Volume 4 Chapter 13: Roar, Gneisenau

“Woooo… BOOM!” As massive wails cut across the sky, Casablanca, just greeting the dawn, sank into a nightmare hellscape.

The Gneisenau was armed with three triple sets of giant 283mm guns, firing two point two shells per minute. Its shells flew over several kilometers of the harbor at more than double the speed of sound, landing deep inland from above the city. Each time its main guns fired together turned almost half a city block into rubble.

Not just the locals and Allied troops in Casablanca, even Skorzeny and his superhumans felt their hearts lurch uncontrollably when they heard that terrible scream. They felt like they were standing on the edge of a cliff.

“BOOM!” One shell landed frighteningly accurately just a short distance in front of the commando team’s hiding spot—probably less than fifty meters away.

Qin Lun and the others felt the ground tremble fiercely beneath their feet, as if caught in an endless, towering ocean wave. Before their eyes, the three hundred and thirty-kilogram shell slammed into the Casablanca security station like a giant hammer. The huge military building looked like some massive beast had taken a bite out of it; part of the main structure collapsed, revealing rows of half-destroyed rooms inside.

Actually, ignoring the Gneisenau’s terrifying main guns, what caused the most damage to Casablanca were its twelve secondary 150mm guns. They fired special incendiary shells, turning the city center into a sea of fire.

…

“Irene! Irene! Where are you? Cough! Cough!” Liv Germann burst out of her room, her hair a mess and her face smudged black. She looked like a little beggar.

She hadn’t recovered from the fierce fight the night before, and the redheaded girl was naturally a heavy sleeper anyway. At dawn, she was still lost in dreams. When the explosions woke her, she thought she was having a nightmare. A 283mm shell had hit the lobby of their hotel. The massive explosion that followed ripped the roof right off the entire building.

“Liv! Over here! Are you alright?” The white-haired girl emerged from the hazy, dust-choked air. She held a sheathed rapier and covered her mouth and nose with her other hand.

“You… Ha ha ha! You’re not wearing much!” Liv took a good look and suddenly pointed at her companion, bursting into laughter.

“I’m not lazy like you! Who crawls into bed still wearing last night’s clothes?” Irene glanced down at the skimpy bra and panties she wore, raising her chin smoothly, looking completely unembarrassed.

“I… I was just too tired!” Liv waved her small fist in annoyance. “Besides, the teacher told us! During operations, we should sleep on alert! Even a Green Hunter pair resting should have one person stay watchful! I did it for your sake!”

“Stop making excuses, lazy cat!” The white-haired girl gave her partner a sideways look full of contempt. “Even a tomboy like Philip wouldn’t lie down without cleaning up after a fight!”

“At least I don’t have to go digging through garbage for clothes!” the redhead giggled.

“I hate those Germans!” The white-haired girl glared at their mostly destroyed hotel room, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

About ten minutes later, both girls walked out of the hotel ruins.

“Come on, Irene, don’t be mad. You look pretty handsome in those men’s clothes anyway!” Liv grinned and winked at her companion meaningfully.

“Shut up!” Irene shook her tied-back white ponytail and shot Liv a dirty look. “What now? Should we head to the Allies’ ‘assembly point’?”

“I think… we need to find the Professor first!” Liv tilted her head thoughtfully, not immediately agreeing.

“Mommy…” Just as the two girls hesitated, a young, tearful cry came from the street.

They turned their heads. Near the hotel, right in front of the ruins of a house, knelt a toddler, maybe two or three years old. His little hand wiped away tears while a chubby arm reached desperately into a small hole beneath the rubble.

“Kid, this place is dangerous! You need to leave…” Irene rushed forward quickly, her face tense, and scooped up the little boy.

“No! I want Mommy!” The boy struggled hard in her arms, refusing to be carried away by the white-haired girl.

“Irene, look!”

From the hole under the collapsed house stuck a mud-blackened arm. The hand was twisted, scratching weakly at the dirt. It was a woman’s hand. Probably the boy’s mother.

“She only had time to push her kid away…” Irene said after a moment of silence. “Should we still go meet the Professor?”

“No. We stay. The German ship is still firing. The Allied Forces won’t care about Casablanca’s civilians. We can save more people by staying right now!” The playful smile vanished from Liv’s face, replaced by seriousness.

“I put him to sleep. Come on. We’ll hand him over to any civilians who got out. Then we start searching the rubble for other survivors.” The white-haired girl sighed, looking at the small boy in her arms. “Now I understand why the Professor changed the Guild’s original plan and had us join this war.”

“Those Germans are too much! Even in war, you shouldn’t drag civilians into it!” The redhead gritted her teeth. “Last night, I should have held out longer! Waited for your backup! Then they wouldn’t have gotten away.”

“Forget it. You said it yourself; those two had explosive power. And even with you, I wasn’t sure we could hold them. Besides,” Irene added bitterly, “The Allies learned from last night’s intel that the German commander is that SS boss Skorzeny, the so-called ‘Ghost of Europe’. Only someone like him would give this kind of order to shell civilians!”

…

“Anyone alive?” A corporal in a broken bunker yelled for his buddies, helmet pushed low over his eyes, his face coated in grime.

“Corporal!”

“Corp! Glad you made it!” Shouts came from the drifting smoke. Several soldiers pushed aside sandbags and crawled out from the collapsed defenses.

“One… two… three… Hey? Karl? He dead?” The corporal counted heads, noticing the youngest soldier in his squad was missing.

“Here!” A deep voice echoed faintly from within the white smoke. Then, a figure stumbled out in a strange, flailing sprawl, thrashing wildly as he fell towards them.

Thump! The corporal caught the falling body, only to be dragged to the ground by its dead weight.

“Karl, pal! You packed on weight? Hey, get off me… Wait…” He fought to push the body off him and stood up, realizing something was wrong. Karl’s skin was deathly pale. Two small holes marked his neck, like he’d been bitten. His eyes stared wide open, filled with unbelievable terror. He’d been dead awhile.

Karl was dead. Then whose voice just shouted? The Corporal jerked his head up, peering fearfully into the thick smoke ahead.

“ARGHHH!” Before the corporal could warn his men, screams erupted beside him. A dark shape dropped from the air like a giant crow, landing behind one soldier. Before anyone could react, it sank its mouth onto the man’s neck.

As this creature struck, a lion-headed monster bounded out of the smoke. Thick arms reached out, grabbing the heads of two soldiers.

THUMP! SQUISH! Both soldiers’ skulls exploded right in front of the Corporal. Blood and brain matter splattered his face and helmet.

“What the hell?” Furious and terrified, the Corporal instinctively raised his M4 carbine, ready to unleash hell on the monsters.

“I don’t believe you should be doing that,” a familiar, strongly accented Munich voice spoke dryly by his ear. At the same time, a large arm snaked around from his side, resting lightly beneath his carbine and pushing the barrel skyward.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT! Gunfire rang out. Simultaneously, the Corporal felt the icy sting of a blade slash across his own throat.

Gurgle… The Corporal clutched his gushing neck, eyes wide with confused shock as he toppled backwards. The last image he saw was the cold, pale-steel grey eyes of the British Lieutenant standing behind him.

Thump. His body hit the ground.

“Lieutenant Colonel, why not use the Americans’ uniforms?” Qin Lun deftly shoved the Corporal’s corpse aside, avoiding the blood that might stain the British military uniform he wore as camouflage.

“Heh. Local intelligence advice,” Skorzeny chuckled lightly. “The British gear avoids trouble. At least we won’t get dragged into any ad-hoc tasks by American troops on the road! Even if questioned,” he added with a shrug, “we can play dumb about Yankee access codes.”

“A shame the British uniforms won’t get us into the museum.” Qin Lun shrugged his shoulders.

“Neither would the Yankee gear. The Special Forces guarding it won’t be fooled. Look at these uniforms,” Captain Bock approached, eyes gleaming sharply as he gestured at the dead Allied soldiers. “Not regular army. American First Zero One Airborne. Their best. Seems we’ll get to see what these esteemed rivals are made of.”

“Baron,” Skorzeny turned to Wurdenbeller. “Any sign they moved the VIPs from the museum during the bombardment?”

“No, Oberstleutnant.” Wurdenbeller frowned deeply. “My familiars kept watch. Not a soul left any of those three buildings.”

“I believe all three likely have underground bunkers, Oberstleutnant,” Grant said calmly. “They wouldn’t risk moving blindly. Odds are deep underground by now. It’s decision time. Which target do we hit?”

Their three suspected targets before were the Casablanca Museum, the city’s biggest bank building, and an Allied military security station. Now, under the Gneisenau’s focused attention, all three were shattered piles of debris, nearly flattened. Their defenses and surrounding blocks were completely wiped out, consumed by flames.

“Dawn is here,” Skorzeny stated firmly. “The Gneisenau must soon engage the British fleet. Our fire support ends. We are too few to attack all three targets. The Shermans guarding the museum – they didn’t deploy. That’s our target!”

He looked decisively towards the burning city, his eyes clear. “The reformed assault teams are dispersed around us. Their mission is to hold back enemy reinforcements. Until their last man falls! That gives us… twenty minutes. Maybe less.”

He drew his Walther P38, its black finish gleaming. The steel blade beside its barrel caught the flickering firelight.

“Attack, gentlemen of Germany!”