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Page 52
His men, as expected of those he had meticulously trained, all completed the simple leaping maneuver just like him, swarming over the buildings like locusts. But a few unlucky ones were clearly not favored by His Majesty the Emperor; some were caught in the crater of a shell and instantly torn to pieces; others were buried by collapsing walls—some were pulled down by grappling hooks, and still others were torn apart by shells.
Norwell didn't have time to care about these people's lives or deaths. Luck is part of strength. Since you ended up in such a tragic situation, it can only mean that you are not strong enough to charge alongside me.
……
However, it must be said that the streets of this dilapidated city are truly awful; I have never seen anything so appalling in my previous war experiences.
The road surface was full of potholes and marked with the scars of artillery fire. The feeling of Gloucester's drive wheels on the ground was not much different from driving in the wild. Moreover, the obstacles on the road were as numerous as mushrooms in a forest—broken cars, piles of rubble, and even a bunch of inexplicable X-shaped steel obstacles.
In his mind, which was dominated by battle fanaticism, a new thought that had not been heard for a long time resurfaced: How many stupid lunatics had fought in this city before?
Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow, and something that looked like a cannonball flew into the air above his head in the blink of an eye!
The lieutenant colonel swiftly pulled the lever and pedal, and Gloucester immediately spread his legs under his control, then suddenly bent over. The shell flew past not far above his head, and then, right behind him, it startled a fiery rose filled with electric sparks and crackling sounds on the street!
……
Looking back, the other KMF that had been following closely behind had turned into a bunch of fireballs spewing electric sparks, bouncing like soccer balls between the ruins at high speed before landing as a pile of burning rubble.
"Tsk, you're pretty unlucky too..."
After rushing past several buildings, the buildings below became much shorter, indicating that they were very close to the enemy outside the city.
But just then, he suddenly heard a piercing whistle, unlike the whistling of falling shells, it sounded more like the wailing of a locomotive!
He glanced up at the sky, and his attention, which he had just managed to focus on, was forcibly diverted—a bright patch suddenly appeared in the sky. It wasn't a series of falling shells, but rows of meteorites, trailing fiery tails, like a rain of arrows!
"Scatter! Everyone scatter!"
The lieutenant colonel escaped safely, but his men were not as lucky! Rockets trailing flames rained down on the chaotic land like orange avalanches, swarming through houses, trees, streets, scattered walls, and broken cars. Nothing could escape the barrage of bullets.
The merciless Katyusha clenched all, innocent or not, tightly into its fists. Those unfortunate Sunderland victims were instantly engulfed in a cloud of dust; only the four-meter-tall steel body, sparking with dazzling electricity amidst the raging flames, could be vaguely seen falling through the gaps in the explosion and crashing to the ground—yes, you could no longer recognize this as Sunderland's body; it was utterly nothing more than a garbage can freshly kicked out of the furnace!
……
"Cough!—"
Novell stared helplessly at the electronic screen in the cockpit, watching as one knight after another delivered the news of their demise right before his eyes.
……
"All squadrons report casualties!"
"Grank reports! The group has lost one-third of its forces but is continuing its advance!"
“Charlton reports… Lieutenant Colonel… I’m wounded… I’m sorry…”
"Damn it..." Novell gasped, "Jacques! Jacques, where are you?!"
There has been no response from the radio for quite some time!
"Reporting, reporting to Colonel Nero! This is Captain Nero! Major Jacques has just been killed in action, and I have now made contact with our remaining..."
"what!--"
After a scream accompanied by a shattering sound, there was no further response.
"What should we do, Lieutenant Colonel! Many of our men have lost contact with us, making it impossible for us to coordinate an attack!"
"What coordination do we need! Those who die in the shelling are all useless! Understand?!" Novell's tone became increasingly irrational. "Charge! Full speed ahead! Don't stop! Don't retreat!"
……
……
……
……
"what happened?"
Anton and his comrades hid in their bunker and heard strange gunshots coming from all around them.
"Has the enemy launched a counterattack?"
"Whoever climbs the tree and gets the binoculars, please tell me what's happening around here!"
After a while.
"Uh, Lieutenant! There seem to be a few of those 'steel giants' that the major mentioned to us before, running around like crazy in the distance!"
……
"How far is the nearest one from us?"
"About 700 meters, it seems we're about to make contact with the 4th Company's position!"
"Should we go help, comrade?" Private Sheva approached the lieutenant from the side.
"No! Everyone, listen to my command! Stay where you are and hide! Sheva, you're with me! Ivanov! Pogolovsky! Grab your anti-tank rifles and come with me!"
The four men lay down in the jungle towards the 4th Company's position and spread out the bipods of their anti-tank rifles.
"How long did you serve as anti-tank gunners before?"
"In May, not long after the fascists surrendered."
The lieutenant pondered for a moment, then handed his rifle to the soldier named Ivanov.
“Let me do it…” he said, as he crouched down behind the butt of the anti-tank rifle and raised the trigger.
……
Meanwhile, on the Soviet infantry positions a few hundred meters away, they resembled a flock of bewildered goats, helplessly watching a vicious wolf break into their pen, resisting the overwhelming firepower of the steel dolls.
"Drink! Cry! Die!—"
Gloucester unleashed a barrage of machine gun fire with both arms, spraying bullets onto every yellow uniform in sight. In his utterly ecstatic, insane euphoria, flesh and blood were reduced to rubble, staining the brown earth crimson.
The soldiers weren't helpless against it, but the crazed monster danced wildly in the chaotic battle. It charged and pounced, seemingly indifferent to those it crushed and trampled.
Want to throw a Molotov cocktail at it? That's asking too much.
……
In his spare time, the lieutenant colonel glanced at the electronic map and realized that, including himself, there were only a few survivors left in the entire regiment.
He sneered, threw the empty magazine onto the position, and sped off in another direction.
"Just you wait! Soon, the army will arrive, and you will all die without a burial place!"
……
"Comrade! It's here!"
At this moment, Anton and the other three soldiers had already seen the steel giant.
"Everyone lie down, quiet..."
The afternoon sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, quietly shining on the muzzle of the anti-tank rifle, scattering a bright star.
In an instant, the anti-tank rifle roared and fiercely spat out a bullet at the giant!
*Thud!* A muffled thud struck the giant's foot, splashing up a muddy spray of water.
"Ho?" Novell saw the muzzle flash. "Useless thing! Prepare to die!"
He dodged the second shot fired from that strange, large gun, and instantly his fighting spirit was reignited. He picked up two machine guns and began to unleash a hail of bullets once more!
"careful!--"
Sheva yelled and rolled into a shallow ditch to the side, while the other two seemed to have also rolled below the firing line amidst the flying mud. But Lieutenant Anton remained unmoved, still lying there, aiming his anti-tank rifle forward!
The giant swayed from side to side, and the anti-tank rifle's sights were thus wantonly provoked by it.
……
A muffled sound entered his mind...
"German tanks! Vasilyev! Watch its tracks! Buy time for the anti-tank guns! Mamayev Kurgan cannot fall into our hands!"
"aim!--"
"Fire!—"
……
“Да!товарищ! (Yes, comrade!)”
Anton suddenly widened his eyes, staring intently at the anti-tank rifle's crosshairs, and pulled the trigger with all his might. The third bullet flew out, aimed at the giant's next trajectory as he had guessed it.
He hit it! A sound like metal being cut rang out, and the lieutenant clearly saw that the giant's abdomen instantly erupted with scorching sparks like a bursting water pipe!
……
The charging giant immediately bent his knees and knelt on the grass, rubbing himself frantically, like a surfboard in a muddy sea. The violent shaking caused his left arm to fall off and smash to pieces on the ground.
Gloucester stopped and knelt 50 meters in front of the anti-tank gun, but the madman in the cockpit showed no sign of surrendering!
"idiot!--"
Novell suddenly raised Gloucester's right hand, but Anton sneered, slightly turned the muzzle of his gun, and fired again, tearing the machine gun in the giant's hand apart in a wave of fire that also ripped off its right arm.
……
"Ah!" Just as Gloucester fell, Novell did not pull the cockpit release mechanism. Instead, he opened the hatch, grabbed his pistol, and climbed onto the cockpit roof.
"I won't lose! I won't!—"
"goodbye!--"
That sound came from Anton's mouth. The last shot, the fifth bullet, left the barrel and hit that kid!
No longer the sound of mud flying, nor the sound of steel being pierced, the lieutenant quietly watched as a human body fell to the ground beside the giant's remains—headless, armless, and even the chest was gone.
……
How are you, comrade?
"Nothing, just like always..." The lieutenant rolled down, head down.
He looked up and heard a sudden wail from high above; a large group of planes were flying from the east toward Berlin.
They all have two engines, so they should be either IL-4 or Pe-2. There are no other aircraft that match their shape and would be used for horizontal bombing.
"Cheer up, comrades!" Anton pushed himself up on his knees and walked towards the center of the position. "As always! Comrades! Fight for our motherland!"
“Hurrah!!!——”
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Section 61, Chapter 37: The Dispute Before the Gun (Part 1)
Seeing the soldiers perk up again, Anton's lips curled up slightly.
To the west of the front lines, the storm in Berlin remained completely unaffected by the chaos. Everything destined to be trampled under the bullets and blast waves could only await its conquest, receiving only a grave from nature—without even a coffin lid.
I looked up at the sky.
The bombers that had been directly overhead were now almost over Berlin. Through binoculars, he could clearly see bombs clustered together, falling from the open cargo doors of dozens of planes, like demons spewing down buckets of poisonous blood from the sky. And now, between the houses of Berlin, on the streets of Berlin, pools of fiery, poisonous blood exploded, slowly snatching away terrified lives with the chilling force of death, like a Siberian winter.
All we have to do now is continue to lie on the edge of the trenches and enjoy the symphony played by bombs and shells—just wait, wait for the attack, wait for victory, wait for peace. There's no point in being too hasty.
……
Meanwhile, in Berlin, the situation inside the Reichstag building next to the Brandenburg Gate wasn't exactly terrible.
"General, all the units we could contact have withdrawn from the shelling zone. We will compile a full list of casualties later."
"Then hurry up!"
"Report! Enemy bombers have entered our occupied territory! At an altitude of over two thousand meters! Judging from their flight path, they are most likely heading towards the camp!"
"Damn it, the flying mechs haven't arrived yet... Get all the automatic turrets to open fire on the enemy formation! Don't worry about whether the enemy planes are within range! Fire into the sky!"
"Yes!"
"Hmm..." The general coughed softly in his throat and continued to pace back and forth in the command center, listening and watching.
Logically speaking, such a combination of attacks cannot last forever. After they all finish, it will be his turn—although he had a feeling that this wait would probably be several hours longer than usual.