Into the Breach

Chapter 05 Soul Reaper

 

“Ave Satan!” the war cry of the O9A was heard as the Antifascist militants prepared their weapons and took cover wherever they could in the house.

One of them looks outside the window, and sees the O9A charging down the hill, soon he heard his comrades take shots at the streaming fascists. James mimicked them. This was his first day in combat, and he was already scared.

“They got us encircled!” yelled one of his squad mates as she fired a burst of bullets down on the flanking forces.

“It’s the KKK, fucking scum, they chant about Christian superiority profusely but have no qualms working with Satanists!”

“All of them fascists are all the same to me.” Said another one “But now we’re on our own, I already contacted HQ, they’re trying to send us reinforcements, but everyone already engaged. By the time they finish I doubt we’ll still be going.”

James took a deep breath. He knew that it was easier for many of them. They could just surrender as stomach-turning as it sounded, but he, an Afro-American, had no such luxury.

“Well, time to fight I guess…” he said weakly as he reloaded his rifle.

“Down with the fascists!” clamoured the entire house. Only to be met by gunfire and racial slurs from the approaching enemies. Mustering his courage, James peeked outside and took a shot.

It was easy distinguishing between the O9A and the KKK. The Klansmen were wearing their infamous uniforms, though shorter, with trousers instead of robes, and many times without their masks, their cone hats revealing their faces.  “Coneheads”, he chuckled as he blew one of their heads off. But before he could continue the thought he was met with fierce counter-fire, forcing him to get down. A bullet narrowly missed him, entering the wall behind him.

Many of his comrades were not that lucky, he recognized a few faces amongst the dead, and saw some of them wounded and agonizing on the ground. Rage, filled him, and he heard the door being knocked, most likely fascists trying to force it down. Without thinking he shot a burst through the door killing anyone on the other side…but also leaving an opened breach.

“What did you do?!”

“I-I…”, he sighed for he did not need to answer, this was not the time to argue, as the fascists broke the rest of the door and tried to burst fire inside the house, only to be shot dead when they pointed their ugly heads in.

“Fucking, How many of them are there?!” cried one of his allies before being shot in the shoulder, sending her straight on the floor.

“Shit!” James looked at his attacker and shot him right through the head. Then, as if in slow motion, he saw a grenade being thrown into the room. His body moved without his consent, as he kicked it right back to its sender, who was celebrating early by throwing a slur.

“Take that you dirty n…” his sentence was cut short by the explosion, leading to a smirk from James as he laid on the floor with blood splattered over his face.

He saw the woman mumbling in a foreign language while trying to get in firing position: “Ugh…Ya Allah…” he remembered she was of Syrian descent, daughter of some refugees from the old civil war, 'what was her name? Aliyah?' He asked himself as he tried to remember.

He understood why she was keen to keep fighting, much like him there was no surrender for her, as being captured would be a much worse fate than death in combat.

The battle went on for minutes…or was it hours? He forgot. After a while the details got blurry. But they were twitching even after the fascists sounded the retreat, as they patched up their wounds, and as they went around the battlefield, taking a few prisoners.  The day had been won. But the war, went on.

The government’s military was stretched, furthermore, many of the soldiers defected to the militants, especially the newly conscripted ones, and foreign governments were not keen on intervening due to the economic crisis, leading to the situation being dire for the legitimists.

This situation was exacerbated with raids on military bases becoming ever more daring, the nuclear option was considered, but discarded as using weapons of mass destruction on fellow Americans would kill the last support for the government amongst the populace. Instead, the government decided to move all of the highly dangerous nuclear heads to Canada in order to avoid their capture by non-governmental entity.

Canada however, would suffer spill over, working with American loyalists made them a prime target for Combat 18’s branch in the country, who were already smuggling arms and recruiting in the North. Members of the “Northern Order” a thinly veiled puppet group of Atomwaffen found themselves in the light of the news after a terrorist attack on a local synagogue.

 After breaching the doors with charges five assaulters entered armed with light machine guns, the same model the Canadian army uses. After a dozen people and injuring over forty, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived, following a shootout which left two of the Mounties dead, the area was secured at last, and the survivors given medical care.

Public outrage followed the atrocity, not only at the crime itself but also the government’s response to it. No provisions to weaken the fascists were taken, and many saw that Canada should be more involved in the civil war.

Further scandal occurred when soldiers in the Canadian Armed Forces affiliated with Combat 18, and a few others in the Northern Order itself were identified. While they were immediately dishonourably discharged and arrested, this sloppiness led to a popular outrage in Canada, and to much instability in the country.

Fortunately for the fascists the Canadian situation was too unstable for a direct intervention, which would no doubt lead to an armed uprising by the group’s sympathizers in the country, which in turn would lead to a civil war in Canada itself and that outcome was utterly unacceptable. Instead, they took the opposite solution.

Instead of helping the Loyalists further, they cut all ties to the official American government, hoping that it would appease the fascists. Many protested the decision, linking it to Chamberlain’s appeasement in the Second World War. The Union of Nationalist Socialists however, had bigger plans.

By not repeating their idol’s mistake and playing into appeasement by scaling down operations outside the United States, they assured that the loyalist government would crumble, and with that meant the main opponent of their ethno-state would be destroyed. Surely the “degenerate communists” would pose no threat to them…right?