A plan is set in motion.

I love it when a plan comes together... (Hannibal, the A-team)

The preparations were made rapidly and very efficient, as if our lives depended on. Which they were. We had **** but to engage them, if the enemy chose to invade the region. They too must have come out of hiding recently. But perhaps they had run out of food and into the Black Forest were possibly some hidden reserves. Which there were. We all were extremely determined to keep them out.

Lina, Didier and Tom went ahead. Tom was helped by Maria and Eva, transporting the AT-launchers. Maria and Eva would stay around Tom and help preventing an outflanking from the south. Lina was located between Tom and Didier as a sniper to be revealed only when needed. Didier would get close to F-city from the west hills, launch the AT’s and then keep overwatch from the same west hills.

Kylie and I placed the mines at the roadsides: railroad, main road and small road, west of Christophstal, newly renamed C-City, between the bogs. Our guns were armed with grenade launchers just in case there were a lot of foot soldiers packed together or hiding in houses. Kate sat on the hill with the ski lift at B-city. Ella at the other side. Sophia and Clara in between Ella and Kylie on the north-east hills of BCF. Mina and Ambra opposite of them, to keep overwatch at the turning of the road. They would be able to see a large portion of both road sections and make sure we knew the Russians wouldn’t choose to go west at that junction. I felt bad using all the available women in the section, but if I wouldn’t include Ambra into the plan she was able to go there on her own, leaving Mina on her own or following her. So it was better to include them, make them useful and be more or less safe at the same time.

With everything and everyone in place it was a waiting game. We would lure them in at two intervals, first to C-City, affectionately named the Cunt. Then to B-city, aka Backdoor. The junction the Perineum, between the junction and C-city, the Sheath, the F-city the Fuck city... Ah well, codenames are useful, I suppose.

We didn’t have to wait long for a lone soldier to be spotted before Cunt. He entered Cunt, but before he went deeper into the Sheath, the first shot was heard. Kylie had killed the first Fucker on that bright afternoon and quickly disappeared.

Then it went fast. Our snipers saw a flurry of activity in Fuck city. But for some reason they dispatched five more Fuckers. Once again, they entered the Cunt. We let them pass. They crossed the Perineum in the direction of Backdoor. Sophia, Clara, Kylie chose targets and killed three at once. Thank goodness for their rigorous training on moving targets. The remaining two fled back to Perineum, where Mina and Kylie shot them too. All five dead. With the shots heard clearly by the Fuckers in Fuck city, they decided to use their IFV’s. Finally...

Two were driven into Cunt, crossed the Perineum onto the Backdoor-road. Timing was everything, but we had been trained by the best teacher we had: battle experience. Two missiles were launched on the first, another two on the second, with the compliments of Kate, Ella, Sophia and Clara. And at the same time, Didier destroyed the only one left in the Fuck-city center, Tom and Eva destroyed the remaining three in the stadium in rapid succession. They weren’t occupied, so no countermeasures were possible. It must have felt like a true pandemonium for those in Fuck-city. They had lost all their IFV’s in a single coordinated strike. Perhaps they thought they had encountered an allied army section left behind in the Black Forest, because they chose to stay put for a while, trying to figure out the best way to proceed.

We were rapidly moving into our forward positions surrounding the Fuckers from three sides. There was no more need for Kate at the Backdoor. No more need for Mina and Ambra at the Perineum and I left the Sheath and ran to side of Cunt. Opposite of Kylie. Lina ran into the direction of Didier’s location, without crossing, Didier ran a little bit more to the south of F-city. He had the longest range, but he was the best. We had the Fuckers pinned, but they could still go south and east.

Snipers... They are a weapon of terror. In the US they were literally. I remembered two snipers terrorizing Virginia and the DC-area. It was a preferred weapon of choice by the Russians during the battle of Stalingrad against the Germans so long ago. If it is one weapon that symbolizes asymmetrical warfare during the ages of warfare, it is the sniper. Well, it is in my opinion and it was confirmed again.

There were still about forty of those Fuckers. Didier had counted the ones entering the IFV’s. During the days our snipers had watched them, counted them, located them, identified the ones in leading roles. But they had hostages, there had been no sign of them outside. Thermal imagery was a different matter. They were captured and centralized in the buildings near the town square. But the Fuckers couldn’t know we knew that.

Lina shot their commander at first sight. She had become a fearsome sniper under the tutelage of Didier. Didier shot the second in command. Tom shot a guy near the stadium and another guy running into the city. Leaderless, their group must have fractured. One faction remained inside, in whatever house near the square they could find. Lina shot one of the runners, just before he could enter a house. That was while the rest of us were still running to our new locations.

The faction that wanted to engage us carefully tried to outflank our previous positions. Didier moved back north, Lina stayed at her position, Tom as well. They had a turkey shoot... They had found their rhythm. Fifteen men were shot, not all of them kill shots, but without a medic to reach them? Let them bleed I had told them. If the Fuckers were brave and stupid at the same time, trying to rescue them, shoot them too. They agreed with my philosophy. Bravery and stupidity go hand in hand.

Kylie and I ran to the south of the city, the situation was rapidly developing. Didier kept overwatch for us. Shots rang again at the north and east. Stragglers that were moving into the direction of the town square. They tried to locate our moving snipers and kill them with bursts of automatic fire. Thank goodness they hadn’t snipers of their own. Or perhaps they had, but they had either chosen not to come into action yet, or were dead already.

The remaining Fuckers all concentrated now in the buildings around the town square. To be fair, it was their best option. It was easily defendable and had living quarters at the houses at the west and south side. The hostages were located there. Probably in terrible conditions having personally experienced the most horrific actions a man... an animal posing as a man could do to them. Windows at the north and east side were smashed in, looking outwards. RPG’s were launched at the northside windows, one of the surprise gifts we found at the army base so long ago. For good measure they were launched again blowing up the rest of the building. Didier saw the windows bursting at the south of those buildings. Whoever was left in that building just experienced our shock and awe from up close. After that it was silent for a time. I could hear them thinking. We can’t stay inside forever. The north is blocked. The west is blocked. The south then? Or back east, where we came from?

They tried the south, but Didier was watching. And so were Kylie and I. We weren’t good at sniping, elevated positions and so on... But we could shoot straight ahead more than fine. We had neared the square and had set our different cross-fire positions. No one came out alive when five tried to flee to the south. No more than twenty could be left. Probably about fifteen. They tried the east. We moved with them in parallel, behind them. Tom was waiting for them at the north-east.

Perhaps they thought they were safe when they reached the outskirts of the city. But Tom had his fun with pinning them down. They tried to flee south then, but we greeted them our warm welcome.

The Fuckers had panicked. But the one emerging as a leader, the one that remained in the west-side buildings of the square figured out why we hadn’t blown up that building. Because of the hostages. Didier had watched him pointing a gun at one of them, while holding her in his grip, hiding behind her. Didier couldn’t take the shot, even if he was standing in front of the window.

We waited. They surmised we had surrounded the city at all four sides, which we hadn’t. We just had moved around a lot. They waited. The hostages were as good as dead, but if we had the chance to save them, we would. But not at the cost of our own safety. Clan-thinking had already taken root in us. We wouldn’t be held hostage by their potential actions. They discovered that fast enough when two soldiers carefully stepped into the open, like their hostage shield would work on remote. It didn’t...

They must have been frantically thinking about their next options. There was only one. They knew it, we knew it.

Surrender.

A white flag was risen from one of the windows. We waited, but Sophia, Clara and Ella were already nearing the city center from the north, covered by the overwatches, and some explosions blowing up the museum and tourist center on the square. I doubted there were any in there left, but Didier had opted to do so on his own. Perhaps he had discovered some via thermal imaging, or he wanted them to think we didn’t have any, or... Ah well, for whatever reason, it was fine by me. Hostages were moved and whenever he saw a building there weren’t in, he blew it up. Damn, he was enraged it seemed.

“Leave them a way out, Dee. If they surrender without their weapons we have a shot.” I radioed.

Soon the building of their newly minted leader was standing on its own. But that left the houses at the south still to be watched carefully. Hostages had been seen there as well. Guarded. And now double guarded by Kylie and me. At the north side was Ella, Sophia and Clara entered the east side restaurants from behind. They were now truly surrounded, which they discovered as well. One man from the south east corner tried to run to the south west corner. It would have been a difficult shot for Didier, that fast and with the church covering his run... It wasn’t for Ella.

So they chose the cowards’ option then, the ones remaining in the south east building each took a woman and in circle formation they exited onto the square. Six came out.

Ella... So brave... and what a strong voice! It rang over the otherwise dead silent square. Something in German. The hostages stopped walking and fell all of sudden on their knees, right in the middle of multiple crossfire positions. The Fuckers were surprised completely, not only by the ringing female voice, but by the falls of the hostages. Some were dragged with them, some were still standing. But their circle formation was broken. A quick burst of shooting from all directions came at them, carefully but all acting like on impulse.

Six were shot, the women fled to the south as fast as they could, passing me in their sight. I gestured them, in bad German to go south first, then to the hill at the west.

“Mi and Am, run to Dee’s hill, find the hostages and gather them.” I radioed once again.

I couldn’t speak Russian, they couldn’t speak German, probably not even English. And I didn’t want to talk anyway. I found some cardboard box in house nearby, and with my ever present sharpies I drew a few symbols. That and a white t-shirt.

Time to present their unconditional surrender.

The first symbol was a no-entry traffic sign with an AK-gun inside. The second one was the same traffic symbol with a badly drawn naked woman inside. The third was, also badly drawn, a hand with the index finger and middle finger upright, next to each other.

Unarmed, no hostage shield, our honor...

They saw my white flag, I heard their voices. I heard their reactions when I showed them my cardboards. Just by hand, I wasn’t foolish enough to come into the open.

“How many left standing, Dee? Talking and so on...?”

“Four in this corner. The rest I can’t see.”

“Four in the other corner.” Tom replied. He had been coming closer, with a thermal imagery set.

I quickly drew on the other side of the cardboard. A simple drawing this time. A square, a ‘4’ in the one corner, another ‘4’ in the other corner, with arrows pointing to the middle of the square.

So we waited again. Showing all the symbols, but mostly the honor sign.

Russians had no idea of our culture. The soldiers least of all. They had relied on their sheer number, their aggression, shock and awe, brutality. And they had counted on our peaceful nature, honor, fighting injustice and corruption, democratic values, respect of life above all, no matter the costs.

So they came into the open. Unarmed, without hostages and went to the middle of the square. All eight. But I had to be sure. So armed with a pistol I entered the house in the southwest corner. Kylie did the same with the other house. There were still women in the house, I ushered all four of them out, gestured them to run to the west hill, but only after I asked them if there were any men left. A woman pointed to a cellar, with a woman.

Kylie said there were eight young women in the other house, no soldiers left behind.

“Okay, one job left then. Keep the Fuckers at the square for now. Probably our newly minted group leader left behind in this house. Do we still have flash-bangs?”

“If we haven’t, we can get them here, fast.”

“Alright, let’s wait on that, then. Plus some light explosives to open the door. And some wax to cover my ears, I had enough of it lately. My ears are drumming again. Dee didn’t hold in.”

Probably my last sentence made Kylie shake her head. She knew I was lying. She knew I would get the last hostage out, or at least try to.

“Alright, fine then, Kylie, us two then, both sides of the door. Thermal imagery before we enter. Ella to voice her commands to the hostage.”

“That’s better, Alex...”

We let an hour pass, our new equipment was brought in some time before. The Fuckers were **** to sit on their knees, with another cardboard sign.

Then we entered the wine cellar. In shock and awe style. We blew up the door, we dropped enough flashbangs to make everyone deaf and dizzy in the whole city, then ran of the stairs and shot the guy. Well, I shot him as I had insisted to go first. The hostage was safe.

Enter the last remaining issue. The Fuckers, still alive.

Ella translated for me what the shocked woman had to say about them. Ella was shocked at hearing what they all had done. I was shocked. But determined. My honor sign was just a ploy to get them out. I had no such honor left in me. I couldn’t let them go, I couldn’t imprison them. I ordered the rest of the men and women to leave the square and while they did, they heard my automatic fire. And while they were still going back to our area, they must have heard the eight pistol shots as well.