Chapter 5, God's with us?

Hans Von Schmitt, is a captain in the 1400 strong, 40th Prussian Regiment, and under his command are 150 of these fine men. Men who had been well trained and who he thought of as being the bravest men in the Prussian army. Without any fear or hesitation they like he had followed orders and marched to the border town of Saarbrücken, even though they had no artillery and an unknown amount of enemies before them.

And now locked into this desperate battle against a force of French at least 30 thousand strong he was horrified to see his men falling one after the other. They had built a barricade made of wagons, barrels, boxes, sacks of flower and grain, along with other miscellaneous items, and they were on the defence, but it wasn't enough.

The French Chassepot rifle with its longer range, and faster firing rate was just too much especially as they were already so heavily outnumbered. But the worst thing of all was the damage that the French Chassepot rifle bullets did.

While the entrance wound was not much larger than their own needle rifles, the problem came with the exit wound.

Looking at his men falling before him, Hans could see holes in the backs of his men large like a man's fist. One man's arm got nearly blown off by a single shot leaving it hanging by merely a few strands of flesh. Another man's head got hit causing a huge hole to be formed in the back of the man's head through which the man's brains flew out of.

The wounds were so devastating that most who survived the first shot would instantly be rendered incapable of fighting, and later they would most likely be forced into surgery where limbs would surely be lost. Well that is if the men survived long enough to make it to surgery in the first place.

Hans watching all of this could just hope and pray that the enemy would give up soon, or that reinforcements would come to relieve them. But for the moment as a captain he needed to encourage the men by leading from the front just as his grandfather had done once long ago against the armies of Napoleon.

He could not just stand back and watch his men fall, and to hear their pained groaning, whining, moaning and wailing any more. Adjusting his glasses he loaded his rifle as he went to take up a wounded man's position at the barricade who had fallen to the ground.

Peaking over the wooden crates he hid behind Hans took note of the scene before himself. To his left and right were the walls of the stone houses where some of his men were stationed at. Before him was the cobblestone road leading to a four way intersection that led over the bridge and was now littered with French bodies.

The other side of the stone bridge was much the same with a four way intersection there, stone buildings all around next to the river side which the French were occupying now. However most worrying of all to him seeing the scene was the bridges stone railing that not only was sturdy, but it also extended outwards from the bridge and to the sides covering the river bank down below where he could see some French soldiers peaking out from.

Looking at the scenery before himself it seemed like the french were everywhere. They were shooting from the opposite sides buildinga windows, behind the stone railing and some were bravely gathering up on the other side to do another charge across the bridge.

Seeing an easy target within the soon to be charging men, Hans rose slightly from his cover, placed his heavy bolt action M1867/71, needle rifle upon the wooden crate, and by using the crate he steadied his aim. He picked out the first target that came into his line of sight, squeezed the trigger without hesitation and fired.

Immediately he could feel a powerful thump against his right shoulder as the recoil hit him, mixed in with the satisfying crack sound of his bullet being set loose, and there in the distance he could see a man fall to the ground, not dead, but severely wounded.

For a moment he showed a bright toothy smile. To him firing his rifle always just brought him such joy, and a strange sense of power. It was like he was god himself, or the grim reaper. For within his hands was the power to take life and to spare it.

But then another thump came, something hit the upper left side of his chest and the loud rumbling of a bullet could be heard. Gripping his rifle tightly he tried to find his balance and strength to keep fighting, he couldn't just accept it, for him to be actually hit, there was no way right.

However no matter how much he wanted to deny it, his body could not do so. As he then fell within the next moment backwards to the hard cobblestone street right next to one of his other wounded men. A man whose place he had just taken on the barricade a moment ago.

Hans could now only watch as his rifle fell alongside his fallen body, and soon the terrible pain came. This was it, just like his grandfather during the Napoleonic wars, he too was going to die because of a French man's gun on a battlefield.

Still he didn't feel too bad for he found solace in knowing that his brother Herman would handle things from here. Herman being the First Lieutenant, a rank just below his, he knew that his men would be in good hands still without him.

And in his final moments he laid back in peace. His eyes now carefully watched the blue partially cloudy sky above himself, while the sounds of battle played around him.

Then he noticed his brother come kneel there next to him. His face seemed so sorrowful as he tried desperately to cover his bleeding wound to no avail. For he himself couldn't even feel the lower parts of his body anymore.

Even what seemed like two local girls, one barely old enough to start school came to his side. Herman tried to shoo them off, but the older of the two was insistent on staying as the younger one placed her hands upon his body.

Laying still Hans resigned his fate to God's hands now and as he closed his eyes he prayed to soon be able to see heaven for himself.

And indeed as he thought of this an extremely comforting warmth came upon him. He felt like a child again being cradled within his mother's arms, but no it was something much more than that.

For a moment he could swear that he caught a glimpse of a white sun, so warm, and yet not blinding in the least. And within the sun was a land of white shores, vast fertile fields and within its center a brilliant white city decorated with gold, and in its center stood a singular tower of light.

Like a light house its light turned to shine down upon him, and within that moment his body began to develop a new.

His life seemed to flash before his eyes, all the good, all the bad, everything was there. However in it he also saw a vision of what he always wished to be. No, it was something that he could have been if only circumstances were different for him, or that's what it felt like to him.

He saw a tall handsome short blonde haired man, a true viking of sorts. He saw a viking who held no glasses, his blue eyes were bright and there were no imperfections on him, just a perfect body full of strength could be seen.

Then his vision cleared up once again, he breathed in a huge chunk of fresh air and heard a sweet girlish voice say.

"Big brother Jen I did it. Who should I heal next?"

And then another girlish voice that sounded a bit annoyed said.

"Hey don't say it out loud. Were supposed to keep it a secret, besides you again didn't let me try. Come on you gotta wait for me, I'm still learning after all. Ooh well whatever, let's take that guy over there next."

Hans laying there then blinked his eyes a few times, only to find it hard to see through his round glasses. Taking them off he looked at the two girls who ran past his laying figure and watched them go attend to another man.

It was strange, they were clearly girls and from but a glimpse he could already tell that they were exceptionally cute girls at that. And yet they were dressed up like boys?

Then he felt someone shake him, as a voice asked.

"Hey brother are you, are you alright? I think your wounds are gone?"

Turning to look at the sound of the voice Hans could see the baffled face of his brother looking at him. And just like his brother, he too felt at a total loss just then.

Looking around himself, and feeling his body, Hans could clearly see the hole within his shirt. There was a lot of blood, his blood and yet his skin was completely intact and smooth like a newborn babies. Also as he turned to his side in an attempt to get up he could see a pool of blood under himself.

Seeing it all and hearing his brother's words he felt at such a loss just then. What was even real, and what was happening here? Was this a hallucination before death or the afterlife?

Though soon the crackling of guns and whistling of bullets brought him back again. Dream or not, he as long as he could would keep fighting for his motherland and his soldiers who relied on his leadership.

Grabbing his rifle he got to one knee and reassured his brother of his well being.

"Don't worry lieutenant I'm fine. No single French bullet is going to stop me."

But as he said this he couldn't help but notice another confused looking man to his right, and the same thing was true on his left where those girls were. And then he heard the confused voice of a man behind him asking.

"Captain what's going on? Where are we? Is this the afterlife?"

Hearing this he and his brother turned to look at the man, and instantly froze in surprise at what they saw.

He had been sure that the old soldier had been dead. Johann was his name and he was already in his late forties with a balding head, some gray strands of hair, wrinkles and just an old looking face of someone who has done hard manual work his entire life. But now that he looked at the man, it was like he was looking at someone completely different.

The man's brown hair looked healthy again without any gray strands of hair, though there was still the balding part. But most shocking of all was his now young looking skin. No more were his eyelids dropping and all sad looking, now he looked kind of fierce and like he was just barely within his late thirties.

However the moment of astonishment was quickly then broken as another soldier yelled.

"They're coming down the center! Don't let them cross no matter what! Give them hell!"

Looking at the source of the sound Hans could see that it was one of his lower lieutenants. And there coming across the bridge once again were the French, although by the looks of it they were the same men that he had been shooting at in order to stop them from charging in the first place.

Seeing it all, Hans grabbed Johann's rifle and placed it into the man's arms as he said.

"I don't know what's going on here, but it seems that God is with us. Now get back to the fight soldier."

And with that said Hans uncaring of his brother's confusion ran to the barricade again, and through the top of his lungs he yelled.

"Men send these Catholic French dogs to hell! God's with us Protestant's! Fire fire!"

***

Lili felt sad for Sargent as they went from person to person healing them. She had hoped that the Sargent would gain the same amount of joy from helping wounded people as she did, but no.

Instead the Sargents face only seemed to be full of worry. For the Sargent had hoped to pretend to heal people normally while adding in some magic amongst the healing as well. But for whatever reason nobody amongst the spiky helmet men had any really useful medical supplies.

At best some had cloth with them that could be used as a bandage, or even a small bottle of some herbal concoctions or something. Basically there was nothing that could attach limbs, or truly stop bleeding while growing back broken tissue to an extent, so that their healing would have gone somewhat unnoticed.

So the Sargent had instead decided to just start healing all the spiky helmet soldiers without even thinking about trying to hide their magic too much at all. She hoped that by simply pretending like their healing was the most natural thing in the world, they could like so avoid drawing too much attention to themselves.

However as soon as the spiky helmet men started yelling praises to God and fighting back more fiercely than before, the Sargents mood dropped. To Lili it seemed that they were indeed caught.

Still they moved onwards into the buildings where the spiky helmet men were and continued their healing there. And as they moved up to the second floor they were once again stopped. At the top of the stairs a spiky helmet man stood before them as he questioned.

"What in Christ's holy name are you girls doing here? Go back to your home. This is no place for children, and girls especially."

And like before the Sargent didn't hesitate to face this large man as she stepped forward and ordered.

"Step aside soldier, we are here on a highly secretive mission from fleet command to test out the Imperium's new healing ordnances on your wounded men. And I'm a boy, ok. Though this time I can forgive the misunderstanding."

Though the man after hearing this merely seemed to become more confused as he asked.

"Huh, what the fuck are you talking about?"

But just then Lili peeking from behind the Sargent noticed two wounded men within the building. They looked so sad to her as they groaned in pain while sitting side by side next to an open doorway.

Seeing them Lili couldn't wait any longer as she nimbly slipped past the Sargent's small girly body, and with a little jump and a roll she passed between the big man's legs.

"Huh what the?"

Getting to her feet Lili took note of the many spiky helmet men taking cover behind the walls as bullets flew into the building through the many upper floor windows. They were all looking at her with questioning eyes.

She was obviously somewhere where she shouldn't be, but as a good girl who had been given a righteous task, by her kind Sargent she couldn't stop here. Scrambling to her feet she ran with all her might towards the wounded men, as the spiky helmet man tried to grab her.

"Damn brats what are you doing?"

However the Sargent was luckily there to help her out. Glancing backwards Lili could see the Sargent wrapped around the man's leg.

While not totally stopping the man it seemed to confuse the man greatly, as he didn't seem to know what to do anymore. With one hand on his rifle the man had trouble to pull the Sargent off.

This luckily gave Lili enough time to heal the two wounded men back up. Now if she wasn't mistaken that made 9. Overall she and the Sargent had healed 9 men which was quite exhausting to Lili, but with each person she healed, she got a boost of happiness. Helping people after all always made her feel happy, no matter how tired she might have been.

With a smile on her face Lili then ran past the Sargent and the spiky helmet man while yelling.

"Come on big brother Jen let's go see the other buildings, hihihi!"

Hearing her say this the Sargent quickly let go of the man's leg and ran after Lili back downstairs. While the man was left yelling.

"Damn crazy kids!"

However soon as the girls ran down stairs the man who was a Sargent had his attention taken by the questions of two of his men.

"What happened Sarge? I thought I died, is this the afterlife?"

***

Lili and the Sargent not caring of the confusion and religious fervor that they were causing within the Prussian ranks continued on their healing quest. From house to house they went. While along the way they passed by smaller barricades that were blocking other streets close to the river.

There they found more people again in need of healing just like were the people within the occupied houses on the left side of the main barricade that faced the bridge. Once more the Sargent if needed to would distract the men while Lili did the healing mostly.

Until finally they looped back around to the main barricade where they once more saw a couple of wounded soldiers in need of help.

"For God's sake can't they keep themselves from getting wounded?"

Sargent complained as they rushed into help the men again. Though as they arrived, they luckily this time met no resistance from the men. All the men merely took glances at their healing actions like some children at the zoo watching some awe inspiring animals.

Seeing their reactions the Sargent after helping Lili with the healing didn't hesitate to criticise the men.

"What sort of soldiers are you to be gawking at us like that? Don't you have an enemy to fight? An enemy that wishes to take your land, your way of life, your women, your lives and your love for the Imperium? If so then focus on the enemy and defeat them."

Lili could see some confusion within the spiky helmet soldiers as Sargent mentioned the love for the Imperium. However none objected and all merely cheered for Sargent.

"Yeah God's with us men! God is with us!"

After which the Sarge seemed to notice something as the men rummaged their pockets and two distinct pouches that they held for ammunition. The spiky helmet soldiers were clearly beginning to run out of ammo it seemed, which was not good in the face of such a huge amount of enemies that still remained.

In fact even being inexperienced as she was, even Lili now looking at the situation up close now could see it clearly. Within this battle the only weapons being used were single shot rifles. There were absolutely zero grenades, mortars, artillery, aircraft, heavy weaponry, battlesuits or really anything of note, not even magazines. All she could see was a few of them having some primitive looking side arms as additional weapons and that was it.

Which did make her wonder just where exactly were they? For nowhere in the Imperium should have been this primitive.