“Herr Ge—”
“That’s enough, I said! You aren’t going to die today,” he patted Kindler on the shoulder and smiled.
“Tell Jochen he has command when he gets here.”
Already the snarls were drawing closer. The last dragoons in other sections were mounting what defense they could.
“Cover for me, Werner.”
“Ahm — yes, yes sir.”
Kindler nodded and struggled to pick up Sepp’s crossbow as the Generaloberst climbed up over the edge. It wasn’t hard to find the Wolftaur enemy. They were everywhere. Sepp lit the fuse and ran forward. A nearby Greenskin charged at Sepp to stop him, but a ballista arrow flew overhead and ran the monster through. Kindler had done well.
Sepp doubled down and sprinted at the wolftaur’s underbelly. He began the count in his mind.
“YOU LACK DISCIPLINE!”
Sepp reached down, immediately threw the dynamite away and fell to the ground.
Within seconds a hail of hot bullets, grenade and even mortar fire crashed down on the attacking monsters. It was joined by the dynamite explosion, which blew up harmlessly away from him.
“Get him out of there!” Another voice yelled out, this one much more familiar.
Dietrich crawled out of the path of fire and rolled into the trench with a thud. Behind him came Jochen Peiper. He ran up and manned the spot in front of Sepp.
“There you are…”
In between rounds Jochen turned and smiled as if it were 1941 again.
“How in the world did you so suddenly know we were here?” Peiper asked Sepp.
“I heard a voice shouting behind me. It was unmistakably Austrian.”
The trench was clearing out and now both humans and wolves were shouting on the attack, slaughtering the confused monsters and going on the offensive.
“Tell Gefreiter Kindler to give me back my damned crossbow,” Sepp grinned.
“Your crossbow?”
“Yes. We need to get on the offensive right now. We’re already well behind the other Kompanies, and I don’t intend on giving all the glory to Werner Poetschke.”
The Good Humans
Chug-chug-chug-chug-chug
Kasha’s heart sank as he heard the strange noise approaching fast from behind. The monsters had likely penetrated the line somewhere and were now attacking from both sides.
“What the gods IS that?” One of the tripod men barked, haggard and already unnerved.
“I don’t know.”
Kasha lifted his fieldglass to see an unwordly machine speeding and swerving crazily towards them.
“It’s humans…” Kasha said aloud so all could hear.
The kompanie didn’t have to wait long. The machine came bellowing up to the dugout and screeched out, hurling snow inside. Two humans leaped out of the machine, bringing a side bag with them.
“Let us in! We’re here from Master Sepp!”
Kasha came over to them when they jumped into the trench. The two looked like a strange couple. One human was tall, about as tall as the average wolf, the other was shorter. One looked older, while the other was quite young. The taller man wore a pea green uniform and a helmet that looked like a turtle shell. The shorter man looked like a gray knight with a boyish face.
“Where is your commander?” The ‘gray knight’ asked.
“I’m right here,” Kasha said, shuffling through the smokey trench.
“You look familiar. I think I’ve seen you somewhere.”
“You might have,” Kasha replied.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We have reinforcements coming by foot. ‘Master Sepp’ thought you might like more of these.”
The young man opened the handbag and showed Kasha a pile of Stihlhandgranates.
“I’m Gefreiter Hans Hepner. This here is Oberleutnant Jack Wheelis.”
“Please to meet ya’ sir,” Tex offered a hand, Kasha dubiously accepted.
“Why does this man have a turtle helmet?” Kasha pointed to Tex.
“Um, well, he’s from another country,” Hans replied.
Kasha frowned. “Yes I’ve heard about these people. Master Sepp tells us theirs is the bad country.”
Hans laughed uneasily. “Uh, well, let’s not worry about that right now.”
“How many humans are coming? And are they also from the bad country?” Kasha said.
“No! No, they’re all from the good country. There are another twenty of us on the way.”
“Good. Here, follow me.”
Kasha led them to an empty segment of the trench.
“We abandoned this part, but now I can open it again. I can spare you only four warriors, but you may use your explosives.”
“That’s fine,” The ‘turtle head’ responded and tapped his gun, “I’ve got plenty of bullets here, and Hans can throw the stick grenades.”
“How many monsters are there?” Hans asked.
“Unknown. I estimate about 120 remain.”
“And how many of us are there?”
“With you two, 56.”
“My god… I hope the SS are fast runners.” Tex mused aloud.
The two humans filed off into the empty trench and four of Kasha’s wolves followed. Six men was hardly a platoon, but from what Kasha had seen, the humans’ weapons could make up for some of what they lacked in bodies. It would have to. There was no other way.
It only took a few moments. Soon the ground began to rumble and the first flaming boulder hurtled down near the trenches. Rock bombs were back. Everyone ducked. Kasha pulled the ballista off his tripod and clutched the trench floor. This would be it. It was either die, or hold. A tidal wave of green was coming for them. He looked up over the edge and saw the enemy running at them, ready to chop the wolves to pieces and destroy their contraptions.
Bang!
Already the humans’ cannons were popping fire at the line. In a moment the tripods joined in. As before, nothing stopped the monsters. The explosive wall went up and claimed yet more of the monsters, but as before, Kasha was helpless to stop them from pouring into the trenches regardless. The fracas grew stronger and louder. Within a moment there was no point to giving orders. Kasha could hear clanging and screaming on both sides of him. He took his weapon and charged at a Greenskin lowering himself into the trench.
The Greenskin swung at the right moment and chopped Kasha’s spear in half. Kasha ducked but felt the Monster’s fist slam into his face and knock him into the frozen trench wall. His vision was blurring, but his body still dove forward and reached for his hand-knife. Suddenly the Greenskin fell backwards. Kasha rolled out of its way just in time to see a flash of boots and pea green cloth, then a scream from the enemy atop him. The human drove the butt of his gun into the monster and then leaped over both of them, sprinting to some other point in the trench.
Kasha still felt dizzy from the blow to his face.
“Hey! Hey! Jump back! Raus, raus raus, get out of here!” A voice above shouted.
Kasha felt a pair of hands on him. Someone was pulling on him. He looked up to see Gefreiter Hans dragging him out of the section.
“Hold the line, keep the enemy in!” The ‘good human’ shouted to someone unknown.
“Now! Pull the plug!”
Sensing danger, Kasha sprang to his paws and tried to dart back. In a second the humans’ entire trench sector exploded. Concussions pounded through the narrow trench and threw back Kahsa, Hans and another. The explosion left all three of them piled together.
“We… got them…” Hans gasped for breath.
“We got those bastards good…”
A hail of projectiles railed through the sky above them and more screams followed in their wake. Now it was humans that were assaulting the trench, this time from behind. Had the Good Humans come? Kasha slowly got back up and looked for any monsters. There were none alive. He looked down at Hans, who was still reeling from the blow, and offered the human a paw. Hans took it and staggered to his feet. He smiled at the wolven leader through a dirt-covered face.