Chapter 1

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April 14, 1945

It wasn't a pleasant experience to be notified that she was to deliver documents containing battle reports to her superior, especially not when the information displayed was of a war gone sour. She treaded slowly on the carpeted floor of this monstrous building, not fully due to her fear of outrage from her superior, but due to her own injury received from the Eastern Front, her walking was akin to slow limping with awkward footing. Small irritations of pain stabbed her left leg as she traversed the long hallway.

Huge, rectangular window were present on her left, gridded into four smaller rectangles. They allowed a glimpse into the brightly lit city spreading across all the way to the horizon. All this was covered by a blanket of darkness, small spots of white were noticeably spread across its surface-like salting.

On her left, exquisite paintings and other works of art were noticeable, contrasting well with the bone white walls. The hall itself was lit in yellow, she felt sickened by the apparent atmosphere of bureaucracy and politics this building never failed to inspire in her. It could be considered rare to be alone walking in a hall, ever since the retreat on both the Eastern and Western Fronts, more and more commanders had been taking refuge in the Reichstag, it seemed as if this palace-like building had become the beating heart of military activities for a dying Reich.

Eventually, the loose string of art ended on her left, large rectangular doors materialized, coloured in rich brown of some exotic wood: entrances to offices. She heard the soft muttering behind the heavy looking doors. Small rays of light escaped from the small allowance of space between the door and the floor, signs that the rooms were being used. It was already late at night, say 1:38 am, but late night stands were not uncommon during times like this.

Eventually, she reached the door she had been dragging herself to. It looked like any other door, upon turning to face it, she took a breath before knocking. The sound and feeling of her knuckles hitting the wooden surface felt timeless, the sound woke her in addition to raising the tensions within her. 

There were good reasons for it, summary executions of lesser officers seemed to have become a tradition now sweeping the military command. You would never know when the bullet would punch through your skull because you provided facts at the wrong time. Thankfully her superior hadn't taken up with this practice, instead he had argued against it. But there was always a first time for everything, and pressure was something that could twist a man like no other.

Although he had never taken punishments to that extreme, it would certainly be a lie to say he wasn't stern and calculative, perhaps even cold and uncaring to an extent. While he ensured to treat his men fairly, without so much as racial discrimination (not that the division was multi-racial to begin with), he certainly didn't have a problem throwing their lives away like running water during wartime. Throwing hundreds after hundreds of men at an enemy stronghold, eventually breaking it out of sheer numbers resulting in the cost of lives usually scaling well above tens of thousands. 

Failure and incompetence were not tolerated either. While it was never officially confirmed, it was pretty obvious that the crooked men, soldier and commander alike, who served under him were usually used in those blunt strikes of mass assault or given assignments which were near suicidal. His division was a brutal crucible and culling of the corrupt. Hence, the atmosphere of terror was something rifle within the army, from the lowest foot soldier to the highest commanders that served directly under him.

No reply came. Or at least none she could discern. She waited a moment, maybe a minute or two, before knocking again. Still no reply. Now she was starting to feel anxious, it could be possible that he wasn't in, which happened occasionally when he did "surprise visits" to the barracks and training quarters, but she had been informed that he would be in the room by a reliable source. Could it be that he simply didn't want to see her?

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