Teufelslied: Italia

Chapter 12: Montpellier Wasteland

25th September, 1965, Italian trenches

        Valer woke, wrapped in bandages. How long had he been out? He felt stiff.  As if he had been dragged across the God's forsaken battlefield on someone's shoulders. "Güten morgen.", Anto said, coming through the doorway. "We broke through the enemy trenches after you went limp. The damned Reds are fighting like the Partisans they fuckin' slaughtered.", on that note, he opened a bottle of Marillenschnaps and drank it.
"Oberleutnant..", Valer paused, noticing that Anto's rank tabs had another star, signifying him as a Hauptmann. "Er...Hauptmann. Excuse me for asking...but how do you deal with this?" Anto stood up straight, his ISR and bolt-action rifle slung over his shoulder. "With what?"
"Your pick, sir...the smell. The death. The fact that 15,000 soldiers will never see the light of day again. The fact that these fields were so..lively...before we came. That! That was life..", Otto Valer was on the verge of tears. "Do you drink it away?!"
"No, calm down Otto. Before the war. Before the insurrection. Before all this madness. I had a wife. A job as a guard of Italy and the Reichskommissar. But, I was called up to make my homeland better."
"That doesn't answer my question!", Valer shouted, tears streaming down his face."
"I know..I know it's hard to deal with. I can't justify my actions based on ethnicity, ideology, or duty. But we all must fight. Sure, you can fight for King and country. But..do you?"
     Valer shook his head. "I fight..because Italy is my home, now. The entire Valer family was consumed by the Great War. So..I'll be damned if I die on these cursed grounds."
           Anto held his hand to his forehead. "That is a cause I can get behind. Heil, Otto Valer."
        "Do we have orders sir?", Valer asked. "Yes. Two days ago, our Panzer Divisions broke through the River Lez and split up the communist divisions holding up there. One hold out still remains, at La Lironde Hotel."

The armored car dropped them off outside a massive Greek-inspired complex. The structure was clearly damaged. And, Anto certainly saw some bodies through the darkness. "So why is this the last-" Valer's question was cut off by Cannon fire.
Very close by.
A shell arched towards the ground, and they hit the deck. One moment their transport was there, next it was peppering their backs in micro-shrapnel form. Their driver was screaming his head off. "AHH FUCK! MY LEG! AHHHHHH!", he screamed. "Einitti! Inject that man with some morphine!"
"Yes! Please! Thank..thank god.", he said. The tiny syrette now discarded at his side. "How does that feel?", Einitti asked. "Imagine having a few rocks in your leg. Without the world ending pain."
"So. How are we going to take out those insurgents if they have a hand mortar?", Valer asked. "SCHARFSCHÜTZEN FEUER!", Anto shouted, as a few bullets whizzed from the hotels darkened windows, hitting their driver in the head. A third shot grazed Valer as he ran into the complex. "I'll provide suppressive fire, you two try to out flank them. Stay out of their range, but within yours. Go go!", Anto commanded, unslinging his Cacciatore. Anto fired two shots at the window with the enemy sniper. On the second shot, the enemy's weapon, a heavily updated variant of the Mosin-Nagant fell to the ground. Assault rifle fire pierced their air, and Anto switched to his ISR.
Running to La Lironde tired him. As he approached the hotel, he was fired upon, diving behind a car for safety. Einitti threw a grenade into the lobby. The blast did nothing, as Einitti took four assault rifle bullets to the skull and died. "Verdammt! We're suppressed!", Anto exclaimed, reloading his rifle, and immediately returning to cover as a bullet grazed his elbow and smashed through a car window. "Can't see scheisse!", he exclaimed. "Valer. How many are there?"
"About 2 platoons minus the 7 that we've already killed, sir.", Valer said. "I think Einitti set up some remote explosives before we forced to defend in here!"
Anto fired on an enemy soldier that had just come out of the lobby, the man fell, too injured to continue. "Attack the complex's left flank! I'll see if I can detonate those explosives!", Anto commanded, running from cover.
He dived as a bullet pierced his calf and he reached Einitti's body. Valer was right, a detonator lay at Einitti's side. He pressed the button and the hind wall of La Lironde exploded. Sending elevator doors, concrete, and entire rooms into the air. "What was that?", one of the R.R.A soldiers shouted at Valer entered the lobby, firing from an overturned reception desk. "HELL OF A BLAST, HAUPTMANN!", Valer shouted. Anto dove behind cover and reloaded. Firing again, he killed the last communist insurgent in the lobby.
    An eerie silence filled the lobby. Followed by,"Wir kapitulieren!", from several Hispanic voices. As Anto climbed the stairs, he heard a gunshot, and broke into a run. "That's what you get for trying to break free!", he heard Valer shouting. "E5, Hauptmann!"
    Anto opened the door to Room E5. An RRA officer lay dead on the floor. Valer kicked one in the head. "Permission to shoot him sir?"
"No, idiot!", Anto exclaimed, tearing Otto's schnellpistole from his hand. "You shot their commanding officer. You there! Where are your commanders?"
     "They're...at the Antigone district.", he said. "What? It's been completely encircled!", Anto shouted, tossing back Otto's schnellpistole. "Valer, ask him where General Enrique Lister is."
"Jawohl.", Otto said, pressing his weapon against the man's jawline. "Where is Commissioner Enrique Lister?", he said. "Montpellier Cathedral.", the R.R.A Soldier said. His bonds fell down. "GLORY TO THE RSR!", he shouted, charging Valer with a knife. Valer shot the man in the head.
"Try not to make to much noise.", Anto said, lifting his ISR, and finishing off the remaining prisoners. "2 magazines left...what about you?"
"One sir. We can't possibly push through the frontline and capture the Cathedral with 90 rounds between the both of us.", Valer said, wiping blood from his face and walking over to a radio. "Headquarters. This is Oberschutze Otto Valer. We have discovered the position of the enemy commander. Requesting fire support: artillery bombardment at 43.6132° N, 3.8741° E."
Static. "Oberschütze, where is your unit officer?", the artillery commander asked, and Anto took the phone. "This is 51st Platoon Commander Hauptmann Anto Castillo. Please Comrade. We can't possibly take out Commissioner Lister without fire support."
"I see. Artillery support granted."
The distant thud of artillery boomed in the distance. Then, in a flash of light, lit the skyline ablaze in destruction.

Anto and Otto returned to the Place de France, and were greeted by their commanding officer. "Men. You're being sent straight to the front. Return, as the Spartans say,'On your shield, or with it.' "
"Sir, I don't think we can break through to the church.", Otto said, scratching his neck. "Then in that case I will send you to the catacombs myself, understood?", the Commander said, and Otto simply replied,"Yes sir.", and climbed into one of the transport vehicles.
It looked as if it were late afternoon, but it was impossible to tell with the fire and smoke rising into the sky. As Otto was the lowest rank out of him and Anto, he was the gunner, and as such, the most exposed. He was staring into the distance as he heard gunfire,"OTTO, FIRE YOUR MACHINE GUN!", Anto shouted. Valer fired the weapon, killing several Insurgents, as a rocket exploded at the foot of the jeep and sent it tumbling into the river. Valer swam back to the surface, gasping to air, only to pull his head back under the increasingly red water. He spotted Anto, and tried to call his name, but the water drowned out his words. Otto tore his unconscious teammate's body from the sunken jeep and pulled him out of the canal. Then, a bullet bit into Valer's leg, causing him to scream in pain. "GOD DAMN IT!", he screamed, as the gunfire halted. He pulled his wounded leg up onto the pavement and began attempting CPR.
Anto woke up, the enemy long since dead. "I'm fine. I'm fine.." he said, reassuring himself
They were able to drive right to the church. Field guns fired into the chapel, tearing it down. Then Anto led the charge, screaming, "ATTTACK!", only to have said attack halted by blazing machine guns. Anto could only get a few bursts of ammunition out of his weapon before taking a bullet in the arm as their field guns were blown to pieces by antitank rockets.
Anto picked up his ISR and started firing again, running out of ammunition and only killing two people. A bullet ripped through his kidney, and he fell to the ground, bleeding. Valer struggled towards him barely missing being torn apart shouting,"Hauptmann!" And then...
The world went numb. Anto lay, horrified as a trail of red spurted from behind Valer's closed eyes. A shot..right in the side of the head.
"No..no..dio..perche'?", he said, balling up into a miserable coward as his comrades were slaughtered around him. He sobbed. Unable to bear it all. Why was he so weak? Why didn't he save them? He could've saved them all...everybody that had been killed. "Everybody....", Anto whispered.
"Tutti morti!", he whispered
Tutti morti.