Katyusha
A
flash of lightning brightens the night and shadows dance as the door to Tanya’s
room burst open. A gravely wounded soldier drops to the floor his strained
voice calls out trying to overcome the rumbling thunder in the background,
“Kapitan…” The woman’s instinct causes her to pull out her gun and scan the
perimeter before worriedly approaching the wounded man. The room brightens once
more as Tanya kneels and removes the soldiers protective mask, she knows the
man; Nikolai. “Nikolai what happened!” shouted Tanya as her hands begin to feel
a warm stickiness coming from the soldiers back. Nikolai wheezes before he can
speak, “Serzhant Kova…” the man takes another rasping breath “He didn’t make
it.” Tanya’s eyes widen in shock her mind is thrown into chaos; another bolt of
lightning streaks across the night sky, “Nikolai! Tell me what happened!” she
shouts but the soldier falls
unconscious, the captain grabs the man’s shoulders and violently shakes him
continuing to call out his name her voice louder than the booming of thunder
outside. Her shouting stops, the sound of her footsteps echo throughout the
camp as she heads out the door shouting for a medic. A drop of water bounces on
her pearl white skin, she looks up as more and more drops of water fall from
the sky. The falling rain drowns out nearly all sound, save for the loud
footsteps and creaking wood as two medics ascending the old stairway leading to
Tanya’s personal quarters. She points to the man lying on the floor; still
looking at the sky, the two men nod in acknowledgement; Tanya doesn’t notice,
and walk over to help the man. The captain’s legs buckle and she limply drops
on her knees, the woman’s thoughts filled with worry for her sergeant, still
staring blankly at the sky, droplets of water streak down her face no-one could
tell whether it was from tears or from the rain.
Nikolai
violently awakens with a loud shout his arms flailing as if fending off an
unseen foe. Tanya’s hands grab his as she tries calming him down. Nikolai
regains his senses and looks at his commanding officer sitting down on a rusty
chair beside his bed; he notices her face, her eyes red and bloodshot, he
doesn’t know if it was from lack of sleep or worry, he feels pain coming from
all over his body wondering how he survived. White bandages nearly cover his
entire body, red splotches staining them; marking where he had been shot,
miraculously none of the rain of bullets shot at him hit his vital organs.
Tanya breaks the silence, “You had been sleeping for a day, and you nearly
scared me to death when you arrived in the middle of the night.” Nikolai gives
her a bitter smile then his face warps as he flinches in pain before he could
reply, “Sorry ‘bout that Kaptian.” The woman stands up to grab a glass of water
and what the soldier thinks could be medicine. The captain returns to her seat
before speaking again, “I could have been the one to deliver the killing blow
you know.” They both laugh but it is quickly cut short as the soldier grunts in
pain. “I wanted to give you a firsthand report.” he grimly replies. “Drink
this, it will help with the pain”, says Tanya as she hands Nikolai a pill and a
glass of water; he takes the glass and drinks the pill. She looks at the
soldier seriously then asks, “Can you tell me what happened.” The injured
soldier looks out the window and then recounts the events of his last mission
“You sent us to aid the Serzhant about two days ago then…”
Operation Chronos Spring 1947: Two days
ago.
It
was night, the soldiers fatigued from two consecutive battles the sergeant
worried that the next attack might be much better prepared to deal with them.
Their last two attacks had the element of surprise granting them victory and
the sergeant doesn’t expect that strategy to work a third time. He looks out
the window of the ruined building and watches the afternoon sky sink into
darkness. His ears pick up a strange sound off into the distance; he quickly
stands up leaving his armor unattended to search for the source. Kova stops at
a window facing the north the bright orange of the sun blocked by remains of
buildings that dot the city making it hard to see the horizon; suddenly he sees
a glint in the sky. The sergeant looks at the men behind him and quickly barks
out an order, “Sniper’s check out the northern skies, report anything you see.”
Tension
builds in the air as two pairs of snipers scan the dusk sky; the rest of the
men finish rearming themselves preparing for the worst. The sound of static
floods the sergeant’s ears and a voice comes out, “Serzhant! We’ve got a single
bird in the sky!” The sergeant presses a button inside his armor to reply,
“Confirmed.” His armor hisses as the
protective helmet of his steel guard drops completely encasing him as he walks to
his men waiting in the ruined building’s lobby.
His medic and engineer flank him on both sides completely battle ready,
his remaining men all stand in attention. Kova opens a radio channel for all
his men to hear and begins to speak, “Men, we have won two victories and the
Axis forces are scared. They are sending a complete force to deal with us.
Today there is only one objective; show them the true meaning of fear. “He
pauses to let the message sink in and continues, “If we die today we die for
the Motherland! If we die today we will not be alone we will bring the enemy
with us; for every one of us that falls two of them shall join us in hell!” The
sergeant’s men stand ready unflinching none of them showing fear. “We cannot
die serzhant! The Ghosts are already dead!” shouted one of his men. “For Mother
Russia!” shouted another, and another and another. The entire room filled with
a cacophony of cheers. Kova walks in between his men heading for the door, the
grinding of his armor’s gears and the thudding of his footsteps drowned in the
ongoing cheers for the motherland. His
men follow him raising their weapons the cheering abruptly stopped replaced by
the rhythmic sound of marching feet.
Beads
of sweat form on Kova’s face; the cool spring night breeze completely shut out
from his armor, tension builds in the air as he and his men wait for the Axis’
arrival the sergeant’s thoughts cloud his mind, “Forgive me, my kapitan. I know you said to fall back if the situation
is dire, but I cannot follow that order. I cannot shame the motherland any
further these dogs have taken our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters from
us and we shall bring the vengeance of the Red Army.” Minutes passed until a white dot in the
sky appeared in the horizon and the strange sound Kova had heard earlier that
evening drowned out all other sounds. The airplane’s spotlight scanning the
perimeter also revealed the bulk of the enemy’s forces; a Ludwig, several
infantry squads and two well armed women “Probably
their commanders” thought the sergeant as he watched from afar.
As
soon as all of the enemies were within sight; Kova turned to his men and gave
them the signal. They knew their orders; Kill them before they kill you, and
set forth to assault the enemy. The platoon of steel guards quickly burst from
their cover with guns blazing, a squad of light infantry quickly fell to the
first salvo of shotgun and auto-gun fire. The young sergeant immediately knew
they were fighting against hardened veterans; the remaining enemy troops
quickly recovered from the shock and prepared launched a counter-attack. The
axis troopers quickly knew that focusing their attention on a single squad is
more likely to eliminate it rather than trying to shoot at everything at once;
those with more specialized weapons however split their fire hoping to pick off
the wounded soldiers. The enemy commanders appeared before Kova’s squad not
long after the first few seconds of battle; two women a lone master sniper and
another leading a squad of heavy infantry. The Russian forces were outnumbered
but not outgunned; they made true their word for every one man they lost two
Germans died along with them. The battle seemed to be even until the enemy
plane found the perfect firing position behind Russian lines its guns may have
been weak but concentrated fire eventually pierced the steel guard battle suits,
slowly whittling down Kova’s remaining comrades.
A
grim thought rattled the Russian sergeant’s mind, “We will lose… My only regret, is not knowing these bastards names.” Time
seemed to slow down in his mind; the bark of gunfire muffled as Kova kept his
finger on the trigger; to him it seemed as if he could see the bullet leaving
the barrel of his gun, the flesh of his enemy disintegrating as the same bullet
strikes his target but he knew his death was near; he remembered hearing stories
from his comrades who survived such an ordeal, their senses heightened as
adrenaline flooded their bodies their reaction times quickened but they say it
was death’s final gift. A loud clank rang inside the young man’s armor and he
flinches as he sees the armor’s interior displays crack, another loud ping
followed as his armor’s protective shell broke in a rain of razor sharp
shrapnel, his vision becomes tainted in red as he looks at his assailant; the
female sniper. Her short trimmed blonde hair waving in the night breeze her gun
close to her face as she peers down her gun’s scopes; Kova was unsure whether
it was the night light or his dying hallucinations but he saw a sadistic smile
split the woman’s face; then a loud bang. The next thing he sees is the night
sky as he topples down to the rubble covered streets; his reddened sights
slowly turning grey, he sees movement off in the distance coming from the east
he didn’t know why but he called out, “Nikolai…” then nothing.
Nikolai
and his men quickly run out from a ruined building heading for the enemy heavy
infantry standing at the center of the battlefield; as they saw Kova’s squad
get wiped out. They jump from cover to cover ending up behind a large tree
stump shouting in rage he orders his men to open fire. Night turned to day as a
spray of burning sulfur engulfs the armored troopers and the smell of burning
flesh and gunpowder permeated throughout the battlefield as Nikolai’s Fakyeli
brought swift vengeance to their enemies. The enemy sniper unaware that her
allies were dying continued to decimate the remaining steel guard laughing as
she continued pulling her gun’s trigger. Nikolai thought that he too would die
this day but not until he brings vengeance for his friend. The enemy
commander’s burnt body had not yet reached the floor when the Russian light
infantry occupied their position and let loose another barrage on the enemy
sniper and her body guards. The woman had no time to react before she too was
covered in molten liquid; her screams of pain music to Nikolai’s ears but that
pleasure was short lived; the enemy Ludwig loomed in front of them and the
enemy aircraft danced above them. He fought as he muttered prayers; his men
gave all they had to bring down the last two enemy infantry and the Ludwig but failed.
The last thing he remembered was silently falling to the ground as the Ludwig’s
cannon fired on their position throwing him and his remaining men several feet
into the air before he collapsed in a heap of rubble. He lay unconscious for
hours and miraculously survived as he woke; it was sunrise of the same day, he
could only see rubble and corpses strewn across the battlefield. He felt only
pain but he knew he had to report what happened and so he walked.
“And
then you know what happened after” ended Nikolai. Tanya’s face was like stone
unmoving and unflinching, the man did not know whether she was heartless about
losing her love or she was in a state of shock and denial. The long pause was
broken as Tanya’s wooden chair streaked across the old floor boards, she seemed
to be leaving her final words to the injured soldier were, “Take the week to
recuperate once you’re ready we head out our haunt is not yet over.” Then a
bang, the woman apparently lost control of her emotion as she exited the
makeshift hospital as she slammed the door. It was still raining, the dull grey
sky a reflection of her. She walked towards her walker; slowly and with
purpose, no one noticed her tears thanks to the rain. Looking up at the rain filled skies she sings.