11: God of War
Taufers Castle, Northern Italy 1943, September 25th.
"Sir! I bring news!"
Generalmajor Günther Braun exhaled the smoke he had been holding in his lungs, lowered the pipe in his hands, and looked up from the documents on his desk. His cold eyes turned towards the messenger who had abruptly entered his office, but he didn't show irritation; instead, he nodded towards the soldier and raised his hand for the guards who had aimed their weapons to stand down.
Only now did the messenger notice how more than 8 men had been pointing their guns directly at him, sweat trickled down his neck, and he couldn't help but swallow nervously.
"Speak," Generalmajor said, and the soldier nodded.
"W-We've lost all contact with the base in Uttenheim. The last thing we managed to find out was that a group of partisan resistance initiated a frontal attack on them 6 hours ago. Since then, communications have been lost, and any reconnaissance troop sent to verify the situation has lost contact with us."
Günther Braun looked at the soldier sternly before standing up. With his hands behind his back, he walked towards the window in his office, admiring the views that Taufers Castle offered due to its location.
Even more impressive was the army of over 15 thousand men surrounding the place, preparing for the decisive blow towards Italy.
Günther Braun caressed the ring on his left hand as he pondered the recent events. Günther Braun was not just a Generalmajor; he was also a member of Hydra, one of the few important members under the command of Johann Schmidt. His stay in Sand in Taufers was a last-minute assignment.
Originally, the German army was supposed to liberate Mussolini and use him to regain their influence in Italy; after all, Italy was crucial for a proper defense of Southern Europe.
But before Germany could even begin to plan how to do it, Mussolini was assassinated, just five days after being ousted as Prime Minister of Italy by the Grand Fascist Council and arrested by orders of King Victor Emmanuel III. Benito Mussolini died from a gunshot to the head.
The perpetrator of his assassination was not made public, but thanks to the German intelligence network, it was discovered that it was the work of a resentful former Italian soldier against the former Prime Minister.
With their plan to regain influence in Italy interrupted in that way, things had to change.
Thus, the Third Reich assigned Günther Braun as the new responsible party to ensure its power over Italy. At first, Generalmajor was unsure about it; the Allies would undoubtedly use this opportunity to try to cross the borders with Austria into Germany, and if he didn't handle things correctly, this could have serious consequences.
That's why he had turned to Hydra.
If he wanted to ensure his victory, he needed more than just the support of the Third Reich; he needed to gain the support of the gods.
And Hydra now possessed the power of the gods.
It should have been easy; he should have been able to make his way to Bolzano in less than a day, so why? Why, in the last 48 hours, had he lost not only one but three important bases?!
He clenched his teeth and recalled the most important information he had been receiving over the last few hours: a tall, imposing figure dressed in blue, red, and white, with a star on his chest and a metal shield on his arm, a super soldier capable of overcoming any obstacle and defeating any weapon.
Captain America.
Just uttering that name in his mind made him want to spit. He had sent troops, weapons beyond any other weapon, and yet his men were losing. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, the reality was that he was in trouble.
He was supposed to be just a circus monkey, a clown giving flowery and stupid speeches to cheer the masses, so why? Why did he possess so much power?!
"Listen to my command, have a Staffeln (squadron) of Kampfgeschwader (unit of aerial bombers) take off towards Uttenheim. I want them to bombard the entire place until it's dust, all the way to Bolzano if necessary!"
"B-but sir, our men are still—" The soldier was cut off by a cold and fierce glare from Generalmajor.
"Do you question my orders, soldier?" The messenger swallowed hard and quickly stood upright, saluting with his hand, sweat running down his forehead.
"No sir!"
And so, more than 16 never-before-seen planes began preparations for their takeoff, their engines roaring with pulses of unknown energy that emitted a blue glow.
.
.
.
"What an extraordinary thing," the words came from a middle-aged man named Emilio. His hands carefully examined one of the dozens of Hydra weapons that the partisan resistance army had stolen, tools of different types scattered across the worktable that had been specially prepared for him.
Beside him, John nodded as he watched Emilio remove one of the batteries powering the weapons.
After conquering San Giorgio, their advance didn't halt. They capitalized on the high morale to keep attacking until Uttenheim. With the new weapons and John's active assistance on the front, even if the number of enemies stationed in Uttenheim outnumbered them, they were still able to quickly conquer the place.
Their tactic was simple but devastating. John would rush into the fray himself, using his superhuman strength to quickly deal with enemy tanks and heavy weapons. Then, with Raven's help and her "bombardments," they could sow chaos among the nazi soldiers. And since the resistance also possessed tanks and armored vehicles, it was only a matter of time before the Nazi base in Uttenheim fell.
Many German soldiers didn't want to die. Seeing the situation, they voluntarily surrendered, laying down their arms. So even if they were outnumbered, with their morale and spirits high, the resistance easily overcame their enemies.
The captured Nazi soldiers posed a difficult problem. Therefore, they were forced to halt their advance in Uttenheim while they thought of a way to deal with them.
They had killed many, but there were still just over two thousand captured German soldiers. The resistance didn't have the numbers to guard them all, and they could not split up and leave men behind to take care of the prisoners, or the Germans might try to use that to their advantage and find a way to escape.
They used the still-intact facilities in Uttenheim as a temporary prison, but they needed a better way to deal with them.
While Franco and the other three resistance leaders pondered this, John had been focused on something more important to him.
Carefully, he took the blue energy battery, small pulses of energy could be felt being released from the object like the beats of a heart.
"I would advise you not to touch it too much, sir. I don't know what it contains, but I'm sure it's extremely dangerous," Emilio said. The man had been part of the Italian army as a maintenance technician responsible for keeping military equipment in optimal condition.
John had used his help to "dissect" some of the Hydra weapons. Of course, he didn't expect the man to reverse-engineer anything; that would be Howard's job. What he wanted were some of the batteries inside the weapons. He could have done it himself, forcibly extracting the power source, but he wasn't that stupid. It was too risky. He didn't know what kind of protective mechanisms the weapons might have.
If something was going to explode, he wasn't going to be near it, at least not until he was sure his body could withstand it.
"Don't worry, Emilio, I know what I'm doing. Anyway, thanks for the help. You can go rest. We still have a fierce fight ahead, and I need everyone to give their best," he patted the man's shoulder, who nodded and soon left, leaving John alone in the makeshift workshop.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
John looked at the four batteries that Emilio had managed to extract without causing any accidents. They were all from fully charged and unused weapons. John had made sure of that.
He paced in circles, deep in thought.
Originally, he believed that with the Super Soldier Serum and Compound V in his veins, he was already strong enough. But with Raven's appearance, things changed. His strength didn't seem as secure now. He didn't know what kind of enemies awaited him in the future, but he knew without a doubt that if he wanted to ensure he could fulfill his role brilliantly, he had to take certain risks.
"The Russians experimented on him for years, using all sorts of 'weapons' to try to kill him. Nothing worked, and when they tried radiation, it only made him stronger..."
He recalled some scenes from "The Boys" series and then thought about the Tesseract.
"Its energy emits a certain amount of gamma radiation, that's how Tony and Bruce managed to find it," he remembered that scene from the first Avengers movie.
"No! This is crazy!..." He couldn't help but furrow his brows. Even if it were true, even if the Tesseract's energy contained radiation, that didn't guarantee it could be used safely.
"But haven't I already done something Crazy?" Remembering how he injected himself with Compound V after using the Super Soldier Serum, John couldn't help but have doubts.
Others, with more knowledge and greater intelligence, could surely devise dozens of plans and know dozens of ways to gain power. John wasn't one of them; his knowledge was limited, and with the integration of mutants into the scene, that knowledge had become less reliable.
For now, John only knew one way to become stronger, something that had been tested on the original Soldierboy and had yielded certain unexpected results...
Radiation.
Accessing large amounts of radiation without justification would be difficult, but now Hydra had served up an energy source like no other on a silver platter for him...
Now there was only one question left on the table: would he dare?
He looked at the four batteries pulsing with energy and couldn't help but let doubts creep into his mind. Was it necessary? Maybe he was overreacting. Maybe his current strength was enough...
"John!" Raven's voice snapped him out of his contemplations. He looked out the workshop window just to see her rushing in. She had been flying over the base's skies at his request to ensure they weren't ambushed suddenly.
"What's going on?" he asked quickly.
"There are planes! 16 of them are approaching fast!" John furrowed his brows and quickly exited the workshop, leaping to the top of a nearby standing building.
He focused his gaze only to watch as the fighter planes approached. He had never seen designs like those, and he had studied the different types of military vehicles of the time. He saw the blue light being emitted from their rear, and he immediately knew these weren't just any planes.
They were Hydra's.
"Everyone, take cover!" He shouted loudly, his voice echoing across the base.
The resistance soldiers were quick to obey. John was the one they respected the most, so even if they didn't know what was happening, they didn't hesitate to heed his words.
They all began to move, several of them looking up at the sky, their pupils dilating as they saw the planes getting closer and closer.
John quickly made his way to one of the anti-aircraft guns that the German army had installed at the base. It was a Flakvierling 37. Other resistance soldiers followed his lead, preparing different types of weapons and aiming towards the sky in haste. Those who didn't know how to use such weapons or didn't have any took cover as best as they could, already anticipating what was coming.
The planes were fast, faster than any other planes of the time. In a matter of moments, they were only seconds away from reaching them.
"FIRE!" John yelled and aimed skillfully, whether it was the shield, a gun, or any other type of weapon. He had become quite adept at making the mental calculations needed to aim without fail.
The weapon fired forcefully, its recoil strong enough to numb an ordinary soldier's arms, but for John, it was as easy as firing any other firearm.
The high-impact piercing projectile flew through the air at great speed, its trajectory fixed on one of the 16 attacking planes, the closest to the base.
One of the plane's wings was suddenly pierced, causing it to lose control slightly. Despite this, its pilot didn't hesitate and continued advancing with a clear objective. John didn't stop attacking, and a dozen more projectiles struck the plane's center, enveloping it in a cloud of smoke followed by an explosion that lit up the sky with a brilliant blue light.
"Shit!" John cursed. Even though he had destroyed one of them, he didn't feel happy because now he had lost sight of the other 15.
The resistance soldiers didn't stop firing even when their vision was obstructed. Many of them, having witnessed aerial bombings before, knew they couldn't let the enemy planes maneuver freely over them, or they would die.
Angelo gripped the MG 34 tightly in his hands. He had been chosen to aim the weapon with the help of two other soldiers. His accuracy was well-known among his comrades, so they didn't hesitate to entrust him with the weapon despite his young age.
When it came to shooting down planes, precision was necessary.
Unlike other soldiers who shot into the sky without thinking, Angelo waited. He waited with his heart pounding furiously in his chest. Scenes, images from the past came back to him with force: how his town was ravaged, how his house was destroyed, how his family died in the midst of a bombing.
No, he wouldn't let it happen again!
He swallowed hard and stared unblinkingly at the sky. Each second felt eternal. Then he noticed it, how the smoke moved against the direction of the wind. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The Hydra plane couldn't finish emerging from the smoke clouds when it was unexpectedly hit by hundreds of bullets.
The pilot tried to maneuver to evade, but other resistance groups had already set their sights on him, and he was engulfed in a hail of projectiles that turned him into scrap metal in a matter of Seconds.
Of course, it was then that the remaining 14 planes attacked, not with machine guns, but with a rain of blue shots that traveled faster than any bullet seen before.
Their attacks were indiscriminate. Whether it was the partisan resistance army or the captured German soldiers, the entire place was attacked without hesitation.
Explosions began to engulf the base. John clicked his tongue as he saw one of the Panzer tanks they had hijacked instantly destroyed by a single shot.
The power of the weapons powered by the Tesseract was undoubtedly monstrous.
He fired several more times, bringing down another four Hydra planes, but the sky and the base were too vast; he couldn't take them all down just by staying on the ground.
He had been wondering how strong he really was, how much his strength had grown with the combination of both serums, and if that strength was enough... it seemed it was time to find out.
Without hesitation, he stopped firing and started running towards a clear area, keeping his eyes on two Hydra planes. If his calculations were correct, they should be about 3,000 meters above the ground and closing in.
He fixed his target and tensed his muscles. This time, he didn't doubt and used every ounce of strength he believed he had. He crouched down and with all that accumulated power in his legs, he launched himself into the sky.
The ground beneath his feet sank, his figure became blurry, and the air shattered. A supersonic explosion was left behind as his body soared high into the sky, colliding directly with one of the two planes he had chosen.
His body tore through the armor as if it were wet cardboard. Like a ballistic missile, he caused the plane to break apart in midair, exploding violently.
John maneuvered through the air, disoriented. The metal shield in his hand had shattered... he had just repaired it, but it seemed it would no longer be useful.
He listened carefully and found the second plane he had seen earlier.
"Let's see if this works," he thought, recalling his first strength test in the hotel bathroom. John positioned himself in the air and kicked forcefully. The sound barrier broke once again, and his body was propelled towards his second target.
His hand extended, and his fingers dug into the metal of the plane, gripping it tightly.
He crawled to the cockpit and, with a punch, broke the protective glass. The plane's pilot screamed in alarm, turning his head only to have his face grabbed forcefully by John. With a single motion, John yanked the pilot and dragged him out, sending him flying through the air. The safety belts did nothing to prevent the poor pilot from being forcibly ejected from the cockpit.
The plane, now without a pilot, began to lose control, but John was quick and took the controls without hesitation. He didn't want to keep the plane because he had no way to signal his men on the ground not to attack it, so he simply changed its direction and aimed it directly at another nearby Hydra plane.
When he was sure, he let both planes collide, causing another explosion to fill the sky.
"Five left," he thought as he let his body navigate through the sky. The resistance soldiers had managed to shoot down two more while John was performing his maneuver in the air, and he saw them fall in the distance.
He needed to destroy them quickly before they caused more damage.
.
.
.
"What the hell?" Nicola stared at the sky in confusion as several enemy planes were suddenly destroyed.
"It's the Captain!" one of his men said as he looked up into the sky with his binoculars, Quickly Nicola took them off and looked up into the sky, only to see John navigating through the air.
How the Fuck did he get up there?!
"Quick! Communicate with everyone else. Tell them not to attack him!" Nicola didn't know what this war was turning into—unprecedented weapons, flying super soldiers—what was next? But regardless of what came, he and his men were in the thick of it, and it was their duty to fight, even against the impossible.
Still, he couldn't help but smile as he watched Captain America collide with an enemy plane, causing it to explode into a thousand pieces, the super soldier emerging from the smoke cloud unscathed, targeting his next objective.
Their enemies might be fierce, but somehow, Nicola felt they would win. Because as absurd as it sounded, even though he hadn't been very religious before, right now, in this place, he felt like they had a god on their side in this battle.
A god of war.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Note:
I have listened to all your comments, there have been many and varied, and they have certainly helped me think more about the future. In the next chapter, the fight for Italy concludes (with an interesting surprise at the end ;D).
I believe I have laid the foundations well enough, and it is time to explore what is truly important and interesting. Thank you for your patience.
That said, I want to thank you for the comments, likes (power stones or kudos), and to everyone who has supported me so far on Patreon. I hope to continue on this incredible journey with you for much longer time. Soon, there will be a fixed update schedule so everyone can enjoy chapters more regularly.
Lastly, remember that you can find the next chapter of this story on Patreon (patreon.com/EmmaCruzader). If you want to read the next chapter in advance and get some other benefits, you can go and check it out. All the support received helps me a lot ;D.
Remember to leave your comments, critiques, and suggestions as well as your likes. See you in the next chapter.