Another Exhausting Mission

By: AliasCWN

Chapter 1

When the water hole appeared in the distance Troy glanced at his watch and decided that it was time for a break. "Take us in," he told Hitch.

"Do we circle first?"

"One quick one," Troy nodded. "I doubt anyone could have gotten here ahead of us but I guess it's better to not take any chances."

Hitch nodded as Troy rationalized their plan. After making a small circle around the water hole the jeeps turned into the break in the rocks. The water pool was in the middle of the clearing among the boulders. First one and then the other jeep pulled in and stopped next to the water.

"We haven't seen any sign of pursuit but I don't want to take any chances," Troy began. "Fill the water containers before you do anything else."

Hitch and Tully both nodded and unhooked the spare water containers from the rear of the jeeps. Their canteens were still full so there was no need to fill them.

Troy and Moffitt stood behind the 50's as they looked around. The large boulders hid their view of most of the surrounding desert but the rocks looked clear.

"All done with the water Sarge," Hitch announced a moment later.

"Okay, fill the gas tanks," Troy nodded.

Hitch and Tully both turned and reached for the gas cans.

"I'll go take a look from the top." Troy reached for a weapon and started toward the rocks.

Moffitt watched as Troy climbed toward the top of the rocks. Hitch and Tully were walking around the jeeps with the gas cans in their hands. Suddenly a movement caught Moffitt's eye. "Troy! Look out!" Moffitt's gun opened up as men began to peer around the boulders with rifles in their hands.

Troy dove for cover and shot the man nearest him. Rolling to the side he also shot the next man to stick his head out into the open. Wiggling behind another boulder he could hear the others fighting behind him. Moffitt's 50 was drowning out the sounds of the lighter weapons. He heard the jeeps roar to life but he didn't dare take the time to look behind him. More Germans were hidden behind the boulders above him and he couldn't allow them to get unobstructed access to his men. The longer he could keep them ducking for cover the better chance the others had of escaping.

Leaning around the rock that sheltered him, Troy unloaded an entire clip of ammo. Below him he heard the jeeps start to move. Moffitt's gun stayed in the fight but both privates were now concentrating on getting the jeeps clear.

The Germans heard the jeeps leaving too and they made a desperate attempt to stop them. Troy tried, but he couldn't keep all of them from firing at the departing jeeps. The barrel of his gun turned red from the heat of all of the lead spitting at the attackers. More bullets began to pepper the rocks around him as the attention of the attackers centered on him. He could no longer hear Moffitt's 50 as he rolled onto his back to reload. Reaching for a new clip his hand came up empty.

When he stopped returning fire the bullets hitting the rocks around him tapered off and finally stopped altogether.

"Sergeant Troy."

Troy twisted at the call.

"Sergeant, I know you can hear me."

"I hear you. What do you want?"

"You may as well surrender Sergeant; your men have left you; you are all alone."

"Now how can you say I'm all alone when you're here too?" Troy asked as he stalled for time.

"You're stalling Sergeant. Please don't do anything foolish, I would hate to have to kill you." Dietrich's voice floated down from the top of the rocks.

"I just bet you would," Troy replied, "but I'm thinking that you'd do it anyway."

"Yes, I would," Dietrich answered, "but it would bring me no pleasure."

"Maybe just a little," Troy responded with a resigned grin.

"Perhaps…but only a little," the captain admitted. "Correct me if I am wrong Sergeant, but you seem to be out of ammunition."

"Maybe." Troy could hear Dietrich's sigh and it made him smile.

"Be sensible Sergeant, you are surrounded and holding an empty weapon. This can only end one of two ways, and you only survive one of those ways."

"Are you sure about that Captain?"

"Quite," Dietrich answered in a dry tone.

Troy sighed. He could no longer hear the jeeps and Dietrich was right, his options were definitely limited. "All right Captain, you win this round." Troy tossed his weapon onto the ground in the open. "I'm coming out." He waited until Dietrich had alerted his men as to what was happening before he got to his feet. Keeping his hands in plain sight he stepped out from behind the rocks.

The German soldiers rushed forward to surround him and search him for more weapons. Dietrich waited until Troy had been searched and bound before he carefully picked his way down to where the sergeant stood.

"Where did the others go?"

"Not that again," Troy groaned. "I don't know where they went. They weren't supposed to leave without me so there wasn't any plan to meet anywhere else."

The officer nodded at the expected answer. "Then I guess we'll just have to wait for them to come to your rescue. When they do, we'll be waiting."

"You never give up, do you?"

"I can't give up if I want to see Germany reach greatness again," the captain replied seriously.

"Even if it's at the expense of the rest of the world?" Troy asked.

Dietrich looked at Troy in surprise. "Is that how you see it?"

"Don't you?" Troy asked.

"I suppose we shall have to agree to disagree on that point. Shall we go Sergeant?"

"I have to admit, this was a pretty good trick," Troy observed as his captors led him to their vehicles. "We made a circle before we came in. We saw tracks where your column went past but we didn't find where it turned in. We never figured you'd turn around. How did you manage to get these vehicles in here without us hearing them?"

Dietrich smiled. "We were here before you arrived Sergeant. You were spotted headed in this direction by one of our Arab spies. It wasn't difficult to figure out that you would stop at this water hole. It is the only one in this sector. My column was out here on a scouting mission so we decided to wait for your arrival. We thought that you might check for tracks so I had the column continue while my men and I walked in and hid in the rocks. We even covered our tracks in case the wind didn't do it for us. I think it worked out quite well, don't you?"

"Oh, I don't know," Troy answered, "you missed my men."

Dietrich made a face. "A temporary setback."

"You just keep telling yourself that Captain," Troy smiled, "if it makes you feel any better."

They arrived at the vehicles and Dietrich had Troy helped into the rear of his own halftrack.

"I thought you said that your column kept going," Troy remarked as he took a seat in the corner.

Dietrich twisted to look behind him and smiled. "They had orders to return at the first shots fired."

"Yeah," Troy mumbled to himself.

"Relax Sergeant, we will be at the nearest German base before dark. I doubt that your men will try a rescue while it is still daylight, but we will be ready, just in case."

"Wear yourself out," Troy answered.