Chapter 133: Elite Strike Team

Upon seeing Luka Motchig sitting in the Horsch military vehicle outside the Army Library, Lynn suddenly had a strange feeling. This "vampire" liaison officer of the assault team always seemed to bring good news whenever he appeared. Could he be Lynn's "bearer of good tidings"?

Sure enough, as Lynn approached, Motchig opened the car door and greeted with a playful tone, "Ha, our hero is finally here!"

Lynn quickly apologized, "Uh, sorry, had some personal matters to attend to, so..."

"No need to explain!" Motchig waved off Lynn's concerns casually. He then pulled out a black-and-white printed newspaper from his briefcase and calmly said, "Congratulations, you and your combat team have become heroes of the battle!"

Upon hearing this, Lynn speculated that it must be related to Eva Sutcliffe. Taking the newspaper, "Berlin Daily," from Motchig, Lynn saw a detailed report on the exploits of the 167th Night Raid Team, starting from the bottom of the front page, accompanied by a simple hand-drawn illustration - considering Eva had only returned to Berlin the morning before, it was impressive that she had managed to put together such a report within 24 hours, given the need for layout and printing.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Even Colonel Bach basks in the glory!" Motchig said as he retrieved another document from his briefcase.

"Here, this is your promotion order and appointment letter. From now on, you're the commander of the 11th Night Combat Special Task Force directly under the Berlin Garrison Headquarters, Sergeant Garg."

"Special Task Force? Sergeant? Glory?" The amount of information Lynn received in such a short time was overwhelming, leaving him somewhat confused.

"The situation is urgent, there's no time for elaborate explanations - which would be quite complicated!" Motchig seemed to be justifying himself. Finally, he pulled out a rather exquisite brass-cased telescope from his briefcase.

"This is a personal gift from Colonel Bach, he hopes you can continue to lead your subordinates and bring glory to the Night Raid Team! Oh, and, keep your sights set far ahead, don't just focus on the present like ordinary soldiers!"

"Huh?" Lynn only managed a quick glance at the documents in his hand before hurriedly taking the telescope from Motchig's hand. It was compact, lighter than a shotgun shell, and looked like a collector's item at first glance.

"Alright, one last thing!" Motchig quickly added, "Pick a group of soldiers for your Night Combat Task Force! If you don't specify, we'll arrange it directly from the headquarters!"

The previous matters could be digested slowly, but selecting soldiers... Lynn keenly sensed that there was room for maneuvering in this. So he asked, "Can I choose any soldier?"

"As long as they're within the Berlin garrison, in principle, yes, after all, Colonel Bach is now the garrison commander!" Motchig lowered his voice slightly as he said this, devoid of the pride of a subordinate basking in his superior's glory, but rather cautious, like a nouveau riche afraid of others coveting his wealth. He added,

"Given the nature of our troops, it's best to choose from within the Waffen-SS. Uh... after the intense battles in recent days, many commanders of Night Raid Teams have either been killed or withdrawn from the front due to injuries, and squads led by ordinary sergeants are actually the best choice!"

This last sentence was a clear hint, Lynn quickly asked, "What about Sergeant Erick's raid team?"

To Lynn's surprise, Motchig snapped his fingers, "Good choice! Senior Sergeant Erick has been promoted to Second Lieutenant Erick, but unfortunately, he got injured again. Just last night, he broke several ribs in combat with a burly Russian bear-like guy, so he'll have to spend some time in the hospital again. His original squad... well, it's just perfect for your deployment!"

"Great!" As soon as Lynn said this, he felt it was inappropriate and made a tongue-out gesture that didn't quite fit his current identity - then, feeling even more awkward, he said helplessly, "I mean, it's better for old comrades to be together!"

Motchig didn't seem to mind, shrugging, "So be it! If all goes well, they'll report to you by dusk, and your new uniform will be sent along as well."

Watching Motchig start the car and prepare to leave, Lynn hurriedly asked, "Sir! One more thing... can you help me transfer a sergeant named Fein from the 'Nordic' Division?"

"The Nordic Division?" Motchig turned to look at the sector adjacent to the Army Library, "They're right over there, aren't they? Just take this appointment order and go directly to their commander, it shouldn't be a problem to request one or two people in the name of the Garrison Headquarters!"

After saying these words, Motchig quickly started the car, as if all his patience had been exhausted waiting for Lynn earlier.

Watching the powerful Horsch military vehicle roaring away, Lynn's head was still in a bit of a fog. Walking into the main building of the Army Library, he picked up the newspaper and appointment documents, many of the words and phrases inside were still unfamiliar and difficult to understand for him, but what he could confirm was: he was in the newspaper, but who would have the mindset to read "Berlin Daily" at the twilight of the empire? He got promoted, became the commander of the Special Task Force, and all he could do was to resist the Soviet advance with all his might. Looking at the date on the newspaper, it was already April 24, 1945. Seems like there were only a few days left until the end of the empire. Huh? What level is this Special Task Force?

After pondering for half an afternoon and discussing with Brüll and Wolfram, Lynn finally got a rough idea of the situation. By dusk, a military truck brought Lynn's "new recruits" and basic supplies.

Standing at the entrance of the Army Library's main hall, looking at the several familiar faces among the new faces, Lynn didn't know what to say other than calling out their names.

"Alfred Flins! Loth Buck! Gantt Jonas!"

In Erick's raid team, Lynn could still remember the names of only these three soldiers. After last night's night battle, the 15-man night raid team was reduced to only 8 soldiers. So, the headquarters supplemented another 6 soldiers from elsewhere, completing the 20-man combat personnel for Lynn's 11th Night Combat Special Task Force.

The old soldiers walked up one by one to shake hands with Lynn, their indescribable heaviness and bitterness perhaps only they themselves could understand.

In the end, a young officer who got down from the truck handed a square box to Lynn: "Commander, this is your new uniform! Also, Captain Motchig asked me to tell you that the mission for the task force tonight is to eliminate as many enemy forces invading the Eighth District as possible and try to retake the reserve warehouse from the enemy!"

Opening the box, Lynn looked inside. The officer's uniform was brand new, it would look handsome when worn, but if worn on the battlefield, it would become the primary target for enemy snipers.

Putting the general uniform aside, Lynn went forward to check the combat supplies the soldiers had unloaded. There were four boxes of bullets for assault rifles and submachine guns, two boxes of hand grenades, one box of "tank killers" (rocket launchers), and several bags of bread, butter, and smoked meat. In the dwindling supply situation in Berlin, it seemed that the Garrison Headquarters still gave some extra care to the Night Combat Special Task Force - only when well-fed and well-drunk could they charge forward energetically into the enemy's guns!

But Lynn wasn't that naive.

Seeing the sky darkening, he had to put aside his plan to go to the "Nordic" Division to find "Butcher." Once the truck left, he gathered the 19 new and old subordinates. Judging from their ages, all of them were the most energetic young adults. Except for minor scratches, everyone was in good physical condition; in terms of ranks, three of them were low-ranking sergeants, but only Jonas was a senior sergeant - meaning he had the most combat experience among them, while the other 16 soldiers had only 2 senior ranks among them; in terms of equipment, including Lynn and Brüll's night vision goggles, the entire Night Combat Special Task Force had 4 sets of infrared suits, which was proportional to a standard night raid squad, in addition to 6 assault rifles, 4 submachine guns, 4 rifles, and 1 "tank killer" rocket launcher.

Lynn also specifically asked, Jonas and Buck each carried a silenced pistol.

After a simple self-introduction, Lynn had the soldiers eat on the spot. Considering the physical exertion during night combat, he didn't limit each person's ration, but let everyone eat as much as possible and carry some food with them. At the same time, he called Jonas, Flins, Buck, Wolfram, and Brüll aside to discuss the evening's operational plan while nibbling on bread. The first three were comrades who had fought together in Erick's team before, and Flins and Buck were also trained with the same batch of assault teams. Wolfram had followed Lynn to participate in many battles, while Brüll was a clever guy. With these five as the backbone of the Night Combat Special Task Force, Lynn could command the team more calmly, and more importantly, if he wanted to pull away troops and horses before the collapse of the empire, he must have a few relatively reliable helpers.

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（Starting from today, the author's update frequency and word count will significantly decrease. The reason is that the author needs to eat, but writing books on this platform does not generate income. The author needs to find another job to make a living. I can only apologize to all the readers. Updates will not be discontinued.）