August 18th, 1914
Saint Quentin Scar Village - Trenches
As the sun rose and began another day of the war, the squadron slept soundly until the roaring of tank engines and shouting of soldiers woke them from their slumber. The panic shrunk as they came to realize reinforcements have arrived and were proceeding to the outskirts of the village, where everything was either blackened with ash or completely destroyed.
The small group finally woke up and gathered their gear, making sure everyone was set before exiting the house to meet up with the additional reinforcements. Axel and Adalbert had been the last to exit, especially Axel as he had woken up fairly early and had not fallen asleep since the time he woke up. Adalbert looked back at the medic, slinging his sniper rifle over his shoulder as he kept walking with him.
"You look like shit, Lange. Did you really not get enough sleep from that dream of yours?" The scout asked, raising an eyebrow as he began to brush a bit of dust off his long coat, the medic deciding to do the same, unable to get the small, dark green stain off his shoulder, but disregarding it after around ten seconds.
"Yeah.. It was terrifying. Honestly, it felt a bit too real to be a dream, yet it was so horrific, as if all of that would actually happen some day." He explained to Adalbert, the man just laughing as he heard this.
"Wait. Wait. You're telling me your dream was 'predicting' the future? How far out was it?" He asked sarcastically, still laughing before Axel smacked him on the back of his head, the sniper looking back with a confused look.
"What was that f-"
"I would rather not talk about it, okay? I don't know how far this… future, was from us. But it certainly was not anywhere near 1914." The medic suddenly said, snapping back to the sniper as he marched off to enter the trenches to meet the others. Adalbert shrugged and went a different direction, towards a windmill over to the left of them with a perfect view of the area. Meanwhile, Axel was down in the trench system, getting used to his surroundings and soon entering a small pillbox with a single mounted machine gun opposite the door. He looked around the concrete structure, seeing the various ammunition and medical crates scattered around the ground. Suddenly a knocking came from the doorway of the pillbox causing Axel to swing around to see who it is. Upon recognizing the uniform and insignia on his suit, he instantly shot up into a saluting position.
"Good afternoon, Captain." Axel said quickly, yet still able to be understood as the man simply smiled, chuckling as he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.
"At ease, sergeant. No need for the formalities as of right now." The captain then held out his hand to Axel, which the medic then took and shook firmly.
"A pleasure to meet you, sir. Sergeant Lange, reporting in. I'm one of the guys who Colonel Krause said would be rendezvousing here." He explained to the Captain.
"Yes, I heard of your name. It's a pleasure to me as well. Nice to meet you, Lange. The name's Wolfe. Erwin Wolf, that is." He said, looking around the pillbox that the two were currently in.
"So, nice pillbox we have here, right? This is where we'll hold you and a few other medics, along with a few support gunners to cover your backs. Apart from that, defending this area should be easy with the air support that we.. supposedly have." Erwin said to the medic, peering out of one of the slots in the concrete structure. Axel nodded, a smirk on his face as he noticed the various crates of supplies, both medicine and ammunition on the floor near every firing point.
"Indeed it is, Captain." He responded, not really noticing until now how the man was about the exact same height as Axel, his accent being perfectly in between a mix of heavy and light. Another thing that stuck out about him was the relatively thick mustache, similar to that of the man from Monopoly (which would be invented in 1933), and 5 o'clock shadow on his face, certainly a very interesting combination of facial hairs. From what it looked like, judging from the weapon strapped to his back, Erwin was one of the support gunners. The two shared an awkward moment of brief silence before Axel spoke out once more.
"So, uh… What did you do before this war? As in, former occupation."
"Ah, those were the good days. I was a writer. I had a few jobs writing different articles for the newspapers back in Berlin and sometimes in Cologne as well. Of course, the war came along, I got drafted, went through training, and just began rising through the ranks." The captain explained to him, looking back towards the doorway as he gestured for the medic to follow, exiting the pillbox, unstrapping the weapon from his back as he walked through the trenches, past the multiple soldiers preparing for the incoming attack.
"Many of the soldiers here, just like you and I, all had peaceful lives before all this. It's just a shame that we were dragged into this ever since we allied the Austro-Hungarians. Speaking of which, this battalion, at least what remains, along with you and your men, will be shipping off to Monte Grappa after this to assist the Austro-Hungarian forces. From what I've heard, they may need help with a potential defense and then a push into Italy." He explained, looking over to Axel to see his reaction to this, to his surprise, Axel didn't seem all to scared, but very confused.
"Italy? I thought we were allies." The medic said, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning back a bit.
"Our espionage agents currently in Italy have reported to the Austro-Hungarians that they are planning to possibly turn to the enemy's side and try to attempt an attack against us."
"I can't wait to see what they have planned for us. For all you know it could be false informat-" Before Axel could finish his statement, the sound of soldiers shouting could be heard from outside, suddenly an artillery shell landing directly in front of the pillbox, the shockwave sending Axel and Erwin stumbling back and falling onto the ground. Axel quickly recovered helping up Erwin, the captain unstrapping the weapon from his back and mounting it in one of the pillbox windows.
"I can bet you twenty marks it's the British." He said, making sure the safety of his MG15 Storm was turned off as he reloaded. Suddenly, one of the soldiers entered the pillbox for a second, looking over to the captain as around four more soldiers, most being support gunners, entered the concrete fortification as well.
"Captain, we have confirmed reports of British artillery fire!"
"Just as I suspected. Make sure the soldiers are in battle positions! No British military will be taking these trenches!" He shouted back, the man nodded and instantly stormed out of the pillbox to spread the word, Axel on the other hand, taking up a section of cover, his Selbstlader 1906 Factory, aiming in the directions of the growing battle cries of the British military. The rest of the German battalion all stood anxiously, waiting for the British to pop out their heads so they can begin firing. Two minutes later, gunfire began to rattle through the air as the British came into view, everyone opening fire with everything they had.
"Right flank! Watch it!"
"Multiple enemy snipers on the left!"
"Where is our air support?!" The constant yelling of German soldiers along with the British battle cries filled the air, mixed with the sounds of gunfire, explosions, and the occasional screeching of the bombs before they landed near the trenches. Turns out the British had their own air support as well, only to be countered by the numerous German fighters that had just arrived. The two opposing nations continued the fighting, exchanging shots at one another as Erwin and Axel continued to hold the line, the British breaking through and swarming the trenches. As the German soldiers continued their now close-range combat, Axel rushed outside, followed by two other Assault troopers and Erwin. One of the soldiers tossed Axel a weapon, a shotgun, a Model A-10 Hunter. The medic pumped the grip on the shotgun once, loading a shell into the chamber, fixing a bayonet to the weapon as well, just in case. From there, Erwin and Axel began to slowly advance through the trenches, moving seperate directions from each other to cover more ground. Axel slowly shoved his way past a few soldiers, moving to a spot in the trenches already overrun with British and pushing inwards. He took cover around one of the corners as one of them peeked out and fired five shots with an M1911 at the medic.
"Great.. I doubt I will be able to get past him.. Either I run into him, or I go out into no man's land.." He thought for a second before noticing a small glint from the windmill back at the village. Axel squinted as he saw the small light, but as he focused in, it vanished. Suddenly, a tracer round flew over to the left of him and a grunt was heard, followed by a thudding noise. Axel looked around the corner to see the same soldier that fired at him was now dead, face down in the mud of the trench. He then remembered what the small light was, Adalbert's scope. Back at the windmill, the sniper bolted in another round and muttered to himself, looking at Axel through the scope.
"Move up, move up, I got you covered… Go on." As he said this, Axel gave him a nod, the sniper returning it by sending morse code through the reflection of his scope, 'push.' With that, the medic moved out of cover, proceeding down the trenchline, checking right and left as he slowly moved up. With the dogfight overhead, the yelling of soldiers in the other trenches, and the sound of machine guns rattling away, it was hard to hear if someone was close. Suddenly, as Axel turned one of the corners, two British soldiers were already looting some of the ammunition boxes, apparently out of their own. The medic didn't hesitate, firing one shell from the shotgun and pumping it, loading in the second. One soldier lurched to the side, dead, the other quickly recovering and rushing at Axel with a rusty spade. The medic quickly raised up the shotgun to block the overhead attack, countering with a kick to the knee, snapping it, the British soldier letting out a loud scream of pain before Axel fired the second shot into him.
"Huh.. I'm actually starting to get used to this.. Wait a second, that's a bad thing." He said out loud to himself as he pushed through the trenches once more, loading the weapon once more. The medic soon came across an entire squadron, all of which were planning on advancing upwards. Axel had an idea this time, taking a grenade lying on the ground, pulling the pin and chucking it into their position.
"Gas grenade!" One of them yelled, coughing a bit.
"Masks!" Another yelled, everyone putting on a gas mask so they would not end up choking to death. In the process of putting on the mask, Axel rushed in, putting on his own mask as he began to fire off shell after shell from the weapon, successfully killing four of the five soldiers who were there. As he came across the last one, which he managed to sneak up on, Axel pumped the shotgun and aimed it at the back of his head, soon speaking in broken English to the man.
"Wrong trench." As he pulled the trigger, the shotgun made a clicking sound, and both of them froze awkwardly. The next second, the British soldier turned and swung a fist at Axel, the medic easily avoiding it with a duck and then standing quickly, jabbing the bayonet of the weapon into the man's side and pulling it out quickly, pushing him aside as he fell to the ground. Axel began reloading, putting in one shell after another until six were successfully loaded in. With that, he pumped the grip forwards and proceeded on. From then on out, most of the firing came from Adalbert, still covering Axel as he charged through and cleared out all he could.
"Keep going, medic.." The sniper said with a small smile as he fired another shot, killing a british soldier who had been climbing into the trench behind Axel. "Just keep moving." Adalbert wasn't sure if Axel heard him as he seemed to be followed the instructions, just as the sniper said. From overhead, a smaller, yet more fast paced battle was taking place, a dogfight between a few British bombers and attack planes against three german fighters. Inside this chaos was thirty year-old Sergeant Max Luftma, a former engineer for the German Empire, one of the best pilots that the military had recruited. He was currently pursuing a British attack plane, weaving in and out between anti-air fire and other enemy and allied planes.
"You must think you are so clever, huh? Let me show you how real men do business at this altitude." He muttered to himself, soon taking hold of the machine guns which had been mounted to the plane, opening fire in short bursts towards the British attack plane. The Avro 504 British plane still doing it's best to avoid the incoming streams of bullets, only before it's entire left wing was shredded by the incoming fire of Luftma. The aircraft began plummeting, Max not wanting to take any risks and following after, keeping a steady stream of fire before the plane exploded in mid flight. Max's Aviatik B.I practically dominated the sky, shooting down an average of four to five British planes per battle. One of his final targets, one of the bombers currently bombarding the German trenches below, swerving around to target the large plane, coming into combat with the back gunner of the large Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2. Luftma swerved between the burst of rounds coming from the back gun, soon pulling up and soaring above the hostile plane. With that, he began a nose dive towards the bomber, not letting go of the trigger on his machine guns, slowly pulling up as he strafed the entire crew inside, taking out both gunners and the pilot, causing the British plane to plummet into the ground below, taking out a small squadron of British infantry clumped together. Meanwhile, Erwin Wolfe, down in the trenches was mowing through wave after wave of infantry, occasionally moving through the trenches to engage in a knife fight with another British soldier, which normally ended up with Adalbert, still in the windmill back in the village, picking them off.
"Making this a bit too easy. I'm surprised they haven't noticed a pattern." The sniper muttered to himself as he observed Captain Wolfe still moving through the hordes of infantry, firing his weapon in short bursts, seeing as the rounds in his magazine were beginning to run out. In the windmill, Adalbert's sniping position, two british soldiers had breached through the door and began slowly advancing to the top floor. The sniper heard the door being kicked open along with the footsteps and put his plan into action, taking cover behind a crate directly next to the stairway upward. The two British assault troopers rushed in the room.
"Freeze Jerr-... Huh, he's not here. The guy left his stuff behind as well." The first one said.
"Ah, so free ammunition and medical supplies? Excellent." The second responded, both of them approaching the window slowly. Suddenly, Adalbert leapt from his cover, taking a combat knife and jabbing it into the throat of one of his enemies. The other soldier turned around, raising his rifle and firing one shot, barely missing Adalbert as he took the M1911 from the side of the British soldier he had killed and fired a shot into the one who was still alive. The bullet struck the man's shoulder, causing him to drop his rifle, giving the German sniper an advantage. Adalbert dropped the first soldier's corpse and held the new handgun with one hand, advancing quickly to the now-injured man. He fired three shots, all three striking the British man in the chest, but still keeping him alive as Adalbert then pushed him out the window, killing the man on impact with the ground.
"I would have said that was an impressive attempt, but I was raised never to lie." He muttered to himself, picking up his rifle and going back to sniping the various soldiers. Back in Axel's side of the trenches, he had already threw aside the shotgun he was given, picking up his semi-automatic rifle and rushing back over to the pillbox he had originally met Erwin in, having already cleared the East trenches as the other soldiers began to fill back in, covering him as he sprinted back, only instead of moving through the partially-safe dirt walls of the trench, he climbed out and really began to haul ass back to the pillbox, bullets of all kinds whizzed straight past him. He was considering himself lucky that he was not getting hit. As he reached the pillbox, he hopped down into the trench and rushed into the concrete structure, Erwin joining him soon after, both out of breath.
"So.. How did you do?" Erwin asked Axel, panting a bit as he then propped his machine gun up and firing away.
"It wasn't all the firing I had to do.. It was that one rush across no man's land." The medic responded, regaining his posture as he reloaded his rifle and joined Erwin.
"I'm surprised, medic. You seem to really survive anything that this war tends to throw at you, huh?"
"I fear my luck will run out one of these days. Not sure when, but it will happen, I know that much." Lange responded as the gunfire soon slowly came to a stop, both of them lowered their weapons as the soon exited the pillbox, looking around at the other soldiers, all were silent for a while. Suddenly, one of them yelled out, standing on the pillbox, binoculars around his neck as he turned to the rest of the troops.
"They have retreated! This land is ours!" The other soldiers all raised their weapons in triumph, cheering and whooping as they all began to celebrate their victory, Axel and Erwin joining them. Adalbert heard the cheering from his windmill and lowered his rifle, soon rushing down the staircase and out of the windmill, sprinting over to the trenches, having quite a long distance to run. That didn't bother him at all. Max, on the other hand, along with the other German pilots soared overhead, many of them pulling out their old film cameras and recording the celebration below as they flew close to the ground. The military celebrated their victory, falling back to the village behind them as they all spoke to each other on how they contributed to the entire fight, regardless if it was technically their fault for letting the British into the trenches. Axel, Adalbert, and Erwin met in the plains between the two areas, the sniper a bit out of breath as he had been running for a good thirty minutes now.
"Well.. How were.. The front lines?" He asked the two of them, panting heavily, but recovering quickly.
"I've never used a shotgun until this day. Personally, I regret it." Axel responded sarcastically as he looked over to Erwin. "And you? What was it like?"
"Quite an adrenaline rush, if you ask me. I'm lugging around this thing all day through there, not to mention firing it, yet still doing a much better job than most of the other soldiers."
"And that's why they gave you the position of Captain." The medic responded, chuckling a bit as he slung his rifle on his back. Again, he had noticed something he hadn't noticed before about Erwin. The man had taken a weapon from the British and used it against them, carrying two machine guns with him, but then dropping it shortly after Axel looked at it. A Lewis Gun Suppressive, filled to the brim of the magazine with 97 rounds with the small, telescopic scope behind it, almost right on the stock. The three then walked over to the center of the village, where currently all the soldiers were either relaxing, or convincing the others to relax instead of counting the bullets in their rifles or how many people did not make it back. Axel felt sorry for those kind of guys, seeing as they were new to the whole thought of war, normally left dazed and confused after battles, sometimes even during them, most of them shellshocked from the British artillery at the start. Regardless, he chose to ignore it, seeing as other medics were already working on getting them to calm down a bit, which didn't take much. The squadron of three, Erwin, Adalbert, and Axel, took a seat around a burning garbage can, seeing as they were either too lazy to find firewood and stones to make a normal campfire, or they knew this was much quicker. As they relaxed against the heat of the flames, Adalbert decided to speak up.
"Do you think the British will send reinforcements? That was a small wave of enemies when you really think about it."
"Just hope it's more infantry and none of those Mark V's. Honestly, they scare me more than any normal soldier out there." Axel responded, polishing the bayonet on his rifle, looking up to the sniper using only his eyes, which wasn't that effective, seeing as his helmet got in the way.
"If that happens, we have plenty of explosives, along with those guys up there to help us out." Erwin said, in addition to Axel's statement. As he pointed up towards the sky, Axel and Adalbert looked up, the medic then smiled and nodded.
"I agree. Our comrades which have served valiantly, who met their own demise for a greater cause, they can look down and protec-"
"Not the spirits, dummkopf! Them!" As Adalbert corrected Axel, he pointed upwards, just in time to see the three German fighters soar overhead. The medic realized how he apparently overanalyzed the subject and sighed to himself, Erwin and Adalbert laughing a bit. The squadron of three continued to talk to each other and how the battle went for them, along with previous experiences of other firefights. And for once, Axel felt relaxed, not riled up by the heat of battle, but calm, after only a few days of warfare. The night then finally grew silent as the last remaining soldiers fell asleep and the German air force flew off into the horizon, guided by the moon and the stars back to their airfield, not far from the village.
