Arc of Fire

Zaitsev had made their battle preparations ready.

Nelly decided to go and see what she could find to continue utilizing her shooting skills.

She hadn’t undergone grenade-throwing training and couldn’t guarantee that she would accurately throw incendiary bombs and cluster grenades on the tanks.

Just as she walked a few steps along the trench, she heard the sudden cessation of machine gun fire.

Nelly looked in the direction of the gunfire, just in time to see the enemy’s high-explosive shell blast up a cloud of sand and dust nearly two people tall.

After a brief moment of thought, Nelly randomly picked up a rifle from the trench and checked the chamber. As she loaded a bullet, the suppressed Prosen skirmish line emerged again—without machine gun fire, the crawling enemy stood up again.

This time the enemy was closer, Nelly calmly chose her target and downed him with one shot.

But killing the sergeant did not stop the advance of the Prosens; they even began to jog, crossing the 100-meter mark.

Sheriff yelled, "Fire!"

Nelly continued firing, each shot taking down a Prosen soldier clenching his chest.

Suddenly, the view of an enemy tank blocked Nelly’s line of sight.

The tank operator didn’t see her in the trench and just drove toward it.

Nelly ducked and crawled from beneath the tracks, found an incendiary bomb on a fallen Naval Infantry, pulled the pin with clumsy movements, and threw it to the rear part of the tank chassis.

Initially, the tank seemed oblivious to the incendiary bomb, continuing forward for several meters before the engine started making abnormal sounds, and the exhaust vent spewed out thick black smoke like ink.

Finally, the tracks stopped rolling, and the whole vehicle slid forward for a second before halting.

The crew commander was the first to open the hatch and climb out, holding an MP40.

Nelly shot him in the waist, causing him to summersault backward off the tank.

Then four tank operators emerged from the tank, and each was holding an MP40—this crew had quite an arsenal!

Suddenly, Zaitsev appeared, firing his Papasha in unison, taking down all the tank operators surrounding Nelly.

"Are you alright, General’s maid?" Zaitsev shouted as he reloaded.

Nelly stood up, "I’m fine."

Zaitsev said, "Sheriff wants us to restore the machine gun fire. My partner just sacrificed himself; come with me!"

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Nelly responded promptly, "Let’s go."

Zaitsev loaded his magazine and picked up another Papasha from the ground, handing it to Nelly, "This works better in close combat, I think you can handle it."

Nelly hesitated for a moment before dropping her Mosin-Nagant and taking the Papasha, "I haven’t used this."

"Just pull the trigger, replace it when it’s empty, and look, there are so many unclaimed Papashas in the trench," Zaitsev’s tone suddenly turned somber. "So many unclaimed Papashas, dammit. Let’s go!"

He pressed down his steel helmet, crouching low as he ran along the trench, with Nelly close behind.

The shooting trench had been dug into a standard W-shape, and after a few turns, they encountered three Prosen soldiers.

The Prosen soldiers, armed with rifles, fired a shot that missed Zaitsev, then the Papasha resounded.

The three Prosen soldiers fell, Zaitsev excitedly shouted, "I took down three, did you see?"

Nelly replied, "Keep moving, more Prosens will enter the trench if we don’t restore machine gun fire!"

"Okay!" Zaitsev then continued forward, and as they turned the next corner, they only saw three Naval Infantry firing, with four Prosen soldiers already lying dead in the trench.

The corporal leading them turned his head, "Zaitsev? Help us hold back the enemy!"

"I need to restore the machine gun!" Zaitsev replied.

"Why are they sending a Private Second Class? Where’s Malov?"

"He’s been sacrificed." Zaitsev continued walking as he spoke.

The corporal cursed, "Suka Blyat!"

He leaned out, spraying fire out of the trench, seemingly venting an endless fury.

Turning another corner, they could clearly see the machine gun emplacement up ahead, its sandbag barrier blasted open at one corner, the machine gun still in place but without a shooter.

Zaitsev said, "Come on, you take the shooter’s spot, I’ll be your assistant and feed the belt!"

Then a net of green tracer bullets swept over, bullets hissing as they struck the edge of the trench.

Zaitsev ducked in time, avoiding the wave of fire.

Due to her short stature, Nelly wasn’t hit at all.

"Fuck," Zaitsev cursed, "the enemy tank has us in their sights; without machine gun fire, we can’t focus on hitting the tank when the infantry comes!"

He was about to run to the nearby machine gun position when a grenade was thrown into the trench.

The grenade clearly had been held in the hand before being thrown in, exploding the moment it landed.

Zaitsev blocked most of the shrapnel for Nelly, only the side of her face was exposed a bit, a shard hitting right above her right eye, immediately blurring half of her vision with blood.

Zaitsev collapsed to the left, his shoulder against the trench wall.

A Prosen soldier appeared on the right side of the trench, raising his rifle, freezing when he saw Nelly.

Nelly pulled the trigger, and the Prosen soldier immediately fell backward.

Nelly tiptoed to poke the muzzle out of the trench and sprayed bullets outside.

Zaitsev: "Nurse... I’m a bit cold."

He seemed to mistook Nelly for a nurse.

Nelly glanced at Zaitsev’s wound and decided not to waste time on first aid; instead, she pulled a blood-soaked letter from his pocket, grabbed him, and made him lie on the right side of the trench with his head poking outside.

Then Nelly picked up a Papasha and shoved it into Zaitsev’s hands: "Cover me!"

Zaitsev couldn’t hold up his upper body; he almost lay on the gun, managing only with his last strength to hold the gun and pull the trigger.

The Papasha fired, and although it wasn’t aimed, it was still enough to deter the enemies near the trench.

Nelly patted Zaitsev’s shoulder and ran toward the machine gun bunker.

Zaitsev lay on the gun and continued firing, even remembering to shoot in short bursts to make the firepower last longer.

Blood flowed from his nose and mouth, dripping onto the gun and sliding down the steel.

Finally, the magazine was empty, but Zaitsev still mechanically pulled the trigger.

Nelly reached the machine gun bunker, quickly checked the Maxim Machine Gun, and found that this decades-old relic was still functioning well.

She then pulled the feed plate, removed the empty ammunition belt, kicked open the ammo box lid, and stuffed a new belt into the breech.

After loading, Nelly held the ammunition belt with one hand and the machine gun handle with the other, and began firing.

The enemy was right in front of her; she didn’t need to care about any scale or aiming, but just needed to spread the firepower to see the enemy fall.

While suppressing the enemy, Naval Infantry rushed out of the trenches, tossing various anti-tank weapons at the tanks.

At this moment, the enemy penetrating the position was at the end of their rope, and burning Prosen tanks were everywhere across the battlefield.

At that moment, a howling sound came from the sky.

The artillery support fired from the opposite bank had arrived.

Katyusha rockets fell one after another in the enemy’s formation, blowing the accompanying infantry around the tanks into disarray.

In an instant, the enemy’s offensive front was completely covered by artillery fire.

Finally, Nelly saw the Prosen Infantry stand up and start running back.

At the same time, the remaining enemy tanks also began to reverse.

Nelly continued firing, harvesting the lives of the retreating enemies with relish.

Suddenly, someone grabbed Nelly’s shoulder: "Enough! Young lady! You need to get dressed and then cross the river on the next ferry!"

Nelly finally released the machine gun trigger and looked at the person persuading her.

It was a Naval Major who cursed: "Saint Andrew above, you look as young as my daughter. Get across the river, young lady, you’ve done well enough."

Nelly shook her head, "No, I must stay here. I am here on behalf of General Alexei Konstantinovich Rokossovsky and Lady Ludmila Vasilyevna Rokossova. I will stand with you."

The Naval Major hesitated and finally yielded, "All right, there’s no reason to refuse a brave woman soldier representing the General and everyone to fight side by side. But you must bandage up; wounds on the eyes can easily get infected, you might lose your eye if it’s not treated timely."

Only then did Nelly realize her vision was blurry on one side as she lifted her hand and felt sticky blood on her palm.

"Go get dressed," the Major said.

Nelly: "Wait, the anti-tank firepower is all gone; how do we stop the enemy’s next attack?"

The Major pointed to the surface of the Valdai Hills River, "The warships have arrived, although they are only river gunboats modified from tank turrets, they are still capable of handling tanks. New anti-tank artillery troops should be transported here tonight."

Nelly looked at the vessels on the river and then left the machine gun.

The Major asked, "Do you know where the field aid station is?"

"Yes." Nelly nodded, picked up her Mosin-Nagant, and walked along the trench.

The Naval Major shouted loudly, "Get two people who can operate a machine gun. It’s also time to change the machine gun position, move quickly, as the enemy may attack again at any moment."

At that moment, a howling sound came from the sky.

"Take cover!" the Major shouted.

The enemy’s artillery fire fell once again, as if venting the frustration from a repelled attack.

October 28, Evening, on the East Bank of the Valdai Hills River.

Captain Alexandria Nikolayev directed soldiers to push their ZIS3 anti-tank gun onto a small boat.

At the ferry point next to him, countless boats loaded with guns were lined up, waiting for nightfall to set off.

The sunset was nearing the horizon, and night was about to arrive.

Captain Alexandria Nikolayev took a deep breath when his Loader nudged him in the waist with an elbow: "Look!"

Captain Alexandria Nikolayev turned his head and saw silver hair flapping in the sunset next to the Divine Arrow launcher.

"Am I seeing an Angel?" he murmured.

"They say it’s General Rokossov’s wife," the Loader whispered.

"Really? The General’s wife is here in such a dangerous place serving as a Prayer Hand," Captain Alexandria Nikolayev marveled, "It looks like we’re going to win this time."

"Of course, the General is a star of victory."

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