Rivalry

Mission one: confrontation

The only noise in the ardennes was the sound of guns firing. The birds were not singing, the wildlife had long since fled. Maria was certain that if rocks, trees and streams could move, they would have already made a speedy getaway. But not her soldiers, she thought with bitter pride, as her vehicle cruised slowly through the silent forest. In the distance, the town was ablaze with chaos. Probably her fault as well.

Erwin didn't need to use a spyglass anymore. The enemy's lead tank was moving thirty metres ahead. He could hear their commander giving orders to his crewmen. The long barrel of the panzer lowered to point at them, and levelled off with a clunk. Maria whipped around in shock. What was that? And her eyes widened with horror as she stared into the abyss of a gun barrel.

" auf wiedersehen!" Shouted Rommel, laughing.

"Step on it!" She screamed at the driver almost simultaneously. An explosive shell was whizzing towards them, even as they were skidding away. Yet the shell bounced, ricocheting off the outer armour and spinning off into the blue yonder. The shock waves travelled up the tank, and combined with the sudden acceleration, it was enough to rip Maria out of the hatch like a pulled tooth. She went flying as her tank roared away into the forest. And she hit the ground with a sickening thump.

"What now sir?" Said Niall, who was toggling the dials on the radio to get to sergeant Macavoy, as the tank sped into the shadow of the forest. Static, and not much else.

"Sir?" Still no reply. Niall twisted around in his seat. The lieutenant was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit no!" Everyone in the tank went bananas, and circled back as fast as possible.

" what if the krauts find her?" Shouted williams the gunner, kicking the side of the tank in frustration.

"Shh! We ain't supposed to know that!" Hissed Niall, checking the field map pinned to the inside of the tank, and with a strong determination said " we just have to get there before they do."

Hundreds of meters away, Maria was groaning in pain as she tried to pick herself up off the carpet of pine needles. Blood seeped into the green fabric of her uniform from cuts, and a large gash in her midriff from where She had rolled down a steep
slope. Her cap had come off, so her hair was flowing everywhere despite her best attempts to pin it up that morning. Maybury be damned, if she ever got home alive she was seriously going to hack it all off!

But what would mother say... she thought. Ugh! No! She had to find her tank before the enemy found her... but her vision was all blurry. At least she still had a weapon, looking down at her knife and handgun in dismay.

The germans groaned in annoyance at their escaping quarry.

"Verdammt, why did that shot have to bounce! We spent ages setting that up!" Shouted Johann the loader.
They followed suit furiously, but the enemy was no longer in sight.

Stumbling, Maria picked her hat up off the ground and rammed it back in place, limping forward in a random direction. She seemed to be limping for a long time though. All she could hear was ringing... then she managed to drag herself into a clearing where a rare patch of sun shone down through the foliage. She didn't hear the tank rumble to a halt before her, and the sound of boots hitting the ground until they arrived to rescue her. Relief washed over her like a blissful cloud.

Rommel was struck dumb as he watched this... this girl in a uniform wander around the same tree in circles looking as sick as a dog. He and his men were all frozen with shock, some still only halfway out of the tank. The commander they had been fighting all this time, who had attempted to take on the full force of the ghost division and live, and had the gall to challenge kommandant Erwin Rommel with five tanks and some serious guts was a girl with long blond hair and violet eyes. Erwin was the first to snap out of his trance, and walked up to her, gun in hand, and tapped her on the shoulder. She slowly turned around, but only to point her gun at Erwin's head, laughing darkly and clutching her injured side with her other arm. 
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