Chapter VI: Reunion
""What greater thing is there for two human souls that to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories."
-George Eliot
Hauptmann Gerhard Köln
72.8km from the River Elbe
Dallgow-Döberitz, Berlin Outskirts, Germany
30 April 1945
0934 hours
'Unsere beiden Schatten, sah'n wie einer aus/
Dass wir lieb uns hatten, dass sah man gliech daraus...'
Gerhard hummed the rest of the verse, the lyrics to the rest escaping his mind at that moment in time. Content with simply carrying the quiet tune, he continued reading the old newspaper he'd found lying around a store; the article in question was espousing the then-new marvel of German engineering, the Tiger. As he flipped through the pages, Ella sat down next to him, the young woman huffing as she did. "Yes?"
Unfazed by the mild annoyance in her commander's voice, Ella held out her rifle towards him. "Please sir; I give up on this stupid thing."
Amused, Gerhard set down his reading material and took the proffered firearm, giving it a good look. He flipped it around, opened the action, fiddled with the safety, and generally made a big show of inspecting the weapon. "Ah, like I thought."
"What is it?" Ella asked, seemingly eager to find the root of her troubles in dismantling her weapon.
"It's dirty."
There was silence for a few moments as Gerhard watched the eager look on his subordinate's face slowly morph into one of incredulity. As he watched, he failed to keep his grin hidden, the corners of his mouth betraying his amusement at her annoyance.
"Very funny, hauptmann." she grumbled, reaching across him and grabbing the newspaper he'd been reading. With a mock cry of distress at the loss of his reading material, Gerhard relented, beginning to disassemble the weapon as Ella watched. As he went, he pointed out the various bits and pieces to her, while at the same time being blown away by the simple crudeness of the weapon; while it did the job, it certainly lived up the program's name: Primitiv-Waffen.
After some twenty or so minutes, Ella had finished cleaning and reassembling her rifle while Gerhard watched, occasionally stepping in to correct her placement of a part. Once they had finished, the two leaned back against the low wall the hauptmann had claimed as his rest area, relishing in the chance to relax. All around them, the sound of the rest of Second Battalion doing the same was most prominent, the sound of quiet laughter and conversation making the world seem that bit more peaceful, even for a moment.
"Hauptmann?"
"Ella, I've told you there's no need for any of you to be formal with me."
There was a pause, then the young woman pushed on. "Do you think this will be successful? That what we're doing has any purpose?"
Gerhard sighed, thinking about the question. He saw Bernard and Hans had joined them, the two looking at him, and a few other troops around them that had heard the question had silenced their conversations, listening for his response. 'No pressure, right?'
"I think that, as long as we try and do what we've been ordered, we'll be as successful as we can be." he finally responded. "Everything we do has purpose, whether good or bad. I think we can all agree that what we're doing here is a good thing, and for that we will be able to keep our heads high at the end of all this." As the hauptmann finished, a sudden shout caused him and the other troops nearby to stand, hands going to weapons instinctively as Gerhard walked out to the nearby highway to discover the cause. "It seems that, at the very least, our efforts have not been in vain. The members of Gerhard's squad, curious as to what he meant, walked over to see what was happening, along with many others.
A large group refugees, many carrying little more than a small bag or suitcase, was walking down the road, headed west. Interspersed among them, Gerhard could make out ragged uniforms of troops of all sorts, from standard infantry to the smocks of some of the city's flakturme garrisons. It seemed the General's message had been received; one could only hope that more would come. As the many troops came, Gerhard whistled towards one of the logistics officers, who came over promptly.
"Ja, hauptmann?"
"Get everything we can offloaded from the supply trucks." Gerhard ordered. "Go ahead and take as many of the refugees as you can to the Elbe; we won't be needing them to retreat." The junior officer looked shocked for a moment, then nodded and saluted. Gerhard watched as he rounded up a few of the supply company's members, then turned back to the spectacle before him. As the combined troops of Second Battalion observed the steady stream of refugees walking by, Nikolas, Amelia, and Gunther walked up behind them. "Kommandant!"
Turning from the road, the two halves of Seventh Squad met each other halfway, Gunther passing off a message to Gerhard as they gathered. "Just came in from headquarters."
Twelfth Army Commanders:
Forward observers have reported enemy troop movements from the south swinging around the corridor to assault the evacuation corridor. We expect the Soviets to gather en masse before launching their attack, and presume that they are moving to accomplish the same from the north.
Expedite the evacuation by any and all means, and prepare to receive the enemy at their full strength. While I do not ask you to remain in position and become overrun, I wish for all units to hold on as long as their position is tenable. Every minute you do so, the more time is given to our families, friends, and comrades to retreat.
I expect each soldier to do their utmost duty to the Fatherland.
General Wenck
The hauptmann took a few moments to process the full meaning of the message, then sighed and handed it back to the stabsfeldwebel. "So be it." Looking to Bernard and Nikolas, he nodded. "You two, start spreading the word. Get everyone ready to move out by nightfall. Gunther..." Gerhard's attention turned to his second-in-command, who looked up from the message. "You and I will gather the other officers and senior NCOs, get a plan formulated. The rest of you, pack up, get these refugees moving. "
"Jawohl, herr!"
Gerhard put down the radio transmission and looked around the table at the assembled commanders and senior enlisted of Second Battalion, all of whom had shown up to discuss the new information sent out by headquarters. As expected, the news had put everyone on edge; willpower and morale aside, there was still something to be said for numbers. Especially when the one with numbers was the Soviet Red Army. "So, whatever we do, we need to do it fast. The Soviet Army is closing in as we speak, and provided they haven't advanced from their positions they were in when we started this operation, I'd give it a day, two at most, before they get here."
"This seems more to be a matter of deciding who will go where, rather than what we'll be doing." Dietrich Fromm said. The commander of Sixth Platoon was spot-on with his guess, and Gerhard let him know with a nod.
"Probably be best to just split up into two groups, with one on each side of the corridor." Friedrich said, catching Gerhard off guard. He hadn't noticed his friend was in the room. The oberleutnant nodded at Gerhard before walking over to where a map had been laid out prior, and the other officers in the room shifted to get a better view. "The refugees are mainly using the highway to pass through, since it's the most accessible route. If we set up a good defense far enough out from there, and leave room to fall back, we should be able to hold most attacks, at least for a time."
"So, we get half of the battalion in the fields and forests to the south, while the other takes the city." Gerhard said as he analyzed the nearby topography. "The best thing we could do is choose who goes where based on their supplies, past experience, and, chiefly, the strength of each unit." Gerhard paused, going back to his seat as the other commanders agreed. A cool breeze gusted in through the cafe's shattered windows, rustling the paper on the table and prompting some of the officers to adjust their collars to block the chilly air.
"The smaller, better supplied units can take the urban area." another officer provided. "It will be easier for them to hold out against a larger force in those narrow streets, and they can stash supplies in predetermined locations in the event they get cut off." He looked around the table, and no one objected to his words, prompting him to say the rest, even if most of the men knew what the second phrase would entail. "The larger units can take the forests, dig in, and hold out much the same. It will be a little easier to get supplies to them, and I know a fair few of us have good experience fighting in dense forests like the Königswald offers. A few voices declared their support, along with volunteering of who could go where. Once the forces were split fairly evenly, Gerhard stood and walked to the head of the table.
"Before we go, gentlemen, one more thing. We all know that this war is lost, but that is no reason not to conduct ourselves as we always have. We are officers of the Wehrmacht. We shall remain honorable and show courage as we lead our troops into this final battle. For the sake of our general, for our people, and for Germany, let us fight to the bitter end. Best of luck to you all."
The leadership of Second Battalion nodded and muttered agreements at Gerhard's solemn speech before each departed for their own platoons and squads. Gerhard and Gunther, not having far to go, found his sitting around the remains of last night's fire; Leopold and Hans were dealing cards once more, looking to be staking a few cans of rations. Nikolas was sketching on a piece of paper, some obscure subject on his mind, and Amelia looked to be half-asleep, her helmet pulled low over her eyes. Apart from them, Ella was taking her newly-gained experience and showing Bernard how to disassemble and reassemble his own volksgewehr. As the two approached, the squad looked up to their captain expectantly.
"Well then, Gerhard?" Hans said, folding his hand with some disappointment as Leopold took one of the ration cans. "Where are we going?"
Looking around at his platoon, he sighed. "Nowhere, for now. Just relax and enjoy yourselves, we'll move out in a few hours."
'This will be the last chance we have of it.' he added mentally.
Maho Nishizumi
Dallgow-Döberitz, Berlin Outskirts, Germany
30 April 1945
1132 hours
"Maho! Maho, wake up!"
Maho woke to a blinding light in her face, which moved side to side briefly before disappearing. Blinking the spots out of her eyes, she saw Niko offering her a hand, which she gladly took.
"Sorry, commander." Niko said as she hauled her commander up off the floor of the turret Maho shook her head and looked around the interior of the Tiger: Yukiko was halfway into the engine compartment, cursing as the sound of metal on metal emanated from her direction. Niko, having awoken her commander, had started reorganizing the shells in the ready racks below, where Riko was shifting a few of the rounds up that had fallen out of place. Hisayo was in her seat at the radio, headset on, scanning the frequencies as the radio itself droned with static. Crawling down from the turret, Maho sat in the driver's seat, watching her radio operator for a moment before daring to ask. "What happened?"
Hisayo glanced at her, the look in her eyes all but confirming Maho's fears. The Tiger's commander took a deep breath, then made to open the hatch above her, only to find it unmoving. 'That was...anticlimatic.'
"It's blocked by rubble, Maho." Riko said as she handed a canister of tracer ammo up to Niko, who loaded it into the coaxial machine gun. "Yours is the only working hatch." Maho sighed, then shifted back up into the turret. Wary of what she would find, the young woman opened the hatch, slowly pushing it open, and took a look at the ruined city around the Tiger.
'This will be a hard one to explain to Mother.'
Maho exhaled sharply as she shoved the last piece of rubble off of the Tiger's engine deck, freeing the intakes. From the other end of the tank, she could hear Riko and Hisayo removing the bricks and stone blocks from in front of the treads of the heavy tank. The Kuromorimine commander coughed, waving away the clouds of dust before taking a moment to lean back against the turret. A few moments later, the other two joined her atop the tank.
"That has be enough to get out." Riko said, wiping her hands off on a rag. "If not, we can move more, but I need a break." Hisayo nodded in agreement as she sat on top of the turret and breathed heavily.
"Good work, you two." Maho replied. She looked around at the destroyed building the Tiger was in, idly wondering if it had been like that or if it just happened to be inconveniently in the way when they popped into existence.
"Maho, we should be good to go!"
Yukiko came out of the hatch, a line of oil splattered across her uniform, and more on her hands. "Do you want Niko and I to start her up?"
Maho simply shook her head. "Let's take a break for now. I have a feeling we may not get many soon." The driver nodded, and then both her and Niko jumped out of the tank, joining the others in their rest as they took in the quiet afternoon. The effort to get the Tiger unburied and fixed had taken hours, and the sun was starting to dip below the horizon now. The silence continued for sometime, growing more and more uneasy, until Maho took it upon herself to break it.
"All the signs here are in German." she stated, slipping into her old monotone, Tankery command voice. "There's absolutely no one in the immediate vicinity, and about half of the town, from what I've seen, is rubble."
"Meaning?"
Looking over at Niko, Hisayo picked up the conversation. "Meaning that, based what happened last year at the practice match, we might have time-traveled. Back to Germany, I guess. And if I had to keep guessing, I'd say late war." Hisayo's statement quieted the other four girls, who had nothing to say in response. There wasn't really much to be said for being told that you'd probably taken the cosmic freeway almost ninety years back through time.
Maho stood, steadying herself on the Tiger's toolbox as she did. As commander, she could identify when she needed to take charge, especially in times of crisis. She looked out from under their shelter at the setting sun. "It looks like it's going to start getting dark soon. We should figure out what we're going to do tonight."
"Food and water namely." Riko mentioned. "We have some water and snacks in the tank, but it won't last more than a single meal."
Maho nodded. "Hisayo and I can go to some other buildings, see what we can find. Shouldn't take long, and there has to be something."
"What about if there's any, you know…?"
The four older girls looked at Niko's concerned face. Maho tried to come up with some sort of answer, but none came to mind. Suddenly, Hisayo spoke up. "I'm sure that, if we've been alone all day working on the Tiger, it should stay that way for the night."
Maho nodded her thanks to her friend while the others mumbled in agreement. "Let's go then. Niko, Yukiko, don't worry about starting the engine up right now. As far as we know, we only have finite fuel to use, and I don't want to draw any attention it might bring. Just try and keep and eye out, and let us know if anything comes up by the time we get back."
With that, the crew of Kuromorimine's Tiger broke apart to do their tasks as the sun began setting over the German countryside.
Hauptmann Gerhard Köln
Dallgow-Döberitz, Berlin Outskirts, Germany
Near the Berlin Evacuation Route
30th April 1945
1923 hours
Gerhard looked up from his journal at the sound of approaching footsteps, watching as a young lieutenant approached him, a missive already visible in his hand. The hauptmann was getting used to having someone above him again; for the brief time that he'd been commanding his little section of Second Battalion, he'd quite enjoyed being able to affect things the way he had, though he did feel as if hed been getting shot at more often. "What is it, leutnant?"
"Major Strasser's nightly patrols have assigned your squad to the northwestern sector, sir. He wanted me to inform you that you are to complete a six-hour circuit and report back via radio before returning in person."
Gerhard nodded. "Very well. Thank you." The lieutenant nodded and saluted before retreating back into the camp from whence he'd come. Gerhard glanced at the patrol order for all of two seconds before throwing it into the fire in front of him; he'd seen one, he'd probably seen them all.
"So, get ready to go?"
"Yeah." Gerhard replied, sitting back down and reopening his journal. Nikolas got up, a mildly annoyed air about him as he did. Gerhard let it go; even with as little manpower the general had mustered, his squad did seem to be getting the short end of the stick more often than not. Perhaps that would change in the future, but not tonight. He went back to writing in his journal as the machine gunner went around, waking the rest of the squad.
'-And now we are told, yet again, to pick up some slack by running a patrol tonight. Perhaps it's better we're busy now, and when the bullets really start flying we can stay relatively safe on the frontline, rather than in front of it.
As for that storm I mentioned a few days ago; gone now, but it seemed similar to the one from 1942, the one that sent myself and the majority of two armies decades into the future. Perhaps it happened to someone else? More likely than not, though, it's just my subconscious overthinking it. Again.'
Gerhard sighed, reading over his words. His promise he made what seemed like centuries ago in a snowy field in Russia still stuck with him, though with each passing day, he lost hope in it. After all, the chances of something like that happening again were impossible, right?
'But so is time travel, isn't it?'
He shook his head vigorously. It wouldn't do to give himself a headache before a patrol. He had to stay alert, able to pull his own weight in case anything happened.
"You alright?" Gunther said, having walked up while Gerhard was in thought.
The hauptmann nodded, waving it off. "Old times ."
Gunther let out a rare chuckle at that response. Questioning that would lead to any number of responses, and some of them might not be ones that anyone would want to hear. "Sounds like a normal night, then."
Gerhard grunted and stood, putting his writing tools in his pack before throwing it on. He looked around, doing a brief headcount. Everyone looked exactly as one might expect a squad of soldiers that had just woken up to look. Amelia, especially, looked to have lost a fight with her hair, the brown mess looking to have been hastily thrown into what would barely pass for a bun.
"Well, apologies for the late-night call." Gerhard stated as he retrieved his pack and sturmgewehr, The squad made their opinions of the late-day patrol known as he stood in front of them once more, slinging the assault rifle over his shoulder for now. "It should just be a quick patrol, be back before dawn."
With that, and a swift kick out of the squad's campfire, Seventh Squad formed up into a column and followed their captain as he led the way out of the bivouac and into the battle-torn city.
"Good luck sir. We wish you the best."
The old man nodded his head at Leopold and Gunther, who had escorted him down the stairs of his surprisingly still-intact home. He carried a couple of suitcases, more than what most of the people who had been evacuating Berlin had been able to get out. The three men walked out onto the street, where the rest of the squad was keeping an eye out for any other survivors or the Soviet army, whichever came first.
As the older man began walking in the direction of the highway, Gunther walked over to Gerhard, who was looking down the street with his binoculars. Hearing the stabsfeldwebel walk up, Gerhard turned, a questioning look on his face.
"He's fine." Gunther replied to the unspoken question. "He said he'll travel to Essen to get in touch with his family, if they're still there."
"He plans to walk all the way?" Gerhard asked, a hint of humor in his voice. Gunther just looked at him with an unamused look.
"Tough crowd." Gerhard grunted, presenting his binoculars. Gunther took them as Gerhard pointed to whatever had caught his eye.
"Is that…?"
"A fire? With people around it? Yes."
Gunther sighed. Gerhard took back his binoculars and stowed them away. The camp in question was fairly far off, a good two or three kilometres. The only reason he'd noticed it was due to the fact that the dusk was setting in quickly.
The two rejoined the rest of the squad, who had taken a moment to rest while Gunther and Leopold had gotten the elderly gentleman situated. Nikolas and Ella were in conversation, the former also writing what appeared to be a letter. Gerhard wasn't sure how he planned to send it, but knowing the resourceful young man, he'd find a way.
"Let's go, everyone." Gerhard said, eliciting some sighs. He knew they would all prefer to simply relax, but orders were orders. 'At least there's something honorable about this patrol.'
"Is this all we'll be doing?" Amelia asked, walking up to join the two older squad members. The hauptmann, failing to hear her, was staring off in the direction he'd been observing earlier, mind occupied by a variety of thoughts.
Noting his commander staring off into the distance, Gunther spoke up. "We saw a campfire with a number of people around it. It's a bit of a walk, but we should check it out anyways. Maybe get some action in for you young ones."
The light chuckle from Hans and the faux groans from the other members brought Gerhard out of his thoughts, and he looked around at his squad. "Make sure everything is good to go. We're expecting the Soviets at any time, and I don't want us caught unawares when we should have the advantage."
The others nodded, aware of the danger. The word was that the main body of the Red Army sent to smash into the fragile evacuation coordination was still some ways out, but there was no guarantee that the Soviets weren't already sending scouts and patrols to test the line. With that information at the forefront of their minds, Seventh Squad resumed their patrol down the road, the streets of Dallgow-Döberitz silent around them.
Maho Nishizumi
Dallgow-Döberitz, Berlin Outskirts, Germany
30 April 1945
2243 hours
Maho shivered slightly as she scooted a little closer to the fire. Behind her and the rest of her comrades, the Tiger sat quietly, reflecting some of the light from the fire. The night was quiet, save for the crackling of the moist wood in the fire.
"So, any plans for tomorrow?"
Maho looked up, surprised. Hisayo was still awake, looking over at her friend and commander. The others had fallen asleep some time ago, the efforts of the day having exacted their toll on them.
"I don't know, Hisyao." Maho responded quietly. "I mean, how do you react to something like this?" The Tiger's commander gestured vaguely to the town around them.
The other girl shrugged. "The same way you reacted when we met Gerhard last year?"
Maho sighed. Remembering what had happened back then was a mixed bag of emotion. There were a lot of bad memories in there, yes. There were still nights, in fact, where she'd wake up feeling the Soviet rifle round in her side again. But, by the same token, there were more nights were she'd sleep soundly, memories of a German pilot and a romance, if overly cliche and storybook, keeping her company.
Hisayo looked back to the fire in silent agreement. The two girls stared at the flames, letting the heat wash over them and lull them to sleep. Right as Maho was about to state her intentions to shut her eyes, a loud 'CRACK!' snapped her out of the trance the heat was enticing her into. Hisayo, too, looked up, suddenly alert.
"Was that a-?"
Before the radio operator could finish her question, another loud crack echoed through the village. After it, the faint sound of shouting could be heard. Then, as Maho and Hisayo shook the other girls awake, the sound of gunfire picked up. Maho recognized the slow snaps of rifle fire, and the bursts of automatic weapons. Those were sounds she had been trying to get out of her head for nearly a year now.
"What's going on?" Yukiko asked, a note of fear in her voice. Though the other three girls had been groggy and slow to wake up, the sound of the not-so-distant battle made them alert and, if Yukiko's reactions were anything to go off of, nervous.
"Get in the tank!" Maho said harshly, standing and kicking out the fire. The crew of the Tiger swiftly broke their small camp, taking shelter inside the tank as the sound of gunfire and shouting grew closer.
"Dimitriy, voz'mi svoy otryad po toy ulitse. Ostal'nyye, davayte derzhat' ikh zanyatymi!"
Maho, though she didn't recognize what was being said, easily distinguished the language as Russian. Other than confirming what she already had predicted, knowing there were Russian troops close did nothing. The best they could hope for was that, if the Tiger was spotted, the Russians would assume it was knocked out. If not, well...
For once, she disliked the way the Kuromorimine uniform looked.
"Maho?"
The commander looked down into the belly of the tank, where the rest of the crew was looking to her for leadership. Taking a moment to secure the hatch, Maho sat in the turret, sighing heavily as she did what she could to mask her fear.
'Whoever is listening, just keep us safe.'
The five girls sat and listened to the battle outside grow closer and louder, until there was shouting right outside the tank. Maho turned off the interior lighting and did her best to keep her professional manner about her, and it seemed to be helping; the others, though obviously nervous, were keeping quiet and looked to be waiting. What for, she didn't know.
A burst of machine-gun fire nearby prompted the girl to peek outside of the tank through the cupola's viewports. Just outside, she could see shadows moving amidst the night, slowly moving forward. The shouting she had heard earlier was now muffled by the thick steel of the Tiger's hull, to the point where she could no longer make out the words, just that there was something being said.
"I guess, on the bright side, they haven't come to check us out yet." Hisayo said with a forced smile. Maho let out a short, very forced laugh in response as she sat in the commander's seat. 'Nothing to do but wait and hope for the best.'
Hauptmann Gerhard Köln
Dallgow-Döberitz, Berlin Outskirts, Germany
Near the Berlin Evacuation Route
30th April 1945
2305 hours
Gerhard coughed and shielded his eyes as splinters showered him, machine gun fire strafing his cover before stopping. Taking his chance, the man popped out of cover and unloaded his rifle in the direction of the reloading gunner, who ducked out of sight.
As he surpressed the enemy, Amelia sprinted up and dove behind a pile of rubble a few meters from the gunner's position. A few other Soviet troops pointed towards her in alarm, but their warning was too late as a grenade fell practically into the lap of the machine gunner. The resulting explosion shattered a few nearby windows, and prompted the enemy to drop back a little more.
"Good work Amelia!" Gunther shouted as he led the charge with Ella and Nikolas close behind. Gerhard checked their rear and, finding it clear, joined his troops in the charge. The Soviets, originally having put up stiff resistance, were breaking, clearly having expected this engaement to go in a much different direction. Before too long, the last of the men darted out of sight, making for safer ground to regroup. The squad chased them some ways down the street for coming to a halt, catching their breath.
Recovering first, Ella straightened, grinning widely. "We had them running like rats! They think we're all broken-spirited here in Berlin, but we showed them otherwise tonight!"
Gerhard smiled at her enthusiasm, but they all knew that, sooner or later, the Soviets would be back, with no less than four times as many troops as this evening. However, he said nothing, instead joining in celebrating the small victory won tonight.
"Hauptmann?"
Gerhard turned to see Leopold walking up behind him, his rifle cradled in his arms. "Good work tonight, Leo. You saved us all at least three times with that rifle of yours."
The quiet young man merely nodded, then said "I saw a Tiger buried halfway under a building during the fight. Should we check it out?"
Gerhard hummed in response. He'd seen the heavy tank, hidden away underneath a collapsed building as his squad pushed on. On one hand, it was possible, likely even, that with the Tiger knocked out, the crew had abandoned her and made for the Elbe to surrender. No one would have noted their disappearance, really, and anyone who did would have chalked it up to them being captured. On the other hand, if the crew had hunkered down, or was stuck underneath the rubble…
"Yeah, let's go." Gerhard answered, whistling shortly and motioning for the rest of the squad to follow. They complied, and for the next minute or so, there was nothing but the sound of dirt and rubble crunching underfoot as they made their way towards a block of bombed-out buildings. The hauptmann had Leopold and Bernard fall into step behind him, and further behind, he heard Ella, Amelia, and Nikolas speaking about the recent battle in quiet tones. Shortly, the squad arrived at the building in question.
"Well, you don't see that everyday."
Gerhard nodded in agreement at Gunther's statement, taking in the sight. The Tiger, while in good condition, looked to have backed into the building prior to its collapse, and was far back enough from the road that it was hard to see, at least in the darkness. As the eight troops inspected the derelict tank, Hans walked up to it, kicking at the rubble. "Look at this." He pointed at some large piles of bricks, then motioned to the top surfaces of the heavy tank, which were mostly clear of rubble. "Looks like the crew was trying to dig her out before they abandoned her."
"Unless they're still in there." Amelia said quietly. When everyone looked at her, she shifted uncomfortably, adding "They might have taken cover when the fighting broke out."
The hauptmann sighed as he approached the quiet steel monster. Handing his weapon to Gunther, he clambered up on the tank, his boots echoing on the hull as he hauled himself up onto the turret. Kneeling at the commander's hatch, Gerhard drew his pistol and knocked slowly three times. "I am Hauptmann Gerhard Köln of the Wehrmacht Twelth Army. Is anyone in there?" As the hollow thuds echoed in the interior of the tank and died away, Gerhard heard no response or movement within, and relayed that information to the others.
"Well, try it anyways." Hans said, a small grin on his face. "Maybe we can drive it back to camp!" Gerhard snorted as he turned back to the tank and opened the commander's hatch of the Tiger. The heavy metal doors opened with a 'thud', and Gerhard waved away the dust that was kicked up before peering down into the interior of the tank.
And saw a face he'd been sure he'd never see again looking back with equal shock.
Rewrite Notes
This marks the end of the rewrites; from here on it'll be making brand-new chapters. We'll see what that means for the story as we go.
I've combined what was formerly Chapter VI and VII, as the two were too similar and having the events separated drew out the storyline too much. This will go up, Chapter VII will be deleted, as well as the author's note I left when I returned a week-ish ago.
Until next time folks, KTA334 is signing off. Sayonara!