Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

"Comrade Petrovsky! Come here quickly!" The communications soldier was calling to him.

He picked up the radio and listened.

"Comrade! We've encountered more enemies! We need reinforcements! You're short a company, can you come and help us out? It shouldn't be a big problem, right?"

"No problem! I know the way!"

"Okay, thank you! Also, the enemy has quite a few armored units, you know what to do! Captain Maranovich, call over!"

The lieutenant hung up the radio and gathered the soldiers to prepare for departure.

……

Mahersdorf was still immersed in the sound of gunfire under the dark night sky, with no end in sight and no optimistic atmosphere in sight.

Lemilia and his men walked through a building toward another block—they chose this more circuitous but shorter route to avoid being ambushed in the open.

"Hey, do you know who the enemy is, comrade?" a soldier asked the lieutenant.

"Huh? If I had known, I would be a marshal by now."

"No, Lieutenant, I'm really confused right now. Are we fighting the Americans or the German fascists?"

"Oh, I don't know, I don't know!" The lieutenant shook his head. "But it's strange, I'm really curious to figure out how those iron things that look like people are made."

"Maybe we can get one to touch and guess?"

"Well, that depends on luck," the lieutenant muttered to himself.

"It would be lucky to hit those dolls running around in the street. We just cleaned up so many, but we're probably going to be in trouble next."

"Not necessarily. What if a pie falls from the sky?"

"What are you thinking, comrade?" the lieutenant replied with a strange look. "How could that be? If it were really possible, I..."

As they were talking, amidst the tremors of the artillery fire, they suddenly heard a sound coming from upstairs.

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A sharp cracking sound came from above as wood snapped, and by the flickering firelight, the lieutenant saw a large pile of things fall down!

"Oh damn it!" He quickly lunged to the ground beside him, and just as he was about to land, a wave of dust and metallic sound, like a carload of pianos crashing down behind him, instantly filled the entire building.

"My God... Lieutenant!"

Everyone crowded around to take a look, and there it was: an iron head, an iron body, and iron arms—a human shadow.

Good heavens! A steel giant that they were just talking about actually fell from upstairs!

Section 71, Chapter 44: New Friends, Old Methods

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Everyone initially thought it was a doll that had been waiting for them upstairs for ages, ready to come down and trap them—ah, you ask why they thought there would be something lurking upstairs? This thing has been scaling walls and roofs in front of them so many times, they've probably developed some kind of habitual thinking about it by now.

A man took out a lighter, craned his neck and bent his back, and slowly approached the uninvited guest by the light of the small flame.

"Alright, alright, everyone put down your weapons."

What landed before them was indeed a steel giant they had seen many times before, but unlike their usual appearances, which were always on their feet, this one landed on its head and shoulders.

Then there's absolutely no need to worry, because no one has ever seen wheels on the head of this thing. And listen carefully, this thing doesn't make any sound at all—yes, based on everyone's past experience, if something that needs an engine to run doesn't even make an engine roaring sound, it means it's not moving.

Unless it gets the engine running again, no driver would be foolish enough to sit in an overturned tank truck and try to drive it away, unless you want to use the spinning wheels as a grinder to polish something.

"Come on, everyone, feel free to take a look at anything you'd like to see."

The lieutenant ordered everyone in his company to halt their advance, allowing the soldiers passing through the room to observe the upside-down doll.

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People crowded around the doll, looking at it, asking questions, talking, and pointing at the pile of scrap metal. A few soldiers even went forward, touched it, and patted it to see how sturdy it was.

Two soldiers went over and kicked the steel armor a few times, perhaps to vent their anger; they seemed to be kicking it quite hard. The doll, its head tilted to the side, could only watch helplessly as those feet trampled on it.

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After the lieutenant gave his permission, a daring soldier grabbed the edges of the mannequin's armor with both hands and began to climb up.

I climbed up, looked around, and jumped a few times to get a general idea of ​​how much it weighed. Then I focused my attention on the large black iron box on the back of the doll.

"Could I have a flashlight? I think this thing can be turned on."

"Huh? How did you know?" Lieutenant Lemilia asked.

"Ah, I've examined some destroyed rag dolls. This one has something like a door on its back, I don't know what it's for," the soldier said, taking the flashlight that was handed to him.

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"One, two, three! Hey!" After a flurry of activity, the group finally managed to pry open the door with an iron bar they had picked up from the side. One of the men accidentally lost his balance and took a step back, then lost his footing and fell face down on the floor.

"Ugh! What's that smell in here!" The few people left at the cabin door shouted and cursed.

"Lieutenant! Cough!" A soldier shone a flashlight inside. "You'd better see for yourself!"

Lemilia frowned and quickly climbed up.

"Let me see...the sky..."

The lieutenant was stunned. He had wanted to see what the layout of the large iron box was like, but he never expected that there would be a person lying inside!

Of course, the stench already indicated that this was a dead body, and also indicated that this was the driver's compartment, not the engine compartment—if a tank driver were sitting next to the engine, I think he would have collapsed from heatstroke very soon.

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"Whoa?" The body was dragged out, and only then did everyone realize that it was actually a woman!

She lay on her back on the ground, and you could see shards of glass embedded in her right eye and temple. Her congealed blood covered almost half of her face.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." A soldier walked closer and touched his body; it was already ice-cold. "So unlucky."

……

"However, this woman's clothes are..."

"what happened?"

"Don't you think you've never seen a uniform like this before?" The soldier turned around, spread his hands, and asked in return, "Look, the clothes and pants are all connected together. Not to mention us and those Westerners, even the German fascists have never seen them dressed like this."

Well, in their minds, only German paratroopers wore jumpsuits, but their clothes weren't completely connected from the neck to the feet. What's going on with this?

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"It must be so uncomfortable to sit in this..." Everyone looked at her and couldn't help but shake their heads, unsure whether they were sighing for the female soldier's misfortune or mocking the tight-fitting suit that accentuated every detail of her body.

However, to be fair, people generally thought the female soldier was quite pretty, even though her face was covered in all sorts of dirt.

"So, Lieutenant, what do you think destroyed this thing?"

Lemilia didn't answer him, but instead asked for a flashlight and looked up. On the broken floorboards lay several broken pieces of timber, and the roof, blasted open by artillery shells, sat right above his head.

"Well, do you think you'd dare to walk around on these rooftops in Berlin?"

"No, I'm afraid of slipping and falling."

“Alright, then.” The lieutenant handed the flashlight back. “I think I’ve finished answering your question, Comrade. As for why he didn’t stay up there but came down, it’s probably related to the noise the cannons were making. That’s all.”

"Alright! Everyone, prepare to move forward!"

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After a while, the group emerged from the doorway of a building. The chaotic street appeared normal, with no firelight visible at either end. Only the distant sounds of gunfire and artillery echoed, stirring up dust and disturbing the rats' hunting instincts.

"Cheer up, comrades," the lieutenant whispered, encouraging them. "We'll be encountering the enemy soon, so stay alert!"

"Lieutenant?" Malinov, who had been chatting with him on the tank, caught up from his side. "How many anti-tank grenades do you have?"

“Me? I have two,” the lieutenant replied. “I told you to organize them yourself before, why are you telling me this now?”

"No, I only prepared Molotov cocktails. I don't think they're very good."

"Ahem, an anti-tank grenade..."

"Hey! Lieutenant! There's movement ahead!"

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Just as they pulled their legs back into the house, a steel giant, four or five meters tall, appeared at the other end of the street.

The blue-purple exterior belonged to a Sunderland mech. It seemed to have heard the commotion, turned its upper body to aim its machine gun at the street, activated its observation head, and slowly started its drive wheels, moving into the street.

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They had already driven up to the suspicious building, then retracted the drive wheels and switched to pure walking mode. Immediately afterwards, they raised their guns and kept their distance from the building.

"Hmm..." the pilot pondered, carefully examining every window the camera panned across.

He wasn't sure if he had misread or misheard, or if the enemy was hiding and waiting for reinforcements. There was no cover on the street, and if a tank or something quietly drove out from the other side, he would be in trouble.

I mustered up my courage and quietly approached the exterior wall of the building.

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"He's getting closer, Lieutenant..."

“Tender green…” Lemilia muttered dismissively, “Are there enemy infantry following us outside?”

"No."

"Then you'll know what to do, right?"

“Да”.

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Just as Sunderland approached the outer wall, it seemed to hear a noise on the first floor! A series of footsteps walking away!

"Halt!" KMF swept the ammunition belt in the direction of the voice, bullets hitting the wall one by one, like a giant gecko hunting its prey among the ruins.

The pilot prepared to put down his gun and follow—it seemed he was indeed a greenhorn, not only daring to approach an unknown building alone, but also not having mastered shooting while moving.

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"superior!--"