- Y´know Von Herrmann, you seem to be fine with dual wielding, you can keep my Luger for now, I really don´t use it since I got these guns. – Klaus said while curling his biceps, he then began cleaning the blood off from his face with a dirty handkerchief and picking up a STEN from one of the dead corpses lying about.

- Yeah, you don’t seem to need it, thanks. – I replied.

Hans sat down in the sidewalk and took a small box out from a leather knapsack he had in his back, from that box he took out a bottle and some field dressing, I noticed he had a thin long horizontal wound across his right cheek, it looked as if he got grazed by a bullet that flew by his face during the battle, I´m pretty sure that´s what happened, the firefight had been intense.

- Hey Hans, do you need help with that? – I asked, but he just sat there in silence, as if I had said nothing.

- Don’t even bother, unless there is another gunfight right now Quiet won´t pay attention to any of us. It’s like a rite for him, every time he gets wounded even if it´s something simple he will sit down and start patching himself up, he gets into some sort of trance and he does not like to get bothered so just leave him be until he is done, if you don´t believe me go ahead and ask Klaus, he´ll tell you the same thing, in the meantime why don´t you pick up a weapon, there is plenty of them lying around for you to choose, we still have a long way back to HQ. – Said Helga, she was looking through her binoculars standing ahead of me, she was scouting ahead.

- Yeah, listen to her and just leave him alone. – Klaus made a pause and continued. – Y´know this reminds me of when I met Hans, he and I met in Poland right after the beginning of the invasion, it was funny, well…sort of. – He chuckled a little and kept going:

- I was having a drink and a smoke by the side of the road after a battle and he was sitting nearby on a brick fence, dressing a bullet hole he had in his arm, the bullet had gone through cleanly, it was just a flesh wound. In the same squad as him there was one guy that was known for being the platoon´s clown, he was always messing with everyone but that day he decided to pick on good ol´ Hans, bad move if you ask me. First he started poking him with a stick. – He stopped the story and said: - A fucking stick Alex! what is he? A damn dog? – He said raising his voice in an angry outburst, Klaus took a deep breath and carried on with the tale.

- My friend here didn´t do anything at first, and after not getting the desired results, this guy decided to get closer and started bothering him even more, he began poking his face, dancing around him, sticking his finger full of mud into Hans’s ear, slapping him on the head, so on and so forth. So eventually Hans here grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him off the ground like a little rag doll, everyone was laughing, and at the same time, a tank column was driving down the road, the noise from the engines and the loud laughter must´ve driven Hans crazy. – Klaus stopped, sighed and continued. - He was really upset and no else aside from me noticed, and the fact that everyone kept laughing at him made it worse. So, out of anger or desperation I´m not really sure, Hans threw the man several feet forward into the middle of the road, right in the path of the tanks that were driving by, the roar of the engines muffled the screams of pain of that soldier as he was being crushed by the tank tracks, I had to run and fire a couple of warning shots into the air to stop the rest of the platoon from lynching him. – Klaus chuckled a little and kept going. - After everyone dispersed I spoke with his commanding officer and explained the situation and somehow I convinced him of transferring Hans to my unit. We´ve been together ever since. – He stopped, took a sip from a little flask he had in his hand and kept talking.

- Originally only Hans was summoned to this squad due his impressive kill count and combat skills as a sniper, he was informed during the attack on the Maginot line, but he refused to leave without me, so after some debate and a couple of strings pulled, the high command agreed on me moving along with Hans and that´s how we met Helga 5 weeks ago, and now you. – He made a pause again and took another sip, this time he offered me a sip, I took it and drank a bit, it was a very strong beverage but it was good, I gave him back the flask.

- You have an interesting definition of funny my friend. – I said and we both laughed a bit.

- Listen, Hans, Helga and I watch over each other, even as bitchy as she can get sometimes, she is a very good leader. – Klaus said as he put away his flask and lit a cigarette.

- I can hear you, you idiot!!! – She said, still looking through the binoculars.

- I know, that’s the point boss! – Klaus replied, turned back to me and said: - I expect you to do the same. – This time he had a serious tone of voice and expression

- Count on it. – I replied.

- I´m done, let´s go. – Hans said, and stood up.

We went down the street moving quickly under the cover of darkness, the streets were dark and the only light we had was the moonlight coming from above, although the path was dimly lit we had no trouble making our way back to the headquarters and after half an hour of walking we finally arrived, there was a large patch of plain open ground of 400 meters to all four sides of the structure and it was on slightly high ground, it was in a tactically privileged position that was easy to defend in my opinion but also easy to stakeout and siege. It looked like some sort of institution, a school perhaps, there was a thick wooden double door that was the main entrance, it seemed big enough to fit a tank through, there were machine gun emplacements to the left and right of the door, 5 sentries on each emplacement, as we got closer they noticed us.

- Halt! Identify yourselves! – Said one of the sentries, he was walking forward slowly towards us with his MP-40 at the ready.

- Ooooh, bad move buddy, just watch Alex. – Klaus whispered, he had that creepy grin in his face again just like when Hans blew the head of that soldier a little while ago.

We stopped but Helga kept walking towards the soldier, as she drew closer to him his expression which was defiant at first had changed into one of horror and fear.

- I am terribly sorry ¨ Dame Amsel ¨, it´s the darkness, I was not able to tell it was you. – said the soldier, who was now kneeling before Helga.

- What the hell? - I asked.

- Believe it or not, the boss is quite feared and respected both by friends and foes. Not only is she a formidable combatant, she is or rather was the heiress to the iron and steel empire of a very wealthy and powerful family in Germany, even though, she decided to forge her own path in the military when the war came and ever since she has made a name for herself. She has a nasty reputation for being cold, efficient and ruthless, it is told that when the Führer personally met her to appoint her leader of this task force even he said that her beauty is only surpassed by her merciless nature, yet I´ve seen a different side of Helga, so don’t be fooled by the hard looks and the way she mauls everyone around, she has a heart, deep inside but it´s there. – Klaus said, Hans just nodded.

- Stand up, go inside and tell the kitchen staff to cook something for my squad at once, we are famished. – she said and snapped her fingers at the soldier, the soldier quickly got up and ran inside as if running for his life, maybe he was.

Helga looked back to us and said: - Let´s move, all that excitement got me hungry. -

She was now smiling, there was this glow on her face and all of a sudden she didn´t looked like a total bitch anymore.

- Yeah, that makes us two. – I said.

We all walked inside, the soldiers at the door saluted us as we went through the entrance, Hans stopped, he turned and walked towards the group on the left and approached one of the soldiers.

Hans had this angry and dead serious expression all the time and the soldiers looked kind of startled due to the fact that all of a sudden Hans had approached them. He just stood in front of them from a moment and from the inside of his knapsack he produced a 5-pack box of cigarettes, he handed the box to the soldier and said:

- I don´t smoke, you guys can have it. –

Afterwards Hans turned away from him and started walking back inside, the soldiers looked at each other in confusion but then cheered up with the gift.

When Hans catched up to us Klaus asked:

- I do smoke, why didn´t you gave those to me? –

Hans replied: - I´ve noticed that they´ve been kind of edgy so I thought that some cigarettes would cheer them up a little. -

- I see. –

On the inside there was an enclosed courtyard with the shape of a square formed by the three 4-story high buildings and a wall of the same height that acted both as the entrance and a 2-story bridge that connected the left and right buildings at the front, there was a big fountain in the center of the courtyard. This location also acted as the vehicle pool, there were 5 Kübelwagens some of them had a machinegun mounted in the back and another one in the passenger’s seat, there were some tanks, three panzer III medium tanks, additional to that we had four assault halftracks and three Sd.Kfz 7/2 flakwagens, the roof also had two Flak 41 and three 2cm flak 38 vierling anti-aircraft guns.

Helga stopped when we reached the center of the courtyard, she turned to me and said:

- This is the Valkyrie detachment headquarters Alexander, to the left is building A, it holds the barracks for the troops, we currently have 200 soldiers at our disposal to defend this place from any French that may think it’s a good idea to counter-attack, supposedly they have surrendered already but the firefight we had today is a proof that they are full of shit and are not to be trusted. These troops can also be used in case we need extra hands for any upcoming operation, they do have their commanding officers so they are not under our direct command but we can use them if needed. – She made a pause and turned to point a different building. - In front of you is building B, the dinning quarters, armory and kitchen, the armory is in the basement and stores spare ammo for our weapons, it has all the weapons the 3rd Reich currently has at its disposal as well as some extra gadgets we may find useful. And last but not least we have building C where the officers living quarters are, each officer has its own room, aside from us the building houses the captains of the troops that I mentioned earlier and also SS Spezialeinheiten first and third squad which are currently deployed in a counter-resistance operation against the free French rebels. I would suggest you all to take a shower and put some clean clothes on, I will see you on the dining room, please don´t take too long Sturmbannführer, I´m sure Klaus has a lot of questions for you and I have some to ask as well, do you have any questions for me?. – She said with a smile again on her face.

- Yes I have a question. – I said.

- What is it? – She replied.

- Where is the Captain and what did you do to her? Who are you? – I asked.

- HA! You read my mind Alex. – Klaus said bursting in laughter.

The expression on Helga´s face changed quickly.

- Why don’t you go fuck yourself you insolent prick, I was trying to be nice. –

- Hey, Don´t be like that I was just joki… - I was cut off by her.

- Save it – She said bleakly and started walking away.

- Man, you fucked up, if I were you I would apologize to the boss, she isn’t one to be joked with whenever she is being nice. – Klaus said laughing a bit still, Hans just nodded in agreement again.

- And you tell me now? I mean, can´t she take a simple joke? – I asked.

- Remember how I told you that she comes from a big, powerful family? –

- Yep, what does that have to do with this? –

- She is kind of socially awkward because she lived her whole life very restricted and secluded from the public eye, so, whenever someone says something to her she takes it seriously, she is yet learning how to deal with sarcasm and although she can be sarcastic as hell she has trouble detecting it, be patient with her, that’s what I´ve done since day one, I realized something was wrong with her after she almost smacked the shit out of me for calling her a bossy bitch. – Klaus said, again Hans just nodded.

- What about you Hans, have you ran into trouble when talking to the Captain? – I asked the giant who was now standing behind Klaus

- No, I barely talk. –

- I´m not sure why I even asked. Well guys I´m going to take a shower, see you at the table in a little while. –

- Sure thing, just make sure you talk to the boss before you come down I don´t want you two starting a food fight or something, oh before I forget, your room is number 7 in the second floor, mine is 6, Hans is in 5 and Helga is in 8. – Klaus said.

- Thanks. – I said and went up the stairs and into my room.