A/N: So I decided that I needed a bit more of an actiony prologue to keep readers hooked and that neither the first chapter or the history lesson before this fits the bill. So here is part of the story that made the Girls we know the legends they become.
Muse Section Prologue: Operation Fustian
July 14th 1943, Near Catania Sicily
"MORTAR!"
Nico flinched as the ear splitting explosion rocked the dusty crossroads sending clods of dirt flying through the air.
This is bad, we're not going to last long if they've brought up mortars…
Nico grimly surveyed the terrain around her taking in the sight of carnage and dead bodies of paratroopers from behind the boulder; that was sheltering her from the storm of bullets, currently raking the Sicilian dirt with metal and death. The noise of battle incessant as machine gun fire relentlessly poured down on both sides.
…that said we're not doing well as it is
She fired off a burst from her Thompson at some more Germans who had broken cover forcing their heads down once more, the heavy thud of the Vickers machine gun the only thing keeping the majority of the Germans at bay.
"Lieutenant we need to move now, this position can't last long! Our left has already collapsed there are going to be more Germans here. " Nico turned her head to see thither occupants behind the boulder arguing fiercely. The ginger haired Sergeant Kousaka was pleading with their current ranking officer, Lieutenant Kilorean to withdraw.
The poor woman was actually their only officer that the company had left.
"We can't sergeant. Our orders were to hold these crossroads, and I intend to follow them!" the words that were supposed to be came out sounding weak, with being fear obvious in the young officer's eyes as more mortar rounds made their presence known.
"Ma'am we haven't got a choice we can't defend this position. There are only twelve of us left at this position." The Sergeant reasoned as another mortar round showered them all with dirt and dust.
The NCO dusted off her beret as she pointed at an old Greek temple in the distance. "If we withdraw there we can hold them off for longer, there's more cover and we'd have better lines of sight." The Sergeant ducked as bullets impacted the boulder sending shards or rock into the air.
"Sergeant!.." the lieutenant's retort was cut off by an explosion to her left. A look of horror dawned on her as she saw that the Vickers was silenced it's crew lying broken over the sandbags blood soaking into the canvas while the gun that was their one of their last lines of defence lay broken, useless, a mangled piece of metal.
"Ma'am we need to go!"
"We stay here!" the muttered reply shocked Nico, as she looked into the officer's eyes seeing the lieutenant broken by the reality of the situation.
This is madness we're going to die here.
"Ma'am…" The ginger's reply earned her a withering look of contempt from the blonde officer
"We will hold this ground sergeant, you hear me! You will do whatever it takes to hold this position! Anything else from you and I'll shoot you for cowardice!"
The NCO gritted her teeth as she muttered an acknowledgement before shouting to the few other defenders crouched a few meters away in a ditch bordering on some trees. "Kotori can you see the mortar?"
"Just about…" the high pitched reply was barely audible over the clamour of battle.
"Take it out!" Kousaka screamed at the top of her lungs as yet another shell fell between the two positions.
Nico felt someone shake her shoulder as she watched the sergeant organise a desperate defence. She tore her eyes away to see the lieutenant with a new determination in her eyes.
"Yazawa I need you to go to Sergeant Jones' position and tell her section to attack the German right flank. That's an order" she added threateningly placing her hand on her revolver, the implication clear
Ruby eyes widened as Nico saw the look of the lieutenant's face; her eyes seemingly determined were on closer examination resembled Fish eyes, dead and broken on the inside. The raven haired girl realised that the stress of the situation had caused the officer to lose her grip on reality.
None of us are in a position to attack anything at this point in time.
"Ye…" The crack of a rifle followed by a distant explosion interrupted Nico's reply as Kousaka cheered on her friend's marksmanship. But the lieutenant got the gist of it.
Nico steeled herself as she prepared to run out into the landscape of death. The dull monotonous thud of the Bren gun signified that her section mates were still alive as well as that she had a degree of covering fire.
"This is without a doubt the worst thing I've ever done. Ever." She muttered making a mental note that if they made it out of this she was going to punch lieutenant Kilorean in the face charge or no charge
Choosing to focus on the war man pleasant heat of the Sicilian sun, and the interesting foliage such as cypress trees that dotted the landscape as opposed to the fact that if she slowed down or stopped weaving for even a second she could die; Nico ran out from behind the boulder.
The whistling sound of bullets flying overhead was common before but was quickly all too frequent for her tastes as she sprinted across the yellowed grass of the countryside her lungs screaming and her muscles feeling like they were going to be pulled apart as Nico ran as fast as she could. She also tried to keep the fact that the dirt behind and in front of her was raked with mini dirt plumes indicating a bullet had just missed her sometimes by millimetres.
Crashing through a hedge, the intensity of fire died down. Nico breathed a sigh of relief, she had made it out of the immediate kill zone and slowed to a jog adjusting her grip on her Thompson the crackle of gunfire still echoing loudly in her ears.
As the roof of the small house came into view by the side of the cross roads where Sergeant Jones supposed to be entrenched was it became obvious that something was wrong the smoke rising from the terracotta roof tiles further strengthening Nico's assumptions about the fate of their comrades.
Her suspicions were confirmed as she scrambled down a small slope, flattening herself against the ground she leopard crawled towards a boulder in a few meters away. Peering out from behind the yellowish sandstone slab that hid her from view.
The dull yellow and green of the German soldiers picking their way over the positions of the dead paratroopers was obvious. The house behind them was ablaze and the moans of the seriously wounded rolled across the countryside. These men had held out as long as they could, but judging by how many Germans were down there, they had been overrun by sheer force of numbers.
It won't be long before this lot come up on our right flank.
A cold Sensation ran down Nico's spine as she sensed something behind her, the hair on the back of her neck stood up as a shadow crunch fell across the hot orange of the sandstone, the absence of the slight crunch of footsteps making it clear that whoever it was had spotted her. The Raven haired girl stayed stock still giving no indication to the person behind that she had noticed their presence silently pulling out the thin trench knife she kept strapped to her front.
Wheeling around to her right Nico came face to face with a German, a Fallschirmjaeger, a paratrooper like her trained in unarmed combat. She slashed at the rifle he had pointed at the back of her head batting away the barrel, before shoulder charging him.
The loss of balance caused the Fallschirmjaeger to fall back his rifle clattering to the ground a few metres or so away as Nico tackled him to the ground. She needed to keep this quiet lest his friends below her find out and come rushing to help; so using her Tommy gun was out of the question.
As she made to stab her blade into his heart the German grabbed her wrists slowing the blade's advance, his muscles strained against her body weight as Nico pushed down relentlessly trying to end this now.
Before she could make his skin taste cold steel however the German threw Nico to the right her body weight carrying her away, as they both scrambled to their feet the German also pulled out his bayonet. Nico smirked raising her hands in a guard position in front of her face and flipping the knife around so the blade still faced her opponent.
This was now a duel to the death.
Nico made the first move, she pushed off of her back foot stepping ducking underneath the Germans guard slashing at his stomach, the bulky German jumped back the blade barely missing his stomach and slicing open his jacket. Before he could react Nico ducked and rolled away to the side.
She smiled at that manoeuvre, briefly congratulating herself before lunging again targeting the Fallschirmjeager's wrist. He brought the knife down blocking it and throwing Nico off to his left.
Ruby eyes glinted as she saw the German bring the blade down on her back. She twisted in mid-air the two blades meeting with a metallic clash. Her feet slipping in the dirt as she fought to keep her balance, she raised her elbow to block a right hook to her head and swiped at the German's face with her blade.
The Yellow figure leaned back before stabbing at Nico's face. Nico swerved to the side catching his knife arm, as she did so she slashed once more only to have her hand caught.
A liquid trickled down cheek, there was no need to confirm what she already knew, and the bastard had nicked her cheek. The German was smiling at his small victory as the fighters remained locked in a stalemate.
Nico scowled and let go of her opponent's knife arm, The German ducked back and both fighters separated gaining distance they circled each other, sizing their adversary up.
Nico moved first with a kick aimed for one of the Fallschirmjaeger's knees. The German side stepped and taking advantage of Nico's position kicked out one of Nico's legs causing her to fall to the ground, her back jarring painfully as she lay there winded.
Her opponent grinned and raised the knife above his head advancing against the supposedly defenceless Nico. In response to his charge Nico gave him a quick side kick in his groin, getting a very pleasing groan as the German also fell to the floor knife clattering to the ground, both fighters lay there gathering up their thoughts.
Right. Nico exhaled plotting her next move time to get serious
They scrambled to their feet , the paratrooper and the Fallschirmjaeger circling each other once again.
The Fallschirmjeager went on the offensive, slashing and stabbing at Nico each time she dodged, slowly tiring him out with her agility, a few times she parried his thrusts throwing him in the opposite direction, it was obvious she was toying with him. The German paused his assault after a few round of this his blade gripped down by his hip.
"Bleiben bewegungslos du Zicke!" he spat, panting heavily; blue eyes burning with fury.
Nico cocked her head, she wasn't entirely sure what he had said but she was pretty sure it was something like "stay still you bitch" Nico smirked at him gesturing for him to come at her once more. Satisfied she'd made him mad enough
Time to end this.
The German screamed at this barrelling forward his knife aimed at her throat. Nico casually sidestepped and slammed the pommel of her knife against the back of his helmet with a satisfying 'clang'
As he fell forward dazed, Nico dashed up behind him her Knife at his throat.
"Don't mess with the Paras" she whispered in his ear as she drew her knife through his flesh, letting a torrent of blood flood into his lungs.
Nico walked over to her Tommy Gun wiping her hands of the red sticky liquid on her trousers, listening to the sounds of battle intensify in the distance as the Fallschirmjaeger gurgled his last.
Nico crashed back through the hedge sprinting cover to cover as bullets once again zipped overhead Running to the distant call of Sten fire, she ducked behind a boulder near the one she'd been crouched behind not ten minutes ago to catch her breath.
"Medic!" the call went out indicating their numbers were even lower now.
Nico looked across the battlefield as she saw a shortish girl with a Red Cross armband break cover and rush over to Sergeant Kousaka, red hair bouncing underneath her beret as she ran. Following her with her eyes she surveyed the rest of the scene. Nozomi and Eli hadn't moved still firing away on the Bren, the two girls that were all that was left of C platoon were still firing away with their rifles the one with glasses occasionally having to pull the other back behind cover.
The Lieutenant however had been hit and the Medic was currently trying to drag her to safety under heavy German fire. Nico fired off a burst from her Thompson and rushed towards sergeant Kousaka's position.
"Jones…is gone…loads of Germans…heading this way." Nico reported to the ginger girl in between pants.
The grim look of Kousaka's face intensified.
"The lieutenant's been hit as well…GRENADE!" the NCO's eyes widening as she shouted the warning having seen a stick grenade land a few feet from the injured lieutenant and their medic.
Everyone hit the dirt throwing themselves into some sort of cover…all except the medic.
The grenade exploded with a deafening bang that made Nico's ears ring, she looked as dirt still rained down on them seeing the Lieutenant's head shattered by the explosion the Medic was lying on her back blood blooming through her chest.
Nico watched incredulous as a Blue haired corporal ran out into the middle of the German fire bullets kicking up dirt all around her as she called what was presumably the medic's name.
"Maki? Maki? Maki? Wake up damn it!" the medic appeared to come around wincing at the pain, both of the wound and as she was picked up by the Corporal who ran behind another boulder bullets tracking her progress as she did.
Sergeant Kousaka muttered something under her breath before shouting to the remaining soldiers.
"Listen up! We're going to die if we stay here! As the highest ranking person here I'm taking charge! We're pulling back to that temple! Fire and movement! OK?" a few nods were visible as well as shouted acknowledgements from those who were scattered across the battlefield.
"On my mark you provide covering fire while we move to the temple! We'll make our last stand there!" The ginger sergeant shouted in Nozomi and Eli's direction.
"Right Section! prepare to move!" Everyone got ready to run like hell the moment the order was given.
Sergeant Kousaka slung her Sten over her shoulder cupping her hands to her mouth as she delivered the final part of the order.
"MOVE!"
The section ran for their lives to the soundtrack of gunfire and explosions, to give birth to a legend.
A/N: so hope that gives a taste of the combat that I am aiming for, let me know what you think in reviews follows favourites etc. It's nice to be noticed you know?
One other thing Every chapter or so I will change perspectives so the two in a row with Nico this makes with chapter 1 in terms of POV is a fluke
for those wondering what Kotori armed with a sniper did to take out the mortar I may tell if you guess right in chapter 5 (or 6 depends if people have guessed by tuesday)
Glossary:
Thompson/Tommy Gun: a sub-machine gun famous for it's use by gangsters in the prohibition era, and it's use by British and American forces throughout WW2
Fallschirmjaeger: German Paratroopers, these guys took heavy losses invading Crete in 1941 and afterwards didn't see many combat jumps. regardless they were still very well trained and much better than most normal German infantry. fun fact their invasion of Crete which stopped their combat Jumps actually gave birth to the British Airborne forces.
Vickers: a belt fed MAchine gun used in WW1 and WW2 by British troops it was based off of the Maxim design.
