Author's Notes:

I have been apologizing to you, dear reader, and to the people who have been helping me through this journey, and I think maybe I have been overdoing that. In all honesty, it is taking me way too long to finish this project (it is at this point around 3 years overdue – maybe that is a lesson to take on excessive ambition). Real life has been throwing some curveballs onto me, with my day job and other outstanding responsibilities robbing me time from my fanfiction writing. However, such things that are out of my control are not the only culprits. I have some responsibility myself.

There are several things that sometimes seem to conspire against me. For starters my intention of making this historical fiction. Albeit I have failed here and there, and have been solidly attempting to make this at least believable and imbued with the spirit of the time period – the attitudes, the perceptions, and so on – I still go back and rewrite some chapters several times in order to guarantee that it is as historical correct as I can make it.

I have also been trying to make combat realistic and to try to write on how things were or how they could have happened, given the circumstances. Realistic combat is challenging, especially when one's aware that there is still research to be had. I started to write this as a spur of the moment thing, a labor of love for the show and the topic, and the more I get to know, the more I realize how much I need to know.

Finally, the psychological effect of the situations on the characters is something I have always tried to weight in. This last part is probably the greatest cause for the slow development of the story, especially Episode 5. The characters are treading on a thin line, and if this was a different project maybe I would have time skipped to where I want the characters to be for the finale. However, I decided I would follow the general plot of the original TV show, and I think that if I skipped Katyusha it would be a disservice to my readers. Speaking of the devil, that girl has also been challenging me somewhat, as she is quite different from her original version, but I still want to keep the sympathetic ball rolling back and forth, like I did before.

Anyhow, I think I have taken too much of your time. Thank you for sticking with me on this project, and I hope you keep enjoying it.

Without further ado, let's get back into it.

II

ABANDON ALL HOPE

Her nightmares were changing.

The bombers were still there, droning high above in the night sky, searchlights cutting through the darkness and the raising smoke, highlighting the massive aircraft. But they were just passing through, wave after wave after wave, as if suspended in a heavenly treadmill. A siren screamed in the distance, and the humming of that infinitude of engines became unbearable.

Maria stood alone in the dark streets of an empty city. Around her there were only tall walls of concrete, without windows, without doors, and strangely thin posts with dim lights on their tops stood on the corners. The scared girl glanced around, holding to her shoulders as the cold assaulted her. Her faint moans echoed, returning louder than when they left her mouth.

"Hello? Someone's there?"

There wasn't a single soul in sight. Maria was total and completely alone. Her heart ran faster, and she tried to swallow her spit, only then noticing it got stuck in a lump in her throat. It was uncomfortable, and yet somehow, she could breathe.

A loud growling came from behind her. The girl turned around, and her eyes widened as she saw the angular Cromwell tank rolling slowly out of an alley. The large vehicle emerged completely, and then turned over a track to face her. Its glacis opened wide to reveal a large mouth, with sharp teeth and a big red tongue, drool dripping from the metallic lips.

It roared.

Maria screamed and turned around, springing into a full dash, yelling on the top of her lungs. The beast roared again and hurled itself forward to follow, the tracks wailing furiously as they skidded over the asphalt.

Hopelessness mixed with a visceral sense of horror stirred Maria's entrails and made her want to puke. Somewhere deep down another sensation emerged, also a familiar one, a notion that she could simply give up, allow herself to fade from the world and fall into the endless slumber of true peace.

"No!"

The monster was now closer. Maria could feel its breath washing over her, the moist of its mouth spurting over her shirt and hair. She couldn't escape, no matter how fast she ran.

Then she saw the alley to her left. She turned, almost falling over in the process, but kept running anyway. Behind her the monster spun, raising a track of the road and bending in the middle, as though it was made of flesh and bone. The track returned to the ground with a thump and then it pounced into the alley. It squeezed its wide body between the narrow concrete walls, advancing pugnaciously after its prey.

With shock, Maria realized there was a dead end just ahead. A wave of unfiltered panic took hold of her, but then she noticed that the wall was not that high. Without losing momentum, she jumped onto the wall, holding to the top, and then planted her feet against the concrete, pushing herself over the edge.

The monster was now upon her and raised its mouth to bite at her feet. But Maria was faster, the thick red tongue lashed at her ankle and covered it in sticky transparent drool, but then she was already falling on the other side.

Everything disappeared as she reached the ground. There was nothing around her on the other side, only pure blackness. Maria held her hands close to her chest, trembling in face of the void that engulfed her world. Feeling lost and scared, she gave a step forward. Like that, all of reality changed once again. The darkness remained, but now she could see several shapes spread across the ground, surrounded by pools of oily red liquid.

Comprehension surged through her, the uniforms in the bodies becoming discernible. They were all different, gray and green, German, American, British and Soviet. All of those dead men surrounded her, and she fell on her knees. In the distance the fires that consumed Dresden were now visible, the scent of burnt wood and concrete drilling through her nose.

With an infernal racket, tanks rolled through the scene, right in front of her, crushing the bodies under their tracks. There were two lines of them, simple dark shadows against the fires in the backdrop. Their guns vomited thunder and shells, and some were hit, their hulls being torn asunder and spewing blood and gut all over the landscape. The injured vehicles cried in pain, with all too human voices.

One tank, seemingly a Panzer IV, approached Maria from her right, coming to a halt just a few meters away, as if it was trying to shield her from the battle. She looked up, and a round tore through the turret, cutting it in half. Warm blood poured over Maria, covering her in crimson. In that moment she knew her time had come, she just needed to let it happen.

Time to die.

When she opened her eyes she was trembling, her sweat freezing in the cold atmosphere of East Germany. It took her a heartbeat to notice she was laying down in her tent, the daylight passing through the canvas. The strange sensations from the nightmare started to wane off right away, but the throbbing fear remained.

"You're awake?" Ysabelle's voice reached her, and Maria turned her head to glance at her friend. She seemed terribly concerned. "I'm so sorry, but Herr Messner wants to talk to you."

From the frying pan and into the fire. It was time to get back to the war tearing the world apart. She felt her limbs numb, her body still begging for some more rest. But there had been little time for that, and she only managed to get those occasional naps before forcing herself back into service, into the command of the Baderberg Tank Squadron, for the sake of her countrymen.

But now even that noble notion seemed hollow, even wrong. Although she felt like she needed time to think about all she had experienced and learned since she joined the fighting, there was no time for that. Even the frugal moments of rest insisted in making themselves useless, ushering in nightmares that made her get up more worn-out than when she laid down.

"It is fine," Maria replied. Her voice was coarse, and her throat dry like sandpaper. "Can you me get some water, Ysabelle? Please?"

"Of course!" The other girl exited the tent. Alone, Maria rose her torso, folding a leg under her while bending the other so she could rest her arms on her knee. She let out a long sigh, and then got up.

"We'll need to hold the town we defended the other day," Colonel Roy Messner said, his hands standing on both sides of the map spread over the front of the Panzer IV that was the heart of the Baderberg Panzer Squadron. Maria was at his right, and Anja at his left, and both stared at the map, taking in the different details and the concentric topographic lines. "General Wenk wants to keep the corridor open for the remains of the Ninth Army, and some civilians that are escaping to the west with them. We are part of the effort to hold the northern flank for as long as possible."

"I guess defending Berlin is out of the question now." Anja crossed her arms as she said that. Her words weren't a question. Like everyone else, she saw the painting on the wall. The war was beyond lost now, the chance for better terms of peace equally vain, in spite of all the hopes held by the Baderberg girls when they joined the war effort. Even so, Messner worded his next sentence as if it was an answer.

"Berlin has all but fallen, Fräulein Köningsberg. The defenders are making what they can to hold out, but the Soviets…" his voice trailed off for a moment, his nerve faltering for an instant. "There is nothing we can do for them. But we can still help our countrymen from the Ninth. Who knows what the Soviets will do to them if they're captured?"

"So, one desperate battle after the other. No chances of victory, and an overwhelming enemy." Anja turned to Maria, a caustic grin forming on her face. "Seems like more of the same to me."

On the other hand, the commander of the tank squadron was a little more somber, her brown eyes scanning the map. Around them and the tank, the rest of Anglerfish Team and some of the battalion's officers and NCOs gathered to observe the briefing. After the engagement near Felgentreu, the small town they were now being asked to entrench themselves in, the 77th Panzergrenadiers had been posted in the nearby woods. No one was really surprised with them being sent into the fire once again, but it was still troubling. The war was all but over, and yet many of them were still being asked to die for small, maybe pointless, gains.

"The town is a deathtrap," Maria said, her voice low but understandable. "If we only managed to dig in around these hills…"

"There is no time, Fräulein Nitzschmann," Messner retorted. "I would have preferred to do that, too. Dig trenches around here, where my men would be in the range of our own AT guns, and your tanks could maneuver between these patches of woodland. But we have no time. As far as we know the enemy might be advancing towards the town as we speak. And we cannot allow them to take the streets, or we will have to flush them out, something we simply don't have the resources to do."

"So, it's all about hunkering in and hoping for the best."

"In a way. Nothing so prosaic, to be honest, but I gather that things being as they are, we have better chances inside the town than outside it. Our comrades in Monte Cassino managed to hold off against air raids and artillery barrages because of the cover the rubble provided."

Upon hearing those words, Maria sighed. She got dragged into that whole ordeal in order to save her friends from drying in case something terrible happened along the way to the deliver the tanks to the front. In the end their fates got intertwined with those of the men from the 77th. They had fought and even died to protect that hodgepodge mix of traumatized teenagers and tired old men, led by officers who were basically falling from exhaustion where they stood.

Yet, the stakes seemed to only get higher as time passed by. Now the battle to save Berlin had turned into a frantic race to save as much of the encircled 9th Army as possible. The Soviets had for all intents and purposes already taken the capital of the Reich. According to Messner's words, battle raged on in the streets of the city, and the leadership hid deep in the bunker built under the Reichstag. Any hope of conditional surrendering was lost. But lives could still be saved, although she couldn't really tell if the cost was worth it.

"Maria? Maria!"

Anja's voice got to her through the haze of her digression. Maria raised her head as if she had just awakened from a nap and turned to her second-in-command. Both she and Messner were eyeing her with concern.

"You still with us?" Anja asked.

"Yes," Maria mumbled. "What's the matter?"

"Well, we were just talking about how tactically problematic our situation is," Anja replied. "We have limited people and supplies, for one." She turned toward Messner. "How do we avoid being surrounded by the Soviets?"

As she made the question, Fuery, now a captain, gave a step forward. He leaned over Anja, so he could move his hand over the map.

"We actually had that into consideration. The units we will be facing will most probably come from the southeast, as that is the main vector of attack of the Red Army in general. We will post our AT guns on these trees to the west to dissuade any attempt of envelopment. A few machinegun teams should be enough to defend them, as the enemy will have to either focus on the town or the guns. Either way they will lose time."

"So, it's all about gaining time, huh? We just have to hold on until the last of us is dead, or did high-command came up with something more imaginative?"

"The latter," Messner replied. His gaze shifted to Maria once more, before returning to the map. "In two days we'll have reinforcements coming our way."

"That sounds good." Simone was sitting on the radio operator's hatch, glancing down at the briefing. "You know who will they be?"

"Not much to go around, Fräulein Tammeke," Messner said. Then he glanced at Maria. "It will be the 504th Heavy Panzer. Assuming they manage to get here."

"The SS…" Anja spouted, although she closed her mouth shut when she noticed the look in Maria's eyes.

The 504th Heavy Panzer Battalion was among the best units still operational in the German military at that point of the war. It was equipped with some of the last heavy tanks produced by the German industry and had a fame for being ruthless and efficient. But even they had suffered, and in spite of its name the unit could barely be called a battalion, maybe a collection of incomplete companies still vowing to fight to the bitter end. It also belonged to the dreaded Waffen-SS, the Schutzstaffel, protection troops of the regime, which now became the most fanatical defenders at its death throes.

Maria's brother, Marco, was a captain in that unit, and their last meeting, in the battlefield around Leipzig, had left her and the rest of her team perturbed. Still, having some support in that operation was better than being all on their own.

"Well, at least we'll get to see your brother again if we're lucky," Simone gushed, her grin widening. It was enough to make Maria's semblance brighten slightly.

"I guess. We can use their heavy guns, isn't that so, Herr Messner?"

"They will come in handy, indeed," the colonel replied. "Especially given that we might face a lot of Soviet armor. You saw in the last battle that they are using anything able to move, so it's nigh impossible to predict what they will throw at us, although T-34s and Iosef Stalins will probably be among the mix."

Upon hearing the names of the tanks, Ysabelle, who was standing in the loader's hatch while listening to the briefing, propped herself forward so the others would notice her. "For what I know the T-34s are small, but their armor may shrug off the lighter rounds. The IS are more concerning."

"They are," Fuery said. "Heavy armor and a main gun twice the size of anything we have. Not looking forward to it."

"Nothing's invincible," Maria declared, her attention moving back to the map. Now that the conversation was moving forth her mind started to function better. Pulling from the theoretical knowledge she had gathered from her father and his books, and from the experience gained during the last month, she tried to make sense of their tactical situation. There wasn't much to go with, though.

"What if they attack us from the north?" she asked Messner.

"Doubtful, as they are throwing everything north of us into Berlin. Furthermore, the terrain favors attacks from the southeast. If they do try to come from the north, then that will only bring them closer to the Heavy Panzers."

"Assuming we manage to hold their advance, that will only make them get caught between our two forces."

"Indeed."

"However, that still brings up the problem of being able to hold them out of the town. If we cannot dig in on the outskirts, then our only chance is to use the town as a fortress." Maria held her chin while she thought for a second about it. "What if we use collapsing lines?"

"What?" Simone and Anja queried. Messner, though, got the idea.

"I was thinking about that exactly. We form concentric lines of defense and when we're unable to hold, we pull back to the next one."

Maria nodded in agreement. "If the enemy stumbles, though, we can move forth and reoccupy the position, forcing the Soviets to react to us at all times."

A momentary silence followed, before Anja started tapping the mudguard of the tank. "That's all fine and good, but I spoke with Aschenbrenner before, and we don't have that much fuel left. We'll have to spread it evenly among the tanks, and when it's over, it's over."

"No way around it. The tanks will be mobile pillboxes in this."

"I feel our chances just keep dwindling…" Meike was propped on her driver's hatch, her chin on her arms. She seemed even gloomier than the usual.

"Don't start being defeatist now, Meike!" Simone retorted. "We're still here and we still have Mariechen with us! She'll come up with something."

The last member of Anglerfish Team, Hanna Opel, was standing near the front of the tank, just a step away from Maria, with her hands behind her back and scrapping the dirt with the tip of her shoe. "That is true," she said, "I trust Maria. You've brought us this far."

Looking over her shoulder, Maria looked at the Prussian girl, who flashed her a soft comforting smile. Deep down, she was surprised her friends still had such faith in her. Maria could only think of her performance thus far as laughable, at best. She had been stumbling her way across the battlefield, and people had lost their lives because of her mistakes. Then again, she had made other decisions that got some positive results.

The charge against the British paratroopers had saved the 77th and put them on their current path. The snap decisions during the engagement with the Americans further helped Messner's command and saved most of the squadron. Finally, trusting Martin over the advices of her own people had guaranteed their survival in the last battle.

Maybe they were right in trusting her, maybe they were wrong, but the truth was that she had to meet that conviction and make it work somehow. So, she bit her lip and tried to think on something normal military commanders wouldn't, something that would surprise even the experienced Soviet troops.

When the idea formed in her mind, she almost cast it aside on the spot, but then contemplated what it could mean. Finally, Maria eyed Anja.

"Anja, how maneuverable is the Hetzer?" she asked the other girl.

"It is light and has a good engine. Why?"

As she was finishing her question, Maria turned her attention back Messner. "We could have the tanks hunkered on the first line of defense, on the outskirts of the town, here. Two on each side. When we push back the first time, we could move them around, through the center, so the Soviets don't really know what they're dealing with."

"Two on each side?"

"Yes, the fifth element will be Turtle Team," Maria's finger moved across the map, out of the set of squares and lines that represented Felgentreu. "It will be loose, out of the regular lines of defense." Then her eyes moved back to Anja. "You will be moving on your own accord, ambushing the Soviets, making their life as miserable as possible."

It took the other girl a moment to realize what Maria was asking of her, but then it dawned on her, a mischievous grin spreading from one ear to the other.

"I like the way you think."

Messner was much less impressed. "Do not forget our fuel shortage, Nitzschmann," he stated.

"I'm not. The rest of the squadron will take only enough fuel to do what I've said. The rest will be diverted to Turtle Team." Now that she was talking out loud, Maria's plan started to make sense in her head. It also made her grow confident, given how excited her friends seemed with the perspective. "Herr Messner, you need to realize that all of our defensive strategy is something that the Soviets may either predict or learn about as soon as they engage. But if Turtle Team is out there, then that may give the enemy enough of a pause to make a difference."

Ysabelle also seemed to be warming up to the plan. She leaned forward, now with most of her body out of the hatch and her hands over the gun mantle. "Oh, and we can ask Herr Aschenbrenner to find some more fuel. He may find a way!"

"It is not a bad plan," Messner held his chin as he gazed at the map one final time. "We're running out of time, anyhow, and your unconventional tactics have worked well in the past. Let's do that."

The girls nodded, and Messner proceeded to wrap the map. "Go inform the rest of the personnel," he said, his words meant for everyone around them, and not only the tankers. "I want all squad leaders and tank commanders in the command tent in twenty. We are to roll out in two hours. Now, let's move!"

The officers and the sergeants immediately walked away to pass on what transpired of the briefing.

"Inform your crew," Maria told Anja, "I'll tell the others."

The other girl made what passed for a very relaxed salute. "Got it."

Then the commander of the tank squadron turned to her own crew. "Ready the Panzer. I'll be right back."

As she turned to walk away, Simone jumped to the ground and joined her.

"You mind if I tag along?" she asked. "This guy is good to go, and I would like to see how the others are doing?"

"All right." Truth be told, Maria would truly enjoy some company when dealing with the rest of the squadron. Although she had known most of them for just a few weeks, even a few days, she already felt a connection with all of the tankers, and even some of the grenadiers fighting alongside them. Maybe it was because they were all in the same boat, facing the same odds. Even so, her natural shyness still lingered, and even though she felt close to her comrades, a barrier remained that she felt she would never overcome. Thus, Simone proposing to accompany her was a welcome sign of friendship.

The two girls smiled at each other and went into the woods to talk to their comrades about the incoming ordeal.