March 10th 1935, somewhere near Fort Premsel
Paul ran towards the trench. He had heard the sound of artilleryfire a couple of times already, but whatever this thing was, it had to be bigger than anything that ever shot at him. Step by step, meter by meter, he inched forward, he kept pushing until he had finally reached the small hole on the other side of the field. Paul was to afraid to stand up and look, the enemy artillery and infantry operated with deadly efficiency. First machineguns had lured them into the safety of a nearby trench and only seconds after, whatever the big gun was, had fired at them, followed by a couple of other cannons. Paul then looked around. "Wait a second…." he said to himself realizing what had happened. The moment Paul heard the gun firing again, he knew it was over…
March 10th 1935, position Gun 3 of the 6th mountain artillery battery, Upper sector of Fortress Premsel
"Thats another one down" yelled Kramer. Or at least Valentin thought that that was what he meant, but to be fair, it was rather difficult to hear with the hearing protection on. He simply waved at Bauer so he could send out the confirmation to the headquarters. He then looked through his scissor scope and began to pat agains the shoulder of Verbien to signal him to reaim the gun. "To the left...more to the left...stop! Target, 300, large trench." "Target found sir!" came the reply from Verbien. "Fire as soon as soldiers enter the trench." "Affirmitive Sir!" Valentin nodded and went back to Bauer.
"Any news from the other guns, Corporal?" Bauer raised his indexfinger and turned towards the radio. "One moment." After three minutes he turned back towards Valentin "Sergeant Rash claims 10 men and an APC with 16 shells, Lieutenant Böhler claims 2 tanks with 9 shells and Sergeant Major Lanz claims no hits at all due to no enemy troops within range." Valentin nodded. Two tanks, an APC and two and a half squads with 43 shells fired...that wasnt too bad. Especially with all the leftover ammunition from the base. Those feds would probably run out of men before they run out of shells…
March 10th 1935, somewhere near Fort Premsel
Christopher looked at the map. If they followed the path for a bit longer, they should eventually reach an opening from which they should be able to reassemble and set up the infantry gun and fire at the fortress. Carrying its parts through all those bushes and up the cliff had been one hell of a torture, but luckily the Imps seemed like they had left the dried up river unguarded. Probably because they thought nobody would come through here, considering it would be impossible to get a tank down here, but Christopher didnt that much. The Imps should do what the Imps thought they should do. As long as he and his men didnt get shot at or anything like that, he wouldnt care. He looked at the path in front of him. Just a bit more…
After around 10 minutes, Christopher climbed up a ramp, that had naturally formed due to earthslides. It might not be optimal, but it was enough to get out of the riverbed. Before he climbed out completely, he extended his lucky periscope and searched the nearby area. Once he was sure that everything was clear, he pulled himself over the edge and sprinted towards a nearby bush. While the rest of his fireteam followed him one by one, he put the periscope into his left breast pocket, right were it belonged. It was then, when he realized how close they were already. Twohundred, maybe even just onehundredfifty meters…
Sure, considering the usual figthing distances, the fortress seemed to be far away, but the infantry guns that had been produced by the Roeselarean Federal Arsenal during the previous war had been made with exactly such engagements in mind. While considerably less accurate than their larger cousins on tanks, they packed a bigger punch then lances, at least explosionwise, which made them perfect to deal with entrenched enemies. While officially out of service since the late 20s, it was still in use with some militias and Federal Border Guard units as a light support weapon… which they quickly traded for a few lances since they were desperate for anti tank weaponry.
"Private Roullande, start with reassemblying the gun" "Already on it, Lieutenant." While Roullande began to prepare the gun, Christopher looked through his binoculars to check the area. In the fortress itself weren't that many troops, from what he could see there were mostly men from the empires artillery-branch, based on the lacking amount of armour. Most of the forts garrison was probably spread out in the surounding area. The commanding officer probably was confident in his troops ability to repel any enemy attacks…
But there was something else caught his attention. A giant artillery piece on a tracked chassis. It was unlike any other gun he had ever seen...this gun was placed on what looked like the hull of a tank. Maybe some imperial secret weapon...if they were able to capture it, maybe it would deal a serious blow to the Empire. "Roullande, prepare shrapnell shells and aim at the personal operating that gun." "Yes sir!" "You may fire, once you are re-" Christopher didnt get to finish his sentence as a loud bang could be heard from the fortress' courtyard. Christopher flinched. This gun must pack some serious punch. "Just shoot at the damn thing!" Roullande chuckled while he adjusted the gun, firing shortly after. The first shot was a direct hit on what seemed to be the commander of the howitzer. The second one sent some of the gun crew flying, or at least parts of them. But the third shot...the third shot was one Christopher regretted. The third round exploded and in a chain reaction, the entire area around the gun was engulfed by explosion due to nearby ammunition. Once he looked back at the courtyard after instibctively taking cover, he was greeted with a burning wreckage where the howitzer had been…