The Soldier of Stars [1] - Band of Brothers

28 | brecourt manor

" Hard times don't create heroes. It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed."

- Bob Riley

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Hazel stayed close to Toye, crouching low behind him as they moved around a small farm with vineyards and bushes everywhere. The group moved in two different levels up both sides of orchard area and Hazel moved with rapid pace, her eyes narrowed in silent death, looking for the perfect tree to climb up and make the first kill. 

Her emotions had exhausted her first few hours of combat and she hated that it had done what it did to her, but it was in the past now. The light switch had been flipped, and the deathly motives that Hazel now pursued were ready to be put to use. She had trained for over 2 years for this moment, to finally put a dent in the war. 

Hazel looked across the way and nodded to Bill who signaled to Winters that she'd found the tree, and he nodded back to her. The tree was not the tallest or the smallest tree, but it sat in the perfect position for seemingly clear shots of Kraut heads. Hazel signaled to Toye in front of her and directed him to the tree. As Lipton and Winters went and watched from a broken down car, Toye gave her a foot up to a branch, before passing up her sniper.

" Thanks." she whispered, and he nodded, mouthing a quick good luck before hurrying off. As she slowly climbed up the tree, she heard distant explosions going off. She cursed at her tiny self as she pushed up branch after branch to the mid range. 

The rifle hung off her shoulder as she pulled her body up with strength, tree after tree branch, determined to remain as close to the top as possible, but still within range of shooting. She glanced down after she got about half way up, and noticed the MG-42s that each gun came equipped with on the side, and the multitude of Krauts there as well.

" Each gun has about 2 MG-42s set up." Hazel whispered to herself, " 2 guys on the MG, 2 bullets. 2 MGs per gun, 4 bullets per gun, 16 bullets total, if needed." The process came out in a hushed whisper past her lips, calculating each and every motive she were to end up taking. Hazel pushed up from a branch, to another, that gave for a perfect area to lay against and set up the sniper perfectly, giving a clear view of any man that got in her way. 

Hazel reached forward and gave the sniper a few clicks into focus. Her eye caught a German on the MG-42 at the first gun. With one shot, she could lodge a bullet into the main artery in his neck and kill him before he even thought of calling out to the man firing the weapon. 

Her attitude had drastically changed from that morning when she killed the German with the bright green eyes. But it was the way a soldier were to operate. Some were effected by that first kill; other merely said it were an obstacle in the way. Hazel focused on what she had to do and it was capture the guns, even if death were involved. It was war and she was ready for it. Suddenly, one of the guns fired toward Utah beach, and Hazel narrowed her blue eyes, leaning back from the sniper in her grasp.