SS-Sturmbannführer Alexander Von Herrmann.

SS Spezialeinheiten, 2nd squad.

Valkyrie detachment Motherbase, France.

June 20th, 1941. 8:07am.

Although this wasn´t my first rodeo my heart was racing already, I got to building B and headed towards the basement access, there was a staircase and a service elevator.

I made my way down the stairs to the basement, I´d thought it would be just a floor down but the stairway was quite deep actually which made me regret I didn´t took the elevator, at the end of the stairway was a long hallway with a wide metal blast door at the other end, it was open and I could see Helga in there with her back facing me, Hans and Klein were not there yet, as I walked into the room I was dumbfounded by how big it was, it definitely looked smaller from the outside, it looked like some sort of warehouse, it had rows and rows of shelves and had a light smell of grease, there was a large counter up front, a man in his late 30´s and a younger girl around the age of 15 were standing behind it side by side both in army uniform and a black apron.

The man was as tall as Hans, he was a bald, burly man with a well grown beard but despite his imposing appearance he had something that gave him a warm fatherly feeling. The girl had long brown hair tucked in a ponytail, she was very thin and tall, her skin was pale white and she had freckles in her cheeks, I noticed how she was staring at Helga with a huge smile on her face as if she was looking at an angel, she wore round-spectacle glasses and had her right cheek slightly smeared with grease.

- Alexander I´d like to introduce you to our head armorers, Hermann Weiss and his daughter Lillium, they go by the nicknames of ¨Tinker¨ and ¨Tailor¨ respectively and aside from running this place and it´s staff they exclusively tend to the needs of the Spezialeinheiten in terms of equipment, they both have served my family for years and are dear friends of mine, they volunteered to help me when I was appointed captain and given this task. – Helga said.

- A pleasure to meet you both. – I said and shook both their hands.

- Any friend of Master Helga is my friend as well, let me know what you need and we´ll hook you up. – Said Tinker, he had this tough, deep, gruffy and manly voice.

- I must ask, why the nicknames? – I asked Helga.

- Tinker researches existing equipment and ¨tinkers¨ with it looking for ways to improve it or repair certain design flaws and Tailor ¨tailors¨ your gear to fit your needs and fighting style. – Helga said.

- Amazing. – I said.

- Well, let´s get started, for you master Helga, will it be the usual gear? –

- Yes, just swap the STG for a FG-32 please, the STG that they asked me to test didn´t held up, it over heated and jammed after 5 consecutive mags, I don´t want to run that risk again. –

- I see, Lillium, go get that FG-32 we were working on the other day. – Tinker said and her daughter ran to the back and came back with the rifle shortly after.

- This is a special one, I fiddled with the trigger and made it more responsive, the bolt was swapped for a reinforced one, the internals were revised by my dad and we fitted it with an x4 scope that swivels out of the way in case you want to use the iron sights which are also collapsible, the sight has already been zeroed. – Tailor said.

- Amazing work, as always. – Helga said and the girl smiled.

- Thank you master. – She said shyly and bowed lightly.

Tinker placed 4 stick grenades, 2 smoke grenades, a water canteen, her sword, belt and chest rig, a knapsack and a Walther P38 with 4 mags in the counter, Helga picked everything up and began to gear up.

- And for you sir? – Tailor asked.

- I´ll have a Kar98k with iron sights, a standard issue combat knife, the same loadout as Helga and… would you happen to have any other sidearm aside from the P08 or the P38? – I inquired.

- Actually yes, we just received some new equipment… - Tinker went to the back of the warehouse and returned shortly after with a handgun.

- This is a P35-RADOM, it´s a polish made gun based on an original design by John Browning, a brilliant gun designer if you ask me, 9mm parabellum, 8 round mag plus 1 in the chamber, this gun will not let you down. – He said handing me the piece.

The gun felt great, it was comfortable, the weight was hefty but not excessive, and the fit and finish were top grade.

- I´ll take two of these, would you happen to have a chest holster for them? – I said taking my current chest holster and gun off and handing it over to him.

- Yes we do. - He said searching for it under the counter and placing it on top along with 6 mags, the holster had pouches for all six mags, 3 on each side as well as a holster on each side for each gun, it was made of brown, thick leather, Tailor came back with the rest of my equipment and some rations for us, Hans and Klaus were just arriving, I geared up and walked out along with Helga.

- I´ll see you at the gate, hurry up you two! – Helga yelled before going up the stairs.

- Yes ma´am. – Klaus said.

- Captain, why are we going early in the morning instead of using the cover of darkness? – I asked.

- Orders Alexander, Orders, I don´t always agree with them but we have to follow them nevertheless, it seems like our contact is the one that asked to be met during the day. – She said, our boots caused the metal staircase to make a loud ¨clunk¨ with each step taken, she was a few steps ahead of me.

- Sounds weird if you ask me, I mean, we´ll be sitting ducks. – I said, she stopped and turned around to face me.

- Well, fortunately for you no one really asked you, now quit nagging and let´s get this over with. –

- Yes Captain. – I just muttered.

The weather was kind of weird, it was hot and slightly windy but the skies looked grey and cloudy, although I´m pretty sure that was smoke and ashes rather than clouds, we waited for 10 minutes by the gate before Hans and Klaus showed up, Hans had his Scoped rifle on the back and Klein was carrying an MP-35 with drum mags, he had it slung in front.

- We´re all set Captain. –

- Very well, A kubelwagen will drive us close to the center of the town since the 47th regiment along with the Luftwaffe cleared the area last night, from there we will walk, I want this to be quick and clean, we will not engage the enemy openly should we come across it keeping a low profile at all times and always on the lookout for snipers, are we clear? – Helga asked.

- Yes Captain. – The three of us said in unison and saluted.

- Open the gates, Spezialeinheiten 2nd squad going out! – An officer yelled to the guards and a topless kubelwagen with a young Schütze at the wheel arrived shortly after.

We all got in, Hans sat in the front and manned the machine gun as he really wouldn’t fit in back, the rest of us got in the rear bench with weapons at the ready.

- Good morning I´m Franz and I´ll be driving you today. – Said the driver, he must´ve been 17 at most, what a way to spend his early years.

- I´d say your name is quite fitting. – I said giving him a pat in the back.

- I hear that a lot. - He replied, smiling.

- Get us there in one piece young Franz, okay? – Helga said, she had this heavenly smile on her face, the boy blushed and flustered a bit.

- Jawohl Dame Amsel. – He simply replied.

The gates opened and the car taxied out slowly, the guards that Hans had given the cigarettes to last night were still there, they nodded and waved at Hans in a farewell gesture, Hans just smiled back, the driver began to speed up.

- Whoa, you sure are in a good mood today buddy, It´s been a while since I´ve seen you smile at someone. – Klaus said.

- Shut up Klaus. – Hans replied and firmly grabbed the MG-32 up front, pulling the large lever to chamber a cartridge.

I couldn´t help but to chuckle a bit at the whole scene, these two were weird but I had a feeling they just couldn’t live without the other, Helga was completely silent and she had the rifle clutched tightly, the rest of us fell completely quiet afterwards following her example.

After a 20 minute drive the green rolling plains and trees that surrounded the motherbase gave way to houses and buildings, we were getting closer to the drop off point but we had to slow down as we were now in tight little streets and a lot of debris and bombshell holes cluttered the road ahead, young Franz steered the car carefully trying his best not to get the car stuck in one of the craters, we just jumped and thrashed around with each bump the car went across, this was starting to get annoying.

- Damn, these little stone streets sure make for a bumpy ride. – Groaned Klaus.

- They should ease off the closer we get to the heart of the town. – I said.

- Let´s hope so, it´s getting on my fucking nerves. – Klaus angrily responded.

- Settle down Klaus, it´s either this or walking. – Helga said.

- I´m not walking all the way over there. – He said and got back to looking around.

Few blocks later we stumbled upon a dead end in a street that had three and four story buildings on both sides, one of them had collapsed into the street creating a 3 meter high wall of debris.

I could see a bell tower over in the distance, it must´ve been like 600 meters away, we came to a sudden halt shortly after, Franz turned around to Helga and said:

- There is no way the Kubelwagen is getting over that dame Amsel, would you like me to find another route around? –

- No need, we can walk from here Franz, head back to motherbase. – Helga said.

- Yes Dame…ahhhrg! – Franz left shoulder bursted into a bloody mess and a loud crack was heard afterwards, the boy fell off the car to the ground.

- What the fuck? Get to cover now! – I said and all except Hans got off the car, he fired a few bursts from the mounted machine gun towards the clock tower and then followed, Helga and the rest took shelter behind the debris wall, and I dragged Franz behind the car.

- Where did that come from? – Klaus asked.

- I believe it was a sniper in the tower. – Hans said and got his rifle ready.

- Fuck that´s the rendezvous point, perhaps an ambush? – Helga asked.

- Nah, we would be knee deep in French right now. – I said, I peeked out to get a look at the tower and a shot rung past my head.

- Yeah that´s a sniper, and a good one, the bastard is more than half a kilometer away and barely missed me. – I said, Hans looked at me and shrugged.

- Hans, you´re up, we´ll draw out his fire and you´ll have to take him out. – Klaus said.

- I will. –He stated while checking the chamber of his rifle.

I turned to look at Franz, he was looking pale, scared to shit and bleeding a lot, the bullet had gone in but not out so I had to take it out before patching him up.

- Alexander, we´ll deal with the sniper while you patch up our buddy over there. – Klaus said.

I took my med kit out of the knapsack and grabbed a pair of pliers and some morphine.

- No, no morphine I still have to drive back, remember? – He said.

- Franz look at me, I´m not gonna lie this will hurt a lot, but whatever you do don´t pass out, ok? –

- O…ok. – He said.

I plunged the pliers into the gaping hole in his shoulder and the kid jolted and screamed in anguish, I heard another shot from afar and a shot from Hans´s  rifle shortly after.

- I missed, I need a better spot. – Hans said and ran into a building to the right.

Helga and Klaus moved over to left side of the street, she raised her rifle and fired a burst to attract the sniper´s attention, a shot then hit the ground near her feet, she gasped startled and swung back into cover.

- Captain, wait for Hans to take him out. – Klaus scolded her.

I got back to tending to the kid´s wound, he was still conscious but looking pale, after a bit of struggle I managed to get the bullet out, he sighed in relief and laughed a bit in nervousness as I cleaned and wrapped the wound up with some field dressing.

- Hey quiet, anytime now! – Klaus yelled and Hans fired 3 consecutive times, a moment later Hans got out of the building and walked our way.

- All clear, he was not that good after all. – Hans said with a grin on his face.

- How are you feeling bud? – Klaus asked Franz.

- I´m fine now, just a bit shaken. – He said as he was getting back on his feet.

- Can you drive? – Hans asked.

- Yes, I should be able to make it back… provided I don´t get shot again. – He said smiling.

- Hurry back then, we´ll take it from here, be safe. – Helga told him.

- Yes Dame Amsel. – He said while saluting with his good arm and clicking his heels, afterwards he drove off back the way we came.

- Well, we can´t climb over that mess either so we´ll have to go around it through the buildings, we´ll go through the left, keep your eyes peeled specially you Hans, we can´t risk it with another sniper. – Helga said.

- Yes Captain. – He responded.

We got in the building to the left and got around the obstacle, the road was clear on the other side, aside from the occasional blown out house and dead bodies from last night´s bombing run, we kept moving as fast as we could, 20 minutes later we were a couple of blocks from the clock tower we´d been shot from.