I closed my eyes, expecting to be shot at like a dog, but all of a sudden the troopers that had me at gunpoint got torn apart by gun fire, subsequently the tank got hit by a rocket and the blast was so hard that it rapidly bursted into flames, a panzerfaust?.

I took me a moment to understand what had just happened, as I regained my strength and tried to get up I heard some steps getting closer, I looked up and saw a young, tall, beautiful woman with pale white skin, her face was diamond-shaped, her lips looked firm and thick but not exaggeratedly, her cheekbones were well marked and prominent, her hair tucked in a tight bun and blonde, she had big blue eyes with a very serious cold look staring at me. She was quite tall at about 6 foot approximately and was holding a SturmGewehr experimental rifle on her right hand, i´d only seen those once or twice before, she also had a sword in its sheath at the waist, I noticed she was wearing the same plain black attire I was wearing, but with rank and insignias.

- You wouldn´t happen to be Sturmbannführer von Hermann would you? – The girl said, she stretched her left hand to help me up.

- It depends on who´s asking? – I said trying to sound witty, I did not stood up and pointed my MP40 at her, she withdrew her hand quickly and raised her rifle as well.

- Helga Von Schwarz, Captain of the SS Spezialeinheiten 2nd squad under orders from the Führer. Look, if I wanted you dead you would already be long dead and gone, now are you or are you not the Sturmbannführer? – Helga asked, she had this exasperated tone in her voice.

- Well, you seem to be in luck today Miss Schwarz, I am Sturmbannführer Alexander von Hermann… and I am terribly sorry to trouble you before even being able to introduce myself. –

- Hmph, I must say I´m highly disappointed of the combat performance you´ve shown since you landed, but you´re still in one piece and that is what matters now Sturmbannführer, however, I do expect this to improve because I will not tolerate incompetence in my squad, is that clear?. -

- Hang on, so you were watching me all along? –

- Yes Sturmbannführer, we saw everything, as a matter of fact we were planning to meet you in the drop zone but I wanted to see you in action, so we lured an enemy patrol towards you and we sat and watched how well you fared. – Helga said with a bleak expression on her face.

- Are you insane? I almost got killed, YOU almost got ME killed, and drop the ¨ Sturmbannführer¨ formality shit, just call me Alex. – I yelled angrily.

- How do you dare to speak like that to your commanding officer? I will call you whatever the fuck I want pretty boy! Now get up, we have to move! – She yelled back.

- Yes Ma´am, I apologize. - I said as I reminded that she was indeed my commanding officer, I was really surprised by her sudden outburst.

I got up and dusted off, I saw another two soldiers coming our way, they were dressed in the same attire as Helga.

- You´re damn lucky that we were in the vicinity Von Hermann, a couple of seconds more and you would’ve turned into Swiss cheese my friend. – Said one of the soldiers and made a pause as I turned to look at him.

He was significantly shorter than Helga, 5´7 I would say, he had a bulky build, not fat but buff instead with a rugged looking body, everything aside from his height made him look like a tank. He had brown hair and white skin, but not as white as Helga or the other guy beside him, he was a little ¨tanned¨, seems like he´s been out in the field a little more, he had a long jagged scar in his face running from the top of his left eyebrow down to the half of the left cheek, his eyes were strange due to the fact that the left eye was gray and the right one was green, he had a mp40 submachine gun in his hands. The guy continued talking.

- The name is Klaus by the way, this is Hans, we call him ¨quiet¨. – Klaus said as he pointed the huge guy standing at his side.

- Hi – Said Hans in a very soft but deep voice.

Hans on the other hand was a very tall and fit man, not thin nor buff like Klaus, just somewhere in the middle. He had dark hair in a crew cut as well and hazel eyes with a very piercing look, Hans was like 6´5 tall, his face was somewhat squared shaped, his cheekbones were very marked and prominent, his arms and legs were long and his torso was big as well making his whole body look proportional, it was hard to realize he was a giant until you had him close or there was someone standing beside him like in this case. He was holding a scoped Mauser 98 rifle in his hands.

- Please excuse him, he is a little shy and doesn’t really speak much, but mind him he´s a hell of a shot, he is so good that the French fear him for that, they call him ¨ la mort subite ¨, over 97 confirmed kills just in france, creepy huh? – Klaus said, he seems to talk a lot.

- Enough of introductions Klaus, we are sitting ducks here in the open and I´m pretty sure we are not the only one who heard the ruckus so let´s move. – Said Helga as she started walking down the street.

- You don´t have to be so bossy and grouchy all the time Y´know Chief? – Klaus replied.

- Silence you imbecile! Keep bothering me and I will shoot you myself! – She barked and snapped her fingers, Hans obeyed immediately and started following her, Klaus did as well but he wouldn´t stop nagging.

- Alright, alright boss no need to get nasty, let´s go Alex. – Said Klaus and I followed

And so, we started our walk to the other side of town, piles of rubble and debris surrounded us, buildings in ruins, bodies lying in the ground, the smell of blood and scorched earth filled the air.

Twenty minutes later we began to get closer to the center of the town as we had to cross it to get to our destination so we started taking precautions, we turned a corner and walked along a long street with buildings filling both sides, it looked like a marketplace of sorts, the street ended in a T-shaped intersection with more tall buildings on the other side giving it an alleyway vibe, Helga suddenly stopped.

- Everyone, halt. – She whispered and raised her hand, fist clenched.

- What´s wrong. – I asked.

- Something bothers me…do you hear anything? – She asked.

- Uuuuuhhhhh….no? – I said.

- Sniper in the building at the end of the street, top floor, get to cover. – Said Hans.

I pounced and rolled behind a nearby wrecked car, Klaus followed, Helga ran to the other side of the road and hid behind a concrete wall, Hans disappeared.

Right after we took cover lots French soldiers and resistance fighters began to flood out of the building Hans had seen the sniper in and into the street, a wall of gun fire erupted our way.

- How many are they!? – Helga shouted from the other side of the road.

- How the hell should I know? Twenty? Thirty maybe? – Klaus replied.

- Throw some grenades to disperse them Klaus. – She yelled back.

- They are too far Captain. –

- Von Herrmann, cover him while he gets closer. – She ordered.

- I can´t, I´m almost out of ammo. –

- Oh for fuck´s sake, if you want something done right… return fire at once! – Said Helga while she took aim out of cover and shot her rifle in bursts, hitting a couple of French soldiers that were running down the street, she was deadly accurate.

- Yes ma’am. – Klaus said immediately after.

I had 10 rounds left in the magazine of my MP40, so I was just taking aim and placing the shots carefully, the first three got nothing but air, the four following shots got two soldiers, in the head and chest, I ducked behind cover because I knew that the rest were aiming and firing at me after those kills, specially that sniper, Klaus moved to another car in the middle of the street.

- Klaus I’m almost out, got any MP40 ammo to spare? – I ducked lower when I heard the bullets whistle and clack as they slammed against my cover.

- Not really I´m down to my last magazine, use your handgun, I know the sights suck but is better than nothing, here, have mine and dual-wield them. – He said and threw the holster with his handgun and 3 clips.

- Thanks…Hey, where´s Hans? – After finishing that sentence a shot rang out of a building in the right from one of the top floors, a headless corpse that used to be the enemy sniper perched on top of the building fell to the ground down the road shortly after, blood splattered the wall near the recently deceased.

- There he is, that´s our boy. – Klaus said with an evil and satisfied grin in his face, he loaded a fresh magazine in the MP40 and cocked it.

- Holy shit. Helga, how are you doing over there? – I asked.

- Abso-fucking-lutely great and it´s Captain Von Schwarz for you Alexander. – Helga said, she was loading a magazine into her weapon as well.

- Stuck up bitch. – I said in English, a shot hit the ground near my feet, I looked back to Helga and saw that she had fired it and was still aiming at me.

- I heard that. – She replied in English as well and began firing down street again.

The number of enemies had dwindled after a couple of minutes thanks to our team tactics, coordinated attacks and mostly due to the fact that they were undisciplined and clumsy, they were down to twelve now, and since the enemy sniper was dead we were able to move more freely.

- Now it’s our chance, Klaus, Alex, let´s blitz them. – Helga said, I noticed that the barrel of her rifle was smoking badly and was red hot, it seemed to be overheated or perhaps not working properly, she had been firing nonstop mag after mag.

- Helga hang on, your barrel is red hot, and I don’t think it can take much more. –

- Captain he is right, give it a break. – said Klaus.

- Fine, if you pussies won’t do it, I will. – She said as she ran out of cover and began to run and gun.

- Shit, what´s wrong with this crazy bitch? – I asked Klaus.

- She´s bloodlusted. – He replied.

- What? – I asked confused.

Klaus looked at me and smiled, afterwards he bounced out of cover and darted forward, he was shooting his submachine gun with one hand and throwing a couple of stick grenades with the other one, the grenades ended up taking out a full squad that was holed in a bombshell crater down the street, Helga was firing full auto and running from one piece of cover to another, Hans was covering Helga and Klaus from above. I finally decided to join in so I began running and firing both guns, a couple bullets flew past me, I could hear them as they passed by the side of my head or above, I took cover quick and reloaded my empty guns, there were only four enemies left now.

I looked around and saw that Helga was engaging someone but her rifle finally gave up and jammed, luckily at the same time the French soldier she was fighting ran out of ammo and charged at her with his bayonet fixed on the rifle.

- Ah you piece of Scheiße! – She barked and threw her rifle to the ground.

She pulled out the battle sword, her face had this angered and completely furious expression, she charged the French trooper as well, they were now running towards each other, as he moved in for the kill he shouted: - ¡Je vais te tuer pute noire! -

They began fighting hand to hand, however he didn´t stood a chance, I now knew that woman was completely insane, you could see it in her eyes.

Klaus was getting his hands dirty beating the shit out of another French soldier right across the street, they were both on the ground, Klaus on top pounding him with his huge fists. Klaus had a mad gaze in his face, he was just laughing out loud like he was enjoying it, the poor soldier was trying to cover his face but it was useless.

The two remaining enemies were hiding from Hans´s scope inside the building at the end of the street that everyone had gone out from, they were on the first floor right by the entrance, one had his rifle poking out a window and seemed to be aiming at Helga.

- Oh fuck no, not on my watch buddy. – I muttered to myself.

I ran past Helga and Klaus and started shooting at the one in the window, he crouched to take cover when the shots ricocheted in the wall nearby him, I leaped into the inside of the building through one of the windows on the left and while in the air I unloaded the rest of the magazine of my left gun, the shots got the chest of the one that was pointing at Helga and his lifeless corpse fell to the floor.

After hitting the ground I aimed up and fired at the other one with my right gun, he was just standing by the door, frozen in fear, the shots got part of the head and face, the skull just popped open and blood starting gashing down his neck, his body stumbled backwards hitting the wall and fell slowly to the ground, making a bloody mess in the process.

I stood up and looked outside, Klaus was standing up, he had blood all over his fists and face but I was pretty sure that was not his blood, there was a corpse with a disfigured face and a puddle of blood at his feet, at the same time Helga was impaling her opponent in the chest with her sword on the other side of the street, the face of the man just stared at her in horror and desperation, he gashed blood from his mouth as he slowly died. Helga, not content with that drew her blade out of the man´s body with a quick pull and spitted on his face, the man fell to his knees, his hands were clutching the deadly wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, he was looking up to her.

- ¿Vous disiez enculé? - She said.

She smiled and started laughing in a maniacal way, with a swift sweep of the sable she sliced his head off, the severed head just fell and rolled to the side, one could see the look of despair still frozen in his face, the rest of the body just remained kneeled in front of her, a chill went through my spine with the whole brutal scene.

- Now, that was exciting. – She said as she cleaned and placed the sword back in its sheath, Hans appeared down the street and was walking our way, his face was bleeding.