THE GAMBLE AND THE GIRL!

1735 Casino

Griffin Company Captain Joseph Jones and his men take cover behind flipped gaming tables and pokies machines as gunfire fly across the room. Jones hurls a grenade at an enemy position behind a flipped table, seconds later the grenade explodes and the two enemies behind it scream in agony while flying from the power of the blast. Screams of pain fill the enemy's ranks from men wounded by the grenade. Ben "Bull" Bullock runs to Jones's table.

"Hey Jonesey! Fair throw with that grenade there!" Bull congratulates him.

"Thanks Bull! Hey can u tell Bob to set up that machine gun in between those tables there?" Jones asks.

"Sure can!" Bull says getting up and running as fast as he can to Private Bob Mathews. He runs with him insight then dives across the floor and lands beside Bob.

"Hey Bull! What's up?" Bob inquires.

"Jonesey wants you to set up that machine gun in between those tables there" he tells him pointing in between the tables.

"Tell the good captain I'll be mowing down these Pricks in no time…ohh and give this Reborn Lugar to Corporal Summers will ya?" Bob replies.

"Consider it done! Wow! Nice Lugar, his kid son is gonna love it!" Bull screams to make it over the noise of another explosion.

"The kid better be happy I pulled that off a bloody major! The Germans weren't too happy about that either!" he says as the both smirk!

"Go kick some ass Private!" he says smiling and begins to run back to Corporal Damien Summers and slides behind his table.

"Hey Damo!" he says spotting Bill "Billy the Kid" Howard, "Hey Billy!"

"G'day Bull!" Billy replies.

"Hey bull! How many of these pricks u killed?" Damo inquires.

"I donno bout 13" Bull answers

"Are you just being modest?" Billy asks in astonishment.

"Na bout that!"

"That's not like me friend the Bull!" Billy tells him.

"Yeah people keep sending me on messages! Speaking of which, Damo, Bob found you kid son a beautiful reborn Lugar!" he says handing him the decorated pistol.

"Holy shit! That's a nice Lugar! Tell him I owe him one!" Damo says looking at the pistol.

"I will! I'm gonna go kill someone!" Bull announces

"Preferably the enemy!" Billy says jokingly and Bull smiles.

Bull runs and jumps behind a small fleet of stairs and aims his rifle at an advancing German. You've made your first mistake he thinks to himself shooting the man in the artery and blood begins to piss out in every direction. The soldier screams in German for a medic. Second mistake Bull thinks. A medic and another soldier run out from cover to save the wounded warrior but Bull picks them off one by one. 16, make that 16.

A torch lights up to reveal a big hotel room and the men of Eagle Company put their stuff on the beds laid out for them. On the journey home Dean had gotten the girl from the slums to talk, he learned that this beauty in his arms was called Stephanie. It had taken him a while to get her to trust him this much for she had been edgy and frightened of the other men. And yet she had remained close behind him the whole time. When they past one area that was blanketed with bodies Steph cried and hid her face into his chest to afraid of what she was seeing.

Dean takes the girl, who is still hugging him, into the other room where there is a queen size bed. Steph has calmed down a fair bit since their trip and she's relaxed more around Dean, even smiling a few times. They sit down on the bed and Dean takes his gear off before turning to Steph.

"Now let's have a look at that lip," he says as he begins to examine it.

"It'll be fine," she tells him.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He says but still takes a closer look. "Yeah, you'll still be your same beautiful self" he tells her and she gives him a weak smile.

"How do you know I'm beautiful without a busted lip?" she inquires further.

"'Cause you look beautiful with one." He tells her while looking deep into her eyes and her smile becomes more genuine.

They sit there, Dean's arm resting behind her, the two still staring at each other. Steph feels her face growing hot and flustered so she looks away embarrassed.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?" he whispers.

"Thanks," she pauses, "for saving my life."

"You don't need to thank me." He replies. "I saw a beautiful girl in danger and I wanted to help her out. What more can a guy do?" he tells her with a shrug and a big smile.

"You're my real knight in shinning armor, aren't you?" she asks playfully

"Only if you want me to be." He says equally as playful.

"I want you to be." Says softly. "I need you to be."

Dean kisses her softly on the lips and rubs her back gently. She leans into him more placing her arms around his neck embracing him.

They both wish for this moment to last for ever.

They both wish it would never end.

The main gambling floor still is filled with a ferocious gunfight between the overturned tables and pokies machines. Betting chips lay scattered across the ground between the fallen, between the soldiers now deceased from both sides. The men left of Griffin company hold their positions unleashing a hailstorm of fire on their enemy.

Their persistent enemy fires back a deadly ray of ammunition. The men hear whips and cracks as bullets hit near by objects and the deafening blast of grenades from time to time.

When the fight seems to be at a stalemate, when it seems dire that they will leave this gambling house, the door's behind Griffin Company fly wide open.

Many Dreadnaught soldiers burst out guns up and firing. The enemy begins to pull out of the casino; they know their numbers are too few to keep the building.

The reinforcements have arrived and they're certainly doing their job.

The enemy forces flee through the doors to the car park and in the heat of the moment, in the heat of their victory, the dreadnaught soldier begin their pursuit after their foe. They give chase through the doors and into the car park.

Bull can sense something's wrong, he can sense that their missing something and he sees his enemies lined up behind a row of cars ready to slaughter. He knows what's wrong; he knows he just walked into an ambush!

"Ohh shit!" he stops. "It's an ambush!" he roars at the top of his voice jumping behind a parked car just in time. For no more than a second latter the enemy opens up with their gunfire. Many fall.

"Shit! Take cover!" Jonesey screams at his men.

The gunfight begins again, same thing, different place. Two sides who won't budge, two sides that won't give an inch, two sides that need to win.

Many now lay dead or wounded, what a waste, what a terrible waste. Good men, good soldiers who will never live to see to world under order, the world free of tyranny.

So much for the reinforcements finishing this bull thinks.

Will this battle never end?