June 17, 1944
Normandy, france
Demona crouched in the shadows near the hedgerow, watching as the line of armored vehicles ground by.
Somehow the Vehicle's had gotten behind her, and only her keen sense of hearing had prevented her from being caught in front of them.
The line of passing vehicle ground to a halt. Demona could make out the Black and white crosses on their sides. A half-track stopped in front of Demona, and she could hear the guttural language of the passengers, Germans. She saw the insignia on one of the soldier's collar tabs, two runic S's like lighting bolts. Waffen SS troopers. Great. She had seen Viking berserkers who displayed less savagery then SS troopers
Demona heard the drone of new engines, different from those that the Germans used.
Was that why this column had stopped? There was no way that these SS trooper's could have heard them before her... an SS officer ran down the line of armored vehicles, pounding on their sides and giving orders.
Armored cars and half-tracks pulled off the road, driving through breaks in the hedgerows to the fields behind.
"Raus!! Schnell!! Tommy's ein der strasse!!" the officer reached the half-track in front of Demona.
"Los!" he pointed at the hedgerow where Demona was hiding. A full squad of SS soldiers leaped from the Half track and took cover in the undergrowth. Demona sat completely still, barely breathing as the SS men dug in all around her. Demona, for once, was lucky. In the darkness none of the SS troopers saw her. She slowly crept away from the edge of the hedgerow, and lay prone in the ditch at the bottom. Then, inch by inch, Demona began to crawl away from the dug in SS. Ten meters away she crawled back onto the road, and began to sneak down the road, away from the German soldiers. So focused was she on moving quietly she didn't notice the column of vehicles until it was to late. She froze like a dear in the headlights that suddenly lit up the roadbed.
"I've got you now Demon!" A voice boomed from behind the headlights.
Why do they always show up at times like these? Demona wondered. Then she had an idea,
"Like hell you do!" Demona shouted back, then turned and ran back the way she had come, getting on all fours to gain speed.
"After her!!" , Jeeps and half track's took off after Demona, with the Hunter in the lead.
The hedgerows erupted in gunfire, red tracers ripped through the air, bullets riddled the jeeps, a Panzer Faust anti-tank rocket smacked into one of the British half tracks, turning it into a flaming wreck. A few soldiers managed to get out of their vehicles and return fire, but were scythed down by machine guns almost as soon as they fired.
Miraculously the Hunters Jeep and one half track burst through this corridor of death and kept chasing Demona, even as their comrades were being wiped out. Demona rounded a corner of the hedgerow, and skidded to a stop, staring in awe at the massive shape the loomed in front of her. Suddenly a dozen points of sharp, stabbing pain erupted in her back. Demona fell to the ground.
"Yer mine Demon." the Hunter gloated. "After all this......." the Hunters eyes widened. "Dear god in heaven"
In front of his Jeep, brightly illuminated by his headlights, was a Panther tank.
"Back up!" the Hunter ordered, too late, the Panthers gun roared, sending a high explosive shell into the half track.
"Good god!" a soldier in the jeep yelled, then the Panthers ball turret machine gun raked the Jeep with bullets.
Demona awoke slowly, as her vision cleared she remembered what had happened.
The massive tank was gone, but it's victims remained. The half track was a burnt out shell, and the Jeep had been pushed off the road. Demona rushed over to the jeep and began to pull bodies out of it. Four young soldier's, British judging by the uniforms and equipment. But the Hunter wasn't there.
"Godammit", Demona cursed, her eyes glowed red, and she began to bash one of the dead British soldiers heads' against the jeep.
She was so carried away with rage that she didn't see the soldiers that moved out from the hedgerows.
CLICK, the metallic noise of a safety being taken off a gun penetrated Demona's anger.
"Hande hoch!" a gruff voice ordered.
Demona whirled, charging at the Germans. An SS trooper threw himself to the ground, barely dodging Demona's rage-fueled attack. Demona turned and lunged at another trooper, slashing him across the chest with her talons. The trooper fell to the ground, screaming. Demona grabbed another SS grenadier but the trooper grabbed his double edged fighting knife out his uniform tunic and slashed Demonas wrist, cutting her tendons. The SS trooper managed to get away, Demona used her tail to trip another SS trooper that had tried to get behind her but before she could finish him, he pulled a Walther pistol and emptied it into her chest at near point blank range, the flurry of light nine-millimeter rounds had little effect on the extremely angry, and immortal, gargoyle but the temporary halt in Demona's attack gave the patrols machine gunner the time he needed to level his MG-42, and begin firing . Demona was knocked to the ground by the sheer volume of fire, than the rest of the patrol opened fire, their K-98 rifle's, STG-44 assault rifle's, and MP-40 machine pistol's adding their voices to the MG-42s . The sheer volume of fire was such that Demona was actually ripped apart by bullets. The din of gunfire slowly fell away, than ceased.
An SS trooper walked up to Demona's shattered corpse and prodded her with his rifle.
"What should we do with this thing?" the young grenadier asked
The patrols Sergeant looked at the battered body . A body that was obviously not human.
"Put it on a poncho, we'll take it to Haupstrumfuhrer."
The Waffen SS troopers lifted Demona's corpse and tossed it into a Zehltbahn shelter half.
The patrol didn't notice the British officer hiding in the nearby undergrowth.
Major Basil Canmore began to walk back to his battalion.
Two hours later, at an abandoned French farm house.
"Herr Haupstrumfuhrer?"
"Yes, what is it?" The blond haired officer turned.
"The patrol found something , sir "
"What is it?"
The young leutnant just pointed, unable to speak.
The Haupstrumfuhrer noticed the pale look on the young man's face, and when he walked outside and saw the shredded corpse lying on the ground he understood why.
"What the hell is this?", he asked the patrols Sergeant who was standing nearby.
"I don't know Herr Haupstrumfuhrer, it attacked us near the spot where we ambushed that column of British."
"Hmpf. I think....yes ,this is the thing that led those idiot Tommy's past our positions.", The officer examined the body closely, "Was it necessary to shoot it so much?"
The sergeant laughed,
"The first fifty were brought it down, and after the next twenty it stopped twitching. But the other thirty shots might have been a bit much."
There was a sudden flare-up of shooting,
"Her Haupstrumfuhrer! We have strong enemy probes coming from all directions!"
A Sherman tank rumbled out of some nearby woods, its cannon and machine guns spitting fire. A shell crashed into the farm house, the shockwave knocked the grenadiers to the ground.
An antitank gun cracked, sending a round into the Sherman. The thinly armored tank "brewed up"
in a massive fireball, as the tanks ammunition and fuel exploded. But more tank engines could be heard from the woods, advancing to the Waffen SS positions.
"All units fall back", the Haupstrumfuhrer ordered, "And bring around my command vehicle!"
The sudden Allied attack caused the SS soldiers to forget the shattered corpse lying in the poncho, and Demona was left lying in the farm house yard. As the SS command group evacuated, Demona slowly returned to life, her shattered body piecing itself together.
"Major Canmore!" ,the Lieutenant shouted, "We've got the Jerry's on the run!"
"Excellent, keep on them.", a line of Sherman tanks rumbled by, "How many of those have we lost?"
"About two I think." the Lieutenant answered, "And the special patrol unit is assembled"
"Good, I'll be leaving with them. Tell Captain Daniels that he's in charge until I get back."
The British advance continued, as dawn crept over the French countryside. In the dim light the commander of a Sherman tank spotted a dozen retreating German armored cars speeding down a road.
"FIRE!", the shell went wide, crashing into one of the massive hedgerows that lined the road. The Armored cars darted away down the road, disappearing around a corner.
"After those bastards!", his tanks and the others behind them tore off after the Germans, as they pursued the Germans the claustrophobic hedgerows suddenly gave way to open fields. The lead Sherman stopped.
"All right this might be a trap, everybody stay alert, and get into line",
The column of tanks rolled out onto the field, spreading out into a skirmish line.
Then a tank exploded in the roadway, blocking it. Than another was knocked out, and another and another.
"JERRY EIGHTIE EIGHTS!" a British tanker shouted. He watched as the crew of a stricken tank attempting to bail out of their burning vehicle was machine gunned from behind.
"And we've got German infantry in the rear!" he called over the radio just before his tank was hit with a Panzer Faust anti tank rocket.
A Sherman crashed into the blazing hulk that was blocking the road, pushing it out of the way. A few tanks managed to escape down the road. The rest were knocked out one by one.
Across the field a German officer lowered the binoculars with which he had been watching the one-sided battle.
"Siegbert, tell the eighty eight battery to move back, we'll be counterattacking immediately."
As he finished speaking a trio of P-38 Lighting ground attack fighters dove out of the sky.
"JABOS!! TAKE COVER!" a Grenadier shouted, as the Lighting unleashed a torrent of rockets and machine guns on the German positions, shattering men and machines
"Get the quad 40mms on those bastards!" the Haupstrumfuhrer ordered, his radioman began frantically relaying the orders over the command vehicles radio, but was cut off as the command vehicle was suddenly pounded by a barrage of rockets.
After fire a few more rockets at the hedgerows, the P-38s flew away, out of ammunition. A Sdkfz251 halftrack painted with red crosses on the sides pulled up next to the remains of the command vehicle. A pair of medics leaped out and began searching for survivors. They found none, until the bleeding captain staggered out from behind a hedgerow and began limping towards one of the knocked out Sherman's.
"Herr Haupstrumfuhrer!" one of the medics called and ran after the wounded officer, catching up he laid a hand on the officers shoulder, "Off," the officer grunted, "Herr Haupstrumfuhrer, your hit, we need to.." the officer smacked his hand away "I said off!" he shouted and drew the Luger from the holster he carried on his hip.
The medic held his hands in the air and backed away, and the Officer continued on his painful journey. He pulled himself up on the Sherman and opened one of the hatches, reaching in he pulled out the charred corpse of the driver. He tore the unit insignia off the sleeve of the dead mans uniform, and read the notation aloud,
"First Scottish guards." he threw the patch into a gasoline fueled blaze that had enveloped a Sherman.
"I'll remember you." he turned back towards the remains of his shattered battle group
Normandy, france
Demona crouched in the shadows near the hedgerow, watching as the line of armored vehicles ground by.
Somehow the Vehicle's had gotten behind her, and only her keen sense of hearing had prevented her from being caught in front of them.
The line of passing vehicle ground to a halt. Demona could make out the Black and white crosses on their sides. A half-track stopped in front of Demona, and she could hear the guttural language of the passengers, Germans. She saw the insignia on one of the soldier's collar tabs, two runic S's like lighting bolts. Waffen SS troopers. Great. She had seen Viking berserkers who displayed less savagery then SS troopers
Demona heard the drone of new engines, different from those that the Germans used.
Was that why this column had stopped? There was no way that these SS trooper's could have heard them before her... an SS officer ran down the line of armored vehicles, pounding on their sides and giving orders.
Armored cars and half-tracks pulled off the road, driving through breaks in the hedgerows to the fields behind.
"Raus!! Schnell!! Tommy's ein der strasse!!" the officer reached the half-track in front of Demona.
"Los!" he pointed at the hedgerow where Demona was hiding. A full squad of SS soldiers leaped from the Half track and took cover in the undergrowth. Demona sat completely still, barely breathing as the SS men dug in all around her. Demona, for once, was lucky. In the darkness none of the SS troopers saw her. She slowly crept away from the edge of the hedgerow, and lay prone in the ditch at the bottom. Then, inch by inch, Demona began to crawl away from the dug in SS. Ten meters away she crawled back onto the road, and began to sneak down the road, away from the German soldiers. So focused was she on moving quietly she didn't notice the column of vehicles until it was to late. She froze like a dear in the headlights that suddenly lit up the roadbed.
"I've got you now Demon!" A voice boomed from behind the headlights.
Why do they always show up at times like these? Demona wondered. Then she had an idea,
"Like hell you do!" Demona shouted back, then turned and ran back the way she had come, getting on all fours to gain speed.
"After her!!" , Jeeps and half track's took off after Demona, with the Hunter in the lead.
The hedgerows erupted in gunfire, red tracers ripped through the air, bullets riddled the jeeps, a Panzer Faust anti-tank rocket smacked into one of the British half tracks, turning it into a flaming wreck. A few soldiers managed to get out of their vehicles and return fire, but were scythed down by machine guns almost as soon as they fired.
Miraculously the Hunters Jeep and one half track burst through this corridor of death and kept chasing Demona, even as their comrades were being wiped out. Demona rounded a corner of the hedgerow, and skidded to a stop, staring in awe at the massive shape the loomed in front of her. Suddenly a dozen points of sharp, stabbing pain erupted in her back. Demona fell to the ground.
"Yer mine Demon." the Hunter gloated. "After all this......." the Hunters eyes widened. "Dear god in heaven"
In front of his Jeep, brightly illuminated by his headlights, was a Panther tank.
"Back up!" the Hunter ordered, too late, the Panthers gun roared, sending a high explosive shell into the half track.
"Good god!" a soldier in the jeep yelled, then the Panthers ball turret machine gun raked the Jeep with bullets.
Demona awoke slowly, as her vision cleared she remembered what had happened.
The massive tank was gone, but it's victims remained. The half track was a burnt out shell, and the Jeep had been pushed off the road. Demona rushed over to the jeep and began to pull bodies out of it. Four young soldier's, British judging by the uniforms and equipment. But the Hunter wasn't there.
"Godammit", Demona cursed, her eyes glowed red, and she began to bash one of the dead British soldiers heads' against the jeep.
She was so carried away with rage that she didn't see the soldiers that moved out from the hedgerows.
CLICK, the metallic noise of a safety being taken off a gun penetrated Demona's anger.
"Hande hoch!" a gruff voice ordered.
Demona whirled, charging at the Germans. An SS trooper threw himself to the ground, barely dodging Demona's rage-fueled attack. Demona turned and lunged at another trooper, slashing him across the chest with her talons. The trooper fell to the ground, screaming. Demona grabbed another SS grenadier but the trooper grabbed his double edged fighting knife out his uniform tunic and slashed Demonas wrist, cutting her tendons. The SS trooper managed to get away, Demona used her tail to trip another SS trooper that had tried to get behind her but before she could finish him, he pulled a Walther pistol and emptied it into her chest at near point blank range, the flurry of light nine-millimeter rounds had little effect on the extremely angry, and immortal, gargoyle but the temporary halt in Demona's attack gave the patrols machine gunner the time he needed to level his MG-42, and begin firing . Demona was knocked to the ground by the sheer volume of fire, than the rest of the patrol opened fire, their K-98 rifle's, STG-44 assault rifle's, and MP-40 machine pistol's adding their voices to the MG-42s . The sheer volume of fire was such that Demona was actually ripped apart by bullets. The din of gunfire slowly fell away, than ceased.
An SS trooper walked up to Demona's shattered corpse and prodded her with his rifle.
"What should we do with this thing?" the young grenadier asked
The patrols Sergeant looked at the battered body . A body that was obviously not human.
"Put it on a poncho, we'll take it to Haupstrumfuhrer."
The Waffen SS troopers lifted Demona's corpse and tossed it into a Zehltbahn shelter half.
The patrol didn't notice the British officer hiding in the nearby undergrowth.
Major Basil Canmore began to walk back to his battalion.
Two hours later, at an abandoned French farm house.
"Herr Haupstrumfuhrer?"
"Yes, what is it?" The blond haired officer turned.
"The patrol found something , sir "
"What is it?"
The young leutnant just pointed, unable to speak.
The Haupstrumfuhrer noticed the pale look on the young man's face, and when he walked outside and saw the shredded corpse lying on the ground he understood why.
"What the hell is this?", he asked the patrols Sergeant who was standing nearby.
"I don't know Herr Haupstrumfuhrer, it attacked us near the spot where we ambushed that column of British."
"Hmpf. I think....yes ,this is the thing that led those idiot Tommy's past our positions.", The officer examined the body closely, "Was it necessary to shoot it so much?"
The sergeant laughed,
"The first fifty were brought it down, and after the next twenty it stopped twitching. But the other thirty shots might have been a bit much."
There was a sudden flare-up of shooting,
"Her Haupstrumfuhrer! We have strong enemy probes coming from all directions!"
A Sherman tank rumbled out of some nearby woods, its cannon and machine guns spitting fire. A shell crashed into the farm house, the shockwave knocked the grenadiers to the ground.
An antitank gun cracked, sending a round into the Sherman. The thinly armored tank "brewed up"
in a massive fireball, as the tanks ammunition and fuel exploded. But more tank engines could be heard from the woods, advancing to the Waffen SS positions.
"All units fall back", the Haupstrumfuhrer ordered, "And bring around my command vehicle!"
The sudden Allied attack caused the SS soldiers to forget the shattered corpse lying in the poncho, and Demona was left lying in the farm house yard. As the SS command group evacuated, Demona slowly returned to life, her shattered body piecing itself together.
"Major Canmore!" ,the Lieutenant shouted, "We've got the Jerry's on the run!"
"Excellent, keep on them.", a line of Sherman tanks rumbled by, "How many of those have we lost?"
"About two I think." the Lieutenant answered, "And the special patrol unit is assembled"
"Good, I'll be leaving with them. Tell Captain Daniels that he's in charge until I get back."
The British advance continued, as dawn crept over the French countryside. In the dim light the commander of a Sherman tank spotted a dozen retreating German armored cars speeding down a road.
"FIRE!", the shell went wide, crashing into one of the massive hedgerows that lined the road. The Armored cars darted away down the road, disappearing around a corner.
"After those bastards!", his tanks and the others behind them tore off after the Germans, as they pursued the Germans the claustrophobic hedgerows suddenly gave way to open fields. The lead Sherman stopped.
"All right this might be a trap, everybody stay alert, and get into line",
The column of tanks rolled out onto the field, spreading out into a skirmish line.
Then a tank exploded in the roadway, blocking it. Than another was knocked out, and another and another.
"JERRY EIGHTIE EIGHTS!" a British tanker shouted. He watched as the crew of a stricken tank attempting to bail out of their burning vehicle was machine gunned from behind.
"And we've got German infantry in the rear!" he called over the radio just before his tank was hit with a Panzer Faust anti tank rocket.
A Sherman crashed into the blazing hulk that was blocking the road, pushing it out of the way. A few tanks managed to escape down the road. The rest were knocked out one by one.
Across the field a German officer lowered the binoculars with which he had been watching the one-sided battle.
"Siegbert, tell the eighty eight battery to move back, we'll be counterattacking immediately."
As he finished speaking a trio of P-38 Lighting ground attack fighters dove out of the sky.
"JABOS!! TAKE COVER!" a Grenadier shouted, as the Lighting unleashed a torrent of rockets and machine guns on the German positions, shattering men and machines
"Get the quad 40mms on those bastards!" the Haupstrumfuhrer ordered, his radioman began frantically relaying the orders over the command vehicles radio, but was cut off as the command vehicle was suddenly pounded by a barrage of rockets.
After fire a few more rockets at the hedgerows, the P-38s flew away, out of ammunition. A Sdkfz251 halftrack painted with red crosses on the sides pulled up next to the remains of the command vehicle. A pair of medics leaped out and began searching for survivors. They found none, until the bleeding captain staggered out from behind a hedgerow and began limping towards one of the knocked out Sherman's.
"Herr Haupstrumfuhrer!" one of the medics called and ran after the wounded officer, catching up he laid a hand on the officers shoulder, "Off," the officer grunted, "Herr Haupstrumfuhrer, your hit, we need to.." the officer smacked his hand away "I said off!" he shouted and drew the Luger from the holster he carried on his hip.
The medic held his hands in the air and backed away, and the Officer continued on his painful journey. He pulled himself up on the Sherman and opened one of the hatches, reaching in he pulled out the charred corpse of the driver. He tore the unit insignia off the sleeve of the dead mans uniform, and read the notation aloud,
"First Scottish guards." he threw the patch into a gasoline fueled blaze that had enveloped a Sherman.
"I'll remember you." he turned back towards the remains of his shattered battle group