Terror
I have always heard of the Legions and how they bring fear to the hearts of mortal men and woman. I also always thought that I would be one of the lucky few who would never have to face them in combat. I was wrong…
The screaming of artillery shells was the first step in how the Legions wage war. This would spread on a long line so you would never know when and where they are coming for you. And so the artillery rained in caused death upon our line. I have heard by stories that this could take days if not weeks before a major offensive lead by them would happen. This one would only last three hours, but those three were hell coming out from the depths to make us beg for forgiveness for our sins. I could hear screams coming from the recent replacements as they went on their knees to pray and cry. The more veteran of us knew what we’re coming after stories or first-hand experience. Then phase two started. Screaming endless screaming of the captured POWs could be heard throughout the line. These were unlucky enough to have been taken by the 2nd Legion. This went on for another day followed by the final artillery barrage. This would finally give way to the third phase, assault. Infantry would move in small squads against our machine guns. These though not from the Legions would be still no easy force to break. We would wound and kill dozens but that is of course when the next part would start.
Suddenly the trench line exploded with the detonation of dozens of explosives right under our line. The Legions would also use engineers and workers from other units to dig deep under our line to set these off causing sinkholes to fill outline. Dozens of our lives soldiers were now buried under meters of dirt as they suffocated to death. I was one of the lucky few to avoid such a death due to me being so close to the front line, of course, that does not mean I will be safe for long. Suddenly fire can be heard from an stg20 and two men from my squad are killed. Only one force had stg20s, the 2nd Legion has come. That was when I broke. There would be some men would have stayed but I honestly just want to live not to die, or worse, be taken by the 2nd Legion. I took my rifle and fled back deeper into our line, and from my peripheral vision, I could see most of my squad had the same idea. Behind me, I could hear the roar of mg20s and stg20s as the 2nd Legion was slaughtering whoever decided to stay in the line. Brave bastards they are or just idiots who think they won’t die from a Legion assault. What remains of my squad reached our regiment’s trench line jumping in their tired from the hundred meters we had to cross. I tightened my grip around my AK12 as I looked from my left to my right. Safety….. But nothing is ever safe when you fight the Legions. Suddenly the sound of two stgs can be heard and grenades exploding near my position causing me to fall to the ground dropping my rifle a meter away from me. I wipe the blood away from my eyes to see everyone around me screaming out or dead
To my right, a man was without an arm with his left leg torn. To my left what was left of a man lays. It seems I was “lucky” and avoided most of the blast. Now the final stage of a Legion assault, the cleanup. I see two Legionnaires jump down into my trench both with gas masks, I try to grab my rifle but it is too late with my chest feeling the weight of one of their boots landing straight on my rib cage. With the barrel of an stg is faced right at me. Please shot me, please, I do not want to suffer the fate of being captured, just let me die next to my brothers. The Legionnaires then talks in Czech most likely deciding our fates like what some Pagans would do. I notice one thing as they argue, the one with the rifle pointed tone seems to be female and the other male. Finally, the female Legionnaire puts her rifle on the ground to pull out a dagger from her belt. Then in Russian, she tells me, “Be lucky to serve the Legions mortal, your life will help us fuel the war.” She then cuts off my fingers two at a time leaving only my thumbs. This causes me to scream in pain. “Well assuming you survive of course.” She then cuts my thumbs off and force feeds me it. I feel the taste of my own flesh as I eat my own body parts. The two then leave me to bleed to death and all I can do is hope I die before the battle is over and the Legions come for my soul…
Assault
I held my stg20 the feeling of cold metal on my fingers. The true beauty of such a rifle. Oh does it give me pleasure? We are about to assault an enemy trench line guarded by the 104th Rifle Division and I for one do not expect them to make it out of this battle alive.
“Alžběta!”
I turn to see Rostislav Horák walking towards me in the trench. He fixes his helmet and grins a murders grin. “Are you ready for war once again my beloved?” He jokingly calls me.
“Of course, the taste of war the feeling of blood upon my skin, the smell of burnt flesh, and the cries of the dying truly feeds the greatest of desires in me.” I stand up now putting my stg20 on my back and I go to fix up my uniform cleaning off any dirt that might have got on it.
“Well the infantry should already be there so we should go off to war now,” Rostislav would say to me keeping his grin as he puts on his gas mask.
I smile back, unknown to me it was the smile of a murder. I then go to grab my gas mask from my belt and put it on fixing it up. We won’t be using any gas but well, it brings fear to the enemies if nothing else. We then go up the trenches and keep our heads low as we make the dash across no man’s land. The sound of automatic fire can be heard as the forward units clash vigorously against the wall which is the Communist trench lines. Quickly we get there with our semi machine hearts helping cover anything our natural hearts lack.
Each step gets us closer to the enemy lines, oh how I cannot wait for our time to break open the enemy’s soul. Soon we lay about 50 meters to the enemy line us now being forced to crawl in order to protect ourselves from the sights of the enemy.
“Three, two, one,” I hear Legionnaire Horák whisper, as suddenly the whole line explodes. Looks like the pioneers did their art.
“I spot a squad of Russians about 30 meters in front of us” I hear Rostislav then tell me. I prepare my stg20 to fire on them now the enemy now in my sights. I then switch off the safety to semi-auto and fire four rounds dropping two Russians. Switching to full auto now Rostislav and I stormed the forward trench to find it abandoned by the enemy.
“Great, they ran like cowards, not *true* Slavs,” I say. They should have fought and died here but no… Guess now we got to give them pain and suffering now. “Now let us go to the main trenches brother in arms.”
“Good, thought you got lazy for a moment,” I hear him say. Rolling my eyes then race to the next trench now only 50 meters away to see Soviet infantry jumping into the trench. My mouth watered at the sight of them. Mortal flesh, perfect to fill my own appetite. At around 10 meters we drop down and do standard Legion assault doctrine. Grabbing a model M34 grenade I throw one and Rostislav, another. In seconds we hear two explosions as the grenades toss shrapnel in the trenches. Looking at Rostislav, I see him nod his head as we head deeper into the trench weapons drawn.