7. The Tactical Planning Chapter

...in which no one wants to get in Finland's way

Quietly, the morning came. The sunlight wavered into the forest between the clouds crowding in the sky. The rain had stopped; it had been only a short shower at night, unlike the day before. Nevertheless, it still looked it would rain later on that day. A relatively hard wind blew at the tops of the trees, but it didn't reach the undercover areas.

Albeit serene and clear, the morning was too quiet and peaceful. For a short moment, Germany panicked inwardly that the enemy might have crawled past them in the dark, before he realized it was highly unlikely. And they did see movement in their enemy lines; hiding in the trench they had left behind, their enemy showed up every now and then.

Their sixth and seventh trenches were close to each other, because they both had been too good of areas to just ignore. Now their enemy was hiding behind the protection mounds of the seventh trench, while the nations waited for them to appear while hiding in the sixth. Germany had ordered that they wouldn't be the ones to start shooting. The foreign soldiers would have to walk very near them without shooting before they'd be given a permission to start first. The reason was clear: if the enemy didn't want to fight right at the sunrise, that was more than fine with them and their schedule. No one had complained.

"Why aren't they starting?" England wondered aloud.

"Shouldn't be our problem if they take their time," Switzerland huffed and shifted in his position. He had changed his sniping rifle to an ordinary one.

"Le's hope n't," Sweden muttered from the opposite corner.

Germany grunted and frowned. "Their motive may be rather low right now. They lost quite a lot of their comrades yesterday."

"Or they're trying to be smart," Switzerland uttered indifferently. "They're waiting for us to let our guard down." He snorted slightly. "So actually just giving us more time to rest..."

"Don't underestimate them," England warned. "We can only guess what they come up with next."

Switzerland was about to answer when Italy appeared from the hole behind them. "Germany!" He started, and then squeaked when he stood too early and hit his head.

The addressed nation sighed, but didn't leave his position. "What is it, Italy?"

"A message," the Italian came closer and sat down casually beside him. "From Finland. He said that the hut will get small if many of you still get hurt."

Germany stared at Italy for a while and then smiled, ruffling the nation's hair. "I see. When you next see him, tell him that we'll see if we can find him more space."

England sighed. "Germany, in this kind of situation, you usually say "then we'd better have no one getting hurt anymore", etcetera."

Germany shook his head. "I'm not that sort of a positive person."

"That's our commander," England muttered, shaking his head and turning to spy over the enemy trench again.

"There is one thing disturbing me more than their slow awakening this morning," Germany continued. "Their weaponry. Why aren't they using tanks, heavy artillery or aircraft? They could defeat us in no time. They're using same weapons our allies gave to us. Why didn't we get anything more then? It's true that miss ally told us he was 'too proud' to use his 'full capacity', but by now he should have noticed we're not easy prey. Something in this war stinks..."

At that second, the gunfiring started again, and some bullets struck the wooden part of the wall above them, making Italy squeak again and dive to the floor.

"Gunpowder?" Switzerland asked sarcastically from Germany who tried to tell the messenger to go back to his post.

"Very," England aimed, ready to shoot, "-funny, Switzerland."

"Don't shoot, England," Germany warned, eyes silently reminding him about the plan.

"I know that," the Brit huffed back, but he didn't take his finger off the trigger, nor break his stance.

"Ya think they'll com'?" Sweden asked from Germany.

"They're idiots if they don't," the commander answered. "Or they're clever enough to notice it's a trap. Italy, get going already."

"Aye sir," the Italian backed off, disappearing quickly back into the hole.

After a while the shooting paused. None of the nations had opened fire on their half yet. Everyone was lying beneath good cover, listening to the snapping sounds of the bullets hitting the ground above and around them, waiting. When their enemy ceased the attacking for a moment, silence in the lines continued.

"They're hesitating," Germany mumbled, taking a good grip from his gun. "If our trenches are empty, shooting will do nothing for you. Now, what you will do?"

"They're too far to throw grenades," Switzerland stated, taking a little glance from the one of the little holes in the wall. "If they want to do something other than waste bullets, they'll have to get closer."

"Or change their guns into something more effective," England noted and shifted away from the eyes of their enemy.

The shooting started again. This session was longer, but Germany still didn't give the order. It was followed by a shorter pause and the next time the enemy opened fire the moving started.

"Germany," England warned. "They're coming out. I see five to ten soldiers right now. The ones in the trenches are covering them."

"More're comin' out," Sweden added from his corner.

Germany inhaled slowly. "Now we'll see..." he mumbled quietly and watched them, eyes sharp and focused on the quickly closing enemies. What was going to happen next was crucial to their plan.

"Over fifty are out," Switzerland informed loudly over the gunshots and shouts.

Then, the field the enemy was trying to breach turned the easy breakthrough into a chaos, because it was at that moment that the traps went off. The mines were the first to blow up. People who were trying to stagger away from the explosions stepped onto the stakes hiding in the hay or fell over on them because of the wires tightening between them. The ones who managed to avoid piercing themselves on the sharp pieces of wood stumbled along the wires, many ending up being shot by one of their allies, who couldn't react in time to cease the fire; it all happened so fast.

England grinned widely, watching the panic rising amongst the survivors, who tried to help the wounded or just ran away; only to become a victim of another kind of trap. "Good job, Turkey, Russia, Hungary," he complimented aloud to those who had last night risked their lives to set up those traps without anyone noticing and, from the looks of it, had done it perfectly. England could imagine the grin on the Turk's face right now, or how Hungary was cheering to herself. Russia was Russia, so he was probably smiling.

The chaos on the field had stopped the firing from the enemy line. Germany stood up. "England!" he called the other to follow his lead. "Our turn. Let's run wild!" he shouted as loud as his lungs would allow at the exact same time that he and England directed a kick at the hut door between them. The shout was a signal to everyone who could hear them. The kick that tossed the door off its hinges was the sign to those who were too far to hear them, but could still see them. And the ones who were unable to hear or see them would notice the signal by the rate that the remaining humans on the field were dropping dead.

Germany and England were using the changes that the enemy crisis on the field and the surprise of their counter-attack gave them, both standing up by the frames of the door and shooting into the flock of panicked humans. The smoke and their own troops in the way prevented the enemy that was still in the trench from shooting back effectively. China and the folk of the left wing were a good addition, attacking the enemy from the side, leaving them with two places to run: back to their own trench or down the slope on the right, where - to the malice of the few who tried - Japan was waiting for them with some members of the right wing.

The surprise was short-lived but very efficient: over fifty of their enemies were now lying dead or injured in the field between the trenches, when their own lines hadn't thinned out at all, and all had yet to put new bullets to their rifles. Germany and England had ducked back behind the stone foundation to be safer, and were now shooting back at the trenches. Some of the enemies were still trying to crawl towards them, but were apparently called back by their officers. That was the time that Germany gave the signal to Switzerland, who retreated from his position for a second to change his weapon. From the biggest hole near him, the Swiss fired a larger shell towards the sky. When it exploded about twenty metres above the ground and a short distance before the enemy trench, the morning air was quickly filled with grey smoke that floated downwards like a cloud. After three similar shots, the field and the enemy trench were filled entirely with smoke. The wind had stilled below the trees, and the make-up-fog slowly made itself comfortable in the humid air, except for the top of the cloud that dissolved at the level of the tree tops.

Switzerland's shots were a signal to China.

He rose half way up from his position behind some bushes. "Everyone! You know what to do!" he shouted around him to his companions. "Don't get killed!"

Their job was to prevent the enemy from escaping or at least make it extremely difficult. Through the smoke, the enemy wouldn't be able to spot the changes in their lines in time to counter them. Germany's plan had many different layers, but to put it simply: the easiest way to win back trenches was to make the enemy want to flee from them. And the easiest way to make them want that was to show them the full capacity of a nation on a warpath.

.*** *** ***

The day's first wounded on their side didn't come until the sun had risen far above the tree tops. It actually took so long that the current members of the back-up-group, France and Greece, we're called back to the lines and Finland was called from the headquarters to fill them in. After almost four hours of fighting, China appeared from the hole in the left wall of the central hut, supporting Austria from his armpit and holding the hand that hung over his shoulders tightly. Austria's right thigh was bleeding heavily and he couldn't put weight on his leg.

"What happened?" Germany asked, ceasing fire for a second to check on the situation.

"He had a bullet embed itself in his thigh while we moved closer to the enemy trench," China explained and helped Austria sit down. "I was the closest, so I left Turkey in lead and came to help him away."

"Shall we call the medics?" England asked during a pause that he took to change his ammo.

"Taiwan already went when we reached the left hut," China answered, and to mark his words, first Hungary and then Finland appeared from the hole in the back.

"Oh Austria, you're so silly," Hungary said as she crouched down beside the wounded man. Austria frowned at the choice of words, but to Hungary they seemed to fit the situation, so he said nothing.

"Germany," China called to bring attention back to himself. "We spotted some movement behind the enemy trenches just now. I think they are getting reinforcements."

"Men? Or weapons?" the German asked for details hurriedly.

"We're not sure, but both I think," China continued. "What do we–"

England cursed loudly and pulled back from the door. A bullet struck the floor of the building, shutting China up. "Snipers!" the Brit spat and dove under the stone foundation when another bullet came through the wall, where he had been shooting from just a moment ago.

Germany ducked as well. "How many?"

"Two," Switzerland answered from the corner immediately.

"Where?"

"Well if you'll be bait, I can possibly tell."

England huffed and rose up so that he could shoot over the edge of the foundation. After a few seconds of shooting he took cover again before the sniper could take good aim at him. He repeated this action a few times, and was shot two times; Germany shot as well, but from a higher position, and was shot three times. One of the bullets scratched England's arm and made him release a flood of curses before Switzerland told them to stop.

"I know one of their locations, and have a hunch on the other," he said sourly. "But I know I can only shoot the first one from here."

"I'll take the other one," Finland volunteered and, borrowing Switzerland's sniping rifle, he turned to the other. "It's better take them down simultaneously, so that the other won't be warned that they've been spotted."

Switzerland nodded. "Go high. I guess you're better off there."

Finland looked around him, frowning until he found a perfect spot to shoot. He handed the rifle to China in order to use both hands, and he started to climb up the wall, soon after reaching the rafter. He leaned down and took the gun from China, who did his best to hand the rifle up to that height without falling over. When the Nordic had securely obtained the rifle, he started to edge along the wood towards the front wall of the building.

"Are you okay?" England asked, raising his eyebrows at the acrobatics.

"Sure," Finland answered cheerfully.

When he reached the wall, he first had to make a hole in the wall before they could get anywhere. After some usage of a knife and the end of the rifle, the two snipers were ready to go.

"Are you sure they didn't notice you making that hole?" Hungary asked. She had just finished treating Austria's leg and was going to exit the hut with the injured man.

"Let's hope not," Switzerland answered. "But I think they have more urgent things to look after." He nodded at the outside, towards the bullet rain.

"Germany, one more time please," Finland requested from above.

Germany sighed. "If I get killed it's your fault then."

"You won't, those guys suck as snipers," Switzerland assured. "Or it's an accidental hit."

"Well, if I'll die anyway, I don't really care," Germany noted, but he rose up to be bait one more time. It took a while for the right sniper to try to shoot him. From the angle the bullet hit the floor and its distance from the door, Finland calculated the highly likely direction, using Switzerland's information as a base.

"I have him," Finland reported looking through the rifle aim.

"Can you get him?" Switzerland asked and took his own stance and aim.

"Anytime."

It was over quickly.

Finland climbed down from the rafter with the help of China. "China, what are you still doing here?" he asked the left wing commander. Hungary had already taken Austria away.

"I'm waiting for orders," the Asian answered, making Germany glance up at him, eyes clearly saying 'crap, I forgot'.

Germany opened his mouth, but anything he was going to say disappeared under Switzerland's shriek.

"Watch out!"

A second later, the front wall of hut exploded from the left corner, throwing hundreds of shards of wood around the room. The foundation collapsed partially as well and the building itself let out warning creaks from the ceiling. Sweden, who was positioned in the left corner, flew backwards from the shockwave and slumped unmoving on the floor, the shards raining down over him.

"Sweden!" England shouted as soon as he found his voice.

"Shit!" Germany raged and, dusting the few shards on him from his clothes, glanced out of the hut. "Mortars! There wasn't any before. China! Go back to your wing! Prevent any reinforcements from coming to the enemy lines! Reckoning from the distance, they should be behind the trenches, so send someone to find them!"

"Yes sir!" China answered and disappeared through the hole in a second. Finland had dragged Sweden to better shelter and Switzerland had charged from the other side of the hut to help him.

"Switzerland!" Germany called.

"What?"

"The grenades. Snipe them down before they land!"

Switzerland actually smiled. "An interesting order," he answered and, without saying any more, he grabbed the sniping rifle from the floor and advanced to the door to use it, shoving England out of the way.

Germany was already giving more orders. "Finland. Take Sweden to a safe place. I can see even from here he's still alive. Go– are you listening?" he ended confusedly, when the Nordic didn't show any proof that he was listening.

"Switzerland, do you still have those smoke things?" the Finn asked instead.

The sniper didn't look at him when he answered. "A few."

"Good." Finland moved swiftly to stand by Germany beside the wall, and he took up his rifle. "Germany. I have two questions."

"What are you up to?" Germany tried to figure out what expression the Nordic was wearing.

"How many men are there in the enemy trench?"

"We can't be sure, of course, but I believe the number is near fifty," England answered, clearly as bewildered as Germany.

"Then the second question." Finland shifted, sitting on his legs. "Can you take care of Sve?"

"What do you think you're going to do?" Germany raged, but Finland escaped the question by returning to Sweden, taking his rifle and ammo with him as well. With these two rifles, he was about to exit the hut from the left back corner, when he stopped.

"Switzerland. Please," he asked simply from the sniper, who this time turned to look at him and nodded a yes.

"Finland!" Germany stopped him one more time. "I know Sweden is your friend, but I forbid you from doing anything stupid!"

The Nordic turned back to look at him and Germany quieted down. He saw now that those determined, clear eyes staring back at him were the ones of a person who was more than prepared to do something stupid to get what he wanted.

"Don't worry," Finland answered to his outburst. "I know exactly what I'm doing."

"You're saying it's not stupid?"

"That I don't guarantee, but that doesn't change anything."

With that, he disappeared through the hole, leaving Germany behind. Said blonde hit his fist against the wall, frustrated. After a moment, he closed his eyes, thinking furiously. England followed his reactions, wondering if he was ordered to go to stop the Nordic.

Germany exhaled and inhaled slowly before he seemed to calm down. He opened his eyes. "England. Take care of Sweden. It seems we have a change in plans."

"You're not going to stop him?" England asked, surprised.

Germany shook his head, sighing. "I can't."