A/N: So now we return to the main squad on their mission outside the Battalion rendezvous, the Village of Manneils

and thanks to my 10 fans (followers count damnit) you guys are the best.


Muse Section Chapter 5

August 1928, Village of Lightseed, Hampshire

"Kotori-chan hurry up" Honoka called out to her as she ran into the forest.

"Honoka-chan, were not supposed to go in there, it's dangerous! Umi-chan, do something to stop her." Kotori tugged on Umi's dress pleading with the blue haired girl.

"Kotori's right Honoka! We should go, My mother will be wondering where we are!"

"God, you two are so boring." Honoka pouted, "It'll be fun! And your mum is teaching Archery or ballroom or something Umi-chan so it's ok!" before either girl could reply Honoka dashed into the trees. Umi followed her into the darkness

"Umi-chan…Honoka-chan wait up." Kotori ran after her friends into the trees.

"Honoka-chan…" Kotori looked around as the sunlight filtered down through the trees, creating beams of light that illuminated the moss covered bark of the woods. Yet as Kotori looked around she couldn't find her friends.

A shuffling sound behind her drew Kotori's attention; she spun around looking into beady black eyes. She held her breath as she froze. The boar squealed as a flash of anger shot through its eyes, infuriated at this new intruder into is territory.

The hairy pig pawed at the ground, Kotori realised that it was going to charge. She backed up slowly trying to get away from the danger. But the boar's gaze was fixed on her, her back hit the bark of a tree she knew there was no escape.

"Someone...anyone please help me…Honoka-chan" tears began to fall from her eyes as Kotori curled up into a ball in a desperate effort to protect herself.

"Hey pig! Leave my friend alone!" Kotori looked up to see Honoka standing in between her and the boar her arms stretched out protecting Kotori. The boar stared at the new addition for a while before deciding that it wasn't worth it, and leaving.

"Honoka-chan" Kotori whispered enthralled by her friend's aura

"Kotori-chan are you ok?" Honoka offered her hand to her friend.

"Honoka-chan" Kotori by now was sobbing, as she brought Honoka into a crushing hug "…I was so scared."

"It's ok now Kotori-chan, now let's go Umi-chan's waiting for us." Honoka began dragging Kotori through the forest.

Honoka was still her normal energetic self, but Kotori noted that Honoka kept holding her hand all the way.

"Nearly there Kotori-chan" Honoka looked back at the ashen haired girl beaming. Umi appeared from over the crest of a hill in front of them.

"Where were you two?"

"Sorry Umi-chan I had to find Kotori." Honoka bowed apologetically, letting go of Kotori's hand.

"Well come on." Umi motioned to the two of them to join her over the hill.

Kotori stood on the crest of the hill on the edge of the forest, what she saw took her breath away. Their village was bathed in the glow of the setting sun below them. Orange sunlight illuminating the crops that swayed in the gentle summer breeze that blew.

Kotori felt something warm clasp her hand. She looked to see that Honoka was once again holding her hand the setting sun. "It's fine Kotori-chan if you're ever scared again. I'll be there."


5th June 1944, Near Caen, Normandy

Kotori wondered why she remembered that incident as she crouched in a ditch at the edge of a hedgerow gazing out into the dark. She sighed I guess that was the point I really started to fall for her. She looked around her seeing the seven remaining members of her section spread out along the ditch-line as their sergeant made her decision.

The Battalion rendezvous of the village of Manneils was loomed just beyond them in the dark. Their objective was close the problem was there was someone between them and it, the question was who?

"Are you sure that you can't see them clearly Kotori-chan?" the ginger haired girl asked her friend.

Taupe hair swayed as Kotori shook her head. "Sorry Honoka, I can't tell if they're friend or foe."

"Perhaps we should move up slowly and use the cricket." Eli suggested, pulling out the dull brass object.

"Yeah but what if it goes wrong?" Hanayo asked timidly.

"Well what's the point in having it if it alerts the enemy? It should be fine" Nico hissed quietly.

"But who do we send? If it does go south there is a chance that the person we send could be killed." Nozomi leaned nonchalantly on the butt of her machine gun that was trained on the suspicious figures that were shuffling around in the dark.

The section fell silent, contemplating the fact that they might lose more of their number. Nervous glances shot around in the dark each girl gauging the willingness and bravery of the others to risk her life.

"I'll go." Honoka stood up adjusting her helmet and equipment. With a determined look on her face, and a glint in her eyes that reminded the entire squad why those three chevrons were on her arm.
The sniper's hand shot out grabbing her friend's sleeve.

"Honoka-chan, be careful." Remember the promise you made to me…

"Of course I'll be careful, even if I'm not I've got you all watching over me, haven't I?" Honoka smiled to her friend, hoping to assuage her worry.

"Get out there before you trigger another death flag!" Nico started pushing Honoka towards the other end of the field.

The team went back to their positions all readying their weapons staring into the unknown; all were tense, expecting any threat to appear at any time. Kotori looked through her scope seeing the object of her affections crouched in the middle of the grass, a faint click could be heard, the reply however was inaudible.

Kotori held her breath until she saw Honoka through her scope give the field sign for the section to join her. The sniper breathed a sigh of relief, running across the field to the ever present background noise of sporadic gunfire and flak.

The section reunited on the outskirts of the village taking cover in yet another ditch just before the garden of one of the houses. There they all deployed in a perimeter defence within earshot of a Purple haired figure and their Sergeant who was being given a breakdown of the current situation.

Lieutenant Fumiko Yamamoto gestured to the three figures behind her while finishing her introduction. "…so as you can see the entire battalion, and quite probably the entire division is scattered across all of bloody France. I heard from a few guys with suspiciously American accents that the 3rd brigade went into action at Merville with over 450 men absent." Fumiko sighed "You guys and those three are all that we've got as far as B Company's concerned." She put her hand on her forehead and sighed once more.

"So you mean we've only got us and a PIAT team with us?" Nozomi asked

"Mika and Hideko are great girls they're kind of like family to me; but yeah, that's it in terms of manpower."

"At this rate we'll be blowing up that bridge alone." Eli rubbed her chin thoughtfully as she also digested the situation.

The girl with reddish hair and a PIAT on her shoulder piped up "well you've got me and Mika to help take the town while Jenkins can cover the rear." She said waving in the direction of a blonde man who appeared to be perpetually sulky.

Nico held up her hand. "Wait what does Hideko mean by take the town?"

Honoka smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry Kotori-chan Lieutenant Yamamoto mentioned this to me but I forgot to tell you all. The Jerries still occupy the village."

A collective cry went up from the squad "euuuueh?"

"Sorry guys, military intelligence isn't all it's cracked up to be" Fumiko bowed apologetically

"Humph, if you ask me everyone above the rank of Lance-Corporal is an idiot." The blonde man spoke up only to be shot down by a combined "Shut up Jenkins" from the other three girls.

"What are we facing in terms of manpower?" emerald eyes twinkled with mischief as Nozomi drew a card from her breast pocket.

"We didn't get a good look but at least one armoured car and one Spandau nest in the central square before we were nearly spotted and had to leg it." Mika answered.

"If we take them out we basically have the village. Sergeant Kousaka I'll take my team around the west of the village and clear it out, you deal with the square." Fumiko ordered.

"Understood." Honoka thought for a moment, as Fumiko took Mika and Hideko before disappearing into the village Jenkins followed grumbling. "Let's get a look at the situation." Honoka said with finality. Nico, Kotori you're with me, we'll scout out the square.


Kotori followed the ginger and the raven haired girl into the house behind them. It was deserted, and judging by the dust on the surfaces it had been for some time. The soft creak of the floorboards and doors they opened sounded deafening, as they moved to the front of the house, they paused after even the smallest sounds fearful they had been discovered. They were lucky the enemy sentries were more interested in chatting than keeping an eye on their surroundings. Honoka opened the blackout curtains a crack letting a beam of light through as they looked out the window. Honoka motioned that she wanted Nico to check upstairs.

The black twin-tails bounced slightly as Nico nodded before creeping up the old wooden steps.

The sniper scooched up to Honoka looking through the same crack in the curtains, due to her closeness to the NCO Kotori found her heart rate increasing and her mind only slightly on the scene outside

The square it was a simple affair, which was surrounded by a mix of single and two storey buildings. The old fountain in the middle of the square had seen better days and didn't look like it had seen running water since 1940; the water that was there was stagnant and covered with algae. The armoured car parked next to it also didn't look like it had seen much action since the fall of France, rust was clearly visible through the peeling paint, yet the only part that Kotori noticed was that the guns were kept in good order even from this distance it was clear they were well oiled and in working order.

As Kotori analysed it she noticed what looked like the town hall opposite them had sandbags piled around its entrance that implied that was the location of the machine gun Fumiko's team had mentioned. German troops milled around the square chatting and looking up at the night sky.

Honoka was mumbling to herself before she paced in front of the window while making sure she kept to the shadows cast by the moon and the few lights that the Germans kept hidden from the skies. Occasionally she would make sweeping motions with her arms as she scrutinized the scene outside.

All of a sudden she grabbed Kotori's hand and stuck her head into the stairwell motioning for Nico to follow. They waited for a few seconds before making their way back to the section outside, still each sound they made sounding like it was the crash of a thousand drums.

Kotori looked at the remainder of the squad still lying on the ground deployed in the perimeter defence formation. The squads eyes shifted to Honoka as she signalled for them to get up.

"Right, this is going to be interesting." She noted "Nozomi and Eli I want you two to set up the Bren in one of the houses on the left side of the square. Ok?"

"Right" came the simultaneous reply from the two machine gunners, their response eliciting a few giggles from the section.

"Me and Kotori will be providing more covering fire from this house here." Honoka jerked her thumb at the building behind them before gesturing at the remainder of the squad. "The rest of you need to move into the square and take them out, Rin I'll leave the armour to you."

"Got it." The excitement was clearly visible on Rin's face as she fiddled with various parts of her kit restlessly.

"Ok that's the plan. With luck the Lieutenant's team will meet up with us and we can secure the place. Any questions?" Honoka looked at the reactions of each squad member the hand of a certain Orange haired private shot up

"Can Rin use her bayonet nya~?"a collective groan rippled through the section it was a question that they all expected to be honest. Honoka sighed a little.

"Yes but I'd rather you don't make it you're primary weapon. We don't want another repeat of Sicily."

"Got it~" Rin punched her hand into the air, Kotori found her penchant for cold steel a little disturbing at times to be truthful, although as a sniper she couldn't judge.

Nozomi Picked up her Machine gun as the rest of the squad started loading their weapons and adjusting their equipment. Kotori simply looked at Honoka; it never ceased to amaze her how she switched from being a capable tactician to their normal lively leader. Perhaps they aren't different personalities at all, merely two sides of the same coin. She thought solemnly.

"Are we all ready?" Honoka asked. "We start the attack in fifteen minutes so be in position by then. It looks like the outer buildings are unoccupied, but we can't be certain. Be on guard."

Honoka smiled the seriousness temporarily gone as she put her hand into the middle of the group like she always did before any big event. "let's stick it to 'em!"

The section piled their hands in giving a small cheer, as they raised them out again smiles on their faces as they went to face death.


The tension was palpable as Kotori lay down on the second floor of the house she had been in a few minutes ago. Nico was downstairs and Honoka lay beside her. She looked through her scope once more, the crosshairs still resting on the head of the German officer, but her eyes kept darting to the left scanning the buildings for any sign of movement that would signal that their friends were ready.

The sniper breathed slowly, there was nothing there yet. She checked her positioning, breathing and natural direction once more, as any marksman should. All were perfect and all lined up on the officer strutting around atop his armoured car. He was a true example of "Aryan Superiority" as the Nazis called it. Blonde hair blue eyes and an arrogance that went with it, His wrinkled pugnacious face and beady piggy eyes made him look like someone had put a blonde wig on a pig. Even from the distance they were at it was clear that his own men hated this particular officer.

Kotori sighed, I doubt that'll make it any easier to forget his face, it was the curse of her role that she had the best look at her enemy's face and it wasn't just some shape to be fired at, it reminded her that these were people, even the man who looked more fascistic than Mussolini only with terrible hair and an almost orange complexion, down there. She smiled slightly, ok maybe I won't regret him as much as the other's.

Movement from her friend caught her eye, Honoka moved up to the window. Kotori drank in the sight of her crush her heart fluttered whenever she did this; the way that her hair looked like a crown of fire that framed her face, the red beret on top of her hair only strengthening to the illusion. Her face appeared statuesque in the dim light emanating from the window, emphasising the stark beauty contained in her profile, from her nose and her soft cheekbones to her chin. Kotori never failed to be struck by her friend's attractiveness. Yet all attention was drawn to her warm blue eyes that so often gleamed with emotion.

"Kotori-chan?" Honoka whispered tearing Kotori away from her reverie, "Are you ok? You were looking at me funny."

Kotori immediately blushed, shrinking under Honoka's gaze the azure eyes intense "N-no…I'm fine its just…just-"

"You're nervous right. Well no time for that the others are ready ." Honoka pointed to a cafe on the left side. "the others are already in positon, and it's nearly time as well."

Kotori checked her watch, Honoka was right. she quickly readjusted her position training the rifle on the German officer before cycling the bolt putting a round in the chamber.

"Ready?" Honoka asked,

The brown haired sniper nodded slightly so as to not disturb her rifle, she steadied her breathing. As she saw Rin move in the window out of the corner of her eye she counted herself in as she squeezed the trigger.

"3…2…1." There was a slight delay before the distinctive "Crack" emanated from the barrel. The officer's head snapped back as bits of skull and blood splatted against the grey metal of the car. His broken corpse fell against the armour too before the pull of gravity took its hold and he landed face first on the floor.

Silence reigned for a few seconds as the soldiers stared at their commander's body. Then all hell broke loose. Nozomi's Bren gun opened up on the square Bullets pinging off of the cobbles and tearing through the German troops with gruesome efficiency, the occasional rifle fire beside her was obviously Eli doing her bit. Men and masonry fell as the dirt kicked up by the Bren followed a deadly arc through the square scything down the slower soldiers.

Kotori swiftly worked the bolt targeting another German who had begun shouting orders. Once more her rifle barked. The soldier fell blood spurting from the new hole in his neck like water from a fountain, his carotid artery shattered by her bullet. She was dimly aware that Honoka had started firing down on the square, spaying casings everywhere, the occasional burning heat sometimes disturbing Kotori. The chatter of sub-machine gun fire downstairs meant Nico had joined in too adding to the mess of lead that was plastering the square. Yet none of this mattered to Kotori, the mist had taken over her now, in essence she was a machine that killed and moved until the battle stopped. She worked the bolt again before sending another soul down gurgling as blood filled his lungs via the new hole in his chest.

"Kotori cover Rin!" Honoka shouted gesturing to the flash of green and brown that had just broken cover and was making a beeline for the armoured car.

Hanayo too broke cover and dashed towards one of the benches surrounding the square taking use of the temporary cover to pour rifle fire into the Germans with a speed that rivalled any machine gun.

Honoka made some comment about the 'Mad Minute' before raining death down upon the few Germans brave enough to show their heads

Rin on the other hand simply ran straight for the enemy, one of the few Germans not in cover or dead received a bayonet to the gut as Rin barrelled into him, the momentum of her charge pushing the man onto the ground where Rin removed her Sten from his stomach. Watching briefly as the red flower blossomed on her victim, before resuming her charge grenade in hand. She scrambled up the front of the armoured car and threw in the green metal ball of death into the top before scampering away. The sound of rounds impacting stone, metal and bodies echoed all around her, while the air filled with the buzzing of bullets in flight.

A few seconds later, the section marvelled as the armoured car exploded. Flames and smoke mushroomed out of the chassis tearing the hardened steel to pieces. Deadly shrapnel flew in all directions as metal shards and splinters embedded themselves everywhere. The noise made Kotori's ears ring and obscured the square in a haze of orange tinted flame that lingered for a few seconds, the sounds of gunfire continuing to increase as the Germans slowly assembled a response and the three privates fought for their lives.

The smoke cleared gradually revealing the twisted remains of what was the armoured car, still burning illuminating the square in an eerie orange glow accompanied by dancing shadows. Yet the scene revealed wasn't pretty, Nico and Hanayo were pinned down by the MG that had opened up. Rin meanwhile was trapped behind the fountain in the middle of the square by the reinforcements

"Kotori!" Honoka shook her shoulder, "I'm going down there! Keep up the covering fire." Honoka shouted as she ran down the stairs

"Hono-" Kotori started her protest only to see her friend running out of the house below her. The markswoman grunted in frustration at the recklessness of her friend before working the bolt once more, felling a German soldier who had been keeping Rin pinned down with bursts from his MP40.

Nozomi's machine gun by this point had run out of targets and ammo so the balance of powe sung even further in the enemy's favour as the two women were struggling to re-position it. Eli was trying her beset to keep the enemy off their backs as Nozomi fixed up a stable firing position, but there was only so much one rifle could do.

Kotori gritted her teeth in frustration as her seventh target fell to the ground, blood trickling from his head. She switched her focus to the German machine gun keeping her friends pinned down, the operators concealed behind sandbags for protection. The sniper smirked briefly a dark thought running through her head; that's sweet, they think that'll protect them.

She shot through the opening which the gun was firing through, adjusting slightly she predicted where the gunners would be. Her rifle cracked silencing the gun; although she couldn't see it Kotori knew she had hit her mark. She shifted her aim to the left shooting off one more round to take out the loader and prevent him taking up the gun and continuing to cause trouble for her squad mates.

Under Honoka's coordination the rest of the squad had started to inch their way forward, using liberal amounts of covering fire and swift movement from cover to cover they slowly pushed their way up the square towards the town hall.

As Kotori yanked open the bolt to reload she saw that Eli and Nozomi were laying down fire for what had to be the final push. the few german soldiers were falling back to the town hall under a hail of steady concentrated fire She watched from on high as the remaining soldiers were either gunned down by Nico or carefully eliminated by the rapid rifle fire of the two blondes. Rin often charged in as though her gun wasn't loaded preferring to deliver her coup de grace via cold steel, taking way too much pleasure in gutting the enemy alive with her bayonet.

the squad nearly had the enemy bottled up when shots came out from behind the snadbags and vaious loopholes in the building. Through her scope Kotori saw honoka react to something off to her left yelling at the others to get down.

A large explosion tore open the sandbags surrounding the town hall drawing Kotori's attention to Fumiko and her team emerging from a house. Their defences destroyed or able to be neutralised, with obvious enemy reinforcements and the square in carnage the remaining defenders demoralised by the shock of the ambush, surrendered without a fight.

Kotori wandered around the battlefield afterwards. Miraculously they'd made it through without injury, which was lucky considering they didn't have their Medic among them.

The ground was covered in chipped masonry blood and other debris, bullet holes scarred the walls and buildings, brass casings littered the floor alongside the bodies of the fallen. The blood staining the ground appeared black in the darkness of the night; Kotori winced as she caught sight of one man who had had his stomach ripped open by flying shrapnel from the armoured car. The sights of war were truly sickening, but at least it wasn't their bodies covering the ground.

Manneils was theirs. Yet the gloomy thought lingered in the ashen hiared sniper's mind as she gazed upon the enemy dead.

But at what cost.


A/N: so a second taste of combat (technically third)

a note on locations: most of the smaller places such as villages or certain unimportant bridges are made up including Lightseed and Manneils and don't exist in real life (if they do it's a coincidence and if you live there write to me), this is here to clear up any confusion because obviously I have or will use/mention places like Caen Paris or Arnhem which do exist.

A word about OOCness: this chapter and possibly the ones before it will contain behaviour that is undoubtedly OOC the reason for this is...

they've been at war since 1940 some since 1939 so undoubtedly they will have been brutalised and affected in numerous ways (this includes the cinnamon rolls of Hanayo and Rin) this therefore accounts for the most part of the OOCness which reveals itself in combat think of it like the war has produced semi-corrupted forms of their personalities, Rin is really energetic, hence she likes to use her speed in bayonet charges etc. thus developing an affinity for cold steel.

see you all next week

Glossary

PIAT Projector Infantry Anti-Tank: like a bazooka it's what the British and Commonwealth forces used to knock out tanks after the Boys anti-tank rifle (which didn't work) as with the Sten records on combat effectiveness are mixed but it was widely used so it was probably useful

Spandau: what the British forces called the MG-42 or MG-34 the german general purpose machine gun

MP40: German sub-machine gun, the Sten was designed around the same cartridge so british forces could use captured rounds and Mags in it.