Firestorm: Stripes

19TH AUGUST 1985
2214 HOURS
NEAR INTERSECTION OF AUTOBAHN A3 AND A45

Hauptmann Mutterlieber was in a sort of conscious slumber, his mind busy contemplating nothing when he was abruptly pulled out of his trance by the radio squawking.

"Deviant to Alpaca. Enemy force, estimate battalion strength, incoming to AO. ETA 15 minutes."

"Roger."

"Alpaca here. All Potato units to the buildings. Kitten take the road. Get ready for a scrap. Move out lads!"

Mutterlieber's ears were throbbing from the constant, heavy yet barely audible sound of shell impacts and detonations. As he watched, an incoming wave of enemy APCs charged into his Panzermorsers' fire mission and began to 'brew'. His orders were to hold this vital road junction at all costs, but his command was in danger of failing its mission. The Soviets were so near and so close to overrunning friendly positions that even in the cover of darkness he was reminded of the old saying about the whites of their eyes. His gut churned as he realised what had to be done.

"Potato 2 with me. Time for the peelers."

Mutterlieber panted as he stopped behind the cover of a townhouse. Behind and around him, the survivors of 2nd Platoon. Peering around, he could see the silhouettes of the Russians illuminated starkly by their own burning transports

"Potato 1 and Kitten, you're up. Push in now!"

Mutterlieber shuddered slightly with residual adrenaline as he gazed upon a sea of burning hulks. His close brush with death at the point of a bayonet hadn't blurred out the sound of gunning Maybach engines mingled with the screams of pulverising death.

After the Soviet infantry wave had been repulsed their T-64s had come to the fore. The MBTs too were no match for Kitten, who dismantled them in a deadly dance around the brand new vehicle graveyard now littering the field. The Soviet offensive was no longer able to make headway and fell back. Although most of their combat units had been ripped to shreds, Kampfgruppe Mutterlieber once again held fast(albeit barely) this night.