Hey everyone. Sorry about being late on getting this out, but I was having difficulty on getting the last bit written. Hopefully it won't happen again, but no guarantees.

Again, a massive thank you to CaptAshe179, who's been helping me behind the scenes. Originally, I meant for him to check this out one last time, but again, I realised that I was late and decided to take a chance. Tell me what you think, and my apologies to all of you.


Chapter VIII: First Blood

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger…"

-William Shakespeare

Glavnyi Fyodor Yakov

24th Soviet Tank Corps

Main Attack Force

T-34/1942

Near the Abandoned Airfield

30th December 2024

1621 hours

Fyodor and his men shouted in approval as they watched a German bunker explode from within, sending pieces of concrete and metal through the air. In response, the remaining German troops on this defense line retreated, running away from the might of the Red Army and her inexorable tank corps.

"Forward! On to victory! Seize the hangars before we move on to the airstrip!" An even louder cheer echoed through the cold air, displaying the enthusiasm of Fyodor's men as they pushed onwards. Yet another series of Katyusha rockets arced overhead, hitting the area ahead as the remaining thirty-nine tanks in his group revved their engines and advanced.

Ducking back into the tank, Fyodor settled in for the ride. According to his watch, he had only fifteen minutes to take the rest of the airfield, otherwise his orders were to call off the operation and return to base. He had to keep his mens' morale up, and maybe it would help in some way.

Taking the radio from Sergei, he put the headset on and patched it through to Leytenant Izmaylov's force patrolling outside of the gates. "This is Glavnyi Yakov to Leytenant Izmaylov. Report, over."

There was a short pause of static as Fyodor awaited the response from his subordinate. Finally, the static ended and the voice of Dimitri came through to his ears. "Leytenant Izmaylov sir. Sorry about the wait, but we came under fire from an enemy force and I was knocked out."

"Da, da. Carry on."

Dimitri could be heard grunting affirmatively before continuing. "We regrouped in the forests and are now retracing our steps. We plan on observing the enemy on foot before attacking, and will provide any information we gather as soon as possible. How goes it there, sir?"

Fyodor sighed. "We may have to call it off and regroup. Our time is running short and our objective is still almost out of reach."

"But sir…" Dimitri replied. "Command has spent months planning this mission. We've trained for weeks on end! We can not possibly stop now!"

"We may have to, Leytenant. We have enough supplies to sustain us in a full-frontal tank battle if necessary." Fyodor reminded his subordinate. "As it is, I called for your report, not your opinion. Do as you said, and report in once your reconnaissance is completed."

"Yes sir."

Fyodor sighed as he returned the radio to Sergei. He appreciated the patriotism and desire for revenge his men had concerning the war, but there were times when you had to cut your losses. Unlike the penal battalions, Fyodor's men, much less their tanks, were not expendable. "Nikolai, how're our ammunition levels?"

Nikolai Makarov, the loader of the T-34, ducked into back into the floor of the tank, bringing up the ammunition stored under the metal plates. Coming up with three 76.2mm shells, he said "About twenty-five armor-piercing rounds, seven APCR rounds, and ten high-explosives."

Fyodor nodded in acceptance. The ammo was low, but not critically so. If needed, his men could salvage ammunition from the wrecks of knocked-out friendly tanks. "Sergei, the machine gun?"

The radio operator/driver looked around him at the long belt of 7.62mm bullets linked together. "Anywhere from five hundred to a thousand rounds. Not including the spare canister outside."

"Okay. All good news. Keep moving-"

The Soviet major was cut short by a nearby explosion. Up ahead, the lead T-34 erupted in a ball of flames as it turned a corner. The supporting infantry that had been ahead of the push were evidently heavily as German bullets sang through the air, coming from a series of makeshift trenches and pillboxes

"Chyort!" Fyodor muttered. "First Platoon, rally on me! Destroy the Fascists!"


Oberleutnant Hans Neumann

6th Panzer Division, XLVIII Panzerkorps

Pzkpfw. VI H1 'Tiger'

German-held Airfield

1638 hours

The Tiger's cannon boomed again, destroying another T-34 as it skidded around the corner of the building at high speed.

"Good shooting, Ewald." the 41-year old tank commander complimented. As the gunner nodded in acceptance, the cannon breech slammed shut with a loud 'thunk!'.

"Gun ready." Johann stated, looking through his viewport for he and Adolf had a grip on their machine gun triggers, holding fire while Sven kept the steering sticks ready in case they needed to move suddenly.

"Reinforcement infantry coming in from the left flank sir!" one of Hans' men said over the radio. "What are your orders?"

"Hold fire. Let the infantry deal with them. Keep concealment until I give the order to fire."

"Yes sir."

All around the hidden Tiger, machine guns chattered and rifles snapped as the Soviet assault squads dove for cover. Three Panzer IVs also held, waiting for their opportunity.

Finally, the main force of Soviet tanks caught up and began engaging the defensive line, their cannons and machine guns wreaking havoc on the infantry's defenses. "Ewald…"

'BOOM!'

An 88-millimetre shell rocketed out of the Tiger's gun barrel, slammed into the side of a T-34/57 and setting it on fire before exiting, then hit the T-34 behind it and knocked it out of action for the time being. As Johann reloaded, Adolf spoke up.

"Sir, Third Company reports they've run into an enemy force near the main airstrip and have engaged. They've lost two Panzer Ds and a Panzer F2, as well as three supporting anti-tank guns."

"Their Tiger?"

"Fully operational."

"Good. Tell Fourth to reinforce them and push them back to the back gate and hold out there until further orders."

"Understood"

As the exchange was finished, two ricochets rang the hull of the tank, resonating through the Tiger's belly. The men inside, however, barely took note of it.

"Fifty-seven millimetres." Sven said from below, quickly analyzing the calibre of shell that had been shot at them.

"Good luck with that." Adolf said. "These Tigers have a thick hide."

"Sharp teeth, too." Ewald said quietly before he depressed the trigger. The shot whizzed by a new-model T-34, which backed off just in time to avoid the shot. Hans noted the extra radio antennae sticking out of the turret, alerting him to the force he was dealing with.

"All panzers, enemy command tank spotted." Hans radioed to his entire Panzertruppe. "All non-engaged units, flank to the south of the southern main entrance to the bomber airstrip and engage the enemy's rear. We will hold them here."

"Yes sir. Fifth Platoon is en route. Will arrive in approximately ten minutes."

"Sixth Platoon is inbound. Give us fifteen."

Hans put the long-range radio down and began directing the troops around him. "Panzer IVs, keep yourselves entrenched. Lieutenant Bauer, can you hear me?"

"Ja." the commander of the local infantry platoon replied. "We're well entrenched and are good on ammunition for now."

"Good. We will keep those T-34s off of you as long as you keep Ivan away from us."

"Got it." In the background, just before he cut the conversation off, Hans could hear his fellow officer giving orders to his men amid the sound of machine guns and cannons.

"Ewald, hold fire unless you're sure you can hit. Johann, Adolf; cover our infantry from any flanking attacks. Everyone, call out any threats to our men that you see and deal with them."

"Verstanden!"


Oberleutnant Gerhard Köln

POW, Luftwaffe, Tatsinskaya Detachment

30 Metres Outside Old Military Base

1702 hours

Gerhard sighed as he watched the sun begin to touch the treetops further out from him. "So much like Russia." he thought, rocking on the balls of his feet. "Although, not quite as cold as I remember."

His business done, Gerhard zipped his pants back up and tightened his belt back up. He turned back to his escorts, who were politely looking anywhere but his direction. "Ready to go now."

The two looked at him with blank looks on their faces. Remembering the situation he was in, Gerhard made a motion of walking back to the camp. The two nodded and together, the group began walking back to the camp.

As they went, Gerhard went over what he had discussed with Maho and Nonna. Katyusha was still refusing to be within 20 metres of him, and so Nonna was assuming her position while Erika did her best to coordinate the two schools: 'Pravda' and 'Kuromorimine'.

'What did I ever do to get put in this situation?" he asked himself as he walked up to his personal campfire and sat down, trying to warm himself up. The two girls sat down next to each other on the other side of the flames, remaining silent as the fire crackled and popped.

There was a whole lot of tension in the air. Gerhard cleared his throat and looked around, hoping to find something to do.

"Anata wa ima iku koto ga dekimasu." a voice said from behind him. The two girls stood and left quickly, not looking back. Taking their place was none other than Nicole Silverstone, who looked slightly tired.

"Thank you." Gerhard expressed, rubbing his hands together. "I think we were about to pass out from all the tension."

Nicole smirked as she stoked the fire, finishing by placing another bundle of sticks onto the flames. "That's partially why I came over here."

Gerhard raised his eyebrows at her statement. "And the other reason?"

"I was told to find out some more about you and what happened." Nicole said, right off the bat.

"At least she doesn't try to hide her intent." Gerhard thought. "Maho?"

"Yep."

"What exactly does she want?"

"Information, I guess." Nicole said, shrugging her shoulders. She fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket momentarily. She paused, then asked "What is Germany like? Or at least, what was it like?"

Gerhard sighed and closed his eyes. "It had been eighteen months since I'd last been in Germany when I was brought here by whatever happened. As I recall, Remagen was still a quiet town. Nothing really bothered us other than the Führer's call for men and blackouts after the bombings started." Gerhard chuckled a bit, thinking back to something that he and his squadron had done back when they were all in his hometown.

"What is it?" Nicole asked, intrigued. As far as she was aware, it wasn't normal for people to suddenly start laughing out of the blue. That was something more normally reserved for someone like Erika.

"Just...when my squadron went on leave back then, we went to everyone's home towns. We'd just become a triple-ace squadron, so we recieved a month of leave as gratitude from the Luftwaffefor our accomplishments." Gerhard began, a smile still on his face. "Our last day there, we went to the Lüdendorff Bridge. One of my men, Fritz, I think…"

Here, Gerhard started to chuckle again, causing Nicole to give him a strange look. Whatever it was, it must certainly be funny. At least, that's what she hoped. Or maybe, whatever it was, it was only funny for a soldier who had been on the front too long.

"So, we went to the bridge and there's a group of soldiers guarding it, as we'd expected. They wouldn't let us by, but for some reason-"

"Crack!"

Gerhard stopped talking as the echo of the crack rolled through the cold air. Unconsciously, his hand reached towards the back of his shirt, where his Luger was still hidden.

"Someone's exhaust must've backfired." Nicole said, standing up and looking towards the camp. Immediately, Gerhard pulled her down, eyes still scanning the desolate frozen wastelands.

"Get the hell off of me, you-" This time, another loud report interrupted the blonde as a bullet ricocheted off the fire, sending sparks flying into the air. Gerhard motioned for her to both be quiet and stay still.

"That's a rifle, not a backfire." he stated. Looking at her, he said "We need to get back to the camp." She nodded and grabbed the small pack she'd brought over. She had her doubts, but she figured it was best to listen to what the pilot had to say.

Suddenly, loud shouts in Russian called out nearby, followed by the discharge of a cannon. Screams resounded from the camp, along with multiple shouts of alarm as a multitude of cannon fire went off. From the camp, a congitent of T-34s and Panzer IVs departed from the back, turrets aimed in the opposite direction.

"Scheisse!" Gerhard said as a cloud of smoke bloomed over the girls' camp. He looked around closely, scanning every bit of land he could see. Satisfied there was no immediate danger, he sprinted off as fast as he could towards the relative safety of the buildings, leaving behind a confused and slightly angry Nicole.

"Hey!" she shouted towards his retreating form. Gerhard ignored her and continued sprinting, busting through a door and landing hard on the floor. He stood and began to observe what was happening outside.

Less than 50 metres away, a line of the German-themed school's heavy tanks formed a wall of steel against 6 Soviet T-34s. Gerhard recognised none of the defenders' panzers,but they were bouncing shots from the Soviets. As he watched, one of them, a sleek, massive tank like the one he'd been brought in on, fired. Its target looked like it imploded, metal flying everywhere as a ball of flame erupted from the wreck. The Soviets, apparently discouraged, turned and fled the scene as more tanks, including the Tiger I Gerhard now recognised as Maho's, showed up. Gerhard exited the building as Maho unbuttoned the tank, both looking to figure out what exactly just happened.


Erfrietor Vasily Reznov

24th Soviet Tank Corps

1st Squad, 9th Infantry Support Battalion

607.45 Metres E of Old Military Base

1721 hours

Vasily slowly exhaled as he closely watched the commander of the Tiger get out of her vehicle and meet up with another Fascist in a flight uniform. The rest of his squad had already left, leaving him alone to do his work.

The pilot was facing him, though Vasily knew there was no way he could spot him. Vasily and his rifle were both wrapped in white cloth, and he was too well hidden among the trees. He exhaled again, his heartbeat starting to slow down as he lined up his shot.

Even though the pilot was a higher-ranking officer, the tank commander, a young girl by the looks of it, blocked his shot. As he watched, he realised the two must've been arguing, the girl becoming more animated as they continued.

His target decided, Vasily made the final steps before he shot. As he exhaled one last time, his heartbeat slowed to a light flutter. His index finger reached down, lightly touching the trigger as he ranged his shots and estimated drop.

Vasily fired his rifle.


Oberleutnant Gerhard Köln

POW, Luftwaffe, Tatsinskaya Detachment

Old Military Base

1723 hours

Gerhard saw it before he heard it.

He tackled Maho to the ground, hearing her exhale suddenly as he did so. Before they even hit the ground, the sound of the sniper rifle reached them, echoing through the air.

'Crr-r-rack!'

Immediately, Gerhard motioned for Nicole to help Maho as he finally unveiled the Luger he had hidden in the back of his waistline. As Nicole dragged her commander back behind a wall, Gerhard fired off the entire clip of ammunition in his pistol. The result left his ears ringing and his temples pulsing as adrenaline raced through his blood. He joined the two girls as the line of heavy tanks turned their turrets and fired a volley into the treeline Gerhard had been futilely shooting at.

As explosions rumbled in the distance, Gerhard knelt down by Nicole, who was turned around, not facing him. "Nicole?"

She turned, raising her hands so Gerhard could see them. Both had blood on them, and for once, she had a nervous look on her face. She was stuttering as Gerhard pushed her aside and looked at Maho.

The round that the sniper had fired had hit the young girl in the abdomen, just below her rib cage. Gerhard could find no exit wound as he sat Maho up, allowing her to breathe a little easier in case her lung was hit. She was conscious, but the look in her eyes was slightly glassy and she kept losing focus as her head kind of lolled around.

By now, a small crowd of both schools' members had started to gather, only very few aware of the actual situation as the ones up front shifted to get a better view. Gerhard was starting to focus as he checked the wound one more time. "Nicole?"

The blonde shifted and moved up next to him, clearly unsure of what to do. "Yes?"

"I need you to help me." Gerhard replied, motioning to Maho's uniform. "I need to see how bad it is." There was some murmuring from the crowd of girls behind him at his comment, but he ignored it, instead building a small fire nearby as Nicole removed Maho's uniform jacket, exposing her bare skin to the freezing temperatures. Maho, though still dazed, groaned in discomfort and shifted.

"No. Sit still." Gerhard said, even though he knew that the girl couldn't understand him. Nicole, slowly coming out of her own shock, repeated the words in Japanese. She turned and said something to the nearest group of girls, which replied and moved around. Glancing around the area himself, Gerhard was relieved to see that the schoolgirls at least had enough sense not to be standing out in the open.

"How is she?" Nicole asked as the wind picked up for a bit, adding to the chill and causing Maho to shiver slightly as Gerhard got around to her back, where the Soviet round hd gone in. There was still a little bit of blood trickling from the wound as Gerhard looked around for a medical kit.

"Here. I already have it." Nicole passed him a medikit from one of the girls she had talked to a minute ago. Gerhard took it and opened up, spilling the contents out on the snow as he quickly started to work.

'Where is it?' he thought, looking for the antiseptic. He pawed through bottles, trying to find some sulfa or whatever the contemporary equivalent was, but it was all marked in Japanese. "Nicole, which one of these is the sulfa?"

"The what?"

"The sulfa." Gerhard repeated, looking up at her. "You know, it cleans the wound out, bubbles a lot?"

"Oh, you mean the peroxide." she said. The blonde moved over and gave Gerhard the first bottle he had originally picked up. He muttered his thanks as he took the bottle, opening it up and preparing to pour some of the liquid on the bullet hole. "Wait."

Gerhard paused and watched as Nicole took the peroxide and added it to some melted snow in her hand, then started to clean the wound. Once she had finished, she nodded and asked "Now what?"

Gerhard shooed her out of his way as he cleaned off the needle-nose pliers he found in the kit. "Hold her arms. I'd prefer my face to stay the way it is." She snorted in amusement and did as he asked, holding down Maho's arms and watched, along with everyone else who could see. Behind him, Gerhard heard two pairs of feet walk up behind him among some complaining sounds, but he focused on making sure he didn't screw up his work.

Gerhard inserted the pliers into the bullet hole, going until he felt the round. He got the bullet, but hesitated for a moment in pulling it out. "Someone, get some gauze and a bandage ready." Snow crunched under someone's footfalls as they moved to get the supplies ready. Finally, Erika crouched down beside Gerhard as he glanced up at her. She nodded, as did Nicole.

Gerhard pulled the Soviet round out of Maho's gut, then stopped Erika before she could put the bandage on. "Not yet." Gerhard cleaned the wound again, then allowed Erika to put the bandage on. His work done, Gerhard cleaned his hands off in the hydrogen peroxide and sat back. All at once, everyone behind him seemed to let out a massive exhale of breath as Maho seemed to relax.

"She should be good for now." Gerhard commented. Standing, the pilot looked around at the surrounding area. "We should move away from this place. The Soviets know we are here, and will be back in greater numbers soon." He looked towards the place where the sniper had fired from; nothing much was left but destroyed trees and burning bushes.

"He's right." a voice said. Gerhard was surprised as Katyusha and Nonna both came out of the crowd. Katyusha looked slightly remorseful, but Gerhard passed it off for now. There were more important things to do. Gerhard helped the crew of Maho's Tiger secure her on the engine deck of their tank as engines started up throughout the remnants of the military base. Gerhard stayed with the Kuromorimine commander as the massed group of tanks split according to school and went their separate ways.