Breach

A new day, the best of all is that today my grief will end and I could go back to my work.

Ahh. I never thought I would miss working so much.

I get up and get out of my sleeping bag, it's still very dark. Nobody is awake. I don't know what time it will be so no one is up yet.

Anyway. I rejoin calmly and silently to try not to wake up my Gruppe colleagues. I leave the store in my usual combat uniform.

As soon as I stick my head out of the tent, the cold morning atmosphere of Karelia greets me and greets me good morning.

The cold and humid environment of the forests of northern Europe is perfect to wake up.

I finish crawling out of the tent, then stand up and stretch to loosen my limbs.

I look at the sky, it is still dark, it must be very soon. The reason for getting up so early today is because I must be forgetting something that unconsciously worries me and that yesterday I went to bed really early because of that hellish potato job.

With some laziness I go to the dining room to have breakfast, my routine now that I no longer have the punishment should be to have breakfast with the boys in Eber while we go to the next 'work' area but since I got up so soon I think I can go to breakfast with the rest of the troop, and if today's food is not so disgusting; I won't mind getting the full ration instead of just half.

Also, I do time before the rest of the members of my Gruppe get up.

In the dining room the man who helped prepare dinner yesterday thanked me, apparently it is a job hated by everyone and now I know why.

Returning to the store I meet Unteroffizier Kurt, who was coming from the opposite direction and looking for something.

"What's wrong Herr Unteroffizier?" I ask with a puzzled face.
"Oh. Here you are. I was just looking for you. Come with me." Kurt replies while he waves me to follow him.

We go back to the tent, the rest of the boys are waking up now.

Kurt makes me wait outside his store, he walks in to get something.

When he comes out, he has a wooden case, or so it seems, in one of his hands.

"Form up!" He exclaims suddenly. Due to the shock and training received, all present them immediately in front of Kurt."Gefreiter Hozzel, a step forward." I obey, I don't know what happens; my punishment is over. Kurt opens the case and takes out a couple of badges, walks over to me and removes the badges from the collar of my uniform. Either I have been demoted or promoted. I suppose the latter because if they wanted to degrade me they could have done it before the punishment. Kurt places the new badges in the empty place that the previous ones left, walks away and salutes martially. "From now on you are Obergefreiter Erik Hozzel. Congratulations on the promotion"
"Thanks Herr Unteroffizier." I return the greeting and take a step back to align myself with the rest of my companions still in formation.

Kurt lets us rest and orders that we all get ready to board Eber and leave immediately. This must be what he had forgotten; I think they said that at the end of my punishment I would be promoted one rank.

All my colleagues congratulate me, especially Eugen. I prepare myself, both physically and mentally. I take the drum magazines from my MG and a box with a strip of ammunition inside. Then I board the half-track and begin to refill one of the drum magazines that I emptied yesterday in acclimatization with bullets from the box that we use to supply the clips of the Kar, or in my case that it used.

This time I wouldn't have a machine gun assistant, so if I ran out of ammo it could be a catastrophe. I had to make sure I was carrying as much ammo as possible.

All the other members of my Gruppe boarded the half-track and we set off on our daily mission. Kurt raises a hand and grabs onto the railing inside the Alte, stands up, and begins giving today's instructions.

"Today we are heading to the vicinity of Ladoga, our mission is very simple: We must act as a forward for the great offensive. Today we will begin a great counterattack to push the enemy forces out of the area of influence of Petersburg. In this way we will achieve a safe port for the landing troops and supplies to ensure our future operations. I will not lie to you, today we are going to enter hostile territory, but if we manage to make the operation a success we will have recovered a significantly large piece of land."

We all nodded in response as it was not the first time we got into enemy territory so that the division could advance safely.

"It will be a very long trip, sleep if you want. I'll wake you up when we arrive" Inform Kurt
"But then why didn't we leave last night? Under the cover of darkness we would have advanced more safely." Johann asks, it is a good question but surely there is a very good reason for us to advance now and not before.
"Well, you see Johann, the truth is that the witches have had to work against the clock to destroy defenses and sources of neuroi resistance so that we can advance today. And until this morning we have not received confirmation that the route was already clean. That's why we're going now and not last night." Kurt answers honestly.
"Witches? I did not know we had a squadron assigned to the division." Eugen comments
"And we don't. The Baltic fleet has temporarily lent us their Stuka girls." Kurt answers.
"Stuka?" Eugen seems surprised, he turns to me. "Erik, your mother may command one of those units."
"I don't think so. My mother, if she is still alive, must have already passed the retirement age." I explain.
"I see. Well don't lose hope. It is possible that you will see her again in the future." Friedrich replies, pleasantly surprised to see that he is not such an asshole.

Again the road is full of vegetation and trees, with animals of all kinds; I just hope we don't meet a bear on our mission.

The journey becomes monotonous and at some point I fall prey to the world of dreams.

. . .

Well if it turns out that all this is not a dream and is my new reality, now I have to think about what the next step will be. I have to choose wisely, since I do not have enough information about my environment and could easily make mistakes.

If there are weapons here, there must be some kind of conflict and if there is an armed conflict out there, any mistake could cost me dearly.

The first thing I have to do is look for information about my environment, finding a newspaper, magazine or book would be a great starting point.

I go back up the stairs, with some difficulty; since the strong blow to the head has disoriented me a lot and it still hurts.

On reaching the top floor, she entered a room that looked like a married couple's. I prowl the room, having to support myself with the bed a couple of times due to dizziness from the blow.

The room does not seem to contain any more information than the yellowed photographs of the two individuals on the wall above the bed, they are or look quite young, both of them. I don't know what kind of society would let such young people buy a house and form a family, but who am I to judge the customs of this world?

As a foreigner there were things that shocked me about the information that could be extracted from the house and its belongings. Since a family lived here that was either very young or was formed when both contestants were very young, he also knew or could know that the couple had some kind of descent, but both age and sex of the same were hidden.

The couple's room was empty of any relevant writing. Even after exhaustive research I couldn't find anything that could give me the slightest clue about my new surroundings.

I leave that room to look for information on the scion of the couple, if it is their offspring and it really is such a young couple; will be a very young person. Young people have books in their rooms so they can nourish themselves with information and thus make better decisions, just what I'm looking for right now.

I go into the room where I had previously woken up and start looking. There are no books on the shelves, but there are marks on the wallpaper, witnesses that they were there before. Why are there no books now? Have they been looted like the rest of the house?

I look in the drawers of the dresser, they have underwear but nothing out of the ordinary, there are also shorts and tank tops, some shirts and a sweater or two.

But no sign of any kind of writing.

It can't be, there has to be some information somewhere. It is as if the information and its trace had been deliberately erased, why would someone take the books but leave the clothes? Has no sense. I turn to check if I have left something uninvestigated.

Right across the room is a very large closet with drawers just as wide as the cabinet itself.

I open its doors wide; It is completely empty, a few hangers remain but there is no trace of the clothes that should ever fill its spacious interior.

I continue with the drawers, they are empty, except for some balls of what looks like mothballs; I take one of them and hold it to my nose. Yes, there is no doubt, it is naphthalene. It is used to prevent moisture in wooden furniture and moths.

It seems that the people who lived in the house had to leave because of this alleged armed conflict and they had taken the clothes from the same season of the year and also all the valuable belongings, as well as the books. What one would call a quick move, that is the reason why there are no books or anything really valuable or useful but there are traces of life or that there was a family living here.

Now, if the family that lived here had to leave quickly and due to some kind of armed conflict, then why did I not find a trace of said conflict during my walk through the neighborhood?

Perhaps in other houses you can find answers, it is not possible that all families are equally meticulous when it comes to packing. With a clear goal in mind and despite being hungry, I go back downstairs. My head still hurts a bit but it seems that the dizziness is almost completely gone, just in case I go down the stairs holding the handguard.

I go out the front door and go to the neighbor's house, but which one? Which one should you choose first?

I guess it doesn't matter, because as soon as I finish with one of the houses I will go to the other, but there is something that tells me that the house on the left will be more accessible, call it intuition, but I really think that it will be easier to move around that house.

I go to the house on the left side, the house looks in worse shape than the house I just left but it still seemed inhabited really recently, despite the overgrown grass and the run-down street.

The house is light blue, very light, so much so that if they had added more white to the mix it would have been the same color as the clouds.

Fearful I put my hand on the doorknob of the main door, my hand trembles, I don't know what I'm afraid of, this neighborhood is deserted; If there was something that could attack me why didn't it when I was walking around the neighborhood.

My guts are roaring, this brings me out of my momentary stupor and at last I open the door, it is not locked, it seems that the family that lived here did not have time to lock it or they did not care what happened to their home once evacuated.

The house clearly has a different style, different from the house in which I woke up, this house seems to have many more paintings and maybe even photographs. The house I woke up in had four paintings and photos counted.

This house has marks of different tones on the walls, almost all marks have the characteristic shape of a quadrilateral, that is, pictures.

The house must have been very picturesque when the family still lived here.

There is also a "no deterioration" mark on the floor with an oval shape, there must have been a carpet there.

As you enter the house there is a door on the left, it must be the toilet, then there is an open access with an arch on the right that seems to lead to the living room of the house, there are some sofas and armchairs, clearly there are more furniture that in the house I come from, it must have been a family with more members.

The living room is quite spacious, it has a dining weight and eight chairs, it also has a fireplace.

But no matter how much I look, I can't find anything relevant in my search.

I leave the living room and go to the kitchen. It is just as empty as the one in the other house. Another trip in vain.

I go upstairs, there are several rooms. I register them all, they have no information. In the last room I see that there is something peeking out from under the bed, so I bend down and look under the bed.

There is an elongated wooden box, it is large and looks heavy, it has rope handles on each side of it.

I pull one of the grips to remove the box from under the bed and proceed to open it.

Inside there are several pages with drawings and pencil writing. At the bottom of the box are a few newspaper clippings, they are about some girls who must have been of special interest to the owner of the box but nothing relevant to me.

I close the lid and a thick layer of dust flies off the surface of the lid. I sneeze several times due to the dust cloud formed, I fan the air to try to dispel the dust cloud. After a few seconds I get the dust to go, or at least most of it.

Now that I realize, there is something written on the lid of the box, I run my hand over the surface of the lid to try to clean the dust that was stuck to it.

I see that the box is olive green and has yellow letters painted on it; the letters say "E. Koll ". No idea what that might mean. But if it is the name of the owner of the box now we know that his surname is Koll. It's a weird last name. It's not something you've heard before.

We can then deduce that this was the house of the Koll family.

What kind of people were the Koll? What does it matter? I will probably never find out.

I am hungry…

Wait, was there no food and water in my backpack? What a fool, so long looking for something that he already had on him.

I open my backpack and take out the cookies and bottle of water, I drain the packet of cookies and half of the bottle. Now I am ready to continue. I don't remember cookies tasting like this though. Bah, what difference does it make.

With the time that I have spent in the two houses looking for information, the sun has fallen, it is dark out there and who knows what will be out there loose. If they really left the neighborhood and been away for so long, there may be wild animals roaming the streets, and the night is not exactly safe.

So the wisest decision is to stay here for the night, but I can't just stay here without taking some precautions.

To start I go down to the lower floor and close the door, I also see that it has a lock so I close it too, then I will check that the kitchen does not have an external access as well. The kitchen does not have access to the outside but if there is a window, I make sure to block it.

Then I go to the living room, it would be too suspicious if there was only one access. The living room seems to have a terrace access; it is simply too spacious to be easily blocked. No, wait, it is better not to touch it, the doors are closed, if someone comes to see and finds the same panorama as before; I will not try to enter the house but if I try to block it it would be like inviting people who want to enter.

After this I go upstairs again and go to the room where I found the box. I close the door and lock it with a chair. So if they try to open it at least I will hear it and can try to defend myself, it would be the first time I have used a weapon but it is better than nothing.

I lie in bed, nervous about spending the night in an unfamiliar, empty house.

I concentrate on watching the door but after a while my eyelids close due to sleep.

The sun's rays warm my face and awake, I must have fallen asleep while watching.

I get up and unlock the door by removing the chair.

I go down the stairs little by little making sure that there is nothing or no one waiting downstairs, with the MP at the ready.

When I get to the lower floor I check the condition of all the rooms, everything seems to be fine.

That's when I unlock the front door and walk out of the house.

I think there is nothing else I can do in this area other than try to loot something from the surrounding houses so I simply start a trip to nowhere in particular through the deserted streets of this abandoned neighborhood.

. . .

In the distance I hear the pleasant rattle of a half-track transport, it gets louder and louder until I open my eyes. I changed my position, I don't know how long it has been since I closed my eyes, I don't remember when I closed them either.

Why do I dream of the past? Is there something I didn't do right? Should I fix it?

I look up to my right, Kurt is at the MG station overwatching.

"Isn't Herr Unteroffizier going to sleep?" Kurt flinches, he shouldn't have expected someone to be awake.
"No, I can't sleep. Someone must overwatch."
"How long has it been since we left the base?"
"It will be about two hours. why?"
"Herr Unteroffizier, let's change our positions. I have already received training and acclimatization for the use of MG, I will take your position. So you can go to sleep until we arrive."
"Thank you, Hozzel." Kurt drops the MG position and turns around. I stand up and let him take my place on the bench." Ah ... Well, if you don't mind I'll go to sleep. There will be about another two hours. You are the next in rank so you are in charge of surveillance. Hozzel does not disappoint me." He answers with a serious face in a jocular tone. Kurt must be joking but I don't know for sure since I've only spent eight months with him.
"Of course not Herr Unteroffizier."

That said Kurt makes himself comfortable on the bench and closes his eyes.

For my part, I take the grip of the MG, it is still hot, I raise my head slightly above the MG shield to scan the landscape.

This MG does not feel as comfortable as mine. It's like I've gotten used to it by now, even though they are the exact same model and the Wehrmacht manufactures the weapons as standard as the fucking imperial guard, this MG didn't feel like my own MG.

The typical Karelian landscape passes in front of my eyes, I must be attentive to the flanks, the front is already watched by the half-track that is in the lead. The flanks don't seem like any threat but that's what ambushes have; They don't look like an ambush until you have them in close quarters.

Time passes quickly when you are focused on something, so it happens to me. Right in front of my Alte a clearing begins to draw, it also seems that the path ends there. The other transports begin to stop in that clearing, Eber is in the position to the northeast, the driver slows down as he approaches the sister half-tracks to try not to collide with them.

I turn around and wake Kurt up.

"Herr Unteroffizier. I think we have already arrived. The other Alten are stopping too." With a grunt Kurt wakes up and opens his eyes.
"I see, the nap was good." Kurt stretches and soon begins to wake up the rest of the Gruppe and then issue the pertinent orders.

Eber finally stops in the clearing and Kurt opens the back doors for the Gruppe to disembark.

Finally, on land, we stretch to loosen the limbs, either due to napping during the trip or due to the vibration of the moving half-track itself.

Soon after they order us to form by Gruppen and wait for orders, all the Zug is present.

The six Gruppen, the command and the seven Sdkfz 250 together in one place.

Haase begins to walk in front of the ranks of soldiers, it seems that it is time for the encouraging speech, it would also be a premonition of what we would do today.

"Welcome brothers. Today we have been called up for the difficult task of marking the path of the offense, today we will have to get ahead of the division to ensure the path to victory. But, you may be wondering what is special about today. Well, today an offensive operation against the neuroi begins, today we will kick them out of our land. But, as always, for the Panzers to advance, someone has to go ahead, leading the way."

He pauses to take a breath, calm down, think about his next words or maybe just to give more mystery to what he has to tell us.

"Like us, the other Aufklärungs Zuge will explore the front; paving the way for the rest of the division. We have been the furthest sector from the lake. Also the most dangerous due to the lushness of the forest. But do not fear. The Alten will go with each of Gruppen. Today we are going to achieve a tremendous victory, and the path to it will be marked by us. Now embark back in your Alten, your NCOs already know where they have to go."

And with this and without saying a word, Haase gets back on his Alte, following his example, other Gruppen get back on their Alten and start to start up them.

Kurt takes the position of the MG back to the front and I stand next to him with my own MG, because two MGs are better than one.

Eber walks along a path that is not practiced, it is noticeable that there is a path because there is no tall grass growing on it but it is also clear that it is narrow, so it should not be used much.

At one point Kurt orders me to take the rear of Eber, since from that moment on we will enter enemy territory and they could come from all angles, with dedication I take the rear of the half-track. Since I don't want my MG to get stuck in the rear MG mount, I start to mount the rear MG on it.

It's like my MG, only it's not my MG. I take the MG42 and insert the guide of the stock into the outer grip of the weapon, then, as usual, I open the cover of the firing pin, hang a drum magazine on the left side of the weapon and extend the tape until it is just above the slot, then close the lid and cock the gun. All this in just thirteen seconds, I have managed to improve my time.

Now I only have to be vigilant and shoot any neuroi that moves and wants to attack us.

An unpleasant twenty or thirty minutes pass, it is difficult to know whether to look at the clock; unpleasant because the whole group is in tension, we do not know if we will be attacked and if so we do not know where the attack will come from.

All quiet, too quiet. It is as if they are waiting for us.

We entered a good twenty kilometers. I think I have lost at least two kilos just in sweat.

We began to move more slowly, more cautiously. We came to an area with unusually tall grass. I don't like it, it brings back bad memories. Movies always teach you that there are things that hunt in tall grass. And since I thought the situation couldn't get worse Kurt orders us to get off Eber and advance in front of the half-track, as it may be an area mined with anti-tank mines. He assures us that the mines will not be detonated for weights less than five hundred kilos, but still nobody wants to get into the tall grass.

If only we knew where the mines are.

We cannot simply fire at random to detonate them because we would make so much noise that we would lose the surprise factor, the key to the offensive operation.

Then it occurs to me that we can advance little by little, dragging our feet and using the butts of our rifles to feel the buried mines or even advance on all fours, feeling the ground in front of us with our hands.

Kurt chooses to drag our feets and move more slowly. Eber seems to be staying right at the beginning of the tall grass waiting for us to mark a safe path for him.

We begin to move slowly through the grass, the density of the vegetation here is so high that I cannot see my feet and, in this situation it is not something that precisely calms me down.

When we started to move forward, we all found a mine. The idea was to mark a safe path for Eber, but I suggest digging up the mines and digging them out of the ground and leaving them somewhere out of the way. Luckily the people here have not put pressure sensors on the back of the mines, as the Russians did in my world to prevent the extraction of artifacts.

In about an hour we were able to mark a path wide enough for two Alten to pass side by side.

Eber passes to the other side of the tall grass, we make sure there are no more mines and just as we were about to embark to continue Kurt picks up the radio and calls the base. I guess you have to report this point well; more than good; it must make it perfect if we don't want our Panzers to explode due to other mines, the path we open allows one tank to pass at a time; but the division will need them to advance together in great numbers; they will need to widen the width of the road.

Kurt finishes notifying base and we all get back on board in Eber.

Back on the road, slow forward again. According to Kurt, at a certain point, we should not advance any further since the Panzers will take the initiative and it will not be necessary for us to clear the way.

I look at Eber's controls and see that he has a quarter of his fuel left, we still have a couple of fuel jugs but they won't give us more than ten or twenty kilometers more.

I look back and see nothing but trees and more trees, but I start to hear hopeful comments behind me and I turn to look. The trees seem to end a little further, a hundred or two hundred meters more trees and the forest stops expanding; you can already see a huge meadow of grass and some white flowers in the distance through the space between the trees.

We arrived at the edge of the forest, we turned off Eber's engine and we all disembarked, now we will build a small trench to protect this 'front', when we finish according to Kurt we will call the rest and the Panzers will come.

We began to dig the trenches, with the earth that we removed from the holes we built palisades to try to give more protection to the defensive position.

In about an hour we have finished the job, but now we are exhausted, we will not be able to resist an attack very well at this moment.

Kurt calls command and communicates that we are ready. And we will hold the front until the Panzers arrive. Kurt is pouting, I don't like it; I think what they are saying is not good. If it's not good for Kurt, it's not good for any of us.

"The command of the division will send a whole Zug of Panzergranadier to our position as soon as the Panzers arrive."

Some rejoice, others make obscene gestures. The Panzergranadiers are not very well regarded in the units of Aufklärungs since we are the first to arrive and the last to leave a position, contrary to what is believed.

"I don't want to hear any insult or provocation from you. They are companions of the division. They will come to give support until the Panzers arrive." Kurt adds when he sees how some of the Gruppe members were reacting.

We wait, wait and wait.

We began to hear in the distance the characteristic rattle of the half-tracks, getting louder, until they finally reached our position.

It took two long hours, if we took about five to clean the area, I don't know what took them so long; they simply had to proceed along the designated path here without stopping or slowing down.

The Hanomags arrived and opened their rear doors to let the Panzergranadiers get out of them. It took just a mere second for them to launch disparaging comments and insults at us.

-I would answer you insults, but my mother gave me a good education.- Friedrich answers. It is the most witty answer I have ever heard him say in all my life. Every time I like him better, well; except when he messes with my family.

One of the soldiers from the support Zug answers him with bloodshot eyes and a red face in another language, I don't know what he said but judging by the tone and the force invested in it; It must not have been pretty.

Friedrich answers him with a smile, a wink and a 'I love you too, brother' which makes him have to grab him by two other soldiers from his Gruppe.

Kurt is keeping quiet, technically no one has disobeyed his orders.

The soldiers of the support Zug begin to dig their own defensive trenches, much like ours. In the next fifteen minutes they fairly efficiently build a trench system with two levels. It is quite impressive, if it weren't for the fact that each Panzergranadier Zug is made up of at least thirty-two members plus the commanders, and that's not counting the transport drivers.

Hours pass and we begin to hear gunshots and cannons in the distance, apparently in other sectors "the party" has already started, here there is still no trace of the enemies or the Panzer that were supposed to launch the attack.

More time passes and people begin to get restless, the sun is at its highest and hunger begins to tighten.

We eat field food in turns, so as not to leave the front post.

We finish eating all the members of the Gruppe and we still do not see or hear any Panzer, at least not close.

Kurt ends up calling on the radio, worried that something might have happened to the Panzers, but no one answers on the other end of the line. This starts to make us uncomfortable and Kurt goes to ask the Zug officers for support.

While we continue to monitor Kurt leaves the trench to go to the Panzergranadier, who have not had the delicacy or kindness to connect their trench with ours and now to go back and forth between the two trenches you have to abandon the relative security they offer .

Kurt returns shortly after with a face that makes us think twice if we really want to ask him how he was. It is quite obvious that bad, or not as good as I expected; probably those rude people have given you a bad answer or even insulted you.

In the end I pluck up my courage and ask him.

"Herr Unteroffizier, what did they tell you?"
"That they wouldn't come." Kurt replies with a face of trying to contain a great anger.
"Who Herr Unteroffizier?"
"The Panzers. The offensive is concentrated in the south of the front assigned to our Zug. We won't get to see action today. They only deployed us here to make sure no enemy attempts to outflank the main force from the north."

Now I understand Kurt's anger, they promised us to be a key part of the advance and instead we just act as a security squad. But it was not so bad, we would not have such a privileged position but we would not have to expose ourselves so much to an almost certain death.

So night fell and we had to light small fires far from the trenches to heat the food and have some light, but avoiding drawing attention to the trenches.

Finally the sounds of combat that we had been hearing all day suddenly stop.

We all turn our heads to where the sounds came from instinctively.

Something as big as an offensive operation of this scale cannot end so abruptly or in such a short time.

It is simply not possible that all the enemies have been destroyed.

Little by little the peculiar sounds of turtles and advancing neuroi infantry units are heard again, accompanied by the sound of machine guns and rifles.

Everything goes back to normal if it wasn't for the sound coming from the right flank instead of the front and, on top of that, the sound is getting louder and louder.

The conflict is approaching and from an unforeseen direction.

The Unteroffizieren and the Feldwebel of the supporting Zug begin to bark the pertinent orders for an imminent defense and try to greet the approaching enemy.

We should soon be able to see enemies up close, luckily the neurois glow red. If not, we would not be able to see them in this absolute darkness.

The first turtle makes an appearance and is knocked down almost instantly by a very accurate shot from a Panzerschreck followed by rifle fire. This turtle is followed by two others and we all start shooting. The MGs prioritize the legs, since if we deny their mobility they will be more easily grazed by the great anti-armor.

Three turtles are eliminated in a matter of seconds. But there is still more, three others appear from the vegetation, as if they were walking crouching to hide; Are neurois that smart or was it pure coincidence?

We concentrate the fire on the recently arrived turtles, it is then that their infantry makes an appearance; they move fast. They look like a river of black and red flowing towards us.

The only good part about enemy infantry is that they are easy to take down with rifle or MG fire, the bad part is that they outnumber us; at least in a ratio of ten to one.

A few enemies manage to reach the first line of trenches, dug by the support Zug, there are war cries of pain and anger along with the strange hissing sound that hedgehog weapons make when they are fired.

One after another, the men of that Gruppe fall prey to only four enemies who managed to reach the defense line. So few are needed to exterminate a unit?

Some of the remaining soldiers of that Gruppe flee in terror, in panic produced when seeing how the members of their unit were assassinated in front of their eyes.

I focus my MG towards that trench and manage to destroy two of the enemies that managed to get there but I can't see where the other two are.

I have to find the nearest threat and eliminate it, only then will I be able to bring the situation back to normal.

Desperate I begin to look for the two remaining enemies while the few survivors of that Gruppe come to our trench to take refuge. As one of the soldiers jumps towards our trench is hit by a burst of shrapnel from the enemy, this shot tells me where that enemy is, I squeeze the trigger and the strange humanoid figure is shattered. Now there is only one left but when I find it, if I do, I still have to destroy all that are yet to come.

Kurt is radioing to report and call for backup. Finally, when the front trench is completely emptied of human life the last neuroi individual comes out of the trench in an attempt to reach ours; it is immediately eliminated by rifle fire from the survivors of the Gruppe that previously occupied that position. Revenge. At least they will be able to sleep soundly now that they have destroyed those who brought death to the rest of their unit. Well, that is if they survive today.

We heard Kurt yell something.

"How are they not coming? We are being outmatched in this position. We need reinforcements right now."

Apparently nobody is going to come to cover a unit that is not supposed to receive any combat. Even though the strategy command's calculations failed, no one will come to help us. We can only hope that the enemies are over soon and that we can with them.

But the enemies do not end, simply for each enemy that we destroy; two others take their place. We will soon be outmatched.

Kurt suddenly stops firing looking away from the enemy.

"Ahh ... The enemy is trying to retreat. But we are on the way, that's why they attack us. Our orders were to avoid being flanked from the north but they did not say anything about flanking from the south."

The NCOs from the support Zug seem to think so, and give the order to retreat. We will only retreat a little, long enough to let them pass by, then we will return to our original position and wait for the end of the offensive operation.

It was a good plan, but I doubt very much that the enemy will let us now that we attack them, although we have to try; otherwise we will all perish in this position.

We begin to leave the defense positions, first the lines closest to the combat while the other lines provide support fire, it seems that it works. They are letting us withdraw.

Line after line, we retreated into the thick of the forest, to the rear.

We also started to retire in my Gruppe. We are succeeding.

The Panzergranadiers embark on their 251s to retreat, this is when a turtle more than twice the size we are used to seeing makes an appearance.

The red "spots" of the huge turtle begin to glow. Shit, I know what comes next. A bright red beam emerges from the areas that were glowing, disintegrating the half-track on impact.

In addition, from other red areas, he has also launched other red rays and in a blink he destroys two other Hanomags.

The situation is desperate, those monsters were not letting us withdraw, they were waiting for the big one to arrive to erase us from existence.

The survivors fire any heavy weapon at their disposal at the huge quadruped tank. The Panzerschreck fly the two hind legs, causing the beast to expose its belly, that's when some fire Panzerfausts against it and even the three point seven cannon of the 251 of the Zug command.

The huge and powerful neuroi tank explodes violently when one of the projectiles fired at it destroys its core.

With the biggest threat removed, the survivors focus on taking down the turtles by focusing all heavy weapons on them and the infantry switch to conventional weapons.

It seems that they surpass us but we maintain the ground, every time we destroy one no more two appear but simply another one, they have an end. The end is coming. The question is whether we will still be alive when that happens.

They manage to finish off all the turtles, but because they focused too much on them now the tide of enemy infantry is almost above their defense lines. Luckily the MGs manage to push them back by destroying many in the process.

Now they approach in groups of five, no, six individuals; I don't know why they do that.

Each time one of them falls, another of the same formation takes his place and the rest continue to advance, they are using their own shield mates.

Now a group manages to reach the defense line, then the two escorts or shields separate from the one who was inside the formation and distribute death in the form of shrapnel among the stout soldiers; the one in the center begins to change color, from black to red and then begins to shine, reaches the center of the defense line and explodes.

With tremendous force, the blast pulverizes all remaining survivors on that line of defense. A suicide attack, the fucking enemies have changed the tactic to one of annihilation even at the cost of their own units.

Now that we know what the purpose of these formations is, we cannot let any of them reach the remaining defense lines.

There are only my Gruppe, the support Zug command and two support Zug Gruppen.

We are being annihilated by the enemy forces that fled the main battle.

If only the division command had given us some support, this would not be happening.

Few enemies remain, again that strange feeling of 'intuition' that helped me last time.

A formation reaches our trench. There are only two. But they are more than enough to destroy us all.

Eugen is faster than me and shoots in succession at the chest of the exploding enemy, this one falls apart like the rest.

Eugen turns to say something to me, I blink and something hot hits my face, when I open my eyes Eugen is gone.

In a burst of shrapnel the remaining neuroi pulverizes Eugen's head and his blood splatters on my face. Everything was so fast that I couldn't react. Then the enemy prepares to take my life, he confronts me. I try to do something, but I am paralyzed, for the moment, the shock, the death of a colleague; a friend, a brother. I am going to die, soon I will meet Eugen, my father, my mother. Maybe they'll even let me go to heaven in my world.

The humanoid neuroi advances towards me, is its distance not enough to kill me with its shrapnel? No, it was an involuntary move. It goes a little further and then a little more and finally falls apart into pieces and ashes. On the other side I see Uwe and Friedrich pointing in my direction, they must have been shooting the monster from behind.

My balance fails and I fall to the ground, then everything turns black.

I hear shots in the distance. They get stronger and stronger.

I open my eyes and I am lying on the ground, sideways, my MG is next to me, I rejoin. My head hurts, I have nausea and my vision is a bit blurred, it seems like a dream, wait for this, I have already lived it ...

I look around me, there are several bodies of people on the ground, it seems that there was a great battle, I try to remember what I was doing here. How did I get to this place?

I remember the battle, I remember the enemy units that fled from the main front, I remember the turtles, I remember the "evolved" turtle that fired miasma beams, I remember the enemy infantry changing tactics, I remember that a formation managed to reach our trench, I remember … Eugen!

Shit! Eugen, Eugen, where are you? You can't have died.

You can't be dead. It can not be true.

I crawl between the bodies, because it is difficult to walk on them and my legs give me a little weakness. To tell the truth I'm shaking. I don't know if I'm scared or cold, but my whole body shakes.

At last I find Eugen, or what remains of him, the neuroi erased his head, now I will never see his smile again, I will never hear him speak again.

Both anger and fear overwhelm me. What a strange mix, huh?

I take my MG and stand up again, there are not many enemies around but that does not matter, I will go for them if necessary.

Apparently it is written that I must die here, then I will take all those bastards with me to heaven or hell; what difference does it make.

I come out of my trench with difficulties and I put the MG on my shoulder, I feel a rush of adrenaline and there is again that feeling that allows me to "intuit" where the enemies are.

Well, let's make good use of it.

I aim for the one who according to my strange intuition is closest. Although I don't see it, I know it's there, the night is so dark that you don't see the dark enemies until you're really close, but that doesn't matter to me. I know where they are.

I shoot a blast and an enemy ceases to exist, hey; Well, do not feel bad ending them, he continued until I ran out of bullets.

Then one of the apparently survivors of the support Zug signals me to go where he is. Well, if I get more ammo, I can take more of those assholes to hell.

I jump into the trench and look for a box of ammunition. There isn't, so I'm looking for a drum magazine or anything I can use with my MG. The soldier yells something at me, but I don't hear him, I don't hear him.

There is a machine gun nest, an MG, ammo, and a body partially on top of the MG.

I push the body away and take the MG magazine, then the ammo box. I pull the tape out of it and reload my own MG.

With renewed strength and now ammunition, I continue my crusade.

There are already eighteen remaining, I shoot bursts in their direction and reduce their number to twelve.

But they split up to avoid being so easily destroyed. I keep shooting until the end of the tape comes out the other side of my MG.

Time to switch to the drum, luckily there are only six left. My hands are shaking with fear and excitement, I can't recharge. A task that until a few hours ago was trivial for me is difficult to the maximum.

By the time I finish reloading there are four enemies left, I take care of them with the remaining bullets.

Then I keep shooting at nothing until my MG just makes clicking sounds. That's when I feel a hand on my right shoulder. It is the surviving boy of the Zug who instructed me to join his defense.

My legs give out again and I fall to my knees, yet I keep pulling the trigger.

"That's it, it's over. It is done. Shhh …" The soldier gently withdraws the MG, and hugs me.

Now I feel for the first time in a long time a sense of peace, tranquility and satisfaction that I had not remembered having since I finished college.

Everything turns black again.