Chapter II, Part 13: A Way to Hell, Part 1
Tyr Anazasi
Well-known member
Somewhere between Minsk and Beresino, September 3rd 1944, 22:32
The war was soon to be going into its 5th year and even though Annika Schröder had been fighting for only a few months, it felt longer than that. First she had been involved in the battles against the Allies near Bologne, then she had been assigned to the Eastern Front.
Born in Buchholz in der Nordheide, Annika, now age 29, didn't have a very joyous childhood. It wasn't that bad – certainly not as bad as the childhood of others – but her parents had been single-mindedly focused on only her younger sister while she and her brother had to make their way through life on their own. It was the reason why Annika had decided to join the Bundeswehr after her Abitur – a fight or flight response to the absence of any parental support in her life up until then. Maybe it was also the reason why she couldn't hold on to the men in her life: Three she had had, and each of them left her, the last one mere hours before the Event.
And then they were suddenly transported into the past and the war that was wrought in it. Annika had made the mistake of walking the beaches of the Normandy after the Allie´s failed assault on the shores. The pictures of the suffering and atrocities she had seen had burnt themselves in her mind and wouldn't let go of her, not even in her sleep: Human parts strewn everywhere – legs, arms, bullet riddled torsos – or corpses, eviscerated by German gunfire. Sometimes, when she closed her eyes she could still see the Allied soldier (He was a French, Annika thought, but the cries of the dying were a language understood by everyone) whose guts were oozing out of his stomach and who tried to shovel them back into his body with his bloody hand (She gave him the mercy of a quick death; at least that was what she told herself when the soldier came back to haunt her in her dreams).
At the Eastern Front Annika stayed at the back, shooting from safe distance. She only seldom saw what happened, where her bullets hit (or whom). She fought until she could barely stand anymore, because only then she was too exhausted to dream when she fell asleep.
" Frau Hauptmann, Frau Hauptmann," the Spieß, their company sergeant tore her out of her pitiful sleep. "We´ve got new intel. It seems, the enemy is attacking our front. We must…" The sound of several grenades exploding nearby drowned what he wanted to say.
Five minutes later, the company found itself in their Marder IFV.
"Frau Hauptmann, the enemy has broken through our lines," Schneider, their radio operator, told her.
"Fuck!" she cursed. "How could they miss that?"
"Because reconnaissance believed they would retreat," Schneider replied.
"We pulled that very trick ourselves and when the enemy does the same reconnaissance sleeps?" Annika exclaimed incredulously.
"Soviet tanks dead ahead!" Lehmann, her gunner, interrupted their squabble. Before she could even say anything, he had already launched the first MILAN missile. "JS 2 destroyed."
"Where are these damn Leos?" Annike shouted. "We can't win a fight against tanks!"
At this moment, several enemy tanks were suddenly exploding. A group of Tiger helicopters had appeared and continued on to turn the tanks into scrap metal. But that was only the first assault and soon the helis were gone while the next wave of Soviet tanks was about to hit them.
"Frau Hauptmann, HQ says our MBT are needed elsewhere. We have to retreat to 2829." Schneider relayed.
"Okay," Annika replied, furiously thinking about what to do now. "Two Marder and ours form the rear guard."
In this moment, a Boxer AFV, a special tank accompanying them, with a curious small turret swung this turret eastwards. No shots could be heard and still only seconds later a Soviet night bomber crashed. A second one soon after.
"It seems Luke Skywalker had his first kills." Annika joked. She knew the tank was only here for some testing at the front. It should have never been so near to it, though.
"Luke who?" Meyer asked confused. He was new and young to the force, just having completed his training.
"Erm, Star Wars?" Annika replied, but Meyer was as confused as before.
"I am a downtimer." he finally said.
That explained much. After all, Bundeswehr had started to mix the forces, when it was possible.
"Ah, okay. It is an outstanding science fiction movie. Or better series of movies, where they use weapons, which bundle light so much they can destroy..."
"T-34 from the side!" Lehmann shouted. Even while speaking he had already targeted one and destroyed it with a MILAN missile. And although another tank was hit by yet another MILAN fired by her IFV, her Marder was hit by the only shot that T-34 had fired. Three other T-34 retreated.
"Fuck!" she cursed. "Get out of the tank! Go! Go! Go!" The IFV was burning and could no longer drive. She had to see to the damage.
"Shit! Their went straight through the motor bloc," Huber, the commander of her Marder, told her.
Annika, knew however, that they had been extremely lucky. The other two Marder had been utterly annihilated with six men dead and three severely wounded. The rest of the company had retreated to the west.
"Frau Hauptmann, six dead and three wounded. Yilmaz was hit in the stomach by the explosion. It doesn't look well, Medicus said."
It was no joke, their medic was truly called Medicus. It had been his family name long before when the name had been latinized. It was only coincidence that that one of his descendants had decided to become a medic again. What irony!
"I can carry him," Johnson, her Spieß, offered. He was 2,10 m tall and could be very well used as actor for an imposing black US sergeant, with his imposing built. He was strong enough to use an MG3 as assault rifle if needed. Annika trusted him blindly.
"Frau Hauptmann, it seems we are behind enemy lines. We need to move about five km to the west to reach our lines," Oberleutnant Huber said, the commander of one of the other tanks.
"Then we should not wait any longer. Take everything we can use and then we go. The tanks are to be thoroughly destroyed!" Annika commanded.
"Jawoll, Frau Hauptmann."
Soon after the tanks were nothing but burning wrecks. The company then retreated westwards, but after two kilometers they met resistance in the form of a battalion of Soviet infantry. Fortuna must have smiled down benignly on them on this day, though, for a pair of Hs 123 night CAS planes saved their asses, as they had been ordered to attack just this particular battalion. However, they had to turn south to circumvent the enemy fire and therefore couldn't be of any further help to Annika and her soldiers.
After an hour, which felt like eternity to all of them their luck finally ran out as another company of the enemy stumbled upon them. It was a tough fight, but the technological advantage Annika´s team had let the enemy pay dearly for any attack. So, they were able to reach the last obstacle a small stream, which they could not pass, however, as the enemy was too close and would have discovered them.
"Okay, Huber, you lead the others to the other side. I will give you cover with Ernst and Schultz." she ordered. "Then you´ll cover us."
Their plan went through without a hitch. When Annika saw that the others had reached the other side, she gave Ernst and Schultz the order to follow them while she would keep up fire for a minute. As there were only 250 shots left for the MG, Annika´s plan was to spend the ammo and then to run as fast as she could. She waited until she could see the enemy soldiers again and then fired at them. While they ran for cover, she ran in the opposite direction.
However, before she got to the stream, five men, encircling her from the rear, attacked her. Two she shot quickly with her G-36, but then she was out of rounds. Her P8 got another one but then jammed.
Trying to evade the last two was not a possibility, as behind her the other Soviet soldiers would soon come. So Annika decided to do it the hard way and attached her SG2000 combat knife to the rifle as bayonet. Then she charged. The good thing was, that she completely surprised the two Soviet soldiers when she attacked them directly. Two shots missed her and a third one they could not fire. She slammed the bayonet into the stomach of the first, while kicking the second into the testicles. He went down, but her second attack with the Bayonet went through his chest.
In this moment, a ricochet hit her rifle and tore it out of Annika´s hand. She wanted to go after it, but twelve enemy soldiers were converging on her, forcing her to took cover behind some nearby streams. The only weapon Annika had left was her other combat knife which she wore hidden in her boot. The stream was near – she could see the dirty brown water, could hear the water flowing – but when she was about to make a run for it, two Soviet soldiers stepped in front of her, aiming their weapons straight at her. That was when Annika realized that it was either to die or to surrender.
She chose the latter.
The war was soon to be going into its 5th year and even though Annika Schröder had been fighting for only a few months, it felt longer than that. First she had been involved in the battles against the Allies near Bologne, then she had been assigned to the Eastern Front.
Born in Buchholz in der Nordheide, Annika, now age 29, didn't have a very joyous childhood. It wasn't that bad – certainly not as bad as the childhood of others – but her parents had been single-mindedly focused on only her younger sister while she and her brother had to make their way through life on their own. It was the reason why Annika had decided to join the Bundeswehr after her Abitur – a fight or flight response to the absence of any parental support in her life up until then. Maybe it was also the reason why she couldn't hold on to the men in her life: Three she had had, and each of them left her, the last one mere hours before the Event.
And then they were suddenly transported into the past and the war that was wrought in it. Annika had made the mistake of walking the beaches of the Normandy after the Allie´s failed assault on the shores. The pictures of the suffering and atrocities she had seen had burnt themselves in her mind and wouldn't let go of her, not even in her sleep: Human parts strewn everywhere – legs, arms, bullet riddled torsos – or corpses, eviscerated by German gunfire. Sometimes, when she closed her eyes she could still see the Allied soldier (He was a French, Annika thought, but the cries of the dying were a language understood by everyone) whose guts were oozing out of his stomach and who tried to shovel them back into his body with his bloody hand (She gave him the mercy of a quick death; at least that was what she told herself when the soldier came back to haunt her in her dreams).
At the Eastern Front Annika stayed at the back, shooting from safe distance. She only seldom saw what happened, where her bullets hit (or whom). She fought until she could barely stand anymore, because only then she was too exhausted to dream when she fell asleep.
" Frau Hauptmann, Frau Hauptmann," the Spieß, their company sergeant tore her out of her pitiful sleep. "We´ve got new intel. It seems, the enemy is attacking our front. We must…" The sound of several grenades exploding nearby drowned what he wanted to say.
Five minutes later, the company found itself in their Marder IFV.
"Frau Hauptmann, the enemy has broken through our lines," Schneider, their radio operator, told her.
"Fuck!" she cursed. "How could they miss that?"
"Because reconnaissance believed they would retreat," Schneider replied.
"We pulled that very trick ourselves and when the enemy does the same reconnaissance sleeps?" Annika exclaimed incredulously.
"Soviet tanks dead ahead!" Lehmann, her gunner, interrupted their squabble. Before she could even say anything, he had already launched the first MILAN missile. "JS 2 destroyed."
"Where are these damn Leos?" Annike shouted. "We can't win a fight against tanks!"
At this moment, several enemy tanks were suddenly exploding. A group of Tiger helicopters had appeared and continued on to turn the tanks into scrap metal. But that was only the first assault and soon the helis were gone while the next wave of Soviet tanks was about to hit them.
"Frau Hauptmann, HQ says our MBT are needed elsewhere. We have to retreat to 2829." Schneider relayed.
"Okay," Annika replied, furiously thinking about what to do now. "Two Marder and ours form the rear guard."
In this moment, a Boxer AFV, a special tank accompanying them, with a curious small turret swung this turret eastwards. No shots could be heard and still only seconds later a Soviet night bomber crashed. A second one soon after.
"It seems Luke Skywalker had his first kills." Annika joked. She knew the tank was only here for some testing at the front. It should have never been so near to it, though.
"Luke who?" Meyer asked confused. He was new and young to the force, just having completed his training.
"Erm, Star Wars?" Annika replied, but Meyer was as confused as before.
"I am a downtimer." he finally said.
That explained much. After all, Bundeswehr had started to mix the forces, when it was possible.
"Ah, okay. It is an outstanding science fiction movie. Or better series of movies, where they use weapons, which bundle light so much they can destroy..."
"T-34 from the side!" Lehmann shouted. Even while speaking he had already targeted one and destroyed it with a MILAN missile. And although another tank was hit by yet another MILAN fired by her IFV, her Marder was hit by the only shot that T-34 had fired. Three other T-34 retreated.
"Fuck!" she cursed. "Get out of the tank! Go! Go! Go!" The IFV was burning and could no longer drive. She had to see to the damage.
"Shit! Their went straight through the motor bloc," Huber, the commander of her Marder, told her.
Annika, knew however, that they had been extremely lucky. The other two Marder had been utterly annihilated with six men dead and three severely wounded. The rest of the company had retreated to the west.
"Frau Hauptmann, six dead and three wounded. Yilmaz was hit in the stomach by the explosion. It doesn't look well, Medicus said."
It was no joke, their medic was truly called Medicus. It had been his family name long before when the name had been latinized. It was only coincidence that that one of his descendants had decided to become a medic again. What irony!
"I can carry him," Johnson, her Spieß, offered. He was 2,10 m tall and could be very well used as actor for an imposing black US sergeant, with his imposing built. He was strong enough to use an MG3 as assault rifle if needed. Annika trusted him blindly.
"Frau Hauptmann, it seems we are behind enemy lines. We need to move about five km to the west to reach our lines," Oberleutnant Huber said, the commander of one of the other tanks.
"Then we should not wait any longer. Take everything we can use and then we go. The tanks are to be thoroughly destroyed!" Annika commanded.
"Jawoll, Frau Hauptmann."
Soon after the tanks were nothing but burning wrecks. The company then retreated westwards, but after two kilometers they met resistance in the form of a battalion of Soviet infantry. Fortuna must have smiled down benignly on them on this day, though, for a pair of Hs 123 night CAS planes saved their asses, as they had been ordered to attack just this particular battalion. However, they had to turn south to circumvent the enemy fire and therefore couldn't be of any further help to Annika and her soldiers.
After an hour, which felt like eternity to all of them their luck finally ran out as another company of the enemy stumbled upon them. It was a tough fight, but the technological advantage Annika´s team had let the enemy pay dearly for any attack. So, they were able to reach the last obstacle a small stream, which they could not pass, however, as the enemy was too close and would have discovered them.
"Okay, Huber, you lead the others to the other side. I will give you cover with Ernst and Schultz." she ordered. "Then you´ll cover us."
Their plan went through without a hitch. When Annika saw that the others had reached the other side, she gave Ernst and Schultz the order to follow them while she would keep up fire for a minute. As there were only 250 shots left for the MG, Annika´s plan was to spend the ammo and then to run as fast as she could. She waited until she could see the enemy soldiers again and then fired at them. While they ran for cover, she ran in the opposite direction.
However, before she got to the stream, five men, encircling her from the rear, attacked her. Two she shot quickly with her G-36, but then she was out of rounds. Her P8 got another one but then jammed.
Trying to evade the last two was not a possibility, as behind her the other Soviet soldiers would soon come. So Annika decided to do it the hard way and attached her SG2000 combat knife to the rifle as bayonet. Then she charged. The good thing was, that she completely surprised the two Soviet soldiers when she attacked them directly. Two shots missed her and a third one they could not fire. She slammed the bayonet into the stomach of the first, while kicking the second into the testicles. He went down, but her second attack with the Bayonet went through his chest.
In this moment, a ricochet hit her rifle and tore it out of Annika´s hand. She wanted to go after it, but twelve enemy soldiers were converging on her, forcing her to took cover behind some nearby streams. The only weapon Annika had left was her other combat knife which she wore hidden in her boot. The stream was near – she could see the dirty brown water, could hear the water flowing – but when she was about to make a run for it, two Soviet soldiers stepped in front of her, aiming their weapons straight at her. That was when Annika realized that it was either to die or to surrender.
She chose the latter.