After having another one of those dreams about the shadowy figures, I decided I'd had all I could take.

There had to be some way to stop this torture!

But how?

I took some time to reflect upon the circumstances of my situation.

After half an hour's worth of thought, I realized something:

Before I got that safe at Malinovka, I hadn't been having any of those dreams, so maybe it had something to do with the safe.

Or maybe I had a run of bad luck when I gave that card to the T-34 commander.

Actually, after a little more thinking, I decided that the card was unlikely to have caused me any frustration like this, so it must be the safe.

But what about the safe, then?

Not long after, it hit me:

The black diamond!

It must be cursed!

This thing had to be some sort of priceless artifact, so I decided that I had to return it to its rightful owner.

After more thinking, I realized that I had absolutely no idea, not even a single clue, of who the owner of this diamond was.

Then, I had an idea:

Rather than try to return it, I was going to pass the curse on to somebody else!

So, when I was ready, I took another trip to Germany.

This time, I flanked around the south and tried entering through the west, which meant I had to penetrate the infamous Siegfried Line.

When I got there, though, I witnessed a battle going on already.

The whole setup reminded me of Egypt, with a French company taking on a German company.

The Germans, whoever they were, didn't appear to have anything I hadn't seen before, but the French had a few new toys with them in addition to AMX light tanks, BDR and ARL heavy tanks, and some other typical French machines.

Just like Egypt, though, I stayed in the shadows and let them blow each other to pieces.

Eventually, when the smoke cleared, it was the Germans who had triumphed.

Of course, I didn't think they'd be in such good shape after this battle, so I went in there to clean up with them.

It wasn't easy, though, because a JagdPanther had spotted me and opened fire.

While he did damage me, I also blew him up easily, owing to its condition.

After obliterating the JagdPanther, I broke through the line itself and pressed through the town.

However, I was being fired upon by artillery, so I had to take care of that, too.

I soon found a Hummel, so I destroyed it.

Before I could go any further, though, I got a radio call:

"HALT, RUSSLANDER! Do not move any further! Turn back now or we will destroy you!"

I simply replied, "Go ahead! I'm probably dead anyways!"

In any case, I went behind a building for cover.

A few seconds later, I saw a Tiger II emerge from behind another building.

I took aim at it and fired, but the tank survived the hit.

Naturally, it returned fire, but it only clipped my track as I was backing in, though the track remained together.

Having reloaded, I drove back out of cover only to find that the Tiger II had the guts to approach my position.

I was quicker on the draw than it, though, so I destroyed it.

Once again, to the victor go the spoils, the spoils in this case being additional resources plus knowledge of my opponents.

The French tankers here belonged to "La Brigade Charlemagne", who believed that the Dark Times actually began many years prior to this World War, more specifically, during the French Revolution.

Ergo, they believed that the only way to restore order was to return France to a monarchy and to conquer a few more territories.

Needless to say, I thought that was a bunch of bull.

However contemptible the idea was, they meant business, judging by their new toys.

One of these was an AMX-13 F3 AM, an SPG based on the AMX-13 chassis.

The AMX light tanks were annoying enough, but engaging one with an artillery gun had to be hell for anyone without a sufficiently advanced tank.

Aside from their S35 CA, they had another tank destroyer: The ARL V 39, which looked like a modified Char B1 or BDR G1B chassis with a typical forward-mounted cannon.

They also had another new SPG: The Lorraine 155 mod. 50, based on a chassis that I'd never seen before.

Speaking of Lorraine, that was also the name of a 40-ton medium tank, which had an autoloader cannon similar to what the AMX light tanks had.

Actually, the 155 mod. 50 shared the same chassis as this one.

The fact that the Lorraine 40t had an autoloader was bad enough, but there was also an AMX-series heavy tank called the AMX-50 with a 100mm autoloader cannon.

Judging by the layout of the chassis and the components utilized, it appeared that they'd taken influence from the Germans when constructing this machine.

Speaking of the Germans, the particular company that was defending the Siegfried Line was one of the infamous SS panzer divisions, "Reinhard Heydrich".

Reinhard Heydrich had founded an organization called the "Sichereitsdienst", or "SD" for short, and was also "Obergruppenführer" of the SS prior to his assassination in 1942.

Now that I think of it, he was assassinated shortly before the collapse of order, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Probably not, but I'm not counting out the possibility.

Despite the breakdown of order, the SS panzer division "Reinhard Heydrich" remained loyal to Nazi Germany and was primarily interested in defending all of its remaining possessions as if they still mattered.

According to one letter I found, they also shared a connection:

"Herr Müller,

Our attempt to take back the city of Donnerberg has failed. Contrary to our intelligence reports, we encountered a heavily-armed Russian tank division here. Despite our element of surprise and our superior speed, the Russians destroyed every one of our tanks and left only a few survivors.

Since we now know that the Russians have acquired superior technology, we feel that it would be in both of our best interests if you would get us more powerful battle machines. We have tried to acquire these ourselves, but we have only come across non-functioning ones or ones that are in the hands of hostile forces. If you can get some for us, I assure you that we won't disappoint you.

Thank you for reading this letter. It has been an honor serving with you.

-Mit Deutschem Gruß,

Oberst Dieter Kandler,

The Blitzkrieg Boys"

Hmmm…looks like I'll be doing another round against them.

You know, I never thought I'd be saying this, but for once, I'm actually glad that the Germans won.

Given the way the new French tanks were equipped, I would've been screwed if I attempted to take on "La Brigade Charlemagne" by myself.

On the other hand, they appeared to have weak armor, judging by the data contained in the handbooks.

After I was all done here, I did whatever repairs I could for Goliath and pressed further behind enemy lines.

Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.