Time War: Invasion (11 page)

“What do I want with this?” Corwin asked.

“You have to be the other officer in this,” replied Tano.

“Why?”

“Because you are in charge. Don’t worry, I will do any talking that needs to be done.”

Corwin took the uniform. His knowledge of history wasn’t great, but he knew how awful the Nazi regime was, and he looked at the uniform with disgust.

“Whatever it takes, remember,” said Tano to reassure him, “All the horrible things you’ve had to do, and you are balking at having to wear an offensive uniform?”

“Sergeant, we’ve got incoming!” Nylund shouted.

“He rushed to the edge of the stairs.

“Who and how many?”

“No idea, but they’re coming in fast!”

“Take up positions. Cover all entry points, and keep your heads down!”

Corwin rushed to the window in the room where Porter had thrown the grenade. He dragged one of the bodies away from the blown window and stood beside it, peering out just enough to get a look at what was coming their way. He knew Lecia was still out there with Beyett. That gave him some relief, and also a fear of what might become of them.

You see them?” he asked Porter who was at the next window.

“No.”

But even as he spoke, they saw movement in front of the gates. At first it was just a few men, and then more and more, until they could see a whole platoon forming there, and at least another platoon moving off to each flank. He could already tell they were not Germans. Their equipment was completely different, and he noticed a number wore red berets. He knew that as the iconic symbol of the British airborne.

“Run or fight?”

Corwin didn’t know how to answer.

“They’re the good guys. We can’t fight them, and we won’t make it out on foot.”

“We have to do something.”

Corwin knew it was the case, but he had no idea what to do. He rushed back to the stairs.

“These are the good guys. Do not fire on them! I repeat, do not fire on them!” he yelled for all to hear, but he wasn’t sure they would follow the order.

The platoon at the entrance passed through the open gates and rushed towards the front of the manor house, ducking down behind two parked vehicles for cover. Corwin shook his head; he had fought so hard to protect their new method of transport, and here they were slap bang in the middle of a potential gun battle.

They waited and watched, as the British soldiers seemed to wait and assess what they were seeing. The bodies of the German guards still lay scattered about the site, and that clearly made them both curious and suspicious.

“Identify yourselves!” a voice finally yelled in a deep and crisply spoken English accent.

“Sergeant Corwin, Rangers!”

He knew it was a vague response, but he just had to hope they could get away with it. There was silence for a moment.

“What is the code word?”

Shit!
He knew they were in trouble.

“We’ve been operating here for three months and have not had comms for some time. We are a covert outfit! We knew this operation was happening, but have not been party to the specifics!”

He knew he was making stuff up and trying to bullshit his way through now, but it was all he could think.

“Show yourself!”

What the hell!

“Don’t do it. They’ll take a shot at you,” said Porter.

“We have to try.”

“Why?”

“Because the only other option is to fight, and I will not have their blood on our hands.”

“But you’d be happy with your own?”

He shook his head and slowly stepped out into the opening. It was a low window, so he was visible from the knees upwards. One of the soldiers stepped up from behind the staff car and walked forward to get a better view.

“Sergeant, I am unaware of any Rangers operating in this area in the passing weeks or today. Care to provide some more proof of your identity.”

“Is it not enough that you can see what we have achieved here?”

The man shook his head.

“My name is Captain Reeves, and my mission was to capture key German officers at this location. Can you explain what the hell you are doing here?”

“I told you, Captain. We have been operating as clandestine forces and saw this opportunity, so we took it.”

The Captain squinted as he tried to get a better view of Corwin. He could see the armour and camouflage he was wearing, and it was obvious he was becoming suspicious.

“Sergeant, without confirmation of who you are, I must ask that you lay your your arms and come out peacefully. If you are who you say you are, and it can be confirmed, then all is well.”

“And if we refuse?”

“Sergeant, if you refuse, then I must assume that you are the enemy, and you will be fired upon.”

“Fuck this. If they are in our way, we put them down,” said Porter.

“No,” snapped Corwin, "You will not fire on these men.”

“Sergeant, lay down your weapons and step outside. You have thirty seconds to comply!”

Corwin sighed, trying to work out some way out of their situation.

“Twenty seconds, Sergeant!”

The time seemed to fly by.

“Ten seconds!”

“Five…four…three…two…one! Last chance, Sergeant!”

“You don’t have to do this. You don’t want this!” Corwin shouted.

“Time is up. Come out without your weapons!”

But he shook his head. The Captain went back to the cover of the car. Corwin stepped away from the window and to the top of the stairs where everyone could hear him.

“Nobody uses lethal force! Nobody! You kill one of them, and I’ll kill you!” he barked.

The first stick rushed for the door, and Corwin heard a racket as Rane and Nylund engaged them in hand-to-hand in the darkness of the hallway.

“Ah, fuck it,” Corwin murmured.

He put down his rifle and took a run at the opening where there was once a window and jumped. He cleared the car in what was a superhuman jump and landed in amongst the Captain and his stick. They were all too shocked to respond initially, due to the amazing stunt he had achieved, and the inability to fire for he was in amongst them.

He reached for the first shoulder, drove a knee hard into his stomach, and knocked him out with a punch to the head. He back-fisted another and then drove a kick into the third. The power of the blow launched the man into the air in a display of power none of them had seen before.

Gunshots rang out from one of them firing point blank with a submachine gun at Corwin. The armour on his torso was riddled with bullets, but not one of them went through. The shocked gunman stopped. Corwin grabbed him and launched him through the air. He turned to take on another when he felt the cold metal of a gun muzzle against the side of his head.

He froze. He knew that no matter how strong he was, no matter how fast he healed, he could not survive a bullet to the head like that. His eyes panned over slightly to see it was the Captain himself holding a revolver.

“What are you?”

“Sergeant Corwin,” he replied confidently.

“Of where? Your story does not add up, Sergeant. Tell your men to lay down their arms and come out without a fight, and I promise you no harm will come to you.”

He waited for a response, and Corwin knew he had to agree.

“Come on out!” he boomed at the top of his voice, “It’s over! Come out and put your weapons down!”

The Captain was still racking his brains trying to make sense of it.

“You lied about who you are, and yet you took down this whole place, why?"

“Some truths you don’t want to know, Captain. All you need to know is that we are not your enemy, not even close.”

“I wish I could believe that. I really do.”

“Then do. Some truths are stranger than fiction.”

“And you believe that, as a military man? Clearly, you are no German, but I don’t know what you are.”

They turned and watched the rest of Corwin’s squad step out from the house under the watchful eyes of dozens of airborne soldiers. Several balked at the sight of the mountain of a man that Rane was. He was freakishly huge, to a degree that none of them could believe he was just human, and they would be right. But it was as the three women came out they were most shocked.

“Those three are with you?” Reeves asked in astonishment, “Not a single element of the United States armed forces would allow women in a combat role.”

“Times change, Captain.”

It wasn’t a lie, and he didn’t know how else to explain it. The British soldiers were studying every element of their equipment and trying to understand what they were seeing.

“Who the hell are you people?” Reeves asked, signalling for his people to take their weapons off them.

“We are a specialist unit that uses only the latest in technologies and tactics. We are an unorthodox unit granted, but I can guarantee you, we are not your enemy.”

He could see the Captain wanted to believe him, and their lack of use of lethal force reinforced that fact.

“I am sorry, Sergeant, but we have to work on facts, known facts. Maybe you are with us, but you’ve offered no proof or explanation to support that. I will, however, ensure that no harm comes to you. You will be shipped back where your story can be confirmed.”

Corwin nodded in acceptance, although it was far from the response he was hoping for.

“Until such time as what you say can be proven, you will be considered enemy combatants, and you must comply with our orders. No harm will come to you unless you resist.”

Corwin nodded and looked over to his team, hoping they would accept the ruling.

Reeves turned to one of his people.

“Get that truck going. We’re getting this lot back to the boats.”

“Yes, Sir,” the response came.

He turned back to Corwin. “There were two high-ranking German officers at this manor. Do you know of their whereabouts?”

“Both dead.”

“Your doing?”

Corwin nodded.

“You took his house without a single casualty?” he asked suspiciously.

“It’s what we do, and we’re the best,” replied Corwin confidently.

The truck engine started, and Reeves ushered them all aboard, along with a stick of his own platoon. As they began to pull away, they could see the soldiers carrying out the bodies of the two German officers for identification. Both were stripped to their underwear and bore no physical marks of injury. Reeves looked back to Corwin as they rode away. There were a hundred questions in his eyes, and yet Corwin knew there was no way he could have answered any of them honestly.

They rode on for just a hundred metres when Porter leaned across to whisper to Corwin.

“So when we getting out of this?”

“We’re not.”

Several others of the team heard the conversation and looked to him with amazement.

“We can’t go on like this. Trying to hide from both sides in a war that encompasses the world. If we hope to have any chance of success, we need help.”

“And you think we’re gonna get help here? What we’re gonna get is a prison cell,” replied Porter.

“The Sergeant is right,” added Beyett, “Alone we stand no chance of ever reaching Villiers. As a unit we are strong, stronger than a hundred ordinary men, or more. But without the intelligence, support, and technology that made us what we are, we are worth little more than any other squad.”

Porter laughed. “Keep dreaming.”

But nobody else found it funny. They passed several platoons of British infantry on the road heading northwest to the beaches. They could hear bombers passing overhead, and always the sound of artillery firing on both sides.

“You said this operation was a disaster?” Hunter asked Beyett.

“It was, but it went nothing like this. They never got off the beaches, and they never used airborne forces. Whatever has changed in this timeline, the war will progress in a very different fashion to the history I know.”

“Great, so we’ve lost that advantage, too,” replied Nylund.

“No, it’s all useful information. Sure some things have changed, but plenty will have remained the same,” Corwin replied in some attempt to calm them down.

“Gonna be an awful lot of questions when they get us back to England,” said Beyett.

“Questions we don’t have the right answers for. Should have just fought our way out and gone on with the mission.”

“No, Porter, enough lies.”

They looked at Corwin as he went on.