main gun. 

“This is the most advanced tank ever built.  It uses special ply armor and a jet engine to power the generator which supplies electricity to the twin 1000-horse drive motors, the systems, the bank of capacitors, and the weapons.  It is larger than any tank in the war because it needs to hold a bank of capacitors for the weapons, two enormous fuel tanks, and the projectiles for the weapons.  Since they are hollow, the 90 mm shells can be stacked inside one another to save some room.  A column of shells that consists of a dozen projectiles can be placed in the breech and fired at a rate of one a second.  The machine guns use motor-driven belts that are pulled through the breech and have a firing rate of between 300 and 3000 rounds a minute.”

The agent pulls at a panel on the tank and extends a ladder that helps him climb onto the tank and into the turret.  He crawls down into the cockpit and fires up the jet engine that whines as the turbines reach 20,000 RPMs.   Seconds later, the turret rotates and is aimed at a target which is a slab of armor plate that is 50 cm thick; much thicker than the armor of any tank on the battlefields.  Three shots in a second are fired at the target which is broken into four pieces that fall to the floor with a clanking thud.  The two machine guns on the hull of the tank spit out a couple 100 projectiles at two-inch steel targets that eventually look like Swiss cheese until they fall apart. 

The engine is turned off and the agent climbs out of the tank.  He slides off of the tank and onto the floor. 

“There are two 200 liter fuel tanks protected by ten centimeters of ply armor.  The engine sips fuel at a rate of one liter per kilometer.  That is because the engine uses plasma igniters to burn the fuel which can be anything from petrol to perfume.   This is the first of at least 1000 tanks we will be able to field against the puny Shermans the Americans use by winter.  The factory is almost ready to start turning out upwards to two dozen tanks a day.”

“Isn’t that too ambitious?” asks the general.

“Not at all,” says the agent.  “My people have generously supplied the factory facilities, raw materials, and over 1000 workers that will supplement the workers your people supply.”

“Then why do you need our scientists and engineers if your people seem to have everything in order?”

“What your people learned from ACE has already helped us develop the ply armor, the engine, and the weapons.  We expect more revelations in the near future.  Better and more powerful engines may be available shortly which can be used on planes that will have the range to reach the United States to drop their bomb loads on New York City and Washington, D.C. and still reach Spain on the return flight.  With speeds in excess of 1000 kilometers per hour, the trip shouldn’t take too long.”

“But that is faster than the speed of sound,” says the general in amazement. 

“I’m well aware of that.  The sound barrier is not made of stone.  It is just a speed that my people conquered centuries ago.”

“Then why don’t you let us have the technology you are accustomed to?”

“My associates and I don’t have access to the technology.  But your technology is developed sufficiently to allow us to improve it even more.”

The agent demonstrates more weapons and shows models of other weapons systems that he proposes to use against the Allies.  At the same time, a team of five ACE agents prepare to shift into another dimension to enter the lab.  After they shift, they attempt to enter the facilities, but it is protected by a powerful transdimensional field that prevents people from entering even through another dimension. 

The ACE agents shift back into this dimension inside the barracks of the facilities one night while most of the soldiers are asleep.  They slip on the uniforms of soldiers and approach the lab facilities’ secret entrance inside a house.  Two guards are standing at attention at the door. 

“You’re early,” says one of the guards. 

“Word from Berlin indicates that this facility might be infiltrated by Allied agents that are pretending to be soldiers for the Fatherland.” 

“We didn’t hear that from the general.  How do you know?” asked the guard. 

“Because,”  The agents whip out their pistols and press the barrels to the heads of the guards so fast that they can’t respond in time to prevent 100,000 watts of energy from penetrating their skulls and frying their brains instantly.  “We are the infiltrators.”   The guards are grabbed and laid onto the floor silently. 

The leader of the group of agents pushes a buzzer to alert the guards on the other side of the door to open it. 

“Password,” demands one of the guards on the other side of the door.  One of the agents is from Newgate and reads the man’s mind.  He replies in German.

“Black Forest.”

The doors open and the agents fire energy projectiles at the six guards that are on the steps that lead to the lab.  More soldiers leave the lab after the alarm is sounded and are gunned down by the agents.  The agents enter the stairwell and bolt the heavy steel doors close.  It will take time to burn through the doors with a plasma torch which the alien agents supplied the facilities with.  They would have to disable the transdimensional field protection to escape or pray for a miracle. 

The agents enter the main lab where the weapons are on the benches and in the ranges.  No one is in the lab.  A few plasma expansion bombs are thrown toward the benches and equipment and explode on contact with high-intensity bursts of plasma energy. 

Seconds later, some synthetics enter the lab and begin firing upon the agents that fire back and throw more plasma expansion bombs at the defenders.  The synthetics only have mags while the ACE agents have power rays.  Two agents take off to find the former ACE scientists to retrieve them while the three remaining agents fight their way into the labs and eventually the factory facilities.  Bombs explode and melt weapons and equipment while the power rays rip apart synthetics and materials. 

The three enemy agents fight it out with the ACE agents and are eventually killed while the synthetics that remain stop fighting since their controllers no longer give them commands.  The German  scientists and engineers are found and brought to the lab.  The transdimensional field protection hasn’t been disabled, so everyone shifts to another dimension and with for the soldiers to enter the facilities through the open doors. 

Once the soldiers are down the steps, the agents and German scientists and engineers are able to go up the stairs to the outside where they can transport away.  The destruction of the lab facilities is completed when one of the agents rolls a plasma expansion bomb the size of a bowling ball toward the building that is hiding the entrance to the underground facilities.  He transports the device to his location and rolls it into the structure.  As it is exploding and burning into a crater the bomb forms by exploding the labs, the agents and the scientists and engineers transport away. 

The narrator says, “With the success of the mission, ACE prevents the Nazis from using advanced weapons against the Allied forces which might have turned the tide against the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge.  If the Germans had been able to use the weapons being developed, the entire outcome of the war might have been altered.  There is no telling what might have happened.  But thanks to ACE we didn’t need to find out. 

“Next week, the files of ACE will be opened again and another story will be presented.  A preview of that episode will be shown during the credits after some commercial messages.  The cooperation of ACE and its agents is deeply appreciated. 

“Until next week, this is Vin Draimner reminding you that ACE is out there making sure the world we love remains a world we can live on in freedom from alien domination.  That is a promise ACE can’t afford to break.”