"Hold your fire…" Cole spoke softly into the radio as he watched the enemy column roll down the road. In his field of view, Cole identified a Pz VI Tiger tank followed closely by four medium tanks. A long line of half tracks armed with MG42 turrets followed behind the armored advance. Taking up the rear was a vehicle that Cole considered odd, a Wespe self propelled artillery gun. Surrounding the convoy was a platoon of hardened Nazi soldiers that had been placed as infantry support. Dispersed throughout the platoon of soldiers were a few Trackers and Oceanas, making no attempt to hide their rigging.
"That's a real long line of armor." Natalie whispered.
"Dutchess, the middle vehicle has markings that match the crest worn by experiment 77543 aka Anna. We should prioritize that vehicle as a high value target." Ania said coldly.
Cole looked over to Ania.
"Who is this Anna?" Cole asked.
"Anna is a basket case who has had her mind destroyed by the siren known as Observer Alpha. I firmly believe she is a loose cannon in the truest sense of the word. She is by far one of the most brutal women I have ever come across." Natalie spoke as they watched the column slowly advance down the road.
"Ania, could you send word to the tailing forces and let them know we are going to spring our trap. Hopefully we can make the best of it. If this Anna is as bad as you say she is, then having to face her in Wilhelmshaven will not be something we want to do." Cole said.
"Already done, Sergeant. The tailing force is a couple miles behind this column. They are also reporting that they have Lucia with them. They picked her up as they were passing Horst Castle" Ania said.
"What? When the hell did she get there? I thought she was with us? And where the hell is Horst Castle?" Cole asked as he looked back towards the barn where his men were posted up waiting for orders.
Ania put her hand up to stop him talking for a moment.
"Lucia said she snuck off to try and find a better location for our ambush and instead ended up running into the other tankers and the members of the 506th infantry. She joined up with them and they are hot on the heels of this convoy, if we are to spring this trap, they can be here within the hour. And to answer your last question, Horst Castle is a castle manor six miles north of Essen" Ania informed.
"Well then… I guess it's now or never." Cole said as he picked up the radio.
"Alright boys, let's see if your rifle training is up to par. Pick your targets and try to take out the majority of the enemy platoon before they can react. On my mark, open fire." Cole said as he heard a confirmation from the platoon commander in the barn to his read.
Cole switched the radio to the tankers in the trees on the opposite side of the convoy.
"Alright boys, target the front and rear elements of the convoy. Save the Tiger for Gneisenau, she said she's willing to attempt to knock the crew out that way we can bolster our armor for the assault on Wilhelmshaven. Other than that, scrap em." Cole said as he turned to Natalie and Ania who looked ready to go.
"You two… you seem to have an issue with this Anna character. Put her down." Cole said, earning nods from the two women sharing his makeshift blind.
"Alright everyone…" Cole said as he addressed all of his forces.
"... Attack!" Cole ordered.
It happened in an instant. The moment his order was given, Cole watched as several members of the Nazi platoon were gunned down by a hailstorm of rifle fire from the barn behind him. The blind to his left was blown apart as Brooklyn and Gneisenau opened up with their rigging, aiming towards the center of the formation, throwing the enemy forces into disarray right before the front Pz IV and Wespe to the rear were incapacitated by several 76 mm shells from the Shermans hidden in the trees.
Taking stock of the situation, Cole issued orders.
"Get out of the barn and spread out behind hay bales! I can see the Tiger aiming this way. You have thirty seconds before that gun opens up" Cole said as he switched the channel.
"Tankers, advance if you think your armor can take it, take out those medium tanks while the Tiger is busy!" Cole ordered as he watched as several Shermans seemed to just appear from the treeline, closing to less than 100 meters of the enemy Pz. IV's before peppering them with machine gun and 76mm cannon fire.
Cole smiled, watching as the enemy troops were thrown into disarray, only for that joy to be crushed as the Tiger's turret stopped turning and the tank itself began to turn, turning the hull so that the massive 88mm cannon could be aimed at the Shermans who had closed in.
"All tankers, disengage! That Tiger is targeting you!" Cole yelled as his blind was riddled with bullets, forcing him, Natalie and Ania to evacuate and seek cover elsewhere. A passing glimpse saw the enemy force organized and countering the ambush with ruthless efficiency.
Cole ran to a massive pile of hay and peeked out, only to see several Oceanas making their way towards him and the barn.
"Brook! The Oceanas have broken off and are advancing on us, I can see the bullets bouncing off the shields. We can't penetrate her armor." Cole said.
"I'm on my way, Gneisenau has made short work of several of the Trackers and is moving to engage the Tiger tank." Brooklyn informed as she came running towards Cole, peppering the Oceanas with her rigging.
Cole grabbed his own rifle and attempted to help Brooklyn take on the Oceanas, waiting until she had cracked their shields to begin peppering the nautilus shelled sirens with 30-06 rifle rounds from his own standard issue M1.
The soldiers that had fled the barn also opened up with their own rifles, targeting the vulnerable Oceanas as Brooklyn smashed the shields one by one.
Looking over, Cole could just barely see Ania and Natalie facing off with a woman in a dark gray jacket. He couldn't hear any words over the sound of the gunfight, but he could tell just by looking at the lady that she was unhinged and was likely preparing to do something dangerous.
Looking further out, towards the smoldering wrecks of the Pz IV's, Cole saw Gneisenau moving around the Tiger tank, slinging salvo after salvo of rigging shells at the more armored bits of the tank in an attempt to force the tank crew out of their coffin, but she was having little luck doing anything more than distracting the tank from decimating the Sherman tanks who had heeded Cole's warning and were making haste towards the other side of the Tiger and away from the open end of the 88mm cannon that loomed in front of them.
A sudden movement caught Cole's eye. Looking towards the rear of the convoy, he saw the long cannon of the Wespe rose and was being aimed towards his position.
"How the hell did they manage the repairs so damn fast? Didn't those Shermans knock out one of the treads?" Cole swore to himself as the self-propelled gun fired it's payload. Several seconds of bated breath later, the shell smashed into the barn right behind Cole, detonating inside and sending chunks of flaming wood flying in all directions. Cole looked behind him as the pressure wave subsided to see several of his men laying on the ground, holding various parts of their bodies.
"Fuck. MEDIC!" Cole yelled over the radio.
"The Medic is down!" A voice cried out over the battlefield.
"Son of a bitch!" Cole growled as he stood and began making his way backwards towards the wounded men, firing his rifle to ward off the unshielded Oceanas that hadn't been put down by the remaining soldiers on his side. Cole ducked to the side as he narrowly avoided being eviscerated by plasma fire, instead ducking behind a rusted tractor as he plotted his next move.
"Where is our backup?" Cole asked the radioman nearly twenty feet to his rear.
"They are inbound. We have to hold out for five more minutes before they can reach our position." The man said.
"Do they have a visual?! Can they attack that SPG? If that thing fires on us again, we're going to lose a lot more than three or four men!" Cole snapped as the tractor he was hiding behind was assaulted by plasma fire.
"Brook! How's it going out there?!" Cole asked as he peeked around with his rifle and shot at the head of the front most unshielded Oceana, clocking her in the head and dropping the siren with a shot between the eyes.
"I'm doing what I can, Honey! These fuckers are a lot tougher than you'd think!" Brook snapped back as Cole watched her shields flare under the combined assault of two separate Oceana's.
Cole reloaded and fired at one of the Oceanas, drawing its attention towards him.
"If anyone has grenades, now would be the time to use em!" Cole shouted as the distinctive click of several grenades were heard. Several thuds at the feet of the advancing Siren drew her gaze down to seven expertly thrown grenades that had all piled up at her feet, before she could even think of backing off, the grenades detonated, shattering her shield and sending the siren flying in several directions as her legs were ripped from under her.
Several cheers rose as Cole ran back towards the injured medic.
"Don't let up!" Cole ordered as the cheers subsided and the firefight continued.
"Where are you hurt?" Cole asked.
"I ain't hurt too bad. Just got hit in the head by a chunk of wood." The medic replied as Cole reached towards the medic's bag. He pulled out a tiny vial of morphine and a bandage.
"Can you still do your job?" Cole asked.
"Yeah. I can patch myself up, just fill that needle with morphine. Just .75 CC's. Too much and I'll be useless." The medic spoke as he worked on wrapping the bandage around his head.
Cole filled the needle to the desired dose and handed it to the medic, who stuck himself with the needle to numb the pain.
"You good?" Cole asked.
"Yeah…. Don't know how I survived that if I'm bein honest… But I'm here and willing. Let's get these men looked after." The medic said as he forced himself to his feet and dragged his bag over to the injured men.
Cole sighed as he looked over the developing battlefield.
"Could always be worse." Cole muttered as he picked up his rifle and ran back towards the fight.
In the middle of it all, Natalie stood off against Anna. Cole thought about what could be happening, but never in a million years would he guess it. Ania had foiled Anna's attempt to escape by using one of the tow cables from the destroyed Pz. IV's to stop the fleeing car. Cole found the car on it's side with a massive dent in the driver's side door several meters from where an impromptu duel was taking place.
"Cole! Get your head in the game!" Brooklyn shouted as Cole looked over to see Brooklyn being assaulted by an Oceana. Brooklyn's rigging was unable to defend her as the Siren had made it too close for her to safely engage, so she was now locked into a contest of strength with a Siren comparable to a heavy cruiser.
Cole grimaced as he brought his rifle up and fired several shots from his rifle before the pinging sound of an empty clip rang out as it had many times during this ambush. Before he could plant another clip into the gun, a shot rang out from across the field.
The Oceana was torn to bits right in front of Brooklyn and Cole, with bits of metal and flesh being strewn everywhere. Looking towards the sound of the gunshot, Cole could see a Pershing with smoke rising from it's muzzle.
"Reinforcements have arrived! Run them down!" Cole yelled as he helped Brooklyn to her feet. Any able-bodied man capable of running was on their feet and followed Cole into the diminishing firefight as the remaining Nazi troops began trying to make a run for it, only to be gunned down by the advancing infantry forces of the 506th. The Wespe that had blown apart the barn was now a smoldering wreck thanks to the powerful 90mm cannon of the Pershing.
To his left, Cole watched as Gneisenau ripped open the commander's hatch on the Tiger tank and ripped the soldiers out of said hatch before dispatching them ruthlessly with her rigging.
"Might have to have her tone down that aggression just a tiny bit…" Cole thought to himself as another gunshot drew his attention.
A bruised and battered Natalie stood tall over the corpse of this mysterious Anna. She had won the duel and they had won the day. As the remaining few soldiers were put down and the last vestiges of resistance faded, Cole allowed himself to drop his rifle to his side and take a breath. Even though the event was over in under an hour, it had felt as if an eternity had passed and he was more than happy to put it behind him.
"Next stop… Wilhelmshaven." Cole thought as he and Brooklyn walked towards the now ruined column to meet their reinforcements.
Hello again everyone! Just wanted to let you know I finally got an account on AO3 under the same username you are all accustomed to. Shangri-la Shorts and Battleship on my Doorstep will be posted there as well as here. I also have plans to back fill the intimate scenes from TSW on that account. Other than that, thanks for sticking around and have a wonderful Day/Night.
Ciao!