Crusaders III: The New Age 1.21

3.2           Munich

The resistance force in Munich was managed by Dieter Olion; a descendant of Belgium and German. He was like many other leaders of resistance; an ex-soldier who choose to continue his worth in battle. The man was past sixty but he was not in the best of health; his liver had failed him two year ago. He was a taller man before his back bent with age, but he still stand above six feet and carries the rapid fire phaser with pride.

Dieter formed the Munich Freedom Fighters to defend the city he had adopted as his home base. His band of resistance were in the numbers of fifty able bodied warriors, all of them are taught to shoot like snipers as that was what he was trained at before. He had no qualms on who was in his band as long as they can shoot. There were twelve ladies in the band, they are considered as better sniper than man. In the previous World War prior to this deadly one, then the country named Soviet Union deployed women snipers. The most well known one was a young lady named Klavdya Kaluglna, who was the youngest sniper in the army then. Dieter has his own Klavdya; a young sniper named Greta Muller, same aged as Klavdtya when she took her first soldier.

That day, they had set a trap for a unit of Vampires seen by the scouts. There were three of them and was seen in the direction approaching the Market Square or Marienplatz in the native German word. It also once named as the St Mary's Square. At the center of the center of the square was a column known as the column of St. Mary. It was erected in 1638 to celebrate the end of the Swedish invasion. At each corner of the column's pedestal were the four putti's that symbolize the city's overcoming of war, pestilence, hunger and heresy. There was the Town Hall with the 259 foot tower. The town hall was constructed in the Flemish Gothic style. In its glorious era, the facade was more than 300 feet in length with ornate stone ornamentation and stained glass windows with beautiful vaulted ceilings. That day it was a bare wall with remains of the designs in broken sections. Even the Glockenspiel, once sounded at the different stoke of the hours, laid broken and does not crowed no more. But it held the young sniper who was among the five deployed there to ambush the approaching Vampires. Dieter and his snipers do not communicate with high tech comms, but by a series of hand signals and crude mirror flashes.

The ambush was set when the three Vampires stepped in to the Square. The Vampires looked weary and their leathers were coated with dirt and bloods on it. The Vampires were all carrying sniper rifles which according to Dieter are worthy treasures to keep. The Dark Brigade Vampires stopped at the main column and rested their limbs. It was then Greta took her shot at the one in the middle. The other two snipers had lined up the other Vampires, and all three took the shot simultaneously but only Greta hit her target in the head. The other two only hit their target in the chest.

The wounded Vampires rolled to the side and seek cover. The Vampires were built with resilient in them; despite their injuries, they picked up their rifles and scanned the surrounding buildings. The sharp eyes of the Vampires caught sight of one of the sniper at the corner of the Town Hall and fired its rifle. The projectile hit the Munich Freedom fighter there in the left side of the face. At the same time, Greta took her second shot and ended the Vampire's existence with a shot at the back of the head.

The last Vampire knew it was dying, threw aside its rifle and stood up with both hands raised high. Five snipers took the shots and removed that Vampire from existence. In order to end a Vampire was to use the silver coated bullet or placed the shot on the brain. Any other places would just allow them to heal.

Soon after, the three snipers stepped out from their hidden positions to check on the kills, while Greta was still climbing down then from her high position. They barely made their way to the open ground, before they were phaserned down. The

five shots rang out from the street in front where the newly arrived Vampires under the command of Schindler have taken cover.

At that time Greta had stopped her descent and lay still against the wall. She dare not even peek for she was worried that she would be detected.

Schindler paused in its look as it locked onto the tower. It felt a presence there but was distracted when the Vampires were showered with more shots from the alley nearby. It was the other resistance members retaliating with their fires. The shots hit two of the Vampires but did not do much damage. The Vampires rushed towards the alley with their rifles firing. The group of four fighters including Dieter took to flight towards the alley end. The Vampires stopped at the start of the alley and raised their rifles. The four shots taken by the Vampires took their marks down including Dieter; shots that would cripple them but not killed them.

"Feed on them now. Re-build your strength." Schindler told its members while it went back to looked at the tower. This time it sensed no presence there. He soon joined the others in the feeding.

Dieter and his group died not from their wounds but by the Vampires feeding.