SuperSoldier (SI-OC/MCU) ENG

8: Preparations

8: Preparations

Bruneck Castle, Night

The partisan resistance had taken the central German base in Brunico, Bruneck Castle. The ancient castle opened its doors to its rightful owners. Franco's men had finished clearing the nearby corpses, and the prisoners of war had been locked in one of the rooms, awaiting interrogation.

John surveyed the area and nodded with satisfaction. While most of the partisan resistance members were not soldiers, they had learned well from the few who were. They fortified the place, raised their defenses, and took possession of the Nazi weapons and vehicles that were still available.

Thus, the castle had become a rather decent place not only to spend the night, but John believed that if he had to stay here, he could undoubtedly withstand an assault from Nazi troops.

It was a pity this wasn't a tower defense game; he couldn't stay here long. His nerdy side tingled since one of his childhood dreams was to have his own fortified base. Maybe in the future, he could buy an island or something similar.

"Have you found anything else?" he asked a man named Carlo, who seemed to be Franco's second-in-command.

The man shook his head. "We searched, but it seems there's no one left. We're already interrogating some of the Nazi soldiers, but they're tough." What John was looking for were the civilians. Bruneck had been a picturesque city before the siege. While many managed to escape, many others did not. The Nazis wouldn't kill them all, so there should be prisoners, but there were none, and that was a problem.

"I understand. I'll wait," John dismissed Carlo and began to wander around the castle until he reached a secluded area. With a leap, he landed on the roof of the castle and stood casually at its peak, admiring the views. He raised his hand, and the caw of a crow followed. Soon, the bird flew to him and perched on his arm.

"How is it?" he asked, and the crow looked at him with more intelligence than a bird should possess. Then, it opened its beak.

"You were right; they didn't go too far. At least 200 of them stayed behind and are fortifying the center of a nearby village to the southwest. There could be more; I couldn't count them all. They're very alert."

John considered this and quickly located the place in his mind. He knew the German army wouldn't completely give up on Brunico; they would surely wait for reinforcements but wouldn't retreat entirely.

"That must be San Giorgio. They were expelled in a straight line, after all." There weren't many paths to take. From Bruneck to Sand in Taufers was only a straight path covered by mountains with dense vegetation. Not many would dare to cross such terrain without knowing it.

"Did you see anything else? Civilians, maybe?" he asked Raven, looking into her dark crow eyes. She shook her head in an oddly human gesture. For John, it was both strange and fascinating. He didn't expect her to be able to transform into animals, but it was certainly a welcome help. She was eager to assist, so he had given her a simple task: follow the remaining German troops and locate where they had stationed themselves.

"Only soldiers, no civilians."

John frowned. That was strange. There should be something. He didn't know the exact population, but even if this was a rural and mountainous region, the small villages scattered around weren't few. With the displacement due to the war, many civilians should have fled to larger population centers like Brunico and, to a lesser extent, San Giorgio.

Unless they took another path he hadn't considered... After all, he wasn't a resident of Italy. He was guided by known maps and information given by the partisan resistance, so he could be overthinking this...