Camping out really didnt make for much difference. Ash had had worse, and everyone was drilled and well practised for the procedure. What would make a difference, Ash mused, is what happens when the enitre force was ready. The planning was too much to lose. The Germans had origenally placed a large Panza in a large twon, called Aube. This was ment, origenally, to slow one half of the two Allied forces that were split by the River Seine. Unfortunatly the forces were in the wrong place, and the other front was crumbeling. To avoid the line collapsing, the German idea was to cross the River Seine by the only place possibal: The two Bridges at Aube. It was the Commandos job to to blow up these bridges to both strand the panza division, and assist the second allied force break through. The latest from Intel was that the movement and hopeful crossing would take place tomorow morning, so tonight was the date for the fireworks. It was deemed unlikley that any of the tanks and armoured cars would actually be manned, as the Germans were mainly 'enjoying' the town before they evac'ed. The Americans were kind enough to lend a company, and were put into reserves.
Something shuffled from behind the Comandos. Nobody turned, they were all eyes and ears for the town, and in any case, they knew what it was: A messinger to tell Commander that everyone was set up and ready.
The order was givern, and squads of five assembled in compleate silence. While the American Company waited in reserve, the British Commandos went in for scout and elimination.
Ash had teamed up with a few old frends. Jack, a German Sheepdog (Which invarably got him stick from those who knew not him well), Mike, a Red Fox, Frank, a black and white Cat, and Sam, a red squirrel. Together, the group took the east flank of the Aube, and entered as quietly as possibal.
Intel were about as accurate as they ever were: The Germans were already getting realy to leave, with some King Tiger Tanks only waiting for the order. It was unlikley that it was the morning that they were going to use for the excape. Othough this was a major glitch in the plan, the Commandos pushed ahead in the shadows and allyways, the two five man heave demo squads making good progress and time to the target.
The main. rough, idea was to organise an excape route that was protected from enemys, that the Unarmed Demo teams could use to get out. One road suted this perfectly.
There were to be three pretection measures for the Demo squads: Snipers, which Ash's team were part of, and Rocket squads, in case the odd King Tiger was mobile, and if all else failed, the American reserves, armed to the teeth, to provide cover fire while the squads, ten in total, got the hell out of there.
Ash's team, of which there was no real leader, chose a three floor flat to camp in, and fanned out, one by one, making sure not to wake the occupents, if there were any there. To Ash's right was Sam, and to his left was Mike. As Frank took position, he muttered in his useual pessamistic way, indeed the first to speak, "Three to one odds this op goes tits up." Looking to the building oppersite, Ash and Mike both sighed a small breath of releaf at seeing Captin Howard, a well known Captin in the Commando company, and Steve Carpinter, both carring the standard assult rifle, as well as their PIAT spring loaded launchers, giving away their role. It was times like these that Ash was glad he brought along a few useful stones. Dipping into his pockets while lyeing down, he got out Rhodonite for concentration, and held it. Mike saw him, ans Sam wasn't too far behind with his eyes.
"Still got it with the gems, eh?" Mike whispered.
"Naturally." Ash came back, grinning somewhat.
"We could do with the luck. Look, its starting..." Sam inturrupted, as Jack for quiet.
In the distance two orange lights lit the urban scape, shortly followed by a double boom that was clear and sharp to the ear.
Demo Team one was placing some explosives on the bridge when a King Tiger crossed, which, much to the glee of the Red Setter, Chris Flank, the explosives expert in team one, ment that there was one less tank to deal with. flanks team then used the chaos to get out of the town via the planned route.
Demo team two had trouble. Their bridge had gone up before a King Tiger had reached its crossing, which resulted in them having a very angey, stuck tank on their hands. Even worse, the Tanker was a fast reacting chap, and had the cannon of the King tiger, all of its huge cannon aimed at the the squad before it could leave. Of the five members of the team, only two made it through the first shot. Two of the casulties were thrown by the blast, landing in a ragged heap, while the theird was turned into red rain. The two surviving members, Dick Burns, a Terrier, and Freddy Badge, a Hedgehog, ducked around the corner of the block to the excape route before a second shot could be made from the Front damaged King Tiger.
All of this had happened in under two mins. If the thud of bridges being turned into rubble and driftwood hadnet got the Germans awake, the king Tiger shot most definatly did. They started to come out of a variaty of places, and more worringly, a few of the presumed inert tanks began to move.
With the German troops, the three sniper groups would have a field day. The second the Germans began to appear, an old game of tallying began in Ash's squad.
"Two headshots and a chest." Jack duly informed, lining up again.
"Three heads." Mike dais, boastfully, almost casually shooting.
Sam, the fastest out of the five, snapped a number of quick cracks. "Two heads, two chests, and somewhere he wont forget in a hurry." He chuckled as he squeezed the trigger.
Ash, using the Rhodonite, squeezed the trigger fluedically. "Two heads and two chests." He commented as he lined up a fith, and pulled the trigger. "Make that three chests".
Frank, once again, showed his sadistic side as he took his sightings. "Two Family lines ended." He darkly reported smiling, and even Ash shuddered, giving his target a second chance.
On the other side of the street, Captin Howard took a few potshots with his assult rifle, while Steve kept a weary eye out for armoured vehicles.
After a few seconds, a purpose began to form in the German troops. With the Demo teams more or less safley out of Aube, it was time to meet this purpose head on, and get out of the hell hole. Packing up the sniper rifles, the squadprepaired to leave the camp on the second floor to go into street fighting. The safty road, once the demo teams had left, was convered into the 'killing zone'. Everything in it was designated emeny, and hopefully blown away.
Just as all five of the team were ready, a double sweeping noise was heard, followed immediatly by two large deep, vibrating, explosions. Racing to the window to asses the situation, and naturlly wary of counter fire, the squad saw Captin Howards first victem, a King tiger no less. To make things seem more even, it appeared to be the tank which took a potshot at Demo Team Two, its front damaged by something that was not the projectile explosive. Captin Howard pumped one ginger feline fist into the air while Steve used his primate tail to get another spring launched anti tank explosive: The King Tiger had two frends. One of the armoureds was another King Tiger, while the other was a standard Armoured Car, with a mashine gun mounted on it.
When the King Tiger took aim at Captin Howards position, the entire anti armour aquad retreated into the building, presumably to get to the streets. Then the King Tiger fired. The hit to the old late Victorien building looked similer to a dust bloom, with streamers of rubble flying out if it as it expanded outwards and downwards.
That shot signaled the probabl end of Captin Howards team, and ended Ashs squads passive gaze.
Knowing full well that the King Tiger was a useless target dur to its armour, the team startedto pick off the German troops, now finding cover. It was then that Ash took a chance. Using the few stones he had brought with him, Rhodonite, Hakimers Dimond, Garnet and Amber, he searched for a weak spot of value on the Armoured Car. He found it in the fuel cap. Taking valuable seconds to mentally lock on to the target, he took the shot at the same time Frank took a shot at the King Tigers turret viewer. Franks shot meerly bounced off the inches thick Armour that gace the King Tiger its reputation, and Ashs shot holed the fuel cap and tank, but did little more.
A second later Jack did in one bullet what neither Ash or Frank acheived in two: He shot the growing puddle of petrolium. The narrow street confined the resulting fireball, and the King Tiger was pushed almost to its side before it fell back in place unmoving, even if it was tempory.
A Cheer went up in the room as debree began to fill a large section of the road, doing more to the King Tiger then any snipers bullet could.
Then the Squads luck turned foul. Thirty seconds later voices could be heard, as well as a rushing of feet coming up towards the door to the 'camp'. All five members turned around, leved their rifles to the wooden doors and fake walls, and fired, ending any voices with three well defined thuds.
"Who cares who got THEM." Sam muttered.
"I'm out of Shots." Jack observed, and Ash also noticed he had one bullet in his rifle.
"Ok." Frank said, effectivly taking charge. "Lets reload, and leave I don't intend to stay for Tea."
Nobody argued. After the few mins it took to load up the sniper rifles, and ready themselves, leaving the majoraty of their equipment, they set off, moving over the dead bodies of the tree German troops. Two had got chest shorts, one poor sod had a stomach shot, and Frank put him out of his misery.
"That shot goes to Frank." Sam muttered, pointing his rifle to the now dead third soldier.
They didnt bother to reason why they came against nobody on their decent of the two floors untill the shell hit the building. even then noone really knew why they had been targeted.
The dust filled the corridor the second the floor shuddered. There was another unsetteling rumble, then a larger shudder as the second floor partially gave way.
"Everybody out!" Barked Jack. Nobody said a word in their attempt to save themselves.
When Ash saw daylight from the corridor, he raced to greet it, nearly colliding with a German SS officer, his first ever seen. The SS officer, wearing the tipical black uniform, didn't expect a white dog to come running out the building like a bat out of hell, and at first froze, the sight starteling. Ash recovered fast, and made a theird eye for the SS officer.
A second later Frank emerged from the smoke. They took a defensive position and waited a short while for the other three, but nobody came.
"Your doing?" Franks asked, jutting his head at the officer.
"Yer, he looked like he was sceared out of his life." Ash pondered out loud, still looking ahead down the narrow allyway.
"Probably thought your a spirit or something." Jack chuckled. He took a glance back inside the building.
"Give them a few more seconds Ivan." Ash almost pleaded, using Franks nickname, givern after Ivan the Terribal, when Frank displayed his sadistical, yet surprisingly efficient, shots.
"Look Stoney," Frank came back, using Ash's nickname, "thats an SS officer! That means he has frends, and wouldn't be here alone at all. The rest of them have better odds then us, damnit! There are three of them, and two of us. Lets get going before we get killed. Looks like I won the bet: This is as tits up as it gets..."
Mumbeling something, Ash slowly nodded, relising the truth.
Taking the side roads, the duo, which Frank had dubbed "Snipers Screwups" came to a clearing, after encountering a lone soldier, who probably didnt even know he had been killed. The area was obviously origenally a town park, evident by the swings and roundabout near one side.
Looking out into the clearing, there was a mashine gun post in the middle, presumably to stp people and furrs from getting to the other side ofthe park, which was pratically at the limits of the town. Frank looked at Ash, and Ash returned the gaze amused. Then they set up the sniper properly, to see what the gunners were doing, via the tele lens.
"I say we take the post, gun down the surrounding goons with 'frendly' fire, then get the hell out of there." Frank said, chuckeling.
Ash disagreed. "I think I can lift that Gun no problem." He said simply to revieal his idea.
"Is that a challenge?" Came the quizzical reply, as Frank looked at Ash, who was now in his forties.
"Two guns, two of us. Who says dogs and cats cant work together?" Was the answer.
"Well, now. Lets see." Frank thought aloud. "Its about 30 yards away, and they don't look like they have fired those guns. That probably means they are rusty." Frank paused to hear distant gunfire, now becoming more frequent. "And I don't think anyone will hear the two shots over that racket. Its almost easy."
"All the way?" Ash asked.
"All the way." Frank chipped back. "I take left gun, you take right."
The two gunners fell simultaneously, and as Frank had guessed, nobody noticed. They were both headshots.
With fluidical movement, both Ash and Frank strapped their sniper rifles to their backs, and sprinted to the posts. Ash out accelerated Frank at first, but it wasn't too long before Franks speed ment he started to outpace Ash. As it happened, they made it almost together, a fraction of a second difference on the dark night soil. Putting the belts of ammo around themselves first, as fast as they could, both picked up a stick granade. With half muffled grunting, they lifted the mashine guns, and vaguley aimed them at the squad of Germans that were not too far away, looking away in compleate confidence in their now dead comrades. Since neither Frank nor Ash knew how to operate this piece of German weaponary, they played the guns as they used them.
The poor Germans stood no chance. A dry rain that Ash knew all too well spat around them, and they fell rapidly, the odd one starting a turn around.
Then the mad dash with the bulky weight began. A run to the other end of the clearing where the town limits were, and where freedom and survival odds rose on the probability lists. In the night the main lights were caused by the bridges, now starting to lower in their burning, and the weight, ment that the going was tough.
The odd troop that ventured out to either see what was going on with the mashine gun post, or had seen the two running, was met with firepower that really didnt need, or indeed have, any pause for aim.
The two hundred yards seemed like two hundred miles. But soon there was only fifty yards left.
It was then that their luck scraped the barrel and cut out all together. Frank looked back, and stopped, forcing Ash to look back as well. He immeditaly stopped. A king Tiger, moving at almost its maximum speed, was fast overtaking about thirty German troops. When the tank stopped, its turret started to turn the 180 degrees from the saftey position to aim at the two. The German troops were also closing in, at about one hundred and eighty yards, almost desperate to get closer for a clear shot.
Both Ash and Frank checked their rounds left in the mashine guns, discovering that both were low on ammo.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Frank slid in, slowly.
"Yep. From now on, we are damn immortal. Lets remind them." Ash responded, smiling of all things.
Frank looked at Ash, and both relised in that short second that the other had a near suicidal grin on his face. By now the turret was almost at its 180 degree turn.
"You know," Ash began, "that tanks gonna blow our fuc.."
Franks mashine gun fire drowned out the last part of that sentence, and blocked all further talk.
'The cheat!' Ash thought, not really hurt, as he too pumped out some more deadly hail.
Firing as they were, their accuracy was appaling. But the two mashine guns bagan to take effect, and within a few seconds both the ammo was used up, and a good fifteen German troops were riddled. Half way through the shooting, both Frank and Ash started yelling as loudly as they could, one long continus yell that lasted a fraction of a second longer then the ammo did. The guns clicked twice, one for each, and were silent. Both of the duo dropped the big guns with releif, the bulky and heavy mashinery falling like a dead weight, making a loud dull thud on impact with the earth.
By now the turret of the King Tiger was ready to fire. Both Frank and Ash hadent bothered to waste ammo on the Tank, as it was well known, that would be pointless.
However, as Captin Harris had proved little under half an hour ago, even King Tigers were still vunrable to high explosives.
Just as Frank and Ash began to shout swears and curses at the Germans in the Tank, and the Germans taking cover from the deadly spitting guns, a bright orange ball flew over Ash and Franks head, leaving a vapor trail behind it, as it shot towards the King Tiger. The duo instinctivly looked around, mouths wide open in shock.
Ash was never sure if it was the shock wave from the hit, or his mind playing tricks from looking at certain death squarly in the eye, but he could have sworn that he saw three tails on the Fox that had the rocket launcher. Noting the British uniform gave a sence of releif, and the ground shaking dangerously brought their attention back to the matter in hand. Turning around, Both Frank and Ash Saw the small mushroom cloud glow as it rose above the King Tiger, something that later Ash thought looked similer to the A-Bomb.
Unpacking their Sniper Rifles, they got back to their job.
From then on it was shoot as many German troops as you could, as fast as you could. Both lost count of their kill totals when they relised that the open field was getting very, very bloody. After aboiut another fifteen mins of this crazed rapture, additional fire made the duo stop.
The American Reserves had been called in. Finding their way back was easy, the cover fire was more then enough to garantee their saftey. As they passed the American line, Ash shoved into Franks hand a piece of Amber.
"What the hell's that for?" Frank demanded, utterly confused.
"Lets just say it'll help you stay immortal, eh?" Came the cryptic reply.
"Knew it! I knew you cheated! Good job, nobody could see that one." Frank exclaimed. After a seconds thought, he continued. "You know, before tonight, I'd have dismissed what you said as stupid, but after seeing what we did. God, anythings possibal! Did you see that Fox? He had three tails. I'm sure of it!" He almost shouted.
"You too? I'm not too sure. But I can't think of any other explanation. And where the hell did he go, anyway? I sure havent seen him since his timely shot. Damn, that was good accuracy. In night too!" Ash wondered.
Frank looked at the reasonable sized lump of Amber. "So, I'll keep it with me at all times. It'll keep us immortal? Heh, that's good." He asked.
"Well, some are born immortal, but we just earned it." Ash stated as true to fact as he beleaved.
Of the teams that were mentioned, Captin Harris did actually survive the experence, othough he receaved a fractured right arm from the King Tiger shot on the building his squad was in. As for his companion, Steve, he was killed in action, when the building began to cave in shortly after the shot took place. His body was removed from the rubble two days later.
Of the five members in Ash's squad, it was already mentioned that Ash and Frank lived through the experence, and as it happened, so did Sam and Jack. Mike was, sadly, killed in action, being shot by a group of Germans while he provided cover fire for Sam and Jack. Sam made it through a few more fights before the war was over, becomeing a veteran, and Jack had to be taken off the fighting list when he was injured in the leg in a later conflict. Frank also made it through the War, and in subsiquent years, ended up in an old Furrs home, apparantly aging surprisingly little considering his age.
As was mentioned, Demo Team Two had three fatalities, and the two that made it passed the excape route survived with minor injuries and slight shell shock.
Demo Team One was the most successful team, suffering no fatalaties, and only the odd bruse, which was easily acceptable.