Chapter 123 The Lonely City

Walking through long alleys, passing through houses, entering short alleys, circling around the church, climbing over ruins, this journey was not only arduous, the entire city trembled amidst the intense gunfire. Soviet warplanes tirelessly roared and circled overhead, occasionally dropping powerful bombs. This group of people navigated like they were in a maze, yet the result proved that Lynn's sense of direction was quite accurate.

Holding Tanzer's rifle, he finally saw the destination of this journey through the sniper scope, the 11th district.

There used to be Orlaningrad's largest theater, with a neat cobblestone road and rose bushes planted alongside it, but now only ruins and debris remained.

The most conspicuous place, the intersection, where two Soviet T-34s were parked abruptly. They seemed casually placed, but the dark barrels remained vigilant, each guarding a side.

Lynn was surprised and disappointed, but he didn't lose his composure.

The earth is round, and defensive lines and cities can also be seen as irregular circles. As long as the outer circle is breached, the powerful Soviet tanks could circle the city twice in no time.

The current situation was not difficult to judge. The Soviet troops had basically surrounded Orlaningrad after breaking through the outer defenses. Even if they chose to defend, even if they used the cover of night to engage in a beautiful street battle, the outcome would inevitably be death or surrender.

The fall of Berlin was inevitable, let alone the small Orlaningrad.

As the commander of the 167th Night Combat Group, Lynn prepared to extend the superior command: "Escort Comrade Senior War Correspondent to the designated location. If unable to rendezvous with the escort vehicles, every effort should be made to escort the comrade to Berlin."

Going to Berlin seemed to only prolong the inevitable, but the headquarters of the "Vampire" Assault Team had also moved to Berlin, including Bach, Diglio, and Mottchig. These were all on Lynn's list - the audacity of a Wehrmacht sergeant to plan for these officers may sound presumptuous and ridiculous, but no matter how outstanding their abilities were, could they judge the situation as accurately and foresightedly as Lynn?

To leave the city, they first had to pass through the front blocks.

Lynn put down his rifle and turned to the war correspondent: "Comrade Eva, I regret to inform you that the armored vehicle originally intended to take you to Berlin has now become prey for Soviet tanks!"

A difficult journey, almost facing death, and in the end, it was all in vain. The disappointment was deeply visible in those large eyes.

Lynn then turned to his four soldiers: "Gentlemen, the task assigned to us by our superiors is to escort Comrade Eva. Even if there are no escort vehicles, we should still resolutely carry out this order, but... the road ahead has been blocked by the Soviets, and we may have to wait here until nightfall, then sneak through the Soviet-occupied area under cover of darkness!"

This was not an order, but an announcement, a consultation.

"Fully obey your decision!" Wolfroom's proactive statement was crucial, followed by Tanzer and Techimer, with Graf following suit as usual.

"Good!" Lynn nodded in satisfaction, hoping to see such a united front.

"It's more than 20 kilometers from here to Berlin. If we're lucky, we might get assistance halfway, but we might also have to walk the entire distance on foot!"

Although these words were directed towards the soldiers, Lynn also wanted to prepare the war correspondent mentally: 20 kilometers might not be much for soldiers, but for a woman who had not undergone special training, it might be a bit far.

Regarding returning to Berlin, Eva had no objections. She remained silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke in a low voice: "I'm sorry, I've been a burden to you all!"

This statement surprised Lynn, leaving him momentarily at a loss for words. Seeing this, Wolfroom took the initiative to comfort her: "Oh, how could you say you're a burden? You're here to interview us, record our combat experiences, and it's our duty to escort you to safety! Besides, this is also the order from our superiors!"

Lynn turned around and saw those blinking eyes welling up with tears again.

"If any of you gets hurt protecting me, I'll feel extremely guilty!" she said with a melancholy expression.

Uh... was this the same decisive and strong-willed female reporter as before? Lynn knew women were fickle, but he didn't expect one person to embody such complex personalities and emotions.

Unfortunately, Lynn never quite understood how to comfort women. So, it was Wolfroom who spoke words of consolation:

"Aren't we all fine?"

At this point, the young Tanzer also chimed in, "Yeah, fighting is our duty, and besides, we have Sergeant Galgo, such an amazing commander!"

"Our Sergeant Galgo can do anything!" Techimer followed softly.

"Our Sergeant Galgo is the best commander in the world!" Graf chimed in.

So, everyone turned their admiring gaze towards Lynn.

While it was good to have everyone's trust and support, it wasn't a time to be complacent. Lynn looked at his watch; even if it got dark at 6 o'clock, they still had to wait for over six hours. So he ordered, "Gordon, you and Anton go find a safe hiding place for everyone. Starting now, we'll take turns keeping watch until nightfall!"

The city was now filled with collapsed houses and ruins, so finding a hiding place wasn't difficult. Wolfroom quickly found a large room halfway underground, halfway above ground, storing a lot of furniture and miscellaneous items. He even generously moved two old sofas to make a bed for Eva. Lynn didn't have the mindset to deliberately please this war correspondent. He put down the heavy infrared night vision equipment and looked around. He tore off a few pieces of gray cloth from a corner and used them to wrap the barrel, handguard, and sniper scope of Tanzer's sniper rifle, a concealment technique learned from movies—there may not necessarily be Soviet snipers nearby, but caution was always the safest bet.

Taking Tanzer's sniper rifle, Lynn announced that he would be the first to go out on watch.

Stepping on the collapsed wall, climbing up the three-story building that only had the left half standing, he chose the most dilapidated windowsill on the second floor as a temporary observation post. At this moment, the whole city was in chaos, with several buildings near the city center square burning fiercely, and gunfire and explosions could be heard from all directions. The peripheral battles seemed to be far from over, as flashes of explosions could still be seen in the distance, and those rising columns of smoke resembled giant pillars of an invisible temple...

Turning his head to observe the 11th district in the southern part of the city, Lynn finally saw two destroyed half-track armored vehicles in a corner of the ruins, surrounded by several German soldiers lying or crawling nearby. Could these be the reinforcements sent by the headquarters to pick up Eva and go to Berlin?

Accepting this cruel reality calmly, Lynn continued to observe. The T-34s parked at the intersection had already left, but there were still signs of Soviet soldiers nearby. It seemed they were preparing to set up a defensive position at the intersection to gradually consolidate their control over the occupied area of the city.

Sweeping his eyes over every area, Lynn put away his rifle, leaning against the corner of the wall to rest for a while. So much had happened in just half a day that his poor head was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Medals, promotions, and the unexpected arrival of a war correspondent, and then the Soviets broke through the defense lines and entered the city in the morning. Why did everything happen all at once?

Even when closing his eyes, Lynn dared not be careless, but instead, he kept a close eye on the surroundings, getting up every ten minutes to observe the situation nearby and using the rifle scope to check the distance every half an hour. He kept this up until two in the afternoon when there was suddenly an intense gunfire from the direction of the city center. In the scope, he could only see frequent flashes and thick smoke. After about twenty minutes, the gunfire gradually subsided.

Huh... Has the city center been occupied by the Soviets?

Lynn was no longer surprised but felt a sense of almost desperate despair. Before this, he thought that the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS stationed in Orlaningrad had built a large number of barricades, transformed many buildings and ruins into defensive points, and with the "elite anti-tank demolition team," "elite infantry sniper team," and "elite night combat team," with the street barricades, buildings, and ruins, even after the outer defense line was broken by the Soviets, they should be able to hold on for another three or four days. Yet it had only been half a day!

Soon, the intense gunfire shifted to the east of the city, and there were also explosions outside the southern outskirts. The more this happened, the more uneasy Lynn felt. Was he going to become a turtle in the jar soon, or had he already...

Suddenly, he caught sight of several figures moving in the ruins of the back alley. Lynn quickly picked up his sniper rifle, fearing that the Soviets had started sending small squads to sweep and eliminate the remnants of the German troops hiding in various corners of the city. However, it seemed the Soviets hadn't progressed this quickly yet. In the scope, he saw familiar large-eared steel helmets, a group of three, one of them holding an MP44 with an infrared light and a telescopic sight, and what seemed to be a square box on his back.

Although dressed like a night combat unit, with Russians everywhere, Lynn couldn't afford to be careless. He cautiously surveyed the surroundings, making sure there were no other active individuals nearby before quietly hiding in their inevitable path. When all three passed by, he jumped out with his double-barreled shotgun, "Nobody move!"

Hearing this somewhat off-tone pronunciation of German, they probably thought they had encountered a Soviet ambush, and the three soldiers stiffened.

Lynn cocked the hammers of the shotgun, sternly asking, "Which group are you from? Who's the commander?"

The one with the infrared night vision equipment on his back replied, "We're from the 152nd Night Combat Group, commanded by Sergeant Hans Zweig, who has now fallen in battle. I've temporarily taken over command of the combat group!"

There were originally 50 groups in the entire combat unit, that is, 50 commanders, and Lynn knew only about seven or eight of them. But he knew that the 152nd combat group was indeed stationed in Orlaningrad, so he said, "All right, turn around!"

Once the three soldiers faced him, Lynn looked them over and didn't see any problems, so he released the hammers of the shotgun and introduced himself, "I'm Sergeant Lynn Galgo, commander of the 167th Night Combat Group. According to the rules of the battlefield, you'll be under my command for the time being!"

Although they were startled by Lynn's sudden appearance, the three soldiers didn't show any hostility. Instead, they seemed relieved. Led by the one carrying the infrared night vision equipment, they expressed their attitudes and positions one by one:

"SS Private Breel Blum accepts your command!"

"SS Private Bill Chimerman accepts your command!"

"SS Private Conrad Weiregel accepts your command!"