The Four Horsemen

After all the fighting of the past week Hans had forgotten what it was like to just take a break. After getting a full night's rest and eating a nice breakfast he found himself standing on the field behind the Home Office, enjoying the day.

Of course, the thought of Paul languishing in the NDM prison still weighed on his mind. The fact that he didn't know where it was made it even worse. No rescue effort could be made until they knew where Paul was being held. As far as Hans knew, it could just be some random basement, though it wasn't likely. The underground office and presence of Kaiser Gaston told Hans it was a secure location with a heavy NDM presence. Though they'd blindfolded him before taking him up to the surface his ears had still worked, and the volume of so many people walking around told him it had to be a large base.

The floor had been made of tile or linoleum, judging from the sound, Hans thought. With the amount of pre-war offices, police stations, fire stations, hospitals, and palaces dotted all across Berlin that narrowed the search down to about a few dozen locations.

Hell, it could even be a U-Bahn station.

Now that the thought occurred to him it seemed likely. Paul had told him a few stations had gone dark, their fates unknown. The monarchists had likely taken them to one. Some of the stations close to the pre-war governmental buildings had been relatively ritzy as far as U-Bahn stations went; it would explain the underground office, at least.

Hans heard footsteps behind him and turned. "The General would like to see you, freelancer," an American said in stilted German. It occurred to Hans that most of the EAE's Fieldmen were German, with the Americans relegated to elite roles like vertibird pilots and Panzertroopers. They certainly didn't stay away from the fight, that was for sure.

"He gave me the day off," Hans said. The American looked a little lost at his response, and Hans rolled his eyes. "Day. Off."

The American nodded. "It's your choice, freelancer, but he said it's something urgent. Er, important. He said it was important."

"Yeah, yeah," Hans said. "Fine, let's go see what's so important."

Hans followed the American back to the Home Office, the two of them heading up the stairs to General Harper's office. The American nodded to the guard in the X-01 suit and knocked on the door. At Harper's call he opened it, stepped aside to let Hans in, and then closed it behind him.

"Herr Eckhart, sorry to call you in like this. I understand you are a freelancer but I thought you'd like to see this," Harper said. He gestured to a stack of papers on his desk, with a few holotapes strewn about it. "We've been going over the intel retrieved from the botanical gardens and my analysts found this. It's an order sheet, written in a very abbreviated style. Here, take a look." He handed Hans the flashcard-size sheet and Hans looked it over, frowning.

Egress Four Horsemen for staging VP short 0850 follow prelim attack.
1Panth 4Panz 16pzb
Schrader
Ambros
Ritter
Linde

Hans flipped the sheet over but there was nothing else. "It's gibberish."

Harper took the sheet back. "To the untrained eye, yes. Order sheets are usually written like this, in a very concise manner. No point in wasting ink explaining everything when your soldiers are trained to automatically translate shorthand order sheets like these. The point is, this is an order sheet describing an attack. One Panther, four Panzers, and sixteen Panzerbots, staging at a place called VP for an attack at 8:50AM."

Hans looked at his watch and frowned. "It's 8:53."

Almost as if on cue the building started rumbling and he looked out the window behind Harper's desk. EAE infantry, German Panzertroopers, and two Hanomags were racing north. Harper picked up his radio and watched the vehicles go. "What's going on?"

A moment later a man's voice came back in English. Hans stood, waiting patiently as the man on the other side explained. Harper nodded, thanked him, and set the radio down. "The monarchists are attacking the north gate. Looks like this order sheet was for this base. Judging from this, it seems the Four Horsemen are some kind of special forces squad. Probably Panzertroopers, as you call them. You might want to get down there and help out."

Hans nodded and left the office, taking the steps down two at a time and rushing outside. He turned right, followed the edge of the building, and then beat feet as fast as he could north, following two squads of Fieldmen. The American Panzertroopers were hanging back, it seemed, which Hans immediately knew was a mistake. The NDM wouldn't send a light force against the EAE's main base unless it was just to probe the defenses. A move which, judging by the Americans' tech, would require a force almost as big as an actual attack would need.

Hans was maybe two hundred yards from the north gate when it exploded, along with three sections of the wall. Sixteen Panzerbots poured in through the openings, four to each, a mix of Pzb Is and IIIs. The EAE infantry deployed from the Hanomags and jumped into trenches pre-built for such an assault, leaving the halftracks free to return to the base to get reinforcements if need be.

The Panzerbots opened fire on sight, machine guns and cannons barking. The German Panzertroopers opened fire on them, using a mix of PG-60 plazmagewehrs and M72 Gauss Rifles. As the Panzerbot IIIs targeted them they jumped into the trenches, a few catching 37mm shells that blew them apart. Hans deployed the FG42's bipod and joined the fight, the suppressed rifle drowned out by the thundering din of MG-34s and STGs, their staccato an odd contrast to the high whine of the energy weapons.

Under fire from the Enclave soldiers the robots were destroyed in quick order, leaving them smoking wrecks with few casualties among the EAE Germans. As expected four Panzers followed, three Panzer Is and a single Panzer II. The Is focused on the infantry while the II focused on the Panzertroopers, keeping them all suppressed. The light tanks couldn't cover every angle, however, and the Panzertroopers poked up to return fire where they could. All Hans could do was keep low and watch as the Panzertroopers fired off single shots here and there, plasma bolts and Gauss slugs hitting road wheels and punching through turrets. A few more were cut down by the Panzer II, the SPAS armor no match for the light tank's 20mm autocannon.

At the destruction of the first Panzer I the NDM's Panther joined the fight, slowly creeping into the base, turret rotating towards them. The NDM had further reinforced it since the last battle, shielding the road wheels and tracks with more sandbags and schurzen. The Panzertroopers all focused fire on it, aiming for any part of it they thought would do the most damage. Once again all Hans could do was watch.

"WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS!" someone barked into a radio nearby.

"Panzer hunter squad and two KKGs are on the way, stand by."

Hans frowned at the mention of the child soldier squads. That the EAE was willing to throw them into the fight at all was sickening, especially when it came to sending them up against the monarchists' tanks. Within minutes the reinforcements arrived via halftracks, from which they quickly deployed and rushed into trenches. A single vertibird also responded to the assault, hovering overhead. An American Panzertrooper stood in the side door, piloting a suit of T-51 and hefting an American missile launcher. He targeted the Panzer II first, the rocket penetrating the turret and detonating inside, killing everyone inside the tank.

The Panzer Is responded by retreating, reversing out of the compound. The Panther remained a few minutes longer, using its machine guns to suppress the infantry and its main gun to hammer the trenches occupied by Panzertroopers. Eventually it too slowly backed away, spewing a thick cloud of smoke from its built-in dispensers. It disappeared from sight, along with the light tanks, and they raced away from the base.

Hans frowned. The assault made no sense. They'd committed too much firepower for it to be a probing assault, but not enough to do any serious damage beyond a few dead infantry and Panzertroopers. The Panther hadn't even bothered to fire upon the halftracks and intercept any of the responding squads. Either it was all they could muster as a response to the raid on the botanical gardens, or...

Or it was bait.

Even as Hans thought it he heard six distant explosions. The Enclave soldiers and KKGs were starting to stand, slinging their weapons. Hans was about to yell at them to get down when an odd whistling sound filled the air. Hans' blood ran cold, expecting it to be mini-nukes, but the sound was different. Deeper somehow.

"ARTILLERY!" he shouted, and dropped to the ground. The other EAE soldiers followed suit, all of them jumping into the dirt and holding onto their helmets. To Hans' right, a few feet away, was a KKG soldier. A fourteen year old girl, from the sight of her. She locked eyes with him, fear evident in her youthful gaze.

*THUMP!* *THUMP!*

Hans lifted his head as the artillery shells hit, slamming into the earth with dull thuds. A few others in the trench lifted their heads as well, curious. Hans heard the guns fire again in the distance, followed by the sound of the shrieking shells all thumping limply into the ground around them.

Are they all duds?

Hans stood along with everyone else, looking at the inert shells strewn about the field. What was odd was that they looked like they'd exploded; each had opened up like the petals of a flower, the little thin sheets of metal scattered across the field. The guns fired again and Hans looked up, watching as they came in. They screamed across the sky, whistling almost like tea kettles. When they were above the trenches they detonated, raining little bomblets that scattered over the field and split apart from the wind resistance, sending what looked like water splashing over the trenches. One of the shells burst overhead, saturating the teenager next to Hans.

The girl flinched and sputtered, surprised to be hit by nothing but harmless fluid. She licked her lips and spat onto the ground, taking a few steps back. "What..." she said, looking down at her soaked clothes. Hans was about to help her dry off when she took another step back, her nose running. "Oh, ugh, what... What is..."

Hans looked past the girl and saw dozens of other Enclave soldiers in a similar state of shock, their noses running. A few spontaneously vomited, their limbs trembling. Hans looked at the girl in front of him and watched as her pupils constricted, her lips trembling. "I can't..." the girl said, eyes widening in fear. Her pants darkened as she pissed herself, still stumbling backwards. "What's..." she said, struggling to move her lips. She hit the trench wall and collapsed, clutching her chest.

Hans watched, horrified, as all the other soldiers that had been doused went through the same experience. More and more vomited onto the ground and collapsed, limbs seizing. The girl in front of Hans rolled onto her side and stopped, hands drawn up to her chest and legs pulled up in the fetal position. Her breathing became shallow, erratic, and then stopped. Her eyes frantically darted around, tears flowing down her face until eventually her eyes too slowed and then stopped.

She was dead within a minute.

"Jesus Christ..." Hans said, more scared than he'd ever been in his life before. "Nerve gas..."

*THUMP!* *THUMP!*

Hans dropped to the ground, hands under his stomach to protect his skin, as another salvo of nerve agent shells exploded over the trenches, showering the soldiers below in the toxin. Their screams rang out, followed by silence as the nerve agent attacked their muscles and diaphragms, stopping them. They all collapsed to the ground within minutes, silently and motionlessly dying. The only ones to escape the liquid death were the Panzertroopers, shielded from the fluid by their suits. Hans remained on the ground, praying to any god that would listen as more nerve agent shells detonated over the trenches. He felt fluid splash across his helmet and boots, and he frantically released the strap and tilted his head to dump the helmet without touching it.

More screams rang out across the trenches, followed by silence. Everywhere around him the nerve agent splashed into the ground, soaking into the soil. The bombardment continued for another five minutes and then, just as silently as it had started, it stopped. Hans reluctantly lifted his head, keeping his exposed hands beneath his body. He lifted himself into a kneeling position and then stood, keeping his hands to himself. All around him lied dozens of dead soldiers, both adults and teenagers. Few of the soldiers were unscathed, like him. They looked at their comrades, dead and dying in silence, too shocked to do or say anything. They all quickly ran out of the trenches, beating feet back to the base. Only Hans and the Panzertroopers remained, taking in the horrific scene.

Hans looked down at his shaking hands and swallowed the lump in his throat. If his clothes had been hit he'd be dead already. Instead he was forced to stand there, alive and unharmed, and take in the stench of vomit and piss and shit. At his feet lied the teenage girl, right eye rubbing against the soil. Hans hurried out of the trench, touching nothing as he went, and ran straight back to the Home Office.

If the monarchists had any more nerve gas then everyone at the base would be dead in days.